The Scow Schooner Project is the first project of the Galveston and Trinity Bay Marine Museum, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. The Museum is an educational project that seeks to develop a system that will encourage a sense of stewardship toward Galveston and Trinity Bay through a complex, interconnected series of projects and programs. The primary objective of The Scow Schooner Project is to build a working replica of a nineteenth century cargo vessel that is unique to the Galveston Bay area. This beautiful schooner will first sail as a promotional tool to draw attention to the Museum’s efforts in creating its campus and educational programs. Thereafter it will serve as a floating classroom, teaching area students through historic reenactments, how uses of the Bay and such vessels helped build the local communities. The schooner will carry groups of students on interpreted outings through the estuarine environment. The Scow Schooner Project is also the beginnings of the Museum’s boat building school. The Project will also study traditional small craft through building and use of types that are significant to this area.

Project Purpose

• To explore the past, present and future of Galveston and Trinity Bay through the building and use of traditional small craft
• To build a replica of the Gulf Coast Scow Schooner as a focal point, interest attraction and floating classroom
• To create a system that will nurture a sense of pride in craftsmanship and an appreciation for the natural environment

Museum Goals

• To increase public awareness of the historical importance of Galveston Bay
• To increase public awareness of the ecological significance of the estuary system
• To create an educational super-system that encourages lifelong learning about this greatest of Texas Gulf Coast estuaries
• To develop a place where young people can experience the natural wonders of the estuarine environment without the burden of a scheduled curriculum
• To preserve the sense of pride in craftsmanship and sense of task completed through the operation of a boat building school — a place where grandparents can build rowboats for the young people to sit in and watch the shore birds hunt for fiddler crabs
• To develop a place where those young and old can get their questions answered about the place where the land meets the water

Objectives

• To create a campus-a marine museum, boat building school, education center and interpreted marsh walk area
• To activate The Center for Galveston Bay Studies — a set of guidelines for the interaction of all the Museum’s resources and an outline of collaborative educational programs with other organizations
• To preserve the Bay’s heritage through exhibitions
• To sail the Scow Schooner as a Bay-issues educational tool
• To preserve a place where young people can learn to row a boat — and sit and watch the fiddler crabs
• To preserve the arts and skills needed to build those rowboats