So yesterday I went with some friends to Navy Pier in Chicago to check out the Tall Ships festival. I’ve never seen real life working sailing ships in person, so I thought it would be cool to check out. I learned lots of facts about these types of ships and it was fun to get to get on them and check them out.

From what I’ve seen in movies, the ships are actually much smaller than I imagined below deck. I was really hunched over down there trying to walk around. People back then (most of these ships date back at a least 100 years) must have been midgets. On one ship we toured (it was used during the battle of 1812), they told us the original crew would have been around 150 sailers. 50 working each shift, 3 shifts. I couldn’t figure out how in the heck they fit 100 people below deck to sleep while the workers were above deck. It was extremely tight quarters down there.

Overall it was a fun experience. I wish I could have foreseen the amount of people that were going to be there. As you can see from the shots I posted, it was very crowded. I wish we would have had more time there to get a chance to board more ships. Oh well, maybe next time.