Other Ways of Seeing

 

Thought-provoking, challenging, a bit sad and a wonderful experience: we put together a tour for blind people to come aboard the ship. I realized how much of the info we portray is visual—looking at the height of the masts, or viewing the helm or the “noble area” (equivalent to the first-class section of the airplane). And none of those would work for this group. Our customized tour required us to think about how to use the other 4 senses to understand the ship. (Actually, only hearing and touch, as we didn't invite them to lick anything ... ) The night before the tour my colleague and I walked around trying to figure out pieces they could touch to put together in an integrated way to tell the story of the ship.

 Just as sighted people did, I'm sure they got a sense of scale by walking the decks, and they were able to listen to the audio tour. But there the similarity stopped. Our tour included feeling and gently ringing the ship’s bell, and let them both feel the thickness of the rigging and hold the stays to feel the vibration as the wind blew through the rigging. They held a cannonball, felt the difference in texture between the rough wood of the deck and fine finishes in the zona noble, and more. My favourite was showing them the plaques on the wall, gifts from different cities we have visited. Amazed at how quickly their fingers glided over them, and how much information they seemed to get so quickly. They were very eager to explore every bit of the ship. I’m sure, in retrospect, that we got as much insight out of watching them experience the ship, as they did actually having the experiences. Oh how I hope I never outgrow my own sense of wonder, living and working on this ship. 

Gift plaques from many of the cities we visited. On one long passage many years ago it was Dan's and my job to take these off the wall and polish them (Q-tips were involved; some are quite intricate!)

The ship is all about details; this very intricate latch is on a broom closet.

The ship's bell currently has a crack so we can't ring it loudly.

The foremast. 

The massive scale of some of the rigging.

The conquistador helmet is actually from an earlier era than ours, but it's so quintessentially Spanish that we include it anyway. For the record, it's heavier than it looks!