New Ambassadors at Sea appointed at Museum of Maritime Pets
ROCKLAND — The Museum of Maritime Pets announce the appointment of two new Ambassadors at Sea.
Tea and Riki, newest feline crew aboard the Barque Picton Castle, are currently underway on the ship’s eighth circumnavigation under Captain Dan Moreland. The Picton Castle was originally built as a fishing trawler and later became a minesweeper and convoy escort before reverting back to fishing and then cargo hauling. She was named after a Welsh castle in Pembrokeshire and when not at sea her home port is in Lunenberg NS.
Since Moreland’s acquisition of the vessel in 1991, feline crew have always been aboard. The Museum’s Ambassador at Sea program began in 2013 to honor and carry on the centuries-old tradition of mascots at sea. Its prior emissaries served from a variety of home ports in three different countries. The newest ambassadors were adopted in the summer of 2023 during a stop in French Polynesia at Rikitea Harbor on Mangareva Island.
Captain Moreland and his feline crew blog frequently about their training, navigation and sailing adventures.
“We look forward to their dispatches from around the world!” said the museum, in a news release.
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