Marco Polo Project

Marco Polo Project Manager Bob Coes, left, with volunteers, Eric Thorne, Don Bangay and Larry Cosman, with the ship in the background.

Wanted: More Volunteers
Replica Marco Polo Project needs more help as it reaches crucial stage

DAVE MACLEAN
TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL

    SAINT JOHN - Barry Ogden has issued a call to arms.
   Or, more accurately, a call for arms. Ogden, the local teacher who has been spearheading the Marco Polo Project, is nearing the final stages of realizing the completion of his two-decade-old dream.
   But the construction of the replica of the of the famed sailing clipper has reached a stage where more volunteers are needed.
   "We're getting close to having most of the hull complete and we're going to start the decking on Aug. 1, this is what we're hoping," Ogden said.
   "The project manager that we have on-site, Bob Coes, is doing a wonderful job. He's very detailed and very meticulous. He's been working on the stern lately, but we're getting to the point where we're working on the sides and up in the decking.
   "It's an old-fashioned steambox,where you put the wood in and you heat it up and when the wood comes out it's got to go on right away. So you always need three or four people there. All of our volunteers are doing a wonderful job, but we just need more bodies. We have a good group of volunteers, but we're going to need more."
   The vessel is being built indoors, but Ogden says he's received many calls from people curious about the project's progress. He says it's likely the final stages will be completed in an outdoor setting, at the ship's future home.
   "Our goal is to have most of the planking and a lot of the decking done by the fall. It will probably sit over the winter and then hopefully next spring we'll bring it out toward Water Street," he said.
   "The port has talked to us about perhaps making it in conjunction with the new cruise ship terminal and we're open to that idea - we think that's a, good idea.
    "We're hoping by next spring that we'll be able to take it out in the open for the public to see it being built. We would do the finishing - the spars, the mast and the rigging - in the public eye. Simonds High School is building the three deck houses for us this fall."
   Ogden, who has spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars, says there's a great deal of public interest in the project and he believes it will become of the province's top tourist attractions. He says the project's website (www.new-brunswick.net/marcopolo) has received almost 500,000 hits.
   "I believe it's going to be the most photographed site in the province," he said.
   "It's going to sit on a cradle donated by Ocean Steel and when it's lit up at night with furled sails, it's going to be about 90 feet long and close to 65 feet in the air. It will be fantastic."
    Volunteers who are interested in helping with the project are asked to contact Ogden at 849-4650.

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