Live Oak
Mystic Seaport Shipyard Foreman Dean Seder unloads live oak trunks, the first of more than 20 hard-to-find woods needed to build a recreation of the cargo schooner Amistad. Woods of the size and quality needed to build the ship are rare in the modern, deforested world.
Captives
An actor portraying one of the hostage Africans who rebelled aboard the Amistad in 1838 walks with other actors during the filming of the Spielberg film about the incident in which 53 captive Africans were arrested for mutiny in the Amistad incident.
Spine Of A Dream
Naives of Sierra Leone, the African nation where the Amistad hostages were captured, lay their hands on the purpleheart keel at the shipyard at Mystic Seaport, where the keel was laid in preparation for the construction of the Freedom Schooner Amistad.
Figurehead
Carver Gary Anderson chisels away at the eagle that will be the figurehead on the Amistad, the reproduction of the historic cargo ship on which 53 hostage Africans mutinied which is being built at Mystic Seaport.
Rigging
Tim Reilly climbs 60 feet above the deck of the Amistad to tie on the rigging that will hold the vessels sails.
Beat Of Freedom
Drummers from throughout Africa and the United States join in celebration at the launch of the Freedom Schooner Amistad.
A Toast
Some of the more than 100 carpenters that built the freedom schooner Amistad celebrate with a bottle of rumas the ship first touches the water.
The Way
Captain Bill Pinkney, who will run the Amistad, left, gets directions out of port from Quenton Snedicker, who designed and oversaw the ship’s construction at Mystic Seaport.
Raising The Sails
Wayne Bartow, one of the only black shipwrights in America, and Dan Bregman, carpenters turned crew on the Freedom Schooner Amistad, pull to raise the sails during the ship's second sea trial.
Freedom In The Lead
Captain Bill Pinkney steers the Amistad on its maiden voyage in the tall ships parade in New york Tuesday while wearing a traditional African robe.
