25th June Day of the Seafarer

The Day of the Seafarer (25 June) was established  2010 to honour the vital contribution that seafarers make to global trade and the economy, frequently at considerable personal sacrifice to themselves and their families.

In 2023, the campaign will look at seafarers' contribution to protecting the marine environment. They spend a great deal of time at sea and are a big part of the solution when it comes to protecting the marine environment. 

'Seafarer' is not a common word and not one that young children are likely to use in their everyday speech unless they know someone who is a seafarer. You can define a seafarer as literally being someone who is employed to serve aboard any type of marine vessel. It is their job to work on boats and they are paid to do so.

Here for my purposes, today's blog will highlight ships and boats, rather than the people who work on them. Young children borrow books about trains, planes and boats from the library. I have written about planes and trains before so today it is time for boats to shine. The library has a good collection of books about boats and stories that feature boats. See the Pinterest page.

My son was boat mad as a child and is still boat mad as an adult. He is now a marine mechanic and spends every day on boats. I watch in awe as he parks a very large motor boat in what seems like a tiny space or explains how the multiple boat engines work.

His favourite book was Salty Dog by Gloria Rand and when it came to giving his picture books away that one had to stay. He took it on sleepovers, he took it as a teenager when he went to babysit to read to his charges. I was pleasantly surprised to see it is still in print and available to buy. The owner of Salty Dog is a boatbuilder who gets the ferry to work everyday, sometimes taking his dog, but not always which does not please Salty.

He would have liked Whose Boat?  by Toni Buzzeo and Tom Froese too because it is a guessing game where you match up workers with their boats.

He would have loved Boats Fast and Slow  by Iris Volant and Jarom Vogel if it had existed when he was young. This book allows children to learn about the history of boat building, about famous boats and technological advances. 

I remember reading Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain by Edward Ardizzone to a Year 2 class who were looking at life in their grandparents' time. This book had been reissued for its eightieth anniversary. The students sat riveted as I read and at the end we talked about the differences between their lives and Tim's. While they could see that it was a great adventure they were nervous when only Tim and the Captain were left on the ship. The thing that worried them most was that he had gone on an adventure alone without parent permission, but then students said things like well so do the children in the Famous Five and Secret Seven series. It made for a great discussion and many questions to ask grandparents.

My favourite boat books are 'slower and calmer' as I am not a boat lover.  Little Bear's Boat and Big Bear's Boat  by Eve Bunting and Nancy Carpenter epitomise what it means to be happy with your lot.

A Kindergarten boy who visits the library asked me about tug boat books. Initially I wondered what I would give him, but now I know there are some:

Little Tug by Stephen Savage, I'm Mighty  by Kate and Jim McMullan Boats are Busy by Sara Gillingham and Anchored by Debra Tidball and Arielle Li will make a good start and they are all in our library.

In 1933 The United States Congress established National Maritime Day to honor the important contributions of the maritime industry. The date of May 22 was chosen to commemorate the 1819 voyage of the steamship Savannah from the United States to England, which marked the first successful crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by steam power. I haven't written about this day before either so if you want to save your boat and ship display till May you can.

“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” So says the Water Rat to Mole in Kenneth Grahame’s “The Wind in the Willows.” While this has become a cliche, for some young children and even adults, boats do hold a great fascination and there is nothing better than messing around in boats!