Small boat containing letters from Massachusetts that spent 463 days at sea on display at Fremantle …

A small research sailboat carrying more than 50 letters and other trinkets and surprises from school children in Massachusetts, which washed up along Bunbury’s coastline after 463 days at sea, will be on display at Fremantle Library this weekend.

The 1.6m unmanned sailboat was built in January 2019 by students at Sacred Heart School in Massachusetts and launched from a marine sciences research vessel about 200–400km SE of Madagascar in March 2019.

It wasn’t until over a year later that the GPS-equipped sailboat started approaching Western Australia’s waters, eventually washing up at Dalyellup Beach in June 2020.

The sailboat is part of a global project from not-for-profit Educational Passages, which provides boatbuilding kits to schools and connects students around the world to the ocean and each other.

Teachers purchase kits with boat parts and supplies, and students build them, fill them with messages and trinkets, install the provided GPS, and send them out to sea to ride the ocean currents and wind.

Students track the sailboat and teachers integrate ocean currents, geography and other topics into their curriculum to connect the sailboat mission. When the boats land, the sticker on them says to bring the boat to a nearby school and connect classrooms.

Students at Australind Primary School are responding to the letters, which were all intact due to watertight protection, and it is likely pen pals and friendships will blossom from the project.

Since 2008, Educational Passages has worked with teachers and students around the world to launch 145 sailboats, but this is first one ever to arrive in Australia.

Fremantle Library will host the boat and some of its letters this weekend, and again from 30 August–7 September. It will then go on to visit Fremantle College and other schools.

Fremantle Library, located at Fremantle Oval, is open 9am–6pm Monday to Thursday, 9am–5pm Fridays, 9am–1pm Saturdays and 11am–3pm Sundays.

For more information about Fremantle Library, visit the City’s website.