After another season of hosting science expeditions in Alaska and the Arctic, the research vessel Endeavour pulled into Port Townsend from Petersburg in time for Thanksgiving, bringing its Port Townsend-based crew home for the holidays.

The vessel is at Boat Haven for its winter work after having spent the past five seasons studying “every” tidewater glacier in Alaska, as well as recording orca and beluga vocals above the Arctic Circle.

“We found new fossils on the Lost Coast, filmed nesting seabirds in the Diomedes Islands and walruses in the Bering Sea, and documented brown bears in Southeast and on the Alaska Peninsula,” said Corky Parker, expedition manager for Alaska Endeavour, and half of the duo behind the science and education nonprofit, Alaska Endeavour, which owns and operates the vessel and hosts expeditions for high school and college students, as well as professional researchers.

Parker added that they mapped dinosaur footprints in Katmai, and filmed and measured the health of humpback migration in the Frederick and Sitka sounds.

The homecoming felt good, Parker said. They pulled in to find “friends and family waiting on the dock at Point Hudson, and where we could see my little house,” two blocks away from the boat.

“You can imagine how good it felt to be done with the storms, having crossed the strait after the two cyclone bombs came into port here,” Parker said. “I know firsthand, from many years of experience, that you can love two places and feel at home in both, land and sea. I’m a very lucky person in that regard.”

The 72-foot steel boat that became known as the Endeavour was originally built for the U.S. Army in 1954, just as the Korean War was ending, and served as a launch for the federal penitentiaries on Alcatraz, from 1955 until its closing in 1962, and McNeil Island in Puget Sound, until its closing in 1981.

Bill Urschel, who now serves as captain of the Endeavour and director of the Alaska Endeavour nonprofit, purchased the vessel in 2007 in Petersberg, Alaska, while Brook Frost of Nordland and Matt Martincich of Port Townsend came on board as crew for the most recent 740-nautical-mile trip south, down the inside passage.

This year marks the fourth time Endeavour has hauled out in Port Townsend since Urschel acquired the boat, and while he acknowledged “we can get the work done in lots of places,” he said “few have the breadth and depth” of Port Townsend.

“We love it here,” said Urschel, who’s lived in Puget Sound for a number of years. “I’ve spent most of the last four on the boat in Alaska, but I’ve got kids and grandkids down here. So it’s completely worth the drive to bring my floating home down to them for the dark months, and to get work done on the boat in a good yard. Sharing the trip with other locals just makes sense.”

Martincich signed on “because I was in need of some adventure again,  and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” but he’s come to understand why Urschel calls the boat his home.

“Bill and Corky made me feel at home on the Endeavour,” Martincich said. “It’s been a great learning experience.”

Frost agreed that Urschel is “a great guide and patient teacher,” along with the rest of the crew, while touting his accommodations on board the boat.

“Endeavour had all the comforts one could need, and is strong as an axe,” Frost said. “I came away from the experience with a renewed sense of aliveness, and hope for humanity as well.”

Frost voiced his admiration and respect for all the students, teachers and researchers who have joined the vessel’s conservation work in Alaska, and expressed hope and optimism that it would continue.

As for Parker, she came to Endeavour after the passing of her husband and the loss of her livelihood to Hurricane Maria, when she longed for time at sea, for reasons beyond mere adventure.

“Now, I’ve found purpose as well as partnership in a place I love, the remotest parts of southeast Alaska,” Parker said. “It seems too good to be true. Port Townsend continues to be home, but my focus is on hosting remote and environmental education again, as well as writing. Now, it’s just on the water.”

Since 2009, Endeavour has hosted researchers from institutions including Princeton, the Smithsonian and the Santa Barbara Museum of History, and while COVID proved to be a hurdle in 2020, 2022 saw Endeavour welcome its first high school intern on board, who delivered a presentation to his classmates about the expedition that piqued a number of students’ interest.

The next year, Endeavour took half a dozen high school kids on board for another expedition, working with Arctic buoys and recording whalesong, a program which has evolved into hosting groups of six students and a science teacher conducting benchmark studies of remote locales.

“We head out to places that are well out of the way of any maritime traffic,” Urschel said. “Of course, they have to offer safe anchorage, as well as large enough areas to sustain studies of their wildlife and wilderness. The students’ observations are recorded in reports that other researchers can then access.”

“We don’t see any signs of mankind of days in those places,” Parker said. “You can see the profound effect this work has on these kids’ hearts and minds.”

Urschel attested to how student researchers who had never previously seen themselves going into science found entirely new educational and career tracks for themselves, which is why he’s been pleased to see those research groups expand to include similar numbers of college students accompanied by professors or other researchers.

“They even get college credits for it,” Parker said.

Parker and Urschel are looking forward to another expansion of their educational mission this spring, as they plan to head back to Southeast Alaska with a crew of Puget Sound students in mid-April of 2025 for a two-week seamanship class, offering real-time, hands-on experience in navigation, piloting, boat mechanics and safety.

“We’re looking into possible partnerships with other entities, but we’re doing it whether we manage to recruit any partners or not,” Urschel said. “It’s a rare opportunity to get 12 sea-service days in near-coastal waters on a 100-ton boat. But I’m excited about some of the new high-tech capabilities we’ll be gaining.” Urschel said.

Because in addition to routine maintenance, overseen by Tim Hoffman of the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op, this season is set to see the boat receive a laser scan for a digital blueprint using the Co-op’s new Faro laser-scanner.

Those digital files are due to be used by Jonathan Moore, a naval architect in Port Townsend, to design rolling chocks for the hull, as well as a completely new superstructure, to be built over the summer, and added to the boat next winter,

Parker estimated this new configuration should allow the boat to carry twice the number of students and researchers, from six to 12, plus crew, thereby keeping up with the growing demand for Endeavour’s research trips.

“Virtually all of our faculty guests book another trip with new students every year,” Urschel said. “It’s tremendously gratifying.”