The Erie Maritime Museum invites you to join us for an afternoon program of information and maritime music on Saturday, March 6, at 2:00 p.m. in the Hirt Auditorium at the Blasco Library. Shake off the wintertime blues and blahs with a lively concert/lecture titled “The Great Lakes Scows of New Zealand”, featuring Tom Kastle.

Like Erie, Auckland, New Zealand, has its own resident tall ship – actually, two of them! Their museum scow Ted Ashby was built in 1993, representative of some 130 scows built in the north of New Zealand between 1883 and 1925. The New Zealand scows’ design was based on the American Great Lakes design, and fittingly, the first one made was christened Lake Erie. Even though these vessels disappeared from our own Great Lakes over 100 years ago, they continued on across the world as the ubiquitous wooden working vessel through the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Tom Kastle has spent over two decades on the road and on the water as a singer, tall ship sailor and captain, songwriter, and teller of tales, both personal and those steeped in long tradition. As half of the maritime folk duo “Tom & Chris Kastle”, he toured throughout the United States, as well as Ireland, Scotland, Poland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, delighting audiences while producing 11 recordings and a soundtrack for PBS (WTTW, Chicago).

After taking most of a year off to captain a tall ship in South Haven, Michigan, Tom has relocated to Madison, Wisconsin, and is about to release his first solo CD, Across the Centerline. His program in Erie follows his participation in this year’s Chicago Maritime Festival (February 22 – 27) at the Chicago History Museum.

Tickets are available in advance at the Erie Maritime Museum Giftshop, or at the door. Adults $7, Seniors and Flagship Niagara League Members $5, Children $3.