NORFOLK, Va (AP) — Norfolk officials have approved a plan that calls for using state funds to buy the schooner Virginia, a replica of the last pilot vessel to sail the Chesapeake Bay in the 1920s.
News outlets report that the Norfolk City Council voted Tuesday, Apr 12 in favor of the Nauticus Foundation using a $ 1 million state grant to buy the ship and use it to teach underprivileged children how to sail.
The 122-foot vessel would be docked near the battleship USS Wisconsin, and the public would be able to tour it for free.
Nauticus Executive Director Stephen Kirkland says $850,000 of the grant will go toward the purchase, while the rest will be used for future maintenance and repairs.
Launched in 2005, the Virginia is a reproduction of a ship that first set sail in 1917.
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