Speaker Series - Courtney Andersen - Traditional Ship Rigging
Thu, Sep 24
|Maritime Gloucester
He's rigged the Black Pearl and the Charles W. Morgan. Master rigger and maritime historian Courtney Andersen joins us to talk about the ropes, knots, and rigs that moved ships for five centuries — and what it takes to build them right today.
Time & Location
Sep 24, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Maritime Gloucester, 23 Harbor Loop, Gloucester, MA 01930, USA
About the event
Courtney John Andersen is a master rigger and maritime historian who has spent more than three decades restoring, designing, and building traditional sailing ship rigs. He has worked with over a dozen museums and non-profits to maintain, modify, and re-rig their historic vessels, with the goal of giving visitors the most historically accurate immersive experience possible.
He currently serves as Master Ship Rigger and Ship Youth Coordinator for Essex National Heritage, working aboard the Friendship of Salem, and has consulted for Mystic Seaport's Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard on the 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan, the Spaulding Marine Center, and the Manitoba Museum. From 2008 to 2021 he was Historic Ship Rigging Supervisor at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, where he researched, designed, and led the complete re-rig of the 1895 schooner C.A. Thayer — a $3 million project that returned the vessel to her original launch configuration. His work has also taken him to the Golden Hinde in London, the USS Maine Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, and the Queen Anne's Revenge archaeological project.
Since 2002 he has brought that same expertise to film, with credits including all five Pirates of the Caribbean films, Our Flag Means Death, Chief of War, and 12 Years a Slave. He is currently writing a comprehensive manual on the history and methods of western traditional ship rigging.