VAULT
all HANDS on DECK Fifteen years in, this pirate ship still sets sail for play by HAMPTON WILLIAMS HOFER photography by JOSHUA STEADMAN
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t 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 29, 2007, Marbles CEO Sally Edwards stood at the bow of a three-story wooden pirate ship and painted the finial knob bright blue, a finishing touch on the feature exhibit of the then brandnew Marbles Kids Museum. Just hours later, Marbles would open its doors for the first time to the Raleigh community. Leadership of the new museum — the successor to Exploris and Playspace — sought a signature, one-of-a-kind piece to set the tone for what they knew Marbles could become: one of the most visited children’s museums in the coun38 | WALTER
try. That initial piece was a pirate ship known as The Blue Marble. Today, the ship is approaching its 15th birthday and remains a somewhat hidden gem in the vast landscape of children’s dream-makers at Marbles (you’ll have to get the kids past the school bus, fire truck, farm and submarine to get to it). As summer approaches, with both boats and cooler indoor play alternatives on the mind, the pirate ship is the spot. And it has a surprising origin story. With a shoestring budget and a nearly impossible timeline of only 24 days, local volunteer architects, welders, and carpenters collaborated to create this wooden
ship that lives on the first floor. Chris Alexander, director of exhibits at Marbles, recalls the ship’s formation: “In an area of the museum where we were retaining some water-themed components, we thought, with North Carolina’s rich history with pirates, why not a pirate ship?” he says, a nod to one of the most notorious pirates, Blackbeard, along with his many contemporaries who mauraded the shores from Currituck to Cape Fear. “We knew the design and construction would be formidable, but our community was stepping up in amazing ways to help create Marbles. It truly was an ‘all hands on deck’ undertaking.”
