In May of 2015, a class of fourth graders at St. Andrews School of Math and Science embarked on a journey with the Educational Passages Program, an initiative formed to help educate children on the world’s oceans by putting GPS systems in toy boats, and shipped their boat, Carolina Dreamer, out to sea. After only a week at sea the tiny boat landed in Bermuda, where the Coast Guard refurbished the 6 foot long boat and sent it back out into the ocean. The fourth graders continued to track the boat through their GPS system for 9 months until on February 2nd they lost the boat after a storm, unable to find it in the ocean. They knew that it was somewhere off the coast of Ireland, but students worried that it had been shipwrecked at sea.

Naturally, Ms. McMahon’s class had grown attached to their Dreamer, and were devastated after not receiving any pings for several days.  As student Nyah Quirk said, “All of us were about to start crying…that’s like a part of our family.” Luckily, the class would soon discover that their boat had been picked up by Helen Hinks, a mother of 3 who found the Carolina Dreamer while walking along the beach in Wales with her youngest son. Hinks described the discovery as “magical,” saying that the boat came right up to them, as if they were meant to find it. She stored the ship in her garage, which prevented the GPS from picking up any signal.

Meanwhile in Charleston, the whole school was searching frantically for the ship, contacting the UK’s Coast Guard, harbormasters, and anyone else who had a chance of coming in contact with their boat. After seeing a news story about the boat, Hinks realized what she had in her possession and gave the boat to her daughter’s school to ship out again after being repaired and refurbished. Originally, the boat had been fitted with a time capsule, including souvenirs that represent Charleston such as a shrimp and grits recipe, a sweetgrass flower, an oyster shell and a book about the city, however the boat lost the capsule along the way, but students remain hopeful that it will be the next thing to float ashore.

While students hypothesized about where the boat would go next, some brought up Africa, France and Italy, the rest of the world remained in awe over the Carolina Dreamers’ incredible journey, tenaciously persevering all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. Students in Wales with the boat.

Helen Hinks and her children after finding the boat on the beach.