In 1997 a handful of educators from Maryland’s Eastern Shore joined together to create an educational resource that would help students better understand and appreciate the natural treasure that is the Chesapeake Bay. Four years later, after tremendous community effort, the schooner Sultana was launched into the waters of the Chester River. A full-scale reproduction of a vessel that sailed the Chesapeake in the years before the American Revolution, Sultana now voyages as the “Schoolship of the Chesapeake.” Since her launch in 2001, more than 45,000 students and teachers have sailed on Sultana’s decks, learning about the history, culture and natural environment of North America’s largest estuary.

In the years since Sultana’s launch, Sultana Projects, the non-profit organization that owns and operates Sultana, has continued to grow by developing and implementing educational programs that further its core mission of teaching students about the Chesapeake Bay. Sultana Projects was instrumental in the establishment of the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Water Trail and has partnered with school systems across the region to develop curricula and teacher training programs that benefit thousands of students and teachers each year.

Sultana’s core programs are certified by the Maryland State Department of Education and the organization regularly works with state, federal and independent partners including the United States Department of

Education, the National Park Service, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Sultana Projects is the only two time winner of the National Maritime

Historical Society’s prestigious Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Maritime Education.