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AUTHOR, AUTHOR

Phillips Academy counts among its alumni and faculty many prominent writers.
In this issue, the magazine highlights five who are making a mark on the literary scene.
The "Andover Bookshelf" section that follows makes note of some recent works
by these and other members of the community.

Randy Peffer

A ship's captain always tries to steer clear of collisions. But a few summers ago, Randall S. Peffer, English instructor and director of the Summer Session Oceans program, steered the research schooner Sarah Abbot onto a collision course with history.

"We started to feel haunted," says Peffer about his exploration of Cape Cod's Buzzards Bay with a multicultural group of high school students. "We needed to walk in the shoes of those ghosts."

Peffer chronicles that experience in Logs of the Dead Pirates Society: A Schooner Adventure Around Buzzards Bay, published this year by Sheridan House. A celebration of history and natural wonder, the book is a mix of travel, adventure, personal reflection and the blurred line between past and present. In it, Peffer colors his view of the islands and coves of Buzzards Bay with stories of 17th-century explorers, ghosts, Native Americans and pirates.

"We met a lot of local folks who illustrate that the old ways persist on this bay. It's an easy place to feel haunted," he says.

The book reveals the hands-on learning that takes place in the interdisciplinary Oceans program, combining marine biology and non-fiction writing. Each summer, a diverse group of students spends three weeks in Andover and two weeks at sea. "These are mostly kids who have been bitten by the romance of the sea," says Peffer. "We draw them from everywhere, often places far from the ocean. Basically we give them the experience of Charles Darwin—observing nature, reflecting and writing—using their discoveries as touchstones for writing."

While pursuing their research, the teenagers learn how to sail. They join the Dead Pirates Society by completing rites-of-passage ranging from spending a night facing the elements on deck to being "marooned" on an uninhabited island. More than 250 teenage students have earned membership and carved their names on "The Plank" in the forward head. Eighteen students contributed directly to this book through their personal journals.

Descended from generations of Chesapeake watermen and New England whalers—as far back as Captain John Smith of Pocahontas fame—Peffer says he has been "messing about in boats" most of his life. After receiving a B.A. degree from Washington and Jefferson College and an M.A. degree from the University of New Hampshire, he spent summer 1975 as a deck hand on a working skipjack, drudging oysters on Chesapeake Bay.

Thus began his three not-so-separate lives: English teacher, schooner captain and writer. Peffer has taught at Andover for 22 years. His summer home in Marion, Mass., faces out on Buzzards Bay, where he has been captain of the Sarah Abbot and head of the Oceans program for 16 years. He has written five previous books, including Watermen, a nonfiction narrative that won the Baltimore Sun's Critics Choice Award. This past summer, Peffer sailed the Sarah Abbot with the Tall Ships during Sail Boston 2000, then signed copies of Logs of the Dead Pirates Society dockside as thousands of tourists strolled by.

—Tana Sherman

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