As a ship liaison, Mickie Hucke has one job title but many responsibilities.

During her shift Saturday morning, the Edgewood resident tracked attendance on the HMS Bounty with an electric counter. She encouraged Tall Ships Tacoma 2008 visitors to get excited about boarding the full-rigged ship. And she was on call if the crew needed anything.

“That can be anything from taking garbage off, finding places to do laundry, arranging transportation in town, finding marine supply shops – basically anything they need,” said Hucke. “The idea is to make it flow smooth. We want to make this fun for the crew and the visitors.”

About 500 volunteers are working the festival as liaisons, organizers said, and each ship has several people assigned to it each shift. The number of liaisons varies by the size of the ship.

The volunteers begin arriving at 6 a.m. – four hours before the festival opens – and help take care of crews’ needs. On Saturday, that meant helping to arrange transportation for a day trip to Mount Rainier.

Sometimes, Hucke said, helping out is as easy as making a phone call. Other times, it’s advice on such issues as where to buy replacement parts for the ship or a recommendation on a good microbrewery.

And it makes the transition to a new port easy on the ship’s crew.

“It’s been really helpful to have someone to help us with everything we need,” said Rebecca Twombly, an officer on the Bounty. “Very few of us have been on the West Coast before, and none of us know how Tacoma is laid out. So they’ve really helped us so much.”

The liaisons also spend plenty of time with the public.

On Saturday morning, Hucke greeted visitors before they boarded the Bounty. She stood beside a sandwich board explaining the history of the ship, which MGM Studios built in 1962 for the film “Mutiny on the Bounty.” The Bounty has since appeared in “Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest” and “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.” The ship’s design is based on drawings of the original ship, which sailed the Pacific Ocean before Fletcher Christian famously led the mutiny against Capt. William Bligh in 1789.

Hucke welcomed each visitor to the ship and tailored her message depending on the age of the person. If young children were about to board, she asked if they were SpongeBob fans. If they were teenagers or young adults, she mentioned the ship’s appearance in “Pirates of the Caribbean.” And if they were middle-aged, she told them how Marlon Brando spent time aboard while filming his role as Christian.

Sometimes she warned kids to “watch out for Captain Bligh,” a reference to the Englishman’s abusive attitude toward his crew.

The Bounty, she said, provides a unique experience to mix popular love of film with the opportunity to teach history.

“It’s fun to see their eyes light up when we mention the movies,” she said. “And we can build on that to teach something.”

Scott Fontaine: 253-320-4758

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