The project was a simple one: have students make model boats and then track them as they make their way across the Atlantic.

Shipping pilot Andrew Parish had the bright idea to pair the Bermuda Islander with the initiative.

The container ship is now a launch pad for the scheme solo sailor Dick Baldwin started to teach schoolchildren ocean science eight years ago.

More than 40 boats made their way to Europe, West Africa and South America. Mr Parish was approached after one of them washed up stateside instead.

“[Dick Baldwin] was trying to help the children understand oceanography, weather, currents and he was building drift buoys which then became drift models,” he said.

“You want to get [the model boat] in the Gulf Stream currents to get it moving. If you put it west of the Gulf Stream it will go back to the US coast and it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do. [The Bermuda Islander] is the one that was in here every week; easy to get a hold of. These models all give exposure to the places they come from, but the great thing is they give exposure to an industry that most people don’t know about.”

The boats measure just over 1.5m and are equipped with GPS tracking devices. The models send a signal up every 12 hours, so the students can chart its position. A watertight compartment acts as a “message in a bottle” that students can fill with whatever they choose — thumb drives, school shirts, stickers or magazines.

“On the back of the model there are instructions to take it to a local middle school, so they can make contact,” Mr Parish said. “All of a sudden you have a pen pal. We’ve seen them landing in the Azores, Canaries, Brazil. They’ve landed in Ireland, Portugal, France. They don’t know where it’s going.

“It depends on the winds, the tides, the weather, the current. It has its own mind.”

His 13-year-old daughter, Adison, and some of her classmates built a model for their Maryland school. The boat was one of three launched by Bermuda Islander captain Dirk Veldhuijsen on June 15.

Mr Parish passed them as he sailed here with the Newport Bermuda Race last month. His wife couldn’t wait to tell him the news once he arrived on the island.

“[She] tells me we sailed right through the middle of them, between the three models,” he said.

The 46-year-old has been in and around the water his whole life.

“First time I came to Bermuda I was 11 weeks old. I was put on a 13-metre sailboat in 1970 and I sailed home back to the States,” he said.

His father, a marina operator, was transporting the boat back to the US with his mother as crew.

“As my father likes to say: ‘Where the cow goes the calf has to follow’.”

He said he’s thrilled that Bermuda Islander was willing to be part of the initiative.

“The captain and the shipping line have been very generous with offering us a launch point for these models,” he said.

“The hospitality and the willingness of the community to support education, to support the children, and to go out of the way to do something that’s not in a business routine ... it’s not something that makes any money and I thank any programme that is willing to promote education.

“I guess now the rest of the story starts.

“The children have put their hands to it. They’ve built the model. They’ve painted the model. They’ve collected all the information to go into the watertight compartment.

“Where are the models going to go? Where are they going to be found?”

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