Living, although replicated, history; a movie star; a state dignitary and a Hawaiian chieftain will all be arriving as part of the same two ship crew when The Lady Washington and her companion tall ship the Hawaiian Chieftain dock at the Brownsville Marina this week.

Upon looking on their pictures and nautical spread, it brings to mind an interesting cross section of characters — Johnny Depp as the Hollywood Captain Jack Sparrow and one-eyed Captain Robert Gray, the American explorer who is said to have “discovered” the Columbia River Basin.

Gray (1755-circa 1806) was a merchant sailor who captained the first American ship around Cape Horn and later the first American ship to circumnavigate the world. Depp has figuratively sailed the world on TV and movie screens. Both men have voyaged aboard the Lady Washington — though different incarnations.

The original Lady Washington — that which Gray captained out of Boston around Cape Horn and the World — was a 90-ton trading vessel built in 1750. It sailed around the world garnering “first-ever” designations while trading goods and serving as a Revolutionary War privateer, until around 1798. Then, centuries later, a group of citizens called the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority built a the 18th century ship’s replica in 1989.

It’s that Lady Washington which Depp set foot on in 2002 during the making of Disney’s “Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl.”

So there’s your movie star and living history.

But that is completely beside the point of focus behind the Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain tall ships and the Grays Harbor Authority folks.

While in a 2002 Seattle Times article, GHHSA president Les Bolton noted how nice it was that show business “(appeared) to be tremendously lucrative,” (The Lady Washington also appeared in “Star Trek – Generations”, “The West” and more) the beacon at the genesis of the ship’s restoration is education.

It is in this vein, annually traveling up the West Coast providing maritime heritage experiences for both schools and the general public, that the Lady Washington earned the title of State Dignitary. During this past legislative session, she was named the Official State Ship by the state House of Representatives.

In March, she set sail from San Francisco with the Hawaiian Chieftain, onto Eureka, Newport to Portland, up through Astoria, Aberdeen and Anacortes offering ship rides, dock tours and cannon fire battle demos dotting ports along the cost. The crew is in Seattle for the next two days, then they will dock in Brownsville, arriving at 4 p.m. Aug. 20-22.