Billy Campbell aboard the tall ships

NEWPORT, R.I. (WPRI) - The tall ships have docked in Newport for the weekend and on board one of the ships is star of the AMC drama The Killing, Billy Campbell.

Campbell has left his acting career twice to sail around the world on the Picton Castle tall ship. He describes the experience as “life changing and fantastic, its not just a getaway, it redefined who I am.”

“It’s everything, it’s being on the water itself, it’s ships, it’s shipmates, it’s the fact that the engine is the wind, it’s the fact of doing a job, doing it completely and thoroughly and being part of a microcosm of the world that has to work or it sinks” said Campbell.

The Picton Castle was converted into a Braque in Nova Scotia by Captain Dan Moreland, who is a sail trainer.

“I got involved because I was reading the entire Patrick O’Brien series of novels, (there are 20 of them) I got halfway through and I thought I need to go do this so that I know when I read the rest of the novels what it is like when he talks about a ship rolling on the big sea” said Campbell.

He then went to Norway to purse sailing and the captain of a vessel in Norway was old shipmates with Captain Dan Moreland and he turned Campbell onto the Picton Castle.

When asked if he was afraid to go sail aboard the ships, his reply was “I am afraid not to, it was something I always wanted to do and I was afraid one day I would wake up and not have done it.”

The Killing has completed a second season and Campbell is waiting to hear about a third season but he states “I will be in the South Pacific with the Picton Castle, if they can reach me in the South Pacific where she will be sailing through Tahiti and all of the beautiful island, that’s where they will have to reach me.”

For more information on the Tall Ships and to purchase tickets visit http://oceanstatetallships.com/