No. 4
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY Bicentennial Issue: Operation Sail 1976 • Sail Training, U.S.A.• Historic Ships in U.S.• The American Heritage in the Falklands• Charles Cooper Voyage, 1861.
JULY 1976
Identified points of interest, left to right: Telegraph Hill, Niantic , Clay Street at Sansome, Rhone, Elizabetb, S .S. Senator, Angel Island, Fame, Ycrba Buena Cove, Vicar of Bray, Kangaroo, Abandoned vessels, General Harrison . From painting by John Stobart. Courtesy Maritime Heritage Prints, Ltd.
FOR SAN FRANCISCO: THE VICAR OF BRAY "It is a Venice of pine wood instead of marble: a city of wharves, a city teeming with ships, a city ruled by tides .. '.' -Benjamin Vicuna y Mackenna
Tn the year between April 1, 184 7 and the same date in 1848 a total of four vessels arrived in San Francisco from Atlantic ports. The following year, after President Polk had announced the discovery of Gold to the nation; not four, but seven hundred and seventy-seven vessels departed the East Coast for the Golden Gate. Historian J. D. 13. Stillman stated, "Never since the Crusades was such a movement known:' A sleepy Mexican village had become a "Venice of pine wood:' Primitive San Francisco was swept by fire after fire. Building materials became so scarce that ships, abandoned by their crews running off to "the diggings" were pulled ashore to serve as hotels and warehouses. The Niantic, a former whaler, fills such a role where Clay Street meets the waterfront on the left in John Stobart's painting. A sign nailed on her hull declared "Rest for the Weary and Storage for Trunks:' The General Harrison, at the right, was likewise employed. The newly arrived Vicar of Bray dries her sails, and by a stroke of good fortune was able to retain enough of her crew to escape that maelstrom of Gold Rush San Francisco. She continued her life as a Cape Horn trader until she was hulked in the Falkland Isles in 1880. There, amazingly, she survives to this day-the last survivor of the legendary Acer that came to San Francisco in 1849. Karl Kortum Director, San Francisco Maritime Museum Tbe Vicar of Bray bas now been acquired by tbe Society in the Falkland Islands, as a Bicentennial gift of the Falkland Islands Company. She bas been surveyed, and a campaign is under way to return ber to San Francisco, tbe city sbe belped to build. See "Historic Ships in tbe U.S.;' tbis issue.-ED.
NOTE:
SEA HISTORY JULY 1976
No. 4
CONTENTS PRESIDENT'S REPORT ................. . .................. 1 LETTERS
............... ................................. 3
OPERATION SAIL 1976 ........ ................... ........ 10 by Peter Stanford I SAW THREE SHIPS ..................................... 14 E. M. Morrissey, by Charles F . Sayle, Sr. La Amistad, by Michael Clements Sebbe Als, by Lance Lee SAIL TRAINING, U.S.A. ......................... .. ........ 17 American Sail Training Ass'n, by Barclay Warburton, III Beyond the Spectacle, by C. E. Gallagher HISTORIC SHIPS IN THE U.S ............................... 19 Progress in N.Y. , by Peter Stanford, Norman Brouwer, Peter Throckmorton, et al. Opportunity in San Francisco, by Karl Kortum Galveston Takes On the Elissa, by Michael Creamer Saving the American Schooner, David Durrell Ship Notes THE AMERICAN HERITAGE IN THE FALKLANDS ..... .. ... 36 by Peter Throckmorton ACTIVITIES ... . ......................................... 42 Sea Day X Seamens Institute American Maritime Academy Three Luncheons ... THE LANGUAGE OF COMMAND IN SAIL .................. 44 by Stanley Gerr THE CHARLES COOPER SETS OUT FROM CALCUTTA, 1861 by Franklin Jordan .............. .... 48
COVER: U.S. Coast Guard bark Eagle, flagship of Operation Sail 1976, wallops into a rising sea, close-hauled under all plain sail. Built in Hamburg, Germany, forty years ago, she will be joined by German, Portuguese, Rumanian and Russian sisters built to her design as the tall ships of the world's sail training fleets gather here this summer-over 200 ships in allto honor the two hundredth anniversary of a republic born of the sea.
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEW YORK
WASHINGTON, D.C.
SAN FRANCISCO
r
SEA HISTORY, No. 4, JULY 1976 Journal of the National Maritime Historical Society 8 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201 c/ o Maritime Museum, Foot of Polk St., San Francisco 94109 1511 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005 CHAIRMAN: Rear Admiral Walter F. Schlech, Jr., USN (ret.) PRESIDENT: Peter Stanford VICE PRESIDENTS: Karl Kortum, John N. Thurman SECRETARY: John Lyman TREASURER-ELECT: Howard Slotnick TRUSTEES: Frank 0 . Braynard, Norman Brouwer, Robert Carl, Alan G. Choate, Harold D. Huycke, Karl Kortum, John Lyman, Walter F . Schlech, Howard Slotnick, Peter Stanford, John N. Thurman, Shannon Wall, Charles Wittholz CURATOR-AT-LARGE: Peter Throckmorton EDITOR, SEA HISTORY: Norman Brouwer STAFF FOR BICENTENNIAL ISSUE: EDITOR : Peter Stanford MANAGING EDITOR: Norma Stanford ASSISTANT: Elizabeth Tihany ADVERTISING SALES: Eric Russell, Edmund Squire
PRESIDENT'S REPORT Old business first: The National Society was formed a little over a decade ago to save the Kaiulani, Marinebuilt steel bark of 1899, the last survivor of some 17 ,000 general merchant sailing ships built in this country. Much learning and lore gathered round this ship in her lifetime, and that will flower 'round her skeleton, all that we saved. The stem, stern and keel of the vessel were returned from the Philippines a year ago, and the Society is working to see them emplaced in a National Park site in San Francisco, overlooking the Golden Gate through which Kaiulani sailed so many times, on her varied occasions. A second ship held by the Society in Trust for the American people is the Alice S. Wentworth , generous gift of Anthony Athanas of Boston, Massachusetts, restaurateur and philanthropist, who, born in Greece, gives back with both hands - to historic preservation and to sail training - the wealth he earned from the opportunity he discovered in America. The old schooner, thought by many to be past saving, was smashed to pieces in an April storm two years ago; her remains are now installed in the newly opened headquarters of the Society in Brooklyn, New York, just south of the Brooklyn Bridge. News that Mystic Seaport in Connecticut plans to build a replica of the Alice, reported in letters from Charlie Sayle of Nantucket and Waldo Johnston of Mystic in this issue, is good news indeed. In our opinion, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about building replicas. The Alice (like the Kaiulani) , is documented in many dimensions, and we feel that there is a connection between purpose and execution in replication which shines like a star, or like a dead mackerel, in the result. Mystic's will be the right way. More old business: We never promised you a rose garden, but we did promise certain things in our last issue. Some of those promises are covered to the best of our ability in the above developments with Kaiu/ani and the Alice S . Wentworth. Others were: • Establishment of a N ational Ship Trust, under the auspices of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. Well, Virginia, a beginning has been made - see "Historic Ships in the U.S." this issue; but this is not, and never will be, a Santa Claus gift program. It was not with
Santa Claus in mind that Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Congressman John Murphy of New York launched legislation for the Ship Trust, or that Frank Carr in Blackheath, England, and Polly Burroughs in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, did such brilliant work for 1t: the campaign is not for giveaways but for a working public commitment to the living values of our sea heritage . • The return of the Vicar of Bray, last surviving ship of the California Gold Rush, was proposed. The ship has now been given to the National Society, our Curator-at-Large Peter Throckmorton has surveyed her in the Falkland Islands; she is honored in a painting of John Stobart's which serves as frontispiece to this issue, and plans for her return are reviewed in the "Historic Ships" section. • The saving of the 130-year-old Lakes schooner Alvin Clark in Menominee, Michigan was noted. Her parlous state is reported in this issue; she is in our view a sleeping beauty that could return wealth and fame to her community. • In our first issue, 1972, we announced formation of a Sea Museums Council, to help improve communications among museums, and "between them and the public who love the waters of the earth and the vessels that ply them, from canoes and canal barges to great square riggers and steamers"in the memorable words of the Council Chairman, R. Bruce Inverarity, who retired as director of the Philadelphia Maritime Museum earlier this year. The Council of American Maritime Museums has since taken up the first part of this charge, leaving the National Society free to concentrate on the second. How well we do is not for us to say, clearly we can never do as well as we should . . but this issue does have an article on Erie Canal barges, by South Street Seaport's Museum Historian Norman Brouwer. • We rashly undertook in our last issue to present "a first survey" of opportunities in historic ship preservation, and have made a beginning in this issue. We will follow up with a listing of all ship restorations in the United States in our next issue, scheduled to come out this fall. That issue will also present papers on principles and priorities in the work, by Maynard Bray of Maine, Karl Kortum of San Francisco, and others.
• We also promised in our last issue to "publish letters presenting your views on the work that lies ahead." That promise we feel we've kept rather well (see "Letters"), but the National Fish erman has outdone us, publishing article after article in a rampageous rolling debate this spring. (What a lovely piece of work that journal is!) To keep our promise truly we ask: Let us have your views. Those views set our course. And they give us power to pursue it. Put your back into this work, reader! Let us sway yards aloft and make sail. • And we promised songs and laughter on the voyage. Our editorial in the 1973 issue made much of such things. We've worked with the X-Seamen's Institute on that, sponsoring with them a songbook, a radio program called "Lure and Lore of the Sea," and a new record Album, "Heart of Oak." And we invite your attention to the proper observance of Sea Day in this issue. This has involved a junk firing strings of firecrackers, a Borough President wading ashore on an oil-polluted beach in New York Harbor, an hermaphrodite brig sailing with her yardarms nearly in the sea . .. this program is designed to bring some of life's joys and confusions to seaport waterfronts across the country. Alan Villiers told us once that it was a difficult business sailing ships across oceans; the only business he knew that was tougher was saving them when their sailing days were done. So let us have at it! It is all real, brothers, the heritage, the work to master it so that all may learn from its true challenge; a thing as real as men's lives, the wind that fills canvas, the cold and implacable sea. Words do not do the work that is needed. Only people do. People alive today, who in various ways come into this act saying yes, the whole experience matters, it is important to us today. Man is both end and means in this matter, there is every evidence to suggest that if he cannot grapple with his own experience on this earth, three quarters ocean, he will not make his voyage, as Sir Thomas Browne said in the saddest sentence I have ever read, "though he was long at sea." Respectfully submitted, Peter Stanford President, National Maritime Historical Society
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As proud and direct beneficiaries of the long and honorable sea heritage of the United States of America, the National Maritime Union salutes the National Maritime Historical Society for its magnificent contribution in bringing that heritage into focus in this Bicentennial year.
National Maritime Union of America, AFL-CIO Shannon J. Wall, President
Mel Barisic, Secretary-Treasurer National Headquarters: 346 W. 17th St., New York, N.Y. 10011 Offices in major port cities on all coasts and overseas
LETTERS GROUNDWORK IN NEWPORT To THE EDITOR: About Peter Stanford's proposals for a cooperative effort to establish a working museum on the waterfront in Newport: I have consistently held to the belief that Newport has a long and proud maritime tradition; that it embraces all four aspects of sea-going, namely, naval, commercial, fishing and yachting, and that any active, involved, working maritime center should embrace all four of these aspects. An "America's Cup Museum" for example, is too narrow, will draw from a selective segment of the public only. This same applies to an exhibit of an English 18th Century warship or to a fisheries exhibit. But, if all these aspects of the seafaring tradition of our port were to be combined, and then, added to this, a working example of shipbuilding, or at least ship mantenance, with a base for ASTA taking young people to sea aboard traditional ships which would be regularly in and out of port, then I think we would really have something. Also, it will make financing a lot easier; right now, ASTA, "Seaport '76", and the America's Cup Museum are all competing for financial support. The latter has, in fact, suspended its fund raising efforts until after "Tall Ships '76" is over. If we can put all these together, then perhaps we can really accomplish something of note. I have had all this in mind for some time, but the timing is of great importance, and I feel it is a bit too early as yet for anything other than starting to lay the groundwork. Here, perhaps NMHS can be of real help. Right now we must insure the success of the Tall Ships visit and of Operation Sail, for these will do more to stimulate interest in the sailing ships of the past and of the future, than anything else that could happen. Barclay H. Warburton, III President, American Sail Training Association Death, where is thy sting? To THE EDITOR: Many thanks for offering NMHS research help as we gather together a pile of information prior to starting a replica of the Wentworth. Obviously, we won't be able to start building for several years at least, but we are actively engaged in picking up
all pertinent material from now on, so that when we do finally lay the keel we will have in hand every possible clue and piece of information. Don Robinson and his crew at the shipyard, aided by Waldo Howland and other interested trustees, etc., and with myself looking over everybody's shoulder, are the ones responsible for the undertaking-but it will be a few years before we gather together our resources and can find time for our shipyard crew to take on the actual building. Waldo C. M. Johnston Director, Mystic Seaport Mystic, Conn. 06355 Schooners Old and New To The Editor: The Schooner Symposium at Bath this spring went off well. Norman Brouwer showed some fine pictures taken at the Falkland Islands. We met a couple of more people I have known through writing for 30 years. Up at Rockland we saw the remains of Alice Wentworth and at Thomaston the start of the new John F. Leavitt. The North End Shipyard did a good job rebuilding the Lewis R. French. Mystic is looking ahead to building in 2 or 3 years a small coasting schooner for their fleet, and they have okayed Alice Wentworth. I sent them a 1/8 11 scale plan and they have given the goahead to enlarge it to working scale and start getting timber in the meantime. Ernestina (ex-Effie M. Morrissey) is coming over from Cape de Verdes early this summer, and hopefully things will work out so she can be purchased and stay here. What about the National Maritime Historical Society taking this on? The Bath Muse.um has property upriver next to the Percy and Small yard (the old Donnell Shipyard). Another piece coming through on the other side will give them nearly 1,000 feet of river front. The Apprenticeshop will be moved to the Donnell property and a building will be constructed to house small boats, so the whole operation will be at one location. We spent a week in Gloucester and went over to see Lawrence Dahlmar's boat shop in East Gloucester. He is rebuilding the sloop Great Republic, built just around the corner 75 years ago by "Archie Fenton" for Howard Blackburn, who sailed across the Atlantic alone after losing all his fingers, half of each thumb, all of his toes on one foot and half on the other foot when he went
adrift for 5 days in winter on a halibut trip some years earlier. The sloop will be put over in the National Guard Armory, now owned by the city and to be used as a museum. People in Maine are looking ahead to the near future when freight will be carried in schooners again, to a certain extent. Two men can still take a schooner with 100-140 tons, as they did years ago. A man in Florida is inquiring up this way about a design of a shoal draft coaster for Florida waters and there is activity on the West Coast. Maynard Bray was wondering in his last letter if some of the old Alice Wentworth could be incorporated into the new one. Can the old rudder be retrieved, along with the pintles and gudgeons and a few deadeyes? The windlass is not her original, but one we took off the wreck of the 1926 Gloucester dragger, Governor Fuller. Charles F. Sayle, Sr. Nantucket, Mass. New Ships for Old? NOTE: The February 1976 National Fisherman ran an article by Peter Stanford, "A Way to Save Historic Ships," with an article by John Gardner of Mystic Seaport suggesting that building and sailing new vessels of historic design may in some cases be more important. A reprint of the article that provoked the debate is available from NMHS for $.50. The May issue of National Fisherman carried extensive discussion, from which we reproduce two letters below. As testimony accumulates, we'd like to publish it all in a special report. In the meantime, you may order the February and May issues of Fisherman by writing them at 21 Elm Street, Camden, Maine 04843 enclosing $1.50. To THE EDITOR: The Editor's Log stirs me to punch the keys; you are so right, restoring ships is a costly project, much more so than most realize. Peter Stanford's way is certainly a heart stirrer to all ship lovers, yet it makes me think of other angles to the question. The idea of government help, with money of course, opens up many things. (One thinks of all those trying to get "Government Aid.") Once you get federal money, some Feds want to dictate as to what you do with it and how, good reason or not. Government money is whose money? I think we all know. Some fellow from the inland states may not see any sense in having his
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LETTERS maritime museums, by the rapid growth of interest in traditional smallcraft and craft apprenticing which we have experienced with the Apprenticeshop of the Bath Marine Museum, and by the growth of such organizations as the Maine Antique Boat Society. Ralph L. Snow Executive Director Bath Marine Museum Bath, Maine PETER STANFORD responds: Albert Shweitzer said to Pablo Casals: "It is better to create than to protest." Pablo Casals said: "Why not do both?" We must save both our ships and the arts of the shipwright and sailor. A hulk cannot live on to deliver her message through time without the learning that built and sailed her. Coming at this question in New York's South Street, it may be noted that we had active sailing ships before we had preserved ships; we had the concept of the Museum's Pioneer Marine School before we had thought of the Museum. Lance Lee of the Apprenticeshop in Bath, Maine, and Barclay Warburton of the American Sail Training Association in Newport Rhode Island, help explain the irreplaceable values of shipwright and sailor in articles in this issue. We welcome the National Fisherman debate; from it our true priorities will emerge! Fore-and-aft or square Rig for Deep Sea Eo. Norn: In No. 1 of "Sea History" ( 1972) a discussion was launched on the relative merits of squure rig versus fore-and-a/ t rigged schooners for deep sea service. "The schooner experience, a phenomenon of the latter days of sail, should be examined in some kind of perspective," it was observed. The debate has smoldered on, generating some heat and fitful gleams of light. Recently it burst into flame across the ocean following publication in England of Stanley Gerr's expanded contribution to the 1972 debate. John Lyman, Secretary of NMHS, wrote as follows in th e May 1976 issue of that grand English publication, The Mariner's Mirror: Stanley Gerr has proposed an interesting hypothesis of mechanical inferiority of schooner rig, relative to square rig, for deep-sea voyages ( M.M. 61, 399-403). One wonders why marine underwriters of classification societies failed to notice this inferiority, for the class assigned a vessel has always depended on materals, scantlings, and outfit, without regard to rig.
J. P. Parker's remarks have been quoted somewhat out of context. Writing on p. 198 of Sails of the Maritimes, he was referring to losses of Newfoundland schooners carrying salt home from West Indian or European ports. It is illuminating to compare the longevity of these Newfoundland-built craft with data on some other classes of vessel. If we tabulate the number of years between launching and loss for the 48 schooners built in Newfoundland between 1917 and 1921 (Sails of the Maritimes, pp. 140, 156,179, 194), we find that the end of three years only 24 (i.e., half) were left afloat. This time span, which I will call 'median longevity' (in preference to 'half life,' which has a recognized meaning in chemical physics, where it implies that one-quarter of a population is still left after the span of two half lives-a condition certainly not true of a population of ships), is a useful parameter in comparing the endurance of other groups of ships. For example, taking the first 50 American-built four-masted schooners in the alphabetical list in Log Chips ( 1: 94), I find a median longevity of 15 years, and for the 74 three-masted schooners built in 1891 on the Atlantic coast of the United States (Log Chips 2: 115) the figure is 17 years. These numbers are strikingly different from the figure for the Newfoundland schooners and fully bear out Captain Parker's remarks on p. 140 of his book concerning both the quality of the timber used in Newfoundland and the skill of the builders. A comparative figure for the big Downeasters cited by Stanford was derived by tracing the fate of the 87 square-riggers of 1,800 tons and upwards built in New England between 1870 and 1893 (Log Chips, 2: 130 et seq.). The median longevity of this group proved to be 20 years, a figure which might indicate a substantial statistical advantage of square rig over schooners, for materials and even builders were in many cases identical to those of the two groups of schooners in the preceding paragraph. The advantage disappears, however, when schooners built on the West coast are considered. Here the bigger schooners were primarily engaged in carrying lumber to Hawaii, Australia, South America, and South Africa, where, unlike the Atlantic coasters, they were fully exposed to the trade wind seas that Gerr deems so detrimental. The 129 four-masters built between 1886 and
1904 in Washington, Oregon, and California (Log Chips, 1:68-71) had median longevity of 24 years. There is nothing in these statistics, therefore, to indicate that the schooner is any less fit for long ocean voyages than the squarerigger. - JOHN LYMAN STANLEY GERR responds: John Lyman's figures are interesting but not conclusive; th e most significant are the ones showing that in the case of square riggers and schooners built by the same yards, th e square riggers seemed to outlive the schooners by five years (at least on the East Coast), but he doesn't have comparative figures (i.e. both square rig and fore-and-aft) for the West Coast, only th e fact that the big lumber schooners lasted quite long. I don't find it surprising that the marine insurance people didn't base their approach on rig, but only on construction characteristics. I don't think many of the schooners were insured at all, and then, the difference in behavior on ocean voyages hadn't really been noticed till near th e end of the whole era. I find Dr. Lyman's figures most suggestive, but no more.
To the Editor: I was particularly intrigued to hear about the Vicar of Bray being donated to your Society from the Falklands. We continue to make progress with the Great Britain, and should have the bridge and mainmast up by the end of the year. But it is a slow business and as you would no doubt imagine from the heavily adverse news about this country at the present time raising money only gets harder. However, we are very delighted with the continuing interest shown and the fact that each year we have a bigger number of visitors. In general this is higher than we ever really expected and is very encouraging. I have now written a book about the exploits of our organization since we bagan in 1968, and it is to be published in July called The R eturn of th e Great Britain. I hope it will play its own back-up role in fostering more interest. Richard Goold-Adams Chairman SS Great Britain Project Bristol, England lsambard Kingdom. Brunel's innovative steamer of 1843 was returned to
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LETTERS
her builder's clock in Briston in 1970, after one of the great historic ship saves of all time. Karl Kortum drew attentio11 to her existence and importance in his Falkland Island visit of 1966; Mr. Goold-Adams, with the support of Jack Hayward, OBE, directed the recovery of the ship from the Falklands and her subsequent restoration. His forthcoming book, "The Return of the Great Britain," may be ordered from the Society for $15 postpaid.-ED.
Two Ships in Denmark To the Editor: As a member of the Society for some years I am happy to see that we are making some progress at last. I regret that Captain Irving Johnson's plan to sail the Peking home did not come about. Some years ago I mentioned to you my thoughts on the Kaiulani as a living ship. I still think it's a good idea. My wife and I have located a couple of working sailing ships in Europe, soon we hope to purchase one. One thought we had was to offer long distance cruises. Do you feel enough people are interested to cover costs? Enclosed are photos of two ex-sailing ships we saw in Denmark, the
white hull I believe is an old U.S.-built ship as she is of wood and not the lines found in Europe, the other is of steel and is still working. The small house
on the black hull still has a very old cold fired stove and the owner was keeping chickens in a coup on the bow. Another ship we are watching is an ex-three mast bark dating from 1901, at present not for sale. We were not able to get our own ship for the Tall Ships this year. We are very happy however to be guests aboard the British ship Erg. We are looking forward to New York and plan on calling at South Street. Norman E. Dean Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Seek Learning To the Editor: I have read your booklet entitled, The Ships That Brought Us So Far, and would like to know if you can supply a ny information regarding the following question. I have done considerable reading and research on the history of sailing ships and small sailing craft. Thus far my knowledge in this field has been obtained through self teaching but I would be interested in pursuing some formal training. I have written to the Maritime College at Fort Schuyler and to the Naval Institute in Halifax for, their catalogs. However, I would like to know if you are aware of other possibilities. Since employed full time in Toronto, a correspondence course would be most suitable, but it is highly unlikely that such a course would be avai lable. As far as courses requiring personal attendance are concerned I may be able to arrange to attend for 3 or 4 weeks this summer or I may be able to commute for some Saturday or evening lectures. Michael C. Boccacino Toronto, Ontario Canada The Munson Institute, conducted each summer at Mystic Seaport, Mystic, Connecticut 06355 is where you should apply. We wish we knew of more such study centers to recommend to serious students. - ED.
Sea Farer's Log To THE EDITOR: Greetings from lower Manhattan as the spring of 1976 approaches. I hope that all is well with you. And rriay we matelots meet again soon! I compose these cryptic lines in a tiny cubicle adjacent to the main reading room of the commodious Joseph Conrad Library. A hand carved, wooden effigy of Mr. Conrad's head dominates this enclave. An aura of antiquity pervades the very atmosphere. To the hedonist, such as I, it is a veritable Elysium. The astute Conrad won his greatest fame as a novelist and a marine romaniticist. His superb sea-classics will long endure. Peace to his soul! Enough of ruminating. As thespians say: On with the show. It transpires that Peter Stanford has, officially, severed his connections with the local museum complex. The late General Douglas
MacArthur often said of himself: "I am an old soldier, who always did his duty, as he saw that duty." Catagorically, my colleague Peter Stanford merits and deserves a similar appraisal, for the years he has striven, stoically and relentlessly, to develop the burgeoning South Street Seaport Museum. An effort to save and enshrine the former schooner Elizabeth Bandi burst into print in the National Fisherman. Soon, I will compose a complete appeal for publication. Historian Frank 0. Braynard, and local museologists have repeatedly promised to put her present plight before the American public. As opportunity serves, I will pull for that quondam coaster with the proverbial "seine-boat oar," as Banks fishermen say. To all true ship-lovers, I say again: "Save the Elizabeth Bandi." Shades of Romance. History repeats itself. The list of windships, of my acquaintance, is virtually endless. Most, have banished. Sic transit gloria mundi. Next on the agenda are three gallant fore-and-afters: the workships Adventure; W. J. Ellison and Mary E. That trio once operated coevally as "doryfishermen." Fortune has smiled. Those craft are still in active service. The schooner Adventure was once an "auxiliary sailing Gloucesterman." Today, aged 50 years, that doyen is a "dude-schooner" in Maine. Locally, it is hoped that the venerable Adventure will be chosen to represent "Old Gloucester" on the occasion of Operation Sail-1976. Ostensibly and outwardly, the fisherman Adventure and Norma and Gladys were, once, quite similar. Both craft were wooden-hulled, auxiliary, twomasted schooners. Both were "polesparred knockabouts," as Banks fisherman say. In recent years, the Newfoundlander Norma and Gladys became an envoy schooner a nd a floating museum. God grant, that the Adventure may be her American counterpart. Not being a "purely sailing Gloucesterman" that very adventure is definitely not ideal for the unique role of permanent enshrinement. In that respect, I am now questing the sailers Mary E. and W. J. Ellison. The former might yet operate from modern Gloucester carrying out "sailing parties." As sailing Gloucestermen go, that tiny twomaster is far too small to be classified as "typical." Paradoxically, modern Gloucester still lacks a "dream-ship" worthy of the name. As fate has decreed, no American "Grand Banker" is available. Thus,
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LETIERS spent this way, even granting that if it had not been for ships in the beginning, his area would never have been developed. If you are going to save a number of ships, and if it's a fair number, decay works faster than you can. A grant of a million is only peanuts. Once a ship is acquired and restored, there is the upkeep, which is most demanding of time and money. Ships were made to work and be at sea. The minute they are in laid-up condition, things age faster. It's one thing to restore an old locomotive and then keep her in a building, preferably with constant, manmade weather, but a ship outdoors, as large ones must be, is another matter. Can't Rebuild Pieces No doubt some ships should be saved; if what I read is the true picture, some of the recent thinking is a bit fuzzy. Kaiulani is out of it. You don't, realistically, rebuild a bunch of rusted pieces. The schooners at Wiscasset have gone by, and so on. It will take considerable judgment and knowledge to decide what is reasonably practical to restore; much of what we might like to save is beyond it. The steam tug that recently had her fires pulled for the last time is on her way out-picture the frost hanging from the overhead, and the sweating boiler tubes and other metal. Lucky ships die at work; those overcome by economics, if having avoided other perils, die in the mud. The old timers we all would like to see restored again are, for the most part, dead in their last berths. We tend to ignore saving any craft until it's too late. Although some craft should be restored, I very much take to John Gardner's approach to it; it's better to spend money on smaller craft of historical interest, by building new ones that can be used, from brigs down to skiffs, so the skills of designing, building and sailing can be kept alive, be further developed, and thus bring back our sea heritage to its former glory, though in a smaller way. In doing this, we should keep in mind that each ship of the past, in her day, was no thing of great romance, but a craft designed and built to do a certain job based on the economics and knowhow of her times. That most did their job well, there is little doubt, for many of the uses were very demanding. Then, as now, ships were expendable; it was well known just about how much life expectancy you could get out of a ship in various trades-for the short-life
8
trades they built accordingly. Romance was pretty much lacking in any ship in her given time and trade; looking back in history it often seems the exact opposite. I say restore a few, if they then can be kept up properly, which is doubtful, and also keep in mind they will have to be rebuilt again sometime. Build new craft, if real money is to be spent, craft that can be used, for then they get care and last longer. They should be as big vessels as our times can sensibly afford while still allotting considerable of the money and effort for smaller craft, for these are always a training ground for bigger vessels. The know-how to design, build and sail is here; it should be passed on. We are fortunate to have much record how it was all done in the past. Let us now go and do it, at the thole pins of little boats, or at the mastheads of larger craft. Crepe-hangers will say all is Jost and no one can design, build or sail such craft anymore. Simply look around a bit and see the hundreds, maybe thousands, who are doing it. All it takes is a desire to learn, a willingness to work-and money. Capt. R. D. Culler Hyannis, Mass. 02601 To THE EonoR: Your recent articles on ship preservation by Peter Gardner came at a key time. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, our only national private historic organization, has recently instituted a division concerned with maritime preservation. The Council of American Maritime Museums supports this effort and is cooperating in every way possible to further a national maritime preservation program. As a member of the Trust's advisory committee on maritime preservation I am vitally interested in the views expressed not only by the authors but by readers as well. Ship preservation is expensive. It is also difficult in that many of the skills associated with the construction and maintenance of 19th and early 20th century vessels are obsolete and in short supply. Hardware, oakum, sail canvas, good quality ship and boatbuilding timber are increasing! y difficult to locate and purchase. Few of the organizations which currently own one or more vessels have sufficient facilities to care for and restore the vessels. One project we should pursue there-
fore, is an inventory of existing facilities, skilled labor and suppliers available for ship and small craft preservation organizations. Secondly, we should inventory the potential of each organization in developing facilities, supplying materials and providing training for workers in ship and small craft preservation with a view to expanding programs for mutual benefit. We should also keep in mind that the very selection of objects for preservation can and does frequently (if unconsciously) give a distorted view of the past. The plethora of Federal mansions preserved as historic houses gives the uninformed observer the impression the 19th century American architecture was primarily Federal and the bulk of the population lived in mansions. Architectural preservationists have in recent years broadened their efforts to encompass a variety of styles. However, one of the most common type ships preserved today in maritime museums is the lightship. While certainly important, one can seriously question their pre-eminence at the possible expense of other, far more important types in our history. Another bias which colors the interpreted view of the past is one which focuses on the romance of sail or the big ship as opposed to small craft. Frankly, I hope we can find a way to save a World War II "Liberty"-the "ugly ducklings" which contributed so much to the Allied victory and have gone on for 30 years in commercial trade. There aren't many left and they are disappearing fast. Standard Needed We have to establish standards which insure that preservation, restoration and replication are done with the greatest regard for historical accuracy. Our responsibility is to historic truth. Perhaps in this fashion we will avoid in the future such abominations as the Flying Cloud replica or continuing debates- and serious and legitimate questions-over the validity of the so-called Frigate Constellation restoration in Baltimore. Last, and by no means least, we should develop programs and opportunities as outlined by John Gardner to this and succeeding generations to experience in some way the concept of craftsmanship-be it in ship and boat construction or seamanship - which underlay so much of our maritime past. Certainly there is great interest in our maritime heritage as is evidenced by the success of Mystic Seaport and other
LETI'ERS
we must search elsewhere. To meet the contingency, we have chosen the W . J. Ellison. That craft was a typical Newfoundland Grand Banker. Along about 1935, she was launched in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. According to legend; the seas-gleaner Ellison once fished under sail only. Hoisting eight sails, the lofty, two-topmaster cut a foaming swath through seas of glory. Later, the fisherman Ellison was renovated and modernized. Thus, she became an auxiliary ketch. Along about 1973, the W. J. Ellison as an auxiliary sailing workship, briefly visited the roistering Fulton Fish Market. That gallant foreigner was an apparition from the remote past. On boarding her, I felt the imprint of age-old heritage; and of glorious tradition. Here was the very essence of serendipity. I profoundly admired her sturdiness, versatility and longevity. Ostensibly the chunky, wooden hull had retained its original, "sheer-curve". Her sheer, visual impact was virtually charismatic. Paradoxically, I never saw the sailer W . J. Ellison again. Perhaps, she will be reincarnated; as "The Grand Banks Fishing Schooner Enshrined." God grant that we may eventually, succeed! The present owners are The Omnibus School, Sausalito, California. Re-
cently, I wrote to that bailiwick. But, to no avail. Please be patient. Meanwhile, other "Grand Bankers" warrant immediate attention. In some cases, old windships, like old matelots, are truly "diehards". As witness the Gloucestermen L. A . Dunton, Lettie G. Howard (ex-Caviare) and American. Fortune has smiled on that ghostly, spectral trio. Reputedly, those retired workships will, NEVER, sail again. Be it known, the American is now, a floating restaurant in Cape May, New Jersey, Never having visited that American Billingsgate, I hold final judgment in abeyance. By contrast, the legendary, enchanted Adventure still operates under sail. Although not a racing fisherman, that patriarch still retains four spacious sails. Seasonally, her wake furrows Maine coastal waters. On the schooner Adventure, I will consult the histo'rians Thomas, Story, and Garland. It is expedient to take judicious action while time remains. Modern Gloucester richly deserves to be officially represented as a unit of the prestigious "Operation Sail 1976." Please be patient. As a raconteur, I still cling to the time-honored subject of sail. Occasionally, a power-drive ncraft appears on my literary horizon. A case in
point is the now-famous tug Mathilda . As well the merchant steamers Stevens, John W. Brown, and Twin Falls. The latter has become the John W. Brown II. Not being spectacular, those four craft have eluded most modern historians. Their potentialities will be exploited. Good luck and fair winds. E. F. MORAN, New York Seafaring Ed Moran is known far beyond South Street's purlieus for his works and caring for old ships. Alan Villiers in England counts him an esteemed friend. The L. A. Dunton was saved for Mystic largely throuRh his efforts. Long may his cutwater cleave the sea! - Eo.
A Gulf Coast Schooner To THE EDITOR: You may be interested in knowing of the little Gulf Coast schooner Governor Stone built in 1877 and now partially restored. She completed a trip to Key West two years ago. She was named after the first elected governor of Mississippi after the Civil War and is believed to be the oldest schooner sailing in the Gulf. Our best wishes to you. John and Ingrid Curry Tarpon Springs, Florida
Oil sketch by Gordon Grant, of a schooner close-hauled (remarkably so!) meeting a square-rigger running free.
OPERATION SAIL 1976 By Peter Stanford President National Maritime Historical Society I didn't see the first one, in 1964. But when a few years later we, that is a collection of very ordinary citizens, set about founding a sea museum in New York, I was struck by how often people -sometimes total strangers-would say: "Oh, those tall ships that were in here a year or so ago, those big square riggers . . . is that what the museum is about?" And I have noticed since, how people elide the years, telling me only yesterday on the street: "Oh yes, those big sailing ships, coming in on the fourth of July. I saw them, four, maybe five years ago." Lady (or sir) it was twelve years ago that people concerned with Operation Sail brought the tall sail training ships of the world to New York harbor. (But your elision of years in memory does you proud! History lives, as it lives for you.) Let Frank Braynard, patriot who walked out of church when he thought the sermon waved the flag too hard over graves in Asia ... let Frank Braynard, sparkplug, whirlwind, originator, confounder and director of Operation Sail 1976 say how the first Operation Sail in New York came about (twelve years ago, gentle reader) : 'That one actually started in 1960," says Frank. "Nils Hansel, an editor of one of the International Business Machines publications, and I were talking about the dwindling number of large sailing ships and we wondered whether it would be possible to lure some to New York where many people could see them. "I was then working for Admiral Edmond J. Moran (Chairman of Moran Towing and Transportation Company), and he was very generous in giving me the time and a little one-room office to work on the project. I remember one day in 1962 he came in and said to me, 'Frank, there are 15 telephones into this place, and you have every one of them tied up!' "Afterwards, people kept asking about the tall ships, and finally, with the Bicentennial coming up, Peter Stanford urged that we do it again. So we have, but on a much bigger scale than we did in 1964." Let me take an opportunity which will not recur, to set the record straight: Frank Braynard actually said to me: "Peter, you are distracted, harrassed. But listen to me." (I remember this clearly, I was scrunched into the back OPPOSITE :
Kruzenshtern ex-Padua at start of Tall Ship Race in England, May 2. Courtesy Robert Simper seat of a car driving through one of the endless pieces of spaghetti-like highway on Long Island, coming back from LaGuardia Airport after a meeting on the Kaiulani in Washington, D.C.): "We must do again what we did in 1964-but better." He went on to speak about what this country, with its loyalties, its loves, its admiration for beauty, and its penchant for hard work, is about. He said a lot more that I forget. Frank's father died. Years passed. The world kept turning, with its joys and tragedies and Frank kept working on his vision. Not arrogantly, but in simple, direct ways. Somewhere along the line I remember him waving a letter, from someone in Rumania, saying: "Better a contest in sail, than in missiles." Well of course it's now fashionable to like Iron Curtain countries, even listen to them; but it wasn't then, believe me. "Frank," I would say helplessly, "lay off this thing. We've got to keep our own ships afloat." The answer I got was invariably the same: a blank look from eyes that suddenly lost their customary twinkle: a look that I had learned to respect. Let Ambassador Emil J. Mosbacher, Jr., longtime coadjutor of Frank's, and Chairman of Operation Sail 1976, say what it is all about: "I hope that this acknowledgment of our maritime past, which we will witness on July 4, 1976, will help us remember where we were in 1776, who we are today, and what we can dream to become in 2076 as another centennial is celebrated by the generations of Americans who will follow." Or to Prince Philip of England: he salutes Operation sail as "a wonderful demonstration of that brotherhood among seamen which has existed ever
since men have challenged the oceans." These statements carry a ring of conviction, and of truth. Operation Sail 1976 brings young people here from the very nations that founded America, to see how we are doing with our Revolution after two hundred years. Only six thousand cadets will come ashore, from ships from many nations. But they worked hard to get here-and their coming is not merely show. With that said-and I think Mosbacher's and Philip's statements are about all that should be said-it is up to each of us to find our meanings in this event. Let us proceed to the ships. Eagle, the flagship, is the Coast Guard's sail training ship. She was completed in 1936 as the Horst Wessel, in Hamburg, Germany. Many sea miles have passed under her keel since then, mostly under the U.S. flag, since we took her over after the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945. The Germans were ever serious about big sailing ships in commerce, and about training seamen in sail. So the Eagle will be joined by four ships built to the same design, sisters reunited for the first time in a generation: Tovarishch of the USSR, built in Hamburg in 1933 as the Gorch Fack; Mircea of Rumania, built in Hamburg in 1938; Sagres, ex-Guanabare, built as the Albert Leo Schlageter in Hamburg in 1938; and finally, Gorch Fack, built in Hamburg in '1953 as the Federal German Republic's replacement for some missing ships. Columbia sends the new bark Gloria, built in 1968 in Balboa, Spain-much like Eagle in design. The emphasis of the Soviets on sail training seems remarkable. The Tovarishch will be joined in Operation Sail by the Kruzenshtern, 3,000-ton four masted bark built at Wesermunde, Germany in 1926 as the Padua-the last of the splendid series of Flying P liners, built to carry cargoes as well as cadets. And she will find awaiting her in New York, at the South Street Museum, the Peking, built for the same owners in 1911.) These are only two of a considerable fleet the Soviets keep under sail. Poland sends us the oldest of the big ships, the Dar Pomorza, a full-rigged ship built in Hamburg, Germany, in 1909 as the Prinzess Eitel Friedrich, a training ship all her life. Argentina sends the beautiful fullrigger Libertad, built in 1956. Captain Juan Jose P. DeValle, then Commandant of the Navy Yard, argued hard that she should be rigged as a ship,
Aboard Danmark, driving hard in squally weather. Courtesy Operation Sail 1976
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Danmark, above, snoring along 011 a beam reach. Note yards progressively twisted toward wind as they go up, so small royal at top will back first in case of windshift.
Sagres, at left, drifts into New York harbor on a dreamy September afternoon last year. Sistership to the USCG Eagle, she was built two years later, in 1938, in Hamburg, Germany.
Libertad's lithe and handsome hull, below, lies in South Street at Museum pier in 1969. Sails are hanging in their gear (clewlines and buntlines that draw them to the yard).
OPERATION SAIL 1976
square yards on all masts, where her her first postwar visit to New York, Gaze/a Primeiro, a Portugese Grand sister hulls Esmeralda of Chile (built at where a large and enthusiastic popula- Banks barkentine saved by the determiCadiz, Spain, in 1952) and the Spanish tion of Italian descent await her. Built nation of R. Bruce Inverarity, former diJuan Sebastian de Elcano (Cadiz, 1927) and painted to resemble a two-deck ship- rector of the Philadelphia Maritime Muwere rigged as four-masted topsail of-the-line of the 19th century, she and seum, and through the generosity of schooners, carrying (in effect) auxiliary her sister Cristofaro Colombo were William Wikoff Smith, who died unexsquaresails on the foremast only. He often seen in company before World pectedly earlier this year, is the oldest War II-once by a Norwegian submarine vessel that is clearly documented; she won. Libertad ranges far and wide, one captain, who had no knowledge that has been sailing, first to catch fish, now year in San Francisco, another in New either ship existed, and surfacing be- to catch men's imaginations, since 1883. . These, then, are the major ships of York. While South Street's Wavertree tween them one day, wondered what was¡ being fitted for tow from Buenos century or what world he had surfaced the fleet. They will gather first in NewAires to New York in 1969, by the same into! The Colombo went to the Soviet port, R.I. at the finish of an ocean race stubborn and visionary De Valle, I asked Union after the war, and it is not known from Bermuda, and sail for New York if Libertad would not bring to us the whether she is still sailed or not. on July 1st, the smaller vessels coming Wavertree's mizzen topmast stump (still England's Sir Winston Churchill, a down the coast and down the East River in its doublings where it had been left terrifically handsome modern topsail on July 3rd. The big square riggers will when the topmast carried away in a schooner, is sailed by an all-female go outside Long Island to anchor in Cape Horn snorter in 1910) on Liber- crew. Norway's small ship Christian Gravesend Bay. On Sunday, July 4th, tad's forthcoming voyage to New York . Radich, built in 1937 at Sandefjord and they will come up the harbor, passing "Captain reluctant to take wormy wood sailing out of Oslo, is only one of a under the Verrazano bridge at 11 A.M. aboard his vessel," came back the an- splendid trio of square riggers main- and under the George Washington swer. Subsequently the officialdom who tained by that small country: the others bridge at 2 P.M., sailing past a line of cluster round our waterfronts and infest are the Sorlandet, built in Ch;¡istiansand naval vessels from all over the world. our cities decided South Street itself was in 1927 as a training ship, and the Most of the ships will be in New York too dirty a place for the (truly) lovely Statsraad Lehmkuhl, built at Geeste- harbor until July 7. Some go to BaltiLibertad to come in. Then out of the munde, Germany in 1914 as the training more and other ports, and a large conblue, a wireless from Libertad at sea: ship Grossherzag Friedrich August. tingent will visit and depart from Boston "EXPECT ARRIVE SOUTH STREET One major square rigger remains, the on July 28 to sail back home in a transNO OTHER PLACE - VAZQUEZ Nippon Maru, a four-masted bark built atlantic race. MAIZTEGUI." When the Libertad did as a training ship in 1930 at Kobe, The entire fleet of Operation Sail arrive, all was explained: I met Captain Japan. Her presence here is a wonder 1976 will involve over 200 vessels, most Vazquez Maiztegui! Of course he had and I believe it is the first time she has of them listed in the Beefeater Guide in not just brought the topmast stump, but come so far. our centerfold. These are the vessels, brought it with a brass plate on it, and There are a few loose ends here to be and this is the opportunity-to visit kept 1t wrapped in burlap against des- tucked away. The Mon Lei, a Chinese them, to read, talk and learn about them. There is much they can teach us! iccation, and felt no one but his own junk owned by Alen York, may be the crew could bring it ashore in proper oldest vessel in the sea parade, but the .to .to .t. style. Something of the steely strength and debonair good manners of the Argentine Navy is expressed, I feel, in Libertad's ' balanced rig and lovely lines, and cer- The Amerigo Vespucci, built in 1930. Courtesy, Steamship Historical Society of America tainly in the way she is sailed. She holds the North Atlantic crossing record, the only modern square rigger ever to smash a clipper record, and the new record is not terribly likely to be upset by anyone but herself. "Each with her story to tell ... "The graceful Danmark, a much smaller ship than Libertad, is also a well sailed ship, well known wherever she goes for her habit of docking under sail without aid of tugs. She was built in 1933 as a training ship, and has been to New York three times in the last decade, keeping alive her connection with the considerable numbers of Americans who trained in her, sailing in Florida waters during World War II, while her homeland was occupied by German soldiers. The Amerigo Vespucci is particularly welcome for another reason; this will be
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''I Saw Three Ships ... '' NoTE: The three articles that follow look at three smaller and very special ships in Operation Sail. Each is of interest for quite different reasons, reasons which will be immediately evident to the reader and which we hope he will find rather moving ... as we did. A II ships sail to some purpose. There is passion in the purposes to which these three sail.-ED.
fense evolved, in 1846-1855, into a maLAAMISTAD jor effort to secure the benefits of priSchooner in Operation Sail mary and secondary education for Honors Black Heritage blacks in the South and to establish By Michael R. Clement higher educational institutions. Today, Administrator/La Amistad 1976 La Amistad's legacy is kept alive as an The original La Amistad was a educational resource through the schooner carrying 53 Africans into slav- Amistad Research Center at Dillard ery; but, in 1839, the Amistad Africans University in New Orleans. revolted, took over La Amistad, and A 130-foot schooner, built as the initiated a chain of historic events that Western Union in 1938, has been rechanged this schooner into a ship of fitted and rerigged to carry this story up freedom. This legacy of black heritage and down the coast in 1976, and, it is is presented through a 300-item exhibit hoped, in succeeding years. La Amion board a new schooner La Amistad in stad's legacy will be depicted through an Operation Sail 1976. on-board exhibit that portrays this "freeThe chronology of La Amistad's leg- dom trail" through the lives of the peoacy began in 1839 with the African's bid ple who took part in it ... Countee Culfor freedom. It continued until 1841 in len, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Dubois, the U.S. courts where their status as free John Quincy Adams, Carl Van Vechten, men and women was hotly debated and Henry Highland Garnet, Frederick Jed to the successful defense of their Douglass and others. civil rights in the United States Supreme The exhibit will be interpreted by hisCourt by former President John Quincy tory students from various colleges and Adams. He won "Freedom Now!" for universities that evolved out of the the 39 remaining Africans and secured Amistad tradition. These students will their safe return home to Sierra Leone. act as cadets on the Amistad crew as it The present John Quincy Adams has visits different ports during Operation said: "I am proud of the fact that my Sail. distinguished forebear used his energy, The ship and its exhibit will be prehis talents and the force and strength of viewed in New York on June 22 as La his character on behalf of the black Amistad arrives on its maiden voyage. slaves in the Amistad Affair. In our It will then visit the Connecticut ports family, we consider it one of the great of Bridgeport, New Haven and New achievements of his long career-pos- London before returning to New York sibly eclipsing his election to the Presi- for the July 4th Tall Ships parade where dency itself." it will be the only vessel representing After 1841, La Amistad came to rep- our common black heritage. resent a different kind of freedom-edu- NOTE: La Amistad 1976 welcomes incational freedom. What began during quiries and contributions. La Amistad, 1839-1841 through teaching the Afri- c/o M. Clement, 22 Grove Street, New cans English to enable their proper de- York City 10014. -ED.
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EFFIE M. MORRISSEY A Report on the Effort to Return the Famous Old Fishing Schooner to the U.S. By Charles F. Sayle NOTE: The "Effie M. Morrissey," a Gloucester fishing schooner of 1894, sailed for twenty years in A retie exploration and relief work, under Captain Robert Bartlett. She then became a brava packet, sailing between New Bedford, Massachusetts and the Cape Verde Islands, under the name "Ernestina," and most lately has been sailed between the islands of African ports. The movement to save the ship, led by Harry Duggan of Philadelphia, is reported here by Charles F. Sayle of Nantucket , who has been active in her behalf. Contributions to support this effort may be sent to: Save the Morrissey Fund, The Explorers' Club, 46 E. 70th Street, New York City 10021 . Through the efforts of the U.S. Navy and others, we finally received a price on the vessel delivered on our East Coast: $60,000. She has been laid up around a year, replaced by a newer power vessel. Once we'd make contact with the owner, in April this year, we sent him a couple of thousand dollars, and sent out an appeal for funds. Money has been coming in slowly, not fast enough to get her over here for July 4th. Our Government gave the Cape Verde Government $5 million upon their getting their independence, to to help them get started on their own. As a result they are behind the move to send the Morrissey over for our 200th birthday. And the Cape Verdean Society on this coast is pushing for her
coming. We are sending some money over now to get parts for her Diesel engine and toward new sails, which goes to ward purchase price. We figure that if she gets to this country it may help to raise funds for a complete rebuild , to put her back into shape as she was under Bob Bartlett. People in Brigues, Newfoundland, Bartlett's home, have shown great interest in this. Many members of the Explorer's Club sailed under Bartlett. We have support and interest from the United Nations and from others, and we feel we will get a lot of help once the vessel is over here. We have a Jong way to go, but it is a very worthwhile project. Jn a second communication, dated June 2, Sayle reports: Ernestina is now expected to leave St. Vincent in the Cape Verdes, for New York; trip expected to take about 30 days. Bartlett Exploration Association sent a $700 fuel pump and gaskets over by plane, so they could get her Cummings Diesel working. Ernestina also carries a shortwave radio set, so may be able to com-
municate direct. Her Cape Verde owner and skipper is bringing her over.
SEBBE ALS A Viking Ship Built by Danish Sea Scouts Enters Operation Sail By Lance R. Lee, Director The Apprenticeshop Bath Marine Museum, Bath Maine Operation Sail-the gathering of sail training vessels from all over the earth in New York on July 4th will include a craft remarkable by any standard. The Seebbe Ats, a 55-foot Viking longship replica was built entirely by hand in a small Scandinavian town by a group of Danish Boy and Senior Scouts. She is built to exacting standards, with an authenticity borne of the aid of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark, directed by Ole Crumlin-Pedersen. The vessel stands out because of her fascinating hitsory. In the early I 960's, underwater archeologists found, raised and dated as "the close of the Viking period," an original warship from which the shape and construction de-
tails were taken. Then Carl Otto Larsen, leader, and 43 other Danes revived the Norse skills requisite to her construction, and launched a replica of the vessel and sailed her to Norway. At the same time, during the early '60's, the archaeological excavations of Helge lngstad in Newfoundland, proved Norse settlement in the New World around AD 1,000. The significance of this vessel in Operation Sail then, is twofold. She is a replica of the first vessel to reach North America from the Old World, doing so through the skill, stamina and daring of the Norsemen, being among the consummate seamen of history. Secondly, the Sebbe Als represents a remarkable -even triumphant-rebirth in willpower and tenacity and skill. She is in that rare tradition in which a band of individuals lacking money, a vessel or ability as craftsmen reflect the ingenuity of men and women in fashioning much out of little and accepting adversity for the immeasurable gains afforded in pride of accomplishment. All over the
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I SAW THREE SHIPS
Operation Sail 1976 On July Fourth tall ships from seafaring nations around the world will gather in New York Harbor. Over two hundred sailing vessels will join in the parade of Sail from the Verraizano Narrows Bridge up the Harbor and the Hudson River to the George Washington Bridge. The parade of sail will be the largest assemblage of sail training ships ever seen in this hemisphere. Operation Sail 1976 is a most fitting tribute to our 200-year-old maritime heritage. A major international cultural exchange program, it stimulates appreciation and understanding of the vital role of the Merchant Marine in uniting men and nations. In commemoration of this historic event, Operation Sail is making available a series of fourteen proof-finish medals depicting the host ship, the U.S. Coast Guard bark Eagle, plus thirteen other sail training ships representing all parts of the world coming to salute our maritime history: Libertad of Argentina, Bluenose of Canada, Gloria of Colombia, Esmeralda of Chile, Danmark from Denmark, Gorch Fock of West Germany, E¢ndracht of Holland, Amerigo Vespucci from Italy, Nippon Maru of Japan, Christian Radich of Norway, Dar Pvmorza of Poland, Sagres of Portugal, and Juan Sebastian de Elcano from Spain. The medal honoring the American bark Eagle is two inches in diameter and weighs two troy ounces. Each of the other thirteen medals is one and five-eighths inches in diameter and weighs one troy ounce. Each medal is 925I1000 fine. A limited edition of 1000 complete sets of fourteen medals is being offered at $336 and will be delivered in a nautical presentation case. The individual Eagle medal is $37 delivered in a nautical canvas-covered jeweler's case, the other medals are $23. There is an additional charge of $6.50 for the full fourteen-medal set, $3 for smaller numbers. Mail orders for medals should be addressed to: OP SAU.. Medals P.O. Box 1976 1470 N.E. 129th St. North Miami, Fla. 33161
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West there is a growing hunger among today's youth for such satisfactions. Sebbe A ls reveals a magnificent economic means of providing demanding, esteem-bearing experience in any small town or city, in any nation. In Operation Sail we shall witness vast, bold examples of the use of human and natural energy, and of some of the most highly evolved forms of rig and sail. But it is highly likely that the surface will be noticed and that the trumpets will sound for nostalgia, for bravery, and for the past. The Sebbe Als speaks for the quality of youth and the future. A gradual renaissance of craftsmanship and skills on a small scale is taking place. The Sebbe Als is testimony to how a group have built their own square rigger, sailed her to Norway and have now come to New York. Here they offer illustration of how groups all over the world can revive skills, have pride in their own achievements and hope in those who see and know of this vessel's history. The construction of the Sebbe A ls took three years-they began with white oak logs 50 feet in length and 5 feet in¡ diameter, splitting these with ash wedges, hewing planks of them with the adz, and "hanging" them accurately and evenly. They cut and sewed their own sails. They carved their "deadeyes," special wooden devices for tightening the rigging. They drank beer, laughed, cried, cut themselves and went on, and on to completion. Primarily, in entering the Danish Viking ship Sebbe A ls in Operation Sail, a matter that Pete Seeger, Peter Stanford and I have been concerned in, with others, we wish to enable the many, unable to participate actively in New York, to recognize that vast sums and big vessels are not requisite to either qualitative or demanding experience which yields the sort of pride, judgment and exhileration which stems from square-rigged sail training. I have spent some little time with Carl Otto Larsen and the present crew of the Sebbe Als within the past seven months and come away deeply inspired. My search into this project in Denmark came in great measure from my sorrow at seeing that the thrust of inflation and related economic stress today denies the hard, qualifying exeperiences which sail training and apprenticing have for generations afforded youth. My own eight months on a 1,700-ton barque comprised as significant a life
experience as I could wish for, but in this day that vessel is laid up, those continuing do so under staggering costs and the numbers able to participate are small indeed. Hence my interest in the theme of smallness with its consequent ability to afford great experience to many. The Danes in Augustenborg added a dimension rarely seen in today's world of foundation or government support. This is the community-based project which runs essentially upon tenacity and achieves a personal and pride-bearing relationship quite impossible when the State treasury lies behind the opportunity. Beyond these economic considerations lies an even deeper recognition. craftsmanship, swiftly dying out of modern life, affords one of the most satisfying and inspiring of opportunities, not simply for the practitioner but for those many who come in contact with material excellence produced at the hands of the skilled and careful. These timeless needs-for experience, skill and inspiration-have led a growing number to value the difficult route, the community project, the made rather than purchased item and the human energies, care and deliberateness which go into such efforts. Where the Sebbe Als is concerned we have increasing fascination in recognizing that she is a blend of three "thrusts," meticulous scholarship or historical research, applied craftsmanship and yielded adventure. The whole is the result of the will of the participants and the tenacity of their leaders. That is a story timely in our nation and far sweeping in its inplications, perhaps particularly in a Bicentennial year. To recognize it broadly in New York, through Operation Sail, is to act on a most magnificent opportunity. .t
SAIL TRAINING, U.S.A. SAIL TRAINING, U.S.A. By Barclay H. Warburton, III, President American Sail Training Association Norn : This article and the following reports are excepted from The Day's Run, journal of the ASTA, Eisenwhower House, Fort Adams State Park, Newport, R.l. 02840. Membership: $10. -ED The Tall ships race during the Bicentennial summer will not only draw attention to a unique maritime heritage but poses the more immediate question as to what direction this tradition of the sea might take on our American shores. The training experience aboard great ships has long been an integral part of the heritage of European seafaring nations. Most of these ships are subsidized by the military, yet it is obvious that the sail training experience here must be funded by other sources. The task of raising public funds for such a program is an awesome one. It was 10 years before the London-based Sail Training Association was able to build Sir Winston Churchill, thus making a deep water sailing experience available to the spectrum of British society. Our fortunes are mixed. Sail training programs operate from both land-based educational institutions and coastal charter vessels, each their own private enterprise. Tabor Academy in Marion, Mass. has a flotilla ranging from 12-foot dinghies to the 92-foot Tabor Boy. Under Capt. George Glaeser the academy operates the oldest private sail training program with deep water vessels voyaging between Nova Scotia and the Virgin Islands. Operating costs are eased by such donations as Tabor Boy itself, old 12meter sails that have been recut, and the students who do much of the maintenance work. Two familiar skippers on the charter sail training scene are Bob Douglas, whose Shenandoah hails from Vineyard Haven, Mass., and Joe Davis, owner/ captain of the Newport-based Bill of Rights. Both run four week-long sail training programs each year, with the routine adult charters making up the rest of their 16 week New England charter season. It is the latter which usually balances any financial Joss. "I like to think that I break even (with the cadets)," says Capt. Douglas, "but I kind
of keep my eyes shut." Capt. Davis would operate training weeks for half his charter season but explains the project is not financially feasible. It is easy to see why. Built during the 1970's, the I 25' schooner Bill of Rights represents a half-million dollar investment. Six years ago a suit of sails cost $10,000. The replacement co~t today would be $40,000. l n addition, insurance for vessels such as Bill of Rights can easily run $25,000 per year. Then there is the cost of yard maintenance. For the near future , it seems our sail training programs will continue to be as multi-faceted as our historical backgrouncj. Yet there are common problems and it is the AST A which is providing much needed organization under which difficulties posed by Coast Guard regulations, insurance, funding , publicity, and recruitment of trainees are being resolved. Ship Preservation National Maritime Historical Society President Peter Stanford was the featured speaker at ASTA's 1975 annual meeting held December 11 at the Clarke Cook House in Newport. Mr. Stanford spoke on the need for ship preservation as an important part of of our historic maritime heritage. He stressed the point that a marine museum should be a living enterprise with activities such as ship reconstruction and maintenance taking place alongside the museum's typical function of displaying old artifacts. Mr. Stanford made special note of Newport's unique opportunity in this respect, suggesti ng a cooperative program for the future embracing naval and yachting history under the combined efforts of Seaport '76, the America's Cup Museum and ASTA, among other organizations. (See comment on this in "Letters."-Eo.) Local Chapters A Norfolk Virginia group promoting Operation Sail '76 in that city has expressed interest in starting a local chapter of AST A. With Robert Hillman of Baltimore making a similar request, it now appears that ASTA is becoming the truly national organization it was envisioned to be. Both chapters would promote a sail
training program leading towards shipping youngsters aboard sailing vessels. Baltimore already has one active program - The Baltimore Sea School which operates the schooner Freedom. Galleon's Lap, operated by the Sea Explorer's is based in Norfolk. Annual Conference ASTA's .third annua l Sail Training Conference last fall was well attended with representatives present from the major associations, schools and ships engaged in sail training programs. The first day of the two-day symposium was devoted to an examination of some of the problems which are common to operating sail training ships. Among these difficulties are various regulations which make it extremely difficult for any American ship to operate off shore and the extremely high cost of insurance covering overnight cruises. After a lengthy discussion it was agreed that the Association would look into the possibilities of group insurance and maybe a self-insurance club for all ships cooperating with ASTA. Representatives of various insurance companies read reports on the situation. Several members gave accounts of their activities during the past year. Cory Cramer of the Sail Education Association (SEA) gave a particularly interesting discourse on the oceanographic program which SEA runs aboard the schooner Westward in conjunction with Boston University. Capt. Donald Stewart of the schooner Freedom described the extensive program which the Baltimore Sea School operates for youngsters from the Maryland area. That evening a reception and dinner were held in honor of Cdr. Greville Howard, V.R.D., R.N.R., and Col. R.G.F. Scholfield of Britain, who were on hand to represent the Sail Training Association, organizers of the Tall Ships Race, and parent organization of ASTA. The general consensus of the conference was that the Sail Training Races this summer will do much to further the cause of sail training in the Americas and that all schools and associations should take the greatest advantage of this event. .t 0
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SAIL TRAINING U.S.A.
Beyond the Spectacle The Needs of Sail Training in the U.S. By Charles E. Gallagher President, The Oceanics
NOTE: The Oceanics has sailed Stadtsraad Lehmkuhl and other vessels in a unique educational program that includes experimental farms in Africa and Cuba. Inquiries may be sent to: The Oceanics, 365 West End A venue, New York City 10024. What can be done to make the sail training activities for l 976 become more than a spectacle? In itself, Operation Sail l 976 is a splendid undertaking to increase public interest in these ships, and in the traditions of the sea, and for the public to share directly in the experience of sail. lt is also an opportunity to forge some long-term benefit for the advance of sail training in this country. Three campaigns are needed. The first is an effort with the Coast Guard, and, if need be, with the Congress, to exempt sail training ships as "taking passengers for hire," rather than cadets, so that the ships will not have to meet the requirements for passenger vessels under the SOLAS '66 agreements, which prohibit wood of any type, for a start. The second is the formation of a study group to develop procedures and practices for reducing the cost of insurance. The third - probably the most important - is an effort with the Maritime Commission to permit trading between American ports in foreign-built vessels. The Oceanics works with chartered ships, usu ally taking a ship whose tonnage matches our fin al enrollment for any given term. We are unable to consider any American ships, because of these restrictions, which do not exist in any comparable way in other countries. But we have no reason not to sail from this country, and would prefer it, if reason would prevail. At this moment, two able schooners, the Dana and the Cook, both owned for training purposes by the Lundeberg School at Piney Point, Maryland,
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" it is cynical. . . to laud (our) mantzme heritage when almost every aspect of our laws and regulations works against the transfer of that heritage to new generations."
and which have been sailing safely and successfully for many years in the Atlantic, have been "grounded" by the Coast Guard, for reason number one, above. This has been ordered after the fact of their successful operation. Both ships are out of service and up for sale as a result. Would The Oceanics buy one? I think we would. Or would we? To sail skulkily out of Grand Bahama Island because we cannot board our American cadets in American ports? As for the insurance problem, we have pretty much dealt with it by requiring a sail trai ning contract and release, signed not only in the presence of the family, and later of the Master of the ship, but also in the presence of the fa mily lawyer (which still may not be a legally binding release but at least eliminates any argument that they didn't know what they were getting into). This release, pl us the long safety record of most of our ships, has resulted in fairly reasonable insurance costs - not bad for a ship. The insurance companies have not had a bad experience with sail training; they have simply had too little experience to establish an¡ actuarial record in which they have confidence. At the same time, they easily conjure up a spectre of extreme danger in their minds. A confidence-building program between sail training directors and good insurers might help. Again, it would be far better if done on a national basis, rather than through London which is so often the case. The third problem, that of trading between U.S. ports in foreign-built ships is not as much of a headache, but is still an artificial and unnecessary impediment to the growth of these programs. Let's say that we were exempt from problem one and could board 100 cadets and eight guests in New York. If we then sailed for several months to Bermuda, the West Indies and the Gulf, we could not legally dis-
charge any of the complement there and board others. Curiously, if we called at any port in South America, only a few miles further, we could legally do so. It is one of the nation's oldest, shortest (one-sentence), and most curious laws. The Chief Counsel for the Maritime Commission tells me that its very brevity is one of the chief reasons that the law is so hard to modify or repeal, for a short law is not a clear or concise law; the meaning is often obscure, and the original intent is also obscure. Well, there you have three areas with room for improvement which are a challenge to all of us to create something permanent and useful in addition to our worthy celebrations this year. The Oceanics would certainly support such efforts in every way possible. There is nothing whimsical about the need. I remember the years that Captain Douglas battled to have Shenandoah certified, and the long delay in the case of New York's Pioneer. I remember how we flew our cadets from Miani to Grand Bahama Island, thereby endangering Antarna by being short-handed, but satisfying the safety regulations! I am dismayed by the Dana and the Cook. I am shocked that the Coast Guard is not obliged to adhere to its own regulations in the case of the Eagle. I am disappointed that the promoters of the Delta Queen would twice obtain exemptions in the Congress for no one's benefit but their own. So . . . while we are far from discouraged, we do feel that it is cynical to loudly proclaim this anniversary of the country and to laud its maritime heritage when almost every aspect of our laws and regulations works against the transfer of that heritage to new generations. At least it will appear hypocritical to any observer, if the chance is ignored to make some progress while the subject is so strongly focused in the public eye. .i,
HISTORIC SHIPS IN THE U.S. People learn from the ships of our voyaging past, and now as the age of the deepwater sailing ship, which lasted about 3,000 years, slips over the horizon , they are coming to treasure and maintain the surviving ships. In New York, where most of our people came ashore, and where the world's sail training ships will parade in honor of a republic born of the sea on July 4, the South Street Seaport Museum , founded by lovers of old brick, old ships and young dreams, has brought into being a new center of sea cultureone by no means completed, and one might hope never exactly to be complete, but one that is contributing invaluable vitality and interest to a somewhat confused and troubled city today. South Street is only ten years old. But it had ships before it had anything, " real ships with a real story to tell," as the Friends of South Street insisted from the beginning - visiting ships at first, and then, reaching as far as it dared, ships of its own. Some report on the standing of those ships today is made in this section. There have been failures along the way. The Alexander Hamilton, last of the East Coast paddlewheelers, reaching back visibly to the fast steamers that shuttled people around harbor, river, and Long Island Sound waters since the Chancellor Livingston of over 150 years ago, slipped through the Museum's grasp, and is now the subject of what must be a last effort at preservation in Atlantic Highlands, New
Jersey. The small tug Mathilda sank at her moorings in South Street this spring, but the Trustees agreed to preserve her and she is now stored high and dry on a Port Authority pier. The loss of the Hamilton was due to budget; the Museum could not stretch to save her without sacrificing vital priorities. The loss of the Mathilda may point to a need for revised budget and management priorities in the work; she need not have sunk and it is good to know that the Museum stands by her. It seems right to give the work of this young museum a good look at the outset of our continuing review of historic ships in the United States, and we do this through articles excerpted by permission from the South Street Reporter, with an added note not from the Reporter, on New York harbor archaeology. We then turn to a report on the opportunity in San Francisco, a city built by ships from old South Street, but where the ideas developed by the San Francisco Maritime Museum served as a challenge and inspiration to the architects of South Street reborn; a kind of reverse Lend-Lease. We report also on a most important ship not yet in the United States, the British iron bark Elissa, now slated to join the historic waterfront restoration in the old port of Galveston, Texas. This ship ch anged rigs and careers many times in her long career, surviving because she changed, and because of her almost indestructible
Scottish-built hull. Prolonged and dedicated effort, in some cases sacrificial, has been necessary to preserve her, and the end of this story is not yet. But she will bring great reward to the city she is headed for when she gets there, as the new experience in New York, and more seasoned experience in San Francisco show. Philadelphia's magnificent fleet of historic ships under varied ownership and management has lately been brought together, at least on paper, in a unified urban renewal plan for Penn's Landing, the city's original Delaware River waterfront. Full report on that must be reserved for our next issue. So must the progress in Mystic Seaport in Connecticu<, th<! exemplar and in many ways godfather to all these seaport centers where history lives in real ships. There the most resolute and thoroughgoing restoration and maintenance program in America has been established; it is more than a joke and less than blasphemy to refer to the Second Coming of the Whaling Ship Charles W. Morgan, refioated in 1973 for the first time in 32 years, and rededicated a year ago in condition in all respects fit for sea.
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In our next issue, also, we publish Norman Brouwer's authoritative list of historic ships in this country, and will continue the Ship Notes that round out this section .
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Progress in New York NOTE: These wticles are abridged from the South Street Reporter, quarterly journal of South Street Seaport Mus eum, 16 Fulton Street, N ew York , N ew York 10038. Regular Membership: $10.-ED. The Ships of South Street That they are here at all is a miracle. They arrive here dumb and shorn, survivors past their time in a world where they've had to take up Rll kinds of jobs (sand barge like Wav ertree, schoolship like Peking-honorable trades both but not what they were born to), and here slowly they begin to grow back into their former states and tell us of the age they lived in and the work they were built to do. That rebirth is at the hands of men. Peking Restoration of the four-masted bark Peking - gift of South Street trustee Jack R. Aron - proceeds under the direction of Commander H. A. Paulsen, USCG (ret.). Hap Paulsen came to South Street first aboard the Coast Guard training bark Eagle, as executive officer, and later for several seasons as her skipper. (The writer sailed with him in that vessel, and was sent to the horse at the main yardarm - at the tip of the yard - as punishment for an infraction of an unwritten rule, that you do not beat the captain at poker.) Hap Paulsen is a big man, with an open face and deceptively innocent blue eyes. Eagle ran in his time without a ropeyarn out of place. On January 1, 1975, Hap proceeded to England, where, after thorough survey, Peking was made fit for sea. Thirteen new plates were riveted into the hull. "Riveting was done not only to match the original construction," Hap reports, "but also to teliminate the stiffness that welding would bring to the hull, with the associated problems of cracks forming in the welded area. "The shipyard had difficulty in finding sufficient trained men to install over 12,000 rivets," Hap contined. "But eventually five teams of five men were assembled. And the capable men found to do the riveting were a shot in the arm for all the middle-aged men of the world - every team member had more than four decades behind him!" Peking's Atlantic crossing, under tow of the Wijsmuller tug Utrecht, was a stormy one . Peking tacked across the ocean, leaving a track like a ship under sail. She arrived on July 22 to tie up at Pouch Terminal in Staten Island. On
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August 22, Turecamo Towing took the Peking to Brewers Dry Dock, where sandblasting of hull, yards, and some of the deck steelwork was accomplished. Topsides were painted. The added galley house in her forward well deck was removed. Electrical systems were made operational. The _original forey ard and fore lower topsail yard were crossed and jigger gaff put in place. By mid-October the work had grown beyond Paulsen's one-man effort, and Robert G. Herbert, a longtime South Street member, was added as assistant. Herbert hired a capable staff including Ed Squire and other ship volunteers, whose drive and hard work contributed to the ship's fine appearance on her arrival at Pier 16 on November 22. Along the way, Hap Paulsen and Ship Advisory Chairman Dick Rath organized a conference to review restoration guidelines, drawing on the talents of Mystic Seaport's Ship Director Jim Giblin, historian and architect George Campbell, and others across the country who were consulted by mail. By these cooperative endeavors, which included many gifts of time and talent, the work has proceeded in a manner to meet the standard set by Prince Philip of England, who in a cable conveying his greetings looked forward to "the day when Peking can be seen again in her original rig." Wavertree After a summer of trials with hot rivets and corroded plates, the replanking of the poop deck has begun. The first planks were laid on December 3. under the direction of Hilton Matthews, and although the deck work is behind its original schedule, the poop should be reopened to the public by early summer. Advice and counsel along with many riveting and iron working tools have been supplied by the Bath Iron Works of Bath, Me . It is with such help and support from persons of every calling that Wavertree will one day stand refitted and ready for sea. On November 20 the Museum received Wavertree's new official load line certificate from Robert Young, president of the American Bureau of Shipping. Admiral John M . Will , chairman of our Maritime Industry Commitâ&#x20AC;˘ tee and past chairman of the New York State Maritime Museum Board, presided at the ceremony. Bethlehem Steel Corporation donated something over 20 tons of shipbuilding steel, sufficient to build all seven metal
yards and the new bowsprit. Seventeen fir trees given by Crown Zellerbach for topmasts, top-gallants, and upper yards arrived in South Street shortly before Thanksgiving, thanks to Calmar ship S. S. Portmar, and to four Atlantic Creosoting trucks. The trees arc now seasoning overside in the East River tides. Meanwhile, worming parcelling and serving of standing rigging goes ahead, led by volunteer Axel Ekstrand, who may be found at this work most weekdays . The ten-man work crew has been provided by Wildcat Service Corp. Other Ships The schooner Pioneer of 1885 - "a beautiful necessity of life"- continues her progress as South Street's only ship actively sailed. We have as well a significant heritage in steam, in the ferry Major G eneral William H . Hart , which serves as home for the Pioneer Program, and which will ultimately be open to the public; in the small tug Mathilda of 1899 which after sinking at her moorings in April, has been raised and is kept in cold storage on a Port Authority Hudson River pier.; and in the steam lighter Aqua. We are resolved to find in the future a transitional 2,000-ton freighter of Wavetree's era, but in the meantime we are challenged to physically maintain the ships we have, and plan for their full historic restoration. The fishing schooner Lettie G. Howard was hauled for caulking and painting, th anks to the generosity of Wesley Rodstrom of Consolidated Boatworks at City Island. Small as she is she carries a priceless message to South Street, and in 1976 we aspire to begin her iull rebuilding and restoration, a job that will take a lot of time and money. In cooperation with the National Maritime Historical Society, we hope to see next year a full report and invitation to the nation to join in this work so that this last survivor of the first-generation Gloucestermen may sail in full rig again. The message of South Street Ships to ou city is unique and irreplaceable : Alan Villiers has written that their very design, the shape of their rigs against the sky, is a challenge to our age. All hands are in this endeavor to see yards crossed against the sky in South Street, as ships that are, in the most challenging words of all, "fit to go to sea." -Peter Stanford , former President South Street Museum
N.Y. State Maritime Museum Schermerhorn Row, a famous landmark of South Street in Lower Manhattan, has housed many illustrious enterprises - among them the famous E. K Collins line of New Orleans packets, the A. A Low and Brother's successful clipper ships in the China trade, and Josiah Macy & Sons' whaling fleet. Ship chandler J. P Schermerhorn built the row of handsome brick buildings in 1811-12. Its first century's tenants were the merchants and grocers of the burgeoning shipping trade. Its life has spanned the filling of Fulton Slip to become Fulton Street and all the fever of South Street's shipping days. Now the Row will house the State Maritime Museum, a central part of South Street Museum's plans since their beginning. The Maritime Museum's Historic Sites Restoration Coordinator Brian MacMahon is at work to ensure good transition in tenancies and effect emergency repairs. He'll continue as well the Historic Structures survey of the Row. Work on the Row facades - the meticulous cleaning and repairing of the 165-year-old brick - has begun th ¡s spring. The Maritime Museum shares South Street's devotion to preservation on both shores of the East River and is working toward acquisition of Empire Stores, that remarkable row of 19thcentury warehouses fronting on Brooklyn's East River shore between the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. The State's present financial constraints , however, make present prospects dim. But meanwhile we have been exploring the possibility of acquiring a newer structure - this warehouse only four decades old - in which we can gather library and museum materials for restoration and accession work while the Schermerhorn block renovation is underway. The Maritime Museum hopes also to own the Bicentennial Barge once work along the state's waterways carrying the State Bicentennial Commission exhibits is complete. The "lllarge would then carry the message of ,bqth South Street Seaport and the State Maritime Museum to people in waterfrpnt towns throughout the state. -Clifford Lord, Director, N.Y State Maritime Museum, and Terry Walton, Editor, the Reporter, South Street Museum
Harbor News Currently being scrapped in Coney Island Creek, Brooklyn, is the former Hudson River steamer and Long Island Sound ferry Catskill. She has been in the news frequently in recent years with several changes of ownership, a couple of trips to the bottom while lying at Rockaway, and various schemes for further use (the first as a floating restaurant and the last as an offshore burning barge). Catskill began life in 1923 as a steel-hulled freight boat, when there was still work for such vessels on the Hudson. Another old vessel , still working actively in New York Harbor as a steamcleaning plant, is the 72-year-old former city fireboat George B. McClellan,_ currently the B. Antonucci. She is based at Brewers Drydock in Staten Island. Her pilothouse has been removed, and most of her fireboat fittings are gone, but otherwise she remains largely as originally built. The former Hudson River sidewheeler Alexander Hamilton, once berthed at South Street, is being stably overseen in her new home in Atlantic Highlands, N.J. , according to a fine new newsletter written specifically for her. The Committee to Save the Alexander Hamilton-the newsletter's publisherworks hard to assist her new owner Railroad Pier Co. to preserve and display the grand old excursion vessel. $5 gets the newsletter and helps save the Hamilton. Write: The Steamer Alexander Hamilton Society, P. 0. Box 817, New York 10036. Schooner Pioneer The South Street Museum's iron Schooner Pioneer, built in 1885, was licensed by the Coast Guard to carry passengers in 1975. Necessary alterations included the increase in the height of bulkwarks with stanchions and wire handrails; construction of a scuttle and ladderway over the after cargo hatch; rerouting fuel lines and improving wiring and ventilation. Most of the work was done by students of the Pioneer Marine School. In July Pioneer sailed to Sandy Hook for two weeks of twice daily sailings with children of SeaVentures Day Camp. Pioneer spent September sailing her home waters-daysailing from Pier 16 and racing in the Mayor's Cup in which she placed second in Class A. In October we sailed east with Marine School students. We rotated Marine School classes at Wood's Hole and on the return trip put into Jamestown, R.I.,
to load the sandbagger Shadow, a gift to the Museum from J. Gordon Douglas of New York City. Getting Shadow aboard required taking advantage of Pioneer's shoal draft and warping her onto the beach at high water within reach of the yard's crane, and then kedging off again, promptly! Pioneer was out 17 days and upon returning Shadow was off-loaded into the shop-barges of Pioneer Marine School, where resto¡rntion will begin in the spring of 1976. Pioneer was next heading north, up the Hudson River, bound for Beacon, N.Y., to load pumpkins for the annual pumpkin sale. Ten tons of pumpkins were delivered to Pier 16 for a rainy but successful Veteran's Day sale. December found Pioneer at South Street laying up for another winter, sails unbent, running gear and blocks below. 1976 plans are for work on improvements to begin in February, beginning with construction of a proper galley. Walter Rybka, Master Schooner Pioneer South Street Museum
WINE AND DINE AFLOAT COCKTAIL LOUNGE Open Seven Days A Week For Lunch CATERED PARTIES TO 400 PEOPLE In luxurious "Master Ballroom" of vessel Robert Fulton. Superb food and liquor served in historic atmosphere with incredible view of New York City. Catering for Large & Small Groups, Meetings, Weddings, Promotions, Social Functions. Located in the South Street Seaport Museum-Pier 16, foot of Fulton St. And South St. RESERVATIONS 952-183 Office 944-4647
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Erie Canal Boats Canals, like great sailing ships, have long inspired men's imaginings and actions. George Washington was an early proponent of American canals, especially those that would bring commerce to his beloved Potomac River: "Extend the inland navigation of the eastern waters," he urged. "Communicate them as near as possible with those which run to the westward ... and we shall not only draw the produce of the western settlers, but the fur and peltry trades of the lakes also, to our ports ... while we bind these people to a chain which can never be broken." Of all the waterways built during the canal boom of the early 1800s, the Erie Canal, opened in 1825, was by far the most successful. In terms of annual tonnage carried the Canal's peak year was 1872. But within three years more freight was being carried by the parallel New York Central Railroad. All Canal tolls were abolished in 1883; in 1895 the depth was increased to nine feet; in 1903 New York voters approved the first of several bond issues permitting construction of the New York State Barge Canal. The main line of the new canal opened in 1918, with locks measuring 310 feet by 45 feet and with a minimum depth of 12 feet, far surpassing the Erie Canal's 90- by 14-foot locks and lesser depth. The day of the canal boat, towed at a leisurely pace by horses or mules, had passed. Now came much larger canal barges moved by powerful towboats. The last of the old canal boats kept at their work until repairs become too costly, and then they were abandoned. Some were burned for salvage of their metal fastenings. A few were sunk as breakwaters at small Hudson River harbors. Others were left to rot in unfrequented backwaters. One of these, the still graceful half-century-old Gertrude L. Dailey, can still be seen at Tottenville, Staten Island. The Dailey was built as the Helen F Riley in 1923 at Whitehall, New York, on the Champlain Canal connecting Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. Originally owned by Michael Waters of Whitehall, she was sold in 1929 to Stewart J. Dailey of New York and renamed. Today she lies embedded in a silted-up slip not far from the end of the line on the Staten Island Rapid Transit System. Her decks and interior have been largely destroyed by time and
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Gertrude L. Dailey at Totten ville, Stalen lsla11d. (Norman Brouwer).
at least one fire, but many unique features of her construction may still be examined. The roof of her forward cabin has collapsed, but remains in one piece and still shows its opening for a sliding companionway hatch. Her rounded bow is protected by the characteristic canal boat rub rails, and is strengthened inside by horizontal straps built up of multiple layers of one-inch plank bent to the curve of the hull. During World War I a number of canal boats were built of reinforced concrete in a boatbuilding system experimented with as early as the 1840s and recently revived as "ferro-cement." Concrete was particularly suitable for building canal boats, for they were not subjected to the hogging and sagging stresses of the open sea. Since they were almost indestructible, the boats were often sunk as forms for piers or breakwaters when their working years were over. One concrete canal boat still serves as a breakwater in the Hudson River off Nyack, New York. Another lies permanently aground against the Hudson shore at North Bergen, New Jersey, across from Manhattan's Riverside
Drive. She can be clearly identified as the U.S. 114, built in Ithaca in 1918, and was owned by the New York Canal and Great Lakes Corporation. She lacks both forward and aft cabins, both her decks and the beams spanning her main hatch are reinforced concrete, and these survive. In recent years, as if in recognition of the grace and strength one found in the old canal boats, several replicas have been built to take people on excursions along restored sections of old waterways in Maryland, Ohio, and New York. Thus far, no one has undertaken the real task-the restoration of one of the handsome old canal boats that yet lie abandoned in our harbors, or perhaps just below the surface of one of the lakes or basins alor:g the old canal routes. Norman Brouwer, Ship Historian South Street Museum
The Treasure of New York Harbor The hidden treasure of Captain Kidd, centuries-old sunken ships' cargos, the payroll in silver for British troops fighting in the Revolutionary War-there may be many kings' ransoms on the bottom. But the real treasure is the history buried in the estimated 2,200 wrecks in New York Harbor. Marine archeologist Peter Throckmorton, Curator-at-Large of the National Maritime Historical Society, has recently conducted a preliminary underwater survey of Liberty Harbor, between the Statue of Liberty and the stretch of the New Jersey shore that is being transformed into Liberty State Park. Before the park can be constructed, wrecks in the vicinity must be cleared by the Army Corps of Engineers. In order to determine which ships may be historically significant, the Corps provided the South Street Seaport Museum with a grant to conduct an inventory of the vessels in the area that is to be cleared. The initial survey covered the wreck of the N ewton, a 1918 Governmentbuilt steamer. But the most important discovery to date is two pre-Civil War lighters of a type previously unrecorded. Popularly known as melon scows-
or watermelon scows-they transshipped cargo brought into the harbor to various docks around the port. These two wrecks have been in their present location, sunk, but drying out at low tide, since before the First World War. When Throckmorton and his associates, South Street's ship restoration historian Norman Brouwer and Simeon Hook of the Army Corps of Engineers, first inspected the site they noticed that the ships were smaller, double ended, and narrower in relative beam than an ordinary barge. Most interesting of all is the recovery of the cabin of one of the barges, with parts of its original wainscoting intact, many deadeyes, pumps, part of a mast and other items which will make a fine museum exhibit showing a little of the life of the anonymous families that lived on these barges when New York was a great sailing ship port. Throckmorton commented on the value of trying to recover ships some people may regard as junk: "Our society was built by these ships. American sailing ships have been reduced to the state of the dodo, but can we afford to let them be scrapped or burned? Then what happens to history?"
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Two Famous Landmarks of New York Harbor A contmuously expanding Moran fleet has kept pace with the soarinQ skyline oJ New York for more than a century. By providing the power, experience, and versatility to elhc1ently cmd economically meet the full rcmge of the porfs tranS5X1rlalion needs, Moran hos helped make the Port of New York a leader in world commerce.
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All contributions are tax-deductible. SOUTH STREET MUSEUM 16 RJLTON STREET NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10038
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23
The Beefeater Guide to the ~The Tall Ships are coming..." These magnificent sailing ships come from the world's four corners to pay tribute to the Bicentennial of the American Republic, a nation born of the sea. They come here in the greatest sailing ship race ever held, ships from England, France, Russia, Poland, Italy, Norway ... in all, some 6,000 sail training cadets from 30 nations will come to the United States aboard these ships.
Their race across the Atlantic is organized by the Sail Training Association in England, and the American Sail Training Association in Newport, R. I. Following the race, which ends in Newport, the ships will visit New York and other ports. More than 200 sailing vessels are taking part, including England's Sir Winston Churchill, which carries an all-female crew. Host ship is the U.S. Coast Guard training ship Eagle. The ships in this great oceanic exercise are listed below by nation, name of sh ip , rig and length in feet .
...and here thcvare! ....
ARGENTINA. Libertad 345' BAHAMAS
..&Jb.
BELGIUM
~
ENGLAND
L
William Albury 70'
41
Zenobe Gramme 92.3'
Carillio r. -
Charm Ill 52'
Eye of the vi. .. .I 125'
~
Gipsy Moth V 60'
CANADA~ Barba Negra 110' 4Ji Bluenose II 161' ~ Harelda 56' 4! Pathfinder 71' .Ji P/ayfair 12'
4!
FRANCE
4JfJ.
Jade Dragon 81'
St Lawrence II 73'
CAYMAN-ISLAND~
4JI
Gefion 120'
CHILE~ Esmeralda 353' COLOMBIA~ Gloria 243' DENMARK
J:l
Great Britain II 85'
Charis 1 3 ' . Danmark 253'
...L
Sebbe Als 55
~
41
Erg 110'
Kuk r i 58'
Master B i/der 1 2 ' . Outlaw 50'
~
Sir Winston Churchill 153'
.db. Bel Espoir II 1 2 5 ' .
~
Sabre 51'
Valeda 78' Glenan 41'
RaraAvis 100'
W. GERMANY
~
ooe 42'
Car'
4'
~ ~ ~
BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
~
4JAJ
Carola 83'
Germania VI 80.'
L L
Stoertebeker 53'
£,
Walross 11156'
Meteor 52'
IRELAND
~
~
L,
Jj_
Gorch Fock 295'
Mitra/is 46'
~
~
Nis-Puk 69'
Tina IV 78'
L, 'White Dolphin 11133'
Creidne 54'
4i
Phoenix 102'
ITALY.- Amerigo Vespucci 333'
JAPAN~
Delphin 60'
~
Stella Po/are 72'
Nippon Maru 320'
MEXICO~ Sayula 1168' NETHERLANDS~ Artemis 150' 11Jb. Eendracht 118' ~ Henri 14' ~ Jacomina 84 ' ~ Norseman 61' ~ Urania 19' NEW ZEAL.A NORWAY ·
,,,
PANAMA~ Erawan
.~adich
150'
41
~ Dar Pomorza 291' Hetman 54' ~ Kaper
POLAND
A
J1
Ful I-rigged Ship
Bark
4-masted Bark
Barkentine
Brig
Konstanty Maciejewicz 43'
Brigantine
241' Te Vega 160'
L J:u
Dar Szczecina 62'
Leonid Teliga 68'
Topsail Schooner
Schooner
Tull Ships of Operation Sail 1976 ~ ~
~
Polonez 50'
~
~
Wojewoda Koszalinski 56'
Zawisza Czarny 131'
Zew Morza 105'
PORTUGAL~ Sagres 266' ROMANIA~ Mircea 210'
SWEDEN
41
Tenerife 38'
These ships are not merely for show. They sail to provide training in the disciplines and loyalties of deep water navigation under sail. These things were important in the founding of America .
Gladan 133'
SWITZERLAND U.S.S.R.
From the far corners of the world, tall-masted sail training ships are gathering in the United States to celebrate our nation's two-hundredth birthday .
Vega 68'
SPAIN~ Juan Sebastian de Elcano 310' ~ 4JjJ
Erika 79'
~ Kruzenshtern 378' ~
UNITED ST ATES
'1ll
Active 48'
~
America 105'
~
Bill of Rights 141'
,fj
Brilliant 75'
4Jl
Beefeater Salutes thelall Ships
Polski Len 48'
~
L
41
Chief Aptakisic 79'
Alert 48'
~
Barbara 78'
Black Pearl 10'
Caper 61'
4/J
Challenger 161'
~ Clearwater 106' ~ Dandy 48' ~
~
Cotton Blossom IV 12'
4JiJ
Ebbie 12'
Eagle295'
~ Elissa 150' 4Jl Enchantress 100' -4.t Explorer 186' ~ Fearless 48' ~ Flirt 48' ~ Fly 50' ~ Freedom 98' ~ Galleons Lap 39' ~Gaze/a Primeiro 187'
4JI 41A
~
'1ll
Astral 103'
Sail training today fosters international understanding and cooperation, in ways particularly appropriate on the Bicentennial of the United States, a nation of nations, sett led by people from many lands.
Tovarishch 270'
Effie Morrissey 94'
Ji
Harvey Gamage 110'
4
Hudson Belle 42'
Hope 56'
Jolly Roger 56'
~ Magic Venture 51' ~ Maruffal3' ~ Marv E 12' ~ Mon Lei 50' ~ Omah," 45' ~ Pioneer 102' ,Jl Providence 110'
41&
~
Prince Philip of England has saluted Operation Sail as "a wonderful demonstration of that brotherhood among seamen which has existed ever since men have challenged the oceans". We salute that sentiment and the hardy voyagers taking part in Operation Sail, and the Great , Republic whose founding they honor .
Lena Rose 10'
Rachel & Ebenezer 102'
4M Regina Maris 150' ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Emil J. Mosbacher, Jr., Chairman of Operation Sail: "I hope that this acknowledgment of our maritime past, which we will w itness on July 4, 1976, will help us remember where we were in 1776, who we are today, and what we can dream of to become in 2076 as another centennial is celebrated by the generations of Americans who will follow."
4,t
Rattlesnake 12'
Restless 48' . . Rose 170'
~ Saracen 14' ~ Santa Maria 92' Selina II 42' ~ Shenandoah 152' Skookum Ill 82 ' ~ Spirit of America 62' Roseway 135'
Spirit of '16 62'
.4JtJ St. Margaret II 93'
~ The Empress 56' Tiki 105' ~ Transition 48' 129' ~ Voyager 66' ~ White Whale 33'
Tappen Zee 50'
Ticonderoga Bl'
4Ji
4j
Unicorn
~
Western Union 130'
4JAJ
Yellow Jacket 60'
4JI &! Ketch
Yawl
4flj
Westward 124'
â&#x20AC;˘
Cutter
~ '
Sloop
Beefeater, the Gin of England. Dis ti Iled and bottled
'1
Gaff Rig Sloop
in London, England, by James Burrough Limited, since 1820. Imported from England by Kobrand Corp. New York, N.Y. 94 proof. Distilled from 100% grain neutral spirits.
SAN FRANCISCO WATERFRONT, looking north on San Francisco Bay: directly above, Fort Mason , part of Golden Gate National R ecreation Area; far right, Fish erman's Wharf. In one of those huge sheds abo ve is where Kaiulani should go, overlooking Golden Gate to west, and beyond that the world ocean she sailed in.
By KARL KORTUM Director, San Francisco Maritime Museum NOTE: Museums do not exist in a vacuum, and in this article from the leading savior of old ships in our time, one can see how the imagination and learning of a great museum has reached out to shape and indeed redeem a whole vital section of a city-to its great reward, and, as the article makes clear, ultimate challenge.-Eo.
The San Francisco Maritime Museum has worked for a full quarter-century to shape an urban waterfront park of particular character. The now irreplaceable ships of the Maritime State Historic Park were-all but the most recent, the fine old tug Hercules-of our selection. The Museum organized the refitting of the steam schooner Wapama and the three-masted lumber schooner C. A. Thayer in the Pacific Northwest and found the crews
26
To right is hooky arm of A qua tic Park, created as WPA project, not much used until San Francisco Maritime Museum , in the persons of Karl Kortum , his wife Jean, and aide David Nelson moved in, since when things have not been the same. Wat erfront railroad, used by Fort Mason people dail y, runs along shore; under Museum plan it will carry a trolley tieing whole waterfront together.
San Francisco Maritim e Museum, world ren owned center of sea learning, is in elongated oval building abo ve . First displays were welded up by Museum Ship Committee Chairman Scott Newhall, whose brother sailed with Harry Dring and Kortum in Kaiulani in 1941 -2 . Ghirardelli Square, chocolate factory transform ed to shopping complex, is across street to right.
to bring them down. We held the walking-beam ferryboat Eureka for a year until the State was ready to receive it. We organized the saving of the scow schooner Alma when she was about to be covered with fill at Alviso. The Museum proposed the use of the Hyde Street pier for these vessels, and that the Tubbs Cordage Co. office be saved and moved there. We urged that the Haslett Warehouse be purchased by the State for museum use, that the empty field in front of that building be turned into a Victorian park, and that the Hyde Street cable car line be extended into that park and an appropriate waiting room be constructed. The gaslight fixtures, the tree grills, the bollards, the newel posts, the benches and the other cast iron fittings that give the park its character were selected by the San Francisco Maritime Museum. With considerable encouragement from us, and in some cases guidance, the rest of the area has blossomed. We
played a significant part in the founding of Ghirardelli Square and out of that grew The Cannery. Fromm & Sichel took their architectural theme from the buildings that have been saved in establishing the latest attraction, the Wine Museum. All of these are exercises in taste and character. We arranged to have the State hire Mr. Harry Dring, our manager on the Balclutha, when it became apparent in the late 1950s that the State vessels needed a manager of his tenacity, abilities and knowledge of ships. Now we would like to see this potentially great urban park go on to fulfillment. A key point in this is the Haslett Warehouse, opposite the Victorian Park and strategically located where people debouch from the Hyde Street cable car to go east to the Museum's Cape Horn ship Balc/utha, the State ships at the Hyde Street pier, and the Museum building to the west.
immediately above, great hulk of Haslett Warehouse, on H yde Street across from Victorian Park and cable car turnaround; at foot of street, historic State-owned ships managed by Harry Dring, a11d to right, Fisherman's Wharf . Balclutha is out of picture to right. Museum of Westem voyaging and technology is proposed for Haslett.
...
,
Top: Si11ce July 1955 when th e restored ship was opened to th e public, the Cape H orn er Balclutha has attracted hea vy visitation, and supported the Museum on her i11com e.
Haslett Warehouse fo rms impressive backdrop to em ergi11g Victorian Park, in 1962. H yde St. pier is imm ediately to left; waiting room is being built for cable car that turns around here. Karl Kortum , standing, his fri e11d and m entor Capt. Fred Klebi11gat seated. Bench is copied fr om one found on estate of western railroad builder Crock ett.
We have an exact plan for the use of the Haslett that will finally turn that important building into the use for which it was purchased-a museum. The people of California have owned the building for fourteen years and have never been invited inside. We have specific plans for the noman's-land that exists between Jefferson Street (the Haslett) and where the ships begin out on the H yde Street pier. This pierhead is so characterless now that those splendid ships-further out-get only a quarter or a third of the visitation they should. The Museum ship Balclutha takes in more money than all of them lumped together. This is the most admired urban waterfront area in the nation. The State Park should be brought up to its full potential. What it needs is action shaped by knowledge, taste and imagination. If this trinity is swung in behind authenticity the area could gross the same kind of money as Mystic Seaport or
27
HISTORIC SCRIMSHAW Authenticated by Peabody Museum
of Solem where original 125-yr.old tooth is displayed, this unusua l 6%" ye ll owed and colorti nted reproduction depicts Liberty one side and 1814 sea battle other side, $22.~0 ppd. Send 25¢ for catalog on other
~~~ scrimshaw an,i:i nautical replicas. ARTEK, DEPT. 553, ANTRIM, N.H. 03440
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Sturbridge Villiage-a million dollars a year each. That is, if the State wants to charge admission. I would favor charging admission to retire the capital to fix the place up and let tourist dollars thereby provide a remarkable urban park for locals. Particularly kids. Who would not have to pay. The Haslett Warehouse stands in literally a sea of people with money in their pockets and a desire to be entertained and uplifted. It is on the third most populous street corner in Western America, following only Disneyland and Jefferson and Taylor, two blocks away. To use this building as an office building is wasteful. It should be turned into a museum. Our plan is for a museum to exhibit the Vicar of Bray, last surviving ship of the California Gold Rush (whose story is told elsewhere in this issue), and to present the voyaging experience that opened our West Coast. The importance of the Age of Steamfor which we have unique large-scale exhibits never seen by the publicshould also be here celebrated. And the fishing trade should be developed in a gallery overlooking Fisherman's Wharf, which adjoins the building. Some folks are impressed by the cheap trendy offices that a developer somehow installed in the building. We are not impressed. Museums have more attendance in this country than all professional sports events combined. It is just that this huge constituency isn't vocal. There are millions on millions of people whose idea of recreation is to spend a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday morning in a stimulating museum. Everybody isn't a frisbie thrower. We must also face up to our responsibility for the State ships. The most frequent drydockings that Harry Dring has been able to get money for, come at almost three-year intervals. But these wooden vessels have to be drydocked at eighteen month intervals or the integument of copper paint on their bottoms wears thin and the ship worms attack the planking. With the removal of sewage from the bay, the ship worms (teredo navalis and limnorial) have become virulent. They are able to go through a Douglas fir plank inches thick in a matter of months. If the State intends to keep the vessels, they are going to have to put far more money into drydockings than has been done. Moreover, the worm attack can be
described as only a skin disease compared to the diseases of the bone that these vessels will inevitably be subject to. The frigate Constitution (Old Ironsides) was rebuilt in 1927 with only 15 per cent of the original timber left in her. So she was 85 per cent a new ship -and built of oak , not Douglas fir like the vessels here. Moreover, she was copper-fastened as these ships are, and also copper-sheated against the worms. The Navy could afford to go first class. For all that she was practically a new ship in 1927, she has had to be rebuilt during the last three years at a cost of over four million dollars. The combined tonnage of the wooden vessels at Hyde Street pier is twice that of Old Ironsides. Their "bones" are not of oak and they are not products of the year 1927, but 1890, 1891, 1895, and 1915. Large structural rebuilding (apart from the worm problem) is going to inevitably be necessary and it is going to be very costly because the able and fast-working ship's carpenter who is at ease with these huge ribs, fourteen inches square and planks six inches thick and almost two feet wide, is becoming a thing of the past. The future of the wooden ships is of deep concern to me, because a good many years of my life went into getting the legislation through that authorized their preservation, into the negotiations with their owners for purchase, and into organizing the staff that got them to Hyde Street. In the 1950's they were perilously close to extinction-the Wapama was the very last of 225 wooden steam schooners, the Thayer was the last survivor but one of the coastal lumber schooners. The Eureka was the last ferryboat with the classic walking-beam engine, the Alma was the last scow schooner of an estimated fle et of 400 that once plied the bay. These, then , are our most basic concerns, which we must answer in this decade: to make the Haslett Warehouse a museum, a lynch-pin for the whole historic and commercial neighborhood ; and to care in a fundamental way for our irreplaceable, authentic heritage in ships. While we do these two most fundamental things, we pursue other projects that must be accomplished, notably the return of the Vicar of Bray, and her installation as centerpiece of the grand scheme for the Haslett, and focal point for the whole neighborhood.
The
Queen Elizabeth 2 1975 World Cruise
was a triumph worth repeating~
She leaves again January 15,197i For our handsome brochure: See your travel agent or write Cunard, Dept. SW, 555 Fifth Ave., N.Y., N.Y. 10017. Great Ships of British Registry since 1840.
ALLATllA Top: Rebuilding of C. A. Thayer's stern shows sculpture of new timber going into an old design. Artisans for such work must be bred and nurtured each generation if such ships are to live. Above: New bottom is welded in chain locker in Balclutha in 1960 overhaul. Wasted fioors in foreground were also replaced. Rebuilding of such steel ships is relatively cheap and draws on modern shipyard skills. Below: Title deeds to Vicar of Bray are presented to National Society by A Ian Burrough, CBE, distiller of Beefeater Gin (at left), while San Francisco Mayor George Moscone presides and Peter Stanford stands by to accept for the Society.
WORKSHOP WEEKEND
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29
Galveston Takes On The ELISL()A
In th e late 1960s, Karl Kortum from his eyrie in the San Francisco Maritime Museum spotted a small motorship in the Aegean. Investigation proved that after a life of many vicissitudes, she had been born as a sailing ohip in 1877. "It is plain," he said, "that we have found in the Christophoros (exGustav, ex-Fjeld, ex-Elissa) one of the very special objects on th e face of the earth-a small, almost tiny iron bark on aristocratic lines." The marine archeologist Peter Throckmorton , then living in Piraeus, in a house largely furnished from old ships broken up in that port , also spotted the vessel for what she incredibly was, and reported her importance to the National Society . R esolved that she should not join the old hulls streaming into the knackers' yards, in early 1971 he mortgaged his house to buy her, and hold her for ultimate restoration . Some initial attempts to bring her in missed fire . . . and here, this report from Galveston takes over.-Eo. NOTE:
A logical extension of Galveston's heritage with the sea and ships is the inclusion of the restoration of a 19th century sailing ship in the plans of the Galveston Historical Foundation. In January of 1974 a special committee began studying the possibility of acquiring and exhibiting such a ship as both a complement and a contrast to the commercial buildings of the Strand and the old homes, which together commemorate the is~and 's past. Severll.l sailing ships in fair and good condition were given serious consideration by the Foundation, including the Peking in Upnor, England, the Andalucia in Punta Arenas, Chile, and the Champigny in Montevideo, Uruguay. All of these vessels were in excess of three hundred feet on deck. Costs of restoration were estimated as being between one and three million dollars. Blom and Voss of Hamburg, Germany,
30
By Michael Creamer Galveston Historical Foundation, Inc.
the builders of the Moshulu and the Peking, projected the cost of masting and rigging alone on these vessels to exceed $750,000. This did not include painting, woodwork, decks, sails, mechanical gear, and replacement of waterline plates at a minimum cost of $250,000. Towing charges to Galveston would have run over $100,000 for the Peking and $150,000 for either of the two ships in South America. Beyond these astronomical reconstruction costs, the excessive size of these vessels precluded any possibility of sailing. In addition, none of these ships had historic ties to Galveston and Texas. The possibility of finding an appropriate ship seemed remote. The restoration costs of large vessels were obviously prohibitive. The smaller square riggers had virtually disappeared around the turn of the century, as a result of the competition from steamers and larger vessels. And, the committee was unable to locate any existing square rigger that had called at a Texas port. From the San Francisco Maritime Museum the Foundation learned of the existence of a small iron bark of 400 tons, built in Scotland in the l 870's. A representative of the San Francisco Maritime Museum had visited the ship (at the time bearing the name Christophoros) in Piraeus, Greece, where she lay in anchor. He reported, "This vessel definitely is the original Elissa. The name plate of the builder is still on the stump of the mast in the master,'s cabin and is as follows: A. Hall & Co., Aberdeen, 1877." Karl Kortum, Director of the San Francisco Maritime Museum noted: "Alexander Hall & Sons, who launched her at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1877 had , twenty-seven years before, built the first British clipper ship. This was the celebrated Stornoway, and when this vessel took to the water in 1850, she was the I 75th vessel built by the firm . Alexander
Hall & Sons continued to build tea clippers and wool clippers and were among the most distinguished of British shipyards. In 1877 they launched the modest little merchant bark Elissa and it is plain from her photographs (obtained from various maritime museums in Scandinavia-she was under the Norwegian flag from 1897 to 1911, under the Swedish flag until 1930, and under the Finnish flag until 1959) that the genius of the firm rubbed off on her." The Elissa is a proud vessel from the age of sail, having worked her way to more than one hundred ports all over the world from Rangoon to Brisbane and Glasgow to Boston. On the 26th of December in 1883, the Elissa arrived in Galveston from Tampico with a load of bananas. On January 25th of the following year, the Elissa left Galveston for Liverpool with a load of cotton destined for English spinning mills. She called again in Galveston on September 8, 1886, from Paysandu and sailed on September 26th for Pensacola. All of her life Elissa has been a workhorse. She carried coal, sugar, ¡rice, hardware, lumber, bananas, and cotton under six different names, flying five different flags . Most important to her survival and preserved condition has been her continuous service from December 19, 1877, when she made her maiden voyage from Cardiff to Pernambuco with a load of coal, until 1970, when Greek cigarette smugglers had a fallingout with their crew and left her at anchor on August 3rd. The Elissa is beyond question important to the maritime history of Galveston, Texas, and the Southwest; our last surviving link with the age of sail! The initial information received on the Elissa on March of 1974 disclosed that the ninety-eight-year-old square rigger had been down-rigged to a motor ship. Her masts and spars were gone. She needed some plates replaced and
Elissa in her salad days, under the Norwegian ffog . San Francisco Maritime Museum
Companionway to the saloon, which is largely intact. Peter Throckmorton
Hauled out in Greece for survey. Peter Throckmorton
31
Barque
ELISSA 1970 As converted to motor ship
inboard profile
------------------"",
------- -· ·;:
proposed positio n of engine after refit
0
I
2
3
C
5
6
7
8
9
IQ
II
12
meter s ..._...............................................
Barque
ELISSA Surviving parts of ship as built by Alexander Hall 1877
LWL
vapproximate run of plating
meterspi.....,..'-'..,.•-....,•-7=-••.,,,,,.•o-"..,,"
her engine repaired, but she lay safely at anchor in Piraeus on a sound hull. Records of the Galveston Wharves revealed that she had called at Galveston in 1883 and 1886. The Elissa thus appeared to satisfy the Historical Foundation requirements. Her size and condition would greatly reduce the costs of restoration and she was beyond question historically tied to Galveston and Texas. In October of 1975, the Foundation purchased Elissa for $40,000. An additional $100,000 must be raised to sail Elissa to Galveston. The voyage is planned for the fall of 1976. Enthusiasm for the undertaking continues to increase. Over $150,000 in cash, services, and materials has already been donated, including: 150 tons of steel from
32
Armco Steel of Houston; paint from the International Paint Co.; rope from the Wall Rope Works; 21 trees for masts and yards, from Temple Industries; a marine diesel and generators, from Stewart and Stevenson; fuel from the Exxon Corp. ; and communication and navigational equipment from Western Geo-physical Co. The Lykes Bros. Steamship Co. has agreed to transport all the materials and equipment to Greece free of charge. When Elissa arrives in Galveston, she will be berthed at Pelican Island's Seawolf Park. The Park Board of Truste:;>s has agreed to assist the project by spending $50,000 for the construction of an appropriate berth, including dredging, bulkheads, and a new pier.
The Elissa will be a significant tourist attraction. When restoration is complete, she will be the oldest operational sailing ship in the world, the only authentic restoration of her kind between Baltimore and San Diego. The income from public admissions and her onboard maritime history exhibits should be substantial. Nineteenth century square-rigged sailing ships are proven attractions. Elissa has a bright future at Seawolf Park, where 96,000 visitors toured the Submarine Cavalla last year. Income from public tours of Elissa can retire the indebtedness incurred in her purchase and restoration, and eventually become a source of considerable revenue for other historic restoration projects. 4
Savi11g the American Schooner by David Durrell
â&#x20AC;˘
The movement to save the pitifully few surviving schooners of our sailing heritage continues to gain support, although it remains forever short of funds in the struggle against neglect and time. Ironically, as more interest is aroused in marine preservation, less time is left and costs are skyrocketing. The once-beautiful Cora Cressey - for years used as a lobster pound - now rests on the bottom of Muskegan Bay, stripped of anything valuable and her sides caving in. Nothing has come of the projected stabilizing of the Hesper and the Luther B. Little in Wiscasset, and the tides flow through the little fisherman Nina Corkum in City Island, New York. It is too late for the Alice S. Wentworth, Captain Zebulon Tilton's beautiful and historic New England coaster that sank in Boston Harbor in 1975. (Her remains are now on display, however, in the Society's Brooklyn headquarters, and Mystic Seaport is considering construction of a first-class replica of Captain Zeb's ship. Alvin Clark In November, 1967, while helping a fishing boat free her nets from a sunken obstruction, diver Frank Hoffman found the snag to be a 19th Century Great Lakes freight schooner. She sat upright in remarkably sound condition on the bottom of Lake Michigan beneath 140 feet of water. Hoffman recognized immediately the importance of his discovery. He enlisted the aid of the Marinette Marine Corporation, thereby gaining the use of valuable salvage equipment, and began preparations to raise her. Two years of work emptied the ship of sixty tons of silt and artifacts, including clues that established her identity as the Alvin Clark, built at Trenton, Michigan, in 1846. A plain, purely functional center boarder of 106 feet, she was blown over and sunk in a particularly severe storm in June, 1864. The actual raising began in April 1969. The wreck was lifted a fraction of an inch at a time until she was within 40 feet of the surface. She was then moved to the Menominee River where cranes finished the job on July 27, 1969. Open to the public today, the Alvin Clark sits aground on the bottom of a lagoon especially created for her. However, her battle for survival is far from over. She has not been a financial sue-
Schooners Hesper and Luther Little at Wiscasset, Me.
The fisherman Nina Corkum at City Island, N.Y.
Topsail Schooner Alvin Clark at Menominee, Mich. Saving this Lakes trader of 1846 must rank high on any list of historic ship priorities. Courtesy Norman Brouwer
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cess in her new career as a museum ship, and plans for Menominee or Trenton to take her over have not materialized. Her stern has developed a severe hog, and her hull is beginning to pull apart at the break of the poop. Her knees have cracked, as have her stern rabbit and her keelson. A treatment must be developed to protect the whole ship from drying and rot. (Dry rot has developed in her ceiling and deck planks.) Atlantic In 1905, the schooner yacht Atlantic designed by William Gardner met water for the first time in New York. One hundred eighty five feet long, she was far ahead of her time and remarkably fast. Her 1905 transatlantic record of 12 days 4 hours and 1 minute stands unbeaten by a ship under sail. The Atlantic's long career included a stint in the Navy (World War I) and the Coast Guard (as a training ship in World War II). Between the wars she filled out the years as a millionaire's plaything, including Cornelius Vanderbilt among her owners. In the post-war forties the yacht sat waiting vainly for a buyer and finally headed for a scrapyard. Her lead shoe and some brasswork had already been removed when Ward Bright saved her at the last moment from the wrecker's torches. She was moved to Bright's New Jersey marina, where a huge hole cut in her port side to accommodate a gift shop seriously weakened her frame. She sank in 1963 and rested on the bottom for the next six years. Mr. A. Urbellis purchased the Atlantic from the Bright estate for $7,000, and in 1970 she was again afloat. However, ice and a hard winter sent her back down in 1971. She was refloated through herculean efforts in
December 1972, by her newest owner, Ken Wallace. Repairs were effected, and she moved under tow to Norfolk, Virginia, for final restoration. But the ill-fated vessel again went down at her moorings in Norfolk in September 1975. Purchased by Phil R. Beach and his Ocean Sailing Society at a sheriff's sale in December 1975, she needs $40,000 to raise and haul her and begin preliminary repairs. Her hull weakened by the hole cut in her port side and her plates desperately thin, the old yacht is embarked on her last chance for preservation. Ernestina (ex-Effie M. Morrissey) On February 1, 1894, the beautifully proportioned Effie M. Morrissey smoked the ways in Essex, Massachusetts. Ninety seven feet long, her sturdy hull plied the fishing grounds until 1926, when she was sold to Captain William Bartlet. Under his command she completed 21 polar exploration voyages, gaining for herself an important niche in history. Sold to Portugese fishing interests, she served again for many years on the Grand Banks and as a packet ship between Portugal and New England. Now bearing the name Ernestina, the proud old schooner earned her keep until recently as a passenger and freight vessel (still under sail) in the Cape Verde Islands. At the request of travel expert Harry Dugan's Save the Morrissey Foundation, Cyrus Hamlin of the Ocean Research Institute has recently surveyed the Ernestina. Hamlin found her salvageable, but questioned the advisability of the project. His report states that dry rot is confined mostly to the ends of her deck beams, lodging knees, and miscellaneous spots in the hold area, thus presenting no major problems.
Elizabeth Bandi, loaded with lumber, 50-odd years ago.
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The sternport is wormy, causing leakage, as on the rudder and rudder post. The deck, although sound, is badly worn and would need replacing. The hull is badly hogged and the stern is severely drooped. The hogging and drooping dismayed Hamlin, who wondered if the ship warrants the funds that would be needed for corrective repair. (See report this issue, -Eo. Seute Deem Seute Deem (ex-Pieter A. Koertz, ex-Seute Deem, ex-Elizabeth Bandi) Perhaps the soundest of the four hulls discussed here is the Seute Deern of Bremerhaven. Originally a 248-foot, four-masted schooner, she was built in Gulfport, Mississippi, in 1919 as the Elizabeth Bandi for the coastal trade. She was sold to Ried of Bath in 1931 and resold to Finnish interests later the same year. In 1938, J. T. Essberger of Hamburg purchased her, converting her in 1939 to a bark. She was renamed Seute Deem and was to serve as a cargo-carrying schoolship in the Baltic. After the war, the Seute Deern helped to ease the housing shortage by her conversion to a floating hotel and restaurant. In 1959, the Dutch-American Paul A. Koertz bought her and moved her to Delfzyl, The Netherlands, where she was used as a youth hostel. Frau Hardistz of Emden reacquired her for Germany in 1964. Frau Hardistz ran out of money - a familiar tale to those who would preserve old ships - and the usual cycle of disasters began. A canal ship rammed and sank the Seute Deem, and her future became clouded. Fortunately, a man of vision became interested in the old ship, Herr Richartz of Bremerhaven purchased her, refloated and restored her as a floating museum and restaurant-bar ship. According to all accounts, the Seute Deem is well maintained and faithfully preserved. The Germans are happy with her and wish to keep her. There was once a $60,000 price tag on her, but that was some years ago. Ideally, she should be returned to her country or origin, restored to her original rig, and exhibited as the last intact survivor of the giant schooners. This is what Ed Moran has advocated for years. (See "Letters."-Eo.) However, as there are no funds available for her purchase (even at the $60,000 price), much less restoration, she is probably better off as she is: lovingly maintained and earning her own way, intact, far beyond the age of sail. .V
SHIP NOTES Active sailing ships: The Hudson Sloop Association's Clearwater has been rebuilt under Maynard Bray's direction, at heavy financial burden to the Association, but like a tired Scout with increased pack, it's found the energy to meet it. "No, it's not a problem of green wood," says Bray. " Everything for a long time around these parts has been built with green wood; it's maintenance, the daily round, the caulking and caring." Solution, a ship's husband, who cares only for the ship, not her program lovely as it is .... Dr. George Nichols of Boston has founded the Ocean Research and Education Society with friends, and they have acquired and will sail the old Baltic barkentine Reginq Maris, whose travels in the past decade have taken her round Cape Horn, and up and down the Atlantic, a ship in search of program which now she has. ... Baltic brig Unicorn, built as a trading auxiliary post-World War II to rather antique lines, then rigged and sailed as a square rigger by Jacques Thiry, has been entirely rebuilt in Florida this winter and seems secure in her new career carrying passengers for hire .... The 53-foot coasting schooner Mary E. of 1901 is sailed by Sea Ventures, taking disadvantaged young people to sea in the New York-New Jersey area .... The schooner Bowdoin, taken
her millionth mile of voyaging for the Lamont-Doherty Geological Laboratory of Columbia Universiay early this year; launched by the much-missed Dr. Maurice Ewing, who died in 1974, this program constitutes "science's longest and most productive exploration of the ocean"-and somehow to this eye the transformed Vema, motorship, is handsomer than the sailing yacht she was before she found her new career. ... SEA (Sail Education Association) steel schooner Westward continues her successful career of deep-sea Atlantic voyages under director Corwith Cramer, Jr. ... and these are but a handful of the good ships sailing to good purpose; we are only with this issue setting out to note their traffiques and discoveries, centered on the Northeast Coast. Museum ships: Machiasport never did build their replica of the Unity, but are forging ahead with historic program that promises a new museum .... the Bath Marine Museum has at last begun to get the funding their brilliant program so richly deserves, and Director Ralph L. Snow spoke to us a few times this winter amid struggles to keep the 1884 tug Seguin afloat and strip her down for restoration .... Gloucester and Boston, logical places for historic ships, have thoughts stirring; there's a strong community movement afoot now in Gloucester to restrict cutesie development, nourish the working port, and God knows there are vessels like Lady of Good Voyage that should be preserved there, not for tourists but for the identity and spirit of the town; in Boston, the Constitution Museum is a great success, but when will we see a ship of the peaceful trades that built the city, and helped build the nation, preserved there? ... Nantucket has acquired the Nantucket Lightship, and it is our prediction that Nantucket Historical Association membership will quadruple as on by Maine Maritime Academy when result, and other good things happen, Mystic Seaport had to let her go, is now with former Mystic Curator Edouard A. owned by Interisland Exploration in Stackpole and ship-carver Charlie Sayle Camden, Maine, whose director Cam- finding more power flowing to their eron W. Beck is working aggressively work in sea history .... Seaport '76 in to support her through educational pro- Newport, Rhode Island, now owns HMS gram .... Former Norwegian whaling Rose replica, and is striving to complete ship Barba Negra, rebuilt as a barken US sloop Providence replica. University tine by Albert Seidl, sailed out of South of Rhode Island people lack funds to Street last summer, has now been more recover artifacts from real British frigor less adopted by the town of Mamaro- ates scuttled there in 1778 (to get one neck on Long Island Sound and will cannon properly preserved, they had to pursue her voyaging to save, not hunt send two to England, leaving one behind the whale from there, under the aegis of there and getting the other treated and the Save our Seas Foundation. . . . returned); Newport is center of sail Lovely old schooner yacht Verna passed training activities, and there are on-
again off-again America's Cup Race yachting museums constantly thought of: not to be impatient, but woudn't it be good if this scene of diverse efforts were brought into unified focus .... The fundamental work going forward in ship preservation at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, is commented on elsewhere in this issue, must be subject of future full report. ... Suffolk County Marine Museum on south shore of Long Island cherish their little oysterman Modesty, note that interest picked up when she came in, and have now put in an oyster cu.JI house beside her. ... In New York, Ellis Island, where some 12 million immigrants became citizens, from whom possibly 100 million people, nearly half of the population of this country, are descended, was opened on a partial basis to visitors this year; and the Park Service is running trial trips from Manhattan and Hoboken by water to the Gateway beaches; and what columnist William F. Buckley Jr. called a "simple, homely, utilitarian barge" is carrying first-class
displays through the State's waterways; generating rich local program wherever she goes .... At Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michael's, Maryland, the bugeye Edna E. Lockwood is being restored and, a working shipyard is coming into being under sage guidance of Director R. J. Holt. ... In Philadelphia there is now a significant fleet of historic ships: the Moshulu, celebrated grain racer built in 1904 as the German Kurt; the Portugese Grand Banks barkentine Gazela Primeiro; the cruiser Olympia of 1897, Admiral Dewy's flagship, a unique survivor of her age; the oyster schooner Nellie and the Barnegat lightship #97. Each is under separate ownership, except for the last two owned by the Heritage Ship Guild of the Port of Philadelphia. To add to the confusion, one must note the recovery of an 84-ton dragger, the Quest, which sank in 1969 and was lately raised-whew! ... And that's as far as this roundup runs: we think to continue it on round the coast. -PETER STANFORD
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By Peter Throckmorton Curator-at-Large National Maritime Historical Society
At the invitation of the Society's President, I joined in early March , 1976, the South Street Seaport Museum expedition to the Falkland Islands to examine the hulks of important American ships in that remote outpost island group. South Street Ship Historian Nor man Brouwer led the expedition, with Hilton Matthews of England as shipwright and myself as marine archeologist. The expedition was funded by a grant from the National Endownment for the Humanities. Our busy two weeks gave us a shared wonder at having had the great privilege of seeing the most incredible, accessible ship graveyard in the world: a unique repository of American, British, and Canadian nautical antiquity. During the 19th Century, Port Stanley in the Falklands was the most convenient port of refuge for sailing ships damaged off Cape Horn and driven back into the South Atlantic by the westerly
gales. Since repair facilities there were very limited, ships which could not be easily refitted for sea were declared a total loss and sold locally. The purchasers used the ships as floating warehouses for wool awaiting export, or for coal for visiting steamers. Although the last such ship has now been retired, at least thirteen still survive, in varying stages of decay. Our project was concerned with three American ships, and our findings follow below. These are not the full reports, which await a further trip, but they do indicate the importance of the heritage in the Falklands. Snow Squall - This extreme clipper was launched at Cape Elizabeth, Maine, in 1851, at the height of the clipper ship era. She was owned in New York. In 1864 she was damaged by grounding on Tierra Del Fuego and towed in to the Falklands, leaking badly. Condemned, and sold for use as a hulk, she now lies abandoned at Port Stanley. The forward
Left, in the tweendecks of the Snow Squall the knees are lighter and less finis/zed than those in the Charles Cooper.
Peter Throckmorton, Curntor-at-Large of the National Society, salv Jr of the Elissa (see Galveston Report, this issue), author of Shipwrecks and Archeology, in 1969 told Peter Stanford of the Society that he would like to go to the Falkland Islands to survey wrecks th ere and begin the recovery of what can be saved. Here are his photos and report on an expedition he joined as Marine A rcheologist, sponsored by South Street Seaport Museum and the National Endowment for the Humanities, to survey American wrecks in the Falklands in 1976.
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9Pliln•
f
•
.
-.:---------
The clipper Snow S 1 ~10st to be sailing H~~a;~
~ ie bow of the pa~ket Ch ~ is a sharp contrast t; 18_51, above, seems al
(ears /~/er -and adve ~!"el Cooper, right, built rise as a "half cli er" w 1e11 built. Next a from the pier that was p geb wit t_he across Snow her. Squall a/Pseen
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'•
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE IN THE FALKLANDS
portion of the hull is largely intact. She is the only known remnant of a n American clipper ship in existence. The remains of the ship lie underneath the Falkland Islands Company's jetty at Port Stanley. It seems that when the ship was abandoned she was used as a pierhead fender for the Company's ships. Then, during the Second World War, piles were driven right through the old ship that formed the Falkland Islands jetty, and a modern jetty built right over the hulks. This was unfortunate in that those parts of the ship that interfered with the construction were destroyed, but fortunate in that the modern pier tends to protect what remained. The wreck of the Snow Squall lies heeled over on her port side, across the axis of the pier, which runs north and south. The part of the ship directly beneath the pier is covered with dirt and debris, and cannot be closely examined until this is cleared away. Nothing is visible of Snow Squall's stern from the deck. However, when we dived we found that the wreckage extended to the east of the pier, to a point approximately 140 feet from the stem, where we found what might be her stern post. Our dives were considerably hampered by the kelp that grows on the wreckage. It kept getting entangled with us, which was slightly dangerous and most unpleasant. The worst aspect of the kelp was, however, the fact that it was covered with fine silt, which, when touched, reduced visibility
to nil. Clinging kelp plus zero visibility was not conducive to good observation, especially when one's sense of touch was hampered by the heavy neoprene gloves made necessary by the cold temperatures of those waters. In spite of these difficulties, we definitely established the existence of a good part of the stern and port after end of Snow Squall in 3 feet of water at low tide. We can assume that at least 5 feet more of the ship extends below the highest point of the wreckage, under the mud. In the course of several dives carried out on Snow Squall, we concluded that diving in Port Stanley harbor was perfectly practical if one cleared the kelp away and dived at the right stage of the tide. Excavation of the remaining hull would be simple and cheap, given the right equipment. A considerable part of the Snow Squall port side remains under the dock. This includes a section of the ship from her weather deck waterways to her keel. This section at its upper end is two deck beams wide (about five feet). It still contains the chain plates and bolts for what we assumed to be the fore top mast and topgallant shrouds, and the beaded decoration of the sheer strake and weather deck waterways. The discovery of this section of Snow Squall is significant, because it will eventually make a detailed construction plan of the whole ship possible.
The most visible surviving part of the ship is her bow, visible to the west of the pier. This survives intact from the keel to the tween-decks. The decks themselves have rotted away, and the frames and planking "between wind and water" (that is, the parts of them that are continually immersed and then exposed by the rising and falling tide) are nearly gone. The bow is so weak that it shakes every time a wave hits it and trembles ominously when one climbs out on it. That part of the structure that is permanently above water is in remarkably good condition. When compared with contemporary ships in Port Stanley, Snow Squall's construction is remarkable for its simplicity and economy. It seems obvious that she was built in a hurry to take advantage of the California Gold Rush. There are almost no iron frames or straps, and use of copper is kept to a minimum. Her construction seems very light, almost fragile, for a ship of her size. The exposed parts of Snow Squall will not survive unless they are salvaged, treated and preserved in a museum environment in the near future. This is a feasible project, not expensive and complicated, and should be done immediately. A handsome exhibit, utilizing the bow and the surviving section of the ship in the way of the port forechains, could be built in a relatively small space. Detailed study of a genuine clipper ship has never been undertaken.
At left, the bones of the St. Mary. The hulk split apart in a gale in 1970, and her wreckage is strewn across nearby beaches. Above, the lower masts of the St. Mary. Charles Cooper-She was built as a is as important to the history of the St. Mary-A representative of the final era in our building of wooden square- packet ship for the North Atlantic im- United States as the Vasa is to Sweden, rigged merchant vessels, was launched migrant trade in 1856. Packets were the and as unique. The miracle of the Cooper is that she at Phippsburg, Maine in 1890 for the first ocean-going vessels to sail on a trade between New York and San Fran- fixed schedule, and the success of this has survived at all: it is not that she is cisco. On her maiden voyage she col- experiment was a major milestone in the in good condition, but that she is in as lided with another ship near the Falk- development of New York as our most good condition as she is. The Cooper is lands and ran ashore while trying to important seaport. The Cooper was buil t in short, no longer a ship able to deal reach Port Stanley. The wreck has at Black' Rock, Connecticut and origi- with the sea, and she should not be conbroken up over the years, but most of nally owned in New York. Later in her sidered a ship but a large and beautiful one side survives, with portions of the career she was employed in world-wide structure of singular historical value. decks. The American square-riggers trading. She was condemned at Port She is the most complicated piece of which followed the clipper ships are Stanley in 1866 and converted to a float- American 19th Century craftsmanship commonly termed : :downeasters" since ing storage hulk. Later grounded to in wood that exists today-and probably most were built in Maine. St. Mary is serve as a warehouse, she was still in the most beautiful. The tweendecks are the miracle of the today the largest surviving remnant of a use in 1970. She has been roofed over and is consequently very well preserved Cooper. Here, slightly obstructed by the downeaster. The last major deterioration of the internally. A portion of the original remnants of the clay sewer pipes stored wreck occurred during the great gale of carved decoration from both the bow in her by the Falkland Islands Company, 1970, which drove the remaining part and the stern survives. Like the Snow is a sight never before seen in living of the hull high onto the beach and split Squall, she is the only remaining ship of memory for the bulkheads built midit in two, lengthwise. One hundred and her type. She is also the most intact ships when she was hulked. Here then is seventy feet of the starboard side of the American-built square-rigged merchant the elegant eye of the Yankee craftsman, laying out traditional shapes in a tradihull remains on the beach, lying flat on vessel in existence. The Snow Squall and the St. Mary tional way. The beauty of the shapes its side. The remains of the St. Mary have sur- are finite projects. That is, they are created by the broad-axe and the adze, vived because they lie in a remote part archeology-museum projects, rather spile and batten and a dozen kinds of of the Islands, normally accessible only than projects requiring the development planes pulls at the heart of the onlooker after one or two days' travel in a Land of new concepts and new engineering whereever it is seen: it is only visible Rover or on horseback. Recovery of sig- techniques. The Charles Cooper pre- today in this country in the tweendecks nificant parts of the ship is feasible at sents a problem that has never arisen of the Constitution and the Charles Morgan. But this ship was built for paslittle expense, with equipment presently before, because she is an intact ship. The only comparable dilemma that sengers, and these tweendecks were available in the Falkland Islands and without the logistical problems asso- has been successfully resolved is that of made to be seen and lived in. Unlike the Vasa. We propose that the Cooper others, where the nostalgic memory is ciated with diving.
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THE AMERICAN HERITAGE IN THE FALKLANDS
of manning guns or stowing whale oil, the memory here is of people. She lies on an even keel aground in about 12 feet of water at high tide. Her massive structure, 165 feet long, by 35 feet wide by 18 feet deep, is imbedded in mud about 5 feet deep. Given a coat of paint, her tweendecks would not seem unfamiliar to the emigrants who sailed in her to New York from Amsterdam before the American Civil War. If one were to read Lachlan MacKa y's (Daniel MacKay's brother's) laboriously indexed shipwright's manual while walking the Cooper's tweendecks with a ruler in hand, one would feel one's mind boggling with a living illustration of a long-dead art. All the frame models in the world could never substitute for this last remainder of the real thing. William Hall must have known Lachlan MacKay. Did they ever sit down and talk about the infinite variations of thicknesses of timber that become apparent only after hours of measuring-the kind we did there in the wind-swept hold of the Cooper's tweendecks with the Cape Horn rain pattering on the tin roof? Greece still has her Parthenon, and Bassae, and the name of the architect lktinus. Scholars come from all over the world to study and to try to understand Iktinus's miracles of formula and proportion. Yet no one has tried to study the entasis of one of our own Parthenons. The Cooper has survived in order to tell us that we must. The immediate problem, then, of the Cooper is that she must be stabilized. Something must be done to prop up the
starboard side, where 70 feet is missing amidships in a 3 foot gap that runs just under the tweendecks. This will take the strain off those long-suffering stanchions and prevent her from falling, a twisted wreck, into Stanley Harbor. It is the kind of job that can be done with a few oil drums, some balks of timber, some jacks, and a lot of ingenuity, and a little money, by Hilton Matthews, who is ready to go to work. There is a good precedent for working on the Cooper in the work done on the Vasa, whose technical department stands ready to advise us. An immediate, and urgent, project, for instance, would be to copy her decoration with the latexfiberglass mold process that has been so successfully used on the Vasa.
Once the Cooper is stabilized, she can be used as a storage place for the endangered parts of the Snow Squall and the St. Mary and as a temporary base for our activities in the Falklands, including an engineering study of the problems that will be encountered in strengthening her sufficiently so that she can be moved safely onto a barge and returned to her home port, New York. Finally, there is the matter of preservation. The Falkland Islands ships have survived because of constant temperature and constant humidity. Removing them, or parts of them, to a different ¡climate will create problems that must be dealt with before the ships are moved and for the first years of their installation in a new environment. .t
At right, heavy beaded knees in the tweendeck of the Charles Cooper.
Below, the weatherworn bow of the Cooper, survivor of an age that cared about finish and ornamentation, as well as structural soundness.
J
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ACTIVITIES SEA DAY Sea Day, a New York phenomenon, grew up as a citizen observance of National Maritime Day, May 22. Maritime Day was established by Act of Congress in 1933, to honor the sailing of the first transatlantic steamer, Savannah, May 22, 1819. Frank Braynard, now director of Operation Sail, put this day on the map. Appropriately, he was given an award for his role in Operation Sail at this year's Maritime Day festivities in New York. There was little other observance of the day. The first Museum celebration of Maritime Day was on a chilly noontime in 1967 when Karl Kortum, director of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, sailed into South Street with Peter Stanford, president of the newly formed South Street Seaport Museum (its trustees held their first meeting ten days later-by then there were over 1,000 members on the books). They were aboard Stanford's schooner Athena-a lovely gaffer with fitted topmast, today still hale at 51 years of age, sailing under other ownership out of Maine. There were chanties and speeches to a small crowd whose spirits were hardly dampened by a drizzle of rain: the first sailing vessel in many years had come into South Street! In succeeding years, a small flotilla was assembled, usually led by Barclay Warburton's hermaphrodite brig Black Pearl. One year a party of public officials was sailed across the harbor to scramble ashore barefoot on the beach in front of the Alice Austen House in Staten Island. Salutes were fired off the Battery, with the Chinese junk Mon Lei setting off strings of firecrackers while others boomed off their cannon. The newspapers reported these events as the annual salute to the ctiy's sea heritage, and citizens took to calling it Sea Day. Banners were fashioned for the ships: "Save the Whale!," "Free Love and Sailors' Rights," etc. The maritime industry began to concentrate their program around this very public event, after one memorable occasion when they set up their bleachers on the Battery to face inland-and everyone there turned their backs on the speaker to watch the ships sailing in! This year, for the first time in ten years, there was no citizen observance of Sea Day in New York. No ships, no flags, no celebration. Somehow everyone was too busy. "Sea Day," said a Connecticut editorialist, "is about the things it takes
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more than one generation to learn." Such things should not be forgotten. Next year the National Society pro: poses to take on the event to celebrate and promote the work of South Street, the New York State Maritime Museum, and all who cherish the sea in New York harbor. If you're interested in organizing Sea Day in your port, write the Society_
THE SAGA OF THE X SEAMENS INSTITUTE Every summer Tuesday night four rollicking lads sing sea chanties at Pier 15 of the South Street Seaport Restoration in New York City. Some people think that this is an entertainment. They are wrong. The X Seamens Institute is a conspiracy to get everybody in the world to sing sea chanties and enjoy sea history. It all started in the summer of 1969 when the president of the new-born South Street Seaport hired Bernie Klay and Frank Woerner to be second act to an exhibition of the Sagres sailing ship then docked at the Seaport. Klay and Woerner sang the few sea songs they knew to the long lines of visitors waiting to board the visiting Sagres. They had one hell of a good time and immediately volunteered to come back and sing more of the same on a regular basis. Thus was born the longest running sea chanty singing concert series in the world today. In order to distinguish themselves as singing sailors Klay and Woerner named themselves "The Seamens Institute." The real Seamen's Church Institute objected. Bernie Klay organized a contest to find a suitable non-controversial name. One hundred good names were submitted including: The L. I. Sound, the Bumboaters, the Focsle Four, etcetera. The new name chosen was the X Seamens Institute. The list of ninety-nine additional names are available to any novice Sea Singers who are still unnamed.
In 1973 Moe Asch's Folkways record company published an album of the X with a dozen of their most requested numbers with appropriate sea sounds between songs. It never went to the top of the charts but has been
quietly selling ever since. Mail orders have recently been received from Hawaii, Norway, Mexico, California, Texas, and Florida. A new album to be titled "Heart of Oak" is in the works and should be available any day now. taken their program to schools, clubs, For special occasions the X has taken their programs to schools, clubs, and community art centers on the East Coast. (As a matter of fact, for good cause "The X will go anywhere.) As the programs at South Street grew larger and larger expenses did the same and New York State's Council on the Arts support was secured. At the urging of the Arts Council a not-for-profit corporation called Tapinta was formed to support the work of the X. Tapinta's prime purpose is the presentation and promotion of the folk music of the sea. In 1974 friends of The X provided them with television taping equipment and began to tape the sea chanty concerts and other nautical happenings for a weekly cable television presentation called "The FolkArts Ring Thing." It is presented Mondays and Fridays at 8 pm on channel J of Manhattan Cable TV. (Also Saturdays at 6: 30 pm.) The best of these l/2 -inch television tapes are available for presentation on other cable systems. In 1975 the X developed enough confidence to present a well attended course on the songs and lore of the sea at New York University. Also in 1975, Tapinta and the National Society jointly published "Sea Songs sung by The X Seamens Institute at South Street." This is a small paperback of 13 sea songs with words, music, and illustrations. It also has photographs of 8 restored ships here in the United States. It cost $1.00. New Yorkers can tune into The Lore and Lure of the Sea every Wednesday night on WNYU on 89.1 fm on the dial. The X started this sea talk show this year. Like the X concerts these programs have not script. They unfold organically with talk, snatches of songs, poetry, argument, etc. So far we have had thirteen half hour programs with guests such as David Jones, Peter Throckmorton and Peter Stanford. Topics have included: The clipper ship era, the British Royal Navy and ghost songs and stories. These programs are on 71/z IPS tapes of broadcast quality and are available to daring radio programmers. To college and
ACTIVITIES
nonprofit stations the cost in minimal. To others it is as much as we can get. On Friday, Oct. 15, The X Seamens Institute and their minions will fall on Camp Freedman in Falls Village, Connecticut for their semiannual workshop weekend of folkmusic, dance, and crafts. The workshops at these weekends cover a very broad diversity of interests. Sea buffs who sign on for this trip can participate in workshops in chanties, fo'c'sle songs, history of packets, building boats in bottles, making macrame objects, and attend seminars in marine archaeology. Starting Tuesday night, September 15, The X will start a lecture-concert series on a weekly basis at the National Society headquarters, Brooklyn. New York City teachers may take this as a course for in-service credit since it is approved by the professional development bureau of the New York City Board of Education. The X is now preparing a list of resource materials in maritime music. It will be sent without question to anyone who requests it and sends along a stamped, self addressed envelope to Bernie Klay, Tapinta, 254-26 75 Ave., Glen Oaks, N.Y. 11004.
THE AMERICAN MARITIME ACADEMY SAILS ON Born about 1911 as an organization of working people who wanted to get their children and neighbors' children out on the water to enjoy themselves and learn seafaring trades, the American Maritime Academy continues to rise through vicissitudes and do its job with young people in the changing population of New York and New Jersey. Under the present full-time volunteer director, Rear Admiral Richard J. Lukeman, USNR (ret.), the Academy has taken an increasing interest in history. The living skills of the caulker and rigger are taught by traditional methods, and presented to the public at the National Boat Show and other public occasions. Modern engine m aintenance and small bo at handling are taught with a fleet of some dozen vessels. The Kestrel, a Lawley-built steam launch of 1899, was acquired by the Academy two years ago and has since steamed regularly in many harbor occasions, ranging from Sea Day to fundraising tours for the South Street Seaport Museum. Conrad Milster of the Steamship Historical Society is in charge of her smooth-running engine,
and trains people in its proper exercise and maintenance. A second most historic vessel, the aged oyster schooner Hudson Belle, is in disrepair and it is hoped that funds and program can be organized for her full and proper restoration. The Academy learned the hard way the difficulties of historic ship preservation when they took on the stationary barkentine Norden , after Ambrogi had to give up his long effort to preserve the vessel , which had put into New York in trouble, and train young people aboard her. She sank at her pier, and the effort to raise her destroyed her. A second notable effort was to save the Annie C. Ross. The Academy sailed this venerable four-masted coaster, the last in New York waters, for a season and then had to give her up. She sank forever soon after. For these reasons, the Academy particularly welcomed the establishment of the South Street Museum and may be truly said to have assisted in its birth. Early in 1976, determined to encourage a program similar to theirs on other ports and different parts of the country, the Academy changed its name from Hudson River M aritime Academy to that which it bears today. Headquarters are maintained aboard a donated Circle Liner at Pier One, Foot of 60th Street, West New York, N .J. 07302, where inquiries regarding its work may be addressed. Currently President Francis W. Skelly and Admiral Lukeman are workin close association with the National Society. Both the Society and the Academy would be glad to be put in touch with those who share their goals of the sea education of young people through a disciplined, activist program.
THREE LUNCHEONS The Tusitala was first saved for her sailing career under the Farrell flag (Stanley Gerr and Joe Curran are National Society members who sailed in her) by Christopher Morley's Three Hours for Lunch Club: therefore we believe in luncheons. Three have been held (so far) in 1976 to observe varied occasions. The first, held January 26 aboard the Balclutha in San Francisco, was to advance the cause of the Vicar of Bray, with Mayor Moscone and other civic dignitaries and Alan Burrough, CBE, distiller of Beefeater Gin (who brought greetings from Prince Philip) in attend-
ance. Results of that are noted elsewhere; report on the Society's survey of the Vicar hulk in the Falklands, and on plans to bring her home to San Francisco, will follow in our next issue. The second was held in New York on May 4 aboard the restaurant ship Robert Fulton in South Street, to celebrate the opening of the city waterfront, which this ship represents, and to honor the late Captain William J. Lacey, who brought the ship in and did much else to make South Street Seaport Museum a reality. Joan K. Davidson, Chairman of the New York State Council on the Arts, and Roger Starr, City Administrator of Housing and Development, were principal speakers, Joan on how the Sunbelt might envy us our waterfronts, Roger on the lesson of the waterfront which is to perform, work hard, find joy in it. Messages after Bill Lacey's heart. The third, held June 17 aboard the Fulton, was to honor Joseph Farr, retiring master of the Wavertree . Among people gathered to say goodbye to Joe were Admiral John M. Will, founding president of the New York State Maritime Museum; Commander H. A. Paulsen, past skipper of the Eagle and director of the Peking restoration; Tom Dowd and Jeremiah T. Driscoll of the harbor oiler Stirling; Fred Kosnac, who maintains a fleet of working tugs and derricks at Pier 11, East River; and officers, curator, manager and volunteers of the Society. Joe made a graceful speech in response to the question as to whether he had cleared the cockroaches out of the Wavertree . ... ... and a Non-lunch The opening of the Society's headquarters at 8 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, in Ionic-columned space donated by David Morton, was celebrated on May 17th by the return of the Alice S . Westworth's remains, which came in through the window on a forklift driven by Pete Casey from the nearby Port Authority pier, while Red Noffo, harbormaster, supervised; by Don Meisner arguing with Peter Throckmorton about New York harbor wrecks; by bunches o ~¡ people writing letters, making notes on meetings, wandering by with paper cups and champagne in their hands which somehow too often they happened to be gesturing with . As some people had to get back to work in Manhattan, Captain Driscoll drove them across the river in the Stirling. No one that your scribe noticed sat down to lunch; none I believe will forget the magic hour, ever. -PETER STANFORD .
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The Language of Command in Sail The Language of Command in Sail: A Proposal for a Comparative Study of Usage in the Various Maritime Cultures, both Ancient and Modern by Stanley Gerr
One of the more important elements of the vanished tradition of sai l is the old language of the sea, particularly that specialized part of it which constituted the language of command in sailing ships. This had spontaneously undergone a long process of evolution together with the evolving ships and the innumerable artifices needed to work them, and could, perhaps, itself be regarded as one of the principal artifices in question, as essential to the effective operation of a sailing ship as the running rigging itself. For just as the system of running gear was indispensable for coordinating and controlling the relative movement of the working parts of the sailing vessel, so, on a higher level of organization, the language of command was no less essential for integrating and coordinating the crew's activity with the rest of the ship's working mechanism in achieving purposive control of the vessel. Thus, the motive power of a modern sailing ship, which is to say the force of the wind as directed and controlled by the whole system of masts, sails, yards, booms, gaffs, rudder, standing and running rigging, and crew, was organized on three levels of control. First came the rigid, immovable masts and stand ing rigging for maintaining the basic, unchanging relations between the vessel and the source of power; then the moving parts of the mechanism of the power system (sails, yards, booms, gaffs and running rigging for working these same parts), endowed with considerable flexibility and freedom of movement within the limits set by the running rigging; and finally, the crew itself, possessed of a still higher degree of flexibility and freedom of movement but still operating only within the limits of a system of control bounded and defined by the coordinating language of command. By the end of the commercial sailing era in the West, which is to say about 1900-1940, this langu age of command had achieved a rare degree of precision conciseness, and salty picturesqueness. It was, in truth, a remarkable linguistic and social phenomenon in its own right, and a worthy subject of compar-
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"Since such a wide range of maritime cultures is implied in our proposed study ... , it is clearly advisable ... to make it a multinational project .. '.'
ative linguistic as well as psychological stud y and appraisal, both as an early and outstanding example of a specialized technical language and as a social mechanism with significant features of particular interest to students of the psychology of language and of command. But this specialized technical language has never been systematically studied, and to this day remains an important but neglected part of maritime Jore. Long overdue, such a study should be carried out soon, if ever, since the number of those able to carry it out or assist in it, either because of practical experience in sail or wide linguistic knowledge, is both small and dwindling. My proposal is accordingly offered as a possible procedure for helping to fill this gap. Broadly conceived, it should be carried out as a comparative study embracing, as far as possible, all the important maritime cultures, both ancient and modern, Western, and Asian, and Far Eastern. While this seems rather a large order, bounds can readily be set to the initial, fundamental stages of such a study which would render it perfectly feasible. For example, by limiting consideration to the language of command used in working the individual sailing vessel through the full range of standard manoeuvres, we are freed of the need to to consider much of naval terminology. Then , although the total number of ship's chores, procedures, manoeuvres, maintenance projects, etc. (even disregarding such areas as navigation and cargo handling) is beyond ready reckoning, the full gamut ranging from the most insignificant yet essential maintenance chores to the large scale operations or manoeuvres involving the
whole ship and crew, they all tend to fall into three major categories: ship maintenance, sail handling, and ship handling. But although they were all theoretically under direct control of the ship's officers by way of an almost endless number of possible commands, these three areas are by no means of equally compelling interest to our proposed project. Thus the first of these - ship maintenance - which has to do with the multitude of essential chores and procedures needed to maintain spars, rigging, sai ls, and indeed any indespensable part of the vessel in proper working condition, is nevertheless of only secondary interest to us. The reason is simple: while comprising by far the greatest number of essential chores and procedures, practically all the tasks in this category were almost always carried out by skilled sailors who needed no supervision by ship's officers, so that expressions of command, while always possible in such cases, in actuality were very seldom used; we can, for the most part, disregard this whole area. Sail handling, on the other hand , concerned with making and shortening sail (setting, trimming, reefing, furling, bending and unbending sail , etc.) is of immediate interest, while ship handling, comprising the larger operations in which the whole ship and crew were involved (getting under way, tacking and wearing ship, boxhauling, heaving to, coming to an anchor, etc.) , is of the very greatest interest to us in all stages of such a study, for here the full scope of the language of command in sail was invoked and exercised. Moreover, the procedures and manoeuvres involved in sail and ship handling were relatively few in number, and can probably be covered by no more than 300-400 distinct commands for all types of rig, as compared with the thousands possible in the area of ship maintenance. For example, there are probably fewer than two dozen major ship handling manoeuvres (tacking and wearing, heaving to, etc.), and the number of distinct commands used in each of them might average between five and
ten, so that the total number of commands covering this all-important area of ship handling might well be no more than 150. Similarly, in the matter of sail handling (reefing, bending and unbending sail, etc.) there are perhaps another two or three dozen clearly defined operations, with possibly another hundred commands for their supervisory control. Add to these perhaps another dozen operations with ship's anchors, and the limited number of commands needed for their supervision, and we come to approximately 350 separate commands for dealing with most problems of seamanship in sail, other than ship maintenance and cargo handling. This is certainly a very reasonable number of commands to work with as a basis for the projected study, but it does presuppose a further restriction of an "historical" nature to be imposed on the scope of the project. That is, the figure of 350 arrived at above refers to the operation of commercial sailing vessels of the last century of sail. Many more might well be investigated if we attempted to include all the changes in the language of command which accompanied the many evolutionary changes in ship design, construction, and rig throughout the long history of sailing ships (the early perfection of the Chinese junk forms a notable exception to this, so that one can asume that the Chinese language of command has changed little, if any, in the course of time), and which necessarily produced corresponding changes in the detailed nature of the manoeuvres, procedures, and operations with sailing vessels, so much so that it has by now probably become all but impossible to recover or reconstruct the full range of commands used in any reliable detail. A striking example is provided by the developments of the last century of the sailing ship era, which witnessed a radical replacement of wood and hemp by iron and steel in construction and rigging. This resulted in much larger ships with proportionately much smaller crews to deal with many new ship handling and sail handling problems which inevitably arose, leading in turn to considerable changes in the way the most standard manoeuvres might have to be carried out. For instance, in the period before, say, 1870, when crews were much larger and ships considerably smaller than they were in the last half-century of sail, it was the custom in tacking ship to give the command
" ... such a study should be carried out soon if ever, since the number of those able to carry it out ... is both small and dwindling'.'
"Raise tacks and sheets" (requiring the main and crojack tacks and sheets to be let go and the corresponding clews hoisted high enough to clear the bulwarks and any other possible hindrances when the yards were swung round) after the helm had been put down and the vessel had started to come up into the wind, whereas with the much smaller crews of the last fift y years of sail it was generally necessary to "Raise tacks and sheets" before the order was given to put the helm down, and so treating it as part of the preparation of the vessel for the actual manoeuvre of putting the ship about on the new tack. Thus, in the later stages of the sailing era, when fewer men were available to carry out the orders, it was frequently necessary to have the same group of hands run from operation to operation in successive execution of a series of actions within a given manoeuvre, instead of several groups performing them almost simultaneously, as was the custom when larger crews were available for such operations. How much detailed consideration to give such variations in procedure, as well as the actual changes in the wording of the orders due to these evolutionary transformations in the ships and the conditions under which they were operated, remains an open question. I would recommend concentrating on the language of command of the end of the sailing ship era, though making every effort not to exclude some consideration of really interesting and significant historical variations. In this connection, too. I would strongly recommend that very early in the project the full set of manoeuvres and procedures to be covered, together with their accompanying commands, be drawn up and carefully defined or explained by a committee of experts. In doing this the individual commands should be incorporated into their proper manoeuvres in the sequence in which they were actually executed.
Since such a wide range of maritime cultures is implied in our proposed study (Greek and Roman), Scandinavian (both modern and Viking), Mediterranean (Byzantine, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, French, Arabic), English, Dutch, Portuguese, German, Russian, Far Eastern (Chinese, Japanese, Korean), Hindi, Persian) , it is clearly advisable, probably even essential to make it a multinational project by enlisting the support and aid of as many existing national maritime museums and societies, libraries and institutions, and competent private individuals, as possible. In many cases this will be the most practical way to collect the desired information, in some the only way to do it. The mechanics of collecting the information from the various sources would require several distinct procedures. Certainly a good part of the effort would involve constant, concentrated study of the relevant literature inone or more of the principal maritime libraries of Europe or the United States and Canada. In addition, occasional, and perhaps frequent consultations between available experts, whether retired seamen or institutional scholars, might be required to settle moot points. But probably the greater part of the information sought would have to be obtained through the use of carefully designed questionnaires sent to the various cooperating maritime institutions, societies, and scholars. Moreover, several different questionnaires, dealing with different kinds of rig, would have to be drawn up for despatch to the proper potential sources of information, for it would hardly do to send the questionnaire dealing, say, with the handling of square-riggers to the Chinese with a request for the corresponding information, since they have never operated such vessels. Thus seven or eight questionnaires would have to be drawn up, dealing respectively with the separate and distinct problems of the handling of squareriggers, big schooners, Chinese junks, Arab dhows and booms, Viking ships, Medieval vessels (Mediterranean and North European), and classical sailers (Greek and Roman) for submission to the proper cooperating information sources. Some of the information sought, such as the commands used in Chinese junks, Arab dhows, Viking ships, etc. is certainly rather exotic, and the
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The Language of Command in Sail chances are that only very limited success can be hoped for in these areas. Nevertheles, the effort to collect as much of this information as possible should be made, since even isolated expressions from these remoter areas would be of great interest in connection with a summarizing essay on the whole field which should be one definite outcome of this study, the other being a comparative lexicon of the actual language of command used in the various maritime cultures. An example of a basic questionnaire would certainly be the one dealing with square-riggers, and this might well be prepared in the following way. First, the full list of ship and sail handling manoeuvres would be drawn up and carefully explained or defined. Then, for each typical operation (tacking, wearing, etc.) the full set of commands actually used in British and American practice would be taken up in proper sequence, together with explanatory notes, and this would be despatched to suitable institutions, scholars, etc. with a request for accurate equivalents in the various languages canvassed. Thus, taking the typical operation of tacking a full-rigged ship as a model , we would proceed to draw up the sequence of English commands used in the later stages of the sailing ship era, though without going into any detailed account of the preparation of the vessel for the operation: i.e. assuming that all the preliminary work has been done to ready the ship for the manoeuvre (such as seeing the braces clear for running, slacking off the appropriate lifts, shifting over jib and staysail sheets, etc.) . Each command is then taken up in the established sequence of its actual use, with some explanation of its significance or purpose, right through to the completion of the operation of putting the ship about. At the same time differences between British and American usage might be noted, and interesting or important differences between older and more recent procedures. TACKING SHIP (all orders given by the captain): I. "Ready about-ship": a general order to prepare for the manoeuvre. 2. "Keep her clean full" (Brit.) or "Keep her full for stays" (Amer.): to the helmsman . This order, as Alan Villiers puts it (The Way of a Ship), " is to get good
46
way on the ship in order that she may slam across the wind (even) with her sails aback, and yet not gather sternway". If she does begin to gather sternway, box-hauling must be resorted to. This is then taken up in due course under its own rubric: Box-hauling. 3. Then, "R eady about!" (Brit. or Amer.), or "Stand by for stays!" (Amer.) a warning to all hands to stand by for the next step. 4. "Hard alee!" (Amer.), or "Leeoh!" (Brit.) At this command the helmsman puts the helm hard down, the jib sheets are slacked off to spill the wind from the jibs, and the spanker boom is hauled amidships, both actions helping to bring the vessel smartly up into the wind. Then, as the weather leeches of mainsail and crojack begin to flutter, 5. "Raise tacks and sheets!" As mentioned above, this order might well be given before the order to put the helm down, in which case it would be regarded as part of the preparatory work of getting the ship ready for the manoeuvre, instead of as an integral phase of the actual operation of tacking. With the clews of mainsail and crojack now hanging in the clew garnets and outer buntlines, and the bowsprit just pas-sing across the direction of the wind, the next order is : 6. "Mainsail haul!" The lee main and mizzen braces are cast off and the corresponding yards are hauled rapidly around till they are braced up on the new tack. Now, with the fore yards aback and the ship still paying off, the jib sheets are hauled aft, and staysail sheets shifted. The next order from the captain will be: 7. "L et go and Haul!'' (Brit. or Amer.) or "Haul round the fore yards!", or perhaps even "Fore Bowlines!" (Amer.) This last even though fore bowlines are no longer in use! Now the fore tack and sheet are let go and the weather fore braces cast off, allowing the fore yards to swing rapidly round while the slack of the lee braces is taken in 'hand over hand'. The fore tack is then hove down, and fore sheet hauled aft, often, but no always, to the accompaniment of the order: "Aft the fore sheet!" or "Haul aft the fore sheet!" The ship is now around on the new
tack, and various sail and yard trimming procedures are attended to: e:g. the spanker boom and sail are trimmed, staysail sheets are hauled aft, the main and crojack tacks are boarded and the corresponding sheets brought aft, etc., but these actions are seldom carried out under specific orders from the captain, being simply regarded as "mopping up" operations to complete the manoeuvre and clear the ship for the next eventuality. ~ Then, as mentioned earlier, an ananalagous explanatory outline, with the appropriate orders given in proper sequence would also be prepared for each of the standard manoeuvres to be covered, such as getting unde!' way, setting sail, etc. These would all be incorporated into one questionnaire to be submitted to the maritime institutions and scholars of the various nations which have had fleets of square-riggers in operation. Another would then have to be drawn up for dealing with the commands used in working such foreand-aft rigs as the big American and Canadian schooners. Incidentally, a moot point in connection with all the questionnaires, to be settled by discussion with the experts, is whether it would be worth while to include simple sketches or drawings to indicate just what manoeuvre is involved, and what part of the running gear. A totally different sort of questionnaire, perhaps simply asking for details of the manner of working their vessels under various conditions, and what the actual commands were in such manoeuvres, would have to be sent to the proper cooperating bodies in China, Japan, Korea, to some of the Arabic speaking countries (e.g. Kuwait), as well as to Persia, India, Pakistan. A separate form dealing with what is known of Viking procedures, and still another for the medieval ships of northern Europe and the Mediterranean would have to be prepared; and finally, a separate study, enlisting the aid of classicists like Lionel Casson, would have to be undertaken to reconstruct as bes t we can the language of command used by the classical mariners, Roman and Greek. In summary, then, a great part of the project would entail the drawing up of a number of rather difficult questionnaires detailing the various manoeuvres carried out with sailing ships of the most varied types of rig, and submitting these to a worldwide range of
cooperating maritime institutions and scholars, together, of course, with an overall request for any additional information the questionnaire might not specifically request, but which in the judgment of the cooperating scholars would be of importance or interest to such a study. It is to be noted, too, that substantial parts of the project (drawing up the questionnaires, analysing the data submitted, etc.) would cer_) tainly require the assistance of a group of experienced seamen and knowledgeable scholars who, hopefully, would be willing to give some time and energy to the task. All the information gathered through these various procedures would return to the issuing office for study, analysis, and comparison, and the preparation of the material for the ultimate publication of a multilingual glossary and essay on the language of command in sail. Supplementary studies of the language of command used in naval and fleet manoeuvres, in rigging and shipmaintenance procedures, and possibly even some consideration of chanteying as a variety of "hortatory language" used to organize and control the activities of the crew in working the ship, might also eventuate from this study. There should be a very wide range of interest in such a project. Not only is it an important though neglected part of maritime lore, it also offers an approach to a significant aspect of psycholinguistics in that it would provide a clear instance of a very specialized language devised to achieve maximum "closeness of fit" with a very specific set of actions necessary for the realization of a social goal through organized and coordinated group activity, and where the consequences of failure of the linguistic apparatus could be utterly disastrous to the group. Thus, linguists, psycholinguists, psychologists and sociologists should be immediately interested. Finally, it goes without saying that such a project would have to be launched from and carried out at one of the larger maritime institutions, one well able to provide a sound and adequate base of operations in terms of readily available contacts with scholars and seafaring experts, as well as the sine qua non of an extensive maritime library. In conclusion, I would hope that although only a sketch of such a project, this proposal could suffice to sound out possible interest in such a study in a wide range of organizations . w
BOOKS Steamers, Schooners, Cutters and Sloops: Marine Photographs of N. L. Stebbins taken 1884 to 1907, ed. by W. H. Bunting (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. 124 pp. $10.00). Superb photographs, mainly off Newport, R. I., of yachts and working vessels in an age when, in Francis Bowker's words, "grace and beauty were still deemed to contribute to speed, sea kindliness, and efficient handling of sailing craft." Shipwreck, by John Fowles (Boston, Little Brown, 1975, $7.95). Thirty-five photographs taken by members of the Gibson family of shipwrecks on the coast of Cornwall and the Scilly Isles in England, with the author's carefully observed and studied commentary on the life and history of the Cornish wreckers. He observes: "I think one has to see a kind of profound equity, with the sea standing in the place of Robin Hood." Marine Carving Handbook, by Jay S. Hanna, (Camden, Me., International Marine Publishing Co., 1975. 92 pp. $6.95). This modestly priced guide goes to the roots of the art, the joys of working with the materials, in a way to encourage all to get into it. Supership, by Noel Mostert (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1975. 332 pp. $8.95). A splendidly thoughtful and realistic examination of the huge tankers that get into trouble at sea, written with full appreciation of the economic forces that build the ships, and vivid reporting on the lives of the men who sail them. Merchant Steam Vessels of the United States, 1790-1868, (New York, Steamship Historical Society, 1952 ed. reprint. 332 pp. $15.00). American Sailing Craft, by Howard I. Chapelle (Camden, Me., International Marine Publishing Co., 1938 ed. reprint. 239 pp., $13.50). OUT - OF - PRINT
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GIVE SOUTH STREET BOOKS ... Farewell to Old England by Ellen F. Rosebrock. The story of three 18th-century New Yorkers - a conservative, a moderate, and a radical - and how the Revolution altered their lives and their city. 64 pp., Spring 1976, $1.95. Seaport City: New York in 1775 by Floyd M. Shumway. A window on the city and its people in troubled times from which New York emerged ready to grow into America's greatest port city. 64 pp., Fall 1975, $1.95. Countin~-House Days in South Street; New York's ea riv brick seaport buildin~s by E'llen F. Rosebrock. The story of the merchants, their clerks, and South Street's vibrant commercial life. 48 pp., Spring 1975, $2.50.
Read, Color, Discover South Street . . . Ships and the River by David Canright. A young people's guide to South Street piers, ships, and river traffic. With answers to questions, questions to answers, and drawings to color. 32 pp., Winter 1975, $2. Walkin~ Around in South Street; Discoveries in New York's old shippin~ district by Ellen F. Rosebrook. A walking guide to the streets and buildings of the South Street area, including highlights of their past. 68 pp., 1974, $2.80.
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The Autobiography of Captain Stephen Bent 1855-1939, Manuscript Series No. 2, edited by Mark A. Lovewell. The turbulent life of a sai ling ship captain. Mimeographed, limited quantity, 28 pp., Spring 1976, $2.
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The Charles Cooper Sets Out from Calcutta, 1861 (Part One of a Two-part narrative) By Franklin Jordan
(From Voyages by Alfred T. Hill, to be published in January 1977 by David McKay Co., Inc. in cooperation with South Street Seaport Museum)
Eo. Norn: "Franklin Jordan had salt water in his veins," observes his descendant Alfred T. Hill. He made his first voyage in his late uncle Tristram's ship Pepperell of Biddeford, Maine, in 1958 when he was sixteen. After coasting voyages and Atlantic crossings, he shipped aboard the former packet Charles Cooper, now turned to general trading and bound, on this voyage, from England for Calcutta. After a slow, wet passage ("seas were constantly breaking over even in good weather") the Cooper reached Calcutta, and after three months in port, received a charter for the Malabar Coast. That is where Franklin Jordan's journal picks up. The Cooper was built of oak at Black Rock, Connecticut in 1856. She sailed from South Street, New York, as an Antwerp packet, but soon turned to general trading, as noted. In 1866 she was abandoned, leaking, in the Falkland Islands. Her hull survives there to this day, and a report on it appears elsewhere in this issue. "Colombo, in the island of Ceylon," announced the captain as he came over the gangway, and looking aloft he said, "You will now bend sails and get ready for sea." The cargo was next in order and consisted wholly of rice in coarse bags each
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weighing 150 pounds and brought alongside in boats. After shipping a crew and getting the cargo on board we were taken in tow by the steamer Vulcan and were soon rapidly passing down the river; tpe principal use of the steamer was to keep us · in the channel. The current was so powerful and the bends in the channel so crooked it was necessary to have two hawsers out ahead and for the pilot to exercise the utmost vigilance to keep from being dashed on the mud banks and quicksands. On we went, passing Fort William, which guards the city, and a few miles below the ex-king of Onde's palace and grounds. In passing a sharp bend near James and Mary Shoal we struck the edge of a quicksand bar. Both hawsers were parted and the ship turned nearly over; but swinging off with the swift current we let go the sheet anchor with 20 fathoms of chain ( 120 feet) which checked us for a moment. The strain was so great, however, that the whole cable chain, 90 fathoms, (540 feet) , was torn over the windlass and the ship set on fire; and when the chain was all out it tore out the hawse pipe, and the enormous iron links snapped asunder. The situation was most critical, but the pilot did not lose his presence of mind, quietly remarking, "If she turns over, keep on the weather side and when she goes keel up we shall be on the bottom until a boat from the Vulcan can come to our aid." The ship rapidly drifted against another shoal, lying over on her
beam ends, yard arms in the water. It seemed as if our time had come, and the slimy, yellow water began to roll in over the deck, when, to the great relief of all, she gradually righted, falling off the main channel into deep water. "Let go the starboard anchor," said the pilot as unconcernedly as if nothing unusual had occurred. The ship swung head to the current, and we were saved. The day before a fine large ship, homeward bound, had struck on the same quicksand and gone down losing all on board. The passage of the Hoogly to and from Calcutta usually occupies from three to seven days and is one of peculiar danger and hardship. Tides and winds have to be taken advantage of, and even by the aid of steam it is very hazardous. For a steamer to tow us down the river we had to pay 2000 rupees-about $1000.00. But the damage incurred by going ashore was five times that amount. When at anchor a man has to be at the helm, as if at sea, on account of the swift current, which causes a vessel to swing from side to side. Without further mishap we passed the channel light ship, the pilot left us, and we were once more at sea. For two weeks we kept our southward way without any incident of note. A squall now and then with light and variable winds, it was the same old story of scorching sun by day and sultry, sleepless nights. For weeks the thermometer read in the shade midday 95°, midnight 90°. In thirty days we were once more near the equator. Since the harbor of
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Colombo lies in the west side of Ceylon, it was necessary to sail well to the south and east to take advantage of the prevailing winds. Finally Point de Galle, one of the southern capes appeared. Night came on, and under shortened canvas we stood cautiously in. At midnight the foretopsail was laid aback, and the ship rose and fell. The land breeze was laden with odors from cinnamon groves. The spicy gales of the tropics are not all imaginary, and I have known the perfume of flowers to be wafted over the ocean long before land appeared. On some parts of Africa a peculiar dust sprinkles the sails of vessels many leagues from land. In the darkness the sound of oars was heard, and as the splashing grew more distinct a voice hailed, "Who comes?" The sound of rowing ceased, and the answer, "Sahib," came faintly across the water. We lowered the gangway ladder over theside; and, stepping from his light catamaran, a dusky Cinghalcao came nimbly aboard and, making a profound salaam, inquired in good English the name and nationality of the ship. With the dawn we filled away and stood for the harbor. About noon a negro pilot came on board; but, as the harbor is simply an open roadstead, not much skill in maneuvering a vessel was expected of him, and he was only taken on board to comply with law and usage. As soon as the anchor was let go, a boat was alongside and several natives came on board. Several of them spoke pidgin English; and they had for sale fruit, carved work, jewelry, and shells. The island of Ceylon is one of singular beauty and interest; and as it rises from the ocean clothed with the rich luxuriance of tropical vegetation, it seems to the voyager like some enchanted island of eastern story; and so it is, for it is the Taprobane of the Greeks and Romans and the Serondib of the Arabian Nights. Its hills draped with forest of perennial green tower grandly from height to height till they are lost in clouds and mist. Near at hand a sea of sapphire dashes against the battlemented rocks that occur at isolated points, and the yellow strands are shaded by groves of noble palms. Its history goes back to 543 B.C.; its people in customs, costumes, and appearance have remained unchanged since the days of Ptolemy. The men wear petticoats and long hair turned back from the forehead confined with combs, and ear-rings are worn by way of ornament.
Coming back with reluctance to the common things of life, we soon began the work of discharging cargo. The ships lay some two miles from town, and the rice was loaded onto enormous lighters. When all was out, and no freight in sight, we sailed again for Calcutta in ballast, arriving after a passage of six weeks. We were towed opposite the city and into dry dock at Hourah, which of itself is quite a populous village and contains several large docks, machine shops, and foundries. Our ship was newly coppered and repaired, some of the copper having been scraped off when we struck going down the river. A cargo was engaged as soon as we were ready to receive it and our destination-Boston. In a few day we had the cargo all on board, the lower hold being filled with saltpetre and between decks jute, goat skins, castor oil, and indigo. The time drew near for our howeward journey of 20,000 miles across the trackless ocean. The second mate fell sick and was sent home as a passenger but died off the Cape of Good Hope. I was promoted to fill the vacancy. Perhaps my boyhood days should have ended then and there, but I was not yet 21 so these memoranda were kept in force. March 31, 1861-At daylight unmoored from the Bankshall moorings, swung into the stream, and dropped down below the city to Garden Reach, where we came to anchor with 40 fathoms of cable and lay during the night. April I-Steamer Victoria took us in tow as far as Mirapore, where we again anchored for the night and on the fol-
lowing day towed us safely over the dangerous Jam es and Mary Shoal and as far as Diamond Harbor. April 3-At 8: 00 A.M. got underway and proceeded to Hud Point. "We have crossed the Rubicon," and we shall soon see the blue water-a welcome sight-for the sun is fearfully hot by day and insects torment us by night. It is a dreary looking place to anchor. The fast, rushing yellow current goes sweeping by; myriads of mosquitoes fill the air, and sleep is impossible. From all sides comes the bellowing of crocodiles mingled with the yelps of jackals and roaring of wild beasts in distant jungles. April 4-Again got underway and towed as far as Sangor, where the steamer left us. Here we remained another dreary night, making sail at daylight, and at 1 :00 P.M. came to anchor for the last time at the mouth of the river. April 6-Got up anchor, made sail, and stood for the open sea. The pilot brig was standing off and on; and when we came up to her, we backed our main topsail and the pilot bade us good-bye. As soon as he was fairly over the side, the yards were carefully braced and all sail set, and with a light breeze we stretched away for the blue sea. For 30 clays progress was very slow, and we were still 8° north of the equator. May 10-We crossed the equator 40 days from Calcutta. The weather has been squally and the wind light and ahead most of the time. Under better and more favorable circumstances we should have been near the Cape of .t .t .t Good Hope.
Charles Cooper stern, in Falkland Islands, 1966.
Karl Kortum
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