Sea History 013 - Winter 1978-1979

The ingenious w-ays a Mercedes-Benz captures thew-indand uses it to illlprove visibility and colllfort or the engineers of MercedesF Benz, shaping an aerodynamically "clean" car body is only a first basic step.

Their years of wind tunnel experience and the study of automotive aerodynamics have led them to an ingenious second step: harnessing the airflow that swirls constantly over and around a moving car and putting it to efficient use-outside and inside.

Window-cleaning wind

For instance, it wasn't enough for the engineers to give the driver as much side and rear glass as possible, for optimum visibility. They also wanted to keep that glass as clear as possible, come rain or slush or grime. And they went into the wind tunnel in search of ways.

One way can be seen in the unique moldings that frame the windshield, side and rear windows.

They actually form an aerodynamically sophisticated ducting system, carefully angled and channeled to

help divert the airstream away from the side and rear window glasswhisking rain, slush and grime elsewhere.

A fence with a difference Even the rub rail- that horizontal steel and rubber strip on either body side - is meant to play its part in keeping those side windows clean.

Wind tunnel tests showed that, if skillfully shaped and placed, it could also serve as a.fl.ow fence: routing the airflow pattern along the body sides to deflect slush and mud flung up by the front wheels so it can't splatter the side glass.

The engineers used wind-tunnel expertise to control the airflow swirling around the outside rearview mirror. The mirror's windward face is shaped to create an airflow that helps keep the glass free of rain and road film.

Taillights use the wind Aerodynamic research helped Mercedes-Benz engineers harness

the power of the wind to help "scrub" the car's taillights free of slush and mud, keeping them visible longer in foul weather.

With the outer surface of the rear lights deeply ribbed, the recessed vertical areas remain free of deposits since they are not affected by the circulating motion of the vortex.

A simple idea, spawned only after many long hours of testing in the wind tunnel.

Cleaner windshieldcooler brakes

Aerodynamic principles help keep the windshield wipers pressed fast against the glass as they work.

Objective: to prevent high-speed turbulence from suddenly lifting the blades.

The wheels on a Mercedes-Benz are intended less to catch your eye than to capture the wind. Multiple slots in each wheel scoop a steady stream of cooling air to the brakes within.

20 seconds after entering 1------1-passenger compartment, air is ---1----1----+----+-----; extracted through hidden gills.

Fresh air enters passenger area through 1 - - - - - + - - - # - - - + - - - - - + - - - - - 1 - - - intakes placed in high-pressure zone at base of windshield.

Airflow you can feel- inside The ventilation system of a MercedesBenz uses aerodynamics in the cause of human comfort. Its air supply is gathered via intakes placed in a high-pressure zone at the base of the windshield, then ducted into the passenger area.

So carefully is the airflow through the cabin regulated that, although constantly in motion, it is virtually draft-free.

So efficiently is the airflow processed Air circulates so gently inside car that it is virtuallydraftfree- -+----+-----+-----+----+-----i that the cabin's fresh air supply is and so thoroughly that 3 times each minute, completely renewed three times a it is completely renewed. minute.

Starting from numerous forward Moving car harnesses the power of the + - - - - - + - - - - - + - - - - - + - - - - - t - - wind to help ''scrub" the car's taillights free outlets, the air in its 20-second jourofslush and mud. ney circulates around the cabin until drawn into a low-p ressure area at the Sophisticated ducting system aerodynamically rear- then is silently extracted routes rain and slush around and ----+-----t----+------t-''<----t through hidden gills. away from side windows and mirrors, presen â&#x20AC;˘ing 1â&#x20AC;˘isibility.

The bi-level climate control system used in most Mercedes-Benz cars can create a wide range of manmade climates, aided by a radial blower capable of generating eight different levels of airfloweven when the car is standing perfectly still.

Capturing the wind in these ways is an exacting science. But MercedesBenz thinks the resulting subtle gains help make useful contributions to safety and comfort.

And in the search for more efficient automobiles, no step forward can be too small.

0

Horizontal body molding is a ']low fence," meant to use airflow to deflect 1 - - - - - - + - - - - - + - - - - - - 1 - - mud and slush away from - 4 - - - - - + - - - - - i side windows as car splashes along.

Š1978 Mercedes-Benz of North America, Inc., One Mercedes Drive, Montvale, N.J. 07645

AN OGDEN COMPANY

Since 1921, an industry leader in modernizing techniques for the movement of cargo and terminal management.

INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL OPERATING CO., INC. 17 Battery Place, New York, N.Y. 10004 (212) 269-2200

SEA HISTORY No. 13

ISSN 0146-9312

WINTER 1979

OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE WORLD SHIP TRUST PROJECT

EDITOR'S LOG 4 LETTERS 9 EAST RIVER: OF TIME AND TIDE, Peter Stanford 12

A DREAM OF TALL SHIPS IN SOUTH STREET

13

THE SCHOONER BERTA PUTS TO SEA, Francis Bowker

14

THE URBAN WATERFRONT, Anthony Gliedman

16

THE EAST RIVER RENNAISSANCE

19 SHIP TRUST: PROJECT SEA WITCH, Melbourne Smith 22

TOWARD A WORLD SHIP TRUST, Frank Carr

23

LAUNCHING THE SHIP TRUST, Irving Johnson

24

NEEDED ON THE VOYAGE, John Ewald

27

NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY; THE FIFTH STAGE, George Bass

28

SKILLS TRANSFER, Lance Lee

34 SAIL TRAINING 38 HISTORIC SHIPS IN SOUTH AMERICAN WATERS, Norman Brouwer 43 SHIP NOTES: THE ELISSA LEAVES PIRAEUS, Michael Creamer 50 MARINE ART: ANTON OTTO FISCHER, Alex Hurst 54

ASMA NEWS

56 BOOKS: THE BOOK LOCKER, Alfred Hill 63 ON THE FULTON FERRY, Walt Whitman

SEA HISTORY is the journal of the National Maritime Historical Society, an educational, tax-exempt membership organization devoted to furthering the understanding of our maritime heritage. Copyright © -1979 by the National Maritime Historical Society.

OFFICE: 2 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY 11201.

MEMBERSHIP is invited and should be sent to the Brooklyn office: Sponsor, $1 ,000; Patron, $100; Family, $15; Regular, $10; Student or Retired, $5.

CONTRIBUTIONS may be made for any recognized project. Make out checks' 'NMHSShip Trust," indicating on the check the project to which _you wish support to be directed.

OFFICES & TRUSTEES are Chairman: Admiral John M. Will, USN (ret.); President: Peter Stanford; Vice Presidents: Karl Kortum, John Thurman; Secretary: Alan G. Choate; Trustees: Frank 0. Braynard, Norman J. Brouwer, Robert Carl, Alan G. Choate, F. Briggs Dalzell, Harold D. Huycke, Barbara Johnson, Karl Kortum, Edward J. Pierson, Kenneth D. Reynard, Walter F. Schlech, .Jr., Howard Slotnick, Peter Stanford, John N. Thurman, Shannon Wall, Barclay H. Warburton III, John M. Will, Charles Wittholz; President Emeritus: Alan D. Hutchinson.

ADVISORY COUNCIL: Chairman: Frank 0. Braynard, New York Harbor Festival; George Campbell, American Museum of Natural History; Frank G. G. Carr, Cutty Sark Society; Harry Dring, National Maritime Museum at San Francisco; Richard Goold-Adams, Great Britain Restoration; Robert G. Herbert; Melvin H. Jackson, R. C. Jefferson; John Kemble, Pomona College; Rick Miller; Conrad Milster, Pratt Institute, NY; Robert Murphy; John Noble, artist; Capt. David E. Perkins, USCG (ret.); Ralph L. Snow, Bath Marine Museum; John Stobart, artist; Albert Swanson, Commonwealth of Massachusetts; Peter Throckmorton; Alan Villier' , seaman author; Alen York, Antique Boat & Yacht Club.

SHIP TRUST COMMITTEE: International Chairman, Frank Carr; Chairman, Peter Stanford; George Bass; Karl Kortum; Barclay H. Warburton, III; Senior Advisor, Irving M. Johnson.

SEA HISTORY STAFF Editor, Peter Stanford; Managing Editor, Norma Stanford; Associate Editors, Norman J . Brouwer, Francis J. Duffy, Beth Haskell, Ray Heitzmann, Albert Swanson; Advertising Sales, Cindy Goulder; Circulation, Jo Meisner; Membership, Marie Lore.

Above is the inside of NMHS headquarters on the Brooklyn waterfront in New York. Here, Trustee Norman Brouwer, at left, has given a manuscript for your editor to ponder, while associate Editor Ted Miles (now working aboard Moshulu in Philadelphia) looks for answers to a question in some slides.

Brouwer's Falkland Islands Expedition report appears on pages 38-42 in this issue. In our next will appear his report on another hulk in the tide of time, an 18th century ship uncovered in the cellar of the building next door to where he works, as historian at South Street Seaport Museum. We are also coming back for a further look at New York in our next.

Opposite the opening of the East River story on page 9 appears an ad that carries the message we get from the river we work by . Not by sheer accident, in that ad Mr. DiMaggio is standing before the river, on the NMHS pier. The ships of South Street can be seen behind him .

Inspired by this kind of thing, we offer our plan for the river on page 16-a scheme knit up of heady dreaming and hard work by citizens on both banks of the river whose traffics built the New World's greatest city. PS

COVER: "Towing Out-End of Sail in the East River," by John A. Noble, who this year celebrates his fiftieth anniversary as artist of New York harbor, shows a schooner on her final departure in 1939. "You poor vessel passing under the bridge with your tattered foreign crew are the end of American sail, " notes the artist. From the collection of Herbert Tucker of Bayonne, New Jersey.

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEW YORK

WASHINGTON , D. C.

SAN FRANCISCO

LETTERS High Goals ... Bottomless Energies The Ship Trust is a vital project, which thanks to your bottomless energies is certain to be transformed from bright promise into enduring reality. The beneficiaries, of course, will be those future generations of Americans for whom our remaining great ships would have otherwise become but a misty legend of the past. My best wishes to all hands at the National Society for the success of your unheralded but heroic effort to preserve as an integral part of the national historic fabri c these tangible reminders of our maritime heritage .

OTIS PRATT PEARSALL Brooklyn, New York God Bless the Boatswain! was Captain of the Mirfac when she took a cargo of equipment south from New York to Puerto Belgrano for your Falkland Islands Expedition last year.

You may not reali ze how close we came to losing your gear. After leaving New York we hit a tremendous winter storm off the coast. Your cargo was stowed in the only available space, forward portside on the maindeck . We had a hair-raising four days of continuous high seas with a tremendous amount to water crashing down on the foredeck.

We lost some of our deck cargo, but the Boatswain had secured yours real good because it was still in place when the storm was over .

I am glad we played our part in the team effort that made the expedition a success. I did not reali ze how important the cargo was until I read your report!

JOHN W. AHRENS Captain, USNS Wilkes An Anchor's an Anchor, for a' That The Fall issue, I note with pleasure, keeps up the improvement of each issue over the last. And each one seems to contain an error of some sort to engage my Advisory capacity for nit-pickin' correction, this issue being no exception.

Messrs . Berryman and Rubin state in their article on the Bonhomme Richard search, "On the bows was a bower and a sheet anchor . .. " She did carry an anchor on each bow, but they were the Best Bower (Second Ancre) usually carried on the starboard bow, and the Small or Least Bower (Ancre d'Affourche) on the other bow. The sheet anchor (Anchora Jacra of the ancients) got its name from its stowed location abaft the fore rigging about where the fore sheet came through the bulwarks : Being the heaviest anchor in the ship, it was named the Maitresse Ancre, but it was known as 4

l' Ancre Desperance because it was used as a final resort, not as a working anchor .

As an added note of possible interest, when the classification societies (Lloyd's, Bureau Veritas, etc.) worked up their standards, anchor weights were based on the Best Bower size in accordance with the vessel's tonnage. The Small Bower could be not less than 7 !12 percent less than the weight of the Best Bower and the Sheet Anchor be at least the same percentage greater than the Best Bower. Today both bowers are the same size and her engines are a steamer's Sheet Anchor. But they still carry Stream and Kedge Anchors .

ROBERT G . HERBERT, JR. East Northport, New York The Delaware Built, as I understand, for the duPonts in Delaware for the oystering trade in 1912, the 75-foot centerboard

schooner Delaware was sailed by my family and me in Long Island Sound in the early 1950s, without engine. She then went into taking passengers on Sound cruises, and in 1964 was bought by John Hordines, who used her as a base for a group of cadets he recruited from students at the New York Institute for the Blind, where he was a teacher.

She's now lying in Eastchester Bay, New York, in pretty poor shape. Mr. Hordines lives nearby and keeps an eye on her. Isn't she worth someone's time and effort to pick up and restore?

I've always had a romance with the sea ... and Delaware helped my family to learn and share it with me.

BRUCE ELLIOTT ROBERTS New Smyrna Beach, Florida Dependable Ugly Ducklings Robert T. Young's "Lessons of the Liberties" (SH 11) brought back memories. I was assigned to my first ship, the Liberty Ovid Butler, as a 17-year old in the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union in San Francisco. The Butler was built in 1944 by Permanente Metals in Richmond, California, Shuttling around the Pacific in her, we rode out five typhoons. At the height of the typhoon of 9 October 1945, when the wind reportedly exceeded 176 MPH, two

other ships drifted into us. One of them carried away our port anchor. We drifted onto a ledge near the beach (at low tide we could go down a Jacobs ladder and walk ashore) . We were able to get off after a couple of days with the aid of the starboard anchor and an exceptionally high tide. In the process 2 of 4 blades of the propeller were badly bent.

Divers had to cut off approximately 2' off of one blade and 1 !12' off of another to prevent their striking the hull. We returned to San Pedro under our own power. The crew felt it was one rugged ship. I also remember a Liberty ship in Buckner Bay, Okinawa, that was being used as a port director ship. It had been torpedoed admidships at the waterline.

You could row a boat in and out of that hole. I forget the ship's name, but it was still afloat when we left Okinawa for the US . The Liberties may have been ugly, but most of us felt that they were dependable .

KENNETH D. SAYLOR Severna Park, Maryland Huge Searchlights ... Dark Shores The striking cover of SEA HISTORY 10 interests me as a long-time lover of the Hudson. I would like very much to have a color reproduction of William G. Muller's painting of the Alexander Hamilton, used on the cover, and other Muller paintings used to illustrate "The Hudson Heritage of the Hudson River Steamer" in that issue. Is this possible?

The list of surviving steamers by Norman Brouwer in SH 10 is a good thing to have. I have often wondered what happened to some of these old river steamers . As a child, I sailed with my mother on the Robert Fulton, which boasted in a glass case the original bell of the Clermont, and a mural of her passage upriver in i'807; the Washington Irving, with murals of the Headless Horseman; and the night liners Trojan and Renssae/er, with huge searchlights illuminating the dark shores as the boat passed northward through the Highlands. What memories! We sailed also on the City of Keansburg, which appears to be the only survivor. Can't she be bought and kept as a museum?

J. OWEN GRUNDY City Historian Jersey City, New Jersey

1. Prints of Muller's Alexander Hamilton and three others used in Si-I 10 will soon be available on order from NMHS. 2. The National Society hopes indeed that the Keansburg can In saved, perhaps at the proposed Mid-Hudson Maritime ¡ Center we are working to establish. -ED. SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

Island Steamers is OK! I have long hoped for a book devoted to the steamers which sailed to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Messrs. Morris and Morin have given us such a book in Island Steamers. To see it reviewed as "a pleasant blend," "cocktail table fare," and "easy entertainment" (SH IO, 39) seems short shrift for a fine effort.

ROBERT S. FORBES Newark, Delaware

We also believe this to be a valuable and engaging book, and all of us including the reviewer wish its qualities had been better brought out in this review.-ED Unafraid of Challenge I'm very interested in supporting historic ships. At this point, I haven't the money for donations. In time, I will. I am sending yo u photos of some of my paintings of ships that I have studied . I do not plan on stopping-they are goi ng to get better.

I hope in time you will find some work for me to do, to help historic ships. The tall ships-the ships of the ages-are close to my heart, so I'm not afraid of the challenges you may have to offer.

CAROLYN POLIONI Livermore, Calif.

Here are Carolyn and her painting of the Westward.-ED.

generously the fruits of his research; he certainly broadened my horizons.

Best wishes for the success of this venture.

ANDREW J. NESDALL Waban, Massachusetts In Whose Wake?

I was all set to sign on for your voyage.

Then I noticed your appeal: "We sail in the wake of men before our time."

Men? It's too bad when a heritage is interpreted by a mentality that ignores women who have sai led our ships, and all who sail them now.

ANN LURIE BERLIN New York, New York

Mary Patton took command of the clipper Neptune's Car when her husband the skipper was unable to carry on in a tough Cape Horn passage; Joanna Colcord, brought up in a Down Easter in the Cape Horn trade, became our leading scholar of sea songs. But note the sex ratio in the letter below! We thought of saying "in the wake of people" but -does it say the same thing?-ED There are about 115 of us old sailors fortunate to be able to live at the new Sailors' Snug Harbor here, which moved from New York a few years back. Four

Sf â&#x20AC;˘\ HISTORY

Lyman's Genius a nd Legacy To the Editor: News that you are bringing out a memorial editon of John Lyman's Log Chips is welcome indeed. I was one of the small group of charter subscribers thirty years ago to a publication unlike anything I had seen before. Here, in the simplest possible formal, was a cornucopia of scholarly articles, all written by the editor and publisher, and, as he once gratefully acknowledged, cranked out on a mimeograph machine by his wife. The lists of ship launchings are particularly valuable and useful and not obtainable elsewhere.

John's geniut> and legacy are in Log Chips, his only published work in the marine field that I know of, except for a list of West Coast-built sailing vessels which he compiled and which was printed originally in Americana and later by the San Diego Historical Society. I shall always be grateful to John for sharing so SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

of them are women who sailed in the steward's department aboard ship.

One fellow celebrated his IOOth birthday last April, and several in their eighties and nineties recall the call on sailing ships. Many of us are Johnnycome-latelies in our sixties and seven ties who sai led in engine and boiler rooms, shoveling coal and oiling up-and-down (reciprocating) engines.

And some of us love to hear old sea chanties. So I have enclosed orders for the X Seamen's booklet of sea songs, and their record "Heart of Oak . ' JAMES MONROE STARK Sailors' Snug Harbor Sea Level, North ¡Carolina For Want of a TrunneI ...

As a retired professional model builder, I am working with the Mariners Museum of Newport News, Virginia, on a project to collect and put into book form as well as on microfilm, all the information we can get on the lesser-known items carried and used aboard ship in the past two hundred years: blocks, ship's lights, anchors and the like .

One fine little book that came out several years ago is John Kochiss's histo ry of deadeyes as made in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia (where this art survives today). All the gear that goes to

Come Sail with Us!

Every issue of SEA HISTORY takes you on a voyage of discovery in the wide world of our seafaring heritagea voyage full of challenge and reward.

Sign on today ... and help keep alive the ships, disciplines and arts of our voyaging pastand stay in touch with others who care.

To: National Maritime Histo rical Society 2 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 I want to help your work and receive your quarterly journal SEA HISTORY . Enclosed are my dues as: D $10 Regular D $1,000 Sponsor D $100 Patron D $5 Student/ Retired

NAME ADDRESS

5

LETTERS the running of a ship goes through transitions, and these particularly we wish to record. We are interested in catalogs from marine companies and ship's chandlers who made and handled this equipment, in the USA as well as abroad, up to 1950. We would be glad to have copies, where the original must be retained, and will pay copying costs.

Both the Museum and I feel that in these days of synthetics it is important that a record be kept so that the many small parts of ships that were vital to their operations not be lost forever.

Those who have access to materials on this, or leads to suggest, are invited to be in touch with me at the address shown.

THOMAS E. TRAGLE, JR. 211 Florence Drive Hampton, Virginia 23666 Tel.: (804) 826-4290 Submarine at Gosport In reference to your listing "Historic Warships of the Wor ld " there is an additional German WWII midget submarine preserved in Gosport, England, at HMS Dolphin. I don't remember the class but believe it to be a two-man type as you have listed.

J . VOROSMARTI Captain, MC, USN Rockville, Maryland

A Voice from the Deep I hesitate to correct a master. But when Frank Braynard says in the new edition of his Famous American Ships (see "Books") that only the SS United States and the two Queens were faster than the Sea-Land's SL-7 containerships, surely he errs? The SL-7's have averaged 33 knots in ocean crossings of both Atlantic and Pacific . Isn't that faster than the

Queens?

TOM BOWLINE Davy Jones Locker

You got me-dead to rights! Only the United States is faster than the SL-7.

FRANK 0. BRA YNARD Art Stirs Memories of Tall Ships John Stobart's painting "South Street

by Gaslight," (SH 11, 36) reminds me strongly of the view a long Delaware Avenue, Philadelphia, when I first saw it in 1904-lined with sailing ships and full of wagons.

In 1911 I was AB aboard the threemaster Mary B. Baird, owned by Johnson May & Son, ship chandlers on South Delaware Avenue. She was built for a four-master but they went short on money and made her a three-master, I believe the largest on the East Coast. We carried coal from Philadelphia to Key West, where they were building a rail-

SEA HISTORY PRINTS Announces a limited-edition of signed and numbered full-color lithographic art prints of the great sidewheel excursion steamboat Grand Republic from a painting by the noted marine artist

WILLIAM G. MULLER

Built in 1879 with a capacity for 4,000 passengers, the majestic Grand Republic was the largest steamboat ever constructed exclusively for excursion service in the Port of New York. She is shown rounding Dunderberg Mountain while heading south through the Hudson River Highlands in 1918 under ownership of the McAllister Steamboat Company.

Print image size 16 3/â&#x20AC;˘" x 25". Signed print, $30. Signed and remarqued print, $85. Order from:

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY 2 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 212-858-1348 6

road. Then we went to Fernandina, Florida, and took on a load of lumber for Philadelphia. Fernandina Harbor was a busy place with sc hooners anchored off waiting for a place on the docks .

In Philadelphia it was a beautiful sight to see the Sewall Line five masters, Arthur Sewall, Edward Sewall and Erskine M. Phelps. They ran around the Horn to San Francisco loaded with coal from the Reading Railroad dock s at Port Richmond .

In those days the Navy had three square riggers used as training ships for . merchant marine officers. I was in the Saratoga of Philadelphia, under Captain Hartley who went on to command the Leviathan after World War II. GUY E. BARRON Tampa, Florida For None of Us Liveth to Himself Enclosed is a check for the work of the Ship Trust Committee. My husband, filled with a love of sailing, ships and the sea recently joined the National Society.

He enjoyed SEA HISTORY and had expressed interest in Your Committee. The sta ff and faculty of the Canandaigua Elementary School would like to make this contribution in memory of Andrew B. Harkness, who died May 19, 1978.

DOROTHY M. HARKNESS Canandaigua, New York Captain Kenneth W. Johnson, Jr., one of New York's best ship pilots, was killed at sea in 1978 in the January storm after taking a ship to sea and whi le waiting on his pilot boat to pick up another pilot.

I want to renew his membership in memory of him and have SEA HISTORY sent to his son, Dirk.

SUSAN MITCHELL Brooklyn, New York

Captain Kenneth W. Johnson was lost in a blizzard in the early hours of January 20, 1978, in a 37-foot boat later washed ashore on the Jersey beaches, after he had completed piloting a St. Croixbound tanker to Sandy Hook. Born in 1935 in Huntington, Long Island, Captain Johnson graduated from the New York State Maritime Academy in 1958 and subsequently earned his license to pilot any size ship in Long Island Sound, New York and St. Croix harbors. Jn his spare time, he restored his grandfather's 75-year old yawl Nellie H, which took part in Operation Sail-1976. Past president of the Huntington Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, he was also a former violinist with the Huntington Symphony. -ED SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

An artist's rendering of the future Fulton Mall : widened , decorative sidewalks; trees; bus shelters; kiosks; and no cars only bus traffic.

-

Fulton Mall

The look oi tomorrow's Brooklyn.

The oldest is now the scene of the newest.

Fulton Street, Brooklyn's oldest thoroughfare, is the site of the coming Fulton Mall, the first major downtown shopping mall in New York City Now under construction by the City after a decade of planning , the Mall is a prime example of downtown Brooklyn's new spirit of revitalization.

When the eight-block Mall is finished , shoppers will stroll along beautiful sidewalks of brick pavers. Pedestrians will have nearly double the room they have now. And vehicu lar traffic wil l be limited to buses on ly.

There wil l be many amen1t1e s on the M. iii over 100 shade trees , 40-foot-long bu s shelters. benches , water fountains , and kiosks .

The Mall 's symbol - the letter "F" in the form of a paddle wheel - reminds us that Robert Fulton and the New York harbor are part of the history of Fulton Street. The design also suggests a point of convergence: Shoppers have been converging on Fulton Street from the earliest days and are continuing to do so during construction.

Thus, Brooklyn 's major shopping st reet is prospering as it becomes beautiful Fulton Mall.

Fulton Mall Improvement Association 409 Fulton Street, Brooklyn , N.Y. 11201 â&#x20AC;˘ 21 2/852-5118

"This city "Wasn't built by frightened people.

And frightened people \Von't save it~' - Joe DiMaggio for The Bowery Why do the people with the least faith in New York have the loudest voices?

People needing to dream. People needing a chance.

People needing to do it their way.

These past years people who never made a clutch hit in their lives for New York have done a job at putting it down ... while some fl ed the city ... and some hid behind locked doors.

That's why New York is unique. That's why no one who hasn't tried to make it here can understand the way we work.

But this city never gave up, never stopped building.

Because building is what New York is all about.

We built communities. A community of minorities.

Cities do die. Today we have a choice. We can choose whether New York lives or dies. Choose life!

Like the tides around it, New York rises and falls.

Looks like the tide 's up. We 're going to be all right.

Scenes from our city. A 90-second television film for the people of ew York from Th e Bowery Savings Bank .

TH!)OWE~

Of Time and Tide in New York's East River

By Peter Stanford

The tide in the river outside the windows of the National Maritime Historical Society's headquarters is slack this winter morning. The towers of Lower Manhattan across the way are mirrored in the still water between ice-bearded shores, and for a quarter-hour it seems that the great city, always in motion as seen across the running tide, is at rest. Here, where Cornelis Dircksen ran his ferry between Brooklyn and Manhattan some three hundred years ago, is a good place to see New York as a city voyaging through time.

In Dircksen's time the ferry served a European outpost embedded in the Indian economy of fishing and hunting-called "Indian" because the first Europeans thought they' d found the outskirts of the sought-for Indies on these shores.

In succeeding centuries the outpost became gateway to an empire richer than the Indies, and this tidal reach became a highway carrying ships to the world's four corners .

The seaborne commerce brought in on the diurnal slopping of the Atlantic tides jammed the river with tall-masted vessels and made its waterfront streets and taverns famous in sailors' song and story. It has receded now . There are active freight piers running south from here, and great containerports established since World War II on creeks and estuaries feeding into the Upper Bay. But one of the tankers lying off Staten Island moves about a thousand tons of oil for each ton the Wavertree, a square-rigged museum ship lying at South Street across the river, carried when she last left this port in March 1895, bound out with case oil for India.

The city has other businesses than moving physical cargoes, however. And the Wavertree's presence is testimony to that fact, in ways which we perhaps have not yet fully begun to see.

Ten thousand New Yorkers contributed to bring her back to

the river in 1970. This year she will be rerigged, with funds earned through the visit of the world's sail training ships to our port in Operation Sail-1976. Around her other ships of her age have gathered . And waterfront shops and taverns are beginning to flourish again on the business brought to the old port by these ships.

Underused land has new value as result; offices and apartments around South Street Seaport Museum are fully occupied. A marina north of the Museum to accommodate visitors by boat is planned-and needed! New shops and restaurants are opening on the Brooklyn shore, and in rallies of sailing vessels on Sea Day each spring, both river banks are again forested with masts. Trial runs have been held of a pedestrian ferry expected to open this summer. Sailing vessels will take children in larger numbers to the Gateway Beaches, a program run on a limited basis these past three years. And the State of New York has acquired Empire Stores for development as a public center on the Brooklyn waterfront, assuring room for the full riverine program .

This making tide of interests in the East River is not in full flow yet. Here we report on its beginnings.

The revival of the East River waterway is based on a deeper need of man than the commerce that it breeds: the need man has to know himself, to understand his experience . This he can do only when he comes to grips with what has gone on before his time, when he enters into the full inheritance of work, learning and art across the generations . Probably, as we now think, that is the need which led to the establishment of the first cities. That primal need is the force behind this new surge of commitment to the life of the city.

Illustration a/ lop of page shows New York throwing a roadway across the great sea-avenue of the East River. From "Opening Ceremonies of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, May 24, 1883, "privately published in Brookly n, 1883.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

9

When in 1609 Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, had driven his Hal ve Maen 150 miles up the river later named for him, he sent a boat ahead to confirm that the arm of the sea he had sailed into was in fa ct a river, and not a sea passage through the land that lay in his path to the Indies. So he turned back. Two years later, on a voyage into what we now call Hudson 's Bay, he was abandoned by his crew when he ordered them onward after a hard winter in the ice, seeking his way to the Pacific northabout. (It was left to the rebuilt tanker Manhattan to make that Northwest Passage successfully, with armored bows and thousands of horsepower, three and a half centuries later.) He confronts us, calm and prophetic in this romantic 19th-century engraving, facing his fate in a ship's small boat with his ten year-old son and six loyal seamen.

None of them were ever seen again.

Hudson had made careful notes of the thriving Indian economy ht! found in New York Harbor and up the Hudson River. Others followed in his wake to pick up cargoes of beaver and otter skin brought to the ships by Indian canoe. Adriaen Block built ourfirst ship here in 1614, the Onrust (appropriately, " Restless") when his Tijgre burnt in port (some of her timbers were recovered and are exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York) . Ten years later, in 1624, the first party of permanent settlers arrived, not to scatter and make fruitful the land, but to build a little seaport city.

Here that city is in 1626, in the first picture we have of New York, probably drawn by Cryn Fredericksz who was sent lo lay out the town by the Dutch West Indiu Company. The picture was reversed in engraving 25 years later; here we have set it right, with a landmark windmill on the Hudson shore, a fort (which was never completed on this scale) at the tip of the island, and a se//lement of about thirty houses straggling down to the muddy East River shore. The Indian traffics by canoe fit naturally in this scene. Indians brought in food and fur for trade, and maintained the vital communications of the seaport; they ran the semaphore system that signaled ships arriving off Sandy Hook until after the English takeover of the town in 1664. The Europeans also have their own small craft, a rowing wherry and sailing Jach/ fit for local explorations; their tall ships are anchored in the offing.

Courtesy, Stokes Collection, NY Public Library.

By 1643 the traffic in ships led to the building ofa seamen's tavern on the northern edge of the town; such were the traffics that in that year Father Jogues, a Roman Catholic missionary returning from Indian captivity far lo the north, reported eighteen languages spoken in the streets! Ten years later this tavern was made the Siad Huys, or City Hall, seen here in 1697 on a built-up foreshore. The discourse in its halls was not improved by its new status: New York's polyglot people were constantly involved in litigation and rebellious acts, and early earned their town a name as the most noisy and quarrelsome of colonial cities-al/ of which may have contributed to the removal of the capital 150 miles upriver to Albany!

Museum of the City of NY.

In I7I7, when William Burgis gave us the superb portrait above of East River shipping, the town had grown to 6,000 in population.

Smaller than Boston or Philadelphia, but growing steadily as flour, timber and other products.from newly sel/led Hudson River, New Jersey and Connecticut farms flowed into the port for shipment to Europe. Shipbuilding was pursued on the northern edge of selllement; by 1776 it is estimated over a third of the British merchant fleet was built on this shore of the ocean.

Two great wars affected New York's growth: the Seven Years ' War, opening in 1754, which gave the port a bustling business as base for

The East River as drawn by Baron Klinckowstrom in 1814 shows, at 1he end of 1he re-hash War of 1812, a waterway that has become the leading seaporl of the New World. Robert Fulton's ferry links Brookly n and Manhallan shores, and sloops and schooners drying lheir sails after a rainstorm show how ullerly the city lived on waterways traffics. The clearing summer sky in this piclure opened halcyon days for New York. In 1818 the first regular transatlantic packet service, the Black Ball Line, opened from piers across 1he way; by 1849, when the first American clipper ship reached London, the Times of London noted that a giant across the ocean had been unshackled.

Courtesy, Stokes Collection, NY Public Library.

From a sea captain's rooftop in 1837, we look down Brooklyn's Furman Street to the right, and across the water to a city grown to f!,reatness. Schermerhorn Row, a landmark of Manhattan's South Street waterfront (caught in a beam of light in Klinckowstrom 's drawing, just above the smoke plume of a river steamer), may be seen just to the left of the gleaming facade of the US Hotel, above the s1eamer's plume in this view. Courtesy, Eno Collection, NY Public Library.

Schermerhorn Row can be seen through the masts of tall Down Easters clustered in J.H. Beal's panorama (below) made from the Brooklyn pier of !he Brooklyn Bridge while ii was under cons/ruction in 1876. They survive loday, long neglected bUI easily the mos/ important buildings of the city, inherilors of its growth to grea/ness on Eas/ River Ira/fies. Courtesy, Museum of the City of NY.

British /feels and armies, and !he American Revo/utfon, which brought flee/ and army back to sweep !he Conlinential Army right out of New York. It was saved by the skin of its teeth in evacuation across this part of the river. Peace in 1783 found New York a shambles, half its buildings destroyed and with a greatly reduced population made up largely of harlols, busboys and hangers-on of the army of occupation. New Yorkers rebuilt with remarkable energies in freedom, however, and within six weeks had their first ship under way for China-with which they were now at last free to trade. Courtesy, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Seaport Museum

A Dream of Tall Ships in South Street New Yorkers dreamt and talked of the days when bowsprits arched over South Street, a street that led to the world's four corners. One John Nicholson wrote a Jetter to the Herald Tribune in 1957, calling for action to save the surviving "slope-roofed buildings with their memories of fast sailing ships in the Cape Horn trade."

In 1966, a band of citizens (a later survey showed their median age was 24, median income $5,000) formed Friends of South Street. By the spring of 1967 they had formed a museum and found a chairman in the shipping leader Jakob Isbrandtsen; before the year ended a companion State Museum had come into being under the leadership of Admiral John M. Will.

They filled the streets with life and brought in ships: the fishing schooner Howard, the original Ambrose lightship, the great square rigger Wavertree, the coasting schooner Pioneer, which sails today with young people learning old lessons that prove valuable in today's job market. They gathered support for their impossible dream and by 1973 had achieved a balanced budget, investing more than half the annual income in restoration work. And that year they secured their first three blocks of land. A NY Times editorial noted: "The dreamers turned out to be realists."

~ ~ ...J

0

°'<

u

Above, a young member looks over lee Kiil's model in 1966. Below, USCGC Eagle visits the new museum in Schermerhorn Row.

Below, ships of South Street: ferry Maj. Gen. Wm. H . Hart, Wavertree, Peking, visiting Barba Negra at end of pier, Ambrose lightship, Robert Fulton with Lettie G. Howard' s masts rising behind, Aqua (since hauled out ashore), visiting steam launch Kestrel. Photo, Port Authority of NY & NJ. ~~

e-

The Seaport Museum was founded eleven years ago through the vision of Peter Stan ford, its first president, and the courage of Jakob lsbrandtsen, its first chairman . There were many others present at its launching, and from the beginning all had to battle legal restraints and real estate speculations that nearly closed the Seaport in its first few years. But the concept of the South Street Seaport proved too timely and too strong. A museum of the "rise of the Port of New York" was to exist in and among the still standing buildings and piers where that drama took place.

Unlike many other museums we did not have to import the artifacts of our history. Rather, the ships were brought back here, where they once worked. Our nine-block area of nineteenth-century commercial architecture ancJ. East River piers had itself seen a century and a half of the city's growth, and thus fit the clear mission of the institution . The Seaport became the largest restoration project ever attempted in the City of New York. South Street-which was traditionally known in the world's ports as the Street of Ships-would again possess, at least in part, the flavor of the years when sailing ships crowded the city's piers.

Before New York was a city, it was a port. Because of the port it became the greatest city in the world for commerce, finance, communications, the arts, and, of course, shipping. With well over 64 million tons of cargo each year New York shipping still moves goods of twice the value of that handled by any other port city in the United States.

It is ultimately the ships and the sea which put New York in touch with the entire globe and the westward reach of the American continent. The highway of the sea remains vital to the world's trade, despite the success of air commerce and the explorations of the uncertain ceiling of the sky. Our perceptions of that old highway have changed. The sea and its relationship to urban life are beginning to interest us anew.

JOHN B. HIGHTOWER President South Street Seaport Museum

The above is an extract from Mr. Hightower's report to members in the Fall J978 Seaport, the new quarterly magazine of the Seaport Museum.

Membership is $15, SSSM, 203 Front Street, New York NY 10038.

w w w

"This Museum Is People, " a history of the Museum 's early days, is available from NMHSfor$1.

12

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

Thejj_rst to leave New York in 35 y_ears . ..

The Schooner Berta Puts to Sea

By Francis E. Bowker The day before the Berta's official sailing date of November 20, Captain Bowker came down/rom Mystic Seaport, in Connecticut, where he is master of the schooner yacht Brilliant, and talked with the Captain-Jim Lewis -skipper and part-owner of the first schooner known to have departed New York with cargo since 1943. Captain Bowker had been aboard the steamer that picked up survivors of that earlier voyage! And as readers of his books Hull Down and Deepwater Coaster know, he had been in schooners himself be/ore that. A leading spirit of the sail training movement today, Captain Bowker is involved in Mystic's project to build a new Alice S. Wentworth -the coasting schooner lost while in the National Society's keeping five years ago. The Berta actually sailed by first light November 21, to get a good offing by daylight, leaving Bi// Bowker with some deeply stirring thoughts to share.

A new day for commercial sailing ships?

As I stood on the deck of the threemasted schooner Berta, gazed into her clean-swept cargo hold and talked to Captain Jim Lewis, her master, my mind went back to the big coasting schooners in which I served during the 1930s, until Pearl Harbor sent me into steam. I remembered the voices of captains eking out a scant living as they and their vessels aged together! "There'll come a day when fuel will become so expensive that sail will come back. The wind is free."

The Berta of Ibiza, a fine, sturdy schooner built at Ibiza, in the Balearic IslaTJds, Spain, in 1945 has been rebuilt, rerig ged and, under Panamanian registry, is seeking legitimate cargoes as an ocean-going tramp. Last summer it was a cargo of antique furniture, bought on speculation and brought from Spain to New¡ York, where it was sold at a modest profit.

On November 20 the Berta loaded a cargo of Chesebrough Pond products bound from Brooklyn to Trinidad. The freight on this cargo was competitive with steamship rates and the fact that it might take an extra week on passage was of little concern. Berta has 260 diesel horses, in her Joshua Hendy engine, to push her through the "Horse Latitudes" at eight knots . But she is rigged to sail, with gaff lowers, a full complement of headsails, gaff topsails and fisherman staysails. This is no old worn out hull but a sound vessel with the best of sails and rigging and good electronic navigating equipment.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

Berta al Fulton Ferry landing pier, Brooklyn, NMHS building al right. Photo, P. Davia Weiss. Below, Berta with South Street ships and Manha/Ian skyline behind. Photo, Amy

Davis, Brooklyn Heights Press.

Berta's registered length is 110 feet.

Gross tonnage 162, net 117. She carries permanent ballast and has cargo capacity for 150 tons . The vessel is framed in oak and olive of massive size. Captain Lewis tells me she has 12 inch frames 20 inches on centers, iron knees, 4 Yi inch oak planking and 3 inch ceiling, all galvanized-iron fastened . The decks are of pitch pine and are trunneled. There are two hatches, each with a hoisting engine.

She caries two 600 lb. stock anchors.

Berta's quarters are simple, clean and commodious. Crews' are under deck forward and there are six double berths .

Aft is a wheelhouse, the after part of which contains a galley on one side and head on the other; the wheel and navigating equipment occupy the forward end. Below is a tidy four-berth cabin and chart table.

Shilon Navigation Company are owners of the vessel, held through 100 shares, among ten shareholders . Several of the crew hold shares. It hardly seems that this operation would justify investment by one looking for a steady income but time will tell. Under Panamanian registry the Berta can be operated on

shares and the crew subsist on what profits they can split. Under US registry and laws relating to wages and conditions Berta's freight to Trinidad would not go far, but the spirit of the sea is in these people; the spirit sailing men have always had if they were to survive.

The last known cargo to leave New York under sail in ocean trade was probably aboard the four-masted schooner Constellation which sailed for South Africa in July 1943. She was wrecked on the reefs off Bermuda on July 30, 1943. I was third mate in the S.S . George Washington in which her crew were repatriated . In this manner I may have participated in the end of the old era of sail and stood on the decks of one starting a new era.

Is it possible those old captains were right? Has the cost of fuel and engines and labor increased to the breaking point where ships powered by God's free wind can outbid ships powered by expensive fuel and high overhead? There may be a place for a few small craft such as Berta of Ibiza, sailing to small ports for small cargoes, but before large sailing craft can ever compete in bulk or general freight there will be an upheaval no mariner or shipowner will ever forget. Until that day let us hope that small operations such as Berta's and, soon, that of the John F. Leavitt, now building for the coasting trade in Thomaston , Maine, can prosper in their own way and keep the traditions of sail and sailorizing alive .

Ships such as Berta of Ibiza, Captain Jim Lewis and his crew, are willing to show the way back to a simpler way of life. It remains to be seen if their way is a way to success and survival. w 13

The Urban Waterfront: A Shining Asset for New York

By Anthony Gliedman, Commissioner The Department of Ports and Terminals City of New York

Throughout history, water has been the avenue of growth and commerce for civilizations-and nowhere is this more true than in New York City. New York began as a harbor city and continues as our leading seaport. But sadly, the harbor's main economic functions shifted from the inner city. We built highways along our shores and relegated the waterfront to a decaying economy that has led to an abandoned and forbidding notion of the waterfront.

But that phase too is coming to a close, as New Yorkers, led by Mayor Koch, begin an exciting rediscovery of the city's waterfront-and efforts spring up throughout the city to return the waterfront to its full place in the city's life . The city ' s 578 miles of urban waterfront was once an economy of sailing ships, river steamers, and ferries that made the waterfront very much a place for people. New Yorkers swam, fished, arrived and departed in boats, came down to shop, stroll, gossip and catch up on the news on that old waterfront. It is that "communion with the water-

The Bridge and topless towers of Manhattan 's World Trade Center, seen from the once-bustling Empire Stores waterfront, which will be revived under State and City plans pioneered by citizens.

Photo, Robert Gambee, from Manhattan Seascape.

front" that the Koch administration hopes to recapture.

Even as New York's harbor continues to play a vital economic role, much of it can be developed for many other uses.

The demand for public access is not only compatible with full economic development-it is vital. So we look for the development of a variety of experiences with the water, and for engaging programs that celebrate and revive the historic, intimate relationship between the city and the water.

The East River around the Brooklyn Bridge is one of the areas where oppor-

The fortunes of millions rest on the banks of the East River.

The East River Renaissance offers a wealth of opportunities for the people of Brooklyn, New York City and the entire nation . It taps the richness of an area whose vast potential has yet to be realized . And thanks to the efforts of forwardminded organizations like the National Maritime Historical Society, the East River area in the shadows of the Brooklyn Bridge will once again be in the limelight. Because before there was a Manhattan skyline, there was a thriving port where ships brought hundreds of people to Brooklyn each day. And now that the Manhattan side has generated so much attention, the East River Renaissance proves there are two sides to every story. This project is a new chapter in the start of a rebirth not only of Brooklyn, but also of the millions of people who will take advantage of the wonders of the Brooklyn waterfront.

Abraham and Straus

Brooklyn • Queens • Hemps1ead • Manhasset • Babylon • Huntington • Smith Haven • Monmoulh • Paramus • Woodbridge

14

tunity for action is real and imminent.

The South Street Seaport Museum, south of the Bridge on the Manhattan shore, led the way when it opened just twelve years ago, with headquarters in an abandoned fish stall. Today the Seaport Museum and the City are engaged in a major renewal project which is bringing people back into Lower Manhattan and to the water. Across the river in Brooklyn, a riverside park built and maintained by the River Cafe-a now famous restaurant in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge-has been opened. The National Maritime Historical Society operates a small museum and runs public programs in a former fireboat house and pier. Each of these faci lities are located on waterfront property owned by the City of New York and we are proud to have been a part of their pioneering efforts .

The near future holds much that is exciting. On the Manhattan shore the Department of Ports and Terminals has proposed the development of a major marina facility between the "Two Bridges" and other ideas abound for the full development of the Empire Stores property north of the Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn shore, and a revived Fulton Ferry to bind the two shores together in a waterborne link contributing in exciting ways to the experience of the whole area.

Walt Whitman wrote memorably, in words that live today, of the experience of that crossing by ferry. Mayor Koch has said more simply that he would like to be remembered as the Mayor who "brought the waterfront back to New Yorkers".

Working in partnership with citizen leaders and activists, like the East River Renaissance, is an exciting challenge which we look forward to in the months ahead. w SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

A Great Escape ...

Manhattan Seasrape -V.,..,ArooodNew \lirlc

Romanticism lives! That image of and what Brooklyn Heights shou ld from our Promenade w ith its Dionysian Henry 's End , refl cctsa ll that. A wonderful entrees sandwiches , and desserts created Becomingfamousas:. . . .

what Damon Runyon 's " Big Apple " was be . The best views of Lower Manhattan sed uct ion to stro ll'leisurely .One restaurant, plaoe to share withfriends.Freshsoups, to soo th and satisfy the wounded palate .

~

L1:1..~.f!ome of the Chocolate Decadanc

Over 180 superb photos of the bay, sh ips, bridges and parks plus the only complete anthology of poems & prose from W. H. Auden to Thos. Wolfe . $15 .00 + tax ($12 .50 to N.M.H.S. members) National Maritime Historical Society

2 Fulton St., Brooklyn NY 11201

Anew time and place It's a nice place to visit for your group~ ... and a great place to live. next party.

Brooklyn.

1879.

Don't settle for the ordinary when planning your organization or family group affair . Let us help you plan a memorable time in our Landmark gaslit dining room . Or in our new private dining rooms on our parlor floor , decorated in the elegant Georgian style . All offer American cuisine cited by authorities the world over as "best''. Call today and reserve the Gay Nineties era for your group.

Brooklyn 's Landmark Seafood and Steak House 372-374 Fulton Street . Phone (212) 875-5181.

Minutes away from the Brooklyn Bridge near Bore Hall. Major credit cards. Ample parking.

<;;age &lOllner

estl879

Sheepshead Bay when the boats are coming in . The Academy of Music. The Children's Museum. The Botanical Garden when the mums are in bloom. The Aquarium. The Brooklyn Museum. The beach at Coney Island ... the list of things that make Brooklyn special goes on and on.

Kings Plaza ... Brooklyn's only enclosed shopping mall - is proud to be part of our borough. Brooklyn. It's a nice place to visit ... and a great place to live.

BROOKLYN'S ONLY ENCLOSED MALL

Flatbush Avenue & Avenue U â&#x20AC;˘ Belt Parkway Exit 11 N Free indoor parking in our multi-level garage SHOPPING HOURS: MON-SAT, 10 AM-9:30 PM SUNDAY, NOON-5 PM

The very famous restaurant in Brooklyn.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

15

East River Comments Well, the river here is the center of things. It's full of history~dammit, it makes history! Young lovers come down onto the piers, and old lovers. All the old buildings mean something because that river is here. It's alive, and it's inspiring. People come down here to mend broken dreams, and dream new ones.

JOSEPH CANTALUPO East River Wharf Rats

The once and future river still sends mighty ships to sea: the superlanker Manhattan, rebuill al Sea/rain's Brooklyn Navy Yard inslallation (visible in upper lefl cornet) passes under !he Brooklyn Bridge for sea !rials prior lo her compleling !he fabled Norlhwest Passage run. Empire Stores is just above her nose, South Streel Seaport's Jasper Ward Store of 1807 al !he corner of Peck Slip is visible )us/ below, nexl 10 the Eas/ River Drive. Photo: Jeff Blinn for Moran Towing.

At lefl, the Clearwa/er Association sloop Woody Guthrie puts a line out into the river, and below, a pholograph of her elder sis/er Clearwater, Berta of Ibiza, and the ou/ward Bound School kelch Gavotte moored at NMHS pier in Brooklyn. Photos, Belh Haskell. Below, over the now vanished Brooklyn Fulton Ferry Terminal of 1871, we gel a glimpse of a passing saucy sloop, schooners under tow, and a very new Brooklyn Bridge, perhaps )us/ opened (nole celebratory flagpoles) in anonymous pholo turned up in an attic by the Brooklyn Sloop Club.

Let us see to this together. For in Fulton Ferry Brooklyn we all-citizens and citizen groups, City agencies, the Museum, private developers-together are responsible for these felicities from the last century.

TERRY WAL TON, in the South Street Reporter, Winter 1974-75 The National Maritime Historical Society has been a valuable ally in our efforts to focus interest on the waterfront and to increase public access. You have a tremendous vision of the potential for these underutilized resources. Your organization brings great experience to waterfront planning with your contacts in maritime organizations throughout the country. We appreciate having that experience available here.

Hon. ROBERT F. WAGNER, JR. Chairman City Planning Commission Our purpose is to further the economic, cultural, recreational and residential development of the Brooklyn waterfront area from Atlantic Avenue to the old Navy Yard for the mutual benefit of residents, visitors and commercial enterprise. Such development should preserve the area's historic identity, and recognize its maritime heritage, have a positive affect upon its physical environment, not cause undue stress upon existing communities, and be of a diverse nature to encourage utilization by the broadest spectrum possible of the Brooklyn community.

From "Statement of Purpose" Fulton Ferry Renaissance Ass'n A very ¡exciting and innoyative idea is now being discussed by the Fulton Ferry Renaissance Association ... to bring back the trolley to downtown Brooklyn.

While a few might consider a trolley and its clanging bells an anachronism in today's hustle-bustle world, we think most visitors, shoppers and residents of Downtown would welcome the opportunity to ride it.

JAN C. CHILDRESS, ED DEWEY Downtown Brooklyn Trolley Committee

16

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

Renaissance Developing a National Center of Maritime Culture & Enterprise in the Area Around the Brooklyn Bridge This effort obviously has roots in history! But it may be said to have begun in 1967 when a citizen committee made up of people from all five boroughs and New Jersey, set up South Street Seaport Museum. By 1969 in its first full plan, the Museum affirmed that the river should be the center of all planning on its edges. In 1973 with City cooperation a one-day trial ferry was run from Fulton Street in Manhattan to Fulton Street in Brooklyn, which Mayor Lindsay and 3,000 citizens rode.

Meanwhile there were stirrings on the Brooklyn shore. Fulton Ferry Landing was rebuilt by the City at Congressman (then Councilman) Fred W. Richmond's lead; the National Maritime Historical Society set up headquarters there in 1976; the River Cafe opened on a barge in 1977; and Olga's MusicBarge was later installed as concert and meeting hall.

Following a ten-year campaign led by NMHS and, later, community leadership united in the Empire Stores Preservation Committee, NY State acquired the large property of Empire Stores, lying north of the Bridge.

NMHS and the Museum also proposed a marina for the vacant waterfront north of the Bridge on the Manhattan side, and in 1973 filed a formal request to the City not to give this frontage over to any other use. Various unsuitable uses were fended off, sometimes narrowly, in these years-a meat-packing plant proposed for Fulton Ferry Landing, an absurd, non-water related park for the marina site.

Not all went swimmingly. The Robert Fulton, brought into South Street as restaurant ship and floating hall of a capacity exceeding any ashore, served the museum and the people well for highly productive functions until she fell foul of the City codes which have destroyed every other floating restaurant project in New York. She was closed when it was determined she fell under City instead of Coast Guard jurisdiction.

In 1978 NMHS embarked on a formal project to pull interests into common focus, through studies and meetings with City Planning and Landmarks Commissions, Department of Ports & Terminals, State and National Parks, the Brooklyn and New York Chambers of Commerce and such citizen groups as East River Wharf Rats and the new Fulton Ferry Renaissance Association. Sea Grant studies on public access to both banks of the river aided and were perhaps themselves enriched by this process.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

Matters ranging from code revisions (see supra-ships are not buildings!) to FULTON FISH developing new cultural and commercial ""'"' HAkKU commitments have been taken up, and ~ ~ preliminary agreements have been reachMi&K""' ~ ed on a scheme of major complementary undertakings. This scheme is outlined here, and schooner Pioneer takes people below. on harbor sails when not on training Empire Stores. The State has undercruises for the Museum's Pioneer taken to open the grounds of this I 9thMarine School. The NY State Maritime century shipping warehouse block as a Museum is a participant in this project waierfront park in 1979. The City is inand will also be involved in Empire volved in further plans and may add Storts. vital access land and other buildings. In Fdlton Fish Market, here since 1821, concert with the community we recomnow friendly partner to Museum, plans mend a mixed development of the builda new waterfront facility between ings including residence, shops and Museum and Bridge. restaurants and maritime museum inTwo Bridges Marina plan has been stallations complementary to South adopted

by City, is open to bid. Design Street Seaport Museum across the river. is tempered to provide community acMuseum functions would center on macess to water, and Pioneer Marine rine archaeological and boatbuilding School will have a role in its manageworkshops; there is need for these acment, providing youth job training and tivist functions and here is the right opportunity. place for them. Empire Stores is also a What lies ahead? The opportunity is natural point of departure for water great-greater perhaps than any of us transit to the National Gateways can truly know today. But summons beaches, for which a major urban terpeople, and is recognized by leaders minal is needed. among concerned interests, and by a Brooklyn Bridge. This unifying landgrowing band of citizens. A person may mark celebrates its IOOth birthday in sit through ¡ long meetings-years of 1983; a film exhibits and educational meetings!-study plans, and suddenly program are planned (to be reported in see the light upon the water. That has SH 14). happened to your reporter again and Fulton Ferry Landing. The only again, most lately when the artist of the significant public access to the urban painting on our cover, John Noble, told waterfront for New York's two most to read "Crossing Fulton Ferry" him populous boroughs, the Landing is now (see page 63).

PS served by two restaurants with others planned when ferry service begins; runThe East River Renaissance Report is down building dating from streetavailable from NMHS for $10. widening in 1835 are being restored; trolley service is proposed up Fulton Street from the waterfront. NMHS maintains a small museum where several other maritime organizations now meet, and brings in visiting ships to its pier, where the MusicBarge serves as public hall for meetings and concerts.

Fulton Ferry. Launch service is set to open in May, followed by full pedestrian ferry, possibly also this year.

Port Authority Pier provides active deepwater commerce and is expected to continue its vital contribution to the river scene.

UJ South Street Seaport Museum. The ~ dreamers gained a $5.5 million Federal ~ grant to restore buildings and two piers, ~ and further developments are expected. ::i Exhibits, shops, restaurants, market ~ thrive ashore. The square riggers Waver- "' tree and Peking, ferry Hart, Ambrose New York, City of Waterways. lightship, and schooner Howard berth 17

5% Interest on Checking at THE fAsT ~EwYoRK Who ever thought a bank would pay interest on a c hecking account? No one. Until N 0 W, that is. Until the revolutionary N.O.W Account at THE ~ST ]'lEwYoRK. It's the ultimate bank account.

Your N.O.W Account works like checking , but earns like savings . It pays you 5% interest compounded daily on a ~ minimumbalanceof$1 ,000

No per-d raft c harg es, no monthly fees.

If you have a free , or not so free , checki ng accou nt at another bank .. .or if you 've been considering one of those complicated automatic transfer accounts . . . stopl Come in to THE ~ST ,NEwYoRK and ope n an interest-earning N.O.W Account. Works like checking , earns like savings . The ultimate bank account

~THE BsT ~Ew YORK '5AV1~Gs B,,ANK Manhattan: East 64th Street & 3 rd Avenue• East 57th Street & 1st Ave nu e • 41West4 2 nd Street• East 31st Street & 2 nd Ave n ue• East 20t h Street & 1st Avenue Queens: 58-14 99th Stre e t , Corona Brooklyn: Atlantic & Pennsy lvania Avenues• Eastern Parkway at Utica Avenue• Pitkin Avenue at Hopkinson• Kings H wy. at Rockaway Pkwy. Nassau County: 23-25 North Station Plaza , Great N ec k• 12 Atlantic Ave . at Long Beac h Rd .. Oceanside .

Member FDI C

SHIP TRUST REPORTS

" ... the clipper ship as a type can justly be called the greatest achievement of any national ethos in the last century, combining miraculous beauty with vital use. " Alexander Laing

PROJECT SEA WITCH

By Melbourne Smith

It is generally agreed that the swiftest and most beautiful sailing craft of all time were built in America in the 1840s and 50s. These superb American clipper ships were the ultimate refinement of a millenium of ship design. Almost 400 of these great ships were launched in the early part of the 1850s; in 1857 only ten were built; the last one of all left the ways in 1859. A handful survived into this century, and the last of the memorably beautiful hulls, in service as coal barges, vanished half a century ago.

The seaman and author Alexander

Laing wrote: " ... the clipper ship as a type can justly be called the greatest achievement of any national ethos in the last century, combining miraculous beauty with vital use."

Of all the square-rigged sailing ships in commission or on exhibit throughout the world today, not one represents our finest creation, the American clipper ship. New York, birthplace of these great ships, is struggling to restore the German squarerigger Peking and the English Wavertree. A commendable effort which when completed will be wor-

thy monuments of maritime history. The clipper ship was born in the shipyards of New York, yet this vital link is not represented. It was the American clipper which led the world in brilliance of design, influencing all sailing ships that came after.

I believe the time has come to build one!

There are many reasons to recreate a clipper; national pride in our maritime heritage, the sheer beauty of these ships, or as a monument to the great California gold rush era; but there is also the need

The record passage of 74 days, 14 hours from Hong Kong to New York set by the clipper Sea Witch was never beaten under sail. From an original painting in the Peabody Museum.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

19

PROJECT SEA WITCH

The skills relearned in recreating one of our greatest maritime achievements are as important as the ship herself. to preserve the ingenuity and ski lls t hat a sailing ship of this magnitude demands in her construction and sailing. The sk ills relearned in recreating one of our greatest maritime achievements are as important as th e s hip herself.

I know it can be done. Recently in my construction of the 1812 Baltimore clipper Pride for the City of Baltimore, the schooner was built entirely in a proper manner and launched within ten months after the keel was laid . Every st ick of timber was cut from the forests of Central America and fashioned on the site.

She was the larges t sailing craft to be built on Chesapeake Bay si nce the 1930s.

The employment of a master shipwright and a master shipsmith assured that the skills of ad dressing enormous timbers and the working of wrought iron were passed on to future ge nerations.

Upon launching, Pride departed immediately for the Bermudas and th e sk ills of sailing an historic topsail schooner with a loose-footed main , boomless foresail, runnin g mainstays, bonnetted sails and a jackyard topsail were reclaimed. The vessel completed over 12,000 miles visiting 35 American and foreign ports in the first year.

I am proposing that an American clipper ship be built while there are still a few craftsmen, misfits from yesteryear perhaps , who can display their skills for the preservation of their breed. It may also be the very last opportunity to procure those vital timbers as they are quickly being stripped from the face of the earth. It is a project that cannot be delayed.

Carl C. ¡ Cutler wrote in his book, Greyhounds of the Sea, "Before her brief life had ended the Sea Witch had broken more records than a ship of her_ inches had ever broken, and in company with other clippers, had established the majority of sailing records that still survive. She was the first vessel to go around the Horn to California in less than one hundred days. Twice she broke 20

the record from Canton, and neither of these passages have ever been eq ualled by any other ship under sai l."

It is necessarily a n emotional choice, but I choose the New York built Sea Witch to represent the American clipper ship . She was the first of the very sharpended, full midsection clippers. Her size of 1250 displacement tons is within my limited capacity to construct. The original sail plan, complete offsets an d a contemporary carpenter's model exist; thus her reconstruction can be completely authentic.

In 1933 Alexander Laing chose Sea Witch as the subject for his book of the same name . His reasons for doing so are given in the Foreword and they present a so und argument for this particular vessel. " My final a nd most important reason for choosing Sea Witch as heroine is that to me her lines a nd proportions, from jib boom to taffrail, from truck to keel, are a faultless unit of beauty. Marine arc hitects claim for ships built five years later a greater refinement of mold, which certa inly was reflected in a faster pace-over shorter distancesthan Sea Witch ever achieved; but to my eye Lightning and Red Jacket have the nervous leanness of overbred race horses, rather then the st urdier grace of the hunter. Thus, if yo u agree that the hunter is the most beautiful of horses, a st udy of existing models perhaps will convince you, as it has me, that Sea

Witch was the most beautiful of ships."

The project requires one year to cut the timbers and prepare the site.

Twenty-four months would be spent in construction. I propose that she be constructed at Battery Park in New York City, where the public may watch her sistered frames rise above a bed of wood chips.

My dream for an American clipper ship does not end in the Hudson River.

Properly built and fitted for . sea, she should not be condemned to an exhibition pier. There are also the skills of sailing a full-rigged clipper ship to be passed on to future generations. Sea Witch would be only beginning her career as she departs on the California gold rush route, around the Horn to San Francisco. Thence to China and London with premium cargos on one of the greatest goodwill public and trade relations programs ever mounted from the Port of New York since the original ship herself astonished the world with her sailing records.

Project Sea Witch is, by necessity, a research program to reclaim those sk ills that allowed America to lead the world in naval architecture and seamanship for a brief period in our maritime history.

This is a part of our heritage we cannot afford to lose .

Project Sea Witch is also intended to be a profitable maritime venture. Aside from the obvious historical significance

The original sail plan of the Sea Witch illustrates the remarkably handsome proportions of American clippers.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

The builder's half-model above was carved by the author from the original offsets published by the designer of Sea Witch, John W. Griffith. She displaced 1200 tons and was considered the architect's masterpiece.

of a project of this magnitude, the actual revenue generated during the five-year period is estimated to exceed $17,000,000, culminating in a substantial net profit. I am not recommending that the project be a commercial one. Rather, it will be organized on a non-profit basis with the net revenue reinvested in the instruction and training of our youth in traditional maritime skills and seamanship .

You may well wonder how such an undertaking can earn such substantial sums when most of our maritime museums go begging for funds. Sea Witch is not a museum. She is a fullyfound viable enterprise; a ship with a carrying capacity for some 800 tons of cargo, a public and trade relations vehicle, and a goodwill emissary of great potential. To research the original vessel and its function, the replica must be built in the identical fashion and for a similar economic reason.

One could of course redesign any historic wooden vessel, alter her intended purpose, build her out of fibre glass or cement, and fit her with an engine.

Nothing would be gained by this approach other then to produce an unfit brute of dubious heredity. It would teach us nothing except how much we have lost, and would be of little interest to the public.

The difference with Project Sea Witch is a strictly professional and traditional attitude in all phases. Apprentices engaged in this construction are not there as a hobby or for recreation but to be a part of a work force creating a truly functional sailing ship. The knowledge gleaned and the skills learned are not to reinvent the product but to reclaim that which must not be lost. The apprentices under sail, too, are truly fulltime cadets SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

fighting for the opportunity to advance in very difficult and strenuous situations. In fact, all engaged in the project are dealing with everyday realities using the skills at hand. Everyone is sacrificing a substantial part of his life to gain the inner satisfaction of real accomplishment.

With the same concept in mind, the ship must have a real purpose. A simple grant or gift of money to go sailing would defeat the purpose and spirit behind the project. The vessel being built properly to work, must work if the research behind the effort is to be complete and the project itself achieve its full meaning.

If her maiden voyage to California and China is to be useful, she must carry cargo. I do not suggest that a hull loaded with common cargo could be the least bit profitable in such a small, intricate craft as this. It obviously has to be a special cargo able to earn a premium freight rate, because it could not be carried profitably any other way . Did not the original cargos out to California meet the same criteria?

Such cargos can be had. These would be items to induce greater public and trade relations for New York and San Francisco. Goods that will increase in value for having doubled Cape Horn in a full clipper ship. Prospects for such investment possibilities become evident when the annual Canton Trade Fair is considered. The arrival of goods in San Francisco and again in Canton aboard an American clipper ship would be a memorable occasion with many goodwill and publicity possibilities.

The return passage from China demands the traditional cargo ¡ of tea.

This time it would be pre-packaged at

Hong Kong in valuable commemorative canisters. And what an opportunity for New York merchants to import Chinese porcelain created specially with a design motif heralding the only such import in this century under sail.

There is a market for some of these goods in London, and the homeward leg from the United Kingdom could be an advertiser's dream for European imports. Imagine a few hundred oaken casks of scotch whiskey arriving in New York in the hold of a tall ship.

There is revenue to be had from documentary film rights, commemorative medallions, first-day-ofissue and hand cancelled letters from Canton and London, and the exclusive rights to the Sea Witch franchise.

The American genius for trade and publicity will assure the ship's success on this epic voyage. Sea Witch need not undertake another voyage of this duration. One circumnavigation will establish the vessel as a fitting example of the ¡great era when iio better ships sailed the seas: for the clipper ships created in this country were the jewels of that century. I believe Project Sea Witch will inspire this nation and bring great international respect; and a few fortunate young men will help ensure that the knowledge and skills of the last century will not be lost in this one. .t

Captain Smith will detail the building and sailing plans in future issues of SEA HISTORY. His proposal is whole-heartedly endorsed by the Ship Trust of the National Maritime Historical Society and is presently under serious consideration by the Port Authority of NY & NJ, and the Economic Development Council of New York City.

21

SHIP TRUST REPORTS

Great dining in comfortable surroundings

m1n/HYY 163 Remsen Street

643-1444

Monday thru Friday

222 Seventh Avenue

Ship Trust

By Frank Carr Chairman World Ship Trust Project

499-2311

Seven days a week

Two fine restaurants in landmark areas of Brooklyn

TOMLINSON REFRIGERATION AND SUPPLY CO. Marine & Industrial Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Maintenance - Sales - Service

324 BROADWAY ELIZABETH , NEW JERSEY 07206 TEL.201-351 -1350 DAY OR NIGHT

SEA HISTORY PRINTS

A collection of important harbor a nd river views during the heyday o f the mercha nt sailing ship by th e renowned marine artist

JOHN STOBART PITTS BU RG H I N 1900 (shown above) • MAIDEN LANE, NEW YO RK • WAYNE CIT Y LA NDI NG • VALLE H O W H ARF, SAN FRANC I SCO • STA RT OF T H E SANTA FE T RA I L

Published as signed, limited editi on collecto r's prin ts, prices are $200 signed and $400 remarqued, except for "Start of the Santa Fe Trail" whi ch is $300 signed, $600 remarqu ed . Ot her prints are also available. All prices are su bject to change by availabili ty and the dictates of the collector's mark et.

Thro ugh the generos it y of the art ist, hal f the cost of each prin t will go to benefit th e wor k of th e NM HS, and is therefore, tax-deductible. This offer is available to NMHS membets onl y. For more in for mation please contact: N ATIONAL MARIT IME HISTORICAL SO CIETY 2 Fulton St reet , Brooklyn , NY 11201 T el: 2 12-858- 1348

22

Toward a World

In the Spring I977 SEA HISTORY, Frank Carr of London called for a World Ship Trust. Here he reports on progress, including a note on the National Society's Ship Trust Committee, of which he is International Chairman.

Other reports, which follow, discuss vital elements of the Ship Trust program. - ED. Opera tin g ra th er o n the lines of th e Wo rld W ildlife F und , th e W o rld S hip Trust wi ll see k to enco u rage by a ll possib le mea ns the prese rva ti o n o f histo ri c craft , bo th la rge a nd small , in a ll th e seafa rin g co untri es of th e ea rth . The prese nt positi o n is comparable with th a t of the Ma ritime Trust in its form a ti ve stages nea rl y 18 yea rs ago . It was in 1960, fo llowin g a trip to America , that I ca me to realise we were still not doin g an ythin g lik e enou gh here at home to preserve th e rema ining treasures o f o u r maritime heritage, and 1 sta rt ed ca mpa ignin g for th e es ta blishment of a Trust whi ch would do for o ur historic cra ft wh at o ur Nat io na l Trust wa s a lread y doing so success full y for o ur buildings.

It was not , however, until HRH The Duke of E dinburgh took th e lead in 1968 th a t real prog ress was mad e. H e did thi s aft er presiding over a meeting held a t Buckin gha m Palace to consider th e prese rvat io n of HMS Warrior of 1860, Brita in' s fi rst a rm o ured ship, now b erthed a t P emb ro ke Doc k. Under his lead ership th e Maritime T ru st was es tablished , with th e Duk e of W estminster as its C ha irma n, in Februa ry, 1970 .

So far as th e World Ship Trust projec t is co ncern ed , we have now fo r med a n acti o n gro up to d raw up a legal constitu ti o n a nd to see k o ffi cia l cha ritabl e sta tu s before callin g a public meeting and la un ching a n a ppeal for fund s. O verseas meanwhile, with our encouragement, the Dutch have fo unded a Netherla nd s M a ritim e T ru st; a nd in the United States, th e Na ti o na l M aritime Histo rical Society has set up a Ship Trust C ommittee, with m yself as Interna ti o na l C hairman .

These a re earl y days yet, and we hope th a t in tim e we sha ll achieve o ur o bj ecti ves a nd o pen up a new era o f ship preserva ti o n o n a n interna tiona l scale .<!> SEA HI STORY, WINTER 1979

LAUNCHING THE SHIP TRUST IN THE UNITED STATES

By Irving Johnson

Captain Johnson, dean of American sailormen, and Senior Advisor to the Ship Trust Committee, reports on a Ship Trust meeting, and a discovery he made lately about his shipmates in a Cape Horn voyage made fifty years ago.

Half a century ago I shipped out for a Cape Horn voyage aboard th e great steel bark Peking. From that voyage I learned man y thin gs . I saw a great ship in raging seas so powerful they bent in her steel sides. I saw men equal to sailing th a t ship-equal to deliverin g 5,000 tons of cargo round Cape Horn using nothing but their wits, their guts and the st ren gt h in their hands.

I felt hi ghly privileged then lo be in this great ship in her battle with Cape Horn. Others should have somethin g like that opportunity, I thou ght , and my wife Exy agreed. So toge ther we sailed good ships with young people around the world. They learned, and we learned, as we have go ne on doin g ever since.

So I ha ve found it very rewarding to serve on the boards of Mystic Seaport, where the heritage is cherished and actual historic ships are saved, and the Sea Education Association , which takes students in deepwater sailing aboard the big schooner Westward. I found myself also doing work with Karl Kortum, chief curator of the National Maritime Museum at San Francisco, and Peter Stanford, president of the Nationa l Maritime Historical Society and founding president of South Street Seaport Museum (which happened to be the institution that saved the Peking, in 1974, as a muse um ship in New York) .

When Karl and Peter asked me to speak at the launching of a campaign for a Ship Trust in this country, I accepted, with more than some interest.

Typically they decided to do this aboard an historic ship, the Portuguese Grand Bank s barkentine Gaze/a Primeiro of 1883; a ship that also sails.

She is maintained in first-class shape and sailed up and down the coast by the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, one of the newer maritime museums in this country but a very forward-leanin g institution. We were bid welcome by J .

Welles Henderson, founder of the museum and Chief Port Warden (or chairman) and Richard K. Page, director, both Gaze/a sailors, dedicated to keepin g the last working North Atlantic square ri gger in life .

My word, what a ship Gaze/a is! Just the right size for sail training, work in which she is considerably hampered by Federal regulation today (one of the thin gs the American Sail Training SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

The Gazela leaves for Bermuda, 1976.

Association and the Ship Tru st Committee are working to chan ge). And you can feel the history in her bones. That's something that happens with every ship, after she's first faced the sea. She begin s to have a history , and you can feel that history in her .

Barclay Warburton Ill , president of the American Sail Training Association, was on hand as a member of the Ship Trust Committee, as were Atwater Kent, Jr., Samuel duPont and other Ship Trust supporters.

I never got to give my talk . 1 had just about begun when a line squall that had seemed to pass sa fely overhead turned around and hit us with buckets of rain and driving winds that made the overhead awnings useless . All hands took refuge below.

And there, below decks in the Gaze/a, was where this effort was actually launched. Instead of speeches, everyone talked to his neighbor. I met Peter Throckmorton , curator-at-large of the National Maritime Historical Society.

Fresh from returnin g the wooden wall of a great Down Easter, the St. Mary, to the Mairie State Museum in Augusta, he was feeling pretty good that now his native state had a sample of its most important product installed in a first-c lass museum exhibit for the world to come see and learn from.

Michael Platzer, director of the Ernestina/ Morrissey Project under the Ship Trust Committee, reported on another international effort, the campaign to return Captain Bob Bartlett's Effie M. Morrissey to the United States.

That famous schooner, still afloat, is the last Class A Gloucester fi shing schooner built before the advent of internal combustion engines in the fleet. She was sailed by Bartlett in his memorable voyages of Arel ic exploration from the 1920s into the early 1940s. Theri she was acquired for the Cape Verde immigrant packet trade, under sail bringing people in from the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa to Providence and New Bedford, until 1965 . Some voyaging that was, in old, leaky boats, by peo ple seeking op-

portunity in a new land . Isn ' t that what America is about? Over $250,000 has bee n raised to acquire the schooner a nd start the work on her; another $ 100,000 is needed to bring her home-under sail!

But I cou ld go on and on about these projects. Th ey are undertakings of national importance, undertakings that bring life to the whole seafarin g heritage. Shouldn't each of us contribute to see that this national movement kee ps advancing?

Contributions made to support heritage projects don ' t make anyone's lot easier: they go entirely to things that stir people, things help them learn to respond to the challenge of their own lives in their own ways.

And of all the learning we've had on this earth, I think there's hardly anything that touches the learning our kind has had in ships. Ships and all th e attendant things a ship needs to make her voyage: the disciplines, the arts, the heads- up spirit. Why, in Peking fifty years ago we were like a little city; we could mend anything we broke, we kept ourselves entertained, and we e ncountered crisis know ing we had to depend on ourselves . There is no bailout off Cape Horn!

And wha t did our voyaging do for us?

I have met old Peking hands. There were twenty-eight. Each of them became a shipmaster, distinguished in his line of work, except for oae who became a successful pilot. That, I submit, is some record! Where else could you find a mixed group of ordinary souls, and predict that each one would make it to the highest ranks of his profession?

The Ship Trust Committee is the instrument we now have offered to us to spread this joy, a nd this learning, and to keep in life a heritage the world cannot afford to lose.

.ti .ti .ti Captain Johnson's The Peking Battles Cape Horn is available from NMHS. See advertisement page 61.

SHIP MODELS From our own workshop : finest quality wood ship kits-clippers , schooners, frigates , tankers. freighters-30 in all. Beautiful fittings ; no lead or plastic. Also plans, books, tools , materials, fittings and marine prints. At better dealers or send $1.00 (refundable) for big illustrated catalog .

'&J?..l!:.¼/:4ftK~T 145¡1 Water St.. So Norwalk. Ct. 06854

23

SHIP TRUST

All-

Competitive Admission

Scholarship

Needed!or the

By John Ewald

Webb Institute of Naval Architecture is a small, independent, privately endowed college, fully accredited by Engineers' Council for Professional Development and Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Located in a beautiful setting on Long Island Sound, it offers, tuition-free, a single program in ship design engineering, culminating with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.

Features are intensive design and engineering studies, combined with a two-month per year experience in marine industry. Student costs include room, board, books and personal expenses, about $2,000 per year in 1978-79. Student financial aid is available. Admits on competitive basis U.S. citizens only, based on College Board scores and high school record. Does not discriminate on basis of race, sex or religion, only criteria are academic ability and motivation for program. For details write William G. Murray, Registrar,

Webb Institute of N aval Architecture Glen Cove, New York 11542

Tel: 516-671-2231

The.biggest call McAllister

McAI1·ISler

The Stuyvesant. a 225,000 dwt tanker. bui lt by Seatrain at their Brooklyn , N.Y shipyard McAllister Brothers. Inc Towing and transportation 11 B attery Place.

New York . N Y. 10004 (212) 269-3200.

Serving the ports of New York.

No rfolk. Philadelphia. and San Juan .

24

1'--~-~1 / ~

Mr. Ewald retired last year from his job as manager of the square rigger Falls of Clyde in Honolulu; prior to that he had been manager of the Balclutha in San Francisco. Now working for Xerox in Indiana, he maintains a lively interest in the historic ships movement. Here he call for philosophic and pragmatic development of the Ship Trust mission -and for support of that mission.

-ED.

We need a collective give-and-take to speed the development of national priorities and to present a unified national front on maritime preservation .

The "opinion centers" around the country are understandably deeply involved in their own set of conditions and project problems that take enormous energy. There are also elements o(self protection, ego, and personal differences in approach, making open communication somewhat less than ideal.

The problem is still there, however; to have national policy, national discourse is needed. We will need the wisdom that comes directly from the experience of people like Waldo Johnson, Linwood Snow, Peter Stanford, Karl Kortum, Ken Reynard and Lance Lee. The National Trust's Baltimore Conference brought most of them together, once. SEA HISTORY is doing a wonderful job of printing letters, articles, and opinion. In fact, it is the only place where these issues are being addressed, and doing a first rate job as a magazine too. But more is needed.

The Ship Trust is an idea whose time has come. Launched by the National Maritime Historical Society, it now needs direction and support. The goals outlined in the first Ship Trust Committee report include: • A Maritime Heritage Division in the executive arm of the government, to receive advice and focus supportive programs on high-priority undertakings.

• An emergency fund to be provided for saving imperilled ships which have a place in the maritime heritage.

• A natio nal register for historic skills and arts in the maritime heritage.

• Revised laws to encourage operation and insurance of sail and other sea training vessels.

• Strengthened protection of underwater artifacts in national and international waters.

The goals as I understand them are complementary, not competitive, to the programs of the various museums and SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

Voyage: Direction and Support

John Ewald, at left, with Dave Spaulding center, aboard the Balclutha in 1977. Photo Wm. E. Burgess, Jr.

the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Government has a role, even a large responsibility, to provide help. But as the Ship Trust Committee report points out, it cannot have the sole responsibility, nor do I think it has a large role in getting new projects off the ground.

The Ship Trust could be challenged to generate funds on a national scale. It should administer a sizable "emergency fund" that could be used only to:_ I. Rescue an existing historic project from a life or death crisis such as storm, sinking, or utter financial collapse.

2. Save a "find" when early decisive action is needed.

These emergency funds would be only for the actual rescue, not intended as support for restoration efforts or other needs of less absolute immediate importance.

There is also a need for challenge grants and later support for established viable projects. Since I don't think government has a large responsibility to incur the start-up risks (practically, it would not accept such an approach, nor could it finance the growth in application such a policy would have), I use this word "challenge" in talking about the approach government might use in initial commitments to a project. The organizing, sweat, and worry will still be done by the group who wants the proiect.

The issue of fairness among the various projects requesting assistance needs discussion . It is important that the decisions of the Ship Trust, and their allocation of limited resources, be even handed, i.e., supportive of inland, coastwise, and deepwater activities. The Ship Trust is seeking support in all areas but some conscious effort to balance all interests will benefit in the long run.

Practical assessment is vital. Some recoveries can be made and justified by results. Some are simply not "doable" in a practical sense, and could add unsupportable burdens, competing with SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

other needs, even after the "rescue" was accomplished.

The Ship Trust should bring an informed focus of opinion, and of support, to bear on these most basic decisions which will in effect help resolve what we save for the nation. And beyond that overriding function of choice, feeding the decisions that are made, are the myriad technical questions (ranging from fund-raising to wood preservation) that are practicalities of our business.

Aboard the Falls of Clyde in Honolulu, I wrote to others around the country after the phone stopped ringing and the crew had packed in their tools.

Opinion was developed on issues needing national attention, as well as the immediate concerns we had as an individual project. Here are a few excerpts: To Peter Stanford, President, National Maritime Historical Society, July 13, 1977: "I ' m going to suggest that the most important role in developing a maritime preservation effort is the communication link among the. various parts. SEA HISTORY ... is the one place we a ll have to air our views, identify problems, propose solutions, and report our successes and failures."

To Peter Stanford, printed in the Summer of '77 SEA HISTORY: "The product research I'm doing to solve these (problems in the Falls of Clyde) could be shared with other museums through some central, interested, question-asking, filekeeping, copying location . Many of the problems I have could be solved by the research Jim Williams in Balclutha, or Captain Reynard in Star of India, or Steve Hopkins in Wavetree have already done."

To Peter Throckmorton, Curator-at-Large, NMHS, June 6, 1977: "The availability of gear around the world is an ever-increasing problem; and your statement, repeated for years, is now more true than ever-we need to cooperate!"

To Marie Lore, Membership Secretary, NMHS, June 8, 1978: " ... it is adventures like this (the recently renewed interest in commercial sailing vessels) that point out the need for preserving the knowledge, experience, and skills of our maritime past. We need not reinvent the sailing ship, instead today's efforts and technol'ogy shou ld be applied to improve upon the vast lessons already learned."

benefits a restoration effort, or later visit by the public, more than a first hand story by one of those involved in the original whatever-it-is."

To Jim Williams, Manager of the Balclutha at San Francisco, March 23, 1977: "I'm convinced this whole business (consultants for cathodic hull protection) is still more of an art form than it is a science. People wave their hands, say a few words, ask fewer questions, and then pronounce that 'XXXX' will do the job for you. A good number are outliving their credentials."

Memo to Karl Kortum, then Director, San Francisco Maritime Museum, February 28, 1976: "In the present legal environment and the tenuous insurance situation surrounding the museum, it is simply not possible to ignore actual hazards that cou ld lead to an (shipboard) accident, or code requirements that have¡ an influence on our insurance rating ."

Letter to Karl Kortum, July 13, 1977: "He (Lance Lee, Bath Marine Museum) stated that the aim of any program should be to involve young people in learning these traditional ski ll s. 'Resourcefulness' will be needed to bring this about in our society where laws and concerns are more on the wage of the unskilled than on the dedicated transfer of a skill. This is true, true, true," Letter to Barclay Warburton, President, American Sail Training Assn., June 8, 1977: "Already, younger people are moving up past some of the grunt labor and apprentice positions to take on managerial, fund raising, public relations, and other more central decision-making positions. Many (I maintain that most) have not had the opportunity to actually experience the kind of ship they now find themselves in a position to interpret for the public. There is a basic problem here, and one that in my view has serious consequences for programs whose primary aim is the preservation of a sense or feeling, and the structure, of an important part of our history."

These are a sampling of what I found myself concerned with as manager of two historic ships, the Balclutha in San Francisco and Falls of Clyde in Honolulu. Now, writing from the cold grey skies and mud-brown, harvested fields of central Indiana, I seek out others who are concerned with these questions so that together through the Ship Trust we can come to effective answers.

To Harry Allendorfer, Director of Maritime Preservation, The National Trust, Feb. 6, 1977: "Much of the history of all these 'things' (ships and buildings) is tied up in the memories of people often not given to writing it down, or now, because of advancing years, not able to. An interesting and worthwhile part of your program could be the encouragement of efforts to record the story of these people on tape. In my experience, nothing

Maine Windjammer Sailing Vacation ~

~

Coasting Schooners

Isaac H. Evans Lewis R. French $285 weekly

Brochures . CAPTAINS LEE & FOSS. Box 482¡F Rockland, Me. 04841 Tel. 207-594-8007

25

II I l.Jil Broo kJyn/Jnt ernational Longshoremen's Association .

LOCAL 1814 ·INTERNATIONAL LONGSHOREMEN 'S ASSOCIATION • AFL-CIO

ANTHONY SCOTTO

PRESIDENT

343 COURT STREET · BROOKLYN , N.Y. 11231

26

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

Nautical Archaeology Comes ofAge: the Vital Fifth Stage

By George F. Bass President, Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Texas A&M University

Dr. Bass has paid tribute earlier in these pages, (SH 10, 36-37) to the pioneering work of Americans in developing the disciplines of nautical archaeology in the Mediterranean. Of the National Society's Curator-at-Large Peter Throckmorton, he said: "We followed a path he laid out." Here he charts the stages of the development in this youngest of disciplines in the worldwide heritage of navigation, dealing with our oldest ships and the worlds they sailed in-and helped to shape.

About a dozen of us have been working on a book for the past fourteen years.

We feel this book, on the sevent hcent ury Byzantine shi pwreck we excavated in Turkey in th e 1960s, wi ll es tab lish firmly the va lue of nautical archaeology as mo re than " th e raising of amp horas from th e seabed." It will be the first vo lume in a monograph series Texas A&M University Press plans for us; we expect that volumes on th e fo urth-cen tury BC Kyrenia ship, th e fourth-century AD Yassi Ada ship, the fifth-c entury BC Porticello wreck, and the eleve nth -ce ntury AD Islamic sh ip at Serce Liman wi ll follow.

We kn ow th a t sa ilors preceded farmers a nd sheph erds in the Mediterranean, for Mesolithic cave-dwellers on th e Greek mainla nd so mehow go t to th e island of Meolos about 10,000 years ago to brin g back obsidi a n . Australia was populated by people arriv ing by some type of watercraft 30,000 to 40,000 years ago.

The origins of agr iculture, urb a ni zation, ani ma l d omesticat ion , metallurgy, etc., are a ll considered va lid fields of study by anthropo logists, yet the study of the craft that spread these concepts has been virtua ll y ignored by anthropologists. At least one a nthropol ogist has written that " und erwater archaeology" so und s lik e a lot of "fun," but that it has no place in "true" anthropological studi es. I am baffled by this a ttitude. "U nderwater archaeology," I believe, has passed through four stages: I. Ca . 1800- 1948. C hance fin ds of arl objects by fis hermen and sponge divers, so metimes fo ll owed by crude sa lvage efforts, yield ed the Louvre' s Pi omb in o Apoll o, th e ga ll er ies o f a rt objec ts in Tunisia's Ba rd o Museum, and the Marathon Boy, the Ant ikythera Youth and the Zeus or Poseidon from Artemision, all in the National Museum of Greece.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

2. 1948-1960. Pioneering attempts at true excavation, made possible by the in vent ion of the Aqualung by Cousteau and Gagnan in France in the 1940s. Some of the too ls for underwater excavation were developed at this time in France and Ital y, but no wreck was excavated completely a nd thu s no full publ icat ion s of shipwreck excavations were possible. From these efforts the public saw hundreds of photograph s of divers rai sin g a mpho ras, and popu lar maga zi nes sti ll tend to publi sh such pi ctures.

3. 1960- 1970. Archaeo log ists began to dive and d irect their own projects, leading to the development of excavation techn iques that a re as acrnrate under wa te r as are those o n la nd. During thi s period we excava ted wrecks of the thirt eenth, fifth, and fourth ce nturies BC, and fourth and seve nth ce nturies AD, a ll in the eastern Mediterranean. Scientific preliminary reports were pub li shed, and the first full excavat ion was pub li shed. Co nfere nces on underwater arc haeo logy in the 1960s, however, were devoted large ly to discussions of techniques rat her than resu It s.

4. 1970-1978. The excavat ion anti restora tion of the Kyrenia ship off Cyprus broug ht exper ts in both a rchaeology and ship construc tion to· get her for the first time. "Underwater arc haeo logy" became "naut ical archaeology." The estab li shme nt of o ur institute brou ght together arc haeo logis ts, s hip exper ts, conserva tors, a nd hi sto rian s for th e fir st tim e.

The fifth stage will co me, I believe, fro m our academic program a t Texas A&M University, where we offer an MA in a nthropo logy with a speciali za ti o n in nautica l archaeo logy. In our gra duate se minars diving is seldom menti o ned as we teach abo ut the eco nom ics of maritime trade, the evoluti on of hull design, the historica l background in which ships played their roles, tactics of naval warfare in the past , and the languages of the areas and periods in whi ch our ships sai led.

Our major research efforts in the Mediterranean are now devoted to learning how a nd why modern skeletal hull construction came about. Our eleve nthce ntury Isla mi c ship is the earli es t known seagoing vessel built in th e modern manner. Our seventh-century Byzantine sh ip shows the slow evoluti on from GrecoRoman shell-first const ru ction . Now we want to underst·a nd the socia l an d econom ic reasons for the cha nge. It was this cha nge, of course, that made possible the shi ps of the Age of Exploration, and the sh ips that co lonized so much of the modern globe.

Th e Kyrenia ship. Photo, John Veltri A ll of us in th e fie ld know that we know far more a bout Athenian se wers and rooftil es than we do of the ships th a t made Athens grea t. W e know more abo ut Ro man pott e ry than we do abou t th e ships that wen t to battle aga inst the Cart haginian s. Western civili za tion simply wou ld not be what it is toda y without ships, yet we know very little about th e technology of ship co nstruction durin g long periods of time.

Our present stud ents will be expa nd ing o ur work over th e globe. One has already dived on a C hin ese junk in Korea, a nd he now plans to stud y C hin ese la nguage a nd history so th a t he can do for us in th e Far East what Katzev, I a nd others have done in th e Mediterranean. Another student is spec ia li zing in Ca ribbean shippin g, a nd hopes to estab li sh a center for o ur work in th e Ca ribbean , where we have in vitations to work from three se parate gove rnments. Already we are working in Kenya, on a I 7th-century Portuguese wreck, and we hope that work in North Africa an d the Red Sea will follow. Our stud ent s wi ll be better prepared for such work th a n were those of us who, as professional archaeo logists, began to dive in th e 1960s; none of us had expert ise in hull design, co nse rvation of u·nd erwa ter antiquities, or thorou gh background s in a ncient sea faring.

Closer to home, we a re supervising the recovery of artifacts from the Revolutionary War privateer Defence, scuttled in the disastrous Penobsco t Expedi ti o n of 1779, (see SH 12, 35) a nd we provide direction a nd counsel for a number of ot her projects designed to exp lore and recover rather than rape th e na uti cal heritage of the sea bed a nd lake and river bottoms.

I ho pe that thi s sta tement of what na utical archaeo logy is and what our goals are will be of so me use in developing ideas for the goals of the Ship Trust.

www 27

One of our most valuable maritime treasures is the talent and steadiness of older practitioners. Their training of youth, as here

building the Pride of Baltimore can provide conlinuily. Photo, International Historical Watercrafl Society, In c.

SKILLS TRANSFER

By Lance R. Lee

A spring line, unhurriedly snubbed with proper timing, can today, as it has for centuries, harness the energy of current, momentum and muscle to bring a winddriven vessel alongside in minutes, with an effortless accuracy which brings to mind the term "grace." In midwinter a few years back on the Tagus I had occasion to watch the handling of fragatas 28

-40-foot sailing lighters, a crew of two, sometimes three, sail and no oars-in the Lisbon docks, one of the consummately skilled workaday worlds still left today. The brilliance of that seamanship, together with the care lavished on the vessels led me to respect the living maritime heritage of Portugal as no written account of Prince Henry, Magellan

or the perseverance of Portugal' s dorymen on the Grand Bank s had ever done.

Probing deeper then into this so direct and unique, waterborn nation, it has not surprised me to learn that in the case of every shipwreck and marine disaster, a protest is lodged against the most logical cause of the loss! "O Protesto Contra Mare Vento "-a Protest against the Sea SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

A fragata being laid alongside the Lisbon docks without power, through the cenluriesold seamanship of sail lightermen. No re the superb decoration on this workaday craft!

Photo, Perry Gates.

and Wind. There is so methin g mo re than refreshing, so mething of ritual, just proport ion and eve n faith, in th e Porlugese tradition of lodging such a protest.

We, in the United Stales, are up against a marit ime disaster: th e decl ine of an extensive a nd skill ed inh eritance. I wis h to lodge a protest m yse lf-against a thrust as apparently implacab le as that of the wind a nd sea, but lodge it with the same earnest hope fulne ss, desire-love even -lodge it , that is, with an absence of bitt erness or resentment about planetary co nditions. My protest is against th e present-day policy of expending o ur remainin g tal ent, current treasure and outrunning tim e in raising maritime monuments to th e past while a ll but ignorin g the passing on of the capability, sk ill and reso urcefulness of sea and sea board to the next ge neration.

Maritime preservation has a t last beco me a nation a l priorit y. A $5,000,000 appropriation, passed by Congress through the Department of the Interior, is to be spe nt in the next fiscal year. Existing law and regu latio ns mandate that

Restitching a bolt rope. Repairs made on board teach another generation to respond to challenge with immediacy and self-reliance.

thi s money be spent only on project s on the National Regi ster of Historic Sites.

To clarify, this means that material creations or objects, whether vessels, shore installations, lock s or bridges (replicas constitute a question) may be preserved, restored or maintained . Meanwhile th e sk ills, ingenuities and attitudes towa rds th e sea and tools, towards ma intenance , building and rebuildin g, towa rd s ha rn essing current, wind, steam or diesel power are fast di sa ppearing. In short, a ll of the pragmatic wisdom of the sea, hard won from innocence through trial and error and throu gh the in ve nti ve genius of chief petty officers, artisans, bosuns, machinists and able sea men taught by circumstance and necessity as well as by their predecesso rs, a ll of th a t extraordinary fund of competence is being passed over in our enthusiasm lo raise monument s lo the greatn ess of our maritime past.

We are being assured that such monuments as the Monito1~ to be rai sed from off Cape Hatteras a t simply stagge rin g expense, will embue future ge nerations

with th e gra ndeur and sacrifi ce of those Union seamen who went down with her.

Comparable se ntiments guide earnest advocates of raising the Bonhomme Richard and the Titanic as well a s enormous old remain s closer to home. The Falkland Islands are a veritable deep fr eeze stocked to the lid with opportunities to expend that $5,000,000 on the past rather than in underwritin g the future.

There a re toda y too many illustration s of how the last o ld competent doer, whether ca rpenter, rigger, ship fitter, mec hanic in steam, or calk er, has been rousted out for one more go in puttin g th e moldin gs in th e East Room to ri ght s ju st before go in g lo his final rewa rd or in tensioning the headstay with a handy billy and a trick he learned from an AB in th e doldrums five decades ago. And that is it. The mansion or bark is sta bili zed one last time. In fifteen years our opportunity to make use of tho se older fi gures as instructors lo the rising ge neration will be gone . I! is just shy of a criminal act to ignore the training of the ge nera-

Eric Bernes had been 49 years at sea when this picture was taken in 1970 aboard the Statsraad Lehmkuhl. He has since retired.

tion now in their la te teens a nd twenti es throu gh eve ry effort which we can bend to do so.

Sadly, how sadly, Joseph Conrad remark ed: "W hateve r craft he handles with sk ill th e sea ma n of the future sha ll be not our desce nd a nt but on ly our successo r. " It may be th at Conrad is irreversibly ri ght. But should we abet thi s declin e of capabi lit y a fter how many decades of Jean years in th e entire field of maritime prese rvation by now earmarking th e fir st significant sum of federal maritime fundin g for the prese rvation o f th e pieces rather than the processes which may con tinu e building, repairin g and operat in g those pieces? To do so see ms a blind or savage joke at the ex pense of th e men and women who will hav e to run the ma ritim e wor ld in thirty yea rs time.

In mid nineteenth ce ntury Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote an eloquent, tim ely a nd success ful plea , overnight to beco me a famous poem, to save and preserve " Old Ironsides." The need of commun it y symbols, of a patriotic to uchstone to the past and a mea ns of

30

ga lvan izing public spmt, governed and shou ld have governed. Today t he difference lies in the fact that we have no such co nstant pool of well-trained men as existed in the 1860s. None dreamed then that America's edu cat iona l sys tem would shift from tra ining automatica ll y for skill s and competence (thus ass urin g co ntinuity) to knowledge-gain as a hi gher calling th an sk illed workmans hip.

We too need comm unit y symbols but they do not meet our far more pressing need .

One such symbol, a magnificent one, is Pommern. She li es in the Baltic harbor of Marieham, excellently maintained in cons iderabl e m eas ur e thr o u gh the generosi ty of th e E rik so n S hippin g Co mpany which th e big, handso me, four-masted bark served for ma ny years .

Does she serve th e essential needs of th e yo uth of th e Aland Isla nd s? Cap t.

Kahre, one-time mate in one o f Er ik son's barks and a man of sc rupulou s ca re for the vesse l a nd th e museum of whi ch he is now director, a nd a man of grea t compassion and co ncern for the yo uth of those islands, has ass ured the author that Aland boys tod ay, rather than go to sea or lea rn a

trade, find hi ghl y lucrative jobs car ryin g cases of Johnny Walker up th e ga ngways of th e touri st steamers se rvin g th e Balti c. There are o lder sea men still a li ve in Mar iehamn whose sk ill and co mpetence are priceless. That fund of ab ili ty is swiftl y passing .

For the moment, in the U.S., ski lled performance co ntinu es. Such men as J oe Dawso n 's "gree ni es," in their teens in th e 1940s, a re now ex tremely capable "mechan ics" in wood, metal or fibre, in th eir fifties a nd possessed of thirty years of experience over and above th e crisisJearn ed work hab it s a nd skill s of World War II. Bu t in fifteen more years th ey wi ll be in retirement or go ne and we wi ll lack experienced journeymen let a lo ne master craftsmen . It see ms relatively certa in that we will have ap prenti ces, th ose who crave capabilit y, as distinct from knowledge a lo ne, as a way of life and a way of providing cont inuit y. But who will train 'em?

It has often appeared that restoring th e o ld vesse ls, imbued as th ey a re with a n und e niabl y moving hi sto ri ca l sig nifi ca nce a nd prec iou s construct ion details, is th e very chance to place th e new and th e passing ge neration s toget her to th e end of sk ills tra nsfer.

Two flaw s ex ist in thi s reaso nin g. First li es fundin g. By law (a so und one) a ll fund s dispersed by th e new $5,000,000 Maritime H eritage Fund as b y man y addition a l federal, sta te a nd pri vate conduits, mu st be matched. Funding is more easil y sec ured fo r th e monument th a n its restoration, howeve r a nd is hardest of all to sec ure fo r process. Consider a n instit ut ion devoted to th e preservation of the skill s or practices throu gh yo uth trainin g-sai l or sho re. I f seekin g a gra nt of $50,000 it must raise th e matchin g sum. Ex peri ence warns that when the cause is th e trainin g of you th for capab ilit y as di stin ct from knowledge attainm ent (which ca n be reass urin gly measured by th e acade mic degrees earned) then $ IOO is very often considered an ample gift.

SEA HI STO RY, WINTER I979

The Delaware ducker in the foreground gave two apprentices a chance to work for two weeks with Joseph Liener, a retired masterbuilder in his late seventies. Behind a 36 foot Tancook Whaler, to be used in sail training and freight carrying combined, rises in the Apprenticeshop, Bath, Maine. Photo, Ethan Hubbard.

The second flaw lies in the reluctance of many youth to work on setting to rights an old hull in which rot, rust and the results of years of neglect must be overcome. Months of labor, unskilled and little instructive, must precede a start on the more remunerative work of replacing sections, steel or wood. And this continues throughout the restoration process. Some absolutely brilliant examples of how this second impasse can be overcome are extant , none finer than the example of the Star of India wrenched back to full and superb condition by an extraordinary leader-Captain Kenneth Reynard. But we must not be dazzled or blinded by this success from paying heed to the many examples of efforts which have failed through lack of such leadership, passion, hands or treasure . In my opinion we are so blinded, and badly so.

In "The Exhausted West," Solzhenitsyn warned of the dangers of advanced materialism, of "extreme safety and well-being," of unduly honoring the letter of the law and being subject to "the constant desire to have still more things." As a way "to stand through the trials of this threatening century," he calls for self-restraint and self risk, noting that "we shall have to rise to a new height of vision, to a new level of life, where our physical nature will not be cursed as in the Middle Ages but, even more important, our spiritual being will not be trampled upon as in the modern era. " Strong stuff. And the above is an inadequate reflection of Solzhenitsyn 's caring and penetrative paper. 路 Bold moves, entailing hard work, skilled performance, inspiring proportions and actions, some certainly of the self-restraint and self-imposed discipline so out of favor today, can be one way out of the spiritual exhaustion of which Solzhenitsyn writes. Seamanship and all of the back-up trades and disciplines SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

This disused 19th-century machine shop was run off one five horsepower motor and a series of jackshafts. A master machinist is as eager to train youth as he is capable through 40 years of practice, but he is now employed as a maintenance man. There are not funds to set a machinist's apprenticeshop in motion. Photo, David H. Lyman.

that serve it can be a superb means of handing down something far more fragile than the ships or the heritage. We should be about keeping alive and strengthening the human dimensionthe "spiritual being."

A fine example of such a move is Melbourne Smith's intention to build a full scale clipper on the lines of the 1846 Sea Witch. He proposes to do so in a highly metropolitan environment in an effort to inspire and kindle the imagination of a nation; to do so with a large cadre of apprentices under the training of three master shipwrights, one master blacksmith and ten carpenters;路 to sail her round the earth with paying passengers and cargo and at all stages to honor the bottom line. That is, he intends that Sea Witch be undertaken as a paying proposition while planning to throw all profits into the future training of youth at sea and on the seaboard.

Smith notes : "Ships of the magnitud e were fashioned from wood, plant fiber, wrought iron, skill and s.weat. Ingredients that are scarce today . . .

Shouldn't we reclaim the heritage of skills that. made our nation so great?

The ability to do so is slipping beyond our reach. We must move now ... "

Pete Seeger, through sailing the Hudson River sloop Clearwater, has afforded enormous breadth of vision to innumerable people as he has raw and. inspiring experience-at very nominal cost. The campaigning of the brig Unicorn, while at high cost, is a bold and live process conducted to reclaim or revitalize adjudicated juvenile delinquents. Here seamanship and thus treasure, time and talent are serving to restore kids rather than artifacts. The present building of a 36-foot Tancook Whaler in Bath , Maine, which will simultaneou sly carry cargo and conduct sail training in a "labor for learning" trade-off, is another example of live

rather than static ends to which we might put the healing funds now sprung from the federal government. The building and operating plans of the John F. Leavitt in Thomaston, Maine has involved many young boatwrights as well as accomplished journeymen under the remarkable hand of Roy Wallace and the bold risk-taking and long range thought and action of Ned Ackerman. A 90-foot wooden schooner of her tonnage, designed for trade is on a par with the most responsible moves being made to underwrite the future in energy conservation as well as skills preservation .

The above five examples are far from monuments to our past; they are present-day and future oriented. But they honor on every level the greatness of that past-all of the skills of our heritage, from tacking a square rigger to blacksmithing and from using the river's current to harnessing wind to transport bottom-line freight. These are the essentials in our maritime inheritance . The old路路 monuments are but the testimony that there once existed competence . To ignore the need for continuity and the will to attain competence of the young today because of the attractions of building massive static tributes to our past is to bring down upon us the same judgement that befell Ozymandias: " Look on my work s, ye Mi ghty , a nd des pair! " Nothin g beside remains.

Round the decay of that colossa l wreck , boundless and bare the lone a nd level sand s stretch far awa y.

Mr. Lee is founder and director of the Apprenticeshop al the Maine Maritime Museum, at Bath, where the learning of Maine boatbuilders is kept alive, as young people build traditional craft by traditional methods. Further information is available from The Apprenticeshop, 375 Front Street, Bath, Maine 04530.

31

â&#x20AC;˘ These magnificent creations of the 19th century's master builders have new life.And new value. Handcarved mahogany woodwork is shining. Ornamental plaster is back in place.

Thousands of families are creating a dynamic new urban life style in historic Brooklyn neighborhoods.With help from the Brooklyn Union and community sponsored Cinderella programs, the splendor of Brooklyn's brownstones is being restored.

Once again, Brooklyn is definitely the place to buy a brownstone.

And Brooklyn Union's Brownstone Information Center is definitely the place to call to learn what Brownstone living is all about.

The Brownstone Information Center.

93 Prospect Place. (212) 643-4293. Carol Leshner.By appointment only.

C0 Brooklyn Union Gas

~

ÂŽÂŽ

SAIL TRAINING

From the President's Report The Annual Meeting of the International Advisory Committee of the Sail Training Association was held in London on Movember 14, STA, an international body, organizes the biannual "Tall Ships" Races and coordinates sail training activities around the world.

AST A represents the sail training interests of the western hemisphere on the International Advisory Committee. This year's meeting took up reports on the "Tall Ships" Races in the Baltic and in the Pacific, plans for the International Sail Training Races 1980, and suggestions for programs in 1982 and 1984. At the meeting word was received that the Soviets regretfully would be unable to host a gathering of the sail training ships during the time of the Olympics in 1980.

The final schedule includes a race from Kiel, Germany to Karlskrona, Sweden, a cruise-in-company from there to Fredericshafen, Denmark, and a race from the Skaw to Amsterdam, Holland.

AST A will run a Transatlantic race to join this, starting from Boston June 4.

Plans for 1982 tentatively include a race from Southern England to Lisbon, Portugal and a possible cruise-incompany to the Azores.

BARCLAY H. WARBURTON, III

New from the X-Seamen!

SONG & LORE OF THE SEA

Learn chanteys sung by the X-Seamen with their book of 13 songs with words, music and chords.

A 7" LP record gives samples of each song. Also included are a bibliography of sea literature, recipes for "ocean victuals, " a guide to square rigs, and how to build a boat in a bottle. All in one box!

10% discount to N.M.H.S. members.

To: National Maritime Historical Society 2 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY 11201 (212) 858-1348

Please send me__ " Song and Lore" at $5.00 each . My check for $_ _ _ is

enclosed.

NAM E - - - - - - - - - - - ADDR ESS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

_ _ _ _ _ _ ZIP

34

Black Pearl sets out on Operation Drake training cruise after ASTA Conference: from the left, Mate Taffy Roberts, Susan St. John of Outward Bound, and Skipper Warburton .

Photo Elaine Friedman.

"Shall the Harpies of the Shore Pluck the Eagle of the Sea?" The 1978 Sail Training Conference, held at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, on October 19-20, heard diverse reports-and entertained some diverse opinions-on the developing shape of the sail training movement in America . As it ended, with the brigs Black Pearl and Unicorn departing New London RR Pier on sail training missions, it was clear that AST A is increasingly clear on its mission and resolved to carry it out. This emerged in several key reports.

Commander Paul V. Welling, USCG, reviewed the Coast Guard bark Eagle's successful participation in ASTA's Tall Ships Pacific-78 . Debated at the time, this West Coast visit (the first in 14 years) stimulated widespread interest in Coast Guard programs. Under her new program Eagle may include West Coast and European visits under a regular 3 or 4-year cycle. Nancy Richardson of the Girl Scouts filled out this picture with films from the schoooner Adventuress's sailing in Tall Ships Pacific-augmented by reports from Mrs. Bennett, the schooner's owner, and crew members who had come east for the Conference.

Port festivals came under strong attack. At some, at least, ships and crews have been poorly accommodated, with no real educational program to justify the visit, and no income from shore events (where the money is made) going to ships . This, it was resolved, would be set right in any future festivals in which AST A took part.

A comprehensive sail training act to remove inappropriate insurance and other regulations which limit sail training opportunities was_approved in principle, with specifics to be worked out by the ASTA's Council of Educational Shipowners under the chairmanship of

Richard K. Page, director of the Philadelphia Maritime Museum.

Government encouragement and support for the whole heritage was briefly taken up in discussion centering on the Maritime Heritage Fund set up at the initiative of the NMHS Ship Trust Committee. It was pointed out that this fund centered, by regulation, on monumental objects; the next needed step is to broaden it to include the skills and disciplines of the heritage.

Much else was discussed, including Melbourne Smith's magnificent scheme to build a full-scale clipper Sea Witch on the New York waterfront (see pp. 19-21).

Overall, people commented on a new sense of unity in the whole sea heritage, and new recognition of the interdependence of its parts; and with this, a strong independence and resolve not to pick up crumbs from existing programs but to forge new ones for the heritage in skills particularly-a point most urgently made perhaps by Lance Lee, who contributed a Ship Trust paper on this in this SEA HISTORY (pp. 28-31) .

East Coast Races ... and Sea Festival!

AST A Race Chairman Perry Lewis has announced that the 1979 races will begin with a visit to Norfolk, Virginia, June 15-17. On June 18, the fleet races from Norfolk to Baltimore, joining a port visit in that city June 19-24. There will also be a northern circuit beginning with a rendezvous in western Long Island Sound on July 4, a race from there to New London starting July 5, and a port visit to New London July 7-8. Vessels will then race to Newport.

In Newport, a major Sea Festival is proposed to celebrate the arts of the sailor and shipwright on the weekend of July 13-14. This will tie into developing plans for an historic seaport center in Newport-a project discussed before in these pages, which would bring Seaport '76, who sail the Providence replica, the American Sail Training Association, the University of Rhode Island marine archaeological department, and other interests into a major cultural and historic center.

The X Seamens Institute is working up plans for the festival, which will not be one of the harpies of the shore plucking the eagle of the sea, but of sailors come ashore to celebrate a heritage with friends-a thing to inspire, educate and enlist the public interest in the whole heritage for which the Ship Trust works.

PS For Further information: American Sail Training Ass 'n , Eisenhower House, Fort Adam s State Park, Newport RI 02840.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

Operation Drake Is Launched

By Vince Martinelli Chairman, Operation Drake USA Prince Charles put the Royal seal of approval on Operation Drake on October 22 as the world-encircling, two-year expedition set out from Plymouth, England, taking a turn at the helm of the brigantine Eye of The Wind to launch one of the great adventure stories of our time. So 24 Young Explorers, male and female, from such diverse parts of the world as Nepal, Sweden, England and Canada, began the first three-month phase of the expedition marking Sir Francis Drake' s epic circumnavigation of the globe 400 years ago. The Prince was greeted by General Sir John Mogg, Chairman of the Expedition, Lt. Col. John Blash ford-Snell, director of operations, and Walter H. Annenberg, former U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain and Honorary President of Operation Drake . Ambassador Annenberg is not only a great friend of exploration but a prime mover behind Operation Drake.

In recognition of this support, Gen-era! Mogg and Lt. Col. Blashford-Snell presented Ambassador Annenberg with a replica of Drake's sword, which will be carried in the 150-ton brig throughout the voyage. While the pomp and circumstance were taking place, Captain

Jakov Adam of Op Drake USA was busily working on the great diesel engine of the vessel under the watchful eye of Captain Patrick Collis, and Young Explorers scurried around, tending to their duties on board. The actual departure of the vessel took place some two weeks later, after a number of shakedown cruises (Sir Francis Drake was similarly delayed at the outset of his voyage .-ED) .

The brig wound its way across the Atlantic, making stops at the Cape Verde Islands and St. Vincent in the

Caribbean, where scientific work was carried out. Captain Collis averaged five knots in the ocean crossing. On January I , the Eye of the Wind put into a berth at Colon, Panama. Meanwhile, my wife Barbara and I had spent the Christmas and New Year's holidays in Panama, working with Lt. Col. Blashford-Snell and the rest of the crew at headquarters to prepare for the arrival of the brigantine. We had constant radio communication with the vessel throughout the entire journey. The first changeover of 24 Young Explorers took place the second week of January, and home for these intrepid young people will be the Caledonia Bay area of the notorious Darien jungle for the next three months. w

The Annenbergs receive their sword.

Friends of Operation Drake, sponsored by NMHS, welcomes contributions of $25 or more, for which subscribers will receive a map of the voyage and detailed reports.

A Half Century of Innovation Water Transportation â&#x20AC;˘ Shipbuilding â&#x20AC;˘ Energy

Seatrain Lines, Inc. 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza New York, N.Y. 10005 SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

35

,,,...--·.,...

PILOT BOAT NEW YORK

New York and New Jersey Sandy Hook Pilots Serving the pilotage needs of New York Harbor since 1694

One Bay St. , P.O. Box 1694, Staten Island, N.Y. 10301 • 212 448-3900

IBM has a new plant in the old neighborhood We're no newcomers to Brooklyn. IBM arrived in Bedford-Stuyvesant a decade ago. And our new plant will continue to employ 400 people, seventy-two per cent of whom live in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn. It's a good place to live, and a good place to work. And we're proud that IBM products made here are used around -;- _ -~=

the world.

:§: - -::§~~ «

ade

Historic Ships in South Atnerican Waters

By Norman Brouwer As the world of ocean shipping changed half a century and more ago, casting aside the sailing ships and early steamers of the nineteenth century, ship historians took note of old ships that ended their days in South American waters.

In 1965 Karl Kortum. then Director of the San Francisco Maritime Museum*, made a journey to South America and the Falklands which brought these old ships saved as hulks into the mainstream of historical concern.

Through Karl Kortum 's initiative success/ul campaigns were undertaken to bring home the great iron steamer Great Britain of 1843 from the Falklands to her builder's dock in Bristol, England, and to tow the full-rigged ship Wavertree from the Riachuela, off the River Plate at Buenos Aires, to South Street Seaport Museum in New York. A similar effort was made to save the beautiful French four-masted bark Champigny for San Francisco. She was towed from the Falklands to Montevideo where restoration was begun; but this work lagged and earIn the summer of 1977 I visited Hilton Matthews in England, to mak e plans for th e new Falkland Islands Expedit ion slat ed to begin the following January.

Together we called on Michael Stammers, Keeper of Shipping at the Merseyside Co unt y Museum in Liverpool (see SH 12, 38) to discuss the possibilities of English participation. Subsequently Victori a Jennsen, originall y sc heduled to join as marine archaeologist and conservator, had to withdraw to work on another project, and Stammers was chosen to fill th e open slot, with Matthews, *He is today Chief Curator of the National Maritime Museum at San Francisco, and Vice President of the National Maritime Historical Society.

Ly in 1977 she was scrapped for lack of funds to tide her over a change of ownership. (See SH 8.)

Also through Kor tum 's efforts the Charles Cooper, South Street packet of 1856, was bought by South Street Seaport Museum for ultimate return from the Falkland Islands to New York, and the little English bark Vicar of Bray of 1841, last surviving ship of the California Gold Rush, was acquired by the National Society for return to San Francisco. Other significant finds were noted. And in 1973 at Kortum's behest the National Society published John Smith's booklet on the hulks in Port Stanley, "Condemned at Stanley" (available from the National Society for $1.50).

In cooperation with the National Society, South Street Seaport Museum mounted an expedition to the Falklands in April 1976, to make a preliminary survey of American ships in the Falklands, with Norman Brouwer, Ship Historian at South Street Seaport Museum, as principal investigator, in

company with the English shipwright Hilton Matthews and the National Society's Curator-at-Large Peter Throckmorton. This effort, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, was reported by Throckmorton in SH 4 and 5.

In 1978 the Endowment funded a more thoroughgoing survey expedition, which proceeded under joint sponsorship of the National Society and the South Street Museum. The South Street effort focused on making precise surveys of American ships, the Society's on making molds of the Charles Cooper's stern carvings and returning a section of the Down Easter St. Mary to Maine (see Throckmorton's "The Beast on the Beach," SH 11).

Norman Brouwer 's report as principal investigator follows. As we go to press a third expedition, sponsored by the National Society, is embarking to work on the bow of the last American clipper Snow Squall, and to survey the Vicar of Bray for return to San Francisco.-ED.

myself and Peter Throckmorton making up the rest of the basic team.

At Peter Throckmorton's lead, the National Society rounded up further interests in the project, making possible a considerab le broadening of expedition objectives beyond the basic undertaking funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, to make precise records of American ships. Several volunteers were added through the Center for Field Resea rch of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Dr. Eric Berryman of the University of New Mexico expressed interest in making silicon rubber molds of the Charles Cooper's stern carvings a nd ot her fittings . The University sponsored his joining the expedition, and Dow-Corning of Midland, Michigan, donated materials

and training in their use. Transport for the one ton of suppli es was don ated by the United States Navy's Sealift Co mmand, and the Argentine Air Force a nd Navy. The Maine State Museum in Augusta, was enro lled to use part of th e remains of the Phippsburg-built St. Mary of 1890 in a planned exhibit on Maine shipbuilding (the ship' s story is told in Sanford H. Low's "The First and Last Voyage of the St. Mary," SH 9 and 10) .

England's Frank Carr, rescuer of the clipper ship Cutty Sark, secured official permission to remove part of what was technically a Crown wreck.

The first members of the Falkland Islands Expedit ion arrived in Buenos Aires, Arge ntin a on January 12, 1978: Matthews, Throckmorton, Stammers

Expedition members muster in front of " the homiest pub in Stanley. " From left, Jan Miles and John Bardon, volunteers recruited from the visiting ketch Jenny Wren, Hilton Matthews, Mike Stammers and A very Stone.

Then expedition leader Norman Brouwer, in pea jacket, and next lo him Eric Berryman.

The young fe llow on crutches is one of two local boys who assisted on the Charles Cooper project. Photo, Peter Throckmorton .

All other photos, unless otherwise noted, by Norman Brau wer.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

A Report on the Falkland Islands Expedition of 1978 sponsored by South Street Seaport Museum with the National Maritime Historical Society and I, with Mrs. Avery Stone, a volunteer diver and marine archaeologist.

At this point we discovered that the airline handling the weekly flights into the Falklands had cancelled all reservations, without notifying anyone. Two things were quickly decided. First, that Mike Stammers should be sent to the Falklands on the only space available in the next two weeks, as his time was limited. Second, that the remaining people should make good use of the twoweek delay by checking on ships in the Straits of Magellan area, as several had originally intended to do after the Falklands work had been completed .

In Buenos Aires, we visited the museum sh ips Presidente Sarmiento and Uruguay, and the Naval Museum at Tigre. The Presidente Sarmiento is a full-rigged ship with 2800 HP auxilliary engines, built of steel at Birkenhead, England in 1897. She served as a training ship for the Argentine Naval Academy from 1898 to 1938, cruising to all parts of the world and representing Argentina at such events as the Coronations of Edward VII and George V of England and the Inauguration of President Taft. The Uruguay is a bark-rigged steam corvette built at Birkenhead in 1874, preserved as a memorial to early Argentine activities in the Antarctic. In 1903 she rescued members of a Norwegian expedition from islands in the Weddell Sea. The team then flew to Santiago, Chile, where Matthews, Stone and I continued south by train, while Throckmorton remained behind to follow shortly by air. First stop on the southward journey was Talcahuano, location of Chile's largest naval base and the museum ship Huascar, a single-turret warship of 1865 . (See SH 12:27.)

During the l 950's a number of sailing ship hulks, formerly used for storage in Chilean ports, were scrapped at Talcahuano for the nearby steelworks. The figureheads of two of these ships are displayed in the offices of the Port. One came from the iron ship Majestic, built at Belfast, Ireland in 1875. The other is probably from the iron ship Allerton, built at Southampton, England in 1884.

The Allerton was a near sistership of South Street's Wavertree, built at Southampton in 1885.

The team then travelled south by bus to Puerto Montt,' with an overnight stop at Valdivia. At Puerto Montt, the virtual end of the line for land transportation, a plane was boarded for Punta Arenas on the Straits of Magellan.

Ships in the Straits Here Throckmorton rejoined, and severSEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

al days were spent photographing and making notes on hulls of sai ling ships and steamers in the vicinity of the naval shipyard. For nearly a hundred years, damaged or outmoded ships were used as floating storage hulks for wool from the surrounding ranches and coal for steamships rounding the southern tip of the continent. Many were taken away and scrapped, but the remains of four sai ling ships and two steamers are st ill grounded along the shore.

Two of the sai ling ships, and one steamer, were sunk perpendicular to the shore to form a breakwater for the shipyard, a purpose they still serve. Ttie outermost is the iron four-masted fullrigged ship County of Peebles built at Glasgow in 1875 . She is one of three vessels of this rig known to still be in existence. (The others are the Falls of Clyde, a museum in Hawaii, and the County of Roxburgh, on a reef in the South Pacific.) The County of Peebles was the first one launched in Great Britain, which produced all of those built of iron and steel. Her hull is intact, with four lowermasts still standing. The li ving quarters had been stripped, but a few years ago the area of the aft accommodations was renovated to serve as a meeting room .

Inshore of the County of Peebles lies the ancient steamer Hipparchus, built of iron at Sunderland, England in 1867 for a Belgian company trading with South America. She may well be the most intact ocean steamship of her period. The --...____

Hipparchus was

bark-rigged when launched, and still retains her chain plates and many lower deadeyes. The hull is intact, stripped of all deck planking, masts a nd fittings. The engineroom casing survives, but the engines have long since been removed . Hipparchus has a st raight stem and a feature that would soon be disappearing from steamships, stern windows. Furthest inshore in the breakwater is the Falstaff, an iron 110;:,

/ H.

In 1969 Peter Stanford found the Ville de Mulhouse remarkably complete even to pink marble fireplace in the saloon. Below, the wreck in 1978 as Peter Throckmorton photographed it.

full-rigged ship built at Barrow, England in 1875 . She is in much the sai:ne condition as the Hipparchus. Traces of a painted port color scheme can still be made out on her sides.

About 100 yards south of the breakwater of ships some wreckage can be seen in shallow water offshore. This the remains of the iron bark Lady Penrhyn, built at Glasgow in 1875. Renamed America as a storage hulk, she parted her cable and drove ashore here in a gale around 1927. A hundred yards further down the beach lies the partially scrapped hull of the steel ship Lonsdale, built at Londonderry, Ireland in 1889.

Lonsdale was condemned at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands in 1909 after being seriously damaged by fire . She was towed to Punta Arenas for use as a hulk the following year. Twenty-five years later her hull was beached here to be broken up. She is cut down to below the tweendeck level abaft the foredeck, but forward of that point is largely intact, including her spike bowsprit, which almost overhangs the coastal highway.

About a quarter mile further to the south is the wreck of the steamer Serena, also at one time a storage hulk anchored offshore. She was built at Glasgow in 1881 for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, hulked in 1902, and driven ashore where she now lies during a gale, some time after 1927. Much of the hull survives, badly broken up.

We also investigated possible sources for information on South Street's Wavertree, which spent 37 years at Punta Arenas. It was particularly hoped that information might be found regarding the fate of the missing figurehead of this vessel.

Peter Throckmorton visited the wreck of the steel four-masted bark Ville de Mu/house, on the coast of Tierra del 39

HISTORIC SHIPS IN SOUTH AMERICAN WATERS Fuego about twenty miles from the town of Porvenir, traveling by ferry and by car. Built in France in 1899, this ship was hulked at Punta Arenas in 1928 and renamed Andalucia. She was the last former sailing ship anchored in the port when, in August 1973, she parted her cable, ¡ drifted across the Straits, and went ashore where she is now breaking up rapidly. And trips were made to Estancia San Gregorio, over 100 miles east of Punta Arenas, to the remains of the composite tea clipper Ambassador.

' The Ambassador '-;..

.

is the only extreme clipper ship in existence aside from the Cutty Sark at Greenwich, England, and the fragment of the American Snow Squall in the Falklands. Built at Rotherhithe, near London , in 1869, Ambassador was condemned in 1895 at Port Stanley after storm damage off Cape Horn, and was converted to a wool hulk in the Straits. She was retired early in this century and beached where she now lies. Her wood planking has been removed, leaving the complete iron skeleton as an outstanding study in composite construction . A few yards away is the steamer Amadeo, built at Liverpool in 1884 and beached at San Gregorio at the end of her active career in 1932. This ship is complete, except for the engines, but will not survive much longer. Her offshore side is being broken in by the waves at high tide, and there are large cracks in the main deck.

On a second trip Matthews, Stone and I continued eastward to Point Dungeness at the eastern end of the Straits.

On Cape Possession, the last headland inside Dungeness, we visited the wreck of the American sidewheel steamer Olympian, wrecked while being towed

from San Francisco to New York m 1906. Olympian is in its way the most spectacular wreck in the Straits. The 40

superstructure, and most of the iron hull, have long since disappeared . What remains is the giant single cylinder walking beam engine, with its boilers, and two paddlewheels still mounted on their shaft. The latter are 32 feet in diameter.

The 261-foot Olympian, was built at Wilmington, Delaware in 1883 for use on Puget Sound. She was returning to the East Coast, to operate between New York and Providence, Rhode Island when she was lost.

In the Falkland Islands With transport now available, the team returned to Argentina where Dr. Berryman joined us, and flew on to Port Stanley in the Falklands, where we were met

by Mike Stammers and the local marine historian John Smith . We set to work immediately on the packet ship Charles Cooper, lying in Port Stanley, the only complete hull among the American vessels.

The greatest challenge in recording the

Charles Cooper was obtaining the ship's

knees and hold stanchions, down to the buried portion of the hull. Data were also assembled for a longitudinal crosssection to show existing sheer, and the complex structure of the bow and stern.

After one week, the initial team was supplemented by the arrival of four volunteers under the Center for Field Research program : Nathaniel Greene, Joseph Sawtelle, George Cooper and Rufus Jefferson, who had signed up to participate in the project for three weeks. Greene, a retired engineering draftsman, was employed taking measurements of surviving deck machinery and fittings on the Cooper, as well as

_:...: ~

,,,,...~

....~

. - , t:

construction details. Sawtelle was involved in drawing up and removing the 30-foot stern decoration on the Cooper, and later took part in the work on the remains of the 1890 ship St. Mary. Cooper and Jefferson were involved in taking the lines off the Charles Cooper, and other work on that vessel.

Throckmorton and Berryman set about preparations for obtaining molds of the Charles Cooper stern decoration.

It was decided to remove the carving, as the local historian John Smith, and the curator of the Port Stanley Museum, Mrs. Joan Spruce, were becoming concerned about its continued safety. A platform was constructed outboard of the stern beneath the transom. The carving was then fully photographed and drawn up in position. It was found to be in three major pieces; one over 15 feet wide, and two over 9 feet. The pieces ~ ~

hull lines, so that her actual shape could be put down on paper. First, a centerline had to be established from bow to stern, carefully checked for any twisting of the hull which might have taken place since she was grounded over JOO years ago.

Fortunately, the ship still rests on an even keel, and, aside from a weakened area of the starboard side amidships, little deformation can be detected .

Careful plans were made of the 0"''< Cooper's two decks; the main deck, and ;;! seven feet below it a tweendeck. Virtual- ;;: ly all of the supporting structure of the tweendeck survives and around 900Jo of the original surface. Around 900Jo of the supporting structure of the main deck had been joined edge to edge by wooden survives, and 400Jo of the original surdowels, and fastened to the transom, face. A cross-section of the ship was also through a Y:. -inch pine backing, with measured and drawn amidships to show iron spikes. The carving was carefully dimensions of outside planking, frames, braced in position, after which the ceiling, deck planking, beams, hanging dowels were cut and the iron spikes cleared of any rust scale and driven out of the holes. The carving was then removed and transported to the Port Stanley Museum on a tug provided by the Falkland Islands Company. The chemicals to be used in making the

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

silicon rubber molds wou ld be arriving in the fifth week, brought to Puerto Belgrano, Arge ntina on the U.S. Naval cargo ship Mirfak, and from there to Port Stanley on a n Argenti ne Naval Vessel. (See "Letters," this iss ue .)

Throckmorton then launc hed ¡ preparations for an expedition to the wreck of the St. Mary, built at Phippsburg, Maine in 1890 and lost that same year on her maiden voyage, which lies on a remote beach 20 miles overla nd from Port Stan ley. A reconnaissance trip was made to the wreck by Land Rover, over the road less terrain, fo llowed a week later by a full-fledged expedition, complete with campin g gear and supplies for a one-week stay. Additional people were

"Bat h, Maine" can still faintly be made research. Stammers, who was ab le to o ut o n the brass-domed top. The fine stay on ly for the first three weeks of the project, used this extra time to record brass-inlayed wheel also survives. Spars from the ship were used as j oists an d the British wooden ship Jhelum of 1849, and brig Fleetwing built in North Wales beams in th e construction o f two buildings in Stanley an d the doors from in 1874. Avery Sto ne and I collected th e aft accommodations were reused in data on th e remaining British and Canathese a nd other buildings. Millstones dian wooden ships, particularly the Margaret (Nova Scot ia 1836), the Egeria from th e Kelley's cargo serve as (New Brunswick 1859), the William ¡ doorsteps o utside a Port Stanley store.

Shand (England 1839) and the Actaron And a quantity of the salvaged cargo is still in storage 79 years later, in a near by (New Brun swick 1838). Evidence was particularly so ught regarding var ia ti o ns warehouse; ranging from large cast-iron in American, British a nd Canadian shippumps, to glass lamp shades, to bottles of ink still packed in sawdust in wooden bui lding practice.

Boat trips were made to the iron hark boxes. A da y was spe nt diving on the wreck of the Kelley, which lies in abo ut 40 feet of water.

!4

Lady Elizabeth built at Sunderland ,

recruited, in cluding three crewmembers from a visiting yac ht , to aid in salvagi ng a 40-foot secti on o f the sh ip 's side for the Maine State Museum. This was ac hieved, as narrated by Throckmorton in SH 11.

Meanwhile, the work of recording the Charles Cooper co ntinued. Nat Greene produced a total of 41 sheets of drawings of surviving fittings and constructio n details; including windlass, hatches, hold stanchions, mast partners, chain plates, timber ports, cat head, cleats a nd padeyes. The planking system of th e inner ceiling of the hull was measured a nd drawn up , wit h frame ve ntilating openings, scarp hs and fastenings, and locations of knees, clamps, spi rk etti ng a nd wate rways. The ship was also thoroughly photograp hed from bow to stern , both intern a ll y and externally.

The long evenings in the Falklands at this time of year provided the opportunity for an extended worki ng day. While the work on the primary project ended with th e evening meal, some participants took advantage of the ad diti onal hours of light to broaden the sco pe of th eir

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

England in 1879; the best-preserved sailing ship in th e Falklands, which lies at the east end of Stanley Harbo r. This ship st ill has her lowermasts a nd bowspri t, mos t of her deck fittings and machinery and th e crew's berths in the forecas tl e. Trips by Land Rover, or on foot, were made to several smaller wrec ks around th e Harbor, including the steam tug Samson used to tow sailing ships into Port Stanley after 1900. (It was she who towed the di smasted ship Wavertree, now at South Street Seaport Museum, into harbor on C hristmas Eve, 1910, after she had lain a fo rtni ght in the roadstead , presumably bargaining over th e price of the tow.-ED.) The bow of the clipper ship Snow

The Vicar of Bray had not undergone any noticeable change since she was visited in 1976. Her hull is intact, but the decks are gone and most of the deck beams a re badly deteriorated. Following th e 1976 visit this ship was acquired by the Natio nal Maritime Historica l Society as a gift from the Falkland Islands Compa ny, for eventual preservation in San Francisco. She is of grea t historic significl!nce to that City as the last known survivor of the ships which called there during the Gold Ru sh of 1849 .. The British

Squall, built at Cape Elizabeth, Maine, in 1851, was further st udi ed. The stern of this ship, which lies largely underwater and buried by debris, was now completely innacessible as a wooden barge had been sunk on top of it since the last visi t.

Relics of the John R. Kelley, built at Bath, Maine in 1883, and lost near the entrance to the Harbor in 1899, were exami ned at several locations in Port Stanley. A magnificent capstan from this ship is installed in th e small Government dockyard. The ship' s na me and

iron bark Garland of 1865 lies beached across the bay , with all its deck fittings and machinery intact a nd some of its spars.

At the end of the fourth week the Field Research volunteers completed th eir three-week stay and departed Port Stanley, with the exception of Geo rge Coo per, who elected to stay an addi' tional week. During th e fifth week P eter 41

HISTORIC SHIPS

A unique experience. $2BS week ly. S260 June & Sept.

For Brochure Call 207-437-2851 (winter) 207-763-3 137 (summer)

Schooner TIMBERWIND

You can be a CG Licensed Officer Mail order Deck and ~ · .· .

Engine courses, all . grades. Write for brochure.

CAPTAIN VAN'S SCHOOLS

Capt. Bill Alexander

Box 53, Port Arthur, TX 77640

Box 247 SH . Rockport, Me. 04856

Serving Mariners for Over 50 years.

The Country's Largest

INVENTORY OF SHIP MODELS From estates and private collections. Over 250 fine ship models from 6 " to 7' in length. Send for brochure today! By appointment.

Kathleen Lannan Nautiques 259 Harvard St., Quincy, Ma. 02170 Tel. 617-479-5091

On an mler-rsland adventure Sfiare good seafaring

food, rs/and life 'Thrts of call are romantic fir stone out island settlements in tfie .':{bacos.

-rrrivate or institutional groups inquire about sail training program in conjunction witfi _':{merican Sail 'Training .':{ssoc.

-'Regular inter-island commerce available.

-You will be joining a well kept , working scfiooner, not a yacfit. <Topsails, blocli. & tacli.le.

-'Dav, week and weeliends.

-Lisien to the wind, enjoy !Abaco sunrises & sunsets, cfiange watcfies, trim sails. We worli. & experience island life. Join us!

Join tfie WILLI!A:M :H !AL'BU'RY wfiere sfie is. enroute towards anotfier island settlement.

'For details :

Throckmorton and Eric Berryman were engaged in cleaning the Charles Cooper stern carving and constructing a platform on·which to do the molds. During the following week, the chemicals having now arrived, the molds were successfully completed.

The original six week period of the survey was now at an end. On March 13th, Avery Stone, Eric Berryman and I left the Islands on the weekly flight to Comodoro Rividavia. Hilton Matthews and Peter Throckmorton remained in the Falklands, Matthews to finish up the work on the Charles Cooper, aided by Halliday, and in dismantling stagings and other structures set up in the course of the work, Throckmorton to prepare the remnants and artifacts from the St. Mary and the molds of the Charles Cooper carvings for shipment to the United States. These were subsequently transported to England on the British Antarctic Survey ship Bransfield, and from there to Portland, Maine, on the Maine State merchant marine schoolship

State of Maine Ill. In Argentina, A very Stone and I made one last side trip to the south, to Rio Gallegos to visit the wreck of the steel

. . . .i;L_ INTER-ISLAND SCHOONER

m.

TRADING CO. 'Dinner Xev :Manna Coconut 9rove, 'Fl~. 33133/ U.S.!A.

SEA HISTORY PRINTS A limited edition of 200 collector's prints, each signed and numbered by the artist is offered for sale to benefit the work of the N.M.H.S. Price $48 per copy, image size 11 x 17.

bark Marjory Glen, built in Sco!land in 1892 and beached there on fire in 1911.

This ship is complete, aside from all the wooden decks, rails, etc., which were burned away. The metal has deteriorated little in 67 years, apparently due to the oxidation in the fire. Avery Stone then flew back to the U.S. by way of Buenos Aires. I travelled south by bus to Punta Arenas for one more visit, before flyin g home by way of Santiago.

*

"Drake versus Ranger," by Wm. Gilkerson

TO: NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY 2 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 Please send me prints of "Drake versus Ranger" at $48 is enclosed. per print. My check for $

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Z IP _ _ _ __

42

*

*

*

*

The sheer volume of information on mid-19th century wooden shipbuilding assembled in thi s effort is ex!remely gratifying. Most of it is still in very raw form, and requires refining and draf!ing. There is material here for several publications; one of the first should be a minutely detailed study of the Cooper.

In the meantime, the information will be on file, available to researchers in this field, in the Library of the South Street Seaport Museum in Nr.w York . .t SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

SHIP NOTES

The Elissa Departs Piraeus and Arrives at Gibraltar on Her Long Journey to Galveston

By Michael Creamer Director, Elissa Restoration Galveston Historical Foundation The days preceding departure were full of rush and runaround. Elissa hadn't been anywhere except to a shipyard or two in more than eight years of interrupted restoration begun by Peter Throckmorton of the National Society and now completed by the Galveston Historical Foundation. Restoration, that is, for tow to the United States ...

Her reincarnation as an 1870s sailing ship will be accomplished in Galveston.

The Feast of St. Spirodonos coincided with her scheduled tow date. Banks and public offices were either closed or attended by sub-assistants who did not want to take responsibility for any special cases. True to form, Elissa was indeed a special case: no flag, no register, out of class, few certificates of any kind and no proper Greek agent. Fortunately, however, the physical work of restoration proved very sound.

The Captain who turned Elissa over to Peter Throckmorton years ago was happy to see she wasn't going to the scrapyard after all. "She is a very lucky ship," he said. "But l hope you will not be disapointed to discover that she is also very old.,., Perhaps he thought she was fifty years old or so; it's doubtful he knew she was Alexander Hall's lovely bark of 1877. As an Aegean motorship her hull from a clipper yard had gone through many transmogrifications.

On this occasion her luck was holding good; she left a waterfront of old ships (none so old as she) condemned out of service, run ashore like dying whales and scrapped by shore flensers. Permits were secured, affidavits in lieu of certificates, and as the snowstorm of paper subsided l rushed down to the waterfront by taxi (unaccustomed luxury!) with a final critical document, attesting to her stability to the satisfaction of the Greek Coast Guard.

"We are sailing!" Three short blasts on the whistle of the big Italian tug Mare Jania, and the same answer back from the smaller Greek steering tug. We're off! The 3,000 HP Junia doesn't even notice Elissa lashed alongside as she gathers speed and heads for the roadstead. After a short run, we heave to amid circling boats of reporters and well wishers, and all hands leave Elissa. Mr. Wilcox of London Salvage, myself, others ... last to leave are Gus Rankin, Nikos Pagomenos and Costas Sevastos.

Gus's practical seamanship was a godsend in the hurly burly of these last days; and a special farewell for Niko and SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

"She is a very lucky ship.

But I hope you will not be disappointed to discover that she is also very old. " Costa who may never see again the ship for which they have done so much. They worked as volunteers these last few weeks when our funds were used up, long hard hours given for filotema.

"Friendship and glory" might be a translation of that word; their only reward is friendships made and the good that the preservation of our common historical heritage does for the world at large.

Elissa drops astern, on 100' of taut 42mm wire. Gradually Mimo, Direttore di Machina, pays out the wire, 200', 300' . It drops beneath the surface in a catenary curve that softens the tow; Elissa at the other end behaves like a perfect lady, tracking straight as an arrow.

Here are notes from my journals: Wednesday, December 13. Seasick.

Ugh! Winds Force 3-4 and increasing.

Captain slows from 8 knots to 5 and then to 3 due to height of seas.

Thursday, December 14. 7:30 AM Hope we all did our work well .. . . Elissa is taking a tremendous pounding. 8:00 PM. We are halfway between Methone, Peloponnese, and Sicily. Open water, no place to run for cover. Request Captain to slow down or alter course more into wind rather than making a beeline for Sicily.

The Elissa heads for Gibraltar. Photo M. Creamer.

Friday, December 15. 1:00 AM Force 7-8. Spotlight on Elissa shows her leaping out of the sea to expose 10 or 15 feet of her keel and bottom aft of her forefoot, then crashing down; burying her hawse lips and disappearing behind a wall of water and spray. A worrisome sight. 5:45 AM Augustea Bay. Calm & sunny, an indication of better weather.

3:30 PM All hands gather for a weather report. Captain says we wait 'til tomorrow. Check Elissa's lashings, tow connection, forepeak hold, etc.

Saturday, December 16. 6:30 AM At anchor. Calm. 7:30 AM Waiting for weather report. Do we stay or go? All gathered on bridge again to find out. No weather report, just Strauss waltzes.

Captain must take this as an indication of fair forecast; we go. If things get too intense we can always gunkhole and wait for it to blow over. 7:30 PM FISH DINNER-the officers & crew of this tugboat dine very well. Winds are Force 6-8 out of the south, but we are traveling in the lee of the African coast.

Monday, December 18. Dozens of dolphins off Cape Carbon sighted while taking navigation lesson from mate, Carmelo Colombo, who claims descent from Christopher himself. It is possible, as one was and the other is reheaded .

3:30 PM Loud pop! Elissa's port chain bridle gives way! Reduce speed and begin to reel tow line in. Boat lowered into choppy sea & now discover that the cook is also the best sailor among the crew.

He rows Carmelo to Elissa's boarding ladder and back to the tug for more of the crew. In less than 90 minutes the chain bridle has been slipped and hauled aboard the tug; two new wire bridles have been fitted and we are on our way ... a good thing this particular emergency didn't take place in worse weather ... Cook announces his special green noodle lasagna will be on the menu this evening.

Wednesday, December 20. Early AM Blowing like stink as if whole Atlantic wanted to get into the Med at Gib. 7:00 AM Calmer now, coast of Spain in sight .. . 3:00 PM The Rock! Quite impressive to see both the African and European Pillars of Hercules ... What fool would want to leave this nice safe lake and sail out into vast nothing? Am informed by Mr. Colombo that this is not the end of the earth, it's at Cape Finisterre. 6:30.

Pick up pilot. Tug alongside. Formalities finished in less than fifteen minutes.

By the time we are finished saying goodbye to Carmelo, Captain and friends, Elissa is nearly at her berth. Pilot very kindly lends us his launch to catch up and remove running lights back to tug & put my gear aboard Elissa. Now look forward to sleep someplace dry and stable; to hear and sing Christmas carols in English. What a fine Christmas, Elissa in Gibraltar and getting closer to home!

Previous chapters in Elissa's saga are told in SH 4and11. As this issue goes to press, she awaits tow home from Gibraltar to Galveston, where it is expected she may arrive in April or May.-ED. 43

SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT The China Cabin

This lovely cabin of 1866, the sole surviving work of the clipper-builder William Webb, comes from his great steamer China. Her mainmast came through hole in overhead.

Photo: Philip L. Molten.

A rose-bowered, shingled cottage standing on pilings in a rundown section of the Tiburon Bay waterfront at Belvedere, California, has been saved from demolition through the efforts of the Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society, backed by the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, the National Society and others. It contains the first-class saloon and surgeon's and chief engineer's staterooms of the great transpacific liner China, built by William Webb in New York in 1866.

William Webb, builder of the Challenge, Young America and other famous clippers of the 1850s, built a total of twelve great steamers for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, beginning with the 1450-ton Tennessee in 1848 and ending with the 3,836-ton China'.

The giant wooden paddlewheeler entered service in 1867, and was retired sixteen years later, in 1883 . After brief service as a quarantine receiving ship, she was burned for her metal in 1886.

The saloon deckhouse was removed from its location just abaft the paddleboxes by J .T. Keefe of the Corinthian Yacht Club, who took it by barge to Belvedere and set it on pilings to serve as his family's weekend residence until 1915. It then passed into other hands, continuing in use as a waterfront cottage.

Acquired by the City of Belvedere five years ago, the cabin was slated for demolition in cleanup of the waterfront.

The Landmarks Society took it in custody and on January 8 this year won a reprieve, that the cabin might be saved if relocated and restored. Funds are now sought for these purposes. Landmarks Society, PO Box 134, Belvedere-Tiburon CA 94920.

44

INTERNATIONAL The Third International Conference of the International Congress of Maritime Museums was held at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, September 24-29. More than 100 delegates attended from around the world to exchange views and hear papers on: "Wooden Ship Preservation" by Maynard Bray, "Restoration of a n Iron Star" by Capt.

Kenneth D. Reynard, "Conservat ion in the Museum" by Sheldon Keck, "S hip Models"

by Erik A.R. Ronnberg, Jr., "Fakes and Forgeries in Maritime Art" by J. Reve ll Carr, "Data Standards and the Comp uter" by Peter Homulos, "Maritime Museum Security" by Robert G. Tillotson, "Improvin g Exhibits through Formative Evaluation"

by C.G. Screven, "Small Craft Tradition in North American Maritime Museums" by John Gardner and "Maritime Museums and Hi gher Educat ion" b y Benjamin W. Labaree. Proceedings will be available through each participating museum, and inquiries wi ll be forwarded by NMHS. A Maritime History Society of Australia is being formed, the provisional sec retary being Mr. A.C. Staples, 66 Melville Parade, South Perth , West Australia 6151.

Antarctic histories, of sealing in the Australasian Subantarctic Islands, where American sealers were active, and of Antarctic shipping are being assem bled by a National Society member who would be glad to hear from people with information on these topics: Edward A. Mitchener, PO Box 89, North Hobart , Tasmania 7002, Australia.

The Canadian War Museum presents extensive naval ex hibit s in its Ottawa facility.

Models in the co llection include HMS St. Lawrence, 112-gun ship of the line, and HMS Princess Charlolle, 44-gun frigate, both built on Lake Ontario during the War of 1812, and there is a full-size replica of a rigged bateau with swivel gun. Modern models include HM CS Niobe, a World War I cruiser, and HMCS Restigouche, a WW II minesweeper.

The museum publishes historical publications, among which is a bilingual booklet on War of 1812 operat ions on the Great Lakes

by W.A.B. Douglas, Gunfire on the Lakes, $2.50. Ca nadian War Museum, 330 Sussex Dr., Ottawa, Canada, XIA OMS.

The North American Society for Oceanic History will hold their annual meeting at Newport News, Virginia, April 27-29, 1979.

The meeting will be co-sponsored by Christopher Newport Co llege and the Mariners Museum, and includes a tour of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. Registration is $20.00. Mr. William D. Wilkinson, NASOH M eeting, Mariner' s Museum, Newport News, VA, 23606.

NATIONAL I<' riends of Ernestina/ Morrissey held their Annual meeting in December at NMHS headquarters and elected Laura Pires Houston NY, as chairman, Oling Jackso n, RI, as Vic; Chairman, Edward Andrade, NJ, as financial coordinator. The Committee works with the Massachusetts Schooner Ernestina Commission and sponsors sai ling programs for youth in Cape Cod and Cape Verde. James Brighten is leaving for Cape Verde in January to join Ernestina as Restoration Director.

"Ghosts of Cape Horn," a film on the American heritage in sailing ships, will appear in April, thank s to Dow Corning Corporation, who played a major role in the 1978 Falklands Expedition (see page 38) and who funded this film. Produced by Actuality Films Ltd., it includes scenes aboard deepsea sailing ships today and the appearance of such sailormen as irving John son and Alan Villiers. For information: NMHS. The_ Museum of Our National Heritage, in Lexington, Massachusetts, and the Oakland Museum, Oakland, California, will show the exhibition "The Famous Voyage of Sir Francis Drak e, 1566-1580" to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Drake's landing on California. The exh ibit, prepared by th e British Library and mounted at the Lexington Museum under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, also includes material on loan from major American institutions including Spanish treasures from the museum of Florida History, an original lett er of Drake's from the Smithsonian, and armor and weapons from the Higgins Armory, Worcester, Massachusetts. The exhibit will open at the Museum of Our National Heritage January 28, and continue on to the Oakland Mu seum from there. Museum of Our National Heritage, PO Box 519, 33 Marrett Rd ., Lexington , MA 02173 .

The Ninth Annual James Monroe Award for serv ice to maritime history was presented on November I to George Campbell, naval architect and marine artist, by the National Maritime Hi sto rical Society, at a luncheon aboard Olga's Barge at Fulton Ferry Landing, Brooklyn NY. Campbell prepared the working drawings, specifications and rigging estimates . for the restoration of the Cully Sark at Greenwich, England, prepared detailed drawings of the USS Constitution for the Smithsonian Institution, and served as restoration architect of the Wavertree at South Street. Author of The Jackstay and China Tea Cllippers, so me of his work may be seen

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

& MUSEUM NEWS in SH 6 and 7. A member of the Advisory Counci l of the National Society, he plans to con tinu e these int erests o n hi s return to his native England later thi s year. Fair wind s attend him!

The papers of John Paul Jones a re bein g co llected for publication by th e US Naval Academy a nd th e National Hi stori cal Publi ca ti ons a nd Record s Commiss ion . A sin gle vo lum e selected. ed ition and mi crofilm edit io n will result. The ed it or seeks inform at ion concernin g lette rs to, from or about J ones, and documents written by him. James C . Bradford, editor, Papers of John Paul Jones, Department of Histo ry, US Naval Academy, Annapolis MD 21402.

The $5 Million Maritime Heritage Fund (see SH 12) was reviewed at a December meeting of the National Conference of State Hi storic Preservation Officers in Washin gto n .

Leaders of East, Gulf, Pacific and Great Lakes coast and river projects were invited to review philosophy with Interior Department officials responsible for administering the fund. Representati ves of the Ship Trust Committee of NMHS , which proposed the Fund last year, were assured that th e program would focus on historic ship projects of national importance . The program will be run by a Maritim e Heritage Task Force in the Interior Department' s Office of Archaeology and Hi storic Preservation , in coopera ti on with State Hi storic Preserva tion Officers.

Announcement of program design a nd administration is expected shortly as we go to press.

The National Endowment for the Humanities, as noted in our last, has made innovative grants to encourage m a ritim e heritage projects . Seventeen grants in 1978, totalling nearly $500,000, reveal th e depth a nd range of maritime culture. Th ese range from a gra nt of $2,000 to the Southeast Missouri Museum to plan a n exhibit o n the role of the Miss issippi River in local hi story , through $17 ,057 to the Jewi sh Mu seum of New York for an exhibit on marine a rchaeology in Biblical waters, to $ 100,000 to the Field Mu seum of Na tural History in Chicago, to implement an exhibit on Marine Hunters and Fishermen. A complete li sting of grants is now avai lable from NMHS .

The Nat ional Trust for Historic Preservation h as announced a $1 million fund to preserve endangered properties of nation al significance. Since 1973, the Tru st reports, they have invested an average of under $30,000 a year to save endangered buildings. "As res ult of its success ful track record, " the Trust anno unces, the Interior Department has awarded them $1 million, to be matched by private contribution . The Mellon Foundation has made a grant of $500,000 to this open-end fund, making $1 million immediately avai lable, some of which might go to save imperilled ships .

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

EXPLORE THE MAINE COAST

The Fourth Naval History Symposium wi ll be held at the US Naval Academy, October 25-26 this year . In 1977 the Third Conference attracted 450 sc holars. T he program will be an nounced in May . Naval History Symposium, US Naval Acad. Annapolis MD 21402.

WEEKLY

The USS Constitution Museum conferred on House Speaker John W. McCormack the second ann ua l Samuel Eli ot Mori so n Award for hi s help an d se rvice in estab li shi ng the Boston National Hi stor ic Park and the Mu seum in 1976. The award, given on October 21, was accompan ied by the unveiling of a new painting "USS Constitution Engages HMS Guerriere" by James G. Clary. USS Co nstitution Museum, PO Box 18 12, Boston MA 02129.

Friends of Nobska, a non-profi t membership o rga ni zati on dedicated to the prese rvation of the four-cy li nder tripl e-expa nsio n steamboat Nobska, is continuing its effo rt s to maintain the boat's engin es in operating condition.

The Nobska, now serving as a restaurant shi p in Baltimore, is the last of the many steamers that used to connect Nantucket wit h the rest of Massachu sett s. Built in 1925 at the Bath Iro n Work s for th e New England Steams hip Company, she was in service until September 18, 1973 . Friends of Nobska maintain the engi ne in mint cond ition look ing forward to the day when the Nobska will stea m aga in in Massachusetts waters, a goal they ho pe to ach ieve in th e near future . Frie nds of Nobska, In c., 128 Ocean Ave ., Cranston RI 02905.

Mystic Seaport has a new add iti on to its neet, the 80-year old Noank sloop Breeze, gift from William H . Babcock, J.r . of Groton.

The Breeze is a 24-foot. gaff-r igged well smack, built in Noank by Wayland Morgan in 1898 . As a well smack she cou ld keep her catch a live into port. Lobster fi shing on th e Thames River until three yea rs ago, Breeze has been hauled o ut since her retirement.

Plans are to restore her in the duPont Restoration Shipyard at Mystic Seapo rt , as a n oating ex hibit. Mystic Seapor t, Mystic CT 06355.

VACAT ION

Capt. H. S. Hawkins Camden, Maine 04843 Tel. 1-207-236-2750

EAST COAST The Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, closed by the Navy several years ago, may come to life again as a hi storic seaport through the efforts of the Boston Redevelopment Aut hority, the National Park Service, and severa l private organizations. Boston Redevelopment Authority has started the efforts with grou ndbreak ing for a waterfron t park . Several historic buildings, includin g the Navy Yard Rope Wa lk , are being co nsidered for restoration to working ex hibit s by th e Park Service in cooperati o n with loca l historic groups.

SAILING

WINDJAMMER " MARY DAY" For Fo lder Write :

lanterns

ship wheels

sextants

compasses

whaling it ems shark teeth

MARINE ANTIQUES & SEA SHELLS 10 Fulton Street . New York, N.Y. 10038 South Street Seaport & Fulton Fish Market (2 12) 344 ¡2 262

FOR SALE:

SHIP MODEL COLLECTION 18th century ivory models A.M. Underhill, Bellport, L.I. , NY 11713 Tel : 516-286-0057

ANTIQUE SCIENTIFIC & NAUTICAL . INSTRUMENTS & Early Associated Books

Int rod uctory pri ce $2 ($3 overseas) for il lustrated Catalog 117 R

HISTORICAL TECHNOLOGY, INC. 6 Mugford Street Marblehead, Mass. 01945

Springtime on the Hudson River and Long Island Sound The M .V . BLOCK ISLAND will sail from New London to New York on May 25 and will return May 28. On May 26 and 2 7, she will sail from New York to Albany and return. Narration by noted Hudson River Historians. Join us on this, the first springtime excursion between New York and Albany in over 20 years.

Our New York landings will be at the South Street Seaport.

For information write: The New England St eamship Co. of Massachusetts, Inc. 51 South Street Berlin, MA 01503

45

Advertisement

You've read about it, dreamed about it ...

Try Living History Aboard a New England Windjammer!

Why travel on choked highways, stay in musty motels, and go to crowded beaches to look longingly at distant sails on the horizon, when you can join a seafaring crew aboard a traditional New England schooner for about the same cost? Come to sea for a vacation you'll never, ever forget!

(.J

"' "'UJz UJ

z z

·..: Cl

u

<

Setting the topsail aboard the Har vey Gamage.

J

The windjammer fleet sails for fun and adventure along the New England coast. Good food, good companionship, and as much sailorizing as you can digest are the order of the day aboard these tall traditional schooners.

Some are historic in their own right, having been rebuilt from fishing and trading vessels. Others, like our own schooner Harvey Gamage are patterned on historic types-they are "another in the series," keeping a proud seafaring tradition alive. We invite you to inquire about your vacationing aboard the Harvey Gamage. She also offers, in March and September, a fully accredited "Semester at Sea" in oceanography, ichthyology, navigation and seamanship, ornithology or maritime history.

And on the Gamage, you can bring the kids (except on Sea Semester Cruises). In fact, youngsters small enough to sleep two to a bunk can ship aboard with you for the price of a grownup' s place.

If you would like to do more than read and ·dream , or watch the tall ships pass on the horizon, now is the time to take the first step. Let us hear from you, and we'll send· you full information. Your early order will assure you a berth in one of the Carnage's fine cabins, a place at her generous table, and sharing in a life where we make our own entertainment instead of watching it come out of a box. One word of advice: young and old share in shipboard life, and there are feasts and frolics ashore and afloat. But ship' s discipline rules in all things, and finally that may be the most memorable thing you'll come to share.

*

*

*

We're proud of what the Harvey Gamage offers, naturally. We' re also proud of the whole New England fleet. So we've listed below some basic facts about the other schooners and where you can get information on their sailings .

The Harvey Gamage awaits! A 95' schooner built in 1973, she carries 34 passengers.

r------------1

To: Schooner Harvey Gamage Box SH, 39 Waterside Lane Clinton, Conn. 06413 Yes, I want to learn more about your cruises. Please send me information about: D Spring Cruises from New York City.

D Summer sailing in Maine waters.

D Winter sailing in the Caribbean.

D Sea semester.

NAM E - - - - - - - - - - - -

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Z IP _ _ __ L_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __J

Vessel & Address Lewis R. French, Box 482, Rock land, ME 04841 Stephen Taber, Box 736, Ca mden , ME 04843 Mattie, Box 6 17 Camden, ME 04843 Isaac H . Evans, Box 487, Roc kland , ME 0484 1 Victory Chimes, Windjammers Wharf, Rock land, ME 04841 Richard Robbins Sr., Box 722, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 Mercantile, Box 617, Camden , ME 04843 Bowdoin, Box 696, Camden, ME 04843 Nathaniel Bowditch , c/ o G . Philbrick, Harborside, ME 04642 Roseway , Box 696, Camden, ME 04841 Adventure, Box 696, Camden, ME 04841 J & E Riggin, Box 571, Rock land, ME 04841 Timberwind, Box 247, Rockport, ME 04856 Mary Day, Box 798, Camden, ME 04843 Shenandoah, Coas twise Pac ket Co., Vineyard Haven, MA 02568 Mystic Whaler, 7 Holmes St., Mystic, CT 06355 Bill of Rights, Box 477, Newport, RI 02840 Rachael and Ebenezer, Box 200, Peconic, NY 11 ~958 Mistress, Box 6 17, Camden, ME 04843 Voyager, Stea mboat Wharf, Mystic, CT 06355

Built 187 1 187 1 1882 1886

Length 64' 68' 8 1' 64.5'

#Passengers 24 18 29 22

1900 1902 1916 1921

132 ' 58' 78' 8 1'

46 18 26 10

1922 1925 1926 1927 1931 1962

81 ' 112' 11 9' 89' 69 .5' 83'

22 37 37 26 20 28

1964 1967 1971 1975 1977 1978

108' 100' 125' 105' 40' 65 '

29 44 34 48 6 20

SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS The Long Island Nautical Festiva l was lau nched last summ er by Lui s Bejarano, fo rm er professor at the US Merchant Marine Academy, lo crea te a summ er- lo ng experience with ma ritim e hi story. Even with ser io us fu nding problems the fest iva l succeeded in bringing th e we ll known brig Unicorn to 18 Long Isla nd ports to be seen by over 100,000 Long Isla nders. Bejarano hopes to brin g Unicorn back again next summer, and to mak e the festival into a year-round educationa l experience. Long Isla nd Nautical Festival, 882 Mid Island Pla za, Hi cksvi ll e NY 1880 1.

The Suffolk Marine Museum , of Long Island, opened "Arts a nd Treasures o f th e Sail o r, " the first ex hibi t in the renovated North Ex hibit Ha ll , last September 29. The new ex hibit , a co ll ection of folk ar t done by sailors and treasures co llected o n voyages, in cludes sc rim shaw, tools , paintings, a nd C hina , and wi ll con tinue through Septembe r 1979. Su ffolk Marine Mu seum, Montauk Hi ghway, Wes t Sayvi lle, NY 11796.

The American Merchant Mariner's Memorial , a proposed monument to "those mercha nt mariners who lost th eir li ves o n o ur ocea n frontiers, in peaceful commerce a nd in wars aga in st foreign foes, in defense of th e freedo ms th e nation now enj oys," has been designed by J .J. Henry Nava l Architects for location in Battery Park City just below the World Trade Towers in New York C it y. The memorial is to be completed through publ ic support a nd contributions of services a nd materials. American Merchant Mariner's Memorial , PO Box 629, C hurch St. S ta ti on, New York NY 10008.

The Oceanic Society and Historic Ga rdner 's Basin have bought the former Enchantress

a nd renamed her Young America to run a sail training program for you ng people ages 15-22 . The brigantine will sai l three training cru ises thi s summer , Jun e 9- 14 from Baltimore to No rfolk , June 16-22 from Norfolk to Baltimore, a nd June 23 from Baltim ore to

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

Phi ladelphi a. Tuition for th ese crui ses is $275, o r $250 fo r groups of ten or more, with 28 maxim u m . A small -boat sa ilin g program is a lso planned to sail from Gardner 's Basin in Alpha class sloops, througho ut th e summ er.

Ages 13- 18 a re eli gibl e a nd tuiti o n is $ 150 for 5 days of classes in ma rlin spike seamans hi p, pi lo tin g and sma ll-boa t sa iling. The Oceanic Soc iety, Hi storic Ga rdner's Basin , Atlantic City NJ 08401.

The Philadelphia Maritime Museum opened a new ex hibit last November of the pai ntin gs of George R. Bonfield, a Philadelphia marine ar ti st o f th e 19th century (1 805- 1898). The exhibit of 31 o il s is the on ly show in g of hi s work in the ce ntury. The pa in tin gs were assembl ed from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Frank lin D. Roosevelt Library, Bosto n Museum of Fine Art s, and th e museum' s ow n fine mar in e art co ll ect io n.

There a re a lso work s from pr ivate co llecti o ns never show n in pub li c before. The Bo nfi eld exhib it will remain open th rough Apri l 1979 .

T he Philadelphia Ma ritime Museum , 32 1 Chestn ut St. Philadelphia PA 19 106.

The Museum' s 96-year o ld barkentine Gaze/a Primeiro is spe ndin g her third wint er dock side in Portla nd, Maine, undergo in g ma int enance and res tora ti o n. The ship made a five-day passage from Philade lphia a t the end o f September, with a few ex tra embelli shments for filmin g of "The G hosts o f Ca pe H o rn, " a movie co-spo nsored by th e National Society . As of December, th e vessel' s top ha mper had been se nt down for in spect io n a nd ma intenan ce, a nd 1epa irs had been co mpleted to a sect ion of timbers, planks, a nd bulwark s on the starboard side. The wint er schedule includes shapin g some new spars, rebuilding the pilot house, installing a new generator, a nd rebuilding th e main hatch .

Work will be carr ied o ut by the ship' s fulltim e crew of th ree . New lega l interpreta ti o ns prohibit the Gaze/a fro m actin g as a tra inin g shi p in 1979, but she will be crui sing th e eas t coas t in Jun e as a li ving mu seum , before returning to her berth in Philadelphia. Port s interested in having the Gaze/a pay a courtesy ca ll this summ er sho uld get in touch with Capt. Paul DeOrsa y, Gaze/a, cl o Gowen, PO Box 3542, Portl a nd , ME 04104.

State of Pennsy lvan ia, 55-year o ld Delawa re River excursion steamboat , agro und in th e C hristina Ri ver sin ce 1970, was un animous ly recommended for t he National Regi ster o f Hi storic Places a t a December 15 meet in g of th e Delaware State Rev iew Boa rd for Hi storic Preservation. She is o ne of four surviving passenger steamboats built a t Wilmin gton.

The ot hers: Peter Stuyvesant, sunk in Bosto n, Moun/ Vernon a t Piney Po int , Maryland , Duchess, laid up in the Brook lyn Navy Ya rd . "W hile there is much to be done if we are to restore this great steam boa t for future generations," writes Ri cha rd V . Elli ott, Chairman Pro-Tern, Committ ee to Save the State ¡of Penn sy lva nia, "progress to d ate brings hope. The Nat ional Soc iety's letter of support was read a t the public hearing a nd undoubtedly helped her cause ." Com mitt ee, 71 Centra l Avenue, Demarest NJ 07627 .

WISDOM'S CHILD

NEW YORK GUIDE New York 's Free Weekly Paper The paper th at suppo rts New Yo rk supports the National Maritime Histori cal Society

1841 Bro adway a t 60th

265-327 0

Interested in tugs?

Join the

INTERNATIONAL TUG LOVERS CLUB Regul a r meet ings a re held in The Ne th e rl ands a nd Be lg ium. Our magaz ine Lekko is published 50 per ce nt in Dutch a nd 50 rer ce nt in Engli s h. Write for furth er details a nd a free co p y o f Lekko to:

P.O. Box 400 ljmuiden The Netherlands

47

SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT Social and Educational Association for Seafarers serves people on the move.

Seafarers' family program s. international chilclren"s club and magazine. technical and lant.,TUage cducat ion. research in maritime anthropology ancl famil y life. UN maritime conference center. rccn •ation/mecting rooms.

SEAS. ·15 Dc<;raw St, Pier 9B, Bkln, NY 1

1 2:~

I

Recent Books from Quadrant Press

The Bridges of New York

By Sharon Reier 160 pages , 150 illustrations All abo ut the bridges. large and small which span the waterways of New York harbor. Read how the bridges shaped the development of New York City and surrounding area . Many fin e photos of bridge construction and rare scenes of early spans and bridges never built .

Paperback $8.95 Hard Cover $14.95

The Delaware Art Museum and Mariners Museum of Newport News will present thi s spring and summer an exhibition oft he I 9thcentury American Marine artist Edward Moran (1829-1901). Brother of Thomas Moran, Edward Moran painted in Philadelphia until 1871, then in New York . In 1885 Moran started "Thirteen Paintings of American Naval History" now at the US Naval Academy. The show will be at the De laware Art Museum April 27-June 3, then at the Mariners Museum, June 17-August 5.

An illustrated catalogue will be available written by Paul D. Schwei zer, guest curator.

Delaware Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, DE 19806.

C ha nd ler 's W harf in Wilmington, North Carolina is a growing waterfront preservation

A guide to nautical museums and preserved vessels in the U.S. and Canada .

83 illustrated listings.

Quadrant Press, Inc. Suite 707 19 West 44th St. New York. NY 10036 Phone: 490-1 622

GULF COAST At Tampa, Flo rida, the brig Unicorn was accorded a tum ul tuous welcome home after her summer of sail train ing, cru ises, participat ion in the Long Island Nautica l Festiva l, and other outport activities. Major plans are under way as we go to press , both for the ship and a possible hi storic seaport center and skill s training center in her home port.

Al Pensaco la , the last US port to send fishing smacks to sea under sail , the I 02' Gloucester schooner Buccaneer is in need of major rebuilding. Plans for her restoration in a new historic sh ipyard cente~ are, we are assured, being developed.

Nautical Museum Direc tory 5th Edition

$2 .50

nie B, a tugboat used for boarding incoming ships by the Public Health Service. Among the hi stor ic buildings of the shoreside establi shment are the Wilmington Iron Work s, 1898, and four other bui ldings <lat ing from the 1850s, 70s and 80s. Chandlers Wharf is open year round 9AM to sun set. Admi ss ion is $1.00 adults, 50tr children under 12. Harbo r rides operate daily April to October, $1.50 adult s, $1.00 children. Chandler' s Wharf, 2 Ann Street, Wilmington NC 28401.

project that has collected six historic vessels, led off by the 147' knockabout fishing schooner Harry W. Adams (S H 6, 6). Built in 1937 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, the Adams fished and carried cargo until 1965 . Also maintained afloat are the skipjack Geneva May, built 1908, Wenona MD, the steam tug John Taxis, built Chester PA 1869, the log boat Edward M, one of the last chunk canoes, built in 1920, Dave VA, from five ho llowed-out logs, and the excursion boat J. N. Maffit, built in 1944 by the US Navy as a motor launch; she sail s regularly with passengers up and down the Cape Fear River.

Out of water are the Miss Santa, a North Caro linian shrimp fishing vessel, and the An-

Alexander Hall 's lovely iron bark Elissa of 1877 (SH 4: 30-32; 11: 29) traversed the Mediterranean under tow from Piraeus, Greece, and await s further tow from Gibraltar to complete her long voyage to Ga lveston, where her restoration to sai li ng condition will be comp leted. Seep. 43. Ga lveston Historical Fdtn., PO 302, Galveston TX 77550.

PACIFIC COAST At the San Diego Maritime Museum, Captain Kenneth D. Reynard, master of the restoration of the square-rigger Star of India (SH 5: 18-19) and the steam ferry Berkeley, has resigned as Fleet Captain. He will take up restoration of a steam yacht in Brit ish Col-

Wavertree returns lo the East River, 1970 Photo: New Yark Times

I

T h e Steamship Historical Society of America, Inc.

I Please send me further info rma d on.

I

Ij Na me _ Address

JI

_

I

_

[ City _ _ _ _ _ Stal e

Zip _

I I

48

When the full-rigged ship Wavertree returned to New York after 75 years in distant waters, we were proud to receive her in our Staten Island docks to prepare for the last leg of her voyage into the East River. We sa lute the accompl ishment of South Street Seaport Museum in restoring her rig this year, and support the National Maritime Historical Society and its Ship Trust in encouraging such undertakings across the nation. We receive and send out many ships with many cargoes but none more important to this city and the nation than the Wavertree and her cargo of history: she comes from an age when men sang at their work. she teaches us how we got where we are.

POUCH TERMINAL, Inc. EDGEWATER STREET. CLIFTON , STATEN ISLAND . NY 10305 • (212) 981-7000

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

& MUSEUM NEWS LAKES & RIVERS

umbia fo r private owners, he writ es to tel l us-a nd lo ng be avai lab le, we tru st, for furl her work in a fie ld in wh ich he has se t the hi ghest standard s.

T he Queen Mary a t Long Beac h, Ca liforni a, ope ned a new " Hall of th e Maritime Heritage" in December, as part of an expa nded program to relate the classic C un ard lin e r of 1936 to th e hi story of sea farin g. The exh ibit includes shi p model s from th e Napoleonic era to modern vessels a nd features Paul Lincoln, sta ff mod el mak er, engaged in th e ac ti ve c raft of modelm ak in g. The tour o f th e Queen Mary has been expa nded to include vis it s to crew wo rkin g spaces, restored crew li ving areas, passe nge r cab in s, th e captain's sea cabin a nd nav igation chart room. The Queen provi des accommodation for overni ght stays in th e Queen Mary Hyatt Ho tel, with 386 rooms aboard. The Queen Mary, PO Box 20890, Long Beach, CA 90801 .

The Mary D. Hume, las t of the Arctic steam whalers, latterl y in service as a tu g (SH 8: 14, 16), has found a new home through the ge nerosity o f her owners, Crowley Maril im e o f Seattle . The 98-year o ld wooden vessel was present ed by Crow ley on A ugust 28 to the C urry Co unt y Historical Society of Gold Beach, Oregon, where she was built, ev idently to las t, brig rigged above her hu sky engines, a t th e outset of her lo ng, a ma zingly varied career.

SS Keewatin , th e former passenger steamship of the Canadian Pacific Railroad is open to vi sitors in Douglas, Mich igan. Built in 1906 by the Fai rfield Shipbuildin g and Engin eering Co . of G lasglow, Scot la nd , she sa il ed to North Ameri ca in 1907 and took up serv ice from Port McNico ll to Port Arthur-Fort William, via Georgian Bay , Lake Huron, St. Mary's Ri ver, Lake Superior, a nd Thunder Bay. Th is 350' quadruple-expa nsion steamer can be viewed from th e ship 's bridge to th e engine room. Retired in 1967, she is open from May th ro ugh Sep tember dail y, 10 to 4:30. Admi ss ion : $2.00 adu lts, $ 1.00 chi ldren. SS Keewatin, Box 5 11 , Douglas, Mich. 49406.

The Upper Mississipi River Interpretative Center at Winona, Minnesota, has rece ived a n extensive coll ecti o n of taped oral interviews wit h indi vidu als act ive in na vigati o n on the Mi ss iss ippi a nd Ohio Ri vers. The co ll ection of 130 interviews was reco rded between 1976 and 1978 by Jane C urry, a hi storian supported by a gra nt from th e National En dowment for the Hum a nities a nd th e American Council o f Learned Societies. Tran script s of these interviews with pilots and captai ns active o n the rivers will be avai lab le to researchers in earl y 1979. Upper Mi ssiss ippi River In terpretative Ce nt er, 160 J o hn so n St. , Win o na , Minn. 55987.

BETH HASKELL, A ssistant Curator, invites all hands to send in stories, photos, suggestions for Ship Notes. Return postage on manuscripts and photos is appreciated.

··we Proudl y Ser>e th e peo ple of th e " o rkin g "'"alerfro nl. " - Phil Rando , Prop.

•

Ne wl y R enovated

•

Harborview Rest.

Fulton St. on Ea st Ri ver

Brookl yn , N. Y.

BEKEN OF COWES

"SUSANNE" Classic Beken photograph from original plate, enlarged in magnificent co lor to 24" x 30" , reproduced with canvas grained po lyt ex surface. $12 prepaid. Satisfact ion guaranteed.

Exc lusive U.S . Agent s Beken of Cowes

FORCE FOUR MARINE GRAPHICS 250 Springfield Ave., Cranford , NJ 07016

"The Start of the 1972 Bermuda Race"

._....

~

l)<)\"HB1\) ' • ' ' '11\ I~ E

EAS \. \"l)

YACHT SAILS

~)

24 x48

on boar d

RIDING SAILS

CHARLESJ.LUNDGREN

President, American Society of Marine A rtists Other marine artist s in our co llect ion: J. Bard, R. Beal , S. G. W . Benjamin, W. Birchall, F . D. Briscoe, C. Freitag, E. Gruppe, T . Moran, J. Noble, W . E. Norton, W. Sheppard, J . G. Tyler, L. Wilcox, T. Willis . Co lor slid es ava il a bl e.

HENRY B. HOLT Wor king th e bench . Roping and working grommets o n squ a re sa il s for the Gaze/a Primeiro.

BOX 71 - EAST BOOTHBAY. MAINE 04544 - TEL. 1207 ) 633 -5071

WIDE DECK CANVAS SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

19th and 20th Century American Art Purchased and Sold Restoration and Appraisals P .O. Box 62 R, Essex Fells, N.J. 07021

By Appointment 201-228-0853 49

MARINE ART

Anton Otto Fischer

By Alex A. Hurst Here Mr. Hurst, sailor and ship historian and publisher of Teredo Books in England, takes a look at the life of a remarkable man who became America's most popular marine illustrator-and one of our greatest marine artists. Anton Otto Fischer's full story is told in the splendidly illustrated Anton Otto Fischer, Marine Artist, written by the artist's daughter Katrina Sigsbee Fischer in collaboration with Mr. Hurst, and published in 1977 by Teredo. The work on these pages suggests that whatever the reasons that Fischer continued illustrative work to the end of his life, he took great joy in the scenes of sea life that he painted, and so memorably transmuted story-telling into art. -ED.

"Reefed Down for the Banks," a Gloucesterman works her way to windward. Fischer has captured the toughness of the breed and its ability to punch through rising wind and sea.

"Moonlight Magic," 1937, by contrast, shows a Gloucesterman "with every rag hung out" hurrying along against a sky that seems to pay homage to her passage.

50

Anton Otto Fischer was born into great poverty in Bavaria in 1882 and a t the age of five was left an orphan. The local church and a countess, who was both wealthy and dedicated to good work, made arrangements for his upbringing. He was at first sent to a Catholic orphan asylum at lndersdorf run by nuns, and, since he did well there, he was sent to train to be a priest at the Arch-episcopal Seminary of Sheyern.

This was not a success. He had not the necessary vocation, and became both mise rable and difficult. The countess had died, and he was a lone in the world for, if his father had had any fam ily , they were unknown , and his mother' s family had opposed her marriage and wanted nothing to do with the children.

Finally, an uncle was persuaded to take him into his house and he was found a place as a printer' s devil on a Catholic paper in Regensburg. The uncle and aunt made no secret of their dislike at having him in the house and he found his work irksome and worse. In short, he was in a very unhappy situation. One day , however, he saw a travel poster of a ship under full sail, sailing through a blue sea with gulls whee ling in the sky, and this picture was the turning point in his life, for it filled him with a longing to go to sea . Unfortunately, his uncle, who was the local head of a brewery, thought that the boy going to sea would reflect on his own position, and refused to consent to the idea. In desperation, young Fischeir staged a suicide and threw himself imto the Danube, not realising the SEA HISTORY, WINTER I979

Anton Otto Fischer, circa 1905.

"Lifelines." One man, far right, is still making fast, while the others scramble to escape the powerful rush of water that could sweep a man overboard or smash him into the scuppers.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

strength of the current nor how cold the water would be. But he was fished out and the resultant publicity did win him the day, for at last hi s uncle consented that he should go to sea and made arrangements for him to go to a boarding house in Hamburg, a nd for him to be equipped with necessary gear. At Hamburg he saw so me of the great sailing ships of the world, while he was fired by the tales he heard from the older men in the boarding house. Thus it was a tremendous disappointment when he found himself shipped away in a tiny galleass from a obscure creek nea r Horumerseil to load timber in Norway. On the first outward trip, berthed over the cooking stove and alongside much of the gear which would normally be stowed in a bos'n' s locker , he was too sea-sick to do anything and lay in th e sc uppers away from the smells!

However he soo n found his sea- legs and his way about and later served in a Norwegian barque named the Agustina, and then in a succession of Swedish and German steamers, North Sea fi shing cra ft, and a sea-going tu g before he joined the Welsh barque Gwydyr Castle

which has since been immortalised on canvas.

After visits to Panama, Puget Sound, Peru and so on, the Gwydyr Castle arriv ed in New York, where he signed off.

He was still a German citize n and liable for military se rvice, so he called at th e German consulate to apply for a deferment. The young official he saw was so maddeningly superior and pompous that Fischer left and applied for United States citizenship which he subsequently adopted. Thus do minor incidents forge th e link s in a man' s career!

He spent two seaso ns crewing for the large yachts racing in Long Island Sound, for far better pay and far better conditions than in a square-rigged Cape Horner and after the second season applied for a job he saw advertised as a handyman in an artist's studio. The artist was A. B. Frost, and this was a very happy period. Frost gave Fischer no formal instruction, but he saw his talent and persuaded him to pursue a study of a rt.

No one can study Fischer's life without being impressed by his immense reso urces of self-discipline. He studiously saved money and took himself to Pari s,

SI

MARINE ART

"Burial al Sea," 1947. The Master has just concluded the reading, the hands have mumbled the final amen, and a shipmate goes to an unmarked grave.

"Running Before the Gale, " a big steel full rigger, rolling to the sea's assault, carries all the canvas her Captain dares.

52

where he enrolled at the Academie Julien (where he barely missed his contemporary, Arthur Briscoe, whose beginnings in life had been so very different), and there he spent two frugal years studying his craft until his accumulated funds were almost exhausted.

After a rather shaky start back in the United States he began to draw for The Saturday Evening Post, Harpers and other well-known media. His first big break came when he illustrated in colour Jack London's short story "The Heathen " in Everybody's and it is broadly true to say that he never looked back thereafter.

He then married, and the greater part of his life was spent in the splendid Catskill country-oddly, far from the sea, though he took many vacations by the sea . Many artists used illustration in magazines, which implies "painting or drawing to order" as a means to an end until they were established, when they would paint to their own order exclusively and exhibit in galleries or sell by private treaty. Fischer did produce a great deal of work of this latter nature,

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

"Pulling A way from a Blazing Tanker," 1942. The men of a torpedoed tanker grimly pull away from the inferno. While the men watch the awful death of their ship, an officer, perhaps the Captain, looks intently at the men in the boat, possibly making a rough count of survivors.

and stands as a great marine artist in his own right, but he never ceased to illustrate. He became a man of quite considerable means and could well have jettisoned this source of income altogether.

Perhaps he could never divorce himself from the insecurity of his early life.

During the second World War, the United States Coast Guard asked him to be an official war artist, and he went to sea on convoy duty in the cutter Campbell on what proved to be an exciting and incident-packed voyage. The resulting pictures took the United States by storm.

Fischer's output and range of subject was enormous. Ancient craft; naval actions featuring the Constitution and Bonhomme Richard (now hanging in the U.S. Naval Memorial Museum at Washington); square-riggers; scenes on board; SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

Banks schooners; North Sea fishermen, and wartime scenes with so much more.

Most great marine artists excel and stand above their peers in one particular aspect. Fischer's forte was his depiction of men's emotions, whether adrift in the Atlantic in a open boat, having a singsong in the foc's'le, complaining to the 'old man' about the grub, finding a stowaway, manning a gun, or in countless other situations, and all the while the atmosphere of the scene is faithfully captured.

His portraits are superb and, had he wished to do so, he could have carved himself a career as a famous portraitist, while his landscapes, of which he executed a great number, would make a splendid book in themselves. Certainly he was a versatile artist and, after the ups and downs of his youth, he became

very much a family man. Everyone (and this statement is by no means confined to artists!) sometimes suffers a blank and falls into error. Fischer produced the odd painting which will not stand up technically, but they are few and far between. Once, in a painting done for his own amusement, he painted his old ship, the Gwydyr Castle, with a fishing schooner's wheel, and, on another occasion, painting men stowing the mainsail (and splendidly done!) he left the yard hanging in mid-air without truss or sling! Such aberrations were very much the exception, and it can be said that the great bulk of his work is not only wholly satisfying but a great maritime record.

Fischer died in 1962, having reduced his output considerably in his final years, but his fame will live on long after the man himself. .t 53

President Charles Lundgren, left, with Executive Director Maryanne Murphy and VP John Stobart at ASMA Exhibition; behind them, "The Bamboo Run" by Charles Stanford.

Ship " Western Empire"

DUNCAN MCFARLANE Active Liverpool 1851 -1865 Oil on canvas, 2 4" x 3 6" Ship built Newcastle Maine Al so recorde d in D am ari sco tta, Main e, 185 2

VOSE

GALLE ~I ES of BOSTON, Inc.

The First Annual Exhibition of the American Society of Marine Artists opened November 15 in the new US Custom House at the World Trade Center in New York, with 83 paintings selected by jury.

Artists came from across the country and as far afield as England to plot the future course of the organization . The resignation of Maryanne Murph y as founding director was accepted with thanks for her dedicated service, and Peter W. Rogers of Massachusetts was named as volunt eer director pro tern. Among the guests was a distinguished author who offered the following appreciation of one of the new members.

ESTABLISHE D 1841

238 N_EWBURY STREE T . BOSTON._ MASS. 02116 â&#x20AC;˘ (617) 536-61 76

CHA RLES E. STANFO RD

CARL EVERS LIMITED EDITION PRINTS ORIGINAL WATERCOLORS AND PENCIL DRAWINGS EXCLUSIVELY AT THE GREENWICH WORKSHOP GALLERY

54

When marine painters claim their fina l hailing port at "Fiddlers' Green" we may safely assume a select few will be swinging at preferential moorings . Winslow Homer will certainly be establis hed not far from the right hand of God. Arthur Briscoe and Gordon Grant will be nearby. Charles Robert Patterso n, Montague Dawson, Anton Otto Fischer, Charles Lundgren, and John Stobart will be a nchored in good holding ground.

Now we have another master for honorab le berthi ng, the extraordinarily gifted Charles Stanford. The exciting demand for his work is no latter-day acc ident. First, Stan ford spent years at sea, learning of its pains and glories the hard way. Next he polished his natural talent under artistic masters quite as tough as his maritime skippers and only after hard schooling did he leave them to develop his own philoso phy of rendering the sea and ships on canvas.

The resu lts are paintings of magical quality. Regardless of theme, whether of "The Bamboo Run" or fishermen at work, or dock id lers not at work, or great square riggers full and bye, Stanford injects a definite a nd uncanny mys tique into his work which is uniquely his own.

ERNEST K. GANN SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

A Special Selection of Nautical Books for the readers of VOYAGES: Tales from the Great Age of Sail by Alfred T. Hill . Five true accounts of voyages during the mid1800s-gripping adventures on the great squa re-rigged sh ip s of yesteryea r . Published in cooperation with the South Street Seaport Museum . No. 203796/$8.95

Sea

ut•lrll YACHTSMAN's CHOICE: The Best of Rudder Magazine.

History, adventure, biography, design , profiles and nostalgia, se lected from almost a cent ury of writing. " [S]om e of the most signifi cant and perceptive work in the field . ." - Yachting.

No. 506616/$10.95

\ii)yag~~s Alrn!«l 1: I lill

RIDDLE OF THE SANDS by Ersk in e Child ers. A new edition of the c lass ic sa ilin g and spy thriller. " [T]he most famous seagoing spy story ever written , now reissued in a new edition .

[B]eautifully cadenced suspense and supe rb descriptions of sea and sa nd and tide .

Smithsonian . No. 507728/

STARBOUND by Gordon and Nina Stuermer. A co lo rful voyage around the world on a SO-foot square-sai l ketch .

"A cheerfu I, enchanting book , brimming with esse ntial information . ." - library Journal. Illustrated with photos. No. 507787 /$12 .95 THE LONGEST RACE by Peter Cook . and Bob Fisher .

The comp lete story of the most adventurous yacht race of all time-lavishly illu strated with photos and diagrams . It is a grippin g acco unt of the1973 Whitbread / Round-the-World R.N .SA Race . " [A] magnificient accomp li shment that has extended yac htin g horizons.

The knowledge gained ca n now be sha red by all in a book worthy of it. " - Sail Magazine. " [W]ell worth a read ." - Cruising World. No.

$12.50 LEGENDARY YACHTS by Bi ll Robinson . A beautiful vo lum e of nautical h istory and romance covering Ameri ca's greatest yachts-their designers, owners, v icto ri es and defeats . Ove r 200 photograp h s, large format. No. 0

51175X/S14.95 SMALL BOATS AND BIG SEAS: A Hundred Years of Yachting edited by Ralph Stephenson . The very best writi ngs about yac hting - by sa ilin g writers o r writing sai lors-since the second half of the 19th century . Il lu strated with photographs .

No. 513523/$9.95

505644/$14.95 HEAVY WEATHER SAILING

by Adlard Co les . The sta ndard reference on ext reme storm s and survival. A classic , illu strated with photos and cha rts. No. 600678/

AN EVOLUTION OF SINGLE· HANDERS by D . H . Clarke.

Sing lehand ed sailing from the first voyages to modern races . "Outs tanding feats of seama nship are recorded here-feats that should not be forgotten, obscured, or ignored " - Yachting News. 11lu strated with photos . No.

$15.00 GREAT STORIES OF THE SEA AND SHIPS ed ited by N . C. Wyeth . Illu strated by Peter Hurd . " A c lassic co ll ect ion of sea stories, superb ly illustrated . A fine addition to any nauti ca l library ." - Boating.

Over 430 pages . No. 507736/

50706X/S9.95

$12.50

r ------ - -- --I II I I

-P-;:-E ~E~cs;-~ ~E°"FOLW;l;G ~00;;, 7o;:v-N;'u7i~:·;:l;R~-;-

Book Titl e & O rder No .

Q uantity $

I I I I

I

N .Y. & Calif. please add tax A ll orders w ill be p os tp aid .

Charge m y acco unt

D

To tal V isa

D

I

Na m e

I I

Address

I

City State/ Z ip

D I en c lose c hec k o r m o ney o rd er .

D

i I

M .C. Interb ank# Acc ount #

I

-------------

Pri ce

M aste r Ch arge D A meri can Exp ress Se nd to D av id M c Ka y Co , In c / D ept 743/ 750 Third Ave / New Yo rk , N Y 1001 7

Exp .

I I I

I

I

L----------------------------------------------------~

BOOKS

THE BOOK LOCKER

By Alfred T. Hill

The first Greek ship in which Jason took his crew of fifty men in sea rch of the Golden Fleece was called the Argo.

In my twenty-five foot sailboat Argo, every time I take guests, neighbors, and gra ndchildren around the dog!s leg in th e middle of the Woods Hole cha nnel, I tell myself that like Homer' s Odysseus I am squeezing between Scylla the sixheaded monster and Charybdis the horrible whirlpool and that if I escape one, I will surely be destroyed by the other.

And whenever I sail by the lonely beach on the so uth shore of Martha's Vineyard and through my binoculars enjoy the s pectacular view of the naked bathers disporting themselves on the golden sands, I have a strong fellow-feeling for that wily old sailor Odysseus, who had himself lashed to the mast and his ears stopped with wax so that he could resist the alluring enchantments of the sirens .

But you get my drift, as anyone would who has encounted Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey with their ships gliding over his wine-dark sea! The classic Greek roots of maritime literature thrive among us today.

But what about the whole size and shape of maritime literature? To begin to answer this question I asked my friend, Bill Banks, of the Market Bookshop in Falmouth, Massachusetts to give me so me idea of its popularit y, judging by his business . In non-fiction he carries about 250 titles on sailing, marine science, boat building, and maintenance. In fiction the two best sellers last year were Sterling Hayden 's Voyage and Hank Sears's Overboard. It is difficult to estimate the number of paperbacks that sell regularly, but he would guess at least 100 ranging from Homer, through Conrad and Melville, to Forester.

Sea history is of continuing interest ineluding some 25 titles of books by Samuel Eliot Morison currently listed in Books in Print. No bookstore, according to Bill, has all the titles in seamanship, oceanography, marine biology, chemistry, geology, etc. that are published, but he orders hundreds every year that are

~

Our Advertisers are our Standing Rigging.

Tell 1hem you ·sa w ii in Sea History '

OUT-OF-PRINT

BOOKS OF THE SEA Our Specialty Catalogs: $4 a year • Book Search Service • Collections Purchased CARAVAN-MARITIME BOOKS 8706- 168th Place, Jamaica, NY 11432

56

too esoteric or too expensive to stock.

He says the Books in Print lists at least 1000 titles, and his g uess is that there are at least 3000 current sea books in America, half of which could be called literature. The Falmouth Library carries some 500 volumes on its shelves dealing with one aspect or another of the sea.

Turning to well known reference books of quotations, I found that under the heading "Sea" Bartlett has 140 references . The list of writers look s like a "Who's Who of the World 's Best Authors"- Byron , Coleridge, Cooper, Conrad, Dana, Defoe, Kipling, Massfield, Melville, Longfellow, Keats, Sandburg, Shelley, Shakespeare, Whitman. It would appear that in sea lit erature we keep very good company!

Finally, I played a low and dirty trick on some friends of mine, the members of the Great Books Discussion Group that meets in the Falmouth Library one evening a week. They are fifteen we ll informed people. I asked them to list the titles of the three greatest sea books they could think of in a hurry. Five minutes later I had their list of the top ten: I. Co nrad Nigger of the Narcissus (and others) 2. Melville Moby Dick (and others) 3. Carson The Sea Around Us The Cruel Sea 4 . Monsarrat s. Nordhoff & Hall Mutiny on the Bounty 6. Dana Two Years before the Mast 7. Morison Admiral of the Ocean Sea 8. Longfellow Wreck of the Hesperus (and others) 9. Shakespeare The Tempest 10. Masefield "Sea Fever" ("Dauber" and others) It appears at a glance that this list can be classified under these headings: novel , drama, poetry, history, and nonfiction narrative. A wide swath!

(To be continued) Dr. Hill, a retired educator living in Cape Cod, is the author of Voyages (New York, David McKay, 1977), documentary account of his forebears' deepwater voyaging in such ships as the South Street packet Charles Cooper, whose hulk survives today in the Falkland Islands (see SH 4 and 5).

a

Bargemusic Ltd. announces

CHAMBER JAZZ The Giants of the Jazz World in Concert On the Barge every Sunday at 8:30pm Sunday Chamber Music Concerts at 4:00pm Fulton Ferry Landing, Brooklyn, NY Inquiries & Reservations: 212-624-4061

A Great Navigator's Life and Death Captain Cook, By R.T . Gould, 1978 ed., 128 pp., illus., $9.95; and The Death of Captain Cook, by Gavin Ken nedy, 1978, 105 pp., illus., $1 1.95 (both available Southwest Book Services, 495 1 Top Line Drive, Dallas, Texas 75247).

Here are two modest, thou g h excellent volumes, to appeal both to th e casual reader and sc holar . R. T. Gould's biograp hy, Captain Cook, ha s already stood the crit ical test of time since it fir st appeared in 1935. The author ably presents the great eighteenth-century navi ga tor's remarkable life and extraordinary achievement s w ith o ut seeking to minimi ze !he a ll too hum an naw s in Cook's character; a sometimes ruthless, and even savage determination, and at other times a hot and hasty temper.

Small maps g raphically ii lust rate the extent of Cook's di scove ries, while the voyages are prese nted wit hin the context of th e scient ifi c and strategic scene of the early years of the industrial revolution and mercantile expa nsion .

Admirably complement in g Commander Gould's biography, which may also be read as its sequel, is the detailed and painstakingly resea rched, The Death of Captain Cook by Gavin Kennedy . All the relevant contemporary evidence has been sc rutini zed by Dr. Kennedy who presents th e reader with a fascinating narrative of the last days of a doomed commander of a voyage -a voyage also foredoomed to failure in its object, the discovery of the legendary Northwest Passage.

Wintering in Hawaii, after being forced south by impenetrable Arctic ice, Cook found himself with an unseaworthy ship (appallingly corrupt dockyard practices in England led to the deplorable condition of the gear aloft) . He had to find safe anchorage where the foremast could be taken ashore for repairs.

The only suitable harbor was Kealakekua Bay, where earlier Cook had received a tumultuous welcome as the god Lono . Provisions for his two vessels, the Resolution and Discovery, had placed a severe strain on the local economy, but Cook, although fearing that he had outstayed his welcome, had no alternative but to return. All unwittingly, as the god Lono, Cook had become a political issue in the conflict between the ecclesiasti cal and secular factions of the island, which only further exacerbated British-Hawaiian relations.

Events swiftly culminated in the theft of the Discovery's large cutter. AttempSEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

ting to recover the stolen boat, Cook misjudged the full seriousness of his predicament on the crowded, stony beach that fateful morning of the 14th of February, 1779. At the critical moment his officers and marines failed him .

Their firearms proved woefully ineffective in the final act of this tragic drama.

Dr. Kennedy contends that the circumstances of Cook's death differ materially from those presented in the official published account of the voyage. In other words there was a "cover-up," and it is difficult to quarrel with this thesis.

Nineteenth-century missionaries in Hawaii, for selfish motives, traduced Cook's character. This may explain, as Dr. Kennedy intimates, why Cook, perhaps the world's greatest sailor and navigator, has not received greater recognition in the United States, despite his enormous contribution to American history and geography as the discoverer of Hawaii, much of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

OSWALD L. BRETT

Mr. Brett, marine artist and Advisor to South Street Seaport Museum and the National Society, grew up in Australia with Cook as his childhood hero. His own appreciation of Cook's voyaging appeared in SH 11.

A Well Tuned Blare of Trumpets for the Art of Antoine Roux and Family The Artful Roux, Maine Painters of Marseille, by Philip Chadwick Foster Smith (Salem MA, Peabody Museum, 1978, 73 pp.' ill.' $8.50).

We are presented here with a most unusual book, at once essay, biography, art criticism and illustrated catalogue.

The occasion is an extraordinary exhibition mounted by the Peabody Museum, from the title of which the book takes its own.

Amid the oceans of vessels on canvas and paper which emanated from the seaports of the world during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the watercolors by the Roux family of Marseille have long been favorites among marine connoisseurs and collectors. For somewhat over a century, through three generations, six members of this family produced the crisp, brilliant and accurate ship portraits which today, despite stiff competition from other excellent French and Mediterranean watercolorists, form the gems of any collection fortunate enough to own them. The last painting member of the family died in 1882. Since that time there have been three large exhibitions of Roux work, the present be-

ing the last and by far the largest. It comprises the entire Peabody Museum Roux Collection, the second largest in the world, after that of the Musee de la Marine in Paris.

After an informative introductory essay, the author has arranged his work in sections, so as to treat each Roux family member successively with a brief biography and critical analysis, followed by the catalogue listing of his work in the exhibition. Each entry is fully annotated with all usual cataloguing information, and in addition is accompanied by a brief history of the vessel or event, where known, and an excellent black and white reproduction. Added to this are no less than twelve excellent fullpage color reproductions. Of considerable interest to Roux afficionados, it has been possible to include likenesses of four of the six Roux artists, including actual photographs of three of them .

All of the Roux men were also-and at least at first, principally-hydrographers, dealers in nautical equipment such as charts, compasses, sextants and telescopes, often of their own manufacture. The artistic dynasty began with Joseph (1725-1793), few of whose works have survived . The two in the Peabody Collection are-by exception in the

A HISTORY OF WAR AT SEA An Atlae and Chronology of Conflict at Sea from Earlieet Tima to the Preeent

By Helmut Pemsel The entire history of war at sea is described and charted in this remarkable book. The conflicts covered range from the victory of the ancient Greeks over the Persians at Salamis in 480 B.C. through nearly 2500 years of war at sea to the naval operations of the Vietnamese and Indo-Pakistani wars.

Every major naval conflict in history is presented in these pages, including the campaigns of the Romans, the conquering Vikings, Lepanto, the Spanish Armada, the War of the Spanish Succession, the Seven Years War, the American Revolution, Trafalgar, the American Civil War, the Russo-Japanese War, World Wars I and Il, Korea, and many others.

In A Hietory of War at Sea Helmut Pemsel has combined the merits of a visual encyclopedia with the accuracy of an authoritative chronology.

This is an illuminating reference indispensable to everyone concerned 1977/240 paga/illaetratecl/$15.95 with the history of war at sea.

Book Order Department SW U.S. Naval lnâ&#x20AC;˘titate Aaaapolie, Maryland 21402 Yes. Please send me _ _ copies of A Hietory of War Ats-. I have enclosed my check or money order for $ , including $1.00 for postage and handling.

(Please add 5% sales tax for delivery within the State of Maryland.)

-NAVALINSTITUTE PRESS City/State/Zip SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

57

BOOKS family-in oils. His son Antoine (AngeJoseph Antoine, 1765-1835) inherited his business and his talents, and became the real progenitor and teacher of the artistic family. All three of Antoine's so ns became hydrographers and marine painters and his daughter painted too .

His own eldest son, Antoine fils (Jr .)

(Mathiru-Antoine, 1799-1872) inherited an uncle's business but was, as the author states, the least prolific and least ta len ted of the (male) Roux painters, though far superior to most others of his time. There are few present-day cc)llectors , this reviewer wou ld add, who would sco rn one of his works. Frederic (Francois-Joseph Frederic, 1805- 1870) was privileged to train in the studi o of the Vernets in Paris, another and more famous French dynasty of marine painters, and was the only member lo desert Marseille. He opened a hydrographic shop and marine painting studio at Le Havre. A biographer says that "He was soon the recognized painter of a ll the American captains, who were astonished at his prodigious facility." Antoine Roux' s third son Francois (Francois-Geoffroi, 1811-1882) inherited his father's hydrographic shop, and there, "whi le sellin g charts and compasses, gave himself up with passion to his art."

He was commissioned to paint a remarkable series of watercolors, now mostly in the Musee de la Marine but intended for the Louvre. His grandfather Joseph had a warrant as "Hydrographe du Roi," but Francois was the only Roux to wear the red ribbon of the Legion d' Honneur.

With his death in 1882 the era of the Roux marine painters of Marseille came to an end. A sister, Ursule, born in 1801, was a watercolorist, and not bad judging from the Peabody's one example, but nothing is known of her life and little of her art.

Mr. Smith has written an informative, interesting and decorative book. In so doing he has had the advantage of earlier work, especially of French students of the Roux painters, of a former generation of Peabody Museum curators, and of publications of the former Marine Research Society of Salem. He has used such material in combination with original research and close study of the Museum Collection to produce a work informative even to those long interested in the subject.

The book is difficult to critic ize, perhaps because the reviewer himself finds it so fascinating. The casual reader may at first be a bit confused by the format, but will soon note its advantages in marshalling the maximum information 58

in th e most easi ly accessib le way. Mr. Smith says: "The Fine Arts historian perhaps will see little merit in th e paintings as works of art. The maritime hi s torian will wax lyricai abo ut them . . .. " This reviewer, having at least looked at the Fine Arts for many yea rs, will accept many of these beautiful watercolors as in that category. The book is certain to remain an indispensa ble tool for future researchers in marine painting.

S. MORTON VOSE II

Mr. Vose is the retired President of the Vose Galleries of Boston, the nation's oldest dealers in fine paintings. Active as consultant and appraiser in the Fine Arts, he has always had a special interest in marine paintings.

A Braynard Festival World's Greatest Ship: The Story of the Leviathan, by Frank 0 . Braynard (Newport News, VA, The Mariners Museum, 1978, 424 pp., illus. $35-or $26.50 to ['JMHS members ordering through SEA HISTORY) and Famous American Ships, Being an Historical Sketch of the United States as Told through Its Maritime Life, by Frank 0. Braynard (New York, Hastings House, rev. ed .

1978, 237 pp ., ill., $ 12.95).

When Frank Braynard, impresario of Operation Sail, a founder of South Street Seaport Museum, and constant advocate of America's seafaring destiny decides to hold a festival, it is on acertain scale. Lately the Museum held a reception in his honor to introduce the latest volume of his Leviathan series, and a revised edition of his Famous Amer-

ican Ships.

The 54,000-ton Leviathan was completed just before World wa¡r I as the Vaterland, a super ship built by the German pacifist-idealist Albert Ballin, and indeed the "world's greatest ship ." During the War, seized by the Americans, she served as troopship; after the War she was rebuilt by the American designer William Francis Gibbs to serve as the premier North Atlantic liner until, as the 1920s ended, a new generation of superliner, the French Ile de France, the German Europa and Bremen, the Italian Rex and Conte di Savoia, and ultimately the British Queen Mary (preserved today in Long Beach, California) and the French Normandie (burnt in New York during World War II) came along. Of these, only the Mary and the Normandie were larger than the Leviathan. In 1938 the outmoded Leviathan ex- Vaterland went to Scotland for scrap.

In Volume IV of the monumental

Leviathan series, Braynard takes up the ship's palmy years, 1927-29. Braynard's unique research apparat, numbering 1,500 enrolled members who receive a Leviathan newsletter, enables him to recreate the amazing depth and variety of life aboard the great liner whose career he followed from afar from the time he was a first grader onward. Moving in close today on the life of the sh ip 40 years after it ended, Braynard's pursuit of shipboard incident and personal histories ends up in cu ltural history remarkably evocative of the world the ship sailed in. A ship is, after a ll , a city, in the sea .

As the volume ends, the sea giant, built for a speed of 22 Yi knots, has amassed a se ries of crossings approaching an average speed of 24 knots .

Driven a bit too hard, she sticks her huge nose into a 40-foot sea-and a great crack opens in her upperwork s. Frank's research finds people who had heard rivets sheering off a week before that, in a lounge: "But it was a ll hidden below layers of linoleum and wood and carpet.

When the last heavy outside plating went, the whole thing opened up for all to see."

Much was learned in operating the Leviathan, and that learning was put to work by William Francis Gibbs, who went on to build the great liners America

and United States, as he had intended from the first to do . Both ships survive -the postwar United States as a technological wonder, and the fastest liner, by far, ever to swim the seas .

In Famous American Ships, first published in 1956 and now reissued in an augmented edition, Braynard takes a close look at the 53,000-ton United States as one of sixty ships that shaped American maritime history. He quotes Williams Francis Gibbs who, asked if he were her designer, responded: "Ce rtainl y not! About half the marine-engineering brains of the country have been applied to this ship.

A great ship is the most complicated structure man crea tes."

He went on to describe her as "the product of a prodigious explosive power-Amerian industry." Gibb's genius of course was to harness that "explosive power" to his purpose, in superb design.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

BOOKS One is reminded of Braynard's description, earlier in the book, of Robert Fu lton, builder of the first commerc ia ll y successfu l steamboat in America, the North River (later known as "Clermont"). "He went at things in the modern scientific manner," Braynard observes. "If something didn't work, he found out why it failed." And he notes the man's breakthrough qualities of mind and spirit: " He was brave in the face of unendin g obstac les, he breathed a fire of enthusiasm, he loved hard work, he always insisted on doin g the most difficult, even dangerou s chores himself."

In its way the work Famous Ships expresses the whole Braynard perspective on the American experience at sea, and tt is valuab le, and refreshing in its insights, for that reason . The drama of a continent awakening to the new age of steam, and largely opened by its river and coastal steamboats, is a particular strength of the book and was instructive to this reader-as other aspects might be to others. From the Viking visitors to the new small coastwise cruise liner Independence, the ships roll by, illustrated

by Braynard's highly expressive line sketches .

PS Pacific Troller, by Francis E. Caldwell; (Anchorage, Alaska, Northwest Publi sh ing Company, 1978, 143 pp., ill. , $4 .95 paperbound).

Francis Caldwell has worked the Northwest Fishing Grounds for two decades. In Pacific Troller he combines his rich experience with gripping writing and beautiful photographs; the result is a page-turning account. He tells his story through a series of vignettes; brief essays which discuss friends, frustrations, good days and bad days. Each essay draws us closer to his world.

It is a harsh world. The fishing grounds off Washington and Alaska are frequently plagued by storms, and many days are lost to bad weather.

and his friends might hear of good action off Oregon, and make the long trip sout h only to find the salmon and tuna gone. For all the hard hours at sea, th e men usually return home with an all-toosmall profit.

And so it is not surprising that Caldwell poses a central rhetorical question: "Why, I wondered, would anyone do this sort of work for a living?" You spend months away from home being thrown about in a box on the sea, and come back only to draw another loan.

You get six salmon on your longlines, and then lose them to sea lions. Like the sea itself, the fi sherman rides from trough to crest, trou gh to crest.

But at that crest, th e life is beautiful.

The magic of the sea and it s creatures is unending; the freedom of that great space is exhilarating. Where could a fisherman be happy, except on the sea?

ETHAN B. KAPSTEIN

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

Mr. Ross has served as skipper of the yawl Petrel, sailing in New York Harbor, and is working on further schemes to bring sail back to the city.

The Buccaneer King; The Biography of the Notorious Sir Henry Morgan, by Dudley Pope (New York, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1977, 379 pp., illus., Mr. Kapstein is a Visiting Scholar at the $11.95).

U.S. Department of Energy, and is a ReEntitled a biography, this is more acsearch Associate in th e Department of curately a "life and times" of Morgan History, Brown University. and his city, Port Royal in Jamaica.

A Sailor's Tales, by Bill Robinson, Morgan's life was coincident with W.W. Norton, (New York, 1978, 347 almost the entire existence of the city and during its brief and lurid span pp., ill., $9 .95) .

Racing, cru ising, winning, losing, war before it sank into the sea, he was one of afloat in the South Pacific-Bill Robin- its central characters. The era Pope so n, the editor of Yachting magazine, reconstructs was one in which England was rising to pre-eminence as a sea has had a taste of them all and much, much more. In this book he shares some power and in which Spain was embarked of the funny, exciting, embarrassing on its decline . The factors involved are considered and discussed in relation to moments from his fifty yea rs of sailing.

In an easy-going, unpretentious nar- ¡ the people. Morgan appears to have rative style he tacks back and forth been an almost inevitable leader among through the years: chi ldhood memories the Jamaicans of the time. The buc-

The foreca st was for more southeaste rli es that ni ght. Reluctantl y we turned a nd headed for Pelican and were storm bound there for the next 4 days. Severa l of th e boats had made their way 50 mil es out to the West Bank on ly to get hit with another gale almost as bad as the one we had been caught in. More poles were broken, windows smashed, and the fleet was forced back into the bay.

Too frequently, Caldwell has lost friends in these Northwestern storms.

Fish a re not predictable creatures.

They'll feed in a certain area one year, only to fool the fishermen by going elsewhere the following year. Ca ldwell

of Nantucket, recent SORC campaigns in the Gulf Stream, World War 11 .subchaser duties, a sea captain uncle's experiences in a Japanese earthq uake, his grandfather's rescue from a disabled three-master, his childrens' trials and triumphs afloat.

Mr. Robinson knows what he's doing -wit h boats and with words . His open, informal personality colors almost every page and one has a sense of regret at closing hi s book, as thou gh a go<5d friend had sudd enly realized the tim e and bid goodnigh t .

PAUL LOU IS ROSS

Send $1 00 for the next 4 quarterly ca talogs.

Each has 36 pp with over 1300 listings of mostly out -of-print books.

ANTHEfL BOOKSELLERS 2177MHS ISABELLE CO URT NO. BELLMORE , N.Y.11710

NAUTICAL BOOKS, FILMS, MODELS, RECORDS ON OCEAN LINERS AND AIRSHIPS: Complete catalog of items: 50¢ in Coin or Stamps. Order from: 7 C'S PRESS, INC. P.O. BOX 57, DEPT. SH RIVERSIDE, CT. 06878 USA

59

BOOKS caneers served as a surrogate navy of a colony which could not count on the support of the mother country to protect them from supposedly peaceful shipowners from other countries.

As Pope comments, Morgan's prowess was as a soldier, rather than as a seafarer. His most successful campaigns were waged on land and, except when dealing with his supposed friends, he rarely made the same mistake twice. He attacked and defeated supposed ly impregnable fortresses with relatively few men, taking them with an ease that astounded both his admirers and detractors. His weak ness was that, politically, he underestimated the malice of his opponents. These political opponents did him more damage than any that he faced in the field. Mr. Pope has given us a good history of a relatively und erserved era.

ERIC RUSSELL Sailing to Win, by Robert N. Bavier, Jr. (New York, Dodd, Mead , rev . ed . 1978, 223 pp., illus ., $10.95).

"Most of the principles of yacht racing remain the same," says racing skipper Bob Bavier in in trod ucing thi s new ed itio n of his class ic wo rk , first issued in 1947, "but techniques have changed.

And I lik e to think I've learned

something in all that time." His book, a model of clarity and candor in a field oft befogged with technicalities and blowhardism, is helpful to anyone who wants to sail faster, from the cruising skipper to the full-fledged racer who is ready to learn from this master' s winning ways .

PS Enterprise to Endeavor: the J-Class Yachts, by Ian Dear (New York, Dodd, Mead, 1978, illus., $ 15.00).

When one considers how much has been written about the J-Class yachts over the years, it comes as somewhat of a su rprise to learn that o nl y ten "J's" were ever built a nd all these in the period 1930 to 1937. However, th eir spectacular size and th e names of the players involved probably accounts for the amount of prose connected with them. Ian Dear's latest volu me Enterprise to Endeavor is an interesting history of these vessels and goes into particu lar detail abo ut the British side of "J" racing, which has never been widely covered in America, since we were naturally more concerned with sailing for the America's Cup, an event always sailed in American waters .

One thing that struck me from Mr. Dear's book is the fact that the problems and torments that existed with the" J's"

A sea classic and a fine gift!

are still with us in 12-meters, particularly in America 's Cup competition , which is really what these two classes are all about.

Although masts do not seem to come down as frequent ly these days, the experimentation with equ ipment and materials is sti ll the name of the game, some of it good for the game, some almost ridiculous . The auth orities today seem to have just as much troub le rendering decisions and rulings as they did in the 30s . Foreign challenges today "aft gang aglae" as they have in the past and usually in the same place: at the syndicate level. The boats of both eras have bordered on the unseaworthy, and it certain ly is true that the cost of building and campaigning a " 12" today vis-a-vis a "J" of yesterday still can put a big hole in anyone' s pocketbook.

F. BRIGGS DALZELL

Mr. Dalzell, who has run America's Cup Races, is, in partial atonement, Secretary and Trustee of South Street Seaport Museum, a Commissioner of the Sandy Hook Pilots, and trustee of the NY Floating Hospital and t~e National Maritime Historical Society.

~

MAJOR PHOTO HISTORY!

CHAMPlAIN TO CHESAPEAKE: A CANAL ERA PICTORIAL CRUISE

by William J. McKelvey, Jr.

S EA HISTORY readers a re offered reduced prices on the world's g reatest steamship book se ri es on the "wor ld's greatest ship":

The Story of the

Leviathan, Vol. 4

By Frank 0. Braynard Regularly $35, order now for $26.50 postpaid .

TO: SEA HISTORY, 2 Fulton St. Brooklyn, New York 11201

Please rush D Vol. 4, $26.50 D Vol. 3 , $25.00 D Vol. 2, $25.00 D Vol. 1, $21.00. My check for $ is enclosed.

NAME

- - - - - - - - - - ZIP _ _ __

60

Capt. Irving Johnson's

The Peking Battles Cape Horn This is Irving Johnson's classic narrative of a passage round Cape Horn in I929 in the steel bark Peking. A new foreword and appendix provide background on the author and the ship. In the new afterword the author looks back, after 48 years of seafaring, to his experiences aboard the Peking. lOOJo discount to National Society members.

To: SEA HISTO RY PRESS, National Maritime Historical Society, 2 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (212) 858-1348 Please send me_ hardcover copies of "Peking" at $1 l.95;_ p¡aper cover copies at $5.95 each . My check for $_ _ _ is enclosed .

NAM E ADDRESS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ ZIP

Covers: Champlain Canal, Hudson River, New York Harbor, the Delaware and Raritan Canal, Delaware River and Bay, Chesapeake and Delaware Can al, Chesapeake Bay, and the Dismal Swamp Canal. Also canalboats, steamboats, tugs, sailing vessels, yachts and small pleasure boats.

224 pages, over 475 photographs, 8 ~ x 11, map, chronology, bibliography, hardbound.

Cost $25.00 Order from: William ). McKelvey, Jr. 98 Waldo Avenue, Bloomfield, N.J . 07003

Also available upon request a list of other publications and mementos on the American canal and maritime era .

t CHARLIE BROWN'S

'BOOI( GALLERIE Select, H ard-to-find, Out-of-pri nt & Collector 's Books. Maritime , Travel & E xplorat ion, cw York City 34 Middagh St., Brook lyn Hts ., NY 11201 (Near the Ferr y Slip) 212-624- 1373

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

A Special Pre-publication Offer 519.95 Bookstore Retail Price 525.00 A Savings of Over 55.00 The first comprehensive illustrated history of the Port of New York ever published.

By the renowned maritime historian John G. Bunker dventure, romance, infamy, intrigue, disaster, wealth, poverty, luxury . . . the sweep of history, the story of the Port of New York, the past and the future of a great city shape the saga of John G. Bunker's Harbor and Haven.

Chapter by chapter, stories abound: The tale of the valiant Turtle and the puzzle in the name of the Clermont; the explorers, Hudson and da Verrazano; the slaves, Cargo and Portuguese; the pirate villains and the privateer heroes, Kidd, Mason, Burgess; the shipbuilders, Bell, Bergh, and Fulton; the immigrants, Astor and Carnegie. Throughout Harbor and Haven, John Bunker celebrates schooners, steamers, barks, brigantines, containerships, and the Port of New York itself, or, as Robert Juet wrote in his journal aboard the Half Moof!, "a very good harbor for all winds."

Exhaustively detailed and lavishly printed, Harbor and Haven gives the general reader, the student, and the maritime historian a vivid record in dramatic prose and extraordinary illustrations both in black and white and color - of the Port of New York's "melting-pot"; the milieu of immigrants, pirates, slavers, privateers, and shipbuilders; the advent of steam and paddlewheels, packets and elegant cruise ships; and the tragedies of wars and the disasters of the harbor and of the sea.

A

AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE PORT OF NEW YORK

HARBOR &HAVEN

This elegant , handsomely bound hardcover book is over three hundred pages long and includes more than 250 black and white illustrations and 16 pages of color photographs.

Many of the illustrations have never before been published.

"Entertains, excites, and even inspires - the new John Bunker work on New York port is must reading. Every American can enjoy it and will benefit from the new light it sheds on an old port."

- Frank 0. Braynard Marine Historian; Organizer of Operation Sail; Founder, South Street Seaport Museum The publication of Harbor and Haven is sponsored by THE MARITIME ASSOCIATION OF THE PORT OF NEW YORK Windsor Publications, Inc. P.O. Box 1500 Woodland Hills, CA 91365 Pre-publication price : $19.95 After May 31 , 1979 : $25.00

1- - - - - - - - - - - - - 1 I I I I I I

I

c/o DS P.O. Box 1500 Woodland Hills, CA91365

Total amount enclosed:$ _ _ _ _ __

Please send me copy(ies) of HARBOR AND HAVEN by John G. Bunker at $19.95 a copy. Please add $1.80 for the first copy and 60 cents for each additional copy to cover the cost of postage and handling.

I

Name

:

Address

: I

City

I

Please use this coupon - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Windsor Publlcatlons, Inc.

-----------------------~ State _ _ Zip _ __ This Pre-publication offer expires on May 31, 1979

- -------------- ----- ------- - - - ---- - --

I

is tf\1ng to get more mileage out of the earths energy.

We're trying several ways. First, by res_ponding to New York's energy needs with new facilities that make more efficient use of energy. We've retired older, less efficient power plants, built new ones and increased our ability to transmit power.

We're trying, second, by a vigorous campaign to conserve energy. This is our eighth year of urging citizens to "Save A Watt," to conserve all forms of energy in all seasons. We suggest this to reduce adverse impact on the environment, and to help our customers save money on their fuel bills, as well as to ease the drain on diminishing energy supplies.

Third, we have instituted a vigorous load management program to encourage customers to use power in all its forms during off-peak hours- that is, anytime on weekends or after 10 p.m. and before 10 a.m. on weekdays.

Fourth, we have increased our spending nine-fold since 1969 on research and development to find new and better ways to produce and deliver electricity.

With our modernized system, aggressive R&D program and strong energy conservation programs, we expect to be able to continue meeting the energy needs of New York City and Westchester, and to do so in ways conducive to a healthy environment.

~ conserve

Edlยงai energy

This engraving of "The Ferry at Brooklyn" in Whitman's era captures the same magic of light and life that beguiled the poet. The variety of life includes a fellow on his pony.

Walt Whitman~ Passion for the Fulton Ferry "You that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, and more in my meditations than you might suppose." So wrote Walt Whitman nearly a century ago in his poem ''Crossing Brooklyn Ferry." Whitman worked as compositor in printing offices in New York in 1836-7, when he was in his late teens, and then, after a time of schoolteaching in rural Queens and long ls/and, returned again to the city "as printer and writer, mostly prose, but an occasional shy at 'poetry."' He found the short crossing that took him from elm-lined Fulton Street, Brooklyn to Fulton Street, New York a major voyage, as he explains in "My Passion for Ferries."

MY PASSION FOR FERRIES Living in Brooklyn or New York city from this time forward, my life, then, and still more the following years, was curiously identified with Fulton ferry, already becoming the greatest of its sort in the world for general importance, volume, variety, rapidity, and picturesqueness. Almost daily, later, ('50 to '60,) I cross'd on¡ the boats, often up in the pilot-houses where I could get a full sweep, absorbing shows, accompaniments, surroundings. What oceanic currents, eddies, underneath-the great tides of humanity also, with ever-shifting movements. Indeed, I have always had a passion for ferries; to me they afford inimitable, streaming, never-failing, living poems . The river and bay scenery, all about New York island, any time of a fine day-the hurrying, splashing seatides-the changing panorama of steamers, all sizes, often a string of big ones outward bound to distant ports-the myriads of white-sail'd schooners, sloops, skiffs, and the marvellously beautiful yachts-the majestic sound boats as they rounded the Battery and came along towards 5, afternoon, -eastward bound-the prospect off towards Staten island, or down the Narrows, or the other way up the Hudson-what refreshment of spirit such sights and experiences gave me years ago (and many a time since.) My old pilot friends, the Balsirs, Johnny Cole, Ira Smith, William White, and my young ferry friend, Tom Gere-how well I remember them all.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1979

From 'Crossing Brooklyn Ferry' Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore, Others will watch the run of the flood-tide, Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east, Others will see the islands large and small; Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an hour high, A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them, Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring-in of the flood-tide, the falling-back to the sea of the ebb-tide.

*

*

*

It avails not, time nor place-distance avails not, I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence, Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt, Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, Just as you are refresh'd by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh'd, Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried, Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships and the thick-stemm'd pipes of steamboats, I look'd.

I too many and many a time cross' d the river of old, Watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls, saw them high in the air floating with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies, Saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies and left the rest in strong shadow, Saw the slow-wheeling circles and the

gradual edging toward the south, Saw the reflection of the summer sky in the water, Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams, Look'd at the fine centrifugal spokes of light round the shape of my head in the sunlit water, Look'd on the haze on the hills southward and south-westward, Look'd .on the vapor as it flew in fleeces tinged with violet, Look'd toward the lower bay to notice the vessels arriving, Saw their approach, saw aboard those that were near me, Saw the white sa* of schooners and sloops, saw the ships at anchor, The sailors at work in the rigging or out astride the spars, The round masts, the swinging motion of the hulls, the slender serpentine pennants, The large and small steamers in motion, the pilots in their pilot-houses, The white wake left by the passage, the quick tremulous whirl of the wheels, The flags of all nations, the falling of them at sunset, The scallop-edged waves in the twilight, the ladled cups, the frolic-some crests and glistening, The stretch afar growing dimmer and dimmer, the gray walls of the granite storehouses by the docks, On the river the shadowy group, the big steam-tug closely flank'd on each side by the barges, the hay-boat, the belated lighter, On the neighboring shore the fires from the foundry chimneys high and glaringly into the night, Casting their flicker of black contrasted with wild red and yellow light over the tops of houses, and down into the clefts of streets. w 63

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SPONSORS

CAPTAIN W. R. PETERSON PHILADELPHIA MARITIME MUSEUM CAPTA IN E. J. PIERSON

AMERADA H ESS CORPORATION

PINKERTON'S

ANNENBERG FU ND

JOH' ~ LATT REALTY

J ACK R. ARON

NORBERT PLATZER 1

0RTHEAST MARINE TERMI NAL Co.

JOSEPH CANTALUPO C HARLES F. C HAPMAN MEMORIAL

PORT AUTllORITY OF

Dow CORNI G CORP.

RICHARDSON PRATT, JR .

WILLIAM W. DURRELL

PRUDENTIAL LI NES

EVA GEBHARO-GOURGAUD FDTN.

ANTHONY RAMOS

FUND FOR THE CITY OF NEW YORK

ANTONE RAMOS

W. R. GRACE FOUNDATION

RICHARD RATH

MR. & ~IRS. PAUL R. HENRY

PAUL T . RENNELL

CECIL H OWARD CHARITABLE TRUST

REVLON FOUNDATION H ON. FRED RICHMOND

I NDUCTI VE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS R.

c. JEFFERSON

C !IRI STIAN

A.

Russ RIEMANN BRUCE ELLIOT ROBERTS

JOll NSON ENDEAVOR FON.

CHARLES R. ROBINSON

IR VJN(; JOHNSON J .M. KAPLAN F UND

The Kaiulani by Charles Wittho/z.

MR. & MRS. RODMA ' ROCKEFELLER

A. ATWATER KENT. JR.

DANIEL ROSE

LUC ILLE LANGLOIS

ALLEN S. R UPLEY D. R . SAGARI NO

JAMES A. MACDONALD FOUNDATION NAUTILUS FOUNDATION AVY LEAGUE llCHAEL PLATZER MR. & MRS. PETER SEEGER 1-I OWARD SLOTNICK MR.& MRS. PETER STANFORD

EDMUND A. STANLEY. JR. ADM. JOHN ~ I. WILL. US1 (RET.) T. 1-1. W ll lGHT. JR.

Y & NJ

JosEP11 G. SAWTELLE

CON ED ISON

JAMES KELLOGG. Ill

TREVOR CONSTABLE

PROF. JOHN H ASKELL KEMBLE

FRANK ScAVO

ALICE DADOURIAN

NORMAN KJELDSEN

R. J . SCHAEFER .

WILLIAM SA WYER

REBEKA H T. DALLAS

MR. & MRS. BERNIE KLAY

RADM. WALTER F . SCHLECH, JR.

F. BRIGGS DALZELL

KOBRAND CORPORATION

SCHOONER ERNESTINA Ass'N,

RICHARD A. DENNY

BETTY KOHAREK

SEA-LAND SERV ICE, I NC.

ANTHONY L ANDI

SEAMEN'S CHURCH I NSTITUTE

S.

FAIRLEIGll

DICKINSON

JAMES DICKMAN

MR. & MRS. T. E. LEONARD

MRS. AVICE M. SEWALL

DIME SAV I NGS BANK

RUTHERFORD P. LILLEY

WILLIAM A. SHEEH A '

THOMAS P. DOWD

LI NCOLN SAVINGS BANK

JAMES R . SHEPLEY

H . R. LOGAN

DR . GARY SHERMAN

PATRONS

JEREMIAH

T.

DRISCOLL

R. J. DUNPHY

J EFF L OV INGER

ROBER.T F. SHERMAN

REYNOLDS DUPONT

KLAUS L UCKA

D OROTHY S HERRILL

ABRA HA•I & STRAUS

SAMUEL DUPONT

ABE M. L UNTZ

S HIPS OF THE SEA MUSEUM

A•IERICAN BUREAU OF SmPPI G

DAVID DURRELL

LYKES BROS. STEAMSHIP Co .. I NC.

MERVIN J. SH UMAN

AMERICAN 1-I OIST & IJERRICK Co.

EAST NEW YORK SAVINGS BANK

l<OSS MACDUFFIE

A. MACY SM ITH

PETER B. BAKER

DAMON L. ENGLE

TllOMAS J. MAGUIRE

SCllOONER SoFIA

JOHN B. BALCH

FAR RELL LI ' ES

J . P. MAllOKEY

THOMAS SoULES

BANKERS TRUST Co.

CilARLES FORTES MEMORIAL FUND

DONATI-IA MAINGUTH

GEN. & MRS. A. A. SPROUL

RUSSELL BANKS

DR. l-I ARRY FRIEDMAN

PETER MANIGAULT

BARBA NEGRA

FRITZSCH E. DODGE & OLCOTT. I NC.

AM MANN

ALFRED STANFORD C HARLES E. STAN FORD

MR. & MRS. CHARLES FRIBLEY

MANUFACTURERS H ANOVER TRUST

JOHN S. FULLERTON

MARINER S V ILLAGE

EDNA

BAY RIDGE WATER & LIGHTERAGE

CAPTA IN J AMES GABY

ELISABETH M. MARTELL

JOHN STOBA RT O SCAR STR AUSS, II

HARRY BARON FRANCIS

J.

BARRY

0

F. WILLIAM STEC HMANN

& I SAAC STERN FOTN.

BEAVER ENGINEElllNG

MR. & MRS. C HAR L ES GALLAGHER

MARTIN MATHEWS

FREDERICK W. BEINECKE. II

ROBERT G. GAMBEE

MRS. WALTER MAYNARD

AL L EN G. BERRIEN

JOSEPH A. GEMMA

R.

H . E. BILKEY-NORTON LILLY

J. T. G ILBHIDE

CAPTA I N J. M cGOVERN

SYLVOR COMPANY

BRONSON B I NGER

ROGEll GILMAN

MARSll MCLENNAN

R OBERT T ACH ER

PETER BLACK

JOHN GOMES

THE MENDES F AM ILY

ROBERT TAYLOR

OLGA BLOOM

MR. & MRS. GEORGE V. GOULDER

ELAI NE MOGENSEN

THERMAL Eou1PMENT Co.

JEFF BRADY

MARK GREENE

CAPT. PlllLI P MOHUN

JOHN THURMAN

FREDER ICK BREWSTER

LEO GRUSZECKA

J . RUSSELL MOIR

GEORGE F . TOLLEFSEN

BROOKLYN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

GYDNIA AMER ICA LINE

MONTAN TRANSPORT (USA) I NC.

TRADEWINDS GALLERY

BROOKLYN SAVINGS BANK

MRS. MARGARET S. H ECTOR

MR. & MRS. JOSEPH MONTE

J AMES D. TURNER

STEVEN W. BRUMMEL

e. J.

WM. F. BUCKLEY. J R.

HELLEN IC LINES

H EI NE

w.

wAREHAM

M cCULLOUG H

!·! UMPHREY SU LLI VAN Sw iss AMER ICAN SECURITIES I NC.

MOORE-MCCORMACK LI NES, I NC.

U.S. NAVIGATION Co.

THE MORRISSEY FAMILY

GILBERT VERNE Y C HARLES VICKERY

ROBERT J. BURKE

H ENRY'S END RESTAURANT

ROY LI NDSAY MORRO W

ALA ' BURROUGH. CBE

JOHNSON PED ERSON HI NR ICHS

MR. & MRS. EM I L MOSBACHER, J R.

VIRG I NI A DAR E EXTRACT Co.

BYE BYE BHlDIE

TOWNSEND HORNOR

RI CHARD MOSES

SHANNON WALL

JAMES R. CADY

CA 1>r. M. F . 1-I ORVAT H

R OBE RT G. MURPHY

WAREHAM HI STOR ICAL SOCIETY

CAPE VERDEAN FOLKLORE GROUP

LAURA l'lllES 1-I OUSTON

NATIONAL MARITIME UN ION

FR ANK E. WEST

CAPE V rmDEAN I SLANDS RELIEF ASSN.

RommT W. H uIJNE R

M ILTON G. NOTTI NGHAM

MRS. ELIZABET H WEEDON

MEL CARLIN

H UG HES BROS.

EDWARD 0ELSNER. JR.

WESTLAND F OUNDAT ION

C ll EM ICAL BANK

A l,AN D. H UTCHI SON

OGI L VY & MATHER

ANTHONY WIDMAN

0. CAllEY

I NDEPENDENT ARTISTS

J AMES 0°KEEFE

CAPT. & MRS. JOfl. M. W ILL. JR.

I NDEPENDENT H ANDLING SERV ICES

PAUL OLANDER

H. SEWALL WILLIAMS

MR. & MRS. PETER CECCH I N I

INT'L ORDER OF MASTERS. MATES & PILOTS

RICHARD K. PAGE

WILLIAMSBURGH SAV I NGS BANK

J AMES G. CLARY

GEOHGE ! VEY

WALTER H . PAGE

SUZANNE C . WILSON

JAMES

E.

CHAPMAN

GEORGE F. CLEJ\IENTS

BARBARA ]OllNSON

C HRIS PAPADAKIS

LOIS WINSTON

JOHN A. CLEMENTS

DAVID B. JARVIS

JOHN T. PATTERSON

C HARLES WJTTllOLZ

COASTAL IJRYDOCK

NEILS W. JOHNSEN

D. K. PATTON

ALLYN- K URT \VOSTAL

AUSTEN COi.GATE

J. R . JONES

PENNSYLVANIA SCllOOLSlllP ASSN.

T. II . WRIGHT. JR.

J . FERRELL COLTON

W. ll ADDON J UDSON

ARMANDO PERRY

W ILL IAM H. Co•ms

EllY W. i( EJI AYA

DEBORAH

L.

PERR Y

YACllTING YOUNG

& RUBICAM

Th e clipper Young Am erica of 1853.

By Charles R obert Pa//erson

BAY REFRACTORY salutes the United States of America and the ships great and small that brought us our people, our prosperity, and our freedom.

BAY REFRACTORY MARINE REFRACTORY AN D MARINE INSULATIO N 164 WO LCOTT STREET,

BRO OKLYN , NY l 123 1

TOWING OUT-END OF SAIL IN THE EAST RIVER

By John A. Noble "The year is about 1939," writes John Noble, "an ancient leaking fourmasted schooner, its back bent (hogged), its crew of aging Finns and Norwegians culled by Black Charlie (New York's last shipping master for sail) but the night before from the sad warrens the Bowery and South Street then maintained for solitary men, tows past the towers of Manhattan towards s~a and uncertainty."

The old hand starting foreward is Mandel Charlie, John explained when we called on him to discuss the reproduction of this painting on our cover. Mandel Charlie was real-like everything in Noble's work . The town of Mandel in Norway, where Charlie was born, and from which he got his nickname, is holding a special exhibition of John Noble's work this summer in tribute to the vision and truth he has developed in his first fifty years of exploring New York harbor life and shipping.