86 PROO f BLENO(D SCOTCH WHISKY OI SflLLEO ANO BOTTLED IN SCOTLAND IMPOl<Tf 0 BY lHCBUCKI NGHAM CORPO~ATION NE \\ Y011K . NY
HERE'S TO GUT FEELINGS AND THOSE Till FOLLOW THEM. Ted Turner does lots of things people advise him not to do. And he succeeds at them. He turned Atlanta's WTBS-TV into a "Superstation" using a communications satellite and recently founded Cable News Network, the world's first 24-hour TV news network. He bought the Atlanta Braves and moved them out of last place; won the 1977 America's Cup after being fired in the '74 races; and as named "Yachtsman of e Year" four times. Ted Th'fner puts his feelings wh~re his mouth is. He also puts a great scotch there: utty Sark. And whiie he's been called Captai~Outrageous by some, one thing s sure: Ted Turner's enjoying himself.
Ted "Captain dutrageous"Tum'er
No. 26
SEA HISTORY OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE WORLD SHIP TRUST
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 © 1982 by the National Maritime Historical Society. OFFICE: 15 State St., New York NY 10004. Telephone: 212-509-9606. MEMBERSHIP is invited and should be sent to the Brooklyn office: Sponsor, $1,000; Patron, $100; Family, $20; Regular, $15; Student or Retired, $7.50. OVERSEAS: Outside North America, add $5 or subscribe via World Ship Trust. 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. OFFICERS & TRUSTEES are Chairman: F. Briggs Dalzell; Vice Chairmen: Thomas Hale, Barbara Johnson; Presidenr: Peter Stanford; Secretary: Alan G. Choate; Treasurer: A.T. Pouch, Jr.; Trustees: Norman J. Brouwer, John Bunker, Alan G. Choate, F. Briggs Dalzell, Thomas Hale, Harold D . Huycke, Barbara Johnson, James F. Kirk, Karl Kortum, Robert J _ Lowen, A. T. Pouch Jr., Richard Rath, John H. Reilly, Jr., Kenneth D. Reynard, Walter F. Schlech, Jr., Howard Slotnick, Peter Stanford, John N. Thurman, Barclay H. Warburton Ill, Alen York. Chairmen Emeritii: Walter F. Schlech, Jr., John M. Will, Karl Kortum. President Emeritus: Alan D. Hutchison. ADVISORS: Chairman: Frank 0. Braynard; Francis E. Bowker, Oswa ld L. Brett, George Campbell, Robert Carl, Frank G. G. Carr, Harry Dring, John Ewald, Joseph L. Farr, Timothy G. Foote, Richard Goold-Adams, Robert G. Herbert, Melvin H_ Jackson, R. C . Jefferson, Irving M_ Johnson, Fred Klebingat, John Kemble, Conrad Milster, William G. Muller, John Noble, Capt. David E. Perkins, USCG (ret.), Nancy Richardson, Ralph L. Snow, John Stobart , Albert Swanson, Shannon Wall, Robert A_ Weinstein, Thomas Wells, AICH, Charles Wittholz. Curator-at-Large: Peter Throckmorton.
ISSN 0146-93 12
WINTER '82-83
CONTENTS 2 EDITOR'S LOG 3 LETTERS 6 IN CLIO'S CAUSE: "BECAUSE I WANT TO," Arleigh Burke 9 THE QUEST FOR THE TRUTH OF THE WAVERTREE, Norman Brouwer 14 ELISSA SAILS: "BETTER THAN THE DREAM," Peter Stanford 18
" REAL AND BEAUTIFUL," Walter Rybka
24
THE SHIP AND HER PEOPLE
27 THE ERNESTINA / MORRISSEY COMES HOME 28 SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS, Norman Brouwer 34 MARINE ART: THE FRIBERGS, Alex. A. Hurst GUEST EDITORIAL, A. Hurst 40 SAIL TRAINING: DA Y'S RUN, Report of the American Sail Training Association 42 BOOKS 46 FIRE AT CHRISTMAS, Fred Klebingat
COVER: Her decks thronged with awed and happy souls, the Elissa, Alexander Hall's lovely iron bark of 1877, stands out to sea from Galveston under all plain sail. Her restoration was primarily the work of young people "following a trail grown cold ," as Restoration Director Rybka points out in his report, this issue. Photo, David Canright.
The National Maritime Historical Society is saving America's seafaring heritage. Join us. We are making America's seafa ring past a our nation' s seafaring legacy? living heritage. The National Maritime Membership in the National Maritime Historical Society discovers and Historical Society costs on ly $15 a S>::A 1:-llS-X:.ORY year. You 'll receive Sea Hislory , restores the few remaining ships and seagoing artifacts-and helps '-" a fascinat ing magazine filled keep them in trust for future with articles of seafaring and generat ions. historical lore. You'll also be And the Society helps get eligible for discounts on books, young people to sea to keep alive prints and other items. the spirit of adventu re, the disciHelp save our seafaring pline and sk ills it took to sail the heritage. Join the National magnificent vessels from our past. Maritime Hi storical Society Won't you join us to keep alive today! y
WORLD SHIP TRUST: Chairman: Frank G.G. Carr; Hon. Secre/ary: J .A. Forsythe; Hon. Treasurer: Philip S. Green; Erik C Abranson; Maldwin Drummond; Peter Stanford . Membership: £10 payable WST, c/ o Hon. Sec., 129a North Street, Burwell, Cambs. CB5 OBB, England . Reg. Charity No. 277751. AMERICAN SHIP TRUST: Inrernalional Chairman: Frank Carr; Chairman: Peter Stanford; George Bass; Norman Brouwer; Karl Kortum; Richard Rath; Charles Lundgren; Barclay H. Warburton, III; Senior Advisor: Irving M. Johnson .
TO: National Maritime Historical Society, 2 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, New York I 1201
YES
NAME
SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor: Peter Stanford; Managing Editor: Norma Stanford; Associale Edi/or : Norman J. Brouwer; Advertising: Diane O'Donnell; Membership: Marie Lore.
I want to help. I understand that my contribution goes to forward the work of the Society ' and that I' ll be kept informed by receiving SEA HISTORY quarterly_ Enclosed is: D $15 Regular D $100 Patron D $1,000Sponsor D $7.SOStudent / Retired (please pnnt)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~- Z IP~~~~~~~~
Contributions to NMHS are tax deductible.
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
EDITOR'S LOG
A First Rate taking rn S to res Signed "J M W Turn er 18 18" ( 19 x 17 in.} Superb q uality print of a very beautiful Turner watercolo ur. Art historian B.L. Bin yon wrote in 1909. " Thi s is Turn er at the peak of his po w ers. his palett e is positively translu ce nt." Th e o riginal is in a privat e collecti o n in England, and has rarely bee n seen since 18 19. wh en it was exhibited at G rosve no r Palace . A few hundred copies were printed to co mmem orat e Turn er's bicentenary. W e have every o ne of th em . There will be no more available o nce th ese few are go ne.
Print $15.50
(Framed $59.90)
Calif. residents add 6% ta x. Tel. (21 3) 452-2443
OXFORD GALLERIES 22 10 Wilshire Blvd. #6 27 Santa Monica. CA 90403 Na me _ _ __ _ __ __ __ Add ress, _ _ _ _ __ C ily _
_
_ _ _ __
~
_
_
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ .Stote_ _ Zi p _ _
D VISA D M.C. •
Exp._ _ __
_
5 lb. Baby Whale!
This beautiful 121/2" brass whale will enhance your desk, den or office. A real collector's item for the discriminating lover of the $49.50 sea. Send check or money order. Gift wrapping available.
In this Sea History it is our privilege to announce completion of the interrupted passage of the schooner Ernestina, exEffie M. Morrissey, from the Cape Verde Islands off the West Coast of Africa, to the United States-a voyage begun in 1976 to honor the National Bicentennial and now completed by an entirely rebuilt vessel, six years later . She found her way across the Atlantic under sail alone, with a volunteer crew, and was received with rejoicing in the New England ports she had called on as a Brava packet. The joy was almost incredulous-people had hardly believed this project to be possible. And soon after Ernestina came home in late August, another impossible dream came to realization as the 107-year old bark Elissa set sail to the royals and put to sea from the Gulf Coast port of Galveston-whence she had last sailed nearly JOO years before, in 1886. Her story from her discovery as a motorship in Greece in 1961, through her return to Texas after much effort and tribulation in 1979, has been told in Sea History 15. We are very proud to be associated with the gang who held on and brought their ship so fully and beautifully back to life as a sailing vessel. In both cases Sea History did more than report the story. It was part of the story of the saving of both ships-the journal of a cause in motion, indeed.
*
*
*
*
*
On our various occasions we have had writings in Sea History from people of as diverse viewpoints as William F. Buckley, Jr. and Pete Seeger. We have had one father-son team that I can think of, in separate contributions by Prince Philip and Prince Charles . But we are I think understandably proud of "Because I Want To," in this issue, by Admiral Arleigh Burke. Arleigh is one of the world's greatest living warriors, his name being one to conjure with in the United States Navy today, and wherever naval history is studied. He is a person of strong indeed steely convictions in public matters, and of warm and generous impulse {n private. Unlike the late martyred Lord Louis Mountbatten, for example, Arleigh cherishes as individuals his erstwhile enemies the Japanese. His home is full of
Japanese art and he and Bobbie Burke have far more than a superficial understanding of the unique and fragile culture of the Japanese islands-they share the concern expressed by some Japanese thinkers today that delicate blossoms are being shaken from the tree of the Japanese experience, maybe never to bloom again. He is an instinctive educator and like most great educators he is a seductive listener-one finds oneself talking on and on to Arleigh and thinking harder and harder about what one says! So, instead of learning about the Pacific war or crisis management in President Eisenhower's watch on deck when I went two years ago to call upon the Burkes, I found myself lecturing the Admiral on tank warfare. He was interested to learn that Patton's star had continued to rise in students' eyes since World War II, while Montgomery's had steadily declined, and was fascinated to hear of the German generals' rankings of Allied commanders, which closely match the judgments history appears to be rendering today. He nodded in appreciation of the distinction made in General Sharon's description of the salient he drove across the Suez Canal in 1973: "Was it dangerous? No. Oh-personally, yes-a frightening place to be. But strategically . .. safe as houses." I think this reminded him of a Fletcher destroyer bridge in one of Arleigh's "unrolling" attacks. He did manage somehow to tell me of his own efforts at historiography under fire, which led us to request the article printed on page 6. So he wrote it all out. He also invited editing-" I always expect that editing will improve anything I write ... based on the results of the editing of my papers by many different people over the past 60 years." I do not mean to disappoint our friend, mentor and Patron of the National Society, but in fact we did not omit or change a single word. PS
NB: The "unrolling" attack is a tank warfare term, not a naval term. ft does, however, describe one of Arleigh 's innovations in the Pacific war, and was also a hallmark of Lord Nelson's style in action (e.g. the Nile), and his dicta in the Trafalgar Memorandum of 1805.
/11c/11des µostage anywhere in USA or Canada.
R.H. JOHN CHART AGENCY
Edgewater Enterprises, Inc. BoxR
Staten Island, NY 10305
Salutes the
Galveston Historical Foundation and the barque
Elissa 518 23rd St., Gal veston, Texas
2
EXPLORE THE MAINE COAST WEEKLY
SAILING
VACATION
WINDJAMMER ''MARY DAY'' For Folder Write :
Capt. H. S. Hawkins Camden, Maine 04843 Tel. 1-207 ·236·2750 SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
LETTERS "Over, then, come over For the bee has quit the clover ... " Sails are being unbent today [taken off yards and stays and put away), except for topsails, spanker and a couple of staysails - leaving some up for visibility and to keep hands in practice setting and furling. The ship looks so bare with stripped yards and clear pinrails! It makes it hard to believe that less than a year ago there weren't any yards or pinrails and just having chain plates (the iron bars that hold the shrouds to the ship's hull) seemed fantastic! WALTER RYBKA Restoration Director Bark Elissa Galveston, Texas "We Did, However, Survive." My friend and neighbor Richard Redling, a member of your Society, knowing that I was a merchant navy prisoner of war, gave me the Winter 1982 issue of Sea History, pointing out George Heuston's story "Torpedoed." I found this very interesting, more so when I read the name of the captain of the Sama Rita, sunk by submarine July 9, 1942. The Captain was Henry Stephenson, and he was taken up by submarine to become a prisoner of war in Germany .... I was Chief Steward of the Canadian freig hter A.D. Huff, owned by the Canadian International Paper Company of Montreal. We were sunk in the North Atlantic on February 22, 1941, by the German battleship Gneisenau. After they sunk us, they picked us out of the ocean, and placed us in the hold for the next four days-in that time, sinking another three freighters. When we reached the South Atlantic, they placed us aboard an oil tanker prison ship, and we remained there, in the hold of the Erm/and, until they had supplied their battleships and submarines with fuel. They then sailed us to La Pallice, in France, and then placed fifty of us in a cattle truck to Bremerhaven, Germany, which took four days. After interrogation, they marched us to the Malag and Milag Nord, a merchant navy prison camp, where we were confined until our release at the war's end in May 1945. One day at the latter end of Ju ly I 942, as more merchant navy prisoners were arriving, 1 stood at the entrance to the prison camp, ask ing them what ship they were on and where their homes were in the United States. One of them, much older then myself, informed me he was Captain Henry Stephenson of the Sama Rita. 1 immediately took him to our room in the barracks where 18 members of my crew lived, SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
and informed him that we would take care of him during his confinement. I was very good at cooking a meal out of the Red cross parcels we received! All we received from the Germans was a loaf of black bread each day for eight people, and a bucket of soup. The Red Cross and Salvation Army parcels were a godsend, although we did not receive them each week due to air raids; we did, however, survive. During his confinement Capt. Stephenson was informed by the Red Cross that his only son had lost his life on a ship. It was a heartbreak, and we did all possible to help him overcome his great loss. He had written to his wife informing her how fortunate he was to have Bill Thomas and his crew take care of him . In early 1945, he and other older crew members, were released and sent home on a Red Cross ship . Immediately he arrived in New York he visited my parents in Brooklyn to advise them that I was well and hoping to be home later in the year-which I was, in June 1945. The National Society has given me the address of Mr. Heuston, who wrote the article "Torpedoed" about the sinking of Captain Stephenson's ship Santa Rita, and I have now been in touch with him and given him the history of his captain's life as a POW. I shall soon be meeting him and give him the full story . Now at the age of 80, I feel I have so much to be thankful for! The Lord has been kind . BtLL THOMAS Brooklyn, New York
"What Happened to the Crews?" Over a long period of time, I have been researching the story of U boat operations off Cape Canaveral during World War II. The time spent has been most rewarding and this year I've been fortunate in being able to correspond with former German naval personnel who served on U boats during these operations. Oddly enough, the most commonly asked question by them is: "What happened to the crews?" -the crews of the vessels sunk, that is. This reflects the universal feelings among men of the sea. Although I have checked the microfilm records of the local newspapers, I've been able to come up with little information to answer the question. Is there anywhere that I can check to get more information? CAPTAIN RI CHARD M . RUSSON PO Box 944 Titusville, Florida 32780
The crews did not fare well. It is a little known fact that chances ofsurvival during WW II were belier in the US Marine Corps than on a mercham ship.-ED.
Interesting Revival These photos show Tom Wells, who told the story of his seafaring in Passat and Effie M. Morrissey in SHI9 and SH23, at a later stage in his career. He is the deacon accompanying King Neptune in an initiation ceremony, and is the accordianist aboard the USS Juniata, IX 77, on station out on "Gooney Gulch" in the North Pacific in World War II. Juniata was built as the steel schooner yacht Etak in Germany in 1931, and was drafted into wartime service as a Navy picket boat. Her sk ipper was John Linderman of Alameda, whose father, Fred, had run the immortal "Bug Boat Line" of steam schooners out of San Francisco-the Bee, and Cricket, and so forth. John is every inch a seaman, one of the old breed, al home in sail or steam, as I was to find out more than twenty years later, in 1966, sailing with him in the same shipnow renamed Te Vega and back on Gooney Gulch as a research schooner for Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Institute! John wrote a couple of months ago asking if I knew the whereabouts of the young artist he'd sailed with named Wells, and sent along these photos. They are rare stuff in showing the seaman at his leisure and an interesting revival of sail in the middle of World War II. MARK MYERS, RSMA Bude, Cornwall, UK To Sail Aboard the Providence! I would like to thank the National Society for giving me the opportunity to sail once again aboard the armed sloop Providence. It was an invaluable experience for me as I learned much in the ways of ships and the sea. In fact, I made my rate as AB (Able Bodied Seaman) by American Sail Training Association certification. WtLLIAM SHEPHARD Plainview, New York
Mr. Shephard, a high school student, is a lead volunteer in the Wavertree restoration. The restoration group, a commillee of the National Society's Ship Trust, created a scholarship to send him to sea this summer and hopes to do more for more young people next year. -ED. 3
LETTERS
Serving Merchant Officer's License Exam Prep-course needs for over half a century! (Correspondent & Resident-Deck & Engine) WRITE FOR BROCHURE
CAPTAIN VAN'S SCHOOLS Box 53, Port Arthur, TX 77640
Nautical Antiques
SEAFARER SHOP 4209 Landis Ave. Sea Isle City, NJ A full line of marine antiques and fine reproductions. Send $1 for catalogue:
SEAFARER Box 294 Townsends Inlet, NJ 08243 Or call: 609-263-1283
Harbor View Restaurant Italian Cuisine
Our prices are so reasonable , it 's unbelievable
A delicious wag to enjoy the Manhattan skylin e Live piano music nightlg
Open for Lunch and Dinner Tuesday lhru Sunday 11 am lO midnight
I Cadman Plaza West & Water St. (2 12) 624¡8820 Brookly n. NY
4
Reality Lies Offshore As pretty new hand in the Society and member of the Liberty Project I seek the aid of fellow members in research for an accurate historical account of all the vessels that have gained the Maritime Commission's designation as a Gallant Ship. Would any member who served aboard any of these ships at the time of the incidents for which they were awarded the citation please contact me? I want to include as much firsthand information as I can in the form of personal recollections and photographs. Write me at I 806 Bantry Trail, Ketnersville NC 27284. I would also like to make a comment regarding "Trust Youth, Give Them Room" by John Gardner in SH24. We are a nation obsessed with college degrees. But the course that is not ever taught is that of common sense in everyday life. I reversed the usual process, I guess. After high school I went into the Coast Guard and spent three years aboard the old Cutter Eastwind out of Boston . Then upon leaving the service, after learning two trades, I decided to give college a go and went on to obtain a degree and a permit to teach . There was no time or incident that I can recall in the college class that educated me like our first time around Cape Horn, or circumnavigating the Antarctic sailing in places that no man has been before. No, if you want an education go to sea, that is the prep school for life. Then come ashore and go to college if you like. There's wonderful things to learn in those books but reality lies offshore. IAN A. AILLAR
Log Chips Lives On Many thanks to Norman Brouwer and the National Society for continuing to produce Log Chips. It continues to fill a void in the sailing ship field . In your m~st recent issue, Supplement No. 6, on page 8, you refer to the Duncraig as hulked at Bermuda after dismasting. That hulk was not the Duncraig, iron ship of I870, but the Duncrag built by Russell & Co. at Port Glasgow in 188 I . Dun crag was towed into St. Georges, Bermuda, in March 192I after di sm ast ing whil e bound from Galveston to Buenos Aires with sulphur. In I 936 when I was in the 4-masted schooner Doris Hamlin we discharged our coal into her. I boarded her several times. She was in foul shape and leaking badly. I removed one of her port lights from her after quarters and look at it now as I type this. A few years later she was towed to sea and sunk. ROB ERT H . BURGESS Newport News, Virginia Copies of the Log Chips continuation, edited by Norman Brouwer, are available from NMHSfo r $1.-ED.
A Tug as an Educational Vehicle There is little to attract ¡visitors to the waterfront of Washington DC, except parks. What's lacking is any attempt to educate the visitors, including large numbers of school children, about maritime traditions. There is no suggestion to visitors (or residents) that Georgetown and Alexandria were once-thriving ports that predate Washington . We suggest installing a tugboat on the waterfront of the city park in Georgetown . She will stand out, we believe, and could serve as a mini museum teaching people about working ports and the maritime industry. Short tour trips might be offered. ANN BREEN & DI CK RIGBY Co-Directors The Waterfront Center
The Waterfront Center, at 1536 44th Street N W, Washington DC 20067, coordinates information about waterfront development everywhere and gets out an excellent newsletter on this subject. -ED. Sailing Ships Have a Way ... In February 198 I , I sailed to the Port of Galveston, Texas. While there I met the crew of craftsmen who were responsible for the early phase of the restoration of the iron bark Elissa. They were gearing up for the next phase which would complete the restoration and prepare the ship to sail during the summer of 1982. I am a strong supporter for the preservation of our maritime heritage. So, needless to say I was determined to return to Galveston and assist in the restoration . I returned to participate in the last year of the restoration, working with paid crew and vo lunteers. We all labored long hard hours for a common cause-to bring a fine old ship back to li fe and to sail her once more . I'll always remember the camaraderie among the tireless crew. Yes, sailing ships have a way of doing that. Elissa was opened to the public on July 4 as a floating museum , but our work was not over yet. Next we had to prepare the ship to sail at the end of the summer. We trained a crew to work the ship and sailed her successfully on four days in the Gulf of Mexico . It was very rewarding for me to be part of the Elissa restoration . I would like to give my highest praise and admiration to the Galveston Historical Foundation and all of those involved in the restoration and sailing of the Elissa. ER IC A. SPETH Chief Carpenter Elissa Project Galveston, Texas
Mr. Speth is now at sea sailing the Baltimore clipper Pride of Baltimore from the US East Coast to the West Coast. ..t SEA HISTORY, WINTER I982/ 83
ITO...making lntermodalism work for you.
The right location is essential. Good supervision is imperative. But it takes more than the right location and good supervision to make intermodalism work at the land-to-water interface. It takes the right equipment. .. available, when and as needed. High performance, state-of-theart equipment; well maintained and skillfully operated. At ITO, these observations and objectives form the basis of the equipment fleet management program. This ensures the highest degree of equipment performance and reliability thereby providing the ITO customer with consistently good service. At ITO, third generation equipment capability is available NOW... with height extended cranes, 1980's vintage straddle carriers, and more; , thereby providing the ITO customer a state-ofthe-art service.
At ITO, cargo-handling systems engineering, computers, and innovations provide practical solutions to turnaround, throughput, berthing, production, and documentation problems; thereby providing the ITO customer a complete service. A subsidiary of the Ogden Corporation, a NYSE traded firm, ITO offers the ocean carrier the benefits of a stable and resourceful organization exclusively engaged in stevedoring and marine terminal management with: • Maine to Virginia capability • Maine to Virginia continuity • Maine to Virginia performance New York-New Jersey• Philadelphia• Baltimore Boston • Norfolk • Newport News • Camden, NJ Wilmington, DE • Providence, RI • Searsport, ME
INTERNATIONALTERMINAL ITO OPERATING CO. INC. 17 Battery Place, New York, New York 10004 (212) 709-0500 Telex: 710-581-3978
AN OGDEN COMPANY
IN CLIO'S CAUSE
''Because I Want To'' A Questioning Look at the Difficulties of Writing History While Helping to Make It by Arleigh Burke Admiral, USN (ret.)
He is not Irish (his Swedish fore bears were named Bjorkegren) and his nickname "31 Knot" Burke originally denoted not speed but slowness-he was driving hi~ Fletcher class destroyers at 31 rather than the expected 34 knots on one occasion because one of the ships had a fouled hailer. But speed, precision, and utterly meticulous preparation are hallmarks of the Burke style-with an overriding dedication to individual initiative. Perhaps his major contribution to destroyer doctrine in World War II was his initiation of the "unrolling'' attack: "When contact with an enemy force is made, destroyers in the van should initiate a coordinated torpedo attack WITHOUT ORDERS. " This doctrine, he noted, "requires more than is usually meant by confidence. IT REQUIRES FAITH." Burke's second great contribution of course was to set the kind of example that justifies such faith. He went on from his beloved Fletchers to become Chief of Staff of the Fast Carrier Force that won the naval war in the Pacific, and after the War served an unprecedented three terms in the Navy's top job, as Chief of Naval Operations 1955-61. The Navy is like a small town, everyone gets a nickname and a saying attached to them. The saying attached to Admiral Burke is: "He taught the Navy to think. "-ED. The story started shortly after I reported aboard the Oagship of Destroyer Division Forty-three, the USS Waller in the early months of 1943 in those beautiful, hot, Solomon Islands. The captain of that new magnifi cent destroyer was an old friend , Lieutenant Commander L.H. "Jack" Frost. The Battle of Kula Gulf in early 1943 was the first one that either of us had been in . During the battle Waller was the leading ship in the column of destroyers and cruisers. Kula Gulf is not so very big that we did not have to maneuver quite a bit. Waller opened the battle by firing a spread of torpedoes. One enemy destroyer was beached on
Kolobangara Island after she was hit either by torpedoes or the cruiser gunfire. Sometime during the battle Waller opened up with her guns too. One enemy destroyer escaped. Immediately after the battle Jack Frost and I each made a list of what happened and the sequence and time that each event occurred. Neither one of us had a complete list of events and very few of those had a time recorded . That was bad enough but we di sagreed in the order of events. Did the cruisers open fire before we made our big turn toward the enemy? We did not have enough data to determine whether the torpedoes or the cruiser gun fire hit first. Each of us had recorded an event or so that the other one had not remembered. Our estimates of time elapsed were different from each other and we both thought we were firing much longer than could have been possible. Battle reports are important and they should be accurate . We knew that and the quarrel we had in trying to determine what actually had happened was serious. We got a little bit additiona l help from the quartermaster's log, the communications records, the engine room logs and other similar data but we were all new to battle and those records were very sketchy and unreliable. The adrenaline had Oowed copiously in our first battle and not a one of us had taken reliable notes. We had not trained ourselves to take notes and we had not attached enough importance to keeping an accurate record. lfwe had lost the fight, of course, the records would have been of absolutely no importance for they would have gone down with the ship. But it was not our aim to lose battles and so after I had gotten over my indignation at Jack for not remembering events the same way I had, I assigned my yeoman the duty of writing down every thing that happened with the time it happened. We practiced at all of our drills. He was to make an entry every 30 seconds just to make sure nothing was overlooked. After a few days of drill we
The hustle and urgency ofthe night allack is caught by the late Anton 0110 Fischer, in a painting that hangs today over Admiral Burke's mantel, as Arleigh and his boys of the " Little Beaver" Squadron ride their destroyers into action.
''But it was not our aim to lose battles. . . ''
From command of DesDiv 43 aboard the Waller, Burke went on to become Commodore of Destroyer Squadron 23, wh ich soon became famous as the "Little Beavers. " These boats led the way in turning the tables on the Japanese who had been winning scarifying victories against the US Navy in night actions particularly. Above left, Here a Navy combat artist has caught him coming topside as his ship goes to general quarters in action in the Solomons. Official US Navy photo. At right, Earl and Lady Mountbatten (at left) turn out to greet Arleigh and Bobbie as they make a ceremonial world tour of friendly nations in 1957.
both thought we had that problem whipped and in the next battle we would have the most accurate battle report that had ever been prepared . It was a week or so after the first battle that we got into another scrap. We most frequently had night battles and in a darkened ship with a red bulbed flashlight for the only light to see to write notes, it was not the easiest job in the world that the yeoman had. Still I felt certain we would have most of the events properly recorded, partially because this battle would not be something brand new. We would know what it was like this time and would not be quite so keyed up. Well, right in the middle of the shooting, I saw the notebook of the poor distressed yeoman get blown out of his hands by the blast from the forward guns and go over the side. Again we had to piece the events together by memory with hope we did not omit something and that we had approximately the right sequence anyway. That system was the only system we could think of. These were the days before tape recorders were invented. Wire recorders were on board but they were fixed installations, not hand carried. The yeoman put a lanyard on his notebook and lashed the other end to his belt or around his waist, so that no matter what happened his notebook could not be blown away from him in the next fracas . I think that the next time we fought it was raining hard and you can't make notes with a pencil on wet paper, no matter how hard you tried. Still he got some notes which encouraged him a little. Very little. We did fairly well in a couple of small engagements and were becoming used to night fights and thought of ourselves as old veterans who no longer got too excited to think in battle. In his battle report the commander should explain why he did the things he did if the reasons therefor were not obvious. So I asked the SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
yeoman to ask me for the reasons why I gave an order if he did not see why I was giving that order. Then came the battle of Cape St. George which lasted for several hours and ended up with us too close to enemy airfields at dawn. The enemy air did not hit us at dawn as we expected and since everything had gone very well indeed in that night battle I felt pretty jubilant when we were well clear and heading south at maximum speed and I thought it was a good time to look over the yeoman's notes. Right early in his book I read, "0203 signal turn 4, execute." "Commodore-why?" "Because I want to." The real reason would have taken too long to form an answer and say it but it should have been-"To avoid torpedoes the enemy might have fired." If that had been the only entry that didn't make good sense, it would not have been too bad, but it wasn't. Those handwritten notes never weathered the trouble it would have been to preserve them after the final report was written up. In addition, I was more than a little bit embarrassed by my poor explanations arrd perhaps that was another reason they were discarded. Lack of space is still a problem and I give a great deal of stuff the deep six now because it is not worth the space it takes up . But my efforts at trying to have some accurate records kept in battle did do one important thing for me-it causes me to have serious doubts as to the accuracy of the very precise battle records with full explanations that I read in the accounts of some historians . Maybe that is enough good in itself.
Admiral Burke's career has been recounted in a pretty good biography, Admiral Arleigh (31-Knot) Burke; The Story of a Fighting Sailor, by Ken Jones and Hubert Kelley, Jr., Chilton Books, Philadelphia & New York, 1962. 7
On April 23, 1838. the woode n-hulled paddle ste amer SIRIUS arrived at New York . responsi ble for s tartin g th e first North Atlantic steamship service. heraldin g a new era.
On April 25, 1981, we, the men and women comprising the SIRIUS crew of today, moved across the East River and settled into our own and permanent berth alongside this historic shore. Please note our new address and communications numbers below. - - - - - - --1
I
I
SIRIUS HOUSE - 76 Montague Stree1 Brooklyn He ights. New York 11 201 Teleph on e: (2 12) 330-1800
Capt. Wolf Spille, President
212-330-1810 212-330-1808 212-330-1812 212-330-1806
DRY CARGO DEPARTMENT: James A. Bergonzi, V.P. Mark G. Wade
212-330-1843 212-330-1845
OPERATIONS AND RESEARCH : Capt. George Giouzepis, V.P . Phil Romano
Cable: .. SIRIUS NEW YORK" lnt'I Te lex: TAT 177881 / ITI 422871 / RCA 225 111 Domestic Telex : WU 126758 / 645934 / TWX 710 -584-2207
Janet Forti
I
212-330-1817
TANKER DEPARTMENT: Theo Theocharides, V.P. Chris LeSauvage Ed Willis Hugh Bellas-Simpson
l I I
I !
212-330-1830 212-330-1834 212-330-1833
FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION : 212-330-1835 Jose Fiorenzano, V.P.
I
Martha's Vineyard Shipyard USS ARIZONA AT SEA-1941
(Since 1861)
18" x 24" signed and serialized sepia prints.
Gasoline • Diesel Fuel • Ice • CNG & Propane • Marine Hardware• U.S. Chart Agency • Dyer Dinghies• International Paints • Complete Marine Supplies We monitor VHF channels 9 & 16
LIMITED EDITION By John Charles Roach, the painter of the portrait of the USS ARIZONA that is the centerpiece of the Visitors Center of the Memorial at Pearl Harbor.
$10 By First Class mail
JEPCO Box 205-H Sperryville, VA 22740
8
A full service yard specializing in sailboats and auxilliaries. New boat construction in both wood and fiberglass. Complete hull and engine repairs. Rigging work of all kinds including swaging and rope-to-wire splices. 16 ton mobile lift. Over 112 acre of inside storage completely sprinkler protected . Builders of the 291 Vineyard Vixen and the Vixen 34, cruising auxilliaries built with traditional detail and craftsmanship.
Beach Road, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568 Telephone 617-693-0400 SEA HI STO RY, WINTER 1982/ 83
The Quest for the Truth of the Wavertree by Norman Brouwer Curator of Ships, South Street Seaport Museum
It was a brave act for Jakob /sbrandtsen and the trustees of the newly formed South Street Seaport Museum to take on the Cape Horn sailing ship Wavertree in 1968. But from the first the Museum had been dedicated to "real ships, with a real story to tel/;" And fired by this idea, staff and volunteers set to work with missionary zeal to get real artifacts and real records of the ship's passage through history. This quest for the truth of the ship and her sailing has been led and directed by National Society trustee Norman Brouwer, who here retraces some of the trail. It's a trail of many false leads-old ships seem to stir up fantasies in their wakes-but also one leading to the very real joys of real discovery. -ED In the late 1960s, when the South Street Seaport Museum in New York was in its first years, I lived in Washington DC and attended the George Washington University. In my spare time I did volunteer work for the National Maritime Historical Society, then headquartered in Washington, and I wrote on sailing ship news for the Journal of the Nautical Research Guild, including, in 1968, a list of square-rigged vessels existing around the world. One result of that was that I heard from the South Street Museum Program Director, Alan Frazer, of the Museum's acquisition of two historic square riggers-the wooden packet ship Charles Cooper of 1856, lying in the Falkland Islands, and the big iron square rigger Wavertree of 1885, in Buenos Aires. Graduating in June 1969, I decided not to go into the State Department, for which I had trained. Instead I took the opportunity to go back to sea, as mate of the Arctic research vessel Hero, based in Punta Arenas on the Straits of Magellan. Alan wrote me there asking if I would do some scouting for photographs or other evidences of the Wavertree's stay, when she had Jain off the town at anchor as a storage hulk, from 1911 to 1948. He was particularly interested in finding the ship's figurehead, apparently removed in this period. My first contact was the manager of the local paper, Oswaldo Wegmann. He had already provided Norma and Peter Stanford, then on the Museum staff, with a distant photo of the ship lying off the town, during their visit the year before. Senor Wegmann put me in touch with the local Cape Horn Club, who invited the Hero's captain and myself to one of their dinner meetings. The members were prominent Punta Arenas businessmen. Many remembered the ship, but none could provide any photos of her, and all agreed that there were no figureheads surviving locally. I also checked the local dealer in antiques and curios, named Fernandez. He had some fittings from unknown vessels in a yard behind his shop. He supplied me with three more photos of the harbor, each showing Wavertree in the distant background, and told me he had stripped the ship of her fittings before she was towed away to Argentina-but he could not identify these from among gear from other ships in his yard . He said he had removed the ship's figurehead, crated it, and shipped it to Pablo Neruda the poet (later a Nobel prize recipient), who had a considerable figurehead collection; but he said Neruda told him it was never received. Fernandez also claimed he had for a while owned a spyglass found in a sealed-up storeroom on the ship-and the storeroom had also contained a skeleton, purportedly that of a captain's wife murdered by her husband!* Coming back from our last Antarctic voyage in 1970, I learned from our Straits pilot of a second figurehead collection in Chile, *There was no murdered wife-but was there a shipment to Neruda? We don't know. ... -ED.
belonging to Martin Skalweit, a shipowner in Valdivia. In June Susie and I left Punta Arenas on a two-month trip north through South and Central America. In Valdivia, a quiet little city which had ceased to be important as a seaport, we learned that the old firm of Haverbeck & Skalweit had gone out of the shipowning business after losing three ships in the great Corral tidal wave of 1960, and Martin Skalweit was in Santiago. But when we reached that city, we could not raise him, nor could we reach Pablo Neruda, who was out of the country serving as ambassador to France. Two years passed before I again became involved in Wavertree research. I joined the South Street Seaport Museum staff on September 1, 1972 as Ship Historian, having in the meantime studied museology at Cooperstown, New York. In the four years since Wavertree was acquired a large body of material on the ship had been assembled, thanks to many hands: Karl Kortum of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, Andrew J. Nesdall of Massachusetts and Robert Weinstein of Los Angeles (who had grown up together scavenging old wrecks in New York harbor); Robert G. Herbert, Jr., of Long Island and the marine artist Oswald Brett also of Long Island, who had come to this country from Australia and involved his compatriot Alan Villiers in the Wavertree project; George Campbell of the American Museum of Natural History, who had designed the Cutty Sark restoration in England and simply walked in South Street's door one day to volunteer his considerable services; John Smith, keeper of a small Falkland Islands museum, and his predecessor Karl Lellman; Gordon Chapman, Cyril Hume and A.D. Edwardes of Australia; E.W. Paget-Tomlinson and Michael Stammers of Liverpool; square rig veterans Captain Archie Horka of New Jersey and Captain Fred Klebingat of Oregon, and Gustav Alexandersson in Sweden. The long-sought figurehead (detail enlarged) from a ship's portrait taken in San Francisco in the 1890s. Courtesy Nat'/ Maritime Museum, SF.
''A second person who had sailed in the ship simply
The ship's original bell, recovered from Sweden.
The Museum had published a book on the ship, The Wavertree: A n Ocean Wanderer, which made use of all that had been learned from this wide circle of friends and which included an invaluable manuscript narrative of a Cape Horn passage in the ship by A.G. Spiers of Australia, who sailed in her in 1907-8. (Captain Klebingat had cast his net across the Pacific seafaring world he knew so well to get this; he caught the noted collector A.D. Edwardes, who knew Captain Spiers.-Eo.) A second person who had sailed in the ship simply turned up on the Museum piers one day, Captain James Roberts, then living at Sailor's Snug Harbor in Staten Island, who had sailed in her as a 15-year old deckboy in 1897-8 (see SH21:13). As one of my first projects I resumed the quest for photos, writing to all the maritime museums in the world. We turned up photos of Wavertree's sisterships Bactria and Fulwood, and then, a real prize, a photo of our ship herself laid up in Antwerp, unearthed from the files of the National Maritime Museum of Belgium. We also scavenged constantly for authentic artifacts, and around this time Geo. Matteson and 1 rounded up a crew to salvage the last capstan from the hulk of the five-masted barkentine City of Beaumont, to serve as the poop capstan for the Wavertree. An important group of artifacts came from the hulk of the Riversdale of 1892, last ship built for Leyland Brothers in the Oswald Mordaunt series. In a remarkable operation engineered by Norma Stanford, working with the Wavertree's volunteer captain, Joe Farr, the forecastle windlass, anchor davit, boat davits and various other pieces of deck gear were recovered from the hulk on Vancouver Island refurbished in a yard managed by Joe's brother Arthur, shipped from the West Coast and delivered aboard the Wavertree in New York-all free of charge, and necessarily so, since at this point there was no acquisition budget for the ship . Later, Geo. Matteson took the Museum's iron schooner Pioneer (a vessel launched in Wavertree's year 1885) south to the Chesapeake and brought back from Baltimore a number of iron deck beams salvaged from the Conemaugh, an oil barge originally built as the British iron ship Lornty in 1879. I had learned of her existence years before from a book by Robert Burgess, distinguished curator of the Mariner's Museum at Newport News. Still later, in 1974 Stephen Hopkins joined the Museum staff as Ship's Clerk for the Wavertree and immediately set to work with Richard Fewtrell , then director of the restoration, to secure the return from the Falkland Islands of the ship 's 10
cutter left behind when she towed out of Stanley in the spring of 1911. This was finally arranged through sending down a new boat, and the Wavertree now has her old boat back, after more than half a century's absence. In late 1972 I became involved in editing a booklet for the Museum, the antiquarian Karl Wede's The Ship's Bell, Its History and Romance. Karl showed up one day and apologetically asked if it was still possible to include some new material from the Maritime Museum in Gotlienburg. I looked over the names on this latest round of bells and was stopped by one: "SOUTHGATE 1886." Here was Wavertree's original name and the year of her commissioning! But what was her bell doing in Sweden? The Gothenburg Museum wrote to tell us it had been acquired by a Swedish sea captain in Buenos Aires some years ago . Immediate efforts were launched to recover the bell, and in 1976 it was duly conveyed back to the ship by a Swedish Navy honor guard. In December 1972 we heard from Dr. T.C. Masson , of Wingham, England. He had come on a picture of a sailing ship on a Christmas card. Turning the card over he found it was John Stobart's portrait of the Wavertree! He had last seen her when his father, Captain Masson, laid her up at Ellesmere Port in 1908, and had assumed she'd been broken up long ago. But Stobart of course had painted the ship to help the cause and he had noted on the card that she was preserved at New York . Dr. Masson gave us valuable information about his father, captain in the Wavertree 1906-08, and some description of saloon fittings including a stand of muskets and cutlasses (which must have made some impression on a small boy) and a piano lashed down with white rope . George Campbell's son Roger visited Dr. Masson in England and sent back photos of several Wavertree items preserved in Dr. Masso n's house . Then in August 1973 I flew to England for a two-week visit. I found Dr . Masson living in a beautiful medieval stone cottage with flower gardens running back to the site of a Roman seaport now meadowland. Photos of his father' s ships decorated the parlor. Teak fire buckets from the Wavertree served as wastebaskets. A smaller "grease tub" of similar construction held odds and ends on a writing desk. Dr. Masson was quite happy to donate several Wavertree items to the Museum , and I left Wingham with the ship's coffee pot, engraved Southgate, a disassembled fire bucket, the parallel rules Captain Masson had used in the ship, silverware from her sistership Fulwood and nearsister Halewood, and the Captain's recommendations from R. W . Leyland & Co., the ship's owners ..
The ship's original coffee pot, which had traveled with her down the years of her sailing life till 1908, ended up with the son of her nextto-last captain, who donated it back to the ship when he heard she still existed.
SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/83
turned up on the Museum piers one day ... " I next visited Southampton, where the Wavertree was launched in 1885 . Oswald Mordaunt's yard was in Woolston, across the ltchen River, and its site was reached by a chain ferry which, aside from conversion from steam to diesel power, had not changed in over JOO years (since I 973 this has been replaced by a bridge) . The yard was now Vosper-Thorneycroft, building high-speed gunboats for the Brazilian Navy. Their records and photos had recently been boxed up and shipped to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. Outside the shipyard gates was a street that had probably changed little since Wavertree's launching. A Victorian pub stood next door to serve the shipwrights, and down the block were the modest brick row houses in which they lived . The local history files of the Southampton City Library yielded a newspaper account of the recollections of a man who had worked in the Oswald Mordaunt yard during the period of Waverlree's construction, and a brief history of the yard with an incomplete list of ships built there. I went on to Brixham, where Captain Adrian Small had found a model of the Wavertree in the nearby town ofTeignmouth. It was a crude seaman's model by a man, no longer living, who had sailed in her. I examined a half model of the Bactria in Liverpool, and recorded its measurements, and dug out more photos of Oswald Mordaunt ships at the National Maritime Museum. The Museum expected to take a decade or more to index the Vosper-Thorneycroft collection, which might or might not include valuable items on the predecessor yard. A trip to the West Coast in the summer of 1975 yielded more photos of Oswald Mordaunt ships from the invaluable files of the San Francisco Maritime Museum (now National Maritime Museum, SF), an excellent painting of the near-sistership Leyland Brothers at the Columbia River Maritime Museum at Astoria, Oregon, and a lead from the marine historian Harold Huycke in Seattle on two men who had sailed in the near-sister Milverton, who were still living in British Columbia. One of them turned out to have a crew picture taken aboard the ship . This success prompted me to do some more checking on the Milverton in Finland, where she had been owned until the mid-1920s. The sailing ship historian Lars Gronstrand found two veterans of the ship, both of whom had taken snapshots on board: the result was 29 additional views aboard a ship very close to the Waver/reef While these efforts were afoot in 1975, the British shipwright H(lton Matthews, whom Peter Stanford had interviewed in EngIa11d and hired to work on the ship, had returned to England and there turned up a photograph of the Oswald Mordaunt shipyard in ¡wavertree's period, a photo showing two big sailing ships on th~ ways, one in frame and one fully plated. Dr. Masson had told us of a brother living in Edinburgh, Scotland, W.J.L. Masson. Stephen Canright, who was designing an exhibit on the ship, and I corresponded with him and eventually two photos were forwarded to us: one, our first interior shot of Waverlree, showed Captain and Mrs. Masson and the two boys in the saloon; the second showed Captain Masson and T .C. standing beside the wheelbox. In I 976 the Museum heard from a retired barik employee living in Punta Arenas, named Rafael Cabrera. He has seen Oswaldo Wegmann 's copy of the Wavertree book and wanted one for himself. In the late I 920s he had belonged to a rowing club which made frequent visits to the ship-and he had snapshots taken on board on one such visit in I 929. One, showing club members pretending to dance the Chilean "cueca" on the foredeck, was our first closeup view of this part of the ship . In 1977 I flew to the British Isles again, landing at Prestwick, Scotland. I went straight to Edinburgh to see W .J .L. Masson and phtotgraph what he had from the ship, and then on to Anstruther, Scotland which had been mentioned as the family's summer home, and the home of some of Wavertree'screw members. I inquired around, but found nothing relating to the ship. After SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
The Cabrera photos of his rowing club friends on theforecastle head gave invaluable new detail on how things were rigged on this ship-as distinct from "a typical ship of the period. "
Rafael Cabrera (second from right, kneeling) in 1929 provides a stirring contrast, with his rowing club pals, to Captain Masson and his son the future Dr. Masson, aboard the ship as she's laid up in Ellesmere Port 21 years earlier.
visiting museums in northern France and Holland , and revisiting the National Maritime Museum and Liverpool, I caught the ferry to Belfast, northern Ireland, where we had heard rumors of a Wavertree half model. At Tedford's Ship Chandlery I found three fine half models, one of a bark owned by the firm, and two recently bought by a member-one of these being labeled Toxteth, a big Leyland Bros. full rigger, the other a full rigger labeled Wavertree. The Wavertree model did not match our photos, and her hull no. given on a brass plate was that of the later Leyland II
Brothers. But deck layout did not match what we knew of her! The model remains a mystery, not the first and not the last of our quest. Whenever people from Chile visited the Museum they were cornered by Ship's Clerk Steve Hopkins or myself and enlisted in the hunt for Wavertree's figurehead. One such contact led to a marine historian in Santiago named Ariel Sandoval Hernandez. Sr. Sandoval could not get in to see the Neruda collection, which had been impounded following the poet's death. He did come up with an illustrated book which proved an accurate guide, and a rumor that another collector had a few figureheads from hulks at Punta Arenas. This was a Sr. Ilic, living at Point Dungeness at the east end of the Straits of Magellan. Early in 1978 I flew to Argentina, en route to the Falklands to record the remains of American-built ships (see "Historic Ships in South American Waters," SH 13). During a two-week wait for transport to the islands, Hilton Matthews and I made a side trip to the Straits. In Punta Arenas we found no record of Sr. Ilic. Mateo Martinich, director of a growing historic archive and outdoor museum called the lnstituto de la Patagonia, which had not existed in 1970, was sure no one lived in Dungeness on the Chilean
12,000 sq. ft. new Duradon sails for iron bark Elissa, Galveston Historical Foundation, Galveston, TX
NATHANIEL S. \YIJ_,SON SAIJ_,i\fAIO~U ---. Box 71, Lincoln Street, East Boothbay, Maine 04544 (207) 633-5071
"Dirty work, long hours, no pay."
The volunteer Wavertree Gang is working to restore the iron Cape Horner of 1885 at the South Street Seaport Museum The Ship Needs: Pattern Makers • Carpenters Canvas Hand Sewers Tinsmiths • Machinists as well as Gifts in Kind for the Work in Progress
If you can help the ship in any of these areas, please contact:
FRIENDS OF THEWAVERTREE c/o SHIP TRUST, NMHS 15StateStreet, New York NY 10004 • (212)858-1348
12
" ... we almost literally stumbled upon the glass plate negatives from which these photographs had been made!" side apart from lighthouse keepers. But we rented a car and made the 200-mile trip over loose gravel roads, finding no trace of Sr. Ilic but revisiting the remains of the British tea clipper Ambassador of 1869 and visiting the wreck of the American steamboat Olympian of 1883. Back in Punta Arenas we were invited to dinner by Senor Cabrera of the Rowing Club. The evening ended with an accordian concert by Cabrera's son, who introduced us to the cueca, and showed us snapshots of a cruise in the oil prospecting cutter Rayo, a small sloop-rigged vessel I had often admired in 1970. Cabrera's cruise had included playing the accordian while rounding Cape Horn! The vessel had subsequently been wrecked in a gale at Punta Arenas. Visiting the Cabreras we also secured the originals of Rafael's photographs to copy; the copies he'd sent had vital elements cropped out by the photo lab. And we improved our holdings in photographs of the Wavertree dismasted in the Falklands, when we moved on to the islands. The Wavertree's friends had produced three photographs of the dismasted ship at anchor in fort Stanley-the first from Karl Lellman, who had moved to New Zealand, the next two from his successor as volunteer Falklands historian, John Smith, each picture turning up separately, years apart. When we went to the islands in 1978 we heard rumors of more photos held by a Madge Biggs-who had not been enthusiastic about showing them to John Smith. Hilton Matthews boldly marched in to visit Mrs. Biggs and found she did indeed have a fourth picture of the Wavertree dismasted, our first view looking forward on deck. Still later, on a visit in January 1981 to conduct emergency repairs to the Charles Cooper hulk in Stanley, we almost literally stumbled upon the original glass plate negatives from which these photographs had been made! (See SH20:26-7.) This discovery gave us razor-sharp images to study for our restoration work on the ship. One of the students in the photography class Peter Throckmorton set up on the 1978 visit found glass plates obstructing his parking of his bike in a garage. Probably they were in storage for eventual use in a greenhouse. But they were the original plates made when the ship lay dismasted but unbowed, rolling at anchor under leaden skies in Stanley after the frightful beating she'd received off Cape Horn sixty years before. '1i SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/83
The Wavertree being hailed by the tugboat McAllister Brothers in the approaches to New York, January 1895 . Painting by Os Brett, courtesy Norman Kjeldsen, Esq.
Bear a Hand for the Ship! The records don't show whether our tugs handled the Wavertree when she arrived at New York under sail in 1895, but we had been in business in the harbor for over a generation at that time. Since then our business has become worldwide. And we know that our industry, the shipping industry, has a role of deep importance to play in keeping alive the proud traditions, the spirit of loyalty, cooperation and enterprise-the things that are needed to conceive great voyages, and to make them. The Wavertree and her sisters, in their day, were our particular responsibility. We towed arriving vessels into the harbor, and outward-bounders to sea. The noble Wavertree, a unique and priceless relic, eloquently conveys to a new generation the maritime skills and nautical knowledge which helped fashion our great portcity from the sea. To enable her to conserve these great maritime traditions which she embodies, the Wavertree is in need of continuing assistance and support. ·We are proud to help in the restoration of the ship at New York's South Street Seaport Museum. Won't you also help with a donation at this critical moment in her long history?
NOTE: Those who contribute $100 or more to the Ship Trust to support the restoration of the Wavertree will receive a fine limited edition print (image 22 "x32 Y2 ')of Os Brett's painting of the Wavertree off Cape Horn (left) signed and numbered by the artist. Please send your check, name and address to SHIP TRUST, c/ o National Maritime Historical Society, 15 State Street, New York, NY 10004.
tation , 17 Battery Place, York, 10004, McAllister Brothers, Inc. New Towing andN.Y. Transpor(212) 269-3200. •Baltimore (301) 547-8678 • Norfolk (804) 627-3651 Philadelphia (215) 922-6200 San Juan (809) 721-8888
McA11·1ster
"The reality is better than the dream. "
Elissa Sails The very first time I saw Elissa, after all these years-21 years since our Curatorat-Large Peter Throckmorton spotted her in the Aegean, 14 years since I became involved connecting Throck up with Karl Kortum in San Francisco-it was like a scene snatched out of the running film of a dream . A vivid dream, a thing of hyper color, super reality: the startling crispness of the masts and yards, so utterly different from any structure for thousands of miles in any direction , stark, functional, ineffably aspiring against a deep-blue Texas sky; the bright bold blue of the intricately carved trail boards sweeping back from the white figurehead, a cleancut thing of restrained, one might almost say chaste sexuality, carved for the ship by Eli Kuslansky, formerly of South Street in New York~ And once aboard, the mounded heaps of manila running rigging hanging from the pins; the extreme order and
Above, Eli Kuslansky 'sfigurehead graces the bow, and, below, is admired by people on the martingale stays of the bark as shesetsforth under sail into a world much changed from that she sailed in on her last departure f rom Galveston in 1886. Photo, Galveston Historical Foundation.
look of belonging there of things about the decks ("That looks," said a foundation executive pointing to some bit of gear, "as if it had been there forever," and he was right!); the "jump to it" alacrity with which the crew responded to orders long rehearsed against the day that Carl Bowman , of the Star of India in San Diego, and veteran commander of the US Coast Guard bark Eagle, came aboard to take the ship to sea. Any casting off and putting forth from a pier has a sense of occasion about it; but what an occasion this was! There had never been a ship save like Elissa. The dream was to snatch a motorship (actually born as a delicate-lined bark in Alexander Hall' s yard in 1877) back from the literal brink of destruction, from where she sat only yards away from a beach near Piraeus where condemned ships were run ashore to be flensed like stranded whales and carted away in pieces to be melted down-to take that ship and restore her strongly curving stem and make good her wasted iron plating, tow her across the Atlantic, refit her with masts, yards and the miles of rigging needed to spread her washing-to train a crew, gather bucko mates and a seasoned skipper. .. and sail her. What a dream! Joseph Conrad (called by one of his friends a sea dreamer) said once: ''The reality is better than the dream.'' And so it is, for it is true, hard, demanding, and can be unspeakably satisfying . So it was to sail aboard the Elissa restored. Rejoice in these images from that sailing, and read on in the words of the ship-restorer who saw her through from a visionary dream in Piraeus to a reality in Galveston. And rejoice that confused, starving, dying man, running amok around half the world and threatening to do worse, could conceive such a ship, build and sail her, and now restore her. There is something godlike in that, and something reassuring. Joseph Conrad had another thing to say which Walter Rybka borrowed for this ship: "It is good to be in a world in which she has her being." PS *Other former South Street Seaport Museum emp loyees aboard besides myself, were Restoration Director Walter Rybka, Project Director David Brink, rigger Richard Fewtrell, exhibits maker David Canright, and master carver Michael Creamer, who also connected up the ship with Galveston and directed the first stages of the restoration, and rigger Jack Elliott from South Street's big bark Peking-in all, including Stephen Canright who like Kuslansky had worked on the ship but was not aboard, we counted nine South Street graduates involved.
14
SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
Top Left, hands lay aloft on the mainmast to make sail-including among the hands a young woman at boll om. She is bound for the highest yard, the royal, where she appears next, inching out along the bouncey foot rope to cast offgaskets-and as gaskets are lei go, the sailsf/op down to hang loose " in the gear" (the restraining clewlinesand bun tines 1ha1 hoist them up to the yards), and then on command are sheeted home! So, above, Elissa again spreads canvas to the restless winds thal drove her round the world for so many years. The complex pattern of canvas and cordage, evolved through millenia of usage and custom is evocative to anyone who follows the story of sailing ships, but also intensely functional! Here the vessel is hard on the wind, yards canted round asfaras they will go and theforetack bowsed down on the fo recastle head to make a hard leading edge. In a way, the complexity of the rig is explained by the fact that !he sailing ship is an engine whose turbine blades are exposed to the open air-she trea/s the whole sky as herengine block which perhaps explains her aspiring look. Photos, Norman Brouwer.
15
HARTFORD, A View of the State House from the Connecticut River Waterfront, 1876.
SEA HISTORY PRINTSduring BY JOHN STOBART the heyday of the merchant sailing ship.
A collection of important harbor and river views BOSTON, Clipper Lightning 1854; GEORGETOWN, Potomac Wharf 1842; NEW YORK, Packet Orpheus, East River 1835; NANTUCKET, Sailing Day 1841. Published as signed, limited edition collector's prints, prices are $300 signed. Other prints are
also available. All prices are subject to change by availability and the dictates of the collector's market. Through the generosity of the artist, half the cost of each print will go to benefit the work of the NMHS, and is therefore tax-deductible.
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY 2 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 Tel: 212-858-1348
INSURANCE BROKERS, CONSULTANTS AND ADJUSTERS OF AVERAGE
Seahawk International New York 212-962-0144
&
Savannah 912-234-0478
Seahawk 16
SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
...,..,-
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 â&#x20AC;˘ 212 448-3900
SEA HISTORY PRINTS Presents a set of four Hudson Steamboat Prints by the noted marine artist WILLIAM G . MULLER
The Syracu 'e of 185 7
PICTURE HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND PASSENGER VESSELS By W. Bartlett Cram
An illustrated review of the vessels which sailed from 1850 to 1945 in the area bounded by Passamaquoddy Bay to the east and Block Island to the west. Featuring 366 different ships, each one on a page with photograph, history and statistics. Many rare photographs. Twenty-seven chapters including: Eastern and Predecessor Companies, Maine Central Railroad Fleet, Swan's Island and Vinalhaven Fleet, Passamaquoddy Vessels, Mt. Desert Island and Penobscot River Vessels, Kennebec and
Boothbay Vessels, Casco Bay Vessels, North of Boston Vessels, Local Boston Vessels, Nantasket and Plymouth Fleet, South of Boston Vessels, Plant Line Fleet, Merchant and Miners Fleet, Savannah Line Fleet, Boston United Fruit Fleet, Canadian National " Lady Ships," Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard Vessels, Cuttyhunk Vessels, Narragansett and Mount Hope Bay Vessels, and Block Island Vessels. Hardcover, 8 1/z'' x 11 ", 424 pages. $35 plus $2 postage, and $1. 75 tax for Maine deliveries.
Send check or money order to Bumtcoat Corporation , Dept. S.H., Box 350, Hampden, Maine 04444
SEA HISTORY, WINTE R 1982/ 83
Finel y print ed on canvas-grained paper, these full co lor print s capture th e elegan ce and romance of a vani shed era . Image size 8" x 12 ".
Set of four $20 To : National Maritime Historical Society, 2 Fulton St., Brooklyn NY 11201. Please send me sets(s) of four Hudson Steamboat Prints . My check for$ is enclosed . NA ME -
- - - - - - - - --
-
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Z IP
17
Elissa Sails
''The Ship Is Now Real and Beautiful'' A report on what transpired between the return of the bark Elissa to Galveston as a hulk in July 1979, and her sailing out rigged through to the royals in September 1982 by Walter P. Rybka Restoration Director
Mr. Rybka has reported in an earlier Sea History the first stage in the restoration of the Elissa, Alexander Hall's delicate-lined bark of 1877-the two-year effort beginning July 1977 in Piraeus harbor (SH 15: 16-21). Preceding that, there had been the Long, always-threatened struggle to save the ship, since she had been spotted in the Mediterranean in 1961 by Peter Throckmorton. The welcome to Galveston in 1979 was quite an occasion, and all who followed the Elissa!elt the tide had at last turned for her. She had been granted $500,000 from the Maritime Heritage Fund, a grant partly matched by $250,000 from the Moody Foundation of Galveston, and was in striking distance of the $1 million estimated cost of completing the restoration. But... the Federal grant was to be paid as 50 percent of cash actually Laid out, the Moody grant was initially made dependent upon achieving the whole budget. "None of the money was immediately accessible," Rybka noted, "and the ship was roughly $300,000 in debt from Loans taken out to get her back from Greece. " The Lenders, he notes, were "understandably tense. "
None of the work done in Greece was very visible and the ship still looked like an old rust bucket. The general opinion was that the donors had been severely taken advantage of and made to look foolish . There was no one to work on large scale fundraising. The Historical Foundation staff was stretched thin to cover ongoing building restorations and the Elissa committee members were volunteers with little experience in fundraising. The ship staff consisted solely of myself and I was swamped between arranging for berthing (another strange epic), researching the ship's appearance, writing specs for further steel renewals, and obtaining bids for the work. When the bids came back it was obvious that our budget had again been underestimated. It took several months for the full extent of the disaster to be appreciated. Much more was at stake than the ship. By th e end of I 979 the Galveston Historical Foundation, with -a very small dedicated staff under the leadership of Peter Brink, had been working for nearly a decade saving one building after another . The Strand, formerly the commercial center, was being revitalized. Ashton
Villa, a pre-Civil War mansion, had been restored and opened as a museum. The Hendley building was being restored as a permanent home for the Foundation. Slow, steady, hard work had added up over the years to an impressive string of solid successes. The idea ofrestoring a ship was complementary, but not essential, to the Foundation's overall goals. Yet the Elissa project had created a monster which was now about to devour the parent organization with indebtedness and lost credibility. Someone was desperately needed to work full time on the money problem. The Historical Foundation in all its projects and particularly with the Elissa, had always relied very heavily on volunteer support. The idea of hiring someone to concentrate on fundraising represented a fundamental change in policy and was accepted only with difficulty, but accepted it was. The person who fit our needs and was available was David Brink, formerly Director of the Pioneer Marine School and Waterfront Director at South Street Seaport Museum . Through the winter of 1979-80 David made several trips to
The noble Alexander Hall bow of 1877 is reborn in a Perama shipyard; and at right, the ship lies at Gibraltar through the winter of 1978-9, awaiting tow to Galveston. Photos Doug Manger, Michael Creamer.
18
SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/8 3
Don Birkholz, Jr., second from left in while hat, inspects work with Todd 's foreman, also in white hat. Society member Birkholz was a volunteer who lasted through the 18-month "Greek Campaign, " subsequently laking charge of steelwork on the ship.
Galveston as a consultant to evaluate the project. He promptly decided he needed help and called in Michael Cochrane, a former business associate with a background in production planning. The honest assessment was that the project was already dead and should be written off. Peter Brink and the board of the Historical Foundation replied that this was not an acceptable option, they were too far along and the only solution was to keep on going until they reached the other side . In April of 1980 David agreed to come on full time as overall Project Director, to redefine and reorganize the project. The first step was to reevaluate the original goal of having Elissa be a fully operational, ocean-going sail training ship as well as a museum. This idea had been predicated on coming home from Greece in a Lloyd's classed motor vessel. It was also understood that something would have to be done about compliance with United States Coast Guard regulations. The process of working with the Coast Guard to write new regulations or reinterpret existing ones would in all likelihood take years with no assurance of approval in the end . Furthermore the cost of rebuilding the ship as an auxiliary with water-tight subdivision would push the budget beyond realistic limits. Thirdly, it was beyond the purview of the Historical Foundation to attempt to run a shipping company and get into the sail training business. At the same time the goal of sailing the ship could not be entirely dropped. Nearly a million dollars had been spent in getting the ship from Greece and three quarters of a million more had been raised on the promise that this ship would sail. The entire sweat equity in the ship was for a vessel that sailed, not a stationary museum, and a lot more sweat was going to be needed. The decision was made to restore Elissa as authentically as possible to her original condition for the purpose of being a museum and with the capability of being sailed on a limited basis, meaning day sails for which the Star of India had set a precedent. This appeared to be attainable and supportable . The second step was to come up with a new budget, and this was the last chance so it had to be good. I had once written to John Yuncken, the manager of the Polly Woodside restoration in Australia, for advice in estimating and he told me to ''figure the most you possibly think it can cost with everything going wrong, multiply by four, and at once begin preparing your excuses to your committee." Too high a number would scare away support and too low a figure would be fatal to credibility if we fell short again. The pressure for an answer SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
was immediate and intense so the only option was to sit down with Brink and Cochrane and in two weeks of round-theclock work try again to estimate everything needed and all the cintingencies. We thought that we might just squeeze the ship in under $2,000,000 in additional funds if nothing went wrong. Since a lot always does, a half-million was thrown on top for a contingency fund .
"Now, $1 million later, the ship looked terrible .... " The expenses to date had totalled nearly one million (including the $250,000 Moody Grant which they had permitted to be spent on immediate operations). The $500,000 Federal Grant was unspent. Therefore the total project cost would be $3 .5 million; $I million spent which included the indebtedness, $2.5 to be spent which included debt retirement, of which $.5 had been raised . In this light the project looked nearly half finished and credit could be claimed for the good work done so far. (Eventually the cost of building a berth for the ship, producing a film, and cost overruns on the construction pushed the total up to about $4 million but these developments occurred later.) We now had what looked like an attainable goal and a credible budget. The third step was to come up with a workable plan. The most vital parameter was time and the dominant considerations were political. The project had been ongoing for six years. The first option money had been put down in 1974, at which time it was hoped to sail back during the bicentennial for somewhere around $250,000. Now, $1,000,000 later, the ship had been in Galveston for nearly a year with no additional work done, looked terrible, and was still not open to the public. Most of the initial supporters were disillusioned, exhausted, or both . If the project was going to be salvaged, some highly visible progress was needed soon, and the completion targeted within a time frame acceptable to supporters. A one year plan was out of the question. With no staff, facilities, or even plans of the ship, a mock Hollywood job would be sure to result. I decided three years would be the best timetable to allow for proper research, proper design work, lead times on hard-to-get material, and methodical, quality workmanship, done step by step. This was also unacceptable because stretching out the project meant carrying the administrative overhead longer and giving inflation more time to increase, both of which would invalidate our budget. But
the biggest reason was that after six years no one wanted to hear that it would still take half again as long to finish the ship. Therefore we decided to finish the ship in two years, by July 1982. Furthermore a pledge was made that by the end of the first year the major steel renewals would be completed, the decks laid, and the masts stepped. It was recognized that to raise $2 million in two years was going to require development counsel, and the firm of Richard Dini & Associates of Houston was engaged. Also essential was a heavyweight development committee, which came into being under the leadership of GHF board member H.L. Trentham, a GalvestonHouston businessman . It was also recognized that a large cash transfusion was necessary immediately or the project would still die before any matching grants could be utilized. The Moody Foundation had been the project's biggest supporter to date and the largest contributor to historic preservation in Galveston. The situation was explained to them very candidly by Peter and David Brink and a request submitted for $750,000 which was miraculously granted. This was a challenge grant but it was agreed that the first $450,000 could be drawn down before the grant was fully matched. 19
This grant saved the project by permitting debts to be paid and work to resume on the ship which in turn generated receipts to submit for reimbursement through the Federal grant. This gave the project a smooth cash flow for enough months to permit organizing the development effort to raise the rest of the money. The resulting campaign, "A Tall Ship for Texas," broadened the concept past being a local restoration. In the end about half of the funds came from Houston sources and marked the first large scale cooperative project between the two cities. We were now off and running! The questions of where and how were another problem entirely. There was no infrastructure of an existing maritime museum or shipyard. There were no drawings or specifications completed. None of us had ever built a ship before, and "us" consisted of a half dozen people. David Brink was Project Director with overall executive control; Michael Cochrane became the Project Administrator, keeping track of all the paper and monitoring adherence to plan and budget; I remained the Restoration Director, responsible for the design and engineering, purchasing and work orders necessary to build a bark, as well as overseeing actual restoration work. The three of us functioned as a management team and no one of us could have done his job without the active support of the others. Also aboard at this time were Don Birkholz, Jr. and Steve Hyman. Don had been the most enduring volunteer in Greece and was now to become that most enduring on-site supervisor of steelwork, coatings, equipment installation,
''There is something about these ships which is proven time and time again: there is more to them than at first meets the eye. '' etc. Steve, a traditional ship's rigger formerly with the San Francisco Maritime Museum, had come aboard in January 1980 and became our chief rigger. Add a secretary and a draftsman and it was a start. We had to begin with basics like building offices on the unrestored third floor of the Foundation's headquarters and building a road through a field of man-high jungle to reach the bulkhead, provided by the Duval Sulphur Co., to which the ship was moored, after sinking the deadmen to moor her to. Through the summer of 1980 laborers were hired to scrap out the rotten decks and burn out defective material in beams and stringers. A contractor was engaged to renew the poop and accommodation deck beams and stringers while the removals continued on the main deck. In the fall two months were spent in Todd's Galveston yard getting new deck beams, hold pillars, stringers, hatch coamings and bulwarks. These renewals turned out to be surprisingly difficult because Elissa has so much more shape than most of today's fitters are accustomed to. Over the winter we hired men to sandblast and paint the entire interior shell and by February 1981 were ready to begin laying decks. Our chief carpenter was Ed Claxton, a local cabinet and instrument maker who had been a volunteer in Greece, and was
now about to do the finest joinerwork 1 had ever seen. I had been involved in a few deck repair jobs but had never laid one. So we started with the accommodation deck under the poop since it was not a weather deck and seemed a good place to make any mistakes. It took a little time to work out the most efficient procedure, but then the main deck went down well and quickly. This was actually one of the simpler parts of the restoration, but we had to approach each job cautiously, with awareness of our own inexperience. We started this second phase of the restoration, phase one being Greece, with the idea that we could not afford to build a shipyard to build one ship and furthermore we were a bunch of amateurs which is why the project had dragged on for so long and from here on in anything which could be done by outside contractors had better be done that way. Through painful experience we eventually reversed our position. The carpentry and making up the standing rigging we recognized would have to be done in house. Steve set up a rigging loft in an old warehouse and began training a crew of local help to fabricate the miles of wire needed. He was eventually joined by riggers from other parts of the country. Materials were ordered from all over the world, teak from Burma, marline from Denmark, oakum from Norway, brass fittings from England. Turning out the drawings was a more complicated affair than we had ever guessed. We had very limited original data; a midship section which gave hull scantlings, and the rail configuration, the first Lloyd's survey report which gave
With deck steelwork completed at Todd Shipyard, laying the decks begins in February 1981. Collon and oakum are pounded home, making the deck a strong stressed skin; tar is them poured into seams for watertightness.
"'
I
I /
I
-!.'!. I
I
J
I
I I/._ â&#x20AC;˘
specifications for hatch sizes and iron spar dimensions. We had a few photographs of her that Karl Kortum's research had turned up, but these were taken after she had been made an auxiliary and her rig reduced . We had no on-deck views and no crew memoirs . There was nothing left in the ship either, except the palms of the chainplates and other stray rivet holes in the bulwarks to indicate where some fittings had been. I had been to Aberdeen, Greenwich, San Francisco, San Diego and Mystic and found that while the history of sailing vessels was well documented and photographed, there was very little concrete information about just how everything was designed and built. There are very few men left with sailing experience in commercial squareriggers, and while their recollections are an invaluable guide to how the gear was used, most of them never had to solve the problems of how each piece was made. We could have opted for a simple rig of welded fabrications that would function as a modern sail training ship's rig, but our mission was to restore an English bark of 1877 as authentically as possible. Everything had to look right and at the same time function just right. We obtained photos of other Hall-built ships, worked out the proportions of the spars and compared them with Lloyd's rules for scantlings. Hundreds of photos were taken of details of the Balclutha, Star of India, and other vessels. The process was a sort of algebra of solving an equation with one or two known bits of information and ha! fa dozen variables, since there were at least that many different ways of doing
everything . We kept feeling that our research was inadequate, but we had to keep the design work ahead of construction to make our 2-year plan work. Therefore at a certain point it became a question of our best guess and that was what we were going to have to live with. I believe we have succeeded in restoring Elissa as a typical small British bark of her period. But I have a recurring nightmare of a trunkfull of photographs surfacing some day and showing every detail a bit different than the ship we have just built! Fortunately at about this time Don Birkholz, Sr. became available through the closing of the firm of naval architects he was working for. He had volunteered a great deal of work in the earlier years of the project and now came to work with us as a full time consultant. We hired another engineer
"The only way to stay on budget and to get the ship done right was to ... set up that shipyard to build one ship. " and yet another draftsman and in a year and a half produced close to three hundred drawings of every construction detail in the ship. It was Don who had to work out all the details and translate an idea into a drawing, and I could not have gotten through the job without him. Getting the stuff built was something else. We had to choose processes of welding, casting, forging, or machining mostly based on what it looked like the local vendors could produce. Most of the good shops were back-ordered for oilfield work and
Ship's new bulwarks, fabricated al Todd's are rive/led by the ship's own crew, learning to do the unusual and labor-intensive jobs themselves.
quoted astronomical prices. The shops within our budget couldn't produce the quality we were looking for. There is something about these ships that is proven time and time again: there is more to them than at first meets the eye. We weren't the only ones to underestimate the work, and so we were repeatedly faced with vendors halfway into a job realizing they were going to lose money at about the time we realized we weren't going to get what we wanted and both sides ending up wishing they'd never heard of each other. We eventually came upon one blacksmith and one machine shop that did first-rate work at a good price and took a real interest in the ship . Eventually we reversed our position of contracting out work and decided the only way to stay on budget and get the ship done right was going to be to hire people directly, buy the needed tools, and set up that shipyard to build one ship. In the case of welders qualified people could be hired locally. Carpenters came from all over the country. Rivetting we had to teach ourselves. Todd's had fabricated the bulwarks but quoted a price for rivetting to the sheer strake that we could not afford, so we left with a few bolts in the holes . Subsequently the bulwarks, new chain plates, numerous other fittings, and part of the collision bulkhead were all done as in-house work; about 1500 rivets were driven. A forge was set up and one of our helpers, Doug McLean, was sent to work with Joe Pehoski of Salado, Texas (the smith who made many of our fittings) and after some weeks was able to produce many of the simpler fittings and continued to get better and better until the end of the project. By July 1981 we were a little behind schedule. The poop planking wasn't finished, but the main deck was. The ship had seen most of the steelwork done, been blasted and painted and was becoming believable as a ship. A party was thrown on July 11 to step the foremast and get in the bowsprit. The other masts were lying alongside and almost ready to go. The timetable was being kept close enough to keep up the credibility to keep up the fundraising. In August Elissa was towed to Houston for drydocking. It had been three years since Piraeus and besides painting, the rebuilt rudder was finally hung. During the fall more carpenters were hired and the rails and deckhouse begun. The steelwork for the foe's'! head deck began, main and mizzen masts were stepped and fore and main topmasts sent up. All this time we had been alongside an unused bulkhead two miles out of town and thus out of the puhlic eye. Meanwhile a long process had been gone through to obtain a lease on the east side of Pier 22, downtown just off the 21
j
Topgallants sent up above the topmasts, and course yards crossed, Elissa comes into 1982 with a new seriousness to her looks: a classic bark is coming into being under that American ensign floating atop the lofty mizzen.
Steve Hyman worked in the office for nine months on the basic design of the rig, then led the work cre w through its construction and installation .
Strand. The space consisted of a collapsed bulkhead, rotting pier, and nearly collapsed shed. By the end of November a new berth had been built for Elissa and she was towed around to her permanent home. Through the winter and into the spring of this year right up until the July 4 opening, the pace of work intensified at an everaccelerating rate. We had underestimated the man hours for nearly everything but especially for joinerwork. To meet our schedule more people had to be hired and we started rapidly going through the contingency portion of the budget. We saved money by hiring workers for jobs that had originally been planned as outside contracts but had to pick up the logistical burden of crowding the worksite. Our organization had evolved into a Design and Engineering section under Don Birkholz, Sr., and departments of Steelwork under Don Birkholz, Jr., who was also the pivotal on-site problemsolver and single most important man aboard, Carpentry under Eric Speth, formerly 2nd mate aboard the Pride of Baltimore, who had succeeded Ed Claxton in this management function , Rigging under Steve Hyman , and a general labor category we called Restoration Support, under Mark Herring, another veteran of the Greek Campaign. Mark' s crew dubbed themselves the "bilge rats" since they spent most of their time there gathering 250 tons of ballast stowed and secured. In a year and a half the project had grown to where a walk to the ship meant picking your way around piles of lumber, steel , flying sawdust, shavings, welding spark s, tarry wire, airless paint sprayers, bodies carrying heavy loads, and all amid a din of caulking mallet, band saw, thickness planer, grinders, magnetic drill presses, the rivetting gun, and the clank of capstan pawls sending spars aloft. By the time we
were fully geared up we had about sixty people working on the project and if we had added any more they would have started killing each other over use of extension cords and places to plug them in. People were getting tired and tempers were wearing thin . A point of diminishing
22
"The building of the ship was done by young people trying to follow a trail grown cold in the last few decades. '' returns had been reached on the worksite, the budget was nearly spent, cash was tight, and there was one hell of a lot of work left. We came to rely heavily on volunteers. Volunteers had been involved continuously from scrapping decks in the summer of 1980on . At least a dozen would be working on any Saturday throughout the project. This level of participation was only possible with a level of organization the staff had no time to provide. This gap was filled by Jim Story.of Clear Lake who took upon himself the task of rounding up volunteers, getting them registered, keeping a log of their hours, developing, with several key volunteer foremen, a liaison with staff as to what jobs they could do. We held our weekly staff meetings on Wednesday night so as not to lose work time during the day and volunteer foremen attended as another department. By the beginning of 1982 we were so squeezed for both time and money that as much as possible was given to volunteers and major calls were put out for Saturdays and Sundays and 35 people at a time would show up to work. This many people, however, required that the staff come in to help supervise, so the work week kept getting longer until there was no longer any
distinction between weeks, just one long day after another. Over 12,000 hours went in from volunteers plus uncounted overtime from salaried staff. In hindsight, this really was a three-year job that got done in two. Miraculously the goal was met of opening a musuem ship to the public by July 1982. The ship wasn't finished, but with sail bent to the royals she sure looked it. It will take at least another year to truly finish the restoration; after cabin joinerwork, crew head and lamplocker, boat skids and davits, perhaps the year after next for building the boats. The budget was finally exceeded , struggle as we did and are still struggling with it, but the ship is now real and beautiful.
*
*
*
*
*
The rebuilding of the Elissa was above all a group effort and I am thankful and proud of all who were aboard . The whole process was a vast learning experience, the more so because we were attempting to bridge a gap in continuity of experience . There were no old sailing ship men or shipbuilders on our staff. A former second mate of the Pamir, Captain Josef Braun, came aboard at the end and was invaluable in training the crew and sailed with us but the building of the ship was done by young people trying to follow a trail grown cold in the last few decades . By the time we identified a need we were behind schedule and desperate to get the job done lest it hold up the next. People were flown in from all over the country for specific jobs such as caulking, joinerwork, and rigging but in general we had to tell ourselves: "This is the crew we have got, they are a damn good one, and somehow we have to make it work . What we don't know we just have to teach ourselves." Part of the reason it worked is that our people looked at the ship as an artistic expression, an opportunity to create someSEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/83
''Our people looked at the ship as an artistic expression, an opportunity to create something lasting and worthwhile." thing lasting and worthwhile. One of the most powerful lessons the ship teaches is that it is important for things to be beautiful. A ship that is beautiful inspires her people to take good care of her, she brings out their best. Another lesson the ship teaches is the importance of concerted effort, of people pulling in unison . Again and again the work proved longer and more complicated and called for more people to share the load . The worst problems we had to solve were not technical, they were psychological. Personal conflicts of large egos put a lot of wear and tear on the participants but the reason the effort succeeded was that the love of the ship was a common thread kept uppermost by all. The ship has a special feeling about her because she is the repository of so many people's honest best efforts . The spirit of the ship is a part of everyone's soul who has cared for her and in turn drawn strength from her. This last was unlooked for at first but in the end proved very real. While our crowd felt drained and too exhausted to celebrate when it was all over, the fact is that everyone grew from the experience. Everyone of us had had to shoulder greater responsibilities than we had ever done before. The value of the ship is in the quiet satisfaction she gives back to those who appreciate and serve her. The reason that sailing vessels call forth this response is that under sail life's extraneous layers become so many transparencies held up to the light to reveal only the hard edges of what is solid and basic. After our opening the crew size had to be reduced to a maintenance level and at a farewell dinner I took the opportunity to tell our crew that through having had the chance to work with them for two years they had made me feel an immensely wealthy man. I also told them that having built the ship they were far better off than if they owned her, for if they owned her they might someday be forced to sell her, but having put so much of themselves into building her they will always own her, and be owned by her . U. SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
Elissa makes sail, a vision of grace- and to the ship's people aloft on
those yards, an impossible dream made real. Photo Carol Hill.
The restored ship comes out of a long, hard effort begun fi ve years earlier in Piraeus. Here the author (at left) and volunteer Eli Kuslanski look at construction details around the rudderpost, in Greece, 1977. Photo Doug Manger.
23
Elissa: What's It All About?
The Ship and Her People Continuing a discussion begun the night before, Fewtrell and I lounge by the main hatch in the shadow of the great-bellied foresail. "Common sense and courtesy, that's what it's about," says Richard. David Canright, who has happened by, puts in : "That's what you learn, all right. People who are ragingly antisocial ashore behave at sea in a way that's almost courtly. " He goes on to explain how there is a place for everything and everybody-and how everyone works to see that things stay that way. Things have to work, and they have to fit, at sea. Technology is eroding the old culture: where men lived together for months on end, utterly dependent upon each other to make the ship go-dependent upon each other indeed at many moments for personal survival-voyaging today depends more on great engines and electronic calculations and controls than on the hardlearned sailorl y wisdom of hand and eye. But a voyage is still a voyage, there is still the midnight mystery and vastness of the sea and awe and terror when the ship encounters it aroused, and men still hang on like St. Paul in his famous voyage and pray for the coming of the day. "Besides, seamen remember," I suggest. " In my job I rub elbows with marineros quite a bit and I think they tend to be story tellers. I tell them I've crossed the ocean under sail, they want to hear about it. God, they love a good yarn, and a lot of talk and thinking has to be about remembering things in off moments. There's a strong continuity in it." Fewtrell points out that there has to be-you don't do a lot of innovating at sea or you end up on your backside in a hurry. "It's a conservative element, the sea is." I tell him this fits in with some revisionist history going on right now: we are no longer so critical as we used to be, say fifty yea rs ago, of seamen's notorious slowness to change their ways of doing things. And at this we all join in pooh-poohing the sensationalist view of the sailor's life, that he was a poor sod who went to sea because he had no place else to go and lived a brutalized life afloat and a victimized existence ashore. At the least, taking these things without taking in the philosophy and poetry you can hear even an illiterate deckhand articulate, is to sell an anc ient and honorable culture very short. Somehow this conversation helps answer why it is not just a luxury, but perhaps a vital necessity in our time to build a ship like Elissa. David Brink, a laughing, sociab le perso n who uses psychological argot freely, disdains salty tal_k and is constantly play-
24
''It was a process you couldn't understand until you were in it... '' ing with new ideas-but who is on the record an extraordinarily tough and able administrator-comments later on the building of the ship (everyone refers to it as "building," by the way, rather than "rebuilding," for reasons evident in Rybka's foregoing account). "You've got to see it as a process, really. You've got to understand-people got mad at the way we were doing it, and walked out on us. We had to fight like hell to use the Rybkas and other seeming amateurs-people doing it for the love of it anyway-rather than hard-nosed shore contractors. It was a process you couldn't understand until you were in it, but the point is it worked ." Future plans? "We can't let this ship stand alone, of course. We're working on a shore museum, and a commercial ship that goes out sailing while this one sits mostly at the pier and educates people in her ways. But we'll sail Elissa to Corpus next spring, and maybe to New Orleans for their tricentennial and maybe to New York for the Statue of Liberty birthday in '86-we're not sure that we should take it that far, its job is here in Galveston. "Anyway, whatever we do we're still doing it in that process. We're still building the boat." There is something timeless to the look of people aloft handling sail. How long have we been at this endeavor? Probably as long as we've had cities, or what you might call a self-aware culture, or a language we could transmit across time. I watch the people on the yard casting off gaskets. Michael Creamer is at the end of the main upper topsail yard. It was so unlikely he would ever be there! It seems to me he is
''A ship like this . .. brings out the best you have to give. ''
riding .a dream. Later I accost him: "Don Miguel, what earthly right do you think you have to be on that yard?" He takes my meaning instantly: "No earthly right, Don Pedro-unearthly.'' He is only repeating, 3,000 years later, Solomon's wonder at "the way of a ship in the sea." Eric Speth, chief carpenter, seems incredibly young for the job. But you can't argue with the lovely fitted work you see all around you. (The vessel is iron, of course, but what you see on deck is mostly wood, manila and canvas.) And he has long sea miles of experience sailing as mate in the traditional Baltimore clipper Pride of Baltimore. "A ship like this has a way of pulling people together," he says. "Walter [Rybka] says it's because she's beautiful. Anyway, she brings out the best you have to give." Rybka just listens, mostly, to these discussions though he will offer a pungent observation or occasionall y a sharp correction to a misstatement of fact. He said once that all he has to say about Elissa is contained in these words of Joseph Conrad: "A ship is not a slave, You must make her easy in a seaway, you must never forget that you owe her the fullest share of your thought, of your skill, of your self love. If you remember that obligation, naturally and without effort, as if it were an instinctive feeling of your inner life, she will sail, stay, run for you as long as she is able, or like a sea bird going to rest upon the angry waves, she will lay out the heaviest gale that every made you doubt living long PS enough to see another sunrise." Opposite page, Elissa's form and functions are brilliantly presented in a series ofsigns about the decks, written and designed by David Canright, who has been a merchant mariner himself and who worked on 19th century ships in San Francisco and New York before coming lo Galveston for Elissa. Canright's words invite you to reflect upon what you are seeing and to share in the experience of the people who walked these decks before you.
The Deckhouse A sailing ship is like a streamlined warehouse with all the offices on the roof. It is her capacity to carry cargo that earns her profit. l \ HU .\l .\ "' I
.\ l\1 :"\ \l.\ " l
UO WSPRIT
None of the space below is wasted on living quarters (or on machinery and fuel storage a big advantage in the sailing ships' competition with steam). Sailors speak of serving "in" a ship, but it might be more accurate to say "on," since all the accommodations on a sa iling cargo ship are in deck struct ures like this one or under the raised decks over the narrow, flairing ends fore and aft. Only an emergency like a shift of cargo, a fire in the h old or a bad leak would take the sailor below decks once at sea.
A century before ELISSA was built, the galley might have been a removable structure lashed to the deck, to be taken off and out of the way to work cargo in port. Galley and cook were sometimes lost together as seas swept the deck in a storm. By ELISSA's time, the deckhouse was a permanent structure, housing the galley and accommodations for cook and carpenter. On larger vessels, the carpenter's workshop and quarters for the bosun and several apprentices were added to the deckhouse, which was usually made of steel. ELISSA's wooden deckhouse also has space for a steam "donkey" engine, used in handling cargo.
Aloft and Stow The gale rises and the ship begins to be burdened by her full press of canvas; time to take in her royals - the highest sails - before they blow away. It's "aloft and stow" for two of the watch. Eighty-five feet above deck and sea, the rigging reels in vast dizzying circles; the wind howls and the sail, loosely gathered by buntlines and clewlines from the deck, kicks violently on the lowered yard. The canvas must be subdued and lashed securely with gaskets passed around the yard and sail by seamen balancing on the footrope, clinging to the yard by belly and elbows. It takes courage and a cool head .
SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
25
The A111erican Sea111an His questions on U.S. Navy's deal with foreign line needs answers. THE NATIONAL MARITIME UNION recently raised vigorous protests over the implications of proposals by our own U.S. Navy to charter three cargo ships owned by a foreign company to provide added sealift for the ready deployment of three Marine brigades at a cost of $465 million. NMU declared in no uncertain terms that the five-year contract with -the Danish firm, Maersk Line, represented a "sell-out" of established U.S. flag companies struggling to stay alive and a hard-to-justify "bail-out" of foreign shipping interests at a time when ship operators everywhere are laying up vessels due to the worldwide economic slump. Under the Navy charter terms, the three
foreign ships would be U.S. flag, reconditioned in American shipyards and manned by American seamen. But while these jobs, any jobs, were more than ¡ welcome to American workers, there were larger questions at stake, NMU emphasized, namely: 1. Is our country in such bad shape that we now have to rely upon foreigners to move our war supplies and Marines? 2. Are we casting aside the long-standing national policy of an efficient privately-owned U.S. flag merchant fleet which stands ready to operate as our country's "fourth arm of defense?" The Chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, Texas Senator John Tower, recently observed that an international conglomeration of subsidized fleets, led by our friends and the Soviet Union, was "putting us out of the merchant ship business." Now, it seems, we are seeing the bizarre spectacle of the U.S. Navy joining forces with our foreign competitors to help put U.S. shipping companies out of business. We might even get to see the Soviet Union emerge as the low bidder on such a military charter thus enabling the Russians to haul U.S. war supplies at a profit. Far-fetched? Not at all . It actually happened a few years ago.
National Maritime Union Shannon J. Wall, President Thomas Martinez, Secretary-Treasurer National Headquarters: 346 West 17 Street, New York NY 10011 â&#x20AC;˘ (212) 620-5700
The Ernestina/Morrissey Comes Home
Coming out of the soft haze of a late August afternoon, Ernestina mounts a sun-dappled Atlantic swell rolling in toward Newport. What a moment for her friends! Michael Platzer UN Photo.
''May She Forever Sail on the Winds of Hope'' "A ship of many stories," her captain, Marcos Lopes called her, in accepting the Ship Trust Award which I had come up to present to the ship and her people soon after she came in on August 24. And so she is. On her decks, as he spoke, people were discovering common ancestors and shared experiences. Launched in 1894 as the Gloucester fishing schooner Effie M. Morrissey, sailed by Captain Robert A. Bartlett as an Arctic exploration ship from the mid-twenties till the end of World War II, and as an immigrant sailing ship, a Brava packet, 1948-65, she bound many lives together. Her fourth career now lay before herto train young people in the ways of the sea, and to celebrate her unique, wideranging heritage as a museum ship. Based in New Bedford, she is to sail up and down the coast at least from Philadelphia to Gloucester, and perhaps beyond to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland-where, in Brigus, nephews of her famous Arctic explorer-skipper Captain Bob Bartlett live today. She had been 41 days making the 3,500-mile voyage from Cape Verde. But she had taken longer than that, and come further, for the return voyage to the United States had begun in 1976, when she set out to join the Tall Ships celebrating the US Bicentennial in Operation Sail-76. Dismasted en route, she was forced to turn SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
back. The Cape Verdeans then set to work and rebuilt her completely, to bring her to the US and donate her to the Schooner Ernestina Commission of the State of Massachusetts. The story of the ship is told in Sea History?, pages 20-21, and the story of the Brava packets in SH8:!9-21 and 9:27-30. The vessel is truly borne up on the tides of a movement shared in by people of utterly diverse backgrounds-that is how she has come home. Laura Pires Houston has commented on the "remarkable and rich intertwining of peoples and places" which is embodied in the Ernestina/ Morrissey movement. Ambassador Jose Luis Fernandes Lopes of the Republic of Cape Verde spoke for the whole past and future of the ship when he said in his address of welcome: "May she forever sail on the winds of hope, ever to remind us of the boundless possibilities of human understanding and cooperation." PS
People throng the wharf in Newport to greet the schooner with song and laughter and sometimes tearful reunion. Photo: C.H. Parker, Newport Times. Below, "Eugenio's House" was a nickname/or the schooner, since Eugenio Lopes, here at the helm, had sailed in the vessel from the 1950s on. Michael Platzer UN Photo.
You can join the movement by making out a check to "NMHS-Ernestina/ Morrissey" and sending it to NMHS, 15 State Street, New York NY 10004. Contributors of $5 or more will receive a copy of "Ernestina/ Effie M . Morrissey," by Laura Pires Houston and Michael K.H. Platzer, an illustrated booklet on the schooner, her history and heritage. 27
SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT Musec••_. Quality Ship Models large collection for sale SHIP MODELS INTERNATIONAL
1708 Salem Champaign, Ill. 61820
Early Scientific Instruments
·TESSERACT · Box !Sla Hastings-on-Hudson New Yo rk 10706
catalog $3.00
DIRECTION Historic Cutter 33' x11' 6"x6' 2" LONG IS . SOU NO
DUTCH WHARF BOAT YARD 70 Maple St. , Branford, CT 06405 Tel . (203) 488-9000
c Prin1 folder write: OF SEA & SH IPS © 420 So. Beverl y Dr., Suite 207 Beverly Hill s, C l\ 902 12.
A unique experience. $360-390 weekly, includes everything. For Brochure Call 207-236-9063
Schooner TIMBERWIND
Capl . Bill Alexander
Box 247 SH . Rockport . Me . 04856
NAUTICAL ANTIQUES Octants-Telescopes-Clocks Compasses-Sextants-Etc. Send for free lists
Dunlap Enterprises Inc.
GREAT BRITAIN The Polar exploration ship Discovery is now partially open to the public at her new berth in London's St. Katherine's Dock. A sturdily constructed wooden bark with steam auxiliary engine, Discovery was launched at Dundee, Scotland in 1901 for an Antarctic expedition commanded by Robert Falcon Scott. She was later employed by the Hudson's Bay Company , and on further Antarctic trips , until retired in 1931, serving as a stationary training ship at London after 1937 . Restoration work on deck is underway, and most of the rerigging remains to be done. St. Katherine's Dock, just east of the Tower of London, also contains the Maritime Trust museum ships Kathleen & May (topsail schooner, 1900), Lydia Eva (steam fi shing boat, 1930), Challenge (steam tug, 1931 ), Robin (steam coaster, 1890), Cambria (sailing barge, 1906), and the former Nore lightship. Moored along the riverbank just east of St. Katherine's Dock is the former coasting ketch Emily Barratt, currently for sale . She was launched at Millom, Cumberland in 1913. Now converted to a yacht, and in poor condition, the Barratt has sunk and been refloated at least once this year. Three more ketches survive: Irene, built in Bridgwater in 1908, after some years as a yacht, restored to her proper appearance for a private owner currently based at Gloucester; Garlands/one, built near Calstock in 1909, being restored at th e Maritime Museum in Porthmad og, Wales; and Bessie Ellen, built at Plymouth in 1907, now for sale, partially restored , at Troense, Denmark . The 963-foot superliner Qu een Elizabeth 2, last of her breed, came home from the Falk lands on June 11 , carrying some 700 survivors of the Royal Navy
ships Antelope, Ardent, and Covenf!y, sunk during the fighting . Her welcome began the ni ght before. As she approached th e Cornish coast after thirty da ys' absence on her 15,000-mile round trip , Thomas Stanley, Navy veteran and owner o f the Lizard Hotel , signaled her by lantern : "Well done, welcome home. God bless. " The Queen Mother (mother of Queen Elizabeth II) came out to greet the QE2 off the Isle of Wight in th e royal yacht Britannia, and a flotilla of tugs, yachts and small craft of all kinds, escorted the huge, graceful liner as she came up Southampton Water to be welcomed by cheering, weeping crowds ashore. "Every captain always says his men are the best,' ' said Commander Alan West o f the frigate Ardent. I know mine were." Steven Alves, a seaman from Ardent, said: " It was very scarey and not something I'd like to go through again . All of my mates died ." Kipling's solemn reminder might have been remembered by some at this scene played out for centuries past: "If blood be the price of admiralt y, Lord God we have paid in full ." In September the great ship, repainted and refurbished, came to New York , and startled yachtsmen cheered her as her lofty hull picked its way through the crowded waters of Long Island Sound . The West of Scotland Boat Museum at Bowling Harbor, Dumbarton, has acquired the "puffer" type coasting cargo vessel Spartan for preservation . Believed to be the only surviving vessel built at Kirkintilloch on th e Forth and Clyde Canal , Spartan was originall y the VIC 18, built for the British Admiralty in 1942. She was converted from steam to diesel in 1961, and remained in service until 1980. The Museum hopes eventually to assemble a fleet of representative Scottish vessels. The QE2 comes home. Photo ©NY Times.
130 Severn Aven ue
Annapolis, MD 21403
NAUTICAL FOLK ART " In the finest tradition"
Brochure-.50¢ SEA CHEST-A Silver Dunes #47, 1030 Hwy 98 East Destin, Fla. 32541
SHIP • MODELS •
Built to specification - wil l research Kits and Fittings also available • Catalog $2 00
. • 28
Marittima Models P 0 BOX 1107 H WOODBRIDGE , VIRGINIA 22193
SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
& MUSEUM NEWS The paddlewheel steamer Waverly has enjoyed a successful summer operating seaso n, making day excursions out of harbors around the British Isles. On at least one occasion, she had to turn away about 200 passengers in excess of the 842 she is certified to carry. With Loch Lomond 's Maid of the Loch laid up this year and probably due to become a floating pub, Waverly is now the only sidewheel steamer in active service in Great Britain . Englishman Paul Boot is seeking supporters for an effort to preserve what ma y be the only unaltered British-built early 20th century tramp steamer. She is the H aliskalkavan, currently operated in the Black Sea by Ziya Kalka van Koll of Istanbul. Her original name was Baron Graham when launched by Napier & Miller Ltd . of Glasgow in 1925. Boot cites as inspiration for the project the successful saving of the Liberty Ship Jeremiah O 'Brien in San Francisco. Boot can be reached c/o Ships Monthly Magazine, Waterway Productions Ltd., Kottingham House, Dale Street, Burton-on-Trent DE14 3TD. Opening the destroyer HMS Cavalier as a museum at Southampton, England, had to be shifted from June to August this year when local shipyard resources were diverted to prepare vessels for the Falkland Islands campaign.
EUROPE
.
I" ' \
'
'
Your Ship Notes editor spent some time in Portugal this May in and around Lisbon. In the Navy Yard in AJfeite I was shown the former German steel bark Rickmer Rickmers, which has been laid up there for a number of years. Built at Bremerhaven, Germany in 1896, she was later renamed Max, and then, after the king requisitioned her for Portugal during World War I, Flores. From 1924 to 1926 she served as the Portuguese Navy's training ship Sagres, the second of that name. She was replaced in 1962 by the former German training ship Albert Schlageter, which sails as Sagres today. The former Rickmer Rickmers is not currently being used for any purpose and may be offered to Germany for prese rvation. In the neighboring town of Cacilhao, I came across the four-masted schooner in the Portuguese Grand Banks fleet, Creoula, lying in a graving dock undergoing extensive renovation for conversion to a training ship for young people. The 1895 Creoula was built of steel in Lisbon in 1937. A sole example of a much more local type-the sloop-rigged sailing lighters once a feature of the Tagus estuary-has been installed in a park near the National Maritime Museum at Belem. Adjoining the Museum itself in a large modern hall is SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/8 3
a collection of royal barges. Captai n Estacio dos Reis, assistant director, currently has two new projects under way: the preservation of the handsome sc hooner Sirius of I 876, former yacht of the King of Portugal now lying at the Alfeite Naval Base, and saving a ll or part of the hulk of the 1843 frigate Fernando II e Gloria, launched at Damao, Portuguese India, which lies on a nearby mudbank, having partially burned in 1963 while serving as a floating school. In Hungary the staff of the River Navigation Divi sion of Mahan, the Hungarian state shipping monopoly, have succeeded in their volunteer effort to see the 1914 paddle steamer Kossuth installed as a maritime museum at Budapest. Both Maharat and the Hungarian Musuem of Communications have now endorsed the project, and it is hoped to have Kossuth open to the public for 1984. Formerly named Ferenca Ferdinand Foherczeg, Rigo and Leanyfalu, Kossuth was finally retired in 1978. The 1926-built sidewheeler Perofi now provides excursion services out of the Hungarian capital. Late last year workmen building the foundations of a new Hilton Hotel in Mainz, West Germany uncovered nine Roman ships on the site of a shipyard probably abandoned around 400 AD. Archaeologists later found two more vessels nearby. All are well preserved by burial in 12 to 15 feet of clay. The smallest are around 30 feet in length, while the largest is almost 70 feet. Tree ring analysis is being used to date the ships precisely. The oldest is believed to go back to 81 AD. As the wood is in a sa turated condition, tests are now being made to determine the best conservation treatment.
the8falen ¡Cf.fland 3-euy By Theodore W. Scull 96pp.-soft cover-$9.95 Read about New York Ci ty's last, year round, public ferry operation in this newly published book. In addition to coverage of the boats and the people who run them, there is material on New York Harbor and Staten Island.
QUADRANT PRESS 19 West 44th Street, Room 707 New York, NY 10036 NY State resideuts add local
fa..\ .
Joe's Rope Shop 159 John Street New York, NY 10038 Tel: 212-344-0130
MARINE CHRONOMETERS Bought , Sold and Serviced Restoration and Appraisals
More Square Rigged Training Ships The number of active 4-masted barks built as merchant ships and serving as sail training ships was doubled recently when the Soviet Union reactivated the Sedov, exMagdalene Vinnen, after roughly a 15-year layup ... the other bark being the Soviet Kruzenshtern, formerly the German nitrate carrier Padua. Sedov was built
J. P. Connor & Co.
Sedov, by Hans-Joachim Gersdorf, Hamburg
Agents for Thomas Merce r, Ltd .
P.O. Box 30 5 , Devon PA 19333 Tel : 215-644-147 4
I
Beautiful Wood Ship Model Kits and Tools, Supplies Billings, Mamoli, Mantua, etc. send $2.00 for catalog SHIP MODELS INTERNATIONAL P.O. Box 3524
Champaign, Ill 61820
29
SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT at Kiel in Germany in 1921 for the F.A. Vinnen Company of Bremen . Unlike Padua, she was built with a diesel auxiliary. She sailed in the grain trade from Rio de la Plata, with some nitrate voyages, until the early 1920s when she became a regular in the Australian grain fleet. In 1936 she was bought by the North German Lloyd Steamship Company and converted to a cargo-carrying schoolship under the name Kommodore Johnsen . Along with Padua, she was awarded to the USSR as reparations after World War II. New construction added two major square-rigged training vessels to the schoolship fleet this year: the Polish Dar Modziezy, a steel full-rigger launched at Gdansk last November to replace the 73-year old Dar Pomorza (which will now become a mu se um s hip); and the Cuauhtemoc, a steel bark launched at Bilboa, Spain, also in November, for the Mexican Naval Academy in Vera Cruz.
The 3 Masted Schooner
VICTORY CHIMES Largest Passenger Windjammer Under The U .S. Flag Sails weekly fro m Rockl and , Maine. Coast G uard inspected . We invite comparison. For FREE color brochure call 207-596-6060 or write:
Capt. Frederick B. Guild Box 368, Rockland, M a ine, 04841
Commission Your Favorite Ship Sail or Steam
--------....---------------.
~
New or Old
ORIG INAL OIL PAIN TI NGS OF THE SHIP OF YOU R CHOICE BY THE W EL L KN OW N M A RINE ARTIST,
"C HAU NCEY M. DEPEW" 24x28 PAI NTING COMPLETE WITH QUALI TY FRAME - $295.00 OTHER SIZES PRICED PROPORTIONATE LY
UNITED STATES
Why sett le for a print when you c an have an ORI GIN AL OIL PAINTING. The ship you really wa nt for abo ut t he cos t of a good lit hograph. All ship po rtraits are on fine arti s t c an vas, on ly the best oil pain t is used . BUY DIRECT FR O M THE AR TIST A ND SAV E THE DEA L ER CO MMI SS ION OF 40160 %.
Yo ur Bro ker Will Tell Yo u: Todays best in vestm ent is o riginal art.
Call or write: HERB HEWITT 10- R DRUID H ILL AVE . WA KEFIELD , MA . 01 880 (617) 245-524 2
SEA HISTORY PRINTS
HALF-MODELS
"PICAROON" by S.S. Rabi 18 ft. Sloop, ca. 1925 Thi s beautiful half model of Sam Rabi 's " Pi caroon " makes an ideal gift. Solid wood, 18 " lo ng, _dark green topsides, red bottom , clear varni shed tran som, moun ted on stained 9 " x24 " mahogan y pl aqu e. Ready to displ ay, bri ef hi sto ry inc luded, signed and dated. $75.00 plu s $3.85 shipping and hand li ng . Mo ney refund ed if not sati sfied. Made in Maine.
To: Willis Model Boats 114A Curtis Road, Rt. 3 Freeport, ME 04032 phone (207) 865-3830
FROM:_ _ _ __ __ _ _ __ _
D " Pi c aroon" half model, ready to di splay. $75.00 + $3.85 s/h D " Pi ca roon" kit (inc l. wood hull, pl ywood kee l, WL decal, in struc ti ons). $30.00 + $3.85 s/h D Free co lor photo of model boat and more information. VISA and MasterCard welcome.
H.M. Armed Transport
BOUNTY Running on slrong winds off the island of Moorea by
OSWALD L. BRETT This limi ted edi tio n of 500 prints is printed in full co lo r o n fi ne rag paper. Through the generosity of the a rtist, proceeds will benefit the work of the Society. Price $85 Im age 14 Y2" x 20 Y2"
To: National Maritime Historical Soc. 2 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY 11201 Please send me__ prints. My check fo r $ is enclosed . NA M E - - - - - - - - - - - A DD RESS _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Z IP _
30
_
_
_ __
The return of the schooner Ernestina, exEjjie M. Morrissey (1894) to New Bedford, Massachusetts, has been reported elsewhere in these pages, as has the first sailing from Galveston, Texas since 1886 of the iron bark Elissa (1877) . Progress in the restoration of the Cape Horn square rigger Wavertree at South Street Seaport Museum, New York , continues under the direction of the American Ship Trust Friends of Wavertree Chairman Jakob lsbrandtsen. Work accomplished to date this year is at about 50 percent of estimated cost, thanks to donated products and services. The emphasis is on authenticity in the work: canvas hatch tarpaulins, for example, are handsewn aboard from flax imported from Arbroath , Scotland (see also my report on the search for the ship's artifacts, this issue). Those wishing to pitch in, in the spirit of the Friends' motto- "Dirty work, long hours, no pay" -are invited to apply to American Ship Trust, 15 State Street, New York NY 10004. This summer saw the launching at Portsmouth, New Hampshire of the latest addition to the cruise schooner fleet : the steel-hulled, 76-foot Homer W. Dixon, owned by Doug Greason and Pegeen and Michael Muhlhern, who will operate the schooner on Lake Champlain. The tug Dolomite (1927), ex-Rogers City, listed in our survey (SH25) as a steam vessel, has now been converted to diesel and returned to service as the Chippewa of the Seaway Towing Co . based at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan . TheEdna G. (1896), last steam tug working on the Great Lakes, has SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
& MUSEUM NEWS now been withdrawn from service and is open to the public at Two Harbors, M innesota. The maritime museum aboard the Lake freighter Valley Camp at Sault Ste. Marie may be deciding shortly whe.ther to continue maintaining the 1919 Great Lakes Salvage vessel Favorite, acquired some years ago, but never opened to the public. If it is not feasible to save the whole ship, artifacts and portions of her will be incorporated into the existing museum.
Sailing Adventures aboard the SCHOONER HARVEY GAMAGE -a windjammer in true "down East" tradition. U.S. Coast Guard inspected 95' o.a. in length
CANADA An item in the Montreal Gazette notes the survival of the historic Polar exploration ship Maud as an abandoned hulk at Cambridge Bay, Northwest Territories. Maud was built at Asker, Norway in 1917 for Amundsen's successful transit of the Northeast Passage around Russia, completed in July 1920. The 107-foot wooden vessel was purchased by the Hudson's Bay Co . in 1926, renamed Bay Maud and abandoned around 1938. The Kipawo Heritage Society of Wolfville, Nova Scotia has now retrieved the last ferry to operate between that port and Parrsboro NS acros Minas Basin, for use as a museum and community center. The vessel is the 113-foot, steel-hulled Kipawo built at St. John, New Brunswick in 1926. She served on the WolfvilleParrsboro run until 1978, when she was taken to Newfoundland for stationary use. For the last two years she had been lying beached and abandoned there. When the Society was unable to raise the $22,500 needed to have the Kipawo towed to Wolfville, the Canadian Coast Guard took on the job. One of the most remarkable conversions to sail in recent years, and one of the more improbable historic vessel resurrections, is the Canadian barkentine Onaygorah, which sailed from New York in late September bound for Panama and the Fiji Islands. She was built in Montreal in 1918 as a wartime experiment, a bluff-bowed 126-foot hull of reinforced concrete. The Canadian Coast Guard employed her as a lighthouse and buoy tender in the Gulf of St. Lawrence under the descriptive name Concretia. Around the late 1930s, her hull was sunk as a wharf near Kingston, Ontario, where she remained until refloated in 1979. Her mainmast is designed to take square yards, and she will ultimately be rigged as a bark. The main purpose of her voyage to the Fijii Islands is marine biological research. NORMAN BROUWER, Curator of Ships South Street Seaport Museum .J:,
.J:,
.J:,
SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
COLLEGE STUDENTS SEA QUARTER Plan a college semester aboard the SCHOONER HARVEY GAMAGE. Credits in arts and science you earn from Northeastern University, Marine Studies Department, may be transferred. Curriculum includes visits to many educational and historical places from Maine to the Virgin Islands. For curriculum, schedule and cost, write or phone-
Summer months the ship cruises the Maine coast out of Rockland ... winter months in the Virgin Islands from Charlotte Amalie. Enjoy a week under sail ... make new friends ... relish hearty meals ... return relaxed, filled with happy memories. Write or phone-
DIRIGO CRUISES Dept. SH, 39 Waterside Lane Clinton, Conn. 06413 Tel: 203-669-7068
"MANTA"
of all the rays, not much is known about the Giant Manta. They glide through the water with all the majestic grace of a pure poem. Inspiring. Awesome in size, the "Devil rays" seem friendly to the divers and occasionally they enjoy their company. In my sculpture, an adventurous skin diver hitches a ride on the back of a manta , while a pair of remoras make conver.ient handles . The sculpture is cast in fine pewter. Dimensions approx : 5 1/z" high by 7 1/i" in length. Price: $156.00 ($3 shipping)
•
Mass. res iden ts a dd 5 % sa les tax
•
30 day unconditi ona l guarantee Fo ur weeks deli ve ry time C hec ks, Vi sa, Mas tercha rge accept ed .
• •
Offered through: Mico Kaufman Sculpture, Inc., Dept. SH, 23 Marion Drive, Tewksbury, MA 01876 . Tel: (617) 851-4220 (member of Northern Middlesex Chamber of Commerce) 31
A spirit of hard work, enterprise & cooperation sailed the tall ships of yesterday, and the Liberty Ships of World War II ... and that's what makes things move today!
BAY REFRACTORY MARINE REFRACTORY AND MARINE INSULATION 164 WOLCOTT STREET â&#x20AC;¢ BROOKLYN, NY lt20t
The very famous restaurant in Brooklyn.
Are you interested in tugs?
Brooklyn's Landmark Seafood & Steak House 372 Fulton Street (near Boro Hall}
Now is the time to join the
INTERNATIONAL TUG ENTHUSIASTS SOCIETY Apart from a monthly Dutch version we now publish 6 times a year for the tugenthusiasts abroad a special English issue of our magazine Lekko. Write for full details, such as the reduced subscription-rate on our English publication, to:
l.T.E.S., c/o Graan voor Visch 19915, 2132 WR Hoofddorp, The Netherlands.
32
Open daily except Sunday. For reservations: 875-5181 Parking nearby Major credit cards Private party facilities
<;jage &Tollner
est.1879
The very famous restaurant in Brooklyn. SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
PAUL McGEHEE
NEW YORK - The superliner "United States" passes lower Manhattan in 1954. Image size 18V2" x 33". Edition of 5,000 signed and numbered $100, or with remarque $200. Printed on 100% rag.
CENTRAL PARK
PIER 74
Shown above (3.4 actual size) are two examples of the many different remarque pencil drawings personally done on your "New York" print by Paul McGehee, giving you an original piece of art by the artist. Remarque drawings of this quality are offered by very few artists. As the experienced collector knows, owning a remarqued Paul McGehee print is the closest thing to owning the original oil painting. This superb "New York" collector print is the result of six months of painstaking research and masterful painting which produced the four-foot wide original oil, completed in 1982. This print is reproduced by the most modern offset lithography techniques showing every brush stroke, even the thickness of paint. There is such incredible detail that every window in each skyscraper of lower Manhattan is visible. This print is a must for every discriminating collector of major works of fine art. Call or write for our 16-PAGE COLOR CATALOG of this and many other marine and landscape scenes by this talented and versatile artist.
704 North Glebe Road Suite 212 Arlington, Virginia 22203 Phone (703) 525-9265 or (703) 528-5040
Š 1982 by Paul McGehee
DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME
''Enough to Clutch at the Heart'' The Fribergs, Marine Artists by Alex A. Hurst
Maggie and Handel at home, surrounded by evidences of the seafaring heritage they celebrate in their work .
Flying Fish.famous McKay clipper of I 85 1, storms along close-hauled in a picture that expresses the eager look of the ocean greyhound and the urgency with which she is sailed.
Stock holm was not idly dubbed "The Venice of the North." Even today, the huge, box-like a nd often multi-colored ferri es cannot detract from its charm as they ply its spendid approaches through an archipelago which is sheer magic . And th e harbor with its radiating waterways, must rank amongst the cleanest in th e world , even though it may not vie with the greatest in terms of cargo-hand ling. Sweden is a country wi th a great maritime tradition extending back to Viking times and, in those last days when merchant sail was still operati ng, Stockholm still had a mass of jakts, galleasses and small schooners coming to its quays, some of the for mer being built at nearby Roslag and elsewhere. There th ey were, with their brai ling sails and high deckloads, rubbing shou lders with the steamers, mainly painted white, which were operating virtuall y in the heart of the city. Then , only hours away, there was Mariehamn, home of the last big fleet of squ are-riggers, and all this was eno ugh to clutch at the heart of many a you ng man. So it was with Carl-Handel Friberg. Oddly, his family had little enough connection wit h the sea, but their home was situated where it looked over the entrance to the harbor , and soon he was haun ting the Skeppargrund (Skippers' Lane), the Lotsgatan
Grace Harwar, English-built full rigger of a later generation, immortalized in the work of the late Alan Villiers, stands off before a rising wind and sea with a kind of weathered majesty, and airofuttercapability.
(Pilots' Street) and the Stadsgarden-the long quay on the southern waterfront. All this time he was drawing ships in his spare time, since they had already ensnared his soul. He wanted to go to sea himself, but that was not to be. Instead, he found himself employed in the local silversmith's and, by that time, married to Maggie-a strange name, one might think for a Swede, but in her case it is a diminutive of Magnhild, an old Norse name of great antiquity. When Handel's job came to an end, they launched out to become, perhaps, the most remarkable married couple in the sphere of marine art today. Most marine artists' wives know little of ships, but with the Fribergs it is different. When in hospital once, Handel Friberg had seen some magazines containing pictures by the German marine artist, Adolf Bock, which had stirred him . About this time he met Bock himself, who had settled in Sweden after his miraculous rescue from the ghastly Wilhelm Gust/off disaster during the war and who was left-handed, like Friberg. Bock gave him great encouragement, but Friberg never received any formal artistic training . In this age when there is so much excellence in marine painting, no one can say that this or that artist is "the best," but it can be said truly of Handel Friberg that he is unique . Over the years he has painted a multiplicity of marine subjects, ranging from Viking ships to his local jakts and galleases, schoone.rs and Americanbuilt clippers (in which he has a particular interest) and through to the last big square-riggers, steamers and warships, and so much else besides. His paintings, seldom large, are only undertaken after he has done an immense amount of research and is steeped in SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/83
Falken, a modern sail training schooner, breasts the Baltic with strong steel bows, keeping alive the hard learning of sail under the Swedish flag; she is pursued by her predecessor the old Falken.
35
DARWIN'S H.M.S. BEAGLE
AMERICA NEW YORK YACHT CLUB
By marine artist RAYMOND A. MASSEY, A.S .M .A.-Now available in a limited edition of 1,000 signed and numbered full-color lithographic art prints, his "Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle, 1832." Image size 25 "x 20 ". Signed print, $75 . Signed and remarqued print, $125 . Dealer inquiries invited. Order From:
RAYMOND A. MASSEY - TYNE PRINTS 112 Walton Drive, Buffalo, New York 14226 (716) 839-0185
" America" shocked the world in 1851 winning for the U.S.A. lasti ng maritime prestige and a silver cup" America's Cup"-now the world 's most famous sporting tro phy. " America" is now available as an exquisite full¡color
collector' s litho print, chosen official poster for the 1983 America's Cup Race. Authentically recreated
by renowned marine artist Melbourne Smith, "Amer¡ ica" comes on 21 "x30 " quality matt, ideal for framing. Unsigned $25. Signed limited edition $40. Add $2 shipping. Send check, or for Visal MasterCard provide num ber, expiration and signature. Money back guaran tee. Gryphon, Inc Dept. 11-H, Box 1417, Al ex andria, VA 22313
Built in 1886 at Taylors Island, Maryland, the REBECCA T. RUARK is the lastcommerically active sloop on Chesapeake Bay. With their round bottoms, "apple" bows and long bowsprits, these beautiful and distinctive vessels were once quite common on the Bay, but have been displaced by the simpler and less expensive skipjacks.
r. RUARK by Peter E. Egeli, ASMA Image size: 15 % x 30 Print size: 20 % x 35 ~
T he Sloop REBECCA
To: Westbank Studios, Drayden, MD 20630 I have enclosed by check $12 5 for a signed and numbered print $250 for a signed, numbered and remarqued print $4.00 Shipping and Handling Name _________________________ Address-----------------------CitY-----------State ______ Zip _ _ _ __ 36
Sloops originally carried gaff main and topsail rigs. In their last years, however, many adopted the skipjack rigs, and the RU ARK is shown thus in this beautiful print from the painting. The artist, who has published several prints of marine subjects, has selected archival quality paper for this limited edition of 700 prints and personally supervised their production. SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
Joining Ship. A young seaman pauses lo admire the handsome lines of his new ship. In a moment he will turn and stride smartly up the gangway to begin his life aboard.
his subject. The results are uniformly remarkable for not only has he an unerring eye for the run of the sea and the condition of the sky, but the whole picture invariably presents a balanced and totally satisfying aesthetic effect, yet no detail is lacking. It is this point that I must stress, because he is not alone in that. Many artists, particularly those without first-hand experience of sailing ships, do their homework meticulously and delineate all those details which they know to have existed but which, as they do not appear to know, were not normally apparent to the eye viewing a ship as a whole. Thus their pictures are reduced to animated plans and have an aura of unreality. The eye, when all is said and done, sees things more as a box Brownie than a Hasselblad! This is why Friberg is so unique, for the detail is all there, but one does not notice it any more than viewing a real ship. If a small section of one of his pictures is enlarged, the detail is there, and if further enlarged, yet more is apparent. His artistry is painstaking almost beyond belief, and for this reason his output over the years has been relatively low. But the pictures making up that output stand alone! Maggie is no less a perfectionist. She produces marvelous figures, often of seamen or of, say, a sailmaker at his bench. Not only are they faultless as to detail, but they are "alive," and so accurate in expresion that the viewer feels he can read the very character of the man depicted. At art auctions, it is the Kaendler figures, with the implied motion of Harlequin or Columbine, which fetch the highest prices. But to my mind, the more static figures with a range of expression never afterwards repeated in the Meissen factory and which are produced in the brief period of Count Marcolini, are infinitely superior. So it is with Maggie Friberg's figures. Each is "one off," and each is exactly right, whether a Viking warrior, a seaman from the Vasa, the sailmaker, or whatever else the subject. There is no exaggeration, and ornamental value apart, they stand as meticulously researched historical studies. It might be supposed that two such perfectionists could not live in amity together, but they do and very happily so in the pleasant
suburb of Saltsjobaden. Their very sense of perfection restricts their output, which is snapped up eagerly by discerning collectors and maritime museums around the Baltic. Little has been seen outside Scandinavia, though my own firm, Teredo Books, has reproduced some of Handel's paintings and commissioned one of them and a figure from Maggie. If the high gods endowed the two Fribergs with exceptional artistic merit and sense of perfectionism, it seems to have been at the expense of those commercial instincts evident in some marine artists today. They have consistently abjured cheap popularity and have concentrated on the quality of their own work. As this article was going to press, they wrote the editors to say that it will be with ''somewhat strange feelings that we soon can read such an article about us and our works in your so very fine Sea History." And they confess also to some excitement over an exhibition of their work opening in October in the Maritime Museum in Gothenburg. So, while materialism is not their forte, and the word "publicity" does not seem to appear in their vocabularly, increasingly their work will speak for itself ... and the world at large will be the richer thereby. .t
Mr. Hurst, who unlike Handel Friberg, did get to sea in square rig, is today Managing Director of Teredo Books in England, and author ofsuch works as The Medley of Mast and Sail: 2, reviewed under "Books"in this Sea History.
Stag Hound, McKay's sharp built clipper of 1850, and first of the California clippers built to battle their way to glory round Cape Horn, races down a quartering sea, streaming salt waler from her flanks. The artist notes that many have admired such ships- "and I will gladly admit that I am one of the many!"
SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
37
MARINE ART
Guest Editorial
MUSEUM OUALilY
SHIP MODELS
THE DEPARTMENT OF MARINE ART AND SHIP MODELS
exists as the nation's first professional business devoted to the propagation , documentation and care of museum quality ship models. "MUSEUM QUALITY"
ship models , registered and scratch built using techniques and materials required to meet museum standards, are being offered by the Department of Marine Art and Ship Models. Priced from $1 ,000 . Viewing by appointment only.
Museum Quality Ship Models Brochure
$1.00
DEPARTMENT OF MARINE ART AND SHIP MODELS
Inventory Subscription, published quarterly, and Museum Quality Ship Models Brochure $12.00 Send check or money order to: Peter Sorlien, Director DEPARTMENT OF MARINE ART AND SHIP MODELS
Room 2 I Mystic Seaport Museum Stores, Inc. I Mystic, CT 06355
Harborside Wor~pace in Stamford, Connecticut 84,000 sq. ft. I 21 ,000 sq. ft. per floor. Now ready f â&#x20AC;˘ Dock your boat h~[e and join internationally recogni firms in this spectac ular waterfront location.
Call Bill Fox. Collins Development Corporation
43 Lindstrom Road 38
I Stamford, Connecticut 06902 I 203 / 357-0123
The novel notion that Americans should have a monopoly of painting their own history has been advanced recently in these pages . .One wonders how far we should extend this argument. May only Greeks or Persians paint the Battle of Salamis? And only Japanese and Russians the Battle of Tsushima? What devilment made Winslow Homer paint seascapes in England, or Turner in Italy? I have on my walls marine paintings by Swedish, German, French, English, American, Chinese, Australian and other artists. Should I throw all-save the English-into the dust-bin? One thing may be said regardless of imaginary frontiers: There are good and bad artists on both sides of the Atlantic. When my publishing firm issued a questionnaire, partly based on marine art preferences, we found that easily the most popular artists were those best able to publicize them-
''What devilment made Winslow Homer paint seascapes in England?" selves, or who possessed good agents to that end. These were seldom in the first flight. Most of the really top-flight artists were obviously unknown to our readers . Artistic integrity and publicity do not always drive in tandem . Montague Dawson, schooled by Napier Herny, was a firstclass artist until he became contracted to a gallery, expert in publicity, which dictated what it wanted, namely: ships at absurd angles of heel, the curves of the roach and leeches of each sail so exaggerated that any sailmaker would turn in his grave, and with far too much canvas for the wind and sea . The ships looked like some grotesque, sailing sputniks . We all know them. Many younger artists have made themselves ridiculous by trying to emulate this style. Dawson, of course, knew better (vide his earlier works and those with different subject matter), but the consequence was that Montague Dawson, deservedly famous if left to himself, achieved his international popularity for the wrong reason . One could mention others . A contemporary artist, whose works receive tremendous coverage, has a multiplicity of vanishing points in each canvas. Many others research assiduously and produce first-class technical detail. Yet one I know decks his ships, in house-flag, ensign and any other bunting he can dream up, even when hove to in hurricane conditions! When I asked him why, he replied: "That is what my customers want." No doubt he was right. So we see pictures of men going aloft on the lee side. These things are not included in sail plans, seamanship books or the like, and I would hazard the guess SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
that few of the purchasers are a ny wiser, or lose a ny sleep, if the ship on their wall is unworkable, or if its crew members are in process of committing involuntary suicide! An American recently asked my opinion on two pictures in a London gallery. l replied that sea and sky were beautifully executed, but that the ships were simpl y unwork a ble and bristled with error. Moreover, the artist had named one of them, and the ship in question was nothing like the one portrayed . If, however, he merely wanted two dramat ic pictures, it was another matter. He bought them both, saying, with perfect honesty, that neither he nor his friends could judge matters of rigging, a nd so forth. Artists who play to the gallery, and who a re provided with good publicity will make a killing, but they lose their integrity and thei r works will not survive. Surely an artist must ask himself: "Who am l painting pictures for?" H e may be depressed at the answer but, havi ng decided, he must choose between his integrity and his bank balance-unless he is in the forefront of the first f1igh t. There is a gallery in London which sells the worst marine pictures l know . It is well sited , a nd it seems to do a fin e trade, its claims being almost excl usively American visitors . If, in a spirit of protectionism, these pictures were to be burnt by the US customs on arrival back in the USA, it might be no bad thing, since they are really o nl y fi t for a bonfire . But what is the difference between an American buying a British artist's work in one co untry or another? Regrettably, artistic merit on its own is not the sole key to success in a world where advertising is king , so let us all maintain a proper sense of perspective, both on a nd off canvasses, a nd read no more of these se ntiments in Sea History, which- thank heavens!-reall y is international in its o utlook!
The World 's Only
THE DROMEDARY
Universal/ Professional
Ship Modelers Associates
UNDERWATER METAL DETECTOR
6324 Belton Drive, El Paso, Texas 79912 (915) 584-2445
OUR NEWEST CATALOG Se lectable Dual Circuit permits detection , in fresh or sa lt water . of all metals or detection of gold , silver . copper . and lead . whi le ignoring most iron / junk metals . e 200 ft. Certified Depth e Automatic / Manual Modes Outputs : Earphones / Meter / LED s e Detects : Single coins to 18 9V NiCads . in . Larger objec ts to 6 ft. 11O 112V Cha rger 1-year Warranty
e
e
e
CALL TOLL FREE
1-800-527-4011
1-800-442-4889 (In Te xas)
t
GARRETT METAL DETECTORS
1
Dept SH981
- 2814 National Drive
<t. Garland Texas 7504 1 US A
Deal~ir
~n~~:~~-s
FORMAT5 From decision to display, this new , up-Iodate edition includes the latest merchandise available to the modeler. Fully described and illustrated , it's a reference book you cannot afford to be without. Any ite m in this catalog may be purchased with the confidence that we cannot be satisfied until you are. $6 postpaid
Outside United States $7 Master Charge and Bank Arnericard customers call (915) 584-2445 Sorry, we cannot accept collect calls.
ALEX A . HURST
Models of Achievement
;lll ..
.¡
~
Favorites of discri minating model builders, ou r kits contain only the fin est materials-no lead or plastic. Everyt hin g's included to make a handsome model, worthy of your tim e and care. Avai lable at better dealers or send $2.00 for catalogue.
'bBfl!flJl!f?JffsT 93 Canal St .. Shelton. CT 06484
SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/83
39
DAY'S RUN
Report of the American Sail Training Association
A Sailor Looks Back on Lisbon by Thomas R. Weschler Vice Admiral, USN (ret.) Chairman, ASTA From August third to the seventh, the city of Lisbon was alive with the sights and sounds of the Silver Jubilee gathering of many of the world's "Tall Ships" commemorating the finish of the first sail training race in 1956. The ships arrived from Falmouth, England, having finished the first leg of the Sail Training Association's "Cutty Sark Tall Ships Race," and from Newport, Rhode Island, after completing the final leg of the American Sail Taining Association's "New World Race." Their arrival filled three miles of waterfront with tall masts, signal flags, and ensigns from around the world and sent through the air the cadence of many tongues juxtaposed against the traditional bustle of a port crowded with sailing craft making ready for their next voyage. It was a remarkable gathering of 106 ships from fifteen nations, and it brought together more than 3,000 trainees for the unique exchanges common to these gatherings . The hospitality of Lisbon Sail 1982 abounded everywhere during the visit. The captains, trainees, and crew members were treated to many spectacular events, and at the same time made to feel extraordinarily welcome. The official importance placed on this event was demonstrated by the personal participation of the President of Portugal, most of his cabinet, and a great many of the members of the local diplomatic corps. The President received the captains in a courtesy call on the first day of their stay, attended the midweek prizegiving ceremony, and reviewed the Parade of Sail as the ships departed. One especially memorable event was the military tattoo at the new sports stadium just outside the city. Five major bands were presented in a concert which included ¡ marching displays and martial arts demonstrations by all the armed forces and national police . An enthusiastic crowd of over 30,000 attended this show . The final production of the evening was a massing of all the bands in the form of a "Tall Ship," with the Navy and Marine participants forming the sails, while the bands joined to play a nautical medley. During their stay the cadets and trainees had a chance to become acquainted with Lisbon, a city which reflects the just pride of her homeland in its rich maritime heritage. They were invited to visit the naval and maritime museums, and to at40
The Doca da Marinha with the A/Jama district of Lisbon in the background.
''Portugal is a land which still faces the sea as a friend, a source of income, a highway, and a stern challenge. '' tend the special planetarium show featuring a presentation of the stars as they appeared during Vasco da Gama's voyage of discovery in 1498. They also toured Moorish forts, 17th and 18th century castles, the Alfama (Old City), and other points of interest in this historic land. The teeming harbor, with its backdrop of monuments and ancient buildings, drove home the point that Portugal is a land which still faces the sea as a friend, a source of income, a highway, and a stern challenge. The unforgettable setting firmly established a feeling of continuity from the earliest times of maritime exploration. The culmination of Lisbon Sail 1982 was the Parade of Sail. The magnificent Tower of Belem, built in the 15th century on the shores of the Tagus River, overlooks the harbor of Lisbon. It was used as a commercial site for receiving the ships of Vasco da Gama, who discovered the route to India in 1499, and Pedro Cabral, who -though seeking the route to the Spice Islands-discovered Brazil and claimed it for Portugal in 1500. On those occasions, the king stood on the Tower, as much to
honor the mystery of the sea and the marvelous bravery of its great sailors, as for them to pay homage to his position . Here, on August 7, a 20th century counterpart to those events was staged, and it rang again the unforgettable bells of excitement, challenge, and international achievement. With the more modern monument to Prince Henry and Portugal's many other unique explorers in the background, the President of Portugal stood on the balcony of the Tower of Belem, exactly as King Manuel had done. As the ships of each country passed by, he saluted their national ensign while the nearby navy band played their national anthem. Each ship's complement manned the rail and the yards as it passed in review, and the spectators on shore, in turn, bid each an enthusiastic and fond farewell. It was a glorious sight, redolent with history and with a once-in-alifetime air. Everyone was touched and inspired and, if there is a ghost of Prince Henry the Navigator, he must have been on hand to cheer this great display. Though Lisbon Sail 1982 has ended, it remains locked in thousands of hearts and minds, as well as photo albums, to warm a winter's night or speed a long watch or flavor a downstream reminiscence. Many thanks, Lisbon, for your extraordinary celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of sail training races! SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
Eisenhower Ho use, Fort Adams State Park, Ne wport, RI 02840
Tel: 401-846-1775
A Meeting at Sea By Margaret Havers Late one July evening at lat. 43.41 , long . 27 .58, course 125 ° on a velvet black sea in the North Atlantic, two ships came close alongside each other for twenty short minutes. Two barkentines: one of 3,200 tons displacement, the other 250 tons. I was aboard the smaller vessel. As the smaller vessel, und er power, approached the other ship which lay becalmed, a male chorus could be heard drifting across the water. Music, lights , merrymaking. As we closed her we could see thousands of yards of canvas hanging between her spa rs and as th e deck lights cast their glows up into th e rigging the canvas appeared creased and folded like fluted chiffon as it fluttered in the light breeze. All was moving, the ship , the cloth, the lights, and then moving limbs and waving arms could be discerned as we moved even closer. Two ships bound for Lisbon-two ships who set out from Newport Rhode Isla nd on June 27 on the New World Race with their trainee crews aboard. The fourmasted barkentine Esmeralda from Chile and the three-masted barkentine Our Svanen with her youn g crew of Royal Canadian Sea Cadets rend ezvoused at dusk. At 1800 that same evening, before the 2200 rendezvous we chanced to haul a board 65 lbs. of bea utiful , huge, shiny, energetic strong tuna. Magnificent! Our young cadets quavered at the sight of so much "high protein diet" arriving aboard again . Almost within minutes the Captain clapped his hands and gleefully announced "Hahl we will make a presentation for the
Esm eralda! " Our young cook visibly brightened . The line-throwing gun was fired with a glo-stick in the head of the projectile. Simultaneously the cannon fired. Once the line landed aboard the Esmeralda the tuna which was attached to this line was slipped gently into the water and pulled across the gulf between the two ships. Throughout this operation more music and more clapping and cheering was taking place between them . Spotlights were swung to illuminate sails and Svanen 's spreader lights shone on her rigging and decks. The fish arrived at the Esmeralda safely and was ha uled aboard to much more clapping and cheering . Our cadets sang "Heart of Oak " at the tops of their lungs and if they were out of tune, I don't think it was very important. A few minutes later more music assailed our ears and it was the Esm eralda band playing "Heart of Oak" for us. Our cadets followed with "Oh Ca nada " a nd by this time the heaving line was on its way back. In tqe water by Esm eralda 's hull was a lifejacket. We receive orders to pull gently, the lifejacket bobbed towards us and we heaved it aboard. Unwrapping man y layers-lifejacket, line and waterproof bag-we came upon their gift to us. A beautiful book on Chile translated into English, French and Spanish, a bronze medallion of the Esmeralda and to crown it all 6 bottles of delicious C hilean wine. We announced to our crew that the wine would be served at our customary Captain' s Dinner which mark s the farewell of each six-week course. My eyes blinked like ca mera shutters
Our Sva nen rolls along under gray skies with everything set and flags streaming. Th e 130 ' barkentine built in Denmark in 1922 carried grain in Scandina vian waters until 1969 when the Ha verses bought her, to spend the next ten years rebuilding her. Today she sails out of British Columbia on Canada 's west coast, training Royal Canadian Sea Cadets in sometimes distant cruising.
and I committed all I saw to memory. Those minutes passed quickly-we may never have th e experience again. We lay alongside another vessel in fine conditions a nd th ere was little danger. We drank in the simple pleasure of being at sea, smelling fresh air, singing and exchanging friend ship-two countries, two cultures, two languages bound by a common medium . Surely the sea was meant for such meetings ! ls this romantic talk? Damn right it is. Anyon e sailing through the fog off Newfoundl a nd at nine knots carrying the responsibility of 20 young people in their hands, anyone concerning themselves with the safety of young men and women afloat furlin g the topgallant and topsails in a 40 knot wind-anyone teaching them, training th em, making them aware, teaching them in six short weeks to grow up has earned the right to speak of romance. As we moved away slowly into the inky blackness of the night and our young train ees di spersed to watch stations , studies or bunks, our wheelhouse watch, Captain , helmsman and I were treated to the voice of Esmeralda's captain, Captain Roehrs, saying over the radio to us: "I don ' t speak English good, but my fri ends I must tell you that in all my years at sea, this night will be my greatest memory. "
EDITORIAL NOTICE No United States vessel took part in this 20th anniversary gathering of tall ships from around the Atlantic world. This, as we of the American Ship Trust know, is not due to any lack of interest. No, the lack stems rather, as we have come to see it, from two things: First, a lack of national recognition and focu s on this intensely valuable and productive activity. Second, and not unrelated to the first, a stultifying set of US regulations unsuited to the needs of sail training ships which effectively bar US flag vessels from sail training . The American Sail Training Association, now nearing its tenth anniversary, is working to overcome both the recognition and the regulation problems-with growing success. We urge you be in touch with them and support their campaign. P .S. 41
BOOKS
IDSTORYm PHOTOGRAPHS by Jeffrey Simpson
The Hudson River: 1850-1918 A Photographic Portrait " Here is a piece of ge nuin e America na. An enduring efforr, The Hudson River: 1850-19 18 will make an ideal book for lovers of pictorial history." -United Press
Internatio nal 208 pages , 15 0 B&W photographs , c lothbo und, 529.95
Officers And Gentlemen Historic West Point in Photographs In 200 photographs and illustrations, Offi¡ cers and Gentlemen chronicles the growth of the academy and the exploits of its graduates from West Point's fo un ding in 1802 until Wor ld War I hero Douglas MacArt hur b eca me superint endent in 19 19. 224 pages , 200 B&W photographs , c lo thbound , 524.95
To : Sleepy Hollow Press 150 Wh ile Plains Road , Tarri1own, NY !0591 Tille Officers & Gentlemen The Hudson River: 1850-1918 ~ame - - - - - - - - - - - - Address _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
Ci1y _ _ _ _ _ s1a1e _ _ _ Zip _ __ Shipping: Sl.25 firs1 book, S.25 each addilional
~'Y
residenlS, add Sales Tax
Check enclosed for S _ __
42
The Medlt;y of Mast anJ Sail Il: A Camera Record, ed. Alex. A. Hurst (Teredo Books, Brighton, UK/ Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, USA, 1981, 473 pp., 525 photos, $29.95). Medley I, a photographic review of working sail issued in 1977, made a considerable name for itself. This is, simply, more and better. Here a whilom mariner, deep draft thinker and cherisher of things made lovely by human effort and caring has really hit his stride, gathering in hundreds of photographs, and also memories, anecdotes and observations from a worldwide network of correspondents . Here one meets direct experience with archaic and out-ofthe-way working sail and oar powered vessels, one of which, the Portuguese xavega discussed by Major David Goddard, went extinct (except for an example saved by him in the Exeter Maritime Museum!) while this book was in the making. The working of these vessels, from the big Australian grain trade ships the author sailed in, to the little Breton and English brigs and schooners he watched ply England's coastal waters as a child, is discussed with authority, and with a sea sense that cannot be mistaken. Hurst knew and kept in touch with our own Archie Horka of New Jersey (see memoir, SH15:40), the late Jim Gaby of Australia and that courtly and learned gentleman Tomaso Gropallo of Genoa, Moshulu's Captain P. A. McDonald in California ... well , read the inimitably discursive "Acknowledgements," and you will find yourself in the company of those who guard the flame . No one writes with Hurst's idiosyncratic verve and vitality (and exuberant prejudices!), no one can better make you feel and see what is in a photograph . Again , you owe it to yourself to turn these pages, and become engrossed in a deeply learned, deeply felt, memorably expressed story. P .S. The Era of the Joy Line, by Edwin L. Dunbaugh (Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport CT 06881, 1982, 363 pp., ill., $27.50) While the overnight steamers of Long Island Sound, which connected New York City with various New England cities, have been the subject of a number of books and numerous articles, the subject has long cried for definitive treatment. The year 1982 has brought us such a work: Edwin Dunbaugh's Era of the Joy Line. The Joy Line operated freight and passenger steamers between New York and two New England capitals-Providence and Boston. It began operati ng in March 1899, and throughout its independent history provided cut-rate competition
for the New Haven Railroad's transportation monopoly, which operated both trains and some of the finest inland/ coastal steamers of the world. The line was bought out by the railroad in 1905 , and continued operations for six more years under its original name. Among the three men who ran the Joy Line was F.M. Dunbaugh, grandfather of the author. The book goes beyond the Joy Line itself to treat chronologically the marine operations of the New Haven, and other Sound lines of the period. Thus the work covers the general history of Long Island Sound steamers from the 1890s through 1907. As indicated by the introduction , this is less a book of men and their business than it is one of steamboats. The text follows these craft through the routine of daily operations, as well as the spectacular incidents which made news reporters of the day scramble. The story of the steamer Larchmont's sinking in 1907 is particularly complete, as is the description of a typical overnight voyage from Providence to New York. Mr. Dunbaugh's feeling for the steamers is evident. The book is replete with comments on the appearance, relative co mfor t, and passenger and freight capacities of the steamers, including the number of staterooms on each boat. This information serves to explain the shuffling of vessel assignments on the various lines operated by the New Haven, and clarifies the differences between the services offered by the Joy Line and its competitors. While others have told what happened when steamers were built and reassigned, Dunbaugh puts it all in perspective by telling the reader why it happened, in revealing detail. Machinery types and advances are lightly treated. This weakness leads to the perpetuation of two notable errors of a previous well known author. First, the Fall River steamer Pilgrim is incorrectly indicated to have had feathering paddle wheels . The second error involves three steamers. The Massachusetts and Bunker Hill of 1907 were propelled by steam turbines, while the third sister Old Colony had reciprocating engines. Regretfully, this book reports that Old Colony was the lone turb ine steamer of the trio. Unfortunate as these errors are, they pale in significance when contrasted with the run of this very dependable work. The well-written text addresses the subj.:ct seriously, yet has many witty touches that reveal the author's unabashed affection for the subject. The resulting narrative is both informative and entertaining. There is a prologue, fo llowed by a chapter covering the 1890s. A full chapter is SEA HI STO RY, W INTER 1982/ 83
devoted to each o f the years 1899- 1907 , incl usive. The epilogue surveys th e Sound steamers th rough their ul timate d emise. The collecti on of 94 photographs portrays virtually all of the steamboats coveredsome of th em in two or more periods of their service . Unfort una tely these a re grouped in three places within t he book, and are reproduced in small sizes. Still , it is a good , represe nta ti ve selecti on a nd is most appropriate to th e text, includ ing several rare photos of the Joy Line' s steamers and wharves. A most u n fortunate graphic decision was the book jacket. The yellow lettering is virtuall y unreadable on a light blue backgrou nd . The book includ es an appendix, listi ng statistics fo r each steamer of the Joy Line, the Narragansett Bay Li ne, and the Enterprise Line, over ni ne pages of notes giving furt her evidence of considerable research, and explanatory notes placed at the foot of the pages within the text. The re is a good index . The Era of the Joy Line is good reading for any with histo rical in terest, a rea l joy fo r the steamship enthusiast, an d a must for any personal, public, or research library' s shelf of mariti me history. B ARRY W . EA GE R
Mr. Eager, a director of the Steamship Historical Society of America with a particular interest in the New Haven Railroad's steamship operations on the Sounds of southern New England, is also historian of the Friends of Nobska.
Yassi Ada, Volume I: A Seventh-Century Byzantine Shipwreck, by George F . Bass and Frederick H . van Doorninck , Jr. , et al (Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Texas A&M Uni versity Press, 1982, 349 pp., photos and di ag., $79. 50) . T his first in a seri es of scholarly INA reports is publis hed two decades after the ship was excavated fro m the seabed o ff Turkey; in th at time, nautical archaeology has come of age, gradu ating fro m its initial preoccupation with tec hniq ue into b roa der st udi es developing deeper understanding of both th e nature and meaning of what has been SEA HI ST O RY, WINTER 1982/ 83
MARINE CATALOGS
Send for I nternational Marine B ooks a great, free catalog of 500 marine tit!~ . International Marine Publishing Company Box. SH, Camden, Mai ne 04843
$3 (Overseas, $5) All Nautica l Subjects
JULIAN BURNETI BOOKS P.O. Bo x 229, Atlanta , GA 30301
Rare and Out of Print
Scarce and O ut of Print MARITIME/ EXPLORATION
MARITIME & NAVAL BOOKS Se nd 2 In te rn atio nal Rep ly Co upo ns for Airm ail Despatc h of lists con tai n ing over 1000 REA SO NABL Y PRI C ED BOOKS Frank Smith 60 Salisbury Avenue North Shields Tyne and Wear NE29 9PF England
Boo ks Bo ug ht an d So ld Lists Issued
ACADIA BOOK SERVICE
.........,..•......•••,....."'•'
"'••
J NAUTICAL J
\ANTIQUES\ , : : Ill :
Nautical Brass is a magazine for the co llector of nautical antiques and co llectibl es. f • Articles • Pi ctori als \ • Classifieds • Letters $10/ Year (six issues) or send 11 ' for your free sampl e copy.
: " : ' '
!
. .. .;)
Box 244 , Ca stine ME 04421
History, History and More Sea History! w e·ve got it all: we ll -kn own and lesser known classics. out of prin t and imported ones. loo. We're the largest marine bookstore in the U.S.: 3000 "in print" titl es including sea history. folklore. voyaging. whaling. navigalion . oceanograph y and more.
Sen d $4 fo r 208 pg .. 2 volum e ca talog . Pro mpt service .
illu str .
;
'' NAUTICAL BRASS S'' S ! .... , ,............, P. O. BOX 744-T
Master of Cape Horn: The Story of a Square-rigger Captain and His World, William Andrew Nelson , 1839-1929, by Hugh Falkus (Victor Gollancz, North P omfret VT, 1982, 160 pp ., color, illus., $32.50). A strong character jumps across the generations in this well wrought memoir of a Marypo rt (England) captain who died at age 90 more than a half a centu ry ago-leaving behind journals and memori es reaching back to the days of small wooden ships carryi ng Britain' s commerce ro und the globe.
Rare and Out-of-Print Books
WANT GOOD BOOKS ABOUT BOATS?
•.....
Montrose , CA 91020 '
.;)
~
··H " . Lee s Wharf. Newport. RI 02840. Tel 40 1-84 7 4252
CLIPPER CLASSICS Presenting the most authoritative and renowned works on clipper ships ever published. AMERICAN CLIPPER SHIPS 1833-1858, by Howe & Matthews
The histories of 350 clippers. Two volume boxed set, 780 pages, 113 plates-$40.00 POSTPAID THE LAST OF THE WINDJAMMERS, by Basil Lubbock
The swan-song of the mightly iron and steel Cape Homers. 1870-1928. Two volumes, 34 foldout plans, 966 pages, 300 illustrations $70.00 POSTPAID IMMEDIATE DELIVERY PROMISED
Catalogs available of current and out-of-print books: $5 a year.
SEAWAYS BOOKS . Box 274, Rte. 94, Salisbury Mills, NY 12577
43
BOOKS
Enjoy Christmas with the likes of
~
W
ANTON OTTO FISCHER ...
Enjoy! We endeavor each year to offer you books of real merit and meaning to those who follow the sea. You may imagine how pleased we are, this year, to offer: Anton Otto Fischer, Marine Artist, by Katrina Sigsbee Fischer, with Alex Hurst. This fine volume by the artist's daughter offers a personal look at Fischer's life with many family photos and fine reproductions of his paintings, most of them in full color. .Size, 9 x 11 1/z", 260 pages, 235 illus., hardcover , $65. Shipwrecks and Archaeology, by Peter Throckmorton. The adventure of the early days of marine archaeology told by one of its pioneers. 260 pages, ha rdcover, 45 photos, $17.75.
discovered . A surprisingly readable effort, illumined by photographs of J. Richard Steffy's reconstruction shipmodeling. Fragile Paradise: The Discovery of Fletcher Christian, Bounty Mutineer, by Glynn Christian (Little Brown & Co., Boston/ Toronto, 1982, 256 pp., illus., $19.95). "What Rousseau dreamed, Christian did " his descendant Glynn notes in this re~arkably full exploration of the one-man revolt that became fam~m s as the Bounty mutiny. The trail leads deep into the cultures of Tahiti and 18th century England, with some very fresh conclusions . The Bounty Triology, by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall (Little Brown & Co., 691 pp., illus ., $24.95). This reissue of the classic volumes published 1932-36 comes with handsome color reproductions of N. C. Wyeth's dreamlike paintings . Nordhoff and Hall 's history rendered as fiction weathers well, paying full credit to Christian's idyllic visions, Bligh's bad temper and courage, the horror the mutineers fell into-killing each other in a few years-and the stern disciplines of life in the Royal Navy under sail. Glencannon, by Guy Gilpatrick, (Curtis Publishing Co., Indianapolis IN, n.d., 289 pp., $5.95). Roistering, conniving, outrageous Chief Engineer Colin Glencannon of the SS Jnchc/iff Castle lives again! Here are 21 stories of his deviltry as published starting in 1929 in the Saturday Evening Post. Viking of Assault: Admiral John Lesslie Hall, Jr., and Amphibious Warfare, by Susan H . Godson (University Press of
The Seaman's World : Merchant Seamen's Reminiscences, with a n introduction by Ronald Hope. Recollections from the boiler room to the bridge, in peace and war. Ha rdcover, 142 pages, $15. The Peking Battles Cape Horn, by Irving Johnson. A classic narrative of a passage round Cape Horn in 1929 in the steel bark Peking, with a new forwo rd and afterword. Hardcover, 225 pages, illus. with 40 photos, $11.95. Please send your check or money order to:
· .· · •
~
National Maritime · · Historical Society ·• 2 Fulton Street, · Brooklyn, NY 11201
44
Seaport Magazine is just one of the be ne fits of m e mbe rs hip in the South Street Seaport Museum ... Adva n rr not j ('(' o r ('Ve nt s. frcT ad mi ss ion 10 o u r his to ri (' ships. and disrou nt s in th C' Mu sC'um shops. to events. and to harbor sai ls a r C' just a rew or th(' 01hers. 111 , 1 111 - .J. . _
:C' ( " (
c 'I I 'r I I I I I I I i H ,,l-!-!..!..!.!.. 111
:f
jjl )- i J
.
.
·
.
V'Jl.;m:-...eee:eee· -- - . - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - -. South Street Seaport Museum 203 Front St., New York NY 10038 r Pl eas(' send me more in fo rm ation. 11<-llTI (''-- - - - - - - -- - - -
.dp
America, PO 19101 , Washington DC 20036, 1982, 237 pp., maps, biblio ., hardcover $21.50, paperback $10.25). This study of the developing US amphibious capability in World War II, offers particular insight into the invasion of Normandy and the personalities and command problems involved. Hall' s pragmatic insights (use of the "drying out" of major ships to get huge tonnages ashore fast, suspicion of Mulberry, insistence on close-in naval gunfire and on-scene spotter control}, bac ked by his executive drive, make him an authentic hero of this critical aspect of WWII operations. One senses also a generosity of vision in a man who could have as his heroes the gentle, out-offavor Admiral Stark and the flamboyant (also out-of-favor) General Patton . One could wish a fuller , illustrated edition of this thoroughly documented, balanced, compellingly well written story . The Fleet the Gods Forgot: The U.S. Asiatic Fleet in World War II, by W.G. Winslow (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 1982, 327 pp., illus., $21.95). A survivor of the US heavy cruiser Houston, sunk by the Japanese off Java as their fleet brushed aside the screening forces thrown up agai nst them in WWII, recounts the confusions of defeat and, vividly and memorably, the desperate, swirling battles . This work in memory of the author's shipmates shows remarkable balance and penetration; it's worthy of their memory. Battleship Sailor, by Theodore C. Mason (Naval Institute Press, 1982, 271 pp., illus., $14.95). A survivor of the sinking of the battleship California at Pearl Harbor looks back with pride, gusto and colorful realism at the big-gun ships and the life of the men who served in them. Wangka: Austronesian Canoe Origins, by Edwin Doran , Jr. (Texas A&M University Press , College Station TX 77843, 1981 , 111 pp., illus. & maps, $15). Professor Doran has developed seawo rthiness ratings for canoe types, and other data compiled in actual sailings, which when tied in with geographic dispersion of given charac teristics, and state of the art linguistic and archaeological studies, suggest to him that the migrations that populated the Pacific and Indian Ocean islands (a geographic dispersion far larger than that of the next-ranking Indo-Europeans) were based not on blind "waves of migration" but on deliberate voyaging-island hopping and land-bridge crossing originating in the Ice Age, probably from South China, around 10,000 BC, and deepwater voyaging from 4,000 BC onward . .t
SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
SHIP MODELS SOLD • APPRAISED • PURCHASED • RESTORED
America's largest ship model emporium- over 350 clipperships, whalers, schooners, riverboats, tugboats, admiralty models, partial cutaways, etc. presently in inventory. Model,s rangefrom 811 to8' in length! Our clientele includes numerous collectors, dealers, restaurants, museums, banks, etc. NOTE: Our long standing reputation for selling ship models and nautical artifacts at at least 50% below market value remains unchanged. To maintain our low overhead and low prices we have moved to expanded warehouse facilities. Please note our new address below. If you desire a museum quality scale model of your own yacht, one of our 38 quality model builders will build it for you! NOTE: Please write for a spectacular color photo of our Shop! Visitation by appointment only. Thank you.
LANNAN NAUTIQUES Box 150, Dedham, Mass 02356 • Tel: 617-329-2650 Write or call day/night. Conveniently located 7 mi. south of Boston
Traditional scrimshaw from leading maritime museums and contemporary scrimshaw now available in replica - teeth, boxes, desk accessories, jewelry. These fine reproductions have been painstakingly recreated in a specially formulated material, polymer ivory, to provide you with the beauty of the original without using whale products. Do your own scrimshaw with our kits and blanks. For a full color brochure of our "Save the Collection" of scrimshaw send Whale $1 .00 to
ARTEK, INC.
(~
Dept. S
"Iv
E:.,ANTRIM.~·
'1;,t>.
\\·~
The
- - --
AMERICAN - - MARINE MODEL GALLERY
This countries largest collection of Museum Quality
SHIP MODELS •Fully illustrated, 40 page Catalogue: $8.00• open by appointment
20 Front Street Salem, Massachusetts 01970 • (617) 745-5777 SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
45
Fire at Christmas by Captain Fred Klebingat
The second Christmas after Pearl Harbor was drawing near. Shipyards in the United States were building ships by the hundreds. They were now building ships faster than the enemy U-boats could sink them. It was a blustery day in San Pedro when I shipped as chief mate on the Liberty ship William Mulholland. The wind was from the southeast-our storm quarter-and increasing as I stepped out into the street from the Masters, Mates & Pilots hall. The rain started. Big drops splattered onto the sidewalk , mushrooming into spray. It rained all that night. Many of my friends were working at the outfitting dock, where the William Mulholland was making ready for sea. That evening I picked up the phone, called one of these chums and told him that I was going to join the ship in the morning. "Hell," said he, "I don't know how you can do that. She is not even painted, and it is raining pitchforks." The people who had told me to join the ship must know what they are talking about, I said to myself. She should be ready in the morning, or they would have told me. I reached for the phone again and called another friend of mine, Otto Mathies*, who had a job on the launching ways. "Don't worry about it," he said, "Rain or no rain, that ship will be painted by 8 A.M. and ready to go on a trial trip." The next morning the rain had eased as I joined the "rat race" making for the gates of the California Shipbuilding Company at Terminal Island, Los Angeles Harbor. A flood of shipyard workers-men and women. There was the William Mulholland in a glistening coat of dark grey, immaculately painted. How did they do it? They told me a gang with burning gas torches dried the plates of the wet ship-rain pouring down-and right behind the burning torches, the spray painters applied the paint to the hot plates . That's the way we did things in this country in 1942. I stepped on board and found the captain's quarters and introduced myself to the captain, a downeaster by the name of Smith. He was an old-time shipmaster who had traded to West Africa in the days of sail for mahagony and palm oil when the Barber Line-which was going to operate this ship-was still young. The captain had come out of retirement to again assume command. The chief engineer was of an entirely different stamp, although also a New Englander. At home somewhere in the State of Maine, he had at an early day gone to sea with his dad, who owned a schooner. As he was going to sit for his examination for mate, it was found that he was color blind. So he put away his sextant and became an engineer. His name was Rowndy. He stayed in this ship until the end of the war. â&#x20AC;˘ And of course there were my two partners, the second mate and third mate. The second, evidently born in Germany-although he denied this-had adopted an English name. Although a capable navigator, he had the unfortunate knack of making himself cordially disliked by everybody. And then there was Jahren, the third mate, in his forties. He was a reliable man of medium build; although Norwegian born he was swarthy . These were the men who manned the ship-the officers. All those before the mast I have now forgotten. I always have been an admirer of beautiful machinery. But if I was looking for what might be called fine engines, I surely had come to the wrong place . This was a triple expansion engine, but there was no power ram to put the engine in reverse, no separate vacuum pumps, and the whole thing was roughly finished-well, I suppose they just did not have enough machinists who could do first class work.
*Otto came around Cape Horn in the British four-masted bark Howth . He was for many years skipper on John Barrymore 's yacht Mariner.
46
The Mulholland had only one anchor ready to use. There was not enough chain for the other hook, so it was welded fast to the deck, a most efficient way of keeping it from shifting-or being used. The missing chain was discovered months later, loaded on flat-cars that were sidetracked on a waystation somewhere in Texas. The lower bridge of the Mulholland was fairly well fitted out, as was the chart room. But the upper bridge had a wheel exposed to all weathers, like the old colliers. But they did improve some of them later on; a neat wheelhouse was built above the bridge to shelter the helmsman, who then regularly steered from up there. The captain's quarters were nothing that worthy would want to write home about. Right up on top, near the ship's stack, built of bare steel plates, his rooms were stifling hot in the tropics and bitterly cold in the winter. Some skippers in Liberties that had a wheelhouse built on top, as I have described, then made their living quarters on the ship's bridge. My own quarters as mate on the Mulholland, one deck below the captain's, may actually have been a little better than his, even though a mass of steam pipes thickened by lagging encumbered the overhead. After I had looked over the Mulholland, I thought to myself, "And now you are condemned to sail in tubs like this one for the rest of your seafaring career. They were built to win the war and there is no doubt, as the expression has it, that 'they did their part.'" And a large part it was. They were simple ships-simple to build. That was the point; it was wartime. Once, I understand, they built one in five days. But as a professional seafaring man, I cannot pretend that I was thrilled when I encountered my first Liberty ship. The ship had five hatches, all covered with wooden hatch boards. And of course she was armed to the teeth. As I remember, there was a five-inch caliber gun in a tub on a house near the stern, and one of three-inch caliber in a guntub forward. At least eight 20-mm anti-aircraft guns were mounted on high pedestals amidships. It was about ten in the morning when the trial trip crew came on board . In charge was Captain Halvarsen, the shipyard's Port Captain, and Captain Cederloft, Trial Trip Captain in command. We steamed to the Outer Harbor. Engines on full ahead and on slow, rudder on the different angles, hard left and hard .. . All seemed to be satisfactory. We dropped the anchor-windlass in good working order. The ship was swung for compass adjustment and later put on the degaussing range. Early in the afternoon we were done with that and we moored the ship at Pier 47, the former Matson Terminal. The William Mulholland was officially delivered to the Barber Line, who would operate her hereafter. The trial crew went ashore. Longshoremen came aboard and raised the cargo booms; winchdrivers secured extensions to the control handles of the winches, so that one winchdriver could operate both of them, a venerable West Coast way of doing things . The ship's crew came on board and by the end of that busy day all hands had reported. Although it was late December, the weather turned fine. Loading was going on in all five hatches. A gasoline-driven crane was mounted on deck on the after part of Number Two hatch on the starboard inshore side to speed the cargo in. For security, some members of the Navy gun crew patrolled the ship at regular intervals, and a gangway watchman was supplied by the Pinkerton Agency. On the morning of December 24th, the day of Christmas Eve, I arrived from home about half past seven in the morning and showed my pass to the watchman at the wharf gate. He was a new SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
Captain Klebingat (standing) as second mate of the MS Rolando about 1955. He continued at sea into his 80s and now lives overlooking the harbor at Coos Bay, Oregon. This memory of a wartime Christmas was published in fuller form in 1980 by the Friends of the Na tonal Maritime Museum, San Francisco.
man, and I could see that he was highly nervous. Fear of something showed in his face and behavior. Stream locomotives were shunting boxcars, all marked "EXPLOSIVES." Screeching of wheels, puffing of locomotives' exhaust and clanging of bells made an ungodly din. Unconcerned, I walked toward the ship. I had to pass close to some boxcars loaded with ammunition. "Halt!" a voice behind me shouted , and I felt a gun stuck against the small of my back . I turned. "Can ' t you read?" the gate watchman shouted. He had run after me. "Explosives!" "What about it? I replied, " I am not going to hurt them. I am the chief mate of that ship over there." I went on, "And I am going to be riding the top of 3600 tons of explosives . Clear across the ocean." The watchman put his gun into his holster and turned without a word. I never again saw him at the gate. They must have found a less nervous type. Christmas Eve-wartime-one tried to remember the spirit of the season as it had echoed in happier times. Captain Smith and also Rowndy, the chief engineer, had been invited ashore to celebrate with some friends. I was supposed to be relieved at five o'clock by the second mate so I could go ashore, but he never showed up. Relief mates on the holidays were scarce . I didn't like it, but it was plain that I was stuck with the duty. Christmas Eve in dockland-no cheer, no warmth, no blazing yule log (I am speaking figuratively-yule logs were scarce in San Pedro) . But I would soon have a substitute-a blazing Liberty ship . By now the ship was at least two-thirds loaded with ammunition of all kinds in most of the lower holds. Number Two hatch had explosives nearly up to the 'tween decks and hay was stowed in the space up to the hatch combing of the hold. At about one-thirty on the morning of Christmas Day, I was near Number Three hatch, talking to the relief night engineer . All at once-WHOOSH-a flame shot up into the air from the crane standing on deck near Number Two hatch. A gasoline crane- a gasoline fire! ''Start your fire pumps !' ' I shouted to the engineer . He plunged below. "Ring the alarm!" I hollered to the longshoremen. We were lucky-a dock hydrant was just abreast of the hatch . The longshoremen did not need urging, and in no time at all they had SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982/ 83
water shooting at the flaming crane. There was another hydrant in front of the midship house and by the time the hose was stretched, the engineer had the fire pump going full blast. We pointed this hose down the hatch to soak the ammunition in the lower hold. We played it on the hay in the 'tweendeck. We must control the fire, we must extinguish it-we didn't dare think what would happen if we failed. Fire in an ammunition ship ... you don't think under these circumstances, you act. You act-attack-or you flee. It is akin to war, I suppose. We weren't short of men, and as luck would have it they were good men. One rang the fire alarm and then the ship's bell. Another blew the steam whistle. Another ran to a telephone booth a few yards away. There was a fireboat across the harbor. The rest were at the hydrants and directing the writhing hoses at the fire. Anxious moments-the flames of that burning gasoline tank shooting high into the air, ammunition all around us in the ship's hold and in boxcars alongside the vessel. And the oil and grease that had dripped from the crane now also was starting to catch fire. The men did not panic-they were made of different stuff than was the watchman at the gate that morning. Slowly the flames lessened. We found out later that a fool crane driver had filled the gasoline tank of his crane while his engine was running. The tank ignited. It all took about twenty minutes. After the fire was out, the fire boat arrived. It was stationed nearby on the other side of the harbor and in sight of the ship. They were slow to respond and I surmised that we had broken up their Christmas celebration. The fire chief stepped aboard, and I thanked him for coming. There may have been a faint overtone of sarcasm in my voice . "Sorry that we called you," I said. "As you can see, we managed to put out the fire, so go have a merry Christmas ." They lost no time in departing, and a few minutes later had their boat safely moored at their boathouse and fire station. The night settled into routine again . The longshoremen resumed loading; some men cleaned up the burnt crane and tried to get it started. "And have a Merry Christmas!" I called after them. There was time for a little shuteye before eight A.M. At that hour "Tiny" Kruger, the stevedore boss, came around. He was a man about six foot two, and husky. The Army had commissioned him as Major, so that he had more authority and dispatch getting wartime cargoes afloat. He had already been briefed on the fire. "Here is a note to the captain" I said . "It says to stop all loading. Order of the Captain of the Port.'' "We will just ignore the order of the Captain of the Port," said Tiny . A few minutes later all hatches were at work. I was relieved by the master and went home to get some sleep . My Christmas had not been drear and chill; it had not been without warmth ...
*
*
*
*
*
It was a couple of months later that I saw Tiny Kruger again. We spoke about the fire on Christmas morning. "You know, it made a good Christmas after all," said Tiny . "Your prompt action and some good men aboard saved the ship-and the town of San Pedro. Even the Captain of the Port came out ahead. They promoted him, and he is now in charge of the Greenland Patrol." "That ought to cool him down," I said. We chuckled over that. But we were aware that this Christmas story could have had a different ending. Written by somebody else. Hallelujah!
47
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
SPONSORS AMERADA HESS CORPORATION AMERICA N CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION ANNENBERG F UN D APEX MACH INE CO RPORATION J ACK R . ARON VINCENT ASTOR FOUNDATION BEEFEATER FOUNDATION ALLEN G. BERRIEN CHEMICAL BA NK Dow CORN ING CORP. EVA GEBHARD-GOURGAUD FDTN. FUN D FOR T HE CITY OF N EW YORK W. R . GRACE FOUN DATION MR. & MRS. PA UL R . H ENF.Y ELISABETH S. H OOPER fDTN . CECIL HOWARD C HARITABLE TRUST IND UCTIVE MANAGEME NT SYSTEMS R. C. JEFF ERSON BARBARA J OHNSON CHRISTIAN A. JOHNSON Et..'DEAVOR FDN. IR VING JOHNSON J . M. KAPLAN FUND A. ATWATER KE NT, JR. L UCILLE LA NGLOIS JAMES A. MACDO NALD FDN. MRS·. ELLI CE M CDONALD~ JR . MILFORD BOAT WORK S, INC. NAUTILUS F OUNDATION RADM EDMOND J. MORAN USN R (RET.) NATIONAL E NDOW ME NT FOR THE H UMANITIES NAVY LEAGUE NY STATE BICENTENN IAL COMMISSION MICHAEL PLATZER RCA THOR RAMSING H ELEN MAR SHALL SCllOLZ MR . & MRS. PETER SEEGE R S IRIUS BROKERS HOWARD S LOT NICK JEA N S MITH SETH S PRAGU E F OUNDAT IO N MR.& MRS. PETER STANFORD EDMU ND A. S T ANL EY, JR . SUNLIG HT P ICTURES HE NRY PE NN WENGER
s.
PATRONS
ABRAHAM & STRAUS R. G. ADAMS RAYMOND AKER T. R . ALLEN AMERJCAN B UREA U OF S HIPPING AMERICAN H OIST & DERRICK Co. C. E. ANDERSON CAPT. E. R. ANDERSON ANSEL PRODUCTIO NS G. J. ARD EN ARID YACHT C L UB ANDRE M. ARMBRUSTER LA URANCE H. ARMOUR, JR . ARTEK INC. ATLANTIC CORDAGE CoRP. ATLANTIC MARJTIME ENTERPRISES AUDIO MAGAZINE BRUNO J . A UG ENTI AVRO WILLIAM E. BACON H . K. BAILEY, MO JOE BAKER J OHN B. BALCH 8. A. BALDWIN, JR . BANKERS TRUST Co. R USSELL BANKS BARBA NEGRA 8. DEVEREUX BARKER JEFFREY BARLOW H ARRY BARON GERALD BARTLETT J .H . BASCOM DAVID BASS R. S. SAUER HOBEY BAUHAN BENJAMIN BAXTER BAY REFRA CTORY BAY RI DGE WATER & LIGHTERAGE BEAN/ KAHN JOHN BEAN STUDIO BEAVER E NGINEERING G. A. BECNEL CHARLES A. BENORE ADM. R USSELL S. BERKEY ALLEN BERNSTEIN STUDIO H . E . BILKEY-NORTON LILLY BRONSON BINGER GEOFFREY BIRKHOLZ R . M . BIRMINGHAM CARROLL N. BJORNSON REBECCA BLAKE STUDIOS J EFF BLINN E. JARED Bu ss OLGA BLOOM BLOOMI NG DALES WILLARD BoND R. A. BoWLING
WILLIAM A. BoYD W. BoYLE A RTH UR E. BRACY CAPTAIN ROBERT G. B RAUN FREDERICK BREWSTER PAUL H . BRJGER BROOKLYN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BROOKLYN EASTERN DI STRJCT TERMJ NAL 8ROOKL YN SAV INGS BANK BROOKLYN UNION GAS NO RMAN J . BROU\\IER STEVEN W. BR UMMEL WM . F. B UCKL EY, JR . JOHN B UNKER AGA 8URDOX ADM. ARLE.IGH B URKE USN (RET.) ROBERT J. B URK E ALAN B URROUGH , CBE STE VEN B UTTERWORTH BYE BYE BIRDIE ]AMES R . CADY BoYD W. CAFFEY HARRIET CAMPBE LL. INC. CAPE VER.DEAN FOLKLORE GROUP CAPE VERDEAN ISLANDS RELIEF ASSN. Q. CAREY MEL CARLIN C. A. CHAPIN J AMES E. CHAPMAN R. (HARMA N CHASE M ANHATTAN BANK CAPT. GLEN R . CHEEK, USN (RET .) CHEMICAL BA NK ALAN G. CHOATE MARTIN E. CITRIN ALBERT C. C IZAUSKAS. JR. D AVE CLARKE GEORGE F. CLEMENTS ARTHUR CLEVELAND F. S. COLLINS R. F. COHEN AUSTEN COLGATE J: FERRELL COLTON CONSOLIDATED EDISON Co., INC. TRE VO R CONSTABLE HE NRY A. CORRE A ]AMES COSTEL LO ] AMES W . COU LTER CoUNCIL OF MASTER MARINERS CAPT. ALAN 8. CRABTREE BEN & SALL Y CRANE CREATIVE GROUP PRODUCTIONS CRUCIBLE STEEL CASTING CoMPANY D AN & JOYCE CURLL D GM STUDIOS AL ICE DADOURIAN REBEKAH T. DA LLAS F. BRIGGS DALZELL PETER T. DAMON CHARLES DA NA CDR. W. H . DARTNELL F. KELSO DA VIS P. S. DE BEAUMONT ANTHONY & J OANNA DEAN J .A. D E LUCE DEBORAH D. DEMPSEY RICHARD A. DENNY JOSEPH DE PAUL & SoNS ROHIT M. DESAI HI RAM DEXTER J AMES D ICKMAN DIM E SAV INGS BANK P . DI NE JOSEPH D I RSA THEODORE DoNALDSON R.L. DoXSEE THOMAS P . Down JEREMIAH T. DRISCOLL DRYBULK ( HARTERJNG R. J . DUNPHY SAMUEL DUPONT DAVID DURRELL EDSON CORPORATION ] AMES ELMER, JR . DAMON L. ENGLE FRED C. ENNO EPIROTJK I LINES ULF ERJKSEN JOH N & CAROL EW ALD EYEVIEW FILM S HE NRY EYL J AMES P. FARLEY CAPT. JOSEPH F ARR ROBERT S. FELNER MRS. J EAN FINDLAY CHARLES FLEI SHJ\tANN M ELANIE FLEISHMANN P ETER FLEMING JAM ES FOLEY CHARLES FORTES MEMORIAL FUND MISS H AZEL ANN Fox MARB UR Y B. Fox RON FREELANDER FRED FREEMAN C HARLES M. FREY J. E. FRICKER BENNO FRIEDMAN DR. H ARRY FRIEDMAN FRITZSCHE , 0oDGE & OLCOTT, I NC. JOHN S. F ULLERTON
J.
R.A. FuLTON FuL TON FERRY LocAL DEVELOPMENT. CORPORATION GAGE & TOLLNER MR. & MRS. C HARLES GALLAGHER RICHARD GALLANT FRANK GARRETT WALTER GATES JOSEPH A. GEMMA GEORGE E NG INE COMPANY H. E. GERHARD NORMAN G. GERMANY J. T . GILBRIDE ROGER GILMAN THOMAS J. GocHBERG STEVE GoLD PRODUCTIONS
C. A.
Gouw
F. CECIL GRACE J OHN GRAHAM, AIA GRAND C ENT RAL ART GALLERY ] Th1 GRAY R. GREENBERG, Assoc. MARK GREENE DR. ROBERT W. GREENLEA F HENRY F . GREINER ROLAN D D. GRIMM HOWARD GUGGENHEIM LCDR EMIL GUSTAFSON CAL F. H ADDEN, JR. MRS. E.A. H AGSTROM WALTER L. HAGSTROM HAIGHT, GARDNER, POOR & H AVENS THOMAS H ALE M. W . H ALL CDR. W . H . H AMIL TON S. H ANSEN-BURBANK Co ., LTD. HARMONY PICTURES LEO & CYNTHI A 0. H ARRIS CAPT. ROBERT HART USN (RET .) CAPT. J AMES£. HEG HELLENIC LINES LIMITED HE NRY'S END RESTAURANT H. HERBER W.R. HERVEY A.£ . H EYDENREICH J UDSON HIGG INS NEAL 0. HI NES JOH NSON PEDERSON HI NRICHS STEPHEN HO PKINS CAPT. M. F. H ORVATH L AURA PIRES HO USTO N GoDFREY G. H OWARD THOM AS HOYNE, III PER H UFFE LDT H UGHES BROS .. INC. WILLIAM H UGHES, SR. ALAN D. H UTCHISON H AROLD D. HUYCKE IM PERIAL CUP CoRP. INDUSTRIAL FABRJCATING K AZ INOUYE I NTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF MASTERS , MATES & PILOTS JOT CoRPORATION J AKOB ISBRANDT SEN GEORGE I VEY JACK SON & CO. CAPT. GEORGE W. JAHN RAPHAEL ]ANER LEONARD C. J AQUES R. H. J O HN CHART AGENCY BARBARA J OHNSON NEILS W . J OHNSEN W. J . J OVAN W. HADOON J UDSON KAZEROID & A BERMAN REAL TY M. W. K EELING HARRIS & ELIZA KEMPNER F UND J OHN J. KENNY KIDDER , P EA BODY W. A. K IGG INS NAT B. KING F. H. KINGSBURY ]JM & P EGGY KINGSBURY NORMAN K)ELDSEN MR. & MRS. BERNIE KL AY W. KLEINDIENST , MD R. J. KNEELA:.'ID KOBJ ENTERPRISES K OBRAND CoRPORATION B ETTY K OHAREK DAVID H. K OLLOCK EDIT H KOONTZ SANORA KR AMER WILLIAM H. KRAMER ANDREW KRAVIC GEORGE P. KROH C. SCOTT K ULICKE DANIEL LADD ANTHONY LANDI KEVIN LEARY PHILIP L EONARD MR. & MRS. T . E . LEONARD RICK LEVINE PRODUCTIONS DAVID M. LEVITT R UTHERFORD P. LILLEY L INCOLN SAVINGS BANK A. S. LISS H . R. LoGAN JEFF LOVINGER KLAUS LUCKA CHARLES L UNDGREN J OHN E. LUNDIN LYKES BROS. STEAMSH IP Co .. INC. Ross MACDUFF!£
CAPTAIN WILLIAM H. MACFADEN Boe MACKEN ALEN MACWEENEY, I NC. GASTON MAGRlNOT JOHN MAGUIRE MICHAEL & MARCIA MANN MANUFACTURERS H ANOVER TRUST MARINER'S VILLAGE ELI SABETH M. MARTELL MARTI N M ATHEWS GEO. MATTESON Ill PETER MAX CECIL R. MA YES JOHN G. McCARTHY JEROME MCGLYNN CAPTAIN J. McGoVERN R .M. MCINTOSH MARSH MCLENNAN ROBERT MCV !TTIE MESA DISTRICT 2 MAURICE MEDCALF£ CHRISTINE MEE R.I. MEICZINGER THE MENDES FAMILY MIDLAND INSURANCE Co. A.C. M ILOT JERR Y D . MINTON LEEDS M ITCHELL, JR. R. KE NT MITCHELL MONOMOY FuND MONT AN TRANSPORT (USA) INC. MOORE-MCCoRMACK LINES, I NC. MR. & MRS. J . A. MORAN R.E. MORRIS RI CHARD I. MORRIS J.R . MORRISSEY ANG US C. MORRISON MR. & MRS. EM IL MOSBACHER, JR. FRANK MOSCATI. INC. RICH AR D MOSES WILLIAM G. MULLER MYERS & GRINER/CUESTA MYSTIC WHALER NANTUCKET SHIPYARD ATIOKAL HISTORICAL SocIETY NATIONAL MARITIME UNION J OSEPH F. NEIL ERIC NELSON NEW YORK AIR NEW YORK TELEPHONE Co. ROBERT A. ICHOLS ] O HN NOBLE DAVID J . NOLAN ]. A. NO RTO N MILTON G. NOTTINGHAM NY STATE CoUNClL ON T HE A RTS OG ILVY & MATHER T. MORGAN O"HoRA J AMES O'KEEFE PA UL OLANDER ORES 8. J. O'NEILL H OWARD OTWAY PACIFIC-GULF MARINE, INC. RI CHARD K. PAGE WALTER PAGE P AISLEY & FRIENDS WILLIAM PAPARELLA S. T . PA RKS PlERO PATRI JOHN T. P ATTERSON OTIS PEARSALL PENNSYLVANIA ScHOOLSHlP ASSN. ARMANDO PERRY DEBORAH L. PERRY BERTHA & PHILIP PERSON M ILES A.N. PETERLE CAPTAIN W. R. PETERSON R. L. PETRIE WALTE R N. PH ARR PHILADELPHIA MARITIME MUSEUM P INKERTON'S ROBERT POTTERS PORT AUTHORITY OF ;_...ry & NJ T IMOTHY POUCH THEODORE PRATT WALTER PRETZAT PRINCE HE NRY CoLLEGE PRUDENTIAL LlNES R. S. P ULEO EBEN W . PYNE RI CHARD RATH DoNALD REARDON VERONICA REILLY REMEMBER BASlL, INC. H ON. FRED RI CHMOND Russ RIEMA NN EDWARD RITENHOUSE THE RIVER CAFE R.D. ROBBINS, MD CAPT AlN L. L. ROBERTS CHARLES R. ROBINSON PETER W. ROGERS H A VEN C. ROOSEVELT D ANIEL ROSE M. ROSENBLATT W. A. ROTHERMEL ALLEN S. RUPLEY DA VID F. RYAN M. J . R YAN PETER R . RYUS D. R. SAGARINO CARROLL A. SAIA ST. JOE MINERALS SANDERS TOWBOAT Soc., INC.
A. H ERBERT SAI'IDWEN J OSEPH G. SAWTELLE W. 8. H. SAWYER FRANK ScAVO DAVID & BARBARA SCHELL RADM. WALTER f. ScHLECH, JR. J OYCE E. ScHNOBRICH SCHOONER ERNESTINA Ass' N, WAREHAM AUSTIN SCOTT J AMES SEACREST SEA- LA ND SERVICE. INC. SEAMEN'S C HURCH I NST ITUTE SELIGMAN SECURITIES MICHAEL SERENSON MRS. AVICE M. SEWALL W ILLIAM A. SHEEHAN ROBERT V. SHEEN, JR. ]AMES R. SHEPLEY ROBERT F. SHERMAN S HIPS Of T HE SEA MUSEUM MERVl >l']. S H UMAN L. S. SIMONS D. W. S IMPSON FRANCIS D . S KELLEY 0. L. S LADE E. KEITH S LI NGSB Y A. MACY SMITH LYMAI\ H. SMITH CONWAY B. SoNNE THOMAS SoULES T. SP!GELMIRE GEN. & MRS. A. A. SPROUL CHRISTIAN SPURLING RA LPH M. STALL ALFRED STANFORD CHARLES E. STANFORD BRIAN STARER ROGER STARR F . W ILLIAM STECHMANN EDNA & ISAAC S TERN FDTN. W . T . STEVENS J. T. ST ILLMAN ] AMES J. STORR.OW J OHN SroBART STUART REAGAN STONE OSCAR STRAUSS, II H UMPHREY SULLIVAN SUMNER 8. TILTON, JR. SUN S HIP. INC. SUNSET-GoW ER STUDIOS SWISS AMERICAN SECURITIES INC. SYLVOR COMPANY R .S. S YMON G. H. TABER DAV ID L. THOMPSON J OHN TH URMA N ROBERT T!SHM AN TOAD PRODUCTIONS J OHN H . TOBEY, JR. GEORGE F. T OLLEFSEN A LLE N W.L. TOPPING ANTHONY TRALLA W. ALLEN TRAVER, JR. BRUCE TREMBLY, MD JAMES 0. T URNER TWENTY-TEN ADVERTISING UN ION DRY DocK U.S. NAVIGATION Co. U.S. L INES CAPT. ROBERT D. VALENTINE MAR ION VA LPEY VANGUARD FOUNDATION JO HN D . VAN !TALLIE VAN METER RANCH C HARLES VICKERY VINMONT FOUNDATION J OHN VREELA:.'ID S HA NNON \VALL E. R. WALLENBERG R. C. WALLING BARCLAY H . WARBURTON, Ill PATE R M. WARD A.RSA w PHOTOGRAPHIC Assoc. A. L. W ATSON G. P. H . WATSON N. W. WATSON MRS. ELIZABETH WEEDON THOMA S WELLS W. S. WELLS L. HERNDON WERTH WESTLAND F OUNDATION CARROLL WETZEL SIR GoRDON WHITE R AYMOND D. WH ITE WI LLI AM T. WHITE G. G. WHITNEY, JR. ANTHONY WIDMAN CA PT. & MRS. JOHN M. WILL, JR. H. S EWALL WILLIAMS KA.MAU W ILLIAMS P.J . WILLIAMSON SUZANNE C. WILSON CAPT. J.M. WINDAS LAURENCE F. WITTEMORE C HARLES WJTTHOLZ WOMEN'S PROPELLER CLUB. PORT OF BoSTON WOMEN'S PROPELLER CLUB, PORT OF JACKSONVILLE
w
Y' ACH TI ~G J /A MES S. Y APLEE ] /A MES H. YOCUM A.LEN SANDS YORK HENRY A. YOUMANS P A UL ZIMMERMAN R. W. ZINGLER H . T. ZJOBRO
Officers aboard the sleek, 936-foot long MM&P-contracted LNG Ca rrier Lake Charles received ex tra training on the LNG Simulator at MM&P Maritime Institute for Technica l a nd Graduate S tudies .
This Is MM&P Country The Captain and Deck Officers of this revolutionary ship , the Liquified Natural Gas Carrier SS Lake Charles, shown here during sea trials, have all completed a highly specialized Gas Carrier course at MM&P's Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies (MITA GS) before sailing to pic 1{ up its first cargo at Arzew , Algeria. The extra hands-on instruction during a four-week course on MITAGS' cryogenic simulator gives these ships officers the edge when confronted with hazardous situations aboard their vessel. The cryogenic simulator allows students to perform , on land , such major ship operations as drying , inerting , purging cargo tanks with warm cargo vapor, precooling of pipes and cargo tanks , loading , deballasting , draining and inerting cargo lines , discharging , ballasting, tank stripping, tank warming and aerating cargo tanks and hold spaces. The MITA GS installation , located at Linthicum Heights , Maryland , just outside of Baltimore , is the result of a collaboration between MM&P and the American flag shipping companies in their joint Maritime Advancement, Training, Education and Safety (MATES) Program . ROBER T J. LOWEN International President
LLOYD M. MARTIN
ALLEN C. SCOTT
International Secretary-Treasurer
International Executive Vice President
International Organization of
Masters, Mates & Pilots 39 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10006/(212) 425-3860/Cable: BRIDGEDECK/Telex No.: 12-5858