86 PROOF 8LEND[D SCOTCH WHISKY DISTILLED AND BOTTLED IN SCOTLAND IMPORTED BY THE. BUCKINGHAM CORPORATION "J[VI YORK, NY
I
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 was named "Yachtsman of the Year" four times. Ted Turner puts his feelings where his mouth is. He also puts a great scotch there: Cutty Sark. And whil he's been called Cap~ai9 Outrageous by some, one thmg's sure: Ted Turner's enjoying himself.
No . 27
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 ©[983 by the National Maritime Historical Society . OFFICE: 15 State St. , New York NY 10004. Telephone: 212-509-9606 _ MEMBERSHIP is invited : Sponsor $1 ,000; Donor $500; Patron $100; Family $30 ; Regular $20; Student or Retired $10. 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; President: 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. Hutchinson . ADVISORS: Chairman : Frank 0 . Braynard ; Francis E. Bowker, Oswald 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 . WORLD SHIP TRUST: Chairman : Frank G. G . Carr; Vice President: Sir Peter Scott; Hon. Secretary: J. A. Forsythe; Hon. Treasurer: Richard Lee; Erik c_ Abranson; Maldwin Drummond; Peter Stanford . Membership : £10 payable WST, clo Hon. Sec., 129a North Street, Burwell , Cambs. CBS OBB, England _ Reg . Charity No . 277751. AMERICAN SHIP TRUST: International Chairman: Frank Carr; Chairman: Peter Stanford ; George Bass; Norman Brouwer; Karl Kortum; George Nichols; Richard Rath ; Charles Lundgren; Barclay H . Warburton, ill; Senior Advisor: Irving M . Johnson .
ISSN 0146-93 12
SPRING 1983
CONTENTS 4 EDITOR'S LOG LETTERS 8 HMS BELFAST: A FIGHTING SHIP PRESERVED , Peter Simkins 12 SAIL TRAINING: DAY'S RUN, Report of the American Sail Training Association 16 THE MARY ROSE COMES HOME 21 WASA TRIUMPHANT, Thomas Hale 28 LOG CHIPS , Norman Brouwer THE LAST PASSAGE , Jean Schoen Smith 30 MARINE ART NEWS 32 MARINE ART : FRED FREEMAN , Peter Sorlien 37 SHIP NOTES , SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS 38 WORLD SHIP TRUST REPORT 41 BOOKS 44 THE TIGHT SHIP AND HER MERRY HEARTS , John Nicol 46 KARAPHUNA CANOES , Philip Teuscher
COVER: Fierce lions guard the royal coat of arms, high on the stern of the salvaged 17th century warship Wasa (pronounced " Vasa") as shown on page 24. A reproduction made from the original recovered statuary . Photo by Reijo Riister, courtesy the Maritime Museum and Warship Wasa.
The National Maritime Historical Society is saving America's seafaring heritage. Join us. We bring to life America's seafa ring past through research , archaeological expedi tions and ship preservation efforts. We work with museums, historians and sail training groups and report on these activities in our quarterl y journal Sea History. We are also the American arm of the World Ship Trust, an international group working wo rldwide to help save ships of historic importance .
Won't you join us to keep ali ve our nation's seafaring legacy? Membership in the Society costs only $20 a yea r. You' ll receive Sea History, a fascinating magazine fill ed with articles of seafaring and historical lore. You' ll also be eligible fo r di scounts on books, prints and other items.Help save our seafaring heritage. Join the National Maritime Historical Society today !
TO: National Maritime Historical Society, 15 State Street, New York, New York 10004
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I want to help. I understand that my contribution goes to fo rward the work of the Society ' and that 1"11 be kept informed by receiving SEA HISTORY quarterl y. Enclosed is: 0 $1 ,000 Sponsor 0 $500 Donor 0 $100 Patro n 0 $30 Family 0 $20 Reg ular Member 0 $10 Student/Retired NAME
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SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor: Peter Stanford ; Managing Editor: Norma Stanford ; Associate Editor: Norman J . Brouwer; Membership: Marie Lore.
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NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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EDITOR'S LOG "As one stands on the spar deck looking aft, the quarterdeck and poop sweep up at what seems to be impossible angles," says Tom Hale, reporting on his clambering about the 17th century warship llizsa. Tom, Vice Chairman of the National Society, is an architect who builds boats to his own basic design at the Martha's Vineyard Shipyard, and here he expresses a prejudice that has worked continuously on our appreciation of the first ships of the modern era. Consistently, we have depreciated the sweeping sheerlines shown in paintings of these ships of another age: so early representations of the llizsa show her with far too flat a sheer (in light of what we now know from the ship herself) as though our " pragmatic" wisdom doubted the sheer exuberance of 17th century design . Precisely the same error is found in the first working drawings and models made of the Mary Rose, the 16th century Tudor warship whose successful recovery is reported with cheers and gratitude to her gallant salvors, on page 16 of this issue. There is no substitute for the real thing -whether to catch such details as the 80-pound pull required to draw one of the Mary Rose's longbows (bows fashioned when Agincourt was only a generation or two over the horizon of living memory!) or to catch the ethos of an age as reflected not just in how people saw their ships in paintings, but how they built them-in wood .
LETTERS decry such sentiments, but they were not so decried at the time, when men lived and died by them. Hear also the voice of an American naval captain ring out in this story. Ordered to move his ship by the world's most powerful navy, he says: "I ...will not give way to any nation under the sun, but in a good cause." It is dangerous, of course, to hang too much upon a point of style, but please notice, along with the captain's robust patriotism, defying "any nation under the sun," how he acknowledges a superior moral order: "in a good cause." Uncle Sam, with his worldly-wise pragmatism, might learn at his ancestor Jonathan's knee, in this vividly recaptured scene. Thank God for old John Nicol's good ear. And what a shock of recognition when John comes to describe in his plain way the explosion of the French flagship L'Orient at Aboukir Bay! " When the French Admiral's ship blew up, the Goliah got such a shake, we thought the after-part of her had blown up ...." This incident cost of the life of Captain Casabianca, lying gravely wounded belowdecks aboard L'Orient, and of his young son, who refused to quit the quarterdeck until he had his father's permission to go. This seized the imagination of the English, who for the next century and a half taught their children a solemn poem beginning: "The boy stood on the burning deck, whence all but he had fled ...."
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"We loved our captain," states John Nicol in the narrative of his time in HMS Goliath (pages 45-46). It is a current fashion to
We hope you share our refreshment and joy at the recovery of these real ships, and the testimony of their people who are also real , in another time frame than ours.PS.
MARINE CHRONOMETERS
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Why Did Steamers Replace Sailing Ships? Well, they, uh .... Sea mail from the US to Australia now takes about twice as long as it did in sailing ship days .... E. A . MITCHENER Kingston Beach, Tasmania
Mail took about 8 to 9 weeks to get here in sailing ships over a hundred years ago. Now, in 1982, it takes 9 to 16 weeks-a very sad state of affairs with high postage costs. RICHARD McKENNA Hilton Park, W. Australia I am returning this copy of SEA HISTORY , soaked and welded into a solid , unreadable mass. As there has been a drought here for some months , and I cannot believe that you would have presoaked it before mailing, I can only conclude that it was immersed en route in one of those wondrous containers on deck. A . 0. JONES Durban , South Africa Steamers replaced sailing vessels because they went much faster and kept -ED. cargoes dry.
From Icebound Nantucket: The Winters Are Too Short The rebuilt Gloucesterman and Cape Verde schooner Ernestina which returned to the US last August (SH26:27) arrived in Gloucester in October. I made a short trip to Gloucester and went over to the southwest corner of the State Fish Pier where she was then tied up. I looked her over and took a few pictures. I guess they did a good job-a strong job-but she has Jost the flavor she had as the Effie M. Morrissey, when she first went in the Cape Verde packet trade in 1949. No one can build or knows how to build the beautiful transoms the old shipbuilders of Essex could build! She is now a typical Brava packet. They made a mistake in painting the masts yellow. They would be smarter to scrape them down to the wood, cheeks to the saddles , and slush them down with grease as was done in her sailing days. Work the grease into all checks as this will give the spars a much longer life . The old mastalene they used in later days was a cheaper grade industrial vaseline . Mystic Seaport uses it in large quantities! I knew the Morrissey when Bartlett came in here in the 1930s two or three times . F. W. Wallace made a twelve-day trip in her earlier, when she was fishing from Nova Scotia. I doubt if anyone is alive who fished in her from Gloucester, early on. Rick Lopes, who is making a SEA HISTDRY, SPRING 1983
Giant film about her, has been to Gloucester and talked with the schooner authorities there, Joe Garland, Gordon Thomas and Dana Storey. I knew Rick's father John years ago when he was here. His grandfather came over from the Cape Verde Islands in the schooner Valkyrie , a whaler and later packet, built originally for the Gloucester fishing fleet. I'm connected with a project to build a replica of the last whaler to bring a load of oil into Nantucket, in 1870, the schooner Eunice H. Adams. She was built as a Nantucket-to-Baltimore packet in 1845. After the Civil War, railroads were extended through so she was converted and made four trips from here whaling. Last two she was rigged as a half brig . She whaled out of Edgartown (Martha's Vineyard) until just after 1890, so she had a good long working life. I don't know how this project will fare. They found the Unitarian Church (town clock tower) built in 1809 , in hard shape. Work began last fall and will take $500,000 to put it back in shape-this must come first. Time flies and I am well into my 54th year living here. I was 21 when I came here from Gloucester fishing. Don 't know where it has gone . I heard about long winters here but I've never seen one , all are much too short.
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A Great Lady Remembered Being deeply sympathetic to the work you are leading in restoring the wonderful old ships, I wish to have the small part in the work I am able to afford. I have long been under the spell of Alan Villiers, and have rambled over our two beautiful West Coast restorations, the Scotch-built Star ofIndia in San Diego and the Balclutha in San Francisco. I have detail photographed the latter, especially the construction of the hull . In my authentic detail model work I am trying to preserve for future generations, the magnificent ocean liners at the peak of their glory , as you will see in the enclosed
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SEA HISTDRY, SPRING 1983
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LETTERS lighting and furnishings, and comes apart to show its interiors. The Normandie and the way of life it represented are as gone as the windjammers . Most present adults know nothing of them. EUGENE 0 . CLA y Yucca Valley , California
To Those Who Made the Dream Do-Able There are two phases in the Elissa restoration: The first, from 1974 when Michael Creamer left South Street and settled in Galveston, through 1979 when the Elissa was towed to the Port of Galveston after renewals in Greece . The second, the intensive period from 1980 through 1982 when the "Sons of South Street" regrouped and with other craftsmen from all over the country completed the bulk of the restoration.
John Paul Gaido at the purchase survey of Elissa, Piraeus , Greece.fall 1974.
It was Paul Gaido , a Galveston restaurauteur from a family concerned with historic preservation of this island community who had the initial idea of a sailing ship for Galveston. It was Paulie's meeting with Michael Creamer which gave birth to the dream of a reconstructed Elissa. With a group of dedicated Galveston volunteers they founded the Elissa Committee of the Galveston Historical Foundation and set the project in motion . With scant resources they worked together selling cotton candy , holding auctions and twisting arms for donations of cash and materials. In all $450 ,000 was raised with which to undertake the Greek phase of the restoration. To Paulie Gaido, Curt Batey, Andy Leslie, Buddy Porterfield , Elbert Whorton, Bob Alderdice (deceased) , and all who helped in those early days , we owe a tremendous debt. They were the courageous volunteers who undertook this impossible dream and contributed selflessly , skillfully and magnificently to make the dream ''do-able'' by those who followed . DAVID C. BRINK Director, Elissa Project Galveston Historical Fndtn . Galveston, Texas
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Wawona: Her Hard-working and Appreciative Men Your report on the schooner Wawona (SH25: 8-9) especially interested me . For six years in the 1930s, following my graduation from the Coast Guard Academy, I served in Coast Guard ships which played nursemaid to the Bristol Bay (Bering Sea) codfishing fleet , of which the Wawona and Sophie Christianson were two of the best known. We brought mail , medical assistance, etc . to them. It was very interesting and also rewarding work to be able to help those hard-working and appreciative men of the sea. CAPTAIN HUBERT R. CHAFFEE Columbia , Maryland Here's a drop in the bucket toward your $100,000 budget for Wawona-but 999 more drops will do it. I hope it pours! WALTER PRETZAT Hartsdale, New York In response to articles in SEA HISTORY , here is my contribution, made in the memory of the late Seattle City Councilman Wing Luke , whose vision , energy and leadership as I recall initiated the move to save and restore Wawona. FRED T . COMEE Dallas , Texas A Saucy Propeller Do you know anything about a saucy little passenger/freighter named Richard Peck? This swift ship ran up and down Long Island Sound , stopping at Bridgeport, New Haven , New London and, I think, up the Connecticut River at Hartford ... in the years 1914-20 or so . J. A. RYAN Washington , DC The late George W. Rogers, dockbuilder, told us about trips on this vessel, whose captain was an uncle ofhis. He called her a propeller-differentiating her from the omnipresent paddlewheelers. Built by Harlan and Hollingsworth of Wilmington , Delaware in 1892, the twin screw, 303ft vessel served her first 20 years between New York and New Haven , then served on various runs for the New England Steamship Co. , becoming a Meseck excursion boat in 1937 until the Government took her over after Pearl Harbor, to serve as a floating barracks in Newfoundland. She then was chartered to the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Ferry Co., until their service to Cape Charles was suspended, whereupon in 1953 she took her old bones to the knacker's yard. This and more was dug out by Gerry Boardman, of the South Street Seaport Museum Library. - ED
My Real Desire I am a great admirer of your efforts to preserve and promote the maritime heritage of our country and the world. By profession I am an able seaman on offshore tugs for Crowley Maritime Corporation. My real desire is to participate in sail-powered trade . At present our maritime laws are unreasonably restrictive toward sailing vessels . Can we change this? CHRISTOPHER HEG Seattle, Washington We can try. See pages 12-14. -ED. Needed: Sources of Traditional Craft Products and Supplies Historical artifacts cannot be used without hastening their deterioration and eventual destruction. Thus , those who demonstrate historical skills and reenact historical processes in " living history " programs have an ever-increasing need for high quality and serviceable replicas to take the place of original tools , utensils, furnishings , clothing , and the like . With this in mind , we are conducting a survey to identify sources of replica artifacts, and of special raw materials (e .g. wrought iron, cattle horns, ash splints) from which authentic replicas can be fabricated. Craftspersons, manufacturers or distributors able to supply such items are invited to send descriptions of their products to : RON KLEY , President Association for Living Historical Farms and Agricultural Museums, PO Box 111, East Winthrop , ME 04343 NOTE: Barry G. Wilson of New Zealand submitted four important tugs among his islands to add to the Historic Tugs list in SH25-part of the Norman Brouwer 's master register of historic ships worldwide. Oddly enough, tugs are much longer-lived than the ships they towconsider the Seguin , whose original hull timbers are still sound and shapely after every single one of the great square riggers and schooners she towed to sea is gone, and in fact no great sailing ship built in Maine survives except in some pieces recovered by our Ship Trust. But tugs are also so ubiquitous they slip by under the noses of many observers . .. and we need much more testimony, from harbors like Naples and the Riachuela particularly, to round out our tale. -ED.
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SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1983
WHITE ELEPHANT MANAGEMENT Caretakers of Maritime History The white elephant of Hindu tradition was given to a prince by a rival head of state. Impossible to refuse, the sacred elephant was received with veneration and trepidation alike, for the care and adornment of such an animal was no small drain on the state budget. Stewardship of an historic vessel is also both an honor and a challenging responsibility. If it is not to become an impossible burden on its owner, it must be carefully managed. That is what we do. THE RESTORATION OF SHIPS is an aggregation of many skills, both traditional and technical. Some are readily available and some nearly forgotten. White Elephant is a management core with a network of contacts developed over the years among people involved in maritime preservation. We can research and design for restoration , provide on -site supervision of the work , owners' representation for shipyard jobs, and experienced craftspeople on a contract basis for jobs requiring traditional skills. We can get the job done in a style which does credit to the builders whose work we preserve. PLANNING, in the long and short term , with accurate budgets, and specified intermediate objectives, is the key to successful restoration. The White Elephant administrative staff is well experienced both in the nitty-gritty realities of the modern marine-service industry , and the problems of cash flow and credibility peculiar to private non -profit organizations. We offer consultation , from initial evaluation of objectives and options, through detailed surveys, production planning and hard estimates of costs. FUNDRAISING expertise of the White Elephant team has been responsible for millions of dollars in foundation , corporate , governmental and private support to maritime projects. Never more than today have Americans been willing to learn from the past. Well-conceived and well-planned undertakings on our field can receive the funds they need. We can help. PUBLIC RELATIONS, when purposeful and planned , is more than a timely press release . It must function as an integral part of fundraising, establishing the indentity , goals and credibility of a project to its community. It presents the project as process as well as product, and as such can further its educational goals .
INTERPRETATION: No ship stands mute -- she has much to say of craftsmanship and courage, commerce and conflict ; of Nature's wild waters and those who spend their lives upon them . But to make her message accessible to most of her visitors requires an appropriate "interpretation" program. White Elephant has the experience in research , writing, graphic techniques , audio-visual media and film to make history live. MAINTENANCE: Even after a sound initial restoration, a ship on the water requires constant care and renewal. It must have both daily maintenance and periodic attention from a variety of craftspeople. White Elephant can design and manage cyclical maintenance as well as day-to-day upkeep . We can undertake total maintenance on contract , or advise and train your own staff. MANAGEMENT, finally is what we are about. In restora tion , from a dory to a battleship; in events , from a shipboard wedding to a gathering of tall ships ; in program, from operating a hundred-year-old schooner as a passenger vessel for hire to crew training and the thousand details needed to sail a square-rigger: White Elephant represents the sound management approach which can see the job through. DOES ANY OF THIS APPLY TO YOUR PROJECT? If so , please contact us. We would enjoy discussing the possibilities.
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HMS Belfast steams forth to battle-leaving Scapa Flow to support the Allied landings in Normandy, June 1944. Rebuilt and re-armored extensively followin g damage by magnetic mine, she is now the most formidable British cruiser afloat, and destined to become the sole survivor ofher breed. Her only sistership, HMS Edinburgh , was sunk on the Murmansk convoy run, where Belfastfought her famous action with the German Scharnhorst. All photographs courtesy Imperial War Museum .
HMS BELFAST: AFighting Ship Preserved by Peter Simkins, Historian
Imperial War Museum The 11 ,550-ton cruiser HMS Belfast, moored in the River Thames opposite the Tower of London, is a permanent reminder of the Royal Navy's big ships from the age of gunnery . Designed as a modified Southampton class cruiser and built by Harland and Wolff in the city from which she took her name HMS Belfast was launched on 17 March 1938 by Mrs . Neville Chamberlain, wife of the Prime Minister . Completed in August 1939, the Belfast carried a main armament of twelve 6-inch guns in four triple turrets . She also had twelve 4-inch guns as well as close-range anti-aircraft weapons and six 21-inch torpedo tubes . Her maximum speed was 32.98 knots. At the outbreak of the Second World War , HMS Belfast began blockade duties between Iceland and the Faroes , intercepting and capturing the 13 ,615-ton German liner Cap Norte on 9 October 1939 . However , on 21 November , the Belfast was severely damaged by a German magnetic mine in the Firth of Forth. Her back was broken, the explosion having bent the midships part of her hull three inches upwards beneath her forward boiler room. Because of the desperate need for cruisers it was decided to rebuild her, but some over two years elapsed before she was ready to rejoin the Home Fleet. In one of the longest and most comprehensive refits undergone by any ship in the Second World War , her armor belt was extended and faired-in to a point forward of B turret, thus increasing her topweight. To prevent her becoming unstable , bulges were added to her under8
water shape. These bulges improved her stability to such an extent that , unlike most of her contemporaries, she retained her full main armament throughout her life , even though she was now fitted with radar and additional anti-aircraft guns , all adding to topside weight. On rejoining the Home Fleet in December 1942 as flagship of the 10th Cruiser Squadron, HMS Belfast entered the most active phase of her fighting career. Operating from Scapa Flow and from Hvalfiord in Iceland , she was employed almost continuously over the next twelve months in providing cover for the convoys to Russia and on patrols, blockade duties and offensive sweeps in northern waters. Then , on 26 December 1943 the Belfast played a key role in the last major surface action in European waters-and the last occasion on which a British battleship fought an enemy capital ship.
The Battle of the North Cape Six days earlier Convoy JW 55B had left Loch Ewe for Russia , and on 22 December Convoy RA 55A sailed from Kola Inlet in the reverse direction . This double movement was to be covered off Norway ' s North Cape by Force One , comprising the cruisers Belfast, Sheffield and Norfolk , under Vice-Admiral R.L. Burnett, who flew his flag in the Belfast . Distant cover was provided by Force Two under Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser , the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, with the battleship Duke of York and the cruiser Jamaica. As anticipated, the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst came out from Altenfiord to attack JW 55B and was picked up by the Belfast 's radar at 0840
on 26 December. In the ensuing gunnery duel , the Norfolk destroyed the Scharnhorst 's forward radar , forcing the battlecruiser to break away . Although radar contact was lost for two hours, Burnett kept his cruisers between the Scharnhorst and her quarry . His decision to protect the convoy rather than shadow the enemy proved correct for the Scharnhorst made a second run at JW 55B, the Belfast regaining radar contact at 1205. Another gunnery action followed , in which the Norfolk was damaged , but by 1300 the Scharnhorst had abandoned the attack on the convoy and was making for Altenfiord. This time Burnett pursued her, knowing that if she maintained her course , she would be cut off by Force Two . The Belfast tracked the battlecruiser for more than three hours , sending frequent reports of her course and speed to Admiral Fraser. At 164 7 the trap was sprung , with the Scharnhorst virtually sandwiched between Force Two and Burnett's cruisers. Pounded by the guns of the Duke of York and the cruisers, and struck by eleven torpedoes, the Scharnhorst sank two hours later. The Belfast herself fired nearly 400 rounds from her main and secondary armament during the action. Her protection of the convoy and her shadowing of the Scharnhorst had been in the finest traditions of cruiser warfare .
From Normandy to Korea After taking part in Operation Tungsten , the carrier-borne air strike against the battleship Tirpitz in April 1944, HMS Belfast joined the naval bombardment SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1983
The big guns aft loom over the heads of the young crew as King George VI, a resolute sovereign who overcame an instinctive shyness to lead his people through their most terrible war, reviews the ship 's company on the quarterdeck. George VI has heard the big guns speak in action , having served in a British battleship at Jutland in World War I. This visit was on August 15, 1943. The war is now turning in the Allies ' favor after the long year, 1940-41, when Britain stood alone.
groups assembling in preparation for the Allied landings in Normandy . On D-Day she was the flagship of Force E , positioned off Juno and Gold Beaches. From 6 to 12 June she fired 1,996 rounds against fortified positions, enemy batteries and troop concentrations and , early in July, supported the attack on Caen . She returned to Scapa Flow on 12 July, having fired her guns in anger for the last time in the Second World War. In the summer of 1945 , following another refit , she sailed for the Far East , where she was to spend the greater part of the next six years . When the Korean War began in June 1950, she was assigned to lead other British and Commonwealth warships in the West Korea Support Group , later known as Task Group 95 .1. Based at Sasebo in Japan she carried out many blockade patrols off the east and west coasts of Korea , supporting amphibious assaults and bombarding shore targets whenever the need arose. When she completed her final patrol in September 1952 , she had steamed over 80 ,000 miles in the combat zone and had fired more than eight thousand 6-lnch shells. HMS Belfast was modernized between 1956 and 1959, her bridge being enclosed and her old tripod masts being replaced by new lattice structures. She then went back to the Far East and participated in various joint naval exercises of the SouthEast Asia Treaty Organization before her last foreign service commission ended in June 1962. She passed into reserve in August 1963 , although her service life was not yet over as , in 1966 , she became the Headquarters and Accommodation SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1983
A and B turrets trained to starboard and to port against sudden surprises, HMS Belfast steams through the desolate northern waters of the Murmansk run , in November 1943. A month later she will encounter and help destroy the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst in these waters , performing the traditional cruiser duty ofprotecting a convoy. Two of her ship 's company are visible on the bridge at right , above B turret 's ice-shrouded guns. Coming back this way after sinking the Scharnhorst , British sailors tossed a wreath in the water to honor the German dead.
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On Novemb er 14 the ship is towed into the Pool of London, above the Tower Bridge , where she will be opened to the public on Trafalgar Day, October 21. By special dispensation she is still called ''Her Majesty 's Ship ," and flies the Royal Navy 's white ensign.
Ship of the Portsmouth Division of Reserve Ships. Saving a Cruiser The idea of preserving HMS Belfast for the nation was born on 14 April 1967 when a four-man team from the Imperial War Museum, led by the Director, Dr. Noble Frankland , visited Portsmouth to examine the 6-inch turrets on the cruiser HMS Gambia, then about to be scrapped . The Museum had just acquired a pair of 15-inch guns from the battleships Resolution and Ramillies and hoped to obtain an example of cruiser armament. The party lunched on board HMS Belfast, due shortly to go out of service. As they left afterwards, the author of this article suggested that it might be far better to preserve HMS Belfast in her entirety than to save a single turret from the Gambia. During a subsequent train journey to Liverpool on other business, Dr. Frankland and the author discussed the idea in greater detail and began to form a plan of campaign for the preservation of the cruiser as a museum ship. The practical problems were immense. In the summer of 1967 a survey was conducted of similar schemes in other countries . As a result of this survey, the Trustees of the Museum agreed in November that, in view of the Belfast 's distinguished history and excellent condition, the chance of preserving her should not be missed . Accordingly , a committee consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Defence, the Imperial War Museum and the National Maritime Museum was created to investigate the methods and costs of preserving the ship. The committee reported in June 1968 that the preservation of HMS Belfast as a floating naval museum was highly desirable, and technically and financially feasible. After much deliberation, the Government announced on 9 February 1971 that it could not provide the funds for preserving the Belfast and that the ship was to be put on the disposal list in April of that year. The Imperial War Museum, together with Rear-Admiral Morgan Giles MP, a friend of the project and a 10
former Captain of the Belfast, responded to this emergency by forming the HMS Belfast Trust-the aim being to raise the necessary funds from private sources and thereafter to administer HMS Belfast as a self-supporting museum ship. Shortly before midnight on 8 March 1971 , Admiral Morgan Giles, chairman of the Trust, appealed in the House of Commons for a stay of execution for the ship " to give the Trust a chance to show what it can make of its ideas. ' ' She was granted this temporary reprieve. During the four months of intense activity which followed, a generous gift of ÂŁ100,000 by John Smith, the banker and former MP for the Cities of London and Westminster , put the Trust into effective business. On the day before the temporary preservation order was due to expire, Admiral Morgan Giles was able to inform his fellow Trustees that the Government had finally agreed to allow the Trust to preserve the ship as a private venture . Although proposals for displaying the Belfast at Plymouth or Portsmouth had been considered , the Trust decided that it was essential to secure a site in London, to benefit from the flow of visitors to the capital. Arrangements were therefore made for a special berth to be prepared in the Pool of London, and on 14 October 1971 HMS Belfast edged her way slowly up-river to her new berth , her topmast clearing the upper works of Tower Bridge by only a few feet. Appropriately, HMS Belfast was opened to the public on Trafalgar Day, 21 October 1971 . In the presence of the Lord Mayors of Belfast and London and the Mayor of Southwark, the ship was formally handed over to the Trust by the Navy Minister. Admiral Sir Michael Pollock, the First Sea Lord, presented the White Ensign to Admiral Morgan Giles, for although she was no longer in commission, the Belfast was accorded the special privilege of flying the Ensign and styling herself "Her Majesty's Ship ." Opening the ship to the public on limited resources and for a fraction of the Government's estimate of what was required had been a considerable achievement, but the task of completing her restoration and establishing her as a pop-
ular museum and a successful business was even more complex. The Trust and its staff, directed first by Vice-Admiral Sir Donald Gibson and, from 1973, by Rear-Admiral Philip Higham, tackled these problems with great vigor. By 1974 a substantial part of the ship, including the Admiral's bridge and the forward boiler and engine rooms had been restored with the help of private benefactors , commercial organizations, volunteers and the Royal Navy itself. The Imperial War Museum also helped by mounting historical displays and lending models and other exhibits. Within a short time, HMS Belfast became an internationally known tourist attraction, the 1,500,000th visitor passing through the ship in December 1975. But the Trust still operated on a hand-to-mouth basis , depending from year to year upon revenue from admission charges and the generosity of private benefactors. The Trustees of the HMS Belfast Trust and the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum therefore sought the Government's permission for the Belfast to merge with the Museum . The Government agreed and on 1 March 1978 HMS Belfast became an integral part of the Imperial War Museum, which now has three wings : its main building in Southwark; Duxford Airfield, the former Royal Air Force station in Cambridgeshire; and HMS Belfast herself, in the Port of London. The Imperial War Museum will continue the policy established by the HMS Belfast Trust of preserving and restoring the cruiser in a manner consistent with naval tradition and historical accuracy. New displays about the role and history of the ship are being progressively developed. Exhibitions on broader aspects of naval history are also being introduced, thus enabling the Museum to show many of its models, uniforms and other naval exhibits in the highly appropriate setting of a cruiser of the period they illustrate. A new program of talks and other activities for schools and colleges similarly helps to explain the historical significance of this unique ship to the younger generation of visitors-in whose hands the preservation of the Royal Navy's heritage will ul.t timately rest. SEA HISIDRY, SPRING 1983
The A111erican Sea111an He asks a fair deal for alien crews shamefully exploited on cruise ships THE TV SHOW "Love Boat" is given much of the credit for popularizing the North American cruise ship industry, now grown to a lucrative twobillion dollar a year operation. In real life , of course, there is a great deal more to running a giant oceangoing passenger vessel than a charming Captain, a cheery Ship's Doctor, an affable Bartender and an accommodating Recreation Director. Behind the scenes on every cruise ship, hundreds of crew men and women cook and chop and serve and sweep and do all the innumerable chores necessary to keep the ship sailing safely and the paying passengers happy. More than 50 such foreign cruise ships now operate permanently out ofU .S . ports, mostly in Florida and the West Coast, with more coming. As one typically glowing travel story put it: "Hundreds of millions of dollars are being thrown around like Rockefeller dimes as [foreign] cruise lines build what they hope will be the most popular and financially rewarding ships on the sea.'' All true. What these stories fail to mention is that the owners of this "Fun" flotilla throw little money at the people who work these ships. They actually pay crew members in nickels and dimes ... as little as $1. 65 a day .. . and work them 14 to 16 hours a day to boot. The shabby scene also includes extortion in the form of under-the-table payoffs and kickbacks not witnessed in this country since the early 1930s. These foreign "Fun Ships" make American tourists unwitting parties to the shameful exploitation of powerless workers and to the violation, not only of U.S . immigration laws, but of the minimum standards set by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF). The calls for help from the men and women who crew the "Fun Ships" grow more desperate daily. But who in this country's legislative halls, courtrooms and government agencies is listening?
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
DAY'SReport RUN of the American Sail Training Association Eisenhower House, Fort Adams State Park, Newport, R/02840
ASTA' S Second Decade by George W. Crowninshield, Executive Director The American Sail Training Association a commitment was made to fill half the recently celebrated an important mileberths on the Bill of Rights and the stone-our 10th Anniversary. These first Shenandoah with cadets between the ages of 15 and 22 for the week of races, and to ten years of existence have seen amazing growth as the younger sister of the Sail seek the funds to assist the cadets financially. Thus the two major aspects of Training Association of Great Britain, ASTA ' s program were set in place very and promises of an even more exciting second decade are on the horizon . early in its history. The ASTA story began on December Perhaps the greatest challenge faced by fifth of 1972, when Barclay Warburton ASTA in its first decade was the role of host for the visit by the "Tall Ships" to gathered a small group of interested friends in the library of his home to Newport in June of 1976 as part of the festivities planned for the US Bicentendiscuss the possibility of founding an American Sail Training Association. The nial. In just a little more than three years, STA had been organizing biennial Interthe organization raised the necessary national Sail Training Races since 1956 funds, located the desired facilities, and and also ran a very successful schooner assembled the large number of staff and program which made a deepwater sailing volunteers who made that visit the experience available to youth on a historic high point that it was. Then came: • 1978- the first-ever sail training races widespread basis. Mr. Warburton had broken a long located in the Pacific Ocean; • 1979- the first National Maritime Herihistory of non-participation by US ships when he sailed his yacht, Black Pearl, to tage Festival; Kiel, Germany the previous summer to • 1980 and 1982-highly successful Interenter the European sail training races . national Sail Training Races which included the inauguration of Interamerican Impressed with the need for such an Races ; • continuous organization of yearly local organization in this country , he had arranged this meeting shortly after his sail training races; and ... return. • further coordination of sail training berths ltwasthesenseofthatfirstmeetingthat aboard suitable ships , with location of the founding of an American STA for the scholarship assistance-a program which purpose of providing a character building has expanded to booking a series of oneweek cruises each summer. experience under sail for young men and women would be a most worthwhile unOver the years, ASTA has also underdertaking. The group asked Mr. Warburtaken many other projects to meet the ton to convey their thoughts to the STA in needs within the sail training community : • formation of the Council of Educational England, to inquire into the question of affiliation with the STA organization, and Shipowners, which has recently resulted in the passage ofa long-desired law enablto bring back as much information as posing sail training vessels to operate more sible concerning the STA Schooner effectively and with a greater benefit to program . more young people; At the second meeting of the group , a • publication of the Registry of Sail Trainvote was taken on whether to form an ing Ships and Programs , a booklet which Americna Sail Training Association . disseminates information to young people This was unanimously agreed upon, and a seeking sail training experience; committee was formed to draw up a pro• publications of Day 's Run , a quarterly posed charter and a set of By-Laws. The report within these pages , and Running Free, an occasional newsletter for Articles of Association were signed on members , as well as bulletins of interest April 3, 1973 by the founding members: for ship owners. Barclay H. Warburton III, Russell B. These achievements were acknowledgBrown, RADM Joseph C . Wylie, Dr. edandsanctionedattheannualmeetingof Norris D. Hoyt, Dr. A.R.G. Wallace, the Sail Training Association in London in November of 1978, when the formal Joseph M. Davis , Bartlett S. Dunbar, and Perry Lewis . Charter of Affiliation was presented to At its third meeting , this fledgling the ASTA . With ten years of remarkable growth group agreed to organize sail training behind us , there is much to look forward races to be held in July of that year-a to as we begin this second decade . series which started in New Bedford and visited Block Island, New London, w w w Mystic , and Newport. Two months later, 12
Tel: 401-846-1 775
1983 Sail Training Opportunities ASTA will offer seven opportunities for one-week sail training cruises in US waters this summer. Five will take place in southern New England waters; one other is located Lake Superior, and the final one is in the Puget Sound area of the West Coast. Costs-which cover bunk, food , and training ; but not transportation to or from embarkation or debarkation points -vary from $275 to $395, and length is between five and seven days . A limited amount of scholarship assistance, from $50 up, is available to worthy applicants (based on information from qualified reference) .
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For those looking for a different sail training experience Malcolm Miller and Sir Winston Churchill, two schooners operated by the Sail Training Association in Great Britain, are offering a limited number of berths aboard one or both of these ships for two-week periods during the summer of 1983. This is an aggressive sail training program, expertly run , as well as a great opportunity to meet British cousins in an exciting atmosphere . With super-APEX fares, round trip to England costs about $600, and tuition runs approximately $300 per week in addition . Only a few can be accommodated in this very busy program , so early reservation is essential. Life becomes intense on a ship at sea , where challenges and personal adventure are brought together. At sea , a trainee has a chance to catch a unique spirit and gain skills that build on our past and become a bridge to shaping the future of our lines .
Local Races 1983 As in all odd-numbered years , ASTA will organize and conduct sail training races in local waters this year . Plans call for a start in western Long Island Sound on Tuesday , July 5, for an overnight race to Martha's Vineyard. On Thursday of that week there will be a Cruise-in-Company to Cuttyhunk; and then on Friday, the 8th, there will be a day race to Newport. At each interim stop there will be impromptu gatherings and picnics. The Prizegiving will be held at Newport on Friday, July 8. As always , the ASTA races are open to any monohull of over 24' waterline length. At least 50 % of the working complement must be young people ages 15-25, no one aboard under the age of 15 . SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1983
Sorlandet Sails for People by George Crowninshield bowsprit and built a two-story house-like Sorlandet is the oldest existing Norwegstructure on her deck, and in that condiian-built square rigger, having been in tion she served for the remainder of the service for more than fifty years. She is war as a depot ship for German submarthe only full-rigged ship in the world toine crews resting during their stay in port. day available for crew participation by At the cessation of hostilities Sorlandet the general public. was returned to her owners in extremely In 1918, Norwegian shipowner O.A .T . poor condition , as her owners noted , Skjelbred of Kristiansand donated the " more a wreck than a damaged ship." * sum of £25,000 (sterling) to establish a After being returned to her birthplace, fund for the purpose of building and opershe was docked and the work of reconating a sail training ship. As a result of struction was begun at once. She was this legacy , the Sorlandets Seilende Skolcompletely gutted and rebuilt from the eskibs Institution was formed . This group bare shell. In spite ofa shortage of materilost no time in deciding the type of vessel als-and other postwar difficulties-she required, based on a stipulation of the was made shipshape and sailed again in donor that she must be a true sailing ves1947 under the auspices of the Institution . sel without auxiliary power of any kind. The reclaimed square rigger served for The Institution entrusted the design and 25 more years as a seagoing school for building of the vessel to the Kristiansand boys, offering eleven-week courses in shipyard of P. Hoivolds Mek: Versted , work on deck and aloft-general seamanand in 1927 Sorlandet was launched-at ship , catering , and marine engineering. 216 ', including bowsprit , a miniature edThese courses were preceded by a basic ition of the typical ocean-going sailercourse for all boys. Training voyages with 26 sails rigged as all small training were usually to the North Sea and the Balships of the day were: double topsails , tic ; there were also land-based facilities single topgallants, and royals . Her name in a building near her winter berth. (translation: "Southern Land") had been In 1972 the Institution found it neceschosen in tribute to the southern coast of sary to replace her with a motor vessel , her homeland. Ninety cadets embarked and in 1974 she was sold to the shipowner for her first cruise, together with Captain Jan Staubo, who kept her until 1977-at G. Selmer Lindebery, three deck ofwhich point she was purchased by Skjelficers, four petty officers , a schoolmasbreds Rederi and presented as a gift to the ter, doctor, steward , and cook. The boys town ofKristiansand. She was taken back got an education comparable to what they to the shipyard in her home port and unwould receive in a good school ashore , derwent a complete refit. In addition to with the addition of seamanship , signalother work , a new engine with variable ling , rules of the sea, and other basic subpitch propeller was installed and she was jects necessary for a sea profession . The given a complete new wooden main deck. ship served as a training vessel for the The only provision in Sorlandet 's return Norwegian Merchant Navy until 1939. to service was that she not compete with Perhaps her most noted voyage during the present sea-training programs of the this time was a visit to the Chicago Norwegian Merchant Navy. Therefore, World ' s Fair in 1933 , sailing via the St. she carries out training cruises for the Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. general public . The perseverence which has been As war threatened Europe , Sorlandet shown by her homeland , and the local was chartered by the Royal Norwegian townspeople in particular, in totally reNavy and served as a depot ship in the storing this vessel and continuing her serport of Horten. When the occupying German forces reached that town in 1940, she vice as a training ship is a tribute to the dewas seized and used in various capacities dication which the Scandinavian people have to the sea. for the next two years, and then towed to The Norwegians recovered what were Kirkenes to become a military prison. little more than battered hulks after World There a fragment from a Russian bomb War II, yet they considered the work of went through her side near the waterline , these ships-Sorlandet and Christian sinking her at her moorings¡. The German Radich-of sufficient value to justify authorities had her raised and repaired spending hundreds of thousands of sufficiently to be towed to Kristiansand where she was moored in the fjord which *Sail Training and Cadet Ships , by Harold A . Underhill served as a base for their submarines. (Glasgow : Brown, Son & Ferguson, Ltd . , 1973) , pp . They took out all her masts , spars , and 96-99 . SEA HISlDRY, SPRING 1983
Sorlandet at South St., NY. Ph. , Norman Brouwer.
pounds making them fit for service once more . In 1979 and 1980 the people of Kristiansand went to considerable expense to fully restore this lovely vessel a second time . " Are they all wrong? It will be acknowledged that there are no finer seamen in the world than the men of the Scandinavian countries .. . .I find it very difficult to believe that the practical seamen and successful shipowners of these countries do not know what they are doing when they still hold onto sail training, in fact I just do not believe it,' ' says Harold Underhill , historian of these ships. Through the efforts of Square-Rig International-a non-profit organization of individuals from the United States , Canada , and Berrnuda-Sorlandet will commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of her voyage to the 1933 World ' s Fair with a similar cruise, divided into four separate sail training segments : (1) To begin June 11 at Saint George , Bermuda and end at Quebec , with a stop at Boston; (2) From Quebec, a three-week cruise up the St. Lawrence Seaway and through the Great Lakes-with stops at Chicago, Duluth , and Thunder Bay; (3) From Thunder Bay through the Great Lakes and down the St. Lawrence , ending at Halifax, Nova Scotia; (4) From Halifax on August 20 back to Bermuda, with a stop in Newport RI. Cost is $70 per day per person for an entire passage (three weeks) . This covers " hands-on " training, berth , food , and spectacular views of nature at its best. Transportation costs to and from the points of embarkation and debarkation will be extra. The ship's company will consist of 17 experienced permanent crew from Norway and 70 international cadets . Cadets will stand watch, handle sail , steer the ship-all the normal duties of a crew member. Families are encouraged to participate together; minimum age is 16. For further information write: SUMMER SAIL, AST A, Eisenhower House , Fort Adams State Park , Newport RI 02840. 13
DAY'S RUN
Sailing School Vessels Act of 1982 The President of the United States boosted sail training on 15 October 1982 by signing into law the Sailing School Vessels Act of 1982, sponsored by the American Sail Training Association. The act' s purpose is to facilitate and further all forms of marine education at sea aboard sailing ships-with sail training and its challenge, discipline , and teamwork as the principal interest of the supporters. The law is fairly simple. It establishes two new classes of people aboard ship, trainees and instructors, and calls for new regulations in the areas of ship certification, licensing, and manning-regulations which would. be more compatible with sailing ships and open ocean cruising. The law is applicable to sailing ships up to 500 gross tons, owned or chartered by non-profit groups , carrying six or more trainees, and conducting marine education. The law permits trainees and instructors to be handled directly in their true capacities, rather than as passengers who are not expected to assist in working the ship, or as crew who carry with them the lifetime support liability associated with seamen working at their livelihood.
This provision should facilitate insurance and may have a desirable downward effect on the rates . The law requires a $50,000 minimum liability coverage per trainee. The law further specifies that the new regulations are to be in place eighteen months after the Act became law, or 15 April 1984 (based on the President's signature date). This is a short period for the bureaucracy concerned with this matter to function: Coast Guard , Office of Management and Budget, Transportation Department. To facilitate this work, and to comply with the spirit of the legislation calling for ' 'industry'' guidance and support, a draft regulations group has been established by George Nichols, Chairman of the Council of Educational Shipowners, ASTA , and Cory Cramer, Trustee and Past Executive Director of the Sea Education Association . These two have brought in a host of outstanding talent as volunteers who are contributing the very finest in maritime know-how, architecture, engineering, operations, and safety. Their goal is to have new draft regulations ready within
six months, so that the real effort can go into settling truly difficult points rather than into the dull work of word by word, page by page, alteration of existing material. The Coast Guard action officers are working with the group, like the approach, and are impressed with the talent gathered. The spirit of the law also indicatedand the associated hearings also bore out the fact-that the Coast Guard was to be able to turn to the "industry" for advice on what was a valid marine education program and who was a legitimate sailing school vessel. ASTA has, therefore , convened a second committee to determine what the criteria for valid programs are and how they can be shown to be authentic . This will enable ships to apply forcertification under the Sailing School Vessels Act rather than Subchapter T , or whatever , of the existing laws. This committee is chaired by Ms . Nancy Richardson , Marine Specialist of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., who is assisted by Captain Francis E . Bowker and George Moffett, both of Mystic Seaport, among others .
EDITORIAL This editorial was originally in the fonn of a letter to officials of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. ASTA believes very strongly that the situation with the Ernestina must be remedied immediately-before dire consequences can result; hence, we are turning to our members and friends for help in convincing the proper officials that there is need for action. The American Sail Training Association shared with all Americans the exhileration and appreciation that accompanied the arrival in late August of the schooner Ernestina-a generous gift to the people of the United States by the Republic of Cape Verde. We were delighted , too, to learn that Massachusetts had established a special Commission to receive, supervise , and work Ernestina, which would ensure her purpose of good will between the two countries being achieved, with an increased focus on our mutual maritime heritage . Since the establishment of that Commission, we have watched with increasing anxiety as the weeks pass with no funding for the Commission, and no regular 14
maintenance for the ship. The ship represents an asset of over a $500,000, but requires another $1-$200,000 to complete her below decks and to equip her for safe operation. Comparable amounts are required to fit her out for use as a shoreside museum. Without some steady maintenance and an imaginative program for essential outfitting, Ernestina will become only a liability to the State¡: an eyesore on the waterfront and a source of friction with our overseas benefactors and their local kinsmen . Here is a ship that can bring the challenge of the sea, the attraction of the maritime professions, and the remembrance of our maritime heritage , all into focus for young and old who tread her decks or , better, have the opportunity to sail in Ernestina. The ship's history includes Polar exploration, Grand Banks fishing, assistance to the nation in World War II , and service under the flags of the United States, Canada and the Republic of Cape Verde. It is a history to be told and to be proud of, and the schooner sailing in and out of Massachusetts' ports would be such an effective way to make it known!
We know that Ernestina received a well-planned and warm reception , and would like to learn that further steps are being taken to make her an agent of goodwill and maritime skills. Your State is custodian for the nation, a role we know you take seriously; our interest springs from wishing to see every national asset used to best advantage to promote the growth of appreciation for our maritime heritage . 1983 DIRECTORY One of ASTA's yearly projects is the publication of a " Directory of Sail Training Ships and Programs." This Directory gives a comprehensive listing of sail training opportunities available in the Western Hemisphere , with close-ups on many of the vessels. It also includes a broad overview of European " Tall Ships " and training programs . Edited by Ms. Nancy Richardson , the 1983 edition of this Directory is hot off the press and is available ata cost of$3 .00 plus 95C for postage. Write, including prepayment, to DIRECTORY c/o ASTA. SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1983
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1-rQ INTERNATIONALTERMINAL OPERATING CO. INC. 17 Battery Place, New York, New York 10004 (212) 709-0500 Telex : 710-581-3978
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Museum Quality Ship Models large collection for sale SHIP MODELS INTERNATIONAL
1708 Salem Champaign, Ill. 61820
c Print folder wr ire: OF SEA & SHIPS © 420 So. Beverl y D.r., Suite 207 Beverl y Hills, Ct\ 902 12.
NAUTICAL ANTIQUES Octants-T el escopes-Clocks Compasses-Sextants-Etc. Send for free lists
Dunlap Enterprises Inc. 130 Severn Avenue Annapolis , MD 21403
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Built lo specificalion - will research Kits and F1tt1ngs also available • Catalog $2 00
Marittima Models P 0 BOX 1107 H WOODBRIDGE , VIRGINIA 22 193
J. A. Johnson & Associates MARINE CONSULTANTS Represent ing Commercial & Financial Instituti ons
Box 2052 , Brunswick , Maine 04011 U .S.A . (2071 729-6711
For sale: Startlingly beautiful oil painting of fullrigged ship Invercargill painted in 1970 by renowned marine artist Keith A. Griffin, for sale at $2,600 plus packing, shipping and insurance. Size 36" x 26 ". Write: Gustav Alexandersson, Liivdalsvagen 35, S-13200 Saltsjii-Boo, Sweden.
Models of Achievement Favorites of discriminating model builders, ou r kits contain on ly the finest materials-no lead or plastic. Everything's included to make a handsome model, worthy of your time and care. Available at better dealers or send $2.00 for catalogue.
'!lB!t:C!lPJf!fi,!f,lfsT 93 Canal St. Shellon , CT 06484
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The timbers of the first battleship, laid down by the young Henry VIII and sunk under his eyes in 1545, come to rest in Portsmouth Dockyard near the stern ofher younger sister HMS Victory, Nelson 'sjl.agship at Trafalgar in 1805. Guns (and much else) have been removed. The drawing below shows the recovered ship's structure.
The Mary Rose Comes Home One of the first acts of the new King Henry VIII was to order her laid down in 1509. Henry's restless ambition led him to import Italian gunners to teach the English how to make and use big guns-ultimately, ship-killing guns-which the English promptly put aboard big ships to exploit the new technology. The result in the Mary Rose , rebuilt and rearmed later in her career, is a ship closer in concept to the US Navy's Iowas- the world's last big-gun battleships-than to any of her predecessors or her contemporaries in other navies. Hailed early on by an English commander as " the flower I trow of all ships that ever sailed ," she capsized and sank under the King 's eyes in 1545, as she steered out to meet a hostile French fleet off Portsmouth (see SH23). The King is said to have heard the cries of the drowning men as the big ship heeled over after an ungainly tack (in rather light air) and sank as she filled through her open gun ports. She was loaded with extra hundreds of men in her towering fore and after castles, she had lately been more heavily armed than ever, and she may have been mishandled ; her commander George Carew exclaimed, as the ship next astern overhauled her: " I have the sort of knaves I cannot rule! " At three minutes after nine on Monday morning, October 11 , the oak timbers of
the great ship broke the surface as she was hauled up in a specially designed cradle. She was then conveyed to Portsmouth Dockyard , from whence she had set out so bravely 437 years before. Immediately the ship broke surface, the work of conservation began , with timbers being sprayed and wrapped in plastic to prevent their drying out after centuries-long entombment in the Solent mud outside the harbor mouth . The people of the Mary Rose Trust remarked : "The efforts of our new partners at the Naval Base must, in many ways, echo the frantic activity that was expended in that same dockyard to prepare the Mary Rose for her final battle ..." It was on September 29, in between patches of bad weather, that the cradle was lowered to the seabed to receive the ship, and October 25 before she came to rest in Drydock No. 1, from which she was moved to Drydock No. 3 where she may stay some time. It is expected to open the vessel to public viewing in April or May this year. Meantime the vessels and many people involved in the salvage effort have dispersed, as Dr. Margaret Rule, Chief Archaeologist , prepares for the long-term tasks of conservation and presentation of the ship. Over 2,000 people have contributed to this undertaking. Those interested in subscribing may write: Ship Trust , NMHS, 15 State Street , New York 10004.
Universal Maritime Service Corporation One Broadway, New York, New York 10004 • (212) 269-5121
Multi-gate truck complexes , complete with truck scales and pneumatic tube document transfer systems, assure rapid and accurate handling of trucks and cargo entering or departing Redhook and Port Newark terminals.
Universal Maritime Service Corp. is one of the largest, most versatile and technologically advanced terminal operators in the Port of New York. Now in its 55th year of operation, the company serves over 20 of the world's most prominent ocean carriers; maintains facilities on both sides of the harbor, and has repeatedly been relied upon to carry-out some of the most varied, complex and. extensive cargo movements in the history of the port. Within the past two years, Universal has invested over $15 million in new facilities and equipment, with additional commitments on the way.
FACILITIES, EQUIPMENT & SERVICES With its latest expansion in Brooklyn and Port Newark, Universal 's active terminals offer: • 6 container berths • 2 Ro-Ro berths • 9 breakbulk berths • 1, 150,000 square feet of shedded/ consolidation space and breakbulk handling area • 140 acres of container storage and open cargp area • 5 Paceco container gantry cranes, ranging from 4070 long-tons in capacity • 14 forty-two-ton top loaders • 45 Ro-Ro and yard hustlers • 27 heavy lift forks (15-30 tons) • Hundreds of forks, hilos and other pieces of support equipment • An on-Iine data-flow system , based on an IBM 4331 11 central processing unit, serving all facilities ADDITIONAL EXPANSION Under negotiation now are plans for expanding the Redhook container terminal in Brooklyn, which would result in a doubling of its capacity in the near future. Expansion in both area and equ ipment is also planned for the Port Newark container terminal. Universal looks forward to adding to its list of distinguished steamship services at all three of its locations - Port Newark, Redhook and Piers 1, 2 and 3 in Brooklyn - and highly recommends these facilities to importers and exporters of international cargo which moves through the Port of New York.
As illustrated by the photos above and at right, Universat's combination terminals are designed to handle all types of cargo operations - including heavy lifts and projec t moves - simultaneously and with equal ease and efficiency.
Universal's president, James G. Costello, recently capsulized the company 's market position and business outlook as follows : "At no time in our history has Universal been better prepared to serve the commercial fleets of the world, and we remain committed to do whatever is necessary to help the Port of New York retain its ranking as the world's number one market for international cargo."
Eklof Marine Corp. Since 1926
Martha's Vineyard Shipyard
Marine transportation of petroleum and chemical products. New York harbor based tugs, barges, tankers. Shipside bunkering a specialty.
(Since 1861)
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 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.
1571 Richmond Terrace Staten Island, NY 10310 Telephone: 212-442-1271 Shipyard tel : 212-273-8300 Dispatcher's tel: 212-442-1112 TWX: 710-588-4152
Beach Road, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568 Telephone 617-693-0400
On April 23, 1838, the wooden- hulled paddle steamer SIRIUS arrive d at Ne w York , responsible for startin g the first North Atlantic steamship service , heralding 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. I
Capt. Woll Spille, President
212·330· 1817
TANKER DEPARTMENT: Theo Theocharides , V.P. Chris LeSauvage Ed Willis Hugh Bellas·Simpson
212·330·1810 212·330·1808 212·330· 1812 212·330·1806
SIRIUS IBIR<OJlKIEIRSPIlNC.
DRY CARGO DEPARTMENT: James A. Bergonzi, V.P. Mark G. Wade
212·330· 1843 212·330· 1845
SIRIUS HOUSE - 76 Montague Stree t Brook lyn Heights , New York 11201 Telepho ne: (212) 330· 1800
OPERATIONS AND RESEARCH: Capt. George Giouzepis, V.P. Phil Romano Janet Forti
212·330·1830 212·330· 1834 212·330· 1833
~~ ~v
Cable: " SIRIUS NEWYORK " lnt'l Telex: TRT 17788 l / ITI 422871 / ACA225111 Domestic Telex : WU 126758 / 645934 / TWX 710-584-2207
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FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION : Jose Fiorenzano, V.P. 212·330· 1835
Painting courtesy Norman Kjeldsen , Esq .
Bear a hand for the Wavertree. In 1895, the Wavertree arrived at New York under sail . This painting by Oswald Brett depicts the historic event. While we cannot say for certain, the Wavertree may have been met by one of the McAllister tugs which have served New York Harbor since 1864. Legends are made of such moments. The Wavertree and her sister ships, in their day, were our responsibility. We at McAllister take pride in being part of the history and lore of New York Harbor. The Wavertree is now at the South Street Seaport Museum and we support her restoration in order to keep maritime and nautical traditions alive for future generations. Bear a hand. Send your donation to: Ship Trust, c/o National Maritime Historical Society, 15 State Street, New York, N.Y. 10004. McAllister Brothers, Inc. Towing and (212) Transportation 17 Battery Place, New York, N.Y. 10004 269-3200 Baltimore (301) 547-8678 • Norfolk (804) 627-3651 Philadelphia (215) 922-6200 •San Juan (809) 721-8888
Mell 1·1ster
WASA TRIUMPHANT INTRODUCTION: "A Mighty Source of Inspiration" by His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf King of Sweden
Almost thirty years ago, the Swedish private naval historian Anders Franzen located the Royal Warship Wasa in the harbor of Stockholm. When the ship was finally raised in 1961, 333 years had passed since the Wasa capsized and sank on her maiden voyage in August 1628. The resurrected warship soon became a major tourist attraction, and also a mighty source of inspiration for the rapidly growing science of underwater archaeological research. With great interest , I have followed the work of preserving and restoring the ship. During many visits to the Wasa Museum, I have been able to see for myself that this work has been successful . The wreck has again turned into a splendid and almost complete 17th century ship. For the greatest part, it has been possible to use in the restoration original details , found in and around the ship . More than 700 sculptures have once decorated the stern, galleries, beakhead and other parts of the ship. Many of these figures that thrill the imagination are again back where they used to be. The plans for a New Wasa Museum, the final port of destination for the Royal Warship , are approaching reality . An architectural competition for the design of this building ended in late 1982. The competition drew almost 400 entries, the largest number ever in Scandinavia. I hope that the Wasa within this decade will get the new museum, which she needs and deserves so well. The people working with the Wasa project have in many respects performed inspiring pioneering feats in the fields of salvaging, excavating, preserving and restoring the ship , as well as measuring her and making the drawings that our ancestors could not produce. I am particularly happy that a great deal of valuable experience has , over the years, been forwarded on to the skillful team that has now completed the raising of King Henry VIIl's ship Mary Rose. Through three legendary men of war-the Mary Rose, the Wasa and the Victory-Britain and Sweden will together be able to pass on invaluable knowledge about the evolution of naval architecture during three very interesting centuries.
On April 21, 1982, King Carl Gustaf presented the World Ship Trust Award to the Na tional Maritime Museum of Sweden, keepers of the Wasa, ''to honor those whose work has enriched the world 's sea history heritage by salvaging and restoring the royal ship Wasa. "
SEA HIS10RY, SPRING 1983
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WASA TRIUMPHANT The Sinking, Search and Salvage of a 17th Century Warship by Thomas Hale It was a beautiful spring morning , and as one looked down into the blue water between the two pontoons, one could see just a shimmering shadow of the great ship below . Jacking commenced at 9 o'clock and a few minutes later the tip of a blackened oak timber broke the surface. It was part of the ruined stern castle, and then slowly and inexorably it was joined by two lines of bulwark stanchions, and by 11 o'clock the whole fore part of the ship had broken clear. At about this time two carved wooden heads rose like ghosts out of the water. They were atop the foremast bitts , at deck level , through which the sheets and tacks for fore topsail and foresail had passed. She was coming up at the rate of 18 inches per hour , and by 2 PM her main deck beams were above the surface. A little ceremony took place and Anders Franzen and diver Falting rowed over, clambered aboard, and took possession of the ship. They shook hands, and pitched a coin overboard as a token to the spirit of Wasa . This was it, April 24, 1961, the day they had all worked so hard to reach-the day the 64-gun warship again saw light of day for the first time since she rolled over and sank at the outset of her maiden voyage, on a fine Sunday afternoon, August 10, 1628 .
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Scandinavia in 1628 was in the midst of the Thirty Years War. Sweden at that time was at the height of her greatness, her realm extending over much of what is now Finland , Norwary , Denmark, East Germany and Poland . Her king, Gustav Adolf II , of the house of Wasa, was Protestant, but in Poland his Catholic cousin Sigismund was allied with Wallenstein , one of the greatest generals of the Hapsburg emperors. Wallenstein had reached the shores of the Baltic with his troops , and looked northwards to extend his victories . The sea barred his way . Since he was totally without vessels, his title of" Admiral of the Baltic" was a hollow one, but by whistling up the Spanish fleet he hoped to
provide the naval force for his projected Baltic operations. Sweden, already allied on land with Stralsund and other citystates who were heroically resisting Wallenstein, had long realized that her navy was her prime defense, and for several years King Gustav had been frantically expanding his naval forces. In 1625 , he had ordered a new flagship for his fleet. She was to be a magnificent vessel-165 feet long, 42 feet in the beam, with her mainmast, a yard in diameter at deck level, towering 170 feet above her keel. She was to be decorated and ornamented as befitted a king's flagship , and no expense was spared in her building despite the economic drain caused by the prolonged war. She was armed with 64 guns: 48 24-pounders , 8 3-pounders, 2 I-pounders and 6 mortars. They were bronze and taken altogether weighed about 80 tons . She carried them on three decks and was a powerful vessel for her era , even for Sweden at the height of her importance. In later years, of course, larger vessels were built-Nelson 's Victory, built a century and a quarter later, carried 102 guns-but the King 's new ship was certainly the largest, most expensive, and most awe-inspiring unit of the Swedish Navy when she was launched in late 1627 or early 1628 . She was christened Ny Wassan , but was called Wasa after the ruling family. By August 10, 1628 she was ready to join the fleet at sea. On board were her officers and men-about 130 naval personnelwith all the armament, supplies and ship's stores necessary for a four months ' voyage . In addition to the crew, many wives and children were aboard, to be put ashore only when the vessel had reached the open sea. A gentle wind from the south-southwest blew across Stockholm harbor as the ship got underway that afternoon. She was warped to windward-hauling herself along on long lines put ashore-until she could lay the course out of the harbor , and between 4 and 5 PM she made sail: foresail, fore topsail , main top-
The Wasa comes to rest in the drydock on May 4, 1961, 333 years after her sinking.
Gun carriages on the lower gundeck, port side. It was through these gun ports-3 !12 feet above the waterlinethat tons of water poured and sank the ship. All photos courtesy the Maritime Museum and Warship Wasa.
sail, and lateen-rigged mizzen , on a broad reach . She must have been a magnificent sight with the late afternoon sun glinting on her masses of gilded carving and reflecting from the polished barrels of the bronze cannon which looked out menacingly from the open gun ports. People lining the shores waved farewell and cheered, and numerous small boats kept her company. She fired two guns in salute. Then a moderate gust of wind hit Was a, and she took a sudden and unexpected list to port . Captain Hansson ordered the sheets cast off as a precaution , but the wind was so light and the lines so new and stiff that they would not render through the blocks , and as another gust hit the ship she heeled over alarmingly. The master gunner, Erick Jonsson , ran below , and made a futile effort to have the port battery on the lower gun deck hauled to windward to counteract the list, but it was too late . Water, tons of it, poured through the open gun ports , and before the horrified eyes of thousands of watchers Wasa rolled her port side completely underwater, and sank with sails set and flags flyi ng. She partially righted herself as she went down , landing on the bottom in about 110 feet of water with her main topgallant masthead still showing above the surface.
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It is not known how many persons were lost in the disaster, but the loss of life undoubtedly would have been far worse were it not that the waters were sheltered and that a great number of small craft were hovering about. Among those saved were Captain Hansson , gunner Jonsson , and her sailing master or first officer Joran Matsson. The three hundred soldiers, who were to have joined the ship, were not aboard , and the number of skeletons found aboard indicate that some 50 persons went down with the ship. A naval court of inquiry was formally convened on September 5, and we are fortunate that the verbatim report of the testimony and cross examination is still extant. We are missing only the findings-if indeed , the court ever reported any . The first witness was the ordinance officer , Jonsson, who set the pattern for much of the following testimony by reporting to the court that he had felt the ship to be top heavy and unstable before she even left the dockyards . She was, he said, " heavier over than under. " In any event, Jonsson continued , when the ship had first begun to heel he had gone below to confirm that the guns were indeed properly secured , and subsequent testimony bore him out on this point. When Wasa had begun to heel alarmingly the second time , he had dashed below in a vain endeavor to have the leeward guns hauled to windward , but the water was already pouring in through the open ports , and he barely escaped with his life . When the president of the court inquired why Jonsson had never reported his feelings about the vessel's lack of stability , SEA HIS1DRY, SPRING 1983
the latter took great pains to point out that as gunner this was not his responsibility nor did he know anything about such matters . The president of the court pushed the matter further , and asked Jonsson again why he had not reported his misgivings since the vessel's builder had said that if anyone had told him of the matter that he would have had the ship ballasted heavier . Jonsson turn-
''The Admiral, himself ordered the test stopped... the ship 'would have gone right over. ' "
if they had gone on with it,
ed this one back upon the court very neatly by inquiring blandly how this could have been done when the lower deck gun ports were already only about 3 V2 feet above the water. The ship ' s sailing master , Joran Matsson, provided one of the high points of the inquiry. He was a tough customer and needed all his abilities, for the charge against him was grave indeed . He was accused of failing in his calling in that he had not paid sufficient attention to the ballasting of the vessel '' whereby disaster had befallen His Majesty 's ship.'' To this charge he replied that he personally had overseen the stowing of the ballast, that every stone she could carry had been put aboard, and that he had done all that was required of him . The court then asked did he know or suspect that the ship was top heavy before she sailed? His answer to this was a bombshell . Certainly he said, and so did Captain Hansson . In fact, he said, Hansson had reported it to Grand Admiral Fleming weeks before, and Fleming and the Captain had conducted a "capsizing test' ' with all the guns and virtually all the ballast on board . The packed courtroom must have been deathly still as he described in detail how the two officers had made thirty men run from one side of the main deck to the other in a body . The first time they did so she rolled one plank under, the next time two , and the next three . The Admiral himself ordered the test stopped , and had said that if they had gone on with it that the ship '' would have gone right over. " This was startling testimony indeed! The next important witness should have been the vessel's designer and builder, but that worthy, Master Shipwright Henrik Hybertsson, had died after Wasa was started but before her launch. She had been completed by one Hein J acobsson who lost no time in taking a leaf from Matsson ' s book; only this time he was able to lay part of the basic responsibility on the very doorstep of royalty itself. He stoutly maintained that King Gustav had personally approved the list of dimensions and the model which Hybertsson had presented to him , and in those days, as the saying goes, the king 's word was law. The court argued that either Hybertsson or Jacobsson should have tried to convince His Majesty that the vessel would be too narrow and top heavy. 23
''Of course the ship was well built, but she had not the correct proportions. "
This reconstruction drawing (left) shows the royal coat of arms (cover) near the top. Just above are the initials GA RS for " Gustavus Adolphus Rex Sueciae. " Below, between the two large windows is a sheafofgrain flanked by two cherubs-the symbol for the name of the ship. Drawing by Gunnar Olofsson. A bellicose and prideful lion glared from each gun port lid when the ship was cleared for action.
Jacobsson merely pointed out with a certain justice that one doesn 't argue with the King, and repeated that as the original builder was dead all he had done was to carry out the original agreement and had built the ship according to the design the King had approved. He kept on insisting that the vessel had been irreproachably built, to which the prosecutor eventually answered a little testily: ''Of course, the ship was well built, but she had not the correct proportions." The testimony of others tended to corroborate what these men said, and thus it appears evident that for the court to find any of the accused guilty would have been to condemn not only the respected Admiral Fleming but the King himself. This the court was reluctant to do, and no findings were ever published, or if they were, they have never been found. Why did Wasa sink? In retrospect it is easy to see that the inexact science of 17th century naval architecture had unwittingly produced a crank vessel. A sailing ship is a balance of numerous and often contradictory forces. If some factors are either ignored, or, conversely, if they carry undue weight with the designer or builder the vessel will be a failure . In this case numerous important criterea were imperfectly balanced off against each other. Probably most of the causes for her sinking were brought out 355 years ago at the court of inquiry, yet the court was unable or unwilling to state them at the time .
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The first attempt to raise the vessel was made almost immediately after the sinking. An Englishman, one Jan Bulmer, who was in Stockholm at the time, rushed right off to the Council of the Realm, and convinced that harried body to grant him permission to raise the wreck on a "no cure, no pay" basis. Bulmer started work August 13, only three days after the disaster, when Was a 's main topgallant mast still showed above water. Somehow he succeeded in righting her so that she was on an even keel before she sank too deeply into the mud and slime, and in so doing performed a great service to later salvors. But despite strenuous efforts he could achieve nothing more. The Councilors of the Realm elbowed Bulmer aside in favor of our friend Admiral Fleming-who had conducted the ill-starred capsizing test, and who had discounted the need for additional ballast. He had no more success than Bulmer, and in 1629 he was forced to write 24
his King explaining his difficulties , and ending, not surprisingly, with the words, '' there is a heavier weight here than I could ever have supposed." Shortly after this , the Navy gave up all attempts at salvage. In 1663 a turning point of sorts was reached when two men , Col. von Treileben and Andreas Peckell appeared upon the scene and set out to salvage not the entire ship, which they realized to be impossible , but her very valuable bronze guns. Five years earlier von Treileben had successfully employed a new invention , the diving bell, in salvaging cannons from the Danish vessel Sancta Sophia which had sunk off Gothenburg , also in 110 feet of water. Use of this bell made his syndicate successful where so many others had failed. They were faced with a task that would have given pause to even a modern diver . Wasa had now been on the bottom for over thirty years, and had been subject in the meantime to the nonetoo-gentle and blind attempts of numerous would-be salvors. Some of her spars were still standing, but her decks were littered with fallen yards, cordage, sails, wreckage of all sorts, and tons of mud and slime. This mess was miraculously cleared away by von Treileben's and Peckell 's men, who then proceeded , most unfortunately for us today, to tear away not only the ornate poop and quarter deck, but also most of the main deck as well in order to get at the guns below. They managed to bring to the surface over 50 of the 64 guns aboard Wasa , including over 40 of the 48 24-pounders-weighing over 2500 pounds apiece! The majority had to be jockeyed out through the gunports on the lower two decks.
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The passage of three hundred years found modern Sweden still the dominant power in the Baltic, and as dependent upon the sea for her livelihood and her defense as in the 17th century. She is today as then first and foremost a maritime nation, and her people are intensely proud of her maritime heritage. It is not surprising , therefore, to find that the Swedish Museum of Maritime History was the first in the world to be able to list marine archaeology as one of its regular activities . A museum , however, depends upon the caliber of its staff for its success or failure, and the Museum of Maritime History is indeed fortunate to have found a young man named Anders Franzen-a petroleum geologist by training , the chief engineering SEA HIS1DRY, SPRING 1983
Above, the Wasa' sfigurehead- a huge lion-was found in the mud and raised in 1959. This view along the deck (right) shows the amazing sheer of the poop-so alarming to modern eyes. Jn the foreground the figure of a man peers out from beneath the starboard cathead.
secretary for the Swedish Admiralty by profession , and a marine archaeologist by avocation. It would be well here to mention one of the most important factors in Baltic marine archaeology: The Baltic, while technically a salt water sea which is directly connected to the North Atlantic, is none-the-less far less salt than is the ocean , and because of this the shipworm, or Teredo Navalis , cannot survive in these waters . So underwater wooden hulks , free of this predator, can
''The square gaps in the hull could mean but one thing, they were the gun porls of a la.rge man-of-war!" last and last. .. .Franzen, aware of this, set out to find and, if possible, organize an effort to salvage the Wasa . It seems incredible that the location of the great ship should have been forgotten, but so it was . Many ships had lost their anchors by dropping them onto the Wasa where she lay 110 feet under the murky waters of Stockholm Harbor , entangling them in her still-robust oaken timbers . And it-was by a sample core of blackened oak that Franzen reached his decision, after considerable casting about, that he had found his ship. He straightway went to the authorities at the naval diving school, adjacent to the dockyard and located only a quarter of a mile away . He prevailed upon them to shift the scene for that year' s diving exercises to the spot where he'd found his oaken sample. On August 10, 1956, 328 years to the day after Wasa sank , chief diver Per Edvin Falting was lowered to the bottom from the open stern of a diving tender. The scene aboard must have been a tense one as they listened to Falting's breathing and the sound of bubbling air coming over the loudspeaker from the telephone headset in the diver's helmet. Finally these words: ''I am lowering myself beside a wreck. It' s very dark, but I can feel a square gap in the hull . And here's another one .. .. '' The sensation must have been electric, for the square gaps in the hull could mean but one thing , they were the gun ports of a large man of war! Falting stayed aboard the wreck long enough to make a quick but conclusive survey, and when he returned to the surface there was no doubt any longer-Wasa had been found! The.Navy undertook to survey the ship , under Falting 's direction. In the murky water a 1000-watt lamp penetrated only five SEA HIS1DRY, SPRING 1983
feet-and that only until the soft mud and slime stirred up by the diver's feet obscured all vision . Nonetheless , little by little the ship was measured and investigated, gun ports counted , deck beams checked , and part of the interior was cleared of mud and slime so that the divers could critically examine the inside of the hull . By the end of the summer of 1957 a mass of information had been procured . It was possible to make some reasonably accurate measured drawings of Wasa . The consensus of the divers ' report was that not only had she been very heavily built, but that, except for the considerable damage to her upper works done by von Treileben and the other 17th century attempts at salvage, the hull was in remarkably good condition. All the timbers and planking that would have to take the strain were she to be raised were undoubtedly strong enough to stand it, and the Institute of Timber Research reported that the wood still retained 60 % of its original tensile strength. The one doubtful point were her fastenings , for she had been assembled with both wooden treenails and iron bolts and piris, and the latter had, by and large , disintegrated . The divers also reported that the ship was surrounded by a vast amount of her own wreckage and a surprising amount of ornamentation which could also be salvaged in due course. Her fore lower mast had been still standing , but was carefully removed as being an obstacle to divers ' lines. It was decided to use no short cuts, but to rely on the tried and true method of lifting a ship in slings between two floating pontoons. First six tunnels were to be dug under the ship, so that six 2-inch cables each 400 feet long could be passed under the hull. Tunneling started in August, and was by far the most difficult and dangerous part of the entire operation. Each diver carried with him two hoses ; the first discharged air and water under great pressure through a Zetterstrom nozzle . This nozzle and the stream could be directed either ahead of the diver for washing out the tunnel , or backwards to blow the debris away. This in turn was picked up by the wide mouth of the second hose which sucked the mud and clay to the surface as fast as the diver washed out the tunnel. On the surface it was carefully screened to recover the numerous small objects that were spewed forth by the water jet. Imaging just a for a moment the situation under which these divers were working! They were dressed in heavy , clumsy conventional diving suits (frog men ' s gear was imprac25
At right, Stockholm in the Wasa' s era, a powerful center of empire and trade. A smaller ship ofWasa's style is anchored to the left, and a larger vessel comes out towards you on the course the Wasa followed on her brief maiden voyage. Engraving by Wullem Swidde, City Museum of Stockholm.
Th e obj ects of precious metal-pewter, copper, silver and bronze-were probably 1he property of officers. At left is a handsome bronze brazier, at center a pewter plate, and at right a pewter tankard. In the foregro und is a keg tap.
ti cal at this depth and under these conditions), and were working in complete darkness in water at about 40 °F . They were lowered and stepped off into knee deep slime. Groping along till they found the right tunnel they would have to dive into it head first dragging two heavy hoses behind them . Worming their way to the front of the tunnel they would blast away, with the oaken planking of Wasa bumping their helmets as they worked. Over them was a 300-year old wreck with hundreds of tons of stone ballast aboard . Everyone said the ship was sound , but what if they were wrong? After working only half an hour-to allow time for the necessary decompression-the diver had to back out of his crypt and regain the surface in stages. That not a single injury or loss of life occured is a tribute to the divers ' skill and the care with which the operation was planned and carried out. By the time diving ceased in 1958, it was obvious at last that the project stood a very good chance of success. Offers of assistance poured in, the largest being the offer of the Neptune Salvage Company to donate all necessary pontoons , derricks, tugs , and other equipment for the lifting process. It asked only that the men's wages be refunded.In August 1959 the tunnels were completed and the salvage company's two pontoonsOden and Frigg-were anchored over the wreck. Each had a lifting capacity of 2400 tons , so that Wasa 's calculated weight of 700 tons was, in itself, no problem . The tremendous suction of the mud was \he big unknown factor. August 20th was the day appointed for the lift . Extreme precautions were taken and stringent control of all harbor traffic was exercised to prevent the slightest wake from any careless motor boat from upsetting the precisely balanced lifting program . In the early afternoon pumping began , and the pontoons slowly began to rise with their lifting capacity growing greater every minute. Many pairs of eyes intensely watched the two pontoons and the bow taut wires . By 4:30 the lifting power of the pontoons had reached a nicely calculated figure of just a little more than 700 tons, and the pumps were shut down . Suddenly silence descended on the entire operation. There was nothing to do now but wait. Finally a few bubbles broke the surface showing that at least a little water was working its way in between the mud and the ship. The tension was tremendous. Then a few more bubbles, and then , suddenly the two pontoons each gave a great heave. That was all, and a diver was hastily sent below to report. His voice sounded loud and clear over the loudspeakers for all to hear: " I'm on the bottom and can feel her sternpost .... Wasa has lifted 18 inches .... The wires have cut a few planks , but she seems fine.'' Slowly , in eighteen separate lifts Wasa was moved to 26
shallower water only 50 feet deep near Kastellholmen , as summer ended. In May 1960 , the final lift began . The system of wire slmgs and ra1smg by evacuatmg the pontoons could not be used , because as Wasa neared the surface the inward pressure of the wires would become too great. It was decided to modify the Oden and Frigg so that the ship could be brought up between them. But before Wasa could be floated and pumped out, she had to be made watertight. Virtually the entire stern of the vessel had been torn out of her by von Treileben and others, and this had to be completely rebuilt. All the gun ports had to be closed with heavy wooden covers and caulked tightly , and numerous other openings in the old hull had to be patched-including over 6,000 holes in the ship 's sides left by the rusting away of iron bolts and pins , which had to be plugged with wooden dowels. All this took the entire working year of 1960, and it was April 1961 before all was ready for the final lift. When she was first lifted clear of the bottom , she was carefully suspended so that divers could make a first , thorough inspection of her bottom from underneath . Amazingly , they found the wood as hard as iron , and completely undamaged by earlier salvagers or by the wire slings. On April 17 Wasa left the mud behind her for the last time , and by Sunday the 23rd she had been jacked up inch by inch until she was hanging in her slings only a few feet below the surface. It ' s hard to describe the excitement that gripped the city and in fact the entire country. Sweden takes a great pride in her maritime past, and this entire operation had been followed for the preceeding four years by virtually the entire population. By the spring of '61 , Wasa was on everyone's lips , and the police had had to close parts of the waterfront to wheeled vehicles because the crowds were so great. By Monday the 24th, the shore was lined with spectators , and a holiday was in effect. The ships in the harbor were dressed with bunting , huge excursion steamers were on hand packed with spectators, the Navy band provided music , and the entire proceedings were described in detail over loudspeakers as the ship broke surface and Franzen and Falting clambered aboard to take possession of their ship. Once the Wasa was up , in fact as soon as her timbers came into the open air, archaeologists began wrapping the exposed wood in plastic sheeting. Sprinklers were turned on (and stayed on continuously for the next 15 years) to bath the Wasa in a fine mist of spray , so that her wooden structure rescued from the deep would not crumble away as the air dried it out. The water sprayed on her bore increasing concentrations of polyethylene glycol (PEG), in effect rebuilding the wood with a plastic wax replacing the water in its fiber. The mud-filled interior was cleared out, each shovelful being SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1983
flushed through wire.baskets to sort out the tiniest artifact-each of which was numbered and catalogued and photographed, then put to soak in PEG . Finally , on May 4 the ship was ready to move into drydock. The tugs arrived about one o'clock and the Wasa moved down the harbor , supported by the Oden and Frigg with the pumps working continuously. Just outside the entrance to the dock the convoy stopped , and the cable cradle was slipped out from under the ship. Suddenly Wasa was free, and floating by herself again after 333 years . The pumps droned on , but she was a floating ship again as she was carefully towed gently into the Gustav V drydock only a few hundred yards from where she had sunk so long ago . The gates were shut behind her, the water pumped out, and slowly she settled onto her permanent blocking atop a special pontoon . As the water receded, and the great hull rested at last, her voyage begun so bravely ended finally in triumph .
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On September 6-9 last year I represented the National Maritime Historical Society at the Third International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology held in Stockholm. The first day was given over to the Wasa, still housed in the "temporary" structure built atop the floating concrete pontoon on which she was placed when she came up 21 years ago . One ' s first and surprising impression of the vessel is her size -she appears huge, especially in the confines of her temporary home . One' s second " gut" reaction is one of awe for one is looking at not a reconstruction, but the real thing: a 17th century warship complete in almost every detail and in a remarkable state of preservation. Where new timbers or fastenings have been installed , they are made obvious, so one cannot mistake them for the original. We were given hard hats and allowed to board and to clamber over every inch of her above and below decks-something the average tourist cannot do, and something that only increases one's respect for the 17th century shipwrights and the 20th century salvors. As one stands on the spar deck looking aft , the quarterdeck and poop sweep up at what seems to be impossible angles , and one wonders how the officers and men could keep their footing . The ship is steered by a whipstaff at the end of a perfectly enormous tiller, and the helmsman, whose visibility was limited to one small opening above his head and who received verbal orders from above, must have had tremendous biceps to steer this great ship by what today appears to be such an inefficient method. The numerous and ornate carvings and decorations of the ship , which had fallen off the stern , the quarters, and from SEA HISlDRY, SPRING 1983
around the bow and beakhead, have been reassembled and mounted on the ship after painstaking detective work to line up fastening holes and mortices. Embellished with this great accretion of gilded and painted sculptures and statuary, Wasa was an awe-inspiring sight as she sailed out into Stockholm harbor with the sun glinting on her polished bronze cannon-cannon which due to their size and weight were to contribute to her tragic sinking only moments later. On why she sank, we won ' t have all the facts in hand until a full fledged stability study now under way is published. It is possible that these great ships carrying heavy armament in towering tiers, on the fastest hull that could bear it, were all flirting on the edge of stability , and in Wasa a few errors accumulated . Her case was not unique: England ' s Mary Rose (SH23) had gone down in the previous century under remarkably similar circumstances (a puff of wind on a calm day). The Mary Rose had survived the battle and the breeze for nearly forty years when she rolled over and sank, but she had lately been rearmed . We were escorted through the Wasa preservation laboratory where much of the world's knowledge of ship and artifact preservation has been developed. Every material, be it wood , iron, bronze, leather, glass, or fiber or cloth required a different treatment, which had to be worked out from scratch. Cloth (i.e . the sails) and iron appear to be the most difficult to preserve while the use of polyethelene glycol to displace the water in waterlogged wood has been developed to the point at which it is relatively straightforward and is now the accepted method of conservation. It was fascinating to see how far the techniques have been refined-techniques which are now used on the salvage of the Mary Rose and which are now undergoing further refinement in England at the Mary Rose preservation laboratories-which we were privileged to see later in our trip . Perhaps the thing that struck us most forcibly was the obvious interest, pride, and concern of the Swedish people in their ship, and the extent of their government's practical participation in the project-very different from the attitude of our own -government, which the Europeans refuse to believe! All the critical diving on the ship was carried out by Navy divers, and all along the Swedish administration , from the King on down, have had an enormous impact on the success of the entire project. The sense of national pride that launched the Wasa is what explains her return, centuries later, in triumph . .t Mr. Hale, Vice President ofthe National Society, was trained as an architect, served as Assistant Curator at Mystic Seaport Museum and is proprietor of the Martha's Vineyard Shipyard, on an island off Cape Cod.
LOG CHIPS: John & Mitchell Lyman's Newsletter lives On ''To preserve and disseminate in a concise form the researches of the Editor and his correspondents, and to serve as a means of communication among them. To present, in an extremely simple format, lists and tabular matter of slight interest to the casual reader, but of permanent value to the serious student." This, in part, is the way John Lyman described the purpose of the modest periodical Log Chips, when he founded it in July 1948. John, and his wife Mitchell Lyman, produced it as an unillustrated newsletter, twelve pages per issue, with typewriter and borrowed mimeograph machine. The masthead reads "A Periodical Publication of Recent Maritime History ,'' but the subject matter has always been almost exclusively 19th and 20th century sailing ships . The character of the periodical clearly reflected the interests of John and Mitchell and their circle of fellow contributors . The form its content would take was established with the first issues, and remains largely unchanged. There have been lists of sailing ship launchings by year, covering schooners and square-rig, for the United States , Great Britain, France, Germany , Holland and Denmark. There have also been histories of individual shipyards in this country, on both coasts. There have also been accounts of trips to points of maritime historic interest (the early ones by now make fascinating reading, in light of all the changes that have taken place, particularly in the area of marine museums and ship preservation). And there have been reports of sailing ship events, book reviews, and articles on research resources useful to maritime historians. Log Chips, in its original mimeographed form, lasted until 1959. Because of the wealth of information assembled, a complete set of these early issues has become an essential part of the library of any serious sailing ship historian . They are not easy to come by, as only originals will Xerox satisfactorily . The National Maritime Historical Society is continuing the publication of Log Chips, in the form of "supplements " edited by Norman Brouwer, historian of the South Street Seaport Museum. These are not produced on a regular schedule, but so far as possible at the rate of three or four a year. Persons interested are advised to subscribe for three or four issues by payment of $2.00 each. The Society seeks funds to re-publish the original Log Chips, along with the information in the supplements , in book NB form, re-edited and indexed. 28
The Himalaya, above, lies at her last mooring , in Noumea, where she was cut down to a barge. In her outward passage from San Francisco in 1926, young Jean Schoen was aboard as a passenger seeking adventure under sail. She knew the vessel was no flyer , but found the beauty expressed in the photograph above, and put it in a poem written aboard-the first we have ever published in SEA HISTORY.
THE LAST PASSAGE by Jean Schoen Smith
I am the Himalaya. Long years ago, fresh from the hands Of men who loved their work, I slid the ways of SunderlandA glad , proud ship with iron hull , Square-rigged masts, and a clean clipper bow To cleave the Seven Seas. For forty years I spread white sails Upon the ocean's shifting face. Cargoes of wool from the Antipodes, Or tea from China carried I, To ports that know the clipper trade no more. Men said that I was slow . Perhaps. But many a gallant ship That passed me by, showing the white foam Of a contemptuous wake, Failed to drop anchor in the quiet roads Where finally I came to rest, The voyage done. Their bones Lie whitening on some far coral strand Or foul with the slow slime of years Deep in an uncharted grave. And I? My place usurped by ships That scorn caprice of wind or tide, I turned at last from the broad highway Of commerce: never more to hear Above the blizzard 's whistling moan The bells of many a long-forgotten ship Tolling with ghostlike synchrony The resonant death-music of the Horn. No more to scud before a stiffening breeze Cutting blue water into far-flu ng spray, Or underneath the brilliant tropic moon Trail a wide blaze of phosphorescence, Running the easting down. All things pass. My proud days done, I joined the fishing fleet , And with the glory of departed times Went my identity. Star of Peru men called me now.
Jean as we shall always think of her, stepping off the pier onto the decks ofthe inter-island schooner Loyaute,for a voyage embracing some ofthe most niagic experiences of her worldwide travels.
Each spring we sailed beyond the Golden Gate And, turning northward , met the salmon run ; Each fall came back to rest in silent tiers , Our lofty spars and yards crisscrossed In an anachronistic silhouette Against the harbor sky of San Francisco Bay. Twenty long years. And now my usefulness Even among the fisher fleet is spent. Ships, like men, grow old, and one by one Creep silently into the past. I, too. A warehouse barge: to such a fate come I, Mastless and soulless in a far calm port To rot away, this time renamed The Bougainville. One last farewell! Manned by an alien crew , but Himalaya still , I turn once more my prow to westward , Know for the last time the salt surge Of deep water under a strong keel , The hiss of gray rollers licking my iron sides, The exultant list to leeward, running free . Through my worn rigging and the ancient spars That dip once more beneath the Southern Cross , The trade wind blows glad welcome, And my patched sails, in straining ecstasy, Full-bellied , lean a long last time Against the infinite loneliness of sea and sky. Farewell!
Artist PAUL McGEHEE shown here with his oil painting of NEW YORK HARBOR pictured in 1954. This superbly detailed scene is available in limited edition , printed on 100 % rag paper with an image size of 18 112" x 33 " . SEND FOR OUR FREE COLOR CATALOG for information about obtaining this and other works by PAUL McGEHEE. 1902 by Paul McGeh ee DEALER INQUIRIES WELCOME
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Marine Art News Charles Robert Patterson (1878-1958) towers over the field of modem marine art. Born of an English shipbuilding and shipowning family , he went to sea at age 13 and forged his own life , first on the decks of square riggers, then in the wilds of the Northwest and ultimately in Manhattan . His work is surprisingly little known today. The distinguished historian John Kemble , who knew Patterson and is a student of his work, offers this explanation: ''Perhaps one reason for the neglect which Patterson's work has suffered is that his pictures have been pretty closely held, and since his death when his work ceased appearing on calendars, in magazines, and so forth a whole generation has grown up which has never been exposed to his fine work. ''
At the end of 1982, Kennedy Galleries in New York held a major exhibition of Patterson paintings acquired from the Columbia Rope Company-and this landmark event has stirred a new wave of awareness and appreciation of his work. We are asking all who knew Patterson or have a point of view to offer to contribute to a report on the life and work of this hero of sea painting . We expect to publish the resulting appreciation in a future SEA HISTORY . Meantime, anyone who would like a catalog of the Kennedy exhibition may secure one by sending $10 to NMHS , 15 State Street, New York 10004. Exhibits of special interest
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Last fall Zantman Art Galleries , PO Box 5818, Carmel CA 93921 , held its third " Of Sea & Ships ' ' exhibit of marines by Tom Wells, AICH and John Robinson-catalog available. Smith Gallery , 1045 Madison A venue, New York 10021, held its 5th annual exhibit of marine paintings in Februarycatalog $10 . Mystic Seaport Gallery , Mystic CT 06355, held last fall the first exhibit of Royal Society of Marine Artists work in the US (SH25:36-7). March 13 : "Submarine" -paintings and models of undersea craft today and in history . May 8-June 19: "Fourth Annual Mystic International'' -ajuried show of maritime art from the US and abroad . Annapolis Marine Art Gallery , 110 Dock Street, Annapolis MD 21401 , celebrates spring with a special exhibit opening April 10, 12-6 PM. Newman & Saunders , 120 BloomingdaleAve., Wayne PA 19087, " Seventh National Exhibition of the American Society of Marine Artists' ' -a juried exhibition ; see past reviews in SH .
~ SEA HIS1DRY, SPRING 1983
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Navieras Joins American Ships Display at Smithsonian WASHINGTON , D .C.- Shown here joining the American Ships Display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American H istory is a co lor photograph depicting Navieras' giant Roll-on / Roll-o ff trailership, the S.S. Ponce. According to James Knowles (center), Museum Speciali st, at the Smithsonian's National Mu seu m of American History, Division of Transportation , " Navieras' super Ro / Ro ship updates the exhibition and demonstrates the most recent concept in American shipping. " Commenting on this special occasion, Roberto Lugo D'A costa , Navieras' Executive Director, said: " As the single largest Ro / Ro fleet operator under the American flag, N avieras has become a part of our American maritime heritage, and is recognized as such by the distinguished Smithsonian Institution." Ranging from the Colonial period through the Age of Sail, on to the early steam boats and clipper ships, to present day waterborne commerce , the America n Ships Display includes large models of fishing craft, th e Stevens Engine, the Francis Life Car, the Sickels Steam Steering Gear, the whaleboat from the 'Charles W Morgan,' the oil paintings of Fulton and Livingston, and the 'Oak' engine. Also included in the exhibit are scrimshaw, earthenware, snuff boxes, manuscripts, newspapers, stamps, furniture, licenses, posters, and lithographs depicting America's maritime heritage. PHOTO SHOWS: Arthur C. Novacek (right), President and Chief Operatin g Officer, Puerto Rico Marine Management, Inc. (PRMMI) , prese nts the photograph o f Naviera s' Ro / Ro tra ilership, the S.S. Ponce, to James Knowles, Smithsonian's Museum Specialist, for American Sh ips Display. On left: Robert P Magee, Navieras' Senior Vice President/Corporate Vesse l Operations.
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"Setting Mines From a Midget Sub, " casein on Board, 28" x20". All sides in World War II experimented with small submarines which could carry underwater demolition teams into heavily guarded anchorages. Although no attempt was very successful, development continued after the war until guided missiles made the concept obsolete. A prototype of this submarine was built in 1954, and now sits by the side of the road entering the Naval Research Station in Annapolis. All photos Š Fred Freeman, 1983.
" Russian Missile Submarine," gouache on Board, 14" x 18". Th e crew ofa Hotelll-Class Russian submarine salutes to port, passing the flagship, on entering home port Leningrad. Jn 1967, 13 of this class of submarines were converted to carry the SS-5 missile system with 700 mile range Serb missiles in place of the shorter (300 mile) Sark, and launches her ballistic missiles from three vertically mounted tubes in the sail. This class ranges some 22, 700 miles which enables her to reach almost any strategic coastal target with her missiles. One of these submarines sank in 1968, and was raised by the U.S. in 1974.
FRED FREEMAN: In
Pursuit of the Deeper Satisfactions in the Truth by Peter C. Sorlien
Maritime history has two faces. Looking through the eyes of one is like looking through an old stereopticon, with part of the image a clear remnant of another way of life, part drawn in by research and analysis, part faded forever. Except for some rare art and moments of insight , the view is pale and distant. However , with an historian 's zeal for accuracy and an artist 's feel for spiritual and emotional significance , a new school of marine art is interpreting research and artifacts, available now in museums and books as never before, to reconstruct events of the past. Its founder is Fred Freeman. The other face of maritime history is turned toward us, who live today . We shape its outlook , adding what our culture considers important or profitable enough to save, subtracting what it discards. Artists who commemorate modern fishing boats or yachts, buoy tenders or submarines work in the oldest tradition of marine art, among the first traditions of American art. Salmon , Birch, Bradford and Bard created lively documents of life at sea as they saw it , and left to us primary sources for understanding their eras. For the era when nuclear power transformed navies , the primary source is the art of Fred Freeman. Habitues of the fashionable galleries and auction houses may not recognize Freeman's name, but anyone who has read the major magazines of the 1950s and '60s will recognize at least one of his pictures . Like Pyle, Wyeth and Rockwell, Freeman earned his living from publishing and saved his original paintings. The recent retrospective of his career sponsored by Mystic Seaport Museum Stores was the first occasion for the public to see many of them . More than 25,000 people attended the exhibit at the US Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis and at the Society of Illustrators Museum of American Illustration in New York. Spanning 55 years of an intensely productive career, the exhibit also spanned naval history from the Greeks to the intimate involvement with the development of the submarine, for which Freeman is most famous. Just months after being discharged from command of a convoy escort at the end of World War II , Freeman was recalled by the Navy to design a book about the secret heroism of submariners , the 2 % of the Navy responsible for sinking 55 % of enemy shipping. He chose to paint 15 incidents representative of their mission , their victories and losses. Respect for the subject demanded uncompromising thoroughness and accuracy. Freeman digested mountains of SEA HISlDRY, SPRING 1983
logs and reports , interviewed the sailors , sketched aboard the boats. To the imperative that such brave sacrifice be remembered in posterity , Freeman responded with compositions of universal and timeless emotional impact. The principles of' 'historical painting '' descended from the Romantic naturalists of the early nineteenth century-David, Gericault, West, Copley. In US Submarine Operations of World War II, Freeman first applied them to marine art, and charted the course for the '' historical reconstruction " now dominant in the field . When Freeman came to New York " to be an artist" in 1926, he had only a family interest in painting and cartooning behind him . He trained in the studio, honed his innate ability by rendering the sketches of established artists, and won success in editorial and advertising art . However, it was the submarine paintings which first demonstrated his amazing ability to assimilate great quantities of technical information in dramatic , convincing pictures . By 1968 , when he retired from the Naval Reserve with the permanent rank of Commander, Freeman had been asked to paint, and had sailed in almost every type of ship in the modern navy , from the subchasers he had commanded early in WWII to aircraft carriers , the pioneering nuclear submarine Nautilus and the missile submarine George Washington. The Navy also recognized Freeman's potential to create a third face for maritime history-that of history about to be made . When a new ship was proposed for the great English navies of the seventeenth century, a model was built to prove the ship 's worth to the King. In a modern democracy, the general public ultimately makes such decisions . Admiral Rickover
needed public support to build the first nuclear submarine, and Freeman was commissioned. The artist was sequestered with top-secret blueprints for weeks, and produced a series of paintings which appeared in Collier's magazine over a year and a half before launching . The cover painting , while an accurate portrait, speaks even more clearly of the dreadful potential of this new weapon: navies, and the world, would never be the same. Simultaneously , a comparable technological revolution in space was competing for public support. Freeman joined Cornelius Ryan's Collier's Space Symposium with artists Chesley Bonestell and Rolf Klep , and scientists Wernher von Braun, Fred Whipple , Willy Ley and others. In 1951 and 52 Freeman and von Braun published paintings and articles on future American space capsules. This "celebrated series ... gave von Braun his first major opportunity to reach the American public at large with the message of the possible future in space," said Arthur C . Clarke, in ''Man and Space. '' They produced several articles and two books together, outlining a landing on the moon , a space shuttle and a manned expedition to Mars . "Wasp Grapples HMS Reindeer," Lithograph on acetate, 11 0." x 22 ". On 28 June 1814, the 22-gun sloop-of-war Wasp came upon the 21-gun sloop-of-war Reindeer some 225 miles west ofPlymouth and brought her to battle. The fight lasted only 19 minutes, but, during that brief span of time, the two ships traded a murderous fire of grape and solid shot. Several times, Reindeer's crew tried to board Wasp, but the American crew repulsed them on each occasion. In the end, Wasp 's own company boarded Reindeer and carried the day.
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" First Announcement of Nautilus 1952 , " casein on Board, 24 112" x 21 112 ". The world 's first view of a nuclear ship was painted from blueprints more than a year before launch.
Above, ''Harder Hunts the Subhunters and the Fleet," ink wash on board, 16112"x13 !4 ". The Harder's assigned mission for her fifth patrol was to retrieve six British coast watchers in Borneo. En route past the Imperial Navy anchorage, she torpedoed five destroyers, including two with one spread on 9 June 1944. Th e Harder 's frequent attacks du ring this 38-day patrol, often called " the most brilliant of the war, " so frightened Admiral Toyoda that he ordered premature departure of his fleet (reported by the Harder), upsetting Japanese battle plans and contributing to their stunning defeat in the Philippine Sea. The Harder was sunk by depth charges on her next patrol.
Below, Tirante In The Anchorage,'' ink wash on board, 16112 "x 13 !4 ". Th e Japanese Merchant Marine was decimated by 1945 and targets fo r submarines became hard to find . On 14 April 1945, the Tirante entered an anchorage in " home waters" to sink fi ve ships, and continued into Quelpart Harbor through water too shallow to allow diving, to sink another tanker. Skipper G.L. Street at the periscope compares observations with Executive Office r E. L. Beach at the radar and with the sonar man behind him , and shouts directions to the man crouched with a hand bearing calculator, and the man relaying orders to the torpedo room.
In his " retirement" (at the drawing board only six hours every day), Freeman has enjoyed researching events in early naval history. Time-Life Books commissioned a painting of the first major naval engagement, the battle between the invading Persian fleet and Greek triremes at Salamis . Freeman ' s research to confirm that his design for a trireme would work so interested the editors , they published his sketches as well. He is now actively working on a series of reconstruction paintings for the National Park Service. In a recent painting , Freeman recreated an entire coastal fort and village of 1743 , building by building , where there are only cellar holes and ruins now. His unique compositional solution to relating past to present " will revolutionize the interpretation of historic ruins," predicts the Chief of Graphics for the Park Service. Another painting in the same series portrays the Charlestown Navy Yard , home of USS Constitution. When history is studied for recreation, there is a natural tendency to prefer sunny days , light breezes and bustling ports. In this fashion , the buyers of "historical reconstruction " paintings can innocently distort the artistic record of maritime history. At 76 , Fred Freeman is a softspoken , courtly gentleman-often a surprise to those who have experienced his hard-hitting art . If the sensation of sliding on a tilted deck or the agonizing suspense of being depth-charged , so immediate in Freeman 's painting, are not pleasant, there are far deeper satisfactions in understanding the whole truth . w Mr. Sorlien is Director ofMystic Maritime Gallery, a business founded to support Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut.
The
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July 1 -16, 1983 In recognition of a Maritime Britain, you are invited to participa te in a specia l tour of Southern Britain's ma ritime Heritage, from London to Land's End. There will be time to see old ships (many now restored). Maritime museums , and historic sites, as well as many of the charming small ports, seaside spas and modern naval and trade centers. We will also visit some of the most beautiful inland cities of the south, and participate in a da y 's sailing hosted by a local sailing club . An itinerary with full deta ils will be sent upon request. Contact Tim McBreen a t: OCEANIC SOCIETY EXPEDITIONS Fort Mason, Bldg . E, San Fra ncisco, California 94123 (415) 441- 1106
SEA HISTORY, SPRJNG 1983
Superb qu ality print of a very beautiful Turner w at erco lou r . Ar1 histo ri an B .L Binyon wrote in 1909 " Thi s is Tu rn er at the pEa k of his powers. hi s pal en e is p o si tively transluce nt ." The original is in a private collecti on in England. and has rarel y bee n seen since 18 19 . w hen it wa s exhibited at
Grosvenor Palace. A few hundred copies were printed to comm em · orat e Turn er's bicen tenary. W e have every o ne of th em . Th ere will be no m ore available once th ese few are go ne. Print $15.50 (Framed $59 .90) Calif. resid ents add 6% ta x. Tel. (21 3) 452·2443 OXFORD GALLERIES 2210 Wilshire Blvd. #627 Santa Monica, CA 90403
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35
" 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 Here's what you can do: Make a contribution to restore Captain Masson 's cabin or the piano on which he hammered out " The Blue Bells ofScotland" while the helmsman listened through the skylight; or the swords in a rack around the rudderpost which the Mate laid out to do a sword-dance while the Captain was ashore-or the figurehead which 15-year-old James Roberts rode in 1897 on his first voyage offshore . Or what about a memorial to James's chum George Robinson , lost from the upper topsail yard that same year while the ship ran her easting down in the Roaring Forties? Perhaps a scholarship to send one of our young volunteers to sea in a sailing ship this summer? If none of these strike your fancy , there are plenty of other things that need doing where the ship can use your help.
12,000 sq. ft. new Duradon sails for iron bark Elissa, Galveston Historical Foundation, Galveston, TX
If you can help the ship in any of these areas, please contact:
NATHANIEL S. "'IJ_,SON SAIJ_,~fAl(EU - - .
FRIENDS OF THEWAVERTREE c/o SHIP TRUST, NMHS 15 State Street, New York NY 10004 • (212) 509-9606
Box 71 , Lincoln Street, East Boothbay, Maine 04544 (207) 633-5071
r '
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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 • BROOKLYN, NY 11201
36
SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1983
SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS GREAT BRITAIN
11-10, and will then depart Boston for Greenland on a full semester's program (including several weeks shore study), May 23-August 22. ORES , 19 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA 0 1930.
The Humber sloop Amy Howson and Humber keel Comrade may sail this year from the new Humber Dock Marina at Hull , where the Bull Lightship and steamer Lincoln Castle may also find a home ... and in 1984 the sailing traw ler William McCann, now undergoing restoration, may be commissioned for a race on her lOOth birthday with her sister in trade the Westward Ho, a Grimsby trawler also built in 1884, now being restored by the government of the Faroe Islands.
The Baltimore clipper Pride of Baltimore, built on the waterfront of her native city in 1976-7 by Melbourne Smith (SH14: 16-20), has transited the Panama Canal and is working her way up the West Coast on her 17,000-mile voyage to sixteen ports from Kingston, Jamaica to Vancouver, British Columbiafollowing Mayor William Schaefer's mandate to go forth and tell Baltimore's story of a proud maritime heritage and modern renaissance. For those who want to see her, her next stops are:
Britain's first submarine, built in 190 I to Holland 's design as a 63-footer, was recovered last fall from the seabed off Cornwall, where she had sunk under tow to the breaker's yard in 1913. She had been cut into three pieces for transport to the Portsmouth Submarine Museum, where she will go on exhibit. Peter Simkins , whose report on HMS Belfast is given on pages 8-10, reports that the WWII cruiser was slipped for cleaning and painting of her hull in September, and notes with understandable satisfaction: "The Imperial War Museum is continuing the policy established by the HMS Belfast Trust of preserving and restoring the cruiser in a manner consistent with naval tradition and historical accuracy.'' Imperial War Museum , Lambeth Road, London SE ! 6HZ.
EUROPE Poland's new fu ll-rigged sail training ship Dar Mlodziezy received a warm welcome from the international community foregathered in Lisbon last summer; with her sailed the 133 ft barkentine Pogoria, built 1980. Mariner's International reports that the USSR may order some Dar sisters, and East European orders for Pogorias may bring the vessels in this class to six. MI also informs us that the former Italian full-rigger Cristoforo Colombo, sister to the Italian Navy training ship Amerigo Vespucci, is no more. Taken as war reparations by the USSR, she was sailed in the Black Sea unti l laid up in 1962, and was scrapped at Odessa in 1972. Mariners International , 58 Woodville Road, New Barnet , Herts ENS 5EG , UK. In Italy, the Camogli Naval Museum is arranging a ship model show featuring the Liberty Ship-which indeed made possible the liberation of Italy and the rest of Europe in WWII . Captain Pro Schiaffino , curator of the Museum , notes that "a great part of the inhabitants of our small village are seafarerscaptains, engineers and sailors-and a great number of them have served aboard Liberty ships." Photos and memorabilia are sought from SEA HISTORY readers who served in these ships. Civico Museo Marinaro , Camogli, Italy. The nearly intact hull of a graceful 27ft boat has been dug up , flipped upside down on what used to be the beach at Herulanum-long since buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD . The small seaside resort town was thought to have been evacuated when the eruption took SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1983
San Francisco , California Oakland , California Sausalito, California Eureka, California Seattle, Washington Victoria , British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia Portland , Oregon
Photo Jonathan Blair. Š National Geographic Society.
place, but since 1980 more than 80 skeletons have been found on the beach , including one clutching an oar near the boat.
BERMUDA Founded in 1974 and opened the following year by Queen Elizabeth II, the Bermuda Maritime Museum is involved in archaeological exploration of naval installations and vessels wrecked on the off-lying reefs that surround the islands , 600 miles off the US East Coast. Preserving island small craft has been undertaken with the advice of Maine's Maynard Bray ... and there is a collection of the amazing variety of bottles that have drifted ashore in the last three centuries . A Friends of the Museum has been set up for US tax deductible contribution: Friends , PO 949 , Wilmington DE 19899 ; further information may be had from the Museum at PO 666, Hamilton 5, Bermuda.
UNITED STATES Major conferences scheduled for the year are: the Maine Maritime Museum ' s renowned Maritime History Symposium, May 6-8 (Museum, 963 Washington St., Bath ME 04530); the US Naval Academy's equally famed Naval History Symposium, September 29-30 (Academy, Annapolis MD 21401), and the Urban Waterfront Center's national conference in Washington, September 30-0ctober I , on " Balancing Public and Private Interests" (Center, 1536 44th St. NW , Washington DC 20007). The barkentine Regina Maris, built 75 years ago has proved " incredibly sea-kindly, responsive , maneuverable, and protective and forgiving of her inexperienced crews," in her sailing for the Ocean Research and Education Society in the last nine years, notes Dr. George Nichols , president. After a winter in Caribbean waters researching the whale, she will be back in Newport for a short trip May
March 3 1-April 25 April 25-May 5 May 5-13 May 17-22 June 1-13 June 14-16 June 17-22 June 28-July 7
An excellent letter is sent to those who contribute $15 or more to support her sailing: Pride, 100 Light St., Baltimore MD 21202. From time to time we hear from steam whistle enthusiasts, notably from National Society Advisor Conrad Milster who presides over an annual New Year 's whistle-blowing at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn , New York .. . now we may hear from them all in an organized way through their journal Horn & Whistle (subscription $10, 140 Forest Ave., Glen Ridge NJ 07028). In Maine, Lance Lee , founding director of the Apprenticeshop, has left the Maine Maritime Museum. Willets Ansel , shipwright at Mystic Seaport Museum for 12 years, has taken over the Museum's Apprenticeshop and will give it distinctly new direction. Lee and his staff of seven and 14 apprentices have now set up shop in Rockport ... where all who have fo ll owed the pioneering and uncompromising style of their work , must hope that it will set deep roots and flourish , and continue as a beacon to us all. Funds are urgently needed for the new-old venture, since the people left behind all equipment, with only the shirts on their backs and their stout hearts for the work. NMHS urges your contribution to : Apprenticeshop , Box 539, Rockport ME 04856. " Like old farm wagons , four-masted merchant schooners don ' t exactly die," reports Greg Stone in a memorable tribute to the 228ft 4-masted schooner Alice Pendleton published in the January issue of Soundings. The beached hull of the Pendleton, which sailed into Noank in 1929, is familiar to all who have sai led up the Mystic River to the Seaport Museum in Connecticut ... and now at last her grey, hump-backed carcass is being removed. Once she had been stopped by a U boat, in WWI , but survived the encounter. "I'm going to miss that weathered reminder of my happier days as a schoonerman," said Francis Bowker, skipper of the schooner yacht Brilliant of Mystic Seaport Museum. " When we sailed by in the 37
WORLD SHIP TRUST REPORT Last yea r 's preliminary survey of the last A me rican clippe r Snow Squall in the Falklands, a jo int effo rt o f the Wo rld Ship Trust and the South Portland-Cape Eli zabeth Histo ri cal Society, has now led to wh at is the s ixth Ship Trust e xpeditio n since 1976 , this time with Harvard U ni versity and the Peabody Museum joined in as sponsors. Led by Dr. Fred Yalouris o f Ha rvard , a six-pe rson team left England January 3 1 to d ig out and co nserve the Snow Squall remains, and to measure the iron bark Lady Elizabeth for plans to ad apt he r as the Islanders ' own museum ship . The Wo rld Ship Trust-O xford -Pale rmo U nivers ity expedition to the M edite rranean , led by O xford 's Mensun Bound a nd Prof. G . Falsone of Pale rmo , repo rts a successful season , first in excavating ancho rs and othe r remains o f a n old Phoeni c ian ha rbo r at Marsala , at the weste rn tip o f Sic ily , and second , moving on analys is o f items looted by skindi vers twe nty yea rs ago , apparently discovered (o r re di scovered) the remains of a n Etru scan ship from the first quarte r of the 6th centu ry BC- when this little- know n people do minated the weste rn M edite rranean . The p roject to resto re the 4 ,500-yea rs o ld Cheops shi p in Egypt moved fo rward as Swedish expe rts were reta ined as reco mme nded by the WST to meas ure the ship a nd 5 ton s of silica gel was do nated by Joseph Crosfi e ld & So ns to stabilize the atmosphe re a round he r. The g reat iron ship Wave rtree in New Yo rk H arbor co ntinued he r restorati o n unde r the direction of an A me ri can Ship Trust Committee chaired by Jakob l sbrandtsen and the late Allen S . Rupl ey and the Tami Canoe voyage pa rty we nt to the New Guinea isla nd whe re a traditi o nal sailing canoe is be ing built to jo in in a Pacific he ritage festi va l in the New H ebrides next yea r-an eve nt she ' ll sa il 2 ,000 miles to attend . Back in Engla nd , F ra nk Ca rr , cha irman of the Trust , has a nno unced th e appo intme nt of Sir Pete r Scott as v ice pres ident , and reg retfull y repo rts that he is e nding his boating ca ree r , w hi ch has brought suc h j oy to us a ll si nce its beginning in April 191 8 in a ski ff dinghy o n the PS Ri ver Cam .
Frank and Ruth Carr in the cabin oftheir 1:5-ton ketch Dawn, on the Orwell, Sept. 2, 1982.
38
SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT Brilliant, I'd get as close as I could and point and say , ' I used to sail on one of those.' "
You can learn to cook over an open fire these days , at Mystic .. . th is and myriad other acti vities , including such specialities as a barbershop quartet cruise aboard the steamer Sabino, are set out for the year ahead in an invaluable activities calendar, which can be had by writing the Museum , Mystic CT 06355.
memo rial' ' as a center for maritime training and other activities , and as a waterfront attraction . Mohawk, 901 Washington St. , Wilmington DE 19801. On the West Coast, a life-and-death strugg le co ntinues to save the historic steam schooner
Full Sea, a nonprofit educational outfi t in Long Island believes that the heritage of wooden sailing vessels on Long Island Sound should be preserved in lively fashion . Founded three years ago as a floating museum , it restores and sails such classics as a New York 30 built in 1905 , and a flotill a of other vessels including a Cape Cod catboat built in 1880. Volunteer learning skills are a welco me part of the project. Full Sea , 256 Sea Cliff Ave. , Sea Cliff NY 11579. Congressman Mario Biaggi leads a ca mpaign to have the Liberty Ship John W. Brown turned over to a group dedicated to preserving the ship as a public educational memori al to the merchant seamen of World War II . The ship served until recently as a New York City maritime trades schoolship , and has been a fa miliar landmark at her Morton Street pier in Manhattan. Labor union and other interests have rallied to this cause , which is supported by the National Society' s Project Liberty Committee, and donations to build up th e budget and volunteer time are welcomed. John W. Brown Preservation Project, I 05 Washington St. , 2nd Floor, New York NY 10006. The Snug Harbor Cultural Center, installed in the classic building erected 150 years ago on Staten Island fo r aged sai lors, runs a program of exhibits and other educational acti vities in the elegant ground s; a schedul e is avai lable from Center, 9 14 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island NY I 030 I . "New Jersey Under Sail ," an exhibit of photographs, models, sail plans and drawings collected by the late Way ne B. Yarnall , centers on the Delaware Bay oystermen who worked under sail until 1945. It 's open th rough November at the New Jersey Histo rical Society. Regional museums keep springi ng up. The ones that last and come to fl ower do so th rough grit and adaptability .. . li ke the Wilmington Steamboat Foundation, which started life as a co mmittee to save the steamer State of Pennsylvania and has go ne on to become the nu cleus of a museum devoted to Delaware (and other) steamboat history. They get out a fin e newsletter. Dues are $ 10, payable to the Foundation, PO Box 903 , Wilmington DE 19899. Also at Wilmington, the USCG Cutter Mohawk, launched in 1934 fo r ice patrol in the North Atlantic, has become " a useful
Wapama, of the era of Cappy Ricks . Built in Oregon in 1915 , she was on exhibit at the National Maritime Museum until haul ed out in 1979 with serious rot conditions and a broken back. National Maritime Museum , SF , Foot of Polk St ., San Francisco CA 94109.
The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, fo rmed to keep in being the traditional skills of the boatbuilder, launched its fir st vessel, a I 8ft hard-chine tug christened Charity Ann. Her owner Bruce Gag non plans to use her in sal vage work . School, 330 10th St. , Port Townsend WA 98368.
A collection of over 11,000 blueprints and many other items from the collection of the naval architect H. C. Hanson, covering the period 1914-70, has been donated by the Hanson Family and Northwest Seaport to the Whatcom Museum of History & Art in the tow n of Belli ngham, north of Seattle. Museum , 121 Pros pect St. , Bellingham WA 98225. " It wi ll happen," says Kenneth F. Brown, trustee of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii , who heads up the dri ve to keep the fo ur-masted ship Falls of Clyde in Honolulu Harbor. The Museum fo und itself unable to meet the $50 ,000 operating deficit. A Friends of the Falls of Clyde has been formed and plans to mee t the ship 's defi cit fo r five years, at which poirnt income from a prospective Aloha Tower Redlevelopment project may meet the upkeep of tthe ship . SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1983
& MUSEUM NEWS
On lakes and rivers , it is a pleasure to report that The Connecticut River Steamboat Foundation has quietly flowered into a remarkable installation at Steamboat Dock at Essex, six miles up the Connecticut River from Long Island Sound. Located in two historic buildings on the town's waterfront, the Museum offers a lively view of the ecological and cultural history of the river , which in the days of smaller ships and bolder captains was an avenue leading to the world ' s four corners. Foundation , PO Box 261, Essex CT 06426. Nick Benton's Rigging Gang has moved to the Hudson River Maritime Center's Rondout Landing building, on Rondout Creek at Kingston, NY ... joining boatbuilders and several tour boats in what is becoming a lively center of maritime concerns. HRMC, 1 Rondout Landing, Kingston NY 12401. Howard Verb , president of Clearwater, reports that their lovely Hudson River sloop was a guest at 41 different docks in her sailing region last year, as she carried out her inva luable educational mission, conducting 240 sails for nearly twelve thousand people . Many more thousands visited the vessel, and as Verb notes , "gained a little piece of love for the water Clearwater sails.'' Clearwater Inc. , 112 Market Street, Poughkeepsie NY 12601. Friends of Boeckling, devoted to restoring the big sidewheel ferry , built in 1909, will hold a restoration workshop aboard her on the Sandusky waterfront , on April 8-10 , with participation by the National Trust and the new ship-saving group , White Elephant Management. Workshop, PO 736, Sandusky OH 44870. The second annual radio-controlled model boat show will be held on May 28-29 at the Recreation Park arena , Clayton, 1000 Islands New York . Over one hundred modelers have been invited to exhibit and compete. Last year, in its first year, 53 boats were exhibited ranging from static paddlewheelers to four frequency modern rescue vessels. Recreation Park, Clayton NY 13624. Mud Island 's Mississippi River Museum is opening "American Waterways ," a new exhibit highlighting the 25 ,000 mile OhioMississippi transportation system . The exhibit features freight bills dating back to the 1870s, steamboat silver, boat models , flags , parts of working boats, and photographs. On display in the Museum's River Gallery, January 29-April 30. Mud Island , 125 N. Main St., Memphis TN 38103. J, SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1983
The handsome twin-screw steamer in her prime. Photo , McAllister Bros.
Historic Harbor Steamer Saved in New York City The City of Keansburg, New York Harbor excursion vessel, built at Newburgh in 1926, has been purchased by the McAllister Steamboat Company . The vessel, which made its last run in 1968 , had been laid up in City Island since then . McAllister has towed the vessel to its shipyard , Tug & Barge Dry Docks Inc . in Jersey City , New Jersey, where it will undergo a complete survey. The McAllister Steamboat Company was founded by Captain James McAllister when he decided to go into the excursion boat business at the turn of the century, some 30 years after he founded the McAllister tugboat company. The company prospered and became one of New York' s foremost excursion boat operators with a fleet of more than 20 vessels . Among the more renowned of these steamboats were the Grand Republic, the Bear Mountain and the Onteora. During the Great Depression of the 30s, the excursion boat business was decimated . With the dissipation of the fleet of over 200 excursion vessels , some as large as 450 feet long with grand salons as elegant as any ocean liner, the era of excursion boats vanished . Upon the death of Captain Dan McAllister in the late 1930s, his few remaining vessels were sold at auction and the company liquidated. Fortunately, the McAllister tugboat company survived the Depression and is , today, one of the largest operators on the US East Coast, with foreign operations from South America to the Arabian Gulf. A.J . McAllister, the company ' s senior family member, began his career with the McAllister Steamboat Company in 1914 as quartermaster aboard the Bear Moun-
tain. Mr. McAllister called the purchase of the City of Keansburg "an attempt to recreate some of the past grandeur and enjoyment that once permeated the waters of New York. " CAPTAIN BRIA N A. MCALLISTER
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39
Something New For Spring FROM THE NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS Cruisers In Action, 1939-1945
Nelson's Blood
By Peter C. Smith and John R. Dominy
The Story of Naval Rum
One of the Royal Navy's most versatile ship types surveyed in depth. Here the authors examine not only the origins of cruisers, but also the vital and varied role they played in the war at sea. In the opening chapters, the book presents a basic history of the cruiser highlighting the most interesting actions. Each action is described in detail with extensive data reflecting changes in disposition and final fates. Subsequent chapters discuss the various functions of the cruiser, ranging from its defense against aircraft to combined Army-Navy operations. The book includes a large number of original scale drawings of many of the ships described. 1983. 320 pages. 70 illustrations. Appendices. Index. List price: $19.95.
Pawns of War The Loss of the ass Langley and By Dwight Messimer
ass Pecos
The full story behind the tragic 1942 sinking of America's first aircraft carrier and her rescue ship. Based on over fifty eyewitness accounts OF WAR n.1.ou by survivors, war documents never be· oC .... l.aoll.,. .. '"' ,.,.. I . I fore cited, and original Japanese sources, this carefully researched book describes in captivating detail the ill-fated mission that took the Langley on a mad dash across the Indian Ocean to deliver fighter planes to the Allies at l]ilatlap, Java. Complete with its share of heroes and comic anecdotes, it is a fast· paced, action·filled account of a thrilling moment in World War II history that places the reader squarely in the midst of the excitement But Pawns of War is more than just a story of the sinking of two American ships by the Japanese. It is the first in-depth examination of the circumstances surrounding the disaster · including the Allied command mistakes that were partially responsible for the ships' predicaments and the tragedy's controversial aftermath. 1983. 248 pages. 50 illustrations. Bibliography. Index. List price: $18.95.
-----' PAWNS -·
~I ~I
By A.J. Pack
A humorous, yet scholarly, social history of the Royal Navy cleverly linked to the story of British rum. This witty book focuses on the lives of British seamen from 1655, the year when rum was first issued to the ranks, to 1970 when the last of the spirits was served. Steering a careful course between die·hard traditionalists who believe the navy lost a major morale booster and naval administrators who feel that rum has no place aboard a modern warship, the author shows how this popular drink figured importantly in shaping the standard of life afloat It is a delightful tale that all can enjoy. 1983. 200 pages. 32 Black & White and Color illustrations. List price: $14.95.
The Tea Clippers By David R. MacGregor
Famous ships of the tea trade des· cribed and beautifully illustrated in a ""- - - handsome new edition. First published TEA CLIPPERS in 1952 and again in 1972, this popular rnr.iRnL...,...m·.,:-·oi£\'FHt'\IE....-i L"i;Hl\Th history has long been regarded as one of the outstanding works on the vessels that provided vital speedy transport for tea in the nineteenth century. This latest edition is completely revised and reset to a large·size format, which allows the illustrations-180 are new-to be shown to better advantage. The book contains a generous amount of new material that the author, the world's best-known historian of merchant ships, recently uncovered on early China ships and American vessels employed in the tea trade. 1983. 224 pages. 24 7 illustrations. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. List price: $24.95.
I -----------------------------------~--Book Order Department SH31 D Bill me. I U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, MD 21402 o Please charge my D \f fiJ D V/S.4" J I I Yes! Please send me... I I __copy(ies) of Cruisers in Action (928·6) at $19.95 each. Acct# Exp. date I _ _copy(ies) of Pawns of War (515·9) at $18.95 each. I I __copy(ies) of The Tea Clippers (884·0) at $24.95 each. I ___copy(ies) of Nelson's Blood (944·8) at $14.95 each. Signature (Credit card and Bill me charges not valid unless signed) I I
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BOOKS The Miracle of Dunkirk, by Walter Lord (Viking Press , New York, 1982, 323 pp, illus., $17 .95) . "See that smoke in the sky? That's Dunkirk. -Make for it!'' With such words passed among grimy, weary men , the defeated British and French armies retreated on the small coastal resort town. Reeling back from the overwhelming German attack of May 1940, they were penned with their backs to the sea, awaiting destruction. But they were not destroyed. Fast naval vessels, fishing craft, holiday steamers and yachts came across from England and lifted 338,000 of the 400 ,000 back to England, in what Winston Churchill called a "miracle" at the time. (Although he also sombrely warned that "Wars are not won by evacuations.") And it was a miracle-a case, as Walter Lord points out in this elegantly constructed narrative , of a people rushing out (in anything that would float) to save its army . Lord has a good eye for things as disparate as the " paralyzing" effect of panzer tactics and the sullen , fearful refusal of some boatmen to go back into the hell of the bomb-harrowed beaches where the long silent lines of men stood waiting, chest-deep in water, for boats , any kind of boats , to take them home. Lord's account is , in a word, masterful, and in the best tradition of the multicentered narrative of complex events of which he was an inventor. As you read this book (as you must, for your own spirit!) you will find a mounting sense of wonder in how the miracle of Dunkirk actually came about. Most memorable of all the scenes of the terror, despair and devastation that is the experience of the losing side in modern war, are the scenes in English railway stations when people "saw the weary faces, the bandages, the torn uniforms , and suddenly realized who these new arrivals were ." The men had expected to be greeted with consternation, even reproach. They had been beaten . They were losers . But again and again, all across the land, they were greeted like victors-with wonder and gratitude and deep-welling , overflowing joy . PS Wooden Boat an Appreciation of the Craft, by the Editors of WoodenBoat (Addison-Wesely, Reading MA, 1982, 311 pp. illus ., $25) . ' A representative collection of articles from the magazine WoodenBoat about historical and contemporary wooden boats , boat shops and insights into the minds of the men who built them , mixed in with how-to-do articles from building, SEA HISlORY, SPRING 19S3
to maintaining, to painting and finishing wooden boats . A good textbook for the unfortunate person who either by bad planning or mental derangement owns a wooden boat. This is a book of another age, when painstaking craftsmanship was not the luxury it is today where the time it takes to do things right is not allowed , and so the boats pictured seem to be precious tours de force and not at all representative of our place in time and space, beautiful though they be.
''You're so good-looking ... ''
EXCERPT A Retired Admiral Pulls Men Off the Beaches at Dunkirk: From Walter Lord's The Miracle of Dunkirk. One way or another, most of the little ships eventually reached the right part of the coast and went to work. Essentially they were ferries, carrying or towing troops from the beaches to the larger vessels lying farther out. Sometimes it CLARK THOMPSON was easy-just a matter of towing some rowboat or inflated raft; other times it was difficult and dangerous-especially Ocean Ships, by David Hornsby (Ian when they had to pluck men directly from Allen, Shepperton , Surrey, TWl 7 SAS, UK , rev. ed. 19S2, 225 pp., illus. , the sea. "Well done , motorboat, wait for me ," £6.95). a voice hailed Lieutenant Irving , as he This new edition of a standard work of nursed Triton alongside a destroyer with reference gives wide coverage of the one more load. An officer wearing a World's Ocean shipping fleets, by types, lambskin coat leapt aboard. It was Comas they exist today . The core of the book modore Gilbert Owen Stephenson, a consists of alphabetical fleet lists, pro62-year-old retired vice-admiral , who fusely illustrated with excellent photos, giving tabular information on each ship. had been recruited for the crisis and put in charge of all offshore operations at La One is struck by the enormous amount of Panne. Hatless and wet through, he seemnew building since the sixties, especially ed oblivious to his own discomfort as he in bulk carriers, container ships and tankers, and by the growing number of told Irving to carry on. He added that he might later have ''one or two other jobs'' large fleets based in the Third World. Much relevant information is included in for Triton to do. Stephenson then threw himself into the the tables: possibly in future editions it rescue work too . Nothing was beneath would be helpful if the builder's yard him. He steered, passed lines , helped could be indicated by a symbol or in an appendix. This information is of conhaul the exhausted troops aboard. Through it all he kept up a line of cheerful siderable interest to enthusiasts . chatter. "Come on, the Army!" he JAMES FORSYTHE would cry; or, to some half-drowned soldier, " Where have I seen you before? Warships in Action Today, by E. L. You're so good-looking I'm sure I know Cornwell (Ian Allen Shepperton, Surrey you ." TW17 SAS , UK, 19SO, 96 pp., illus. , Late in the afternoon Stephenson had £5.50) . Triton take him to a certain spot off the A worldwide photographic review of beach . Instructing Irving not to move , he naval vessels in service today , from shots explained he was going ashore to look for of Royal Navy hovercraft in the Lord Gort . If he brought back the Falklands , and Soviet aircraft carriers in General, Irving was to take him straight the Channel, to USM Boeing hydrofoils. to England. With that, Stephenson plungit is interesting to be reminded that ships ed over the side and wadded ashore from World War II still survice, such as through the surf, often up to his neck in the Spanish carrier Dedalo. Excellently water. printed on art paper. In an hour he was back , again wading JF through the surf, but there was no sign of Major Forsythe , founder of the Norfolk · Lord Gort. Stephenson offered no exWherry Trust (SH17: 20-1) , is Hon. planation, nor did Irving ask. They simpSecretary of the World Ship Trust. ly went back to their rescue work, the Commodore still hatless and soaked to Lusitania, by David Butler (Random the skin. Along with his words of cheer for the troops, he had plenty to say to IrvHouse, New York, 19S2, 57Spp, $17.95), and A Stillness at Sea, by ing himself. Sometimes the lieutenant was a "good fellow"; other times, "a Ashley Aasheim (Dell, Banbury , Wayne PA, 19S3 , 35Spp, $3 .60 pbk) . bloody fool. " Irving didn 't mind . He 'd do anything for a senior officer like this . Two new novels on the torpedoing of the Cunard liner Lusitania in 1915 cover w w w 41
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the same ground and oddly, have the same theme: a devoted wife desperately opposed to her husband going to join the British Expeditionary Force in France. Both are rattling good yarns , with a good feeling for the tempo and style of life in New York, and in America , at the end of the Gilded Age; Butler's is perhaps the more fully realized, and draws a warmly sympathetic (if occasionally fantastic) view of life aboard the U boat that sank the great liner, and the affliction of her captain ' s spirit in desperate voyaging and barren victory . PS
Baltimore Harbor, by Robert C. Keith (Ocean World , 1982 , 168pp, $9.95 pbk) . Bob Keith , who cruises the Bay in his skipjack Champion Girl, has provided yachtsman and landlubber alike with a fascinating close-up look at a world port . Today's recreational boater is beginning to make increasing use of our older commercial harbors. Not ten years ago , the small craft skipper would not have considered leaving the open waters of the beautiful Chesapeake Bay to risk the 14-mile journey up the rust-colored Patapsco River to Baltimore's Inner Harbor-but now this "urban pond" has become one of the Eastern Seaboard's finest cruising stopovers. And along with the return of tourism has come a renewed interest in the history of the area-a need well met in this book which traces the development of the harbor from Captain John Smith's visit in 1608, to the construction of the new Interstate 95 tunnel. BILL EGGERT
Mr. Eggert is a distinguished historian and photographer of Baltimore shipping.
Jolie Brise: A Tall Ship's Tale, by Robin Bryer (Secker & Warburg, London, 1982 , 255pp , illus ., ÂŁ10). This remarkable ship biography follows a unique vessel, born to the French pilotage trade later a fisherman and prize winning ocean racing yacht, through her varied careers, and her varied owners, from her launch in 1913 to her present-day role as a ship of the Exeter Maritime Museum used by Dauntsey's School for extensive sail training voyages reaching into the Baltic and south to Portugal. Impeccable scholarship and a real feeling for the gallant old cutter, which the author sails for Dauntsey's, informs this engaging narrative ... one could only wish that there were more of it, or that Bryer would write more about the Jolie Brise, and the people who PS sailed and sail her.
Call Bill Fox. Collins Development Corporation
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THE BOOK LOCKER Rare and Out-of-Print Books
"It is upon the Navy under the providence of God that the safety honor and welfare of this realm do chiefly attend. " -Royal Navy Articles of War
War II , is a sophisticated one , relating the developments of the struggle by land to the ~ar at sea more dynamically, perhaps, than any Western historian outside Winston Churchill , or Churchill's ultimate mentor Sir Julian Corbett , whose
Free passage of the seas is a thing too much taken for granted, in too much maritime history as it is written . This is true also of most of our maritime museums . Downplaying the role of armed force at sea does no one any favor- least of all the person searching out some understanding of the development of seafaring For those in quest of understanding of naval affairs, the US Naval Institute is the great font of wisdom , publishing an authoritative review of the literature in its journal the Proceedings, and publishing under its own imprint the most important works of American and other authors . A good book to pick up to understand the evolving scope and shape of naval operations is the Institute's Sea Power, A Naval History-a highly coherent work produced in seamless fashion by 14 historians who teach at the US Naval Academy . It gives a clear picture of the impact of changing technology and evolving tactics on naval warfare from the earliest recorded beginnings onward, with emphasis on recent developments (World War II breaks out halfway through the book). The ideas and actions that launched and directed our ships are set forth in Makers of Naval Policy, 1798-1947, a study published in typescript from notes of Robert G. Albion , and is properly described by its editor as' 'a superb account of real men acting in real situations ." Engrossing reading, which takes one beyond the cannon's roar to the people deciding where and how the cannon will speak. Admiral Gorshkov's The Sea Power of the State, written by the Commander-inChief of the Soviet Navy (with a special preface for the English language edition) , offers startling insight into recent naval history. Gorshkov finds in the experience of the English-speakjng nations at sea , "conclusive evidence of the important role played by the seas and oceans in the progress of civilization.'' That he means to project Soviet power into this arena is demonstrated in the recent evolution of the Soviet Navy from a coastal into an oceanic force , designed to dispute AngloAmerican command of the seas worldwide. Gorshkov's view of naval history in this century , and particularly in World
( 1911) illumines our experience of conflict by sea like a lighthouse shining through the chaos of the storm . Bernard Brodie's Guide to Naval Strategy (Princeton) stands on ground cleared by Corbett. Gorshkov's rise in the rough-andtumble fighting in the Black Sea is appreciatively noted by Friedrich Ruge, Vice Admiral in the Federal German Navy, in The Soviets as Naval Opponents, 1941-1945, also published by the Naval Institute , which offers a fascinating view of the different styles of different cultures confronting the same fell problems in a sea contest conducted on the flanks of embattled armies . In this admittedly idiosyncratic stroll through the field of recent naval literature , let me mention three volumes carrying warship history forward from the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 17th century to the conflicts of our own . The first, and certainly most beautiful , is Frank Fox's
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Great Ships: The Battlefleet of King Charles II. Based on analysis of ship portraits by the elder and younger Van de Veldes , carefully correlated with memoirs and surviving records , Fox has been able to get at the design and experience of the gilded ships of an era when more than half a warship's cost was in her decoration, so that we need no longer generalize about these vessels but know their individual stories. Published by Conway Maritime Press , the book is a treasure . Ballard's The Black Battlefleet (Na val Institute) , is a record of the ungainly, innovative ships of the Victorian navy , which Ballard sailed in. They included a first-class battleship so unstable she capsized in a blow . The third book is George Bruce's Sea Battles of the 20th Century, a very clear account with superb photographs, published by Harnlyn, illustrating the more refined and deadly sea behemoths of our time . Finally, in the Time-Life "Seafarers" series, some accurate and occasionally inspired work (always beautifully illustrated), exists in The Dreadnoughts and The Men of War particularly. The standard in the series is high , and a real effort is made at historical perspective , giving the ships the dignity they earned in hard service, as more than curios in history ' s attic. PS J,
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''The Tight Ship and Her Merry Hearts'' A Seaman Remembers Nelson's Battle of the Nile by John Nicol The Life and Adventures of John Nicol, Mariner was published by John Howell in 1822. Howell, a rare publisher blessed with the instincts of curiosity and compassion, took down Nicol's tale after "the old man had been pointed out to me as a most interesting character.... He was walking feebly along, with an old apron tied around his waist, in which he carried a few very small pieces of coal he had picked up in his wanderings through the streets." After talking with him, Howell was astonished at "the spirit that awoke in the old Tar, " and fortunately for us, transcribed his tale, a classic of sea literature. Rediscovered by the noted historian Alexander Laing, it was republished in 1936 with drawings by Gordon Grant. Nicol catches lower deck life with remarkable fidelity and realism. We might be appalled at the conditions he and his messmates lived under. He was not appalled. Three years before his death at age 70 in 1825, John Nicol addressed these words to those who would read his tale of seafaring in the merchant and naval services in the days of Nelson: "Old as I am, my heart is still unchanged, and were I young and stout as I have been, again would I sail upon discovery: but, weak and stiff, I can only send my prayers with the tight ship and her merry hearts." While we lay at Lisbon we got private intelligence overland that the Spanish fleet was at sea. We with all dispatch set sail in pursuit of them . We were so fortunate as come in sight of them by break of day, on the 14th of February , off Cape St. Vincent. They consisted of twenty-five sail , mostly three-deckers. We were only eighteen; but we were English , and we gave them their Valentines in style. Soon as we came in sight , a bustle commenced, not to be conceived or described. To do it justice, while every man was as busy as he could be, the greatest order prevailed. A serious cast was to be perceived on every face; but not a shade of doubt or fear. We rejoiced in a general action ; not that we loved fighting ; but we all wished to be free to return to our homes , and follow our own pursuits. We knew there was no other way of obtaining this than by defeating the enemy. ''The hotter war the sooner peace ,'' was a saying with us. When every thing was cleared , the ports open, the matches lighted, and guns run out, then we gave them three such cheers as are only to be heard in a British man-of-war. This intimidates the enemy more than a broadside , as they have often declared to me. It shows them all is right ; and the men in the true spirit baying to be at them . During the action , my situation was not one of danger, but most wounding to my feelings , and trying to my patience. I was stationed in the after magazine, serving powder from the screen , and could see nothing ; but I could feel every shot that struck the Goliah ; and the cries and groans of the wounded were most distressing, as there was only the thickness of the blankets of the screen between me and them . Busy as I was , the time hung upon me with a dreary weight. Not a soul spoke to me but the masterat-arms , as he went his rounds to inquire if all was safe. No sick person ever longed more for his physician thant I for the voice of the master-at-arms. The surgeon's-mate, at the commencement of the action , spoke a little; but his hands were soon too full of his own affairs . Those who were carrying run like wild creatures , and scarce opened their lips. I would far rather have been on the decks , amjd the bustle, for there the time flew on eagle's wings. The Goliah was sore beset; for some time she had two three-deckers upon her. the men stood to their guns as cool as if they had been exercising. The Admiral ordered the Britannia to 44
our assistance . Iron-sides. , with her forty-twos, soon made them sheer off.* Towards the close of the action, the men were very weary. One lad put his head out of the port-hole, saying, "D-n them , are they not going to strike yet? " For us to strike was out of the .question. At length the roar of the guns ceased , and I came on deck to see the effects of a great sea engagement; but such a scene of blood and desolation I want words to express. I had been in a great number of actions with single ships in the Proteus and Surprise, during the seven years I was in them . This was my first action in a fleet , and I had only a small share in it. We had destroyed a great number, and secured four three-deckers. One , they had the impiety to call the Holy Ghost , we wished much to get; but they towed her off. The fleet was in such a shattered situation, we lay twenty-four hours in sight of them, repairing our rigging. It is after the action the disagreeable part commences; the crews are wrought to the utmost of their strength; for days they have no remission of their toil; repairing the rigging , and other parts injured in the action; their spirits are broke by fatigue: they have no leisure fo talk of the battle; and , when the usual round of duty returns , we do not choose to revert to a disagreeable subject. Who can speak of what he did , where all did their utmost? One of my mess-mates had the heel of his shoe shot off; the skin was not broke, yet his leg swelled and became black. He was lame for a long time. On our return to Lisbon we lost one of the fleet , the Bombay Castle. She was stranded , and completely lost. All her crew were saved. We were in great danger in the Goliah; Captain Sir C. H. Knowles was tried for not lending assistance, when he needed it himself. The court-martial honourably acquitted him. Collis, our first lieutenant, told us not to cheer when he came on board ; but we loved our captain too well to be restrained. We had agreed upon a signal with the coxswain, if he was, as he ought to be, honourably acquitted . The signal was given , and in vain Collis forbade . We manned the yards , and gave three hearty cheers . Not a man on board but would have bled for Sir C.H. Knowles. To our regret we lost him to our ship at this very time. He was as good a captain as I ever sailed with. He was made admiral , and went home in the Britannia. Captain Foley took command of the Goliah, and we joined the blockade of Cadiz, where we remained, sending our boat to assist at the bombardments, and covering them until Admiral Nelson came out again, and picked out thirteen seventy-fours from the fleet ; the Goliah was one. She was the fastest sailing ship in the fleet. We did not stay to water; but got a supply from the ships that were to remain , and away we set under a press of sail , not knowing where. We came to an anchor in the straits of Messina. There was an American man-of-war at anchor; Captain Foley ordered him to unmoor, that the Goliah might get her station , as it was a good one, near the shore; but Jonathan would not budge , but made answer , "I will let you to know I belong to the United States of America, and will not give way to any nation under the sun, but in a good cause." So we came to an anchor where we could. We remained here but a short time, when we got intelligence that the French fleet were up the Straits. We then made sail for Egypt , but missed them , and came back to Syracuse, and watered in twenty-four hours. I was up all night filling water. The day after we left Syracuse we fell in with a French brig , who had just left the fleet . Admiral Nelson took her *The Britannia is a first-rate , carrying I I 0 guns. She was the onlyship that carried 42 pounders on her lower deck, and 32 o n he r middle deck. She was the strongest built ship in the navy ; the sailors upon this acco unt called her " Iron-Sides. "
SEA HISlDRY, SPRING 1983
HMS Goliath , 74, at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, "sore beset' ' as she has broken through among the enemy fleet in the action of February 14, 1797. ''Look at Troubridge, ' ' the English commander Jervis shouted at th e height of the action: " He handles his ship as if the eyes of all England were upon him!" So did Goliath's Captain Knowles.
in tow , and she conducted us to where they lay at anchor in Aboukir Bay. We had our anchors out at our stern port with a spring upon them, and the cable carried along the ship's side, so that the anchors were at our bows, as ifthere was no change in the arrangement. This was to prevent the ships from swinging round, as every ship was to be brought to by her stern. We ran in between the French fleet and the shore, to prevent any communication between the enemy and the shore. Soon as they were in sight , a signal was made from the Admiral's ship for every vessel, as she came up , to make the best of her way, firing upon the French ships as she passed, and' 'every man to take his bird ,'' as we joking called it. The Goliah led the van. There was a French frigate right in our way. Captain Foley cried, "sink that brute, what does he there? " In a moment she went to the bottom , and her crew were seen running into her rigging. The sun was just setting as we went into the bay , and a red and fiery sun it was. I would , if had I had my choice, been on the deck; there I would have seen what was passing , and the time would not have hung so heavy; but every man does his duty with spirit, whether his station be in the slaughter-house or the magazine.* I saw as little of this action as I did of the one on the 14th February off Cape St. Vincent. My station was in the powder magazine with the gunner. As we entered the bay , we stripped to our trowsers, opened our ports, cleared, and every ship we passed gave them a broad-side and three cheers . Any information we got was from the boys and women who carried the powder. The women behaved as well as the men, and got a present for their bravery from the Grand Signior. When the French Admiral's ship blew up, the Goliah got such a shake, we thought the after-part of her had blown up until the boys told us what it was. They brought us every now and then the cheering news of another French ship having struck, and we answered the cheers on deck with heart-felt joy . In the heat of the action, a shot came right into the magazine, but did no harm, as the carpenters plugged it up, and stopped the water that was rushing in. I was much indebted to the gunner's wife, who gave her husband and *The seamen call the lower deck, near the main-mast, the slaughter-house, as it is a mid-ships, and the enemy aim their fire principally at the body of the ship .
SEA HIS1DRY, SPRING 1983
me a drink of wine every now and then, which lessened our fatigue much. There were some of the women wounded, and one woman belonging to Leith died of her wounds , and was buried on a small island in the bay . One woman bore a son in the heat of the action ; she belonged to Edinburgh. When we ceased firing , I went on deck to view the state of the fleets , and an awful sight it was . The whole bay was covered with dead bodies , mangled, wounded , and scorched, not a bit of clothes on them except their trowsers. There were a number of French, belonging to the French Admiral's ship, the L 'Orient, who had swam to the Goliah, and were cowering under her forcastle . Poor fellows , they were brought on board , and Captain Foley ordered them down to the steward ' s room , to get provisions and clothing. One thing I observed in these Frenchmen quite different from any thing I had ever before observed. In the American war, when we took a French ship, the Duke de Chartres, the prisoners were as merry as if they had taken us, only saying , "Fortune de guerre , "-you take me to-day, I take you to-morrow. Those we now had on board were thankful for our kindness , but were sullen , and as downcast as if each had lost a ship of his own. The only incidents I heard of are two. One lad who was stationed by a salt-box, on which he sat to give out cartridges, and keep the lid close,-it is a trying birth,-when asked for a cartridge, he gave none, yet he sat upright; his eyes were open. One of the men gave him a push; he fell all his length on the deck. There was not a blemish on his body , yet he was quite dead, and was thrown overboard. The other, a lad who had the match in his hand to fire his gun. In the act of applying it a shot took off his arm; it hung by a small piece of skin. The match fell to the deck . He looked to his arm , ancf seeing what had happened, seized the match in his left hand , and fired off the gun before he went to the cock-pit to have it dressed. They were in our mess, or I might never have heard of it. Two of the mess were killed, and I knew not of it until the day after. Thus terminated the glorious first of August, the busiest night in my life . .t NOTE: Spelling and usage (Goliahfor Goliath) are as in the original, except that here ship's names are put in italic where in the original they were not; footnotes are also as in the original.
45
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SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1983
Karaphuna Canoes by Philip Thorneycroft Teuscher The sea itself was named for themthese warlike, copper-skinned Carib people who came from Central American jungles to conquer and intermingle with the peaceful Arawaks who inhabited the Greater and Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Within a hundred years the Spanish arrived, and so began the painful attrition of this fierce, resistant people, who today survive only in a settlement on the iron bound coast ofthe island of Dominica. To Dominica came Philip Teuscher, film maker and student of maritime history, who lived with a Carib family while making a documentary film of their seagoing culture.-ED. Who they were and where they came from are not written history. Their legend tells of a chief named Kallinago, "small in body but great in mind," who led his warriors across the sea. The Karaphuna , as they call themselves, used a dugout which they called a "kanawa "-from which we get our word "canoe ." Today on the Windward Island of Dominica two tangible links with the PreColumbian Caribbean exist. These are the handful of Carib survivors who still navigate in "kanawa" identical to those Columbus observed when he discovered Dominica, or Sunday Island, m November 1493 . While filming these people , who are the only surviving natives of the Caribbean archipelago, I witnessed and documented a tradition of canoe building and navigation that soon may become on1y a memory. Carib fishermen launch their canoes at daybreak from the boulder-strewn Atlantic coast of the island. At dawn they can catch the offshore breeze that whisks them out to sea before the tradewind pipes up in the forenoon. At about three in the afternoon they run for home with the northeast tradewind pushing them toward Dominica' s steep-to shoreline. If the trades are blowing a fresh breeze the thundering surf turns the rocky islets and exposed landing places into a maelstrom. The canoes are visible offshore as white specks appearing and disappearing on the heaving swells. A couple of cable lengths off the beach the sailors douse the sail and unstep the mast. Oars are fitted in thole pins and while two Caribs row a third steers and bails. Hovering just outside the breaker line , they throw overboard their boulder ballast and prepare for just the right wave. Then , rowing like hell , they surf ashore bouncing up the inclined landing place. Before the following wave has a chance to dash the canoe SEA HIS1DRY, SPRING 1983
Caribsfishing on a peacefal day, in a canoe of planks built up on a hollowed-out log . Photos, Teuscher!Pettys Productions. Below, Hilary Frederick, chief of all Caribs, raises glass to guests; from left to right, his mother, chauffeur "Shicks", and.filmmakers Teuscher and Greg Pettys.
onlookers rush to grab the vessel and fetch it out of harm 's way. Thus is repeated a scene that has not changed since Kallinago and his roving Karaphuna first stepped ashore on ''Waitukubuli " as they called Dominica. The Carib canoe builder uses the same methods as his Karaphuna ancestors. Today , however, the tools are of steel instead of stone. A gommier tree is felled in the mountainside forest where it is partially shaped and hollowed to lighten it. With generous inducements of free rum a canoe builder enveigles his friends to help him drag the embryonic canoe to the shore . This celebration, wailing the birth of a canoe, is an ancient Karaphuna tradition. The log is further shaped and hollowed and then widened thusly : A wedgeshaped mound of stones is placed inside and the log is filled with water. Fires are built outside the hull , heating and softening the sides. The combined forces open the dugout and thwarts are affixed to maintain the beam . A plank is added to both sides to bring the free board higher . In ancient times these were lashed with '' mahot'' cordage to the main log . Today , nails are used. Kallinago and his crew paddled their canoes which were up to 60 feet in length . Today the average size is 18 feet and they are rowed or rigged with a sprit-rigged sail. When Columbus arrived on the Caribbean scene the seagoing natives were ignorant of the use of sails. How they adopted and rigged sails for their canoes is suggested in this entry in the log 'of an English ship coasting off Dominica in the seventeenth century : Having stayed heare (Island of St. Lucia) three dayes, about the two and twentieth of October (1606) we departed thence to the Northward. And in passing by the Ile of Dominica, wee chanced to see a white Flag put forth on the shoare, whereat marvelling, wee supposed that some Christians had sustained shipwrack their. And Forthwith a Cannoa came off from the shoare towards us, which when they came neere, being very little wind , we layed our Ship by the lee and stayed for them a little, and when they were come within a little distance of the Ship, wee perceived in the Cannoa a Friar, who cried aloud in the Larine tongue, say ing, I
beseech, as you are Christians , for Christ his sake to shew some mercy and compassion on mee, I am a Preacher of the Work of God , A Friarofthe OrderofFranciscus in Sivill, by name Friar Blasius. And that he had been there sixteene moneths a Slave unto those Savages; and that other two Friars which were of his company they had murthered and throwne into the Sea. We demanded of him then , how he got so much favour to preserve his life , hi s Brethren being murthered: Hee answered, because hee did shew the Savages how to fit them Sayles for their Cannoas, and so to ease them of much labour often in rowing, which greatly pleased the Savages as appeared , for wee saw them to use say les in their Cannoas , which hathe not beene scene before. Then we demanded of him where they had this Linnen Cloth to make those Sayles ; He answered , That about two yeeres before that, three Gallions coming to the West Indies were cast away on the Ile of Gwadalopa, where abundance of Linnen Cloth and other Merchandise was cast on shore ...
The canoes that once ferried the conquering Karaphuna are now used for fishing, transport and smuggling between the French and English Antilles . The last remnant Island Caribs on Dominica today are now confronting pressures to change after almost 500 years of struggle to survive. Will the Carib survive or will the bones of this culture be added to the fast mounting heap left in the wake of civilization? The question may be answered in this generation. .t
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The 165,000 deadweight ton Keystone Canyon , one of 22 vessels owned and operated by Keystone Shipping Company , is shown here against a background of spectacular scenery . Highly trained MM&P deck officers will get the 906-foot tanker safely home.
This Is MM&P Country It can take a tanker the size of the MM&P-contracted Keystone Canyon , shown here in Alaskan waters , as much as three miles to come to a dead stop under normal stopping conditions. And it takes deck officers skilled in ship handling techniques to maneuver a behemoth such as this craft safely and efficiently in any waters and under all weather and traffic conditions. Training officers in these skills is what MM&P's highly regarded Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies (MITAGS) does better than anyone . MITAGS , which is located outside Baltimore at Linthicum Heights, Maryland , boasts the finest in ship simulators and other highly sophisticated training aids with which to train ships officers . The program is jointly operated by MM&P and American flag shipping companies through their Maritime Advancement, Training, Education and Safety (MATES) Program. ROBERT J. LOWEN International President
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LLOYD M. MARTIN
International Executive Vice President
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