Sea History 028 - Summer 1983

86 PROOF Bl[NOEO SCOlCH WHISKY DISllLLEO AND BOTTLLD IN SCOlLANO. IMPORTEO llY TH[

B~CKINGHAM

CORPORATION. N[ W YORK.NY

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HERE'S TO GUT FEELINGS AND THOSE TILL FOLLOW THEM. Ted Turner does lots of things people advise him not to do. And he succeeds at them.

He turned Atlanta's WTBS-TV into a "Superstation" using a communications satellite and recently founded Cable News Network, the world's first 24-hour TV news network.

He bought the Atlanta Braves and moved them out of last place; won the 1977 America's Cup after being fired in the '74 races; and as named "Yachtsman of e Year" four times.

Ted Turner puts his feelings wh~re his mouth is. He also puts a great scotch there: Cutty Sark. And whi~ he's / been called CaptaiiyOutrageous by some, one thing's sure: , Ted Turner's enjoying himself.

No. 28

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 ©1983 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 , 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; Senior Advisor: Irving M. Johnson.

ISSN 0146·9312

SUMMER 1983

CONTENTS 3 EDITOR' S LOG LETTERS 4 SAILING IN SEA CLOUD, Ian Keown 6 THE APPRENTICESHOP, Lance R. Lee 11 THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE CENTENNIAL: 12 REDISCOVERING THE ORIGINAL ORAWINGS, Barbara Head Millstein 13 AN APPRECIATION , Keith Miller 17 A SEAMAN REMEMBERS SOUTH STREET, Peter Copeland 20 THE RONSON SHIP, Warren Reiss and Sheli 0. Smith 23 MARINE ART: NEWS 24 SPANNING TIME AND TIDE 29 SHIP NOTES : A RESTORATION OF SPIRIT, Peter Stanford 30 SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS 37 ALLENS . RUPLEY 38 THE OLIVIA BROWN, Robert L. McGlinchey 40 SAIL TRAINING: DAY'S RUN, Report of the American Sail Training Association 44 BOOKS 46 CAPTAIN QUICK LOSES HIS TEMPER, Captain Adrian Reynaud

COVER: Spanning a century's restless tides and changing times, the Brooklyn Bridge over New York's East River carries a message both of aspiration and achievement.

William G. Muller's painting captures the tugboatman's pride and the challenging but somehow reassuring presence of the Bridge, early one morning a few generations back .

The National Maritime Historical Society is saving America's seafaring heritage. Join us.

We bring to life America's seafaring past through resea rch , archaeological expeditions and ship preservation efforts. We work with museums , historians and sail training groups and report on these activities in our quarterly journal Sea History.

We are also the American arm of the World Ship Trust, an international group working worldwide to help save ships of historic importance.

Won't you join us to keep alive our nation's seafaring legacy?

Membership in the Society costs only $20 a year. You'll receive Sea History, a fascinating magazine filled with articles of seafaring and historical lore. You'll also be eligible for discounts on books , prints and other items.Help save our seafaring heritage. Join the National Maritime Historical Society today!

TO: National Maritime Historical Society, IS State Street, New York, New York 10004

YES

I want to help. I understand that my contribution goes to forward the work of the Society ' and that I'll be kept informed by receiving SEA HISTORY quarterly. Enclosed is: 0 $1,000 Sponsor 0 $500 Donor 0 $100 Patron 0 $30 Family 0 $20 Regular Member 0 $10 Student/Retired NAME

(please print)

SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor: Peter Stanford; Managing Editor: Norma Stanford ; Associate Editor: Norman J. Brouwer; Membership: Marie Lore.

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ZIP _ _ _ _ _ _ __

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The A111erican Sea111an What fate, he asks, awaits our country if Congress heeds N.Y. Times editorials?

SOME YEARS AGO , The New York Times, which publishes in the nation's greatest port city, concluded tha t the U.S. shipping industry no lon ger war ranted the seriou s coverage this newpaper routinely devo tes to fas t-breaking developmen ts in quiche lorraine and art d eco ashtrays. Freed of competition from the H erald Tribune, it dropped its daily shippin g page datin g back to the time of the C ivil War m ail packets and retired its ship news writers. It wro te off the American m erchant m arine and the vital interest of the A m erican people in m aintainin g even a skeletal U.S. fl ag fleet to serve their needs in peace and in war.

This blackou t by the Times whose judgem ents are followed slavishly by a m ajority of the m edia has beco m e so pervasive th at a n ation ally-syndicated columnist su ch as J ack Anderson can m ake his own news by uncovering the abj ect and dangerou s decrepitude of the Am erican m erchan t m arine as one of the Pen tagon's " top secrets."

"Naval planners in the back room s of the Pen tagon have their fin gers crossed hoping that the United States doesn't have to fi gh t a conventional war fa r from hom e," A nderson recently wrote. "The "Okay troops, load up. We sail at dawn" reason is simple, if embarrassing," he added . " We don 't \~ 1 ~k~ ~ \~~ ~~ have .t he ships n eeded to keep our troops and ~Hies ~ '~Ri;f f '-: i ~. ~ 71. supplied . Top secret Pentagon assessm en ts m ake fn ghtV '0 llr."S\ \ "' ~~ ~ () enin gly clear how low ou r sealift capability h as sunk ) ¡ ~\ ~ . z; since World War II , when the U.S. Navy and M erchan t M arine carried the military output of A m erican industry to battlefron ts around the globe. That, basically, is what won the war."

W hile the absence of coverage in the daily news columns has m ade the U .S. m erchant m arine a " top secret," this unbenign neglect d oes n ot extend to the editorial writers.

Scarcely a week goes by without impassioned editorials which in the nam e of " free trade" call for the fu rther dism antlin g of the American m erchan t marine and the longstandin g legislation that supports U.S. shippin g.

The questions asked by the Am erican seam an , alon g with the rest of the American labor m ovem ent, are: " D oes free trade exist in the real world ? How lon g can the United States pursue this dubiou s doctrine at disastrou s cost to the j obs of Am erican workers, while foreign countries pu rsue aggressively self-interested protectionist policies? H ow long mu st the Am erican m erchan t m arine shrink while Soviet fl eets expand on the global sealan es, un-reported and unchecked ?"

National Maritime Union Shannon J. Wall , President Thomas Martinez, Secretary-Treasurer National Headquarters: 346 West 17 Street, New York NY 10011 • (212) 620-5700

LETTERS

EDITOR'S LOG "Friends we have not yet met," is what Marie Lore calls members of the Society who write in to us with one thing or another on their minds. "It's so pleasant to know they think of us as persons!"

Marie is volunteer Membership Secretary, as she has been these past se¡1en years, since the National Society moved out of South Street Seaport Museum. (It was headquartered there 1970-76.) Before that, she had been volunteer guide and interpreter aboard South Street's historic ships, particularly the Gloucester fishing ~chooner Lettie Howard. Many of us, when we think of the Howard, see Marie's bright, winsome face and hear her mild voice setting forth facts of fishing off George's Bank in one-man dories.

Marie herself has been to sea in the Howard's old stamping grounds, watching whales from the deck of the tall ship Regina Maris off Peaked Hill Bar. She goes on other expeditions too, often with her friend Edna Fitzpatrick who works with visitors to the piers at South Street.

Marie does not discriminate on grounds of age. When she visited London a while back she was escorted about by a 28-year old member whose heart she had won in correspondence. They both, incidentally, had an unexpected thrill meeting our Advisor George Campbell crossing the street, 3,000 miles from Marie's home but only about 30 miles from George's new home in the seaside town of Brighton . And of Captain James Roberts, who sailed in the South Street square rigger fflzvertree in 1897-8, she notes: "Captain Roberts was almost 90 when I first met him, and we had a fine friendship for three years."

Marie was amused but understandably indignant when one of our members told her he had thought she was an invented person, her name a simple adaptation of "marine lore." No, she is real , very real , and she helps make the Society real for many people.

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We do mean to move on to regional meetings, in the United States and, through the World Ship Trust, in other nations. " Mountains never meet, but men do" is a good saying. But a true sense of community exists among us, I keep feeling, in our shared concerns, and , in Hakluyt's happy phrase, the 'traffiques and discoveries' of our lives. Look at the splendid letter from Mr. Jones on this page! Almost as good as being there, and sharing that "dark draught beer that puts feathers on the insteps." PS SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1983

"On Such Drawing Boards .. !'

I am filled with admiration at the skill, energy and dedication of those engaged in restoratory projects like the Wavertree. I would love to assist in such an enterprise, but this is not possible, having nothing to offer but manual skill, and that too far away.

But I do have a glimmer of insight to offer into the character of the builders of vessels such as the Elissa and the Wavertree.

I can recall a Greenwich dock road pub at lunchtime, over 30 years ago. A bunch of shipyard workers burst in, engaged in animated conversation , difficult for the stranger to understand. As the subject was not football, it had to be ships. As a seaman, with some knowledge of ship construction, I gathered that the point under discussion was a construction question-a detail of the ship's side where the superstructure met the main deck. The man doing most of the talking was, I judged, a former makerofplates ; and the burden of his argument seemed to be the general incompetence and doubtful antecedents of drafting and design departments. "So I told the useless b-----d that the b----y stringer plate canna' be cut in the way of a weather bulkhead':_here he hesitated , making a small gesture with his right hand, his left holding a half-empty pot of Scotch ale (dark draught beer that puts feathers on the insteps).

The gesture was interpreted by the barman, who silently wiped the bar counter dry, and handed the speaker a piece of chalk from under the counter. The chalk was taken, with no acknowledgment, and within a seconds a detailed sketch of the section in question was appearing. I and my shipmate were pushed aside by the press of men crowding around the sketch , arguing, agreeing, pointing and correcting. I would suggest that on such drawing boards were the beautiful ships of the 1880s perfected.

A. 0 . JONES Durban , South Africa AOF "This Wonderful Artist" Enclosed is my check for $65, in payment for the Anton Otto Fischer biography. I am delighted to know that a book of the works of this wonderful artist exists. I have admired his talent for many, many years, and have saved reproductions of his work appearing in the old Saturday Evening Post.

I am sure that there are many others like myself, who would want the book if they knew of its existence.

FRANK V. HALE Salem, Massachusetts

Wanted: Aged Freighters I am making a study of the last old cargo vessels still in service around the world.

Particular emphasis is placed upon finding vessels that are close to their original design and condition, though virtually all have been re-powered. Some of these vessels are floating museums, in about the same condition as when they were built.

My interest and experience with old tramp steamers began nearly twenty years ago when I owned my own company in Southeast Asia. We were involved in chartering freighters, and old ones were all we could afford . We took them up the jungle rivers of Sumatra and Borneo to load logs under contract with the Indonesian Government.

I'd be glad to hear, through NMHS, of any old steamers your readers may know of.

MICHAEL KRIEGER Lopez Island, Washington

In maritime museum collections, only the Robin in the Maritime Trust fleet in London survives to represent the "dirty British freighter " that swept square riggers from the seas. News of any surviving old steamers will be gratefully received by NMHS and forwarded to Mr. Krieger to assist in his study. -ED. From a Friendly Banker I want to thank you most sincerely for sending along that file of SEA HISTORYS. More than once during the past few days I have succumbed to temptation , putting down whatever it was I was working on to steal a few minutes with the magazines. I felt a little less guilty about this when my boss dropped by the other day and, spying SEA HISTORY on my cluttered desk, took a seat and spent 15 minutes browsing through a few issues.

NAME WITHELD New York City More Than a Bit ...

Enclosed are my last four monthly payments of $9 to complete my year's subscription as Patron of the Society-total $108. I hope this helps a bit.

PHILIP J. DAILY Fullerton , California

It helps more than bit. Monthly payments accounted for 11 percent of contributions received in January-March. Envelopes for this purpose are available from Marie Lore, at NMHS, 15 State Street, New York NY 10004. -ED.

Thanks to changing exchange. rates we are now able to offer this noble work, the definitive biography by AOF's daughter Ktitrina, including 117 color plates, for $50. -ED. 3

Sailing in Sea Cloud

by Ian Keown

A First Rate taking rn Sto res S igned "J M W Turne r 181 8" (19 x 17 in.} Superb quality print of a very beautiful Turn er watercolo ur. Art historian B.L. Bin yo n wrote in 1909. " Thi s is Turn er at the p €ak o f his po wers. his palette is positivel y tran slucent ." Th e original is in a private collectio n in England , and has rarely been seen sin ce 1819. wh en it was exhibited at Grosvenor Palace A few hundred copies were printed to commem ora te Turner's bicentenary. We have every one of them There will be no more avai lable once these few are gone Print $15.50

(Framed $59.90)

Calif residents add 6% tax. Tel. (213) 452-2443

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"Belay the braum!" It's not your everyday command but then Sea Cloud is not your everyday ship. Almost everything about it , including its Anglo-German language, 1s unique. It has been variously described as "the only square rigger ever built as a yacht," "the largest private sailing yacht ever built," and now "the last passengercarrying tall ship in the world ." She was designed by Gibbs & Cox and built in 1~31

by Kruppwerk in the German port of Kiel .

Originally named Hussar, she was a wedding gift from Wall Street tycoon E. F. Hutton to his bride, Marjorie Merriweather Post herself heiress to the vast Post cereal fort~ne. In her time, Sea Cloud has hosted dukes and duchesses , statesmen and presidents and movie stars, Astors and Vanderbilts, and what we read about her today concerns mostly the sumptuous interiors-owners' suites with handcrafted paneling and parquet floors, bathrooms of travertine marble with gold-plated fixtures.

But this is really second<:ry, for the great thrill of sailing aboard Sea Cloud, as I found last winter in the Caribbean , is just to be aboard a four-masted square rigger flying 35,000 square feet of sail. You' re constantly reminded that this is, despite the fancy trimmings , a living, working square rigger. I'd step from my cabin each mor?ing and come face to face with the mam mast and its massed halyards , leech Imes, bunt lines and belaying pins. " Wet paint" signs remind you that deckhands are constantly sanding and scraping and oiling (the rails are taken down every six months, finished with 20 coats of oil). In the fc'stle, a sailmaker from Yarmouth , England is sewing and stitching one or another ?f Sea Cloud 's 31 sails . Carpenters saw, nggers tend their 30 miles of lines and sheets. At almost any hour of the day, deckhands (male and female) are buckling on their safety harnesses to scurry up the ri~ging to paint or repair, going about their ta?ks oblivious (more or less) to the sunbathmg bodies below.

Sea Cloud has a special breed of crew, sprightly, dedicated, and one of the pleasures of a voyage is the chance to chat with this hard-working group of young people, many of them dropouts from the landlubbers' rat-race (lawyers from Stuttgart , teachers from Aberdeen), eager to grab this one last chance to sail on on~ of the great windjammers. They 're multmational (but mostly American , British and German- hence the braum for topgallant, ubermaste for top mast). "We're all diehard romantics somewhere along the line," as one crew member puts it.

She is 316 feet of elegance from rakish bow to flowing counter aft, and with her graceful sheer she has a regal beari~g eve_n when lying at her moonng, sails up m their gear, mainmast soaring 191 feet above the deck.

A few years after Sea Cloud was launched, Mrs. Post divorced Hutton to marry Joseph E. Davies, FDR's amb_a ssador to Russia · Sea Cloud went to Lenmgrad as a sort of floating chancellery, but was assigned to a backwater of the River Neva so that the Soviet citizenry would not be seduced by this ravishing symbol of the capitalist system. During World War II Sea Cloud was seconded to the US Coast Guard for weather patrol in the Atlantic (and since Mrs. Post had named the individual staterooms for fragrances and perfumed them accordingly, crewmen could, the story goes, identify their officers by the appropriate cabin , even when they could not, in the pitch black night, see them. After the war Sea Cloud became the property of Raf~el Trujillo, strongman of the Dominican Republic, who used her as his presidential yacht but was canny e?ough to mount a machine gun on the bndge and classify her as a warship to avoid harbor dues.

In the sixties and seventies, this splendid anachronism fell victim to changing times and lay rusting and mastless in the harb?rs of Cristobal in Panama, before bemg rescued from a fate worse than scuttling. In 1978 Sea Cloud was acquired by a consortium of German industrialists, all of them yachting buffs with world racing records, who restored and modernized her at a cost of $6t/2 million-twice what Hutton had paid to have her built in the first place. She is now the classiest cruise ship in the world, a former plaything of celebrities now accessible to us all . .t

On September 22 this year, Sea Cloud departs on a two-week cruise of the Greek Islands sponsored by the National Society. Our Curator-at-Large Peter Throckmorton , who pioneered the development of marine archaeology in these waters, will be aboard to serve as guide. A descriptive brochure is available from the Society.

SEA HIS1DRY, SUMMER 1983

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(~12)

A Report from the Original Apprenticeshop:

"The Perennial Struggle to Become What We Are Capable of Becoming" An apprentice at the new 'Shop in Rockport gets out a garboard plank for a Washingron County peapod. Behind him the lovely form of the pinky schooner Perseverance rises with more than symbolic message. Photo, Rick Perry.

by Lance R. Lee In our last we noted the departure of Mr. Lee, his staff and students, from the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, and our hope that the Apprenticeshop he founded there a decade ago would continue in its new location as 'h beacon to us all." Fifty miles down the coast at Rockport, it is clear that a beautiful beacon shines indeed, with renewed energies and perhaps, with deepened purpose,.-ED.

As if in proof that the pen is more dangerous than the sword-or the paring chisel- sooner or later the chance to munch on one's own words comes ' round . The author has felt , said and occasionally written warmly in favor of maritime priorities other than restoration . Crow, largely a matter of gristle, tar and feathers, is not a three star repast , but if taken with relish ....

It has been with rare relish , few but adequate tools , a reawakened sense of the need for continuity, and a 1968 GMC van that more than 20 people began last September the restoration of the Apprenticeshop after a bad fall and exile from the museum we had been part of. Within six months, the program had been stabilized , one of the three major segments (two handson boatbuilding programs) had been rebuilt and initial examples of the other two (field research/documentation and publications) are well along.

Following the "administrative reorganization" of the Maine Maritime Museum , the eight staff members and fourteen apprentices of the Apprenticeshop and Restorationshop, which had comprised roughly half of the institution , moved to Rockport , Maine. No assets remained from a ten-year development which included two large, volunteer built buildings and shop contents, a fleet of small craft, extensive archives and a long sought and very recently built up quarter million dollar endowment. The choice lay between abandoning a vivid, living dream, that of a program based upon the perpetuation of skills and the nurturing of people, and the dissolution of that dream. That's no choice, so we found ourselves in the game of restoration right up to our armpits.

What's been done? Our labor-for-learning program continues with fourteen 18-24 month apprentices, men and women. Three apprentices have graduated and three new apprentices have joined. Four six-week, tuition-paying interns are back in a concentrated boatbuilding program. Our six-week volunteer program , run for eight years and continued last October, began again this April. Both are feeder programs to the apprenticeship. In less than six months, the first five boats had been completed and ten others set up, traditional small craft as in the past. Their orders have come from friends and allies anxious to aid in our recovery.

They include an 1880s lighthouse service peapod being documented from lines lifted by us last fall and shortly to be published , the drafting by Dave Dillion. Two 15 ft. Five Islands pulling boats are undergoing the same documentation. Three other peapods, all markedly differing from the lighthouse 'pod , will comprise the base for an in-water comparative anatomy peapod seminar in mid-summer. Largest , and a neo-nineteenth century dream , is a copy of the 26 ft. Prospect Marsh pinky, a handsome little Penobscot Bay fishing schooner. She is much reduced in size from the 40 ft. Maine pinky left half planked in Bath last September, but is part of the same Down East workboat tradition of clean lines, simplicity of rig and finish-and she's alive with personality.

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SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1983

Planking up rhe Tan cook whaler Vernon Langille in rhe old Apprenriceshop ar Barh. The car, so much pan of this scene, moved with rhe people and rheir purposes ro Rockporr rhis winrer. Drawing by Dorothy M. lee.

The 'Shop has generated and raised over $260,000 towards startup, operating costs and the capital needs of purchasing a new site, re-establishing apprentice living quarters and procuring the tools and equipment to retire up a three ring circus. We're now at midpoint in a capital campaign to bag $400,000 for these purposes. Over $50,000 of in-kind donations have steadily poured in , from a 15 ft. Apprenticeshop-built Matinicus peapod vintage '75, to a 28 ft. auxiliary sloop recently back from a circumnavigation of Newfoundland. Tools, books to build up an extensive former library, and a 1962 four-wheel drive Ford truck all extend the art of the possible.

Taking shape on the drafting table in the new office overlooking West Penobscot Bay is volume 1, issue 1 of The Apprentice a bi-annual publication which we will shortly issue at $7.00 per annum , to aid in research and documentation , giving us the latitude to rove widely for material and funds to publish same. The subject will be small craft, the focus on the human rather than the artifact. The scope will cover projects small and large, concentrating on all means of perpetuating capabilities and be limited to continents on this planet , in any climate including that of the Boston Public Library. Subjects in Issue 1 range from the building of a 30 ft. pulling boat on Sandy Hook through which teen-aged kids have drawn from both the technical expertise and quiet tenacity of senior Jersey boatbuilders long in " retirement" to an ingenious jig for laminating spars in a Cape Cod yard. We'll go on to explore the 1981 duplication of a hundred-year old workboat type, a standing lug Sardinier in which the author recently learned a reverence for the Bretons and the Brittany coast; Bahama workboats, their lines, construction, equipment; the trap skiffs and cod traps of Newfoundland; and an unblushing revelation of Maine peapods will underrun The Apprentice for as many issues as we think you can take 'em.

The National Endowment for the Arts, Folk Arts section, has awarded the 'Shop a matching $20,000 grant specified for the training and perpetuation of craftsmanship. A national foundation has offered a like sum, also to be matched , as seed corn to build a fishing schooner. In mid-summer we'll begin this project , lofting a Tancook schooner to be employed as a sail training vessel replacing our 35 ft. whaler, the Vernon Langille, which remains in Bath. We'll add fishing to cargo hauling and sail training and plan to campaign this little beast as we did the Langille, in which we sailed to Tancook Island , Nova Scotia; to New Brunswick; to Nantucket with cordwood; to Newport with sardines; and which participated in Op Sail '80 as the only cargocarrying vessel, feeding the crew on the proceeds of firewood hawked on Beacon Hill and sold in Newtown.

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By default rather than design , this writer seems in recent years to have inherited the unattractive billet of gadfly to the maritime preservation movement, buzzing loudly and persistently of skills. My interests run ardently to documentation , to scholarship and to the preservation , for reasons of inspiration and community symbolism, of fragments of our past greatness. But someone must also point out that people as distinct from objects/artifacts, are not doing well. Someone must note that even given the wealth of this nation and the care, ardor, and compassion of many thousands of people who toil in the splendid vineyard of our maritime heritage, the issue of working with, SEA HIS1DRY, SUMMER 1983

training and enabling kids, youths and even those over 30, to make full use of the experience and talent of older artisans is still given a low national priority.

It is grim news to chronicle, but the hands-on boatbuilding programs together with related lectures and seminars . in maritime museums have had a terrible year. Hampton Mariner's Museum's program in Beaufort and the Skills Shop in Boston are no longer.* The Philadelphia program is experiencing heavy weather and the transformation in Bath has been noted. Dollars lie at the base of most of these difficulties. An understanding of why we should invest in people, separate from monuments, is simply not there across a wide swath of otherwise caring people.

That swath includes the public, trustees, staff and funding agencies. I plead for attention to the issue, and have faith that the response, in a nation as given to practical responses as ours, will take place.

It is noted that people-orientated programs involve bodily risk.

That's true. But man lives at risk and he always has. It is noted that people often are not as orderly as exhibits and stationary monuments. They generate trash-even garbage-noise pollution and countervailing ideas about everything from program management to the possession of dogs and 1937 Dodges without tailgates. They are not always photogenic. They can be counted on to be passionate at the least convenient time as well as programmed to do often exquisite demonstrations in hours and hours ofunpaid service to their dream . They are characterized by human actions and by laughter, by a sense of accomplishment which certainly built the railroads and the Sovereign ofthe Seas.

They revel in a new pinky schooner on the face of the bay and are undaunted by the long hours, low pay, the cold, the cracked manifolds, the grief of a well hung garboard split as the last fastening goes home.

The world of skills perpetuation , of passion for and preoccupation with people, is a world of up and down , of stress and emotion , upheaval and mess . It is also one of sacrifice and joy, of moving statements late in the night, of the perennial struggle to become what we are capable of becoming. We seek Apprenticeshop volunteers for they have built a bold and lasting enterprise, but we seek them not only in Rockport. All over this nation there must be youth of passion , madcap as they have been here, striving against the odds of economics, production and apathy, their rewards in the timeless joys of accomplishment, of increased skillfulness and experience and a crack at both rebuilding and perpetuating the practical artistry of our past. .t *To this list must be added the Pioneer Marine School at South Street Seaport Museum in New York.-ED.

7

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SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1983

Celebration! With explosive joy the city expresses its pride in the grand new structure-or rather the cities, for New York (Manhattan) and Brooklyn are still proudly separate cities, joined only in their mutual rivalry and sometime disdain-and now, May 24, 1883, by the Bridge. The buildings of the Brooklyn waterfront in the right front foreground still stand, including Phil Rando's Har-

bor View Restaurant in the comer building, at that time a hotel; the giant ferry buildings are no more, but the borough is now more open to the river here, and the National Society maintains the Fulton Ferry Landing Museum to safeguard that openness on this site, and the public experience of a unique comer of the 20th century city. Engraving from Harper's Weekly, June 2, 1883.

The Brooklyn Bridge is 100!

Born Into a Century of Tumult and Change, It Has Presided Over New York's Most Historic Waterway with a Message of More than Survival-a Message of Serenity, and Challenge ,.- .

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Out of New York's narrow streets, the Bridge led straight into the morning sky and toward freedom for those in city pent.

From the city's dense diversity it forged a clean simplicity, and from its confusions, a sweeping purpose-a suitable monument for a seafarer's city, the New World's leading seaport! Engraving , Harper's Weekly, May 26, 1883.

SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1983

11

Rediscovering the Original Drawings

by Barbara Head Millstein Associate Curator, The Brooklyn Museum In a letter written to the president and directors of the New York Bridge Company on September I, 1867, John A. Roehling, Chief Engineer of the East River Bridge (the Brooklyn Bridge) stated without the slightest fear of contradiction: "Gentlemen, the contemplated work, when constructed in accordance with my design, will not only be the greatest bridge in existence, but it will be the greatest engineering work of this continent and of the age." Because of a tragic accident resulting in his death in 1869, John Roehling did not live to see his prediction reach fruition. The Bridge was built under the supervision of his son, Washington Roehling, and opened on May 24, 1883. It was everything that the elder Roehling had contemplated and more. Despite her three sister bridges , which joined her in spanning the East

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River (the Williamsburg, 1903, the Manhattan , 1905 and the Queensborough, 1909) the mystique of the Brooklyn Bridge has remained intact. For many people around the world, and, indeed , in the United States, the Brooklyn Bridge ranks with the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of our country.

Imagine, therefore, how excited I was to learn that there existed a huge collection of original drawings, linen tracings and blueprints used in the construction of the bridge! This was not a rumor or an apocryphal story, as I had been led to believe for years; they were housed in a tiny carpenter shop belonging to the New York City Department of Highways, under the Williamsburg Bridge.

More than nine years ago this rumor became reality when a reporter for the Trenton Times (a New Jersey newspaper) tracked down the papers in the carpenter

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When it was built, the 278ft rowers alone dominated the cityscape. John A. Roehling, the designer, predicted this: they would "serve as landmarks to the adj oining cities, and they will be entitled to be ranked as national monuments." But the towers did not stand alone-tossed across the river between them was a 1600ft airborne roadway! Courtesy Municipal Archives, City of New York.

Building the Bridge was something else. It took fourteen years and cost more than twenty lives-including the life of its design er, John A. Roehling. His foot was crushed by the ferry the Bridge would replace, leading to his death from lockjaw. His son Washington A. Roehling was crippledforthe rest ofhis life by caisson disease, or "the bends," as a result of working under pressure in the caissons on which the stone towers were built. His wife Emily acted as liaison with politicians trying to stop the action or get their cut of the immense undertaking, and with the Chief Engineer who executed the meticulously detailed int ructions Washington Roehling issued from his sickbed. Digging went on in the caissons and the huge structures sank into the muck as stone was piled on top and mud dug out beneath, until bedrock was reached at 44 feet on the Brooklyn side. On the Manhattan side digging was stopped short of bedrock and the bridge "floats " today on the longleaf yellow pine of its caisson, bedded in sand 78feet down.

12

shop. His interview with Frank Valentine, a bridge engineer, was published , and soon after the New York Times called to ask, "What does The Brooklyn Museum intend to do about the Brooklyn Bridge papers? A private museum in New York plans to use them for an exhibition. Isn't Brooklyn the more logical place?" I rose to the bait and found the carpenter shop and the collection in Williamsburg. When I arrived, the private museum was in the midst of photographing and removing the drawings it found attractive enough to restore and exhibit. The rest were left behind, stuffed in a series of wooden drawers and piled in open cubby holes.

They were covered with soot, dirt and sawdust. There were nearly ten thousand-many of them quite lovely. With the assistance of Gail Guillet , an architectural historian , and several volunteers, I started to catalogue the collection, which, after some persuasion was released for storage in the Municipal Archives.

The real heroes of this story were the carpenters, William Jeblich , Joseph Vecchio and a man we knew only as "Spanish John" who kept the papers from being destroyed by hiding them in the attic of the carpenter shop. It was there that we eventually found a handwritten catalogue of the collection naming sixty-four men, beside the Roeblings, who had helped design the bridge.

The story of the building of the bridge can be read in books by David B. Steinman and Sara Ruth Watson, Bridges and Their Builders, Alan Trachtenberg's Brooklyn Bridge, Fact and Symbol and David McCullough's The Great Bridge.

The details are wonderful, sometimes terrible, but al ways exciting. However, the most moving words about the bridge were spoken in a lecture given by E .F. Farrington , Master Mechanic at Cooper Union on March 6 and March 13 in 1880.

At the conclusion of his speech Farrington said: " On a work of this description , running through so many years, many changes and casualties must occur .. .. and the impression of familiar faces glide down the vista of time, farther and farther away, like objects seen from the rear of a railway train ; and you feel that the time may not be far away when you too must drop off and be forgotten . Meanwhile, the roar and rumble of the busy world will resound from the bridge. The sun and the stars will shine upon it; the zephyr will toy with its stays and the storms will howl through its latticed sides; but through all and alike indifferent to all it will stand emotionless and firm , an enduring monument to engineering skill and daring, patient and laborious effort." .t SEA HISlDRY, SUMMER 1983

The

Brooklyn Bridge: An Appreciation

by Keith Miller

The building of a bridge link between New York and Brooklyn was an idea which had been discussed for some time- the first serious recorded proposal Smoke-blackened, a little more than halfway in its passage across the was put forth as early as 1800. The advandecades to the present, the great Bridge presides over surviving tages of a bridge connecting New York schooners at the Fulton Fish Market. This photograph, taken by Bob with Brooklyn were obvious: manufacMcGlinchey in 1939, shows the seaworn schooner Olivia Brown at rest turers and farmers could get their goods to under the Bridge, her scars from seafaring gloriously reflect in the river the New York market cheaper and faster, that has welcomed many such venturers home from the sea. Her story is told on page 37 of this issue by Bob's son Bob. commuters from Brooklyn would gain a reliable alternative to the East River ferries ; moreover it was felt that a bridge would turn Brooklyn into a boom town , causing property values to soar. ture of the past , massive and protective In 1867 John A. Roehling, a wealthy the busiest stretches of navigable water on meets the architecture of the future , light , New Jersey inventor, engineer and wire earth. The Roehling plan called for the rope manufacturer was named as chief largest suspension bridge in the world; aerial, open to sunlight, an architecture of engineer of the proposed project. Under one uninterrupted central span poised bevoids rather than solids." Mumford goes the terms of a state charter, a private comtween two huge stone towers would leap on to summarize the impact of the bridge, pany was to build and operate the "East from shore to shore over the masts of "Beyond any other aspect of New York , I River Bridge'!......nothing in the charter ships. The towers served an important think, the Brooklyn Bridge has been a stipulated what kind of bridge was to be function-they would bear the weight of source of joy and inspiration to the artist. built , nor was the approval of the cities of four cables which in turn would support All that the age had just cause for pride Brooklyn or New York required. Roehin-its skill in handling iron , its personal the roadway high above the river traffic. heroism in the face of dangerous indusling, as designer, had a completely free As designed, the structure was to be a harhand in the conceptualization of a strucmony of forces-the cables in tension , the trial processes, its willingness to attempt the untried and the impossible-came to a ture that was to become his masterpiece. towers in compression. head in the Brooklyn Bridge."

Roehling wrote in 1867, " The completed In the preliminary stages of surveying work, when constructed in accordance . for the bridge construction John Roehling with my designs, will not only be the was injured in an accident which was to Mr. Miller, a Canadian artist, offers his own vision of the Bridge on page 2 6. This result in his death less than a month later. greatest bridge in existence, but it will be the greatest engineering work of the contiThe full burden of the job of Chief appreciation is extracted from a larger historical essay available from Smith Engineer was left to his son Washington , Gallery, New York. nent , and of the age. Its most conspicuous features, the great towers, will serve as then in his early twenties . Washington Roehling had been involved in all aspects NarE: A Brooklyn Museum exhibition exlandmarks to the adjoining cities, and they will be entitled to be ranked as national of the preliminary planning, and it was felt ploring the historic, cultural and artistic that he was the only person who could meanings of the Bridge is open through monuments. As a great work of art and as June 19. The chronology, history, technola successful specimen of advanced bridge carry forward his father's projected plans.

Today the bridge remains as both a ogy and social impact of the Bridge is reengineering, this structure will forever corded, with brilliant illustrations in a testify to the energy, enterprise and wealth monument and a functional roadwayof that community which shall secure its more than 150 million people use the large format 180-page catalog, "The Great erection." bridge each year. Yet it is the power of the F.ast River Bridge," available for $18.50 The main challenge to the project was bridge as an architectural symbol which from the Museum Shop or $20. 50 postthe East River itself; a turbulent tidal still excites the imagination; Lewis Mum- paid, from The Brooklyn Museum Shop, 188 F.astem Parkway, Brooklyn NY 11238. strait which in the 19th century was one of ford wrote, " In this structure the architecSEA HISlDRY, SUMMER 1983

13

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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 wh ich he hammered out " The Blue Bells of Scotland " 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 .

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16

SEA HISTDRY, SUMMER 1983

A Seaman Remembers South Street 100 Years Ago

by Peter Copeland

With their extraordinary vitality and be-damned-to-you-sir style, these drawings are a living memory of the world the Bridge was born into. Read on, in the artist's own account, to see where his feeling for the people who thronged the streets and still-surviving old brick buildings comes from.

I was born down on the East Side, in St. Mark's Place, and grew up, in the 'thirties, over near the East River, in the old Gas House district. One of the heroes of my youth was a bearded old wino of the neighborhood named John Wilson. He was a Scotsman, and he fascinated us kids with wonderful tales about his years at sea as a steward in English ships. He told us about the old-time river pirates of Corlears Hook in the New York he visited as a boy.

I suppose it was John Wilson's influence that sent me to sea in 1944. I shipped mostly out of New York for the next twelve years, and used to dock up a lot at the United Fruit Company's docks in Rector Street when I was in the Fruit Company ships. It was aboard the Comayagua of the great white fleet that I got to know Whitey Hardwick, a banana boat stiff from Hamburg, who told me about an association of old South Street sailors that still existed in the late 'forties. These old birds spent all their time ashore south of Fourteenth Street, vowing never to go north of Union Square except to ship out.

These were some of the men who remembered the Street of Ships of the late nineteenth century. The last of these men that I have heard of was John McCarthy, a former oiler and electrician , who died while boarding at Meyers Hotel as a retired seaman in 1978 or '79.

In 1960 I quit the sea for a while and was trying to make it as a free lance commercial artist in New York. I rented studio space in a building that used to stand on Fulton Street, where the Titanic light (from the old Dog House) is now-a former seafood restaurant and sailors' mission . It was then that I got to know the Paris Bar, McCormack's and Carmines, when those places still had sawdust on the floor and catered to a clientele who worked at the Fulton Fish Market.

As a kid aboard the ships thirty-odd years ago I used to visit the old Union Bar and the Imperial , both on South Street. Though ships no longer docked up on South Street very often, these bars were still popular with seamen waiting for the boats of the Liberty Launch Service which ferried them out to ships anchored beyond Liberty Flats.

Above, an Old Time Sailors' Dance House of 1855. Some of the meaner Water Street dance houses were moldy cellars with whitewashed walls where the dancing was accompanied by a lone fiddler. The place shown here, larger than some, had a bar and tables in the front room and a dance hall in a larger room in the back. "In Water Street, under the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge," a chronicler of the time tells us, "every corner had its bagnio." The landlord, we are told, was a "brutal bully," and the girls ofthe house were adept at robbery and even murder. Among the more popular of these Water Street hell holes were Anne Sank's Dance House, Kit Burns ' Rat Pit and Dance House, and John Allen 's famed Dance House which boasted a string orchestra.

At right, Robert Sutton's " Darby and Joan" Tavern, 24 Roosevelt Street , 1845. Robert Sutton , an ex pugilist, part-time thiefand river pirate, kept this notorious waterfront dive in the 1840s. The National Police Gazette mentioned this tavern as one of the more infamous establishments in New York City in 1845. Some of the roughest ofthe dockside saloons and dance houses were located near the corner of Roosevelt and Water Streets, including Liverpool Mag 's and Louise Lang 's Dance House.

SEA HIS1DRY, SUMMER 1983

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"There is no more waterfront to speak of, except perhaps in Port Newark, or Bayonne, and the saloons and the people are not what they were."

Other famous seamen's bars I remember from that time were the Dutchman's, on Eleventh Avenue, Remo's and the Homestead , on West Twenty Third Street, all gone, alas .

Now living in the area of Washington, DC, I look back on over ten years' association with the Smithsonian Institution , a quiet sort of place in a rather dull town- and I think a lot about the old days.

Though I still occasionally go back to sea , when necessity requires it , and ship out of the Port of New York , it's not the way it used to be years ago. There is no more waterfront to speak of, except perhaps in Port Newark or Bayonne, and the saloons and the people are not what they were.

I began collecting books on the history of New York and reading these, plus the material published by the South Street Seaport, and recalling the stories of the old timers. I thought that telling the story of the sailor's New York would be a fascinating task . As you know, all the old waterfront haunts (even those of my day) are gone now, with one or two rare exceptions. I began digging up what old pictures I could find. Most of these were thumbnail sketches that appear in old books, and I thought I could do better recreating the places and peopling them with the waterfront characters of the time. The first such pictures I found to work from were of the 1840s so I started there. One of the pictures I'm working on now is the interior of a sailor's "flag house," on Cherry Street, in the 1890s. By that time the decline in American shipping was such that those of the old dance houses of Cherry Street and Water Street that still existed catered to foreign seamen, and each wore a flag outside the door, and carried a name such as Rotterdam House, Paradise Street, or the North Star, and welcomed (and robbed) the seafarers of Northern Europe.

I hope to go back in time with this series and show, perhaps , a Dutch sailor's tavern in 17th century New Amsterdam , with sailors in baggy pants and fur caps-and one, at least of New York under the Georges, peopled with mariners in tarred petticoat trousers and buckled shoes. Their lives are difficult to trace, but as Peter Stanford says they are at least as real as we are, and part of the story of Jack ashore. .i,

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The Franklin Cottage, 1880. This little fram e building still stands at the corner of l#iter and Dover streets, just sourh of the Brooklyn Bridge whose cable anchorage pier may be seen under construction on the left.

It has housed a number of waterfront saloons since it was built in the early 19th century. In 1855 it was known as, "The Hole in the Wall, " run by "One Arm Charley" Monell, a resort of river pirates, crimps, and thugs. The Hole in the Wall became known as "the most vicious resort in the City," and was closed down by the Fourth Ward Police after seven murders had been committed there in seven weeks. It was called the "Franklin Cottage" in 1880, and still served a seafaring clientele as well as the laborers who were building the Brooklyn Bridge. For many years thereafter it was McCormack's Irish Bar, a favorite spot ofthe fish ermen from the Fulton Street Market. Today, full of years and adventures, it is the Bridge Cafe, a respectable restaurant specializing in gourmet seafood.

19

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A South Street Sailors' Saloon , 1851. 1he barkeeper was probably owner and a tough customer in a pinch. The bar dealt in lager beer, porter and barrel whiskey. The bucket on the bar contained the cheapest drink in the house: whiskey laced with Cayenne pepper, kerosene, creosote, or all three together, which could be had for two cents a shot.

Rum jugs line the shelfbehind the bar above the whiskey barrels. Tables in the back room served the more well-heeled patrons who required privacy. The sailor in the foreground is a Man of War's man , sporting a fancy new straw hat.

SEA HISlORY, SUMMER 1983

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The Ronson Ship Made Into a Pier 240 Years Ago, Before South Street Existed

by Warren Riess and Sheli 0. Smith

"The ship has spent the last couple of hundred years here in New York," said Kent Barwick, Chairman of New York's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

"Here is the natural resting place for the ship, in the pre-eminent port city of the United States."

So the battle to retain for the city one of the hulls it had literally been built on was opened, after builders uncovered an 18th century ship on a site about to be developed for a 30-story office building.

Mariners Museum, in Norfolk, Virginia, generously offered to take on the priceless relic-we have no other 18th century merchantman in the world today. But then the developer, Howard Ronson, provided funds to study the whole ship, and to preserve the bow for New York.

Your editor is quoted as saying: "It's an organic part of our history, and it will mean most here....When this ship sailed, New York was just three-story buildings, and this ship was the biggest thing in town, she towered over those little buildings. She was our tie to civilization!'

The archaeologists' report rightly stresses the study value of the recovered bow structure. But the value in the thing itself was demonstrated when some 12,000 people stood in line for hours in the bitter February rain to catch a glimpse of the vessel in her muddy pit, where she had lain so long under the feet of so many generations of passerby, before the bow was carted away for conservation.

"We have been excavating a filled area on the East Side of Manhattan and may have found an old ship." It was Jim Ahlberg of Soil Systems on the telephone, late one night in mid-January 1982. "Can you come down and take a look tomorrow?"

We'd been alerted earlier by a call from Mike Roberts, who had suggested us to Soil Systems, a company that conducts contract archaeological excavations across the country. Warren was already packed for what we thought would be a quick two-day look at a few old ship timbers.

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A merchantman like the Ronson Ship-including her three lower-deck gunports aft-lies with her stern toward us, under sail in the broad, quiet waters of the East River about 1717. The River is considerably narrowed through landfill on both banks, today, and the speeded-up current makes it more turbulent. The Ronson Ship was probably extant when this view was drawn by William Burg is. She was laid ashore 30 years later a few blocks north of Wall Street, where her look-alike hangs in the wind. She became the endpiece ofa quay built out between Fletcher and John Streets, later covered over in landfill and lying a block and a half inland when discovered last spring in digging foundations for Mr. Ronson '.s new office tower on the site. Photo by Carl Forster, courtesy Landmarks Preservation Commission, NY City.

What did he expect to see? The partial remains of a nineteenth or twentieth century derelict like the many visible in New York Harbor's ship graveyard , a British colonial wreck , or maybe even a seventeenth century Dutch fluyt?

As Warren flew into New York his excitement grew. Jim's directions led him to an area about a block and a half from the East River-part of the three blocks filled

by New Yorkers in the eighteenth century to cover the intertidal mud flats and shallow water of the river front. Development of the quays allowed the colonists to bring deepwater ships alongside rather than load and unload them lying off in the stream. This also created valuable new waterfront property.

Eighteenth century New York was just developing as an important port for the American colonies. Smaller than Boston and Philadelphia, it quickly grew as the British preferred it as the American terminus for general government shipping.

Most of colonial New York's trade was coastal . Its overseas trade was mainly with the British Isles and the British West Indies, though some ships made trips to the Iberian countries for salt and their islands for wine. Most of the ships made shuttle voyages, back-and-forth to particular ports in England or the West Indies, but some of their cargoes were probably transshipped to make the familiar triangle trade. New York grew to be America's largest port in the nineteenth century as its merchants developed its hinterland trade, made good use of the new canal system, and developed an efficient waterfront.

The site was a small block surrounded by a 12ft painted plywood fence with large

block letters declaring, "175 Water Street." Construction of a 30-story office building was about to begin. A team of 50 archaeologists under the direction of Dr. Joan Geismar had almost finished excavation of the eighteenth century merchant houses and private homes on the block.

Dr. Geismar's team dug four "deep test" holes, 3 by IO by 12ft deep, around the perimeter of the site. In the last deep test the mud wall had fallen away to reveal the side of a ship.

Below, the Ronson Ship comes to light in a world inconceivably changed from that she sailed in. Immediately north ofher is the South Streez Seaport district , and beyond that the Brooklyn Bridge, a product of the genius and industry of the city the little ship helped to build. Photo, Robert Adams.

SEA HISTDRY, SUMMER 1983

Aft along Th e collapsed lower deck , a worker s1anding onfo11rfee1 offill s1ill left in Th e hold, looks at the i111emal scupper set in th e ship's side, which drain ed water imo the bilges.

As Warren was lowered into the deep test in the bucket of a backhoe he could see the exposed planks were firring, light planks used to sheath ships against worm damage. An examination of the ends of the frames and an exposed wale led him to the conclusion that he was looking at the outs ide of the midship section of an eighteenth century merchant ship.

Excited by the integrity of the exposed hull and the degree of preservation , Soil Systems agreed that we should excavate a 10 by !Oft test pit within the hull. But all archaeologists were to be out of the site by February 1, when the bulldozers were contracted to move in. Sheli left Maine two days later to join Warren and Soil Systems archaeologists Bert Herbert and George Myers, who had immediately started on the test pit. We wanted to discover the size of the vessel , the amount of preserved inboard structure, and the type of fill inside the hull. The day that Sheli arrived we found the lower deck of the ship, ten feet below the present street level.

Further excavation at that level revealed a gunport on the western side, a large hatch on the east side with a monkey post ladder protruding from it, and a possible companionway which had been planked over 200 years earlier. Taking measurements from the monkey post , assumed to be above the keelson , to the outside of the frames we calculated that the ship had a beam of25 feet and a length of72-125 feet.

We estimated that she was extant from well above the waterline to probably the keel , but her orientation indicated that she lay on an approximate north-south axis with her eastern side (starboard) and most of her southern end (stern) under Front SEA HIS1DRY, SUMMER 1983

Looking aft, sou1hward over The sile, wilh The ship's staunch bow coming al you. Three walls were left a1hwan the ship 10 keep The sides of The excava1ionjrom caving in upon Th e crew at Their work.

Disman1ling The rugged bow, (here, removing Th e s1arboard beak knee) under Abby Jaroslow's direction, for removal and conservation in Connecticut while arrangements are worked out for the ship's ultimate exhibition.

21

Street. We realized that this was the first major remains of a colonial merchant ship which had a chance to be thoroughly studied. But we only had a week before the archaeological deadline.

Deciding to ask for more time we, together with Soil Systems' chief archaeologist Pat Garrow, quickly constructed a proposal to excavate and study the entire port side and total bow of the ship. Robert Fox , architect for the building and representing the developer Howard Ronson , and the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission agreed to the plan. Throughout the investigation the Ronson and Landmarks people cooperated with us to provide help with logistics, politics, and encouragement.

Knowing that any delays would cost the developer thousands of dollars a day, we had developed a plan which would be thorough and quick . We shifted 35 seasoned professional archaeologists from the now completed land excavation over to the ship. In addition, we turned to our alma mater, Texas A&M University, for three nautical archaeology students and two fellow alumni, and we flew in four more people from New England. We split the crew into four units : an excavation team of 35 people, a wood recording team of four who measured, sketched, and photographed each piece as it was removed from the site, a hull recording team of four, and a support staff of three.

The plan also called for a six-day work week, two backhoes with hand picked operators, five pumps to keep the water level down, much other equipment , and the month of February.

The backhoe operators immediately began to clear away six to eight feet of asphalt, concrete, and rubble which lay over the ship. On February 1 the crew assembled and began to hand excavate the ship. It became obvious that the ship had been stripped of her masts and hardware.

From historical records we know that the area was filled between 1740 and 1760. It appears that the colonists pulled the stripped hull to its present position, spiked it to some pilings, and filled it to form a crib or bulkhead. It then supported fill between it and the shore and became the new eastern quay. Eventually the waterfront moved even farther east and the ship was covered with rubble, buildings, and lastly a parking lot eight feet above.

As yet we do not know her name, but research has begun and some possibilities are currently being investigated. To date she is called "the Ronson Ship," after standard archaeological policy of naming a site after its owner when no other name is known. She was lOOft between perpen22

'~ .. it

was agreed that the bow was such an important treasure it had to be saved." diculars, had a beam of 26ft and would have been registered in America at between 170 and 210 tons (in Britain, using a different tonnage formula they would have registered her higher). She would have been larger than the average New York merchantman , yet not as large as the great East India ships. Three southern latitude species of teredo worms were found in her firring , indicating that she had sailed at least once to southern seas.

The bow of the ship was so full as to be almost square and had a massive, fully intact beak protruding five feet in front. The foremast , now gone, was stepped far forward . Three posts (bitts) remained standing directly behind the foremast and a wonderfully intact , all wood capstan lay unstepped on the lower deck forward of the mast.

Just aft of the bow area a section of the upper deck also remained , collapsed onto the lower deck . The cargo hold was extensive-twelve feet high and at least sixty feet long with no indication of any cargo-separating bulkheads. Evidently after the ship was spiked in place the crews of other ships unloaded their excess ballast into her to fill the hold . Layers of beach stones, coral sand, volcanic black sand , and English flint composed most of the fill in the hull. The fill is being studied for further information.

The pump and rose box were still in place and internal lower deck scuppers were positioned just below three gun ports along the port side. The gun ports indicated that the ship had been armed with six 6-pounders on the lower deck (and probably more smaller guns above) . Armament was necessary in the eighteenth century to repel pirates and privateers in many waters. Tongue-and-grove paneling lined the cabin area in the stern.

The hull was framed and planked with white oak and all other structural timbers of the ship were also oak. The deck planking was pine and the trunnels were juniper and hickory. Hickory, native only to North America, might indicate American construction, but trunnels were easily transported to England along with many other American timber products.

The future of the ship's remains was a problem. The ship could not stay in place because the office building was to be supported by over 300 steel piles. We were carefully recording the dimensions and shapes of every timber so that the ship could be recreated on paper and studied

later. But future research innovations and the public would be deprived of an important piece of New York's history if it were destroyed , or removed and left to deteriorate to dust (which would happen in a few months if left untreated) . We could remove the hull, but conservation of that much wood would cost an estimated three million dollars. Building a controlled environment museum to house it in lower Manhattan and supporting continued maintenance would cost many times more.

After long consultations among the various parties and with outside consultants from all over the United States and Canada , including National Maritime Historical Society's Peter Stanford , it was agreed that the bow was such an important treasure it had to be saved. The rest of the ship, after careful study, was to be let go. Howard Ronson stepped forward and offered to underwrite the bow's conservation and reconstruction in order to keep this unique relic in New York .

During the grueling excavation through the New York winter the team braved freezing temperatures, mudslides, caveins, and picket lines to complete their work on time. By February 28 most of the ship was excavated and Mayor Koch led the way as 12 ,000 people viewed the site from a special balcony constructed by the Fuller Construction Company.

When the crew finished studying the ship, a team led by Abby Jaroslow took the bow and beak apart piece-by-piece in a 24-hour marathon to meet our deadline of March 4. We transported the carefully wrapped timbers to Soil System's conservation laboratory in Groton , Massachusetts and lowered it into specially constructed tanks. After cleaning, further study and recording, impregnation with polyethylene glycol , and surface freeze drying in Avco's space vehicle testing chamber, the bow will be reconstructed in a museum in New York. The exact location has not yet been decided.

Our present research on the ship includes a detailed analysis of the hull and the few artifacts found, and an investigation of the ship's history and its relationship to America's maritime history. We plan to publish the results in two to three years . .t

Warren Reiss and Sheli Smith reside in Bristol, Me., and are graduates of the nautical archaeology graduate program at Texas A&M University. Both worked on the Defence project and will be codirecting the site of what might be a 17th century Basque whaler in Newfoundland.

SEA HIS1DRY, SUMMER 1983

MARINE ART NEWS William Bliss Baker, whose memorable painting of a dreaming , seagirt city appears on page 24, is little known. Barbara Millstein of the Brooklyn Museum , who called our attention to his work, says only a few of his works survive. She would like to know more of this strong, delicate painter, as would we.

Dorothy Brewington's Dictionary of Marine Artists, forty years in preparation , contains brief, accurate entries on 3,074 American, European and Oriental artists, including elusive semi-professional ship portraitists of the 18th and 19th centuries.

With her husband Marion (who died in 1974), Dorothy Brewington has worked to the great benefit of us all in charting the world of marine art , first at the Peabody and later at Mystic Seaport Museum . Her Marine Paintings and Drawings in Mystic Seaport Museum was published in 1982.

The 453-page Dictionary, co-published

by Mystic and Peabody, can be had for $35 from Peabody Museum of Salem, East India Square, Salem MA 01970.

MARINE ART by PAUL McGEHEE

"NANTUCKET", a limited-edition of 950 prints by the noted marine artist PAUL McGEHEE. Available signed and numbered for $100, or with artist's remarque for $150. Please include $5 shipping. Depicted is the entrance to the famous whaling port's harbor in 1908. The steamer "Nantucket", built in 1886, is shown passing the Brant Point lighthouse, erected in 1901 and still standing . A Paul McGehee print is not only a piece of fine art, but a historically accurate window to the past.

Send $1 for

Exhibits of Special Interest The American Society of Marine Artists' Seventh Annual Exhibition will be again at Newman & Saunders Galleries in Philadelphia, May 21-June 25 .... From July 17 through September 12 Kirsten Gallery in Seattle will mount their Ninth Annual Northwest Marine Art Exhibition, always a strong and worthwhile showing. This will be followed in October by a one-man show of the West Coast's Steve Mayo, and in November, a one-man show by Mark Myers, a San Franciscan who lives in happy exile in Cornwall, England .... Back East, Mystic Maritime Gallery (of Mystic Seaport Museum Stores) offers, May 8-June 19, 1983 Mystic International, a juried marine art show including contributions from abroad , catalog $7; June 25-September 18, "Trading Under Sail;' New England merchant and fisheries shipping in art and models.

Watercolors and prints by the famous yacht portraitist Frederic S. Cozzens (1846-1928) will be on exhibit at Mystic Seaport Museum's R.J. Schaefer Gallery, May 15-0ctober 10. With 150 items, this will be the largest exhibition of Cozzens's work ever mounted. '1>

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SEA HISTDRY, SUMMER 1983

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The Brooklyn Bridge: An appreciation

KEITH MILLER Smith Gallery Poster available $25.00

1045 .\ 1adison Avenue at 79'th Street, New York 10021 Mon.-Sat. 11 :00 am-6:00 pm (212) 744-6171

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The Bridge as a serenely aspiring expression of the brooding city is caught very early on a summer morning in the year of its completion, 1883, by the young painter William Bliss Baker. He died three years after this scene was painted, at age 27. This lovely but realistic study, full of affection for young fishermen, interest in the incoming bark with a puffing tug alongside, and a kind of holy awe in the awakening city, home of so many dreams and daily agonies, shows the Bridge as an unfinished thought still rising as it leaves the picture-a thought seeming to lead to immense promise in the fature. From a private collection, courtesy The Brooklyn Museum.

The Brooklyn Bridge: Spanning Time & Tide, 1883-1983

by Peter Stanford Detective Alfred Young will be in the Brooklyn Bridge Parade May 24, dressed in bobby's helmet and other police accoutrements of a century ago-the wisecracking, New York Mayor Koch will be there, the Borough Presidents, Reformers and Regulars , and Powers and Principalities assembled. The papers noted the variety of "interests" enrolled in the first march across the Bridge, and such interests live on .. . But it is the people's bridge.

It was mine when I was a child, I think, or I perhaps was its. I looked up to it for reassurance, passing by or glimpsing it against the skyline of jumbled Brooklyn Heights rooftops, and found in it some 24

sense of continuity (a word I did not_ know) , and a very strong feeling that there had been giants in the land before my time. I lay on my belly studying engravings of the old ships that had at one time apparently spread fantastically billowing sails beneath its eminence. I walked its boardwalk triumphant over the toy tugs and stabbing masts of steamers, the city like a thing built out of a child's wooden blocks ...only I knew it wasn't. The great thing, the reassuring and challenging thing was that it was all real.

That reality is seen differently by different people. When I think of the Bridge I usually think first of its tremendous stone block presence, its rough, time-black-

ened surface (it's since been cleaned) running with the cold winter rain , while I walk down Dover Street in its lee, flanked by buildings that still stand today, through efforts Norma and I and friends had something to do with . (Essentially in those efforts I was saving a dream landscape of my childhood: I don't know what the hell my generous-minded friends were doing!)

But whatever it is we see in the Bridge, it is real, it is there. Here is that reality, then , seen and lovingly recorded by people whose brushes speak truer than these words. Perhaps they will start others dreaming of the Bridge, or each of his own Brooklyn Bridge in his own corner of the dream forest that is hi s life!

SEA HIS1DRY, SUMMER 1983

...''there had been giants in the land before my time."

The distinguished Brooklyn Heights artist Carol Hamann looks at the Bridge, beyond the National Society's Fulton Ferry Landing Museum and finds both good. Ms. Hamann's radiant feeling for the Bridge stems from a virtually daily communion with it, in all weathers, over the years.

"It is always familiar," she has said, "and always new."

"1883-The Brooklyn Bridge Upon Its Centennial-1983," by Charles Raskob Robinson. The Bridge soars over river traffic as a serene but ever challenging presence in this delightful study by a distinguished contemporary marine artist.

Charles Robinson, a New York banker who serves as Hon. Treasurer ofthe American Society of Marine Artists, is a haunter of &st River purlieus and longtime aficionado of the Bridge. Here he has shown it in May sunlight, observing the very season and hour of its opening in a world quite different from the world around it now. The topsail schooner Lindo, slipping downstream to put in at South Street Seaport, is at home beneath that upspringing roadway and those solemn arches, as are the vessels oftoday's vintage passing downstream on the left.

A signed, limited edition print (image size 22 0 "x 15 ")may be purchased by mail from the National Society for $90-halfthis sum being a tax deductible contribution to the Society thanks to the generosity of the artist. Prints also available at the National Society's Fulton Ferry Landing Museum, and aboard the ship Wavertree at South Street Seaport Museum.

SEA HIS1DRY, SUMMER 1983

25

'/tnd the bridge continues to hold sway over the imagination," says Keith Miller, whose felicitous brief history of it is on page 13. '/tlthough from a distance dwarfed by the Manhattan office towers which rise behind it, the Brooklyn Bridge still exerts a strong presence on those who approach the base ofeither ofits towers or who cross it on foot."

Here, the young Canadian artist, who has haunted the bridge for years, on frequent visits to New York, watches the schooner Pioneer drift up against the span, her home port of South Street Seaport lying just over her bowsprit end.

The great way to see the Bridge is of a morning, as the city awakens to its clamorous round and the mist of the day 's dawning clears away from the river's quiet-running surface. Here, with consummate artistry, William Muller captures that moment. A turn-of-the-century tug comes churning upriver, its gold leaf trim (yes, gold leaf) a-glitter in the sunlight breaking through. She will compete fiercely for her tows this day, as she does every day of the week. Her master (who may well own her or share in her ownership) rides her like a war steed in a medieval tournament. No-one will unseat him-and who would be elsewhere on such a morning? likely he'll give a friendly toot to the yachtsmen getting out of his way, bobbing in the river current in their sloop-though in the ordinary way he considers them a fearful nuisance. NOTE: This painting is shown in color on our cover. Other SH covers by Mr. Miller are found on SHJO and 20.

__..___ - __

---.. ______ .._____ - --....---.. ___

-- -- -- ------~

J

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SEA HIS1DRY, SUMMER 1983

'itnyone who has ever approached this bridge on even a moderate-sized masted yacht knows the eerie sensation ofimminent collision," remarks John Noble, artist ofthe Port of New York-an artist so imbued in its changing experience through time that he has been given the National Society's James Monroe Award for his contribution to its history. He further notes: "Of all the East River bridges the Brooklyn worried sailing vessel men the most-it being anywhere from 4 to 7feet lower than the others. It is now listed as having a 127 foot clearance, center span, at mean high water (I seem to remember a higher figure 40 years ago!). Some vessels could not negotiate it especially when light [unloaded] without housing their topmasts, which was an operation not looked upon favorably with rotten doublings. Tugs with schooners were careful to pass under the dead center ofthe span for this bridge has whacked offmany a masthead ball.

How small and decorative they appear above the trucks! But they hit the deck the size of a man's head." John Noble rode the McCarran Tugs towing many schooners in the harbor-in exchange, usually.for helping out at the pumps in use each hour to keep the sea-worn, leaky hulls afloat. Of this particular archetypically memorable lithograph (which once seen, you will.find, imprints itself on the mind), Noble writes: "The year is about 1939-an ancient leaking four-masted schooner, its back bent (hogged), its crew of aging Finns and Norwegians culled by Black Charlie (New York's last shipping master for sail) but the night before from the sad warrens the Bowery and South Street then maintained for solitary men, tows past the towers of Manhattan towards sea and uncertainty."

SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1983

Rare, prized and fabled- then and now... smooth as the kiss of spindrift, dangerous as the broadsides of England's walls of oak, this is the original "Nelson's Blood" - the British Tar's splendid 8-bells answer to Napoleon's brandy. At the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, the daily FUSSER'S RUM ration was Yi pint per man - and oftimes before battle (and always after victory), the order was given to "Splice the Main

Brace!" -which meant a double issue for all on board. From before Trafalgar to the victory toast at the Falklands, the Royal Navy's rum has been the most famous of its traditions. Excellent mixed- but first, try sipping it their way: "neat" - or undiluted. This superb rum is not a drink; it is an Experience. Ask for it. Taste it-you're tasting history- and the world's finest rum.

In the shadow of the Bridge:

''A Restoration of Spirit''

by Peter Stanford

"The foremast crowd and afterguard ofa hardcase, limejuice Cape Horner," is how the seaman-artist Os Brett described this picture. Captain William J. Masson wears a golfing cap, standing a little apart from the First Mate, Mr. Connors, who in turn is standing, suitably attired in officer's cap, at the foot ofthe poop lmlder next to George Spiers. Spiers is one of two people we knew who sailed in the ship, and his account ofa Cape Horn voyage in her, 1907-8, is published in The Wavertree: An Ocean Wanderer.

In August 1966 that invaluable British journal The Mariner's Mirror carried a brief notice inquiring of the world at large-with unworldly innocence-whether a "survivor of the age of sail" might be found to be brought into the East River for public exhibition. Earlier that year, while Norma Stanford was writing that notice, Karl Kortum had found the ship. (See his "The Finding of Uiivertree," SH20: 18-23, a classic document in the annals of historic ships.)

And two years later, in 1968 Jakob Isbrandtsen bought her for the fledgling South Street Seaport Museum.

After adventure and misadventure the ship came into New York, in the summer of 1970, three quarters of a century after her last visit in 1895. The effort to bring her in from halfway round the world and back across time's horizon helped steel the young South Street Seaport Museum to its seemingly impossible tasks, halting the tide of downtown development to establish "a museum that is a whole neighborhood" on some of the world's most expensive real estate. The mystique of the unseen ship, the resolve against all odds to bring her in , helped the small band of the faithful resist many rude shocks and get on with their monumental task.

The task of restoring the vessel was another matter. A beginning was made, under the guidance of Karl Kortum , Chief SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1983

"Today, we are the ship's company." Here volunteers working on the ship cluster around Jakob /sbrandtsen (holding the "Fish Oil is for Lovers "jersey) on his sixtieth birthday last year-a day like any other in the epic task of restoring the 2 ,000-tonner Jo the pristine beauty ofher salad days. "Dirty work, long hours, no pay," is the motto under which these willing souls are recruited, and they have set a style and pace of work worthy of the men who trod these decks before their time-"a restoration of spirit," indeed.

Curator of the National Maritime Museum, San Francisco, and George Campbell, architect of the Cutty Sark restoration in England. George and your writer are of opinion , incidentally, that Hercules Linton, designer of the delicate racehorse Cutty Sark , was also designer of the workhorse Wavertree , whose sweeping sheer, said George Spiers, made her "the driest ship I ever sailed in'!.._and one of the handsomest of her breed .

But with other pressures on the Museum's budget, restoration work languished, and finally ground to a halt. The National Society's Ship Trust then prevailed upon Jakob Isbrandtsen and Allen S. Rupley of W. R. Grace & Co. to serve as co-chairmen of the Ship Trust Committee which has brought new purpose and new life to the project. Everything possible (and some things at first not thought possible) is done by volunteers, using donated material in most cases. A reporter for the New York Times, visiting the ship as Jakob led the work one clamorous, sweaty, greasy Saturday afternoon, called the entire undertaking "a restoration of spirit."

And Prince Philip, President of England's Maritime Trust, who had visited the ship in the fall of 1980, sent the message reproduced below to salute the vessel on the occasion of her opening to the public, with restoration incomplete but a very complete

and spirited crew on hand to explain the challenges and intricacies of the great work in which they are engaged .

A Message from HRH The Duke of F,dinburgh on the Opening of the Uiivenree, June 4, 1983:

For thousands of years seamen had to re-

1y on the wind to move their ships across the oceans. Then, quite suddenly, everything changed with the development of mehanical propulsion. Within 100 years the great wind driven ships had disappeared from the seas and very nearly disappeared altogether. Barely a dozen of these ships have been preserved and carefully restored, in many cases with encouragement and help from the World Ship Trust, so that the present and future generations can get some idea of the skills and techniques perfected by shipbuilders and seamen in the age of sail.

The National Maritime Historical Society has done a wonderful job in restoring Wavertree for the instruction and pleasure of the public. Her presence at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York will help to remind all who see her of the great debt the city owes to her and her kind and to the seamen who manned her.

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GREAT BRITAIN &EUROPE Mariners International 's Norices reports the Danish 89ft 3-masted foreyard schooner Activ ofNyborg lost with all eight hands in hurricane force winds 22 miles NW ofTexel, Holland , on February I. She had sailed from Ramsgate for Denmark on January 31 and got caught by the storm which ravaged the British coasts and killed six people ashore, also inflicting heavy damage in Holland . At 12: 10 GMT Acrivsent a radio call saying she was making water, requesting tug assistance and giving her position as lat. SO 03N , long. 04 18E. Thirty five minutes later she radioed SOS, adding that she had a 40 degree list and needed immediate assistance. The Dutch frigate Evensen sped to the rescue but radioed at 13:30 that Acriv had sunk and that an empty semi-inflated liferaft had been spotted. Luckily there were no trainees on board . She was owned by the Twind Schools, a teacher cooperative engaged in social work , taking young offenders and hard cases on long rehabilitation cruises. Their other sailing vessels include the 3-masted trysail schooner Creole, the brigantine Lillebjorn, the 3-masted topgallant schooner Karene Srar and the 3-masted schooner Den Srore Bjorn. Acriv, built at Marstal, Denmark , in 192S, was originally engaged in the Newfoundland trade, carrying salt cod to Spain and salt back to Newfoundland. She was rebuilt and rerigged in 1981. Everything was new from the waterline up. MI, S8 Woodville Road , New Barnet, Herts ENS SEG. The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company's last passenger-only steamer, Manxman, made her last passenger run on September 4, 1982. Built

by Cammell Laird in 19SS, in the style of 1920s and 30s steamers, she was in many ways an anachronism from her start. Because of this style Manxman has been used in many films including " Chariots of Fire." Attempts are being made to find her a home in a museum in order to prevent her being scrapped.

Our correspondent Barry Beadle reports from the Humber that the paddle wheeler Wingfield Castle, last of three coal-fired Humber ferries , will become a pub restaurant in a Hull marina. " What a pity one of them couldn't have been kept in steam ," notes Barry.

"The Waverly is not scheduled to come this year which means 1983 is the first year since 1814 that not one paddle driven vessel has operated in these waters." Also in Hull , the sailing trawler Wm McCann, launched there in 1884, has had her mainmast re-stepped in the continuing restoration she's undergone since Dr. Henry Irving brought her back from the Faroe Islands in 1980. Beadle, 39 Newland Avenue, Humber HUS 3BE.

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Another important ship awaiting disposition in the Faroes is the Polar exploration ship Hvitebjom ("Polar Bear") ex-Godthaab. Built 1897-8, the 115ft barkentine-rigged steamer still has her lower masts stepped and has been in use in the fisheries and coastal trading-

reports World Ship Trust trustee Erik Abranson, head of Mariners International.

The Blisworth Tunnel, the longest canal tun nel in England and one of the oldest and most important, is undergoing repairs. Built in 1797, the tunnel is near Stoke Bruerne on the main line of the Grand Union canal between London and the Midlands. Repairs will replace the failed brick lining in the central part of the tunnel with a precast concert segmental lining installed behind a shield of steel, and will take almost two years to complete.

UNITED STATES &CANADA EAST COAST The Newfoundland & Labrador Sailing Association invites all sailors to come north this summer to help celebrate Newfoundland's 400th birthday as a British political entity, honoring Sir Humphrey Gilbert's claiming of Newfoundland for Queen Elizabeth I on August S, 1S83. Gilbert Cruise, c/o Baird, PO Box 638, St. John's, Newfoundland AIC SK8.

The 94ft schooner Heritage, newest member of the Maine windjammer fleet , was launched April 16, at the North End shipyard in Rock.land ME. Designed by Doug Lee on the lines of a traditional coasting schooner, Heritage was built over the past four winters by Doug with the help of John Foss and others.

Doug and Linda Lee will sail the schooner starting June 12 , carrying 33 passengers with a crew of S. Accommodations include one rare feature: a hot water shower. The Isaac Evans, the Lees' first schooner, will sail this summer under Capt. Ed Glaser.

The Maine Maritime Museum will break ground this spring on the L.L. Bean Lobstering Building which will contain exhibits tracing the history of the lobstering industry in Maine-a welcome addition to the museum's other fine exhibits on the Maine fishing industries. At the Museum's Percy & Small Shipyard , a small crew led by Capt. John Neugent worked last winter on the restoration of the schooner Bowdoin. Framing and horn timber were replaced , planking and ceiling renewed.

Decking on the well deck has been completed.

Lack of funding makes it unlikely that Bowdoin will be relaunched this summer. Maine Maritime Museum , 963 Washington Street , Bath ME 04S30.

The MIT Museum is presenting several exhibits this summer of interest to Sea History readers. "William A. Baker '34: A Tribute;' a memorial exhibition featuring Baker's designs and plans of historic vessels, along with watercolors, drawings, etchings and models, will open through September at the Hart Nautical Galleries, SS Massachusetts Ave. , Bldg. S, Room 126, Cambridge MA .

Another exhibit, "Engineering Wizard of Bristol: Nathaniel G. Herreshofr' is open at the Com1pton Gallery, 77 Massachusetts Ave.

SEA HIS10RY, SUMMER 1983

MUSEUM NEWS Models, drawings , artifacts of the legendary naval architect and yacht designer will illustrate his 79-year career and the more than 800 vessels he designed. The exhibit includes a Herreshoff dingy and one of his steam engines, to be on display until Sept. 24.

Through August , at the MIT Museum , 265 Massachusetts Ave. is another exhibit related to naval architecture, "George Owen, Yacht Designer;â&#x20AC;˘ which includes drawings, halfmodels and photographs of sailing vessels by this master ship builder and designer. All exhibits open 9-5 weekdays, free.

"Forgotten Hero: Isaac Hull, Captain of Old Ironsides," a remarkable collection of artifacts belonging to Captain Hull, recalls the days when he was the toast of the nation after his USS Constitution defeated HMS Guerriere in ship-to-ship combat in the War of 1812.

Shown above is a silver urn presented to the captain by the City of Philadelphia-one of a considerable collection now on exhibition at the USS Constitution Museum , PO Box 1812, Boston MA 02129.

Capt. Bowker of the Mystic Seaport training schooner Brilliant has announced formation of a Brilliant alumni and friends association to help assure Brilliant's future as a training vessel. Anyone interested in becoming a Brilliant "Shipmate" may write to Capt. Bowker.

Joining Brilliant this year is the 52ft schooner Rachel B. Jackson , which will be sailing from the Seaport with adults, in a program modeled after the Brilliant's program started several years ago. The Jackson, built in 1982 by B. Frost and G. Emery in Freeport ME will carry 6 passengers on weekly training cruises in June, September, and October. Mystic Seaport Museum , Inc., Mystic CT 06355.

An elaborately carved 8 Y2 ft-tall wooden bow shield from the turn-of-the-century armored cruiser USS New York has been acquired by New York's Snug Harbor Cultural Center on permanent loan from the US Navy. The massive gilded sculpture serves as a fitting centerpiece in the Main Hall of the seven-year old cultural center. The Main Hall , a Greek-Revival Landmark building is the oldest in the former Sailor's Snug Harbor complex on Staten Island . The 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first retired seamen there is being celebrated this year. Center, 914 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island NY 10301.

SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1983

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SHIP NOTES

Sailing Adventures aboard the SCHOONER HARVEY GAMAGE -a windjammer in true "down East" tradition. U.S. Coast Guard inspected 95' o.a. in length

COLLEGE STUDENTS SEA QUARTER Plan a college semester aboard the SCHOONER HARVEY GAMAGE. Credits in arts and science you earn from Northeastern University, Marine Studies Department, may be transferred. Curriculum includes visits to many educational and historical places from Maine to the Virgin Islands.

For curriculum, schedule and cost, write or phone-

Summer months the ship cruises the Maine coast out of Rockland ... winter months in the Virgin Islands from Charlotte Amalie.

Enjoy a week under sail .. . make new friends ... relish hearty meals ... return relaxed , filled with happy memories. Write or phone-

DIRIGO CRUISES Dept. SH, 39 Waterside Lane Clinton, Conn. 06413 Tel: 203-669-7068

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exists as the nation's first professional business devoted to the propagation , documentation and care of museum quality ship models. " MUSEUM QUALITY"

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Room 2 I Mystic Seaport Museum Stores, Inc. I Mystic, CT 06355

32

The USS Williamsburg, former presidental yacht, is being converted into a floating restaurant to be located on the Georgetown , Washington DC waterfront this summer. She was built in 1930 as the Aras and was under private ownership until World War II when she served on North Atlantic Ice Patrol and in antisub patrol. President Truman made her a presidential yacht after the war, then President Eisenhower disposed of her and the National Science Foundation used her on oceanographic missions in the South Pacific and Indian oceans. She was bought by her present owners with the help of a $250,000 grant from the National Trust for Histori c Preservation's Endangered Properties Fund, one of the first uses of that fund.

WEST COAST The Nautical Heritage Museum of Dana Point Ca.will lay the keel of the 92ft replica Californian in May at Spanish Landing, San Diego.

Designed by Melbourne Smith as a replica of a Revenue Cutter similar to the topsail schooner Lawren ce, first Revenue Cutter to sail in West Coast waters, she's scheduled to be completed in time for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic fes tivities. The building site, Spanish Landing, is the spot where Europeans first set foot on Califorian soil. Visitors are welcome at the site to view the ship under construction. The Nautical Heritage Museum has reached $600,000 of its $2 .5 million goal to cover design , building, and a maintenance endowment. When completed , the Californian will train sea cadets under sail, and her sponsors hope to see her visit the East Coast in 1986. Museum , 24532 Del Prado, Dana Point CA 92629.

The Maritime Humanities Center and The Golden Gate National Recreation Area are planning " Discovery and change: The California Gold Rush , 1848-1858", a multi disciplinary conference exploring the impact of the Gold Rush on western society, November 19-20. Anyone interested in giving a paper, of no more than 20 minutes, should submit a proposal by June 1: Gold Rush Conference, Fort Mason , Building 201 , San Francisco CA 94123.

The Ship Press Chappel is now offering memberships to interested people outside the San Francisco area. The Chappel is a group of printers who meet quarterly at the National Maritime Museum on the ship Balclutha to print a keepsake related to maritime history.

The Chappel's first keepsake was printed aboard the ship by former President Gerald R. Ford on January 19, 1980. It was a broadside describing the history of the Balclutha. All keepsakes are limited edition printings and are quickly becoming collectors items. The new Associate Members will receive one each of the four keepsakes printed each year. Membership cqsts a donation of $50. The Ship Press Chappel , Nationai Maritime Museum, Foot of Polk Street, San Francisco CA 94109.

The Canadian Cadet Movement has started construction on a large wooden bark to be named Pacific Petrel and used in Sea Cadet sail

SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1983

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training. The vessel , being built in British Columbia , was designed by Nova Scotian architect James D. Rosborough. The keel has been laid and most of the timber for the bark has been cut. Fund raising for the project is on going and the plans call for the vessel to be completed by the summer of 1985. When rigged Pacific Petrel will carry 8,440 square feet of sail as a jackass bark. She will be 170ft overall, 130ft LBP, 116ft LWL, 27ft B, and 12.5ft D.

LAKES & RIVERS The Great International Steamboat Flotilla is scheduled for the Thousand Island area this July 1-5. Thirty to forty steam launches will gather to steam to various ports on both sides of the St. Lawrence. The 1983 flotilla wi ll be a recreation of a popular event seen annually in the region at the turn of the century. The flotilla wi ll congregate at Kingston , Ontario and parade past the waterfront before steaming on to other ports, including Clayton , New York , to join there in the International Relay Race. T. Michell , Box 428, Collins Landing, Alexandria Bay NY 13607.

J. P. Connor & Co. Agents for Thomas Mercer, Ltd.

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The March 1983 National Geographic, presents stunning underwater photographs of two War of 1812 schooners, USS Scourge and USS Hamilton, on the bottom of Lake Ontario. A Canadian team , sponsored by the Royal Ontario Museum , located the vessels after searching since 1973. Photographs taken by remote control show the schooners sitting on their keels intact , complete with their figureheads , masts, guns, and cutlasses still in place along the bulkheads. The Scourge, exCanadian warship lord Nelson , and Hamilton , ex- American merchantman Diana , sank in a sudden squall at night , August 8, 1813. Among the eight survivors from each ship was one, Ned Myers, whose account of the sinking was published by James Fenimore Cooper. It was this account that started Project Director Daniel A. Nelson and his team on the search for the two schooners. The City of Hamilton , Ontario, has done much to support the project to date and will probably become the home site for the schooners when, and if, they are raised .

Queen . Other ships participating in the parade include: Cuz I-a catamaran diving support vessel and Natchez-a sternwheel paddle steamboat. Tall Ships that are possible participants include: Mircea-Romanian sail training ship, Nippon Maru-Japanese sail training ship, Cuauhtemoc-Mexican training ship, and Simon Bolivar-Venezuela's tra ining ship.

Op Ship Ltd. , 919 Third Avenue, New York NY 10022.

Project Lakewell was started in 1980 by a small group of teachers in the Holland , Michigan area to preserve the her itage and enviro nment of Lake Michigan. Patterned after the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and its effo rts to call attention to the Hudson River, the Project will begin construction in June of a replica of the Challenge, a Great Lakes lumber

schooner. The original Challenge was built in 1852 in Manitowoc. The replica will be built from the original plans and co nstruction notes, and when completed will ca rry on a Clearwater-type program , sail ing to towns along the Lake Michigan shore.

AUSTRALIA Plans are go ing ahead to restore the bark James Craig in Sydney. Organizers are hoping to have the Craig included as an official project of the Australian Bicentennial in 1988. The hull will be restored using pontoon dock in Sydney harbor. Project cost is estimated at $3.5 million over the next 5 years. An ex perienced project director and ski lled ship restorer will be needed in the near future. The steamer Waratah has been laid up from her previous sailing duties for major bo il er repairs. The steam launch Lady Hopetoun is still steaming. w

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The Illinois-Michigan Canal is undergoing restoration work funded by the Illinois Department of Conservation and a Natio nal Park Service Maritime Grant. Completed in 1848, the canal linked the Mississippi River system with the Great Lakes and made it possible to ship goods cheaply between New York and New Orleans. Because of its historic importance to the area Congress is considering bills that would designate the canal and its environs a 90-mile National Heritage Corridor, the first in the nation . The present work will restore Lock 14 near the terminus at LaSalle to historically accurate working order. Upper Illinois Valley Assoc iation 53 West Jackson Boulevard , Room 850, Chicago IL 60604.

Op Sail '84 is being planned as a major event of the Louisiana World Exposition, New Orleans. A Parade of ships wi ll be held on May 27, 1984, led by the Delta Queen and Mississippi 34

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These sophisticated ships are being delivered to the Navy on time and under budget by our Los Angeles and Seattle Divisions, saving millions of taxpayer dollars.

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We have a 3-coast capability, with facilities in Brooklyn, Galveston, Houston, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle.

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acquisition of an entire shipyard in San Francisco, with a 65,000 displacement ton capacity dry dock, and are currently installing a syncrolift system at our Los Angeles shipyard.

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Ship Wavenree off Cape Horn painted by Oswald L. Brett

Do Something for the Ship!

The full-rigged sailing ship Wavertree is earning her living the hard way in Os Brett's painting-she's batting to windward in a rising gale, to get round Cape Horn. A tough fight! But we knew a couple of the people who sailed in this old Cape Horner, and they were men who sang at their work.

Today this ship is a living memorial to such men and the ships they served with such devotion-the tall ships that crossed wide oceans, leaning on the wind, and came to New York to build a city from the sea.

We are proud to help in the restoration of the ship at New York's South Street Seaport Museum . The

records don't show whether our tugs handled the Wavertree when she left New York under sail in 1895, but we had been in business in the harbor for over a generation at that time. Since then our business has become worldwide. And we know that our industry, the shipping industry, has a role of deep importance to play in keeping alive the proud traditions, the spirit of loyalty, cooperation and enterprise-the things that are needed to conceive great voyages, and to make them.

Do something for the ship! For the ship and her people did everything for us .

NOTE: Those who contribute $100 or more to the Ship Trust to support the restoration of the Wa vertree will receive a fine print (image size 22"x 32 Yi') o f Os Brett's painting, signed by the arti st. Please send your check, name and address to SHIP TRUST, c/ o National Maritime Hi storical Society, 15 State St. , New York NY 10004.

McAllister Brothers, Inc. Towing and Transportation , 17 Battery Place, New York, N.Y. 10004. (212) 269-3200.

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ALLEN S. RUPLEY He went to work as a 15-year old in the mailroom of W.R. Grace & Co. in 1917, worked his way up to take the helm as chairman of the vastly transformed company in 1966-71, and served as head of its foundation from 1961 onward. On February 26 this year he departed this life, leaving his wife Juliette and son Professor John A. Rupley of the University of Arizona.

Lacking a college education, he put himself through night school and intensive reading at the New York Public Library. By 1940 he had become manager of W.R . Grace's West Coast and Central' American operations headquartered in San Francisco. In 1947 he returned to New York and was named treasurer in 1948-in time to shepherd through the far-reaching changes inaugurated by J. Peter Grace, which changed the old shipping and trading firm into a worldwide industrial giant. While he was chairman, 1966-71, he picked up an interest in the South Street Seaport Museum's historic square-rigger Wavertree. Your editor remembers his searching style in reviewing our plans and progress with the ship-he had scant patience with fakery or shoddy work . He

SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1983

"He embodied old Mayor W.R. Grace's adjuration to take 'joy in the work."

Allen Rupley, at his work-laden desk in the Grace Building in New York, signs an appeal for the Wavertree proj ect, with co-chairman Jakob lsbrandtsen (back to camera) in 1980.

Photo: Karl Kortum.

also told me, over a decade later, on becoming co-chairman of the Wavertree campaign, that he admired the fight people had put up to save the ship, and that he felt such effort deserved to win . " Rup" as he was widely known in shipping and banking circles, was universally admired and could inspire fear and

trembling when he encountered pretence or deceptive dealings in any form . With memorable vigor he embodied old Mayor W.R. Grace's adjuration to take "joy in the work ." His essential kindliness and sympathy with the underdog, or persons working hard in any conditions to achieve things they believe in, were known to his friends , and enriched many lives which touched his.

Once I saw him put up with shoddy work ... just once. It was a rainy night when we presented him with the Ship Trust Award aboard the lightship Ambrose at South Street in 1980. He stood patiently while some rather lengthy, I fear, remarks were made (long-windedness was another of his abominations) . Finally, he plucked me by the sleeve and said quietly: "Could we move this thing along, so I don't have to go on standing under this particular leak in the deck?" God bless you , Rup, may you sail on where none but good work meets your eye, and all hands take joy in it.

PS

37

THE OLIVIA BROWN:

The Story Behind the Photograph on Page 13

by Robert L. McGlinchey

The Gloucester fishing vessel Olivia Brown frequented the port of New York in the 1930s and early 1940s. Captain Frank Brown marketed catches of scup, fluke and sea bass at the Flagg Fish Company near the Fulton Fish Market in Manhattan. There, in 1939, McGLinchey photographed her with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. This very old, preserved-Like-yesterday composition on film is the start of a story in itself Some forty-three years Later his son set to work to uncover the story ofthe Olivia Brown, to tell it to his father and anyone else who might be interested....

Her keel was laid on March 9, 1927 at the John F. James Shipyard in Essex , Massachusetts. On that day the 84-foot hull of a durable wooden schooner began to take shape. Her durability, especially for bad weather, was later to be proven in a terrifying hurricane at sea in 1940.

She was launched on August 27, 1927 at 10:00 AM, and named for Captain Frank Brown's wife Olivia, who performed the christening. Captain Brown's oldest son Louis, then seven years old , remembers anxiously waiting until the Essex River reached high tide for the launch . He went on to serve as crew member aboard from 1933 until drafted for wartime service in 1942.

On September 23, 1927 the Olivia Brown was hauled out on the Burnham Railway in Gloucester where she was fitted for dragging. On October 6, 1927, her maiden fare brought 17,000 pounds haddock , 12,000 pounds cod and 4,000 pounds of mixed fish to the Boston Fish Pier. By October 26 Captain Frank Brown and crew brought in over 170 thousand pounds of fish on only four trips out!

Captain Frank Brown achieved highliner status at both dragging and swordfishing which meant he was tops in the Gloucester fleet. Born in the Azores in 1898, he came to the United States at the age of seventeen . Shortly thereafter he joined the Portuguese fleet dory trawling on the little Ruth out of Gloucester.

The Evelyn G. Sears, built in 1926, was one of Gloucester's first vessels fitted for dragging-that is, scooping fish into a giant net towed by the ship. The Olivia , of similar design , was also one of the earlier draggers, the following year. Captain Brown , known as a nonconformist in the fishing fleet , was a pioneer of the new method which during the 1930s entirely supplanted the old system of the mother ship sending out dories to fish by handline. Dragging was made possible by 38

the availability of engines of increasing horsepower and compact size. Olivia 's was upgraded from her original 150hp diesel to a 230hp engine in the 1930s.

She fished as a dragger from fall to spring, fishing off the Virginia Capes in the colder months and then coming north toward New York and ultimately to Massachusetts waters north of Cape Cod , following the fish. Dragging was done day and night when under way, under engine with a riding sail set as the Olivia pulled heavy plate-like "doors" along the ocean floor-the doors keeping the mouth of the net open.

Summers were spent swordfish ing.

Olivia s change over from dragger to swordfisher included removing the plug in the tip of the bow and adding a twentyfoot bowsprit. The foremast was extended higher than the mainmast and re-stayed to take the weight when the crew stood on the bowsprit pulpit to harpoon swordfish .

Brown's Bank (off Nova Scotia) and George's Bank (off Cape Cod) were waters where Captain Brown maintained his record as high-liner swordfisher.

Dragging had its adventurous moments.

In September 1939, after war broke out in Europe, Gloucester vessels had the American flag painted on their bows to let German raiders know they belonged to a neutral power. This stood Olivia in good stead when a German submarine surfaced alongside her off the Barnegat lightship, south of New York on the Jersey coast. " It was a bad night .. . heavy seas ... and spittin' snow with northeast winds. They put the searchlight all through us ," notes Louis Brown of this brief encounter.

On September 16, 1940 the Olivia met with near disaster while on Brown's Bank 250 miles northeast of Cape Ann. A hurricane caught her, racking the ship from stem to stern . The crew spent sixteen hours bailing her out with buckets to stay afloat. Winds up to IOOmph broke her bowsprit in half, and broke off the

foremast extension and crosstrees. Louis Brown remembers cutting away the foresail with a swordfish knife. The wind then took it away, boom and all.

Everything on deck was swept away, including five dories . The crew took shelter in the pilot house aft , and Captain Brown knelt on deck to say his prayers. He thought it was his final trip. Gloucester families , concerned about the fate of the Olivia were relieved when the Evelyn G. Sears (hit with minor damage) relayed the message that the Olivia was going to make it back. On the afternoon of September 21, 1940 she returned to Gloucester with all hands safe on board.

The Olivia was eventually sold to Captian Frank Brown's first mate of twenty years , John Fragata , in 1944. She was believed lost while attempting to reach Halifax , Nova Scotia in 1953 or 1954.

Captain Brown's final command , for his remaining twelve well respected years at sea , was the Emily Brown, which he had built in 1944 to replace the Olivia. Olivia herself died in 1929, and Captain Brown later married her sister Emily, who lives in Florida today.

Captain Frank Brown died in 1968 and is buried in St. Petersburg, Florida where he spent his retirement years. He went out in style with bronze casket and a new two hundred dollar suit. Burial in the Mt. Park Mausoleum rather than Gloucester was a final statement of his non-conformity.

A portion of this story is from old accounts reported in the Gloucester Daily Times. The Gloucester Fishermen's Museum brought pure encouragement for the story, as did the National Society.

On March 15, 1983, former crew member Louis Brown, (age sixty-three with jet black hair) viewed the photograph of the Olivia for the first time. After forty-three years the photograph was brought to life with a sense of historic closure. Let the circle be unbroken.

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39

DAY'S RUN Report of the American Sail Training Association Eisenhower House, Fort A dams State Park, Newport, RI 02840

Gorch Fock to Visit US This Fall Gorch Fack, the sail training ship of the West German Navy, was built at the Blohm & Voss Shipyard in Hamburg and launched on August 23, 1958. Hername is the nom de plume of Hans Kinau , an author who wrote of the sea.

The second ship to bear the name Gorch Fack, she is the fifth of her class. Her four sister ships, built before World War II in the same shipyard, are still in active commission with various nations as trainging vessels for naval cadets. They are: Mircea in Romania , Tovarisch in the Soviet Union, Eagle in the United States, and Sagres in Portugal.

Fully fitted out, Gorch Fack has a draught of 1,760 tons. Her hull is 290ft long and she has a beam of39ft, and draws 16ft. Her roughly 147ft masts can take 23 sails, giving almost 2,392 square yards of canvas. Under full sail she has been known to touch 16 knots. Her best day's run under full sail was 306.5 nautical miles in 24 hours, achieved in 1976 on her 49th training voyage to foreign waters.

She once covered a total of 1,239.5 nautical miles in fi;ve consecutive days in the North Atlantic.

Seventy-two officers, petty officers and ratings and six civilians make up her basic crew. The vessel has a maximum of 200 training berths. From the day she was commissioned, up to and including her 56th training voyage in foreign waters,

Sail on Among the Stars, Barclay!

9,086 officers and men have received instruction aboard. On the 67 voyages she has made to date, she has covered 338,575 nautical miles-207,729 of which were under sail-a remarkable record indeed!

Gorch Fack will visit ports along the East Coast of the United States this fall in commemoration of " 300 years of German immigration to the United States of America." Her presence is meant to give special expression to the close bilateral relations between the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany. ASTA members have been extended an invitation to visit the ship when she stops at a port near them, and will find locations and dates in the Chairman's Letter.

1983 ASTA Summer Program We extend a warm welcome to all who wish to participate in ASTA's races and cruises this summer.

Sail Training Races July 4 Gather at Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, Oyster Bay, Long Island .

Yacht Club.ipvites all captains, crew, and trainees to barbecue that evening .

July 5 Race I-Oyster Bay to Vineyard Haven July 7 Cruise in Company-Vineyard Haven to Padanaram July 8 Race 2-Padanaram to Newport Sail Training Races are open to any single-hull boat of at least 24ft on the waterline with at least 50 percent of her complement between the ages of 15 and 26.

Sail Training Cruises Adventure sailing! Qualification program leading to designation as deckhand or able-bodied seaman: stand watch , set sail, work rigging, learn navigation .

Adventuress, 103ft WA , Schooner, Pacific Northwest Bill of Rights, llOft WA, Topsail Schooner, New England area Providence, 65ft WA, Topsail Sloop, New England area Rachel & Ebenezer, 65ft WA, Topsail Schooner, Rhode Island Sound Opportunities for marine biology, whale-watching and participation in ASTA East Coast Races. For information on both, write ASTA or call (401) 846-0884.

40

Tel: 401-846-1775

Barclay Warburton slipped his cable and quietly departed this life at age 61 , on May 1. Founder of the American Sail Training Association , he was a foÂľnding partner in the Ship Trust and South Street Seaport Museum , and Trustee of the National Society. Of a profoundly generous, keenly intelligent, endlessly questing nature, Barclay brought a sense of challenge and high endeavor to all he undertook. And his undertakings were considerable.

The writer first met him when he brought his brig Black Pearl into South Street Seaport Museum , the first square-rigger in what was to become a haven of square rig.

He did this not once but again and again , bringing to us in South Street such di stingui shed singers as the Clancy Brothers and Louis Killen (whose career in the US was launched and supported by Barclay). In addition to the events and achievements listed in his obituary (which he wrote himself) , one thinks of things like these South Street visitations ... and a myriad other scenes come vivid! y to mind : Barclay in the cabin of the Pearl, laying out with sparkling eyes his plans for the first maritime heritage festival, as the little brig lay at the long dock in New London , late at night following the Sail Training Conference of 1978. (As readers of SEA HIS'TDRY know, these conferences have become the gathering place for scholars, ship-savers and all hands concerned in seafaring under sail. The Maritime Heritage Festival of 1979, also, was a great success but too costly in time, money and effort to be soon repeated .) The next morning, as I went ashore, young people were bringing their seabags aboard for the first training sail for the American students in the international expedition Operation Drake (SH13 :34) .

Barclay standing next to his parrot Shipwreck (while they still allowed the bird in the Black Pearl Restaurant), setting forth with great lucidity his dreams for a roundthe-world sail training race-which will undoubtedly come to pass in 1988... .Barclay towing our schooner Lettie G. Howard upriver to Mystic, and then challenging us to find our way back downstream on our owm .... Barclay passing across a pot of hot cofffee in the early morning mist as the two shiws slip along in company together, it being l too hot for us cheerfully to light up the SEA HISTDRY, SUMMER 1983

BARCLAY H. WARBURTON, III

Photo by Jim Donaldson

Howard's huge coal stove . .. .Barclay on the long ride back from the Quebec 84 conference last fall , unfolding in splendor to match the autumn countryside, his conviction that man was put on earth to learn and dare great things, that he was only on the threshold of what he could become.

It was good to hear Barclay on such a topic, and with time to develop it at some length , breaking the journey to stop over at Peter Throckmorton's, a good friend now running a boatshop and doing some gardening (we departed laden with vegetables) in Maine, and so on to the Sail Training Conference. It was good , too, to hear Barclay speak for once with broad hours ahead and no sense of hurry, about his life which he knew wRs coming to its end. Sometimes people and events were too small for Barclay's heroic vision . In the last ten years, however, as he came to recognize, he had lived in devotion to a subject fully worthy of his roving, truth-seeking spirit: the education of young people not in books but in the great book of the sea-learning to know each other and themselves, transscending national barriers , singing under the morning star, with joy. His own bright spirit remained undimmed and he told me when I saw him last that he was preparing PS to enter upon that great joy.

POSTSCRIPT: "he brought civility to life," says the film maker Jim Donaldson , and offers this quotation from Joseph Conrad's Mirror of the Sea which Barclay carried about in his wallet : "Of all the living creatures upon land and sea, it is ships alone that cannot be taken in by barren pretenses, that will not put up with bad art from their masters."

SEA HISffiRY, SUMMER 1983

Barclay H. Warburton , III , founder of the American Sail Training Association , died May I at his home in Newport. Mr. Warburton sailed his yacht Black Pearl across the Atlantic to participate in the 1972 International Sail Training Races which took the ships from Cowes, England to Kiel , Germany in honor of that year's Munich Olympiad . He became convinced of the need for an American group similar to the international one headquartered in Great Britain which had organized these races since 1956. Thus , he returned to Newport and , with a nucleus of sailing ¡ friends , founded the organization which would host the " Tall Ships" as a prelude to their spectacular visit to New York in honor of the nation's Bicentennial celebration in 1976 and which then went on to offer a full program of cruises and races , with " Tall Ships" events in each evennumbered year.

Born February 5, 1922 in Philadelphia -the second child of Barclay H . Warburton , Jr. and Rosamund Lancaster, called " Buzzie" by his intimates as had been his father before him-Barclay Harding Warburton , III entered a family which had been of great service to our nation and had accomplished much on a personal level as well . His father, a much-decorated Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Air Corps during World War I, was an innovative and enthusiastic amateur pilot who flew his own airplane, a converted Great Lakes trainer, around the world in 1924.

Barclay received a traditional education , graduating from St. Mark's School in Southboro, Massachusetts in 1940. He did not share his father's enthusiasm for aviation-but rather followed the love of the sea which had been instilled in him by his stepfather, William K. Vanderbilt, who sailed his yacht Alva on a circumnavigation of the world in 1929 and 1930, and whose brother Harold (or "Mike") thrice defended the America's Cup in the last of the J-Boats. Barclay entered the Pennsylvania Schoolships training program; transferring to the US Merchant Marine Academy at King's Point, New York to graduate from there in April 1942.

He immediately took up his Naval Reserve commission , and spent the last war years on active duty in the P"acific, serving finally aboard the USS Oxford, APA 189.

On leaving the Naval service in 1946, Warburton returned to Harvard College where he graduated in 1948 with a degree in Political Science, specializing in American Government. He then took up agriculture, purchasing a 200-acre dairy farm at Ipswich, Massachusetts which he

ran from 1947 until 1959 as a pioneer proponent of the organic methods, and was elected to a seat in the Massachusetts Legislature, where he served from 1954 until 1960. He married Margaret McKean Reed of Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, the daughter of John Quincy Adams Shaw McKean and Margaret Sargent, in March 1949. Barclay and Margaret had five children: Barclay of Washington, DC, Margaret Rosamund of Los Angeles, Miranda of Pullman, Wash., and Rosemary Hardisty and Peter Lancaster Warburton, both of Newport.

But the sea continued to call him, and Barclay left Massachusetts to spend time sailing on the newly-acquired Black Pearl in the Caribbean, finally settling in Newport with its beautiful harbor, where he founded the highly regarded Black Pearl Restaurant in that city in 1967. Again he was a pioneer, one of the first to realize the potential and locate an establishment along Newport's then-unrestored waterfront. And the restaurant quickly earned a reputation for being the place where lovers of the sea could feel truly at home. In June 1970 he married Lore Ma:ria Faught.

In 1974 he accepted the position of President of the American Sail Training Association and led that organization to its present status of Western Hemisphere coordinator of sail training activities. He was instrumental in bringing the "Tall Ships" from Venezuela to Philadelphia to Newport and, finally, to Lisbon this past summer. The visit in Portugal was memorable for its size: 106 sail training ships from all over the world were gathered in honor of the Silver Jubilee of the first sail training races; in Philadelphia the ships helped that city to celebrate its 300th birthday. In both cities, the waterfront was alive with tall masts, signal flags, and ensigns from many nations-and the cadence of many tongues filled the air, juxtaposed against the traditional bustle of'a port crowded with sailing craft and seamen readying for their next voyage. In this setting, one could have no doubts of what sail training is all about and the important role it plays in the movement to bring peace to our planet-a cause to which he was particularly devoted.

Mr. Warburton is survived by his five children, his stepdaughter, Elan Faught, and five grandchildren . A memorial service was held May 5 at Trinity Church, Newport. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Barclay Warburton Sail Training Fund, American Sail Training Association, Fort Adams, Newport.

BHW, III 41

SAIL TRAINING: DAY'S RUN 1983-84 Edition Directory of Sail Training Ships & Programs Edited by Nancy Hughes Richardson Now Available Send $3 plus 95C postage to American Sail Training Association.

146 Western Hemisphere Sail Training Vessels Listed .

Featured Pages and Pictures of 60 Ships.

Also Fleet in Review, Shoreside Sail Training Programs , Ships Under Construction or Restoration , Overview of Worldwide Sail Training Opportunities.

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The China Clipper Society For the past ten years a remarkable outfit based in England has been sailing two Spanish-built square riggers in European waters and as far afield as the Straits of Magellan. Known as the China Clipper Society, this outfit relearned traditional skills , with notable "can do" spirit, to restore and sail the 88ft brig Ciudad de Inca, built in Ibiza in 1858, and the 86ft bark Marques , built in Valencia in 1917.

This effort took shape in 1971 when Robin Cecil-Wright acquired the Valencia-built Marques in order to fulfill a long-held ambition to own and sail a square rigger. Bringing the ship home to England , he spent a couple of years rebuilding her with the help of many friends. In 1977 he was joined as co-owner

by Mark Litchfield . The ship began to earn a living in movie roles.

In 1977 she made a 4-month, 8,000-mile voyage to the Straits of Magellan to perform as the Beagle, in which Charles Darwin sailed those waters. For this role she acquired her unusual rig, basically a brig with a small spankermast stepped far aft , making her a bark.

Needing a second ship to film " TaiPan ," Cecil-Wright headed for the Mediterranean again and this time found the Inca , a floating wreck eking out her days in catch-as-catch-can trading. Litchfield took her in hand and with a crew of30-odd Englishmen rebuilt her as a staunch ,

Ciudad de In ca

ocean-faring brig. By 1982 the two vessels were available in full health and rig for a race from port to port around the British isles . Not only had the ships been restored , they had built up seasoned crews-and begun to find new ways of supporting themseives, through port visits and carrying trainees.

This year the handsome pair are coming to the East Coast of the United States, with the possible thought of continuing on to the Pacific next year. They plan to pick up trainees in Freeport, in the Bahamas, July 15, departing July 18; then to arrive Bermuda to pick up a new gang on August 1, leaving August 4, then to sail on to Halifax, Nova Scotia, reaching there August 18.

Trainees get real-life instruction from crews which have now gathered a decade's experience in this work, and each person who sails in these ships automatically becomes a member of the China Clipper Society. Basic cost is $350/wk , and trainees are accepted ages 15-19. Society, PO Box 1129, Newport , RI 02840.

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U.S. Naval Weapons goes beyond the con· ventional military reference book to view each weapon within the context of its tactical, politi· caL or economic origins. To complete the picture, the author has included 300 illustra· tions and supplemental descriptions of the essential support electronics such as fire control systems, radars, sonars, and other sensors. His analysis of U.S. Navy thinking on strategy and tactics as it affected weapons development and procurement results in an authoritative combination of ordnance history and technical analysis that will be popular with layman and specialist alike.

1983. 256 pages. 300 illustrations. Index.

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43

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July 1 -16, 1983 In recognition of a Maritim e Britain , you are invited to participate in a special tour of Southern Britain's maritime 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 day's sailing hosted by a local sailing club. An itinerary with full details will be sent upon request.

Contact Tim McBreen at: OCEANIC SOCIETY EXPEDITIONS Fort Mason, Bldg. E, San Francisco, California 94123 (415) 441-1106

44

How We Found The Mary Rose, by Alexander McKee (Souvenire Press Ltd ., 43 Great Russell Street, London WCIB 3PA , UK , 152pp, illus, hardback ÂŁ8.95, paperback ÂŁ5.95 ; St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Ave., New York NY 10010, USA , $14.95) .

One of the principal events of maritime archaeology in the 20th century is well recounted in this report by its leading actor. The profusely illustrated narrative deals with the fascinating story of the Tudor warship Mary Rose from her launching in 1510 until the recovery of her hull from the depths of the Solent in October 1982, under the eyes of Prince Charles, President of the Trust which had helped to save her. Alexander McKee was probably the first person to realize the possibility, some 20 years ago, that a major part of the Tudor hull might have survived under the silt of the Solent. His book chronicles his careful research into her building and launching, (and rebuilding in 1536), and follows her general history which terminated so abrutly with her foundering , under the eyes of her Sovereign, Henry VIII , when advancing to attack the French on that fateful day in July 1545, carrying with her practically her whole complement-in excess of 600 souls.

The hull became buried under the silt of the Solent, and lost until a diver working on the Royal George in the late 1830s chanced upon a nearby wreck , resulting in the recovery of cannon from the time of Henry VIII and other evidence of the Mary Rose. This aroused some interest, but was soon lost sight of, and it was not until the early 1960s that Alexander McKee, in the early days of the British Sub-Aqua Club, became convinced that the ship might still exist under the seabed.

He instituted a long drawn-out search utilizing modern diving, sonar and other techniques not available to former explorers. These early operations were carried out with miniminal financial backing, and it is a credit to the author and his small team of enthusiasts that they kept going until , after some years, their efforts were rewarded by positive proof that the ancient hull still survived , the recovery of yet another Tudor gun being conclusive.

McKee goes on to relate how the recovery operations built up with growing public awareness and support from the early '70s onwards-years, in his own words of " unremitting toil" for himself and his team-until in 1979, with growing prospects of success, Prince Charles became President of the Mary Rose Trust.

In the concluding chapters, he recalls the large-scale salvage operations which culminated in October 1982, when, despite severe last-minute setbacks and

what might well have been another disaster, the remains of the Mary Rose were successfully lifted clear of her watery grave, placed on a barge, and towed back into Portsmouth Harbour, her home port, whence she had sailed to meet the French 437 years before.

JAMES FORSYTHE

Major Forsythe is Hon. Secretary and Trustee of the World Ship Trust and President of the Norfolk i:t'herry Trust.

Great Lakes Maritime History: Bibliography and Sources of Information,

by Charles E . and Jeri Baron Feltner (Seajay Publications, PO 2176, Dearborn MI48123, 1982.112pp.,illus.,$11.20 postpaid).

It was more than three hundred years ago when the first European explorers sailed the world's largest cumulative body of freshwater, the Great Lakes.

These " inland seas " have been the scene of a remarkable heritage that focuses on man ' s interaction with water resources .

The development of shipbuilding, shipping, and marine related commerce is a matter of record scattered in thousands of primary and secondary source research material. Only a person familiar with professional research techniques has been able, in the past, to find and utilize the uncountable sources of information that exist so that these histories can be reconstructed.

But history takes on its full meaning when it becomes accessible to all those interested in what it has to offer. Dr. Charles Feltner and his wife Jeri quote Sir Winston Churchill in the preface of Great Lakes Maritime History: ''I contend my friend, it is better to do something rather than nothing, while waiting to do everything." In their new book, the Feltners have done something all right. .. they ' ve made a previously recondite regional history accessible to the public.

The book, an attractive piece of work, contains a good table of contents, a few historic photos, historic engravings, and nineteenth century advertising reprints.

A short appendix explains the methodology used to put the book together. The index, arranged by author, is helpful.

Subjects covered include reference works, ship history, Great Lakes history, shipbuilding and ship construction.

Feltner has been very active in recent years documenting Great Lakes shipwrecks through actual exploration efforts . The chapter on bibliography resources for shipwreck history is strong and helpful.

This book illustrates the need to focus more intensely on Great Lakes marine

SEA HIS1DRY, SUMMER 1983

history. Museums and other institutions that focus on Great Lakes history are relatively new in comparison to their East and West Coast counterparts , and are only beginning to define their role in the greater scheme of North American maritime history and preservation. Episodes like the discovery of the vessels Alvin Clark and Hamilton give us fleeting national attention so that we can present our case of regional importance. This book offers both the trained and amateur historian, from all regions , the opportunity to learn more about the significance of Great Lakes maritime history. Our "Inland Seas" have much to contribute to historic dialogue.

DAVID PAMPERIN

Mr. Pamperin is Director of the Manitowoc Maritime Museum , founded in 1969, which focuses on the maritime history of the Upper Great Lakes.

Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome, intro. Christopher Matthew and Benny Green (Pavilion Books, 196 Shaftesbury Ave. , London WC2H 8JL, UK, 1982 , 192pp, illus , £12 .50; Merrimack Books, 190 Merrimack St. , Lawrence MA 01843, USA $22. 95).

This large format book, based on the original edition of 1889, contains not only the original text and period sketches by A. Fredericks, but in addition is profusely illustrated with maps , photographs, prints and cartoons of the period , together with careful explanations of the many abstruse references which make this comic classic a mirror held up to the quaint ways of our late Victorian forebears.

The book, in its day, made Jerome's fame as a writer, and the doings of his three amateur oarsmen on their journey up the Thames from Kingston to Oxford have achieved a universal immortality, being translated into two dozen languages including Afrikaans, Sinhalese and Serbo-Croat-and , in a supreme compliment , cited in a Soviet manual to demonstrate the " ridiculous inefficiency" of capitalist railways! A "must" for all who mess about in boats , and a tonic even for those who don't.

comprise as great a variety of rig and size as dogs, but whereas even a small child instinctively recognizes chihuahuas and St. Bernards as dogs, sailors have heated arguments as to whether some vessels are schooners or not. The chapter on schooner-brigantines is particularly interesting and informative in this respect.

There is a chapter on schooner yachts, strictly confined to traditional types (so avoiding modern Bermudan, staysail , trysail, cat and wishbone schooners, which is OK with this reviewer) . Other chapters cover such subjects as early Dutch schooners, American Colonial schooners, Baltimore clippers, clipper schooners, British and European schooners of the Victorian era , multimasted schooners, pilot boats, fishing schooners, "exotic" schooners, etc.

Lovely illustrations complement McGregor's rich and rewardingly detailed text.

ERIK C. ABRANSON

Mr. Abranson is Hon . Chairman Mariner 's International and editor their admirable newsletter Notices Mariners, from which this review abstracted.

of of to is

SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1983

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Boston and Five Islands: A Retrospective, by Charles William Tinkham (Down East Books, Camden ME 1981, 165pp, 175 b/w photos, $17.95 + $1.25 handling). A 40-year photographic chronicle of the work of Charles Tinkham focused on Boston and Five Islands, a seacoast village in Maine, capturing unique views on the coast and ashore.

The Log of HMS Mentor, 1780-1781, ed. James A. Service, intro. Robert R. Rea (University of Florida Press , Pensacola FL, 1982, $11.75, 204pp , illus., $11. 75) . In the Battle of Pensacola, during the American Revolution, the sloopof-war HMS Mentor played an important role in defending the British garrison against the Spanish. Her log records the day-to-day events of the battle and includes sail plans and the captain ' s personal log .

JAMES FORSYTHE

Schooners in Four Centuries, by David R. MacGregor (Argus Books, England , 1982 , 144 pp, illus, UK price £7.95 ; US Naval Institute, Annapolis, $19.95) .

This book , in the same series as the author's distinguished Square Rigged Sailing Ships and Clipper Ships, is a comprehensive history of the schooner type from its debatable origins to its incredible proliferation in recent times. Schooners

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Captain Quick Loses His Temper-and a MastTowing Under the Brooklyn Bridge in 1915

by Captain Adrian Raynaud Our readers will recall Captain Raynaud -the Seattle master mariner who kept the old lumber schooner Wawona afloat through lonely years when no one but he and his younger pal Captain Harold Huycke seemed to care (SH25: 8-9).

Captain Raynaud today is a courtly fellow with a twinkle in his eye and a great zest for life. He wowed all hands when he came East just a year ago to take part in the Maine Maritime Museum's annual maritime symposium.

One of his yarns was a ofthe trip under the Bridge in a tall Down Easter-a bit too tall as it turned out. The artist and Cape Horn sailorman Tom Wells recorded this re-telling of that tale for us.

We arrived in New York on December 22 , 1915, with this load of dyewood from Argentina . And it was the most godawful cargo we ever had in the ship-rotten , heavy crooked sticks. We had a terrible time loading it , and it was worse discharging it. But we anchored right off the Statue of Liberty late in the afternoon and the Old Man and the crew all left the ship. The only ones left aboard were old Silas Cole, the Mate; James Baker Second Mate and myself, Third Mate at that time. The cook and everybody disappeared. The Old Man promised he would get Christmas dinner for us but it never showed up. So we had scraps and leavings-it was a rough time.

But , finally things kind of calmed down. It snowed , though , and it was miserable weather. An then , somewhere the first part of January they decided to move the ship up to the discharge dock in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, a godawful neighborhood , I can tell you that. You're scared to death to go to shore at night.

They sent down a gang of riggers and they had one heck of a time housing the topgallants* and the royal mast because everything was frozen. It was bitter cold.

God , you couldn't get warm no matter what you did. I took them about a week to get everything down . So the fore, the main and the mizzen-they finally got everything down , everything secured , and then the Old Man came out and he looked and said: " We've got to get that spanker topmast down . It's too tall." The rigger boss said: " No, no, Cap I've measured everything and the height of the Brooklyn Bridge is just so much . We've got plenty of clearance." *The masts carrying the three upper yards-from the top, royal , upper topgallant , lower topgallant_: in the Edward Sewall's picture.

46

Capwin Raynaud holds forth to an enraptured audience at the Main e Maritime Museum, Ma y 1982.

Captain Quick was still skeptical. He said: " You remember now, if anything happens , you're liable." " I'll bet my hat on it ," said the rigger.

Sure enough , the tug came along and we put a bench in the wheelhouse so we could stand in the wheelhouse and look out. There's a little sort of a hatch-a skylight-in the deckhead. And the Second Mate took the wheel to start with ,

cause I had to help put the chain away, while old Silas Cole and the Old Man were up on the forecastle head heaving in the anchor and the pilot was busy walking up and down. We finally got under way and everything was going fine . It was bitter cold. So we started up the river, and as we got closer and closer to the Brooklyn Bridge the Old Man stood there on the poop and kept looking up. And he said: "By godfreys , I don't think she'll make it." And the pilot says: " Oh , yes , Captain , we've got plenty of room." The Second Mate said : "I'll go up the take a look. I'll sight it ." So, I said: "Well, okay." l took the wheel and he started to climb up. And the Old Man said : " Come down Mr. Baker, come down. I don't want you up there in case something happens." he said: " Come down."

I had no way of signaling the tug to slow down. So he just kept right on going, and boy, we got closer and closer and all of a sudden the Old Man said: "Raynaud, jump down ." And with that we hit the Bridge. And there was probably about six or eight feet of mast sticking up over the Bridge, and Jesus , a horrible crash and the top of the spanker mast there- the topmast-it splintered and came down . It fell right down top of the house and I jumped down off that bench and hid underneath the quadrant practically. It felt like the whole wheelhouse was coming down.

Well , we cleared the mess away. The tug didn't even stop. They didn't even realize what had happened, although we were on a short towline.

You never saw a madder skipper than Captain Quick. We got in alongside the dock and the Old Man went right ashore the minute the gangplank was out, calling the rigging company. They were down there in nothing flat. And you never heard such an argument in all your life. It was the rigger's fault and he finally admitted that yes, he had measured it and somehow somebody must have read the figures wrong on the tape. He says: "I had a steel tape. I had the man go right up to the top."

Now, I don't remember the rigger going up there because I was on deck along with Mr. Baker all the time they were working, because we had to slack the gear off and tighten up and do this and that and help them out. But , nevertheless, they were liable and so there was nothing much else they could do but make good . At first they wanted just to repair the mast. The Old Man said: "No way. You put a whole new stick in there." So they did. They had to make a whole new topmast for the spanker SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1983

and paint it and rig it up again. Although they made it a little bit shorter than the original one. And the Old Man said: " Next time we have to come up here, this mast is coming down regardless. I'll take care of it myself." He said: " I'm not going to take any more rigger's words for measuring." So that was the whole thing .

Now, of course, it didn't do any damage to the ship other than scarring up the top of the house where the wood fell down. She had a big cap or a ball on top of the mast and I think that was the only thing that saved it from going through the top of the house. It was a hardwood ball , but it split in two or three pieces. I kept a piece for years as a sourvenir, but somehow in the course of years it disappeared . It left a big dent on the top of the house. There was canvas over the top and it tore that up-the splinters just gouged it up. We had to repair it so that it wouldn't leak .

Mr. Wells then asked: A lot of blocks and rigging came down with it , of course?

No, there was nothing much in the way of rigging. We never set a gaff topsail on her. But there was the topping lift for the spanker boom and all that because we had a gaff up there and that all came falling down . The blocks were all split so everything had to be renewed . The mast itself, up to the hounds , was okay.

Mr. Wells : Was the spanker mast knocked out of plumb at all?

No, the lower mast was steel of course, and that part was all right. It was just the wooden top that went.

*

*

*

*

*

That was a horrible winter. Gosh, you just froze to death there and it was a real miserable place to be in . We finally got through unloading the ship. We got ballast in her and then went down to Norfolk again and Dallas and loaded coal for South America. The war was on full blast and there was no point in trying to go to Europe any more. There were too many submarines and raiders and so that took care of that. We were comparatively safe.

www Above, the handsome Edward Sewall storming along with hands aloft on the fore topgallant yard-two are just visible under the flag at the main truck.

Captain Richard Quick , on his quarterdeck , master under God- excepr when rhe harpies of rhe shore rake over.

Cartoon by Th omas Wells, A/CH. Phoros courtesy Main e Maritime Mu seum.

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One of two ship simulators at MITAGS, inside of which is an array of instruments normally found aboard ships. These simulators offer unlimited operating areas to train deck officers in the principles of ship handling.

This Is MM&P Country This strange-looking device is one of two ship simulators at the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies which is used to train MM&P deck officers in the principles of ship handling in a variety of environmental settings. Students on the bridge of the simulator react to varying situations programmed by the instructor. On command, the legs of the machine cause the bridge to pitch and roll plus or minus 20 degrees and heave as much as 18 inches.

Ship officers return regularly to MITAGS to sharpen their skills and learn new ones-all on dry land-while they navigate their way through any number of simulated waters with complete safety.

MITAGS is the result of a close and profitable collaboration between MM&P and the American flag shipping companies in their joint Maritime Advancement, Training, Education and Safety (MATES) Program .

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