Sea History 037 - Autumn 1985

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ISSN 0146-9312

No . 37

SEA HISTORY

OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE WORLD SHIP TRUST

SEA HISTORY is published quarterl y by the National Maritime Historical Soc iety , 132 Maple Street, Croton-on-Hudson, NY I 0520 .

Application to mail at Second Class rates is pending at Croton-on-Hudson, NY .

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sea History , 132 Maple St. , Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520.

COPYRIGHT © 1985 by the National Maritime Historical Society. Te l. 914 271-2177.

MEMBERSHIP is invited: Sponsor $1,000; Donor $500; Patron $100; Contributor $50; Family $35; Regular $25; Student or Retired $12 .50. ALL FOREIGN MEMBERS , including Canada and Mexico , please add $5 for postage.

OFFICERS & TRUSTEES are Chairman: James P. McA llister; Vice Chairmen: Barbara Johnson, A. T. Pouch , Jr. ; President: Peter Stanford; Vice President: Norma Stanford; Secretary: Alan G. Choate; Treasurer: J. Kevin Lally; Trustees: Alan G. Choate, Ellen Fletcher, Thomas Hale, Barbara Johnson , Karl Kortum , J. Kevin Lally , Richardo Lopes, Robert J. Lowen, James P. McAllister, Conrad P. Nilsen, A. T. Pouch , Jr. , John H. Reilly, Jr., Spencer Smith , Wolf Spille, Peter Stanford .

Chairman Emeritus: Karl Kortum . President Emeritus: Alan D. Hutchinson .

ADVISORS : Chairman: Frank 0. Braynard; Raymond Aker, Francis E. Bowker, Oswald L. Brett, David Brink, George Campbell, Robert Carl, Frank G. G. Carr, William Main Doerflinger, Harry Dring, James Ean , John Ewald, Joseph L. Farr, Timothy G . Foote, Richard Goold-Adams , Robert G. Herbert, R. C . Jefferson , Irving M . Johnson , John Kemble, Conrad Milster, William G. Muller, Capt.

David E. Perkins USCG (ret.) , Nancy Richardson , George Salley, Melbourne Smith , Ralph L. Snow, John Stobart, Albert Swanson, Shannon Wal l, Robert A . Weinstein, Thomas Wells , AJCH, Charles Wittholz.

WORLD SHIP TRUST: Chairman: Frank G .

G. Carr; Vice President: Rt. Hon . Lord Lewin, -Sir Peter Scott, Rt . Hon . Lord Shackleton; Hon. Secretary: J . A . Forsythe; Hon . Treasurer: Richard Lee; Erik C. Abranson , Dr. Neil Cossons , Maldwin Drummond, Peter Stanford .

Membership:£ 10 payable WST, c/o Hon. Sec., l29a North Street, Burwell , Cambs. CB5 OBB , England . Reg . Charity No. 277751.

AMERICAN SHIP TRUST: International Chairman: Frank Carr; Chairman: Peter Stanford; Hon . Secretary: Eric J . Berryman; George Bass, Karl Kortum , Charles Lundgren , George Nichols, Richard Rath; Senior Advisor: Irving M . Johnson; Curator, NY Harbor: Mel Hardin.

SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor: Peter Stanford; Managing Editor: Norm a Stanford ; Assistant Editor: Lincoln P. Paine; Assistant to the President: Barbara Ladd ; Accounting: Frank Scacchetti ; Advertising: Annette Stanton; Membership Secretary: Heidi Quas; Membership Assistant: Patricia Anstett; Corresponding Secretary: Marie Lore.

AUTUMN 1985

CONTENTS 3 EDITOR' S LOG LETTERS 9 THE LORDLY HUDSON: " BUT THE RHINE HAS NO MARY POWELL,'' Peter Stanford 12 THE PORT OF RONDOUT , Roger W. Mabie 17 THE HUDSON RIVER MARITIME CENTER, Marita Lopez-Mena 18 MANORS ON THE HUDSON , Jacob Judd 20 A HUDSON RIVER DIRECTORY 23 MARINE ART: REJOICING IN THE HUDSON, William G . Muller 27 ART NEWS 31 MODELMAKERS : REX STEWART, Thomas 0. Maggs 32 SAlL TRAINING: Report of the American Sail Training Association 34 SHIP NOTES : THE RONSON SHIP 36

RECONSTRUCTING THE GREEK TRIREME, John Coates

37

THE LITTLE JENNIE, Terry Walton

42 BOOKS 47 A PLEASANT PLACE TO BUlLD A TOWNE ON , from the journal of Robert Juet, 1609

COVER: On a bright summer morning in 1895 the fast paddlewheel steamer Mary Powell, looking every inch the " Queen of the Hudson, " comes south round Dunderberg Mountain on her daily run to New York City. She is caught in her pride by the artist William G . Muller, who sailed in the last Hudson River paddlewheeler, the Alexander Hamilton . See page 23 .

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

We bring to life America 's seafa ring past through research , archaeologica l ex peditions and ship preservation efforts . We work with mu eurns, hi stori ans and sail training I groups and repo rt on these activities in our qu arterly journal Sea History.

We are also the American arm of the World Ship Trust , an internati ona l group working worldwide to he lp save ships of hi sto ri c importance.

Wo n't yo u join us to keep alive our nation 's seafari ng legacy 7 Membership in the Society costs only $25 a year. You ' ll receive Sea History , a fascin ating magaz ine fi ll ed wi th art icles of seafa ring and historica l lore. You' ll also be eligible for di scount s o n books, prints and other it ems. Help save our seafa ring heritage. Join the National Maritime Histor ical Society today'

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TO: National Mar itime Historical Society, 132 Maple St. , Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520

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D $1 ,000 Sponsor0$SOO DonorD $100 Patron 0 $50Contributor0$35 Famity 0 $25 Regular 0 $12.50Student/Retired

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The Andrew Fletcher coming into her pier at South Street Seaport Museum (Ph oto, Joel Greenberg) .

Paddlewheels triumphant

Something Old Has Been Added to New York!

Now you can enjoy in New York Harbor an experience that should never have been forgotten-the experience of seeing New York from the waterways the city grew up on, and in the most appropriate way, from the decks of a traditional paddlewheeler! The Andrew Fletcher of the Seaport Line sails each day from South Street Seaport Museum on harbor tours, with well informed guides telling the story of the harbor, its ships and varied waterfronts, in a program designed with the guidance of the National Maritime Historical Society. Youngsters and grownups alike can learn

how the city thrived on harbor and ocean traffics, right at the heart of where it all happened-and where it is happening today.

The Andrew Fletcher is a replica of the paddlewheel steamboats that once thronged the harbors. Brand-new this year, she was built to the highest standards under the design guidance of the renowned marine artist William G. Muller. She is Coast Guard certified for the ultimate in safety. Her Grand Saloon is perhaps the noblest space you can find afloat for your corporate party, wedding, reunion or other social or business affair.

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LETTERS

EDITOR'S LOG Tall voyaging thoughts sail into the mind under the high-arched skies of autumn.

"Over, then, come over, for the bee has quit the clover, " says Rudyard Kipling in cadences that will not quit the mind , "and your English summer's done ." I find I respond to this by getting out and making a tour of fronts where the National Society is involved , in one fashion or another, before winter closes in ... .

This year I was carried away by our Patron Schuyler Meyer, who took me on his annual cru ise through the backcountry stretch of the Erie Canal between Rochester and Buffalo-<:ities literally shaped by the slow-moving traffic along that inland sluiceway. What a thing it is to traverse! A few thoughts from the cruise are touched on in "The Lordly Hudson " in this issue; more will appear following a conference on the uses of the waterways which the National Society is co-sponsoring with the New York State Museum in Albany .

A little later, I went back to western New York to sail aboard the Sea Lion, a remarkable replica of an Elizabethan ship on Lake Chautauqua. The locus of this effort seemed crazy-a landlocked inland lake 1,000 feet above sea level.

But I was the foolish one; of course it is the people and the intent, the cultural purpose and attitudes that matter in such ventures- not the physical surround.

This good ship is a notable addition to our scene and will contribute much in years ahead, I now (having been there) venture to say.

From there I went to San Francisco, where the National Maritime Museum 's fleet of historic ships is at some risk, hanging in stays. In our next issue we are going to suggest answers to this challenge, answers we find in the seahaunted streets of San Francisco, answers perhaps waiting to be heard .

We go voyaging to discover things close to home , and perhaps to encourage the flow of ideas that produces the better answers that have been waiting for us all the time.

Being There And we voyage simply because there is no substitute for being there- actually encountering the thing you're thinking about. No photograph, no model of the real thing will do. This was borne in upon me when I traveled on to England for a World Ship Trust meeting, and crept away down to the West Country to visit with the ships of the Exeter Maritime Museum (discussed recently in SEA HISTORY 33). There I found myself fascinated by the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel's iron

4

This Letter Is Thanks Enough I intend to maintain my membership for life- I enjoy the magazine very much , and when I finally get out of school and get a job, I'll pay you back for all the years I've been getting the student rate .

MICHAEL DODGE Grosse Pointe, Michigan

But the rest of our members might consider contributing to the Campaign for Sea History.-ED. The Elizabethan replica Sea Lion, product of dedicated local effort, leaves a clean wake on Chautauqua waters in August 1985.

dredge-an antediluvian monster forged of small iron plates painfully riveted together. That such a thing should have been conceived stops one in mid-stride; but that it was built, so long ago, and survives to speak to us in a forgotten (but recognizable) language-well , that is something else.

This armadillo of our Iron Age lies amid a gaggle of widely differing craft: two stately Chinese junks, a lithehaunched graceful Colchester smack, and a Portuguese lighter shaped of heavy , work-scarred timbers in curves that seem somehow "off," or exotic to Western eyes (there is much of the Orient, or at least the Levant, in things Portuguese). A photograph doesn't really catch this-you have to be there , and see the ornate, flowery paintings in incredibly vivid color, creeping like honeysuckle over the battered timbering .

I felt lucky to be on the scene, and to see a small boy (not too closely or anxiously pursued by his rather handsome mother) scramble, crowing with delight up that steep-pitched foredeck, above that ambiguously curved, full-cheeked bow-where other people , to other purposes , had gone so often before. Further in the rear came a quiet father, who snapped a picture of his wife and chi ld caught laughing and unaware. Well, photographs don ' t do it, but possibly that one will-for he was there .

*****

I returned from my travels to the allhands effort of the Campaign for Sea History which is now going forward. A main focus of this effort must surel y be to see that these priceless and indeed irreplaceable theres of the voyaging experience are there in fact for the coming generations-and that they are open to all as the common inheritance of man~~.

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The Man for the Job The Spring issue of Sea History is a well deserved tribute to merchant mariners .

There 's an important omission, however, in the account you give of the capture of U-505. Your story makes it sound as if the Pillsbury and her officers and men did the whole thing. The fact is that Rear Admiral Dan Gallery, then commanding the Guadalcanal attack group, which included the DEs Chatelain and Pillsbury, coordinated and led the whole thing. Some accounts say that Dan Gallery himself was the first to go below in the sub. I'm seeking verification of this.

I knew Dan Gallery slightly and he was just the man for the job.

JOHN KENNADA Y Castine, Maine The Fifth Ship I take issue concerning the story in your Spring issue (SH 35 , p41) concerning the capture of U-505 . There were five Destroyer Escorts involved in the capture of U-505 . The Nueunzer , Flaherty, Pillsbury , Chatelain (my ship), the carrier CVC Guadalcanal and a fifth ship whose name escapes me . All ships received the Presidential Unit Citation.

My ship towed the U-505 up and down the East Coast on display before it was towed to Chicago and sunk in cement for exhibition.

JOHN I. JACOBS , USNR Manchester, New Hampshire Our sources indicate that there were indeed five DEs involved with the capture of U-505 : the Pope, Pillsbury, Chatelain, Flaherty and Jenks. In addition to these vessels and the carrier Guadalcanal were the tug Abnaki and tanker Kennebec.No mention of the Nueunzer, however.-ED.

Sins of Omission ...

Waiting in a dentist's office is not one of life 's more pleasurable events, but reading (in my case, for the first time) SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

such a first-rate magazine as Sea History , makes it a little more enjoyable. As a matter of fact I enjoyed every article in SEA HISTORY 36, including the one by Governor Baldwin about the Connecticut River- more so, probably , because the story begins at the Griswold Inn , which has eighteen paintings by Antonio Jacobsen.

I am not entirely impartial to the history of the sea, since my grandfather was Antonio Jacobsen , who spent a lifetime painting ships. He died before I was born and my father died before I could fully absorb his stories of his father. Over the past fifteen years I have been faced with the task of gaining knowledge about a relative I never knew .

I would like to know if yo ur journal has ever published an article on Antonio Jacobsen. Any assistance you can give me in this matter will be greatly appreciated .

ALFRED T . JACOBSEN Pearl Ri ver, New York

We haven't .. .yet. But the Smith Gallery (1045 Madison Avenue, NYC, NY 10021) publishes an excellent newsletter which has featured the work of Antonio Jacobsen, among others . Please let us know what you uncover in your own searches .-ED.

I enjoy your admirable journal, but it has a lack . Why do you restrict your interests to relatively modern times?

I am an aficionado of oared galleys , and in fact I have authored several hi storical movel s on the subject. Fleet Surgeon to Pharoah was a reconstruction of the first circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenicians as told by Herodotus. The second was laid in the Hellenistic era, the climax being the amphibious assault on Syracuse led by Marcellus.

How about art and texts on the oared ships? If you can' t publish such yourselves , can you tell me where to find non-technical books on the subject?

SHELDON A. JACOBSON , MD Vancouver, Washington

if only we could rectify all our wrongs so quickly! (See " Reconstructing the Greek Trireme.' ' ) The subject as a whole wants more enthusiasts, and we' re reaching for them. In the meantime, try Ernie Bradford's Ulysses Found, a magnificent account of navigational archeology on a par with the master, Thor Heyerdahl.-ED. SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

... And Commission who refers to the Goodwins "where the With reference to the editor's comment carcasses of many a tall ship lie buried'' at the head of my article in SH 35 (The Merchant of Venice , Act 111, Scene ("RSMA Annual Exhibition"), I do not /) . On this side of the herring pond we propose to comment either on my spel- think it fair to say any vessel engaged in ling of " jail " or "gaol," which is per- serious training of young people at sea fectly admissible, or on the punctuation stands tall in our eyes! For more of Mr. and non-sequiturs which followed from Hurst and his works, please see page 6, his/her cuts and expurgations, but now this issue.-ED. draw attention to two expressions which are frequently used wrongly both in this Some Pretty Vivid journal and elsewhere today.

Recollections, Indeed I refer, first, to the incorrect descrip- The Seamen's Recognition issue of SEA tion: "sail-training" ships, since I doubt HISTORY was perfectly stunning. And it if there is such a one afloat today . The delivered a message that is long overdue. training ships are "school ships, " and I went overseas and back twice in so the leading ones describe themselves World War II in convoys. The first time (e.g. Skoleskib , Navia Escola, Schul- I was on a Rotterdam-South American schi.ffe, etc.) A "sail-training" ship was Line dry cargo freighter with limited a cargo-carrying vessel specially fitted passenger accommodations. Her name for the carriage of a relatively large was Alpharatz, and we sailed from Nornumber of cadets as distinct from appren- folk in August 1943 . Thirty-six days later tices, usually carrying instructors and we landed in Alexandria. As I remember equipped with classrooms. These in- the convoy had something like sixty or cluded the Norddeutscher Lloyd Herzo- seventy ships. The ship being Dutch was gin Sophie Carlotte and Herzogin kept immaculately clean as you can imCecilie; the Devitt & Moore training agine, and the food was excellent.

I came home on sick leave in 1944 on ships; the Abraham Rydberg and a a Liberty ship whose name I've comnumber of others .

A vessel which carries cadets but not pletely forgotten. We got caught in what cargo is a "schoolship ." Soon after I I later found out was the '44 hurricane . joined the Council of the Sai l-Training I knew it was a bad storm, but did not Association in thi s country, I issued a realize it was a hurricane . The ship was memorandum pointing out its misnomer. making very heavy weather of it , and This was agreed in Council, and put to enormous seas were coming aboard. I the Annual General Meeting, where the was looking aft from our accommodamotion bungled . Thus the erroneous title tions in the midship' s island and I rehas stuck to it , but that is no reason for member seeing green water through the port light which looked out over number others to fall into the same error.

So the term " tall ships" has also come four and five hatches. When the water into almost universal usage. It is neither cleared, the after cargo mast together a seamanlike one , nor was it used in the with its booms, winches and both Carley days of sail. The late Archie Horka took floats had disappeared .

In January I 945 I returned to Europe equal objection to it, to name but one well known to your readers . (That aboard the old Mariposa. We crossed Masefield called for a " tall ship and a without convoy, but escorted at top speed star to steer her by" was probably the from Norfolk to Naples with 2500 men worst thing he ever did , and solely in on board. I was in an inside stateroom the interests of scansion! " Lofty" would on D Deck aft right over the shaft tunnel hardly have fit hi s verse , although cor- and opposite the latrine with seven other men . It took us twenty minutes to get on rect.)

We now see small ketches , schooners deck . I often wondered what would have and the like described as " tall ships," happened had we been torpedoed . After which is quite absurd. Let us have no the war was over I came back on a Vicmore of it in SEA HISTORY , please , on tory ship and landed in Baltimore. pain of being sent to jail or gaol-it I have some pretty vivid recollections makes no odds which, so long as it is of the Atlantic in wartime. It really is incredible that there has never been any rigorous. official notice taken of the merchant serALEX A. HURST Brighton , England vice in World War II. Certainly in England the merchant seaman have received Mr. Hurst should remember that he has full praise. to take on not only that Cape Horn sailorTHOMAS HALE, President man John Masefield in this matter of tall Martha 's Vineyard Shipyard ships, but also William Shakespeare, Vineyard Haven , Massachusetts 5

QUERIES & CORRECTIONS Does anyone know of any still ope ratin g freighters of over 2,000 dwt, built before 1940? Whi le researching a book on the last tramp frei g hters, I di scovered very few except for Great L akes bulk carriers, of which there are a fair numbe r.

Any information o n existing ships (excluding the Lakes ships) would be appreciated .

Mike Kri eger P .O . B ox 27 Orcas , WA 98280 In reference to " Last of the Liberti es" (S H 35) , the Georgios F. Andreadis was laid up in Piraeus in 1971 , and le ft on 26 June this year in to w fop Split where she has been so ld to Yugo slav breakers.

Alwy n M cMillan P .O . Box 385 Dunedin Ne w Zeala nd For a book on the role of Canton Island , Phoenix Group , South Pacific Ocean , in World War II and today , I am interested in heari ng from survivors of the SS Pres ident Taylor wrecked there March 13, 1942 , anyone from the destroye r that attempted to sa lvage her , and anyone from US Army Task Force 5602 .

Richard Sexto n 817 Wilmot Road Scarsdale , NY I 05 83 I am "interested in obtaining manufacturers trials photographs or artists paintings of earl y American tugboats.

Ri chard K. Dickinson , MD 753 James Stree t Syracuse , NY 13203 In S H 36, we inadvertently changed a line of the World Ship Trust Report. The last line of the first paragraph should read " in Ebeltoft on the east coast o f Denmark .. . " (our italics). W e apolog ize for the error. w

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PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENT The Nationa l Mari time Historical Society announces publicatio n of three important- indeed unique -new books destined to become class ics in our fi eld . These books, which we have reviewed in proof , can be ordered from the Society for Christmas de li very .

The Maritime History of the World,

by Duncan Haws and A lex A . Hurst. 2 vols., size 12" x 8314", 960 pages, over 200 illustrati o ns incl udin g 62 color plates. $120.

The renowned author/sailorman Alex Hurst teamed up with Duncan Haws, a younger author of some note who had compiled a uni versal chronology of seafaring. The result, impass ioned , co lorful , frequentl y controversial, but found ed on far-reaching and detailed research and in vesti gati on, is thi s monumental book. Summary chapters break up the -chronological fl ow to place the ships, people and events in the whole story of the development of humankind . Beautifull y produced , these large volumes include an extensive and superbl y reproduced portfo lio of marine art, including several works by modem masters specificall y commissioned fo r thi s history.

Stobart, by John Sto bart w ith Robert P .

Davis. Size 15 1/z'' x 12", 208 pages, 60 full-page color illustrations, 50 sketches and drawings , maps. $75.

The leading marine arti st of our day here sets forth the hard facts, illuminating ex periences and growing achievements of his. li fe and bril. liant career. Followin g thi s is a rich collecti on of the artist's work , presented in full -color, fin e-art printing with extensive notes.

Stobart ' s work has foc used on the seaports

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SEND ORDER TO NMHS , 132 MAPLE STREET, CROTON-ON-HUDSON , NY 10520 DISCOUNT THEREAFTER * RATES APPLY FOR NEW NMHS MEMBERS , TOO.

THE CAMPAIGN for SEA HISTORY: NMHS Establishes Endowment Fund Through the generosity of NMHS trustees bene fittin g the Society. A bequest ca n be Barbara Johnson and A. T . Pouch, Jr. , an a sum of money, shares of stock , or other endowment fund has been set up to ensure property ; or it can be all or a porti on of the future of the National Society . what remains after other gifts have bee n made . For more information call or write: This fund is especiall y suitable for beJohn H. Reill y, Jr. , Esq. quests, and members may want to consider cl o National Maritime Historical Society leaving a gift to the NMHS. Bequests of Mr. Re ill y , an attorney and tru stee of the thi s sort can decrease or eliminate Federal Society , will answer your questi ons. and State estate and inheritance taxes whil e

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International Register of Historic Ships, by Norman J. Brouwer. Size 11 " x 83/4", 368 pages , 400 illustrati o ns. $28.95 Over 700 vessels are recorded in thi s authoritati ve listing of the histori c ships of the world . Bas ic data such as date and place of build , the present conditi on and use, as we ll as a brief history, are given fo r each. Most are accompanied by photographic illustrations, and more than fo rty outstanding examples are discussed in depth . The register, a projec t of the World Ship Trust, the Nati onal Marit ime Museum in England , and the National Maritime Historical Society, has been over twenty years in the making. It authoritati vely describes our patrimony in hi stori c ships, and its publication is a mil estone in the study of maritime history. Indispensable as a reference , it makes excellent reading.

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and ri verports that built America in the nineteenth centu ry. His technique demands a total im mers ion in the histories of these tow ns and cities , which affords the arti st and viewer alike a stimulating fresh view of the portsseen not romanticall y, but with realism and a generous salti ng of humor. This handsome book is an ex uberant affi rmation of a notab le career in art , and of some remarkabl e episodes in the development of the modern American nati on.

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Reservatwns Preferred

• CHARTER THE CAPE ISLANDER Available for Family Outmgs

and Special Parties.

Mixed Drinks, Beer and Snacks Served on Board

518·274-2545 8

THE

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NY

Or visi t our Co ld Spring Information Center and Gift Gallery.

SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

Canal barges, a sloop and two schooners figure in this quiet summer morning scene as the Mary Powell comes steaming out of the Hudson Highlands 0 11 her way t0Ne1v York City . Painting by William C. Muller, available asa print from Mystic Seaport Museum Stores , Mystic CT06355

THE LORDLY HUDSON: "But the Rhine has no Mary Powell!"

by Peter Stanford "The lordl y Hudson"-that's what that grand old man Ray Baldwin , much beloved former governor of Connecticut, called the river that large ly built and today defines , with its tributaries and cana l-connected waterways , the State of New York . And with hi s fine ear for Americana , Governor Baldwin was merely enunciating a concept of the river that is widely shared-a persona , as it were, for the 320-mile river, which in its lower reaches is truly a fjord or sa ltwater branch of the sea. From the sea it marches inland , embracing New York , th e New World's greatest city, flanked on the west by the rising splendor of the Pali sades-which begin across the way from the many-towered c ity, and fade away as th e waterway broadens out into the inland seas of Tappan Zee and Haverstraw Bay-then fo llows a narrow , twisting path through the precipitous Hudson Highlands , and then a long fairly straight run to A lbany, 145 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean , and thence , past the dam at Troy , where there is still a four-foot ri se and fall in the tide, to its so urce in Lake Tear of the Clouds in the wi ld country of the Adirondack Mountains.

This Hudson River was from the earliest days an avenue of trade and line of advance for raiders and encroaching armies , Indian , French, British and finall y, SEA HI STORY , AUTUMN 1985

American-and from its pastoral beginnings it became a power base for the industrial and commercial growth which supported, on its smoky , clanging processes, the glories and refinements and sheer exuberance of America 's Gilded Age-an age surely represented at its best in th e river steamboats which bore patricians and ordinary families to and fro upon its broad , shining, ever-shifting bosom. Of the steamboats, the Mary Powell , which had a remarkable run (with frequent rebuildings) from the Civil War period past the era of World War I, was the paragon and paddlewheeler par excellence of all the rest.

But it was not just the boat , excellent and long-lived , fast and elegant as she was , that led a sophisticated traveler, Ja ckaline Ring's Claddagh sails by the Hudson House, waterfro111 hotel in Cold Spring.

Captain Ja ckie's dinn ers afloat are famous.

noting that the Hudson was often compared to Germany' s mountain-penetrating Rhine River, to exclaim: " But the Rhine has no Mary Powell!" No , it was not the boat alone , but all that brought her into being and supported her, the civi li zation that conceived her and prized her , all that went into her building and steaming, and even what we see in her today-for the say ing remains true long after the boat herself is gone, her keel embedded in the mud of Rondout Creek.

* * * * *

The Indians camped for millenia on its banks , eating the rep uted foot-long oysters nurtured in its brackish waters and catching the abundant fish , and to a degree we haven ' t fully learned yet, they apparently used it as a conduit for canoeborne trade. The first settlers in the valley were , as the chances of European politics and the opening of the Atlantic world would have it , Dutch merchants who built trading posts that soon developed into cities on the island of Manhattan at its mouth , and at Albany, where the Mohawk River flow s in from the broad uplands to the west to provide another natural avenue of trade. The Mohawk was also the thoroughfare through which the inland nations of the Iroqui s confederation pushed eastward , bullying the Mahicans and several other New York tribes of rather peaceful bent into leaving 9

ONTARIO

Albany

MASS.

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â&#x20AC;˘ Poughkef psie

New York, the Empire State-a state laced together by its waterways-was built by traders stumbling ashore to barter with the Indians.

They found their way inland by the Hudson and Mohawk rivers and their numerous tributaries. Canal-building greatly extended this transportation network from the 1820s onward, and connected it up with Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, the Saint Lawrence, and, by way of the Delaware and the Susquehanna, with the Delaware and Chesapeake bays. After a period of drastic decline, the waterways of the State are again being looked at for various mixed uses- not least for sheer refreshment . (For a more close-up view of the Hudson River, and a listing of its cultural resources, see page 20.)

for the Connecticut River valley to resume their life patterns on another big river-all too briefly, as the European incursion first upset and within two or three generations destroyed the independent Indian nations through disease, warfare and assimilation .

For the Dutch and English entering New York and going up the Hudson (which they used as an access corridor, while a few French explorers came down the other way from the St. Lawrence, via the Richelieu River and Lake Champlain), the Indians were not savages to be "civilized" or abolished; they were trading partners, pure and simple. This was the Dutch ethos, whose trading and navigating prowess put them in the vanguard of seventeenth-ceritury mercantile powers-a largely live-and-let-live philosophy of solid, relatively peaceable burghers bent on acquiring Indian hunter-trapper products (mainly furs) to be sold in the Dutch home market which served as entrepot to all Europe.

The first settl'ement on the Croton

10

"

"It supported, on its smoky,

clanging processes, the glories and refinements and sheer exuberance of America's Gilded Age. '' River was not a farm , but a rural shooting-box for a wealthy New York merchant family! The Van Cortlandts did not want to plow the land or worship God in a new Eden , but to grow rich in the city that thrived on Indian trades.

One sees the farming population that did eventually grow up on Long Island and along the banks of the Hudson coming in from the existing New England settlements-not from the urban oceantraders of Nieuw Amsterdam . After the English gained the upper hand in the Anglo-Dutch wars of the mid-seventeenth century the young Dutch burgh settled into its freewheeling role as America's noisiest, most libertarian and most contentious city, New York.

I

CONN.

This atmosphere of tolerance and widely noted unruliness bred up a unique maritime culture in New York. Professor Bob Albion (author of The Rise of New York Port , and much else besides- see SEA HISTORY 33 , page 8) examined this with us in the first James Monroe lecture , in 1968. He said: " You have to posit an X factor to explain New York ' s takeoff in the period right after the Revolution.

The location of the port, or any 'natural' advantage doesn ' t do it alone . You have to find something in the people- their way of going at things . " New York's position as the first city of the Americas has been sustained by that polyglot, changing population and intensely creative culture through the late twentieth century, when transportation advantages and indeed most of New York ' s maritime pre-eminence itself have passed away.

Finally one must think there is something of those stubborn, contentious merchants and navigators living on in New York today . Hudson in 1609, poking into the river that came to bear his name , was SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

"The location of the port ... doesn't do it alone.

You have to find something in the people-their way ofgoing at things.'' disappointed when he found it , in the end, not a sea passage through the dense forested land that hemmed him in , but after all , a freshwater river. He was bound for the far horizons of CipaJJgu and Cathay-and perished in that continuing quest in Hudson's Bay, far to the north, a few years later. New Yorkers , I believe, have that same restlessness in them , that same vision of some distant Cipangu or Cathay gleaming on their minds.

*****

The working environment of the Sandy Hook Pilots of New York and New Jersey is the flooded entry of the river , which spreads out in sandy, shoal-strewn disarray between the beaches of the Rockaways on Long Island and Sandy Hook in New Jersey. The main ship channel, named for Dr. Ambrose of Brookl yn when it was fin ally dredged and opened in the early years of this century , is the gateway of a mighty port-a port through which came most of our European immigration, and which sent to sea 80 percent of the ships that brought troops and supplies to the liberation of Europe in World War II. Each year, the Pilots, who are brought up via a long apprenticeship , to know every tum in tricky channels and every back eddy off hidden shoals or piers reaching into the river, take a few people along to share their understanding and their joy in harbor navigation and the approaches to New York , and just before thi s went to press I went with them.

We departed the Battery (where the Dutch maintained an ill-kept, ineffective fort in their first years ashore and where the British left a Union Jack atop a greased flagpole when they pulled out in December 1783) and came across the Upper Bay past the Statue of Liberty , swaddled in scaffolding awaiting her rededication next year. It had been the harbor artist John Noble who first showed us , in a memorable lithograph, that she is not standing still , but taki ng a step forward-and we came into Noble's backyard as we swept grandl y into the Kill van Kull , which separates Staten Island from Bayonne to the north. What stories cling to every turning in that crowded industrial waterway! The Army Corps of Engineers bl asted a channel 37 feet deep out of the rock bottom in the 1950s , and will soon perhaps be digging it out to 45 feet to accommodate the supertankers of today. We talked of plans for an offshore port (an idea whose time has probably come, could our masters see it), and we saw an Israeli Zim Line ship that trades fro m Beirut to Singapore

by way of Italy , Spain, New York (of course), ¡ Caribbean and Pacific ports, Japan and Hong Kong-a long way to go! The crew gets less than twelve hours ashore, landing in Port Elizabeth , a landscape out of Star Wars, with only a lonely outpost of the Seamen 's Church Institute to provide a spot of warmth and sentient- no , caring-li fe in a world shaped by and for cyclopean machines.

We passed the giant Witte crane Century, which raised the tug Mathilda when she sank at South Street, and unloaded the same tug safely at the Hudson Ri ver Maritime Center years later-and then was summoned away to raise another tug sunk in Boston!

We passed close aboard the world's biggest containership, the US Lines' new American Nebraska, at the Howland Hook containerport on the backside of Staten Island. We passed by Linoleumville, on the Arthur Kill , where John Noble depicted for the ages the building of the last great American wooden schooners, and by his friend John Witte's yard, a trove of abandoned ships. " You can get anything there ," said the knowing ones. " No matter what kind of ship it came from , Witte 's got it. " "The harbor is still there , it's handling more tonnage than ever," said Monsignor Neil Doherty, a gentleman of the church who is always on deck for maritime occasions. " It's just that no one in the city sees it anymore . It ' s become invisible." We looked up to the towers of the World Trade Center rising across the Jersey marsh grass, grey and insubstanti al in the autumn afternoon sun . They would be wraith-buildings indeed without what's going on there today , I thought. And I .thought: It's our job to make the harbor visible again .

*****

The earl y industries along the Hudson sprang to life to build and supply the seaport city at its mouth . Bricks made in the Haverstraw claypits, bluestone quarried around Kingston , coal pouring in via the Delaware & Hudson Canalthese were the growth industries of 150 years ago . Much was carried by steamboat, but the main traffic on the river until late in the last century was in sail , at first mainly in the great Hudson Ri ver sloops with their huge mai nsails with seventy-foot booms , and increasingly in more easi ly handled schooners. The Stephen Taber , a survivor of the type which sails in Maine waters today (see SEA HISTORY 30, pages 24-26), was a cherished adjunct of fam ily life among her owner-sailors, and her cargo-carrying was interspersed with family outings.

Th e Hudson River Sloop Clearwater (right) educates people in the ways of the river and wages a continuing campaign for the cleanup of its waters and better citizen access to its shores. Write Clearwater, 11 2 Market Street, Poughkeepsie NY 12601.

But the flow of life along the Hudson was upset as the city at its mouth advanced into the industrial era with huge , ungainly strides. It is not just latter-day bewailers of progress who feel this; there was widespread anxiety and anger at the railway when it clamped down on the riverbank, cutting off coves and destroying the old river landings. Worse things followed, as a growing population dumped its sewage in the river, and chemical plants poisoned it. People were increasingly shut off from their waterfronts by midden heaps , parking lots and oil storage tanks as the twentieth century progressed. The mixed commercial and recreational use of the river , and easy access to it for the simple benison of open space and water became wistful memories of an earlier time .

All that is changing now and to that process of needed change this issue of SEA HISTORY is dedicated-with a bow of gratitude to such diverse leaders in this matter as the folksinger Pete Seeger, the Rockefeller family (latter-day patroons who have taken their patroonship as a public trust) , the IBM Corporation (who conduct most of their worldwideone might say world-shaping---operations from the Hudson Valley and its environs), and a growing host of other people , from Tom Boyle, sage and recorder of the natural river and its watermen , to Marita Lopez-Mena, young director of the Hudson River Maritime Center, and Captain William 0 . Benson , honorary curator of the Center, modelmaker, collector and raconteur extraordinaire , whose memories extend to sailing as a young deckhand in the Mary Powell and whose dreams reach forward to the conservation and revival of the priceless traditions of the lordly river, from its earliest Indian navigators to its latest rediscoverer. ..v

'' Queen of the River'' Mary Powe ll, built in 1861 at Jersey City, was the longest, and one of the fastest , vessels on the Hudson until the building of the New York in 1887, the year before this picture was taken . Here she is seen at her home port of Rondout .from which she operated throughout her fifty- six year career. Photo courtesy John F. Matthews collection.

The Hudson River Port of Rondout Th.e Hudson River, through a happy combination of geography and eco nomics, has been an important artery of commerce virtually from the time of the settlement of the colonies. The advent of the steamboat made it even more so.

The twin factors of geography and economics were also to make the village of Rondout, especially in the 19th century, the most important port between Albany and City of New York .

The geographic location of the Hudson River, together with Lake Champlain and the Mohawk Valley , made it a natural transportation route both to the north and to the west. The rapidly growing City of New York at the river's mouth, with its insatiable demand for products and services , created the economic clout that formed the other.half of the commercial equation.

The conditions that led to the development of Rondout (later to become part of the City of Kingston) as a Hudson River port of prime importance were similar but not identical to those that made the Hudson itself so important. The economic factor of the City of New York and its voracious appetite for the products of commerce was the same; the geographic factor somewhat different. In this instance, it was the Rondout Valley, which extended in a southwest direction from the Hudson towards the Pennsylvania border and which caught the eye of the first canal proponents.

In the early years of the 19th century, when roads were primitive and railroads had not yet appeared on the scene, canals-although expensive and difficult to 12

by Roger W. Mabie construct-were a highly viable means of transport . In the 1820s , a canal was proposed and construction undertaken , its primary purpose being coal from the mines of northeastern Pennsylvania to the tidewaters of the Hudson River and thence , for the most part , New York City .

The canal was named the Delaware & Hudson Canal and when completed extended from Honesdale, Pennsylvania, through the Lackawaxen Valley to the Delaware River , along the Delaware and thence through the Rondout Valley to Rondout Creek at a hamlet called Eddyville, about two-and-a-half miles from the Hudson River. The canal was approximately 108 miles in length with 108 locks. When consideration is given to the period of construction and the primitive equipment available to do it , the project was one of epic proportions. By late 1828, when barges laden with coal first appeared on the Rondout, the stage was set for the beginnings of a major Hudson River port whose lights would not dim for nearly a century.

As the shipments of coal over the D & H Canal increased , so did the size and prosperity of Rondout. In its early years, the village had almost a frontier quality about it. It was a lusty, gung-ho community whose business establishments catered to the needs of the canallers and boatmen. By comparison , the older community of Kingston , located on a plateau about two miles inland, was considered conservative and its inhabitants rather prim and proper. It was said that a man considered sober in Rondout would be

considered a drunkard in Kingston.

Coal , as well as a myriad of other products moved in huge quantities over the canal. In 1859 , for example, over 1.2 million tons of coal were sent to market. Other materials shipped included cement , general merchandise and provisions, leather and hides, stone, brick, lime , g lass and glassware , staves , hooppoles, lath, tanner's bark, plaster, charcoal and millstones. The foregoing items totaled nearly 88,000 tons.

As the pace of maritime activity on Rondout Creek stepped up, so did the opportunities for new enterprises and the rewards to the entrepreneurs who undertook them. The growth of the steamboat, in particular, made river transportation a fertile field. Three gentlemen who enjoyed highly successful careers in steamboating out of Rondout were Thomas Cornell , Absalom L. Anderson and Jacob H. Tremper. Their early activities in their chose field are superbly detailed in Donald C. Ringwald ' s Steamboats for Rondout, an outsanding chonicle of the first thirty-five years of a growing port , published by the Steamship Historical Society of America in 1981.

At the start of the 1860s, activity at the port of Rondout was probably at its zenith. The three aforementioned steamboatmen brought out three new steamboats built exclusively for the Rondout/ New York service: Tremper' s James W. Baldwin and Anderson ' s Mary Powell, both in 1861; and in 1863, Cornell's Thomas Cornell. Upon their introduction , they were the finest steamers on the Hudson. The Baldwin and the PowSEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

"It was said that a man considered sober in Rondout would be considered a drunkard in Kingston." ell had exceptionally long lives of fifty years or more and the Powell became probably the best known of all Hudson River steamboats.

In addition to anthracite coal, there were other products indigenous to the area which contributed to Rondout' s continuing prosperity as the 19th century matured . Natural ice , brick manufacturing , Rosendale cement, Ulster County bluestone and agricultural products, all in demand to meet the needs of the exponential growth of New York City , are examples. Since virtually all of these products were most easily transported by water, the need for vessels to freight them gave rise to an impressive shipbuilding and transportation network .

Before the advent ¡of electricity, ice was a commodity in great demand for food preservation , especially during the summer months. Due to its relative proximity to metropolitan New York, the Hudson north of Poughkeepsie (where the river is free of salt) , was a prime source of the ice for the New York market. It has been said that along the river north of the ' ' bridge city'' one was never out of sight of an icehouse , those huge double-walled (the void fill ed with sawdust) wooden structures that housed the winter' s crop of ice .

Normally, the upper Hudson would freeze over in mid-December and when the ice had reached a thickness of ten or twelve inches , generally in late January or early February, it would be harvested

and stored , to be shipped downriver by barge during the warm-weather months.

Although there were at least three icehouses along Rondout Creek, Rondout's principal connection with the ice business was the construction and repair of ice barges in the shipyards that bordered the Creek between the Hudson and the D & H Canal.

Brick manufacturing was another large Hudson River industry , there being over l 00 brickyards along the river between Haverstraw and Coeymans during the heyday of this enterprise. It was an industry that owed its success to three principal factors-an abundance of clay deposits at various locations along the riverbanks ; the river itself, which offered an easy and convenient way of shipping the bricks; and the rapidly growing City of New York which used Hudson River common brick literally by the millions in the construction of the city. A large concentration of brickyards existed between Kingston Point and Saugerties, and the Rondout Creek shipyards built and repaired a major portion of the scows, used by these and other brick manufacturers along the river.

Limestone existed in substantial quantities along the banks of the upper Hudson and a form known as natural cement was found in relatively large deposits in the vicinity of Rosendale and north of the village of Rondout. During the latter half of the 19th century , a number of companies came into ex istence to mill

and market this cement, which possessed great strength when fully cured or hardened. Rosendale Cement was used in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Ulster County bluestone was another native product. Quarried in an area northwest of Kingston , the stone was naturally fissured so that large , fairly thin slabs could be obtained. Before the introduction of Portland cement, much of the stone was carted to the shores of the Creek from where it would be shipped by scow, to become New York City sidewalks and curbing.

Although a railroad along the east shore of the Hudson from New York to a point opposite Albany was was completed as early as 1852 , a railroad along the west shore did not reach Kingston from the metropolitan area until three decades later. Ten years prior to this, however, a railroad had been completed from Rondout into the Catskill Mountains as far as Stamford , New York and another from Kingston southwest through the Wallkill valley . These railroads, especially the latter, forged a direct link with the steamboats out of Rondout for carrying downriver freight (to a large extent agricultural) and people .

Then as now , Delaware County was known for its dairy products and southern Ulster County for its fruit growing. The night boats out of Rondout carried both in huge quantities for the New York market. If it was not a time of wine and

Steamboats at Rondout Landing , typical of so many of the do cks from which people and goods boarded ships and ferries in the last century . The C. A. Schultz (foreground) was a local, carrying passengers to hamlets along Rondout Creek, while the William F. Romer was part of the Romer and Tremper line between New York and Kingston . Though she does not loom too large here, note the massive walking beam, tall dark single stack, and the broad and deep paddlebox: elements of an imposing power. Photo Hudson River Maritime Center, Saulpaugh Collection.

roses, it was one of milk, butter, cheese and apples, peaches , pears and grapes.

During that period , when a steamboat accident occurred, the local newspaper would note the principal cargo being carried in its account. For instance, when the night steamer Thomas Cornell met its end by running up on Danskammer Point (north of Newburgh) in March 1882, mention was made that her main cargo had been Delaware County butter.

In June 1886, the Cornell's successor, City of Kingston, ran down and sank a darkened sloop off Manitou. The paper mentioned that the principal item on the steamer's freight deck was Hudson Valley strawberries.

The new railroad-steamboat connection to the Catskills also gave rise to the building of hotels in the mountains. The stifling heat of summer caused New Yorkers to seek relief at either the seashore or the mountains , and the Catskills were the closest, most readily accessible mountains. Passengers in large numbers journeyed to and from their mountain retreat via the Rondout night boats, or the Rondout day steamer Mary Powell, with connections via the Ulster & Delaware Railroad. In 1896 , the Hudson River Day Line moved their landing from Rhinecliff to the newly built landing at Kingston Point, to which the railroad's tracks were extended to make a dockside connection with the Day Liners. Over the next three decades, the flow of passengers reached floodlike proportions.

These diverse maritime activites naturally required vessels of a variety of types . Shortly after the opening of D &

H Canal in the late 1820s , shipyards--0r boatyards as they were called Iocallycame into being on both the north and south shores of Rondout Creek for the building and repair of the canal boats, barges, scows, lighters, sloops, schooners and tugboats used to transport Rondout or Hudson River cargoes.

For a full century, a prodigious number of vessels first became waterborne on the Rondout. The ring of the caulker's mallet, the whine of the band saw, the thud of the bull gang's mauls against wedges on launching day , the smell of freshly cut yellow pine, the odor of oakum and hot pitch, and the humid aroma of steam escaping from the large steam boxes used to make timbers pliable were sounds and smells that were once as common along Roundout Creek as the rise and fa ll of the tide.

Since most of the cargoes that made the Rondout a major Hudson River port were ones that required towage, towboats and tugboats became a major local industry. In an age of unbridled free enterprise, probably Rondout's most successful entrepreneur was the earlier mentioned Thomas Cornell. Although he engaged in a variety of commercial activities, including railroading, his most enduring enterprize was undoubtedly the Cornell Steamboat Company.

Starting in 1839, Thomas Cornell engaged in ever widening activities in the operation of both steamboats and towing vessels out of Rondout. Cornell, later with his son-in-law Samuel D. Coykendall, eventually concentrated exclusively on towing and in time had a virtual

monopoly of towing on the Hudson River. At its peak, their enterprise had a fleet of over sixty towboats and tugboats, extensive maintenance shops on Rondout Creek, and it was the largest marine towing company in the nation .

Although not by design, the company also became a sort of preparatory school for would-be steamboat captains, pilots and engineers, most of whom started their steamboat careers as deckhands or firemen on a Cornell towboat or tugboat.

All things come to an end. So did the glory days of Rondout as a port of consequence. High noon probably took place shortly after the Civil War, with twilight setting in a decade later. Following the War between the States, the rapid growth of railroads soon made the transportation of coal by rail both more economical and efficient. The carrying of coal via the D & H Canal diminished year by year, and the canal was sold in 1899. It was kept operable as far as Rosendale for a few years more and then closed altogether.

With the introduction of electricity , the manufacture of artificial ice became possible; and starting in the 1920s, the home electric refrigerator rendered the old-fashioned icebox obsolete. By the end of World War I, gone were the familiar Hudson River tows of ice barges with their windmill-driven pumps for removing the melted ice from the bilge, as the tow moved downriver. Most of the huge icehouses were either dismantled or went up in spectacular conflagrations.

The brickyards vani shed one by one due to changing methods of construction , the use of cinder blocks and ready-mixed

Part of the Cornell Steamboat Company fleet , including the towboats Pittston and Silas 0. Pierce (see also photo on page 15 ), laid up on the ice-bound Rondout Creek . The multi-story building with porches is the Daily Freeman Building, which housed the offices of the D & H Canal Company, and which is today part of the restored Rondout. Photo Hudson River Maritime Center, Saulpaugh Collection.

A photo of Rondout Creek looking west or upstream. The bridge is the trestle of the West Shore Railroad, completed in I 882, and the photo was probably taken shortly thereafter.

Paddling upstream , towards the D & H Canal entrance, is the towboat Silas 0 . Pierce with a canal boat alongside. Photo courtesy John F . Matthews collection .

concrete, and in some cases the depletion of the clay banks. Where there were once over a hundred brickyards in the Hudson Valley, today there is only one. The introduction of Portland cement around the turn of the century, with its fast drying or curing, effectively brought down the curtain on the widespread use of Rosenda le cement and bluestone .

In the interwar period , the rapid growth of the automobile, the use of motor trucks with their door-to-door pickup and delivery, and the construction of highways to accomodate them carried away virtually a ll of the fre ight and agricultural products that were once borne by the steamboat. The family auto and new highways gave individuals a mobility never before possible and changed foreve r the vacation patterns of generations. The northern Catskills became largely passe as a prime vacation retreat.

Shipbuilding sputtered on along the Rondout , helped primarily by the construction of minesweepers, submarine chasers and tu gboats at two of the surviving yards durin g World War II , and by the bui lding of minesweepers, barges and landing craft during the Korean War. Shortly thereafter both yards ceased operations. The Cornell Steamboat ComSEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

pany di sappeared from the scene in 1958.

Today , Rondout Creek is devoted almost entirely to marinas harboring broods of privately owned sailboats and motorboats . The commercial activity consists of a stone quarry a mile-and-ahalf upstream , a barge repair yard , a boat shop and rigging loft at the Hudson Ri ver Maritime Center, and the operation of a tour and cruise boat- the Marion T. Budd-during the summer months.

From its birth as a port, brought about by the opening of the D & H Canal in 1828, until its decline roughl y a century later, coincident with the onset of the

Great Depression of the 1930s, the Rondout had a robust and colorful history, It is fittin g that the Maritime Center, now in its fi fth year, should be located on Rondout Creek , at what was once the center of the village of Rondout , to preserve for future generations photographs , artifacts and memorabilia of a highly interesting slice of local history and of a Hudson River era that is all but forgotten . ..J,

..J,

..J,

Mr. Mabie, a director of the Hudson River Maritime Center, is past president of the Steamship Historical Society of America.

15

Cruises on the Hudson River For groups and charter pa rti es From West Havers traw, West Point, and Peekskill

Dinners and Corporate Outings For furt her inform ati on ca ll or w rit e:

Hudson Highlands Cruises &. Tours, Inc. P.O. Box 265

Highl and Falls N Y 10928

HUD..50N l-IOUSE A Country Inn

T el. 9 14-446-717 1

VISIT HISTORIC UPTOWN KINGSTON

Fine dining and lodging in a resto red 1832 Histo ric Landmark .

Ya nkee Doodle S unday Brunch , Ha lf-Moo n Ba r, C o unt ry Ga rden, Renta l bicycles , Sail ing C ruises, 14 Antique -fill ed guest rooms, Major C redit Ca rds, Open 7 Days.

CRUISE THE HISTORIC. SCENIC HUDSON RIVER. SIGHTSEEING. LUNCHEQNS. DINNER CRUISES. AND PRIVATE CHARTER TRIPS

Sailing cruises on the Hudson aboard U.S. documented yacht ttCladdagh" a 32'Mariner ketch, skippered by licensed U.S. Coast Guard Captains. Six passengers per outing. Inquiries, reservations & brochure through: Hudson House 2 Main Street Cold Spring, N.Y. 10516 (914) 265-9355 16

m/ v MARION T. BUDD Rondout Landing Kingston. NY. 12401

CALL FOR INFORMATION AND RESERVATIONS: 914 255-6515

Located on the Rondout Creek Waterfront. the living museum features large floating and land displays inc luding an exhibit hall. boat shop and gift shop.

Visit the Kingston Lighthouse as part of th'is historical, nautical district.

Let your Ulster County experience begin in Kingston with visits to the historic Stockade area and Rondout Landing ...then discover the rest of UJster County and it's charm.

For additional vacation information. write: ULSTER COUNTY Public Information Office Box 1800 .s Kingston. New York 12401

SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

THE HUDSON RIVER MARITIME CENTER

by Marita Lopez-Mena, Executive Director

Hudson River Maritime Center In 1978, after the loss the year before of the paddlewheel steamer Alexander Hamilton, known as the "White Swan of the Hudson " and the last of her kind, her erstwhile quartermaster William G. Muller wrote a clarion call to action in SEA HISTORY. In ringing tones he called for " a vitally needed Hudson River Maritime Center at a mid-Hudson port. " He felt, and we agreed, that such a resource was needed to collect fastvanishing records and artifacts of river navigation, and to serve as a rallying point for undertakings and an ultimate harbor for priceless vessels like the Hamilton. " Here , the wonder of the Hudson River sloops, canal boats, and the great floating palace sidewheelers of the exceptionally beautiful and historic region may be brought vigorously into focus, " Muller proclaimed. And the National Society followed where he led, holding meetings up and down the river valley in the winter of 1978-79 to explore possibilities and arouse public interest and support. Our attention centered from the outset on the enchanting but abandoned and weed-grown river port of Rondout. In the following year, 1979, the Society actually sent a task group to Rondout to set up a museum exhibit in a waterfront building lent for the occasion and to hold a waterfront festival which proved a great success and a focus ofcommunity interest and pride.

That autumn the committee that had gathered to help the project set to work to build the Center, and a year later incorporated themselves as the Hudson River Maritime Center, under the leadership of the river historian and steamboat aficionado Arthur G. Adams. The rest is history--a history traced here with intimable verve by the Museum's distinguished young director, who, with help from many willing hands, is ably and joyfully writing a new chapter in Rondout history as she works to recover its lively past.

The soul of the venerable estuary must have been amused to hear that a little museum was struggling to its feet in Kingston , proclaiming itself the savior of Hudson River history. But , in 1980 the Hudson River Maritime Center museum was formally incorporated after many regional meetings, with a stack of correspondence and documents so voluminous as to pollute the mighty river if it were to topple in. The new museum , all full of promise and idealism, nestled down in the decaying Kingston waterfront neighborhood of Rondout.

SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

"Who could resist joining a museum that is having so much fun?"

Captain William 0. Benson aboard the William 0. Benson on the Hudson River.

During the great steam era Rondout was the major port between Albany and New York, but it had fallen upon particularly hard times in the last twenty years.

Now ripe for a comeback with the renewed interest in the waterfront and the river itself, Rondout received the new kid on the block with open arms. Early board meetings decided the museum 's focus would be the steam era, but would not excl ude the rest of the river's long, rich history. The fabled steam era lives on in the people of Kingston today as if it were trul y only yesterday. So many Kingstonians and their families worked on the river and remember the great steamboats, that the new museum was destined to become a gathering place for all the oldtimers.

When I joined the museum as a volunteer in 1981 , one of the first of these people that I was to meet was Captain William 0. Benson. Captain Benson has spent hi s life on the river as a captain and pilot and is famous for his near total recall of those times. He would reminisce and soon I would be so entranced with his stories that I could almost see the creek crowded with steamboats. I would hear the whistles, see the paddlewheels churning, marvel at the power of the

walking-beam engines, and feel the crush of the crowds waiting in line to buy their tickets for the journey to New York City. The end of a story would swirl away with his pipe smoke and I would be left sadly aware that I could never see those wonderful sights. Captain Benson' s stories kept me going as a volunteer, and after two years I became a staff member. I renew my commitment to the museum and its purposes whenever I hear him make those days on the river come alive again for the many children who visit the museum every year.

All the educational programs in the world will never replace the power of the storyteller.

The museum began to attract crowds of people to its storefront exhibit hall by mounting marine art and river history exhibitions such as the 1982 Anton Otto Fischer Exhibition and the 1983 Cornell Steamboat show. The directors realized that their hopes were being fulfilled , and that it would be wise to purchase a waterfront building very quickly to accommodate the museum ' s growth. The facility known as Rondout Landing was purchased in 1982. It needed major renovation to house the museum' s growing collection, staff, volunteers, and membership .

Tenants from the marine trades were brought in to create a boat shop and rigging loft. This arrangement has proved to be a successful way to generate a little operating money while allowing the public an opportunity to view craftsmen plying their trades in a real-life commercial situation . The shop is full of projects ranging from high-tech catamarans to

The McAllister Brothers steam tug Mathilda of 1898 on display at the HRMC.

As often happens, the interest and concern that gathered around the maritime center, has reached out to revitalize the neighboring historic buildings and areas. At right is the Daily Freeman Building and beyond a handsome row, which in 1978 was abandoned and threatened with demolition (SH 11 , p4) .

museum quality restorations of wooden boats. The rigging loft is the place to step back in time with the all-permeating odor of pine tar , the neat rope coils and the traditional riggers' too ls in use.

In the meantime Rondout itself was coming alive with old buildings sporting freshly painted facades, and a new park with a gazebo appeared on what was once a litter-filled parking lot. The museum held two outdoor festivals in those early days with the hope of luring visitors into Rondout and the museum . First a spring rite called the Shad Festival. The local fishermen donated freshl y caught shad (yes, they ' re safe to eat), the ferry sloops Woody Guthrie and Sojourner Truth sailed to our dock , sloop singers sang their best sea shanties, the fi sh was panfried for the crowd , and an annual event was born. Then , in the autumn , the lovely Hudson River sloop Clearwater sailed into the creek to the museum fo r the Pumpkin Festival. Clearwater travel s up and down the river every October with a cargo of pumpkins piled on the deck for the valley's children to buy . They make me feel like a kid again , seeing the circus for the first time . The hundredfoot sloop ghosts up to the bulkhead earl y in the morning when the mist is still hovering over the water, and the crew begiris rolling the fat pumpkins into the yard.

Then the fire is built for the stone soup cauldron, the banners go up , the booths appear, and two thousand children arrive to sing, dance, clamber all over the boat and the crew, and learn about their river.

Who could resist joining a mu seum that is having so much fun ?

Then in 1983 South Street Seaport Museum donated the 1898 steam tu g Mathilda to the museum . After sinking at the Museum in 1976, Mathilda had been sitting forlornly out on the end of Pier 92 in the Hudson River. We were in need of a wonderful old steam tu g to make us feel like a real maritime museum , so we lobbied hard and they graciously gave her to us. The negotiations were helped along by that grand gentleman, Mr. James P. McAlli ster, who continues to keep an eye on hi s favorite tug . The use of a McAllister tug and the Witte heavy lift crane Century were donated to effect the move from New York to Rondout. The monster derrick , largest in the Western hemisphere, traveled up the river during the night bearing our Mathilda , rather like Cleopatra cruising up the Nile into Mark 18

Antony's eager embrace . (At least this is the way we saw it. ) Half of Kingston crowded into Rondout for this event , and held its collective breath while the valiant crane crew hoisted our heavy beauty out into a suddenly diminished yard . When everyone started breathing again , a great cheer went up . The cheer was to be repeated agai n when another lovely Matilda (Cuomo) rechristened the tug as an educational display for the people of the State at Rondout Landing's Ded ication Day. The tug is now a neighborhood landmark and symbolizes the museum's very idea of itself: hard working , good looking , built to last---even jaunty.

All those positive adjectives apply to the Maritime Center. And positive we are. We have a long way to go, but in five short years we have made progress to be proud of. We have an exhibit hall , archives, boat shop and ri gging loft, a growing collection , a fled gling oral hi story program , a small staff, and enou gh committed volunteers to keep the whole thing afloat. This year we began a special partnership with the City of Kingston to renovate the 191 3 Rondout Lighthouse as a museum . The lighthouse has been leased from the Coast Guard for twenty years and is open to the public on weekends by scheduled boat tours. The future seems bright. Educational programs are in the planning stages , bonds are being forged with other Hudson River groups , and expansion is being di scussed among our growing membership (now over 700 strong). A museum is of course , like any other institution , the sum of the dedicated people who come together with a common goal. More are always welcome--come join us! '1 JOINT MEMBERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT

For those who feel a special affi nity for the heritage of the Hudson River, a special joint membership is offered which will give you the benefits of membership in the National Society and membership in the Hudson River Maritime Centerwhich is the keeper of the keys for the Hudson River and other New York State waterways . This combined membership will bring you SEA HISTORY and the ex cellent FOC'SLE NEWS of the HRMC. If you are already a member of the National Society, please send in an extra $ 10 ($ 1S after December 3 1st) , and yo u will be enrolled as a member of HRMC as well.

If you are not a member of the National Society , send us a check made out to NMHS- HRMC for $30 ($35 after December 31), and you will be enrolled as a member of both organizations.

MANORS

by Dr. Jacob Judd Shortly after the discovery of the Hudson River in 1609 , the Dutch began a regular trade with the Indi ans living in the Hudson Ri ver Valley. Because so many independent traders were active, the Dutch government decided to establish a ¡c ompany with exclusive trading ri ghts to the Hudson Ri ver area . The New Netherland Company came into being with great expectations , but was suppl anted by the more important Dutch West Indi a Company. Primarily concerned with establishing an ongoing fur trade and a naval base from which Dutch vessels could operate, the Company , in 1625-26, made the fatefu l decision to send a small group to establi sh a settlement on Manhattan l s land . It was in the year 1626 that Frederick Philipse , the fou nder of Philipsburg Manor, was born in the small town of Bolswaert in the northern Dutch prov ince of Friesland.

In the short space of twenty-five years the tiny settlement grew to a bustling community already exhibiting its famo us cosmopolitan nature . From the outset settlers had come from many regions of Western Europe in the hope of maki ng a better life for themselves in this hamlet by the sea. Thi s was a re lative ly prosperous community whose econo my was based in fi sh , flour and furs. Although people were willing to come o f the ir own accord there were never enough capable bodies available for the many tasks at hand . Perhaps it was the urge to improve hi s condition in life , combined with an adventurous spirit, that drew the yo un g Philipse to New Amsterdam in the 1650s . He came as an employee of the West India Company in the capac ity of a carpenter. A carpenter in those days was a master architect who could plan , prepare and build any type of stru cture.

New Amsterdam was a veritab le land of opportunity for any person of ambi tion. Philipse soon began to ri se in importance in thi s environment which sought people with skill s , energy and foresight. He traded on his own acco unt with the Indians for furs and with the Virginia settlements for tobacco .

New Amsterdam prospered as a Dutch commercial center in the midst o f English communities to the north and south along the Atlantic seacoast. England had been castin g an anxiotJS eye at this fore ign intruder for a number of years , but internal politica l turmoil prevented her from any further action. After the accession of Charles II in 1660 , the country entered a prosperous period , and the long awaited move against the Dutch colony occurred in 1664.

Because the inhabitants felt that EnSEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

l¡,.

ON THE H UDSON g li sh rule might prove better than that of the Dutch, New Netherland was taken without bloodshed. Frederick Philipse was among the first to swear allegiance to the new rul er and monarch; he actually did ach ieve far more business and political success under the British than he had under the Dutch.

Once the English had taken over, Philipse began to trade openl y with all the Engli sh colonies in America, with the British West Indies , with England herself, and with her far-fl ung outposts in Africa and Indi a. At the same time , his trade with the Indi ans in the Hudson Valley expanded dramatically. Before the end of the decade , Philipse was hai led as the wealthiest man in the colony. Hi s statu s and position in the colony rested on hi s very successfu l trading in profitab le commodities: furniture, needles, pins , cloth , slaves , stockings , lookingglasses , and books are among the many items he imported into the colony .

Philipse ' s ships leaving America carried furs of every descripti on, lumber, tobacco , dyewoods , flour , and rum.

Consistent with the attitudes of the time , a true member of the aristocracy possessed great landholdings, and the Dutch encouraged this by establi shing "patroonships" throu ghout New Netherl and. But thi s experiment proved a fa ilure. The English Crown also estab li shed landed estates in New York . With the aid of sympathetic governors , during the las t quarter of the seventeenth century , vast properties were distributed to outstanding merchants of New York.

Philipse was a leading figure in this and in the 1670s he began to acquire property north of Manhattan Island . Hi s purchases were not made all at once , but were scattered over a twenty-year period.

Hi s interest in the lands on the east side of the Hudson River to the north of Manhattan Island can probably be traced to his com mercial activities in the fl our trade . A vast market existed at that time for milled fl our in the colonies (including the West Indies), as well as in England.

Although fl our was packed for ex port only in New York City, it was milled throughout the colony . Philipse, a man of ac umen, realized that not only cou ld the acq uisti on of property lead to social prestige in itself, but it could be effecti vely exploited for commercial ends. It is not surpri sing to discover th at hi s first purchase north of Manhattan consisted of a small parcel of land , in what is now Yonkers, containing a stream capable of drivin g a fl our mill. Thi s was a first step in the process by which he graduall y acquired a vast estate of over 50,000 acres SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

stretching along the Hudson River from Kingsbridge (in what is now the Bronx) to the Croton Ri ver on the north and extending inl and to the Bronx River.

In 1680, Philipse acquired from the Indi ans a tract of land stretching along the banks of the Pocantico River which, under the Philipses, became the trade center, the Upper Mills. Then, in order to have his vas t purchases consolidated and officiall y recognized, he obtained a Crown patent in 1693 creating the Manor of Philipsburg ..

The Pocantico Tract was ideal for the estab lishment of a milling and trade center. At the point where it emptied into the Hudson, the Pocantico River created a bay suitab le for the safe anchori ng of river sloops. Following the ri ver inland one came to a natural cove which was dredged to provide accommodation for sloops and barges. The cove had a rocky ledge suitab le for building purposes and a natural narrowing of the river provided the perfect location for a dam .

The Pocantico supplied the power for a flour mill built on the northern slope of the cove, the abundant rocks provided ample building materials, and the cove itself provided a natural basi n for the loadi ng and unloading of vessels as well as for ship repairs. The Hudson River provided the gateway to New York C ity and so to all the corners of the globe.

The knowledge , the foresight , and the willpower to weld all these factors into a unified commerc ial complex was provided by Frederick Philipse.

Construction of a mill began soon after he acquired the property. It is a mill, therefore, which is the o ldest known structure at the Upper Mills. The original dam must have come into ex istence at approx imately the same time because it was essential to the operation of the mill .

Almost immed iately upon its completion , the mill was providing Philipse with income, because the location was such that he could acquire grai n directl y from hi s own tenants, convert it into flour , bag and bolt the fl our and load the grain on board the sloops lying alongside the mill . On the return trip the sloops brought household necessities which were sold to the farmers. A thriving enterprise had been carved out of the wi lderness in a short space of time.

A rudimentary dwe lling was added to the property some time later. At that time the small stone house consisted of five rooms and probab ly served as the center from which Philipse checked on hi s tenants and supervised the over-all operations of this commercial center.

*****

Above, a view of the mill drawn by Robert Fink, and below, the mill (left), a stone house and barn as they are today . Illustrations courtesy Sleepy Hollow Restorations.

Under the auspices of Sleepy Hollow Restorations, the reconstructed mill , manor house and outbuildings are open to the public throughout the year. Frederi ck Philipse had chosen a site along the Hudson outstanding in gra ndeur.

This was to be ampl y appreciated by the e minent nineteenth-century American writer, Washington Irving , who purchased one of Phi lipse 's tenant cottages and remade it into his renowned home, Sunnyside . This, too , is under the supervision of Sleepy Hollow Resto rations and open to the public .

Not to be outdone, the Philipse's close New Amsterdam neighbors (a nd soonto-be relatives), the Van Cortlandts, purchased the Hudson River lands to the north of the Croton River , building a res idence on the north bank of Croton near the Hudson shore . By 1750 this became the home of a branch of the Van Cortlandts who resided there unt il the 1940s . Van Cortlandt Restoration at Croton-on-Hudson, consisting of the manor house, grounds, ferry house and kitchen, is the third of the Sleepy Holl ow Restorations.

All three restorations are open year round and in lively fashion display and demonstrate the crafts, trades and 1ife sty les of three eras of Hudson River history . U.

Ja cob Judd is professor of history at Herbert Lehman College , City University of New York and historical consultant for Sleepy Hollow Restorations. He resides, appropriately , on the banks of the Hudson at Ossining , New York.

19

A Guide to the Hudson River Renaissance • Trny

The Hudson River is undergoing a renaissance, and what follows is a small offering of the exhibits and centers to be found on the river, compiled by the good people at Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, (112 Market Street, Poughkeepsie NY 12601, 914/454-7673) , who are themselves a vital part of this renaissance.

1 Schuyler Mansion State Historic site, 27 Clinton Street, Albany , 518/474-3953 .

2 New York State Museum , Empire State Plaza, Albany, 518/474-5877.

3 Bronck House Museum, Greene

Saugerties •

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17 Stony Point Battlefield Reservation , Rte . 9W , Stony Point, 914/ 786-2521.

4 Olana Castle (home of Frederick Church) , Rte . 9G , Hudson, 518/8280135.

19 Van Cortlandt Manor , Sleepy Hol-

6 Hudson River Maritime Center, I Rondout Landing , Kingston, 9141 338-0071 .

7 Senate House State Historic Site, 312 Fair Street, Kingston , 914/3382786 .

8 Mills Mansion State Historic Site Old Post Rd. , Staatsburg, 914/8894100.

9 Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site and Franklin D. Roosevelt Home , Albany Post Rd., Hyde Park, 914/229-9115.

10 Locust

Grove (Samuel Morse (home), 370 South Rd. , Poughkeepsie , 914/454-4500 .

11 Washington Headquarters State Historic Site (Hasbrouck House), 85 Liberty St. , Newburgh, 914/5621195 .

12 Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands , 189 Montgomery St., Newburgh , 914/ 561-2585.

13 Boscobel (States Morris Dyckman home), Rte. 90 Garrison-on-Hudson , 914/265-3638 .

14 Alice and Hamilton Fish Library (Hudson River Reference Collection), P.O . Box 265, Garrison-onHudson, 914/424-3020.

15 U.S. Military Academy and West Point Museum , West Point, 914/ 938-2638 .

20

9W, Bear Mt. Bridge, Bear Mountain, 9141786-2701.

18 Croton Point Park (Clearwater

(Livingston Estate), R.R. I, County Rd. 6, Germantown, 518/537-4240.

.... 10

16 Bear Mountain State Park, Rte.

Co . Historical Society, Rte . 9W, Coxsackie, 5181731-6490 .

5 Clermont State Historic Park

• Poughkeepsie

The Hudson River Day Line offers cruises from Manhattan to Bear Mountain, West Point and Poughkeepsie, May through September, 212/279-5151.

Commander operates out of West Point, 914/446-7171; and the Marion T. Budd out of Kingston, 914/255-6515 .

Great Hudson River Revival), Croton-on-Hudson, 9 14/271-3293. low Restorations , South Riverside Ave. , Croton-on-Hudson 914/6318200.

20 Philipsburg Manor Restoration , Sleepy Hollow Restorations , Rte . 9, North Tarrytown , 914/631-8200.

21 Sunnyside

(Washington Irving home), Sleepy Hollow Restorations , West Sunnyside Ln., Tarrytown, 914/63 1-8200.

22 Hudson River Museum , 511 Warburton Ave ., Yonkers , 914/9634550.

23 Philipse Manor State Historical Site, 26 Warburton Ave. , Yonkers , 914/965-4027.

24 Wave Hill Center for Environmental Studies (Mark Twain home) , 675 West 252nd St., Bronx, 212/549-2055.

25 The Cloisters, Ft. Tryon Park , Manhattan, 212/923-3700.

26 Museum of the City of New York , Fifth Ave. at 103rd St. , Manhattan , 212/534-1672.

27 New York State Historical Society , 170 Central Park West , Manhattan , 212/873-3400.

28 Castle Clinton National Monument , Battery Park , Manhattan , 212/344-7220.

29 Jersey City Library Museum , 472 Jersey Ave. , Jersey City, New Jersey, 201 /547-4515.

30 Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island , Hudson River at the Port of New York and New Jersey , 212/269J., 5755.

SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

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SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

Rejoicing in the Hudson, Its Steamboats & Other Watercraft-and in the Artists Whose Vision Has Added Undying Luster to Its Heritage

by William Gordon Muller

Bill Muller grew up enthralled, as he tells us, by the proud paddle wheel steamers that plashed and hooted their way north past his honeysuckle-embowered vantage point near the north end of Manhattan-steamers bound up the Lordly Hudson!

By age 18 he was steering one, the great Alexander Hamilton. He went on to become a founder of the American Society of Marine Artists and of the Hudson River Maritime Center at Kingston, halfway upriver from New York City to Albany.

Muller has Lived what he paints in Hudson River traffics.

That perhaps helps explain the gleaming creative vitality of his work, and imbues his commentary on his predecessors in Hudson River maritime art with such Lively appreciation and authentic insight.

A majestic river steamer swept by before my fo llowing gaze when I was age six, and its captivating grace so enticed me that I ' ve been in artistic pursuit of her species ever since. The setting of that early encounter was the Hudson Ri ver shoreline near Spuyten Duyvil in 1942 , and my focal point was sidewheeler Hendrick Hudson of the renowned old Hudson River Day Line .

During the summers of my boyhood , sojourn s to the riverbank were dai ly, often twice daily , mostly to watch the comings and goings of the four big Day Line steamers then in service.

Of these , the Robert Fulton ( 1909-54) was the most fascinating to me , with her three smokestacks arranged athwartships , and her large silver-painted walking-beam pumping away in stately rhythm above the top deck. Talk about picturesq ue! Hull s and wooden joiner work of these great rivercraft were painted all white , smokestacks were buff colored , rail caps and window sashes were all varnished dark woodwork. Seen in bright midmorning sunli ght passing my va ntage point they could dazzle the eye.'

One after the other they' d come charging upriver at abou t twenty- minute intervals. The through steamer for Albany, the Poughkeepsie Special , the morning boat to Bear Mountain.

Colorful banners ripple in breezes not fe lt ashore, paddlewash cascades in foaming froth back from the fast-beating sidewheels, a momentary glint here and there along the ship ' s length as sunlight strikes gold leaf or burni shed brass . A mirrored reflection on calm waters might furth er dramati ze her passage as this gay white flyer sweeps forth against the bold and ancient backdrop of Palisade cliffs. A muffled sound of happy excursioni sts and the distant strains of orchestra music reach my shore. On rare occasions the extra treat of an unexpected burst of white steam followed by the throaty bellow of her whistle in warning to some small craft to keep clear. And on up the river she goes , diminishing in sight and sound at a brisk 2 1 mph ga it.

Of course, the big sidewheelers were not the only craft regularly in view in those busy waterfront days. The venerable Dyckman Street ferry survi ved just long enough into the early 1940s to allow dimly remembered summer evening crossings with my parents aboard the old red-painted paddler Florida with her strolling accordianist.

A small water dock located at the foot of Dyckman Street provided my earliest opportu nities to view tugboats close up.

Most of the towing work on the river was still handled by steam tugs back then , and 1 especially remember the Cornell Company' tugs coming in off their long traprock tows , in 'This dazzle effect of white lead-based paint is a notable f eature of the author's river steamer portraits.-ED .

SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

sequence , to take on boiler water from the hydrant on the end of that dock .

To Go Afloat-At the Helm!

And so it was that these accumulating sights, sounds and scents along the riverfront fired my passions and concurrently motivated me with a desire to capture their impressions. A drawing pad became my companion at riverside and bore my first marine draw ings.

Inevitabl y, a young lad so taken with riverboats wou ld seek the experience of working on board one of them , and best of all , maybe to pilot one. Thus, durin g my school summer vacation in 1952 , when I was 16, I secured a berth in the purser's department on Day Line steamers . Two years later I was offered the post of quartermaster of the steamer Alexander Hamilton!

I jumped at this opportunity to join the pilothouse staff, and from my lofty new vantage point I learned the river, the rules of the road , tidal factors, boxing the compass and, gradually, the handling of a sidewheeler.

Now the river unfolded before me each day in full panoramic majesty . What better way to observe and feel the varying river moods than from behind the wheel of a great steamboat?

And varying moods there were! Days so soft and calm that the river' s broadest reaches in the Tappan Zee and Haverstraw Bay were as glassy as a pond . Other days of violent thunderstorn1s chasing us down through the highlands , the gusting winds and blinding ra in ra ising havoc with our approach to landings. And days at e ither end of the summer with treacherously thick morning or evening fog. The pilothouse windows would all be open, our eyes and ears straining , one of us posted at the whistle-pull to blow the required mournful warning blast every thirty seconds as we paddled blindly along on time and compass courses. No radar or ship-to-ship phone on our vintage steamer!

And there were days of bri sk clear air and endless visibility , with whitecaps on the river and the distant contours of the Catskill Mountains coming into view as soon as we ' d clear the blocki ng loom of Storm King Mountain. With all thi s grandeur spread repeatedl y before me during my several summers afloat , I gained a thorough appreciation of the Hudson Valley landscape , especially as backdrop for the gracefu l craft that had plied its waters.

A Heritage Lives On-In Art! The 1960s saw a rapid decline in the number of steamboats that had managed to survive into that decade. All the Hudson Ri ver ferries disappeared , as did the steam tugs. The big excursion steamers dwindled to a few until , by the late 1960s on ly the old Alexander Hamilton was left to faithfu ll y ply her trade on the river.

I had forseen this dismal trend early and left the river to pursue the art field where I eventuall y found my inevitab le fulfillment as a marine artist.

Although at first I mi ssed the river life , there were appealing compensations in being shorebound with a flexible schedu le .

One was being able to spend time exploring art museums and galleries where I soon came to ad mire the paintings of some of the early Hudson Ri ver School artists. I was especially taken with the riverscapes by such luminaries of that school as Francis Si lva ( 1835-86) whose delightful scenes reveal a luminous technique and prec ise draftsmanship . Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-80) produced serene little paintings of the river, di splaying great sensiti vi ty in the effects of light.

'Based on the Rondout Creek at Kingston .- ED.

23

Samuel Colman, "Storm King on the Hudson ," 1866, oil on canvas, 32 1/s x 59'l's in. , National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution . Gift of John Gellatly . Courtesy Alice and Hamilton Fish Library, Garrison, NY.

Samuel Colman ( 1832-1920) produced richly colored , boldly patterned works , such as his " Storm King on the Hudson" masterpiece of 1866 (above) . John Frederick Kensett's (1816-72) paintings faithfully and artfully record the scope and character of Hudson Highland contours against beautifully painted skies . George Inness (1825-94) was influenced during his career by the French Barbizon painters, whereafter his landscapes became more mystical , impressionistic: a complete departure from his earlier highly detailed work . A painter's painter!

And of course , the formidable prowess of Frederick Edwin Church (1826-1900) in his ability to capture every essence of the natural scene. His painted vistas of Catskill sunsets were brilliant.

It was during a visit to the New York Historical Society in 1960, when that museum still had a large marine gallery hall, that I first saw paintings by James Bard. Being primarily vesseloriented myself, I was fascinated to find a painter who obviously had felt similar aesthetic attractions to the colorful steam-

boats. Here was a ship portrait painter who had spent a lifetime (1815-97) recording contemporary New York-area watercraft.

Employing a direct, unschooled style of precise broadside renderings , Bard captured the architectural detail of his subjects to the fullest degree possible. And while his paintings display ' 'primitive' ' characteristics, they invariably succeed in delighting the eye of the viewer with their picturesque charm , while also providing an historically accurate document.

The greatest body of Bard's output depicted Hudson River steamboats, usually the result of his being commissioned by their proud builders, owners or masters. He also produced a smaller number of portraits of schooners , sloops and yachts.

During the early years of his career, James painted in concert with his twin brother, John Bard . Paintings thus jointly produced bore the signature J. & J. Bard. After 1849 James carried on singly in this work and produced many of his finest portraits over the next four decades.

Succeeding Bard were other marine artists of importance who documented commerce on the Hudson River. Painter-his-

John F. Kensett, "View on the Hudson at Dobbs Ferry." Shelburne Museum , Shelburne VT. Courtesy Alice and Hamilton Fish Library.

24

SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

Sanford Robinson Gifford, ''Sunset on the Hudson,'' Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford CT. Courtesy Alice and Hamilton Fish Library.

torian Samuel Ward Stanton (1870-1912) illustrated and produced the classic book American Steam Vessels , published in 1895. Nearly 500 meticulous pen-and-ink drawings by Stanton of vessels of the period graced that volume which is a collector' s treasure today . Large historical marine scenes by the artist were commissioned for decorating interiors aboard some of the more lavish Hudson River steamers after the tum of the century . I can remember admiring the handsome (although fading during their latter years) murals by Stanton aboard the old Robert Fulton. Stanton perished with the sinking Titanic while returning from a research trip abroad in connection with a Day Line mural commission.

Antonio Jacobsen ( 1850-1921) was an incredibly prolific New York-based ship portraitist whose surviving works are sought after by collectors today . He is represented in virtually every major marine collection in the country . Jacobsen ' s portraits ranged widely in quality, as would be necessary for such

a prodigious output. But they were quite effective, and he probably recorded every vessel built in the port of New York .

Fred Pansing , who in my view was a particularly skilled artist of the period , is undeservedly less known . I have seen some powerful and evocative paintings by him, showing a keen sensitivity in depicting marine atmosphere. He was often engaged to produce paintings for the more prominent shipping and steamboat lines, which were subsequently used in their ¡ advertisements. Pansing died about 1910.

The canvases and recorded accounts of the lives of those earlier painters have all had their positive influences on me.

The stately steamboats are now long gone . My beloved old Alexander Hamilton, the last of the sidewheelers, is no more .

I hope some of my own paintings of those craft will historically be viewed as worthy additions to the heritage of paintings inspired by the lordly Hudson and the noble vessels that graced its waters in storm and sunshine. w

James Bard's portrait of the Lewis R. Mackey painted in 1853 shows the schooner at Stony Point light on the west bank of the Hudson just below Peekskill. Courtesy Alan Goldstein.

SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

25

~great ~hooners From the power and beauty of THE W I.DOW MAKER to the romance and excitement of RACE OF THE ELSIES, this series of fine limited edition prints capture the richness of life at sea in these fast and famous fishing vessels. Each high quality print is published in an edition of 780 on the finest rag paper using an eightcolor plate process.

The original publishers of marine artist Thomas M. Hoyne, F.A.S.M.A., now make available note cards depicting "The Great Schooners" series of his limited edition prints.

Each gift box contains an assortment of ten Hoyne cards and envelopes. ii send color catalog of Hoyne prints. I enclose $5 .00.

0 send _ _ box of Hoyne cards. I enclose $10.00 each box, plus $1.25 shipping cost.

Address _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ City _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ State_ _ JANUS PRINTS • P. 0 . Box 3303

Hilton Head Is., S. C. • 29928

THE ALEXANDER HAMILTON by REX STEWART

T he last o f the grea t sid e wheele rs was bu il t fo r th e Hudson River Day Line in 1924 a nd ra n as a d ay boat be twee n New York a nd Alba n y u ntil 1964. She a ppears he re as she was in 1960 runnin g south from Kin gs ton Poin t.

Meticu lo usly executed to du pl icate the color and d eta il of Rex Stewa rt's or iginal colo red pe ncil drawing, the print is 20" X 29" (image size 14" X 24") lithogra phed on heavy artist's stock. Available in a lim ited ed itio n of 950 prints, signed and n u mbe red for $95, or signed , numbe red and re ma rqued for $ 150, sh ippin g includ ed . New York resid e n ts add sales tax.

T o orde r , se nd chec k to Publications Departme nt Alban y I nstitu te of Hi story & Art 125 Was hin gto n Avenu e, Alba n y, N Y 122 10, (5 18) 463-4478 © 1985 by Albany Institute of History & An

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26

Something for Everyone!

Chan,Png exhibitions of American Art, Sculpture, The restored 19th century Trevor Mansion, Planetarium, Special E vents, Lectures, Galas, Museum Shop and River Cafe, Birthday Parties, Chamber Music ....

The Hudson River Museum

5ll Warburton Ave Yonkers, New York 10701 914/963-4550

:SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

Ocean Liner Memorabilia

SHIP PORTRAITS

MARINE ART NEWS British artist Roy Cross's "Maritime New York c. 1840" (above) is one of the more distinguished entries in Mystic Seaport Museum's 1985 International Exhibit, which opens Oct. 13 at the Museum Gallery, Mystic CT 06355. A major collection of Cross's work will also be on exhibition at Swain Galleries in New Jersey, from Nov . 4 to Dec. 7.

A free catalog is available from Swain Galleries, 703 Watchung Ave. , Plainfield NJ 07060; tel. 201 756-1707.

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Send $2 for list, refundable on purchase, to:

White Swan Antiques 666 King Street West, Toronto, Ont. M5V 1M7 Canada.

PLAQUES, MARKERS AND TABLETS

Phyllis_Lucas Gallery Old 0' New Orinl<B

Free Broc hure shows cas t bronze, aluminum and Graphicsplu s <~ You ha ve preserved a por t ion of Am erica . Let us help you recognize it tas tefully.

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Charles Robert Patterson 's work is beautifully reproduced in a fine catalog put out by the Montgomery Gallery of San Francisco in cooperation with the Questor Maritime Collection of Stonington. (See also SH 30.) The works of 19th century British , French and American artists are also included in the catalog; $12.50 from Montgomery Gallery, 824 Montgomery St. , San Francisco CA 94133; tel. 415 788-8300.

The 8th National Exhibition of the American Society of Marine Artists opens Sept. 27 and continues through March 16 next year, at The Mariners' Mu seum , Newport News VA 23606 ; tel. 804 5950368. (Our previous announcement that this had already opened created confusion for which we apologize!) A catalog will be available in due course from Ann Rogers, ASMA , 17 Champlin Dr. , Westerly RI 02891 ; tel. 401 596-7917.

and related items

Was there a Seafarer in your family?

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Also. VESSEL HISTORIES RESEARCHED on request. For infonnation & brochure, write: Capt. JEFF ELDRIDGE P.O. Box 8 North Carver MA 02355 20"" x 24·· canvas-$300.00

_Sailing Adventures SCHOONER HARVEY GAMAGE a 95' windjammer in true "down East" tra-:ijtion U.S. Coast Guard inspected

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"From Brooklyn to the Sea: Ships, Seafarers and New York Harbor," is an extensive exhibition sponsored by the Museum of the Borough of Brooklyn , at Brooklyn College, Bedford Ave. and Avenue H, Brooklyn NY 11210 tel 718 780-5152), Oct. 15- Dec. 4.

Smith Galleries ( l 045 Madi son Ave . , New York NY 10021 212 744-6171) noted for their attention to marine art and the authoritative newsletter, are sponsoring their 8th Annual Marine Art Show, from mid-January through February.

Catalog, $10.00 PS SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

ORIGINAL O IL PAINTINGS OF THE S HIP OF YOUR CHOICE

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Newman & Saunders' annual marine exhibition will run Nov . 8-30 , featuring members of ASMA, RSMA & Canadian SMA. N&S, 120 Bloomfield Ave., Wayne PA 19087. 215 293-1280 The experience of New York Harbor , celebrated by the late very great John A. Noble goes on exhibit at the Metropolitan Gallery (88 South St. , Morristown NJ 07960; 20 I 267-5010) Sept. 29Nov. 20, M , Wand Sat.

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Fine 19th and early 20th Century American Marine Paintings Antonio Jacobsen Wm. T. Richards Jane Peterson Hayley Lever, N.A. Warren Sheppard Edward Moran F.D. Briscoe

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Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, New York 12203

Wanted: Paintings by Gordon Grant Hayley Lever Jane Peterson W.L. Palmer Hudson River School Currier & Ives

Ph. (518) 482-5374 27

YOU

YES-you. are needed! An informed citizenry is the surest defense of a democracy, and in the Navy League we invite you to become informed about naval affairs and to participate. The New York Council of the Navy League offers: • Regular monthly luncheon meetings with service leaders, who give you their views-and ask yours!

• Tours of visiting ships that come to New York Harbor.

• Out-of-town trips to naval installations, schools, aircraft and ship bases, to keep up with today's Navy.

• Subscription to the nationally renowned magazine Sea Power, where you' ll be kept in touch with the people and developments shaping tomorrow's Navy.

It's easy to learn more about the New York Council and its programs. Just drop a line to: Mr. Austin Volk President, New York Council, NAVY LEAGUE of the UNITED STATES 'J7 West 44th Street New York, New York 10036 PS: Our recruiter is from a World War I poster. Please remember to say that she sent you.

Winner BEST ADVENTURE FEATURE American Film Festival

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Six yea rs in the making, "COA STER" is the true story of the wooden cargo schooner the John F. Leavitt. It is the story of the sea , a ri ch huma n d rama set agai nst the backdrop of the harsh North Atla ntic and the rugged coast of Maine.

Here are today's fighting sea birds of the Navy and their daily encount ers with our adversary, the Soviet Fleet. Military conflict is a constant threat. Here are Battle Group Commanders with a strike force second to none. Exciting NEW VIDEO of today's Air Nary.

• The Cutting Edge: The S3 Viking; a sea bird that can strap on mlssUes, bombs & homing torpedoes. With on-board computors, infra-red sensors, she locks onto Red subs and never lets go.

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Original Sound li'ack album or cassette, original music and sounds of a ship and the sea-$9.95 Add $3.00 shipping & handling each item.

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30

ANTIQUES & NAUTICAL One of the finest marine antique collections available.

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SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

MODELMAKER'S CORNER:

Rex Stewart

by Thomas 0. Maggs I came to know Rex Stewart through the works of the late F. Van Loon Ryder.

Certainly any interest in the Hudson River and steamboating cannot be complete without acknowledgement of Van's work and writings. Although the latter are not so well known, his models can be found in the Smithsonian, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Albany Institute , among other hall s.

To say Van was a character is an understatement. He spent a few years in prison for safecracking, where , I believe , his serious model-building began. A few years before his death , PBS did a special on the Hudson in which he was highlighted . Unabashed, he talked as freely about his experiences in jail as about his craft.

In any event, I spent many , many hours with Van while he worked on his model of the Mary Powell , which he felt was the most beautiful vessel ever to run the Hudson. He gave me a number of plans for some other ships, including the Francis Skiddy, Armenia, and Belle Horton. They were real working documents with all kinds of stains and marks on them . I cherish them because they represent Van and his work; he had a distinctive design and flair with models. When he died in 1980, I felt a tremendous loss and a tremendous debt for the greater understanding and appreciation of the river and its people that he shared with me .

* ****

In 1983, I saw, to my utter shock , a model of the Mary Powell at the Albany County Tricentennial. Behind it stood the modeller- Rex Stewart, who has since become a tremendous friend, too . I questioned him about where he had received plans for the Powell, and he said he believed they were the original plans. I was surprised because Van had always indicated that there were no originals to work from. To make a long story short, the plans were , in fact , those of Van Loon Two views of the Mary Powell model, above . Photos

by John J. Fasulo , Beacon, NY . Below, model builder Rex Stewart with his Nantucket.

Ryder, with whom Rex shares formidable qualities: their belief in and love for what they are doing, their scholarship , and most important, the integrity of their approach to their art.

I was soon entranced . After I had given Rex the plans for the Armenia, lo and behold, he turned out what I believe to be one of the finest steamboat models I have seen . At that point, I commissioned him to build the Mary Powell. I must say that during the eight months or year of construction , Rex involved me in just about SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

every phase. The night of the unveiling, we were both as excited and proud as parents at their child's coming out. Since that time, a number of people have visited me and been enthralled with the model: serious collectors, model builders and people far more knowledgeable than me.

I might add that Rex is currently working on a model of the last sidewheeler to run on the Hudson, the Alexander Hamilton, and it should be ready this fall.

31

DAY'S RUN Report of the American Sail Training Assn.,

Eisenhower House, Fort Adams State Park, Newport, RI 02840

Alaska Eagle's Pacific Cruise

by Brad Avery It 's midnight and the gale is still upon us. We' re running down the coast of Oregon with a reefed main ; it' s blowing 40 with gusts to 47. Alaska Eagle is boiling along at 12 knots, occasionally hitting 16 or more as she slides off one of the 20-foot waves made especially steep by Oregon's shallow coastal shelf.

We ' re being forced onto the coast on port tack with Trinidad Head just three miles away. It's time to jibe, something I haven 't been looking forward to consideri ng the tremendous force that will be put on the rigging when the mainsail comes rocketing across the deck . Situations like these test sai l-training instructors and their students. On this pitchblack night it 's hard to hear above the roar as Alaska Eagle's 60 ,000 pounds carve a 16-foot wide groove through an angry ocean.

From the nine students aboard, I choose three of the strongest and most agi le for working the mainsheet. We briefly di scuss the maneuver in the safety of the cockpit. We 've jibed the boat many times since the voyage began, and their new skill s will be put to the test.

Instructions given, they move forward into the dark , their harness shackles clanking behind them . " OK , sheet in! " I shout. Chuck and Jim grind away as Ken tail s the mainsheet on the stainless drum. It's not an easy job , sheeting the mainsail toward centerline in a force 8 gale. As the boom comes inboard, I steer Alaska Eagle off to leeward on a big wave: " Jibing! " After a hefty roll to windward, she spins dutifull y to starboard. With a mighty crack, the main pounds to port, the sheet runs out in a split second until fetching up on the leeward shrouds.

Safe on the new tack, Alaska Eagle flies out to sea , away from the dangers of a notorious coastline. Returning to the cockpit, the crew are understandably in awe of the jibe's violence. Jibing a sixtyfi ve footer in a gale is no mean feat for students or experienced ocean racers.

Designed and built for the Whitbread Round the World Race , Alaska Eagle won the 1977-78 Whitbread as Flyer.

Purchased by Alaskan businessman Niel G . Bergt in 1980 and renamed Alaska Eagle, she was reconditioned for the 198 1-82 Whitbread. Bergt donated her to the sailing program of Orange Coast College with the request that she be used exclusively for sail-training. Since then ,

32

Boom dragging,

Alaska Eagle closes with the land in a 25-knot wind carrying a 2.2-ounce spinnaker.

she has taken more than 2,000 students offshore. Our exhilarating passage off the Oregon coast was near the end of this year's 6,500-m ile Pacific cruise.

The crui se started from Newport Beach on June 16 . After twel ve days of sailing in light to moderate weather, we made landfall along the coast of Maui as Alaska Eagle charged along under spinnaker in a 25 knot wi nd . From Maui we sailed to Oahu for a crew change. Jul y 10, we sai led from Kauai fo r the 2 ,700mile passage to Victoria, British Columbia. After two weeks of good reaching conditions and fog , Alaska Eagle sailed down the straights of Juan de Fuca.

Embarking in Seattle, trainees for leg three of the crui se visited the San Juan Islands before setti ng course. for the Columbia River. Sailing up the wi nding Columbia proved a challenge, with the wi nd blowing upri ver, and Alaska Eagle flying a spinnaker and jibing at each bend .

There was also good piloting experience to be gained negotiating the strong current and the commercial traffic .

Back in the Pacific a few days later we sailed fo r Newport, Oregon, where a Coast Guard surf boat escorted us across the partiall y breaking bar at the harbor' s entrance. From Newport we had the rugged three days of sailing during which we encountered our gale. We sailed into San Francisco on an early morning easterly . Reaching along at eight knots , all hands held the wheel as we passed under the bridge and rush-hour traffic. From San Francisco, an uneventful two-day trip down the coast saw us back home in Newport Beach.

Our track from Hawaii followed the course that will be taken by nexc year 's Northeast Pacific Sail Training Races.

We are looking forward to sailing in thi s AST A-sponsored event . Race One from Hawai i to Vancouver should be a ru gged blue-water test ; the parades into Vancouver and up the Columbia River will be great; and Expo ' 86 should be very exciting . As for the third race from the Columbia to San Francisco: be prepared to shorten sail. w SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

A History of Sail Training Races: Part I

by George Crowninshield

In 1956 , when the era of carrying cargo under sail had ended and when the great grain and nitrate giants had slipped into oblivion, a new endeavor was undertaken. The concept involved bringing together the remaining training craft of the world-and the young people aboardso that they could share the mutual experience of competing under sail , and thus have a common bond which would act as a link for communication.

This is how the unique sail-training races began. The idea was conceived by a London solicitor, Bernard Morgan. He wanted young people from around our planet to have the opportunity of meeting and competing in an atmosphere of friendly rivalry . Although not a sai lor himself, Mr. Morgan was introduced to the man who served as First Sea Lord at that time , Lord Mountbatten. Upon hearing of the idea , this leader saw the great potential for international goodwill to be fostered through the meeting of sai ltraining ships from all parts of the world.

With the encouragement of the Royal Navy and the Duke of Edinburgh (who consented to be Patron) , Bernard Morgan's dream became a reality .

Because of its interest, the Royal Navy appointed John Illingworth as Chairman of the "Sail Training-Ship International Race Committee,'' the group that would later become the Sail Training Association (ST A). It was decided that the proposed race would be held over a course from Torbay , England to Lisbon. The navy offered facilities for an inshore regatta at Dartmouth before the start of the race. The Portuguese Ambassador to London at the time-His Excellency Senhor Pedro Theotonio Pereira, GCVO-played an important part in arranging the finish of the race and a welcome for the ships at Lisbon .

Reactions to the race were overwhelmingly favorable: from the sending of invitations to suitable sailing ships primarily those engaged in training boys for a career at sea-to the finale and prize-giving at Lisbon. Twenty-one ships from eleven countries competed, including Ruyam from Turkey , Christian Radich and S¢rlandet from Norway , Georg Stage from Denmark , Sagres from Portugal, and Flying Clipper, Falken and Gladan from Sweden. Mercator from Belgium also participated , as did the staysail schooner Creole, loaned to British cadets by the Greek millionai re , Stavros Niarchos . The race was won by Moyana, a ketch owned by the Southampton School of Navigation .

Alan Villiers described this first sai ltraining event as one of the most memorSEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

able seafaring sights he had ever seen .

He had participated in the "grain races" from Australia but he had never seen more than two vessels leaving port together. What has been truly remarkable in the years since the races began is the great initiative undertaken for this adventurous training-aboard family cruisers, modern racing machines , and traditional craft, as well as large square-riggers . The opportunities for females , also, to sail and to compete in the races have grown dramatically since 1956. A crew of girls and young women, including skipper Judy Russell and mate Verity Lyster, won Class B-I in the 1970 race from Plymouth to La Coruna with Hoshi from the Island Cruising Club.

Initially, this race was to have been a one-time event. But, even before the festivities were over , plans were being discussed for a similar event and ships were invited to call at Brest for a race to Las Palmas in the Canaries and on to La Coruna in Spain in 1958. It was soon decided that a race program would be organized every two years. Sagres won the second race in 1958 . In 1960 , the ships competed from Oslo to Ostend; in 1962, they once again raced from Torbay- this time to Rotterdam , where Gorch Fock won first prize in Class A. The tremendous growth in sail training in Britain over the last twenty-five years has been due in no small measure to the Sail Training Association, which early on numbered among its staunchest supporters Colonel James E. Myatt, R .A. In 1964, the International Sail Training Races were scheduled to start in Lisbon (Class B vessels racing there from Plymouth) and finish at Bermuda with a cruise-in-company to New York City so that the ships could take part in " Operation Sail " festivities associated with that city's World 's Fair. England had no large sail-training ship to send , but Colonel Myatt determined that she would be represented among the vessels. After a great deal of searching, he was able to borrow the 72ft yacht Tawau and race her with a crew of youngsters to Bermuda , and thence on to New York .

Class A that year was won by Christian Radich, with Danmark second.

What may be described as the first crew interchange was arranged informally within the fleet en route to New York for a Parade of Sail. Tawau and Merlin , a 25-ton sloop , were Britain 's only representatives in New York that year among the training ships from many nations. In England, public interest and indignation were aroused by the revelation that the proud maritime nation had no

true training ship. Led by Colonel Myatt and Lord Amory, the Rona Trust was established for the acquisition of the 48ton ketch Rona .

The Sail Training Association next determined that the time had come to build their own ship. Under the able leadersh ip of Mr. Maldwin Drummond funds were raised from all over Britain to build Sir Winston Churchill, a true training ship which was dedicated to the sole purpose of taking young people to sea for learning under sai l. The 1966 race was the first for this handsome topsail schooner, which won her class from Falmouth to the Skaw, before cruising on to Copenhagen. Centurion was loaned to the Sea Cadet Corps on this occasion, and she , too, won first prize in her class. These successes led to the subsequent construction of Malcolm Miller by the STA , and the Sea Cadet Corps' brig Royalist, which became a regular competitor upon her launch in 197 I .

Sir Winston Churchill and Malcolm Miller competed together under the flag of the ST A for the first time in 1968 , during the race from Gothenburg in Sweden to Kristiansand in Norway . Gorch Fock won Class A , with Gladan first and Falken second in Class B. There is always very close rivalry between these Swedish naval schooners , the ST A topsail schooners (especially when one may have a crew of girls and the other one of boys) and the French navy topsail schooners, Belle Poule and L' Etoile .

Three sets of sailing twins!

Two other competitors familiar to these races are Zenobe Gramme from the Belgian navy and in the spinnaker class, Urania, a large white Bermudan ketch from the Royal Netherlands Navy which sports a vast red , white and blue spinnaker. Each year the fleet has grown, developing into an international family of ships crossing the oceans , with young crews sampling challenge and adventure.

Since 1956, the number of competitors aboard the sail-training ships is estimated at more than sixty thousand ; the list of nationalities that have participated also covers a remarkably broad spectrum for an event which began as the inspiration of one man . The races have flourished especially through the devoted efforts of Lieutenant Commander the Honorable Greville Howard, affectionately known as the " father" of the international sailtraining community . By his unfailing sense of humor and his personal interest in each ship and each cadet, he has come to personify truly "goodwill. " ..t

Part II will appear in the next issue.

33

SHIP NOTES

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Schooner ROSE WAY, last sailing pilot vessel.

by Warren Riess and Sheli 0. Smith

Early in May of this year the bow of an eighteenth-century merchantman made its final journey from Groton, Massach usetts to Newport News, Virginia.

The timbers belonged to the Ronson ship , purposely buried at what is now 175 Water Street, New York City, to bulk shore expansion material in the middle of the eighteenth century.

In the winter of 1982 the construction of a thirty-story office building required the removal of the ship from its grave.

In thirty-two days we archaeologically excavated the ship , recording everything as we dug , and removed the first twenty feet of the bow, piece by piece. To remove , conserve, and exhibit the whole vessel would have cost an estimated six million dollars (see SH 28 , Summer 1983 , " The Ronson Ship") .

Since 1982, a number of specialists have worked to conserve the bow and the few artifacts found in the ship , chemically and physically test the wood, plan for the bow 's reconstruction , analyze the hull , and research the ship's history. As research continued during the last three years , many people were trying to find a good home for the Ronson ship's bow (see SH 35, Spring 1985 , "The Ship That Built a City").

While we worked in the field throughout that cold and dark February in 1982 we di scussed the future of the ship's remains. The obvious repository would be a Manhattan museum ; New York is America's largest port. The ship had helped the port expand its trade in the eighteenth century and , in her grave, was a part of the physical expansion of the city. But no New York museum felt that the bow would fit properly into their institution 's theme , nor could any find the space for the exhibit. The reconstructed bow would measure approximately 20x20x20 feet , and an exhibit area to properly display the ship's story would take much more space.

John Sands , Director of Collections at The Mariners' Museum in Newport News , Virginia, heard of the bow 's availability and fl ew to New York in time to see the whole port side of the ship emptied of its eighteenth-century fill.

After inspecting the bow and walking through the hold of the old merchantman , he decided that he wanted the bow in The Mariners' Museum. He returned to Virginia to discuss the situation with Museum officials . In two days the

Museum made an offer to acquire and exhibit the Ronson ship's bow .

During the next three years the National Maritime Historical Society led a drive to keep the bow in New York . After a Jong hard effort, which even included the endorsement of Mayor Ed Koch (who visited the excavation in 1982) , not enough space and funding could be found in New York . In the spring of 1985 all parties agreed that The Mariners ' Museum , being one of the world's finest museums, would be the proper home for the Ronson ship.

In early May of this year Betty Seifert ' s crew of conservators at Soil Systems laboratory pulled the timbers out of the solution of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and water. PEG , a synthetic microcyrstalline wax which is soluble in water, penetrates the wood and supports cell walls when the timbers dry, preventing the wood from collapsing and distorting during the drying process. The conservators then wrapped the timbers , loaded them into a trailer truck , and drove them to Newport News.

Each piece was carefully moved into the museum 's basement and placed on pallets and racks. The timbers , just out of the PEG solution, must be slowly dried for two to three years before reconstruction. Museum staff therefore increased the humidity in the basement to 96% and covered each timber with plastic . Since the thinner pieces would require only about one year to dry, they were placed in a storage pool filled with a PEG solution. Larger pieces are coated periodically with PEG.

The Ship Beneath th e

_ . _. .

Schooners ADVENTURE & ROSEWAY Box 696SH • Camden, ME 04843 • 207-236·4449 Largest windjamm ers in the Camden fleet.

34

The Ronson Ship Finds

Henry Hogge and Warren Riess set up Jay Ros/offs research model of the Ronson ship bow for an exhibit in The Mariners' Museum.

Photo, Th e Mariners ' Museum.

SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

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The ship is now in excellent condition, seemingly happy in its new home. Artifacts found buried with the ship, archaeological data, and photographic records of the site are now also stored at the museum. The museum staff has great plans for the ship . A major Ronson ship exhibit and publications are being planned . In addition, the ship will be the subject of an educational program for elementary schools and possibly a short documentary. A small exhibit is already accessible to the public , featuring Jay Rosi off's research model of the bow , interpretive photographs , and some artifacts retrieved from the fill in the ship.

The Ronson sh ip must have had a number of long voyages in her eighteenth-century li fe, but her twentieth-century voyage was probably one of her hardest. Excavated from her resting place in Manhattan , wedged apart piece by piece and lifted into a roll-away container, stored under a sprinkler system at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn , trucked to Groton, Massachusetts, cleaned in holding tanks , dipped in light acid, rinsed and saturated with PEG , and finally trucked to Virginia. Though her final journey was hard , it was marked by milestones of cooperation among many concerned people . The close cooperation of the New York Landmarks Commission; Robert Fox , architect and representative for the developer Howard Ronson; Soil Systems; and the Fuller Construction Company allowed us to carefully excavate and study the ship and remove the bow . These people also worked closely to insure the proper care of the timbers during conservation.

When the decision was made for The Mariners' Museum to acquire the bow , all the parties, plus The Colonial Vessels Museum of Plympton, Massachusetts, worked to make the transfer smooth.

We have all worked hard to save the ship and now strive to glean as much from her as possible . While the timbers dry we continue to research the ship's hi story , analyze the hull , plan for the exhibit and educational program, and prepare publications so that many more people will benefit from thi s wonderful gift from the eighteenth century. J. Warren Riess and Sheli 0. Smith codirected the sile investigation of the Ronson ship. Mr. Riess , Executi ve Director of 1he Maritime Archaeological and His1orical Research Ins1i1ute, is currenlly coordinating the Ronson ship proj ec/ al The Mariners ' Mus eum. Ms. Smith is presen1ly analyzing 1he Ronson ship hull and personal artifac1s from the sile of !he Revolu1ionary War priva1eer Defence , excava1ed in S1ock1011 Springs, Maine.

SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

aboard th e historic windjamm er

schoone r Step hen Taber. Wee kly 1

~~~is~~~c$h~~~ i~~~~d2e.Q7~236'- ~~nlci

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or write

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35

SHIP NOTES

Reconstructing the Greek Trireme

by John Coates

GREEK TRIREME - 5~ CENTURY

8.C

ETiiP.osed Recon.struct lon

:rre-= Z'lf"ebr!.4Q.T!j..l.S.li

-~ The trireme was the first-rater of the ancient Mediterranean from the sixth to the third century BC. It was the mainstay of the Greek fleet which under the Athenian , Themistocles , saved Hellas from the Persians at the battle of Salamis in the year 480 BC. The Athenians excelled in building fine triremes and in skillfully maneuvering them in battle . Grown great on sea power, Athens developed the ideas, literature and arts that have formed the basis of our Western civilization. Yet the ships which were the key to that immortal achievement have remained obscure.

How they were built and worked had bee n forgotten by the fifth century AD. Scholars have puzzled over this riddle ever since because no remains of a trireme have yet been found .

These questions may now at last have been solved by pooling the knowledge and techniques of three separate disciplines---classical scholarship , underwater archaeology and modern warship design.

John Morrison , lately President of Wolfson College , Cambridge , England , has assembled over a working lifetime all known ancient literary and pictorial data about Greek oared ships. Since World War II underwater archaeologists working in the Mediterranean have established how ancient ships were built.

The author, a retired naval constructor interested in the design of ships in the past , took as criteria for the ship design information about triremes available from John Morrison and others , together with that provided recently by archaeologists. In then designing a navigable and safe ship to meet those criteria , 36

he found that there was fundamentally on ly one feasible design.

The design work showed , among other things , that ballast was not necessary for stabi lity in spite of the three superimposed levels of oarsmen. Because lightness and agility were so important for success in ramming battles, triremes were not likely to have been ballasted in normal operations. It follows that triremes would not have sunk to the botto m after being rammed. Calculations indicate that when swamped they would lie in the water lolling on one outrigger or the other, immobilised and hors de combat. There is literary evidence that this is what happened , and many triremes were towed away by the victors .

The Trireme Trust was formed in Britain on the initiative of Frank Welsh , a merchant banker, and in 1983 at the National Maritime Museum , Greenwich , the design was exposed to criticism from all those who had published papers in the field and were able to attend. Representatives of Greek national institutions attended the discussions* and about six months later the Trust was delighted to hear the announcement of substantial Greek fundin g for the Project on the understanding that the trireme be built in Greece under the aegis of the Hellenic Navy. The Trust will maintain and , it is hoped , broaden international collaboration in funding the Project, while remaining responsible for design and development for the vessel .

* Now published by the museum- address , London SEIO 9NF.

Having completed the building drawings and ship specifications, the Trust is building a 5.5m - long full-scale hull section in England to provide some practice in the ancient methods of construction and to develop techniques. Hull joints have been tested because the trireme is a light, slender and highly stressed ship. Models of the ram and high-curving stem are being constructedthe latter, to investigate planking techniques.

Experiments are being conducted to examine the mechanics of stretching and tightening the heavy rope tendon running from stem to stem. The arrangement of the three banks of oars has already been proven workable in a manned full-scale mock-up with four oars (two on the middle level).

The Athens Polytechnic is carrying out hull resistance tests.

The Trust and the Hellenic Navy are confident that this program will ensure the success of the vessel. This project is probably by far the most audacious historical ship reconstruction ever attempted, in length , in development, in speed underoars (and under sail, too , in a fair wind), and in the training of a crew of 200. Operating the trireme will teach much about the realities of navies in a most important period of history and fill a large gap in our knowledge of the ancient Mediterranean world . The ship will be a most graceful sight to be enjoyed by natives and visitors alike in Greece. Sappho, the Greek poet of the sixth century BC , wrote, "A host of ships is the most beautiful thing, some say, on the face of the dark earth."

The Trireme Trust in collaboration with the Greek government aims to put the most famous and refined of their kind back on the Aegean Sea. Plans call for the ship's building to start in Greece shortly with completion in September 1986. The replica will normally be kept on land and under cover, as were triremes in ancient times . Eventually it is hoped that the reconstruction will be housed in a ship shed and slipway modelJed on ancient plans , to be built in the planned Hellenic Maritime Museum at Phaleron near Athens . It will not only make a breathtaking exhibit on land but also at sea.

The project will cost about $600,000 to complete including research and development. Her permanent home in an authentic shed will probably call for a further $200,000. About $400,000 (or 50 percent of the target) has been pledged to date. The Trireme Trust is seeking funds and sponsors worldwide to enable a unique and historically important enterprise to go forward. Inquiries may be made and donations will be gratefully received: The Trireme Trust, c/o Air Vice-Marshal Peter Turner, Wolfson College, Cambridge CB3 9BB , England .

J,

J,

J,

SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

Bon Voyage Fair Harbor Lady!

by Terry Walton Little Jennie's launching last August was a festive day , with crowds spraw led on lawns overlooking Centerport Harbor.

But while child ren pl ayed in the shallows, everyone knew the moment was the cu lmination of months of hard work-a nd the beginning of even more .

Fami lies watched heart-in-mouth as the crane, an American flag at her top , began to hoist Li Ille Jennie. Aloft, her s lender underbody showed the bugeye 's Indian log-canoe ancestry.

The launching was perfect , and the gracefu l o ld schooner proceeded directly to the Centerport Marina under tow.

There, amid much handshak ing, Laura and Bill Perks of Centerport we re the object of specia l apprec iatio n, fo r the restoration of Little Jennie has been their idea, and they have engaged the good wishes and strong support of a ll w ho have come together for thi s endeavor.

Little Jennie was built in 1884, in Mary land , where she worked for ten years oystering on the Chesapeake. S ince then, she has freighted wheat and watermelon, rum (so they say, with two marvelously fast Liberty engines!), and fo r three decades on Long Island Sound , people. Abandoned , she was seven years a hulk in a Huntington yard before be ing hauled for restoration by the Perks. Now ,

Historian Frank Braynard and Adm. Thomas King of the US Merchant Ma rine Academy ; town historian Rufus Langhans; artis1 Woodhull Young ; Dr. Ralph Eshelman, director of 1he Calvert Marine Museum, So/0111011s, Maryland ; and a dedica1ed community of rnppor/ers have made i1 possible for Litt le Jennie to live again.

at last, she is the be loved harbor lady of the Centerport Marina, whence she wi ll lead a fleet to Operation Sai l 1986 in New York to celebrate the birthday of a younger, but no less venerable compatriot , the Statue of Liberty .

To prepare for that momentous occasion, Little Jennie must undergo further restoration work. In add ition to volunteer help , she needs new masts (those pictured are makeshift) , substanti al work

A sea classic and a fine gift!

GRISWOLD INN Serving Neighbors and Travelers for Trim Centuries

LUNCHEON AN D DI NN ER DAILY FAMOUS HUNT BREAKFAST SUNDAY OVERl'\JIGHT ACCOMMODATIONS

The Peking Battles Cape Horn This is Irving J o hnso n's classic narrati ve of a passage round Ca pe H orn in 1929 in t he stee l bark Peking. A new forewo rd and appe ndi x provide bac kgrou nd on the a uth or a nd th e ship. In the new afterw o rd th e a uth o r loo ks back, after 48 yea rs o f sea fa rin g, to hi s ex peri ences a board the Peking.

203-767-0991 American Ex press

SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

Reproduced in full color by the Oceanic Navigation Research Society, thi s co llection of 28 different sa iling cards inc ludes Cunard, North German Lloyd , Red Star and Allan Line . Make check payable to Nat'l

tO"lo d isco unt to National Soc iety members.

Maritime Historical Society. set of 28 $8.50

To: National Maritime Historical Soc.

To : National Maritime Historical Soc.

Please se nd me_ hardcover copies of " Peking" ac $11.95;_ paper cover copies a t $5 .95 each. My c heck for $ _ __ is enclosed.

Masler C harge

Steamship Postcards

Capt. Irving Johnson's

132 Maple Sc ., Crocon-on-Hudson, NY 10520

ESSEX. CO\: '-:E CTICL'T

below decks, and a I OOhp + engine.

Long-term projects for Little Jennie include maritime education classes and a special mi ssion involving the hand icapped , possibly in cooperation with the Jubilee Tru st in G reat Britain.

For further information on the Little Jenni e Project, whether to learn or lend , get in touch with William Perks, Operation Little Jennie, Inc., PO Box 481 , Centerport, NY 11 72 1, 5 16 754-2864.

NA ME - - - - - - - - - - - ADD RESS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ~

132 Mapl e St. . Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520

Please send me_ _ _sets of postcards.

My check for ¡s enclosed.

Name - - - - - - - - -- - -

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Zip _ _ __

Z IP

37

SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT "Now serving ports from Norfolk, Va. to Bucksport, Me."

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38

The Hudson River Maritime Center (see , " Directo ry, " page 20) celebrated its fifth anni versary thi s year. Among its many programs are the maintenance of the tug Mathilda and the Ro ndout n li ghthouse , which can be visited abo ard the Marion T. Budd. One of the year ' s highlights was the induction of the Hudson River steamer Mary Powell into the Nati onal Maritime Hall of Fame. The Center maintains a large co llecti on of artifacts from the Powell, considered by many the most graceful steamboat of her era. (For more on thi s lovely vessel, see " Modelmaker's Corner," page 3 1. ) The Cente r also sent its renowned Rigging Gang to May vill e, New York , to help fit out Sea Lion, a 63 ft . ship modeled on a sixteenthcentury merchant vessel. Fourteen years abuilding , Sea Lion was started- and fini shed- by Ernie Cowan, who in hi s fo rmer li fe was a deputy sheriff. Based on plans from a treati se by Matthew Baker, master shipwright to Queen Elizabeth , the ship was built almost exc lusively with traditional tool s: Her hull was shaped with a compass and straightedge. Although the project imposed severe fin ancial burdens on Cowan and hi s supporters, burdens compounded by the skepti cism of some of their tow nsmen, Sea Lion has been a major attraction on Lake Chauta uqua , and in the year befo re commissioning generated more th an $ 1 million in touri st revenues fo r the area !

Despite these hardships, the Sea Lion Project, Ltd ., has undertaken the management of several other vessels. The steamboat Chautauqua Belle, des igned by Allen Bates fo r the bicentenni al, was destined for the scrap heap. Her operation serves as a reminder of nineteenth -century Lake Chautauqua when myri ad steamers plied her waters. The Bemus Point-Stow Ferry was also threatened by the opening of the Lake Chautauqua Bridge . Though in herself a nondescript vessel (enli vened somewhat by the addition of fo ur Victori an pilothouses), the fe rry is the continu ati on of the first j udicial act in the county' s hi story , when in 18 11 Thomas Bemus obtained permi ssion to run a log-raft ferry to carry his cattle to pasture .

Two other vesse ls are used in conjunction with Sea Lion's acti vi ties: a tugboat, Herself, built in 1938 , and the first vessel constructed at the Chautauqua Lake Boat Yard ; and a recently donated 1923 Lake Eri e Lifeboat whi ch as yet has no name. If you are interested in suggesting a name , or in making some other contributi on to the Sea Lion Project, contact them at R.D . One , Sea Li on Drive , Mayville NY 14757; 7 161753-2403.

The State of New Jersey has been looking at the potential of its Hudson River Waterfront . Pl ans under revi ew include the opening of the Hudson Ri ver Walkway from Bayonne to the George Washington Bridge . The path will link existing parks and hi stori c sites (including the steam yacht Kestrel and the ferry Binghamton), and may generate development and expansion of light rail and fe rry routes.

N.J . De pt. of Transportati on, Di v. of Coastal Resources , CN401 , Trenton NJ 98625.

SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

& MUSEUM NEWS The ferry MIV Commander ( 19 17 , Beele Wallace Co ., Morehead City NC) is now registered in the National Register of Histo ric Places . A commemorati ve plaque states that she is "one of the last operating examples of a wooden passenger vessel, representing the transitional period from steam to motor power. " Commi ssioned for the Sheepshead Bay Boatlines, she was requisitioned by the Navy for service in New York Harbor. From 19 19 until 1981 she was in active service fo r the Boatlines, until her acqui sition by the Hudson Highland s Crui ses and Tours. (See " Directory," page 20. ) Arti facts from the Mary Rose (SH 23) are o n tour to fiv e outstandin g museums across the country through the next year. This humane collection features more than 200 of the best pieces from the ship , including the ship 's be ll , gold coins, weapons, table wear in pewter and wood , and personal effects. There is a replica of the surgeon's cabin and hi s medical chest and one is greeted by Madame Tussaud 's fi gure of Henry Ylll, whose spectacul ar ship thi s was . Currentl y on view at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Wade Oval, Uni versity Circle , Cleveland OH 44 l 06: 2 16/ 23 1-4600, through December 8, these treasures next travel to the Boston Museum of Science, Science Park, Boston MA 02 114: 6 171723-2501 , January 11 -March 9, 1986.

We will post dates fo r the exhibitions at the Chi cago Museum of Science, Natura l Histo ry Museum of Los Ange les County, and the Loui siana Science Museu m in fo rthcoming iss ues.

Great Lakes watercra ft, the museum sponsors seminars, maintains ex hibitions and ass ists projects rangi ng from underwater archaeology to co nservation . (LMMM , Box 534 , South Haven MI 49090: 6 16/637-8078 .)

An organization has been formed in Waiuku, New Zealand , to preserve the ketch-rigged scow Jane Russell. Such scows were a common sight in Waiuku in the second half of the last century and the first quarter of our own.

Their shallow draft made them ideal lighters on Manukau Harbor (south of Auckland) which is prone to heavy silting. (c/o Mr. R. Hitchen, 73 Sandpit Rd., Waiuku , NZ) .

Archaeologists searching for the caissons of the " Great Bridge" on Lake Champlain ( 1777) have uncovered the remains of three ships. Two of the vessels, which date from the French and Indi an War, were built at Fort Ticonderoga by the British; the third is a French pri ze . Their di scovery constitutes a " most signifi cant record of colonial military ship constructi on," according to the Lake Champl ain Maritime Soc iety, which is conducting the recovery of arti fac ts at the site.

Money for the project is bei ng raised by the Fort Ticonderoga Assoc iation , Box 390 , T iconderoga NY 12883 : 5 18/585-282 1. <ii <ii <ii

'1 Vuu.'Ja111111<r. sloop a11.'>

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On Sunday, September I , a Franco-A merican ex pediti on led by Dr. Robert D. Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute located and photographed the Titanic 530 miles from Newfoundland, at a depth of 4,000m . The incomparable feat was achieved with the use of the USN-built Argo, a deepsea imaging dev ice, and the Sar, a French sidescanning sonar. Photographs released by the expedition show extensive damage to the stem , artifacts strewn around the hull , including w ine bottles and table wear, as well as hauntingly viv id pictures of the hull and superstructure.

The di scovery has thrown new light on the events surrounding the di saster, and inev itably, has generated debate over the rights of salvage.

Against the proposals of some to raise the Titanic, the di scoverers want the liner to remain in peace-a memorial to the victims of the worst peacetime maritime disaster.

May 18 saw the opening of the Hull Lifesaving Museum in the Point Allerton Life Saving Station (Box 22 l , l 11 7 Nantasket Ave., Hull MA 02045). This is the first museum in the U.S. devoted to lifesaving. The inaugural exhibition commemorates the 200th anni versary of the Massachusetts Humane Society-forerunner of the Coast Guard .

Gov. James Blanchard proc laimed May 4 " Lake Michigan Maritime Museum Day, " in honor of the opening of the Museum Center. Emphas izing the devel opment of

SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

THE "URGER"- The famili ar la ndmark N .Y. State Tugboat in th e Uppe r Huds o n Ri ver/ Erie C anal area was painted b y noted m aritime artist TONY J. CAPONE. A limited edition of 500 prints signed and numbered by th e artist are available at $100 . eac h . Prints are 20 " x 2 7" o n mu se um qualit y acid fre e pa pe r. A trul y fine additi o n to a n y collectio n .

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OSWALD L. BRETT Military Affairs (1937- ) is an hi st orical quarterly. Student (with pro fessor's signature) $10.00 (limited to 3 years); regular membership $20 .00 ; institutional subscription $30 .00 ; overseas members and subscribers add $8 .00 postage (U.S. Fund s on ly) .

FEATURES Articles as we ll as Academic Intel ligence and AMI Institute News - reports on research libraries and on conferences , reviews of scholarship ; book reviews ; recen t articles and doct oral dissertations in military affa irs.

T his limi ted edition of 500 signed and numbered prints is is printed in full color on fi ne rag paper. T hrough the generosity of the artist, proceeds wi ll benefit the Society.

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SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

41

BOOKS

HISTORY m PHOTOGRAPHS

by Jeffrey Simpson

The Hudson River: 1850-1918 A Photographic Portrait " Here is a piece o f genuin e A1neric ana ..

An enduring e ffo n , The Hudson River: 1850 -1918 will make an ideal bo ok for

lovers of pic torial history." - United Press

International 2 08 pages , 150 B&W ph o tographs , c lo thbo und , 52 9.9 5

Officers And Gentlemen Historic West Point in Photographs In 200 pho tographs and illus tratio ns, Officers and Gentlem en chronic les the growth of the ac ad e mr and the e xplo its of its gradu ates fro m West Po int's founding in 180 2 until Wo rld War I he ro Do uglas MacA rthur b eca me s upe rinte nd e nt in 19 19.

22 4 p a g es. 2 00 B&W ph o to graph s, c lothbo und, 524.95

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42

THE BOOK L OCKER

Traveling by train along the Hudson River not long ago , Marianne Moore's description of the dragon came to mind: "a symbol of the power of Heaven--0f silkwonn/ size or immense; at times invisible ./Felicitous phenomenon." While the River is anything but diminutive in its navigable stretches, what-better than the silkworm--describes its stream spinning down from Lake Tear in the Clouds?

The decade following the tum of the century was one of assessment for admirers of the Hudson_ The Hudson River School of painting had come to a close and writers of the caliber of Cooper and Irving no longer drew on the region for their inspiration_ Industry was in the ascendant and it was becoming apparent that there must be some limit to the despoliation carried on within the watershed.

In 1909 , Wallace Bruce produced a guide entitled The Hudson (repr. 1982 , Walking News , New York), in which he prefers the use of the Indian name Tahawas (" I cleave the clouds") to Mt. Marcy. Bruce ' s guide is informative and instructive . Written for an audience not yet attuned to the errors of progress, and with a minimum of warning about the fragility of the environment , The Hudson is devoted to descriptions of scenic monuments and local history . Couched in a fashion that some might regard as antiquated, it is nonetheless accessible and to the point.

Arthur Mack ' s Palisades of the Hudson (1908, repr. 1982 , Walking News) is a guide to " the long ridge of towering basalt that rims the northeastern edge of New Jersey ,'' from Bergen Point to Piermont, New York . The historical lore is rich, and there is a good account of the establishment of the Palisades Interstate Park , designed to preserve the land from depredation.

Back on the train , it is soon apparent that although New Jersey can boast of the Palisades , New York has the better view.

One can achieve a more than passing familiarity with the Hudson through Arthur Adams ' s The Hudson: A Guidebook to the River (State University Press , Albany , 1982). Adams has reinvented the guidebook: With 42nd Street in Manhattan as his point of departure, he takes us

by IOths of a mile from the farthest reaches of the submerged Hudson Canyon (-580mi.) to Glens Falls (277 .30 mi . on the East side, 260 . 10 mi . on the West). A fast reader on the local from New York can keep pace with the uninterrupted panorama and history of the Western shore described here , so long as the river is not fog-bound. There is no equivalent vantage from the west; but

the book is designed for those with a car, and there are meticulous instructions on how to arrive at the best views.

An ancilla to the Guide is Adams's The Hudson Through the Years (Lind Publications, Westwood NJ, 1985). While it encompasses a great deal , there are needless errors, and it suffers from being more factual than discursive .

Aficionados of trains and riverboats will take enormous pleasure from its substantial treatment of these. The work of Donald Ringwald, mentioned elsewhere in this issue , should be cited here: Hudson River Day Line (1965), Mary Powell (l 972), and Steamboats for Rondout (1981). All are published by HowellNorth , Berkeley CA. Strongest praise must be reserved for Robert Boyle ' s The Hudson River: A Natural and Unnatural History (W.W. Norton, New York , 1956). Boyle is a sensitive and knowledgeable naturalist who writes with a calm but firm appreciation of his subject . He describes the Hudson from its fishless fountain in the Adirondacks to its mysterious abyssal depths in the Atlantic . Boyle is far from pedantic. He frequently rebuts accepted theory, relying on his own experience of the land and water and the abundant testimony of local rivermen with whom he is very much at ease . The chapter "Power, Power Everywhere" is a towering condemnation of industrial abuse and hypocrisy. First published in 1969, this work should be read as much for its artistry as for its substance.

Nineteen sixty-nine was significant also for the launching of the Hudson River Sloop, Clearwater, symbol of the environmental movement that is taking root in the Valley. The catalyst for the project, according to Pete Seeger's introduction to the newest edition, was William Verplanck and Moses Coll yer's The Sloops of the Hudson (repr. 1985, Purple Mountain Press*). One's interest is kept alive by descriptions of proper boat handling and reminiscences of records set and disasters met with on the Hudson. The index of some 400 sloops and schooners makes it an invaluable reference.

The Hudson has been at times invisible, sometimes abandoned to its fate even by its supporters. The battle is always being fought to preserve her majesty, and we hope that this all too brief introduction to her literature will give rise to a new generation of crusaders on behalf of this most felicitous of American phenomena.

L INCOLN P. PA I NE *Many Hudson River titles are available from Purple Mountain, PO Box E-3, Fleischmanns NY 12430. 914 254-4062 .

SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

LIFE ALONG THE HUDSON Remembered in Our Streets, Ferries & Landings Robert Fulton: A Biography, by Cynthia Owen Philip (Franklin Watts, New York, 1985 , 371 pp , illus, $18.95).

New Yorkers, especially, will welcome the arrival of the biography of Robert Fulton, who has lent his name to streets , ferries, and landings in a city where he is otherwise surprisingly unknown. Cynthia Owen Philip successfully illuminates the mind and achievements of thi s quintessentially American inventor whose intellectual struggles took place in England and France, but whose finished product ended up benefitting his own state and country.

Fulton is justly remembered as an inventor. Yet he was one of his own definition primarily , assimilating and developing the work of others as much as creating raw ideas of his own. He was also a citizen philosopher. In unfortunate juxtaposition to these qualities , he was a fierce entrepreneur, with a patent disregard for the achievements of others when they rivalled his own. An avowed patriot with a contempt for war because it disrupts man's normal capacity for productivity , he developed a submarine which he tried to sell to the French, the British and, in turn, to the United States.

This invention, he believed, would bring peace to the seas, and ultimately to the whole world.

The development and production of the first operable steamboats are the accomplishments for which he is best remembered . Although from the first the steamboat was an unqualified success, at once profitable and safe, Fulton's attempts to defend his dubious patents and the monopoly over interstate routes that he shared with Robert Livingston were a constant source of anxiety and embarassment, and his struggle with them contributed to his early death at the age of forty-nine.

Fulton was fortunat\! to live in the age he did , an intellectually vital one which was to a considerable extreme without class boundaries for men of letters or science . Pennsylvania-born , Fulton apprenticed to a silversmith in Philadelphia and took up painting , the pursuit of which drew him to England. There he arrived with a letter of introduction to Benjamin West-some say from Benjamin Franklin . Although an able painter and draughtsman, which stood him in good stead throughout his career, he found the life unsatisfying , and took up an interest in the engineering of canals.

The fruit of this initial work was his ''Treatise on the Improvement of Inland SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

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Navigation ." Well received abroad and at home, the work articulated a broad range of his ideas on commerce, invention, and free trade, as well as his principles of engineering.

Within a few years, Fulton was in France, proposing to the government his plans for a submarine to destroy the British fleet. Although the vessel could maneuver successfully, and could destroy its target in trials, it never accomplished its purpose under the necessary conditions. He subsequently took his "curious machine for mending politics" to England where he vainly tried to peddle it to the enemies of France.

Fulton returned to America a celebrated man, and within two years the North River Steamboat had made its first run from New York to Albany and back, making 5 knots over the entire run . The next eight years Fulton divided between securing routes for all United States waters-the most important being the Mississippi-developing the steamboat itself, and fending off the claims of his rivals , many of whom claimed Fulton's patents to be bogus , as indeed they might have been.

Philip ' s lucid, detailed , and compassionate portrait renders belated justice to

a remarkable American. She also delivers a lively, sensitive picture of the times and the societies he moved in. This work deserves a front-rank position in American biography.

LINCOLN

P.

PAINE

Rising above His Advantages ...

Mountbatten, by Philip Ziegler (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1985, 784pp, illus, $24.95) .

For anyone in the British Army during the Hitler War, it has been hard to take Dickie Mountbatten seriously: too handsome, too rich, too royal ("His Serene Highness" on his footlocker at school), too famously promiscuous a wife (Laddy Sandford through Jawaharlal Nehru), too ebullient, too full of ferocious energy and groundless good cheer ("disconcertingly heroic" Ziegler calls him), too much the hero of a Noel Coward movie (really: "In Which We Serve"); and, finally, too unsuccessful: the Kelly destroyer first crippled and, after repairs, then sunk-under his command both times-the disastrous Dieppe raid when he was Chief of Combined Operations,

The great days ofour maritime heritage from todays greatest maritime artist

From our magnificent clippers and packet ships to the whalers of old New England and the riverboats of the Mississippi, from the bustling seaports of New York and Boston to the South and the West Coast, John Stobart's canvases brilliantly portray the great days of commercial sail in America. Now there's STOBART, an enthralling and sumptuous collection of many of his finest paintings, accompanied by fascinating historical accounts and John Stobart's own story of his life and work. A wide range of drawings and sketches, many of them never before published,

by this master of marine art, add to the beauty of this definitive book-one that every lover of art, ships and the sea will want to own.

Over 60 full-color reproductions . Numerous drawings and sketches. $75.

Foreword by Peter Stanford President, National Maritime Historical Society

44

SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

the undistinguished Southeast Asia Command, the hasty and bloody partition of India when he was Viceroy, his lifelong ambition achieved after the war when he became First Sea Lord and then first Chief of the Defence Staff, commander of all British forces as they ceased to be forceful: all done with great panache, " Masterpiece Theatre" indeed.

So I came to scoff and remain, if not to pray, to feel admiration and even a kind of irritated affection. Ziegler, an experienced biographer, historian, and publisher's editor, was chosen to write the official biography , and was given free access to the vast archives at Broadlands , Edwina Mountbatten 's country estate, but also left free to write what he chose; at the end of his book-' 'massive but not ... intolerably so"-finding plenty of evidence meticulously preserved of ''faults on the grandest scale,'' he placed on his desk a sign: ''REMEMBER, IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING, HE WAS A GREAT MAN.'' Mountbatten loved the sea, but he loved family honour even more. His father, Prince Louis of Battenberg, was driven from office as First Sea Lord in 1914 because of his German birth and name (Batten berg= Mountbatten) ; a school chum offered sympathy, and Dickie replied, "It doesn't really matter. Of course I shall take his place.'' Rising above his advantages, he did. He inspired great loyalties and efforts among his sailors-he thought of himself as a sailor above all, contributed much to the theory and practice of combined operations by sea, land and air, and finally died at sea in the IRA bombing of his small fishing craft. His principal achievements, though, were on land: the book is persuasive that the communal massacres in India would have been even bloodier if he had not hastened partition, he was effective as Chief of the Defence Staff in integrating the service ministries, and he was realistic in urging that "the nuclear arms race has no military purpose" and campaigning for the control and reduction of nuclear armories . The last line of the book seems justified: "He flared brilliantly across the face of the twentieth century; the meteor is extinguished but its glow lingers on in the mind's eye."

CHARLES G . BOLTE

Mr . Bolte volunteered before Pearl Harbor for the King's Royal Rifle Corps and served in the Battle of El Alamein. A past officer of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, he is today editor of the American Oxonian.

SEA HISTORY , AUTUMN 1985

A Gripping Edwardian Yarn The Riddle, by Maldwin Drummond (Conway Maritime Press, 24 Bride Lane , Fleet Street, London EC4Y 8DR, 1985, 233pp, illus, ÂŁ10.95).

Maldwin Drummond, Chairman of the Maritime Trust of Great Britain, and a Trustee of the World Ship Trust inter alia, has undertaken to produce a detailed study of the origins and factual basis of the novel The Riddle of the Sands published in 1903 by Erskine Childers. This became one of the most popular books of its day , and has lived on as a classic of yachting and suspense literature. It is an adventure story for yachtsmen and also, in a more sinister vein, a warning of the growing might of the German Navy under Admiral Tirpitz, and the aggressive aspirations of the Kaiser, which reached their conclusions in 1914 and at Jutland.

Erskine Childers himself cruised the North German coast and the Frisian Islands, which he recced and charted extensively, aboard his cutter Vixen in 1897 (she is featured as Dulcibella in the novel), and he describes what he then saw, and assumed, woven into the form of a novel as seen through the eyes of those two memorable fictitious yachtsmen, Davies and Carruthers.

He goes on to warn the British public (by whom France was then regarded as the principal potential enemy), of the danger from across the North Sea and the possibilities of an unexpected attack by the German Navy from the North German coast, in the form of an unforeseen landing on a remote part of the East Coast of England, before forces could be mobilized to oppose this . Childers, then a clerk in the House of Commons, saw to it that his warnings were read by those in authority, where they aroused real concern. All this is recalled by Mr. Drummond through private letters as well as the public record. The book is well illustrated with contemporary photos, and with extracts from original maps and charts from the area under review.

Mr. Drummond , since his discovery of Childers's novel in 1953, has been under its spell. He has cruised the area himself, and goes on to review the historical facts as now revealed both from British and German sources. It is now clear that as far back as 1897 /8, Admiral Tirpitz regarded England as the most dangerous enemy. As a result staff plans continued to be formulated for many years for a possible invasion across the North Sea (or German Ocean, as it was

"An absorbing account of an American genius whose energies enraged and captured aworld:'*

"Readable and enjoyable, the elegantly crafted story of a stubborn genius, determined to carve a niche for himself in history."

-The Kirkus Reviews "Philip's biography has style and drama, dipping into the social and politicial history of America during a dynamic period. . . Scholarly and very readable."

-Library Journal "An eye-opening look into a vital piece of American history."

-William Stevenson , author of A Man Called Intrepid and Ninety Minutes at Entebbe '''

Franklin Watts, Inc. Dept. SC 387 Park Ave. South , New York , NY 10016 Please send ( ) copy(s) of Robert Fulton at $18 .95 plus $1. 50 for postage and handling (plus sales tax wh ere applicable.)

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BOOKS then called), though whether by using the outlets and estuaries behind the Frisian Islands, as Childers in his novel presupposed, or by invading Holland and Belgium (as happened in 1940), and utilizing their convenient deep-water ports for a much shorter crossing, the reader must judge for himself.

Based at considerable length on Childers 's original novel , the book has been supplemented by using his original logs of the 1897 cruise, upon which his book was based . Mr. Drummond writes a "gripping yarn ," in Edwardian parlance , made all the more interesting today, now that the true historical facts can be looked at from both sides.

JAMES FORSYTHE Sam Crocker's Boats: A Design Catalog, by S. Sturgis Crocker (International Marine Publ. Co., 1985, Camden ME , 295pp, illus , $45). Sturgis Crocker exhibits the broad range and practicality of his father 's creativity. Plans for nearly a third of Crocker's 344 designs are here , accompanied by photographs, nautigraphical sketches, and remembrances of growing up a boatbuilder's son.

LPP U.S. Armored Cruisers: A Design and Operational History, by I van Musicant, drawings by David Wood (Naval Inst .

Press, Annapolis MD, 1985 , 239pp, illus, $28.95). Strange, antediluvian monsters they looked, these tall-funnelled cruisers, bristling with guns, built in the 1890s and early 1900s. Twelve of them were built . The first, the New York, was probably the most technologically advanced warship of her day-her trial speed of 21.91 knots was a world record-and brought the backward USN into the front rank of naval competition at one bound . By 1914, when World War I broke out, she and her sisters were completely outclassed, and could not hope to live in the same water with the Dreadnought-type battleship or the Invincible battle cruiser.

Musicant, going deeply into the technological developments and naval doctrine of the time, finds the ships fully justified, effective units of the burgeoning US fleet. Ships and weapons systems (one should include armor with guns when considering weaponry) rarely spring fully armed from some godlike brow; they are products of the thought CLIPPER CLASSIC AMERICAN CLIPPER SHIPS 1833-58,

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46

and events of their day. The author has successfully captured the dense cultural medium of the age to which these ships were born. In this he is abetted by a superb collection of photographs well produced on the large format pages of this book .

PETER STANFORD From Tree to Sea: The Building of a Wooden Steam Drifter, by Ted Frost (Terence Dalton, Lavenham, Suffolk UK, 1985, 179pp, illus, ÂŁ17 .95) . A delightful book with an almost Victorian flavor and well illustrated with the author's own drawings, this recounts the building of the steam drifter Formidable (LTJOO) during World War I. Ted Frost was apprenticed as a shipwright aged fourteen, and he gives a graphic account of the days when small steam vessels such as drifters were still built largely in wood by craftsmen using skills inherited from past generations . He relates the story of Formidable from the selection and felling of the timber and laying down of the keel , to the launching , fitting of boiler and engine , and eventual steam trial. Each step is described precisely .

Frost refers to his years as an apprentice as "almost seven years of happiness," which is reflected in these pages .

He has obviously retained a great love for his first trade in all its elaborate operations, which he has recorded with care.

JF Old Marine Engines, by Stan Grayson (International Marine Publishing, Camden ME, 1982, 205pp, illus, $22 .50).

Much has been written about the effects of steam propulsion on the marine field, especially the transition from sail to steam during the last century . Surprisingly little , however, has been written on the effect which the internal combustion engine had on shipping after the tum of the century. Perhaps it is fe lt that there is little glamor in an enclosed device without moving parts , or that it is merely one form of power competing with another.

Yet this is hardly true; for the early gasoline and oil engines were as cantankerous, reliable , obstinate and colorful as any steam plant of the period . There was also a wide application of gas engines in many vessels too small to afford the complexity or expense of steam. Grayson ' s primary subject is the application of these engines to fishing and small craft in the Northeastern United States and Canada.

It was the one-cylinder two-cycle "gasolene" eng ine or "one- lunger" that freed the small-boat owner , especially

the fis herman , from the back-breaking toil of rowing to port against tide and wind at the end of the day , and it is therefore an important chapter in the story of this industry . The book covers the hi story and development of the twocycle engine, a description of its construction and the histories of several of the major manufacturers ; and lastly, the current status of the collecting and preserving of these machines.

The book is well written and illustrated, some of the photos being comparatively rare views of early gas engines ; and there are four appendices.

CONRAD MILSTER Estuary and River Ferries of South West E ngland , by Martin Langley and Edwina Small (W AINE Research Publication, Mt. Pleasant, Seamish Ln., Al brighton, Wolverhampton WV7 3JJ UK , 149pp, illus, ÂŁ10 .95) . This large format book deal s with the ferries of the South West penninsula of Britain whose bays, inlets and rivers from the hinterland have provided substantial barriers to the West.

The joint authors, obviously West Countrymen, have pursued extensive research , in many cases through centuries, into the rights of passage and ownership of these ancient crossings. Often , these were originally vested in the Lord of the Manor and sublet to families of local watermen. The craft involved have been traced, from the earliest punts and oared boats , through the nineteenth century when paddle steamers predominated on the larger crossings, and on to the twentieth century and the ubiquitous diesel launches used for purely passenger traffic. This book is well illustrated with period photographs coupled with good line drawings and plans .

JF Two distinctive calendars for 1986 have been published by the Naval Institute Press in Annapolis. Our American Naval Heritage: Selections from the U.S. Naval Academy Museum ($7.95) is compiled and introduced by the museum's curator , James Cheevers .

There are over sixty pages of photographs-none in color-from the Academy's collection of paintings, models, medals, weapons, scrimshaw and antiquities. Wallace E. Tobin prefaces his Mariner's Pocket Companion: 1986 Calendar with 100 pages of information on survival at sea, weather, aircraft identification, personal ship data , and a two-page bibliography . Geared to those in the service, it is dedicated " to all who follow the sea ," and simi larly commended. . LPP SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

'' ... A Very Pleasant Place to Build a Towne On.'' The following is an extract from the Journal of Robert Juet, "a rather literate man of the sea," and an officer aboard Henry Hudson's Half Moon. In it he recounts the events of the Half Moon's return from Albany-the northern limit of this historic voyagebetween what is thought to be the modern-day cities ofHudson and Kingston.

The five and twentieth [of September, 1609] was faire weather, and the wind at South a stiffe gale. We rode still, and went on Land to walke on the West side of the River, and found good ground for Come, and other Garden herbs, with great store of goodly Oakes, and Wal-nut trees, and Chest-nut trees, Ewe trees, and trees of sweet wood in great abundance, and great store of Slate for houses, and other good stones.

The sixe and twentieth was faire weather, and the wind at South a stiffe gale, wee rode still. In the morning our Carpenter went on Land with our Masters Mate, and foure of our companie to cut wood. This morning, two canoes, came up the River from the place where we first found loving people, and in one of them was the old man that had layen aboord of us at the other place. He brought another old man with him which brought more stropes of Beades, and gave them to our Master, and shewed him all the Countrey there about, as though it were at his command. So he made the two old men dine with him, and the old man's wife: for they brought two old women, and two young maidens of the age of sixteene or seventeene yeeres with them , who behaved themselves very modestly. Our Master gave one of the old men a Knife, and they gave him and us Tobacco. And at one of the clocke they departed downe the River, making signes that wee should come downe to them; for wee were within two leagues of the place where they dwelt.

The seven and twentieth, in the morning was faire weather, but much wind at the North, we weighed and set our fore top-sayle, and our ship would not flat, but ran on the Ozie banke at halfe ebbe.

Wee layed out anchor to heave her off, but could not. So wee sate from halfe ebbe to halfe floud : then wee set our fore-sayle and mayne top-sayle , and got down sixe leagues. The old man came aboord, and would have had us anchor, and goe on Land to eate with him : but the wind being faire, we would not yeeld to his request: so hee left us, being very sorrowfull for our departure . At five of the clocke in the after-noone, the wind came to the South South-west. So wee SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1985

Hudson pursued his hope of finding the Northwest Passage as far as Albany, where fresh water and the absence of tides made it clear that he was not in a saltwater strait. Here Frederick Church captures the quiet beauty of the upper river in his I 847 "Sunset, Hudson River, " Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD.

made a boord or two , and anchored in fourteene fathomes water. Then our Boat went on shoare to fish against the ship .

Our Masters Mate and Boat-swaine, and three more of the companie went on land to fish, but could not find a good place.

They tooke foure or five and twentie Mullets, Breames, Bases, and Barbils; and returned in an houre . We rode still all night. ...

The thirtieth was faire weather, and the wind at South-east a stiffe gale betweene the Mountaynes. We rode still the afternoone. The people of the Countrey came aboord us, and brought some small skinnes with them , which we bought for Knives and Trifles. This is a THE SLOOPS OF THE HUDSON

by Verplanck & Collyer. Reprint of 1908 edition with new Intro. by Pete Seeger.

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very pleasant place to build a Towne on.

The Road is very neere, and very good for all winds, save an East North-east wind . The mountaynes looke as if some Metall or Minerall were in them. For the trees that grow on them were all blasted, and some of them barren with few or no Trees on them. The people brought a stone aboord like to Emery (a stone used

by Glasiers to cut Glasse) it would cut Iron or Steele: Yet being bruised small, and water put to it, it made a colour like blacke Lead glistering; It is also good for Painters Colours. At three of the clocke they departed, and we rode still all night.

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Engineering 'Ibmorrow's Sea History

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 th e Maritime Institute of Tech nology 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 th ei r ski lls 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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ROBERT J. LOWEN

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International President

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