No. 40
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Operation Sail 1986
SUMMER 1986
ISSN 0146-9312
SEA HISTORY
No. 40
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE WORLD SHIP TRUST
SEA HISTORY is published quarterly by the National Maritime Historical Society, 132 Maple Street, Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520. 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, NY 10520. COPYRIGHT © 1986 by the National Maritime Historical Society . Tel. 914 271-2177 . MEMBERSHIP is invited: Plankowner $10,000; Benefactor $5,000; Sponsor $1,000; Donor $500; Sustaining Patron $250; Patron $100; Contributor $50; Family $35 ; Regular $25; Student or Retired $12.50 . All members outside the USA please add $5 for postage. OFFICERS & TRUSTEES are Chairman: James P. McAllister; Vice Chairman: James Ean; President: Peter Stanford; Vice President: Norma Stanford; Secretary: Alan G. Choate; Treasurer: J. Kevin Lally; Trustees: Alan G . Choate, Ellen Fletcher, Peter Goldstein, Thomas Hale, Barbara Johnson, Kart°Kortum, J. Kevin Lally, Richardo Lopes, Robert J. Lowen, James P. McAllister, John H. Reilly, Jr., Spencer Smith, Peter Stanford; Chairman Emeritus: Karl Kortum; President Emeritus: Alan D. Hutchison. OVERSEERS: Chairman: Townsend Hornor; Harris L. Kempner, Clifford D. Mallory, Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr., John G. Rogers, John Stobart. ADVISORS: Co-chairmen: Frank 0 . Braynard, David Brink; Raymond Aker, George Bass, Francis E. Bowker, Oswald L. Brett, George Campbell, Frank G . G. Carr, William Main Doerflinger, Harry Dring, John Ewald, Joseph L. Farr, Timothy G. Foote, Richard GooldAdams, Mel Hardin, Robert G. Herbert, R. C. Jefferson, Irving M. Johnson, John Kemble, Charles Lundgren, Conrad Milster, William G. Muller, George Nichols, Capt. David E. Perkins USCG (ret.), Richard Rath, Nancy Richardson, George Salley, Melbourne Smith, Ralph L. Snow, Albert Swanson, Shannon Wall , Robert A. Weinstein, Thomas Wells, AICH, Charles Wittholz. American Ship Trust, Secretary : Eric J. Berryman . WORLD SHIP TRUST: Chairman: Frank G. G . Carr; Vice Presidents: Henry H . Anderson, Jr. , Viscount Caldecote, Sir Rex Hunt, Harnrnond Innes, Sir Rt. Hon. Lord Lewin, Sir Peter Scott, Rt. Hon. Lord Shackleton; Hon. Secretary: J. A. Forsythe; Hon. Treasurer: Richard Lee; Mensun Bound, Dr. Neil Cossons, Maldwin Drummond, Alan McGowan, Arthur Prothero, Peter Stanford. Membership: £12 payable WST, c/o Hon . Sec ., 129a North Street, Burwell, Cambs. CBS OBB, England. Reg. Charity No. 277751. SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor: Peter Stanford; Managing Editor: Norma Stanford; Assistant Editor: Lincoln P. Paine; Assistant to the President: Barbara Ladd; Accounting: Alfred J . Schwab; Advertising: Annette Stanton; Membership Secretary: Heidi Quas; Membership Assistant: Patricia Anstett; Corresponding Secretary: Marie Lore.
SUMMER 1986
CONTENTS 2 3 6 10 14 16 21 22 24 25 26 28 30 33 39 44
LETTERS EDITOR'S LOG OPENING THE ATLANTIC WORLD , Peter Stanford OPERATION SAIL 1986/SALUTE TO LIBERTY, Lincoln P. Paine ELISSA SAILS! Alix Hornblower THE FELICE MANIN: A LIGURIAN TRADER, Luigi Cappellini QUERIES N ANHOE AND MASTER: TWO TOWBOATS, William B. Hagelund SAIL TRAINING: THE SAGA OF THE ARCTIC SCHOONER BOWDOIN, Renny Stackpole CHAIRMAN'S REPORT SAIL TRAINING WITH S.A.L.T.S ., Martyn J. Clark MARINE ART: TRADE CARDS-A LOST ART, Charles Ira Sachs MARINE ART NEWS SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT AND MUSEUM NEWS REVIEWS: Books and Records A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BEQUIAN WHALER, John Olsson
COVER: Elissa sails! Discovered by Society members in Greece a quarter century ago, restored in recent years by the Galveston Historical Foundation, the 109-year-old bark is coming to New York to take part in Operation Sail on July 4 , under the sponsorship of the National Trust and the National Maritime Historical Society. See story, pages 14-15 .
The National Maritime Historical Society is saving America's seafaring heritage. Join us. We bring to life America's seafa ring past through research , archaeological expeditions and ship prese rvation efforts. We work with museums, historians and sail training groups and report on these activities in our quarterly journal Sea Hisrory. We are also the American arm of the World Ship Trust , an international group working worldwide to help save ships of historic importance .
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NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
LETTERS A Major's Contribution The Vicar of Bray article in SEA HISTORY 38 seems to have more column length than usual, which can onJy be a good thing. I was, though, a little miffed that the article ended with a brief resume of the Zelinsky trip to the Falklands in 1985 and mentioned the team that accompanied him: I wonder why I was left out? I may not be an American or hail from San Francisco but you Yanks do not have the monopoly on these projects! One day when we meet I will tell you the difficulties behind the visit which required a great deal of patience in sorting out. MAJ. EWEN SOUTHBY-TAILYOUR Ivybridge , England
Major Southby-Tailyour is a life-long sailor and was Britain's Yachtsman of the Year in 1983. In 1979 while stationed in the Falklands with the Royal Marines, he cruised the islands extensively. His book, Falkland Island Shores (see SH36), was a bible of sorts for the English forces in the Anglo-Argentine conflict. Ed Zelinsky joins us in appreciation ofMajor Southby-Tailyour' s enormous contribution to the visit of Zelinsby team last year. We' re sorry to have overlooked this in our report .-ED. In " Bring Home the Vicar! " Lincoln Paine missed the 1979 survey which I put together-under the Society 's umbrella. This led to the first formal acknowledgement of the project by the National Parks Service and their written acceptance, in principle, of taking the Vicar as an exhibit. I edited and collated the entire written work and made a formal presentation to the GGNRA's leadership in late 1979. ERJC BERRYMAN Hon. Sec' y, American Ship Trust
Save One, Save All! I certainly do not question the good intent of the people behind the effort to move Vicar of Bray from the Falkland Islands to San Francisco , but one must measure the wisdom of this against the fact that many of the wooden vessels already "saved" are rotting where they sit , especially in San Francisco . Vicar of Bray has survived this long primarily because of the climate of the Falklands . It would not take long before the San Francisco climate rotted her until she, like Wapama, would be sitting on a barge, her hull too weak and eaten to keep the ocean out! An unfortunate fact of life is that raising money to maintain historic vessels is more mundane and difficult than raising money to "save" and restore them.
2
In the best of all possible worlds there would be money for both . The National Park Service has budgeted less than a million dollars to take care of its entire fleet-a fleet in need of millions of dollars just to stop major deterioration. To drag Vicar of Bray halfway around the world so she can rot as a memorial to San Francisco's municipal ego borders on the immoral. LOUIS F. LINDEN, ESQ. Washington, DC
The point which we hope and believe is strong enough to overcome every objection, is that expressed in the Editor's log of the last issue . "The voyage home of this one ship might save the many by bringing into a focus the feelings that people have for the ships that built their city." Certainly, whether we are right or wrong about the Vicar, a great surge of public interest and concern is needed to reverse the threatened situation of the ships of San Francisco .-ED.
Two Half-Hitches Are Enough! About Gunnar Hexum ' s article in SEA HISTORY 38, " Two Half-Hitches are Enough": I've often wondered why so many seamen seem to think so . I have never trusted them without seizing the end of the rope around which they have been cast. With a loose end , the hitches will either come adrift or slide together to make a not-too-trusty clove hitch . I don ' t blame the " Coastal Protection Association" lads for laying on eight or nine. Yes, I recall those picture postcards, too. During an automobile run up the West Coast in the early 1950s, we had breakfast in a Port Orford shoreside restaurant where I saw some and bought a couple . ROBERT G. HERBERT, II East Northport, New York Two half-hitches are enough in a tempo-
rary emergency, though the hitches will work loose in a tugging, changing situation .-ED.
Tough Years in the Esther Johnson In 1933-34 my father Carl " Swanie" Swanson made a number of trips in the Esther Johnson on the run from San Francisco to Astoria, Oregon and Aberdeen, Washington. He sailed as an able-bodied seaman, which he really was, the finest kind. They were carrying lumber for the construction of the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate bridges. These were tough years, when shoreside jobs were non-existent and berths afloat very scarce . The Esther Johnson job paid about fifty dollars a month, plus board and bed (a fair amount for those times) . When Dad was home between
trips he would excuse his table manners, and they were bad, as having been caused by fighting for his share of the meager rations served up in the galley of the
Esther Johnson . In 1944 I remember seeing the Esther Johnson steaming off Hollandia, New Guinea as we formed in convoy going to the Philippines. I was in the USAT Octorara--on which I was joined a year later by Chief Mate Karl Kortum (Chairman-Emeritus of this Society). CAPT. ALBERT A. SWANSON Boston, Massachusetts
Many of the early South Street Seaport Museum volunteers will remember Swanie and his son from their work aboard the lightvessel Ambrose in 1969.-ED .
Accurate Views I greatly admired the paintings of John Groves in SEA HISTORY 38, they are full of atmosphere . But are they really accurate views of the past? The boat in the " Family of Crabbers " has the stem of a motor boat, but she is supposed to be a pulling boat. The ''Cornish Coast'' is a bit strange. The decked Comish luggers worked out of harbours and they sometimes discharged on a beach , but I don't know of any case of large luggers being hauled up on a beach in the Penzance area . Also these luggers appear to be clinker , while the Westcountry was the stronghold of carve( built craft. When researching Beach Boats ofBritian (Boydell) I looked at a great number of photographs and illustrations of boats working off beaches but I never saw one with a loose-footed gaff main and jib used for fishing. Some of the south and east coast boats used this rig for passenger carrying in the summer. One of these luggers appears to have a beam trawl aboard although in Britain this rig was only used for drift net fishing. ROBERT SIMPER Woodbridge , England Mr . Simper is the editor of the "Sail
Review'' column of the British publication Sea Breezes, and the author of Britain ' s Maritime Heritage.- ED .
Portsmouth Ship Trust We were pleased to see the 1907 Diane Chris listed in Eric Berryman's account of ship trust activities for 1985 (SEA HISTORY 38). I should tell you that she was not built in Denmark but by Scheepsbouwerf' sLands Welvaren in Vlaardingen, Holland and named Handel. She is now owned by the Portsmouth Ship Trust and has been renamed Sagamore . Sagamore has at least two near-sisters SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
that have also been returned to sail . Edna , owned by Brad Ives of Washington, DC , is a schooner-rigged cargo vessel trading in the Pacific. Geesje van Urk is a ketchrigged charter vessel registered in Holland . Edna and Geesje are still at their origi nal length of 90ft. Sagamore was lengthened to 11 Oft during the 1950s . ALBERT E . HICKEY General Partner Portsmouth Ship Trust Portsmouth , New Hampshire Sagamore is now hauled up at the historic Portsmouth Marine Railway where she is being rebuilt as a barkentine . She will be under the new Coast Guard regulations implementing the Sailing School Vessels Act of 1982. Starting in 1987 she will sail with oceanography students from the University ofNew Hampshire .-ED.
Historical Action! The Erie Canal Museum was glad to participate in the Waterways Conference you sponsored at Rennselaersvi lle in January. The National Maritime Historical Society has set an example for all of us in the " hi story business" who can and sho uld be actively involved in the contemporary lives of our subjects . The Erie Canal Museum 's evolving role as a canal activist will have a high priority following last month ' s discussions! VICKI B. QUIGLEY, Director Erie Canal Museum Syracuse, New York We hope to go on with these lively interests that were so much to the fore at this conference which we cosponsored with the New York State Museum . Who knows . . . next year inSyracuse ?-ED.
Launching at Rondout As a footnote to Roger Mabie's fine article on the Port of Rondout , I would like to comment on the launching of the wooden ship Esopus at the Island Dock. The day of the launching was a big event for the area and the building of Esopus and a later sistership , Catskill , were high-watermarks in ship building on the Creek. I was about five or six at the time and my father took me to see the launching together with my uncle and cousin . We rowed in a skiff from the Cornell shops up the creek to the barge graveyard on the south side of the Creek not far from the launch site . There was quite a wait before the launch took place but we could tell from the shipyard sounds how the launch procedure was progressing . Finally , we heard the wedges being knocked from the launch cradle and with the blowing whistles and the ringing of bells, Esopus slid down the ways into the Creek. SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
The launch was a great success until the Esopus hit the water. As soon as she was afloat, she overcame the restraints and moved across the Creek until she grounded in shallow water on the far side of the Creek. There she remained until late afternoon when high tide and a couple of Cornell tugboats worked her free. It was an exciting day and I had a great tale for my schoolmates the next day . WILLI AME. TI NEY Del mar, New York
Dr. No! One of the reasons that I decided not to renew [my membership in the NMHS] concerns my position as a professional hi storian and what I regard as an ineffectual program demonstrated by your magazine SEA HISTORY in developing a national awareness in the field of maritime history. The journal represents neither a professional journal or an " Americana " approach because , I feel, it tries to be all things to all people . I might also add that I was able to attend but one meeting, June , 1985 , at Essex and was, once agai n speaking as a professional historian, disappointed in a clearly projected and experienced impression of "old boy network " of former yacht owners, etc. [sic]. While I am the owner of a yacht myself, that fact remains immaterial to the fact that I have been interested in maritime history fo r twentyfive years and hope , either through OAS or AHA, to awaken a generation of Americans to our very rich maritime history . (NAME WITHHELD), PhD New Rochelle, New York As an historian, Dr. Withheld might have noted that the Essex affair she comments on had only one yacht owner on the program-Harry Anderson of the American Sail Training Association, who uses his yacht in sail training . It did have former oilers, coal passers, Cape Horn square rig germen-but perhaps she doesn' t consider that such people contribute much to maritime history. In any event, we wish her well in her chosen profession .-ED.
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EDITOR'S LOG From far corners of the ocean world, ships are under way as we go to press, to take part in Operation Sail-a salute to the Statue of Liberty on her hundredth birthday. In this issue of SEA HISTORY you ' ll read of a doughty nineteenth-century Ligurian trader coming from Italy, and of the lovely bark Elissa of 1877 , restored by the Galveston Historical Foundation in Texas-a story many of our members have played an active part in. In thi s issue also you'll find some reflections on the opening of the Atlantic world, and particularly the role of Prince Henry's school at Sagres , Portugal. (We are particularly interested in your thoughts on this because we are contemplati ng a very broad-based educational effort on this theme , as soon as we have our all-i mportant Campaign for Sea History tucked away). Some people have expressed concern about the contribution of Operation Sail to the mission the ships sail upon , and to the cause of maritime education . It 's a valid concern-with valid answers. In 1976 Operation Sail provided initial funding fo r the Maritime Division of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Operation Sail people have been endlessly helpful in our work, beyond thatin fact , to a large extent , the them in this case is us. But I think we all would agree that the main contribution is the very thing Operation Sail is about-bringing young people of many nations to our shores, and awakening the interest of the American people in the ships and their people. It is up to us, we feel , to take it from there! And so we are doing. With the National Trust, thi s year, we are cosponsoring the Elissa's trip to northeastern ports , where she will carry a strong educational message for the maritime heritage , and visitors will be invited to sign up as members of the National Society and the National Trust , right there on the spot. On the West Coast , there is no question as to the educational content of Expo '86, a world 's fair devoted to transportation which includes a strong maritime component. In this issue we take a look at two hi storic tugboats from the heroic era of logging , and in the Sail Training section we go to sea aboard the fast-stepping schooner Robertson II . There is more to tell of thi s effort, which we ' ll report on in our next. PS 3
DAVID THIMGAN -
HISTORY RICH NAUTICAL SCENES FROM A BYGONE ERA * Member of the United States Naval Institute * * * *
Member of the Maritime Historical Society Member of the American Society of Marine Artists Published in the "Dictionary of Sea Painters" Represented in the '85 "Mystic International"
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The second Godspeed, replica of one of the three ships that settled Jamestown in 1607, is caught in a timeless moment on her voyage to the Americas last year. Photo, George Salley.
OPENING THE ATLANTIC WORLD by Peter Stanford ''God taught us to make ships, not to transport ourselves, but to transport Him.'' So said the poet and preacher John Donne. He was speaking to the Virginia Company, in 1622. His ringing assertion carries curious echoes in our time-as though there were a more enduring truth within the truth he so clearly saw and felt. Certainly it was a long, hard journey to the point where Europeans burst forth into the Atlantic, and, through their sailing ships, developed on the lands around this storm-beset ocean a uniquely productive if often fractious and too often murderously combative community of nations . The Phoenicians , that vigorous if somewhat enigmatic (to our eyes, across the haze of distance) people may have gone by sea to England for tin about the time that David killed Goliath-around 3,000 years ago. Some students say No , the tin crossed the channel, ascended the European rivers, and spilled down into the advanced Mediterranean world that way. In any event, a thin traffic of some kind reached the Atlantic coasts of Europe from at least this early on, though it does seem to have been a coastal and riverine rather than deepwater exercise. The smashup of the Roman Empire at about halfway from David's time to ours, entailed a great destruction of cities . This left people living literally among the ruins of what had been. That "used-to-be" which haunted the European psyche for centuries had been sustained by massive seaborne trade centered, of course, on the Mediterranean . With the revival of civilization (with communications networks , credit systems, shipments of goods and the flow of arts and ideas that is essential to the life of cities, and which is both stimulated and nourished by cities), the great Italian city states began to venture far afield . Genoa and her rival Venice began sea transport to the British Isles in the 1200s. By the 1400s the rival galleys of Venice had begun to make the open-sea run direct from Finisterre in Spain to Southampton in England-a passage of about 700 miles across some of the world's roughest waters. But by then the conventional light, fast Mediterranean "galley" had undergone a sea change. And indeed, by then, the whole Atlantic scene had entered a period of bewilderingly fast change. The Vikings had swooped across the northern seas to Greenland and Newfoundland . They had set up a seaside duchy in Normandy that leapt across the channel to conquer England 6
in 1066. It has long been said that they did not leave much behind-but they founded the cities of Dublin in Ireland and Kiev in Russia (a country which took its name from them) and many more between . The Moors and been masters for over half a millenium of the Levant and the African shore of the Mediterranean, bringing a rich culture into sometimes violent-(but for long periods peaceful)-<:ontact with Western Europe. The Italian city states, Venice and Genoa in the van, and the eastern Iberian state of Catalonia led in trade and conflict with the Moorish presence. Then a revived Portugal, aided by the knight errantry of emerging Europe , drove the Moors from theirs territory, defended it from Spanish takeover with the aid of England's John of Gaunt, and crossed over the straits to take Ceuta in Africa in 1415-an enterprise on which John of Gaunt' s daughter, who became Queen of Portugal , lived to pronounce her dying blessing . (This English connection, born in the Crusades hundreds of years earlier, survived as " the Old Alliance" which played a vital role in World War II, over 500 years later.) Other things were happening along the European shore. Bretons and Basques-people who had to make their living from the sea- fished the banks of Labrador before the century was out. And in 1492, only months after the last Moorish kingdom was driven from Iberia, a newly united Spain sponsored Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the west to discover for Europe what everyone soon called the New World of the Americas. A critical step toward this culminating venture away from any known land into the ocean sea was the foundation of a center of seafaring studies by Prince Henry the Navigator at Sagres on Cape St. Vincent. His captains did not get far geographically, pushing down the hostile coast of Africa in his lifetime (he died in 1450, a generation before Bartolomeo Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, or Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in India in 1498)-but the force that would break through was set in motion . What makes people set out toward great goals in the face of difficulty and uncertain reward? We do not really know. But at Sagres we can see the results of many cultures, and varied experience coming together in the meeting of Arabian mathematics and world picture and ship design , Genoese and Venetian deepwater experience, entrepreneurship and a quality SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
we might call " push," German Hanseatic determination and experience in long voyages (albeit in not very nimble or seakindly ships), and perhaps a dash of the elan and superb shiphandling skills of the Vikings . All that , and of the Renaissance feeling that people were born to exceed recognized limits, which breathes fire and color through the majestic cantos of Camoens ' epic poem The Lusiads-so named for the Lusitanians who went back in Portugal to the time of Odysseus. The silver Spain wrestled out of coerced peoples in the New World did not buy them what they expected. It was used to pay the armies that just failed to master all Europe and that failed to conquer England in the Armada Campaign of 1588 (as the Enterprise of England) in the century after Columbus's epochal first voyage . Some believe (I among them) that that flow of ready cash chilled Spanish initiative in a crucial era of new initiatives in European policy-it froze the grandees in a "successful ," increasingly sterile world outlook and way of going at things , while the world around them changed . The opening of the New World and of complimentary, challenging civilizations on the opposite shores of the Atlanticfive times as much English is spoken in the New World as the Old , and five times as much Spanish , and thirteen times as much Portuguese-this was the lasting result of the voyages. The lust for wealth-and for slaves, land , women-is a powerful presence in the expansion of the West by sea. The very imposition of the Christian religion was surely in large part a drive for power and domination . Geoffrey Scammell drives these things home in hi s recent (and excellent) survey, The World Encompassed. But these things were not all that was present , and do not explain all that happened.
*****
The ships of the early voyages have a dreamlike quality to us now-we can well understand the awe of the native American Indians who came to see Drake's ships and "stood as men ravished in their minds." They are such little ships, to our eyes, and indeed they would have seemed so to a merchant importing the grain which fed Ancient Rome , or to the owner of a Genoese carrack of the day , or a Venetian Flanders galley , or a Hansa hulk making her way round from the Baltic-such ships ranged up to 2,000 tons burthen . Columbus's Santa Maria was 100 tons, and her consorts smaller than that. But they had the racehorse lightness of hull of Moori sh tradition in them , with an Atlantic robustness of build and with the tough Northern squaresail , which was soon wisely split into two and , by 1600, three sails per mast. The men who sailed them kept trying for improvements. (Columbus changed Nina's rig from lateen to square en route-she became his favorite ship.) Their efforts formed a ship fit to " keep the sea" in the old and honorable phrase.
The best Europe had achieved came together to make these voyages. The Italian city states , about to be eclipsed at sea came into it: Columbus was Genoese. John Cabot, who followed him by a few years with his northern voyages from England , was Venetian . It is as if those two rival cities had to be in it, contentious parents of a new age in seafaring. It was perhaps a more conscious act than we usually think . Diaz was right in there telling da Gama how to build ships to reach the Indies he 'd failed to reach-and da Gama li stened. We could listen to the voice of a great English voyager, hailing us to tell us how he sailed round the world with ship and crew in good heart: " I will have the gentleman to haul and draw with the mariner, and mariner with the gentleman .'' That was Sir Frances Drake , on the eve of rounding Cape Hom to enter the Pacific. And then, there 's John Donne: " God taught us to make ships, not to transport ourselves, but to transport Him ." Certainly they haunt our imaginations, the ships of those early voyagers. Perhaps we come back to them to find out-if we can-what they really did carry .
*****
I came by Sagres one April evening in a sailing vessel bound north for England. It was with real awe that I watched the headland come up with the Atlantic stretching westward beyond it and south forever it seemed, and east behind us into gathering dusk. The old ocean was as still as it ever is and in that hush you could hear it booming , booming against the steep rock cliffs of Cape St. Vincent. It 's arbitrary, always, to choose any point and say " This is the beginning"-but here was, sure! y, a place where things of wonder and great meaning happened in the development of the Atlantic World , with high human resolve tempering an amalgam of cultures. There seems to me still something godlike in that dedication and gathering of human purpose , and that is the li ving spark contained in John Donne 's great thought. The forced conversion of distant peoples to the Christian faith was not the true product of the voyaging launched at Sagres. It was the venturing forth, and the beating out of new purposes in the course of the oceanic experience , that changed us all, and shaped a vital chapter in the story mankind is writing across the face of its planet. Do read: The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages, AD 500-1600 (Oxford University Press, New York , NY , 1971); The European Discovery ofAmerica: The Southern Voyages , AD 1492-1616 (OUP, 1974) , by S.E. Morison, or selections from both in The Great Explorers: The European Discovery of America (OUP , 1978). And also The World Encompassed: The First European Maritime Empires, c. 8001650, by G.V. Scammell (U niversity of California Press, Ber- ¡ keley and Los Angeles, 1981 ). These works include excellent bibliographies to guide you in exploring the Atlantic world.
Below, Iberian Caravels, 1500-1545: emergence of the ocean chariot that opened the Atlantic world. Drawings by Bjorn Landstrom from The World Encompassed by Geoffrey Scammell.
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HELP US CELEBRATE AN IMPORTANT 75th BIRTHDAY! Yes, that's how old US Naval aviation is this year-75 . The gallant few who took their flimsy canvas-and-wood contraptions aloft in I 9 I I knew they were doing something important-but could they ever have dreamed how important? Today the US Navy's ships with wings are the nation ' s first line of defense. Join us as a member of the Navy League! You'll be helping celebrate an important birthday the way it should be celebrated-with an eye to the future. New York Council members of the Navy League are invited to monthly briefing luncheons; they visit ships ... and they help keep 'em flying. Sign on today! Send $25 to:
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Liberty Enlightening the World made an awesome new presence in the workaday harbor. Here was a heroic monument to the aspirations of ordinary people . Well may the foredeck gang of the incoming square rigger look up in wonder! Painting by John Stobart.
Operation Sail 1986/Salute to Liberty by Lincoln P. Paine
Operation Sail. Go out of the fraternity of the sea and speak these words and you will , more often than not, get a flicker of recognition, a remembrance of something heard about or better, of something experienced, a day lived in the full expectancy and in the presence of something that was more than memorable . . . a gathering of the "greatest sailing ships on earth marching out of the mist to the south," as one captain noted in his while Jog preparing to weigh anchor and take up position in the parade of ships on July 4, 1°976. In 1964, some of these ships had gathered on the occasion of the New York World's Fair, at the invitation of Nils Hansell , editor of an in-house IBM publication, and Frank Braynard , then editor of the Moran Towing and Transportation Company's publication Towline. In the early 1970s, Braynard decided that "We must do again what we did in 1964-only better." And , with the help of people around the world , but mostly in New York, "we" did. The ships came as a birthday present-wrapped in acres of canvas ofred, white, blue, green, brown-for the American people on the two hundredth anniversary of the United States. ¡ The ships came, and people-seven million, by conservative estimates-turned out to see them. It was a time of giving and giving fully, and everyone came away with a feeling that they had received everything and done nothing in return . A few weeks after the event, a lieutenant in the Belgian navy's sailtraining ketch, Zenobe Gramme, wrote to the commodore of a yacht club which had hosted his ship in the days before the parade of sail: The month of July, a beautiful day, thousands of ships, millions of people, unforgettable .... I felt nineteen and was in love again. Not with Sue or Mary or Joy but with the whole of America. But for whatever reason they have come, the sailors of these ships have been moved by the experience of entering New York harbor and seeing, perhaps for the first time, perhaps for the hundredth, the Statue of Liberty striding forward in a gesture of welcome and assurance. Captain James Kelly , then 10
commanding officer of the USCG -bark Eagle (who celebrates her fiftieth anniversary this year), described his own feelings upon entering the port in the lead ship of OpSail '76. Many of the immigrants arrived in ships such as these .... In a very real way, we were projected backward into history and were experiencing the feelings and anxieties and excitement of our forebears . More direct, seventeen-year-old Lorentz Kielland, a cadet aboard the Norwegian ship Christian Radich, was quoted in the New York Times of July 4, 1976: "The tall lady in the harbor, what is her name? The Statue of Liberty? I see her in books ever since I am a small guy. I want to see her for real. '' For real .... The Statue of Liberty is heady stuff. Growing up in New York and seeing her from any one of a thousand vantage points ashore or under sail, that was always pretty real. And then, from the foredeck of a great liner coming up the Bay on a December morning so cold that no sane person was on deck-none, of course, but those who had never passed through the Narrows and witnessed the pageant of commerce and industry, ships and cities, and Liberty at the Gates of America: that was breathtaking . And then, last year, I was invited to ascend the scaffold that boxed her in for a year or so, to see the green lady eye-to-eye, to run my hands along the fragile copper sheathing that is her hair, her lips, her weathered skin .... There is a graciousness and sensuality to ~ the Statue which is inexplicable, and it is the overriding humanity in the art that created her-not only her colossal size-that beckons and welcomes us to her land , for real.
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But of the ships of Operation Sail 1986/Salute to Liberty something must be said. We can start, and continue, with good news. In 1960 when Hansell and Braynard foregathered, they spoke of "the dwindling numbers of large sailing ships ." The ships were not much in evidence, and seemed on the way out. Since those days, though, a lot has happened . There has been a surge of interest in our seafaring heritage over the past quarter century. Maritime preservation has come a long way, and SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
innumerable institutions have come into being to restore and to build ships anew , to sustain, in the words of the eminent shipsaver, Karl Kortum , the "rushing sense of history in which the race and its good works must be preserved." Abroad there has been fantastic interest in the ships and the seafaring heritage and the modem application of the two: sail training. From Indonesia comes Dewarutji, a handsome barkentine who last sailed in New York in 1964. Oman, for centuries at a crossroads of maritime trade between Asia and Africa, is sending the beautiful three-masted barkentine Shabab Oman built in 1972 as the Captain Scott . From Latin America, which in 1976 sent Argentina's ship, Libertad (1956), the barkentine Esmeralda (1952) from Chile , and the Colombian bark Gloria ( 1968), four more ships are coming: the threemasted schooner Capitan Miranda , a converted hydrographic survey vessel from Uruguay, and three barks , Ecuador's Guayas (1977), Simon Bolivar (1979) from Venezuela, and Mexico's Cuauhtemoc (1982). Europe (where sail training has long been the norm for aspiring merchant mariners) still has the largest fleet of sail-training vessels, many of which are veterans of past OpSails: Norway's Christian Radich (1937) and S¢rlandet (1927); Danmark (1932), in which 5000 cadets of the US Coast Guard trained during WWII; Sagres II (1937) of Portugal-named for the promontory where Prince Henry the Navigator established his school of navigation and gathered some of the greatest fifteenth-century seafarers to explore the forbidding reaches of the west coast of Africa; and Spain 's Juan Sebastian de Elcano (1927), named for Magellan's pilot who took command of the first fleet to circumnavigate the globe after his captain's death in the Philippines; and of course Italy's Amerigo Vespucci (1931), named for a pretender to the title of "discoverer" of the new world which , despite all , now bears his name. France, whose great seafaring tradition has long been overshadowed by the achievements of her English and Spanish neighbors, has taken into its care the bark Belem, one of the few larger ships built for commerce. Originally owned by Parisian chocolatiers, she carried sugar and cocoa from Caribbean and South American ports between 1896 and 1914, when she was sold for use as a yacht-a fate which may have saved her for us . And there comes another former merchantman, the bark Elissa, built in 1877 in Scotland, and sailed long and hard until rigged down and used to smuggle cigarettes on the Adriatic. She was subsequently acquired and restored (though transformed might be the better word) to her former glory in an effort led by volunteers in Galveston, Texas. Then there is the former trader and Grand Banker, Gaze/a of Philadelphia (1883), who in 1976 was just arrived on the waterfront of that once great and always proud seaport whose name she now bears.
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These are only the most visible of the tall ships to be sailing in OpSail. Altogether, there are, at this writing, 264 participating vessels and, as Homer complains in his catalogue of ships, "the rank and file I will not name, I could not/if I were gifted with ten tongues and voices/unfaltering, and a brazen heart within me." But could I, I might start with the fleet of a dozen ketches and jakts and schooners built for the Baltic and North seas trades between ports as far apart as Cherbourg and Riga, and now continuing in whatever voyaging sustains them in today's world, whether as flagship of a city, like Alexandria (ex-Lind¢ ( 1929)) or the privately owned Anne Christine , built in 1868 and the oldest occidental participant in the parade. For the oldest of the vessels we must tum to the New Yorkbased junk, Mon Lei, built in the 1850s in Fujian , China, where she spent her first eight decades . Two newer boats (built SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
Photo by the author .
in this decade) fly that ancient rig: La Dame de Canton, built in Canton by French students who had to search hard for craftsman who still remembered the traditional building techniques; and the Wan Fu, whose Australian owner chose the rig for the long passage from Australia to Virginia. Of course , there are innumerable yachts, some with impressive racing careers, like the pre-War 12-meter sloops Volunteer (1928), Gleam ( 1937) and Northern Light (1938) . A most impressive sight will be the J-Boat Shamrock V ( 1930), last in a series of America's Cup challengers built for Sir Thomas Lipton. American working craft are represented by such vessels as New York's schooner, Pioneer (1885) , the newly restored bugeye ketch, Little Jennie of 1884 and the former Boston pilot schooners Pilot (1924) and Roseway ( 1926). Confronted with the pageantry of swelling sails, it is easy to overlook other events that will be taking place on the water during this spectacle. The International Naval Review on July 3 is a parade of thirty " gray ships" which will sail upriver to moor alongside the parade route of OpSail the following day. In the days after OpSail, there will be a series of events called Atlantic Challange, featuring pulling boat races between international crews. One of the prime movers in this event is Lance Lee, of the Apprentice Shop in Rockport, Maine, which has built two boats, Liberte and Egalite, to plans based on the French-built ''Bantry '' longboat, so called after the Irish town it was left in after an aborted French invasion in 1796. Operation Sail is a rare event, made possible by rare men and women questing for the rhythms of the sea, of history and of themselves. They have come from afar or from close byacross the seas or across New York Bay. But whoever they are, and from wherever they voyage to celebrate the Statue of Liberty, we have a lot to share with them . That is why they have come so far , and why they welcome our visits and questions and caring for what they are about, just as we welcome them . ..t
Mr. Paine, assistant editor of Sea History , was a volunteer in Operation Sail 1976 and was coordinator of OpSail ' 86. II
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13
Elissa Sails! by Alix Hornblower In June 1985 ; the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi was looking for an exciting way to embellish their' ' Art and the Sea" fundraising gala. J. M. Smith, the museum's chairman, approached the Galveston Historical Society to see if it was possible to have Elissa sail to Corpus Christi and tie up at the city barge dock adjacent to the museum . Sailors at the museum got wind of the project , and seeing an opportunity to advance the cause of maritime preservation and sail training, formed a committee to work out the details for welcoming Elissa to the city. Elissa had been sailing out of Galveston for three years on day trips , but this would be her first opportunity to sail offshore. For this, extensive preparations were necessary, including new sails , repairs to the rigging, new hatch covers and the installation of Loran , radar and other navigational equipment. As the passage was scheduled for early November, this work had to be completed during the autumnal hurricane season. To ensure the best possible docent program for Elissa visitors in Corpus Christi, a group of fifteen volunteers was sent to Galveston to be trained as guides. These in turn trained a larger group back in Corpus, so when Elissa arrived there were more than I 00 people to lead tours around the ship. A smaller group of volunteers, all with a serious sailing background, signed up for a sail-training program to be taught by the ship's crew. They met with Walter Rybka for an intensive session on Elissa's rigging , square-rigger terminology and basic maneuvers such as wearing ship and tacking. As texts, the trainees were issued copies of Eagle Seamanship (used by cadets aboard
the USCG bark , Eagle) and a copy of Elissa's pinrail diagram . Elissa sailed from Galveston on November 5, with a crew of thirty-five volunteers from Galveston-men and women of all ages who had given of their time and caring as carpenters, riggers, craftsmen or as unskilled laborers. After years of sail training and work their dreams were being realized in an opportunity to sai l for three days and nights in the ship they had helped rebuild . For the voyage down the coast, the weather held hot and sunny . The accompanying tug, Sheila K . Barrois (Elissa had no motive power but the wind, then) retreated to an inconspicuous spot well astern and soon Elissa was out in the deepening waters of the Gulf of Mexico, leaving behind the coast and the oi l rigs that extend some twenty or thirty miles offshore. Aboard Elissa, the crew held emergency drills-man overboard, fire in the rigging, medical emergency and kept busy scrubbing and polishing . The morning of Elissa's arrival off Port Aransas brought a cool gray sky. By midmorning, a fleet of vessels , including tiny motorboats, tourist fishing boats and curious shrimpers, had gathered around Elissa. A pilot boat came alongside and not one but six pilots transferred to Elissa, most with their wives. Few of the experienced pilots could resist the chance to sail in Elissa. By noon , the day was clear and the winds dead astern at I 0-15 knots. Elissa headed for the jetties where, according to the pre-arranged plans , she was to tie up to board sixty-five guests from Corpus Christi. But Captain Jay Bolton and the pilots decided to keep sai ling as long as possible . Instead , they clewed up the courses and transferred all the guests and refreshments from shore via the pilot boat while Elissa sailed down the eighteen mile ship channel under her own power, the wind. As she entered Corpus Christi Bay proper , most of the enormous spectator fleet dropped astern, unable to keep pace . The city of Corpus Christi was now clearly visible, and one could see along the waterfront cars stopping and their passengers gathering along the seawall to watch the arrival of this beautiful square-rigger-the first to enter their port since the visit of the USS Constitution in the 1930s . During her stay in Corpus Christi, Elissa drew enormous crowds . Dockside sail trainees came aboard at 7 AM to set the sails. School tours , paid for by the local merchants, started at 9AM and ran until noon, when the gates were opened for general admission, which lasted until six o'clock. In eight days , more than 20,000 people toured the ship. Sail trainees returned for an evening session, which included furling the sails, and at seven o'clock private parties took place on deck and in an adjoining tent. From the thirty-five volunteers who took part in the sailtraining drills the crew planned to choose ten for a day cruise out of Port Aransas . They arrived eagerly the first morning, pinrail diagrams in hand , and by noon many of them had climbed to the royal yards. The mates soon disabused them of the notion that daring acts aloft would win them approval: knowing one's way in the rigging , knowing the pinrail , being able to anticipate the sequence of orders and working as part of a team were by far the more important skills. On November 17, in a quiet gray fog, Elissa was eased away from her berth for the tow to Port Aransas, where she took on passengers for a daysail. The day turned fair and sunny with an easy wind of 10-15 knots . Soon she was under way again , outside the jetties with sails set. Elissa tacked often to show her skills, and the crew even managed a boxhaul , a maneuver during which the fore yards are kept aback, the ship gains sternway and eventually wears ship, ending up on the opposite tack without having lost much ground to leeward . SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
That evening, back in Port Aransas, the ship was made ready for the return to Galveston. In the morning there was none of the frivolity of day sail preparation, for the wind blew a blustery 20-25 knots straight down the channel. The tow out was rough and wet, with spray breaking over the foredeck . The captain for the return trip, Paul Welling (formerly commander of the USCG Eagle), and Captain Jay Bolton were both concerned about the condition of the towing hawser and about the amount of strain on Elissa's hull as she plunged through 12-15 foot seas. The hawser was cast off by mid-morning and Elissa sailed free once again. However the weather reports were ominous. A cold front with winds predicted at over 40 knots was racing in from the north, and Hurricane Kate had just rounded the tip of Florida, and was heading northwest into the Gulf. Without the threat of the hurricane, Captain Welling could have allowed Elissa to run off before the norther with a long beat back to Galveston over the next two days. After consulting with the owner's representative, David Brink, they decided to wait for the morning weather report. Watches came and went, lookout duty alternating with a trick at the helm and housekeeping duties. Setting all sails but the gaff topsail and the royals, Elissa flew along at 9-10 knots in winds which frequently gusted as high as 35 knots. A band of dolphins arrived to play in the bow waves, and occasionally a wave broke over the main hatch, catching the off-watch crew by surprise. At 2000 sail was shortened to lower staysails and topsails . But the night passed without event, and by morning the wind had dropped from a high of Force 5 to Force 3, though the seas were still rough. The morning found spirits low: Captain Welling had decided to head directly for Galveston rather than get caught between the quickly approaching norther and the hurricane. The southeast wind kept the ship moving along at 7-8 knots most of the day with all sails flying once again. Another man overboard drill was completed with Elissa hove to, the inflatable launched and the "victim" recovered within twenty minutes . A highlight of the voyage was the marriage of Louis Linden and Nancy Thompson, friends of Jay Bolton's from the barkentine Gazela of Philadelphia which he had captained before coming to Elissa. As Captain Welling was the official captain of the voyage, the wedding was preceded by an elaborate ceremony in which command of Elissa was transferred from Welling to Bolton. (After the wedding, command was transferred back to Captain Welling.) The brief service took twenty minutes with Bolton, Linden and Thompson at the quarterdeck rail and the Galveston crew gathered in the waist. The four Corpus Christi crew handled the ship for the duration. By early afternoon, the wind was dying and the Sheila K. Barrois took Elissa in two at 1300. As the first tendrils of the cold north wind blew through the rigging, the mooring lines were made fast and Elissa was home, safe at her berth in Galveston. Among the crew there was a yearning for the challenge of facing the storm at sea, but no one wanted to risk Elissa's chances of sailing again. As the wind blew hard and cold that night, there was great speculation as to what it would have been like to ride out the storm in the Gulf. But Elissa and her crew are too special to be risked for a thrill . J,
Opposite , Elissa under full sail outward bound from Galveston to Corpus Christi on her first voyage off soundings since her volunteerled restoration by the Galveston Historical Foundation. Above; trainees in Corpus Christi practiced dropping and furling the sails while Elissa lay at a city pier hard by the Art Museum of South Texas. Below, Elissa' s crew at Corpus Christi . the author is at center wearing a life-ring. David Brink and Walter Rybka are top row right . (Photos opposite and below, courtesy of the Galveston Historical Foundation; top, John Shepard; middle, Janet Sanders.)
A long-time supporter of both Elissa and the Art Museum of South Texas, Ms. Hornblower helped turn Elissa's visit to the museum into a celebration of the ship and of sail training. She will join Elissa inMiami en route to New YorkforOpSail '86. SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
15
The Felice Manin: A Ligurian Trader of the Nineteenth Century by Luigi Cappellini
A fully-laden leudo in light airs. The forward rake of the mast allows the sail to be trimmed in various ways with a minimum of chafing.
In 1981, I was spending the weekend with a friend from Milan at his house on the Riva Trigosa near Genoa, when I came across an abandoned leudo lying on the beach . It was a lucky find for me, because at the time I was tired of my work in real estate and was looking for a change of pace. The Ieudo , Felice Manin , was in fairly sound shape, although she obviously needed work, and the idea of restoring her to sailing condition appealed to me . I understood that it was impossible to have a hobby of that kind as well as a job, so I set out to make Felice Manin my work, and to make it important work. Leudos were the mainstay of the Ligurian coastal trading fleets around Genoa. They were built, owned , sailed and managed by families who traded in them as far as Sicily and North Africa carrying whatever cargos were profitable. They were lateen rigged, their masts stepped at an angle 60° forward of perpendicular, very broad and with flat bottoms so they could be dragged up on the beach , which allowed the families to avoid the expense and worry of dock or pier maintenance. In the case of Felice Manin, which was built in 1891, her original owners, named Ghio , built her to carry cheese from Sardinia to Sestri Levante, a community twenty miles southeast of Genoa. To start out with I didn 't know anything about old boats--0r any boats , for that matter-when I bought Felice Manin . I had sailed maybe half a dozen times , but always on lakes and with people who had no interest in teaching me to sail, though I had never been too insistent. As for the restoration work, I had a choice between repairing her the right way and repairing her the wrong way . She had traded under sail until World War II, and after the war she had been rigged down and an engine was installed. She had continued trading until the early 1970sher last owners , named Schiaffino, used her to bring wine from Elba-and had been abandoned on the beach. At the same time that her engine was installed, a cabin was built on the deck aft. The people of the area asked me what I was going to do with the deckhouse . It was an important issue with them, and their initial impressions of me depended largely on what I would do with it. I said that the first thing I would do with the leudo would be to remove the cabin. Not only did they then agree to help me, but they wanted to get involved, especially the older people.
Community effort was the rule. In this scene there are over
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twenty people hauling on the stern lines to bring the leudo ashore . When they are finished here, their efforts will probably be needed by the approaching vessel in the left background.
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The Felice Manin much as the author found her. His promise to remove the wheelhouse reassured the local mariners, who eventually helped in the restoration.
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Ernesto Stagnaro renewing some of the planking at the forefoot.
Free of the land, the Felice Manin cavorts in mid-Atlantic under a shortened, ocean-going rig. Photos this page by Riccardo Garampi.
SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
17
The boys come down to the water's edge and listen to the men talk about their work. By the time they are old enough to go to sea, they will be familiar with the local lore- the winds and currents, seasonal changes, preferred routes and storm warnings. But fewer of them will go to sea, and this way of life will vanish in their lifetimes. Photos this page and page 16 courtesy of Borasino Archive, Sestri Levante.
Leudos at anchor near a cut-down ship, probably a British full-rigger. The Italians bought up a number of these ships, which they kept in trade or used as barges and store ships. At the right is a white, narrow-hulled ketch , probably a yacht. Below, at the town of Sestri Levante, about twenty miles southeast of Genoa, children frolic at the beach among the drying sails of the leudos.
Working among these people, who were all of the sea in one way or another, I was able to discover many things about their boats and their way of life, and I came to have a real respect for the boat in its relationship to the people. There were still a number of fishermen around who had sailed in gozzi*, and it was from them especially that I learned the degree to which the boats were important in the lives of the people. If I was accepted and liked by them, it was because I was not talking and spending money, but listening to them and learning about them-how they maintained their boats and their own lives . From talking and living with them , now I know not only how to repair things and to do specific jobs, but also I understand how to get a job done and to live in the boat as a part of the boat. I never wanted to use modern methods in the restoration. I don't like modern things , but that is not the point-and of course Felice Manin has an engine and many electric navigational aids. The reason that the restoration worked is because I followed the traditional methods of doing things. There are three other leudos that have been restored, but their new owners treat them like museum pieces, and they are not sailed-the boats now have nothing to do with their original purpose. So, I listened and I learned and I followed the recommendations of the people I worked with on the project. There were four men in particular with whom I worked, all men of the sea who inherited their way of life from their families. Giovanni Sacco, who did the caulking, was one. Then there were three men all named Stagnaro--which is a very common name in the town-but none of whom were closely related. Marcello h<1d grown up in the traditional rigs and told me of sailing in leudos to Corsica, before the war, on one tack all the way down and on the reverse tack on the way home. Marcello was the rigger and at the age of sixty-five or seventy he was able to work ten or twelve hours a day for weeks on end. Later, when we sailed Felice Manin to Sardinia the first time, he would not come with us because, as I later realized, he believed I could and should do it without him. In fact he died before another opportunity presented itself and never sailed in Felice Manin. Ernesto Stagnaro, who did the carpentry work, had sailed as nostromo--bosun-for twenty or twenty-five years in all sorts of ships from Genoa. The engineer, who stripped down and rebuilt the 60hp Arona diesel engine (not the original post-war engine, but a standard in coverted leudos) , was Vittorio Stagnaro. He had learned his trade in a nearby shipyard, Cantieri Navale di Riva Trigosa. Although she had been on the beach for nearly a decade, there was surprisingly little structural damage to Felice Manin's hull, and except for renewing a few planks and building a new spar and redesigning the interior, much of the work the first year was along the lines of overdue maintenance. All of the work was done in the traditional way to the extent practical or possible, and Felice Manin has the physical appearance and many of the characteristics that she did originally-rigging tackle, splices and so on-and the sails are the original cut. Since the mast was original, too , the main yard could be constructed to the proper length which turned out to be eighteen meters, a little longer than the hull. The bowsprit had been cut down, so we replaced
* The Leudo was used primarily for trade and was normally between J3m and 17m in Length. Two similar but smaller boats were also indigenous to the area. The gozzo, used primarily for fishing was between 5m and Sm; the Latino was between Sm an JOm. Which name, or size, came first is a matter of conjecture . The name of the intermediate vessel refers to the sail. Leudo is thought to be related to the ltalian word for " Lute, " and indeed the shape of the hull does resemble the swelling form of that instrument. Gazzo normally means "goiter." or "crop" (of a bird)-a derivation that would have a parallel in the English description of a hull as "apple cheeked." 18
SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
it with one of eight meters, as it should be. We completed the cabin work in 1982 , and that summer I sailed with Umberto Terso, a frie nd of mine whom I had met at a sailing school the year before, to the Archipelago della Maddalena in northeast Sardinia, near Costa Smeralda where the yachts are. This was the fast time we had sailed a leudo any great distance and we were very satisfied with how she handled. When we were restoring the boat, I had thought that the best use for her would be in some sort of educational capacity to teach people about the important coastal trade she was a part of and which has now , of course, all but disappeared. However, that did not seem practical and , having sailed in her, I knew there were other possibilities and that the best way to verify her potential was to sail across the Atlantic to the United States. I knew it could be done with some minor improvements and a good crew , and so we began to develop the project. During the summer of 1983 , we sailed to the Egadi Islands off the northwest coast of Sicily, and that winter I left the boat in Trapani, on Sicily, with Umberto who was later helped by Alberto Venza , a fisherman we met that summer. When I had originally thought of sailing Felice Manin to America, I had not thought about the Christopher Columbus anni versary in 1992 , but as we progressed with the plans , we decided it would be possible to circumnavigate the globe to commemorate the event. So the sailing to America became the first leg of a trip that wi ll take altogether seven years . One man who has been particularly helpful with the historical aspect of our trip is Senator Paolo Emi lio Taviani, among the foremost Columbus scholars in the world . He has kindly served as the honorary patron of the project. To make the crossing, I decided to develop a smaller rig, with a shorter yard and double headsails . This was to ease the pressure on the mast and to make tacking easier. But the most important thing for such an undertaki ng was to have a good crew. Ideally the crew would have been composed of the friends who had been involved with the project from the beginning. But for a variety of reasons this was not possible and so I had to look around . I knew that I did not want any racing people , because they have a hard time forgetting about competition . I needed people with good heads. Umberto and Alberto were two , and eventually we had eight more including two accomplished sailors, Carlo Martinolich and Riccardo Garampi, who documented the voyage . What was great about the crew was that the eleven of us spent fifty days together without any real problems, in a boat that was designed to carry cheese and wine. We worked well together because we all shared a respect for the boat , and as we worked together, we developed a respect for each other. That is the key to any undertaking like this. Felice Manin is undoubtedly the first leudo to sail across the ocean in this century, and when we had difficulties we were able to cope with them because we were reall y part of the boat. Our route from Genoa took us to Barcelona , Seville , the Canary Islands, San Salvador (where Columbus first landed in the Americas) and Nassau in the Bahamas , and then Miami. After four months in Florida, we sailed to New York, where we wintered-and where we will sail in the parade of ships for the Statue of Liberty centennial , OpSail '86 . I hope that we can spend another year in North America before sailing to the Pacific and then down to Australia and New Zealand , Asia and then back to Genoa . If all goes well, we will be back in Genoa in 1991 in time to celebrate Felice Manin' s hundredth year, and to sai l across the Atlantic again to celebrate the five hundredth anniversary of the voyage of Columbus, who though he sailed under the flag of Spain , was , after all, a native of Genoa. SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
IJ
Drawings by Vittorio Garroni Carbonara
For those interested in becoming involved with the leudo, write to Luigi Cappellini (right), Leudo from Italy Project, 555 MadisonAvenue, Suite 3100, New York, NY 10022; 212 688-0564.
19
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The San Francisco Ship Model Gallery proudly announces exhibition of original art objects and collectables from the oldest commissioned warship in the U.S. Navy - The U.S.S. Constitution. Included in this rare display is a painting of Esek Hopkins, the first commander in chief of the U.S. Navy, which originally hung in the captain's quarters. Also offered will be an antique, museum-quality model of the Constitution and memorabilia from various "Old Ironsides" restorations (1858, 1977, and 1970-1975). This unique collection will be offered for sale in its entirety, or as one of a kind pieces, in the beginning of May. The San Francisco Ship Model Gallery 1089 Madison Avenue, at 82nd St. New York, NY 10028 212/570-6767
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SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
QUERIES I am seeking photographs and information about coal hulks (rigged down from square riggers) in Australia and the Falklands in the period 1920-30. J6RGEN LONN BrantaBacken 10-lgh. 1967 S-14700 Tumba, Sweden
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I am seeking materials concerning the nineteenth-century captain Ulysses W. Mather (1823-1864) of Saybrook (now Essex) Connecticut. He sailed for the Havre-Marine Line as master of the St . Bernard which was lost off the Bahamas in 1855. In 1864, while commanding the bark Ellen , he died at Shanghai . JACK DEMAITOS
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SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
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21
Ivanhoe and Master: Two Towboats of British Columbia by William A. Hagelund
The first steamship on the Pacific coast was the Beaver, built in England and assembled at the Hudson's Bay Company outpost at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River, in what is now the State of Washington . Built in 1836, the Beaver sailed north to survey and help settle Fort Victoria and Fort Langley in British Columbia. During the Fraser River Gold Rush she was chartered to the government for use as a patrol boat based at Fort Langley , and later still she operated as a coastal towboat from 1870 to 1888.
The Ivanhoe and Master are two vessels that spent a lifetime in this coastal trade , and they are the sole survivors of a fleet that once numbered in the thousands. As such, they represent both a technology and an industry that have vanished from the Pacific Northwest. Designed by the pioneering shipbuilder Arthur Moscrop for George I. Wilson, Ivanhoe was built at the Wallace Shipyards , Ltd., on False Creek , Vancouver-the last boat built at the Wallace yards-in 1907. When she was built she was an exemplary model of wooden-hulled towboat design, and the second largest towboat ever built in British Columbia. With a length of l 12ft overall, a draft of 14ft and grossing 182 tons, Ivanhoe had one of the longest working careers of any ship in British Columbia when she was retired from service in 1971.
Beaver as a logging camp supply ship in British Columbia, around 1886-87. The men are loggers; the cordwood on the float is probably for the Beaver's firebox.
Although the earliest settlers of British Columbia were prospectors and trappers , it soon became clear that one of the region's most exportable commodities was-and remainslumber. Initially , settlers cleared the forests closest to their forts and towns and they were able to transport the timbers a short distance downriver in rafts, or hauling it with teams of oxen . As settlements grew, the timberlands became more remote and the only practical way to transport lumber to the mills was to raft them in booms. These booms were composed of logs ganged in sections-as many as thirty-five in some cases-60ft by 60ft and held together by "sticks," "riders" and "swifters." The booms were attached to tugs by bridles and towed over distances as great as 500 miles at speeds of 1 Y2-2 knots . The earliest of these towboats had two things in common: they were steam powered, and they were constructed of the local soft woods, Douglas fir and red and yellow cedars, that they were built to tow . A typical log boom entering Vancouver Harbor in 1926 through the First Narrows under tow by the Coutli.
22
An unusually fortuitous photo of the SS Master and the (then) SS Ivanhoe, taken in the late 1920s.
Ivanhoe was purchased by the Powell River Company (later MacMillan , Blowdel) in 1911 and operated for them by the Kingcome Navigation Company. Her entire career was spent in the logging industry towing log booms from camps between Prince Rupert and Vancouver. Shortly after her acquisition by Powell River, her coal-fired plant was replaced by an oil-burning unit which made her one of the first (if not the first) oil-fired steam engine vessels. In 1937 this engine was replaced by a 600hp Union Z-type diesel engine which made her the most powerful tug on the coast. Her engine is the largest Union diesel still in operation, although smaller models do exist in British Columbia and elsewhere. Although she was maintained in excellent condition by her owners, the strain of her long and arduous career in the logging industry took its toll. She was purchased by a private owner in 1971 who lived aboard her for two years. Proving too costly to mai ntain, Ivanhoe was sold again, this time to an enterprising Vancouver tug enthusiast named Donald Napier. Napier' s vision was to restore her to her pre-1938 configuration when her diesel engine had been installed . As it was impossible to obtain the necessary funds to effect this as an individual , he formed the non-profit Ivanhoe Heritage Foundation, who now maintain her as a charter vessel available to groups for short day cruises orovernight passages, as well as for education exhibits. SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
Master at the Texada Island Company standing by to tow the loaded scow behind her. The black diamond on her stack is the insignia of the Marpole Towing Company .
A later Moscrop-designed tug, the SS Master, was built in 1922, a turning point in towboat technology , when coal was already giving way to oil for boiler fuels and steel was beginning to replace the wooden hulls of Douglas fir. A mediumsized towboat for her day, the 70ft Master was one of the last wooden-hulled steam towboats built in British Columbia. Although , like Ivanhoe, she was engaged in the lumber trade, she also towed coal barges from the east Vancouver Island ports of Nanaimo and Union Bay , and rock-primarily limestone, sandsto_ne and granite-from more northerly ports such as Haddington Island, Jervis Inlet and Hutt Sound . Master logged more than a million miles during her forty-year career, and several thousand more since becoming a heritage vessel operated by the SS Master Society. Despite these vast distances covered, she did not undergo a major refit until 1982, her sixtieth year. The twenty years in non-commercial use had been more devastating than all her previous years of hard work. In 1962, when she was retired and purchased for use as a working artifact, the Master met all standards necessary for operation after only nine months of volunteer restoration. When the present rebuilding program began, the two decades of make-shift repairs had allowed dry-rot, rust and corrosion to significantly reduce her seaworthiness and her boilers had failed.
As she ran less, the long lay-ups without heat from her boilers allowed the wood to become saturated and more exposed to dry-rot. Finally , at a shipyard where she was undergoing minor repairs, she was placed in a shallow berth where she took the bottom on a zero tide and lay over on her beam-ends . No one noticed her predicament, and on the flood tide she failed to right before the sea poured in through her open seams . The Master Society ' s despair of trying to maintain the ship piecemeal compelled them to a more thorough approach that would restore her essentially to her original structural condition. Although that decision presented seemingly insurmountable problems , there was no alternative. The strong conviction of Jim McDonald, a director of the Society and overseer of the restoration, and his ability to engender resolve in the chief engineer, Dick Smith , and the chairman, Bill Bowes (later succeeded in that capacity by Andy Blokmanis) brought a complete turnaround in the attitude towards saving the ship. With the help of an ever-growing core of volunteers and with the services of shipwrights and boilermakers (many long retired from their trades) , SS Master once again sails her home-trade waters as a living example of the heyday of steam navigation in British Columbia . The Ivanhoe and Master represent a technology and an industry that have vanished from the region . Together, they are vivid reminders of those energetic early days-not so long ago--in the development of the Pacific Northwest. J,
Mr. Hagelund is the skipper of a replica of the Beaver now operating at Expo '86 . He has been involved with the SS Master Society since 1963 .
At right, Master on the ways in a local shipyard being set up for hull scraping and painting. This particular effort, undertaken in the late 1970s, was completed in 48 hours by members of the SS Master Society. Below she is seen as she was before her most recent restoration. Ivanhoe, below right, in February 1927. The " K" on her stack is the insignia of the Kingcome Navigation Company, the marine service of the Powell River Company. Photos courtesy the Vancouver Maritime Museum.
SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
23
SAIL TRAINING
The Saga of the Arctic Schooner Bowdoin When the ships of Operation Sail 1986 honor the Statue of Liberty, a staunch white schooner with the characteristic ice barrel on her foremast will represent the State of Maine and sixty-five years of America's maritime exploration of the Arctic. Newly restored for sail training and sea education, she is the first vessel to be certified by the US Coast Guard under the new Sailing Schools Vessel Act.
~'
\
My fust glimpse of the graceful arctic schooner Bowdoin was in 1959, shortly after she was enshrined at Mystic Seaport. The occasion was a fall lecture by Admiral Donald B . MacMillan, former owner-explorer and captain of the Bowdoin who sailed this gallant lady to the top of the world twenty-six times without serious incident. Following the octogenarian's spirited talk and the usual congratulatory hand-shakes, Admiral MacMillan disappeared from the hall. My father, then curator of Mystic Seaport, had a hunch as to his whereabouts . There, a cable's length from the hall, under a starry sky and standing by the wheel of Bowdoin was "Captain Mac." ''The Bowdoin will sail again!' ' he remarked. "How would you like to take her north?'' In the conversation that.followed , he foresaw the eventual revival of the Bowdoin as an active schoolship a decade later. During the twenty-six Arctic voyages Admiral MacMillan made between 1921 and 1954, he never took a seasoned crew aboard the 88ft Bowdoin. Instead , he favored students and research scientists who might hand, reef, steer and lend a hand to the prodigious research he had initiated as a part of the Crocker Land Expedition based at Etah, Greenland . MacMillan began plans for building his Arctic research schooner Bowdoin while waiting four years (1913-17) for a relief party to arrive . Designed in Fairhaven, Massachusetts by William Hand, the 66-ton vessel was built by the Hodgdon Brothers Shipyard (now Goudy & Stevens) in East Boothbay, Maine in 1921. Over the next 33 years the Bow24
by Renny Stackpole ¡ doin logged 300,000 miles while serving as a learning laboratory for hundreds of Mac's "boys," all talented individuals from prep schools and colleges. Under the master teacher MacMillan, lessons were learned leading to careers in anthropology, ethnology, glaciology, oceanography and ornithology. For most of these young men, it was the most memorable experience of their lives . His fellow explorer and wife, Miriam, began accompanying MacMillan on his voyages and made nine trips, the first in 1935 . Miriam, still very active today, worked on their archives compiling material for the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum at Bowdoin College. (Her explorer-husband died in 1970 at age 95.) Bowdoin' s widest point of beam (21 ft) is abaft of amidships, thus protecting her rudder and propeller from ice damage. She is double planked and double framed with native Maine white oak. To sheath her for northern work, a 5ft belt of " iron" wood, also known as greenheart, affords extra protection from ice . She is short rigged for heavy weather in the Davis Strait or the Bay of Fundy, the lack of topmasts or bowsprit decreasing the danger of losing students over the side while furling sail at sea. Originally she had two watertight bulkheads so that if injured at bow or stem, she would still float. At present she is rebuilt with five watertight bulkheads (three with watertight doors). To give Bowdoin extra stability , 21 tons of cement is molded into her hull giving her unequaled robustness. Time and again Bowdoin has been beset with thick pack ice but, owing to the deadrise below the waterline, her "V" shape allowed the vessel to be lifted almost completely out of water, gently lying on her side, always to float again.
Her shrouds and stays are steel; her masts and booms of Oregon fir. For power she has a 190hp Cummins diesel engine. Two 500lb anchors and 90 fathoms of studlink chain add an impressive ground tackle system. She has been known to cruise at seven and one-half knots under both engine and sail. Presently Bowdoin has both a 24- and 110-volt system (along with 12-volt emergency lighting). An electric windlass and refrigeration are found aboard. For cooking she is equipped with an oil burning galley stove. She sleeps fifteen , two in the after cabin, six in the midships , and seven in the forecastle. Within two months of her launching in March 1921, Bowdoin headed north on her first voyage, through Hudson Strait to the west coast of Baffin Island . She was the first vessel to circumnavigate Foxe Basin , going as far north as the entrance to Fury and Hecla Strait. On her return to the east coast, Bowdoin wintered at what is now known as " Schooner Harbor" inside the Trinity Islands . This expedition was sponsored by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. During her Arctic career, Bowdoin explored, surveyed and mapped the previously uncharted regions of Labrador, Baffin Island and Greenland. The staunch schooner sent the first shortwave communications from the Arctic in 1923, while wintering in Refuge Harbor, Greenland. In 1925 Bowdoin was the flagship of the US Navy-National Geographic expedition in which Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett flew amphibious aircraft over the Polar Sea for the first time . Indeed, Bowdoin is the only auxiliary schooner ever built in America specifically designed for Arctic exploration. Bearing her original name and still
Above left, Admiral Ma cMillan at age eighty conning Bowdoin through leads in the ice field. Below, heavy going through the ice. Above right, on trials on Penobscot Bay, 1985 . Photos courtesy Schooner Bowdoin Association .
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
The Thunder Down Under
painted white, Bowdoin served the US Navy during World War II, and was used to provide accurate observations for charts and assuming safe navigation for transport and cargo vessels serving important bases in Greenland. In 1968, after almost ten years at Mystic, the ravages of time and excessive rot had taken their toll. The Seaport Museum lacked the funds for the task of saving her. Alarmed by the condition of the vessel, friends of the MacMillans formed the Schooner Bowdoin Association and purchased the vessel with the goal of partially restoring her as a schoolship. A decade after Captain Jim Sharp had valiantly pieced her back into sailing shape, it was agreed that Bowdoin must be completely rebuilt to satisfy Coast Guard Certification and stability. In 1980 she was hauled at the Percy & Small Shipyard at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath where for four years she was painstakingly dismantled and rebuilt to her original scantlings . Her restoration was accomplished through the dedication of hundreds of individuals who gave of their time and resources. Today, under the stringent requirements of the Coast Guard, Bowdoin boasts the best in safety gear and navigational aids, and the capability of research students using computerized gear on board. Immediate plans for Bowdoin are to sail with university and high school students enrolled in sea education classes with a primary focus on the marine sciences. She will also be chartered to groups interested in ocean studies, whale watching, ichthyology and ornithology along the Maine and Labrador coasts. Depending on the success of these programs, among other factors , there is a long-range plan for an expedition to Greenland, to return to some of the locations that Admiral MacMillan originally explored in Bowdoin . That voyage is four years off-but we are certainly looking forward to it.
Mr . Stackpole is executive director of the Schooner Bowdoin Association. A former secondary school teacher, he served as curator of the Nantucket Whaling Museum and oversaw the restoration of the lightship Nantucket. SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
Heartening developments are occurring in Australia and New Zealand, I discovered on a recent trip Down Under. In Australia, interest in Sail Training is stimulated by the upcoming defense of the America's Cup and by the bicentennial celebrations scheduled for 1988 . In Freemantle/Perth I visited the Western Australian Sail Training Association headquarters, staffed by Captain John Lancaster and three assistants . With WASTA Chairman, Dr. Malcolm Hay, I visited the shipyard to inspect the construction of the 140ft barkentine Leeuwin . The funding comes from a combination of public, government, foundation and in-kind gifts from industry. Although I did not reach New Zealand I did meet with the chairman of the New Zealand Sail Training Association, John W . McKenzie , who brought me up to date with the plans for the joint operation of the recently launched Spirit of New Zealand with Spirit of Adventure . At the commercial wharves in Melbourne, I saw theAlmaDoepel, the 149ft square-rigger built in 1903 in New South Wales and a veteran of many years of trading in the Bass Straits. Under Sail and Adventure, Ltd ., she has been undergoing a ten-year restoration, and she has served as a sail-training base for countless young people. The organization is headed by David Wilson (who is acting chairman of the Australian ST A) and directed by Michael Wood. Without significant government funding, this has been a bootstraps operation-to the extent that they have had to construct their own hauling-out facilities and do their own shop work. Both Wilson and Wood are resolved to have Alma Doepel ready for a voyage to Freemantle for the '87 America' s Cup Match .
podes differs from our own . There is a greater emphasis on accommodations designed to provide a high trainee-to-counselor manning ratio--and thereby improving payload-and planners capitalize on commemorative events to promote the construction of vessels for sail training. Unfortunately, in the United States-and to a lesser degree in Canada-we have lagged in converting public enthusiasm for sailing vessels (and the resultant public awareness of their historical connotation) into active sail-training programs. Further, "historic replicas" often can neither carry an economical payload nor, because of being committed to "port promotion," can they devote much time to sail training. Let us hope that the Statue of Liberty celebration, combined with the new Regulations for Sailing School Vessels (which are in effect after_three years of work), will lead to building ships designed for training purposes. Certainly the accomplishments of our friends Down Under serves as an excellent example of what can be done.
"We have lagged in converting public enthusiasm for sailing vessels ... into active sail-training programs.''
ASTA News Conference The annual Sail Training Conference and Members Meeting will be October 23-24 in Newport, Rhode Island . Write Kris Mann, Secretary for information and registration materials . For information on cruises and other ASTA activities , again write Ms. Mann . To receive the authoritative Directory of Sail Training Ships and Programs, edited by Nancy Richardson, send $5 (postpaid) .
In Sydney, I met with Rear Admiral Roth Swan, Director of the Tall Ships events for the Bicentenary (for which half a dozen tall ships, including the USCG Eagle, are already lined up) . The ships will race to Sydney to finish there around January 19, 1988, with a Parade of Sail in Sydney harbor on January 26.
* * * * *
The philosophy, teaching programs and funding of sail training are remarkably consonant around the world-especially the search for funding to keep the cost to sail trainees within reach. In two respects, however, the exercise in the Anti-
H . ANDERSON , JR. Chairman, ASTA
HENRY
American Sail Training Association Newport Harbor Center 365 Thames Street Newport, RI 02840 401 846-1775
25
Sail Training with S.A.L.T.S.
" ... only pleasant memories of our sailing trip linger. My memory tends to ignore those recollections which are unappealing, recollections such as washing dishes and cleaning heads. ('Each of our lives travels an individual, unique passage and just for an interlude our paths were joined, uniting in a little floating world. And what a special world. Together, we composed an exquisite song in tune with the water, the wind, and ourselves. It was the melody of friendship, of knowledge, and growth, harmonizing with all that is genuine." Kristin Kester, fifteen-year-old trainee aboard Robertson II Kristin is one of almost a thousand young people who sail aboard one of Canada's last original Grand Banks fishing schooners each year. They come from all walks of life , from Canada, the USA and countries as far apart as Brazil and Switzerland to take part in a unique "voyage of discovery" in the waters of the Pacific Northwest. The craft of sail is a technology which no longer "belongs" to our age. Although its roots go back to the earliest recorded times and its flowering continued even into the memory of people still living, this vast tradition has been set aside in a disconcertingly brief space of time . Basil Greenhill , former Director of Britain's National Maritime Museum, has noted the disappearance of this ' 'ex-
26
by Martyn J. Clark perience which illuminates'' from prestain , a jovial man in his late thirties with ent-day seafaring. And writing closer to a bushy salt and pepper beard. He goes the disappearance, Sir Alan Moore, on to explain in some detail what is exfounder of the Society for Nautical Repected of a trainee aboard the Robertson search , observed that "when the last bakII. Bow watch and-stem watch positions, ers are growing old we may be content man overboard and emergency drills, the with half a loaf, knowing that soon there schedule of rotation known as the "watch will be no bread. " system," procedures for first and second The resurgence of sail training in tradisittings at meals-all are covered. Even tional vessels is a good example of the the use of the heads is described in detail "half a loaf" attempt to perpetuate this because unlike the ones at home, the head "ancient and honourable craft of mast is a complicated system of pumps , levers , and sail." Officers and crew, builders valves and piping. At least that's the way and restorers , sailmakers and riggers all it seems to you . " Pump plenty, and don't perforce must become student historians forget to put the lever in the 'off' position in a school without walls or curriculum, when you're finished," the Skipper expiecing together the puzzle of how it used plains. " If you leave the leveron we could to be done . have an unwanted flood," he warns, and The Sail And Life Training Society adds dryly, ''perhaps you guys on the lower (S .A.L.T.S.) commenced with the restobunks could sleep with one arm over the ration of the Robertson II, a project which side. This way we'll get some warning if spanned five years , proceeded with the the water rises in the middle of the night!" construction of the brigantine, Spirit of Soon everyone is divided into one of Chemainus (launched in September 1985 three watches, named "Fore," "Port" and "Starboard," and you gather on deck and inspired by the brigantine Cadboro , first square rigger to enter Victoria Harto take a tour around the ship with eight bour in 1837) and is currently building the other members of your watch. Details are topsail schooner Pacific Swift (based on the Swift of 1778) as a working exhibit at Expo '86 in Vancouver. All three vessels are designed to enhance the sail training perspective of the growing numbers of youngsters who are prepared to sign up almost a year in ad_vance for the chance to ''learn by doing. ' ' What's the attraction? Well, slip your feet into a pair of seaboots and picture yourself about to embark on your first sail-training voyage aboard the Robertson II. Remember to shed a few years and to recall the first time you perched on the pierhead and gazed down at the maze of lines , wire rope, masts, booms, sails and everything else that can collectively be called a sailing ship. Before long you find yourself seated with about twenty-seven young trainees in the fo ' c'sle. There are tiers of bunks and benches on either side of the long, wedge-shaped table disappearing into the gloomy recesses of the forepeak . A new Above left, Roberston II in light airs. Above, and curious mixture of smells is one of close hauled for the British Columbia mainthe first things you notice-smells of varland, the Coast Mountains in the background. nish, tar, rope, coffee and fresh bread from the galley which is located at one explained by your watch officer, a member of the crew who will run your watch under end of the hold . There a cook and an the overall supervision of the captain. Your assistant are busy preparing lunch , as well as keeping an eye on the rolls baking watch officer is a tall , slim woman of twenty-one. She is assisted by a watch in the large oven. Everyone seems to be leader, a young university student and past talking at once, some are making new trainee of the Robertson II who has volunfriends , others renewing old acquainteered some of his summer holiday to help tances from earlier voyages . Finally the mate calls for silence with the program. Ome by one the lines that control the and introduces the skipper. "Welcome sails are pointed out, the halyards that aboard" are the first words of the capSEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
hoist the sails, the sheets that trim them. Words that you studied at home in the Sailor's Handbook begin to make a lot more sense. Soon you find yourself near the wheel and receiving instructions which will enable you to steer the ship by following an officer's order. "Our watch is responsible for taking the Robertson II out of the harbour " says Jackie, your watch officer, ''so let's go to our positions and prepare to cast off." You don't know whether to be flattered or afraid but you find yourself delegated to the job of helmsman. The skipper is standing just behind you as his instruction comes: " Port twenty." You think quickly ... port twenty ... two full turns to the left. "Port twenty," you repeat and spin the wheel ... ''twenty of port wheel on .'' "Right," says the captain as slowly the ship moves ahead and out of the harbour. The ship now becomes alive with activity as all hands prepare to make sail and stow the fenders and mooring lines, visible reminders of her link with the land. You find yourself relieved from the wheel and ordered to take up a position at the throat halyard. There are about fifteen trainees lined up along the line which will hoist the forward end of the gaff mainsail (the throat), and about ten trainees on the peak halyard, attached to the after end of the gaff. "Stand by to hoist," is the cry from the mate, and then with a signal from the captain it's "Haul away, Joe!" Next the foresail, jibs and topsails are hoisted and with a word from the captain the engine is shut down . Everything on deck seems suddenly quiet except for the swish of the sea running along the hull and the creaking of the gaffs and blocks. It is as if the schooner has suddenly become a living thing responding to the power of wind and wave . Your shipmates sense it too as they take the position assigned to them watchful for any orders that may come from astern. The ship is sailing well to windward and with every sail sheeted in to take the Above, learning the ropes ; right, sailing inshore along Van couver Island. Photos courtesy S.A.L .T.S. SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
greatest advantage of the wind's direction . She is heeling over to one side as she feels the effect of the wind's pressure on thousands of square feet of sail. You are now sailing in the wake of Captain Vancouver of HMS Discovery and the Spanish Captains Galiano and Valdes, past islands named after them when they sailed these waters almost 200 years ago . Soon every one settles down to shipboard routine. Watches are rotated, meals are prepared and eaten and finally , just after sunset, the anchor is let go with a splash. The day is rounded out with a " mug up," an evening program of singing, skits and stories of the sea topped off with hot chocolate and sticky buns. As the days pass, new experiences become familiar pastimes and strangers tum into old shipmates. Events slip by almost too quickly-rowing ashore in the schooner's dories, exploring tide pools, learning chartwork and knots, scrubbing down under a waterfall in a deserted anchorage in Desolation Sound-and others you would prefer to forget, such as helping the bosun unplug the "head" as a reward for your lengthy discourses after "lights out!" At night you sometimes leave the comfort of a warm bunk for anchor watch , but as you rub the sleep out of your eyes you begin to appreciate the opportunity to be alone on deck, to gaze at the vastness of the heavens or watch the moon's reflection in the liquid black eyes of a seal come
to inspect this midnight visitor. You are reminded of the Psalm the skipper read at the Sunday service: ''They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep .'' And then Robertson II points her bowsprit homewards, there will be overnight passages across Queen Charlotte Sound and down the broad stretches of the Strait of Georgia where you get a chance to practice identifying flashing lights on buoys and lighthouses. At last your bags are packed again, as Robertson II ties up once more to the city wharf. But you are taking more with you than you brought aboard-new memories, new friends, new learning . The following year-that indecisive year between high school and college when many of your classmates have decided to "do" Europe-you may join Pacific Swift for an ocean voyage to the Orient and Australia. A year ago you would have doubted your readiness for such a voyage. But the lessons learned aboard Robertson II have developed a new confidence and whetted your appetite for the challenge of square sails and ocean passages. ,i, Martyn Clark is executive director of S.A.L.T.S. and master of the 130' Grand Banks schooner Robertson II. His interest in traditional vessels and an affinity for the schooner rig have led him into the areas of building and restoration, chartering and commercial fishing .
27
MARINE ART
Trade Cards: A Lost Art of the Sail/Steam Era by Charles Ira Sachs Nineteenth-century sailing ships were as much admired in their own time as they are today. Billowing sails set against a cloudstreaked sky , a graceful hull cleaving the waters, a China trade clipper heading home with a cargo of tea-such are the pictures that ¡come to mind . The names of these famous ships were captured on trade cards that advertised their sailings. Called "clipper cards, " few actually illustrated the ships, because the square riggers themselves all looked pretty much the same, with few distinguishing features discernible to the layman . A more effective way to appeal to the broader public and to make the ship's name more memorable was to personify the ship. For example, the card for the David Crockett shows not the ship but the famous frontiersman riding the waves . The next generation of ships was different. This was the transitional period of transoceanic navigation when ships were powered by sail and steam. Few of the trade cards designed for these early steamships survive and little is known about them. Far more beautiful than the "clipper cards" they actually illustrated the ships they advertised, and they contained much more information--cabin plans, sailing dates and the names of the captains . The earliest of these is thought to be the Great Eastern , printed in 1859 by Ferdinand Mayer & Co ., Lithographers , at 96 Fulton Street, New York . The card is of interest not only for its historic subject but for the exceptional multi-colored engraving of the ship and the unique cutaway illustration. The detail is excellent and shows the decks , cabins, cargo areas and even the boilers and coal bunkers . In the 1860s the small photo called the "carte de visite" became very popular. People would have their portrait on the card to be given as a memento to friends when visiting . Shipping lines began issuing similar cards (usually 2 l/2in by 4 l/2in) with an illustration of the ship on the front and a cabin plan or other information on the back. The cards also had the earliest deck plans from which passengers could select their cabins and which they could use as a guide when entering the ships dark lower decks . The Cunard Line issued such a card for their fust screw steamer, China, in 1862. The rendering of the ship is by the artist A. Walters, and the finely detailed plan shows a first class cabin. In the early 1870s, the White Star Line printed a similar card for their Oceanic also with a painting by Walters , but with a plan for the steerage compartments on the back. White Star realized early on that the steerage passengers would be a substantial source of revenue and that they would need their own cards . The steamship trade cards really came into their own with the development of chromolithography which made it possible to print multi-colored illustrations of the ships at their best, with sails set and smoke drifting from the funnels . Some of the best of these cards were issued by the larger lines like Cunard , White Star and Norddeutscher Lloyd, but the cards of smaller companies such as Red Star Line and Guion Line
28
are especially worthy of note. White Star and Cunard had their cards printed by Major and Knapp in New York. Their designs were usually broadside views of their steamers. Two excellent cards from the early 1880s were for Cunard's first steel ship, Servia, and for White Star's Britannic and Germanic, shown together on a single card . The British-owned National Line produced a series of trade cards for its ships . Printed by the Hatch Lithographic Company in New York , the portraits all appear to have been copied from paintings. Although National Line ships were not, as a rule, built for speed, their America did set a transAtlantic record shortly after she entered service in 1884 . The Inman Line issued several cards for their ships . The most famous of these was the City of Rome of whom one authority on passenger liners has written, " opinion is unanimous that no more beautiful steamship crossed the Atlantic ." Her sleek black hull with a clipper bow and three tightly spaced funnels cut a perfect picture on the seas as well al'> on her trade card. Although she was built for speed and was one of the earliest ships with electricity, she had a very spotty career and was not with Inman for very long . The State Line, which had a fleet of slower packets, printed several unusual cards . One , a starboard bow view of the State of Nevada , shows the company name in red letters across the sails . Another very rare design shows their building and pier in New York rather than a ship. The finest cards were those printed for Red Star Line in the 1880s . One excellent example has an overall decorative design, with a sailor standing to one side holding an oar. The sun is shown bursting from behind a red star, with a steamer backlit by the colorful treatment. Another fine example is their Western/and, an otherwise unexceptional ship built in 1884 . The poster style card, printed by the Bremen master lithographers Muhlmeister and Johler, shows Westernland cutting through the seas with a magnificent sunset behind her. The letteringRed Star Line above Antwerpen , New York, Philadelphiabalances the composition. Of all the early tradecards, this is probably the finest example . By the late 1890s, the combination sail/steam ships were passing into history-steam was here to stay , or to be improved upon. Offset printing began replacing the chromolithographic process and steamship companies began printing more complete brochures about their ships and companies. The last trading card was issued in 1903 for the Allan Line turbine ship, Victorian. In all about 100 designs appeared over the years, but despite their quality and historical value, they are extremely rare, and finding one in good condition is not easy. u.
Charles Ira Sachs is president of the not-for-profit Oceanic Navigation Research Society, an organization devoted to steamship and ocean liner history and based in Universal City, California. Mr. Sachs is also a patron of the NMHS .
SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
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MARINE ART NEWS SHIP PORTRAITS Was there a Seafarer in your family? Why not commission a portrait of h~ vessel-a fine oil painling using the best of materials. Also, VESSEL HISTORIES RESEARCHED on request. For information & brochure, write: Capt. JEFF ELDRIDGE P.O. Box 8 Nonh Carver MA 02355 20" x 24" canvas-$300.00
STEAM ON THE RIVERS
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ART OF THE SEA & NEW ENGLAND Antique Maps & Prints
Marine art publishers of limited edition prints documenting the great riverboat era by Robert Sticker, E, A.S.M.A., the fast and able fishing schooners by Thomas Hoyne, EA.S.M.A. and our contemporary coast by West Fraser A.S.M.A. Call our toll free number for information regarding these series of fine pri nts. Color catalog $5.00.
Paintings by Suzy Aalund, ASMA, Yues Parent, John White & Others
"The Schooner C.A. Dolliver" painted con brio by the late , warm-hearted , very talented Robert Skemp, leads off the catalogue of the Eighth National Exhibition of the American Society of Marine Artists. " Painted Ships , Painted Oceans, " the show is called-a title , hardly adequate to the energetic, striving thing marine art has become in the decade since ASMA was founded (initially as a committee of NMHS) . The catalogue57 paintings in black-and-white-is available from The Mariner' s Museum (I Museum Drive, Newport News , VA 23606) for $10. The Cooper-Hewitt Museum (2 East 91 St. , NYC 10128; 212 860-6894) is presenting an exhibition entitled Embroidered Ship Portraits, a folk art of British seamen. The portraits are rendered in colored wool yarns and black thread or silk sewn on a backing of canvas, light sail cloth or duck fabric . Different textures are achieved through the elaborate use of contrasting stitches, shading, looping, brushing out and clipping. The exhibit runs through September 7.
TRADEWINDS GALLERY IO Water Street, Mystic, Conn. 06355 (203) 536-0119
P.O. Box 3303 , Hilton Head Island, S.C. 29928 Tel: (803) 681-4242 Toll Free 1 (800) 992-8356
The Smith Gallery (I 045 Madison Ave., NYC 10021; 212 744-6171) will have a show of nineteenth- and twentieth-century marine painting through the end of July. Among the earlier painters whose work is on view are James Bard, Antonio Jacobsen and Charles Raleigh. Contemporary works include watercolors by Keith Miller , etchings by Mark Whitcombe and oil paintings by
William G. Muller. An exhibit of sixty-five photographs from the more than one million in their Rosenfeld Collection will be on view at the Mystic Seaport Museum (Mystic, CT 06355; 203 572-0711) through the spring of 1987. In addition to pictures of cruising and racing boats, yachts, fishing boats and seascapes (America's Cup photos will be shown in a separate exhibit starting this fall) there is a video program of slides by Stanley Rosenfeld and various sorts of photographic equipment.
Currier and Ives Navy , a collection of THE "URGER"- The familiar landmark N.Y. State Tugboat in the Upper Hudson River/ Erie Canal area was painted by noted maritime artist TONYJ . . . CAPON E. Al imite d edition of 500 pnnts signed and numbered by the artist are available at $100. each. Prints are 20" x 2 7" on museum quality acid free paper. A truly fine addition to any collection. LIBERTY ART PRINTS 30
: : : : : ¡ : :
To Liberty Arr Prints 555 Summer Street Stamford, CT 06901 203 / 327 1566 Please send me prints of the URGER by Tony J. Capone. Price per print plus $5. shipping-$ 105. Total enclosed------Name _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Address--------- - - - - - - Z i p _ __
lithographs which together record the development of the American Navy in the nineteenth century is at the USS Constitution Museum (Building 22, Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, MA 02129; 617 426-1812) through October 15 . Currier and Ives printed 131 scenes of Navy life , including ship portraits, a sailor's farewell , and depictions of engagements fronn six wars, the finest of which have beem gathered for this show . ..t SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
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CONSTITUTION A beautiful full-color print of our Nation's most important Naval artifact faithfully depicts the ship as she appeared in the War of 1812, the most famous period of her distinguished career. This print, which hangs in the Secretary of the Navy's wing of the Pentagon is available on archival quality paper (image size 17 X 25), signed by the artist Don Purdy for $25.00 plus $3 .00 UPS shipping. PRIVATEER PUBLISHING 512 Viewmont St. Benicia, CA 94510 SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
We have acquired a limited numbe r of Ernest Clegg's 1934 multicolor lithograph , A Chart of the Waters, from the 15th defe nse of the America's Cup by the J-boat, Rainbow. These original, 50 year old, 22" x 19" prints are in mint, uncirculated condition. Each numbered print conta ins a capsule Cup history along with portraits of various defenders a nd challe ngers from America to Rainbow. $125 unframed postpaid; $195 gold frame, matted , no glass, postpaid.
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Place At the Helm on your pedestal and join discriminating collectors and the Captain and crew of Norway's Christian Radich in the pride of ownership. Ster1ing and bronze maquette5 of this work are also eminently collectible and make suitable awards. SI S 22 troy oz. A monumental bronze "Helm" is being created to appoint harbor places. The life-size epoxy model is near completion and may be viewed by appointment
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SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
MAINE SAILING VACATION
SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS The eighty-three-year old, four-masted bark Pommern , located in Mariehamn, Finland, is being made ready for a day sai l during the ST A fleet visit in the summer of I 988 . The local chapter of the Cape Homers Society is sewing a new suit of sails for the ship. If work is completed and conditions are favorable, Pommern (Brouwer, p52) will lead the parade of sail out of the West Harbor, from which she last sailed in 1938 . Of the remaining deep water traders, she is the only one that remains virtually unchanged from her commercial days. Captain Sven Nordlund reports that contributions towards this effort will be gratefully received at Museifartyget Pommems Underhallsfond , Helsingfors Aktieband 333050-134555, 22100 Marieharnn , Aland, Finland . Brittany, renowned for its sailors since before Caesar first wrote of their abilities, is one of the great bastions of traditional sail. This summer, August 15-17, there will be a festival of traditional sail featuring vessels from Scandinavia, the Low Countries, the British Isles and Ireland, and of course France. For information about this event, contact the Regional Federation of Maritime Culture, BP 159, 29171 Douarnenez Cedex, France. This spring saw the opening of the Merseyside Maritime Museum (PO Box 95, Metropolitan Hse ., Old Hall St. , Liverpool L69 3EL, England; 051-227-5234). Among the permanent exhibits is "Emigrants to a New World ," which tells the story of the millions of European emigrants who passed through Liverpool en route to North America and the Antipodes. Part of the exhibit is a reconstruction of the steerage accommodations of a nineteenth-century ship, based on measurements taken from the American packet, Charles Cooper, which is now a hulk in the Falklands. Other themes to be explored in the vast museum are nautical archaeology; man , ships and the sea; and Liverpool 's links to the world. With a wooden hull more than 2ft thick ,
HMS Discovery (Brouwer, p83) was designed especially to be marooned in the Antarctic ice as a base for Commander Robert Scott's expedition of 1901 . After a long and varied career-which included service as a transport as well as two other trips to Antarctica-she was berthed at London for restoration by the Maritime Trust and National Maritime Museum. *All references to "Brouwer" refer to Norman Brouwer's International Register of Historic Ships, Sea History Press , 1986.
SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
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Discovery during trials on the River Tay, 1901. Courtesy, St. Andrew's University, Valentine Collection.
This March she was taken via semi-submersible ship home to Dundee, where she was built, and where restoration will be completed by Dundee Industrial Heritage Ltd. (Nethergate Ctr., 35 Yeoman Shore, Dundee DD! 4BU ; 0382-29122 .)
Galveston Historical Foundation and the barque
Elissa
MARINE CHRONOMETERS Boug ht , Sold and Serviced Restoration and Appraisals
The second annual Boston Harbor Tugboat Muster, which begins with a blessing of the fleet followed by a parade of working vessels including towboats , fireboats, police and Coast Guard rescue craft, will take place August 9 . There will also be shoreside activities at the Charlestown Navy Yard. For further information, contact the Boston Educational Marine Exchange (54 Lewis Wharf, Boston, MA 02110; 617 523-7611.) This May 4 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Merchant Marine Memorial Chapel at the Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy (Kings Point, NY 11024) . Although Congress authorized the building of the chapel in 1948, the shrine to merchant seamen who lost their lives in defense of the United States during World War II was not dedicated until 1961. "Unfortunately, the Chapel is a well-kept secret,'' says Rear Admiral Thomas A. King , Superintendant of the Academy. "It shouldn't be , because the seafarers it commemorates perished in most terrible ways ... . Their sacrifices kept the Allies afloat until America was ready to enter the war." The National Maritime Hall of Fame at the American Merchant Marine Museum is inducting its fifth class of seafarers and ships . The seafarers are the celebrated naval architect Donald McKay (1837-1861); John Fitch (1743-1798) whose experiments in steam navigation preceeded those of Robert Fulton by several years; Mary Patten -(1837-1861) who commanded the clipper ship, Neptune's Car, from Cape Hom to San Francisco after her husband , Captain Joshua Patten , was stricken with brain fever; and, Captain A. E. Goodrich (1825-
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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS 1886) who pioneered the use of propellor-driven ships on the Great Lakes . The ships are Ann McKim (1833), 143ft ship built at Baltimore for the China trade; Meredith Victory (1945),
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a Victory ship which evacuated 14,000 people from Hungnam to Pusan, Korea in one three-day trip during the Korean War; Natchez (1869) , the Mississippi River steamboat that lost to the Robert E. Lee in the great race of 187~though many attribute her loss to bad piloting, not deficient speed; Evangeline (1927) , a coastwise liner out of Boston, and after the War one of the first ships in the Caribbean cruise trade out of Miami; and, Greater Buffalo (1924), with her sistership, Greater Detroit, the largest sidewheeler (536ft x 96ft) ever built. The New York City Department of Parks has announced that the Augustus Saint Gaudens statue of Admiral David Farragut-hero of the Battle of Mobile Bay-would be returned to its original location at Madison Square, 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue. The statue had been removed for an exhibition of Saint Gaudens' work at the Metropolitan Museum. The Met, citing the damaging environment of midtown Manhattan , maintained that the statue would be better preserved in its own collection, and that a reproduction should be erected in its place. Thanks to the expert testimony of conservators and the efforts of New Yorkers such as Margot Gayle, a patron of the NMHS and co-chairman, with Francis Booth, of the Municipal Art Society's Farragut Committee, the Admiral's statue will be rededicated at a ceremony on Memorial Day-105 years after the original dedication .
Log canoes, descendants of the dugout canoes made by Indians of the Chesapeake Bay , were common workboats from Colonial times until the early 1900s. With the coming of engines, many of these sleek boats were taken out of commercial service and fitted out for racing. This year, seventeen remaining log canoes all from Maryland-have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. One of these, Edmee S., is on view at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (Navy Point, PO Box 636, St. Michaels, MD 21665; 301 745-2916 .) The oldest US-registered vessel in commercial service on the Great Lakes when sold for scrap last year, the MV Niagara
has been saved from the cutter's torch by concerned maritime historians in Erie, Pennsylvania. Built in 1897 at West Bay City, Michigan, Niagara is a typical bulk freighter of the turn of the century. Originally fitted with a triple-expansion 800hp engine driving a single screw , she was 281ft by 42.2ft at her launching. She was converted to a suction dredge in 1926/27 and shortened by 24ft. Fifty-eight years in that trade , she was modified only once, her steam engine replaced by a diesel whose low streamlined funnel significantly changed her original profile which had been dominated by a tall single stack. (Steamship Niagara Partnership, PO Box 3086, Erie, PA 16508; 814 868-4861.) The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has authorized funds for the restoration of the US Brig Niagara (also located at Erie), Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's
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SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
relief flagship when he cleared upper Lake Erie of the British at the Battle of Put-in Bay in September 1813 . This battle removed the threat of a British invasion of the US via the Great Lakes during the war of 1812, and made Perry a national hero. Scuttled at Erie after the War, the l lOft Niagara was raised and rebuilt in 1913. Plans now call for her to be restored to sailing condition by 1988. The brig (at 80 State St., Erie, PA 16507; 814 8714596) will remain open to the public during the course of her restoration which, it is hoped , will be recorded in its entirety on video . The two Niagaras are to be part of a proposed Great Lakes Maritime Museum to be built on the shores of Presque Isle Bay at Erie, Pennsylvania. The National Rivers Hall of Fame (PO Box 305, Dubuque, IO 52001 ; 319 5831241) inducted its first class this May: Henry M. Shreve (1785-1841), a pioneer steamboater who, as Superintendent of Western River Improvements, built the first snag boat, Heliopolis, and cleared the Red River for navigation ; Mark Twain (1835-1910), river boat pilot best known for his raft of great American novels; Louis Jolliet (16451700) and Jacques Marquette (16371674), the French explorers who were the first Europeans to discover and navigate the "Father of Rivers, " the Mississippi, in 1673; and, James Buchanan Eads (1820-1887) , the civil engineer whose contributions include the first ironclads used in the Civil War, and the jetty system at the South Pass of the Mississippi , which made possible the development of New Orleans as a deepwater port.
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The submarine USS Cobia has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the US Interior Department. A 311 ~· Gato-class submarine built at the Electric Boat Company in Groton, CT, in 1943 , USS Cobia (Brouwer, p220) completed six war patrols in the Pacific and is credited with sinking thirteen Japanese vessels. On May 28, she will move from her present berth to moorings opposite the new Manitowoc Maritime Museum, which has just been completed (809 South 8th St. , Manitowoc, WI 54220; 414 684-0218). The Lost Voyage of Laperouse is the title of an exhibit at the Vancouver Maritime Museum (1905 Ogden Avenue , Vancouver , BC V6J IA3 ; 604 7364431). Under the command of JeanFrancois de Galaup de Laperouse, the Louis XVI-sponsored expedition to the SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
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SHIP NOTES Pacific ranks as one of the major commercial and scientific voyages of the eighteenth century. Setting out from Brest in 1785, Laperouse sailed with two ships whose passengers included astronomers, engineers, physicists, botanists and artists . Their voyaging took them to the Sandwich Islands, the Pacific Northwest, Macao, the Sea of Japan and Kamchatka, and Botany Bay, where they arrived within days of the "First Fleet" of convict ships from England. From there they sailed to Melanesia, where they were wrecked on the island ofVanikoro, though this was not discovered until 1827 . Since many documents and letters were dispatched from various ports of call along the way, all was not lost, and recent dives on the wrecks themselves have yielded a number of important artifacts. The exhibit runs through September l l .
SPECIAL EXHIBITS The Mary Rose exhibition currently touring the US (see SH37), will be at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles (900 Exposition Blvd. , Los Angeles, CA 90007; 213 744-3337) through October 15. The Smithsonian's exhibit, "Magnificent Voyagers: The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842" (see SH38) continues at the National Museum of Natural History through November 9. A collection of Winslow Homer's watercolors (see SH39) will be at the Amon Carter Museum 3501 Camp Bowie, Ft. Worth, TX 76107; 817 738-1933) through July 27, before going to the Yale University Art Gallery (1111 Chapel St., New Haven, CT; 203 436-0574) September I I-November 4.
As we were going to press, we learned that the Baltimore clipper, Pride of Baltimore, had sunk with a loss of four lives including her able captain, Armin Elsaesser, who was last seen diving to release a liferaft from the sinking ship. In the Pride of Baltimore we have lost one of the finest ships sailed by one of the finest captains and crew. We share the sorrow the community must feel at such a Joss. But we will remember them as exemplars of bold voyaging that will continue. -ED.
P.O. Box 188, Duluth, MN 55801 218-729-6819 36
SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
Yankee Clipper's Wavertree Room The Yankee Clipper, one of South Street Seaport' s finest restaurants , recently dedicated an opulently refurbished room to honor the historic Wa vertree , a tall ship now berthed just outside the restaurant's multipaned windows . The dedication of the Wavertree Room goes beyond its physical proximity to its namesake, however, for the room actually once served as the office of Baker, Carver & Morrell, general agents who represented the Wavertree in the
1800s. Seen left in the photo right is the President of the National Maritime Historic Society, Peter Stanford, presenting a commemorative print of the Wavertree which will serve as a focal point of the restaurant to Patrick Cooney, owner of the Yankee Clipper. Mr. Cooney, also a devotee of historic vessels , acquired the building as a gutted shell in 1982. Its interior has been entirely hand-fitted with solid oak panels, brass, leaded glass , antique fixtures and nautical embellishments throughout. The building was saved due to the National Maritime Historic Society 's campaign to have it granted landmark status in 1972, as the only full -granite building of its genre remaining in lower Manhattan. Mr. Stanford indicated , "We regard it as a museum of its own." The room , according to Mr. Cooney, is intended not only to honor the Wavertree, but the scores of volunteers working tirelessly year-round to restore the ship and its many counterparts at the South Street Seaport . - VIA PORT OF NY-NJ, Marc h 1986
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37
Best Sellers from Down East Books ON TNE HAWSER A Tugl:x>atAlbum
by Steven Lang and Peter H. Spectre
SEA H ISTORY, S p ring, 198 1: "A book th a t i s e v ery h a rbor wa tc her's drea m . ON TH E HAWS E R : A TUGBOAT ALBUM conta ins close to 500 p ages of fasc ina tin g a nd oft en ver y bea uti ful pho togrn phs of tugs d oing wh a t th ey d o bes t. .. from the yea r 1836 to th e prese nt. " B y St eve n Lang and Peter Spec tre. Now in its third printing. 245 p ho tos , 506 pages , vessel i ndex. Hard cover , $4 2.45 ppd . ($39.95 + $2.50 U PS shipping).
Winner BEST ADVENTURE FEATURE American Film Festival Si x years 1n 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 rich human drama set agai nst the backdrop of the harsh North Atla ntic and the rugged coast of Maine. "A THRILLING STORY... a beaut1/ullycralted l1 /m. So finely cons tructed th at it comes as a revelatio n '" -Alan Stern .Boston Phoenix " The photography is excellent... The filmmaker has captured the beauty and fury o f the sea " - Linda G ross. Los Angeles Tlmes
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VIDEOCASSETTE 91 min .. color. specify VH S or B ETA $7g.g5, Original Sound ltack album or cassette. original music and sounds of a ship and the sea-$9.95 Add $3.00 shipping & handl ing each item. Maine residents add sales tax. Call Toll Free 1- 800- 262-7734, op. G VI SA or MC or send check or M.O. to: Atlantic Film , Dept. G 66 102 Harbor Road Kittery Poi nt. ME 03905 207-439-3739
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S EA HISTORY, Sprin g, 1986: "ADVENT URE , QUEEN OF THE WINDJAMMERS captures th e rea d er's imagi na tion like a nove l, and . . .conveys th e ve r y essence o f schooner sailin g in the N ew England fi sher y . . .a n enjoyab le ya rn a n d a firs t-ra te work of h is to ry." By Joseph E. Ga rl and , w ith Cap ta i n Ji m Sh ar p. A wea lth of hi stori c co lor photogr aph s of dory-traw l ing i n the 1950s complem ents the story of thi s legenda ry two-m as ted schooner. 24 co lor and 67 b lack and-wh i te pho tograph s, 208 pages. H ard cover. $26.95 ppd. ($ 24 .95 + $2 UPS shi ppin g).
Please make checks payable to Down Eas t Books. For credit card orders, call 207-594-9544 during business hours.
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This truly beautiful book presents 100 large, fullcolor photographs of tall ships on the seas today b y the famous English family of marine photographers, the Bekens of Cowes. Many of these majestic modern sailing vessels have !:leen buil t as training ships, others as luxury cruise yachts or seagoi ng replicas of historic ships. Frank, Alfred. and Kenneth Beken, photographers of ships fo r th ree generations, have taken these pictures in American, Caribbean, British, and European waters. Their photographs, accompanied by Kenneth Beken 's fas cinating histor y and desc ription of each vesse l, show most of the ships under full sail. The book is especially timely since many o f these shipshailing fr om Europe, South America, j apan , the United States , and other areas-will gather in America in 1986 for a tall ships parade as p art of the Statue of Liberty Centennial celebration. $35.00, ISBN : 0-5 25-24394-1
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REVIEWS Transforming the World Stobart: The Rediscovery of America's Maritime Heritage, John Stobart with RobertP. Davis (E. P. Dutton , NY, 1985 , 208pp, illus (60 full color, 50 sketches, drawings & maps) , $100hb). Admirers and collectors of the works of John Stobart will be delighted to learn that a comprehensive and annotated collection of his paintings and drawings has now been published in this sumptuous biography of one of America 's foremost painter historians. This is indeed a splendid volume and well deserves a place on the shelves of maritime historians, collectors of Americana and art lovers. The artist's development is traced with examples of his early drawings and paintings (including a selfportrait) from his youth in England to the present, when he emerges as possibly the greatest living exponent--on canvas--of American coastal and inland ports of the nineteenth century.
...
Working sketch of the steamboat Francis Torrance, of the Monongahela and Ohio River Transportation Company.
Some of the paintings have undoubtedly been inspired by the noted work of Atkinson Grimshaw , an English painter best known for his nocturnal longshore studies of British ports during the last century. Stobart has elaborated on these developing his own unique idiom with colorful interpretations of Boston, New York, Charleston and some lesser known inland waterfronts and other maritime activities. The oft-quoted expression " the artist's vision transforms the world" is most appropriate when evaluating Stobart's work since it is almost impossible- at least for this writer-to imagine these ports as they once were without visualizing them in terms of a Stobart painting. The enduring value is assured by the meticulous and exhaustive research with which these subjects have been reconstructed. My only reservation about the book is the choice of painting for the jacket. This painting is unfortunately not indicative of Stobart' s best work since the vessel's topsails are too square and do not conform to her published sail plan. A more suitable painting might have been one of his many superb whaling, arctic or clipSEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
per subjects. This is a minor point and does not detract from my overall impression of the book, which is surely to be valued and treasured as a testimony to the genius of John Stobart. OSWALD BREIT
Os Brett went to sea at a young age and is an accomplished marine artist in his own right. Australian by birth, he lives in levittown, New York.
BOATING BOOKS, TOLL-FREE 1-800-331-BOOK Talk to a knowledgeable person right at our bookstore. Order any current maritime book, shipped anywhere in the world . AMEX, MC, VISA or check accepted. Mail orders welcome. The Books.t ore , Mystic Seaport Museum Stores, Mystic CT 06355
Sheer Contentment The Magic of the Swatchways, Maurice Griffiths (Sheridan Hse ., Dobbs Ferry, NY, 1986 repr. (1932), 235pp, illus, $13.95pb). In this marvellous book, Maurice Griffiths, a British yacht broker, designer and long-time editor of Yachting Monthly chronicles his various passages in the late 1920s around the rivers and creeks of the Thames estuary-the swatchways. From the outset, Griffiths makes plain his preference for gunkholing. "People who go for world voyages in small yachts for pleasure are mad, '' he states . But the demands of swatch way sailing are no less rigorous in their way than those of the ocean passage, and Griffiths' escapades provide ample evidence of the seamanship necessary to navigate these unmarked and ever-changing channels of the Thames delta . Imagine skippering a 12-ton, 34ft cutter with a 41/zft draft in shoal water less than 3ft deep at high tide . It is this arithmetical discrepancy, the volatility of North Sea weather and Griffith's own eloquence that make the Magic of the Swatchways so compelling: ... when the Cork light vessel had turned to the young flood the seas became steeper, and Afrina punched her powerful bows through their green faces so that they tu.mbled over the rail forward, closing over the bitts and capstatt as though trying to grasp the ship and hold her down. But always her black bows rose again and the infuriated water, foaming with rage, was bundled out through the lee-scuppers . In addition to putting the reader at the helm, Griffiths does a lovely job of capturing the spell of the Thames estuary and environs before the coming of cigarette boats and water skiers. With the aid of a detailed two-page map, even the reader who has sailed no farther afield than Nantucket Sound can appreciate the sanctuary of Harwich Harbour or the calm of an uncrowded anchorage in the River Orwell , and to dread the sinister conjunction of an offshore breeze with an ebb tide over the Platters or the Dengie Flats .
NAVAL AND MILITARY ENTHUSIASTS Specialist British Naval and Military Books, Badges and Military Collectibles.
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SCHOONERS AND SCHOONER BARGES (Illustrated) - 9x12 Hardbound, 160 pp.
By Paul C. Morris Over 150 photographs and artwork by author. A phase of maritime history that has gone unnoticed by nautical historians. Beginning at the turn of the century it was a most important aspect of ou r maritime economy, competition between coastal schooners and schooner barges was keen and filled with many exciting aspects; shipwreck was common. This book contains much valuable reference material with respect to the schooner barges. their builders and the companies who owned them .
$25 including postage jMass. resid ents add $1 .25 sa les tax)
Schooners and Schooner Barges Nantucket Nautical Publishers 5 New Mill Street Nantucket, MA 02554
39
REVIEWS WANT GOOD BOOKS ABOUT BOATS? Send for Interna tion a l Ma rin e B ooks, a great, free catalog of 500 ma ri ne titles. International Marine Publishing Company Box SH, C amden, Maine 04843
CLIPPER CLASSIC AMERICAN CLIPPER SHIPS 1833-58, by Howe and Matthews. 350 clipper histories. TWO VOLUME BOXED SET, 780 PAG ES, 113 PLATES. $45 IMMEDIATE DELIVERY
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"HOW TO BUILD HISTORICAL BOTTLED SHIPS" By BILL LUCAS P.O. Box 10205 Green Bay, Wis. 54307 Tel. 1-414-499-3150 103 pages, 148 sketches $10.00 + $2.00 postage USA Write for foreign postage
J. Tuttle Maritime Books 1806 Laurel Crest Madison, Wisconsin 53705
Catalog upon request of out-of-print books on the sea, ship and the sailor. Books bought and sold on all maritime subjects.
40
The Magic of the Swatchways is a book whose reading, like the sailing it describes, brings sheer contentment. HAL FESSENDEN Mr . Fessenden has spent many summers sailing in small boats around Cape Cod . The Rigger's Apprentice, Brion Toss, (International Marine Pub . , Camden , ME , 1985 , 195pp, illus, $27 .50hb). The Rigger's Apprentice is a book for the traditionalist , and as such it has long been needed . It is rare in that it conveys much of the author' s experience without being just an amusing storybook . And , it is more than a rigger' s manual, one of those greasy , well-thumbed pages of tables without practical advice for the sailor who has a job to do . The basic chapters on rope and knots have some good insights that are well worth knowing . The design chapter is valuable in that it brings up some vital concepts , but it is too simplified to be of full practical use . The reader will need to refer to other books, such as Skene' s Elements of Yacht Design, to be able to make design decisions with authority. Toss includes the most thorough and best illustrated description of splicing wire rope I have found . There is much here of a more universal usefulness, such as serving, mast-stepping and taking care of little emergencies (such as when your wire eyesplice lets go at sea) . The more sedentary sailor will find interesting material on fancy work , rope tricks and puzzles . There is a brief technical appendix , glossary , annotated bib! iography and index. The Rigger' s Apprentice serves to teach not only how , but also why things are done aloft. The sailor who masters all it contains may righfully consider his apprenticeship well served . ROB ERT CHAPEL Mr. Chapel, proprietor of Bainbridge Blocks , is editor of Lines and Offsets. Ro-Ro to Finland , by Barry Mitchell (Hutton Press , Ltd ., North Humberside, Eng., 1985, 159pp, ÂŁ4.75 pb) . Barry Mitchell offers a penetrating, non-technical picture of the Baltic Enterprise, a ro-ro container ship serving the North Sea-Baltic route between Hull and Helsinki. He packs into a single voyage a richly detailed account of ship-handling, under the relentless pressure of time in a short-sea service. Mitchell skillfully interweaves a fine appreciation of the history and scenic interest of some of the most heavily traveled and storm-wracked sea Janes of Western Europe. Traveling as a reporter-passenger aboard a ship which provides an amalgam
of tourist and commerical services, Mitchell takes us from the monkey island atop the wheelhouse to the cavernous and deafening engine room , from the forepeak to the mammoth stem ramps, in the company of the officers and crew responsible for the ship ' s operation. Photographs, sketches and maps flesh out the portrait of a hard-working ship for the maritime enthusiast, while the tourist will find here an intriguing introduction to the delights of sea travel in Northern Europe . KEARNEY L. JONES Mr . Jones is a member of the Hudson Valley Chapter of the Steamship Historiccd Society of America. The Eagle: America's Sailing SquareRigger, George Putz (Globe Pequot Press, Chester, CT , 1986, 136pp, illus, $16 .95pb) . This book , whose publication coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the USCG Eagle, is a missed opportunity . The writing weaves between historical narrative, technical digression and nostalgic remiscence without ever finding a center. Despite some inaccuracies, poor editing and the repeated suggestion that Eagle is the only American bark fit for sea- what about Elissa?-Putz does manage to convey some sense of the everyday life of the ship and her crew. The abundant- and on the whole excellent-photographs , plans and diagrams will be especially welcomed by anyone interested in Eagle and her importance in the life of American sail training . LINCOLN P. PAINE
A Chesapeake Sailor's Companion: Four Centuries of Maritime Music on the Chesapeake Bay, by John Townley and the Press Gang (The Mariners Museum, Newport News, YA, 12 " LP & cassette , $9. 98). This rich and entertaining album takes the listener through some 350 years of chanteys and sea songs. From Renaissance airs and catches through eighteenth-century music hall tunes and twentieth-century rags and spirituals , the performances are at once musically engaging and stylistically accurate. A lot of consideration and good taste went into adding variety and constrast to the instrumentation and voicing of the selections. More than twenty instruments from crumhom to clarinet along with five voices are employed at one time or another in the fifteen titles, the one common element being John Townley ' s lovely unaffected tenor leading the Press Gang- so called from their habit of pressing into service "anyone in the vicinity willing to sing." SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
REVIEWS From such an extensive repertory, Mr. Townley and the Press Gang have chosen well. The ode-like "Tobacco Is Like Love" can only elicit a smile and a laugh. Didbin's " Saturday Night At Sea" is rendered simply and expressively. High-brow and low-brow lustiness are given equal time with the inclusion of " Norfolk Girls" and "Running Down To Cuba.'' This listener especially enjoyed the arrangement of the popular "The Titanic,'' its thick choral part-singing contrasted with solo violin and banjo lines. The gospel-inspired "Roseanna" and "See You When The Sun Go Down ," net-hauling chanteys sung by black watermen in the Bay's menhaden fishing industry are quite unique and their inclusion in this collection is welcome although these are the only two selections where one senses the performers are not entirely at home with the musical genre. Care has been taken in everything from diction to intonation in this well produced and well recorded album. The Mariners' Museum (which commissioned the album) has successfully captured on disc an important historical record of the music of the Chesapeake Bay . DA YID ERLANGER
Mr. Erlanger is a composer and producer who lives in New York. For Honor and Country: The Diary of Bruno de Hezeta , translated and annotated by Herbert K. Beals (Oregon Hist. Soc., Portland, 1985, 167pp, illus ., $19.95hb). Once afloat upon the vast Pacific Ocean, Spanish voyagers were relatively secure in their enjoyment of it and felt little need to extend their knowledge of the west coast of North America. Before the late nineteenth century, Spain mounted but a few voyages of exploration and these had negligible results. In fact, it was only the news that the Russians were sailing down the coast that renewed Spanish interest. In the summer of 1774 an expedition was sent north under Juan Perez. A second voyage , under Hezeta , was made with three ships in 1775. Hezeta sailed as far north as Vancouver Island. On their return , they skirted the Strait of Juan de Fuca and sighted the mouth of the Columbia River. Although prevented by fog from entering San Francisco Bay , Hezeta attempted to explore it with an overland expedition from Monterey at the conclusion of his voyage. Failure to publicize their discoveries and to follow them with settlements cost the Spanish a more significant influence SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
in North America. Due to the Spanish desire for secrecy, and the unexpected publication of the diary of the ship's second officer, Francisco Mourelle, in 1781 , only portions of Hezeta's diary have been translated before. Hezeta has remained relatively unknown among coastal explorers, but his journal shows him to have been a forceful and determined officer. (He later commanded the Manila galleon, and then served as lieutenant general during the Napoleonic wars.) On the Oregon Coast his name is perpetuated in Heceta Head and Heceta Bank. Beals, who made two trips under sail along the coast of Washington to see it as Hezeta had , has done a masterful job of translation . He includes Hezeta's navigation tables and a series of charts showing the track of the ships both as described in the diary and as plotted in the tables . Students of Pacific Northwest exploration will find this book of great value, the annotation alone being of conHERBERT E . y ATES siderable interest.
Mr . Yates is a resident of Oregon . Flags at Sea , Timothy Wilson (Her Majesty's Stationary Office , Norwich, Eng., for the National Maritime Mus., Greenwich, Eng ., 1986, 127pp , illus, £7 .95pb) . This is a brief but fascinating study of the flags used in the last five centuries by the navies and merchant ships of Great Britain and other nations with whom her maritime affairs have been closely linked. These include especially the United States, France, the Netherlands and Spain . After describing the various flags , ensigns, jacks and pennants of these countries, Wilson discusses the various methods of signalling at sea that were developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as the various codes that preceeded the International Code. There follow chapters on flag making and the collection of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich . Well illustrated in black and white, there are also twelve pages of color prints . A detailed bibliography rounds out this informative book which should be in the library of every knowledgeable sea historian . JAMES FORSYTHE
Major Forsythe is Hon. Secretary of the World Ship Trust in England. Philadelphia on the River, Philip Chadwick Foster Smith (Univ . of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia , 1986, l 76pp, illus, $29.00hb). Philadelphia on the River is a study of three centuries of economic develop-
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THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS, Erskine Childers spy novel has delighted many . Fewer know his own life story and his heroic effort for Irish freedom. Tom Cox's Damned Englishman addresses both. $14.95 from Emerald Isle Books, 84-53 Furmanville, Middle Village, NY 11379. Small quantity left of this first-edition title, so place your order promptly .
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THE DAY THE TALL SIDPS CAME composed and recorded by Rick Shaw in commemoration of the parade of tall ships.
CALLIGRAPHIC PRINTS - $25 ppd. hand-painted , double matted, framed, 11 " x 14" Sandy Kiess , calligrapher 6 Mt . Vickery Rd. , Southborough , MA01772 Write for free brochure.
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41
Island of the Bounty~ \(1~agl· to Pitcairn · Tiu: last chaptl:'r in thl' II01111~i · saga
_
Now Available on Video! Award Winning Film by Ted Cochran. A tall ship sailing adventure tracing the route of the H.M.S. Bo unty to Pitcairn , the world 's most remote inhabited island and currently home of tlie descendants.of the mutineers . CINE Golden Eagle award for excellence. Selected by BBC-TY for " World About Us.""A fin e film . .. with deep affection for the people of Pitcairn." Luis Marden, National Geographic Society "The best film ever on the Bounty and mutineer's descendants." Capt. Irving M. Johnson, Yankee 59 min . color. Specify VHS or Beta . S49.95 . Add S3 .00 shipping/handling. CA residents add S3 .00 sales tax . Send check/money order or charge. VISA and MIC orders send card # and expiration date. Exclusively available from : Compass Rose, Ltd. llO Tiburon Blvd. Mill Valley, CA 94941 or phone order , (415) 388-2371
FOLKART ORIGINALS Each set of five handmade from selected wood, individually handpainted (approx. 5 1/z'' tall 5 in set).
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Includes shipping.
~
AUTHENTIC MODELS HOLLAND (lliA) 38 Hobson
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• Stamford, CT 06902
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ANTIQUES & NAUTICAL
One of the finest marine antique collections available. Specialists in navigation instruments, whaling artifacts, ship models, sailors work, telescopes, and the only 19th and early 20th century Marine Art Gallery on the West Coast. ANTIQUES & NAUTICAL 1610 West Coast Highway Newport Beach, CA 92663 Tel: 714-642-7945
The NMHS has prepared the "Beefeater Guide to the Tall Ships of Operation Sail 1986/Salute to Liberty," a 3-fold , 8 1/z"x 14" list with diagrams of most of the vessels participating in OpSail. The Guide , sponsored by Beefeater Gin , will be distributed free at restaurants, bars and liquor stores around the country. Ask for it by name.
Binocular Sales and Service. Repairing Binoculars since 1923. Alinement performed on our U.S . Navy collimator. Free catalog and our article
MAINE MARITIME M USEUM ...Tells the story of Maine and the Sea.
• • • • • •
Historic shipyard Boatride Apprenticeshop program Grand Banks schooner · Three sites in Bath Open year-round.
For more information, write: Maine Maritime Museum Bath, Maine 04530 or call 207-443-1316
42
ment and the diverse cultural heritage of the Delaware Valley from the perspecti ve of maritime history. Smith has selected more than two hundred illustrations (prints, maps, watercolors, historic photographs) to present a basic chronological history of Philadelphia as a major port and shipbuilding city. Once known as the " American Clyde, " the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington area was a major international port. Unfortunately, all of the illustrations are in black and white and most quite small , and it is difficult to read all the details one might seek in them . Nonetheless, those interested in Philadelphia 's urban history will find Philadelphia on the River valuable as a resource to complement previous architectural and social histories of William Penn 's " Greate Towne." Mr. Sheehan, a long-time resident of Philadelphia, was Director of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center from 1978to 1983 and consultant to the NMHS in 1985.
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" KNOW YOUR BINOCULARS " Published in Audubon magazine .
Mirakel Optical Co., Inc . 331 Mansion Street W. Coxsackie, NY 12192 Phone: (518) 731-2610
PLAQUES, MARKERS AND TABLETS
Free Brochure shows cast bronze, aluminum and GraphicsPlus © . You have preserved a portion of America .. Let us help you recognize it tastefully. Call 8010·325·0248 in IN 219·925·11 72. or write:
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:SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
RESCUED FROM SCRAPPED SHIPS lamps. clocks. portholes. harch covers, etc. Authentic marine collectibles. supplier to Sourh
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SURPLUS & SALVAGE Since 1977 Collectables and unusual items from coastal Maine & the Maritimes. Ephemera, Brass Hardware, Instruments, Etc. 3 Stores on the Portland Waterfront For Free Brochure & Quarterly Sales List contact:
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American Marine Model Gallery 20-S Front Street Salem, MA 01970 USA (617) 745-5777
SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL OPERATING CO. INC. 17 Battery Place , New York, NY 10004 • (212) 709-0500 Telex: WU I 12 200 alb INTOSTEVE NYK
43
A Day in the Life of a Bequian Whaler by John Olsson
The Dart and Why Ask wait ready for instant launching . The sighting of a whale will be signalled with mirror flash es to the whalers by Duncan Derrick from the hilltop where he watches the sea .
The ocean appeared as an endless carpet of aqua blue from my view in the hilltops on the island of Mustique. "It' s a good day for spoutin '," Hardee Kidd said to me calmly in his deep Bequian accent. He looked through his binoculars again across the sea, checking for any flashes which the whale spotter, Duncan Derrick, might have signaled with his mirror. Hardee Kidd and the eleven other Bequian whalers kept their eyes fixed upon the waters known as ' ' The Pillories,'' located between the islands of Bequia, Baliceaux and Mustique in the Grenadines , where whales-mostly humpbacks-migrate from February to May . These Bequians are among the few remaining seamen who still hunt these leviathans in the same manner as the Yankee whalers of the 1800s, the founders of the whaling trade in Bequia. The men hunt whales from two fast 28ft sloops called Why Ask and Dart. Built of wood and painted gray , each boat is fitted with a gaff-rigged mainsail and genoa with a mast and spars of bamboo. They are manned by crews of six men consisting of a harpooner, a bow oarsman, a tub oarsman , a midship oarsman, a leading oarsman and a helmsman . Ephriam Binoe, the midship oarsman of Why Ask, handed me a hearty bowl of fish broth and gestured good appetite as the men took their morning meal together sitting around a small bristling fire . Our day had begun in the soft morning light of dawn as the whalers loaded a half-dozen fifty-pound boulders for ballast. Under sail, these boulders were shifted adroitly during tacks and jibes. The men rowed out to Friendship Bay where they hoisted sail and began their day's search for bulls, cows and calves. The sloops would cross Bequian channel, heading for Mustique, which they would reach in about an hour's time. Upon arrival , the whalers would head for their lookout point in the hills from which they had a good view of the sea to the north, south and west, while Duncan Derrick would spot the seas to the east. I looked at Athneal Ollivierre, the master harpooner of Bequia, hoping that I was accepted in the company of him and his crew on their daily passages. A bit hesitantly, I asked him 44
what he felt at the moment of striking a whale. In his soft-spoken voice he replied, "I think of God Almighty ." He then asked me if I believed in the Lord . I replied that with conscience and through Christ, I did . Athneal proceeded to tell me that he and his fellow whalers were devout Seventh Day Adventists, and that what they did was to receive the food of nature in the same way one does a cow , a pig or whatever else man kills to feed himself. He pointed out that the Bequian whalers kill only one or two whales a year as opposed to the thousands slaughtered by the Russians and Japanese . The Bequians use every bit of the meat and fat. The baleen, too, in the hands of master carvers, is a special artifact of Bequian heritage . " Sightings have become less and less," Athneal remarked. ''But usually a whale can be spotted three days before or three days after the change of the new moon.'' Ephriam explained that this was due to changes in tides and currents which the whales travel with . " Once spouts could be seen for miles, but now they are rare, " Athneal continued. He went on to describe the hunt. What caught my attention most was the tactic which they used in catching a whale . Raising sail , they would make swiftly towards the last seen heading of the whales. Upon reaching the area they would usually drop the sails and man the oars . They would strike the slower calf first, but only to wound it so that the cow would return . The cow is especially valued for her plentiful yield of oil which the Bequians use in their cooking and which they prize for their health and diet. Although bulls are occasionally sought, they are by far more dangerous, charging and leaping high out of the water. Athneal proceeded to tell me of an incident where a bull had charged him and knocked him unconscious while the line of the harpoon ran out against his leg which was caught between it and the ribs of the boat. The line skidded over his leg so fast that it burned right through to the bone, sealing the wound so hot that it didn't even bleed . He showed me the proof- a deep red gash below his lower left knee . After a whale is harpooned , Ephriam or one of the nimbler men would jump onto its back and deliver the coup de grace with a lance. He would then lasso the mouth and close the spout to prevent water from filling the lungs and sinking it. The whale would then be hauled off to be flensed at a station at Petite Nevis equipped with large vats to render the blubber into oil. I could picture the blood-red color of the cove where the men would wait in boats armed with harpoons and ready for the approaching menace of sharks heading for the whale as it was being flensed. The sun passed the noon mark as the whalers sat idle. Inevitably, their thoughts turned to their future prospects as whalers. There are fewer leviathans in the world and the Bequians are ever more sensitive to the international outcry against whaling, even though they are not the real culprits . They have been pressured by the International Whaling Commission to observe the ban on all whaling and they have reluctantly agreed to stop whaling after 1986. There is still some debate, but other means of income have been proposed to the government, including obtaining a modem trawler for deep sea fishing. All of a sudden, a young man staggered up the rocky path nearly out of breath and with arms pointing south, gasping, "There's a whale down there! " A silence fell among us as Athneal calmly picked up the binoculars and looked through them. The men, with their hands blocking the sun from their eyes , stared into the bright reflections of the mid-day sea to see where the whale would surface next. SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986
The whalers' day begins early. The crew of Why Ask at the oars are . from the bow, Athneal Ollivierre, Norman Morgan , Adam Foley, Ephriam Binoe and Sintil Snagg .
The Dart hurries to the point where her harpooner, Lionel Durham, expects the whale to surface.
With tense expectation the men wait, looking and listening for a sign of the whale , which they know is down there-somewhere .
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With surprising speed the whale surfaces and, sensing the presence of Why Ask , sounds again-just beyond the reach of Athneal Ollivierre' s harpoon.
" Blows! She blows!" someone yelled. To my surpri se, the men did not hurry for the boats. The spouts were hardly visible to me , but the men kept track of the time and number of " bumps" the whale made . " We have to see in which direction the whale is heading, " Athneal said. The whale surfaced agai n, head ing south towards the is land of Canoan. With sails hoisted quickly , Why Ask and Dart headed out of Mustique with a gentle wi nd blowing due east. It had been approximately twenty minutes since the last sighting and the whalers expected to see the whale spout any minute . (I was told that a whale can sound anywhere between ten and thirty minutes depending on its size .) For me , whose object was to document the whale hunt on fi lm, the seconds intensified as though I had stepped into a time warp , an indefinable dimension of time and space where the past, present and future become abstractl y fu sed into '' the moment. '' Whatever was about to happen could never be reduplicated and I had only one chance with twenty frames left on my camera. The boat pitched and rolled heavily as the seconds became minutes, and the minutes seemed to drag on for hours. Except for the occasional sound of the sails luffing, it was quiet. " Blows! She blows! " one of the whalers shouted. The mist of the spouts could be seen clearly , about 300 yards east. We executed a series of brisk tacks and sailed close hauled to the vicinity of the whale-but the whale had sounded. " The tide is heading east," Athneal commented . We tacked again and sailed to a point several miles northeast of Canoan . The luffing sails of Dart could be seen far to the west and it appeared that harpooner Lionel Durham had picked the spot where he thought the whale would surface next. Meanwhile , Athneal kept his course steady as the tense process of waiting and watching started once again . As the drama of life and death unfolded, I began to notice a mounting anxiety, a predatory in stinct, in the weather-beaten faces of the whalemen . With the hard look of concentration, commands were given and the hierarchy of the chase was reaffi rmed . Harry, the tub oarsman , pointed out the danger of touching the neatly arranged lines. If a snag developed while
46
the line was running out, it could jam in the block and actually drag the boat under with the diving whale. Being forced to stay put quietly behind two agitated whalers in a boat in constant motion , while the bli stering hot sun played behind the massive tropical clouds , conditions were less than favorab le for me as a lensman . " Over there! " yelled Ephriam, pointing to a whale as it spouted. " Okay . Let's go!" Athneal ordered, deftly balancing himself on the chocks in a striking pos iti on. Blowing a fine mist of water more than a dozen feet into the air, the whale bumped again abo ut 100 years off the port quarter. It appeared to be a young bull and, with its limited field of vision, he was still un aware of our presence . A favorab le wind let our helmsman, Don , maneuver the boat with amazing speed to the left fla nk of the whale . The whale bumped again, and I began photographing-constantly wi nding and foc using, trying to keep the whale in the view of my 400mm lens. The next event occurred so fast that I was not sure whether the whale was coming or going , but it definitely had spotted us approac hing. The whale dove smartly and before I knew it , the boat was right above him . " Too late!" one of the men muttered . Athneal lunged the harpoon into the de pth s of the rushing water, but the whal e had di sappeared as Why Ask sped over the whale 's foaming , descendin g wake . The chase was done.
* * * * * A strong sense of relief overcame me as I felt my anxiety and tension answered : the whale was alive, free and running. I thought about Athneal' s expert judgment and the seamanship of the whalers. Even more , I was moved by what had allowed the moment to occur, where their will was synchronized for an instant with the uncontrollable elements of nature. For the whalers, it was another day of fruitless endeavor-among the last days of a century-old livelihood that must pass with them . w
John Olsson studied photogra0hy under Alfred Loesch in Puerto Rico and at the Roches lier In stitute of Technology. He currently works as a color-lalb technician when not photographing in the Caribbean. SEM HISTORY , SUMMER 1986
Now Available through NMHS. • • International Register of Historic Ships by Norman J . Brouwer. More than 700 vessels are included in this authoritative historical and photographic guide with essential data. lndispensible for reference, it also makes excellent reading . 368pp. 230 x 270mm. 400 illustrations . $28.95. Shipping = $2 .75 domestic, $3.50 outside the USA. MARI1 OF Tl
The Maritime History of the World (2 volumes). International in scope and embracing the period from 5000 BC to the present, this major work by the maritime authors Duncan Haws and Alex A. Hurst deals with wars , battles, trade, exploration, chartered companies , slavery , piracy , jurisprudence, developments in navigation and ship design, maritime fraud, conditions afloat and numerous other subjects. The text is arranged by chronological date references but is interspersed with historical commentaries, which set the various periods in the perspective of world history . This is not only a magnificent reference work, encyclopaedic in range, but one which makes fascinating reading . In two large volumes printed on 960 pages of art paper including 31 maps , 200 illustrations (62 in color) and over 100 pages of index with 26,000 entries; 304 x 222mm. $120. Shipping = $4 .50 domestic, $7 .50 outside the USA .
THE MARITIME HISTORY OF THE WORLD I
Anton Otto Fischer, Marine Artist by Katrina Sigsbee Fischer and Alex A. Hurst. A comprehensive and loving look at the artist's life and work as seen by his daughter. Beautifully produced on art paper with many personal photos , the artist's preliminary sketches, and 200 of his finished works, 103 in full color. 259pp. 230 x 290mm. 235 illustrations , 103 in color. $50. Shipping = $2. 75 domestic, $3.50 outside the USA. Stobart by John Stobart with Robert P. Davis . The leading marine artist of our day sets forth his life and achievements in his own words and pictures . Presented in full color, fine art reproductions with extensive notes. 208pp. 232 x 388mm. 60 full-page illustrations, 50 sketches and drawings . $100. Shipping = $3 .00 domestic, $4 .00 outside the USA. Peking Battles Cape Horn by Capt. Irving Johnson . A spirited account of a young man's voyage round Cape Horn in the Peking with a thoughtful after-word written 48 years later. Foreword by Peter Stanford and a brief history of the Peking by Norman Brouwer. l 82pp. 130 x l 90mm. Photos by the author. Hardback only. $11.95. Shipping = $1.50 domestic, $2.25 outside the USA. Operation Sail 1986/Salute to Liberty. The official commemorative book , published by OpSail '86, includes descriptions of more than 100 of the official participants in the parade of sail, a history of OpSail, a look back at July 4 , 1886, a history of the Statue of Liberty and a list of more than 125 maritime museums and collections around the country . 64pp, full-color , pb. $5. Shipping = $1.00 domestic; $2 .00 outside the USA. The Passage Makers by Michael Stammers. Covering all aspects of the legendary Liverpool Black Ball Line of clippers and the background to their operations. 530pp. 244 x 190mm. 120 plates etc. $31.75. Shipping = $2.75 domestic , $3 .50 outside the USA . Ships and Memories by Bill Adams . His account of four years in the 4-m. barque Silberhorn is quite exceptional descriptive writing. Marvellously reviewed . Many plates. 490pp. 244 x 190mm. $20.75. Shipping = $2.75 domestic, $3.50 outside the USA.
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CLARKE HERBERT A. CLASS CAPT. L . H . CLAUSEN GEORGE F . CLEMENTS FERNANDO TORRES C LOTE J . E. COBERLY J OHN COEN J OHN L. COLE EDWARD C OLI.INS FRED COLLINS J OHN J . COLI.INS J . FERRELL COLTON COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS CoR . & MRS . R . E . C ONRADY TREVOR CONSTABLE DoNALD G . CooK JAMES COOK LCDR. MICHAEL CORDASCO RICHARD CORRELL MR. & MRS . ROY G . COSSELMON HARO!D R . COTTLE MD DANIEL COWAN DR . RAY w . COYE FRANK COYLE W!U.IAM P . C ozzo J . w . CRAWFORD R . MYRON CRESSY WALTER CRONKITE S . H. CUMMINGS BRIGGS CUNNINGHAM ALTON F. CURRY A.LBERT L. CUSICK CUTTY SARK S COTS WHISKY ARTHUR D' AMATO ALICE DADOURIAN MORGAN DALY PETER T . DAMON STAN DASHEW JAMES K . DAVIDSON J OAN DAVIDSON EDWIN D AVIS F. KELso D AVIS KRIS H . C. DAVIS D ENNIS D EAN DoUGLAS H . D EAN JOHN P . D EBONIS ROBB DEGNON ANNE D EIKE DEBORAH DEMPSEY P AUL DEMPSTER JOSEFH D E PAUL & S ONS CAPT. J OHN F. DERR R OBERT E. D EVLIN BRENT DIBNER MALCoLM DICK MICHAEL DICK JAMES DICKMAN ANTHONY DIMAGGIO CHARLES w. DILLON w. R . DoAK A. J . DoBLER DAVID L. DoOGE JOHN H. DoEDE W!LI.IAM MAIN DoERFL!NGER DoLPH!N BOOK CLUB N . DoNALDSON W!U.IAM DoNNEU.Y BILL DouGHERTY JosEFH DoYLE R. L . DoxsEE JEREMIAH T . DRISCOLL CDR . EDWARD I. DUNN JOHN DUSENBURY JAMES EAN DAVID B . EATON FRANK EBERHART How ARD H . EDDY EDSON CORF. ALBERT J . EGAN MR . & MRS . ALBERT EHINGER STUART EHRENREICH GEORGE F . EMERY FRED EMMERICH DAMON L. ENGLE MR . & MRS . R. S. ERSKINE, JR. CDR . L. F. ESTES DAMARIS ETHRIDGE WlLLIAM EVERDELL J ERRY EVERMAN CARL G. EVERS JOHN & CAROL EWALD H ENRY EYL H ENRY FAIRLEY Ill JOHN H ENRY FALK DR . & MRS. H UGH FARRIOR G EORGE FElwELL G ERAID FELDMAN LYNN S. F ELPS MR . & MRS. STEPHEN M . FENTON 10 HAROLD B . FESSENDEN WILLIAM W . FIELD DoUGLAS FIFE J OHN FISCHER M ORGAN FITCH ELLEN FLETCHER ARLINE FLOOD MR. & MRS . BENJAMIN F OGLER JAMES FOLEY DR . & MRS. BRENT FOLLWEILER TIMOTHY FOOTE ALANSON FORD F . S . FoRD, JR. J oHN FoSTER DoNALD D . Fouws CAPT. WILLIAM FRANK DR. & MRs . Lorns FREEMAN FRED FREEMAN CHARLES M . FREY J . E. FRICKER DR . HARRY FRIEDMAN REGINAID H. FuLLERTON, JR . RICHARD GALI.ANT J OSE GARCIA-RAMIS B ERNARD M . G EIGER G EORGE ENGINE COMPANY NORMAN G. GERMANY WILLIAM GILKERSON LCDR. B. A . GILMORE RICHARD GLEASON HENRY GLICK THOMAS GoCilBERG DAVID GolDBERG JAMES E. GoLDEN PRODUCTIONS DA YID GOOCH HENRY G ORNEY PETER J . GOULANDRIS i'HILIPGRAF ARTHURS. GRAHAM JIM GRAY PETER L. G RAY C. WlLLIAM G REEN II R OBERT H . GREGORY D . GRE!MAN HENRY F. GREINER R OLAND D . GRIMM PETER GUARDINO CHARLES GUIDEN R . H . GULLAGE LCoR. EMIL GUSTAFSON MAJOR C . P . G uy HADLEY EXHIBITS , I.Ne. LCDR. & MRs . GARY H ALI. M ORTIMER HALL JOHN R . HAMILTON ROBERT D . HARRINGTON , JR. FRED HARTMANN CLIFFORD HASLAM ARVID HAVNERAS MARSHAL!. D EL. HAYWOOD CAPT. JAMES E. H EG P AUL J . HENEGAN THOMAS HENRY HAROLD HERBER W . R . HERVEY J AMES D . HERWARD HERBERT H EWITT R OBERT J . HEWITT R OY HEwSON CARL W . HExAMER H OWARD E . HIGHT CHARLES HILL GEORGE H OFFMAN KARENINA M ONTHE!X H OFFMAN WALTER W . H OFFMAN R OBERT W. H OFFMANN RICHARD H OK!N HELEN E. H OLCOMB LARRY HOLCOMB , INC . J OHN W . HOLTER CDR. ALFRED E . HORKA ALIX T . H ORNBLOWER T OWNSEND HORNOR CAPT. M . F . H ORVATH B. J . H OWARD GoDFREY G. H OWARD CAPT. D REW B . HOWES THOMAS H OYNE, Ill R OBERTW. HUBNER PER HUFFE!DT WILLIAM J. HURLEY CAPT. FRANOS HURSKA HYLAND GRANBY ANTIQUES J OHN iACIOFANO J AMES B . (GLEHEART ALBERT L . l.NGRAM INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF MASTERS, MATES & P1LoTs ISLAND YACHT SALES , INC. BRAD IVES GEORGE IVEY RICHARD J ACOBS J . S. J ACOX T OBY J AFFE CAPT. GEORGE JAHN PETER E. JAQUITH COL. GEORGE M . JAMES PAUL JAMISON B OYD J EWETT ARNOLD JONASSE CARL A. J OHNSON JON c. J OHNSON ALAN J ONES CHARLES M . J ONES CLIFFORD J ORDAN D ENNIS JORDAN THOMAS JOSTEN w. J. JOVAN w . HADDON JUDSON BEAN KAHN NORMAN KAMERMANN ARNET KASER NEIL KEATING J. KELLY CAPT. JOHN M . KENNADAY ~ JOHN KENNEY J OHN F. KERNODLE Ill KERR CONSOLIDATED KIDDER , PEABODY & Co. DAVID KILLARY R OBERT J. KIMTis GERAID KING FRANc1s KINNEY J OHN KINNEY CHARLES E . KIRSCH RICHARD W. KlxMiLLER NORMAN KlELDsEN R . J. KNEELAND ELIOT KNOWLES ELLIOTT B . KNOWLTON HARRY KNox LESTER A. KOCHER B . D . K OEPPEL KARL KORTUM RICHARD w. K OSTER MR . & MRS . FRANK KOTTME!ER WILLIAM H . KRAMER C . JAMES KRAUS ANDREW KRAVIC KENNETH KROEHLER GEORGE P . KROH R OYDEN KUESTER C . SCOTT KUL!CKE ANTHONY LAMARCO FREDERICK N . LANG JOHN R . LANGELER W. D . LAURIF PHILIP LEBOUTILL!ER, JR. EDWARD C . LEE CHARLES L EHMAN RICHARD & MARY L EIGH W . C . L ENZ l'Hn.!P LEONARD MR . & MRS. T . E. L EONARD AARON LEVINE LARRY L EWIS HOWARD LICHTERMAN DAVID W . LINCOLN SALLY LINDSAY ARTHURS. LISS GEORGE P . LIVANOS CAPT. L. M . LoGAN MR . & MRS . W ORTH LooMIS RICHARDO l..oPES CALEB l..oRING CHARLES LUNDGREN JOHN E . LUNOIN r JOHN J . LYNCH, JR . KENNETH LYNCH & SoNs RADM . HARVEY LYON MICHAEL J . MAcAR!o MR. & MRs . R . MAcCRATE GEORGE MAcDoNOUGH Ross MACDUFFIE CAPT. WILLIAM H . MACFADEN ROBERT MACFARLANE M . D . MAc E'HERSON J OSEFH B . MADISON R OBERT H . M AHLAND VINCENT MAJ PETER MANIGAULT JAMES PEARSON MARENAKOS JOSEPH A . MANLEY FRANK J. MARSDEN RAY MARTIN DR . & MRS. RICHARD MARTIN RICHARD W . MARTIN THOMAS F. MASON WILLIAM MATHEWS, JR. i'HILIP MATTINGLY PETER MAx JoHN MAY BRIAN M cALL1sTER G. P . McCARTHY HAROLD J . M cCORMICK R . c. McCuRDY LEWIS E. M cCURE CAPT. E. c. M c DoNAID JEROME McGLYNN PAUL McGoNlGLE H OWARD McGREGOR , JR. RICK & RENEE M CINTOSH JAMES McNAMARA J OHN L. M CSHANE MR . & MRS . J OHN MCSHERRY MEBA DISTRICT 2 CLYTIE P . MEAD JAMES MEADE PETERS. MERRILL J . PAUL MICHIE EDWARD MILLER JOHN MILLER STUART MILLER ARTHUR C . MILOT MICHAEL MILLS R . KENT M ITCHELL CHESTER MizE CAPT. LoU!S M OCK RICHARD M ONSEES MD C. S. MORGAN MR . & MRS. DANIEL M ORGENSTERN DANIEL M ORONEY ROBERT E . M ORRIS , JR . SAMUEL W . M ORRIS J . R . M ORRISSEY ANGUS C. MORRISON BETTY ANN M ORSE MR . & MRS. EMIL M OSBACHER , JR . WILLIAM M UCHN!C EDWARD M UHLFELD JAMES W . MULLEN II WILLIAM A . M ULLER JOHN C. MURDOCK MICHAEL MURRO CAPT. G. M . M USICK RAY M USTAFA CAPT. W ALTER K . NADOLNY , JR. M . J . NAGY JAMES W . NAMMACK, JR. NANTUCKET SHIPYARD, INC. HARRY L. N ELSON, JR. S COTT N EWHALI. MORRIS w. N EWMAN NEWSDAY w . R. NIBLOCK W!LI.JAM L. NICHOLAS ROBERT NICHOLS J EREMIAH NIXON MILTON G . NOTTINGHAM D . G . OBER OcEAN!C NAVIGATION RESEARCH SOCIETY CLIFFORD B . O 'HARA T . MORGAN O ' HORA CDR . & MRS. J . D. O 'KANE B . J . O ' NEILL DAVID OESTREICH CHARW J . OWEN ROBERTS OWEN PACIFIC-GULF MARINE, INC. ALBERT F . PADLEY LINCOLN & A.LL!SON PAINE EDWARD BANNON PALMER JANE P ARFET LAIRD PARK , JR . HENRY A . PARKER Ill S . T . PARKS WlLUAM H. PARKS RICHARD H . PARSON ROBERTS . PASKULOV!CH GIULIO C. PATIES J AMES A. P ATTEN J OHN J . PATTERSON , JR . MARY PEABODY JOHN N . PEARSON JAMES W . PECK EARL PEDERSEN MRS. G. L. PELISSERO A. A . PENDLETON PAUL C. PENNINGTON, JR. CAPT. D . E. PERKINS WlLUAM E. PERRELL TIMOTHY L. PERRY , JR . WILLIAM R . PETERS PETERSON BUILDERS, INC WILLIAM PETITT J . C . L . PETLER HENRY PETRONIS STEPHEN PFOUTS MR . & MRS. NICHOLAS PHlu.lPs F . N . PIASECKI AURA-LEE PrrTENGER PORT ANNAPOLIS MARINA MR . & MRS. S. W. PORTER , JR . GEORGE PoST THEODORE PRATT DR . R. L. PREHN IRVING PRESTON MARTINE PRICE FRANK c . PRINDLE A. J . PuSATERI BEND. RAMALEY MICHAEL B . RATCLIFF ARV! E. RATY JAMES REDICAN CAPT. BARTH REED COL. ALFRED J . REEsE JOHN REILLY FREDERICK REMINGTON P . R . J . REYNOLDS PETER PEIRCE RICE DolfGLAS B . RICHARDSON EDWARD RITTENHOUSE CAPT. JOSE RIVERA E . D . ROBBINS, MD REED ROBERTSON CHARLES R . ROBINSON JOSEPH D . ROBINSON PETER ROBINSON RICHARD L. ROBINSON K . KEITH ROE ALLEN R . ROGERS LAWRENCE H. ROGERS , II HUGH D. ROLF DANIEL R OSE DAVID ROSEN A. B . ROSENBERG LESTER ROSENBLATT PETER Ross i'HILIP Ross GEORGE J . ROWE, JR . JAMES w. R OYLE, JR. M . RUST DAVID R. RYAN M . J . RYAN W!LI.JAM R . RYAN w ALTER P . RYBKA R . D . R YDER CHARLES IRA SACHS JOHN F . SALISBURY JAMES M . SALTER Ill CREW OF THE SSBT SAN DIEGO SAN DIEGO YACHT CLUB A . HERBERT SANDWEN ARTHUR J . SANTRY J OSEFH SAWTELLE w. B. H . SAWYER CARL H . S CHAEFFER H . K . S CHAEFFER DAVID & BARBARA SCHELL RICHARD J . SCHEUER MADELEINE SCHULHOFF R OBERT c. S EAMANS, JR . D lELLE FLEISHMAN SE!GN!OUS CHARLES w . SHAMBAUGH MARVIN SHAPIRO H UGH R . SHARP MICHAEL T . SHEEHAN WlLUAM A. SHEEHAN R OBERT v. SHEEN, JR . KENNETH w. SHEETS , J R. SHIPS OF THE SEA M USEUM LT. ERIC SH!ffi.ER Q. ANTHONY S IEMER SIGNAL COMPANIES INC. FRANK SIMPSON R OBERT p . SHEEHY GEORGE SIMPSON PAUL SIMPSON R OBERT S INCERBEAUX FRANCIS D . SKELLEY EASTON c. SKINNER S ANFORD SLAVIN CHARLES R . SUCH, Ill MR . & MRS . EDGAR F. SMITH ERIC PARKMAN SMITH CAPT. GEORGE E . SMITH H OWARD SMITH LEE A. SMITH LYMAN H. SMITH MELBOURNE SMITH THOMAS SMITH MR . & MRS. EDWARD w. SNOWDON E. P . SNYDER MAx SOLMSSEN SONAT MARINE, l.Nc. CONWAY B. SoNNE DR. J uosoN SPEER T. S PIGELMIRE PHlLIP STENGER S usIE STENHousE R ODERICK STEPHENS CoR. VICTOR B. STEVENS, JR . w. T. STEVENS WlLLIAM STEWART J . T. STILLMAN H OUSTON H. STOKES GEORGE R . S TONE LT. H OWARD L. STONE HARLEY STOWELL WILLIAM STUTT FRANK SUCCOP DANIEL R . S UKJS BRUCE S ULLIVAN CAPT. J OHN 0. SVENSSON RICHARD SWAN SIADHAL SWEENEY LCoR . THOMAS L. SWIFT EUGENE SYDNOR J . C . SYNNOTT HENRY TALBERT DA VIS TAYLOR C. PETER THEUT BARRY D. THOMAS J OHN W . THOMAS CLARK THOMPSON J OHN TuuRMAN LUIGI TmAIDI GERAID A. TIBBETS R OBERT TICE DoUGLAS A . T!LDEN CARL W . TIMPSON , JR. WlLLIAM E . TINNEY G EORGE F . T OLLEFSEN N OAH T OTTEN ANTHONY TRAILA JAMES D . TURNER ALFRED TYLER II ANDREW H . UNDERHILL UNIVERSAL MARmME SERVICES CORPORATION KENNETH F. URBAN J OSEPH URBANSKI RENAUD VALENTIN CAPT. R OBERT D. VALENTINE MARION VALPEY TED V ALPEY D . C. JM. VAN DER KROFT JOHN D . VAN !TALI.IE PETER VANADIA EDSEL A. VENUS D ALE R. VONDERAU BLAIR V EDDER, JR . R . W . J ACK VOIGHT DALE VONDERAU FRANZ VON ZlEGESAR J OHN VRlEELAND J AMES WADATZ BRIAND. WAKE GLENNIE WAL!. ALExANDERJ . W ALLACE RAYMONDE. WAILACE THOMAS H . WALSH TERRY WALTON BRUCEE . WARE ALExANDER WATSON DAWID P . H . W ATSON THOMASJ. WATSON , JR. JACKSON WEAVER MR. & MRs . TIMOTIIY F . WEBER KENNETH W EEKS RAYNER WEIR THOMAS WELLS L. H ERNDON W ERTH RANDY W ESTON CRAJ<G W. WHITE SIR GoRDON WHITE KBE JOHN ROBERT WHITE RAYMOND D . WHITE GEORGE WHITESIDE G . G . WHITNEY , JR . FR . J AMES WHrrrEMORE LAURENCE WHrrrEMORE WILLIAM A . A. W!C:HERT J. S. WILFORD STEPHEN J . WILLIG EDWARD WILSON PERCIVAL WILSON ROBERT WILSON H . PAUL W!NALSKI J OSEFH WINEROTII JOHN F. WING JOE B . WISE WOMEN'S PROPELI.ER CLUB , l'coRT OF BOSTON W OMEN'S l'ROPELI.ER CLUB, l'oRT OF NEW YORK RICK WOOD WILLIAM WRAY DoRAN R . WRIGHT GLENN WYATT WlLLIAM c. WYGANT JAMES H . Y ocuM J OHN Y OUELL HENRY A. Y OUMANS KIRK YOUNGMAN THE ZNIDER'S
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MODEL SUCCESS STORY' "The Maritime Preposition ing Ship program is a model success story, and I couldn 't be more pleased . MPS is on schedu le and proving to be an extremely valuable strategic asset." - General PX. Kelley Commandant U.S. Marine Corps
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DISTRICT 2 MARINE ENGINEERS BENEFICIAL ASSOCIATION -ASSOCIATED MARITIME OFFICERS
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AFFILIATED WITH TH E AFL-CIO MARITIME TRADES DEPARTMENT 650 FOURTH AVENUE BROOKLYN , N.Y. 11 232 (718) 965-6700
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RAYMOND T. McKAY PRESIDENT
JOHN F. BRADY EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
This Is MM&P Country We salute the AMERICAN NEW YORK on her maiden voyage leaving Hong Kong, with additional Ports Of Call at Pusan Korea; Kaohsiung Taiwan; Kobe and Yokohama Japan; Savannah and New York, U.S.A. The AMERICAN NEW YORK, is the first of twelve United States Lines Econo Liners manned with MM&P Officers. The AMERICAN NEW YORK carries 224140-footcontainers, with a cruising range of 30,000 nautical miles at 18 knots. The AMERICAN NEW YORK is 950 feet long and 106 feet wide. The successful operation of this ship has been entrusted to MM&P deck officers, whose skills are regularly sharpened by the Maritime Advancement, Training, Education, and Safety (MATES) program. MM&P ship officers make a practice of returning to the Maritime Institute Of Technology and Graduate Studies (MITAGS) at Linthicum Heights, MD, to shaipen their skills and learn new ones with the aid of the most modem teaching equipment available.
LLOYD M. MARTIN
ROBERT J. LOWEN
International Secretary-Treasurer
International President
International Organization of
Masters, Mates & Pilots 700 Maritime Boulevard, Linthicum Heights, MD 21090 • Tel: (301) 850-8700 • Cable: BRIDGEDECK, Washington, DC • Telex: 750831