Sea History 044 - Summer 1987

No. 44

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SUMMER 1987

USS CONSTITUTION: REACHING OUT OVER THE HORIZON

How

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ISSN 0146-9312

No. 44

SEA HISTORY

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 I0520. Second class postage paid at Croton-on-Hudson NY 10520.

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COPYRIGHT © 1987 by the National Maritime Hi storical Society. Tel. 914 271-2177.

MEMBERSHIP is invited: Plankowner $ 10,000; Benefactor $5 ,000; Sponsor $ 1,000; Donor $500; Sustaining Patron $250; Patron$ I00; Contributor $50; Family $35; Regular $25; Student or Retired $ 12 .50 . All members outside the USA please add $5 for postage . SEA HISTORY is sent to all members . Individual copies cost $2 . 75 .

OFFICERS & TRUSTEES are Chairman: James P. McAllister; Vice Chairmen: Alan G . Choate, James Ean; President and Treasurer: Peter Stanford; Vice President: Norma Stanford; Secretary: John H. Reilly , Jr.; Trustees: Henry H. Anderson, Jr., Alan G. Choate, Karl Kortum , J. Kevin Lally , Richardo Lopes , Robert J. Lowen , James P. McAllister, Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr. , Nancy Pouch , John H. Reilly , Jr. , Spencer Smith , Peter Stanford; Chairman Emeritus: Karl Kortum; President Emeritus: Alan D. Hutchison .

OVERSEERS: Chairman: Henry H. Anderson, Jr.; Townsend Hornor, Harris L. Kempner, George Lamb , Clifford D. Mallory, Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr. , Richard I. Morris , 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 Goold-Adams , 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. Perkin s USCG (ret.), Richard Rath , Nancy Richardson, George Salley, Melbourne Smith, Ralph L. Snow , John Stobart, 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 , Hammond Innes , 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. , I 29a North Street, Burwell, Cambs. CBS OBB , England. Reg. Charity No. 27775 1.

SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor: Peter Stanford; Managing Editor: Norma Stanford; Associate Editor: Lincoln P. Paine; Assistant to the President: Barbara Ladd; Accounting: Alfred J. Schwab; Advertising: Joseph Stanford; Membership Secretary: Heidi Quas; Membership Assistant: Patricia Anstett; Secretary: Susan Sereni ; Corresponding Secretary: Marie Lore.

SUMMER 1987

CONTENTS 2 4 7 9 11 14

17 20 22 26 28 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 40 42 43 50

EDITOR 'S LOG , LETTERS & QUERIES NMHS PROJECTS: THE MARITIME INITIATIVE THE OLDEST SHIP IN THE WAR, Ed Dennis THE SEAPORT EXPERIENCE, Peter Stanford THE USS CONSTITUTION: REACHING OUT OVER THE HORIZON, Peter Stanford A STUDY IN COMMAND, J. William Middendorf, II THE USS CONSTITUTION MUSEUM, Richard C. Wheeler SAIL TRAINING: THE WATCH ON THE WHEEL , Thomas Wells SAIL TRAINING NEWS HMS WARRIOR TAKES UP HER STATION, John Wells MARINE ART: ED SCHUMACHER , Robert Amon MARINE ART NEWS MARYLAND FEDERALIST AND THE CONSTITUTION, Gregory A. Stiverson SHIP NOTES: THE NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER, Dean C. Allard THE USS MONITOR PROJECT , Michael Mulcahy GEORGE WASHINGTON ' S INAUGURAL BARGE THE BOSTON HARBOR TUGBOAT MUSTER, William P. Coughlin SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS HISTORIC NAVAL MUSEUMS & SHIPS MODELMAKER'S CORNER: A FIFTY-YEAR PROGRAM , Ed Antin SAVING THE LAST ANTIQUE FREIGHTERS , Michael J. Krieger REVIEWS : THE BOOK LOCKER, Peter Stanford HOW WE CLOSED THE PORT OF NEW YORK, Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr.

COVER: The fonnidab le US Frigate Constitution sets forth in I803. She is about to deliver a memorable message to the world (see pp. 11 -17).

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

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

We are also the American a rm of the World Ship Trust , an international group working worldwide to help save ships of histori c importance.

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

Membership in the Society costs only $25 a year. You ' ll receive Sea History , a fascinating magazine filled with articles of seafaring and historical lore. You ' ll a lso be eligible for discounts on books , prints and other items. Help save our seafa ring heritage. Join the National Ma ritime Historical Society today 1

10: National Maritime Historical Society, 132 Maple St. , Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520

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I want Io he lp . I understand that my co ntribution goes Io forward the wo rk of the Society ' and 1ha1 I'll be kept informed by rf'.cc iving SEA HISTORY quarterly. Enc losed is:

0 $1,000 Sponsor 0 $500 DonorO $I 00 Patron 0 $50 Contributor0$35 Fam ii y D $25 Regu lar O $12.50 Student/Retired NAME ~~~~~~~~~~~--,(~ pl~ ea~se~p7 ri~ n1~ J ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

44

EDITOR'S LOG Nowhere do the continuities of American seafaring make themselves felt more strongly than in the naval service. We celebrate some of these continuities in this issue centering on USS Constitution. And on her decks this Fourth of July , as it happens, one of our members , Captain Edward Beach , will receive the Samuel Eliot Morison Award .

We recently went to hear Captain Beach speak at one of those fine lunches held by the New York Council of the Navy League .

"We are the inheritors of Britain's navy ," said Captain Beach, expressing a transatlantic continuity as well as one reaching across centuries . Ned Beach's ¡ novels and books on naval history reflect his own experience in command of a US submarine in World War Il , and as skipper of the nuclear submarine USS Triton on her historic voyage round the world submerged in 1960. He proceeded to regale us with a few exploits of Horatio Nelson , notably his breaking the hitherto sacrosanct line-of-battle at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent-an act which won the battle and earned hi s boss, John Jervis, the title of Lord St. Vincent. His act quite easily might have led to his dismissal. In a service necessarily built on taut discipline , it is important to know when to break the line .

And it is good to hear a man so active in this century reach back nearly two centuries into another service to find an example of this imperishable principle' Admiral Arleigh Burke, another naval person we are proud to number as a member of our Society , understood that tradition very well when he foug ht for a doctrine under which his destroyer squadron would go right into the attack at first contact with a hosti le force and let the unrolling battle itself deve lop the information needed for ultimate decisions-even the decision to get out if necessary .

We can obviously make no attempt here to develop Arleigh Burke's contributions to sea warfare . But he did something for our business , the business of history , when he said in SEA HISTORY five years ago: "Every American sailor has his own idea of what Constitution stands for, why she is impo1tant, what she means, even as men do about their nations. " He went on to point out: "Everything in the Navy changes so rapidly that each succeeding generation deals with completely different equ ipment in a completely different manner to accomplish the same basic tasks that confronted the skippers of Constitution and their men. " That is the essence of history's message: It is not a set of lessons. It cannot be learned by rote. It is a living challengeone each generation has to define, and PETER STANFORD meet, for itself.

2

LETTERS For a Grand Alliance!

A Nice Balance

The Grand Alliance suggested by Harry Anderson (SEA HISTORY 43) is a great idea and high time. The essentials appear obvious: to get going, and for "all hands ." What better man than Harry Anderson to come forward with the proposal!

A sad illustration of what delayswhatever the reason--can cause is what has happened here to the Wapama. Best wishes and good luck!

JOHN G. ROGERS San Francisco , California The Wapama is a national concern and

It was with pleasure that I read another of Frank Farrar's sea stories in SEA H1sTORY 42 ("Winter Alongside"). I had watched for over a year for another of hi s anecdotes, which bring back strong memori es of when I was a young , green Sheepshead Bay graduate.

Farrar's tales add a nice balance to your excellent features on marine art and restoration . I hope to see more of them in the future.

JOH N L. COLE Schenectady, New York

we look forward to the alliance focussing resources to save such important threatened ships.- ED.

Captain Farrar' s article, and the accompanying illustrations by sailorman-artist Os Brett, drew lots of praise from our readers . A collection of Capt. Farrar' s stories will be published by Sea History Press later in the year. -ED.

From a Lakeside Porch I'm sitting on the porch of my cottage, watching an ocean freighter overtake a Great Lakes steamer. It's a brisk but sunn y day here on Lake Ontario. A good day to write!

The Annual Meeting was well organized and with interesting speakers. I look forward to seeing you good people at the Canal Museum gathering in Syracuse.

God's blessing on you, the Society , and our fundin g program , the Maritime Initiative .

BILL DALE Rochester, New York

As we went to press, our New York affiliate, the State Conference on Waterways, was to hold its Annual Meeting on 8 June in Syracuse . It is good indeed to see members with strong local or regional interests recognizing and acting on the overarching national interest which is addressed in the Maritime Initiative.

- ED.

Spectacular Film!

At long last I'm returning the Ghosts of Cape Horn film. It 's had a rather long run here in rural North Caroli na , but everyone who saw it really raved (or else got seasick) and it was most appreciated.

I really came to realize what my Dad-an alumnus of the NY State Maritime Academy at Fort Schuyler-used to talk about when he recounted hi s days on the schoolships St. Mary's and Newport.

CAPT. WILLIAM WINBERG , III Arapahoe, North Carolina Ghosts of Cape Horn records what Alan

Villiers called "The War with Cape Horn" in footag e made by Villiers himself among much other first-hand testimony. The film is available free to members who want to show it to groups in their areas. Simply write to the Society, Allention Heidi Quas.-ED.

Drop Dead, Heroes During World War II , each cadet midshipman entering the US Merchant Marine Academy federal training program was sworn into the US Naval Reserve . Naval Science and other Navy related courses were taught by US Navy assigned instructors and were a basic part of each man's training from entrance until graduation. Indeed , each cadet midshipman wore a Gold USNR pin above the breast pocket of his dress jacket. The fully authorized Navy program led to a commi ssion of Ensign, USNR, upon grad uation .

As you perhaps know, the curricu lum called for six months or more of sea time for each Cadet in training. Because of enemy ac tivities involving American merchant ships, 142 young Cadets were killed in action. It is interesting to note that the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York, is the only Federal Academy that is authorized to proudly carry a Battle Standard in recognition of these 142 men lost in World War II .

During their sea time , each of these men earned a Purple Heart and other medals and ribbons authorized by the US Navy. However, the Navy will not allow the posthumou s awa rd of these honors.

The apparent reason: They did not grad uate . (S urvivors who graduated are eligible.) The obvious problem has been called to the attention of the Navy but they are holding fi1111; the answer is "No." In 1985 formal application was made by surviving family members of C/M Edw in J. O'Hara and C/ M Arthur R. Chamberlin, Jr. (both of whom were ki lled on the SS Stephen Hopkins, a vessel that received the Gallant Ship Award) fo r posthumous awa rd of the following SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1987

honors: Purple Heart Medal; American Campaign Medal; European-MideastAfrican Campaign Medal wi th one Battle Star; Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal; and WWII Victory Medal.

The Navy declined , even though the dates and location of their ship al l coincided with Navy requirements for these awards .

As an indi vidual who has been proud of th e US Navy, I fee l th at thi s unfortunate situati on should be corrected promptl y.

JAMES HOFFMAN Bakersfi eld , California

Wharf Rats and Schoonermen I received the copy of SEA HISTORY 42 with Elizabeth R. Coffin 's painting on the cover and the article of my earlier days on the water. Man y th anks .

The painting shows a twelve-year-old boy on the cart. He was Arthur McCleane, who followed the water all hi s li fe . He was sixth Commodore of the Wharf Rat Club. The man pitching eel grass onto the cart was the father of the late Hugh Lambert , a whaleman at one time , out of New Bedford ; but home was Nantucket.

The photos of the Alice S. Wentworth used in my art.icle were all from my collection . Those from South Street I sent there during the project to save the Wentworth.

The others, from Mysti c Seaport, were sent there for a project to build a full size replica of her. Plans have been drawn up , but the project is on hold for the time be ing unti l fundin g loosens up .

The photo of her from the port quarter (page 13 bottom) is the first I ever took of her, in the summer of 1926 . She is tied up at the Island Service Co., Nantucket , with a load of coke for the gas plant.

T was in on a fi shing schooner with a small load of mackerel.

The old schooner Mercantile was getting some rebuilding down at Rockland , Maine , thi s winter. She was one of the fleet of coasters that used to come up to Gloucester loaded with salt cod and hake for P.J . O'Brien ' s at the head of the harbor. Sometimes they would carry a load of coal back home .

Our coastal waterfronts are not much to look at nowadays . Hard on the eyes to have to see what has taken the place of old vessels.

CHARLES F. SAYLE, SR .

Nantucket, Massachusetts

The Loss of the Steinbrenner I thorou ghl y enjoyed Charlie Sayle ' s article on schooner life in SEA HISTORY 42.

His brief reference to sailing aboard the Henry Steinbrenner in 1925 prompted SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

me to offer this small footnote on the sinking of that great steamer in Lake Superior on 11 May 1953.

The 420ft bulk freighter , built at Port Huron in 190 I , was laden to her summer marks with Minnesota iron ore and bound from Superior, Wisconsin, to Cleveland when she succumbed to the fury of a spring gale near Isle Royale.

Eighteen brave men from her crew of thirty-one lost their li ves.

Several weeks after the tragedy , one of the Steinbrenner' s life rings washed as hore at a fishing camp in the Apos tle Islands of Wisconsin ' s " north coast. " Shortly th ereafter the nearl y four-foo t canvas and cork life ring came in to the possession of my good friend Gregory Kinney, Sr. Today it hangs in th e waterfron t pub he owns in Bayfield , Wisconsin.

RJCK THOMPSON Bayfield , Wisconsin

QUERIES & CORRECTIONS A Rowes by Any Other Name Errors are bound to creep into any publicati on , but three in one sente nce seems like too many. J refer to the lead sentence of ' ' Herb Hewitt : Marine Artist ,'' in SEA HISTORY 38.

The steamship Boston of the Eastern Steamship Lines, which was the onl y vessel o f that name operating out of Boston in the 1930s on an overnight schedule between Boston and New York , had a gross displacement of 4989 tons , not 60 tons.

There was never a Rose Wharf on Atlantic Avenue in Boston. Fo~ well over 100 years, Rowes Wharf was used by vessels engaged in Boston Harbor traffic, es pec iall y th ose vessels sailing to Nantasket Beach . For the ir sailings to New York, the Eastern Steamship Lines used India Wharf on Atlantic Avenue , not Rowes Wharf.

KEN STEVENS Walpole , New Hampshire

Several others were kind enough to write with their corrections. It appears that the Nantasket referred to in the article was built in 1878, and sold to New York interests in 1900. Renamed the Keansburg, she burned in 1928. A second Nantas ket was built in 1902 and was destroyed by fire at Nantasket Beach in 1928. A third Nantasket, built in 1887 as the Newburgh, was not retired until 1955. It is also interesting to note that the Boston and her sistership New York were both sunk in convoy in September of 1942 , one day apart.- Eo.

I am wri ting a book on the history of the Naval Armed Guard. To date their contribution has been largely ignored , although their casualty rate in World War II was staggering-as was that of the merchant marine with whom they served .

While the book wi ll treat the NAG in both world wars , it will foc us especiall y on personal accounts of Armed Guards in World War II . I would appeciate hearing from any fo rmer armed guards about their experience's during the War. Contributions from fo rmer merchant mariners about the NAG are also welcome.

JUSTIN F. GLEICHAUF 222 Shadow Mountain Dr., A8 El Paso , TX 79912 l am seeking information about my greatgreat-grandfather, Captain T.H. Mong, of Wheeling, West Virginia. A nati ve of Maryland, Capt. Mong was a pioneer oyster dealer between Baltimore and the Mi ssissippi in the early nineteenth century , and used to ship the bivalves to the East Coast by stagecoach. After his retirement in Wheeling , he was an agent for various riverboat lines. I would be extremely grateful fo r any inforniation about Captain Mong.

WI LLIAM IRVINE 230 East 48th Street New York, NY 1001 7 I hope that readers will be able to ass ist me in two matters.

Some¡ Glasgow sailing ship carried cabin skylights with colored glass and the motto " Let Glasgow Prosper. " I am seeking references to these skylights, the names of the ships that had them , their builders and owners, together with photographs or drawings.

In connection with research into the Loch Line operated from the Clyde to Australia from about 1870 to 1914 by Aitken, Lilburn & Co . , I am interested in learning the whereabouts of research materi als , especially pictures and unpublished documents.

DAVID BURRELL Beechknowe Muirkirk Ayrshire KA 18 3NW Great Britain

ll)fuk s~ ct~

O ~

Ocean Liner Memorabilia, etc.

Send $2.00 for list. refundable on purchase.

49 NIAGARA ST. TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA MSV 1C2

3

NMHS PROJECTS The Maritime Initiative At the Annual Meeting in Mystic Seaport in April , reports were heard on a proposed effort for the seafaring heritage called the Maritime Initiative. This far reaching cooperati ve program is conceived to redeem our threatened patrimony in historic ships, broaden the message of history as it reaches the public and get more young people (of all ages) to sea.

Harry Anderson, whose call for a Grand Alliance to support such an effort was published in SEA HISTORY 43 leads an NM HS task force charged with shaping a course toward those goals, based on what we learn in the field . Ultimately, we are looking at a five-year program , possibly beginning in 1988 and ending in 1992 .

In the meantime , the Society is moving ahead with a vital first step which has long been called for by leaders in the field of maritime heritage. This is a bi-weekly newsletter to be called Sea History Gazette which will report in timely fas hion on exhibits, symposia, funding efforts and news of general interest to the communi ty and giving sources of further information.

It will also provide listings of new books , videos, recordings and periodicals of interest to its readers. Thanks to a grant from the James A. Macdonald Foundation of New York, publication of the Gazette will begin in July .

The Soc iety also plans to publish a descripti ve directory of maritime museums and societies. An important part of our mission is to help encourage pu blic participation in the maritime heritage . The directory is a much needed step in this direction, and it will also strengthen and encourage cooperati ve and mutually benefi cial efforts in the field .

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The Maritime Initiati ve is meant for " all ships, all oceans." But it has to begin somewhere, and we are proud that it will be announced for discussion _aboard America's most famous ship , the USS Constitution , in Boston Harbor this Fourth of July. We shal l also present it in cooperation with the National Trust fo r Historic Preservation at their annual conference in Washington, DC , 7- 10 October and , if sufficient support is fo rthcoming, we hope to hold a fo rum on the imperilled ships of San Francisco in that sea-haunted city before the year ends.

Participation begins with you, the members . Do send us comments and questions and your hopes, dreams, and even demands-so that what we build refl ects the best wisdom or experience and the finest aspirations of our Society.

PETER STAN FORD

4

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The Jane Morehead:

The Oldest Ship in the War

by Ed Dennis General Douglas McArthur's first amphibious landing in World War II took place 19 October 1942, when soldiers from the I 28th Infantry went ashore at Pongani, New Guinea. McArthur had earlier said, "We wi ll defend Australia in New Guinea," and the landing was the first move in the long process to wrest contro l of the island from the Japanese.

The Navy got the pick of the supplies for their own campaign in the Solomons , and they were also reluctant to send in any of their larger ships to the virtua ll y uncharted coasts of Papua New Guinea where they would be vulnerable to attack. The task of rounding up ships for what would become known as "McArthur's Navy" fell to two brothers , Bruce and Sheridan Fahnestock, who were commissioned officers in the Army and who had made several trips to New Guinea before the war for National Geographic . They bought or chartered anything they could find that wou ld float , from graceful Thursday Island pearl luggers and ketches to Tasmanian apple schooners and Queensland fishing trawlers.

The Fahnestock brothers were also members of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, and the backbone of the fleet was made up of another 1,300 or so Coast Guard Auxiliaries and yachtsmen, many of whom were considered too old or otherwise unfit for active duty in the other armed forces. No merchant marine licenses were required and precise navigation wasn't needed.

But as yachtsmen and fishermen , these men knew how to handle the trawlers and other small ships so desperately needed among the islands to the north of Australia. If you could handle a small boat and you didn ' t mind going into a combat zone in a virtually unarmed vessel, you were signed on.

I joined McArthur's Navy in 1943 and sailed as engineer in the Jane Morehead. Burned into one of her deck beams near the cargo hatch was 1860 , the year she was launched as a two-masted coastal schooner in Tasmania. Her master, Captain Harry Simmonds , from Adelaide, said she was built by convict labor at Val lerne, Tasmania , and named for the wife of the Governor of Prisons.

The Jane 's wrinkles spoke of an era long past , but the war lifted her Victorian veil and put the old lady to work hauling men and supplies along the reef-infested waters of New Guinea.

Despite her age, she was a fair dinkum ship, reasonably comfortab le and dry during the sudden tropical storms we were continually having , and she didn't mind being hung up on a sand bar or reef every so often. The accomodations were spartan: the Captain and I each had a cabin by the charthouse aft, and the focsle was shared by the two local deckhands , Oswald and Wilkie; the French cook, Pierre; and the mate , Al Myers from Red Bank , New Jersey. It didn ' t matter much, because we mostly slept on deck where it wasn ' t as hot and didn ' t stink so much.

When Captain Simmonds got the Jan e from the Neptune Shipyard in Sydney , she was rigged down and fitted with an old, slow-turning (400rpm) heavy duty Vivian diesel engine.

The operating and service manuals had long since di sappeared , and we learned the inner workings of this machine from sheer necessity and lots of sweat. Cookie' s pride and joy was a n antique wood-burning stove which we later turned into a kerosene-burning monster. There were few other conveniences: no refrigeration , no head a nd no electricty, except for the binnacle and running lights (which we never used) and, if I remember correctly, a fan. For protection we had 4-inch planking and two SO-caliber machine guns which looked like they were of World War I vintage and which could o nl y be fired broadside , as otherwise the rigging and galley would be shot away. The cargo hoi st was powered with a one-cylinder, horizontal , open crankcase , slow-speed Imperial diesel engine SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

At Pongani, October, 1942 , men and supplies come ashore from their transports, the trawlers King John and Timoshenko and the converted schooner Jane Morehead , of 1860. At left , the author with a captured Japanese rifle, an American rifle and his 45-caliber sidearm. which had to be stopped every half hour or so for oiling.

The Jan e's first big mission came in the assault on Pongani.

She sailed from the port of Wanigela, an Anglican Mission station which served as a base for the Australian/ New Guinea Administration Unit (ANGAU). Sailing shortly after the trawlers King John and Timoshenko , the Jane carried fifty or sixty Gls and ammunition. From Wanigela to Pongani you had to double Cape Nelson; but due to the reefs-the Jane drew eight feet-and its being dark, Captain Simmonds decided to go into Tufi fiord. While he was there, he asked Lt. Dave Marsh of ANG AU for two local guides to con the Jane around Cape Nelson and up the equally treacherous coast to Pongani.

A Pongani landing had been decided on by the joint Australian and American Command because it was the site of a n ANGAU lookout station, and it was the terminal for several jungle tracks , one of which led to Buna. Buna was held by about 5,500 jungle-hardened Japanese troops , and it was finally taken in February , after som.e of the toughest hand-to-hand fighting in the war. There were 9,000 American and Australian casualties-half again as many as at Guadalcanal.

The Pongani landing was interrupted by a bombing run not from Japanese planes , but from American B-25s flying out of Port Moresby, which were ordered to shoot at anything th at moved, In the attack, Bruce Fahnestock was killed , as was a reporter for the New York Times, Barney Darnton. But by the time the Jan e arrived the landing was under way. Her troops and supplies were offloaded into double-hulled native dugouts.

A few hours later she turned around and went back to Wanigela for another load.

Although the Jan e came out of the Pongani landings unscathed , when I sailed in her in 1943-44, we were bombed and strafed several times-at Lae and Dreger Harbor , and at Cape Gloucester, New Britain. And when we sailed between the islands , we were also attacked by lone Japanese Zeros equipped with pontoons. I left the Jan e in June 1944, when l was transferred to the FS 9A (the Atabrine Express) a non-Red Cross armed medical ship attached to the 13th Medical Corps at Finschhafen, New Guinea.

But I will always be proud to have been a part ofMcArthur's Navy , the unknown few who answered our country's call in its hour of need, and helped in a small way to turn th e tide of battle until massive help could be sent from America. .t

Mr. Dennis, originally from Brooklyn , today lives in Hialeah, Florida. He is diesel editor for Motor Boating and Sailing magazine and field editor for Diesel and Gas Turbine Publications.

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The Seaport Experience In mid-October in recent years we ' ve tried to break away and sall y forth for an end-of-the-season cruise eastward.

Last fall we broke away all right , but walked out into buffetting easterlies that kicked up a nasty chop in Long Island Sound and held our progress down to short (and bouncy) hops along the coast.

As we turned around and sailed throu gh Plum Gut to begin our westward passage home, the wind slapped around to the west-another dead muzzler! As daylight waned it came on like gangbusters, thick of rain and fog . Gratefully we picked up the well marked entrance to the Connecticut River and slipped between the breakwaters to put our lines ashore a mile or so upstream , where I knew a secret that would restore the crew's shaken faith in the merits of giving up vacation days to this kind of sport.

Above the pier was a large sign reading " Dock & Dine. " We splashed in across the pier, shed our foul-weather gear and tucked into a tremendous dinner beginning with clams and progressing on to a lavish bouillabaisse . Having been beaten about the ears and ·shook up by the sea, we now savored its fruits in snugly cheerful, well lit , dry surroundings . Ensconced at our table, I watched the bobbing mast of our chartered sloop weave through flying sheets of rain, while conversation picked up , after the crew 's first onslaught on the steaming dishes. Sea stories were to ld , there was a little laughter, even a bold mention by the youngest member of the crew about next year's trip.

The fo llowing day we were up betimes and steamed out to meet clearing skies and a giddily warm , reaching southerly all the way back up the Sound to our home port. I don ' t know if Dock & Dine at Saybrook , Connecticut, always provides this kind of weather for departing guests, but they are guaranteed to dry out sodden spirits and put fire back into the bellies of beat-up crews. The restaurant is owned by a sailing couple , former volunteers at South Street Seaport Museum . They kriow what sai lors like .

Earlier in the summer , I encountered another very worthwhile (and somewhat cheaper) restaurant in that part of the world . This was when the bark Elissa made her fab led trip down the Sound and up the Mystic River to Mystic Seaport Museum under the National Society 's sponsorship--and Revell Carr, Mystic's director, made hi s speech of welcome SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

threatening to weld shut the drawbridge below the Seaport, so the handsome Elissa would have to stay . When the speeches were over, an old crony of crui sing days, Clark Thompson, appeared out of the crowd and took me in tow for supper at a favorite restaurant of hi s, downriver in the town of Mystic .

Giaco's Ship 's Lantern Restaurant it's called , and it's just across the bridge that Revell wanted to weld shut , a little way inland at 21 West Main Street. What a place! Not just ship 's lanterns, but binnacles, engine room telegraphs , steering wheels , lobster pot buoys, paintings , ship models and glass tanks fu ll of fish flicking their tail s lazily about crowd the place , with a boating population of varied styles and ages taking up the remaining room , and with saucy waitresses flitting about through the interstices of people , tables and artifacts . Heaven!

And that reminds me of R . H . Tugs , a little more sedate perhaps (but not too much}--a fine waterfront pub on the Staten Island shore of the Kill van Kull in New York Harbor. The Kill is an industrial waterway between the Island and the oil-and-coal port of Bayon ne , whence the Cape Horner Wavertree sailed 92 years ago for Calcutta.

Nancy Pouch , whose late husband Tim * had put up the Wavertree at Pouch Terminals in those now-distant days when we brought the ship back to New

York , in Jul y 1970 , took the National Society's Harbor Curator Mel Hardin and me to lunch at R. H. Tugs last fa ll , saying " I think you' ll like this place. " Nancy , a Trustee of the Society, is given to understatement . We loved R.H. Tugs.

We had gangs of drinks and las hings of spaghetti and looked down the waterway just outside the window, remembering the memorial procession we had organized for the artist John Noble . That was a true harbor occasion with working craft taking time from their jobs to steam slowly down the Kill , appearing out of the mist in line ahead so yo u didn't know who they were until they were there .

As we talked of these things , we heard a dull rumble that shook the windows, and a great rust-blotched , salt-rimed wall of steel passed by a biscuit-throw away.

A big ocean carrier from Port Elizabeth , aro und the corner in Newark Bay--0utward bound. Life goes on!

* * * * *

And let us rejoice that there are on the face of the earth, and around its waterways, good inns and pubs in which to celebrate life's passage. If you would like to hear more about these places and what happens in them , we' ll continue this column in the next SEA HISTORY PETER STANFORD *For a brief sketch of the life and career of A.T. Pouch, Jr. , see S EA HISTORY 39 , p. 6.

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SEA HI STORY , SUMMER 1987

A proud USS Constituti on f lies the ensign of the young republic at the peak and Commodore Preble' s broad pennant at the main truck on the eve of her departure f or the Mediterranean in the summer of I 803. A gun fi res in salute as the colors are dipped- as if to usher in the period of achievement that lies immediately ahead of the six-year-old untried fr igate . Michele Felice Corne painted in Barbary corsairs in this spirited gouache portrait, which was actually painted in Boston.

USS Constitution: Reaching Out Over the Horizon

by Peter Stanford

She was much the product of her age-but that did not make her an ordinary ship . Hers was an age in which Americans attempted extraordinary things , and to a remarkable degree succeeded at them . It was no run-of-the-mill undertaking, after all , for a bunch of disparate , independent-minded former colonies straggling along some 1400 miles of the North American shore of the Atlantic Ocean, to come together freely and unite under a written constitution which bound them together as a nation. And it was out of that impulse to nationhood , " to provide for the common defence, '' that the fr igate Constitution was born .

Launched in 1797 , ten years after the adoption of the articles of Constitution, she led the US Mediterranean squadron that ended the raiding of American shipping by the Barbary pirates .

Later, in the War of 18 12 , she fo ught a series of actions against ships of Great Britain ' s Royal Navy , actions which immediately became the stuff of naval legend and of American naval traditions very much ali ve today .

Of these victories the most stunning without doubt was that over the British fri gate G uerriere . It was the first time in living memory that an Engli sh ship of war had been beaten by a ship of her own cl ass . The American reaction to thi s was one of wild enthusias m, whose echoes can still be caught in old prints, woodcuts and broadsides one runs across in back-country antique shops.

The British reaction was in some ways equally wild . The press called the Constitution " a dangerous nondescript. " The Admiralty called her " a di sgui sed ship-of-th e-line"- that is to say, not the fas t fri gate she appeared to be, designed for scouting and taking merchant ships, but a battleship able to deal out and take the heaviest blows- in the technical definition, " fit to lie in the line of battle."

SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1987

And the order was given: henceforth British fri gates would travel in pairs, like policemen in a dangerous precinct.

¡What Was Her Secret?

Constitution was fortunate in her captains, and had highl y trained and motivated crews. From the beginning of the new US Navy in the 1790s as it took shape to operate the new frigates, President John Adams insisted that none but first class seamen be enlisted . The frigates were generously manned , usually with 400 men or more in crew in wartime-a third to half aga in as many as any English frigate carried . The British, faced with the obligations of a thousand-ship navy heav ily engaged against the French-dominated continent of Europe , Constitution at close quarters with G uerriere the kind of battle at which she excelled . From

an engraving of the painting by M.F. Corne .

11

After extensive rebuilding in the late 1920s, Constitution toured the coasts of the United States. Here at New York's West 79th Street Pier on 6 September, 193 1, she Lies just across the slip from the Gulf Coast 5-masted barkentine C ity of Beaumont, renamed Buccaneer

could not hope to match thi s. The ir population of some 13 million was stretched to meet the demands of a world war, whereas the United States could draw on an untroubled population base of 7 million. Thi s advantage was inte lligentl y ex ploited to sign on big crews aboard the ships, made up of seamen of high quality.

Equall y important , her des ign and construction upset the order of things. The great fri gate was a handsome ship , as many people testified and early pai ntings show , but she d idn' t look much different from any ordinary fr igate (except in scale), and she and her sistershi ps United States and President could be and sometimes were mistake n fo r Royal Navy ships. But the differences were there , and cumulatively they were aweso me .

First, there was her sheer size-a thing not immediately apparent , perhaps, when you saw her against open sea and sky.

But she was , for a fri gate, " huge ." T he word is that of the great naval architectural historian Howard I. Chapelle . Rated at 44 guns (she carried more than 50 in practice) she was a heavy fri gate, meant not onl y to scout and subdue merchantmen but to catch and fi ght other frigates. The British , after some foo ling around with 50-gun two-decked intermediate ships (intermediate between crui ser or frigate and battleship) had begun to build big single-deck fri gates of Constitution' s ty pe by the time the American ship was launched . But the bi g new 44s laid down fo r the Royal Navy in 1797 were full y 20 feet shorter than Constitution' s 175-foot waterline length , and they were two to three fee t narrower in the beam . S ize gave the ship the ability to carry a heavy burden in guns and protection against hostile gunfire , in a fas t and seaworthy hull .

The guns she carried were of battleship weight. On her main deck (or gundeck) she had thirty long guns throw ing 24-pound shot at high velocity. No fr igate in the Royal Navy carried any long guns bi gger than 18-pounders. On her quarterdeck and fo recastle Constitution carried twenty to twenty-two 32pound carronades- short guns th row ing a heavy payload wi th smashing effect at short ranges. A couple of 24-pound chase guns on the fo recastle head rounded out the ship ' s formida ble complement of shi p-killing weaponry.

12

The carronades were an innovation . The 32-pound carronade was onl y 4 feet long, and we ighed just over a ton . A propellant charge of 2. 5lb gave its heavy shot an effective range of 400 yards, or just under a quarter mile . The long 24s measured 9 feet and we ighed nearly three tons. The ir 6lb charge threw the ir shot to an effective range of 1200 yards, well over half a mile.

But range was not the battle-deciding thing about the big 24-pounder. Their deadl y asset was the velocity of their shot at close range . These three-ton iron monsters simply blew the light-built English fri gates away . Their shot penetrated the hull , splintering everything in its path and scything down rows of un fo rtunate seamen. (Stephen Decatur, in Constitution' s sistership , United States, recorded his horror at the devastation hi s broadsides had wrought on the decks of the Macedonian when he went aboard her after her surrender. And that action was decided at fairly long range.)

The Briti sh 18-pounders, meantime, could not do any decisive damage to Constitution's hull. Her men were not wrong to call her " Old Ironsides" after seeing shot from Guerriere bounce off her. Her closely spaced frames formed an almost solid hedge behind stout oak planking, backed up with heavy ceiling on the inside, to make up , at its maximum in the wales at the waterline, an oaken cuirass nearl y two feet thick .

The fac t is that Constitution , the tall , graceful fri gate , had been built in line-of-battle ship construction. Since she al so carried a sizable battery of battleship-weight guns , this meant that she had the potenti al to blast any normal frigate she came across to bits, with near impunity . Add to this deadly potential the verve of her captains and the high level of accuracy drilled into her gun crews- which consistently functioned at levels fa r superior to any but a few exceptional British frigates-and her total superiority to the ships she fou ght comes into focus .

Ultimately, the creation of a fleet of super frigates owes itself to President George Washington's old comrade-in-arms, General Henry Knox, whom he named Secretary of War under the new Constitution . In the spirit of safeguarding American shipping , General Knox submitted a bill to Congress authori zing the construction of. six fri gates, four heavies of 44 guns, and two 36s. Knox had been advi sed in thi s by John Wharton and Wharton 's cou sin Joshua Humphreys, a forty-three-yearold Phil ade lphia shipbuilder who had a vi sion of a super-frigate which would put battleship strength afloat in big cruiser hulls .

The idea was not unheard of. There was the precedent of the razees in the French and Eng li sh navies. These were wornout ships-of-th e-line whi ch could no longer support the weight of, say, a third-rate battleship 's two decks bearing a battery of 74 guns. The ship simpl y had her upper deck cut off, becoming a razee (shaven) fri gate of perhaps 40 guns while retaining her heavy battleship scantlings and lower gundeck armament . Such ships were generally dull sailers (though li velier than they had been); but they could deal out and stand up to a ma rt of puni shment. They were unlikely to catch enemy fr igates , but they were we ll-suited to defend a convoy against fri gates or other raiders who could not match their weight.

Humphreys ' ideas seem to have been clear from the beginning: a big ship , 150ft on the keel (or 175ft on the waterline) ; thirty 24-pounders on the gundeck , and a score or so of 12pounders on poop and quarterdeck, which were connected by gangways bearing no armament , so that you had a flu sh-decked ship bearing her main battery on one continuous gundeck . These were the specs of the 44s authori zed by Congress in 1794.

But thi s was n' t all . The ships would be built of the best materials. That meant tough live oak (Quercus virginiana) , an evergreen very res istant to rot and very tough to penetrate .

SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

and fl ourishing as a speakeasy in this era. Constitution returned to her berth in Boston after her triumphal tour, and the Beaumont moved up the Hudson to Hastings, where her bleached bulk can be seen today .

Photo, H. Cotterell, Jr. , courtesy South Street Seaport Museum.

Humphreys kn ew hi s ships would be expensive , and it made sense to cover the investment . He maintained that one of these ships would serve the nation ' s needs better than two ordinary fri gates, so he was prepared to spend up to that level. Not everyone bought this concept , and in fact Josiah Fox, a highly educated draftsman he invited to review hi s work and who was ultimately hired to do the fini shed designs, never reall y bought it at alluntil after the big ships won their sensational victories. It was, in fact , a minor miracle that the United States and the Constitution (the only two of the original four 44s trul y completed to Humphreys ' design) survi ved the antinavy lobby in Congress at all. Clause 9 of the act of 1794 had specified that the building program would halt if peace with Algiers was achieved . Although peace was reached in the spring of 1795, a bill was passed authori zing the completion of three fri gates-two as 44s and one as a 36. Work continued on the United S tates in Philadelphia which was dul y launched on IO May 1797 , and on the Constitution in Boston where , after several aborti ve attempts, she slid down the ways on 2 1 October.

The Quas i War in France in 1798 led to a renewed enthusias m for building, and two years later the President was launched at New York . Although she shared their heavy guns, she onl y looked like her two sisters. Her hull had been changed to make her sail faster and she was probabl y built of fir rather than the much heavier oak . She was indeed faster and she became the most popular of the class . The power of her much stro nger sisters was, after all , invisible until the shot began to fl y . It had not been apparent even to the veteran Royal Navy officers who vi sited aboard the Constitution during her stay in England a fe w months before she and the United States began shooting the Briti sh heavy fri gates to pieces in 18 12 .

Many- perhaps most-US Navy officers didn ' t reall y get the concept behind the Constitution either. Nor did they comprehend how gravel y that concept was compromised by making one of her sisterships light and fas t but of limited staying power. The other two ships of the six originally called for by Congress , the C hesap eake and Congress , were commi ssioned as 36s in 1800 . The Chesap eake, built under the direct supervi sion of Josi ah Fox, fared particul arl y badl y, being reduced in size and built light. Follow ing the Engli sh fas hion, her main battery consisted of twenty-eight 18-pounders instead of thirty 24-pounders-a reducti on of some 30 percent in broadside we ight which was aggravated by a still more serious loss in penetrating power.

Her Impact on the War In the years of increas ing tension between England and the United States which led up to the War in 181 2, the government recogni zed the need for a naval force of some kind . But President Thomas Jefferson and hi s successor, James Madi son, had not reall y wanted fri gates , or anything bigger than gunboats. In fact , timber that had been set as ide for big ships was di verted to build swarms of these smaller craft which typically carried two 24-pounder guns. They were not very seaworthy and one shot could sink them . When America rushed into the War of 18 12, these craft did nothing to prevent the English fleet from working its will on the American coast and shipping.

The War of 181 2 was launched , over the strenuous objecti ons of the maritime states, as a land war to take Canada- ' ' a mere matter of marching, '' as Je fferson put it. But the marching quickl y went the other way as American outposts fell ; and despite the victories of the Constitution and the United States , the Briti sh remained masters at sea . However, fresh fro m the Constitution ' s shattering victory over the Guerriere , Isaac Hull and two fell ow captains protested the " parade" of Briti sh ships-of-the-line off their coasts and urged the building of a SEA HISTORY , SUMM ER 1987

mi xed fl eet of ships-of-the-line and big fri gates. The former would at least have the effect of forcing the British to concentrate the ir shi ps in battle squadrons and loosen their grip so the big frigates could slip away to sea and wreak their havoc .

Earl y in 18 13, Congress responded with an act authori zing six 44-gun fr igates and-mirabile dictu !-four 74-gun ships-ofthe-line , two-decked third rates nimble enough to get away from any three-decked second rates of I00 gun s. To help pay fo r thi s program , many of the gunboats were sold off.

But the new fri gates ne ver got to sea. They were bottled up by the Briti sh blockade , which remained the dominant fact of the who le war. The ships-of-the- line were completed too late fo r service in the war.

The land war was eventually resolved by decisive American naval victories under Perry on Lake Erie and McDonough on Lake Champl ain , and by Andrew Jackson' s repulse of the Briti sh attack on New Orleans after the peace had actuall y been signed .

On the Atl antic, the Royal Navy upheld a Pax Britannica lasting fro m 18 15 to 191 4, effectively underwriting the Monroe Doctrine pro mulgated in 1824 , which barred a heavil y armed , reactionary Europe from interventio n against the North and South American republics which had gained independence from the ir mother countries in thi s peri od.

* * * * *

Constitution' s victories contributed more than meets the eye to this ultimately sati sfactory state of affairs. The wild public enthusias m they generated he lped ho ld the New England states in the Union, although a secess ion convention was actually he ld at Hartford . And the victories he lped the United States break away from the coloni al re lationship with England in both American and British eyes. The Constitution also offered an encouraging example as the nation bro ught into be ing¡ a first cl ass , blue-water navy in time to fi ght the World Wars of our century .

Constitution' s message to hi story he lped change Briti sh minds dramaticall y about what they had to deal with in America . More important , she helped form the American attitudes about what kind of people, newly brought together under their unique form of government , they would be . " It is most difficult to conjecture all the thoughts that come to mind when a sailor looks at the grand o ld ship C onstitution' ' wrote Admi ra l Arleigh Burke in SEA HI STORY fi ve years ago, " she carries a message reaching out over the horizo n!"

One must hope that this message will be relearned and re info rced in every generation . Kn owing her story, one can' t rea ll y see the o ld frigate without saying: Go for it , Constitution !

Break away-and keep sailing fo rever!

The USS

CONSTITUTION: by

A Study in Command

J. William Middendorf, II

It is certainl y fac t that the 44-gun fr igate Constitution was a stout ship whose miss ions and victories d id much to establi sh the traditions and excellence on which our Navy has always prided itself. But what makes her stand out in our memory and di stin gui shes her, even fro m her sistershi ps the President and the United States, is the quality of her captains.

And what captains they were ! Their names evoke battles won and enemies put to fl ight. T hey are among the fi nest in the annals of the U nited States Navy. Besides the nation to which they were bound in loyalty and service, these men shared an affinity fo r the sea that was learned in childhood and they had gained the consummate skill s required to properl y handle and fi ght a ship under sa il.

In spirit if not in fact, the father of the post-Revolutionary War Ameri can Navy (we had no navy between 1783 and 1798) was Edwa rd Preble, a vetera n of the Revo lution and , during the Quas i War with France, master of the fi rst American naval ship to show the fl ag in the Indian Ocean. During the Barbary Wars, Preble commanded our Med iterranean squadron from 1803 to 1804. By custom as much as anything else, the deys of Morocco , Alg iers, T uni s and Tripo li -led by the latterconsidered themselves entitled to exact tribute fro m nations whose merchantmen sail ed in or near the ir waters. The European powers fo und it strategicall y preferab le to pay the tribute rather than to maintain the naval presence necessary to protect their shipping. No longer British subjects, the Americans were ex pected to pay the ir ow n way.

The United States had sent out its first Med iterranean squadron in June 1801 , shortl y after Tripo li 's fo rmal declaration of war. The otherwise ineffectual blockade of Tripoli deterred the corsairs from the capture of Ameri can shipping but achieved little more. Arriving on station in 1803 , Preb le at once set

about negoti atin g with the Briti sh and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies fo r the use of their Mediterranean ports as fo rward bases, and fo r the loan of gunboats. Prebl e also brought a sense of order and di sc ipline that was immediately evident and which was to have a profound effect on the yo un g Navy.

Although removed and not eas il y impressed , he was indomitable and hi s seamanship evoked the pra ise of Lord Ne lson, who re marked: "There is in the handling of those transatlantic ships a nucleus of trouble fo r the navy o f G reat Britain ."

Age may have contri buted to Preble's aloof air. When he fi rst convened hi s j uni or o ffi cers he is said to have exclaimed , ''They have sent me nothin g but boys.'' lt was true; for though himself onl y fo rty, the oldest of Preble's Boys (as they are still kn own ), Isaac Hull , was onl y twenty-eight . William Bainbridge and Charles Stewart , who wo uld also go on to win fa me in the Constitution , were even yo unger.

Prebl e's Boys di stingui shed themselves from the outset, with the exception of Bainbridge who had the severe misfortune to run the 38-gun Philadelphia aground in the shoal waters of Tripo li harbor. Fearing that the fri gate might be refl oated and bro ught into the service of the otherwi se aging Tripo litan fl eet, Preble all owed Stephen Decatur (yet another of hi s yo ung lieutenants) to lead an ex pediti on to burn the vessel. The success of the miss ion- the Philadelphia destroyed , several Tripolitans killed or wounded , and not a man lost from Decatur's crew-was reso unding. News of the brilliant feat spread quickl y and the Americans again e licited the highest praise fro m Nelson who proc laimed it " the most bold and daring act of the age ."

The Philadelphia incident also marked a turning po int in the conflict. Because it was still winter and Preble 's squadron was underm anned, it was not until the summer that he could

Rembrant Peale's portrait of Edward Preble in 1805 shows him holding a chart of his attacks on Tripoli Harbor.

Below is Gilben Stuart's memorable portrait of Isaac Hull . Each anist has captured on canvas, the traits fo r which these commanders were known: the dourness of Preble and Hull's cheerful brilliance.

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The only known photograph of th e Constituti on under sail on active duty, taken in 1880 by a Private Hendrickeson, Ballery A, 3rd Regiment , New York Artillery. The Constitution was en route from Philadelphia to Newport. (Courtesy Naval Historical Society.)

At right , the Constitution 's towering rig and powerful lines are readily seen in this portrait of the ship at the Boston Navy Yard in 193 1. (Courtesy Naval Historical Society.)

undertake an active blockade of Tripoli ; but from July to September a number of attacks were carried out from the sea.

When reinforcements arri ved in that month , Preble , who was one of the most junior commodores in the American Navy , had to hand over command of the squadron and , though it was not the Navy's intent, he returned home.

Whatever Preble thought of his replacement-" This supercedure lacerates my heart," he confided- there can be no doubt as to the admiration his crew had for Preble. In a modest ceremony aboard the Constitution , Decatur (by now a captain) presented Preble with a written testimonial from hi s subordinate officers: We, the undersigned officers of the squadron late under your command , cannot, in justice, suffer you to depart without g iving you some small testimon y of the very high estimation in which we hold yo u as an officer and commander.

Although the Tripolitan war wore on through the next summer before coming to a close (and then with a minimum of glory for the Navy) , it was Preble and his men who had , as Pope Pius VII wrote to President Jefferson, " in forty days . . . done more for the cause of Christianity than the most powerful nations in ages. " But the Barbary Pirates were, in the scheme of things, small beer.

* * * * *

During the Barbary War , the number of commissioned officers serving under Preble comprised no more than one-seventh the total number of officers in the United States Navy. In the War of 1812 , Preble's Boys accounted for one-third of the officers who held commands. It is also worth noting that with the exception of Oliver Hazard Perry's actions on Lake Erie , every naval battle won by the Americans was fo ught by one of Preble's Boys.

With a fl eet of more than a thousand ships, hundreds of SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

which were of equal or heav ier rating than the largest American ships, Great Britain was uncontested ruler of the seas. But not all these ships were mustered against their former colonists, and the Americans struck out in vali ant , and often successful , defiance of Briti sh sea power. The first of the great naval engagements of the War of 18 12 was the Constitution's celebrated duel with Guerriere on 19 August 18 12. The course of the battle, in which Captai n Isaac Hull 's men reduced the Guerriere to a floating hulk in half an hour, has been examined countless times. Although in numbers of men and guns Constitution had a telling advantage over the enemy , under Hull , this adva ntage became crushing. The vessels were both classed as frigates , the Constitution be ing rated at 44 guns, the Guerriere at 38. But, as John Spears explains in his History of Our Navy, although the' ' comparative force of the ships . . . was as I 00 to 70 , the comparative casualties were as 18 to I 00 .

To this may be added that the relative injury to the ships was 100 to nothing." So complete was the devastation, in fact , that in surrendering, Captai n James Dacres could not order the flag struck-they had all gone over the side with Guerriere's masts.

Hull ' s leadership had been sharply tested only weeks before the battle with Guerriere. At the outbreak of the war , he had the Constitution at Annapolis . Sailing for New York to join the squadron of Commodore John Rodgers, he wrote of his crew, " In a few days , ... unacq ua inted as we now are , we should , I hope , give a good account of any frigate the enemy have . " The first encounter was dramatic enough , though it would be better called a disengagement rather than an engagement. In light airs off the Jersey shore, a day's sail from New York, Constitution's lookout sighted sails. Thinking it Rodgers' squadron, Hull made fo r the vessels. The following morning dawned on the Constitution and a Briti sh fleet consisting 15

Hull's decision . .. established the ability and determination of the young republic to . .. stand up to ... a global power. And we have never looked back from that tradition. of four frigates, a ship of the line , a brig and a schooner. It was only by towing the Constitution with the ship's boats , and then warping her ahead with her anchors , that she managed to keep out of shot of the enemy. When the wind finally came up , Hull's seamanship and a brilliant feint finally allowed the Constitution to elude her pursuers after a chase of more than sixty hours. Hull gave credit for the successful flight to the determination of his officers and crew. But Admiral Sir Philip Broke reported to the Admiralty that the Constitution " escaped by very superior sailing , though the frigates under my command were remarkably fast ships. " Hull then made for Boston where he provisioned his ship .

But fearing that he might be blockaded by the British , he sailed before receiving his orders . It is too much to say that the outcome of the war hung in the balance of this decision; but things certainly would have gone differently had he lingered.

When the orders did get to Boston , they were for Hull not to sail, and the ship might well have waited out the war there .

This was the fate of the Constellation which spent the duration of the conflict bottled up in the Chesapeake . But what was crucially significant about Hull's decision and his success is that they established the ability and determination of the young republic to successfully stand up to the threat posed by a global power. And we have never looked back from that tradition .

After two weeks crui sing around the Banks and the Gulf of St. Lawrence , the Constitution ran in with the Guerierre, under' Captain James Dacres. Dacres ' appreciation of the situation was what one might fairly expect from an officer of the Royal Navy. After all , they had mastered the seas for some time.

And Dacres himself came from a family of Navy men . His father was an admiral , and he confidently expected that a victory over a Yankee ship would catapult him into that stratum , too. Dacres ' crew were so overconfident that prior to the battle they are said to have prepared a batch of switchel to serve their prisoners when they came aboard .

Hull, whatever his decision to flee Boston might suggest , was not a rash man ; but he was a bold one, and he bore down on the Guerierre with studied calm , three times refusing to order his gunners to commence firing. " No firing at random ," he admonished them. " Let every man look well to his aim. " The Guerierre loosed two broadsides to little effect as Constitution yawed to avoid their full force. Dacres then ran down before the wind to wait for the Constitution to come within range, and then fired again , aiming to cripple the rigging .

Only when within pistol shot did Hull give the command to fire. The effect was immediate , and within a quarter hour someone shouted , " Huzza , my boys , we ' ve made a brig of her! " " Give her another one , " replied another man , " and make her a sloop."

To this Hull , who was so caught up in the action that he had split his breeches, is said to have ordered , " No , no! Her spars are going fast enough. Aim for the yellow streak , that's where her guns are. Hull her boys! " And hull her they did, although a few stray shots managed to bring down the main and foremast . At the end of the battle, the Guerierre was so riddled with shot that she could not be taken in tow , and on the following morning Hull ordered her blown up .

After their return to a hero's welcome in Boston , command of the Constitution passed to Commodore William Bainbridge.

Bainbridge labored under the twofold ignominy of having been the first American officer to surrender an American ship to the enemy- the Retaliation to the French in the Quasi Warand of having lost the Philadelphia at Tripoli. Whether these mischances contributed to an already difficult personality ,

16

Bainbridge was known as a harsh disciplinarian and there was little love lost between him and his crew .

Although Bainbridge never gained the affection of his men , he at least earned their respect after the Constitution's action with the Java off the coast of Brazil. As was true against Guerierre , despite a real superiority in armament , it was the effect of Constitution's superior gunnery that brought about a swift conclusion to the battle . In fifty-five minutes, Java had lost her bowsprit and jibboom, foremast , maintopmast and mizzenmast , and her hull was riddled beyond repair. Again , the damage to the Constitution did not diminish her fighting ability (although her helm was smashed) ; her casualties were less than one-quarter those suffered aboard the Java . Lieutenant Henry Chads of the Java later said that the Constitution had been so well fought , " it made me regret she was not British."

Both captains were among the injured: Henry Lambert, who died of his wounds, and Bainbridge who was wounded twice and , as a result, relieved of his command when Constitution returned to Boston late in February.

Constitution spent the remainder of 1813 undergoing a major refit. In December, she began a four-month cruise to the Windward Islands under the command of Charles Stewart. At the conclusion of this she just barely avoided capture by two frigates off the coast of Massachusetts . Arriving back at Boston in April , she was blockaded there for another nine months.

She slipped the blockade in December and sailed off for what would be her last wartime action.

This was an extraordinary fight against two ships, the sloop of war Levant (20 guns) and the frigate Cyane (34 guns).

Encountering the two vessels towards dusk, Stewart forced the engagement before the light failed . He maneuvered his ship between the Cyane and Levant and managed to fight both separately while avoiding being raked by either. After forty minutes, Cyane struck her colors and was followed shortly by the Levant. For once, Constitution had not destroyed her opponents and prize crews could be put aboard both ships, and the three made for Cape Verde . There they were sighted by a British squadron and they split up to avoid capture . Although the Levant was eventually recaptured, both Cyane and Constitution made it safely back to America, where the former was added to the Navy list. The War of 1812 was well over by the time of their return, and in fact this last engagement had taken place after the United States had ratified the Treaty of Ghent.

* * * * *

The War of 1812, in which the Constitution and her men played such a pivotal role, ratified the independence won at Yorktown and permanently confirmed the articles of Constitution whose bicentennial we celebrate this year. The Constitution's captains are linked by having served in her with great distinction at a time when our grasp of independence was anything but firm. We are fortunate as a nation to have not only the memories of their gallantry, but to have preserved their ship , as a newspaper of the day suggested, "in honorable pomp, as a Glorious Monument of her own , and our other Naval Victories. " w

Ambassador Middendorf, a descendant of William Stone, who commanded the original Hornet during the Revolution, served as Secretary of the Navy from J974 to J976. Formerly Ambassador to the Netherlands and to the Organization of American States, and a sometime painter and composer, he currently heads an international investment firm in Washington , DC. SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

The USS Constitution Museum

by Richard C . Wheeler, Director

Prior to my interview for the position of director at the USS Constitution Museum fi ve years ago, there was a recurring question that made me wo nder whether I'd want the position were it offered to me. How much could anyone do with a one-ship museum? The selection committee convinced me that the museum's greatest resource was its trustees , that small enlightened group of people who had fo unded the museum in 1972.

In answer to my questions about the museum 's mission, members of the selection committee said that they were dedicated to a " narrow" focus on the ship .

That word seemed to corroborate my initi al fear that a museum devoted to just one vessel might not hold a continuing challenge. The implication o f a narrow focus was that the museum would be restricti ve in its collection polic ies and in its interpretation of the nearly two-hundredyear-old fri gate. Narrow foc us conj ures up visions of people wearing blinders .

So we came to agree that it would be better to describe the museum 's hu mani stic goals as intense . An intense foc us implies the magnification of detail under strong light; it means seeing things that aren' t visible to the naked eye. Fro m thi s shift in the institutional perspecti ve, the museum has headed off on a new tac k.

The USS Constitution is the greatest survi ving technological achievement from eighteenth century America. T hin k, for example, of the artisanry represented in her construction, and of the numero us wood-working specialties that had reached the ir zenith when her kee l was laid in 1794. Consider, too, the other highl y developed skill s in metal working, rope working, sail making and leather work.

Virtually every craft known at that time was empl oyed in one way or another in the construction and sailing of the Constitution. As a result of the meticulous care that has go ne into the preservation and renewing of the Constitution over the decades, there ex ists no better visual aid for teaching the industries of our earl y Republic than thi s survivor from our earliest naval fo rce . Recogni z ing this , the museum is committed to undertaking projects, di splays and exhibitions that ori gin ate in the hi stori c fiber of the Constitution and which involve working artisans and progra ms in living hi story.

The Constitution is also the best sing le arti fac t to employ as a teaching aid fo r the stud y of the Federal Peri od . George Washington named the ship for the document that Constitution sailed to defend, and each of our earl y pres idents became involved in some way with " that most fo rtunate ship ." So well did she d isSEA HISTORY , SUMM ER 1987

Above, a visitor touches the massive timbers of the full size hull section.

This display conveys the structure and solidity of the vessel in a way no diagram can . Below, a young visitor tries out a seaman's hammock .

charge her du ty that her name has assumed a separate li fe and mean ing in our hi story and cul ture. As a decorative arts icon of the Federal Period , O ld Irons ides ra nks just behind George Washington and the Ameri can eagle as a symbol of the yo ung nation .

Viewed in this light, the shi p's story is fa r from res tricti ve. In fact , the museum probab ly can never express all that the USS Constitution means to those who are moved by the vessel. The challenge of the attempt will absorb us far into the future. What fo llows are descriptions of some of the d isplays and exhibi-

tion s currently in the works.

We are now plann ing fo r an exhibit entitled " Images of the USS Constitution" to open in 1988. Thi s will include rare (and some not so rare) prints fro m the Beverley R. Robinson Collection at the US Naval Academy in Annapoli s and from our own ho ldings. We have also begun research for an exhibit of paintings of the Constitution . The litany of arti sts both in this cou ntry and abroad who have painted O ld Ironsides reads like a who's who of marine art. In this country, espec iall y, it is almost as though pai nting the Constitution were a sort of rite of pass17

" Would that fit me ?" Youngste rs study a uniform worn by a f"'!elve-year-old recruit, John T. Jefferson, who signed aboard in 1867.

age . A representati ve exhibit of paintings of the ship by such artists as Miche l Felice Corne, Juli an 0 . Dav idson and Gordon Grant makes a concise rev iew of nearl y two centuries of marine art.

Likewise, the portraits of the great naval officers who served in the vessel make, in themselves, an excellent introduction to the history of Federal portra iture . We want to gather together all the extant portra its fo r a national exhibition in the 1990s , a decade filled with bicentennials of Old Ironsides: her keel-laying ( 1994) , launching (1 997) and commissioning and putting to sea (1 998) .

When the Constitution arri ved back in Boston after her victory over the Guerriere , the citizenry of the town reacted as they might if the Red Sox won the World Series, the Celtics the World Championship , the Patriots the Super Bowl and the Bruins the Stanley Cup-all on the same day! Thi s was acco mpanied by a great lyrical outpouring much of which has faded from memory.

With the help of musicologists and hi stori ans of earl y American popular mu sic, poetry and dance , we are gathering as much of this " lost" work as possible .

Already at museum events we can sing " Hull ' s Victory " (to the tune of " Yankee Doodle") from copies of an 18 12 broadside discovered last year in a New Hampshire attic. It is all wonderful stu ff for recreating the life of the time .

Although there are living history programs which portray the Pilgrim era (at Plimoth Pl antation) , the Coloni al Period (at Williamsburg) and the Industrial Revo lution of the 1830s (at Sturbridge Village), there is no program that concentrates on that most form ati ve and important period in American history , when the Constitution was havi ng its greatest glory and our young republic was taking shape . We are now in the second year of a pilot program in which ten actors and actresses portraying people fro m the earl y nineteenth century interact with 18

visitors to the ship and museum .

Having considered the cultural surround of the Constitution , the milieu in which she was created and the inspiration which the public took from her, we turn now to the Constitution as a ship , how she was built and manned, where her miss ions took her and what she stands fo r today . Fortunate ly fo r maritime museums and their supporters everywhere, there are people who still practice or who have revived the arti sanry of earlier times . We have instituted a traditional crafts program to introduce our visitors to these bygone trades through demonstrations and through interpretive exhibits of the actual tools of the period. These wi ll include a vis itor-acti vated video program of the artisans at work so that the ir craft can be apprec iated even in the absence of the artisans themselves. Concommitant with this we will develop a display showing, for example, the diffe rent properties of the various woods used in nineteenth-century ship construction .

The museum is also fortun ate to have a close assoc iation with the USS Constitution Model Shipwright guild of New England , and we are blessed with a fulltime res ident master modelmaker. We hope to commission a series of models that depict the important stages of Constitution' s construction and to create models of the ship on the di ffere nt config urations she had under her strongminded captains. To the same scale as these, we will also fas hion mode ls of the Constitution's fi ve sisterships, the vessels which she engaged , and of the small but vitall y important shi p' s boats she carried on board .

The latter were perhaps no more essential to the Constitution than in her sixtyfo ur hour fli ght from a British squadron during which her crew pulled the becalmed shi p out of range of the enemy.

This was but one of nearl y twenty incidents in which she barely escaped being wrecked through gro unding or collisions

or capture by superior forces. Those incidents de mand to be drawn or painted and incl uded in the illustrated history of the ship . What about an exhibition entitled "Someone Must Have Been Watching Over Her" ?

Utilizing state-of-the-art computer graphics we also want to engage museum visitors in the enormously complex techno!Ogy of sailing a massive square-rigger such as the Constitution . Thro ugh the use of these modern tools, we will be able to show how the Constitution-w ith an acre of canvas--<:ould sail as fas t as an America's Cup racer, or how , in his battle with the Cyane and Levant, Captain Charles Stewart actually backed the Constitution down .

In her latter days of active duty the Constitution played an important role in the suppression of the slave trade during the 1850s. The first Pope on American territory was Pope Pius IX who was aboard the Constitution in Gaeta, Italy, in 1849 (15 1 years before the fi rst visit of a Pope on American soil). It was also Constitution' s visit to the Sandwich Islands in 1845 that started a chain of events that resulted in the annexation of Hawaii forty-fi ve years later. This port of call was made during the Constitution's world cruise of 1844-46.

We are approaching each of the countries she visited to encourage them to join with us in a series of exhibitions that will celebrate that cruise and offer a " then-andnow " approach to the history of that nation. These are all aspects of Constitution's history that merit fu rther exposition.

Yet another story that needs to be reto ld is the ' 'Thank Yo u Cruise '' of 193 134 , when Constitution went, under tow , from Boothbay Harbor, Maine down the East Coast, throu gh the Panama Canal, and up the Pacific Coast as far as Tacoma, Washington. In Los Angeles the line of people waiting to board her was ten people wide and three miles long! If yo u are sixty years old or older you probably recall this great national event that stretched fro m her restoration in the late ' 20s to her visits at every major port on both coasts. Jf you are below that age you may have heard the story from a parent or grandparent. The extraordinary interest of millions of people on both oceans over a period of three years injected new life and gave increased momentum to Old Ironsides as a national symbo l.

Now , engaged in these projects , the USS Constitution is an arti fact which when viewed with intensity will yield more and more understanding as each generation of directors, curators and educators tackles an interpreti ve task that wi ll never end. w SEA HI STORY , SUMMER 1987

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19

Sail Training News The Sail Training Association of Great Britain has invited the Schooners Foundation to select three American young men between the ages of eighteen and twentyfour to represent the United States on the occasion of the STA's twenty-first anniversary this fall. This event will be marked by celebrations including a tour of "Churchill's London"- as guests of the Prime Minister and Winston Churchill, II-and a voyage in the threemasted topsail schooner Sir Winston Churchill. The Churchill will depart Southampton on 26 October for a twoweek training voyage including port visits at Dieppe, Antwerp and Amsterdam before arriving back at Dover on 6 November. The ST A sails the l 50ft Churchill and her sistership the Malcolm Miller in one of the most successful and rigorous sail training schemes available to the general public anywhere in the world. And it is from the STA's shining example that citizens of the United States , Canada , Australia and New Zealand have banded together to form their own national sail training organizations.

For information about this celebratory voyage , or about any of the STA ' s 36 one- and two-week training voyages offered each year for both men and women, youth and adults-and for which sponsorship is available-contact the Schooners Foundation at 16 East 69th Street, New York , NY 10021; 212 988-1057 .

The Directors of AST A have postponed until next summer the first Ocean State Maritime Week sail training demonstrations in Newport , Rhode Island. The week's events were planned to span the hiatus between two well established Newport fixtures, the Newport Sailing Center's Wooden Boat Show (27-30 August) and the Museum of Yachting ' s Classic Yacht Regatta (5-7 September).

AST A is already working to secure corporate sponsorship and insurance coverage for in-water events for an Ocean State Maritime Week in 1988.

The fifth edition of AST A's authoritative Directory of Sail Training Ships and Programs is now available . The Directory covers about 150 ships and 100 organizations with sail training programs in North America as well as a schedule of international sail training races planned through 1992. The text and photographs have been updated for this year' s edition, and about a third of the entries are new . The Directory is available from the NMHS at $8 per copy, postage paid.

For further information about sail training opportunities this summer, contact AST A at 365 Thames Street, Newport , RI 02840 ; 401 846-1775. w 20

A Salty Play in Three Acts: ''The

by Thomas Wells, AICH

Years ago , when sailing in the big Cape Horn windjammers, a young hand stood a watch at the helm , braced to the weather. All the ship was a stage and he alone would be an audience to an unfolding drama. The wind and the waves were the music , the ship ' s yards, sails and masts, the scenery .

Running before the wind, the curtain rises as the foresail sheets lift. Whether this watch is to be a comedy , tragedy or romance is yet to be seen. The old man is the star, the mates the supporting actors and the crew the cast. For the helmsman alone, they will play for an hour.

Act One. A Gathering Storm The course is east by south. The fourmasted bark Pass at is running her easting down with 4700 tons of Australian wheat in her belly and "anchors hungry for English ground ." Her decks are constantly bathing themselves faster, it seems, than her scuppers and wash ports can pay it off. I'm standing watch at the helm.

Although it is night and overcast, phosphorous from the breaking waves washes the vessel in an ominous pale .

Before me is the silhouette of the huge "bucko" mate, clad in burly black oilskins, his eyes fixed on the protean sea . We are headed for Cape Horn. Unspoken words betray his concern. His sea legs pace a narrow deck space in a restricted pattern like a caged black cat.

Hanging tough to the yard winch for stability , he looks aloft, then stares into the binnacle. The wet face of the mate is now illuminated by the flickering binna-

cle lamps. With a voice above the wind the mate hollers to me, "Korn upp on course, den fon. "' At the helm I am concerned also. How long can I keep her lubber line 2 from drifting a point or two each way? While the helm kicks and yaws in my hands , as the ship scuds before the white horses , I stand taut, two hands on the wheel.

Across my shou lder I wear a big harness strap and it is made fast to a pad eye on the deck. When the wheel kicks , my feet leave the steering platform. The shoulder strap holds me fast.

I am undecided. I don't want to tell the mate I can ' t hold her any longer. To let him know that I need another man to assist me would risk losing acceptance by the men in the focsle on the watch below. I am no sissy. Like the mate, I decide to hang tough. The night air is filled with the undertones of a gathering storm; the rigging drones like a great cathedral organ. The mate pierces the fugue with a shrill whistle, a call to the watch police who are huddled under the focsle head trying to keep dry. The call is twofold: one, to have the watch police clean up the lines that have been washed 1. Den fan , a common Nordic profanity meaning devil.

2. A compass point such as east, to east by south , is 11.2 degrees. Drifting a point or two each way is letting the vessel swing on an arc of twenty-to-thirty degrees or a good dozen degrees to each side of the course line.

The helm on a big windjammer is a six-foot diameter wheel with ten hand spokes and it takes thirty-two full turns (revolutions) to put the rudder hard starboard to hard port.

Aboard the SV Passat " in the West Winds, " 1939. Note the heavy shoulder strap ofthe harness. Photos courtesy the author.

SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1987

Watch On the Wheel'' off the pin rails by the on-coming seas , and two , to awaken the old man from his snoozing on the old black horsehair settee in the chart house.

The captain and the mate appear. The mate directs the police to clear up washed out lines by pointing with the fi nger, then makes his way to the old man. Like a manager coming out to the pitcher's mound , both men stand in silence . They hedge, the mate looking to the captain to make the first move. They cast eyes aloft.

They track the sea and they exchange words that I strain to hear while trying to keep the ship' s head up. Concentrating on them I lose my attention. The binnacle fl ickers and the lubber line once again drifts.

The old man makes his decision and orders , " At the change of the watch we wi ll take in the lower topgallants and put two men on the helm." I strike eight bel ls and the lookout on the focs le head answers fai nti y. 3 So goes the watch on the wheel at 5 1 degrees south , 147 degrees west. The mate goes aft to read the taffrail log , 58 mi les , 12 knots on the 8 to 12 watch .

Act Two. Windjammer Navigation I am standing my watch at the wheel on the liverpool island forward of the chart house.

We are now in the trades.

The old man appears on the scene , sextant in hand. He is goi ng to get an afternoon sight to cross with his twelve o' clock high latitude line . It' s a beautifu l day ; whi te clouds in the sky like pillow cases, cream puffs , marshmallows on parade. The captain is in a collarless white shirt , panama hat, suspenders , baggy pants and sli ppers. He is about to pull the sun down with hi s sex t~nt and swi ng it on the hori zon . Eyeballmg the situation , the o ld man adjusts the sunshades on his vernier sextant and takes ai m. Suddenl y " old sol" disappears behind a cloud. " Satan!" Now he lifts the shades. Half way down again " old sol" pops out from a cream puff a ~ d burns the old man' s eyes out. Agam more cho ice words to which onl y the helm is privy . I do not know whether he got his sight or not. T he old man JUSt. went steaming off into the chart house m disgust. I never rea ll y appreciated what actuall y was going on until I myself became a navigator in the navy some years later.

Down below in the o ld man' s quarters are three chronometers which the captain winds and compares each day . Meticulous, al most re ligious, attendance to these instru ments is mandatory for we have 3. There is a bell on the wheelbox-time is made there and repeated by the bell on the focs le head. See , The Ship's Bell by Karl Wede fo r a picture o f Passat's wheel box bell .

SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

" f t' s a beautiful day; white clouds in the sky .. ."

The author aboard Passat in 1939.

neither radio nor any other acc urate means of gaug ing time on our voyage half way aro und the world.

Jn the navy I was taught the C M inus W system for celestial navigation . Us ing this method the navigator clicks a stopwatch after establishing a sight on the hori zo n. Then, when reading the chronometer he subtracts the watch time spent to get the true chronometer time .

Cape Hom windjammer skippers were a little more clever. On Passat, Captam Lindvall used to blow a whistle when he met his horizon. Below , the mate of the watch would take the reading from the face of the chronometer thus elim inating the need for C Minus W .

Now, it is said that in one windjammer where the old man took his wife to sea , he dev ised another approach . This captain had the old lady positioned over the chronometer down below in his quarters ready for the moment he got his angle down.

When the time came , he stomped on the deck ho llering , " Now , Mama! " It is said that the vessel was Falls of Clyde.

Another Erikson skipper got his sun line and then walked back to the chart house which held the chronometers . He counted off in Swedi sh, en, tva , tre , fyra , fem , sex , sju, ... until face to face with the chronometer, then subtracted the number of steps he took.

Act Three: An Artie Sight The curtain rises as her gaffs lift and pull.

The year is 1936. I am at the helm in the schooner Effie M . Morrissey somewhere off the east coast of Greenland . As a young sailor standing watch at the wheel, I must bear witness, like it or not, to the captain ' s every action .

It had been a tro ubled day, rain squalls fo llowed by clearing, shifting winds.

Just about everything on the Beaufort scale hit us. The old man, Captain Bob Bartlett, has not had a good sight all day .

Now more rain squalls are approaching.

T ime is running short.

Captain Bob, cl ad in oilskins and wearing a big sou 'wester is about to ascend the after companionway on the little Morrissey, sextant in hand . He is determined to get that afternoon line.

In schooner style you have the wheel fac ing the after companionway hatch .

When not staring into the binnacle yo u are looking ri ght down the old man' s throat as he asce nds the 70 degree ladder no more than six feet away. The captai n is preoccupied. He doesn' t notice that the overhead hatch is not " slud " to the open position. The blinding brim fr~ m hi s sou'wester is not abo ut to tell hi m that. On he comes gall oping up the ladder, hoping to catch that sun before the

next ra in squall. Admittedl y the old man's speed is hampered by the pitching and yawing of the vessel, vision impaired , onl y one hand free , the other clasped to the sextant.

Head to the hatchcover, bang! Down he goes, hitting the cabin fl oorboards like a sack of potatoes. I hear the tinkle of glass fro m the sextant lense shades and I know the instrument is totalled . I wo nder about the old man.

Captain Bob rises to his feet. He flies up the ladder, swearing loud and clear, shoves the hatch back , grabs a wooden toggle,4 and beats the hell out of the hatch cover uttering a constant stream of profanity.

He throws the toggle down and disappears into his after quarters. All is silent.

A short time later a very reserved and quiet captain reappears with another sextant in hand . With nary a word he goes to the weather rail and proceeds to shoot the sun .

Tom Well s, front row center seat , was the sole witness to all of these acts. I was on watch on the wheel. J,

Mr . Wells, Advisor to the Society, has told the story of his sailing in Passat in SH 18 , and in the Effi e M . Morrissey in SH23. Passat flourishes as a museum ship in Travemunde, Germany today, Morrissey sails as Ernestina out of New Bedford, and Mr. Wells practices marine art in Seattle.

4 . A toggle is a piece of oak similar to a baseball bat. It lies on the after house, nex t to the hatch cover. The too l is used in conjunction with a manil a bra ided strap wh ich is tossed over the peak of the gaff when the sai I is down. The togg le is shoved between the two beckets of the strap , then turned like a tourniquet to draw the booms together.

21

HMS Warrior Takes Up Her Station

By John Wells the commands given the whole evolution had been carried out in complete silence .

As Her Majesty ' s Ship Warrior forged ahead to a westerly breeze the Captain remarked: " I made it four minutes thirty seconds . You have some good men there, Commander, but the main topsail was let fall before the yardarm gaskets were clear. We shall repeat the evolution in the dog watches! "

* * * * *

HMS Warrior in 1860, from a color lithograph by T.G . Dutton.

Illustrations courtesy Warrior Preservation Trust .

Apart from the quartermaster and four helmsmen at the steering wheels, between the main and mizzen , there was not a man in sight the whole length of the 400-foot upper deck. Halyards , sheets , braces and the rest of the running gear were secured to bitts or cleats , their ends neatly flaked down around the foot of each mast. Both funnels had been lowered by the stokers until their yellow tops were only just visible above the hammock nettings that extended fore and aft above the bulwarks on each side. When the propeller had been hoisted clear of the water into the circular well by the stern, the iron sheerlegs were unshipped and stowed away , along with the heavy threefold purchase . On the after bridge , extending athwartships some ten feet above the upper deck , the Captain stood expectantly , flanked by the Commander and the Officer of the Watch .

At the port wing an alert Yeoman-of-Signals had his telescope trained on a hoist of six flags at the flagship ' s mainmast.

Before the last of the answering pendants was close up , signifying that all ships of the Channel Squadron had read and understood the signal , the Yeoman could be heard to mutter impatiently . Making little headway , the five ironclads were in lineahead formation about two cables apart. It was 9 o'clock on a Monday forenoon and " evolutions" were imminent. The date was mid-November 1862.

As soon as the signal was dipped-to be rehoisted immediately--orders came in quick succession . " Clear lower deck-all hands make plain sail " brought some 500 men from below to take up their allotted positions on deck . At the second dip came " Upper yardmen to the tops. " Captains of tops, selected midshipmen and upper yardmen raced up both sides of all three lowermasts leaving hands on deck to man sheets and halyards. " Sail loosers- stand by " was purely precautionary to allow upper yardmen their regulation two-minute halfway breather following the Admiralty's alarm at the incidence of heart disease amongst the corps d'e lite of seamen eager to outstrip their rivals in other ships.

"Away aloft masthead. " In fluid movement topgallant and royal yardmen raced up to their stations while the sail loosers took up positions on the topsail and lower yards. '' Trice up '' "Lay out"-"Hoist the jib" came next, each sail looser casting off his gasket to hold up the sail with both hands. " Let fall-sheet home the topsails. " Letting the topsails fall , the loosers regained the crosstrees as hands on deck hauled away the sheets onto blocks on the yards below . Then ' 'Topsail halyards-hoist the topsails " and all three topsail yards were hoisted simultaneously .

Similar action followed with orders for the topgallants and royals. Then the flying jib was hoisted and finally "Let run the gear of the courses ." Down came the heavy fore and main canvas to be sheeted home by every man on deck. Apart from 22

After the Napoleonic Wars and at a time when British defense expenditure was substantially cut back , France set about rebuilding its navy to mount a challenge that took advantage of improvements in propulsion and weaponry. The resultant arms race accelerated after the Crimean War, which had exposed the vu lnerability of wooden hulls to red-hot shot and shell , whilst highlighting the value of self-propelled floating batteries in subduing land-based fortifications. In 1858 France laid down the first oceangoing ironclad , Gloire, a wooden frigate of 5630 tons with a 4 1/2-inch armored belt, thirty-six 6 1/2-inch guns and a speed of 12 1/2 knots under steam .

Hitherto it had not been in Britain's interest to take the lead in new technology but a palpable threat had to be surpassed and the answer was Warrior . " The black snake among the rabbits, " Warrior was a prodigious step forward in warship design , the culmination of developments in iron hulls , armor and screw machinery.

Paradoxically , she initiated such a flood of innovations in naval architecture that she herself was soon obsolescent.

Because naval yards of the day were unable to construct iron ships , Warrior was built by the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at Blackwall, being laid down in May 1859 and launched at the end of 1860. Fitted out at the adjacent Victoria Docks with engines and rigged by Chatham dockyard, the ship was commissioned on 1 August 1861 . Two months later she steamed into Spithead off Portsmouth for speed trials , where her powerful two-cylinder Penn trunk engines drove her at 14.35 knots , a record that stood for eight years. In those days coal was relatively expensive and Warrior's bunkers could carry only 850 tons , which limited the ship's steaming radius at medium speed to a bare 1000 miles . Except for station-keeping in close company and entering or leaving harbor, sails were essential for a warship with worldwide responsibilities: so Warrior was square-rigged on three masts, and proved a good heavy weather sai ler when she first crossed the Bay of Biscay. And because the propeller and funnels might interfere with movement under sai l, Warrior' s screw was hoisted up inside a well in the stern and her telescopic funnels lowered to upper-deck level.

Protected in a box-like citadel with an armored belt of 4 1/2inch iron and 18-inch teak, Warrior' s armament was intimidating . Originally planned to mount a broadside of 40 68pdr (8-inch) smoothbore muzzle-loaders, Warrior' s guns later included the new rifled bore breech-loader designed by Sir William Armstrong. These had greater acc uracy and longer range than the 68pdrs , but they were less reliable. Two l IOpdr (7inch) and four 40pdr (4 .7-inch) Armstrongs were mounted on the upper deck , while eight l IOpdrs were exchanged for 68 pdrs on the main deck . All guns could fire solid shot for armor penetration, or fused shells.

Built of wrought iron and displacing over 9000 tons Warrior was incredibly strong for her 400-foot length and had watertight bulkheads and underwater compartments only possible in a metal hull. Structural strength , the noncorrosive qualities of wrought iron , and the care bestowed by the Royal Navy all contributed to her being able to remain afloat for more than 120 years. Warrior represented the courageous belief of ht> r SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1987

At right, the Warrior at Hartlepool in October 1986. Below , the gun deck (main deck) with muzzle loading 68pdrs in the background and a breech loading JOOpdr , foreground. The Warrior carried all but a halfdozen of her guns below, protected by a 4 112-inch armoured belt.

Below right, mess 29 is set up fora meal . Note the locker for the men's plates and bowls, and the fold-away table and benches.

SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

23

This cross-section of the Warrior shows her Penn trunk engine, Downton pumps and, on the main deck, a /OOpdr (left) and a 68pdr (right).

Her 4 1/2in armor, backed by I Sin teak, extended five f eet below the waterlin e. Drawn by Asst. Eng . William Milin , RN, in 1861.

Above, the restored ship' s galley . Below, a caulker at work near the foremast and unfinished fife rails. Bottom , seen through the mainlop are the mainmast (40in diameter) and, in the lowered position, the topmast (22in diameter).

24

designers that the iron-hulled armored ship would supersede the wooden ship without losing its solid qualities of seakeeping and endurance . Although experimental , Warrior was also conventional and beautiful , an achievement without radical departure from contemporary warships. In contrast to the awful monstrosities , both British and foreign , of later years which resembled ships only in that they floated , Warrior was the last vessel built for the Royal Navy to exemplify the graceful lines of the old sailing frigates .

Throughout the first commission, spent largely in home waters with the Channel Squadron , Warrior was commanded

by Captain The Hon. Arthur Cochrane , son of the famous Earl of Dundonald whose exploits rivalled those of Nelson. Her commander, George Tyron , would have reached the top but for a disastrous collision when commanding the Mediterranean fleet in 1893. Lieutenant John A. Fisher was appointed her gunnery officer and soon brought the gun battery to the peak of efficiency. (He was later to win undying fame as the First Sea Lord who introduced the Dreadnought battleship and brought the Royal Navy to a peak of fighting efficiency on the eve of World War I.) All in all, the first commission was happy and successful , especially when Warrior was selected to escort HRH Princess Alexandra of Denmark in the royal yacht across the Channel en route to be married to the Prince of Wales , later King Edward VII. After a Portsmouth refit and rearm , her second commission , al so in the Channel squadron , was unspectacular apart from towing a floating dock to Bermuda with her sistership Black Prince. By 1870, the deterrent effect of the Royal Navy ' s ironclads put an end to the French challenge . There was no war , and Warrior was never in action.

Relegated to Coast Guard and Reserve duty , Warrior lay at buoys in Portland Roads and Greenock before removal from the active list in 1883. In 1904 she was hulked and renamed HMS Vernon to form part of the torpedo school at Portsmouth .

She remained in that service until 1924 when the school moved ashore , and in 1929 the Admiralty had her towed to Llannion Fuel Depot near Pembroke Dock, Milford Haven, to become a floating jetty. Sailors of many smal 1 warships of all nations can remember berthing alongside Warrior during World War II as she lay at her leafy river mooring , manned by a solitary sh ipkeeper fishing for mullet out of the stern gallery.

In the 1960s, Frank Carr, Chairman of the World Ship Trust, was foremost amongst those who realized Warrior' s great significance. When the Navy indicated that they had no further use for her, he was instrumental in having her turned over to Admiral Sir Patrick Bayly , Director of the newly formed SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1987

Eklof Marine Corp.

Since 1926

Warrior's figu rehead. His sword is in storage fo r safekeeping .

Maritime Trust, to coordinate her rescue and restoration .

Shortly thereafter, John Smith ' s Manifo ld Trust came fo rward with a promi se to underwrite the immensely costl y effort, and in 1979 Warrior was moved to Hartlepool fo r a rebuild .

Although grants and gifts have come fro m many quarters, the Mani fo ld T rust has contri buted nearly $7 million to thi s great undertaking , always with a view to making the restoration as thorough as possible . As Warrior arrived in Hartlepool wi th virtually no ori gi nal equi pment of any kj nd , almost everything had to be fas hioned in workshops alongside the ship . The onl y significant concessions made were that fiberglass copies of the 68pdr and I I Opdr guns were made from orig inal barre ls, and steel has been used instead of iro n in the hull.

Vi sitors will be able to see how the ship was conned fro m one of the two athwartshi ps bridges on the upper deck and steered from a set of upper-, main- or lower-deck wheels. The lower deck has come to life , with the offi cers' cabins, wardroom and gunroom all pa inted out and furni shed in the original style. However, it is the stokeholds and engine room that will undoubtedl y arouse the greatest interest. All ten fire-tube boilers are installed with fu rnace doors and draught plates that open into the centra l fi ring aisle . A large part of John Penn ' s double-acting , twin-cylinder hori zontal trun k eng ine has been erected , the connection rods have been jo ined to the crankshafts and the jet condensers are in position. The ma in eng ines can be turned slowly by electric motor , and the funne ls can be raised or lowered hydraulicall y.

In June , Wa rrior will make the 385-mile passage from Hartlepool to Portsmouth , her home fo r more than sixty years .

There she will be displayed in the historic area of the naval base , which already acco mmodates HMS Victory, Ad mi ra l Ne lson' s fl ags hip at Trafalgar, and the T udor warship Ma ry Rose . The Portsmouth City Council has built a magni fice nt 550ft jetty to berth the Warrior and there , restored to her fo rmer glory and at the ripe o ld age of 126 , she is about to start a new career. w

Captain Wells is Research and Portsmouth Liasion Officer of the Warrior Association, and author of the recent Immortal Warrior: Britain ' s First and Las t Battleship (Kenneth Mason Puhl., Old Harbormaster's, Emsworth, Hanis, UK, 264pp, illus, ÂŁ1 8 .95hb). Membership is invited in the Warrior Association, which supports the Warrior project and issues an excellent newsletter. Write John Cooper, Warrior Association , 18 Leventhorpe Court, Elmshurst Road, Gosport, Hants P0 / 2 JNX , England, or call 0705 520-970 .

SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

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25

.

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~iiif:-~~.,,;;;;;._--A brighT winter sky wraps The rolling hulls ofa merchanT convoy in chilly glory as Th ey make their lumbering way across the dangerous ocean that is the North ATiantic, 1943.

E. G.

SCHUMACHER,

Marine Artist

by Robert Amon In years gone by, artists pursued the ir vocation in Rome or on the Left Bank of Paris. Others discovered their metier in more prosaic locations. The prolific Antonio Jacobsen , who painted a dramatic record of no less than 2,600 ships that frequented New York harbor between 1873 and 1919 , learned his trade painting decorative landscapes on the heavy iron doors of safes in shipping company offices. For E. G. Schumacher, aside from schoolboy sketches on the fl yleafs of hymnals in the church choir loft , hi s art apprenticeship was served as able seaman in the ships of the American merchant marine during World War II. Since his retirement from the Smithsonian Institution where for some thirty years he had been a scientific staff artist and director of scientific illustrations in the anthropology section of the Natural History Museum , Schumacher has been working on a series of oil paintings that depict what happened in the North Atlantic-' 'where the war could have been won or lost. " He made many sketches at sea in World War II, and hi s oil paintings are based on those sketches from the life .

He has already completed a collection of some forty-five paintings in watercolor of the peacetime merchant marine in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Eventually this entire collection will go to a museum for publi c viewing.

A survivor of the dread Murmansk Run during World War II , Schumacher also participated in the invasions of Africa , Sicily and Normandy . He received the Atlantic Bar, Pacific Bar, Mediterranean Bar, Combat Bar with two stars , Distinguished Ship Bar and Di stinguished Ship Medal.

In addition to painting the story of the merchant marine at war, Schumacher has been engaged in a life long campaign to obtain long-overdue recognition of the cruc ial and heroic role played by American merchant seamen in the World War II victory . He still smarts over the inequities , insults and general 26

disregard visited upon the American merchant seaman in hi s own country .

He explains that the Allied merchant marine personnel lost a full one-fourth of their enlisted strength in the Battle of the North Atlantic, exceeding by far the rate of losses suffered by any branch of any Allied armed forces in any theater of World War II. '' In ExTremis'' is the artisf' s title for This sTudy in numb hopelessnesstwo shipmates adrifT on The ocean after The sinking of Their ship.

SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

" During the first six months of 1942," he recalls , " German U-boats sank 400 vessels, killing hundreds of America merchant sailors off our Atlantic beaches from Maine to Floridain full view , I might add, of vaca tioning Americans. " The reaction to this bloody onslaught by US authorities ... was nothing short of criminal," Schumacher maintains , adding : " Despite exposure to the highly developed British methods of anti-submarine warfare, the US Navy elected to do nothing. The simple expedient of going to a convoy system for coastal North American shipping was never tried ."

Veterans' status was granted to physical therapists, dieticians, telephone operators The relationship between the Navy and the merchant marine has traditionally been just slightly more cordial than that vis-avis the Navy and Army, according to Schumacher, who rose to Second Officer toward the end of the war. If it floats , the Navy wants to control it.

* * * * *

Schumacher is currently one of three plaintiffs in a court case filed to obtain veterans status for merchant seamen who served their country in World War JI. The case was brought after merchant seamen and their organizations exhausted all administrative procedures and appeals avail-

able to them in their efforts to win recognition of their wartime role, although veterans' status was already granted to a varied assortment of fourteen other civilian groups including World War II physical therapists, dieticians, telephone operators and women air ferry pilots .

For Schumacher this discrimination brings back galling personal memories of when he applied for the post with the Smithsonian after the war. He was faced with seventeen other competitors for the federal job most of whom were able to claim veteran's preference points due to their military service. A sailor who spent his time typing in a warm Navy office received more public recognition than a torpedoed merchant seaman just plucked from the icy North Atlantic .

Fortunately, Dr. Matthew Stirling, director at the Smithsonian, who had sailed to the Antarctic with Admiral Richard Byrd aboard the explorer ship Bear, liked Schumacher's work and placed due, although unofficial , weight upon the young seaman's experiences running the gauntlet of Axis bombs and torpedoes to frozen Murmansk and Archangel in the Soviet Union.

It is against this deeply-felt background that E. G .

Schumacher paints his merchant ships at war. They are more than pretty seascapes . -t

Mr . Amon, Advisor to the National Society, is an historian of the maritime labor movement, and editor of the National Maritime Union's Pilot.

With remarkable verve and sympathy, Schumacher captures the look and feel of a couple of U-boats, the little 700-tonners that fought so ably for their sinister masters in Berlin, and at such cost to American and Allied merchant seamen.

The artist at work .

SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

27

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BRONZES FROM THE SEA at the SHERATON-STAMFORD HOTEL & TOWERS One First Stamford Place Stamford, CT 06902 / (203) 967-2222 For information or appointment: TEL (201) 327-9152

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We are happy to report that all's well with Charles Robert Patterson's painting of the ship W. R. Grace , pictured above. The Grace, flying the flags " Report me all well ," was removed from the Grace bank building at 7 Hanover Square to Grace's new headquarters at 1114 Sixth Avenue, New York. As befits its subj ect, it is a majestic spread of canvas , and a floor of the new building had to be c ut away to create a wall large enough to hang the painting. W . R. Grace & Co. , was fou nded in 1868 as a shipping firm and for many years held a major share of the US-South American trade. Mr. Grace , who was born in Ireland , was mayor of New York twice in the 1880s. Hi s life and company have been recently documented by Lawrence A. Clayton in W.R . Grace & Co.: The Formative Years. (Jameson Books, 722 Columbus St. , Ottawa, IL 61350) "Masters of the Sea: British Marine Watercolors, 1650-1930" is the title of an exh ibit on view at the Yale Center for British Art through 2 August. Organized by Roger Quarm of the National Maritime Museum (Greenwich , England) and Scott Wilcox of the Yale Center, the exhibition includes 154 watercolor paintings, sketches and illustrated letters and journals which span nearl y three centuries of marine art.

Among those whose work hangs in the show are the Yan de Yeldes, J.M.W. Turner, James McNeil) Whistler and William L. Wylie. A catalogue in color and black and white is avai lable from the book shop . (Yale Center for British Art , 1080 Chapel St., New Haven , CT06520; 203 432-2850) .i, SIEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

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by LYNN S. BEMAN Director, Beman Galleri es-Nyack, N.Y.

Julian 0. Davidson (1853-1894) has long been an unrecognized genius of 19th century American Ma rin e Paintin g. His work regularly appeared in Harper's W eek ly, The Century and other illustrated publications of the day. Many of hi s paintings of yachting and naval scenes were reproduced as ch rom olithograph s by Loui s Prang and other publishers. Critics noted that D av idson knew American ships and shipping better than any other artist of this era. More than any other American artist he specia lized in painting historic American nava l battles, all of wh ich were ca refu lly resea rched.

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The "Collection" was designed and the patterns hand-crafted by Bill Barnes.

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1853-1894

artist and includes a comprehensive catalogue of the recent retrospective ex hibition on Davidson, p lu s a complete listing of his known work.The product of more than two years of original research, Julian 0 . Davidson: American Marine Artist is a necessary reference for librari es, galleries coll ecto rs of American pa intin gs and prints, and stude nts of American naval history.

Available exclusively through Nyack Publishing Company, Inc. Julian 0 . Davidson: American Marine Artist is softbound, contains 72 pages, including a forward by noted Art Historian Donelson F. H oopes,

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:SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

''Fit for a Cabinet of Curiosities''

The Maryland Federalist and the Constitution

by Gregory A. Stiverson In April 1788 , all eyes were on Maryland. Of the nine states necessary to ratify the United States Constitution, five had quickly agreed, beginning with Delaware on 7 December 1787 . But then the momentum for ratification seemed to disappear. New Hampshire' s ratification convention was so deeply divided that it adjourned without voting; Rhode Island refused to call a convention to consider the Constitution at all; and Massachusetts Federalists barely eked out a victory in that state. If the Constitution were to get the necessary nine states , Maryland had to ratify quickly and without qualification. Vigorously lobbying his many powerful and influential Maryland acquaintances, George Washington firmly predicted that if Maryland adjourned without voting , or adopted amendments to the Constitution, the cause would be lost and the country would remain imperiled by the weak and ineffective government under the Articles of Confederation.

Maryland did not disappoint General Washington or the other friends of the proposed Constitution . Elections in early April for delegates to the ratification convention returned an overwhelming Federalist majority , and on 28 April 1788 , Maryland approved the Constitution 63 to 11.

Maryland's ratification as the seventh state called for a victory celebration, and towns around the state held parties to mark the occasion. Three days after Maryland ratified , on I May 1788, the biggest of these celebrations occurred in Maryland' s largest town , Baltimore, a commercial center that had strongly supported the Constitution . Thousands of people lined the streets or cheered from the windows above as some 3 ,000 men , representing every trade and occupation in Baltimore, wound through the streets from Fells Point to the harbor. Celebrants and guests were treated to supper on newly christened " Federal Hill, " overlooking Baltimore's harbor, where they consumed an elegant repast consisting " entire! y of the Productions of th is Country. " The centerpiece of the Baltimore ratification parade was a miniature ship, mounted on a cart. The little vessel was just fifteen feet long, but except for its size it was a perfect , seaworthy replica of the great ships that frequented Baltimore ' s harbor. The miniature ship was called the Federalist , in honor of the federal Constitution , and its three fully-rigged masts carried seven sails, representing Maryland as the "seventh ship of the line " in the process of ratification .

The Federalist wa~ commanded by SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

Captain Joshua Barney, a young Revolutionary War hero best remembered today for his command of the Chesapeake Flotilla during the War of 1812. During the picnic at Federal Hill , Barney and his men entertained the crowd by raising signal flags calling on the other six states to join in ratifying the Constitution .

Representing Marylanders ' hopes for commercial growth and prosperity under the new Constitution, and symbolizing the new government itself, the Federalist became the focal point for celebrating Maryland ' s role in the creation and adoption of the Constitution and for stimulating popular support for the new government. On I June 1788, Barney set sail from Baltimore in the little ship. They were honored by the governor and feted by the citizenry at Annapolis , the state capital , and then continued on down Chesapeake Bay and up the Potomac River. On 8 June , Barney arrived at Mount Vernon , where he added yet another element of symbolism to the Federalist by presenting it to the chairman of the Philadelphia Convention which drafted the Constitution-George Washington .

As astonished as he must have been at the appearance of the tiny ship plying the waters of the broad Potomac by his dock, Washington ' s famed composure did not desert him. He wrote a letter thanking the merchants of Baltimore for the "beautiful Curiosity," applauding " the exactitude of the proportions , the neatness of the workmanship , and the elegance of the decorations (which make your Present fit to be preserved in a Cabinet of Curiosities). " Washington congratulated Marylanders on their ratification of the Constitution, adding that it would not be "without its due efficacy on the minds of their neighbours. " On 23 July , five weeks after Barney left Mount Vernon , a violent hurricane blew up the North Carolina coast. Norfolk and Portsmouth were badly damaged ; in Hampton Roads just two ships remained afloat after the storm . In Alexandria , the tide rose higher than anyone could remember, severely damaging the warehouses and wharves in town .

General Washington , in his diary entry for 24 July , recorded the hurricane: "A very high No. Et. Wind all Night , which , this morning, being accompanied with Rain , became a hurricane--driving the Miniature Ship Federalist from her Moorings, and sinking her. " The little ship was gone , but the idea of using a ship to symbolize the struggle for a new framework of government for

DR AW ING BY MEL BOU RNE SMITH .

The re-created Maryland Federalist, like the original, will be just I 5ft long and will sail.

the country spread. Reports of the Baltimore ratification parade, featuring woodcuts of the Federalist and descriptions of its mission , appeared in newspapers around the country . Miniature ships were paraded in ratification celebrations in both South Carolina and New York, and the Grand Federal Procession in Philadelphia on the Fourth of July 1788 featured a ship of state.

It was the search for a symbol that would serve as an exciting , unifying theme for the bicentennial commemoration of the Constitution that led the Maryland Office for the Bicentennial of the US Constitution to propose the idea of re-creating the miniature ship Federalist .

The project is funded entirely by the private sector under the direction of the Maryland Federalist Foundation , chaired

by John Driggs, president of the Driggs Corporation of Capitol Heights , Maryland . Melbourne Smith , a noted designer of historic sailing craft , was commissioned to design the vessel. Allen Rawl , a shipwright and master carver, was given the contract to construct it.

Like the original , the Maryland Federalist will be both symbol and ship.

Details of the vessel carry out the theme of Maryland 's role in the creation and adoption of the Constitution . The elaborate carvings on the billet head depict the black-eyed Susan , Maryland ' s state flower. The trail board carvings are of oak leaves, the state tree. And the ship ' s colors-black , buff, red and white-are the Maryland state colors. Mounted on her custom-designed trailer, she can tour throughout the state and nation , carrying the message of the Constitution to national events, county fairs and schoolyards .

But the Maryland Federalist will also sail , and in 1988 Maryland plans to mark the bicentennial of its ratification of the Constitution with a recreation of the huge Baltimore parade and Barney 's voyage down the Chesapeake and up the Potomac to Mount Vernon . w

Dr. Stiverson is Director ofthe Maryland Office for the Bicentennial of the US Constitution, Maryland State Archives.

31

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by Dean C. Allard The Naval Historical Center is located on the grounds of the Washington Navy Yard along the banks of the Potomac River. Chief among its assets are the Navy Department Library , which is the pre-eminent library for naval history in the country. It is also very strong in general maritime history, and it is the oldest federal library still staffed in the United States. The central repository for historical documentation about the Navy over the last fifty years is the Operational Archives which are also under the direction of the Center. Unlike the other branches of the armed services , the Navy has had no staff to write institutional histories , and there is a great gap in naval historiography since World War II, a period of great importance and relevance to our present situation.

Citi ng the importance of historical perspective and institutional memory , the Secretary of the Navy called for the establi shment of a group of writers whose primary responsibility will be the publication of a series examining subjects ranging from the role of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean , to naval participation in low intensity warfare and the development of the 600-ship Navy in this decade.

To further encourage the involvement of historians and students outside the naval establishment in naval history, we have established the Secretary of the Navy ' s Visiting Research Chair in Naval History. We hope to fill the position during the forthcoming academ ic year with a senior scholar who will write a major book for publication by the Center. In addition , research grants named in honor of Vice Admiral Edwin B . Hooper (former Director of Naval History) are being offered to scholars to help defray expenses incurred during the course of research . To encourage younger scholars, the Center is giving the Admiral John D. Hayes Fellowship to graduate students writing a doctoral dissertation dealing with the Navy . And finally , in conjunction with the American Military Institute , we are organizing a conference on naval history , which will be held in Apri l 1988 at our Center.

The Navy also recognizes that traditional scholarship is on ly one way to make the Navy ' s history accessible to ours and future generations, and it has established a new naval reserve unit specifically assigned to support the Center. The officers assigned to that organization will also be deployed to the fleet during or immediately after major operations that are of special historical

interest and their job will be to record narratives of those operations and preserve the basic records.

Another new initiative involves the Navy ' s art program. Recently we merged the Navy Office of Information's Combat Art Collection with the Center' s existing collection. Together, the two collections include about I 0 ,000 pieces.

We plan to continue adding to this collection and are sponsoring nationally known marine artists to undertake special projects. We are also taking steps to preserve the collection as it now stands and to see that the art is exhibited not only in Washington , but throughout the country.

The Navy Museum is another aspect of the Center which is receiving renewed attention. The Museum reports dramatic increases in attendance-in 1986 there were more than 320,000 visitors-which can be partly explained by the opening of five new exhibits in the past twelve months. Among these is the first phase of a very large show which will cover all aspects of the Navy ' s role in World War II. Despite the rich museum resources in Washington , there is no comprehensive exhibit in the region that covers the military aspects of the War. The Center maintains an extensive outdoor exhibit which is especially rich in naval heavy ordnance, much of it built at the Navy Yard when it was a gun factory in the nineteenth century. On the waterfront, the modern historical museum ship USS Barry, a post-World War II destroyer , is open to the public . One of the oldest structures in the Navy Yard is the offici al residence of the Chief of Naval Operations , Tingey House , which dates from 1804, the year Commodore Thomas Tingey became first commandant of the Navy Yard. When Commodore Tingey was ordered to burn the Yard during the British visit to Washington in 1814, he decided to spare his own house , which he continued to live in until 1829.

There is much diversity in the work of the Naval Historical Center. But whether our efforts involve scholarly research and publication , or the maintenance of our historic collections , the unifying purpose is to ensure that the nation ' s naval history can be studied and appreciated by all Americans, whether they be government officials , naval historians, scholars or school children. w

Dr . Allard is Senior Historian of the Naval Historical Center and the author of several books, and president of the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH).

SEA HllSTORY , SUMMER 1987

SHIP NOTES

The USS Monitor Project

by Michael Mulcahy In August 1973, scientists aboard a Duke University research vessel discovered the I I I-year-old wreck of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor off the coast of North Carolina . The little "cheesebox on a raft," as the Monitor was sometimes called, captured worldwide attention when she clashed with the Confederate ironclad , CSS Virginia (ex-USS Merrimack). Her thick iron armor, rotating gun turret and a host of innovative engineering features rendered her a formidable warship, and although her confrontation with the Virginia was generally regarded as a draw , naval warfare was revolutionized by the fourhour battle on 9 March 1862. From that day forward only an ironcl ad could defend a wooden fleet against anothe r ironclad. When the Monitor sank in a gale off Cape Hatteras nine month s later, her fame as the ship that saved the Union became legendary .

Her discovery prompted concerned government officials to evaluate how best to protect the shipwreck, which is located beyond the territorial waters of North Carolina. Title III of the Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to designate ocean waters (and the Great Lakes) from the shoreline to the edge of the continental shelf as m arine sanctuaries for the purpose of preserving their " di stinctive conservation , recreational, ecolog ical, hi storical and esthetic values." Sites having cultural , arc heological and paleontological significance fa ll under this rubric as we ll. The M arine Estuarine Management Division of the National Oceanic and Atmosphe ric Administration (NOAA) was desig nate d the authority for developing programs for national maritime sanctuaries.

As this law seemed to afford the Monitor the best protection , the Governor of North Carolina nominated the site as the nation's first marine sanc tuary .

After review and public hearings, the site was so designated in January 1975 .

NOAA has sought to benefit from the experience of other projects both in this country and abroad. Two such undertakings exemplify the significant disparity between the US and European expe rie nces in dealing with historic shipwrecks.

In 1961 , the Wasa , a Swedish warship of 1628, was removed intact from Stockholm Harbor. As this was the first such . project of its kind, technology had to be developed and adapted to save the ship as the work progressed. In particular, three lessons can be learned from the SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

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• Once the decision is made to recover, there must be total financial commitment to conservation .

• Private as well as government financ ial support will be necessary to achieve long-term goals .

• Preservation of a shipwreck amounts to perpetual care and maintenance; the Wasa has been undergoing conservation treatment for more than twenty-fi ve years.

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In contrast to the success of the Wasa S3 0 recovery , the failure of inadequate sup- u port was never more pain full y clear than information by remote sensing and in the project to recover the USS Cairo , a Civil War gunboat discovered in 1956 photography. A major goal is to deternear Vicksburg, Mississippi, and virtumine the rate of corrosion of the Monitor's hull , a c lue to its current strucally intact. Poor planning led to the tural integrity. Documentary filming will wreck's be ing torn apart during lifting operations. Later, insufficient planning be used later in fundraising. for conservation and a shortfall in fundNOAA is committed to the goals for the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. ing exacerbated earlier mistakes . These and other factors led to the tragic loss of However, NO AA is not the sole steward a wealth of archeological and hi storical of the Monitor and materials relating to the ship . One means of preserving the information .

Monitor can be to ensure that the ex isting At a national conference in 1978, it collection of arti fac ts and papers is propwas recommended that NOAA determine the technical and financial feasierly cared for. This co llection is spread bility of the suggested options-which throu ghout public and pri vate collections aro und the country . No steps will be ranged from non-disturbance of the site, taken to ra ise any part of the wreck until to complete recovery of the wreck. In response, NOAA established the USS a well thought out plan is in place for the conservation, preservation and public Monitor Project whose goal is to develop and implement a master plan for the interpretive di splay of artifacts . Multi Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. The di sci plinary concern s must be reso lved before the ultimate fate of the Monitor Project encourages the participation of other agencies, organizations and indiis decided . The significance of the effort viduals with expertise in cultural reapplies not onl y to the Monitor, but also source management , archeology, hi sto any other shipwrecks that may be detory, conservation , eng ineeri ng, museo lsignated marine sanctuaries in the future. ogy and fundrai si ng. w Thus far , NOAA has sponsored four Mr. Mulcahy , former managing editor expeditions using both divers and manof Sea Technology magazine, is assistant ned submersibles. This summer's expedproject manager of the USS Monitor Proition , co-sponsored by NOAA and the ject. He also works at Eastport International, the Navy's primary contractor for Navy, will use the Navy ' s unmanned unundersea operations. dersea vehi cle, Deep Drone , to gather 33

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Washington's Inaugural Barge On 23 Apri l 1798 , a week before hi s inauguration as the first President of the United States at Federal Hall , George Washington made the trip from Elizabeth Town , New Jersey , to Murray 's Wharf, near the foot of Wall Street in Manhattan .

He was borne across the harbor in a spec ial barge that had been built to the order of the Marine Society of New York and rowed by twelve of its members.

On 13 April 1987, at the 2 17th Annual Dinner of the Marine Society, Captai n Robert E. Hart , President of the Marine Index Bureau , ann ounced a project by Mel Hardin , curator of New York Harbor, to build a replica of Washington's inaugural barge and to row it across New York Harbor on the 200th anniversary of hi s first inauguration . The project was greeted with acclaim , and has become

an official project of the N ati ona l Maritime Histori cal Society, under the chairmanship of Nancy Pouch , Trustee .

The Society plans extensive public ed ucational programs which will encourage Americans to understand the hopes and fears of their forebears as their first President assumed office .

The Marine Society-without whose help neither the original nor replica could be built-was established by prominent ship masters and pilots of New York in 1770 for the purpose of charity and edu cation. Plans for the orig inal barge no longer ex ist (if they did) and drawings based on contemporary illustrations and written descriptions are be ing prepared by the naval architects of Sparkman & Stephens . Shown above is the barge as it might have appeared. <!.

The National Maritime Historical Society proudly joins hands with the Sailors' Union of the Pacific in offering the centennial history of the the Sailors' Union Brotherhood of The Sea Richly illustrated, and covering 100 years of struggle and progress in achieving West Coast seamen 's rights, w ith many first-hand accounts edited by Karl Kortum, Chief Curator of the National Maritime Museum, San Francisco, this work is essential reading, and exciting reading, for anyone who wants to understand the development of maritime labor since the days of blood boats, bucko mates and the Red Record.

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The Boston Harbor Tugboat Muster b y W illiam P. Coughlin A pair of seagoing octogenarians, the handling the newly commissioned Boston-based tugs Saturn and J upiter, battleshi p USS New Jersey at the may hold mari ti me longevity records for Philadelphia Naval Shipyard . She also worki ng vessels sti ll hard at it, hauli ng piloted fre ighters through the Delaware barges , shovi ng and twisting shi ps and Chesapeake Canal.'' against res isting tides to dockside and , Jupiter's original ri veted iron hull was like yac hts, drawi ng glances fro m sailors rehulled with welded piates in 1950 . At and waterfront Caplog Charlies alike. the same time, her original oil-fired , triOwned by Captain Doug las De lla ple-expansion , 500hp steam engine was Porta, Pres ident of Eastern Towboat Cor- replaced with a General Motors l 250hp poration, and his wife Kathryn, the diesel plant. rakish green-hulled former steamboats The Saturn was built in 1907 for the will be among thirty or so towboats, old Reading Railroad and originally workboats, fire and policeboats, governnamed Bern . With her 11OOhp , triple exment vessels and pilot boats m ustering pansion plant-a mighty engine in her at Boston from ports as far afield as day-she hauled coal barges fro m Port Maine and Virg inia for the third annual Reading , New Jersey, on Kill Van Kull , Boston Harbor Tugboat Muster and up the Hudson to Albany, and along the Parade , 25 Jul y. coast to Boston. She was acquired by What began in 1985 as a fr iendly her Philadelphia owners in 1952 . In 1956 sailors' gam among working tugmen has she was repowered with a J700hp Genbecome an annual event in Bosto n's hi seral Motors diesel, and her bottom was toric harbor, and it attracts tho usands of partially rebuilt at the Mathis Shipyard spectators . After a blessing of the fl eet, in Camden, New Jersey, which had a the tugs parade down harbor to pass in reputation for building luxury yachts and rev iew by Castle Island before the beginwartime vessels. ning of inter-tug and inter-crew competSaturn and Jupiter were acquired by itions. The tugs will go bow-to- bow in the Della Portas' Eastern Towboat Corshovi ng matches, and the crews wi ll poration in 1980 and 1982 respecti vely compete on shore in looping dock bitts , fo r service in the new towing business . line spl icing, making monkey's fists on They retained the planetary names which heav ing lines and even in tugboat cookhad been given the tugs by their Philadelphia owners-names which also carry ery. Also at dockside, the thirty-yearold , I 05ft, ship-handling tug Karen Tibon a traditional Boston nomenclature. By betts of the Boston Fuel Tran sportation coincidence, the Boston Tow Boat ComCompany's red and buff fl eet will be pany (which closed its doors in 1985 after open for lands men to tour .

127 years in operation) had also named all its earl y tugs after planets.

But fo r sheer grace of line, c leanliness and yesteryear elegance, Saturn a nd JupHow is it that these two celestial iter may be hard to beat. Both came off beauties are still working and in almost the ways of the old Neafie and Levy yacht-like shape?

Shi pyard in Ph iladelphia. Launc hed as " We took excellent care of them," says Meyle. "Our crews were pro ud of the Socony Vacuum Oil Compa ny's tug Socony 14, Jupiter hauled barges all over their tugs and looked after the m well . the East Coast until joining the Phil adelAnd they are just as beautiful now under phi a Independent Towing Compa ny fl eet the Eastern Towboat fl ag as they were in the mid- I 930s. Kenneth M eyle, forwhen we had them. Doug and Kathy merl y president of the now defunct Della Porta have done a beautiful job of Philidelphia company, recall s her excelkeeping them up ." w lent wartime record at Phil adelphia.

"S he was a big, powerful tug then and worked twenty-four hours a day. She Mr. Coughlin has helped organize the towed the stone to Bra nd yw ine Shoal, Boston Harbor Tugboat Muster since its where the government anchored its anti- inception . When not engaged in this and submarine net across the entra nce to Del- other maritime pursuits, he writes for aware Bay, and she later shared honors the Boston Globe .

SEA HISTORY , SUMM ER 1987

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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM The Naval War College Museum is sponsoring three important exhibits this summer. The first, "Fighting Ships of the Second World War" is an exhibit of navy combat art works and ship models, including model s of every major class of combat vessel from the period 1941-1945, and will be on view through the summer. From 15 July to 15 August, in conjuoction with the Black Ships Festival held each July to commemorate the opening of Japan by native son Commodore Matthew C. Perry, the Museum will show "The Perry Expedition of 185354 through Japanese Eyes: An Exhibit of Black Ships Scrolls." On view will be thirteen hand-colored panoramic scrolls done in Japan in 1854, items relating to the Samurai culture and model s of Japanese junks from the Museum 's collection. From 20 August through Navy Day , 13 October, the work of marine artist Frederick Freeman will be gathered in an exhibit entitled "War at Sea: An Historical Perspective in Drawings and Paintings by Fred Freeman." Mr. Freeman 's work hangs in the Smithsonian, the US Naval Academy Mu seum and The Mariners ' Museum, among other places, and Mr. Freeman has been the subject of marine art features in SEA HISTORY 27 and 36. (Naval War College Museum , Coasters Harbor Island , Newport, RI 02840; 40 I 841-4051) "Great Norwegian Explorers" is the title of an exhibit on view at the South Street Seaport Museum's Norway Galleries through 7 September. Produced by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the exhibit chronicles the role of intrepid Norwegian voyagers in broadening our global horizons and deepening our understanding of the world. The exh ibit has three main sections. The Vikings (800-1050) offers a reassessment of Viking achievements as they broke out into the wider world in search of conquest, trade and, finally, new homes .

Polar Exploration (1880-1930) looks at the work of Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen, in particular. In 1893 , Nansen proved his theory of an eastward flowing polar current in the specially built polar research vessel Fram (Brouwer, pl60). Amundsen later sailed the Fram to _the Antarctic when he led the first expedition to reach the South Pole , in 1911 . Amundsen had earlier sailed the Gj¢a (Brouwer, pl62) in the first successful transit of the Northwest Passage from east to west. The third section of the exhibit examines the accomplishments of Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian explorer who has dedicated 36

hi s life' s work to the rediscovery of protohistoric shipbuilding and navigation techniques in the Indian , Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. (Norway Galleries, South Street Seaport Museum , 171 John Street, New York, NY 10038; 212 6699400) The National Maritime Hall of Fame inducted its sixth class of seafarers and ships this spring. The seafarers are Capt.

William Matson (1849-1917), founder of the great Pacific shipping line which bears hi s name today; Ida Lewis ( 1842191 I) , lighthouse keeper of Newport, RI , credited with having made eighteen lifesaving mi ssions; Henry Shreve (1785-1851) who, as Superintendent of Western River Improvements from 1827 to J 841, contributed greatly to the development of our inland waterways ; and, Capt. Levi Johnson (1792-1872) who built a variety of Great Lakes vessels, both sail and steam , and lighthouses .

The ships are the President Warfield built in 1928 as an overnight boat for the Chesapeake but which gained fame as the Exodus in 1947 when two British destroyers barred her from entering Israel with 4 ,554 Jewish refugees; the Stephen Hopkins (1942), the Liberty ship which sank the German arrned raider Stier-the most heavily armed German surface unit sunk by any American vessel during World War II (see, SH35, " How an Ugly Duckling Fought and Sank Her Assailant"); the Sprague (1902), one of the largest steam towboats ever built and which traveled more than a million river miles in her forty-six year career; and the Seeandbee (1913), a most e legant Great Lakes steamship which could carry as many as 1,500 passengers on the Cleveland to Buffalo ("see" and "bee") run , and which was rebuilt as the training aircraft carrier, USS Wolverine, during World War II. (American Merchant Marine Museum, US Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, NY 10024-1699; 5 16 482-8200) This year's annual meeting of the National Trust for Historic Preservation (1785 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington , DC 20036; 202 673-4000) scheduled for 7-9 October, will feature an enlarged maritime segment. As the community begins to look ahead to the Columbus quincentenary , Captain Harry Allendorfer will lead a discussion on events under consideration for that celebration of the Western Hemisphere. The NMHS will also present its plans for a five-year maritime initiative to galvanize the forces of the private sector, museums

and the government to develop a lasting endowment for the nation's maritime heritage .

The real showstopper will be a gathering of at least five vessels which are members of the ad hoc Council of Colonization Period Ships under the direction of Nick Benton. Formed last year, the Council includes experts, technicians and enthusiasts interested in vessels whose design dates from between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries and who seek to "foster .a greater understanding of Colonial era vessels and their influence on humanity and history. " To avoid conflict with the National Trust, the council's meetings will convene on 6 and 7 October, but the vessels will be open to Trust conferees throughout their stay in Washington. Membership in the council is invited. (CCPS, 1134 Wapping Rd., Middletown , RI 02840; 401 846-0102) The Treasure Island Museum in San Francisco is the only museum in the country devoted to the history of all three sea services-the Marines, Navy and Coast Guard. Opening at the museum on 4 August is "Sovereigns of the Sea," an exhibit chronicling the evolution of the battleship in the Pacific from the Oregon of Spanish-American War fame, to the Missouri , which will be homeported at Treasure Island as of late 1989. Sections of the exhibit explain the ships' arms and armament, trace the major technological changes of the last century, examine the ships' roles in peace and war and their impact on peoples' perceptions "back home " and examine the lives of the sailors on and off duty.

Among the actual displays are a diorama titled " Battleships and Their Challengers" which illustrates the development of the modern battleship from antecedents in the American Civil War to the Atomic Age. Also in the diorama are models of different vessels which have challenged the battleship 's supremacy at sea. " Sovereigns of the Sea" will be on display for at least a year. (Treasure Island Museum , Building No. I , Treasure Island , San Francisco , CA 94130-5000; 415 765-6182) On 26 March, community leaders in Honolulu donned hard hats and protective glasses as they took up pneumatic drills to bore holes in Pier 7 in Honolulu Harbor as part of ground breaking ceremonies for the Kalakaua Boat House, which will house the shoreside museum of the Hawaii Maritime Center. Pier 7 used to be the Alkea Wharf, once Honolulu's international steamship dock SEJA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

NEWS where the first automobiles parked with horse-drawn cabs to greet ocean liners and inter-island vessels. Today Pier 7 is home to the museum ship Falls of Clyde, which is being restored and which will be a major attraction of the Maritime Center. The Kalakaua Boat House is named in honor of a club owned and operated by King David K a lakaua, Hawaii ' s Merry Monarch, in the late 1800s and 1900s . The Center , which is scheduled to open in early 1988 , is intended to function not simply as a museum but to serve as a catalyst for educational , cu ltural and vocational programs inspired by Hawaii's rich maritime culture and history as well .

(Hawaii Maritime Center, Pier 7 , Honolulu Harbor , Honolulu, HA 96813 ; 808 523-5511)

FOR THE DAY BOOK 4 July: Fifth Annual Boston Antique & Classic Boat Festival, Charlestown Navy Yard , Boston , MA. Contact Pat Wells , 6 17 666-8530.

30 July-13 September: The Mary Rose Exhibition (see SH37) will be at the Art Gallery of Hamilton , Ontario , 123 King Street West, Hamilton , Ontario L8P4S8 ; 416 527-6610.

September: "Urban WaterThe Ultimate AmenityWater. " The Waterfront Center , 1536 44th Street, NW, Washington , DC 20007 ; 202 337-0356.

17-19

fronts:

17-22 September: Joint meeting of the

International Commission for Oceanic History and the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) at the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum, Patriots Point, SC. Contact Clark G. Reynolds , Patriots Point, PO Box 986, Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464 .

24-25 September: Eight Naval History Symposium at the US Naval Academy.

Contact William B. Cogar, Symposium Director, Dept. of History , US Naval Academy , Annapolis , MD 21402.

28-29 September: Historic Naval Ships Association CHINAS) Annual Meeting .

Contact James W. Cheevers , Executive Secretary , HINAS , US Naval Academy Museum , Annapoli s, MD 21402; 301 267-2108.

*All referen ces to " Brouwer" refer to Norman Brouwer' s International Register of Historic Ships , Sea History Press, 1986.

SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1987

HISTORIC NAVAL MUSEUMS AND SHIPS Throughout the United States there are dozens of historic naval vessels on display; a selected few are listed below. One organization that keeps abreast of developments in the lives of these ships is the

Historic Naval Ship Association of North America (HINAS). They will provide a listing of all naval vessels on display for the asking. CHINAS , US Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, MD 21402).

USS Albacore Portsmouth Submarine Memorial PO Box 4367 Portsmouth, NH 0380 I

Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum * PO Box 986 Pt . Pleasant , SC 29464

USS Constitution Museum Charlestown Navy Yard Boston , MA 02129

Confederate Naval Museum PO Box 1022 Columbu s, GA 31902

USS Massa chusetts Memorial * Battleship Cove Fall River, MA 02721

Submarine Requin Memorial PO Box 261704 Tampa , FL 33685

Providence (Replica Sloop) Seaport '76 Foundation PO Box 76 Newport, RI 02840

USS Alabama Battleship Commission* PO Box 65 Mobile , AL 36601

Naval War College Museum Coaster' s Island Newport, RI 02840

Nautilus Memorial/Submarine Force Library & Museum Naval Submarine Base Groton, CT 06349 Coast Guard Academy Museum US Coast Guard Academy New London , CT 06320 HMS Rose Foundation (Replica Ship) Captain ' s Cove Seaport 1 Bostwick A venue Bridgeport, CT 06605

Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum (Aircraft Carrier) Foot of West 46th Street New York , NY 10036 USS Ling Submarine Memorial Association PO Box 395 Hackensack , NJ 07602 Cru iser Olympia Association* PO Box 928 Penn's Landing Philadelphia , PA 19105 USF Constellation (Frigate) Constellation Dock Baltimore, MD 2 1202 US Naval Academy Museum US Naval Academy Annapolis, MD 2 1402 Naval Memorial Museum Washington Navy Yard Washington , DC 20374 USS North Carolina (Battleship) PO Box 417 Wi lmington , NC 28402

The Cairo Museum 320 I Clay Street Vicksburg, MS 39 180 USS Kidd (D estroyer) Louisiana Naval War Memorial PO Box 44242 Baton Rouge , LA 70804 Battleship Texas State Historical Park 3527 Battleground Road LaPorte, TX 7757 1 Buffalo Naval and Serv icemen ' s Park* I Naval Park Avenue Buffalo, 'NY 14202 US Brig Niagrara 80 State Street Erie, PA 16507 USS Cod (Submari ne) I 089 East 9th Street Cleveland , OH 44 144 U-505 (Submarine) Museum of Science & Industry 57th Street, Lake Shore Drive Chicago, IL 60637

USS Cobia (Submarine) Manitowoc Maritime Museum 75 Maritime Drive Manitowoc, WI 54220 National Maritime Museum* Foot of Polk Street San Francisco , CA 94109 Coast Guard Museum of the Northwest 1519 Alaskan Way South Seattle , WA 98134 Pacific Fleet Submarine Memorial 11 Arizona Memorial Drive Honolulu, HI 96818 * Denotes more than one vessel .

37

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MODELMAKER'S CORNER

A Fifty-Year Building Program

by Ed Antin

Ed Antin remembers hearing the curator of the now defunct Ne w York Museum of Science and Industry tell him that no one person working on his own could complete 1,000 accurately scaled ship models in a lifetime. To an aspiring mode/maker not yet in his teens, standing in that technological wonderland in Rockefeller Center, that must have seemed like quite a challenge. Mr. Antin can look back on a lifetime of achievement as a modellerincluding surpassing that curator's magical number.

I have always had a fasc ination with ships, one which was encouraged by weekend dri ves with my fa ther up Manhattan's West Side in the prewar years when liners gave such presence to the Che lsea Docks-Luxury Liner Row , as it was known. Things have changed quite a bit since the thirties, especiall y in the way of ships , but then there were all manner and sizes of vessels inviting inspection and the curios ity of a youn g boy . Although I cannot re member when I made my first mode l, l have always had a mechanical bent , and whenever I received any sort of building toy, like an erector set, I would in variably try to fas hion a ship out of the parts.

Although I was fi rst entranced by the great liners , it was World War 11 and the naval vessels that played such a vital ro le in that conflict that gave me my greatest impetus as a modeller. In 1942 , I volunteered my services to make a display promoting War Bonds fo r the Navy. lt was February when I was give n the assignment , and by Navy Day , 22 October 1942, I had completed 227 models of which 60 were the fo ur-stack flu sh-deck destroyers that we had pulled out of moihball s during the Battle of the Atlantic, and some of which were commissioned as " Town" cl ass destroyers by the British.

I later worked fo r the Thi rd Naval District making models of German U-boats.

During the height of the Battle of the Atlantic the Allies were sinking anything that they couldn ' t identify immediate ly as one of our own . This included not onl y German submarines , but Allied ones as well , and even the odd whale.

The Navy gave me photographs of Uboats and had me make as highl y detailed models of them as l could manage . These fini shed models-which were about two feet long-were then photographed from different angles in order to build up a body of recognition photos which could be di stributed to our armed forces.

When I graduated from high school in 1943 both the Navy and I wanted me to 40

The Independence (CVA-62) in convoy with an Aegis cruiser and Knox class f rigate.

go into the Special Devices Section to continue work o n thi s and similar projects. But the day l e nli sted , the recrui ters happened to be tak ing people onl y fo r the Sea bees , no matter what one ' s preference. I was ass ured that I could transfer into the Navy at some point , when l had fini shed basic tra ining . But no sooner had I completed training than some of us were shipped out as a unit to a battalion that had been hard hit by the Japanese. T he number of ships I saw as a Seabee was beyond my wildest dreams, and I remember especiall y coming on deck one mornin g in Eni wetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands where we had arrived the prev ious night and seeing fi fteen aircraft carriers and countless other warships and support vessels sharin g the harbor with us.

I spent the re mainder of the war in the Pacific and continued to model as much as I could . While other fri ends wo uld receive food parcels fro m home, l would get small tools and materials fo r modelling . I also had to re ly on whatever materi als were ava il able , so l made a mode l of the destroyer tender Prairie fro m some wood l foun d on Guam . The wood was so hard it had to be worked with a steel fil e. I fas hioned metal fittings from the wreckage of a downed Japanese Zero.

When I couldn ' t model, l made drawings of ships l saw for later reference . l enrolled in courses in naval engineering and mechanical drawing, which greatly increased my ability as a draughtsman , and especiall y my understanding of ship design.

I have always strived to be as acc urate as poss ible in my representati ons of ships, and one reason that I have made so many more models of twe ntieth-cen-

tu ry ships than of earlier vessels is that I do not feel as comfo rtable when I am not able to work from acc urate pl ans or from photographs. Of the 1,001 min iature ( 1: 1200 scale, I in = I OOft) models l have completed, 900 are wars hips or naval auxiliary vessels, 18 are merchant ships (includ ing liners, ferries and cargo vesse ls), 27 are Coast Guard and 56 are " hi storic" ships ranging fro m a pair of Roman galleys of the first century , th ro ugh the ships of Columbus, to shi ps of the earl y steam navies of Eng land and the United States . In addition to these miniature models, I worked on larger fractional-scale (for example, II I 6in = 1ft) models, though not to as great an extent.

My mode ls are all hand-crafted and I pay spec ial attention to the detail s of the fi ttings . Since earl y on in my career, I have used basswood fo r the hull. I use brass and other metals for the funne ls, masts , yards, booms and gun barrels and I machine the latter on a small lathe. At fi rst I used c ut-up business cards fo r the decks , but later changed to styrene which has several advantages , not the least bei ng that it can be sanded . All guns above 40mm are reproduced . The gun tubs are made of metal .004in thick .

Because of the di versity of the materials that have to be bonded to one another, I developed special fill ers and adhesives to use in asse mbling the mode ls. Even in miniatures I built thirty-fi ve years ago , there are still no signs of shrinkage, cracki ng or fl akin g. When a model required lattice-type towers, I made these in the same way as the ir counterparts on the original ships. In addi tion to the vertical posts, 1 added hori zontal bars and sway braces . It is not unusual fo r one of SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

Below, a model of the United States as she looked in 1952 and, lower photo, the USS New Jersey flanked by two Forrest Sherman class destroyers.

my abilities. Bringing the total number of ships in the collection to more than a thousand has been fun and rewarding, although when one considers that the average model takes more than forty hours to complete , it is easy to see that it)las not been achieved casually. But I don't believe that master craftsmen are born: they are made--or make themselvesthrough perseverence, determination , patience and imagination . This is a oneof-a-kind collection of immense historical importance through which one can examine 1900 years of the development of naval history. .t Ed Antin with J2 of his 1,00 J models.

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these lattice towers to have up to fifty or sixty parts , while being not more than 3/4in tall.

I have made a practice o_f examining my work periodically to see what materials best stand the test of time and to see how I might make improvements in my overall technique. I have located just about every new material or adhesive that has been brought to my attention over the years and tested them for their usefulness. Figuring out what the best materials are, and how best to use them, is partly ANTIQUE & MODERN

MARINE CHRONOMETERS Bought, Sold and Serviced

the result of trial and error--of which I o have had ample experience. At one time, :i:b I tried cobwebs to represent the tackle o.. which operated a ship' s boom , but these Mr. Antin's collection of 1,001 miniawere so fragile that they could be ripped ture models has been transferred to ¡ apart just by breathing on them . I origiWheaton College, who as trustees are nally rigged a model of the steamship selling the collection in its entirety. ProSavannah of 1819 with human hair. All ceeds of the sale will go towards finanwent well until the first rain, when the cial assistance for needy students. For hair curled and ripped the model apart. information about the collection, please Not only have the materials and contact David A. Teune, Manager of techniques changed and , for the most Investments and Trusts, Wheaton Co/part , improved over the years , so have Lege: 800 325-8718.

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41

Finding and Saving the Last Antique Freighters

by Michael J. Krieger In 1966 as a naive young man, I concluded a contract with the Indonesian government which "allowed " me to buy timber that their soldiers were cutting in Sumatra. Subsequentl y I fo und myself chartering and sailing the o ldest and cheapest freighters I could find into the jungle ri vers of Sumatra to pick up my cargo. The ships were wonderful , old , prewar steamers of between 1,500 and 5,300 deadweight tons. It was, as they say, the best of times and the worst of times. The risks involved in chartering ships to that remote area were enormous .

The Indonesian army was not exactl y the world 's best trading partner and I was greener than the healthiest lawn . Still , it was heady business fo r a twenty-sixyear-old and one that I never fo rgot.

Nor could I fo rget the shi ps. They were built during the ' thirties in England , Scotl and and Norway; with their majestic steamer funn els and massive triple-expansion eng ines, they were vesti ges of another era . Below deck, they gleamed with po li shed hardwoods, exqui site pane ling and old-world j oinery of a quality never to be seen again-on either freighter or liner. The men were out of another time, too. The crews were Hong Kong or Singapore Chinese. T he bosuns, also Chinese, were usuall y powerful , stoic and silent men. They projected an aura of dependability and confidence that permeated the whole ship . The Scandinavian o ffi cers were mostly old China hands who had been kicking around every rum port between Yokohama and Sidney since before the war. They drank, they had di gnity and they knew their business. For me, the ex perience-while sometimes fin anciall y terrifying-was an advanced education in the real wo rld .

I eventuall y left the Far East and the shipping business . Ten years later I left business altogether and began writing.

Among my plans was to document the oldest freighters (and their people) still sailing in various parts of the world . The ships were disappearing at a faster rate than anyone realized , and so was a way of life entirely different from the containeri zed world of the intermodal freight system.

During the late 1970s and earl y 1980s a shift in economic conditions around the world created an overabundance o f cargo carri ers relati ve to the ava il able freight. New ships, sometimes onl y fo ur or fi ve years o ld , could be purchased fo r little more than their scrap value , and old vessels were scrapped ri ght and left as ship owners traded fo r better vessels.

Today, apart fro m Great Lakes bulk carriers, there are probabl y no prewar freighters over 2,000 gross tons still in 42

The Yattero on.Lake Miilar, Stockholm , where she was built in 1916 . Photo by Judy Howard.

servi ce. They are, generall y speakin g, extinct. Even some of the old vessels I managed to fi nd and record in my book Tramp' have been scrapped in the few years since I was on them- the Savi/co of 1938 , the Lambros of 1940-49, and the Buga of 1926.

What will become of the few remaining antique coasters? Wi ll the maritime mu seums of the worl d come to their rescue at the last moment and snatch them fro m the j aws of the ship breakers? Probabl y not. There are far more square-ri gged ships in the world 's maritime museums than there are fre ighters fro m the age of steam . To my knowledge, there is onl y one prewar cargo vessel saved in any mariti me museum- the Robin of 1899 , preserved in London by the Maritime Trust of Great Britain . If the las t antique fre ighters are to be saved , it will require action by individuals. Thi s is not as farfetched as it might seem . 2 What vessels do still ex ist are some of the last prewar coasters, built between 1900 and 1925. There are perh aps twenty to twenty-five still operating and basica ll y in their ori ginal condition . The majority of these vessels are to be fo und in Norway, Finl and , Denmark and Turkey; a few others are scattered th roughout Afri ca, Asia and Latin America.

Most of these coasters would be relati vely simple to restore to the ir ori ginal configurations, at least as far as hull and dec khouse are concerned . Some of them 1. Tramp: Sagas of High Adventure in. the Van ishing World of the Old Tramp Freighters, Michael J. Kri eger, fwd. Peter

Stanford (Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1986 , l43pp, illus, $38hb/ppd ; available fro m Sea History Press , 132 Maple St. , Croton-on-Hudson, NY 11 2 17).

2. A major effort to restore the sieamer Yavari (1862-70) is underway on Peru 's Lake Titicaca, under the direction of Meriel Larken. This World Sh ip Trust project was written up in SEA HISTORY 4 1.

still have the ir ori g inal chain steerin g, auxiliary steerin g and quadrants. In virtuall y all cases, they have been repowered with diesel engines, though some of the replacements are themselves antiques.

Many of the smaller coasters would make wonderful yachts. They are usuall y between 1OOft and l 50ft long; they have quarters for a dozen or more passengers and crew, bunker capacity to cross oceans and they can generall y be well ballasted . They are also as pleasing to the eye as any twelve-meter yac ht. They may be more ex pensive to maintain than some yachts, but that is more than o ffset by their comparati vely low purchase price . T he present owners would all as k a price that will all ow them to purchase a more modern vessel, but there is still a glut of cargo vessels in many parts of the world , and that will not necessaril y inflate the cost too much . Jn most cases a coaster could be purchased fo r no more than $200,000. For the buyer, bes ides the joy of owning one of the rarest and most unique ships in the world , there is the additiona l benefit of a tax deduction if eventuall y the ship is given to a maritime mu seum .

If you are interested in findin g and buying an antique coaster, you can find the names of ship brokers th rough the embassy or consul ate of the country concern ed. A letterto a reputabl e ship broker should bring results. Should yo u purchase an o ld coaster, I would apprec iate a note with the name o f your vessel, a few specs and if possible a photograph , sent in care of the NMHS . Two owners who might a lready be interested in selling the ir ships are: Mr. G. Akar , owner of the Aksel ( 19 13), Aksel Deni zc ilik Ye Tic. A.S., Karamuistafapasa Sok . No. 30, Kat 2 Karakoy, Istanbul , Turkey; and Mr. H. Kalkavanalar, owner of the Nebil ( 19 14) , Lak lavan H .A., Adaham Kat, Eski Gumruk Sokak , Kara koy, Istanbul , Turkey. w SEA HIISTORY , SUMMER 1987

REVIEWS

THE BOOK LOCKER A new generation of naval writers has come on the scene-and a good thing, too! He irs of the disciplines developed earlier in this century by Robert Greenhalgh Albion and Sa muel Eliot Mori son, they are trained in stati stics and are wont to go straight to sources and weigh conflicting ev idence w ith carerather than repeat old myths , a weakness somehow particul arly prevale nt among histori ans of the military arts . T hey are also he irs of the cheerful , we ll-info rmed iconoclas m of Theodore Ropp , the insightful , quietl y assured judg ments of Bernard Brodie and the eno rmo us thirst fo r fac tual verac ity of Arthur J . Marder.

To many who read thi s, perhaps, these are just names; but these are people who brought order and clarity to an all too murky fi e ld .

If the new generation has a common quality, it is an attention to character as the determining factor in success or fai lure in naval operations. That is a frui tful approach , for example, to learning the story of the USS Constitution which more than any other ship bred up distinguished leaders, was served by excellent captains in war (see pages 14- 16) and continues, today, to inspire a nd instruct the officers and sailors of the US Navy.

A rewarding way to begin to i:;xplore the Navy of the Warof 18 12 is a brilli ant new biograph y of the Constitution's bestloved captain who was also , most people recogni ze , her ablest skipper a nd most dazzlingly effecti ve combat c o mmander.

Linda M. Maloney ' s The Captainfrom Connecticut: The Life and Naval Times of Isaac Hull (Northeastern Uni versity Press, Boston, 1986) shows us a great man in the round , with his hurts and di sappo intments as well as hi s triumphs and the deep affection and loyalty he elic ited from hi s crews and , fo r the most part , from hi s offi cers. Toward the end of his career, when he was the old halfdeaf hero of a war more than ha lf passed into legend , some officers who served under him did not share this admiration .

They could be contemptuous of hi s almost naive sense of justice a nd devoti on to duty, and of hi s open , countryman' s ways. He did not understand careerist ambition. To him , as Ms. Maloney points out , it was an utte rl y fo reign thought that "one could use the navy to one ' s own benefit. " She catches his guiding lights aptly when she says: " Isaac Hull believed that duty and honor- li ve honor, not the synthetic pu ff 'defended ' by pistols at daw n- were the best guides in life .' ' Not just the Constitution, but the Navy and the nation were fo rtunate that a SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1987

leader, who could instill effecti ve discipline and inspire such devoted service, came along when he did . In showing how these things come about in a notalways-favorable environment , Linda Maloney has done a signal service, not onl y to Hull 's memory but to an important chapter of naval hi story.

Command Under Sail: Makers of the American Naval Tradition, 1775 -1 850, edited by James C . Bradfo rd (Naval Institute Press , Annapolis, MD , 1985) is a collection of essays on the li ves and careers of the surprisingly di verse people who led the Continental Navy and then the newl y established US Navy throu gh the alarms of the Tripo li Wars, the sloop and fri gate actions of 1812 , and on into the years of expansion into the Pacific.

There are few common threads among these twelve lives, ranging from the dyspeptic , severe Edward Preble to the generous humanity of Isaac Hull , and from the narrow provincialism of the Continental Navy ' s Esek Hopkins to the broad expansionism of Robert F. Stockton, who hoisted the Stars and Stripes over California in 1846 .

The writing by a dozen di ffe rent authors is uneven , as one might expect.

Linda Maloney's appreciation of Isaac Hull seems curiously wooden compared to the glorious full -dress biography she publi shed the fo llowing year. An appreciation of the das hing Stephen Decatur by John H . Schroeder sets fo rth the Hotspur-like qualities of a national idol who fe ll in a (to our eyes) senseless due l.

And the notorious " bad luck" of William Bainbridge, Craig Symonds convincingly suggests, ori ginated largely, if not entire ly, in his blind adherence to rigid , authoritari an patterns of thinking which also had the ill-effect of making him a suspicious, jealous person and cast shadows on a career otherwise distingui shed by dri ve, unquestioned courage and considerable ability .

The book is an outstanding example of what one may see as the new , and most we lcome school of naval hi stori ography , which looks at people ' s li ves in a noveli stic, story-telling way, seekin g to revivify the scenes they moved in , through scholarly development of context as we ll as incident. The editor notes in hi s preface that an effort is made to avoid what the author call s " Whiggish anachronism'' - the illusion that because the US Navy is supre me at sea today , events were trending to that end 150 years ago .

Jack Tars and Commodores: The American Navy, 1783-1815, by William M. Fowler, Jr. (Houghton Mifflin , Bos-

ton, 1984) is another work in thi s school, which takes up the tale of the difficult early years when, with fa lse starts, fallbac ks and inspiring successes , the nation dec ided to have a navy. Professo r Fowler's fe licitous narrative style and solidly grounded research carries thi s kaleidoscopic story fo rward with admirable clarity and color.

Now and then a small scholarly query flits like a barn swallow above the threshing fl oor. Was Joshua Humphreys in the 1790s reall y "by common consent America's best and most experienced designer" ?

Chapelle thought not. He was just conveniently at hand , and his partner John Wharton was an advisor to General Knox, who as Secretary of War was called on to produce specs and estimates and finall y plans for the Constitution and her sisters. And the post of clerk given to Humphreys' brilliant young colleague Josiah Fox was not so humble a post. "Clerk" was an administrative title, and clerks quite often had secretaries to assist them . These are, however, small and perhaps arguable po ints.

Fowler' s conclusions on Humphreys' and Fox's roles in the design of the big fri gate seem forthright and balanced.

A good popular presentation of our oldest commissioned warship is Old Ironsides: An Illustrated History of USS Constitution by the late sailor-journalist Captain Paul Morgan, USNR (ret. ) (Yankee Books , Dublin , NH , 3rd ed. , 1980).

Photographs made aboard give you a pictorial tour. of the ship, and these are supplemented by a lively recounting of old tales and battles . A Most Fortunate Ship, by Captain Tyrone G . Martin , USN (ret. ) (Globe-Pequot Press , Chester, CT , 1980) provides a fuller narrative of the fri gate's career including her long, peaceful life after 18 12, cruising around the world , then rotting at pierside, rediscovered and rebuilt again and again since Oliver Wendell Holmes firs t summoned the schoolchildren of America to save her in 1830--all told by the naval officer who served as her master in the mid- I 970s.

The United States Navy: 200 Years,

by Captain Edward L. Beach , US N (ret. ) (Henry Holt & Co. , New York , 1986) is an interpreti ve hi story focusing on key events and developments leading to the ri se of the US Navy to its present preeminence on the high seas. Captain Beach, submarine skipper in World War II and the firs t to take a submarine around the wo rld submerged all the way (the USS Triton, in 1960) is also the author of best-selling novels of submarine li fe.

With thi s history we are in the hands of a master who rea lly knows the sea roads he takes us down.

PETER STANFORD 43

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44

The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy , N.A.M . Rodger (Naval Institute Press, Annapo li s , MD, 1986 , 445pp ; illus, $2 1.95 hb) This exami nation of the conditions of li fe in Great Britain ' s Royal Navy in the middle years of the eighteenth century lets needed fresh air and sunlight into a world shut away and largely unknown to landsmen even at the time. The Navy's world , Rodger finds, was not unmitigated he ll , and its ships were not " floating concentration camps" as has been claimed so often. His research records a high proportion of married men aboard the ships (higher, evidentl y, than in the US merchant marine in the 1930s, for instance) , and a lesser proportion of men killed in action in the Seven Years' War than were lost in the US merchant marine in World War II. We need such carefully developed statistics to replace sensational generalizations about the actual conditions of shipboard life during oceanic wars that so shaped our world two hundred-odd years ago. But Rodger brings us more than mere numbers or a sense of the frequency or probability of things; he tells us often in the men 's own words how and even why things happened as they did .

It is in the close-up scenes of li fe aboard ship that the book begins to reveal the largely unsuspected ways of a vanished world-a world , " ruled chiefl y by the vertical links of patronage and personal loyalty which bound a ship ' s company, officers and men, together." We find ourselves , as the author observes , in "a worl d in which a captai n in the face of the enemy could fo rmall y consult all his men on whether to fight or no , or in which a seaman in trouble might naturall y go and speak to the commander-inchief in a coffee-house."

The way customs work in a world so different from our own is illustrated in Rodger' s fascinating examination of the system known as " preferment," in which officers were advanced on the recommendation of influential patrons. Rodger shows that the very pressure put on the concept made it work with surprising fairness-for an admiral or nobleman would not risk his reputation by recommending an inferior candidate , and would go to some lengths, on occasion , to reach out for a candidate who distinguished himself.

And the better his batting average, the more weight his word carried . The rank of one's patron counted ; but it wasn't everything, as more than one lord 's son fo und to his chagri n.

Certainly the system produced Briti sh officers of unparalleled fighting ability

and elan, as the record of worldwide sea warfare in this era attests . To complete the picture of thi s system , Rodger cites an interventio n by the fa mous Admiral Hawke, victor of Quiberon Bay. He asked for two carpenters to be allowed to exchange ships so that they could remain at the ports where the ir families li ved . " It is impossible," wrote the notoriously cantankerous ad mi ra l, " to deny the ask ing of small favo urs for officers that have served with one and behaved well. " Our world of maritime history is fo rtunate to have Mr. Rodger in it. Now in his mid-30s , he is trained in statistical records and serves as Hon . Secretary of the Navy Records Society. But he brings to his subject a rare common-sense feel for the ways of ships and men, and a sense of val ue that brings one to recogni ze the force of the concluding words of Hawke's recommendation- to have "served with one and behaved well. " Words of the highest praise in the wooden world , which is perhaps not so different from our world after all.

P ETER STANFORD

The Left-Handed Monkey Wrench, Ri chard McKenna, ed . Robert Shenk (Naval Institute Press , Annapolis, MD , 1986 , 353pp , illus , $ 19.95ppd/hb) Ri chard McKenna gives the reader an inside look at our naval forces in the Far East during the 1930s. The author served as a machinist' s mate in the unarmed stationship USS Gold Star, which comes to li fe as the USS Stella Maris in his unfinished novel, The Sons of Martha , and in the Yangtze Ri ver gunboat USS Luzon, which plays herself in " K ing's Horseman ." After twenty-two years of naval service, McKenna retired , took a college degree and began a promising literary career which was cut short by hi s untimely death in 1964. This collection gathers together hi s best short stories and essays for the first time .

The central character in most of these stories li ves in the disciplined world below decks, but is always struggli ng wi th the spiritual questions: " Why am I here? Where am I going?'' In hi s quest fo r answers, McKenna explores and interprets a wide variety of themes , from the need for our military presence abroad to naval di scipline and the intimate responsibility marine engineers feel for the machinery under the ir care.

Readers who have slipped down the ladder into the engine room will immedi ately sense the descriptive power of McKenna ' s writing. There is the forlorn , abandoned feeling of a dead ship under SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

repair in the yard; there are detailed accounts of how to make a gasket, scrape a bearing, align a crosshead slipper and how to hand crank li fe into the stalled engine of a flooded whaleboat. T hroughout , there is the mystical belief that an engineer should have an instinctive feelin g for the well being of the plant, even the idea that eng ines themselves have rights .

McKenna 's writing is permeated by his appreciation for the aesthetics of machinery and hi s best prose is saved for the description of such things as the motion of a rec iprocating steam engine .

Robert Shenk 's editorial comments bring the assorted works into perspective and Tom Freeman's excellent penci l sketches illu strate the ships in whic h McKenna served.

RONALD R . BURKE As a young man Mr . Burke worked on steam ferries and freight boats out of Bremerton , Washington. Today he practices architecture in Seattle.

Engine Room Sea Stories , Charles Tillman (C. Tillman , 6029 Romany Road , Oakland , CA 946 18, 108pp, illus, $ 10hb/ppd) Engine Room Sea Stories is a real source of in format ion about American shipping from 193 1 to 1945 , written from the perspective of a young man who rose from wiper to chief engineer. His commentary covers employment practices, unionism, licensing and human relations aboard ship . But the heart of his writing is in the day-to-day operation of the heart of the vessel- the engines, boilers and auxiliary machinery.

Mr. Tillman's experience spans coastwise and deep-sea voyages and includes service on fiv e Liberty ships in the combat years. As a former member of the black gang , l think thi s is a clear , detailed account of a neglected aspect of life at sea . You reall y smell the cy linder oi l, and yo u hear the clang of a wrench dropRRB ped on the floo r plates.

A Northern Saga, Steven C . Lawrence (John Curley & Associates , South Yarmouth , MA, 1986 ( 1976 repr.) , 467pp, $ 18.95 hb/$ 16 .95 pb) Reading A Nothem Saga, the utter waste and horror of the Battle of the Atlantic was all brought home to me again .

Technically , Lawrence has pictured the Liberty ship exactly. He has also captured the very essence of li fe in a Liberty ship at war. The dialogue is excell ent; the constant bitching , arguing and ranting in the crew's messroom has a loud rin g of authenticity. The officers are equally true to life , especially the Captain and the Cadet.

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THE MAN WHO BURNED THE WHITE HOUSE ByA.J. Pack THE WOODEN WORLD An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy ByN.A.M. Rodger Here is an in -depth look at life aboard an English warship during the mid-eighteenth century. This study covers a wide range of topics, including the place of children and animals in shipboard life, food and health practices, the incidence of mutiny and desertion, and more.

446 pages. 11 apps. Bibliog. Glossary. 6V2x 9V" List price: $21.95

Anatomy of the Ship THE IOO·GUN SHIP VICTORY

By John McKay This tenth volume in the highly acclaimed Anatomy of the Ship series provides the most detailed description and illustrations of Nelson's famous flagship available anywhere. A pictorial section contains numerous clear photographs emphasizing close-up and onboard views of ship equipment and spaces. Over 300 perspective and three -view drawings, with fully descriptive keys, illustrate every detail of the ship, including hull construction, masts and yards, armament, rigging, decoration, and fittings.

120 pages. 300 illus. 9'12x10. List price : $21.95

THEIANDING AT VERACRUZ, 1914

By Jack Sweetman From both the U.S. and Mexican sides, the author fully describes the events that precipitated the raid ordered by President Wilson, the landing and seizure of the customs house that resulted in hundreds of deaths, and the aftermath. Sweetman uses his father's vivid recollections and those of other crewmen to produce an entertaining narrative.

221 pages. 32 illus. App. Index. 6x9.

List price: $21.95

This study tells the story of Sir George Cockburn, the colorful British admiral who planned and executed the burning of Washington. While its emphasfli is on the significant role Cockburn played in the war against the United States, this biography covers his full career - from a rising young naval officer to First Sea Lord and Admiral of the Fleet.

288 pages. Bibliog. 6x9. List price: $21.95.

WARRIOR: The World's First Ironclad Then and Now

By Andrew Lambert Here is a detailed look at the first iron-hulled warship and the ambitious British ship-restoration project undertaken to bring her back to life. Full documentation of the Warrior's construction is provided along with many of the plans drawn up for the restoration and numerous photographs of the ship and her fittings.

192 pages. 150 photos. 40 line drawings. Apps.

Bibliog. Index. 8V2 x10. List price: $19.95.

ICEBOUND: The Jeannette Expedition's Quest for the North Pole

By Leonard F. Guttridge This riveting account of America's unsuccessful quest for the North Pole in 1879 and the cover-up that followed reads like a Gothic mystery, with a cast of characters usually found only in fiction.

296 pages. 39 illus. Bibliog. Index. 6x9.

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NICHOIAS POCOCK, 1740· 1821

By David Cordingly This beautifully illustrated biography describes the life and work of one of the greatest figures of 18th·century English marine painting. It contains a history of Pocock's careers as a sailor and artist and many reproductions of his works in both black and white and full color.

128 pages. 84 illus. 2 apps. Bibliog. Index. 7V2x 9:Y...

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REVIEWS

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The story te l Is of the Liberty ship John Maso n delivering 8,000 tons of guns and ammunition to the Russians on the dreaded Murmansk run . It is fi ction based on fac t , and l suspect that the author was the book's ordinary seaman, Keith . Although as maritime hi story the saga would have greater impact were it not fi ctionalized , thi s book does say it all . As one who li ved and sailed in the same kind of ship during those years, I strongly recommend this book--especially to those who didn 't.

F RAN K F. FARRAR

Captain Farrar' sown stories of seafaring in the years befor e and during World War II will be published this year by Sea History Press . Two of these appeared originally in SEA HISTORY.

The English Channel , Nigel Calder (Viking-Penguin , New York ; Penguin Books, Harmondsworth , UK , 1986, 373pp, illus, $22. 50hb) Calder, an Engli sh physici st and science writer, is a man happy in hi s workand he positi vely revels in the descriptions of geological change , na val battles , fi sheries and seaborne trades which shaped the natural and cultural hi story of that remarkable tidal sluiceway, the Engli sh Channel (or the Sleeve , as the French and Spani sh call it. ) Hi s vehicle literally is the small ketch that he and his wife sail along both coasts of the Channel. '' A time machine that lets us share the experiences of a hundred generations of seafa rers,' ' he calls hi s boatfa ir enough !

His frame of reference embraces Caesar ' s opinion of the superior boats of the Veneti (the Celtic tribe that ruled the Breton shore when the conquering Roman arri ved), and the origins of the ancient trade which brought Mediterranean wines to England before the Roman legions came on the scene , cutting across the neck of Brittany by means of the Rance Ri ver (whose tides are used today to generate fantastic quantities of cheap electricity) , hopping across the Channel and then fo ll owing sleepy streams into the interior of England. It reac hes out to include the soci al organizati on of the present-day Bretons as they rall y, vill age by vill age , to protest oil spill age fro m a wrecked tanker on their shore.The ul timate product of all the fi ghts, sea traffics and mucking about in the Channel over the past three milleni a may be, Calder suggests, the evolution and dispersion fro m the chops of the Channel right aro und the world of the Engli sh language- a complex and difficult tongue embodying elements fro m Celts, RoSEA HISTORY , SUMM ER 1987

mans , Germans , Scandinavians and French who came in their successive waves across the Channel. This twisty tongue which carries so much history in it, rather than some rational language like Esperanto, is today the nearest thing we have to a universal language of the family of man. Calder is a wise man who takes history whole, and conveys it to us full of life and meaning. He is a poet who deals with the meanings of events, as well as a scientist able to measure their dimensions and impact. He is one of that rare, valuable breed who function in what C. P . Snow called the two cultures.

And he brings us from that voyaging a rich and most rewarding cargo .

PS The North Sea: A Highway of Economic and Cultural Exchange , eds .

Ame Bang-Andersen, Basil Greenhill & Egil Harald Grude (Norwegian University Press , Oslo; Oxford University Press , NYC, 278pp, illus, $45.00 hb).

A body of water is generally perceived as a barrier. Once when a heavy storm blocked traffic accross the English Channel , British headlines proclaimed " Continent Isolated " . But water, though at times a formidable barrier, not only isolates; it can also promote exchanges .

This book shows , among other things , how the North Sea furthered the flow of people , goods and ideas among the countries bordering on it.

Experts from Britain, Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands and Germany have contributed articles covering everything from the Ice Age to oi l rigs . Topics include the evolution of the sea, changes in its climate , ships, trade , migrations and cultural diffusion .

The articles are all high standard. The first, dealing with the development of the sea, may need updating . As recently as 7 ,500 years ago , just before the start of recorded history, the southern part of the sea was dry, but' 'whether there were land areas in the northern North Sea where people could live is more doubtful . . . no finds indicating such habitation have been reported . . . . " Since publication of the book , British geologists have found a 12 ,000-year-old flint tool on the sea floor and concluded that a 20 ,000 square kilometer island did exist between the Shetland Islands and Norway. As the Ice Age glaciers melted, this island and the southern parts of the sea were submerged.

Such recent findings in no way detract from the quality of the book or from its usefulness. The North Sea is a book written by special ists , but it is not necessarily written for specialists. Although few SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

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47

REVIEWS people will be interested in all the articles included , almost everyone interested in maritime history will find some articles worthwhile.

GARY KETELS Mr. Ketels, a historian, lives in Munich.

Dictionary of Ship Types: Ships, Boats and Rafts under Oar and Sail , Alfred Dudszus and Ernest Henriot , tr. Keith Thomas (S heridan House, Dobbs Ferry, NY ; Conway Maritime , London , 1987 , 25lpp, illus, $45 .00hb) This book bears some resemblance to Bjorn Landstri:im 's well known Lore of the Ship- particul ary in its line drawings-but it is more definitive and illustrative. Photographs and paintings reproduced in color and black and white breathe life and a touch of romance into these pages, as a seemingly endless parade of the world 's ship types passes by .

Interspersed throughout this panoply of vessels from the aak ("a ketch rigged

sailing cargo ship used from the Middle Ages to the end of the nineteenth century ") to the zulu (" a Scottish fishing vessel with two masts rigged with lugsails, and introduced around 1880" ) one reads of the dghaisa , a Maltese water taxi; the hale, a cousin of the pirogue and used on the Atlantic coast of France for transporting grain ; and the ma-yangtzu , a junk found on the Yangtze River.

Dr. Dudszus and Mr. Henriot are particulary to be congratulated for including references to archaeological finds such as the first-century Roman ships found in Lake Nemi (and whose remains were largely destroyed during World War II) and the seventh-century Yassi Ada (Turkey) ship whose discovery fills a gap in our understandi ng of the development of naval architecture in the West. The authors also include entries about several individual hi storic vessels. Despite their good inte ntions in highlighting a few

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ships which epitomize the achievements of their day , they have done so to the exclusion of additional vessel types . In their introduction they note that the archives on which they drew include some 4 ,000 different vessel types , on ly half of which are represented here . But this in no way detracts from the overall excellence and usefulness of this well researched and handsome book.

LI NCOLN PAINE The Quest of Simon Richardson: A Biography, Dorothy Richardson (David & Charles , Inc. , North Pomfret , VT , 1986, 172pp, illus , $22.95hb) No one knows exactly where Simon Richardson died , or exactly how , or when , but what little is known about his death is amply compensated for in this unsentimental tribute to his life by his mother, Dorothy Richardson.

In 1977 , 25-year-old Simon set off with a crew of 6--including the celebrated Arctic explorer, H. W . Tilman , age 79-from Southhampton, bound for the South Shetland Islands via Rio de Janeiro. The goal was to climb Mt. Foster, one of the most inaccessible peaks in the Antarctic. They sailed from Rio on 1 November, and vanished without a trace.

Simon's mother discovered his diaries after his death . She ably describes events which shaped him and those which he himself so single-minded ly shaped himself. Clearly she means us to draw solace from a life lived without comprom ise, and the reader does, while lamenting its mysterious end.

HAL FESSENDEN Mr. Fessenden is a member of the NMHS Publications Committee.

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Fro01 SEA HISTORY PRESS International Register of Historic Ships by Norman J . Brouwer. More than 700 vessels are included in this authoritati ve historical and photographic guide w ith e ssenti al data. Indispensible fo r reference, it also makes excellent reading.

368pp. 230 x 270mm . 400 illu strati ons . $28.95. Shipping: = $2. 75 domestic, $3.50 outside the USA .

The Maritime History of the World (2 volumes). Embracing the period from 5000 BC to the present , thi s major work by the maritime authors Duncan Haws and Alex A. Hurst deals with wars, trade, exploration , slavery , piracy, jurisprudence, developments in navigatio n and ship design, conditions aflo at and numerous other subjects. The text is arranged chronolog icall y and interspe rsed with hi storical commentaries , setting the various periods in the perspective of world hi story. Thi s is not onl y a magnificent reference work , encyc lopaedi c in range, but one which makes fa sci nating reading . In two large volumes printed o n 960 pages of art paper including 3 1 maps, 200 illu strations (62 in color) and over 100 pages of index with 26 ,000entries; 304 x 222mm. $135. Shipping: = $4. 50 domestic, $7 .50 outside the USA. Anton Otto Fischer, Marine Artist by Katrina Sigsbee Fi scher and Alex A. Hurst. A comprehensive and loving look at the arti st ' s li fe and work as seen by h is daughter. Beautifull y produced on art paper with many personal photos, the arti st' s prelimin ary sketches, and 200 o f hi s fini shed works, 103 in full co lor. 259pp . 230 x 290mm . 23 5 illustrati ons, 103 in color. $50. Shipping: = $2.75 domestic , $3.50 outside the USA. Stobart by John Stobart with Robert P . Dav is. The leading marine arti st of our day sets forth hi s life and achievements in his ow n words and pictures. Presented in full color, fine art reproducti ons with extensive notes. 208pp. 232 x 388 mm . 60 full -page illustrati ons, 50 s ke tches and drawings. $75. Shipping: = $3. 00 domestic , $4.00 outside the US A. Peking Battles Cape Horn by Capt. Irving Johnson. A spirited account of a young man's voyage round Cape Ho rn in the Peking with a thoughtful after-word written 48 years later. Fore word by Peter Stanford and a bri ef hi story of the Peking by Norman Bro uwer. 182pp. 130 x 190mm. Photos by the author. Hardback onl y. $11.95. Shipping: = $ 1.50 domestic, $2.25 outside the USA. Operation Sail 1986/Salute to Liberty . The official commemorati ve book , published by OpSail ' 86 , includes descriptions of more than I00 of the offic ial participants in the parade of sail , a hi story of OpSail , a look back at Jul y 4, 1886 , a hi story of the Statue of Liberty and a li st of more than 125 maritime museums and collections around the country. 64pp , full-co lor, pb . $5. Shipping: = $ 1.00 domestic; $2. 00 outside the USA .

The Passage Makers by Michael Sta mmers. Covering all aspects of the legendary Li verpoo l Bl ack Ball Line o f clippers and the background to the ir operations. 530pp . 244 x 190mm _ 120 pl ates etc. $31.75. Shipping: = $2. 75 domesti c, $3. 50 outside the USA .

Shipwrecks and Archaeology: The Unharvested Sea, early underwater archaeo logy by a pioneer of the fi e ld , by Peter Throckmorton: hard-cover, illus, index, 260pp . $17.75 (shipping included) The Captain from Connecticut: The Life and Naval Times of Isaac Hull by Linda M . Maloney. An impressive and readable study of Isaac Hull and the earl y American Navy in which he so abl y served , written by a consummate scholar. Illustrated , with notes and index . 549pp . 160 x 254mm . $45.00. Shipping: = $2.75 domestic , $3.50 outside the US A. Sail Training Ships and Programs, 1987 Directory edited by Nancy Hu ghes Richardson, American Sail Training Assoc iation. Fifth edition includes 125 sail training organi zati ons, 135 US and Canadian ships and a 1987-92 international tall ships race schedule. Many illu strations. IOOpp. 2 15 x 280mm . $8.00. Shipping: = $ 1.50 domesti c , $2. 00 outside the USA.

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A Little-known Incident of World War II

How WE CLOSED THE PORT OF NEW YoRK

by Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr. Mr. Meyer told this story aboard his vessel Nawat II, on 22 June 1985, and Karl Kortum wrote it down . Mr. Meyer and Mr. Kortum are trustees ofNMHS.

As a US Navy ROTC graduate of Yale, I was called to acti ve duty in March of 194 1. My first assignment was as Executi ve Officer of a minesweeper named the Goldcrest , a former Boston fish traw ler.

I had been around boats all my life- but mostly sai lboats . I next fo und myself in command of the Nawat, a Navy harbor tug. This was in December 194 1 and lasted until March of 1942 when I went to the YMS-20 , a small wooden minesweeper.

I spent almost a year in command of th is craft (no radar, no sound gear, no training and no experience) sweeping and patrolling from New York to Delaware . The YMS-20 was 126ft long .

The Nawar, my first command , came with a regul ar Navy First Class Motor Machinist- he thought Reserve ensigns were the lowest thing that crawled , lower than the ship ' s cat. But , I can tell you, it was reassuring to me to have an old pro like that aboard , in spite of occasional grow ls from the engine roo m: " Jesus Christ, what do yo u think I' ve got dow n here?' ' The engine was an Atlas diesel and you had to shoot the air to it. The trouble was, I was new to maneuvering a vessel like that and I used up the compressed air. You started it up with compressed air- if you stopped and started up again , if you went into reverse . . . all these maneuvers took air. " What do you think I've got down here , a squirrel in a cage?' ' the First Class Motor Machinist would ask me contemptuously .

Our task was to help put out the antisubmarine nets and booms across Ambrose Channel. December and January in NY harbor! On a tug built in Houston!

There was no heating system. When we were alongs ide the dock I ran a cord as hore to run a little electric heater in my cabin . The shower was a little cubicle down on deck . At 10 below I would leap out of my quarters , plunge down a ladder, run along the sizzling cold steel plates of the main deck and lock myself in the cubicle . Then a race against time to somehow mi x steam with the shower water before yo u were scalded on one hand or frozen stiff on the other.

In the spring (and summer) of 1942 , German submarines were sinking ships three miles off the coast in full view of bathers. It was the worst time in the war for us-we were caught flat-footed and

50

Ensign Schuyler M . Meyer , Jr ., No vember 194 1.

unprepared , the Navy in particul ar. In the YMS-20 we wo uld sweep at night and do escort duty during the day . There was suspicion of fi shing boats-it was thought that they might be refu eling the German subs. One dark night , reall y dark , we saw something .. . we came close. We put the spotli ght on him . It turned out to be a fi shing boat. We told him to stop-he was slow about it. We manned the three-inch fifty .

Three thousand gallons of high grade diesel on board . .. not a fish. But what could you do? We let him go. You couldn ' t prove anything .

About 1940 they gave up the old channel approaching New York and used " The Gorge" --out to Ambrose lightship and then southeast. It very quickly becomes 80 fathoms. One afternoon , however, we were doing a sweep along the shore of Long Island , the old route to Europe , but unused for several years because of the shallow water and the fear of mines .

A minesweeper wagged behind it a tail-a long electric cable, about four inches in diameter. Two electrodes hung down at the end of it and we had a big GM diesel on board that sent out a periodic pulse. The idea was to set up a magnetic field between these two electrodes , that would blow up any mines nearby.

Now there is nothing more deadl y boring than mine sweeping . The trouble is that you never encounter a mine . You move in formation , three minesweepers out in front and two behind , in what we called the " tailback " position . On this afternoon one of the tai lbacks was in drydock. It happened to be the Squadron Commander's boat , and that made me Squadron Commander (whoever was senior was automatically in chargethat ' s how hard up they were) . The Squadron Commander received all the messages from base.

Well , the tailback sweeper, the YMS104 , at a considerable distance behind

us, set off a mine . The mine was onl y a quarter of a mile from the Ambrose li ght.

I couldn 't believe it; we didn ' t see it or fee l it aboard the YMS-20 . I was below , and when the bridge informed me what YMS-104 was reporting, 1 suggested the skipper was hallucinating . A mine' Why, we had been mine sweeping for a year and had never found a mine.

The skipper of the YMS-104 was adamant , so I rushed off to the good book to see what I should do. I was to notify the Minesweep Officer of the Eastern Sea Frontier in plain language as to the location of the explosion , height of column of water, etc., etc ., then drop a dan buoy to mark it and sweep all around.

All hands to remain on deck with tin hats and wearing life jackets.

I sent my message. Nothing happened.

No reply , no in structions. We swept all afternoon . The mine was exploded about 11 00. I sent several more messages and expressed a heart-felt desire for instructions. The Minesweep Officer was supposed to proceed to the scene post-haste to take c harge. I assumed that he was a vastly more experienced officer than me.

Had he gone to the mountains where it was healthier?

Abo ut 1630 , you-know-what hit the fa n. Orders flew on the airwaves. They were closing the Port of New York .

Well that was more like it. Finally some response! We learned later that the long delay before action set in was because an inexperienced officer was on duty, and when he got my message he put it in the file: what was a minesweeper supposed to do but explode mines? The di scovery was made at the change of watch at Eastern Sea Frontier when this gentleman was relieved by an officer who grasped the situation .

Everything that could flo at was sent out to sweep. Four more mines were di scovered in a line with the first one , east of Ambrose. As for the YMS-20, we were out of fue l and food and were ordered in to Sandy Hook . But we turned around reall y fast and went out to sweep . . . we were all sweeping like crazy.

Eventually all the mines were accounted for. lt was found that the German sub had laid several off Norfolk and a string off Jacksonville . A civilian tug came out of the Chesapeake and in an instant just disappeared. She had struck one of the mines. Nobody survived except one man fi shing on the fantail .

The Port of New York was closed for two days. Admiral Mori son makes mention of it in his naval hi story of the Second World War. In volume one he says: ' 'New York harbor was closed only once SE1A HISTORY , SUMMER 1987

The USS Nawat, the author's fi rst command f rom December 1941 to March 1942.

fo r thi s reason [submarines lay ing mines] during the entire war. " He gives the date as November of 1942, but he does no t go into the exquisite detail that I do here.

When the port was opened YMS -20 was on station and doing her duty. T he first thing out was a British destroyer who came roaring down " The Gorge " doing over 30 knots, the White Ensig n streaming out. We could see an R .N . three-striper on the bridge, in command .

He headed into shallower water bes ide the channel. We hadn ' t swept there yetnot that we were concerned . We were supposed to do an exploratory sweep.

We thought we' d have some fun. I s ignalled him with the Aldi s lamp : '' Get bac k in the channel.''

He kept go ing- he wasn't going to pay attention to a little bucket li ke ours.

That gentleman up there with three stripes on hi s sleeve had a lot of rank, yo u can be sure .

I signalled again. He gave me an answer that was not polite. Finall y I made one last effort: " You are entering a suspected enemy mine fie ld. " That did it. He changed course. He changed course so abruptly that he lay right over in a tight, fast turn . I thought he was going to put his stac ks under.

Anyway , on the YMS-20 we thought it was pretty funn y.

At the height of the U-boat ·campaign, when we had absolutely nothing in this

country to protect coastal shi pping , they took us off minesweeping and put us on convoy escort duty . They gave us two K-guns (depth charges) and two depth charge racks. We could do about 12 knots downhill. If we released a "can" the explos ion would kick out all our circui t breakers and all engines wou ld qu it .

As I have mentioned , we had no radar or sonar. We did have a th ree-inch fifty caliber gun fo rward and two 20mm on the boat deck.

I remember taking a thirty-shi p convoy fro m New York to the Delaware.

The escort consisted of the YMS-20 and two 83ft Coast Guard picket boats . I don't think they had any arms at all.

Would yo u be lieve it , Schu yler M. Meyer, Jr. , as the senior officer connected with the thing, was Escort Commander! A Junior Lieutenant in the Naval Reserve. I remember the convoy conference in the Port Captain 's office before we left. There was always such a confe rence. The merchant skippers, l thought , were looking at me wi th disdai n- at least the ones who even bothered to give me a glance . lt gives you an idea of what a mess we were in during those unhappy months of the year 1942. w

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NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY SPONSORS AMERICAN CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION APEX MACHINE CORPORATION ARON CHARITABLE TR UST V INCENT A STOR FO UNDATION R . BARNETT HARRY BARON B EEFEATER F OUNDATION ALLEN G. BERRIEN B OWNE & Co .. I NC. BROOKLYN UNION G AS COMPANY EDWARD & D OROTHY CARLTON EDNA M cCONNELL CLARK FOUN DATION MELVIN CONANT R EBEKAH T. D ALLAS L OIS DARLING PONCET D AV IS. JR .

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SCOTT NEWHALL MERRILL N EWM AN MORRIS W . NEWMAN R EV . EARLE NEWMAN NEWSDAY W . R . NIBLOCK W ILLI AM L. N ICHOLAS ROBERT N ICHOLS JEREMI AH N IXON ROBERT J. NOLAN MILTON G. NOTTINGH AM M ACEY NOYES C APT. CARLISS R . NUGENT O CEAN IC NAVIGATION R ESEARCH SOCIETY CLIFFORD B. O'H ARA T . M ORGAN O ' HORA B. J. O'N EILL DAV ID O ESTREICH JAMES F. OLSEN CHARLES J. OWEN R OBERT B . O WEN R OBERTS OWEN P ACIFIC-G ULF MARINE. I NC. L INCOLN & ALLISON PA INE L A IRD P ARK . JR .

DAV ID J. PARKS S. T. PARK S W IL LI AM H. PARKS PATRICIA OWEN RICHARD H . PARSON R OBERTS. PASKULOV JCH P ASTA TOWING CO. L TD. GIULIO C. PATIES JAMES A. PATTEN JOHN J. P ATTERSON. JR .

JOHN N. PEA RSON JAM ES W. PECK EARL PEDERSEN MRS. G. L. PELISSERO A. A. PENDLETON TI MOTHY L. PERRY. JR. MILES & NANCY PETERLE D AVID W . PETERSON PETERSON BUILDERS. I NC DON ALD PETTIT H ENRY PETRON IS STEPHEN PFOUTS MR . & MR S. NICHOLAS PHI LLIPS F. N. PIASECK I AURA-L EE PITTENGER MR. & MRS . WILLIAM T. POPE PORT A NNAPOLI S M ARINA H ENRY POWEL L HEINO H. PR AHL FRANCIS C. PRATT I RVING PR ESTON ALBERT Q UJNTRALL CAPT. JOHN W . R AND RICHARD R ATH ARV! E. R ATY WILLIAM R AY S AMUEL A. R EA COL. ALFRED J. REESE JOH N R EILLY R AY R EM ICK FREDERICK R EMINGTON A. E. R E NER P . R . J . R EYNOLDS MR . & MRS. DoNALD RICE MR & MRS. F. B . R ICE W . M ARK RIGG LE EDWARD RIITEN HOUSE CAPT. JOSE R I VERA E. D . ROBB INS. MD R EED R OBERTSON JAMES L. R OBERTSON CHARLES R . ROBINSON RICHARD L. R OBINSON H UGH D . R OLF D AVID R OSEN L ESTER R OSENBLAIT PETER Ross PH ILIP R oss J AMES W . ROYLE. JR .

EDM UND R UMOWICZ D AVID R. R YAN M . J . R YAN WILLIAM R . R YAN R . D . R YDER C HARLES IRA SACHS JAMES M . SALTER Ill SAN D IEGO Y ACHT CLUB A. HERBERT SANDWEN ARTH UR J. SANTRY E. W . SASYBOLT & Co .. I NC H . R. SAUNDERS. JR .

DouG & MINDY SAVAGE JOSEPH SAWTELLE W. B. H . SAWYER C AR L H. SCHAEFFER H . K. SCHAEFFER JOHN 0 . SCHATVEL D AV ID & B ARB ARA SCHELL RICHARD J . SCHEUER STEPHEN SCHOFF H ELEN M . SHOLZ .DENN IS A. SCHULD R OBERT S ELLE WILLIAM R. S EYBOLD H UG H R. S HARP M ICHAEL T . S HEEHAN ROB ERT P. SHEEHY R OBERT V. SHEEN. JR .

KENNETH W. SHEETS. JR .

LEE W. SHINABARGER SHIPS OF THE SEA MUSEUM S IGNAL COMPAN IES I NC. FR AN K S IMPSON GEORGE SIMPSON EDWARD M . SKANTA FR ANC IS D. SKELLEY EASTON C. SKINNER STEPHEN SLOAN MR . & MRS. EDGAR F . SMITH H OWA RD SM ITH MR . & MRS. L AR RY D . SM ITH LYM AN H . SMITH THOMAS SM ITH MR . & MRS. EDWARD W . SNOWDORF MR . E. P . SNYDER MA X SOLMSSEN JOS EPH SONNABEND CONWAY B . SONNE DR . JUDSON SPEER W ILLIAM SPEERS THOMAS R . SPENCER F. N. SPI ESS PHILIP STENGER SUSIE STENHOUSE FITZ H . STEVENS. JR .

CDR. VICTOR B. STEVENS. JR .

W . T . STEVENS WILLIAM STEWART J . T. STILLMAN ROBERT A. STRANGE W ALTER J. SULLIVAN CAPT. JOHN 0. SvENSSON R ICHARD SWAN L CDR . THOM AS L. SWIFT EUGENE SYDNOR J. C. SYNNOTT H ENRY TALBERT ALEX F . TAYLOR D AV IS T AYLOR D AN IEL R . SUKIS PETER G. TH EODORE C. PETER THEUT B AR RY D . THOMAS JOHN W . THOMAS CLARK THOMPSON JOHN B. THOMSON . JR. EDMUND B . THORNTON JOHN THURMAN GERALD A. TIBBETS ROBERT T ICE M R. & MRS. ALLEN W . L. T OPPING NOAH T OTTEN ANTHONY TRALLA ALFRED TYLER II C APT. H . N. T WEEDLE UNI VERSAL MARITIME SERV ICES CORPORATION JOSEPH URBANSKI R ENAUD VALENTIN CAPT. R OBERT D. VALENTINE M ARION VALPEY T ED VALPEY MR . & MRS. H ENRY V ANDERSIP EDS EL A . V ENUS H ARRY D . V ERHOOG FRANZ VON Z IEGESAR RAYMONDE. WA LLACE T ERRY W ALTON BRUCE E. W ARE ALEXANDER W ATSON JOHN W. WEAVER H. ST. JOHN W EBB Iii EDWARD R. WEBER MR . & MRS. TIMOTHY F. WEBER ELIZABETH B. W EEDON KENNETH WEEKS WILLIAM WEIR H OWARD A. WEISS R ANDY W ESTON CRAIG W . WHITE SIR G ORDON WHITE KBE JOHN R OBERT W HITE RAYMOND D. WHITE GEORGE WHITESIDE R AYNER W EIR G. G. WHITNEY . JR. FR. JAMES WHITTEMORE L AURENCE WHITTEMORE WILLIAM A. A. WICHERT J . S. WILFORD L AURENCE WILLARD ROBERT WILSON JOHN F . W ING W ILLIAM F. W ISEMAN WILLIAM H . P. WITH ERS W ALTER G. WOHLEKING EDWARD W OLLENBERG W OMEN"S PROPELLER C LUB. PORT OF B OSTON W oMEN"S PROPELLER CLUB, PORT OF N EW YORK RICK Wooo DoRAN R. W RIGHT T . H . WRIGHT. JR .

WILLIAM C. WYGANT JAMES H. YOCUM JOHN Y OUELL H ENRY A. YOUMANS THOMAS R . YOUNG K IRK YOUNGM AN DoNALD ZUBROD

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MODEL SUCCESS STORY' "The Maritime Prepositioning Ship program is a model success story, and I couldn't be more pleased . MPS is on schedule 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 THE AFL-CIO MARITIME TRADES DEPARTMENT 650 FOURTH AVENUE BROOKLYN, N.Y 11232 (718) 965-6700

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RAYMOND T. McKAY PRESIDENT

JOHN F. BRADY EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

"Pilot Boat GEORGIA" is reproduced from an original acrylic by Captain Brian Hope. Captain Hope, an MM&P member since 1965, is a Kings Point Graduate, a Baltimore Harbor Pilot and a member of the Association of Maryland Pilots. He is a self-taught artist and holds an artist membership in the American Society of Marine Artists.

This Is MM&P Country Twenty four hours-a-day, in fair weather or foul, American pilots provide their local knowledge and shiphandling skills to keep all kinds of ships moving to and from our ports safely and efficiently. The workhorse of the service is the pilot launch, here represented by the Savannah Pilots' 77' GEORGIA, shown running for home before a rough sea after placing a pilot aboard an inbound American tanker. Pilot boats differ from port to port, but the radar-equipped GEORGIA is typical of the fast, seaworthy launches which help guarantee that a pilot will be on station when neededevery time.

Today's pilots regularly register for courses such as All-Weather Navigation, Electronic Navigation and Ship Handling so they can enhance, in the safe environs of the land-based ship simulators and other classrooms, the skills necessary for guiding vessels through our nation's harbors. At any time you will find MM&P Pilots enrolled in these and other courses at MM&P' s Maritime Institute of Technical and Graduate Studies (MITAGS) at Linthicum Heights, Maryland.

F. ELWOOD KYSER

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