Sea History 051 - Autumn 1989

No . 51

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

AUTUMN 1989

THE ART, LITERATURE, ADVENTURES, LORE & LEARNING OF THE SEA

SMALL CRAFT REDISCOVERY: How Reviving it is! Agleam with old lore and fresh vision ....

L

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ISSN 0146-93 12

No. 51

SEA HISTORY

OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE WORLD SHIP TRUST

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OFFICERS & TRUSTEES are Vice Chairmen , Henry H. Anderson, Jr., Alan G . Choate , James Ean, Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr., Richard I. Morris; President, Peter Stanford; Vice President, Norma Stanford; Secretary, Spencer Smi th ; Treasurer, Richard I. Morris; Trustees, Henry H. Anderso n, Jr., Alan G. Choate, Wilbur Dow, Robert W. Elliott, III, Karl Kortum , Richardo Lopes, Robert J. Lowen , Schuy ler M. Meyer, Jr., Richard I. Morri s, Nancy Pouch , Ludwi g K. Rubinsky, Spencer Smith , Pete r Stanfo rd , Edward G .

Zelinsky; Chairman Emeritus, Karl Kortum OVERSEERS: Chairman , Henry H. Anderson , Jr. ; Charles F. Adam s, Townsend Hornor, George Lamb, C lifford D. Mallory, Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr., J. William Middendorf, II , Richard I. Morris , John G. Rogers, John Stobart ADVISORS: Co-Chairmen, Frank 0. Braynard, Me lbourne Smith; Raymond Aker, George F. Bass, Francis E. Bowker, Oswald L Brett, Dav id Brink, William M. Doerflinger, John S. Ewald , Joseph L. Farr, Timothy G. Foote, Richard GooldAdams , Walter J. Handelman , Robert G. Herbert, II , R. C. Jefferson , Irving M. Johnson , John Kemble, Conrad Mil ster, Edward D. Muhlfeld , William G. Muller, George N ichols, David E. Perkins, Richard Ra\h, Nancy Hughes Richardson , Timothy J. Runyan, George Salley, Melbourne Smith, Ralph L Snow, Albert Swanson, Peter Throckmorton , Shannon J. Wall , Robert A. Weinste in , Thomas Well s, Charles Wittholz. American Ship Trust, Hon . Secretary, Eric J. Berryman WORLD SHIP TRUST: Chairman , Wens ley Haydon-Baillie; Vice Presidents, Henry H. Anderson, Jr., Vi scount Caldecote , Sir Rex Hunt , Hammond Innes, Rt. Hon . Lord Lewin , Sir Peter Scott, Rt. Hon . Lord Shackleton; Dep. Director, J. A. Forsythe; Hon. Treasurer , Michael C. MacSwiney; Trustees, Eric J. Berryman , Mensun Bound, Dr. Neil Cossons, Dav id Goddard, D.R. MacG regor, Alan McGowan , Michael Parker, Arthur Prothero, Michael Stammers, Jayne Tracy.

Membership: £ 12 payable WST, c/o Dep. Dir., 129a North Street, Burwell, Cambs. CBS OBB , England. Reg. Charity No. 27775 1

AUTUMN 1989

CONTENTS 4

DECK LOG , LETTERS AND QUERIES

6 6 7

FORUM: OUR SHIPWRECK HERITAGE

8 9 10 12 13 14 15 16 18

KNOWLEDGE: THE REAL TREASURE, Paul F. Johnston

WHYDAH ARCHAEOLOGISTS , James R. Reedy, Christopher E. Hamilton WHAT IS ARCHAEOLOGY? George F. Bass CALL TO ACTION, Peter Stanford SMALL CRAFT: MARSH GRASS ROOTS , Lance Lee THE WIANNO SENIOR: 75 YEARS YOUNG, Malcolm Howes SHE'S NOT A MODEL T! Carter Bacon A SAN FRANCISCO BAY FELUCCA REBORN , Stephen Canright RECREATING A SHANTYBOAT, Jim Brown CENTER FOR LOUISIANA BOAT BUILDING, Joseph T. Butler PRESERVING THE ESSENCE OF BOATS, Michael B. Alford

19

A GUILD FOR SMALL CRAFT, Paula Johnson

21

"SHE HAD ALWAYS BROUGHT ME SAFELY HOME," Discovery Reenactment Society

22 23 28

SMALL CRAFT PRESERVATION, Paul Lipke HANDS ON HISTORY, Dick Wagner SAIL TRAINING: " AN UNDEFEATABLE SPIRIT," Bridget B. Morton

33

SEA MUSIC AT MYSTIC, William Main Doerflinger

34 38 41 42 46

SHIP NOTES MARINE ART: YVON LE CORRE'S SKETCHBOOK MARINE ART NEWS , Peter Stanford BOOK LOCKER, Lance Lee REVIEWS

47

SKETCHES FROM WIANNO SENIOR WHISPER , Peter Stanford

COVER: With tossed oars, a Discovery ' 92 crew celebrates the discovery of the inside passage behind Vancouver Island in the best possible way-by rediscovering it in an 18th century ship' s boat built by volunteers on Galiano I stand, British Columbia. Photo, courtesy Greg Foster. For more on this program, see page 21.

SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor, Peter Stanford; Managing Editor, Norma Stanford; Assistant Editor, Michael J. Netter; Produ ction Assistant, Joseph Stanford; Accounting, Martha Rosvally; Membership Secretary, Patricia An stett ; Membership Assistant, Grace Zerella; Assistant to the President, Sall y Kurts

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

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From SEA HISTORY PRESS International Register of Historic Ships, by Norman J.Brouwer. More than 700 vessels are included in this authoritative historical and photographic guide with essential data. lndispensible for reference, it also makes excellent reading. 368pp. 233 x 270mm. 400 illustrations.$28.95 Shipping: $3.00 in USA, $4.25 outside USA. The Maritime History of the World (2 vols.}, by Duncan Haws & Alex A. Hurst. Nearly 7000 years of all aspects of maritime history in chronological order, with commentaries setting the various periods in the fi~~ll!~~~~~~~I~ perspective of world history, richly illustrated. Comprehensive index . A superb book. 960pp, 304 x 222mm, 31 maps, over 200 illus. (62 in color). $159.41 Shipping: $3.00 in USA, $4.25 outside USA. Thomas Somerscales - Marine Artist, by Alex A. Hurst. A square-rig veteran and marine art critic of note tells the life story of the much-admired marine artist who died in 1927 in Chile. Printed on acid-free art paper in large size with 108 color plates. 303pp, 172 illus., 285 x 224mm, $89.45 Shipping: $3.00 in USA, $4.25 outside USA. Anton Otto Fischer, Marine Artist, by Katrina Si gs bee Fischer and Alex A. Hurst. A comprehensive and loving look at the artist's life and work as seen by his daughter. Beautifully produced on art paper with many personal photos, the artist's preliminary sketches, and 200 of his fini shed work, 103 in full color. 259pp. 230 x 290mm. 235 illus . $50.00 Shipping: $3 .00 in USA, $4.00 outside USA. Stobart, by John Stobart with Robert P. Davis. The lead ing marine artist of our day sets forth his life and achievements in his own words and pictures. Presented in full color, fine art reproductions with extensive notes. 208pp. 232 x 388mm. 60 full-page illus., 50 sketches and drawings. $95.00 Shipping: $3.00 in USA, $4.00 outside USA. Peking Battles Cape Horn, by Capt. Irving Johnson. A spirited account of a young man 's voyage round Cape Hom in the Peking with a thoughtful after-word written 48 years later. Foreword by Peter Stanford and a brief history of the Peking by Norman Brouwer. l 82pp. 130 x I90mm. Photos by the author. Hardcover $15.95.

Shipping: $2.00 in USA, $3 .25 outside USA. The Medley of Mast and Sail, 2, ed. Alex A. Hurst. Fascinating ondeck accounts and photography of the closing decades of commerc ial sail from Cape Hom windjammers to Indonesian prahus , topsail schooners in the Bristol Channel and the big American coasters.

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244 x I90mm, $28.12 Shipping: $3.00 in USA, $4.25 outside USA. Damned by Destiny, by David L. Williams and Richard P. de Kerbrech. Complete account of projects for great ocean liners that never made it to sea-a must for liner buffs. 350pp.244 x I90mm. 197

photos, $35.75 Shipping: $2.00 in USA,$3.25 outside USA. Shipwrecks and Archaeology: The Unharvested Sea, early underwater archaeology by a pioneer of the field, Peter Throckmorton.

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Directory of Sail Trailling Ships and Programs, by Nancy Hughes Richardson, American Sail Training Association, includes 125 sail training organ~zations , 135 US and Canadian ships, and a 1987-92 international tall ships race schedule. Many illustrations. I 00 pp. 215 x 280mm. $10.00 (shipping included).

Operation Sail 1986/Salute to Liberty . The official commemorative book publi shed by OpSail '86, includes descriptions of more than I 00 of the official participants and a list of more than 125 maritime museums and collections around the country. 64 pp. full color. $10.00 (shipping included).

Heralds of Their Age, the clippers and the American spirit, by Melvin Conant, soft cover, illus., index, 24 pp. $7.50 (shipping included).

The Ship's Bell: Its History and Romance, by Karl Wede. Illus. index , 62 pp. $6.50 (shipping included).

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DECK LOG

LETTERS

There was not room in this bursting haul of small craft lore, experience and learning to put all that the inimitable, inextinguishable Lance Lee wished to encompass. Lance, I should explain, is guest editor for this small craft issue of Sea History. Important new ideas (and new experiences) are to be explored in future issues. One such idea of Lance 's-an idea that he maintains he borrowed somewhere; and it is now, certainly, widely shared-is his idea and practice of "ambassadorship." Let me cite a recent action-oriented communique from Lance on this: In the 'Shop currently are apprentices from Japan, Columbia and Canada, and we have recently graduated an Italian, a Frenchman and a German. Two of our apprentices are in Norway building in the Afjordsbaten tradition of the squaresai l open boats of the 19th and early 20th century fisheries. A Norwegian is coming here this summer to build a 30-foot version as a very public demonstration of international exchange and the use of boatbuilding and seamanship as "ambassadors."

The 'Shop Lance speaks of is the Rockport Apprenticeshop, founded by him and his wife Dorothy, of which he was named president this spring after serving as director since 1982. The Apprenticeshop, I may say, we regard as the mother schooner of the small craft building, rowing and sailing movement in North America. As its progenitor, Lance takes an active, on-deck view of his work. He was at sea in one of those open, squaresail-rigged boats off the coast of Norway, bound for the Lofoten Islands as this was written.

The outreach of Lance's beloved 'Shop is indicated in the richness of the haul we've managed to get under hatches in these pages. And hi s wit ,wisdom and leadership inform the pages that follow his spirit-lifting introduction "Marsh

Remembering Jim Here's a little something in remembrance of Jim McAllister-a fellow automobile dealer as well as a great tugboat man.

HOWARD SLOTNICK Riverdale, New York People remember James P. McAllister, late chairmanofNMHS, indifferent ways.

He was a sports car racer, a counselor to youth, a great advocate of the Port of New York, a Knight of Malta . To his grandchildren, he was the "King of the Fishes" -due to his habit of coming up after a plunge in the Long Island Sound to recount his conversations with the sea creatures he met underwater. An N MHS Building Fund has been set up in his memory, to which Mr . Slotnick' s contribution will go.-Eo.

G'"' Roots

JI,, ~.

In this issue of Sea History we report the passing of the National Maritime Historical Society 's chairman, James P. McAllister, who died on July 16 following a stroke which overcame him on the road en route to his home in Port Jefferson. A brief appreciation of his life and work appears on page 34. There will be more in future issues, from the rich legacy this good and great man left us. PS 4

Maritime Awareness The part of your Maritime Awareness Campaign I find most appealing is the National Maritime Information Center.

Communication is a universal problemcase in point-Maryland today announced a new National Maritime Center for Baltimore. I understand Norfolk is trying to build some type of National Marine Center. Then there's the National Maritime Initiative of the National Park Service, the National Maritime Alliance and the Maritime Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

What is each of these doing? What areas are not being properly covered, and who can, and how can they be covered?

There is no national coordination, and other than the Delgado program-little is being done. I hope your center may help to fill some of these gaps and help bridge the communication between all these segments. The National Alli ance should play a key role in this, but how?

We ' ve got a lot of work to do and our plates are already full.

RALPH E. ESHELMAN, Director Calvert Marine Museum Solomons, Massachussetts The National Society's Maritime Awareness Campaign is being developed with Operation Sail, the National Endowment for the Humanities , various members of the National Maritime Alliance, labor unions, shipping interests, yacht club members and other mariners . A full report will be forthcoming later this year.

Questions and contributions, meantime, are welcome!-Eo.

Not a Nice Question Sea History 49 points out--once againthe godawful dilemma of maritime preservation. How many relics-beautiful though they are-can we afford to keep

afloat? Basil Greenhill's been saying for years that he thinks we Americans are nuts in not considering more Cutty Sarkstyle solutions. I don't know-any more than I think anyone else does-just what the optimum situation is or how to arrive at it, but I think we'd all better start asking the question , "How many vessels are we prepared to lose while we fail to come to grips with reality?" No, it 's not a nice question at all.

NICHOLAS DEAN Edgecomb, Maine

Are We Elitists-or Just Unreal?

Concerning the Society's stand regarding shipwrecks, salvage and marine archaeology-please add my name to those among the Loyal Opposition. In my judgment, the Society's attitude reeks of elitism and is totally unrealistic.

"Ifitcannotbedone properly, it should not be done." In other words, it's better to have those artifacts disintegrate on the sea bottom rather than have some adventurous soul (wince) display them in his den or (shudder) exhibit them for profit.

If marine archaeologists are truly interested in retrieving and preserving those old wrecks and their cargos, why aren't they doing it? They have the same opportunities everyone else has. Could it be that they they aren't prepared? Or that they're waiting for sombody else to supply the necessary funds? Or they'd rather have someone else risk their necks down on the ocean's bottom?

Salvage is an old tradition, as old as seafaring itself. Why, after all these centuries, change anything now? If you, for instance, are so concerned about preserving what's left of those sunken hulls and their contents, why don ' t you create an organization of like-minded citizens, get it financed and begin saving what's left-before those looters get there first? Nobody's stopping you .. ..

AL MILLER Prescott, Arizona

... or "Not a Factor" Clearly we differ [over the NMHS boycott of Sotheby's]. It is unfortunate that the National Maritime Historical Society takes the viewpoint that all commercial maritime archaeology is unacceptable. This viewpoint will lead to your organization not being a factor in the substantial amount of commercial maritime archaeology that is inevitably going to occur.

A more enlightened approach could lead to your having a positive impact on improving the standards and the quality of the work which will be carried out.

SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

Unfortunately, by taking your stance, you have precluded what could have been a constructive role for yourselves in this important aspect of preservation.

MICHAEL L. AINSLIE, President Sotheby's New York, New York

We' ve received a mass of testimony in response to the NMHS call for a boycott ofSotheby' s, Christies and other auction houses that deal in historic artifacts taken from underwater wrecks. A selection is published on pages 6-8.-ED.

Essex, Mother of Schooners Congratulations on your spring issue dedicated to the Gloucestermen. While there was mention of Essex and its contribution to the Gloucester fishing fleet, your readers might be interested (if not surprised) to learn the full extent of that involvement. Ofthe28 "Gloucestermen" mentioned in your articles, only 4 were built in Gloucester-the remaining 24 all in Essex.

In point of fact, this little town so dominated the building of fishing craft, that significant numbers of Essex vessels could be found in the fishing fleets of Portland, Boston (2/3 in 1906), Wellfleet, Hull, Provincetown, New Bedford, Providence , New York , Pensacola, and Galveston as well as ports and harbors in the Canadian Provinces and , to a lesser degree, the West Coast as far afield as Alaska.

We are about to publish a list of all known vessels built in Essex between 1860 and 1980 (a total of 1342). Authored by Dana Story and based on research by Lewis H. Story, this list will be available from the museum for $20.00 including postage. Starting with this list, we have set up a computerized data base which lists the over 2800 Essex-built vessels , and includes vital informationdimensions, builder, trade, port, owner, when and where lost, where sold, etc.

Close to 4000 vessels were built in Essex however, so there are many missing vessels, particularly from the late 1600s to 1860.

Many Essex half models, photographs and documents have found their way into private collections and museums across the country. If you own or have access to old Essex artifacts (before 1819, the town was called Chebacco, a parish oflpswich) we would like to hear from you.

JIM WITHAM Essex Shipbuilding Museum Main Street Essex, Massachussetts 01929 SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

Slocumania!

The Whaling Museum in New Bedford has accepted the Slocum papers, etc., from Walter Magnes Tellerof Princeton, who has done good work on Captain Slocum. I'm pleased that the ole ' Captain would seem to be lodged with working watermen, not yachtsmen. It always bothers me that people think of Joshua Slocum as some kind of dreamy recreational boater out looking for some pretty seabirds and fresh air. Hell , this guy was a tough , successful tall ship captain. He and others that he symbolizes were the " iron men" part of the slogan "wooden ships and iron men ." He went sailing to make money to support himself and his family .

WALTER BRODERICK The Slocum Society PO Box 76 Port Townsend WA

QUERIES For a proposed documentary film on the history of the US Merchant Marine before, during and after World War II, the producer/director would appreciate information about motion picture footage, still pictures, posters and other pertinent iconography. Subjects of interest include union activities in the 1930s, shipbuilding, wartime shipping in convoy and unescorted, invasions, seamen POWs, and post-war dismantling of the fleet. All leads will be gratefully received.

RICHARD ELLISON 41 Landing Road Kingston MA 02138 Captain William T. Shorey commanded the following whaling vessels during his career: the Alexander (lost-St. Paul's Island, 1891 or 92), the Andrew Hicks, the Gay Head, th elohn Winthrop and the Emma F. Herriman. Captain Shorey was instructed by Captain Whipple A. Leach of Provincetown, whose vessels were the Emporium, the Montezuma, the Mary D. Leach, the Sassacus, and the Charles Thomson.

Shorey shipped on the E.F. Herriman from Boston until 1880 and arrived in San Francisco in 1884, Miller in command.

Of interest are log books or journals of the five ships sailed by Shorey along with the same of the E.F. Herriman voyage to San Francisco.

In addition , Whipple A. Leach, a Vermonter according to a source considered to be reliable, taught navigation for a time at Provincetown-are Whipple A. Leach and Whiffer D. Leach, the master of the Chas. Thomson which cleared

Provincetown on January 24, 1876 (S.S. Swift-Agent), the same person?-and may have kept records of his students.

References to Shorey are also of interest, particular! y since he gained a reputation for navigational excellence.

ROBERT C. FRANCIS 848 (A), San Carlos Ave. Albany CA 94706 I am working on a reference book on marine artist Gordon Grant's etchings and lithographs. I am also keeping track of any other information I find on Grant.

If the Society has any information, artwork, or knows of anyone who does, I would appreciate hearing from them.

CAROL A. MAGUIRE 56 LaRue Drive Huntington NY 11743 I have been researching an incident in 1932 involving a Blue Funnel ship of Liverpool , the S.S. Phemius. In November that year, having sailed from Savannah, Georgia, for the Far East by way of Colon and the Panama Canal, thePhemius had the misfortune to be caught in a fierce hurricane for five days. The ship suffered severe damage and was finally picked up and towed into Kingston, Jamaica, by the salvage steamer Killerig.

I seek photographs and statistics on these ships.

CHARLES MEDCALF 17 Agnes Road Birkenhead Merseyside L42 5LU UK Marine Replica & Historical Foundation, a non-profit corporation, is replicating Jack London's Snark. We are also opening a gallery of marine and naval art of San Francisco Bay. We are looking for help from interested historians.

DA YID MASSETTE PO Box 1194 Lower Lake CA 95457 I need information about the careers of Otto and Aert (Ort) Van Tuy!, New York Dutch pirates and brothers who sailed with Captain John Hore for Madagascar in 1696 in the ship John and Rebecca.

PRESTON BURCHARD 3891 Magnolia Drive Palo Alto, California

ERRATUM George F. Campbell (1915-1988) , marine artist and historian, was incorrectly listed as George C. Campbell in SH 49, page 34.

5

FORUM:

Knowledge: The Real Treasure

by Paul Forsythe Johnston

When the Smithsonian's great maritime curator Howard I. Chapelle died in 1975, the flag was passed to the distinguished seaman-historian Melvin H. Jackson. Jackson left in 1978, and for eleven years, no one was named to replace him. This past spring, Paul Johnston of the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts was named Curator of Maritime History at the Smithsonian. Here Dr. Johnston reports on the museum community's efforts to save a threatened heritage.

A few years ago, museums all over the country began getting telephone calls with some regularity on a relatively new subject. Would your institution be interested in obtaining artifacts from a particular shipwreck or mounting an exhibition of materials from it?

These calls were not the usual sort of thing, where a sport diver was interested in donating something raised from a harbor bottom which was wet, rusting or turning to dust in a garage. Instead , these inquiries were from treasure hunters, their investors, or individuals who had acquired shipwreck materials at auctions or directly from the salvors, who had recovered the contents of entire shipwrecks. And the sites were not obscure shipwrecks clandestinely looted over weekends or vacations, but famous ships with names like Titanic , the Nanking Cargo Wreck, Geldermalsen, Atocha, Whydah and HMS Feversham, many of whose contents had been systematically salvaged by professional treasure hunters and sold at the most prominent auction houses in the world.

Should these items, representing valuable (if not unique) materials from our national or international maritime heritage (and often located on public lands) be purchased or accepted for donation by museums? Or should they be declined on ethical grounds as archaeological materials which had been raised for personal profit and the artifact assemblages split up and sold?

Undeniably, these salvaged objects represent only those items which have financial value in the antiquities market.

What happens to the vast majority of the artifacts from these sites-especially the wood and other organic materialswhich might not bring high auction prices, but which are equally valuable to historians and archaeologists trying to reconstruct the past from limited resources? In many cases, the archaeological context for these material s was not carefully recorded by the treasure salvors , who are under financial pres-

6

sure from their investors to raise the sea booty as quickly and efficiently as possible. Do art collectors care whether an object comes from the ship captain's personal sea chest, the vessel's cargo hold or the forecastle, smuggled in a seaman's ditty bag-as scientific archaeological excavation might show?

Some museum directors also questioned the wisdom of declining famous objects offered by wealthy or powerful donors, at the risk of offending them at a time when public attendance has been levelling off or declining, and when government support for museums in general has been sharply reduced.

CAMM Guidelines In an eff01t to resolve some of these issues and formulate a set of guidelines acceptable to all of its member institutions, the Counci l of American Maritime Museums, a group of 42 maritime museums in the United States and Canada, formed an Archaeological Committee of museum directors, curators and historians. This group was charged with the responsibility for investigating current professional policies, ethics and standards for archaeological collections.

After more than a year of review and discussion , the committee developed a statement which was unanimou sly adopted by the CAMM membership as a by-law amendment at its Annual Meeting in 1987. The policy reads as follows: CAMM member institutions shall adhere to archaeological standards consistent with those of the American Association of Mu seum s/International Congress of Museums (AAM/ ICOM) , and shall not knowingly acquire orexhibitartifacts which have been stolen, illegally exported from their country of origin, illegally salvaged orremoved from commercially exploited archaeological or hi storic sites.

In essence, thi s says that unscientific excavation for profit and the sale of the archaeological resources recovered were unacceptable, even though they might be permitted by law. Virtually every professional archaeological association with published ethical standards and guidelines condemned the commercial exploitation of historical or archaeological sites. Museums, which were at the forefront of public collecting and collections policy, were obliged to adopt a leadership role in this regard and avoid any prospect of supporting or condoning the private commercial exploitation of our public heritage, particularly when

Paul Johnston (right) preparing to dive with archaeologist Lars Einarsson on the wreck of the Swedish warship Kronan, which blew up in baltle off Oland Island in 1678 . Photo by Ella Kmjalainen.

these shipwrecks or other submerged cultural resources were located in public waters. What was found on public property should belong to and be available for the public, whether or not laws allowed the salvage to take place. The issue was perceived and handled as an ethical concern, not as a legal matter.

Needless to say, the reaction of the salvage community has not been positive. In endorsing the CAMM policy, the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology (ACUA) and the Society for Hi storical Archaeology (SHA) received a letter from a well-known treasure salvor's attorney stating that the policy "would in our opinion be unjusti fied and would infringe upon the legal rights of our clients." The policy not only makes the salvage community look bad in the eyes of the public and the museum community, it also removes certain types of museums as possible repositories for their salvaged materials, with all that may imply regarding tax benefits for donations to non-profit institutions.

The major auction houses, particularly those offering shipwreck artifacts, have been informed of CAMM ethics policy (as well as the AAM/ICOM positions). Many of the CAMM member institutions have incorporated the organization 's by-law amendment into their own formal collections policies, and at least one member has made ita condition ofloaning artifacts from its collections to other institutions. CAMM also has been active in helping to develop international guidelines for members of the International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM), a worldwide association of more than 200 prominent institutions.

The Abandoned Shipwreck Act Along with the passage of the by-law amendment, CAMM was an outspoken advocate of the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, which was signed into law SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

Whydah Archaeologists Defend Their Project

by President Reagan in April 1988. This historic legislation gives individual states jurisdiction over shipwrecks in theirown waters, and removes them from federal admiralty court action . Declaring that historic shipwrecks were " in peril" and therefore subject to admiralty salvage law had been the principal means by which treasure hunters gained access to the sites, both nationally and internationally. However, in the begi nnings of admiralty law several hundred years ago in Great Britain, the early legislators had never considered that shipwrecks might one day have historical value far outweighing the monetary value of goods recovered. It is ludicrous to consider a wrecksite that has stabilized over the course of decades or even centuries "in peril ," yet that is exactly what admiralty lawyers in the employ of treas ure hunters have successfully argued in courts all over the world. In fact, more damage has been done to these sites in the few decades since SCUBA gear was invented than in all the centuries many of the sites have Jain undi sturbed and stable on the ocean bottom.

It is perhaps naive to expect that the Abandoned Shipwreck Act and the CAMM by-law amendment will have an immediate impact upon the commercial salvage of underwater archaeological sites. However, removing major mari time museums from the lists of potential purchasers, repositories orexhibitspaces for treasure hunters' shipwreck artifacts should have a significant impact upon the market for these materials over time.

And if the market begins to wither and the public perception of treasure hunting can be altered through education and example, perhaps these irreplaceable resources can be sc ientifically excavated and the artifact assemblages preserved intact or left alone on the sea bottom for public use and enjoyment, both now and in the future. Those working for these goals have learned that the preservation and museum communities, with the scientific archaeological community, can work together to make it happen and alter the public perception of these diminishing cultural resources.

Paul Forsythe Johnston is Curator of Maritime History at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian In stitution. He also chairs the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology and the Archaeology Committee ofthe Council ofAmerican Maritime Museums. The opinions expressed here are his own.

SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

The plundering and looting of historic sites, be they shipwrecks or not, is indeed a crime, and I support the National Maritime Historical Society 's position that it cannot be condoned. However, the Whydah Project is far from the irresponsible rape-and-pillage exercise its detractors would have you believe.

Historical background research into the ship, her crew, and the events surrounding her demise has been thorough, extensive, and is continuing even now.

Field operations are conducted in a thoroughly profess ional manner, and often exceed the standards set by the profession. Excavations are being completed in the face of environmental obstacles that would have deterred most other archaeologists. The laboratory and preservation facilities surpass virtually all other such operations in the country. The staff has publi shed numerous papers and reports on various aspects of their work.

But, we have usually been denied access to forums where we can present our findings.

The Whydah Project is more closely regulated than any underwater excavation ever undertaken by any organization , public or private, in this country. It is subject to continual review by the Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources, the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the US Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. All of these regulating bodies have expressed great satisfaction with the excellent quality of the archaeology, and approval at the several innovations which have come out of it. They have on several occasions held the Whydah Project up as an example of how such an operation should be conducted.

Our archaeology staff includes graduates of the University of Pennsylvania, Texas A&M University, Harvard University, and several other major schools.

All are responsible, professional men and women, dedicated to the proper conduct of all phases of the project. These people agree with the premise that the "priceless, irreplaceable evidences" of our maritime heritage must be preserved, and they are doing their utmost to insure that. To say otherwise is both insulting to them and injurious to the profession as a whole.

J AMES R . R EEDY, Jr.

Field Director/Project Archaeologist The Whydah Project West Chatham, Massachusetts In a recent editorial regarding the potential sale of artifacts from the Whydah shipwreck (Sea History, Summer 1989),

you have stated your opposition to the sale of artifacts from this significant archaeological site. As a responsible archaeologist, I support the position that artifacts from archaeological sites should not be sold. However, you also noted that the Society for Historical Archaeology barred presentation of a paper regarding the Whydah on grounds that "the work conducted under sponsorship not devoted to archaeological purposes should not be recognized or condoned." As a scientist who values information even more than artifacts, I find myself in disagreement with a strategy of censorship of professional papers at professional meetings.

For archaeology, the dilemma lies in situations very clearly represented by the Whydah excavation. On one hand, there are private persons who have the right, even under the new federal shipwreck legi slation, to search for and salvage shipwrecks (given compliance with regulatory procedures); on the other hand, we have a dwindling number of archaeological sites that need to be husbanded in a manner that allows scientific work in the future to be conducted with new techniques, questions, and perspectives.

Between these opposing pressures on shipwreck sites are governmental cultural resouce managers, contracting archaeologists, and other professionals who guide and effect historic preservation policy based on state and federal law.

While the potential sale of artifacts is a disappointing prospect, you should be pleased to hear that the excavation of Whydah is being conducted in a professional and responsible manner with appropriate attention being paid to field techniques, conservation of artifacts, analysis, and reporting, in full compliance with current review agency guidelines. Serious negotiations are underway to properly curate the collection in a museum setting. A very good record of the excavations, artifacts, and interpretations is being made and will be available in the future at various state and federal review agency offices.

With regard to "conservation ," it should be noted that all archaeological excavation is destructive of site integrity. Regardless of the underlying reason for the excavation, what remains is a collection of notes, maps , photographs, drawings, and artifacts. Censorship of the resultant information will not deter treasure-hunting activities, it only discourages serious and responsible scientists from trying to obtain data before it is lost forever.

CHRISTOPHER E. H AMILTON, PhD Principal Investigator The Whydah Project 7

FORUM:

What Is Archaeology?

by George F. Bass

This work will continue for decades . .. Without it we would simply have destroyed the wreck for our amusement.

The reconstructed fourth century BC ship Kyrenia II. At sea after 20 years of painstaking study of the original shipwreck led by Michael Katzev of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, the ship was built using J. Richard Steffy' s reconstruction plans. Photo, Susan Womer Katzev .

In debates with treasure hunters over the years, I hear almost the same words: "We are doing good archaeology. We are mapping our site accurately, and excavating with care." Sometimes the salvor states with pride that he is using a grid system for recording artifacts in situ.

The layman, seeing a photograph of a shipwreck site covered with a metal or plastic grid, can see no difference between that site and one being excavated by archaeologists. Sadly, even some professional archaeologists in the employ of states have written recommendations that for-profit salvors be al lowed to excavate hi storic shipwrecks because they can excavate them as carefully as archaeologists.

In fact, careful excavation is only the first, preliminary stage of archaeology. It is possible to teach in one week any intelligent, well coordinated diver how to map accurately, use an airlift delicately , chip away seabed concretion, and use a lifting balloon-in other words , to excavate an entire wreck with care. A team of such divers might, therefore, excavate a wreck with care, if financial constraints allowed them the time.

But that is not archaeology. Let us consider. ...

Medicine provides an analogy. I suspect that a surgeon could teach me in a week how to locate an appendix, cut through the abdominal wall, remove the appendix, and , perhaps, even suture the incision. Would I then be practicing medicine? The patient wou ld probably die, because I did not attend medical school for years in order to learn the

8

details of anatomy, infection, pharmacy and the like.

* * * * *

During the summers of 1977 through 1979, our Institute of Nautical Archaeology excavated a shipwreck of about A.D. 1025 off the southern coast of Turkey.

The public read about it in National Geographic and saw it on Public Television. That part was like removing the appendix. What they did not see is the work on the wreck that continues to this day , a decade later, making it true archaeology.

In Bodrum, Turkey, a team of conservators and assistants are still piecing together and mending thousands of glass vessels, many in shapes that were previously unknown . Other specialists are studying iron objects, some as intricate as locks with complex internal mechanisms, which disintegrated centuries ago; before the iron rusted away, it was coated with a thick layer of seabed concretion which forms a perfect mold of the original object, which can be replicated by pouring epoxy into that carefully cleaned mold. Another trained team is restoring the actual hull of the ship, piecing together thousands of wood fragments that first were chemically treated for years in a laboratory, and then traced at I: 1 scale on sheets of plastic to provide a permanent record of everything from nail and bolt holes to knots and tool marks. During those years of treatment, which required careful monitoring, a series of tenth-scale research models were built in the United States from the tracings to guide those restoring the hull in Turkey.

Thousands of conserved artifacts are

still being drawn with care by a staff of illustrators, catalogued by archaeologists, and photographed for publication. Everything I have described continues year round, as it has since 1979.

Elsewhere, speciali sts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to the American Numismatic Society to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, are conducting library and museum research on various categories of artifacts-including jewelry, coins, copper and bronze utensil s, gaming pieces , glazed ceramics, tool s, weapons, seeds, bones-which they will publish in the multi-volume scholarly report planned for the site. Their research leads them not on ly through works of other scholars written in French, German, Italian and simi lar modern languages, but through primary documents in Byzantine Greek and medieval Arabic. I will spend the fa ll term at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh to begin editing the first volume. At the same time I will begin a popular book on the wreck , to provide a more accessible picture of a thousand-year-old maritime venture that wou ld not be possible without the detailed work described above.

Some of this work will continue for decades more. It consumes fa r more time and money than the diving. Without it we would simply have destroyed the wreck for our am usement. It is what makes our work archaeology. w

Dr. Bass, President Emeritus ofthe lnstituteofNautica!Archaeology,isanNMHS Advisor.

SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

CALL TO ACTION:

A Migratory-and Native!-Event The gathering of the world 's sail training ships in Operation Sail in New York Harbor in 1992 will proper! y honor more than Christopher Columbus' s voyage of 500 years ago. It has now been decided that the whole heritage of the Age of Discovery will be celebrated. And small craft should have an important part in thi s.

For, as this issue of SeaHistory clearly shows, the small craft revival is one that embraces all seafaring cultures-and all river and lake navigations. So, last year, Mystic Seaport sent a whaleboat crew Down Under to race in an Australian

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Lance Lee at the he/m o/Egalite on a trial trip in Maine waters in 1986 .

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event, and this year the Australians came to the US to continue the contest.

So, in Salute to Liberty, the centenary of the Statue of Liberty, marked by Operation Sail-1986, Lance Lee's Apprenticeshop organized a series of races in elegant 38-foot launches named Liberti, Egalite and Fraternite. Called the Atlantic Challenge, these international rowing exercises of French and American crews are now being expanded to involve others, with new boats and more a-building.

Discovery Reenactment '92 looks to the building and navigation of ten boats of British and Spanish heritage (see page 21 ), to explore and rediscover the glories of the Vancouver Sound channels first charted by boats from the other side of the world in 1792. Inspired by this example, Lance Lee calls for a nationwide effort at rediscovery: To celebrate the 1992 Quincentenary, let's encourage all manner of communities on lakes and rivers and the Gulf, West and East coasts to research their indigenous and migratory maritime roots. Draw together small monographs on these traditions, illustrated with lines drawings, and set up building and seamanship programs in the regional and local boats which this research will uncover.

The National Maritime Historical Society endorses this proposa1 and we mean to do all in our power to help bring it to fruition. And please, chaps, let us not forget the navigators who preceeded the European arrivals in our waters. Let's have a Nootka Sound Indian canoe in the Reenactment '92!

That would please William Sturgis, one of the first Americans to make the long voyage round Cape Hom to these distant waters. He once gave a speech in the Nootka language to the Massachusetts legislature, pointing out that this was as germane to American concerns as the Latin maxims the legislators of the day kept citing to each other.

And let us have Algonkin pirogues and birchbark canoes in New York Harbor when the Tall Ships come in. New York 's native Americans carried on a lively trade in such vessels, and that trade is what brought Europeans to New York in the first place!

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SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

9

Marsh Grass

A tradi1ion is revived as a new fe/ucca (above) cleaves the chop of San Francisco Bay (seep. 14), while across the continent (he /ow). a Crotch Island pinky from the Rockport Apprenliceshop slips quie1/y through Maine wa fers.

by Lance Lee In our past-before wharfs, harbor dredging and " Ro-Ros" (roll-on, roll-off shipping)-small support craft, as diverse as the needs they served were as critical to maritime traffics as the frigates, whaling ships and the Western Ocean packets that shaped and carried oceanic traffics. For at sea, small craft of different virtues connected the commanding officers of a squadron to their admiral, the men of two vessels meeting off Tri stan de Cunha for a gam, or Portuguese, French, Basque, British and American dorymen to shoal s of Grand Banks cod.

Inshore, yawlboats, water hoys, crimps' whitehalls, Block Island cowhorns each carried out equally vital mi ss ions, ranging from the whitehall's harbor taxi serv ice, to the cowhorns racing the mail out and back from the mainland. A distinctive litany of regional watercraft evolved to pursue such specialized functions as sponging in the Florida Keys, gunning in the marshes of Nova Scotia, Delaware and Maryland , or accommodating sport fishing in the Adirondacks and the Rangeley Lakes. Special craft came into being to sustain the livelihoods and ways of life of immigrant fishermen- the Spanish and the Italians in San Francisco Bay, the Canadians in Eastern Maine, and the latest in this lineage, the Vietnamese on the Gulf Coast. Light and meticulously designed surf boats were built with care to provide rescue serv ice from Race Point, Hull , Watch Hill, and the outer banks of the Carolinas in a tradition where heroism and duty quietly merged. The Lafitte skiff, the Montery boats, Bristol Bay boats, Mackinaw boats, sandbaggers, Rogue River driftboats, New York whitehalls , shantyboats, and the Isle of Shoal 's shay-the list goes on, different designs evolved for different, but always very real needs.

Then came plastic. Instant boat. No fu ss, no muss . And no read il y apparent need for all the tradition and the ever-new learn ing involved in the world of small craft-a world perhaps as rich in invention , beauty, utility and dramatically applied imagination as any cultural tradition in hi story.

Maritime Folklife Twenty years ago the most optimi stic lover of traditional small craft could have made no case for hi s or her passion more hopefu l than that it was in ecl ipse. The words "dedine" and "discontinued" and "belly up" characterized a splendidl y diverse field of maritime endeavor beg inning with the Indian canoe and rising from the sixteenth century "chaloupe en fagot" (a knocked down " kit boat" shipped out from the Old World) to the postwar cold-molded racing Thistle.

But then , against all odds the fiberglass wave was followed , less than a decade later, by a virtual eruption of traditional small craft activity. Interest and hopefulness was initiated by John Gardner, who set in train a series of workshops, festivals, in-water shows, di scuss ion, debate, journalism, construction and "campai gning," which has, in these past twenty years amounted to resuscitation with the patient returned to a vitality greater than that of the prewar era.

The event which sparked this was the first Mystic Small Craft Workshop in 1969. Small at first, the workshop attracted the late Howard I. Chapelle, dean of marine architectural historians, in its second year. This year it attracted 300 devotees who showed up with 80 boats. In the last twenty years, communities of willful people from all over the continent have said " no" to fiberglass and "yes" to the intricate, part-topart ritual of skill and care, cedar and holly, devotion and fir, and pride and Saturdays.

Maritime folklife as di stinct from lore was exhumed rather than discovered, perhaps in some measure by the Folk Arts section of the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1977 they set a new precedent, embracing the skill s of boat design and 10

SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

Roots! building, as a folk art form, and awarded a $25,000 grant for the research, construction, "campaigning" and publication of a Tancook whaler. These little Nova Scotian fishing schooners (1870-1910) are considered by some to be the quintessential working watercraft, with a tradition of weekend racing and a history which bridges Canada and the US from 1927 to the present day.

Music to March to Romance. Technique. Inventiveness. The pleasure and the pride of creating an artifact which combines aesthetics and usefulness. It is hard not to march to such music.

It is a music the theme of which is working and playing in harmony with the forces of nature. The tide, the wind, the muscles , the wood and the axe, adze and spokeshave. The fume of cedar shavings and the hiss of a bowwave with the wind free and the tide under the boat, going off to fish, picnic or train a new generation. It is perhaps not too grandiose to suggest that traditional small craft poses us a.microcosm in which to explore and experience all manner of educational, cultural and "pagan" rites of passage. Makership and Usership; a response to our increasingly information-rich and experience-poor roles in the Age of Information.

Unsurprisingly , a rich small craft literature-technical, historical, literary, poetic and dealing with the waters of the Mississippi , to the Sea of Cortez, and from the techniques by which to build "instant boats" to Grand Canyon river running- has erupted as a complement to the experiential thrust of the 20 years.

But the experience is vital. It can be launched from primitive beginnings. A polyethylene-sheathed boatshop erected in a few days established a New Hampshire group in a semi-permanent shop. In 1974-75 on the banks of a New England river, a 26-year-old cut some spruce trees and built a pole building.

He then covered it with poly and set up a 28-foot schooner. In 1977 two Canadians did likewise building a 50-foot Tancook, and in 1988, Summertime, a pinky schooner, was launched from a comparable structure. Funds should go into good boat lumber, tools , graham crackers and milk. . . .

The good news of thi s small craft revitalization is the small sums of money needed to start, complete and go to water in any one of a hundred and more craft representative of the migration of skills and boat types from the Mediterranean, Scandinavia, Canada, Great Britain, France, Vietnam, etc.

Any place there 's marsh grass you can establish roots. There is a thriving boatshop on a used ferryboat in San Francisco.

Abandoned gas stations would work. The impulse is to fashion a combined club-house/workshop and stock it with essentials only, many of which can be found , scrounged or recycled.

And they should be. Building and equipping a shop, temporary or permanent, is as much a part of the Makership and Usership game as building your Columbia River gillnetter, Block Island cowhom, or Chesapeake crabber. .t

Ben Fuller' s buxom catboar rakes shape in rhe Rockport Apprenriceshop (above), her generous shape expressini her lineage as heir to boars designed to srand up ro rheir canvas and punch !heir way home with holds fu ll offish. Pharo © Benjamin Mendlowilz, 1987.

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i5: · In Seattle (above), a gaggle of handsome pulling boats and small sailing craft nestle at the Center for Wooden Boats (seep . 23 ). Below, North Carolina Maritime Museum's new-built 16th-century ship's boat features a broad, blunt and heavy build well suited to her present-day voyages of exploration (see P· 18).

The sweet lines of some of them all but took my breath away when I saw them for the first time in all their naked elegance. I revelled in their good looks and desired them as much for their beauty as/or their use.

-JOHN GARDNER

SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

11

The Wianno Senior: 75 Years Young!

by Malcolm Howes In the summer of 1913, Ashley Day presented Horace Manly Crosby of the catboat-famed boatyard in Osterville, Massachusetts with the formidable task of designing a safe daysailing and racing yacht of the following humble description: a handy, handsome, fast, rugged, unsinkable, seaworthy, shoaldraft knockabout, suitable for the thin and lumpy waters off Cape Cod's south shore. Inspired by Herreshoff and Lawley designs of the day, Crosby carved out a half model representing a keel centerboard hull-25ft overall, 17ft on the waterline, 8ft beam, and drawing 2 l/2ft with the board raised.

Members of the Wianno Yacht Club contracted to buy fourteen of the jaunty, gaff-rigged sloops at $600 apiece.

With few exceptions, the original order and the subsequent eighty-six hull s were planked with cypress on native white oak; until 1932, all hulls up through #97 were fastened with galvanized iron boatnails. Six hundred pounds of iron in the keel plus six hundred pounds of lead inside offset a grand cloud of sai l: 76 square feet of jib, and an expansive 294 square feet of mainsail!

Above, a Wianno under construction at the Crosby yard. Below right, Victura romping on a broad reach . Photos courtesy the author.

which, under the wing of the Southern Massachusetts Yacht Racing Association, promoted a strong inter-yacht club racing environment with greater regulation and organizaton.

More Wiannos went down the ways at the Crosby Yard as descendants of the designer maintained the enterprise and the tradition, so that by the late sixties nearly one hundred and fifty Seniors had been built.

But by the 1980s, dark shadows began to fall across the Wianno' s waters. Worried Wianno sailors foresaw in the looming clouds of high production and maintenance costs, and in the wear, tear, and deterioration of the current boats, the gradual extinction of the class. Not a few eyebrows were raised when it was suggested that production in fiberglass could refloat the foundering class by creating a dependable and affordable source of new , competitive boats. This, in fact, came to pass as David Steere and the Osterville Historical Society came to the fore to establish the new fiberglass Wianno Seniors. Five representative hulls were selected and hauled at mid-season. The firm of Sparkman & Stephens then weighed and electronically measured each boat. Derived from these studies was a hull form, weight, and weight distribution that ideally represented the characteristics of a Senior. Those qualities were then recreated in a three-piece fiberglass hull , deck, and interior.

Having been faithfully and meticulously finished by Crosby Yacht, now owned by Richard Egan, the first fiberglass Wianno Senior to be ordered, Lovely Lady (#176) was launched in Junel 986. Considered to be the resurrection of the class, the new glass Seniors-eight, so far-have merged inconspicuously with the fleet; they 've demonstrated no particular competitive edge or shortcomings.

To what can we attribute the splendid endurance of a rig and hull form which, by contemporary lights, are considered to be a nautical and economic anachronism? Largely , it is because the Wianno 's reputation for speed and racing is equalled, if not surpassed, by its comfort, ease of handling, and seaworthiness as a daysailer and voyager. For countless sailors, the design has been a safe, challenging and rewarding adventure in the art of sailing without reliance upon auxiliary power or electronic conveniences. One wonders why the hatch need shut upon the perpetuation of the skills and character inherent in the building of Wiannos of wood . '1i

Launched in the spring of 1914, the Wianno Seniors, as they became known , stoutly and handsomely built, with a powerful hull and rig, proved an aggressive match for the short chop and smokey sou'westers of Nantucket Sound. The class saw a steady increase in magnitude and popularity. Production was faci litated by Crosby's innovative framing and planking techniques. By the Second World War, during which Mr. Howes, a member of the Wianno Senior Class Associathere was a brief hiatus in manufacture, over one hundred tion, is a sailmaker in Maine. boats had been launched, and there were Wianno fleets sailing out of four yacht clubs: Wianno, Hyannis Port, Bass River, and Harwichport (Stone Horse Y.C.).

Prior to its ultimate destruction by the devasting hurricane of 1944, the great "Long Pier" of the old Wianno Club in Osterville had been the center of Wianno Senior racing activity and the scene of spectacular yachting rivalry and pageantry. The decorum of the Wianno's elegant 1930s era was observed by properly attired yachtsmen and women who sailed in or observed the races of the large, two-divisioned fleet. Many of the boats, such as Fantasy (#11), now on display at Mystic Seaport Museum, were maintained by professional skippers. The Kennedy family's long love affair with the Wianno began in 1932, when Joseph P. Kennedy purchased Victura (#94), the boat which was sailed so ar- ~ dently by his children and grandchildren and has been on ~ exhibit at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library in Boston f5 since 1975. d After the war, the continued success of the class was fos tered by the formation of the Wianno Class committee ii:

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12

She's Not A Model T!

by Carter S. Bacon, Jr., Secretary Wianno Senior Class Association

The aptly named Escapade reaches away under spinnaker, snorting at her close-hauled pursuers on this halcyon day of Wianno racing in Nantucket Sound.

PHOTO BY ELDRIDG E ARNOLD.

On the weekend of July 29 and 30, over 500 friends of the so expensive to build that many people who would have preWianno Senior gathered at Osterville, Massachusetts, to cele- ferred a Senior simply took their second or third choice. When brate the 75th anniversary of a Cape Cod institution. The the more reasonably priced fiberglass version appeared in centerpiece of the weekend was a parade of fifty-eight Seniors 1986, buyers appeared. Each new owner will tell you that he'd followed out of Osterville Harbor by an impressive spectator rather have a wooden boat, but is afraid of the heavy maintefleet for an afternoon of racing on Nantucket Sound. nance costs that often show up five to ten years along in the life The sight of so many of these old-fashioned gaff-rigged of a wooden boat. The important thing to the new buyers is yachts sai ling together makes one ask why a pre-World War usefulness. They're not trying to preserve a tradition. Like the I era sailboat has survived for so long-and, further, to ask first owners back in 1914, they're buying a good, safe time on whether it will continue to flourish. In my opinion, the Senior the water in a sensibly designed, good-looking boat. hangs on because it is perfectly adapted to its purposeFor preservationist types (like me) who would like to see moving families and racing sailors safely and comfortably wooden boat production start up again, talking to present-day about in the choppy, shoal waters of Nantucket Sound. Its owners is an exercise in frustration. They are critical of small aesthetic qualities make it difficult to part with a Senior, but defects in their boats, always tinkering with sails and rigging I believe it would long ago have gone the way of the horse and in search of a performance edge, and generally oblivious to the buggy and the Model T, which 'are also nice to look at, if boat's 75-year history . In other words, they act just like owners people didn 't find Seniors useful. in any active and healthy one-design racing fleet. Although When Crosby Yacht ceased production of wooden Seniors together they continue to keep alive the only remaining large in 1975, it was generally gaff-rigged one-design accepted wisdom that the class on the East Coast, Senior would slowly bethey are not actually preThe small craft movement builds on the past come a curiosity, to be reservationists. without becoming bogged down in that past placed by something more Wooden boat producmodem such as the Soling tion? I am sure there is a but rather serving the future by training youth or the high- tech J-24. These market for new wooden through marine experiences combining knowlboats were referred to as boats among present and edge and skills in the physical world. ... "practical" (i.e., involving prospective Wianno SenThrough Sea History we can illuminate a wonless maintenance and more ior owners-if costs can appropriate for today' s be controlled and if the new derfully broad and diverse movement on the modem sailors). boats look and sail like the North American continent and suggest actual .But people predicting the old ones. That market, programs and projects which are tying our demise of the Senior overhowever, depends upon the youth into a global network.

-LANCE LEE looked a basic fact: the continued health of the racboat 's design with its heavy ing fleet, and the contindisplacement, centerboard ued belief in the usefulness and low aspect-ratio rig, was of the Wianno Senior. better suited to the requireThere is little enthusiasm ments of Nantucket Sound for the construction of a sailors than anything else "replica" for instructional on the market. purposes. Thanks to the Production of wooden genius of its designer, we boats ceased, in my view, still have over 100 or so because the cost of materi examples of the real thing als and labor made the boats sailing around. u,

SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

13

A San Francisco Bay Felucca Reborn

by Stephen Canright The felucca is a vessel virtually unique in the American experience. It is purely a Mediterranean boat, transferred intact from that sunny sea to the foggy waters of San Francisco Bay. Strange to eyes accustomed to the Northern European tradition, the felucca proved well suited to the market fisheries of San Francisco and was used here with little alteration for some seventy years. The Maritime Museum of San Francisco, in building and sailing an example of this now-extinct type, seeks a new appreciation and understanding of a boat central to our regional heritage.

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The replica, Nuovo Mondo, partially planked and fully decked.

In the mid 1890s,fishermen on the littlefelucca America watch the tug Monarch steam out toward a sailing warship, steam ferry , Cape Horner and scow schooner.

The fel ucca appeared in the wake of the Gold Rush of 1849, as Mediterranean immigrants found a living feeding the city's booming population. The Northern Italians were predominant among these fishermen . More research remains to be done on the precise origin of the type, but the San Francisco boats resemble those found from the Catalonian coast of Spain to northwestern Italy.

Through most of the last quarter of the 19th century, about 150 feluccas were used in the fisheries of San Francisco. By the mid-1890s, locally-built gasoline engines began to replace sail in the fishing fleet and were first installed in feluccas. But by about 1915 an improved power boat hull had been developed, and the sailing felucca died out within a decade.

Very few examples of the sailing felucca hull have survived. On Tomales Bay to the north, three feluccas_remained into the 1970s, and one of these, an eighteen-footer, was donated by the Vilicich family to the Maritime Museum in 1979.

This boat was built prior to 1910, probably at San FranM area M eniketti lofts the lines of the original nameless felucca.

cisco. Her engine bed and shaft were clearly a later addition.

Stubs of the mast partner amidships were still in place.

Plywood laid over the original deck and the fiberglass on the hull turned out to be virtually all that held the boat together.

In 1982 the Maritime Museum embarked on a program of small craft restoration, contracting with local builders for several projects. Among these was a contract for restoration of the felucca, awarded to Larry Hitchcock. It was felt that with some new frames , reworking of the stern, and new gunwales, the Museum would have an original boat suitable for dry exhibition.

In retrospect, this was a bad decision. As the work began, it became clear that the boat was further deteriorated than anticipated; all of her iron fastenings were wasted, and all of her frames and deck beams would have to be replaced. Hitchcock grew uneasy with the job, and Museum staff thinking evolved from a restorationist approach toward one of conservation. It was decided at last that the original boat should be preserved as it was, and a sailing replica should be built.

The original boat was then cradled and lines were taken off.

Hitchcock worked from these lines and from the original hull.

Construction methods and materials duplicated the original in all possible respects, even to butting planks on the frames, omitting a keel rabbet and fastening with galvanized nails.

The planking was tight-seam without caulking.

Deck and rigging details were reconstructed by Hitchcock from photographs available at the Museum. The neatness of the solutions in the set-up of the rig, and their utility in practice, indicates that the reconstruction was generally accurate.

The boat was launched in October of 1987 and has since been sailed regularly on the San Francisco Bay. Fast on a run and a reach, she is not as weatherly as we had expected. Contemporary descriptions indicate that most feluccas had more depth of keel than our boat, which merits further experimentation along these lines. In the meantime, the Museum is proud to have enriched the Bay with the reintroduction of a boat that was uniquely identified with these blustery waters. .t

Mr. Canright, curator of exhibits for the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, has been associated with the museum since 1965 . He is a devotee of local small craft and sailed Nouvo Mondo in the Master Mariner Regatta in San Francisco in 1988.

14

SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

Recreating a Shantyboat and a River Man's Dream

by Jim Brown A river tugs at whatever is within reach, trying to set it afloat and carry it downstream. Living trees are undermined and washed away. No piece of driftwood is safe, though stranded high up the bank; the river will rise to it, and away it will go.

The river extends this power of drawing all things with it even to the imagination ofthose who live on its banks. Who can long watch the ceaseless lapsing of a river's current without conceiving a desire to set himself adrift, and, like the driftwood which glides past, float with the stream clear to the final ocean.

-HARLAN H UBBARD Those of us who live near oceans and succumb to the lure of ships and the sea tend to forget, if we ever knew, that there is a whole other world of boating out there on the inland rivers of the world, of men and women who build their boats on river banks and set out, in the spirit of Joshua Slocum, to experience the pleasures and risk the hazards of life afloat on unknown waters. Such a one was Harlan Hubbard, artist, author, philosopher, boatbuilder, and voyager on those great American rivers of commerce and adventure, the Ohio and Mississippi.

In 1944, Hubbard, who was then himself forty-four, and his wife and soul-mate, Anna, built a shanty boat on the shores of the Ohio River at Brent, Kentucky, near Cincinatti. They lived aboard on the riveratBrentfortwo years, living largely off the land and the river, gardening and fishing. Then they cut loose, drifting at a leisurely pace down the Ohio and the Mississippi, coping with ice, floods, winds, steamboat wakes and other hazards, and stopping in season to raise a garden at some likely spot along the way. They reached New Orleans, 1385 miles from Brent, in the spring of 1950. Leaving their shantyboat behind in the marshes of Louisiana, they returned north and bought seven acres on the Ohio River at Payne Hollow, Kentucky, which had been the site of the first summer idyll of their downstream voyage. They built a cabin and homesteaded, continuing their independant river life ashore much in the manner of those other revered back-to-the-soil pioneers in New England, Scott and Helen Nearing.

Through Harlan ' s book Shantyboat: A River Way of Life (University Press of Kentucky , 1953) and Payne Hollow: Life on the FringeofSociety(Gnomon Press, Frankfurt KY, 1974), and through personal contact with admirers who sought the couple out at Payne Hollow over the years, the Hubbards, their philosophy and lifestyle, have gained an ever-wider following. With Harlan's death last year, efforts to preserve his works and memory have intensified. Don Wallis, editorofthe Yellow Springs News in Yellow Springs, Ohio, has published Harlan Hubbard and the River: A Visionary Life which combines a narrative and appreciation of Hubbard's life with generous quotations from his writings (see sketch at right). An organization, Friends of the Hubbards, has been formed, and steps are underway at Hanover College, in Hanover, Indiana, five miles upstream from Payne Hollow , to build a museum to house Hubbard 's works and memorabilia. Most exciting of all from the perspective of boating buffs, are plans to build a replica of the Hubbard shantyboat, drift it down the Ohio and Mi ssissippi rivers in the wake of the Hubbards , and then return the boat to Hanover as a centerpiece for the Hubbard museum.

This effort is spearheaded by Jim Martin, public relations director at Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, New Hampshire, and a boating enthusiast who befriended the Hubbards while he was an undergraduate at Hanover in the 1960s. The shantyboat project has the enthusiastic support of Don Wallis and Chip Hickson, vice president for development at Hanover, who are the leaders of the Friends of the Hubbards group. At last report, Martin was on the trail of a boatbuilder SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

to supervise construction, which is also to take place at Brent where Harlan and Anna built their boat. .t.

Mr. Brown is a retired journalist from Camden, Maine .

Young Harlan (in the stern) and his brother, Frank , enjoy the beauties and traffics of the Ohio River. Photos courtesy Don Wallis.

Harlan and his beloved shantyboat on the Cumberland River in 1948. Photo by Harvey Broome, Knoxville, Tennessee .

Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building

by Joseph T. Butler, Jr.

The tradition of wooden boat building is very much alive in southern Louisiana.

Headquartered in the library at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana, the Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building has attracted national attention and is thriving.

The 1984 Louisiana World Exposition added impetus to the Center's efforts when they requested the use of two of the Center's older craft for display.

Today, the Center's collection of small craft includes dugout and plank pirogues, a pair of Creole rowing skiffs, a large wooden bateau, and a New Orleans sailing lugger under construction. Two of the craft, a dugout pirogue and a rowing skiff, were built at the 1984 World Exposition and are of museum quality.

The Center actively seeks to identify and collect documentation and artifacts relating to south Louisiana 's maritime heritage. A research collection of scale drawings, color slides, black and white photographs, old prints and engravings, and audio and video tapes are housed in Ellender Memorial Library and are available for use through the director.

The Center commissioned (through the University Research Council) and owns an original collection of pen and ink drawings of Louisiana small watercraft by local artist John Robert Comes. The Center also has original boat building tools and artifacts, as well as a collection of boat models made in cypress by local craftsmen T.J. Arceneaux and C.J. Knobloch.

Funding for such projects has come mainly from research grants obtained from the Louisiana Division of the Arts,

the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Jean Lafitte National Hi storical Park. The bulk of the grants have been used to construct the New Orleans sailing lugger, an on-going project.

This 19th century sailing craft was rescued from oblivion by the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition. C. Ray Brassieur, an anthropologist and folklorist formerly with the exposition, did considerable research on the lugger and later worked with staff, supervising the early stages of the lugger's construction at the Center.

Luggers were once very numerous along the south Louisiana Gulf Coast and survived until the early 1900s. They were primari Iy used in oyster and shrimp harvesting and in the off-season did a lively business hauling farm produce.

"Lugger Landing" in New Orleans was a popular off-loading facility for oysters and produce, often with as many as a dozen boats tied up there.

The lug sail originated in northern France and the channel side of the British Isles, and presumably came to Louisiana with the French colonists. In the 1880s the luggers were built and manned largely by Italian immigrants who were

active in the oyster and produce business. The dipping lug sail was a rarity in North American waters. It is a powerful sail and had to be quickly dipped when squally weather occurred. A crew of one or two could man the craft easily. These powerful boats were equipped with a centerboard, sai led very fast, and were reputed to be close-winded. Most of the luggers were constructed of cypress and long leaf pine. The deck arrangement was almost the same on all boats, and consisted of a U-shaped cockpit, the forward portion of which was closed off, and had four to six hatchcovers. The aft part had a U-shaped bench and steering well. The bow had a small cabin with at leasttwo berths. The rudder was always hung outboard.

At present the Center's new lugger is about 90 percent complete. Several of the boat builders accompany the craft to festivals and discuss its origin and construction. The largest festiva l attended so far has been the Louisiana Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans.

The Center for Traditional Louisiana Boat Building will one day become a part of, or merge with, the Wetlands Cultural Center being planned by the Jean Lafitte National Park in the Thibodaux area. The Center, which was a major factor in attracting the Wetlands Cultural Center to Thibodaux, continues to play an important role in the vitality of the area. U.

Mr. Butler is Project Director of the Center for Louisiana Boat Building , Nicholls State University Library, P.O. Box 2783, Thibodaux LA 70301.

Above, Tom Colvin shapes timbers the time-honored way. Below, the lugger framed-up in its shed. Photo by John R. Cornes.

16

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North Carolina Maritime Museum:

Preserving the Essence of Boats

by Michael B. Alford The idea of a boat begins with a need.

How the craft is conceived, what materials and methods are selected for its construction, and what shape is given to its hull all respond to that need. The sum is then flavored by ethnic factors, cultural traditions and finally, the skills and imagination of the craftsman. Simply to reproduce the physical aspects of a boat denies the reality it represents. If we wish to understand a particular boat and truly grasp its significance in the scheme of things we must somehow experience the crucial aspects of its existence, its essence. Any preservation program which does not address that totality is missing the mark.

Toward the end of 1987 the Museum Boat Shop launched the seventeen-foot beach punt Ossie, part of a project conceived by the Museum's skills preservation specialist, Geoff Scofield. The launching was not the culmination of the project; it did not mark the end of anything. Ossie's cedar clencher planking had not taken up good before her builder and apprentice/assistant were putting her through sailing trials in preparation for a 175-mile voyage south to Georgetown, South Carolina, where she was to take part in a festival of coastal traditions.

There, she attracted much attention and provided a totally new experience for spectators as well as her crew.

Continuing the program this summer, Scofield, with the apprentice who assisted in her construction and an amateur crew, will hoist sail to explore Ossie' s capabilities and find her strengths and weaknesses during day-trips through the rich and ecologically sensitive coastal waters which lie virtually at the museum's doorstep. The on-going exercise will eventually include the use of traditional fishing gear. It is all part of the Museum's small craft preservation program, and it is simply based on a philosophy that relates to people and boats.

Ossie has bent oak frames, a straight

keel and no centerboard. Her sail plan is that of a lug-rigged yawl, and her class hails from Suffolk, England. She bears little resemblance and, in fact, has no relational ties to traditional Carolina types.

Another project, begun in 1983, was the reconstruction of a late sixteenth century ship's boat, twenty-four feet long by six feet, six inches wide. She is an open boat with a full load displacement of over 5000 pounds and serves as ship's boat to the 69-foot replica Elizabeth II out of Manteo, North Carolina.

Admittedly, the design is not after authentic 1585 plans, models or anything so authoritative. The lines are a subjective blending of naval architecture practices of the period, and the shapes suggested by the work of selected 16th- and I 7th-century artists.

The design requirements for the reconstruction were found to be not unlike those for the original vessel. She carries tons of cargo. She sails satisfactorily, and, ¡although her square mainsail does not give her great weatherliness, she manages to make progress to windward in all but the worst conditions and can even be tacked without losing too much ground. As an agent of goodwill and interpreter of history, she has recreated several of the voyages of discovery on Carolina sounds and rivers.

So why would North Carolina's maritime museum chose a nineteenth-century English beachman's punt and a sixteenth century ship's boat as the vehicles for these projects?

The relationship is one of heritage. It is a common dependency upon the sea and a constant struggle, against tremendous odds, to thrive. It is human frailty versus stoic determination; nature's bounty against nature's fury. These are common characteristics of maritime cultures throughout the world. When we learn to see ourselves from that perspective, we begin to appreciate the diversity

The seventeen-foot, 19th-century beach punt Ossie.

of craft and lifestyles that we devise in our quest for solutions to the universal problem of survival. Sailing side-byside with North Carolina sharpies or Core Sound skiffs on excursions to the Outer Banks, Ossie helps to broaden the perspective and experience of participants and sharpen their awareness of our interactions with, and responses to, the environment.

The foundation of NCMM's small craft program is the study, documentation and collection of North Carolina's indigenous watercraft. But the museum seeks ways to emphasize the human aspects of boats, to interpret the common bonds of maritime heritage and to examine the cultural and ecological impact of boats, throughout history.

Ships conquer the high seas, brave storms, carry the commerce of the world, make up the great navies and sail gloriously through the pages of history, but small boats are knitted into the very fabric of everyday life-py-the-sea. Ossie and our ship's boat program demonstrate this.

Each spring on the Beaufort waterfront, the Museum brings together owners of wooden boats, would-be owners, museum small craft and the general public for its Traditional Wooden Boat Show. Now in its sixteenth year, this popular event provides an educational but festive atmosphere in which the boats themselves are allowed to interact with the people and become their own eloquent advocates. Hands-on, inthe-water activities demonstrate that the real-life aspects of traditional watercraft (or what we have called the essence of the boat) lend to these boats and their successors, special qualities well worth our pursuit in terms of satisfying, rewarding and enjoyable experience. ..t

Mr. Alford is Curator of Maritime Research at the North Carolina Maritime Museum .

The 24-foot, 16th-century ship's boat.

Calvert Marine Museum:

A Guild for Stnall Craft

by Paula Johnson

Traditional boatbuilding in southern Maryland is nurtured at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, by a group of dedicated volunteers who form the Patuxent Small Craft Guild. Led by the Museum's boatwright, George Surgent, the Guild was organized in 1979 and meets most Saturday mornings in spring, summer and fall. The Guild carries out the work of building and repairing small craft at the museum's waterfront, in a pavillion formally known as the Small Crafts Skills Preservation Center. There, museum visitors can watch traditional Chesapeake boats take shape, as well as query members about boatbuilding techniques and the vessels' histories.

Since 1979 the Guild has completed e ight traditional Chesapeake Bay vessels including two Indian dugout canoes. Fire, the element of disaster for most vessels, is one of the building techniques employed by Guild members (and Indians of the Chesapeake) for hollowing out the log. The Guild has also built a replica of a colonial single-log dugout, and a double-ended sailing skiff, whose narrow hull and sleek lines make it a favorite for sailing demonstrations.

Three rowing skiffs and aPatuxent River railbird skiff complete the roster.

Recently, the Guild had undertaken two rather unusual projects, both pertaining to colonial period watercraft.

The first took place largely in the library, where Guild members Al Lavish and George Surgent pored over hi storical documents and records for information on the barge or shallop used by Captain John Smith during his exploration of the Chesapeake in 1608. While their research did not yield specifics of design, they were able to piece together enough information about how Smith 's boat was manned, loaded, and operated to draw up a set of plans. The barge, they learned, was of the knocked-down type, meaning it had been shipped unassembled to the New World, where it was fitted together for use. A scale model of the lapstrake, two-masted, lug-rigged shallop was built by the museum 's modelmaker, Jimmy Langley, from the Guild's plans. While funding for the project has dried up, the Guild hopes that this is not the end of the John Smith shallop project, as they want to build a full-scale sailing replica of the 32-foot shall op.

The second project entails the excavation and preservation of a canoe submerged in a marsh on Maryland 's Eastern Shore. The Maryland Historical Trust will excavate the canoe, which will then be preserved in a polyethylene glycolSEA HISTORY 51 , AUTUMN 1989

filled tank at the Center for study.

The Guild is committed to keeping alive and perpetuating the traditional skills and knowledge of boatbuilding.

At a recent Guild-sponsored workshop, parents and children built toy boats together, discovering the basics of boat shapes and sharing the excitement of launching a vessel made by hand. It is young people, like those at the workshop, who will ensure the future of the tradition the Guild works to preserve.

w

Ms . Johnson is Curator of Maritime History at the Calvert Marine Museum and editor of Working the Water: The Commercial Fisheries of Maryland 's Patuxent River.

A view of the Calvert Marine Museum's waterfront and Drum Point lighthouse. The Patuxent Small Craft Guild maintains the museum's small craft collection, including the skipjack Marie Theresa in the foreground.

On the Ajjordsfaering ...

Each plank makes a curvelinear statement as though separate of its brothers and, as we proceed from the stem to a point, say, a quarter of her length aft, each handsbreadth of each of the planks beneath the water and immediately above it conspire with the bow wave to encircle a small pocket of air and deftly curl it away under the boat. Not only is the garboard extremely hollow, but a longitudinal hollow as well, known as the sti-fetting, creates a tunnel of air over which the boat rides, easing the wetted surface and in-LANCE LEE creasing the speed.

19

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Discovery Reenactment '92:

"She Had Always Brought Me Safely Home" Ten ships' boats-eight British and two Spanish-achieved lasting fame in 1792 for their unforgettable endeavors in the search for the Northwest Passage. Five of them were carried

by Captain Vancouver's flagship Discovery. They were open boats, l 6 to 26 feet in length, for the most part rowed by six to ten oars, but also sailed when conditions permitted.

History records no names for these boats. They were simply called "the launch," "the yawl," "the cutter," "the jolly boat," "the longboat," or usually just "the boat."

Under oar and sail, mapping their way northward in all weathers, these men and their boats left us a legacy of reliable charts, scientific classification of plant and animal life, and encounters with the native people.

* * * * *

Two hundred years later, in a day when tall ships command the public eye, the Discovery Reenactment Society is celebrating the "small ships" of Northwest exploration. Reproductions of these famous tenders will retrace, step by step, the paths of these pioneering small craft in "Discovery Reenactment '92."

In preparation for the 1992 expedition, groups all over British Columbia, Washington and Oregon are getting down to work and making the wood chips fly. Clearly it will be in their own boats-built from well researched plans in a spirit of respect for traditional craftsmanship---that most of the participants will have earned the right to follow in the wake of the explorers.

Museums are setting a lively example. A ten-oared cutter/ gig was built on exhibit last winter at the Washington State Historical Museum; an American jolly boat, Spanish launch and British cutter are being built at the Oregon Historical Society Museum; and the Maritime Museum of British Columbia is constructing Captain Vancouver's jolly boat-all without power tools.

The Reenactment itinerary will be divided into stages or passages varying in length from two to ten days--depending on boat size, crew composition and waters traversed-making it poss ible for nearly two thousand people to participate.

The ten boats in the Reenactment fleet will follow the same itinerary as the original expedition, making every attempt to be in the same place on the same days as the British and Spanish surveys. In like manner, crews will be deployed on various expeditions and charting work in company with at least one other boat. Classic navigation and charting methods-using reproductions of the same sextants, chronometers, and sounding leads-wi ll be used with the implicit challenge: "Can we produce such accurate charts as they did?"

Officers in charge of the boats will achieve qualification in a rigorous training program to be conducted during the summerof 1990 and 1991 , which will include Coast Guard certification. Training materials are in production for officer candidates as well as participants, as is a day-by-day compilation of many British and Spanish journals of the original expedition in these waters.

The first of the fleet-Discovery's launch-was completed at Canadian headquarters in April 1987 and made a successful maiden voyage to Seattle in five days. She is currently being used in Puget Sound waters in conjunction with historical and marine science programs. This 26-foot reconstruction rows ten oars double-banked and sails with a two-masted lugsail rig.

She cruises comfortably under oars at a 4.5-knot average and reaches 6 knots under sail. There is room aboard for 12 persons with their food , camping gear, equipment and water for over a week. As with all of the Reenactment boats, she is of classic design and build, and is capable of safe, seaworthy SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

Discovery's 25-foot yawl was Capt. Vancouver's personal survey boat and the first European craft to penetrate many ofthe northwestern inlets. With a 3 -masted dipping lugsail rig and virtually no keel, the yawl sails high on the wind and as fast as many modern cruising boats.

operation under both oar and sail in inshore waters. In fact, Captain Bligh 's epic 41-day, 3600 mile open sea voyage from Tofoa to Timor in 1789 was made in a boat of the same design, size and rig.

Flagship of the British Columbia fleet is Discovery's 25foot yawl, Captain Vancouver's favorite boat and the one he invariably used in the survey expeditions. He referred to the yawl as "The boat I had constantly used ... travelled ... repeatedly escaped from danger; she had always brought me safely home." This sleek vessel rows 8 oars double-banked, sails with a three-masted rig, and accommodates two officers and two midshipmen for a total capacity of twelve.

These 16 to 26-foot boats, based on well-proven and well recorded designs, are estimated to cost between $8000 to $15,000 each, depending on size and outfitting. Highest priority is being given to authenticity in design , construction and outfitting. In each case the boats are being built in a thoroughly traditional manner in an attempt to revive the craftsmanship of late 18th century boatbuilders. Building time is three to six months per boat. All boats will be under the program control of the Discovery Reenactment Society during the 1992 expedition. w

This story is reprinted from published material from the Discovery Reenactment Society. For more information: Discovery Reenactment Society, PO Box 43, Whaler Bay, Galiano Island, British Columbia VON JPO, Canada.

21

A Manual for Small Craft Preservation Thanking all our hosts in New York City , Elizabeth, Stamford, Kingston , Albany, New Rochelle, Fairfield, Milford, and Fall River for a great summer of '89.

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Ship and Boat Plans The Museum's boat plans list includes dories, Whitehalls, peapods and canoes as well as some larger craft - about 100 of the Seaport's collection of more than 400 watercraft. Write to Mystic Seaport Curatorial 1

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22

by Paul Lipke, Museum Small Craft Association The Museum Small Craft Association's Union List of Museum Watercraft and soon-to-be-published Boats: A Manual for their Documentation are critically needed tools in the fight to save and nurture historic boats. The Union List is being developed as a comprehensive computer data base detailing all watercraft (with no size limitation) in North American Museum collections. Constantly updated and improved, it is rapidly becoming a substantial tool for research, collections management and guiding future watercraft preservation efforts.

The Field Manual will provide stepby-step direction to those who need to document a boat, whether in words describing its role within the community, or in measured drawings detailing the lines, construction, builder's details, and wear marks that form the evidence

We are apprenticed to the past and our apprenticeship will never be over.

-GREGORY FOSTER

Whaler Bay Boat Yard for reconstructing a boat's working life.

The best documentation shows how the details of recorded hull form and structure reflect the clearly spelled-out context of a boat: the what, when, where, who, how, and why. Ultimately it reaches full flower in precisely copied (plank for plank, nail for nail) replicas subjected to scrupulously measured sea trials.

An aggressive offense in boat documentation is the best defense when a boat cannot be saved, when a replica is needed for a seamanship program , or when restoration, modification or repair threaten the history recorded in its timbers. That the words and drawings can transmit much of the power of their subjects is proven by the sampling of programs covered in this issue of Sea History. Most of these have been inspired and flourished specifically because certain boats were " saved" on paper. It is no exaggeration to say they live and breathe by the grace of historians and boat documentation pioneers Howard Chapelle and John Gardner.

The MSCA gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, National Maritime Initiative of the National Park Service and the Council of American Mariw time Museums in these projects.

SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

The Center for Wooden Boats:

Hands on History

by Dick Wagner

The Center for Wooden Boats came into being in 1976 because there was no place in the Northwest where one could get involved in traditional wooden boats, especially small craft. There has been a bond between the Northwest and small craft for close to 5,000 years. The highly developed cedar canoe culture of this area may date back that far. As the region developed, small craft played key roles. Launches, gigs, and jolly boats of Spanish, English, Russian, and American expeditions surveyed our shores.

Many small craft were developed to serve the needs of the Northwest-gillnetters, trailers, seiners, lumber schooners, sealing boats, halibut schooners are examples of unique Northwest vessels. The vast fleet of Foss Maritime tugs and barges began a hundred years ago with a flotation skiff. Thea Foss used to row sailors ashore from their anchored ships in Commencement Bay, off Tacoma.

In addition, many Northwest boats were built to just have fun on the water.

The Willits canoes, Poulsbo boats, Mukilteo boats, Geary 18's and Blanchard Senior knockabouts are examples.

It seemed to some of us that there should be a place dedicated to our rich small craft heritage.

The idea for such a place was incubated at the Old Boathouse on Seattle's Lake Union in 1968. Here was an urban anachronism-in the middle of a vital, working lake in the middle of a large city, a colony offloating residences built on huge cedar logs, and in the middle of one of the houseboat enclaves was a fleet of about twenty classic wooden rowing and sailing boats, not to just look at but to use. The visitors also discovered they could get free coffee, raid the fridge for beer, offer endless advice to the owners of the Old Boathouse about how to maintain wooden boats, and trade information on plans, lumber, fastenings and tools.

It was the kind oflearning experience we all long for when we visit a museum-an insider's backroom experience, where you can handle the exhibits and listen to experts and even argue with them! The Center for Wooden Boats was conceived to be an expanded Old Boathouse-a place where you learn by doing.

CWB had a cause-to get people involved with our maritime past-long before it had a name or operating structure. Our first public event was the Northwest 's first Wooden Boat Show (we call it festival , now) in July 1977.

This July affair has continued ever since and, as always, it 's free. The winter of 1977-78, CWB sponsored a series of workshops and seminars on maritime skills.

Today, our programs have moved from the kitchen of the Old Boathouse to a site on the south end of Lake Union.

CWB took on another challenge in developing this site. Thepublicly-0wned property which we rented, was formerly a city asphalt plant. When we moved there we got into the waterfront revitalization business. Removing asphalt and hauling dirt was added to our list of projects.

We now have a small upland park and pavilion similar to Seattle's tum-ofthe-century boat liveries. There is a Victorian boatshop and boathouse, both floating. We have over 80 boats of historic significance on display. Some are in racks, but most are in the water, ready to use. The park buildings, floats and boats are all available for public access.

A visitor at any time is likely to see people picnicking on the lawn or in the pavilion, three or four boats in the process of restoration by volunteers, a boatbuilding workshop underway, and another group of students learning casting, sail repair, knotwork, or varnishing.

Amidst all those activities is the coming and going of the boats.

We're a little harbor of traditional small craft. We ' re a new park on an inner city lake where there was only debris before. We' re a place preserving our old maritime skills by passing them on. We 're an experiential museum. And you can still stop in for some coffee and .i, offer all the advice you want.

Mr. Wagner is director of the Center for Wooden Boats and hopes "to build wooden boats the rest of my life ... and keep finding new ways to make the heritage fun."

At left, participants in a one week workshop at the Center are building a Chamberlain do1y-skiff. Below, two 2ljoot gigs compete in the Center's regatta. Photos by Marty Loken.

SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

23

SERVICE ANC

Military Sealift Command Cele 1949

On 1 October 1949 the Military Sea Transportation Service, now Military Sealift Command, was created to deploy and sustain military forces worldwide in support of national security objectives. MSC ships carried fuel, dry cargo, troops and dependents point-to-point on ships such as USNS METEOR, USNS RINCON, USNS CARD, USNS GREENVILLE VICTORY, and USNS BUCKNER.

By the early seventies MSC's We accepted the challenge of when USS TALUGA became tion from military to civilian en an unqualified success which other U.S. Navy underway ref operation of these ships cons1 combat assignments, reducec degree of readiness.

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Today, MSC relies on the U.S. private Merchant Marine for point-to-point movement of equipment and supplies to deploy and sustain U.S. Forces. MSC operates 52 ships with civil service crews to support fleet operations and special missions worldwide. The fleet includes state-of-theart fleet oilers, tugs, ammunition, hospital, cable laying, range instrumentation, oceanographic research and surveillance ships.

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SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

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SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

Hurricane Island Outward Bound School:

''An Undefeatable Spirit''

by Bridget Balthrop Morton Here's the challenge: HIOBS is dedicated to working with students of all kinds Meet ten or so strangers this morning. Fit yourselves out and all ages. Some courses concentrate on youth at risk; special in foul weather gear and boots. Stuff a small duffel with programs work with veterans, the blind, the deaf.

In the late 1960s, HI OBS sent a watch of inner city youth on sleeping bag and clothes. Pack enough food and water for several days. Climb aboard a 30- foot open boat, a sprit-rigged a pulling boat expedition from Hurricane Island in Penobscot ketch with a loose-footed main, no winches, powered by the Bay all the way to New York City. That set the course for further exploration. Several pulling boat expeditions sailed wind--0r by you and those ten-foot oars.

A pulling boat. . .. between Hurricane Island and Key West in the 1970s, and the And pull ye will, mates, since it's 1600 hours, and we must school ultimately set up bases in the Florida Keys and Chesapdrop the hook in Deep Cove before dark. Here's the chart. eake Bay. Recently HIOBS acquired the use of Thompson 's You'll figure it out. ...

Island in Boston Harbor, from which it hopes to bring inner city Fog? In the bow you ' II find the horn and lead line. Toot on kids out of urban chaos and into experiences of water, wilderone and sound with the other. Now cast off the stem . ness and self-awareness.

Hurricane Island 's students frequently describe their courses * * * * * Peter 0 . Willauer founded the Hurricane Island Outward as periods of tremendous personal growth. Cy Hamlin deBound School in Maine in 1964. Since its inception, Hurri- signed HIOBS pulling boats for safety and easy handling, but cane Island has been a leader in experiential education and sea they make wonderful rocking platforms for discovering integtraining in the US, as well as a catalyst for other maritime rity and independence, old fashioned virtues that the mainland ventures, including the Rockport Apprenticeshop. HIOBS does little to foster these days. Frequently the Coast Guardfollows the principles of Kurt Hahn, educator and founder of licensed instructors allow students to work through a difficult Outward Bound worldwide. Hahn believed that "youth suf- process, rather than demonstrate an easier way. fers from the misery of unimportance." According to Hahn, Sheila Turner, a 1981 HIOBS student, recently wrote the one combats that misery through action, discipline, self- school : "I remember rowing like hell in choppy waters in the reliance and serv ice. Hahn insisted one learns best by meeting middle of a thunderstorm, feeling that I could row forever, and a challenge head-on. that I would rather be there than anywhere else in the world."

So HIOBS ships its students, untrained and untried, on That taught her, she wrote, "Most of the barriers we face are set sailing expeditions. They ri se at dawn to run and dip in the in our own minds. Life is so much more interesting when we ocean. Then they rig the sprits and haul up the 50 pound stock concentrate on facing the challenges rather than defining the anchor hand over hand, stand by the sheets and shout: "Ready limits." about. Helm 's a-lee." One or two huddle over the chart, Between the lines, you can hear Kurt Hahn: teaching each other to plot courses, take bearings and measure "Ensure the survival of these qualities-an enterprising the boat's speed. Amidships, the day 's quartermaster sends curiosity, an undefeatable spirit, tenacity in pursuit and above provisions back to the cook, who holds forth at the kerosene all, compassion." .ti stove, while also standing by to handle the centerboard. The few remaining crew rest on the deckboards or struggle to tie abowline. In a while, they ' ll all change positions and learn a For information and a course schedule telephone Outward Bound at 1-800-341-1744. new skill, as the boat sails the beautiful waters of Maine.

INTREPID / /

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After decades of worldwide service, this historical vessel now rests peacefu lly in New York harbor. Today, In trepid no longer makes history.

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FREIGHTER TRAVEL *UNUSUAL *UNCROWDED * "UN-FORMAL" Twice monthly newsletter lists cabins/rates/routes available for passengers on freighter from U.S. and worldwide ports.

One year subscription $27.

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EXPLORE THE MAINE COAST Schooner "MARY DAY"

London, Moonlight over Lower Pool 1897

FREE SWEEPSTAKES A $1500 John Stobart print will be given away to publicize the fifth annual Sea Heritage Marine Art Contest.

Stobart prints hang in museums, corporate offices and fine homes.

86 prints have been Issued since 1974.

Many sell for more than 20 times their original price in the current art market.

Everyone has a chance to win: Send business card. Write on the back,

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Artists enter the Sea Art Contest: Send a self addressed stamped envelope for an entry blank and rules.

SEA HERITAGE Box 241HI, Glen Oaks, NY11004 (800)247-3262/(718)343-9575

Statement filed 4-18-89 requ ired by the Act of Aug. 12, 1970, Sec. 3685, Title 39, U.S.Code: Sea History is published quarterly at 132 Maple St., Croton NY I 0520; minimum subscription price is $ 15 . Publisher and editor is Peter Stanford; managing editor is Norma Stanford; owner is National Maritime Hi storical Society, a non-profit corporation; all are located at 132 Maple St. , Croton, NY I0520.

During the 12 months preceding October 1988, the average numbers of: A) copies printed each issue was 19,362; B) paid circulation was I) sold through dealers , carriers and counter sa les 2,789; 2) mail subscriptions I0,727; C) total paid circulation was 13,5 16; D) free distribution , samples, comp lime nta ry copies were 5,446; E) total distritution was 18,962; F) copies not distributed were I) office use 400; 2) return from news agents, O; G) total= 19,362.

The actual numbers for the single iss ue preced ing October 1988 are: A) total number prin ted 16,500; B) paid circu lat ion was I) sales through dealers, carrie rs and coun ter sa les 4,983; 2) mail subscriptions 9,827; C) total paid circulation 14,810; D) free distribution , samples, complimentary copies were 990; E) total di stribution was 15,800; F) copies not distributed were I} office use 700; 2) return from news agents 0; G) total= 16,500.

I certify tha t the above statements made by me are correct a nd complete. (S igned) Norma Stanford, V. P., National Maritime Hi storical Society

SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

VISIT

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Hard cover. $19.95 Add $2.00 for shipping.

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Yankee Clipper's Wavertree Room The Yankee Clipper, one of South Street Seaport's finest restaurants , recently dedicated an opulently refurbished room to honor the historic Wavertree , a tall ship now berthed just outside the restaurant's multipaned windows. The dedication of the Wavertree Room goes beyond its physical proximity to its namesake, however, for the room actually once served as the office of Baker, Carver & Morrell , general agents who represented the Wavertree in the 1800s. -VIA PORT OF NY-NJ, March 1986

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SEA HISTORY 51 , AUTUMN 1989

Sea Music at Mystic

by William Main Doerflinger

Sea chanties, forecastle songs, and nautical instrumental music rang across the spacious green lawns and riverside streets of the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticutduring its tenth annual Sea Music Festival from June 9 to 11. Concerts under a capacious tent by the waterfront, a great variety of musical workshops, a scholarly symposium, and realistic demonstrations of sailormen's work aboard the Museum's fully-rigged ships combined to make the three-day weekend a memorable artistic and educational experience.

This tenth annual festival at Mystic was officially dedicated to Dr. Stuart M. Frank, now director of the Kendall Whaling Museum in Sharon, Massachusetts. Dr. Frank organized the first festival in 1980 while serving as a research associate at Mystic. Since then, the annual festival has developed into the largest event of its kind and has inspired similar sea festivals in England, Canada, Italy, Holland and Poland.

Bringing together scores of fine singers and groups performing in the maritime fo lk tradition, the festival was an impressive testimony to the strength and vitality of sea music. Alongside chanties and foreb itters traditional since the era of sail, the singers' repertoires included a number of contemporary songs of salt water, which showed that the sea and the life of the sailor continue to inspire song composers today.

A highlight of this year's festival was the presence of five members of Le Cabestan (The Capstan), specializing in the songs, chanties and traditional dance tunes of Brittany and Normandy. The group included four Frenchmen, Michel Col leu , Christian Desnos, Arnaud Maisonneuve, and Bernard Subert, and one Englishman living inParis,John Wright.

They sang with great spirit and infectious humor to the accompaniment of such exotic instruments as the bombarde (a horn), the hurdy-gurdy (a sort of accordion on which the left hand plays the tune while the right turns a crank to supply air), as well as the fiddle and clarinet. M. Colleu is also a principal editor for the recordings and publication of Le Chasse-Maree, the Breton research organization who have issued a numberof new recordings and softcover books since the release of their classic "Chants de Marins," a set of six LP French sea song records (see Sea History, Autumn 1984, p 44).

Another international feature this year was the traditional CapeVerdean singing of "Joli" Gonzales, now director of the Cape Verdean Cultural Center in SEA HISTORY 51 , AUTUMN 1989

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The Wickford Express and a children' sfu-fu band perfrom together on the Joseph Conrad.

New Bedford. Stan Hugill , the veteran Cape Hom chantyman and sea song collector from Wales, delighted the audience as usual with his inimitable recollections and strong, natural vocal style.

At the symposium on Saturday morning, scholarl y papers were read by folklorists including James Moreira of Memorial University, St. Johns, Newfoundland, on "Working Songs and Sails: Chanty Improvisation in the Nautical Work Context"; John Townley of Virginia on "Music in the Confederate Navy"; and Bob WalserofMinnesota, a former organizer of the Mystic festival on "Chan ties and Sailors' Songs: A Preliminary Discography."

Featured in the gala Saturday evening concert were Stuart Frank and Mary Malloy; the trio of Cindy Killet, Ellen Epstein and Michael Ci cone, who scored a hit with Dillon Bustin 's contemporary river song "Shawnee Town" and contemporary anti-whaling songs; and Le Cabestan .

One can but wish there were space here to pay tribute individually toâ&#x20AC;˘all the forty or more singers and performing groups who contributed their talents to this memorable weekend. The festival was organized and coordinated by Geoff Kaufman, director of the special music programs for the Seaport. ..t Mr. Doerflinger is author of the standard work, Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman, due to appear in a revised third edition later this year.

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James P. McAllister (center) in a glorious moment in 1970, bringing the tug Mathi lda into South Street Seaport with his son James (left) and Peter Stanford.

J AMES P ATRICK McALLISTER 1905-1989

James P. McAllister, Chairman of the ment overlooking the East River, and the National Maritime Historical Society, family estate in Port Jefferson, Long died of a stroke on July 16 at the North Island , Mr. McAlli ster pursued a wide Shore Hospital in Manhasset, Long Is- range of interests. He owned two autoland. He was 84 years old and had de- mobi le agencies in Long Island and only voted his working life to maritime af- gave up racing Maserati s at age 75 . fairs. In 1977 he retired as Chairman and He was active in charitable affairs as President of McAllister Brothers Tow- a Knight of Malta, a member of the ing & Transportation, Inc., a company Cardinal's Committee of the Laity , and a founded by hi s grandfather in 1864. Mr. trustee of St. Charles Hospital in Port McAlli ster had served the company 53 Jefferson. He was a well -known member of the Propeller Club, Port of New York, years at the time of his death.

Widely considered the dean of New and the Whitehall Club, the Downtown York 's maritime community, Mr. McAl - Ath letic Club, the New York Yacht Club, lister represented the industry in labor and the Port Jefferson Yacht Club, of negotiations for 40 years. He was a which he was past commodore. founder of both the New York and New It was always good news when you Jersey Port Promotion Association and heard from Jim McAllister. Whatever the Marine Towing and Transportation your problem, an historic ship that needed Employer's Association, and served on sav ing, school-children who needed an the New York Chapter of the National outing in the harbor, or a bit of obdurate Defense Transportation Association as officialdom to be dealt with, Jim was well as other maritime associations. He there and used his considerable authority served as president of the New York to solve the problem. Helpfu lness was Council, the Navy League of the United his middle name, and the world beat a States, the New York Towboat Exchange path to hi s door. and Harbor Carriers Association , and the He could be tough when the situation State Board of Commissioners of Pilots. called for it and indeed his to ughness and He was chairman of Project Liberty resilience of spirit helped the Society Ship, which saved the last East Coast survive some hard times when he first World War II Liberty ship for public ex- took the helm as chairman. Before his hibition in her building place in Balti- passing, he had seen that situation turned more, and was instrumental in bringing around. This was very largely due to his the aircraft carrier Intrepid to New York leadership, his resolve, and his wonderto serve as a sea-air-space museum . He ful gift for doing the right thing and also donated the historic steam tug Math- inspiring others to do likewise. i lda , which se rved in McAlli s ter Mr. McAllister is survived by hi s wife Brother's Canadian subsidiary, to the Helen , and sons James III of Stamford, Hudson Ri ver Maritime Center in King- Connecticut and N~ill of Port Jefferson, ston , New York, and he played a vital and his da ughter Ellen Perrott of role in establishing the South Street Stamford. He is also survived by three Seaport Museum in Lower Manhattan . sisters, Justine Roach of. Pelham, New Dividing hi s time in his later years York , Isabel Etzel of Manhasset, and between the offices of the National Joan Smith of Garden City, Long Island, Maritime Historical Society in the World and by seventeen grandchildren and nine PS Trade Center, his Sutton Place apart- great-grandchildren.

SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS

NICHOLAS BENTON

1954-1989

Master rigger Nick Benton, head of the Rhode Island-based firm the Rigging Gang, fell to his death when the mainmast of the three-masted schooner Domino Ejfect(ex-VictoryChimes) collapsed on June 19. Benton and an assistant were unrigging the schooner's masts for removal in Albany, New York, prior to towing through the Erie Canal to Lake Michigan. The tragic accident happened on Benton 's 35th birthday.

Benton was founder and president of the Colonial Era Ships Association, a networking organization to share technical information and help develop support and interest in such historic replicas as Plymouth ' s Mayflower and San Francisco 's Golden Hinde. He and the Rigging Gang had worked on many of these vessels, and he was always available to offer help and expert counsel in the design, rig and operation of hi storic sailing vessels.

Our field is the poorer for Nick's passing, and we shall miss his gift for friendship and laughter. His work and interests live on in the disciplines he established virtually single-handed in this country, and in the people he trained. He leaves his wife Debbie and three young sons, for whom a memorial fund has been set up. Contributions should be sent to: Deborah K. Benton, Merrill Lynch , 2 Sun Life Executive Park, Suite 150, Wellesley MA 02181.

Adirondack Museum The first museum to seriously study and collect small craft-and to search out the folkways of those who built and navigated them-is hundreds of miles from the open sea, and over one thousand feet above sea level. The Adirondack Museum at its founding in 1957 undertook the celebration of the Adirondack guide boat, and other craft that strung together a network of navigation in the numerous lakes and rivers that speckle this mounSEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

tainous region in upstate New York, close to the Canadian border. This was done at the initiative of R.H. Bruce Inverarity, the fo unding director, a person of notable artistic imagination and understanding of the undying mystery of a boat on the face of the waters, or the way of a ship in the sea. Later, in the 1960s, he was the person who led the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, of which he was the first professional director, to bring GazelaPrimeiro, the Portuguese Grand Banks barkentine of 1883 , to Philadelphia, where she makes her home today.

Back in the mountains, the Adirondack Museum has gone from strength to strength, with a meticulously maintained collection of 52 small craft, centering on the lithe and lovely guide boats-built light enough to be carried on a guide's

back, and strong enough to carry him and two others in the water. The lightest of these we found on a recent visit was a 13foot, 5-inch vessel, carrying three persons and weighingjust49 pounds. Carefully fitted 1/4 inch white pine planking and red spruce frames are the materials of these ethereally I ight but sturdily functional little vessels-the remaining ingredient being the genius and craftsmanship of the builders. (Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake NY 12812; 518 352-731 I)

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In 1933, the Hudson River Day Line made her a floating night club in the Hudson River, moored off the HastingsDobbs Ferry border. Steamboat loads of people, from Albany to New York City came and danced the night away. In 1938 Robison Oil intentionally beached her at Hastings, New York where she remains today.

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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT sor of the world-famous restoration of the bark Elissa is considering saving a substantial chunk of the barkentine ' s hull for the museum they are developing. The massive structure of the vessel, the last survivor of the large wooden ships built in Texas, would do much to anchor the new museum. (Galveston Historical Foundation, PO Box 302, Galveston TX 77550)

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BRIEFLY NOTED: Diving operations on the site from which the 1509 battleship Mary Rose was raised in 1982 have uncovered much material from the ship including fragments of her enormous overhanging forecastle, which it is hoped now to reconstruct. Mary Rose Trust, HM Naval Base, Portsmouth, Han ts PO I 3LX, England; 44 0705 7 5021.

The German battleship Bismarck, sunk after a long chase in the North Atlantic in 1941 , has been located on the seabed 600 miles west of Brest, the French seaport she was headed for. Her upright position suggests that she was in fact scuttled as survivors claimed. The horrendous pounding she received silenced her but probably did not sink her, says her discoverer Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Woods Hole MA 02540.

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be done inside, but the promenade deck and dining saloon are in existence structurally , with various embellishments on the way. The mock-up engine is awaiting assembly, perhaps for next year. " Adding that they were about to hold a celebratory function aboard that evening, he concluded: "The outlook is good."

And so it is indeed, from our perspective!

diately after World War II. She is shown above at her launch on July 22 at the Rockport Apprenticeshop, where Commodore Snyder helped bend her frames into shape. (Apprenticeshop, Sea St., Rockport ME 04856)

SS Great Britain The "Great Iron Ship" SS Great Britain celebrated the 150th anniversary of the laying of her keel on July 19, in the very dock she was built in. Richard Goold-Adams, Chairman of the SS Great Britain Project, which sponsored the return of the ship from the Falkland Islands to Bristol in 1970, sent us a note on the occasion, along with a recent aerial photograph. He notes: "Much remains to

The Spanish aircraft carrier Dedalo, formerly the light carrier Cabot, arrived August 3 in New Orleans where it is planned to restore her as a museum ship.

Cabot-Dedalo Museum Foundation, c/o The Floating Dry dock, Kresgeville PA 18333.

SS Lane Victory , World War II Victory ship, returned home June 11 to Los Angeles , where she was launched in 1945.

The more sophisticated successor to the Liberty ship will be restored by US Merchant Marine Veterans ofWorld War II, 300 Long Beach Blvd., Rm. 502, Long Beach CA 90801.

The Delaware Bay oyster schooner Clyde A. Phillips has been entirely cleaned up and stripped of clam dredging gear by her volunteer crew. An evening of jazz SEA HISTORY 51 , AUTUMN 1989

_& MUSEUM NEWS William G. Thomas, once a volunteer ever-memorable role. For booklet on this aboard the square rigger Balclutha in project send $10 to Kent Maritime Trust, San Francisco, has been named supervi- Royal Harbour, Ramsgate, Kent CTI 1 sor of the Maritime National Historical 8LS England; 44 0843 587765.

Park, successor to the National Maritime Small boats and their aficionados have Michael Naab, former director of the Museum, San Francisco CA 94109. come together for the past six years at the Columbia River Maritime Museum, and most lately assistant manager of the Perhaps the most gallant of all small ChesapeakeBayMaritimeMuseumMidNational Maritime Museum, San Fran- craft, Commander Charles Herbert Atlantic Small Craft Festival at St. ci sco has been appointed Maritime Di- Lightoller's motor yacht Sundowner, is Michaels, Maryland. The Festival is a rector of the National Trust for Historic under restoration to lead the small craft heady mix of workshops, races and Preservation, 1785 Massachusetts Ave. fleet next spring honoring the 50th anni- miscellaneous' entertainments culminatNW, Washington DC 20036; 202 673- versary of the evacuation of Dunkirk in ing in a Saturday night crab feast. SunWorld War II, in which she played an day offers a free-for-all in which partici4127. pants try out each other's boats and vow to gather again next year. This year' s festival will be Friday through Sunday, Oc"HOW FAR FROM THE SEA tober 6-8. CBMM, PO Box 636, St. MiMD 21663; 301 745-2916. w chael CAN A SAILOR EVER BE••••• "

afloat aboard the Cape May ferry is being held September 30 to benefit this good cause-be there! Phillips, PO Box 730, Alloway NJ 08001; 609 453-1259.

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MARINE ART:

Yvon le Corre's Yvon le Corre is a Breton seaman-a commercial fisherman by trade-whose second calling is that of marine artist.

His sailorly eye, passion for traditional working watercraft, and attention to the details of the vessels he portrays give unusual power and authority to his work.

A protege of Marin-Marie, he builds on the tradition of that great master of Atlantic art. Still , his style is distinctly his own. Le Corre 's own success as marine artist has allowed him to travel , documenting the intricacies and simplicities of craftwhereverhe goes. Paintings done afloat have been compiled in a book, L ' H eureuse D ' Iris.

Washington County Peapod, a 15joot Maine workboat built from plans by Howard Chapelle.

Bindalsbdt, a 16joot all-purpose Norwegian workboat built of spruce. Lines taken off and published by the Rockport Apprenticeshop.

Sailing Canoe Oboe, a 15-footer based on the lines of Robert Baker's smaller Piccolo, this light,fast craft was built by Bettman and Moore in Rockport , Maine .

Sketchbook In 1985 he spent three months in the United States recording the construction and handling of traditional American small craft. His sketchbook from that vi sit is a treasure-small craft as we have never seen them before. The humblest vessel becomes a masterpiece under hi s brush and the most familiar shape seems startlingly new . And in all of the drawings his admiration and understanding of hi s subjects shine forth unmistakably. .ti Prints and notecards of Le Corre' s work can be obtained from the Apprenticeshop , Box 539, Rockport ME 04856; 207 236-6071 .

¡ Amy

18' NOM.l\NS LAND 50AT

Noman' s Land boat Amy , an 18-foot adaptation of tough, ketch-rigged boats that fished in all seasons around the /islands south of Cape Cod.

Sandbagger Shadow, a 21-foot racing craft of the 1890s, herbroad beam (almost JO f eet), moveable sandbag ballast enabled her to carry a cloud of canvas. Later she became a Long Island Sound oysterman, then, in the 1940s, a yacht. She is now in South Street Seaport Mu seum's small craft collection. Her story was told by one of her owners, Philip Teuscher, in Sea History 36.

Pinky Perseverance, a 26foo t Penobscot Bay f isherman, patterned on the type co mm on in the Main e waters in the 1800s, built by the Rockport Apprentices hop to hull lin es by Chapelle and rig by Baker.

SEA HISTORY, AUTUMN 1989

39

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Gazela Under Sail

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SIEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

Marine Art News

Victoria , British Columbia, in the early 20th century by Victor Mays

Victor Mays's evocative watercolor of workaday vessels in a famous West Coast Canadian port is just one of the works on exhibit in Kirsten Gallery's 15th Northwest Marine Art Exhibition, which ran July 9 to September 7 thi s year. Distinguished paintings by former ASMA president Chris Blossom, Cape Hom sailor Tom Wells, the expatriate Californian Mark Myers and other stalwarts of the marine art movement today were also shown, with some new entrants (new to your reviewer, at least) such as Carol Evans 's watercolor "Grassy Point," which explores the look and feeling of a rocky foreshore, with mountains of the same granitic matter asserting their still but commanding presence in the background, and Ben Neill's enchanting acrylic "Portuguese Fishpackers," depicting three young working women looking somehow not a bit downtrodden--<lo they know something we don ' t, or perhaps we ' ve forgotten?

Surveying this work in Kirsten's mailer for the exhibition, a kind of minicatalogue, is very cheering to ordinary mortals who are looking for more in art than shock value and the degradation of national and religious symbols, such as we have been treated to lately. Instead, we find here the confrontations of man with nature, women with exhausting work, and ships with the sea-the kind of challenges that inform our own lives, which in an artist's vision can redeem the ordinary from the banal and celebrate our memories and dreams by expressing the challenge of high endeavor,

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SEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

and the dignity of work well done under the indifferent sky.

The brimming vitality of marine art today, as evinced in this classic West Coast fixture, may be taken as an indication that this corner of the forest of art has escaped the blight that has wiped out whole classes of paintings that reach and speak to people-people, that is, as distinct from art c'ritics and art gallery owners, whose conspiracy in recent decades has done much to alienate art from its natural audience-the publicand to promote selectiÂĽely for speculative gain.

Art exists to help shape our vision of things by sharing what artists see. It is not a put-on, it is the mode in which humanity communicates value.

We recognize that this is a holdout rebel opinion. Still, we've procured a supply of the mini~catalogue of the Kirsten show, and wi II be glad to smuggle a copy to anyone who writes us. The only price is that you must include a word or two on your own feelings about marine art, or art in general. NMHS, 132 Maple Street, Croton-on-Hudson NY 10520.

* * * * *

The American Society of Marine Artists, in the July issue of theirnewsletter ASMA News, rejoices in the public recognition accorded the ASMA Ninth Annual National Exhibition, which opened March 31 at the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore. The opening reception was attended by 980 people, a record for the Historical Society (and for ASMA).

That's got to tell you that something is happening in the world of marine art.

Lengthy, glowing reviews appeared in the Washington Post and other media, and the show has been extended to the end of September.

But the real shocker is that all this came about without the

hype that many other artists now view as essential to the creative act. Apparently these marine artists, and the thousands who have visited their show, have stubbornly different values and expectations regarding art. Obviously they believe that by dabbing color on a canvas you can capture an experience and share it with others!

Another ASMA show is scheduled at the Life Saving Museum of Virginia, in Virginia Beach (near Norfolk), September 18 to October 15. Co-sponsored by the museum, the show will feature working craft of the kind that have long streamed by thi s sandy reach, too often leaving their bones on it. These artists are telling us that the visible world is important and what goes on in it matters.

And in this issue of ASMA News, there'sapiece by Jim Drake which openly asserts the importance of exploring that visible world: A good painter needs seasoning, which is simply to say he needs to go aboard in his chambers of imagery to eat, sleep and relate to his subject as thoroughly as possible. For example, if painting a sea-going tug, the artist goes aboard, smells the hot oil of the engine room, the acrid coal or diesel smoke, the salt sea fog. He feels the throb of hundreds of horses vibrating from the engines below through the steel deck plates. He senses the pitch and roll slowly increasing as the tug leaves the harbor and steams out to meet the incoming tanker.

Well, if you (like us) care for this kind of thing, ASMA will send you a sample copy of their journal. Just drop a line to Nancy Stiles at 91 Pearsall Place, Bridgeport CT 06605.

PS

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With no claim other than joyful subjectivity and the brazen assumption that all hands have read Moby Dick and The Wind In The Willows, and turned the port forward bunk into an on-soundings library, we pose you these books to entice, inform and instruct you in the world of small craft.

Enticing One would not want to pretend to the education of one's kids without Francis Herreshoff's The Comp/eat Cruiser (Sheridan House, New York NY, 1969) close at hand . And a man with the same educational instincts, who knew his stuff (went before the mast, apprenticed to a Gorhamfarmer,and-almostcertainlyfished in the old Maine pinkies), and wrote of the colonial world of 200 years ago is the Rev. Elijah Kellogg, whose writing in The Young Shipbuilders of Elm Island (Berwick & Smith, Norwood MA, 1898) may seem a bit stylized today, but his themes and technical knowhow are all in place. The design scenethe stick and the sand beach-are worth reading the entire book for. The Hardscrabble and the The Fisher Boys are also worthy reading.

Ruth Moore writes so well that any subject she touches turns golden ; A Fair

WindHome(WilliamMorrow,NewYork NY, 1953) evokes that direct cause-andeffect world of establishing a foothold on the 18th century Maine Islands through use of colonial small craft. By Wagon and Flatboat (a juvenile) gives a wonderful sense of how the westering movement in US history made use of the river network just beyond the Alleghenies.

Llewellyn Howland 's pro se in

Sou'West and by West of Cape Cod (Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1947) has the power to evoke the special wind-blown, beach-plum-perfumed world of southern Massachussetts 70 years ago to such a degree that those smells and intimations hit me whenever I pass this book 's niche on the middle shelf. His utter familiarity with these boats, boat-handling and islands reinforce the aura. For contrast try the dugout racing canoes of the 1830s in Rusty Fleetwood 's Tidecraft (Coastal Heritage Society, Savannah GA 1982).

Although Down Channel, by R.T. McMullen (Rupert Hart-Davis, London, UK, 1869 repr. 1984) is from across the Pond, the testimony it gives to the common sense, pleasure and overall efficacy of going "small" is vast. While we're over there, writing up this compendium without Arthur Ransome would be a betrayal. About the time you tum an oar over to an offspring, spring Swallows

and Amazons (Butler & Tanner Ltd., London, UK, 1930 repr.1982) on it. It will then beg for Swallowdale and the other ten in the series, particularly We Didn' t Mean to Go to Sea. Rake out

Racundra' s FirstCruisetoo,Ransome's peregrinations in the Baltic with the Ancient, a retired seaman who had sailed in the clipper Thermopylae.

Half the world away, outside the Golden Gate, the compelling little 2836ft Montereys-powered replacements of the San Francisco fel uccas-provided Marie DeSantis with a moving, blindersoff apprenticeship to trolling in

Neptune's Apprentice: Adventures of a Commercial Fisherwomen (Presidio Press, Novato CA, 1984). She writes: "Thi s fishing's not the game it seems from the vantage on top of the sea. It 's reaching in on mysteries with lines that pull both ways."

And the late William H. Taylor's Just Cruising contains such formative classics of the union between us and the deep and shallow sea, that we fear it might be overlooked these days-forty years from intial issue. But it's wondrously lively prose might have been written just yesterday--or tomorrow .

Informative As source books , extraordinary for the breadth covered and rich in historical and technical detail , Howard Chapelle's three small craft works, American Small

Sailing Craft: Their Design, Development and Construction (W.W. Norton , New York NY 1951), American Sailing Craft (Crown, New York NY, 1975), and The National Watercraft Collection, Second Edition (International Marine Publi shing, Camden ME, 1976) constitute the foundation of almost every project undertaken in these twenty years.

John Gardner's books comprise a broad sweep which picks up much of what Chap missed or had not access to and he poses us clear and impassioned means to go from the armchair to the open water via your boatshop. Encountering anyone who is as fine a Maker and Writer and always a Teacher makes possesion of books like Gardner's The Dory Book (International Marine Publishing , Camden ME, 1978) and Building Classic Small Craft as needful as the above.

Maynard Bray 's Watercraft (Mystic Seaport Museum Press, Mystic CT, 1979) remains one of the clearest and most comprehensive of our small watercraft sources amd poses a format for documentation whiich should be emulated more widely th<an it is. In many ways Paul Lipke has ' done for American boats hops what Mayrnard did for American waterSEA HISTORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

craft. Lipke 's work is Plank on Frame : The Who What and Where of 150 Boatbuilders (International Marine Publishing, Camden ME, 1981 ).

William A. Baker, meticulous researcher and writer, delved further back than any of the above; his testimony on early European/American small craft in Sloops and Shallops (Barre Publishing, Barre MA, I 966) is superb. The boats of the Southeast-Carolina and Georgiahad to wait for a biographer until Rusty Fleetwood, an impassioned Georgian possessed of equal parts of love for the traditions and researcher-energy nailed 'em down in Tidecraft, cited earlier.

WoodenBoat magazine presents two compendia of classic design s: Fifty Wooden Boats: A Catalog of Building Plans and Thirty Wooden Boats: The Second Catalog of Building Plans (WoodenBoat Publications, Brooklin ME, 1984 & 1988). The essays and the " Suggeste d Reading" (which this "Locker" purposely does not duplicate but rather commends) are superb. Only Roger Duncan could have served as biographer to the Friendship sloops and we love his Friendship Sloops (International Marine Publishing, Camden ME, 1985), a book as easy-going and informal as the sloops themselves .

The Adirondack guideboat is a pinnacle in American folk art and watercraft. Kenneth and Helen Durant brought special devotion to it in their Adirondack Guide-Boat (International Marine Publishing, Camden ME, 1980), with a notable assist from John Gardner. And Atwood Manley does justice to the leading builder in this genre in his Rushton and His Times in American Canoeing (Syracuse University Press, NY , 1968).

For a contrast to these lithe, superbly athletic craft, go afloat with the late Harlan Hubbard in Shantyboat: A River Way of Life (Kentucky Press, Lexington KY, 1981) for 350 pages of quiet, stirring, wonderful Mississippi experience aboard a boat that just drifts along (see page I 5).

Instructive Boatbuilding.in Your Own Backyard, by Sam Rabal, (Cornell Maritime Press, 1958) is a fine starting point; Bob Steward's Boatbuilding Manual , (International Marine Publishing, Camden ME, 1974) is excellent after you've learned the ABCs; Chapelle 's Boatbuilding, while thorough, is not his best work.

"Dynamite" Payson's Gloucester Light Dory (WoodenBoat Publication s, Brooklin ME, 1982) strikes us as a superbstart-upproject. Pete Culler's Boats, Oars and Rowing (International Marine Publishing, Camden ME, 1978), which SEA HISTORY 51 , AUTUMN 1989

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Reviews takes up an art more complex than is usually recognized-and almost lost in a single generation-deserves a place on the short shelf. Common sense, clearly presented in drawings and text is Walt Simmond' s offer in his two volume Lapstrake Boatbuilding (International Marine Publishing, Camden ME, 1980).

For their extensive service to the field of Doers, we place Putz and Spectre's seven volumes of The Mariner's Catalog (International Marine Publi shing, Camden ME, 1973-81) so lidl y in the instructional category. David King' s Half-Hull Modeling (Apprenticeshop, Maine Maritime Museum , Bath ME, 1980) is intended to get yo u started in wood and the number ofM uscongus Bay sloops (protagon ist of the booklet) on New England walls speaks well for this modest work.

Our prejudice for small leads us to pose The Practical Pilot by Leonard Eyges (International Marine Publishing, Camden ME, 1989) as the most splendidly applicable work on navigation. An honest account of a major oceanic expedition using a pre-industrial navigation method is Ben Finney' s H okule' a (Dodd, Mead, New York NY , 1979). And, on casti ng off-because we wi ll be appalled if yo u simply read the above and cut no finger, soak no shirt and depart not the anchorage of yo ur armchair-we urge that you add J .R.L. Anderson's so persuasive ca ll of the Ulysses Factor, The Exploring Instinct of Man (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York NY, 1970).

Thomas Somerscales, Marine Artist,

by Alex Hurst (Teredo Books, Brighton, Sussex , UK, 1988, 303pp, 172 plates, 108 in color, £45.00, avai lable in US through NMHS , $89.45) This is a large, sumptuous book, full of interest with a wealth of flawlessly produced color plates printed on acidfree art-paper. The great variety of ships--ocean liners, square-rigged sailing ships of every description, Viking ships, as well as those of Magellan, Drake and Anson-will have a wide appeal to students of maritime history and marine art. Somerscales knew the sea and ships intimately, a knowledge admirably reflected in his work.

Born in Hull, the son of a shipmaster, Somerscales lived 1842 to 1927 , a lifetime including the halcyon days of the sai ling vessel as both clipper and oceancarrier, while he himself served in the sailing "wooden wall s" of the Royal Navy as a schoolmaster, mostly in the Pacific during the 1860s. The schoolmaster in the RN, in those days, instructed the midshipmen aboard in the subjects necessary in their profession; including drawing, since a naval officer was supposed to be proficient in " taking a view" of a coastal profile, etc. Suffering from fever, Somerscales came ashore in Valparaiso, where he became a teacher in the English school. Ultimately he married and brought up a large family in Chile.

Self-taught, Somersca les 's early reputation as an artist was firmly estab-

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Strvoce c11nadoen on pares

lished in Chile with his coastal landscapes and paintings of the mighty Andes. Today , he is not only claimed as a native son of Chile, but it is these landscapes for which he is perhaps best known in South America. During the conflict between Chile and Peru, however, he painted a number of naval engagements, leading to hi s brilliant work as marine artist, which gained him worldwide recognition .

He returned to Eng land with hi s family in the earl y 1890s. There, hi s painting "Corvette Shortening Sail to Pick Up a Shipwrecked Crew," was ex hibited at the Royal Academy , and caused a sensation. It took the art world by stonn, establi shing Somerscales 's reputation in the art circles of E urope.

This painting was fol lowed by "Off Valparai so" which immediately met with even greater critical acclaim, becoming one of the great maritime paintingsand probably the most widely reproduced-of all time.

Over the years Somerscales returned to Chi le on a number of occasions , and it was there, perhaps, that he always seemed happ iest. Many of hi s paintings depict the local craft of the Canaries and Azores, and other pl aces visited on the voyage, incl uding Rio and the Falklands, together with many views of the stormy and formida ble passage of the Straits of Magellan . All of these paintings, and others, are reproduced in thi s importan t volume, illuminated by the perceptive comment and seaman like analys is of the author. A lex Hurst, himself a sailor who transversed these same Pacific and Cape Horn seas researched this book in both Eng land and Chile; ironicall y it is the first biography in English of this great British artist, and it is sure to bring lasting pleasure to many people not already fami li ar with this master 's life and work.

O SWALD L. BRETT

Mr. Brett, historian and marine artist, served at sea in World War II , played a role in the founding of South Street Sea~ port Museum, and is today an advisor of NMHS. Sailing Barges; a New Edition, by Frank G.G. Carr (Terence Dalton , Lavenham, Suffolk, UK, 1989, 462pp, illus, £25 .00) Frank Carr was the founding chairman of the World Ship Trust, which is represented in the US by the National Maritime Historical Society. He also is one of th1e g reatest authorities on the historic crraft of the world. Having left Cambridg~e with a degree in Law in SEA HI:STORY 51, AUTUMN 1989

1928, he took his first job as mate of a Thames sailing barge for a voyage to Antwerp. He then became an Assistant Librarian in the House of Lords. After considerable sailing and cruising experience in his Bristol Channel pilot cutter Cariad, he saw war service in theRNVR, and eventually became Director of the National Maritime Mu seum at Greenwich (London), Governor of the Cutty Sark Society, President of the Thames Barge Sailing Club et alia, and has played a leading role in the saving and preservation of many hi storic craft.

This book in an entirely new edition, is undoubtedly the authoritative work on the sailing barges of the British Isles.

It first appeared in 1931. It was republished in 1951 , and again in 1971 , having grown to some 350 pages. The present edition is again much enlarged.

Frank Carr covers a wide variety of craft in considerable detail while tracing the development of the Thames sailing barge. It evolved over several centuries to produce in the 19th century a fleet of thousands. Their numbers declined dramatically between the wars , until by 1949 there were only about 150 still trading. Today there are no "sailormen" left in trade, but some three dozen sur-

vive as barge yachts, sailing homes and in some cases providing adventure training for young people under sail.

The author covers their story and significance in detail , including the tales of those which traded overseas to the Continent, and their adventures in two World Wars. He brings in the remarkable feats of the very few which sailed far overseas, even to British Guiana, Demerara and the River Plate, where they proved their usefulness in local conditions. The writer of this review even saw one, the Ethel, as recently as December 1987, moored at New London, Connecticut, on Long Island Sound in the USA. A far cry from the Thames and surely proof of the longevity and general adaptability of these craft!

Not content with producing an exhaustive treati se on the Thames sailing barge, the author has also included welldocumented chapters to cover many other types of local sailing barge which once kept up a substantial trade on the coasts and inland waterways of Britain.

These include the Humber keel and billyboy , the Norfolk wherry and long defunct keel, the Mersey flat, the Severn trow and many another, of which barely a handful remain, none alas in trade, but

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mostly preserved by Museums, Trusts, Societies and groups of enthusiasts, as proud relics of the once great days of sai l.

JAMES FORSYTHE

General Secretary, World Ship Trust A Supplement (1971-1986) to Robert Albion's Maritime Naval History: An Annotated Bibliography, Benjamin Labaree (Mystic Seaport Museum , Mystic CT, 232pp, $12.00pb) Thirty-seven years ago Robert G. Albion produced a thin, mimeographed bibliographic volume for the use of his students in maritime and naval history at Harvard. The supply was quickly exhausted. A second edition of 100 pages was published in 1955 by Mystic Seaport. This was followed by a third edition in 1963 (with supplements in 1966 and 1968) and a fourth edition in 197 l, which contains references to approximately 5,000 titles. The supplement being reviewed here contains citations for approximately 2,000 additional titles which have appeared in the past fifteen years .

Those who are fami 1iar with Al bi on ' s four editions will be pleased to note that Labaree has followed the same format with the identical subject divisions plus four new ones: Marine Archaeology, Marine Policy, Marine Art, and Maritime Historians. He also has continued Albion's practice of using on! y works in English. While Labaree has retained Albion 's asterisk symbol to indicate works that he feels are particularly important, he has added more frequent annotations, full names of most authors, places of publication, and the number of pages. In addition, he has provided full citations each time a title is listed in more than one section .

Labaree has not continued Albion's very brief subject index inaugurated in the fourth edition. This is lamentable, as even a very limited subject index is useful. From my own experience in compiling bibliographies, I know that preparing a subject index is a difficult and tedious chore, but it certainly makes the volume more useful and valuable.

Even without a subject index though, Labaree 's supplement is certainly a welcome additional tool for maritime and naval historians, both professional and amateur.

CHARLES R. SCHULTZ Texas A&M University This review is adapted from a fuller review appearing in NASOH Newsletter,journal of the North American Society for Oceanic History.

Underwater Archaeology Proceedings from the Society for Historical Archaeology Conference, James P. Delgado, ed. (Society for Historical Archaeology, PO Box 23033, Pleasant Hill CA 94523, 154pp, illus, $12.50) The flooded seaport of Port Royale in Jamaica, Comwellis's scuttled ships at Yorktown, and the problems of conserving a hand grenade from a British ship wrecked on Montauk, Long Island, in 1781 are among the wide-ranging subjects reported in these proceedings.

Analysis of the remains of Peter the Great's galley fleet used in the conquest of Finland in 1714 and an illuminating examination of a cog-like vessel from the Netherlands are other highlights of the collection. Rene Peron of Santa Rosa Junior College contributes a revealing discussion of recovering lost folkways through archaeology. Interesting in themselves , these papers give an eyeopening view of the world of marine archaeology today and a particularized picture of what is at stake in our underwater heritage.

PS Shipwrecks in New York Waters, by Paul C. Morris & William P. Quinn (Parnassus Imprints, PO Box 335, Orleans MA 02653, 1989, 246pp, illus, $34.95) The catch in this large, splendidly illustrated volume ranges from the proud McKay clipper David Crockett, her elegant stem lifting forlorn above the water after she sank at the entrance to New York Harbor in February 1899, to a scattering of tugs that went down at their piers (sometimes, the author suggests, this happened when the lads stepped ashore for a brew), to the death plunge of a coasting schooner in heavy weather off Long Island, caught by the camera of a passenger on a German I iner coming into port. The haul of wrecks in New York waters reflects the varied traffic that have frequented the port since the first European dropped anchor there in 1524, fully a century before the official founding of the city. The photographs include facinating views of the changing port as well as the ships caught out by fire, collision or other mischance, and the text by two dedicated authorities on the coastal shipping scene, is enriched by their shared knowledge and the help of people like Maine's Lew Parker and South Street's Norman Brouwer. This is vintage stuff, and wonderful winter browsing, particularly the photographs of ice-laden wrecks which inspire an appreciation of a snug, warm fireside.

PS SEA HISTORY 51 , AUTUMN 1989

Sketches from a Voyage to Nova Scotia in the Wianno Senior Whisper

by Peter Stanford

~-5

~)

_x

Now it can be told-she leaked all the way. The cabin house seemed only to filter out the seaweed from the boarding seas we encountered beating to make our exit from Long Island Sound at the outset of our voyage. A leak through the deck structure is more dangerous than a leak through the bottom, since it attacks the morale of the crew, always the weak part of the "ship and her people" amalgam. In the lee of Fisher's Island, before leaving the Sound, after that initial wet plug to windward, we spent a long, hot afternoon caulking the seam between the cabin and deck. In retrospect it's clear that we were mainly widening this difficult seam, but it gave me and my brother Nicky an immense and rewarding sense of security to send buckets of water sl uicing over this patch-up job, with nary a drip below. That leakless moment had to sustain us a long time in memory!

Leaks in the bottom became bad enough (it was exhausting to keep up with the bailing) so that we laid the vessel out on the beach on two separate tides when we reached Cape Cod, to caulk first one bilge and then the other. We also took this occasion to drive in a few stout galvanized boat nails where even to our dewy-innocent eyes it was clear that the planking was making an initial effort, at least, to resolve into its separate sticks and simply float away .

Why did we travel in such a basket? She was old then , 41 years ago, having been built 31 years previous, in 1917, in Crosby's yard in Osterville.But she had great heart-there 's no other term to describe her eagerness in jumping into the fray with wind and sea. On the run from Cape Cod down east

Fishermen welcomed us to their world wherever we went in Nova Scotia. Here a crew comes ahoard for a talk ahoul life and the weather, tying up their much /Jigger boat astern with Whisper' s pram.

At right, stopping in at the little settlement on Mosher Island south of Mahon e Bay, we talked with the skipper of the fishing yawl we found there drying her sails.

Neither she nor Whi sper had an engine, relying instead on oar power in calms. The skipper marvelled at the size ofWhisper's mainsail. He ohviously preferred his own snug, divided rig.

SEA HISTORY 51 , AUTUMN 1989

----~

0~

Tu esday, August 18, 1948. We laid out Whisper between tides at Ingamar, where fis hermen repaired the rudder.

to Friendship, Maine, we noticed to our surprise that we had knocked off 120 miles in 24 hours. Not bad for a heavily laden old girl of 17 feet 6 inches on the waterline!

But it was her toughness of spirit that won our hearts, seemingly forever. We ran into a small gale on the evening of July 23, a blow severe enough to force the Nova Scotia ferry to heave to, coming in late with injuries to passengers due to the knocking-about she'd had . We had no injuries, but rather subdued and glad-to-see-the-day spirits when we crept in.

During the night we'd gone through the classic motions: close reefing, setting storm jib instead of working jib, and finally when wind and sea seemed too much for that, taking everything off and running under bare poles trailing cables, as the book said to do . Never go by the book! Seas swept aboard with crashing force , making us fear for the hatch and making it difficult to keep up with water inflow. We ultimately resolved to heave to, fashioning a sea anchor out of the working jib wrapped around its club, weighted with the anchor. When that didn't keep her head up to it enough-we kept getting hove over and down, with the sea breaking agai nst the broad exposed weather bilge-we hoisted the tiny pocket-handkerchief storm jib on the peak halyard, to the end of the main boom. That held her head up just enough so that the steep cresting Fundy seas hit at an angle, shouldering the vessel aside roughly on their snarling way into the stygian night to leeward.

=y- ·· -.-

~~ --_'. .:.- 1 -. 1---B-~'""'"';,__e-1<.l5~o Nova Scotia was heaven for us, as I hope these sketches from Whisper's log suggest. Fishermen called us "byes" and kept tossing fresh fi sh and , on one occasion, lobsters into our cockpit. In our ignorant way we asked the way to a restaurant.

They didn ' t know what the word meant, and when we told them "a place to eat," they took us into their kitchens to sup with them. On the way back westward , we broke our rudder in a stupid and rather frightening accident, running across a steel fishnet cable in the darkness in a blow. We then staggered and lurched our way across the sea to the fishing village of Ingomar, where we ' d stayed a few days on the way east.

Instead of throwing us out as bums, the men there fashioned a new rudder, fastening it to the old with long rusty iron hinges from a barn door. It isn't pretty, they said, but it will get you .t home. We thought it was beautiful.

Mr. Stanford, editor of this magazine, recently became part owner of Whi sper again, thanks to the zeal ofhis son Anthony who bought the old boat to restore and sail again.

.

--

- --=- - ~

f\snnN

Whisper's pram tagged faithfully astern most of the time. On longer hops we put it across the cockpit forward, where it served as a kind of doghouse . I wedged myself under it to get out of the noise and battering of wind and spume when hove-to in the Bay of Fundy, with the barometer on my knee.

--

----~

~~ih~ . ~~k;ti~,, ;: : : ;~ ;~

-

I Exit ,pursued by a whale. These friendly but awe-inspiring mammals kept us company part of the way back across the Bay of Fundy to Cape Ann.

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY SPONSORS AMER ICA TRAD! GA D PROD UCTIO CORP . H E RY H . A DERSO N, JR. J. ARO ' C HA RIT ABLE FOU DATIO R. B AR ETT H ARRY B ARON ALLE G . BERRlE BROOKLYN UNION GAS COMPANY ALA G. C HOATE MELVI CONA T JOHN COUCH REBEKAH T. D ALLAS LOIS DARLI G PO NCET D A VIS , JR. DOW COR I G J AMES EA MORRIS L. FEDER R OBERT E. GAMBEE J AMES W. GLANV ILLE EV A GE BH ARD-GOU RG AUD FOUNDATION THOMAS J. GOCHBERG MR. & MRS . THOMAS H ALE MRS. D . H . H OARD ELIZABETH S . HOOPER FOU NDATION CEC IL HOW AR D CHARITABLE TR US T MR . & MR S. A . D. H ULi GS ALAN H UTC HI SON I N TER AT I O AL B U SI NE SS MACHINES I NTERNAT IO NA L LO NGS HOREM EN LCDR . ROB ERT IRVI NG USN, (RET. ) JACKSO HOLE PR ESERVE R . C. J EFFERSON IR VING JOH NSON J.M . K APLAN F UN D A. ATW ATE R KE NT , JR .

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SUSTAINING PATRONS J AMES D . ABELES CHARLES F. ADAMS THOMAS AKIN W ALTER J. ANDERSON G. R. ATTERBURY D AV ID M . BAKER H ARRY K. BAILEY JOH N E. BAKK EN RONALD BA CROFT BE JAMIN D. BAXTER GEOFFREY B EAUMONT DR . HERBERT BODMA , JR. JAMES H . BROUSSARD W. J . B URSAW, JR. CRA IG BURT, JR. JOH N CADDELL, III BOYD CAFFEY J AMES E . CHAPMAN MR. & MRS . DELOS B. CHURCHILL RI C HA RD C. CHASTA IN CIRCLE LI NE PLA ZA CHARLES D . CLARK CHARLES E . COLLOPY CHARLES W. CO SOL VO D A IEL A. COWA JEANNETT R. CREIGHTON JOH N C. CURRY ALICE DADOURIAN STAN D ASHEW JOHN H . DEANE L. P . DEFRANK DIGITAL EQUIPME TCORP. JOHN H . DOEDE JOHN D USENBERY CARL EKLOF PAUL EKLOF JOHN ELDOR CDR. LELAND F . ESTES HENRY F A IRL EY, Ill J AMES P. F ARLEY J EAN FINDLAY BRENT FOLLW EILER J .E . FR IC KER JR . RICHARD GALLA T HARRY W . GARSCHAGEN WILLIAM GILKERSON LCDR . B . A . GILMORE ROLAND D. GRIMM CAPT. W ILLIAM H. H AM ILTON COL GEORGE M . J AMES ROBERT HOPE R USSE LL W . HARRIS FREDERICK H ARWOOD THOMAS C . H E RY W . J . H E TSCHEL HOWARD HIG HT C HARLES HILL PA UL HINES TOW NSE D HOR NOR WILLIAM J. H URL EY GEORGE M. IVEY , JR . ROB ERT J ACKSON C. Li 'COLN J EWETT W . B AILEY K AHL SAM KLAGSB RUM CAPT R US S K NEELAND ELIOT S . K NOWLES P ETER L AHTI GEORGE R. LAMB PA UL L AYTON AA RO LEV INE W . P. LI ND RICHARDO LOP ES P ET ER MAN IGAULT FRA NCIS A. M ARTI N WILLIAM R . M ATHEWS , JR. PETER MAX GEORGE L. MAXWELL RI CHARD D. MCNISH CLYTIE MEAD CARLTON MITCHELL KENNETH MORAN EDWARD M UHLFELD MI CHAEL MURRO HARRY NELSON, JR . SCOTT NEWHALL MERRILL E . NEWMAN J AMES A. PATTEN MRS. GODWI N 1. PELISSERO PEN SYLVANIA SCHOOLSHIP ASSOC. CAPT . D. E . P EIR KINS WILLIAM R. PETERS R . ANDERSON PEW RI CHARD RATH RAY REMICK PETER ROBI NSON RI CHARD D . RYDER A. HERBERT SANDWEN CHARLES W . SHAMBAUGH GEORGE SIMPSON J ACK B. SPRI NGER CDR . VICTOR B. STEVEN, JR . STOLT-NIELSEN , INC. BRUCE SWEDIAN CARL W. TIMPSON , JR. MR. & MRS. GEORGE TOLLEFSEN J. D. VAN !TALLIE RAYMO NDE . W ALLACE ELDREDGE WELTO N SIR GORDO N WH ITE, KBE R . E. WILCOX THOMAS J . WING J AMES D . T URNER GLENN E . WYATT WILLIAM C. WYGA NT

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