Sea History 062 - Summer 1992

No. 62

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SUMMER 1992

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

TALL SHIPS IN AMERICAN WATERS A Cape Hom Passage to OpSail '92 Columbus: The Voyage Home

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STAR CLIPPERS 4101 Salzedo Avenue, Coral Gables, FL 33146 Phone: 1-800-442-0551

ISSN 0146-9312

No.62

SEA HISTORY

SEA HISTORY is published quarterly by the National Maritime Hi storical Society, Charles Point, PO Box 68, Peekski ll NY 10566. Second class postage paid at Peekskill NY I 0566 and additional mailing offices. COPYRIGHT © 1992 by the Nationa l Maritime Historical Society. Tel: 9 14 737-7878.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sea History, Charles Point, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.

MEMBERSHIP is invi ted. Plankowner $ 10,000; Benefactor $5,000; Afterguard $2,500; Sponsor $ 1,000; Donor $500; Patron $250; Friend $ IOO; Contributor $50; Fami ly $40; Regular $30; Student or Retired $ 15. All members outside the USA please add $ 10 for postage. SEA HISTORY is sent to all members. Individual copies cost $3 .75 .

OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Acting Chairman, Alan G. Choate; Vice Chairmen, James Ean, Edward G. Zelinsky; President, Peter Stanford; Vice President, Norma Stanford; Secretary, Richardo Lopes; Treasurer, Nancy Pouch; Trustees, Karl Kortum , George Lamb, Brian A. McAllister, Nancy Pouch, Ludwig K. Rubinsky, Marshall Streibert, Samuel Thompson. Chairman Emeritus , Karl Kortum OVERSEERS: Charles F. Adams, Townsend Hornor, George Lamb, Clifford D. Mallory, J. Wi lliam Middendorf, II, John G. Rogers. John Stobart ADVISORS : Co-Chairmen, Frank 0. Braynard , Melbourne Smith; D.K. Abbass, Raymond Aker, George F. Bass, Francis E. Bowker, Oswald L. Brett, David Brink, Wi lliam M. Doerfl inger, John S. Ewald, Joseph L. Farr, Timothy G. Foote, Thomas Gi ll mer, Richard Goo ld-Adams, Walter J. Handelman, Steven A. Hyman , Conrad Mi lster, Edward D. Muhlfeld, Wi ll iam G. Muller, David E. Perkins, Richard Rath , Nancy Hughes Richardson, Timothy J. Runyan, George Salley, Ralph L. Snow, Edo uard A. Stackpole, John Stobart, Albert Swanson, Shannon J. Wall , Raymond E. Wallace, Robert A. Weinstein , Thomas Wells, Charles Wittholz AMERICAN SHIP TRUST: Chairman, Karl Kortum ; F. Briggs Dalzell, Willi am G. Muller, Richard Rath, Melbourne Smith, Peter Stanford, Edward G. Ze lin sky

SUMMER 1992

CONTENTS 4

DECK LOG LETIERS

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MISSION: LAUNCHING THE MARITIME EDUCATION INITIATIVE, Justine M. Ahlstrom

10 REDISCOVERING COLUMBUS: THE LONG VOYAGE HOME, Peter Stanford 14 CONVOY CATASTROPHE, Harold J. McCormick 18 OPERATION SAIL 1992: BY WAY OF CAPE HORN, Ian Hutchinson 21 THE SHIPS OF ZYGMUNT CHOREN, Thad Koza 24 TALL SHIPS IN AMERICAN WATERS 30 MARINE ART NEWS 34 SHIPNOTES , SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS : SOUTH STREET'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY, THE CARRICKREFLOATED, WOODENBOAT SHOW IN NEWPORT, STAN HUGILL REMEMBERED 40 REVIEWS 46 DESSERT: THE MIGHTY MOSHULU IN EXTREMIS IN 1947, Olaf T. Engvig COVER: They appeared in the low lying mist like ghosts, their uppermost sails and pennants merely darker clouds against the impenetrable fog. Slowly the clouds became identifiable rigs , disembodied above still invisible hulls, until whole vessels leaped into view, suddenly and surprisingly close, as the sailors on this handsome yawl have just witnessed. The ship is the Latvian training ship Sedov, photographed

by Elmar Baxter from the ferry John F. Kennedy, July Fourth, 1992.

Join the National Maritime Historical Society today ... and help save America's seafaring heritage for tomorrow.

We bring to life America 's seafaring which works to save ships of historic past through research, archaeologi-. i m portance. Membership in the Socal expeditions and ship preserciety is only $30 a year. As a memvation efforts. We work with ber of NMHS , you ' ll receive Sea museums, historians and sai l History four times a year, as well as other reports and notices of training groups on these efforts and report on these activities in annual and other meetings. our quarterly journal Sea History.

Wearealso theAmericanShipTrust, Come a board with us today!

To: National Maritime Historical Society, PO Box 68, Peekskill, NY 10566 Yes, I wani to help. I understand that my contribution goes to help the work of the Society and that I'll be kept informed by receiving SEA HISTORY quarterly. Please enroll me as:

SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor, Peter Stanford; Mana ging Editor, No11111a Stanford; Associate Editor, Kevin Haydon; Curator/Assistant Editor, Justine Ahlstrom ; Accounting, Joseph Caccio la; Membership Secretary, Patricia Anstett; Membership Assistants, Bridget Hunt, Grace Zerella ADVERTIS ING: Telephone 9 14-737-7878.

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DECK LOG

LETTERS

All at once the tall ships emerged from the mist, as things do on the water, the Coast Guard's stately Eagle leading, then the smaller, lithe-hulledDanmark, al ways next in line, since in World War II she served the US as the Eagle does today, training young Americans forthe rigors of sea duty. But many of the young people in this international fleet are not here to train for careers at sea. They are here because a traditional square-rigged sailing ship is a wonderful environment in which to learn the basics of the human condition and what it takes to achieve a goal.

Solomon, 3,000 years ago, caught the wonder of the way of a ship in the sea.

This fourth Operation Sail showed once more that it is a wonder ever new. This is fortunate, for the world itself is new to each generation. And each generation has to get a fresh grip on the long, strong hawser of human purpose and endeavor.

Operation Sail has come along in each decade since 1964; may it go on forever. To the prime movers of OpSail, Frank Braynard, Nils Hansell (who cast off on his voyage into eternity before this OpSail came along) and Bus Mosbacher, we owe unending thanks.

Maritime Education Initiative The New York Times asked what we in the Society felt was the significance of OpSail. It was like being asked the meaning oflife, but I said the ships were "ideal for building teamwork and discipline. ... They go to the roots of our civilization, and maybe we need to get a little closer to those roots now and then."

Trying to match actions to words, and thanks to the efforts of Howard Slotnick, Dr. Kathy Ab bass and Steve Parti sano of Imagination Celebration, we were able

Whither Regina?

I came across the sailing vessel Regina Maris in Greenport, while on a recent trip from Rhode Island to New York by way of the New London ferry. I have read of your Society's efforts to save the ship. Initially I was optimistic. But having seen the deplorable state of the vessel I am forced to modify my opinion. The best course now is perhaps to let the venerable ship expire gracefully, maybe as an offshore fish haven for recreational divers.

I served as boatswain aboard the vessel in the fall of 1983. She was on her last legs then, as we pumped her bilges continuously on the voyage to the West Indies. The money needed to rebuild Regina will be better spent on such worthwhile projects as SAIL Inc. ' s Discovery or the South Street Seaport's Lettie G. Howard project. Why not promote the Ernestina, as she attempts to chart a new course in her long career?

The Regina Maris has had a long and successful career; but she is too large and too costly to rescue!

to get two students aboard the Eagle with Chairman of the Maritime Education Initiative Walter Cronkite for the sea passage from New York to Boston.

Here they are: Captain David Wood of the Eagle, with students Nicole Scott and Jonathan Pappas seated on either side of Chairman Cronkite-all NMHS members.

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DOUGLAS NEMETH

Master, SSV Westward Woods Hole, Massachusetts It looks like the Regina Maris has found some splendid, energetic leadership, as you can tell by the way they are tackling the hard job of restoring the historic barkentine. The secretary of Save the Regina Maris, Ltd (PO Box 645 , Greenport NY 11944) recently wrote to report: "You will find a group of enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers working on and about the Regina Maris in a variety of tasks . ... I know you will enjoy being around our volunteers and experiencing the camaraderie that develops among people who share the same hopes and dreams ."

I hope NMHS keeps supporting Save the Regina Maris-they arean exciting, wellorganized group! Greenport struck gold with this ship, because of them .

JAMES J. MOORE Jamaica, New York

Karl Kortum, Chairman of the NMHS American Ship Trust comments: "The Regina Maris has fallen upon good times-and they will be goodjr¡om now on. She has intelligent (and physically hard-working) support. She has affection.

But above all (to be practical) she has location----she is where the tourists are."

Maritime Education Initiative I agree with Walter Cronkite: We need a revival of history. I have been trying to say the same thing here on the West Coast, but it is difficult to get the message across when there are so many other more sensational attention-grabbing alternatives. The simple fact is that our educational system is woefully lacking in teaching our historical roots which represent our foundation. I shudder to think what is going to happen in a few years when we look back to our presentday history for our roots .

HARRY L. NELSON, JR. Ventura County Maritime Museum Oxnard, California Word From Down Under I recently returned from a trip to the South Pacific, with stops at Tahiti, Tubuai and Sydney, Australia, to continue my research on the mutiny on the Bounty. I want to thank you for helping me locate the replica of the Bounty built for the 1983 film version of the Bounty story.

As you informed me, the ship, a more accurate replica than previous ones, is now owned by an Australian group, headed by businessman Bruce Reid, and is making daily cruises around Sydney Harbor. How could I not go along? David Adams, operations manager, arranged for a fascinating cruise, in which a gracious captain allowed me to take the wheel for most of the afternoon. David Adams, incidentally, is a veteran of the BOC singlehanded, round the world sai lboat race.

Any NMHS member stopping over in Sydney should certainly go aboard!

RAYMOND J . MALONEY

Milford, Connecticut Annihilation is Not an Option Carla Rahn Phillips 's letter (Sea History 61), perhaps unintentionally, created the impression that, since other nations had expelled Jews , it was acceptable for Spain to do the same. Apparently Professor Phillips felt that the expulsion was significantly mitigated by Ferdinand and Isabella's " humanitarian" wish not to kill unconverted Jews, although they were certainly prepared to do so.

Completely absent from the letter is any understanding of the horrific facts.

Several hundred thousand people were, almost without warning, forced to leave the country of their birth and ancestry, without secure destinations, and with little or no possessions or resources. The alternative of conversion can hardly be SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

considered a merciful option. Even for those who "chose" it (and many were forced, as well), the future for them and their children was to be "New Christians" or "Marranos" (i.e. pigs), constantly kept separate by their neighbors, objects of suspicion and a special target of the Inquisition. In contrast to the almost constant persecution and discrimination in pre-expulsion France and England, the relatively peaceful life of the Spanish Jews must have made 1492 even more shocking by its abrupt terror.

In the aftermath, many died, and those who fled to Portugal faced the same alternatives there a few years later, as the Church forced the king to force Jewish parents to "choose" conversion or another exile, this time without their younger children, who were forcibly taken from them and baptized. All these horrors are dismissed by Professor Phillips, with the calm assumption that forced conversion or exile, being"better" than slaughter, should therefore spread the veil of understanding and absolution over the annihilation of Spanish Jewry.

MARTHA KAss M ARKS Associate Professor, Hi story Alabama A & M University

couple of dollars to he lp start this new museum. To play along with the gag, we all forked up, thinking he needed the taxi fare home or something. Luckily we were wrong. You guys did use the dollars to build the museum!

I ANKEOWN

New York, New York See note on the museum' s 25th Anniversary, page 34-ED

Seamen are Veterans!

I would like at thi s time to congratulate you on your successful efforts to have sea-going merchantmen recognized as veterans of World War II. As an engineering officeron both merchant and Navy ships (Grace Lines 194244, Navy 1945-46) I am, I believe, able to make the judgment without prejudice that recognition was too long delayed for the sea-going merchant marine.

Sea History, by its very title, has the duty to " tell it like it was." I believe a periodical such as ours can write history that will provide truth to students a hundred years from now. Reading the letters to the editor casts more light on our past than many so-called scholarly works.

J.E. SCHOFIELD Bristol , England

Long Live Indian Canoes!

Congratulations on Leslie Lincoln's article on native canoes in SH 61 ! This was a welcome addition to my research on Native American history and , in particular, their use of aquatic craft.

We are currently researching the possibilities of creating a community event focussed on canoe races which would highlight the various indigenous tribes in this area. Our intent is not only to raise awareness of the native heritage of our region , but also to bring the community together for a unique cultural ex perience which would benefit the many community agencies we fund. We hope to do this in mid-1993 .

I would be interested in hearing from any of your readers who have created or participated in any similar events.

LEIGH SMITH

United WayofSantaClaraCounty San Jose, California

How to Build A Museum What with various references to the 25th anniversary of South Street Seaport Museum , I wonder if yo ur president, Peter Stanford, can remember the evening he strode into a party at a mutual friend's and demanded that each of us give him a SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

ERRATA You are to be congratulated forthe handsome issue (Sea History 61) highlighting the Northwest ' s International Maritime Bicentennial. Over the past two years we have seen many varied and imaginative projects organized by both private and official organizations. Fortunately, for the most part, they have been free from the controversy which is marring so many of the quincentenni al Columbus celebrations.

At the ri sk of appearing churlish, may I point out that the chronology on page 14 does not mention the first explorers of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The English fur trader Charles Duncan charted the entrance in 1788. Then, in 1790, two years before Vancouver, the Spanish explorer Manuel Quimper penetrated as far as the San Juan Islands and took formal possession for Spain at Sooke and Ro yal Roads near Victoria on Vancouver Island, and in the State of Washington at Dungeness and Discovery Bay near the entrance to Puget Sound, and at Neah Bay at the entrance to the Strait.

FREEMAN M. TOVELL

Victoria, British Columbia

QUERIES

Some time in the last decade, Roman Polanski made a motion picture called "The Pirates." The film was withdrawn days after its release. However, Polanski had specially built for the film a full-sized copy of a Spanish battleship of the early 18th century. To all outward appearances in the film, the ship had a high degree of historical accuracy.

Do any readers know what has become of that ship-where she is, what she ' s been doing since making the film?

Repl y to John Fitzhugh Millar, 7 lOSouth Henry Street, Williamsburg VA 23185.

Tom Graham , Curator of the South African Maritime Museum, is seeking information about the whereabouts of the figurehead of the Law hill, a four-masted bark of2816 tons, Dundee-built in 1889, which was confi scated by the South African government in 1941.

Not knowing that Finland had joined forces with Germany after Germany had invaded Ru ss ia, the captain of the Lawhill, Arthur Soderlaund, sailed into the port of East London on the South African coast in 1941 only to have hi s vessel seized as a spoil of war.

After sailing under the South African flag, the vessel was eventually sold to Portuguese buyers and taken to Lourenco Marques (Maputo) in Mozambique.

There she stayed until 1958 when bought by the Japanese and broken up.

At least a year before, her figurehead had been removed. It 's rumored a Norwegian-American captain had bought the fi gurehead just before thi s in 1957.

The figurehead is not in Finland or South Africa. Could it have found its way to America? Contact: T. Graham, SA Maritime Museum, PO Box 645, Cape Town 8000, South Africa.

The sea voyage by Briti sh merchant explorer Stamford Raffles from India which culminated in the founding of SingaporeonJanuary28, 1819, involved a fleet of eight ships. T . Kannu , Curator of the Maritime Museum , Sentosa, is seeking information on these ships, particularly the merchant ship Indiana, the vessel Raffles arrived on. Kannu has found references to a number of vessels named the Indiana, but is still mi ssing detail s. Readers who have information should write The Curator, Maritime Museum , Sentosa, Port of Singapore Authority , PO Box 300, PSA Building Post Office, Singapore 9111.

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SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

NMHS MISSION:

Launching the Maritime Education Initiative, Part I

By Justine M. Ahlstrom Stanford at the opening of the Society' s the founding of new nations have come new headquarters last fall. We talked by way of the sea. about the teaching of history in our This is the way, I think, we could teach schools. This is something that I had history-our own history as well as world been working on because of my deep history----notjust oceanic history, but also concern that history was poorly taught the history made by our own waterways, in most cases. I know how it was taught the means by which we moved inland on when I was in school and it was poorly the continental United States.

The cases we have assembled in the taught then.

I had hoped something had happened Maritime Education Initiative show that in the years since I was in school. Then this is certainly a way to get the young my two girls went to school--one of the people involved, and that is what we best schools in New York. They couldn't have got to do. stand history. They were not excited by There are many aspects of life you history. How in the world is it possible to can touch on by teaching maritime histeach a subject like histmy and not make tory in a dramatic form. But one aspect it interesting? The conflicts of people as I would like to point out that we so they meet to decide the future-how all desperately need in most of our schools, those conflicts ofego, ofpersonality, ofall one thing that every teacher misses and the things we are concerned about string desires urgently, is discipline. The one together-why can't we teach that with key that is absolutely essential to any some excitement? There is something very maritime venture is discipline. We have desperately wrong with the system. to get that through to this generation.

This is what I was talking about with You know we can' t succeed as a nation Peter, and I said: You know, one of the without recovering our sense of ourbest ways to do this would be to drama- selves, our self-esteem, our essential tize this story through our maritime his- Americanism. We can' t do that unless tory. Why don' t we teach history from we begin to educate this next generation the very beginning ? We came out of the so that when it comes of age it will have sea as the human race, and we have a little better understanding of what is depended on the sea urgently in every required to make this nation great.

We must remember Thomas Jefsense ever since the day we came out of it. And, of course, much of our inspira- ferson's admonition that a nation that tion and the movement of peoples and wishes to be ignorant and ji¡ee expects what never can and never will be.

How to Astonish Interpreters Participants in the Maritime Education Initiative's first symposium, from left: Nancy Hughes Richardson, Co-chairperson, American Sail Training Association; Celeste Bernardo, Interpre- The following paragraphs highlight a tive Specialist, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park; Jakob lsbrandtsen,founding few of the excellent programs we disChairman, South Street Seaport Museum; Arthur Werner, Teacher, Herbert Hoover Elemen- covered. All these leaders participated in tG1ySchool, Kenmore ,New York; Camille Ezagui-Freas, Director, Operation Education; Peter the first Maritime Education Initiative Stanford, President, National Maritime Historical Society; Walter Cronkite, Special Corre- symposium. They were chosen to illusspondent, CBS-TV, and Chairman, Maritime Education Initiative; Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr. , Chairman, Edwin Gould Foundation for Children and skipper of the tugboat Urger; David trate the Initiative because they exhibit Sharps, Director, Hudson Wate1front Museum ; Edna Fitzpatrick, Interpreter, South Street the abi lity to break through to young Seaport Museum; Dr. D. K. Abbass, Curator-At-Large, National Maritime Historical Society; people with maritime topics and get them Dr. Stephen Partisano.former Director, New York State Imagination Celebration . into the stream of history.

When Arthur Werner's fifth-grade class from Herbert Hoover Elementary School in Kenmore, New York, visited Mystic Seaport, the children astonished the interpreters with their knowledge.

This knowledge came from the personal experience of studying, planning and building the harbor, town and ships of Mystic in one of Mr. Werner's twentynine "room projects."

For thirty-five years Mr. Werner has led his students through "room projects" in which they build models of volcanoes, towns, industries, or anything else that strikes the kids ' imaginations. The students choose the subject of the project, scour the library, write to appropriate

When we first embarked on the Maritime Education Initiative-responding to Walter Cronkite's challenge-we wondered how to demonstrate to teachers the wide variety of options for developing innovative maritime projects with their students. As we explored the possibilities, our committee came across teachers already taking advantage of museum programs, and others who were independently working on exciting projects of their own. What better way to send our message than to provide case histories of what is already happening in the field? So, rather than decrying a lack of interest in history among students and teachers and the lack of resources in the educational system, we have chosen to focus on the successes resulting from a spirit of voluntarism and from partnerships between teachers, students, museums and ships.

Walter Cronkite Launches the Initiative OnMay22,NationalMaritimeDay,eighty people gathered in the old Baker, Carver, Morell buildings, formerly a ship chandlery (now the Yankee Clipper Restaurant) in New York's South Street Seaport to participate in the launching of the Maritime Education Initiative. Initiative chairperson Walter Cronkite spoke on how the Initiative took shape-and why: The Maritime Education Initiative originated from a talk I had with Peter

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SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

7

agencies for information, sketch out designs, vote on a floor-plan , collect cardboard and other building materials, and form committees to build a new world within the classroom. Every student gets the opportunity to use his or her skills to the fullest. Once the construction is completed, students from other classes come in for tours given by the project's builders.

The social studies curriculum explored the question "How does a community grow?" A fascination with Joan Aiken's whaling novel , Nightbirds on Nantucket, helped the class focus on Mystic as a vehicle for understanding the roles of geography and raw materials in the growth of a town and its industry.

While the students acquired an impressive knowledge of community development, the whaling industry, shipbuilding and maritime life, they also used many other educational disciplines-library and research skills, two and three dimensional art, judgmental selection, letter writing, interpretation of subject matter, materials selection, mathematical measurements and scaling, construction techniques, spelling and vocabulary development, and language skills. And then they had to effec-

tively write and present narratives of what they had learned to a highly critical audience-their own schoolmates!

Mystic Seaport Museum 's volunteer PILOTS group was so impressed with the results that they invited the class to explore the real thing in Connecticut. This project, and the overwhelming response from the students and from Mystic Seaport Museum, gave direction to the Maritime Education Initiative and presented us with the example we needed to go forward with it.

Emphasis on Adventure Jim Corr, a computer teacher at the Wesley Highland School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was fulfilling teaching obligations on May 22 and was unable to be present at the launch of the Initiative.

However, his work helped inspire us, and his experience is a vital part of the case for the Initiative, so his testimony was rendered by telephone and by mail.

He regards it as his mission to bring adventure into his classroom. A sailor himself, he contacted the skipper of the Pride of Baltimore II, the topsail schooner which sails as a goodwill ambassador for the State of Maryland, propos-

Top photo, Arthur Werner's students gather the raw materials f or their model of Mystic Seaport Museum. At left , students work on the Mystic lighthouse and Mystic River mural. The Morgan's davit appears in the right of the picture. Below left , the completed Spouter Ta vern and shipsmith' s shop with street lamp and sign. Below right, the Charles W. Morgan. Not shown are a model rowboat, a sloop and a three-dimensional sounding sperm whale. Photos

by Arthur Werner.

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SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

At left, Jim Corr works on charting with his students from the Wesley Highland School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylva nia.

Photo by Darrell Sapp.

At right, Corr and students aboard the Spirit -----'------- -- ---==::..c..:.L.....__ _ __:,.___ _ _-" of Massachusetts.

ing that hi s students track the vessel's 1988 voyage in the Caribbean.

Learning latitude and long itude was only the beginning for the teenagers in Mr. Corr's classes. The students used computers to calculate the vessel ' s location based on speed , time and distance, learning real applications for math and science. Geography, hi story and library skills became part of the curriculum naturally as students researched the lands and peoples the crew of the Pride of Baltimore encountered. Through correspondence with the sailors and written reports, the students learned English and communication skills. Along the way, they learned ship architecture, naval terms, got the opportunity to sai l on the Pride of Baltimore and worked on the US Brig Niagara while she was being

outfitted in Erie, Pennsylvania. Some of the students who began this work on the Niagara are now members of her crew.

Mr. Corr reports: "The main emphasis of these maritime projects is on adventure. Through the excitement of the maritime experience, kids see that all these subjects-math, computers, science, history, English-are applicable and interrelated. When manning a ship and charting its course, accuracy is important, handwriting is important, clarity is important.

So they are not just learning about the sea, they are learning a work ethic. They learn to do things right the first time and not to slough off and be content with mediocrity.

They learn that all the things they do reflect on themselves."

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Through these case studies and others to follow in Sea History 63 , the National Maritime Historical Society hopes to encourage schools and youth groups to develop original, imaginative programs using maritime history. As part of this effort, we are also looking for new case studies to add to our growing file. If you know of such a program, please send an account of it (with photos if possible) to Justine Ahlstrom, NMHS , PO Box 68 , Peekskill, New York 10566. To become involved in the Initiative, send for our Resource Packet ($20) which includes our Guide to Maritime Museums, the American Sail Training Association 's Directory of Sail Training Ships and Programs, detailed case studies, and a

guide to findin g and using resources in your own area. D

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9

REDISCOVERING COLUMBUS, Part VII

Between Two Worlds: The Long Voyage Home

by Peter Stanford

Columbus's last stop in the islands was at the east end of Hispaniola. There, the Nifta and Pinta anchored under a headland which is still called Punta de las Flechas-so-named

by Columbus because of the arrows the native peoples used.

These were the first arrned Tai nos the Europeans had encountered. At first Columbus thought they must be the much-feared Caribs, who coursed these waters in their "numberless canoes," killing or enslaving the hapless Tai no. But conversation between these natives and those Columbus had brought with him from the other end of the big island soon convinced him , correctly , that these people had adopted Carib weapons to defend themselves against the Caribs. This extended to adopting some of their warlike ways-including grim ash war paint in place of the cheerful cosmetic colors occasionally used by the Indians they 'd encountered earlier, further back along their trail through the islands.

No one knew then (how could they?) that the Tainos, who encouraged European intervention agai nst the Caribs, would themselves within a few decades be virtually wiped off the map

by European war, enslavement and, finally and most devastatingly, by the strange diseases the Europeans unwittingly brought with them. Las Casas, transcribing and summarizing Columbus's Diario, or daily journal of the voyage, lived to see these horrors and repeatedly breaks into the narrative with editorial admonitions against Columbus 's cavalier remarks about the Indians.

But by the time Las Casas wrote, the damage had been done.

Columbus wanted to go seek out the Caribs, perhaps thinking them a more advanced as well as more warlike racealthough by this time, after just over three months in the islands, he seems to have given up the idea that the Caribs were members of a superior caste carrying out the will of the Great Khan in China. But still , he could not give up the idea that he was in the Indies, presumably somewhere in the China Seas. An Indian tale of an island where women held sway, permitting males ashore periodically for reproductive purposes, tormented him further, for this matched a European myth of a similar island of Amazons in the Indian Ocean. From our perspective, all this seems ridiculous. But, to be fair to Columbus in hi s fantasies, remember that neither he nor the cartographers of Europe knew that China was still half the world away, as is ev ident in maps drawn after voyages by Columbus and by others to this part of the world.* After leaving their anchorage at the east end of Hispaniola in the pre-dawn darkness to find the island of the Amazons, the Nifta (with the Pinta once again obediently in company) encountered a rare westerly wind, which carried them some 50 sea miles on their way (64 of Co lumbus's miles). Then, as they were heading off southeast at the Indians' direction , proceeding another 6 miles toward the islands in a freshening wind, Columbus had a change of heart.

Fortunately for the navigator, reality took over-reality in the form of belated recognition of the actual state of ships and men , and the overriding importance of their safe return to Spain with the priceless cargo of info rmation they carried.

Earlier he had commented on the fact that both caravels were leaking along the garboards (the structurally important planks next to the keel). Now, in Las Casas 's transcript of his Diario: "He noticed that the men began to get gloomy because of dev iating from the direct route, because both caravels were leaking badly, and they had not help except that of God ."

So the little ships bore up for Spain, northeast by east. It is not clear from what direction the wind was coming then , but *see Johann Ruysch world map of 1508, SH53, p 19.

10

the easterlies soon resumed their accustomed sway, and the ships continued working their way north and east, closehauled against the wind, it is true, but making their way steadily to the higher latitudes where they would find the prevailing westerlies Columbus clearly relied on to carry him back to Spain. It was easy sai ling in the mild weather. They encountered Sargasso weed again, which no longer held terrors for the men , and on their third day out, January 18, the Diario notes the sea "thick with tuna," and Columbus "thought they must go from there to the fi sheries of the Duke of Con ii and Cadiz." One feels he must have cheered up the men with this homely pleasantry, and Columbus's great biographer Admiral Morison jumps from there to a guess at how the seamen must have taken it, looking forward to "seeing again the Cadiz girls , famous through Europe for their saucy beauty and salty wit. " And it is in this period of easy sailing, Morison fee ls, that Co lumbus began composing hi s report to Ferdinand and Isabella, in which he reflects at some length on the nature of the native peoples he had encountered. He notes: "They believe very firrn ly that I, with these ships and people, came from the sky .. ."adding, "this does not result from their being ignorant, for they are of a very keen intelligence and men who navigate all seas." The tone of thi s comment argues its sincerity; this is no put-down of Indian beliefs and attitudes. And subsequent explorers who maintained excellent, non-exploitative relations with native peoples, from Francis Drake to James Cook, also noted this belief of native peoples that the Europeans in their winged ships came from the skies. To our eyes it seems that a priceless opportunity was lost in these initial encounters, characterized by wonder on the native side, and something like real respect on the side of the far-voyaging Europeans.

On February 3, having passed through the Sargasso Sea with its variable winds, the ships picked up a southwest wind which shoved them along nobly on their way. And Columbus noted: "The North Star appeared very high , as in Cape St. Vincent." He tried to confirrn this with observations by astrolabe and quadrant, but the Nina's rolling in the following seas prevented accurate sights-which , it must be said, he never succeeded in securing anyway on thi s voyage. Nonetheless, trusting his sailor's eye, he ev idently decided he was in the right latitude for the run home, and at daybreak on the ensuing day, Monday , February 4 , he squared away to the eastward.

For the next few days, they ran on with fair winds in chilly weather, with occasional overcast and rain, making perhaps 8 to 9 knots consistently (not, in view of later inforrnation about the length of Co lumbus's mile, the considerably higher speeds Mori son credits them with- but in all conscience, fast enough for these ships just emerging from the medieval era).

Estimates of their positions by the pilots put them far ahead of where they actually were. Co lumbu s's estimates were the most accurate (as recorded in hi s daily journal which he apparently never corrected), but hi s positions were also pretty soft, due to hi s "eyeball" estimate of latitude, and the complete inability of nav igators of the day to get accurate longitudes.

But now the terrible winter gales of the North Atlantic caught up with these worn and leaking ships and anxious men, superseding any concern with just where they were on the trackless and increasingly hostile ocean. The transcript of the Diario catches the onset of their trouble in short, pithy sentences of a kind to send chills up the spine of anyone who has experienced bad weather at sea. The entry for February 12 SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

says: "Here he began to have high seas and stormy weather, and he says that if the caravel were not very stout and well prepared, he would fear being lost." Later entries record the ship running "with much trouble and danger," and the night of February 13 finds him running before the blast under bare poles, without a scrap of sail set. A few days later a new wind comes in , raising a wicked cross sea that jostles the vessel about, "and the waves broke upon her. " In all this the Nifta lost sight of the Pinta. They were not to regain touch during the voyage, each at least half-convinced that the other had been sunk in the atrocious weather.

The men, Columbus said in a later account, "cursed their coming and regretted that they had let me cajole or coerce them into sailing on, when they had so often wished to tum back."

He himself was in no better case, agonized by the thought that he would not live to deliver news of hi s di scovery, and ultimately comforted only by a message which seemed to come to him of "the things of great wonder which God had performed in him and through him. " Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, a sensiti ve student steeped in the Catholic and Spanish culture of the period, feels that Columbus went through a momentous religious experience in these great storms. But, this is not really uncommmon or surpri sing. The foundations of reality seem to change when "deep calls unto deep" in a great storm at sea. Joseph Conrad, master mariner and the greatest sea writer in our language, wrote simply: " If you would know the age of the earth, look at the face of the sea in a storm ."

These terrifying but, perhaps, also ultimately liberating experiences were interrupted when between storms the Nifta came upon Santa Maria, the southernmost of the Azores, as Columbus had hoped to do, without knowing which of the Azores he would fetch. Here, painful farce took over the scene, when the Portuguese governor arrested most of the ship 's crew when they were ashore at prayer, claiming that they had been on an illicit voyage to Africa-a trade awarded to Portugal, the leading Atlantic power, in a treaty signed with Spain some years before. The weather turned rotten again, and the Nifta was blown offshore after parting her cables and losing her anchors. Columbus, the ship 's master and three seamen, plus maybe six Indian passengers unable to be much help, had to fight their way back to recover their crew . The men were ultimately released back to their ship, a move undoubtedly expedited by Columbus 's enormous pride and presence. His majestic invocation of the power of the Catholic monarchs of Spain even secured them fresh provi sions, and the long, hard voyage home resumed on February 24. Cape St. Vincent was 800 miles away, an easy week's sail.

But it was to be the toughest week of the whole passage. Calm at first, butwithrisingwindand sea, there came a blow that nearly wrecked them as they were driven down on the rockbound coast of Portugal. Soon after sunset on Sunday, March 3, a violent squall split the sails, and they drove on into the night under bare poles, thinking they "were lost because of the winds and the seas that came at them from two directions and seemed to lift the caravel in the air." Soon after midnight, amid driving rain and lightning flashes, they sighted land , and Columbus "set the mainsail because he had no other recourse and made his way somewhat, although with great danger, heading out to sea."

God watched over them, the Diario continues, and after SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

"infinite trouble and fright" Columbus recognized the distinctive Rock of Sintra, at the entrance of Lisbon 's Tagus River, looming through the spume along the wave-lashed coast the Nifta had come upon . It takes a sailor to appreciate the scene, and Morison draws it well; Columbus, he says, had "performed the difficult maneuver, well known to every old-time seaman, of 'clawi ng off' a lee shore. The coast ran north and south , the wind blew from the northwest, so they set one little square fo resai l that had been saved intact, wore ship in a smother of foam, and shaped a course south .... " Mori son feels they would have broad-reached under foresail, to keep the ship 's head off, as they quartered the rushing seas that broke ruinously on the rugged shoreline just to leeward. The foresail , indeed, seems a more likely sail than the mainsail , whose force would tend constantly to drive the ship up on the wind at imminent risk of being hove down and smothered in the steep-breaking seas. Mori son concludes: "No wonder Nifta became the Admiral's favorite vessel, to stand all that beating and respond to this difficult maneuver without broaching."

Driving in over the bar at the mouth of the river on Monday morning, March 4, the sea-worn caravel came to anchor in the shelter of the hills at the ri ver-mouth portofCascais. The long, incredibly arduous and ri sky voyage was over.

They learned from ships gathered in the river that no one had put to sea that winter, in weather that seemed impossible for navigation. The people of the town, who had spent the morning praying for the lonely vessel they had spied off their coast, "came to see them and to marvel at how they had escaped."

But now Columbus was in another world, whose affairs intruded insistently. The captain of a Portuguese warship anchored nearby demanded that he present himself aboard the warship and explain hi s mi ssion . Columbus wisely refused; he had already sent word ashore that he wished an audience with King John II, who was holding court inland. He went to John 's court, where he was received with extreme courtesy and offered passage inland over the mountain trails to Spain. This he refused, and after thoroughly refitting his battered Nifta, he set sail from Lisbon on March 13. After an uneventful passage south around Cape St. Vincent, the caravel entered the River Saltes to anchor at Palos on March 15.

Close on her heels appeared the Pinta. She had come round from the northern port of Bayona where she had taken refuge from the gales. She had escaped the worst of the storms that nearl y destroyed the Nifta. We know nothing, today, of what passed between her captain, Martin Alonso Pinzon, and Columbus, if indeed anything did. Pinzon apparently went directly ashore, undoubtedly chagrined to see the Nifta home before him , and a few days later he died, possibly worn down by the bitter winter sailing he' d been through.

Columbus, we may imagine, was exhausted and shaken by all that had transpired, but also exalted by the completion of hi s mi ssion. He rode into Seville on Palm Sunday, the day honoring Christ's entry into Jerusalem, when the people threw down palm leaves to pave hi s way. This date had special mean ing for Columbus, who never forgot that he was named for St. Christopher, the Christ-bearer. From Seville he was summoned by his sovereigns to Barcelona, where they made much of him , hi s men, and the native Americans he had brought with him.

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Convoy Catastrophe The Destruction of PQ-17 to North Russia in July, 1942

by Lt. Commander Harold J. McCormick, USNR (Ret)

The battle for effective command of sea catastrophic loss of shipping occurred communications, on which Allied vic- within sight of bathing beaches from tory depended in World War II, was far Florida to New Jersey.

At the other end of the Atlantic from resolved in mid-1942. The lightning strike of American carrier-borne artery, the ships of PQ-17 were bound dive bombers at Midway on June 6 had north around Norway to the Arctic sunk four Japanese fleet carriers (re- RussianportofMurmanskinJuly 1942, sulting in the loss of all their aircraft laden with supplies for Soviet armies and crews), shattering Japan 's oceanic fighting to turn back the German invaoffensive capability. This mid-ocean sion of their country launched a year battle took place a month after the Battle before. Two thirds of these ships never of the Coral Sea, where the Japanese made it.

Here, fifty years later, NMHS memonslaught had been slowed for the first time since Pearl Harbor, in the turning ber Hal McCormick looks back on this back of an invasion destined for south- scene with his wartime enemy, Captain ern New Guinea. A long, hard road lay Jurgen Oesten, who commanded the ahead, but after these battles the tide of German U-boats involved.

PS war had turned in the Pacific.

Not so in the Atlantic, the most important theater ofthe war. The survival Fifty years ago this summer, on June 27, of both Britain and Russia, and the 1942, Allied Convoy PQ-17, consisting preservation of the coalition that fi- of 35 merchant ships, mosti y American, nally crushed Nazi Germany in 1945, escorted by British and US naval vessels, depended absolutely on the vital North sailed from Hvalfjord, Iceland, on a voyAtlantic convoys of ships laden with age to deliver military materiel to the everything from food and fuel for Al- Russian armies through the northern ports lied forces, to American troops, tanks of Murmansk and Archangel. It was desand aircraft to swing the balance ofthe tined to be the most ill -fated maritime battle ashore. The first six months of undertaking of WWII, the Allies losing 1942 brought a heavy setback through 24 merchant vessels to attacks by Gerthe net loss ofsome three million tons of man U-boats and Luftwaffe planes.

I became interested in this catastrophic Allied shipping (that is, losses in excess of replacements through new build- story through a friendship formed many ing)-a deficit it would take over a year years later with Kriegsmarine Comto make up. Due to lack ofUS prepared- mander Jurgen Oesten, a veteran Gerness for the war, much of this near- man U-boat captain who, after holding

two successful commands (U-61 and U106), was named to direct a flotilla ofUboats based in Norway, and who oversaw the U-boat action against PQ-17.

I became acquainted with Commander Oesten in 1980 while researching the torpedoing and sinking of the Liberty ship William Gaston, on which I served as US Naval gunnery officer. I learned that our adversary had been U-861, commanded by Oesten. For the past twelve years Oesten and I have been in periodic communication and have exchanged visits to each other's homes. In a 1991 letter, Oesten wrote me about his role in the attack on PQ-17: Regarding your intention to write something about the convoy PQ 17, I would like to answer your questions. I was in charge of submarine operations in these northern waters from March 1942 until July 1943 belonging to the staffofthe so-called Admiral Nordmeer.

We were working and livingfirst aboard the ÂŁ-boat mothership Tanga in Kirkenes (northern Norway), later on board the yacht Grille in Narvik. Both these ships had good wireless stations and sufficient accommodations for staff. Grille was designed to be Hitler' s yacht and I had, for about a year, the cabin of Minister von Ribbentrop of Foreign Affairs.

About 15 to 20 submarines were at my disposal for operations against the PQ and QP convoys. They had their flotillas and shipyardfacilities in Bergen

A merchant ship in convoy, weathering heavy North Atlantic seas.

14

SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

The feared German battleship Tirpitz, sistership to the Bismarck, in A/ten Fjord, in midsummer 1942 . Her presence prompted the withdrawal of Convoy PQ-1 7' s cruiser escort.

and Trondheim. About one-third of the boats were in operation at any one time; the other two-thirds were refitting or proceeding to and from the operation theatre. They could get fuel and torpedoes and very limited repair facilities in Kirkenes and Narvik.

To put the PQ convoy operation in its proper context, it may be useful to look briefly at the military situation in the summer of 1942.

Although losing the aerial Battle of Britain in the late summerof 1940, Hitler had strengthened his strategic position by establishing U-boat and Luftwaffe bases on the Atlantic coast of France and the Norwegian fjords on the North Sea, which greatly improved Germany 's access to North Atlantic sea lanes. Then, in the summer of 1941 , Hitler decided to invade Russia.

hazardous. In addition to threats from Uboats and warplanes, the convoys were subject to bitterly cold temperatures and Arctic ice fields. During the continuous darkness of winter months, there was a risk of collisions in convoys. In the continuous daylight of summer months, the convoys were subject to detection and attack 24 hours a day.

In the early summer of 1942, Hitler ordered the German battleship Tirpitz and the cruisers Scheer and Hipper to Norwegian waters, posing a further threat not only to the convoys but also to their escort vessels.

Finally, the tactical operation was further complicated by the fact that both sides were intercepting and decoding the other's radio transmissions, but neither

side knew the other was doing this.

Sailing from Iceland on June 27, Convoy PQ-17 was escorted by six destroyers, two submarines, two anti-aircraft vessels and 11 tugs, trawlers and mine sweepers. Following to the westward , as a reserve force, were the US cruisers Wichita, Tuscaloosa, Wainwright and Rowan and the British cruisers Somali, No1folk and London.

The fust few days were relatively uneventful for PQ-17, but on July 2, taking advantage of clearing weather, Luftwaffe planes attacked and sank two US vessels-the Liberty Ship Christopher Newport and the tanker Pan Kraft.

Real disaster struck on American Independence Day, when U-boats and German aircraft began coordinated attacks.

Meanwhile, there had been a disastrous development at the British Admiralty in London. A radio dispatch had been received reporting that the German ships Tirpitz, Hipper and Scheer, accompanied by six destroyers, had sai led from Alten Fjord in Norway and were heading north to intercept the convoy.

First Sea Lord Admiral Dudley Pound was faced with a momentous decisionwhether to risk his cruiser force against the powerful Tirpitz or to order a withdrawal. At 10: 15PM on July 4, the fateful decision was made: the cruiser force was ordered to withdraw to the west, and the merchant ships were directed to "scatter and proceed independently to destinations." Destroyer escort commander Captain Broome later recalled relaying the

MERCK.ANT SHIPS SUNK BY U· BOATS

~ AH080"18ERS

France had been knocked out,

......_ MERCHANTSHIPRUN AGRouNo ""t-

GERMAIOJR8AS£S

and Britain had only limited re- • ••"""""""" sources-resources de sperately needed to fight Italian armies in North Africa. But Winston Churchill saw the advantages of ROUTE _ _..Q) supporting Russia in order to keep German forces tied down on the Eastern Front. He even made a S E A BARE N TS secret trip to Moscow and promP1t1All1nuc L..

---..__ ised Stalin thatBritain would share S11nk6/I Julr her limited armaments.

The logistics of delivery were extremely difficult. One option involved a long sea voyage around ..: the southern tip of Africa, then 0 0 northward through the Indian "' ' z Ocean and Persian Gulf, from ~T ~ / j_....j:E t AM O/ as which supplies had to be trucked v , ~ I over mountainous roads to RusFINLAND j ~ sian Army bases. The Arctic route / RUSSIA ~ SWE DEN was much shorter but far more ~--------'--------''-·--------=---'--'---'--------' 8 OF ~ P-0 - -.

17

80.A ISLAND

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SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

15

wrenching news to the merchant fleet of cargo capacity, 3,300 trucks , 200 aircommodore: craft, 435 tanks and 100,000 tons of And then suddenly out ofthe blue came other war materiel. The crews of two this signal to scatter, which shook us all to vessels , the American Carlton and the core. We'd got no reason to believe British Earlton, were located by Gerthere was anything to scatter about, but man air and sea forces and became POWs. this could only mean one thing, thatTirpi tz Because the German Kriegsmarine and was here,shewasonthe horizon. Up went Luftwaffe were separate and indepenall our glasses, and! remember expecting dent military forces, I wondered how someone to say, there she is, there's a gun- their activities were coordinated in a flash , something like that. joint operation and whetherthere was any I hoisted the signal to scatter, there rivalry in claiming successes against Conwas nothing else for me to do, it was an voy PQ-17. I was also curious as to the order from the Admiralty. As soon as I'd consequences to each side of the other's hoisted it, I looked round to the Commo- interception and decoding of radio sigdore, he didn't seem to be repeating it. So nal s. In response to my questions, ComI thought, well, there's no time to lose , she mander Oesten wrote to me as follows might be on us, and I shot into the convoy on February 15, 1992: in Keppel , went alongside the Commo1. The British side, we now know, dore and switched on my loudhailer. I saw was in the position to decipher German wireless communicathe Commodore standtions during different ing there in the wing of the bridge, and I periods without detold him about the lay ; during other pescattering and he simriods with a delay of ply couldn't believe it. va riable interva ls Yousee, we' djustbeen ranging between 24 through the air attack, hours and so me we'd done jolly well, weeks. There were everybody was on times , also, where their toes and full of they had blackout beans, and there was periods of half a year or more. The German this sudden signal.

Look, I said, this is side was convinced more or less until the true, and he sort of came to and he finally end of the war that hoisted the signal. I their coding machine "Enigma" was safe said, I'm sorry about and could not be dethis, it looks like being Jurgen Oesten, on his return Ji-om coded by the other a bloody business' and his final wartime command in 1945. side. On the other he said something like hand, the German B-Dienst (Observagood-bye and good hunting.

Although the decision was not re- tion Service) was in the position to vealed to the public until after the war, it decipher and read, during longer pericaused widespread debate in naval circles ods of the war, secondary communicaand some friction among the Allies. tions from Allied tugs, airplanes, cargo Marshal Stalin was reported to have been ships, etc. This gave them enough clues, outraged. Ironically, the rightly feared for instance, to predict or report the sailTirpitz and consorts, having put to sea, ing dates of convoys and other informawere recalled on the evening of July 5 by tion concerning fleet operations. the German high command, who remem2. There was no rivalry between Navy bered the fate of her sister battleship Bis- and Air Force, and I did coordinate the marck, sunk in a running fight with British cooperation of the staffs oh both sides. ships and aircraft a year before.

Submarines sank 9 ships, the air force Three ships in the convoy took tem- sank 8 ships; in addition, submarines porary refuge in an Arctic ice field, and sank another 7 ships which had been later reached Archangel safely . Several damaged by the air force .

3. Both sides had a certain respect as reached the island of Novaya Zemlya before being sunk. Only eleven vessels far as the use of capital ships in the eluded their attackers and reached Arch- Barents Sea was concerned. Both had the angel. The remaining24 ships were sunk, intention to keep the risk within reasonwith a loss of 153 seamen , 150,000 tons able limits. The British had to consider the

superior Tirpitz battleship and the shorebased German aircraft. The Germans, on the other hand, had to get Hitler's permission in order to make use of any major group of capital ships. This permission was not granted if there was,for instance, anAllied aircraft carrier in the vicinity. In this case, the Germans were prepared and had concentrated both groups of capital ships in A/ten Fjord. The British were not at all sure whether the Germans were still there. The BritishNaval Intelligence could not guarantee this to the First Sea Lord Admiral Pound on ] uly 4. For this reason, Pound decided to withdraw the cruiser group and the escort destroyers and to scatter the convoy on the 4th ofJuly. In the meantime, submarines and airplanes played hell with the defenseless scattered convoy, and the capital ships could leave the work to the submarines and aircraft.

This is really all I have to say about PQ-17, and I do not intend to try to blame anybody for mistakes-neither the Germans, f or their lack of initiative in the operation of their capital ships, nor the British, for their misjudgment of the situation and f or abandoning the convoy.

Despite virulent complaints from Marshal Stalin, the British and US governments elected to delay the sailing of Convoy PQ-1 8 until later in 1942, when the long Arctic nights would afford some protection for Allied convoys. As a fact of history, the PQ operation continued intermittently until the end of the war in Europe.

Winston Churchill, Britain ' s wartime prime mini ster, later put his fingeron the effect of these German ships which never entered into action on the scene, remarking that "their mere presence in these waters had directly contributed to a remarkable success for them."

16

SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

* * * * *

During the Cold War between the late 1940s and mid-1980s, neither East nor West were much inclined to remember their wartime cooperation. However, in recent years, even before the demise of Communism, the Russian Government struck a commemorative Medal of Appreciation, which was made available to all Allied navy and merchant seamen who made the infamous "Murmansk Run" during the dark days of World War II. D Lt. Cmdr. McCormick is author of Two Years Behind the Mast, a memoir of his experiences while serving as a US Navy gunnery officer on American merchant ships in WWII (available from NMHS) .

THE NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY C/o THE FRANKLIN MINT FRANKLIN CENTER , PA 19091-0001

Please enter my order for THE DISCOVERY COMPASS, issued by the National Maritime Historical Society in honor of the 500th Anniversary of the Discovery of America. I understand that it will be sent to me with its own customdesigned display base crafted of imported hardwood.

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Op Sail '92 by way of

CAPE DORN

by Ian Hutchinson

In early October 1991, a special reunion of the Cape Homers Association took place aboard a British square rigger in Sydney Harbor. The ship S¢ren Larsen was about to depart on a unique sixmonth voyage to Europe that would take her across the empty tracks of the Southern Ocean and into the Atlantic by way of the infamous Cape Hom. There were some poignant moments as the old-timers walked the decks and looked wistfully up into the rigging and earnestly gave us, the present crew, the benefits of their experience in thePamir, Passat and Joseph Conrad and told tales of past captains, comrades and gales off the Hom. "Homeward 'Round the Horn " planned to take two ships (the wooden hermaphrodite brig S¢ren Larsen and the iron-hulled brigantine Eye of the Wind) via Auckland, New Zealand, to Montevideo, on the river Plate, around The S¢ren Larsen Cape Hom. The opportunity to make such a passage was too good to miss and I quit my job in shipbroking to join S¢ren Larsen's crew. On the 7th of October we sailed out of Sydney Heads in excited anticipation.

For Tony Davies, S¢ren Larsen's owner and captain, the commitment to bring the ship to the North Atlantic to participate in the Columbus celebrations allowed him to fullfill a lifetime ambition: to sail a traditional square rigger en route around Cape Hom. As with previous projects, the voyage costs were covered by the 21 "voyage crew," who paid for their berths aboard and stood watches alongside the captain, mates, bo 'sun, sailmaker, shipwright, purser and deckhands of the professional permanent crew. Our first mate, Jim Cottier, was theformer mate of the Sorlandet and a fiercely traditiona l square-rig seafarer. "There will be no passengers on this trip," he explained in a stem but reasonable tone .·;; as he organized us into three watches and outlined the ship's routine, sail handling and deck duties.

The voyage crew were a 18

diverse mixture of backgrounds and ages.

Some had sailed on the ship before and saw the Southern Ocean as the ultimate sailing challenge. Others had never even set foot on a sailing ship and looked as if they were wondering if they had made a very grave mistake indeed as they hung miserably over the lee rail, failing to get their sea legs in the first days across the Tasman.

It took S¢ren nine days to cover the 1352 miles to Auckland, S¢ren's Pacific base, where the bulk of the provisioning was done for the long passage ahead. The ship absorbed imposs ibly vast quantities of meat and dry stores into every available compartment and locker within her hull. On deck, a brand new mainsail , upper topsail and staysails were bent on, and the deck house reinforced in anticipation of the heavy weather"down south."

On the 29th of October, our fourth day out, we had NNW force 6 to 7 on our port quarter with steady rain. The still fresh crew was tested for the first time, as watches struggled to reef down the main. By mid-morning we were making 9 knots, sailing SE into the Southern Pacific. This didn't last long, and we ran into light headwinds.

On the 7th of November the log despondently read "E by N force 2-3, 48°40' South, 165°35' West. Wore ship at midnight thick fog and drizzle ... 97 miles by log but 5 miles easting made today . Stuck in the Southern Ocean .... " The forties were certainly not roaring for us at thi s stage, and for the next week progress was painfully slow. Inclement weather kept us below decks when ·not on watch. For the crew this was a period of consolidation. The ship 's routine slowly took over our lives: four hours on/eight hours off, the clamor of meal times, the ritual of clambering into damp oilskins to go out on deck, and the daily navigation and ropework classes held by our tireless St Helena • first mate, Jim Cottier.

"People come to the Tristan da Cunha ship for different things," explained Captain Tony Fa!kiand IS Davies. "Some to experiSEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

Decks awash, the S!Z)ren Larsen ploughs through heavy seas in the Southern Ocean nearing Cape Horn in December of 1991. "There will be no passengers on this trip" --the first mate's words assume their full meaning as crew and voyage crew haul lines in heavy seas.

ence a unique adventure, others to learn traditional seamanship skills and sail training with a 19th century rig. Others come to see an alternative to modem urban living. The experience should not be the sole preserve of the 16- to 25-yearolds of the youth sail training ships. There is a nearly sixty-year range between the youngest apprentice and the most seasoned voyager and it really makes no difference--everyone has a role to play. There are not many communities today as dependent on themselves as a ship in deep ocean passage. The experience can be very rewarding. " S¢ren Larsen was built in Nykobing Mors , northern Denmark, in 1949. She was one of the last single-hold Baltic traders and operated around Scandinavia and northern Europe in general cargo, timberandgrain until 1972. She has a sparred length of 145' (105 feet on deck) with a beam of 25' 6" and a displacement of 350 tons. Her hull is carvel construction with three-inch planking over seven-inch oak frames with a twoinch ceiling (lining), entirely iron-fastened.

Part of the affection we grew to have for S¢ren Larsen and her consort, the 132-ft Eye of the Wind, 81 years old herself, was, undoubtedly, their ability to retain the spirit of their working pasts. On S¢ren's deck the weathered pin rail and heavily-built hatch coamings, and below, the huge oak beams and frames of the former cargo hold, which surround the main salon and recently-built cabins, speak of her past. The constant creaking as her hull works through the water and the unique aroma of tar and tallow that only a wooden ship exudes add to the atmosphere. She remains a working vessel, not a pristine museum piece-"a sailor's sailing ship," as someone said.

She began her illustrious modem career in 1978, when Captain Davies bought the hull and fully re-decked and rerigged her in Essex, England, as a hermaphrodite brig. For five years she earned her living in film work and achieved fame in many films and TV series including "TheFrench Lieutenant's Woman," and "In Search of the Marie Celeste." In 1982 Captain Tony Davies sailed S¢ren north, deep in the Arctic pack ice, for the filming of BBC's "Shackleton" series.

The following three years she operated under charter to the British Jubilee Sailing Trust, where she was adapted to give handicapped people of all ages the chance of sail training voyages. Overcoming the problems of a blind or wheelchair-

bound crew was especially rewarding and the success of S¢ren's program led to the Trust commissioning a specially designed 152-ftbark, theLordNelson. In l987,S¢renlarsen was invited to participate in the First Fleet Re-enactment voyage from Portsmouth to Sydney as part of the Australian Bicentennial celebrations. S¢ren was the fleet flagship for the 22,000 mile journey via Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope and led the 11-ship fleet into Sydney as the centerpiece of the Australia Day 1988 celebrations. Ship and crew then established themselves in New Zealand, running sailing cruises around the South Pacific Islands.

By mid-November 1991 , those idyllic tropical trips seemed far away indeed! At 0340 I was awakened for my watch and wearily wrenched myself from a warm sleeping bag to the sound of deep heavy thuds-crashing waves booming through the thick oak hull.

Getting dressed in semi-weightless darkness could have been comical if it weren't such hard work. Up in the deckhouse a figure in dripping oilskins was struggling to steady a steaming kettle as he poured us a mug of coffee, looking distinctly relieved that his tum on deck was over. "Getting up out there," Charlie commented nonchalantly. The door required an unusual effort to open, I dimly thought to myself as I pushed it against the wind and stumbled on deck.

The noise that assaulted me left me initially stunned, and any lingering sleepiness was instantly swept away by the howling wind. As water surged across the main deck, I could see that the l 2AM to 4AM watch was in a state of some excitement-not just at the awesome sight of the white sea crashing around us, but because the ship's longboat was at that moment attempting to bryak free of its lashings on the weather side of the deckhouse.

Crouching low against the wind, three of us tottered about the deckhouse roof like stuntmen atop a speeding train as we resecured the boat. Much stirring stuff has been written about Southern Ocean gales, but whatever one reads, nothing really prepares one for the power and beauty of the reality. Feeling exhilarated and energized by the immensity of it all, we watched the seas build in the eerie pre-dawn light; felt no cold as the sea surged to our waists on the lee braces; and grinned as torrents of water crashed over the deck while we held on to the safety lines.

Shorter than the old iron windjammers and with more

SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

19 I

horizon. As we drew reserve buoyancy, the closer, the other S¢ren's stern ro se watches were called sharply to meet each from below.By 0520 big roller with ease. on December 9, our Her decks, though 45th day out, the steep and awash, were sheer, grey cliffs of not as treacherous as the Hom were finally on the big metal ships. two miles abeam as By 0700 we had a we made 8 knots NNW Force 10 and the reefed main sail under an ominous had to be handed and Sll)ren Larsen and Eye of the Wind Two crew aloft on Sll)ren leaden sky and a folstowed. Getting the lowing Force 6 wind.

S¢ren Larsen had become the first Britheavy swinging boom down safely on the gallows required all the cool judgment of ish wooden square rigger to round the Mate Cottier. Running under main stays' 1, Horn for many a year. Twenty-six hours lower tops ' 1 and fore topmast stays' 1, we later, Eye of the Wind followed suit. We romped along, making 212 miles in our paused from the celebration and photobestday' s run so far. The weather was not graphs as Captain Tony Davies held a sustained, but we were reassured to find moment 's sil ence to remember those seafarers of all nationalities who had that ship and crew were up to it. The day took its toll with various sprains and peri shed in these waters in the years bruises, the worst being suffered by Dick gone by.

Scotland from New Zealand. He received It was three more days before we could a gash to the forehead after being thrown feel solid ground beneath our feet in Port Capt. Tony Davies and First Mate Jim Cottier into the scuppers and had to be stitched up Stanley in the Falkland Islands. We had

by Cath Pigott, the young Irish doctor aboard. the briefest chance to visit the many historic wrecks there, Days and weeks rolled by. The winds were oddly variable, including the Lady Elizabeth and Jhelum, before sailing to make but the temperature grew steadily colder as we reached 50°-55° Montevideo for Christmas.

South. As we sailed farther from land , we were acutely aware The second leg of the Homeward 'Round the Horn voyage of the vastness of that ocean and our own isolation. One tookS¢ren Larson andEyeoftheWindeastandnorththroughthe wonderedatthefortitudeofformerCapeHornersintheselonely Tradewinds to the remote South Atlantic Islands. In three waters, without even the comfort of radio contact. For the crew, months we watched the stars slowly tum upside down, realizing their way of life prior to the start of the trip was now a dim our circumnavigation was nearly complete as we saw the Pole memory; sleep was won in short Star again for the first time on snatches, day and night had no th e northern horizon and distinction , personal space did watched the Southern Cross not exist, tallowed and salty fade from sight to the South. damp clothes were reworn After 17,778 miles and 130 againandagain,andeveneightdays, 21 hours, we made the day intervals between freshport of Lisbon. water showers were accepted.

It was the end of a unique But rather than focusing on the voyage and I knew I would rough , cold and wet, I will remi ss the bi g ocean skies, the creak and moan of the rigmember the Southern Ocean as big-very big. ging, the exacting care of On December 6, at 58°22' working aloft on the open sea, South, we wore ship in light the encounters with visiting winds and made our final tack dolphins and whales, the ever northeast toward the Horn . It present wheeling albatross, was a fine 4' C on deck, al"Cape Horn in sight!"---from the the aft deck the conical shape of and , above all , the comradeship of our crew. Perhaps in though Eye of the Wind had Cape Horn can be seen in the background. some snow and hail during the ni ght.

40 or 50 years' time I may even stand on the deck of a tall ship Twodays later,ourfirstsightofland was Isle Diego Ramirez- with a shipmate and tell another generation of sailors of the some miles SW of the Cape where the seabed shelves steeply time we went round the Horn with Davies and Cottier in the from 4500 meters to 400 meters-where we spoke to the S¢ren Larsen, back in 1991 ! bemused Chilean Lighthouse keeper on VHF. The ship 's bread is baked ni ghtl y by the midnight to 0400 A shipbroker, chartering bulk cargo ship s, Ian Hutchinson watch, and , it being my turn, I was in the galley kneading sailed out to Australia on the S0ren Larsen in 1988 and chose dough when the door was flung open and an excited fi gure the C4pe Horn voyage to make his return to England in 1992. cried: "Cape Hom in sight! " Even at 0215 it was getting light For m ore information contact Ocean Voyages , 1709 and I could just make out a small conical irregularity on the Bridgeway, Sausalito CA 94965.

SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

20

\

THE

SQUARE RIGGERS OF ZYGMUNT CHOREN ~'A

Subtle and Unmistakable Touch"

by Thad Koza In the fifties and sixties, when square riggers appeared to be an endangered species, and sail training associations and preservation guilds were formed to save and salvage existing vessels, the international fleet of Class A ships was actually increasi ng dramatically with the production of several shipyards. From the Spanish shipyard Astillieros Talleres

Celaya, SA, in Bilbao, came the vessels trans1t10n of the Lenin Shipworks to Simon Bolivar, Cuauhtemoc, Guayas, Pomeranka Ltd.-that is, from the SocialGloria and Corwith Cramer, while the ist subsidized institutions of CommunistJapanese company of Uraga Dockyard dominated Poland to the free-standing in Sumitomo produced the four-masted capitalist corporations of the nineties. sister barks Nippon Maru and Kaiwo¡ The first of a series of square-riggers Maru II. To these vessels can be added to come out of the Gdansk shipyard was the fleet of fifteen square riggers created the barkentinePogoria. Her smooth hull by the prolific Polish naval architect, lines appeared in 1980 and were followed by Orp Iskra, the sail training Zygmunt Choren.

Zygmunt Choren was born in May vessel of the Polish Navy, and, finally, 1941 , in Brzozowy-Kat, Poland. He for- the oceanographic ship Oceania in 1985.

With a stubby bowsprit and triple mally began his life-long commitment to ship design by pursuing academic masts without yards, Oceania defied clasdegrees at the Technical University of sification as a sq uare-rigger at the 1987 Gdansk and the Institute of Shipbuilding Baltic Tall Ships Rendezvous in Kiel, in Leningrad in the sixties. Since 1968 he has been associated with shipyards in "Efficiency ofa practicallyflawless kind Gdansk and has adapted to the uneasy may be reached naturally in the struggle for bread. But there is something beyond, a higher point, a subtle and unmistakable touch of love and pride beyond mere skill, almost an inspiration, which gives to all work that finish which is almost art-which is art."

-JOSEPH CONRAD, Mirror of the Sea

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Germany. Although her hull has a familiar profile (she is a "sister" to Pogoria, Iskra and Kaliakra) her rigging and sailsetting hardware project the state-ofthe-art technology and innovative spirit of her designer, Zygmunt Choren. Her sai ls echo the Viking and Baltic fishing galleys of the 13th and 14th centuries; these "propulsion sails," with an efficient set of computerized blocks and winches, allow precise close-to-the-wind course setting, sailing efficiency, and a minimum of crew work. Appearing first on Oceania, these sails became prototypes for 1992's newest arrival, the sail-¡ ing crui se ship Gwarek.

Perhaps the most important ship to be designed, built and completed in Gdansk was the Dar Mlodziezy, the full-rigged ship which replaced the revered and respected Dar Pomorza. TheDar Pomorza, the "white frigate," had been an historical and political symbol of the Polish sail training and leadership programs since 21

Pictured here among the weathered docks and tired cranes of the Gdansk shipyard, is Choren' s current project, the sailing cruise ship Gwarek. The 360-ft vessel will feature "propulsion sails," as used on the much smaller Oceania (inset) . These sails employ a computerized set of blocks and winches and allow close-to-the-wind course setting and sailing efficiency, but her yardless masts denied Oceania classification as a square rigger at the 1987 Baltic Tall Ships Rendezvous in Kiel, Germany .

PHOTO BY THAD KOZA

1921. Dar Mlodziezy was, thus, an historically and culturally important assignment and project. Dar Mlodziezy not only subsumed a tradition, she fostered a new class, as her lines became the prototype for the five square riggers which the Gdansk shipyard built for the Soviets: Mir, Druzhba, Khersones, Pallada and Nadiezhda (which is completed but awaits delivery and resolution of new market mortgaging by the Soviets).

The Dar Mlodziezy has served as good-will ambassador for her native Poland and has completed extended voyages to Australia, Japan and Canada, along with regular participation in Cutty Sark Tall Ship sails and various European festivals, such as Sail Amsterdam and Sail Hamburg. She regularly embarks with a full-time staff of 42 officers and crew, led by Captain Taddensz Olchenowicz, and a cadet complement of 150, which is characteristically international in composition.

The summer of 1987 was a propitious time in Gdansk, Poland. The hardships of martial law had been lifted, and the shipyards were busy with production: 22

Mir had just finished her sea trials as the first of four contracted ships in the Dar Mlodziezy class and Druzhba was dockside having her masts stepped and aligned. With six ships complete, the drawing boards of Choren's Ship Design office were still busy, and projects were being completed for international clients in Germany, Finland and Japan.

It was at this time that I met Zygmunt.

I was given a tour of the shipyard, viewed the Mir, and boarded the uncompleted Druzhba. Choren was engaging and enthusiastic about his projects. As I was leaving, he asked me to be a courier for an important package. This proved to be the final drawings of the rigging and modifications for the conversion, for the German Sail Training Association , of the German lightship Kiel into the Alexander von Humboldt, a bark with striking green sails.

For the last five years, Choren has not be.en idle. He has overseen the design for the brig Fryderyk Chopin and the brigantine of the Japanese Sail Training Association, Kaisei. The newest of these projects, Fryderyk Chopin, has been the

idealistic project of another famed seafaring Pole, the circurnnavigator Captain Krysztof Baranowski. Envisioned as a floating classroom for international sailtraining crews, the brig was designed to maximize the number of sails, buntlines and yards for energetic sail-setting maneuvers. Clearly, however, herelegantlines fuse the rhythms of the seas with the romance of the ship. The Chopin made her debut in the parade of ships of OpSail '92.

Interestingly, Kaisei was originally designed as a private yacht named Zew, with a topsail schooner rig. After sea trials and her purchase by the Japanese Sail Training Association, she was modified and converted to a brigantine with dormitory cabins. She, too, appeared in New York in July, en route to Japan.

Despite the differences in rigs and hull lengths, all of these square riggers embody the principles of safety, comfort and speed, while expressing the elegance of a Zygmunt Choren design. D A maritime photographer and sailing ship enthusiast, Thad Ko za contributes regularly to Sea History.

SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

John Sto hart

• GREENWICH. A View of the Lower Landing, Cos Cob at Sunrise in 1895 Oil on canvas 22 x 34 inches

Kensington Galleries 149 Lighthouse Road, Harbour town Hilton Head Island, SC 29928 113 Lewis Wharf, Boston, MA 02110 31 North Summer St., Edgartown, MA 02539 Telephone: 617•227•8161

Tall

Ships â&#x20AC;˘

1n

American Waters In this summer of 1992 a great fleet of traditional sailing ships came from the world's four corners to American shores to observe the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage across the Atlantic Ocean which opened the Americas to the world. Why do these ships still sail, and what does their sailing mean to people? These are tough but rewarding questions to consider, particularly when you look into the work done by these antiquated vessels and the very vital messages and meanings they seem to carry for our time. But why the sai ling ship?

The square-rigged sailing ship opened our watery world to mankind's ken, his understanding and his multifarious traffics.

Such ships still have that power in our minds and spirits that they had for the native peoples who came to the waterfront to see Francis Drake 's Golden Hind-an atom, a rigged-out and sai lequipped bit of flotsam on the vast undeveloped expanse of the Pacific shore of North America-and stand, in the words of Drake 's chronicler Chaplain Fletcher, "as men rapt in their minds."

Well, God knows the ultimate purposes to which these ships sail, and we wonder. All we can see is that people learn the essential human traits-loyalty, initiative, cooperation, and yes, cheerfulness-rapidly and lastingly when learning to sail these ships that demand such hard service to make their way about the ocean world.

These home truths may explain why there were thirty-five Class A ships (the big square riggers) in this OpSail '92-more than twice the number there were in the first OpSail in 1964, which was actually held as a valedictory for this fantastically outmoded mode of moving people and cargoes across oceans.

Behind them some 200-odd smaller vessels-smaller in size but not in purpose--came in from the sea they had been 24

OpSail '92-Parade of Sail

SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

Emerging from the mist under the Verrazzano bridge from left to right are the Polish barkentine Iskra, the bark Tovaritsch, the Polishfullrigged ship Dar Mlodziezy underfull sail, the Portuguese bark Sagres II under topsails, the three-masted staysail schooner Capitan Miranda from Uruguay (in the foreground), the Polish three-masted schooner Zawisza Czarny, an unidentified vessel, and on the far right, the Omani barkentine Shabab Oman.

Italy' sfull-rigged ship Amerigo Vespucci

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The Grand Regatta '92fleet tightly packed westward ofthe Canary Islands at the start ofthe race to Puerto Rico. In the foreground is Eye of the Wind and to her right Young Endeavour.

New York Harbor, July 4 The oldest Class A ship, the woodenhulled Gazela.from Philadelphia, built in Portugal in 1883, is pressed by smaller craft as she passes La.dy Liberty.

The little New Zealand topsail schooner Tradewind, which rounded the Horn to join the Grand Regatta in Puerto Rico, sails in company with the German bark Gorch Fock.

FromPortugal came the Boa Esperanza, a replica of the caravel in which Bartholemew Dias first rounded the Cape of Good Hope .

sailing, the bulk of the fleet from Europe, starting from Cadiz, Spain, on May 3, but others from as far afield as Australia and Japan. Thus, beyond the spectacle that awes and moves sailors and non-sailors alike, when these great ships come together from around the world, driven only by the world 's wind systems and young people learning the exacting disciplines required to enable a big hull to ride the winds, there is a true and lively purpose being exercised: young people learning to know themselves, and learning to know other people of wide! y different backgrounds from different parts of the world through the trials and rewards of shipboard life, where fundamental values PS count for everything, with no counterfeits accepted.

26

SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

South Street Seaport,

July6 Manhattan's historic South Street, once famous round the world as "the Street ofShips," is once again a forest of masts, playing host to the USCG Eagle (foreground) and beyond her the brig Niagara from Lake Erie and the Norwegian full-rigged ship Christian Radich . To the left is the British frigate replica "HMS" Rose, whose crew is aloft furling .

PHOTOBYWILLIAME. BURGESS

NMHS members watch the fleet from the Staten Island ferry John F. Kennedy .

New York to Boston, July 10 The speedy new brig Fryderyk Chopin plunges ahead under a press of canvas, bound from New York to Boston. Chopin and her forty Scottish sail training cadets joined 200 other ships and 7,000 cadets and crewfor Sail Boston ' 92,July11-16, the last American port of call for the Grand Regatta. (Photo by Rob Arra, Over Narragansett Bay, Bowen's Wha1f, Newport RI 02840) SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

27

Boston to Liverpool, July 16

28

The Boston skyline breaks the horizon to the East as the tall ships bid farewell to a city that warmed to its international guests. In the foreground the brig Fryderyk Chopin, the Russian full-rigged ship Mir and the Latvian bark Sedov make ready at the starting line for the last leg of the Grand Regatta-across the Atlantic to Liverpool. (Photo by Rob Arra, Over Narragansett Bay, Bowen's Whmf, Newport RI 02840)

ยงEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

John Mecray is known worldwide for his dramatic paintings of the great racing yachts in action. In this poetic painting the artist has drawn upon his experience as a seasoned sailor to create and share with us a most wonderful perspective of the epic voyage of Columbus, vividly capturing the vast sweeping power of the sea itself. John has symbolized the mystery of the unknown, the hope for a new day, and the frailty of man's endeavors. He deepens our concept and feeling for the vision, courage and magnitude of the accomplishment we celebrate. Sailor and landsman alike will appreciate the allegoric nature of this unique portrayal.

Printed on fine archival paper using light-fast inks, with great attention to every detail of the reproduction process.

The superb titling is a hallmark of John Mecray's marine prints, which often sell out within a year.

Image size: 15" x 34''. framed 27" x 43 " Edition limit 675 (75 remarqued), $200 sin, $750 remarqued.

The Log of Christopher Columbus - a magnificent reconstruction and careful translation of actual daily records which Columbus wrote himself throughout the voyage. "I am the first to admit that I was so eager to find land that I did not trust my own senses .. .Then, at two hours after midnight, the Pinta fired a cannon, my prearranged signal for the sighting of land:' 252 pages with detailed useful footnotes, many illustrations and charts. Free during 1992 with your purchase of John Mecray's commemorative print.

To order: Please provide personal check, or MasterCard or Visa account number and expiration date. Please add $15 for delivery of any number of prints (and logs) to one location in the continental US. Massachusetts residents please add 5% sales tax to the print price. For protection of your fine art print conservation framing to museum standards is available directly from our gallery frame shop for $245 (delivery $45). Please write or call for further information.

YANKEE ACCENTz 23 Wianno Avenue Osterville, Massachusetts 02655 508-428-2332 Fax: 428-0009

MARINE ART NEWS ASMA's 10th National Exhibition Opens at Mystic

the energy of this tremendous vessel and its fractured, faceted planes, its shafts of flickering light, patterns of shadow and bursts of color."

Although, sadly, working sail and the many colorful steam tugs, ferries and workboats which added so much character to the seas and ports have almost vanished, there is a continuing fascination for sea pictures of all kinds. Depictions of the men of the sea and on-board activities have proven of great interest to the collector and the museum-goer. Frank

fish, or marine flora-for these are now all part of the world of marine art.

Neil Harpe's "Sooks and Jimmies," a 20"xl6" color lithograph, is an appealing and simple subject: a rendering of a basket of blue crabs, males and females (hence the title), a favorite delicacy in the Chesapeake area.

The America 's Cup races, Tall Ship events, sai ling coverage on television, as well as recent publications on maritime history and art are all helping to stimulate interest in contemporary American marine art.

American marine art is alive and flourishing. It has survived three hundred and seventy-five years, including not only the passing of the age of sail, the steamships, the golden era of yachting, but abstract art as well.

The Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut, is hosting the 10th National Exhibition of the American Society of Marine Artists in its prestigious R. J. Schaefer Gallery. This event takes place every three years and is noted for the quality as well as the technical accuracy of the work. Theexhibitcomprises nearly 90 pieces of juried original works including oils, watercolors, drawings, graphics and sculpture by Society members, and is open to the public through September 21, 1992.

It is a must for admirers of contemporary marine art, offering a rich selection of traditional marine art subjects. Classic sail and seascapes abound, but marine art is no longer DENNIS BEAUMONT just ships, sea and shore, and even President, ASMA traditionalists are impressed with the quality and scope of work that is Full color exhibition catalogs, making the whole field of marine art "Coastal schooner Marian," watercolor by Victor Mays 9"xl2", 44 pages, are available at so dynamic.

Mystic Seaport Museum or by mail Two pictures in particular capture the Handlen's "Wet Work at the Mizzen from: ASMA, 1461 Cathy's Lane, North breadth of style in this exhibition and Braces," a 41 "x41" oil-on-canvas is a Wales PA 19454; $14. typify what is happening in marine art powerful example of such a work.

Exhibitions today. One is Victor Mays' "Coastal Handlen notes, "I chose to symbolize the Schooner Marian," a 20"x28" water- unremitting toil demanded of men in •April 25-0ctober 11, The Great Age color. This work depicts a long-gone steel ships with their huge steel masts, of Sail: Treasures from the National working schooner, once a common sight each arrayed with a complex network of Maritime Museum at the San Diego in every port, departing Clinton, Con- lines and sails needed to drive three Museum of Art, comprises some eighty necticut, on the morning tide, after dis- thousand and more tons of hull in ex- paintings, including works by Canaletto, charging coal. The historic subject mat- tremes of weather."

Turner, William Van de Velde, Hogarth ter executed in an expertly detailed manRichard Loud's "H.M.S. Rose," a 35" and Copley. San Diego Museum of Art, ner illustrates technical accuracy that x50" oil, is a delightful example of what 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego requires painstaking remost collectors want in CA 92101. Other venues: November21, search. The light, figa ship's portrait. Ex1992-January 17, 1993, Chrysler Muures, activity and sense ecuted in a strikingly seum, Norfolk VA; February 28-J une 2, of movement bring the sharp, arresting style, 1993, Peabody Museum, Salem MA. work to life. the magnificent man-of- •May 3-January 3, 1993, The Maritime The other picture is war is depicted running Art of A. De Clerck, an exhibit of the Donald Stoltenberg ' s before the wind. The late 19th-century Belgian pierhead colorful and dramatic work was commis- painter. Maine Maritime Museum, 243 "Queen Mary ," a 6l"x sioned by the H.M.S. Washington Street, Bath ME 04530.

37" oil painting on canRose Foundation.

• May 22-September 21, 10th ASMA vas. Stoltenberg notes, Today, much contem- National Exhibition of Marine Art, at "in painting an object porary marine art does the R. J. Schaefer Gallery, Mystic Seaof such fame and fanot depict a vessel or port Museum, Mystic CT 06355. miliarity, I felt I must the seas which they sail •July 31-0ctober 31 , Born from Coastbreak through that upon. Sailing ships and ing: The Marine Art of John F. Leavitt familiarity to jolt the seascapes, while still a (1905-74), an exhibit of watercolor paintviewer with as fresh and mainstay of marine art, ings, drawings, sketches, and oils by the unusual a depiction as are not its sole scope. schoonerman, yacht broker and former possible." Two aspects Today's marine artist associate curator at Mystic Seaport Muwere involved in his A dramatic ship portrait: "Queen may depict less classi- seum. Maine Maritime Museum. solution: "first, the Mary" by Donald Stoltenberg cal subjects: tugs, •September 27-November 8, 13th Anviewpoint of the ship workboats, ferries and nual Mystic International, to be judged itself, and, secondly, the treatment, sug- oreboats, or he or she may choose to by Walter Cronkite and Ray Ellis. Mysgesting the movement, the tension and portray marine creatures-mammals or tic Maritime Gallery, Mystic CT 06355.

30

SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

A Series of Three Outstanding Limited Edition Prints of Original Oils by:

J. Franklin Wright & Ely Kish Two North American artists, combining their diversified fields of expertise to create a truly Commemorative Collection for the SOOth Anniversary Year of the Voyage of Christopher Columbus to the Americas

J. Franklin Wright has painted The Discovery of America and San Salvador (Guanahani) in exact detail with information supplied from the Columbus log and blueprints of the replica ships now sailing to various ports in and around the United States.

Those of you familiar with the ships and seas of J. Franklin Wright, may find it interesting that Mr. Wright, himself, feels that The Columbus Collection includes a reproduction of one of his greatest works to date.

J,

The Ely Kish print, entitled The Island of Isabela, has been painted from the perspective of a native inhabitant observing the three Spanish ships and Columbus' first approach to the shore of the island named for the Queen of Spain.

J, The Island of Isabela

The Columbus Collection, encased in an elegant portfolio is ideal for the collector, the home, the office, and makes an excellent gift. We will ship direct to any destination.

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Article l S of the New York Ans and Cultural Affairs Law requires written disclosure of certain information related to prinrs which are sold fo r more chat $ 100.00. T his information will be supplied upon req uest or at the time a print is delivered. Purchasers may be entitled tO a full refu nd if this d isclosure information is not provided.

T his offer is void where prohibited.

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SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Ex-Soviet Tall Ships Share Uncertain Future A late arrival at Cadiz for the beginning of the Grand Regatta-sending officials scurrying for space in the congested port-was one of the world's oldest and largest sail training sh ips, Kruzenshtern, built 1926 as the German Padua. The four-masted bark was delayed by the need to build additional cabin accommodation for 52 paying passengers . A German organization, Friends of the Kruzenshtem, organized the trip, and a similar charter was arranged for theSedov.

Although the maritime academies operating these and other former Soviet vessels were given responsibility for the ships, it is reported that they are receiving no direct cash from the Russian government, and are having to look to world-wide goodwill for support. At least one of the Soviet vessels required Red Cross emergency supplies in the Canaries to continue in the Grand Regatta '92.

Winning and Losing on the Chesapeake The 1890 Chesapeake Bay round-sterned bugeye Sallie Bramble, deteriorated beyond restoration, was broken up last summer, reports member Ginger Martus.

Fortunately, her lines were not lost.

WoodenBoat magazine reports that Leavensworth Holden of Easton, Maryland, recorded her lines in April 1990 for the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. To help prevent the loss and to assist in the maintenance of other historic Chesapeake Bay vessels, a Save Our Skipjacks campaign has been launched by the Lady Maryland Foundation . Captains of the remaining skipjacks have formed a committee to decide the order in which the deteriorating skipjack fleet will be restored by students and shipwright/instructors of the Lady Maryland Maritime Institute.

(LMF, SOS Campaign, 717 Eastern Ave. , Pier 5, Baltimore MD 21202) Getting Around the Ships On June 4th, the SS United States entered the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in 23 years, bound for Istanbul, Turkey. Purchased at auction on April 27 for $2.6 million by the Turkish company Maramar Marine, who plan to refurbish it for the North American cruise market, the53,000ton, 990-foot vessel now appears safe from an inglorious end on the scrap heap.

"To date, Maramar Marine has spent over $3.8 million on the 'Big U' ,"says William 34

Howard Headlines South Street Seaport Anniversary Headlining the South Street Seaport's 25th anniversary year celebrations on May 30 in New York was a beautiful old lady who had taken her name Lettie G. Howard nearly a century before from a tall, slender fisherman's daughter, herself just turned 22 in the cold month of January 1893.

The Seaport's anniversary celebrations marked the end.of the first phase of the fishing schooner's restoration , and now, refloated again after a year of hull restoration, she awaits new masts and rigging. Next year, returned as close as possible to her original condition, she will begin her second cen. . tury as a sailing school vessel at The Lettie G. Howard being launched at South Street. the museum . (South Street Seaport Museum, 207 Front St., New York NY 10038) DiBeneddetto of the SS United States Preservation Society. "This is the scrap value of the ship, so it appears the new owner's true intent is to renovate the ship."

Restoration is expected to cost $140 million over three years.

Commercial interests have also interceded to prevent the loss of another large passenger vessel, the 1948 steam turbine coastal liner Princess Marguerite .

The former ferry has been purchased by Sea Containers Ltd. of Britain and will be towed to Singapore, where she will be restored for cruising the Northwest's Inside Passage.

Although a public outcry derailed Japanese attempts to purchase the mothballed aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea , the Senate Armed Services Committee has given approval to a group of Japanese businessmen to lease the postWorld War II carrier, the USS Oriskany.

She will become a cultural attraction in Toyko to be known as the City of America. Conversion work is to be done

in Portland, Oregon fo llowing final lease approval by the whole of the Senate.

Five years after Columbus's historymaking voyage, John Cabot sailed west from Bristol in a ship named Mathew to make landfall at Newfoundland and claim it for the British crown. (The Englishsponsored Cabot was, like Columbus, of Italian origin.)TheEngli shjoumal Windjammer reports plans to build a replica of Mathew in Bristol, to bereadyforCabot's 500th in 1997. (Windjammer, 4 London Wall Buildings, Blomfield Street, London EC2M 5NT, England) Also in the replica/rebuild department, the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum in Savannah, Georgia, has initiated a campaign to raise $5 million for construction of a rep I ica of the steamship Savannah , which,onMay22, 1819, became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. When built, she will reenact the original voyage and be used as the Commodore's Flagship during the 1996 Olympics in Savannah. (SSMM,

Carrick Refloated Good news at last for the Carrick (ex-City ofAdelaide), the oldest sailing clipper in the world, built 1863, six years before the Cutty Sark. The Scottish Maritime Museum in Glasgow took overthe vessel in February and has since refloated her in the Clyde River, where she had sunk over a year ago. It's planned to take her to Irvine, Ayr- The refloating of the Carrick gets underway at Princes shire, for restoration.

Dock, Glasgow.

SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

503 E. River Street, Savannah GA 31401) The historic Gulf Coast schooner Governor Stone , built in 1877, has been restored by the Apalachicola Maritime Institute and is being made ready for a sail training program . (AMI, PO Box 625, Apalachicola FL 32320) The 1928 Delawa re Bay oyster schooner Clyde A. Phillips recently received a boost from the New Jersey Historic Trust in the form of a $215,000 grant, for which matching funds have to be raised. To help, contact Meghan Wren, Delaware Bay Schooner Project, PO Box 57, Dorchester NJ 083 16.

The 1925 New York City ferry Maj. Gen. Wm. H. Hart is now moored in Captain's Cove Seaport, Bridgeport, Connecticut, home of the famous frigate replica HMS Rose. A gift of South Street Seaport Museum , the buxom vessel joins a growing fleet at Captain's Cove, which is also now home to the ketch John E. Pfriem (ex-J. N. Carter out of New Haven , Connecticut, and before that Gloucester, Massachusetts).

To continue the restoration of the bark Star ofIndia , the San Diego Maritime Museum is selling belaying pins made from the vessel's old decks. The edition is limited to 150 pins. Send $50, plus $3.50 shipping and handling to the San Diego Maritime Museum, 1306 N. Harbor Drive, San Diego CA 92101.

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For Reservations or Information: 800-845-5520 Cape Horn Kudos Following in the wake of S¢ren Larsen and Eye of the Wind in December last year, the third traditional sailing vessel to "round the comer" en route to OpSail '92 was the 122-ft topsail schooner Tradewind outofDunedin, New Zealand, in February. Built in 1911 as a North Sea trader and fishing vessel, she was retired to the canal s of Amsterdam before her 1987 resurrection as an ocean voyager.

(DiscoveryCharters,Box 1182,Dunedin, New Zealand) This rash of Cape Hom roundings got Windjammer editors thinking about the last time a wooden square-rigger took the honor. It appears the last westward rounding was on the 26th of January, 1967, by our own Regina Maris, the wooden barkentine being restored today at Greenport on Long Island, New York, an NMHS-supported project.

New England Lighthouses Damaged A storm this past fall , after Hurricane Bob, wrought havoc on several New England light stations. The storm was SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

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The WoodenBoat Show at Newport The WoodenBoat Show, held at Newport RI, June 26-28, under carnival tents and along floating docks arranged around the Newport Yachting Center, brought together maritime booksellers, sailmakers, yacht brokers and over 50 finely crafted new and antique wooden boats ranging in size from six to over 90 feet in length.

The thousands of visitors who turned out over three days were given j ust the right opportunity to indulge in a romantic world unfami liar to many of them.

They watched as logs were fashioned into useful timber for planks and decking, boarded and explored a variety of vessels, and saw a team ofboatbuilders construct a small fleet of dories and later race them around the harbor.

Sponsored by WoodenBoat magazine of Brooklin, Maine, this lively exhibition served to widen the public 's knowledge and appreciation of the highly technical craft of wooden boat construction and the graceful elegance of the finished products. It also helped to perpetuate in a small way the endangered lore of traditional seafaring.

PETER M. TIRSCHWELL far worse than the hurricane, says Shore Village Museum's director Ken Black.

Black reported a list of damages in the Spring 1992 issue of the US Lighthouse Society 's quarterly Keeper's Log. At the Cape Cod Lighthouse (Highlands) and Sankaty Head (Nantucket), Massachusetts, the storm carved eight feet from the cliffs fronting each station, further threatening these already endangered structures. Serious damage was reported to six other lights in Maine and Massachusetts.

Other lighthouse news is the recent listing of the Piedras Balcas Light Station (built 1875) on the National Register of Hi storic Places, a deci sion questioned by lighthouse preservationists.

Over the years, the keeper's quarters were replaced with modem ranch style houses, the tower decapitated and other buildings razed. Calling the station "badly mangled," the US Lighthouse Society claims there are many stations better preserved and more deserving.

(USLS, 244 Kearny Street, San Francisco CA 94108) Sail Training News Scottish youngsters, some 120 of them, will have participated in the Grand Regatta Columbus '92 aboard the new International Class Afloat Foundation vessel Fryderyk Chopin by the time the

fleet returns to Liverpool. The Scottish Maritime Sailing Trust, in its first year of operation, chartered the vessel out of Glasgow and will rotate four groups of cadets throughout the regatta. (SMST, 35 Union Street, Greenock PA16 8DL, Scotland) Sailing ships looking for crew and crew looking for ships will have an easier time of it now that the American Sail Training Association has established a "Billet Bank" filled by the advisories that member ships send whenever they seek to fill a crew position. AST A updates this bank monthly and printouts are available to members for $5. (ASTA, PO Box 1459, Newport RI 02840) Maritime Archaeology The side-wheeler wreck discovered last year in the Mississippi River near Alton, Illinois, is probably that of a cargo boat, reports The Waterways Journal. Dr. John Walthall, archaeologist with the Illinois Department of Transportation, reports evidence that the vessel was scuttled.

For this reason, says Walthall, the bulk of the vessel will probably remain underwater at the site as the good wood, pipes and fittings were probably removed before the boat went down. According to Terry Norris, archaeologist with the St. Louis Engineer District, there are some SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

600 wrecks documented along the midMississippi River and fewer than a dozen have been recovered.

A new program offered by Indiana University is working to promote an appreciation for the fragile, nonrenewable resource of shipwrecks and to train sport divers in photographing and documenting marine archaeolog ical sites.

With more than 4.5 million active di vers in the United States, program director Charles Beeker believes " the ir increased understanding of the role of nautical archaeologists in developing scientifi c know ledge about these cultural resources is important. But, it is also impo rtant fo r the scientific community to recogni ze the responsible and educated sport di ver as a valuable resource to the underwater archaeological community." (Indi ana University, Bloomington IN 47405) A study last year on the recovery of the Lomellina, a Genoese ship of the famous Italian Admiral Andrea Doria, led to no decision about actuall y salvaging the ship, but a replica of the ship is being built fo r ex hibiti on at the Genoa Expo '92. A large merchant ship with a crew of 100 men, the Lomellina sank in a terrible storm off the coast of Provenza in September 15 16. The storm claimed a total of 24 ships.

The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary has banned all treasure hunting and marine salvage within the 2800-square mile, shipwreck-rich preserve. In Apri 1, the National Oceanic and A tm os ph eri c Admini stra ti o n fil e d charges against Mel Fishe r's treas ure operation for enviro nmental damage to the reef system. Sanctuary managers discovered more than one hundred craters in the ocean fl oor, allegedl y dug by Fisher while seeking the remains of a vessel fro m the 1733 Spani sh treasure fl eet, in an area called Coffin 's Patc h, just outside Marathon.

Museum News The Peabody Museum of Salem, in Massachusetts, will join fo rces with the E ssex Institute to establish a new museum which will prov ide a new way of viewing the significance of the historic seaport town, the third oldest permanent English settlement in the New World. In addition, it will foc us on America's mari time hi story from the 17th century to the present. The museum will be the centerpi ece of a new c ultu ral district development at the Salem Armory site. Funding will come from the private sector, the SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

National Park Service and the City of Salem. The Peabody Museum is the oldest museum in continuous operation in the United States and holds the country ' s largest collection of marine paintings and drawings. (Peabody Museum , East India Square, Salem MA 01970) In Wisconsin , the City of Two Rivers has recently established a Coast Guard Museum, temporarily located adjacent to the Rogers Street Fishing Village. The museum features a 26-ft USCG patrol boat, as well as the reconstructed cabin of the Coast Guard cutter Chinook. A commercial fishing port since the late 1800s, the city hopes the museum will complement the Maritime Museum in neighboring Manitowoc.

A newly renovated gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, will become the permanent home for the Museum 's ship model collection. The Collection includes the "Royal George; Heros," a model made of bone by prisoners during the Napoleonic wars. (MFAB,465 Huntington Avenue, Boston MA 02115) A new brochure, entitled "Guide to the Naval Historical Center," describes the programs, resources and related activities of the Navy 's historical offices.

Free copies can be requested from the Editor, Naval Historical Center, Building 57, Washington Navy Yard, Washington DC 20374-0571.

Jerry Roberts, project coordinator at the Intrepid Museum in New York, seeks to interview former participants in the Coastal Picket Patrols of WWII. Roberts is collecting oral histories and is also seeking information about participating vessels as part of an upcoming exhibit and reunion on September 19th at the new East End Historical Seaport in Greenport, Long Island , New York.

Greenport was a wartime base for the patrol vessels. (Intrepid Museum , West 46th Street and 12th Ave, New York NY 10036; 2 12 245-2533) Conferences and Seminars • August 15-21 , International Conference of Maritime History , at Liverpool , England. Enquiri es : Prof. Le wi s R. Fischer, Memori al University of Newfoundland , St. Johns, Newfoundland , Canada A 1C 5S7.

• October 31-November 1, "The Archaeology of Ships of War," spon sored by the World Ship Trust, Oxford University MARE, The National Maritime Museum , and The Nautical Archaeology Society. Papers presented on naval

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SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS 1storic, antique U. Coast Survey maps from the 1800s Most American seaports and coastal waters. Reprin t s , too . Unique framed, grea t as gift s . $1 brings ill ustrated lis ts. Specify area .

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Mar Ad To Keep Reserve Fleet The Office of Management and Budget has dropped its previous! y reported 1993 budget recommendation that responsibility for the maintenance and operation of the 96-ship Ready Reserve Force be transferred from the Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (MarAd) to the Department of Defense. Maritime labor leaders feared the move would have weakened MarAd , which in the past has provided a forum for labor group concerns.

I NVENI PORTAM EDMUND FRANCIS MORAN (1916-1992)

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On May 6, 1992, a grand old sailor slipped hi s cable at the Carteret General Hospital , Morehead City , North Carolina. Mr. Moran had been a res ident of Sailor' s Snug Harbor, a home for old deepwater seamen, at Sea Level , North Carolina, for eight years.

Ed was the son of a prominent physician in East Boston, Massachusetts. It seems that after school he was entered in a school to prepare him for the priesthood but was found unsuited for that occupation and joined the Massachusetts Nautical Schoolship Nantucket, from which he graduated.

Ed served in fishermen , coasting schooners, steam ships, most any sort of vessel, and during World War II, there was a stint in the Navy.

All his life Ed had a great interest in ships and the sea. Preserving old sailing vessels was an obsession and he was instrumental in bringing the fishing schooner L.A. Dunton to Mystic Seaport Museum, and worked on maintenance aboard the Lettie G. Howard at South Street Seaport. He wrote articles for various publications and numerous letters to find the status ofold ships that might be preserved.

Ed was always his own man, often hard to fathom , but had a heart of gold. It is a pleasure to have known him and to have been shipmates aboard several of the big coasting schooners we both loved.

FRANCIS E. BOWKER Captain Bowker, former master of the schooner Brilliant at Mystic Seaport Museum, is author of several books on the coasting schooner trade.

ROBERT AMON

(1919-1992)

NMHS Advisory Council member Bob Amon died April 17 at his home in Port Washington , New York. Born in Austria, he came to the US at age four, and grew up in New York. He served in New Guinea with the Arm y Engineers in World War II. In the golden age of American shipping immediately after the war, he became editorof the Daily Freight Record, whose sober freight listings were spiced with hi s witty editorials. An active member of the Ship Lore and Model Club, he became preside nt of the New York chapter of the Steamship Hi storical Society.

It was at an SSHA meeting that he met his wife Rhoda.

He went on to finish his education at Hofstra and Columbia with the intention of becoming a hi story teacher, but his reforming zeal swept him into the National Maritime Union . For some thirty years he edited the NMU Pilot, for which he wrote memorable editorials promoting the American merchant marine. He was a great fighter for the underdog, with a zest for the battle. He was an avid small boat sailor and also traveled extensively in hi s later years with NMHS Advisory Chairman Frank Braynard. The two liked few things better than exploring new places, unless it was fighting inju stice wherever they found it, and promoting the cause of the US merchant marine. Bob is survived by his son Robert Michael of Yankton, Maryland, daughter Amelia of New York City, and hi s wife Rhoda.

Rhoda feels he would like to be remembered for these words he wrote on behalf of his lifetime cause:

When and if the seafaring tradition , the skills, the way of life that is so basic a part of this country's history disappear from under the American flag, more than j obs will have been lost; something very important will have disappeared from the character and strength of this country.

As usual, he meant every word-and we would do well to heed his words. PS ROBERT GASTON HERBERT II

(1906-1992) Bob Herbe rt, longtime member of the NMHS Advisory Council, a frequent contributor to these pages and a veritable Don Quixote of the fitting and proper use of sea language and other matters maritime, died in February this year. An apprec iation of his life will appear in a future issue.

PS SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

The Classic Windjammer Vacation

STAN HUGILL:

SCHOONER

1906-1992-A Personal Remembrance

Stan Hugill-one-of-a-kind sa ilor, si nger, writer, painter, hi storian , and maritime philosopher- died on May 15 at a hospital near hi s home in Wales, with hi s wife Bronwyn and sons Martin and Phillip and their famil ies at his bedside.

Stan combined the life and knowledge of a commercial sailor with the intellect and artistry of a dedicated historian , musician and pai nter.

Rai sed in a seafari ng family , Stan took to sea at an earl y age when commercia l British sail was coming to an end . He was serving aboard the last British commercia l sq uare rigger Garthpool when she was wrecked in 1927. Stan was her shantyman, and he recalled that the last song he led aboard her the day before her demise was "Fire Down Below."

He went on to serve in steam, and during World War II his vessel was captured and sunk by the German raider Atlantis. He spent the rest of the war in a German prison camp. Later he became deeply involved with the Outward Bound movement and, after pulling together a lifetime of sea song collecting, in 1957 he authored Shanties From The Seven Seas, the 600-page definitive volume on maritime work songs and their origins.

Other books on sai lors and sea music fo ll owed, including the unique hi story of the portside sai lors' environment, Sailortown. Stan toured America and Europe repeatedly during the last two decades, performing countless concerts and lectures at museums and festivals while still finding time to tum out hundreds of maritime oil paintings. At his death, he left behind an as-yet unpub1ished400,000-word history of the sailor.

By any standard, Stan Hugill ' s career was remarkable.

Although his ach ievements are recognized mainly in the maritime area, they were the product of a keen and curious mind that sought out and collected every different kind of human experience. Indeed it was his maritime life that gave him the opportunity to encompass the greatest breadth and variety of situations to observe and store SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

away for later comment and comparison. I was often startled to stumble across whole areas of knowledge and concern in Stan that neither I nor anyone else had suspected. One day in the late ' 70s during a long and wearing series of sea music festivals at Mystic, Connecticut, we sought refuge in a pub and, quite tapped out on the subject of sea shanties, found ourselves deep into the fi ner points of esoteric Buddhism for the better half of an evening and more than a few pints. His mother had been a good friend of turnof-the-century Theosophist light Annie Besant and he had been brought up on the stuff! Armed with the working knowledge of nearly a dozen Asian and Oceanic languages, his was a unique cultural view of the Westernization of Eastern thought. A far cry from simple maritime history, but then again, maybe not ... .

Stan was wiry, durable, and toughthe archetypical sailor-and he never hesitated to run up ratlines to the topmost yard right up until the end . His "quack" (as he called his doctor) warned him to watch his health, but reg ular tots of Captain Morgan rum and the everpresent Peterson pipe full of St Bruno simply added flavor and aroma to the ancient mariner. There were rumors among us that he would outlive us all.

But he was not so tough as not to be fo und tenderly crad ling our three-yearold son Robin when he fe ll asleep in Stan's lap on our couch in Virginia.

Stan gave generously of himself wherever he went, and for over eighty-six years his personal impact has been worldwide. For generations his books and paintings will continue to enlighten the world on maritime music and history. But for those of us who knew him, it is our lives which will be a testament to Stan Hugill the rest of our days.

JOHN TOWNLEY

John Townley is a writer, pe1former, and maritime music historian. He and his wife Christine have recorded many sea music albums over the past twenty years, including two ("Sea Songs Seattle '77" and "Newport Sea Festival ' 78") featuring performances by Stan Hugill.

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Growing up in a Shipyard ; Reminiscences of a Shipbuilding Life in Essex, Massachusetts, by Dana A. Story (Mystic Seaport Museum Publications, Mystic CT, 1991 , 139pp, 36 illus ; $15) Dana A. Story, son of the legendary Arthur D . Story, master shipbuilder of the majestic Gloucester fishing schooners of yesteryear, has written a fascinating book, a memoir of hi s days growing up in the shipyards of Essex , Massachusetts, a history of a Yankee way of life, a style of living now long since gone.

Here, as he grew, he heard shipyard stories and tales, and the lore of the shipbuilding world. He watched caulkers at work, mast makers, shipfitters , carpenters , draftsmen , the whole gang of men who put a vessel together. Wooden shipbuilding in Essex had its beginning in the 1650s. Between 1860 and 1980, 1,388 vessels were launched, 424 of these by Arthur D. Story, the greatest numberof vessels built by a single builder in the hi story ofEssex shipbuilding. This gang of men, working a six-day week (no coffee breaks), could tum out a schooner in about 90 days. The fast racing schooner Columbia, 140 ft on deck, was completed in 102 days by thirty men working through one of the worst winters on record.

However, one vessel was not built in a hurry: the Adams, a three-masted lumber schooner. She had her keel laid in the days just after the end of WWI, but she came too late-no one wanted a three masted schooner at that time. Arthur Story continued to work on her from time to time, and by the spring of 1923 she was virtually completed, her long spike bowsprit jutting out over the nearby highway and the passing traffic. When she was eventually launched before an enormous crowd on April 13, 1929, she was the last wooden three masted commercial vessel to be launched in the USA. On March 5, 1932, Arthur Story died.

Not only did the glory days of the racing fi shermen come to an end, but the Great Depression had arrived, and there was no call for new vessels. For the first time in hi story there was no activity in any Essex shipyard. Later, from time to time, more fine vessels were built and launched, but the builders lost money on them. When, on June 29, 1949, the Eugenia J., "a beautiful little schooner," was launched, nearly 300 years of Essex wooden shipbuilding tradition came to a close.

Dana vividly describes his fall into bankruptcy, but he had the guts and

stamina to start afresh. Today, with his son Bradford, he has a thriving boatyard business , hauling, storing and building small wooden boats on the site where the large fishermen were once built. It is a good thing that Dana has written this book, as he is the only one still living who can tell these stories of life in an Essex shipyard from personal experience; every other man who worked in the old Arthur D . Story or James Shipyards has now passed on.

The book is well illustrated, with 36 pictures of schooners, launchings, gangs, people and s uch .

GILES M. S. Too, AICH Marion, Massachusetts The U-Boat Wars, 1916-1945, by John Terraine(G.P. Putnam , New York,841 pp, 1989, illus, annot, index;$42.95hb) This comprehensive volume by a British author of nine previous military histories recounts the evolution of German U-boat warfare through four decades of this century. It is divided into three parts-World War I (150 pages) , between the great wars 1918-1939 (57 pages) and World War II (628 pages).

The book reviews the political and military debate in Germany in 1914-15 regarding compliance with international naval agreements to afford some wartime protection to merchant ships and their crews. However, in 1916, Germany undertook what came to be known as "unrestricted submarine warfare"-i.e. attacks without warning on all ships believed to be engaged in military support. The war at sea immediately became deadly. In 1917 the British liner Lusitania was sunk with major loss of life, resulting in anti-German feelings in America and other neutral nations. By war's end, U-boats had sunk the incredible number of 3,329 Allied ships with the loss of 14,879 lives.

In the 1920s, a number of international conferences sought to establish the relative sizes of the world's navies and to deny Germany the right to possess any submarines. Meanwhile, a young German naval officer who had commanded a U- boat in WWI elected to remain in the service and work toward the creation of a new undersea fleet. He became Grossadmiral Karl Doenitz in Command of U- boats during WWII and succeeded Hitler briefly as Fuehrer in 1945.

In WWII, despite having only a limited number of U-Boats, Germany resorted to unrestricted warfare from the outset. On September 3, 1939, the first SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

day of hostilities, U-30 sank the British liner Athenia with major loss of life, including Americans. The actual number of ships destroyed by U-boats was fewer ships than in WWI, but they were larger vessels of greater tonnage, and the loss of life at 32,000 was more than twice as high as the WWI toll. In the interest of fairness, it should be noted that the US Navy waged unrestricted submarine warfare against Japanese shipping throughout the Pacific war.

The entire history of undersea warfare was marked by great changes in technology and tactics, both offensive and defensive. The U-boats became larger, faster and longer-ranged and were armed with more sophisticated torpedoes plus advances in underwater sound detection and use of short wave radio.

The Allies developed ASDIC (now known as SONAR), HF/DF (High Frequency/Direction Finding), magnetic depth charges, and, most important, the use of radar, both shipborne and airborne. The Allies developed the multiship convoy system; Germany reacted with " wolf packs" of U-boats.

This book is a little too technical for the average reader, but is a valuable volume for serious students of modem naval warfare.

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Building the Wooden Walls: The Design and Construction of the 74-Gun Ship Valiant, by Brian Lavery (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 1991 , 206 pp, illus, drawings, notes, chronology, biblio, index; $29.95hb) Brian Lavery is one of the world's foremost hi storians of naval architecture and, in terms of published books, articles , and other treatises, is the undisputed leader of this field. Building the Wooden Walls logically follows The Ship of the Line (1983), The 74-Gun Ship Bellona (1985), and Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men and Organization, 1793-1815 (1989), al l exceptional reference volumes that the Naval Institute Press retains in print.

Writing from his position as Assistant Curator (Naval Technology) at Historic Chatham Dockyard, Valiant's birthplace, and advisor to the museum 's "Wooden Walls" exhibition, Lavery is uniquely placed to address his ex pertise SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

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to Valiant's design and construction. He begins by tracing the origins of the British ship-of-the-line as a warship class, and then narrows his topic to cover the development of the ubiquitous 74-gun ship. Lavery nominates Terrible, the French 74 (a ship that greatly influenced the American naval architect Joshua Humphreys), as the true progenitor of the class, followed first by Magnanime, and then by the much-admired Invincible, termed by her British captor, Admiral George Anson, "a prodigious fine ship, and vastly large."

The Royal Navy purchased Invincible, and during her subsequent eleven year career, the former French 74 had significant influence upon British warship design. Admiral Peter Warren, who employed Invincible as his flagship, said she was "better in every way than any ship, and is in every shape a fine man of war."

As a result of this high standing, in mid-1757 the Admiralty ordered two new 74s "to be built by the draught of the Invincible, and in every respect of the same scantlings , notwithstanding any former orders to the contrary." The ships became Triumph, built at Woolwich, and Valiant, built at Chatham.

Lavery leads his reader through a generic study of the design process from line drawings to mould loft. He then digresses to a pertinent and interesting discussion of Chatham Dockyard, followed by a learned treatise on timber supplies for the Royal Navy. He reviews the entire construction sequence from shaping a ship's timber to her ultimate launching.

Once afloat, the author describes the new warship' s masting, rigging, canvassing, arming, provisioning, manning, and, finally, her commissioning. All of these stages are profusely illustrated with line drawings, paintings and photographs of pertinent models. Then, returning to Valiant, the author briefly outlines her fortyyear service career, final quarter-century dockyard service, and concludes with a short outline of the development and demise of the 74-gun class.

Building the Wooden Walls, written with Lavery 's well-proven ability to translate the art and science of naval architecture into lay terminology, becomes a valuable addition to the library of naval architects, historians, and devotees of naval and maritime history.

DR. W.M.P. DUNNE Long Island University Southampton, NY SEA JHISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

Pride of Baltimore: The Story of the Baltimore Clippers, 1800-1990, by Thomas C. Gillmer (International Marine Publishing, Camden ME, 1992, 226pp, illus, appendices, index; $24.95 hb) The author is a well-respected naval architect, professor emeritus of engineering at the US Naval Academy, and the author of several technical books on ship design. His new book Pride of Baltimore delves into the history of those remarkable sea-going clipper brigs and schooners that originated on Chesapeake Bay sometime before the War of I 812. They were swifter than all others and possessed of matchless windward-going ability.

Mr. Gillmer's work opens with the development of the indigenous sailing craft built on the Virginia, Chesapeake or Baltimore model, now generally referred to as Baltimore clippers. The narrative brings to light the qualities of this distinctively American development of fast sailing craft that had the uncanny ability to elude capture, harass foreign shipping, run enemy blockades, and engage in smuggling and even slave trafficking. The bane of the British fleet in wartime, they were designed to sail fast at all costs, although they were generally unsuitable for carrying cargoes save the more profitable and often illicit ones.

A few tales of derring-do are included and they point up the fearless attitudes and many skills required of the captains and crews to keep these formidable racers and hunters in check. As fairly described by the author," ... without the proper captain, they were dead in the water, almost literally." While certainly not the easiest class of vessel to handle, in capable hands they were fast-sailing and agile with their low hull s, raking masts, and great spread of canvas.

During the War of 1812, one illustrious American privateer, the Baltimore clipper Chasseur, crossed the Atlantic under Captain Thomas Boyle and had a proclamation posted on the door of Lloyd 's of London declaring that he was thenceforth holding all Britain under blockade. Mr. Gillmer relates how, with a crew of 155 men, the Chasseur managed to capture 45 British merchant ships and disperse the crew to man the prizes. For a topsail schooner of only 115 feet on deck, it was a confounding achievement right under John Bull's nose. She made her way back to her home port and earned the nickname " Pride of Baltimore ." This same Chasseur went on to the Orient after the SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

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war to set a splendid homeward passage record of only 95 days from Canton to the Virginia Capes. She was later commandeered by the Spanish Navy in Havana harbor to combat West Indies pirates. Several Baltimore clippers ended up in the opium trade in the Far East. Such were the varied careers of these craft.

The latter half of this book is made up of the author' s recollections of two examples of Baltimore clippers built from his designs in the 1970s and 1980s. The first, a sleek example of an 1812 topsail schooner christened Pride of Baltimore, was built to Mr. Gillmer's specifications by this reviewer. Launched in 1977, she foundered in 1986 after a brilliant career that took her to Europe, the Great Lakes, the West Indies, and all three seacoasts of North America. Pride was built very much as many origi nal Baltimore clippers, with a minimum of lofting. She retained most of the original characteristics and required many of the same skills at sea as those built in the early 19th century.

The sinking of the first Pride in a violent squall is recounted with excerpts from the Coast Guard investigation and the conclusions reached in their final report, which exonerate the designer and builder from any fault contributing to this tragic loss.

In 1988 a second vessel of simi lar rig was designed, built, launched and commissioned as Pride of Baltimore II. The building of the replacement sh ip is described with accompanying photographs and construction details. The author's stability analysis is introduced to point up the excellent hydrostatic characteristics of the new sh ip. Pride II is more than half again the displacement of her predecessor and was designed to meet Federal regulations for carrying paying passengers. She is said to be stiffer than the previous design, with a lead ballast keel added. She has more free board, full headroom thro ughout, watertight bulkheads, twin engines, and even a steering wheel in place of a ti ller. She has recently returned from a successfu l two-year European tour without incident.

Mr. Gillmer makes a very persuasive case in showing how the Chesapeake-built Baltimore clipper had far more influence on shipbuilding and subsequent designs in America and Europe than previously acknowledged . The builders were known to be their own designers, and because of this, improvements over conventional designs occurred. Their approach to construction was not bound by traditional Old World SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

methods and constraints however, and for thi s reason the method taken from the standard shipbuilding manuals, and repeated here, probably does not really show how these brigs and schooners were usually built in Maryland and Virginia. Contemporary accou nts and recovered ev idence from the period indicate a simpler way that was in common use, especially among the shipbuilders in smalI or makes hift yards who were not trained in (or did not have the time for) the intricate lofting and building process as it is presented by the author.

I would differ with his applying the highly refined techniques of lofting great ships to the simpler processes involved in transferring designs to flitches of ship timber in the early days of the American Republic. Recent archaeological evidence on the brig Niagara of this period, among others, has tended, I believe, to bear out my point of view that only a few frame stations were set up, and thereafter futtocks were simply shaped to fit planking (or ribands) set up along those frames.

Of course, different people remember the same scenes differently, as the law courts constantly show us, and I remember some incidents in the building of the first Pride in an improvised shipyard in the Inner Harbor differently from my colleague Mr. Gi llmer.

Much useful construction and sailing experience has been gathered in the building of the two Prides and in the nearly 200,000 sea miles sailed by these two Baltimore clippers - handsome ships, forw hichMr. Gillmer may well be proud and well remembered. More can and wi ll be written on the wealth of experi ence now avai lable from their extensive sailing, and knowledgeable critics w ill catch a few glitches that slipped pas t the editor's eye in this pioneering account.

But Mr. Gi llmer's authoritative and richly illustrated work deserves a place o n every maritime bookshelf.

sonAZ85751 , 1991 , 133pp, maps,plans, illus; $15pb plus $1.75 s&h, USA) This useful volume contain s a selection of thirty-seven papers relating to underwater archaeo logy, each presented at the Society fo r Historical Archaeology's 1991 Confere nce in Richmond, Virginia. Topics cover a wide range of subjects, including submerged terrestrial sites, wharves, canals, shipwrecks, cultural resources management (including legal perspectives), education, survey and excavation, as well as research and analysis. The geographical range of the papers reaches from the origins of the American shallop to the burial grounds of the Russian galley fleet of 1714.

Printed on an annual basis, Unde1water Archaeological Proceedings offers regular reporting of work at new and existing archaeological sites in a handy volume valuable to scholars and laymen alike. KH Up Periscope! and Other Stories, by Alec Hudson (Naval Institute Press, 1992 repr, 248pp; $ 19.95) A reprint of six yarns that appeared in the old Saturday Evening Post in the years immediately before World War II, these tales of derring-do reflect a loyal Navy man 's view of how our ships, men and weapons would work "just before the war that we'd been unknowingly prepari ng for throughout our naval history," as Captain Edward L. Beach says in an appreciative fo reword. Captain Beach came to know Captai n Jasper Ward, the former naval officer behind the Hudson pen-name, who was retired early from the Navy for reasons of health, but who stayed in touch and arranged fo r bottles of fine whiskey to be delivered to skippers returning from successful war patrols. That tells yo u a good deal about the man and thi s fine book set in another age.

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SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

45

THE MIGHTY MOSHULU: In Extremis in 1947

by Olaf T. Engvig

Olaf T. Engvig, a Norwegian mariner who is spending a year at the San F rancisco Maritime Historical Park, sends us these remarkable photographs ofthe bark Moshulu undergoing salvage after being blown ashore in a gale in Bogen, near Narvik, in 1947. Here is his account.

Karl Kortum 's article on the Moshulu in Sea History 61 describes how the ship entered Norwegian waters on the heels of the German invasion on April 9, 1940.

It is hard to establish information on the ship's history during and just after the next five devastating years of World War II. Bergen Sj¢fartsmuseum, however, has come up with information and unpublished pictures from the archives of Norsk Bjergningskompani (Norwegian Salvage Company), which provides the following:

It looks as ifthe Moshulu was back in the lumber business after the war, her owners being recorded as a Norwegian lumber company when she broke her moorings during a storm.

One picture shows the Moshulu at Bogen after she is refloated, with the salvage ship Traust pumping her out. The other shows her in tow to Narvik by the salvage tug Uller, still with a great list to port. The big brackets that are attached to her starboard side for righting purposes remind one of the method used to refloat the celebrated Great Britain when ashore on the coast of Ireland in the 1840s.

Mr. Engvig , leader of several important restorations of historic steamers in Norway (to be reported in a future Sea Hi story), is one of a committee now being formed to help see to Moshulu' s

future. Another committee member, Hajo Knutt le (head of Save the Regina Maris , Ltd.) visited the Moshulu where she has been laid up these past three years in Camden, New Jersey. He reports: "l believe there is still a great deal of life in this majesticfour-posted bark." Her stout hide, made of mild steel, has stood up remarkably well , and her elegant shape, so evident in these pictures of her recovery at another turning-point in her long career, still shows why seamen of all nationalities acclaimed her in her heyday as the most beautiful and swiftfooted of the great ships that ended their days in the Australian grain trade. D SAVE THE MOSHULU : Queries, suggestion s, contributions may be sent to NMHS-MOSHULU, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.

Moshulu Narvik Trelastkompani.

Went ashore and capsized at Bogen in vicinity of Narvik. Contract with lumber company on raising , refloating and delivering Narvik for fixed price Kr .

50,000-No cure, no pay. The owners provide extra men and wood material needed.

Traust from Trams¢ with arrival Bogen, 24 April at 15:30. Uller with pontoons from Aalesund, 17 April.

Refloatedby Trau standUller 11 May and towed to Narvik.

Agreed amount ofKr. 50 ,000 received 5 June.

OB (initials of signator) 46

SIEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992

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