No. 66
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
SUMMER 1993
SEA HISTORY THE ART, LITERATURE, ADVENTURE, LORE & LEARNING OF THE SEA
THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC:
A Pictorial Overview Finding the Longitude, John Harrison's Chronometer, A New Look at the Royal Observatory
NAVIGATION BREAKTHROUGH:
75
TWO SPECTACULAR NEW LIMITED EDITION PRINTS by marine artist William G. Muller "View from South Street, New York in 1892" In this moonlit view, we look over the East River and Brooklyn Bridge from South Street at Fulton Ferry, as the full-rigged ship Largo Law sets sail with the tide on a Septembernight in 1892. In a limited edition of 950 signed and numbered prints at$175. 00 Image size: 20 1/2 "x 29 1/4'' Sheet size: 27" x 35 1/4'' Printed on 120 lb. acid-free stock.
"New York Harbor during the height of the great steamship era, 1935" The legendary liner Normandie steams out of port, past the Manhattan skyline and Statue of Liberty, as the venerable liner Aquitania arrives from Europe amid the bustling harbor traffic on a late afternoon in September, 1935. In a very limited edition of just 450 signed and numbered prints at $150.00 Image size: 18 1/a'' x 28" Sheet size: 23 3/4" x 33" on 100 lb. acid-free stock.
Available through:
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY 5 John Walsh Blvd., PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566-0068 For credit card orders phone 914-737-7878 Artist's proofs and remarqued prints also available. Please inquire. Please add $12.50 for shipping & handling. New York State residents add your local sales tax.
ISSN 0146-9312
No. 66
SEA HISTORY
SEA HISTORY is published quarterly by the National Maritime Historical Society, Charles Point, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566. Second class postage paid at Peekskill NY 10566 and addi tional mailing offices. COPY RIGHT Š 1993 by the National Maritime Historical Society. Tel: 914 737-7878.
FEATURES 8 The Battle of the Atlantic A pictorial overview of the critical battle of the convoys, 1941 -43 by Jerry Roberts and Larry Sowinski
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sea History, Charles Point, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.
- - FINDING THE LONGITUDE--
16 The Old Royal Observatory Established in 1675 to ''find the longitude of places," a refurbished Observatory is reopened in 1993
MEMBERSHIP is invited. Plankowner $ 10,000; Benefactor $5,000; Afterguard $2,500; Sponsor $1,000; Donor $500; Patron $250; Friend $ I 00; Contributor $50; Famil y $40; Regular $30; Student or Retired $ 15. All members outside the USA please add $ I 0 for postage. SEA HISTORY is sent to all members. Individual copies cost $3.75.
20 The Search for the Longitude and the Prime Meridian A method offinding longitude eluded mariners until the 18th century and international agreement on a prime meridian came a century later by Donald Johnson 22 The Trials and Rewards of John Harrison, the Inventor of the Marine Chronometer On the 300th anniversary of the birth of the "clockmaker genius," his accomplishment seems no less remarkable by F. A. Mercer and Kevin Haydon
OFFI CERS & TRUSTEES: Chairman, Alan G. Choate; Vice Chairmen, Richardo Lopes, Edward G. Zelinsky; President & Secretary, Peter Stanford; Vice President, orma Stanford; Treasurer, ancy Pouch; Trustees, George Lamb, George Lowery, Warren Marr 11, Brian A. McAllister, James J. Moore, Lud wig K. Rubinsky, Marshall Streibert, Sam uel Thompson, Dav id B. Vietor; Chairman Emeritus, Karl Kortum OVERSEERS : CharlesF. Adams, Townsend Hornor, George Lamb, John Lehman, Clifford D. Mallory, J. William Middendorf, II, Graham H. Phillips, John G. Rogers, John Stobart. WilliamG. Winterer ADV ISORS : Co-Chairmen, Frank 0. Braynard , Melbourne Smith; D.K. Abbass, Raymond Aker, George F. Bass, Francis E. Bowker, Oswald L. Brett, Dav id Brink, William M. Doerflinger, John S. Ewald , Joseph L. Farr, Timothy G. Foote, Thomas Gillmer, Richard Goold-Adams, Walter J. Handelman, Charles E. Herdendorf, Steven A. Hyman, Conrad Milster, Edward D. Muhlfeld, William G. Mu ller, David E. Perkins, Richard Rath , Nancy Hu ghes Richardson, Timothy J. Runyan, George Salley, Ralph L. Snow, Edouard A. Stackpole, John Stobart, Albert Swanson, Shannon J. Wall , Raymond E. Wallace, Robert A. Weinstein, Thomas Wells
30 Shamrock V's Wild Voyage Home One of the world's most renowned deepwater sailors recounts the I-boat's return passage to England in 1933 by Irving Johnson
DEPARTMENTS 4 4 6
Deck Log Letters Mission Eagle, Sail Training and the Maritime Education Initiative, by Capt. David Wood
SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor, Peter Stanford; Executive Editor, Norma Stanford ; Managing Editor, Kevin Haydon; Curator/Assistant Editor, Justine Ahlstrom; Accounting, Joseph Cacciola; Membership Secretary, Patricia Anstett; MembershipAssistams, Kim Howard, Erika Kurtenbach , Grace Zerella ADVERTISING : Telephone 9 14-737-7878.
24 Marine Art News 25 Shipnotes, Seaport & Museum News 28 Reviews 32 Patrons
COVER: These gray ships rolling off into the sea mists carry a priceless cargo: nothing less than thefate offreedom in this century. Crewmen aboard the escort vessel USCG Campbell scan the convoy on the morning of 29 January 1943 as it wends its way eastward across a dangerous ocean, at the height of the Battle of the Atlantic. Painting by Anton Otto Fischer (1 882-1962).
Our seafaring heritage comes alive in Sea History Sea History brings to life America's seafar-
AMERICAN SHIP TRUST: International Chairman , Karl Kortum ; Chairman, Peter Stanford; F. Briggs Dalzell , William G. Muller, Richard Rath , Melbourne Sm ith, Peter Stanford, Edward G. Zelinsky
SUMMER 1993
ing past. It is the quarterly journal of the National Maritime Historical Society, a national non-profit membership organiza-
tion, established in 1963, that works to increase maritime awareness and educate the public in our nation 's maritime heritage.
Come aboard with us today!
To: National Maritime Historical Society, PO Box 68, Peekskill, NY 10566 Yes, I want 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:
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66
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NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
A
N ATIONA L HI STOR IC
Cruise the Beautiful Hudson River in the Historic COMMANDER of1917
Enjoy a cruise with us into the past Experience all the excitement of a WWII convoy This jaunty ri verboat is on the Nationa l and State Registers of Hi storic Pl aces. The Commander is US Coast Guard li censed and inspected with a certified captain and crew . The Hudson Highlands section of the river is rich in natural beauty and hi story. Today, voyagers are still charmed by the romantic views that once in spired the great painters of the Hudson Ri ver School. Regular sched uled crui ses for the public depart weekdays from West Point and West Havers traw. T he Commander has a fu ll y li censed bar and can cater a range of food for charter crui ses, which also depart from Peekskill. The enclosed lower deck , with spacious picture windows for viewing the passing scenery, can seat I 00 passe ngers. H UDSON HIGHLANDS C RUISES & TOURS, Inc. PO Box 265, Highland Falls, NY 10928 For information ca ll : 914-446-7171 SEA HISTORY 66 , SUMMER 1993
(and a wo nderful day of fami ly fun! ) Take an 8-hour cru ise with us back to World War II. Experience first hand all the thrills and excitement of a WWII convoy aboard the Lane Victory, as her guns fi ght off a Luftwaffe air attack , and other special surpri ses. On thi s ship yo u are allowed to visit the engine room and the bridge-in port and also at sea! We prov ide a continental breakfast, a great buffet !inch with beer, wine and soft drinks, and a 7piece band for yo ur entertainment. Come see thi s classic merchant ship that's been declared a National Hi storic Landmark, and is the location site for many movie and TV shows. The Lane Victory is a proud veteran of WWII, Korea and Vietnam and has a unique museum and gift shop aboard. And, we ' re open every day of the week . Sailings: May 15 & 16; Jul y 24 & 25; Oct. 2 &3 , 1993 $100 per person. Ca ll 310-519-9545 or fax 310-519-0265 S.S. Lane Victory, PO Box 629, San Pedro CA 90733 Owners: U.S. Merchant Marine Veterans World War II (non-profit corp.)
3
DECK LOG As the Maritime Education Initiative, launched last spring at Walter Cronkite's urging, swings into its second year, there 's so much to report that it would overfill these pages, so we plan to issue a special report later this year. Our second-year focus is on ships: the ship in a museum , like the C. A. Thayer , featured in the Spring Sea History, and the sail training ship at sea, whose purposes are inci sively set forth by Captain David Wood in this iss ue. Captain Wood commanded the USCG Eagle when we put two students and their teachers aboard last year. It makes good reading when you get a practitioner who truly know s what he is doing-and why he is doing it! Forward Intrepid! The aircraft carrier Intrepid in New York City s upports a magnificent educational program , bringing many New Yorkers to understand , often for the first time, how deeply the is land city's fortunes depend on seaborne traffics. World War II dramatically underscored the point, and we are proud to present the Intrepid Museum 's pictorial overview of what they ri ghtly term the pivotal battle of that war, in thi s issue of Sea History. Continuing our mission of opening the treasury of the past to today 's inquiring minds, we're glad to present a critical development in navigation, the ability to determine longitude , or east-west position , accurately at sea. This development came at least a millennium after the effective determination of latitude, or north-south position, by the Norse in the Atlantic and Polynesians in the Pacific. It was another of the hard-won human accompli shments opening immense future gains, which didn 't just naturally happen, but had to be grasped at, fumbled , kicked away and finally gotten hold of in a process to which we give the name- hi story . In this slender Summer iss ue of Sea History we had to skip our us ual marine art section. But don ' t mi ss " Marine Art News" (page 24) with its good news about a great show fea tured in an earlier Sea History-and do get onto the important new book on the harbor artist John Noble, reviewed on page 29. PS
LETTERS Thanks to Bus Mosbacher As chairman of Operation Sail since its inception in 1964 through the latest Op Sail in 1992, Ambassador Mosbacher has earned richly deserved admiration and grati tude for hi s outstanding leadership of these great international events in New York Harbor. Operation Sail 's achievements in focusing attention on vital maritime activities and on preserving our rich maritime hi story for the future are testimony to Ambassador Mosbacher's innov ative stewardship. The American Ship Trust Award appropriately highlights hi s distinguished service to the community and the cause of international goodw ill and cooperation. MARIO CUOMO
Governor, New York State Albany, New York
A Great Port Well Remembered A " well done" is due Joseph Meany for his article "New York : Sally Port to Victory." Mr. Meany wrote not only a very entertaining piece, but in the doing, he has produced what I believe will come to be recognized as a singularly va luable contribution to the logistical history of the Second World War. CHARLES DANA GIBSON
Camden, Maine I was born, and grew up, on Staten Island. I could look from my bedroom window and see a speck on the horizon of lower New York harbor, between Sand y Hook and Coney Island . Suddenly, the speck became a long low rectangle with brightly painted funnelsa familiar ship as she turned near Swinburne Island . We knew the house colors of all the shipping lines and which vessel was "the largest" or "the fastest." We went down to "Quarantine," and waved with a sheet to passi ng vessels on which friends were arriving or departing. And then , the exc itement of watching the huge ships, and the little tugs nudging them into a North River pier. It was all so exciting and colorful. Airports have never known such grandeur or dignity . JANE HARTER
Nantucket, Massachusetts
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Please tell the "cartographer" of the map on page 13 of Sea History 65 that Sandy Hook Bay is the name for the water immediately inside the Hook. Beyond that, the body of water bounded by Sandy Hook , New Jersey and Staten Island has
another name-Raritan Bay! A num berof mates and skippers count their experiences in Sea Scout Ship 248 in Raritan Bay as the foundation of their seagoing careers. Our hori zons have stretched since then , but for us kids sailing in the schooner Tanager under Skipper Howard Goesle, Raritan Bay was our Mare Mundi . THOMAS F. DORSEY Falmouth, Massachusetts
We Should Have Saved Her! Dr. Jerome Wohlstein's letter about the schooner Emory Rice struck home. As the Nantucket, the vessel served for fifty years as the Massachusetts Nautical School (now the Massachusetts Maritime Academy) from which I grad uated in 1929. It would have been appropriate to preserve the Nantucket both as a tourist attraction and to teach students the rigging of a sailing vessel. While a cadet, I became intimately acquainted with the vessel from masthead to bilge. In two years I climbed the rigging, furled sai ls, rowed in the cutters, swabbed the decks, shined brightwork , passed coal, fired the boilers and tended the needs of the main engine. Our chief engineer, Lt. Com. E. L. Kelley, described the engine as a "horizontal , twocylinder compound, back-acting steam engine, eq uipped with Stevenson link , riding cut-off, valve gear." It was described as back-acting because the cy linders were on the starboard side while the crossheads and connecting rods were on the port side of the crankshaft. This was to keep the engine below the waterline, protected from enemy gunfire. Under the gentle urging of my wife I gathered up my memories of the Nantucket and put them into a book, Nantucket, Sailing Through School. If you will permit a little commercialism , I will add that the book is available at $12.50. ROBERT F. REDMA YNE 30 I Merritt Street South Boston, Virginia 24592
A Vanished "Grandness" I thoroughly enjoyed Ralph Freeman's article "Memories of the Liner Era" in Sea History 65. However, the Reina def Pacifico, I believe, was a PSNC (Pacific Steam Navigation Company) ratherthan a Royal Mail ship. She was restored to her prewar glory at Harland and Wolff, Belfast, in 1947. During her pre-delivery sea trials, a crankcase exp losion in one of her SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
WOODEN SHIP MODELS four diesel engines caused the death of 29 crew members and shipyard workers and injured many more. After repairs she resumed her South American service. The MY Georgie, also menti oned in the article, was seriously damaged by bomb and fire, east of Suez, during WWII, salvaged, partially restored and saw service as a troop, immigrant and passenger ship. (My first view of New York was from her decks.) I full y endorse the sentiments expressed in the last paragraph of Mr. Freeman 's excellent articl e. There was a "grandness" about the old liners that simply does not ex ist today .
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CRUISE THE MAINE COAST
Errata
Lester Rosenblatt 's educational background was incorrectl y reported in Sea History 65. He graduated with a Bachelor of Sc ience fro m the City College of New York, and a Bache lor of Science fro m the Uni versity of Michigan. He recentl y received an Honorary PhD from the Webb Institute. Historic, antique U.S. Coast Survey maps from the 1800s Most American seaports and coastal waters. Reprints, too. Unique framed, great as gifts. · _. $1 brings illustrated lists. Specify area. CHARTIFACTS , DSH, Box 8954 Richmond VA 23225. 804/272-7 120
SEA HISTORY 66, SU MMER 1993
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The names of three ocean liners in Ralph Freeman' s " Memories of the Liner Era" were incorrectl y spe ll ed : Carmarnia should be Carmania, Exochordia should by Exochorda, and Ascenia should be Ascania. The authur had thi s ri ght.
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NMHS MISSION: Eagle, Sail Training, and the Maritime Education Initiative
FOLLOW YOUR STAR • • • • • • • • •
by Captain David V. V. Wood, USCG (ret.)
We were delighted when we learned NMHS could send two high school students to sea in USCG Eagle last summer with their teachers and with Walter Cronkite, Chairman of the Maritime Education Initiative. l magine our pleasure in presenting this fine account by the Eagle's master for the voyage.
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At exactly 1630 hours on 7 July last year--one bell of the First Dog Watch and (more to the point) Hi gh Water Slack in New York 's East River- the Coast Guard 's training bark Eag le cast off her moorings at Pi er 17 , South Street Seaport, and set sail fo r Boston. It was the seventh week of Eagle's regu lar summer program of sail tra ining fo r cadets of the Coast Guard Academy. And it was also to be a passage lin king two of the greatest gatherings of the world 's sail training vessels in hi story-Operation Sa il 1992, and Sai l Boston 1992. Eagle was carrying severa l spec ial passengers: New York hi gh sc hoo l stu dents Nicole Scott of Chestnut Ridge and Jonath an Pappas of Seaford, and teachers Leonard London of Tappan and Arlene Rhodes of Galway. The two students and teachers had been selected by the New York State Imag inati on Ce lebrations with the NMHS ; and the passenger li st also included Walter Cronkite, chairman of the NMHS Maritime Education Initi ati ve, and hi s wife, Betsy. Nicole and Jonathan had been winners in a writing contest with the theme "Seeking New Horizons," and there were to be many new hori zons for them as Eagle sailed past Ambrose Tower and made her way eastward along the south shore of Long Island , through Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds, and out into the Gulf of Maine for an ex hil arating day of hard sailing on a fresh southeasterl y breeze before leading the grand Parade of Sail intoBostonH arboron l IJuly. lt wou ldbe hard to imag ine a more apt illustration of an encounter with "the real thing," as Walter Cronkite put it in Sea History 61. In the case of Eagle, of course, the"real thing" is not a hi storical artifact but a modern sail training ship. Built at Hamburg in 1936 as a training ship fo r the Navy of the Third Reich, Eagle incorporates sailing technology of the last commercial square-ri ggers built as the age of sail died out. In her 46-year career in the Coast Guard, she has been maintained in top condition, with habitability, safety, nav igation systems, and machinery upgraded to modern standards. Her ri g and
the way she is handled have remained virtually unchanged. Hi stori cal awareness is not a major factor in the Coast Guard's rationale for continuin g to support a program of deepwater sail training for its future offi cers; but it could be argued that the service's strong commitment to sustaining the Eagle program refl ects an awareness that the fund amentals of seafaring have changed relatively little over the centuri es, while the hostility of the marine environment to human endeavor has not changed at alI, and that the foundations of good seamanship (on which the Coast Guard 's ability to carry out its mi ss ion s, and therefore its reputation , depends) are best laid in a ship that demands a recogniti on of those realiti es. Coast Guard cadets spend at least six weeks on board Eagle during their fouryear program, and may spend as many as eighteen. The program in vo lves them in virtua ll y every aspect of the ship 's operation, from sa il handling to scullery work, from celestial nav igation to bi lge cleaning in theengine room. The grounding in bas ic seaman ship provided by thi s intense program is superb. But it is the less tangibl e benefits of the Eagle ex peri ence th at are the most important-and the longest-lasting. For it is the essence of any sa il training ex peri ence that trainees are thrust into a situation in whi ch they must work together to make the ship go; they learn qui ck ly that they cannot shrink from seem ingly dangerous tasks or shirk obviously dirty or heavy work , beca use the safety and we ll -being of all depend on eac h doing hi s or her part; and they come to know the sati sfacti on of participating in the work ings of a complex and magnifi cent machine-the sa iling shipdoing what it was des igned to do: carry a cargo of goods or peopl e safe ly from port to port by harness ing the natural power of the wind to human purposes. In an age when more and more of the world' s work is accompli shed by forces that appear to be beyond understanding and sometimes beyond control, sail training puts things in perspective. On a sailing ship, nothing is hidden from view; the workings of the machine are all "above board," and the relationship of cause and effect is always apparent. Sail training offers an unpara lleled way to develop qualities of courage, alertness, self-confidence, and a sense both of what can be accompli shed through skill and teamwork and of the limits of human technology. SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
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The Battle of the Atlantic On 26 May 1943, the German attack on the Atlantic convoys was broken off due to catastrophic losses among the attacking U-boats. Fifty years later, the Intrepid Air-Sea-Space Museum opened a dramatic pictorial overview of the one battle the allies had to win, to win history's most terrible war.
by Jerry Roberts and Larry Sowinski
It was the pivotal conflict of the Second World War, upon which depended not on ly the Allies' ability to wage war against the Axis powers, but the very surviva l of Great Britain at a time when all of continental Europe had fa llen to Hitler 's Blitzkreig. Only Britain, and the Ru ss ian armies strugg ling to repel the Gern1an ons laught in the east, stood between Hitler and total domination of the continent. Alth ough it was the only campaign to last from the very beg inning to the very end of the war, the Battle of the Atlantic was not a struggle of huge armies and famous battlefields, of decisive victories or front-page headlines. Instead, it was a long and difficult struggle between Allied merchant ships and naval vessels and the German U-boats , surface raiders, and aircraft which sought to destroy them . It was a battle fought over the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean with the limitless destructive power of the sea itse lf often proving as lethal as depth charges or torpedoes. The stakes were high and the goals were simple. With the fall of France in 1940, England was isolated and cut off from the rest of Europe, totally dependent on a seaborne lifeline of food, fuel and war materiel from across the Atlanti c. If Germany cou ld sever thi s lifeline by sinking the merchant ships upon which Brita in depended , Hitler could starve Britain into submission. This would leave Germany free to concentrate all of its vast war machine against the Soviet Union. From the Allied perspective it
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was clearthat the war would be lost ifthe supply sh ips couldn 't get through. United States involvement in the Battle of the Atlantic actually began long before America 's official entrance into the war. Nevertheless, we were caught totally off guard when Hitler declared war on the Un ited States and began sendi ng U-boats to attack shippi ng within sight of our beaches and boardwalks. As one of the greatest staging areas for merchant convoys, the approaches to New York quickly became a major target of the U-boats early in 1942. Soon, oil from sunken ships and the bodies of merchant seamen washed as hore onto the sands off Long Island and New Jersey. The war was no longer "over there," but initially , there was very little we cou ld do about it. With our Navy comm itted heavily in the Pacific, and with pitifully inadeq uate anti-submarine escorts in the Atlantic, we were left to take extreme measures , which included sending sai ling yachts out into the Atlantic manned by Coast Guard Temporary Reserve crews. But grad ually , with a handful of large and very capab le Coast Guard Cutters, and the Navy's grow ing presence on the convoy routes with new, spec ially des igned destroyer escorts and sma ll aircraft carriers, the Un ited States he lped England and her A llies turn the tide in the Atlantic, whi le on the Eastern Front the Ru ssian peop le doggedly held back the German advance. It was the fa ilure of Germany to neutralize Britain and defeat the Soviet Union that led to Alli ed victory in
the Second World War. The Battle of the Atlantic was a war of attrition fought by seamen and servicemen, but it was also a struggle of rapidly evolving technolog ies on both sides. In fact, most often the struggle between surface warships and submarines took place without e ither side seeing each other. Vio lent battles took place between fuzzy blips on radar screens, the pings of ASDIC and SONAR, and the sound of propellers above and below. Despite severe losses on both sides, the participants carried out their tasks with incred ibl e courage and determination. In the end , the battle was won because the Allies got their ships through. Allied scienti sts were able to neutralize most of the U-boat's stealthy advantages, while Allied indu stry was eventuall y able to build ships faster than the U-boats could sink them . In addition, Allied navies became increasingly efficient at hunting down and destroying submarines. By the summer of 1943 the hunters had become the hunted; by I 944 the life ex pectancy of a U-boat was less than three months. The ferocity of this monumental conflict is made clear by the statistics.By the end of the war 2,828 Allied merchant vessels and 158 Allied warships had been sunk with the loss of 45 ,000 men . On the Axis side, 781 U-boats (out of an operational force of 842) were sunk with the loss of32,000 German sailors. These figures represent a toll greaterthan all of the nava l battles of the previous 500 years combined. SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
The Threat: German U-boats in the Atlantic As the Getman blitzkrieg rolled across Europe at the outbreak of the Second World War, a handful of type VII and type IX U-boats put to sea to blockade Great Britain. Despite earl y fears of Germany's large surface raiders, it was the U-boats that posed the greatest sing le threat to the Alli ed cause. The growing havoc caused by these un seen predators caught the Allies offguard and anything that could put to sea was thrown into the battle until spec iall y designed ships and effective tactics and technologies were developed. Type IX U-boats , like that shown at right, had a range of 14,300 mil es and carried 22 torpedoes with a crew of 48. On the surface they could crui se at 18 knots with a maximum submerged speed of 7 knots.
Admiral Karl Di:initz, himself a WWI U-boat commander, is shown inspecting U-boat crews. He organized the rebirth of the Getman submarine service between the wars and directed the U-boat war throughout the Battle of the Atlantic. He eventually was put in charge of the entire German Navy and succeeded Hitler as leader of the Third Reich . It was Di:initz who signed the surrender documents which ended the War in Europe. Looking through a peri scope, thi s U-boat commander (bottom ri ght), with hi s white cap and beard , was typica l of the new breed of U-boat aces who seemed to rule the waves during the first three years of the Battle of the Atlantic. Only a handful would survive the war.
SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
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Stopgap Measures: The Corvette Priorto the beginning of World War II , the Royal Navy rea li zed the inadequacy of their anti-submarine convoy escort force. With all of their large yards committed to rebu il ding their fl eet, they settled on a design based on a whalecatcher which co uld be built quickly in many of the sma ll com mercial shipyard s around the country. Designated Flower Class corvettes, each vesse l carri ed a flower name which was unique to Roya l Navy ships and avo ided confusion or mi sidentification . The first 26 were ordered in Jul y 1939. Three weeks after war broke out, the order was up to 86. By April of 1940, 136 had been ordered. Canada began building another 130 corvettes as we ll . HMS Gladiolus was the first Flower comp leted in April 1940 and the first to sink a U-boat, U-26, just three months later. When the US entered the war it did not possess anything like the Flower class corvette. Sixteen British corvettes were transferred to the US to help out. Shown in the picture at left is the Canadian built HMCS Snowherry, whi ch sank U-536 in November 1943. The problem with corvettes was that their top speed of 16 knots was slower than a surfaced U-boat at 18 to 2 1 knots. Despite their handicaps, Flower Class corvettes sank more than 50 U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic. Responding to the Peril Soon after the outbreak of war in 1939, the Royal Navy found that more drastic meas ures were needed to provide additional anti-submarine ships to escort the convoys. As a result, almost all of Britain 's First World War destroyers were converted to long-range or short-range escorts. The photograph at ri ght shows one of the most ex pedient conv ersion types, HMS Wolverine, converted to a short-range escort by the remova l of some of her main armament and the addition of improved ASW weapons. Wolverine sank a U-boat while escorting a Gibraltar convoy in August 1942. As the tem po of the sea war escalated, the loss of British destroyers and escorts increased. So desperate was the situation that 50 old US World War I destroyers were traded to Britain for a number of valuable bases in the Western hemisphere. Shown in thi s picture is HMS Roxhorough, formerly USS Foote , repainted into Royal Navy camou fl age scheme and with three of her fo ur main gun s removed.
Sailboats Against Submarines One of the oddest examples of the inadeq uate state of America's an ti -submarine preparedness, as Uboats began to attack our shores in early 1942, was the formation of the Coastal Pi cket Patrol. Thousands of civi li an powerboats were manned by members of the Coast Guard's Temporary Rese rve and used to patrol in shore waters. An offshore patrol was fo rmed using wooden sailing vesse ls painted grey and armed with li ght machine gun s. These vesse ls were sent out on two week patrols up to 200 miles offshore. Since U-boats had to run their engines on the surface for at least seven hours a ni ght to recharge their batteries, it was believed that sa ilboats could silentl y look and li sten fo r the intruders and rad io their pos itions into Eastern Sea Frontier Command so that air attacks co uld be carri ed out and convoys diverted. These seaworthy little boats were often donated by their owners and crewed by a motley co llection of hearty yachtsmen, blue water adventurers and Coast Guard volunteers. One U-boat actuall y turned back from the American coastline without ever firing a torpedo after finding hi s position constantl y comprom ised by this unlikely adversary. Fortunately for the pi cket crews, the U-boats did not fee l that the destruction of wooden sailing vessels was worth wasting a torpedo.
SEA HI STORY 66, SUMMER 1993
Convoy Disaster Convoy PQ-17 departed Iceland on June 27 , 1942, bound for Ru ss ia. Co mp osed of 33 merchantmen and three rescue ships, it was escorted by six destroyers, four corvettes, three minesweepers, fo ur trawlers, two anti -ai rcraft ships, and two submarines. When the Roya l Navy learned the the German ships Tirpitz, Hipper and Scheer, accompan ied by six destroyers , had sailed from Alten Fjord in Norway to intercept the convoy , they ordered the convoy to scatter. The German fl eet returned to port shortl y thereafter,but ten U-boats were directed towards the convoy as well as sq uadrons of Luftwaffe bombers. When it was over, 22 of PQl 7's 33 merchantmen were lost. It was the greatest convoy di saster of the Battle of the Atlantic. Germany lost no subma>rines and on ly five aircraft during the ;c running battle whi ch covered hundreds ~ of miles of open sea (see story in Sea ~ History 62). ti :i:: <l.
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Merchant sailors sometimes spent weeks at sea after being torpedoed. Some, like these, were " rescued" by the very U-boat which sank their ship. Unable to take enemy survivors aboard, it was common practice for the U-boat crews to make sure the survivors had food and water, give them their position, and leave them to their fate on the high seas.
This photograph was taken from a U- boat after it torpedoed one of PQ- l 7's merchantmen. Adjacent at ri ght, the same torpedoed ship is shown as it sinks by the bow. The barrage ball oon suspended from its fantail was intended as anti-aircraft defense. If the ship came under attack from enemy pl anes, the balloon and its cable would have been raised higher, the cable interfering with the attack ing aircraft ' s bombing run .
The FW-200 Condor long range patrol craft. These aircraft were the bane of the convoys. When merchant seamen saw them circling high above anti-a ircraft range, they knew the U-boats wo uld soon gather for a night attack. SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
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~ Hamilton Class Cutters: Best Sub-hunters in the o War USCGC Spencer, shown above, is one of the ~ Hamilton class Coas t Guard cutters which proved to =------~....::.""'--'o.. be the most e ffective anti -s ubmarine platform s of the war. Large, fa st, stead y, and extremel y seaworth y, the Hamilton cl ass took the lead in turning the tide in the Atl anti c. Spencer' s mast is on di spl ay at the Intrepid Mu se um in New York.
Depth Charges Away: Attacking Submerged Uboats The US Coast Guard Cutter Spencer drops a lethal vo ll ey of depth charges during its epic, textbook attack on U- 175. Below le ft , one of the Spencer' s 3" deck guns is unleashed against a U-boat. Although the cloak of darkness had been the U-boat's all y during night surface attacks, the rapid deve lopment of surface ;: warship radar pierced the black of ni ght, ex posin g ~ surfaced subs as they stalked convoys.
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The Sub Chasers These little craft were compact but well armed and proved themselves capable of attacking and destroying U-boats with the ir depth charges and deck gun s. They were intended primaril y fo r coastal use. Forty-one PCs were built in the Harlem Ri ver in Manhattan at Consolidated Shipbuilding. A total of 3 17 of these 174-foot-long craft served in World War II. On the right, next page, a young navy crew loads depth charges aboard sub chaser PC-548. On the fa r ri ght, lookouts in the crow 's nest of a sub chaser brace themse lves as the bow of their PC plunges th ro ugh the North Atl anti c which could be as dangerous an adversary as the U-boats. 12
SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
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Protecting Convoys from Surface Raiders Older and slower capital ~ ships like the World War I veteran USS New York, shown above, we re~ depl oyed to protect convoys fro m the threat of large enemy surface "" raiders in 1942 and '43. Although German surface ships caused severe damage in the early stages of the battle, they were soon bottled up in port, or hunted down and destroyed by aggress ive Allied pursuit. Kingfi sher reconnaissance aircraft mounted on the catapu 1t of the New Yo rk's number three 14- inch gun turret, top right, helped to prov ide an aerial observati on umbrella over the convoys. Unfo rtunate ly, most convoys had to cross the Atlantic witho ut the benefit of battleship protection. New York's spotter planes could onl y operate in calm seas, otherwise they would be wrecked upon recovery at sea. Destroyer Escorts: The U-boat Killers The ultimate evo lution in anti -submarine warfare during the Battle of the Atl antic was the Ameri can destroyer escort. Fast, we ll armed and seaworthy , these deadl y warships were spec ificall y built to hunt down and destroy Uboats on the high seas, at one third the cost of a fleet destroyer. Thi s view of USS Kephart (DE-207) at right as it charges o ut of New York Harbor to join the battle, clearl y shows the lethal combination of deck guns and depth charges that made these vessels so effecti ve.
SEA HISTORY 66, SU MMER 1993
Convoy At Sea G rouping merchant ships into convoys was the onl y way to provide them with any pro tecti on. But earl y in the war when fe w effective escorts we re avail able, convoys actuall y offered concentrated targets fo r the Uboat wolf packs. As Allied anti-submarine tacti cs improved, the waters surroundin g co nvoys became killin g grounds fo r U-boats which were fo rced to spend most of their time trying to survi ve, in stead of successfull y attacking merchant ships. The ability to protect convoys with air power soon fo rced the Germans to abandon the Battle as losses outweighed victori es. Thi s pi cture shows a heav il y protected transAtlantic convoy in November 1942. Besides the a ir cover, fro m which thi s photograph was taken, the convoy is screened by a heavy wa rship escort. Vi sible in the bac kground is the battleship New York, an A ugusta class heavy crui ser, and three destroyers in the d istance. Long-Range Air Power: The U-boat 's Nemesis Throughout the Battl e of the Atl antic both sides used long range a ircraft to patrol the endless ex panses of the sea. German a ircraft located and attacked convoys in the North Atlantic and prov ided speed and co urse information to U- boat wolf packs stalking the merchant ship concentrations. But it was
Alli ed aircraft, equipped with radar and de pth bombs, that broke the bac k of the U-boat arm. Once th ere were suffic ient numbers of long range patrol pl anes and escort carriers, a ircraft regul arl y appeared out of nowhere to attac k and destroy surfaced s ubmarines, in wh at had moments before been a safe and empty sea.
C losing the Air Gap Until the appearance of escort carriers , a large gap ex isted in the mid-Atl anti c, known as the Bl ack Ho le , where convoys could not be protected by land based a ircraft. But, beginning in 1941 , the addition offli ght decks to merchantmen and o iler hull s soon produced a class of small carri ers known as CYEs. U- boats were surpri sed to be attacked in mid-ocean by small fi ghter-bombers launched from carri ers trave ling with the convoys . Thi s new air umbrella did more than anything e lse to signal the beginning of the end for the Uboats. Few submarine commanders were willing to ri sk attac king any convoy with aircraft overhead from which they could be spotted even whil e running be low the surface. Escort carriers 1ike the USS Guadalcanal (CVE 60), below, became the guardi an angels of the convoys, prov iding a ir
cover fro m beginning to end . A lthough small compared to fl eet carri ers li ke the Intrepid which turned the tide in the Pac ifi c, escort carriers were relati vely inex pensive and quick to build. They soon became avail abl e in suffic ient numbers to cl ose the mid-Atlantic air gap fo rever. U nlike the conversions, USS Guadalcanal was purpose built from the keel up as a unit of the 50-ship Casabl anca class, introduced in late 194 3. She carried 28 aircraft. Below, American sail ors from the Guadalcanal board captured German submarine U-505.
U-boat Under Air Attack U-118 is caught on the surface, below left, and sunk by aircraft from escort carrier USS Bogue off the Canary Islands on 12 June, 1943. Note the German crewmen seeking shelter behind the submarine's conning tower. By this time in the war, submarine crews lived in constant fear of air attacks.
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TBM Avengers, shown at right, used as torpedo planes in the Pacific war, were the most capable antisubmarine aircraft operating off small carriers in the mid-Atlantic.
A crewman ofU-175 calls for help after the U-boat is attacked and sunk on April 7, 1943 by USCGC Spencer, the successful sub hunter shown in action dropping depth charges against U-175 on page 12. In this rare instance, forty-one crewmen were picked up by the Spencer after the attack; in most cases, few Uboat men survived when their boats went down-and more and more U-boats were sunk as the initiative passed to the Allies.
Victory In the Atlantic Despite earl y triumph s by German submarines , surface raiders and aircraft, whi ch claimed nearly 3,000 Allied vessels, enough ships got through to pave the road to victory in Europe. As Allied tactics and technology , and the sheer bravery and determination of Allied seamen, turned the tide, German losses soon became unsustainable. Admiral Donitz withdrew the U-boats from the mid-Atlantic convoy routes on 26 May , 1943, tacitly admitting defeat. Although the submarines regrouped for sporadic attacks on Allied shipping, the U-boats were being SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
sunk in ever increasing numbers, often within hours of leaving their protected bases on the French coast. By the end of the war, nine out of every ten operational U-boats had been destroyed , while 32,000 German submariners were sent to watery graves, along with 45 ,000 Allied seamen and their ships. Although it was indeed a war of technology and science, it was a war won by merchant and naval seamen of many nationalities fighting under harsh conditions. The contributions of the Americans who served with the Merchant Marine, Coast Guard , Navy, Anned Guard, Picket
Patrol , Iceland Patrol, Civil Air Patrol, Marine Corps, Army Air Force, and Army , a ll played a significant role in this hard fought victory.That was fifty years ago. The scars of thi s long and horrific battle are long covered by the cloak of the deep, but the valor of those who took part in the struggle is not forgotten by those who sail the slate grey waves and foaming crests of the broad Atlantic. 1,
Jerry Roberts serves as Curator and Larry Sowinski as Executive Director of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City. 15
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en I en
FINDING THE LONGITUDE
The Old Royal Observatory Founded 1675 by Charles II to find "the longitude of places for perfecting navigation and astronomy"
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All navigators, whether sail ing the Earth 's oceans, cross ing the desert sands or en ro ute to the moon, need to know where they are. We take this fo r granted today: at the flick ofa sw itc h electro nic eq uipment can te ll our coordinates and pinpo int our position. But thi s is onl y poss ibl e because of centuri es of diligent work by pas t and present-day sc ienti sts. Of central im portance we re the Royal Observato ry astronomers of the 17th- and I 8 th centuri es at G reenwich, who pl ayed the leadi ng ro le in he lping the nav igator fi nd hi s bearings. T he seventeenth-century seaman was able to dete rmine onl y one of the co-ordinates essential fo r fin d ing h is pos ition. By tak ing noon-sights, measuring the max imum angle of the sun above the horizon, he knew hi s latitude , how fa r north or south he was. But w ithout hi s long itude-hi s east-west pos iti on- he could not be certain of w here he was along that line of latitude. T hi s was a peril ous situati on fo r men <;i nd ships, and to a sea-going nati o n li ke seventee nth-century G reat B ri ta in it was also a costl y problem . A solution to the " longitude problem" had to be fo und. There were many theoretica l answe rs and one of these, the " lunar dista nce method" of findin g long itude, was reported to King Charles II by hi s princ ipa l mi stress, Loui se de Keroua lle , on beha lf of a Frenchman. The King was s ufficientl y impressed to have the cl aim examined . But fo r the lunar di stance method to wo rk at least three new problems had to be so lved. Both the movement of the moon and the pos itions of the stars had to be acc urate ly catalogued, and , thi rd ly, the nav igator needed an instrument to carry out his observations once at sea. Charles was advised that it was possible to tum thi s theoreti cal solution into a practica l one and so he founded the Royal Observatory on 22 June 1675 " in order to the fi nding out of the longitude of pl aces fo r perfecting nav igation and SEA HISTORY 66, SUMM ER 1993
astronomy." A site in Greenwich Park was chosen and Chri stopher Wren, astronomer and architect, started work on the building. John Flamsteed was appointed firs t Astronomer Royal and set upon the long tas k of cataloguing the stars. T he lunar di stance method was based on the fac t that the moon moves fa irl y quick ly against the bac kgro und of the stars, rather like a hand mov ing over the d ial of a cl ock. If a seaman could acc urately measure the moon 's pos iti on on thi s " di al," he could then determine a standard time at which this configuration wo uld occur. He wo uld need an accurate sighting instrument and an almamac cataloguing the times of the va ri ous positions of the moon and stars. Lastl y, he would
need the knowledge and sk ill to perform elaborate calcul ations beyond the abilities of most seamen. The aim of the earl y Greenwich astronomers was to produce the almanac with the moon and star pos itions. John Flamsteed spent all hi s wo rking life, 1675 to 17 19, cataloguing the stars. He was paid ÂŁ 100 a year and from this had to provide hi s own instruments. Speciali zed equipment fo r thi s unique work was not readil y available and so he spent much time on the design and construction of instruments. Once the ste ll ar and lunar observations for the lunar di stance method of so lving longitude had been completed they had to be made availa ble to seaman. It was the fi fth As tronomer Royal, Nev il Mas kelyne, who saw them through to publication in the Nautical Almanac fo r the year 1767 ; and such tabl es have been publi shed annuall y ever since. The Royal O bservatory had completed the wo rk it set out to do ninety years earlier. Once the nav igator had the necessary tables and an instrume11t to make hi s observati ons-an octant deve loped by John Hadley in the early 1730s-the lunar di stance solution to longitude moved from theory into practice. But there were great prac tica l difficulties in the method, and fe w navi gators mas tered the art. Simultaneously, an alternate method was be ing independentl y pursued. It req uired an excepti ona ll y accurate timepiece telling the nav igator w hat time of day it was at a known long itude, i.e. Greenwich. By comparing his noon-sight, which gave him local time, with the exact time at the known longitude, he could detennine the longitude where he was, sinee each hour Above, the fa cade of the fi rst Royal Observat0ty building, F/amsteed House, built 1675 by Sir Christopher Wren. Below, an aerial view of the Royal Observatory showing the South Building and the Altazimuth Pavilion, built in the 1890s.
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FINDING THE LONGITUDE
of di ffere nce represented one twentyfo urth of the earth 's circumfe rence. John Harrison broke through the technology barrier with the development of a timekeeper (Harri son No. 1) for carrying standard time to sea. A pocket-watch version (Harri son No. 4), produced in 1759, showed that his technology could come in smaller and more workable packages. In the fo llow ing yea rs marine chronometers were produced on a commerc ial bas is, enabling all navi gators to find long itude witho ut resorting to the com pli cated lunar di stance method . The Observatory's later achievements included introduction of Greenwich Mean Time and international acceptance of the Greenwich Meridi an as 0° longitude. As the fa me of the Observ atory grew in the nineteenth century, people flocked to visit it. Today the Observatory is known the wo rld over and welcomes all visitors. The as tronomers have moved to a new site leav ing the earl y buildings and instruments for the public. On 24 March this year, the Observatory emerged from a 15-month transformation. The exteriorremains as it was, but inside things have been radically altered. W ith the help of sixteen new galleries, the Observatory explores the history of man's attempts to map space and measure time. The Observatory features one of the world's fi nest collections of telescopes, precision clocks and scientific instruments. Now, interacti ve science stations explain the principles of longitude and latitude, time di fference between countries and nav igation by the stars. In the new Time Gall ery are sundia ls, clocks, watches and other timepieces from all over-including Harri son' s firstfourmarinechronometers! The Observatory highlights two intriguing stories in the canon of navigation. The th ree hundredth anni versary this year of John Harri son ' s birth marks his lonely but ultimate ly successful struggle to build an acc urate timekeeper-a case of new ideas from unlike ly sources challenging those old and established. The newly illuminated P rime Meridian line , which streaks out of the Observatory courtyard and is lost to the gaze in the labyrinth of London, is a reminder of a different struggle-the long, contentious debate between nations which ended onl y I 09 years ago, giving the seafaring world a universal meridian from which to measure longitude.
This short histOJy has been producedfrom materials provided by the Na tiona l Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London .
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THE SEARCH FOR LONGITUDE & THE PRIME MERIDIAN by Donald S. Johnson
The hi story of sc ientific nav igation goes science las ting for two millenni a. At the back virtuall y to the beginnings of West- time of C hri stopher Columbus, Ptolemy e rn c ivilization . That the earth was a was still the standard authority. sphere and not a flat plane was recogProgress in nav igation required new nized as early as 525BC by the Greek knowledge in many fi elds. Advances in philosopher Pythagoras . It was also ap- astronomy , along with instruments caparent that in order to properl y represent pable of producing more accurate data, the position of any point of land on a map were needed. Celesti al observations by or globe, a grid system of ve rti cal and Tycho Brahe and other scientists in the horizontal lines was necessary. From the court of John II of Po1tugal, were gathered earliest printing of maps, notation of and tabulated. Quadrant, astrolabe and these lines, if not pl aced directl y on the cross-staff readings, when used with these tabulated observations and apsurface, were at least preSamuel de plied to navigation, aided the sented in the margin . While the solution for de- Champlain was mariner in determining his position of latitude at sea. termining latitude had been Ce1tain reference points for resolved quite earl y, there re- of the conviction latitude were obvious and canmained the problem of acc uthat "God did ratel y and reliabl y determinnot intend that sistentl y used by mariners of all nations. The equator, polar ing longitude. Even after the accompli shment of ca lcul at- man should ever points, and the swing of the ing longitude, there was no be able to deter- sun fro m its most northerl y decl ination of23°30 ' through con s iste nt s ta rtin g po int to itsopposite,and equal ,dec(prime meridi an) for the ver- mine longitude at sea. " Ii nation in the southern hemitica l lines circumscribing the sphere, were un varied. earth and pass ing through the Manuscript tables of declination were poles. Today, the meridian of 0° long itude is universall y accepted by con ve n- known and in use as earl y as the 13th tion to be through Greenwich , Eng land . centu ry, enabling mariners to find their However, we ll into the 17th century an latitude position. But the ability to estabitem as elemental and bas ic to nav iga- lish long itude at sea eluded navigators for tion and cartograph y as the pl acement of a no th e r five centuri es . S a mu e l de thi s one critical line , vari ed from nation Cham pl ain was of the conviction that to nation a nd fr o m m a pm a ke r to "God d id not intend that man should ever mapmaker. What is even more s urp ris- be able to determ ine longitude at sea." ing, is that acceptance by the nati ons of And Sebastian Cabot, on his deathbed, the world of Greenw ich as the datum confi ded that by divine revelation he could point for measurement of longitude oc- calcul ate longitude, but that he was not allowed to share thi s knowledge. Although curred only I 09 years ago. Of pivotal importance in the hi sto ry the theory fo r working out longitude, based of navi gation and cartography were the on time, was dev ised as earl y as 1530 by maps and manu sc ripts o f C la udiu s the mathemati cian Gemma Fri sius, it Ptolemy, a great geographer of cl ass ical wasn' t until an accurate timepiece, the antiquity (2nd century AD) who wo rked chronome ter, was constructed that the in the Alexandri a Library. The Geo- theory could be put into practice. Di viding the g lobe into circumferengraphia Atlases come to us as 15th century tran sc ripti o ns fro m hi s wo rk s. ti al, ve rti cal lines, equally spaced was a Ptolemy created a body of know ledge, logica l co nstruct. Hipparchus of Rhodes incorporated into hi s maps, of unri va led (c. 167- 127BC), one of the greatest of ex tent, hi s influence on cartography and G reek as tronomers and founder of trigoSEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
nometry, marked off the earth's surface into 360 parts. These are the "degrees" of modern geography . Ptolemy , fol lowing this plan of Hipparchus, further s ubdivided each of these degrees into partes minutae primae ("m inutes") and partes minutae secundae ("second s"). Each meridianal line of longitude was spaced 15 degrees apart, one for each of 24 hours (one full revolution of the earth), making 360 degrees. Initial attempts of determining longitude followed the same approach as for latitude, namely, using astronomical observations. Hipparchus was the first to suggest using ecl ipses of the moon for finding longitude. This was to be accomplished by a comparison of time at two places during an ecl ipse. The problem with this method was the infrequency of eclipse observations and inaccurate pre-
Th e wreck of Sir Clowdisley Shovel's fleet, 1707. This disaster- lour ships were lost, with nearly 2000 men- was a profound shock to the British public. Th ough not actually caused by th e lack of a method ofjlnding longitude, the magnitude of the disaster lent impetus to th e search for steps that might make navigation safer.
dictions of the time of eclipse. Columbus tried thi s method during hi s 1494 voyage, but was unable to achieve an accuracy any closer than 18 degrees. William Baffin, most noted for his exploration of far northern waters, attempted to fix his positions of longitude by meridi an passage of the moon . That he was unable to acco mpli sh thi s is not surprising , for not unti I the later part of the 18th century were lunar tables published of sufficient exactness for reliable use. Another astronomical method utilized the satellites of Jupiter. Galileo, first to observe the four principal satellites ( 16 in
The Lunar Distance Method Th e theory behind many of the solutions to the longitude problem was to compare the local time of the seaman wilh that of a standard known place. The time difference between the two places could then be recalculated into a longitudinal difference since 4 minules in time would mean 1째 difference in longitude, 1 hour would equal 15째, 4 hours 60째, and so on . The seaman could find his local time by the Sun or the stars: but , what of a standard time? A clock had not yet been built that could carry standard time at sea. This is where the lunar distance method came in . Th e moon moves fairly quickly against the background of the stars , rather like a hand moving over the dial of a clock. The seaman could measure the angular distance between the moon and a given star and by looking up this distan ce in an almanac he would get the slandard time that the Moon and the star would have this separation. The seaman could then calculate his longitude, by comparing that standard time with local observed time. Th e Nautical Almanac,firsl published in 1767, contained the necessary information. However, the observation required extreme accuracy and an elaborate calculation beyond 1he abilities of most seamen.
SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
total) of Jupiter, quickly realized that using occultations and eclipses of these satellites could be a means of finding longitude at sea. This method had the advantage over using lun ar ecl ipses by the greater numberof celestial bodies and the frequency of occurrences; but similar to the moon , as a method it suffered from lack of an accurate publi shed almanac and difficulties of observation while at sea. Finding long itude by occultations of stars or planets by the Moon' s di sc was employed. Thi s required observations made when the declination and right ascension of the moon and celestia l body are identical. The comp lex ity of the mathematica l calcu lations was far beyond that of most navi gators. Another lunar method for findin g longitude involved finding the local time of the Moon 's transit and compari ng it with the time of transit at a prime meridian . Without a natural point of origin for measurement of meridians of longitude, such as the equator is to parallels of latitude, there was no predetermined position for a prime meridian. Earliest maps used Alexandria, that great seat of ancient learning, as the prime meridian, although Rhodes and other important geographic points such as Carthage, the Pillars of Hercules and Rome, were also used. Arabian geographers naturally used a prime meridi an in keeping with their known world. They selected a line midway between the farthest east and farthest west, through a mythical city called Arin situated on the equator. Thi s meridian , subsequently assumed to be I 0째 East of Baghdad , appears to be of Hindu origin. The voyages of Columbus brought many new and exciting discoveries to the world . Reflecting this new knowledge, other prime meridians began to be 19
This map of the Atlantic Ocean, dated 1755 and typical of maps of the period, shows two scales of longitude. Above the scale running across the top of the map are numbers reading longitude from 0° at Greenwich, London. Below the scale the numbers read from 0° longitude at Paris. In addition, the vertical line passing through the Canary Islands at about 18° East of Greenwich reflects even earlier use of the Islands as a meridian based their being the most westerly known land.
MAP COURTESY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
s hown o n m a ps. Ferro ( Hi erro), westernmost of the Canary Islands, or the Cape Ve rde Islands soon became the meridian starting point. Not all prime demarcations ori ginated at territories. Some nav igators, Chri stopher Columbus among them, tried to determine longitude by observing the change in magnetic variation of the compass. He noted that in the Azores there was zero magnetic variation. West of this, the variation became more westerly, while east of it, the variation became easterly in increasing amounts. Mapmakers were quick to use this information in depicting a new prime meridi an (initium longitudinis). Up until this time, cartographers, under the influence of that great authority Ptolemy, used the Canary Islands for the prime meridi an because they represented the boundary of the known world. But now they had a new reason fo r placement of a prime meridian , one based on nature itse lf, usin g the magnetic needle , where it points true north , as their g uide. It w as n ' t until the publi ca ti o n of Ge llibrand ' s Discourse Mathematical/
on the variation of the Ma gneticall Needle in 1635, that the imprac ti ca lity of thi s so lution was full y app rec iated. There were also prime meridians created purely by political ac tions. In the Treaty ofTordesillas in 1494, Spain and Portuga l officially divided the non christian world between them. This meridian , known as Meridianu s particionis, was taken as the prime meridian , and lay 270 leagues west of Cape Verde (rough Iy 20° west of Faial in the Azores). This line was to have important consequences 20
late r in prompting Eng land and Holland to search for a ro ute to the Orient by a northeast or northwest passage. In the 16th and 17th centuries, rewards were offered both by the government and private donorsofFrance, Holland, Venice and Spain for a solution to the problem of determining longitude. In 1598, Philip III of Spain offered the reward of 6,000 ducats, plus a life pension of 2,000 ducats. Despite this financia l stimulus, there were no forthcoming solutions. At the beginning of the 18th century, a bill was put before the British Parliament offering "a pub I ick reward for such person or persons as shall discover the longitude at sea." Known as the Act 12 Queen Anne, it became law on 8 July, 171 4. Under the act, rewards were to be: £10,000 if the method were acc urate to within I 0 , (60 nautical miles); £15 ,000 if acc urate to within 2/3° (40 nautical miles); £20,000 if acc urate to within 1/2° (30 nautical miles) The importance of this problem and the substanti al amount of prize money involved is reflected in the numerous proposals received-in all , fully 54 volumes of manuscri pt papers, now preserved at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. The problem of determining longitude was finally resolved by the perfection of the marine chronometer by John Harrison in 1761 , which provided a simple and practical method for establishing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) at sea, beating out the other contender for the longitude prize, the lunar distance method. But the solution had little influence on the placement of the prime meridian . It would be another
hundred years before a standard prime meridian would be universally accepted. At the very beginning of the 17th century the most commonly used prime meridians were: A. Canary Islands-based on their historic precedence of being the most westerly land known . This reference placed London at 18°00 ' East longitude. B. Canary Islands -but spec ifi ca lly though Pice de Teide of Isla de Tenerife; for this lofty, volcanic mountain peak, rising 12, 180 feet above the sea, would be visi ble a long way off. London, 19°30' East longitude. C. Azores-particularly through the island of San Miguel. Gerardus Mercator favored thi s for his maps since he thought the true and magnetical meridian (the meridian with no variation) agreed in one place only, at the Azores. London, 24°40' East longitude. D. West Africa (westernmost portion) selected as a meridian when it became obvious that the reasons for selecting A. and C. were at fault. London, I 0° IO ' East longitude. E. Azores-using Ilha da Pico. At 7 ,6 13 feet, it is the highest mountain in the archipelago. This was preferred by the Dutch mapmaker, Jodicus Hondius. F. Cape Verde Islands-primarily used by the Portuguese. By the 18th centu ry, every nation publishing maps and charts used as the prime merid ian its most prominent landmark. Thus, English charts placed the zero meridian at either The Lizard or London (defi ned as through St. Paul' s Cathedral). As an example of how confusing this had all become, the French, in their sea-atlases, showed up to six different longitude scales on each chart. In addition, they showed different scales of distance-Engli sh leagues, French leagues, nautical miles, etc. Legend on the chart states that " this multiplicity of scales is to enable passing ships to communicate their supposed longitude the more readily." By the end of the 19th century, the principal observatory of each nation became the locus for the prime meridian . At this time, we find the following prime SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
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As an example of how confusing this had all become, the French, in their sea-atlases, showed up to six different longitude scales on each chart. In addition, they showed different scales of distance . ... meridians on charts: Greenwich , Cadiz, Naples, Stockho lm , Li sbon , Rio de Janeiro, Amsterdam, Washington , etc. The li st is almost endless. Obviously, a universally accepted starting point for the meridians of longitude was necessary in order to convert relative values into absolute values . This process finally began during the First International Geographical Congress (JGC) held in Antwerp in 1871. One of the resolutions put forth at this conference was that "for passage charts of all nations, the Greenwich meridian should be adopted as the common zero for longitude, and that this should become obli gatory within fifteen years." Nothing definite came of the discu ss ions, leaving the entire issue for the Second IGC conference four years later in Rome. By thi s time many nations on their own had begun using Greenwich as the prime meridian on their charts. Thatthi s should occur was due mainly to the greatness of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich . In the Rome conference, as before, no conc lusions were reached . Representatives of France stated their preference for having the meridian pass thoug h Paris, but were wi lling to accept the Greenwich meridian on the condition Eng land was to accept the metric system. At this time, the metric system was used in scientific literature of Great Britain and America, but was not in common use. Although intended to be a " neutral " system , it was still basically a French system. Again, in 1881 at the Third International Geographical Congress in Venice, and a Seventh IGC in Rome, the establishment of a universal prime meridian, as well as a universal standard of time, was given prominence on the agenda. The idea of a "neutral " meridian, one
British seamen,followed by those of other nations, used the Greenwich meridian as their 0° longitude. As th e 19th century passed by it was increasingly used on land. In 1884 it was internationa//y accepted as 0° longitude for the world. It is shown at left marked in the Royal Observatory's courtyard, 'Ind above, at night , with the telescope that originally defined it in the background.
SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
which passed though neither Europe nor America, was discussed. Suggestions such as using the Bering Strait (which would be an even number of degrees from both Ferro and Pari s), the Temple of Jerusalem, or the Great Pyramid in Egypt were quickly di smi ssed. The US delegate countered by saying " to define the prime meridian as a certain number of degrees east or west of an established observatory does not make it a neutral meridian , but merely disgui ses it. " Interestingly enough , Britain, not withstanding the potential prestige, was not all that eager to have Greenwich as the prime meridian . As important a personage as Sir George Airy, Superintendent of the Greenwich Observatory, wrote in 1879, " I entirely repudiate the idea of Greenwich as a prime meridian. Let Greenwich do her best to maintain her high position in administering to the longitude of the world , and Nautical Almanacs do their best, and we will unite our efforts without special claim to the ficti-
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tious honour of a Prime Meridian." The outcome of thi s conference was to propose yet another conference, this one to be held in Washington DC. So on October l st, 1884, the International Meridian Conference was held , with representatives from 25 countries attending for the "purpose of discussing, and if possible, fixing upon a meridian proper to be employed as a common zero of longitude and standard of time-reckoning throughout the whole world .. .. " The same discussions took place once again, the same arguments were brought up, but finally, the following resolutions were agreed upon: I. " that it is the opinion of this Congress it is desirable to adopt a si ngle prime meridian for all nations, in place of the multiplicity of initi al meridians which now exist." II. "that the Congress proposes to the Governments here represented the adoption of the meridian passing through the centre of the transit instrument at the observatory of Greenwich as the initial meridian for longitude." Ill. " that from thi s meridian, longitude shall be counted in two directions up to 180°, east longitude being plus and west longitude minus. " Still, France argued in favor of a " neutral" meridian, but the final sum mation of thi s view was that "though excellent as it was in theory, it just wasn't practical." As a compromise, it was suggested that"Greenwich plus 180°"should be the zero for longitude and time. Passing though the Pacific, it would have all the advantages of Greenwich, but could be thought of as being neutral. Resoluti on II , choosing Greenwich as the prime meridian was voted upon and passed on October 13th of 1884. Twenty-two countries were in favor, and only one, the Republic of San Domingo, aga inst. France and Spain abstained from voting. The decimalization of angular space was adopted , as well as the use of " local time zones" and the selection of Greenwich Time as Universal Time. At last, the chapter in navigational hi story placing the prime meridian , a chapter opened centuries before, was brought to a close. ,t
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Donald Johnson is author of the recently released book Charting the Sea ~ of Darkness, an account of Henry ~ Hudson' sfour voyages, and is currently sailing his 27-ft Atkins across the Atg; /antic and on to St. Petersburg. ~
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FINDING THE LONGITUDE
The Trials and Rewards of
JOHN HARRISON the Inventor of the Marine Chronometer By F. A. Mercer and Kevin Haydon In the earl y 18th century, when the Lords of the Admiralty formed a commi ss ion to solve the problem of calcul ating longitude at sea, suggesti ons of all kinds were put forward. The commi ss ion eventuall y offered a prize to anyone who could solve the problem and in 1714 an Ac t was passed offe rin g £ 10,000 , £ 15 ,000 and £20,000 for any method of di scovering longitude to within 60, 40 and 30 miles respective ly. Some of the schemes put forw ard employed such unlikely ideas as perpetual motion machines, rocket " time signals" and even ex trasensory perception. Sir Isaac Newton had offered: " . . . one way is by a watch to keep time exactly . But, by reason of the motion of the ship, the variation of heat and cold, wet and dry and the difference ofgravity in different latitudes, such a watch hath not been made." In order to qualify fo r the main long itude pri ze, a timekeeper wo uld have to keep time with a variati on of no greater than 2.8 seconds a day; but, before 1750, portable timepieces were hopeless ly poor timekeepers. Even the very best watches of the day lost or gained at least a minute a day. The onl y timepieces capable of the required accuracy were large regulators, fi xed to the wall like a longcase clock. John Harri son ( 1693- 1776), a cabinetmaker and cl ockmaker from Foulby in Yorkshire, took up the challenge. Harri son was the son of an estate carpenter and c ustodian. Despite having no forma l education , and perhaps because of it, he was a profoundly innovative thinker. Even before he turned hi s attention to the Longitude Pri ze and the construction of the " impossibl e cl ock," he had already built a revolutionary turret clock that needed no lubrication, an achi evement that has never been matched, and invented a gridiron pendulum that reduced errors due totemperature variation. His first attempt at a marine timekeeper, fini shed in 1736, was found
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to be acc urate enough to determine longitude within 1.5 degrees (90 miles atthe equator). Harri son 's No. I (or H 1), as it was called, was well received by the scientific community and Harri son him self was hail ed as a curi os ity from the country, the ingeni ous clockmaker. The Board of Longitude were encouraged by hi s progtess, and awarded him £500 to continue hi s work. He fini shed hi s second instrument (H2) in 1739, three years later, and hi s third (H3) in 1758, a lmost twenty years later. After 19 years of painstaking labor, however, H3 stubbornl y refu sed to reach the necessary acc uracy. Thi s third timepiece and its predecessors, large complex clocks weighing from seventy to over one hundred pounds, were each based on refin ements of Harri son' s earlier precision regul ators, an approach that Harri son would have to discard to produce the revolutio nary H4. While H3 incorporated a numbe r of brilli ant inventions, its ultimate role was to convince him that the so lution lay in another des ign altogether. The fourth timekeeper Harri son offered to the commi ssion was the breakthrough he had sought througho ut hi s lonely years strugg ling with H3. H4 in-
corporated features of the common watch with the innovations ofH 3. Harri son had di scovered that timepi eces with sma ll , high freque ncy oscill ators, if made to the correct pro portions, are much more stable timekeepers when they are carried about, than the earlier " portable clocks." H4 was the size of a very large pocket watch, just 5.2 inc hes in di ameter and weighing onl y 3.2 pounds. In 176 1 this timepiece was taken to Jamaica and back in the HM S Deptford, tended by Harrison' s son Willi am. On the outward journey the timekeeper was fo und to have varied by onl y 5. 1 seconds. On the return voyage in 1762 aboard the sloop-of-war Merlin , the weather was so tempestuou s that, at times, Willi am had to cradle H4 in bl ankets to protect it from bu ffeting and sea water. He insisted, however, on keeping it going lest it sho uld be tho ught too frag ile fo r use at sea. In the event, it varied by only one minute and 54.5 seconds. Thi s was sufficient to determine the longitude to within 18 miles, and Harrison la id claim tothe prizeof£20,000 (equi vale nt to about £ 1,000,000 today). The commiss ioners, however, were sceptical and suspected that the good performance of the timepiece may have been accidenta l! They announced that they were di ssati sfi ed with the tri a l. They did ag ree to a ward Harri son £2,500, £ 1,000 of which was to be paid onl y after another trial. From thi s po int on , re lations 0 ~ between the Board and the Harri sons z tlJ began to deteriorate. Many years later (§ one of the commi ss ioners c laimed ~ that the Board never ex pected a time ~ keeper to qualify for the pri ze. The ~ ~
seeds of doubt may well have been sown durin g th e 19 yea rs th a t
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H1, the world's first praclical marine timekeeper.featured interlinked balances. Their motion is almost completely unaffected by any movem ent of the timekeeper.
SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
Portrait of John Harrison by Thomas Kin g, c. 1767
Harrison appeared to be floundering with H3. Now, as the contender appeared to be a watch- and looking much like an ordinary one-they were even less inclined to be lieve it could be successful. Harri son himself complained bitterly: "But they still say a watch . .. can but be a watch . .. and that the pe1formance of mine (though nearly to truth itself) must be altogether a deception. " Considerations of character must a lso be meas ured. Harri son 's humble orig ins, hi s lack of forma l education , hi s accent and hi s lack of soc ial graces must have stood him in poor stead before such an elite as the Board of Longitude, especially as large sums of money were at stake. A further consideration was the popul arity of the lunar di stance method , the other serious contender for the prize. Increas in g ly perfected lunar tabl es presented a mathematica l soluti on which undoubted ly ap pealed more to a Board made up of theoretic ians. Champion of the lun ar method was Nevil Maskely ne , a member of the Board and soon to be appointed Astronomer Ro ya l. As s uch, Maske lyne would become Harri son's nemes is, as Harri son himse lf became more fru strated and paranoid in hi s dealings with the Board. The second test was made in 1764, thi s time to Barbados and back, again accompanied by William Harri son. The trial was an as toni shing success story fo r H4. The average computation put the watch ' s error at just 39 .2 seconds after a voyage of 47 days-this was three times better that the performance needed to win the full ÂŁ20 ,000 longitude prize. Whatever lay in the past, the Board sho uld now have recognized that the prize had been won. Unfortunately, Harri son's trial s we re destined to contin ue. The Board placed further demands on Harri son. Half of the prize would be awarded Harrison once SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
he had made full di sclosure ofH4 workings-at which time he must also surrender the four timekeepers. Hav ing no other cho ice, Harri son reluctantly ag reed to the terms. F urthermore, implying that H4 was in fac t a fluke , the Board declared it would awa rd the second half of the prize only after two copies of H4 had been made and tested , a task made doubly difficult since Harrison no longer had the first four. To add insult to injury, it was the man Harrison di strusted most, Nev il Ma skelyn e, now Astronomer Royal , who appea red to carry away the timepieces in an unsprung cart-the sort that could do more damage to Harri son's machines than years at sea! Predictably, one of the timekeepers (HI ) was dropped. A t last, Harrison had half the prize, ÂŁ I 0 ,000. But it was only the whole reward, and the recognition that went with it, that mattered . The aging Harri son, now in his mid-seventies, managed to complete on ly one more timepiece (HS). It was, finally, only through petitions to King George Ill and the Prime Minister, Lord No rth , that John Harri son was fully compen sated. At Harrison's interview with the King, George is said to have remarked," .. . these people have been cruell y wronged ... " and then excl ai med: "By God, Harri so n, I will see yo u ri ghted! " In 1773 John Harrison was awa rded the remainderofthe great longitude prize and recogni zed as having solved the longitude problem-thirty-seven years and a work ing lifetime after submitting hi s first des ign. Within three years, on 24 March 1776, Harri son died at hi s home in Red Lion Square, London. It was hi s 83rd birthday.
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who, in 1783, finally came up with a design that was the most efficient and the simplest to manufacture. Another London watchmaker, John Arnold , and the French maker Pierre LeRoy a lso made notable contributions to a practical marine chronometer des ign. It may be a record in the an nal s of industry that 200 years later, mechanical chronometer des ign differs very littl e from the 1783 mode l. Until about ten years ago, the orig inal design was still in production and the most accurate portable timepiece we had, capable of keeping to within a quarter second per day or less. And it never needed batteries! .t
Mr . Mercer is th e retired Chairman of Thoma s Mercer , Ltd., of St. Albans , Eng land. Th e firm made over 30 ,000 marin e chronometers fi"om 1858 to 1983. Kevin Haydon is an editor/or Sea Hi story. At th e authors' suggestion , inquiries about marine chronometers can be addressed to Jam es Connor, PO Box 305, Devon PA 19333. Recommended reading: John Harri son by Jonathon Betts, (Curator of Horology, Nationa l Maritime Museum) National Maritim e Mu seum Publications, 1993, Greenwich , London.
H4, arguably the most impor/ant timekeeper ever cons1ruc1ed and 1he foundalion s/one of all precision watches
Harri son's timepi eces proved that it was possible to produce a portable, preci se instrument able to withstand the conditio ns of motion , temperature extremes and high humidity that are to be expected at sea. The success of K 1, a copy of H4 made by London watchmaker Larcum Kendall , on both the second and third voyages of Captain James Cook, and Cook 's steady conversion towards belief in the timekeeper, further affirmed the soundness of Harrison 's design. The watchmakers of the world set their sights on the enormous market now opened up, since every ocean-going vessel should now carry a marine chronometer, as these timekeepers soon became known. It was Thomas Earnshaw 23
MARINE ART NEWS Exhibitions • 28 Fe bruary-8 A ugust, The Great Age of Sail: Treasures from the National Maritime Museum compri sing some e ighty paintings, including works by Canaletto, Turner, William Yan de Yelde, Cl eveley and Brooking . Peabod y & Essex Museum , East India Square, Salem MA 0 1970 • 12 June-29 August, Steichen and his Men , the US Navy at sea and in the air during World War II in 60 photographs by Edward Steichen and associates. MariettaCobb Museum of Art, Marietta GA. • 30 Ap ril - 19 September, Patterson in Maine, feat uring oi ls and sketches of Ma ine and Maine-built ships by renowned sa ilor-painter Charles Robert Patterson ( 1878- 1958). Maine Maritime Museum , 243 Was hington Street, Bath ME 045 30. • 22 April-15 September, Development of the Passenger Liner at its Peak: 1893-1916, a seri es of large, co lor side e levati ons of 12 passe nger line rs by steamship art is t and hi sto rian Pe te r Sparre. Elli s Island , New York. • 7 Jul y-7 September, Picture This : Toronto Harbour in Art. A juried exhibit featuring the wo rk of Toronto-area Captain ' s Clock of solid oak, cherry and mahogany. 3-year guar. on quartz movement. $45 , ship'g incl. Also: Oldfashion ed handmade dolls. Photos on request. Keeler & Olson Clocks 125 Hill St. , PO Box 6, Whitinsville MA 01588 Tel : 508-234-5081
a rti s ts. M a rin e Muse um of Uppe r Canada, Exh ibiti on Place, Toronto. • J une-15 September, William Partridge Burpee: A m erican Marine Impressionist. Emerson Gall ery, Hami Iton College, C linton NY 13323. • 25 Apri l-20 September, Modern Marine Masters: new paintings, drawings , sculpture, scrimshaw and models by over 50 premi er nati onal and inte rnation al marine artists. Mys tic Maritime Gallery , Mys tic CT 06355. • 25 Jul y-28 Septembe r, 17th Nort hwest Marine Art Exhibition , fea turing marine art from throughout the country. Kirsten Gal lery, 5320 Rooseve lt Way N.E. , Seatt le WA 98 105 . • 2-6 September, Milwaukee Maritime Days Marine Art Exhibition , a nonjuried show held in co-operation with the American Society of Marine Arti sts Great Lakes/West Reg ion. Landma rks Gall ery, 23 1 Nort h Street, Milwaukee WI 532 13. • 24-26 September, Charleston Maritime Festival. The primary att racti on at thi s inaugura l fes ti va l will be an ex hibit of juried art by 70 painters, sc ulptors and shipmodel builders in Charleston 's Omni Hote l ballroom . Add itional art work and
COMMISSION YOUR FAVORITE SHIP Sail or Steam
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SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Thayer Among 11 Most Endangered The C. A. Thayer, the 19th -century lumber trade schooner docked in San Fran cisco, has been named to the 1993 li st of " Ameri ca 's 11 Most Endange red Hi storic Pl aces" by the Nati ona l Tru st fo r Hi storic Preservati on. The li stin g recogni zes both the nationa l signifi cance and the deteriorating cond iti on of the 1895 I 56-ft wooden vessel, des igned to tra nsportthe West Coast's redwood and Do ug las fir. It is the first time that a ship has been li sted. The onl y other maritime item li sted so far is the B lock Is land SE Li ght, li sted two yea rs ago. The Thayer, part of the vesse l col lection at San Fra nc isco Maritime National Hi stori c Park , hosts 10,000 schoo l chil dren annuall y fo r a hands-on ed ucatio n ex peri ence (see Sea History 65). But the mass ive timbers of the three-masted vessel are bad ly rotted , and the in teg rity of her hull is threatened by shi pworms. (NTHP, 1785 Massac hu setts Ave., NW , Was hington DC 20036) Round the World in 80 Days In a curi ous case o f li fe soone r o r later refl ectin g art, Bruno Pey ron and hi s crew aboard the multihull Commodo re Explorer (ex-J et SerFices) ro unded the world in 79 days and 6 hours to better the fi cti onal mark set by Jul es Ve rne's hero Phil eas Fogg in Verne's 1873 cl ass ic Round th e World in 80 Days . T he othe r contenders had dro pped out of the race before Peyron crossed the fi ni sh line o n 20 April. Peter Bl ake and Robin Kn oxJohn ston dro pped out a fter ro undin g Cape Horn when the ir Enza New Zea land hit a submerged object and O li v ier de Kersauson retired when the starboard outri gger on Chara / ex pl oded. Getting A round the S hips From Scotland comes news of the successful return to G lasgow on 9 June of the three-masted bark Glenlee. T he 245-ft C lenlee, which served as the S pani sh Navy 's sail training vessel Galatea fo r 30 yea rs, was built in Gl asgow in 1896. Her long-term restoration is a project of the C lyde Maritime Trust (CMT, 25 I Paisley Road, G lasgow, GS SRA, Scotl and) The beautiful schooner Ernestina is getting a $ 150,000 overhaul at Kell y's Shipyard in Fair Haven, Massac husetts. Thi s recent in vestment by her owners, the Commonwea lth of Massac husetts, ends a one-year peri od of uncertainty fo r the vessel. Project consultant Greg Swansey re ports a new organi zati on is being put SEA HISTORY 66 , S UMMER 1993
toge ther to ope rate the vesse l with an eye to re-establi shing sa il training and yo uth -at-ri sk programs a board th e 1894 Fredoni a-style fo rmer Grand Banks fi shing sc hoone r. Th at other graceful G loucesterman , the 100-year-old schooner Lettie G. Howard, fresh from her stem-to-stern restorati on at South Street Seapo11 Museum in New York C ity, was on hand for accolades at the 1993 WoodenBoat Show, 2527 June, at Newport, Rhode Island. The three-masted r e plica Bounty sa iled into Battl es hip Cove at Fa ll River, Massac husetts, in ea rl y June to beg in her new life as a to uri st attrac ti on and sail trainer. The Bounty re plica, one of three sa ilin g today, was used in the 1962 MGM mov ie" Mutinyo n the Bounty. " It was donated to the Fall Ri ve r Chamber of Commerce by med ia mag nate Ted T urner. (FR CC, PO Box 187 1, Fa ll Ri ver M A 02722) The US Navy has recomm ended against the transferof the aircraft carrier Coral Sea to the Pue110 Rico Educational and Sc ientifi c Fo undati on fo r use as a floatin g mu se um in Fajardo, Pue rto Ri co . C itin g time constra ints and the re la ti ve ly poor mate ri a l condi ti on of the Co ral Sea, th e Navy has in stead s uggested the gro up wo rk to obtain anoth er carri er, the Midway . As part of the build-up to Eurosail '93 in Antwerp, 14- 17 August, the Belgian barkentine Mercator has been dra wn out of her 30-year retirement as a museum ship in Ostend to attend what will be Europe's bi ggest maritime festi val this yea r. According to Ri ck Hogben, writing in Ships Monthly, the fo rmer Be lgian national sail training vesse l de parted Ostend on 28 June and after stopovers will arrive in Antwerp on 28 Jul y. Meanwhile, a new non-profit company has been fa nned to The Jo ' c' s/e-head capstan of" the bark Moshulu clanks around again as restoration work begins. T his 'forgotte n masterpiece,¡¡ as Ha10 Knuttel (in white hat), under whose direction the work goes forwa rd , ca lls her. had been laid up in Camden, New Jersey. This spring, he r owners. Specialty Restaurants. decided to recomm ission her as a restaurant ship and youth training ce nte r . at th e urging of N MH S. Her s to ry .i s carried in Sea Hi story 60. 6 1. 62.
promote the idea of a new Be lgian sail training ship. The company wo uld li ke to use the name Mercator II for the new vessel, whi ch is envisaged as a four-masted barkentine in the same style as the new crui se ships Star Clipper and Star Flyer. The American Sa il Tra ining Assoc iati on has released its long-awa ited 1993
Directory of Sail Training Ships and Programs, an update o f the ir immense ly useful 1990 editi on. T he comprehensive, inform ation-pac ked d irec tory is the onl y full guide to the g lori o us vari ety of Ameri ca n ships and sa il tra inin g ex peri ences. Ava il abl e fro m ASTA , PO Box 1459, Newpo rt RI 02840 for $5 plu s $2 shpg. Discovery of WWII German Submarine off Cape Cod Questioned The recent, broadl y-publicized discovery of a U-boat wreck off Cape Cod has been meet with skepticism by WWII historians. On 5 June, commercial di ver Edward Michaud ofFramingham , Massachusetts, claimed he fo und U- 1226 in 41 fee t of water four miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Michaud, who says he has been searching fo r the U- boat for three years, believes U- 1226 was on an intelligence mission when sunk on 28 October 1944 by planes despatched by the Coast Guard. Experts familiar with the movements of U- boats during WWII have expressed doubts about the report. To date, Michaud has not provided any photos or material evidence to support his claim. C hina Voyage Will Test Early Trans-Pa cific Voyaging Account Mari time adve nture r and writer Tim Severin and a crew of 5 men, will depart Hong Kong in Jul y on a 60-ft bamboo raft to test theories of earl y trans- Pacific voyag ing. Severin 's ex pediti on is a re-
PHOT O: HAJO KNUTTE L
25
SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS
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Europe Prepares for Tall Ship Races Back in 1956 whe n the first Tall Sh ips Race from Torbay to Lisbon took place, it was believed that it wo uld be the last occasion o n which the dying breed of square riggers wo uld be seen. But they have refused to die! Last year, 37 square riggers crossed the starting line at Cadiz to sail in the wake of the Columbus and a lready in 1993, 19 squareriggers (plus 10 topsail schoone rs and over 100 smaller fore-and-aft rigged vessels) are ente red for the first 1993 Cutty Sark Tall Ship 's Race from ewcastle to Bergen fo llowed by a crui se in company to Larvik where a second race around a mark in the North Sea wi ll run to Esbjerg in De nmark. The races cu lminate in a cruise to Antwerp in Belgium to attend Eurosail ' 93, 14-17 August. The who le seri es w ill run over fi ve weeks w ith vesse ls fro m 16 nations visiting fo ur co untri es. Sad ly, there are no e ntri es from the Un ited States altho ugh there is o ne from Bul ga ri a (j ust as far away as New York) and one from d istant Aus tra li a. Of the e leven larger square riggers in C lass ·A (over 120 feet o n deck) onl y fo ur were in ex iste nce in 1956, while none of the nine sma ll e r sq uare ri ggers in C lass All we re at sea before 197 1. T wo of the m, Roya/isl and Asgard II , a re new ly buil t a nd the rest were re-rigged on ex isting hull s of vario us orig in s. A ll in all , it looks like be ing ano the r splendid international jamboree of yo uth with twe nty-seven ships coming from fo1mer " Eastern Bloc" countries to joi n in friendly competition , in whic h more true Olympic spirit exi sts than at the Olympic Games. MORI Scon Ch ief Officer, Alexander van Humboldt creation of a 2 18 BC voyage by the marine r Hsu Fu from Shantung eastward into the Pacific seek ing a land "whe re the drugs which gave long life grew." Hsu Fu never returned, but scholars have speculated on the success of the voyage based o n cu ltural parallels ev ident in Ch inese a nd pre-Col umbi an civilizations. The China Voyage call s for Severin and his crew to saiI from Hong Kong to Japan and then 4,500 miles from Japan to Cape Mendocino in Northern Cali fornia. The Mariners ' Museum is producing school curric ulum g uides in connection wi th the voyage. (TMM, I00 Museum Dri ve, ewport News VA 23606-3759) Museum News An agreement be tween Massachusetts state authorities and the US Nava l Shipbuilding Museum has made the site of the former Fore Ri ver Shipyard in Ouincv
available to the museum. The muse um , which is ex pected to open in the fa ll , wi ll feat ure hundreds of naval and warti me art ifacts . The m ajor ex hibit will be the USS Salem, the larges t bi g-g un heavy c rui ser, built a t the shipyard in 1947. In early August, the new Auckland Maritime M u seum will open with fanfare on the centra l waterfront area of ew Zealand ' s largest city. Based on a preview of plans and a recent inspection of workin-progress, it appears Auckland wi ll be acquiring a first-cla ss museum at a n economy-class price. The $7 million museum will feature a unique and extensive co ll ec tion of watercraft ( in c ludin g Polynesian canoes and indigenous vessels) , a sa iling schoo l, a com merc ial boatbuilding s hop, and ex hibits that reflect the wide range of maritime activity-both past and present-pursued in this isl;mrl rn1tinn . (A MM Hnhsnn Wh ::irf
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The Longitude Sy mposium T he te rcente nary of the birth of John Harri son, in ve nto r of the first successful timekeeper, is the occas io n for a confe rence on the earl y hi story of findin g lo ngitude at sea to be held at Harva rd Un ive rsity, 4-6 November: The event is o rganized by the Co llecti on of Historica l Scientific In strume nts at Harvard , in association with the Nationa l Assoc iati o n of Watc h and C loc k Co ll ec to rs. Di stin gui shed experts in the fi e lds of horology, cartography and hi story w ill be present to give pape rs and discuss developments, beginning abo ut 1500, that led toa m ethod of finding longitude. (Lo ngitude Symposium, Science Center B6, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02 138) ,t
For jidf. up-to-the-minu/e reporting on marilime heritage concerns. subscribe to the mo111hfy Sea Hi story Gazette published by NM HS, PO Box68,Peekskiff NY 10566 ($18.75 tomemhers ,$25 toothers)
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by Erin Urban (Noble Coll ecti on , I 000 Ri c hmo nd Terrace, Staten Is land NY 1030 1, 1993 , 269pp, illus, biblio, index; $75 + $8s&h) Opening thi s book opens a world yo u won ' t soon forget. John Noble ' s picture of the world of New York Harbor, of which he was a denizen- a li o n among its fauna , in fact-is here presented w ith ve rve and the autho ri ty of nine years ' skill ed and devoted researc h by Erin Urban. Ms. Urban met John Noble just days before he d ied , but that o ne meeting opened a new world to he r. The product of that e ncounter is thi s powerfu l and beguiling work, published just ten years afte r Noble ' s ex it from the scenes he knew so we ll. Hulls and Hulks is the definiti ve catalogue ra isonee of Noble ' s work ; it includes fine reproductions of every one of hi s 79 lithogra ph s, e nric hed by ske tches and photos of the scenes over which Noble brooded and doodled , tho ught, c ursed , and d iscoursed on with g usto, for yea rs, even decades, before committing them to stone. And here we get also a su bstantial, deeply researched biography , whi c h e m braces as wel1the Ii fe of Sus an Ames Noble, some years hi s senior, whom he metand pursued as a student in Grenoble, France. Ultimately, he won her through a message he pressed into her hand once whe n she had told him to go away. The one-word message was " beauty, " a nd , as Susan later remarked, they had a shared noti on of what it meant and why it matte red more than a nything in the wo rld . It takes some people time to see beauty in Noble ' s work, inci de ntally-it did me, for example, and I knew and loved the ma n. When o ne beg ins to see it, it is, as I said , a thing that cha nges one ' s own vision of the world-you begin to see
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sunlight s triking the grain of things, of wood, of wate r, even of be nt iron in huge propelle rs and salt-stained plating, and even, I s ubmit, in people 's lives, in ways that evoke a new music of the spheres, new meanings in a n indifferent universe. In a recent lette r the author refl ected on hernine years with John Nobl e, working in hi s and Susan ' s Richmond Terrace hou se in Staten Is land overlooking that grand industri a l waterway, the Kill van Kull- and on how those yea rs had changed he r life. I feel the resulting work ought to come w ith a warning labe l: The book may change yo ur life. Among its hidden gifts a re a new appreciation of the nobility of honest work done unde r the open sky, a nd of the people of America ' s g reat seaport, working on the muddy foreshores of a gleaming city ig norant of the ir lives and labors. As No ble ' s testame nt, he re so well de li vered by Urban, affirms, the loss is the c ity ' s-and thi s book is a sovereig n re med y to make up tha t loss. PS
The Golden Thirteen; Recollections of the First Black Naval Officers, edited by Paul Stillwell (Naval Institute Press, A nnapo lis MD, 1993, 256pp, photos, appe n , index ; $2 1.95) In 1944 sixteen African-Americans were se lected and trained to be America's first nava l line officers. All in all , thirteen we re commi ss io ned . The ir story is an e nli g hte ning journey back in time-a luc id and compe lling oral record of those eight that intim ate ly shares with us their black ex perience in civili an, as well as military, life. The re me mbrances of s imple c hildhood joys, responsibilities and e motional pain resonate in the c hosen wo rds of those who lived through it. W e are drawn into their stories through suc h ex pe rie nces as that of James Hair, who, as a yo ung man , witnessed the lync hing of a brothe r-in-law he idolized. This was a time when the grip of Jim Crow was tight and ubiquitous; subtle race-related bias, if not violence, was the unfortuna te c limate in which these men matured and survived. The men who were summoned to Great Lakes Naval Training Cente r were tempered and equipped by the ex pe riences of the ir youth to take o n the c ha I lenge of a crash-course in officer training and the social climate of an all white corps of Naval offi cers . In hi s interv iew w ith Graham Martin , the ed itor captures the di sappointment felt by the men when they reali zed that they were not to serve in active duty, but SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
were to be relegated to harbor defense, shore duty, or military support operations. None were perm itted to serve on combat ships or even to enter the officers club. When one reads the numerous accounts of self-motivati on and control , teamwork, crisis management and personal achievement in the face of adversity, it becomes crystal clear why the Navy chose thi s excepti onal, ye t selfconfessed group of ordinary men to be their first cohort of Bl ack officers. Their natural demeanor made them consum mate officers and gentlemen. Their legacy is celebrated here. These men, now in their 70s, continue to encourage and inspire a generation of young people nearl y half a century their juniors, calling them to set high goals and never be intimidated in military or civili an life. A ll good investments yield di vidends, and the Golden Thirteen 's civic and military involvement yielded a rich legacy that transfonned a politi cal directive-tra ining Black enli sted men to be naval officersinto a profound milestone.
SEAFARING (Literary & Literal) The Oxford Book of the Sea Edited by Jonathan Raba n "Extraordinary .. .. Powerful and important .... For those drawn to fine writing , this book offers a new and satisfying voyage of rediscovery ." -San Diego Union- Tribune "A treasury of sea sources for readers and writers alike ."- Booklist This remarkable volume captures the work of poets , novelists , scientists , and explorers , including pieces by Samuel Eliot Morison , James Boswell , Charles Dickens , Herman Melville , Rachel Carson , Charles Darwin , Virginia Woolf , and John Barth , among many others. 544 pp., paper $ 12.95
Sacred Vessels The Cult of the Battleship and the Rise of the U.S. Navy Robert L. O'Co nn ell
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The Kid from Hoboken: An Autobi-
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tions, PO Box 470098, Marina Station , San Francisco CA 99 147; $ 12.95 + $2.50s& h) Those of us who have known the author through the vivid brushstrokes of his short stories can now sit back and enjoy the whole lush canvas of a fascinating life, as told in his autobiography. Hi s saga flows free ly, the mosaic of hi s life refl ecting off the panorama of a bankrupt America, from the squalor of home and street life in Hoboken and New York 's Hell 's Kitchen to adolescent mi schief that led to j ail and reform schoo l. Bailey then recounts hi s struggle to survive as he crisscrossed the country, " boxcarring" from port to port, trying to ship out. The author has forgotten nothing, and he gives it to us strai ght. The hunger and the physical beatings contrast with hi s visions of a better world , which he tran slated into action after he joined the MWI U and the CP/USA, where he went to leadership school and fell in love wi th a beautiful comrade. There are reco ll ections of struggles won and lost, of ideologies ques ti oned, and belief s shattered- but Bill 's commitment to a more just society remain s intact. The stori es include rippin g the fl ag off the Bremen , becoming a first-cl ass bindl es tiff, organizi ng work ers from SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
"Breezy, iconoclastic, and readable .... Diverting and instructive reading ."-The Observer Magazine "[A] cautionary policy study of the battleship and its role in the development of the U.S. Navy ... provides a disturbing view of weapons technology and the human element .... Highly recommended ."-Library Journal "Rich with insight .... Shows in graphic and often humorous accounts why the dreaded battleships of the 20th century had more bluster than bite. "-The Daily Progress (Charlottesville) 432 pp., 3 1 pho tos, paper $ 14.95
The European Discovery of America Volume 1: The Northern Voyages A.O. 500-1600 Volume 2: The Southern Voyages 1492-1616 The late Sam uel Eliot Morison "Irresistibly entertaining ."-Newsweek "Into these volumes is distilled a lifetime of experience-of sailing , of learning and of the sadly neglected art of historical narration. They are a joy and a treasure house." -The Economist Now available in paperback, these classic volumes ( The Northern Voyages won the prestigious Bancroft Prize for History) offer an unrivalled account of the age of exploration by one of our greatest historians. Vo lume I : 736 pp ., 244 illus., paper $ 19.95 Volume 2: 784 pp., 205 illus., paper $ 19.95
At better bookstores or directly from OXFORD PAPERBACKS Oxford University Press• 200 Madison Avenue• New York• New York• 10016
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REVIEWS Baltimore to Hawaii , politic izing the unenli ghtened, be ing "screened" by the Coast Guard and fired from jobs whenever the name " Bailey" sounded an alarm. It tell s of one man's ability to accept defeat and immediately plan a new attack--one working man 's gritty determination and dedi cati on to help make a better world. JACK MCCUS KER
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HMS Somerset, 1746-1778; The Life and Times of an Eighteenth Century British Man-o-War and Her Impact on North America, by Marjorie Hubbell Gibson (Abbey Gate House, Box 1404, Cotuit MA 02635 , 1992, 252pp, illus, biblio, index; $ 18.95 + $2 s&h) Thi s we ll researched and copiously illu strated book traces the career of a British third rate from the lay ing of her keel in 1746 through her service in the Seven Years ' War and the American Revoluti on, to the recent rediscovery of her remains on a Cape Cod beach, where she went as hore in a heavy gale on 2 ovember 1778. PS Coast Salish Canoes, by Leslie Lincoln (Cen ter for Wooden Boats, Seattle WA , 1992, 48pp, illus; $ 10) Thi s beautifull y produced monograph by maritime anthropolog ist Leslie Linco ln represents many years of research into the maritime heritage of Northwest Coast native communities, a subject Linco ln di sc ussed in an article in the Spring 1992 issue of Sea History. It integrates di verse an th ro polog ica l references and direct canoe in g ex perience into a stud y of the hull forms and canoe carving practices of indi genous groups li ving along the coast from Was hington to southern Alaska, indicating ho w canoe styles were borrowed, traded and adapted up and down the coast. Lincoln also talks about the role the canoe is playing today in the revival of thi s proud maritime culture. KH The Attack on Pearl Harbor ; An Illustrated History , by Larry Kimmett and Margaret Reg is (Nav igator Publi shing, PO Box 30548, Seattle W A 98103, 1992, 128pp, illu s, ap pe n, biblio , index; $ l 5.95pb + $3s&h) This vo lume , profu sely illustrated with photograph s and di agrams, is the authoritati ve chro nology of events during the attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December1 94 1,and includes a second-by-second descripti on of the loss of the batt les hip Ari:ona. JA The " Hog Islanders"; The Story of
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122 American Ships, Volume I of the American Merchant Marine History Series, by Mark H. Go ldberg (A merican Merchant Marine Fou nd ation, Kings Point NY, 1991, 264pp, illus, appen, biblio; $ I 9.95pb + $2.50s&h) "Caviar and Cargo"; The C3 Passenger Ships, Volume II of the American Merchant Marine History Series, by Mark H . Goldberg (A merican Merchant Marine Foundation , Kings Po int NY, 1992, 395pp, illus, appen, index; $24.95 pb + $2. 50s&h) Avail able through North American Maritime Books, 8 13 1 Race Point, #20 I , Hunting ton Beac h CA 92646. These volumes are the first installments in a series on the American Merchant Marine that may run to more than ten volumes. The first outlines the building of the Hog Island yard during WWI a nd the hi story of the vessels ori ginating in that yard. In the second vo lume the author recounts the hi story of the C3 passenger ships bu ilt and used during and afte r WWII. Upcoming volumes explore passenger shipping in the Caribbean, Geim an merchant vessels seized by the US, and American passenger vesJA se ls in WWI. Sea Battles in C lose-Up: World War 2, Volume I , by Maritn Stephen (Naval Institute Press, Annapoli s MD , 1988, 224pp, illus, biblio, index; $2 l .95hb) Volume 2, by Eri c Grove (Nava l Institute Press, Annapol is MD , 1993, 224pp, illus, bib li o, index; $24.95 hb) Thi s seri es has been compiled from the original "Sea Battles in Close-Up"-a collection of individual case studi es publi shed in the 1970s. The first volume conta ins signi fica ntl y rev ised and updated views often battles; the second covers an addi tiona l nine. JA Guide to the Oral History Collections at Mystic Seaport Museum , by Fred Calabre tta (Mystic Seaport Museum , Mystic CT, 1992, 74pp; $ 12pb) The Guide cata log ues 2 18 oral hi story interviews ( 1965- 199 1) and 93 Munson Lectu res ( 1955- 1972) , focus ing primarily on fisheries , vesse l design and constructi on, and yac hti ng hi story.
SCRIMSHAW Museum-quality engravings on fossil ivories by nationally recognized scrimsbancler
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The Shamrock V's Wild Voyage Home by Irving Johnson I came on watch at midnight w ith both sides. We had las hed two men -- - at the wheel and found that the seas the ship doing about nine and a half usually knocked down only one man knots, and the wind freshening all the time. at a time. That left the other one The skippe r, as he went below to standing to keep the wheel from revolving.Oneofthethingswedreaded turn in, called back to me: " The bottom is dropping out of the bamost was to have the wheel get to whirling uncontrolled, because ifthat rometer. We 'd better drive the ship well off shore before we get caught happened and the rudder swung hard over, the steering gear was likely to in some really bad weather." Well , I drove her all ri ght! But I break. The two men were lashed with their backs to the mizzenmast, hadn 't sailed in the Shamrock before, and not knowing how fast she which was only two or three feet aft of the wheel. was supposed to go I left full sai l set until she was straining and creaking. The Shamrock is sh own here rigged down as a yaw/for her Right up until noon the wind At four in the morning, with a passage /Ja ck 10 England in Ocro/Jer 1933 . Drawing /Jy keptblowing harder, andthenit sudmoderate ga le, we were doing just Charles J . A . Wilson. denlydroppedtoaflatcalm . Peterson over twelve knots. I went be low found himself in the middle of a and told the captain what speed we were making, and without sentence yelling lo udly above the roar of the sto1111, when quick leaving hi s bunk he yelled, " Take in the mains' I, take in the as a flash there wasn't any roar. We thought this was a queer way for a storm to end, but there mizzen, reef the forestays'l!" Thi s was some job, believe me, with such condi tions on the we were in a calm , and most of us fi gured that we soon would be deck of a boat like the Shamrock She never had made over ten able to set sail for England. The skipper wasn ' t so sure. The knots under that rig before. barometer was dropping, and he wanted to watch it. Fifteen Soon the wind was a stron g ga le, and we were runnin g minutes later we found the barometer sti ll going down, and in before it under reefed forestays ' I. The seas were peaking up in half an ho ur it was even lower, but there wasn 't any wind. By that queer fashion, for we were in the Gulf Stream with a north - time we had guessed that we were in the exact center of a easter blowing against the current. At about ten o'c lock on my hurricane, and we knew that the second half always is the worse. morning watch, with Peterson at the wheel, a huge sea broke An hour passed a nd still nothin g happe ned , but in another through the heavy canvas weather-c loth in the mizzen rigging ten minutes the wi nd struck us as if with all the fury stored up and sent Peterson ' s feet hig he r than hi s head. Luckily fo r him in an hour 's waiting. The water was j ust picked up from the he he ld on like grim death. If he had n ' t, he wou ld have go ne tops of the waves and passed through the air, blowing horizonright over the life lines. tally , and gettin g thicker al l the time. In the Shamrock log book He landed on hi s knees but was still tall e nough to see over is the fo llowing entry: " Vi sibility 25 feet. " This was in broad the wheel like an ordinary man- and what a look came over daylight, yet seeing was practically im possib le because of all hi s face when he tried to find the compass! He couldn ' t see it, the wate r blowing along the surface. . . , . Most of the crew were huddled amidand he blinked away thinking there was too much salt water in hi s eyes. Then Shamrock v . Si~· Thomas Lipron sfina/ challenger sh ips, where some lashed themse lves .
sudden ly he realt zed that the compass was gone! The whole binnacle-stand , compass and all , had vanis hed along with the wave. I grabbed the wheel and he lped Peterson steer so th e forestays' I wouldn't jibe, for if it had, it wou ld have gone in one s lat. Now that we had no compass to g uide us, we ga uged our course by the w ind , and as soon as poss ibl e took in the sa il and ran dead before the ga le under bare pol es. Tha t was the on ly thing we could do. The deck bolts that had held the binnacle had been sheared off by the force of the sea ... the binnacle, including the stand and compass, had take n a bounce on the deck and then been swept overboard. We had been having plenty of rain for the past twenty-four hours, but now the re came more of it and more w ind ! Soon the wind had inc reased to a full gale, and heavy water came aboard from SEA HISTORY 66, SUMMER 1993
for rhe America s Cup , displays her eleganr profile on a halcyon Sepiem/Jer day in 1930 . Her long and to the lifeboats to get relief from the honorable career con rinues roday in American strain of standing and holding on, while wa fers. © Rosenfeld Coll., Mys1ic Seaport Museum . others held on with their legs around
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the boat las hings. The two me n at the wheel ran the Shamrock before the wind , not knowing no r caring what course we were making. The only time we could look aft was when we were down in the troug h behind a sea. Then the wind blew the water along over our heads, and it just sort ofrained down on us. The worst part of looking back was seeing the huge, ugly , break ing sea coming up aft, which nearl y gave us heart fai lu re .. . . I didn ' t suppose such waves were bred except at Cape Horn . The Shamrock's low , naITow hull and short masts with their scanty rigging presented little surface to the wind , yet our ship 's log showed that the hurricane was forcing us through the water at te n and a half knots wi thout even a single foot of canvas to he lp us. Once the captain yelled in my ear,
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"Thi s is a stom1 that makes a hurricane look sick. " The two men who were las hed at the whee l we re hav ing a tough time of it, fo r the wheel kicked, and the bi g seas knocked them abo ut. Men frequentl y we re was hed aro und the deck , in danger of be ing carried overboard at any time. There we re waves das hing at us that would crush a man dow n, no matter how hard he tried to stand up under them . Suddenl y a man came running up from be low and baw led out, " Hey, the ship 's sinking ! There are six or seven feet of water in the bil ge." " Where's the water coming in?" I as ked . "Ri ght th ro ugh the deck," he said . The steep seas had wrenched the long ends of the Shamrock, and now from stem to stem her deck was little better than a sieve. Finall y the wind eased off enough fo r us to stay at our pumps, but after a few minutes pumpin g we fe lt weak. T hat was because of seas ickness the day before, and hav ing nothing to eat since. We had to have something to get stre ngth for pumping, but when we looked fo r foo d down be low, we fo und the cardboard cartons that he ld most of it soaked with wa ter and fa llen apart, allowing our food suppli es to spill all overthe pl ace .... We took stock of the food that was left and fo und little fit for use except our canned goods and some fruit. We ate a few apples and went on pumping. Often we had three men at the pumps, working in a very awkward position way out at the rail. The job of pumping was extremely tiresome, but we were able to keep ahead of the water that was coming in through the deck, and that which came through a single opening in the hull. The reason the hul I stood up so well was due to a new method of construction. Instead of caulking the seams, waterproof mas t glue was used to hold
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narrow strips of pine in between the planks. Thi s made practically one piece of wood of the entire bottom of the Shamrock. That night the moo n fi na lly broke thro ugh the bl ack clouds and gave us someth ing to steer by . Even if our compass had n ' t been gone, the sw inging and jumpi ng of the ship would have made the compass card so unstead y that steeri ng by the moon or sta rs, if they were in sight, wo uld have been m uch easier, and if there weren ' t, a cloud woul d do pretty well in stead . Late in the ni ght a ship crossed o ur bow at leasttwo mil es away. But we never caught a glimpse of he r. A ll we saw was her lights that showed up now and then fro m beh ind the waves . Morning showed us more of a mess below than we had thought poss ible . Everybody and everyth ing we re soaking wet, and there wasn ' t a dry square inch anyw here. Below deck was so damp and sticky th at we co uldn ' t even dry our cl othes on us while we slept. O ne of our first jobs was to nail some old canvas over the large holes in the deck, and nex t the mains' ! had to be repa ired . We soon fo und o ur shi p 's posi tion by taking sights, and although we were o nl y fo ur hundred miles fro m Bristol, getting back at thi s time of yea r when south-weste rl y gales we re expected wo uld be a lmost im possible. The next best thing was to head straig ht for Eng land by the northern route, which is the shortest. The last Shamrock to go back had taken forty-six days. We knew we wou ld sta rve in that length ohime, and we plan ned to shorte n the trip by driving our ship to the li mit in order to get to port before our canned goods gave out entire ly. So as soon as the ma in s ' l was repaired, we set full sail for Eng land. ..t
This account is excerpted from T he Shamrock ' s Wi ld Voyage Home, by Ir ving Johnson , Milto n Bradley Co. , 1933 . SEA HI STORY 66, SUMMER 1993
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