Sea History 073 - Spring 1995

No. 73

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SPRI NG 1995

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

OKINAWA: USS

Laffey Sees it Through

Liner Art of Kenneth Shoesrnith . . - Cape Horn Road, Part IV Joshua Slocum: Sailor and Writer The Rebirth of the Picton Castle

ISSN 0146-9312

No. 73

SEA HISTORY

SEA HI STORY is publi shed quarte rl y by the Nationa l Maritime Hi storica l Soc iety, 5 John Walsh Boulevard , PO Box 68, Peekski ll NY 10566. Second c lass postage pa id at Peek ski II NY I0566 and additional ma iling offices. COPYRI G HT © 1995 by the National Maritime Historica l Society. Tel: 9 14 737-7878.

FEATURES 9 The Cape Horn Road Part IV: Frogs Round a Pond: Mediterranean Seafaring Reshapes the World, 450 BC-1450 AD

by Peter Stanford

POSTMASTER: Send add ress changes to Sea Hisrory, 5 John Wa lsh Bou levard, PO Box 68, Peekskil l NY I 0566.

14 USS Laffey and a Place Called Okinawa A museum ship today, the Laffey testifies to the struggle at Okinawa

by Dr. Steve Ewing

MEMBERSH IP is in vited. Plank owner$ I0,000; Benefactor $5,000; Afterg uard $2 ,500; Sponsor $ 1,000; Donor $500; Patron $250; Friend $ I 00; Contributor $50; Famil y $40; Reg ular $30; Student or Retired $ 15. All members outside the USA please add $ 10 for postage. SEA HISTORY is sent to all members. Indi vidual copies cost $3. 75.

20 Joshua Slocum: A Look Beyond the Voyage Joshua Slocum-sailor, writer and first solo-circumnavigator

by David W. Johnston 24 Kenneth Shoesmith: Merchant Sailor and Marine Artist The Ulster Museum keeps a liner artist's legacy

by Martyn Anglesea

OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Chairman, Alan G .

Choate; Vice Chairmen, Richardo Lopes , Edward G. Zelinsky; Presidenr, Peter Stanford; Vice Preside/If, Norma Stanford; Treasurer, Bradford Smi th; Secretary, Dona ld Derr; Trustees, Wa lter R. Brown, W. Grove Conrad, George Lowery, Warren Marr, 11 , Bri an A. McAlli ster, James J. Moore, Douglas Muster, Nancy Pouch, Craig A. C. Reynolds, Ri chard W. Scheuing, Marshall Streiben , David B. Vietor, Raymond E. Wallace, Jean Won; Chairman Emeritus, Karl Konum OVERSEERS: CharlesF. Adams , Walter Cronkite, Townsend Horn or, George Lamb, John Lehman , SchuylerM . Meyer, Jr., J. William Middendorf,!! , Graham H. Phillips, John Stoban, Willi am G. Wi nterer ADVISORS: Co-Chairmen , Frank 0 . Braynard , Me lbo urne Smith; D.K. Abbass, Raymond Aker, George F. Bass, Fra ncis E. Bo wke r, Oswa ld L. Brett , David Brink, Norman J. Brouwer, Willi am M . Doerflin ge r, Franci s J . Duffy, John S. Ewa ld , Jo se ph L. Farr, Timoth y G. Foote , Will iam Gilkerson, T homas Gillmer, Ri c hard Goo ld-Adams, Walter J. Hande lm an, Charles E. He rdendorf, Steven A. Hyman , Hajo Knutte l, Conrad Mi lste r, Edward D. Muh lfe ld , Wi ll iam G. Mu ller, Dav id E. Perki ns, Ri chard Rath , Nancy Hughes Ri c hard son, T imoth y J . Run ya n, George Sall ey , Ra lph L. Snow, John Stobart , Albert Swa nso n, Shannon J . Wall , Robe rt A. We in ste in , Tho mas We ll s AMER ICAN SHIP TRUST: !111ernationa/ Chairman, Karl Konum; Chairman, Peter Stanford; Trustees, F. Bri ggs Dal ze ll , William G. Muller, Richard Rath , Me lbourne Smith , Edward G. Ze linsky SEA HI STORY STAFF: Editor, Peter Stanfo rd; Executive Editor, Nom1aS tanford ; Managing Editor, Kev in Haydon; Assistant Editor , Justine Ahl strom ; Accou111ing , Joseph Cacc iola; Me111hersl11jJ Secretary , Patric ia Anstett ; Membership Assista/1/s, Erika Kurtenbach, Kim Pari s i; Advertising Assista111, Carmen McCa llum ; Secretary to the President, Karen Rite ll

SPRING 1995

40 The Amazing Rebirth of the Picton Castle A North Sea trawler, with the heart of a bark, undergoes an unusual transformation

by Joseph M . Stanford

DEPARTMENTS 4 Deck Log & Letters

6 8 18 28 31

NMHS News A Wider View Modelmaker's Corner Marine Art News Traffiques & Discoveries

32 Maritime Highlights of Summer ' 95 35 Shipnotes, Seaport & Museum News 42 Reviews 48 Patrons

COVER: During his years at sea, Kenneth Shoesmith was constantly excited hy the sight

of strange craft in exotic harhors. In "S/11jJs in a Mediterranean Harhour , 1918," RMS M agdelena is pictured in what is thought to he Algiers. Shoesmith produced a large portfolio of commercial liner art, now part of the collection of the Ulster Museum in Belfast (see story on page 24 ).

Join Us for a Voyage into History Our seafaring heritage comes ali ve in the pages of Sea History, from the ancient mariners of Egypt, and Portuguese nav igators opening up the ocean wo rld, to the heroic efforts of seamen in World War II . Each issue brings new insights and new discoveries.

If yo u love the sea and the legacy of those who sail in deep waters, if you love the rivers, lakes and bays and their workaday craft, then you belong with us. Stay in touch- join us today! Mail in the form below or phone

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LETTERS

DECK LOG The nation is at its best when it comes together to observe a shared occasion in its history, as it did last year in the 50th anniversary of D-Day. And in the pages of Sea History, we try to rise to meet the expectations people bring to their history, be it of the Greeks who lived, as Plato said , as "frogs round a pond" on the shores of the Mediterranean , or the incredible performance of the crew of the destroyer Laffey, which survived six devastating kamikaze attacks late in the Pacific war, as you'll read in thi s issue.

It was a sad day for history , however, when the Smithsonian Institution , our national museum, chose to mark the ending of World War II in the Pacific with an exhibit centering on the Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima. The American effort to turn back the wave of Japanese aggression-which had engulfed China before rolling on to the Philippines and other Western colonial territories-was described as a "warof vengeance" against the Japanese people. The Japanese were presented as defending their way of life against " Western imperialism."

We looked into this highly unusual characterization of the Pacific war. As reported on page 8 of thi s issue, our investigation showed no serious effort by the Smithsonian curators to get at the truth of the decision to use atom bombs against Japan. Selective (and sometimes fa lse) data were exploited for shock value.

General Marshall 's biographer actually had to write a letter to the NY Times to correct the curators' version of Marshal I's position on use of the bomb!

The Sm ithson ian has done wonderful work on potentially controversial subjects, witness the American Indian Museum in New York City's Custom House.

Indian people helped this exhibit get close tothe lndianexperience-and with what imagination, joy and fidelity this was done! Americans of all persuasions emerge from the exhibits challenged, informed about things they ' ve wondered about, and eager to learn more. So-it can be done!

I fee l I should apologize, as one in thi s line of work, forthe Smithsonian administrator who said the original Enola Gay exhibit had to be withdrawn due to the "emotionalism" of American veterans.

Ifhe bores holes like that in hi s end of the boat, pretty soon the cause of hi story itself will be swimming for its life. If it isn' t already.

P ETER STANFORD

4

Captain Wallace's Devotion The article on self-sustaining operations on the Pilgrim by the Orange County Marine Institute provides hope for others to follow the path of financial independence. I have observed the youth training on the brig and can attest to its popularity generated by an enthused staff and satisfied trainees.

The story of how that brig came to exist, how it sailed across the Atlantic with a teenage crew fleein g Li sbon during a civil revolt, and the man whose vision and fortitude designed , built, sailed it across the ocean , brought it to Dana Point and began its mi ssion of youth training cannot be overlooked. Raymond E. Wallace continues to design , build and restore historical vesse ls. His devotion to youth training and maritime education has been exemplary .

DAVID ROBINSON

Phoenix , Arizona We have been after NMHS trustee Ray Wallace to write up that story. But he has weighty business on his hands- 3,000 tons in fact! (See page 6.)-ED.

A Stamp to Carry Savannah's Story In 1988 I submitted a proposal to the US Postal Service for a commemorative stamp honoring the Nuclear Ship Savannah. I was told to try again in five years.

The Savannah achieved significance during the last 50 years as a revolutionary, one-of-a-kind technological experiment, which helped to establish the nation 's prominence in the development and use of nuclear energy for commercia l transportation. The vessel was not expected to be an economic success, and she was not. Technologically, however, she was a triumph.

President Eisenhower proposed her construction in 1955 as evidence of the nation' s desire to use nuclear power peacefully. The ship was launched in July 1959, the reactor was installed in November 1961 and her first demonstration commercial voyage to Savannah, Georgia, began on 5 August 1962.

The ship continued demonstration cruises to US and foreign ports until she was laid up in 1970. In the course of her short career NS Savannah visited 96 ports , cruised 454,675 miles and was visited by thousands of people.

I have a vested interest in her as I was at the shipyard when the keel was ceremonially laid and again when the ship was ceremonially launched. I was also the President of the Brotherhood of

Marine Officers AFL-CIO, the officers ' union that operated the vessel from 1962 until 1970.

Our union and all the other unions involved in the operation of the Savannah signed a no-strike pledge during the years she would operate, and we never had a work stoppage during the time we operated her.

She was "mothballed" from 1970 to 1981 , then chartered for 35 years to the state of South Carolina for display at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Charleston Harbor. In 1982 the vessel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

She was truly the people's ship and her exceptional sign ificance warrants the issuance of a commemorative stamp. I urge everyone interested in her story to write to the Postmaster General , USPS Headquarters, Washington DC 200139998, supporting my proposal.

EDWARD JOSEPH FARR

Victoria, British Co lumbi a

Does Anyone Know--or Care?

America needs to be made aware of Maritime Day, 22 May-a national holiday that is not on any calendar. American Merchant Mariners deserve recognition-recognition given in 1933 when Congress designated Maritime Day to commemorate the world's first transatlantic steamship voyage by the SS Savannah in 1819. Since that time, merchant mariners have played a major role in America's survival in war and prosperity in peace.

In WWII we lost 733 ships from enemy action, never defaulted and lost the highest percentage of men of any service but the US Marine Corps. Congress waited until most of us were dead before giving us veteran status in 1988. A day of recognition is not too much to ask.

Shou ld we march on the White House lawn?

P ETER SALVO

Mon Valley Merchant Marine Vets McKeesport, Pennsylvania NMHS shares Captain Salvo's concern.

We invite suggestions to put Maritime Day on American calendars.-ED.

Let's Be Fair to Gibson In the Autumn issue of Sea History you describe with considerab le rhetorical flouri sh your unhappy interview in 1970 with Andrew Gibson, the Federal Maritime Administrator. You went to Washington expecting to receive a federal SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

guarantee for a loan that would have saved the Kaiulani, but Gibson refused to approve the loan and the venerable hull was lost. Your abiding disappointment is understandable, but your accusations are not quite on target.

Title XI of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936 (amended) authorizes the Maritime Administration to guarantee ship construction loans that, after careful examination, it considers credit worthy.

Congress did not specifically authorize a loan guarantee for savi ng the Kaiulani , but it did make a loan for thi s purpose eligible under Title XI. It was Gibson's duty to determine on financial and poli cy grounds which loans should be g uaranteed . Evidently he was unpersuaded that the loan for saving the Kaiulani should be g uaranteed by the federal governme nt.

Subsequent developme nts provide evidence that Gibson had reason to be wary of high-ri sk loans. MARAD g uarantees were later extended to un sound loans, and when the borrowers could not meet their payments , the government had to cover these loan s. MARAD's reserves were soon wiped out, and the Treasury had to cover a deficit of over one billion dollars.

It should also be noted that after leaving MARAD Gibson initiated and raised funds for the Maritime Enterprise exhibit that is still on display in the Smithsonian Institution 's Museum of American Hi story.

ARTHUR DONOVAN Port Washington, New York

Smilin' Jack & Wavertree I noted with interest your "Cape Horn Road" in Sea History 70. Both the Wavertree and Balclutha were mentioned . I am probably the last of John " Jack" Dickerhoff's loft gang that worked on the restoration of the Balclutha. Last year I donated to the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park two artifacts-a rigging knife and drew pricker-that I used during thi s period .

Jack made the knife out of a French saw blade and had used macrame on the handl e. The knife has a broad back and was extremely sharp. We used it to c ut large hawsers, driving it through by hitting the broad edge with a heavy spike or hammer. It sliced through the largest ropes.

We became close friends after Jack lost hi s leg and I frequently transported him wherever he needed to go, as he SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

never learned to drive . I visited him in the loft he made on theFallsofClyde. He fortunately had time to train a couple of young men in loft work and they finished the rigging when he could no longer continue.

Jack frequently talked about the Wavertree and hi s hope of doing that job. He was one of the great master loft riggers who knew how to draw the plans and then do the work to rig these great ships.

He was capable of working on a stay for hours, stopping only to refill the spool.

CAPT. ERNESTL. FEIGENBERG Castro Valley, California

The Folk Art of Bottleships For Christmas I received a membership in NMHS. I was delighted to find in my first issue (S H70) the very fine article on the hi s tory of s hip s- in-bottles by Professor Loui s A. Norton. Professor Norton's article is the most detailed history ofbottleships that it has been my pleasure to read . One thing that struck me was Professor Norton' s use of the term " folk art" when referring to bottleships rather than "craft" or " hobby ."

Little is really known about the origin of ships- in-bottles , so Norton's knowledge sheds a great deal of light on the subject.

As president and co-founder of the Ships-in-Bottles Association of America my interest was naturally piqued. Our non-profit Association has the largest membership of several bottleship associations throughout the world and is comprised of 400-plus men and women who are dedicated to the preservation of the venerable nautical art of building ships-in-bottles. ]ACK HINKLEY 403 Amherst A venue Coraopolis, Pennsy lvania Why Save USS Cabot?

As the only survivorof76 US CYEs and 9 CYLs from World War II, the USS Cabot deserves to be saved for future generations ' appreciation (see " Shipnotes," SH 72, p34) . The CYLs were built on the 600 ' hulls of Cleveland class light cruisers as a wartime expedient to get carriers into action quickly. They were designated the Independence class.

Gerald Ford served on the Independence, George Bush on the Monterey. All of the ships operated with the Third and Fifth fleets in the Pacific in 1943, '44 and '45.

One was sunk, the Princeton. All had exemplary war records. The Cabot was awarded nine battle stars and a Presiden-

tial Unit Citation.

The Cabot Association is actively engaged in trying to save the Cabot for use as a war memorial and marine muse um.

The president of the Association is Bill Anderson, former TBM pilot, and can be reached at: 430 Fort Pickens Road , Pensacol a Beach FL 32561.

STUARTS. BROWN Edgartown, Massachusetts

A Signal in Port Thank you for another splendid editionAutumn 1994. The caption to the cover picture by Ian Marshall refers to the flags as the HMS Renown's "recognition signal." If you wi II permit me to be persnickety, they are signal letters, properly so called, which of course serve the purpose of identification. The term " recognition s ignal " was one that came later to di stinguish friend from foe. In that sense the national ensign is a recognition s ignal.

Signal letters would have normally been flown , as they are today , entering or leaving harbor, and not at anchor, which the Renown appears to be; and then from a yardarm rather than the masthead .

However, the Admiral would have been free to hoi s t whatever he thought appropriate.

CMDR BRIAN H. WAINWRIGHT, OBE, RN (Ret) Chalfont St. Peter, England

I stand corrected. Of course signal letters would not normally be flown by a ship lying at anchor. But, as a courtesy, it seemed to me, the admiral might have ordered hisflagship' s identity to be proclaimed above the greeting to the invited guests .-IAN MARSHALL ERRATUM In Sea History69( p15) the ship identified as the USS Nevada is actually the USS Arkansas. Nevada in her late war appearance did not have two cranes abreast the stack . Arkansas had a distinct square bridge as in the picture. Finally, the secondary armament on the Nevada had been changed to 5"-38 cal. gun mounts .

The Arkansas retained her pre-war secondary armament in 5"-51 guns mounted in casemates between the bridge and stack area. The photograph has been retouched, as much is lacking on the forward mast.

TIMOTHY A. FIRME Gettysburg, Pennsy lvania

5

NMHSNEWS: Moshulu Is Being Restored!

The mighty M oshulu of 1904, perhaps the most famous of the great square riggers of the final era of deepwater sai l, is now being restored as a restaurant/museum ship in Camden, New Jersey. Her topgallants , cut down following the fire that ended her career across the Delaware in Philadelphia, will once again vie with the columns of the Ben Franklin Bridge, towering over river traffic . She is to be the centerpiece of a new waterfront development in Camden, once a leading center of shipbuilding on the Delaware River.

The dramatic tum in her fortunes has been engi neered by a group of NMHS members , persevering devotees of the ships of the last days of sail-of which Moshulu is a queen, having claimed the title of first home in the Great Grain Race of 1939.

The Society grew concerned about the Moshulu after the disabling fire that ended her earlier career as a restaurant ship and left her deteriorating at a Camden pier. Sailing ship aficionados, from Capt. J. Ferrell Colton in Hawaii to Ray Wallace and Karl Kortum in California, sang her praises at every opportunity. To boost awareness of her plight, we published her history in two parts in Sea History . NMHS trustee Ray Wallace and veteran ship restorer Hajo Knuttel went campaigning to find a buyer. Finally, the well-known Phi ladelphia restaurateur Eli Karetny stepped in.

According to Ray Wallace, who designed the reconstructed Pilgrim, Lady Washington and other ships and who now heads the Moshulu restoration, from the deck up she will be a museum ship, with additional exhibition space below. "Shecouldn 't be in better hands," said NMHS chairman emeritus Karl Kortum. Lying across from the Independence Seaport Museum

Ray Walla ce's vision of rhe Moshulu afrer her planned restoration ar her new Pier J home in Camden NJ, painted by artist Bill Muller.

(formerly the Philadelphia Maritime Museum and now located at Penn's Landing), she will enhance a growing maritime heritage scene framed by the museum , the New Jersey State Aquarium and the Ben Franklin Bridge.

KH

Society Honors Patterson and the Jeremiah O'Brien Fifty years after D-Day , three WWII merchant ships are sai 1ing the seas, thanks to the dedication and perseverance of men like RADM Thomas J. Patterson, USMS (Ret). The National Maritime Historical Society presented him with the American Ship Trust Award in April for his exemplary service to America's maritime heritage and the inspiration he gave to others to restore merchant vessels to steaming status.

Patterson first saw the Jeremiah O'Brien in 1962 when, as a surveyor for the Maritime Administration, he looked over the Libertys still left in the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Washington, Oregon and California. On the advice of the Navy, MARAD had ordered all the Liberty ships sold or scrapped due to their slow 10 knot speed. But in the O'Brien Patterson found an unaltered Liberty, with WWII equipment (except for the guns) still intact. He and his fellow surveyors began their effort to keep the O'Brien off the scrapping list and kept moving her name farther down the list. Finally, all the other Libertys were gone and the game was up-some6

thing had to be done immediately or the ship would have to go.

Patterson recalls : "Assembling a group of volunteers in 1978 and with the backing of MARAD and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, we got her on the National Register of Historic Places and got her steam up in the Fleet.

On 6 October 1979 she steamed out of the Fleet to take her place as the nation's first operating memorial merchant ship.

The country has many historic Navy ships, but they are forbidden to operate.

SS Jeremiah O'Brien goes, she is seaworthy, and that is what the volunteer crew is proud of. A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what a ship is built for."

That the Jeremiah O ' Brien was around for the 50th anniversary of DDay and made a triumphant voyage back to Normandy to commemorate her participation in that heroic effort is testament to Patterson's conviction and his ability to communicate that conviction.

For Tom Patterson and the O'Brien's crew of volunteers, there could have been no greater reward than that voyage across the Atlantic.

JA

RADM Thomas J. Patterson, USMS (Ret), at Cherbourg , France Th e Jeremi ah O ' Brien in Rauen in 1994.

For thefull rext of Tom Patterson ' s remarks, send us a se/faddressed, stamped envelope.

SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

MEMBERS' PROGRAMS Meetings in San Francisco and Dana Point,California, were held in April, with local members notified by mail. These will be reported on in the nextSeaHistory, as well as our Annual Meeting, held 19 April in Peekskill , New York.

• Saturday, 20 May : Cadet review and NMHS luncheon at US Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point NY: $25 • Friday, 16 June: New York Harbor Cruise, frigate Rose: $125 • 11-30 July : "Steam and Sail on the Hudson," marine art show by William G. Muller at the Union League Club, NYC: free to members • Saturday, 19 August: Maritime Fair and salute to State Counci 1on Waterways voyagers returning from trip by water to Sioux City, Iowa ; at NMHS headquarters, Peekskill , NY. •September (date to follow): Observation Boat forthe Schooner Race forthe Mayor's Cup: $75 (incl. champagne luncheon) • Sunday, 15 October: Fall Foliage Cruise aboard M/V Commander, from Peekskill : $75 (incl. champagne brunch) • Fri., 10 Nov.: Annual Awards Dinner, New York Yacht Club, NYC: $125.

THE CAMPAIGN FOR SEA HISTORY: The First Need Is to Involve Our Own People; the Second, Surely, Is to Reach Still More People!

Members livin g near our Peekskill headquarters come to monthly meetings, usually on the last Saturday of the month.

Some come from farther away, from Maine to Maryland, sometimes even farther afield. Topics range from talks later published in scho larly journals to the remini scences of World War II DDay veterans. Do let us know if you'd like to receive notice of these meetings!

For members who live elsewhere we are looking to set up regional councils.

This is a cause long advocated by our trustees Ed Zelinsky of San Francisco and Doug Mu ster of Houston, among others. And this year, without any funding for the purpose (as yet!) , volunteers are spon sorin g activities to support the

Call 1-800-221-NMHS for further information on these programs.

MARINE SOCIETY HISTORY Sea History Press is publishing The Marin e Society of the City of New York: A Concise History, by Gerald J. Barry, with The Marine Society and New York 's Hundred Year Association as co-publi shers. Publication marks the 225th birthday of The Marine Society, founded in 1770, shortly before the American Revolution. In a foreword to the book, Walter Cronkite observes: Something of the city's defining character--one could say, its soul--is in the ideas and actions of these sea captains through the tumultuous decades, stretching now into centuries, of their dedicated work together. And today , working with the National Maritime Historical Society, which properly regards past, present and future not as separate scenes, hut as one living continuum , The Marine Society is increasingly finding its mission in reaching out to carry the maritime story, a story of American character and achievement, to wider circles of Americans.

Copies of the book are available for $17 .50 plus $2.50 shipping from NMHS or from The Marine Society, 17 Battery Place, New York NY I 0004.

SEA HISTORY 73 , SPRING 1995

Our outing on the frigate Rose in New York Harbor on 16 Jun e will include, as did last year's outing, the good company of students from the East Harlem Maritime School.

maritime heritage on both Atlantic and Pacific coasts-and we expect to see NMHS efforts on the Great Lakes, the rivers, and the Gulf of Mexico before year-end.

The basic members' program , as of now, is set forth at left. I expect trustee Jim Moore's East End Council will add a reception or two, and who knows what e lse will happen.

The Society, from a standing start at just I 0,777 members last spring, finds itself approaching the first goal of 15,000 this spring. And we recognize the truth of the old adage: to get a friend , be a friend . There 's magic in that concept!

Magic that is making the Society today the fastest-growing maritime organization in America.

Youth and education are a mixture providing power to change the world.

We are bringing those two precious elements together through Membership Co-Chairmen Nancy Pouch and Dick Scheuing. So far, with the support of The Marine Society, the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Foundation and private donors, they have enrolled as members ofNMHS the senior classes of the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, Long Island, the SUNY Maritime College at Fort Schuyler, New York, and the US Coast Guard Academy at New London , Connectic ut, and entering classes of the Sea Education Association (SEA) based at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Since Sea History is used in classroom discussions and studies at all of these institutions, the gift memberships are very likely to stick with the graduates going forth in an America that has a positively Saharan need for the strong maritime message . That maritime message reinforces the foundations of the American character, and could strengthen the nation's control over its enormous, growing and vital overseas trade-96% of which is now carried by foreign sh ips. We 've spoken of this before, and will again , with growing strength as our members get into the act.

Well , there we go again-members , and again members! Let us hear your views on our Campaign for Sea History.

We are only on the threshold of what we can do together.

PETER STANFORD

NOTE ON HISTORIC ERROR: We are preparing a discussion of historic errorerror such as that in the Smithsonian's Enola Gay exhibit, or in publications, including Sea History. Contributions to this discussion are welcome.

7

THE WIDER VIEW:

History as the Enemy Last year the Smithsonian Institution prepared an ex hibit on the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to coincide with the 50th anni versary of the end of World War II. Their purpose, they explained in several stateme nts, was to show the horrors of nuclear war and to e ncourage public sentiment aga inst the use of nuclear weapons.* But the script for thi s di splay e licited strong objections from veterans' g roups, who pointed out that it was wildl y inaccurate, and that it reversed the rol es of aggressor and aggrieved .

We at NMHS wanted to know more and we secured a copy of the sc ript, along with the corrections offered by an outside panel of critics , and a ream of correspondence. All this had been carefully compiled by the Air Force Association , and we are grateful to them for providing us and others with thi s material for public scrutiny.

Further di scussion may seem moot, since the exhibit has been cance ll ed. In announcing the cancellation , Smithson ian spokesmen stated that their error had been one of timing: to question the morality of the use of atomic weapons at a time when World War II veteran s were anticipating 50th annive rsary cere monies honoring their sacrifices and ac hie vements. So, while blaming the fracas on the "emotionali sm" of servicemen, they had hoped to put the matte r to rest.

But, we find thi s e xplanation completely unsati sfactory.

Turning History on Its Head The Smithsonian script turned hi story upside down. America was presented as the aggressor. For Americans it was " a war of vengeance," while the people of Japan were fighting " to preserve their unique culture again st Weste rn impe ri ali sm. " These are direc t quotes, and they shock those of us who know our hi story- as well they should. An opening panel does pay lip servi ce to the fa ct that "Japanese e xpansion was marked by naked agg ression and ex treme brutality. " But the staff had planned no illustration s for thi s panel , the re by re moving the shock fa ctor used so effective ly throug hout the rest of the ex hibit- and al so inviting the vi sitor to pass by thi s panel altogether.

The script was as hi ghl y e motional as it was one-s ided. Photog raphs of Japa*It should be noted that political activism, no matter how laudable its purpose, is not an activity for which our national museum was chartered.

8

nese suffe rin g are used to e lic it the visitor 's utmost sympathy. Thi s is reinforced by two quotes from American soldiers expressing hatred for the Japanese.

There are no similar photos of Japanese atrocities-mass executions of Ph ii ippine civilians, the bayoneting of Chinese babies, the Bataan death march, the beheading of captured Allied pilots. One section reads " Americans were reluctant to take prisoners," without mentioning the reason: that Japanese wo uld often feign surrender, then use grenades to kill both themselves and the Americans who were about to take them pri soner.

Beyond thi s, the script g ives the impression through se lective quotes that the weight of military opinion was against the use of the atomi c bomb. Thi s is s imply not true. It maintains that military estimates for Ame ri can casualties in an invasion of Japan we re greatl y exaggerated and offers a casualty estimate that was lower than casualties incurred on Okinawa alone-an o utlying island with 130,000 defenders, as compared to Japanese home islands defended by over I million soldiers.

The script 's writers want us to believe that Japan was on the verge of surrender. They do not report that Japanese military leade rs vigorously opposed surrender even after the atomic bombs had bee n dropped.

As the fig hting ended on Saipan, Japanese soldiers and civilians retreated to the cliffs at Marpi Point. The soldiers, prepared to fi ght to the death , encouraged women and children to die with them by leaping to the rock s or sea below . US Marines tried to stop thi s mass suicide, and the US Navy sent it s ships close inshore to rescue as many as possible.

The Marines of the Fourth Division , who had survived the horror and tragedy of combat, said that this mass suicide was one of the worst memories they carried out of the Pacific War. This was the nature of the contlict.

The easy answers suggested by the Smithsoni an ex hibit just didn 't exi st in reality. lation and di sto rtion of the fac ts we re pervas ive, and the di spl ay is be ing defe nded unde r the banner of "acade mic freedom. " But, to teach that Ame ri ca was the agg ressor again st Japan o r that the Holocaust never happe ned is not acade mic free do m. It is a de ni al of hi storic truth- a de ni al corros ive to the ve ry structure of c ivili zatio n.

We wo uld quickl y see the collapse of medical sc ience or e ngineering or any of the other di sc iplines if we began to play fas t and loose with the evidence, the principl es and the test results. Yet some academics treat hi storical evidence as irrelevant and di sposable, when in fac t it is the onl y " test result" of the most pertine nt ex pe riment and the longest running case study of all time-the human expe rience.

The Longest-Running Case Study Ever since the dust settled on the awful conflict of W orld War II , which cost an estimated 40 million human lives, the vast majority of them non-combatants, Americans have debated the decison to use the atomic bomb. We will go on discussing it and historians will reassess and rev ise their views as long as our civilizati on endures. This is the hi storian ' s job--to put all that we kno w abo ut an event on the table and scrutinize it to see if any ev idence or any theory has been overlooked .

The quest is always for a bette r, more accurate understanding of o ur pas t.

Both the detecti ve at a crime scene and the arc haeologist at an excavation are expected to study each bit of e vidence in its contex t to recreate a pi cture of what once was there--of what happened. If e ither were to di scard ev idence that confli cts w ith a preconceived notion , or that doesn ' t serve some purpose other than getting at the truth , thi s would be judged a crime against justi ce in the first case, or against hi story in the other.

In the Smith soni an di spl ay, m anipu-

The Question Remains So, fo r us the iss ue has not been put to rest. T he un answered question is wh y thi s script was ever writte n as it was.

Ame ricans, including Ame rican serviceme n, are capable of a mature re-exami nation of the decision to use atomic weapo ns. Anyone do ubting thi s sho uld refer to the Naval Institute Proceedings o r o the r serv ice publi cations, whe re yo u will read o ngoing, ho nest and o pe n reexaminati o ns of stra teg ies, tactics and me thods a nd of the ir human con seque nces . It is certainl y poss ible to di sc uss these bombings rati o nall y, but thi s ex hibit did no t do thi s.

Hi sto ry is the record of the human ex pe ri ence. But there is littl e value in looking at the record if yo u are not go ing to respect the evi de nce. U nfo rtunately, thi s ex hibiti o n serio usly di sto rted the ev id e nce-a d isserv ice to eve ryo ne wa nting to learn mo re abo ut the catac lys mic events of W orld W ar II. Hi sto ry is no t the e ne my, except to those whose spec ia l in terest it fa il s to support. NS SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1995

Drifting along the rockbound coasts ofthe eastern Mediterran ean in lighr airs, Kyrenia II reminds us ofthe vastness ofthe Mediterranean , which in ancient times was a world unto itself Kyrenia II is a Greek trader of about 300 BC reconstructed from archaeological remains by the In stitute of Nautical Archaeology. Her ancient Greek pred-

ecessors carried the varied cargoes that made the Mediterranean a Greek pond 2500 years ago . They also carried the seeds of the worldwide trading system that grew up in the wake of the tall square riggers that, 2000 years later, opened the ocean world, traveling th e Cape Horn road. Photos by Susan W. Katze v.

THE CAPE HORN ROAD, PART IV

Frogs Round a Pond: The Mediterranean World, 450 BC -1450 AD

by Peter Stanford

Tracing out the origins of seafaring in the Western world, we've looked at the wonderfully creative Minoan maritime empire based on Crete and we've seen its downfall around 1500 BC at the hands of the Myceneans, living in the northwest corner of the Minoan imperium in Greece. The Myceneans went on to take over the Minoan empire, replacing its trading stations with their own and going on raiding expeditions far and wide, notably the siege of Troy about 1200 BC. Soon after this Mycenean dominance ended, as Dorians from the north swarmed into Greece and, evidently aided by local uprisings, drove the Mycenean warlords into exile.

The overthrow of the Mycenean cities on the Greek mainland precipitated overseas flights and successive invasions by Mycenean warlords fleeing their homeland to oust the occupants of the Aegean islands and Ionia, the nearcoastofTurkey.

In the breakdown of normal trading systems and the loss of the wealth that had built the Mycenean navies , marauding fleets of exi les and raiders, including perhaps other intruders from as far away as Sicily, invaded the Levant. There they secured a footho ld on the coastal strip of present-day Israel , entering into the hi storic record in the Jewi sh Old Testament as the Phili stines. They tried to invade Egypt, where they were repulsed in SEA HISTORY 73 , SPRING 1995

the Battle of the Sea Peoples about 11 90 BC, an event recorded by the scribes of the victorious Pharaoh Ramses III. Amid these horrendous scenes, we can note the conditions of sea navigation and warfare in the illustrated Egyptian account of this battle drawn on the walls of Ramses ' temple.

The narrative boasts how the Egyptians "ensnared" the invaders, catch ing them off guard. As Lionel Casson points out in his marvelou s and authoritative account of ancient Mediterranean navigation , The Ancient Mariners, the Sea Peoples' ships are shown in cruising array, under sa il. They had no time to get out their oars from under the thwarts to respond to the attack, as the Egyptians swooped down on them under oar power.

This wi ll be the dominant theme of Mediterranean navigation for the next two and a half millennia: Ships were driven by oars in battle or to deliver passengers or va luable freight. But they went under sai l for longer trips and the delivery of ordinary cargoes like grain to feed the cities that were soon to grow up around all the shores of the Mediterranean and its adjunct, the Black Sea. We are lucky we have occasional written records of what was going on, to string together the archaeological evidence from the remains of these cities and, in the last few decades, their ships. For the widespread literacy of the Minoan empire died out in the

9

Showing her paces closehauled across a sparkling sea , Kyrenia II gets to windward in reasonably effective style (as Lionel Casson and a few other nautical-minded classicists had said right along!). Her oars, lash ed a thwarts hip , are readily available to row her into harbor when. the evening calm sets in. This case of "ask th e man who owns one" was made possible by the work of Richard Steffy and Mi chael Katzev of the In stitute of Nautical Archaeology, under the sponsorship of/NA and the Hellenic In stitute for th e Preservation of Nauti cal Traditions. Th e builder was Man olis Psaros at Perama , a suburb ofAthens, where such ships and their successors have been built for millennia.

The stout lirrle ship, 45.ft. long by 14 ft. beam, ofabout 100 tons, is a typical size for a deepwater trader of her time, the ship that nourished local economies and.fostered ciry-buildingfrom Cadiz in Spain to Alexandria in Egypt.

Giant bulk carriers of 1000 tons were built for th e al/important gra in trade from Egypt to cities like Athens and, Later, Rome. But these lacked the versatility of the genera l traders.

centuries after its overthrow. The Myceneans had used a script we call Linear B, so named from two versions of similar script found in an engraving. (Linear A is apparently in Minoan, a language we still haven 't been able to decipher.) But this too died out, as the Mycenean trading system crumbled in its tum.

Lighting the Dark Ages By around 1100, then , the Mycenean Greeks had lost their grip on written language, presumably as result of the loss of their sea empire and the soc ial confusion attending exile and the overthrow of their cities.

The Dark Ages ushered in by this turmoil were dark indeed, with Greek literature and hi story living on only in the oral recital s of their bards.

To the east, however, a remarkable people survived this time of economic and social chaos and lawlessness. The Phoenicians, closely related to their Israelite neighbors, who had occupied the hilly uplands of present day Israel after Moses brought his people out of Egypt around 1200 BC, successfully res isted the Philistine incursion. They hung on to their seaport cities on the coastal strip extending north from present-day Israel into Lebanon and Syria. They had long had trading relations with Egypt by sea, and in their practical way had adapted Egyptian writing, consisting of symbols representin g objects or phonetic sy llables , into an alphabet based on consonant sounds. By this system we would write the word " building ," for example, as " bldg. " This gave them enormous flexibility in composing messages, which so far as we know they used mainly for purposes of trade.

Their Israelite neighbors, however, picked up this system and recorded the Bible, including such glories as King David 's Psalms, and a startlingly accurate history of the war by which the Israelites subdued the Philistines, around 1000 BC. David's successor, Solomon, had various dealings with Israel's Phoenician ally, Hiram , King of Tyre. In a particularly interesting venture he got Hiram to provide seasoned Phoenician seamen for the fleet he wanted to sai l from the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, to Ophir (India), bypassing the Persian Gulf middlemen they' d had to deal with in the Indian trade. The voyage as recorded in the Biblical account was a great success.

Pushing westward, the Phoenicians re-opened trade with Greece, and went far beyond this to break through into the western Mediterranean beyond Sicily, probably around 1000 10

BC. They set up trading posts on the North African shore, and in Spain beyond the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar) to acq uire tin and other metals from the people of Tartessus.

Tin was needed to make bronze. The inqui sitive Phoenicians noted that tin was not mined loca lly , but came from the "Tin Isles," which Lionel Casson and other historian s agree must have been the British Isles with their tin mines in Cornwall.

These Cornish mines stopped shipping tin overseas only in the 1980s AD, ending a 3,000-year maritime trade!

The most important commodity carried by the Phoenician ships, however, was their written language. By about 800 BC the mainland Greeks had mastered this Phoenician writing system for their own lang uage. They added vowels to the Phoenician signage based on consonants, thus producing what is recognizably the modern alphabet that you are reading right now. It is a tribute to the ubiquity of the Phoenician traders, and the utility of their simple, workmanlike writing system, that variants of their a lphabet fo1m the written language of all the European nations, Russia, and countries as far east as Malaya and Java in the China Seas.

Homer, a writer whose name most literate people know today throughout the world, wrote hi s Iliad about 750 BC, a long saga of the Mycenean siege of Troy. This was followed by that grand picaresque novel Th e Odyssey, concerning the sea-wanderings of the wily Odysseus on hi s way home from Troy. The Iliad might have been composed without writing; it uses many conventional forms eas il y memorized, and the incidents of the plot leave room for improvisation. But The Odyssey cou ld hardly have been a bard's song, repeated from mouth to mouth; to this reader it seems a product of individual composition, and that composer a gen iu s.

Soon after700 BC, Hesiod wrote his practical Book ofDays, from which we learn the sailing season of the Greek cargo sh ips of the day, and thereafter the whole Aegean seems to burst into song like a nest of si nging birds, Sappho and Pindar being just two of the poets of this marvelous period whose work is read today.

By this time the Greeks , with their mixed Dorian-Mycenean heritage and a mythic memory of the lost glories of the Minoan empire, were settled in seaport cities backed by scanty farmland in mainland Greece, the Aegean Islands , and Ionia, across the way in Turkey. Their wealth, their leisured class, their learn ing and the remarkable communication system that

SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

kept them in touch with one another and which gave them their sense of identity as Hell enes-all this depended on the sea transport system they built up in the wake of the far-trave ling Phoenicians.

By 500 BC they had been masters in their seas for centuries.

Furthe1more, they had matched the Phoenician colon ies to the westward with important new settlements in Sicily, southern Italy, and the south of France, where their distinctive cultural imprint lasts on today in great cities like Syracuse, Naples and Marseilles. Farther west, the Phoenician city of Carthage in North Africa held sway, blocking Greek access to the Straits of Gibraltar.

An intrepid Greek mariner, one Pythias of Marseill es, managed to slip thrnugh the Carthaginian blockade around 310 BC to make a voyage to Britain and northern Europe, giv ing the Greek world its first clear (and quite authentic) picture of those northern lands. The manuscript of hi s voyage, widely cited in ancient times, is lost to us today. Our adv isor Frank Braynard believes it might exist in some moldering archive; finding it would bring joy to admirers of the Greek heritage in seafaring!

By 500 BC, then, the Greeks, divided politically into independent city-states, were united by language and tradition, and by a glorious li terature which lives on today. Their essential Greekness was soon to be put to a severe test.

The Periclean Age Soon after 500 BC a great new threat arose in the east. The Persian empire, conqueror oflsrael and the Phoen ician cities, had swept through Turkey to overrun the Greek cities oflonia, on the coast of Turkey.

When these cities revolted in 494 BC, the Greek city-state of Athens sent a fleet to support the revolt. Persia crushed the revolt and then sent a punitive expedition to conquer Athens, but this was beaten off at Marathon in 490. A second, much more ambitious invasion to subdue all of Greece was mounted in 480. The Persians used their Phoenician subjects to supply their anny by sea-it was far too large to keep in supply over the mountain trails of mainland Greece. At first the Persians swept all before them, occupying Athens. But then the Athenians managed to trap and destroy the Persian armada in the naval battle of Salamis, just outside their conquered city. Cut off from sea-borne supply, Persia had to withdraw most of the invading aimy, the remainder being mopped up a yeai¡ later.

Capitalizing on the victorious navy it had built up, Athens took over the leadership of a sea-based association of Greek city-states, the Delian League. This began a stunning half century known as the Periclean Age, after its leading statesman. Some people, indeed, with some reason, regard this period as the Golden Age of Mankind. Besides Pericles, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides lived in this time in Athens, a city of 10,000 people, roughly the size of Elizabeth, New Jersey. The Parthenon was built-and one could go on listing names known to all of us two and a half millennia later.

But the point seems clear: the ultimate sea-trading system had been developed, and it rapidly generated the wealth to found a civilization that gave us creativity, initiative and hightidemarks that endure and challenge us today .

How did all this come undone?

The rival Peloponnesian League, led by the more primitive, totally militarized state of Sparta, went to war with Athens to recapture the island of Corcyra (modem Corfu) which had SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

broken away from its parent city Corinth-an ai1xious and envious rival of Athens. Pericles pursued a moderate strategy , relying on Athens' wealth and power at sea to keep their lowtech enem ies off balance without precipitating total war. But Pericles died in the second year of the war, 429 BC, and was succeeded by ambitious chauvinists who sought total victory over Sparta-taxing Athens' allies, eroding the Athenian democracy at home, and resorting to ever more extreme and am bitious efforts to impose the will of an increasingly warcrazed city over the whole complicated political fabric of the Greek peninsula. The new war-tyrants proved incompetent, and ultimately Athens was crushed, in 404 BC, when a fleet carrying the Black Sea grain it depended on was destroyed by Sparta-a Sparta which had learned the uses of sea power.

Athens surrendered in that year.

Athens rapidly regained economic leadership in Greece because it had the know-how and the social resources to manage trade. But, as Lionel Casson points out, the city's continuing trades were "almost totally monopolized" by foreign ships and "practically all the vessels that carried products in and out of Piraeus belonged to men from Marseilles, Byzantium, South Russia, Asia Minor, and so on." These people had learned to do the vital work of seaport Athens. And they had learned how from the Athenians themselves.

The democratic ideals upheld by Athens and put into unforgettable words by Pericles had been battered beyond recognition. Politics became a sinkhole of bought influence domes ti call y, and shifting alliances based on economic opportunism abroad. Philip of Macedon, in northern Greece, found the quarreling Greek states easy prey and had conquered them all by 338. One of the last expressions of the Athenian vision, after the philosophers Aristotle and Plato had had their say, reflecting past exaltations and agonies, was Demosthenes, who spoke up against Philip 's military hegemony in a memorable series of orations known as the Philippics.

Philip's son Alexander, tutored by Aristotle, went on to conquer Persia and Egypt, ushering in what has been called the Hellenistic age, which spread the Greek language, ideas and tradition as the dominant culture of the eastern Mediterranean.

Later Roman conquest of Greece and most of Alexander' s empire confirmed thi s dominance, for Rome borrowed heavily from Greece for its literature and system of ideas.

The Romans, who conquered the Carthaginians, Greeks, and everyone else around the Mediterranean world, ran an essentially closed system in which piracy was extirpated and commerce flourished. The commerce was not primarily conducted by Romans, but by those they ruled; in effect, they took control of sea commerce by conquering all the sea powers.

Along the way they learned how to win sea battles when they had to, whether against Egyptians in the eastern Medite1Tanean or the fierce Veneti in the English Channel. But in the main it was the ships of peoples conquered by Roman armies that carried their empire's trade. Did this contribute to Rome's ultimate decline and collapse? We know that poets and historians at the time lamented the loss of the sturdy work ethos that characterized the early Roman Republic .

When the Roman Empire came apart toward 500 AD, sapped by internal power struggles , the eastern half of the empire continued with its capital at Constantinople, ancient Byzantium. The Byzantine Empire lasted on with pretty severe bumps in the road, for another thousand years, falling to the Ottoman Turks only in 1453-by which time Christopher 11

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VENETIAN STATE GALLEY ROUTES IN THE MID-14005

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'-----------------------------------------------------' ~ Columbus had been born. The Byzantines had run a strong, successful show-an effort based on sea power and the vital trade route from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, which they controll ed by the position of their capital city. For a while, they reconquered parts of the Roman Empire from the Germanic tribes which had overrun it when it came apart at the center. They even set up an administrative capital at Ravenna on the Adriatic not far from Venice.

And thi s proved of intense significance for the future , as Venice, with Byzantine support, managed to hold out against the Gennanic conquerors ofltaly. Growing from a community of Roman exiles and fishe1man living in the swamps at the head of the Adriatic , Venice built up an effective sea power which suppressed piracy and began slowly to take over much of the carrying trade of the Byzantine Empire, effective heirs to the Greek system. As G. V. Scammell put it in his classic study of maritime empires, The World Encompassed, "as Byzantium grew feebler and its enemies more numerous, Greek commerce came into Venetian hands ."

In the ensuing centuries, the Greek Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire was battered by the flood tide oflslam in the east and by the rising monarchies of Catholic Europe in the west. Its capital, Constantinople, was the most glorious city of the Western world. Its highly trained fleets and armies won battle after battle against seemingly overwhelming odds. But fighting off incursions from both east and west, it gradually lost its land base, becoming completely dependent on its seaborne trade-which after about 1000 AD was largely in the hands of the rising Italian city-states led by Genoa and Venice.

By the year 1204 the Venetians diverted the course of one of the crusades mounted against Islam and took Constantinople, installing a Catholic regime. Genoa then plotted with the di spossessed Byzantines to retake the city for their Eastern Orthodox faith, which they did. And while all this went on, the 12

accumulated encru sted wealth of the emp ire gleamed like a Byzantine mosaic, incredi bly rich , static, reflecting past glories rather than any vision of the future.

That future, of course, rested with the rising Italian citystates that had been doing the work of the empire, carrying its cargoes and even fighting its battles on occasion. In a phrase familiar to Americans, the Byzantine Empire had become a pitiful helpless giant by the time the Ottoman Turks stormed into Constantinople in 1453, putting an end to the last surviving bastion of the old Roman Empire.

Italy's Maritime Republics Take Over Genoa and Venice were then left to struggle for mastery in the caITying trade of the Mediterranean. First one, then the other, had the upper hand . A new spirit was sweeping over the Italian cities in this time, a classic rev ival of culture, learning, and progress-the Renaissance! And it was in fact a rebirth of Greek and Roman ideals, rediscovered in new learning of the time. This movement was based, as in ancient times, on the rev ival of seaborne trade, the stimulation of ideas and energies, and the creation of new wealth which that multifarious commerce breeds. The principles of capitalism worked to the benefit of all, as developing technology and strengthened soc ial organization ass ured success for these cities in practically all they undertook.

Venice won its struggle with Genoa and took a dominant position in the Mediterranean sea trades. Venetian dominance was to wane slowly in coming centuries, as the state turned to inland territorial battles and an off-and-on hot war with the Turks over the Greek, Cretan and other trading bases. The wealth of Venetian capitalists increasingly went to investment in land rather than in the risky maritime trades. G. V. Scammell discusses this, and Clark G. Reynolds, founder of the North American Society for Oceanic History, has expressed what happened SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

GREECE AND THE SEA succinctly, saying simply that "it seemed that investments in property ashore required less work and risk than the sea trades."

But the contribution of Venice to the coming modem age had been inestimable. Her galleys ran regular service to the Mediterranean ports, to the Crimea in the Black Sea, and to places as far di stant as Southampton in the English Channel and the great north European market in Antwerp. These trade routes helped nouri sh the growing trade of the Hanseatic merchants in the North Sea and the Baltic (from which Mediterranean sailors were effectively barred) and undoubtedly helped the confused, slow-paced evolution of the Russ ian superstate in coming centuries.

As early as the late 1200s, Genoese and Venetian "great galleys"-sailing ships which used oars as a powerful auxiliary-were running on regular schedules to the northern markets. And in their tum the Northerners, who had swept into the Mediterranean in the almost obsessive attacks on Islam known as the Crusades, were becoming a real presence and growing influence in the Mediterranean.

As the 1400s open, the Northern European strand of the story of the breakout into the ocean world joins up effectively with the Mediterranean story. Plato 's frog at the edge of a pond is developing into a new, deepwater animal. J,

The versatile trading ships of the ancient Greeks set the patterns of trade that kept civilization alive through the vicissitudes ofthe Middle Ages and ultimately delivered the Greek message to the Italian republics of the Renaissance. Here, the little Kyrenia ship leaps and rolls along her course, driven by the same strong meltemi wind that powered her predecessor through these waters over 2000 years ago.

In the long stretch of time we've looked at here, many fascinating byways dwindle from sight-the long struggle of Islam to control the Mediterranean, for example, fighting from its disadvantageous position on the southern shores, or the Viking incursions and the setup of a Norse kingdom in Sicily and southern Italy. The Greek experience, however, towers in the distance, at the origins of Mediterranean navigation, and it contributed powerfully to the Renaissance, ushering in the modem age.

Clearly this was not just because of Greek energies, though these were formidable; it had to do with a Greek vision of man 's destiny. And that, as Sir Maurice Bowra sets forth memorably for us in The Greek Experience, had everything to do with their relationship with the sea:

Its "watery ways ," as Homer calls them, bind most districts in Greece, whether mainland or islands, to one another. It plays a larf?er part there than in any other European country because for most places it is the best, and for many the only, means of communication. There are few districts from which it is not somewhere visible. Often in isolated solitudes among the mountains a man will feel that he has lost sight of it, only to see it again round the next corner. Mastery al it was indispensable to survival, and once mastery was gained, new vistas inspired to adventure. The Greeks were sailors from the dawn of their history, and, because they were bred to ships, they were saved from sinking into the narrow, parochial round which would otherwise have been the lot of dwellers in small city-states.

The sea drew alike those who wanted profit and those who wanted excitement, and was the chief means by which the Greeks expanded their knowledge of men and manners. But it was more than this. Its special enchantment, "the multitudinous laughter of the sea-waves," of which Aeschylus speaks, took hold of the Greek consciousness and helped to shape some of its most characteristic convictions .. .. But even when it seems to be most welcoming, it suddenly changes its temper and menaces with ruin on hidden reefs from merciless winds and mounting waves. By its unpredictable moods and its violent vagaries it provides a lesson on the precarious state of human life, which in the very moment when all seems to be lapped in golden calm is overwhelmed in unforeseen disaster.

It is not surprising that when Sophocles sang of the unique achievements of man, he put seafaring first in his list: He makes the winter wind carry him Across the grey sea Through the trough of towering waves .

Command of the sea was indeed something of which to be proud, and it left an indelible mark on the Greek character.*

To this Bowra adds a cogent appreciation of the very Greek mixture of practicality and poetry with which the Greeks confronted life and seafaring: The Greeks were conscious of the humble nature of human origins, but saw in them a summons to unrealized potentialities.* *C. M. Bowra, The Greek Experience (World Publishing, 1957)

NOTE ON CAPE HORN: On 20 March The Times of London carried an announcement that the National Maritime Historical Society and the Drake Navigators Guild had determined that Francis Drake was the actual discoverer of Cape Horn, having landed there during his circumnavigation of 1578. A discussion of this finding will be published in a future Sea History.

13

USS Laffey and a Place Called Okinawa

by Dr. Steve Ewing n the late summerof 1944, 336 young men , most of whom were only months out of high school, stood on the main deck of the USS Laffey, DD724, as she passed through the Panama Canal, from the Atlantic and Caribbean to the Pacific Ocean. Admiring the beauty of the Canal Zone and marveling at the impressiveengineeringofthecanal,some thought they would someday experience the satisfaction of telling their future children and grandchildren they had participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy , which their ship had come through a few months before. Little else, they then thought, could equal such a story. For nearly one third of the crew, however, it was just as well that the future could not be known.

In the early spring of 1945 , Laffey headed with hundreds of other ships to a place called Okinawa. Most of their crews had no trouble with the island 's pronunciation but few had much idea where it was. All knew it was close to Japan; only a few had sufficient knowledge to cause apprehension. In Japan, of course , people knew well where Okinawa was, only 350 miles from the Japanese homeland. They knew the people of the island , they knew that

I

14

many friend s and acquaintances were serving there in uniform , and they knew the significance of the impending battle.

Since the fall of the Marianas in the summer of 1944, the Japanese government could not keep from the Japanese people that the war they had launched three years before by the attack on Pearl Harbor was being lost. B-29 bomber raids on the home islands had become commonplace. The loss of Okinawa would mean even more air raids , and the big island could serve as a staging area for invasion of the sacred homeland itself. It would also sever shipping lanes to South Pacific raw materials and island garrisons. For the men of the approaching United States Fleet, this was expected to be just another invasion , larger but probably similar to Iwo Jima a few weeks earlier, where nearly all the opposition was ashore and the ships offshore incurred little damage from Japanese shore batteries.

For all Japanese there were no illusions as to what this battle meant: a foothold for an invasion of the homeland must not be gained. Every desperate measure necessary would be taken to prevent the fall of Okinawa.

The Japanese resolve to defend

Okinawa was backed by some sound military thinking which had sometimes been lacking in previous battles. Ashore, troops dug intricate tunnels well away from the beach areas to lessen the telling gunfire effect of US battleships, cruisers, destroyers and even auxiliaries. Into the tunnel s went tons of supplies and 130,000 men mentally prepared to fight for soil that was Japanese in culture.

Remnants of the Japanese surface navy, now without benefit of a viable carrier force for either attack or defense, fueled and armed for engagement. Airmen, both Army and Navy, utilized what little fuel reserves remained to train other pilots to get their planes off the ground and navigate to the waters off Okinawa. Little emphasis was placed on landing as these pilots were to fly only one way , and by using the most effective guidance system extant-the human mind--crashland themselves with their bombs on the decks of American ships. If enough ships could be sunk or damaged , perhaps American public opinion would pressure politicians to deem the price of victory too high , and the United States would be willing to negotiate a peace leaving Japan unoccupied and with at least some of her empire intact.

SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

Th e photograph ar leji of rhe USS Laffey was probably raken at ahout rhe time the ship wenr rh roug h the Panama Canal in the late summer of 1944 .

'

The usual softening- up prelude in late from a concentrated fo 1mation, destroy- one mu st be totally focused on killing March was contested but went well , and ers were fav ored as kamikaze targets. In the foe: any other attitude would mean when gro und fo rces were landed on 1 addition, their destruction he lped e limi- sure death. Focused , calm but cursing, April , there was no signifi cant Japanese nate the communi cations system to the fro m the ship 's captain , Comm ander F. res is ta nce. M ovi n g in la nd , thin gs more des ired targets, the aircraft carri - Juli an Becton , to the most junior ra ting changed dra mati ca ll y and it was soon ers . A nd , as in ea rli e r battl es off severa l decks be low, the men of the apparent that the well -entrenched Japa- G uadalcanal, tying ships to a restri cted Laffey stood by the g uns and at battle nese wo uld have to be ex term inated area depri ved them of the mobility es- stati ons to meet the enem y pl anes low yard by yard , body by body. At sea, senti al fo r the defense of naval units. The on the hori zon. At a ra nge of over fo ur kamikaze pl anes and Japanese surface price fo r vio lating thi s nava l axio mmiles , the six 5- inch gun s on the rac ing uni ts became more acti ve. Overp rotected even though necessary-was the loss of destroye r opened up , the ir prox imi ty 15 US Navy wars hips o f which 12 we re fu sed she ll s bouncing the attackers. At a for most of her life, the giant Ja panese superbattleship Yama to was fu e led fo r a destroye rs or small er and slower de- littl e over a mil e the 40mm g un s, mostl y in twin mo unts, began the ir rh ythmi c one-way voyage to beac h herself on the stroyer escorts.

The kamikaze attacks caused Laffey's di sc harge and at 800 ya rd s the 20mm shores of Okinawa and use her 18- inch guns to re pe l the in vader. Far short of crew to ex peri ence fee lings of many guns began the ir staccato barking . For her o bjecti ve, she was caught in the other sailors durin g that time, amoun t- the nex t hour and ten minutes there open sea and sunk by pl anes from T as k ing to a state of anomie-a loss of norms, would be no time to think , onl y time to Force 58-some from the USS Yo rk- loss of knowledge of one's pl ace and act and react. Fo r 32 men it wo ul d be town , C V- I 0 , a carrier whi ch today is on pu rpose in the wa r. The rul es of war their time to meet death .

A battle is fo ught as much with the seemed to change : where one used to exhibit with the Laffey.

Before the cam paign fo r Okinawa have a fi ghting chance of surviva l by brain as with brawn. Full y ex posed to was over, nearl y 5,000 sa il ors were dead, dodging an attacke r or shooting him both enemy and hi s own ship 's ordthe chief instru ment of Japanese destruc- down at hi gh altitude, now ships we re nance, Commander Becto n raced the ti on being the kami kaze. While many of being hit by pilots who aimed their planes bridge, spotting the severa l kamikazes the kamikaze pil ots demonstrated a lack d irectl y at the ta rgets w ithout tho ught in their final di ves and ordering the he lm sof tra ining by miss ing their seaborne fo r their ow n surviva l. T here we re no men to turn hard to port or starboard as targets by onl y fee t, others wrought more nervous jokes to US pil ots to let the moment demanded . One pl ane that havoc . Not all ka mikazes were poorl y one enemy plane come th ro ugh, " so appeared to have taken pe rfec t aim could trained ; documents fo und on the bodies we ' ll have something to shoot at. " To not compensate fo r Becton 's las t-secof some pil ots indicated they we re well many Ame ri can sa il o rs it no longer ond mamrnver; it did carry away a portrained, even fli ght leaders. A 550kg seemed a q uesti on of whether or not ti on of the mas t before strik ing the water bes ide the ship, spl attering pl ane and bomb cou ld do considerabl e damage by they wo uld di e , but when. itse lf, but when it slammed into a ship, Such attitudes di sappeared for the bomb parts aga in st Laffey, wo unding the bl ast and fire usuall y ignited other men of the Laffey on 16 April 1945. That severa l men but killing onl y fi sh. Anfl amm abl es such as ordnance, oil , paint, mo rning, there wo uld be no time fo rfear other radi cal maneuve r at the last second wood and mattresses. S uic ide attacks or to ponder anomi e; there was onl y spoiled the aim of another kamikaze, aga inst battl eships usua ll y did little dam- time to fi ght. Even tho ugh the battle off and he died after inflicting only minor age to the vessel, but took a severe toll of Okin awa was onl y days o ld , the crew of damage. But there were too many and anti -a ircraft gunners. Again st destroy- the Laffey full y understood that in battle now radical moves that spo iled aim for one s uic ider onl y pl aced the ers, bombs were ex treme ly lethal as the thin pl ating and Bartle damage to rile USS Laffey (DD-724) off Okinawa on 16 April 1945. destro ye r in the path of anothe r. Bo mbs and pl anes, narrow beam left little marg in bombs w itho ut pl anes and of safety fo r the ships where pl a nes without b o mb s speed was the ir first line of smas hed aga in st the defiant defense . Any hit on the enship. A 20mm and 40mm g ines was like ly to be fatal, mount amid shi p we nt up in since loss of power meant infl ame, a bomb smas hed into suffi c ient capac ity to remove the after deckhouse and two water or fi ght fire. ka mi kazes s tru c k 5 - in c h Destroye rs we re exceedmount number three, the lone ingly vulnerabl e o ff Okinawa, 5-inch mount aft, killing six since they were used as picko f the seven men within . ets-s hips set out on the peHo led , burning and with riphery of the fl eet to help 7 1 of her living men bleeddetect enemy pl anes fl ying too in g, Laffey steamed on at low to be picked up on radar. hi gh speed . Wh at few guns Being the first Ameri can ship th at could operate continued sighted, and appearing from to fi re , damage control parthe a ir to be an eas ier target ti es-seri ously dimini shed than one protected by tho udue to casualti es-fou ght the sand s of anti -a ircraft g un s SEA HI STORY 73 , SPRING 1995

15

several fires throughout the ship , that would inspire nightmares rathe r and fin ally the battl e was over. It th an an a pprec iation of valor. e nded beca use the 22 attacking In time, however, c hildre n bepl anes had expe nded theirordnance, come adults and the rea lities of life had been shot down (9 by Laffey) or and death must be confronted. To had flown into the ship o r ocean. thi s audience then , the veterans of So badl y damaged was Laffey Laffey have spoken. To thi s a udi from strafing, four bomb hits and e nce, valor and sacrifice are unde rsix kamikaze crashes, that she had stood a nd suc h an unde rstanding to be towed from the battle scene. leads some to all egiance to a rm s to Temporary repairs and the lac k of defend thei r natio n; for o thers s uch serious damage to the eng ineerin g an understanding leads to work in the soc ial and political arena to enspaces e na bled her to steam for Saipan, the nce to Eniwetok in the sure that s uc h sacrifice and va lor is Marshall Is lands and fin a ll y to Senot again required. Resting in he r attl e, Washington , where she un be rth in C harleston Harbor, South derwe nt re pair from 24 May until 6 Visitors .flo cked to the docks and hoarded the baltle- Carolina , as part o f th e Patriots scarred Laffey to inspect the damage themselves. Photo September 1945 . Before worke rs courtesy Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum.

Po int Nava l and Maritime Museum , began the ir healing work at Todd Laffey speaks to all who ask why Shipyard, the navy opened the gates to grandc hild re n, now realized that story she has been memorialized . But no matthe public so they mig ht come and see wou ld be, at best, just a footnote to ter what is sa id , or by whom, no words the sacrifice of war. The aft 5-inch g un Okinawa, a battle still contested on that carry an e loq ue nce eq ual to the ac tio ns mount still showed the a ppalling de- day. They tho ug ht, too, that thi s story of Laffey's crew on 16 April 1945 at a ,t struc tion of 16 April , as did o the r parts wou Id serve as a classic exampl e of how place call ed Okinawa. of the supe rstructure. con trol of the sea can lead to control of Standing near while the c urio us a nd the land . But with a little more time , and Dr. Ewing, th e a uthor of sevel¡a l World the apprec iative toured the damaged time in wh ich to read the faces of the War II titles, is senior curator at Patriwarship, some of those who re me m- civ ilians touring the scarred vessel, some ots Point Naval and Ma ritim e Mu seum bered thinking they wo uld have the sto ry concluded that this was no t a story to tell in Cha rleston H arbor, South Caro lina , o f Normandy to te ll the ir children a nd any child o r grandchild. It was a story where rh e Laffey is open to th e public.

The Battle of Okinawa I April - 2 1 June 1945 On l April 1945, the US 10th Army, led

by General Simon B. Buckne r, landed two M arine divi sions ( I st and 6th ) and two Army divi sions (77 th and 96th ) o n the western coast of Okinawa against Iight resistance.By 3 April they had pushed across the island to the easte rn sho re. The 6th Marine divi sion then swung north and , after intense fi ghting on Motobu pe ninsula, held most of the northern part of the island by 13 April. The 77th Army division, which had been in reserve, took the island of le shima and its three airstrips after heavy fighting endi ng on 16 April.

On 4 April , while the Marines swept north , the Arm y division s turned south into the bulk of the Japanese fo rce waiting in a formidable defense system of caves and tunnels in hill y terrain. Fighting was bitter, but the Japa nese we re pushed o ut of their pos itio ns and south to the town of Shuri .

By theend of April , wi th the northern secto r secured, the Marines and the 77 th divi sion jo ined the southe rn front fort he fin al bitter conclu sion. Progress was slow 16

and cost Iy, and some areas of the Shuri fro nt c hanged hands several times. Resistance ended at the southe rn tip of the island on 22 June.

The Japanese had hurled everything they could atthe in vas io n fleet. Over600 kamikaze planes, many fl own by yo ung,

barely trained pil ots, attacked the fl eet o n 7 April , s inking five US ships. And the mig hty Yamato, Japan's last great battleship, was give n just e nough fuel to reach Okinawa a nd then set out to destroy as many of the flee t as poss ible before meeting her own inev itabl e destruc ti o n. Before reaching Okinawa, the Yamato was fo und and sunk by US planes.

The battle for Okinawa cost the Japanese the las t of their air and sea power. It also gave the Allies a grim indicatio n of what an invasion of the Japanese home is lands would cost.

American losses were 12,520 serviceme n killed (2,938 Marines, 4 ,675 Army, 4,907 Navy); an additional 36,600 were wounded . Japanese losses were I 00,000 combatants killed , 7,400 taken pri soner, and 77,000 civ ilian s killed .

Okinawa cost at least 189,500 lives.

In materie l, US forces lost 36 ships sunk , 368 damaged and 763 planes. The Japa nese lost 15 warships and an esti NS mated 4,000 to 7 ,000 planes.

Sources: The Marshall Cavendish Illustrated Encyc lopedia of World War 11; and Dictionary of Battles, by David Chandler.

SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

Where Are They Now? Pacific War Veteran Vessels In Museums Alabama USS Alabama

,

#BB-60 (1942-1947) Vessel Type: Battleship Homeport: Mobile Owner: USS Alabama Battleship Commission; 205-433-2703

USS Drum #SS-228 ( 1942-1967) Vessel Type: Submarine Homeport: Mobile Owner: USS Alabama Battleship Commission; 205-433-2703

California SS Jeremiah O'Brien #243622 ( 1943) Vessel Type: Liberty Ship Homeport: San Francisco Owner: National Liberty Sh ip Memorial, Inc.; 4 15-44 1-3 101

SS Lane Victory #248094 ( 1945) Vessel Type: Victory Ship Homeport: San Pedro Owner: US Merchant Marine Veterans Of WWII; 213-519-9545

USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. #DD-850 ( 1945-1973) Vessel Type: Destroyer Homeport: Fall River Owner: USS Massachusetts Memorial; 508-678-1100

USS Lionfish #SS-298 ( 1944- 197 1) Vessel Type: Submarine Homeport: Fall River Owner: USS Massachusetts Memorial; 508-678- 1 I 00

New York USS Croaker #SSK-246 (1942-1971) Vessel Type: Submarine Homeport: Buffalo Owner: Buffalo & Eri e County Naval & Servicemen's Park; 716847- l 773

USS Intrepid #CV-11 (1943-1981) Vessel Type: Aircraft Carrier

USS Yorktown Homeport: New York Owner: Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum; 2 12-245-2533

USS Slater

USS Pampanito

#DE- ( 1943-195 1) Vessel Type: Destroyer Escort Homeport: New York Owner: Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum; 2 12-245-2533

#SS-383 ( 1943- 197 1) Vessel Type: Submarine Homeport: San Francisco Owner: National Maritime Museum Association; 415-441-5819

Vessel Type: Tug Homeport: New York Owner: Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum; 212-245-2533

Hawaii USSBowfin #SS-287 ( 1943- 197 1) Vessel Type: Submarine Homeport: Honolulu Owner: USS Bowfin Submarine M useum & Park; 808-423- 1341

Louisiana USS Cabot #CVL-28 ( 1943-1967) Vessel Type: Aircraft Carrier (Ligh t) Homeport: New Orleans Owner: Kenner Naval Museum Commission

USS Kidd

USCGC Tamaroa

Owner: Baltimore Maritime Museum; 410-396-5528

USS Torsk

USS The Sullivans

#SS-423 ( 1944- 197 1) Vessel Type: Submarine Homeport: Baltimore Owner: Baltimore Maritime Museum; 410-396-5528

#DD-537 ( 1943-1977) Vessel Type: Destroyer Homeport: Buffalo Owner: Buffalo & Erie County Naval &Serv icemen ' s Park; 7 16847-1773

Michigan USS Silversides

Ohio USS Cod

#SS-236 ( 1942-1969) Vessel Type: Submarine Homeport: Muskegon Owner: USS Silversides Naval & Maritime Museum; 6 16-7551230

#SS-224 ( 1943- 1976) Vessel Type: Submarine Homeport: C leveland Owner: Cod Coo rdin ating Committee; 2 16-967-5838

North Carolina USS North Carolina

#DD-661 (1943-1946; 19531964) Vessel Type: Destroyer Homeport: Baton Rouge Owner: Louisiana Naval War Memorial Commission ; 504342-1942

#BB-55 ( 1941-1960) Vessel Type: Battleship Homeport: Wilmington Owner: USS North Caro lina Battleship Commission ; 9 10251-5797

Massachusetts USS Cassin Young

Nebraska USS Hazard

#DD-793 ( 1943-Present) Vessel Type: Destroyer Homepo rt: Boston Owner: National Park Service; 617-242-5604

#AM-240 (1944-197 1) Vessel Type: Minesweeper Homeport: Omaha Owner: Greater Omaha Military Historical Society; 402-345-1959

SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

#WPG35 ( 1936- 1937) Vessel Type: Coast Guard Cutter Homeport: Mount Pleasant Owner: Patriots Point Development Authority; 803-884-2727 #DD-724 ( 1944- 1975) Vessel Type: Destroyer Homeport: Mount Pleasant Owner: Patriots Point Developmen t Authority; 803-884-2727

#BB-59 ( 1942- 1962) Vessel Type: Battleship Homeport: Fall Ri ver Owner: USS Massachusetts Memorial; 508-678- 1I 00

#WHEC-37 ( 1936) Vessel Type: Coast Guard Cutter Homeport: Baltimore

South Carolina USCGC Samuel D. Ingham

USS Laffey

USS Massachusetts

Maryland USCGC Roger B. Taney

Vessel Type: Submarine Homeport: Pittsb urgh Owner: Carn egie; 412-237-1550

Oklahoma USS Batfish #SS-310 ( 1943- 1972) Vessel Type: Subm arine Homeport: Muskogee Owner: Muskogee War Memorial Park ; 9 18-682-6294

Pennsylvania USS Becuna #SS-3 19 ( 1944-1969) Vessel Type: Submarine Homeport: Philadelphia Owner: Cruiser Olympia Association; 215-922-1898

USS Requin #SS-481 ( 1945-1971)

#CV-10 ( 1945- 1973) Vessel Type: Aircraft Carri er Homeport: Mount Pleasant Owner: Patri ots Point Development Authority; 803-884-2727

Texas USS Cavalla #AGSS-244 ( 1943- 1969) Vessel Type: Submarine Homeport: Galveston Owner: Seawolf Park; 409-7445738

USS Lexington #AVT- 16 (1942- 199 1) Vessel Type: Aircraft Carrier Homeport: Corpu s Chri sti Owner: Lady Lex Museum On the Bay Association; 512-8884873

USS Stewart #DE-238 ( 1943-1972) Vessel Type: Destroyer Escort Homeport: Galveston Owne r: Seawolf Park Board; 409-763-6564

USS Texas #BB-35 ( 19 14- 1948) Vessel Type: Battleship Homeport: Laport Owner: Texas Parks And Wildlife Department; 7 13-479-243 1

Wisconsin USS Cobia #AGSS-245 (1943-1970) Vessel Type: Submarine Homeport: Manitowoc Owner: Manitowoc Maritime Museum; 414-684-0218 Sources: Nation al Park Serv ice, Nationa l Maritime Initi at ive, History Division (4 18) , PO Box 37 127 , Washington DC 200 137127; Historical Naval Sh ips Association, 4640 Hoylake Drive, Virginia Beach VA 23462

17

MODELMAKER'S CORNER

Building a Model of the

Sea Cloud

by Thomas E. Adams he four-masted bark Sea Cloud was ordered by E. F. Hutton as a wedding gift for hi s bride, Marjorie Merriweather Post. The vessel was designed by Gibbs and Cox of New York , built by Krupp Germaniawerft of Kiel , Germany, and launched in 1931 as the Hussar , the largest sailing yacht of its time. After their divorce, Mrs. Hutton kept the vessel, renaming it Sea Cloud.

My deci sion to build a model of the Sea Cloud led me on a three-year search for plan s, photographs and other information needed to make the model accurate. Bear in mind that I did this as an amateur, so I got in touch with Peter Stanford of the NMHS and with Richard "Red " Shannon, captain of the Sea Cloud, for help in locating the information I sought. Eventually, I was able to get in touch with Captain Bodo Franz, superintendent of Reederi Nord, Germany , who sent me builder's plans of the vessel.

The mode l is scaled at 5/32"=! foot, which gives it a total length of 56 3/~ inches. The hull is plank on fram e, the cabins are mahogany , both solid and veneer over plywood. Many of the fittings had to be made by hand ; others were purchased from Dromedary Shipmodelers, Bluejacket Shipcrafters, and other mode lers supply houses. The beautiful eagle fi gurehead had to be specially carved. Since wood carving isn 't one of my tal ents, I enli sted a good friend , Howard Benge, a woodcarver from Ocean City, New Jersey , to help out. He produced a beautiful replica from black walnut, which l gold leafed and mounted on the bow .

Another friend, Carl Straubmuller, he lped with research, bringing me numerous illustrated articles about the Sea Cloud. But I wo uldn ' t have been able to re produce the detail of the ship without onboard , close up photograph s. These were kindly provided by Norman J. Brouwer, ship hi storian at the South Street Seaport Museum , who crossed the Atlantic from Antigua to Spain aboard

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Th e Sea C loud , on which NMHS members make regular cruises , celehrared her60rh hirrhday in 199 1.A real working ship .she is manned by an inrernarional crew ofyoung men and women eager ro learn rhe ways of rradirional seafaring, and she also mainrains rhe life-style of a vanished era in yachring--an era of grace and refinemenr. Mr. Adams' s model shows rhe vessel as she looked several years ago , hearing a /Jla ck hand on her ropsides and carrying a rradirional four-sided mizzen course, which has sin ce heen replaced wirh a rriangular sail.

the Sea Cloud a few years ago.

I started this project on 8 October 1989 and completed it ten months later, on 7 August 1990. I estimate it took 1,230 hours to build this complex fourmasted bark; because I am retired , I can put considerable time into building models. I can say to all who are retired or soon plan to be-modelmaking is a pleasurable pasttime. To me there is nothing more gratifying than to create something with your mind and hands. I would suggest first trying a kit of lesser complexity and working up to scratch-built models of your own. You won ' t be sorry! .:t

Mr. Adams served durin g World War II in the 878th Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division building gliders in England.

He spent most of his career doing custom carpentry. Now retired in Linwood , New Jersey , he enjoys boating and building models.

This article is excerpted ji"om a full description of Mr. Adams' s building of the Sea Cloud model. Anyone wanting a copy of the full text ( 12 typewritten pages describing materials and methods used) can send $2 and a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Managing Editor.Sea History.

SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

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fjoshua Sfocum A Look Beyond the Voyage

By David W. Johnston

The Spray and her famous skipper in South American waters , 1895. Photo courtesy Old Dartmouth Historical Society-New Bedford Whaling Museum.

n April 24, 1895 an extraordinary man set sail from Boston, Massachusetts, and ultimately set hi s mark on the world of sailing and the world ofl iterature. Captain Joshua Slocum is undoubtedly one of the great pioneers in the use of small sailboats for long ocean voyages. However, the literary contribution made by this self-educated man is, in many ways, just as remarkable.

At the age of ten Joshua Slocum's formal education was ended by the need to work in his father's boot shop in Westport, Nova Scotia. Living in a port town and coming from seafaring stock put the desire for a life at sea into Joshua at an early age. The foul smelling, tedious , confining work of a boot shop did two things for Joshua. First, it intensified an already strong desire to escape to sea; second, it instilled in him an en during work ethic that would see him through to hi s ambitious goals. In retrospect Joshua grew to value the iron-fisted way in which he had to work for his father, as evidenced in the first lines of his celebrated book Sailing Alone Around the World: In the.fa ir land of Nova Scotia, a maritime province, there is a ridge called North Mountain , overlooking the Bay of Fundy on one side and the.fertile Annapolis Valley on the other. . . The people of this coast, hardy, robust, and strong, are disposed to compete in the world of commerce, and it is nothing against the master mariner if the birthplace mentioned on his certificate be Nova Scotia.

Even by today's standard Joshua Slocum's rise from obscure, humble circumstances to the pinnacle of his chosen profession is amazing. After hi s mother died, Joshua, at theage of 16, finally ran away to the sea. He hired on as a foremast hand on a ship bound for Dublin and wou ld not see Westport again until he sailed the Spray there, 35 years later.

Instead of wasting his time and money in port as most seamen of the day did , Slocum made a determined effort to learn all he could about the sea, ships , navigation , and everything else related to being the master of a ship. By the time he was 25 , Slocum had sailed all over the world and had become an American citizen and the master of a coasting schooner sa iling between San Francisco and Seattle. Over the next twenty years Captain Slocum was the master and, sometimes, owner of several important merchant sailing ships.

My best command was that of the magnificent ship Northern Light, of which I was part-owner. I had a right to he

0

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proud of her,for at that time- in the eighties- she was the fin est American sailing-vessel afloat.

If any fault can be found in Slocum's business sense it would be that he cou ld never bring himself to switch from hi s beloved sai l to steam. By the 1880s, the age of sai l was quickly becoming a thing of the past. There had been opportunities to "modernize," but for Slocum it would have meant forsaking all that he held sacred.

In 1882 Slocum bought the bark Aquidneck and started sh ipping cargo up and down the coast of South America. The Aquidneck was the last merchant ship Slocum owned and commanded , and it turned out to be the site of the most personally devastating events of his life. While in Buenos Aires in 1885, his wife Virginia died . She was the love of hi s life, the mother of hi s children , and the willing companion of his voyages. It has been hinted that Virginia 's death was the beginning of the end for Slocum as a sea captain. Eighteen months later Slocum married Henrietta Elli ott-a good woman, but not well su ited to the difficult task of living aboard a merchant ship. Then, in 1887, Slocum was forced to shoot two sai lors to stop a mutiny. After a trial in Brazil he was acquitted. A few months later the Aquidneck went aground near Rio de Janeiro and, because the sh ip was not insured, Slocum lost everything.

Ever resourceful and too prideful to seek hardship passage from the US Consul in Brazil , Slocum set to work to build a boat to return his family to the US. The Liberdade was part Cape Ann dory and part sampan-Slocum liked to refer to it as a canoe. In thi s 35-foot, virtually open boat Slocum managed to sa il Hettie, two of his sons, and him self from Brazil to Washington DC. After this adventure in 1888, Slocum, like so many other sea captains of sailing vessels before him, found himself "cast up from old ocean" without means of employment.

It was an unfortunate and undesired situation, but Sloc um was able to transcend the likely outcome of his plight-the status of forgotten sea captain. Even when he was the practica l, successful , and well respected master of ships, Slocum was constantly stretching his mind , seeking knowledge, and reading so as to feed a poetic soul. He always carried and prized hi s large library of books ranging in subjects from Shakespeare to mathematics , from modern novel s to ancient SEA HISTORY 73 , SPRING 1995

Deparring Gihralrar on 25 Augusr 1896 f or Brazil, a de viation ji"om his original plan to proceed up th e Medir erranean and through the Suez Canal ajier being advised of longshore pirates aplenty in those parts, Slocum was nevertheless ser upon by pirates , as depicred in rhis painting by Da vid Johnston. In a sriff breeze, the f ast sailing f elu cca was closing in when a great sea struck both vessels.

Th e Spray's main boom was broken , hut rhe f elu ccafared worse. Dismasred , her pursuit was ended.

classics. It should come as no surprise that his aspiration to be a writer was almost as great as that to remain a sea captain .

Indeed , while he was shipping cargo around the world, he submitted articles and stories to various newspapers whenever the opportunity presented itself.

In 1892, a gift from an old whaling captain, Captain Eben Pierce of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, set into motion the eventual voyage that would forever write Slocum's name in the annals of sailing hi story . The gift from Captain Pierce was the I 00-year-old derelict oyster sloop Spray. In addition, Pierce also financed Slocum during the 13-month rebuilding of the boat. The overriding question for Slocum from his neighbors at this time was "would she pay?" Slocum was never at a loss for confidence that he could make her pay, but he had not, at first, planned an audacious attempt to solo-circumnavigate.

After an occasional whaleship fitting job, a command to deliver the warship Destroyer to Brazil , and an unsuccessful season as a fisherman in the Spray, Slocum resolved to sail around the world . On 24 April he put to sea in the 37-ft, 9-tons net Spray, departing Boston, Massachusetts, for Gloucester to complete the Spray' s fitting out: A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt that there could be no turning back, and I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood. I had taken little advice from any one, for I had a right to my own opinions in matters

pertaining to the sea . ... Waves dancing joyously across Massachusetts Bay met the sloop coming out, to dash themselves instantly into myriads of sparkling gems that hung about her breast at every surge . The day was pe1fect, the sunlight clear and strong. Every particle of water thrown into the air became a gem , and the Spray, making good her name as she dash ed ahead, snatched necklace after necklace from the sea , and as often threw them away.

We have all seen miniature rainbo ws about a ship' s prow, but the Spray flun g out a bow of her own that day, such as I had never seen bef ore. Her good angel had embarked on the voyage; I so read it in the sea.

In matters of seamanship it can be argued that Captain Slocum was one of the ablest, and his 30-plus years of experience held him in good stead during the three years and two months it took to circumnavigate. It has been written that his passage through the Straits of Magellan is one of the three greatest passages through that storm-tossed area. The other two passages were those made by Ferdinand Magellan and Sir Francis Drake.

Night closed in bef ore the sloop reached the land, lea ving her f eeling the way in pitchy darkness. I saw breakers ahead before long. At this I wore ship and stood offsh ore, but was immediately startled by the tremendous roaring of breakers again ahead and on the lee bow . . . . In this way , among dan gers , I spent the rest of the night. Hail and sleet

Ar left , the Liberdade at the end of her voyage.

The photo ar righr was probably raken on the same occasion as rh e one on page 20. Nore the large American fla g in a heap atop rh e cabin.

OLO DARTMOUTH HI STORI CAL SOC IET Y- NEW BEDFORD WH A LI NG M US.

SEA HISTORY 73 , SPRING 1995

21

"It was Fury Island I had sighted and steered for, and what a panorama was before me now and all

around! ... This was the greatest sea adventure of my life. God knows how my vessel escaped." in the fie rce squalls cul my flesh until the blood trickled over my face; but what ofthat? It was daylight, and the sloop was in the midst of th e Milky Way of the sea, which is northwest of Cape Horn , and it was th e white breakers of a huge sea over sunken rocks which threatened to engulf her through th e night. It was Fury Island I had sighted and steered f or, and what a panorama was before me now and all around! . . . This was th e greatest sea adventure of my life. God knows how my vessel escaped.

Even though it is ev id ~ nt through Slocum 's writings that he had an idea li stic and even a romantic fee ling toward the voy age, hi s practical side was also instrumental in deciding to ve nture off and do what no one had done before. Prior to leav ing Boston, Slocum had arranged with a syndicate of ne wspapers to submit travel letters to help support the expe nses of the voyage. Travel letters by Samuel C lemens (ali as Mark Twain) and others were popul ar with readers of the day and thi s fact influenced Slocum to try thi s method to " make her pay." The only problem was that after a lifetime of being the mas te r of hi s many voyages he could not or would not accommodate a desire from the publi shers to make a speedy and well defined circumnavigation. The travel letters ended shortl y afte r arri val in South America and S locum ac tuall y seemed somewhat relieved that the voyage was fin all y unencumbered by schedules and requirements from outsiders and preconce ived notions. The voyage was altogether hi s own now.

A lways an entrepreneur, Slocum was very resourceful and, at times, very fortunate as he worked hi s way around the world .

For instance, while transiting the Straits of Magellan for the second time Slocum came upon a wreck full of tallow . After sa lving the tallow he was able to sell much of it for antique and odd coins of all denomination s on Juan Fernandez island . He made a decent profit by selling the coin s later to antiquaria ns.

Another way that Slocum was able to finance hi s voyage was givi ng talks to crowds of interested people wherever he came to port. And then there was the large shark that Slocum killed in Melbourne, Australia, that he put on di splay for those who paid the admi ss ion fee.

It was ironic and somewhat sad th at Slocum 's voyage was followed more c lose ly and with more enthusiasm by other countries than it was by the US . Everyw here he went, espe-

c iall y in Australia and South Africa, he was received as an important celebrity and many of the port fees and refitting ex penses were offered free of charge.

The Spray shed her Joseph's coat, the Fuego mainsail , in Sydney, and wearing a new suit , the handsome present of Commodore Foy , she was the fla gship of the Johnstone' s Bay Flying Squadron when the circumnavigators ofSydney harbor sailed in their annual regatta. They "recognized" th e Spray as belonging to "a club of her own," and with more Australian sentiment than fast idiousness gave her credit for her record.

A lifetime of adventu re, perseverance, and stri ving again st all odds gave Slocum an ability to remain calm under pressure.

Thi s calmness and matter-of-factness pervaded hi s who le persona and allowed him to thoroughl y enjoy the adventures , the quiet of a calm sea, as we ll as the many new fri ends and scenes he saw while touring the world. Through hi s unfretful eye Slocum could see the practical and the poetic and thi s gave hi s writing a quality all hi s own.

Seals playing about the Spray all day , before th e breeze came, looked with large eyes when , at evening, she sat no longer like a lazy bird with fo lded wings . They parted company now, and the Spray soon sailed the highest peaks of the mountains out of sight , and the world changed from a mere panoramic view to th e light of a homeward-bound voyage .... The wind was from th e southeast; this suited the Spray well , and she ran along steadily at her best speed, while I dipped into the new books given me at the cape, reading day and night . March 30 was for me a fast-day in honor of them. I read on , oblivious of hunger or wind or sea , thinking that all was going well , when suddenly a comber rolled over the stern and slopped saucily into the cabin , wetting th e very book I was reading. Evidently it was time to put in a reef, that she might not wallow on her course .

Even though Slocum was not totall y at ease with shore life, he was content as long as he was building something that wo uld take him to sea. Severa l times during his career he purposefull y set about to practice another trade that he as pired to master: shipbuilding. Shortl y after getting hi s citizenship in San Francisco, Slocum we nt into business building sa lmon

1,001 Sprays:

A new book on Spray replicas by R. Bruce Roberts-Goodson, a designer of boats for amateur builders, will be released this spring. Roberts-Goodson estimates that over 1,000 known replicas and Spray types have been built worldwide since 1902 , and he has had a hand in the design of a good many of them. For 25 years he has been designing Spray replicas.

Spray- The Ultimate Crui sing Boat is a history of these boats and a chronicle of design changes. The most common change ?

"To increase the vessel' s draft," says Roberts-Goodson. Th e original Spray had good stability and a minimum of inside ballast, but her windward pe1formance was somewhat restricted by her shallow draji. According to Roberts-Goodson, many builders An artist's rendering of the original Spray ,from Spray-The Ultimate Cru ising Boat, available from Bruce Roberts Ltd. , PO Box 1086 , Severna Park MD 2 11 46. have elected to add 12 inches or so to the draft to improve windward ability.

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SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

Adversity for him was not something to complain about, it was something to overcome.

(

fi shing boats that improved upon the popular design of the day.

Years later, while coasting cargo around the South China Sea, Slocum took a year off in the Philippines to build a steam ship hull on commi ss ion . Ironicall y, in return for hi s labors he received ownership of a schooner.

The rebuilding of the Spray mi ght be looked upon as a sign of desperation: desperation to return to the sea under sail no matter how small the boat and no matter what the reason; or desperation to escape the depress ing aspects of financial failure and personal unhappiness . Captain Slocum never verbalized many of these sentiments and one could hardl y have expected him to. Adversity for him was not something to complain about, it was something to overcome.

Modern day voyagers can look back and speculate what it meant to Slocum to be the first man to sail around the world alone. Surely he understood the significance of hi s achievement and rightfully took pride in accomplishing something so unique. But somewhere out there in the middle of the voyage the fame mu st have become secondary-while sing ing to the porpoi ses, whil e frantica ll y rac ing pirates off Gibraltar, whil e visiting with Mrs. Robert Loui s Stevenson in the Pac ifi c, whil e climbing the mas t to escape a rogue wave off Patagonia, while lazil y reading in the calm Sargasso Sea, or while do ing a thousand other pleasurable and not so pleasurable things in the environment that provided him hi s greatest triumphs and hi s greatest challenges.

The sloop was now drawing near the limits of the tradewind, and the strong breeze that had carried her with free sheets the many thousands of miles from Sandy Cape, Australia,fe /l lighter each day until October 30, when it was altogether calm , and a motionless sea held her in a hushed world. I fu rled the sails at evening, sat do wn on deck, and enjoyed the vast stillness of the night.

*

*

* *

New Bedford Exhibit a Close Look at Slocum's Voyage What must it have been like to travel 45 ,000 miles around the world on avessel the size of the Spray? Readers of Joshua Slocum' s Sailing Alone Around th e Wo rld have glimpsed the practicalities of such a voyage, but three years is a long time to be aboard a mere 36-ft vessel. A new centennial exhibit opening at the New Bedford Whaling Museum on 24 April will take this perspective on the legendary voyage. As an inside-out look at Slocum's circumnavigation, the exhibit will attempt to convey life aboard the Spray as well as detailing the route of the voyage.

The museum, located across the river from Fairhaven, where Slocum rebuilt the Spray, has drawn heavily on a unique resource: the collection of Slocum biographer Walter Magnes Teller, which was given to the museum by the Joshua SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

After Sailing Alone Around the World was publi shed, and the unheard-of feat became an establi shed fac t, Sloc um drew earnings from ex hibiting and lecturing, and fro m royalti es and bookse lling. Thi s was enough to allow him in 1902 to buy a small property on Martha's Vineyard, where he tried fa rming.

He is kno wn to have called the property, which today stands near to the vill age of West Ti sbury, "Rudder Ranch" on occas ion, but hi s wife Hettie c laimed he usuall y referred to it as " Fag End ." The term refers to an unl aid end of ro pe, and it was a common term in sailing circles to denote a worthless bit of nothing. It is no surpri se then that Slocum tired of life as hore a little more than two years later and, leav ing Hettie to the hou se, moved back aboard the Spray.

In the earl y 1900s he could generall y be fo und aboard the sloop often moored in nearby Menemsha Cove or anc hored in one of the many harbors and anchorages in Buzzards Bay and Nantucket Sound . Three winters Sl oc um sail ed the Spray south to the Caribbean, often headquartering in the Cayman Islands. Hi s departure for warmer waters fo r a fo urth time in November 1909 was hi s last. He di sappeared at sea and was neve r heard of aga in . Theori es abo und as to his fate, but, as Walter Tell er, hi s biographer writes: "Wherever he went or how, he rema in s kni g ht and squire of the spi rit of sea-go in g Yankee ism .... A courageou s and te nac io us co nfro nte r of li fe ... he had led, not a comfortabl e life , pe rh aps, but o ne l fro m whi c h he demanded meanin g."

Writer and artist David Johnston has produced a series of seven prints for the Joshua Slocum Society dep icting moments of Slocum's voyage. These are availablefrom Turnstone Gallery, 105 Turnstone Ct., Huntsville AL 35824, 1 800 461-6599.

* Slocum Society in 199 1. Teller began his inquiries in 1952 while living in Martha's Vineyard, and visited Slocum ' s second wife Hettie living in nearby West Tisbury , then in her ninetieth year. Photographs, letters, consular di spatches and newspaper articles collected by Teller from throughout the world are arrayed in the exhibit.

To show the ship 's cramped quarters, curator Judy Lund has installed a mockup of the Spray's cabin bunk and a hull model crafted by shipbuilder Peter Duff.

Other items include a model of Spray made by Slocum 's son , Benjamin Aymar Slocum, and donated to the museum in 1953 , and an oil study painted by Fairhaven artist Charles Henry Gifford that shows Spray as a derelict in 1889.

The exhibit will also include recent paintings by David Johnston depicting seven scenes from Sailing Alone Around the World. The Whaling Muse um is located at 18 Johnny Cake Hill , New Bedford MA 02740; 508 997-0046.

Slocum Societies On 22 April , the Joshua Slocum Society¡ (US) held a reception at the USS Consti tution Mu seum as part of its Slocum commemoration. The fo llowing day a re-enactment of Slocum 's departure from Boston was he ld and furth er activ ities are planned. The Society, fo unded in 1955 by Richard Gordon McCloskey, records, encourages and supports longdi stance passages in small boats. Famil y membership is $30. Contact Ted Jones , 15 Codfi sh Hill Road Ex t. , Bethe l CT 0680 I; 203 790-66 16.

The Sloc um Soci ety (Europe) is planning a rendezvous in England, Portugal , the Azores and Gibraltarduring the summer of 1995, fo llowed by a round-theworld crui se. Membership in the recently organi zed soc iety is open to all those interested in Slocum or the Spray. Annual overseas family membership isÂŁ25.

Contact Andrew Bishop, 24 Kingsley Road , Wimbl edon , London SW 19 8HF; 011 44 8 1 543-7245 .

23

I

REPRODUCED WIT H T HE PERMI SS ION OF TH E T RUSTEES OF T HE ULSTER MUSEU M

Kenneth Shoesmith Merchant Sailor and Marine Artist

By Martyn Anglesea

L

ate in 1974, the Ul ster Museum in Be lfas t received fr om the ex ecutors of the late Mrs. Sarah Shoesmith the offer of a bequest of pictures by her husband, who had di ed in 1939. On inves tigating thi s offer, it was fo und that M rs. Shoesmith 's large house at Marino on the shores of Be lfas t Lough contained a very large quantity of wo rk by a remarkable arti st, whose name had all but sun k into obli vion. In addition to about two hundred paintings, mostl y in watercolor, there was a mass of graphic mate ri al, posters, postcard s, leafl ets, menu cards, designer's layo uts, sketchbooks and the like-presumabl y the entire contents of hi s studio, practica ll y unto uched since the time of hi s death thirty-fi ve years before.

The fac ts about Shoesmith began qui ckl y to crys talli ze: he was an arti st who had fo rmerl y been a seaman; he had wo rked a great deal fo r the Royal Mail 24

Line and fo r Southern Rai lways; and he had painted some large decorati ve mura ls on board the Queen Mary. Also he was complete ly self- taught.

Born in Yorkshire, Shoesmith was bro ught up in Blac kpoo l, where as a boy he fo ll owed a correspondence course organi zed by T. R. Ablett of the Royal Drawing Soc iety from 1902 to 1908. " I have been fo nd of draw ing ever since I was o ld eno ugh to ho ld a penc il ," Shoesmith to ld a newspaper correspondent in 1936. " In fac t, it was my craze for draw ing shi ps that made me adopt the sea as a profess ion . . .. I was sent to that uni versity of so many fi ne sail ors, the tra ining ship Conway." From 1906 to 1909, S hoesmi th was a cadet on HMS Conway, a surviv ing wooden-wall ed battleship, then based at Rock Ferry near Bi rkenhead. " In those days the Mersey affo rded an end less pageant of lovely ships," reca lled Shoesmith , "and most of

my leisure on the Conway was spent in watching them and try ing to get them down in my sketch book."

Even at thi s early age hi s work did not go unnoticed. Ablett ev ide ntl y regarded him as one of hi s most talented charges.

Ab lett later wro te in a Royal Draw ing Soc iety publication, dated 19 11 : " Hi s work has bee n mu c h ad mi re d b y p rofess iona l sa i Io rs, admi ra ls, fl aglie utenants, and the li ke, because he is so true to nature, and one has onl y to examine carefull y the sw ish of the water prod uced by the fas t-mov ing vessel, to see how c lose is hi s observation of mov ing ag itated sea, and how fac ile he is in descript ion."

In 1909 he joined the Roya l Mail Company as aju niorofficeraboard RMS Avon. Now, in his own words, he "had an even wider scope. In the harbors of the Far East and at sea in the No rth and South Atlanti c I was constantl y excited SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

Opposite page, "Ships in a Mediterranean Harbour ," 191 8, watercolor. During his years at sea , Shoesmith was constantly excited hy the sighr of strange crafr in exotic harbors. RMS Magde lena is pictured here in what is rhought to he Algiers.

Above, "HMS Conway on the Mersey, with the Mauretania," warercolor. Shoesrnith was a cadet aboard Conway. "Jn those days the Mersey afforded an endless pageant of lovely ships," recalled Shoesmith, who labored to "get them down "in his sketch hook.

by the sight of strange craft. More often (all on the Southampton-South America home and the Depress ion. Shoesmith , than not my watch be low would be spent route; Araguaya, Avon (both crui sing when a you ng officer, had in fac t met hi s with pencil and sketch book in some from New York to Bermuda and other wife on just such a crui se before the First snugcornerofthedeck. " Already he was W est Indi an islands); and Orea (on a World War. She was the youngest daughan able and prolific marine watercolor M editerranean crui se in 1927). Other ter of a wealthy Belfast shipowner, Thopainter in a sty le related to W. L. Wyllie work included publicity material for mas Ritchie.

Shoesmith was also an easel painter, Cunard and Blue Funnel Line. This was (1 851 - 195 1),Norman Wilkinson (18781971) and Charl es Dixon ( 1872-1934 ). followed in 1930 with art for Canadian sometimes in oil , and was elected a memHav ing been promoted to Chief Of- Pacific's fleet of Empress and Duchess ber of the Royal Institute of Painters in ficer in the Mercantile Marine during liners and , in the early 1930s, publicity for Water-Colour in 1926. He also had onethe First World W ar, Shoesmith had to the RMS steamers Arcadian and Atlantis. man show s in Liverpool and ex hibited at the Royal Academy and the Pari s cu rb hi s hobby, but when the war ended he wanted to paint full-time , so "Familiar as I am with navigating Salon. In 1935 Shoesmith designed a card advertising the Royal Naval Regave up the sea.

Shoesmith no w became a profes- instruments, I never draw them from view at Sp ithead and in the same year sional commerc ial artist and started memory. Seamen and old travelers are he did two illustrati ons for The King's to celebrate the sil ver jubilee of nearly twenty years of close collabothe severest critics of technical details Book George V. Then in 1936 came the ration with the publicity department of the Royal Mail Company. Hi s art in maritiJne matters ...." crowning point of Shoesmith 's career-he was comm issioned to paint became more posterish. He began to The amount of graphic work designed mural s for the new C unarder, the Queen use tinted papers and adapt hi s technique towards econom y of design with relation by Shoesmith for such crui ses was con- Mary.

Shoesmith found himself in good to these colored backgrounds. The first siderabl e. It inc luded, bes ides posters, poster he did for the Company showed press advert iseme nt s, information company. After much determination , the an aerial view of the upper decks of RMS leafl ets and the like, menus, programs architects B. Y. Morris (who designed Almanzora , which had then returned to for daily and special events , passenger the C un ard building on Broadway) and the South American route after be ing li sts, picture postcards, playing cards Arthur Dav is of London assembled a used for war service. The poster was and other souvenirs. The menus are lavi sh team of thirty arti sts in various media to received as "quite novel and outstand- but unadventurous, very English in char- provide decorations which would make ing" and it opened the way for the hun- acter. The backs of the menus were re- the ship a floating art ga llery. Shoesmith dreds of designs Shoesmith subsequentl y served for autogra ph s of the captain and was commi ss ioned for mural s in the two other exc iting people one might meet. Catholi c chapels, 1st cl ass and tourist made for the Royal Mail Company.

In the 1920s hi s work included graph- Such was the atmosphere of the great class , and the tourist class writing room.

For the tourist writing room he painted ics fo r th e RMS liners Astu ria s, days of crui sing-a Noel Coward ex istAlcantara , Andes, Arlanza, Alman zora e nce for three weeks to forget about two octagonal panels recalling England 's SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

25

"Richard Hakluyt Recording the Voyages of the Elizabethan Sailors, " oil on canvas, painted f or the tourist class Writing Room on the Queen Mary.

"Madonna of the Tall Ships," oil on canvas , painted fo r the / st Class Drawing Room on the Queen Mary. Pictures on th is page courtesy of the Trustees of the Ulster Museum.

mant1me pas t-"Ri chard Hak luyt The crowning point of Shoesrnith' s ca- his days at sea. He was always conscious of the fac t that his figure drawrecording the voyages of the Eli zareer came in 1936--he w as commis- ing was defi cient, and continued to bethan sa ilors" and "Samue l Pepys sioned to paint murals for the new attend life classes at the Royal Instiat the Roya l Dockyard , Deptfo rd ." tute almost until his death.

Both were aimed , in hi s own words, Cunarder, the Queen Mary.

He had no time, however, for art "at interesting the passe ngers in the school practice or for modern critics. romanti c evo luti on of seafaring, of Indeed, when a bitter dispute arose over which the Queen Mary is the latest magC unard ' s rejection of Duncan Grant ' s nificent development. " mu rals fo r the Queen Mary' s I st class The Ist class altarpiece " Madonna of lounge, Shoesmith entered the fray on the Atlantic," was Shoesmith 's own idea: Cunard 's side. Cunard chairman Sir Percy " I was in the company's offices when they Bates, on viewing Grant 's commission, offered me the opportunity and I got the had brusquely commanded: " Well , you rough design out in one night. I rather know what you can do with those-give feared that the innovation of giving the them to the blind school! " In Grant 's Madonna and Child a seafaring interest defense, the critic Clive Bell wrote an might not be approved, but as it happened article in The Listener attacking the decothey we re de li ghted ." The altarpi ece rati o ns th a t had bee n acce pte d. presented some difficulties. It was painted Shoesmith ' s response to Bell was a letter on a can vas 5 by 7 feet which had to be criticizing Bell "and the little world of covered with gold leaf by the " mosaic" incompetence fo r whom , apparentl y, he process which was known to only a handful speaks," published in The Listener on 6 of gilders. Onl y real gold leaf would May 1936. Shoesmith 's comments perwithstand the atmosphere of the sea, but haps reflect a loya lty to his first profession painting onto the gold leaf requi red that no as much as they did his personal tastes.!, Bil! . detail be altered. The Madonna 's halo was Shoesmith in his studio with the "Main the fo rm ofa huge compass incorporatdonna of the Atlantic" f or rhe Queen Mary, ing the Papal tiara and keys, while at the 1936.

Martyn Anglesea is Keeper of Fine Art at feet of the Madonna ranged a complete set of nav igating instruments, sextant, tele- one of the unique acquisitions of the Ul- the Ulster Museum in Belfast, and the scope, charts, dividers, chronometer, and ster Museum in the last thirty years, re- curator of the museum' s 1977 exhibit of a globe. " Familiar as I am with navigating markable as much in its completeness as Shoesmith work that toured museums in instruments," said Shoesmith , " I never its richness. It cannot be denied that Li verpoo l, Hull , So uthampton and draw them from memory. Seamen and old Shoesmith was a successful arti st, but he Glasgow. travelers are the severest critics of technical can be remembered fo r the modest regard details in maritime matters; they would be he held fo r himself. " He struck no atti- The U Isler Museum has a limited number spec ially hard on inaccuracies committed tudes, and adopted no poses" and was of calendar-sized prints of Shoesmith' s by an ex-sailor. " content to paint what he was interested in, work a vailable-write Ulster Mu seum , The Shoesmith collection is certainl y and thi s was unquestionably a legacy of Botan ic Gardens, Belfast BT9 5A B UK.

26

SEA HI STORY 73, SPRING 1995

1

300 Years of Service "Your staunch pilot boats are always ready in storm and fog, and it takes skill, courage and long years of experience to carry on this important and hazardous work so necessary to our commerce.

I congratulate you on your remarkable record..."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

201 EDGEWATER ST. , STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. 10305 â&#x20AC;˘ 718-448-3900

MARINE ART NEWS "A Floating Gallery": New Book and Exhibit on RMS Queen Mary Art When the Queen Mary sa iled on her maiden voyage in 1936, she was the ultimate ocean liner- the largest, fas test, and grandest. Lav ishl y adorned by a team of more than thirty arti sts and artisans, she was heralded as hav ing more

prov ided accent and an imation.

T he ex hibition mo un ted by Hi ppodrome last year is now permanentl y installed in the new Promenade Gallery on the Queen Mary moored in Long Beach.

The Art of the RMS Queen Mary is avail able fro m Hippodrome Gall eri es at 628 Alami tos A venue, Long Beach CA 90802 fo r $35 pl us $4 s&h.

The Compleat Model Competition

"Dressed Overall at the Quay," oil on canvas, by Edward Wadsworth.

art aboard than many museums possessed. Onl y recently has thi s art been systematicall y catalogued, a wo rk undertaken by Hippodro me Ga ll eri es in Long Beach that has res ul ted in an ex hi bition and a beautifull y prod uced catalogue, Th e Art of the Queen Ma ry.

A key concept in the constructi on of the Queen Mary was that she be "A ll Britain 's Job." Thi s mandate was reflected in the selecti on of art, and a wide and di spara te group of arti sts was commi ss ioned. The result: a ship laden with art- bron ze and wood scu lptures, oi ls, waterco lors -in themes mytho logica l, animal, fl oral, maritime and more.

Hippodrome's 63- page catalog celebrates thi s rich boun ty with 47 color and 54 bl ack-and-w hite illustrations of the indi vidual pi eces and the settings in which they were placed. T he book includes a biography of eac h arti st and an introduction by Doug las M. Hinkey , who does an admi ra ble job of pl ac ing the decorati ve style of the Queen Ma ry.

While her art showed little of the fl air of the Moderne on the Continent, it had one great qu ality, says Hinkey: it blended beautifull y aga inst a backdrop of fine and rare woods and striking ly des igned carpets, upho lsteries , and curtains th at 28

Imag ine rowi ng skiffs, ocean li ne rs, sleek des troyers , tugs and topsa i I schooners, a Viki'ng longshi p and a Cataloni an nao and many more fi ne ly-crafted vesse ls all in one place at one time, and all in excellent condition ! " Not poss ible! " yo u say. B ut adjust yo ur ex pectati ons to the right scale, say 1/4 scale or less, and anything is poss ible-it happens regularl y at T he Mariners' Museum "Scale Ship Mode l Competition & Exhibition."

The event, las t he ld in 199 1, is the nati on 's premier ship mode l competi tion and thi s year 's, the fo urth , is attrac ting a record number of entra nts.

Organi zation of the competiti on is the work of T he Mariners' senior curator Alan Frazer, and the j urists are: Dana Wegner, c urator of ship mode ls fo r the Sea Systems Comm and, US Navy; Rob Na pier, a profess io na l mode lm ake r and editor of Nautical Research Journal; and W illi am D. W ilkinson, di rec tor emeritus of The Mariners ' M useum and a shipmode ler himself. Among the honors g iven are spec ial awards fro m the US

Roh Napier and John Tilley j udging a model in the 199 1 Ship Model Competition.

Coast G uard, the US Navy, Newport News Ship buil ding, the Steamship Hi stori ca l Soc iety of America, and the Na utica l Research G uild. Once the judges have their say, the wi nning entri es and a

numbe r of other exemplary mode ls wi ll be on di s pl ay fro m 17 June to 28 October. (The Mariners' M useum , 100 M useum Dri ve, Newport News VA 23606; 804 596-2222)

Art Notes " It' s a ra re situation that yo u have more buyers than paintings," says Richard Kirste n, proprietor of Kirsten Ga ll ery in Seattle. That's Kirsten's happy pro bl em as he m a kes his gall ery ready fo r the 23 March to 25 April Mark Mye rs show.

"To the North west: Earl y Ex ploration and Trade" is the second in Myers' threepart seri es foc using on the North west.

T he first show of the series was held in 1992, and a nu mber of the paintings were pub lished in Sea History 6 1, Spring

" eva crosses Sitka Sound , Sept. 18, 1804 ," by Mark Myers, watercolor.

1992. Kirsten spec ul ates that if Myers didn ' t put so much research into the paintings, he wo uld have enough fo r everybody, bu t concedes that "far more than half of prospecti ve buyers are especially interested in the hi storica l as pects of Mye rs' paintings ." Kirsten will fo llow the Mye rs show with the bi-annual "Northwest Marine Ex hibiti o n," 25 June-3 September, the fo remost showcase fo r No rthwest marine painters.

(Ki rs ten Gallery, Inc ., 5320 Roosevelt Way, NE, Seattle, Washington 98 105) Russell Jini shi an, fo rmer director of Mystic M aritime Ga llery, has set up a new shop. Jini shi an las t year teamed up with the G reenwich Works hop Publi shing Company of G reenwich, Connecti c ut, to start Bi g Horn Ga ll ery. While the gall ery spec iali zes in mo re than just marine art-w ildlife, Ameri cana and Western s ubjects are shown- Jini shian is still bi g on boats and continues to SEA HI STORY 73, SPRING 1995

lecture on marine art.

Considering the purchase of a fine marine oil, model or sculpture? Quester Gallery makes any such consideration a li ttle eas ier with its new fu ll-size catalogue. Maritime Masters: Fine Paintings of the 19th and 20th Centuries features over 70 of the gallery's prese nt holdings , with images large enough to affo rd some appreciation of the original.

Avai labl e for $ 12, shipping included, from Quester Gallery, PO Box 466, Stonington CT 06378.

KH

Exhibitions • Through 30 June, Etched in Idle Hours, a scrimshaw exhibit of 100 pieces.

Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Mu seum, Main Street, Cold Spring Harbor NY 11 724; Sl6 367-3418.

• Through 2S June l 99S (held over) , Anton io Jacobsen's Painted Ships on Painted Oceans. The Mariners' Museum , lOOMuseumDri ve,NewportNews VA 23606; 804 S96-2222.

•Through Labor Day I 99S, A Window Back: Photography in a Whaling Port.

New Bedford Whaling Mu seum , 18 Johnny Cake Hill , New Bedford MA 02740; S08 997 -0046.

• 19 January- 2 1 May , Ram Bows & Ironclads: Warship Paintings of Ian Marshall at the Maine Maritime Museum , 243 Washington Street, Bath M E 04S30; 207 443- 13 16.

• 7 April- 14 January 1996, The Evolution of Marine Painting 1800-1940 at Maine Maritime Museum, 243 Washington Street, Bath ME 04S30; 207 443- 13 16.

• 9 April- IO September, Modern Marine Masters. Mystic Maritime Gal lery, Mystic CT; 203 S72-8S24.

• I May- 3 1 October, Southwestern Regional ASMA Exhibition , held on The Star of India at the San Diego Maritime Mu seum . American Society of Ma rine Arti sts, 1461 Cathy's Lane, North Wal es PA I94S4; 2 1S 283-0888.

• 17 June- 28 October, Scale Ship Model Co mpetition and Exhibition . The Mariners ' Museum , 100 Mu seum Drive, New port News YA 23606; 804 S9S0368.

• 2S J une- 3 September, Northwest Marine Exhibition , featuring the wo rk of SS arti sts. Kirsten Gallery , Inc. , S320 Roosevelt Way, NE, Seattle WA 98 l OS. • 11- 31 Jul y, William G. Muller Exhibition, at the Union League Club, 38 East 37th Street, New York NY. Sponsored by the National Maritime Hi storical Society.

SEA HISTORY 73 , SPRING 199S

A Match Race between "Xara" and "Babboon" in 1888 In a limited edition of3SO Image Size 22" x 14"

RICHARD K. LOUD A.S.M.A. Highly acclaimed maritime artist Richard Loud has earned numerous awards and special mentions for his dramatic paintings. For additional information, a color brochure, or the name of a dealer in your area, please contact: Maritime Heritage Prints • Townhouse 23 • Union Wharf Boston, MA 02109 (617) 227-0112 Fax (617) 227-3899

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Traffiques & Discoveries The First Non-Military Ship Save?

Thanks to Norman Brouwer, NMHS Adv isor and ship historian of South Street Seaport Museum , we learn from the Nautical Gazerre for 1873 (page 389) of what may be the earliest attempt to save a merchant ship for history.

How Many Full-sized Battleships Have Been Built on the Great Lakes?

It may surpri se readers to know that the a nswer is one ! An arti cle by David D. Swayze in Inland Seas (Great Lakes Hi storica l Society) describes thi s unlikely phenomenon :

In 189 1, each of the US Armed Services was asked to set up a display of American military might for the World Co lum bian Exposition, "The Grear World's Fair" in Chicago .

As the prestige branch of the military in those days of "g unboat diplomacy ," the Navy wanted to show off one of the new and revolutionary Indiana-class coastal battleships that it was then building . Of course, it was impossible to bring such a huge vessel up the Welland Canal or the Mississippi to fresh water. In stead, it was decided to build a fu ll-scale replica on the Chicago ware1fronr .

A strange aspect of the project was the construction material selected-the hull and superstru cture were to be fabricated of bricks' Mounted upon pilings, the bottom of her "hull" would just touch the swjace of Lake Michigan.

The Navy spared no expense in making the vessel, dubbed the USS Illinoi s. Th e budget for the hull alone was more than $100,000 , and her dimensions were authentic: 348 feet at the waterline, 69 feet 3 inches beam . Actual flttings-<Irmament (including four 13- inch guns), deck gear, anchors and such-were shipped to Chicago from Philadelphia. Certainly she was the most heavily-armed "building" at the fair.

From the time thefair opened in May of 1893, the vessel was manned by an actual Navy and Marine crew who demonstrated gun , combat and lifeboat drills. The faux "dreadnought" turned our to be one of the most popular attractions. She was also the only "battleship" ever built on the inland seas.

1 Th e faux dreadnought Illinois

The oldest steamer in the world has been presented by her owners to the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. The vessel is named the Industry, is sixty-four tons register, and was laun ched from the building yard of Messrs. John & William Fyfe , of Fairlie, on the Clyde, in 18 14. She was the seventh steamer built on that river. Latterly she has lain sunk in the East India harbor at Greenock, but a few weeks ago she was floated and beached to be caulked thereafter, to proceed to Glasgow , where she will be preserved as a memento of the early days of steam navigation.

A ll that now remains of the Industry is he r e ngine -not her orig ina l eng ine of 18 14, but her replacement engi ne of 1828 (shown at top)-whi c h is on display at the G lasgow Museum of Tran sport. 1

"As you obtained your land from the sea, so should you leave it to the sea" North of the old Potter's Field above Washington Square Park, in Manhattan , Robert Randall's father, a privateer, had left him a farm .... In 180 1, Robert Randall, while writing his will, decided nor to leave the farm to his ti:vo relatives so he turn ed to his attorney, Alexander Hamilton,for advice on its disposition .

Hamilton, being quite the character, quijJped "as you obtained your land from the sea, so should you leave it to the sea." The will stipulated that none of the land was ever to be Reji.1ge at Sailors Sn ug Harbor sold, and a home was to be built for retired sailors, a sailor's Snug Harbor. After a lengthy court battle, the Supreme Court , in 1830, decided the will would stand. Twenty-one acres would stand empty. This land was worth a fortun e even in 1830 and was considered roo valuable to house retired sailors. So they came ro a compromise. Sailors' Snug Harbor was built on Staten Island instead, and rental income of the 21 acres which was the farm made it the wealthiest charity in 19th -century America.

Eventually ( 1974) Sailors' Snug Harbor moved to North Carolina and sold its 1â&#x20AC;˘illage leases.

This pi ece of New York City tri via was provided by B. Trau ss of Ossining, New York , who has publi shed a compi lation of e nterta ining vignettes abo ut famous New York people (from pirates to politicians) and places. Little-Kn own New York is avai lable from the South Street Seaport Museum Shop.

1

SEA HISTORY 73, SPR ING 1995

31

Maritime Highlights of Summer '95 Louisbourg Anniversary Draws Ships, Sailors and Soldiers to 18th-Century Garrison on Cape Breton

International Tall Ships to Race on East Coast

The year is 1995. A sentry dressed in the long buff-colored coat of an I 8th -century French so ldier stands at attention while a ri chl y dressed man wa its beside him to welcome a visitor. To hi s le ft , looking out beyond the ramparts, squareri gged ships fl y the French tricolor and red duster. The fo rtress of Loui sbourg, found ed by the French in 1720 and destro yed by the British in 1760, is still alive in the 20th century.

The sentry and hi s merchant fri end will be one of an estimated 1,5 00 reenac to rs "ga rri soned" at th e reco nstructed fo rtress, 28-30 Jul y, to com-

For seven years the Americas' Sai I organi zati on h as worked to organi ze a tall ships race along the United States midAtl antic coast. Thi s yea r it will happen.

The non- profit group, fo unded to bring together ta ll shi ps in friend ly, ongoing race compe titi on, has draw n a dozen Class A a nd B vessels to race fro m Norfo lk, Virg inia, to Montauk Point, New York. As of now, 12 vessels are schedule d to join the fl eet: USCG bark Eagle (the host vessel); Uruguay's schooner Capitan Miranda; Venezuela's Simon Boli var; the fr igate Rose; Belgium 's 93-foot ke tch Zenohe Gramme; the Hudson River sloop Clearwater; the

descending fro m K ingston, Ontario , th ro ugh Quebec and the Gulf of St. Law rence. Then, the combined squadrons, under escort from the Canadi an Navy, will make a grand entry into Loui sbourg to the gun salutes of the fo rtress on Friday, 28 Jul y.

In the Atl antic Squadron will be the mighty USCG bark Eagle, the replica 24-gun British fri gate Rose of 1757, the Bounty replica from Fall Ri ver, Massachusetts, the 1776 sloop-of- war replica Providence, from Newport, Rhode Island , the Half Moon repli ca from New Jersey, the barkentine Gaze/a of Phil adelphi a and others. Compri sing the Can adian Squadron are the Fair Jeanne, the square topsail ketch Royaliste, and the brigantine Black Pearl. A flotill a of eight repli ca longboats will serv ice the vessels at anchor.

Once called the " Gibraltar of the North ," Loui sbo urg was of great strateg ic importance to France at one time. T he port she ltered a perm anent popul ation of2,000 people in its heyday, including a vigorA drum call resounds Ol 'er the Louishourg garrison. ous merchant class that thri ved memorate the 250th anni versary of the on the fi sh, fur, and lumber trade with siege of Lo ui sbo urg in 1745. T hey and Europe, a long with a garri son of 3,500 their fa milies will crowd the walled town, soldi ers. The fo rtress fe ll fo r the first jo ining with Canadi an Park Service staff time in 1745 to a band of vol un teer and the peopl e of the modem town of soldiers from New Eng land. T he conLoui sbourg to re li ve the 18th -century querors marched triumphantly into the c iv ili an, military and naval life of the fortress , onl y to be defeated in tu m by fo rtress. And to compl ete the picture, a the northern cl imate. In the winter of fl eet of sail training vessels, histori c rep- 1746, the attackers buried 900 of their lica ships and longboats, in an evocation number. But the ir ordea l was bri ef, for of the great sailing nav ies of the time, the British traded Lo ui sbourg back to the will also rendezvous at the small port, French in 1748. T he British returned in 1758, however, thi s time with 150 warpoised on an arm of land thru sting eastward from Cape Breton. ships and 15,000 British regul ars on their "The line of tall ships, the streaming way upri ver unde r the command of Genpennants, the boom of the g un salutes of eral Wolfe to attac k Quebec. Lo ui sbourg the Fortress-I don ' t think an yone who fell a second time . By 1760 , with the sees thi s will ever fo rget it," says Victor British building an even stro nger citade l Suthren, director of the Canadian W ar in Halifax, it was dec ided to destroy the Mu seum . Suthren, who will be commo- French fortifi cations. dore of the fl eet, and Fred Addi s of Touri sm brought the town back to Toronto are bringing the naval presence life. A p ro tec ted s ite si nce 1928, to the huge event. An "A tl antic Squad- Loui sbourg began to be reconstructed as ro n" of over a dozen ships will sail north an hi storic site by the Canadi an govern from th e United States, stopp ing at ment in 196 1. It is now ready fo r its Ha li fax and other maritime communi - third-and biggest-siege. (Info rmation: ties before rendezvousing in Garbarus Loui sbourg 1995, PO Box 1995, Loui sBay with a "Great Lakes Squadron," bourg NS BOA I MO; I 800 565-9464) 32

USCG Bark Eagle

Chesapeake Bay schooner Lady Maryland; V isio nQuest' s schooners Bill of Rights and New Way ; Norseman, a 1/3 scale repli ca of a Viking longship; and the schoone r Quinn ipiack.

Vessels will beg in arri ving off Norfo lk, Virg inia, on Friday, 23 June. The

Tall Ships in the Maritimes Louishourg '95 is one in a series of tall sh ip gatherings in the Maritime Provinces this summer. Fred Addis of Addis Maritime Associates in Toronto has organized "Maritimes ' 95 : Four Centuries of Sail," which will bring tall sh ips to six other ports.

The fu ll list is: Halifax, Nova Scotia , 21-24 July Louisbourg,NovaScotia,28-31 July St. John's, Newfoundland, 4-7 Aug. St. Pierre, French Isles, 11- 14 Aug. Lunenburg , Nova Scotia , 18-2 1 Aug. Digby, Nova Scotia, 25-29 Aug. Sa int John ,New Brunswick, 1-4 Sept.

For information contact Addis Maritime Associates, 77 Runnymede Road, Toronto, Ont.M6S2 Y4; 41 6 763 -3640 SEA\ HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

Americas' Sail Race will start on Monday, 26 June, reaching Long Is land 's Montauk Point by Wednesday, 28 June.

For the next several days, many of the vessel s will visit Long Island ports, including Greenport, Sag Harbor a nd Oyster Bay. They will then head out to Ne w Haven for the Grand Parade of Sai I pl anned as part of the 1995 Spec ia l O lympics World Games Harbor Festiv al o n 2 Jul y 1995 . (Americas' Sail , Box 462, 0 yster Bay NY 11 77 1; 5 16 671 -0534)

ASTA Ships to Rally in Mystic, Race to Newport A race from Block Island to New port will be the hi ghli ght of the A me ri can Sail Training Association's summer 1995 Sail Tra ining Rally. AST A w ill draw member vessels to Mysti c Seapo rt on 18 Jul y to begin the Rall y. Crews fro m such vessels as the schooners Pride of Baltimore II , Spirit of Massachusetts and the Lettie G. Howard will compete in a variety of shores ide competiti ons emphas iz ing sea m a nship skill s , safety- and speed! Trainees will engage in row ing races, tugs of war and knot-tying re lays. Ship captain s will not escape scru tiny either; they ' ll be pitched against each other in a dinghy race.

Spectator craft are invited to view the fl eet in action in a "crui se in company" to B lock Island on Thursday , 20 Jul y, where ASTA ' s Bl ock Island to New port Tall Ships Race will start the nex t day . T he R a ll y w ill c los e w it h a dockside A wards Reception in New po rt o n Sa tu rday evening, 22 Jul y. ASTA is inv iting the public to attend the Newport fes tivities and volunteers are also needed to staff va ri o us events . Con tact ASTA , 47 Bowen' s W harf, Newport RI 02840; 40 I 846- 1775 for info rmation.

American Crew Enters Cutty Sark Race An Ameri can tall shi p crew w ill also compete on the other side of the A tl antic thi s summer. The Tall Shi ps Foundation has put together an amateur A merican crew to he lp man the 358-ft Poli sh full ri gged ship Dar Mlodziezy on the firs t leg of the Cutty Sark Tall Ships' Race fro m Edinbu rgh to Bremerhaven. The SEA HI STORY 73 , SPRING 1995

Foundati on has selected seven crew members fro m a pool of hundreds who applied fo r the berths and is providing them round-trip transportation to Euro pe fo r the 15-26 July passage. By sponsoring the American crew, fo undation chairman Capt. Pete Hall believes the the Foundation is fulfilling its mi ssion to he lp preserve the seafarin g heritage and provide sea experience.

Th e 39-year-old C utty Sark Ta ll Ships' Race is the world 's largest international annual sailing event, attracting up to I 00 vesse ls of all types fo r a series of races organi zed by the Sail Trai ning Assoc iation of Britain. This year's schedule calls for a race from Edinburgh to Bremerhaven, foll owed by a crui se to Frederik shav n, Denm ark, a race to Amsterdam , and a furth er crui se to Zeebrugge, Belgium . A highli ght of the race will be Sail Amsterdam, 11 - 13 August, a sea festiv al last held in 1990 that draws over one million vi sitors to the old seaport. (Tall Ships Foundati on, PO Box I 023 1, Stamford CT 069 11 )

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Other Events A special ex hibit, entitled "T he Sa iling Traditions of Cape Verde," will be on di spl ay at the 1995 Festi va l of Ameri can Fo lklife, 23-27 June and 30 June--4 Jul y, on the Natio nal Mall in Washington DC. The ex hibit will ce lebrate the fo lkways of the Cape Yerdean cul ture with a foc us on the 19th- and 20th -century Cape Yerdean schooner " packet trade" and tra nsatl antic immi gration ro ute.

Of course , one well -preserved example of a schooner that parti cipated in thi s trade still sail s, the Ernestina, and a 16-foot workin g mode l of the 101 -yearold vessel will be dockside at an artifi-

cial harbor constructed in the Mall.

In Lake Michigan, sa il training vessels will gather in T rave rse City, Michigan, fo rthe Fifth Annual Northern Michigan Ta ll Ship Rall y, Sunday, 11 June.

T wo regul ars at the event are the twomasted, gaff-rigged topsail schooners Malabar and Man itou. (Traverse Tall Ship Company, 13390 SW Bay Shore Drive, T raverse City MI 49684; 6 16 94 1-2000) Other events include the fo llowing: • 13- 14 May , Olympia Wooden Boat Fair at Perci val Pa rk Landing, Olympia. For info rm ati on call: 206 493-2049 or 206 943-5404.

• 24-3 1 May, " Fleet Week" events will commemorate 50th anniversary of WWII vi ctory in Europe (In trepid Museum , W .

46th St. and 12th Ave., New York NY I 0036; 2 12 95 7-7055 ) • 1--4 June, International Wooden Boat Show (Nati o na l Maritime Mu se um , Greenwich, London ENG SE 10 9NF; 8 1-858-4422) • 3 June, Tugboat Day (Hudson Ri ver Maritime Museum , One RoundoutLanding, Kingston NY 12401 ; 914 338-007 1) • 3--4 June, 12th Annual Classic Mariners' Regatta (Wooden Boat Foundation, #2 Po int Hudson, Port Townsend W A 98368; 360 385-3628) • 8- 1 I June, 16th Annual Sea Music Festival (Mys ti c Seaport Museum , 75 Greenmanville Ave., PO Box 6000, Mys tic CT 06355-0990; 203 572-5 3 17) • 16- 18 June, Antique & C lassic Boat Show (Chesapeake Bay Maritime Muse um , PO Box 636, St. Mi chae ls MD 2 1663; 410 745-29 16) • 16- 18 June, Harborfest '95 in South Haven with 14th Heritage Boat Gathering on 18 June (Michi gan Maritime Museum , PO Box 534 , South Have n Ml 49090; 61 6 637 -8078) • 7 Jul y, Great Schooner Race in Penobscot Bay (Contact Capt. John Foss, PO Box 482, Rockland ME 04841 ; 207 594-8007) • 14- 16 Jul y, The WoodenBoa t Show, Southwest Harbor, Maine. (WB , PO Box 78 , Brooklin ME 046 16; 207 359-465 1) • 5--6 August, Mayor 's C up Schooner Race, Port Townsend BayWA (Wooden Boat Foundation, #2 Point Hudson, Port Townsend W A 98368; 360 385-3628.

• 19-20 August, 4th Annual Antique Marine E ngine E xposition (Mys ti c Seaport Muse um , 75 Greenmanvill e Ave., PO Box 6000, Mysti c CT 063 550990; 203 572-53 17)

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SEA HI STORY 73 , SPRING 1995

SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS

\,

Can Constellation be Saved?

Lawyer and sailor Louis F. Linden has taken the helm of the troubled USS Constellation for an all -out effort to save the sloop of war. Linden , who worked on the $6 million restoration of the 1877 bark Elissa in Galveston, accepted the position of Conste ll ation Foundation executive director for a term of four months, to attempt to "acquire the funding to bring the ship to a point where she's not sinking." Baltimore 's City Council intends to ask for a $3 million bond issue. It was hoped that the state would provide a similar bond issue, but Governor Glendenning has requested only $600,000 for the Constellation.

The Foundation would like to implement Pride of Baltimore builder Pete Boudreau 's $10 million proposal to replace her hull planks with a watertight shell of laminated wood that would support new masts and rigging. Personnel from the USS Constitution are preparing a $265,000 survey of Constellation and will make recommendations to the Navy, but Linden expects no federal aid .

WWII Landing Ship to Return The USS LST Ship Memorial, Inc. is working to bring an operating LST home to the United States from the Far East.

The vessel will be dedicated as an historical warship, symbolizi ng the amphibious sealift for millions of soldiers and marines, as well as Navy and Coast Guard crews. Although a fleet of l ,05 I LSTs was authorized, none of WWII vintage now exist in the USA. Many were scrapped, demolished in Bikini atomic tests, destroyed as naval gun targets, modified for commercial use and transferred to foreign nav ies.

The organization plans to sail USS LST 859 home in August 1995 and open her to the public as a museum in New Orleans. (William Irwin, LST Project Information, 5509 Panorama Dr., Huntsville AL 35801) New Award to Tole Mour The Tole Mour, a schooner operated for Ocean Quest Hawaii, is the recipient of the first Black Pearl Sail Training A ward.

The Award is given by the Black Pearl Sail Training Trust, established by ASTA founder Barclay H. Warburton , III, to further sai l training and acknowledge vessels that epitomize the organization's goals. It consists of a silver bowl inscribed with the motto "Eternal vigilance is the price of safety at sea" and a $1000 SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

Saving the SS N obska A whirl wind of activity over the past year is propelling SS N obska, a 1925 steam ferry , into the next century. Of particular importance to the vessel 's future was the November announcement that the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority granted an operating license authorizing the vessel to run from her historic departure port of New Bedford, traveling to Nantucket during summer seasons, from 1997 to 2009. This qualifies Nobska to receive joint federal/state funds designated for the Inter-modal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA).

On the restoration front, hull leaks SS Nobska before restoration. reported in 1993 spurred a complete study of the integrity of the hull , leading to immediate restoration of three after compartments and work on other areas.

Administrative changes include the adoption of a new name; the Friends of Nobska is now the New England Steamship Foundation, reflecting its mission to preserve steamship history , notjustNobska. Finally, the Foundation has opened its new administrative office in New Bedford at the Whaling Museum. (NESF, The Whaling Museum, 18 Johnny Cake Hill , New Bedford MA 02740; 508 999-1925) scholarship. One of the main criteria for the award is participation in an AST A Rally-regular events designed to improve the skill s of participants through competition and cooperation. (ASTA, PO Box 1459, Newport RI 02840; 401 846-1775) Congress Needs to Hear SOS! The Save Our Ships Campaign, Inc. is stepping up its efforts to save the American Merchant Marine and build a strong merchant fleet. Captain John D. Smith, national director of SOS, urges everyone interested in supporting the campaign to write to Congress about the importance of a merchant fleet to the national security and the economy of the US. He notes that America's trade by sea is valued at $1 trillion dollars annually and that 1 million highly-skilled jobs in the shipbuilding and ship-operating sectors have been lost si nce 1945 as US shipping became 96% foreign-controlled. To help with this grass-roots campaign, contact Capt.

John D. Smith, SOS, PO Box 2585, Daphne AL 36526; 334 626-8394.

Getting Around the Ships The WWII-era destroyer USS Laffey returned from drydock in March to a new, deeper berth at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in South Carolina. With 75 percent of her hull replaced and new paint, top to bottom, she is spruced up for the museum's Battle of Okinawa commemorations. (PPNMM,

40 Patriots Point Road , Mt. Pleasant SC 29464; 803 884-2727) In England, the 1897 Turbinia, the world's first turbine-powered vessel, was transported overland to her new home at the Discovery Exhibition Centre, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, in October.

In 1897 she appeared at the Diamond Jubilee Review and, at 34.5 knots , easily passed the Royal Navy ships assembled

The revolutionary Turbinia.

off Spithead. The following year the Admiralty commissioned Viper, the first turbine-driven destroyer. Turbinia was laid up after her grand display and deteriorated until she was cut in two for display in the Science Museum, Kensington, and Newcastle's Museum of Science and Engineering. She was reassembled in 1959. She will be fully restored before going on display this year.

The Society for the Preservation of the SS City of Milwaukee hopes to buy a former marine terminal in Elberta, Michigan. To that end they are attempt35

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Action to Protect Ironclad A protection zone has been declared around the wreck of the 3340-ton-displacement HMVS Cerberus of 1870, sunk as a breakwater in 1924 at Black Rock near Sandringham, Victoria, Australia.

The British-built vessel represented the next step in innovative warship design after Ericsson ' s monitors. Cerberus was designed to be less vulnerable to heavy seas. She was also the first major warship to dispense with sails. Her active career Cerberus where she lies in Melbourne. was spent protecting Melbourne's harbor in the British and Australian navies.

Damaged in a storm last year, Cerberus is now semi-submerged and her condition is deteriorating. A conservation plan is being funded by a Heritage Victoria Project Team and the City of Sandringham. The initial survey suggests that, in five years, the hull will be unable to support the heavy superstructure. Anyone with photographs or memories of Cerberus is asked to contact Heritage Victoria, GPO Box 2240T, Melbourne 3001 Australia.

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ing to raise $100,000 to gain a $500,000 federal grant for the purchase of the structure adjacent to the mooring site of the triple expansion engine, 1931-built, former Ann Arborcarferry. (SPCM, PO Box 265, Honor MI 49640) The Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum is working towards its goal of turning the decommissioned USS Guadalcanal into a museum and heliport in New York. They are now in the process of getting clearances from the FAA. (Intrepid, West 46th Street and 12th Ave. , New York NY 10036; 212 245-2533) Museum News It took an emergency grant of $120,000 from the City of Baltimore to keep the Baltimore Maritime Museum open over the winter months. A dramatic slip in attendance over the last 5 years severely affected revenues, and the museum was faced with closing the site for two or three months, a financially and operationally costly action.The museum manages the historic vessels USS Torsk , Coast Guard cutter Taney and lightship Chesapeake.

The city and the museum are developing a long-range plan that might include an annual operating subsidy. (BMM, Pier 3, Pratt Street, Baltimore MD 21202) The Philadelphia Maritime Museum is beginning their move toa newly renovated faci lity on the Delaware River waterfront. A July opening is planned.

In conjunction with the move, the organization is changing its name to the Independence Seaport Museum to reflect a new identity and a new approach to exhibits. (Independence Seaport Museum, Penn 's Landing, 211 S. Colum-

bus Boulevard at Walnut, Philadelphia PA 19106-1415; 215 925-5439) The Maritime & Yachting Museum of Jensen Beach, Florida, finally has a home in a beautiful circular building overlooking the Indian River Lagoon. The Museum is already focused on the restoration of the Concordia circumnavigator Prospector. (MYM, 9801 S. Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach FL 34957; 407 229-1025) The Jacksonville Maritime Museum Society, Inc., chartered in 1985, is establishing itself as a maritime history and technology museum on the Jacksonville, Florida, waterfront with two exhibit sites interpreting the maritime heritage of Florida 's "First Coast." The museum owns the 1982 replica of the Revolutionary War privateer Rattlesnake, donated in 1990, and they are forging ahead with plans to develop programs on board. Before programs commence, the vessel requires, among other things , certification as a sub-chapter C or T vessel , examination and repair of engines and steering mechanism , and Florida registration. A campaign to raise $85 ,000 tocoverthesecosts is underway.

(JMMS , 1015 Museum Circle, Unit 2, Jacksonville FL 32207; 904 398-90 11 ) Maritime researchers can rejoice at the opening of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum's new library. All of the museum 's books , photographs, ship plans, charts, oral histories and periodicals are now in one location, a newly restored building at JOO North Street, which also houses the Center for Education and Research. (CBMM, Navy Point, PO Box 636, St. Michaels MD 21663; 410 745-2916) SlEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

Underwater News The Civil War shipwreck of the USS Tulip, a tug and gunboat, was rediscovered in May by Maryland Historical Trust underwater archaeologist Bruce Thompson, aided by local divers. Tulip sank when its starboard boiler exploded. Important artifacts, previously taken by divers, have been returned. (NHC, Bldg.

57, Washington Navy Yard , Washington DC 20374-5060; 202 433-2005) On 20 May 1897, the Florida, a 270foot wooden steamboat on Lake Huron with a cargo of general merchandi se and flour, collided with the steamer George W. Roby in a heavy fog. The Egregious Steamboat Journal carries the news that the Florida's wreckage has been di scovered 250 feet below the surface near Alpena, Michi gan, with he r cargo of coffee pots, kettles, spitoons, plates, bathtubs and barrel s of whiskey still intact.

The Lake Erie port of Leamington, Ontario, recently spent $50,000 to study the feasibility of creating an underwater preserve for the more than 40 wrecks that 1ie near the town 's shores.

Along the Canals The House of Representatives passed a bill in October providing $10 million to preserve an 87-mile stretch of the Ohio and Erie Canal. It almost did not get approval due to fears that it violated the rights of private property owners.

The Senate is ex pected to consider the bill early in 1995.

The former Miami & Erie Canal recently benefitted from a $3.1 million restoration project. Work included improvement of a working lock and a 1.25 mile stretch of the canal near Grand Rapids, Ohio, and the construction of a canalboat replica.

j

Writing Competition If you have a nautical story to tell, now is the time to put pen to paper. The Armchair Sailor Bookshop of Newport, Rhode Island , is expanding its Sea Story Contest, due to the great reception the idea received. The prize has been increased to $3000 and includes the offer of writing contracts with leading sailing magazines and book publishers. The story must be an unpublished creative piece about the sea, fac t or fiction , of about 3000 words and submitted by I July 1995.

There is a junior prize of$500 available to writers under 18. For further details, contact Armchair Sailor, 543 Thames St., Newport RI 02840; 401 847-4252) SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

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SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Hawaiian Canoes Retrace Ancestral Migration Route " Overlook;ng W oods and Sea ..

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In mid-February, the new Polynesian voyaging canoe Ha wai' i/oa departed from Hilo Bay, Hawaii , on a 6,000-mile journey of redi scovery . The 57-footHawai' iloa, the first voyaging canoe built in this century of mainly traditional materials, and the older 60-ft Hoku/ea are sailing on a course to Tahiti and the Marquesas , returning in mid-May, following the same route from the Marquesas that many early Hawaiian settlers are believed to have journeyed. The canoe will also be sailed in the manner of the ancients: the traditional method called " wayfinding" that relies on navigation Th e Polynesian voyaging canoe Hawai ' iloa. by the stars and other signs.

The building and sa iling of the Hawai' i/oa is a project of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and the Polynesian Voyaging Society designed to preserve the cu ltural legacy of the Hawaiian islanders and to share age-old traditions with future generations (see Sea History 70, Summer 94). The voyage is being followed by satellite and is being closely watched by school children in classrooms throughout Hawaii who can compare the wayfinders' course with the most direct route.

At the last report, the two Hawaiian canoes had rendezvoused near Tahiti with traditional canoes from New Zealand, Tahiti and the Cook Islands. The fleet will sail together to Taputapuatea, the ancient temple for navigators on the island of Raiatea, marking the first time in 600 years that Polynesian canoes from throughout the Pacific have gathered at this sacred place. From there the fleet wi 11 travel in company to Hawaii.

(Bishop Museum, 1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu , HI 96817; 808 847-3511)

People Dean C. Allard retired as head of the Navy'shistorical program on 27 January.

In his 38 years with the Naval Historical Center he has served successively as head oftheOperationalArchivesBranch,Senior Historian of the Historical Center, Director of Naval History and as Director of the Naval Historical Center. Under his direction the Operational Archives became a central resource for modern naval research.

Raymond Ashley , a graduate of the East Carolina University 's Maritime History and Underwater Research Program, has been named executive director of the San Diego Maritime Museum .

Oneofhis first goals is to find a pennanent home for the museum , now housed on the ferry Berkeley. (SDMM, 1306 N. Harbor Drive, San Diego CA 9210 I ; 619234-9153) INVENI PORT AM (1910-1995) William (Bill) Bailey, merchant seaman, soldier, labor and human rights activist, writer and actor, died in San Francisco on 27 February. Born in New Jersey into a poor Iri sh emigre family of thirteen children, raised in Hoboken and New York City 's Hell 's Kitchen , Bill early on WILLIAM BAILEY

38

exhibited a fighting spirit and an unwavering commitment to justice and fundamental soc ial change.

Bill started sailing in 1929. Inspired by the Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies) , he became a life-long socialist. In 1935, along with half a dozen other " premature anti-fascist" seamen , Bill defied the Nazi crew and New York police to strip the Gennan ocean liner Bremen of its swastika flag while it lay at dock in Manhattan. Bill climbed the jackstaff to pull the flag down , resulting in international publicity , and he and the others were beaten and arrested.

Active in the 1936-37 strike in San Franci sco, Bill went on to organize workers in the Hawaiian Islands. As a volunteer with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, he fought with distinction in the Spanish Civil War. Returning to the States, he worked as Port Agent for the Marine Firemen, Oilers, Watertenders & Wipers Union , leav ing that position to sail during World War II as First Assistant Engineer in the Merchant Marine.

During the infamous McCarthy era, Bill was one of many US seamen who were "screened" because of their political activism and their refusal to give names of Communist friends to the auSEA HIISTORY 73 , SPRING 1995

thorities. He also had his MFOW union book withdrawn after 16 years (tho ugh he was reinstated as an honorary member in 1989). Denied the right to sai l, he found work as a longshoreman, and served a term as vice president of IL WU Local #10. He retired in 1975 .

Bill found a new career in lecturing and writing and, with his natural talent and charisma, was sought after to appear in documentary and feature films.

He was in such notable American documentaries as "Seeing Red," "The Good Fight," "Growing Up in the Depression" and "Between the Wars," and in the BBC's "Granada" and "The UnAmericans." He had a featured role as Bruce Dem 's father in "On the Edge," and was also in the Robert De Niro film "G uilty by Suspicion," which was about the McCarthy period . Bill ' s autobiography, The Kid from Hoboken, was publi shed in 1993 and was reviewed in Sea History.

Bill Bailey was pres ident of the Marine Workers Historical Association (MWHA) and a frequent contributor to its newsletter, The Hawsepipe, as well as to other trade union publications and anthologies. A memorial se rvice was held at the ILWU in San Franci sco on 19 March. Bil l is s urvived by his son Michael , a merch ant seaman.

JUDY M CCUS KER

Editor, The Hawsepipe

Conferences • 18- 19 May , 1995 Council of American Maritime Museums Annual Meeting, focusing on disaster preparedness and collection protection , at Mystic Seaport Museum (CAMM, Office of the President, Wi sconsin Maritime Museum, 75 Maritime Dr. , Manitowoc WI 54220) • 24-26 May, 2nd Annual Conference on Transportation Management, SUN Y Maritime College, Fort Schuyler, Bronx NY I 0465 ; 7 18 409-7290) • 26-28 June, Conference on the Preservation of Historic Ships (The Unicorn Prese rv ation Society , Victoria Dock, Dundee DOI IHG UK ; 382-200900) • 14- 17 September, Race, Ethnicity and Power in Maritime America (Mystic Seaport Museum , PO Box 6000, Mystic CT 06355-0990; 203 572-07 1 I) J

Exhibitions • Through 4 June, Hawai'iloa, Ka 'lmi 'Ike, Seeker of Knowledge, a celebration of the Hawaiian voyaging tradition.

(Bishop Museum , 1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu, HI 96817; 808847-3511) • 28 January, Ancient Mariners of the SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

Adriatic. Artifacts from the Adriatic island of Palagruza, the center of a trade network operating in 2000 BC. (Royal Ontario Museum, I 00 Queen 's Park, Toronto ONT M5S 2C6; 416 586-8000) • I0 February-29 June, Hampton Roads at War: The Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation (The Mariners ' Museum, I00 Museum Dr., Newport News VA 23606-3759; 804 595-0368) • I I February- November, For a Lifetime of Thrills: Chris-Craft Boats of the 1950s (Mich igan Maritime Museum, PO Box 534, South Haven Ml 49090; 6 16 637-8078) • 19 February- 30 September, The Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of lwo Jima (Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, W. 46th St. & 12th Ave. , New York NY I0036; 2 12 843-8020) •March - Dece mber, Cafiero: The Compleat Modeller (Water Street Gallery, Seamen ' s Church Insti tute, 24 l Water St. , New York NY I0038 ; 2 12 349-9090) • I0 March- 29 October, Exhibition "E": Celebrating Maine's work in ending WWII (Maine Maritime Museum, 243 Washington St., Bath ME 04530; 207 44313 16) • 2 1 March- 17 September, The Works, the Wars and the Waters, Celebrating our Marine History, a Tribute to Luders Marine Construction Company (Stamford Historical Society, Inc., 1508 High Ridge Rd., Stamford CT06903-4 l 07) • I0 April-20 August, Treasures of The Mariners' Museum Research Library and Archives (The Mariners ' Museum , l 00 Museum Dr., Newport News VA 23606-3759; 804 595-0368) • 29 May- 27 November, The War at Sea: Britain, Germany, Japan, and USA (The Mariners' Museum, LOO Museum Dr., Newport News VA 23606-3759; 804 5950368) • Through September, Rhythm of the Oars: Stories of Rowing in America (Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic CT 06355 ; 203 572-071 1) •Through September, Yachts in a Hurry (Mystic Seaport Museum, PO Box 6000, Mystic CT 06355-0990; 203 572-5317) •Through September, The America's Cup (San Diego Maritime Museum, 1306 N. Harbor Dr., San Diego CA 9210 I; 619 234-9 153) • Through January 1996, United for Victory: At Home and Under the Sea (W iscons in Maritime Museum , 75 Maritime Dr. , Manitowoc WI 54220; 414 684-02 18)

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The Alllazing Rebirth of the Picton Castle

by Joseph M. Stanford When peop le enco unter o ld square ri ggers, whether at museums or harbor festival s, they usuall y ex press a sense of awe and admirati on, partly because of the sailing ship 's intrinsic beauty, and partl y because the ability to move thou sands of tons of wood , steel and cargo across the seas on the powerof the wind is foreign and mysteriou s to people accustomed to hav ing motor power at their fingertips. But, one also feels a tinge of sadness, perhaps because we know that these ships have outlived the ir time, the trades they were buil t for, and the work they were designed to do.

In December 1992 the 142-foot, 299-ton Norwegian coastal trader Do /mar, laid up in the small port of Yedevagen , was certain ly a site to evoke sadness--dirty , li sting sli ghtl y to starboard and streaked with rust. She 'd had a long career si nce she 'd first made her way down York shire's Humber River in 1928. And she' d seen enough of the world , having fished the Nort h Sea, served in the Royal Navy in World War II and tramped cargo from places as far away as Russ ia and Portuga l.

So sure ly the labors of the men and industry that had sc ulpted her from the earth 's stronger e lements and fed her with coa l and diese l for her six ty-fo ur years afloat we re not in vain. S he had served her owners well.

Dan More land and Don Birkhol z first stepped aboard her cluttered decks in December 1992, during an e ight-natio n search for a vessel to be used for ocean voyaging under sa il.

Dan More land would return in July 1993 to purchase Do/mar, restore her original name, Picton Castle, and initiate the process of a complicated and unusual re fit.

Today, several thousand miles from her ancestral waters, she tugs eagerly at her moorings at Pier 15 in New York 's East River, well on her way to realizing one of the most ambitious projects in the restoration of trad itional sail.

To Dan More land- unlimited master in sa il and forme r boatswa in of the full rigger Da11mar/.: , Capta in and restoration directoroftheErn estina (see SH #49 , p2 l ), and mas terormate on a good many other hi storic vessels- the idea behind the Picton Castle came naturall y. It is a restoration , not of a specific vessel , but of a concept--or, more precisely, a blending of two concepts.

One was establi shed by lrvingJohnson 's Ya11kees and Art hur Kimberly 's Romance. The Romance and the Yankees had long, successful careers taking paying crew on ocean voyages including seven circumnav igations between Johnson 's two Yankees in the 1950s and two by the Romance in the late '70s. Despite the success of these projects, there remains little opportunity in this country today for people to get to sea under square rig for serious ocean voyaging. The second concept has been in practice for five millennia-the carrying of commercial cargo under sail.

The Picton Castle will be run by the Wind ward Isles Sailing Ship Company-a parent company of investors, mostly indi vidua ls personall y interested in the purposes of the project and familiar with Mr. More land 's background. The company's 40

The Picton Cast le has a waterlin e length of I 30". beam 24" , draji (loaded ) 14.5'. 0Fera // sparred length will be 178".

stated purpose is three-fold: to provide a unique opportunity for amateur crew to ship out on a square-rigged vesse l maki ng long ocean voyages, whi le learning the arts of seafaring; to provide an opportunity for people to experience first-hand the traditi on of trading and carry ing cargo under sail ; and to utili ze modern med ia fom1ats to share with the genera l public the vessel's voyages. Sail training, ho wever, is to remain the primary foc us, and the program is des igned for her to operate with or without the other two e le ments.

Her first fully operat ional cruise, to begin in November 1996, wi ll be an 18-month c irc umnav igation . Other itineraries include shorter voyages to the Canadian Mari times, Northern Europe and the South Pacific. On a ll these crui e , she will take up to 36 amateur crew aboa rd , to work side by side with the profess ional crew of I 0 (Captain , three deck officers, three Able-Bodied Seamen, one engi neer, one cook and one general assistant). The cost for an amateur crew member will be approximately $ I 0,000 for a 6-month voyage.

T he routine fort hese adven turer-studen ts is a lready la id out in the "Seamanship and Maritime Studies Training Program. " For the safe and effective operation of the ship, all amate ur crew members will be requ ired to learn the basics-which, of course, is quite substantial in itself. But deeper studies of seamanship are encouraged, including practical deck seamanship, sa il -mak ing, nav igation, ship and boat handling, engineering, ocean research and rules of the road. For those pursuing maritime careers, there are few such opportunities to gain this breadth of hands-on experience in the commerc ial world. And , of course, all time spent aboard is valuable sea time that can be applied towards Coast Guard licenses and certification.

T he trading and multi-media education aspects of the Picton Castle's mission are secondary and tertiary goals icing on the cake, and a testament to the resourcefulness of her master. As neither of these wi ll be essentia l for the operation of the vessel, the company is free to pick and choose which programs and trades to engage in . For this the Picton Castle can take adva ntage of her contac t with out-of-the-way pl aces, and engage in trades neglected by conventional shipping.

Amateur and professional crew a like will share in the profits of such trade, enriching the voyage rs' experience.

* * * * *

To those in the hi storic preservation wo rld , acc ustomed to seei ng sa iling ships converted to s team or diesel , it may seem strange to select an old motor sh ip for thi s conversion. But, the reasons behind this convers ion are well -founded. First, the SEA HISTORY , SPRING 1995

'>¡

J

world 's suppl y of steel moto r vessels is obv iously younger and in better condition than most ex isting sailing sh ip hulls. A second less obvious reason, iro nicall y, is that most younger sailing hull s, built in the waning years of sail , had to carry as much cargo with as few crew as poss ible. T hi s ruled out long, tapering elegant fas t-sa iling hull s and favored squared-off fo rm s, very fu ll and bluff below the waterline, to accommodate max imum cargo.

Strangely eno ugh, it was a lso . market forces, operating in a differe nt direction, that gave Picton Castle an excell e nt hull fo r a sailing ship. Originally extreme ly underpowered (by a 9 1 hp steam pl ant) she needed a PHOTOS.: JOSE PH M. STAN FORD streamlined underwater hull to squeak out every knot from her engine. Cargo space was not so crucial as speed and fuel economy, since she was designed fo r fi shing. T he resul t is a hull that, below the waterline, resembles that of a medium cl ipper, with the fam o us seaworthiness and stability of a North Sea traw ler.

Choos ing an o ld vesse l also introduces an hi storical dimension to the proj ect, making her story multi-l ayered .

Picton Castle was one of five sister ships built in Selby, England, in 1928 fo r Consolidated Fi sheries of G rimsby. She fished until September 1939 when she was converted to an anned minesweeper for the Royal Navy . One of many such traw lers conve rted fo r wartime service, she was nonethe less immediately recognized as HMS Picton Castle by an old Royal Navy sail or, when her new crew bro ught her into Falmouth last March, some 50 years later.

Top . MIV Picton Castle ar Pier 15 , March 1995. Ahove , her crew' s quarters.

Acco rding to the ex-navy m en the crew met there, she had ass isted in the raid on Saint Nazai re in and Eng land , she crossed the Atl anti c to Long Is land Sound.

March 1942- pres umabl y clearing mines from the approac hes Today, she rests at her temporary home at South Street to the Lo ire estuary to make way for a small fl eet of launc hes Seaport's Pier 15 . Next it will be on to Lunenberg, Nova Scoti a, carryin g Briti sh commandoes. T hat raid succeeded in destroy- where all the spars and standing rigging will be installed, the bow ing the " Forme Ecl use," the onl y A tl antic dock avail able to the conversion completed (to give herthe proper profile fo r a sailing Ge1mans large enough to accommodate the battleship Tirpitz- vessel), and the pilot house removed. effecti vely keeping the Tirpitz in exile in the fj ords of Norway Thi s parti al conversion is expected to take up to six months. where she was ul timate ly dealt her death-bl ow by 12,000- It will put Picton Castle in rough sailing conditi on, at whi ch stage she can begin a series of shake-down cru ises to generate pound RAF bom bs .

Tom Gamble, who ac tuall y served on HMS Picton Cas tle, interest, pu blici ty and revenue. A nother six months will then to ld the new owners how she came to be known as the be spent com pleting the conve rsion and fin al preparati ons fo r " liberator of Norway ." After developing engine tro uble on a her first ro und-the-world voyage. minesweeping mi ssion, she put in to Bergen and thus became * * * * * the first Alli ed naval vessel seen there si nce the German fo rces Economic forces in history gave us the ocean-going squarepulled out. The tow n fat hers came aboard , shook the skipper's rigged sailing ship. When our immediate need for it had passed, hand , and welcomed the little ship as "Freser av Norge"- the we almost threw it away. Fortunately, there were those who saw a value in these vessels which transcended their ability to move liberator of Norway.

After the war, she promptly returned to Conso lidated cargo, and the ir numbers have steadil y grown. The Picton Castle Fisheries. Then in 1955 she was rebuilt, converted to diese l, project simply re-expresses the value of square-ri g voyag ing in and sold to Norwegians, contin uing her fis hing career off thei r a different economic context, in which it appeals to va lues deeper coast. S he ended her career freighting, primarily along the than economic necess ity or convenience. The project relies on coast of Norway . She had been laid up fo r a year when her new the be lief that there will always be people willing to work for owners fo und her. the freedom not to be coddled and pass ive ly entertained, but to Despite her bedraggled appearance, she was in remarkab ly test themselves-people seeking experi ences with some depth , good shape. After overh auls and repairs in No rway, Denmark that requi re hard work and commitmen t. .t SEA HI STOR Y, SPRI NG 1995

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Okinawa 1945: Final Assault on the Empire, by Simon Foster (Arms and Armour Press, London ENG, 1994, l 92pp, 84 photos, charts , notes, biblio, index, ISBN 1-85409- 195-6; £ 17.99hc) Di stributed by Sterling Publi shing Co ., Inc., New York NY; $24.95 hc.

The invasion of Okinawa in April 1945 was a large and highl y comp lex amphibious operation. To succeed, the sea and air arms of the United States and Royal Navies had to obtain and retain command of the seas around Okinawa and the thousands-of-mi les-long logistical chain supporting it. Planes from the navy's portabl e airfie lds, the fast carriers of Task Force 58, had to estab li sh and maintain air support for the gro und forces ashore until sufficie nt airfields could be captured to take over with land-based aircraft. The cost in lives and materiel was dear.

Okinawa 1945, a scholarly and readable battle monograph by the British author Simon Foster, concentrates o n the naval aspects of the battle for Okinawa, the last stop o n the Americans' three-year-long is land hopping Pacific attack track before invading Japan itself. "The gro und war-bitter though it was-was a foregone conclu sion ," Foster argues, hypothesizing that " it was at sea that the outcome of the in vasion would be decided ." He then guides his readers through twelve data-charged chapters that flow effortless ly toward his conclusion . While maintaining a blessed minimum of notes , Foster' s content validates hi s extensive research into American, British, Japanese, and other repositories.

"The air war over Okinawa soon developed into a g rim battle of attrition ," he evaluates, si nce "the Kikusui attacks were very difficult to counter. Any pilot who had decided to kill himself cou ld hit a ship unless shot down. " These suicide attacks were indisputably the most seriou s problem facing the A llied carriers: "Eighteen ships were damaged by suicide weapons, although the Americans gradua ll y maste red the threat." Foster points out that " instances of damage by more conventional means were few ," and then outli nes an often unconsidered factor in carrieroperations-the shortage ofmanpowerotherthan air c rew. During the entire month of April , Hornet operated 175 men short of complement, " a serious problem for a ship engaged in twenty-four-hour flying operations. " The exp loits of the carrier force were

incredible. " Operating thousand s of miles from their base, they had provided an umbrella over the landing force . .. and had reached out and struck the Japanese in their homeland. " Foster cone!udes: "The operations of these carri ers are a potent illu stration of the flexibility and strikin g power of carrier Tas k Groups. " The destruction of the world ' s largest battlesh ip, the Yamato , was a significant s idebar to the Okinawa invasion story.

Postwar observations have established h er wreckage in 200 fa th oms at I 28 °04'W, 30°43'N . The importance of he r sink ing-she was the last battleship to go to the bottom in combat-l ies in the fact that she was a victim of air power, "the weapon which had supplanted the capital ship as the dominant naval force. " After detailing the logistical operation that provided the foundation for "Operation Iceberg" the invasion 's code name, in Chapter 10, the author tips his hat to the British carrier force. Under all but in su rmountable logistical shortages and inadequate repair fac ilities, the Royal Navy Pacific fl eet successfu ll y g uarded the left flank of the invas ion.

The British Prime Minister provided the ultimate accolade for the battle of Okinawa: The strength and w illpower, devotion a nd technical resources applied by the United States to this task , joined with the death strugg le of the enemy . .. place thi s battle among the most inte nse and famou s in military hi story. We make o ur sa lute to a ll your troops and their commande rs e ngaged.

But Churchill, despite hi s way with words, is outdone by Foster. Very seldom has a battle monograph provided so much detailed information whil e maintaining such a captivating story-line.

W. M. P. DUNNE, PHO Suffolk Community College Riverhead , New York Conversations with Cannibals: The End of the Old South Pacific, by Michael Krieger (Ecco Press/WW Norton, New York NY, 1994, 291 pp, illus, appen, index, ISBN 0-88001-360-5 ; $23hc) The vast stretches of the Pacific harbor an a m azing variety of people, is landers seared and blasted by bomb and she ll in World War II, and by the sudden, artifi cial riches dumped on them and snatched away by intruders from a SEA HISTORY 73 , SPRING 1995

different world. Here and there these peoples struggle to preserve their native cultures and Mike Krieger is right there with them , on lonely beaches and remote inland mountain trails, recording his dayto-day experiences among them. His previous book , Tramp, was a classic account of the vanishing world of the tramp steamer, and Conversations is a classic that should be read by anyone concerned about the survival of native cultures in a world fast closing in on them. The book is worth getting your hands on for Appendix A alone, "The Reverend Billy's Sermon."

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America and the Sea: A Literary History, edited by Haskell Springer (Uni-

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versity of Georgia Press, Athens GA, 1995 , 4 l 3pp, illus , biblio , index , ISBN 0-8203-1651-2; $40hc) Excluding the busy industry of scholarship on the life and works of Herman Melville, comparatively little scholarly attention has been given to the persistent role of the sea in American literary history. The sea as a frontier of trial and inspiration , theme and symbol, has been far less studied than the overworked , land-locked "wild west."Yetas this handsome volume demonstrates , there can be no thorough knowledge of American literature without investigating its enduring concern with the sea.

Exploring Europeans advanced westward across the Atlantic, an expanse as vital to them culturally and economically as it was to the fishing and whaling Native Americans on the other shore.

Their perceptions of the sea, conditioned by theology, fear and desire, supplied them with powerful metaphors of damnation, deliverance, spiritual chaos and Divine Providence. In diaries, logs, poems, sermons and, eventually , in novels and plays , the awesome and harrowing experience of sea voyaging and the rigors of life aboard ships provide ample motive, imagery , mood, diction and cosmic speculation for American writers.

In Melville and Twain, as in Homer, the journey from place to place is also a psychic journey from one consciousness to another. Indeed the concept of the sea is so imaginatively pervasive that some of the most moving works of American literature are produced by inland writers, like Emily Dickinson, who seldom traveled anywhere physically.

American literature is shown here to be the product also of political , ecoSEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

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nomic a nd mili tary developments which occurred as the Uni ted States emerged fro m its co loni al beginnings to dominate the western hemi sphere. T he sea novels of Jam es Fenimore Cooper, Ri chard He nry D a na and He rm an Me lv ill e establi s he d an Ameri can tradition of writing fro m the experience of a wo rking seaman later taken up by Jack London and a host of lesser-known writers.

The uns peakable horrors of the slave trade, a v ita l part of America 's maritime heritage, are dra mati zed in narrati ves by Olaudah E quiano , Frederick Douglass and Harrie t Jacobs, among others, and more rece ntl y in novels by Alex Haley , Paule M a rshall and Charles Johnson.

A fi na l chapter trac ing the continuity of tradi tional sea subjects, contex ts and sym bolic meanings in recent American literature a lso di scusses popul arthrillers and favo rites like Jaws , The Caine Mutiny and The Hunt f or Red October.

Haske ll Springer has assembled thirteen comprehensive essays, each by a noted academic, that range from the coloni al era to the present. In between there are cha pte rs on genres , on particular wri ters, and on modes of ex pression.

T here are memorable passages and lines quoted in every chapter.

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Manhattanville College Purchase , New York Shark of the C onfederacy: The Story of the C S S Alabama, by Charles M. Robinso n III (Naval Institute Press , Annapo li s MD, 1995 , 2 12pp , illus, appen, notes, bi bli o, index, ISBN 1-55750-7287; $25 hc) In th is bi ography of the CSS Alabama , Ro bin son detail s the construction , crui ses , destruction and recent salvage of the most famo us warshi p of the South d uring the Civi l War. B uil t in L iverpoo l, England , by the firm of John Laird & Sons and launched on 15 May 1862 , the Alabama spent the nex t two years under the command of Captai n R aphael Sem mes and was responsible fo r the bonding or destruction of sixty-fi ve United States ships.

Thi s accom pli shment is the more remarka ble considering that the South at the beginning of the C ivil War had no real blue-water maritime or naval tradition. The A labama, in conjunction with the Shenandoah, Florida and Georgia made up the South ' s fo ur major commerce crui sers, responsible for the loss of so many U nion shi ps by their destruction, SE/A HI STO RY 73 , SPRI NG 1995

laying-up or sale to foreign flags.

Robinson draws three conclu sions about the cruise of the Alabama. First, the American merchant marine was already declining by the Civil War and , while the Alabama's depredation s hastened its decline, she was not the sole cause. Secondly, the Alabama failed to loosen the Union blockade of the South, largely due to Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles' refusal to divert large numbers of ships to hunt the Alabama. Lastly , the Northern naval victory was due to "superb leadership and unequivocal sense of purpose."

Robinson has written a fine operational hi story of the CSS Alabama with excellent descriptions of her specifications, armament and crew usi ng a wide range of documents. His portrait of Captain Raphael Semmes is a sympathetic but balanced view of a professional naval officer serving a doomed cause.

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RoyalNavy,1914-1915 , by Keith Yates (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 1995, 288pp, maps, photos, appen, biblio, index , ISBN 1-55750-977 -8; $32.95hc) The dustjacket reveals that Professor Yates' prev iou s publications include Huckel Molecular Orbital Theory . Evidently naval hi story has been a lifetime interest outside hi s main career. We are fortunate that he has decided to share it, for on this subject the author writes with sparkle, perception and wit.

Many accounts have been published of the exploits of Graf Spee's Cruiser Squadron and the detached raiders which caused so much commotion in the latter part of 1914. But thi s one is different.

For a start, the author has command over German sources as well as English ones.

He writes with understanding of the predicament of the players, and with a perspective of events which can only be obtained after a decent lapse of time.

Passions have calmed, and we now know all there is to be known about the actions of individual s and about prevailing materie l and technical circumstances.

At the outbreak of war in August 19 14 there were eight significant German regular warships abroad , beyond the fleet in home waters and two portentous units in the Mediterranean. This handful of cruisers caused losses to Allied shipping out of all proporti on to their numbers, di verted countless ships SEA HISTORY 73, SPR ING 1995

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to hunt for them, delayed mercantile traffic and, most seriously, shook fa ith in the hitherto unquestioned ability of the Royal Navy to hold command of the sea.

The main body , two armored cruisers and three light crui sers under the command of Admiral Graf Spee, was based in China. They di sappeared into the vast expanse of the Pacific and reappeared only at the end of October off the coast of Chile. There they defeated an un wise British squadro n, causing shock waves around the wo rld . The Royal Navy responded massively, and G raf Spee ' s squadron was almost complete ly destroyed at the Battl e of the Falklands in earl y December.

Three more light crui ser pursued independent careers in different oceans.

The last of them survived fo r nearl y twel ve months in a wo rld before the days of practicable aircraft, radio direction findin g or radar.

Keith Yates te ll s the story without tiresome hyperbole; there is no need.

Fiction could never be as exc iting as the real course of events. For readers who are unfamiliar with the story there is unexpected drama and chivalry in store .

For those who, like myself, supposed that they knew it already, there is great enjoyment to be found in such a knowledgeable and sympathetic te lling of the tale.

IAN M ARSHALL

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The Slope of the Wind , by Adrian Seligman (Sheridan House, Dobbs Ferry NY, 1994, 2 19pp, illus, ISBN 0-85036443-4; $ 16.50pb) Thi s is a grand sea yarn on the order of Eric Newby 's Th e Last Grain Race. In fact, Mr. Newby wrote the introduction to thi s book , calling it " an epic of the sea and the men who sail ed on it. " One is surpri sed to read a tale so old in a book so new. Upon opening thi s book and reading the first lines, one steps bac k into another wo rld- the "glowing summer of 1930" and "those magical days between the wars."

Like many a youth , young Adrian Seli gman suffered a co incidence of misfortunes: failing hi s exams at the uni versity, and losing hi s best girl to another. It was time for him to go to sea! This he did by simply presenting himself to the master of a small tramp steamer, in which he shipped out.

But he had been told "you couldn ' t call yourself a real sailorman till you ' d served in sail ," and one morning when

he saw the Finnish square rigger Killoran at Gravesend , he bid hi s shipmates farewell and was off to Australi a in sail.

For the next fo ur years he wandered the o ceans in Killoran and the n in Olivebank. There are countless memorable e pi sodes-fri ghtening, gruesome, myste rious, hilarious, sad and romantic.

Hi s summer interlude in the Aland Islands reveals the life of these hardy northe rners as one of unceasing to il , with the efforts of every fa mil y member required to put in enough food and fu el to carry them th ro ugh the hard winters.

Here we meet a ten-year-old child who spent he r days in her own boat, bringing in boatloads of fi sh to add to the family's harvest, as at home upon the sea as we are in our own backyards.

Finding thi s book is like fi nding a photograph of your great-grandparents.

It 's a fresh look at a vanished way ofli fe.

NORMA STA FORD

Ubi Su mus? : The State of Naval and Maritime History , edited by John B .

Hattendorf (Naval War College Press, Ne wport RI , 1994, 41 9pp, ISBN 1884733-04-2; $ 10pb + $2.50s&h) Thi s fascinating rev iew of maritime studies should not be missed by any seri ous maritime researcher. The editor has compiled a collecti on of brief essays describing the current state of scholarship in 30coun tries-most of them wri tten by local hi stori ans-which cover the work be ing done at uni versities, museums, and by independent researchers.

More than anything else, thi s collecti on makes clear two points about the fi eld: first, the re is enormous potential fo r in novative, exciting work in all aspects of man 's re lati onship with the sea; second , and less optimistically, reaching the point where thi s potenti al can be full y realized is still a long way off.

J USTINE AHLSTROM

Chesapeake Steamboats: Vanished Fleet, by David C. Holl y (Tidewater Publi s he rs, Ce ntrev ill e MD , 1994 , 320pp, illus, appen, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0 -87033-455-7; $29.95hc) In the 150-year history of the steamboat era in the Chesapeake, over 600 steamboats traveled the more than two thousand miles of nav igable water, stopping a t some 300 landings . Thi s volume was bo rn of the romance of that era, but delves into the ruthless business dealings of the men who dominated the waterways, the technical evolution of the SEA HI STORY 73 , SPRING 1995

"Larry Reiner's Minute of Silence is valuable contribution to American literature of the sea ... few writers have written with more authority. " -Prof. Bert Bender $18.95 Postpaid WSOC Press, PO Box 172, Avondale AZ 85323 • 602-272-7497

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vessels and their engines, the way of life surrounding the steamers and the decline of their role through the mid-20th JA century.

Index to Seamen's Protection Certificate Applications: Port of Philadelphia, 1824-1861, compiled by Ruth Priest Dixon (Clearfield Company, Baltimore MD, 1994, 171pp; $17.50pb + $ l .50s&h) Available from the compiler at I 0450 Lotts ford Road , #2217 , Mitchellville MD 20721.

This list of 18,354 names was compiled from applications for Seamen's Protection Certificates (SPC), contained in the Records of the Bureau of Customs at the National Archives. Congress authorized them in 1796 to identify merchant seamen as US citizens, entitled to protection again st impressment. The documents provide information unavailable elsewhere on this transitory portion of the population- the index lists names, date of application, age, race, and place of birth. The applications themselves often contain further information. Additional indices are planned.

JA Proudly We Served: The Men of the USS Mason, by Mary Pat Kelly (Naval Institute Press , Annapolis MD, 1995, 2 I 8pp, photos , appen, index , ISBN 155750-453-9; $29.95hc) This volume recounts the WWII experiences of the African-American men who served aboard theMason--0ne of the US Navy's firsttentative steps towards an integrated service.

JA

<)

Gunther Van Winkle and the Half Moon , by Meredith Hughes (Hope Farm Press , Saugerties NY, 1994, biblio, g loss; $9.95pb) This charming little paperback , with first-rate illustrations by the author, commences with the 1992 visit of the rep Iica Halve Maen (Half Moon) to Kingston , New York, on the Hudson . From there the plot morphs to an indeterminate time and place with strong connections to the original 1609 journey by Henry Hudson.

The mix of history and fantasy is well executed, and the illustrations assist the reader to suspend disbelief and to let the imagination roam toa time before MTV. Designed for the younger reader, this book should, however, appeal to any young heart.

NICHOLAS

N.

0LEFER

II

New Netherland Museum Jersey City, New Jersey SEA HISTORY 73, SPRING 1995

Lighthouse Digest America's Only Month~v lighthouse Newspaper Featuring news events, human interest stories and great gift ideas.

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Original Engravings, v iews: maritim e , yachting ( 1800s) and publi shed in Harpe r's Weekly, etc. Vessels, sailors, life-sa ving, waterfronts, racin g. Li st free. Don Pitc he r, Box 64, North Hav e n CT 06473.

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Encounter at Sea by lchiro Masunaga and Gordon Yan W yle n; p.252 . An account of the sinkin g of th e Japanese li ght c rui se r HUMS Na1ori by the USS Hardl!ead and a he roic 300 mil e life boat journey by 195 survivors. Writte n by a naval o ffice r from each s hip. Available from: Momentum Book s, 6964 C rook s Rd., Suite I, Troy Ml 48098 , 800-758 - 1870. $ 15.95 plus $ 1. 50 mailin g. Visa and Mastercard accepted.

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47

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY SPONSORS TH E A CO RN F ouN OATION C HARLES F . ADAMS C OMM O. H ENRY H . A NDERSON, R . B A RNETT

WI LLI AM S . B ARR AC K ,

M ARC S . C OHN M EL VI J AMES E A

M RS. F . H ENRY B ERLI N

C.

A. C ONANT JOHN

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F EDER

C OUCH

W A LTER CRON KITE

R OBERT E . GAMBEE

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H OPE P . A NNAN J. ARON C HARITA BLE F OUNDATI ON T HE VI NCENT A STOR F OUN DAT ION

ALLEN G.

B ERRI EN

L TCOL W A LTER E . JORGENSEN

G EORG E R . L A MB

H . R . L OGAN

T HE J.M . K A PLAN F UN D

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A NT HON Y D . M ARSHA LL

D ONALD

M OB IL 01L CORPOR ATI ON

H ON . J A M ES J .M OORE

D OUGLAS M USTER

M RS. A. T . POUCH , J R.

E DM U D S . R u MOWICZ

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C OM MO. FRAN K V . S NYDER D AN

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W IL LI A M G . W 1 T ERER

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RI CHA RD W. S Cl·IEU ING

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Q UICK , J R.

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M URFEY , J R.

W A LTER H . P AGE

L AU RA CE S . R OC KEFELLER

F . S A LI SBURY

M RS. A RTH UR J . S ANTRY ,

H OWA RD S LOT NICK

S TA TE C OUNCIL ON W AT ER W A Y S

SH ANNON W AL L

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EDM UN D A. S TAN LEY ,

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RI CH ARD L ESLIE

D ER S CUTT

K RITIKOS

M ARI N T ue

N ORTON LI LL Y I NTER NAT IONA L

D A VID B . V IETOR

J EAN W ORT

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M RS. ALB ERT P RATT J OHN P UREM AN

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C HRISTOS N.

J AM ES P . M A RENA KOS

S CHUYLER M. M EYER, J R.

M A RY A. H . R UMSEY F OUN DATI ON

H ELEN R . S CHEU ER F A M ILY F OUN DATI ON

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E LI ZA BETH S. H OOPER F OUN DAT ION M R. & M RS. A . D . H ULI NGS M RS. R . C. J EFFER SON T RU DA 0 . EEVES J EWETT M RS. I RVING M . Jol·INSO

M ORM AC M ARINE T RA NSPORT, I NC.

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GRACE D OHERTY C HARITA BLE F OUNDAT ION

TH E G RACE F OUN DA T ION

H ARR IS K EMPNER, E so.

J AMES A. M ACDONA LD F OUNDATION

W A LTER R . B ROWN

L. &

JOHN H . D EANE H ENRY

P ET ER J . G OU L AN DR IS

C A PT. P AUL R . H E RY D R. CH A RL ES E . H ERDE DORF ADR IAN S . H OOPER L CDR R OBERT I RVING USN ( R ET.) I NT ERNAT IONA L L ONGSHOREMEN ' S A SSOCIATI ON S T EPHEN J01-1, SON

B OAT ING ON T HE H UDSON

P ONCET D AV IS, J R.

TH OM AS G OC HBERG

JOHN S TOB ART

H ENRY P ENN W ENGER

JR.

B AILEY AN D P o s y S M IT H STOLT- N IELSEN, I NC.

JOH N WI LEY AN D S oNs, I NC.

EDWA RD G. ZELI NS KY

DONORS G EORGE R . A lTERB URY

H A RRY K . B A ILEY

W ILLI AM J . C ANAVAN DR

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M RS. D AV I D H AYES

P ETER M AN IGAU LT C RAIG A .

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A LEXAN DRA B ALLEZA - K NEEL AN D

H ON . S IR L EO ARD C ONN ER C A RL W . H EXAMER,

P ETER M AX

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M ELBOURNE S M ITH

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B RENT F OLLWEILER

R OBERT W. J AC KSON

D AV ID A. O ESTRE ICH

L ESTER R OSENBLAlT

COM PAN Y LTD .

M. R HODES B LI SH, J R.

C AROL J . D ERR

H OWA RD E. HIGHT

M RS. L AIRD M c D ONALD

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D ONA LD B.

W ILLI A M J . J ON ES

D ONALD W . P ETI T

A . H ERBERT S A NDWEN

J AMES H . B RO USSAR D

F REE W 1 D P RESS

S TEPHEN P FOUT S

H ARRY W . G A RSCHAGEN

H OWA RD Jo y T

VIRGINIA K. P OPP

S EA - L A 'D S ERVICE I NC.

L EO A. L OU BERE

P ETER BJERRE P OUL SEN

C.

P ETER H . SH ARP

H AM ILTON SLOAN

M RS. P ETER W A RB URTO

PATRONS J AMES D. A BELES

W ILLI A M K. A BELES

C A PT. J ESSE M. B o NTEcou VA DM J AMES

F.

C A L VERT

WI LLIA M J. C ANA HAN

G EORGE F. C LEMENTS, J R. D R. F ORB ES D ELAN Y

W A LTER J . A NDERSON

C A PT. J . H OLLI S B owER , J R. JOSEPH C ONT INI

R . H . D u PREE

C DR. L ELAN D F. E STES

H ENRY F A IRLE Y,

K A REN C RANSTON

J A MES P. F A RL EY

TH OM AS G 1L LMER LC DR B. A . GILMORE, U S N (R ET) R OBERT

s. H AGGE, J R.

JOSEPH F. H ENS EL

R ALPH W. H OOPER T OW NSEND H OR NOR P . J A YSON

R OBERT P . 1ERRED

P ET ER K NIFFI

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C A PT. P ETER L AHTI

J EAN M ARIE M A HER

H . H . M c C LURE, J R.

R OBERT W. M c C ULLOUGH

M EIGHER

J . P AU L M ICHIE

R OBERT B. O ' B RI E

" JR .

E RNESTA G . P ROCOPE

H A RRY O A KES

K IM BA LL S M ITH

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B RUCE D. ULRICH

R ICHA RDO L OPES

B RIAN A. M c ALLI STER

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S. C HRISTOPHER G IL BERT NORUSH

P A RCEL T AN K ERS S ERV ICES TH EODORE PR ATT

S AFE H ARBOU R C HA RTERING

L ELA N F . S 1LL1 N

M A RSHA LL STREIBERT

C ARR INGTON W EEM S

C A ROLY N M. H OFFMAN

COL. G EORGE M. J A MES ( RET)

A URA- L EE E . P n TEN GER, PHO

D R. JOE L SH UGAR

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M A RVIN A. R OSENBERG

ALFRED T YLER,

M RS. T ERRY W A LTON

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G EORGE E . SH AW , J R.

CDR V 1CTOR B. S T EVEN, J R.

W. P. L IND

C APT. G . M. M US ICK

D oN PH ILLIPS

M AJOR

WIL LIAM D . K ENN ER , MD

R1 CH ARD M AU RER

D AN IEL R. S u K 1s

C HARLI E J . V A DA LA

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prnb,bly b"e fri ends who wo ul d also enjoy our magazine. Sea History makes a fi ne gift~ we ' ll send a gift packet with your greeti ng on a "We lcome Aboard " card, along 1 1 wi th our decal and cloth patch. Sign up a fr iend today! ~ Mail in thi s form or phone 1-800-221-NMHS ~

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W1 LL1 AM H . M c G EE

JOHN H . D OEDE

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M RS. CH A RLES H ILL

J AC K R . L ESLI E

MICHAE L M URR O

H A RR Y J . 0 1TA WA Y

J AMES D . T URNER

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NEIL E. JoNES

H A RRY W. M A RSHA LL

S AN DY H oo K P1 LOTS, N Y /N J

THOM AS H . W YSM UL LER

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M Rs . E Lu c E M c D ONALD , J R.

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P. S. D E B EA UMONT

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P AT RICK H . F UL M ER

c. H AVEM AN M R.

M RS. T. E . L EONA RD

M A LLOR Y

R A Y R EM ICK

R A YMOND E. W A LLAC E

C DR . E . A NDREWS W ILDE,

&

C LI NTON W . D AV IS, J R.

I NT REPID M USEUM F OUNDAT ION G EORGE M. I VEY,

H AROLD W. JOHNSON, M R.

JR.

C RA IG B URT , J R. D A VID D . C HOMEAU

M ALCOLM DI C K

J.E . F RI CKER,

B ENJAM IN D. B A XTER

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M RS. NED C HA LKER

H A RRY G RACE R OL AN D G RI M M

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M Rs . S T UA RT E HR E 'REI CH

F LEISCHMANN

B RUCE G ODL EY

C APT. CLAU DE D. PHI L LIPS

MRS. E DWA RD W. S NOWDON

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JOH N B . H IGHTOWER

JoH N O ' H ANLON

C A PT. D. E. P ERKINS D o N E. S AN DER S

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JR.

M ARCOS JOHN P SA RROS

R 1CHARD M . S ALTZM AN

D. R. &

CLIFFORD

R OBERT E. M ORR IS,

MRS. G ODWIN J . P EU SSERO

Ill

W ILLI AM H . H ULICK ,

M. D . M ACP HERSON

M R.

EMI L G. B AST AIN

W 1LL1 A M H. B ROWN

STAN D AS HEW

J AM ES D EWA R

F REDER IC H. H ARWOOD

R OBERT J . H EWllT

M RS . B ERNICE B. J OHNSON

K NOW LES

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M RS. D.

B RAD GLAZER

C A PT. W ILLI A M H. H A M ILTON R OBERT H ER LI N, SR.

A LI CE D ADOURIAN

STEVE E FT1M 1ADES

P ETER B A RTOK

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G EORGE W. C A RM AN Y

H ENRY F. D EVENS

H ow ARD H . E DDY

Ill

R OBERT M . B A L Y

NORMAN CAR A THANAS IS

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PETER A . A RON

RI CH ARD H. B RANNON

~7tToRY GAZETTE A Monthly Digest of Maritime Heritage News

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pernoo'howo below. checkfoe'$ISg; ~:mbmh ;p ;"odored My

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48

800-221-NMHS

SJEAHISTORY 73 , SPRING

1995

~

MODEL SUCCESS STORY' "The Maritime Prepositioning Ship program is a model success story, and I couldn't be more pleased. MPS is on schedu le and proving to be an extremely valuable strategic asset."

- General PX. Ke lley Commandant U S. Marine Corps

AMERICAN

* MARITIME *

OFFICERS

AFFILIATED WITH THE AFL-CIO MARITIME TRADES DEPARTMENT 650 FOURTH AVENUE BROOKLYN , N.Y 11232 (718) 965-6700 }

*

MICHAEL McKAY PRESIDENT

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''I've sailed everything there is to sail, but I've never sailed anything ~ quite like this before.''

-HALSEY HERRESHOFF,

four time America's Cup defender, aboard "HMS" Rose

/

T he onl y C lass A size sailing vesse l under the US fl ag upon whi ch the public may emba rk- all who sail aboard her partic ipate to the best of the ir ability. Come a lone or with fa mil y or friends-s ig n on fo r a few days or a few weeks. No pri or ex perience is necessary, nor is ex trao rdinary fitn ess req uired . R easonabl e rates.

To rece ive a schedule, ra tes and additi ona l in fo rmati on, write or call :

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ROSE is a US documenled vessel, inspected and certified by the US Coast Guard. Saf ety standards f or Sa ilint: School Vessels differ fr om those of passenger vessels on a comparable route , because persons aboard training ships a r e not passengers bw participants who share in the ship's operation. ROSE meets or exceeds all safety requirements/ or a vessel of her size and class.