No. 76
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
W I TER 1995-96
THE ART, LITERATURE, ADVENTURE, LORE & LEARNING OF THE SEA
.,
TUGBOATING DAYS The Yachts of John Mecray The Cape Hom Road
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
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No. 76
SEA HISTORY
SEA HISTORY is published quarterl y by the Nati onal Maritime Hi storical Soc iety, 5 John Walsh Bou levard, PO Box 68 , Peekskill NY I0566. Second class postage paid at Peek ski ll NY 10566 and additiona l maili ng offices. COPYRJGHT © I 995 by the National Maritime Historical Society. Tel: 9 14 737-7878.
FEATURES 8 The Cape Horn Road, Part VI: Castled Ships in Northern Seas by Peter Stanford - - - TUG BOAT/NG DAYS---
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sea History, 5 John Walsh Boulevard, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.
12 Tidewater Tugboating by Philip Thorneycroft Teuscher
16 "So You Want to be a Deckha nd ?"
MEMBERSHIP is invited. Afterguard $ I 0,000; Benefactor $5,000; Plankowner $2,500; Sponsor $ 1,000; Donor $500; Patron $250 ; Friend $ I00; Contributor $50; Fami ly $40; Regular $30; Student nr Retired $ 15. All members outside the USA please add$ 10 for postage. SEA HISTORY is sent to all members. Individual copies cost $3 .75.
by Joseph M. Stanford
19 The Art of the Tug 20 From Out of t he Past: Under Sail in the Caribbean by Kevin Haydon
OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Chairman , Alan G. Choate; Vice Chairmen , Rich.ardo Lopes, Richard W. Scheuing, Edward G . Zelinsky; President , Peter Stanford; Vice President , orma Stanford; Treasurer, Bradford Smith; Secretary, Dona ld Derr; Tru stees, Walter R. Brown , W . Grove Conrad, George Lowery, Jea nm ari e Ma he r, Warren Marr, II , Brian A. McA ll ister, Jam es J. Moore, Dou glas Muster, Nancy Pouch , Cra ig A. C. Reynolds, Marsha ll Streibert, David B. Vietor, Raymo nd E. Wa ll ace, Jean Wort ; Chairman Emeritus, Karl Kortum OVERSEERS : C har les F. Adams, W a lt e r Cronk ite, Townsend Hornor, George Lamb , John Lehman , Schuy ler M. Meyer, J r., J . Wil liam Middendorf, II , Graham H. Phi llips, John Stobart , Wi lliam G. Winterer ADV ISORS: Ca-Chairmen, Frank 0. Braynard, Melbourne Smi th ; D. K. Abbass, Raymond Aker, George F. Bass , Fra ncis E. Bowke r, Oswa ld L. Brett , Dav id Brink, Norman J. Bro uwer, W illi am M. Doerflin ge r, Fra nc is J. Duffy, John S. Ewa ld , Joseph L. Farr, Timoth y G. Foote, Wi ll iam Gilkerson, Thomas Gillmer , Wa lt er J. Hand e lman, Charles E. He rde ndorf, Steven A. Hyman, Hajo Knuttel, Conrad Milster, WilliamG . Muller, Dav id E. Perk ins, Richard Rath , Nancy Hughes Richardson, Timothy1. Runyan , George Salley , Ra lph L. Snow, John Stoba rt , Shannon J . Wall , Th omas We ll s AMERICAN S HIP TRUST: International Chairman, Karl Kortum; Chairman, Peter Stanford; Trustees, F. Briggs Dalzell , W ill iam G . Mu ller, Richard Rath , Melbourne Smith, Edward G. Ze lin sky SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor, Peter Stanford; Executive Editor, Norma Stanford; Mana ging Editor, Justine Ahlstrom; Conrribwing Editor, Kevin Haydon; Accounting, Joseph Cacciola; Membership Development & Public Affairs, Burchenal Green; Membership Secretary, Patric ia Anstett ; Membership Assistanr , Erika Kurtenbach; Advertising Assistant, Carmen McCall um ; Secretary to the President, Karen Rite ll
WINTER 1995-96
22 Recreations: Vision to Reality by Allen and Elizabeth Rawl
24 The Yachts of John Mecray 34 USS Adirondack: Then & Now by Da ve Gale
46 How A Tyneside Tug Was Reborn for an Atlantic Crossing by Scott Newhall
D EPARTMENTS 2 S 28 30 33
Deck Log & Letters NMHS News Marine Art News Museum Profile Traffiques & Discoveries
36 Shipnotes, Seaport & Museum News 41 Reviews 48 Patrons
COYER : The Dalzell tug Da lze ll ance goes about her work nudging an oil barge
around in South Street, in an evocative scene by Ja ck L. Gray , capturing the intimate rela tion of the tug to the towering city it serves. (See page 19)
Join Us for a Voyage into History Our seafarin g h eritage com es a li ve in th e p ages of Sea History, fro m the a n c ie n t mariners of Greece, a nd P o rtu g u ese n av i ga t o r s o p e nin g u p th e ocea n world , t o t h e h e r o ic efforts of seam e n in W orld W ar II. Each iss u e b r in gs n ew in sights a n d n ew d iscoveri es.
If yo u
love t h e sea a n d t h e legacy of those w h o sa il in d eep wate r s, if yo u love the ri vers , l a k es a nd b ays a n d the ir wo rka d ay craft , th e n yo u belo n g w ith u s . Sta y in to u c h j o in u s to d ay ! M a il in t h e for m b e low o r ph o n e
1-800-221-NMHS Yes , I want to join the Society and receive Sea History qua rterly. My contri b uti on * is enclosed. (*$ I5 of each contribution is for Sea History; any amount above that is tax-ded uctible.) $30 Reg ular Member $40 Fami ly Member $ 100 F ri end Mr./Ms ._ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __
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NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
LETTERS
DECK LOG "Each of us is looking for a ship." So said Father Peter Larom, of the Seamen's Church Institute of New York & New Jersey , in the benediction he offered at the NMHS Annual Awards Dinner this past November. Humankind finds something extraordinary in ships, and apparently always has, from the time of Solomon who found wonder in "the way of a ship in the sea," to the latest city child who also comes to wonder at the ships of an earlier day on the waterfront in seaport cities like New York and San Francisco. Since ships carry a message of such meaning to people of every creed and background-even people who have never been on a ship nor seen any great body of water-why is our historic ship establi shment in trouble, as it is today, with an apparently uncertain and threatened future? The answer, I believe, is sim ple: we have not learned to give the ships in our keeping a voice, a way to convey to all comers the meanings that people almost instinctively see in them . In this issue, we report the retirement of our founder Karl Kortum of San Francisco, a person uniquely able to see the truth in ships and articu late that truth vividly and with unmistakable authenticity for all sorts and conditions of people. Joe Ditler ' s report on Kortum's retirement party aboard the Balclutha last fall (see page 6) tells us something of Kortum's unique contribution to our fie ld, a contribution that has been neglected to the pub Iic' s loss, and to the peril ofourundertakings in historic ships.
* * * * *
"See you in Liverpool ," sailormen used to say on parting- knowing that their calling would bring them back together in one or another of the great seaport cities that ships sai led to. In the world of maritime education, the same thing keeps happening. So it's no surprise, in an issue of Sea History largely devoted to tugboats , to find Kortum and his friend Scott Newhall embarked on perhaps the greatesttugboat voyage of history, which was completed just a quarter-century ago when they steamed into San Francisco Bay in the paddle tug Eppleton Hall. For the oeginnings of that ep ic voyage, see pages 46-47 of this issue. PETER STANFORD
An Inspiring Maritime Story By honoring Warren Marr, II, the National Mari time Historical Society brings honor on itself. I am proud that an organization that is part of the sailing universe chose to honor a man who represents-and helps keep alive-one of the most inspiring stories of American maritime history. BILL SCHANEN Ed itor & Publisher Sailing
Surgery Am idst German Shells read your interesting article about Admiral Patterson in SH73 . I was¡ a member of the 35 th Evacuation Hospi tal and we crossed the Channel from Southampton and landed on D+ 17 at Normandy. Ourfirst"set-up" was at St.Sauveur-le-Vicomte where we received our first cas ualties. It was interesting to be performing surgery and first aid while German shells were dropping in the field just outsi de the operating tent. Your article brought back a lot of memories. PEYTON ATTERBERY Lake Forest, Illinoi s
When a Bark Isn' t a Bark I always look forward to receiving my next iss ue of Sea History and I particularly enjoyed "Captain Cook 's Endeavour" in yo ur Summer 1995 iss ue. However, the artic le would have been more complete if it included an explanation of why the Endeavour was designated a "bark. " A sailing vessel with three masts and square sail s on each mast is designated a "ship" and a " bark" is fore-and-aft rigged (only) on the mizzen and squarerigged on the other masts. Yet, the Endeavour, with sq uare sails on each mast, is designated a " bark. " This apparent anomaly is well explained in Captain fames Cook by Alan Villiers. To be designated a "ship ," a sai ling vessel must have three (or more) masts and each mast must consist of three sections (a lower mast, a topmast and a topgallant mas t) and include a sq uare sai1on each mast section . The Endeavour's mi zzen consisted of only two sections and therefore the Endeavour could not be designated a ship; it was also not a true bark as it was equipped with a sq uare sai l on the mizzen in addition to a fore-a nd-aft sail. The term "bark" was also a general
des ignation for small ships (Vi lliers explains) , thus, the bark Endeavour. LEO BLOCK San Clemente, California
Enjoy It in Health Today I have received notification fro m you of a year's membership in the National Maritime Historical Society given us by a mem ber of NMHS. Thank you. Our patrons do indeed enjoy reading Sea History. ANN MARTIN STREIT, Director Gloversville Free Library Gloversville, New York
Drake's "Southernmost Island" The Times of London's article about Drake di scovering Cape Horn brings to mind , out of the distant past, a research paper about an island just to the southwest of Cape Horn that Drake is said to have used fo r refuge and watering. It is gone now , and , even with all the data available to us, nothing of the site can be found above water. But below the surface lies Burnham 's Bank. Carefu l soundings give it the same contour as the island Drake used. Did I dream all this? How ARD H. EDDY Dunedin , Florida Captain Felix Riesenberg' s fine book Cape Horn asserts that the "southernmost island" Drake landed on in his circumnavigation of 1577- 1580 had subsided into the underwater shoal of Burnham' s Bank, west of Cape Horn. Later research by ourselves and Captain Ray Aker of the Drake Navigators Guild shows definitively that the island Drake landed on was Cape Horn itself-ED.
Summers of Barefoot Indolence What a ru sh of nostalgia and sensory overload to see the profile of MN Commander in the Autumn Sea History! As a yo ung lad during the late 1930s and early 1940s I had the great pleasure of daily exposure to Commander and her sister ships plying the waters of the Rockaway Inlet as she made the trip from her home slip in the shadows of Lundy 's Restaurant in Sheepshead Bay in Brookl yn to the pier at Breezy Point with Kennedy's Restaurant and thence to the pier at Rockaway Point (not Far Rockaway) and the Colony Inn . Commander was by far the inost impress ive of her fleet which inc luded, as my memory recall s, the Neponset, the Frederick Lundy and Columbia.
Jeanie Kortum
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SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
What a thrill it was to be a yo ung boy being thrown her bow line and hauling it over the creosoted bollard to make her fast to the pier! Summers of barefooted indolence unde r the s un we re made more important when we could be part of the precious trade of delivering passenge rs and occasional ca rgo and mail to our littl e corn er of the world where on the hori zo n to the north co uld be seen the towe r of the Empire State Buildin g and so uth , the head of th e New Je rsey Hi g hl and s . Thanks to Captain Wort for preserving thi s bit of history and bring ing pl easure to thi s reader! RAY BOYLAND, LT USN(RET) Director of Weather Services WSOC-TV Charlotte, North Carolina
Toward an
Oc~anic
Destiny
I apprec iate yo ur interest in the address I gave at the US Navy Memorial in Washington DC on 2 September, the fiftieth anniversary of the Japanese surrender on the decks of USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. As I mentioned in my talk, thi s high point in American hi story came when the United States enjoyed the respect of nations worldwide, as the foremos t maritime power. Hopefull y, through our concerted "Cresting the Fourth Wave" effort, we can recapture this vantage. Yet, the half century celebration of the surrender aboard Missouri came at a moment when our government is doing its utmost to drive the nation off the world ocean. I agree completely with yo ur page 6 justification for the celebration of our impress ive victory in the maritime war in the Pacific. You have ex pressed this most convincingly; and in a way that suggests that the nation ' s maritime heri tage must be understood in its entirety to guide our nation to its oceanic destin y. GILVEN M. SLONIM Falls Church , Virginia
A Four-Square Approach l have just been through Sea History 75 and I cannot rest until I express my appreciation . Your comments about the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II and the use of the atom bomb in Japan are a welcome rarity, a fresh breeze of truth in a world gone mad with hi storica l revisionism. Thank yo u. Thank yo u, too, for having the courage to write unabashedly and with good cheer about the way it really was. Thank SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
you for refusing to descend into hostility while doing so. And thank you fo r setting a similarl y high tone for the content of the entire magazine. The recent Columbian 500th celebrations and the Smithsonian Enola Gayex hibit come to mind as examp les of how yo u've steered a straight course in matters where hi story intersects modern polemicism. On another line, I app laud your Cape Horn Road series as we ll. You have the enviable ability to treat hi story as an attractive story, drawing the reader along with interest through events which were current I 000 years ago. Even yo urobituaries read well! I am th ankfu 1 that you haven ' t let Sea History become an organ for a faddish homage to political correctness: congratul ations on a mature and four-square approach to hi story. TIMOTHY MURRAY Dublin , New Hamps hire Captain Murray' s observations speak for many members who tell us they share these concerns. This year we hope to reach many more Americans with a message of the rewards of sane historiography .-ED.
An Endangered Maritime Resource? I grew up on the banks of the Hudson Ri ver; as a teenager I be longed to a Sea Scout Troop in Edgewater, New Jersey, where I learned basic seamanship, navigation and boat handling. After high school , I enli sted in the US Navy for six year s. Following some working stints as hore, I jo ined the US merchant marine and have been at it ever since, sailing as an able seaman and a licensed mate. Presentl y, I sa il for Mari tran s, one of the larges t tug and barge companies under US flag. I like my job, as I have always enj oyed be ing on the water. Today, though, my j ob as we ll as thousands of others are in peril , due to attacks on the Jones Act by vario us spec ial interest groups. One of the big bones of contention seems to be seamen's wages, indicating that we are gross ly overpaid and underworked. Nothing could be further from the truth . Here at Maritrans, and I believe thi s to be typi cal, we work 2 1 days on and 2 1 days off. We stand six and six watches fo r a twelve-hour day, an eighty-four hour week . My yearly salary comes out to be $37,980. I support my wife and two ch ildren on thi s money; my wife works also and I try to catch a couple of extra weeks, as it helps out. As I said , I like working o n the water and I am not
compl aining, but I don ' t understand these attac ks on working me n a nd women. I would ask you and your fine organization to help put our side of the story out, before we get added to the li st of Endangered Maritime Resources. HARRY T. SCHOLER Tug Honour/Ocean States
The Hutton Hussar While the 193 1 Sea Cloud was not E. F. Hutton's g ift to hi s wife Marjori e Post for their 1920 wedding, a schooner named Hu ssar, launched in Copenhagen in 1923, might hit closer to the mark. In 1934 the Yetlesen Foundation purch ased her and renamed her Verna. Columbia University bought her about 1953 as a researc h vessel for Lamont-Dohe rty Geological Observatory. Verna has since sa iled more than a million miles researching the oceans. In 1982 it was so ld to Windjammer Barefoot Cruises Ltd. and she sa il s today as Mandalay. STANLEY M . HARRISON Hill sdale, New Jersey ERRATA Marine arti st Os Brett writes to te ll us of an error in the capti o n for " Robert Pulsford arriving in the Mersey, 183 1" (Sea History 75, page 26): "The hands aloft [on the vessel at left] are stowi ng the royals, not the topgallant sail s as stated. The vessel as shown at right is not stowing the upper topsail s as stated but rather her t'gans' ls. There are no upper topsail s. Just single tops ' Is. I know , should Andy Nesdall read these, you'll be hearing from him! " Well, Andy, we wo uld love to hear from you, of course (as a charte r member of our Nitpickers Guild), but know that we have already been so undl y ad moni shed by Os and we are doing penance. We do not know how it slipped through our nets, but thi s error wi ll sting fo r a long time. Os Brett suggests, as well, that the sai ls in the image on the left are set for the wind on the port quarter, rather than " hauled 'round ... indicating an imminent change of course," as the caption said. W e believe that thi s point is debatabl e as the vessel, preparing to change cou rse would have braced the yards round to prepare for the new wind direction . A lert member Nicholas Roman of Florida noticed that we incorrectly located Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island , in British Co lumbi a, rather than the Northwest Territories.
3
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SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
NMHSNEWS 1995 Annual Awards Dinner NMHS Awards Speak for Themselves! As I li stened to the presentation of awards, it oc curred to me that the awards themselves represent the best poss ib le descripti on of the goa ls and ac ti vities of the National Maritime Hi storica l Soc iety. The American Ship T rust A ward was presented to Warren Marr, II , whose ded icated efforts led to fun d ing to build a re producti on of the Amistadthe vesse l whi ch became a vital part of American hi story when the Afri cans on board revolted again st a future of slavery, seized the vesse l and prec ipi tated Ame rica 's first c ivil rig hts case to be dec ided Ke/I/ Barwick. President ofthe New in favo r of a minority. T he Soc iety supports ship Yo rk State Historical Association, replica program s, particul arl y fo r vessels re pre- presents American Ship Tr ust Award to Warren Marr , II . senting important hi stori cal causes. The Founders' Sheet Anchor Awa rd was presented to Richard W. Sc heui ng, a World War II merchant seaman who served with d istincti on at Normand y. Hi s dedi cation to our maritime heritage has led him to sponsor g ift memberships fo r grad uating c lasses of a ll the major maritime academi es in the Un ited States. The Society ce le brates the modern merchant marine as we ll as hi storic vessels. We also support education and the preservati on of the US merchant marine. The Robert G. A lbi on/James Monroe Award was presented to T homas C. Gillmer, a g ifted scholar whose contributi ons to our know ledge of hi storic vessels have added immeas urabl y to o ur ability to understand those vessels and their builders. The Society s upports scho larship and research on hi sto ri c ships. Our Distingui shed Serv ice Awa rd was presented to Ray mond E. Wall ace for hi s work in the restoration of the four-mas ted bark Moshulu. The Soc iety supports such ship restoration . Another was awarded to Michae l Mc Kay fo r hi s leadership of the Ameri can Maritime Offi cers in wor king to keep Ame rican fl ag shi ps at sea and American seamen at work aboard them , aloft and alow. These awards in different as pects of maritime hi story di spl ay, more eloq uentl y than I could describe, the goals and d iversity of interest of the Nati onal Maritime Hi storical Society. ALA G . C HOATE, Chairman, NMHS
A/Jove: Membership Chairman Richard W. Sche11i11g with his Fo unders' Sheet Anchor Award. Tom Gillmer accepts the Roher! G. Alhionl.lames Monroe Award.
Welcoming Remarks by Commodore Henry H. Anderson, Jr. It 's customary when another organi zati on ho ld s a function in the New Yo rk Yac ht C lub fo r a fl ag offi cer of the C lub to say a wo rd of welcome. In the case o f the Nationa l Maritime Hi stori ca l Soc iety, the bond between the two organi zati ons is a cl ose one. Man y NY Yac ht C lu b members pl ay a rol e in the Soc iety, and yo ur Annual Award s Dinner in thi s grand o ld clubhouse has become a fi xture in the C lub 's continuing hi sto ry. So welcome-and let's continue the partnership into the future, to the benefit of the A me rican he ritage in seafarin g!
Howard Slotnick 's presentation of the NMHS Distinguished Service Award to Michael McKay, President of the American Maritime Officers: As a li fe long fr iend of Mi chael Mc Kay, and before that hi s father Ray McKay, I know thi s famil y's dedication to the wellbe ing of the US merchant marine. The offi cers' union Michael heads has a lways wo rked with management to keep their ships sailing profitably under the US flag . Thi s is obviously very important to the fu ture of the merchant marine, and wo rth y of the thanks of all of us to the AMO and its leader Michael McKay.
Commodore Anderson ' s presentation of the World Ship Trust Award for Individual Achievement to Clifford Mallory : The World Ship Trust works on the internationa l scene as the Ameri can Ship Tru st does in the United States, pro viding the impetus, and sometimes technical advice, for identify ing, restoring and preserving vessels of hi storic signifi cance. Cliffo rd Mallory's Iifeti me achievemen tin hi stori c ship preservation began with sav ing the Charles W. Morgan fo r M ys ti c Seaport in 1941 ; it went on to further acqui sition s providing a shinin g ex ample for other maritime organi zations to adopt, restore and , in some cases, operate vintage vesse ls.
Right.ji¡om top: NMHS Developme111 Trnstee Craig Reynolds with LI Reynolds-behind them,ji'Oln /eft, NM HS Treasurer Brad Smith. Stephanie Begley. and Jim and Irene Farley. Commodore Anderson reads the World Ship Tmst Award presentation , hacked up hy NMHS President Stanfo rd. Dinner co-chairman Jean Wort leads singing witIi chanteymen Frank Woe m er and Alison Kelley. Photos hy Burchenal Green
E du ca ting th e A me ri ca n peopl e in Ameri ca's vita l interest in sea farin g is an impo rtant mi ss io n. NMH S does thi s-and it is somethin g the Soc iety does ve ry well. That is why it deserves all the support we can give it.
SEA HI STORY 76, WI NT ER 1995-96
5
Richard W. Scheuing, accepting the Founders' Sheet Anchor Award:
KORTUM DAY IN SAN FRANCISCO
Karl Kortum: "Retirement" with an asterisk The invitation said clearly , " Retirement Party for Karl Kortum. " Yet, of the 300 fri ends and family who gathered on the decks of Balclutha on 29 September, few, if any, really believed it. Even Karl 's parting words left them knowing that the work was only just beginning. They gathered more to pay homage to a great man than to say good-bye. They stood in line to say things like: " You changed my life 30 years ago, Karl. " Or to report on a favored project: " We
Karl Kortum (left) at his retirement party aboard
Balclutha, the ship he savedfor history in 1951 '.with Captain Adnan Rayna ud. Photo by Joseph D1tler.
couldn't have done it without yo u." This was the atmosphere throughout the evening. Peter Stanford, President of NMHS , said, after reading a letter of appreciation from the San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen: "We all work for Karl one way or another." And as one person afte r another found their way through the crowd to say a few words, it was appare nt that we do indeed all work for Karl. Whether it be recovery of the bow of an American clipper ship in the Falklands, acquisition and renov ation of a g iant steam engine at the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, or the salvage of an Arctic steam whaler aground in Oregon, we ' ve all been busy with projects assigned by Karl Kortum . It was a perfect evening for a party. Balclutha tugged at her moorings as the evening sky lit up with the Pleiades, Orion and a ll the other conste llation s so familiar to San Francisco thi s time of year. The breeze carried Louis Armstrong tunes along the decks of the big full-rigger and down the Hyde Street Pier. "Louis was the greatest musician that ever lived," says Kortum. Present were the veteran Cape Hom sailorman, 101-year-old Captain Adrian Raynaud ; two of the greatest ship riggers of our day, Steve Hyman and Brion Toss; Harold Huycke, noted historian and Kortum confidant; and even three of Karl 's shipmates from the Kaiulani, the last American merchant square rigger to sai l around Cape Hom (1941-42). Well-wishers came from as far as Poland to see the Founding C urator of the San Francisco Aquatic Park and Maritime Museum , a man affectionately known not as the curator, but " the creator." As Karl sat in the crowded main cabin, children gathered at his feet. Periodically he would look down at one, wink , and smile, bringing gigg les and sm iles to their faces. During the evening, a Karl Kortum Endowment for Maritime History was announced. A certificate of honor was presented on behalf of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and letters from Senator Diane Fein stein and Mayor Jordan were read (among others). The City of San Francisco made 29 September Karl Kortum Day . And event organizer Steve Hyman presented pieces of the keel and garboard from Kaiulani to Karl , somethin g that seemed to please him the most. The evening was punctuated by two broads ides; one from the square-rigged ketch Ha waiian Chieftain as a tribute to Kortum , and the other from Kortum him se lf. Though thin and frail-looking from his battle with a heart condition, he left no one in doubt as to the projects left " unfinished. " The first is the collecting from the Falkland Islands of the last of the Gold Rush ships, Vicar of Bray. Kortum dec lared this ship 's destiny was in San Francisco, on display. But that wasn't enough. The great lion ra ised his voice yet again urging people to stop construction of a large structure planned for Hyde Street Pier. Karl feels that it would not significantly increase income for the Park, but will destroy the ambience of Hyde Street Pier. He implored hi s guests to not let such a thing happen, as it would ultimately detract from the ships we cherish. Those of us who know Karl must have all fe lt the same chi ll up our spines, the ting ling one gets before a long voyage or a good fig ht. It was clear that if Karl is retired , it is with an asterisk that exp lain s: "Retired but not gone." -
JOSEPH DITLER
Development Director San Diego Maritime Museum
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Ruth Newhall Remembers Scott Newha ll, who welded up the first displays in the fledgling museum and led its most adventurous ship-save, the voyage ofthe paddle tug Eppleton Hallji ¡om England to San Francisco in 1969-70 (see pages 46-47), was Kortum' s constant partner and hacker in these ventures. His widow Ruth wrote these recollections to Karl of their partnership: Scott telling me thata young Petaluma chicken farmer, who was trying to keep a freeway off the family farm, happened also to be a shipmate of his younger brother Hall [aboard Kaiulani] . Unprecede nted victory was scored against the fearsome State Division of Highways, and Scott told me that now the farmersailor had come up with another idea: A maritime museum to occupy the mostly vacant WPA project building at the foot of Polk Street. "Great idea!" said Scott. Scott and Karl with their heads together at Scott's desk in This World magazine; Scott asking Paul Smith, the San Francisco Chronicle's boy-genius editor, if he would host a luncheon for all the local publishers to present the maritime museum idea, so that it wouldn ' t be a Chronicle project to be shot down by the others. Then the many images: Dinner with Alma Spreckels; Karl and Dave [Nelson] and Scott huddling around midni ght on a Washington Street sidewalk , laying plans forthe museum ; a bright girl named Jean [Edmonds] who applied for a job at the Chronicle and was assigned to help Karl establish hi s muse um ; a later image in Reno, witnessing the marriage of Karl and Jean , and later still a playpen in the museum office. Creative ideas spring ing from Karl 's head as he took fragments of old ships and turned them into exhibits; a capacity to turn ord inary notes into pieces of fine writing. Through it all- children, a burned-down hou se, the vicissitudes of daily life-was the mu seum , adding beat-up ships and restoring th eir beauty , finding money , persuading , politicking, demanding- so that the museum became a reality. And a lways mi schievous stunts for Scott and yo u to enjoy. The big stunt was the fa iled kidnapping of the Reliant from England 's Tyne River- the caper that even tua ll y found yo u and Johnny [Karl and Jean 's son, then 11 years old] and Scott cross in g the Atlantic in the Eppleton Hall. -
R UTH NEWHALL
SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
THE KORTUM LEGACY
The Ships ... Fifty years ago a very young Karl Kortum helped the US Army take the masts out of the bark Kaiulani. He had sa iled in her by way of Cape Horn from the Pacific Northwest to Africa and on to Australia. World War II was then raging in the Pacific and "the old barky," as her men cal led her, was needed to support American landings in Japanese-held territory , a leapfrog, island-hoppin g effort that ended in triumph in the Philippines. There, after the war, the Kaiulani became a log-barge for local lumber interests-sti ll serving a useful role. Karl Kortum realized that hi s voyage in Kaiulani was an historic one-the last passage for a Yankee sq uare rigger around Cape Horn , where so many tall ships had gone before. Four years after the war ended he founded the San Francisco Maritime Museum to keep the proud heritage of seafaring alive for a new generation of Americans, who perhaps hardly could conceive of making a li ving at sea without hot and co ld running water, or even electric light. He reached out to save an abandoned sailing ship laid up on the
Sausalito mud flats . Where others saw a bedraggled wreck, he saw a thing of high purpose and enduring beauty, forged to contest with the screaming winds and roaring seas of the Cape Horn Trade. That ship was and is the Balclutha-a name known to every person around the world who cares for mankind 's voyaging heritage. We know Balc/utha 's name because Karl has made sure we know it. By sheer determination , backed by what I have to ca ll a kind of intell ectual brilliance, he has made the cause for hi storic ships clearto all ofus, and he has made it stick. He put that case very simp ly once, in a letter to Peter Stanford some years back: " A ship properly invested as a museum or set up as a display sends out emanations of lore, humanity, history, adventure, geography, art, literature .... " It has been Karl 's gift to catch those emanations for the public, and for museum people as well. The square riggers Polly Woodside and James Craig in Australia, the Falls of Clyde in Hawaii , the Elissa in Galveston and even our Wavertree here in New York owe their
survi va l in the first in stance to hi s advocacy and leaders hip. He has worked generously over the years to help others, swi nging in behind Jerry MacMullen 's efforts to restore the sadly deteriorated Star of India in San Diego. I have been at the helm of this noble old vesselcomp lete ly restored, she sails again. Karl has cajo led and bamboozled the British into taking on Brunel 's iron steamer, the Great Britain, abandoned in the Falklands. The letterto England 's Frank Carr, which launched that campaign, included this remark: "It stirs me to think that the subject of those lithograph s and engravings of the 1840s sti II exists upon the waters of this earth! Surely something can be done .... " Who can stand up to this kind of thing? Who would even want to? It seems there is always more to be done. And in presenting the American Ship Trust Award to Karl Kortum , we know we are going in harm's way-he is goin g to ex pect us to do more for hi s ships! Well , on behalf of our National Maritime Hi storical Society, we accept that burden. And we thank you, Karl , for being ours and the nation 's leader in this business of hi storic ships . !,
... and Their People
ing those formative years was like living in the 19th century. I became so immersed in identifying I9th-centu ry photographs and figuring out how things were done, that it was a cu lture shock to come home to the 20th century every evening." Kortum 's notebooks represent much of his life 's scholarl y work. These numerous (28-30) oversized binders bulge with illustrated firsthand accounts as told by men who sa il ed (or steamed) in commercial sea trades. He disdained the unedited pages ground out in oral history typescripts. Instead, Karl Kortum sat behind hi s desk , pounding away on the old Underwood typewriter, as men Iike Captain Fred Klebingat described voyages on ships they knew like the back of their hands, and how hard it was for a seaman to keep body and sou l together as he looked for work along the city front. Karl typed a paragraph or two, then he rolled the page out and gave it to the captain to look over. He put in the changes (sometimes by hand) , sometimes typing in an addition and crossi ng out another phrase or two. Asking questions, he li stened carefu ll y, continually trying to get it down right-again and
again, he made changes. But beyond right, he li stened for the small improvements in syntax that led to a better tell ing. He managed to tune his ear to pick up and retain individual nuances of speech and ex pression. Most of Kortum 's interviews took place in hi s office in the afternoon, stretching into early evening. For 45 years, he kept adding information to hi s notebooks and files from men who had spen t much of their working lives on turn-of-the-century vessels. He frequently showed them photographs dating back to their own experience. He would ask, "What 's that man doing?" or "What's that tool called? Did you ever see it used for anything else?" The photographs acted as a great stimulus to focus the narrative on specifics. A photocopy of the view would have arrows drawn to Kortum notes around the edges and on the back. Mary Clark learned to decipher these hieroglyphics as though they were an archaeological find. Kortum 's notes became hi s first draft meant to be edited-aga in , again, and yet again when a new nugget of information would be added , or a photograph turned up to illustrate the very point to be made. !,
An Appreciation of Karl Kortum's Work by Walter Cronkite
Excerptfrom "A t the End of Our Streets Are Spars : San Francisco's Maritime Heritage Becomes a National Park ," by Nancy Leigh Olmsted, 1995. Karl Kortum grew up observing the end of the age of commercial sail on the back-country waterfront of Petaluma, California. He made the last American windjammer rounding of Cape Horn in 1941 aboard the Bath-built bark Kaiulani, as she sailed from Gray's Harbor, Oregon, to Durban and on to Sydney, Australia, where the US Army Transport Service bought the vessel, and half the crew, including Karl, went to work for the new owners. When Karl Kortum's vision for a new maritime museum for San Francisco caught the enthusiastic response from San Francisco Chronicle feature editor Scott Newhall in 1948, there were still survivors of the 19th-century age of sai 1. Vessels survived--o ld , but afloat1ike the Pacific Queen (formerly, and once again, the Balclutha) . Furthermore, there were aging but surviving captains, mates and crew members. As Principal Librarian David Hull recalled: "Working for Karl Kortum dur-
SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
7
Towing to sea behind a ship's boat on a wintry day around 1400, a cog of the late Middle Ages leaves a German port. From such ports the Hans e merchants dominated th e trade ofthe northern seas until the tides of ocean traffic changed radical/y.fi¡om 1500 on. The artist's educated eye has caught th e snugness of the tight little seaport guarded by castle fortifications. The trade that percolates through its waters in vessels large and small will, in the next two centuries, split this closed medieval system wide open, ushering in a new age of infinite variety and expanded horizons--the Modern Age. Watercolor by Mark A. Myers.
The Cape Hom Road, Part VI:
Castled Ships in Northern Seas by Peter Stanford The lithe and able Viking ships of the Norse sea raiders, sailed as only these fierce and poetic peoples could sail them, had performed miraculously in terms of the navigation of the time. They had crossed the wild wastes of the North Atlantic Ocean only a couple of hundred years after mastering the art of sailing around 800AD, to reach the Americas , establishing a short-lived settlement in Newfoundland in 1000. The remains of that Norse settlement have been discovered and studied in recent years; they were found to fit perfectly into the record of the Icelandic sagas written a few hundred years after the event. This ultimate reach across the ocean was accomplished after the Norsemen had set up earlier settlements in Greenland which lasted nearly 500 years. The Greenland settlements died out only in the 1400s, after a prolonged cooling down of the climate in that era-sometimes called the "Little Ice Age"-which made navigation of the northern seas more difficult and crippled the Norse settlers' conventional agriculture, animal husbandry and fishing practices. Stunted skeletons in the final burial s in
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the Greenland sites that have been explored in our time suggest a pathetic starving out of the colonies. But there is evidence also of battles with Inuit peoples coming down from the north after their long trek across country from Alaska, which they were only completing in this era, driving out native American Indians as they went. One may imagine weakened Norse defenders falling before the Inuit, who were bred to life in a cold, barren world, much as German tank crews, then the most formidable so ldiers in the world, fell to hardy Russians mounted on Siberian ponies twenty miles outside Moscow, in the extraordinarily cold winter of 1941. The Norse adventure in the New World was only part of their wide-ranging forays, which, as we've seen earlier, brought Byzantine gold from Constantinople into circulation in northern Europe via the Russian river systems. The Norse traversed the marshy Dvina and the rocky falls of the Dnieper with the same verve and elan that carried them into the far reaches of the Mediterranean-where they set up a new kingdom in Sicily and fortified outposts in
Greece-and, in a move central to our story, also set up a Norse kingdom closer to home in Normandy. These Normans, as they became known , adopted the French language, and celebrated the reigning Christian religion . They invaded and conquered England in I 066, actually bringing a more advanced civilization to the island kingdom. Britain, when the Normans took over, was still working out the fundamental compromise between the "English"the Anglo-Saxon invaders who had crashed into Britain in oared ships in King Arthur's time-and the Danes, who, coming first as raiders, and then to settle and farm, had seized much of England. King Alfred, in the later 800s, beat back the Danish invaders and then worked toward a settlement (reached in his sons' time) , which produced a united kingdom. In this the recently arrived Danes shared, without extinguishing English (or, for that matter, old Briton or Celtic) life and liberties.
The Norman Gift for Governing Under the Normans, who from the beginning showed an extraordinary gift for running things , the essence of the English settlement survived. Indeed, the SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
new rul ers of the land reached back to a Celti c hero to leg itimi ze the ir rule, gatheri ng up the tales of King Arthur, which were soon enshrined as the national epic. But, the drift of forgetfulness and the piling-up of e laboration during the more than six centuries that had passed s ince Arthur's g reat battl e of Badon Hill around 500AD generated confu sion as to just when he had lived and what hi s battles were about. Thi s led to some amusing anachroni sms in the tales of Arthurian chiva lry as they come down to us today; but the defen se of C hri stianity was no anachroni sm, it was a vital part of the RomanoCeltic cause-and a part that ultimately prevailed . Arthur 's use of so ldi ers mounted on horseback (the word "chivalry ," is from the French "cheval," or " horse") was no anachroni sm either; it was the military reality that enabled Arthur to form the mobile reserve (akin to the " masse de manoeuvre" that Winston Churchi ll looked for in vain to stop the German tanks slicing through stati c French defenses in the invasion of France in 1940) that kept the primitive invading Germanic tribes, or Anglo-Saxons, at bay for a few critical decades. Thus the Britons had avoided the catastrophic mudslide that engu lfed the other provinces of the Roman Empire as Goth and Vandal slaughtered and looted the ir way through the last strongholds of civ ilization in the West.
A Defining Myth This story of persi stence and endurance is at the core of the Arthurian myth which the Normans seem con sciou sly to have built into their settlement with Ce ltic Briton and Anglo-Saxon in England. Arthur 's story became, with notable consequences, the defining myth of the remade nation. It is signifi cant that thi s myth had been kept alive among the common people and also through church records now lost to us. Geoffrey of Monmouth , the Norman cleric who revived Arthur as an historic figure in hi s History of the Kin gs of England, refers to a sou rce of such record s. The Normans al so recogni zed the rough democracy of the law of the shires, evolved from case to case and from generation to generation. They made thi s the Common Law of the land , which, with its juries ofordinary c iti zens and its reliance on evolved solution s to problems of justice, rather than a mandated , centrally admi nistered code of justice, became the law of the United States and SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
all the nation s where English is the main language today, from New York to Toronto, and Bombay. It is worth pausi ng to consider the Norman settlement as it took shape. It seems a stunning acc ident of history that the Normans, who imposed their adopted French language and modes of governance on Briton and Saxon alikequite firmly-should have kept the Britons' nationa l myth and the Saxons' rough-hewn tribal law. But I can hear a Norman baron telling me: "This was no accident! " Rud ya rd Kipling wrote percipiently early in thi s century of how the Norman ruled over Briton, Saxon and Dane in Puck of Pook' s Hill , tales of a re-imagined past living on in the storied countryside of southeastern England. In these tales, rooted in the native folklore (for which Kipling had a ve ry good ear), the Norman overlord is always relying on the judgement of the Engli sh yeoman farmer in the day-to-day conduct of affairs, and never pushing him when he digs hi s hee ls in , when he becomes dangerous. You might say at this point, what has a ll thi s to do with the Cape Horn storythe story of mankind ' s opening of the ocean road and round the world? That ' s what we came for, isn ' t it? We ll , yes it is. Perhaps we should be ex ploring the ri se of the great Islamic power that arose in Arabia in the 700sgo ing on from there to take in North Africa, Spain, the Middle East, Turkey and much of southeast Europe-or the tremendous, violent reaction of the West in the Crusades aimed at recapturing the Holy Land, and the flowering of the Ita li an maritime republics which fueled the Renaissance. Instead, we find ourselves standing around listening to fo lklore dispensed on the Kentish downs. But I ask yo ur patience in this matter. l , like any storyteller of yore, can tell you on ly what I have learned, in the hope and endeavor to pass it on to yo u as I learned it. And I tell you that in this matter of Britain we are see ing seeds planted that will burst fo rth in totall y unpredicted ways-ways some hi storians even today do not seem to recognize in their full reach and flowering.
The Yeoman Archers To resume, then, the Viking adventure had pretty well run its course by the time of the orman Conquest of I 066. But it had left its mark in Eng land. Winston Churchill , in hi s History of the EnglishSpeaking Peoples , c ites amo ng the Vi-
king legacies, in their settlements in the British Isles, the priceless heritage of the c iti zen so ldier, the yeoman trained in arms. No con tinenta l European power had this tradition, or indeed could afford it. In medieval soc ieties the nobility sustained itse lf by the strategy, all too familiar in our time, of milking the economy and controlling a depe ndent peasantry through "entitlements." The rulers believed that arming the people of the land wo uld lead to their own sure destruction-an ass umption proved correct in later European hi story. England, however, was fortunate in escapi ng the worst depravities of medi eval soc iety through the progressive settlements that had been reached. And these continued to evolve. Under Magna Carta, the Great Charter of 12 15 , the king became ob li gated to consult local magnates and bo und himself to observe basic c ivil rights protecting the peopl e aga inst arbitrary search and seizure, imprisonment without verified cause, and the like. In the following century a parliamen t which gave some voice to public concern s came into being. It was a voice which often proved confused and quarrelsome, but through many vic iss itudes was not to be sil enced until , centu ries later, it became the dominant vo ice in public affairs, as its descendants are in most of the world ' s nations today. And the vo ice it soon began to speak in , with overlays of Norman French and C hurch Latin where matters of state or the es ta bl ished reli gion were concerned, was Eng li sh! This, in a form recognizable to Eng li sh-speaking people today in Geoffrey C haucer's Canterbury Tales of the late 1300s, was the native Germanic language of the peop le, whi ch had naturall y passed through m any changes in its 800-odd years ashore, but retained its sturd y, adaptab le nature. These evo lv ing changes in Engl ish li fe and society did not do much to affect the course of hi story at first. But this slow ferment in ways of thought, speech and ac tion did produce one highly visible phenomenon from which Europe and the Eng li sh themselves might have learned much had they had the advantage of the hindsight we enjoy. That phenomenon was the Engli sh longbow, wh ich in the hands of yeoman arc hers, who trained at the butts on Sunday afte rnoons, introduced a kind of artillery into warfare, wel I before the development of effective gun s.
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A Christian captive in the Holy Land announced that liberation was at hand, on spying a cog from his prison window. Winston Churchill characterized the importance of the longbow in these words: The long-bow , handled by the welltrained archer class, brought into the field a yeoman type of soldier with whom there was nothing on the Continent to compare. Churchi ll goes on to note the dev astating effect of the English arrow storm as the French first encountered it in the naval battle of Sluys in 1340. Here Engli sh archers mowed down the crews of the bigger French ships before the English closed for the boarding of armed men th at determined the course of medieval sea battles. And Churchi ll describes how the subsequent landing of the English invading army at France faced stiff resistance from Genoese crossbowmen and men-at-arms ashore: " But the English archers, shooting from the ships at long range, cleared the shores and covered the invading troops. " This unprecedented achievement of the archers has been largely overlooked by naval historians; Churchill, who knew something of amphibious warfare in two World Wars, appreciated thi s revolutionary ac hievement for what it was. The longbow at its most formidable, in the hands of a yeoman trained since childhood at the archery butts, had a killing range of 250 yards-two and a half footbal I field s-and at closer ranges it could go right through a charging horseman. Handling one of the longbows recovered from the Tudor warship Mary Rose , sunk in 1545, Norma Stanford, a determined archer, having asked permission and braced herself to the task, found she could hardly bend it-nor could I. It took a special breed of nonnoble worker to draw that bow. Armed with this weapon, small Engli sh armies, always outnumbered and often put in impossible positions by arrogant but determined leaders, won victory after victory in the fighting after Sluys, from Crecy six years later, in 1346, to Agincourt in 1415. lt was left to Joan of Arc, taking command of the French armies in 1429, to enlist the nascent national spirit of France and drive the English out forever-and she was no noble but a servant girl who learned to ride horseback tending to the horses of travelers at a local inn . So ended the Hundred Years War, which soaked up the energies of Britain in the futile dreams of kings who aspired to rule both England and France. And as 10
that conflict dissolved in the rising tide of French national awareness, the English nobility embarked on another violent strugg le, a long contest known as the War of the Roses, fought between the rival York and Lancaster factions for control of the English throne. This was to end only in 1485 when the Tudor Henry VII took the throne. By that time medieval society with its glories and horrors was fading on the European scene.
Cathedrals, Castles ... The medieval establishment in Europe was one that insisted on order and subordination, in a prolonged and strong reaction to the chaos and confusions which had destroyed the advanced soc ieties of the Roman Empire by 500AD. By about the year 1000, despite millenial prophecies of the destruction of all earthly kingdoms, the new medieval order had been established. Glorious cathedrals began to soar toward heaven , structures which stop and stagger people today who come to them for the first time: arched, fretted and spired testaments in which the stone, increasingly penetrated and suffused with light as the Gothic style evolved throughout the West, positively sings the wonders of the Creation. The great human truth s and asp irations expressed in these exaltations of high purpose shaped in cold stone speak to us across the centuries. To miss the message of the great cathedrals and turn a deaf ear to their music is to miss the singular glory of the Middle Ages, and more, to miss something important and inspiring in the story of humank ind . To know this, visit the great cathedrals, and see what they tell you directly, rather than rely on the word of the materialists of our day who too often simply don 't see the shaping influence of things that reach and move the human psyche directly. The message of the stone castles that appear across Europe contemporaneously with the cathedrals is an easy one to read: They define " us" agai nst"them" with their massive walls, moats and drawbridges, a message of determined isolation and provincialism. In another sense, they stand like rocks put down upon the carpet of the countryside, with the lives of its people woven into its fabric like a figured designrocks carefully placed to keep that carpet down against whatever winds of change may blow. In still another, the castles and the villages that huddle for shelter, typi-
cally, under their frowning walls stand for a kind of Germanic gemut lichkeit, or homey , snug cheerfu lness in a vanished age when money was not the measure of all things and the ideal of service to the community was everywhere honored and in uneven but distinct ways carried out. This practically universal society, with its local variations (sometimes quite significant variations, as we have seen in England) had in its early stages developed the integrity and energy at first to fend off and then completely repel the Viking raids that fell so ca lami to usly on Europe from the north, and at the same time contain the threatening advance of Islam in the south. Islam, born in the Arabian peninsula in the 700s, had a century later conquered the kingdoms of the Middle East and swept through Spain into France, overturning the Germanic states that had been set up by Vandals and Visigoths. The new Islamic caliphates introduced what to our eyes today is unmistakably a more advanced, tolerant and ed ucated soc iety than the society of medieval Europe . This was true, at least up until the time of the European Renaissance beginning in the later 1300s, a revival of art and learning of the ancient world of Greece and Rome-a revival ow ing much, as it turned out, to the scho larship of great Islamic centers of learning from Cordoba to Baghdad. But this remarkable contribution was hidden in the future as the two great systems smashed up against each other in the Mediterranean world. To win the encounter the Christian West mustered the great military effort known as the Crusades. Beginning in 1096 and petering out in the 1200s, these armed expeditions allowed the restless knight errantry of England and Europe to gallop off to free Palestine, where Christ had walked the roads and pursued his mission unto death and immortality, from the hated grasp of the infidel.
... and Castled Ships These ventures brought Northern European shipping into the Mediterranean, and , with the beachhead Crusader kingdoms established in Palestine, encouraged trade with the Middle East, based largely on the spices of the Indies and si lks and ceramics from China, brought in by Arab merchants trading by sea with the Orient, as they had for centuries. These Northern ships were univerSEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
This Lu/Jeck cog seal of 1224 depicts the fou nding of the Han sealic League. The /andhased merchant (al lefl) in !he how and !he seaf aring merchanl al the helm, are shown swearing an oa1h 10 fo rm a /roding community. The precise date of the foundin g of !he Hansealic League is unkno wn , hut it f ollowed soon af1er !he foundin g of Lu heck.
sally known as "cogs," a ship type that had suppl anted the light, fast- trave ling knarrs (cargo ships) and warri or longships of the Norsemen. One suspects the Mediterranean sailors call ed all Northern ships cogs regardless of what type they were. But indeed the cog had become the dominant ship of the Northern seas. It was a type so di stinct from the Mediterranean round ship of the day that a Chri sti an captive in the Ho ly Land is said to have anno unced that liberation was at hand , on spying a cog from hi s pri son window.
Where the Cog Came From ... The basic cog type, a fl at-bottom, deepdraft vessel built with the typical Northern clinker planking (overlapping planks secured to each other, and pinned to ra ther li ght internal framing) has been traced back by a leading student of the type, Detlev Ellmers, to simple vessels pl ying the Fri sian sands aro und the mouth of the great Rhine Ri ver, which fl ows north at the western edge of Germany to ex it into the North Sea. The type apparently evolved from boats made from a single log, upon which pl anked sides were graduall y built up. These boats, says Ellmers, were active before the arrival of the Romans on the scene, when trade and warfare with raiding Germani c tribes made the ri ver a foc us of maritime activity. In later centuries the Saxons in West Germany were conquered by Charlemagne, who was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800 in a bid to rev ive the glories and stability of the Roman EmSEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
pire. The expans ive-mi nded Saxons, the sa me that had in vaded Eng la nd in Arthur' s time, prom ptly tu rned aro und and began to dri ve eastward, subd uing nati ve Slav ic peopl es as they went. Thi s led to Gerrnan mi Ii tary kingdoms stretching eastward along the south shore of the Balti c Sea and ulti mately thro ugh what are now the Baltic States reac hing to the western edges of Ru ssia. From these warri or settlements emerged , most notabl y, the kingdom of Pruss ia, whi ch li ved on to become the eng ine of the militari zed Gerrnan state which launched the two World Wars of o ur century. All thi s was fa r in the fu ture in 1143, when the seaport tow n of Lubeck was fo unded in the Ba ltic. Soon after its fo undati on, its fe udal overlord the Duke of Saxony sent o ut orders that all trade wi th Scandinav ia and other states and territo ri es bordering the in land sea should come th ro ugh Lubeck-incl uding Russian trade via the Dvina and other Baltic ri vers linking up with the Russ ian rivers Dnieper and Volga. Enfo rced with marching- in-co lumn energies and purpose, thi s remarkable diktat stood and worked, leading in short order to the organi zation of the Hanseatic League, a tight organi zation of Gerrnan trading towns with Lubeck as its center. There were stro ng market fo rces behind thi s quasi-mil itary organi zation, .since the rich Gerrnan cities of the Rhine needed the grain of the conq uered lands to the east, and their military governors craved the sophi sticated products of their parent civi li zati ons. Lubeck , at the west end of the Ba ltic, stood just ac ross the neck of the penin sul a of Denmark from the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg-as it pro udly styles itself even today-situated on the Elbe River j ust in off the North Sea. Westward from this stretch the sandy shores of Frisia, reaching to the exits of the Rhine in the Netherlands .
. . . and Where She Went T he cog, grow ing in depth and size while keeping her simple, bas ic construction, became the workhorse of these burgeoning trades. She moved easil y eastward into the Ba ltic and west into the Engli sh Channel and ro und the corner into the Bay of Biscay , carrying bulk cargoes fo r whi ch she was eminently sui ted by her depth of ho ld and sturdy construction. For with the growth of tow ns, cargoes li ke grain , sa lt, timber and woo l were the sta ples of trade. But even high-va lue cargoes li ke wine, or
the spices and silks of the Ori ent co uld be more economi ca ll y moved by these deep-draft ships th an by any th at had yet sw um the seas. And th e cog swam the seas e ffective ly, des pite her ungainl y looks. Her deep draft gave her hull a grip on the water which enab led her to punch to windward in a ri sin g sea, not very e ffecti vely by modem standards, but fa r better than her more graceful , swift-travelin g Viking predecessors in the northern seas. And that same rugged hull enabl ed the cog to mo unt wooden castles fo re and aft, and sometimes even at the mas thead, from whi ch her archers could shoot fro m she lte r not ava il abl e on other vessels, and her boarding parties could storrn aboard the weakened enemy from superior he ight-another version of the " high ground" always sought in land battles. The recove ry in 1962 of a nearl y compl ete hull of a cog built at a Weser Ri ver shipyard , on Gerrnany's North Sea Coast, has told us a lot about the actual structure of these vessels in their heyday. Two full -scale replicas have been built and sailed, and construction detail s inc luding a unique method of clenching the pl ank-to-plank fastenings have enabled archaeologists to identi fy many fragmentary remains of ships of th is peri od as the ubiquitous cog. The cog was superseded by another heavy-hulled type, the hulk , a ship of a more complex design better suited to the larger size of ships involved in the gro wing volume of the northern sea trade. By 1400 thi s trade had grown to surpass th at of the Mediterranean. Soon after 1400 the hulk too was superseded by the smooth-planked carrack, a vesse l originating in the Mediterranean, though strong ly influenced by Northern ideas in the increas ing interchange that was taking pl ace. The Hansa power was at its height in 1400, with settlements in all important seaport cities around the North and Balti c Seas, through whi ch fore ign trade was rigidl y controlled-not so much by military fo rce (though that was ca lled on, on occas ion), as by the accumul ated capital, international access and lines of credit, and the expertise and unity of purpose of the Hanse merchants. All thi s was to fade away in the hundred years fo ll ow ing 1400, as the maritime world changed dramatica ll y, refl ecting and reinforc ing the changes as hore which effecti vely ended the me-1dieval settlement. 11
Tidel1V"ater Tugboating Recollections of tugboat and barge commerce on Long Island Sound and the reaches of New York Harbor before World War II by Philip Thorneycroft Teuscher ments sited on tida l estu ari es. ' ' Me n , go back to Sha ll o w-draft, cente rboa rd , work . When I get home I will g ive gaff-rigged sloops and schooyou a square deal! " ners evolved with hard bil ges It was 19 19 and Pres ident enabling them to beach on tidal Wil son was in France orchesfl a ts, whe re wago ns we re tratin g th e c reati o n of the dri ven ri ght up to the grounded League of Nati ons. vessels to handle the cargo. As steam nav igatio n deve lIn New York a seaman' s oped in the nineteenth censtrike had paral yzed harbor tury, sailing vesse ls we re supshipping. Dan Ro land, second eng in eer with the Red Star pl anted by steam tow boats Towin g Company, li stened as pulling strin gs of barges and the Pres identi al te legram was by sma ll coas ta l stea me rs ca ll ed " cana le rs." The un read to a pac ked-to-capac ity union ha ll crowd. The Pres idredged, shallow rivers and dent ex ho rted the men to "go creeks necess itated the use of bac k to wo rk " fo r the sake of the atmospheric ex hausting, non-condensing, hi gh pressure the country and the reg ional economy. Dan remarked that steam engine for tugboat pro"w hen the Pres ident of the "' pul sion. Thi s was because the country speaks to yo u like that, ~ kee l condenser, for recycling you couldn ' t turn him down! " ~ bo iler feed-water, would not And the seamen went bac k ~ condense effective ly near the to work . ~ mudd y bottoms of these sha tThose were less compli ~ low waterways. cated times when c iti zens were ~ The Red Star tugs that Dan more like ly to believe a Pres i¡ 8 eng ineered used 16" bore by denti a l promi se and working The Red Star tugs Huntington and Greenwich at Wa l/about Market, 20" stroke hi gh press ure enBrooklyn. in the early / 930s. Dan Roland sits on the pi/ot house deck g¡111 es b ' lt b S II' East craft were powered by coal- steps; notice the drinking water cup han gin g off the ladder. h S UI Y. u Miv anhon fi red bo il e rs and " up-a nd ' ' tree t 1n a n a tta n . 8t down " rec iprocatin g steam e ng ines. knew we wo uld never stop in time . I Steam , at ISOpsi, generated by IpenDan's and others' recollection s create a thought of my daughte r and putting her hauser Bo il ers of De lancy Street, drove pi cture of life aboard when bulk cargoes th ro ugh co llege and I thought of the these power pl ants. Working revolutions were transported by barges pulled by ninety fee t of water unde r o ur keel and were 90 per minute turning a nine-foot1 gave her all the steam I had AHEAD diameter, four-bladed , cast iron prope ller. steam tugs . The anecdotes are imbued with an [countermanding the Captain 's orders]. Captains in the pi lot house signa l led immedi acy and presence, and detail s I call ed the fireman to come up, in case the ir engineers at the steam control s are fl eshed-out in the ve rnacul ar, for the something happened. I swear I could using the be ll -pull , jing le-be ll system , reco ll ecti ons are ali ve with the excite- feel the wind of that scow pass as we just g iving the fo llowing comm ands: one be ll- when stopped, AHEAD SLOW; ment o r tension of the long ago event. squeaked by! " Later, over in Jersey, ti ed-up to the when ahead slow, STOP; whe n ahead " One spring day in 191 9 I heard fo ur short blasts, the danger signal! I looked stake boat, the Capta in came down from full , S LOW ; when as tern , STOP; two o ut the engine room port. There she was, the pilot ho use and sa id , ' We ll , Chief, I be ll s-AS T E RN SLOW ; jin g le the Mexpect, the Mexican Petrol eum g uess you were ri ght. We would never FULL. Also when abo ut to cast off, the Captainwould signalGETREADYwith Company 's tug, one of the most power- have made it!" ' ful in the port of New York. We were on So Dan Ro land , eng ineer, recalled a the jing les. a co lli sion course just west of Butter- c lose shave and hi s ri sky decision to Dan said , " I spoil ed alot of capta in s milk Channel, the tide ebbing fast. To counterm and hi s Capta in 's orders. and mates. I was so fas t, Captain used to The Primal Power of Steam say to me, ' I can always tell who's at the starboard , the Mexpect, smoke pouring out of her stack , a huge bow wave and a T he Hudson Ri ver, Long Island Sound th ro ttl e down there!' I had an o ld eng ili ght scow side-tied , had the tide fa ir and and the ir tida l reaches fo rm an intercon- neer- he was the brother of the found er was bearing down on us. Two be ll s nected water highway. Indi ans paddled of the company (Red Star, found ed by sounded for STOP ENGINES and then these waters whil e trading, hunting and Capta in Barber in 1884). He' d be on the two be ll s and the jing les for FULL on seasonal mi grati ons. With the advent oppos ite side of the engine, a be ll would ASTE RN! W e had just taken on full of the Euro pean, sai ling craft carri ed come down , he' d fini sh lighting hi s pipe bunkers and water and we were deep. J cargo and passe ngers to and from settle- before he answered that be ll. With me, 12
SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
and gurgling at the stern. Forward of the string of scows, at the end of a dripping towline sagg ing in and out of the sea, the tug chuffs at her work. The exha ust steam and soft coa l smoke issue from he r stack leav ing an ever widenin g shadow over the darkening sea to leeward. Navigation li ghts of tugs and tows, coasting schooners and a Sound steamer, ยงi' looking li ke a sea-going city, move pur~ posefu ll y under the lowering ni ght. In ~ the cabi n a cei ling-hung kerosene lamp <ยง casts a warm Iight over me! lowed toned ,.: pane ling and a brass c lock. Wisps of "'Ulf- steam ri se from a coffee pot on the coa l "':::>0 stove and the ship 's cat lies curled up o n '-----------------------------~-'---'u At the stake boat in the winter of 1934, Red Star tug Norwa lk makes up a tow of coal barges the bunk. John Noble wo uld have considered at Whitestone for deli very east up Long Island Sound. thi s scene a worthy subject. before the hammer was struck , I was The barges or scows were heav il y Seaborne life as a barge captain was answering that bell !" built of pitch pine and oak with iron not a lways so tranquil. With their large steamboat wheel s reinforcing. Loads were carried on deck Ern ie Schmidt, deck hand aboard the (prope lle rs) and mass ive torque, tugs or in a shallow cockp it surrounded by o ld Yoaghi ogheny and Oh io coal yard maneuvered ahead and astern with just wash boards to prevent the load from steam tugs on Con necticut's Housatonic a couple of revolutions. Deck hands shifting or from being washed overboard. Ri ver, gave me a late 1930s newspaper A Scene Worthy of John Noble anticipated the ir next move by the be ll s clipping from the front page of the and jingles rung down to the eng ineer, Red Star wo uld not tow an unman ned Bridgeport Post, 16 February 1939: and one short bl ast on the steam whistle scow. A "caboose"-sty le deck house " Man-Wife Saved as Barge Sinks, Stom1 aft( so- nam ed after th e rectangu Jar Damages T ug, Fireman 's Leg is Injured, alerted the deck crew to their station s. Jn 1961 , aboard the Socony 8, the las t deckhouses on square riggers) housed Harrowing Tale To ld by Crew of Expeworking steam tug on North Caro lina's the barge captain or " bargee," as they rience in Wednesday 's Gale, Man-Wife Cape Fear River, I ex perienced the pri - were sometimes known . These men Picked-up, Captain, Mrs. Carter of Lost mal power of steam. Two bell s rang te nded lin es, pumped their barges, Y &O Barge Suffer From Immersion. " HALF ASTERN and th e Socony 8 trimmed the loads (leveling the load for T he Y &O steam tug M . Mitchell backed into the fairway. On e be ll purposes of measuring the cubic yard- Da vis , towing a scow loaded with I 000 sounded fo r STOP ENGINES and then age) and generall y kept things ship- tons of coa l from Bridgeport toward the anothe r be ll and the jingles for FULL shape. The ir cabins were neatly pai nted, mouth of th e Housatonic River at AHEAD . From unde r her fantail a veri- and if there were flower boxes under the Stratford Point, labored into the blast of table tidal bore of churning, roiling wa- windows or laundry fl ying one could a no"rtheast ga le. The short, steep seas ter erupted- in a moment the Socony 8 over shoa ling water battered the tug and was qui c kly ga inin g headwa y. He r barge, washing over the scow's miniThe shunting of barges and broad-bladed propeller, pumped aro und mal freeboard and flooding into her hold . the making-up of tows TheM. Mit chell Davis's side decks were by the connecting rods of he r compo und s team e ng in e, scooped imm e nse awash. Freeing ports in her low waist occupied twenty-four hours amounts of water driving her ever fas ter ld not hand le the ons laught. Sea wacou a day, three hundred and at each revolution. ter cascaded below at coal bunker deck sixty-five days a year, The Red Star hi gh pressure tugs bunplates and from the lazarette grating. It kered three days of soft coa l and sixteen was a question of maritime triage. watch on and watch off. to e ighteen hours of bo iler feed water. The barge was cast off. T he tug "The fa rthest east we ' d go was Pine ro und ed to , then fe ll off to pi ck up the Orchard, Thimble Islands, towing six reasonabl y surmi se th at there was a bargee Capta in Ca rte r and hi s wife Bea. The barge, no longer under the scows. If it was blow ing easterly or the " Mi ss us" aboard! It must have been a peaceful life steadying influe nce of a tow, wall owed tide was flooding we ' d just make it to B lacksleys. There we ' d water-up for the shunting up and down the So und and the and bucked ; seas was hed over her like trip back to Whitestone towing six scows tidal reaches of the lower Hudson. a ha lf-tide reef. Just after the barge I can imagine an o ld Cape Horner, fi li ed and sank Carter and Bea were loaded with 6000 tons of trap rock ," sa id now retired to inl and waters as a bargee, haul ed from the February water from Dan Ro land . Stearn tugs, bows into the pi ers with seated on a quarter bitt smoking hi s pipe unde r the tu g's lee. Steaming with the a hose running to a fire hydra nt, were at dusk. Coasta l li gh ts in Connecticut ga le, th e M. Mitchell Davis returned to once a common sight on the New York and Long Island wink along the shore. Bridge port and front page publicity waterfront. Permits to " water" were is- The scow slides inexorably forwa rd , for her resc ue role. water whi speri ng along he r slab sides sued by the City Fire Department. For years after the fou ndering of the SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
13
When Red Star began converting their boats to diesel, Dan "swallowed the anchor. " He preferred the slow-turning, smooth power of steam to the noisy, vibrating diesels. Y &O coa l barge the natural gro wth oyste rrnen, wh o dredged these waters under sa il for seed oysters, haul ed-up dredges full of coa l whi ch they burned in the ir cookstoves. (See Sea Hi story 48, Autumn 1988, " The Las t Drift O ral Hi story Proj ect" )
Doing What Was Necessary Tugs wo rking the tidewaters of New York and Connecti cut proc ured cargoes from po ints of ori g in such as sand grave l from Long Island or stone and tra p roc k from Connecti c ut. They a lso provided a tran sshipment link with the railroads, barging coal from New York and New Jersey to ports on Long Island and in Connecti cut. In greater Ne w York harbor, scows were towed to and from "stake boats" to load or off-load. Red Star stake boats retired tugboats, the ir eng ines and bo il ers removed-were anchored off Riker' s Island , Whitestone and in New York harbor just so uth of Liberty Island . A "capta in " li ved aboard the stake boat to tend lines when tows were made- up for short or long haul s. Just as o n the railroads, the shunting of barges and the making- up of tows went on twenty-fo ur hours a day , three hundred and sixty-fi ve days a year, watch on and watch off. Occas ionally a storm or intense cold broke the ro utine. " I reme mber the w inte r of 19 18 aboard the tug Norwalk. We were stuck in the ice off Whitestone fo r one week," Dan recalled. " Eac h day we moved one mile east and then one mile west as the tide shifted the ice. We broke off one of the prope ll er bl ades trying to get free and had to limp down to Staten Island to drydock," Dan reca lled. By the earl y 1930s commercial, working sa iling craft were almost ex tinct.
Dan Rol and , however, remembered an encounter that mi ght have quickened the demise of a coaster. " We were off Dari en (Connectic ut), Greens Ledge. I was just foo ling around the engine room , all of a sudden I heard the clanking ofan anchor chain . I looked out my eng ine room window , whi ch was open, there was a three-mas ted schooner which was beating from the Da ri e n sho re across (Lo ng Is la nd Sound). Just then a little g ust of wi nd sprung up and he was going to hi t that 1000-ton coa l barge ri ght in the center- but th at Captain was ri ght on the ball and he dropped hi s anchor. There were still a few sailing ships roaming the Sound in the earl y ' 30s and they were the most deadl y menace to steamboats so fa r, espec iall y at ni ght!" The industria li zed ports of No rwalk and Bridgeport had small harbor steam towboats stati oned to provide local towing servi ces. These tugs docked coasting schooners and deli vered laden barges up estuari es too shall ow fo r the New York boats. The Addie VII of Norwalk to wed scow s, dropped off by Red Star up Westport ' s Saugatuck River to the Gault Coal Yard above the Route One road bridge. Howard Gault re membered ho w the Addie VII steamed up the Saugatuck Ri ver on a fl ood ing tide, one scow in tow . Thi s was in the mid 1920s just before the river became too shoa l for barge traffi c. "Ju st before the Ro ute One bridge she' d get behind the barge and g ive it a good shove through the open bridgewe ' d have a line on the barge and then the ya rd crew would pull it alongs ide the bulkhead. It was too sha ll ow north of the bridge fo r the tug- it just kept silt-
ili~------~~~~l!!l!l!r--:=-:-:-------1 ~
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in g in . I' ll te ll yo u a story-o ne time the barge we nt ag round ri ght in the bridge opening with the tide fallin g. Th at bridge was open for over twe lve hours waiting fo r the tide. Route One was the main road between Boston and Ne w York in those da ys. What a mess-all the traffi c had to be routed north to the up ri ve r cross ing!" Seamen have always been resourceful- the viciss itudes of the ir profess ion demand an ability to adapt. Ernie Schmidt wo rked as a dec khand on the Greenwich delivering coal from the Y &O yard on the Housatonic Rive r to the head of navigation at the mi II town of Derby, Connecticut. " We' d tow one scow at a time, 400, may be 500, tons of coal. The Greenwich, she didn ' t have no condenser. High pressure steam came out of the stac k. We ' d work the tide , catch it fl ooding; took about three ho urs steaming to reach Derby. B y th at time we' d be low on boiler-feed water so ri ght opposite the Swedi sh Horne, on the west bank of the Hou satonic in She lton , we ' d throw a hose over and pump our tanks full. That water was fresh up there !" If a fl at-bottom scow went aground it was not so seri ous as a tug taking the bottom . Dan Ro land recall s avoiding a potenti all y di sastrous inc ident when hi s tug got caught on a fa lling tide . " We' d run in there (Hempstead Harbor, Long Island) to the sand dump; tide was fa lling. The Captain went as hore to ca ll up (before the radio age captains often te lephoned the company office for towing ass ignments); may be he was gone fi fteen minutes. We were tied sideways to the dock and I knew with the tide fa llin g we wo uld fa ll over and fill up. So, he came down , he gave her two be ll s to bac k-she didn ' t move, so I ran in and broke the seal on the safetyvalve, screwed it down and got ten more pounds, went bac k and gave her full throttl e-s lid ri ght off. You ' d be sur-
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14
At fa r left , th e No rwalk harbor tug Addi e VII carried less draf t than New York harbor tugs. Ea rly in her caree r, befo re World Wa r l ,she berthed coasting schooners an d towed coal barges to the head of navigation in Norwalk and Wes t port , Co nn ec tic ut . Left , Howard Ga ult with his model of the Addi e VII . L. H . Gault' s coal yard to ok deli ve ries of coal towed by the Addi e VII into the early 1920s.
SEA HI STORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
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. . . .Eili~i::::'.:.:i...:...::..:i.L__~~___r;;.W8 Steam canaler F. B . Thurber negotiates the swing bridge at the Saugatuck River in Westport , Connecticut, in the early 1900s.
pri sed what ten pounds of steam does!" Normal bo iler pressure was l 50psiten pounds gave her 160psi. Dan Roland continued: "Some of those Scandinavian captains (ex- bluewatermen)! We were tiedup at Whitestone a coupl e days, strong northeaster-Captain came down after supper,' I tank ve make a start, I can see a star! ' I says, ' Cap, if we can keep water in the boiler go ing in that direction .' We started out. Afore we got to Execution Light we were taking it too heavy, so I told the fireman to start the pump on the forward tank [to li ghten the load by pumping out fresh water] and get the bow up, otherwise we were gonna go down. We were taking it too strong . The bunker plates weren ' t built for that kind of weather. So the Captai n hollered down to me (through the speaking tube), ' Vy yo u pumping?' I said, ' Water! ' He said , ' I know it 's water, what kind of water?' You know , my cork was o ut, we were running light (no tows)-testing the seas. They were too much for us rea ll y ! I say these guys came off of ships, they were used to thi s rough weather! " A major cause for concern during a blow was the main steam line. The wooden-hull ed tugs worked while they labo red in a seaway and the pipes were cast iron , 35 years old at that time. The movement between the boiler and the eng ine could potentially cause a rupture. Merc ifull y, thi s never happened to Dan, but on two occasions the tail-shaft between the e ng ine and propeller snapped, potentia ll y allowing the eng ine to race out of control under no load. " It 's a terrible feelin g, I know that. SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
Dan Roland, First Engineer (a t.far righl) poses with the crew of' the tug Huntingdon in her engine room. Th e photograph was taken hy a New York Telegram reporter who sailed occasionally with the tug . Th e tug was powered hy the S11llil'G11 single-cvlinder high-pressure steam engine in the foreground. Notice the cotton wool waste used to polish the cylinder head. This was the second engineer's Joh.
Luckily I was at the control s with my hand on the throttle so I stopped it right there. The eng ine gets away from youthe tail-shaft break s, the cylinder head blows and goes through the sky light. Both times I was able to stop the racing eng ine but not before it shook the boat. All the dishes on the galley she lves shook off-the shaft, six or seven inches in diameter, just broke wide open-you get those revolving like that, you couldn't stop it! " Wrapping a hawser in the propeller was an occupational hazard in tugboating although it rare ly happened. " Well , it happened due in part to a re laxed capta in and deck hand! It jamsup ti ght. I'd just gone Chief on the Huntin gton and we had just pull ed in to the stake boat and the Captain, he was a tough bird , and we backed up and got a hawser in the wheel. He said ' I' ll g ive anyo ne ten dollars to go down and cut that line off'- nobody would go. So, I said ,' Alright. ' I put on my ti ghts and the first thing I did was shut off the main steam line, in case there was any steam -otherwise it [the prope ller] hits yo u -you' re gone. Then I borrowed one of the cook 's carv ing knives and tied it arou nd my wrist and went into the water. I went down several times, nine foot draft, and cut it through. Then I came up and turned the steam on again and she threw off the piece that was in therefour- or five-inch line." Dan did what was necessary to get under way again. Dan Roland joined a Red Star tug on 2 January 19 17 as a fireman. For the next twenty- two yea rs he engi neered on the Red Star's Norwalk, Huntington ,
and Hempstead-wooden-hulled, steampowe red tow boats. When work started slackening off in the late '30s and when Red Star bega n converting their boats to diesel, Dan "swa llowed the anchor. " He preferred the slow-turning, smooth power of steam to the noi sy, vibrating diese ls. Hi s retirement from tugboating co in c ided with the ever-increas ing tran sport of goods by truck via the in terstate road system afte r the war. Today the estuaries that fin ger into the littora l of Long Island and Con necti cut are silted in and the long, drawn-out moan of a steam whistle, signaling for a bridge open ing, is the fond memory of a few old tugboat men in the late autum n of the ir li ves. !,
Captain Teuscher, 1989 recipient of the NMHS James Monroe Award for his work in maritime history, is a professional sailor who has contributed to Sea Hi story on subjects as diverse as Istanbul' s steamboats, Bahamian kerosene lighthouses and Caribbean sailing cra.fi. He recently formed a production company (No rth Island Television) to produce maritime-related media projects.
NOTE: The fo ll owing tugmen we re interviewed for this article: Dan Roland (99) worked for the Red Star tugboat com pany from 19 17 to 1939, rising quickly from fireman to second engineer to first engineer. Howa rd Ga ult (97) is the grand son of the founder of L. H . Ga ult & Son, a company th at imported coal to Westport CT and now is in the fuel oi l and co nstructio n suppl y business. Except for a stint in the merchant marine during World War 11. Ernie Schm idt (79) worked for the old Y &O coa l company in Stratford . Connecti cut. as deckhand and tugboat pi lot.
15
THE BEAT GOES ON:
''So You Want To Be a Deckhand?'' by Joseph M. Stanford
t is a fortunate man who awake ns to the sight of Manhattan's towers gleamin g in a clear summer mornin g's li ght, racing past hi s porthole, framed by blue sky and a bluer river kicked up into surging white foam. The city is magical viewed from the water. Perhaps it 's the constant motion of sma ll boats, ferries, tugs, containerships and all else that ca ll upon these waters for business or leisure, or maybe it 's just the sw irlin g tides-but everywhere the harbor seems ali ve and bursting with an intangi ble energy. Everything seems somehow bigger, more vital and chall engingwhat a place to wake up in! These th oughts and others swam around my mind as I stepped into the whee lhouse of our tug at the beginning of the morning watch on my first full day aboard. I reca ll my express ions of appreciation being met with bl ank stares th at numbl y sa id : "Yo u gettin ' enough air in that cabin there, son?" Several month s later I looked back on that first day with a somew hat different eye. It was then early October and much colder than ex pected. The one pair of jeans and thin sweatshirt I'd brought along did little to protect me from the rain and 35°F air in a 40-knot wind . We were pu shing garbage scows up the North (Hud son) River. For those unfamiliar with thi s particular business, New York City's garbage is loaded by truck into 140-foot long, 35foot wide bright blue scows, to as much as a l 0 foot drau ght. Since this isn't exac tl y a glamorous hi gh-profi t maritime activity, the oldest tugboats are used, most single-screw, usuall y eq uipped with 1800 to 2000 horsepower diesels and dating from as fa r back as the early '40s. The scows come equipped with their own 6-inch circumference dacron lines, one at each end. They are moved in tows of four, with two on either side of the tug, made up in tandem (end-to-end). These are made fast to each other at the head of the tow. The hum an element involved in th is process is comparatively sma ll. But where it ex!sts it is pushed to its limits and becomes a crucia l element of the whole operati on. Hi s mu scle power being rendered use less in so many aspects of the work that needs to be done, the deckhand find s himse lf a somewhat lonely player on a stage fi lled with mute, unforgiv ing stee l objects driven by irresistible forces. Where the frail hum an deckhand butts up aga in st the indu strial mass is in the size of the lines used to make up a tow. Im ag ine a 50- or 60-foot- long line six inches in circumference soaked in rain , seawater and slime that has sp ill ed, seeped or craw led out of the hold of the scow onto its decks. It is back-breakingly heavy and takes a lot of musc le just to move aro und the deck. And, since tugmen do all their own line handling, these python lines must be throw n onto and off bollards, bitts and cleats often from as much as 20 feet away. It sounds impossible, but with the propertechnique, surpri singly small deckhands (even college kids) can do a passing job of it. After severa l weeks at thi s, I felt fa irl y confident in my abilities as I strode out into the rain that October aftern oon. Not ex pect ing the severity of the wind, rain or sudden drop in temperature, I was unprepared as it was. To make matters more interesting, we had to shift several empty scows to different locations. This meant two hours in the rain , which was beginning to freeze on the stee l, making walking along the two-footwide side decks of the scows more treac hero us than usual.
I
It was as we approached the l 35 th Street depot th at I paused in my thoughts to look back to my first day aboa rd . Thoroughly soaked in garbage fluids. my hands torn from slivers of broken .glass ca ught in the fibers of the mooring lines, and co lder than I had ever been, the thought that seated itse lf immovabl y at the forefront of my mind was: "Goddam, the city looks beautiful thi s aftern oon! " Whi le I reca ll ed how she had ap pea red a brilliant gl istenin g blue refl ec ti on of sea and sky on that first summer morning, now she was onl y partly visibl e throu gh streaks of dark grey clouds hangin g in torn curtains. Eve n in the protected Hudson River, the scows were bash ing up huge exp lod ing towers of spray. The fac t that I was physically abused on all levels by thi s environment and as di sgustingly dirty as humanl y possible just served to solidify this picture in my mind. All th at was negati ve or unpleasant about the experience faded into the background of thi s scene of a tug at work in her element. The work went on severa l hours more as the day grew darker and co lder. When all was finished, a so lid tow of loaded scows turned so uth toward the bay and the two deckhands on watch clambered back into the hummin g tug, which we lcomed us with hot showers, a warm ga ll ey and a typical tugboat feast. Tugmen do all their ow n cook ing, taking turns in the galley making hearty stews, roasts and pasta dishes. Deckhands genera ll y serve two weeks on duty , one week off and stand watches of six hours on, six off. Of course, one does not savor the joys of tug life without first bearing the burden of being the green hand. Surely all industri es involving dangerous physical labor have their ways of shaming new workers into shape, and the tow ing industry is no excepti on. Of the captain s I met, most were masters of thi s art, not so much by design as simpl y through impatience. Hav ing slogged over the same route for ten or twen ty years, it 's natural to lose patience with the endless stream of incompetent newcomers whose onl y function seems to be to slow down a si mple job. One might argue that twenty years of this might breed a certain tolerance-but one is wiser not to argue at all! I kept that in mind the first time an unsatisfactory performance on my part eli cited comment from the whee lhouse. This came as we were landin g scows at the 52nd Street pier in Brooklyn under the command of a New York Harbor docking master who was less than thril led to be taken from his usual we ll-respected pilot's job to push scows around the Upper Bay. So when I fa il ed to observe the proper procedure in releasing and moori ng one of the scows, ca usin g several hasty , viol ent repet iti ons of the same attempted maneuve r, I expected him to let me have it. But hi s orders and correct ions over the loudspeaker simpl y stopped, as did the engine, and I fo und myself in the center of the tug ' s searc hli ght. An om in ous 20 or 30 seconds of sil ence passed. It was broken by a long pained sigh wh ich echoed up and down the waterfront. I expected li ghts to go on in apartment windows as the locals prepared to enjoy the ensuing fireworks. Aga in a long silence, then: "You just don ' t get it, do you?" I shru gged at the god like li ght that had me framed in a brilli ant white circle. " I mean, you're rea ll y not very good at this, are you?" His voice trailed off in mumbles express in g a sense of futility.
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SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
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Looking every bir rhequeen oft he harbor, the Marjorie B. McAllister charges across rhe Upper Bay, pushing a hill of war er before her.
Th e Bruce A. McA lli ster wirh her e/evaring pilorhouse fully ex/ended.
Returning to the wheelhouse, I faced abo ut three hours of unbroken silence. What came closest to a real tirade was administered to me by a fellow I could best describe as a blue-collar Ed Koch, almost identical in voice and appearance, gifted with the same endless stream of homespun Jew ish wisdom. He was one of several captains who had been on thi s same run for years, confronted with innumerable new hands and, of course, well versed in the ways of the blue scow. Armed with a trident of wisdom-humanity, business and garbage-he attacked with zeal the root of any probl em that arose. When thi s captain told me, over loud hailer, to " pick up the slack," as I stood halfway between two slack lines, I should have known which one to tend to--or, in this case, that both needed to be taken up and where I started didn ' t matter. It 's a mi stake that is as easy to make, from a new hand 's point of view, as it is infuriatingly stupid to an ex perienced captain. My confusion was met with a louder order to " Pick up the slack! " Sensing the urgency in hi s voice, I thought even more of the importance of doing this properly-" If he ' s ti cked off now, he' ll be livid if I start mess ing with the wrong line." Anyone can see why the captain wo uld want to beat me senseless. Instead, he cut short my hesi tation with a deafening "My GOD!- PICK!- UP!- THE!- SLACK!" At thi s point the scows began to drift a bit and one line came taut whil e the other went completely slack. I quickly took up the slack line. There was no reprimand . Then the other line went slack , and I took it in . We continued until there was no more slack. I later learned that thi s is standard procedure to make up a tow that behaves more or less as a unit. Going Deepwater Of course, not all tugs spend their days ungl amorously wedged between mounds of refu se. Many tugboatmen prefer the work, though , because it' s steady and predictable. There will always be garbage and there will be lots of it. But I j umped at the opportunity to move to an offshore boat. My first was 11 8 feet overall, 4200 horsepower twin screw, with Kort nozzles, flanking rudders and an elevating pilothouse-several generations more adva nced than the garbage boats. Many of the offshore boats transport fuel barges, which is a very different kind of work. In this there is
much less room for error. When a scow needs to be shifted , it can be pushed about endlessly, wedged against and piv oted on a pi er, scratched and dented without a single eyebrow raised. As the scows are tough, the oil barges are pri stine and delicate. Some to wing companies have lost contracts when a scratch appeared in the pa int on the side of a barge. Though it ' s a more tense bu siness , it' s hard to say whether or not the work is reall y more interest ing. The crew ex periences short periods of intense work when mooring and maneuvering or chang ing into and out of pu sh gear. These mane uvers have to be well-timed and full y coordinated. In between these periods of acti vity on deck can be long stretches when the barge is on the wire and there's fru stratingly li ttle to do . There is always chipping and pa inting, but the boat is only 11 8 feet long and the stern is constantl y awash and the foredeck soaked in spray, so not much ex terior work can be done. The confinement is magnifi ed by the small size of the crew (usually five) and the ever-present heat and noi se from the tug ' s oversized engines .. But just when things get slow enough to force you to do somethin g like bake cookies, that 's when trouble starts. On one such occasion I was putting the finishing touches on a batch of peanut butter cookies, and as I wa lked over to slide them into the oven I stumbled as the tug shook violently once, then again even more violently, and I heard a loud "bang" from port side midships, followed by softer shudders and a cracki ng sound . A malfunctioning autopilot had swung the rudder hard left, throwing immen se strain on the push gear. Thi s parted a one- inch steel cable and two 8- inch synthetic fiber lines. Lucky for us it was a calm warm spring ni ght on Long Island Sound. The decklights were sw itched on , shedding a canop y of li ght amid the surrounding darkness. The barge's dog was barking, orders were shouted back and forth , winches squealed, lines strained and a new tow came into shape. The deck lights were sw itched off and we went merril y on our way, enjoying a small celebration over fresh-baked cook ies. Unique to the seaman is the fee ling of coming ashore in a new port. Perhaps the senses are rendered sharper by days of minimal stimulation on an a lmost constant sea under a similarly slow-chang ing sky. Whatever the reason, th e sailor comes ashore ready to take on the world.
SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
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Ship work in the harbor: a/Jove leji. the Brooks K. McA lli ster nudges a tanker into her herth in the Kill Van Kull . A/Jove . the viewfi¡om the deck. wor/.. ing a containership. Photos hy the author.
Lookingforwardfi¡om theforedeck of"the Britannia, the bright blue citv scows mO\'e toward their destination- --an enormous landfill on Staten Island.
Then, too, landsmen of all sorts and ages seem drawn to boats , and tugs are particularly appealing. On a trip to Savan nah, we tied up at the city park on the riverfront and immed iate ly became a touri st attraction . People stroll ed by on their evening walks admiring our cheerful little red boat as if it were a centerpi ece to the park. On our way home from Savannah, we were off Cape Hatteras when the vessel shuddered and grey smoke billowed o ut from the engine room doors and hatc hes . The port engi ne had suffered a minor crankcase ex plosion caused by a fa ulty va lve dropping down into the cy linder and being bas hed to pieces by the piston . The smoke came fro m the clutch burning as the engine stopped suddenl y and the whee l (prope ller, to yo u 11011-tuggers) kept turning. Thi s left us to ro und Cape Hatteras on one eng ine. Not long after, the same valve fai lure occ urred on the way to Cape Cod. (These failures followed a mi sguided redesign by the engine manufacturer, since corrected.) T hi s time the engineer decided all the damaged parts had to be cleaned out and the cy linder prepared to receive a new liner and power pack on arriv al at the Sandwich power plant on Cape Cod. Thi s meant that whoever could fit in the porthole-size crankcase opening would spend the next six or eight hours half in side the engine. There he could pick from the hot oil , with the
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tips of his fingers, all the pieces of the old pi ston and valves, the largest of which was a little bigger than a golf ball. C ursing my size, I accepted thi s assignment. Now , there is a certain amount of filth and grime one can acc umulate on the body, but after a certain point no more will stick- you have reached maximum dirtiness and have become a new entity , part of a greater, mess ier whole. In this case, I mused, I had become an o il - and grease-blackened part of the huge hot steel eng ine-an element as essential to the ex plosive conversion of fossil fue l to energy as the hundreds of machined stee l components that surrounded me. At some point, I pulled head and shoulders out of the crankcase to see the engineer grinning widely at my state. He as ked if I' d had enough-we could always fini sh later or get the other deckhand to he lp. " He ll , no," I said. "Thi s is great!" The eng ineer seemed to share my enthusiasm and we worked on several hours more like men possessed.
At Home in the Harbor These anecdotes can' t capture what life on a tug is like dayto-day . I think of all the times I came bac k aboard a boat, arriving in the galley with my duffle and just sitting down for a few minutes to li sten to the generator hum . I'd g lance aro und with deep sati sfaction-a settling dow n of all that is stirred up and shaken loose by the cold disjointed strangeness one encounters in life ashore. We know and value our friends because of the day-to-day things; why should tugs be any different? A good boat has that quality of friendship. Just as one is at home on a tug, the tugs are at home in the harbor. It must be said that tugmen take the view towards the harbor similar to that which taxi drivers have for the city streets. They have no particul ar authority , but they inhabit spaces which others mere ly pass through . Tugmen live in the harbor and they consider it their duty to keep all mere transients full y aware of that fact. One can become possessive and even arrogant in thi s situation-and not without cause. For if every vessel shared the tugman 's understanding of the ways of those waters, life on them would be simpler and a good deal safer. t
Joseph Stanford, editor of Sea Hi story ' s Guide to American and Canadian Maritime Museum s, is currently serving as assistant carpenter aboard S/V Sea C loud. SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
The Art of the
Tug ugs are ubiquito us in the great harbors of the wo rld , and New York Harbor led in the ir use, to help the great packets and clippers of 150 years ago to sea, and to bring the produce of the fruited plains of the Ameri can Midwest to the metropo li s via the Eri e Canal, often for shipment overseas. Above , the Dalze ll tug Dalze llan ce goes about her work nudg ing an o il barge aro und in South Street, under the shadow of the Brookl yn Bridge, on a snowy da y thirty or forty years ago, in a scene capturing the intim ate relation of the tug to the towering c ity it serves . Jn contrast to thi s work in confined quarters in winter weather, G ranville Perkin s offers us the broad water of the Upper Bay, between the lower tip of Manhattan and Governor's Island , in a sunlit scene of a century ago. A sailing yac ht, a white-painted transiti onal warship and a water ta xi enliven the scene. The leading actor is s ure ly the hardwork ing, jaunty tug dragging a canal barge (probably from the Erie Canal) , and a coa l scow (perhaps pi cked up at Kingston , New York , from the De lawa re and Hudson Canal). Finall y, Pete Eagleton , former shipping broker, a worthy heir to the late John Noble in searching out the backwaters and odd corners of the great harbor, gives us hi s affectionate view of the hard -working tug Vio la F. , resting fo r a moment from her labors in the upri ver suburb of Yonkers-a river port now practicall y di sused , where Cape Horn square riggers like Anton Otto Fischer' s Guydyr Castle once put in from trave ls to Frisco, Sydney and Bombay.
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"Dal zell ance in South Street. " hy lack L. Gray . ca. 1960
"New York Harbor, Governor's Island," hy Granville Perkins. 1892
PETER STANFORD
"Viola F. at Yonkers ," hy Peter K. Eagleton , 1990s SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
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MARITIME TRAVELER
From Out of the Past Under Sail in the Caribbean
''H
ellobelow!"boomedthefirst mate into the ship's intercom: "All deckhands report to stations." With the lush green mountains of Dominica dead ahead, it was time to shorten sail. In a stiff breeze, the barkentine Star Flyer had been making a steady 9 knots for the last two hours under half sail, her bow lifting and falling rhythmically, each entrance piercing a running line of whitecaps. It was a magnificent sailing morning. Roused early from the dining room or their cabins by the straining motion of the ship, several fellow pas senge rs milled about the bridge , just aft of the teak foredeck. They were now eager to oblige the crew, pulling on the downhaul of one of her giant staysai ls or belaying a jib sheet under the watchful eye of a deckhand. This is what many of them had come for. The allure of an islandhopping 7-day cruise through the Leeward Isles is obvious. But here was a chance to do it under sail-36,000 square feet of it-aboard a ship with the look and feel of the famous sailing ships of the last century. Aboard for this cruise is Mikael Krafft, a Swedish businessman and maritime lawyer, and the energetic managing owner of the sister ships Star Flyer and Star Clipper. He nods agreeably at the action on deck, the easy contact between passengers , officers and crew. An avid sailor since his youth, passenger participation is very much a part of his philosophy and motivation: "When I am out at sea, I cannot accept being told 'You can come and see the bridge Friday 10:30,' like on a big ship. The charm is walking up there whenever you want, checking the course, pitching in on a sail , making friends with the officers and having them explain what is going on." Krafft is a true aficionado of the sailing ship legacy. As a boy growing up in Saltsjobaden, the hub of boating activities for nearby metropolitan Stockholm, his imagination was fired by stories of the great days of sail. His uncles and their forebears made a living from the sea, one of them as a captain of Brostrom Line 's 4-masted schooner Albatros. On occasion, he would pilot hi s 18-foot sloop across the Swedish Archipe lago
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to Mariehamn , on the isl and of Aland, and clamber aboard the museum ship Pommern . The 4masted bark was once owned by Ferdinand Laiesz's "Flying P Line" and later by Aland's own celebrated shipowner Gustaf Erikson. OfErikson, the "P" line, the famous Boston clipper designer Donald McKay , and the hi story of the "greyhounds of the sea" in general, Krafft quotes chapter and verse. He speaks Star Flyer, the tallest of the tall ships, glides over with equal reli sh of the chal- restless seas. lenge of building modern-day sail ing ships and carving out a niche for sq uaresai ls, with all 16 sails drawing, them in the competitive cruise market. she leapt to 19.4 knots. Not that speed Preparing for construction took three records are actively sought. Crew will full years of intense research . Time and reduce sail smartly when it blow s to again, Krafft 's design team returned to keep the comfort level high , and sail the hull concepts and rigging propor- handling is infinitely easier than it was tion s created by McKay a century and a on her predecessors. Roller furling sq uare half ago, although there were many fresh sail s and heavy winches are a concession considerations. It was fundamental that that make lighter and safer work of sail the new ships sail upright or almost so in hand ling for a deck crew of 10 to 12. On deck this morning, Star Flyer's normal conditions for the comfort of passengers, as even an 8° li st begins to diverse crew make quick work of it. The shift dinnerware in thedining room. Anti- first mate, a veteran of the Maine windrolling water tanks deep in the hull were jammer fleet, gives orders with di stinct the answer. Tapered steel masts, in con- downeast economy. Also stepping abou t trast to and much stronger than the heavy the foredeck, the ship's Russian boatsectional masts used by McKay, were swain, formerly of the Kru zenshtern , now feasible . Modern-day sails of dacron gestures an imatedly to a Lloyds inspecweigh a fraction of the heavy flax woven tor on his an nual visit. Minutes later, our canvas of yesteryear. Computer-aided German captain, Klaus Muller, who can design was essential. But still , " when it sometimes be found on the bridge of the came down to it," says Krafft, " the old Alexander von Humboldt, arrives to take texts, such as Midenhof's 1899 The Rig- our ship into port. Within the hour, we are docked and ging of Sailing Ships, produced by German Lloyds , proved authoritative." the gangway is down on the pier running Construction began in 1990 at the out from Cabritts National Park. PasLangebrugge Yard in Ghent, Belgium. sengers are assembling on the starboard Tn May 1991, the 360-ft Star Flyer side for excursions to the island's rainemerged, with a main mast soaring 226- forest-covered peaks and deep valleys, feet in the air. A year later her identical and on the port side for a dive excursion twin , Star Clipper, followed. Today they to a nearby wreck-another day in a offer cruising in yacht- like comfort for tropical paradise. But being here is only up to 170 passengers to destinations in part of the story. When cruising on Star the Mediterranean , Caribbean and along Flyer under cerulean skies and lofty the Coast of Thailand. white clouds of sail, it's a passage made Built to sai l, Star Flyer is no slouch. through both the present and the past. She recorded 14.8 knots westbound off K EVIN HA YOON the Azores in 1991. Her sister ship, Star Clipper, reportedl y showed her co lors For information onStarClippercruises, off the coast of Corsica in 1992. In a contact Star Clippers, Coral Gables, strong wind off the stern, ideal for Florida; 1-800-442-0553. SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
is surmounted by a handsome fish-shaped finial, richly embellished in 24 karat gold.
Please mail by March 31, 1996. The National Maritime Historical Society C/o The Franklin Mint â&#x20AC;¢ Franklin Center, PA 19091-0001 Please enter my order for The Cutty Sark Anniversary Maritime Hourglass. I need SE D NO MONEY NOW. I will be billed for my hourglass in 5 equal monthly installments of $39.' each, with the first payment due prior to shipment. *Plus my stale stiles tax and a one-lime cix1rge of $3. for shipping and banclli11g. SIG1 ATURE _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ __ _ __ Al l ORDERS ARE SUBJECT TO ACCEPTANCE.
PLEASE PAINT CLEARLY.
I ADDRESS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ APT.# _ __ I
: CITY/ STATE _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ ZIP _ __ _ I
Shown slightly larger than actual size of approximately; 11" (2 7 .94 cm) in height including base.
: TELEPHONE #
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16559-1 1-001
Recreations: Front Vision to Reafi-ry by Allen & Elizabeth Rawl hile it 's true that a good many dreams of recreating hi storic vessels are " happy hour" fa ntasies, few of these visions move beyond idle, romantic speculation. On the rare occasion that such a conception is perce ived and pursued as a serious endeavor, a master plan deve lops and the vision has the momentum to proceed. After establi shing an hi stori cal signifi cance, definin g the purpose and limitation s of the vessel should be paramount in the planning stage, for a vessel too large to manage or too small to serve the needs of the owners will guarantee failure. This achieved, the integrity of the founding body will determine if the re is enough moral and financial support to justify furth er action. The following are exce ll ent exampl es of good pl anning and execution . Perhaps the smallest "ship" to represent an organization in the service of a spec ific function and perform under sail was the recreation of the Maryland Federalist, a miniature, three-masted, ship-rigged and dressed sailing craft measuring all of 15 feet in length , complete with a horsedrawn carriage.Federalist was commissioned in 1987 by the Maryland State Archives to be desi gned and built with the fonn and function of her 1788 predecessor, constructed to ce lebrate and symboli ze Maryland 's ratification of the Constitution. T he original was to be presented as a gift to the most popular advocate of federalism , George Was hington. With hi storic acc uracy and seaworthiness, the modern Federalist was completed within budget and in time to participate in the bicentennial of the ratification of the Constitution parade in Philade lphia, and to reenact Captain Joshua Barney ' s hi storic
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journey to Mt. Vernon. She to ured Maryland schools for one full year creating a visual awa reness of the Constituti on for thousands of parti cipants and now resides under the dome of the capitol building in Annapolis . On the other end of the spectrum the 96-foot bark Susan Constant di spl aces 275 long tons and requires a minimum crew of twenty to be sa il ed comfortabl y. Susa n Constant was commissioned by the Commonwealth of Virginia through the Jamestown-Yorkto wn Foundation and is operated by Jamestown Settlement in company with two small er vessels, Godspeed and Discovery, as mobile dockside museum exhibits. Susan Constant is an appealing public re latio ns vehicl e for Virginia , partic ipating in selected publi c events and is highly valued as a sail training vessel. Agai n, the vessel was completed on time and within budget and continues to be an asset to the owners and more than fulfill s its intended purpose because her mode l and size are both practical and manageable. Both Federalist and Susan Constant are exceptionall y well maintained, a fac tor add ressed in the initial pl anning stages. Currently , the Kalmar Nyckel is be ing built by the Ka lmar Nycke l Foundation, a Wilmington , De laware, based organization whose name is taken from the ship that, under the leadership of Peter Minuit, tran sported the first Swedish settlers to New Sweden in 1638, landing very near the present site of the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard-a complex of cultural , hi storica l and educati onal facilities promoting the shipbuilding trades. The Dutch-built pinnace Kalmar Nyckel is approximate ly 97 feet on deck and displaces 317 long ton s. Kalmar Nyckel will serve as a port side ex hibit for the museum and will be a traveling Tall Ship Ambassador for the State of De laware, as well as a sai l training vessel. With the ship ' s construction begun , the vision is becoming a reality. No di sc uss ion of traditional wooden shipbuilding is immune in these times to challenging phrases-like engine propul sion, deforestation/ozone depletion , to xic chemi cals (pa ints, preservati ves) and power tools. One thing that all of the above vessels share in common is the phil osophy, which I share, that compromi se is not only poss ible, but necessary. In all cases safety at sea is the first consideration . The larger vesse ls have powerful diesel engines that can offer auxili ary support as necessary . They are artfull y camoufl aged, as is all mod e rn navi gationa l equipment. All are constructed of the most suitable m ateria ls available at the time of construction.
Susan Constant under construction (fa r left) and undergoing sea trials in J991.
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SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER I 995-96
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â&#x20AC;˘ A painting of Kalmar Nyckel by C. Friberg. At right , the keel of the Kalmar Nyckel was laid in September 1995 in Wilmington. Delaware.
Hard woods used in the constructi on of these vessels come from areas where the harvesting of trees is carefull y contro ll ed, and , by choos ing the more du rable spec ies, we actua ll y save trees by having less need for future repairs or even repl acement. There is an ever-grow ing 1ist of safer substitutes in the paint and preservati ve arena and to those puri sts with zero tolerance for the us.e of power too ls, I can onl y surmi se that the ancients would have used them had they been avail able. T his does not mean that we fo rsake all hand tools, but we frequently adapt the modern tool to the traditional method, especially if the results are more efficient. Effi-
c iency saves money and I am still dreaming of the jo b where money is no object. Speaki ng of money, the responsibility of spending someone e lse ' s isn' t easy. Securing the trust of a comm ittee or board of d irectors and mak ing a vision reality to the sati sfaction of al1parties is a challenge that far exceeds the skill s and J, ex perti se required to simpl y build the ship.
Allen C. Rawl is a master shipbuilder who has brought to life such reproductions as Virginia' s S usan Constant, and is currently working on Kalmar Nyckel in Delaware.
Naval architect Thomas C. Gillmer' s profile and sail plan of Kalmar Nyckel.
SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
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The Yachts of John Mecray I
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Reliance was the largest racing sloop ever built, 143 fe et long with a waterline of 90 , giving her considerable overhangs. She drew nearly 20 f eet, displaced 140 tons and carried 16 ,J 59 square fe et of can vas , exceeding her predecessor, Columbia, by 3,000 square f eet. Th e yacht was controversial but was also considered Nathanael Herreshoff s tour-de-force. With Charley Barr at the helm , she beat
ohn Mecray was rai sed one block from the ocean in Cape May , New Jersey, where hi s family has lived for generations. After hi gh school , Mecray studied illustration and graphic art at the Philadelphia College of Art, graduating in 1961. He also taught draw ing there from 1964 to 1966. Working as an illustrator in the Philadelphia area, Mecray won awards for advertising, editorial and book illustration . He had sailed boats as a boy, but a crewingjob on a Caribbean-bound yacht reawakened his love for boats and the sea. He desc ribes thi s bluewater experience as" ... the most fab ul ous thing I'd ever done." He did several more yacht deliveries, enjoying each one. Soon Mecray was concentrating on marine
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Sir Th omas Lipton's Shamrock III in the 12th defense of the America's Cup. Reliance was built at the Herreshoffyard in Bristol, Rhode Island, and is shown here as she rounds-up late in the afternoon at the entrance to Newport Harb or. The crew is lowering the gaff topsail and jib topsail. The departing Fall River Line steamer Pl ymouth gives scale to the subject. "Reliance," 20" x30"
painting and in 1976 he moved hi s family to Newport, Rhode Island , to concentrate on thi s new career. That same year he publi shed his first limited edition print, "The Continental Sloop
Providence."
"The whole history of yacht design is taking existing parameters and refining them-not only making them faster, but more elegant." In the past two decades John Mecray has publi shed thirty-three limited edition prints, which , he points out, make it
possible for a larger audience to enjoy the grace, power and beauty of the great yachts. John has al so invested considerable time and energy in preserving our heritage in yachting, from working to save the schooner Coronet, to helping found the Internation al Yacht Restoration School. When he is as ked about hi s devotion to yachts, John answers: " . .. they fascinate me. There is a refinement in the lines of a yacht that you just don ' t find in even the better fi shing schooners .... The whole history of yacht design is taking existing parameters and refining them-not only making them faster, but more e legant. There is something e luNS sive about yachts. " SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
The Fastnet Race of 1979 proved to be the most deadly ocean race of all time. Seventeen sailors lost their li ves when an unpredicted storm struck durin g the night, halfway into the race from Cowes, England, around the Fastnet Light off the southern tip of Ireland and back to England. The painting portrays the da wn after a night ofhigh drama as Tenacious roars downwind on her easterly course. The crew has lashed down the main boom enabling them to fly two jibs poled out. A storm trysail is sheeted loose-footed to th e deck to help steady the wild motion. Although the da wn has broken on a clear horizon, high winds and 30- to 40-foo t seas still dominate the scene. Helmsman Gary Jobson steers the perilous course as owner and alternate helmsman Ted Turner surveys the scene. At this point Tenacious was just hours away from winning the infamous Fastnet Race of 1979. "Fastnet ' 79 ," 18" x 43"
Th e schooner Kirin was designed by J. Beavor-Webb and built by George Lawley and Son in 1913 fo r Maximilian Agassiz of Cambridge, Massachusetts . She was a steel auxiliary schooner, 111 fee t overall with an 82-foo t waterlin e and a 23joot beam . By 1913 rhe big schooner days were f ading as rhe simpler, more weatherly sloops, cutters and yawls gained f avor with racing yachtsmen. John made sketches f rom a handsome model ofKirin at Th e Museum ofYachring in Newport and used them as the basis f or his painting, which depicts her slicing through an ocean swell, heeled on the starboard tack, sheers slightly eased to a good breeze. "Kirin," 22" x 46" I I
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SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
25
JOHN MECRAY, MARINE ARTIST
This painling shows Defender jus/ coming up lo speed on !he wind, as her pi:edecessor, Vi gilant , rounds a mark as1ern . Th ese !rials f or !he ninlh def ense of !he America's Cup in 1895 were holly con/es!ed races wilhfouls and charges marring !he even! hef ore !he challenger, Valkyrie 11 , arrived from England. Defender was designed and huill hy Na!hanael Herreshoff and was 124 f eel overall with an 88 fo ol waterline and 23 f ool beam . She drew over 19 f eel and displaced over I 00 Ions. Her use ofmanganese bronze hollom plaling and aluminum lopsides demonslra!ed !he kind of engineering 1ha1 kepi Herreshoff al lheforeji¡onl of yachl design. " Vigilant and Defender," 16" x 45"
â&#x20AC;˘ The fif!h challenge for !he America's Cup produced two of !he mos! widely disparale designs in America' s Cup history. In 1885, !he New York Ya ch! Club se/ec/ed Puritan lo def end !he Cup . Designed hy Edward Burgess/or the Eas/ern Yach! Club , Puritan was heamy with a shallow draji . By con1ras1 , !he English challenger Genesta, designed hy J. Beavor-Wehh , was very narrow with a deep drafl . Bolh yachls were a hour 95 f eel long, bu! Puritan displaced 105 tons and raised nearly 8,000 square f eel of sail, while Genesta displaced 141 tons with a sail area of just over 7,000 square f eel. The first race was postponed because off og. The next day Puritan was disqualified aflerfailing 10 respond 10 a luff hy Genesta al !he slarr. Sir Richard Sul/on was offered a win if he sailed over !he course, hut in a show of /ru e sportsmanship he declined the win
saying Iha! he had come over f or a race, nor a walko ver. Th e nexl al/empt was postponed f or lack of wind. On Sep/ember 11th !he firs/ race go! underway . Puritan look !he slart and in a lack/us/er race in a dying breeze won hy nearly seven1een minutes. The second race, sailedfi ve days /a/er, was hy all accounls one of the fin est of all America' s Cup races. Genes ta go! !he bes/ of the s1ar1 and was well on her way lo victory in a good breeze. Ar the last mark the wind freshened for the beat to the finish , and Genestasel her gaff topsail. Puritan ' safterguardjudged!he wind loo s/rong for a topsail and housed her topmast. The def ender s/eadily gained and, as captured in !his painting, pulled ahead of !he overcanvassed Genesta to finish two minutes ahead of !he challenger. " Puritan andGenesta," 18" x 46"
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SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
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MARINE ART NEWS Mystic's 16th International Don Demers for "The Gathering Fleet, Scrimshander Robert Weiss achieved a Booth bay Harbor, Maine," oil ; Loretta significant double at the opening of the Krupinski for "Market Day, Vinal Haven, presti gious 16th Annu al Mys ti c l nte r- Maine," oil; Jim Griffith s for "On Comnati onal he ld at Mys ti c pany Business," gouache; Maritime Gallery in SepM a rek Sa rb a fo r " Still° tember. Weiss received the Afl oat," oil ; a nd Dutc h Rudolph J. Schaefer MariMostert for " Perfect Day' s time Heritage Award fo r End," watercolor. The Myshis scrimshaw piece, "Sailtic Seaport Museum Puring Day Portrait," markchase A ward was presented ing the second consecuto George McWilliams fo r ti ve year that We iss has hi s pencil drawing "Better garnered the competition's Days Past. " top award . He is also the Foll ow ing the Internaonly scrimshanderto have tional, Mystic opened Diswon it. tinguished Women Marine Artists, an exhibit featuring. " It ' s not surpri sing that two diffe rent juries would the work of 44 contemporecogni ze the quality of rary women artists. Painter Bob-'s work two years in a "Sailing Day Portrait" Loretta Krupinski , who was ro w," said Gallery director Robert We iss recently elected a Fellow of Dav id Bosworth. "These the American Soc iety of are ex traordinary pieces." " Sailing Day Marine Arti sts, and the accompli shed Portrait" is a monographi c portrayal of scrimshander Yoko Gaydos are two of whaling wives at sea in the 19th century. the arti sts fea tured. The show run s It shows the departure of Captain Jared through the end of January. (MMG , Jernegan , hi s wife Helen and the ir two Mystic CT 06355; 203 572-8524) children on the whaling bark Roman in 1868. The images are beautifully draw n New Acquisition at the on two matched foss ili zed walrus tusks. Of scrimshaw itself, Bosworth notes a National Maritime Museum growing interest: " As traditi onal art be- The National Maritime Museum has comes a scarce commodity, foc used in- added a unique painting of the deck of terest in collecting scrimshaw has risen. " Isambard Kingdom Brunel' s fa mo us The works of 106 artists were chosen steamship Great Eastern to its incomto be represented at last year' s Interna- parable collection of art. The painting, ti onal, which is widely regarded as the premier exhibition of contemporary marine art in the world. Ten were singled out for spec ial recognition. The Thomas M. Hoyne, III A ward was won by Pavel Boikov for hi s marquetry piece "Charles W. Morgan." The Marine Environmental Wildlife A ward went to Kim Shaklee for her bronze sculpture "Mysti c Serenade." The Mystic Maritime Gallery Yachting Award was given to Robert Hagan for hi s oil painting " Young America, America ' s Cup, 1995. " Five arti sts rece ived Awards of Excellence: "The Gathering Fleet" "From Sheerness to Valentia ," by the Donald Demers ship ' s res ident arti st, Robert Dudley, .----------=~~~--, depicts passengers on board at dusk during the first leg of the Great Eastern 's 1865 Atlantic cable-laying voyage from Sheerness to Valenti a, County Kerry, Ireland . NMM sought the support of the Society fo r Nautical Research to make the acq ui siti on at an auction in July. "What really attrac ted the museum ," says Roger Qu arm , curator of pictures at
There was astonishment and surpri se at Skinner ' s auction house in Boston in September when a painting by G loucester arti st Fitz Hugh Lane, "Sunset at Glouceste r Harbor," sold for a record $3 .3 million . According to the Boston Globe, the prev iously unknown painting was di scovered during a house appraisal, and had been conservati vely es tim a te d to brin g in $75 ,000 to $ 125,000. Lane (1 804- 1865) is one of Ameri ca ' s earliest and most revered marine arti sts and , fo rtunately for Lane lovers everywhere, a large collection of hi s work-38 paintings and JOO drawings-is o n displ ay at the Cape Ann Hi storica l Assoc iation ' s mu se um in Glo ucester MA. Outside of its impress ive holdings of Lane ' s work, the Cape Ann Historical Association has another exceptional collecti on: schooner models, fi shing gear, photographs, log books and journals related to the Cape ' s fi rst industry, fi shing. On 26 September, it opened "Making Waves ," showcas ing some of these items as they relate to fi shing in the 20th century. Of special interest are the photograph s, paintings and graphics in the new exhibit, whi ch include images of the Portug uese and Italian famili es that came to Cape Ann in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the vessels they built and sailed. The exhibition continues through the winter. (CAHA , 27 Pleasant Street, MA 01 930; 508 28 3-0455) If the subjects of Pacific discovery and the age of the China tea clipper are yo ur nautical penchant, the exhibit of Raymond A. Massey's paintings at the San Diego Maritime Museum is your baili wick. "Massey: The Age of Sail in the Pac ific ," 16 original oils and 13 limited edition prints, includes depictions of Captain Bligh 's Bounty in Tahiti , Cajptain Cook 's discovery of the Hawaii am Islands and America ' s pursuit of trrnde with China. Massey's paintings alwrnys show great attention to ship
28
SEA
the Mu se um , " was the fac t that such scenes of life aboard ship are actuall y extreme ly rare. Dudl ey ' s picture, full of atmosphe re and excitement, is an outstanding exampl e, convey ing just what it was like to be on board a steamship 130 years ago." The picture is now on dis pl ay in the Muse um 's new "A ll Hands" interacti ve ga ll e ry . (N MM , Greenwich, London SEIO 9NF England ; 18 1-858 4422)
Art Notes
HI ~STORY
76, WINTER 1995 -96
detail , but the lush tropical backgrounds are equ all y appealing (see pages 24-26 in Sea History 54). The exhibit, in the
•
ORIGINAL
ANTIQUE MAPS & SEA CHARTS
Marine Paintings & Prints
Shamrock V Racing off Marblehead-1993 22 x 36
Oil
"S tar of India Departing Maui ," Raymond Massey
lower orlop deck of the mu seum ' s 1863 bark, Star of India , run s through 29 February 1996. (SDMM , 1306 North Harbor Drive, San Diego CA 92101; 619 234-9153) -
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Exhibitions • I September-31 January, " Images of the Lumber Trade at Sea" (San Diego Maritime Museum , 1306 North Harbor Drive, San Diego CA 92101; 619234-9153) • 26 August-February 1996, "Elissa, The Second Century: Oils and Watercolors by Anthony Blackman" (Galveston Historical Foundation, 2016 Strand, Galveston Island TX 77550; 409 765-7834) • 26 September-Winter 1996, " Making Waves": 20th Century Fisheries on Cape Ann (Cape Ann Historical Association , 27 Pleasant Street, Gloucester MA 01930; 508 283-0455) • 8 November- 3 March 1996, Antonio Jacobsen's Painted Ships on Painted Oceans (Independence Seaport Museum , 211 South Columbus Blvd. & Walnut Street, Philadelphia PA 19106-1415; 215 925-5439) • 11 Nove mbe r- 29 February 1996, Massey: The Age of Sail in the Pacific (San Diego Maritime Museum, see address above) • 12 November-31 January 1996, Distinguished Women Marine Artists (Mystic Maritime Gallery , Mystic CT 063550008; 203 572-5388)
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29
MUSEUM PROFILE
Through the Main Gate of Portsmouth' s Historic Dockyard, the visitor will find the Royal Na val Museum , HMS Victory and other unique maritime exhibitions. The gate was constructed in 1711 and the Dockyard was commissioned in the 12th century .
by Joseph Callo he British Royal Navy has a history that challenges belief, and Portsmouth's Royal Naval Museum provides fascinating evidence of how that legendary institution has earned-and maintained-its prominence. The Museum's visitor booklet promises "a seafaring adventure-a voyage of discovery through galleries filled with action-packed stories, battles, glories and tales of the people who shaped England's history. " And that promise is kept.
T
The Basics Appropriately, the Museum is located within the walls of Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard, which dates from 1194, and which adjoins the home of today ' s Royal Navy. Five main galleries (Lewin, Wyllie , Douglas-Morris , Lambert McCarthy and Victory) are located in three adjacent Dockyard buildings. The galleries cover the major periods of the Royal Navy ' s development: the beginning and early history, the age of sail , the Victorian years , and the 20th century. Rare paintings , detailed ship models, graphic dioramas , dramatic figure-
30
heads , unique documents , medals, weapons and the small stuff of sailors ' everyday lives are just some of the items that create an evocative picture of Britain 's "senior service."
Focus on People Throughout the museum, there is strong focus on the men and women who were and are the Royal Navy . For example, in the Lewin Gallery , there is an oral hi s-
"a seafaring adventure-a voyage of discovery through galleries filled with actionpacked stories, battles, glories and tales of the people who shaped England's history." tory section where visitors hear Royal Navy sailors tell the stories of their service in the Royal Navy. For those with particular naval interests, the Museum can , with prior notice, make oral history materials on a special subject area available. For example, the Museum ' s oral history collections contain arguably the largest assemblage of ma-
terial about the renowned WRENS (Women' s Royal Naval Service). The emphasis on the people who have given the Royal Navy its exceptional character is al so demonstrated in an exhibition called "Images of the Sailor. " There, the public image of the Royal Navy sailor is shown in pottery, film, fashion , and other items that were part of the British popular culture. It ' s interesting to compare the public image of the sailor reflected in these items with the reality of naval life projected in the oral history interviews.
Focus on Admiral Lord Nelson Now thatBritain has declared the Nelson Decade in anticipation of the Battle of Trafalgar's 200th anniversary in 2005 , the Royal Naval Museum ' s impressive collection of Nelson-related items takes on special timeliness. Included in the Nelson materials is the state barge that transported his body from Greenwich Hospital to Whitehall prior to his state funeral in January of 1806. The barge, suspended in the Victory Gallery, is exhibited in a way that makes it possible to view nt closely from many angles. Also displa,yed in the Victory Gallery is the dramaitic panorama of the Battle of Trafalgar painted by W.L. Wyllie in 1929. SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
, ,;
Above, the state barge that transported Nelson' s body from Greenwich Hospital to Whitehall on 8 January 1806 is suspended from the ceiling, allowing views fro m all angles. Above right , this portrait of Nelson byfohn Hoppner-one ofseveral in the Royal Naval Museum' s Lambert McCarthy Gallery-is considered to he one of the best likenesses of Nelson in his later years. Below, Portsmouth' s nautical tone is evident, even outside the walls of its Historic Dockya rd. Below right, HMS Victory, Nelson' s flagship at Traf algar, is hut one of the many memorable historic exhibitions open to the public in the vicinity ofthe Royal Naval Museum.
SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
Adjacent to the Victory Gallery , the Lambert McCarthy Gall ery contain s many items from both Nelson ' s priv ate and public lives, including personal articles , memorabili a that memori ali ze hi s life, portraits of him self and those who were part of hi s life , and much more. These item s give important dimension to the man who epitomi zes the spirit of the Royal Navy. They also fill in oftmiss ing detail s on a person who has inspired unusual ongo ing public interest in the form of innumerable biographies, major art wo rks, feature film s and th e sea adv e nture novels based on Nelson 's navy by writers like C. S. Forester and Patrick O 'Bri an. One of the Museum 's plans for the near future involves a major redirection
of its Ne lson exhibition s. These pl ans include the introduction of new electronic presentations-supported by ri gorou s scholarship and the Muse um ' s unique collections. Museum Director Campbell McMurray recently described a majorobjecti ve of the pl ans: "With the increased use of electronic medi a, we will communicate not onl y the fac ts of Nelson' s amazing li fe, but a feeling of what it was like to li ve th ro ugh the momentous events of hi s career." The Plus Factor The Royal Naval Museum ' s locati on is a major plus. The city of Portsmouth , chartered in 11 94, is steeped in British hi story- putting that of the Royal Navy in a clearer perspecti ve . Additionall y, within a stone's th ro w of the Museum are such attraction s as HMS Victory, Nelson 's fl ags hip at Trafalgar, HM S Warrior, the epitome of technological advancement in Queen Victori a's navy, and the Mary Rose, salvaged in 1982 after being sealed in the she ll s and clay at the bottom of Portsmouth Harbour fo r more than 400 years. For anyone interested in the sea, and the role of nav ies in world events, the Royal Naval Museum prov ides a fasc inating opportunity fo r learning. It is a unique window on a unique instituti on. 1,
1,
1,
Joseph Callo is a fr ee-lance writer on naval, travel and business subjects and a rear admiral, USNR (Ret.) .
31
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SEA HIISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
Trafliques & Discoveries
,
Swigging Off Karl Kortum' s lifetime study ofnautica l usage, wh ich abounds in subtle distinctions , led him to continuous conespondence with sailors fi¡om all types of vessels.from sail to steam and diesel. A couple of terms not readily understood by today' s sailor are discussed below. COME UP BEHIND: A very fam ili ar term , spoken by the forehand man, pursuant to an order from the Mate to TAKE A TURN; it instructed the " tailers" to move toward the fore hand man w hile keeping a secure grip on the line, thereby givi ng him a bit of slack to take a turn o n the bitts , belaying pin or cleat. He took a turn, not a hitc h. At thi s point the Mate might say , "Now a coupl e of yo u SWIG OFF on it" where upon one or two men wo uld reach as high as possible, perhaps jump up on pin or fife rail in order to get a better purchase. They wo uld heave perpendicular to the fa ll and then , in a sw ing ing downward motion , render the amount gained down to the forehand man . I suppose SWIG OFF was a corruption of SWING OFF; Falconer does not li st it but de Kerchove does. KK ~
j ..-,.A.
Com e Up Behind
Swigg ing Off
John A . Noble' s 1949 !ithograph "Tug Procession-Four Generations of Tu gs off Staten Island," commissioned by the Dalzell Towing Company, In c. The tug in the foreground is Dal ze llaird; 10 rh e lej i is J. J. Timmons. (From Hulls and Hulks in theTideo fTime: The Li fe and Work of John A. Noble , by Erin Urban (The John A. Noble Collection, Staten Island, New York , 1991 ))
A Boy on a Boat: Tugboat Days in New York Harbor At that time of li fe when one has more memori es than ex pectation s, one becomes a connoi sseur of experience, treasuring certafn events of the past above a ll others as the landmarks of a life. For me, such are the occasions when , during my days as a Staten Island hi gh-school student, I spent many Saturdays aboard several tugboats of the Dalzell fleet: the Dalzel/ace, the Dalzellance, the Dalzellaird, the Dalzellea; all WWI wooden shippin g-board boats with coal-fired scotch boilers and condensing compo und steam eng ines; and the John 1. Timmons, a smaller and o lder vesse l, wh ich had a singul ar non-condensing "steepl e" compound engine (and whose engi neer, I remember, was fo r some reason in a continua l rage at the captain). Us uall y I would meet the tug early in the morning at some pi er in St. George, Staten Island, (by arra ngements made by my father with the di spatcher) and spend most of the day aboa rd it along the Kill van Kull , as the tug assisted with the movements of the many tankers on that waterway. The professional skill of the crews on these boats was spectac ular. Coming alongs ide a huge mov ing tanker to put the skipper aboard to direct the docking (via a long wooden ladder steadi ed by the deckhand) was no mean feat, but these men co uld handl e the ir severa l hundred tons of hull and mac hinery with the de licacy of a knife and fork. One in stance in particular is engraved on my memory when a tug made a bow-on landing at a pi er to pick me up. The proced ure was for the boat to just touch the pi er and immediately back off, but this time I was a bit slow in stepping aboard via the bow fender, and found myself starting a "sp lit" with one foot on the pi er and the otheron the retreating boat. Incredibly, the captain , with several bell s and a jingle in signal to the engineer, was ab le to stop and reverse the direction of thi s mass ive object in what must have been fractions of a second and save me, at the very least, from a very nas ty ducking. Later, as a graduate nava l architect, I came to understand the adva ntages of the ready torque of a slow-speed steam engine, coupled with the mass ive thrust of a largediameter wide-bl ade propell er! Another sk ill was demonstrated by the cook-a lso much appreciated by a growing adolescent with an appetite sharpened by so much briney fresh air. Thi s cu linary master, working in the forward end of the deckhouse, served bounteou s multi -course mea ls of roasts, vegetables, potatoes, breads, pies and coffee at the Lshaped seatin g aro und the table across from hi s bi g black stove. The assoc iated odors , in my memory , a ll blend w ith those of soft-coa l smoke, wet steam , hot o il , and brackish water, to form the wonderful aroma of "eau de tug. " T hese are the souvenirs of a 16year-old boat-struck boy, in the New York Harbor of 1936. -
SEA HI STORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
PHILIP THIEL
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USS Adirondack: Then & No-wby Dave Gale aptain Guert Gansevoort scowled at the rag-tag fleet of Bahamian wrecking vessels which floated like seagulls on the passive purple swells, a shouting distance from where he stood on the deck of the Union Navy ' s spanking new warship USS Adirondack, aground on the reef at Man-0-WarCay. He heard his men carrying out his orders and his sailors relaying damage reports from below, where the ship ' s massive steam engine now lay silent and useless. Captain Gansevoort also heard the cheerful voices of the wreckers calling to one another and joking about their good luck on that windless morning, the twenty-third of August in 1862. They put their breakfasts in straw baskets, sculled. their dinghies, and gathered with the larger boats anchored nearby in anticipation of the bounty they were about to receive from the sea. The USS Adirondack had run onto the reef an hour before daylight and in Gansevoort ' s words, "The very first thump she gave, the engine became disabled and could not be used. " The local wreckers, rising early, had discovered the stranded warship and now, bobbing like gulls in their small craft, they demanded exorbitant prices for salvage work. Gansevoort knew the Bahamians were sympathetic to the Confederacy and he feared that word of his plight would get to the rebels, who would then be able to capture him with his crew of 316 men and make use of his ship's massive armament. However, at this stage he still hoped to escape the reef. The Adirondack was a heavily armed fighting machine, specified as a screw steamer, sloop of war, Ossipee class, second rate. Two hundred five feet long and built of wood in New York where she was launched in February of 1862, she had three masts (two of which were square rigged) to back up her enormous steam engine, which .could drive her more than 11 knots in the open sea. Her awesome firepower, yet to be tested in battle, included two eleveninch bore Dahlgren muzzleloaders, named for their designer, which could hurl 195-pound balls of iron about two miles. The largest naval cannon in the world, they were mounted on pivots , one on the bow and one on the stern.Just two of these powerful guns comprised the whole armament of the Monitor in her unique turret when she fought her famous battle with the Confederate ten-
C
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gun ironclad Merrimack. In addition to those two giant guns which required a crew of twenty-five men to reload and fire, the Adirondack is listed as having carried four thirty-two pounders (the weight of the shot), two twenty-four pound Dahlgrens and one twelve pounder, all on standard naval fourwheel carriages placed to roll in and out of her gunports. The US Civil War had been raging for fourteen months in July of 1862 when the Adirondack received orders from South Atlantic Blockading Squadron headquarters in Port Royal, South Carolina, to sai l to Nassau and determine the extent of Bahamian involvement in blockade-running. From there Captain Gansevoort had reported, "The Queen ' s Proclamation of Neutrality has been constantly violated in the Colonies of the Bahamas." In fact, the o-apital of the Bahamas was totally engu lfed in warehousing and transshipping war materiel for the Confederacy. Captain Gansevoort was obviously piqued, for he noted: "As we passed through the harbour, 'Dixie' was played for our benefit." Early in August 1862, five months after her launching and about one year before the Elbow Reef Lighthouse was built at Hope Town , the Adirondack sailed again under sealed orders, from Port Royal towards Nassau, to try to intercept the newly launched CSS Alabama. On 23 August, as the ~ hip she sought was across the Atlantic, loading coal in the Azores for her first run against Union shipping, the Adirondack lay in the grip of the coral reef, vulnerable, unable to respond to wind, wave or steam. Captain Gansevoort felt his ship's deck cant almost imperceptibly, a settling only a sailor' s feet would feel. He eyed the wreckers thoughtfully. The word "wreckers" can designate those who cause a wreck, but these wreckers were more accurately salvagers, paid to save what they could for the owners of wrecked ships. Throughout the archipelago, 300 wrecking vessels employing over2600men were licensed forth is lucrative work. The Bahamian has never been slow to make the most of those opportunities which come his way, and there were times when wrecking was the country's major industry. Gansevoort sent an officer and two sailors off in the ship ' s longboat with an urgent message for the US Consu l in Nassau: "Send up to us a steamer imme-
diately. We are ashore." Longboat dispatched, Captain Gansevoort negotiated with the wreckers for various serv ices to save his ship. He made a deal for a schooner to carry out the bow and stern anchors with which he hoped to pull hi s ship off the reef. But the local owners then reneged and precious time was lost as he sought other arrangements. In order to lighten ship, he hired crews to throw cannonballs into the sea and to shovel her coal overboard. The gunners then sp iked the cannon to render them unusable to the enemy, and, with the still operable steam capstan, the men hoisted the eight-ton Dahlgren guns off their swivel bases, over the side and into the sea. The smaller guns followed, each weighing only a few tons. There was bustle, hustle, sweat and toil, but all to no avai l, for on the reef she stayed. Head winds delayed the longboat and its message to Nassau, so the hoped-for steamer ' to tow the ship off the reef did not show up. On the third day the Adirondack groaned and trembled as her keel broke under the engine room. She flooded as she settled further into the reef, a nowunsalvable wreck. Most of her crew camped ashore, helpless, while the wreck fleet salvaged the small arms, ammunition, rigging, blocks, brass and copper fixtures, instruments and certainly the paymaster ' s safe. On the ninth day they burned her to the waterline to conceal the presence of a dangerous reef from other unsuspecting navigators. The USS Canandaigua arrived from Port Royal while the Adirondack was burning and steamed away with the wrecked ship's crew and the more important salvaged items, such as smaller cannon and arms, ammunition , dry powder and instruments. Captain Gansevoort, a commander of good reputation , and hi s navigating officer were subseq uentl y exonerated by a court of inquiry, and the blame for the loss of the ship was laid on unpredictable currents and a possibly inaccurate chronometer.
To Ponder the Unrecorded A thirty-pound Parrott, named for another famous Civil War gun designer, was salvaged in 1949 and can be seen today at the foot of the public dock in Man-0-War Cay . A similar gun and a smaller one have been recovered in the 37 years that I have been ¡snooping arounid the bones of the Adirondack. Who !knows what e lse was taken up in SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
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.,
the years since she wrecked? We have never found her propeller. But there are more cannon than the records show. Besides the two big Dahlgrens, the record li sts seven others, three of which are ashore in Abaco, but I can show you seven more still on the reef. We hope to make the final resting place of the Adirondack into a national hi storic site, protected from further salvage, for amongst the fi shes, coral and sea fans is the most exciting and natural way to glimpse back into hi story and to ponder the unrecorded. Captain Gansevoort had reported that five of his crew deserted to the wreckers . What happened to them? Did they stay in Abaco, marry local girls and raise families here, or did they get called to justice as deserters in time of war? Why are there more can non than the records show? Only on a calm day can a snorkeler see the twelve-foot-long Dahlgren pivotguns, smaller ca¡nnon, capstan, massive boilers, hawse pipes, drive shaft, crank shafts and tons of other unidentifiable pieces. Her bones lie on the seaward edge of the barrier reef where everything is stuck fast to the bottom , encrusted with co lorful sea fans and gorgonians that sway in response to the surge as it rolls up the reef slope from deeper water. Blue tangs , wrasse, triggers and parrot fish sway, nibble and dart among the parts and pieces, not knowing nor caring that they were made by man to destroy his brother. J,
Dave Gale has lived in the Bahamas with his wife Phoebe for 41 years, on a six-acre cay, which they bought in 1958. He has been published in Skin Diver, Sail, Southern Boating and elsewhere.
SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
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Above,the USS Adirondack's sister ship Ossipee lies off Honolulu , Hawaii, in 1867, her cre\f manning the yards. The map at right, of Abaco Sound, on the eastern shore of Abaco Island, The Bahamas, shows the site ofthe/ 862 wreck ofthe USS Adirondack. The photograph below shows the Adirondack ' s bow gun , an 1 J" Dahlgren, in about 25 ' of water.
ABACO SOUND
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SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Maritime Funding Victory On 6 December the Maritime Reform and Security Act of 1995 (HR 1350) was overwhelmingly passed by voice vote in the HouseofRepresentatives. This move sends the bill (S 1139) to the US Senate for a final vote. Twenty-eight Representatives debated the issue, with on ly one speaking in opposition. The Act, if passed, will sustain a nucleus Maritime Security Fleet of US-flagged and UScrewed commercial cargo ships and provide a US shipbuilding stim ulus package valued at nearly $ I billion for 1996. On another positive note for the future of our merchant marine, House of Representative conferees (discussing the Senate version of HR 2076) agreed to continue fundin g of vital maritime programs for fiscal year 1996, including $46 million for the Maritime Security Fleet, $6.7 million for the state maritime academy training ships, $ 15 million for the Federal Maritime Commission and $42.5 million for the Title XI Shipbuilding Loan Guarantee program. For information on this legislation 's progress through Congress, contact Save Our Ships Campaign Inc. , PO Box 2585, Daphne AL 36526; 334 626-8394.
Catawissa: A Remarkable Steam Tug Built in 1897 to tow schooner-barges laden with coal from the Pennsylvania coalfields to the burgeoning seaport cities of New York and Boston, the great 159-foot steam tugboat Catawissa sti ll survives, her original triple-expansion engines intact, laid up in Waterford, New York . A Save the Catawissa Committee has been formed with the encouragement ofNMHS, and a hi story of the ship by Norman Brouwer is due to appear in a future Sea Histmy. David H. Kollock of Philadelphia serves as secretary in thi s effort to preserve the big tug as a remarkable survivor of an important era in American industrial hi story. Inquiries and contributions are welcome, c/o NMHS,POBox68,PeekskillNY 10566. Catawissa earns her way.
36
New Hope for USS Cabot/Dedalo Readers of these pages and of Sea History Gazette have been following the story of the USS Cabot/Dedalo (CVL-28)-the last Independence-class light aircraft carrier-and the struggle to save her from scrapping. Hopes for the WWII vessel increased when the American Academy of Industry entered the picture with concrete plans for her development as a museum in Chicago. With the support of NMHS and such maritime leaders in naval affairs as the Hon. John Lehman , former Secretary of the Navy, a letter-writing campaign this past summer secured a reprieve from foreign scrapping for the vessel and the Academy has met with Cabot's current owners to negotiate terms for a possible transfer of ownership this spring. If thi s does occur, the Academy plans to tow the carrier to Chicago from its berth in New Orleans with stops in cities along the Eastern seaboard and the Great Lakes to help offset the cost of towing. The entire project will take a lot of man hours and donations of material s and money . If you have ideas for fund raising or would like to donate time or money, contact Bill Ha yd en, Deputy USS Cabot/Dedalo (CVL-28) Director of Operations, AAI, PO Box 737, Crownsville MD 21032; 410 9236577. Another good source of information about the vessel is Bill Anderson of the USS Cabot (CVL-28) Association-the group that led the way in bringing attention to the vessel's plight. (USSCA , 430 Fort Pickens Road , Pensacola Beach FL 32561) Spun Yarn The Oregon Maritime Center and Museum received a Clearwater Citizen Award from the nonprofit Waterfront Center in October for the volunteers' restoration of the sternwheeler tug Portland (TWC, 1536 44th St., NW, Washington DC 20007; 202 337-0356) ... a meeting between the Oregon Maritime Center and the Columbia River Maritime Museum (reported in SH75) resulted in the deci sion to continue cooperation without merging (OMCM, 113 SW Front Avenue, Portland OR 97204; 503 224-7724; CRMM, 1792 Marine Dr. , Astoria OR 97103; 503 325-2323) . . . the bow of the clipper ship Snow Squall has been moved from the Spring Point Museum to the Maine Maritime Museum, with detached section s going to the San Francisco Maritime Hi storical Park and the South Street Seaport Museum in New York (MMM, 243 Washington Street, Bath ME 04530; 207 443-1316; SPM, SMTC, Fort Rd. , South Portland ME 04106) . . . The Wooden Boat Foundation has received an $18,000 grant for the Ben B. Cheney Foundation to support youth programs (WBF, #2 Point Hudson, Port Townsend WA 98368) . .. the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum received a federal grant from the In stitute of Museum Services of $52,800 for general operating support (CSHWM, Box 25, Cold Spring Harbor NY 11724) ... the Delaware Bay Schooner Project, owners of
the A. J. Meerwald, received a $25,000 grant (underwritten by Cutty Sark Scots Whiskey) from the Tall Ships Foundation to develop their membership, publicity, outreach and fund raising efforts (DBSP, PO Box 57 , Dorchester NJ 08316; 609 785-2060) ... the replica of Henry Hudson's Halve Maen is relocating from Liberty State Park in New Jersey to its new home at Croton-onHudson NY where the New Netherland Museum hopes to develop an open-air mu seum of colonial Dutch history on the Hudson River (Nick Burlakoff, 914 271-7949) ... the frames of Canada 's newest tall ship, a 130' replica of the fishing schooner Robertson II of 1940, were raised in British Columbia in September (Sail and Life Training Society, Box 5014, Station B, Victoria BC Y8R 6N3 Canada; 604 383-6811) . .. a yard has been set up in Gothenburg, Sweden, to build a replica of the East lndiaman Gotheborg of 1738, to be completed by 1997 ... the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Basin Harbor VT has opened a Nautical Archaeology Center housing exhibits and a presentation of current field work on the Lake's War of 1812 ships (LCMM, Basin Harbor YT 05491 ; 802 475-2317) ... the Society for Historical Archaeology's 1995 edition of Underwater Archaeology Proceedings is available from SHA, PO Box 30446, Tucson AZ 85751 for $20 plus $2s&h ... maritime researcher Paul R. Tidwell has located Japanese subSEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
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marine 1-52, reportedly carrying gold Lake Minnetonka steamboat Minneand other metals for the Nazi war effort haha, raised from the lake in 1980, will when it was sunk in 1944 by an Ameri- be restored to serve as an excursion can bomber, 1200 miles west of the vessel run by the Minnesota TransportaCape Verde Islands ... the volunteers tion Museum (MTM, 26120 Birch Bluff who crew the 1877 bark Elissa are Road, Excelsior MN 55331) ... Dr. looking forward to an offshore voyage William S. Dudley is the new Acting this spring-if the Texas Seaport Mu- Director of the Naval Historical Censeum can raise $85,000 to supplement ter in Washington DC (NHC, Washan anonymous donation (TSM, 2016 ington Navy Yard, Washington DC Strand, Galveston TX 77550; 409 763- 20374-0571; 202 433-2210) . .. Ann 1877) ... a purchase agreement between M. Gill, executive director of the Cold the Great Lakes Historical Society and Spring Harbor Whaling Museum has the newly-formed Harbor Heritage So- been elected president of the Council ciety has ensured that the 1925 bulk- of American Maritime Museums carrier William G. Mather will remain (CSHWM, PO Box 25, Cold Spring in use as a maritime museum (GLHS, Harbor NY 11724; 516 367-3418) ... 480 Main Street, PO Box 435, Vermil- outgoing CAMM President Burt Logan ion OH 44089; 216 967-3467) ... the has been appointed the new director of International Yacht Restoration School the USS Constitution Museum in Bosrecently purchased both the J-class ton, leaving the Wisconsin Maritime yacht Shamrock V and property on Museum where he served as director Thames Street from the Museum of for nine years (USSCM, Building 22, Yachting in Newport, Rhode Island Charlestown Navy Yard, PO Box 1812, (IYRS, 28 Church Street, Newport RI Boston MA 02129; 617 426-1812) . . . 02840; 401 849-3060; MOY, PO Box the USS Constitution also got a new 129, NewportRI02840; 401 847-1018) commander in 1995 as CDR Michael . . . the luxury yacht Enticer of 1935 Beck took over from CDR Richard B . returned to her birthplace on the Dela- Amirault ... the State University of ware River when the Enticer Corpora- New York Board of Trustees has aption of Connecticut donated her to the pointed RADM David C. Brown, Independence Seaport Museum (ISM, USMS, as the new president of the Mari211 S. Columbus Blvd., Philadelphia time College at Fort Schuyler, followPA 19106-1415; 215 925-5439) ... the 'ing the retirement of RADM Floyd H.
Miller, USN. RADM Brown was formerly Superintendent of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy where his role has been filled by John Tanner ... Angus McCamy , formerly of the US Brig Niagara in Erie, Pennsylvania, has been appointed director of the Hudson River Maritime Museum (HRMM , One RondoutLanding, Kingston NY 12401; 914 338-0071) . .. the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, in operation since 1801, closed this past September, dispersing a work force of 4,000 ... check movie theaters near you for the January release of the Hollywood Pictures' White Squall recounting the 1960 capsizing of the brigantine Albatross during an Ocean Academy voyage and the fate of the students and crew (the role of the Albatross is played by Eye of the Wind!) ... anyone interested in joining Crew USA for the first leg of the 1996 Cutty Sark Tall Ships Races (from Genoa, Italy, to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, 16-21 July) can apply by submitting ten reasons why they believe they will benefit from this adventure to The Tall Ships Foundation, PO Box 110231 , Stamford CT 06911 .. . the Texas Mari"CUSTOM SIDPS IN BOTTLES" PRESENTS
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USS Constitution Invites Nation to Celebrate 200th Anniversary The upcoming bicentennial of the launching of USS Constitution, on 21 October 1997, will provide an exciting opportunity for students and teachers from across the US. In addition to the traditional 4th of July turnaround this summer, 500 passengers will be aboard for each of ten special turnaround cruises. "Through this project the US Navy wants to establish the Constitution as a living symbol of citizenship, liberty, courage, honesty and the rule of law, exemplified in the US Constitution , for which the vessel was named," says the ship ' s captain, CDR Michael Beck, USN. " The cruises will also set the stage for 1997, by encouraging teachers to include both the ship and the document in school curricula during the Constitution's anniversary year. Passengers will be chosen through a lottery to be held in March, open to all American citizens, with students and teachers receiving first priority." Each cruise will draw passengers from different states: • 28 June, Friday: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Puerto Rico • 12 July, Friday: Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia • 15 July, Monday: Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri • 19 July, Friday: Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama • 22 July , Monday: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma • 26 July , Friday: Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, US Virgin Islands • 2 August, Friday: Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, District of Columbia • 9 August, Friday: Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida • 16 August, Friday: Montana, Idaho, Utah , Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico • 23 August, Friday: Hawaii , Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Guam For information, call the USS Constitution Turnaround Coordinator, 617 242-5670. SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
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Historic Ships Conference II The second conference on the preservation of historic ships was held in Dundee, Scotland, 26-28 June 1995. The first, in Boston in the fall of 1994, centered on the then-current restoration of USS Constitution. This one focused on two great ships in Dundee, the Antarctic explorer Discovery of 1901 and the frigate Unicorn of 1824. Other vessels on which detailed reports were heard included a 3,000-ton wooden dredge in the Yukon, the Tudor warship Mary Rose of 1510 in Portsmouth , England, and the revolutionary steam launch Turbinia of 1894. Reports were also given on work being carried out on the composite wool clipper City ofAdelaide (exCarrick) of 1864 and the jubilee-rigged bark Glen lee ( 1896), planned as the centerpiece of an extensive development in Glasgow , and on other ships as varied as the ship-of-the-line HMS Victory of 1765 at Portsmouth, and the paddle tug Eppleton Hall of 1911 in San Francisco. Admiral David Dunbar-Nasmith gave a well received report on the urgent need for funds to save the immigrant ship Edwin Fox in New Zealand, and John Smith of the Falkland Islands Museum explored another frontier in reporting on the hulks and wrecks in the Falkland Islands. Authoritative technical papers on methods of preservi ng metal and wooden ships made it apparent that continuing progress is underway, and the naval architect Fred Walker made the case for building replica ships when preservation of the original proves hopeless. Interestingly enough , John Kearon of the Merseyside Maritime Museum reported their pol icy was now to build replicas for in -water use, keeping the old historic vessels under cover ashore. Presiding over one session of the conference for NMHS, I had presented the World Ship Trust Award for Individual Achievement to Captain W. R. Stewart, RN, Chainnan of the Unicom Preservation Society. Captain Stewart gave a stirring account of the community's support for the ship, which has been maintained in laidup condition with practically all her original fabric intact. I also spoke on ships as capital assets, in need of investment and of measures to make them more appealing to the public and to attract fund s, citing the innovative, successful strategies used by vessels as disparate as the Great Britain in Bristol and the sloop Clearwater on the Hudson River. We in NMHS feel this is an underdeveloped aspect of the work. The main emphasis of the conference, however, was on the need for increased government support for maintenance, and the National Historic Ships Committee, led by Captain Colin Allen , Secretary, is now at work PS on guidelines and documentation to justify such appropriations in Britain. A more complete account of the conference and the Historic Ships Committee is given in The World Ship Trust Review, no . 6, available on request from the WST, 202 Lambeth Road, London SEJ 7SW, UK. time Museum in Rockport was awarded Actaeon of 1838 and the Connecticuta 1995 American Association for State built full-ri gged ship Charles Cooper of and Local Hi story Certificate of Com- 1856 have been surrounded with heavy mendation for the exhibit "The Texas netting to prevent timbers from floating Coast in the Civil War" (TMM, PO Box away and becoming a hazard to ship1836, 1202 Navigation Circle, Rockport ping .. . the Finnish three-masted bark TX 78382) .. . The Mariners' Museum Sigyn of 1887 has been placed in a floatand Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club have ing dock to correct a hog in the hull established a research fellowship to (Sjohistoriska Museet vid Abo Akademi, encourage use of the Chris-Craft In- Biskopsgatan 13, FIN 20500 Turku Findustries Company archives at the land) ... a cooperative partnership of Museum (Tom Crew, Archivist, TMM, three federal agencies-the National 100 Museum Drive, Newport News Park Service, the US Coast Guard, and VA 23606-3759; 804 591-7781) ... the the Department of Defense-and the Liberty ship Jeremiah O'Brien has a non-profit US Lighthouse Society have new home at Pier 32 on the San Fran- teamed up to preserve American lightcisco Embarcadero and a new master, houses, survey the historic resources Captain Patrick Buttner, who succeeds under Coast Guard jurisdiction, train Captain George W . Jahn (National USCG personnel in historic manageLiberty Ship Memorial, Fort Mason ment, and publish a handbook for lightCenter, Building A, San Francisco CA hou se managers (Candace Clifford, Na94123) . .. in the Falkland Islands, the tiona.I Maritime Initiative, NPS , PO Box hulks of the New Brunswick-built bark 37 127, Washington DC 20013-7127). SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
Merchant Marine Museum Presents Bowditch Award
CALENDAR Festivals, Events, Lectures, Etc. • 24-27 May, International Festival of the Sea-Bristol '96 (Festival Committee, PO Box 496, 59 Prince Street, Bristol BS I 4QH, UK; 117 922 1996) • 28-30 June, WoodenBoat Show at Mystic Seaport Museum (WoodenBoat Publications, PO Box 78, Brooklin ME 04616-0078; 207 359-4651) • 10 & 18 August, Star of India sails (San Diego Maritime Museum, 1306 N . Harbor Drive, San Diego CA 9210 I ; 619 234-9153) Conferences • 8-11 February, 1996 Colonial Maritime Association Conference in Alex andria VA (CMA , PO Box 702, Lusby MD 20657) • 14-16 March, "The Mississippi River and Her People" in Memphis, TN (Dr. Beverly Watkins, National ArchivesGreat Lakes Region , 7.258 South Pulaski Road, Chicago IL 60629) • 22-23 March 1996, "Long Island Women: Activists and Innovators" (Hofstra Cultural Center and Long Island Studies Institute; 516 463-6775) • 22-24 March 1996, Western Ship Model Conference and Exhibit aboard the Queen Mary, Long Beach CA (Lloyd V. Warner, 2083 Reynosa Drive, Torrance CA 9050 I; 3 10 326-5177) • 28-31 March 1996, NASOH Annual Meeting, Charlestown Naval Shipyard, Boston MA (North American Society for Oceanic History, PO Box 18108, Washington DC 20036) • 18-20 April 1996, Tugboat Enthusiasts Society Annual Meeting, in New Orleans (TES , 308 Quince Street, Mt. Pleasant SC 29464) • April 1996, Charting a Course for Preservation: A Workshop Promoting Cooperation Among Maritime Parks (Salem Maritime NHS; 202 343-8170) • 8-11 May, Council of American Maritime Museums 1996 Spring Meeting at The Mariners' Museum (TMM , 100 Museum Drive, Newport News VA 23606-3759; 804 596-2222) • 5-8 June, "Evolution and Revolution in the Maritime World in the 19th and 20th Centuries," 2nd International Congress for Maritime History in The NethI'
Full information on the stories in Spun Yarn appears in Sea History Gazette, Vol. X, Nos. 9-11. We'll send you the three Gazettes for $6 or include them gratis if you subscribe to the Gazette for one yearat$18.75 ($28.75/orthose requiring foreign postage). Another good way to keep up with SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
erlands (SICMH, Congress Secretariat, PO Box 102, 2350 AC Leiderdorp, The Netherlands) • 20-23 June, Steamboat Conference, Louisville KY, (Steamboat Masters and Associates, PO Box 3046, Louisville KY 40201-3046; 502 778-6784) • 31 August-7 September, International Congress of Maritime Museums Triennial Congress (A. Jervis, Mersey-side Maritime Museum , Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4AQ, UK; FAX: ( 15 l) 478 4590) • 9-12 September, "Steam at Sea: The Application of Steam Power in the Maritime World" (David J. Starkey, Dept. of History, University of Hull , Hull HU67RX, UK; FAX: 1482466126) Exhibitions • from 17 June, "Norris Wright Cuney, 1846-1898: African-American Political Pioneer" (Texas Seaport Museum, 2016 Strand, Galveston TX 77550) • 12 July-4 February, "Reaching Home: Pacific Salmon, Pacific People" (Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum, Univ. of Washington, DB-10, Seattle WA 98195; 206 543-5590) • 10November-15April, "A River Deep and Bold: Images of the James," (Jamestown- Yorktown Fdtn, PO Box JF, Williamsburg VA 23187; 804 253-4838) • 11 November-28 February, The ~iver's Green Margin (The Mariners' Museum, see address above) • current, North Carolina's Working Watercraft (North Carolina Maritime Museum, 315 Front Street, Beaufort NC 28516; 919 728-7317) • from January, "25 Years of Arctic Exploration" (New Bedford Whaling Museum, 18 Johnny Cake Hill, New BedfordMA 02740-6398; 508 997-0046) • 6January-3 March, Paintings by Dahl Green and photographs by Joe Schuyler of the building and launching of the schooner America replica (Rice Gallery , Albany Institute of History and Art, 125 Washington Ave., A1bany NY 12210; 518 463-4478) • through 1996, "Ships for Victory: American Shipbuilding's 'Finest Hour"' (Hart Nautical Gallery of the MIT Museum, 55 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge MA)
news from around the historic ship world, is to subscribe to a joint membership with NMHS and the World Ships Trust or the National Maritime Museum, both based in London. Call us for details of joint membership at reduced prices (800 221-NMHS).
i
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Peter Stanford, PresidentofNMHS , was presented with the Bowditch Award on 8December1995, by Frank 0. Braynard, curator of the American Merchant Marine Museum. The Nathaniel Bowditch Scholar of the Year A ward is named for the sea captain who wrote The American Practical Navigator in 1802, a reference work still in use today . Accepting the award, Stanford told the friends of the Museum and NMHS assembled that NMHS embodies the spirit of Frank Braynard, one of its founders, as it believes that history lives only as it lives for people. He pledged NMHS support for America's merchant marine. History, he said, is concerned with past, present and future, and the continuities of history certainly point to the desirability of any nation with a serious stake in foreign trade carrying its own goods to market.
David O ' Neil , Chairman of the Mus eum , introduces FrankBraynard, curator(at right).
Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr. , Chairman of the State Council on Waterways, funded the enrollment of the firstclassmen of the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point as members of NMHS. RADM Matteson, presenting the memberships to' the cadets, said: "Mr. Meyer is giving you these memberships in honor of Peter Stanford, who is celebrating hi s twenty-fifth anniversary as president of the National Maritime Historical Society. As you begin your career on the strong foundation of all that has come before you, Mr. Meyer wants you to realize the great difference one person can make." Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr. (second from left) and Richard W. Scheuing (jar right) with Charles Sargeant II (lefl) and Anthony Odak, on the presentation oftheirclass' senrollment inNMHS.
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SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Somers Has a Past The article in Sea History 75 on the rediscovery of the US Brig Somers brings to mind the question: "Who was this Somers?" George Mahoney of Manhattan Co llege researched that subject for the Somers, New York , bicentennial commemorative publication. Here is some information from that book plus some findings of my own. The English surname "So mers" stems from St.-Omer in Picardy. The name came to England with the Norman Conquest of 1066. Lieutenant Richard Somers was born in September 1778, in what is now Somers Point, New Jersey. He turned to the sea in 1794, became a midshipman on the frigate United States, and died a hero 's death in 1804 in the war with Tripoli. Six naval vessels have been named Somers: 1) a schooner on Lake Erie in the War of 1812; captured by the British in August 1814; 2) a brig of 1842 described in Sea History 75; wrecked 1847; 3) a torpedo boat built in Germany ; shipped to NY aboard the Manhattan in May 1899; scrapped 1920; 4) DD-301 , commissionedinJune 1920; served in the Pacific; scrapped 1930; 5) DD-381 , commissioned, 1937; served in the Atlantic Fleet as part of the neutrality patrol; earned two battle stars; decommissioned August 1945; 6) a destroyer commissioned in 1959, recommissioned as a guided-missi le destroyer (DDG-34) in 1968; five battle stars; decommi ss ioned , 1982; with reserve fleet at Pearl Harbor. Towns in Connecticut, Iowa, Ohio; Montana, New York , Virginia, and Wisconsin are named Somers, and there 's a Somers Point, New Jersey and Somers Lane, Pennsy lvania. The text on the cenotaph at the Somers family 's burial gro und read s: " In memory of Richard Somers . . . He perished in the 25 th yearof hi s life in the ketch Intrepid, in the memorable attempt to destroy the Turkish flotilla in the harbor of Tripoli ... Distinguished for his energy, hi s courage and hi s manly sense of honor. .. ." HON. DO NALD B . DERR Somers, New York Mr . Derr is a Regional Commissioner of the NY Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and Secretary of the NMHS Board of Trustees. 40
INVENI PORT AM Albert A. Swanson (1920-1995) Captain Al Swanson, show n here with hi s pal Karl Kortum of San Francisco aboard the transport Octorara in the South Pacific d urin g World War II , had the good sai lorman's delight in adventure, as well as the dedication to hard work and steady performance under the demanding circumstances one meets at sea. After WWII Al married Shirley Haskell, who was with a USO camp show aboard the Octorara, and settled down to a career fishing out of Gloucester. In the 1960s and 70s he served as Director of Ships & Piers at South Street Seaport Museum in New York, then returned to Boston to become harbor historian Al Swanson (left) and Karl Kortum aboard Octorara for Metropolitan District Commission for 20 years, conserv ing valuable photographs and gathering harbor lore which he loved to pass on to schoolchildren on their outings. He served also as Advisor to NMH_S. Al was buried with hi s Greek fisherman 's cap on, placed there by a grandchild, who said: "How would God know him without that cap?" PS Giles M. S. Tod (1914-1995) Sailor, author, naval hi storian and longtime member and friend of NMHS Giles Tod died 31 August_ in West Sussex, England. His life in ships included a v'oyage to the Grand Banks in th~ Gl_oucester fishing schooner Thomas S. Gorton, a Cape Hor~ pas~age on the Finnish four-masted bark Herzogin Cecilie and WWII se r~ 1ce ~1th the Cu~ard Wh!te Star Line, the US Coast Guard and as a navigation officer in the Italian landings and the Normandy invasion. He shared his ~emories of these experiences through his historic collection of sai ling ships on film and through dozens of_artic les on the subject for magazines and newspaJA pers and served on the advisory board for The American Neptune. John Gardner (1905-1995) For more than a quarter of a century John Gardner kept alive the traditions of small boat building at the Mystic Seaport Museum for thousands of students and visitors. Prior to ~ecomin g assoc iate curator of small craft at Mystic in 1969 (from which he r~tired t_wo months before his death), he had accumulated nearly 65 years of experience in the art: as a boy growi ng up in Maine where his father ~nd grandfather made boats fo r their personal use; as a professional boatbuilder in Massachusetts during and after World War II; and as technical editor of National F!sh~rman magazine (then The Maine Coast Fisherman)-a position he held _until hi s death at age 90 on 18 October. He gladly shared his knowledge of the hi story _a nd _craf~ of small boats and encouraged Mystic to get visitors out JA on the water in h1stonc vessels and replicas. Jack Quinby (1930-1995) Connoisseur of wine, women and song, ,-------,,""""""',.,--..,....-~---~ bon vivantand raconteurextraordinaire Jack was a main stay of the Ship Lore Model Club and of maritime research at the South Street Seaport Musem and the National Maritime Hi storica l Society, to which institution s he left his extenPS sive maritime library.
&
Jm ck aboard rheji¡igare Rose, June 1995
SEiA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
REVIEWS Heroes in Dungarees: the Story of the American Merchant Marine in World War II, by John Bunker (Naval Institute Press , Annapolis MD, 1995, 369pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 1-55750093-2; $32.95 hc) In this deeply resea rc hed and a uHeroes in th e nti c testame nt , ~ veteran journalist ~~:!~~~C~~!l~c;:Rn!~ and merchant marine r John B unk er tell s the story of the force that kept suppli es and reinforcements flowin g to the embatt led Allied peoples and armies in WWII. That force was , of co urse, the US merchant marine-a volunteer force of merchant seamen manning the slowmoving, yulnerab le merchant ships upon which depended America 's abi lity to susta in our all ies against the onslaught of the Axis powers, and ultimately to carry the war to the enemy. Mr. Bunker's story, however, does not focus on such matters of high strategy, but on the direct experience of the Axis war against merchant shipping. This battle, rightly characterized by Mr. Bunker as the longest sustained battle of World War II, actually inflicted a higher casualty rate on the civilian volunteers who manned the ships than on the trained US Navy forces assigned to protect them . Mr. Bunker dedicates his book "To the ships and the men who sailed them." And , accordingly, he takes you aboard the ships, where you meet those men . In the process , you learn much about the realities of their lives, and what mi ght be called the folkways of the American seafarer who carried out this critical mi ssion. Take, for instance, this passage on "jamoke" : Fresh coffee was always on tap in the mess room percolator, as well as in the g un crew quarters and saloon. The custom of mid watch coffee was also dear to the hearts of the men below , and every well-found engine room had its percolator, a can of coffee, and a row of cups generally hangi ng somewhere near the l()g desk. It is traditional for the oiler leaving the watch to brew a pot of "jamoke" for the watch coming down . Such homey, true details of life afloat come into stark contrast with the scenes of violence which come up again and again in this book , not for sensationa l THf $TORY OF llU
SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
effect but simply because the si nking of ships and death of shipmates were part of the seamen 's experience in this most terrible of wars , the war agai nst the merchant shipping of the United States in WWII. The author does not make pasteboard heroes of the men whose experience he has diligently sought out and recorded from the perspective of shared experience at sea; he records the corru pt behavior of "sea lawyers" and others who failed their shipmates in the c lutch. What is remarkab le is not that there were occasiona l fai lings among the men, who had never known much compassion or justice as hore in the America of the Depress ion era. What is remarkab le is that these men carried on in cond itions demonstrably more dead ly than those faced by the uniformed servicesand that when their ships were sunk from under them and sh ipmates slaughtered , they signed on to sail agai n, so that veterans of two or three sinkings were not uncommon . Mr. Bunker, veteran of the war at sea himse lf, has given us in this work a testament worthy of these men and thei r still largely unacknow ledged service to their country. PETER STANFORD
Live Oaking: Southern Tim bers fo r 'fall Ships, by Virginia Stee l Wood (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, orig 1981 , reprint 1995, 206pp, ill us, appen, biblio, index, ISBN 1-55750903-6; $32.95 hc) Here is a de lightful and infonnative book. In Live Oaking, Virginia Steele Wood has given flawless research, organized it well, and wri tten abou t the subject in a most informative manner. Originally published in 1981 , this new 1995 edition is a commendab le reprint. The tree known as live oak (Quercus virginiana, a member of the beec h family) is the hardest and most durable wood native to North America. It is found only along the coast from southeastern Virgin ia to the Texas border and a small area on the west end of Cuba. The notable naturalist John Muir considered the live oak "the most magnificent planted tree I have ever seen." A full-grown tree is usually from 40 to 70 feet ta! I and often spans 150 feet or more to shade a half-acre of land. They are graceful semi-evergreens with leathery olive-green leaves. The wood when fi rst cut weighs up to 75 pounds per cubic foot. When dry it weighs 66 pounds
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CLASSIFIED ADS Ship Paintings Restored . Museum quality restoration of old paintings. Damaged old ship paintings purchased. Peter Williams, 30 Ipswich St., Boston MA 02215. By appointment: 617-536-4092 Compass a nd Binnacle restoration, repairs and adjusting. J. K. & E. Enterprises, Inc. , 7075 121 Way North, Seminole FL 34642. 8 13-398-5 132. Nautical Publications: (U.S. and British, in print) Nautical Dictionaries. Ship Photographs. Maritime History. Maritime Art. Lighthouses. Sailing Ships. Shipping Companies History. Salvage & Wrecks. Send $2.00 for complete li stin g to; Mariner' s International, 2720 Maplecrest Way, Sevierville, TN 37876 USA Phone/Fax 423- 429-1792. Limited Edition Print. By Mort Kunstler, Constitution vs. Guerriere, August 19, 1812, "Shall I Board Her, Sir?" $55. Inquiries: CSC Foundation, PO Box 122, Quantico VA 22 134. (703) 640-6835 Ocean Liner items: postcards, menus, magazine ads, other? Buy, sell or trade. Rhinehart, I 041 Tuscany Place, Winter Park FL 32789. Master Padlocks. Brass/steel. Any lock. Any key. Any quantity. Free info. Quick ship. Visa/MC. Lockmasters. 1-800-46 10620. Fax 904-235-7658 Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria, hand-crafted, signed & numbered models, size 5" x 7" price $ 15 + $2 shipping. Money-back guarantee. Maritime Museum, 1214 Church St., Galveston TX 77550. Also avai lab le tall ships Elissa & Santa Maria. 409-762-5621. Historical oil paintings, aircraft, marine, WWII. Free brochure. Don O ' Brien, ISMP, PO Box 802, S. Dennis MA 02660 USA . Indian Ocean Books, maps and prints. Used and anti quari an materials. Free catalogue. Larry W. Bowman, 458 Middle Tpke., Storrs CT 06268. Tel: 860-486-3355; fax: 860-4863347; E-mail: bowman@ uconnvm. uconn.edu
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REVIEWS compared to white oak at47 pounds and locust at 53 pounds. The wood is seldom found in straight lengths but the great curved pieces are the best native timber for the knees and frames of ships. The job of procuring this valuable material was known as " live oaking" and the men following this endeavor were dubbed " live oakers." Ms. Wood writes in her preface that she wanted to "s imply show , for those who chance to wonder, how our most valuable trees were transformed into ships." She accompli shed this in a pleasant style carefully documented with well-chosen photographs, drawings by Walter E. Channing and other historic illustrations. Live Oaking is obviously the result of many years of work and i ~ a rare look into a forgotten industry that thrived for more than a century. The author tells how thousands of New England men journeyed to the southern wilderness to fell the mighty oaks and hauled the heavy timbers to coastal landings for shipment to the northern shipyards. Every aspect of the process including the soc ial, political, and economic history of the business from the lives of the cutting crews to the shipbuilding is related and documented in a most agreeable style. "Live oaking" was exhaustive work but an important part in building the great wooden warships and merchant vessels of a bygone era. From beginning to end, the scholarly yet sensitive book is a delight to read. The author deserves high praise indeed. MELBOURNE SMITH
Annapolis, Maryland A Merchant's Tale: The Life and Adventures of a Nineteenth Century Scottish Trader, edited by Jocelyn Hemming and Nancy Thurley (Merlin Books Ltd., Braunton England, 1994, l 78pp, gloss, ISBN 0-86303-693-7; ÂŁ14.95hc) Available from Robert M. Herst Associates, Books from Britain, PO Box 22045, Denver CO 80224. James Johnston Macintyre and his family typified his time. After the failure of the '45 Jacobite uprising, hi s grandfather, driven from his native glen, settled in Leith and managed a glass factory. His son was a trader who died financially ruined by a fraudu lent banker. The yo ung James, born in 1794, had to sec ure for himself an education and contribute to the care of his family, something he did throughout his life. Such dispossessed Scots were to provide the
brains and sinews of the Industrial Revolution, as inventors, engineers, bankers and merchants. It was the age of steam and soon there would not be a ship on the high seas without a Kipling's McAndrew in the engine room: From coupler-flange to spindle-guide I see Thy hand, 0 God Predestination in the stride o ' yon connectin '-rod. The turning point in Macintyre's life was in 1815 when he took a trip down the Clyde in the Comet, the first steam vessel to be launched on that side of the Atlantic. He fell in love with steam, resolving to be the first man to circumnavigate the globe by steamship. He would have made it if the vessel's boilers had not burst after leaving Sydney for Valparai so; but that lay far into the future. By 1818 we find him crossing the Atlantic to work in a counting house in Buenos Aires. Off Cape Verde he had his first encounter with pirates. In South America he was caught up in the struggles for independence of the fonner Spanish colonies. In 1822, Macintyre took passage in the Gratitude , a leaky brig bound forthe Mersey with a n Aberdonian crew, "s pecimens of the dirty and slovenly habits of the Scottish vessel of the olden times." By this time, the reader is very much aware that the young author of the journals is a man of acute observation, a sharp wit and an even sharper pen. There is about him a steadfast self-confidence bringing him through unscathed in spite of bugs, bombardments, fever, freebooters , cavalry charges, licentious soldiery, appalling conditions at sea, ill-found vessels, near death by drowning in Sydney Harbour, icebergs, more pirates, bandits in Mexico, and the danger of ferryboats on the Great Lakes having their boilers blow up. In 1825, Macintyre left Mexico for New York aboard an American schooner, on which voyage he finds the Gulf Stream "a most beneficial ordination of God." Thi s was before he narrowly missed shipwreck off Cape Hatteras. He loved the United States, particularly the American packets that plied between New York and Liverpool, " then the best passenger ships in the world." An accomplished navigator, he kept his own logs as well as a sharp eye on a ship, its crew, hi s possessions and his cargo as to ancd fro he went, trusting in a frequently inwoked Divine Providence-to the SEA\ HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
~\
Americas and to Australi a, rounding the Horn, never losing hi s sang froid . Except for once in a whi le; when seeing the convict settlements in Botany Bay, witnessing the treatment of the Aborig ines and sailing in the company of a slaver, his Calvinist conscience erupts. Macintyre ' s great-granddaughters (no strangers themselves to adventu res in distant lands) have edited nine of his manuscript volumes with great skill. The illustrations are exce llent. Let us hope there is another volume in the offing.
"Authenticitg runs throughout the book, carrging total conviction.... Nelson writes with the eagerness of a goung man sailing his first command." -Patrick O'Brian, author of the Aubrey /Maturin Series
i:?i:r tr tf i:? i:?i:?i:?i:?i:?i:?i:? BY FORCE OF ARMS
RALPH TOWNLEY
The first novel of
Marion, Massachusetts The Old Steam Navy: Volume Two, The Ironclads, 1842-1885, by Donald L. Canney (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 1993 , l62pp, illus, appen , notes , biblio , index , ISBN 0-87021-5868; $49~95hc) In this second volume of his history of the o ld steam navy , Canney provides a systematic, chronological treatment of ironclad warships during the years 1842-1885 . Covering more than ninety warships, he describes the construction, machinery, armament and technology in full detail. Ironclads, or wooden warships protected from gunfire by iron armor, were nontraditional in that they incorporated technological advances of the period and in some respects pointed towards future developments in propulsion, gunnery and hull design. US Navy Civil War ironclads were diverse in design and were used in two naval theaters of war. Coastal ironclads were represented in the popular mind by ships such as the Monitor while the lesser-known casemated ships were used on the western river campaigns. Interestingly , the first to authori ze the use of ironclads during the Civil War was Army Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs on 2 July 1861. The navy ' s attitude towards these ships was a combination of grudging admission that they had a role to play and a lin gering doubt whether they would be effective once built. Events during the Civil War laid to rest both concerns. Within this context Canney provides a comprehensive survey of the types of ironclads beginning with their pre-Civil War precedents and then chronologically covering coastal ironclads , riverboats, monitors , casemated river ironclads and turret river ironclads. He ends hi s study with a chapter on the dismal SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
Revolution at Sea, anew naval adventure trilogy. I
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postwar years concluding that " the navy in the mid-nineteenth century was not as positive as it could have been given the resources and talents available." In each chapter of this study the reader finds highly technical detail with photographs, illustrations and drawings that help to visualize this important period in US naval history. Yet the most interesting parts of this book are the anecdotal operational histories of individual ships. Together with volume one (The Old Steam Navy, Volume One: Frigates, Sloops, and Gunboats , 1815-1885, 1990), Canney's study of the old steam navy will long stand as the definitive history of a largely forgotten and hi storiographically neglected era in the history of the US Navy . HAROLD N. BOYER Aston, Pennsylvania
makes up the main body of the book, provides an excellent introduction on the use of sea language, removing much of the mystery that surrounds thi s subject for most people, while, if anything, enhancing its romantic aura. Thi s lexicon includes biographical sketches of the leading public figures of the day , so that if you find yourself wondering, for instance, who Addington was , you will find out not only that he was prime mini ster from 1801to1805, but also the main terms of the shortlived Treaty of Americans which he negotiated with Napoleon in 1802. PS
A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales by Dean King, with John B. Hattendorf and J. Worth Estes (Henry Holt&Co.,New YorkNY 1995 , 417pp, illus, appen, biblio, ISBN 0-8050-38124; $1 4pb) Des igned as a companion piece to Patrick O ' Brian 's immensely popular yarns of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin , an unlikely pair who sail together through Britain 's wars with the French Republic and Empire (17931815), thi s compendium makes an outstandingly useful passkey to the wooden world of Britain 's Royal Navy in the great age of sail. Thi s is the book you want when plagued by a question such as, how effective were "purging" and other medical remedies for seamen 's ailments (not very), or at what range would you use double-shotted gun s (500 yards or less), or whether a rear admiral of the red outranked a rear admiral of the white (he did) . These matters and others of the like are clearly and authoritatively set forth in introductory essays by John B. Hattendorf on naval practices and by J. Worth Estes on naval medicine of the period, and Dean King, author of the lexicon of words and phrases which
By Force of Arms, by James L. Nelson (Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, New York NY, 1996, 336pp, ISBN 0-67151924-7; $12pb) They have always been a bookish bunch, the professional crew members aboard the Tall Ship Rose, so I was not particularly surprised when my then-third mate Jim Nelson announced during the summer of 1992 that he was "going to write a book." We had been marveling together at the opus of Patrick O'Brian and soon Nelson had a tiny word processor at which I could hear him pecking away in his cabin each night. Of By Force of Arms O'Brian has written: "In James Nelson we may welcome a newcomer to that very small and select band of men who have written about the sailing navy with a firsthand knowledge of the subject. ... When he says 'The backstay was as hard as an iron bar' he knows what he is talking about because he has grasped just such a backstay, and the same such authenticity runs throughout book , carrying total conviction: the roar of his seas, the quivering of his windward leach and the crash of green water coming aboard are not so many echoes of accounts by men long dead but hi s own living and vivid experience. Furthermore, he writes with the eagerness of a young man sailing his first command." Nel son 's first book deals with naval action in the years leading up to the American Revolution including fictionalized accounts of actions that involved
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SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
the original HMS Rose. Protagonist Isaac Biddlecomb, an ambitious young merchant captain, is well aware of the tenuous legality of his trading ventures and his equivocation is a fair representation of the divided feelings ofloyalist versus rebel. But those who hold sacred the black and white interpretation of our war of independence will not be disappointed: Nelson's British officers, including Rose captain James Wallace, are deliciously unlikable. Somehow I expect they will endure to reappear in volumes two and three. CAPTAIN RICHARD BAILEY
Tall Ship Rose Bridgeport, Connecticut
y'
Ships, Oceans and Empire: Studies in European Maritime and Colonial History, 1400-1750, by G. V. Scammell (Variorum , Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, Hants UK/Brookfield VT, 1995, viii+278pp, notes, index, ISBN 0-86078475-4; $80.95) Author of the classic work on the rise of European maritime empires, The World Encompassed, Scammel offers essays on diverse topics in medieval and early modern English and European shipping , drawn from his published writings in learned journals from the 1960s onward. His wide base of maritime knowledge is informed by sound historical perspective and salted with his own experience at sea. One cou ld wish for a less costly edition of this work, with these splendid essays revised and updated ; and we need a new edition of The World Encompassed. Is thereapublisherequal to this? PS Navalism and the Emergence of American Sea Power, 1882-1893, by Mark Russell Sh ulman (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 1995 , 256pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 1-55750-766X; $39.95hc) This work focuses on a brief period of dramatic change in America's view and expectations of our navy. A disparate group of influential navalists from the arenas of the military, politics, academia, journalism and industry took advantage of a new vision of national identity to demonstrate the importance of a strong navy , able to defend and advance America's interests at home and abroad. Shu lman explores the revisionist work of navalist historians, the physical reorganization of the navy, the popularization of the service, the development of a Pacific fleet, and the political debate over the new approach. JA SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
natio
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How a Tyneside Tug Was Reborn for Sea AtKarlKortum's urging, the late Scott Newhall, master mechanic and antiquarian, organized an expedition to England to purchase the last operating paddlewheel tug Reliant and steam her to San Francisco for the museum the two friends had founded two decades earlier. Unable to get the Reliant, which went to England's National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, Newhall bought the derelict burnt-out hulk of another Tyne River tug, the Eppleton Hall of 1914,andsetaboutrebuildingherforthe 11,000-mile voyage to her new home. This account is from Scott Newhall's book The Eppleton Hall, in which he refers to himself as "the Captain." he day the purchase of the Eppleton Hall was agreed to, the Captain worked out his plan of operation. Among the work crew which had flown to Newcastle was a remarkably talented seafaring man, whose abilities encompassed the knowledge, imagination and sheer hard work necessary to transform the ugly Tyne duckling into a vessel of grace and beauty. This unusual individual was William Bartz, a deepsea sailor, both in steam and sail; a bosun extraordinary who, like the Chief Petty Officers in any sound navy, had learned and refined those masterful techniques ofleadership including wheedling, ordering, bullying, requisitioning, working, and outright charlatanism. Bill is the epitome of all great CPOs. He had served for years as able seaman or bosun in merchant ships. He is a perfect example of the hardworking and dedicated genius that the Captain needed ifthe trip to San Francisco were to be successful. Bill , a- gifted ship restorer who had already performed miracles for the San Francisco Maritime Museum, was offered the opportunity of remaining in Newcastle to oversee and direct the renaissance of theEppleton Hall. Gracefully, he accepted and a day later started work on the tremendous job of restoration. Like all Tyne Rivertugs, the Epp le ton Hall was equipped with coal-fired furnaces. And, since coaling stations were disappearing worldwide, the boilers would have to be converted from coal grates to diesel burners. Then , too, the tug had lain in her temporary grave for about a year and a half. Her woodwork had been burned out. The engines , while basically intact, were frozen with rust. They would have to be completely stripped down , cleaned ,
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by Scott Newhall new piston rings installed, and bearings refitted. The boilers would have to be inspected and any thin or fractured plates replaced, as would the hull plating. The interior of the hull was bare, which meant that Bill had to design reasonably comfortable accommodations for twelve crew members. The boat needed new decks, new hatches, new ladders, a new pilothouse, a wheel that was missing, new bulwarks , new watertight doors , new deck frames (which had been warped and twisted out of shape), extra bracing and stronger bulkheads for the open sea. The Eppleton Hall also had to be fitted with a sail rig to take advantage of favorable trade winds for the long Atlantic passage. A complete set of tanks was needed for the diesel fuel, all fittings had to be cleaned and tested, and she needed lifesaving equipment, a radio antenna ana new masts. Bill found a small yard on the south shore of the Tyne which had handled these tugs and kept them running for so many years. The yard, R.B. Harrison & Son, Ltd., could have been a scene out of a Dickens novel. A narrow, cobbled road led down from the entrance gate to the water's edge, passing between two rows of buildings and shops. It was completely self-contained with its own foundry, metal shop, forges, woodworking shop, machine shop, plate and blacksmith shops. A work crew numbering anywhere between twenty and forty was constantly at work cutting away old metal, installing new frames and plates, ripping out rotten areas and cleaning the entire hull. The tug became a magnet for every steam enthusiast in northern England. Not a day passed without a visit from old Northumberland tugboatmen or steam buffs who would march through Harrison ' s yard to look over the progress, take pictures and spin yams. By the end of June most of the cleanup and dismantling had been accomplished. The engines had been reassembled and the work of rebuilding them begun. New paddle floats were installed; new paddle boxes built; new deck frames twice the strength of the originals had been welded from one side to the other. The new diesel-fed oil burners were ready for fitting and a massive steel plate running from bow to stem had been installed to stiffen the Eppleton Hall for her forthcoming deep-sea passage. By this time Bill had assembled enough shipboard fittings to open achandlery, including a beautiful teak wheel-
house and a magnificent mahogany steering wheel which, after some minor surgery, fitted the Eppleton Hall perfectly. Bill was plunging ahead like a destroyer at flank speed. When Harrison's staff had punched out their timecards for the evening, he would go to the blacksmith shop and forge chain plates or eye-bolts himself. He was everywhere at once, barking, cooing, threatening or rewarding. Another staunch character of those hectic days was the surveyor retained by Bill Bartz-J.R.B. Robertson, who was known to all hands as " Robbie." He was a round and smi ling Scotsman who approached all matters with outward delight, but underneath this remarkable joviality there was an iron intellect wrapped in a velvet smi le . Robbie saw to it that the Eppleton Hall did not go to sea unprepared, and his services, together with those of Bill Bartz and Stanley Rooke, the manager of Harrison's, were immeasurable. Stanley Rooke is a very tall version of one of Snow White's dwarfs-a lean, gangling, overgrown pixie. But, beyond that, he is one of the most knowledgeable men in the world on the subject of side-lever Tyne paddle tugs. He has an uncanny capacity for diagnosing almost instantly the nature and causes of tugboat ai lments, along with a magnificent facility for curing these same ai lments with astonishing speed. He spent most of his time in a white boiler suit sp lattered with grease, poking around the tug to see that every weld was properly run, every board and fitting properly fastened. The air was constantly filled with his invective: " Get off your bloody ass, you bloody milksop, or I am going to kick you into the bloody Tyne."
** ***
After all this tremendous effort, what did the Eppleton Hall look like? Visualize an X-ray side view of a 100-foot vesse l, the center two-thirds of which are crammed with ancient boilers in the stern area and even more ancient engines forward. The tiny compartment in the bow had been transformed into two staterooms for the ladies on board and a galley containing an awkward, long dining table and a few feet ahead of that, two cramped rows of cupboards from deck to overhead for the tug ' s commissairy. The stem section, behind the boilens , contains two smal l staterooms, one: for the Captain and one for the Chief Engiineer. Then aft on either side, were pairs cof snug double-tiered bunks for SEA HISTIORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
all other members of the ship's company. The aftermast came through this accommodation about three or four feet from the entry ladder. By squirreling around it, the crew could clamber into their bunks or sit around a small central table. Bill Bartz had done well with this plan, relative to the space available. But the layout meant that, in order to reach the dining table, most of the crew would have to scramble up the companionway ladder, then across the deck past the engine-room housing, and descend into the warm depths in the forepart of the Eppleton Hall. In early September the crew began to assemble. Bill Bartz was to be Third Mate; his son Billy would act as engineer and daughter Heidi would cook and stand watch. The Chief Engineer, Scott Nicoll, was already on the scene having arrived with the Captain. The young Second Mate, Kip Waldo arrived from New York . Franci Neale and JeanMarie Maher, both from San Francisco, would share the jobs of cook , purser and expediter. The first and second assistant engineers arrived, Max Durney and Rich Childress, both from San Francisco. Finally the Chief Officer, Karl Kortum, director of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, arrived with his eleven-yearold son Johnny. For two weeks most of the crew was on hand while the ship was given her final touches by Stanley Rooke and his hard-working merry men. The signal flares were put aboard; Harrison ' s donated an old ledger for a log book; the bunks , tables, stove, cupboards and sinks were installed or finished; and the tug ' s funnel received a fresh coat of paint. Finally, at the end of the first week of September, the Epple ton Hall was ready for her sea trails and a trip downriver to swing the ship and adjust the compass. The day of the trials was messy and fairly foggy . Harrison's had thoughtfully provided an escort tug against any unforseen mishap, but, after passing through the breakwater at the Tyne entrance, the Eppleton Hall paddled away riding the rough seas like a duck without even taking spray on board, while the propeller-driven escort plunged deep into the waves, taking green water over the decks and spray over the wheel house and shortly turned back. The trials were successful with the exception of a noticeable knock in the starboard engine. So, on the return to Harrison's yard, Stanley Rooke climbed SEA HISTORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
In the spring of 1969, Bill Bartz, leji, and Scott Newhall look over ¡ the burnt-out, rusting hulk of the old 1914 paddle tug on the Tyne.
One year later, the Eppleton Hall reborn enters the Golden Gate from England, in March, 1970. Photos: Scott Nicoll.
back into his boiler suit and spent a couple of hours personally adjusting one of the connecting rods. The rest of the party had a final delicious luncheon prepared by Louie in the Harrison canteen. The fog was very heavy by this time; by nightfall the mist had lifted enough so that the Eppleton Hall cast off from the Harrison yard for the last time and headed upstream to the Newcastle Quay at the foot of the Hi 11. The date was Wednesday, the 17th of September 1969. The Eppleton Hall' s long voyage to her new home was scheduled to begin at one o'clock, the following afternoon. The Captain had planned to sail with the tide, taking advantage of the sluggish current in the lower Tyne. But he had not realized that the flood tide would actually begin at eleven o'clock and that it would involve not brackish Tyne River water, but rather copious magnums of the finest continental champagnes. Sailing day constituted a reunion of all involved in the endeavor-the Board of Trade, her Gracious Majesty's Customs Service, representatives from ship chandleries, hardware stores, navigational equipment and chart supply houses, marine radio experts, Mr. Clayton the shipbreaker, all the staff of R.B. Harrison's, and all those who had been part of the Tyneside renaissance. This great assemblage had been gathered by W.R. Nicholson , the managing director of the firm of France, Fenwick, who had taken great pains to secure the attendance of three Lords Mayor and
almost every newsman and television crew in Northumberland. There were interviews, photographs, hugs and kisses, handclasps and emotional speeches of farewell. As the flood tide approached, the Captain, determined not to miss it, spoke his final expression of appreciation and admiration for all the good things that the River Tyne had accorded the Eppleton Hall. On board there were more pictures with the Lords Mayor, pictures of the girls pulling and hauling and, inevitably, photographs of little Johnny Kortum with his mild, wide, pixielike smile expressing the joy, confidence and ¡dedication of the entire ship 's company. Finally, at one o'clock, the Captain gave the order to cast off. As the Eppleton Hall headed out into the stream, the riverfront was crowded with well-wishers and it seemed that every ship tied up in the Tyne saluted the tug as she churned downstream. Whistles blew, sirens screamed and the Eppleton Hall responded with the age-old steam whistle salute of the Tyne paddrers-five blasts in the rhythm of a rooster' s crow: "cock-a-doodle-doo!" At the entrance to the Tyne, we drifted to a stop while the escort tug came alongside and picked up the pilot and the engineer. The Captain rang half ahead on both engine telegraphs and the Eppleton Hall headed out past the breakwaters into the sloppy, overcast, bumpy North Sea. ;t,
The Eppleton Hall may be seen today at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
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ROSE i.1· a US dornmented 1•essel. inspected and certified by the US Coast Guard. Safety standards for Siailing School Vessels dij]i'r}iw11 those ofpasse11ger 1•esse/s 0 11 a comparable ro/l/e, because persons aboard training ships mre not passengers but participants who share in the ship's operation. ROSE meets or exceeds all safety requirements/or a vesserl ofher size and class .