Sea History 093 - Summer 2000

No. 93

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SUMMER 2000

75

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

NEW YORK HARBOR: Where Sea and City Meet

Capturing the Moment: Frank Corso, Marine Artist Victory Chimes: A Centennial Celebration A Confederate Prize Crew Meets Its Match Cape Horners in Cape Town

MICHAEL

KEANE

The Official Artist of OpSail 2000 Commemorative Magazine

EAGLE LEADING THE FLEET

LIMITED EDITION PRINTS SIGNED AND NUMBERED BY THE ARTIST

PosT OFFICE Box 477 • NORTH PEMBROKE, MA 02358 TELEPHONE

(781) 826-4087

www.chandlermilleditions.com

No. 93

SEA HISTORY

SUMMER2000

CONTENTS FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE WI LLIAM G. MULLER

9 THE OPSAIL 2000 OFFICIAL PORTS, PART VIII. Where Sea and City Meet: New York Harbor, Legacy and Promise, by Joseph F. Meany, Jr. New York Harbor welcomes the arrival ofthe world's sail training fleet, heirs ofthe tall ships that built the city that thrives on its shores 15 Gustaf Erikson: King of the Sailing Ships, by Capt. Gote Sundberg An ambitious young sea captain from A land finds a way to make a fleet ofthe last ofthe great sailing ships economically viable in a world dominated by steam 20 Victory Chimes: A Centennial Celebration, by Alix T Thorne A century has passed since the ram schooner Edwin & Maud began carrying cargo in the Chesapeake; today the vessel continues in the carrying trade, now getting people afloat under sail

9

ALAND MARITIME. MUSEUM

24 MARINE ART. Capturing the Moment, by Frank Corso Living amidst the New England scenes he captures on canvas, Corso strives to interpret nature in a way that conveys to the viewer the personal significance ofa moment in time and space 31 Return to Cape Town: Several Generations of Cape Homers Meet Under Table Mountain, by Capt. Daniel Moreland With their first circumnavigation nearly completed, the crew of the Picton Castle stopped in South Africa and, in the wake ofthe crew ofthe bark Romance 22 years earlier, rendezvoused with Cape Homers who voyaged the world's oceans in the last days ofsail

15

34 A Confederate Prize Crew Meets Its Match in William Tillman,

by Steven W Jones Weeks after the start ofthe American Civil War, a black steward takes matters into his own hands and wins back his ship from Confederate privateers

NAOMI KAMINSKY

CO VER: The quiet waters behind Madaket Point shelter a few local craft like resting sea birds in Frank Corso s view of this special corner ofNantucket Island. (Frank Corso, "Changing Light Patterns," 40 x 50 inches, oil on canvas; courtesy Robert Wilson Ga!!eries, Nantucket, Massachusetts) (See pp. 24-7)

DEPARTMENTS 2 D ECK LOG & LETTERS 5 NMHS: A CAUSE IN MOTION 28 MARINE ART NEWS 38 SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS

39 AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE MUSEUM NEWS

41 CALENDAR 42 REVIEWS

48

PATRONS

20

SEA HISTORY (issn 0 146-9312) is published quarrerly by the National Maritime Historical Sociery, 5 John Walsh Blvd., PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566. Periodicals postage paid at Peekskill NY 10566 and add'! mai ling offices.

COPYRIGHT© 2000 by the National Maritime Historical Sociery. Tel: 914-737-7878.

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

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

DECK LOG

LETTERS

"Yo u what? "Norma Stanford nearly drove th e car off the road. It was Jun e 1970.

The land leases had not been signed for the South Street Seaport Museum, the fledgling institution on New York's East River which I served as president, and the great ship Wavertree was about to come up under row from Buenos Aires to the South Street piers-to which the museum had no particular right to ti e up anything, much less a 2,200-ton, 85-year-old ship.

This was not, Norma felt, the moment for me to accept the post of president of the National Maritime Histo rical Society. But th e deed was do ne. T he day before, at a meeting in Washington DC, I had accepted the baton from Alan Hutchison, the founding president. Alan will give his own account of this in a future Sea H istory. The support of the President of the Uni ted States, Lyndon Johnson, and an Act of Congress had not sufficed to save the last Yankee packet KaiuLani. It had been a wild ride but finances were exhausted and the trustees felt it was time to wind up the affairs of the Society.

T he Society's founder, Karl Kortum, felt otherwise. Karl called me up from his rooftop eyrie in the San Francisco Maritime Museum (now the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park) with a simple message: Go attend the windup meeting of the Society and accept its presidency. So, just thirty years ago, I became yo ur president, at Karl's command.

A Sailor's-Eye View of the "Wisky" Incident I very much enjoyed Dr. Winkler's account in Sea History 92 of what happened to USS Wisconsin on the morning of 22 August 195 1.

I was at that tim e a sailor in the ship 's company and had been on liberty in "The Great C ity." Liberty boats ran infrequently late at night from the 79 th Street boat basi n so itwas nearly dawn when I got back to the ship . Upon boarding I went to the signal bridge where I co uld get some coffee to help deal with whar promised to be a welldeserved hangover.

As th e signal wa rch an d I gazed at the New Jersey shore we wo ndered wh y the shoreline seemed to be moving aft behind the signal halya rds. As Dr. Winkler' s narrative describes, we soon learned th e reaso n.

One majo r in convenience ca used by chis event was char I had raken some uni form s to a cleaner and a pair of shoes to a cobbler on 79 th Street. On rhe 23rd I found myself and my ship off Brooklyn in Gravesend Bay. T he ship was securely anchored and in good shape but my uniforms and shoes were adrift!

The li berty boar ride and rhe ard uous subway trip (fo r a subway novice) co nsum ed most of rhe day in the retrieval of my cloches and shoes.

VALENTINE CESARE, Ex Pl3 , USN So uth Norwalk, Connecticut

Steering on the Stars And that is the point of this little story. When I told Norma just what Karl had said, sh e saw the point and started up th e car again (she had pulled off to the side of the road to argue this thing out with me), and we res umed our morning trip to South Street. The fact is, one did what Karl asked.

One did this because of his extrao rdin aty generosity of spirit. H e had done work for us in South Street on the American Down Easter, for instan ce, which enabled us to get out a bookl et on this subj ect in our first year in action, a thing none of our staff and volunteers was equipped to h andle, and, indeed, no one in New York could handle as Karl did. He also put us in touch with the artist Os Brett, the dean of historical naval architects Howard I. C hapelle, the historian John Lyman, and others-a company of people we came to call "The Saints" because of their depth of knowledge and caring and, again, their extraordinary, unfailing generosity.

Through a beneficent kind of natural selection, these people had become members of the National Maritime Historical Society-a Society that d id not navigate from headland to headland but steered on the stars, a Society dedicated to truth-seeking. One co uld win the occasional argument, even with Kortum or Ch apelle, both notoriously fierce defenders of their viewpoints, when one had a new fact to offer or even a fresh insight. (I once told C hap that a central tenet of his classic Search for Speed Under Sail was plainly mistaken. H e h eard me out, thought a moment-and advised me to publish my viewpoint; which I did twenty years later in "The Cape Horn Road" in this journal.)

There was a great, disciplined, good-hearted, rough-minded generosity about these people of the Society. I have felt that tradi tion living abo ut me in my thirty years at the helm. My watch is now ending as Pat Garvey takes over as executive director. I am retiring as president, effective a year from now.

What a grand voyage it h as been! T he mission continues. A separate acco unting on pages 6-7 gives a picture ofso me things we've been working on this year, which I intend to pursue in company with my fellow members.

PETER STANFORD

President 2

Remembering Villiers and the Conrad I was so pleased to read "H ere ... All Men Mattered" in "The Cape Horn Road" in Sea History 9 1 that I read it out loud to my brother Bob, who was visiting at the time.

We were both surprised to find that our visual memories of visiting Alan V illi ers aboard th e Joseph Conrad with our father (AlfLoomis, longtime columnist for Yachting magazine) were sharp and clear. We must h ave kn own ir was to be an unusual moment in our lives.

We were not abl e to be at the Battery in lower Ma nhattan for rhe dedication of the Bruce Rogers Joseph Conrad figurehead on 3 1January 1935. Our father was di stressed that he was not able to attend that eve nt and had therefore made arrangements to visit Mr. Vi lli ers aboard, perhaps the day before. Father drove us down to one of the Battery ferry slips and we were met at 1OAM sharp by a small open boat with an inboard

SEA HISTORY 93 , SUMMER 2000

mo ror- probably off the Conrad and manned by one of the crew. T he Conrad was at anchor out in the roadsread off the Battery. Bob and I recall that the tri p our was bitter cold, just as you wrote. Bob has a clear mental image of us roundin g under the Conrad's stern and coming up smartl y on her starb oard side. Shortly we we re in the warmth of the captain's cabin .

T he onl y thing I recall about th e con ve rsatio n was rhar Mr. Villiers said he didn 't kn ow when he would be back, maybe in three o r four years, he said. M y ques tio n ro myself at age 11 was how someo ne in a well-fo und boat with a crew could just leave and no t know when he wo uld be returning, showin g I didn' t really understand V illiers's mission or his hom e po rt.

My o th er recollectio n was rh ar th e Conrad seemed so small. Farher was also an edi ro r of the English magazine Yachts and Yachting and covered part of the summ er racing seaso n in the Solent every yea r o r so and often rook his family with him . T hus I had my own 11-year-o ld' s idea of what size boat one crossed the Atlantic in. The Conrad's 93 feet didn' t m easure up at all.

Since then I've don e it myself in 52 feet and know that small er is better.

W ORTH LOOM IS

H artford, Connecticut

More Benefits of History-at-Sea Ten students from C uba [Illinois] High Schoo l parti cipated in yo ur Hisrory-ar-Sea program aboard "HMS" Rose in 1999. I wanted to thank you for the chan ce ro rake part. Even as a hisrory reacher, I had never considered the possibility of being able ro see first hand a sailing ship of rhis type. Ir. was a wo nderful trip and o ne rhe students will nor soon forger.

In fac t, they have n' t had rhe chance ro forger it, because as soo n as I go t home I co ntacted a few people about speakin g engagements. W e have talked ro several groups this yea r about sailing aboard the Rose and on every occasio n we have had an enthusias tic reception. The students have had a chance ro relive those mem o ries and have even develo ped some valuabl e publicspeaking experience. Th ey are ve ry enthusiasti c supporters and have come to realize what an unusual opportunity rhey were allowed ro take part in.

KAT HY L. SMYSOR

C uba, Illinois SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

NMHS member C. Otto Berggren of Vancouver, Washington, sent us this photograph ofthe Joseph Conrad on the rocks in front of Owls Head Park, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York,

on 2 January 1935- an incident discussed in "The Cape Horn Road," SH 91 . H efound the image in his mother's home in Sweden, where she settled after leaving Brooklyn in 1947.

ERRATA AND ADDITIONS

I co mmend yo u fo r the interesting articles on OpSail 2000 official pons. T hey are ve ry in fo rmati ve.

I musr po int o ur some co nfusing informatio n in rhe OpSail 2000 insert in issue 92 . Ir appears rhar lengths we re not consistently used. Gorch Fock II, except for a sm all escape hatch from rhe large cadet compartm ents, was builr from the same plans as rhe current Eagle, Sagres II and Tovarishch. Now if sparred length is used, rhese ships are all 295 feet lo ng. Iflengrh at rhe wa terline is used, rhe length wo uld show as 23 1 feet. Eagle's length is given as 267 feet on page 12 and o n page 11 rhe length of Sagres II is give n as 267 fee t, but page 12 shows a length of 293 feet.

CAPT. R OBERT A. SCHULZ, U SCG (Rer) Former C O , USCG Barque Eagle

In "H ere ... All M en M attered," (SH92, p .

9), Afri ca n Am erican activist Frederick D o uglass is incorrectly referred ro as Wil li am Ll oyd Garrison. We also no te the fo llowing errors in the special supplement "Inrroducrion ro Operation Sail 2000" in Sea History 92: On page 8, the gentleman pic tured standing betwee n Pres ide nt Kennedy and "Bus" Mosbach er is no t Op Sa il found er Frank Braynard , but Downrown Association Direcror Porter M oore. On page 10, the bark Guayas is classified inco rrectly as a barkentine. On page 16, we inco rrectly referred ro the late Capt. V ilhelm H ansen of the Danmark as Knud H ansen. T he latter H ansen was captain during WWII. 1-

Join Us for a Voyage into History Our seafaring heritage comes alive in the pages of Sea History, from the ancient mariners of Greece to Portuguese navigators opening up the ocean world to the heroic efforts of seamen in this century's conflicts. Each issue brings new insights and new di scoveries . If you love the sea, rivers, lakes,

and bays-if you love the legacy of those who sail in deep water and their workaday craft, then you belong with us.

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ational Maritime Hi stori cal Society, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566

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NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Chairman, G uy E. C. Maitland; Vice Chairmen, Richardo Lopes, Howard Slomick, Edward G. Zelinsky; President, Pete r Stanford; Executive Director, Patrick ]. Ga rvey; Vice President, No rma Sta nfo rd; Treasurer, W illi am H . White; Secretary, Mars hall Srreiberr; Trustees, Wa lter R. Brown , R ichard T. du Mou lin , Fred C. Hawkins , Rodney N . Houghton , J akob Isbrandtsen, Steven W. Jones, Robert La Banca, Warren G. Leback, Karen E. Markoe, Warren Marr, II , H arry W. Marshall, D avid A. O'Neil, C raig A. C. Reynolds, Charles A. Robenson , Bradford D. Sm ith, John Ta lbot, David B. V ieto r, Harry E. Vina ll , Ill, Jean Wa rr , Alexa nder Zagoreos; Chairmen Emeriti, A lan G. C hoate, C raig A. C. Reynolds FOUNDER: Karl Kortum (1917-1996) OVERSEERS: RADM David C. Brow n, Chairman; Walter Cronkite, Alan D . Hutchison, John Lehman, Brian A. McAl lister, John Stobart ADVISORS: Co-Chairmen, Frank 0 . Brayna rd , Me lbourne Smit h ; D . K. Abbass, Raymond Aker, George F. Bass, Fra ncis E. Bowker, Oswald L. Brett, No rm an]. Brouwer, RADM Joseph F. Cal lo, Wi lli am M . D oerflin ger, Francis]. Duffy, Jo hn Ewald, Joseph L. Farr, Timoth y G. Foote, W ill iam G il kerso n, T homas G illmer, Walter] . H andelman, Charles E. H erdendorf, Steven A. H yman, H ajo Knuttel, G unnar Lundeberg, Conrad Milster, W illi am G. M uller, David E . Perkins, Na ncy Hughes Richa rdson, T imothy ]. Runyan, Ralp h L. Snow, Shannon J . Wal l, Thomas Wells SEA HISTORY & NM H S STAFF: Editor, J ustineAhlstrom; Executive Editor, Norma Stanford; Contributing Editor, Kevin H aydo n; Editor-at-Large, Peter Stanford; Assistant Editor, Shelley Reid; Executive Director, Patrick J. Garvey; ChiefofStaff, Burchenal Green; Director ofEducation, David B. Allen; Membership Coordinator, Nancy Schnaars; Membership Secretary, Irene Eisenfeld; Membership Assistant, Ann Makelainen; Advertising Secretary, Carmen McCallum;Accounting,Joseph Cacciola; Secretary to the President, Karen Ritell TO GET IN TOUCH WlTH US : Address: 5 Jo hn Wa lsh Blvd., PO Box 68 Peekskill NY 10 566 Phone: 9 14 737-7878 Fax: 914 737-78 16 Web site: www.seahistory.o rg nmhs@seahistory.org E- mail: MEMBERSHIP is invited . Afrerguard $10,000; Benefactor $5,000; Plankowner $2,500; Sponso r $1, 000; Donor $500; Patron $250; F riend $ 100; Con tribu to r $75; Family $5 0; Regu lar $35 . All m em bers outs ide the USA please add $ 10 fo r postage. SEA HISTORY is sent to all members . Individ ual cop ies cost $3.75 .

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SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

NMHS :

'

A CAUSE IN MOTION

Annual Meeting 2000: President Peter Stanford Announces Impending Retirement Ar rhe Annual Meeting of rhe National Maritime Historical Sociery in Philadelphia on 29 April 2000, Perer Stanford announced rhar he will retire as president ar rhe Annual Meeting in 200 1. H e has served as rhe Sociery' s president since 1970.

Stanford will continue his role as editor-arlarge for Sea History magazine and will focus on writing and research . Parrick Garvey, who came on board as execurive director in January 2000 , will be rhe Sociery's chief executive.

Garvey described Stanford as a "living national treasure" and acknowledged his extraordinary contributions to rhe state of the preservation ofAmerica's maritime heritage and to our understanding of rhe role of maritime history in wo rld history. The new executive director also thanked the membership for their inspiration and support for the work of the Sociery. He called on members to further guide the sraffby responding to requests for opinions abour current and future NMHS activities and to assist in

getting new members, particularly in rhe nancial statements, by calling, faxing, oreyo unger generations, and in increasing cir- mailing the NMHS offices. (See numbers on page 4.) culation for Sea History magazine.

At lunch, new NMHS chairman, Guy Among the many items of good news E. C. Maitland, enth usiastically welcomed we re Capt. Jean Wort's report on the programs held in 1999 and planned for 2000 the challenges of our educational programs to advance NMH S's mission and to raise and an expanded Sea History as we move funds to support programs. In 1999 rhese into the new millennium.

Our volunteer appreciation awards were included rhe Annual Awards Dinner, Tall Ships on the Hudson and rhe myriad edu- presented to Joyce Riess and Christine cation programs in New York Ciry and the Krafr for their invaluable contributions to t other porrs of OpSail, which are continu- the Education Department. ing this year. David Allen, Director of Education, reported on the Chairman Guy E. C. Maitland addresses the memberenthusiasm with which educators ship during lunch overlooking the Cape Ho rner have welcomed the Teachers' In- Moshulu, restored as a restaurant in Philadelphia.

-~ ~¡ stitutes, providing them with informa tion and resources on a broad range of maritime topics, including the virali ry and purposes of the fleet of ships arriving in the US for Operation Sail 2000.

Yo u can request a copy of the 2000 ann ual report, including fi-

Calling All Members!

Taking NMHS into the 21st Century

\Y/e have added new pages and information to our web sire, and we want to hear from yo u. Among rhe additions are a bulletin board where members can leave m essages, ask questions, comment on maritime marrers that interest them, or just read what other members are saying. When you get onto our site (www.seahistory.org ), just click rhe button at the fa r righr rhar says "Bulletin Board. " Orher new rhings online include an expanded merchandise page wirh secure encryption, so yo u can safely use yo ur credir card to sign on new members, renew your membership, or order yo ur favorite NMHS caps and shirrs, books and prints.

C urrently under construction is a page for members onl y. As we develop rhis section we plan to put up photographs or sections of articles and book reviews rhar we co uld not fir into Sea History. W hat else wo uld you like to see on rhis page? Let us know (e-mail: nmhs@seahistory.org)! .:t

By making use of the newest computer technology, NMHS is taking our maritime past into the future. Our latest collaboration is called "The Official OpSail 2000 Edition of T all Ships." This interactive CD-ROM has been developed by Cinegram Media, Inc. in cooperation wirh NMHS and Operation Sail 2000.

'Tall Ships" features color photographs, statistics, background and historical information about nearly 200 of the wo rld's largest and most spectacular sailing vessels. Many of rhese ships will participate in Operation Sail 2000 and rhe owner of this CD-ROM will be well versed in the story behind each one. The collection also features informative articles on America's maritime heritage as well as a history of each OpSail port contributed by rhe editors and writers of Sea History.

Another tool for learning abour our maritime heritage is the CD-ROM "The Search for rhe Golden Dolphin. " D eveloped by Cinegram in consultation wirh NMHS President Peter Stanford, NMHS Director of Education David Allen, and Capt. Richard Bailey of "HMS " Rose, this interactive computer advenrure puts the participant aboard an histo ric sailing ship to make the complex decisions necessary to outfit her with supplies, find adequate crew, navigate through storms and direct naval battles from the deck of a wooden warship . Those that live can work their way up to admiral and capture prizes such as membership in NMHS and Mystic Seaport.

Many have rried to complete the tasks and been sunk or scuttled; the first to finish the adventure and capture her prizes was a 12-year-old school girl.

Coupled with each of our interactive, educational computer programs is a comprehensive teachers resource guide to help teachers and parents use this new technology as a valuable learning tool. .:t

SEA HISTORY 93 , SUMMER 2000

5

Sea History & the Cause We Serve: A Personal Account of Some Journeys in Pursuit of our Oceanic Mission

by Peter Stanford

0

ur founder Karl Kortum was a person with a sure eye for the things that matter in life. H e also was the ringleader in that special company of peop le who care about the arts and traditions of the seafarer and the learning of voyages befo re our time. Ka rl once said: "Sea History is how we all stay in to uch."

Indeed , where else but in the pages of Sea History can yo u find a skipper of th e present day mentionin g the people he'd co me to know from the likes of the famous old bark Lawhil! and the still surviving Passat-as D an Moreland does in this issue-and in the same issue find a definitive acco unt of the career of G ustaf Erikso n, who kept those great ships sailing, long after their allotted span? And what joy it is to see Alix T horne, who keeps two replica schooners busy educating young students in the ways of the sea, pay tribute to the old workaday vessels, li ke the Victory Chimes, which first drew her into th e oceanic field!

If Sea History is the most important thing we do, it is because here is th e meeting place where, in Karl's memorable phrase, "we all stay in touch," and because, in the most direct ways possible, without spin or bragadoccio, sea history is what we do .

That is, we publish Sea History, the magazine, and we strive to serve the cause of seafarin g as a giant experience in the service of mankind.

We have said Sea H istory is the journal of a cause in motion, and in these pages I thought I'd give some perso nal acco unt of how yo ur president spent the past few mo nths, in odd moments from the continuing battle to see Sea History fi rmly established fin ancially for th e long voyage ahead-a voyage we hope and intend will extend beyo nd th e horizon of our lifetimes .

Revisiting Frank Carr in England T his pas t M arch I went to England fo r th e meeting of the W orld Ship T rust Co uncil, an organization we worked to fo und with the late Frank G. G. Carr in 1979. I had a particular mission: to review Frank's long, extrao rdinarily productive life in and about ships, and particularly just h ow he cam e to fo und the Wo rld Ship T rusr. Institutions are often the lengthened shadow of one

6

perso n, and the Wo rld Ship T rust is the survi ving institution of the shade of Frank Carr, whose book about sailing in the Bristol pi lot cutter Cariad begui led my reading hours as a yo ungster in the 1930s.

England is a co untry I first visited as mate of the traditional English cutter Iolaire, coming transAtlantic in 1949, Jamaica to Bermuda to England-vastly di ffe rent islands in the ocean wo rld! It was a dusty passage made largely under sto rm canvas, and while we were neve r in any tro uble

Iolaire and me back together after half a century, thinking long thoughts about seafaring, in the quiet waters ofLimehouse Reach.

(Photo: Mowbray Jackson) (trouble aboard any boat skippered by Bobby Somerset was a ve ry rare phenomenon), it was wo nd erfu l to slip under England's shore, smelling the green fields of midsummer (the sense of smell is cleansed by weeks at sea!), sailing over sheltered wa ter under a smiling sky.

That first visit to England lasted three years, and I spent weekend hours at the N ational M aririme M useum in G reenwich, which Frank then headed up . I did not meet him then (I wo uldn't have dreamt of disturbing so august a perso nage!) though I did meet his sometimes quire rebellious disciples who mer to exchange thoughts with perfect freedom at the Plume ofF earh-

ers pub just outside the m useum gates-a place that should be remembered as the Areopagus in G reece is remembered, a refuge where no th ought was censored and expansive ges wres not commonly used in Albion we re tolerated provided not too much beer was sp il led .

W hen I next went to England, it was in 1972 , to attend the first meeting of the International Congress ofMaritime M useums. Sometime I must tell you about that conference, whi ch was interesting but not all peaches and cream. Karl Ko rtumwho was not there-was threatened with being jailed "instanter" if he ever set foo t in England again, leaving it to me, in m y second yea r as president of NMH S, to rise in Ka rl's defense-with res ults that still amaze me.

Among the more rewarding results of that co nvocation was my meeting Fran k Carr. Two years later we scraped up funds to brin g Frank with his gracious wife Ruth to the US, where we held meetings to promote the World Ship T rust and its autonomous chapter, the American Ship T rusr.

Several of the English fo unders were on hand this pas t March when I gave my lecture at the National Maritime M useum, as was Nancie Villiers, wh ose late husband Ala n was a mainstay of the historic ships move menr. Alan's wo rk lives on in the pages of Sea History, even in this ve ry issue (see "Letters," p . 3). Ir was good th ey were there, both fo r th e joy of the occasion and to help get a settl ed record of events slipping in to the te nebro us murk of the unrecorded pasr.

lolaire, An Ocean D enizen During my most recent visit to England I boarded Bobby Somerset's hardy long-lived cutter Iolaire-whose name and story have figured in my "Cape Horn Road " in th ese pages-in Limehouse Reach of the T hames River, where her devoted owner D on Street has her up fo r sale. Built in 1905, she has sailed across the Atlantic many rimes, and her rig has gradually transformed itself from the original lofty topmas t rig, first to the snugger rig she had in 1949. She acwally was more weatherly and was able to stand up to her canvas better without the heavy, solid topmas t, though she must

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

have missed the long-luff jib topsail the old rig gave her. W hen I sailed with hi m, Bobby remedi ed this sho rtfa ll in the foretri angle by putting a modern Bermuda rig into the vessel, sporting a big jib in a double headrig; the tall marco ni rig with hollow mas t suited her very well. But D on had gone us one better in later years, conve rting her furthe r in to a yawl, which lowered the center of effort of her sails, giving her more power to deal with the high-horsepower T rade W inds of her home in the An tilles sailing center of Bequi a.

W heth er ships have so uls may be debatable; bur char they have a presence, th ere is no doubt, and aboard Iolaire, sipping some of Don's excellent grog (he had left so me our fo r us) with my cousin Mowbray Jackso n, I fo und myself turning over all I'd experienced in char narrow, deep hull and all I'd learned, for good or ill, fro m chis vessel and others crossing deep and shallow waters, leanin g on the wind.

only right, since rhe sea captains of long ago who brought home the wo nders of the East did so by sea, wirh sense and sensibilities affected deeply by the perspectives of deepwarer navigation whi ch they bro ught to the fa r-distant civilizations.

I was ill wirh some vile bug so I spent

Of Time and the Ocean T wo weeks after my visit to Iolaire Norma Sta nfo rd drove me up to attend rhe Wo rld Marine Millennial Conference, whi ch we co-sponsored with th e Peabody Essex M useum, in their historic buildin gs in the old seaport town of Salem , M assa ch userrs.

T he Museum is the oldest museum of any kind in th e U nited Stares. Founded by fa rvoyaging sea captains in the early years of rhe American Republic, it is a museum of art, rhe natural world and the folkways of faraway peo pl es-and tangentially of rhe sea. T his has always seemed to me a rather happy arrangement, fo r in this way the smell of salt spray seeps into a wide variety of di ffe rent subj ects on exhibition . T his is

A peroration ofextraordinary virtue is delivered to the World Marine Millennial Conference by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, arguing that the sea is more than a passive medium of transit between continents. (Photo: B. Green)

much of the co nference in bed, hearing about it from No rma. I did, however, manage to give a talk on "T he Cape H orn Road," myacco unt ofhow mankind learned to cross wide waters and re unite the separated branches of human ity fo r rhe first rime since our breed first cam e our of Afri ca in remote prehi story. People flocked to this talk (all the sessions were well attended; bur I'd had my doubts that this effort would be!) and we re generous in th eir co mm ents. And Ray As hley's fin e apprecia tion of From Left, Dan Finamore, Curator at the Peabody Essex rhe deep-seared lessons of seaMuseum, Robert Ballard ofthe Institute for Exploration, fa ring and rhe power of artiand NMHS Trustee William H. White at the World facts to convey the realities from Marine Millennial Conference. (Photo: Burchenal Green) whi ch those lesso ns derive, did much to round our a productive sess ion.

One big ques tion was answered in this rather extreme test of people's interest in doing the 5,000 year ocean voyaging story in one go: and that was, are people interested in the lo nger view and the slower gro undswell movements of hisSEA HISTORY 93 , SUMMER 2000

'

tory whi ch emerge in that view? Well, yes, they are.

T his was brilliantly confirmed in the succeed ing panels on "The Sea as Highway," "The Sea as Arena of Conflict," and "The Sea as Inspiration"-some of which we hope to publish in future Sea H istorys.

Bur particularly worthy of note was Felipe Fernfo dez-Armesto's keynote address, which wo und up the formal sessions.

Felipe, aurhor of the magisterial Millennium: A H istory ofthe Last Thousand Years and other works, took us on a fasc inating trip around the va ried cultures of th e world, as defin ed by their relations with each other, and their experience of seafaring.

The actual experience of seafarin g in his view was nor a mechanical matter but a pos itive facto r in ideation and what we might call the deeper process of an evolving vision of the wo rld and mankind's place in it. This goes deeper than rhe mere generation of ideas, into realms of wonder, and concerned involvement.

I thought of two things as we d rove home fro m the conference.

I remembered the harbor artist John No ble remarking that Snug H arbor in New Yo rk wasat a high cultural level when ir was a seamen's home, because the seamen kn ew rhe ocean wo rld-where wonders come up and look at yo u. T he John N obl e Co llection in Sraren Island needs help to open its doors on ch ar wider world John offered us-an active concern of the Society.

An d we are interested in setting up an N MHS Chair of O ceani c History. Samuel Eliot Mo riso n held such a chair at Harvard , bur it was abolished soon after his death in 1976 . Isn' t it a wo rthy pursuit to go fo r those longer distances, wider horizons and longer spans of time, whi ch otherwise pass unnoti ced, like the slow groundswell, which rel! us of the pas t and carry messages of viral import fo r rhe future? ,t j ohn No ble's studio barge, widely traveled in New York H arborsketched by J ohn.

! ~p

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7

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THE OFFICIAL PORTS OF OPSAIL 2000, PART VIII

New York H arbor fills with boats ofall varieties as the world's fleet ofsail training ships gathers in the great port in 1986 Crossing.from the Lower Bay to the Upper beneath the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the ships have passed the Statue ofLiberty and proceeded up the North River to the left, before going to the berths around the harbor where they will be open to visitors. (Courtesy Frank Duf!Y/Granard Associates)

Where Sea and City Meet New York Harbor, Legacy and Promise

by Joseph F. Meany, Jr. n Jul y 4, 2000, New York H arbor will fill wirh rhe sighrs and sounds of rail ships: mases and ya rds, halyards and sheers, and bi ll owing sailclorh. Sin ce rhe grear age of sail, when Don ald M acKay' s exrreme clippers cas r off fro m Sourh Srreer piers and srood down rhe Easr River roward rhe sea, N ew Yo rk has seen such sighrs on only four previo us occas10ns.

T he firsr O perarion Sail , in 1964, was co nceived as a fa rewell ro rhe las r few surviving call ships. Bur such was rhe power of rheir presence char rhe evem gave rh em new life and ocher OpSails fo llowed . The Fourrh of July 1976, rhe fo cal mo mem of rhe Bicem ennial of Ameri can Independence, was warched by millio ns who shared

O

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

Walrer C ronkire's awe and emhusias m for rhe specracle and rhe ships ar rhe cem er of ir. T he Bicenrennial was fo llowed in 1986 by "Liberry Weekend," rhe m agnifice nr rededicarion of rhe Srarue ofLiberry, as rhe call ships passed again benearh her gaze.

Finally, rhere was OpSail 1992, when rhe call ships groped rhrough an earl y fog in rhe Narrows ro celebrare rh e quincenrennial of Columbus's voyage, and rhe presence of ships from Russ ia, U kraine, and Easrern E urope bo re resrimony ro rhe end of rhe Cold War. Now, rh e new cenrury and rhe new millennium w ill be ushered in wirh an even grearer specracle of rall shi ps in OpSail 2000 , wirh New York again irs cenrerpiece.

I was privileged ro sail in bo rh rhe 1986 and 1992 evenrs, and rh ey we re experi-

ences char I have never fo rgo n en . Recenrly I reread rhe diary I kepr during rhe Li berry Weekend evenrs. I called ir "Jo urnal of a Voyage fro m Wes r Sayville ro New Yo rk Ciry in rhe Year of G race 1986." H ere is whar ir was like: Morning, July 4 rh 198 6, Li berry Weekend, aboard Priscilla, rhe 1888 wooden oysrer schooner lovingly res rored by rhe Lo ng Island Ma ri rime Museum. W e lay ar anchor amid rhe fl eer of "small ships" in Gravesend Bay awairing o ur momenr ro jo in rhe parade of call ships char wo uld shor d y pass m ajes ri cally ben ea rh rhe Ve rrazano-N arrows Bridge and move norrh in ro rhe shelrered U pper Bay. G ravesend Bay, on rhe Broo klyn shore jusr so urh of rhe Narrows, was rhe designared sm all ship

9

The bark Elissa sails free (far left) while the schooner Roseway follows the Esm eralda in the Parade ofSail.

anchorage. H ere munitions ships assembled during World War II. I sat up on Priscilla's foredeck and studied the Lower Bay. The history of these waters was on my mind. Across the vast expan se, I co uld see tall ships beginnin g to move out of their anchorage in Raritan Bay, turning out at Sandy Hook to form a line behind the Coast G uard's beloved Eagle, Am erica's Tall Ship .

Binoculars came out as we studi ed the lin e of ships.

'T here's the Danmark behind Eagle."

"Who's next? " Someone co nsulted the OpSail captain 's manual.

"Christian Radich from Norway, th en the Libertad from Argentina."

Each ship was under power, sailors out on the yards, and as th ey approached the Narrows, each ship in turn loosed its sails.

I looked at my watch. Eagle, sails set, passed under the bridge on the dot of ten o'clock.

We had front row seats for the most stupendous gathering of sailing ships of the 20th century. Looking over the fields of white canvas, I thought, "New York harbor has n' t looked like this since the 19th ce ntury, since the great age of sail. " W hat a moment to touch the past.

We co ntinued to watch, everyo ne calling out th e ships they recogni zed.

"There's Esmeralda, from C hil e"-her four-masted barkentine rig identifiable even at a distance.

"There's Amerigo Vespucci, from Italy," her hull painted man-of-war fas hion with white stripes and black checkerboard gun ports immediately recognizable, as was Sagres !!from Portugal, named fo r the cape 10

where Prince Henry the Navigator had his famo us school. Large, red Jerusalem crosses on her fore and mains' ls recall the Portuguese caravels of the Age of Exploration.

T he end of the column of big ships was approaching. Elissa, from Galveston, the "Tall Ship for Texas," was the last in line.

T he small ships were weighing anchor and moving forward, closing on the line of march like human specta tors pushing for-

"With its seven bays, four river mouths [and} four estuaries, it is by far the world's best and biggest natural harbor and most of the world's major ports could easily be tucked into it. " ward at a parade. Ifwe didn 't move now we were going to be left out.

"Let's get the ancho r up. " Hands sprang to the anchor cable, and she was aweigh in short order. The skipper turned the schooner south , out from G ravese nd into the Lower Bay and into the swirling mass of ships all maneuvering for a place.

"Let's get the sails up ." Hands sprang to halyards, halya rds uncleared, look to the helm, thumbs up when yo u're ready.

"Raise the mains'!."

"Mai n up ."

"Raise the fores' !. " "Fo resa il up ," then the headsails,

foresrays'l and jib; crewmen out on the bowsprit hammock loosing ties-headsails up. So we headed downwind and tacked just as the wind backed ro und from the south. We wo uld have a downwind run into New York. Mainsail boom to port, foresail boom to starboard, wing on wing, Priscilla was headed through the Narrows and into the greatest port in the wo rld.

The port is officially known as the Port ofNew York and New Jersey, since most of the traffic goes up the Ki ll van Ku ll to the giant comainer port of Eliza beth, built in the Jersey marshes of Newark Bay. Geography is critical to understanding the Port of New York. As Life magazin e reminded its readers in November 1944: "With its seven bays, fo ur river mouths [and] four es tuaries, it is by far the wo rld's best and biggest nat ural harbor and most of the wo rld's major ports could eas ily be tucked in to it. " New York harbor co mprises a stagge ring area of more than 1,200 square miles, more than 430 square mil es of whi ch is water, in cludin g the vast 122-square-mile expanse of the Lower Bay as well as, above the Narrows, the deep, protected waters of the Upper Bay. It is a harbor carrographically turn ed upside down , opening southward into the Atlantic Ocean.

T he tall ships will enter New Yo rk by steering no rth, guiding on the twin lighthouse ato p th e Navesi nk Hills, a landfall marked by navigators in thousands of ships makin g for New Yo rk C ity. Here, the l 9rh -ce n rury se maphore system te legraphed the news of arriving vessels via Staten Island's Todt Hill back to merSEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

Behind the fast new destroyer Eugene A. G reene, Liberty ships ride at anchor in New York waiting to transport munitions, supplies and men to the battlefields ofAfrica, Europe and Russia.

(National A rchives, courtesy Intrepid SeaA ir-Space Museum) chants and officials in Manh attan. The ships will sweep past the Ambrose Light Tower marking the beginning of th e Ambrose Channel, New York's sixteenmile main ship channel, dredged in 1900 to a depth of 45 feet and a width of two thousand feet. The channel is nam ed for Iri sh-born civil engineer John Wolf Ambrose, its tireless advocate. For yea rs the Ambrose Lightship marked the harbor entrance. Today you can go aboard the original Ambrose Lightship at the South Street Seaport Museum in Manhattan.

Pass ing between Sandy Hook, N ew Jersey, and Rockaway Point, N ew York, the tall ships will enter the Lower Bay. Earl y arrivals will anchor in Rariran Bay, in th e lee of Sandy Hook, where the Raritan River flows into the harbor. On th e Fourth, the ships will steer up the chann el, passing Norton Point Light on the tip of Co ney Island to starboard. Here, during W o rld W ar II, a 40mm battery guarded th e N a rrows from enemy motor torpedo boats.

Pas t Coney Island and Gravese nd Bay, the ships enter the Narrows, today clearly id entified by the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, compl eted in 1965. For years defense interests opposed a bridge spannin g the N arrows, fearing that a potenti al enemy might drop rhe bridge, blocking rhe N arrows and bottling up shipping in rhe Upper Bay. C rossing under rhe bridge, rhe call ships will co me to the spot where, in 1524, Italian navigator Giovanni da Verraza no became rh e first European sailor to glimpse rh e magnificent, sheltered waters of N ew York's Opper Bay. The ships will pass between the twin guardi ans of the N ar-

SEA HISTORY 93 , SUMMER 2000

rows, Fort H amilton , Broo klyn, to starboard, and Fo rt Wadswo rth, Sraren Island, to port. Here, during both Wo rld Wars, an anti-submarine net and anti- motor-torpedo-boar boom stretched across the Na rrows. High atop Fo rt H amil ton 's Battery Tompkins, rhe H arbo r Entrance Co ntrol Post monitored rhe arrival and departure of World W ar II co nvoys. T oday visitors can tour Fort W adswo rth , as well as Fo rt Hancock on rhe rip of Sandy H ook.

'54.t New York

the war began at the sea buoy. " Above rhe N arrows, rh e ships w ill sail pas t photographer Ali ce Austen's co ttage and the nearby headquarters of the New York and N ew Jersey Sandy H ook Pilots Association . Fro m here, Ali ce reco rded rhe life of the harbo r wirh her cumbersome box camera ar rhe turn of rhe century. T he Sandy Hook Pilo ts, organized in the 1600s, have been guidin g ships safely in and ourof N ew York ever sin ce. Th eir swift pilot boats are a common sight in rhe Lower Bay as they race our to rendezvous with inbound ships. Farther alo ng the Staten Island shore is rhe Saint Geo rge ferry terminal, Staten Island terminus of rhe famed Staten Island Ferry. Ferry service between M anhattan and Staten Island was established in the early 19 th century by the future "Commodore" Cornelius V anderbilc and has continued uninterrupted ever since.

Ir is still , fo r my mon ey, th e bes t bargain in New Yo rk.

Beyo nd Saint George lies Robbins Reef Li ght at the entrance of the Kill van Kull.

H ere, for a generatio n, legendary lightho use keeper M argaret Walker never failed to li ght rhe light. T oday huge contain er ships pass up th e Kill van Kull bound for th e co ntain er centers of Pon Newark and Po rt Eliza beth. On rhe way they pass the magnifi cent tree-shaded cam pus of the Snug H arbor C ultu ral Center, once Sailo r's Snug H arbo r, Captain Randall's great charitable fo undatio n rhar provided a retirement home fo r generatio ns o f indigent seamen. Today, rhe C ultural Center houses a number of museums including T he John A. Noble Coll ectio n, which interprets rhe history of N ew Yo rk harbor through rhe work of artist and lithographer John Noble. For yea rs, N oble prowled rhe port's nooks and crannies in his rowboat, then returned to his houseboat/studio to record , in m ovin g images, rhe last days of sail and the conrin uing life of the wo rking port he loved.

Far across rhe Upper Bay, sailors and spectators will be able to make our rhe outlin es of rhe Brooklyn Army T erminal , headquarters of rhe N ew York Port of Embarkation during World War II. The larges t wareho use in rhe world when com pleted in 19 18, rhe terminal held over rhree milli o n square feet of storage and room to unload 45 0 railroad freight cars and transfer their contents to waiting ships.

From here rhe ships delivered armored ve hicl es and viral supplies to Allied forces in North Africa.

Now rhe tall ships will pass New York 11

Today, New York harbor is home to myriad port facilities, such this Sea-Land Services terminal in Port Elizabeth, New jersey. (Photo: Frank Dujfj!Granard Associates)

harbor's most fa mous icons, the Statue of Liberty and the Ellis Island Immi gration Center, where millions of immi grants entered th e "go lden door" to the Uni ted States.

The glass and steel towers of lowe r Manhattan will now be clearl y visib le to starboard as the tall ships approach the Hudson River. T he twin towers of the World Trade Center dominate historic Battery Park on the tip of Manhattan.

Here the tablets of the Battle of the Atlantic monument face the sea. Nearby stands a modest little monument to ship's radio officers lost at sea.

On the north side of Battery Park stands No. 17 Battery Place, for years the center of the maritime industry in New York City.

This was the site of the famous "co nvoy conferences" held before the departure of WWII convoys, attended by merchant ship masters, mates, and radio officers. H ere they received their convoy ass ignments, we re introduced to the "co nvoy commodore" and met the commanders of escorting warships. Radio officers received codes, ciphers, and frequencies. At the end of the conference, participants, accompanied by arm ed MPs, crossed Batteiy Park to the Fleet Landing Basin to be taken by motor

whaleboat back to their ships. Once secret instructions were issued no further contact with the civilian wo rld was permitted. For many it wo uld be their last touch with America. Today, the site of the Fleet Landing Basin is the location of th e evocative Merchant Marine Memo rial . Nearby is Pier A, North River, long the New York City Fireboat Pier, and soon to be opened as the Visitor's Center for the New York C ity Heritage Area operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.

At the Battery, the rail ships wi ll enter the Hudson River, known to generations of mariners as the "North River." T he river links the harbor with the continental interior, channeli ng the produce and products of the upper Midwest to New York Cicyvia the Great Lakes and the New York State Barge Canal, successor of the celebrated Erie Canal. Erie Basin, Brooklyn, was the official southern terminus of the Erie Canal. Today, its antebellum warehouse rows recall the golden age of New York port.

During WWII, the North River Terminal, part of the famous pre-war " ocean liner row" was the principal troop embarkation point. It was from here that troops bound overseas loaded from staging areas at Camp

Kilmer, New Jersey, Camp Shanks in New York's Rockland Co unt y, a nd Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn.Anditwasfrom here that the fast liners, the C unarders Mauretania, Aquitania, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, the French Line's Ile de France, and the Holland-America Line's Nieuw Amsterdam departed on their lonely, highspeed cross ings of the Atlantic.

Farther up the Hudson, the tall ships will come abreast of USS Intrepid, the aircraft carrier now open to the public as the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space M useum . Just north of the Intrepid, at Pier 88, is the site of the loss of the beautiful French liner Normandie, which caugh t fire and capsized in February 1942 while being fitted out as a troopship. T he Navy established a salvage school on Pier 88, commanded by the famous salvage master Commander Wi lliam Sullivan. Navy divers learned their trade in the dark an d disorienting submerged passages of the Normandie, where they coped with freezing water filthy with raw sewage discharged directly into the slip . T hese men wo uld later clear obstacles from the Normandy beaches and from the demolished ports of C herbourg, Antwerp, Hamburg, Manila, an d Marseille. A small memorial commemorates their service where today cruise ships fill with hap py vacationers bound for the Caribbean and other ports.

On the other side of Manhattan Island lies the East River and, through Hellgate, Long Island Sound, which provides a back alley from the harbor to coastal New England and the Atlantic beyond. Under the guidance of the Hellgate Pilots Association it would proveasaferexitduring WWII for those munitions convoys that loaded car-

Fourth of July Events in New York Harbor

OpSail Events Still to Come

• 3-9 July 2000, OpSail 2000 New York (1 World Trade Center, Ste. 2121, New York NY 10048; 212 435-2665; web site: www.opsail2000.org) and International Naval Review of 40 naval ships from 20 co untries, with public visitation and events (www.inr2000.navy.mil) ; the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum will host some public events (2 12 957-704 1) • 4 July 2000: 8AM, International Naval Review in the Hudso n River; 1OAM, Parade of Sail begins at the VerrazanoNarrows Bridge and heads up the Hudson River; Evening: Fireworks in various locations

• 23-29 June 2000, OpSail 2000 Philadelphia (P ier 36 South, 801 Columbu s Blvd., Seco nd Floor, Philadelphia PA 19 147; 2 15 2 18-0110) • 12-15 July 2000, OpSail 2000 Connecticut (181 State St., New Lo ndon CT 06320; 860 448-2000; fax: 860 4477971; web site: www.opsa il 2000ct.org; e-mail: opsai l2000 @cr.org) • 28-31Ju ly2 000 , OpSail Maine 2000 in Portland (Ma in e Intern ation al Trade Cente r, 511 Co ngress Street, Portland ME 04 101 ; 207 541-7 400; e-mail: opsailmaine@mitc.com)

12

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

The new French liner Normandie, outward bound,

steams past the venerable Cunard Liner Aquitania, arriving from Europe, in marine artist William G. Muller's "New York Harbor during the Great Steamship Era, 1935. "Coastal steamers, harbor ferries, tugs, barges, sloops and schooners carry people and cargo in the bustling harbor, past the Statue of Liberty and Governors Island.

(Prints of this image are available through NMHS.) gos of high explosives and high octane aviation fuel at Clermont Terminal's long wharf in Jersey City and that assembled in Gravesend Bay before steaming to supply the allies in the Mediterranean and European theaters.

The Port of New York reached its apogee during the Second World War as the nexus of the interlocking convoy system that channeled coastwise convoys with cargoes from South and Central America up the East Coast of the United States. At New York the great Atlantic convoys, sometimes as many as 80 or 100 ships, assembled. Over 1,400 convoys sailed from New York during WWII carrying three million American fighting men and 63 million tons of supplies and equipment across an "Atlantic bridge of ships. " It was a breathtaking achievement, the defeat of fascism, paid for with the lives of men and ships. As Captain Paul McHenry Washburn commented to John McPhee in the latter's 1994 bestseller Looking/or a Ship, "At New York the war began at the sea buoy."

A second factor contributing to the preeminenceofthePortofNew York, even beyond its remarkable geography, was the developed nature of the port facilities themselves. Eleven ports in one, really, the Port of New York boasts a developed shoreline ofover 650 miles including the waterfronts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx as well as the New Jersey shoreline from Raritan Bay to the heights of Weehawken, where Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr paced off their fatal twenty paces.

SEA HISTORY 93 , SUMMER 2000

In its heyday of the 1940s, the Port of York was one huge nuclear target. The New York included 1,800 docks, piers, Navy decentralized, moving facilities to and wharves of every conceivable size, con- Norfolk, Charleston, and Jacksonville. The dition, and state of repair.Today few of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, once the largest naval finger piers that bristled like porcupine shipyard in the wo rld employing 75,000 quills around the city's shoreline survive- men and women and generating a monthly gone with the winds of changing technol- payroll of 16 million dollars, was closed. ogy. Those docks and piers gave access to The army followed suit, closing both the 1, 100 warehouses containing 4 1 million Brooklyn Army Terminal and Fort Wadssquare feet of protected storage space. Much worth. This mirrored similar losses in emof the economic activity once found all ployment and revenue in the private sector along the city's waterfront is concentrated, as shipping became computerized and contoday, in the great container centers of Port tainerized.

Newark and Port Elizabeth, though a few This July 4th, as New York hosts the container cranes may be seen in Brooklyn OpSail 2000 Parade of Sail, the artifacts of and at Howland Hook on Staten Island. the great age of the Port of New York will In the 1940s, the Port of New York had be visible all around the harbor. Bur, as the 39 active shipyards, 40 including the huge tall ships themselves have proved, it would New York Naval Shipyard on the Brooklyn be quite premature to forecast the demise side of the East River, universally known as of New York's port. After all, the "great the Brooklyn Navy Yard. These facilities port" still retains much of the resources included nine big-ship repair yards, 36 that made it great: deep and protected large dry-docks, 25 smaller shipyards, 33 waters; a world city with a financial infralocomotive and gantry cranes of50-ton lifr structure found nowhere else on earth; and capacity or greater, five floating derricks, a diverse population full of energy, skill, and more than one hundred tractor cranes. and enthusiasm. Moreover, there is someOver 5 7 5 tugboats worked the Port ofN ew thing magnetic, something compelling, about the place where sea and city meet.

York in the 1940s.

After the war, port operations were People have always been drawn to the fueled by post-war circumstances in which water's edge, and this has never been more a devas tated Europe depended on an intact true than in New York in the days of the tall American industrial plant. American ships. 1, Marshall Plan aid poured through New York to war-ravaged Europe. It was a situ- Joseph F Meany, Jr. is the Acting State ation that could not and did not last. In an Historian far the State of New York. His age of nuclear weapons, the concentration previous contributions to Sea History have of military and industrial resources in and included "New York: Sally Port to Victory, " aro und New York was a liability. New in Sea History 65.

13

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OF GROWTH, STABILITY AND EXCELLENCE

GustefErikson:

Kin.9 ofthe Saifin.9 Ships

by Gote Sundberg, Master Mariner

0

n 3 June 1886, Gustaf Adolf Eriksson, owner of Hansas farm in Hellestorp village, Lemland, Aland, and a skipper and shipowner, wrote: "D ear Remembered Son Gustaf Mauritz, yo u neglected to write home from your first port. You will have to be forgiven for that, but do not let it become a habit. " Three weeks later GustafAdolf wrote to his son again: "I was so pleased to get your letter. You did not mention seasickness at all, and whether you will become a sailor or not. " H e signed his letter "A render father, Eriksson. " Mother Amalia wrote in the sam e letter, "Beloved Gustaf, keep in good health , please do your work properly and keep yo urself clean and be careful nor to fall into the sea.

Ir was nice of you to write home."

The "remembered son" became a sailor and a diligent letter writer, did his wo rk to satisfaction, kept himself clean and did not fall into the sea. He was future shipowner Gus taf Erikson, and he became renowned for keeping a fleer of profirable sailing ships going long after the rest of the world turned to steam.

First Jobs at Sea Gustaf had gotten his first taste of a sailor's life at the age of 10, as cabin boy in the bark Neptun in 1883. In rharJuneofl886 while this correspondence was going on, Gustaf was spending his second summer as cook in the barkenrine Adele. Later that seaso n Gustaf Adolf wrote that h e thought his so n

In the 1920s, GustafErikson was well on his way to building his fleet ofsquare riggers. should not rake a job as cook the next year but should try and get a deck position. So G ustaf Mauritz returned to Adele in 1887 as an ordinary seam an and the following year was employed as able seaman in the sam e ship. Realizing that the steward had a better salary than an able seaman, when the bark Ansgar was bo ught by interests in his home district in 1889, the ambitious young man signed on as her steward .

Aboard the Ansgar G ustaf gained sound knowledge of shipboard cateri ng whi ch

The Erikson family gathers on board the Pommern; Gustaf and Hilda sit at center with daughter Greta. Behind them, from the left, stand a friend of the children, the Eriksons' daughter Eva and son Edgar, and Cap tain Karl Broman. This previously unpublished family photograph and those on page 18 are from Eva Erikson

was to be of great benefir to him later. H e learned how to keep food expenses down by raking care with raw produce and by making use of everything that could be used in anyway without being stingy with food for the crew. He discovered that there was a direct correlation between the food served on board, the disposition of the m en and the level of work that was accomplished.

Gusrafliked the steward's positi on but knew that if he continued in that job he would have reached the end of his career.

H e had greater ambition, and he was not satisfied with that. Instead, he aimed toward the top: he wo uld become a captain!

For that he needed more practical experience in deck wo rk. So in 1890 he signed o n the barkenrine Fennia as boatswain , and the following year as second mate of the bark Southern Belle, which had been built in Nova Scotia in 187 1 and was bought by Aland interests in 1889 .

As seco nd m are G us taf performed the sam e duties as the master, being responsible to a great extent for sailing operations and other practical work. H e called on the m as ter only when a situati o n arose that he did no r feel capable of m anaging. T he work involved responsibili ty for provisions and sto res as well. When necessary he also had to do the sailmaker's wo rk. T his experience proved valuable in his later career.

Mate and Master After obtaining sufficient practical experience, G ustaf attended the maritime college

Hohenthal's family album, which was given to the Aland Maritime Museum upon her death in 1998. At right, four of GustafErikson's ships are seen from the roads ofMariehamn, Viking and Passat in the foreground. (ALL photos courtesy Aland Maritime Museum, Mariehamn, Aland)

.--~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

!

l

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

15

L'Avenir, built in 19 08 in Germany as a schoofship for the Belgian merchant marine, participated in the grain race of 1936 from Australia to England before being sold to H amburg-Amerika as a training ship. She went missing in 1938 on her first voyage sailing as the training ship Admi ral Karpfanger. in Mariehamn, Aland, and, in the spring of 1892, received his seco nd mate's certificate. T hat summer he stayed at home looking after the family fa rm, fo r which he had ass umed responsibility after his fa ther's death in 1889.

In the spring of 18 93 G ustafwas offered the post of mas ter of the Adele. Because he was not formall y qualified the owners employed a flag captain, although G ustaf held responsibility and made the decisions.

G ustaf was m as ter of the Adele the fo llowing year too, but then he decided to continue his education at the navigation col-

lege in O ulu (Uleaborg), Finland, obtaining his chief mate's certificate in the spring of 1895.

After that G ustaf was eager to get to sea.

In 1895 he was chief mate of the bark Matilda, with the experienced Captain G ustaf Lundberg as master. In that ship G ustaf made two voyages across the Atlantic, after which he became mate of the bark Mariehamn, which in 188 1 had been the firs t Aland ship to visit Australia.

T he last ship in which G ustaf served as mate was the bark Finland. W hile she was lying in Pensacola, Florida, G ustaf and

The Viking, here at anchor in 1930s in the Western Harbor ofMariehamn, was built as a training ship for D enmark in 19 07. After World War II, she made Losing voyages for Erikson and eventually went to Gothenburg, Sweden, to serve as a navigation school. She remains there today as a restaurant and hotel.

16

several oth er seamen we nt aloft in the foremast rigging to repair some heavy weather damage. He fell to the deck from the crow's nest, breaking his thighbone; poor m edical treatment left him to suffer from the effects of the accident fo r the rest of his life.

In 1899 G ustaf enrolled at navigation college for the las t time, in Vasa, Finland.

After getting his mas ter mariner's certificate in the spring of 1900, he joined the bark Southern Beffe as mas ter, remaining in her until 1905. D uring those years the vessel followed the usual trade fo r Aland sailing ships, carrying timber from Finland and Sweden to Britain and the Continent, sometimes returning with coal from Britain, and being laid up when ice conditions made it impossible to sail out.

In the spring of 1906 G ustaf ass umed command of the full- rigger Albania, remaining with her until she was sold in the autumn of 1908. In that ship G ustaf sailed to ports in No rth and South America.

His las t post at sea was as mas ter of the bark Lochee in the summer of 1909. She was G ustaf's only non-Aland ship . During the time that he was m as ter, the Lochee made voyages to ports such as Melbourne, Valparaiso, M ontevideo and Antofagasta.

He left the Lochee in the spring of 19 13 with the goal of becoming part-owner and mas ter of a sailing ship; his plans did not wo rk out quite like that.

Shipowner "W orking at sea just for a skipper's salary feels hard," he wrote from Pensacola to a fri end. Being a shipowner wo uld be both exciting and profitable, G ustaf thought.

T he future for sailing ships was not very bright at the beginnin g of the century. Ever since the 1870s steam had been ousting sail from the oceans. Shipowners with sufficient reso urces were acqui ring steamers and disposing of their sailing ships. In these circumstances prospective shipowners with limited capital were able to purchase old sailing ships at low prices, sometimes even at scrap value.

As soon as G ustaf arri ved home, he started studying sales lists. In September he fo und a suitable vessel, old but relatively cheap. Together with six other sea captains and a merchant from T urku, Finland, he fo rmed a shipping company which purchased the bark Tjerimai fo r 42,5 00 Finnish marks from a company in Lovisa, FinSEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

land. Gustaf kept 40 percent himself, increasing his share to 87 percent by buying our his partners. The Tjerimai had been built by J. F. Memling in Amsterdam in 1883 , and was of 1,550 dwt. She was built as a composite ship, with wooden planking on frames of iron or steel.

The three major shipowners inAlandMathias Lundqvist, Jr., Robert Mattsson and August Troberg-owned about 60 percent of the Aland merchant fleet, so by comparison Gustaf was an insignifi cant shipowner. But he was just 40 years old, with the future before him . H e had excellent knowledge of sailing ships, and there was no doubt abo ut his will to advance.

Knowing everything about handling and chartering a sailing ship, he was a good judge of investment opponunities.

Further Ship Purchases Following the purchase of the Tjerimai, G ustaf wro te to a ship chandler to say that he intended to remain ashore as a shipowner, at least fo r a year. In another letter to his brother-in-law, Captain Ekblom of the four-masted barklynton, he wro te that he was a speculative person who could not bear having capital lying idle in a bank.

Now that he had a start, he wanted to continue.

G ustaf formed another company in November 191 3, which bought the fourmasted bark Renee Rickmers. G ustaf inves ted only 15 percent himself, but he became her owner anyway. Great local patriot that he was, he gave the new acquisitio n the name Aland, and he promised never to change a ship 's name agai n.

Like many seamen, G ustaf believed that the gods of the sea wo uld not recognize a deepwater sailer whose name had been changed an d that such ships wo uld always receive rougher treatment from the elements than old, well-known ships. The Aland was sailing in the Pacific when Wo rld War I broke out, and the lights were extinguished in lighth ouses. W ithout radio the ship was ignorant of those events and, as a result, sailed onto a reefoff New Caledonia and was wrecked .

T he sky-high freights during the latter part of Wo rld War I favored Erikson, and he used the capital generated by his ships to buy mo reships or to invest in other people's ships. His fleet was at its height in 1935, when the company had fifteen ocean-go-

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

ing three- or fo urmasted barks trading. In the rest of the wo rld at that time there were only seven or eight similar ships in commercial service.

Gustaf's ship s mainly served the GustafErikson s ships anchor in bucolic Alands harbor. grain trade between Australia and Great Britain. His grai n- as cargo ships was limited, so he began loading tonnage in Spencer G ulf, So uth investigating the prospects of acquiring Australi a, reached its peak at the beginning steame rs. In 1920 he bought two small, of 1936 (see table below). The sh ips carried newly built steamers, the Rigel and the alm ost 55,000 tons of grain from Australia Stettin. H e renamed the latter Edgar afte r to the UK. The gross freight was £68,000 . his elder son, in sp ite of his previous resolve That sum can be compared with the earn- never to change the name of a ship .

These two steamers we re purchased ings of the Lawhill and Woodburn in 192 1, the high freights of WWI were alwhen when they carried 7,000 tons for freights ready dropping. T he inves tment turned our to be one of the worst business deals "Working at sea just for Erikson ever made. T hey were poorly built a skipper's salary fee/,s hard. " and swallowed huge amounts of bunker coal. Gustaf managed to sell them eventuamounting to £42,000. At the end of the ally, bur their costs had already brought the 1930s freights rose again. In 1938 ten of company to the brink of bankruptcy. The Erikson's ships carried 39,498 tons of cargo Lawhill and Woodburn rescued G ustaf that home for freights totalling £80,000. That time, as they had both made successful year the Pamir loaded in New Caledonia, voyages, earning sufficient sums to clear up and the H erzogin Cecilie, Ponape and a financially awkward situation.

After rhat experience it was a long time L 'Avenir were lost or scrapped . before he ventured to take the final step over to steam. "I rely on what I have tried out Venturing into Steam Gustaf Erikson believed in his big sailing myself and fo und to be good," he remarked.

He did actually take shares when other ships. Bur he also realized that their future

ERIKSON SHIPS IN THE GRAIN RACE OF SHIP

Herzogin Cecilie Pamir Pommern* Viking* Po nape Passat* Moshulu* L'A venir Penang Olivebank Archibald Russell Winterhude Lawhill Killoran Total tonnage:

CARGO (TONS)

4,200 4,301 4,000 4,001 3,374 4,584 4,835 3,518 3, 123 4,301 3,814 3, 100 4,500 2,991 54,642

DEPARTURE PORT AND DATE

Pt Lincoln Pt Victoria Pt Lincoln Pt Lincoln Pt Germein Pr Victoria Pr Victoria Pt Lincoln Pt Lincoln Pt Lincoln Pt Lincoln Pt Germein Pr Lincoln Pt Vi ctoria

28 Jan 5 Feb 7 Feb 15 Feb 15 Feb 15 Feb 17 Feb 18 Feb 18 Feb 2 1 Feb 21 Feb 7 March 7 March 14 Apri l

1936

DAYS AT SEA

86 98 94 115 115 87 112 107 113 108 109 118 11 8 115

PORT OF ORDERS

Falmouth Queenstown Falmouth Falmouth Falmouth Queenstown Queenstown Falmouth Falmouth Falmouth Falmouth Falmouth Falmouth Falmouth

*These are prese rved in , res pec rively: Marie hamn; Gorhenburg, Sweden; Trave mi.inde, Ge rm any; and Philadelphia.

17

Edgar, H ilda, Eva, and Gustaf Erikson gather around the cof fie table with Captain Sven Eriksson of the Herzogin Cec ili e.

When his ship was lost in 1936, Eriksson emigrated to South Africa and became a farmer.

Gustaf in his garden, from which he ran the world's greatfleet ofdeepwater square riggers shipow ners inves ted in steamers, but it was not until 1937 that he bought another steamer himself, th e Kirsta. Freights were then starting to rise after the five-year depression. After making a start with enginepowered vessels, he bought three more steamers that year and another in 1938.

The Demise of the Fleet When World War II broke out in 1939, Erikson sti ll had eleven of his proud wi ndjammers left. The four-masted bark Olivebank was on her way home from England when she struck a mine and sank in the No rth Sea on 8 September. Sh e was Finland's first victim at sea in that war. Her master, Captain Carl Granith, and most of the crew went down with her.

T he four-masted bark Pamirwas seized

by New Zealand and sailed for that co untry between the US and New Zealand through the war. T he Lawhill underwent a similar fate; she was seized by South Africa and sailed under that flag but with her crew of Finnish nationals, since it was impossible to obtain any other crew. T he Viking, Passat and Pommern were lyin g in their home port of Mariehamn at the outbreak of war. The Archibald Russell was in England, theMoshuluand WinterhudeinNorway. Both the Killoran and Penang were sunk by German warships in the North Atlantic. As soon as the war ended, G ustaf began trying to get wo rk for the three ships lying in Mariehamn. The Vikingand Passat sailed out in September 1946, eventually taking part in the grain trade again, but the Pommern remained in her hom e port.

T he G ustaf Erikson Company received

18

thePamirbackfrom New Zealand in 1948.

She rounded Cape Horn on 11 September 1948, a few days after the Passat, as th e las t sailing ship in the world carrying grain from Australia to England.

In 1953 Erikson's children, Eva Hohenthal and Edgar Erikson, donated the Pommern to the Mariehamn municipality, which undertook to preserve her as a museum ship for at least fifteen years. The municipality has taken their charge seriously, and after co nsiderable renovation, the Pommern can be said to be the only sailing ship in the world of that type preserved in her original state.

Through the many sailing ships which he possessed in the 1930s, G ustaf Erikson

''Be careful about economy, as it is that which decides whether we shall be able to continue with these ships or not. " contributed in a great degree to th e fact that interest in sailing big ships has been kept alive and is still flouri shing-o ne evidence of which is the persistent populari ty of such intern ational events as Operation Sail and the C utty Sark Tal l Ships' Race.

Contacts with Masters G ustaf Erikson possessed a great advantage in that he was personally acquainted with most of the officers in his ships, especially the masters. During the who le of his time as a shipowner he had extensive co rrespondence with the latter. He always gave them detail ed instructio ns on everything: how the cook was to prepare meat stew; how maintenance work was to be performed; how purchases of provisions and other necessities sho uld be arranged; how the ship should be loaded; and how the master should keep the crew under supervision.

And, above all, he instructed: "Be careful about economy, as it is that which decides

whether we shall be able to continue with these ships or nor. " Detractors have accused Erikson of being stingy, but to enable the sailing ships to continue trading durin g the interwar period, it was vital for costs to be kept down .

This G ustaf was ab le to do, thanks to the fact that he usually knew his ships as well as-or in some cases, better than- the masters themselves. He placed hi gh requirements on his masters. The ships were to be maintained well and their crews were to have proper food, but it was necessary to be economical in every way.

"My crews must be fed, but not fattened," G ustaf is alleged to h ave declared .

* * * * * Gustaf Erikson died on 15 August 1947 .

H e had then been the owner of 66 ships altogether, sailers and steamers. In addition he had had shares in a large number of other ships. A prominent man in the economic life ofAland, he was a founder of the Bank ofAland Ltd. and one of its mainstays for many years, while also being a member of the Bank's admini strative body.

When the Aland Maritime Museum was being built in the 1940s, he was the biggest donor, prov iding funding and exhibits. Today in that museum we can study and admire G ustafErikson 's achievements as the wo rld 's last major owner of oceangoing three- and four-masted barks. -t.

The exhibit "The Last Windjammers-Grain Races Round Cape Horn" is currently on exhibit at the Aland Maritime Museum, which they created in conjunction with the Australian National Maritime Museum.

(Aland Maritime Museum, H amngatan 2, PB98, 22101 Mariehamn,Aland, Finland; Tel: 358 18-19930;/ax: 358 18 19936) Captain Gote Sundberg is a master mariner who sailed in Erikson's Viking in 1946 H e later served as headmaster ofAland's Seamen's School (1965-80) and as director of the Aland Maritime Museum (1980-1993).

This article was translated byJocelyn Palmer.

SEA HISTORY 93 , SUMMER 2000

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19

Victory Chimes A Centennial Celebration

by Alix T. Thorne This millennial year is a special one for Bethel, Delawa re. T hey were built solidly the ram schooner Victory Chimes, mark- ofoakand pine and construction wasfast ing 100 years of service. The milestone one ram was built in only 90 days. One was commemorated with a journey from interpretatio n of the name is that with th eir Maine to Chesapeake Bay. Alix Thorne great size and speeds of up to 10 knots, they was a member ofthe crew ofthis historic co uld "ram" through anythin g. T he rams' voyage. She shares with us here some of routes were not intended to take them the history of Victory Chimes and her offshore, although during the summer seasister ram schooners, and the festivities so n they ventured as far south as C harleston, South Carolina, and north to New celebrating her century under sail.

York. A few, larger, and with topmasts, t th e end of September 1999, the we re known as "outside rams," and did go three- m asted sc hoo ner Victory as far as C uba, Mexico, and even Europe, Chimes wrapped up her season as but they were not designed for open ocean the largest of the Maine windjammer fleet waters.

As ram schooner number 14, the 208carrying passengers in Penobsco t Bay. But instead of being put to bed at her dock in gross-ton Edwin and Maud was fairly typiRockland, Maine, shrink-wrapped against cal in her dimensions-132' on deck ( 170' the howling winter blizzards, her captain, sparred length), with a beam of23 '8" and Richard "Kip " Fil es, made fast a hawser to a draft of7.5'-but with the mass ive (28' the sailing "Tugantine" Norfolk Rebel and x 11 ' x 8") centerboard down, the draft began a sentimental journey under tow in creased to 18'. They were narrow, slabback to Victory Chimes's birthplace in sid ed , flat-botto med vessels with three C hesapeake Bay, where she was launched equal-sized masts about 85' in height, a as the Edwin and Maud in 1900. short bowsprit and no jibboom-neither Berween 1889 and 19 1 l , 30 C hesa- pretty nor graceful, but totally practical. peake Bay ram schooners we re built. J. M. Rams were designed as "bald-headed" C. Moore designed the rams to carry the (gaff- rigged but without topmasts), and largest possibl e amount of cargo, ye t still fit with only rwo jibs. The Edwin and Maud within the four locks (which measured 24 had a donkey engine for hoisting the sails feet wide) in the thirteen-mile canal con- and operating the windlass and a yawl boat necting the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays . for pushing or rowing when needed . It was Hundreds of miles and many days of travel possible to operate her with rwo fewer crew were saved by using this sho rtcut, and the than other schooners of the same size, a great saving to the owner. H er first cap tain locks were not eliminated until 1927.

The Edwin and Maud, like many of her was Robert Riggin, who named her after sister rams, was built at the George K. hi s children, and in 1900 she began a long Phillips yard on the Nanticoke River in and profitable career.

A

The Edwin and Maud was built for one purpose: to generate income for her owners by carrying cargo under sail. For 100 yea rs she has continued this tradition und er th e wa tchful eye of careful and proud owners.

She carried general cargo, mostly lumber and fertilizer, until World War II . At that time only eight ram schooners were still sailing and by the end of the war there were only four. Captain William S. Stevens sailed the Edwin and Maud during the war on mine patrol in the Chesapeake. In 1945 Herman E. Knust bought her and then acquired a sister ship , ram number 3, the Levin]. Marvel (1891).

This began a new era in the career of Edwin and M aud. Knust operated th e rwo vessels as "dude schooners" on the C hesapeake during the summers. By 1953, Knust was ready to retire and sold both schooners. The Ma rvel stayed in the Chesapeake and sank in Hurricane Connie in 1955 with the loss of 14 passengers . The Coas t G uard blamed both the poor condition of the vessel and the captain's lack of experience for the disaster.

There remained rwo cargo-carrying rams in the C hesapeake: number 18, the Edward R. Baird, J r., built in 1903, and number 12, the Jennie D . Bell, built in 1898. The Baird sank in the bay in 1955 and was eventually dynamited by the Coast Guard. The Bell was the last ram to cany a cargo under sail in the early 1950s, and her captain lived aboard her with his wife and 13 dogs until 1961 , a year before his death. She eventually rotted away on a mud flat, where her remains could be seen for many years.

FRED K. SHECKTOR

The Sole Survivor H erman Knust, owner of Chesapeake Vacation Cruises, I nc., stands at the mainsheet ofthe Edwin & Maud (later renamed Victory C himes) in August 1947. In the background is the ram Levin J. Marvel. (Courtesy Chesapeake Bay .:;.,..;..__..., Maritime Museum)

......._____.......

20

In 1954 Edwin and Maud was purchased by a corporation which took her to M aine, re-christened her Victory Chimes and began a thorough reconditioning of the vessel, including a 6,000-gallon water tank, and other amenities for the passenger trade.

This was one of only rwo years in which the schooner did not earn an income for her owner, but it gave her a good mid-life upgrade. In 19 59 Capt. Frederick Boyd Guild became sole owner.

In the mid-fifti es, the "dude-schooner" business was beco ming firmly established

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

A century of evolution: the hundredyear-old Victory Chimes meets the modern cargo carrier Fighring Lady ofLimassol in the Chesapeake in 1999.

(Photo: Naomi Kaminsky) ar Camden and Rockland in Penobscor Bay. Thanks to rhe foresighr of men like Capr. G uild and Capr. Frank Swifr, old schooners, eirher laid up or converted to modern rigs wirh engines added, were being broughr back to life and restored. Victory Chimes has always been rhe largesr and rhe only hisroric rhree-masred vessel in rhe fleer.

Guild sailed her until 1984 and was known as a man wirh exacring srandards for maintenance of rhe vessel as well as performance of his crew. Many a wo uld-be sai lorman fa iled ro meer his rigoro us expecrarions, and of rhosewho did ger his approval, like Capr. Files, many went on to disringuished careers as professional seamen.

In rhe !are '8 0s Victory Chimes changed hands rhree times in five eventful yea rs, until 1987 found her berthed at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and up for sale. Domino's Pizza, forewarned that she was rapidly deteriorating, bought her anyway and spenrwell over a million dollars on her res toration. She was renamed Domino Effect. Paul De Gaeta, fl eet captain fo r the pizza chain 's motor yachts, was not quire sure what to do with rhis aging vessel with no engines and a limited operati ng arena, but when he was introd uced to Caprain Kip Fi les at the launching of Pride ofBaltimore II in 1988, he fo und a caprain who understood rhe full possibilities of the old schooner. Files had served as a mate under Capr. G uild in 1977, and had been an admirer of the vessel since first seeing her under sail at rhe age of 13. H e was fresh from a job as master of Bill of Rights for VisionQues t, and counts the Bark Elissa and the schooners Nathaniel Bowditch, Bowdoin, Tabor Boy and Western Union amo ng his commands.

But by 1990, Domino's was losing interest and she was about to be sold to Japanese businessmen who wanted to take

SEA HISTORY 93 , SUMMER 2000

her home to be a restaurant. Files and D e Gaeta, against all berter financial judgment but with the full weight of a sentimental commitment to a grand old vessel, bought her and returned her as Victory Chimes to Maine, where she operates under a Subchapter T, Small Passenge r Vessel Coast G uard certificate, carrying up to 49 people.

Orher rhan improvements to rhe passenger faciliries, much is srill the same. The 6hp donkey engine of 1906 still helps ro raise the sails and operare rhe windlass. A 1920 Domesric diaphragm pumper still pumps rhe bilges . A yawl boar srill pushes when the wind is uncooperarive. A ve reran of rhe cargo era would norice rhe addirion of a rhird headsail, expansion of the afr deck house, and changes to the forward deck house when rhe galley was moved below and modern heads were insralled.

The average summer season las rs about

17 weeks and, of rhe 700 passengers who sail each year, abour 250 are repearvisitors.

The record is held by a woman with 54 trips, and rhe large and loyal following know nor only rhe history of rhe vessel, but all rhe harbors and islands to which she sai ls. Some passengers return for rhe same week every yea r. They are now rhe "cargo,' albeir an acrive one who enjoy helping our on deck. And Victory Chimes is sri ll doing whar she was builr for-providing an income for her owners by carrying a cargo under sail.

Coming Home After 100 Years Lasr fal l rhe Victory Chimes proceeded under row from Maine to rhe C hesapeake and ir was a grand voyage during which I was privileged to be one of rhe crew. The sai ls were ser, as were rhose of rhe Norfolk Rebel, which provided a few exrra knors of speed

Victory Chimes under sail in the Chesapeake halfa century ago. (Courtesy: Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum)

21

Today, the Vicrory Chimes takes on passengers, who Learn the ropes and haul on Lines in Penobscot Bay. (Photo: Courtesy Capt. Kip Files) Captain Wiffiam Seaford Stevens, master of the Vicrory Chimes during WWII, joins current captain Kip Files at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. (Photo: Paul De Gaeta)

Vicrory C him es was towed to Chesapeake Bay in 1999for her centennial celebration in her home waters. (Photo: Jesse Briggs) and a saving in fuel consumpti on . All along the coast of Maine, through the Cape Cod Canal, an overnight srop in New Bedford and up Long Island Sound, whenever passing vessels hai led us in surprise, Captain Lane Briggs identified us over the radio as the sailing tug "with a tall ship on a short hawser." For commuters on the East Side drive, it was a rare sight ro see this duo proceeding down the river, flying along with the current, eager ro find a berth in New York before an expectedsrorm blew in.

Under way a few days later, we battled headwinds down the New Jersey shore, tackin g in unison with the Rebel, until the welcome sight of the entrance ro Delaware Bay brought the Victory Chimes back in ro sheltered waters. After a brief srop in Wilmingron, it was on through the C&D canal ro Baltimore. Captain Briggs, on the Rebel, announ ced the crossing of the line inro the C hesapeake with a roast ro the hom ecoming of a great lady, and it was an emotional moment for all on board.

By the end of Ocrober, she was safely berthed at the C hesapeake Bay Maritime Museum where she spent the winter in a new role-an attraction vessel open for deck rours, alongside the bugeyes, skipjac ks and log canoes which form the museum's collection of native C hesapeake Bay vessels. It was a collaboration between a privately owned vessel anda museum that should be repeated here, and at other mu-

22

seums. According ro John Valliant, president of the museum, it was a symbiotic arrangement that worked well for both parties and they wou ld like ro do it again.

There was a definite increase in visirors to the museum, and the vessel was spared the harsh winter in Maine.

On 15 April the Victory Chimes (ex Edwin and Maud) had a birthday celebration which was attended by over 600 people from her past, present and probably her future as well. There were many former passengers and crew members, 30 of whom stayed on board and represented between them over 450 weeks of sailing time. There were five descendants of ram-designer ] . M. C. Moore, and relatives of George Phillips, in whose shipyard she was built.

Even Capt. W illiam S. Stevens, who sailed her during the war patrolling for mines, was there. Asked how she had changed sin ce he last srood on her decks, he said: "She is a whole lot cleaner."

Keynote speaker Capt. Jan Miles of Pride ofBaltimore II spoke of the incredible rebirth ofbui lding traditional wooden vessels in the last few years. But what of the truly hisroric privately owned vessels that continue ro make a living under sail alonel There are 40 sailin g vessels on the list of National Hisroric Landmarks. (Victory Chimes earned this distinction in 1997 .)

Fifteen of these are listed as srationary "museum exhibits." Of the remainder, five

are operated by nonprofit groups as sai l training and/or education vessels, and nine are privately owned and earning their way carrying passengers in the remarkable fleet of the Penobscot Bay windjammers. On some occasions it is possible ro see the schooners Steven Taberand Lewis R. French (both 1871), the Grace Bailey (1882), the Isaac Evans (1886) and the Victory Chimes, as well as others from the earl y 20th century all under sai l rogether.

The long hisrory and continued prosperiry of these hardy survivors from the true age of working sail should be recognized and honored, and not lost in the excitement of the modern educational missions of the "h isroric" replicas. It should also be noted that it is the passenger trade which has made possible their long lifespans.

Quite simply, it is a continuation of the hisrorical and ongoing struggle ro make a living from and on the sea.

So congratu lations ro Victory Chimes and her owners and may she sail ano ther century carrying her appreciative "cargo" ro the beautiful harbors of Penobscot and Chesapeake Bays, givi ng another generation the chance ro understand and enjoy a part of America's extraordinarily diverse maritime hisrory.

J, Alix T Thorne, spending her summers in Penobscot Bay, has spent many enjoyable days admiring Vicrory Chimes and other historic vessels. While supporting the educational mission ofthe replica schooners Harvey Gamage and Spirit of Massachuserrs as president of the Ocean Classroom Foundation, she owes her interest in maritime history to those original vessels.

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

Sail ROSE

in 2000 for the voyage of a lifetime!

Experience bluewater and coastwise passages in the West Indies and along the East Coast of North America and Canada.

Visit exciting ports of call in company with other great tall ships. www.TallShipRose.org

College Credits this Summer!

PHOTOS BY PHILIP PLISSON. LA TRI NIT°E-SUR-MER. FRANCE

In August 2000 sail a 2-week voyage from Boston to Nova Scoti a and earn 4 credits in History 225 from Boston Un ivers ity. Detail s on our website: www. tal lsh iprose. org/bu/index . htm I For registration materials : BU Summer Term, 755 Commonwealth Ave. , Boston MA 02215 ; tel: 617-353-5 124; email: tdwa lker@bu .edu

The o nl y Class A size sailing vessel under the US flag upon which the publi c may embark. All who sai l aboard participate to the bes t of their abili ty. Come alo ne or with family or friends-sign on for a few days of a few weeks. No prior experience is necessary, nor is extraordinary fitness required. Reasonable rates.

To receive a schedule, rates and additional information, write or call:

"HMS" ROSE Foundation, 1 Bostwick Ave. , Bridgeport CT 06605 'fr (203) 335- 1433

Email: sai lrose@aol.com

Fax: (203) 335 -6793

webs ite: www.TallShipRose .org

ROSE is a US documented vessel, inspected and certified by the US Coast Guard. Safety standards for Sailing School Vessels differ from those of passenger vessels on a comparable route, because persons aboard training shi ps are not passengers but participants who share in the ship' s operation. ROS E meets or exceeds all safety requirements for a vessel of her size and class.

Capturing the Moment \I

Catboats have always been my favor ite boats to paint and this picture captures the elegant shape of the hull as viewed fro m the stern . T he clouds add a little uncertainty to an otherwise peaceful scene and create breaks of ligh t and shadow upon the wate r. "Boats at Rest," 24 x 36 inches, oil on canvas, pri va te collection .

Fog is an exciting and challenging effect to paint. T his picture conveys anticipation, as the eye travels through the pathway searching fo r the fo g-shrouded beach. "M orning Fog, " 20 x 24 inches, oil on canvas.

by Frank P. Corso W hen I think abo ut my life as an artist, I am always awa re of how in credibly lucky I am . Ar t is a lifelo ng pursuit of knowledge in whi ch th e never-ending learning keeps the excitement fresh and alive.

I am sur ro unded by the things and the scenes I love. M y challenge is to create pictures of them that others can enjoy for generatio ns to co me. And, ifI am successful , those pictures will convey the excitem ent that the scenes hold for m e.

T he beauty and majesty of nature can be inti mi dating, especially when yo u are trying to capture it with a brush and convey its space, li gh t an d atm osphere in mere pigment and canvas. T hen, too, the goal is not to simply copy nature-nature co n24

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

This is a portrait of sorts of Lowell's Boat Shop in Amesbury, Massachusem, which is one of the oldest surviving boat shops in A m eri ca. I was taken with the sense of histo ry and the luminosity of the light within the shadows of the building. This room has an incredible feeling of timeless ness to m e. The clutter of tools on the benches presented an interes ting challenge, as did the reflected light on the wood chips on the floor of the room. T his is my second major painting of this shop. "The Boat Shop," 24 x 30 inches, oil on canvas, private collection.

veys natu re far berrer than even the greatest artists can do-but to interpret n ature in o ur own vision, to try to give a glimpse into another person's appreciation of the world , to see a color or a play of light or a subtle shape that they might otherwise miss-the warm orange stripe in the sky against a light cool gray, the reflections oflight bouncing o ff the water onto the hull of a bo at. These are thin gs most of us can see any d ay but too often ignore and so miss the mom ent.

T he arrist captures that moment and in so do ing, he also conveys the significance that the m oment has for him.

Putting the thousands of effects most peo ple never dwell on or even notice into a painter's language and omo the surface of

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

a canvas is what keeps me go ing. It is the intangibles within the brushstrokes of color that make it so excitin g.

The fact that people respond to what I do and that my pi ctures hang in rooms around the world is a great gift. It makes me realize that som e of the excitem ent, enjoyment and appreciation I felt in creating my paintings is being fe lt by others as well. .t

Mr. Corso studied art in high school and college at Onondaga College and Syracuse University and apprenticed with the Austrian portrait painter Robert Hoffman. H e lives in Massachusetts in the surroundings he puts on canvas, and his worle can be seen in galleries nationwide.

25

T his view from the docks in Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard reminds me of times past, although it naturally appears this way today, give or take a bit of artistic license. I was doing an 8 x 10 study, when the man in the dinghy came rowing by. I painted very quickly to get the idea down and then painted the larger piece in the studio. T his painting went through three stages as I developed the ideas: first as an 8" x 10", then to a 24" x 30", and, finally, the finished 30" x 40". The golden, late afternoon light adds to the feeling of times gone by.

"H arborlight," 30 x 40 inches, oil on canvas, priva te collection.

T his painting is as much about the lay of the land and the sky as it is about the catboat.

T he big sky and low horizon give the feeling of space and distance, and this is the feeling I get when standing on Madaket Po int on Nantucket. The broken light patterns add counterpoi nt to the boats in ligh t and also contribute to the ill usion of di stance. "C hanging Light Patterns, " 40 x 50 inches, oil on canvas . Co urtesy, Robert Wilson G alleries, Nantucket.

26

SEA HISTORY 93 , SUMMER 2000

T his is a scene off Eel Point on Nantucket. Loving catboats as I do, I was pleasantly surprised to find not one but three of them at their moo rings in a scene I wo uld have painted even had the boa ts not been there.

H aving the focal point so fa r in the distance, while painted in the highest value in the painting, is so mething which has always fasc inated me. T h e square fo rmat lends a feeling of grea t di stance and allows for a compl ete transition in the sky, not often seen in paintings.

"Nanrucker Inlet," 36 x 36 inc hes, private collection .

T hunderh eads forming in the sky set rhe mood fo r thi s view near Commercial D ock on Nantucket. The painting, however, is all about the balancing act o f the boar settling on its keel in the low rid e mud and how the light and shadows are playing off its surface. "Low T ide," 16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas, priva te collection .

,t ,t ,t

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

27

MARINE ART NEWS Hudson River Museums Explore the W aterway's Heritage Afloat Once yo u've seen the J uly Fourth Parade of Sail in New York Harbo r and enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of New York C ity, head no rth up the H udso n River to discover the regio n's history in boats.

T he broad reach ofa new exh ibi t at T he Hudso n Ri ve r M useum in Yo nkers, "Boars on the Hudson: Navigating T hro ugh History," incl udes rhe range of vessels used on the river over the pas t five centu ries, includ ing canoes, sloops, steamboats and rugs, and explo res how boats co ntributed to the social, cultural and eco no mic develo pment of the Hudson Rive r Valley. T he exhibit fearnres paintings, prints, h istorical photographs, m odels, ship plans, tick-

ets, schedules, log books, flags and banners, navigatio nal instruments, furnishings, cosrnmes and trophies. Several boats will also be on display, incl uding a 19 th-cenrnry iceboat, a du go ut canoe and a 1920s shad skiff. "Boats on the Hudson" runs fro m 7 July 2000 thro ugh 7 January 2001 .

(H RM, 511 Warburton Ave., Yo nkers NY 1070 1- 1899; 914 963-4550 ; web site: www.hrm.org) Farther up rhe river, rhe Hudson Ri ver Maritime M useum is also celebrating irs local m aritime herirage with "T he H udso n River in rhe Age of Sail," from 28 April to 30 O ctober 2000 . T he m useum looks ar myriad sailing crafr of all sizes and shapes, designed fo r commerce, pleasure and war, rhat have called rhe river hom e since Hudson first explored rhe waterway, fo cusing particularly on rhe evolution of rhe hybrid H udso n River sloop of the 19th century. (H RMM , One Rondour Landing, Kingsto n NY 12401 ; 9 14 883-71 00) Continue to wend yo ur way north to join rhe festivities marking rhe 175rh year of navigatio n on the Erie Canal (see page 40). J,

Top: Currier & Ives lithograph ''iceboat on the Hudson, ca. 1860". (Courtesy the Museum of the City of New York, The Harry Peters Collection) Left: "The Hudson RiverSteamboatFrancisSkiddy, "byjames Bard, 1859, oil on canvas, 36" x 64''.

(Courtesy the Hudson River Museum)

ASMA 12th Annual Exhibition The American Society of Marine Artists has an no un ced rhe dares and venues for irs 12th Natio nal Exhi bition. Following rhe success of rhe two-venue 11 rh Annual Exhibi rion, th e 12 th will open ar rhe Cape M useum of F ine An s in D ennis, Massachuserrs, fro m 28 April to 8 July 2000 and rhen move to the Delaware Center for rhe Arts in Wilmi ngton, Delawa re, to run from !are July th rough rhe late aurumn . T he 11 rh Ann u al Exhibition gained record attendance ar borh T he Frye M useum in Seanle, Was hingto n, and the C ummer M useum in Jackso nville, Florida. In fac t, rhe di rector of the C ummer Museum told ASMA's president, Robert Semler, rhar ir was rhe most well an ended exhibit in rhe museum 's histo ry.

Many of the artists subm itting wo rk to this exhib tio n will be familiar to Sea H istory readers fro m past m arine art articles.

T heir work is exemplary, in conveying rhe history of th e fiel d with accuracy and depth of feel ing, a nd in sharing the timeless beauty of o ur life in boats and the drama of man's relati o nship w ith rhe sea.

To keep up with rhework being don e by today's marin e artists, visit rhe ASMA web sire ar www. m arineartisrs.org or write rhem arASMA, PO Box 369, Am bler PA 19002.

Another web sire rhar will keep yo u upto-dare o n rhe wo rld of m aritime art, m odern and historical, is www.marinearr. com .

T he sire in cl udes reso urces on m aritime museu ms, galleries, and auctions, and also has a discussion board to share information wirh or ask q uestions abo ut nautical art. ,!,

MARINE ART ExHIBITS & EvENTS • American Society of Marine Artists, W estern Region : 1 Augusr30 September 2000 (Ventura Counry Mariri me Museum, 2731 S. Vicroria Ave., Oxnard CA 93035; 805 984-6260) •Door Co u nty Maritime Museum: 13 May- 17 Seprember 2000, Maririme Arr by Gerh ard C. F. Mi ll er and by Kari An derso n (120 N. Madison Ave., Sru rgeon Bay WI 54235; 920 743-5958; web sire: www. dcm m.org) • H udson River Maritime Museum: 28 April-30 Ocrober 2000, "T he Hudson River in rhe Age of Sai l" (One Rondour Landing, Kingsron NY 1240 1; 9 14 883-7 100) • T he H udson River Museum: 7 Ju ly 2000-7 January 2001, "Boats on rhe Hudson " (511 Warburron Ave., Yonkers Y 10701-1899; 914 963-4550; web si re: www. hrm.org) • T heMariners' Museum: 17June-280crober2000, Scale Ship Model Exhibirion 2000 (100 Museum Dr.,

28

Newporr News VA 23606; 757 596-2222; web sire: www.mariner.org) • Penobscot Marine Museum: 2 J uly- 1 Ocrober 2000, "Pons and Passages: The MaririmeArrofJohn Srobarr" (5 Church Sr., POB 498, Searsport ME 04974; 207 548-2529; web site: www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org) • SouthStreetSeaportMuseum: from25 May2000, "T he Images Beh ind rhe Words: Prints from H erman Melville's Arr Collecti on"; from 25 June 2000, "The Alan Villiers Collection: T he Last of the T all Shi ps" (207 Front St., New Yo rk NY 10038; 2 12 748-8600; web si re: www.sourhstseaport. org) • Lake Champlain Maritime Museum: 29-30 July 2000, Maritime Model Show; 12-13 August 2000, Maritime Music F1estival (4472 Basin H arbor Rd., Vergennes VT 05i49 1; 802 475-2022; web site: www.lcmm.org)

A Chinese export po1rcelain cider jug in the Penobscot Marine Museum '.r e:xxhibit (Photo: Roseann Costello)

SEA HIISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

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Stobart Exhibition Opens at PMM on fuly 2 A View of the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor in 1925 and other major marine paintings by well-known artist John Stobart will be exhibited at the Douglas and Margaret Carver Memorial Gallery at Penobscot Marine Museum from July 2-0ctober 1.

In the 1960s, Stobart set out to bring America's 19th century seaports to life with his vibrant oil paintings. H is works are now in international collections and museums.

Museum admi ss ion includes "Po1ts and Passages:

The Maritime Art of John Stobart" as well as o th e r ongo in g exhibits in th e Museum's 9 histori c buildings.

Penobscot Marine Museum

Route One and Church Street Searsport, Maine 04974-0498 207-548-2529 www. (J enobscotmari nemuseum. org

29

The Wait is Over! is proud to announce the third edition of the

SEA HISTORY PRESS

International Register of Historic Ships

by Norman J. Brouwer This new edition is the most comprehensive listing of surviving historic ships ever published, featuring nearly 2,000 historic ships from over 50 countries. Not only does the Register catalogue these historic ships, but it also provides updates on restoration projects, lists the remains of historic ships preserved in museums, and includes contact information for all the vessels. All of this is introduced by a new Preface by NMHS President Peter Stanford.

Price: $75 for the hardcover edition; $46 sofrcover, plus $5 each shipping and h andling in the USA. Foreign shipping varies. * Members of the National Maritime Historical Society may use their 10% member's discount ($67.50hc; $41.60sc + $5s/h) *For foreign shipment, please fax us ar 914 737-78 16 or e-mail us ar nmhs@seahistory.org.

To order by credit card, call mail your order to:

800 221-NMHS (6647), or visit us at www.seahistory.org. Or pay by check and

National Maritime Historical Society, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.

The Art ofthe Sea Calendarfor 2001

SEA HISTORY

GAZETTE

An 8-page bi-monthly digest of maritime heritage news For regular updates on sh ip saves, mu seum news, maTitime archaeology, sa il tra ining events and o ther maritime activities.

Scenes from our glorious and colorful maritime past are captured by twe lve of America 's best known mari ne artists. Royalties from sales ofthis calendar benefit the National Maritime Historical Society , whi ch promotes the appreciation and preservation of our maritime heritage through ed ucation, publication and seamanship . Calendar is wall hang ing, full color, 11 x 14" $11.95 + $3 s/h. To order send $14.95 (or $13.75 for NMHS members) check or money order to : NMHS, PO Box 68, P eekskill NY 10566 Or phone 30

1-800-221-NMHS (6647) to order by credit card.

To: NM HS, PO Box 68,PeekskillNY 10566 Please send me Sea History Gazette, 6 issues per yea r, for $ 18.75. (+$10 if outside USA). My check is enclosed.

From: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ ---------~ZIP _ _

To order b)y credit card, call 1-800-221-6647, or visit ourr web site at www.seahistory.org.

SEA HIISTOR Y 93, SUMMER 2000

RETURN TO CAPE TOWN Several Generations of Cape Horners Meet under Table Mountain

by Captain Daniel Moreland

W

en I was the yo ung mate on as the sun drifred lower, seemingly driven and praying not to meet German submahe Danish oak-built brigan- west by the riveting Cape so utheast gale- rin es during WWII.And then they paid off ine Romance, we put into Cape like winds. Ir became appa rent that their ships and we nt on with their lives.

T he ships were now gone, some Town, South Africa, on our voyage wrecked, so me torpedoed, some imaro und the wo rld. T he skipper, pounded and left ro rot, a handful in Captain Arthur Kimberly, with a lifetim e of sailing as an officer in museums for us ro see and imagin e-if we can- these reminders merchant rankers and freighters as alive and thriving with the life of a well as sailing ships, had started his ship in full co mmission . And some deepwarer ca reer in the Swedish ending up in some obscure trade for four-masted bark Abraham Rydberg as an ordinary seaman. H e is one of a fin al few yea rs befo re giving our. a handful of seamen around today T har afte rnoo n and evening in the Romance the sense of excitement who have worked in cargo-carrying deepwarer sailing ships. In Cap e flickered and capered again among Town were a bit more of this handthe Cape Homers. They relived those moments with the yo ung and ful. eager crew of the wooden briganSo in rheyear ofourvisir ro Cape tine-much smaller, in some ways Town, 1977, Captain Kimberly and more old-fashioned, bur of the same his wife G loria, partners for years lineage as the ships they'd sa iled in . under sai l, decided ro find the vetGenerations of Cape Horners meet: back row, from left: AB T he gathering broke up Iare in eran sailing-ship sailo rs, drag them Jesse Kenworthy (Picto n Castle), Capt. Daniel Moreland aboard and into the salon of the (Picton Cas tle), Capt. Paul Staples {Lawhill and Co mmo- the night-a starlit night with the Romance, and celebrate old rimes. dore II), Doris Soderlund {Lawhill), Brian Donnelly (Picto n clouds spilling overrhe top of Tab le Many hadn 't sailed together, bur Cas tle), Tony Newton (Passat), Joe Brownless {Lawhill), Mountain, vanishing as they slid they all knew each other's ships. All Rebecca Sher (Picton Castle), Dutchy van Dijl {Lawhill); down the cliffs-vanishing like the the ships were 2,000- and 3,000- bottom row, from left: Dennis Stevenson (Picton Cas tl e), Age of Sail without a bang, just go ne to n steel square riggers-powerful , Vicki Sullivan (Picton Castle), Becky Kern (Picton Cas tl e), and over qui etly. So cabs picked up graceful, seaworthy, the last great Capt. Phil Nankin {Lawhill and Passat), J immy Fewster the Cape Homers one by one, and th is yo ung 22-year-old ma re slipped fl owering of sailing-ship naval ar- {Lawhill) (Photo: Bill Wellington) into hi s bunk, another day over. Bur chitecture-cathedrals of the sea.

Usually manned with boys (and som e girls), Capetonian Cape Homers didn 't come to a night ro remember. they sailed aro und Cape Horn . Repeat- parries on ships empty-handed . And so th e Picton Castle in Romance's Wake edly. Now these boys and girls were well excellent Cape Province wine came forth, and glasses fo und their way on deck and Twenty-two years later, the steel bark Picton grown and known as "Cape Horners."

They came ro the Romance-some onto the freshly varnished pin rails holding Castle is alongs ide the Cape Town piers sprightly, so me a bit wobbly. As they the nearly coiled runnin g gear for the under Table Mountain. Much has changed: Mandela is our of priso n and is pres ident of stepped over the turned taffrail of the squaresails.

As it grew darker and colder, we got ro South Africa; the Soviet Un io n turned Romance's poop onto her oiled pine decks, rhe years fell away. Grasping a coarse ma- know each other. We repaired below ro the insolvent. The brigantine Romance, sto utnila main brace and drawing in a heady salon of the Romance: low oak bea ms, ship hearted ship though she was, has joined the draught of Stockholm-tar-laden salt air for pictures and carvings from aro und the Lawhill and others and sails only in the the first rime in years was an elixir. You world. W e had a big pot of so mething for memo ries of those who served in her.

Bur some things never seem to change. co uld see backs straighten, eyes sparkle a dinner. And then the roasts and sea sto ries bit more, and a smile spread a little wider. began. Tales of gro undings, tales of being The rounding of the Cape of Good Hope T har late afternoon on Tabl e Bay they sat caught aback, tales of miles run in the in sail is still a challenging passage. The aro und rhe main skylight on deck under- Roaring Forties, stories of stowing ply- clouds spilling over Table Mountain (cal led neath the thick foremast with its nearly wood-stiff uppertops'ls off Cape Horn in "the tablecloth") are still harbingers of an squared yards and harbor-furled fl ax sails. th e winter. No gloves. Leave bits of yo ur imminent, stiff southeast gale such as the Introductions all aro und: "This is Nankin, fingers behind. Ships lost. Ships saved. Out- Picton Castle had on ap proaching Table Mare of the Lawhill." "You know Pamela rageo us stories of idiotic runs as hore on Bay. T he seals and penguins still frolic in from the Cecilie. Meer Gunter Shul tz from liberty in Rio de Janeiro, Hamburg, Ire- the waters here and Caprai n Phil Na nkin, the Padua." Ir went on like that for a while land,Ausrralia, Tahiti . Dodging minefields forme rly of the bark Lawhi!l, does n't look

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

31

Local vessels accompany the bark Pi cton Castle as she Leaves Cape Town, South Africa, in 1999. (Photo: Courtesy Picton Cas d e)

a minute older. As we were making up the las t hawsers to the pier and letting the tugs go, there he was looking as if he had just stepped off the poop deck of the Romance as he pil oted us out 22 yea rs ago. Bound fo r Rio we were. W hat a passage that was!

Thirty-s ix days, twenty-six under studding sails. I, on the other hand, do n't quite look as I did 22 yea rs ago. But, never mind.

T he Kimberlys (now of D etroit) sent us a fin e portfolio of ships and sto ries of our Cape H orn friends along with a hand-sewn banner of sailcloth naming all the ships represented by the Cape H om ers . It was a replica of one we had that night on the Romance all those years ago .

The banner was in effect a roll call of crew and tall ships that dated back almost a century and a quarter: Calbuco (l 885), D umfriesshire (l 890), Greif (l 892), Lawhill (1 892), Olivebank (1892), Abraham Rydberg (1 892), Falkirk (l 896), Grossherzogin Elisabeth (1901 ), H erzogin Cecilie (1902), Parma (1 902), Passat (1 911 ), Peking (1 9 11 ), Padua (1 926), Picton Castle (l 928), D anmark (1 932), and Romance (1936).

The Kimberlys had added rhe Danmark to rhe esteemed ships emblazoned there. I had had four years in the D anmark sin ce my Romance days. Bur no, at that point, I had not ro unded Cape Horn . But these ships were certainly all contemporaries at one rime and many D anmark crewwent o ff in the T hirties to be crew in the illustrious Finnish, German, English, South Afri can, Swedish, and D anish square riggers. In that time, they were mosdy Finnish out of the Aland Islands, members of the las t 32

great commercial fleet of square riggers.

T he Gustaf Erikson line, which sails to this day in motor vessels, tied up their last sailing ship as a museum after her las t cargo of wheat was unloaded in 1947. No arcane restoration-just ti ed her up , sent down sail , swept the holds and said , "You' re a museum now, old bucker. " The D anmark was run lirde different from the old grain ships, I was to find our, bur that's another story. T here was Phil Nankin , mare o n Lawhill and Passaton the dock. U nlimited Master Mariner, head of the South Africa Merchant Marine Academy for 20 years, raco nteur and rogue who plays to the galleries, and yes, old friend, too . N o, in fact, not a day had gone by except when we rallied up those who had pulled their moo rings fo r rhe las t rime. The missing hand I had known the bes t besides Phil Nan kin was Pamela Erickso n, doyenne of the fa mous and powerful fo ur-mas ted bark H erzogin Cecilie. Seafarer, story relier, yoga reacher, farmer, a wo man stunning in every sense of the wo rd, then in her late sixties, she had fini shed her days in her adopted country of Finland and I was n' t to see her again.

Bur, neverth eless, it was resolved to rarde all the cages, scrape all the barrels, spring all the jails, and have a Cape Homers parry in the salon down in the 'tween decks of the Picton Castle. After all , what is she, if nor a little steel Cape H orn er herself? Gust add water- the traversed waters of the Adantic, Caribbean, Pacifi c, and Indian O ceans to be specific.)

And so it we nt. So me came early and

stayed late. W e had a traditional Romance rum punch called a "marlinspike" on deck, a good look around rhe ship, and a feed in the main salo n. T hen the sea stories took over. O ne o r two old shell backs per tablesurroun ded by our yo unger bur nonetheless certi fied shellbacks- relling stories, as king questi ons, p ro mpting a littl e, so me graciously rerurned questions about our ship and o ur world voyage. Picton Castle crew Matth ew Johnso n got to meet contemporaries of his grandfather, Captain Irving Johnso n, who sailed in the Peking (now tied up at the South Street Seaport Museum in M anhattan). Doris Soderlund, who sailed in her fa ther's four-m as ted bark Lawhill fo r a dozen years, captured a table full of Picton Castle crew with her precise sto ries of h er years under sail: escaping the Russians in F inland; sailing through min e fields; long howling passages to Australia; racing round Cape Horn in the teeth of a hurri cane-s trength westerly; icebergs; injunctions to not associate (much) with the yo un g male crew of D ad's ship. In the end D oris captured all of us.

D urchy va n Dijl held others at the next table. An d Phil Nankin's suggestion that we cast off that very night for one more go was merwi th applause. T he rest were happy enough to h ave the interest of this, the next generati on of square-rig sailors.

And so the night went on. Eventually, one or two cabs showed up and veteran Romance hands from Cape Town, Carol Rhoem and David Becker, got our Cape H om ers as hore and safely home. When all was quiet, the anchor watch took a turn about deck and, looking up through the ya rds and rigging of our ship, could see the co ttony tablecloth of Table Mountain spilling over in the starlight promising a southeast gale by morning. ,!, Capt. Daniel Mo reland has 26years ofseafaring experience under sail. H e refi t the Picton Castle to sailing condition to take p aying crew around the world under sail. The bark will set out on her JSecond circumnavigation in N ovember 20010. For information, call 603 4240219, fax 603 424-1 849, e-mail D avid Robinson att wissco@juno.com, or check out the web site ' at www.picton-castle.com.

SEA HIISTORY 93 , SUMMER 2000

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Corefederate

Prize Crew Meets Its Match • in

WifCiam Tiffman

by Steven W. Jones ··l'f:J1:!'..i'H l'f,"t-lfr\Vf, -nJZ SJ!J.L!JJJZ!J sn:lY;HJlJ, s.1, • '°' J. \\\Ill'\(; ...,1,,.1, ""'" . <•rlnr··il h.• 11 .. /' l'i•'w"I llr1 J!;fT 110 IS I 11 T!Ll•A..

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ea man W illiam T illm an departed New Yo rk C iry o n a hot, windless July day in 186 1, bound fo r South Ameri ca aboard the merchant schoo ner S. j. Waring. Sevenry-rwo hours later, the ship was seized as a pri ze of the Con federacy. T illman stood to lose far more than any of his fell ow shipmates or the owners of the vessel, for he was black.

S

"Private-Armed Vessels on High Seas" In answer to Abrah am Lincoln 's declaration of wa r, Jefferso n D avis issued a proclamation on 17 April 186 1. Ir invited all those who may des ire, by service in pri vate-armed vessels on high seas, to aid this Government in resisting so wanto nly wicked an aggression, to make application fo r commissions or letters of marque and rep risal to be issued under the seal of these Co nfederate Stares.

T he impact of D avis's call fo r privateers was felt from coastal Maine to the midAd antic. By the fall of 186 1, no rthern sea merchants petitio ned Congress to provide greater naval protectio n fo r their vessels.

Black Men Under Sail Free men of color like W illiam T illman comprised roughly 15 to 20 percent of deepwarer seamen in the fi rs t half of the 19th century. In those years the maritime industry, however fa r from perfect, was more egalitarian and provided more op34

••II

P. T Barnum spromotional literature invited New Yorkers in to hear Tillman story. (New-York H istorical Society)

portunities fo r blacks than most onshore activities. Before the outb reak of the C ivil War, however, opportunities had become more restricted due to economic and political circu ms tances in the No rth and the So uth . Legislation in the South, beginning with the Negro Seamen Acts in So uth Carolina in 1822, res rricted the movements of free black mariners, requiring them to sit in prisons while their ships were in southern ports. T he number of men of color who ship ped in and our of southern ports fell because of the looming threat of detention and the possibili ry of being enslaved. D espite these hazards, men like T illman wo rked to earn a steady income to support themselves and their fa milies.

T illman was born in 1834 in Milford, Delaware, a tow n on the Mispillion River, running to D elaware Bay. It was a prosperous town of approximately 3,500 with a strong h eritage in building coastal merchant craft. The 185 0 state census records a sizable wo rking free black communi ry.

According to that census, an Afri can American named John T illman was a waterm an and head of household; however, it is not clear whether John was related ro W illiam .

By 1850, W illiam T illman had left D elaware with his parents, and the family eventually serried in Providence, Rhode Island.

A Hot Day in July W illiam Tillman 's employer, Jonas Smith, was a shipping merchant and chandler on

s

Front Srreet in lower M anhattan. Jonas Smith & Co. was a prosperous business whose 32 ships plied the northern and southern hemispheres. T illman served as the steward aboard the company's schooner S. j. Waring, a 372-ton vessel built in Brookhaven, Long Island, N ew York, in 1853.

T he position of steward was often held by blacks because it was a lowly job. While the seaborne trades offered more employment oppo rtunities to blacks than other industries, nor all positions in seafaring were open to them , and approximately 50 percent of the blacks at sea worked as stewards. Motiva ted less by high adventure and hopes fo r advancement than by finding the best wage, Afri can American seamen roo k the jobs that we re available.

T illman , at 27, probably sent most of his wages home to support a family, as did manyofhis contemporaries. Also like many of his fellow sailors, he did not live in the port he sailed from , and probably stayed in one of the more than a dozen boardinghouses for black seamen in lower Manhattan. T here we re nearly 2,5 00 black seamen in New York Ciry by 1855, and the vas t majori ry of them had fa milies who lived elsewhere. As the labor market for seamen grew more competitive, living close to the piers and on the ready increasingly proved essential to securing elusive employment opportun 1t1 ces.

In The j{f}urnaf of Commerce for 1 July 186 1, a Bro<0klyn man, Franklin Smith, is SEA HIST ORY 93 , SUMMER 2000

listed as the captain of the Waring; his crew of five included Tillman. On T hursday, 3 July, a hor and hazy, light-a ir day, rh e vessel set our for "Mo ntevideo and Buenos Ayres [sic] from pier 10." With little wind, the schooner, filled with assorted cargo, did not make ir our to sea unril rhe next day; the following days brought fog.

Sunday morning rhevisibiliry improved as the fog lifted and the breeze freshened.

The Warings noo n coord inates placed her at approximately 3 7°N. lari mde and 69°W. longimde or about 350 miles eas t of Newport News, Virginia, and 300 miles south of Nanrucker, Massachusetts. The watch on deck spotted an approaching vessel approximately a mile our.

The oncoming brig flew the French flag. H er guns were soon brought to bear on rhe cargo-laden vessel from New York, and a shot was fired across the Warings bow. A vo ice from rhe brig's deck demanded full cooperation, and the Northern crew watched as rhe French flag was lowered and another fl ag was hoisted, represen ring the Co nfederare Sta res ofAmerica.

The S. J Waring had met rhe J efferson Davis, a notori ously success ful early Civil War Confederate privateer.

The brig was 187 tons, carried a crew of approximately 35 and was outfitted with a pair of24-pound guns, a pair of32-pounders and a si ngle 18-po und gun . Built in the 1840s as a merchanrman and originally named Putnam, her checkered past included a period in the illegal slave trade.

This came to an end when she was captured in 1859, co ndem ned and so ld at auction.

During the summer of 1861 sh e sailed our of C harleston, South Carolina, and earned an impressive reputation for disrupting the flo w of trade in the Arlanric.

Louis Coxetter, the highly acco mplished captain of the Jefferson D avis, and one of her shareholders, rook off the Waring's Captain Franklin Smith and two others, replacin g them with his prize crew of five. Of the original men who had shipped our of New York, only T illman, William Stedding, Donald McLeod and passenge r Bryce MacKinnon remained aboard. Under the prize crew, the S. J Waring set sail for C harleston. She had a cargo valued at $50,052 and rhe vessel itself was appraised at $9,000; each investor would have received about $2,070 ($20,000 at 2000 rates) had the schooner reached her destination.

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

For most caprured sailors, a detour to an Admiralty Court for prize adjudication was an inconvenience and resulted in a period of detenrion, loss of wages for that voyage, and evenrual return to the United Stares. A black sailor like William Tillman could expect a much wo rse fate at the hands of rhe Co nfederacy.

Co nfederate pri vateerin g spaw n ed scuttlebutt among black seamen th at they ran rhe risk of being made slaves if abducted, especially once separated from their shipmates in a Southern port. In hindsight this happen ed infrequenrly and, in fact, in August 1861, the Negro Seamen Acts were revoked for blacks forced to enter South Carolina as crew on a Northern prize ship.

Bur no matter how rare it actually was for a black sailor to be taken into slave ry, it was a very real fear for seamen of color during th e early part of the Civil War.

Tillman Turns the Tide Some prize vessels were lucky enough to be discovered and recaptured by rhe USN avy.

U nbeknownst to rhe Davis, the Yankee schooner Enchantress, which the privateer had taken one day ea rli er, was such a vessel.

T he prize master aboard the Enchantress wo uld be frustrated, ironically, by Jaco b Ga rri ck, a black steward, later described as suave, composed and resource ful , who managed to inform the crew of USS Dolphin of his vessel's true idenri ry.

As steward under the prize crew from the Davis, Tillman 's shipboard duties remained the same. Covertly, in the next ten days he crafted a pl an to recapture the vessel and keep himself out of a Sou thern port. H e had plenty of opportunity to examine the habits of the privateers for, as a black steward, his presence was, by and large, inconsequential to th e prize crew,

The S. J. Wa ring left from this area of South Street on the East River in New York City in July 1861. Here the fast packet Dreadnought lies at Pier 9, at the foot ofWall Street, the bow ofa canal boat visible beside her at Pier 10. The variety ofshipping seen at the piers provided opportunities for African Americans, who often stayed in nearby roominghouses, leaving families elsewhere. (San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park)

35

allowing him to gather intelligence and co nceal his intentions and abilities.

On the night of 16 July at "half past eleven o'clock precisely," as recounted in Harper's Weekryon 3August 186 1, Tillman ass umed control of the Waring. T his took anywhere from five to seven minutes. After the prize crew retired for the evening, Tillman, armed with a hatchet, made certai n that three men wo uld never see C harleston again . "T he death-dealing strokes of William T illman that hurried them into a land ' from whose bourne no traveller returns"' were effective and quiet.

His first target was the prize captain sleeping in his adopted stateroom. T illman killed him in short order and went immediately to the "berth-room" where he killed the captain 's mate. C reeping up the companionway, he killed the second mate on watch on the poop-deck. Three of the five privateers were dead and it is reported that T illman alone disposed of the bodies, heaving them overboard. The steward spared the lives of the last two priva teers, who compli ed with Tillman's ultimatum ro assist him or be handled in like fashio n.

Harper's Weekry reported: The coast was now clear of danger, and the hero T illman proceeded to use the best means in his power ro ensure the safe navigation of his vessel in ro a Northern port. It was at this time, finding that the S. J Waring was too heavy for a short crew, that h e offered Dorse t and Moulineau their liberty if they would assist him in the working of the ship.

H e warned the So uthern hands: "If yo u cut up any didoes [mischievous acts], overboard yo u go; recollect that I am captain of this ship now. " Taking command of the ship required Tillman to secure his crew and reverse co urse. Untrained in navigation, he had to sail dangerously close ro the coastline. T he only way he knew how ro get back ro New York was via dead reckoning, which presented the risk of being sropped sin ce much of his five-day voyage wo uld take him off the coast of slave states: South Carolina; North Carolina; Virginia; Maryland; and his own native Delaware. In sailing the Waring back to New York and supervising the two remaining prize crew, seaman William Stedding and passenger Bryce Mac36

Kinnon assisted Ti llm an the most; the other Northerner, Donald McLeod, either had cold feet or sympa thi zed with the privateers and refu sed to aid in the schooner's recapture and return, although he did nothing to srop Tillman.

T he weather was fair, the waters calm and life on board uneventful. Just beyond the Narrows, on Sunday, 23 July, T illman was met and escorted into the port of New York by the pilot boat Jane.

off the coast of Sandy Hook, New Jersey.

Whether this discrepancy was an honest oversight or hype, it demonstrated the emotion of the time.

On land, "th e gallant steward- the splendid so n ofAfrica," as he was named by the Herald, embarked on a legal voyage, which wo uld rake more than a yea r to complete. T h e Southern District of New York on 6 February 1862 ordered Jonas Smith, owner of the S. J Waring, to pay $ 17,000 in salvage money to the "Negro and his assis tants. " After exhausting the appeals process on 25 March, six months later Jonas Smith finally agreed to pay the salvage fee. Tillman received $7,000 (the equivalent of approximately $70,000 today); Stedding, his principal assis tant, was awa rded $6,000 ; Bryce MacKinnon and Donald McLeod, for whom this was a windfall considering he abstained from assisting, split $4, 000 .

"The Splendid Son of Africa" Until the details surrou nding the appearance of the Waringweresortedout, Tillman was briefly detained pending investigation by a grand jury, accordi ng to the records of the US District Court for Southern New York.

Monday's New York Herald Tribune and New York Times spun William Tillman of Rhode Island into a parriotic black Yankee who struck a blow for the U nion. His * * * * * personal freedom and the financial reward Tillman vanishes from the public record as of bringing home the Waringwere consid- quickly as he appeared . His brief span of ered merely as ancillary motivating facrors . fame reveals an extraordinary, unsung event Not surprisingly, Southern newspapers like in our maritime history created by the the Charleston M ercury expressed a differ- actions of a resourceful 27-year-old who ent opinion ofTillman and his exploits: "A seized an opportunity to preserve his own cowardly black butcher of brave sleeping life and freedom in dangerous circummen" was one claim. Tillman's persona stances. Serendipirously, circumstance ofonce again seemed inconsequential; he was fe red Tillman the opportunity ro convert his popular fame inro a financial gain unnow a symbol.

As the talk of the town, T illman caught matched by any wage he could have colthe attention of Phineas Taylor Barnum, lected over a score of years at sea.

We know little of Tillman's life, or even whose famed Barnum Museum provided audiences with glimpses of real and pre- his perso nal thoughts and feelings about tended wo nders. Ever the entrepreneur, this little-known event. In contrast to the Barnum saw an opportunity ro capitalize image presented in the press, Tillman was on Tillman's marquee value. His stage an ordinary seaman with roots in rural presence, as a man of5' 11 " with hatchet in D elawa re. No netheless, his srory serves ro hand and an amazing srory, was compel- remind us that the reach of this nation's ling roan urban audience far from the Civil C ivil War was long and was not confined ro War battlefields.

Southern battlefields well remembered toBarnum could not have better timed day. William Tillman's srory is a small , ye t promoting Tillman 's tale of cunning, given valuable example of the many souls who the No rth's resounding defeat four weeks have co ntributed ro the brilliant tapestry of prior at the Barde of Bull Run. Tillman's our maritime heritage.

-i experience may have had a redeeming quality for a Northern audie nce. As one pores Steven Jones is a trustee of the National over th e microfiche co ntai ning the ew Maritime Historical Society and an MS canYork journals of the day, it is clear that didate in economics at the University ofDelaTillman 's arrival and his srory changed ware. He was> director of Project City Kids, New York's perception of the proximity of Inc., a progrcam which got New York City the war. Readers were told that the S. J students out scai/ing on j-24 sloops.

Waring/]ejferson Davis encounter took place ~-t -t -t

SEA HIS'TORY 93, SUMMER 2000

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Sun New York 4:45pm at sea On the northbound trip, join our trustees and President Peter Mon Bar Harbor 7am 5pm Stanford, who will speak on "The Cape Horn Road, 5,000 Years of Tue Wed Halifax 9am 6pm Maritime History," and give an annotated showing of the film "Ghosts T hu r at sea of Cape Horn ." We will also be scheduling cocktail parties, and other Fri Sag uenay Fj ord noon 6pm Sat Quebec 7am 6pm special events and excursions open only to members of our group.

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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS SPUN YARN A quarrer ofHulett iron ore unloaders on W hiskey Island in Cleveland, O hi o, which are on rhe Narional Regisrer of Historic Places, is scheduled to be demolished. The fo ur ren-sro ry-high, 880-ron Hulens were builr in 19 12 and wo rked conrinuously unril 1992, hel ping to make Cleveland rhe grearesr iro n-o re rerminus in rh e wo rld .

T he Cleveland-Cuyahoga Coun ry PorrAurhori ry has agreed to disassem ble and store one of rhe Hul errs for furu re use in an histori cal serring. T he Port has told rhe Hulen Preservarion Fund rhar a second could be saved if $25 0,000 can be raised.

(HPF, PO Box 606285, Cleveland OH 44 106) ... T he USS Silvers ides and Maritime M useum in M uskegon M I has acqui red rhe former USS LST-393 . T he Wo rld War II-era landing ship tank was converted to a ca r carrier by the W isco nsin and Michigan Steamshi p Co. and put in service between M uskego n and M ilwaukee unril its retirement in 1973. Ir will rake up to two years of resto ration and berrh prepara tion befo re the decorated vessel is open fo r public to urs. (USSSMM, PO Box 1692, 1346 Bl uff, M uskegon M I 4944 1; 6 16 755- 1230) . . . T he American Sail Training Association's Tall Ships Challenge is a program of races and rallies planned to take place over the next three years, beginning in rheG rea t Lakes in 2001 , moving to the Pacific Coasr in 2002, and then to the Adanric Coas t in 2003. (ASTA, PO Box 1459, Newport RI 02840; 401 846- 1775; h rrp ://rallships.sailuaining.o rg) ... Maritime arti fact collector D r. C harl es E. Burden is writing a mo nograph abou t " personal containers" -maritime chests, boxes and bags of all sorts. H e is inrerested in such arti fac rs owned privately, parti cularl y those with good documentation, as well as acco unts of seafarers obraining or using these conrainers, and historic photographs. (Maine M aritime M useum, 243 W ashington St. , Bath ME 04530; email: M aritime@BathMaine.co m) ... The Van der G raaf yard in T he Nerherlands launched the racing schooner Eleonora on 3 1 M arch 2000, 90 years to the day afrer the launch of her predecesso r, rhe legendary H erreshoff schooner Westward whose plans were used in her consrruction (see Sea H istory 91 , p. 39). T he Royal Yachr Squadron has launched a bid fo r rhe Adanric C hallenge C up and has chartered Eleonora

38

Amistad Hits the Water To grear acclaim , the freedo m schooner Amistad was launched ar M ys ri c Seapo rr in Co nnecricur on Saturday, 25 March 2000 , and chrisrened wirh warer from Sierra Leo ne, C uba and Long Island .

T housands gathered at the museum to welcome rhe new vessel and honor the memory of the capti ves from Sierra Leo ne who rook over the original Amistad, whi ch was raking chem in to slavery in 1839. Their recaprure and rrial brought white and black Americans rogerher and garnered suppo rt fo r rhe abolirion movement.

T he fund char was begun to assist rhe Africans in America and hel p rhem gee home afrer rhe successful completion of the trial was instruTop: Amistad is Lowmenral in the fo unding of th e ered into the Mystic American Missionary Associarion River. Above: Samuel and rhe esrablishmenr ofblackcolPieh, a descendant of leges. T he new Amistad sails with the Leader of the Amirhe mission of teaching such fo rs tad Africans, Sengbe. gorren sto ries and improving relaRight: Shirley Yema Gbujama, minister of social rions among rhe races. welfare, gender and children affairs in Sierra T he building of rhe Amistad Leone (foreground), and actress Ruby D ee christen began as the dream of Warren Amistad with water from Cuba, Long Island, and Sierra Leone. (Photos: Mystic Seaport) M arr, II, fo rm er editor of th e NAACP journal Crisis (and currently an NM H S T rustee), who chartered the schooner W estern Union and sailed her in OpSail '76 to represenr theAmistad, drawing attention to an importanr piece of American histo ry that had been buried in rhe record. G radually, his pl an picked up new advocates, until in 1994 the State of Connecticur committed major funding and Mys ti c Seaport gave the project a home.

T he launch is only rhe beginning. Afrer three more months of work Captain Bill Pinckney expects to take her on her firsr voyage on 2 July, to head for New York H arbor fo r OpSail 2000 on the Fourrh of] uly. Afrer rhat, she will begin sailing Ameri ca's coas ts, stopping to rell the sto ry of rhe Amistad Africans and to build co nnecrions among races and communi ries. (Amistad America, Inc., c/o Mys tic Seaport, 58 G reenmanville Ave. , PO Box 6000 , Mysric CT 06355; web site: www.amisradamerica.o rg)

s

for that evenr in 2002. (M artin Romein, Clot de Mingo t 10, N -4, 03590 Altea (Alicante), Spain, 316 5198 78 03, e-mail: romein@cv.es; we b site: www.eleonora .dps l. com) ... T he Schoo ner H arvey Gam age Fo undation, which runs school terms at sea fo r high school and co llege srudenrs, as well as summer Seafaring Camp programs, has announced a name change to the Ocean Classroom Foundation.

T hey are expected to close on rhe purchase (Continued on page 40)

The Eleo nora is Launched in The Netherlands. (Courtesy M artin Romein)

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

The American Neptune

AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE MUSEUM NEWS On Wednesday, 23 February 2000, a retirement party was held for Frank Braynard. For 20 years, internationally known maritime historian, author, artist, and lecturer Frank Braynard was curato r and "propeller" of the American M erchant Marine Museum.

Born and raised in the coas tal village of Sea C liff, Long Island, New York, Braynard made his first sketches of ships at age seven. A self-taught artist, he has since published four sketchbooks and has written more than 30 books on ocean liners. Frank has given hundreds of shipboard lectures on ocean liners of yes terday and today. Sti ll active on the lecture circuit, Frank and his wife Doris have traveled the world extensively by ship.

His interest in promoting America's maritime heritage led Braynard to create and direct the first OpSail in 1964 and to follow that up with OpSail '76 and OpSail '86.

Braynard was a founder of South Street Seaport Museum in Manhattan and, in 1982, established the National Maritime Hall of Fame at the American M erchant Marine Museum. Each ~~ year, the Hall of Fame honors distinguished mariners and ships. ~ Braynard never runs out of energy, enthusiasm and ideas for ~ promoting public awareness and interest in the role that ships ~ played in the development of America. In 1999, the Museum \i'. established the Frank 0. Braynard Award, given to a graduating 6 midshipman who has demonstrated "excellence in writing Frank Braynard about maritime hisro ry."

Enjoy the leading scholarly journal of maritime history and arts in the US . The American Neptune, a quarterly publ icati on of the Peabody Essex Museum, is a great read fo r co ll ectors, model makers , and all who love ships and the sea.

We offer Sea History readers an opportunity to subscribe to The American Neptune fo r $33, a $6 savi ngs over our regular subscription rate ($36 for non-US resi dents . Institutions: call fo r rates). To start your subscription, send a check or money order to:

The American Nep tune Peabody Essex Museum East India Square Salem, MA 01970 (508) 745-1876 You may charge your subscription by fax at (508) 744-6776, or e-mail dori_phillips@ pem .org. We accept VISA, MasterCard and American Express.

This year one more honor will be besrowed upon this remarkable man. At the 19 June Co mmencement, Frank will receive an Honorary Doctorate from the US Merchant Marine Academy. T his is a firring tribute, ind eed, for a man who has dedicated his entire li fe ro promotingAmerica's maritime industry and its rich hi srory through his writing and his arr.

-G INGER MARSHALL MARTUS

Vis it our website at www.pem.org/neptune

(American Merchant Marine Museum, USMMA, Kings Point NY 11024; 516 773-5515)

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Old & Rare

Maritime Books Bought and Sold

• Exploration and voyages by sea • Shipbuilding, seamanship and navigation • Naval hisro ry • Whaling • Yachting and Cruising • Comme rcial fi sheries • Lighthouses, pirates and shipwrecks • Logbooks, documents and manuscripts • Sea charts • Books relaring ro marine art, amiques and ship models

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

We are eager to purchase single volumes or entire collections in these subject areas.

It's 50¢ to initiate a call , then 7.5 ¢ per minute in the continental US and Canada. Instructions for international call s are on the back of the card at great rates, example: 14¢ for Ireland, 9¢ for Germany. The card makes a great gift for kids go in g away to school or anyone goi ng on vacation. Send $10 each (no tax) to:

76 Langsford Street, Gloucester, MA 01930 (978) 283-5299 e-mail: tenpound@shore.net web: www.te npound. com Catalog available on request.

NMHS , 5 John Walsh Blvd., PO Box 68 , Peekskill NY 10566. Or order by phone at 800-221-NMHS (6647) SEA HISTORY 93 , SUMMER 2000

Ten Pound Island Book Co.

SINCE 1976

39

SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Celebrating 175 Years of Navigation on the Erie Canal

(Continued from page 38) of rhe schooner Spirit of Massachusetts ar the end of Jun e. (O CF, PO Box 446, Cornwall NY 12518; 914 534-388 1; web sire: www.sailgamage.o rg) ... The N orth Carolina Maritime M useum on Roanoke Island has srarted consrrucrion of a shad boar with a $25,000 granr from rhe Percy W. and Elizaberh G. Meekins C harirable Trusr. The vessel wi ll be laun ched in spring 2001. (NCMM, 3 15 Fronr Sr. , Beauforr NC 285 16-2 125; 252 728-7317) ... On 16 September 2000 , rhe town of Pictou, Nova Scotia, w ill launch a reconstruction o f th e Hector, the ship rhat broughr rhe firsr Scortish settlers to Nova Scoria in 1773 . The ren-year projecr has helped to shape rhe communi ry's warerfrom developmenr as well as irs vision of irs herirage.

(P icro u Recrearion, T ourism & C ulrnre, PO Box 479, Picrou NS, Ca nada BOK lHO ; 1-877-5- PI CTOU; we b sir e: www. picro u.nsis.co m) ... T he New York Yacht Club's firs t clubho use, now 155 years old, arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, in D ecember afrer a 39- mile barge trip from Mysric Seaporr. The Gorh icrevival building was originally locared on the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey, and has been on loan to Mysric since 1949. (NYYC, 37 W. 44 rh Sr., New York NY 11036) ... Elizabeth II, a represenrarion of rhe vessels rhar rransporred Sir Walrer Ralegh'scolonisrs to the New World in 1584-87, returned in April to Roanoke Island Park in top condition after a winter-long res toration . T h e ship 's builder, 0. Lie-Nielsen, was contracted to perform rhe wo rk. Significanr deteriorarion in rhe srem of rhe vessel led to rhe removal of rhe beakhead, longhead, stem, forward planking and gammon knees.

Recaulking, cleaning and an engine overhaul we re in cluded in the wo rk. (Friends of Elizaberh II, One Festival Park, Manteo NC 27954; 252 475- 1500) .. . Online credir and noncredir courses on light-

In commemo rarion of the opening of rhe Eri e Canal in 1825, rhe New York Srare Canal System and its necklace of canal communities are celebrarin g 175 years of navigation on rhe canal rhis yea r. T he warerway, whi ch bega n to rake shape when Governo r D eWin C linton persuaded the state legislature to aurhorize $7 mill ion fo r irs co nstrucrion, rook seven yea rs to bui ld, cur rhrough 363 miles of wilderness and swam ps, and featured 18 aqueducrs and 83 locks wirh a rise of568 feer from rhe Hudson Ri ver to Lake Erie.

On 26 October 1825, Governor C linton boarded rhe packer boat Seneca Chiefand made his way from Buffalo to Albany ro announce the opening of the canal. Fro m rhere he proceeded on to New York Ciry on rhe broad warers of rhe Governor Clinton pours water from Hudson River and empri ed rwo casks of warer Lake Erie into New York harbor, symfrom Lake Eri e inro rhe Atlanric seaport of New bolically "wedding the waters" in 1825.

York, celebraring rhe "Marriage of rhe Warers. " As a resulr of rhis mingling of wa rers, new towns and cities were carved into the landscape of upstate New York along the new canal, and New York Ciry, whose seaborne trade provided the immense cap ital resources needed to co nstruct rhe canal, rapidly expanded , building on irs already formidable lead as rh e largest seapo rr of rhe Americas. The explosion of rrade prophesied by Clinton began, spurred by grai n freighr rares from Buffalo to New Yorkof$10 per to n, compared wi rh $ 100 per ton by road. In 1829, rhere were 3,640 bushels of whear transported down rhe canal. By 1837 rhis figure had increased to 500,000 bushels; fo ur years larer ir reached on e milli on. In nine yea rs, canal rolls more rhan recouped rhe emire cosr of construcrion.

Four waterways (the Erie, Cayuga-Seneca, Oswego and C hampl ai n Canals) evenrually cur paths through New York, gliding past fertile farmland, famous banlefields , scenic port towns and thriving wildlife preserves . The The canal town ofFairport, New York, currenr 524-mile NYS Canal System co nnecrs provides a haven far pleasure boats with hundreds of miles oflakes and rivers across amidst modern and historic tourist sites. the Empire Srate, linking the Grear Lakes wirh (Courtesy NYS Canal Corp) rhe Hudson River and rhe inland warerways of rhe Easr Coasr.

This year visitors can enjoy rhe usual pleasures of travel along the canals-historic sires, new recreation areas, rural and urban venues, and fesrivals-supplemenred by a variety of celebrarions to bring arrenrion to rhis commemorarive year. (l-800 -4CANAL-4; we b sire: hnp: // www.canals.srare.ny. us)

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houses are being offered by mari rime historian and aurhor Frederick Stonehouse, adjunct faculryat Northern Michigan Universiry. (web sire: www.learninglighrhouses .com; e-mail: Srone@bresnanlink.ner; 906 226-601 4) .. . The National Maritime M useum in London has launched a webonly publication, available on a subscription basis . The journal far Maritime Research is described as rhe first electronic journal in the field of maririme research,

The New York Yacht Clubs first clubhouse departed Mystic on 18 December 1999.

(Photo courtesy New York Yacht Club) 40

covering polirical, economic, cultural and social aspects of maritime history. Subscriprion rates are: Insrirurional: ÂŁ95/$ 165; Individual: ÂŁ20/$35; Srudenr: fl 0/$ 17.5 0.

(NMM, Greenwich, London SElO 9NF, Great Brirain; 181 858 4422; www.jmr .nmm .ac. uk)

For additional information about these stories and others, subscribe to the 8-page, bi-monthly Sea His w ry Gaze rte: $18. 75 far members of NMHS, $28.75 far non-members (plus $10 shipping tto addresses outside the US). Caff us at 1 800 2221-NMHS (6647) or send a check to NMHS5, PO Box 68, PeekskiLL NY 10566 SEA IHISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

.

CALENDAR Festivals, Events, Lectures, Etc.

Exhibits

• 18th Annual Boston Antique & Classic Boat Festival: 2-3 September 2000 (16 Presto n Road, Somerville MA 02143; 617 666-853 0) • Connecticut River Museum: 5-6 Augusc 2000, "Sceam and Launch Show" of ancique sceam engines and steam-powe red vessels (Sceamboac Dock, 67 Main Sc., Essex CT 06426; 860 767-8269) • Door County Maritime Museum: 5-6 August 2000, 10th Ann ual C lassic Wooden Boar Show (120 N. Madiso n Ave., Sturgeon Bay WI 54235; 920 743-5958; web sire: www.dcmm.org) • Maritime Traditions Festival: 25 Augusc24 September 2000, in Iles de la Madeleine, Q uebec (Iles de la Madeleine Tourism Associacion, CP 028, Cap-aux-Meules, Q uebec, GOB lBO, Canada; 418 986-6660; web sire: www.ilesdelamadeleine.com) • Mystic Seaport: 22-23 Ju ly 2000, Ancique and Classic Boar Rendezvous; 28-30 July 2000, "]" Chal lenge C up Model Yachc Regana; 19-20 August 2000, Amique Marine Engi ne Exposicion (75 Greenmanville Ave., PO Box 6000, Mystic CT 06355; 888 9SEAPO RT; web site: www. mys cicseaport.org) •Sail Martha's Vineyard: 16 September 2000, The Vineyard Schooner and Gaff Rigger Race (PO Box 1998, Vineyard Haven MA 02568; 508 696-7644; e-ma il: sa ilmv @vineyard. nee) •San Diego Maritime Museum: 16 July 2000, Sea Chancey Festival (1306 N. Harbo r Dr. , San Diego CA 92 101 ; 6 19 234-9 153; web sire : www.s d ma ri cime.com; e-mail : info@sdmaricime.com) • San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park: 9-1 0 September 2000, Festival of che Sea (Fore Maso n, Bu ilding 20 I , San Francisco CA 94123; 415 561-6662; web sire: www .n ps.gov/safr; e-mail : sfnm m a @aol.co m) •Tuckerton Seaport: 22 Jul y 2000, C lass ic Boar Fesciva l (120 Wesc Main Srreec , T uckercon NJ 08087; 609 296-8868) • Victoria Real Estate Board & Times Colonist Classic Boat Festival: 1-3 Sepcember 2000 (3035 Nanaimo Screec, Victoria BC, V8T 4W2, Canada; 25 0 385-7766)

•The Brick Store Museum: 3 J une-22 December 2000, "Shaped by che Sea: The Kennebunks, 1640-1860" (117 Ma in Sc., Kennebunk ME 04043; 207 985-4802; e- mail: brickstore@cybertours.com) • Door County Maritime Museum: from 29 Apri l 2000, "A Job Wel l Done: Sturgeo n Bay Shipya rd s D uring Wo rl d War II "; 16 September-26 November, "Fish for All : T he Legacy of Lake M ichi ga n Fisheri es Policy and Manage menc" (120 N. Madison Ave., Sturgeon Bay WI 54235; 920 743-5958; web sire: www.dcmm.org) • Hampton Roads Naval Museum: fro m J une 2000, "The Bartle of che Adancic" (O ne Wace rside D r. , See. 248, Norfo lk VA 235 101607; 757 322-2993; web sire: www.hrnm .navy.m il) • Lake Champlain Maritime Museum: from July 2000, "Lady Sherb rooke and che Dawn of Sceam Navigacion" (4472 Basin Harbor Road, Ve rgen nes VT 0549 1; 802 475-2022; web sire: www.lcmm.org) •The Mariners' Museum: "Wacers of Despair, Wacers of Hope: African-Americans and che Chesapeake Bay" (1 00 Museum D ri ve, Newporc News VA 23606-3759; 757 5962222; web sire: www.mariner.org) • Michigan State University Museum: 11 Ju ne-27 Augusc 2000, "Fish for Al l: T he Legacy of Lake M ichigan Fisheries Policy and Management" (West Circle D r., Ease Lansing M I 48824; 517 355-2370) •National Maritime Museum: 14 September 2000-Sepc. 200 1, "Souch: T he Race to che Pole- T he Wo rld's Firsc Majo r Exhib ition on Scon, Shackleton & Amundsen " (Gree nwich, Lo ndon SE l O 9NF Englan d; 20 8858 4422; web sire: www.nmm.ac. uk) • Osher Map Library: 4April 2000-1 l Jan uary 2001, "Charri ng Neptune's Realm: From C lass ical Mythology to Sacelli ce Image ry" (U nivers ity of Southern Maine, G lickman Fami ly Library, 314 Farese Ave., Pordand ME 04 104; 207 780-4850; web sire: www. usm.main e.edu /maps) •Peabody Essex Museum: 23 Ju ne-10 Septembe r 2000, "T he Endura nce: Shackleton's Legendary Amarccic Expedicion" (Ease India Squ are, Salem MA 0 1970; 978 745-95 00; web sire: www.pem .org) • San Diego Maritime Museum: fro m 13 Apri l 2000, "Submarines: A Cencury ofS ilenr Service"; 1 J uly 2000-July 2001 , "P iraces 1 Fanrasy & Real icy" (1306 N. H arbo r Dr. , San D iego CA 92 101; 6 19 234-9 153; web sire: www.sdmaricime.com) • WisconsinMaritimeMuseum: from 8April 2000 , "P igboars and Plungers: 100 Yea rs of Submari nes in che US Navy" (75 Ma ri time Dr., Manirowoc WI 54220; 414 684-02 18)

Conferences • " Race, Ethnicity and Power in Maritime America, 2000-Maritime Communities of the Atlantic World and th e Pacific Rim: A Multidisciplinary Discussion" : 14-17 Sepcember 2000, in Myscic CT (Glenn S. Go rd inier, Myscic Sea pore, 75 Green m anville Ave., PO Box 6000, Mystic CT 06355-0990; e-mai l: Glenn@mysc icseaporc.org; web sire: www.myscicseaporc.org)

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

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the recently di scovered recollections of th e Whaleship Essex, by Nathaniel Thomas Nickerson , the young whaleman Philbrick (Viking, New York NY, 2000, who survived the ordeal. This acco unt cor287pp, notes, biblio, !SB 0-670-89 157- roborates the previously published narra6; $24.95 hc) tive of mate Owen Chase. Each narrative is The loss of the Nantucket whaleship used to substantiate the horror of the tale.

Essex in 1820 has been justifiably linked Philbrick's book will certainly endure as with the dramatic conclusion ofMo by D ick. one of the most readable and compelling Two decades after the event, Herman about the loss of the Essex.

Melville read an account about the Essex RENNY A. STACKPOLE written by survivor Owen Chase. M elville Director, Penobscot Marine Museum was serving as a foremast hand on the New Searsport, Maine Bedford whaleshi p Acushnet near the eq uator, where the disaster had taken place. Legacy of Leadership: Lessons from AdMelville wrote that reading the story so m iral Lord Nelson, by Joseph F. C allo close to the latitude of the shipwreck "had (Hell gate Press, Central Point OR, 1999, a surprisi ng effect on me. " 136pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 1For years, Nantucker residents avoided 55571-510-9; $ 17.95) Admiral Callo sails in Nelson 's wake to mention of the Essex, especially during the palmy days of its whaling prosperiry. In identi fy " the elusive qualities ofleadership modern times, maritime historians, writers that manifes t th emselves in co mbat, " as of fi ction and poets have all endeavored to Admiral Metcalfe observes in a perceptive sou nd the depths of this saga about a sperm forward to this incisive study. Elusive as whale deliberately attacking a seemingly those qualities may be, one of their vital stout 87-foot, three-masted ship in the ingredients is the abiliry to take a lot of midst of the vast Pacific Ocean. How the punishment while still functioning at the shipmaster and his officers arrived at their top, or n ear the top, of one's form. eventual course fo r possible rescue is a part Nelson possessed that transcendent of the saga, yet at the center of the story is qualiry in abundance, as Callo makes clea r the enorm o us suffering of her crew: in tracki ng his decision-making through whalemen, facing the longest open-boat fair weather and foul. Without that rugged voyage ever reco rded during the peak years undergirding of a slight body and delicate of American whaling in the So uth Seas. mind, in fact, we might never have heard of Nathaniel Philbrick, directoro f the Egan Nelson, arguably the most famous admiral Institute of Maritime Studies on Nan- of all history. Somethin g pulled him tucket, has written a masterful vo lum e that through the dep ression rhat assail ed him treats the myths and realities of the Essex after his serious wounding and defeat at tragedy wi th great skill and erudition. As a Santa C ruz, which left him crippled and, as research scholar at the Nantucket Histori- he despairingly observed , "useless to his cal Associarion, Philbrick has used existing country." When N elso n wrote these words primary sources of the Historical Associa- he had still before him the battles in which, tion, the scholarship of key Nantucket in Calla 's memorable phrase, he was "to historians, and his own extensive under- change history from the decks ofhis ships. " Those who have followed the author's standing of earl y Nantucket history. I n the H eart of the Sea is also strengthened by articl es in Sea H istory will find this book extensive end notes. O verall, the book is a rewarding reading, for in pull ing together splendid compendium of Nantucket folk- his detailed studi es of Nelson's career he ways, sea language that came as hore (and has given us a whole, rounded picture of became peculiar to the locals), Quaker the man-including his relationship with influences, the craft and business of whal- Lady Hamilton, which Callo wisely treats ing, cetology, navigation , and the over- as an integral part of the hero's story, rather arching story of the officers and crew of the than an inconvenient add-on .

Essex. As with most classic stories, it is Nelson the man thought and acted pasalmost impossible to put aside. From chap- sionately. H e was passionate in his feelings ter to chapter, the book is as seamless as the for British freedom and his contempt for ocean itself.

Napoleo n 's dictatorship , in his concern for At its center is the author's ca reful use of the long-suffering British seamen, his exSEA\ HJSTOR Y 93, SUMMER 2000

pressed desire that "humani ty after victory" characterize the British fleet and his devoti on to the officers serving with him, the justly fa mous "Band of Brothers ." And above all in his ability to summo n fo rth the ve ry best that the people serving u nd er him had to give.

To emphasize the present-day value of Nelso n's lessons, Callo adds an epilogue in wh ich he summ ons a revived N elso n to be interviewed by a newscaster of today. In answer to a feckless question abou t technology perhaps changing the req ui re ments of leadership today, the revived Nelson responds simply: "Neve r in life, m adam."

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N athaniel's N utmeg, by G iles Mi lto n (Farrar, Straus and G iroux, New York N Y, 1999, 388pp, ill us, biblio, index, ISBN 0 374-2 1 93 6-2;$24h~

T he Spice Islands in Indon esia have been th e obj ect of desire fo r m any Europea n countries. H olland, England, and from time to time other countries des perately wanted ownership-o r control-of them. Central to the co nt roversy was the island of Run, and to a lesser degree, Banda.

T he reason for the desire? N utmeg-the kin g of spices. A clever captain co uld sail to Run, buy the harves t, and return to his home port showing a whoppi ng 3200% profit! T he English people of the 16 th and 17th centuries covered it as a cure fo r everything from the plague to flatul ence and the common cold. Men risked their lives fo r it repeatedly, and merch ants often risked their entire fortunes to claim a share of the crop .Unfo rt unately, even in the East Indi es where a va riety of spices grew like weeds, the elusive nutmeg trees o nly grew on a tiny cluster of islands that we re so insignifi cant that th ey often weren 't even on the charts.

T h is well-researched tale covers in splendid derail the chase fo r the spice and the deals that were made between kings to acquire it.Unimaginable hardship and huge losses of vessels, men and cargoes was the price paid by most. T he ride ch aracter, Nathan iel Courrhope, demonstrated daring, co urage, and tenacity while h e and a small group of adve nture rs, poorly ar med , p rovisioned, and staffed, held off the might of the D utch navy. T he sto ry derails how one of the deals made included the island of M anh attan, then Durch, and helped lay SE A HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

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the fo undation of the British emp ire. It is incredible in this day and age to read of the travail to whi ch men will submit fo r something we take for granted. T he spi ce is incidental to the tale; the real story lies in the self dealings, do uble crosses, and chicanery not just men, but nati ons, parricipated in . And the principal player in the drama barely made the margins of history.

W ell written, except for a few places where the detail becomes so mewhat tedious, and illus trated with contemporary images, this volume is a treat for anyone interested in the peri od and has the added benefit of being a good sea sto ry.

W I LLIAM H . WHITE Rumson, New Jersey Ahab's Trade: The Saga of South Seas Whaling, by Granville Allen M awe r (S t.

M artin's Press, New York NY, 1999, 393pp, biblio, ISBN 0-3 12-228 09-0; $29.95hc) Australi an maritime historian Allen Mawer has produced in Ahab's Trade not only a highly readable whal ing primer but a reminder of just why men once went to sea risking life and limb fo r leviathan blubber and bone. He recalls a time before, during and after the 1820- 1850 boom when whale oil was liquid gold, illuminating growing communities and lubricating indusuial machinery. Finally, in a brief epilogue, he brings the reader up to date regarding the state of the srocks and the geopolitics surroundi ng them.

Mawer foc uses here on the So uth Seas sperm whalers, what he calls the "Brahmi ns" of the whaling hierarchy "who broke whaling out of the ice of the orth Atlantic and led it south to become the firs t tr uly global indus try. " H e goes on to trace the rise and fall of that enterprise. In doi ng so, he reco unts the stories of seago ing New Englanders and a British fam ily named Enderby. H e describes the economics of whale oil and bone, related international intrigue, and the influences of wo rld history on whaling and vice versa. In the grand sweep of history, Mawer doesn' t fo rget the polyglot of national ities and races sailing before the mast. T he men in the fo'c's le are examined for motives and abi lity to cope with each other alo ng with crude living conditions, long cruises, an often-brutal ship 's management and a hazardous occupati on . H ere, too, are recountings of the hunt, the mutiny aboard

the Globe and the sinki ng of the Essex.

Historical foo tn otes beco me fascinating sidebars o n such to pics as the secret to maki ng sperm whale candles, origins and uses of ambergris, and recipes for discarded sperm whale body parrs . T he story is moved alo ng with m aps, line drawings and color plates.

PETER SORENSE Mys tic, Connecticut Tempest, Fire and Foe: D estroyer Escorts in W orld War II and the M en Who Manned T hem , by Lewis M . Andrews, Jr. (Narwhal Press, Charleston SC and Miami FL, 1999, 463pp, illus, appen, index, biblio, ISBN 1-886391 -3 0-0; $49.9 5hc; ISBN 188639 1-3 1-9; $29.95 pb) T his book derails the individual histories of a class of563 warships designed and built under the clouds of W orld W ar II from 1939 to 1943 . The basic design was for a smaller rype of destroyer, intended to relieve destroyers of convoy dury, allowing them to re turn to fleet activity. T he vessels were highly m aneuverable and principally armed fo r anti-submarine warfare. T his is really a history, in great detail, of the war of the small ships in WWII. T he use of many personal references makes this most fascinating to D E sailors of the past.

T he appendices list each vessel by class accompanied by a brief history and description of the power plant and armament, citations awarded to units, and the organization of Escorr Divisions. T he final appendix contains rhe names of more than 250 D E sailors who contrib uted material to the book. T he story of the famous D E England (DE-635) sinking six Japanese submarines in two weeks is among many notable events documented.

T his book, a history oflitde sh ips in the big war, is very well written and will provide many hours of reminiscin g to those who served on the destroyer escorts.

D AVI D E. PERKlNS Sebring, Florida A Unit of W ater, A Unit of T ime: Joel White's Last Boat, by Douglas W hynott (D oubleday, New Yo rk NY, 1999, 303pp, biblio, ISBN 0-38 5-488 12-2; $23.95hc) E. B. W hite's son, Joel, like his fa mous fa ther, was a n artist; only he chose wood and bro nze as the medi um in which to work his artis try. H e wrote some as well, as

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

might be expected, but his real passion and skill were in the des ign and co nstruction of wooden boats. The boats designed by Joel and buil t by Brookli n Boatya rd in Maine we re and are, by anyone's standards, glorious to behold and timeless in their craft ing.

His las t, the 76' W class, is a magnificent offshoot of the New York 50s built with modern materials, but mos tl y wood, and designed to be raced with her sisters in a one-design class. Indeed, she is essentially a day sailer. But there is more, much more, to this story than the birth of a new class of racing boat.

For those of us who grew up on or near the wa ter in the days of hand-crafted wooden boats, this sto ry is a treat; fo r those un fo rtunate so uls who d id not, the book will open a wo rld not well know n, but fi lled with real people whom you will get to know and like. It is a leisurely stroll through a D owneast wooden boat yard wh ere not only is the pace a little di ffe rent, but so is the philosophy. It is especially rewarding to meet people who feel "there's value in the hand-wrought piece .... It requires someone who ca res. " W!LLlAM H . WHITE

A Press of Canvas: Vol. I in the W ar of 1812 Trilogy, by William H. White (Tiller Publishing, St. M ichaels MD, 2000 , 2 56pp, illus, !SB 1-888-67 1-11 -4; $14.95 pb) Make way fo r a sailor! W elcom e aboard the young N ew E ngland seaman Jsaac G riggs, a clear-eyed, athletic topman with an eye for a taunt ship , a pre tty wo m an, or any chance fo r honest adva ncement, and a healthy scorn for the dirry tricks and vil lainous mares one meets even aboard a spruce W est Indies trader in the early days of the American Republic. In t his fas tpaced narrati ve the idealistic and peaceloving Griggs is impressed aboard a British fri gate, distinguishes h imself in th at ship 's company unti l he is retaken from one of the frigate's prizes. H e rejoins the American flag to go a- privateering, and by this time he's as ready for a fight as a fro lic.

Plen ry of both co me his way.

T he author, an active sailor and veteran of naval service, is a trustee of the N MHS. H e came to know us th ro ugh beco ming a virtual part-time resident of the N MHS library in Peekskill in the course o f w riting this book. His spirited Isaac G riggs is just one of the notable (and sometimes ig-

SEA HISTORY 93 , SUMMER 2000

noble) characters th e author brings to li fe in these pages, whose allure has the rare gift of putting you righ t on the slanting decks or aloft in the swaying to ps of the ships his p ro tagon ists sail.

An excellent historical introduction by John B. Hattendo rf, Professo r of H istory at the Naval W ar C ollege, gives a picture of the scene within which G ri ggs pursues his adventures, and vignettes by the marine artist Paul G arnett enliven the text. PS Railroad Ferries of the Hudson and Stories of a Deckhand, by Raymond J. Baxter and Arthur G . Adams (Fordham University Press, Bronx NY, 1999, 272pp , ISBN 08232- 1953-4; $34hc; ISBN 0-8232- 19542; $ 19. 95pb) T he ferries that crossed the Hudso n River are described in considerable derail in this book; it also includes a series of recollections of one of the authors who served as a deckhand. T he two secti ons don't flow readi ly in to one integrated wo rk, but the book is mostl y a matter of getting the facts and experiences down fo r the record, and it is good grist fo r the inquisitive mind.

Several new chapters were added to this new editi on to brin g the story up to date.

Among other things, the book is a co mmentary on the social and technological changes that have occurred . It is clearly nostalgic, and that has influenced the authors' choice of much of the material, some of wh ich may be of lesser interest to the ave rage nauti cal reader.

On the other hand, from a research point of view, the authors have do ne their homewo rk. T he book is chock fu ll of factual information and it is illustrated with a fine collection of photographs. It is clearly indexed and sources are cited . Readers with specialized interest in ferryboats or the New York-New Jerseywaterfront will find m uch of the in for mation usefu l, and the book is a worthwhile contribution to the history of New Yo rk H arbor.

ARTH UR D. KELLN ER Roseland, New Jersey Legendary Yachts, by Gilles M artin Rager (Abbeville Press, New Yo rk, Paris, London, 2000, 200pp, illus, glossary, ISBN 07892-0637-4; $55hc) "Nothi ng stirs the imagination quite the way beautiful classic yachts do, " says

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REVIEWS

CLASSIFIED ADS

Matthew P. Murphy, editorof WoodenBoat magazine, in a thoughtful introduction to this visually ravishing book. Anyone who has glimpsed any of the superb vessels featured in these pages will simply feast over these photographs and the ro-thepoint descriptive text that acco mpanies them, with skilled line drawin gs by Frarn;:ois C hevalier. Boats featured range from the classic Dorade, which we meet punching wi ndward in a shower of spray, to the big, Aamboyantl y beautiful ketch Thendara, and the lovely Pen Duick which Eric Tabarly sail ed so memorably prior to his recent death in a race in tough weather. T h ere are abundant actio n shots, suppl emented by extensive interior views of these vessels that do actually look like floating palaces, though all are built to sail, and are sailed hard today. Evocative panoramas of these vessels gathered in classic yacht rendezvous give one hope that their breed will continue to flourish and give a magnificent show to those of us wh o sail in lesser breeds of crafr.

PS Argonaut: The Submarine Legacy of Simon Lake, by John] . Poluhowich (Texas A&M University Press, College Station TX, 1999, 18 1pp , illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-89096-894-2 ; 24.95h c) Simon Lake's primitive vessels were at first greeted with smiles by the press, and he faced continual res istance from naval engi neers while they eval uated experimental vessels from hi s competitor, John Holland. Nevertheless, Lake persisted with development on his own and eventually made a one-tho usand-mile trip up the Atlantic coast in the Argonaut I. Poluhowich has written an intriguing book on the life and times of this remarkable man . Its research is excellent, with detailed references and thorough documentation of his sources. However, the author occasionally goes into too much detail in an effort to use all the information he has uncovered. These are minor criti cisms, however. Simon Lake's brillianrly inventive activities as described in this book should be interesting to any sea-minded reader, especially this yea r, the centennial of the founding of the Subm arine Force.

ARTHUR

D. KELLNER

Queen of Sea Routes: The Merchants and Miners Transportation Company,

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

by Edward A. Mueller (Purple Mountai n Press, Ltd. , Fleischmanns NY, and T he Steamship Historical Society of Am erica, Providence RI, 1999, 185pp, illu s, bibli o, index, ISBN 1-930098-00-6; $37.5 0hc) T his histo ry of the Merchants and Miners Line (1852-1952) offers a richly illustrated panorama of the changing ships, cargoes and life styles in the coastal steamer trade over a critical 100 years-a treat for lin er buffs of the classic era of steam. PS Forty-Niners ' Round the Horn , by C harl es R. Schultz (University of South Carolina Press, Columbia SC, 1999, 352pp, notes, bibli o, index, vessel index, ISBN 157003-329-3; $49 .95 hc) T he Gold Rush of 1849 drew a mixed selection of tradesmen, farme rs, laborers, businessmen, and the journey westward put them in an entirely newenviro nmentas passengers or crew aboard ships bound for Californ ia. Q uoting extensively from contemporary journals, Schultz gives the feel of shipboard life: the cramped quarters, the food , the many ways in whi ch the men passed the time, how they coped with such un fa miliar tasks as washing their own laundry aboard ship . T he text is accom panied by contemporary documents, drawings and cartoons, and is followed by extensive notes and a bibli ograp hy.

SHELLEY REID Patrick O'Brian: A Life Revealed, by D ean King (H enry Holt & Co., New York NY, 2000 , 397pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-850-5976-8; $27.50hc) M r. King, who wrote A Sea ofWords: A Lexicon and Companion to Patrick 0 B rians Seafaring Tales and Every Man Will Do H is Duty, takes a close, no-nonsense look at O'B rian 's life and produces a surprisingly lively book.

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Canada's Navy: The First Century, by Marc Milner (University ofToronto Press, Toro nto ON, Buffalo NY and London UK, 1999, 356pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-8020-428 1-3; $45hc)

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J AMES D. AB ELES RAnIOND AKER RHODA AMO , R OBERT ARMES MI CHAEL & CHRISTINE ATTARDO ELLEN M. B ALAGUER PAUL BALSER PETER BARTOK S TEVE B. BATTER,\IAN ALAN B EARDEN CDR J AMES F. B ENSON BOSTON M ARINE S OCIETY C APT. J. HOLLIS B OWER, J R. KARL L. BRIEL T HE B RESSLER FOUN DATION PETER J . P. BRICKFIELD CAPT. EDWARD M. B URNES I. M. B uRNITf J. F. CALLO DONNELL M . CAMP D ENIS M c A LLISTER C AMPION W ILLI AM J. C ANAVAN NORMAN CARATHANAS IS LAMMOT C OPELAND C ORINTHIAN YACHT CLUB OF PHILADELPHI A D R. CHRISTIAN E. CRETUR G EORGE W. CAR~IANY. Ill CAPT. NED CHALKER M ARK D. CHASE S HARO. E. COHE, S EAN H.C UMMI1'GS M ORGAN D ALY MR. & M RS. JOHN DARMIN P. S. D EB EAUMONT DR. FoRBES D ELANY J AMESON DENAGEL EVAN DILLON B ERNA RD DONNELLY A NDR ES D UARTE R. H . D PREE JOHN D USENBURY HOWARD H . EDDY Ell A. EHRENREICH EKLOF M ARINE CORPORATION JoHN W. ELDER MR. & MRS. R OBERT S. ERSKINE, JR. J AMES P . FARLEY J ERRY FINGER PETER J . FI NNERTY JOHN FIR,\JSTAHL BARRY & CAROLL. FISHER F. S . FoRD. lR. TI ~IOTHY G. FOOTE MR. & MRS. W. FRAZIER, JV PATRICK H . F ULM ER D EN IS G ALLAGHER B RJG . G EN. PATRICK J. GARVEY. USMC (R ET) E DWARD E . G ASPAR PETER P . G ERQUEST DWIGHT G ERTZ WILLI AM & KERSTIN G ILKERSON T HOMAS C . GILLM ER LCDR B. A. GILMORE. ( R ET) BRUCE G ODLEY J ACK G OODIER ROBERT HAGEMEYER WI NTHROP HALL, JR. C APT. WILLI AM H . HAMILTON EMORY W . HARPER FREDER IC H . HARWOOD DR. & M RS. DAVID HAYES WI LLIAM HAZELITf A. DALE HEMMERDINGER MR. & MRS. D AVID H ENWOOD MR. & MRS. CHARLES H ILL TOWNSEND HORNOR G EORGE M. !VEY. JR. ROBERT L. J AMES WILLIAM J ETT MRS. B ERNICE B. JOHNSTON STEVEN KA LIL CHARLES R . KlLBOUR,\JE MR. & MRS. G ORDON KNUTSON R OGER T . KORNER CH UCK KOSTEL KJ ELL KRISTIANSEN ELLEN B . KURTZMAN ORMAN LISS L EO A. LOUBERE J EAN LUCY NICHOLAS S. M AKAR KATE M ANNING M ARINE S OCIETY OF BOSTON BENJAM IN M ARTIN RI CHARD M AURER DI ANA M AUTZ JOSEPH F. MEANY. JR. J ACK & M ARCIA M OORE PETER A . MORGAN I. A. M ORRI S MR. & M RS. R OBERT G . M ORR IS JOYCE & H ARRY NELSON, JR. D EAN R. OYES CLIFFORD B . O ' H ARA MR. & MRS. RICHARD K . PAGE J AMES E. PALMER NATIONAL LIB ERTY SHI P M EMORIAL. [NC. RADM TH OMAS J. PATTERSON ALLE H . PEASE DONALD A. PETRIE HON. D ONALD R. Q UARTEL. lR. MR. & MRS. LAWRENCE R . RACHLI N MR. & MRS. J ACOB C. R ARDIN REID M RCHISON-CAPE FEAR COM~! NITY FOUNDATION D USTY S. RHODES Ross E. R OEDER PETER ROWKTREE GERRY AND D A S ALVATI S ANDY H OOK PILOTS, N Y &NJ J AMES G. S ARGE1'T S EA HERITAGE FOUNDATION. INC. S EAREEF C HARTERING. INC. PETE S EEGER SHORELINE M ARINE C o .

M ARGARET SIECK & Bos B ALDWIN CESARE SORIO S PIRIT & SANZONE DISTRIBUTORS, INC. J ULES V ERNE S TEJNHA ER JOHN P . S TEVENSON M R. & M RS. DAVID W. S WETLA 'D MR. & MRS. J AMES S YKES TH OMSON INDUSTRIES, [NC. RALPH N. THO~I PSON WILLIA~I R. T OWER. JR. CARL W . TI~I PSON. J R. R OBERT J . T YO GILBERT V ERNEY FOUNDATION TH EODORE VI NCENT MRS. RAYMOND E . W ALLACE [AN W ATT JOH ' DI X WAY~IAN RAYNER W EIR W EXLER PLUMBING & HEATING G EORGE C. W HITE RICHARD G . WILEY ALFRED J. WI LLIAMS PARKER WI SEMAN THOM AS H . WYSMULLER ROBERT You 'G

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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION SHIP PLANS CATALOGS 1) Ship Plans List: merchant sail, steam, small craft and fishing vessels from the 18th-20th centuries. 250 pp.

2) The Maritime Administration Collection of Ship Plans 1939-1970: Liberty and Victory Ships, SS United States, etc. 79 pp.

3) Warship Plans: early US sail and steam navy, ordnance, mid-18th century-1900, including Civil War. 125 pp.

Send U.S. $10 per catalog (check/money order only) payable to SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION to: Ship Plans, NMAH-5010/MRC 628, Smithsonian Institution, Washin ton, DC 20560-0628 USA 48

Nautical Decor &Antiques SEAFARER, LTD. Route 9, Oceanville NJ 08231.

Visit our 3,000 sq.ft. sto r e.

609-652-9491

SEA HISTORY 93, SUMMER 2000

Soaring Albatross Brooch 14k

$665.

18k $800.

Single Strand Turk's-head Ring 14k $225.

18k $275.

1\vo Strand Turk's-head Ring 14k $475.

18k $575.

Three Strand Turk's-head Ring 14k $575.

18k $675.

Four Strand Turk's-head Ring 14k $675.

18k $775.

Small Yawl Earrings J4k $540.

18k $640.

Large Yawl - available as a charm or brooch 14k $390.

18k $460.

Seized!®Perfume .5oz ... .... .... ... $80.

Marlinspike®Cologne 1. 7oz..... . $40.

Seized!®Perfume Purser 5ml .... $55.