BRIGANTINE ]RV/NG JOHNSON AGROUND
Lake amplai ' Alaskan Shinwre~~ HMS . , . .-
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Newly Released! SEA HISTORYS Guide to Maritime Programs & Cultural Sites in the New York Region " If you are a teacher or parent with an interest in giving your children a learning adventure of a lifetime, this is the guide you've been looking for. Easy to use with information about shipboard programs." - Barbara Freidrich, Teacher, Rockland County "I want this guide in all my teachers' classrooms. Now I can make real decisions about our on-water field trips. No more carnivals or playlands for this school. We're going sailing!" - Felicita Santiago, Principal, PS 120, Queens
This project was made possible by the generous support of The Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation, Inc.; The James A. Macdonald Foundation and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey
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Created by distinguished marine artist William G. Muller, these three sets of blank note cards capture the romance of a bygone era on the Hudson River-and help support the work of NMHS. Whatever the occasion, these attractive 7" x 5" cards conveyyour sentiments with a true nautical flair. Rondour C reek, Hudson River, on a winter night in 1923.
NC2- The Cornell breaks a channel th ro ugh rhe upper Hudson River ice on a wi nter afternoon in 19 10.
Box of 10: $13.95, or $12.55 for NMHS members. Add $4 s/h for one box and $2 for each additional box. Please indicate your choice of card. Send check or credit card information to:
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on a winter's day in the 1890s.
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SEA HISTORY
No. 111
SUMMER2005
CONTENTS FEATURED IN T HIS ISSUE 6 Maritime Archaeology on the Last Frontier, by John 0 . Jensen Most marine archaeologists have shark stories. In Alaska, other fierce creatures guard shipwrecks. Dr. Jensen takes us with him to investigate a mysterious shipwreck in an Alaskan river. 10 David Steel's The Art of Sailmaking & HMS Victory's Fore Topsail, by Louie Bartos Sailmaker Louie Bartos tests David Steel's treatise by comparing Steel's rules with the surviving square sail from Nelson's HMS Victory.
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14 Fair Wind and Plen'ty ofIt, by Rigel Crockett Crockett shares an excerpt from his new book and puts us on the deck ofthe barque Picton Castle as she begins her first world voyage. 18 Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, a CAMM Profile, by Arthur B. Cohn As part ofan ongoing series highlighting individual Council ofAmerican Maritime Museum institutions, we take a tour ofthis museum situated in the heart ofRevoltionary 1Vtir naval action and the lake's subsequent use as a "superhighway" between New York City and the hinterland to the north in the nineteenth century.
14 21 Lake Champlain's Sailing Canal Boats, by Arthur B. Cohn LCMM's investigation ofdozens ofcanal boat wrecks in Lake Champlain brought the forgotten history ofthese nineteenth-century workhorses to the public. Last summer they launched the sailing canal schooner Lois McClure to take this story on the "road. "
30 Maritime History on the Internet: Pirates Off the Port Bow, by Peter McCracken 32 Historic Ships on a Lee Shore, by Melbourne Smith and Judith Liebaert
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Ship designer and builder Melbourne Smith suggests how to get historic ships offa lee shore in the 21st century. Our historic ship on a lee shore this issue is SS Meteor ofSuperior, Wisconsin, the world's last surviving whaleback. COVER: Los Angeles's Brigantine Irving Johnson hard aground off Oxnard, California. In March, the sh ip spem over th ree days in the surf while salvage team s made several failed anempts to refloat her. Finally, one high tide, three tugs, two tracto rs and a makeshift berm succeeded in getting the ship in deeper water (see page 37 for details). Photo by Robert V. Schwemmer, Regional Maritim e Heritage Coordinator, NOAA Channel Islands Narional Marine Sanctuary.
DEPARTMENTS 2
DECK LoG & LETTERS
A CAUSE IN MOTION 5 26 Sea History FOR Kms 36 SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NMHS:
NEWS
38 39 41 48
MARINE ART NEWS CALENDAR REVIEWS PATRONS
32 SEA HISTORY (issn 0146-93 12) is published quarterly by the National Maritime H isto rical Society, 5 John Walsh Blvd., PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566. Periodicals postage paid at Peekski ll NY 10566 and add' I mai ling offices. COPYRIGHT© 2005 by the National Maritime Historical Society. Tel: 914-737-7878. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sea H istory, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
DECK LOG Sea History Editorial Advisory Board Established e are pleased to announce with this issue the new Sea H istory Edi to rial Advisory Board, established to provide a depth of background in a wide range of regions and fields of maritime study. The Society has long relied on our advisors, overseers and honorary trustees whose knowledge, interest and counsel have guided the Society in m any crucial decisions. O ur Edi torial Advisory Board will be used exclusively for Sea History, to aid us in con tin uing our goal of ass uring each article's relevance, accuracy, and significance. Dr. Timothy J. Run ya n of East Carolina University will chair the board. Dr. Runyan is auth or of To Die Gallantly: the Battle of the Atlantic, European Naval and M aritime H isto ry, and Ships, Seafaring and Society: Essays in Maritime H istory, among his many publi cations. Dr. Runyan was edi to r of The American Neptune fro m 19901995, a founder and trustee of the Great Lakes Museum of Science, Enviro nment and Technology, president of the Great Lakes H istorical Society from 1985-95, and chairman of the National Maritime Alliance and Na tional Maritime H eritage Grants Advisory Committee. No rman J . Brouwer is the form er senior curator of So uth Street Seaport, and is the auth or of The International Register ofH istoric Ships. Dr. Roberr M. Browning Jr. is the Chief Historian of the US Coast G uard and the editor of the International j ournal of Naval History. H e is autho r of M oments in H istory, From Cape Charles to Cape Fear: The North Atlantic Blockading Squadron During the Civil Wtzr and Captains ofthe Port. Dr. William Sheldon Dudley is the immediate pas t directo r of Naval History fo r the US Navy D epartment, director of the Naval Histori cal Center, curator fo r the Navy and coordinator of Navy m useums. D r. Daniel Finamore has been the Russell W Knight C urator of M aritime Art and History at the Peabody Essex M useum since 1993 and is the editor of M aritime H istory as World H istory. Kevin J. Foster is C hief of the Natio nal Mari time Heri tage Program with the National Park Service. Dr. John O din Jensen is a fac ul ty m ember of the Frank C. M unson Institute of American Maritime Studies at M ystic Seaport and an adjunct professor of maritime histo ry at the University of Rhode Island. H e also teaches interdisciplinary M aritime Studies at the Sea Education Association in Woods H ole, M assachusetts . D r. Joseph F. M eany Jr. is the fo rmer acting state historian fo r New York State and is the program chairman for the Norrh American Society fo r Oceanic History. D r. Lisa No rling is an associate professor of history and an adjunct member of Ameri can studies and wo men's studies fac ulty at the University of M innesota. She is the author of Captain Ahab H ad a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery 1740-1870, and co-editor of Iron M en, Wooden Women: Gender and Seafaring in the Atlantic World, 1700-192 0. Captain Walter Rybka is Senior Program D irector of the Erie M aritime Museum and senior captain of US Brig Niagara. Captain Quinten Snedi ke r is the director of the H enry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard at Mystic Seaport. N MHS Trustee W illiam H . Whi te is the author of The Greater the H onor and The 1812 Trilogy. H e will also serve as the liaison to the Board ofTrustees. Additional information and photographs on the members of the Editorial Advisory Board can be fo und on NMH S's website at www.seahistory.org. We are honored to have our new advisors aboard and BuRCHENAL GREEN look fo rward to their counsel. Executive Vice President
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Ll oyd Wa rn er, Chairman of the Na uti cal Research Gu ild, has a special offer fo r NMH S members in recognitio n of our new jo int N MHS-NRG Mo del and Research Awa rd . H e will give NM H S memb ers an intro du ctory one-yea r membe rshi p to the G uild for $25, a $ 10 sav ings. T heir qu arterly publica tion N autical Research journal is th e pree min ent publica ti o n for ship modelbuilders of eve rything from ancient ga ll eys to nucl ear- powe red warship s. T he articles are illustra ted with archi va l and modern pho tographs, vesse l plans, and technical drawings. We highly reco mmend their fin e organi zati on an d publica tio n. To join, phone 585 968-8 111 and m ention this in tro ductory offer.
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National Maritime Historical Society and Sea History 5 John Walsh Blvd. PO Box 68 Peekskill NY 10566 Ph: 9 14 737-7878 or 800 22 1-NMH S
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SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
LETTERS Periauger Puzzle The article by Alford and Babies (Sea History 109, Winter 2004-2005) makes an important contribution to the history of the humble periauger in Georgia and the Carolinas in the colonial period and early 18th century. The authors quote from the travel diaries of the 18th-century explorer John Lawson, whose notation of split-dugout construction, size, and carrying capacity of these home-built/plantation-built work boats is extremely useful in comparing periaugers of the same period and later in more northern areas. In 1994, Kevin Olsen published a study of periaugers in the NY/NJ area (The American Neptune 54, No. 3). Covering roughly the same period, he showed that, between 1780 and 1867, 17 4 periaugers were registered in the Port of New York as lighters and ferry boats, playing an important role in the trade and commerce of this port. These were plank-built vessels of a capacity between 25 and 64 tons, a length of 50-75 feet, 12-18 foot beam, and a depth of hold of 4.5-5.2 inches . Their flatbottomed hulls provided periaugers with a generous capacity and an abili ty to operate in shallow waters. Although there are hundreds of paintings and drawings of elegant sloops and schooners plying the Hudson River during this period, there are almost no depictions of periaugers. We know their physical dimensions and that they carried a loose-foo ted headsail and a mainsail fitted with a boom aft (probably for handling cargo), but the periauger, which helped build American port commerce, was an ugly duckling compared to the elegant sailboats of the period. At that time, no artist would bother to paint its picture, and if he did, nobody would care to hang it on a wall.
SAM
GERARD
Palisades, New York From the editor: According to Mike Alford, the two types ofperiauger (southern vs. the types from NY/NJ) are unrelated. In studying the periauger, at least 37 spelling variations have been found in primary documents (pirogue, piragua, periauger, petiauger, etc.). While this makes researching the craft challenging, strict attention to construction SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
methods and materials described, specifications, etc. help to separate vessel types from region to region.
Naval Sail in World War II The photo on page 25 of Sea History's last issue (Spring 2005) caught my eye-two World War II US Navy vessels. Surprised! They were two of abo ut fifteen sailing vessels taken into the navy for patrol and other services off the US west coast and classified as IX-a clerical designation for miscellaneous, non-combat vessels that was established after WWI. Most were, at
Ramona
Seaward
first, relics and service ships. With the outbreak of WWII, the designation was extended to cover a wide range of vessels that did not easily fit into established types. Ramona (IX-76) was acquired from S. M. Spaulding of Los Angeles in 1942. She served out of San Diego for eight months and was placed out of service in April 1943. More than a year later, she was returned to her owner. Seaward (IX-60) was acquired from
Cecil B. DeMille Productions in January 1943. She served out of San Pedro until April 1943 and was returned to her owner two years later in 1945. Other west coast sailing vessels pressed into service were: 52 Cheng Ho, 57 Araner, 58 Dwyn Wen, 59 Volador, 61 Geoanna, 62 Vileehi, 63 Zahma, 69 Puritan, 70 Gloria Dalton, 73 Zaca, 74 Metha Nelson, 77 Juniata, and 91 Goodwill. I am still looking for information on name sources and information for 52, 61, 62, and 70 and would appreciate hearing from anyone who can contribute. (Readers with information may contact editorial@seahistory. org, and I will put them in touch with Mr. Greene. -DO'R) DENNIS M. GREENE Fayetteville, North Carolina Heavy Cruiser USS Des Moines In the spring issue of Sea History, yo u refer to USS Des Moines as a battleship. There is a recent tendency for the media to interchange the terms warship (any fighting vessel) and battleship (a particular class of heavily-a rmed and armored ship, no longer in use). Des Moines is, of course, a heavy cruiser. With one exception, American battleships were named after states, cruisers after cities. The navy retains only two battleships on the register of ships: Wisconsin, on display at Norfolk, Virginia, and Iowa, in the reserve fleet at Suisun Bay, California, awaiting her turn as a museum
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 navigato rs opening up the ocean world to the heroic efforts of sailors in this century's conflicts. Each issue brings new insights and discoveries. If yo u love the sea, rivers, lakes,
and bays-if you appreciate the legacy of those who sail in deep water and their workaday craft, then you belong with us.
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NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PU BLISH ER'S C IRC LE: Peter D onald McG raw, W illiam H. W hite
Aro n,
OF FICERS & TRU STEES: Chairman, Walter R. Brown ; Vice Chairman, Ri chardo R. Lopes; Executive Vice President, Burchenal G ree n; Treasurer, Ronald L. O swald; Secretary, M arshall Streibert; Trustees, Paul F. Balse r, D onald M . Birney, 'Thomas F. D aly, D avid S. Fowler, V irginia Steele G rubb, Rodn ey N . H ough to n, Steven W. Jones, Ri chard M. Larrabee, Warren Leback, G uy E. C. M airland, Karen Markoe, Michael McKay, Jam es J. M cNamara, Howard Slotni ck, Bradford D. Smith, Philip ]. Webster, Willi am H. White; Chairmen Emeriti, Al an G. C hoate, Guy E. C. M aitl and , C raig A. C. Reynolds, Howard Slotnick; President Emeritus, Peter Stanford FO U N D ER: Karl Kortum (1 917- 1996) O VERSEERS: Chairman, RADM D avid C. Brow n; Walter C ronkite, C live C uss ler, Alan D. Hutchison, Jakob Isbrandtsen, Jo hn Lehm an , Warren Marr, IT , Brian A. McAllister, John Stobart, W illiam G. W interer N MHS ADVISORS: Co-Chairmen, Fra nk 0. Braynard, Melbourne Smith; D . K. Abbass, G eorge F. Bass , Fran cis E . Bowker, O swald L. Brett, RADM Joseph F. Callo, Francis J. Duffy, John W Ewald, Tim othy Foote, William G ilkerso n, Thom as G illmer, Walter J. Handelman, Steve n A. H yman , H ajo Knurtel, Gunnar Lundeberg, Joseph A. Maggio, Conrad Milster, W illi am G. Mull er, David E. Perkins, Nancy Hughes Ri chard son, Shannon J. Wall
SEA HIS TORY EDIT ORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Chairman, T im oth y J . Run yan; N orman J . Brouwer, Robert Brownin g, W illi am S. Dudley, D aniel Fina mo re, Kevin Foster, John 0. Jense n, Josep h F. M eany, Lisa Norling, Walter Rybka, Quin te n Snediker, William H. W hite NMHS STAFF: Executive Director, Burchenal Green; M em bership Director, Nancy Schnaa rs; Accounting, Jill Ro meo; Executive A ssistant, Jan et Mill er; Membership Assistant, Jane M aurice
SEA HIS TORY: Editor, D eird re E. O 'Regan; D irector of Advertising, Steve Lovass-Nagy; Sea History for Kids Editor, Myka-Lynne Sokoloff; Editor-at-Large, Peter Stanford
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ship. The notice also states that D es Moines is in dry-dock. I believe it is tied up to the sam e pier where it has been for a number of years, very much aflo at. Because there are no longer any active battleships o r heavy cruisers, the use of state and city names appears to have shifted to submarines. Subs were once named for fish, but now place names, and even nam es of people, are applied to them. During WWII, the Navy apparently started to run o ut of fish nam es for the hundreds of submarines being commissioned. It appears that they m anaged to create names fo r subspecies of fish so that submarines could continue the traditio n of using fi sh names. The shift to names of people and places seems to have occurred while Admiral Rickover was in charge of the N avy's nuclear program. If you're interested in seeing, firsthand, the difference berween battleships and heavy cruisers, the battleship New j ersey is open to the public in Camden, New Jersey, as is the only heavy cruiser o n public display, USS Salem, at the U nited States Naval Shipbuilding Museum in Q uincy, Massachusetts. The other surviving bat tleships USS Salem
are M assachusetts, N orth Carolina, A labama, Texas-all in their "hom e" states, the rwo previously mentioned, and the most fam ous of them all, Missouri, at Pearl Harbor. O ther countries that owned battleships either lost them all in or after WWII or scrapped them . (Possible exception, a pre- 1900 ship, ostensibly a battleship, but quite small, berthed in concrete somewhere in Japan.) MARK L AN D ER
O ld Lyme, Connecticut
Piri Reis Map The Reis M ap may be a hoax, but no one can explain how a certified skin m ap shows something no one knew about until radar m apping of the terrain under the ice sheet was completed. The problem most critics
of the map face is that, even if it isn't as old as it appears to be, it was still created befo re our current technology was available to do the same imaging. Aside from the mys tery of how som eone knew the terrain under the An tarctic ice sheet long before we developed the technology to learn the same inform ation is the question of how the m ap was stored since 1513. What do we have today in our modern electronic media storage that will las t, and be readable, after 490-some years? According to some reports, early NASA data has been lost because eith er the tape storage deteriorated or the m achines to read the data on the tape have been upgraded to the point that the tapes can no lo nger be read at all. H ow many of yo u, readers, have information o n the older diskettes (8" or 5.25") that yo u cannot read because there is no disc drive available or the sofrware now used will no t recognize the storage format on the diskettes?
c. H ENRY D EPEW
Tallahassee, Florida C ommon sense finds fa tal Baws in any talk of ancient m ariners with knowledge of the rocky coas t of Antarctica. H ere's one example: says Vin cent Pica (Sea H istory l l 0, Spring 200 5): "Further studies have proven that the las t ice-free period in the Antarctic ended about 6,000 yea rs ago." The Antarcti c is well kn own to be drier than the Sahara. The ice is tho usands of fee t thick, and the deeper yo u get, the more compressed the snow. That size of an ice cap can only develop afte r fa r m ore than a mere 6,000 years of snowfall. Furtherm ore, if the Antarctic ice cap were to melt, sea levels wo uld rise by 500 feet or m ore, altering coastlines so dram atically that the map wo uld no t correspond any more. Piri Reis map believers can't have it both ways. Either the coastlines on the m ap are accurate, which wo uld equate current sea levels with ancient sea levels, and the An tarctic was covered by pre tty much its current ice cap or the Antarctic was icefree, the sea level was 500 feet higher, and coastlines were co nsiderably different from what we have today. FELIX FINCH
Durch Flat, California SEA HISTORY 111 , SU MMER 2005
NMHS: A CAUSE IN MOTION Charles Point Council Saturday Program is a Model for the Country
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n many cicies and communirest of the year, including presentacies across America, che Nacional tions by: Norman Brouwer, author Maricime Hiscorical Society has sigof The International Register of Hisnificam peckers of members. A longtoric Ships; Margaret Schram, author cerm goal has been co secure funding of H udson's Merchants and Whalers: co support a regional liaison who The Rise and Fall of a River Port, would develop accive chapcers where ~ 1783-1850; and Sea History's editor our members could meec on a regular ~ Deirdre O'Regan, who will speak basis, keep up-co-dare with speakers ~ on coday's professional sailing ship on maritime copies, and be prepared ~ mariner and che roles che growing p co campaign for maritime preservag number of traditional replica vessels cion issues in their area. In the inplay in carrying forward mari time Members at April's Saturday Program: (top from left) NMHS terim, the Society is developing a skills and traditions. Chairman Walter Brown, President Emeritus Peter Stanford, program at headquarters in Peekskill, David Dombish, Ted Foster, Trustees Ron Oswald and Bradford In the warmer seasons, members New York, rhac serves as a model for Smith, form er trustee Harry Vinall, Peekskill Yacht Club host Joel also participace in field trips investiregional chapters of che future. Ettelson; (Seated) No rma Stanford, Stephanie Smith, Carol Vinall gating local hiscoric sires along the The headquarters chapter has waterfront. Last July found council long been known as the Charles Point Council. Charles Point, on members coming the fortifications of Constitution Island, built the Hudson River, is named for Charles Fleischmann, founder of during the Revolutionary War, including the location of the the yeast and gin faccory complex which once scood here. One of chain char crossed the Hudson River. A hearty, small group of those hiscoric structures, rescored and direcced co ics new purpose, houses che Society's offices. NMHS has been forrunace in its leadership of the Council and has flourished under Carol and Harry Vinall, Brad and Scephanie Smith, David Dombish, and coday under the leadership of Captain Theodore L. Foster. Ted Foscer served in che navy after which he taught Industrial Ans and Technology Educacion until his retirement in 2003. He is an avid sailor and in 1999 was che recipient of NMHS's Volunteer of rhe Year Award. Foscer chairs a Steering Committee of 12 volunteers who choose programs, arrange for speakers and rake care of all logistics for their programs, research local maritime hiscory, host visicing ships, and help with marketing. This year chere are nine Saturday programs. NMHS President Emerims Peter Stanford is a favorite speaker at the lecmres. In JanDr. James M. Johnson, Executive Director ofthe Hudso n uary he spoke about Roosevelt and Churchill in a slide presentaValley Institute at Marist College, reviews fortification plans at tion on "Defense of Freedom by Sea." He will remrn in September Constitution Island with members in July 2004. co answer, "Why do we celebrate Nelson's viccory ac Trafalgar?" In February Gerry Weinstein the attendees scrambled up co a high lookouc co get a view of Rigel Crockett cold the scory of che fighc the challenges the Americans faced in defending che area. They co save the 1933 lighrhouse also coured Scony Point Battlefield site from the Revolutionary render Lilac. SS Lilac is the War and climbed the first last unalcered steam-pro- lighchouse builc along che pelled and sceam-hoisring Hudson River in 1826. lighchouse tender designed This year, members will for work on che open go co che hiscoric Wesc seas. April's speaker, Rigel Point Foundry, che site of Crockett, shared his scory an indusrrial archaeologiabour his years aboard the cal dig by Michigan Technological University, and take an outing barque Picton Castle as a professional crewmember for her first on the Hudson aboard the hiscoric 19 17 MV Commander. wo rld voyage (Read an excerpt from his new book, Fair Wind and Any member who wo uld like co be notified of Charles Point Programs need only request it by calling NMHS headquarters, Plenty ofIt, on pages 14-17 of this issue). 1hese are jusc a few examples of the sort of programs che dropping a line, or emailing us at nmhs@seahiscory.org. Charles Point Council organizes. They have a full lineup for the -Burchenal Green 0
SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
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Maritime Archaeology an the Last Frontier by John Odin Jensen
Most nautical archaeologists have shark stories. In Alaska, other fierce creatures guard shipwrecks. mining towns faded and died t the end of April 2004, I during the 1930s, Cordova got a call from Megan Lard~ ~ survived because it had a good ner, an associate producer of ~ harbor and salmon. Today, the History Detectives, a reali ty TV ยง internationally-famo us Copper program that airs on PBS. As his~ River Salmon is Cordova's cultorians, art experts, and antique ~ rural symbol, and fish provides appraisers, the History D etectives ~ its economic base. As luck had are a smart gro up. W hen it came ~ it, I arrived on the first day of to looking at a mys terious shipwreck in an Alaskan river, how- '------------------=---------' ~ the 2004 commercial salmon season. I found an active harbor ever, they needed a little help SS Portland in the Katalla River after hitting the rock in 1910. and energized and optimistic from a nautical archaeologistsomeo ne who studies old ships. location of SS Portland ebbed from cur- townsfolk. Such days are special. Fishing is an unpredictable business. In addition Alaska has many shipwrecks. With rent memory. 33,000 miles of rugged coastline and few In the winter of2004, environmental to natural fluctuations of the salmon run, roads, the sea has always been important activist Gab riel Scott encountered an old global market factors and environmental to Alaska. Co untless charted and un- wreck in the Katalla River. His curiosity disasters have given Cordova's economy a chaned rocks, bad currents, and unbeliev- and pers istent questions brought in the brittle quality. This was the town that took able North Pacific weather have destroyed Alaska Office of Archaeology and History, the brunt of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. Many of those wounds, environthe Histo ry Detectives, and ultimately, me. Was this wreck Portland? Maybe. Local mental and social, have yet to heal. My host in Cordova is Steve Ranney, lore said so. When it comes to shipwrecks, however, local lore can be wrong. Besides, owner of the Orea Adventure Lodge. The old archaeological survey records indicated lodge occupies the former Orea Salmon that Portland had been located years earlier Cannery. The wet and windy climate is hard on wooden buildings, but the renoat Palm Point, just a mile way. I was to meet the team in Cordova, vated former bunkhouse rooms are simple, a lively town of abo ut 2,500 people that clean, and charming. In addition, they overlooks Prince William Sound. No roads come with a million-dollar view of Prince reach Cordova, one comes by air or by sea. William Sound. Established in 1886, the Cordova's early prominence came from old Orea Cannery, like many local sea Steamship Portland in her prime. cop per. During the early 1900s, demand otters and shore birds, fell victim to the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of boats for the useful metal sent prices skyrocket- Exxon Valdez oil spill. Ranney purchased and ships since Vitus Bering first claimed ing, and several mining towns sprang up the historic property about ten years ago Alaska for the Russians in 1733. This ship- around Alaska's Copper River region. In and has been waging what he calls "a wellwreck might be very special. It might be 1910, the completion of the nearly 200- organ ized retreat from rot." Portland, a ship whose 1897 arrival in Se- mile long rail road made Cordova Alaska's Dozens of such canneries once dotted attle with "a ton of gold" was covered by premier copper port. While other copper Alaska's coastline. More than processing newspapers around the world and helped to spark the Klondike Gold Rush. Abandoned dock at the Orea Cannery outside of Cordova. Significant land The celebrity vessel served Alaska for rise during the 1964 Good Friday earthquake made many such docks obsolete. many years, surviving many near-disasters navigating the cruel northern coasts until her luck ran out in 1910. Steaming off Katalla, the first home of the Alaskan oil industry, Portland struck a rock and began flooding. Seeking to save his ship, the captain headed for the shallow waters at the mouth of the Katalla River. His efforts fai led when the heavy surf broke up the ship near the beach. It became a total loss. Over the decades, as local oil hopes faded, the town of Katalla died, and the
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SEA HISTORY l l l, SUMMER 2005
planrs, they were communities. At Orea, the best reminder of these earlier times is the dining hall. Each morning and evening, the Orea kitchen turns out solid meals on a giant stove installed more than a century ago. This friendly and soo thing gathering place is much like the working canneries I'd known thirty years before. Tuesday brought the rest of the team: State Archaeologist Dave McMahan, M ike Burwell of the Minerals Managemenr Service, and Karl Gurcke of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park-each representing Alaskan interests. Our official "History Detective" is Elyse Luray, a dynamic professional art appraiser and auctioneer. Accompanying her from Oregon Public Television were rwo producers, one photographer, and one sound technician. Rounding things out were Gabe Scott and a fishing guide, Jim Fritsch, sent by the Orea Lodge to keep us out of trouble. Alaskan weather is devious and the
Orea Lodge, a certain level of concern was growing. For the first time, perhaps, this television crew from the lower 48 began to understand that schedules in Alaska are, at best, hopeful guidelines. Getting into Katalla was one thing-getting back out would be another matter. Wednesday morning brought good weather and we took off In principle, flying scares me. Nevertheless, there is something comforting about flying in the Alaskan bush with a real professional. The flight over the expansive Copper River Flats and along the mountainous coastline was breathtaking. This grand landscape awes yo u and makes you feel small. As we approached Katalla, our pilot made a slow scouting pass along the beach looking for a clear path to land-standard beach fl ying procedure. Hitting a rock or chunk of drifrwood is just plain bad. That morning the tide was extremely low and we had lots of landing room.
Surveying by airplane. Portland sremains are clearly visible on the east side ofthe river. filming schedule was tight. Elyse had to be back in New York for a live television program on Sunday. Our plan called for jumping into three small airplanes and heading for Katalla. Despite Cordova sunshine, fog prevailed at Katalla. Bush pilot Gail Ranney, owner of a well-known air taxi service (and Steve Ranney's mother), told us that fl yi ng this evening was out of the question. A veteran of four decades of Alaskan aviation, Gail takes no chances. Tomorrow, we hoped, would be better. While the team took solace in a marvelous dinner of king- and sockeye salmon at the SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
For a nautical archaeologist, one of the best experiences is to see a shipwreck site for the first time. Katalla's natural environment intensified this experience. Like Lawrence of Arabia, we crossed a wide sandy expanse, our faces pelted with wind-blown grit. Only the criss-crossing of little streams violated a desert-like landscape. Finally, crossing over a crest in the sand hills, we found what we had come to study. Appearing out of the sand was a large inracc steam engine. As we moved closer, more objects and features appeared. Boilers that powered the engine, wooden
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Alaska
Pacific Ocean sections of hull, brass piping, bronze fittings, and another smaller steam engine for lifting cargo. Far more of the wreck was preserved under the sand. I am not sure what we had really expected to find-but we had already found more than we had dared to hope. The question remained, however: was it Portland? Most of the larger vessels built in the United States over the past rwo hundred years or so have lefr some records. The federal government and insurance companies kept careful track of ship ownership, sizes, and homeports. Portland first took shape in 1885 at the New England Shipbuilding Company under the name Haytian Republic in the famous shipbuilding town of Bath, Maine. Built of good white oak frames and yellow pine planking, the ship measured 191.5 feet long and 36 feet wide, and drew 20 feet of water. Her custom-built 650-horsepower compound steam engine with its 22-inch diameter high pressure and 44-inch low pressure cylinders and 36-inch stroke (the vertical distance traveled by each cylinder), offered the best chance for quickly ruling out, or helping to substantiate, that the Katalla wreck's identity is Portland. Archaeology in front of the camera becomes a strange and time-consuming affair. Just approaching the site for the first time required several takes. By the time we finally reached the wreck, the quickly-rising tide had begun covering her timbers. Time was short, and as the film crew shot supporting scenes, I got to work. After a quick visual survey of wreck, I scaled the eleven-foot plus tall engine. Taking o ut my folding carpenter's rule, I laid it across the round flange that marked the top of the
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(Above) With most of the hufi buried under the sand, the wrecks overall size is not immediately clear as one approaches it for the first time; (right) john Jensen measuring a cylinder and getting a great view.
larger low-pressure cylinder. The measurem ent came in at a little over 44 inches. The high-pressure cylinder, covered by a thick iron cap, a layer of wind-blown soil and a carpet of grass, proved rough to m easure. The cap m easured 24 inches across. After subtracting an inch on each side to make up for the thick high-pressure castings, I put the figure at about 22 inches. These m easurem ents weren't utterly scientific, but short of pulling the engine apart to get at the actual cylinders, it was the best I could do. M easuring the stroke would require excavation and would have to wait for another day. The cylinder match provided a solid cap on a strong foundation of other evidence. The wreck's architecture seemed right. The heavily-timbered hull, protected from ice by a sheathing of hardwood, lacked the iron or steel strapping common to large late-nineteenth-century wooden steamers. Portland, according to insurance records, did not have strapping. The workmanship and materials, however,
8
were of excellent quality. The wreck's two scotch marine boilers matched in type those retrofitted into Portland in the 1890s. Later, over multiple takes on camera at Elyse's careful prompting, I rendered my verdict: the cylinders were a tight match, the vessel's beam, type of boilers, and known construction features seemed right. The wreck, evidence suggested, was indeed the famous Gold Rush steam er. Over the course of two more tides, we pored over the wreck, taking photographs, wood samples, documenting construction features, and making selected measurements of hull sections and machinery. We found nothing to contradict the conclusion that this was the Alaskan gold ship Portland, leaving plenty of reason to return for further study. D espite our success, the wreck previously identified as Portland nagged at us. If we had, indeed, found Portland, what was the other wreck? We just had to have
a look. Alaska State Archaeologist Dave McMahan and I flew over to Palm Point, an exposed but beautiful section of beach abo ut a mile from Katalla. Cruising slowly in his big D eHavilland Beaver, our innkeeper/bush pilot pointed o ur two sections of wreckage hiding amid thick brush and trees, a full eighth of a mile from the edge of the beach and perhaps a quarter mile or more from the water's edge. After landing and pointing us in the right direction, Steve flew off. Som ebody, he said, wo uld be back to pick us up later. I hoped so. Sticking close ro Dave McMahon, an experienced woodsman , and carrying my precious cam eras, I crashed through the dense pucker brush (a term whose anato mic origins I can guess). After fifteen m inutes of thrashing, we came upon a wild sight-a heavy wooden wall about 15 feet high . That we were looking at the bow of a ship was undeniable. A mechanical winch
SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
for pulling the anchor was plainly along the tree line, this bear was not visible, as was the hawsehole for the expecting company. anchor chain. Completing a quick Bears are dangerous outside of investigation, we pushed through zoos, and it had been rwenty years another 50 or 60 yards of brush besince my last close encounter with fore coming upon more of the vesone in the wild. O lder, and now the sel. Sitting upright and stretching father of three, I got nervous. "D ave, maybe 25 feet along the gro und, the isn't it about time to get that gun disarticulated stem looked almost out?" Bear protection is essential in serene with middle-sized spruce trees the Alaskan wild, but a pistol, even growing out of the deck. While we a 44 magnum with hot loads, offers couldn't identify the wreck on the minimal protection from an angry bear. Bears can cover short distances spot, however, a large towing winch, steel stern roller, heavy rub rails, and faster than an NFL running back stout framing m arked the vessel as and medium yardage faster than a horse. They swim well, climb high, a tugboat. The architecture of the stern looked older-certainly preand bite hard. Picking up my video camera, I tried to fi lm the bear's apWorld War II. The lack of hydraulic lines and other modern objects and proach . About 50 yards from us, h e fasteners also suggested an older vespicked up our scent. Usually this is sel. Research back in Anchorage and good; bears don't like the smell of at Mystic Seaport suggested that people and often head in the oppowe we re looking at Afognak, an old site direction . Our bear just stopped tugboat and fish tender that served and gave us an irritated, near-sighted Alaskan waters for nearly sixty years stare, thinking, I imagined, "Why before wrecking at Palm Point in a are you on my beach?" Looking Joward from the top of the engine. Porrland s 1949 storm. First, we made loud noises. YO! How the wreck got this far up engineering element are remarkably intact. At low tide, we BEAR! YO! BEAR! G IT BEAR! The into the trees, and where the center could examine exposed sections of the hulls port side, the bear continued to stare. YO! BEAR! third of it is today, is a m atter of con- twin scotch marine boilers, and the 650-hp main engine. GIT BEAR! Later, reviewing my video rape of the event, I noticed jecture. The huge 1964 earthquake caused large tidal waves and raised the One thing is certain, this is not Portland. that the cam era had becom e shaky. Keeplevel of the land in this part of Prince WilCompleting our reconnaissance, we ing Dave, the man holding the sausages liam Sound up to ten feet or more. The headed for the beach ro await our plane. and gun, berween the big bear and me tug may have sat on the beach for 15 years C hewing on reindeer sausage and smoking seem ed more important that filming. Unbefore a tidal wave broke it into three parts cigars (to keep away the bugs, of course), impressed to the end, the bear finally lumand tossed them further upon on sho re. Dave and I celebrated a successful proj- bered back into deep bush and headed toect, and schemed about ward the tugboat wreckage we had visited True bush archaeology--the stern ofthe other wreck, possibly Portland's future. Cer- an hour before. This day could have ended Afognak, rests in an upright position in the brush ofPalm Point. tainly, a nomination to very differenrly. Alaskan nautical archaeolthe National Register of ogy is, in fact, different. The broken ships Hisroric Places, maybe that preserve the state's past are relatively an accurate Phase I map- modern. Their decaying hulls and isolated ping, or perhaps even locations reflect a vast Pacific frontier that a full-scale excavation. is still new, where exciting maritime srories This was the Alaskan wil- are lived every day. !, derness, and the peaceful scene did not last. At john Odin Jensen, a historian and nautical first, the bear was far archaeologist, teaches at the Frank C. Munaway and looked rather son Institute ofAmerican Maritime Studies small. Twenty minutes at Mystic Seaport, the University of Rhode later, it appeared again . Island, and at the Sea Education Association This time, closer-look- in Wooa'.r H ole, Massachusetts. D r. Jensen ing much larger. Work- also serves on Sea Hisrorys new Editorial ing its way towa rd us Advisory Board. SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
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David Steel's The Art of 8ailmak.ivg & HMS Victory's Fore Topsail by Louie Bartos Sailmaking, as an historical subject, has not been the topic of much inquiry-shy of a handful of graduate theses or a paragraph or two in a larger compendium of sailing ship histories. Texts chat have dealt most extensively with sailmaking include the collection of treatises and trade manuals that were published in the lace eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Of these treatises, David Steel's The Art ofSail-Making was printed at least a half a dozen times over a half century and became a valuable resource, providing an historical overview of sails and ships from ancient times to the late eighteenth century, definitions, explanations, and a detailed how-to. Fitted our with mathematical cables and figures, the treatise could walk che sailmaker or knowledgeable mariner through the steps of constructing a sail for any Royal Naval ship. One might assume that, with the wide range of vessel types, dimensions, rigs, etc., individual sails could not be subsumed under a general "how-to." Scee! noted that he did not include tables for the merchant service because the masting and corresponding sails often depended "upon the fancy of the builder or owner." Yet, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, all square topsails on British naval vessels, for example, would follow the same guidelines for design and construction. The Admiralty required the same placement of grommets, reefs, belly bands, bundines, and mast cloths according to their dimensions. With tables provided for gore allowances, length and number of canvas panels, a sailmaker could make a sail without lofting it in its entirety on the floor or deck. These cables could provide the know-how for any square sail, fore-and-aft sail, and most small boat sails used at that time. -DO'R man of education and an Adm i(scaling, ere.), it does represent the existralty agent for charcs, David Scee! ing sail quite well considering that the sail was, unfortu nately, not a person was, for the most part, neglected for over trained in the trade about which he wrote. 100 years before the present conservators He cons ul ted "actual workmen in each rook charge of it. art" and employed artists ro draw what In Nelson's time, the dimensions of seamen could "describe, but not del inthe foo t and head of a square sail were eate." He also stared that co ntemporary co nve ntionally described in terms of publications were "few and incorrect." "cloths," the number of standardOther well-read treatises were later width sailcloths sewn together published by Darcy Lever (1808) edge-co-edge to make up the sail. and Robert Kipping (1847), bur The depth, or hoist, of the sail was Steel's was the only one publ ished described in yards. The Royal during the age of Nelson. Navy maintained strict guideThere has always been lines for sailcloth manufacso me question as to the accu rature and sail construction. Lt. W J L. Wharton's 1871 sketch o/Vicrory' sfore topsail. cy of the statements in Steel's work, In 1995, museum staff surveyed however, the re was no way ro prove or dis- entity. We are fortu nate ro have a surviving the sail and measured 51 feet on the head, prove any of his observations and/or state- exam ple of sai lmaking during this exact 75 feet on the foot, a leech length of 51.2 ments. The only way ro rest Steel's treatise time period-a fo re topsai l of Lord Nel- fee t, and a calcu lated dep th of 53 feet. (Ir on sailmaking would be to have an actual so n's 100-gun shi p HMS Victory, a sail that should be noted that these measurements working sai l that was made by one of rhe is rep uted ro have been onboard during the were made when the sail was loosely laid Royal Navy dockyard sail lofts or similar Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. This massive on rhe floor and the sail was not pull ed sail wo uld have ta ut because of its fragility.) Victory's fo re The sail discovered in the HMS Nelson gymnasium, 1962. been the second ro psail has 29 cloths at the head and 43 largest in Victory's at the foot. Based on a 24-inch width of suit of sails. cloth and its 1-3/4 inch seam allowance, Th e earliest the original lengths of the head and foot plan of the actual wo uld have been approximately 54 feet fo re topsail was and 80 feet, respectively. Steel wrote that drawn by a Lr. the fore ropsail of a 100-gun ship would W. J. L. W h ar- measure 26.5 cloths at the head, 43 cloths to n, RN in 187 1. at the foot, and 19 yards (57 feet) in depth. Though nothing The weight of the sai l wo uld have been in is known as ro the range of 950- 1000 pounds when new. Acco rd ing ro Peter Goodwin , curahow the drawing was made to r of H M S Victory, "Ir rook 20 men 83
A
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SEA HLSTORY 11 l , SUMM ER 2005
especially after the sail had weathered. Steel days to make one complete suit of sails for sails, though this is clearly speculation. Victory." Steel's tabulation of cloth weights Naval guidelines directed that the instructed that, "The middle-band is made specified that a first rare ship's fore topsail seams for all topsails and courses be cen- of one breath of canvas of the same numwould require a cloth of either RN No. 2 or ter-stitched or "stuck." Victory's topsail ber as the top lining. Ir is first fo lded and No. 3 Bax canvas. Victory's cordage, includ- seams were indeed stuck along the middle rubbed down, to make a crease at one third of the breath; then tabled (Bar seam) ing bolrropes, was produced by the Chatham Dockyard ropewalk and on the selvage, and stuck along the made of the highest quality hemp. crease; then turned down and tabled The bolrrope was moderately tarred, and stuck through both the doustill evident in the inner cunrlines of ble and single parts, with 68 to 72 rl1e sail's roping. Specifications for stitches in a yard." This method was not used on Victory's sail. me boltrope and other cordage, such as seaming and roping twine, were The holes in the head for rodictated by the Admiralty. With no bands, reef points and those for the reefing cringles in the leech records of the Chatham Dockyard's procedures for constructing sails are each one inch inside diameter. in me late eighteenth and early Holes were cut in each cloth-one along the head of the sail and one nineteenth centuries, one can only COURTESY LOUIE BARTOS extrapolate from procedures of lat- Victory's fore topsail was "flat-seamed" and center "stuck. " in each of the reef bands. Without taking a grommet apart, there is no ter-day sail lofts. In short, sails were drafted on sheets of paper along with the of the seam width as per regulation, aver- way to ascertain its make-up, concealing necessary calculations as to the yardage of agi ng 78 stitches to the yard. Steel stated such details as the size of the cordage used sailcloth required, including gores and al- that stuck seams be sewn at 68-72 stitches to construct the grommet and the weight lowances. The cloth was then cut, based on to the yard. (The term stuck seam refers to of the twine used to sew it. Steel specithese calculations, and the pieces stacked, a basting stitch passed through the center fied that grommets be sewn with a No. 12 of the seam allowance and stitched down thread, the same as was used for seaming ready for stitching. Victory's fore topsail cloths were sewn the entire length of the cloth.) On a large large sai ls. The grommets were to be sewn together with a Bat seam using a 1-3/4 sail, it was common to have three to four with 18 to 21 stitches around. Grommets inch seam allowance. Steel noted that the men stitching a seam at once. They had to in Victorys sail nearly march with an averseam allowance for ships greater than 50 maintain a Bar seam (with no slack along age of 22 stitches each . guns should be 1-1/2 inches. The surviv- the top or bottom cloth) so that when one After all the grommets were worked ing topsail's seami ng varies in stitch lengrh man's section met the next person's seam, in, the bolrrope was sewn to the edge of the and number of stitches per yard, indicat- there would be no irregularities. When sail to rake the load off the cloth once the ing that me cloths were sewn together seaming was completed, the task of sewing sail was set. Generally, sails were roped by by several different men with a range of down rablings, linings, reef bands, and the the most experienced sailmakers. A wellcut and -seamed sail could be ruined with abi lities. A random stitch count yields ap- mast cloths (or linings) was begun. The topsail's mast and buntline cloths proximately 120 stitches to the yard, with one count as high as 135 to the yard. Steel and top linings were joined and secured to stated that rhe seam should be sewn at 108 the sail with the conventional Bat seam exto 116 stitches to the yard. This discrep- actly as described by Steel. The mast lining ancy suggests that either the dockyard sail- is two cloths in width and extends from the makers sewed the seam with closer stitches foot of the sail to the lower reef band. It prothan was required or that the cloth was of a tected the sail from chafe when the sail was lighter weight. Stitches in a seam are gener- backed or slack because of little wind. The ally counted by the number of stitches to top lining cloths are attached to the mast the needle length with a general conven- cloths and the whole is sewn to the sail. tion that there be nine stitches per needle These are stitched to the after side of the A properly-rigged sailmaker's bench, equipped length. This method makes sense when we sail, whereas the buntline cloths are sewn with a bench hook secured to the bo!trope. consider mat the heavier the canvas, the to the forward side where the bundines lay larger the needle and twine size used. This once the sail is set. The sail's middle-band poor quality roping. Securing a boltrope limited the number of stitches per yard-- is made from one breadth or widm of can- to a sail required passing a sail needle and conversely for the lighter canvas. Whether vas sewn down to the sail over the leech tarred, oiled, or waxed twine mrough the this was me case in Steel's time we do not linings and mast cloths. The purpose of the lay of the rope, without snagging fibers of know. We can surmise mar he may have middle band is to add extra strength and the rope strands, then sticking the needle observed construction of only the large retard stretching in the bunt of the sail, through the edge of the sail's tabling.
SEA HJ STORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
11
Boltropes were made fro m high-grade softlaid hemp, tarred or untarred depending on the preference of the sailmaker. The line was generally stretched for several hours before it was sewn in to place. A bench hook was secured to a fas tener or post on the sailmaker's bench and hooked into the sail berween previously-sewn stitches. Victory's sail's boltro pe was clearly sewn with tight, even stitches by virtue of the fact that, 200 years later, the roping is still intact and strong. Steel noted that, ideally, the boltrope should be made of "the best Riga-Rhine hemp." Records indicate that this rope was made at the Chatham D ockyard ro pewalk, though where the hemp came from is not known . Acco rding to Steel, "Earing cringles are m ade of an additional length (of fo urteen twists or turns) of the leech rope left at the head of the sail, which, being turned back, fo rms the cringle by splicing its end into the leech rope and cross-stitching the whole of the splice; the first stitch to be given twice, and the last stitch three times." The makeup of Victory's topsail earrings consists of fo urteen turns plus the added length to complete the splice. Roping along the head of the sail was passed through the strands of the eyesplice and fini shed off by means of a double wall knot. There rem ains the puzzling question as to why the head rope connected to the leech ro pe earring by passing the head rope between the strands and then finishing it
off with a do uble wall knot. The only other example of this technique is evidenced on the sails of Vasa, the Swedish warship which sank in 1628 and was discovered in 1956. A possible explanation fo r this co nnection was to reduce the bulk in the eye of the earring. Sailmakers later attached the head ro pe to the eye by backing the strands as opposed to the "over and under m ethod." C ringles are partial rings made of single strands of rope worked into or around the boltrope, to which reefin g gear is secured, such as reef earrings and bundines. There are two types of cringles-those worked directly into the boltrope (bowline and bundine cringles) and those fo rmed thro ugh holes in the leech (reef and reefing
Vasa' s earring from 1628, never completed, shows a single wall knot at the end ofthe head rope.
A served cringle on HMS V ictory's topsail
cringles). According to Steel, "the openings of the bowline cringles are at the distance of fo ur turns or twists of the strands in the bolt-rope asunder, and the ends are first stuck in an opening, made with a marline spike, under two strands of the bolt-rope; then, passing over The head rope on Victory's topsail was passed through the strands of the next, they are the eye splice and finished off by means ofa double wall knot. stuck under one strand; and agai n passing over another, they are fin ally stuck under the next." Victory's reef earring and reef tackle cringles were constructed by passing the strands th ro ugh holes in the leech tabling and lining. The cringles were served to protect the strands from chafe. Steel ins tructed that "the clues and top-b rims be
12
wo rmed while the boltrope is sewn to the sail , and before both parts are confined . Fourteen turns or twists of the strands in the length of the clue rope are left at the lower corners of all sails fo r the clues, which are wormed with sizeable spunyarn, served, m arled and seized. The due-ropes are marled three fee t each way on the leech and foot." The clew of Victory's fo re topsail was made with fourteen turns, precisely as described by Steel. The missing element on each of the clews was the seizing. The seizing squeezes the bight of the clew together to prevent it from spreading open under strain. Steel's Elements ofMastmaking, Sailmaking, and Rigging explained that "the serving is done three fee t along the clew leech and foo t." Eyelets in Victory's sail were made three inches from the edge and placed two inches apart. Thro ugh these eyelets, the sailmaker would pass the m arling to secure the boltrope to the sail over the service. The sailmakers in the Chatham Dockyard loft wo rked in thirteen holes in each the leech and foot. The boltrope was then attached by m arling hi tches, as described by Steel. Victory's topsail clew had leather chafe gear sewn aro und the eye
SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
where rhe sheers would be benr on. Records show rhar learher chafe gear was used only on naval sai ls and nor on merchanr vessel sails because of irs expense. Sreel made no mention oflearher chafe gear. Eirher he did nor know abour ir or Victory's sailmakers, William Smirh and Andrew Scorr, added ir larer once rhey recognized ir was chafing. In addirion ro rhe evaluarion of rhe sail's consrrucrion marerials and rechniques, several orher fearures on rhe acrual fore ropsail are worrhy of inspecrion. Specifically, a few repairs and modificarions rhar we re made while rhe sail was in service are easily observed: one appears ro be where a hole was cur in rhe clorh for a grommer and rhen changed ro a differenr locarion and mended; the second repair shows the sailmaker's srirch (also called rhe herringbone srirch) used ro fix a small
Vicrory's fore topsail was once repaired with a herringbone stitch. cut in rhe clorh. This srirch was commonly used ro close a small cur or holes in sails, rarpaulins, and other canvas-work. The sail's seams were sewn from righr ro left and were srarred without a knor in rhe rwine ro avoid lumps which would likely have chafed. Remnants of rhe rrademarks srenciled on the cloth by the weavers who wove sail clorh for rhe Royal Navy can be seen wirh a careful eye. Recendy, rhe Dundee Herirage Trusr uncovered derails relaring ro rhe origins of rhe various rrademarks found on rhe sail. There appeared ro have been a !or of rhievery and corruprion rhroughour rhe Naval Dockyards during rhis rime period. To curb rhese problems, rhe Royal Navy painted wavy blue lines, down rhe enrire 38 yards of rhe bolr ro idenrify ir as governmenr properry. These lines are sri ll visible on rhe clorh. We can conclude rhar ships' plans and Admiralry directives were guidelines ro be adjusred by rhe naval archirects, shipbuilders, riggers, and sailmakers. David Sreel was SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
nor a sailmaker; he documenred sailmak- rhe sail berween 1806 and 189 1 is someing merhods of his time from informarion whar obscure. Ir was displayed ar an exgarhered rhrough observarions and inter- hibirion in 1891 and rhen onboard HMS views. Ir is likely rhar rhe Admiralry Board Victory for rhe cenrenary of rhe Barrie of accepred his inirial volume on rhe elemenrs Trafalgar in 1905. In 1960, ir was discovof sailmaking wirhour an in-deprh review ered in a sail lofr ar Victory barracks, now by people who were rhoroughly knowl- HMS Nelson, covered by gym m ars. Ir was edgeable in rhe craft. His documenrarion rerurned ro rhe ship for display in 1962 was good, rho ugh limired, wirh many of rhe bur left rhe sh ip for good in 1993, when ir subde rechnicaliries of sai lmaking omirred. was recogn ized rhar rhe sail was dereriorarNonerheless, wirh mulriple reprinrs over a ing and needed immediare conservarion. fifty-year period, clearly his rrearise was in Ir is rare ro find original sails from demand as a reference. His work remains hisro ric sai ling ships and shipwrecks. Sailthe besr wrirren record of sai lmaking rules ors barded agai nsr mildew and ror arrackand rechniques during rhe age ofNelson- ing rheir sails while rhey were srill using the age offighring sail. Thankfully, wirh rhe rhem. For a sail ro survive for more rhan survival of HMS Victory's fore ropsail, we 200 years in any condition gives us a wincan resr Sreel's sailmaking rules against an dow inro rhar pan of our maririme hisrory acrnal arrifacr, allowing roday's researchers of which rhere are few records. Researchro bener judge rhe accuracy of his rrearise. ers inreresred in sailmaki ng have rurned ro One major quesrion remains: why David Sreel's rrearises for rhe rules and dedid Victory's fore ropsail and rhe remnanrs rails of sai lmaking during rhe age of fighrof Vczsa's sails have head rope ends passed ing sail. Wirh Victory's fore ropsail srill rhrough rhe earring and a double wall around, we can now resr rhose rules and kn or worked inro rhe ends? To dare, no Ii r- gain a berrer idea of how rhar imporranr erarure has been discovered which explains job was performed. ,t rhis pracrice. Vczsa did nor have chocks ar rhe ends of her yards; rhe yardarms were This summer, HMS Vicrory is open for simply rapered so rhar rhe earring was nor tours and her sail is on display at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. (See www.hisrigidly hauled our and fixed arhwarrships. We can assume rhar because rhere was nor toricdockyard.co. uk and www. hms-victory. a large amount of rhwarrship rensioning com). Louie Bartos is a sailmaker based in of the sail's earring on rhe yard (as was rhe case for sails builr in larer years), rhere was Ketchikan, Alaska. He is completing his first no need for rhe head rope ro have a sraric book, The Evolurion of Sails and Sailmaking Berween 1600 and 1820. splice inro rhe leech line earri ng. Victory, however, did have ch ocks ar rhe ends of her yards in On display at the Naval Military Exhibition in 1891. addirion ro rhe wall knor in each earring. Why did rhe wall knor appear on rhe fore ropsail earring when there were chocks on rhe ends of rhe yards for a sail builr in 1803? As far as we know, no original sailmaker's plans of any of Victory's sails exisr. The sail remained on HMS Victory unril rhe ship rerurned for g repairs afrer rhe Barrie of > > Trafalgar. Ir was rhen rak" ~ en ro rhe sail loft in Cha~ 0" u rham. The whereabours of
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Fai~
Wind and Plenty of Jt by Rigel Crockett
PHOTO BY RIGEL CROCKETT
In the cold ofa late Canadian November in 1997, the barque Picton Castle embarked on her first circumnavigation of the globe. She has since completed two others and has just embarked on her fourth under the command ofher able captain, Daniel D. Moreland. For those involved in the sail training community, she is the unfulfilledfantasy ofall but the few who get to sail aboard her for the voyage ofa lifetime. People who have heard ofCaptain Moreland's reputation as a driver and who have seen the sturdy ship in port know the voyage is demanding on every level. In his new book, Fair Wind and Plenty of It, Rigel Crockett candidly shares with us his passage on Picton Castle's first world voyage. Sea History is pleased to present to you extracts from Crockett's opening chapters to share with you how his voyage began. Lunenburg, Nova Scotia: August 1996-May 1997 aysayers called her the Fiction Castle. Many in the industry seriously doubted that her black hull, dented and blotched burgundy by rust, would ever part the water of Lunen-
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burg harbor. Much more, they doubted that this sixty-nine year old North Sea trawler could be converted in just eighteen months into a seaworthy three-masted barque, ready to circumnavigate with thirty fare-paying crew. Adding fuel to their doubts were the
(left) Captain Dan Mo reland; (below) Picton Castle drying her cotton sails, berthed in Lunenburg.
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two years the Picton Castle lay dormant in New York, docked first in Manhattan and later at the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston. But we believers knew that this was neither fai lure nor laziness. Moreland was simply biding his time, waiting until he had sufficient funds to do the conversion in one go rather than sabotage his project, as so many others had sabotaged theirs, by working in fits as money trickled in, thus wasting time, frustrating participants and destroying the confidence of backers by moving too slowly. Then, in early July 1996, one of the ship's first investors decided he wanted to see the ship converted and tied to a pier at an event he was hosting seven weeks later in Bristol, Rhode Island. To that end he would channel $750,000 into the project. This money would get the Picton Castle's conversion well underway. Perhaps Moreland's doubters didn't know the great effort and commitment he SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
"And when his Picton Castle motored into Lune nburg, we foil owed him like could get out of people. Those of us who came to Lunenburg knew. We'd seen it ourselves. We'd listened to what people said of his leadership. Some compared him to Tom Sawyer with his whitewashed fence; others preferred the example of D arth Vader. Nonetheless, one thing was clear: if anyone could do it, Moreland could. And when his Picton Castle motored into Lunenburg, we followed him like baby sea turtles follow the moon.
Picton Castle departs Lunenburg
"Gale Warning" 25November1997-Boundfor Panama from Lunenburg Harbor, Nova Scotia As evening deepened, swells grew high . Driven across the North Atlantic, th ey rolled under us and smashed into white against the snowy bluffs that cradled Lunenburg Bay. The Picton Castle had felt so large and steady there. Now, as we ploughed into the wide ocean-pitching, rolling, testing the concrete ballast that we'd poured-she felt small. I tightened my grip on her wheel for balan ce and thought of our thirty green fare-paying crew. Most, unaccustomed to rough nights underway, grew seas ick and cold on deck and below. We pressed farther from land and the strengthening wind piled the swells steeper. It kicked up whitecaps, tore them into spray. The air was below freezing. I pulled my hat down over my ears, lifted my wool collar agai nst the cold wi nd that blew over the stern . The ship, 179 feet overall, rocked so that her iron freeing ports, meant to shed water from the deck, opened and slammed shut with a string of clanging repons. In
SEA HISTORY 111, SUMMER 2005
baby sea turtles foil ow the moon."
a still harbour the deck sat just three and a half feet above surface. In a rolling sea, water sprayed aboard on the low side and surged across the deck in torrents. She was wetter than I'd thought she'd be. Above the engine's deep chug, a near gale-force wind whistled in our new rigging. It had been a while since a squarerigger had sailed o ut of Lunenburg harbor. From the 1860s to the 1880s, Lunenburg was home to an impressive fleet of twenty-five rn thirty square-riggers that carried cargoes all over the globe. By 1912, the last of them had her yards removed so . she could be handled with fewer crew and scrape by for a few more years in an industry doomed to fade away. In late November 1997, I looked up to our topsails, lashed to their yards just days prior. Two on the fore, two on the main. I was impressed that the Captain had set the uppers in this wind. Twenty-five days behind schedule, he hungered to make distance south before the sto rms of winter could lock us in, before they could rob his last chance to hold the confidence of the fare-paying crew who'd helped finance his voyage. C hief mate Brian held the rail for balance as he walked aft from the charthouse to the end of the quarterdeck where I steered. Under the shade of his sou'wester I could see his brown, close-set eyes. He fi xed them on mine, like he always did
when delivering an o rder. "Come right to south." "Come right to south," I repeated, and then leaned into the wheel, feeling relieved to steer away from this cold, away from the disappointments of my Lunenburg summer. Crew tugged on the braces to pivot the yards as we changed course. If everything went well, we'd fetch the tropics in a week. Then the order wo uld be steer west, and it wo uld stay west until we'd circled the globe. Dressed in a long black raincoat and knee-high rubber boots, Captain D an Moreland stepped from charthouse to quarterdeck and mustered his watch. I felt my toes clench in my boots and made an effort to relax. The man looked tired from our four-month sprint to ready the ship. The grey patch on the chin of his beard had grown, and his face seemed long. He spoke a couple of clipped sentences and disappeared back into his charthouse, leaving the management of his watch to Jesse, his lead abl e-bodied seaman. Jesse, with a few days' scruff on his cleft chin and a ponytail pressed down by his wool hat, sent one of his professional watchmates to relieve me at the helm . I walked towards the charthouse to report that I'd been relieved and noticed that many of Jesse's crew were women. Som e of them looked uncomfortable, likely
An icy deck tempered any romantic visions of trade wind sailing for Picton Castle's crew. Here, the author stands by the anchor chain in Halifax, Nova Scotia, just days after they departed Lunenburg.
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wondering why rhey'd each spent $32 ,500 (US) to be here. "If yo u fall overboard," Jesse said to his watch, "jam your marlinspike in yo ur eye, because there's no way yo u'll be rescued." His watch laughed nervously at the severity. I chuckled too. I was not quite so serious as Jesse. Probably it was reflected in m y rank-a seco nd-string able-bodied seaman, below the bo'sun on our watch. Still, Jesse was right. A man overboard stood next to no chance in this water. I worked my way forward to the fo'c'sle for a few hours' rest before my next watch. I climbed into my upper bunk, drew the curtain , fl ipped on my fifteen-watt reading light and settled my shoulders against the bulkhead. At about thirty inches, this fo'c'sle bunk was wider than most in commercial ships, and I was one of the lucky few with a porthole. No doubt it would be a luxury in the tropics, though now condensation and ocean spray obscured its glass, sparkling em erald in the starboard sidelight. I grabbed my journal from the shelf beside me. Pulling up my knees to prop the book, I slammed them noisily into the guitar I'd strapped to my overhead. I muffled the strings, and with hands stiff from cold I wrote: It has been many months since I've
16
written an entry. I've been working like a dog on the ship and finishing my sea chest. What few thoughts I've put on paper I have sent to Ariel. These months have been poignant. I've gotten to know Dad much better. He's a sage man and carries a lot of sadness. H is eyes were filled with tears when we sailed off the dock. Laurel cried on my shoulder last night. I didn't expect it-my sister and I have been so aloof lately. I love Laurel. She seems both grown up and a little girl. Mom cried today. The last few months have held a lot of . disappointment. I avoid the Captain. My father is worried about the voyage. I feel I've grown a lot here. Everyone has. Here I go. Ho meward bound. When watch duty came around at 2000 hours, chief mate Brian ordered me back to the wheel. The sky was near black except for a spattering of stars visibl e through a rip in the clouds. The seas had grown more turbulent and cold wind grabbed at my throat. A brass hood with a glass window like an old-fas hioned diving helmet had been placed over the binnacle. Inside it, a red light illuminated the compass card that swivelled and kicked. I held the wheel and tried to get a sense of the conditions. The sea was on the quarter, not quite from the stern. It pushed us
around, corkscrewing the ship through the water. Yaw, roll and pitch. After a while bo'sun Josh, our stocky, bearded watch leader, told m e to help a new crewwom an learn to steer. Patricia Lynch, a Boston lobbyist, was one of th e few crew not seas ick. She stood beside the wheel and leaned towards the compass, squinting over pharmacy reading glasses that were obscured by salt spray. Her hands clurched the spokes of the helm tightly, partly to steer, partly for balance. In the light of the compass I no ticed she wo re mascara and lipstick. I smelled expensive perfume o n the cold northwest wind. ''A touch left," I said. "Just a few spokes. Now bring the wheel back amidships. That's good." "I can't see a fu cki ng thing," she said in her smoky voice, and laughed a full, raspy laugh. I li ked her spmt. "Try steering fo r those three stars over there . .. those ones, in a row, Orion's belt." Patricia steered for Orion while the wind built to the predicted gale force. The temperature continued to drop. Icy wind tore the tips of waves into long streaks of foam that glowed pale white in our stern light. The ship stood up well to the growing
(Above left) Irving Joh nson once said that going aloft is the closet to heaven a sailor ever gets. We can only wonder if this will be true for bosun josh Weissman-here, working aloft in better weather; (below) The view ofthe deck from high in the rig.
SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
wind and her high square sails helped dampen her motion, though when the seas caught her right, she rolled through eigh ty degrees, swinging her rail m asts like chopsticks. Standing near bow or stern, you could sometimes feel her drop from beneath us. She put her nose down. A burst of speed; she headed for the trough. She nearly stopped, blasting salt water over the bow. When we were deep in these troughs, the tops of the swells covered the horizo n, even looking from the quarterdeck, with eyes sixteen feet above water. ''Are you OK, Patricia?" "Oh, I'm fine." She tilted her head back and laughed, her lipstick deep red in the dim light of the compass. "I just feel like I'm in a movie." Patricia's spi rit reinforced my idea that laughter and activity ward off seasickness. I'd learned to act as if the ailment didn't exist. Acknowledge that knot in your gut or the sting of a headache and seasickness will overpower you. At 2200 hours, bo'sun Josh had the helm relieved. In one of his typically descriptive orders he told me to take a watchmate on a ship check. "Buddy up," he said. "Look in all the compartments, look for water, make sure no one's hurt, rend the coal fire in the galley stove, make sure there's no fire anywhere else, look in the hold to see if the cargo is secure, but don't go in if yo u don't have to." We threw a little coal in the stove's firebox. Kettles fenced in on the stovetop rattled. They held coffee that our eccentric cook had sewn into mesh bags and left to boil for God knows how long. Thar coffeemaking technique and her delegation of all cooking duties in Lunenburg were some of her less welcome efficiencies. We walked forward to the fo'c'sle, into the quarters of my fellow ABs, or able-bodied seamen . We heard the scrape of sea chests moving in their lashings and the slap of wet foulwearher gear against bunks and bulkheads. The compartment pitched, yawed, rolled, dropped, stopped. The main salo n, though it moved less, was a disaster. The sickly sweet smell of supper was still there, but it'd been altered by the acrid smell of stomach juice, accompanied by the retch and splatter of barf hitting buckets. A peek in the cargo SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
hold revealed that the goods on the starboard side had settled. On the port side, a haphazard stack of used bicycles reached nearly to the overhead and teetered precariously. We climbed the broad mainsalon ladder to the deck and waited for a swell that'd just piled over the rail to roll to .. P.ollickla( .. brllllantlTtold.¡ -George D1wu Grun
PLENTY OF IT A Mo o ERN¡ D AY TAL L SH IP A DVENTURE
RIGEL CROCKETT
the low side of the ship. Leaning into the wind, holding on to the rail on the ship's high side, we headed quickly to the stern of the main deck, a place we called the aloha deck. This was where the seasick people were. They'd come for the ab undance of fresh air. In the light shining from the m ess, I saw their pallid faces twisted in pain. A seasick sailor leaned over the rail next to the spare lube oil barrels. I knew that horrible feel ing-a head full of wo rms, a diseased animal in the stomach clawing its way up. We climbed the ladder to the quarterdeck and waited umil midnight, when the next watch relieved us. It felt about time. The small patch of clear sky had long since been choked in by thick cloud, which drove a cold rain. We gathered by the charthouse, where chief mate Brian acco unted for us, looked everyone in the eyes and said good night. As I turned to descend the ladder, making sure the greenest hands made it safely to the main salon, bo'sun Josh clamped his hand on my shoulder. I turned to look at his face, inscrutable beneath beard and sou'wester. The red charrhouse light emphasized the
bend in his nose, busted three times, once by marlinspike. "Rigel," he said, "sleep with yo ur boots on." I rolled my foul-weather pants down over my boots and wedged them between a couple of sea chests below my bunk. I figured the bo'sun's comm ent was exaggeration, but if his instinct proved right, I'd be able to jump into them like a fireman . I climbed into my bunk with my clothes on and wedged myself in with dirty laundry, pillow and blankets to keep from being thrown arou nd. They were all wet from co ndensation and the fo'c's le smelled dank. I felt like a pig in a cement mixer. A confused sleep took me, interrupted by the hourly passi ng of crew on a ship check, the jarring smack of tall waves against porthole, the racking shudder of the bow sliding sideways down the face of a swell. Heavy rolls made rhe foul-weather gear stand out from its hooks. Heavy rolls left me clutching to stay in my bunk, thinki ng for a moment of the events that brought me here. .t Rigel Crockett grew up outside ofLunenburg, Nova Scotia. He currently lives in Savannah, Georgia, with his wife, Ariel Janzen, and is pursuing a writing career. He holds a USCG 100-ton master's license and a 1600-ton mate's license. For more information on the author and Fair Wind and Plenty of It, visit www.tallshipadventure.com. For information on the barque Picton Castle, visit www.picton-castle.com. Picton Castle was a cover feature in Sea History 109 (Winter 2004-2005).
I7
Lake Champlain Maritime Museum by Arthur B. Cohn
L
ake C hamplain today seems an unlikely place for a maritime museum . Ser between Vermont's Green Mountains and New York's Adirondacks, Lake C hamplain gives the sense that it has always been a serene place of overwhelming beaury. The few sailboats dotting the horizon in the summer belie a profoundly rich maritime history. Lake Champlain's role in North American history can be credited to the happenstance of geography. The lake is a 120-mile long navigable waterway in a region that, for much of the historic period, was considered an im penetrable wilderness. Roads were awful, if they existed at all, so the movement of people and supplies by water was the most reasonable option.
This 1771 map ofthe northeast colonies shows the important geographical position ofLakes Champlain and George.
Human occupation along the shores of Lake Champlain began roughly 12,000 years ago as Paleo-Indian cultures hunted game in the shadow of receding glaciers. For millennia native cultures flourished; however, with the 1609 arrival of French explorer Samuel de C hamplain , the whole complexion of human history in the region changed. For rhe next 150 years military conflict between France and Britain dominated the C hamplain Valley. Ir was
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the lake's geographic position in those nations' contested colonial hinterlands that led to its intensive military use, with forrs erected along its shorelines and warships sailing its waters. 1he end of hostilities came with the British victory in the Seven Years War in 1763. Peace, however, was short-lived, with the American Revolution soon engulfing the region. The early years of the struggle for independence saw considerable conflict on Lake Champlain, culminating in the October 1776 fleet engagement at the Battle of Valcour Island. With the 1783 Peace of Paris, settlement of the Champlain Valley began in earnest. Lake Champlain's final military episode occurred during the War of 181 2 with a fleer action between the Royal Navy and the US Navy at the Bartle of Plattsburgh Bay. The American victory helped bring an honorable end to the war. During the nineteenth century, the development of steamboats and construction of canals transformed Lake C hamplain into a dynamic commercial superhighway. During all of these complex and layered years of confli ct and commerce on the water's surface, many vessels found th ei r way to the bottom of the lake. Ir is the smdy and preservation of these shipwrecks that marks rhe cornerstone of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum's mission. The museum's origins can be traced to the early 1980s, as shipwrecks fro m the French and Indian War, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and the lake's nineteenth century commercial era were located and smdied. The region lacked an outlet to share this wealth of new knowledge with the public. The time was right to establish a new institution devoted to the discovery, smdy, preserva tion, and public interpretation of Lake Champlain's shipwrecks. The museum, inco rporated in 1985 as a private non-profit, opened its doors at historic Basin Harbor, Vermont, on Lake C hamplain in 1986. The venerable Basin H arbor C lub, a Lake C hamplain resort operated by four generations of the Beach fami ly for more than a century, donated the land, while the neighboring town of Panton contributed an 181 8 stone schoolhouse. Eighteen months later, the schoolhouse had been reconstructed stone-by-
The still-intact wheel of the 0 .] . Walker attests to the excellent shipwreck preservation conditions in Lake Champlain.
stone on the three-acre site, and the Lake Champlain M aritime Museum was born. Over the years the LCMM's significant nauti cal archaeology studies have contributed to the public's renewed interest in Lake C hamplain and stimulated a rapid expansion of the museum site. The Stone Schoolhouse is now surrounded by a dozen other buildings, including the Nautical Archaeo logy Center, Conservation Laboratory, Small Boat Collections building, an eighteenth century-sryle blacksmith shop, the Boarbuilding Shop, and a visitor center. A wide variery of exhibitions, educational opportunities, and courses and workshops, both o n campus and off, have been developed and implemented. The public is connected to Lake Champlain's extraordinary histo ric and archaeological legacy through LCMM's production of films, publication of books, and the development of youth and family boar building experiences. The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum's research arm, the Maritime Research Institute (MRI) , spearheads the archaeological study of Lake Champlain archaeological sites and also partners with other organizations for shipwreck smdies in the Great Lakes, the Azores, Oklahoma,
SEA HISTORY 11 1, SUMMER 2005
A Council of American Maritime Museums Profile
(above) LCMM's Basin Harbor Campus; (below) The eighteenth century meets the nineteenth when the Revolutionary 1v%r replica gunboat Philadelphia II sits beside the replica canal schooner Lois McClure at the museum's docks.
and recently in the Hudson River. MRI has worked with the States of Vermont and New York to envision and implement the Lake Champlain Underwater Historic Preserve, a program that facilitates recreational diver access to historic shipwrecks. Active partnerships with the Naval Historical Center, the National Park Service, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric
SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
Administration (NOAA) have been designed to help manage the lake's collection of submerged military sites. Translating this growing body of technical information into compelling stories for the public is the very heart of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. Tn the early 1980s the methodical and steady documentation of Lake Cham-
plain's collection of historic shipwrecks was begun. The pace of this study, however, was altered dramatically when, in the early 1990s, zebra mussels, a non-native nuisance species, were discovered in Lake Champlain. This invasion and the resulting negative impact of these mollusks on shipwrecks led the museum to implement a systematic sonar survey of the entire lake. Between 1996 and 2004, over 400 square miles of lake bottom was surveyed to collect baseline information on its submerged archaeological sites. The survey located over 60 previously-unknown sites, bringing to approximately 300 the number of known Lake C hamplain shipwrecks. Most of these vessels are intact time capsul es, representing a chronological collection of our nation's historic past. Not surprisingly, most of the wrecks have their origin in the dynamic commercial era that exploded after the 1823 opening of the Champlain (or Northern) Canal that connected Lake Champlain to the Hudson River. There are dozens of intact canal boats representing each era of can;.i l construction. To these, add several early
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nineteenth-century lake sloops, a World War II US Army Crash Boat, a propeller-driven steam tugboat, a horse powered ferry, the Revolutionary War era "Great Bridge," a vintage seaplane, and several intact sailing canal boats, and one begins to sense the diversity of this prodigious collection. Nonetheless, of all the new discoveries, the gunboat Spitfire is arguably the most important shipwreck in the collection. In 1776, the American army was trying to prevent the British from using Lake Champlain to invade the Colonies. General Benedict Arnold was appointed Commodore of America's first naval squadron, and he positioned it to defend the Colonies from an imminent British invasion. On 11 October 1776, the Battle of Valcour Island, a bloody five-hour engagement took place between the Royal Navy and Arnold's "rabble." In the aftermath of this engagement, Arnold executed an incredible nighttime retreat past a British blockade but had to abandon two weakened gunboats. One of these, Spitfire, was discovered in 1997 sitting intact in deep
Artist's depiction of the gunboat Spitfire on the bottom ofLake Champlain.
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LCMM staffin period clothing engage a class ofschool children onboard the Revolutionary TI!ar-era gunboat replica Philadelphia II. water, remarkably with its mast still standing and bow cannon still searching for the enemy. The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is now a partner with the Naval Historical Center in the management of this national treasure. The discovery of the gunboat Spitfire meshed perfectly with the museum's existing program of building replica vessels. In 1991 , six years before Spitfire was found, the LCMM launched Philadelphia II, a reproduction of one of Arnold's gunboats which sank at the Battle ofValcour Island and a sister ship to Spitfire. The original Philadelphia was recovered in 1935 and was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution for its new National Museum of American History. When Philadelphia II was launched, it joined Perseverance, a 36foot replica of a colonial era bateau built in 1987. Perseverance was based on a British example recovered from neighboring Lake George, New York, and curated at the Adirondack Museum . The value of these replicas for effectively engaging the public in the discussion of historic preservation and history encouraged the LCMM to build its newest replica, the canal schooner Lois McClure (see pages 21-23), her design based on archaeological data from two sunken canal schooners. The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum was created out of the desire to provide a connecting place where Lake
Champlain's shipwrecks and their stories wo uld be accessible to the public. The timing was apparently right and, since 1986, the museum has experienced great public interest and support and exponential growth. During this same period, knowledge about the size and character of Lake Champlain's shipwreck collection has grown beyond anything dreamed of twenty years ago. The continuing challenge to preserve, share, study, and manage this collection seems to provide no shortage of opportunities in the years ahead. ;t
~;;?de ~~ _ÂŁ_Maritime Museum 44 72 Basin Harbor Road Vergennes, VT 05491 Ph. 802 475-2022
Open daily 1 May - mid-October 10AM to 5PM Admission is charged. Web: www.lcmm.org Email: info@lcmm.org 2005 Special Events Kid's Maritime Festival: 18-19 June Small Boat Festival: 16-17 July Rabble in Arms: 20-21 August SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
Lake Champlain's Sailing Canal Boats by Arthur B. Cohn
T
his summer, residems of the C hamplain and Hudson Valleys will have an opportuniry to experience a piece of their histo ry not seen for more than a cemury. In July 2004, the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum launched an 88-foot-long replica canal schooner. Named for a great friend to LC MM and a magnanimous citizen of Vermont, Lois McClure was designed to provide a new window into the working-class world of these nineteenth-century freight haulers and the people who operated them. When the first archaeological example of a Lake Champlain sailing canal boat was found in 1980, this vessel type and the mariners who operated them had been all but forgotten. More than three decades of research , both underwater and in archives, now provide an understanding of these past equi valents of long-haul tractor-trailers and the society of mariners who operated them. Unlike today's trucker, canalers often traveled wirh rheir families, and rhe canal boars served as rheir homes. Our story begins just prior to 1823, the year the Champlain (or Northern) Canal was completed. This 63-mile New York State-funded canal permitted newlydesigned watercraft to pass between Lake Champlain and rhe Hudso n River, linking Champlain Valley products with Hudson Valley marketplaces and beyond through
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canal boats were transformed into towed canal boats. The sailing rig, which stepped on the deck, was removed and the centerboard raised to permit the canal boat to transit through the locks and canal to the Hudson River without transshipping irs cargo. In rhe early years, when steam towboats were few, their sailing rigs were often taken aboard and re-rigged upon reaching rhe Hudson , allowing rhem to sail to their destination. As time passed and steam towboats becam e more numerous, the rig was often stored ar a sail loft in Whitehall
(left) Map showing the regional waterways used by canal boats; (below) 1he canal schooner General Buder as she looks on the bottom ofLake Champlain. Drawing by Kevin Crisman; (above right) A canal schooner under sail on Lake Champlain, 1830.
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is found to answer all rhe uses intended." Thus began rhe life of a watercraft which allowed lake m erchants and captains to sail to rhe Champlain Canal entrance at Whitehall, New York, where the sailing
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rhe Port of New York. On Lake Champlain it triggered the beginning of the region's most dynamic commercial growth and, in conjunction wirh the Erie Canal completed just two years larer, ir established New York City as rhe most dynamic commercial harbor in rhe United States. Over the next century, canal boars, borh sailing vessels and the more numerous towed canal boats, were an everyday sighr on Lake Champlain. Even after rhe proliferation of railroads, canal boars continued to operate as rhe backbone of rhe region's commercial freight system . Wirh rhe completion of the Canadian Chambly Canal (1843), rhe Northern Waterway became a veritable maritime inrersrare system on which canalers regularly moved cargoes between New York C iry and Canada. At its height, there were thousands of towed canal boars and several hundred sailing canal boars in operation. By the time of the Grear Depression, the canal boat era was already over. A way of life soon faded into rhe pas r and our of memory. We now know that the Lake Champlain sailing canal boar was created concurrently with rhe opening of rhe Champlain Canal in 1823. In fact, the very first vessel to transit rhe newly-completed Champlain Canal in September of 1823 was Gleaner of Sr. Albans, Vermont. Described in an 1823 newspaper article, "The vessel [Gleaner] was built as an experiment and
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SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
21
Schooner Lois McClure,
2004
hall for the retu rn trip. By the 1870s, the crew and an army of volunteers . Working schooner's effectiveness as a platform to towboat system had become so well es- seasonally from May until November, our stimulate an interest in history exceeded tablished that the advantage of the sailing shipyard was a dynamic, publicly-accessi- our every expectation. It was magic. It is rig no longer justified its extra costs and ble facility. By the end of 2003 we hosted the most effective program of historical they were no longer built. The canal it- more than 60,000 visitors, and the new interpretation that the Lake Champlain self proved remarkably successful and was canal schooner, modeled after two sub- Maritime Museum has ever produced. twice expanded before the turn of the cen- merged originals, was almost completed. In 2005, Lois McClure and her comtury. Each enlargement of the locks and In early July 2004, the new canal boat panion tugboat CL. Churchill will emcanal prism permitted a related canal boat was moved to its launching site. Engineered bark on a "Grand Journey" retracing the size expansion. By the twentieth century, to be a component of the City of Burling- traditional route of a Lake Champlain the advent of railroads and canal boat. She will travel changing patterns of trade through the Champlain eventually caused canal Canal to the Hudson Rivtraffic to decline. In a last er and New York City and gasp effort to return trade return. In their day, canal to the canal, the present boats moved the produce day New York State Barge of the farm to market, and Canal system was built this expedition is being between 1905-1915. Unappropriately sponsored fortunately for the canal by the farm families that proponents, the expanded own Cabot Creameries. system never met expecWe invite the public and Lois McClure, ambling along with Camel's Hump as a backdrop, schools to visit Lois Mctations. The automobile recreates a typical view ofthe region from over a century ago. would sound the death Clure during her Grand knell for the region's canal PHOTO BY BENJAMIN BREWSTER Journey and experience boats. the days when wooden Over the past three decades, dozens ton's Independence Day celebrations, the canal boats and their families provided a of canal boats have been fo und on the launch attracted more than 10,000 people connection to our communities. .t bottom of Lake Champlain. That schoo- to witness and share the event. The weathner located in 1980, General Butler, was er was perfect, the speeches short, and the Arthur B. Cohn is the cojounder and studied extensively, as have several of the schooner's transition to the water flaw- Executive Director of LCMM. He is an adother fourteen sailing canal boats which less. With the assembled crowd clapping junct professor of nautical archaeology at the have been located in the lake. Derailed and cheering, Lois McClure, the fi rst canal Univeristy of Vermont and the Institute of construction information taken from schooner launched into Lake Champlain Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M. He these wrecks allowed nautical archaeolo- in more than a century, was guided to its has been the coordinator ofthe Lake Champgists to create accurate plans of these hy- new homeport at historic Perkins Pier for lain Underwater Preserve since its inception brid vessels. When Mac McClure, one of its final fitting out. in 1985. The plan for the rest of 2004 was to Vermont's leading philanthropists, offered LCMM the opportunity "to do something complete the fitting out and then put the For more information, check out Lake dynamic on the Burlington waterfront schooner through its "lake" trials. Ballast- Champlain's Sailing Canal Boats (ISBN: that also honors Lois's [his wife] livelong ed with marble blocks and inspected by 0-9641856-2-8). Contact the museum for love of Lake Champlain" we thought we the US Coast Guard, we embarked on a dates and port stops for this summer's "Grand had the perfect project: build a full-sized two-month long "Inaugural Tour" visiting journey" with Lois McClure (contact inforcanal schooner and name it for Lois. The more than a dozen h istoric harbors around mation for LCMM on page 20). McClures loved the idea, and the Burling- the lake. After four years of dedicated efton Schooner Project became a reality. fort by an army of project supporters, two Lake Champlain's A project this ambitious required the questions remained unanswered as we got Sailing Canal Boats community to embrace it, and we have closer to our date of embarkation: would An ntustrated Journey From had extraordinary support along the way. the schooner function well as a watercraft Burlington Bay to the Hudson River Early on, the Lake Champlain Transpor- and would the public come to visit and tation Company, an integral part of lake find its history of interest? history since 1826, offered us a facility on The Inaugural Tour was poetry. Not h istoric King Street Dock to establish a only did the schooner outperform our shipyard. The construction effort began in hopes as a watercraft, bur the outpouring 2001 with the gathering of a professional of public interest was overwhelming. The '-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~---'
SEA HISTORY 111, SUMMER 2005
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The "vagrant gypsy life" of a crew member on a sailing ship may not appeal to many people today, but it certainly has its select fans . Rigel Crockett is clearly one of them. With a shipbuilding father and a sailmaking mother, Rigel may have had no choice but to become a sailor. At the age of 12, Rigel served as cabin boy aboard Ernestina, a 156-foot schooner out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was here that he first met Captain Dan Moreland. After a summer of training from Moreland, Rigel dreamed of becoming a ship captain himself one day. Soon after, Rigel began building his own boat, following his father's advice that the length of one 's boat should match one 's age. Three years later, it was done. (The boat did not grow, although Rigel did.)
By the time he signed onto the Picton Castle, Rigel had plenty of sailing experience. He had sailed the square-topsail ketch Sheila Yeates off the coast of Newfoundland until shortly before it sank near Greenland. Then he worked as a deckhand on Shenandoah, a square top-sail schooner out of Martha's Vineyard. Rigel was a paid crew member, one of the professional sailors onboard the barque Picton Castle. In 1997, the ship began its first circumnavigation since being converted from a steam vessel. Some passengers paid over 30,000 dollars for the privilege of apprenticing as sailors. For this sum, they would learn to sail and help with daily shipboard chores as the ship made its 26month voyage circling the globe. The journey started in Nova Scotia, Canada, not far from where Rigel grew up. It headed south and then west, crossing to the Pacific Ocean through the Panama Canal. In the words of Captain Moreland, voyages like this build character. "We don't have to like everybody," he says, "but for a ship to get across an ocean, getting along and resolving problems are essential skills." (For more about the Picton Castle, see Sea History, Winter 2004-2005.) You may find the idea of leaving school and family for a while appealing, but don't expect a vacation as crew member of a working sailing ship. Along the voyage, Crockett's favorite spot was a tiny atoll (low-lying coral island) in the Pacific Ocean, yet there was more than suntan oil and coconuts to this trip. "Half my clothing had rotted in a bucket of sea water when I left my dirty laundry to soak in the Galapagos and then neglected it for days," writes Crockett in Fair Wind and Plenty ofIt, a book about his adventure on the ship. "I'd lost my glasses in Cape Town and accidentally burned my passport in Zanzibar. My wallet had been stolen in Bali and I'd lost my boots in Panama. My sandals gave up the ghost in Africa, and Tom had given me an extra pair of shoes that I'd cut the heels out of so they wouldn't give me blisters." Sound like fun? If it does, months at sea aboard a sail-in
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ost ships that circumnavigate the globe today pass through the Panama C ships had to round Cape Hom at the southern tip of South America. That continent is so large San Francisco could take several months at the time of the Gold Rush in 1849. A canal cutting would take weeks off the voyage. Work on the canal began in 1904. It took ten years to complete and cost 387 million dollars. (It more today.) Over 5600 workers died during construction, many from malaria, a disease caused by m canal was built by the United States, which handed over control to the country of Panama in 1999.
Parts ot a Lock A lock is a section of a canal. Locks are rectangular pools of water in a row. Gates at either end of each lock can be closed to hold water or opened to allow boats to move through the canal, one lock at a time. A sluice is a waterway in which water flows into or out of a lock. Upper and lower valves open to let water pass through a sluice.
How a Lock Works Ships can't climb steps. If they could, locks would not be needed to help ships pass through some canals. Canals, like rivers, follow the elevation of the land where they run. Even if a ship begins and ends a canal crossing at sea level, it may need to change elevation if the land along the waterway rises or falls. A man-made canal may have a series of locks for this purpose. This is how locks in a canal work: Water rushes into a pond (lock) to raise or lower the level of a ship or smaller vessel. If a ship is heading from a higher point to a lower point, the lower valve opens, letting water rush through sluices into a second lock. This lowers the water level in the lock that contains the ship. At the same time, it raises the water level in the next lock. When the level of water is the same in both locks, the gate opens and the ship passes to the next lock. These steps repeat until the ship exits the locks. To go upstream, the process is reversed. Water is pumped into the lock. This raises the water level - and the ship-to the water level in the next lock. The gate opens and the ship moves to the next lock.
28
SEAHISTORY 111, SUMMER2005
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MARITIME HIST ORY O N T H E I N TERNET
Pirates Off the Port Bow by Peter McCracken
A
s a topic for research on the Web, piracy offers an abundance of useless information among a few deposits of reliable sources. Do a search for "piracy" or "pirates" and you'll find thousands of sites, the vast majority of which are completely irrelevant. A search for something more specific, such as "piracy maritime history," will produce a better set of results, bur yo u'll still have a lot of wading to do. Let's explore some ways of searching for relevant information, along with a sampling of the better sites out there. "Webrings" are an interesting approach to online communi ties. People with similar interests link all their sites together in a single, subject-specific "ring." One can surf from one site in the ring to the next, see all the sites in the ring, or jump randomly from one spot to another. Any site can be added to a webring; there's generally no vetting process for these comm unities. Nevertheless, they do offer a good way of linking together sites sharing at least some similarities. Webrings never gained the popularity that was expected for them, but if you find a ring that m atches yo ur interests, it's certain ly worth investigating. O ne pirate ring is situated at http://www.ringsurf.com/netrin g ?action=info&ring=pirate; it contains over 80 related sites. "Pirates and Privateers," maintained by Cindy Vallar at http://www.cindyvallar.com/piratelinks.html , provides a nice overview of piracy-related li nks. The "Pirate Image Archive" at http: //www.piratehaven.org/ ~ b eej/p irates/ has a great collection of, well, images of pirates. "American Journeys ," created by th e W isconsin Historical Society and posted at http://www. americanjourneys.org, contains nearly 200 documents-and over 18,000 pages-of eyewitness accounts of early American exploration, many of which relate to piracy. This is an impressive site that has m any p rimary resources available to all for free. The North Carolina Maritime Museum offers lots of information about Blackbeard, whose ship, Queen Anne's Revenge,
was likely discovered off Beaufort near the museum several years ago. The museum has a page about Blackbeard at h ttp://www.ah.d cr.state.nc. us/ sections/ maritim e/Blackbeard/ and another about the ship and its excavation at h ttp://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/qar/. The weekly piracy report at http://www.icc-ccs.org/ prc/ piracyrep ort.php reminds us that piracy is not relegated to history books; modern sailors, especially in Asia, are dealing with pirates on a daily basis. With much larger ships and smaller crews, modern sailors have their work cut out for them when dealing with pirates and shouldn't be forgotten. Finally, don't forget the silly side. "Talk Like a Pirate Day" occurs ann ually on September 19. This is a great example of an internet-created community: two guys in Oregon started talking like pirates one day each year, then e-mailed Dave Barry about it. He wrote a column in September 2002-the rest is a very impressive history, indeed. Learn more than you wanted to know at http://www.talklikeapirate.com. Other virtual pirate communities, where you can type like a pirate, are at h ttp://www.pyracy.com, http://www.noquartergiven.net, h ttp://piratesinparadise.com, and many more than I imagined possible. Finally, it was bound to happen eventually, bur it happened earlier than I would have liked. In the last issue, I gave in correct information about how to search for books in libraries using OCLC's Open WorldCat project. The correct method is to type in some words from the title or the author, and include "link: worldcatlibraries.org". Apologies, matey ... Suggestions for other sites worth mentioning are welcome at shipindex@yahoo.com. See http://www.shipindex.org for a compilation of over 100,000 ship names from indexes to dozens of books and journals. .t
Science, technology, history, sea lore, heroism, corruption and intrigue combine in nine tales of underwater forensic investigations
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Maritime Mysteries and Forensic Science by Peter R. Limburg
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31
Historic Ships on a Lee Shore
Getting Historic Ships Off a Lee Shore: A Better Approach for the 21st Century by Melbourne Smith
"... or shall our ships, like the pyramids and mummies ofEgypt go down to posterity in silence, ignorance, or conjecture, without a page to define the art that brought them forth?" -John W Griffiths, American Ship Designer, 1854
T
he likes of Karl Kortum, Peter Stanford, and Peter Throckmorton were giants in rescuing forsaken sailing ships from the knackers. Few people cared a fig for these abandoned hulks back then, but with sheer determination and their last nickel, they and a few others mustered enough support to save them. Eight of these merchant sailing ships are on display in the US today. All are iron icons of foreign design, and they fight for their upkeep costs with admissions, donations, and grants. We need a better approach than just showing these faded ladies as static urban props. Keeping a sailing sh ip at a dock is like keeping a naked eagle in a cage. The curious come to look, but they cannot fath om what the great bird can do. Without his feathers, the unhappy bird can no longer fly. With all the skill and enthusiasm we now have, money could be better spent rehabilitating such endangered species. Taxidermy, even with life-like glass eyes, is no longer the acceptable solution. Better ways to save our maritime heritage are emerging. Ships that have been restored or replicated with a functioning life fare much better. It would be difficult to justify restoring a Stradivarius violin by charging people just to see it, but a hundred times more can be gleaned to hear a maestro play the rare instrument. Ships, too, need to be sailed if they are to be understood and appreciated. The emerging fact is that a ship costs less to maintain with a sea-going crew than when
The 109-year old schooner Ernestina is one of the few original Gloucester fishing schooners still actively sailing, though each year is a struggle to keep her finances afloat.
32
All our ships cannot be saved. Those dear-
Endeavour doubled Cape Horn in 2001. left as a stage in the hands of a Pinafore casr. Many smaller sailing vessels have already discovered this sea-going advantage, but in the larger-class ships we must look beyond our borders to witness real successes. This becomes immediately apparent if yo u step aboard the barque Picton Castle. She has sailed around the world a few times and has just left port to do it again. You know the ship, her crew, and her American sailing master are the real things. Captain Cook's Endeavour is another excellent example. There, you see hempen standing rigging that has fought stormy seas for twelve years, all properly serviced and tarred to last twelve more. She, too, has a crew that wrings salt water from their stockings. There's no mistaking a real ship in seagoing trim. If we are to save more ships, and by this I mean our American vessels, we must restore them and keep them in sea-going condition wherever possible. National Historic Trust guidelines allow that when a maritime artifact no longer exists, an experimental approach of replication is the accepted alternative in three stages: research, construction, and deployment in original environment. It is the scholarly way to recover our heritage. When it is impossible to restore, we can replicate. There is another caveat in saving our ships to sail. We can also foster the art that brought them forth. The finest trumpet is just another piece of polished brass until it is played by a master like Wynton Marsalis. Every time the horn is heard another dozen kids ask if they too can learn to play. A living heritage breeds respect and a love for the art. A broken instrument in a pawn shop only breeds indifference. If we really want to start saving ships in this century, we must establish our priorities.
est in the hearts of our people must rake precedenr. Ir should be the vessels best illustrating American ingenuity and design superiority or representing our best moments in history. The British can have their Cutty Sark, the French their bounry ships, the Spanish their galleons, and the Swedes their W0sa. Let the world admire some of our unique creations. Ships from the American Revolution, the War of 1812, a whaler that helped open Japan, a five-masted schooner, a great Down Easter, and an American clipper to celebrate the pinnacle reached in the history of sail are but a few. By saving the historic sea-going gems of distinctive New World design, we as a nation will have something to cherish. Coupled with our youth training and workable business plans for promotion and good will, we
Onboard the US Brig Niagara, .farling aloft is a daily routine. will find people at home and abroad waiting to see and support our sailing best, just as Picton Castle, Endeavour, and others have found. Only we can recover our ships-no one else will. Europeans are not interested in saving our ships as we have saved theirs. The clever design innovations, superior workmanship, and daring seamanship is our distinctive heritage alone to reclaim. Foresight and a better approach can be our leg to windward . .t Co-chairman of NMHS Advisors and a former sailing master, Melbourne Smith is a ship designer and builder responsible for such vessels as the brig Niagara, Pride of Baltimore, Californian, Spirit of Massachus;errs, and Lynx. At present he is planning the replication of the whaler John Howland to celebratte the rescue of the Japanese scholar Manjiro, and{ the clipper ship Sea Wirch as a trade ambassado1r for Shanghai Expo 2010.
SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
The World's Last Surviving Whaleback, SS Meteor
"B
by Judirh Liebaert
ring Back the Whaleback", a slogan coined by rhe Superior Ship Acquisirion Comminee in rhe !are 1960s, launched a successful campaign to return SS Meteor to her birthplace in Wisconsin. Today, rhe same goal is shared by a growing number of historians and ship enthusiasrs who want to rerurn rhe lase remaining, non-submerged whaleback freighrer to a well-mainrained and preserved condirion. SS Meteor was launched ar Superio r, Wisconsin, in 1896 and chrisrened Frank Rockefeller. Designed by Caprain Alexan-
1936
carry coal and iron ore. Throughout her SS Meteor on Barker's Island today working career she changed hands and was refined three times-the last in 1942 '" when Cleveland Tankers, Inc. rebuilt her as a petroleum tanker and renamed her SS Meteor. She continued to sail the G reat Lakes until she went aground in Marquette, Michigan, in 1969. Cleveland Tankers offered Meteor to the City of Superior in the hopes that she their annual list of "Ten Most Endangered would be maintained as a maritime muse- Historic Properties. " This designation is um, and the volunteer efforts of the Supe- helping ro bring awareness of the ship's sirior Ship Acquisition Comminee brought gnificance and its plight beyond the comthe ship home. Operated by Superior Pu- munity to a state and national level. Last blic Museums, Inc., she is land-berthed September, the Jeffris Family Foundation at Barker's Island, just a few blocks from awarded SS Meteor a $5 0,000 challenge where she was launched. Since 1971 , tens grant. "The Duluth Superior Area Commuof thousands of visitors have routed her. ) nity Foundation responded with $8,000 in Nonetheless, time has raken its toll matching funds, leavi ng $42,000 yet to be 1 and the ship is in great need of repair and ¡/ aised. This growing interest and support restoration. A concerted effort is underway f the effort ro restore SS Meteor is encouto preserve her. An Hisroric Strucr!:!J"es Reaging, bur more help is desperarely neeport is the first step in this preservation 1 ed. Additional funding is being sought, project. 1his comprehensive study will I and SPM is actively planning public events examine rhe vessel's history, docume1it her that wiil raise further awareness. With 73 years of working service ascurrent condition, and outline a plan for .. repair and restoration. The HSR is costly tern and nearing 35 years in service as a and time consuming. To help defray the ~useum, Meteor now awaits the complericost, in 2003 the National Trusr for His- on of her legacy as a well-maintained histotoric Preservation awarded a Preservation ric property. Once her restoration is comServices Fund grant to start the funding 1. leted and future preservation secured, she effort. Ocher contributors followed incluill survive to share rhe story of her role ding the Wisconsin Coastal Management n Great Lakes shipping and shipbuilding, Program and the City of Superior. fher designer Alexander McDougall, and In 2004, The Wisconsin Trust for f the longest serving and last remaining Historic Preservation added SS Meteor to haleback in the world. 1. For more information about SS Meteor
't
der McDougall and builr by his American Sreel Barge Company, SS Meteor is an example of rhe rechnically-innovative sreelhulled ships thar influenced shipbuilding and the rransporration of bulk cargoes on rhe Grear Lakes at the turn of the century. 1heir design marked an important step in the progression toward the 1,000-foot freighters sailing rhe Great Lakes today. Meteor, one of forty whalebacks built in the Twin Pons of Superior and Duluth (Minnesorn), was originally fated to
I
)
nd how you can help, contact Superior ublic Museums, 306 East Second St., Superior, WT 54880. Ph. 715 334-5712; or isit www.superiorpublicmusuems.org.
AsHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS
v
A national effort is underway to establish what would be the first federally-designated water trail in the US. The Friends of the Chesapeake National Water Trail seek to create a National Park Service water trail that will follow the routes traveled
SPUN YARN gift from Youth Adventure, Inc., the nonprofit sail training organization headed by Mrs. Bennett from 197 4 until her passing in 2001. Scholarships will be awarded according to need, with priority given to students who show individual initiative and leadership qualities. Applications must be received by ASTA by April 1st and November 1st of each year. (ASTA, 240 Thames St., POB 1459, Newport, RI 02840; 401 846-1775; www.sailtraining.org; e-mail: adria@sailtraining.org) . . . USS Missouri (BB-63) Association, Inc. is holding their annual reunion 1-5 Sept 2005 in Alburquerque, NM. (Herb Fahr, 516 931-1769; e-mail: Mobb63mo@aol. com) USS
by Captain John Smith when he first explored and mapped the Chesapeake Bay almost 400 years ago. Span ning the length of the Bay, from the Virginia Capes to the Susquehanna Flats, and encompassing the tidal waters of all the Chesapeake's major tributaries, the proposed water trail wo uld unite more than 1,500 miles of waterways into a single, comprehens ive network equivalent in scope to the Appalachian Trail. The proj ect is bei ng closely coordinated with Sultana Projects, Inc. 's current endeavor to build a replica of the 30-foot open boat that Smith used during his explorations (see: www.johnsmith400. org). If all goes according to plan, this replica will make the inaugural voyage of the new Chesapeake National Water Trail during the summer of 2007. (To learn more abo ut The Friends of the Chesapeake National Water Trail contact: Nancy Merrill, The Conservation Fund, 703 525-6300, www.conservationfund.org) ... The Ernestine Bennett Memorial Scholarship Program has been established to assist applicants over the age of 14 participate in a sail training experience with special consideration given to young women and residents of Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. The scholarship fund and program was initiated with a generous
34
Missouri, 1944
... The shipwreck SS Portland, resting in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary off Massachusetts, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places (see Sea History 107, pages 1621). To qualify, the site has to meet three criteria: it must be associated with events that made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; it must embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, and/or method of construction; and its archaeological remains must yield important historical information. The National Register is administered by the National Park Service, part of the US Dept. of the Interior. (http://stellwagen. noaa.gov) ... The Manjiro Historic Ship Society's plan to build a working replica of the 112-ft. whaling ship John Howland is gathering momentum. The organization hopes to build and use the ship for use as a good-will ambassador. In 1841 the young, shipwrecked Manj iro Nakahama was rescued by the New Bedford whal-
ing ship. He was the first known Japanese person to live within the US, and he remains a revered historical figure memorialized in both countries for his Manjiro in 1880 accomplishments as a translator, navigator, diplomat, educator and statesman. No less important was the role played by John Howland's captain, William Whitfield, who rescued Manjiro and raised him like a son back in Massachusetts. These two men ultimately helped unite their two nations in a cooperative manner, predating Commodore Matthew Perry's 1853 arrival in Japan under the cover of naval firepower. The new john How/,and will voyage around the world visiting Japan and the US on a regular basis. In 2004, the organization announced that the ship will be built in Monterey, CA, despite hopes in Massachusetts that she would be built in New Bedford, her original home port. (Manjiro Historic Ship Society, www.usjmf.org; e-mail: info@usjmf.org) . . . South Australia's famous Port Adelaide is the subject of great debate these days regarding the government's proposal to build fixed bridges over the Port River. Residents
and business owners have expressed concerns that the area's rich maritime heritage character and economic potential will be negatively impacted if tall ships are blocked from the inner harbor by closed bridges. In 1859-60, settlement of the region took off afrer copper was discovered nearby. The area soon developed into one of the richest grain-producing areas for Australia and continues to do so. The last of the great sailing ships loaded their grain cargo from SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT AND MUSEUM NEWS ports such as Port Adelaide and Victoria during the 1940s and competed in races back to Europe. â&#x20AC;˘ . . Cutty Sark, the world's last remaining tea clipper, has been awarded funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to support the conservation of the ship. The ship is in need of considerable conservation work, particularly to stop the deterioration of her ironwork. Launched in 1869, Cutty Sark was one of approximately 80 ships built in Great Britain between 1850 and 1872 specifically for the tea trade. The ship was built with composite construction with a keel plate, box keelson, side keelsons, frames and reverse frames, floors, bilge plate, diagonal and longitudinal Architects tie plates, bulwarks, sheer strake and deck stringers of iron. Below the keel plate is a wooden keel of American Rock Elm, and below that a false keel of soft-
wood. HLF will cover half of the estimated ÂŁ25 million needed to conserve and regenerate the ship as an exhibit. One aspect of the plan calls for suspending the restored
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impression of Cutty Sark in her "glass sea. "
ship in a high-tech Kevlar web which will support the hull and allow visitors to walk underneath the ship. The Cutty Sark Trust
Belated "1hank You" to the Merchant Mariners of World Ular II by Roger Tilton
BACK ISSUES. Sea History, Steamboat Bill plus other marine titles and used books. $1.75 stamped LSAE for list. Railpub, 161 Gilmore Rd., Wrentham, MA 02093. www.railpub .com. FREIGHTERCRUISES.COM. Mail ships, containerships, trampers .... Find the ship and voyage that's perfect for you. 1-800-99-Maris. 1812 Privateer FAME of Salem, MA Sails Daily May - October. Ph. 978-729-7600; www.SchoonerFame.com.
Model Restoration/Construction, Captain Norman Smith, Great Island Model Shipyard, 106 Lombos Hole Road, Harpswell, ME 04079, 207-833-6670, E-mail: dysmith@gwi.ner. Art Prints. NYC Fireboats 16x20," $18 each. Also available for commissioned work. Call Steve White: Phone: 718-317-5025; E-mail: fdnyartist@aol.com. To place your classified ad at $1.60 per word, mail your complete message along with payment, to Sea History, Advertising Desk, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566. SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
Calling for "justice and equity" for World War II veterans of the US Merchant Marine, Representative Bob Filner (D) San Diego, California, has reintroduced H. R. 23, "Belated Thanks to the Merchant Mariners of World War II Act of 2005." The Act would not only grant these veterans overdue recognition, but it would also restore lost benefits. Though relatively fewer in numbers, merchant mariners suffered a far higher mortality rate than members of the military services. Between 1941 and 1944 alone, enemy action sank over 800 merchant ships carrying much-needed supplies to troops fighting in every theater of the war. Following the war, from 1945 onward, all who served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard were granted status and financial benefits as veterans. No effort was made by Congress to recognize the service and sacrifice made by merchant seamen who also bore arms against the enemy for over forty years. W hile a "watered down" version of the G . I. Bill was finally granted to them in the Seamen Acts of 1988, they continue to be denied veteran status for purposes of calculating their Social Security income, resulting in lower payments during their retirement. While it is impossible to make up for over forty years of unpaid benefits, H. R. 23 proposes to acknowledge the service of this diminishing gro up of veterans (whose average age is 81 years) and to offer them compensation for their years of lost benefits and income. Under the bill, each eligible veteran, or the surviving spouse, will receive a monthly payment of $1000 and be granted the status of "veteran" under the Social Security Act. For more information, visit www.usmm.org or Congressman Filner's web site at www.house.gov/filn er/. Supporters should contact their elected representatives in the US Congress. 35
has one year ro march the HLF's donation, and they are actively seeking financial support from other sources. (The Curry Sark Trust, 2 Greenwich Church Sr., London, England SElO 9BG; www.currysark.org. uk; e-mail: enquiries@cutrysark.org. uk) . . . The state of North Carolina is planning a surprising move, which will allow recreational SCUBA divers to have access to the wreck site many believe is Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge, sunk in 1718 and discovered in 1997. Though it is common, and many times desirable, to make underwater shipwrecks available ro the public, this program would charge divers $500 per person and documentation of the site is not yet completed. (Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck Project, 3431 Arendell St, Morehead Ciry, NC 28557; 252 726-6841; www.ah.dcr.stare. nc.us/qar/) ... The Nantucket Whaling Museum reopens on 4 June 2005 after major restorations and expansion. Highlights include a resrored 1847 spermaceti candle facrory, expanded exhibition space, a sperm whale skeleron juxtaposed with a fully-rigged whaleboat, and a fully-acces-
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Nantucket Whaling Museum
sible rooftop observation deck overlooking Nantucket Harbor. (15 Broad Sr., POB 1016, Nantucket, MA 02554; 508 2281894; www.n ha.org) ... Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia is offering the new Vaughan Family Maritime Scholarship, which will provide grants of $2,000 ro individuals demonstrating financial need and working roward publication in the areas of wooden sailing ships or steamboats or working roward a graduate degree in a related field of study. Applicants are welcome ro use the museum's collections in their research but are not required ro do so. Application deadline 1 November 2005. (For more info, e-mail mglod@phillyseaport.org; applications should be mailed to: Vaughan Scholarship, Independence Seaport Mu-
seum, 211 Columbus Blvd., Philadelphia, PA 19106; www.phillyseaport.org) Congress has plans to turn the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum into a permanent command center for government agencies in the event of future terrorist attacks. Some of the $3 1 million allocated roward this project will be used ro renovate the aircraft carrier's pier in New York C iry. The command center would include 100,000 sq. fr. of office space with stateof-rhe-art communications systems. (Pier 86, W46rh Sr. and 12th Ave., New York, NY 10036; 212 245 0072; www.intrepidmuseum.org) ... The North Carolina Maritime Museum at Southport has received, on loan, an important collection of letters and documents from 18011811 that were written at Fort Johnston, NC, by a series of post commanders. The letters show the hardships of daily life and work involved in building new structures ro improve the strategic capabiliry of the fort. (NCMM at Southport, 116 N. Howe Sr., Southport, NC 28461; 9 10 45 7-0003; www.ah.d cr.state.nc. us/sec,t,t,t tions/maritime/defaulr.hrm).
SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
Brigantine Irving Johnson on the Beach
T
hey were scenes from another age. One of the newest stars in roday's sailing ship fleet made national news this spring, but not for reaso ns anyo ne would have wanted. On 21 March, the brigantine Irving Johnson was making her approach under power inro O xnard, CA, when she ran hard agro und on a shoal just off the breakwater. Her square sails had been clewed up but not yet furled . There was no time to do much about it-six of the ship's company washed overboard not long after she struck bottom. Rescuers from the county fire department water rescue team pulled the six from the water and soon rescued the rest of the crew and passengers, instructing them to jump into the surf to allow emergency personnel in personal watercraft to get close enough to collect them. All students and crew were wearing PFDs. Irving Johnson was launched in 2003 by the Los Angeles Maritime Institute (LAMI) along with her "twin," the brigantine Exy Johnson. She was sailing with a combination of professional and vol unteer crewmembers and ten students from the National Society of Collegiate Scholars program. A heavy surf pounded the ship's starboard side and pushed her to within a stone's throw of the beach. For the next three days, people across the country via the internet and those who gathered on the beach watched anxiously as several salvage attempts failed to reflo at the ship. A dedicated group ofLAMI volunteers offered
(bottom left and top) Brigantine Irving Johnson aground and suf faring.from the heavy surf off Oxnard, CA, in March; (inset) Irving Johnson just after her launch in 2 003; her "twin," Exy Johnson is astern. (Photo by Lee Uran, Courtesy LAM!)
their services as a beach-side support team, helping with a variety of tasks. Finally, as evening fell on the ship's fourth night on the beach, salvors successfully refloated her. The ship was towed to Ventura Harbor Boatyard and has been hauled and down-rigged, and repairs are underway. Considering the pounding the ship took by the surf for over three days, the hull appears remarkably intact, though the down below areas were seriously damaged from floodin g. LAMI estimates it will take six to eight months to restore the ship to a seaworthy condition. In the meantime, a USCG investigation is underway wi th ro utine drug tests of the captain and crew performed. A USCG spokesperson estimates it will be two months before the report is avai lable. Updated information on the ship can be found at www.lamitopsail. org. ,t
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SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
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MARINE ART NEWS and produced about 100 pamnngs. Though he painted many scenes depicting maritime acriviry, mosr of his works evoke rhe terrors and hardships of fishing on rhe Grand Banks. The exhibi t
"San Francisco Fire, 1906" by William Alexander Coulter The Paul and Linda Kahn Foundation, in association with the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, is planning a major exhibition in 2006 of the works of William Alexander Coulter (1849-1936). Curator Marcus De Chevrieux is seeking to identify as many of rhe prolific California anise's works as possible to include in a catalog raisone to be published in conjunction wirh rhe exhibition. To dare, nearly 300 works have been located in collections ranging from Europe to Australia. Of rhese, 50-100 of rhe besr examples will be selected for rhe exh ibiti on. (Fo r more information, or if yo u know rhe location of any Coulter paintings, contact marcus@seacurator.org) . . â&#x20AC;˘ The Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts has formally joined with the American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA) to sponsor workshops in 2005. Two ASMA Fellows, David Bareford and Sergio Raffo, will serve as instructors for rhe workshops to be held in June and October ar rhe Academy in Lyme, CT. Founded by professional anises in 1976, rhe Lyme Academy College of Fine Ans is dedicated excl usively to rhe fine ans. (ASMA, POB 369, Ambler, PA 19002; www.americansoci eryo fm ar i nearris rs. com; e-mail : asma@icdc.com) Philadelphia's Independent Seaport Museum to open the first-ever exhibit of the works of Thomas Hoyne. Fishing on the Grand Banks, the Marine Art of lhomas Hoyne will open on 16 June and close on 30 September 2005. The exhibit will fearnre approxi mately 32 paintings, alm ost a rhird of Hoyne's work, on loan from maritime museums and private collectors. The paintings will be augmented wirh memorabilia from Hoyne's srndio and life, including ship models he used as he painted. Hoyne wo rked in advertising bur changed paths in mid-life to paint full rime. He was considered one of rhe fin est contemporary anises in rhe wo rld until his dearh in 1989
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"Bending on the Main" by lhomas Hoyne wi ll coincide wirh rhe release of Reese Palley's Ships and Iron Men: Marine Art of lhomas Hoyne in September, published by W W Norto n. (ISM, Penn's Landing ar 2 11 S. Columbus Blvd . and Walnut Sr. , Philadelphia, PA 19 106; 2 15 925-5439; www.phillyseapon.org). ,t
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SEA HJ STO RY I I I , SUM MER 2005
•Point Reyes National Seashore: Coastal Memories Past and Present. The marine art of Dick Levesque with selected works by Denny Hunt. Through 31 August in O lema, CA. (www.levesque-art.com) •National Maritime Museum, London: Nelson & Napoleon. 7 July - 13 November. The exhibition will include recent discoveries, rare and unseen material, letters, iconic paintings, personal items and a series of objects lent from museums, galleries and private collections across Europe. (Park Row, Greenwich, London SElO 9NF; Ph. 44 (0)20 8312 6565-recorded information; web site: www.nmm.ac. uk) •Erie Maritime Museum: The Iron Steamer: the Career of USS Michigan/ USS Wolverin e. USS Michigan was the US Navy's first iron-hulled warship. When construction began in 1842, this was the Navy's sophisticated and advanced unit.
Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, San Francisco, CA. I. K. Brunel designed three great ships which are each represented by impressive models in the museum. Learn how each ship advanced the technology of steamships. (SFMNHP, Bldg. E, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA 94123; 4 15 447-5000; www. nps.gov/safr/) •Maritime Heritage Festival, St. Mary's City, MD, 18 June 2005. (Contact: Capt. W ill Gates: 240 895-2090; e-mai l: wsgates@smcm.edu) •"Zeb," 25 June 2005, 7:30PM at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, Vineyard Haven, MA. The Bunch of Grapes Bookstore and the Martha's Vineyard Historical Society celebrate the re-publication of a Vineyard favorite, Zeb, the story of Zeb T ilton and the Alice PoLLr B URROUGH S eAllrt r.A•ll1• -.S••••I <JM•tlrl•i• Wentworth, the t.A/frfflimut11tJ1 -N'1f'ri1"'tJ'lif11' .,,,,11'1tf.,.,e11Hr1 last of the coastal schooners to ply their waters. Speakers, music, and storytelling. (Info: Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, 44 Main St., Vineyard Haven, MA 02568; 508 693-2291 or 800 693-0221; www.bunchofgrapes.com) •Joshua Slocum Society International SOthAnniversary Celebration, 25 June at the Bristol Yacht Club in RI from 5-9PM. All members and interested persons invited to attend. (Ted Jones, Commodore, 15 Codfish Hill Rd. Ext., Bechel, CT 06801 ; 203 790-6616; www.joshuaslocumsocietyintl.org; e-mail: jone402@comcast.net) •SeaBritain 2005: a year-long festival of events that explores every aspect of Britain's rich maritime heritage. Includes: Nelson & Napeoleon, 7 July - 13 Novem ber (see details above left under "exhibits"); The New Trafalgar D ispatch (a re-enactment), 1 July - 11 September; International Fleet Review, 28 June, with ships from 40 nations. (Ph. 020 8312 8615; e-mail: seabritain2005@nmm.uk; web site: www. seabritain2005.com) •''All Hands on Deck: Navies, Naval Power, and the Flow of History," class led by Barry S. Strauss, PhD, 10-16 July. Cornell Adult Un iversity, Ithaca, NY. (626 WITll lfol(;IAt. PllOTOOU1nlY •Y
USS Michigan Launched in Erie in 1844, the ship had a long and varied career until 1923 . In her later years, the obsolete ship was underway only a few weeks a year as a training ship. (150 East Front Street, Erie, PA 16507; 814 452-2744; www.brigniagara.org/museum.htm; e-mail: sail@brigniagara.org) •Mystic Seaport Museum: Women & the Sea. Through August 2005 . (75 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic, CT 06355; 860 5720711 ; web site: www.mysticseaport.org) •The Noble Maritime Collection: Nelleke Nix: Soul Sails, Antarctica. Through 12 September 2005. (1000 Richmond Terr., Bldg. D, Staten Island, NY 10301 ; 718 447-6490; www.noblemaritime.org) F'EsTIVALS, EvENTS, L ECTURES, ETC.
•Sea Music Festival, 9-12 June at Mystic Seaport, CT. (75 Greenmanville Ave., POB 6000, Mystic, CT 06355 ; 860 5720711; www.mysticseaport.org) •"Three Great Ships,'' 18 June at the San
Thurston Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850; 607 255-6260; e-mail : cauin fo@cornell.edu; web site: www.cau.cornell.edu) •Tall Ships Challenge®-Pacific Coast, American Sail Training Assoc., 23 June14 August, traveling to Victoria, BC, Tacoma, WA, Vancouver, BC, Port Alberni, BC, and Los Angeles, CA. (240 Thames St., POB 1459, Newport, RI, 02840; 401 846-1775; e-mail: as ta@sailtrai ning.org; web site: www.tallships.sailtraining.org) •"England Expects,'' 18-24 October in London-a guided to ur offered by Pauses, Inc. The tour will journey to Nelso n's tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral, attend the Nelson Night concert, sail to Greenwich for tours of the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Navy Museum, and attend seminars. (5 0 Delancey St., New York, NY 10002; 212 677-0670; www.pauseinc. com; e-mail: PRevere97@hotmail.com) CONFERENCES
•"Frederick Douglass and Herman Melville: A Sesquicentennial Celebration," 22-26 June 2005 at the New Bed ford Whaling Museum. Keynote Speakers: Sterling Stuckey and Eric Sundquist. (18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740; 508 997-0046; www.whalingmuseum.org/kendall/ mel_society/ mscp. html) •Council of American Maritime Museums Annual Meeting, 15-18 September at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayto n, NY on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. Conference theme: "A.Boat or Afoot: Discussions and Strategies for Interpreting Smal l Craft Collections in Museum Settings." (www.councilofamericanmaritimemuseums.org) •Maritime Heritage Education Conference, 17-20 November at Nauticus: the National Maritime Center in Norfolk, VA. Call for papers deadline 15 July. Among others, the conference is sponsored by the National Ocean ic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Sanctuary Program, the National Park Service, Nauticus and the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. Brochure and registration form available online. Registration fee: $135 . (www.sanctuaries. noaa. gov/education/mhec/; e-mail: sanctuary. education@noaa.gov)
Fathoming the Ocean The Discovery and Exploration of the Deep Sea
HELEN M. ROZWADOWSKI The lJiJCOl'ery a1tJ
" During the 19th century, the ocean became something more than just a body of water to be sailed over and began to be studied for itself. In this study of America's and Britain's growing public and scientific fascination with the ocean depths, Rozwadowski covers the beginnings of bathymetry, dredging, temperature and salinity measurements, current mapping, and the move from yachts to fishing vessels to large ships as scientific platforms. But this is not just an oceanographic history: the author also addresses the social, cultural, and political aspects of this newfound interest-from the development of home aquariums to the laying of the transatlantic cable." -Margaret Rioux, LIBRARY JOURNAL Belknap Press • new in cloth
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HISTORICAL FOUNDATION
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Explorarion and voyages by sea Shipbuilding, seamanship and navigarion Naval history Whaling Yachring and Cruising Commercial fisheries Lighrhouses, pi rares and shipwrecks Logbooks, documenrs and manuscriprs Sea chans Books relaring to marine an, anriques and ship models
We are eager to purchase single volumes or entire collections in these subject areas.
Ten Pound Island Book Co. Visit our web site at www.navyhistory.org or contact the Navy Museum Gift Shop in Washington, DC Phone: 202-678-4333 Fax: 202-889-3565 Email: nhfwny@navyhistory.org
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76 Langsford Street, Gloucester, MA 01930 (978) 283-5299 e-mail: tenpound@shore.net web: www.tenpound.com Catalog available on request.
SINCE 1976
SEA HISTORY 111, SUMMER 2005
Reviews Herman Melville's Whaling Years, by W ilson H eflin and edited by Mary K. Bercaw Edwards and Thom as Fare! Heffernan (Vanderbilt U niv. Press, Nashville, TN, 2004, 332pp, m aps, appen , notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-8265- 1382-4, $45hc) Imagine yo u've discovered a long-forgotten sea chest, and its contents reveal insights into an author's pivotal life events, experiences arguably influencing all rhar he or she was to write thereafter. Imagine
CJ-lerman (}Vlelville's
Whaling Years WILSON HEFLIN Edited by Aiaiy K Berraw Edwatds and 1homa< J~ud //1jfe1nan
now rhar rhe author is H erman Melville, creator of what some argue to be the "Grear A m eri ca n Novel ," Moby-Dick. W ilson H eflin, fo under of The Melville Society and a US Naval Academ y literature professor, spent a lifetime researching M elville's life at sea and the impact of those experiences on his writings. His labors toward a doctoral dissertation seemingly left no log book unopened, no likely-related waters unsounded. H eflin hadn't completed his thesis by the rime of his dea th in 1985. W hile rhe edi ring of Herman Melville's Whaling Years from twen ty boxes of material began shortly after Heflin's death, the results have only recently been published. M elville's years at sea p rofo undly influenced the yo ung, educated, and impressionable wo uld-be author. Ir was M elville speaking thro ugh Ishmael proclaiming: " ... glory to whaling; for a whale-ship was my Yale College and my H arvard." Melville's early m aritime exp eriences aboard ship ultim ately found their way in to Typee (the populari ty of which set Melville on SEA HISTORY 111 , S UMMER 2005
his literary course), Redburn, White j acket, Omoo, Piazz,a Tales, and m any others. Herman M elville's Whaling Years is a perfect "companion" or long-form annotation to Melville's early life and works. The reader can only wonder at Heflin's indefagarible pursuit of any documentation linking his subject and the sea. Add the meticulous and thorough work of editors Mary K. Bercaw Edwards and Thomas H effernan, and we have a single volume rhar represents the talents of three dedicated researchers ar work. N o study can be a Rosetta stone decoding rhe creativity by which an individual perceives and processes his or her day-to-day existence, which ultimately gives that experience new life through artistic expression. N onetheless, a book can establish a framework by which patterns and links may be delineated and reaso nably speculated. Finally, how often does one get to recommend a book's appendices? No t to be skipped are H effernan's essay on Toby Green e, Melville's Acushnet shipmate who jumped ship with Melville in the M arquesas Islands, Bercaw Edwards brief history of the Marquesas, and an excellent primer on whale oil by D avid Littlefield with Edward Baker. Ir doesn't take a Melvillian to appreciate Herman Melville's Whaling Years. Ir's a sea adventure with one of our greatest authors ar irs center. PETER SORENSEN O ld Mystic, Connecticut
Under Vitus Bering's Command: New Perspectives on the Russian Kamchatka Expeditions, edited by Peter U lf M oller and Natasha Okho rina Lind (Beringiana, Aaarhus University Press, Aarhus, D enm ark, 2003, notes, biblio, ISBN 87-7288 932-2; $33pb) Like m any significant discoveri es and achievem ents of the modern world, rhe Kam chatka expeditions of 1725 -1 7 43 defy ri gid association wi th a single nationali ty. Launched by rhe Russian crown and commanded by the D anish-born Virus Bering, this ambitious endeavo r involved German , French, Russian, and D anish participants. Srudy of the rich multi-lingual docum entary legacy of the expedition calls fo r continuous
internatio nal intellectual and scientific exchange. Under Vitus Bering's Command is a good example of such cooperatio n. Published in D enmark, this anthology contains twelve articles written in English and in Russ ian by D anish, German, and Russian participants of an international workshop on recent results and new perspectives in rhe study of the Kam chatka expeditions. The volume reveals general trends in international research despite the range of topics and approaches. M any authors examined primary documents from European and Russian archives, bringing to light previously unknown or unpublished materials. Topically, rhe most prominent them e is rhe personalities of rhe expeditions' participants and their effect on rhe course of events which followed. The characters of G melin, Steller, and Muller, scientists assigned to the expeditions, receive special attention , and their confrontation with Bering is a recurring motif in several articles. Bering studies are represented by the insightful analysis of the CaptainCommander's changing image in Russian and D anish historiography and by the two contributions examining his private life. Both the article abo ut his wife and the publication of his eleven letters written to his family from Okhotsk offer glimpses into rhe personal affairs of the Commander in rhe midst of his mission. W ith due respect to the articles' lively style and interesting subj ects, Under Vitus Bering's Command is demanding reading. Previo us knowledge of Russian history in general and the Kam chatka expeditions in particular is necessary to appreciate rhe authors' scholarly effort. For initiated readers and scholars of the topic, the anthology's comprehensive bibliography and ample references to archival sources will surely prove an invaluable research tool. EvGENIA ANICHENKO D urch Harbor, Alaska 41
REVIEWS A new book entit led
We Were There The USS Indianapolis Tragedy By L. Peter Wren, a rescue o ffi cer who pu lled th e men from th e sea. Th is is the rest of the story-a compilation of neve r befo re to ld oral histo ri es-as to ld by airmen, sailo rs, and oLh ers w ho were there.
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German Pocket Battleships, by Roger C hesneau (Chacham Publishing, London; Scackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA, 2004, 64pp, ill us, photos, ISBN 1-861 76209-7; $24.95pb), and King George V Class Battleships (2004, photos, diagrams, ISB N 1-86 176-211-9; $24.95pb) These books are che firsc and second volumes in che Shipcrafr series designed to provide ship modelmakers wich derailed ship characceriscics. Each book begins wich informacion abouc che designs of che Deutsch/and class and King George V class batdeships respectively and a brief summary of the operational careers of each. The balance of chese books, nearly seven ty-five percent, is devoted to chapters entided "Model Products," "Modelmakers' Showcase," "Schemes," ''Appearances," and a "Plans" section of line drawings . A selected bibliography including video products and Internee web sites is included. Each book is profusely illustrated with phorographs of the ships themselves and cheir models. For th e ship modelmaker ch ese books provide a guide ro boch products and model kits. These are not detailed "howto" guides to the art of ship modelling. Similiarly, chose looking for info rmacion on the history of individual ships of these classes need ro look elsewhere. HAROLD N. B OYER Fo lsom, Pennsylvania Encyclop edia of the W'ar of 1812 , edited
SHIPS
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by D avid S. H eidler and Jeanne T. Heidler (Naval Insticute Press, Annapolis, MD, 636pp, illus, gloss, biblio, index, ISBN 159 11 4-362-4; $34.95pb) The Naval Institute Press's release of a paperback edition of Encyclopedia of the War of 1812 (originally published by ABCC LIO in 1997) provides an affordable desk reference for a frequently neglected (and more often misinterpreted) period of American hisrory. Linle has changed from the original edicion ; the screngchs of chis volume still far outweigh ics weaknesses . A series of twen ty-five maps, ranging from cheaters of operation to individual battles, support che articles. Three appendices address the congressional vote for war, the executive officers of the American government during the wa r (a simi lar
treatment of Bricish officials would have been nice), and provide a small selection of key documents. These are accom panied by a highly useful chronology, bibliography, and a brief glossary. All told, the supporting elements of the encyclopedia exceed che norm fo r such wo rks.
Individual articles are generally very well done, especially considering the dilemma of wricing encyclopedia entries ("But I need a chousand wo rds, M s. Editor, not five hundred! "). The articles vary slighdy in quality, as wo uld be expected of any effort featuring over sevenry-five contributors. The only concern regarding the individual articles are some curious omissions. For example, though a reasonably sound article on "Privaceering" appears, there is no entry fo r "Blockade"-the centerpiece of British naval strategy. Similarly, while some British bases enjoy brief scrutiny (H alifax and Jamaica), the important British base at Bermuda, the American bases and stations, and naval basing and logistics in general fail ro receive attention. Even with these racher small concerns, edi rors David and Jeanne Heidler, as well as the Naval Institute Press, deserve a vote of chanks from students of the War of 181 2, both for compiling chis m uchneeded encyclopedi a and fo r bringing ic to the readers in paperback formac.
Dr.
WADE
G.
D U DLEY
Gree:nville, No rth Carolina SEA HI STORY 111 , SU MMER 2005
Grace Hopper: Admiral ofthe Cyber Sea, by Kathleen Broome Williams (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 280pp, photos, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 1-55750952-2; $32.95hc) Grace Hopper is not a household name for most people-at least not in my household. That was m y view when I started reading Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea by Kathleen Broome Wi lliams. An ep isode: the author recounts an interview with Admiral Hopper that aired on the CBS program "60 Minutes" during the 1970s. Hopper spoke of the challenge faced by subordinates who come up with unorthodox approaches to solve problems and recited her standard advice to rake chances: "Ir is easier to seek forgiveness than it is to get permission." Reading that elicited a memory-I had watched that interview as a teen. That mantra has stayed with me ever since, for both good and not (but mostly for good). So, belatedly, thank you Admiral Hopper. Grace Hopper covers the long life of Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) from her upbringing in New York City through her long career in the computer field for the US Navy. Williams skillfully weaves Hopper's personal career into the evolution of military computing, from its infancy with the massive MARK I during World War II to the development of "smart" ships and weapons systems in the 1980s. Williams focuses on two major themes of Hopper's career: the development of programming languages in the 1940s and 1950s and the standardization of programming across the Navy in the 1960s and 1970s. This biography is of value to anyo ne interested in understanding how a singular woman rose through the ranks to become the oldest serving officer in the Navy. STEPHEN D . O 'REGAN , ScD Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division
Fair Wind and Plenty of It: A ModernDay Tall Ship Adventure by Rigel Crockett (Rodale Press, Inc., NY, 2005, 424pp, photos, ISBN l-594-86160-9; $23.95hc) At least three tales are woven into Fair Wind and Plenty ofIt. On the surface it is the story of Captain Dan Moreland's venture to convert a steel trawler into a SEA H fSTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
tall ship and sail it aro und the world. Ir is first, however, a young man's acco unt of his transition from youth to maturity, achieved in the stressful environment of a troubled ship and divided crew on Picton Castle's first world voyage. Finally, it is a study of the captain's controversial leadership style as viewed by a subordinate-a fo'c'sle hand eager to please, yet uncertain along the way if he was steering the right course. One could hardly call Picton Castle a happy ship during Rigel Crockett's time onboard. Manned by a mixed crew of professional mariners and 'passenger-crew' who paid $32,500 each for the privilege of making the trip, the ship was far behind schedule when her first passengers arrived. Instead of the training they expected, they were put to work as laborers in the crush to get the ship ready for sea. The ship's company had widely varying levels of enthusiasm, competence (they went through 13 cooks), and commitment to the passage. Fragmentation, rather than teamwork, prevailed through the first half of the ship's journey. The reader is left to conclude that somewhere around the
halfWay point, things settled down to an agreeable routine, since the author devotes 340 pages to the passage as far as Bali and only 42 pages to the trip from Bali home to Lunenburg. Rigel Crockett has a delightful way with words, and he eloquently shares with the reader his feelings about separation from home and family, about competing and conflicting loyalties, about his sense of belonging with the open sea, and his struggle to adapt to the physical and psychological demands of a working sailing ship. His account reveals that he ultimately learned to cope, accept differences, and steer his own course through life. Captain Moreland had a lot on his plate. H e was determined to achieve his goal of circumnavigating with a traditionally- rigged and -operated sailing ship despite every obstacle, not the least of which was funding. That he achieved his objective and that Crockett had so little to say about the second half of the voyage are testimonials to his ul timate success. Along the way, his leadership techniques we re often questioned by his crew. In his personal
THE SHIPCARVERS' ART Figu reheads and Cigar-Store Indians in Nineteenth-Century America
Ralph Sessions Among the most popu lar scu lptures in nineteenth-century Amer ica were th e shi p 's figure head a nd th e cigar-store Ind ia n. The vast ma jority of these engag ing fig ures were created by shipcarvers-hig hly ski lled artists celebrated for their masterful figureheads who co llectively made tens of thousands of shop figures as well.
The Shipcarvers' Art is the first book to assess th e arti stry and history of ship's figureheads and ciga r-store Ind ians in a single volume. Richly illustrated and elega ntly wri tten , it brings these marvelous fig ures a live once more. Ra lph Sess ions not only high lig hts th e work of shi pcarvers throug hou t th e eastern United States a nd Ca nada but a lso presen ts new informati on on carving workshops in New York City, America's key shipbuilding center from 1820 unti l after the Civil War. 240 pages. 90 color plates. 32 halftones. 9 x 12.
Cloth $75.00 ISBN 0-691-12081-l
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REVIEWS relations with his crew, he was sometimes warm and friendly, sometimes cold, distant and rude, and the crew never knew which captain they would encounter on a given day. Crockett's recollection is replete with expressions of mixed admiration and detestation with respect to the captain. Fair Wind and Plenty of It is a fastreading and enjoyable yarn. I was disappointed that so little was written about the latter part of the voyage, especially details that might give some understanding of why things were apparently running more smoothly toward the end. Captain Moreland and Picton Castle have gone on to complete a third circumnavigation and have recently embarked on yet ano ther, so one must conclude that the voyage recounted here by Rigel Crockett led to lessons that were well learned. CAPTAlN
appear on stage in life rafts, lighthouses, forecastles, pubs, stokeholds, and Arctic whalers. In addition to the historiography and a useful timeline, Richter analyzes each of O'Neill's maritime plays. The book is wellillusrrated with rare photographs of the playwright and relevant vessels, and even an image of O 'Neill's AB certificate. This
HAL SUTPHEN
Ki lmarnock, Virginia
Eugene O'Neill and Dat Ole Davi/ Sea: Maritime Influences in the Life and Works of Eugene O'Neill, by Robert A. Richter (Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT, 2004, 2 l 5pp, photos, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-939510-97-9; $24.95hc) In the wake of Dana and Melville, Eugene O'Neill left an upper class, educated family in 1909 to spend rwo years on ships and in sailor towns. Having spent a portion of his childhood in New London, Connecticut, he returned from sea to New London, New York City, and then to Cape Cod to write what would become America's most famous maritime plays, including Bound East for Cardiff ( 1914) and The Hairy Ape (1921). He went on to be the only American playwright ever to win the Nobel Prize for literature (1936) . In Eugene O'Neill and Dat Ole Davi! Sea, Robert Richter delivers an invaluable resource, collecting O 'Neill's maritime connections and influences. Richter shows O'Neill writing within the context of World War I, SS Titanic, the transition from sail to steam, the decline of whaling, and the evolution of historic maritime communities. Richter relied heavily on a few sources but clears up debated questions and shares fascinating anecdotes. He reveals the people on whom O 'Neill based his fictional characters: individuals who
44
book is a necessary companion for anyone reading or performing the plays of Eugene O'Neill-a playwright who, as Richter teaches us, found his foremost inspiration from the ocean. RICHARD KrNG
St Andrews, Scotland
Millionaires, Mansions, and Motor Yachts: An Era of Opulence, by Ross MacTaggart (W W. Norton & Co., Inc., New York, 2004, 256pp, photos, ISB N 0393-05762-3; $59.95) The author of The Golden Century: Classic Motor Yachts, 1830-1930 is back with another idiosyncratic, gossipy, heavily-illustrated coffee-table book on the subject of long-ago luxury power yachts and their owners. As the juicy tide indicates, MacTaggart carries on our ancient, guilty fasci nation with the nautical pleasures and frustrations of the upper crust. Yet, thankfully, the book is not all fluff. Anyone seeking some facts abo ut semi-grand yachting berween 1895 and 1930 will want to take
a look. In nearly 200 pages of text and at least that many photographs, MacTaggart presents eight mostly feckless, usually spendthrift, tycoons who, when not tempting bankruptcy or dodging taxes, could sometimes behave pretty badly. Alfred duPont seems to have been every naval architect's and interior designer's worst nightmare, while Thomas W Lawson obviously enjoyed poking his fingers into the eyes of whichever establishment figure was in the neighborhood. (I have some argument with MacTaggart's interpretation of Lawson's bizarre, bullying effort to race for the America's Cup in 1901.) MacTaggart has an interesting strategy: pick eight owners and exam ine every available facet of their nautical and other acquisitions. Besides the rwo tycoons mentioned earlier, these owners are George Francis Fabyan, Eugene Tompkins, Harry Darlington, John Dietrich Spreckels, Emily Roebling Cadwalader, and William C. Rands. We learn about their money, yachts, marriages, and much more. When some arguably irrelevant information turns up, like the history of San Diego's Hotel del Coronado in the chapter on Spreckels, the reader might be a little offended if the author weren't having such a good time leading the side tour. One disappointment is the book's undisciplined, often dull photo-album design. MacTaggart went to tremendous effort to collect photographs-an effort he is not shy about describing-yet there simply are too many look-alike, so-so pictures of engine rooms, heads, launchings, gaudy owners' cabins, skimpy crew quarters, and clipper bows. Many photographs are reproduced a little darker than was probably intended by the photographer, but my chief complaint is that many of them could have been replaced by plans. Surprisingly, only a half-dozen or so sets of plans are printed in this entire book. Designers' drawings would have been especially welcome as complements to the handful of owners' preliminary sketches; the reader wants tto know how the designer worked out the dletails. Obviously amticipating this criticism , MacTaggart apollogizes that many plans were either too hard or too expensive
SEA HISTOmY 111 , SUMMER 2005
to reproduce, and that, in any case, the publisher would not permi t the use of pullouts. Fo r the steep cover price of this book, the reader expects a little better. ]oHN RousMANIERE Annapolis, Maryland
Bloodstained Sea, The US Coast Guard in the Battle ofthe Atlantic, 1941-1944, by Michael G. Walling (McGraw Hill , New York, 2004 photos, appen, gloss, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-07142-401 -6; $24.95hc) Walling's Bloodstained Sea, as the subtitle indicates, is the story of the US Coast Guard's to le in that long-drawn-out and bitterly fo ught duel between the merchant navies of th e Allies and the U-Boats of the Third Reich. Many books on the Battle of the Atlantic have been published over the years, and it is a measure of this event's complexity that a new book can appear and be so grip ping. The book is graphic in its descripti ons, well-illustrated and hard to put down. It tells the story from the Coast G uard's viewpoint, with emphasis on the horrific North Atlantic weather which was as much the enemy as the submarines. A good portion of the book is about the class of USCG Cutters named after Treasury Secretaries: Bibb, Duane, Spencer, Hamilton, Taney, Ingraham, and Campbell, built in government shipyards and commissioned in 1936-37. They were 327 feet overall and able to reach speeds of twenty knots. The ships could sustain 13 knots for 11 ,000 nautical miles. Designed to last twenty-five years, the last one almost made fi fty-two. The desperate need fo r co nvoying and the scarcity of available ships saw every kind of vaguely-suitable vessel from Bush-deck destroyers to under-sized Flower class co rvettes pressed into service. Even US Navy convoy commodores rode the Coast Guard's 327s whenever they could. l11ey became a legend in their time, and their story has not been told so completely before. The two main East Coast co nvoy ports were H alifax and Sydney, Nova Scotia, making the direct distance to Northern Ireland about twenty-five hundred miles and the typical time about eight days fo r the fast, nine-knot convoys and seventeen days for the slow, seven-and-one-half SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
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The Remarkable Story of Darwin's Captain and the Invention of the Weather Fo recast John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin
"A definitive work:' -William Anthony Hay, Washington Times
A "superb and moving biography" (Toby Green, Independent) of the British naval comm ander, governor of New Zealand, inventor of weather fo recastingFitzRoy was all of these and m ore during a life of high adventure and accomplishment but also tragic disappointment.
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knot ones. Crossings often became much longer with fog, storms, diversions from wolf packs, and such that routinely beleaguered the convoys. Here was where the long-legged, sea-kindly 327s came into their own. The book begins in 1939 with Bibb and Campbell dispatched from their east coast ports to a mid-Atlantic meeting with the City of Flint, which was carrying 238 survivors of SS Athenia's sinking by the U30 off the coast of Ireland. That ship had 1, 103 passengers on board of which 118 were killed-thus started the "Battle of the Atlantic." Walling chronicles the activities of the 327 cutters through the early days of convoying and their many problems, through the better days as more escorts and more aviation support became available. Several were later employed as amphibious-assault command ships in both the Atlanti c and Pacific. After 1945, the surviving six-Hamilton had been sunk off Iceland in 1942-were again employed on weather stations and in general rescue work in the North Atlantic. In the 1960s a new class of cutters was built to replace the 327s, and they began to be retired (the first one in 1974 and the last in 1988). Two are now museum ships in Baltimore and Patriot's Point, SC. The book ends with several appendices of related material and additio nal data on the 327s. TOWNSEND HORNOR
Osterville, Massachusetts
Union jacks: Yankee Sailors in the Civil Wlir, by M ichael J . Bennett (University of North Carolina Press, C hapel Hill, NC, 2004, 337pp, tables, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-8078-2870-X; $34.95hc) Occasionally one reads a book and thinks, "Fascinating! I never thought about (the subject) this way or I didn't know that." In reading Union jacks, I fo und myself frequently having these feelings and gaining a new perspective of the Civil War. Much has been written about the sea bat tles and naval leaders on both sides of that historic co nflict. By contrast, almost noching has been written about the ordinary men who fought those battles. Though led by these more famous men, Jacks were confined behind the wooden or steel-plated bulwarks of naval vessels. SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
New&Noted Bennerr discusses a wide range of ropics rhar include rhe recruirmenr, rraining, and parricularly rhe sociery of rhe civi l war navy ar rhe enlisred-man level. The aurhor discusses Union sailors' origins, morivarions, religious beliefs, fears, hardships, social milieu, and maririme cusrom s. Mosr fascinaring was his chaprer on rhe inregrarion of freed blacks and runaway slaves inro rhe Union Navy culrure. In mosr chaprers rhe aurhor uses rhe reacher's maxim and insrrucrional rechnique-rell rhe audience whar yo u inrend ro wrire abour, wrire abo ur ir in derail and wirh clariry, rhen summarize for emphasis. This book is a rreasure-rrove of references abour rhe U nion Navy. Abour one rhird of rhe pages is devored ro derailed nores and an exrensive bibliography. Bennerr's sources, primarily diaries, leners, and journals, were skillfully used ro make each ropic come alive making Union jacks excellenr reading and a useful resource for scholars imeresred in rhe role of rhe U ni o n Navy during rhe Civil War. Loms ARTHUR NORTON Wesr Simsbury, Co nnecricur
A British Eyewitness at the Battle ofNew Orleans: 1he Memoir ofRoyal Navy Admiral Robert Aitchison, 1808-1827, edired by Gene A. Smirh (The Hisroric New Orleans Collecrion, New Orleans, 20 04, l 60pp, illus, foornores, biblio, index, ISBN 0-91 7860-50-0; $ 15.95pb)
Deep-Sea Detectives: Maritime Mysteries and Forensic Science, by Perer R. Limburg (ECW Press, Toromo, 2004, 278pp, illus, biblio , gloss, ISBN 0-68487 135-1; $17.95pb)
1he Doryman's Reflection: A Fisherman's Life, by Paul Molyneaux (Th under's Mourh Press, New York, 2 00 5, 272pp, m ap, phoros, biblio, ISBN 1-56025-6699; $25 hc)
Fathoming the Ocean: 1he Discovery and Exploration of the Deep Sea, by Helen M. Rozwadowski (Harvard U niversiry Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005 , 275pp, illus, nores, index, ISBN 0-67401691-2; $25.95 hc) A Mariner's Miscellany, by Perer H . Specrre (Sheridan House, In c. , Dobbs Ferry, New York, 2005 , 304pp, illus, ISBN 1-57409- 195-6; $19.95pb)
1hatAnvil ofour Souls: A Novel of the Monitor and the Merrimack, by David Poyer (Simon & Schusrer, New York, Jul y 2005, 432pp, $25hc)
ISBN
0-684-87135-1;
Shadow Voyage: 1he Extraordinary Wartime Escape of the Legendary SS Bremen, by Perer A. Huchrhausen (John W iley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ , 200 5, 260pp, illus, maps, biblio , nores, index, ISBN 0-471-45758-2; $24.95hc)
Unknown Seas: How Vtzsco da Gama Opened the East, by Ronald Watkins (John Murray, London and Trafalgar Square Publishing, Norrh Pomfret, VT, 2005, 336pp, maps, illus, nores, biblio, index, ISBN 0-7 195-641 7 -4; $ 15pb)
Young Men and the Sea: Yankee Seafarers in the Age of Sail, by Daniel Vickers wirh Vince Walsh (Yale Univers iry Press, New Haven , CT, July 200 5, 352pp, illus, appe n, notes, bibli o, index, ISBN 0-30010067-1; $25hc)
National Maritime's Selection of "Great Reads"
. .
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OVER THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
THE GREATER THE HONOR
by Laurence Bergreen
by William H. White
Ferdinand Magellan's daring circumnavigation of the globe in the 16th Century was a three-year odyssey filled with sex , violence and amazing adventure. Prize-winning biographer and journalist Laurence Bergreen entwines a variety of candid, firsthand accounts, bringing to life this groundbreaki ng and majestic tale of di scovery that changed the way ex plorers wou ld henceforth navigate the oceans. Autographed copy. SC: $15.00
THE 1812 TRILOGY by William H. White An exciting new seri es of the much fo rgotten War of 18 12. Bill White introduces a new character in American sea fiction-Isaac Biggs of Marblehead, MA . Fo ll ow Isaac from hi s departure from Boston aboard the bark Anne in 18 10 to the drama, panic and confusion that gripped Washington, DC, Baltimore and the Chesapeake region in 1814. Vol. I, A Press of Canvas, Vol. II, A Fine Tops '/ Breeze and Vol. Ill. , Th e Evening Gun. SC: $14.95 each
A ro llicki ng sea story of the American naval officers who ca lled themselves "Preble's Boys." Taking their ships to a distant station to defend the new Republic, they cowed the Tripolitans and impressed the British. Finall y, Stephen Decatur and the rest of Preble's boys get their due. Their adventures challenge Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower and are more impressive because they are true! HC: $24.95
A MOST FORTUNATE SHIP A NARRATIVE HISTORY OF OLD IRONSIDES by Tyrone G. Martin A fasc inatin g book that gives shape to the men who sailed this famo us ship. "This marvelous book is a must fo r naval hi story buffs, fo r readers who love the era of iron men and wooden sh ips, and for anyo ne interested in the period of history when American courage and ingenuity seemed to succeed in almost every endeavor the country attempted ." Book-of-the-Month Club HC: $40.00
To order, send your check or credit card information to NMHS, PO Box 68, Peekskill, NY 10566 or call 1-800-221-NMHS (6647) ext. 0. Please add $4.00 s/h for one book, $2.00 for each additional book.
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ALEXAN DER ZAGOREOS
SEA HISTORY 111 , SUMMER 2005
The NMHS Gift Store Wear our logo and proclaim your support for NMHS Our NMHS logo features our flagship Kaiulani embroidered in five colors.
Satisfaction 100% Guaranteed!
Washed-Cotton Cap Adams Optimum cap with adjustable leather strap and embroidered logo. One size fits all. Colors clockwise from top left: Stone, Kh ak i, Black, Navy, Forest, Red, White. #LP101 $20.00 + $6.95 s/h
NMHS Mailing Labels Show your support of NMHS with every letter you mail! NMHS has created a series of six images presented on six sheets of labels imprinted with your mailing information. 6 sheets for $10.00
Lee Men's & Women's Denim Shirt Favorites of our staff and members alike, these denim shirts are 100% cotton, with two-button adjustable cuffs and wood-tone button s. Double needle stitched. Colors: Medium Denim, Stone Bleach Denim. Women' s sizes: S-XL. #C01760 Men 's sizes: S-2X #001460 $41.50 + $6.95 s/h
Short Sleeve Sanded Twill Shirts for Men & Women 4 oz. 100% combed cotton twill with embroidered NMHS logo. It is both soft and will wear forever. Generous cut. Choose from Wine, Navy, Hunter Green (Men) , White, Stone. Women 's shirt has no pocket, logo on bottom edge of right sleeve. Men 's sizes: S-3X #E09435 Women's sizes: S-XL #F09735 $39.75 + $6.95 s/h
Men's Outerbanks Pique Polo A time-tested classic. 100% combed cotton, twobutton placket with wood-tone buttons. Hemmed bottom with side vents and dropped tail. Co lors: Navy, White, Wine, Chino. Si zes: S-3X. #C17499 $43.75 + $6.95 s/h
Order by calling 1-800-221-NMHS (6647), ext.O Or mail in your order to NMHS, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566 and enclose your check made out to "NMHS." Allow 2 to 3 weeks for delivery.