Sea History 118 - Spring 2007

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\ MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIE Y

No. 11 8

Spring 2007

THE ART, LITERA?.fURE, ADVENTUi1ffi, LORE ~ LEARNING OF THE SEA

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SEA H ISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

SEA HISTORY

No. 11 8

SPRING 2007

CONTENTS FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE 10 Black Hands, Blue Seas: A Navy Segregated by Ship-Jim Graham and the Story of USS Mason , DE-529, by Fred Calabretta The US Navy has had a long, uneven relationship with its African American sailors.

WWII veteran Jim Graham brings the story ofhis ship, USS Maso n, the Navy's first ship run by an all-black crew, to our attention, recognizing the pioneering effort and battles, both racial and political, her crew fought during this time in history.

14 A Class Act-Sailing Star ofIndia, by Deirdre O'Regan A daysail aboard the world's oldest active sailing ship reminds us ofthat great ship's history and about what is possible in historic ship preservation and museum operations.

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16 The Barron-Decatur Letters, by W illiam H. W hite In 1820, the US suffered the loss of one of our greatest naval heroes in a duel, having fallen in the battle of words and honor, not from any wartime injury. The correspondence between James Barron and Stephen Decatur, Jr. reveals how this tragedy came to pass.

20 Minnesota Marine Art Museum, by Jonathan Swanson W'tzy up in Winona, Minnesota, a world-class marine art museum made its debut just a Jew months ago. Their curator of collections and exhibits, Jon Swanson, gives us a tour of their facility with some selections from their collections.

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24 Exploring the Chesapeake Bay With Captain John Smith: 1608 and 2007, by Philip J. Webster and Christopher Cerino

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In May, Sultana Projects, Inc. will send a small crew on a reproduction ofJohn Smith's shallop out into the Chesapeake Bay to bring the story of Smith's 1608 exploring voyage to people in towns and ports all along the way. Here is the story ofthat 1608 voyage and of Sultana's efforts to recreate the experience nearly 400 years later.

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36 Maritime History on the Internet: Digital Resources at Mystic Seaport

by Peter McCracken

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COVER:

Star of India sailing off San D iego, 12 N ovember 2 006, with schooner Californian astern. (Co urtesy of www.baysh ots.com) The 1863 barque Star of India is the oldest active sailing ship in the world. Both vessels are owned and operated by the Maritime Museum of San Diego. Read about her history and recent sail on pages 14-15.

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DEPARTMENTS

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DECK LOG

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LETTERS NMHS: A CAUSE IN MOTION

38 SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS 45 CALENDAR 47 REVIEWS

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Sea History FOR Krns

52 PATRONS

Sea Histo ry and the National Maritime Historical Society Sea H istory e-mail: editorial@seahisto ry.o rg; N MHS e-mail: nmhs@seahistory.o rg; W eb site: www.seahistory. o rg. Ph: 91 4 737-787 8; 800 2 2 1-NMHS MEMBERSHIP is in vited. Afrerguard $10,000; Benefacror $5,000; Plankowner $2,500; Sponso r $1,000; Donor $500; Patron $250; Friend $100; Co nrribu ror $75 ;

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"z ~ a 24 SEA H ISTORY (issn 01 46-93 12) is published quarterly by the National Mari time H isro rical Society, 5 John Walsh Blvd., PO Box68, Peekskill NY 10566. Period icals postage paid at Peekskill NY 10566 and add'l mailing offi ces.

COPYRIG H TŠ 2007 by the Natio nal Maritime Hisro rical Society. Tel : 914-737-7878.

POSTMAST ER: Send add ress cha nges ro Sea History, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

DECK LOG ''.Any man 's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. " -john Donne

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well-professed theory states that there is no maritime culture today, only its historic remains. Our citizenry is, for the most part, unaware of the fishermen, the sailors, and the shippers who still transport most of the world's goods across the oceans and waterways. The recreation and cruising industries are booming, but still the maritime field is hidden. Once, in the early days of our country, someone in every household or neighborhood made his livelihood from the sea-fishing, whaling, boat building, hauling goods and passengers upon the waters-producing a vibrant culture that inspired much of our art and literature. Now those jobs that take to the waters require fewer people to do the work, making it a culture nearly invisible to the rest of the world.

Indeed, fewer people are working in the great industry, be it shipping, cruising, recreational boating, fishing, research, or naval defense, but it remains a significant culture. The growing number of movies, books, and art with a maritime theme testifies to this . It is a culture critical to our civilization and, perhaps, one that is so passionate and caring because it is small.

Everyone in the maritime field was devastated to learn of the death of 25-yearold seaman Laura Gainey, an experienced sailor and member of the crew of the barque Laura Gainey working with needle and Picton Castle, who was swept overboard by a palm onboard Picton Castle last year rogue wave on 8 December 2006 and lost at sea. The community preserving the precious skills of tall ship sailing, once so common in our culture, especially mourned the loss of this vibrant young sailor.

Last November Picton Castle's senior captain Dan Moreland, Mystic Seaport's Dana Hewson, and I shared a panel discussion at the American Sail Training Association Conference in Charleston, South Carolina, on "The Great Age of Sail and Today," focusing on the example of Picton Castle's most recent world voyage (her fourth) revisiting the voyage of the 1841 whaling ship Charles W Morgan. Picton Castle earned the Association's "Sail Training Program of the Year." The conference's sessions stressed safety, above all else. Sailing these ships today is safer than it ever was in the history we so enjoy studying, but it is not without risk.

Ours is a small and compassionate community-the maritime field and the maritime heritage field-and all the places they intertwine. Most often, it is a community of good and interesting people who love their work, and that is what I have heard about Laura Gainey. On behalf of every concerned reader of Sea H istory, the board, the staff at NMHS, and I send our condolences to Laura Gainey's family and to Dan Moreland and the Picton Castle family.

NMHS Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Maritime Education Goes to the Captain john Smith Four Hundred Project Helping to promote and make visible a momentous maritime achievement is the work of the Captain John Smith Four Hundred Project, described in this issue of Sea H istory on pages 24-30. NMHS is honored to present our NMHS Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Maritime Education to this extraordinary project, which exemplifies the criteria of the award: it involves research, exhibitions, curricula for students, symposia for teachers, and a reenactment voyage. Finally, the Proj ect will leave an enduring legacy with the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, the first of its kind in the country. The award will be presented at this year's Annual Awards Dinner on October 25th at the New York Yacht Club.

-Burchenal Green, President 4

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLISH ER'S CIRCLE: W illiam H. White

Peter

Aron,

OFFICERS &TRUSTEES: Chairman, Walter R. Brown; Vice Chairman, Richardo R. Lopes; President, Burchenal Green; Treasurer, Ronald L. Oswald; Secretary, Thomas F. Daly; Trustees, Paul F. Balser, David S. Fowler, Virginia Steele Grubb,RodneyN. H oughton, Steven W Jones, Robert Kamm, Richard M . Larrabee, Warren Leback, G uy E. C. Maitland, Karen Markoe, John R. McDonald Jr., Michael McKay, James J. McNamara, Howard Slotn ick, Bradford D .

Smith, H. C. Bowen Smith, Philip]. Webster, W illiam H. White; Trustees Elect, Philip ].

Shapiro, Captain Cesare Soria; Chairmen Emeriti, Alan G. Choate, Guy E. C. Maitland, Craig A. C. Reynolds, Howard Slotnick; President Emeritus, Peter Stanfo rd FOUNDER: Karl Kortum (1 917- 1996) OVERSEERS: Chairman, RADM David C. Brown; Walter C ronkite, Clive Cussler, Richard du Moulin, Alan D. Hutchison, Jako b Isbrandtsen, John Lehman, Warren Marr, II, Brian A. McAllister, John Srobarr, W illiam G. W interer NMH S ADVISORS : Co-Chairmen, Frank 0 .

Braynard, Melbourne Smith; D. K. Abbass, Geo rge F. Bass, Francis E. Bowker, Oswald L. Brett, RADM Joseph F. Callo, Francis J. Duffy, John W. Ewald, T imothy Foote, Thomas Gillmer, W illiam Gil kerson, Walter J. H andelman, Steven A. Hyman, H ajo Knuttel, Gunnar Lundeberg, Joseph A. Maggio, Conrad Milster, W illiam G. Muller, Nancy Hughes Richardso n, Shannon J. Wall SEA HISTORY EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Chairman, Timothy J. Runyan;

No rman ]. Brouwer, Robert Browning, W illiam S. Dudley, Daniel Finamore, Kevin Foster, John 0 . Jensen, Joseph F. Meany, Lisa No rling, Carla Rahn Phillips, Walter Rybka, Quentin Snediker, William H . W hite NMHS STAFF: Executive Director, Burchenal Gree n; Membership D irector, Nancy Schnaars; Director of Marketing, Steve Lovass-Nagy; Marketing & Executive Assistant, Julia Church; Accounting, Jill Romeo; Store Sales & Volunteer Coordinator, Jane Maurice SEA HISTORY: Editor, D eirdre E. O 'Regan; Advertising Director, Wendy Paggiotta; Editor-at-Large, Peter Stanford; "Sea Histo ry for Kids" is edited by Deirdre E. O 'Regan

SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

LETTERS Benedict Arnold Got a " D" The appearance on page 14 of Sea History's Winter issue (117) of Admiral Mahan's quote about Benedict Arnold gave me so much pleasure that I could not resist the temptation to pass some of it on . In 1943 I was a student in the Naval ROTC program at the University of Michigan. On an exam in the naval history course, we were asked who was the most important officer in the history of the US Navy. I was not aware of Mahan's statement, bur, because of the importance of the Barde ofValcour Island, I tried to make a case for Benedict Arnold .

America's Cup Winners and Losers read with great interest yo ur excellent article tided "America's Cup Racing-The Oldest Competition in Sport" in the Autumn 2006 issue of Sea History (1 16).

My question stems from the discussion of Australia 11 in the 1983 contest. Mr. Herreshoff stated that Australia 11 " had significantly less wetted surface than any o ther Twelve. This latter factor won the Cup! " While that was true, I don't agree that Australia 11 won for that reason. Liberty and Australia II were tied at 3-3, and in the last and deciding race, with Liberty well ahead of Australia 11, Dennis Conner decided not to cover John Bertrand on the last leeward leg. Australia 11 was lucky to get some favorable and stronger wind shifts allowi ng Bertrand to perform timely jibes and beat Conner to the bottom turning mark and went on to win . H ad Conner covered Bertrand, odds are very good that Liberty wo uld have won the C up and all the hype over the winged keel and design features diminished.

ROB ERT

c. WARNER

0 sweep by Columbia), but I think Sceptre deserved a nod as the first challenger since 1937.

MORGAN DALY

Brookline, Massachusetts

Sceptre still sails today as a charter boat in the UK See www.sceptrepreservation.co. uk for details.

From the editor: To compress 155 years of history on just four pages in the magazine requires cutting out a lot of detail. Mr. H erreshojfs discussion of the history of the Cup is presented in fall on the HerreshojfMarine Museum and America's Cup Hall of Fame web site: www.herreshoff.org.

Toms River, New Jersey

I got a "D " on the exam. I wonder whether it wo uld have been different if I had been able to cite Mahan. I like to think that the reason I didn't get an "F" is that someone was touched by my ingenuity.

THOMAS

The autumn issue of Sea H istory (116) had an excellent article about America's C up racing. I did think it odd, however, that the British challenger in the 1958 race, Sceptre, was not mentioned. I know Sceptre didn't give a very good showing (4 to

Stewardship of Historic Naval Ships USS Cava/la and USS Stewart Upon my return from a lengthy trip, I opened Sea H istory 11 6 and, there on page six, fo und an aerial view of USS Cavalla, SSK-244, and USS Stewart, DE-238. As it happens, I spend a lot of time with these

R. ADAMS

Providence, Rhode Island Internet Tutor Please send my thanks along to Mr. Peter McCracken for his very useful articles on how to do research using the Internet. His insights, advice, and direction allow me to explore the Web in an efficient way (and in a way where I can stop bothering my friends and the local librarian). In other words, I appreciate his help in preventing me from looking foo lish and lost when I am trying to do research. I cut out that page from every issue and put it in a fo lder so th at I can take it with me to the library and keep next to my desk at home. I consider him my personal tutor.

J ACK MEYER

Join Us for a Voyage into History Our seafaring heritage comes alive in the pages of Sea History, from the ancient mariners of Greece to Portuguese navigators opening up the ocean world to the heroic efforts of sailors in modern-day conflicts. Each issue brings new insights and discoveries. If you 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.

Join Today!

Mail in the form below, phone 1 800 221-NMHS (6647), or visit us at: www.seahistory.org (e-mail: nmhs@seahistory.org)

Yes, I want to join the Society and receive Sea History quanerly. My contribution is enclosed. ($ 17 .50 is for Sea History; any amount above that is tax deductible.) Sign me up as: 0 $35 Regular Member 0 $50 Family Member 0 $ 100 Friend D $250 Patron D $500 Donor

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Newtown Square, Pennsylvania

SEA HISTORY 11 8, SPRING 2007

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LETTERS two vessels. Although the submarine Cavalla is fairly well known around these parts, the existence of USS Stewart may be

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the best-kept secret among all naval museum ships.

As you noted, USS Stewart is indeed being maintained (and restored) at Seawolf Park in Galveston, Texas. Those of us involved are grateful to Lt. Dan Keough, USNR (Ret.) and Sea History for bringing this fact to the attention of your readers.

USS Stewart, an Edsall-Class Destroyer Escort, was "dry-berthed" alongside USS Cavalla in the early 1970s. A series of unfortunate events left her exposed to Mother Nature, and both she and her submarine companion were nearly lost to posterity. A few years ago, a determined gro up of submarine veterans mounted a heroic effort to save Cavalla. They succeeded beyond anyone's wildest hopes, and, in saving their submarine, they also saved USS Stewart. Because of these veterans, it can honestly be said that there are two, not just one, WWII DE's left in the US. The group that saved Cavalla wisely formed a 50l(c)3 corporation, The Cavalla Historical Foundation (CHF), and a new agreement was entered into with the Navy, giving joint custody of the DE and the submarine to CHF and the Galveston Parks Board. USS Cavalla is today nearly 90% restored and shows very well. CHF's foc us has now shifted to USS Stewart and much has been done to make her a presentable museum ship. Much of her interior has already been restored, and, thanks to a large donation from a submarine veteran, Stewarts exterior has just been sandblasted and repainted, from stem to stern and from waterline to masthead- all done in accord with EPA regulations, which govern the handling of lead-based paints.

Sadly, for a number of reasons, the existence of the DE-238 has remained unknown to most DE veterans. We are grateful that Sea History saw fir to print Lr. Keough's letter. It has given us an opportunity to respond and perhaps give USS Stewart some long-overdue recognition.

I served as a deck officer aboard USS Damon M. Cummings, DE-643 , during WWII. I now serve on CHF's board of directors, and, at present, am the only Destroyer Escort veteran on the board.

We are actively soliciting support from the DE community and would welcome their hands and talents in completing the restoration of the Stewart.

Destroyer Escorts-all 563 of themmade an extraordinary contribution during the Second World War by helping to destroy the German submarine blockade and by providing protection to the convoys, which were vital to the supply of men and materials to far-Bung battle areas.

Along with the wonderful folks working with USS Slater (DE-766) in Albany, NY,

we in Galveston are proud of our effort to preserve one of the last two examples of these rough little ships.

R. F. HOFFMAN Kemah, Texas American Ship Trust After reading Peter Stanford's essay on establishing an American Ship Trust, I was reminded of an idea I had some years ago that might fit into the idea of getting the public interested in a national citizenbased force for saving historical vessels.

Shortly after Walter Rybka left the barque Elissa and the Texas Seaport Museum, I noticed that interest in the Elissa volunteer program dropped off I thought about what we could do to increase interest in the ship again and came up with the idea of a progressive restoration program of a tug that could be used in conjunction with the Elissa program. The program would have the tug restored little by little in small ports along the Gulf Coast and, when completed, have her berthed at the Texas Seaport Museum. She would be used to take Elissa out and at other times be on display at the ports that helped restore her. This method of restoration would do exactly what you alluded to in your article-get the public personally involved in SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

We Welcome Your Letters! E-mail: editorial@seahistory.org Or mail to: Editor, Sea H istory 7 T imberknoll Rd., Pocasset, MA 02559 historic ships and their restoration. During

Elissa's Texas Pride Voyage, I cannot tell you how many small ports we visited and how the public turned our in droves to see the ship. Just imagine the public interest in an American historic ships restoration program where the general public could nor just see historic ships bur get involved in their restoration? Perhaps I ramble on, bur I was so taken with Mr. Stanford's article that I had to at least thank him for writing it.

c. SIDNEY SMITH Houston, Texas Schooners in the US Navy Las t year I saw a letter in a borrowed copy of your great periodical (Summer 2005) in which there was a letter from a Dennis Greene. He expressed an interest in finding our about West Coast sailing vessels in the navy. My father, William Lucking, served on rwo of these ships; here is an excerpt from a short write-up I collected from him.

Morgan Adams Sr. sold rwo sailing vessels to the Navy (reportedly for $ 1) because the Navy had, at that time, nothing that could be our of port for more than a few days. One boat was a 110 ft. Gloucester schooner, which had been used in one of the MacMillan expeditions to rhe Arctic. Ir was custom-built for that expedition and had a double-oak planked hull to protect it from the ice. The other was Enchantress, a 126 ft. steel racing schooner. Enchantress was used briefly as a station vessel in San Pedro. My father was assigned to the former to carry our coastal defense. The ship was Radio YAG-5, socalled because it had been the radio ship on the MacMillan Arctic expedition. Dad was the only person on the base who knew anything about sailing, so they made him skipper. Radio was used by the Navy as a pilot vessel off San Pedro, delivering pilots and armed guards to all fore ign ships. My father was next assigned to Volador, a 11 4 ft. raci ng schooner owned by a Mr. W L. Valentine of the L. A. Yacht Club . D ad sailed her on offshore patrols-our for three weeks, in port for one, 300 or 400 miles off Baja California.

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NMHS:

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A CAUSE IN MOTION

NMHS Teams Up with the North American Society for Oceanic History at the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York, 17-20 May for Joint Annual Meeting

T

o further scholarship and research about "The Merchant Marine in Peace and War," the Society will hold our Annual Meeting in conjunction with the No rth American Society for Oceanic History's annual conference, Thursday through Sunday, 17-20 May. A busy program is planned with academic papers, discussion panels, tours, and speakers for the four-day event. Conference presentations will address the variety of roles the merchant marine has played in exploration, trade, nation building, labor relations, diplomacy, and warfare.

Presenters will also demonstrate some of the interdisciplinary methods, such as literature, art, and underwater archaeology, that are being used today to broaden our abilities to examine this important topic.

Sessions will include "Merchan ts, Fishermen and Privateers," "Merchant Seafa rin g in the Early Republic," "Fighting Sail," ''Age of Em pi re," "World War II Logistics and Heroes," "Educating Women for the Sea Services," and "Preserving and Commemorating Merchant Ships."

Sessions are scheduled for full days on Thursday and Friday and on Sunday morning. Additional highlights include a Thursday luncheon at the American Merchant Marine Museum, followed by tours of this impressive facility, and of the campus, including the not-to-be missed simulator, engineering building, Mariner's Memorial Chapel and Training Vessel Kings Pointer. Dinner will be in Melville H all, which boasts panoramic views of Long Island Sound.

The NMHS Business Meeting is scheduled for Friday morning at 9AM, followed by a luncheon on campus and an evening tour across the bay of the Maritime Industry Museum at Fort Schuyler. Dinner at SUNY Maritime will cap the busy day.

On Saturday morning, we'll travel into Manhattan and take behind-the-scenes tours of the Seamen's Church Institute, India House, the Museum of American Finance, and South Street Seaport Museum. In the afternoon, we'll be led on an exclusive "Hidden New York Harbor Tour" and then relax for dinner in the city. Mystic Seaport's director emeritus, J. Revell Carr, will be our dinner speaker.

VADM Joseph D. Stewart, USMS, Superintendent of the United States Merchant Maritime Academy (USMMA) will be our host on the Academy campus at Kings Point, New York, overlooking Long Island Sound. All members are urged to attend.

COURTESY USMMA The US Merchant Marine Academy is the nation's foremost institution for the training of merchant marine officers. It is also the only federal service academy to send its cadets into combat (142 cadetmidshipmen from Kings Point gave their lives in service during World War II). The regiment at USMMA is proud to carry a battle standard, the only federal service academy privileged to do so.

The fee for the entire four-day conference, three continental breakfasts, two lunches, three dinners, all tours, boat trips, and bus transportation is $325 per person. The fee for just Friday's events: the Business Meeting, all sessions, continental breakfast, and lunch and tour of The Maritime Industry Museum at Fort Schuyler is $60. You will find more information on fees, the program schedule and itinerary, and a registration form on this issue's wrapper or on the NMHS web site at www.seahistory.org or by calling the office at 800-221-6647-ext. 0.

-Burchenal Green, President

Accommodations: The Ramada/Adria Hotel in Bayside, NY, just a few miles from the Kings Point campus, is offering a special conference rate of $125/night plus taxes. This rate is ONLY available by directly contacting the Ramada/Adria at 1-800-272-3742; mention NASOH for the conference rate. This rate is offered only until 16 April 2007, while there are rooms available.

8

The Andrew, in Great Neck, NY, is even closer to the Academy. A more upscale hotel , it has a special conference rate of $ 159/night plus taxes, plus $13/night parking, with a cut-off date of 16 April 2007. Cal l 516-482-2900 for reservations and mention the US Merchant Marine Academy to get this special confere nce rate while there are rooms available.

SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

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A Navy Segregated by Ship,

Jim Graham and the Story of USS Mason, DE-529

by Fred Calabrerra arrered by a fierce Atlantic storm, Convoy 119 struggled in to port at Falmouth, England, on 17 October 1944 . The convoy consisted of Army tugs, barges, and other small vessels accompanied by an escort of US Navy ships, and it had endured a harrowing transAdanti c crossing in brutal weather conditions, encountering ninety-knot winds and seas nearing sixty feet high . By the time the convoy was in sight of the British coast, several vessels and a number of men had become casualties of the storm.

One of the navy ships, the destroyer escort USS Mason, DE-529 , had sustained severe damage, including split deck seams and o ther serious structural problems. As

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to these men. They had experienced it all their lives. USS Mason was the first ship in the history of the US Navy to have an allblack crew. (A m onth later the navy com missioned a patrol boat, PC-1264, which also had an all-black crew. Unlike the Mason, the operations of PC-1264 were limited to coastal duties.) USS Mason's officers were wh ite, but her crew of 160 men was entirely African American. The men were not only participants in the historic events of World War II but also in an extraordinary chapter in US naval history.

Service on USS Mason was a defining experience in the life of Jim Graham, whose story is both representative of his shipmates yet also highly personal. High

USS Mason, DE-529, in camouflage

the harsh weather continued, her crew focused on making emergency repairs. Jim G raham, Radioman 2nd class on the Mason, recalls what occurred next. "When we got in to Falmouth, we had seams cracked on the ship, and we welded it and went our to rescue the other ships. We went out there and rounded up the stragglers and brought them in."

Soon after the last of the convoy reached port, its commander submirred a report endorsing a commendation for the Mason's crew. He noted that two British naval ships had joined the Mason, heading back out to sea to assist several vessels still struggling to reach the safety of the port. In the face of 40-foot seas, the British ships turned back, while USS Mason co ntinued on and completed her work.

Jim Graham and his shipmates had responded to the situation with the determination and pride typical of the crew of a US Navy ship when confronted with adversity. This was not a typical navy ship, however, and adversity was no thing new

10

winds, massive seas, and the threat of German submarines were new challenges for Jim, but he was all too fami liar w ith another form of adversity-racism.

Growing up black in the sm all South Carolina town of Lake City, he had ample experience wi th racism. He was born in 1922, at a time and place when strict segregation was a way of life and hatred and brutality had a very real presence. Jim's mother died when he was a young boy, and the care of eight children became the sole responsibility of Jim's father. George Graham managed to provide good care for his fam ily; in fact, Jim recalls that they were one of the few black families in the area with electricity in their home.

George G raham succeeded by "knowing his place," which was an important survival mechanism for blacks in the segregated South. H e acted subserviently in the presence of whites, which was upsetting to Jim and his brothers. They som etimes referred to him as an "Uncle Tom," something Jim deeply regrets. Today, he

understands his father was doing what was necessary in order to survive in an atmosphere of severe racism .

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Jim was in his late teens and ready for a change-maybe even a little adventure. The military seem ed to have the potential to offer both . As with many yo ung men who enter the armed forces, Jim acknowledges that he was not, at the time, motivated by a sense of patriotism. "To be honest, it was more of an adventure. You know, New York C ity, the tall buildings, Chicago, things like that. A berrer way of life. Freedom. You know, in those days we walked the streets in South Carolina and if a whi te person came down the street you jumped aside." ''About six of us decided we would go down and enlist in the Air Force. I wanted to be a pilot. So we went down to Charleston and the guy told us right away that there were no Negroes in the Air Force ...

Coming back home, we passed a navy recruiting station. And there was a navy recruiter... H e said why don't you enlist in the navy. I said no, I'm not going to cook for anybody, I'm not going to clean for anybody... and he said, well, yo u don't have to go into the navy in the steward branch, you can go in the sam e as the white guys ... so we signed up."

Jim was inducted in August of 1942.

His timing was significant. Opportunities for blacks had fluctuated dramatically throughout the navy's history. During Jim Graham in uniform

SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

the period from rhe Revolutionary War through the C ivil War the navy was essentially integrated, with thousands of blacks fightin g, working, and living alongside whites. Opportunities for advancement were limited, but naval service during this period afforded blacks a measure of freedom and equality that often exceeded what was available to them ashore. In rhe years following the Civil War, the navy downsized, and the role and numbers of blacks in its ranks decreased .

By 191 9, African Americans were, for the most part, restricted to the mess departm ent. In 1919 the navy stopped enlisting blacks altogether, employing other ethni c gro ups, such as Chinese and Filipinos, for food and wai t-service positions. In 1933, enlistments were again open to blacks, bur rhen only as cooks, stewards, and waiters.

In April of 1942 at the urging of African American leaders, Eleanor Roosevelt, and others, the navy agreed to accept blacks fo r all ratings . The changes rook effect on 1 June 1942, the very month of Jim Graham's enlistment.

What Jim didn't realize at that time was that the new open enlistments were co nditional. Blacks were still limited to service as mess men on seagoing ships; the other ratings were available to them only at shore stations or on coastal craft. No r until July of 1948 would an executive o rder signed by President Truman fu lly integrate the armed forces, at least on paper.

Following Jim's enlistment, he repo rted to the navy's G rear Lakes facili ty outside Chicago. He realized right away th at some difficult aspects of civilian life wo uld characterize his navy experience as wel l.

Training was completely segregated, with the facili ty for blacks located across the tracks from the area designated for whites.

A much-anticipated visit from Presid ent Roosevelt turned to disappointment when the President completely ignored the black section of the faci li ty and visited only the area for whites. These were the first of many episodes rhar revealed to Jim that he had no r escaped discrimination when he left South Carolina.

Following boor camp, Jim was stationed at Cape May, New Jersey. He had been trained as a radioman , bur he fo und himself ass igned to dock wo rk. "W hen we

SEA HISTORY 11 8, SPRING 2007

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_____ .., s::>~ â&#x20AC;˘ "111111111 go t to Cape May, that's when we found o ur we weren't going onboard a ship, that we were going to be longshoremen! Working on the pier, tying up ships, and rhings like rhar. And that's when I became disgusted." Racial tensio ns also remained a problem . A special gate for black sailors reminded them, daily, of their disenfranchised status, as did the vicious racial slurs they endured on a regular basis. Graham recalls wirh clarity one occasion where a major fight broke o ur in the mess hall between the black and white sailors.

"When we would go into a navy yard, say if we were tied up alongside a pier, and there were five ships tied up, we had to cross from rhe outboard to the inside to get to the pier. When we crossed the other ships they'd call us nam es, coons, niggers, monkeys and things like that. Bur we had to know how to co nduct ourselves. Bur ifI wo uld catch one of those guys on the pier and recognize him, yo u'd have to call our rhe National G uard ."

In this atmosphere of discrimination and hatred, the infrequent expressions of kindness by white sailors provide prized memories m ore than a half-century

later. Ar a rime when he was feeling down and disappointed about his status in the navy, Jim remembers that he was "turned aro und" and encouraged by a white sailor fro m Georgia. Watery eyes and a broken voice reveal his appreciation for this and a couple of similar experiences. Simple gestures and decent treatment were so highly val ued because, sham efull y, they were an exception to the norm.

Jim learned of an opening onboard a ship for a Radioman 2nd class while he was stationed at Cape May. H e o nly held a 3 rd class rating, however, so he studied hard and earned the prom orion and rhe sea-going assignment for which he longed .

H e was transferred to Norfolk in D ecember 1943. The nature of his assignment wasn't exactly clear to him . A group of black sailors had been brought together for additional training, with the promise of an assignment to a ship. D erails were sketchy. One thing was clear, however, there wo uld be no relief from poor treatment. "We went down to No rfolk. Thar's when we real ly had problems with th e white sailors. They really gave us a rough rime."

11

Two member's of USS Mason's crew pose in front of their ship.

Norfolk, Virginia, was Jim Graham's least favorite duty station. Black sailors lived in drafty Quonset huts instead of regular barracks. Various forms of abuse were commonplace, both on and off the base. Still, the black sailors persevered, performed well, and achieved excellent test scores.

In February of 1944 the black sailors were transferred from Norfolk to Boston, where they were to join their ship. "When we left Virgini a we went to Boston. They were building the ship in Boston. At the time we didn't know they were building a special ship for colored only. So we went to Boston and we had to go through more training, then we went onboard the Mason." Jim and his shipmates had anticipated that they were training to serve on a destroyer, but the Mason was

a considerably smaller destroyer escort, (a 1,140-ton Evarts-class DE).

Though they did not possess the firepower of larger ships, the 289-foot DEs were, nonetheless, impressive vessels, and the navy commissioned 563 of them during the war. On deck they carried depth charges, deck guns, and machines guns; they were also outfitted with sophisticated sonar and radar equipment and could maintain 21-knot cruising speeds. These were valuable tools for their primary roles, anti-submarine warfare and convoy duty.

USS Mason's keel was laid 14 October 1943. She was launched just over a month later and commissioned on 20 March 1944. She sailed with a crew of 160 black sailors, 44 white commissioned officers and petty officers, and was under the able command of LCDR William M. Blackford.

Gunnery drill onboard USS Mason

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Blackford was highly regarded by his crew.

According to Graham, "Captain Blackford was a real navy captain. He was more interested in running a good navy ship than the integration and all this thing with race.

He didn't care if you were black or white if you had respect for him."

Following a shakedown cruise and additional preparation of ship and crew, USS Mason put to sea in June 1944, joining several other navy ships for convoy escort duty. The new destroyer escort participated in five convoys and several training exercises-German submarines were detected on several occasions. Although operating in a war zone and always at risk, she never entered active combat-something Jim and many of his shipmates had actually hoped to experience. Combat would have given them the ultimate opportunity to prove their merit as sailors. That point was demonstrated in other ways, most notably by their actions during the exploits of Convoy 119. While those on board the Mason knew well that blacks were capable seamen, the navy and the American public barely noticed.

Jim was discharged from the navy in October 1945 . The Navy decommissioned USS Mason the same month and sold her for scrap two years later. The sailor and his ship had experienced brief but highly significant careers.

Forty years after his wartime service, Jim began to notice that there was virtually no recognition of the role African Americans played in the navy during World War II. He would read about the navy and watch the History Channel, and although just about every other aspect of the war was covered in books, articles, and documentaries, he found absolutely no mention of USS Mason. He understood that his experiences ranked in historical significance with those of better-known all-black military units, such as the Buffalo Soldiers of the US Cavalry, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment of Civil War fame, but where was the story of the Mason? When he retired in 1986, Jim dedicated his time to the dissemination of the Mason story. He was determined that his shipmates be acknowledged for their proper place in histo ry.

Jim has a remarkable partner to support his efforts and work alongside him

SEA HISTORY 11 8, SPRING 2007

during his crusade. His wife Barbara is very much a part of the Maso n story. H er brother, Gordon "Skinny" Buchanan, was Jim's shipmate and best friend. When Gordon brought Jim home for a visit during the war, he set in morion a very successful and enduring relationship. She followed events closely during the remainder of the war, knowing that if the Mason faced danger, two loved ones were at risk, her brother and her future husband. Jim and Barbara were married in M ay of 1945.

Together, the Grahams began to track down Jim's Mason shipmates. They wrote letters to various government and navy officials. Jim would relate the Mason's story at veterans' events . They eagerly told their story to anyone who would listen , not for

COURTESY JAMES W. GR.Afll\M

Jim and Barbara Graham, 1945 personal gai n, but to promote an increased awareness of the historical significance of rhe crew of the Mason. These black sailors had been pioneers. They had fought a war, along with millions of other Americans, but they also fought deep racism. The Grahams were determined that these achievements be recognized.

The work of this resolute couple began to reap benefits. A book and video documentary recounting the Mason story were produced. The Secretary of the Navy called Jim at his home. In 1994, President C linton awarded the Mason ve terans acertificate of appreciation. The following year, they received the commendation they had been promised fifty years earlier, for meritorious service with Convoy 119.

SEA HISTORY 118, SPRlNG 2007

USS Mason's Commanding Officer, Lt. Commander William M. Blackford, USNR, and some ofhis crew during the ship's commissioning ceremony, 20 March 1944, On 1 June 200 1, the Navy launched a new Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, USS Mason-DDG-87. The Grahams attended the launching, with Barbara serving as Matron of Honor. Rear Admiral David L. Brewer III served as principal speaker. One of rhe nation's highest-ranking black naval officers, Admiral Brewer fully understood the significance of the occasion.

Jim and Barbara Graham have been married for more than 60 years. Just as strongly as they are committed to one another, they remain committed to raising public awareness of the Mason's story. D espite the racism he endured, Jim remains passionate about the navy. "I would enlist and go through it all over again. I have no regrets, even the bigotry, the racism. I love the navy. I loved the navy life. I learned a lot. It gave me a good gro unding to grow up with. I learned how to respect authority and accept other people."

The navy has made significant strides in grappling with issues of diversity within its ranks. USS Mason's crew provided an important foundation for those gains.

What does Jim Graham think about the legacy of USS Mason, DE-529 ? "I think everyone should know about the Mason because there was a time when we didn't have it so good in the navy. There was a time when blacks caught hell all over the country. And if yo u don't know where you're coming from , yo u don't know where you're going. When I was growing up, yo u were an outcast, yo u couldn't do anything.

Today yo u can." J,

Barbara Graham between 2000-2006, the recordings of which are in the collections at Mystic Seaport. In addition, Mr. Graham has generously provided access to photographs and other materials in his extensive collection of USS Mason documentation.

Readers seeking more information on the Mason and her service may wish to consult Mary Pat Kelly's Proudly We Served: the Men of USS Mason (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995), f ames A. D unn's On Board USS Mason: The World War II Diary of]ames A. Dunn (Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 1996), Charles Dana Gibson's The Ordeal of Convoy NY 119 (New York: South Street Seaport Museum, 1973), and Fred Calabretta's "Everyone Should Know About the Mason " in The Log of Mystic Seapon, Vol. 52, No. 4, Spring 2001 (Mystic: Mystic Seaport Museum, 2001).

Fred Calabretta is the Curator of Collections and Oral H istorian at Mystic Seaport.

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13

A Class Aet Sailing

the Star ofIndia

COURTESY WWW.BAYSHOTS.COM

Star of India under her own power offSan Diego, California, in November 2006 and (inset) under plain sail while with the Alaska Packers Association, somewhere in the Unimak Pass, dated 1918. daysail aboard the Maritime Museum of San Diego's 1863-barque Star of India this past Novem ber demonstrated what can be accomplished in a museum, in historic ship preservation, and with sail training programs. Underway, every detail was acco unted for and, perhaps it is a California thing, but everyone involved in making it all come together seemed so laid back about the whole affair. Even the captain, Richard Goben, was relaxed and calm from the moment the tugs rook hold of the hawsers to when the ship was safely berthed back on the waterfront at the end of a long day. Midway through the sail, he even rook a break from the quarterdeck and joined the professional musicians in the ship's waist to play a few tunes on his m andolin, which he just happened to have in his sea bag. For a ship that sails but rwo days a year, she moved through the water with ease. Granted, the museum staff and volunteers set the sails dockside more often than not, giving them ample experience in setting, striking, and stowing sails, bur underway these skills rake on a whole new meaning.

Once we found a sailing breeze, Star of India came through stays flawlessly-every time. The very eager volunteer sailing crew took their roles seriously. Not only did they handle their lines and sails with skill, but, in berween maneuvers, they were more than hap py to share th eir enthusiasm with the rest of us, ahem, passengers .

Sailing aboard the Star ofIndia today cannot compare in any way to what it must have been like back in the heyday of her sailing and wo rking career. That autumn day, the wind was fair, the temperature in southern California perfect, and the catered food was spectacular-not exactly traditional ship's fare, thank goodness.

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Even the charming gentleman who had volunteered to keep the port-a-johns clean and functioning down below made us feel how privileged we were just to be aboard. Som e people might have boasted abo ut how they wished fo r a sudden squall. We'd race aloft to stow sails, which had been struck in haste, and be able to see the scuppers awash with green water, but, in reality, that's a lot of discomfort and stress, both on the ship itself and in the minds and stomachs of those charged with keeping the ship safe. Anyone who has spent a lot of time at sea on sailing vessels of any size doesn't really wish for that sort of thing. Those who do only say that because The multi-talented Captain Richard Goben takes a break .from the quarterdeck to join the musicians for a Jew tunes on his mandolin.

SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

they have no idea what they are really talking about.

Star ofIndia, originally launched as Euterpe on the Isle of Man in 1863, is a fabulous original. She began as a full-rigged iron ship, built for the Indian jute trade. Her career as a cargo ship found trouble right from the start, however. Bound for Calcutta in 1864, she collided with a brig off the coast of Wales. The crew refused to repair the ship at sea and became mutinous, so the captain had to put in to port for the repairs and a new crew. Just a year later in 1865, Euterpe was dismasted in a typhoon off India; then her captain died underway, on their way back to England. After four more voyages to India, she was sold in 1867 and again in 1871. For the next three decades, she carried passengers and cargo from Britain to New Zealand and Aus- jump-started a new effort to retralia, circumnavigating store the ship after he publicly the globe 2 1 times be- shamed the city for their irrefore being sold in 1898 sponsible behavior as stewards to John. J. Moore, who of this historic treas ure. The formed the Pacific Co- restoration began , slowly, and it lonial Ship Company of took almost twenty more years San Francisco. Euterpe before the ship put to sea again. becam e a US-registered Her debut in 1976, under her vessel when Hawaii be- own power for the first time since came a US territory in 1932, announced her new role as 1898 . In 1901 , Euterpe a first-class museum ship. was sold to the Alaska Today, she is the Maritime Packers' Association M useum of San Diego's flagship (APA). They used her and ho uses their exhibits. She (page 15 photos) Star ofindia's sailing for trips to the Ber- sails one weekend per year. While crew and their ship, November 2 006 ing Sea to haul canned some museum professio nals squirm at the thought of a one-of-asalmon back to Cali- kind historic ship purring to sea under her own power, the MMSD's fornia . In 1906, APA philosophy is that by keeping Star ofIndia in a seaworthy condition, changed the ship's name not only is the ship better maintained, but her volunteers, critical to Star of India, as all to the health of the museum and its fleet of historic vessels, are of their steel and iron- invested and enthusiastic in their work m aintaining and operating hulled ships were "Star her. As an exhibit, the public can get a better understanding of the of" something. By 1923, steam-propelled vessels had m ade sailing history the ship represents. As museum and marine professionals, ships unprofitable and APA laid her up. rh ey weigh carefully rhe co nditions under which rhe ship is taken A few years later, in 1926, Star ofIndia was sold to the Zoo- our to sea to minimize any risk to this international treasure. logical Society of San Diego, which planned on using her as an Many thanks to the museum staff and her sailing crew for an attraction in their plan ned museum and aquari um on the down- unforgettable experience. - D eirdre O'Regan, Editor, Sea History ,t town waterfront. The Great Depression and WW1I interrupted that endeavor, and the ship sat, de teriorating. By chance, in 1957, a visit (MMSD, 1492 North Harbor D r., San Diego, CA 92101; from famed square-rig captain and author Alan Villiers to San Diego Ph. 619 234-9153; e-mail:info@sdmaritime.org;www.sdmaritime.com)

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Alaska Packers crew on the deck of what is possibly Star of India. n.d.

SEA HISTORY 11 8, SPRING 2007

15

The Barron/Decatur Letters, June 1819 to February

by William H. White

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n 22 March 1820, Commodore James Barron and Commodore Stephen Decatur met on the Bladensburg, Maryland, Dueling Grounds 1 to settle a personal grievance that had festered, at least in Barron's mind, for twelve years. While both men were wounded in the pistol exchange, Decatur's wound proved fatal and he died the next day. Barron recovered.

What led up to this fateful meeting that took the life of one of America's foremost heroes of the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812? An exchange of letters between the two men, precipitated by James Barron, gives us some answers. Possibly out of a sense of justification, Barron had the letters published in a pamphlet within months after the duel. Thus, they remain for posterity, filled with venom and innuendo, personal slights and accusations, and might help explain the mindsets of these two men.

Let us go back to June of 1807 where we find Commodore Barron aboard the US Frigate Chesapeake, bound for the Mediterranean, where he was to assume control of the squadron there. En route, USS Chesapeake was attacked by HMS Leopard seeking Royal Navy deserters. After a dreadfully lopsided engagement, Barron ordered his colors struck and surrendered his ship to the British; Captain Humphries, commander of the Royal Navy ship, refused to take Chesapeake as a prize; it would have been adjudged illegal as the United States and England were not at war. The British took four seamen from the American ship (three were returned later once it was determined that they were, in fact, native-born American citizens) and went on their way. Chesapeake limped back into Hampton Roads with three crewmembers dead and over twenty wounded, including Barron.

Following a court of inquiry, the Secretary of the Navy assembled a court martial board made up of a group of US naval officers, several of whom were already well known and others who would go on to gain their fame in later years, including Stephen Decatur, John Rodgers, James Lawrence, William Bainbridge, and David Porter. At that time, Decatur requested that he be excused from this duty as he felt he was prejudiced against Barron; his request was refused based on the scarcity of captains available to serve. He also made clear his predisposition on the case to Barron's civilian attorney, to no avail. The court martial board found James Barron guilty of only one of the four charges brought against him and sentenced him to a five-year suspension from the Navy, a rather harsh punishment in the minds of many.

When the War of 1812 began, just over four years later, many felt that Barron should return from Europe, where he had taken up residence for the term of his suspension, and help the cause. He did not. Following the war, he requested reinstatement to rank and position in the Navy. Decatur was, perhaps, the most vocal in his arguments against the reinstatement, and thus began a feud, which would end in bloodshed on 22 March 1820.

T

he correspondence began with a letter from James Barron dated 12 June 1819 from Hampton, Virginia:

Sir: I have been informed, in Norfolk, that you have said that you could insult me with impunity, or words to that effect. If you have said so, you will no doubt avow it, and I shall expect to hear from you.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

JAMES BARRON Five days later, Decatur replied, suggesting that Barron "should have given up the name of [his} informer," adding that the "frankness which ought to characterize {their} profession required it."

16

He then repudiated Barron's accusation with this:

Seemingly, this would end the correspondence and the m atter would drop. Not so!

I feel a thorough conviction that I never could have been guilty of so much egotism as to say that '1 could insult you" (or any other man) "with impunity."

Decatur responded on 29 June by telling Barron that he meant "no more than to disclaim the specific and particular expression to which your inquiry was directed, to wit: that I had said that I could insult you with impunity. "

Barron answered on 25 June that he could not trace the origin of the comment, save that the men who uttered the words were "not your enemies, nor actuated by any malicious motive." He concluded with:

Your declaration, if I understand it correcdy, relieves my mind from the apprehension that you had degraded my character, as I had been induced to allege.

It would seem that Decatur was not withdrawing the statement, merely the issue of making it "with impunity." He also added that the identity of the "several ge ntlemen" in Norfolk who so informed Barron was a matter of "perfect indifference to [him}, as is also your motives in making such an inquiry upon such information. "

SEA HISTORY 11 8, SPRING 2007

1820, Which Led to the Untimely Death of Stephen Decatur With this, Barron was moved ro write again, in specific derail, about rhe allegations. On 25 October 1819 (he explained rhe long delay in a subsequent letter as a result of his being "down with a bilious fever ofthe most vile manner"), he rook pen in hand and sarcastically suggested rhar D ecatur's refusal ro accept what amounted ro an apology was due ro his "measure of ambition," and that it was unlikely D ecatur could only be magnanimous when ir wo uld rebound ro hono r him.

Barron then got ro the crux of rhe matter by discussing "the cruel and unmerited sentence passed upon [him} by the court of which [Decatur was] a member. Further, that after seven years [he was only sentenced ro five bur remained absent for seven] of exile from my country, family, and friends, that I had concluded that I now should be allowed, at least, to enjoy that solace, with this society, that lacerated feelings like mine required, and that you would have suffered me to remain in quiet possession ofthose enjoyments. ... scarcely had I setfoot on my native soil ere I learnt that the same malignant spirit which had before influenced you to endeavor to ruin my reputation was still at work, and that you were ungenerously traducing my character whenever an occasion occurred which suited your views. .. . I am auo informed that you have tauntingly and boastingly observed that you would cheerfully meet me in the field and hoped I would act like a man, or that you had used words to that effect. " After listing several more slurs alleged ro have come from D ecatur, Barron wro te, "It cal/,s loudly for redress at your hands: I consider you as having given the invitation, which I accept, and will prepare to meet you at such time and place as our respective friends ["seconds," in dueling], hereafter to be named, shall designate. " Barron added rhar as the challenged parry, he was enrirled ro select weapo ns, place, and distance. H e m entio ned D ecatur's reputatio n fo r skill with a pistol and rhar "the natural deject in my vision, increased by age" would give D ecatur an advantage bur hoped he would no r use ir as such!

SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

When D ecatur respo nded ro rhis laresr missive, he refered back ro their June correspondence, wherein he [D ecatur] had stared rhar he could nor have been guilty of so much egotism as ro malign any man with impunity, a statem ent rhar Barron rook as a retraction. D ecatur again reiterated rhar he was merely defending his position regarding maligning a perso n with impuni ty, no r apologizing for what he said. H e mentioned the four-m onth lapse and stared, "your silence since receiving my letter of 29 June, indicated, as I thought, satisfaction on your part. But, it seems that you consider yourself aggrieved " He then refered ro rhe "affair ofthe Chesapeake" and the subsequent court m artial, saying that rhe "ChiefMagistrate [President Jefferson] of our country approved them [the terms of rhe sentence]; the nation approved them; and the sentence has been carried into effect. " D ecatur rhen addressed his request, by virtue of his predispositio n ro Barron, ro rhe Secretary ro be excused, as well as his telling Barron's council of his feelings, bur neither Taylor (Barro n's civilian lawyer) nor Barron had made any protest of his presence. "Duty constrained me, however unpleasant it was, to take my seat as a member; I did so, and discharged the duty imposed upon me. You, I find, are incapable ofestimating the motives which guided my conduct in this transaction. For my conduct as a member ofthat court martial I do not consider myselfas, in any way, accountable to you. " Adding fuel ro the al ready brighrly burning fires of animosity, D ecatur stared, in unequivocal wo rds, his opinion of Commodore Barron :

Between you and myself, there has never been a personal difference; but I have entertained, and still do entertain the opinion, that your conduct as an officer, since the affair ofthe Chesapeake, has been such as ought to forever bar your re-admission into the service.

Next, D ecatu r mentioned he had had "very frequent and free conversations" respecting Barron and his conduct. He

continued o n, ar some length, ro spell o ur rhe why of his opinion, later recanting som e of rhe facts as coming from so urces no longer available ro ascertain their validity (the men ro whom he referred we re now dead). M ost of rhe items on D ecatur's list centered on Barron's conduct during and after rhe War of 1812 and contained intimations of traitorous conduct, trafficking with rhe enemy (the British), and making no effort ro return ro his du ty in rhe American Navy. D ecatur responded ro Barron's suggestion rhar Decatur had called him our. "If you made the call I would meet you; but that on all scores, I should be much better pleased, to have nothing to do with you. I do not think that fighting dueu, under any circumstances, can raise the reputation of any man, and that it is not even an unerring criterion ofpersonal courage. I should regret the necessity of fighting with any man; but, in my opinion, the man who makes arms his profession, is not at liberty to decline an invitation from any person, who is so far degraded, as to be beneath his notice. Having incautiously said I would meet you, I will not now consider this to be your case, although many think so; and ifI had not pledged myself, I might reconsider the case. " D ecatu r's letter then shifted irs focus ro logistics, staring rhar rhe choice of "weapons, place, and distance" wo uld be delegated ro a "fri end" (second) whom D ecatur wo uld select at rhe app ro priate rime.

In response ro Barron's comment about D ecatur's renowned skill wirh a pistol and

17

the difference in their ages and Barron's deteriorated eyesight, Decatur wrote:

As to my skill with a pistol it exists more in your imagination than in reality; for the last twenty years I have had but little practice; and the disparity in our ages, to which you have been pleased to refer, is, I believe, not more than five or six years. It would have been out ofthe common course of nature, if the vision of either of us had been improved by years.

A final salvo, clearly designed to further aggravate Barron's ire, concluded the letter.

From the manner ofproceeding, it appears to me, that you have come to the determination to fight some one, and that you have selected me for that purpose; ... your object would have been better attained had you made this decision during our late war, when your fighting might have benefited your country as well as yourself A very short note, sent in November to Barron , stared that the writer (Decatur) had been inform ed by a "gentleman entitled to the fullest credii' that Barron had not taken employment in the British merchant service until after the war and thus his previous report must have been unfounded. There was no apology.

Barron, in his next missive, did not mention this last note from Decatur, so it is possible they crossed in the mail. He did, however, give full vent to the previous correspondence from Decatur, in an almost

line-by-line response, filled with his strong sense of outrage and anger over each one.

With unwitting (I am sure) irony, he stated at the outset that his letter previous, of the 23rd October, did not, "I conceive, require that you should have entered so much into detail in defense of the hostile and unmanl.y course you have pursued towards me, since the 'affair of the Chesapeake,' as you term it. A much more laconic answer would have served my purpose, which for the present, is nothing more than to obtain at your hands honorable redress for the accumulated insults, which you, sir, in particular, above all my enemies, have attempted to heap upon me. "

martial, and denying that the "nation has ap proved of the sentence." Several paragraphs continued to excoriate Decatur for sitting on the court martial after he had formed an opinion prejudiced against Co mmodore Barron, inquiring as to "how such conduct can be reconciled with the principles of common honor and justice. " Decatur, of course, had already mentioned in a previous letter that he had tried, both with the Secretary of the Navy and with Barron's own council, to remove himself from the proceedings, to no avail.

Barron further inquired, "W1iy use the insulting expression, that you 'entertained, ' and still do entertain, the opinion that my conduct, as an officer, since that 'Affair' has been such as ought forever to bar my readmission into the service? . . . Does not all this, together with the whole tenor and tendency of your letter, manifest the most marked personal animosity against me, which an honorable man . . . would disdain even to shew {show}, much more to feel?

Barron referred yet again to the June correspondence, claiming that Decatur "dwelt much upon [it} and ... made many quotation from it." He then laid out the reason from the nearly four-month silence, claiming it "arose notfrom any misapprehension of the purport of your contumacious 'underscored' remarks, nor from the malicious designs they indicated, nor from a tame disposition to yield quietl.y to the operation which either might have against me; but from a tedious and painful indisposition which confined me to my bed the chiefpart of that period, as is well known to almost every person here [Hampton, VA}.

The letter continued, going into detail disclaiming Barron's actions immediately following the Chesapeake/Leopard Affair and the several years after, which Decatur had stated were bordering on treason.

He persisted for what must have been several handwritten pages (the pamphlet is in type so it is difficult to gauge just how many pages there were in the original) justifying his behavior, castigating Decatur for his role in the court

The whole of this, Sir, I pronounce to be a falsehood, a ridiculous, malicious, absurd, improbable falsehood, which can never be credited by any man that does not feel a disposition to impress on the opinion ofthe public that I am an idiot.

H e also attempted to debunk Decatur's statement that rhe "affair" was one of rhe "Principal causes of the late war."

Barron's court martial was a result of his surrendering his ship, USS Chesapeake, to the Royal Navy in 1807 on the high seas.

18

That did not take place, sir, until five years after, when the affair had been amicabl.y and, of course, honorabl.y adjusted between the two nations. I mention this fact, not on account ofits importance, but because you have laid so much stress on that ''affair" as a reason why I ought to have returned home during the late war, and to shew [sic} that, although it did happen to be your fortunate lot to have an opportunity of being in the foremost rank, on that occasion, of which you seem

SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

inclined to vaunt, you are ignorant even of the causes which led to it.

Whenever you will consent to meet me on fair and equal grounds, that is as two honorable men may consider just and proper, you are at liberty to view this as that call,¡ the whole tenor ofyour conduct to me justifies this course of proceeding on my part.

Asking why, if D ecatur really did harbor no personal animosity against him, had he been so vocal in his condemnation of him, Barron suggested an answer, served up with a large measure of caustic sarcasm, to his own question.

Decatur, in an even shorter note, stated simply, "Sir . .. I Was it because your inflated pride am at a loss to know what your led you to believe that the weight intention is. If you intended ofyour influence was greater than This sign posted on MD Route 450 in Bladensburg is the only it as a challenge, I accept it, that ofany other officer ofthe navy, marker designating the site where so many duels, including the and refer you to my friend, or that you were more tenacious of Barron-Decatur duel, took place in the nineteenth century.

Com. Bainbridge, who is fully its honor and "respectability" than authorized by me to make the rest ofthe officers were?

He closed by stating, "I never wished to any arrangement he pleases, as regards fight in this way, and, had you permitted weapons, mode, or distance. " The officers with whom Decatur said he me to remain at rest, I should not have had discussed the matter and who had disturbed you. .. But this would not have A curt note from Barron acknowledged agreed with him would not escape the suited your ambitious views. You have receipt of the foregoing, but mentioned he sharp tongue of Commodore Barron. Ac- hunted me out, have persecuted me with was again down with "a violent bilious fecording to him, they did so because "you all the power and influence ofyour office, ver" and that he would respond shortly. are most commonly attended by a train of and have declared your determination to dependents, who, to enjoy the sunshine of attempt to drive me from the navy, if I There ends the published correspondence berween these rwo men. The seconds aryour favor, act as caterers for your vanity should make any 'efforts' to be employed " and, revolving around you like satellites, ranged for the duel to take place on the borrow their chief consequence from the With a request for the "name of yo ur dueling grounds in Bladensburg on 22 countenance you may condescend to be- friend" [second], Barron closed this, the March, just six weeks after Barron's final stow upon them. " communication. longest and most vitriolic of his letters.

Barron then shifted his comments to the subject of dueling itself.

I

Decatur responded on 29 December.

1

Instead ofcalling me outfor injuries which you chose to insist that I have heaped upon you, you have thought fit to enter into this war of words . . . I reiterate to you, that I have not challenged, nor do I intend to challenge you . .. if we fight, it must be of your seeking; andyou must take all the risk and all the inconvenience which usually attend a challenger, in such cases.

And you further deny having ever invited me to the field, or expressed a hope that I would call you out . . . I consider you as having thrown down the gauntlet and I have no hesitation in accepting it.

Upon the subject of dueling, I perfectly coincide with the opinions you have expressed. I consider it as a barbarous practice which ought to be exploded from civilized society; but sir, there may be causes After rebutting many of the claims Barron of such extraordinary and aggravated in- made in his letter, D ecatur closed his corsult and injury, received by an individual, respondence with: as to render an appeal to arms, on his part, absolutely necessary; mine I conceive to be I have now to inform you, that I shall pay a case of that description and I feel myself no further attention to any communicaconstrained . . . to resort to this mode of tion you may make to me, other than a obtaining that redress due to me at your direct call to the field. hands as the only alternative which now seems to present itselff01¡ the preservation The call from Barron came on 16 January of my honor.

1820 in a very short note.

SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

Notes

More than fifty duels were fought on the Bladensburg Dueling Grounds in Maryland, just across the line berween Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Congress passed an Anti-Dueling Law in 1839, but duels continued there until just before the Civil War. ,!,

William H. White is a maritime historian specializing in American naval events during the Age of Fighting Sail. He has written five novels of naval fiction and is a trustee of NMHS, USS Constitution Museum, and a consultant to the 1812 reproduction privateer Lynx. Read his latest book, In Pursuit of Glory, for more details on the Chesapeake/ Leopard Affair and the resultant court martial ofJa mes Barron and others. Visit www. seafiction.net for more information on the author and his books. All of Mr. White's books are available through McBooks Press, Amazon. com, and the NMHS store.

19

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23

E:xploringthe Chesapeake 5a!::J With

by Philip J. Webster and C hristopher Cerino, drawings by Marc Castelli

On 2 June 1608, only one year after the English landed at Jamestown, Captain John Smith and fourteen colonists set out in a small open boat, or "shallop," to explore and map the Chesapeake Bay. In one summer, Smith and his men rowed and sailed more than two thousand miles and saw a Chesapeake that is scarcely imaginable today, with its incredible ecosystem intact and a multitude of Native American communities thriving along its shores. The trail explored by Smith and his men opened the Chesapeake to thousands of European settlers, forever altering the face of the Bay and profoundly impacting the lives of those who lived around it.

0

n 12 May 2007, the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, a crew of 12 modern-day explorers will board a 30-foot reproduction of the small open boat that Smith used on his 1608 voyage and embark on a 121-day adventure to retrace his expedition. The reenactment voyage is the culmination of a three-year educational initiative of Sultana Projects, Inc., known as the Captain John Smith Four Hundred Project. The modern journey will introduce thousands of people to the history and significance of Smith's expedition, while highlighting current efforts to restore the health of our nation's largest estuary. Sultana Projects' reenactment voyage will also promote the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, formally established by Congress last December as America's first National Historic Water Trail.

One member of the colony's first governing co uncil was Captain John Sm ith. A man of modest means, Smith had already led an extraordinary life before ever setting foot in the New Wo rld. Before his twentysixth birthday, he had fought in the Dutch wars for independence from Spain, battled the Turks in Hungary, been captured and

Into The Unknown: Smith's Explorations of the Chesapeake Bay

The Jamestown Colony and Captain John Smith In December 1606, three small ships, Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, set sail from England carrying just over 100 men bound for the New World to establish the first permanent English settlement in North America. In the process, they hoped to locate precious minerals, find an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean, and convert the natives to Christianity. After a harrowing four-month ocean crossing, the ships safely arrived at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Shortly thereafter, a site for a fort was selected o n the shores of one of the Bay's major tributaries, which the colonists named the James River after their Kingthe settlement was called Jamestown.

24

charge of relations with the Indians, a position which became increasingly important as the colonists' food supplies dwindled. In the fall of 1607, his trading missions to the Indian villages on the shores of the James and Ch ickahominy Rivers allowed the Englishmen to survive the winter of 1607-08, providing much needed stores of corn , fish, venison and oysters.

Captain John Smith sold into slavery, and traveled extensively throughout Europe and North Africa. His adventures abroad helped Smith develop survival skills that made him uniquely suited to deal with the challenges the English colonists would face in North America.

By all accounts, the first year at Jamestown was a difficult one. Starvation, disease, and armed confl.icts with the Indians took the lives of nearly half the settlers in the first six months of the colony's existence.

John Smith's expertise in military matters and foreign relations quickly thrust him into the forefront of Jamestown's political affairs. In August 1607, Smith was pur in

By June 1608, more than one year after the first landing, few of the settlers had ventured further than the James and York Rivers, the two tributaries closest to the safety of the fort. As a result, they still knew very little about the geography of the Chesapeake Bay and even less about its inhabitants. The length' of the Bay's main stem was unknown, and they hoped that one of its larger tributaries might provide them with an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean and the riches of the Orient. Many colonists held out hope that the estuary's shores were lined with gold and silver deposits. The men had no knowledge of the Indian nations inhabiting the waterways outside of present-day Virginia or what trading commodities they had to offer.

Against this backdrop, Captain John Smith set forth o n 2 June 1608 to explore and map the great estuary. Carrying only the most basic supplies and propelling themselves by oar and sai l, Smith and his men covered more than 2,500 miles in just over three months. By their return on 7 September, they had explored to the fa ll-line of almost every major tributary on the Chesapeake Bay. Along the way, the men braved heat, exhaustion, summer squalls, adverse wi nds, and attacks from the natives.

SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

Captain John Smith: 1608 and 2007 The Exploration of the Chesapeake, First Voyage: 2 June-21 July

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The vessel Smith and his men used for the expedition was a stout open workboat known as a shallop, or the "Discovery Barge," as they called it. Ir was built in Europe and transported across the Atlantic in sections in the hold of the Susan Constant, the largest vessel in the fleet. When the settlers first made landfall at the mouth of the Bay, the sections were hoisted on deck and reassembled in two days. The resulting craft was roughly 30 feet in length , powered by oar and sail, and capable of holding up to 25 men. Sturdily built and somewhat cumbersome to maneuver, the shallop was ideally suited for coastal patrol and carrying out trading missions with the Indians.

For his 1608 expedition, Smith recruited fourteen men possessing a variery of skill sets. Crewmembers included "gentlemen," a fisherman , a physician, a carpenter, a tailor, a sailor, a blacksmith, and soldiers.

After loading the boat with provisions, the men headed o ut of the James River and sailed across the bay to the lower Delmarva Peninsula. On 3 June they had their first encounter with Native Americans on the Easrern Shore, when they spied two men fishing in the shallows "with long poles like Javelings, headed with bone." The men invi red the settlers to the Indian town of Accomack, where they mer the chief and were "kindly treated." After hearing the chief give them "such descriptions of the

"Sail Repairs on Bloodsworth Island, June 6-8 , 1608" Bay, isles and rivers that often did [them] exceeding pleasure," they sailed north.

On 4 June, as they headed for Tangier Island, the explorers found themselves engulfed in a sudden storm. Within minutes, Smith reported, "such an extream gust of wind, raine, thunder and lightening happened, that with great daunger, we escaped the unmerciful! raging of the ocean-like water." After some furious bailing, they headed back to safe refuge along the Eastern Shore.

The next day, the parry explored Watts and Tangier Islands in search of fresh drinking water before turning east to the mourh of the Pocomoke River. Smith mer warriors

"First Encounter on the Eastern Shore, June 3, 1608"

r

SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

from the Wicocomoco nation , who guided them upriver, perhaps as far as present-day Snow Hill, Maryland. Now desperate for provisions, the parry was heading north through Tangier Sound when they were caught in another violent storm . This time, powerful winds dismasred the boar and tore its sail. They camped on Bloodsworth Island for three days, making repairs before getting underway again, now heading northeast into the Nanticoke River.

As the men approached a narrow section of the river, they were suddenly showered with arrows. Smith anchored the shallop in mid-river, safely out of range. Later that afternoon, a Nanticoke fishing parry paddling upstream approached the boat, unawa re of what had transpired earlier in the day. After receiving a fri endly reception from the settlers, the natives paddled off to tell their tribesmen of the explorers' intention to trade. Soon, hundreds of Indians appeared on the sho reline with gifts. Smith would later call the Nanticokes "the best merchants of all other Savages."

The Indians provided them with valuable knowledge abo ut the geography of the Eastern Sho re, informing him that it was but a peninsula between the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays and the Atlantic Ocean. They also told Smith of "a great nation cal led Massawomeck" rhar lived in the western mountains. Tiring of the marshy Eastern Shore and eager to meet the Massawomeck, Smith decided to cross the Bay and explore further north.

25

After reaching the Western Shore near present-day Calvert C liffs, the party voyaged to the mouth of the Patapsco River. Smith and his men explored beyond where Baltimore now stands and went on foot to the first falls of the river. At this point, Smith's men were beginning to tire of life aboa rd the open boat. Smith remarked that they " ... were oft tired ar their oares, their bread spoiled with wet, so much that ir was rotten, yet so good were their stomacks that they could digest it." Smith urged them on.

"Gentlem en ... what shame it would be for you to force me to return with a month's provision, scarce able to say where we have bin , nor yet heard of that wee were sent to seeke ... As for your feares that I will lose myselfe in these unknown large waters, or be swallowed up in some stormie gust, abandon these childish feares , for worse than is past cannot happen, and there is as much danger to returne as to proceed forward ... return I wi ll not ril I have seen ... the head of this greate water you conceit to be endless."

Their leader had spoken, bur poor weather intervened, and they turned the shallop south back toward Jam estown. On their way back down the Bay, the explorers "discovered" the mouth of the Potomac River. The Potomac's size and orientation to the northwest made it the best candidate yet to deliver an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean, and the river had been rumored to contain precious minerals. Reenergized by the promise of instant riches, the exhausted men m ade a speedy recovery and entered the mouth of the great river.

It was 14 June. Two Indians in a canoe approached, inviting Smith to visit their village on rhe south bank. On entering Nomini Creek, the company was ambushed. Several hundred men emerged , " ... so strangely painted, grimed and disguised, showting, yelling and crying, as we rather supposed them so many divels." Smith and his men fired their muskets for effect, and the Indians laid down their bows and arrows and spears. Hostages were exchanged, and a friendly discussion ensued.

Smith and his crew spent the next four weeks exploring the Potomac with the aid of a bearded Indian guide named Mosco, whose thick facial hair suggested he had European ancestry. They explored to the Little Falls of the Potomac, a mile upstream from today's Washington, DC, and on foot perhaps as far as Grear Falls. Along the way, they visited numerous Indian towns and received generally hospitable receptions.

Everywhere they looked, they discovered a wealth of wildlife scurrying abo ut in the forests-deer, bear, otter, mink, martin, raccoon, beaver, opossum, wildcats, and flying squirrels. The abu ndance of marine life was no less amazing. They found " . . . fish lying so thicke with their heads above water, as for want of nets we attempted to catch them with a frying pan: but we fou nd it a bad instrument to catch fish with."

On 17 July, the Englishmen sailed south toward the Rappahannock River and ran aground on a sandbar at the river's mouth. While waiting for high tide, the crew hopped overboard to fish in the

shallows. After spearing a stingray with his sword, John Sm ith was stung on the wrist by its poisonous barb while removing it from his weapo n. Within minutes, Smith's arm, shoulder, and chest swelled so extremely that he feared he was dying. He ordered the men to dig his grave bur miraculously recovered in time to eat the ray for supper! The location is still known by the name Smith gave it-Stingray Point.

Sti ll feeling the effect of the stingray incident, Smith decided to forego his exploration of the Rappal1annock and headed back to the fort. When they arrived on 21 July, rhey found the settlement in total disarray.

Sick and dying men lay about the fort and an angry mob was threatening to overthrow the acting President. In short order, Smith had the President deposed and installed his friend Matthew Scrive ner in his place. The shallop crew rested for three days and set our, once again , to finish their exploration of the Chesapeake Bay.

Exploration of the Chesapeake, Second Voyage: 24 July-7 September Smith and his crew made haste up the Western Shore ro the Patapsco River. On 30 July, they reached the head of the Bay, where they saw the estuary divide into four large rivers: rhe Susquehanna, North East, Elk and Sassafras. By the time they reached this point, several men had fallen ill, leaving on ly six able sailors to manage the shallop.

While their crew was undermanned and vulnerable, several birch-bark canoes filled with armed Massawomeck warriors approached them near the mouth of the Sassafras River. Thinking quickly, Smith laid his sick men under a tarp and then propped their hats on sticks and placed muskets by the gunwales to create rhe perception of a large and able crew. When rhe Massawomeck saw the fictitious English force, they retreated to a nearby beach. Shortly afterwards, two canoes ventured out, gifts were exchanged, and serious trading began.

The next morning, the Massawomeck va nished as quickly as they came, and Smith carried on to explore the Sassafras River. At the river's mouth, the shallop was surrounded by another group of natives in dugout canoes, this time warriors from the Tockwogh nation. They escorted Smith upstream seven miles ro their palisaded town near present-day Kentmore Park in

SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

AP

OF THE

.REENACTMENT 2007

i

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VOYAGE

CAPTA I N

JOHN SMITH

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"Virginia, _Discovered and Discribed by Captayn john Smith, " Sixth state. [London: William Hole, 1624}

Kent Coun ty, Maryland. H e was struck by the sight of the Tochwogh bearing European hatchets and metal rools. These, he was told, came from the Susquehannock, a migh ty tribe who lived two days above the falls of the Susquehanna River. Smith resolved ro meet them. Smith and his crew sailed across the bay and up the Susquehan na, where they waited fo r their Tockwogh fri ends to arrange fo r a trading session. On 7 August, sixty men came upon them bearing gifts and trade goods, and Smith was impressed by the migh ty warriors from the north . "Such great and well p roportioned men are seldome seen, for they seemed like G iants ro the English, yea and ro th eir neighbours, ye t seemed ro have an honest and simple disposition."

H aving fo und the head of navigation of the Chesapeake Bay, it was time ro head south ro chart the major rive rs that had been missed on the first voyage. From 8- 12 August, the parry explored ro the fall line of the Patuxent River. On 13 August, the 28

shallop sailed ro the Rappahannock River and reached the fall line (now the site of Fredericksburg, Virginia). The end of the voyage was near.

On 3 September, as the crew headed back roward Jamesrown, they ran into the las t of their violent C hesapeake storms and had ro bail strenuously ro stay afloat. "Yet running before the winde," Smith wrote, "at last we made land by the flashes of fire from heaven, by which light only we kept from the splitting shore, until it pleased G od in that black darkness, ro preserve us by that ligh t ro find Point Comfo rt." It was a fitting end ro an incredible adventure. On 7 September 1608, they reached the fort .

Three days later, Captain John Smith became the third president of Jamestown.

Under his leadership, industry flourished, crops were planted, homes were constructed, securi ty was tightened, and the death rate fell dramatically. Unfo rtunately, Smith's reign came ro an abrupt end in the fall of 1609, when a packet of black powder on his

hip accidentally ignited, severely wounding his leg. That September, he boarded a supply ship heading back ro England. H e would never set foot in Virginia again.

The Impact of Smith's Voyages: Mapping the Course for a New Nation After his return to England, Smith worked with engrave r William Hole ro create a map of "Virginia'' that was printed in O xford in 16 12. This map was so accurate that it served as the definitive rendering of the Chesapeake region fo r nearly a century. Accompanying the map was a pamphlet guide describing the C hesapeake region in striking detail, including information about the area's climate, flora, fa una, and marine life. It also contained the first ethnographic study of the Native inhabitants of the Chesapeake, which remains an important source of information a bout the Algonquian peoples of the mid-Atlantic region .

For its time: and place, some 200 years before Lewis amd Clark, Captain John SEA HIS TORY 118, SPRING 2007

Smi th's 1608 exploration of the C hesapeake Bay and its tributaries was every bit as epochal as that of those later explorers. Much as Lewis and C lark's maps and written descriptions of the American West opened a new frontier for thousands of settlers in the 1800s, Smith's 161 2 map of the Chesapeake Bay greatly stimulated interest in the New World. As En glish immigrants flocked to Virginia in greater numbers in the 1600s, Smith's widely published work served as a blueprint for settling the region. More broadly, Smith's acco unts of the Chesapeake Bay began a process of political, social, and economic change that still reverberates today.

Commemorating the 400th Ann iversary of Smith's Voyages With the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown and Smith's voyages approaching, a slew of events have been planned throughout the C hesapeake region in 2007 to commemo rate this pivotal moment in American history. One of the most exciting initiatives is being led by Sultana Projects, Inc., a non-profit organization based in Ches tertown, Maryland, known for owning and operating the schoolship schooner Sultana. In 2004, Sultana Projects launched an educational program known as the Captain John Smith Four Hundred Project . The first year was devoted to building a full-scale reproduction of Smith's "Discovery Barge." Las t year, the shallop embarked on a tour of museums in M aryland, Delaware, Virginia, and Washington, D C. The culmination of the proj ect will come this spring and summer, when a crew of twelve modern explo rers will set fo rth from Jamestown in May for a 12 1-day reenactment of Smith's historic expedi tion aboard the reproduction shallop.

Reproducing Captain John Smith's Shallop Four hundred years after Smith and his men plied the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, shipwrights at Sultana Projects were faced with several challenges in their attempt to build a faithful reproduction of his small craft. Foremost, shallops of the early 17th century were the equivalent of the modern pickup truck - utilitarian and usefu l, but also commonplace and unremarkable. As a result, shallops' design SEA HISTORY 118, SPRJNG 2007

The shipyard was open to the public during the construction phase of the project.

Volunteers and school groups assisted the professional shipwrights by contributing countless hours oflabor, while learning about the history ofthe boat and the J 608 voyage. features were seldom documented . Secondly, how wo uld the settlers have broken their shallop into pieces that could be reassembled in a matter of days?

W ith the help of a research grant from the National Geographic Society, Sultana Projects staff members wo rked to address these conundrums. Visits to the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia provided myriad images of small seventeemh-century vessels, as did a trip to England. Additionally, Smith's 16 12 map depicts a small vessel that is double-ended, with a single mast and spar, shrouds, and oars. The biggest breakthrough in determining the shallop's design came from a journal entry made

by John Brereton, who accompanied Captain Bartholomew Gos nold on an expedition to Cape Cod in 1602. After reaching landfall, Brereton noted that "we hoisted the one halfe of our shallop, and Captaine Bartholomew Gosnold, my selfe, and three others, went ashore." Brereton stated that later "the other part [of the shallop] was

brought ashore and set together." This entry clearly indicated that Gosnold's shallop had been transported in two watertight halves that could be independently rowed to shore!

The link to Gosnold was also critical, as he went on to become one of the principal organizers fo r the James town expedition five years later.

Construction on the shallop began in April 200 5. The shipwrights worked mostly with seventeenth-century-style tools; they were assisted by numerous volunteers and many groups of school children who visited the shipya rd to lend a hand and learn about the journey. O n 5 November 200 5, the wo rk had been co mpleted, leading to one of the most unusual launches in maritime histo ry. As thousands of onlookers crowded around the foo t of High Street in Chestertown, Maryland, th en-Governor Robert Ehrlich sawed the sh allop in half and only the stern section of Sultana Proj ects' twopieced boat slid down the ways and into the Chester River! Two months later, the

29

along the ro ute by the National Ocean ic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Learning from the Past

Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts built a reproduction of a 17th-century shallop in 2 000. These boats were common in that time period, when ships were traveling to uncharted waters. They were small enough to be carried onboard ship for the transAtlantic passage and could be built (or re-assembled, as in the case ofj ohn Smith's shallop), ashore once they arrived. They were usefulfor their stability, carrying capacity, and shallow draft.

Once settlers arrived, they needed to navigate coastal waters and inland waterways. reproductio n shallop began a fourreenmonth to ur of the Chesapeake region

Back to the Future: The Reenactment Voyage The cul minating activity of rhe Captain John Smith Four Hundred Project will begin at H istoric James rowne on 12 May 2007, when twelve crew m embers will boa rd rhe boar ar rhe sire of the o ri ginal Jamestown Fort and begin a four-month, 1,5 00-mile expedition ro retrace Smith's histo ric voyage. The launch will be an impo rtant part of "America's 400th An nive rsary," the Jam estown commemoration that w ill fea ture bo th President George W. Bush and Queen Elizabeth II . Traveling solely under the power of oar and sail , the crew will brave hear, mosquitoes, cramped living quarters, and summer squalls while voyaging to rhe fall line of nearly every majo r tributary of the Chesapeake Bay and visiting all of the region's principal population centers.

W hile the crew will rely exclusively on traditional m odes of propulsion, the 2007 reenact ment will differ from Smith's voyage in several ways. To start, the crew will be made up of seven men and fi ve wo men from diverse backgrounds. The modern crew will enjoy m ore contempo rary

30

arrangements for cookin g, eating, sleeping, and sanitation when compared to the rudimentary conditions Smith's m en endured .

The shallop will also be equipped with the latest in modern navigation and communications equipment. Perhaps the most significant difference between the two voyages is rhar rhe shallop will make scheduled stops at 28 waterfront communities, where a traveling exhibit will allow visito rs to learn more about Smith's incredible story. M embers of the public will also be able to follow the voyage via the Web (www.johnsmith400 . org), where crewmembers will regularly upload journal entries an d video segm ents.

The Chesapeake National Historic Trail: The Enduring Legacy The 2007 voyage will also inaugurate the newly created Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Histo ric Trail. M anaged by the National Park Service, the trail will span the waters of M aryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia, and will be the first trail of its kind in that it does not include an inch of dry land. Modern explorers can fo llow Smith's ro ute aboard kayaks, can oes, sailing craft, and m otorboats. They will be able ro access info rmation on rheir cell phones or laptop compurers from "smart buoys" installed

In one sense, Captain John Smith's expedition of 1608 was a failure. They did not find gold or silver, no r an all-water ro ute to the Pacific. In a larger sense, however, his voyages had ve ry significant impli cati ons for the C hesapeake region and, ultimately, the Uni ted States of America. Smith's detailed map of the C hesapeake Bay served as a guidepost for thousands of European settlers seeking a fresh start in the New World. 1h e influx o f settlers helped ensure the colony's survival, and the democratic principles that wo uld come to characterize Jamestown in the latter half of the 1600s laid rhe fo undation fo r rhe society in which we live in today. At th e sam e tim e, the large-scale arrival of Europeans to the Chesapeake region h ad disastrous effects on the Native populatio ns, and rhe clearing of fores ts fo r agriculture and development led to the demise of the estuary's immensely productive ecosystem.

Sultana Projects' 2007 voyage will allow us to reflect upon just how much this great body of water has changed over the last fo ur centuries and to consider actions rhat might help restore rhe estuary cl oser ro the pristine state Smith described in his 16 12 Description of Virginia: "There is but one entrance by sea into this co untry, and that is at the mouth of a very goodly Bay ... W ithin is a country that may have the prerogative over the most pleasant places of Europe, Asia, Africa or America, fo r large and pleasant navigable ri vers, heaven and earth never agreed better ro fram e a place fo r m an's hab itatio n . .. " .!

Philip J Webster is a Trustee ofNMH S and a D irector of Sultana Projects, Inc., the nonprofit organization organizing the Cap tain j ohn Smith 400 Project. Christopher Cerino is Sultana Projects' Vice President. Artist M arc Castelli completed a series ofpen and ink drawings for the Captain j ohn Smith Four Hundred Project based upon events described by Smith in the journals of his 1608 voyages. To see more of his art work and also for more informatiom on the Captain john Smith 400 Project amd Sultana Projects, Inc., visit wwwjohnsmitl:h400. org.

SEA HISTODRY 11 8, SPRING 2007

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31

aptain John Smith led an extraordinary life, even before he stepped foot on the ( shores of the New World. A lot of what we know about John Smith comes from the books and reports he wrote about his life.

Historians have also compared Smith's stories to other records, or sources, that were written by other people who were there at the same time.

We learn about history by studying records from the past. You can look at actual things people have left behind, or primary sources. Examples of primary sources include letters, photos, diaries, and newspaper articles.

Some are published, such as autobiographies, interviews, maps, and legal records. Some are not.

Items your family might store in your own home (letters, diaries, scrapbooks, mail) fall into this category. Primary sources can also include pictures and artifacts. We can learn a lot from what we see in photos, movies, and artwork. Artifacts (objects) from the past, such as clothing, tools, and shipwrecks, can help us figure out things about people's lives, even if there was little written down.

If you wanted to learn about John Smith's travels in the New World, you could read his book, The Generali Historie a/Virginia, New England & The Summer Isles, which he published in 1624, and look at the maps and reports he made during his travels.

To learn history, you could also read secondary sources-writings someone else created about a topic in history (your history book at school, for example), usually long after the event has passed. Secondary sources are a great way to learn about a topic in history, but you always need to remember that the person writing that secondary source may not have seen all the primary sources. They might not be telling the full story. Good historians might make some excellent guesses or hypotheses about details for which they couldn't find any sources. While they work very hard to tell the story the way it really happened, there is always the chance that they interpreted events incorrectly. We all try to tell the truth the best we can when we write about history, but we can't completely escape our own opinions and beliefs.

Let's look at the case of John Smith and his friend Pocahontas (her real name was actually Matoaka) . What we know about them can be confusing because different stories have been told about them for so long. When Disney made the movie Pocahontas in 1995, the John Smith and Pocahontas of history faded away as

the fictional movie characters took over. To learn about the real people, we need to study their history. Many primary sources related to the Jamestown colony, including the stories of John Smith and Pocahontas, have survived to this day. John Smith published several books about his adventures too. From these primary sources, we know that the real Pocahontas of 1607 was a young girl about 10 or 11 years old, not a young woman. John Smith was a short, red-headed, bearded hothead of sorts, not the dean-shaven blond cartoon character seen singing in the Virginia forests in the movie.

There are many, many differences between the cartoon characters and the real people, but the most important thing to remember is that, in the end, it is often impossible to know all the facts, even the most important ones. Historians are not even sure if Pocahontas actually saved John Smith's life by throwing herself over his body when her fellow tribesmen were about to bash his brains in with a club (some historians think it was an Indian ritual where an outsider was officially accepted into the tribe by staging a fake killing and then having a tribal member pretend to save him). In fact, the story of Pocahontas saving John Smith comes from a book he wrote 15 years later. When historians research the primary sources that document the story of Pocahontas and John Smith, many important details do not agree with the popular story we know today. It seems unlikely that they were in love with each other because of their age difference. For example, documents show that, when Pocahontas grew up, she married another Englishman named John Rolfe. As his wife, she converted to Christianity, changed her name to Rebecca, and dressed like an English lady, not a Native American.

We may never know the full story of Pocahontas and John Smith, but we can use their example to remind us that, when a story features historical characters, you have to look at what primary sources were used to write that story before you judge how accurate it is. The more sources you can find, the more reliable the story will be.

You might think that by 2007 we would know everything there is to know about our past, but we still have a lot to learnand it is always exciting when some unknown primary source suddenly is discovered and can either back up or completely change the history we think we already know. ,t

ou are planning an ocean voyage. What kind of vessel do you choose? In the time of the Vikings, you would have rowed your ships to windward and used a big square sail to go downwind. In Columbus's day, you could have chosen between a number of small sailing ships, depending on where you intended to go and what you needed to take with you. By 1492, sailors knew that, to go downwind, they could set a big square sail across their ship and let the wind push them where they wanted to go. They also had learned, from the Arab boats they saw during their voyages across the Mediterranean Sea and around Africa, that a lateen, or fore-and-aft, sail helped them make progress into the wind. Many early oceanic explorers chose ships with combination rigs-some sails square and some fore-and-aft-to allow them to travel in any direction, no matter where the wind was coming from.

Y

(right) This square-rigged ship is getting pushed downwind.

It's easy to guess how a square sail works to push a ship dead downwind, but how does a sail work to get to windward? Sailing directly upwind is also easy to understand: it's impossible. You just sit there with your sails flapping. Scientists and sailors figured out that certain sail shapes can actually PULL a ship into the wind-not directly, but enough to be able to go toward your windward destination and then tack and keep going, zigzagging, until you get there.

Let's look at how this all works.

When the wind meets the forward edge of a sail, it splits. Some of it flows to one side of the sail and some flows on the other. Because the sail is curved when it's filled with air, the air molecules that travel on the outside of the curve (the leeward side of the sail) have a longer distance to travel than the air molecules that cut across the windward side. All these air molecules still have to meet at the other end at the same time. So, to do that, the air molecules to leeward have to move faster. This difference in speed causes a difference in air pressure on each side of the sail.

High pressure (on the windward side) pushes against low pressure (on the leeward side), and, on our sail, this creates a force in the direction to leeward.

Why doesn't the boat drift sideways? Well, it does, actually. Sailboats and sailing ships are built with a keel (or centerboard) underneath the boat. As the wind pushes the boat sideways, the keel is pushed against the water. The water resists this and exerts a force in the opposite direction.

The shape of the sail, the underside of the boat, and the keel, and how you position your sails and rudder, work on these opposing forces and cause the boat to sail forward. 1SEAHISTORY 118, SPRING 2007 STAR OF !NOIA l'MOTO COU RTESY O F WWW.BAYSHOTS.COM

t was a dark and stormy night. I was sailing on a whatever eterologists may sa to the contrary.

I could see them picking things out of the water schooner with my shipmate, Sean. He noticed a tiny bird huddled in the small boat that was hung while on the wing." off our stern. The bird had probably just stopped to There are about twenty different kinds of storm rest, but it was having trouble taking off again be- petrels. They live all over the world, some migratcause its feet kept slipping on the paint, which kept it ing vast distances between continents and oceans. from being able to reach up into the wind. Sean gen- The word petrel probably comes from the story of St. Peter, who, it was said, could walk on water. These tly picked it up, cuddling the bird in one hand. It was dark grey, like ash, and weighed less than a small ball birds appear to tiptoe over the waves because, while they're eating churned-up plankton, their feet skitof yarn. Sean lifted his hand up and let the bird flutter away, into the wind and rain and pitch dark. ter over the surface, as if they're treading air. A This bird was a storm petrel, the smallest of open common nickname for a storm petrel is a "Mother ocean seabirds and related to shearwaters and terns.

Carey's Chicken." This might come from the Latin Storm petrels are often found in "fowl" weather, so phrase, Mater Cara, which referred to the Virsuperstitious sailors used to think the birds were lit- gin Mary, the protector of sailors. Or maybe it's tle black witches, actually the cause for the storms.

Many sailors still believe storm petrels can help / forecast rough weather. Sir Francis Chiches/ ~ ~ / ter, who set a record for the fastest solo ' · .·. · ····'-circumnavigation in 1967, often / - .,... . ··,._ .. ~~~<i:J saw these birds in the ~uthem Seas, home of the tllost / -furious waves and winds ·- ~..-. on Earth. /. ,, He wrote: "That evening/ ' /,. a big swell began running . ~ (1 in suddenly from the west; , big, I would say 50 feet.;: . \ ) ) There were a number ~ I 'fElliillll [Storm Petrels] about, / which nearly always /

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Now FOR THE WEATHER ...

Sailors are a superstitious lot . For cen t uries , t h ey h ave used n ature's sign s to predict the weather.

Take a look at som e of these t radition al rhymes:

Mackerel sky and mares' tails , Make lofty ships carry low sails .

fo\Z S\J'I\ Mt-'\ lNb from an old fairy tale about a farmer, named Mother Carey, who tended the entire ocean as if it was her field. Charles Leland wrote down this song in 1895:

When rain comes before the wind, halyards, sheets and braces mind, But when wind comes before rain, soon you may make sail again.

WITH THE WIND OLD MOTHER CAREY, YOHO OH! CHURNS THE SEA TO MAKE HER DAIRY: YOHO OH! WHEN YOU SEE A STORM A -BREWIN', YOHO OH! THAT IS MOTHER CAREY'S DOIN': YOHO OH! WHEN YOU SEE MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS, YOHO OH! THEN LOOK OUT TO CATCH THE DICKENS! YOHO OH!

Before electricity, residents of some Scottish islands used to thread a wick through dead Storm Petrels and light them like a candle. The oil in their bodies is supposed to burn very well, which is interesting because when these birds get angry, they'll actually spit out a gob of oil as a defense. Thinking back on that dark and stormy night , I'm amazed Sean didn't get a goopy splat of oil in his eye.

In the next issue of Sea History, we'll sail away from the rough weather and visit the tropics, where we'll meet a type of dolphin that's only three feet long. 1.

Red sky at night, sailor's delight ; Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning The evening red and morning gray Are sure signs of a fine day, But the evening gray and the morning red, Makes the sailor shake his head.

And, of cou rse . . .

Whether the weather be fine Or whether the weather be not Whether the weather be cold Or whether the weather be hot We'll weather the weather Whatever the weather Whether we like it or not.

MARITIME HISTORY ON THE INTERNET

Digital Resources at Mystic Seaport

by Peter McCracken n the next few columns, I'll present work done by various maritime museums to digitize and make accessible some of the most remarkable parts of their collections. The folks at Mystic Seaport's G. W. Blunt White Library have been pursuing digitization projects for many years now.

Kelly Drake, Associate Director for Collections Access and Research at the Seaport, explained that their Ship Registers Database has been by far the most popular resource.

(All resources mentioned in this column can be accessed from http:/ /www.mysticseaport.org/library/catfind/ refindex.cfm.) One can not only follow the history of a specific ship, but also follow the history of an individual. The latter is an example of the incredible information released through digitization projects: originally, the only effective access point was a ship's name. By digitizing the data, and more particularly by creating a separate and search able field for shipmasters' names, one can now find all vessels captained by a "McCracken" with a bare minimum of effort.

Previously, finding the other vessels an individual might have captained, through nearly 50 years of registers, would be impossible. Now it takes a half a second, and anyone can access it from anywhere, at any time.

Other great resources made available by the Blunt White Library include the New London and Salem crew lists. These lists, showing information about the crews of over 2,500 different voyages, and including over 37,400 names, are another treasure trove of information. Researchers interested in the racial makeup of ships' crews, for instance, can learn a great deal by analyzing this data. When a crew list is located, researchers can order a copy of the list.

I

These searches are case sensitive, which is a drawback, but one that hopefully will be corrected in the near future.

The Connecticut Ship Database provides extensive information on approximately 15,000 vessels, including rig type, size, when and where built, owners, masters, and more. The library has also scanned in and transcribed numerous manuscript items from their collection. Logbooks from the Kearsarge's Civil War cruise "In serch of Rebel Privateers" exemplify this remarkable collection. The guides to house flags and funnels are invaluable to those researching ship portraits. Many more digital collections exist than can be described here.

Mystic Seaport is to be commended for investing in these digital projects. They are expensive and time-consuming, but these projects demonstrate the value of maritime history in innumerable fields, and they make these parts of the Seaport's unique collection accessible to all. By selecting the most popular and fragile items to digitize, the library staff protect these documents by limiting their future handling, and extend the library's services far beyond their physical confines.

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 .

....

Photo by P. Mathews

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OsHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS SPUN YARN

Sixteenth Century Studies & Essays, a representation of the bowsprit and jib- Monitor Center will open its doors on 9 scholarly series published by Truman State boom reaching out over the street and its March 2007, 145 years after the historic University Press, invites manuscript sub- "stern" nearly in the water more than 400 clash between the Civil War ironclads USS missions of monographs, essay collec- feet away. Constructed of white-painted Monitor and CSS Virginia. The new center tions, and teaching materials that broad- steel and placed on the spot from which is housed in a 63,500-square-foot facili ty ly cover the history and culture of Early the original schooner was launched in De- and will provide exhibit space for visitors, Modern Europe, including global and cember of 1909, the sculpture is visible a state-of-the-arr conservation lab, and a comparative perspectives. For a list of past from as far away as the Sagadahoc Bridge research center for historians and researchseries publications, see https://tsup.tru- across the Kenn ebec River in Bath. When ers. (100 Museum Drive, Newport News, man.edu/sces.aspx. (All ....-----------------------------~ VA 23606; www.mariinqumes and sub misMaine Maritime Museum's sculpture of the six-masted schooner nersmuseum.org) sions should go to: Dr. W,.omingdominates the spot where the original was launched in 1909.

This past October, the Michael Wolfe, General Hampton Roads Naval Editor, SCS&E, 129C Museum joined 10 othSmith Building, Penn er museums to become State Altoona, Altoona, the Museums Division PA 16601 ; 8 14 949of the Naval Historical 5200; mww4@psu.edu) Center. The NHC is The Stellwagen comprised of many Bank National Marine branches; their headSanctuary is partnering with the M assa- the six m as ts are raised in Phase 2, they quarters is housed in a complex within the chusetts Marine Educators and the New will soar 140 feet into the air. In May, the Washington Navy Yard in Washington England Aquarium to sponsor an annual museum will open the new exhibit on the DC. (Hampton Roads Naval Museum, Marine Art/Poster Contest for grades K- Popham Colony, which will move to the One Waterside Dr., Suite 248, Norfolk, 12. This year's theme is "Celebrating the Maine State M useum after Columbus VA 23510; www. hrnm.navy.mil) ... On 15th Anniversary of the Stellwagen Bank Day. (MMM, 243 Washington St., Bath, 17 October 2006, President Bush signed NMS ." Visit their web site for more infor- ME 045 30; Ph. 207 443-1316; e-m ail: the SAFE Port Act, H.R. 4954, "To immation . D eadline for emries is 15 May Maritime@BathMaine.com; www.bath- prove maritime and cargo security 2007. (SBNMS, www.stellwagen.noaa. maine.com) . . . A reader sent in this through enhanced layered defenses, and gov) ... The Steamship Historical Sod- photo of the paddlewheel steamer Andy for other purposes." The Act authorizes ety of America has moved its offices to a Johnson hoping to learn more of its his- the developmen t of new equipmem to alnew location in Providence, RI. (1029 tory. If yo u have information on this low security personnel to check the co nWaterman Ave., East Providence, RI vessel, please e-mail us at editorial@ tents of comainers without having to open 02916; Ph. 401 274-0805; e- ....-----------------------~ them, provides legislativeauthorSteamship Andy Johnson mail: sewen@sshsa.org; www.sshity for American inspectors to sa.org) ... The Maine Maritime screen cargo before it leaves forMuseum is planning on buildeign ports for the US, and reing a reconstruction of the pinquires the Dept. of Homeland nace Virginia, the original of Security to establish a plan to exwhich was built in 1607-1608 pedite the resumption of trade in by the Popham Colony of Fort the event of a terrorist attack.

St. George. The 51-ft. vessel was (For exact language on the Act, built for use in coastal trading see http: //thomas.loc.gov and and exploration, but she ended type in H.R. 4954.) ... The USS up being used to cross the Adamic and re- seahistory.org and we'll be happy to put Saratoga Museum in Providence, RI, turn the suffering colonists to England yo u in comact with this researcher. . . . has recently received a $6.5 million loan when their settlement fai led. The pinnace The Mariners' Museum recently an- commitment, with federal funds rewill be built by master boatbuilder Rob nounced that they successfully complet- served to back it, to develop a family atStevens, who has built other reproductions ed the 2:1 matching grant set by media traction, educational center, and memoof histo ric craft, including the Viking executive and the museum trustee emer- rial at Quonset Point. The site was once knarr, Snorri, in 1997. Virginia will be itus Frank Batten. This adds a total of $6 the location of the Quonset Point Naval built on the museum gro unds next to their million to the $30 million USS Monitor Air Station. In the 1950s, it was home full-size sculpture of the six-m as ted schoo- Center Capital Campaign. The Museum is port to the aircraft carriers USS Tarawa ner W)ioming. Phase One of the schooner entering the final year of this fundraising and USS Leyte. In the 1960s it served as sculpture has been completed, with the campaign for the center. The new USS home port to USS Lake Champlain and 38

SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

USS Essex. Efforts are well underway to make it home port to USS Saratoga and use the ship as the centerpiece to the USS Saratoga Museum. Pier space was reserved for the ship until May 1st of this year, but the organizers had to show th ey could raise $ 10 mi ll ion to get the proj ect off th e gro und. The loan commitm ent with federal backing is expected to o pen the door for more private sponsors and donors, who will now feel more confident in the ultimate success of the proj ect. (USS Saratoga Museum, PO B 2858 1, Providence, RI 02908 ; www.saratogamuseum.org) W ith the launch of the n ewest reproductions of Jamestown's Godsp eed and D iscovery, the question of w hat the fate of the two vessels already playing those roles in Jamestown h as been decided.

The "old" Godspeed will rem ain on site at the Jamestown Settlement through 2007, now interpreted as the ship Elizabeth, which was known to have made several voyages between England and Virginia between 161 3 and 1625. Elizabeth would have been close enough to the size of Godspeed to make this recycling effort a reasonable move. The "new" Godspeed was launched last year and m ade an 80-day

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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT AND MUSEUM NEWS

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400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, beginning early this spring, that they are too numerous to list here.

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40

along the way, is planned in collaboration with the Erie Canalway National H eritage Corridor. (4472 Basin Harbor Rd. , Vergennes, VT 05491 ; Ph . 802 475-2022; www.lcmm.org) ... The Wisconsin Underwater Archaeology Association is seeking volunteer divers to measure, sketch, and photograph wrecks during two underwater site surveys in the Bailey's Harbor area, the weekends of 2324 June and 30 June-I July. They will conduct a workshop on underwater site survey methods on 24 March, in conjunction with the Ghost Ships Festival.

See www.wuaa.org or e-mail them at wuaa@mailbag.com. . . . The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) has announced a new scholarship opportunity that honors Mandell and Lester Rosenblatt to be awarded for undergraduate study in Naval Architecture/Marine Engineering/Ocean Engi-

neering. Eligible applicants m ust be active members of a SNAME student section, have a passion for one of the three topics stared, and be recommended by three professionals. Applications may be downloaded from the SNAME web site at www. sname.org. Completed applications must be submitted electronically to Edina Faustino at efaustino@sname.org before 1 June 2007 . ... The Michigan Maritime Museum in South Haven, MI, is looking for an Executive Director. For a full copy of the announcement, e-mail: executivedirec tor@michiganmaritime.org. . . . Don't miss this exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. "Sketched at Sea'' features an important selection of marine sketchbooks, many of which are being shown for the first time, from the museum's collections. These works were created by mariners, travelers, or professional artists, who shared the experience of th e sea as the inspiration for their drawings. The pages in the sketchbooks will be frequently rotated so that visitors can regularly experience a fresh selection of artworks. The exhibit will close January 2008 .

(PEM, East India Square, Salem, MA 01970; Ph. 978 745-9500; www.pem .org) . . . Pennant Enterprises, owners of the schooner Fame out of Salem, MA, is presenting a winter lecture series of which these rwo might be of particular interest-7 March: Capt. John Wigglesworth describes a cruise to the Arctic aboard the schooner Bowdoin; 4 April: Marty Krigman will report on the work to restore the historic Gloucester fishing schooner Adventure to sailing condition.

(Ph. 978 729-7600; www.SchoonerFam e. org) ... The producers of the hour-long documentary "The Lost Radeau: North America's Oldest Intact Warship," a documentary on the famous wreck lying on the bottom of Lake George, NY, posted on YouTube.com the 2-minute trailer for the DVD production. C heck it out at h ttp://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ksa9TdBGWgc. While yo u're on YouTube, they have several more video clips of different aspects of nautical archaeology. Some of these videos are worth your time and some are not- that's the nature of that particular web site. . .. (contiinued on page 42) SEA HISTIORY 118, SPRING 2007

Eighth Maritime

N

Heritage Conference 9-12 October 2007

P

reparations are well under way for the Eighth Maritime Heritage Conference to be held in San Diego, California, next fall. Conference sessions will take place onboard the historic ships of the Maritime Museum of San Diego and the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum. Participating organizations include: the National Maritime Historical Society, The American Lighthouse Coordinating Committee, the Council of American Maritime Museums, the Historic Naval Ships Association, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Museum Small Craft Association, the National Park Service, the Naval Historical Foundation, the North American Society for Oceanic History, the Nautical Research Guild, the US Life-Saving Service Heritage Association, and the US Lighthouse Society. Given its historic location and the breadth of its focus, this conference will offer an extraordinary opportunity to learn about current research and educational programming and to celebrate the importance of maritime heritage in our society.

The conference kicks off on Tuesday, 9 October 2007, with an evening reception onboard the historic 1863 barque Star of India, the museum's flagship. The next morning, sessions will get underway with more than seventy panels scheduled for three days. The conference will conclude with a formal banquet and twilight cruise on San Diego's Big Bay. Dr. Alex Roland, professor of History at Duke University, has agreed to be one of the keynote speakers at the conference. A distinguished author, Dr. Roland is one of the nation's leading historians of technology. His wide-ranging and imaginative research focuses upon the relationship between science, technology, and warfare in the Western experience. Before teaching at Duke University, he worked for nearly a decade as historian with the National SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

Aeronautics and Space Administration. He is currently editor and lead writer for the American Maritime History project.

A number of participating organizations have already gathered presenters into potential panels. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is also planning a series of panels, reflecting that organization's celebration of the bicentenary of its foundation. This year, the Second Maritime Heritage Education Conference will be held conjointly with the Maritime Heritage Conference and promises a stimulating series of workshops for those who work and are interested in maritime education.

S Conference organizers are also hoping to form panels reflecting the history of maritime endeavor around the Pacific Rim. Members of participating organizations interested in presenting a paper at the conference should contact

their respective organizations for further details. The Program Chair will also entertain submissions from individuals. The deadline for the Call for Papers is 1 June 2007.

Inquiries concerning all panels and papers should be directed to the Conference Program Chair, Kevin Sheehan, at librarian@sdmaritime.org; Ph. 619 234-9153 ext. 118.

Participating organizations are invited to highlight their contribution to the conference through a variety of sponsorship packages. Details can be found on the conference website (see below) and also by contacting the Conference Coordinator, Robyn Wilner at rwilner@sdmaritime. org; Ph. 619 234-9153 ext. 106.

The Radisson Harbor View Hotel, eight blocks from the waterfront, is offering rooms at a special rate of $129 per night. Be sure to mention the Maritime Heritage Conference to be eligible for the special rate (Ph. 619 239-6800; www.radisson.com/ sandiegoca_harborview).

Details, including the official call for papers, the conference schedule, accommodations, sponsorship packages, opportunities for vendors, and conference highlights, can be found at the San Diego Maritime Museum's website at www.sdmaritime.com-follow the link to the Maritime Heritage Conference.

41

OFF TO FIDDLER'S GREEN ("Ship Notes" continued from page 40)

Ulane Bonnel (1918-2006)

The web site findmypast.com, licen sed

by Britain's National Archives, is now posting p assen ger m anifests from the country's ports between 1890 and 1960 (including Titanic's). The reco rds also show the passages of crans-European migrants. Between 1890 and 19 14 approximately 125,000 Britons emigrated every year to the US, with an additional 50,000 going to Canada and 25,000 to Australia.

Trips to all co ntinents are covered . Initially only the records from 1890- 1900 will be available, but subse-q uent decades will be put online over the next few mo nths. . .â&#x20AC;˘ Just recently, the G. W. Blunt White Library at Mystic Seaport ceased operating from the granite building on the museum's grounds- that h as b een its home since 1965 . In January, the C ollections Access and Research Room (CARR) open ed in the Collections Research Center across the street. The new facility will provide better access to all the museum's collections and is open daily, Monday - Friday. E-mail: collections@my sticseapo rt. org fo r details. Also, while you are in Mys tic, check out the 28th Annual Modern M arine M asters Exhibition, which will open in April 2007 at the Seaport's M aritime Gallery. Mo re than 100 works will be on display. (MSM , 75 Greenmanville Rd. PO Box 6000, Mys tic, CT 06355; Ph. 860 572-53 15; www. mysticseaporr.o rg) . . . The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History closed to the public last September fo r major architectural renovations and is scheduled to reopen by summer 2008.

U ntil it does, look for exhib its coming to a museum near yo u. Schedules for to uring exhibits can be fo und at http://americanhis tory.si.edu/ exhibitio ns / category. cfm ?category= traveling . . â&#x20AC;˘ Fi nally, if yo u can get to southern New England in M ay, be sure to catch the Cap e Cod Maritime Festival, which includes a on e-d ay Cap e Cod M aritime History Symposium, sponso red by the Cap e & Islands Maritime Research Association. The festival fea tu res nearly 75 events th ro ugho ut the entire m o nth , and highlights include the Annual Cape Cod M aritime History Symposium on 12 May and the Annual Cape Cod M aritime Festival o n 20 M ay. (www.ecapecham ber. com /MaritimeD ays)

In late September 2006, naval historians in Euro pe and the United States were saddened to learn of the death ofUlane Bonnel, a leading m aritime historia n in both France and the US . Born in Texas of French descent, Ms. Bonnel graduated fro m Wes t Texas State College in 1940 . At the outbreak of WW II, she enlisted in the Naval Reserve and atrended the WAVE officer candidate school ar Smith College. O n completion of this course, she served as a recrui ting offi cer, instructor, and personnel officer. By the end of the war, rhe Navy had assigned her to the congressional liaison unit at the Bureau of Naval Personnel. Afte r leaving active d uty, she worked as a specialis t in military affairs for the C ongressional Research Service in the Library of Congress. In 1947, she married Lr. Paul Henry Bonnel, Medical C orps, French Navy. From then on , she and her husband lived mos tly in France. During these years, Mme. Bonnel commenced study of French naval history at the U nive rsity of Paris and wro te her dissertation o n French privateering and the US d uring the Napoleoni c Wars. She earned the docto r o f letters degree and published her dissertarion in 196 1, fo r which she received a prize fro m the Academ ie de Marine. O ver her career, she published three books, more than 70 articles, and received the honors reserved fo r those at the to p of their professions in Fran ce. H er decorations include Chevalier of the National Order of Merit and of the Order of Arts and Letters, and Officer of the Order of Maritim e Merit.

Dr. Bo nnel achieved great distinction as a scholar and o rgan izer in academic conclaves. She fou nded the French Commission fo r M aritime Histo ry in 1978 and served as its secretary-general, journal editor, and president. She co-autho red the constitutio n of the Internatio nal Commission of Mari time Histo ry and served several years on its board of directors. She w ill always be remembered as a benefacto r of the Naval H istorical Center in Washington, D C, for her ass istance in obtaining copies of documentation held in French naval archives for the Center's publication Naval D ocuments of the American Revolution. She proved an invaluable link between the American and French academ ic communities .

After the French Navy m ine hunter Circe discovered CSS Alabama's shipw reck off C herborg in 1984, Dr. Bonnel for med the Association CSS Alabama in Paris to wo rk with the French M inistry of Cul ture and the Naval Historical Center to recover artifac ts fro m this impo rtant historic sh ip. She also assisted in the establishment of the CSS Alabama Associatio n in Mobile, Alabam a, that continues to preserve, protect, and display the A labama's arti facts in cooperation with the Naval Historical Center. Ulane Bonfl el will be long remembered for her high standards of scholarship, her great energy, her dedicatio n to French and American naval history, and her many collegial relatio nships on bo th sides of the Atlantic. -Bill Dudley

J, J, J, 42

David E. Perkins (1925-2006) D avid Eaton Perkins, 80, di ed on 14 September in Florida. During his lo ng career in the US Coast G uard, Captain Perkins served in the Ko rean War and the V ietnam War. A graduate of the US Coast Guard Academy at New London, CT, in 1946, he was first stationed in Seattle, WA, and in Alaska, serving on the USCG C utter Clover between 1946 and 1948 . After his sea service at home and abroad , he served as C hief of Staff of the USCG 3rd D istrict in New York with the rank of Captain. In this position, Captain Perkins was the USCG liaiso n fo r O pSail 76, and people involved with the extensive planning and o peratio ns fo r that event knew him as the "go to" guy. O n the day of the 1976 parade, during a lull in activity, the O pSail 76 Director of O perati ons complained he was bo red . "If we're bored we did our job," Perkins retorted.

Perkins was a member of the USCG Alumni Association, M aritime Institution and Sea Service M useum. In 1978, Capt. Perki ns and his wife, Lo uise, generously donated his papers to Joyner Library at East Carolin a Uni versity in G reenville, NC, to assist graduate students' research in mari time histo ry. The D avid E. Perkins Papers include corres po ndence, newspaper cl ippings, reports, pam phlets, program s, commissio ns, regulatio ns, m ovie fi lm , and m iscellaneo us items relating to his Coast G uard service (19401977). As an N MHS Advisor, Cap t. Perkins has lo ng been an involved, suppo rtive, and helpful member of rhe Society; he will be greatly missed. - Burchenal Green

SEA HISTORY 11 8, SPRING 2007

Ways to Contribute

by Thomas F. Daly, Trustee, National Maritime Historical Society

For many years, both the Board of Trustees and the staff have been asked by members what options are available to best support the Society. We have asked Trustee Tom Daly to outline the different kinds of ways in which this can be done, and this is his first in a series of helpful techniques you can use in structuring a gift to us. The National Maritime Historical Society is a 501 (c) 3 notjor profit organization that is dependant on member support as the foundation on which is built all ofour work to preserve our seafaring heritage.

-Burchenal Green, President Your tax-deductible contributions to the National Maritime Historical Society help us preserve America's maritime heritage. As a member, your generosity helps insure that future generations will learn about our nation's seafaring past. Many of our members would like to make larger charitable gifts to sustain the Society's endeavors or, perhaps, fund a specific project in their name or the name of a loved one. Please consider one of these giving vehicles.

IRA Gifts-New for 2007 New legislation enables persons 70.5 years or older to make donations up to $100,000 in 2007 from a traditional or Roth IRA without incurring a tax on the withdrawal. This method of giving is also exempt from the percentage of adjusted gross income limitations imposed on other types of charitable gifts. The donation will pass directly from the donor's IRA to the Society, so it is not, for tax purposes, included when calculating the donor's income. This provision is effective only until 31 December 2007, so all gifts must be completed by that date.

Outright Gifts Outright contributions, often consisting of cash or appreciated securities, are the most direct way of assisting NMHS. Appreciated Securities A gift of long-term appreciated securities, either publicly traded or from a private company, may provide greater tax advantages than gifts of cash. The donor can deduct the current fair market value as a charitable gift and avoid any capital gains tax on the appreciation. The deduction can be used to offset the donor's adjusted gross income in the year of the gift and any unused excess may be carried over to offset income in succeeding years.

Restricted Gifts A donor may choose to designate his gift for one or more of the specific needs of the Society: for the library, the seminar program, one of the educational initiatives, for support of Sea History, or to publish a specific book.

Gifts of Cash The donor can receive full tax benefits on a cash contribution if he itemizes deductions. If the charitable deduction exceeds that amount in the year the gift is made, the donor can carry over the unused excess to offset income in succeeding years .

Matching Gifts Many companies will match or multiply donations made to the National Maritime Historical Society by their employees and, in some cases, by employees' spouses. Contributors are encouraged to contact the human resources office to determine if the employer has a matching gift program.

Other Gifts Life Insurance Donors who own a life insurance policy that the family no longer needs can get a tax deduction of the cash value if they donate it to the Society.

Bequests Members are requested to please remember to include the National Maritime Historical Society as the beneficiary of their will or trust or retirement plan. Members are encouraged to please let us know if the Society has been remembered in this way.

Sustaining Gifts A Sustaining Member supports NMHS at a higher level than might otherwise be convenient. A sustaining gift may be at any amount, and it can be charged each month or quarter from a credit card account directly to NMHS. For example, $62.50 given each quarter will make the member a Patron of the Society; $4 1.67 each month will make the member a Donor. This dependable income lowers the Society's administration costs. A record of each gift will appear on the donor's credit card statement, and the gift may increase, decrease, or be suspended at any time by contacting the Society.

Although donors should have their own counsel review their gift arrangements for the best information regarding their many and different circumstances, for more information from NMHS, a donor or his or her adviser may contact the Society's President, Burchenal Green, at 914 737-7878.

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SEA HISTORY 118, SPRJNG 2007

CONFERENCES

•Teaching and Learning in the Maritime Environment, 28-30 March, at the California Maritime Academy (CMA, 200 Maritime Academy Dr. , Vallejo, CA 94590; www.cs um. edu/ teaching.htm) •Sea Literature, History, and Culture, 4-7 April, Joint Conference with the National Popular C ulture and American Culture Associations 2007 at Boston Marriott Copley Place, Boston, MA. (PCA/ACA, www. h-net.org/ ~ pcaaca) •Joint Confe rence-North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) and the National Maritime Historical Society Annual Meeting, 17-20 May 2007, at the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY. (NASOH info: Josh Smith, smithj @usmma.edu; also Program chair, Channing Zucker via e-mail at chanz@cox.net; www. nasoh .org. NMHS annual meeting info: PO B 68, Peekskill, NY 10566; Ph. 800 22 1-NMHS; WWW. seahistory.org) •Naval History Symposium, 20-22 September 2007. Resumption of the US Naval Academy H istory D ept. 's annual symposium, which was temporarily suspended after 9/ 11. (Info : www. usna.edu/History/ Symposium.hem) •8th Maritime Heritage Conference, 9-1 2 O ctober 2007 (see notice on p. 4 1) •Historic Naval Ships Assoc. , annual meeting, 9-12 O ct. 2007 (in conjunction with the 8th Maritime H eritage Conference, see page 4 1), in San D iego, CA. (Info: Jeff Nilsson of H NSA, POB 401 , Smithfield, VA, 2343 1; Ph. 757 3569422; hnsaOl @aol.com;www.hnsa.org)

Mystic Seaport: Ph. 888 973-2767; www. mysticseaport.org) •Seafaring Children: Captains' Kids & Cabin Boys, Maine Maritime M useum, Bath, M E. The exhibit focuses on children in 19th-century families who lived aboard ship, whether they were expected to do a job or were members of captai n's families. (MMM, 243 Washington St., Bath, ME 04530; Ph. 207 443-1 3 16; e-mail: Maritime@BathMaine.com; www. bathmaine.com) •By the Sea, The Mariners' Museum,

"Oyster Dredgers at Chop tank" by Aubrey Bodine

Newport News, VA, through 1April 2007.

Highlights from the museum's collection of over 600,000 photographs. (MM, 100 Museum Dr., Newport News, VA 23606; Ph. 757 596-2222 or 800 581-7245; www.mariner.org) •The Artistry of Charles McNeil! at the North Carolina Maritime Museum, through 6 May. (15 Front St. Beaufort, NC 285 16; Ph. 252 728-73 17; WWW. ah.dcr.state.nc. us/ sections/ maritime) •Salt Mountain, through 2007, Noble Maritime Collection, Staten Island, NY. Salt Mountain explores the substance of salt- its harvesting, distribution, and uses.

O n the grounds of Sailors' Snug H arbo r.

EXHIBITS O pen Thurs-Sun, 1-5PM or by appoint•Maritime Art Exhibit/Reception, Kal- ment (1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten mar Nyckel Sail Loft, W ilmington, D E, Island, NY 10301 ; Ph. 71 8 447-6490; 20 March. Features local maritime artists' www.noblemaritime.org) works of art from the Eastern Shore and •Art for the Nation, Queen's House, Delaware marshes. (KN, 4 East 7th St. , Greenwich, England, National Maritime W ilmington, D E 19801 ; Ph . 302 429- Museum, thro ugh 2 Sept. Features 200 7447; e-mail: info@KalmarNyckel.org; works by wo rld-renowned artists in the www.KalmarNyckel.org) museum's collections. (NMM, Greenwich.

•North Atlantic Seas, Schooners and London, SE lO 9NF; www.nmm.ac. uk) Fisherman: Thomas Hoyne's Paintings of •Women & the Sea at the Independence the Grand Banks, through 3 1 March at Seaport Museum in Philadelphia (2 11 S. the Ventura C ounty Maritime Museum, Columbus Blvd. and Walnut St. , PhiladelOxnard, CA; Opening this spring at Mys- phia, PA 19106; Ph. 2 15 925-5439; www. tic Seaport. (VCMM, Ph. 805 984-6260. phillyseaport. org)

Heritage of African Americans, Mys tic Seaport, thro ugh April 2008 See article on pages 10-13. (www.mysticseaport. org) FEsTNALS, EvENTS, LECTURES, ETC.

•Ship Model Show, Charlestown Navy Yard, MA, 5- 10 March. 28 th annual show by the USS Constitution Ship Model Guild held at the USS Constitution Museum. (Info: Box 1812, Boston, MA 02129; Ph. 6 17 426- 18 12; www. ussconstitutionmuseum.org) •"Championship Sailing" by Gary Jobson at the New Bedfo rd Whaling Museum, 20 March, part of their Tuesday evening "Sailors' Series." Also, on 3 April, "Round the World Racing" by Justin Clougher. Advance ticket purchase recommended. (NBWM, 18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedfo rd, MA 02740; Ph. 508 9970046 ext. 101 ; www.whalingmuseum. org/ prog/sailseries.htm) •Sea Chantey Concert at the Whaling Museum, Cold Spring H arbor, NY, 4 March at 2:30PM. (POB 25, Cold Spring H arbor, NY 11 724; Ph. 63 1 367-3418; www.cshwhalingmuseum.org) •Seaport Book Club at South Street Seaport M useum, 8 March (She Captains: H eroines and H ellions of the Sea by Joan Druect) and 12 April (Moby-Dick by H erman Melville), 6PM, reservations required.

(12 Fulton St. , New York, NY 10038; Ph. 212 748-8568; www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org) •8th Annual Ghost Ships Festival, 2324 March, Milwaukee, WI, sponsored by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Research Fdn . (info: www.ghost-shi ps.org) •2007 Chicago Maritime Festival, 24 February, Chicago, IL. (info: www.chicagomaritimefestival. org) •"The Evolution of the Ship," 3-20 September 2007. Trip touring sites in Northern Europe and Scandinavia, hosted by Ray Ashley, director of the Maritime M useum of San Diego (see ad on the back cover of this issue of Sea H istory) •America's Anniversary Weekend, 11 -13 May, Jamestown, VA. Cultural and heritage events, interactive exhibits, original productions, and more to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding ofJamestown. (www.americas400thanniversary.com)

New, from the author of the 1812 Trilogy and The Greater the Honor ...

In Pursuit of Glory by William H. White ln thi s seq uel to The Greater the Hono1; White provides a prelude to the War of 18 12 with fast paced narration covering many pre-war events incl udi ng the Chesapeake/l eopard incident and the court martial of James Barron. The story moves through the ea rl y days of the war at sea, and culminates in the sing le ship duel invo lving USS Un ited States and HMS Macedonian.

. White cleverly recreates 1he language and manners of days long past while sticking closely to the basic historical facts. He weaves his fictional and historic personages seamlessly into the context of the times and vividly brings to life a time when the U.S. Navy was emerging Ji-om infancy to adolescence." - William Dudley, Ph.D. Director Emeritus, Nava l Historical Center

Hardcover $29.95 + s/h Order through NMHS (www.seahistory.org or 800-221-6647) McBook Press (www.mcbooks.com or 888-266-5711) or www.Amazon.com. Read more at www.SeaFiction.net

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46

SEA HISTORY 11 8, SPRING 2007

Reviews Industrializing American Shipbuilding: The Transformation of Ship Design and Construction, 1820-1920 by William H. Thiesen (University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2006, 302pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-81 30-2940-6; $59.95hc) William Thiesen's new book is a welcome addition to the large, but often intellectually unsatisfying, historiography of American shipbuilding.

Combining the intellectual history wi th the nuts and bolts detailing of shipbuilding techniques, Industrializing American Shipbuilding documents the gradual emergence and grudging acceptance of theory, new materials, and methods in the design and construction of ships in the United States during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In key areas he builds on and surpasses the regionally focused work of historians David Tyler (The A merican Clyde, 1958) and Brian Heinrich (Ships fo r the Seven Seas, 1997), two important chroniclers of the shift from wood to iron and steel. In addition to thoroughly examining the rise of scientific shipbuilding in England and the cultural resistance to this in the United States, Thiesen documents the wo rk process with loving but controlled detail. One begins to understand more fully the notion that the shift from wood to iron in the United States represents a conservative force. The m ethods of design and fabrication followed long-established wooden patterns, even when such emulation was not required and indeed counterproductive.

Despite American res istance to embracing new ideas, Thiesen convincingly documents the pervasiveness of the ideas as well as the often frustrated efforts of engineering greats, such as John W Griffiths SEA HIST ORY 11 8, SPRING 2007

and John Nystrom, to bring a higher level of reasoning to the design and construction of ships. During the closing years of the nineteenth century, American shipbuilders made great strides embracing theoretical designs, steel construction, and developing an array of new tools and methods for erecting ships. Much of this knowledge, Thiesen reveals, stemmed from close contacts with ship designers in Great Britain and rendered practical and necessary by the United Stares's rapid expansion as a world power. Historians of shipbuilding will find parts of familiar stories here; however, Thiesen's praiseworthy efforts to root his exhaustive research in the historiography of technology give the book added significance and intellectual rigor. It is far from the last word on this important topic-much remains to be done to flesh out the mentality behind the design for the early steel vessels beyond that of basic construction. Early embrace of iron and a dedication to theoretical principles created a gulf between British shipbuilders and their American cousins. In describing this process and in detailing the reconnection of these shipbuilding cultures through a shared revolution in naval technology, Thiesen has made an important contribution to the field.

JOHN ODIN JENSEN Woods Hole, Massachusetts

Cradle of Violence: How Boston's Wtzterfront Mobs Ignited the American Revolution by Russell Bourne (John W iley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2006, 272pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-47 167551-2; $24.95 hc) Russell Bourne's title ap tly describes the book's theme, how a gro up of undisciplined rabble from the lower social classes of Boston initiated the American Revolu-

tion, but the title does not mention that this rebellious effort was also done wi th the help of a few charismatic and sophisticated leaders. In Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower, the author noted that few Americans are familiar with New England history between the establishment of the Plymouth colony and the first events leading to the Revolutionary War. In the first section of Cradle of Violence, Bourne deftly recaps that very history that took place in the vicinity of the fishing and m erchant port of Boston. The excesses of Royal Governors Sir Edmund Andros, Francis Bernard, and Thomas Hutchinson becam e the genesis for American resentment of the arrogance and taxation burden applied by their British brethren across the Atlantic.

This antipathy led to spontaneous (and occasionally instigated) uprisings by local waterfront rebels who rallied around the Liberty Tree near Boston Common . The remainder of the book describes how impassioned insurgents, ordinary men, fishermen, dockworkers, shoemakers etc. such as Ebenezer Mackintosh, C rispus Attucks, Samuel Maverick, and William Molineux, armed with marlinespikes and "willow wand" cudgels, fought British soldiers in the streets and intimidated or humiliated their Tory neighbors with simple marine tar and feathers in a classic mobocracy struggle. These unrefined residents of Boston's tempestuous North and South ends were cunningly led by prominent political agitators like Jam es Oris, Samuel Adams, and John H ancock, with Dr. Joseph Warren, John Adams, and Paul Revere playing vital supportive roles. Bourne suggests that the War oflndependence might never have happened excep t for the violent actions of this maritime mob and the exploitation of these events by thei r better-known patriot leaders. The scholarly, well-written Cradle of Violence is a worthy addition ro maritime historiography, particularly of New England.

Lours ARTHUR NoRTON West Simsb ury, Connecticut 47

Worthy of the Sea: K. Aage Nielson and His Legacy of Yacht Design by Maynard Bray and Tom Jackson (Tilbury House Publishers, Gardiner, ME, and Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, 2006, 320pp, photographs, drawings, index, ISBN-13 978-0-88448-281-9; $59.95hc) Ocher rhan Olin Srephens's All 7his and Sailing, Too, chis is rhe best book I know concerning a yachr designer. Unlike some books in chis genre, ir is no exercise in hagiography. Maynard Bray and Tom Jackson usually refrain from crying to gild an already brighr lily. Aage Nielsen's occasional abrasiveness comes across clearly, for insrance.

Besides celling who Nielsen was and whar his disrincrive, able boars are like, chis beaurifully published book, wirh hundreds of plans, is a rerrific resource in rhe history of yachting. Nielsen scarred our his career wirh John Alden, bur broke off because he was wary of being entangled in a law suir. He lacer developed a close working relarionship wirh Sparkman & Srephens, which produced rhe Pilot. The boars for which he is deservedly besr-known were entirely his own, painsraking work. Afrer opening wirh a summary biography char serves as an overview, and srresses rhe importance of Nielsen's Scandinavian heritage, rhe aurhors break his career into topics defined by rhe style of boar. Chaprer Two is abour Northern Crown, Holger Danske, and ocher well-known doubleenders, while Chaprer Three is abour small boars. Anyone interesred in good boars and srrong characrers should rake a look ar chis magnificent book.

JoHN RousMANIERE New York City

The Camera's Coast: Historic Images of Ship and Shore in New England by W. H. Bunting (Tilbury House, Gardiner, ME, 2006, 144pp, nores, biblio, ISBN- 13 978-0-88448-287-1; $29 .95pb) "The Camera's Coasr" was a rraveling exhibir creared in 2003 by Historic New England under rhe guidance of guesr curator William H . Bunting. In rhe new book of rhe same name, photographs and ephemera from rhe exhibirion are presented in a high-quality paperback book. Theimages range from rhe mundane to rhe more 48

spectacular examples of 19rh- and early 20rh-century grandeur. Bunting's caprions are wrirren in a lively yer aurhorirarive manner. The presentarion of rhe photo of the steam yacht Turtle on page 54 typifies rhe complereness of rhe entries rhroughour rhe book. Images of rhe yachr's plans and pages from rhe engineer's norebook, rhe handwriring clearly legible, are printed on rhe facing page. In rhe caprion, Bunring wrires, "Sream yachrs came in all sizes and styles. The creme de la creme were rhe big, exquisirely modeled, engineered, and consrrucred "English" (mosr were Scorrish) yachrs. Some ochers, including miniarure ram-bowed warship designs and rare paddlers like Turtle, reflecred the unusual

rasres of owners. Turtle was builr ar Lynn, Massachuserrs, in 1889. Boston dry goods merchant Arrhur Armory, resident of rhe Back Bay, was her longrime owner. Originally sixty-six feer long, Turtle had grown to ninety-rwo feer on deck by 1903. Powered by an inclined compound engine, her wheels were of modern feathering design, wirh "floats" whose angle was adjusred mechanically for efficiency. Her engineer's norebook and consrrucrion blueprints provide a window into her mechanics, operation, and upkeep."

In an eighrh of a page, we ger a concise, informative inrroduction to sream yachrs of char period. Ocher entries include images of rickers, ads, posrers, pose cards and rhe like printed alongside photos of rhe ships wirh which rhey were associared.

Some books creared afrer exhibirions are worrh buying only if you saw rhe exhibirs in person. This book srands alone very well.

Visually, rhe caliber of rhe printing makes it as worrhy as some of rhe more expensive coffee-cable type books, bur rhe publishers succeeded in keeping rhe cosr in check wirhour losing any quality wharsoever.

DEIRDRE E. O 'REGAN Cape Cod, Massachuserrs

In Pursuit of Glory by William H. Whire (Tiller Publishing, Sr. Michaels, MD, 2006, 352pp, illus, aurhor's nores, ISBN-139781-888671-16-2; $29 .95hc) Bill Whire's laresr lirerary effort works ar rwo levels. Foremosr, ir is a dramatic sea story ser in rhe Age of Sail. At chis first level, we are raken inside rhe early naval career of a fictional characrer named Oliver Baldwin. The reader follows Baldwin's maruration from 1807 to 1812, a period when he progresses from an awkward midshipman ro a combar-experienced lieurenant. During chose five years of service in rhe frigares USS Chesapeake and USS United States, we see snapshors of rhe ups and downs of an American naval officer's life in rhe early 1800s. Ar rhe same rime, Whire gives us an insighrful look into rhe difficulries our forefarhers encountered creating rhe blueprints of an effecrive navy.

Because Baldwin's ficrional p ersonal experiences are woven into acrual historic events, we simulraneously have a window on rhe second beginning of rhe United Stares Navy. Not everyone realizes that there were rwo distinct phases of our navy's early hisrory. Initially, there was the Continental Navy, lasting from 1775 to 1785, when Alliance-the last Continental Navy ship of the American Revolution-was sold. For the next nine years, we had no US Navy. Eventually, in 1794 Congress authorized the construction of six frigates .

At that point, whar today is considered the world's mosr powerful navy was reborn.

In this srory, White's fifth novel, the author delivers a rale well told that will trigger a lot of "I never thought of that" insights along the way. The experience is nourished by the illusrrations of noted marine artist Paul Garnett.

JOSEPH F. CALLO New York City SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

Cuba, America and the Sea: The Story of the Immigrant Boat Analuisa and 500 Years of History Between Cuba and America by Eric P. Roorda (Mystic Seaport, 2006, l 72pp, illus, notes, index, ISBN 0-0-939510-98-7 ; $39 .95hc) Dr. Eric Paul Roorda, co-director of the Munson Maritime History Institute at Mystic Seaport and Associate Professor of History and Political Science at Bellarmine University, uses rhe story of rhe twenty-foot C uban fishing vessel Analuisa to explain rhe maritime relationship between Cuba and the United Stares. The small vessel played a part in one of the many waves of Cubans attempting to escape their homeland in the 1990s. The boar itself is now part of an exh ibit at Mystic Seaport.

This small, well-illustrated work is a very good introduction to the complex maritime relationship between Cuba and the United States. In each chapter Roorda gives a solid overview of the subj ects he tackles, from rhe early people of the island to the boar lifts. If there are any misgivings about the book, they would be relegated to the chapter rhar deals with rhe boar lifts. Splitting this section into two chapters, one on immigration before the boar lifts and one afterwards, would allow more space for information on the boat lifts and the ordeals of rhe people who tried to make rhe ninety-mile sea passage from C uba to the United States. Moreover, such a change might better show rhe political machinations raking place from the 1980s to the present concerning rhe balseros (rafters). This one criticism aside, Roorda's is a very well-written short introduction to an imporram aspect of maritime history and a must-read for anyone who is beginning studies on Cuba.

DR D ENNIS L. NOBLE Sequim, Washington

Commodore john Rodgers: Paragon of the Early American Navy by John H .

Schroeder (University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2006, 255pp, illus, maps, notes, biblio, index, ISB N 0-8130-2963-5; $59.95hc) John Rodgers, a M arylander born in the late eighteenth century, had a well-developed sense of right and wrong, as well SEA HISTORY 118, SPRING 2007

Ships and Science The Birth of Naval Architecture in the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1800 Larrie D. Ferreira " For the first time the many and varied theoretical and practical traditions of European ship design have been ana lyzed as part of the scientific and intellectual world in which they developed . The res ult is a work of the highest importance , linking science, ships, and sea power." - Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval Histor y, King 's College London

http:// mitpress. mit.edu

"Th e histor y of naval architecture is a fascinating adventure .

Ferreira 's book takes the reader on a journey through time , exp loring how th e science and engineering developed . It is a marvelous voyage of discovery, written in a ve ry readable manner which will appeal to al l, from the curious t o those of us actively practicing the profession ." - Stephen M. Payne OBE, Vice Presi dent and Ch ief Naval Arch itect, Carnival Corporate Shipbui lding, designer of the Queen Mary 2 Tra nsformations: Studies in the History of Science and Tec hn ology series 432 pp .. 92 illus. $45

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as "how a ship should be managed." His naval career began in 1797, just in time to participate in the Quasi War with France.

With thirteen years in the merchant marine (he became a ship's commander at the age of nineteen) on his resume, his entry into the navy did not follow the usual path of midshipman to officer. H e received his first commission as lieutenant and was immediately assigned as second lieutenant in USS Constellation under Captain Thomas Truxtun. This experience helped shape his atmude and career fo r the entire time of his service and formed Rodgers into an even more vigorous disciplinarian than he already was. H e routinely "shut himself up from all around him" and stood "alone, without rh e friendship or sympathy of one on board." This attitude prevailed throughout Rodgers's career, all the way to President of the Board of Navy Commissioners, from which assignment he ultimately retired in 1837. He died the following year of a protracted case of cholera, which he had contracted some six years before in Washington D C. Mr. Schroeder's effort details Rodgers's early life, both as a ch ild growing up in H avre D e Grace and as a sailor in merchant ships; his extensive N avy career was highlighted by his orchestration of the defense of Baltimore in 181 4 and what might be considered the lowlight of his tenure, the "Little Belt" affair in 1811 . His passion fo r the Navy was eclipsed only by his love for

M inerva, his wife and the mother of h is eigh r children, and the reader can sense Rodgers's frustration at needing to be at home with his fam ily, while being pulled seaward by his beloved N avy.

Schroeder has done a fine and credible job with this biography, a welcome addition to any bookshelf. It is well annotated, offers a very thoro ugh bibl iography and fine illustrations, making the volume a pleasure to read.

WILLIAM

HITE

Rumson, New Jersey

Through water, Ice & Fire: Schooner Nancy of the war of 1812 by Barry Gough (Dundurn Group, Toron to, O N, 2006, 2 13pp, illus, maps, notes, biblio, ISBN 1-55002-569-4; $24.99pb) The Great Lakes arena in the War of 18 12 centered on fewer than a dozen fo rts, hacked out of wilderness, sustained by just a few sacks of grain, powder, and shot supplied by small schooners and a handful of canoes and bateaux. If not on the scale of Trafalgar, the naval engagements in the Great Lakes were still just as fi ercely fought. The topsail schooner Nancy exemplifies this history. She was laid down in 1789, cedar on white oak, 80 fr. LOA, 22-fr. beam, shoal draft, but with a 350ton capacity. She sported a figurehead of a lady wearing a graceful hat topped with a feather. H er cargo of furs, sugar and flour, meal and meat were defended by two

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small brass deck guns. When war arrivedl on the lakes, she was further armed to defe nd Canada from western Lake Erie to H uron's Fort Michilimackinac, that "Gibraltar of the N orth." From 1812 to 1814, she sailed stormy waters, met ice, and suffered enemy fire, only to be blown up by her own captain to escape capture in the No ttawasaga River, off the Georgian Bay. Historians too often lose the war to a sea of statistical fact, embargoes and cargoes, grand strategy and treaty. Not so here. As both mariner and scholar with years of sailing the Great Lakes, Professor G ough skillfully takes the Nancy, her captain and crew, and loads the story with what could be called the "Plimsoll" or human factor. Gough's Nancy fo llows in the wake of his Fighting Sail on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay: The W'tzr of 1812 and its Aftermath (2002), and if anything, is an even better book, focusing on one small ship in a sea of grander military and diplomatic strategies. To the half dozen other works on the Nancy and to Mahan's classic Sea Power in its Relations to the W'tzr of 1812, 2 vols. (1905) Go ugh adds new information found in manuscripts in the Arch ives of Ontario, the National Archives in England, the U S National Archives, and such printed sources as the war log of the Nancy.

Provocative books prompt questions.

So some fine evening over a pint at the Arichor Inn on M anitoulin Island, this reviewer must ask Prof. Go ugh about the printing of the illustrations (often fuzzy, gray-toned with glare, m aking some maps nearly illegible). The draft of the Nancy?

The range of her ordinance? Anchors and their sizes? Beating into a gale under full sail? Navigation? Go ugh rightly resists writing historical fiction here, but perhaps the Nancy's log could shed some light on these questions.

Nevertheless, this is a thoroughly ballas ted book, well-fo und by both author and reader. Were it not fo r a couple of schooners like the Nancy and those canoes and bateaux, the naval war in the upper Great Lakes might well have gone differently.

From the deck of a small cargo schooner, Gough draws a refreshingly Canadian line of position on the War of 1812. ] AMES SEAY D EAN

M adison, W isconsin 50

SEA HISTORY 11 8, SPRING 2007

New&Noted Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalists, and Illicit Trade in the Northeast, 1783-1820 by Joshua M . Smith (Univer-

New York Harbor: A Geographical and Historical Survey by Arthur D. Kellner (McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson,

sity Press of Florida, Gainesville, 2006, appen, notes, biblio , index, ISBN 0-8130298 6-4; $55hc)

NC, 2006, photos, maps, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-7864-2400-1 ; $45hc)

lfWe Must Die: Shipboard Insurrections in the Era ofthe Atlantic Slave Trade by Eric Robert Taylor (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, illus, appen, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-807 1-3 181 -4; $45hc) The Inner Islands: A Carolinians Sound Country Chronicle by Bland Simpso n, Photography by Ann Cary Simpson (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2006, 232pp, illus, maps, biblio, index, ISBN 0-8078-33056-9; $34.95hc)

Joseph Conrad, Master Mariner: The Novelist's Life at Sea, based on a previously unpublished study by Alan Villiers

by Peter Villiers, illustrated by Mark Myers (Sheridan H ouse, Dobbs Ferry, NY, 125pp, illus, appen, gloss, index, ISBN 157409-244-8; $ 19.95 pb)

Maritime Shipyard: A Study in Social Disunity by Katherine Archibald (Univ. of Illinois Press, Champaign, 2006, 336pp, illus, index, ISBN 0-252-07386-x; $25pb)

Scots and the Sea: A Nation's Lifeblood

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Ships and Science: The Birth of Naval Architecture in the Scientific Revolution 1600-1800 by Larrie D . Ferreiro (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2006, 44lpp, appen, notes, biblio, index, ISBN- 13 978-0262-06259-6; $45hc)

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