Sea History 152 - Autumn 2015

No. 152

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SEA

AUTUMN 2015

5 HISTOR~

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

RAc1NG AROUND THE WoRLD

Bill Cummings, Waterman/Artist Attack on Cape Florida Light Swashbuckler... Dentist?

Exy Johnson's Legacy

Captains' Ladies

Your Purchase of this john Stobart Print Will Directly Support the NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY! Generously donated by renowned artist John Stobart and the J. Russell Jinishian Gallery to benefit the Society, "New York, Lower South Street, c. 1885," signed prints.

Through this special offer from the National Maritime Historical Society, you can acquire this stunning print that portrays a bygone time in New York City's most historic waterfront area-a tranquil era of cobblestone streets, lantern light, and horse-drawn wagons. Each lithograph is personally approved and hand signed by the artist John Stobart.

Image size 18" x 26" on 25" x 33" paper, unframed.

Special price for NMHS members: $350 each+ $30 s/h.

To order, call 1-800-221-NMHS (6647), ext. 0, e-mail nmhs@seahistory.org, or visit our website at www.seahistory.org.

NYS add applicable sales tax.

The Mississippi River is the lifeblood of the American Heartland.

Explore its history and culture with an 8 to 22-day cruise aboard one of our brand new paddlewheelers. Each riverboat carries an intimate group in a comfortable, spacious setting to the most amazing places on America's greatest river. Call today for a free cruise guide.

2016 Calendar NEW! Tall Ships There are ¡few things on the high seas more dramatic than the great clouds of sail raised by traditional full-rigged ships. This edition of Tall Ships features vessels from ports around the world.

Calendar is wall hanging, full color 11" x 22" open.

Orders shipped after 10 Dec. 2015 can be priority shipped at $7.95.

Please call for shipping charges for multiple or international orders.

$14.95 or $13.46 for NMHS members.

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To order, call 1-800-221-NMHS (6647), ext. 0, or visit our website at www.seahistory.org.

NY State residents add applicable sales tax.

Celebrate our maritime heritage this holiday season with NMHS greeting cards In h on or of Cunard's l 7 5th anniversary we bring you this holiday image by acclaimed m aritime artist John Stobart, sh owing C unard's first liner, the Britannia, getting under way from C unard's East Boston dock, in the fo reground, with the warehouses of Boston across the water.

Greeting reads "Wishing you fair winds for the holidays and calm seas for the New Year."

Set of 10: $14.95 or $13.46 fo r NMHS members. Add $5.50 s/h for one set or $6.50 s/h fo r two to five sets.

Please indicate yo ur choice of holiday or blank cards.

Gifts CD 1-Boston: RMS Britannia Departing the Icebound Harbor, February, 1844, by John Stobart.

Please call for shipping charges for more than 5 sets or international orders. Visit our website www. seahistory.org-for other selections choose "Store," then "Gifts."

To order, call 1-800-221-NMHS (6647), ext. 0, or visit our web site at www.seahistory.org.

Order now for October delivery.

No. 152

SEA HISTORY

AUTUMN 201 5

CONTENTS 10 The National Maritime Historical Society Annual Awards Dinner, 2015, NMHS will recognize the contributions of two very special honorees this October in New York City for their decades ofservice and commitment to promoting our maritime heritage and for their support of historic ship preservation.

16 He Couldn't Have Done it Without Her-Exy Johnson's Seafaring Legacy,

by Eleanore Maclean Irving Johnson is considered a legend by many in the sail training community; his wife, Exythe ship's secretary, editor, food manager, and linguist-was an integral part of the success of their seven world voyages.

22 Sailor, Spy, Swashbuckler, Dentist!-The Improbable Life of Henry Parr,

by Louis Arthur Non on H enry Parr joined the Confederate army when hostilities broke out, but he soon found himself in the Confederate Secret Service, seizing Union ships and disrupting US merchant shipping.

26 Maritime Heritage Funding Bills Introduced in US House and Senate-Action Needed,

by D r. Timothy J. Runyan The 2014 grants have been awarded, but more effort is required to keep the funding coming.

28

wavertree On the Ways, by Peter and Norma Stanford South Street's flagship has left Manhattan for a long awaited restoration. The Stanfords, who have played a key role in Wavertree' s survival as a museum ship, reflect on the day she made her arrival in 1970 in an excerpt from their recent book, A Dream of Tall Ships.

32 Attack on Cape Florida Light, 1836, by C. Douglas Kroll The lonely routine ofthe lighthouse keeper was often punctuated by acts ofhigh drama, usually related to ships in distress, but the Cape Florida Light's keeper and his assistant ran into another kind oftrouble the night they were attacked by a band ofSeminole Indians in 1836.

36 Captains and Their Ladies, by Tim McGrath Behind every great man, there is a great woman: author Tim McGrath shares some ofthe stories ofthe women associated with the sea heroes of the Continental and US Navy.

40 Through the Eyes of a Waterman-The Art ofWilliam E. Cummings, by Kathi Ferguson Across the decades of his life as a Chesapeake Bay waterman, Bill Cummings documented the experience through his art. Cummings died last year, leaving behind a collection ofpaintings that reveals the lives and work ofthose who grew up fishing the waters ofthe bay.

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Cover: Team SCA on the big ocean-the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15, p hoto by Ainhoa Sanchez I Volvo Ocean Race (See article on pages 44-45 and meet Sara Hastreiter, member of Team SCA.)

DEPARTMENTS 4 DECK Loe AND LETTERS 8 NMH S: A CAUSE IN MOTION 44 SEA H ISTORY FOR Krns 48 SHIP N OTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS

55 CALENDAR 56 MARITIME HISTORYON THE INTERNET 57 REVIEWS 64 PATRONS

Sea History and the National Maritime Historical Society Sea H istory e-mail: editorial@seahistory.org; NMHS e-mail: nmhs@seahistory.org; Web site: www.seahistory. org. Ph: 91 4 737-7878; 800 22 1-NMHS MEMBERSHIP is invited. Afterguard $ 10,000; Benefacror $5,000; Plankowner $2,5 00; Sponsor $ 1,000; Donor $500; Parron $250; Fri end $ 100; Contributor $75; Family $50; Regular $35.

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NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

DECK LOG American Maritime Museums on the International Stage "Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all ofhumanity."

-Robert Alan (American writer, artist and social activist; 1922-1978)

T

his November the National M aritime H istorical Society will be joining maritime museum leaders fro m around the world in Hong Kong for the 17rh International Congress of M aritime Museums (ICMM) Conference, hosted by the H ong Kong Maritime Museum with M acau M aritime Museum as a supporting organization. The conference theme is aptly "Connections," since the worldwide connections seafarers have made simply by the naHong Kong Maritime Museum ture of sailing the wo rld 's oceans is unparalleled . The conference brings international delegates toge ther to netwo rk, share expertise and resources, to learn about the latest best prac tices in m aritime museum operations, and to plan exhibits that speak to our global culture. A look at some of our most revered preserved historic ships in this country remind us of our global connections: San Diego's Star ofIndia was built at a shipyard in the Isle of M ann; South Street Seaport's two mighty square riggers are British- and German-built; San Francisco's Balclutha and Galveston's Elissa were built in Scotland; even the Josep h Conrad at Mys tic Seaport was originally a D anish training ship. While we are the National Maritime Historical Society, the heritage we work to preserve and promote is indeed a global one as well, and we seek to engage with the international maritime heritage community at every opportunity to keep your Society on the forefront of what's going on in our field .

1he IC MM is led by Dr. Kevin Fewster, director of Royal M useums G reenwich, the largest and most visited m aritime museum in the world. The conference's keynote speakers Koji Sekimizu, Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization; Xu Z uyuan, Director of the C hina Maritime Museum; Richard W esley, Director of the Hong Kong M aritime Museum; and Lincoln Paine, author of the acclaimed Sea and Civilization and former Sea H istory editor, will each speak on their ins titutions and specialties .

O f particular interest is the work going on in underwater archeology and conservation of submerged ships and artifac ts. Delegates will hear from Jiang Bo from C hina's Center of Underwater C ultural H eritage Protection, James Delgado from N OAA's M aritime H eritage Program , and Fred Hocker from the Vasa Museum in Stockholm.

A visit to the M aritime Silk Road Museum will be a highlight of the week. Located on H ailing Island, Yangjiang, in G uangdong Province, the museum was designed to accommodate entire shipwrecks submerged in water tanks so that they may be displayed to the public during conservation, which can take years. The main exhibition consists of the remains of the Nanhai No. 1 shipwreck, an 800-year-old C hinese merchant ship that sank off Hailing Island at the end of the tenth century and was raised in 2007. N anhai No. I is being conserved and is on display in a giant water tank in the museum's "Crystal Palace," along with more than 200 artifacts from the

wreck si te.

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NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

PU BLISH ER'S C IRC LE: Peter Aro n, G uy E. C. M aitland, Ronald L. Oswald O FFICERS & TRUSTEES: Chairman, Ronald L. O swald; Vice Chairman, Richardo R. Lopes; President, Burchenal Green; Vice Presidents, D eirdre O 'Regan, We ndy Paggiotra, Nancy Schnaars; Treasurer, H oward Slotnick; Secretary, Jean Wort; Trustees: Charles B. Anderson; Walter R. Brown; Thomas Daly; W illian1 S. Dudley; David S. Fowler; W illiam Jackso n Green; Karen Helmerson; Robert Kamm; Richard M. Larrabee; Guy E. C. Maitland; Capt. Brian McAll ister; CAPT Sally Chin McElwreath, USN (Ret.); Capt.

James J. McNamara; Michael W Morrow; Richard Patrick O 'Leary; ADM Robert ]. Papp Jr., USCG (Ret.); Timothy J. Runyan; Richard Scarano; Philip J. Shapiro; Capt. Cesare Sario; Roberta Weisbrod; Chairmen Emeriti: Walter R. Brown, Alan G. Choate, Guy E. C. Maitlan d, H oward Slotnick; President Emeritus, Peter Stanford FOUN D ER: Karl Kortum ( l9 17-1996) O VERSEERS: Chairman, RADM David C. Brown, USM S (Ret.); RADM Joseph F. Callo, USN (Ret.); C live C ussler; Richard du Mo ulin; Alan D. Hutch ison; Jakob Isbrandtsen; Gary Jobson; Sir Robin Knox-Johnston; John Lehman; H . C. Bowen Smith ; John Stobart; Philip J. Webster; W illiam H . W hi te; W ill iam W interer NMH S ADVISORS : Chairman, M elbourne Smi th ; Geo rge Bass, Oswald Brett, Francis Duffy, John Ewald, T imothy Foote, Wi lliam G ilkerso n, Steven A. Hyman , J. Russell Jinishian, Gunnar Lundeberg, Conrad M ilster, W illiam G. M uller, Stuart Parnes, Lori D illard Rech, Nancy Hughes Richardson, Bert Rogers, Joyce Huber SEA HISTORY E DI TO R IAL A DV ISORY BOARD : Chairman, T imothy Runyan ; No rman Brouwer, Robert Browning, W ill iam Dudley, Daniel Finamore, Kevin Foster, John Jensen, Joseph Meany, Lisa No rling, Carla Rahn Phillips, Walter Rybka, Q uenti n Snediker, W illiam H. Wh ite

NMHS STAFF: Executive Director, Burchenal Green; Membership Director, Nancy Schnaars; Business Manager, Pete Yozzo; Marketing Director, Steve Lovass-Nagy; Director of Public Relations, Lisa Fine; Membership Coordinator, Barbara Itty SEA HISTORY: Editor, Deird re O'Rega n; Advertising, Wendy Paggiotta; Copy Editor, Shelley Reid; Editor-at-Large, Peter Stanfo rd Sea History is prinred by The Lane Press, Soum Burlington, Vermont, USA.

-Burchenal Green, NMHS President SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

LETTERS M ore to t h ese stories ...

The article on USS Constitution 's years after 1815 by CDR Tyrone G . Martin, USN (Ret.), was interesting and contained info rmation that is not generally known to m uch of the public. But there is another part of the story that m ay be of interest to your readers. It concerns Will iam Patterson (1752-1835), a prominent citizen of Baltimore who m ade his for tune in sh ipping a nd rea l es tate. Du ring the America n Revolution, he was one of the Baltimore merchants who cont ributed money to Lafayette to assist the French in the Yorktown cam paign; he also served in th at sam e battle with the 1" M aryland Cava lry.

Readers w ith an interest in h istory m ay have heard of him because his daughter, Betsey, m arried Jerom e Bon apa rte, brother of Emperor Napoleon of France.

The marriage ended in d ivorce in 1812.

It is bel ieved that Patterson read a small item in the Niles Weekly Register reporting on the recent arrival of the friga te Constitution ro Bosron on 2 July 1828 , hom e from a three-year assignment in the Mediterranean. W hatever his inspiration was, on 15 July Patterson wro te a letter to Secretary of the Navy Samuel L. Southard ro share this thought: "It has often occurred ro me, that the best possible use that could be made of that C elebrated vessel wo uld be ro have her holed up at the Navy yard in Washington, a parmenant [sic] H ouse built over her & kept for the admiration a nd benefit of future generations." He was concerned that the ship wou ld m eet a premarure end if she was kept in continued service. If the ship was preserved in Washingron, he postulated, it wo uld excite a nd stimul ate yo ung naval officers in futu re generations. "It wo uld do more to promote the interest and stability of our Navy than many Vicrories."

A short time after this, the election of 1828 rook place and Andrew Jackson became president; John Branch of North Carolina was appointed Secretary of the Navy. Not long afterwards, the Niles Weekly Register printed a no tice that Secretary Bra nch planned to sel l or scrap the Constitution; a similar news srory disseminated in Bosron caught the eye of a young college student nam ed O liver Wendell H olm es .

A nd the rest is history.

SEA HISTORY 152,AUTUMN 201 5

We Welcome Your Letters! Please send correspondence to: seahistory@gmail.com or Editor, Sea History, 7 Timberknoll Rd. , Pocasset, MA 02559 Patterson's effort was described in a short piece that was published in the Maryland H istorical M agaz ine in 1964.

H AROLD B. LANGLEY Milton, North Carolina H avi ng sailed onboard the historic schooner Ernestina some years ago, I particularly enjoyed the recent Sea History article about her 1928 voyage into the Pacific and the update o n her restoration. The ship has a long and varied history, wh ich has been covered in prev ious issues of Sea History, but readers m ay not know about an aspect of her pas t fro m her early years as the Effie M. Morrissey that involves Effi e's bro ther, C layton.

The 1894 Effie M . Morrissey was built fo r a Nova Scoti a fis herman, Captain W illiam M orrissey, who named his new schooner after his daughter, Effie Maude. Effie's bro ther, C layron Mo rrissey-o r "Clayt," as he was called-was born in 1874 and started going to sea at a yo ung age on voyages with his fa ther. Over the years he developed a talent fo r m anaging a crew, earning their trust and frie ndship, and maximizing thei r pro ductivity, making him a respected and sough t-out captain. Effie M. Morrissey was his firs t com m and . C lay t eventually immigrated tO Gloucester, Massachusetts, a nd, in time, became legendary as one of the m ost competent skippers ever ro sail out of a North Atlantic fis hing port.

In 1922 , Captain M orrissey took comm and of the Henry Ford, a 140-foot schooner with a reputation for speed under sail; H enry Ford was selected as the Am erican challenger to the Canadian schooner Bluenose fo r the international Fishermen's C up. Bluenose wo n, but Morrissey so enjoyed the com petition th at he skipp ered the Henry Ford in th e 1923 and 1926 races to try again. H e d id not prevail. Subsequently, Morrissey stated , "I am not a sportsm an," admitting that he was better suited at bringing home an abundant catch.

Gloucester's Fisherman's Memorial In 1923 sculptor Leonard Craske chose Morrissey, plus fo ur other Gloucester fis h erm en and o ne profession al m odel clothed in oilskins, to pose for the now icon ic fis h erm an statue that overlooks Gloucester Harbor.

Lours A RT H UR NORTON

Wes t Simsbury, Connecticut

Join Us for a Voyage into History Ou r seafarin g heritage comes alive in the pages of Sea History, fro m t he ancient ma riners 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 yo u love the sea, rive rs, lakes, and

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

J oin Today!

Mail in the fo r m below, phone I 800 221 -NMHS (6647), or visit us at: www.seahistory.o rg (e-mail : nmhs@seahistory.org)

Yes, I want to join the Sociecy and receive Sea History quarterly. My contribution is enclosed. ($ 17.50 is for Sea History; any amount above that is tax deductible.) Sign me up as: D $3 5 Regular Member D $50 Family Member D $ I 00 Friend D $250 Patron D $5 00 Donor Mr./ Ms.

152

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5

Ship Identification I recently found a very old glass plate negative of a ship and was hoping you could shed some light on it for me. The only information I have is that it was developed at Gertz Department Store in Hicksville, New York, by a Mr. P. Ziegel. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

band. What a wonderful day, with a beautiful tall ship always in the background. I got home late last night to find your wonderful magazine on the table with the Hermione on the cover. A special treat to end an already fantastic day.

MICHAEL K. WALSH Dayton, Virginia Four-masted barque Hougomont

JEFFREY SLACK

Sr. James, New York

From Sea History Editorial Board Advisor Norman Brouwer: This image is of the Hougomont ashore on Fire Island on 6 February 1915. She was refloated on the 19th after a third of her cargo of chalk had been removed. After World War I, she was owned

by Gustaf Erikson ofMariehamn (Finland), who owned a famous fleet of sql!are-rigged ships that operated in the South Australian

grain trade. Hougomont was almost completely dismasted on an Australian voyage in May 1932, condemned, and sunk as a breakwater in Stenhouse Bay on the east side of the Yorke Peninsula west of Adelaide.

I visited the site in 1981 and stood on a cliff above the location in good weather, with clear water, and could see no trace of her.

The Seventh Virginia is a re-enactment group ofabout 150 people that attempts to portray a typical Continental Line regiment in camp and in battle-having fun while learning more about the lives of Revolutionary War soldiers and their families. You can check out their website to see where they will be next or how to become involved at www.7vr.org.

Tall Ship Visit Greetings! Just wanted to let you know that I spent yesterday in Yorktown, Virginia, and toured the visiting French ship Hermione. What a beautiful ship! Godspeed was tied up beside her, and camped nearby was my re-enactment group, the 7th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Line. A drum and fife group played nautical and patriotic music, as did the US Coast G uard

My family went to Philadelphia this summer to see the Hermione. It was a good excuse to get into the city to see the other sh ips at Penn's Landing that I haven't seen in a while. The crowds certainly tested our patience, but in the end it was worth the wait. The ship and the crew who gave the tours were engaging and impressive. I do have to wonder why the crowds showed up for this ship, when American tall ships

The mission of the Egan Maritime Institute is to advance the appreciation, documentation, preservation, and study of the art, history, literature, architecture, and traditions of Nantucket. Join us!

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SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

come in and out of our pons everyday wirh less fanfare. Is ir a maner of public relarions?

We have some really impressive ships here roo, and ir would be grear if rhey regularly anracred rhe kind of anemion our French visiror had. Maybe because in France rhey only have rwo sh ips like rhis? Are we oversarurared wirh rall ships in rhe Unired Scares?

PAUL Buccro Doylesrown, Pennsylva nia

MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM This is Maine. The rest is history.

Readers, Can You Help?

I have a French musker in my collecrion rhar was used in rhe American Revolurion .

Ir was selecred from srorage afrer rhe war and convened imo a "Sh ip's M usker." I can undersrand rhe removal of sling swivels, as slings would be unnecessary aboard a vessel, however rhe shorrening of such muskers by rhree or fo ur inches, and relocarion of bayoner srud musr have had some good reasoning, along wirh removal of rhe sighr on rhe from (nose) band. But whar was rhis reasoning?

Ships muskers are hardly ever discussed in books on Flindock muskers relared ro rhe Revolurion, rhe War of 1812, ere., bur rhey do exisr and are a puzzlemenr.

I would be imeresred in knowing where aboard vessels like rhe Constitution rhey were srored , as perhaps rhis mighr have been rhe reason for rhe alrered lengrh . I would be imeresred in rhe rhoughrs of rhose who have a hands-on associarion wirh such vessels .

This parricular musker was found by a humer in norrheasr Ohio, who, while crossing a small scream (likely somerime in rhe 1920s), saw ir being was hed out of rhe muddy bank and rescued ir. Some rhirry years larer his son donared ir ro my collecrion. Ar rhe rime ir had yer ro be resrored and idemified, which has since been accomplished. Frankly, I did nor know whar I had unril ano rher collecror examined ir and suggesred we look ar rhe elusive ship's muskers. Ir fir exacdy imo rhe few commems found in rhe few books on period flimlock muskers. ]AMES G. H UDKINS Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

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Shop for Nautical Gifts, Books, Art Prints, and more at the NMHS Ship's Store.

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SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

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NMHS:

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A CAUSE IN MOTION "Hermione Is Like a Friend Who Stands By You" "She sails beautifully. Crossing the ocean, we were never afraid because she sai ls so well," Anne Renault, Hermione's sailmaker, confided to me on a beautiful July day in New York Harbor, where visitors were wi lling to wait in long lines to board the visiting ship from France. It was Anne's first transAtlantic crossing and she admitted she had been worried, but they trained long and hard on rough seas in cold weather in the North Atlantic before they left. The crossing went fine; Anne could recall just one day when the seas were particularly rough and the winds were close to 45 knots, but it wasn't cold-so the crew was so happy. "We were not afraid of the boat," she revealed. "Hermione is like a friend who stands by you. We had no surprises. The rigger knew the rigging, and I know the lines and sails, and together with the masts, they all breathed together."

When Hermione made landfall in Yorktown, Virginia, as the Marquis de Lafayette's ship did in 1780, her crew was overwhelmed by the wonderful reception they received. They "were like little ' ' sailors landing after a big crossing" and had not expected the great crowds welcoming them. On the voyage, they were focused on the sailin g itself witho ut too much thought abo ut history.

(above) Sailmaker Anne Renault checks out the last issue of Sea History, which featured a cover story about Hermione.

"Hard Training, Easy War"

(left) Hermione's blacksmith, When Hermione blacksmith Velor Aurelien signed on with the Velot Aurelien. project nine years ago, he had no idea he would be staying with the ship this long, let alone serve on the crew sailing her to America. At the beginning of the project, he explained, there was no talk of sailing, just building the ship. But there he was, greeting visitors at South Street Seaport in New York Harbor, at the pier recently vacated by Wavertree, which had gone to Caddell Dry Dock on Staten Island for long overdue restoration work (see story on pages 28-31). Velor concurred that the crossing was much easier than their training had been. As his captain had often repeated to the crew during the bitter cold days of preparation, "Hard Training, Easy War." According to our French visitors, Lafayette is more famous in America than he is in France. But the moment they arrived in Yorktown, they started to grasp their own country's legacy in history and why the ship is so important to Americans.

The history suddenly became significant to the crew-a crew which had signed up for the adventure in sailing a ship like this, versus the history the ship represents.

"One of the finest examples of maritime heritage replication that we have ever seen."

Tall Ships America partnered with Lafayette's Hermione Voyage 2015 to bring a flotilla of ships up the East Coast as part of the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGEÂŽ Atlantic Coast 2015 series. Tall Ships America encourages character building through sail training, promotes sail training to the North American public, and supports Race 2 ofthe TALL SHIPS CHALLENGEÂŽ education under sail. ExecuAtlantic Coast 2015, off Cape May, NJ tive director Bert Rogers praised Hermione and her crew: "She is one of the finest examples of maritime heritage replication that we have ever seen. She's been a great sail-trainer as well, training scores of volunteers to handle her authentic-period rig smartly, safely, and effectively."

"A great example of traditional ship building and sailing" Regarding Hermione's port stop in Philadelphia, Independence Seaport Museum president and CEO John Brady stated, "Hermione was the star of the show here. She lived up to her top billing as a great example of traditional ship building and sailing. On top of all that, her crew is having the adventure of a lifetime Ifyou build it, they will come. Hermione in Philadeland, despite the language barrier, it was great to share their enthusiasm for the phia attracted huge crowds. In view astern on the other pier is USS O lympia and the 1904four-masted barque ship and the voyage."

-Burchenal Green, NMHS President Moshulu.

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SEA HISTORY 152,AUTUMN 2015

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The National Maritime Historical Society Salutes Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, Patron of The National Museum of the Royal Navy at the 2015 Gala Annual Awards Dinner, 29 October Each fall, the National Maritime Historical Society (NMHS) gathers in the Model Room of the historic New York Yacht C lub to honor service to our maritime heritage. Through these gala events, not only do we have the opportunity to spotlight the important work that is being done in the field, but we inspire others to get involved and make a difference. This year, 2015 Dinner Chair George W. Carmany, III invites you to join NMHS in honoring Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne with the Distinguished Service Award. The NMHS David A. O'Neil Sheet Anchor Award will be presented to our chairman, Ronald L. Oswald. Admiral of the Fleet, The Lord Michael Boyce, KG GCB OBE DL, President of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum and chair of the HMS Victory Preservation Company, will update us on 1/ictory's preservation. America's Ambassador of Sailing, Gary Jobson, will present the award. Awardwinning yachtsman and previous recipient of the NMHS Distinguished Service Award Richard T. du Moulin will be master of ceremonies, and the United States Coast Guard Academy Cader Chorale, directed

by Dr. Robert Newton, will provide rhe evening's entertainment.

The National Maritime Historical Society's Annual Awards Dinner is held in the fall each year in the fabulous Model Room of the New York Yacht Club in New York City.

HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne Princess Anne has been closely involved with rhe National Museum of the Royal Navy since its inception and, prior to this, with the Royal Naval Museum, one of the four founding partners of the National Museum. Her Royal Highness takes a close personal interest in its achievements and future plans. The Princess Royal has visited rhe museum on many occasions, as well as hosting events ar Buckingham Palace. The National Museum of the Royal Navy is honored to have Princess Anne as its Patron; her support has been key to its many achievements. The Princess Royal is also Parron of the Unicorn Preservation Society. HMS Unicorn, launched in 1824, is rhe only example of a wooden frigate of her type still in existence; she is being preserved in her current condition.

HRH is a keen sailor and is President of the Royal Yachting Association. In April 2015 HRH met the crews of the British Universities and Colleges Sport Yachting Nationals to present the awards. University sailing provides opportunities for students to get involved with yacht racing and sailing. The Princess Royal was the Patron for London 2015 International Shipping Week, which aimed to promote the importance of global shipping.

The second child and only daughter of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, HRH Princess Anne was born in 1950 at Clarence House, London, and baptized Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise at Buckingham Palace. She attended Benenden School, a boarding school in Kent, and thereafter began taking on public engagements. In 1987 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II conferred upon her the title Princess Royal, a title often given to the eldest daughter of the ruling

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SEA HISTORY 152,AUTUMN 20 15

British sovereign; she is the seventh princess to hold this tide.

Princess Anne was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) (1974), Extra Companion of The Queen's Service Order (1990), and a Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (1994), and she was appointed to the Order of the Thistle, in recognition of her extensive charity work in Scotland, in 2000.

The Princess Royal is sometimes called "the hardest-working royal" and "the busiest royal," recognizing her demanding schedule; she attended over 500 engagements last year. Save the Children Fund was the first major charity with which she was associated; she has been its President since 1970. Founded in 1917 to aid children in war-ravaged Central Europe, today Save the Children is active in 120 countries, offering assistance through health and nutrition programs, education, and disaster relief.

Princess Anne is an accomplished equestrian; she won the individual tide at the European Championship three-day event in 197 1, and she was voted the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year. She followed up with a silver medal in the individual and team events at the 1975 European Eventing Championship, and she was a member of the British Olympic Team at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games.

It is an honor to recognize Her Royal Highness with this year's Distinguished Service Award.

HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne sails with crew ofthe Gipsy Moth IV in July 2006 in Sydney Harbor, Australia.

National Museum of the Royal Navy A portion of the proceeds from this year's annual dinner will go to the National Museum of the Royal Navy, to support its continued success in teaching the stories of the Royal Navy over the centuries, and particularly supporting HMS Victory. The NMRN took its current form in 2009, when the Royal Naval Museum, the RN Submarine Museum, the Fleet Air Arm Museum, and the Royal Marines Museum-four formerly autonomous collections-were united under a single administration to become the unified voice for naval heritage in Great Britain. (See Sea History 136, Autumn 2011, for an extensive account of the history of the museum). In 2014 the museum opened its new ÂŁ4.5 million Babcock Galleries, established within the UK's most significant naval storehouse from the Georgian period. The Princess Royal officially opened the galleries in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, which tells the stories of the Royal Navy's men and women who served on the sea, unr der the sea and in the air during the past century. Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is home to HMS Warrior 1860, Britain's first iron-hulled, armored warship; the Mary Rose Museum, housing the only 16th century warship on display anywhere in the world; HMS M.33, one of only three British WWI warships still in existence and the only surviving warship from the Gallipoli campaign; and HMS Victory.

Princess Anne with Admiral Sir Jonathon Band GCB DL, former First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, chairman oftrustees ofthe National Museum ofthe Royal Navy, salute HMS Victory.

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Ronald L. Oswald The David A. O'Neil Sheet Anchor Award will be presented to NMHS chairman Ronald L. Oswald. A retired computer systems project manager, Ron began his career working on computer simulation software for the Saturn/Apollo lunar landing project with Bell Telephone Laboratories. He later worked in various marketing and technical support management roles for a maj or computer manufacturer. An honors graduate of Saint Peter's University in Jersey City, New Jersey, with a BS in physics, he also holds an MS in applied mathematics from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Ron's lifelong interest in maritime history and art led him to the National Maritime Historical Society and its Saturday seminar program, which not only helped fuel that interest, but also introduced him to a dedicated group of individuals with similar interests. He was strongly influenced and inspired by Peter Stanford, with his wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm for the preservation of our maritime heritage. Ron's increasing involvement in NMHS activities eventually led to his 2001 election to the board of trustees, where he subsequently served as program chairman and was elected treasurer in 2004.

In 2007, he was elected chairman of the board of trustees. Of his career with NMHS, Ron has said: "You start volunteering to help out, slowly get drawn in, and before you know it, you're chairman."

As chairman, to enhance the Society's efforts with yo ung people, he initiated NMHS's participation in National History Day, a voluntary program chat involves middle school- and high school students in researching and presenting a topic chat illustrates the theme for chat school year. Students compete at the state level for prizes, medals, and the opportunity to compete at the national finals; over 600,000 students participate in this program each year. NMHS offers prizes for projects with a maritime theme at a steadily increasing number of state contests, thus reaching an ever-growing number of students, teachers, and judges aro und the country.

Ronald Oswald has represented the Society internationally and constantly travels and attends functions on the Society's behalf.

As chairman ofNMHS, he has served on the Executive Board of CAMM and the dinner committee of Pickle N ight, and has spearheaded the project to put a headstone on the unmarked grave of clipper ship designer John Griffiths.

Special Guest: Admiral of the Fleet The Lord Michael Boyce, Baron Boyce KG GCB OBE DL Educated at Britannia Royal Naval College, Admiral the Lord M ichael Boyce joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1961. He qualified as a submariner in 1965, serving on the submarines Anchorite, Valiant and Conqueror and later commanding the submarines Oberon, Opossum, and Superb. He was invested as an Officer, Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1982, and knighted in the 1995 New Year Honours List. He was promoted to che rank of admiral in 1995, and held the office of First Sea Lord of the Admiralty from 1998 to 2001; after which, he was Chief of the Defense Scaff from 2001 to 2003. He is president of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum and chair of the HMS Victory Preservation Company.

You are cordially invited to the NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S ANNUAL AWARDS DINNER

Thursday, 29 October 2015 at the New York Yacht Club in New York City This affair is traditionally sold out and seating is limited, so early responses are recommended. Reservations are $800 per person; $10,000 sponsors a premium table for ten, plus a feature ad page in the dinner journal. Black tie optional.

Call 914 737-7878, ext. 0, or email nmhs@seahistory.org to make your reservation or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Be sure to visit us online at www.seahistory.org for more information.

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SocrnTY,

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PO

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SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 20 15

HMS Victory HMS Victory, veteran of the American War for Independence, the French Revolutionary War, and the Napoleonic War, was the flagship of Admiral Lord Nelson in the Barde of Trafalgar and the sire of his death. Today she is the oldest commissioned warship in the world and a beloved national symbol, marking the 250'h anniversary of her launch this year.

Preserving a wooden vessel of Victory's age and complexity is an enormous undertaking; she has undergone several "great repairs." By the turn of the last century, she was in very poor condition; in the 1920s, the Society for Nautical Research spearheaded a fundraising campaign to address the problem. Victory was moved into dry dock, and over ÂŁ100,000 was raised through souvenir and commemorative medal sales, ticket sales from a commemorative film, and private donations. A cradle was constructed to supporr the ship, and significant repairs were made. The next large-scale conservation project began in 1955 and lasted until 2002.

Today, while Victory remains a commissioned warship of the Royal Navy under her commanding officer and ship's company, her care is overseen by the HMS Victory Preservation Company, founded in 2012 and initially funded with a ÂŁ25 million (about $39 million) capital grant from the Gosling Foundation, along with a matching gram from the British Ministry of Defense, and led by Admiral of the Fleet The Lord Michael Boyce. The HMS Victory Preservation Company The scanning process records details, such as planking butts, laid out a plan to address the ship's needs so that she might survive for iron eyes, and rigging straps, as well as 3D coordinates for over future generations; the entire project is estimated to rake thirteen years 430 key points along the hull sides. The preservation team will and cost ÂŁ35 million. First, the organization rook steps to stabilize the use these virtual models to ensure accurate reconstruction and ship, having exposed timbers painted to protect them, and having the offittings and planking. placement decks caulked to prevent further damage from rainwater getting in.

While near-term issues were being addressed, the HMS Victory Preservation Company ordered a thorough survey of Victory's condition, an undertaking including a 3D laser scanning process, which took nearly 90 billion measurements, an archaeological survey of shipwrights' marks left on timber as part of the construction and repair process, and the use of tree ring dating to help understand the ship's history. Specialists from the Crick Smith conservation team of the University of Lincoln removed several hundred paint samples from various locations covering all decks, uncovering as many as 72 layers of paint in some places. The ream concluded that Victory was painted a pale yellow and dark grey in Nelson's era; these are the colors that will be used when she is repainted in the fall of this year. Even the lettering of Victory's name on the stern will be repainted using a more period-appropriate font to complete the new look. Structurally, the study found that the keel had been dropping about one centimeter per year, causing the ship to bulge and press against the cradle supporting her. Part of the conservation project will be to design and construct a better cradle, to better support the ship.

Victory has welcomed more than 25 million visitors over the years, and under the careful guidance of the HMS Victory Preservation Company, she will be faithfully restored to her former state as Nelson's flagship, and tell her story to millions more in the years to come.

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

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just a preview ofsome of the great items featured in our Annual Dinner Auction ...

Private Charter Aboard Yacht Manhattan for 40 Guests Enjoy a 2-hour private charter aboard the yacht Manhattan with up to 40 guests and a standard open bar. This gorgeous, buff-hulled 80-foot, twentiesstyle yacht offers elegance and comfort. Her spectacular cabin features an all-glass observatory, cushioned seating and offers stunning panoramic views. Departs Chelsea Piers (Pier 62)-22nd St. on Hudson River (NYC, NY) . Not valid for Saturday evenings, expires January 1, 2017. Gratuity is not included. Donated by Classic Harbor Line and Scarano Boat Building.

Value: $4,200 .

London: Sunset Over the Thames in 1895 by John Stobart, Remarqued, Framed Limited Edition Print Froman edition of350 (35 remarqued). Image size: 14" x20". Original painting is oil on canvas. The scene is looking west just below Tower Bridge. To the right, inside the Pool of London and out of view, is the Tower of London. Nearer to London Bridge will be Billingsgate Fish Market and the Customs House where all ships' masters were obliged to report their arrivals and departures. Donated by John Stobart. Value: $1,875 .

Shannon and Chesapeake Framed, Limited Edition 1813 Print Early in the War of 1812, Chesapeake made one patrol and captured five British merchant ships before returning. She was captured

by HMS Shannon shortly after sailing from Boston, Massachusetts, on 1 June 1813. The Royal Navy took her into their service as HMS Chesapeake, where she served until she was broken up and her timbers sold in 1820; they are now part of the Chesapeake Mill in Wickham, England. Printed in 1813. Print size is 19.5" x 14.5"; framed size is 26" x 21.5". Donated by Naval Historical Foundation. Value: $3,500-$4,500.

* More Items to Come * More Items to Come * More Items to Come * Limited edition prints ... ship models ... jewelry ... more cruises ... special gift items ... nautical collectibles ... resort vacations ... exclusive museum tours ... great maritime reads ... and much more!

Keep checking our web site, www.seahistory.org, for an updated list!

If you are unable to attend NMHS's gala event on 29 October, let us bid for you!

Call 800-221-6647, ext. 0, and we'll set you up with your own personal bidding representative.

All proceeds from the auction benefit the work of the Society and the National Museum of the Royal Navy.

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SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

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"My office is filled with glorious maritime memorabilia, and the first item people comment on is the captivating Ships of Glass replica of the Barque Kaiulani on my desk. Don Hardy is an extraordinarily talented artist, and his glass models are classy representations of our most beloved ships."

-Burchenal Green, NMHS President

He Couldn't Have Done It Without Her-

Exy Johnson's Seafaring Legacy obert Johnson stands in his kitchen wearing a teal-and-white Hawaiian shirt, a nod to his childhood spent sailing around the world aboard his parents' sailing vessel, Yankee, more than seventy years ago. When I explain that I'm interested in learning more about his mother, he methodically goes through the familiar chronology he has told and retold over the years to the many fans of Irving and Exy Johnson's accounts oflife at sea, including Around Cape Horn, the classic mini-documentary shot and narrated by Robert's father, sailing legend Irving Johnson. The exchange with Robert and his wife, Betsy, reveals other stories that show why the Los Angeles Times called Exy the "doyenne of sailing."1 So much is known abo ut Robert's famous seafaring father, but there is more to Yankee's story, especially given the period in which the story takes place. As Exy explained in their first book, Westward Bound on the Schooner Yankee (1936), women "learned first of all that the best thing we could do in nine out of ten cases was to keep still. ..There is something about a woman's voice that can sound terrible on

Exy at the helm aboard schooner Yankee.

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Brigantine Yankee: the johnsons had three vessels, all named Yankee-a schooner, brigantine, and a ketch. The brigantine here was purchased in 1946 and they sailed her around the world four times in eleven years. a boat at times." 2 Yet former shipmates remember Exy as the glue that kept Yankee voyages together, and Robert reflects that, beyond those shipmates, "a lot of people don't realize how really important my mother was to the whole thing being successful at all."

Electa "Exy" Search graduated from Smith College in 1929 and headed west to continue her studies in French at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1931 she took a summer trip to Europe, but instead of returning to Boston via steamer as she had intended, she sent word to her parents that she would travel home via an almost fifty-year-old sailing vessel. The schooner Wander Bird was a former German pilot vessel under the command of Warwick Tompkins, the husband of a college friend.

Alarmed at this turn of events, Exy's father immediately departed for Europe with two return tickets. The extra ticket went unused; Exy sailed home in Wander Bird.

The Atlantic crossing proved pivotal for Exy. Not only did she discover a new way of life, she fell in love with Wander Bird's mate, Irving Johnson. On 5 November 1933, the newly married Johnsons de-

parted from Gloucester in their own recently purchased North Sea pilot schooner, Yankee. While Irving was already a veteran mariner, Exy's experience was limited to her Wander Bird transAtlantic crossing.

Despite the difference in their sailing backgrounds, this 1933 voyage in Yankee would be the first of seven circumnavigations the Johnsons would make between then and 1958 with paying crew.

By the end of the first eighteen-month world cruise, Exy was eager to re turn to Gloucester, writing in her journal: "Brick [the ship's doctor] compares this [arrival home] with getting back from France in 1918 ... Can't make the clock go around." 3 Given the unpracticed nature of their inaugural world cruise, Irving's salute upon returning to Gloucester went appropriately awry, which Exy recorded in her journal: "The cannon ... blew off a corner of the wheel box, ripped up the stern sheets grating, poked a hole in the bulwarks sheathing, three holes in the mainsail, & 2 in the ensign at the peak of the gaff! Our lovely solid brass cannon was in smithereens."4 Despite the natural desire to get ashore after a long passage at sea filled with the

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 20 15

uncertainties of a first voyage, Exy realized long before ret urning to Gloucester that she loved living at sea. Robert explains, "when my father noticed that my mother wasn't complaining about sailing back to Boston in rhe dead of winter at the end of a long world cruise, he took it as a very good sign." Exy wrote in 1936: "No life could be more simple-almost childishly so-but it was a very satisfying existence ... there was no question of being bored. I don't think the word could ever be applied to sa ilors-passengers, yes-but nor to anyone who has ships and the sea to deal with himselÂŁ"5 Aboard ship, while Irving attended to his duties as captain, Exy served as ship's secretary, editor, food manager, and linguist, among other roles. For each world cruise, Exy purchased the first nine months' worth of food before Yankee departed Gloucester. These provisions were replaced with another nine months' supply, preordered, in Singapore. Along the way, Exy augmented Yankee's stores of fresh produce and meat at local markers, a task made easier by her language and bartering skills.

Exy oversaw the daily workings of the galley- though not the cooking itself-and planned the day's meals in advance.

This did not mean, however, that Exy was nor a sailor in her own right. Robert explains that his mother was a competent navigator. She "had used a sextant and worked our sights and had done some coastal piloting. The vast majority was done

by my father. .. bur she certainly knew how."

Exy often took rhe helm in hazardous situations while Irving went aloft. On the second of seven trips across the South Pacific, Exy conned Yankee on her final approach to Pitcairn Island, while most of the crew, including Irving, were incapacitated from severe food poisoning. 6 Robert explains that Exy was a good judge of people, and her input was critical in selecting a crew of twenty or so young people who wo uld have to share a confined space for eighteen months. The world cruises did not revolve around specific academic or professional goals , allowing Exy to select crew members based on compatibility rather than previous sailing experience. Along with the sixteen or so boys, the Johnsons took along several young women to make the ship feel more like a family, as well as the ship's only paid crewmember-the cook. Exy's journals reveal how personally she took this task. Early in the third cruise she wrote: "They are a nice lot of boys, bur it. .. doesn't seem to have occurred to them to do things for themselves." She added, "Perhaps a lot of it is adolescence ... they're bound to improve.'' 7 She stressed when there was discontent onboard, nor only because she understood it could potentially ruin the voyage, but also because she wanted the crew to view the world cruises as she did, and cared that they left with having had a meaningfuland positive-experience. Exy recalled in a 1992 interview that, "At the time, I nev-

Irving and Exy Johnson, 1937 er felt maternal toward the crew. They certainly didn't want mothering. But now I feel as if they were all my children. We hear from them, we see them ... it's just like having the children come home."8 Exy's careful attention to the ship's company and their voyage experience extended to her notice of the places they visited and her interest in rhe people rhey met, particularly the women. Living much of her adult life at sea without a community of women from which to learn, Exy relied on the female role models she encountered on remote islands, living in environments analogous to Yankee in that they required of their inhabitants resourcefulness, resilience, and determination. Pitcairn was a particularly influential port stop for Exy. There she mer Ada Christian, who Exy described in Westward Bound as "unfailingly thoughtful, unruffied, serene, and racrful." 9 Ada and Exy would become lifelong friends.

Soon Exy also took on the role of mother to her own children aboard Yankee, and Exy's contact with other women in the places they visited took on extra importance. Her sons borh took rheir first world cruises at just over a year old-Arthur on the second cruise and Robert on the third.

Exy took care of her sons "practically all of their waking hours" when they were infants and toddlers. Another woman sailed with

Exy shopping at the market in Zanzibar.

From the Johnson's 1952-1955 scrapbook.

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

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them to help with childcare during the early cruises, though these aides were sometimes more work than help. On Floreana Island in the Galapagos, Exy wrote in her journal that, "Mrs. Munroe told me my children did me credit and I nearly burst with pride. It made all my efforts seem worthwhile and made me resolved to continue them." 10 When Arthur and Robert reached school age, Exy taught them using the Calvert Correspondence School curriculum.

The boys had formal lessons every day Yankee was at sea and took their "vacation"

the crew, and "we never looked at it as sail training. People learned how to sail, but that was sort of incidental." Exy wrote in Westward Bound: "In watches, as in everything else, the cruise was run on two main principles: to have a good time, and to sail the ship properly." 12 By the seventh cruise, Robert was a high school senior at a Connecticut boarding school and Arthur was in college. Exy wrote to Robert from the Tuamotus in French Polynesia: "Father and I more than most people feel there is so much more in life besides college that we do not feel you

has spread across the country to Los Angeles, where the TopSail Youth Program operates the twin brigantines Exy Johnson and Irving Johnson, launched in 2003. Exy was on hand to christen the ship that bears her name.

Exy was one of Yankee's many onboard writers over the years and likely the most prolific. Exy once said that if she had not married Irving and sailed around the world, she would have liked to have been a reporter. 13 In writing books about Yankee's voyages, which are credited to both Irving and Exy, Irving would dictate to Exy, who

Motherhood hardly put a stop to Exy Johnson's world voyaging. The Johnsons had two sons and took each on a world cruise just after their respective first birthdays. (left) Exy at sea as a young mother; (right) Exy, Robert, Irving, and Arthur Johnson. days in port. Exy reflected in a 1992 interview that, "It was a very conventional time in education. You learned what you were supposed to and that was that." Aboard Yankee, however, Arthur and Robert had "that one teacher, one pupil relationship [in which] you can't slide by anything, so in that way they learned more than some children would in school. .. they [also] didn't realize [that] what they were learning" in port augmented their formal lessons.

The ship environment helped Exy, too, because "the ship had to be kept in good condition ... and [Arthur and Robert] saw that people stepped to the job. [Irving] was a very good example. They just had no idea that you could dodge things that needed to be done." 11 Robert explains that while he and his brother had schooling on board, there was no formal academic program for

18

must get in .. .I think you will get in and will want to go, perhaps even this coming fall. .. [But] there are many alternatives open to you." Exy's progressive perspective foreshadowed the philosophy of many contemporary experiential education programs, and indeed Yankee and the Johnsons had a direct influence on modern sail training, particularly the Sea Education Association (SEA) out of Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

SEA's first vessel, schooner Westward, was built along Yankee's lines, and Irving served as a founding trustee and consultant to SEA. After Irving's death in 1991, Exy took his place on the board of trustees until she died in 2004. Son Robert now serves as a consultant. Robert considers one of his father's contributions as "being the bridge between working sail and what's now the tall ship industry." The Johnsons' legacy

would take the dictation down in shorthand and later edit it. All bur Sailing to See: A Picture Cruise on the Schooner Yankee (1939) are written from Exy's first-person perspective. Exy co-wrote ten National Geographic articles with Irving, and beginning with her Wander Bird voyage and continuing throughout the cruises in Yankee, Exy also wrote and published magazine and newspaper articles on her own.

By the later voyages, Exy seemed to recognize that her experiences in Yankee were not only good reads but also contained a record of remote peoples and places that might someday be changed irrevocably.

The Johnsons essentially conducted longitudinal studies of their perennial ports-ofcall, especially in the South Pacific where they developed close friendships. Exy wrote in Yankee's Wander World: "Mrs. Wittmer

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

[of Floreana Island] and I were really old friends, though the actual hours we had spent together could easily be counted. In remote places those hours count more than they do in cities." 14 The far-flung and largely inaccessible Pitcairn Island served as Yankee's South Pacific home. On each visit, Yankee brought much-needed supplies and caught up on the changes of the last three years. As Yankee prepared to get underway from Pitcairn for the last time, the Pitcairners stood on deck singing "Sweet Bye and Bye," their traditional farewell song to the crew. Exy wrote in a letter that "when Irving replied 'All I can say is thank yo u,' his voice broke completely and it was all he could say." Soon after, the Pitcairners rowed home and Yankee cast off. Exy writes: "Darkness came while we were down at chow and when we came back on deck the island had vanished." 15 Back home in Sherborn, Massachusetts, Robert tours me around the house as he continues to tell stories he heard as a child, his own tales from growing up in Yankee, and a few stories of his own. He points out memorabilia from his family's years at sea, including carved figurines from various Pacific islands and Yankee's wheel, which hangs above the piano. He shows me Exy's handmade tapestry depicting the first three voyages and explains the details sewn within. Along with Mystic Seaport, which holds much of the J ohnsons' collection, Robert is the caretaker of Yankee's history as the last surviving member of his immediate fam ily.

Exy's tapestries depict Yankee's voyages from her three first world cruises.

Looking back, it's not surprising that there are echoes of the Johnsons in so many of the place-based, experiential programs available to young people today. In a 1951 article for Motor Boating Magaz ine, Julie Pyle, a crew member on the fifth world cruise, wrote: "We were to learn on this trip that there is no education like that taught by the sea. We were to realize, too, that sailing is a whole way of life and that a ship is a complete world in itself." 16 Just as Warwick Tompkins influenced Irving

and Exy, former Yankee mate Arthur K imberly followed the Johnsons' model of an extended voyage with paying crew in his brigantine Romance. Kimberly and his wife Gloria trained what would become the next generation of captains, including Bert Rogers, executive director of Tall Ships America, and Captain Dan Moreland of the world-voyaging barque Picton Castle. Rogers, Moreland, and some of their Romance shipmates, in turn, trained today's captains of traditional sail, plus the thousands of passengers, students, and trainees who have participated in the active American sail training community. With each passing generation, the original model, in most cases, has become more academically oriented, while still retaining the adventurous spirit of the Johnsons' world cruises.

I also begin to see where my own story fits into the Johnsons' legacy. I likely would never have sailed offshore in the brigantine Robert C. Seamans during my semester at the Maritime Studies Program of Williams College and Mystic Seaport, or completed a senior thesis on sail training, (left) The Los Angeles Maritime Institutes TopSail Youth Program operates two brigantines named for the ]ohnsons-Irving Johnson (left) and Exy Johnson.

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

19

were it not for the Johnsons. It's jarring to hear Exy say in a 1992 interview, "I realized and I think the other girls came to realize that we had to occupy a certain kind of position. It was kind of a case of staying out of the way of the boys, not getting in their hair. .. because it was a young man's cruise, really." 17 This attitude began tO change, even over the course of the seven world cruises.

Perhaps not as obvious or impressive by today's standards, in the context of the time, Exy's presence on board and the fact that the Johnsons held spots for women on the cruises-two decades before the first maritime academy admitted women (in 1974)helped set a progressive example of who might benefit from these types of experiences. The gender divisions Exy recalled are far less apparent aboard sail training vessels today, thanks in part to the Johnsons' legacy. Rob ert says: "My father has been given a tremendous amount of credit for the voyages that he did, but he couldn't have done it without my mother. They really worked as a pair; their abilities and all complemented one another." !,

NOTES 1

The Los Angeles Times, Dec. 4, 2004 (www. arricles.lati mes .com/20 04/dee/ 04/ local/ mejohnson4) 2 Westward Bound on the Schooner Yankee, p. 247 3 3/12/36 Exy's journal, voyage #1 4 5/5/36 Exy's journal, voyage #1 5 Westward Bound in the Schooner Yankee, p. 79 6 Sailing to See, p. 83 7 Exy's Journals #2 8 Exy Johnson oral history, 1992 9 Westward Bound in the Schooner Yankee, p. 88 10 Exy's Journ als #2, p. 123 11 Exy Johnson oral history, 1992 12 Westward Bound in the Schooner Yankee, p. 243 13 Undated newspaper article in 1955-58 scrapbook.

14 Yankee '.s Wander World p. 59 15 Letter "Our Seventh Visit to Pitcairn" 16 "Woman's Ways on a Windjammer," in December 1951 MotorBoating 17 Exy Johnson oral history, 1992

i1 MYSTIC

Eleanore Maclean is a recent graduate of Kenyon College and an alumnus ofthe Maritime Studies Program of Williams College and Mystic Seaport. H er senior thesis for her degree in American Studies focused on Exy Joh nson and Yankee's role in the development of the American sail training tradition. To further this article she worked as a summer research assistant at Williams-Mystic.

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SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 20 15

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Sailor, SpyJ Swashbuckler, Dentist!

The Improbable Life of Henry Parr

by Louis Arthur Norton enry Albert Parr, a genuine nineteenth-century man of mystery, was a Confederate spy, a pirate, a prolific inventor, and ... a highly regarded dentist whose patients included a former United States president. Born in 1843, at various times Parr claimed that he was born in Nova Scotia, Tennessee, or New York.1 His actual place of birth is unknown; records show that he did spend time in each location. Parr likely spent his teenaged years in Nashville and, judging from his adult occupations, someone in his family likely had a medical or pharmaceutical background.

At nineteen he joined Colonel John Hunt Morgan's Second Kentucky Calvary, also known as "Morgan's Raiders," to fight for the Confederacy. 2 In 1862, Henry Parr was among a group of fifteen that Morgan selected for a clandestine nighttime raid on Nashville, Tennessee, on the Cumberland River. The band of raiders made their approach towards the state capital on a cold February night, reconnoitered the riverfront and found the steamboat Minnetonka tied to the quay. They made a plan to set fire to the ship, cut its mooring lines, set it adrift toward some Federal gunboats several hundred yards downstream, and hopefully torch the vulnerable Union vessels . They fa iled to notice, however, the complex web of chains and manila ropes that secured Minnetonka to her berth. The noise that accompanied their efforts made Federal sentries stationed nearby aware that something suspicious was going on near Minnetonka, and they sounded an alarm. The would-be raiders Bed the scene, but not 1

without the loss of one of their men. The remaining Confederate survivors safely returned to Morgan's headquarters.

After this failed mission, Parr was inducted into the Confederate Secret Service

Henry A. Parr DDS with the rank of lieutenant.3 Parr's first undercover assignment was in Nash ville in 1863, where he posed as a clerk in W . F. Gray's drugstore. He was to recruit Union soldiers who might want to desert and then forge parole papers that would allow them to cross picket lines safely. Somehow his activities were exposed, and on 29 January 1863, the Union Army Provost in Nashville apprehended Parr. It is unclear how he avoided imprisonment, but there is no record of his being convicted of criminal activity. 4 Parr's next mission was as a participant in a bizarre plan with potentially serious

John M. H yson Jr. and Ben Z. Swanson Jr. "Portrait of a Confederate Secret Agent: Henry A. Parr, DDS." j ournal ofthe History ofDentistry, 1996 July, 44 (2) 53.

2 Record G roup 109, Wa r D epartment Collection of C onfederate Records, M 253, C onsolidated Index to Compiled Service Records of Confederate Service, roll 368, NA and US War D epartment. The War ofthe Rebellion: A Compilation ofthe Officia l Records of the Union and Confederate A rmies. 128 vol., Seri al l , vol 7. Wash ington Government Pr inting Office, 18 82, 433-34 3 Ph il ip Va n D o ren, Secret Missions of the Civil War (Avenel, NJ: W ings Books, 1959) 167.

4 Record G roup 109, War Department Collection of Co nfederate Records, M4 l 6, Union Provost M arshal's Fi le of Paper Relatin g to Two or M o re C ivili ans, H enry A. Parr, Statement, 29 Janu ary 1863, Office of the C hi ef of Police, Army of the C umberl and, roll 16, number 4274, National Archives .

5 Records indicate th at Brain traveled to Montrea l, Quebec C ity, and ultimately

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international repercussions. The originator of the plot was an Englishman named John Clibbon Brain, a shady con man from rural G loucestershire, who served for a time as an able seaman aboard the steam-powered CSS Jamestown before joining the Confederate Secret Service. A skilled artist, Brain worked undercover as an illustrator for the publication Railway Guides, gathering rail-transportation intelligence for the Confederates. Brain seemed to ask too many questions, and was arrested. Pouring on his English accent and winning personality, he persuaded the authorities that he was a British citizen and should not be imprisoned. Not wanting to cause an international incident, the authorities simply deported him. He traveled extensively for a while before making his way back to Virginia, hoping to gain a Confederate Navy commission.5 Unsuccessful in his quest, he saw the opportunity to serve the Confederate cause as a privateer.

Brain's first scheme was to seize the 460ton passenger steamship Chesapeake that sailed between New York and Portland, Maine. For this ambitious plan, Brain recruited Parr, whom he described as an "exdoctor" and "an apothecary's unemployed apprentice."6 Together with a band of Confederates and Confederate sympathizers disguised as passengers, Brain planned to take possession of the steamer by force once it was in international waters. The Chesapeake would be renamed and her appearance changed, and then Brain and his Confederate crew would sail south to Wilmington, North Carolina. From there, they would use the steamship as a Confederate privateer.7 Key to the plan was Cana-

to th e United Kin gdom before returning to the United States Faye Kert, Trimm ing Yan kee Sails: Pirates and Privateers of New Brunswick (Fredericton , N B: Goose Lane Editions, 2005) 68.

7 A letter of m arque o r reprisa l usually described the ship, own ers, officers, and the amount of deposited surety. Pri vateers brou ght captured vessels before Admi ra lty Courts th at decided if the letter of marque was vali d and if rhe vessel or its ca rgo belon ged to the enemy. If legally "condemned ," it cou ld be sold at auction, and the proceeds were then divided between the privateer's owner and crew. Du ring the early years of C ivil Wa r, the US charged Confederate privateers with piracy, declarin g their letters of marque inva li d since the Union did not acknowledge the brea kaway Confederacy as a sovereign nation. Laws govern ing privateerin g enterprises beca me murky. The Pari s Declaration of 1856 renounced privateerin g and , in effect, abolished privatee ring worldwide. Th e US, however, was not a signatory and reserved the ri ght to continue iss uing letters of marque.

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SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

dian Vernon Guyon Locke, a native of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, who had lived for twenty years in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He had previously commanded a Confederate privateer named Retribution sailing under a letter of marque signed by the Confederate secretary of state, Judah Benjamin.

The letter of marque was issued to "John Parker," an alias used by Locke. The marginally successful Retribution had been abandoned in the Bahamas, and Brain and Locke reasoned that they could rename Chesapeake to Retribution and sail under the original Retribution's letter of marque.

Brain recruited a large number of Canadians as crew for his audacious mission; eleven of the sixteen marauders came from New Brunswick. Canada was sti ll a British territory at the time; Great Britain was officially neutral during the war, but tensions between Britain and the United States were high due to several incidents on the high seas, especially the Confederate commissioning of the Birkenhead-built raider CSS Alabama. Some British men who lived in N orrh America enlisted to fight in the ranks of the Union forces, and Canada had become one terminus for the anti-slavery "Underground Railway." Conversely, a significant number of residents of the Maritime Provinces were struggling to establish independence from the rest of Canada and were sympathetic to the South 's desire for autonomy from the North. They turned a blind eye toward Confederate operators who covertly used Canada as a base, in violation of British neutrality.

In preparation for the incursion, Brain made a round trip aboard Chesapeake a few weeks before the mission to become familiar with the vessel's operations. On his next excursion onboard, sixteen men accompanied him, embarked either in small groups or as apparent strangers. They carried four trunks onboard, pres umably containing small arms, ammunition, and manacles to secure anyone who became unruly. While underway, the undercover passengers explored the vessel and asked the crew many technical questions on the operation of the vessel.

On the early morning hours of 7 December 1863, about thirty miles off Cape Cod, four of the conspirators broke into the engine room and fired their pistols. In the SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

Chesapeake, as depicted in the 26 December 1863 issue ofHarper's Weekly. resulting melee, second engineer Odin Shafer was shot. The American died of his wound s and was later unceremoniously dumped overboard. Chief engineer James Johnson received a pistol slug in his chin and chief mate Charles Johnson suffered multiple gunshot wounds in the right knee and lefr arm. The ship's captai n, Isaac W illet, resisted capture, until Parr held him at pistol-point. Once the capta in was subdued, Parr declared him a prisoner of the Confederacy and handcuffed him. Daniel Henderson, the off-watch second mate, slept through the whole affair but was awakened by the Confederates, placed in handcuffs, and confined to his cabin. Once all the Chesapeake's officers were subdued, Parr removed the ball from the chief mate's arm, dealing coolly with blood and the patient's anguish, but he was unable to treat the knee wound or the ball lodged in the engineer's chin .

The seizure accomplished, a series of twists of fate occurred that seemed to portend their future. The raiders soon realized that they knew neither how to navigate the vessel nor how to maintain the head of steam to get them to their destination. They tried to force the severely wounded ship's engineer Johnson to run the engine, but he refused.

Upon questioning the passengers, they learned that one of them, Robert Osborne, was a former ship captain who knew these waters, and they coerced him to become their pilot. Osborne was ordered to steer a course toward Saint John, New Brunswick, where Locke was waiting to join the commandeered Chesapeake. Meanwhile several of the marauders painted over the ship's name and changed the color of the ship's funne l. About three miles off Saint John, they placed the Chesapeake's passengers and all but a few of the original crew in a life-

boat, allowing them to row ashore at Partridge Island near Saint John. The Chesapeake's company reached shore on 10 December. As soon as he was able, the captain telegraphed a message to the American steamship office in Portland to inform them that Chesapeake had been hijacked and one of the crew had been murdered. Meanwhile, Locke now took over the bridge aboard the newly-renamed Retribution, and the steamer now headed across the Bay of Fundy to Nova Scotia in the hope of finding coal and additional provisions from cooperative Canadians.

Meanwhile, news of the hijacking reached the Union naval headquarters in Boston. The federal gunboat Ella andAnnie under the command of Lieutenant J. F. Nicholls was dispatched to intercept Chesapeake and apprehend the rebels. James Q Howard, the American Consul in Saint John, demanded that the constabulary issue warrants for the arrest of those responsible for the malicious piratical act. The United States argued that the Confederacy was not a sovereign nation, and thus could not issue letters of marque in the first place, making the seizure of the vessel an act of piracy.

Brain and Locke, while attempting to obtain coal and supplies at Petit Riviere, Nova Scotia, got word of the warrants for their arrest and fled overland to Halifax, leaving Parr in command of the "pirate" crew.

Heavy seas, frequent gales and ice delayed Lr. Nicholls's passage ro Canada, but after hailing a fishing boat at sea, he learned that his quarry was most likely at Petit Riviere, and Nicholls immediately steamed toward a rendezvous . An alert lookout aboard the Retribution spotted the smoke of an approaching steam vessel. Parr wisely had moved his vessel behind some forested islands, thus Ella andAnnie sailed by with-

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out spotting the C onfederate band.

Alarmed by the close encounter, Parr rowed ashore to telegraph Brain and Locke in Halifax about the situation. Shortly after Parr arrived at the telegraph office, a quickthinking clerk noticed that trouble was potentially afoot and quickly ushered Parr into a back room just as Nicholls came through the front door and headed to the telegraph counter. Nicholls and Parr narrowly missed a face-to-face meeting.

and H er Majesty's Empire. Clary tactfully persuaded Nicholls to call at H alifax to obtain British approval for his actions. 8 A convoluted four-month trial ensued.

The British government officials strongly objected to a foreign vessel landing at a sovereign port to seize a ship, even though it had been hijacked and had been the scene of a murder. They were also incensed by the way Nicholls treated his Canadian captives. The incident threatened to spark

~

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u J: J:

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Ella and Annie, renamed as USS Malvern, as she looked in 1865.

On the night of 13 D ecember, Retribution steamed to Sambo Harbor, a small town just west of H alifax, where Brain and Locke reboarded the ship . But early the next day, just as Retribution started to take on coal from a small Halifax collier, the Ella and Annie appeared at the mouth of the harbor. Fearing capture, Brain, Parr, and Locke quickly deserted the ship. Seeing the rapidly approaching Union gunboat, a Chesapeake crewman who had been held hostage got ahold of an American Bag and raised it capsized, a signal of distress. His target now identified, Nicholls boarded, seized the ship in the name of the United States government, and roughed up the Canadian rebels who were left behind.

Shortly thereafter he sailed for Portland, Maine, with his prize and prisoners. En route, he was halted by the US Navy steamsloop Dacotah. Its captain, Albert G. Clary, told Nicholls that capturing a Confederate vessel in a British port might seriously undermine relations between the United States 8

British sensibilities into yet another conBict with the United States, but reasonable heads prevailed. The Halifax Vice Admiralty Court ruled the Confederate attack was illegal because the Confederates' letter of marque was issued to a vessel that no longer existed (the original Retribution) . Also, the letter was not issued to Locke by name but rather to a "John Parker," who could not be produced in court. As a result, Chesapeake and her cargo were returned to her owners.

Article X of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 addressed the northeastern boundary of the United States with Canada and said that if a citizen of one country sought asylum in another country for an act that was considered a crime in both localities, a judge could issue a warrant for the accused criminal's extradition. The Canadian Confederate sympathizers were accused of committing murder and piracy that took place on an American vessel while in the jurisdiction of the United States.

C laire Hoy, Canadians in the Civil War (Toronto, ON: McArthur and Company, 2004) 184, 187.

9 Ken , Trimming Yankee Sails, 83.

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That was legal cause for extradition under the terms of the treaty. The defense argued that the offenses were committed in international waters and, as such, they could be tried in Canada. Nevertheless, the Canadian citizens who participated in the seizure were found guilty of piratical behavior. 9 Many citizens in the Maritime Provinces were Southern sympathizers and believed the marauders had legally engaged in an act of war under a Confederate letter of marque. Brain and Parr escaped extradition, and, with the help of some Halifax Confederate supporters, all of the Canadian men, in a confusing series of events, were transported away and scattered into Canadian towns. Parr made his way back to Richmond, Virginia, by January 1864, whereupon he was paid $290 on 29 February for his services from the Confederate "Necessaries and Exigency" secret service account. Jefferson Davis personally signed Parr's warrent. 10 Brain and Parr reunited for a second maritime hijacking, this time the 1,071-ton side-wheeled mail steamer Roanoke, whose regular route ran between Havana and New York. On 29 September 1864, they and ten accomplices boarded the Roanoke in Havana as regular passengers, with orders to surprise the ship's crew once the ship was out of territorial waters. About twenty-five miles off the coast of Cuba, Brain and Parr and the others confronted the captain and crew. Brain made his way through the ship, shouting that he was taking command of the vessel in name of the Confederate States of America, and that the vessel was now a lawful prize of war. He also ordered Captain A. Drew, Roanoke's captain, to surrender to them as a prisoner of war. Brain, accompanied by two officers and a seaman, secured Drew and his officers below deck, placing them in irons . The vessel was now the Confederate States' prize steam-ship Roanoke. The capture was accomplished with little violence except that the vessel's carpenter, having first surrendered, seized an axe and aimed a blow at Parr. The carpenter missed his target and was shot dead during the confrontation by one of Parr's companions.

1 °Confederate Stares of America Record. Pickett papers, Ma nuscript Collection , warrant for H. A. Parr, Executive offi cer Jefferson Davis ro Sec reta ry of the Treasury, Confederate Stares, 29 February 1864, Roll 19, Library of Co ngress.

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

Brain inrended to bring Roanoke inro Bermuda's port of Sr. George's, where they would land and parole the passengers, officers , and crew. From there they would take on provisions and coal, then sail rhe vessel to Wilmington. They reached the waters off Bermuda on 4 October and transferred Roanoke's crew and passengers to the Danish brig Mathilde, which they encountered some five miles off the coast. After several unsuccessful attempts at obtaining provisions and being denied enrry inro rhe British port, the Confederate band made the decision to burn the ship. Brain and his men then came ashore at Sr. George's to face charges of piracy. 11 The men were tried and subsequently released on the grounds that their action took place under the fl.ag of the Confederacy. Maintaining their official position of neutrality in this conflict, the officials had no legal reason to hold them. Parr somehow found his way back to the United Stares on 31 December 1864 and managed to cross the picker lines at Richmond, where he reported on the failed Roanoke mission.12 Despite the lack of success in this recenr mission, Parr now had a reputation as a specialist in seizing Union ships at sea.

Parr rejoined Brain for his last privateering mission under the name of "H . A. Paw," perhaps a misreading of handwriting. They captured the schooner St. Mary in the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of rhe Patuxenr River and sailed her to Nassau to acquire a much-needed cache of guns and ammunition. The misappropriated St. Mary became the last Confederate raider to operate in the Caribbean. Since the last Confederate troops had surrendered in May 1865, Parr and Brain burned the vessel on 7 July 1865 and returned to Canada via the Confederate network that guided southern escapees to freedom .13 Brain was listed as living in Monrreal shortly thereafter, then disappeared into the muddy backwaters of history.

Finding safe refuge in Canada, in December 1865 Parr formed a druggist partnership with Alfred Bush in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, known locally as "Parr & Co." Evidenrly he had been exposed to the pharmacy business when he was a teenager; therefore his early undercover position may have been a logical one. He married Ellen Martha Robbins in 1869 and fathered four children-Florence, Sarah, Henry and Marion. Parr later formed a new pharmacy partnership in 1875 with C. C. Richards that became known as "C. C. Richards and Company." 14 In 1878 Parr made a return trip to the United States, unaware of an outstanding federal warrant for his arrest. Upon his arrival in Boston, he was taken into custody and charged with the murder of the Chesapeake's chief engineer, Odin Shaffer, "during the piratical seizure" of that vessel. 15 The trial starred in July and produced neither evidence that Parr was the raider's leader of the expedition, only an officer, nor proof that he actually killed Shaffer.

Also, President Andrew Johnson's amnesty proclamation of 1868 had granred an unconditional pardon to all participants in the Civil War regardless of their acts during the conflict, to help foster postwar reconciliation. As a result, all charges were dropped.

After the trial, Parr returned to Yarmouth. In 1879 he dissolved his pharmacy partnership with Richards. Without formal training, "Doctor" Parr suddenly started a dental practice. Demists of the era, especially those outside of the United Stares, could practice without certified credenrials.

The next year the building in which he practiced was destroyed by fire. Perhaps feeling ill-prepared for his new profession, Parr left Canada and matriculated at the Baltimore College ofDenral Surgery.16 At the age of thirty-eight Parr earned the degree of DDS, graduating with the class of 1884 and receiving a gold medal for aca-

11 Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, Part II {Related to Great Britain), Second Sess ion 38ch Congress, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1865. 364-365.

12 Ac his trial before che Queen's Magistrates in Bermuda, Parr referred to him self as Dr. Parr. Although he would lacer ea rn this academic des ignation, in his youth he had worked in a pharmacy and evidently ca me to people's aid when cheywere injured during his privateer adventures. Corpsmen and/or medics in the armed services are still ca lled "doc" by their fellows under arms.

13 D avid Hay and Joan Hay, The Last of the Confederate Privateers (N ew York: C rescent Books, 1977), 98 , 102-105, 132-1 34.

14 L. V. H arris, "A Brief History of Pharm acy in Yarmouth Councy," in Proceed-

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

demic distinction .17 Highly regarded in his field, he served on the faculty as a clinical instructor at his alma mater.

Parr practiced dentistry in New York City, where he became a distinguished and wealthy clinician. 18 The former rebel was very inventive. He was granted patents on various dental devices, updated versions of which are still used roday. In addition, Parr parenred many non-dental inventions. Having published several papers in denral professional journals in the United States and abroad and innovated laboratory mechanical techniques, Parr became a popular lecturer at dental society meetings. Among his New York parienrs was former presidenr Ulysses S. Grant. Apparently neither Gram nor Parr had reservations about doctor/ patient relationships between former enemies. Dr. Parr died in New York City on 6 August 1932 at the age of eighty-six. As evidence that he remained a loyal son of the Confederacy, among his possessions was a labeled lock of]efferson Davis's hair.

Parr's remains rest in Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery, but his grave is unmarked. 19 Why he is buried in a city in which he had not lived and why his grave site is unknown is one more mystery added to an enigmatic, but exciting life story. J. Dr. Louis Arthur Norton, a native ofGloucester, Massachusetts, is a maritime historian andfrequent contributor to Sea History. He is the author of] oshua Barney: Hero of the Revolution and 1812 (Naval Institute Press, 2000) and Captains Contentious: The Dysfunctional Sons of the Brine (University of South Carolina Press, 2009). Dr. Norto n is a professor emeritus ofthe University ofConnecticut Health Center in Farmington.

Among his literary awards are the 2002 and 2006 Gerald E. Morris Prize fo r maritime historiography from Mystic Seaport and the Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association's 200912010 and 2010/2011 awards for fiction and essay writing respectively.

ings of the 62"' Annual Meeting of the Nova Scotia Pharmaceutical Society, 1936, 22-3 0.

15 Boston H erald, 16, 25 June; 16, 22 July; 23 September 1878. Articles related to United States vs . H enry Parr.

16 Now the University of Maryland School of D entistry. " The degree DDS is an acronym fo r the title Doctor of Deneal Surgery. An alternate co mmon unive rsity conferred dental deg ree is DMD, stand ing for Doctor of D eneal M edicine. They are academi ca lly equiva lent.

18 Wynbrandt, The Excruciating H istory ofDentistry, 132.

19 H yson and Swanson, "Portrait of a Co nfederate Secret Agene," 59.

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Maritime Heritage Funding Bills Introduced in US House and Senate-Action Needed We've been running regular updates in Sea History on the Maritime Heritage Grants program to keep you informed on how it can benefit your museum, organization, or project, and on what you need to do to make sure the promised funding actually makes its way to the maritime heritage community, as originally intended in the 1994 National Maritime Heritage Act. NMHS trustee and National Maritime Alliance chair Dr. Tim Runyan has been working tirelessly-some might say relentlessly-with legislators on Capitol Hill to make sure the full funding amount is available in upcoming grants cycles. We've had some real successes- $7 million provided for a grant program. The first cycle in 2014 produced more than $2. 6 million in grants awarded to thirty-five applicants. ft is something to cheer about, to be sure, but we can't rest easy, especially considering that the amount of money that was supposed to be made available for the Maritime Heritage Grants was more than $14 million, and that, while thirty-five grants were awarded, JOO other projects applied but were rejected. The grant program is administered by the National Park Service; the awards for the September 2014 deadline were not announced until April 2015. The 2015 round ofproposals was due 3 August. See the full list of2014 recipients below.

On 24 June 2015 , Rep. Garret Graves (RLA) introduced the STORIS Act (H.R. 2876), the companion to the Senate bill (S. 1511, STORIS Act) introduced 4 June

by Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) and co-sponsored by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA). The Senate bill was referred to the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee in the Senate.

Co-sponsored by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Rep. Filemon Vela (D-TX), the House bill was referred to the Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Armed Services Committee. Additional sponsors include Reps. Robert Brady (DPA), Gene Green (D-TX) , Charles Boustany (R-LA), and Don Young (R-AK).

Supporters of the STORIS Act include: the National Maritime Historical Society, the US Merchant Marine Academy Alumni Association and Foundation, the Association of the United States Navy, the National Maritime Alliance, EMR Southern Recycling, International Shipbreaking Ltd., Marine Metals Inc., the Council of American Maritime Museums, the Historic Naval Ships Association, the North American Society for Oceanic History, the Naval Historical Foundation, the American Lighthouse Council, the Steamship Historical Society, Tall Ships America, Nauticus (Norfolk), the Mariners' Museum and Park, the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, the Maritime Museum

Importantly, there is also a list of members of the three subcommittees assigned to act on the bills.

USS Olympia will get critical repairs with fundingfrom a Maritime Heritage Grant. of San Diego, Historic Ships in Baltimore, USCG STORIS veterans , and others.

While calling for transparency in ship recycling, both versions of the STORIS Act include Section 4 (c) (C), which will restore the maritime heritage grant program at the level of funding set in the National Maritime Heritage Act (1994). This is a major step forward and requires action. The maritime heritage community must contact members of Congress to secure more sponsors of the bills, and supporters in both House and Senate. This will ensure the bills pass committees and become incorporated in a spending bill.

A draft letter is available online on our website: www.seahistory.org, as well as a list of committee members of the Senate Commerce Science and Transportation Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, and the Energy and Commerce Committee.

•The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee referred the STORIS Act (S. 1511) to the subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine, Safety, & Security.

•The House Energy and Commerce Comm ittee referred the STORIS Act (H.R. 2876) to the subcommittee on Environment and the Economy.

•The House Armed Services Committee referred H.R. 2876 to the subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces.

You are encouraged to contact members of these three subcommittees .

It is particularly important to write to members in your district and state who are on those committees. If your senators or representatives are not on the three committees or subcommittees, write anyway.

You can urge them to become sponsors of the bills, or vote positively for the STORIS Act if a bill is on the floor.

Contact with members of Congress is critical. A copy of yo ur e-letter to the appropriate staff member(s) in the office will make a difference. Please make the effort.

-TIM RUNYAN

Chair, National Maritime Alliance Trustee, National Maritime Historical Society

The 2014 Maritime Heritage Grant Award Recipents •Sealaska Heritage Institute (AK) for the "Traditional Tlingit and Haida Halibut Hook Project"; amount: $39,496.

•California State Parks Fdn. to rehabilitate windows and doors on the Pigeon Point Lighthouse; amo unt: $73,436.

•San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park for drydocking and repairs 26

to the WWII submarine USS Pampanito; amount: $192,754.

•Maritime Museum Association of San Diego to replace the weather decks on the 1863 Star ofIndia; amount: $192,794.

•Mystic Seaport Museum (CT) for the restoration of the 1908 steamboat Sabino; amount: $199,806.

SEA HISTORY 152,AUTUMN 2015

•Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation to restore arrifaccs from che Indian River Life-Saving Scacion and build a replica beach apparacus carr; amounc: $25, 119.

•Penobscot Marine Museum (ME) to digicize and cacalog ics 20ch-cencury image colleccion; amount: $40,784.

•Diving With a Purpose (FL) for field schools to train recreacional divers in maritime archaeology; amount: $46,536.

•Columbia River Maritime Museum (OR) to purchase cradles and cantilevered shelving fo r the museum's boat collection; amount: $33,549.

•University of West Florida Historic Trust to creace che Pensacola Maricime H eritage Trail; amounc: $25,960.

•Independence Seaport Museum (PA) fo r critical repairs and preservation of the C ruiser Olympia; amount: $169,85 0.

•University of Georgia Marine Extension Service to produce a documencary on che maricime culcural history of commercial fi shin g in GA; amounc: $4 1,837.

•Kanehiinamoku Voyaging Academy (HI) to develop an oucreach projecc reaching craditional H awai' ian navigacion cechniques; amounc: $45,899.

•Living Classrooms Foundation (MD) to rehabilicace USS Constellation's spars, fighcing cops, and rigging; amounc: $89,596.

•USS Constitution Museum (M A) to develop "USS Constitution: From Fares e to Frigace," a multi-media experience to incroduce audiences to che history of che ship; amounc: $50,000.

•Old Dartmouth Historical Society/ New Bedford Whaling Museum (MA) for che conservacion and digicizacion of che Purrington-Russell panorama and fo r exhibicion and educacional progra mming; amounc: $49,845.

•Maritime Gloucester (MA) to build a viewing platform for America's oldesc m arine railway; amount: $50,000.

•Lowell's Boat Shop (MA) to develop an apprenciceship program, "lnnovacive Learning on che River"; amount: $35,330.

•Wood Island Life Saving Station Association (ME) for the rehabilitation to the scacion; amounc: $200,000.

•Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde (OR) to develop interactive displays fo r "G rand Ronde Canoe C ulcure, Wacerways, Travel, and Trade"; amo un t: $36,876.

•USS Yorktown Foundation (SC) to implement scace-of-che-arr technology and interactive exhibits to highlighc che engine room experience; amounc: $26,228 .

D igitizing images at the Penobscot Marine Museum .

•National Lighthouse Museum (NY) to produce a video on ics history and develop an inceractive lighthouse database; amounc: $42, 150.

•Fireboat Fire Fighter Museum (NY) to preserve che hull of che 1938 fi reboac Fire Fighter; amount: $80,875.

•Long Island Traditions (NY) to produce a multi-facced educacional program cicled, "Freeporr Wacers"; amount: $40,000.

•Intrepid Museum Foundation (NY) to preserve the nuclear missile submarine USS Growler; amount: $117,278.

•Battleship North Carolina Commission for critical repairs to che ship's hull; amounc: $200,000.

•Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to produce audio tours of the Batcleship Texas, in both English and Spanish; amount: $49,454.

•Institute of Nautical Archaeology (VT) for the archaeological investigacion of che Lake Champlain 1832 steamboat Winooski; amount: $26 ,953.

•The Mariners' Museum (VA) for che USS Monitor Arcifac c Conservacion and Outreach Projecc; amounc: $99,9 00.

•Center for Wooden Boats (WA) to provide free public rides on historic small craft; amounc: $28,000.

•Northwest Seaport (WA) to drydock and make repairs to che 1889 cugboac Arthur Foss; amounc: $87, 000.

•Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center (NC) fo r the project, "Tracing Historical Connections/Outer Banks to Mainland"; amount: $46,036.

•Wisconsin Historical Society to document and evaluate for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places the las t undocumented canaller in Wisconsin waters; amount: $48, 698.

•Oklahoma Historical Society to develop an exhibit and curriculum tided, "Discovery and Excavacion of che Steamboat H eroine"; amounc: $25,00 0.

•University of Wisconsin-Superior to process and conserve the technical drawings in che Fraser Shipyards Colleccion; amount: $49,984.

The National Maritime A lliance is an umbrella organization representing the maritime heritage community. The Alliance led the initiative to create the National Maritime H eritage Act (Public Law 103-451) enacted in 1994, providing for a maritime heritage grant program funded by revenue from MARAD ship recycling. The National Maritime Alliance leads advocacy efforts to secure funding for the grant program. It helped secure $7 million in 2 014. The National Maritime Alliance organizes the triennial Maritime H eritage Conferences; the three most recent conferences were held in San D iego, Baltimore and Norfolk.

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

27

Wavertree On the Ways -rheSouth Street Seaport Museum in New I York City has embarked on an unprece-

dented $10.6 million restoration of its flagship, the 1885 Cape Horn full-rigged ship Wavertree. With key allocations from the New York City Council, the Mayor's Office, and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the restoration of Wavertree is a clear indication ofNew York City's commitment to its maritime history and to the museum at South Street. The scope of work planned is extensive and includes: the removal and complete replacement of the weather deck in steel, the removal of the South American sand-hopper structure from the lower hold, In May, Wavertree left her pier in Manhattan and took a short journey to the replacement and repair of the entire a Staten Island shipyard where she will undergo a lifesaving restoration. 'tweendeck, reballasting with a completely removable concrete ballast, replacement of twenty hull plates below the waterline, installation of a cathodic protection system, complete blasting (using both water and abrasive), and a thorough coating of the entire hull structure.

Captain Jonathan Boulware, executive director of the South Street Seaport Museum, had this to say: "We're thrilled beyond words at the initiation of what is the largest sailing ship preservation project of its type in recent history. Wavertree was once a plain old square rigger, like any other you'd have seen at South Street on any day of the week-hull number such-and-such from a yard in Liverpool. But today she is a rare survivor, one of the last iron-hulled sailing ships left in the world. Never fitted with propulsion, still riveted from rail to garboard, she is a work of art in iron. Iron is itself a lifeless thing, but when wrought into plate, shaped, fitted to other plates, and formed into the hull of a sailing ship, it becomes art. Countless people have toiled in service of this great lady, this swan of sea and sail, and thanks to this project countless more will walk her decks, climb her rigging, and tend her braces. We undertake this work with reverence for what the ship is and with hope and aspiration for what she can be. Wavertree's restoration is the first step in the revitalization of the South Street Seaport Around the Cabin Lamp: The Wavertree Restoration Museum, an institution of New York, of America, and of all ports that meet the sea."

There was an electric feeling in the air as Wavertree stirred in her South Street The 1885 full-rigged ship Wavertree (exberth to begin her journey to the Caddell yard across the harbor. Jonathan Boulware, Don Ariano N, ex-Southgate) was built at newly named executive director of South Street Seaport Museum, cheerfully broke Southampton, England, for R. W. Leyland into his own remarks to proclaim: "Ir moves!" & Company of Liverpool.

The 325-foot Norma and I were seized by the moment, as was every living soul in the crowd wrought-iron square rigger first sailed bethat had gathered to see the great ship off for the major rebuild that awaited her. and tween eastern India (now Bangladesh) Indeed, Terese Loeb KeuPHOTO BY TERESE LOE B KREUZER Scotland carrying jute, before entering the zer, writing in the local etramp trades, raking cargoes anywhere in newsletter Downtown Post the world she could find them.

It was in NYC, said we two had ties this capacity that the ship first came into that ran deeper rhan those New York. After sailing for a quarter cenof anyone else on the pier, tury, in December 1910 she limped into as the ones that had the Falkland Islands, having been dismasrbrought Wavertree to New ed off Cape Horn. Her owners sold her for York 45 years earlier. But use as a floating warehouse at Punta Arenas, the story she told went on Chile. In 1947, she was converted into a to cite the visionary and sand barge at Buenos Aires, Argentina. practical people who made South Street Seaport Museum acquired possible the ship's 6,000Peter and Norma Stanford as Waverrree leaves for shipyard. ownership of the hull in 1968. mile journey to New York.

Her arrival in New York Harbor in 1970 That story, wonderful for rhe reactions of harbor people to one of their own, an ocean was just the beginning of her life as a New wanderer come home from anorher age, is retold on these pages as well, in words York City icon, but the effort to get her noted down at the rime-another example of on-deck reporting for which Sea there was almost Herculean and the result -Peter Stanford, President Emeritus, NMHS Histo ry has become noted. of the dedication and funding of some key

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28

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

players. It would be hard to say, nearly a half century later, which aspect of the ship's long life has taken the most effort: her passages across the world's oceans carrying cargo under sail, or keeping her alive as a museum ship so that the memory of her role in our global maritime history isn't lost to the scrap yard.

Peter and Norma Stanford were onWavertree, launched as Southgate, 1885 board Wavertree as she arrived to fanfare in 1970, and on hand again this past spring to see their "big iron baby" towed across New York Harbor, this time to the shipyard in Staten Island. With the physical restoration complete, she will once again be able to tell the story of the ships and the seafarers once common to lower Manhattan, the ships that made South Street a "street of ships."

Here, the Stanfords share the memories of that day back in 1970 when Wavertree was towed into New York, and the aforementioned key players were on hand to participate in the success of their efforts to return a glorious big square rigger to the citizens of New York.

"Wavertree Arrives in South Street" from A Dream of Tall Ships: How New Yorkers Came Together to Save the City's Sailing-Ship Waterfront

by Peter and Norma Stanford, Chapter 30, "Beautiful Necessities of Life, August 1970"

T

here was a raucous hooting of sirens, foghorns and whistles as the Wavertree made her formal entrance to New York H arbor from her temporary berth in Staten Island. There was a clattering of helicopter blades overhead, accompanied by a brilliant plume of harbor water from an escorting New York City fireboat. The Schaefers' elegant black schooner yacht, America, followed at a respectful distance,

accompanied by the Chinese junk Mon Lei. Ahead, a McAllister tug pulled our towline, while another McAllister tug snuggled up to our port side to make sure the old ship kept a steady course as she made her stately way over the six-mile distance to the Seaport Museum .

Among the crowd on the poop deck were the two veterans of the Cape Horn trade in square rig: Archie Horka and Fred Wavertree arrives in New York Harbo r, August 197 0.

SEA HISTORY 152,AUTUMN2015

H arvey, who had sailed before the mast in the big full-rigger Fulwood in 1906. An exact sister ship to Wavertree, Fulwood had gone missing with all hands in 1919 on a passage from Buenos Aires to Denmark.

The seaman-artist Os Brett was aboard with his wife, Gertrude, solemnly congratulating everyone on the great ship's arrival, as was the more taciturn Bob Herbert, with his indomitable wife, Karen.

Jakob Isbrandtsen was aboard, walking his ship's decks at last. He explained how she would be rerigged to trustees who looked as if they'd never expected to see this day-for which I could hardly blame them-and to the shipping people who' d joined us, who listened with fascination to Jakob 's accounts of sailing in square rig. He'd put in time in square rig as a boy, sailing a small brig in Long Island 's Great South Bay, and as a youth sailing as crew in the great square-rigged yacht Aloha. And I was particularly glad that Captain DeValle was aboard, resolved not to miss the installation of his beloved "Wovertree" in her new domain. I saw Captain Bill Lacey interviewing him closely about the work that had been done on the ship in Buenos Aires, while Captain

29

Ken Reynard of the Star of India, who'd flown in from San Diego to join us, listened attentively.

When I told Ken that we were honored to have him aboard as the Wavertree returned to the harbor she had left 75 years earlier, I added that I only wished Karl Kortum could have been with us. Karl had told me he just couldn't make it, he'd been held up by other matters in San Francisco.

Ken then surprised me by saying that Karl should spend more time taking care of the ships in his keeping in San Francisco. I thought this over for a moment, and then contented myself with saying that if he had done that, we would none of us be here, and the Wavertree would have moldered her life away in the Riachuelo . This Ken acknowledged with a smile. The tension between the two men was the classic one between pioneers and settlersthe one always pushing ahead; the other laboring to make things work where he stood.

Passing ships and tugs dipped their ensigns and blew salutes on their whistles, to which our volunteer National Maritime Union signalman, Rick Miller, responded with repeated dipping of the American flag flying at the monkey gaff on which, nearly a year before, we'd first hoisted the Stars and Stripes with Ambassador Lodge presiding.

There was an electric consciousness of history in the air for every soul aboard, a

consciousness that this ship, which had sailed out unnoticed 75 years earlier in a far different world, was now back and this time being hailed by her successors in the maritime trades of New York. Everyone seemed to understand that she was a last survivor of the tall ships, which had built a city from the sea. "Welcome Wavertree!" the Seamen's Bank for Savings ad had proclaimed in that morning's newspapers, and having Archie Horka and Fred Harvey aboard gave a special fillip to the occasion for all of us.

Still, most New Yorkers might not note this arrival, so it was up to us to carry her message to the busy city.

A good beginning was made as the big ship nosed slowly into her berth on the south side of Pier 16 amid swirling water stirred up by the pushing and pulling of our two tugs . Norma and I leaned over the poop rail to watch as the first line whistled ashore, expertly hurled by Jakob Isbrandtsen from the forecastle head. We then saw the mayor's wife, Mary Lindsay, step forward to catch it. The monkey's fist, weighted with a lead pellet, brought the light messenger line snaking after it.

This would be used to haul in the heavy hawser that would hold the vessel in her berth. The drill was to pick up the line after the monkey's fist had landed-not to catch the weighted fist like a baseball.

But no one had told Mary this , and catch it she did.

"Wow, you guys must have mitts of steel!" she said as she came aboard once the gangplank was rigged. The word was passed to everyone to be very gentle if she offered to shake hands-and everyone was. Coffee and champagne were broken out for all hands, but few stayed long aboard. We'd made the passage; it was time to leave the ship and go about our business. So we streamed away to our varied occasions. Each of us, I imagine, took a last look at the great bow arched against the rising towers of the city of today. Henceforth, it would be our job to carry her message to the people immured in those towers, to bring them an awareness of the great sailing ships, which had built their city.

Alan Villiers stopped by in October to visit the ship he had done so much to help.

He was not discouraged by the lack of response to his week's intense campaigning for the Wavertree a year and a half earlier.

On the contrary, he was full of congratulations for the feat, as he called it, of bringing her to New York. On Tuesday evening, 6 October, he gave a talk on Pier 16. This was a dramatic recalling of his experiences in the Cape Horn trade, with the Wavertree's shapely stern looming over the screen on which he showed his photos of ships of her breed doing battle with the great seas that sweep around the world in the latitude of Cape Horn. This was a scene to remember-a seaman's seaman honoring his ship by telling the stories of her kind at sea, in words and images that made us feel the rushing winds and the crash of hurtling seas and giving us some sense of life as people lived it in the sailing of the great hull resting quietly at our pier.

A few days later Alan presided, in his usual bluff story-telling mode, at the opening of the Seaport bookstore. This important new resource, formerly a hash joint for fish market truckers and workers, stood at the entrance to the Seaport area at Fulton and Water Streets. Its interior had been entirely renewed by Eugenia Dean, who specialized in creating spaces that looked and felt as if they'd been there for (left) Wavemee has been a fixture along the waterfront in Lower Manhattan since she was acquired by South Street Seaport Museum and brought to New York from South America in 1970.

30

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

generations. The broken tile floor was replaced with varnished wooden flooring; built-in bookshelves occupied most of the walls, with the remaining wall spaces covered in real burlap, which added a suitable tarry scent to the atmosphere; and two brass lamps hung from the stamped tin ceiling, now painted a cool sky blue. The sales area was confined to a modest wood counter supporting a gleaming antique brass cash register. This left room for two red leather banker's chairs for customers, so they could comfortably leaf through a book.

This found great favor in Alan's eyes, and he told our little group crowded in the store: "This may even wake up the burghers of Wall Street as to what happened out there on the ocean to make them all rich.

A neighborhood without a bookshop is like a man without memory." No one gainsaid him on this.

After the reception Alan, Norma and I walked down to the ship and went aboa rd in the gathering autumnal dusk. We walked the barren decks where men had hauled away at the maze of rigging that drives a square-rigged ship, often, as we knew from Spiers's acco unt, singi ng the

A Dream of

Tall Ships '

chanteys "H aul Away Joe" and "Paddy Doyle" while at work, and "Storm along," "Rolling Home" and other sea songs when they gathered on the jo 'c'slehead in flying fish weather, running down the Trades. We walked by the after cabins to the main saloon, where Spiers tells us the skipper's uncle had done a tipsy sword dance to entertain visiting officers from the neighboring ships anchored in the dismal nitrate port of South Street Seaport Museum executive director Tocopilla in 1907. Then we Jo nathan Boulware aloft in Wavertree' s rig. went up the curved stairway leading to the quarterdeck overhead. On "It is harder to save these ships," he said, the quarterdeck, Alan went aft to the wheel "than it was to drive them round Cape and, standing by it, gazed forward toward Horn." ~ the ship's rising bow and beyond that to the towering city, with lights staring back A Dream of Tall Ships: How New Yorkers at us from its glassy walls. How different Came Together to Save the City's Sailing-Ship this scene was from the cresting seas she'd Wa terfront by Peter and Norma Stanford faced off the Horn, I thought to myself- is available through the NMHS Ship's Store at www.seahistory.org. For more on Wabut a challenging one in its own way.

Alan must have had something of the vertree and South Street Seaport Museum, same picture in his mind. visit www.southsrreetseaportmuseum.org.

A Dream of Tall Ships How New Yorkers came together to save the city's sailing-ship waterfront

by Peter and Norma Stanford with an Introduction

by John Stobart, RA This lively account of a great urban adventure begins in the 1960s with two New Yorkers who were committed to creating a maritime museum in Manhattan's old sailing ship waterfront-the South Street Seaport Museum.

They moved to save the old buildings as an historic district, and breathe new life into New York's old Street of Ships. The idea of recreating the old sailing-ship waterfront inspired young and old, rich and poor, Wall Streeters and blue-collar workers, seamen, firemen, policemen and teachers to work together to found a museum showcasing the ships that built the port, which built the city, which built the nation.

Hardcover, 596 pages, 20 pages of photos and illustrations $34.95 NOW $25.00 + $6.95 s/h in US; call for international rates

To order, visit the NMHS Ship's Store at www.seahistory.org, or call 914 737-7878, ext. 0.

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

31

Attack on Cape Florida Light, 1836

by C. Douglas Kroll, PhD ighthouse keepers typically lived quiet lives, punctuated by infrequent incidents of high drama.

Because lighthouses were often built in or near treacherous waters, keepers were ideally situated to come to the aid of mariners in distress. In the history of the Lighthouse Service, a number of them gained fame for their dramatic rescues during storms that racked up many a ship in shoal waters. Nevertheless, the day-today routine was one of monotonous, tedious work, while contending with loneliness and isolation. Fog and adverse weather exacerbated their ordeal, and the sea was often a relentless opponent. Dozens oflighthouses in the United States have been crushed and washed away by storms or ice, and on one rare occasion, some keepers had to contend with an armed attack.

The attack came in the middle of the Second Seminole War, when Florida's Seminole Indians rejected the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Act was put in place

by President Andrew Jackson to force Native Americans to leave the territorial United States and relocate to unsettled lands west of the Mississippi River. Jackson was determined and sent General Wiley Thompson to Florida with strict orders to use force if the Seminoles refused to concede. On 28 December 1835, not far from Wahoo Swamp (near present-day Ocala), a Seminole war party led by Chief Osceola captured, killed, and scalped General Thompson together with five of his friends .

That attack marked the beginning of the Second Seminole War, in which they made raids on settlers in southern Florida, including a January 1836 attack on the Cooley

L

family at their plantation on the New River, in what is now Fort Lauderdale. Family patriarch William Cooley survived the attack, bur news of the massacre of his family and others spread, causing many who lived in the region to leave the area and relocate to a safer location. Captain John Dubose, the keeper of the Cape Florida Light on Key Biscayne, followed suit and moved his family to Key West for refuge.

A work party from Key West under the command of US Navy LT George M. Bache was sent to fortify the light tower; ground-floor windows were boarded up and the door was reinforced. In July, Captain Dubose left to visit his family on Key West, leaving his assistant keeper, John W. B. Thompson, and another assistant, a free black named Aaron Carter, to keep Cape Florida Light burning brightly every night.

Since its establishment in 1825, the light had flashed its warning beacon to ships sailing past the dangerous Florida Reef to make Cape Florida Channel and safe anchorage in the lee of Key Biscayne.

Unfortunately for Thompson and Carter, the Seminoles considered the 65foot stone light tower a highly visible symbol of the hated white intrusion on their territory. Thompson anticipated the tower would be a target, and every night he kept watch until dawn with three loaded guns at his side and listened closely for the slightest suspicious sound outside.

The morning of23 July 1836 dawned bright and clear. Thompson had cooked and eaten his own breakfast and left food for his assistant, who slept upstairs in the two-story cottage. He walked across to the light-tower, climbed to the gallery, cleaned

the lantern and its reflectors, made it ready for lighting again that night, and went back to his cottage. His overnight fears dissipated as the sun climbed high and the day grew warm.

That afternoon around 4 o'clock, Thompson was in the kitchen preparing a meal when he happened to glance out the window and see a group of some forty Indians, barely sixty feet away, crawling on their stomachs toward the cottage. Heimmediately ran to the keeper's dwelling and called for his assistant, Aaron Carter. He handed Carter a couple of shotguns and packages of buckshot and told him to make a run for the light-tower, while he kept him covered. The Seminoles chased them, firing their rifles as they did. Thompson and Carter made it to the door of the tower and locked it. They felt safe within the tower, at least for a while. The walls of the elevenyear-old light tower were solid brick, five feet thick at the base and tapering to two feet thick at the top. The men had a reasonable store of food and some drinking water.

On each floor of the tower, there were small but convenient windows that defied entrance bur made fairly useful firing slits.

Every so often, Thompson fired his shotgun in the general direction of his cottage, but there was no sight or sound of the Seminoles . Thompson and Carter probably assumed they were in the cottage, looting their gear and eating their food and fortifying themselves for a later attack.

Shortly after midnight they heard the crackling of a fire outside the tower door and saw smoke beginning to filter through its cracks. The Seminoles were setting the door afire. Once it burst into flames, the (left) This drawing in Andrew T Welch's 1841 book, A Narrative of the Early Days and Remembrances of Oceola Nikkanoche, depicts Osceola knifing the Treaty of Payne. More folklore than fact, it symbolizes the Seminoles' refusal to accept the terms of the Indian Removal Act, which would have them give up their lands in Florida and relocate to "Indian Territory" west of the Mississippi River. General Wiley Thompson had Osceola seized and jailed for refusing to sign the treaty. Osceola's subsequent attack on Thompson and his party marked the beginning ofthe Second Seminole ~r.

32

SEA HISTORY 152,AUTUMN 2015

fire would soon reach the large tanks of oil used to fuel the light. With no means of escape, Thompson and Carter climbed the wooden staircase to the upper floors.

Finally, the door disintegrated in the flames and a wild burst of gunfire punctured the oil-storage tanks. The cower filled with the flames of the now-ignited lamp oil and rolling clouds of stifling smoke.

Carter and Thompson could not see their attackers; nor could the Seminoles see the two of them. Thompson handed Carter a loaded shotgun and ordered him to fire at point-blank range the moment any Seminole broke through. With the other two guns, Thompson climbed to the lantern room. He then went half-way down the wooden stairs, told Carter to go to the lantern room, and took a saw and started cutting through the staircase until it crashed

into the inferno below. When he returned to the top, he dropped a barrel of gunpowder into the flames, causing a huge explosion that killed a number of the Seminoles.

Thompson and Carter thought that, with the stairway no longer in existence, the Seminoles could never reach them. But the flames, of course, did. They burned through the trapdoor and reached the inside of the lantern room, causing the light to burst and shards to fly in every direction.

Their clothing caught fire and had to be stripped off. The two men crawled to the two-foot iron rim and railing on the outer edge of the platform to escape the fire. The Seminoles below continued to fire at their targets, now sharply silhouetted by the flames. One of the shots penetrated Thompson's foot; another shattered the ankle of his other leg. Carter was shot in the head

(left) 1his 1923 photo ofthe rebuilt Cape Florida Light shows the ruins ofthe keeper's cottage to the left. 1he original lighthouse that came under attack in 1836 was rebuilt in 1846 using bricks from the original tower. A restoration ofthe tower in 1855 raised it from 65 to 95 feet and the light was replaced with a second-order Fresnel lens. (below) 1his 1827 map ofFlorida shows the dangerous reefs and shoals in the GulfofFlorida and the Grand Bahama Bank. 1he Cape Florida Light at Key Biscayne was built in 1825. f" ":"'_

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33

and killed. Thompson, wounded badly in both feet, laid down on the gallery outer platform and waited for death. From this position, he could see members of the Seminole war party, believing that he and Carter were dead, raking the contents away from the burned-out keeper's cottage. They rook the loot down to the beach, loaded it into his boat, and sailed away.

Despite the departure of his attackers, Thompson was losing hope of surviving.

He had no way to get down from the platform since rhe stairway had burned away.

Besides having three rifle balls in each of his feet, he was naked and had nothing to drink or ear. In addition, a hot sun was beating down on him, a dead man lay beside him, and there was no one to call out to and no one he might expect ro show up.

He lay there for some six hours unable to move and could hardly believe his eyes when, early in the afternoon, he sighted a ship with his own boar in row.

The US transport schooner Motto, under the command of Captain Armstrong, with a derail of Marines commanded by Lieutenant Lloyd of the warship Concord, came ashore ro investigate the explosion that occurred when Thompson had thrown rhe powder keg down the light-rower shaft and the Barnes they had seen during the night. On their way to the lighthouse, they came upon the lighrkeeper's boat, adrift and stripped of her sails and rigging.

Navy sailors and Marines looked around the torched cottage and light rower and were on the verge of leaving when

Thompson regained consciousness. Desperate to attract attention ro himself, Thompson had torn away what was left of Carter's clothing and tied the blood-soaked, burned rags to a stanchion and then collapsed, unconscious.

His attempt to attract their attention was successful, but the sailors and Marines could not devise a way of reaching him to bring him down. They tried various means throughout rhe remainder of the day and into the night, while Thompson, burned, bleeding, and perched precariously on the lighthouse rower's outer platform, fell into a state of despair. Using pieces of sailcloth and light spars, they built a rough kite, hoping to use it ro get a line to the gallery.

It didn't work. As the night hours passed, the men below continued to yell encouragement up to Thompson.

The next morning a Marine came up with the idea of firing a ramrod from his musket with a tail of twine. He fired it and the line dropped across the light gallery.

Thompson summoned the strength to grab it and tie it to one of the gallery stanchions and then pulled up a tail block and a heavier line before collapsing from sheer exhaustion. With the tackle in place, those on the ground were able to hoist several Marines up to the gallery. The Marines bandaged Thompson's badly wounded foot and ankle, then lifted his scorched body and lowered it gently to those waiting below. They also lowered Aaron Carter's body to the men on the ground so he could be buried.

Thompson was carried to the Motto, and

The rebuilt Cape Florida Light and keeper's residence after the fire.

34

taken to the military hospital on Key West.

He later was transferred to Charleston, South Carolina, to recover from his wounds. John Thompson andAaron Carter are surely among the heroes of the US Lighthouse Service, which was later absorbed into the United Stares Coast Guard.

Some months later the brig Alma, bound for Maine from Cuba, ran aground off Cape Florida, the first shipwreck there in twelve years. Her captain had looked for the Bash of Cape Florida Light and it, of course, wasn't there. Reconstruction of the light was authorized, bur not completed until 1846 because Seminole Indians were still a threat in the nearby Everglades.

Later that year, it went back into service and in 1855 the rower height was increased to 95 feet.

The lantern room was completely destroyed in 1861 by Confederate sympathizers during the American Civil War, and the light was nor restored and placed back in operation until 1867. It was replaced by an offshore light rower in 1878. Located seven miles southeast of Cape Florida, Fowey Rocks Light is a cast iron skeletal rower and platform atop a screw-pile foundation. It is still in service today.

One hundred years later, in 1978, the US Coast Guard restored Cape Florida Light to active service with an automated light. The lighthouse was decommissioned altogether in 1990 and is now maintained and operated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. .!,

C. Douglas Kroll, a US Coast Guard Academy graduate and a former Coast Guard officer, holds a master's degree in history from the University of San Diego and a PhD in history from the Claremont Graduate University. He is the author ofnumerous articles in Coast Guard and maritime journals and in maritime encyclopedias, as well as author of Commodore Ellsworth P. Berholf: First Commandant of the Coast Guard (Naval Institute Press), Friends in Peace and War: The Landmark Visit of the Russian Navy to Civil War San Francisco (Potomac Books) and A Coast Guardsman's History of the US Coast Guard (Naval Institute Press). An emeritus professor ofhistory at College ofthe Desert in Palm Desert, California, he now resides in Keizer, Oregon.

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

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35

Captains and Their Ladies

by Tim McGrath uly 7th was not an ideal day for a wedding in Philadelphia.

Three days earlier-4July1777-the weather had been i wondrous in the City of Brotherly Love. The first anniver, sary of American independence was celebrated with a parade of armed ships and row galleys, decorated with flags and streamers and firing a thirteen-gun salute. Afterwards, a lavish meal was spread for congressmen and military officials, while the citizenry feasted on barbecued foods and ices provided by street vendors. The revelries concluded at nightfall, as bells pealed from every church tower, houses were illuminated, and a grand display of fireworks enthralled everyone. 1 But on the seventh, wedding guests entered Christ Church under threatening skies. The church's spire had been struck by lightning in June; as the guests arrived, the roofers and carpenters stopped hammering and sawing long enough to allow for a peaceful ceremony. William White, not yet a bishop and well known for his patriotic sympathies, took his place at the altar beside the famous "Wi ne Glass Pulpit."

The bride-the beautiful Sarah Austin, just twenty-threewore a colorful dress and was escorted down the aisle by her older brother William. The bridegroom stood at the altar, resplendent in his Continental Navy uniform of blue and red. The charming Sarah had been one of the most pursued girls in Philadelphia . In minutes she would become Mrs. John Barry. 2 The lot of a sailor's lady has always been marked by excessive absences of her man with far too little time at home between voyages. John Barry's first wife died while he was at sea; in six years of marriage, they were together only six months. While husbands were away, wives kept the house, raised the children single-handedly, and managed household finances . Fail to do that, and a mariner often returned to find his family in debtors' prison.

Now, with the American rebellion against the British Empire, other hazards threatened such a marriage: the ramifications of battle and imprisonment.

Thanks to documents ranging from love letters to government documents, we can see for ourselves what the life of a naval officer and his wife or lover was like, with all the heartache, intrigue, and even humor that intertwined to make for a remarkable story.

Many naval officers were already married, like Hector McNeil!; some, like Esek Hopkins, were older husbands with sons serving under them. But many more were single. Being in their twenties and thirties, they often pursued relationships while ashore.

Here are just a few of their stories.

I

A Young Yankee and a Southern Belle Nicholas Biddle began his maritime career as a youngster in the Royal Navy (even embarking on an expedition towards the North Pole with Horatio Nelson for a shipmate) . When Congress created the Continental Navy, the twenty-five year old Philadelphian was made one of its first captains. Commanding the US Navy brig Andrew Doria throughout 1776, Biddle quickly made a reputation as a skilled warrior and sailor at sea, and a dashing ladies' man ashore. In letters to his sister Lydia, Biddle casually glanced over what dangers he had faced, devoting most of his pen to his dalliances with the girls he met at the soirees American

36

townsfolk frequently held when naval officers were on leave. In one missive, Biddle confided to Lydia of his dilemma regarding two Connecticut girls as to "which I love most," ending with: "There never was a more free sociable set of Creatures got together in any one place as this ." 3 Late in 1776, Congress gave Biddle command of the Continental frigate Randolph. On her maiden voyage that winter, the frigate lost her foremast and mainmast. Randolph limped into Charleston, South Carolina, for repairs . During his ship's layover, her captain was introduced to Richard Baker, an army officer and

Nicholas Biddle's first US Navy command was the brig Andrew Doria, depicted here, which hadjust been convertedftom a merchant vessel to a navy warship.

scion of an old southern family whose plantation, Archdale Hall, lay up the Ashley River. Like most of Charleston society, Baker's invalid father wanted to meet the Randolph's heroic captain, and Biddle happily obliged. 4 Archdale Hall was the epitome of the southern plantation, spacious and grand; live oaks shaded the gravel path that led from the dock to the mansion. There, among the fishponds and beautiful gardens, Nicholas was introduced to Richard's eighteen-yea rold sister, Elizabeth.

Biddle had enjoyed his reputation as God 's gift to women, but now he was genuinely smitten. He began escorting Elizabeth to dinners, balls, and Charleston's grand celebration of the Fourth in 1777. By year's end they were engaged.5 In March of 1778, Biddle was back in Charleston, about to take the Randolph on a cruise with a squadron made up of ships from the South Carolina state navy. Before departing, he had a lawyer draft a will. His successful cruises had made him fairly rich, and he left Elizabeth ÂŁ25,000, with the rest of his estate going to his mother. After one last visit to Archdale Hall, Biddle set sail, with plans to marry Elizabeth upon his return. 6 And Elizabeth did get married-but nor until nineteen years later, to a Charleston gentleman named Isaac Holmes. Weeks after Randolph had sailed, news reached Charleston about Elizabeth Baker's fiance 's tragic death dluring a battle with the British ship-of-the-line Yarmouth. 7 SEA HI~STORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

The Scotsman in Paris If there was ever a naval captain who had-or wanted to havea woman in every port, it was John Paul Jones . The bantam Scotsman was quite a ladies' m an, literally having at least one girl in every port. He freely gave away locks of his hair and wrote poems for the ladies, with his love for them interspersed with tales of his derri ng-do at sea. Jones was once enamored with the yo ung, African-born poetess Phyllis Wheatley of Boston, even writing a poem to her. 8 In command of the Continental sloop-of-war Ranger in 1778, Jones arrived in France and soon went in search of a Parisian mistress. In addition to companionship, American politicians and sailors alike deemed having a local mistress a great way to learn both French language and customs-and possibly further one's career. Benjamin Franklin immediately took Jones under his wing, promising the sea captain a taste of the French high life. Dining in fine hotels and halls with exquisite meals and expensive wine, Jones engaged in the conversation as bes t he could. Although he was hardly proficient in French, he could interpret the discussion-which often, directly or indirectly, revolved around the topic of sex-through the expressive gestures of his companions. Fellow Continental captain Thomas Thompson wrote him from !'Orient, hoping Jones would "Enjoy much Satisfaction in the pleasa ntries which Paris afourds." Doubtless Jones did.9 Jones took the latter rationalization a bit too far; his john Paul Jones (1747-1792). One first mistress was rumored to of the most famous navy captains in be Therese de C haumont, American history, he also had a reputa- whose husband had some tion as a ladies' man. influence at the court of Louis XVI and owned the Hotel Valentinois, the hotel where Jones lodged in Paris. If Madame C haumont was, indeed, Jones's first mistress, the affair proves that Jones was just as daring on land as he was at sea, for it was her husband, Jacques-Donatien Leray de C haumont, whom he implored to get a retired, lumbering French Indiaman placed under his command. De Chaumont did, and this was the ship he would rename as Bonhomme Richard.10 Jones also found himself in one affair where it was his stature that was sought after, not his lover's. Madame Charlotte-Marguerite de Bourbon was known for her beautiful singing voice, among her talents, and Jones a rdently pursued her. Her husband, the Count de Lowendahl, was an army general out of favor with the court, and she believed Jones might have enough influence to res tore her husband to active duty. When she learned Jones's celebrity was more surface than substance, she cut him off.

"Touched by the feelings yo u have for me," she wrote, she couldn't answer them "without deceiving a gentleman [she] live[d] with"especially if Jones couldn't give her what she needed. 11

SEA HISTORY 152,AUTUMN 2015

Jon es's most embarrassing connection to a lady was an encounter that never happened.

H e was at the port of !'Orient, refitting the Bon-

homme Richard, when a letter arrived from Franklin: a priest had reported to the ambassador and to Madame Chaumont with a lurid tale that Jones had "ravished" the wife of

The only known image ofMme. Chaumont is a terracotta cast.

a hotel gardener. Her sons planned to kill Jones when he returned.

Once Franklin investigated the sto ry his mood swung from worry to laughter, "the old Woman being one of the grossest, coarsest, dirtiest and ugliest we may find in a thousand." Madame C haumont said "It gave a high Idea" of Jones's "strength of Appetite and Courage." In love and war, Jones never learned to accept defeat, but to be laughed at was even worse.12

Captains Flirtatious Embarrassed as Jones might have been, this tall tale paled in comparison to that of Samuel Nicholson and Joseph H ynson, two American captains who found themselves in England when war broke our. N icholson was described as "Idle for Want of Employment," but he wasn't that idle, having taken a mistress, Elizabeth Carter. Believing him to be her husband, her neighbors called the American sea captain "Mr. Carter." During a visit to Paris, Franklin and his colleague, Silas Deane, ordered Nicholson to comb the French and British waterfronts for a "fast ship" for them to buy and give him to command: orders that allowed him to have an occasional trys t with Mrs. Nicholson-a.k.a., Mrs.

Carter. 13 Enter Joseph Hynson, a Maryland captain also looking for a ship. H ynson was a known presence in England, with one British spy calling him, "one of the most stupid but at the sa me time conceited fellows living." He, too, had taken up a mistress, Isabella Cleghorn, who resided in the same boardinghouse in London as Hynson, run by one Elizabeth Jump. When Nicholson informed Hynson of his orders to find a ship and asked Hynson for assistance on such a top-secret mission, Hynson proceeded to regale Ms. Cleghorn and Ms . Jump of his "mission," to let them know just how important he was. 14 Hynson's ego-fueled outburst backfired. Once he left the drawing room, the ladies made their way to Downing Street where they met with John Vardill, former assistant rector of New York's Trinity C hurch and now a spy for William Eden, head of British intelligence. Vardill returned to the boardinghouse and confronted Hynson with a choice: the noose for his traitorous acts against the Crown, or become a loyal subject again and turn informer.

37

Quicker than he ever changed course at sea, Hynson handed over Nicholson's orders. Once a ship, the Dolphin, was procured, Hynson and Vardill worked our an elaborate plan where the British would capture the ship, Nicholson, and Hynson-only ro let Hynson "escape" and carry our his new career as double-agent.

The Dolphin's voyage was delayed in port, however, and the plan failed.

Hynson traveled between rhe arms of Ms. Cleghorn in London, and the office of Franklin and Deane office in Paris. Both sides were onto his act; Deane fed him so many lies that even King George "doubted whether any trust could be reposed in Hynson," and Deane believed it "fortunate he knows nothing" with "pretensions to know everything." King and diplomat had his number, bur it was Hynson's mistress and landlady who had it first. 15

Anne and Her "Beloved Gusty" John Paul Jones and John Barry are better known today than Gustavus Conyngham, and that's a shame, for Conyngham captured or destroyed more ships than either of them combined.

Known as "the Dunkirk Pirate," his small cutters raided British shipping in European waters, sending fear up and down the British coastline. Of all the American "rebels," including Washington and Franklin, it was the Irish-born Conyngham that George III desired to see hanged-and he almost got his wish.

By 1779, Conyngham was back operating out of his homeport, Philadelphia, only to find his cutter Revenge pursued and captured

by HMS Galatea off New Jersey. His captain's commission having been seized in 1777 by neutral France, he was deemed a pirate by Commodore Sir George Collier and sent to England to hang, weighted down with 55 pounds of chains.

Certain rhar he was doomed, he wrote an emotional letter to his twenty-four-year-old wife, Anne. "I live in hopes to meet you in Paradise," he pledged. 16 Upon learning his plight, Anne went to see John Jay, president of the Continental Congress, Gustavus Conyngham carrying a letter begging for his intercession. Her husband's "zeal and successful exertions" deserved immediate action; she wrote: "the Delay of a single Hour may fix my Husband's fare for ever." Reaction to her "Beloved Gusty's" fare was swift and threatening. While Franklin wrote Parliament from Paris that he had signed Conyngham's commission and Congress demanded Conyngham's release from such confinement, it was General Washington's letter rhar did the trick. Hang Conyngham, he assured the British, and he would hang six redcoat officers. 17 Arriving in England, Conyngham learned he would not hang and was transferred to Mill Prison in Plymouth, where months later he led fifty prisoners in a "great escape" that lacked Steve McQueen's motorcycle, but was much more successful. Alas,

38

Conyngham's freedom was short lived; after a cruise with John Paul Jones, he was on a packet bound for Philadelphia when captured again by the British on Sr. Patrick's Day, 1780, and returned to Mill Prison. 18 When news ofConyngham's recapture reached Philadelphia, Anne was again beside herself with worry. Certain her husband would not survive a second incarceration, she decided to do the unthinkable: she would go ro France. Anne turned her children over to her family and climbed aboard a packet bound for !'Orient.

If life aboard ship was difficult for sailors, just imagine what Anne Conyngham went through: seasick, unable to cross the deck except on a sailor's arm, her nausea returning again and again while she tried to sleep on a pitching sea. Once in France, Anne informed Franklin that she intended to go to England and personally plead that her husband (now reportedly deathly ill) be released.

Franklin joined a chorus of American agents and officers in !'Orient, begging-and persuading-her to remain in l'Orient. 19 Anne was wise to stay in !'Orient. Ill as he was, Conyngham was determined to escape again. This time he did it by bribing a guard, and in rime made his way to Dunkirk. He was soon reunited with Anne and returned home safely. Like her husband, Anne Conyngham possessed a special courage we can only admire.20

"By Candlelight and With Out Spectacles" For all of the marriages and affairs of the Continental captains, no relationship was more enduring or loving than that of John and Sarah Barry (nee Sarah Keen Austin). Their marriage was only a few weeks old when the British captured Philadelphia in the fall of 1777 after General William Howe's victories at Brandywine and Germantown, and that of his brother, Richard, Lord Admiral Howe's, wresting the Delaware River from the Continental and Pennsylvania navies and the besieged soldiers at Forts Mercer and Miffiin. Ar the time, John Barry was upriver in command of the 32-gun Effingham, with orders to sink the frigate instead of sending her into the fray. Sarah was at the Austin summer home sixty miles inland in Reading, attending to her pregnant half-sister Christiana's needs and caring for her seven nephews and nieces. 21 Christiana died giving birth, just as word reached Reading about the fall of Philadelphia. In addition, with that message came the unwelcome news that Sarah 's Loyalist brother, William, had been declared a traitor. William Austin had been given orders by General Howe to keep Philadelphia from being plundered and burned by departing rebels, and he carried out his orders so well that the Pennsylvania Assembly charged him with treason and began seizing the Austin estate. With most of the property in Philadelphia, the politicians swung into action at Reading, where Sarah and her other brother Isaac staved off the bureaucrats by appealing to both their mercy and the fact that her husband was an already proven hero to the cause. 22 In December, Barry arrived in Reading, bringing further burdens. He had virulenrly opposed the sinking of his frigate, so Francis Hopkinson, his congressional superior, assumed command.

Congress narrowly averred Barry's ciensure and sent him back into combat, bur it rook Sarah years to r¡eclaim the Austin properties.

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

Over the next five years, she rarely saw her husband, once journeying to Boston to care for him after a serious wound. There's some conjecture that she suffered a miscarriage, which prompted a solicitous, loving letter from her husband. The couple never had children. After the war, Sarah accompanied her husband on a "peaceful" cruise from Newport to Williamsburg to pick up tobacco to carry to Holland. Sarah became so wretchedly seasick that Barry was forced to put her ashore in Virginia. 23 After a successful voyage to China, John Barry "swallowed the anchor" and he and Sarah began enjoying the life of a retired captain, buying an estate above Philadelphia they called Strawberry Hill. His retirement from sea wo uld be short-lived. In 1794, President George Washington made Barry first among captains in the new United States Navy, and he served during the QuasiWar with France. Sarah had bouts with timidity over horses and traveling, but while her husband was away she grew into a savvy head of the house, once squaring off with a shady manure salesman who had promised three wagon loads of manure for three wagon loads of hay. He got the hay-and a coolly worded letter from Sarah, assuring him that if the manure didn't arrive soon that he would Commodore john Barry

find his reputation stained with it. The wagons were at Strawberry Hill the next day.

Few letters between John and Sarah survive. His are mixed with dry accounts of battles, policies, and his patience tried by the whims of bureaucrats and Mother Nature, typically concluding with his inquiring as to her health and that he missed her.

Sarah's salutations to John are always "My Dear Life" and, while some of her letters are eighteenth-century versions of "you never write, you never call," they are more often loving accounts of what has been going on at home, solicitous of his travails, and imparting wisdom or encouragement when needed. One letter closes with the charming phrase that it was composed "by candlelight and With Out Spectacles." 24 May all romances, on land and sea, be so blessed. J,

Tim McGrath, a business executive, has written articles on management, US history, and healthcare issues for various newspapers and magazines. His first book, John Barry: an American Hero in the Age of Sail (Westholme Publishing), won the first Commodore John Barry Book Award established by the Navy League ofthe US-NY Council, the American Revolutionary Roundtable Book ofthe Year Award, and was a finalist for the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature. His latest book, Give Me a Fast Ship (HAL/Penguin) was awarded the New York Revolutionary Round Table Book of the Year for 2014, and won the Marion Brewington Award for Naval Literature, given by the Maryland Historical Society. Tim is currently working on a biography ofPresident James Monroe.

NOTES 1

Watson's Annals, Vol. 2, "Occurrences of the War oflndependence," 295.

Gregory Keen, "The Descendants of Joran Kyn," PMHB 4:486; HSP, Christ Church Marriage Records, 717177; with thanks to Dr. Susan Klepp regarding Sarah's wedding dress!

3 Historical Society of Pennsylvania ("HSP"), Biddle Family Papers, Nicholas Biddle to Lydia McFunn, 4/26/76.

4 Naval Documents of the American Revolution ("NDAR"), 8: 439-442, Marine Committee to Biddle, 4/26/77; HSP, Biddle Papers, Nicholas Biddle to James Biddle, 3/10/77.

5 Ibid., 9:821-822, John Dorsius to Continental Marine Commirree, 8/26/77; 9:919-920, Biddle to Robert Morris; 9112177; W illiam Bell Clark, Captain Dauntless, 187-191, 207.

6 Will of Nicholas Biddle, quoted in Clark, 224-225.

7 NDAR, 11 :543-544, Journal of the H.M. S. Yarmouth, Captain Nicholas Vincent, 3/7/78; Joseph LaRoche Rivers: Some South Carolina Families (Charleston, published by the author, 2005-2006), 3. 77.

8 Library of Co ngress, John Paul Jones Papers (JPJP), Lr. William Grinnell to Jones, 1117177; Jones to Captain Hector McNeill, est. Summer '77.

9 Ibid., Captain Thomas Thompson to Jones, 12/26/77.

10 Ibid., American Commissioners to Jones, l/15/78; Jones to de Chaumont, 12/11/78 . Historians differ on whether Jones's involvement with Mme. De Chaumont was platonic or sexual. Jones was forever att racted to younger women, and Madame was older, and her days as a young beauty were a bit. .. behind her.

11 Ibid., Countess de Lowendahl to Jones, 617180; Jones to Countess de Lowendahl, 717180.

12 Ibid., Franklin to Jones, 3/14/79.

13 American Philosophical Society (APS), Benjamin Franklin Papers, Wickes to Franklin, 1/14/77; NDAR Vol. 8, American Commissioners in France 2

SEA HISTORY 152,AUTUMN 20 15

to Samuel Nicholson, 1126/77; 14 Auckland Manuscripts, King's College, Cambridge, England, Samuel Nicho lson to Joseph Hynson, 2/2/77; NDAR, Vol. 8, 631, Plan to Capture Jose ph Hynson's Sloop, 313177.

15 NDAR, Vol. 8, 728-30, "Statement Co ncern ing the Employment of Lieut. Col. Edward Sm ith with Regard to Captain Hynson and a Sketch of the Information Obtained, 3/31177"; Vol. 10, 981, Silas Deane to Jonathan W illiams, 1118/77; Memorandum by King George III, 4/6/77, from William Bell Clark, Lambert Wickes, Sea Raider and Diplomat (New Haven, CT: MacMillan, 1932), 175.

16 Pennsylvania Magazine ofHistory and Biography (PM HB), "Narrative of Gustavus Conyngham," 486-87. James L. Neeser, Letters and Papers Related to the Cruises ofGustavus Conyngham: a Captain ofthe Continental Navy (New York: printed for the Naval Historical Society by the DeVinne Press, 1915), 162.

17 Pennsylvania Gazette, 814179; Neeser, 182-83; Letters of Delegates of Congress, John Jay to Christopher Hele, 2/16/79; Marine Committee to John Beatty, 8/27/79; APS, BFP, Franklin to David Hardey, 8/20/79; PA Archives, 5:401, Washington to Collier.

18 Neeser, 183-194.

19 Ibid ., 198-203.

20 Ibid., 41; APS, BFP, Thomas Digges to Frankli n, 4/14/and 8/18/80; Franklin to Conyngham, 6/20/81; Conyngham to Franklin, 6/2l/and 7/4/81.

21 PA Archives: Series II, 154.

22 Ibid, 154-55.

23 Ibid., John Brown to Barry, 6/26/81; Barry to Brown, 7/8/83; ] CC, 1129178; Pennsylvan ia Gazette, 6/27/81; 24 Haverford College, Charles Roberts Autograph Collection, Correspondence between John and Sarah Barry, 1794-1801.

39

Through the Eyes of a Waterman-The Art ofWilliam E. Cummings adapted from an interview by Kathi Ferguson

Last year, when Tilghman, Maryland, native William E. Cummings passed away, he left behind a trove of paintings that document the history of growing up in the 1930s on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and, in the decades that followed, his life as a commercial fisherman-specifically, as a Chesapeake Bay waterman. Bill Cummings captured scenes common to those who grew up and worked there; scenes which are all but gone today. A self-taught artist, his understanding of his subject couldn't be more authentic, as he spent most of his life as a waterman, oystering, seine-hauling, and working the pound nets. He rarely-perhaps never-worked from photographs, instead relying on memory to recreate the scenes of his childhood on Tilghman's Island and of the life working the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. In an interview with writer Kathi Ferguson before he suffered a stroke toward the end of his life, the waterman/artist reminisced about life on Tilghman's Island and how he successfully and simultaneously pursued two vocations: fishing and art.

T

imes were simpler then, when Bill Cummings was growing up on Tilghman's Island. The roads were bedded with oyster shells and dozens of working boats made the island their home. Smack in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay along Maryland 's eastern shore, the island was ideally suited for the then-thriving seafood industry. For those who stayed ashore, Tilghman Packing Company provided jobs vital to the community. Families like his depended on the bounty of the bay to make their living. "My father. .. was a waterman, as was his family before him . He wasn't an educated man-could hardly write his namebut he was so intelligent." Bill spent his teenage yea rs working on board Old Ben, his father's boat. "I learned how to oyster when I was about twelve years old. In the summer months, we'd go seine hauling. Now, that was hard work, but I loved it! Lots of my paintings tell stories of the seine haulers."

Seine Haulers I The Hand Tongers Growing up, young Bill once proclaimed to his parents that school was not for him-he wanted to work on the water.

"Okay then," his father told him, "Go pack up your lunch. We're going fishing," and off they went. It was a particularly cold one that day and temperatures seemed to drop by the hour. It was not long before Bill laid his oyster rakes down and announced that he was heading to the cabin to get warm. "No, you're not," his father replied emphatically. "If you're gonna work on the water, you're staying out here. There's no money to be made hiding below." The disillusioned yo ung fisherman quickly responded, "If you'll take me home, I'll go to school! " Lesson learned. Bill was the first C urrumings to graduate from high school.

His passion Jfor drawing began as a child. "In the evenings I'd sit with a little

40

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

notepad and draw whatever came to mind-just play with it-people in different positions, moving them around, sometimes trying to put a picture together. I always had a pencil in my hand." It was not until adulthood that he would use his artistic talents as a means to preserve a piece of history.

At eighteen, he enlisted in the US Navy but was discharged a year later because his help was needed at home. The tables had turned, and now Bill was caring for his disabled father, who had lost both of his legs to diabetes. The senior Cummings

(above) Young Bill and his friend are portrayed listening intently to an older, more experienced fisherman about what it takes to mend a hole in a net in The Pupils. (left) Watermen spinning yarns along the Liar's Bench.

would not be dissuaded by his physical limitations, and his yearning to get back on the water was as strong as ever. With a waterman's determination, son Bill found a way to make that happen. "I n the morning I would take Dad out of the house in his wheelchair, hoist him up into the front seat of the truck, put the wheelchair in the back of the truck, unload the chair, get him back into it, wheel him down to the boat and then hoist him, wheelchair and all, on board!"

Bill would haul in the oysters and his father would cull them.

Despite his parents' attempts to discourage him from becoming a commercial fisherman, it was to no avail. He was destined for a life on the water. On board his "baby," the 42-foot Zaca (named for Errol Flynn's schooner in the 1952 film, Cruise of the Zaca-Flynn was his wife's favorite actor),

Zaca at the Pound Nets SEA HISTORY 152,AUTUMN 2015

41

the 25-year-old Cummings set his sights on the day's catch to make a living.

Throughour his years as a waterman, he began to recognize that times were changing fast. This realization drove him to learn everything he possibly could abour art so that he could use it to record his own history. It was on a visit to the Smithsonian when he became inspired to pursue the study of art with more deliberation. He recalled becoming fixated on a large painting

by Rembrandt: "It rook my breath away-it really did," he said, shaking his head in disbelief. "I was amazed at its beauty and what it must have taken to create such a thing. How in the world did he do this?"

Cummings went home and imIi~ ~~"r' 1 mersed himself in books about anatomy, The Oyster Harvesters the Old Masters, color, values, design, and composition-anything pertaining to art. "In my spare time, I'd practice things like mixing colors, or learning how a piece of clothing should fall on a figure. Books were my lifeline to the art world. I read them cover-to-cover and tried to copy the techniques of Masters." He was a particular fan of the Impressionists.

It was not until Bill was in his forties that he began to paint in earnest. He continued to fish, but when doctor's orders forced him to take a hiatus from the boat, he got a job as a bridge tender on Tilghman Bridge. Daughter Tootie recalled, "Dad's first paintings were done from that bridge house.

Most of them were watercolors, but his first one on canvas was in black and white. He got inspired from looking out the window at the scenery. I think that really put him on a path to taking this thing very seriously."

Acrylics became Bill's medium of choice, although he continued to work in watercolor and dabbled a bit in pastel.

"I started out working with oils but the smell of turpentine made my wife feel sick, so I switched to acrylics," he explained.

"But I managed to make them look like oil paintings by learning how to mix a varnish and applied it as a finish."

Working out of his modest home studio any chance he got, Cummings began to paint his memories. He started each piece with multiple black-and-white drawings, followed by a preliminary watercolor sketch, before tackling what would be the final painting. The chapters of his life began to emerge as he painted a variety of subjects ranging from harvesting oysters on his beloved Zaca, to seine-hauling and pound-netting, or watermen spinning yarns after a long day on the water.

Life on the water brought both chaos and calm-at times even tedium-to the commercial fisherman, and Cummings was able to portray these characteristics in his art. He captured the essence of a scene with a srromg composition and careful rendering. "It's important to me that there is action in my paintings and one of the best way~ to achieve that is with the Workboats on the Narrows

42

SEA HIST<ORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

brush strokes I put down," Bill explains.

Perhaps one of the best examples of this is fo und in th e work entitled O ut of Nowhere. The paint is boldly applied in diffe rent d irection s th ro u gh o ut the piece-even exaggerated- using short and long strokes of color that envelop the tro ubled skipjack as it weathers a turbulent storm.

Common them es can b e seen th ro ughout C ummings's art as depicted in pieces such as lhe Oyster H arvesters, lhe Seine H aulers!, II and III, and

Knapp's Narrows on an overcast day.

W illiam E. C ummings painted more than just pretty pictures. H e painted the heart and soul ofT ilghman's Island and the C h esapeake region . There is integrity in his work, just like the man-steadfas t, proud, and principled.

"M y paintings are my history, and this is how I hope to preserve it." -t

Out of Nowhere William E. Cummings passed away in September of 2 014. H is paintings are owned and cherished by many fellow watermen as well as private collectors. An active supp orter of the Tilghman Watermen's Museum, Cummings contributed the rights to produce and distribute p rints of his works to that organization. More than twenty of his works are currently available as limited-edition prints.

Tilghman Watermen 's Museum celebrates the culture and heritage ofthe island's watermen and their families.

Visit www.tilghmanmuseum.org.

Kathi Ferguson is a freelance writer with a diverse and creative professional background. Some of her favorite subjects are the people ofMaryland's Eastern Shore.

Setting the Pound Net

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

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Professio11al Ocea11 lacer If you think that where you grow up has to play a big role in what you end up doing, you'd have a very hard time convincing Sara Hastreiter of that.

Sara grew up in Caspar, Wyoming, surrounded by farm animals and arid land and dreamed of one day competing on the rodeo circuit. She'd never seen the ocean. The closest one-the Pacific-was more than 1,000 miles away.

So how did she get to be one of America's top ocean racers? Well, that's where her roots in the American West do play a role. Sara grew up not only loving the outdoors, but understanding that thriving in that world can require a lot of hard work and determination. If you know your way around bucking broncos and bull riding, then riding a 65-foot ocean racer might seem like a piece of cake. Except on a bronco, nobody is spraying you with ice-cold seawater, and bull riders only have to hang on for eight seconds.

They also don't take you anywhere.

Compare to that the 'round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race that Sara Hastreiter competed in this past year-a 38,739-nautical-mile race (nearly 45,000 land miles) that rook nine months to complete!

How did she do it? Right after college, Sara went to the Caribbean to work as an intern on a public health project. She instantly fell in love with the sea. Every chance she got, she would head out onto the water, and it wasn't long before her sense of adventure, her competitive nature, and her new love of the sea got her involved in sailing races.

Sailing-especially offshore racingrequires physical strength and intelligence.

Sara has both. But what you have to be able to show, more than anything else, is endurance. Physical endurance to not only survive, but excel, through years of training Sara is on the far left at the grinder, working with her teammates to trim sails. and months of racing in oftentimes difficult conditions. Psychological endurance is just as important when you have to keep working-no matter how tired you are-at the limits of your strength for those long races across the world's oceans.

"I did that through work ethic, enthusiasm for the sport, a positive personality, and really focusing and moving forward toward a goal of ocean racing. You just have to keep trying, keep moving forward, keep working hard, and the pieces will fall together."

Sara was so determined to succeed and got so good at it, that, when she finished her internship, she dedicated herself to becoming a professional ocean racer. "From the first time I heard about offshore racing, I knew it was something I wanted to do." She raced a lot, trained a lot, and got jobs delivering boats, all while working towards her goal. When it was announced that there would be an all-woman boat-Team SCA-competing in the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race, she was determined to make the team, taking on an application and try-out process that lasted two years.

SEAHISTORY 152, AUTUMN2015

Once Sara made Team SCA, she trained for more than a year with the team ashore before the race even began. They spent a lot of time working out in the gym, learning how to fix things that might break while offshore on the boat, practicing sailing maneuvers, and getting to know each other and the boat that would take them across the world.

At sea, she and her teammates worked on deck in four-hour watches and did whatever it took to "make the boat go fast."

On the open ocean, the crew has to be able to fix anything that breaks. Sara and teammate Abby Ehler fix the starboard primary winch at night.

"I have to help trim the sails, help with any sail changes that need to happen, and when it gets rough out, we do something called 'stacking,' where we have to shift hundreds of pounds of supplies from one side of the boat to the other to maintain ideal balance.

We sleep in four-hour watches. I eat before I go on deck; when I'm done with watch, I snack some more. We snack a lot during watch, too. I can burn up to 7,000 calories a day doing my job. During our four hours off, we rest when we can, eat, and fix things when they break. Sometimes we don't get very much sleep!"

-Sara Hastreiter, Team SCA

Sara had to overcome a lot of obstacles to make it in the competitive world of offshore sail racing. But overcoming obstacles? For her, that's all in a day's work-whether what she is riding is a 1,700-pound horse or a 27,000-pound ocean racing boat. ;t

Animals in Sea History

by Richard King ore than 500 years ago, Christopher Columbus was trying to get his crew and small fleet back to Spain as he completed his fourth and final trip to the West Indies. Yet he was unable to start sailing his ships home across the Atlantic because his small fleet was sinking. They tried to limp along, but his remaining two caravels were "riddled with holes as a honeycomb." Christopher Columbus wrote about trying to sail to Jamaica: "With three pumps, pots and cauldrons and all hands at work, I still could not keep down the water that entered the ship, and there was nothing we could do to meet the damage done by the shipworm." With the decks nearly awash , his two ships La Capitano and Santiago de Palos barely floated into what is now called St. Ann's Bay. The wood in Columbus's ship was not filled with worms exactly, but, instead, with a type of clam with a

46

thin soft body. Many of these bivalve clams live all around the world . One of the most common in the North Atlantic that infest wooden ships, pilings, docks, and dikes has the scientific name Teredo nova/is. This comes from the Greek for "wood worm " and from the Latin for "of ships." The shipworm species that ate up Columbus's fleet was almost certainly a different, more tropical species-very similar, but even bigger!

As a tiny larva floating in the ocean , the shipworm lands on a hull or piling and immediately begins to bore into the surface of the wood with two rasp-like shells.

The clam gets all the nutrients it needs from the wood and expels its waste with a little tail-like siphon . With a shell plate, it can close the "back door" if disturbed or if environmental conditions are poor. Shipworms are able to live for weeks without air or water. The clams

poisonous t<D shipworms and other organisms thlat bore or damage ship bottoms. His;torians explain that the copper sheathing used on English SEA HISTOR Y 152, AUTUMN 20 15

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ships made the difference in a major battle in 1780 against the Spanish navy, whose vessels were weakened and already sinking from shipworm holes. Shipbuilders of la rge wooden vessels also took to fastening a "worm shoe," a layer of sacrificial wood beneath the keel. Today, if wooden pilings and docks are not regularly covered with deterrent chemicals, shipworms remain a problem .

This is often an unexpected drawback when people are working to improve the water quality in harbors and waterways.

Back in 1503, with his ships irreparable from shipworm damage and some of his skilled sai lors dead from earlier skirmishes with native peoples, Columbus and his 100-plus men remained shipwrecked on the coast of

(above) A ship worm extracted from the wood of a mangrove at the mouth of the Amazon in Brazil. (left) Damage to wood by the teredo worm was often extensive enough to sink a ship.

' Jamaica for more than a year. They survived their own mutiny, lack of food, and conflicts with Taina native peoples. Finally, in June of 1504, two Spanish ships from Hispaniola arrived on the coast to rescue them . Columbus navigated the vessels back home to Spain, this time to stay for good and spend his time retired from the sea, spinning yarns about the aggressive Caribbean worms (although he believed them to be Asian worms, since he thought he was in Chinese waters.)

In the next issue: Fish that sunk ships? For past "Animals in Sea History," go to www.seahistory.org. ;\; SEA HISTORY 152,AUTUMN 201 5

47

.SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS In September, the 1902 passenger steamship SS Columbia will depart lronhead Shipyard in Toledo, Ohio, and begin a 235-mile-journey across Lake Ontario to a temporary berth in Buffalo, New York. The steamship will undergo more repairs in Buffalo before next summer, when she wi ll be towed out the St. Lawrence Seaway and down the coast to New York. The ship is too large to transit the Erie Canal, so she will travel via the Welland Canal, up the St. Lawrence, and down the eas tern seaboard, then up the Hudson River to Kingston, New York. To make the long journey to New York possible, the hull had to be stabilized and more than 900 rivets repaired. SS Columbia Project has, in the meantime, launched an oral history project to collect firsthand stories from former passengers and crewmembers. While Columbia was out of the water in shipyard, the D etroit Free Press took detailed scans of the vessel inside and out to create 3D virtual tours, which are now posted online.

To view the 3D tours or find out more about the project or how to donate, visit

SS Columbia

www.sscolumbia.org. (SS Columbia Project, 232 E. 11th St., New York, NY 10003; Ph. 2 12 283-3128) ... The Maritime Museum of San Diego launched its recreation of the 16th-century Spanish ship San Salvador on 22 July after a series of delays, from miscalculation of the vessel's weight-causing an obvious problem for cranes not built to handle the load-to inclement weather. A mostly volunteer crew spent the last 4 1/z years building the ship in Spanish Landing Park in San Diego. In July, the ship was transferred to a self-propelled trailer (donated for the project by Marine Group

Boat Works), then placed onto a barge for transit to Marine Gro up's ship yard in Chula Vista, where she was lau nched via a 300-ton travel lift. San Salvador will make her official d ebut on Labor Day weekend at the Port of San Diego's 20 15 Festival of Sail, hosted by the museum.

San Salvador is a full-sized , fully operational vessel representing Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo's fl agship, which sailed up the California coas t in 1542. Cabrillo's arrival on the coas t was the first contact between Europeans and the native Kumeyaay people. The addition of San Salvador to the museum's fleet of historic and replica ships fills a gap in the time periods San Salvador

these ships represent. The museum h as sailing ships, steamboats, WWII submarines, a US Navy Swift boat, and other watercraft. San Salvador will be used by the museum as a floating classroom and will sail along the West Coast conducting educational programs for student groups and the general public. (MMSD, 1492 North H arbor Drive, Sa n Diego, CA 92101; Ph. 619 234-9153; www.sdmaritime.org) ... Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen has successfully recovered the bell from the sunken remains of HMS Hood. The British batdecruiser sank during an engagement with the German battleship Bismarck in the D enmark Stratits in 1941. She sank with shocking loss oflife-1,415of1 ,4 18 men died when she exploded and sa nk .

48

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

Allen and his team aboard his expedition ship Octopus, with the use of an ROV (remotely operated vehicle), found and photographed the bell in 2001 but did not attempt to recover it until 2012. Bad weather and technical glitches precluded that attempt. Ordinarily, salvage of the ship would be prevented under international law (Military Remains Act of 1986),

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Recovery ofHMS Hood's bell, August 2015. but Allen got special permission to recover the bell as a memorial to those who lost their lives. Once it has been conserved, the bell will be presented to the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) in Portsmouth, where it will serve as the centerpiece of a new exhibit on the modernera navy. The bell was recovered on 7 August; Allen's team was assisted in the effort by Blue Water Recoveries. (Photos and details about the expedition are online at www.paulallen.com. NMRN, www. nmrn-portsmourh.org.uk; HMS Hood Association, www.hmshood.com) ... The much-anticipated 200-foot steel fullrigged ship Oliver Hazard Perry had its first shakedown cruise this summer.

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Portland, Maine, where she participated in the Portland Tall Ships Festival. The ship is now back in Rhode Island being prepared for her US Coast Guard SSV (Sailing School Vessel) certification. It has been a long process, beginning seven years ago when the Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island (OHPRI) organization (formerly Tall Ships Rhode Island) purchased the unfinished steel hull from a defunct project in Canada and towed it to Newport, RI. Since that time, the ship has been finished and rigged, and the management team has developed and run several seagoing educational programs on other vessels, Tired of nautical reproductions?

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Soon-to-be-SSV Oliver Hazard Perry while theirs was being completed. She is the first ocean-going full-rigged ship built in the United States in more than a century. The Oliver Hazard Perry is not intended to be a replica of any vessel from history. She is a modern sailing ship, purpose-built for training and education.

Her captain is Richard Bailey, formerly of Ocean Classroom Foundation and of "HMS " Rose (now known as "HMS " Surprise in San Diego). This fall , the ship will travel south to spend the winter months in a warmer climate to conduct programs.

Schedules and programs for the winter season are still being put together but will be posted on the organization's website at www.ohpri.org. (OHPRI, 29 Touro Sr., Newport, RI 02840; Ph. 401 841-0080) ... In October, applications will be accepted for the annual Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program, administered through the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. The scholarship provides support for independent graduate-level studies in oceanography, marine biology, or maritime archaeology, particularly to women and minorities. Scholarships, subject to appropriations, may provide yearly support up to $42,000. Past and current scholarship winners are listed on the program website, along with all details about the program, criteria, requirements, and application forms. (www. fosterscholars.noaa.gov/scholars.html/) ...

This summer, Maine Sail Freight announced plans to use the former sail training schooner Harvey Gamage to transport 11 tons of Maine-made regional agricultural products from Portland to Boston. At press time, plans called for approximately $70,000 worth of cargo, packaged in traditional boxes, to be loaded on 27 August for transit to Boston.

From there, the cargo is to be transferred to a fleet of trailer bicycles and pedaled

over to Boston Public Market and other regional outlets. Maine Sail Freight is a project organized by the Greenhorns, a non-profit organization made up of"young farmers and a diversity of collaborators" based in Essex, New York, along the shores of Lake Champlain, and in collaboration with Fiddler's Green Farm. They have previously organized sail freight voyages in New York and Vermont. The group has chartered the Harvey Gamage for four days to complete the sail. Until last year, Harvey Gamage operated as a successful sail

Schooner Harvey Gamage training vessel by Ocean Classroom Foundation, which shut down operations in fall of2014. The organization's name has been revived and the new group is working on developing sail training programs, but the new and old Ocean Classroom Foundations are linked in name only. (www.thegreenhorns.net) ... Provincetown's matriarchs are getting a facelift.

For the last twelve years, Fisherman's Wharf, a popular rourist spot on the tip of Cape Cod, has been the venue for an outdoor photography exhibit titled, "They Also Faced the Sea," by photographer Norma Holt and artist Ewa Nogiec. The photos are close-ups of Almeda Segura, Eva Silva, Mary Jason, Bea Cabral, and Frances Raymond-Portuguese-American women whose portraits were taken in the 1970s by Holt as a tribute to their vital but mostly uncelebrated roles in the town,

They Also Faced the Sea

SEA HISTORY 152,AUTUMN 2015

raising large families and holding down jobs and tending home and hearth while their husbands and sons were away at sea.

The 10-foot-by-14-foot photos, mounted on the side of the building at the end of the wharf, were not intended to stay there indefinitely, but they held up relatively well over the years and became iconic to the town's waterfront. While they have lasted much longer than anyone anticipated (Holt died in 2013), the weather has

faded them to the point that they either needed to be removed or replaced. Jennifer Cabral, whose family owns Fisherman's Wharf, started an online fundraising campaign at GoFundMe.com to pay for the photos to be reprinted and raised the $12,000 required to do the job in just a few hours, assuring the success of the project. A volunteer archivist scanned the negatives, and the digital scans were sent to Seaport Graphics in Boston, which

Historic Maritime Rings of the Finest Quality

by Mike Carroll

2015 National History Day, Maritime History Prize Winners National History Day (NHD) is a highly regarded year-long educational program for middle- and high-school students that involves them in a competition to prepare a history project on a designated theme, culminating in state and national competitions. Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers nationwide, participate in the NHD contest.

Students choose historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites. After analyzing and interpreting their sources and drawing conclusions about their topics' significance in history, students present their work in original papers, websites, exhibits, performances and documentaries-either individually or in groups .

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Congratulations to john Collins and Tucker Simpson from the Lawrence Middle School in New jersey for their award-winning exhibit on "john Paul Jones." john and Tucker's teacher is Priscilla Taylor.

To encourage the study of maritime history, the National Maritime Historical Society offers special prizes for maritime-related projects in several National History Day state contests. In 2015, NMHS participated in thirteen state contests and awarded twenty-one prizes on topics from naval heroes to the Amistad story, from Grace Hopper to Rosie the Riveter. State competitions were held in April and May; more than 3,000 students advanced to the national competition, which took place in June. The full list of2015 NMHS prize winners is posted on our website at www.seahistory.org and will be featured in Sea History 153, Winter 2015-16.

To get a school in your area involved, visit the National History Day website at www.nhd.org and contact your school's history or social studies department.

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pri nted the enlargem ents on vinyl mesh using a 16-foot-wide printer. I n July, a crew from the R ich ard Honan Sign Co., of W inth rop, MA, installed the prints our on the wharf. Norma H olt's negatives are held by the Pilgrim M onument and Provincetown Museum . ... The US Postal Service has issued a new postage stamp h onoring the US C o ast Guard. The image is an oil painting on m asonite by W illiam S. Phillips, depicting th e USCG cutter Eagle and an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter. Th is year is the 225'h ann iversary of the origin al U nited States Revenue

C utter Service and the lOO'h anniversary of the merging of th e Revenue Cutter Service with the US Lifesav ing Service to fo rm the US Coas t G u ard . . . . Applications for the John Carter Brown Library Fellowships for 2 0 16 are being accepted now through 15 December. Approxima tely 40 fellowsh ips are awarded annually to adva nced graduate students and independent sch olars for resea rch and residency periods ran ging from 2 to 10 months. The m ai n criteria for awards are the merit and significance of the proposal, the qualification s of the candidate, and the relevance of th e library's holdings to the proposed research proj ect. The library's close association w ith Brown Un iversity, its location near other major research collections, and its links with scholars and institutions in this country and abroad offer a network of resources invaluable for JCB fellows. (JCBL, POB 1894, 94 George St., Brown University, Provid ence, RI , 029 12; Ph. 401 863-2725; www.brown. edu and do a search for "fellowships .") ...

The Natio nal Museum of the Royal Navy opened the monitor HMS M.33 on 6 August. Callled the " lucky ship" for having no casuall ties , M.33 was rushed into service so qwickly she wasn't given a name. Launched in May of 1915, she is the only surviving ship fro m the Gallip oli campaign. Accompanying the new ship

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 20 15

in the museum's Beet is the special exhibition Gallipoli: Myth and Memory, which opened in March. (NMRN, www.nmrnportsmourh.org.uk) ... Maersk Line has uploaded to YouTube.com a 3-minute timelapse of the Adrian Maersk as it transits the newly expanded Suez Canal.

Online viewers can watch the 11-hour transit in just three minutes , taken from video cameras mounted on the ship's bridge. The newly expanded canal rook almost a year to complete and includes a widening and deepening of 21 miles of the existing canal and a new lane that runs parallel to the old canal. The new depth is just over 78 feet. The expansion cost $8 billion to complete. According to Maersk, the Suez Canal handles approximately 7.5% of the world's seaborne trade; Maersk Line ships make up about 20% of the container ships that transit the canal each year. The expanded canal is expected to reduce transit times from 20 to 11 hours.

(Do a search for "maersk timelapse suez" on www.youtube.com. Yo u can also view a similar timelapse posted by Maersk from 2009 if you want to compare the new canal to the old.) ... Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) has a new president, Captain Francis McDonald.

Retiring president Admiral Richard Gurnon handed over the leadership of the Academy at a change-of-command ceremony on 10 August after ten years at the helm and after 37 years working at the institution. Captain McDonald is an alumnus of MMA and has most recently served as the school's executive vice president. Massachusetts Maritime Academy is a fu lly

bow as you head into the canal from Buzzards Bay. The US Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (MARAD) recognizes MMA as one of six

state maritime colleges approved to prepare graduates for federal license examination as third mate, ocean vessels, unlimited tonnage or third assistant engineer, steam or motor, unlimited horsepower.

MMA was founded in 1891 as the Massachusetts Nautical Training School. The 55-acre campus has been at the Buzzards Bay site since 1946. Approximately 1,40 0 cadets were enrolled for the 2014-15 school year, with women making up 12% of the student body. In addition to his education at MMA, McDonald has an MS in environmental management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a PhD in law and policy from Northeastern University. He has been with the Academy since 1994 and is the maritime college's ~ 38th president. (MMA, 101 Academy Dr., ~ Buzzards Bay, MA 02532; Ph. 508 8308 5000; www.maritime.edu) ..!,

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Maine Maritime Museum. Also, In Sight: •Norwalk Boat Show, 18-21 September Enhanced Prints by John Wisseman of at Norwalk Cove Marine in Norwalk, CT. BIW and Bath's Working Waterfront, (www.boatshownorwalk.org) 24 October-3 January. (243 Washing- •Log Canoe Races-Miles River Yacht ton Street, Bath, ME; Ph. 207 443-1316; Club & Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Series, 19 September on the Miles www.mainemaritimemuseum.org) •Coos Art Museum 22nd Maritime Art River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. SpecExhibition, through 26 September in tators can reserve a spot on the Chesapeake Coos Bay. (235 Anderson Ave., Coos Bay, Bay Maritime Museum's historic 1920 OR; Ph. 541 267-3901; www.coosart.org) buyboat Winnie Estelle for on-the-water •A Broad Reach: 50 Years of Collecting, viewing. (CBMM, 213 N. Talbot Street, at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Muse- St. Michaels, MD; www.cbmm.org) um, in commemoration of the museum's •Book & Bottle wine and book discussion 50th anniversary. (213 N. Talbot Street, at the Suffolk County Historical Society in Riverhead, NY: 24 September, Pace St. Michaels, MD; www.cbmm.org) •Liquid Light: Photography Beneath the University professor Marilyn Weigold Sea, through 4 January at the Mariners' on Peconic Bay: Four Centuries of History Museum and Park. (100 Museum Dr., on Long Island's North and South Forks. 8 Newport News, VA; Ph. 757 596-2222; October, author Nancy Solomon, On the Bay: Bay Houses and Maritime Culture on www.marinersmuseum.org) •36th Annual International Marine Art Long Island's Marshlands. RSVP requested.

Exhibition, 27-31 December at Mystic (SCHS, 300 West Main St., Riverhead, Seaport's Maritime Gallery. (47 Green- NY; Ph. 631 727-2881, ext. 103; www. manville Avenue, Mystic, CT; Ph. 860 suffolkcountyhistoricalsociety.org) 572-5388; www.mysticseaport.org; gal- •Greenport Maritime Festival, 25-27 September in Greenport, NY. (www.east lery@mysticseaport.org) •Across the Top of the World: the Quest endmaritimefestival.org) for the Northwest Passage, now through •Working Waterfront Festival, 25-27 May 2016 at the Vancouver Maritime September in New Bedford, MA. (www.

Museum. (1905 Ogden Avenue in Vanier workingwaterfrontfestival.org) Park, Vancouver, BC; Ph. 604 257-8300; •Southport Wooden Boat Show, 26 September at the Old Yacht Basin, Southport, www.vancouvermaritimemuseum.com) •From Bankers to Presidents: the Works NC. Free admission. (Ph. 910 477-2787; of Joseph Gallettini, through 31 De- www.southporrwoodenboatshow.com) cember at the Ships of the Sea Maritime •33rd Annual Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Museum in Savannah, GA. (41 Martin Festival & 11th Maritime Model Expo, Luther King Jr., Blvd., Savannah, GA; Ph. 3-4 October at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. (213 N. Talbot Street, St. 912 232-1511; www.shipsofthesea.org) Michaels, MD; www.cbmm.org) •United States Sailboat Show, 8-12 OcFESTIVALS, EVENTS, LECTURES, ETC. •Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festi- tober in Annapolis, MD. (www.usboat. val, 9-12 September in New London, CT. com) EXHIBITS •The Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner •Ocean Soul: National Geographic Pho- (www.ctmaritimefest.com) Race, 12-18 October from Baltimore, tographs by Brian Skerry, through 11 •Lake Union Boats Afloat Show, 16-20 MD, to Portsmouth, VA. Dockside tours October at the Minnesota Marine Art Mu- September in Seattle, WA. (www.boats in Baltimore 12- 14 October; race on the seum. (800 Riverview Dr., Winona, MN; afloatshow.com) bay is 15-16 October. (www.gcbsr.org) •Newport International Boat Show, Ph. 507 474-6626; www.mmam.org) •Wellfleet Oyster Fest, 17-18 October in •USS Cobia Below the Surface: A Sub- 17-20 September in Newport, RI. (www.

Wellfleet, MA, on Cape Cod. (www.well marine Simulation Experience, a new newportboatshow.com) fleetoysterfest.org) exhibit at the Wisconsin Maritime Mu- •San Francisco Sea Music Festival, 12 seum. (75 Maritime Drive, Manitowoc, September at Hyde Street Pier in San •Moby-Dick Marathon, 9-10 January WI; Ph. 920 684-0218; www.wisconsin Francisco, CA. (San Francisco Maritime at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

National Historical Park, 499 Jefferson (18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, maritime.org) •Wavelength: The Story of Signals at Street, San Francisco, CA; Ph. 415 447- MA; Ph. 508 997-0046; www.whaling museum.org) Sea, 14 November-15 May 2016 at the 5000; www.nps.gov/safr/) CONFERENCES AND SYMPOSIUMS

•McMullen Naval History Symposium, 17-18 September in Annapolis, MD. Focus is on the 1OOth anniversary of WWI. (www.usna.edu/History/Symposium) •2015 Historic Naval Ships Association Annual Conference, 16-19 September in Los Angeles, CA, hosted by USS Iowa. (www.hnsa.org) •American Historical Association Annual Meeting, 7-10 January in Atlanta, GA. (www.historians .org/ annual-meeting) •2016 National Council on Public History and Society for History in the Federal Government Joint Meeting, 16-19 March in Baltimore, MD. Conference theme is "Challenging the Exclusive Past."

Call for Posters deadline is 1 October. (www.ncph.org) •Society for Historical Archaeology Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology, 6-9 January in Washington, DC. Conference theme: ''A Call to Action: The Past and Future of Historical Archaeology." (www.sha.org/ conferences) •7th International Congress of Maritime History Conference, 27 June-1 July at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. Conference theme is "Old Worlds, New Worlds? Emerging themes in Maritime History." (General inquiries: ICMH7@murdoch.edu.au) •17th International Congress of Maritime Museums, 1-6 November in Hong Kong. (www.icmmonline.org) •Council of American Maritime Museums Annual Conference, 25-27 April, hosted by the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation in Wilmington, DE. (www.council ofamericanmaritimemuseums.org)

by Peter McCracken

MARITIME HISTORY ON THE INTERNET

Webcarns: Viewing the Maritime World Online-LIVE

E

ver since the first webcam was aimed at a coffeepot in 1991, to 250 onboard cruise ship cameras. From this site, I viewed the people have used video cameras connected to the internet to bridge camera from the Cunard ships Queen Ma ry 2 and Queen see what's happening outside their field of vision. From bird's nest Victoria. Unfortunately, the Queen Elizabeth was out of range at webcams to traffic webcams-there's lots to see. Maritime activi- the time. Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior offers an image from its ties are no different, except that a camera focusing on a single mast camera. location isn't much help once the ship moves out of camera range.

A few sites bring together many different webcams, though That said, a webcam from a ship's bridge or mast can be a great the ephemeral nature of the feeds can make aggregation sites a way of seeing some other part of the world challenge to use. EarthCam (www.

Live Cameras (and a big chunk of the ocean) without earthcam.com) offers a wide range of leaving your easy chair. feeds and has a nice map-based search A handful of maritime museums function at www.earthcam.com/ offer webcams that show you their cammapsearch. Webcams.travel (www. webcams. travel) lists w eb cams puses regardless of the weather. The around the world, though the database Maritime Museum of the Atlantic offers a view of its wharves at www.novascoappears to be fairly out of date. Using tiawebcams.com/en/webcams/musetheir mapping feature is much more effective. A volunteer-run site at www. um-wharves. The Lake Superior Mariliveworldwebcam.net might be usetime Museum Association has a pair of ful if the bugs are ever worked out. webcams focused on the canal at the Following the "Harbor" or "Harbors" entrance to St Louis Bay, in Duluth, at www.lsmma.com/webcam/webcam. links can identify the existence of an html. Through the local TV station, the Webcam shot ofthe Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal. interesting webcam; the link won't take you there, but you can then use Columbia River Maritime Museum, in Astoria, Oregon, has a nice view outdoors at www.koin.com/ Google (for instance, "brest harbor webcam") to find the actual weather/webcams. site.

Webcams come and go with remarkable speed. Technical Many ports and canals offer webcams. The Gatun Locks webcam in the Panama Canal (www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/ glitches, of course, are distressingly common, and you may need camera-java.html) provides a great view of the action, though a strong internet connection to get some to play on your comlike some others, they post an image every 10-20 seconds, rather puter or device. To search on your own, you can use a geographic than sharing an actual live feed. Massachusetts Maritime Acad- term plus "+webcam" to find a lot of interesting links via Google. emy in Buzzards Bay offers a great view of the Cape Cod Canal Do note, however, that there are a lot of webcams that are not at www.maritime.edu/live/canal.html. PTZtv.com runs web- appropriate for family viewing. I aim to highlight ones of maritime cams at many harbors in Florida and the Caribbean. You might interest, but you can accidentally see a lot more than you inneed to turn off ad-blocking software before you use them, but tended if you're not careful about which links you click. many of these sites offer audio, including marine radio feeds in Suggestions for other sires worth mentioning are welcome at some ports, and constantly updated maps showing vessels in port. peter@shipindex.org. See www.shipindex.org for a free compilaIn addition to links to nearly 500 webcams in cruising ports tion of over 150,000 ship names from indexes to dozens of books at www.cruisin.me/cruise-port-webcams, this sire offers links and journals. !-

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SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

Reviews True Yankees: The South Seas & The Discovery ofAmerican Identity by Dane A. Morrison (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2014, 257pp, illus, notes, index, ISBN 978-1-4214-1542-0; $34.95hc) Dane Morrison's True Yankees calls attention to a very important topic: the significance of the Asia-Pacific trade to the fortunes and identity of the early American republic. Morrison argues that American participation in trade voyages to the East did nothing less than establish the United States as a bona fide nation in the eyes of the world, and was instrumental in creating the American Yankee identity-commercially shrewd, autonomous, and confident, by turns global, then insular, in vision.

Morrison elucidates his story by considering the travel narratives of several Americans who journeyed to Asia and the Pacific between 1784 and 1844. The stories of Samuel Shaw, Amasa Delano, and Edmund Fanning provide material to describe and assess the first generation of Americans in the East; those of Harriet Low and Robert Bennett Forbes the second. The reason to so organize the material is to show the progress from the Enlightened worldliness of the first generation developing into the Yankee, often nativist, self-assuredness of the second, all in great measure attributable to the experiences of the China and India trade.

In focusing on the travel narratives, Morrison shows us two important things: 1) the information about the South Sea travels has been available to those who might have incorporated it more fully into the histories of the early United States, and 2) the travelers were entirely conscious of creating an identity and reputation as they visited cosmopolitan ports (and it was this effort that in fact created the standard image of the energetic Yankee devoted to republican ideals).

Morrison has done his homework. In addition to his familiarity with his main topic and with early American history, he has presented detailed information about the China trade and Macau, contemporary wage structures, the Icelandic volcanic eruption, the era's other scientific voyages, and other related matters. He is aware of the relevance of Franklin, Wilkes, Melville, industrialization, Humboldt, Orientalism, SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

Manifest Destiny, the concept of imagined community, and other topics to his story.

He explains that such items might have been given greater consideration, but their relegation to the margins does not diminish the significance of his essential point, nor of the narratives of his five travelers. I concur.

Morrison's book is important and impressive. Its point is accurate and significant. It is a work of skillful research, analysis and vision, as well as one that tells an under-appreciated story. I'll let the author have the last word: "What the Americans found in the Great South Sea challenged their colonial assumptions about the world; it bound them closer together as one people; and it legitimized their status according to the criteria of their age-as an independent nation and men of character."

WILLIAM

J. McCARTHY

Wilmington, North Carolina

The South Seas & The Discovery of American Identity

s.

DANE A. MORRISON

Another thing he does well is present the Asia trade as a complex process that was not uniformly successful. It is welcome to see such hyperbole dispelled by the stories he presents, such as that of Delano, who became something of a tramp merchant across the region as misfortune dogged his most ambitious efforts. He was unable to become wealthy, or even solvent, from his myriad adventures.

Still, for all the achievements of this book, I'd like to see more from one who has thought carefully and extensively about these matters. The topics of intercultural contact, racism, the significance of the printed book, and the creation of national identity are broad and are addressed in a growing body of literature that does not fully make its way into this book. Contemporary literary figures such as Cooper, Irving, and Poe also went to some length to consider and create an American identity, and might be discussed. The topic of historical travel literature itself has become a bona fide field of scholarly endeavor over the past decade or two, and many of its practitioners publish work that could be profitably considered here.

Battle Ready: The National Coast Defense System and the Fortification of Puget Sound, 1894-1925 by David M. Hansen (Washington State Univ. Press, Pullman, 2014, 16lpp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 978-0-87422-320-0; $32.95pb) It's still hard to believe that just over a hundred years ago the United States' coastal defense system was predicated on standing on the edges of the continent with

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spotting scopes and searching for the belching smokestacks of approaching enemy navies. Prior to fully realized naval air operations and the invention of radar, so it was. We perched mostly inaccurate guns along the coast and stood by.

Author David H an sen takes us through the evolution of the United States' notions on coast defense from the Civil War through the years after World War I. This transitional period featured increased long-range artillery accuracy due to the new practice of rifling cannons, the widespread use of concrete, and the major transition from wooden warships to ironclads to monstrous dreadnoughts. Hansen then brings his focus down to the Puget Sound area of Washington State and the trials of securing the area and then building coastal defense fortifi cations.

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The local communities saw the arrival of the military in the 1890s as a saving grace, as the port cities in the area were struggling for economic survival. The expected influx, first of military contracts for construction and supplies, and second of the men who would man the batteries and therefore become local consumers, promised revival.

Rather than gloss over the local cultural impact and skipping directly to the engineering dilemmas looming, Hansen well contextualizes the construction of the batteries on the Sound.

The author walks us through the same frustrations the forts' designers and builders faced, from porous concrete to the supplies of outdated weaponry. With the world's navies going iron, the mortar batteries of the Civil War era seemed out of place, bur logic suggested that those new ships would still have wooden decks, and mortars could rain fire down on them. Therefore, they were designed as part of the defense system.

In some cases, delays lasted yea rs, as the government waited for contracts to be fulfilled . In one instance, as a battery awaited its guns, one official suggested turning it into a practice target. Not only could a navy ship's crew gain experience, one could find out what happened when shots actually struck the defenses then being touted as the best America had.

The book is produced in a 9" x 11" landscape format, meaning that there is ample room for the many landscape-style construction photos typical of the early 20th-century American military documentation system. The author occasionally provides updated images of the batteries as they stand today, reminders of where the cutting edge was one hundred years ago.

JOH N GALLUZZO Weymouth, Massachusetts

Sailor in the White House: The Seafaring Life ofFDR by Robert F. Cross (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 2015, 296pp, photos, biblio, index, ISBN 978-1-61251501-4; $21.95pb).

Two books have shed important new light on FDR's leadership: That Man-An Insider's Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, from Justice Robert H . Jackson's lost manuscript, and Robert F. Cross's Sailor in the White House: lhe Seafaring Life of FDR. Recently, the Naval Institute Press has

wisely chosen to publish a soft-cover edition that will make Cross's work available to a wider readership.

Few people, then or now, realize what a superb sailor FDR really was. Cross uses the example of two cruises organized by Roosevelt, the first in 1932 before the start of his presidential campaign, and again in 1933 as president elect. Cross argues that the skills demonstrated by FDR in skippering small sailboats off the New England coast-the ability to respond to the unexpected, to change course when necessary, to tack as circumstances required-were exactly the skills he demonstrated in guiding the nation through the two immense crises of the twentieth century, the Great Depression, and the Second World War. During World War II, FDR evinced the same willingness to experiment with prefabricated, welded ship design to produce-quickly and in large numbers-the emergency Liberty and later Victory ship fleets. Scaled down warships, escort carriers, and destroyer escorts were likewise built quickly and in large numbers for antisubmarine work.

Cross quotes Admiral Emory S. Land, director of the Ships for Victory program: "Franklin Delano Roosevelt knew more about ships and the men who sailed them . .. than any other man who held high office.

His understanding and knowledge of ships made possible a building and operations program without which this war would have been lost."

Cross's work is thoroughly documented and enhanced with insightful interviews with witnesses to the events described .

Sailor in the White House is recommended for maritime historians, latter-day "New Dealers," or anyone interested in the history of America in the 20th century. Indeed, it is recommended for anyone looking for a book full of salt spray and seafaring lore.

JOSEPH M EANY Albany, New York

The Myth of the Press Gang: Volunteers, Impressment, and the Naval Manpower Problem in the Late Eighteenth Century

by J . Ross Dancy (Boydell Press, Suffolk, UK, 2015, 213pp, illus, biblio, notes, index, ISBN 978-11-78327-003-3; $120hc) The issland kingdom of Great Britain became a I leading economic power largely SEA HIISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

due to sea trade, but the nation was relatively defenseless against seaborne invasions. It became dependent upon its floating wooden walls-its sizeable navy-for defense. After the Seven Years' War (17561763), the nation's flotilla evolved into the mightiest sea force in Europe. Manning these mechanical maritime marvels required an enormous number of skilled seamen and a host of support personnel. One method of procuring these men became storied, that of impressment. The common image of this undertaking is an unruly press gang wielding clubs under the direction of a sadistic naval officer, with a mission to abduct young men away from wives and family. The impressed served in a seaborne dungeon, for an undetermined sentence in an overcrowded wars hip; they were underfed and endured an occasional flogging.

Of course, some would die a violent death or become permanently disabled for their king and country. ]. Ross Dancy presents evidence that this image is largely spurious, a misinterpretation of the Admiralty's personnel procurement data of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Maritime nations had a variety of seaborne institutions at their disposal: a merchant fleet for commerce, fishermen for sustenance, and a navy for defense, which, in time of war, might be supplemented by a privateer Beet.

A square-rigged ship required experienced manpower-ideally volunteer seamen, largely from the civilian maritime sector, along with some inexperienced laborers. Merchant vessels were manned with a minimum number of sailors to maximize profits. The labor aboard these ships could be hard and the rewards inconsistent. Commercial fishing historically has been one of the most dangerous occupations. The boats they worked in were cramped, the labor was backbreaking, and the rewards from their catch unreliable.

While life on a warship was undeniably crowded, there was a clear division oflabor that directed who would man the sails, work the guns, navigate and steer the ship.

That shipboard life was comparatively easier, sailors were provided with a hammock, clothing, guaranteed wages, plus food that was perhaps more palatable and regular than many had ashore. As a result, finding volunteers was not all that difficult, SEA HISTORY 152,AUTUMN 2015

particularly when appeals to patriotism could be invoked.

Recruiters looked for men with specific skill sets: petty officers, able-bodied seamen, and ordinary seamen. They also took landsmen onboard who had little or no sea knowledge, but could perform many necessary mundane functions and learn the ways of the ship from their more experienced shipmates. Recruitment occurred around seaports. The rosters of vessels of the period indicate that the vast majority of warship crews were volunteers from all four classes of sailor, the smallest cohort being landsmen. Recent computerization of these data, flawed by being incomplete or difficult to read because of their diverse spelling and handwriting, allows for quasistatistical analysis of these records.

Naval impressment existed in two forms: the Impressment Service, a government draft board specifically assigned to recruit seamen, mostly experienced personnel; and the press gang, sometimes consisting of six to eight men, sometimes local hooligans who worked on a bounty, but headed by a naval lieutenant. They simply needed bodies and could occasionally assault some men and extend their reach into the countryside beyond the seaport areas to meet their quotas. This was particularly the case when the Quota Acts of 1785 and 1795 were the law.

Dancy presents well-researched scholarly evidence that, as the Royal Navy be-

BOYD ELL

came the bulwark of Britain's defense, its seamen were mostly young volunteers.

Impressment certainly did occur, but the author argues that this practice played a minor role in the evolution of the British Navy. The Myth ofthe Press Gang successfully challenges much of the impressment historiography of this era.

LOUIS ARTHUR NORTO N

West Simsbury, Connecticut

Merchant Seamen~ Heath, 1860-1960: Medicine, Technology, Shipowners, and the State in Britain by Tim Carter (The Boyde!! Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK, 2014, 216pp, illus, biblio, notes, index, ISB N 978-1-84383-952-1; $120hc) Marine technology rapidly changed between 1860 and 1960, as did the risks of working upon the world's oceans. This was a time of transition from complex sailing vessels to mechanically powered vessels.

Sailors faced dangers such as falling from rigging and being washed overboard , to other steam-powered perils that produced stokers with heat exhaustion, dehydration, ~ nd burns from steam scalds. (Many of these engine-based hazards diminished with the dawn of diesel power.)

Life onboard ship was strictly hierarchical with chains of command that controlled all aspects of life. Hygiene was minimal and sanitation poor, and accommodations were often primitive and lacked privacy. Lack of fresh food srorage was

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Volunteers, Impressment and the Naval Manpower Problem in the Late Eighteenth Century

Medicine, Technology, Shipowners and the State in Britain

J. ROSS DAN CY

TIM CARTER

1860- 1960

Overturns the generally held view that the press gang was the main means of recruiting seamen by the British navy in the late eighteenth century.

Discusses the measures taken by reformers in this period to improve seamen's health and fitness, strugghng against vested interests and bureaucracies.

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another problem that led ro malnurrition or intestinal disorders. Once a vessel was at sea, emergency medical care was limited to rudimentary measures until a patient could be transferred ashore. Epidemics from contagious diseases could rapidly spread because of the close confines within avessel, and as ships' voyaging times became shorter and more numerous, they became potential carriers of diseases that spread to non-immune populations at destinations .

Merchant Seamen's Health, 1860-1960 focuses on British seafarers because the health data are more available and Britain was the dominant shipping country during the later part of the n i nereenth century through WWI. One problem of statistical note is that once a person dropped out of the maritime workforce, it was difficult to follow the long-term outcome and disposition of his medical condition. Carter addresses many of the historical events that played a role in forming more recent maritime health and safety policies, British procedures that ultimately influenced international law. A simple safety measure could lead to an unanticipated consequence and a medical requirement. For example, it was only after ships starred to use colored

port and starboard navigation lights rhar crewmen were examined-and weeded our-for color blindness.

This book abounds with graphs of accidents and incidents of disease that occurred between 1860 and 1960. In addition, the data vary depending upon whether the seamen were in merchant or naval service, the standards and enforcement of health care measures being better in the Royal Navy. The graphs clearly show that as maritime technology improved in ship design, operations, and services, so did responses to issues of workplace health and safety.

Well researched, with an impressive number of footnotes, Merchant Seamen's Health, 1860-1960 provides a comprehensive list of references for scholars who may wish to probe more deeply into the evidence given by the author. One criticism is that the author's prose is repetitious, often dry, and-perhaps of necessity-clinical. A great deal of information is presented in tabular and graphic form with sparse information about inclusion or exclusion criteria. The number of seamen that each data point represents is inferred, bur it lacks the rigor of statistical analyses that should

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accompany these graphs. An added note section would be helpful beyond the references in the footnotes. Still, Carter's book is a significant contribution to maritime history literature.

Lours ARTHUR NORTON West Simsbury, Connecticut

Outlaws ofthe Atlantic: Sailors, Pirates, and Motley Crews in the Age of Sail by Marcus Rediker (Beacon Press, Boston, 2014, 248pp, ISBN 978-0-80703-309-8; $26.95hc) In Outlaws of the Atlantic, Marcus Rediker challenges the larger conceptual frameworks in m aritime historiography.

On one end it delivers a bruising to some of the "greats" in the field of maritime history, notably Samuel Elliot Morison: "Perhaps the best known writer of the old maritime history... the Boston patrician , patriotic admiral, and Harvard historian who wrote about the Christopher Columbuses and the John Paul Joneses of the world. This kind of history looks from the top down- history, in my view, seen from the wrong end of the spyglass." On rhe other end, the author offers a volume of seven chapters and an epilogue backed with

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In Hostile waters is available in paperback or on Kindle through Amazon.com. For more on William H. White and his books, visit the author's website: www.seaficrion.net.

SEAHISTORY 152,AUTUMN 2015

extensive notes to suggest an alternative perspective.

The book contains a mix of previously published and unpublished material; the published material has been revised or supplemented. Chapter l , "The Sailor's Yarn," was presented at a conference in Aalborg in 2012; Chapter 2, "Edward Barlow: 'Poor Seaman,"' was presented in 1986; Chapter 3, "Henry Pittman, Fugitive Traitor," was a keynote address at a conference in Tasmania in 2006; Chapter 4, "Under the Banner of King Death: Pirates," was published in the William and Mary Quarterly (1981); Chapter 5, ''A Motley Crew in the American Revolution," is a rewritten version of chapter eight in The Many Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic, co-authored with Peter Linebaugh (2000); Chapter 6, "African Rebels: From Captains to Shipmates," is a revised version of chapter eight in the author's The Slave Ship: A Human History (2007); Chapter 7, "Black Pirates: The Amistad Rebellion, 1839," is new, but draws on the author's 2012 book, The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey ofSlavery and Freedom.

While various parts of this ~ork may be known to readers since it includes publications over many years, it reads as a fresh testament to the virtues of approaching Atlantic and maritime history from the bottom up. While it remains a challenge to write the li fe of a common person based on traditional source materials, Rediker and others have found sources and the means to recover their stories. Sometimes it is simply a reading of the sources from a different point of view. The object of the book, according to the author, is to explore the sea as a setting for human activity and historical change against the backdrop of the Atlantic and global rise of capitalism.

Communication is a key element in global trade, and the sailor's role as "yarn spinner" of vital information is made clear, for the sailor traveled, and the men of earning who postulated on global mapping knew little of the actual world. The role of yarns in shaping literature ranges from the tale of the "Flying Dutchman" to Daniel Defoe's cultivation of sailor's stories in Robinson Crusoe, published in 17 19. Formnately, some stories from before the mast were written down. Edward Barlow learned SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

to write while he served at sea between 1659 and 1703, and he produced a 225,000-word journal, now located in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, UK. Barlow did not mince his words. Indeed, he was hard on the purser, merchants, and ship owners, whom he blamed for providing sailors with poor qua lity food and provisions, and nor enough of them. And the labor was drudgery for the sailors who were cogs in the machine/ship that was the wooden world.

Henry Pittman's rale begins with Monmouth 's Rebellion of 1685, and ends after much travel and travail as a consequence of his branding as a rebel. He survived enslavement and more, for which the author credits his seafaring experience. Key among these was to know how the capitalist economy worked in the Caribbean and Atlantic, and the second was to understand the commoning non-capitalistic eco nomy of uninhabited islands of the Caribbean. Pittman is idenrified as rhe prototype for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, though Alexander Selkirk was rhe inspiration.

What the author has to say in his chapter on pirates about the motley composition of crews is of note, especially that there are two definitions. One is that of an organized body of workers doing different tasks bur contributing to a common goal. The second definition is linked to the social-political formation of the port city-as an urban mob. Bur the crew was "motley" because it was multi-ethnic. This factor is linked to sailors' resistance to authority on many issues, including the American Revolution.

The theme is continued in the chapter on African rebels rhar recites numerous examples of both subtle and overt forms of resistance to enslavement expressed by Africans throughout the Middle Passage and ashore.

The Amistad story is one rhar is considered from several angles, including the slave-mutineers as "Black Pirates," the tide of the final chapter. Described in newspapers as "rhe long, low, black schooner," rhe Amistad arrived off Long Island in 1839 and provoked fears of black pirates, mutiny, and death. Sensational stories were fabr icated to explain this threatening appearance offshore. And while the story played out in court to an agreeable ending, the media cast leader Joseph Cinque as a

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"h eroic pirate." He was both pirate and revolutionary, opposi ng injustices that included slavery. Drawings of C inque were sympathetic with captions that described him as th e "brave Congolese C hief w ho prefers death ro Slavery and who now lies in Jail in irons in New H aven Conn. awa iting his trial fo r dari ng fo r freedom ."

West Indian novel ist Jamaica Ki ncaid observes in A Small Place (1988) : "In the A ntigua I knew, we lived on a street na med afrer the English maritime criminal, H oratio Nelson, and all the other streets around were named after som e other E ngli sh maritime criminals. There was Rodney Street, there was H ood Street, and there was Drake Street." H istorical fig ures some see as heroes, others see as criminals.

Rediker asserts that the motley crews fo rmed of deep-sea sailors were the origi nal tran snational (global) workers. H e also identifies "the centrality of the seas in hum an endeavor as a place where important h isrorical processes such as the genesis of ideas and class formation have taken place."

The seaman at long las t emerges as a preeminent worker of the world , a sh aper of history. Indeed , of a world turned upside down.

T IMOTHYJ. RUNYAN G reenville, North Carolina

w ithin striking d istance of Japan, loaded w ith a 2,000-pound bomb load. The bombers were assigned to target Tokyo and a few o cher cities to hit military targets, then fly on co air fields in China not yet controlled

by J apanese invaders.

The ra id was carried out by d aring aviato rs supported by equally brave sailors.

The bom bers were transp orted by and launched from the recently com pleted aircraft carrier USS Hornet(CV8). The aircraft we re roo large for che elevators, so they had to be lashed to the flight deck. USS Enterprise (CV6) provided air support fo r the fleet; escorts were the cruisers USS Nashville (CL43), USS Vincennes (CA44) , fl eet oiler USS Cimarron (A0 22), and destroyers USS Gwin (DD 433), USS Meredith (DD434), USS Grayson (DD435) and USS Monssen (DD436).

In Target Tokyo: jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor, James M. Scott details the history of the attack from conception ro che fin al disposition of the raiders in the decades after the wa r. He also analyzes che benefits and costs of the enterprise with emphasis on the hundreds of thousands of C hinese murdered by Japanese troops in retaliation for real and imagined support of che A merican airmen.

DAVID 0. WHITTEN Auburn, Alabam a

Target Tokyo~ Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid lbat Avenged Pearl Harbor by James M. Scott (W. W. Norto n & Co., NY,

Pirate Hunters: The Search for the Lost Treasure Ship ofa Great Buccaneer by

2015, 648pp, photos, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 978- 0-393-08962-2; $35hc) Jimmy Doolittle, a household name synonymous with daredevil Aying and wartime heroics in the twentieth centu ry, secu red his place in history when he organized and led an air raid on Tokyo, Japa n, on 18 A pril 1942. A merica ns, fro m the president of the U ni ted States ro the anonym ous m an- (or wom an-) in-the-stree t, longed to hit back at the Japa nese fo r their attack on Pearl H arbor on 7 D ecember 1941 and hoped ro take the wa r ro the heart of]apan- ics capital at Tokyo.

President Fran klin D elano Roosevelt authorized a raid on Tokyo to boost national morale and demoralize the Japanese at the same time. The audacious plan called fo r US Army Air Forces' North American Aviation M itchell B25 med ium bombers to launch from a US Navy aircraft ca rrier

R obert Kurson (Random H ouse, New York, 2015, 304pp, ISBN 978-1-40006-3369; $28hc) Diver John Ch atterron is a fa miliar ch aracter to many, particularly to those who have read author Robert Kurson's previo us wo rk, Shadow Divers, or, perhaps, more broadly to anyone who ever tuned in to the History Ch an nel's D eep Sea Detectives, in which he co-sta rred . C hatterton surfaces ye t again, here par tnered w ith diver John Mattera in the search for a longlost pirate ship.

The two d ivers are painted as both heroes and risk takers. C hatterton h as a long histo ry of chargi ng into difficult situations-as a medic in Vietnam, where he wo uld retrieve comrades in op en sp aces w hile under fi re, and later as a diver, w riggling into the eight and dangero us remains o f a Germ an U- boat. Mattera grew up SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

around the mob in New York, eventually turning to police and protection work.

Kurson spiritually connects Mattera with the pirate they ch ase, Joseph Bannister.

Bannister, a merchant seaman gone rogue, forced a pitched battle between his men and two ships of the Royal Navy in the waters off Hisparuola (the island that today is shared by the Dominican Republic and H aiti) in the waning days of piracy in the 1680s. Kurson somewhat overhypes Bannister's importance in the history of piracy, likening him to Blackbeard, William Kidd, and even the fictional Jack Sparrow. Those comparisons aside, Bannister was a pirate, did have a pirate ship n amed the Golden Fleece, and it was lost to time.

Ch atterton and Mattera fight various forces in their search for the Golden Fleece.

They must persuade the rights permit holder for the waters they are searching to divert from his original targeted area. They are faced with a closing window for treasure hunting, as international mores change before their eyes. And they must find Bannister. Mattera spends as much time in libraries in New York C ity and Spain as he does in the waters of the Caribbean. The divers understand that in order to find the pirate ship, they must think like the pirate himself. They must find a careening spot that could be h eavily fortified, strong enough to chase off two Royal Navy vessels at the end of a day of exchanged cannon fire, and then find the remains of the ship.

As they get closer and word of their search gets o ut , they must outwit claim jumpers.

Somewhat hyperbolic and definitely doused in machismo, Pirate Hunters reads almost like an adventure novel, wandering into the themes of piracy, life in the Royal Navy, trade expansion in the Caribbean, and the history of treasure ship diving.

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