Sea History 155 - Summer 2016

Page 1

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SEA HISTORY

No. 155

SUMMER2016

CONTENTS 10 Fair Winds, Peter (1927-2016), by Shelley Reid The National Maritime H istorical Society and the maritime heritage community at large remem ber our president emeritus and long-time editor ofSea History, Peter Stanford

18 The Cape Horn Road, Partll: How the Sails of the Square-rigged Ship Got their Names by Peter Stanford From 1994 to 2 000, Peter Stanford captivated readers with tales of The Cape Horn Road, his 22-installment series about the sweeping history ofseafaring. In installment fl reprinted here in honor of his countless contributions to Sea History, Peter discusses the story ofhow square sails were named, drawing inspiration from Waverrree, the ship Peter and Norma Stanford rescued from retirement as a sand barge to become the flagship ofthe South Street Seaport Museum .

22 Wavertree Restoration: News from the Shipyard, by Jonathan Bou lware South Street Seaport Museum's executive director updates us on Wavertree's progress, as the 1885 iron-hulled full rigged ship's $13-million restoration continues.

24 Congress Supports Maritime Heritage Amendments! by Dr. Timothy ]. Runyan The National Parks Service has announced the recipients ofthe 2015 Maritime H eritage Grants cycle, and the National Maritime Historical Society is on the list! The National Maritime Alliance's Tim Runyan reports on the progress on Capitol Hill ofefforts to restore more funding to the program, and outlines what you, our readers, can do to help.

26 So Close to Home: U-boats in the Gulf of Mexico, by Michael J. Tougias Not many Americans realize how close German U-boats came to their shores. Best-selling author Michael Tougias puts us on board U-507 with Commander Harro Schacht as he sneaks into the Gulf ofMexico in the spring of 1942 and wreaks havoc on American shipping.

32 Hell With the Lid Off!-Lt. Hobson and the Sinking of the Merrimac at Santiago, Cuba, 1898, by Patrick S. G rant Faced with the task of keeping the Spanish fleet trapped in Santiago Ha rbor, Lt. Richmond Hobson, a naval constructor, and a crew of volunteers from the US fleet embarked on a risky mission to block the narrow channel by sinking their own ship.

38 Bound for the Arctic and Beyond: Schooner Bowdoin Prepares for Her Second Century of Voyaging, by Michael W. Mahan Designed to sail through the ice packs ofthe Arctic, the solidly built schooner Bowdoin, now a training ship fo r the Maine Maritime Academy, is being restored as she approaches her 1OOth birthday.

Cover: Wavertree in dry dock. (See p ages 18-23 for more on Waverrree.) Photo by Bill Higgins, courtesy ofSouth Street Seaport Museum .

DEPARTMENTS

42 SEA HrsTORY FOR K:rns

48 57 58 59

46

64

4 DECKLOG

5 8

LETTERS NMHS : A CAUSE IN MOTION

MARINE ART NEWS

SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS CALENDAR MARITIME HISTORY ON THE I NTERNET REVIEWS PATRONS

Sea History and the National Maritime Historical Society Sea History e-mail: seahistory@gmail. com; NMHS e-mail: nmhs@seahistory.org; Web site: www.seahistory.org. Ph: 914 737-7878; 800 221-NMHS MEMBERSHIP is invited. Afrerguard $ 10,000; Benefactor $5,000; Plankowner $2,500; Sponsor $1,000; Donor $500; Patton $250; Friend $ I 00; Co ntributor $75; Famil y $50; Regular $35.

All members ourside the USA please add $ I 0 for postage. Sea History is sent to all members. Individual copies cost $4.95 .

SEA HISTORY (iss n 0146-9312) is published quarterly by rh e National Maritime Historical Society, 5 John Walsh Blvd., POB 68, Peekskill NY 10566 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Peekskill NY 10566 and add 'I mailing offices. COPYRIGHTŠ 2016 by the National Maritime Historical Society. Tel: 9 14 737-7878. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sea History, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY


DECK LOG Peter Stanford (1927-2016), His Sea History Legacy In April of 1972, Peter Stanford (1927-2016) and his colleagues at the National Maritime Historical Society published the first issue of Sea History, a sma ll black-and-wh ite periodical covering stories about maritime history and news about historic ship preservation projects. Peter became the official editor by the fourth issue, and for the next fo ur decades, his wo rk and inAuence were ev ident in t he pages of Sea H istory, even long afcer he handed over the helm to subsequent editors. Until his death this spring, he stayed on as editor-at-large, writi ng columns and a rticles, and always available for advice and guida nce. The author of hundreds of magazine art icles and ·lit_ ... Mre•,CHO<;••:,: a number of museum books, Peter Stanford published his las t book with his wife, Norma, in 20 13, A D ream of Tall Ships-How New Yo rkers came together to save the city's sailing-ship waterfront. While he had his hand in maritime projects all over the country-from saving historic ships to encouraging young people to learn maritime trades and finagling opportunities for them to get to sea, to leaning on legislators and barding developers who sought to rep urpose the work in g waterfronts around the country, to coll aborating with other maritime organizations-Peter understood how critica l it was to build a national coalition to supThe debut issue of Sea History port a nd pursue came out in spring of 1972. these goals. A big part of that effort was ca rried our through rhe development of Sea History and its role to serve as the national voice for the ma ritime heritage community. Peter developed Sea History from a 38-page magazine to the internat ionally distributed glossy 64-page issues published today. In its pages, Peter rook on the major themes in the maritime heritage field , as varied as his interests were-which were many. For almost half a century, Sea History has been the singular consistent vehicle to publish the stories of our seafaring heritage and news of what is h ap- Sea History 153, Winter 2015-16 pening today in the maritime world. Through Sea History, Peter brought this community together on a national basis the way he did with friends, in a group aro und a table on m a ny a night, whether in a ship's fo'c's le, at a local watering hole, or an o rdina ry kitchen. Sea History is an enduri ng legacy Peter left us, and it is ou r mission to rake over the watch and keep a steady hand o n the helm as we cont inue on the route he char red for us. Peter understood that the seas ahead a re often filled wit h squalls and shoals, a nd that the cou rse m ade good isn't always the course steered , bur a dedicated and sk illed crew ca n navigate a ship to fa ir winds and calmer wa ters en route to its des tination. Dr. Ray Ashley, president of the Maritime Museum of San Diego, Peter's long-rime colleague a nd friend to the National Maritime Historica l Society said it best:

s~.u.JJ.i~to1iy ~~

SEA HISTORY-

Whenever the odds seemed too daunting or the obj ective unreachable, Peter was always there with his belief in the ability of character and determination to see the voyage through and he made yo u believe in ultimate success because he believed in it. Peter so loved to channel voices from the past; I doubt his own voice will fade for having joined them . The voyage continues. Fair winds, Peter. We have the watch. -Burchenal Green, NMHS President 4

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NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

PUBLISHER'S CIRC LE: Peter Aron, G uy E. C. Maitland, Ro nald L. Oswald OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Chairman, Ronald L. Oswald; Vice Chairman, Richardo R. Lopes; President, Burchenal Green; Vice Presidents, Deirdre O'Regan , We nd y Paggiotta, Na ncy Schn aars; Treasurer, Howard Slornick; Secretary, Jean Wort; Trustees: Charl es B. Anderson; Wah er R. Brown; Wi lliam S. Dud ley; David S. Fowler; W illiam Jackso n G reen; Karen Helmerson; Robert Kamm; Ri chard M . Larrabee; G uy E. C. Maitland; Capt. Brian McAl lister; CAPT Sal ly C hin McElwrea th, USN (Ret.); Michael W. Morrow; Richard Parrick O'Leary; E rik K. O lstein; ADM Robert J. Papp Jr., USCG (Ret.); T im othy ]. Runya n; Ri chard Scarano ; Philip J. Shapiro; Capt. Cesare So ria; Roberta Weisbrod; W ill iam H. White; Chairmen Emeriti: Walte r R. Brown, Alan G . Choate, Guy E. C. Maicland, Howard Slotnick FOUNDER: Karl Kortum (1917-1996) PRESIDENT

EMERJTUS:

Peter

Sta nford

(1927-20 16) OVERSEERS: Chairman , RADM David C. Brown, USMS (Rer. ); RADM Josep h F. Call o, USN (ReL); Geo rge W. Ca rmany Ill ; James J. Co leman Jr. ; C live C ussler; Ri chard du Mo ulin; Alan D. Hutchiso n; Jakob lsbrandtsen; Gary Jobso n; Sir Robin Knox-John sto n; John Lehm an ; Capt. James ]. McNamara; H. C. Bowen Smith; John Srobart; Phi li p j . Webster; W illi am W interer NM H S ADVISORS: Chairman, Melbourne Sm ith; Geo rge Bass, O swald Brett, Francis Duffy, Jo hn Ewa ld , Timothy Foore, Steven A. Hyman , J . Russell Jini shi an, G unn ar Lundeberg, Co nrad Mi lste r, W illiam G. Mull er, Sruarr Parnes, Lori Dillard Rech, Nancy Hughes Richardson, Bert Rogers, Joyce Huber SEA HISTORY ED ITOR IAL ADVISORY BOARD: Chairman, Timothy Runyan; Norma n Brouwer, Robert Browning, W illi am Dudl ey, Daniel Finamore, Kevin Foster, John Jensen, Joseph Meany, Lisa No rlin g, Ca rl a Rahn Phillips, Walter Rybka, Que nrin Snediker, Wi lliam H. W hi te NMHS STAFF: Executive Director, Burchenal Green; Membership Director, Na ncy Schnaars; Marketing Director, Steve Lovass-Nagy; Comptroller, Anjoelin e Osuyah ; Staff Writer, Shell ey Reid; Director of Public Relations, Lisa Fin e; Membership Coordinator, Irene E isenfeld; Charles Point Council Coordinator, Barbara !tty SEA HJSTORY: Editor, Deirdre O'Regan; Advertising, Wendy Paggiotta Sea History is printed by The Lane Press, South Burlington, Vermont, USA.

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 20 16


We Welcome Yo ur Letters! Please send co rrespondence to:

LETTERS

seahistory@gmail.com or Editor, Sea History, 7 Timberknoll Rd., Pocasset, MA 02559

Proceeding Down River In the last issue's "Ship Notes, Seaport & Museum News," the statement regarding SS Columbia's tow from Buffalo, New York, to New York City indicates that the transit will be up the St. Lawrence River. A vessel proceeding to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and sea is on a northeas terly heading with the current down the St. Lawrence River. C HARLES D EROKO

Brooklyn, New York

Ship vs. Boat I read, with interest, the article in the Spring 201 6 issue, concerning the question as to when a vessel should be called a boar or when it should be ca lled a ship. When I was in the US Navy, rherewas a simple solution to this-a vessel over 200 feet in length was designated a ship; a vessel under 200 feet in length was designated a craft. With this criterion we had the "landing craft tank" (LCT) with a length of 120 feet; the "landing ship mechanized," (LSM) at 203 feet, and the "landing ship tank," (LST ) at 330 feet. The LSM and LST were commissioned ships and were thus designated, fo r example: USS LST 1084. The LST later received names. As with every rule there are exceptions, and here the primary exception is the submarine where, with undying affection, they are referred to as boats. Any attempt to try to substantiate the classification of ancient vessels, such as Viking ships (at 60 feet) or clipper ships (at 120 feet) would be almost impossible, so for these we have to just accept tradition. BYRO N A. N ILSSON Liverpool, New York To a naval aviator, it is always "The Boat," rega rdless if it is a 1,100-foor-long nuclea rpowered aircraft carrier, or single helo spot frigate! Tooo VoRENKAMP

•"You can put a boat on a ship, bur you can't put a ship on a boat." •''A vessel is a boat or a ship depending on whatever the owner wants to call it! " The US Supreme Court even got involved in this discussion not too long ago with a court case in Rivieria Beach, Florida, that involved a feud between the owner and resident of a floating house/boat and the city's desire to redevelop the city-owned marina in which it was docked. The city ultimately seized the houseboat after a discrepancy about rent at the marina (and other arguments with the owner). The boar's owner, Fane Lozman, rook the case all the way to the Supreme Court, where it was

decided that the srrucrure was a home, not a boat, and thus could not be seized under federal maritime law. "Bur fo r the fact that it floats, nothing about Lozman's home suggests that it was designed to any practical degree to transport persons or things over water. Ir had no rudder or other steering mechanism," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court's opinion in January 201 3. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote: "In its haste to christen Lozman's craft a non-vessel [the court] delivers an analysis that will confuse the lower courts and upset our longstanding admiralty precedent." You can read the Court's opinion at www.supr em eco u rt. gov/o pi n io ns/ 12pdf/ 11-626_p8k0.pdf.

Lozman's floating home was a 60-foot plywood structure with nopropulsion.

PHOTO FROM SUPREME COU RT O F T H E US, OCT 20 12, LOZMAN V. CITY OF REVJERA BEACH , FLORJDA, APP.

69

Join Us for a Voyage into History Our seafa rin g heri tage comes alive in the pages of Sea History, from t he ancient mari ners of G reece to Portuguese navigators opening up the ocea n world to the heroic effor ts of sailors in modern-day conflicts. Each issue brings new insights and discoveries. If yo u love the sea, r ivers, lakes, a nd

bays- if you appreciate the legacy of those who sail in deep wa ter and their wo rkaday craft, t hen you belong with us.

J oin To<lay ! Mail in the form below, phon e 1 800 221-NM HS (6647), or visit us at: www.seahistory.org (e-ma il : nmhs@sea history.org)

Brooklyn, New York

From the editor: We got lots of responses on this topic-too many to print, but here are a few thoughts to add from various readers: •"According to what I remember from my years in the Navy, if a vessel has a commanding officer and a permanent crew, it's a ship." SEA HISTORY 155, SUM MER 20 16

Yes, I want to join the Society and rece ive Sea History quarterly. My co ntribution is enclosed. ($ 17.50 is for Sea History; any amount above that is cax deductible.) Sign me up as: 0 $3 5 Regular Member 0 $5 0 Family Member 0 $ I 00 Friend 0 $250 Parron 0 $5 00 Do nor Mr./M s.

155

------~-~--~----~----~ZI P_~~~~Retu rn to: acio nal Mari time Histori cal Society, PO Box 68, Peekskill , NY 10566

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In addition to mourning the loss of our president emeritus and long-time editor of Sea History, Peter Stanford, who died the last week in March, we are saddened at the passing of two other important mariners and mentors that same week, both retired United States Coast Guard captains who had served in and guided many aboard USCG Barque EagleCAPT Richard T. "Red" Shannon and CAPT Eric ]. Shaw. Our friend and former Eagle master, CAPT Eric Jones, USCG, shares some memories of his shipmates with us here.

CAPT Richard T. "Red" Shannon, USCG (Ret.) (1934-2016) Like so many in the tall ship community, Captain Richard "Red" Tonra Shannon was a teacher, mentor and inspiration to hundreds of Coast Guard men and women. On the bridge aboard Eagle, with his weather-etched face and frequent glances up into the rig, Red was the perfect image of a windjammer captain from a century past. Having "come up through the hawse," he was nonetheless patient in guiding innumerable cadets on the path to becoming deck watch officers-and better sailors-in the course of his 11-plus years of service in Eagle. Many have heard the story of Eagle's knockdown in 1984 by a strong frontal passage that hours later sank the barque Marques. Red was a calm, quick-thinking, and firm presence as he directed the helmsmen to bring the ship off the wind and back on to an even keel. I know, I was there. Truly a humble Captain Shannon guides officer candi- master mariner, one of the few in the world to date Paul DeSalles on sextant use aboard hold an unlimited tonnage license for sail and Eagle in March 2014. power-Red went on to captain S/Y Sea Cloud and Sea Cloud II, as well as the barque Elissa for a few voyages . An instructor at Massachusetts Maritime Academy and Commissioner of Pilots in Boston until just recently, Red lived his seagoing career to the fullest. Having had Red sit on my very first deck watch officer qualification board in 1986, I was extremely fortunate to have him sail with me aboard Eagle each spring and fall while I was in command from 2009 to 2012. He still enjoyed teaching the cadets navigation and sail handling, and was an endless source of knowledge, from optimizing sail trim to overhauling blocks. Although he will be sorely missed, Captain Shannon has surely already found his way to the quarterdeck on Fiddler's Green. Dr. Eric John Shaw, CAPT, USCG (Ret.) (1957-2016) I have been very fortunate to work and share interests with Captain Eric Shaw in so many aspects of my professional life. I first got to work with him on the Coast Guard ISC Portsmouth, Virginia, waterfront when I arrived as the commanding officer ofUSCGC Harriet Lane and Eric was the commanding officer of the cutter Legare. As the senior commanding officer of the six 270-foot cutters there, Eric was a thoughtful and always helpful mentor, and we five subordinate commanding officers could never figure out how he found the time to oversee a crew of 100, be at sea 6\/2 months each year, and still complete a PhD Captain Shaw with LT Peter Niles dissertation. We obviously shared a strong love planning a Boston Harbor transit. of Eagle and of training future Coast Guard officers, and Eric encouraged and supported my joining the board of directors of Tall Ships America. A sailor, an intellect, a quick wit, a leader and great friend, you've touched us all and will be sorely missed. Fair winds, Captain. -CAPT Eric C. Jones, USCG Executive Assistant to VADM Fred M. Midgette USCG Deputy Commandant for Operations SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016


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NMHS: A CAUSE IN MOTION National Maritime Awards Dinner

l

ore than 300 guests from the diverse fields of the great maritime community-shipbuilders, mariners, historians and museum directors, environmentali sts, artists, and others active in the maritime industry-stood at attention as the yo ung men from the Sea Services Color Guard presented colors, and the Manners C horus of the US Merchant Marine Academy sang the national anthem at the Nation al Press Club gala event~ 01 21 April. This yea r the awards dinner, a joirn effort between the National Maritime Historical Society ~ and the Naval Historical Foundation, was renamed the National Maritime Awards Dinner to more appro pri'" " ately reflect the scope of its reach, gathering rogether the extensive maritime community in our nation's capital @ _ to advocate for the preservation of our seafaring heritage.

M

Dinner co-chairs Dr. T imothy]. Runyan and CAPT Jim Noone, USN (Ret.), expanded this year's dinner committee to include John Brady, president oflndependence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia; Drew McMullen, president of Sultana Education; Professor Joshua Smith, director of the American Merchant Marine Museum at King's Point; Kristen Greenaway, presidem of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum; Dr. Paul John ston, curator of maritime history at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution; Dr. William Cogar, executive director of Historic Naval Ships Association ; Christopher Rowsom, executive director of Historic Ships of Baltimore; and CAPT Patrick Burns, USN, Naval History & Herirage Command. Chris Rowsom (right), executive director ofHistoric Ships ofBaltimore, stands at attention for the Sea Services Color Guard and Mariners Chorus ofthe US Merchant Marine Academy singing ofthe national anthem.

The 2016 National Maritime Award Winners It is our privilege to have honored Stephen B. Phillips, Charles A. Robenson, and Andrew C. Taylor. Through these awards, we demonstrate that positive strides can be made in preserving our maritime heritage, and encourage others to follow the example set by our honorees. In accepting their awards, all three of these leaders in their respective fields acknowledged the debt they owed to this great nation, and their app reciation for the work NMHS and NHF and the maritime heritage gro ups presern at the awards dinner do in reminding Americans about how importam it is to know our history.

Stephen B. Phillips David Rockefeller Jr., the 20 10 recipiem of the NMHS Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Maritime Education for Sailors for the Sea, preDavid Rockefeller semed Stephen Phillips with his (above) welcomes award. Both men are so active Stephen Phillips (left) in ocean conservation, which is to the podium to more critical every year; it was accept his award. a particular honor to see them on stage together. David Rockefeller recoumed how Mr. Phillips, as a third generation waterman, was able to build a global emerprise in blue swimming crab and establish international indu stry-wide, enforced crab sustainability. Steve Phillips accepted the award wi th great humility, a nd in hi s remarks he honored those who served our country so well in the past, giving us the opportunity to enjoy the freedoms we have today.

Charles A. Robertson Former New York Yacht C lub Commodore Robert L. James, an imernational yacht racing winner and the former chairma n and CEO of global advertising agency network McCann Erickson, presemed the award to C harles Robertson with the gracious style of Robert fam es presents the NMHS Distinguished Service Award to Charles Robertson.

8

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016


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an old and dea r friend, saying that nor only is C harlie the head of a cruise line, bur that "he hangs the metal himself on the new ship, it is his greatest joy... Charlie Robertson nor only runs the most successful cruise line in the country, bur he has also trained and encouraged his three sons to wo rk in the business and carry it forwa rd ." In his accepta nce remarks, M r. Robertson encouraged our guests to support the very important work of the Society.

Andrew C. Taylor The award to Andrew Taylor was presented by Admiral James A. "Sandy" Winnefield Jr., USN, the ninth vice chairman of rhe Joint C hiefs of Staff, the nation's seco nd highest-ranking military officer. Admiral W innefeld recounted his first meeting in 2000 with A ndy and his fat her, Jack, at a pier-side dinner aboard USS Enterprise, an event orga ni zed to thank them for their contributions toward the History Room onboard rhe Enterprise, and how he came to respect the Taylor family, which worked to honor and support those w ho served our country. In introducing Mr. Taylor, Admiral Winnefeld described Admiral WinnefeLd (Left), and Barbara and him as "a great Andrew Taylor are welcomed by master of American patriot ceremonies, Gary Jobson (right).

Guests are entranced by NMHS Vice Chairman Rick Lopes's video about Andrew Taylor, here featuring his father, Lieutenant Jack Taylor, who served as a combatpilot aboard USS Enterprise (CV-6).

and businessman quietly making great things happen for other people." Andy Taylor spoke about how his father, Jack, had flunked our of college bur had always had a dream to fly. The US Navy not on ly gave him the opportunity to fly, bur more importantly, taught him the discipline, leadership, and ream-building skill s that made him a successful bu sinessman. He is honored to hire reservists and veterans and to give back.

Admiral Robert]. Papp Jr., USCG (Ret.), the 24'h Command ant of the US Coast Guard, spoke movingly of our president emeritus Peter Stanford, who died on 24 March. Gary Jobson proved, once agai n, a witty and insightfu l master of ceremonies. There is more to tell, but then, if I tell yo u aLL the stories, yo u wo uldn't be so intrigued to join us in 2017, and that wo uld be a shame. -Burchenal Green, NMHS President

Dinner co-chairmen Dr. Timothy Runyan (left) and CAPTJames Noone, USN (Ret.), (right) welcome (from left to right) Admiral Winnefeld, Andrew Taylor, Ronald Oswald, Robert James and Gary Jobson. SAVE THE D ATE

Dinner C hairman George W. Carmany III invites you to Save The D ate: Wednesday, 26 October 2016, for the National Maritime Historical Society Annual Awards Dinner at the world-famous New York Yacht Club in New York C ity. C hampion yachtsman Richard du Moulin will serve as mas ter of ceremo nies. Charles Townsend will be awarded the NMHS Distinguished Service Award. The NMHS David A. O ' eil Sheet Anchor Award will go to Captain Cesare Sorio. We will pay tribute to our president emeri tus and long-time editor of Sea History, Peter Stanford. Check the NMHS website at www.seahistory.org for details as the date approaches. SEA HISTORY 155, SUMME R 20 16

9


Fair Winds, Peter The National Maritime Historical Society and the maritime heritage community celebrate the life and legacy

of

NMHS president emeritus and decades-long editor of Sea History, Peter Stanford, who died on 24 March 2016. by Shelley Reid

One afternoon, as I was sitting in the kitchen of the farmhouse I was renting, the phone rang and it was Karl Kortum at the other end. I knew Karl from the Washington effort to save the bark Kaiulani, and had visited him in his San Francisco office when I was there on a ship in 1965. He said, 'Tm coming to New York this weekend. You should come down and meet this fellow Peter Stanford."-Norman Brouwer, maritime historian "This fellow, Peter Stanford"-not long before this meeringwith Norman Brouwer, he had worked in advertising. He was a Navy veteran of the Second World War; even then, David Hooper, a fellow serviceman, remembered that Peter was "ship mad, always mad for ships." He went on ro H arva rd for an undergraduate

Peter Stanford (1927-2016) degree and ro King's College, Cambridge-choosing ro make the journey across the pond as a mate in the gaff cutter Iolaire-for a master's degree, remaining in London for over a year afterward ro work in a bookstore while pursuing an interest in naval history at the National Maritime Museum before returning to the United States. He worked in publishing and market research, before turning to advertising, starting out at McCann-Erickson in the mail room and working his way to the position of copy supervisor. But even as he was earning a name for himself in 10

advertising, other, more sweeping ideas were percolating. As the legendary maritime history activist Karl Kortum was later to tell artist John Stobart: "Peter sees things that are not yet there." Peter and his wife, Norma, were chased by an idea. A trip to San Francisco's Hyde Street Pier h ad inspired them; the San Francisco Maritime Museum (today the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park) oversaw a collection of historic ships, including the square-rigged museum ship Balclutha, drawing visitors to the waterfront. It got them to thinking: "what if there were such a center in New York, not under the trees, but under ships' masts that stir to the tides that bind the world together?" The more they discussed the idea of bringing sailing ships back to South Street with like-minded friends , the more the idea took shape. They felt it was vital to preserve the historic buildings of the neighborhood as well, to capture the flavor of the working waterfront. In November of 1966, Peter, Norma, and Bob Ferraro founded Friends of the South Street Seaport Museum to set the wheels in motion. They each chipped in a dollar, following the advice of preservationist Margot Gayle, to keep early dues low, so as to allow anyone to become a member: "Ir's important that the member knows that he or she has an actual share in your venture-it becomes not your venture, but ours." Peter and Norma, and the handful of people that shared their vision of bringing the "S treet of Ships" back to South Street, worked tirelessly to enlist support from anyone who would listen. Early on, for example, they caught the attention of a young Joseph Meany Jr., a man who would later become New York's State Historian. I had begun graduate study in history at Fordham University. But one day, early in that warm summer session, I decided I would take an afternoon off and visit the New York Boat Show at the Coliseum. There I collected brochures and wandered among the yachts that filled the exhibition hall, the smallest of which was well beyond my reach. Ir was then that I spotted Peter Stanford. H e was seated behind a small card table sandwiched between the hulls of two enormous yachts. On the card table was a cardboard model of the Greek revival warehouses in Schermerhorn Row and the three East River piers with tiny model ships in each slip. Peter engaged me immediately. He explained that the model represented a plan and a dream of what the South Street Seaport Museum could SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER2016


Built by architect Leevi Kiil, this cardboard model ofhow the Stanfords envisioned what South Street could be included the city's early 1800s buildings facing the East River. Among the vessels represented were the schooners Ernestina and Alice S. Wentworth. Kaiulani, the ship that would inspire the founding of the National Maritime Historical Society, is the square rigger prominently featured. j ust ten years after this model was created, South Street Seaport Museum hosted the visiting sailing ships that came to participate in OpSail '76

eventually become. The museum would use this last corner of the old seaport to preserve and interpret New York C ity's maritime past-fo r New Yorkers and the country. I could join the effort, he said, be part of ir. Membership was one dollar. Thar was even within the resources of a "starving grad student," he said with a twinkle in his eye. I joined immediately. NMHS treasurer and chairman emeritus Howard Slotnick recalls: This dollar membership led to 20-odd years as a trustee of the South Street Seaport Museum; involvement in the establishment of OpSail '76 and '86 with international trips with Frank Braynard to bring rail ships to America; and to my involvement with the US Coast Guard over rhe last 4 0 yea rs, and as a trustee of the Coast Guard Foundation and sa ilor on America's Tall Ship, rhe USCG Barque Eagle. Ir led ro my becoming a trustee, chairman and treasurer of rhe National Maritime Historical Society. The best part of the journey Peter led me on was the friends rhar were made throughout the world. Thar dollar membership? The mos t expensive buck I ever spentbur also rhe most worthwhile.

The membership of rhe lirrle group grew by leaps and bounds; responses to mailings overwhelmed rhe little mail box they had rented from the New York Yacht Club, necessitating directing mail to the home of an obliging aunt of Peter's, and in the spring of 1967 Peter and Norma each quit their day jobs, his with Compton Advertising and hers with the Arts Councils of America, to devote their efforts to the project full rime. The museum , occupying warehouse space in Fulton Street, opened its exhibit space with a reception on Maritime Day, 22 May. The Sranfords sailed to Manhattan to mark the occasion in Athena, rhe 35-foor 1925 schooner they had purchased three yea rs before:

[W]e decided, our message of the heri tage of seafarin g under sai l wo uld be delivered by our schooner Athena, as a lineal descendant of the Gloucester schooners that once (left) When Burl Ives paid a visit to South Street in the summer of 1969, the Stanfords invited children from the public housing just north ofthe Brooklyn Bridge to join them for a sing-along. Soon city kids were belting out Bound Away to the Westward in the Dreadnought We Go and Spanish Ladies. Later, Burl Ives recorded these songs and others for the album Songs They Sang in South Street, which was released by South Street Seaport Museum.

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016

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thronged the Fulron Fish Market. .. H er role in the Seaport h ad been m ore than passive, the essential ideas of the ve nture h aving been sh aped in meetings with old salts and yo ung volunteers gathered aro und her cabin table. Join ing the Stanfords and South Street Friends members Jim Kirk and David Johnsron aboard the Athena that day were Ka rl and Jea n Ko rtum, marine artist Os Brett, and Cape Horn veteran A rchie H orka (a name longtime Sea History readers will recogni ze, as we have reprinted excerpts from his memoirs on more than one occas ion). The 40-year-old schoone r was to remain the museum's honorary sailing ambassador- hos ting the Schooner Race for the Mayor's C up and carrying young people on the water for museum programs-until the Stanfords sold her in 1973. As Joe M eany had noted, integral to the vision of the South Stree t Seaport Museum was a collection of shi ps, represented even on the model they displayed when pro motin g the idea. O n an exped ition to the Falkland Islands and Buenos Aires in 1963, Ka rl Kortu m had identified the iron hul k of the forme r square-rigger Wavertree, which had been convened fo r use as a sand barge. 1hi s sh ip, he ass ured Peter and Norma, was the perfect ship for their growing museum. It took years to raise sufficient funds to purchase the shi p, make in itial repairs, and tow her to New York, but in August of 1970 Wavertree arrived at South Street to ass ume he r ri ghtful place on the Manhattan waterfrom . Work on Wavertree commenced , and an eager crew of vo)umeers assembled to slowly restore the square rigger to her for mer stature. One such volumeer, now curator of the Erie Maritime M useum and senior capta in of the brig Niagara, Walter Rybka, remembers:

Peter Stanford is awed by the size ofhis museum's new artifact.

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Seven years after Wavertree was rediscovered in Argentina, she finally arrived in New York Harbor to take her place as the flagship ofSouth Street Seaport.

C lamberi ng up the brow I was met by Joe Farr, reti red master mariner and now ship keeper, and excitedly told h im I wa nted to volun teer. He as ked what I could do, and I was quick to show my tools, a small carpentry kit th at I carried in a backpack. Farr led me aft and onto the poop deck and introduced me to Peter and Norma

Off to work for Peter. 1here was no department at South Street Seaport in which Peter Stanford didn't have a hand. From chipping rust in the bilge ofa ship to working the phones or researching/or exhibits, he was everywhere at once and thrilled to be there.

SEAHlSTORY 155, SUMMER 201 6


Sranford, rhe founders and ar rhe rime very hands-on managers ofSourh Streer Seaport Museum. I recall being impressed rhar Perer was wea ring a rie, his suir jacker hanging on a belaying pin, while varnishing rhe ship's wheel. Norma had a bru sh in hand as well. Rybka asked to be pur to work, and, afrer some discussion as to whar rask he wo uld be besr suired for a guy wirh a ser of woodworking tools on an iron ship, he was given a rask-painting rhe iron hub of the wheel. Insrant parriciparion came with a handshake, such was improvisarional informality of rhe rime. South Street Seaport Museum was in its infa ncy, carving out an urban Robinson Crusoe exisrence of the derelict remains of a once thriving maritime civilization. During rhose early yea rs, rhe museum acquired orher vessels-the lighrship Ambrose, rhe schooners Lettie G. Howard and Pioneer, and rhe Flying P Liner Peking-and developed exhibits to carry rhe museum's message. Visirs to rhe museum lefr a las ting impress ion on Joe Meany: There were exhibits, m emorable ones rhar Perer and Norma created from scratch. One I remember in particular was Seaport City: New York, 1776, done for rhe bicentennial of rhe American Revolurion. Ir was a small exhibit, jusr a storefront really, bur unique in rhar ir had examples of all rhe cargoes broughr to New York by sea. You could smell rhose commodities and run yo ur hands into sacks of spices-nor exacrly orthodox museum practice, bur an experience visirors, especially kids, would nor soon forget. And rhere were exhibits on rhe ships as well. One I remember aboard rhe Wavertree, poignamly, rhrough lerrers and phorographs, interprered rhe hardships of shipboard life on rhe "Cape Horn Road ." Perer and Norma, self-raughr, were no mean exhibit planners, designers, and fabricators. They did ir all-and did ir well. People were moved. Whar berrer impacr can a museum exhibit have? While South Srreer Seaport Museum was fending off real esrare developers and serring dow n roors, Karl Kortum was urging acrion on orher fronts; one such project was rhe Nariona l Maritime Historical Society. Origi nally incorporated in Washington, D C, wirh lawyer Alan Hurchison ar irs head, NMHS was founded in 1963 to save rhe Sewall-built square-rigger Kaiulani, languishing in rhe Philippines, and bring her to rhe waterfront of our nation's capital as a tangible tie to our nation's maritime past. Emergi ng business commirmenrs m ade it impossible for Hutchison to continue to lead rhe organization, which was struggling. Rarher than allow the group ro disband, Karl Kortum pressed Perer, who had been involved as a member, to step in as president. As Peter explained in A D ream of Taff Ships: "one of the trustees later nored, rhey had come to Washington expecting a funeral, and Perer Stanford jumped our of rhe coffin ." NMHS moved its headquarters to Sourh Street, and thus began a new Aurry of ac riviry, including the founding of the Sea Museums Council (predecessor of the Co uncil of American Maritime Museums), the American Society of Marine Artists, SEA HISTORY 155 , SUMMER 2016

Peter Stanford delights in sharing the "Treasures of Snug Harbor" about the work ofJohn Noble, featured in the Autumn 1983 issue ofSea Hisory, with Tim Pouch (left), Margaret Po rritizi, and Mel Hardin (right) at an eventfor the Staten Island Council on the Arts. and rhe World Ship Trust. To spread rhe word of rhe many new developments, and to share stories of historic ships, and sa ilors who had lived the life, the magazine Sea History was born . The firsr issue of Sea History reporrs news of the museum s that h ave formed the [Sea Museums] C ouncil. Sea H istory wi ll improve com munications berween rhese museums, and between them and th e public who love rhe waters of the earrh and rhe vessels rhar ply rhem, from canoes and canal barges to great square riggers and steamers. The Sea Museums Council and Sea History are the begi nning of a new era of cooperation. Join Us. We welcome yo ur company. (Sea History 1, April 1972, p. 5) With these words, readers were introduced to rhe firsr issue of Sea History, the voice of rhe Narional Mari rime Historical Society. As editor of Sea H istory, Perer guided rhe magazine as ir evolved from a modes r magazine focusing on campaigns to save historic vessels to rhe publicarion we know today, reaching our in all direcrions to gather stories abour naval history, exploration, archaeology, arr, sail training, replicas, museums, and everyrhing in between. For ma ny readers of Sea H istory, however, Perer Sranford was rhe insigh rfu l storyreller who broughr rhem rhe Cape Horn Road , a recurring series wirh a scope as big as history: early sailors in rhe Med irerra nea n, Viking ships, far-reaching journeys of explorarion, rhe emergence of sream power. In laying our his intemion s for rhe series, he explained it thu sly: Ro unding Cape Horn beca me rhe defining ac r rhar marked ships and men as a breed apart. A ship making rhat passage from the Atlanric to the Pacific world is called a Cape Horner. And her people are called Cape Homers. Historically, rhe rounding of Cape Horn was the turning point in rhe voyaging impulse rhar bega n some 5,000 years ago, an impulse rhar finally opened rhe whole world to trade and to rhe inrerchange of peoples and ideas just a few hundred years ago. A defining development, we may agree, in rhe story of mankind.

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The Cape H orn Road capcivaced readers fo r 22 inscallments, over most recently in the pages of Sea History he lent his voice to supche course of six years. ADM Robert Papp Jr., USCG, (Rec.), port the resurgence of South Street, and to bid fa rewell to our good friend, the late Pere Seeger. mascer of "America's flagship," USCG Barque Eagle, from 1995By 1976 Peter and Norma had left South Street Seaport 1999, and lacer commandant of che US Coasc G uard, once told NMHS president Burchenal G reen char he had jusc received che Museum to devote their full attention to N MHS, wh ich had lacesc issue of Sea History: "I am waicin g to read chis chapcer of moved out of South Street to set up headquarters in a defunct Cape H orn Road. le is a wo nderful series, and I learn so much." fireboat-house and pier in Brooklyn. From this vantage point, True co for m, when he reached che conclusion of che series, Pecer Peter envisioned an "East River Renaissa nce," the keysto ne of gave no indicacion he was ready to give his cruscy cypewricer a which wo uld be restoring ferry service linking Fulton Street in resc. H e had work to do, and he expecced no less of his fa ichful Manhattan with Fulton Stree t in Brooklyn. A New York Daily News article appearing in November 1979 stated that Peter "saw readers: the revived run as a means to bring people back ro the city's As we end chis voyage, che mission continues, discovering nt and to increase their consciousness of the important waterfro ics world and someching of ics purposes in char worldrole played by the harbor in the city's development." H e negotinaming ics parts, sounding ics seas, and developing che ated with a boat operator to take up the ferry route for a d ay, as music of ics meanings. Aren'c chose che kind of chings a means of demonstrating the idea's potential, and NMHS orgachar, in che end, all chis long voyaging was abouc? (The nized a day of music, food and drink to mark che occas ion . The Cape H orn Road, "Envoy" Sea History 92 , p. 9) Pecer continued to lead Sea History as editor until passing che . boar operator backed out, but then-NMHS assiscam direcro r baton to Juscine Ahlscrom in 1999, ass uming che posicion of Cindy Goulder relaces: Pecer was undaunted .. . For the firsc rime since 1924, editor-ac-large, to continue to offer guidance and pen articles. A private cicizens fer ried back and fo rth across che river, notorious sel f-editor, he wo uld hammer away at an article, then chis rime on boars provided by che N YC D epartment of take a red pen-and, sometimes, actual scissors-to his work, Ports and Terminals a nd che Pioneer M arine School. rearranging, adding new thoughts, rewording others. His penchant fo r m aking changes right up th ro ugh the moment when our Some even arrived ac the party by being ferried to ic. And, printer was typesetting the magazine drove the rest of the staff crowning the evening, che Accing Commissioner of Ports and Terminals announced char a reques t for proposals crazy, but it was generally worth the trouble, once you saw the finished produce. H e remained editor-at-large until his passing; had been issued and chat bidding for regular franchised ferry service, to begin in spring 1980, was officially open. Ferry service didn'c gee scarred in 1980. le wasn'c until 2002 char New York Water Taxi began operacion. New York Wacerways, based in New Jersey, added ics Eas e River runs soon thereafter. le had caken cwenty-chree yea rs and many complex and challenging dealings, bur che Daily News prediccion of 1979 had ac lase come crue: "If all goes well, a reac tivated Fulcon Ferry jusc mighc sift through an Ease Rive r fog so me morning like a ghosc ship of its predecessors.. ., and if it does ic will sail righc ouc of the heart of Peter Stanfo rd." For me, ic always will. U nder Pecer and Norm a's leadership, NM H S relocated to Croton-on-Hudson, New York, and chen to ics present locacion in Peekskill, on che Hudson River. The organization was accive on many fronts: ic co-sponsored che Millennial M aricime C onfe rence in 2000, and che triennial Maricime H ericage C onferences, and bro ughc call ships up che Hudson fo r che bicemennial of Rockland County, N ew York. U nder che imprint of Sea History Press, ic broughc the class ics lhe Skipper and the Eagle by Gordon M cGowan and Irving Johnson's Peking Battles Cape Horn to a new generacion of readers, and published Norman Brouwer's International Register ofHistoric Ships. Sea History welcomed the new fea tu re "Sea History for Kids," to introduce younger readers to che wo nderful sto ries of our seafaring pasc. H e was to lead NMH S as presidem umil retiring in 2003.

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Peter and Norma Stanford coffaborated to write A Dream of Tall Ships, teffing the story ofthe inspiration for the South Street Seaport Museum and the people who came together to make it happen. SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 201 6


Over the yea rs Peter had a part in bringing many vessels to a new mission, including the barque Elissa, the Liberty Ship john W Brown, the tug Mathilda, the tug Eppleton Hall, and the schooner Ernestina-Morrissey. His support manifested in the form of expertise, letter-writing campaigns, exposure through the pages of Sea History, and more. NMHS trustee Jean Wort shared the story of Peter's involvement with the 1917 ferry M/V Commander: Peter's vast knowledge helped steer us in the right direction. When we applied to place the vessel on the National Register of Historic Places, his letters of support detailed not only Commander's service in World War I in Brooklyn Navy Yard and Rockaway Air Station towing barrage balloons, but why it was one of the lase operati ng vessels illustrating the transition from the age of steam to diesel power. H e encouraged us to provide a floating classroom to tell the history of the Hudson, introduced us to many of his maritime friends such as Pete Seeger who got us involved in cleaning up the river, and in wonderful maritime organizations such as NMHS. Perhaps the most unusual vessel Peter Stanford had a hand in rescuing was marine artist John Noble's houseboat studio, which had been brought ashore and partially dismantled. Erin Urban of the Noble Maritime Museum remembers the family asking her to arrange for the houseboat co be destroyed, rather then keep ic around in such condition. Peter goc word of this and was horrified. Along with Joe Dirsa, Noble's pal from Bayonne, he engineered cowing the houseboat across the Kill va n Kull, a voyage chat almost sunk ic, to Marine Power and Light on Richmond Terrace. God knows what he thought would happen or how we wo uld ever be able to restore it. But in the process of saving it, Peter became, as Noble would say, "a sort of grandfather" to the Noble Maritime Collection. H e advised me to apply for a charter, wh ich would make us a not-for-profit museum capable of raising money. That was in 1984. In 1992, we left the Noble home and came to Building D, a derelict National Historic Landmark at Snug Harbor Cultural Center. We scored the houseboat studio at Pouch Terminal, thanks to Tim and Nancy Pouch, who were pals of Peter, for the next eight years, until the building was res cored and we could concentrate on the studio restoration. le is now the centerpiece of the

Noble Maritime Collection, and as a writer for the New Yorker wrote in the Talk ofthe Town, "the snuggest workplace on Earth."

Artist John Noble aboard his houseboat studio in 1947

1he interior ofjohn Noble's houseboat studio today. 1hanks in part to Peter, the houseboat was fully restored and is now open to visitors to the Noble Maritime Collection museum. In the years since 9/11, South Street Seaport Museum had been struggling mightily; financial difficulties had forced ic to furlough staff in 2011, and while Hurricane Sandy in 2012 spared the museum's vessels (thanks in no small part co the efforts of their caretakers) museum buildings were severely flooded and damaged, serving up a double whammy: costly repairs, and no way to admit paying visitors to fill the coffers. Peter and Norma again took up the standard co advocate for the museum's rescue; working with the Save Our Seaport committee strategizing co get the museum back on its feet again. Their greatest contribution was to sift through their collection of notes, and letters, and weave all of the pieces cogecher, culminating in A Dream of Tall Ships-

How New Yorkers came together to save the city's sailing-ship waterfront. Their memoir of the evolution of South Street Seaport from

1he houseboat studio at Pouch Terminal prior to restoration, c. 1991 SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 20 16

the spark of an idea to a vital component of the historic neighborhood and thriving home for a fleet of historic vessels helped co remind supporters of the principles that originally inspired people from all walks oflife to lend their talents co the cause, and co tell the museum's story to a new generation.

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Peter's visions of"things that are not yet there" continued to inspire those around him. In 2002, still drive n to carry the message to a larger audience, he became the founding chairman of the Working Watercraft Com mittee, later renamed the Working H arbor Committee, to increase awareness and appreciatio n of New York H arbor and the craft that earned their keep there. Offshore magazine's Betsy H aggerty wrote of the organization's inaugural event, organized to offer visitors tours of the harbor via ferry boat: It was May 18, Maritime Day, and the weather could not have been worse-heavy rain, wind, with the temperature in the low 50s. A total of seven people ca me to take the tours. At one point Stanford and I were the only people aboard the tour boat. Most people wo uld have called the day a dism al failure and dropped the whole idea. Not Peter Stanford. He immediately started pl anning for the following year, and with better weather and better publicity, Stanford had a hit show. 1hat year, 2,50 0 people took 90-minute "Hidden H arbor" tours to pl aces along the Brooklyn, Staten Island and New Jersey shores that many of them didn't know existed.

Peter enjoying a brisk sail aboard a replica of the America in 1967. Working H a rbor Committee interim executive director, Meg Black remembers: My favo rite memory of Peter was when he joined us for a fun day out on the water with over 350 children, ages 7-10, from settlement houses throughout NYC. All the kids had a map of the harbor with stickers they would place on the map when they identified things they saw in the harbor. I remember how thrilled Peter was to see all the yo ungsters bein g introduced to our wo rking waterfront. To this day, I'm still not sure who had more fun- Peter, or the kids! Bringin g these programs to Ii fe took a lot of work, and Peter, like Karl Kortum, never hesita ted to press others to face the tasks that had to be done. Terry Walton, a veteran of the early yea rs at South Street and a colleague at the Work ing Waterfront Co m-

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mittee, recalls "... Peter saying "Avanti! " when he wa nted to move things along, writing things in his little black journal con fir ming details to augment his prodigious m emory, and saying "Well, good, w hy don't we ..."and yo u just knew that "we" was "you." Bob Ferraro, another ve teran of the South Street days, was similarly st ruck by Peter's talent for inspiring peo ple to give their all. In the immortal words of our ga rbage man of sa inted memory Joe Cantalupo-words which Peter never tired of repeating-"other museum s are for people, our museum is people." A nd those people came in the tens of thousands because of Peter. Peter undersrood that a leader's power was only as strong as the will of the people at his back. A nd he was a master at invigorating that will. He was a happy war rior who loved the C hu rchillian mandate: Action This Day! And if a volunteer h appened to act ually complete a proj ect that day... well, then he'd present yo u with something else that needed Action 1his D ay! No time to sit on laurels. It drove a lazy guy like me nuts, but got results! He was a force of energy whose vector always pointed forward. Peter's half-century of service and dedication did not go unappreciated by the maritime heritage community. He was recognized with an honorary doctorate ofletters by the SUNY Maritime College, and received the Indi a House's James A. Kelly Award, the USS Constitution Museum's Don Turner Award, and the Distinguished Service Award For the H arbor of New York-New Jersey from the Working H arbor Committee; he was honored by the National Park Service Foundation , the Municipal A rt Society, the Parks Council, the American Mercha nt Marine Museum and the Port Promotion Association. NM H S presented him with its own D avid A. O ' Neil Sheet A nchor Award for his decad es of leadership and untiring ded ication to the cause. W hen the maritime world learned of Peter's passing, people responded with an outpouring of notes and emails abo ut their memories, painting a picture of the extent of his efforts over the years, and the lives he had touched: ve terans of the early days of South Street, maritime activists in their ow n right who were set on the path through hi s example, artists, authors, ship lovers and armchair sa ilors, histor ians, and museum and museum-ship volunteers. There were fa r too many than we cou ld print here in these few pages, but Tall Ships America's Bert Rogers captured the sentiment that they-a nd we-s hare: Much of the richness we enjoy today, evidenced in the expa nsion of the operational tall ships Beet and a myriad of maritime mu seums and preservation projects, ca n be traced to public appreciat ion that Peter Stanford cultivated through hi s wo rk at South Street Seaport Mu seum and National Maritime Historical Society. It is sa fe to say that had he not made such heroic efforts at such a criti ca l time in our national evolutio n, much of thi s maritime heritage activity wo uld have been marginalized, or perhaps never even undertaken. Leaders such as Peter are few. Peter saw beyond the hori zon, and charted a course for us to fo llow. Tall Ships America, and the ships and sailors of sai l tra ining who ca rry on the seafa ring traditions in their daily lives, are proud to sail in his wake. Th ank you Peter, and fear not, the voyage continues. ,t

SEA HISTORY 155 , SUMMER 20 16


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 areaa 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 Cape Horn Road Part IL¡ How the Sails ofthe Square-rigged Ship Got their Names by Peter Stanford (1927-2016), NMHS President Emeritus and Sea History Editor-at-Large.

In 1994, Peter Stanford introduced Sea History readers to The Cape Horn Road, a new series which, when it concluded six years later with its 22nd installment, had covered the beginnings of seafaring, took readers along on the great journeys of exploration, and examined the changing configuration of vessels from the Age of Sail to the era of steam power. In true storyteller fashion, Peter often grounded his stories in experiences closer to home. In Part II of The Cape Horn Road, re-printed here in fond remembrance of Peter's popular series, he explores the sails of the squarerigger and what their names can tell us of the men who sailed them. He connects us to them via Wll:vertree, the crown jewel of South Street Seaport Museum, a square rigger carrying the lessons of the Age of Sail to new generations on Manhattan's historic waterfront.

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cross the watery avenue of the East River, a pellucid morning sky gleamed above the houses of Brooklyn Heights. I had lived there till age thirteen, and I cherished the look of the rooftops etched against that sky, as perhaps primitive man cherished the landmarks of his home territory, where every old tree, every spring, every notable feature was presided over by a tutelary spirit. From the far side of rhe river, a dazzling path of molten silver flowed out between the hulls of the great sailing ships in South Street, Peking and Wavertree, as though the local god had spilled it out to show what he could do when he was feeling generous. A frowning Jakob Isbrandrsen appeared, hurrying down Pier 15 to turn the corner and head past me to some item he'd left behind in his car. "God, what a morning! " I said. Jakob paused in his headlong progress and looked at me suspiciously. "Ir's beautiful," I explained, sweeping my arm toward the river. Jakob turned to look at the light flooding upon us between the ships and said very seriously: "All mornings are beautiful, Peter." So began another day's work on the ship. For what had drawn us to the city waterfront at that early hour of a Saturday morning was, of course, the work on the ship Wavertree, which we scratched and scraped away at, while dreaming of the money needed to see her fully restored. And, of course, where we were wasn't just anywhere; it was the Street of Ships, as South Street was known around the world, until the ships departed, a half century before. I am not going to debate with you whether it made any sense to bring back

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Ihis classic portrait ofthe Wavertree in her prime was taken in the 1890s in San Francisco, by T H. Wilton's Elite Studio.

the great hulk of the Wavertree, object of our attentions; this was a matter of primordial instinct with us and with the people we had enlisted in the project under the recruiting slogan: "Dirty work, long hours, no pay." I have invited you thus far into this act of restoration, reader, so that you can join in the learning to be got out of a Cape Horn sailing ship like the Wavertree, and know why we so desire to see her re-rigged. The fact is that these old ships have immense appeal, not just to Jakob and me, but to people of every imaginable walk of life, including scholars, office workers, millionaires, school children, and dock wallopers. Part of the reason for this fascination may be that an oceangoing sailing ship is a depository of an amazing variety of inherited ideas and practices. Her design is

an amalgam of things that worked at sea, arrived at largely by shedding those that didn't. This goes for the arching bows, the sweeping sheer and the slightly crowned deck, the raised poop deck aft and the neatly tucked-up stern. And this extends to a thousand details, like the height of the topmasts compared to the lowermasts, and the fact that foremast, mainmast and mizzen are each made up of three separate pieces: lower, topmast and topgallant, with royal mast and skysai l pole separately named but integrated as one piece of wood with the tall tapering topgallant. These things make up a whole that a sailor can recognize from a mile away. Even when shorn of the top hamper that makes her a sailing ship, serving out her postsailing days as a sand barge in the refusecluttered, stygian estuary of the Riachuela in Buenos Aires, the Wavertree kept her

SEAHISTORY 155, SUMMER2016


form and wholeness, her integrity. When I went to visit her there and spoke to waterfront people to try to learn something of the vessel's working career on the waterfront, I gradually noticed that they did not call her ponton, or barge, as they called other hulks, but el gran velero-the great sailing ship. She spoke coherently to them, all right! And she and her breed speak to others today. O nce, waking early one morning in San Francisco, I went to visit the Cape Horner Balclutha on the waterfront therea ship similar (but different, reader, different!) to the Wavertree. The early morning sunlight gilded her spars and wavered in watery patterns on the curved grey-pa inted plating of her bows, rising from the salt water that clucked and murmured around it. As I stood with my head thrown back, tracing those fire-tipped lances of her yards and mast trucks as pi ring to a limitlessly promising heaven, I felt someone pass by. It was a yo ung mother wheeling a wicker pram with a very yo ung child inside. She turned around after a bit and wheeled it back across the disused railroad tracks and asphalt of the waterfront. A little embarrassed to approach her as a stranger, I asked

her what she was doing there. "Walking my child," was her spirited reply. I looked at the warehouse buildings, the wide sweep of the deserted Embarcadero, and then at the yo ung woma n standing against the gaunt, challenging shape of the ship, under the far-seeing gaze of the white robed wooden figurehead borne by the Balclutha. "Ir's a good place co be," she concluded, smiling "Don't you think so?" I did think so. That young person she was wheeling up and down over the rough tarred roadway was being brought up in a way to soak in, from the very outset of his own life's course, the challenge and the beauty of the high endeavor pursued by people before his time, who helped build the world he will inherit. How far back do those efforts go, beyond these surviving Cape Horn sailing ships? And what was the sailing abo utwhy did people make this huge extended effort that brought mankind ultimately to Cape Horn and that built the Cape Horner, the ultimate sea chariot, to make the voyage? Learning from Royals and Gallants The quest for the truth of the Cape Horn

Mainmast Foremast

sailing ship might well begin with the naming of the Wavertree's masts: starting at the bow, the fore, main and mizzen; then each mast reaches skyward in three sections. In the case of her mainmast, the stout iron lower mast reaches 69 feet above the deck, and its wooden topmast, 52 feet long, which with needed overlap at the doubling, reaches 37 feet 6 inches farther up; and finally the topgallant (not yet stepped as these words are written) will reach 60 feet 6 inches above that-so that its truck is 166 feet above the deck, or abo ut 16 stories high. When Wavertree was launched in 1885, she was rigged for a skysail, so the skysail pole is included in her tapering, slender topgallantmast. And the history of the development of the Cape Horn sailing ship is recited in the naming of those masts and the sails they carry. The topmast sail, in this case the skysail, was obviously added last in the evolution of the full-fledged sailing ship . It sounds like a word from the practical 1800s, tipping its hat not to royalty or gallantry, but to a natural phenomenon, the sky. And indeed we find this sail blooming on American ships as the 1800s open, Americans having every reason to cram on all the sail The Wavertree's sister Milverton, whose sail plan is shown here, sports the main skysail the Wavertree was built to carry. Both ships were denuded of this lofty kite to economize on labor.

Mizzen

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SEAHISTORY 155, SUMMER2016

-

19


a ship would carry, as against the English, Dutch and others sailing in regulated trades, principally to their own colonies, with less need to push so hard . The little brig Pilgrim , which Richard H enry Dana sailed in around Cape Horn in 1834, set skysails atop her spindly masts. There is something to reaching up high, under such conditions, since the wind tends to die out first along the water, while zephyrs may still be caught farther aloft. By mid-century, the big American California clippers were carrying standing skysails as a matter of course, as did their successors, the burdensome Downeasters, which after the Civil W ar continued to carry cargo from East Coast ports, mainly New York, around Cape Horn to San Francisco, Portland and Seattle, a trade that petered out a little before World War I. As noted earlier, these ships with skysails drew the seaman's eye. And distinctions were made; a ship carrying a skysail ya rd only on the mainmast was known as a "main skysa il ya rder," while the proud lofty ship with three was called a "three skysail yarder." These somewhat cumbersome phrases may not come trippingly off your tongue, but they did off seamen's-these were common ways to ch aracterize a Downeaster. The first use of the name "skysail " cited by the Oxford English Dictionary, which does a marvelous job surveying the first appearance of words in the language and their evolving meanings in the common usage, notes the sea-experienced novelist Frederick Marryat having one of his characters say: "I set and took in every sail, from a sky-sail to a try-sail." H e means he went through the changes from being in full bloom to being snugged down, the trysail being a customary heavy weather sa il , and the skysa il the rare topmost flower that blooms only in gentle breezes in fair weather. That remark was written in 1829. The O ED , faithful to its charge of tracing out the course of common speech, notes a handbook a generation earlier in 1794, making mention of "sky-scrapers ," triangular sails set above the royals (the highest squaresa ils th en regularly carried) to get a scrap more canvas atop everything. The royal, the next sail down, was defined in 1769 by Falco ner as "A name given to the highest sail, in any ship." And so it was in Falconer's day. But this had 20

been true for over a century, for back in Stuart times the great sip Sovereign of the Seas (launched 1637) carried royals on three masts, and it's clear from contemporary pictures that the royal yard was a standing yard, that is, carried in place aloft under normal conditions, not just sent up when occasion called for it. These same pictures confirm, by the way, that the upper sails were stored by being gathered into the capacious "tops," big walled platforms on the masts. The days of men laying out on the upper ya rds to sow sail came later in the century, as ya rds grew longer and footrop es were added to them so the men had a secure footing-well, more or less secure-to stand on as they reached over the yard to gather in and furl the sail. In the later days of sail, skysails tended to be done away with as sailing ships carried cheaper cargoes, with ever smaller crews, and the royal res umed undisputed sway as the topmost sa il. The Wavertree lost her skysail early on, as an economy meas ure, and the great steel carriers of the 1900s were designed from the beginning with royals as the topmost sail. The next sa il below the royal is the topgallant (pronounced t'gallant), a swashbuckling Renaissance name for a sail that began to come into use in early Tudor times and that m ay be glimpsed sometimes in the pictures of the ships that fought in the Armada campaign of 1588, particularly the loftier, more windward-going English ships . "Gallant" then meant so mething extra, something over the top, as it still does in some senses. The OED finds a narrative of 1599 of early voyages to the Levant reporting that a ship "made away with all the sayle they had, drabblings and topgalands," the "drabblings" being lengths of canvas added to the lower edge of bonnets which in turn are laced to the foot of a sai l to increase its area, and "topgalands" being the loftiest sail that they, or probably anyone at that time, ca rried. Something over the top, indeed! Curiously enough, the Nava l Accounts of Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch, for 1497, a full century earlier, record "a toppe maste above the mayne Toppe maste," and not just a m as t (it might have carried only a flag) , but also ''A sayle to the same," and eight shrouds, a considerable number, to hold against the pull of a considerable sail.

By 1514, in the inventory of the great ship of Henry VIII, the Henri Grace a Dieu , launched in June that year, we find a "Toppe Galam apon the foretopmast," and the same thing for the m ain topmast-so by then the sa il that surprisingly appears in an inventory seventeen years earlier had got its present-day name. The sails are pictured in the contemporary Anthony Roll- little handkerchiefs that co uldn't have done much work but certainly added to the ship's toplofty appearance. The topgallants shown in the Armada pictures three quarters of a century later are bigger and plainly functional, with the huge lower sails shown earlier in the century reduced in size in what is becoming the fully artic ulated square rig our eye is accustomed to. By the Wavertree's time the topgallant sail (called by most sailors a "t'gallant," a "t'gansl" or just "ga ns' l") had achieved great size. Alan Villiers, who had sailed in the similar British ship Be/Lands, didn't like the Wavertree's " huge, man-murdering topgallants," fully forty feet tall. Other ships of the Wavertree's era h ad com e to split these big sails into upper and lower topgallants, the lower being equivalent to a full topgallant with three reefs tucked in, whi le the upper topgallant yard was lowered to sit just above the lower, where the m en could stow it far more easily than they could stow or reef the big full sail. In this, as in other details of her design and finish, the Wavertree was an anachronism when sh e was launched; she did not adopt the split topgallant with its extra expense and weight, despite its labor-saving capability. Neither, for that matter, did the big wooden Yankee Downeasters, but their topgallants tended to be shallower and more controllable, the extra area being more than made up in rather big royals and, quite often, standing skysails above that. In the last three cenmries of the sailing ship, the topsails were the main engine of the ship. Set below the topgallant and above the lowest sails (known as "the courses"), the topsails were also the last sails to be taken in in stormy weather, being oddly enough easier to control and less dangerous to work than the courses. This was because they were held at four corners, whereas the courses below them trimmed loosely through sheaves (called chesstrees) set in

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016


rhe bulwarks. Splir ropsails m ade ir easy ro co me down ro rhe lower ropsails, lo ng, narrow bands of canvas held rigid ly in place high above the seas crashing across rhe decks of a ship hard pressed in Cape H orn wear her. Double ropsails, imroduced in the mid1850s, rapidly became nearly universal in merchant sa iling fleets. Some of rhe larer clipper ships and all their successors, rhe Downeasters, had them, as did rhe Wavertree. The first clipper ro rry double ropsails was McKay's giant Great Republic. They appear in her original rig of 1853 (ar rhar point they were experimental and of an odd pane rn nor used again). The need for splir ropsails cries aloud ro any sailor who looks at rhe gigantic single ropsails carried by rhe grear clippers of the 1850s, which reached and began ro exceed rhe 2,000-ron mark-quire a size for a wooden ship. The double ropsail reduced the need for large, increasingly hard-ro-find and, in A merican ships ar leasr, ever more costly crews. The McKay clipper Sovereign of the Seas, for in sra nce, carried 108 in crew on her maiden voyage in 1853 (of which more larer-ir turned our she needed every one of them ro perform one of the mosr stunning fears of seamanship ever carried our under the A merica n flag) , while the similar-sized American Downeasrer A. ]. Fuller, builr only 25 years larer, made do wirh 28.

A Dream of Tall Ships

The ropsail was nor, however, born as the workhorse sail aboard rhe square-rigged ship, bur as a fair-weather sail set above the si ngle course rhar ships starred our wirh. To judge by the evidence of srone carvings and old coins, ropsails were not unknown in rhe ancient world, parricularly aboard big Roman grain carriers that plied their uade peacefully through rhe Medi terra nean when Roman armies controlled all rhe shores of what they ca lled the Middle Sea. Through the centuries since Rome, whenever a skipper wanted ro fly a kire (seamen's term for a lighr, fa ir weather sail) above his heavy working mainsail, he did so-calling ir, narurally, a "ropsail." In Shakespeare's rime-and we know his awareness of technology and rhe common use of rechnical words-the ropsai l and even the masr that carries ir was srill oprional, not permanently fi xed in the ship's wa rdrobe. This was clearly true even rho ugh, as we've seen, rhe larges t warships had been carrying ropgallants above their ropsails for at least a hundred years. Shakespea re has the master of rhe deepwarer ship wrecked in 1he Tempest order his ship hovero in these words: Down with the rop-Masr: yare, lower, lower, bring her ro Try with Maine-course. Bless the conservatism of sailors who hang onto words that fir active concepts rather than confusing things by changing

them! Every word in this sentence m akes perfect sense roday except rhe word yare (and even rhar wo uld be known ro viewers of rhe 195 0s film Philadelphia Story, in which Katherine Hepburn uses this hopelessly anachron istic word ro demonstrate her n aurical credenti als). Yare m ea nt "quickly." Ir has been replaced by the sailorly word smartly, both words carrying a connotation of aler rness as well as speed, and not just blind haste. The antonym handsomely, which mean s "deliberately, gently," is still in use, or at least was in the gaff-riggers of rhis century, where one used this word when lowering the heavy, swinging gaff, a real man-killer when let go on the run. W hat Shakespeare's shipmasrer is doing is loweri ng the ropmast itself, ro reduce wi ndage, as rhe ship srops running along with rhe srorm and is brought head ro wind or "ro try" (whence the still current word "uysail," for a small, very strong triangul ar sail set ro keep the ship's head up in such conditions-remember Marryar's captain goi ng from the extreme of skysails ro the opposire exrreme of rrysai ls.) Further, repeating a word is used to denore speed as well as emphasis, so after saying "yare" the skipper says "" lower, lower"-he wants rhe ropmasr down with no time wasted, so he ca n bring her head up ro lie-ro under the main course alone . .t

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 commited to creating a maritime museum in Manhattan's old sailing ship waterfront-the South Street Seaport Museum. The moved to save the old buildings as an historic district, and breathe new life into New York's old "Street of Ships." The idea inspired young and old, rich and poor, Wall Streeters and blue-collar workers, seamen, firefighters, police officers, and teachers to work together to found a museum showcasing the ships that built a 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. SEAHISTORY 155 , SUMMER2016

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Wavertree Restoration: Notes from the Shipyard by Capt. Jonathan Boulware, Executive Director, South Street Seaport Museum

S

outh Street Seaport Museum's restoration of the 1885 ship Wavertree continues on schedule and on budget. This massive, $13 million city-funded undertaking is laying the groundwork for education and public programming on the New York City waterfront once again. The project team is outstanding: Caddell Dry Dock and Repair Co. in Staten Island is doing a massive job of a type they haven't done in many years; the New York City Department of Design and Construction is lending expert project management. Three New York City design firms-W Architecture, Amsec Engineering of New York, and C. R. Cushing & Co.-are providing design, stability, and structural consultation. All of these entities are working closely with the museum to provide a result much greater than the sum of its parts. What might, in another century, be a simple undertaking involving a shipowner and shipyard is evolving as a Aagship example of how a city can restore a historic ship. With a new steel main deck in place, the ship is now watertight. A new 'tweendeck will provide a safe and meaningful space for her "cargo" of education ptogramming. When her new rig is in place (from topmasts up) and standing rigging is properly tuned, she'll once again be in sailing condition. Some recent highlights of the work include: •Unstepping of all three lower masts. The fore and mizzen are original to the ship and are of riveted, rolled wrought iron. The main is steel, built on deck of the ship in the 1980s. •Fabrication of all new tophamper: topgallant yards and

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Wavertree hauled out at Caddell Dry Dock in Staten Island

masts, topmasts, royal yards, and spanker gaff have all been built of laminated pentachlotophenol pressure-treated yellow pine. This is a new method for wooden spar building and one that creates spars that will last decades. •Reba llasting of the ship with concrete-based slurry poured between the floors. This ballast serves as a preservative of the iron and is removable by the use of high-pressure water. The new open hold space is unparalleled; it's an absolutely stunning cathedral to cargo. • Complete re-serving of all standing rigging. •A five-month drydocking, including extensive ABS-inspected repairs below the waterline, both internal and external. • Recoating of all hull structure with high-build modern marine epoxy paints. In the coming months, the ship will be rerigged with lowers and topmasts going in at the same time. Jamie White, most recently of the barque Elissa in Galveston, has joined the Wavertree restoration project as master rigger. Working as a key part of the restoration team, Jamie will lead a crew of traditional ship riggers of all skill levels in this massive uprigging project. When the project is completed, Wavertree will be fully rigged and able to be sailed. While specific plans to sail the ship in New York Harbor have not been developed as of yet, we have carefully made decisions that will make sailing possible in the future. Wavertree will emerge from this restoration as one of the finest examples of a preserved sailing ship in existence. She'll take her place at Pier 16 as the centerpiece of the Street of Ships. New York will be proud to have her, and she'll live on to tell her stories to future generations. Look for her return to South Street Seaport Museum at the end of summer! With the interior decks and spaces gutted, new, removable concrete-based slurry was poured between the floors to reballast the ship.

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SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016

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Wavertree was built at Southampton, England, in 1885 for R. W. Leyland & Company of Liverpool, one of the last large sailing ships built of wrought iron. The ship was first employed to carry jute, used in making rope and burlap bags, between eastern India (now Bangladesh) and Scotland. When less than two years old she entered the tramp trades, taking cargoes anywhere in the world she could find them. After sailing for a quarter century, she limped into the Falkland Islands in December 1910, having been dismasted off Cape Horn. Rather then re-rigging the ship, her owners sold her for use as a floating warehouse at Punta Arenas, Chile. She was converted into a sand barge at Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1947, and was acquired by South Street Seaport Museum in 1968.

(South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton St., New York, NY 10038; Ph. 212 748-8600; www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org) New upper masts and yards were fabricated from laminated, pressure-treated yellow pine.

lhat's one way to do it! Taking a chainsaw to the wooden topmast was the most expedient way to get it down. lhe lower mast was removed by crane and will be inspected, recoated, and restepped, providing a baseline for a strong rig for decades to come.

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016

South Street Seaport Museum volunteers and staffduring a tour ofthe lower hold.

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Congress Supports Maritime Heritage Amendments!

e scored a big win recently when the marathon session of the House Armed Services Committee marked up the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. Language to restore the maritime heritage grant program was included in the mark-up of the bill by the Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee, led by Chairman]. Randy Forbes (R-VA) and Ranking Member Joe Courtney (D-CT). The Seapower bill was subsequently adopted by the House Armed Services Committee, supported by its chairman, Mac Thornberry (R-TX), and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA). Also included was an amendment submitted by Rep. Norcross (D-NJ) to require the Maritime Administration (MARAD) to provide detailed reporrs on the ship recycling program, and report on funds for maritime heritage. The amendments are drawn from the STORIS Act (HR 2876), introduced in the House by Rep. Graves (R-LA) in June 2015. STORIS Act co-sponsors include Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Rep. Filemon Vela (D-TX), Rep. Robert Brady (D-PA), Rep. Gene Green (D-TX), Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), Rep . Don Young (R-AK), Rep. David Rouzer (R-NC), and Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC). We requested that key provisions of the STORIS Act be submitted as amendments to bills, rather than the entire, and more complex, STORIS Act. This proved to be expedient. Those key provisions were successfully introduced as amendments in both the House and Senate bills. Therefore we are no longer advocating for the STORIS Act. It lives on in these separate amendments in both House and Senate. On the other side of Capitol Hill, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee included language submitted by Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) in the Maritime Administration Authorization and Enhancement Act requiring an annual report by MARAD on the vessel disposal program.

24

by Dr. Timothy J. Runyan It was adopted by the full Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, chaired by Senator John Thune (R-SD) and Ranking Member Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL). The full committee's approval was given after Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE), chair of the subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security, and Ranking Member Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), authors of the underlying legislation, agreed to its inclusion. The Wicker amendment includes several references to the National Maritime Heritage Act, and asks for reporting on the uses of maritime heritage funds. These are items included in the STORIS Act (S. 1511) that was introduced by Senator David Vitter (R-LA) and cosponsored by Senator Bill Cassidy (RLA). Senator Wicker introduced the amendment after Senators Vitter and Cassidy sent a formal letter to the Senate Commerce Committee requesting its inclusion in the MARAD Authorization and Enhancement Act. We thank all members of the House and Senate for their support! We are especially thankful to Rep. Forbes for his leadership. Next steps-the bills move to the floor for approval, then to the conference of the House and Senate, and then to the president's desk for his signature into law-but only if they are passed at each step of the process. Therefore, it is critical that we continue our advocacy efforts to clear these next hurdles. We need both House and Senate support going forward in the next few months. Our maritime heritage community consists of about 1,000 maritime heritage organizations, mostly non-profit, and spread across forty states and territories. They are place-based-in communities, mainly on our four coasts and inland waters. This includes about 600 maritime museums, 130 historic naval ships, 150 tall ships for sail training and youth programs, 150 historic lighthouses, and

numerous other organizations. These "others" include the National Maritime Historical Society, recipient of a 2016 maritime heritage grant. These valued funds must be matched 1-to-l in cash or in-kind (as must all awards), and will be used to have all past issues of Sea History digitized, indexed, and made available to the public on the NMHS website. Also, the "Sea History for Kids" web pages will be upgraded and enhanced. How did this grant money become available? After an amendment was slipped into the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) diverting promised funding for the National Maritime Heritage Act grant program to the Maritime Administration (MARAD), the National Maritime Alliance and the maritime heritage community at large stepped up its efforts to encourage MARAD to direct a portion of its profits from recycling mothballed ships to the grant program. With help from our friends in Congress and industry, and the agreement with MARAD, we succeeded in securing about halfthe funds that would have been allocated, according to the National Maritime Heritage Act (1994). This amounts to $7 million that has been transferred to the National Park Service to administer the grant program. So far, about $5.2 million has been awarded in two distributions of $2.6 million each-in April 2015, and April 2016. Going forward, the Maritime Administration recently stated it will provide an additional $5.5 million to fund the National Maritime Heritage grant program. This is just a portion of the $11.6 currently available from ship recycling profits. We strongly support the transfer of the remaining $6.1 million. We are not home yet, but we are partway around the bases to restoring the grant program as created in 1994, which will provide much greater funding. These are critically needed dollars that would fund jobs, including work SEAHISTORY 155, SUMMER2016


Maritime Heritage Grants: for many veterans, in maritime organizations, and would make a real difference for organizations dedicated to preserving our maritime past while educating the present and future generations about the wonders of the maritime world. The maritime heritage community-everyone, not just organization headsmust contact members of Congress in both the House and Senate. A draft letter is available on line 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. Importantly, there is also a list of members of the three subcommittees assigned to act on the bills: •The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee; a nd subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security. •The House Energy and Commerce Committee; and subcommittee on Environment and the Economy. •T he House Armed Services Committee; and subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces. We encourage yo u to contact members of these committees and subcommittees. It is particularly important to write to members in your district and state who serve on those committees. However, if your senators or representatives do not serve on the three committees or subcommittees, write anyway. Contact with members of Congress is critical. Your letters and emails to the members of these committees and subcommittees w ill make a difference. Please make the effort. -Tim Runyan

Chair, National Maritime Alliance; Trustee, National Maritime Historical Society SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 20 16

Who Won in 2016 and How You Can Apply The National Maritime Historical Society is proud to anno unce it has been awarded a Maritime Heritage Grant to index, digitize, and expand our website, including en hancing our "Sea History for Kids" web pages at www.seahistory.org. W inners of the 2015 Maritime Heritage Grants were announced on 25 April 2016 on board USS Constellation in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. A total of$2,580,197.37 will be awarded to 34 projects in 19 states. Below are some of the projects that have been awarded funds in the 2015 grant cycle. For a full list of this year's recipients with a description of their projects, visit the National Park System Maritime Heritage Program website at www.nps.gov/maritime. Successful applicants include state and tribal governments as well as private non-profit organizations. The projects funded include maritime education and information access projects; exhibit and heritage trail development; preservation of ships, lighthouses, and other maritime properties; and survey and conservation of underwater archeological resources. The application deadline for the 2016 grants cycle is 5 August 2016. Details on how to apply are on the NPS website. In addition to the National Maritime Historical Society grant, awards also went to: •Kodiak Maritime Museum and Art Center in Alaska: $50,000 for the Thelma C Exhibit Project. •San Francisco Maritime National Park Association in California: $52,900 to conduct a comprehensive structural survey of the 1890 steam ferryboat Eureka. •Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut: $49,959 to digirally photograph and scan nearly 2,500 unique objects from the museum's collection, including pieces of scrimshaw, marine paintings, and ship models - objects that are of highest interest to exhibit visitors at Mystic Seaport. •Connecticut River Museum: $19 7,364 for the museum's bulkhead replacement project. •Kalmar Nyckel Foundation in Delaware: $31,800 to create a new exhibit focused on documenting Wilmington's shipbuilding heritage. •St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum in Florida: $50,000 to build an Archaeological Research & Education Center, including a conservation lab. •Historic St Mary's City Commission in Maryland: $50,000 to repair the interpretive area and pier for the city's replica 17th century ship, the Maryland Dove. •Project Liberty Ship in Maryland: $178,670 to preserve the superstructure of the Liberty Ship john W Brown.

•Massachusem Institute of Technology: $50,000 to digitize, preserve, and create online access to more than 4,000 prints, plans, photographs, and models in the MIT Museum's Captain Arthur H. Clark and Forbes W haling collections. •Michigan State Historic Preservation Office: $123,000 to complete a Historic Structure Report for four offshore lighthouses to enhance public education of Michigan's unique maritime history. •Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts and Humanities in New Jersey: $50,000 to repaint of the exterior of the Cape May Lighthouse in its historically authentic color scheme. •Greater Lockport Development Association in New York State: $200,000 to fully restore two lock chambers and fabricate and install two replica miter gates, making Locks 68 and 71 once again operational for boats to "lock through." •North Carolina Department of Cu ltural Resources: $144,569.33 to develop a large artifact conservation wet lab at the Queen Anne's Revenge Conservation Lab. •Philadelphi a Ship Preservation Guild in Pennsylvania: $100,088 to restore the boat deck and hull of the 1902 tug]upiter. •Sound Experience in Washington State: $200,000 to replace the deck on Schooner Adventuress.

These are just a sampling of the projects that received funding in the 2015 grant cycle. All projects and details are listed online at the National Park Service website listed above. Congratulations to this year's grant winners. 25


So Close to Home:U-boatsintheGulfofMexico by Michael J. Tougias

In his latest book, So Close To Home, Michael Tougias chronicles the entry of the first U-boats into the Gulf of Mexico in May of 1942, and the survival story of an American family traveling home aboard a torpedoed freighter. This article covers the beginning of U-boat 507's patrol and the exploits of its colorful commander, Harro Schacht, as the sub headed to the mouth of the Mississippi River. -boat 507, commanded by Korvettenkapitan Harro Schacht, snuck into the G ulf of Mexico via the Florida Straits on 1 May 1942 with orders to sink as many US ships as possible. U-506, commanded by Kapitanleutnant Erich Wiirdemann, followed on 3 May. The Uboat commanders were to proceed toward the mouth of the Mississippi, where they might be able to send enough ships to the bottom to block river traffic. Schacht was given plenty ofleeway on where to operate, depending on the defenses he encountered and the opportunities he might come across. He was instructed to use his torpedoes wisely, targeting oil tankers and large freighters. The mas termind behind this patrol was 4,50 0 miles away at his headquarters in Lorient, France, then occupied by the Nazis. Fifty-year-old Admiral Karl Donirz was a rail, thin, tight-lipped serious man, who worked tirelessly to extract maximum efficiency from his U- boats. A submarine commander in the First World War, Donirz was promoted to full admiral during the initial attacks on America's east coast. He

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U-507 conducting sea trials in the Baltic rose through the ranks to become the commander of all U-boats, and in 1943 was made Grand Admiral in charge of the entire Kriegsmarine (German Navy). U-507 was the perfect vessel to send into the Gulf; built in 1939 in Hamburg, it was one of the larger U-boats, a longrange class called Type IXC. Measuring 249 feet in length with a beam of 22 feet, it usually carried 22 torpedoes, which could be loaded in one of six different tubes (four at the bow and two at the stern). Mounted on deck were a 4.1-inch gun and a 37-mm anti-aircraft gun . A second anti-aircraft gun was mounted in the conning tower. The IXC could dive to a maximum depth of755 feet, protected by an outer steel hull and an inner pressure hull. Two nine-cylinder diesel engines powered the U-boat when traveling on the surface. These same engines recharged the enormous batteries for the electrical systems that powered not only the lights and radio, but also electric motors th at allowed the U-boat to stay submerged for brief periods. Submerged, the vessel could only travel 63 nautical miles at four knots before it had to surface to Admiral Karl Donitz, known as "The Lion" to his U-boat men, launched Operation Drumbeat against the United States. He later achieved the rank of Grojadmiral (the equivalent of Grand Admiral) in 1943 and became commander-in-chief of the German Navy. When Hitler committed suicide near the end ofthe war, Donitz became his successor as head ofstate.

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both recharge the batteries (by running the diesel engines) and replace built-up gases with fresh air. Crews typically averaged fifty-two men. Despite the limits of its capacity to stay submerged, the range of this sub was an incredible 13,400 nautical miles when the vessel cruised on the surface at ten kno ts. Maximum surface speed was 18.3 knots, while maximum submerged speed was 7.3 knots . Thirty-fou r-year-old Commander Harro Schacht and his crew on U-507 were on high alert as they passed between C uba and Florida on 30 April. They had just crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a twenty-sixday period and would soon be navigating the first U-boat ever to penetrate the G ulf of Mexico. Spirits were high, and the men looked forward to engaging the enemy. They knew that by being the first of the German subs ro enter these waters, they would have plenty of opportunities ro sink American ships. All the U-boars competed to sink the most ships-or tonnage-on a single patrol. The crew ofU-507 liked their chances of being recognized as one of the best, with Schach t as their ace. He had trained under Erich Topp, one of Germany's most successful U-boat commanders, and Schacht was a sixteen-year veteran of the German Navy. Off the northwestern shores of C uba, the lookout in U-507 spotted a tanker, but it was quite small. Schacht had a decision to make. The American tanker, named Federal, was alone with no protection in sight, but Schacht was still far from the mouth of the Mississippi where he had been ordered to sink as many ships as possible. H e weighed his options. He hated to waste a torpedo on a small ship so distant from his designated area of engagement, yet he also didn't want to squander an opportunity. Like a coach who wants to gauge his team's readiness with a relatively easy scrimmage, Schacht was curious to see how his crew would respond in action after the uneventful ocean crossing.

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016


Captain Harro Schacht (1907-1943) of U-507 Schacht received the Knight's Cross ofthe Iron Cross for his successful campaigns. He is credited with the sinking of 19 ships, totalling more than 77, 143 tons.

The commander decided to take action. He ordered his crew to submerge and bring the sub close to the tanker. When they were approximately 400 yards away, directly in the ship's wake, the U-boat surfaced, water cascading off its grey hull. As soon as the conning rower broke the surface, crewmen sprang through the hatch to the deck gun. Schacht was going to try to sink the Federal without firing a single torpedo! The men opened fire with the four-inch cannon. In Schacht's U-boat log, also known as his War Diary (Kriegstagebuch or KTB), he wrote, "After the first shot the bridge was hit, after which the steamer turned toward land; however, after the second hit (third shot) stopped and set out boats." Four sailors were killed almost instantly and the rest managed to climb in a lifeboat before the tanker sank a short time later. Schacht stayed on the surface to make sure the Federal sank, but he understood that doing so put them at risk: "My presence is also known, as the sinking took place

within sight of the coast." Moving westward, another ship came into view, but this time he had to submerge, noting in the log: "Crash dive for flying boat type Consolidated range 3,000 meters." U-507 continued west and entered the Gulf of Mexico to prowl around the area of the Dry Torrugas. In his log, Schacht wrote, "The Tortugas navigational lights burn as though it were peacetime." On 4 May, Schacht found his next target eighty miles west of the Tortugas, a small merchant freighter, the Norlindo. The unarmed ship and her crew of twenty-eight were steaming from Mobile, Alabama, to Havana, Cuba, and proved to be another sitting duck for U-507. Schacht ordered the firing of a single torpedo, which found its target. The ship heeled to starboard and within minutes was swallowed by the sea. Schacht recorded in his log that the ship "goes down right away at the stern, and in three minutes stands vertical," before sinking.Twenty-three of the crew managed to jump overboard and climb into rafts.

U-Boat 507 Commander Harro Schacht passed between Cuba and Florida on 30 April 1942, the first U-boat to penetrate the Gulf of Mexico. Not Jar behind was U-506 under the command of Erich Wiirdemann . Together they would catch American freighters and tankers unawares and wreak havoc on shipping in the Gulf

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SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016

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The 430-foot Joseph M. Cudahy, a 7,053-gross-ton tanker, departed Houston, Texas, on 1 May 1942, bound far Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. Her skipper witnessed the attack on the tanker Munger T. Ball and broadcast the incident on the radio. But Schacht was listening too, and soon the Cudahy would join the other tanker on the bottom ofthe Gulf ofMexico. Schacht had his vessel approach the life rafts. The survivors likely feared that the U-boat's machine guns might mow them down. Instead, Schacht stood on the bridge in a pair of shorts and, looking fit and tanned, said in perfect English, "Hope yo u get ashore okay." Then he asked the name of the ship and its tonnage since it did not have time to put out an SOS. The sailors refused to answer. Schacht surprised them once again, this time giving them forty packs of cigarettes, water, crackers, lime juice, matches, and even a cake decorated with French writing. Then the U-boat commander bade them farewe ll and ended the strange meeting by saying, "Sorry we can't help you further." U-507 had sunk two ships, but neither was the prize Schacht was looking for. The next night, however, the hunting improved. The 5,100-ton tanker Munger T Ball was twice the size of the previous two vessels sunk; unlike those, this one was fully loaded with gasoline. Traveling from Port Arthur, Texas, to Norfolk, Virginia, with a crew of forty-one, the tanker was unarmed and unescorted, and made no attempt to evade detection by zigzagging. Schacht could hardly believe how easy the shooting would be. He maneuvered to within 500 yards, ordered a forward torpedo fired, and then watched the ship explode in flames, sending aloft what the commander called

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"a rising mushroom cloud of smoke." Flaming gasoline spread completely around the ship, preventing most of the sailors from jumping overboard. Thirty-seven crewmen went down with the ship. Just a few miles away, a second tanker, the Joseph M. Cudahy, saw the smoke from the torpedoed Ball, and the captain radioed that a ship had been hit, and added that he was only nine miles away at a "position 65 nautical miles northwest of Tortugas." Schacht, of course, was monitoring the radio. In his log, he wrote, "the vessel that made the report must be within visual range. Therefore searched the horizon especially attentively." A half-hour later, he added, "Tanker sighted. This was the one that reported us. Maneuvered ahead. The tanker has obviously moved off from sinking location and steers a zigzag course. The night very dark, therefore surface attack." When U-507 was 600 meters away, Schacht fired his first torpedo but missed. "Apparently the steamer has seen me and stopped at the last minute ." Feeling safe on the surface despite the fact that he had been spotted, the commander moved to within 400 meters, fired again, and this time, "Hit center. Steamer exploded and immediately burst into bright flames from forward to aft." The Cudahy joined the Munger T Ball at the bottom of the Gulf. Schacht slowly pulled away and headed toward New

Orleans and the Mississippi River mouth. U-507's patrol, however, was interrupted by a serious injury. That night after they sank the two tankers in a single day, Schacht surfaced to re-arm, a process whereby torpedoes stored on the deck are carefully moved through the open torpedoloading hatches and into the firing tubes. During the transfer, a winch broke and a torpedo slid down the gliding rails, where it surprised a radioman assisting with the job, crashing into his arm, splintering bones and causing excruciating pain. The crew carried the groaning man below, but soon realized the sub 's supply of morphine and other painkillers wasn't on board. There wasn't so much as an aspirin available, and fellow crew members helplessly watched as the radioman writhed in agony. Schacht sent off a radiogram to Kerneval, France, which was Donitz's headquarters outside Lorient. The message described "a multiple open arm fracture ... no pain-relieving means on board. Requesting instructions." A few hours later, headquarters conveyed medical advice, along with the suggestion that, "if no morphine onboard, give cognac." Schacht responded that this had been done, adding, "The patient lies in a bunk in the officers' mess and is attended to by a constant vigil." Headquarters (Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote or "BdU," Command ofU-boats) then issued instructions for Schacht to rendezvous with a second U-boat that had since entered the Gulf, U-506 commanded by Erich Wurdemann. They were told to meet "for delivery of relieving drugs, on May 6 at 1500 be in grid square DL 31 upper right. In case oflate arrival, Wiirdemann report by short signal." The grid reference was a clever way of replacing latitude and longitude with a zone designation whereby the entire ocean was divided into squares designated by two letters, and within each of these were smaller squares designated by two to four numbers. This provided brevity in radio communications and also a measure of secrecy. The rendezvous for Wurdemann and Schacht was easier said than done: Coast Guard and Navy planes were patrolling the area after the attack on the American tankers, making it difficult for either U-boat to stay on the surface for extended periods.

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016


The two U-boats missed each other at the first rendezvous point, and then again at two others. Schacht decided that the injured man was resting fa irly comfortably. H e had been given sleeping pills, and his wo und was dressed and splinted . H e was sent to an officer's bunk to sleep. After a day and a half of was ted efforts trying to meet U-506, Schacht ordered the boat on a westwa rd co urse and a rri ved in waters near the mouth of the Mississippi, where he promptly spotted the A lcoa Puritan. The cargo ship was loaded with bauxite, the raw material fo r aluminum . Schacht's first to rpedo mi ssed the vessel, and a lookout on the ship saw it zip by just fifteen fee t off the stern . The captain immediately swung the vessel so its stern would be fac ing the di rectio n the torpedo came fro m , thu s making the smallest area of the hull the targe t rather than lying abeam to the Uboat. Then the ship sped away at full speed. Schacht gave chase, and, not wa nting to was te another torpedo, started shelling the A lcoa Puritan from the surface. Schacht's radioman heard the ship's fr antic message fo r help: "SSS, Alcoa Puritan. U-boat on the surface, position 2840N 8822W. Uboat still shoots, torpedo did not hit." (The SOS was a general distress ca ll, while SSS meant a submarine attack.) Several German sh ells hit the ship, disabling its steering gea r, and her crew quickly lowered the lifeboat and rafts and climbed aboard, furio usly paddling away from the stricken ship, knowing what would happen next. Schacht then sent a torpedo into the abandoned ship, sinking it stern-first in a few minutes. N ext, the commander m a neuvered alongside the

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The US Navy's "flying boat," the PBY Catalina, was widely used in Wo rld lliir II for antisubmarine warfare, reconnaissance, and search and rescue missions. "PB" stands for "Patrol Bomber, "and "Y" was the code assigned to the manufacturer, Consolidated A ircraft.

lifeboat and rafts and hollered his trademark, "Sorry we ca n't help yo u. H ope you get ashore." In his Wa r Diary, Schacht recorded that he "brought the steamer to a hair with artillery," and th at he delive red a "coup de grace from Tube l. Steamer sinks. It was the newly constructed A lcoa Puritan." One ca n only imagine what the drifting Alcoa Puritan crewmen felt when they heard Schacht shout his jau nty apology and encouragement, but it's very likely that seven of the men thought they had the worst luck of anyone on the planet. Those seven sailors had already endured a submarine attack while aboa rd a different vessel in M arch off the eas tern seaboard. They spent eleven awful days in a lifeboat before bein g rescued! This time, however, they were picked up the sa me day by a Coast Guard vessel. A few hours later, in the early morning hours of 7 M ay, Schacht followed up the A lcoa Puritan attack with ano ther, effectively sinking the O ntario. The ship h ad been notified of the sinking of the Alcoa

The 396-joot freighter SS Alcoa Puritan was sent to the bottom by torpedoes from U-507 on 6 May 1942. The shipwreck site was discovered in 2 001 by contractors for Shell International Exp loration, who were conducting a deep -tow survey for a pip eline proj ect.

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016

Puritan, and was racing on a zigzag course to the nearest port. Schacht and his crew in U-5 07 ca me fully to the surface, recording "at first shot, wh ich hit the fo rward mas t, [it] stopped. The crew went to the boa ts." Once the crew was safel y off, Schacht peppered the ship with shells until he was out of ammunition . The ship was burning but did not sink, so the commander readied a torpedo. Before he could fire, howeve r, he cras h-dived at the ap proach of an oncoming aircraft: "M aneuvered fo r a coup d e grace submerged . Steamer suddenly starts to burn brightly, takes a list and se ttles deeper. D eparted since a total loss ca n be ass umed ." Schacht's agg ressive hunting caused a couple of close calls with an attacking US N avy PBY Catalin a, fl ying from its base at Pensacola, Florida. The Catalina, a "flying boat," could land on the ocean, and, although this patrol bomber was slow, it was p erfect for long-range searches over the ocean. A bombardier could sit in the nose of the plane and h ave a perfect vantage point fro m which to fire its big gun from the turret. Additionally, there were machine guns in the wa ist position, and bombs on the wings. When the PBY spotted U-507 on the surface, it opened fire with everything it had; both times Schacht evaded the attacking pl ane and continued his hu nt for more ships. On 10 May, U-5 07 had almost reached its goal: "The previous deep blue clear water is dark green and slightly milky. This color p romises good cover from being seen fro m above. The d istance to the Mississippi and the coast is the same at eighty naurical miles."

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Korvettenkapitan Harro Schacht and his crew in U-507 sank seven ships in eight days. And this was just the beginning of their assault on American shipping in US waters. U-507 and U-506 were now steering a course that would put them in the path of the freighter Heredia, bound for New Orleans from South America. Traveling onboard as passengers was a family of four, Ray and Ida Downs and their two young children, Lucille and Ray Jr. Few Americans realize how closely U-boats prowled the US Coast in World War II. The Downs family and those aboard the ill-fated ships sailing in the Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 1942 learned all too well how close to home they were. Michael Tougias is the author and co-author ofseveral true survival-at-sea books, including The Finest Hours, made into a major motion picture by Disney and released in 2016. So Close To Home is co-authored with journalist Alison 0 'Leary. Photos from the book and a video interview with Heredia sinking survivor Ray Downs Jr. can be found online at www.michaeltougias.com.

U-507 (in background) assists in the rescue ofsurvivors from RMS Laconia, which had been attacked and sunk by U-156 offthe coast of West Africa on 13 September 1942. The Laconia was carrying more than 2,700 persons on board, most of them Italian POWs, but also British and Polish service men, and a handful of women and children passengers. Schacht and Wiirdemann directed their U-boats to the scene to take on as many people as they could fit. When they later got word from headquarters to cast adrift all the British and Polish survivors, Schacht and Wiirdemann did not comply. Schacht and his crew would perish fou r months later when a US Navy PBY Catalina dropped depth charges on U-507 in the South Atlantic on 14 January 1943. U-501 sank with all hands 330 miles off the coast ofBrazil.

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Hell With the Lid Off!Lt. Hobson and the Sinking of the Merrimac at Santiago, Cuba, 1898 by CAPT Patrick Grant, USN (Rec.) s Spanish patrol boats scoured the dark surface of Santiago Harbor with searchlights, rifles at the ready, eight sailors clung precariously to a piece of a wooden catamaran, trying not to be seen or heard. The men had just escaped with their lives, surviving gunfire, explosions, and the sinking of their ship as they carried out one of the most dangerous missions ever attempted by a US Navy crew. Fear of capture or being shot rivaled dying from exposure or shark attack, but they would live to tell the tale. Although their mission had failed, the story of their courage wo uld take its rightful place among the heroic tales that are the grist of United States Naval history and tradition. Newspaper headlines across the United States soon heralded their daring. Towns, babies, a waltz, and a cigar wo uld be named after the yo ung lieutenant who had planned and carried out the raid. To the American citizenry, Lieutenant Hobson would become the third member of a gallant triumvirate of Spanish American War heroes, achieving the heroic stature of Colonel Teddy Roosevelt and Admiral George Dewey. In the early days of the war with Spai n, the US Navy's primary task was to blockade the sea approaches to Cuba and Puerto Rico, paying parti cul ar at tention to ports the Spanish navy might use to resupply its army. On 29 April 1898, Naval Intelligence alerted No rth Atlantic Fleet commander, Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, that a contingent of Spanish wa rships, four armored cruisers and three torpedo boat destroyers under the command of Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete, had departed the Cape Verde Islands with the Caribbean as a probable destination. The Navy's immediate objective was to confront this force at sea and prevent it from disruptin g American military operations in C uba and Puerto Rico. After several port ca lls on the periphery of the Caribbean, Cervera's squadron steamed into the harbor of Santiago de C uba on 19 May 1898 .

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Sampson had concentrated his blockading ships at the more likely destinations ofHavana, San Juan, Matanzas, and Cienfuegos, where the Spanish might readily bunker and reprovision. By excluding Santiago from the blockade, he enabled Cervera to avoid a confrontation at sea. The presence of Spanish warships at Santiago de Cuba was not confirmed until 29 May. The blame for the ten-day delay lay at the feet of Commodore Winfield Scott Schley, commander of the US Navy's Flying Squadron. When credible intelligence reports and specific orders from Secretary of the Navy John Davis Long and Ad miral Sampson to surveil Santiago de C uba harbor reached Schley, he ignored them. Instead , his erratic decisions and delays provided enough time for Cervera to replenish his ships and escape back out to sea, but the Spanish admiral did not take advantage of the opportunity. W ith the eventual arrival of Schley's force, Cervera was now trapped in a semicircle of US wa rships, four miles out from

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Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete, Spanish Navy (1839-1909)

Admiral William T Sampson, USN (1840-1902) the channel entrance. That he would engage in an open-ocean battle was extremely unli kely, although Sampson still held out hope that Cervera's sense of national honor would prompt him to come out and fight. Assessing the situation, Sampson concluded that the physical and defensive nature of the harbor precluded a forced entry. While the harbor was deep and wide within, the entrance from sea followed a winding, narrow chan nel, with El Morro fortress at the top of the cliffs to starboard and a rising bluff to port. T ides, swirling currents, and unpredictable wi nds wo uld require slow passage, leaving them vulnerable to attack from the gun batteries from shore on either side. Provided that the navigational challenge could be overcome, the narrowness of the chan nel would necessitate entry in single file, through two electrically fired minefields, past gun batteries and two Spanish warships. G un batteries on the Morro cliffs were believed to be sighted out to sea; however, the batteries on the bluff, inner harbor, and aboard the Spanish ships were positioned to fire directly down the channel. The Admiral's major concern was not the gauntlet of shelling he would be forced SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016


to ru n or the n aviga tio nal h aza rd, bur rather the electrically fired mines controlled by the Span ish gun batteries on the cliffs and bluff. H e was also mindful of the ap proach of hurricane season. A bad sto rm wo uld require the di spersal of his ships, providing an opportunity for Cervera to break our. Fear that Spanish warships m ight bombard US coas tal cities was rampant along rhe eastern seaboard. Politicians were dem anding port pro tection and wealthy individuals were insistin g that Navy ships be stationed offshore ro protect their seaside m ansions at locations such as Newport, Rhode Island, and Long Island, New York. Sampson was also engaged in an interservice dispute with US A rmy invasion fo rce commander General W illiam Rufus Shafter. To eliminate h is major concern regarding entry ro the harbor, the admiral requested that the Army ra ke our the gu n batteries controlling the electric m ines. Shafter refused, demanding instead th at the Navy enter the harbor fi rs t and eliminate the Spanish squad ron before the Army attacked . In addition to all of these con cerns, Sampson was anxious to free up his ships fo r use in other theaters. A r the urging of Captain Alfred T. Mahan, a contingency plan for a C ubanbased war wi th Spain had been developed at the Naval Wa r College during the mid1890s. Revised by the Navy D epartment, the plan was resurrected by Assistant Secreta ry of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt and approved by the Naval War Board in 1898. The final version of the war plan tasked the Navy with attacks in the Canary Islands and along the coast of Spain. These considerations prompted Sampson to propose a radical and potentially suicidal scheme to trap Cervera in the h arbor. Prepa ration of a detailed operatio n al plan to sink a US sh ip at the narrowes t point in the harbor entry was assigned to 27-year-old Naval Academy graduate Lieuten ant Richmond Hobson . If the A rmy rema ined adamant in its refusal to rake out the batteries ashore, Sampson proposed to send in a M arine unit to assault the g un batteries and disable the firing controls for the electrical m ines. The Navy would then clear the mines, eliminate the sunken ship as a nav igational haza rd, and proceed to enter the harbor.

SEA HISTORY I 55, SUMMER 20 I 6

"The Scuttling of the US Navy collier Merri mac at the entrance to Santiago harbor, a Spanish view. "Source: Severo Gomez Nunez, "The Spanish-American ~r: Blocakdes and Coast Defense," in US Navy, Office of Naval l ntellignece, No tes on the Spanish-Ameri can War (Washington, D C: Government Printing Office, 1900, p. 79)

Richmond Pearson H obson was born in 1870 at his family's M ag nolia Grove plantation, deep in the heart of Alabama cotton country. His fa ther, a slave holder, had fought for the Confederacy and was then serving as a local judge. Entering the Naval Academy at fifteen, H obson graduated in 1889, fi rst in his class. Assigned to study marine architecture and engineering at two prestigious French academies, he graduated with distinction and was designated a n aval constructor. After several tours of duty at navy ya rds designing wa rships and at sea observing the perfo rmance of design innovations, H obson volunteered to develop a course in ship design fo r the Naval Academ y. U pon approval, he was assigned to Annapolis, bur rhe outbreak of the Spanish A merican Wa r in April 1898 abruprly ended his tour at the Naval Academy and he was reass igned as assisram naval constructor fo r the No rth Atlantic Fleer aboard Admiral Sampson's flagship, the armored cruiser USS New York. H ow to sink an iron ship in less than a few m inu tes at a speci fic location- this was the challenge posed by the admiral to

Lieuten ant Hobson. As the cruiser New York departed Key West on 30 May, bound for Santiago de C uba, Hobson set to work.

US Naval Constructor Lt. Richmond Pearson Ho bson, (1870-1937). Hobson would retire with the rank of Rear Admiral and go on to serve in the US Congress representing the State ofAlabama.

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A careful review of existing harbor charts convinced him that entry to the channel would need to take place at flood tide, passing close aboard the rocks directly below El Morro Castle, the deepest side of the channel. The narrowest point in the channel was 350 to 400 feet wide. On hand was the 3,000-ton collier USS Merrimac, which at 333 feet in length would serve the plan perfectly, and it was a ship the Navy could sacrifice without much detriment to the fleet. Ideally, the mission would require an evening when the moon would provide an hour of!ight as they navigated the channel entry, but then set behind the western bluff to furnish covering darkness as the ship approached the choke point; 2 June offered the best conditions. Hobson's training and naval constructor mind-set was instinctively focused on keeping ships afloat, but now he needed to use these same skills to sink one. He began by assessing the stresses and strains required to destroy key bottom plates and bulkheads,

USS Merrimac, 1898

and concluded that placing explosive devices outboard of the hull would be more effective than inside the hull. Charges inside the hull would require loosening hundreds of rivets. Given the rusty condition of Merrimac's hull, there was not enough rime to accomplish this tedious task and still meet the June deadline. Assessing rates of water flow through various sizes of exploded holes, Hobson determined that ten water-sealed canisters (torpedoes), each containing seventy-eight pounds of powder, "placed abreast bulkheads and cargo hatches" on the port side would do the job in just over a minute. The port side was chosen for placement of the charges because the ship would be making a sharp turn to port as it approached the designated point for sinking, and the rush

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1he Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca, also known as El Morro Castle, atop the cliffi at the entrance to Santiago Harbor, Cuba, was well-positioned to protect the harbor. Hobson and his men aboard the Merrimac would have to slip past this heavily armed fortress to get to the choke point in the channel.

of water into the hull would be increased by the turn. In addition, the weight of the explosives on the port side gave the ship a slight list in that direction, which would also increase the inflow of water. Hung from cables on the port side, twelve feet below the water line, each canister would be fired electrically in quick succession, starting at the bow and progressing aft, causing the ship to sink by the bow. Detonation would be triggered from the bridge by an "electro magnetic machine" (generator). Tons of water would be pumped into the collier's double bottom and every manhole and hatch cover removed or opened before she entered the harbor. To slow the ship and hold her in position at the choke point, anchors would be rigged over the side at water level, fore and aft, each secured by a rope hawser. When rhe ship was in the proper position, the crew would take an axe to the hawsers to let-go the anchors. To assure maximum explosive effect, Hobson suggested that the Merrimac's 2,300 tons of coal be removed from the ship; instead, the coal was merely shifred from the port to the starboard side. A detailed plot and timeline for Merrimac's projected movements was prepared. The ship would approach the channel entry

at top speed, steering midway between two US ships positioned just outside the entrance as guides. A rescue vessel, the armed yacht Hornet, would follow the Merrimac partway into the harbor opening. Approaching the channel, Merrimac would throttle back to five knots. When the "All Stop" order was given, crewmen below would open the seacocks to start the flooding. Upon reaching the choke point, the helmsman would steer "Hard-a-Pon" to swing the ship sharply and position it broadside across the narrowest part of the channel. Up forward, the starboard bow anchor would be let go, followed by the starboard anchor off the stern. The explosives would then be detonated. If the anchors failed to hold, it was expected that the impact of the explosions would cause the ship to settle fast enough to avoid the ebb tide moving Merrimac off the choke point. Hobson concluded that seven courageous, competent, and physically fit sailors could accomplish the mission: three Merrim1ac crewmen with knowledge of the ship's eng{ineering characteristics and shiphandlimg tendencies, and four petty officers frorrn the fleet. Competition for these positioms was intense, as commanding officers ~SEA

HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016


struggled to identify the best sailor aboard, in each of the rates needed. Merrimac 's commanding officer, Captain James M. Miller, volunteered to take charge of the mission, but Sampson remained firm in his choice of Hobson, concluding that there was not enough time to get the Merrimac's skipper up to speed on the many derails of the plan. Attempts to enter the harbor on 2 June were aborted twice for various reasons, and the mission was rescheduled for the following night. Another change to the plan that would prove of major consequence was the decision to use battery cells to activate rhe charges, rather than a single generator operated from the bridge, because they were unable to locate a single generator on any of the ships present. The battery cells would necessitate the individual firing of each canister by a crewman and the use of a makeshift communication system, which emailed passing orders from the bridge by rugging on cords tied to the men's arms. Further complicating matters, it was determined shortly before entering the channel that three of the ten torpedo charges could not be fired . Concerned that the battery cell arrangement and reduced number of charges would lessen the chances of success, Hobson asked permission to rig two powerful warheads from "locomotive torpedoes" as a fail-safe if the charges did not do the job. The Admiral refused the request, stating: "I will not allow an American crew to commit suicide." At 3:00AM under a brilliant moonlit sky, the M errimac approached the harbor opening. With the assumption that at some point the men were likely to end up in the water or have to fend off the enemy, the crew was outfitted with white life vests and side arms: the engineers in breech-cloths, and the deck crew in just their flannel underwear. Steering toward a white parch of water to the left of Morro cliffs, Merrimac reached a speed of nine knots. As the ship closed to within 400 yards of the entrance, staying clear of the two-fathom bank to starboard, a series of flashes illuminated the darkened channel. Through his night glasses, Hobson saw a Spanish picket boat only a ship-length away on the port side. Its rapid-fire guns had opened up and were aiming at the aft end of the collier to take

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016

Hobson's men who volunteered for the Merrimac mission were (clockwise f rom the top) George Charette, J E. Mu rphy, George F Phillips, Francis Kelly, Osborn Deigman, Randolph Clausen, and Daniel Montague (pictured center). All the men survived and only Kelly and Murphy suffered minor injuries. Several ofRobson's crew received assistance from Admiral Hobson later in life. In 1899, these seven men received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Hobson was not eligible for the award at the time, as it was not given to officers. In 1933, by a special act of Congress, Hobson was finally recognized with the same award, just before his retirement from the Navy. o R1 G lN ALLY r usu s1-1Eo 1N T H E CENTURY MAGAZI NE, 1898-99

35


our rhe rudder. The picker boar's fire served as a signal for rhe shore barreries to begin shelling. A shell srruck close to rhe bridge, bur neirher Hobson nor his coxswain were injured. ''All Stop" was soon ordered and rhe seacocks opened. As Merrimac came wirhin rhirty feer of rhe rocks ar rhe base of rhe cliff, she was srill moving ar more rhan six knors, due in part to rhe flood ride. Hobson ordered "Hard-a-Port" to rhe man ar rhe helm, bur rhe ship did nor respond. The riller ropes had been shor away by Spanish gunfire mere seconds before rhe helm order had been given, disabling rhe rudder. Hobson yanked rh ree rimes on one of rhe signal cords and a crewman forward released rhe srarboard anchor. The srern anchor was now critical, bur irs lashing had been shor away by Spanish fire and rhe anchor was gone. In addirion, rhe lifeboar afr, rhe vessel in which rhey intended to make rheir escape, had been desrroyed. Hobson gave rhe order to fire rhe seven explosive canisrers. The flrsr charge blew wirhin seconds, then silence. Soon after the inirial explosion, Hobson was told rhar rhe barrery packs on Numbers 2 and 3 had been scarrered by shellfire. A minure larer, Number 5 exploded. Silence again ensued. Only rwo of rhe seven usable charges had gone off, Number 1 ar rhe bow and Number 5 amidships. As rhe rumble and vibrarion from rhe firsr explosion rolled rhrough rhe ship, Hobson concluded rhar rhe collision bulkhead had been blown. The ship was raking warer, bur nor ar a fasr enough rate to slow or sink her in time. Merrimac was heading straighr into the narrow channel beyond rhe choke point, no longer under control. Wirhin moments, a thunderous blast lifred the ship. Several more explosions followed. They had srruck rhe Spanish mines. Expecring the force of rhe mine explosions to has ren rhe sinking, rhe crew soon realized rhar rhe rare of flooding had nor noriceably increased. Ir was suspecred rhar rhe 2,300 tons of coal rhar had shifred ro rhe srarboard side absorbed much of rhe shock of rhe explosions or possibly filled whar should have been a gaping hole in rhe hull. Mauser fire from garrison rroops on borh sides of rhe channel now joined rhe chorus. The forward barreries on rhe point 36

ahead also opened up. Hobson recognized rhe disrincr sound of rapid-fire Nordenfelrs, nine-inch morrars, and Horchkiss revolving cannons-rhe larrer being fired horizonrally from rhe Spanish ships in rhe harbor. As rhe scene unfolded, rhose on rhe ships ourside the harbor could do nothing bur watch in horror. Captain Robley Evans aboard USS Iowa later recalled, "Ir was a dreadful sighr to my mind whar hell mighr look like wirh rhe lid off! " The ship soon was aground ar rhe srern, causing rhe bow to swing back to starboard, pointing rhe ship straighr into rhe harbor, perpendicular to the blocking position that had been rheir objecrive. They were now well past rhe choke poinr. Merrimac was drifting in her dearh throes into rhe widening inner harbor, where a Spanish cruiser and destroyer torpedo boar maneuvered so as to fire several "locomorive torpedoes," none of which hir rhe ship. Ar this point rhe Merrimac lurched to port as her bow "almosr fell." The srern rose-shuddering- but the ship righted herself as ir starred to sink. As warer rushed up the deck, the m en were rhrown or jumped overboard. One man was sucked imo a coal-bunker and rhen ejecred back our by rhe warer pressure as rhe bunker flooded . They srruggled furiou sly amid rhe debris and coal dusr spreading across rhe warer. Remarkably everyone reached a floating catamaran srill arrached ro a cargo boom extending above rhe sunken Merrimac.

Covered wirh coal black, the m en hugged the caramaran, keeping rheir heads below the wooden framing to avoid being sporred in the yellow lamern lights of rhe patrol boars criss-crossing rhe dark warers. As the effects of exposure began to take a roll, they became fearful rhat the noise of rheir involumary coughing and charrering reeth might alerr the Spanish. At firsr lighr, rhe men had been in rhe warer for an hour and a half, and a Spanish parrol boat wirh riflemen posted ar rhe bow came roward rhem. Hobson called our and rhe launch approached. He inquired if rhere was an officer aboard, sraring rhar he and his men wished to surrender. As rhe parrol boar drew closer, rhe order "load-ready-aim" was given, and for a few rorrurous seconds, rhe heroic sailors of rhe Merrimac rhoughr rhey would be shor as rhey struggled helplessly in rhe warer. lnsread, a hand was extended to Lieurenam Hobson, pulling him from rhe cold warer. Nor until later did he learn char the hand that hauled him aboard belonged to none orher than Admiral Cervera. The orhers were rhen hauled aboard by rhe Spanish seamen, who greeted rhem with: "Valiente, Valieme." Cervera sent a messenger boar our to rhe US fleer under a flag of rruce to let Admiral Sampson know rhar his men were alive and well. Imprisoned ar Morro Casrle, rhe American sailors received respectful rrearment from rheir Spanish captors. Admiral Sampson had received orders from Washington lifting rhe restriction on using " big-gun" armored ships against fortresses. On 6 June, Sampson bombarded key areas of the harbor, Morro Casrle, and adjacent barreries. Hobson and his men, srill in capriviry, were wimess to rhe incoming fire as shrapnel flew rhrough rheir cell windows. On 1 July, US ground forces reached ~ rhe San Juan heighrs overlooking rhe inner harbor. Prompred by orders from the mil'~" irary governor of Cuba, Admiral Cervera ~ relucrandy arrempred to break our of San~ dago harbor on 3 July. The US squadron, ÂŽ commanded by Admiral Schley, desrroyed all six <of rhe fleeing Spanish ships, sinking

Hobsom and his men hang on to the overturned' catamaran, concealed by darkness, as Spatnish crews row out by Lantern light searchiingfor survivors.

smAHISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016


them or causi ng them to go agro und . Despite future inquiries as to his action s earlier in the wa r, Schley's reputation was partially restored by the victorious naval battle of Santiago de C uba. Repatriated on 6 July 1898 afte r a month in captivity, all seven enlisted men were awarded the Medal of H onor; Hobson resumed his role as naval constructor, and he was tasked with refloating two of the Spanish ships su nk during battle. A few months later-j ust six months after he was released from prison-he was ordered to the Far East by way of San Francisco. The press had broadcast Hobson's heroics fa r and wide, making him something of a celebrity. On his cross-country train trip to San Francisco, he was mobbed at every stop along the way by women insisting on a kiss from their new national hero. To his chagrin, the newspapers d eclared him the "most kissed man in America." In Hong Kong, he oversaw the repair of Spanish gunboats for use by the US Navy's Yangtze River Patrol. At Cavite in the Philippines, he salvaged three of the Span ish ships Admiral D ewey's force h ad sunk during the bat tle of Manila.

In 1903, after eighteen yea rs in the US Navy, Captain Hobson retired due to poor health. Elected to Congress in 1906, he served four terms in the House of Representatives and became a strong advocate of naval expansion, including sponsoring the bill that established the Office of C hief of Naval Operations. In 1916 he lost his bid for a Senate seat, the result of his Alabama constituents' disenchantment with his progressive stands, notably hi s support of women's suffrage, authorship of the first prohibition bill in 1911, and his protest of the Army's treatment of black soldiers following the Brownsville, Texas, riot of 1906. A staunch non-drinking, non-smoking C hristian, H obson devoted the remainder of his life to the fight against alcohol and narcotics. In addition to writing many tracts on the danger of alcohol and drug abuse, he wro te extensively on naval preparedness and authored two novels, one set at the US Naval Academy and the other describing the adventures of his fictional n aval hero in the Spanish American War. In 1915 Congress changed the regulation restricting the Medal of Honor to

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enlisted personnel. Hobson belatedly received his Medal of Honor from President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933; he was selected for Rear Admiral on the retired li st in 1934. The courageous life of Admiral Richmond Pearson Hobson ended in 1937. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. In 1942, a Fletcher-class destroyer, DD464, was named in his honor and served with distinction in both the European and Pacific theatres during World War II. .t CAPT Patrick S. Grant, USN (Ret.), served far 30 years in the US Navy, including his time in the Reserves. During his 3 1h years of active duty, he was deployed to Vietnam while serving aboard the "Mighty 0, "the Essex-class carrier USS Oriskany. A graduate ofthe City University ofNew York, Queens College, he worked in the insurance industry in charge ofmarketing and communications and retired in 2005. He is a farmer columnist far the Glendale News-Press, part ofthe Los Angeles Times Community News service. He is the author of "1he Resurrection ofjohn Paul Jo nes, " Naval History magazine, February 2012, Vol 26, No. 1.

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37


HISTORIC SHIPS ON A LEE SHORE

Bound for the Arctic and Beyond: Schooner Bowdoin Prepares for Her Second Century of Voyaging by Michael W Mahan

I most a centu ry after the schooner Bowdoin carried Admiral D onald B. MacMillan's h istoric 192 1 exped ition to Baffin Island, the same 88foo t wooden sailing vessel will retu rn to the Arctic fo r her 29'h visit. A crew of sixteen-students and fac ulry fro m Maine Maritime Academy in Castine-will hoist sails, challenging both the elements and themselves, and continue MacMillan's tradi tio n of education, exploration, and scientific research that made headli nes a century earlier. How did a boy from Provincetown, Massachusetts, orphaned by age twelve, become the twentieth century's foremost authority regarding all things A rctic? And how did his ship, named for his alma mater, Bowdoin College, survive-and indeed thrive-to be designated a National His- Arctic explorer Donald MacMillan in fur suit toric Landma rk and the official vessel of at wheel ofthe schooner Bowdoin, c. 1922. the State of Maine? From a H odgdon Brothers railway in East Boothbay, Maine, in Casco Bay fro m boating accidents in the where Bowdoin was launched in the spring course of a th ree-day time period. His heof 1921, to Cas tine, now her homeport at roics made the papers, and the news caught Maine Maritim e Academy, is an easy the attention of polar explorer and fellow Downeas t sail. Bowdoin, however, has Bowdoin alumnus Robert E. Peary, who since the 1890s had been making explorcharted a circuito us course. MacMillan's fa ther was lost at sea when atory excursions to Greenland. By 1905 , D onald was just nine, but by then he had Peary had set his sights on the No rth Pole, already inherited his fa ther's love of sailing and he saw in MacMillan an excellent adand the sea. MacMillan was orphaned by dition to his expedition crew. At first, Macage twelve, just th ree years later when his M illan was not willing to abandon his mother died, and he was raken in by a local teaching comm itments, but Peary perfam ily, that of sea captain Murd ick Mc- sisted and in 1908 MacMillan was onboard D onald. Two years after that, h is older SS Roosevelt w ith Peary and Cap t. Bob sister, now married , sent for him to come Bartlett when it departed New York, bound live with her in Freeport, Maine, and go to for the North Pole. MacMillan, however, the local h igh school there. M acM illan would not be among those who made the excelled at Freeport H igh School and upon final trek to the Pole on 9 April 1909; he graduation was accepted at nearby Bowdoin was forced to turn back on 14 M arch, due College in Brunswick, Class of 1898 . H e to froze n heels. As would continue to be true th roughgraduated with a degree in geology and spent the nex t ten years teachi ng at schools out his life, MacMillan's setbacks would in Ma ine and Massachusetts; he also es- only prove to strengthen his resolve. In the ta blished a sum mer camp fo r boys that yea rs immediately following the North Pole foc used on sailing, seamanship, and navi- expedition, he continued h is polar explorations, with travels to Labrador and G reengation . During one summer at camp, MacMil- land. It was M acMillan's 1913 Greenland lan and his campers rescued nine people voyage, the Crocker Land Expedition, that 38

nearly ended in disas ter, but which also spurred his thinking about what type of vessel would best be able to face the challenges of A rctic navigation. Those ideas would ultimately rake shape in the fo rm of the schooner Bowdoin. The expedition got off to a rocky start. On 2 July 1913, the steamer Diana left the Brooklyn Naval Yard with M acMillan as expedition leader and his crew onboard as passengers. Two weeks out, around midnight- reportedly attempting to avoid an iceberg-Diana's captain ran her onto a ledge along the Labrador coast. M acMillan's account pointed the fin ger at the captain, who was d runk at the time. MacMillan arranged transport fo r his team on another steamer, the Erik, whose sober captain delivered the explorers safely to G reenland by mid-August. There, at the Inuit outpost Erah, M acMillan established a base camp and built an eight-room headquarters. In March of 1914, M acMillan and a team of ni ne, including Inuit guides, set out on a 1,200-mile exploratory journey in limited visibility and temperatures dipping below min us 32° F. W eather conditions deteriorated, and by mid-April only M acM illan, his engineer, Navy ensign Fitzhugh G reen, and two Inuit guides remained. The others had returned ro camp suffering from fros tbite and fatigue. What exactly happened to the fo ur later that month, and why, are questions still debated today. Three of the fo ur-MacM illan, Green, and the Inuit guide Ittukusuk- made it back to th e rendezvous. The fo urth, the Inuit guide Piuqaattoq, lay dead on the sea-ice, felled by a bullet from Green's rifle. The team had split into two groups of tw o , with Green and Piuqaattoq looking for a n alternate western route back to base camp. W hen Green eventually reconnected w ith MacMillan, he reported th at he a nd Piuqaattoq had argued about the sled d ogs, and admitted to the shooting. Green was never charged with murder, but there may have been m ore to the argumen t. G reen was rumored to have had an affair w ith Piuqaattoq's wife, Aleqasina, who had

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016


previously been Robert E. Peary's mistress, bearing him two children. Over the next four years, MacMillan and his men remained stranded in the remote Greenland wilderness. In the spring of 1915, the team's physicist, Maurice Cole Tanquary, made it back to the base at Etah. From there, word was relayed to the American Museum of Natural History, one of the expedition's sponsors, and the first of a series of failed rescue attempts began. The schooner George E. Cluett set out that summer, only to be trapped in ice for two years. A second attempt in 1916 suffered a similar fate. Finally in 1917, the ship Neptunewith MacMillan's old shipmate Capt. Bob Bartlett in command-managed to reach them and returned the remaining expedition crew members to terra firma. The inability of existing ships to successfully navigate the treacherous Arctic and to withstand the tremendous pressure of pack ice had sentenced MacMillan to four years of exile. Four years stranded on sea-ice might have chilled another man's enthusiasm for Arctic exploration, but, instead, he spent a lot of that time thinking about a better way to get around in polar seas. A ship designed specifically for Arctic exploration, he thought, would have to be smaller, heavier, and carry less sail than existing ships charting the Arctic seas. By the time he returned to the United States, MacMillan was ready to contract with a naval architect and begin fundraising for the construction of an Arctic exploration schooner. Unfortunately, the United States was just entering World War I, putting a halt to funding and recruiting men for exploratory expeditions. MacMillan answered the call to service, joining the US Navy. When the war was over, he returned to his plans for his schooner. He contacted the naval architect William H . Hand Jr., a respected designer of sailing yachts at his Buzzards Bay Yacht Agency in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Hand transformed MacMillan's concepts about what was critical to withstand the brutal Arctic sea environment into a design that included strength, maneuverability, and endurance, while maintaining beautiful lines and the elegance reminiscent of the yachts he had been designing. MacMillan contracted with Hodgdon SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016

Schooner Bowdoin has made twenty-eight voyages to the Arctic. Brothers Shipyard in the tiny hamlet of East Boothbay, Maine, to build the schooner for $35,000, financed by friends who purchased shares for $100 each. Bowdoin was launched into the Damariscotta River in East Boothbay in April of 1921. MacMilIan wasted no time putting Bowdoin through sea trials. That summer he rook her to Baffin Island, where he and his crew spent the remainder of the summer. While the schooner sailed off to destinations far and wide, Hand continued his relationship with the yard throughout his long and illustrious career. At the time of his death in 1946, he was still in East Boothbay, supervising the construction of

his latest design. On 23 August, Bowdoin crossed the Arctic Circle for the first time. The explorers remained in the Arctic through the fall and the winter, eventually returning to warmer climes in the spring of 1922. This would be the first of more than 25 ofMacMillan's expeditions to the Arctic in the schooner, ultimately sailing more than 300,000 nautical miles. MacMillan would return to the Arctic aboard Bowdoin for the last time in 1954. During these voyages, Bowdoin's crew and their team of scientists collected flora and fauna and conducted experiments, adding considerably to our knowledge of the region.

Bowdoin launch, Hodgdon Brothers Shipyard, East Boothbay, Maine, 1921. At 88 feet long,

the wooden schooner was stoutly built with shallow draft for hugging the land and reducing the risk ofgrounding in northern waters that were largely uncharted at that time. 39


Association for the express purpose of saving the ship. The museum transferred ownership of Bowdoin to the association, which in turn leased her to Captain Jim Sharp of Camden, Maine. Sharp oversaw a $25,000 restoration, which returned the schooner to seaworrhy condition. In the following years, he operated her as a wharf-side museum and charter vessel in Camden H arbor. In 1969, as a generous gesture to the m an who conceived and created the schooner Bowdoin, Sharp sailed her from Camden to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where M acMillan, then in his 90s, h ad returned to retire. Ir would be the last time M acMillan saw Bowdoin under sail; he died on 7 September 1970. Coast Guard regulations for passenger vessels were becoming more strict by the mid-1970s, and it became clear to Captain Sharp that bringing Bowdoin into compliance wo uld m ean irrevocably altering her historic character. He relinquished his lease and returned her to the Schooner Bowdoin MacMillan's 1921-22 expedition to Baffin Island undertook a variety ofscientific projects, including a magnetic study station, ornithological and navigation work, exploration, and Association. In 1980, the association constudies ofthe Local Inuit community. D eliberately iced in for more than eight months, Bowdoin ducted a capital campaign to raise funds served as home base, while the men explored and conducted their studies. Note the snow domes for a major restoration. Work commenced at the historic Percy & Small Shipyard at built over her hatches for protection from the wind, while allowing air to circulate down below. More snow blocks are banked against her huff for insulation and to prevent condensation in Maine Maritime Museum in Bath. The 'frame-up' was supervised by Jim Stevens the Living quarters. of the Go udy & Stevens Shipyard in East Bowdoin's excursions included a num- Patrol to support the US Army's efforts to Boothbay. (Th ar ya rd had launched its first ber of historic firsts in Arctic exploration. es tablish refueling bases in Greenland fo r ship in 1921 , rhe yea r neighboring HodgIn 1923 the first shortwave radio transmis- the steady flow of aircraft being flown to don Brothers launched Bowdoin.) The exsions from the Arctic were sent from the G reat Britain. She was decommissioned at tensive work continued for the next few schooner, and two years later photographers the Quincy Naval Shipyard in Massachu- years, and in 1984 Bowdoin returned to sea from National Geographic aboard a Bowdoin setts two yea rs later on 16 December 1943. in like-new condition. expedition exposed the first color photo- In January 1945, Bowdoin, somewhat the The restoration not only brought Bowgraphs of the Arctic. Thar same year, Bow- worse for wear, was purchased for $4,000 doin back to her earlier glory, it also meant doin, in a joint operation with the US Navy by a gro up of MacMillan's friends who that she could once again safely head to and Richard E. Byrd, assisted in the begin- repaired and retrofitted her for polar expe- sea, and she did. In 1986 she sailed to New nings of polar aviation. d itio ns. Over the next nine years, Bowdoin York Harbor to participate in OpSail '86, Through the 1930s, Bowdoin continued reestablished her Arctic sailing career, con- the parade of ships that celebrated the her expeditions north, becoming a familiar ducting research and ferrying supplies to completion of the restoration of the Statue sight to the Innu and Inuit communities. the school MacMillan established at Nain of Liberty. The following year she was designated the official vessel of the State of MacMillan charted new territory, trained in northern Labrador in 1929. students, and created an extensive archive In 1959, MacMillan sailed Bowdoin to Maine, and for the 1987-88 season, Bowof Arctic documentary photography, all Mystic, Connecticut, where he transferred doin was leased to the Outward Bound while enduring extreme weather conditions her ownership to Mystic Seaport. She re- School in Rockland and Hurricane Island, from the deck of a wooden schooner. In mained as a display vessel in Mystic for the Maine, for educational expeditions in Pe1941, once again, war detoured Bowdoin's next eight years, bur her maintenance was nobscot Bay arud Downeast. At the end of and MacMillan's course. MacMillan again neglected and the schooner's condition the season, the: Schooner Bowdoin Assovolunteered for active duty and transferred deteriorated enough that, in 1967, MacMil- ciation transfe:rred ownership to Maine ownership of his beloved schooner to the lan rallied his loyal friends, former crew MaririmeAcadlemy in Castine, Bowdoin's US Navy. members, and early supporters of Bowdoin homeporr toda1y. Thar same yea r she was Bowdoin was assigned ro the Greenland expeditions to form the Schooner Bowdoin designated a Naitional Historic Landmark. 40

SEAHIST<ORY 155 , SUMMER2016


Bowdoin finally found a real home at Maine Maritime Academy. One of only six maritime training colleges in the United States, the academy was named the best public college or university in 2014 and 2015 by Money magazine. The academy's educational mission jibes with the history and mission of the schooner Bowdoin. Since being acquired by Maine Maritime, she's seen ongoing active service, training future m ariners for the twenty-first century. In 1990, for the first time since the 1950s, Bowdoin sailed to Labrador and the following year to Disko Island, Greenland, 150 miles above the Arctic Circle. Captain Andy Chase led the expedition of M aine Maritime students, continuing the tradition of education and exploration MacMillan started nearly a century earlier. The Arctic these students saw wasn't the sam e Arctic MacMillan's students saw in the 1920s, but the learning experiences and the differences are equally important. In 1994, Bowdoin ventured 250 miles above the Arctic Circle to U manaq, Greenland, and she continued to sail regularly from the Maine coast through Canada's M aritime Provinces and north to Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2004, students at Maine Maritime Academy established a leadership club called the Schooner Crew that participates in schooner Bowdoin ac tivities. Students are involved with m aintenance, as well as sailing, navigating, and teaching others.

A new deck and an engine overhaul are two of many projects being done as part of her current restoration.

As Bowdoin approaches her 100'" anniversary in 2021, Maine Maritime Academy is taking steps to guarantee she will be in prime condition for the celebration. The academy launched the Bowdoin Centennial Campaign, with a goal to raise $ 1.6 million. More than $600,000 is still being sought to cover the costs for a new deck a nd new pla nking above the waterline. Other upgrades will include a new generator, electrical and desalinization systems, and an engine overhaul; the work will be completed by Andros Kypragoras Ship-

building, Inc., of Whitefield , Maine, in June of 2016. A dditional funds are needed to strengthen the existing endowment and to provide for ongoing maintenance in the yea rs to come. As is true with all historic wooden ships, maintenance is demanding, challenging, and expensive. The campaign will help protect Bowdoin's National Historic Landmark status and ensure that the academic, exploration, ethnological, and environmental education opportunities MacMillan offered his srudents in the early part of the twentieth century will be available to Maine M aritime Academy students through the twenty-first. To contribute to the Bowdoin Centennial Campaign, and to find our more about America's most famous Arctic exploration schooner, contact Kay Hightower (kay. hightower@mma.edu) in the Development Office at Maine Maritime Academy, Pleasant Street, Castine, Maine 04420 or call 207 326-8932. ,t

Maine Maritime Academy operates two very different kinds of training ships: the 88joot wooden schooner Bowdoin, a National H istoric Landmark; and the 500joot State of Maine, a converted oceanographic research vessel originally built for the US Navy. SEAHISTORY 155, SUMMER2016

Michael W Mahan is a writer and designer in Bowdoinham, Maine. H efirst covered the schooner Bowdoin during the 198 0- 1984 restoration at the Percy & Small Shipyard at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath.

41


obsterman Eben W ilso n starts his days ea rly-as in, the middle-sf-the~~:::;.r night early. By 4: 00AM, he's cas ting off the docklines aboard the Elise A., his 4 0-foo t wooden lobster boat named fo r his little d augh ter, and h eadin g out to offshore waters, or, on days he stays closer to shore, between Pemaquid Point and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. He takes with h im a helper called a "stern man," and over , . the course of an 8-to-15 hour day, they will haul 300-400 lobster traps. State law restricts the days he can fi sh to about 3 or 4 days a week. W hen he isn't hauling traps, he is repairing them ashore or maintaining his boat so that it is safe and ready to go the nex t time he goes out. Government regulations also dictate the size oflobsters that ca n be kept to sell vs. those that must be put back in the ocean . Egg-beari ng fe males are also returned to the wa ter to help susta in the lobster population, but not before he snips a notch in her tail flipper as a way to identify her as a breeding fem ale. The lobster traps (also called lobster pots) are set from the deck of the Elise A . and d ro pped to the seafloor, anywhere fro m shallow waters to mo re than 1,000 feet deep. The traps are te thered to a buoy on the surface , and Eben tracks his buoys on a GPS plotter so that he can fi nd them again, even in the thick of fog or th rough choppy seas. When he pulls his boat up to the buoy, he pulls the buoy onboard with a winch and then hauls the line and the trap up on the deck. His stern man picks th rough the lobsters, measuring each

'9

Eben 's lobster boa t, the Elise A. one and keeping only the lega l-size ones (or non-egg bearing females), re-baits the trap- usually with salted herring, and resets it. Eben isn't very old , but he's been lobstering a long time. He grew up on the coast of M aine, and many of his neighbors were lobstermen. H e was only 8 years old when he got his first lobstering li cense. To lea rn the trade, he worked as a stern man for 14 years with a seasoned lobsterman from hi s tow n. To get a lobstering lice nse today in M aine, you need to log 2,000 hours wo rkin{g fo r another fisherman first.

(left) Eben and his brothers ; in their skiff when they were little. H is brothers are p layimg with toy boats over the side, while Eben (standing) is all l:husiness operating the boat.


Then you can apply for the license and be placed on a waiting list, which can rake years before yo ur name comes up. The stare only issues a cerrain number of licenses ro make sure rhat rhe lobster population is maintained at healthy levels. "Today, ir's a long process thar few have the time or patience for. Back in 1987 when I starred lobstering as a kid, ir was an open fishery and I could simply buy a license fo r about $120." Lobsrering is one of the few susta inable fi sheries left; in 2015, M aine's lobstermen (a nd women) landed more rhan 12 0 million pounds oflobsters, making rhe fis hery

Each lobster is measured from the end of its ey e socket to the end ofthe carapace (the shell j ust before the tail starts). Legal-sized lo bsters are "keepers," and can be sold ashore.

A breeding female lobster can carry th ousands ofeggs under her tail. This lobster has had her tail flipp er notched so that if she's caught again, the lobsterman will know right away to put her back in the water.

a major fac ror in the state's economy. M any other fi sheries have been overfished and either shur down, or become very restricted. W hile Eben initially started lobstering because he thought it looked like a fun thing to do, he has stayed with it all these years because it is still a good way ro earn a living and be your own boss, bur it is physically demanding work. Eben fishes year-round, which, in M aine, can be pretty rough going out in a sm all boat in winter weather. That said, few could compere with the view from his "office" as the sun comes up over the watery horizon. ,t

Lobster rraps-also called lobster pots-are des igned ro both catch lobsters and allow the sm aller ones ro get out rhrough "escape vents" while the rrap is still on the seafloor. These smaller lobsters can enter, eat the ba it, and then exit, but not all do, and rhe lobsterman measures each one thar he rakes out of the trap ro make sure it is legal size. Lobster rraps must also have biodegradable "ghost panels" tharwill break down over time and allow any lobsters inside ro get out, in case the trap is lost or separated from its buoy. For many generations lobsrer rraps were constructed from wood and netting made from knotted twine. Today, • •• most rraps are made with plastic-coared •••••• 11111111111111111 wire. After sniffing the bait, the lobster • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • enters the rrap rh rough funnel-shaped

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through another funnel 8 the "parlor." From there, ir wairs until rhe lobsterman hauls the pot to rhe surface and removes it from the trap. Traps are tethered to the surface with a rope and tied to a buoy. Each lobsterman paints his buoys with his own unique color and pattern to identify the lobster pots that belong to him. to

'----~~~~~~~~~~-----' ~

fi9 . . "9


Animals in Sea History

by Richard King

n 1881 , Martha Field, writin g under the pen name Catharine Cole, became the first woman to work as a full -time reporter for the New Orleans newspaper, the Daily Pica yun e. In a few years she became nationally known, especially as a travel writer. Often adventuring by herself-sloshing through bayous, rowing in canoes, and sailing on boats and ships-she reported from all over the state of Louisiana and filed accounts from Europe and Chicago. In July of 1888, she published a story about an expedition to Last Island, also known as "Isle Derniere," a barrier island in the Gu lf of Me xi co. She chartered a small schooner operated by a couple and their young daughter, who sailed to the outer islands to hunt birds that they could sell to French hat-makers . Field wrote that the boat was "beautifully-shaped, dingy-green ...floating on the water like a pelican ." Field described the desolation of the long skinny island of sand and low brush . At anchor, they slept on the ship's deck, protected by mosquito netting. Thirty years earlier a massive hurricane had wiped out an entire resort community on the island, killing about two hundred people and washing away hotels and all the houses .

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Field wrote that Last Island was now primarily "a favorite camp for bird hunters." Like the other low barrier islands on the Gulf, it was close to sources of fish and at a safe distance from the predators on the mainland. The island supported rookeries of a variety of seabirds, including gulls, terns, herons, and egrets. Field described how the family caught and prepared them for the markets of Paris, including how the "brave young daughter... can also skin , dress, and prepare for shipping no less than forty birds an hour." Not all the birds they killed were for hats. Field wrote: "Pelicans are killed for their pouches, of which purses and tobacco bags are made, and for the snow-white down on their breasts, of which powder puffs are made, and for the bones of their strong wings, of which pipe stems are made." Her desc ription is worth mulling over for three reasons: Firstly, a1s early as 1804, the State of Louisiana had adopted the pelican as the main image on its state seal, featuring a mother pelican with wings outspread, feeding her SEA HISTORY l 55, SUMMER 201 6


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three chicks with drops of her own blood-an image that has deep Christian roots. A similar illustration is now on the state flag, and in 1966 the Brown Pelican was named the official state bird of Loui siana, the only state to designate a seabird . Clearly Ms. Field, the daughter, and the bird hunters were not overly sentimental about hunting pelicans, despite the reverence the Louisianans had for them as a symbol. Secondly, although a bit gruesome, the historic "products" from these pelicans teach us a bit about these animals. The pelican can fill its enormous pouch with over seventeen pounds of water to catch a fish. Among North America's largest birds, Brown Pelicans have bones that are especially long and mostly hollow so they can fly hundreds of miles during migration and also plummet-dive from the air to surprise fish . The white downy breast feathers sought out for the powder puffs would have come primarily from the juvenile and fledgling pelicans. Thirdly, Field's description is a small piece of environmental history, even if

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she doesn't give exact numbers. International protests in the early 1900s resulted in laws against killing birds for fashion and protecting most migratory birds. In 1919, some 50,000 Brown Pelicans nested in Louisiana, but by the 1960s not a single nest could be found in the state. While hunting the birds had become illegal, the chemicals used for agriculture, such as DDT, likely caused the nearly complete elimination of the Brown Pelican from the Gulf Coast. Today, Brown Pelicans are again thriving in this region and have been

removed from the endangered species list. Asuccess story, to be sure, but now their coastal habitat is threatened in new ways . Last Island, about thirty miles long when Field visited, is essentially gone . Like most of coastal Louisiana, it has been over-washed into a fraction of what it was-only a few small, low islets-due to a range of manmade and natural factors . Making things worse, the BP oil spill in 2010 killed thousands of pelicans and coated the shores of dozens of barrier islands, including the islets that were once Last Island, where pelicans still nest. During her visit to Last Island, Martha Field body-surfed on the beach , fished for redfish, collected shells, and hiked around with the bird-hunting family to observe and describe their techniques. One night as she lay on the deck to sleep, she felt haunted by the loss of human life from the Hurricane of 1856: "Once in a while a belated pelican swept by, beating the air with heavy, hurried wings, or a tern screamed like a shril l sea witch ...it was long before I could sleep, just for listening to the moaning surf, to the growling of far-off thunder, but at last a sleep came, and when I awoke it was four in the morning." She crawled out from the mosquito net, sipped on a mug of coffee, and she and the schooner's crew set sail and crui sed off to Timbalier Island . In the next issue, I'll tell you what Field found at Timbalier, which is perhaps just as iconic for coastal Louisiana as the pelican . To learn about more "Animals in Sea History" go to www. seahistory.org. t (left) Brown Pelicans nesting within the Breton National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Louisiana. The orange line in the water is the top of a containment boom, used to protect the shoreline from the BP oil spill in 2010.

45

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 201 6


Marit1e Art News Natiot1al Marit1e Art Cot1feret1ce • S-11 Septet1tber 2016 • Williat1tsburg, Virgit1ia Regisrrarion is open for rhe upcoming National Marine Arr Conference, sponsored by rhe American Sociery of Marine Arrisrs (ASMA). Some of rhe nation's top marine arrisrs and premier aur horities on maritime arr and history will offer live demonsrrations and lecrures on maririme history and arr. Arrisrs, collectors, and rhose who appreciare marine arr won'r want to miss rhis event, rhe firsr of irs kind offered by ASMA. The conference will kick off on Thursday morning, 8 Seprember, with a painting demonsrrarion by Neal Hughes, as he explains how ro caprure rhe essence of a subjecr quickly, while emphasizing srrong design when painting en plein air. Len Tantillo will follow wirh a program rhar will explore rhe process and rechnical aspecrs of re-crearing history rhrough a painting, when historical records are "skerchy" at besr. Tantillo will share his experience of some of rhe daunting challenges he has encountered when reconsrrucring historical scenes. Larer rhar day, Peter Trippi, editor of Fine Art Connoisseur, will moderare a panel discussion on how marine arr fits in as a viral parr of today's arr scene. Highlighrs for Friday begin wirh Len Mizerek, wirh a plein air painting demonsrrarion, covering palerre colors and Len Tantillo early preparation for blocking in a good composirion. In rhe afternoon, internarionally renowned wildlife and monument sculptor Kent Ullberg will give a special presentation highlighting some of his sculprures displayed in sires around rhe world. Past ASMA president Russ Kramer will give a sneak preview of works from rhe ASMA 17' 11 Narional Exhibition, which will open later Friday evening ar the M uscarelle Museum on the grounds of rhe College of William and Mary. ASMA will hold its annual meeting Saturday morning, and then travel to Jamestown Serrlement for a large Plein Air paint-our event along rhe scenic warerfront. In the afternoon, Manhattan Sunset keynore speaker John Stobart, felby Len Tantillo, Fellow, ASMA; 14 x 21 inches, oil low emeritus and found ing member of ASMA, will speak abour his fifty-year career painting rhe narion's historic porrs, vessels, and warerways, and how he developed a passion to supporr young and aspiring arrisrs rhrough his Stobarr Foundarion. Thar evening, ASMA will award irs firsr Liferime Achievement Award to Mary Burrichter and Robert Kierlin, founders of rhe Minnesora Marine Arr Museum, for rheir dedication and ourstanding contriburions to rhe preservarion of marine arr, whi le selflessly crearing public awareness for furure generarions. Sunday evening, the conference will close wirh a special presentation from NMHS rrusree Admiral Robert]. Papp Jr. , USCG (Ret.), 24th Commandant of the US Coast Guard, regarding rhe Arcric Ocean and rhe commirment rhar we, as a maririme narion, have raken on to ensure safe commerce, prorect rhe environment, and creare responsible policy to assure security in rhe Arcric, which is now open to marine rraffic in ways never before possible. These are jusr some of rhe highlighrs, and many more arrists of nore will be arrending and presenting. To view rhe full conference program and to regisrer, visit rhe ASMA website: www.americansocietyofmarineartists.com. We invite yo u to meer NMHS leadership at Havsvhtd by Kent Ullberg, polished rhis firsrASMA conference. Chairman Ronald Oswald, chairman emeritus Howard Slornick, stainless steel on granite, 23 feet president Burchenal Green, and Sea History editor Deirdre O 'Regan will cover rhe conference and look forward to ralking to you about marine arr. ASMA is offering two levels for registration: limited-event and full-event registration, rhe larrer of wh ich includes ren additional arr-relared programs and demonsrrarions during rhe conference weekend. ASMA is extending its special member price to the members of the National Maritime Historical Society. You must use rhe code NMHSASMA when registering (be sure to use all capiral lerrers for rhe code). Registration is on a firsr come, firsr served basis. Due to rhe special narure of the presentarions, spaces are limired and will fill quickly, so make yo ur reservations early. For more information, please call Daven Anderson at 314 241-2339 or Kim Shaklee ar 303 654-1219. j;

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.SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Conservators with the USS Monitor Center at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, VA, have started weekly drainings of the 90,000-gallon treatment tank that houses Monitor's revolving gun turret. Excavation and treatment will co ntinue, as conservators rem ove and replace

the old rrea rment system, clean the interior and exterior of rhe rurrer, and remove irs interior plating. Behind these interio r plates, the ream is expecting to find m ore arti fac ts associated with life o nboard and the sinki ng of the fa mo us C ivil War ironclad . The ro tatin g gun tu rret was constructed of eight layers of o ne- inch thick wro ught-i ro n pla tes strong en o ugh ro withstand enemy fi re. M useum visito rs can

see Monitor's iconic revo lving gun turret's draining and conservation fro m rhe mass ive viewing platform inside rhe Monitor Center, Monday th ro ugh Friday until 15 July 201 6 (the mrrer is refilled each week over the weekends ro avoid it drying o ut com pletely). Behind-the-scenes tours with the director of the Mo nitor C enter, John V Quarstein, include a chance to go in to the drained rurret. These special to urs are available through 1 July fo r a $ 100 tax-ded uctible contribution with advance reservations (these to u rs are nor suitabl e fo r child ren under the age of 12) . This may be th e lasr rime visito rs are invited behind rhe scenes dur ing turret draining fo r several years. Reserva tio ns can be m ade by contacting H annah Piner at 757 952-0465, or email hpin er@m arin ersmuseum.org. Berween 1998 and 2002, the ship's turret, steam engine, Dahlgren guns, and other artifac ts we re excava ted from th e seafl oor and t ransfe rred to the USS Mo ni tor Center fo r co n serva tion and interpretatio n . (The Ma rin ers' M useum , 100 M useum D rive, Newpo rt News, VA; Ph. 757 5962222; www. m arinersmuseum.o rg)

Progress is being made on the $6.3-million-dollar hull restoration of the 1894 schooner Ernestina-Morrissey. Captain H arold Burnham is the owner's rep resentative fo r th e Massachusetts Dep artment of C onserva tio n and Recreation, the administrator fo r the historic ship. H e is working closely with the Boothbay H arb or Shipyard (Ma ine) president, Eric G raves, and p roject m an age r, D avid Short, to ensure the hull m eets US Coast G ua rd requirements fo r Ocean Cerrificario n so that the ship can resume seagoing educatio nal programming. The schooner has been co mpletely dism antled, and rhe shipyard crew has started to reassemble the ste rn structure. The rudder pos t and stern p os t of D anish oak are in place on the n ew keel, and the transom framing is going up . H ere, D av id Sho rt and his crew lifr rhe afc- most starboard fram e into place. Live oak from

Schooner Ernestina-Morri ssey Geo rgia is used fo r the fur tocks char h ave m o re curve and need strength; t h e rest of the fur tocks are m ade from Danish oak. Th e futtocks are fas tened with rr unnels to form the fram e; the timbers are fas tened w ith silico n-bronze bolts. No tice the m ortises ready to accept the rest of rhe fram es. (For photographs of thi s work and info rmati o n on how you can help, visit www. ernesti na.org.) ..• "Boaty McBoatface" is out as a contender for the name of the UK's newest polar research vessel; RRS Sir DavidAttenborough is in. T h e Natural E n vironm ent Research Co un cil (NERC), which is building the vessel, go t into a public relations snafu wh e n it anno un ced in M arch that the public was invited to suggest names fo r the n ew ship. A Bri tish radio personality jokin gly suggested "Boary M cBoatface," whic h imm edia tely took off as a runaway favo rite 48

SEA HISTORY 155, SUM MER2016


RRS Sir D avid Attenborough with the public, receiving nearly 3 0,000 votes in a matter of days. T he sillyn ess of it all made international news, but NERC ultimately went with naming the 4 10-foot ship for Britain's wo rld-renowned naturalist and broadcas ter. Not to disregard p ublic sentiment, NERC will name on e of the ship's remotely operated sub-sea vehicles Boaty McBoatface. T he $287 millio n research vessel will be operated by the British Antarctic Survey. "Ice Ice Baby," "Usain Boat," "It's Bloody Co ld Here," an d "Clifford the Big Red Boat" we re also sugges ted-and rejected . (www.nerc.ac .u k) ... Captain Richard Bailey, formerly of the Rhode Island tall ship Oliver Hazard Perry and before that the longtime captain of "HMS "Rose (now HMS Surprise), recently signed on as captain of the schooner Spirit of

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of port visits and teen summer camps. Richard Bailey has also served as captain aboard the schooners Spirit of Massachusetts, Westward, and Harvey Gamage, and the three-masted barquentine Gaze/a Primeiro. (For more information on the ship and her upcoming season and programs, email: director@spiritofsc.com; www. sp iritofsc.org. Updates will be posted on the ship's Facebook and lnstagram pages .) . . . In April, the Norfolk City Council voted to approve a plan for the Nauticus Foundation to buy the schooner Virginia. Virginia will be docked next to the battleship Wisconsin and used for educational programming. Nauticus, an interac-

rive science and technology center that explores the naval, economic, and nautical power of the sea, is run by the city of Norfolk and supported by the non-profit Nauticus Foundation. It is home to USS Wisconsin and the Hampton Roads Naval Museum. Using a $ 1 million state grant to cover the purchase of the schooner and seed a fund for future maintenance and repairs, Nautilus plans to use Virginia as part of Sail Nauticus, a program that gives underprivileged children around Hampton Roads access to the water. A reproduction of the last all-sail vessel built for the Virginia Pilot Association, Virginia was built in Norfolk between 2002 and 2004, and sailed for the Virginia Maritime H eritage Foundation as an educational platform. She has sailed up and down the Atlantic coast, as well as to international destinations such as Trinidad, Bermuda, and Prince Edward Island. A reduction in state funding for the program made it increasingly di fiiic ult for the VMHF to meet operating ccosts, and the organization put the schmoner up for sale last year. (One Watersid:le Drive, Norfolk, Virginia; Ph. 757 664!-l 000; www.na uticus.org) ... 50

SEA JHISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016


Star of India is getting a new weather d eck, courtesy of a $192,000 National Parks Service Maritime Heritage Grant. T he 1863 full- rigged iron sailing ship is th e flagsh ip of the Maritime M useum of

San D iego. Built as the Euterpe at Ramsey in the Isle of Man, the shi p worked in the Indian jute trade, sailing between Liverpool and Ind ia. She was later sold to th e Alaska Packers' Association and renamed Star of India. In 1901 , sh e was re-rigged as a barque and put into service as a salmon hauler between Alaska and Califo rnia in the early part of the 20th century. T h e Star ofIndia now serves as a m useum ship and is fully operational, sailing on average 2 to 4 days per year. (MMSD, 1492 North Harbor Drive, San D iego CA; Ph. 6 19 234-9 153; www.sdma ri time.org) ... T he National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) recently announced it is being awarded £13.85 million from the Herit age Lottery Fund to fund the muchneeded move of the Royal Marines Museum to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard . T h e project, called SeaMo re,

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SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 201 6

will interpret the UK's newest national m useum collection in an inn ovative Center for D iscovery. More than two million artifacts, currently kept in th irty separate stores within fo urteen buildings across nine sites, will be relocated and made accessi ble to visitors in a move to revolutionize the way the history of the Royal Navy is told . The Royal Marines M useum will m ove into Boathouse 6, the Grade II Victorian boath ouse that currently houses Action Stations. An economic impact report by the University of Portsmo uth estim ates that the project will initially generate more than £26 million within the regional econom y and will increase visitor numbers at the H istoric D ockyard by 7-8%. T h e site currently welcomes 75 0,000 visitors ann ually and seeks to raise this to 1 million w ithin the n ext te n years. Also at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, for the first time in decades, visitors to HMS Victory can access parts of the ship previously not open for tours, including the poop deck, Nelson's Great Cabin and the

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the hull to halt the movement of the ship's sides, while the project to preserve the ship gets underway. (www. nmrn.org. uk) On 1 April, the Mariners' Museum Library in Newport News, VA, closed to the public while the building undergoes a major expansion. The library is located on the C hristopher Newport University campus, as part of the uni versity's Paul and Rosemary Trible Library. In 2009 , the Mariners' Museum Library was relocated to the Trible Library to allow greater access for researchers and to take advantage of the universiry's bigger and more suitable faciliry. The Mariners' Museum's Library holds the largest maritime history collection in the Western Hemisphere. The library is expected to reopen in autumn of 2017. (Updates will be posted o n the museum's website at www.marinersmuseum. org/library) ... The brand new Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) research vessel Neil Armstrong was met by a jubilant crowd as it arrived at its home port in Woods Hole, MA, for the first time on 6 April. Six years ago, the US Navy announced plans to construct

a long string of notabl e research ships, including Atlantis, the nation's first vessel designed a nd built specifically to carry out oceanographic research . The Armstrong replaces RIV Knorr, whi ch supported ocean science research fo r 44 years . According to David Scully, ch airman of the WHOI board of trustees, "WHOI was founded on the belief that you need to go to sea." Remarking on the occas ion , Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass .) wrote, "Climate change threatens our way of life, and the world we know today. In order to prepare for, and ultimately solve one of the greatest challenges of our generation, we must have the knowledge to do so. We cannot ignore our oceans. We know more about the surface of the moon than we do the bottom of the oceans here on Earth. To gain a better understanding of our oceans, we must explore and observe, and for oceanographers, that means going to sea." The Neil Armstrong and the Sally Ride are the most technologically advanced ships in the U S academic fleet. They contain two multi-beam echo sounders designed to operate at different depths, making these

rwo ships in a new "Ocean C lass" of research vessels, and WHOI was awarded the no-cost lease to operate the first of the ships. The second vessel , RIV Sally Ride, will be operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography out of La Jolla, California. T he 238-fr. Neil A rmstrong is the newes t ship in the US academic fleet, and one of just seven in that fleet capable of accessing all but ice-covered a reas of the global oceans. Since 1930, WHOI has operated

rwo new vessels the only ships in th e UNO LS fleet equipped to conduct high-resolution seafloor surveys almost anywhere the ship can operate. The ship's three acousti c Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) can scan the 'Water column at different frequencies to rreveal the invisible structure of wa ter at varying depth s and resolutions, an d a mtulti-beam, multi-frequency echosounder,. the EK-80, not on ly can detect the presen ce and abundance of marine life

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ben eath the ship, but also offers the potential to differentiate among species of fish and other marine life hidden beneath the surface. From an engineering standpoint, the ship itself is state-of-the-art. In addi tion to clean-burning diesel-electri c generarors, variable-frequency DC propulsion means less wear-and-tear on critical components and higher efficiency. The new ship's integrated controls provide access ro virtually every critical sys tem , from propulsion and navigation ro electrical load to heating and air conditioning ro ballas t, on rouch screens in the engine room and bridge. The navigation sys tem can b e monirored and diagnosed from shore. RIV Neil Armstrong can accommodate 24 scientists and a professional crew of 20 at sea for up to 40 days. WHOI is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod , M assachusetts, dedicated to m arine research, engineering, and higher education . Established in 1930 on a recommendatio n from the National Academy of Sciences, its primary mission is ro understand the ocean and its interaction with the earth as a whole, and to communicate a bas ic un ders tandin g of the ocean's role in the changing global envi ro nment. (266 Woods Hole Road, Woods H ole, M A; Ph. 50 8 548-1400 ; www.whoi. edu) ... NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is launching a Shipwreck Photo Contest. Pho rographers are invited to submit their best photos of shipwrecks or other maritime h eritage subj ects located above o r below No rth Carolina's waters. Pho tograp hs may be entered in five categories: underwa ter ship wreck, shipwreck above wa ter, maritime archaeological sire other rhan shipwreck, macro phorography involving maritime heri tage, and wildlife and mari time heri tage . All pho ros must have been shot between 1 M ay and 1 November 201 6 ro be eligi ble. All entries will be high li ghted on the Moniror Nati onal M arine Sanctuary webpage at www. moniror.noaa. gov/ imagery and on the Sancutary's Facebook page. W inners will be announced in December 201 6 and will receive a framed No rth Carolina shipwreck site plan o f th eir ch oosing fr om plans created by NOAA archaeologists and partner organizations. (For an application and co ntest rules, visit www.moniror.noaa.gov.) ... SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016

Lots of news coming out of Mystic Seaport. This summer the museum will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the launch of the well-smack Emma C. Berry. Over in the shipyard, the restoration crew working on the 1908 Sabino has determined that the steamboat needs a new boiler. And, in September, the museum will host a grand opening of the new Thompson Exhibition Building. The sloop Emma C. Berry, whi ch from a distance looks like a beautiful sa iling yacht, was built in 1866 just down the M ystic Rive r in Noank, CT, and worked as a commercial fishin g vessel. She was design ed with a pyramid-shaped well amidships to keep the catch alive in the days before

WeLL smack Emma C. Berry refri geration. Well smacks we re common in rhe near-sho re fish eries from M aine to the Ca ribbean. The Emma C. Berry is a National Historic Landmark and was donated to the museum in 1969 . A new book about the history of the vessel was pub-

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Steamboat Sabino Over at the museum's Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard, the restoration work on the coal-fired steamboat Sabino continues . On the work list: inspection of and replacing keel bolts, installation of a new upper deck, and replacing the shaft log and frames and planking around the stem. While the vessel is in the boat shop, an inspection of her l 940s-era boiler determined it needs to be replaced entirely. While this was not wholly unexpected, it did increase the cost of the project and the museum is now raising funds to pay for the new boiler's design and fabrication. Until that happens, the plan is to launch her this summer with the engine, boiler cowling, and stack in place so she can function as a dockside exhibit for visitors ro go aboard. Sabino is one of the oldest coalfired steamboats still operating in the US and is an iconic fixrure on the Mystic River. Those interested in making a contribution to the boiler fund may do so online at mysticseaport.org or by contacting the Advancement Department at advancement@mysticseaport.org; Ph. 860 572-5365. Finally, the 14,000 sq uare-foot Thompson Exhibition Building is scheduled to open on 24 September. It will house

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a new visitor's entrance, a retail shop, meeting and event space, and a spacious stateof-the-art exhibition gallery that will enable the museum to host large travelling exhibits and expand its capability to display artifacts from its vast collections. The modem design of the building is intended to evoke the "geometry of the sea" with graceful curves reminiscent of the curl of a wave or the spiral of a nautilus shell. The architects compare the framework to that of an overturned boat or ship. (75 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic, CT; Ph. 860 5725331; www.mysticseaport.org) ... In May, the United States returned to the Italian government a stolen copy of a letter written in 1493 by Christopher Columbus, after an investigation revealed that the document had landed in the US Library of Congress. The letter was stolen from the Riccardiana Library in Florence, Italy, and replaced with a forgery, which wasn't discovered until 2012. The Riccardiana Library director guesses the switch occurred in the early 1950s, the only time the document left the library when it was loaned to a reposiro ry in Rome. The investigation traced the original to a rare book collector in Switzerland, who in 1992 sold it to a collector through Christie's Auction House in New York. The letter was bequeathed to the Library of Congress in 2004. The 8-page document is one of thirty handwritten copies of a letter Columbus sent to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella describing his observations of what he said was rhe eastern edge of Asia. "I discovered many islands inhabited by numerous people," Columbus wrote (as translated by rhe Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History). "I took possession of all of them for our most fort unate King by making public proclamation and unfurling his standard, no one making any resistance." .. ."The convenience of the harbors in this island and the excellence of rhe rivers, in volume and salubrity, surpass human belief," he wrote. The international investigation into rhe theft of the letter is ongoing, and currently neither government is releasing rhe name of final owner who left the letter to the Library of Congress. Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini has stared that the letter will return to the Riccardiana Library. In rhe mean-

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016


time, th e director of the Galata Sea Museum, a maritime museum in Genoa, has submi tted a request to take custody of the document and display it in an exhibit highlighting Columbus's achievements . (www. galatamuseodelmare.it/) ... In April, the SS United States Conservancy announced that the Mariners' Museum is donating more than 600 artifacts from SS United States to the Conservancy, which is developing a land-based museum and exhibitions about the ship's history and broader themes of design and innovation. T he donation includes art, furniture, silverware, advertisements,

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museum also donated a serving cabinet from the First C lass dining room, several stru cmral items that were given to the museum by Frederic Gibbs, brother of the ship's designer William Francis Gibbs. Also included is a series of spectacular blackand-w hite photographs raken by Albert W Durant during the ship's top secret trial runs in earl y 1952. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's John D. Rockefe ll er Library also owns a set of the images and was the original source of the donation. As plans move forward with C rys tal C ruises to return the ship to passenger se rvice, the SS United States Conservancy is co ntinuing to expand its collectio ns of objects and ephemera related to the ship for evenmal display as part of a permanent exhib ition. It is also coll ecting oral histories from former officers, crew, and passe ngers. (For more information, contact the Conservancy at info@ss usc. org.) . . . Those with an interest in all things about the Port of New York waterfront will want to check out the waterblog "tugster" at tugster.wordpress. com. Tugster, a.k.a Will Van Dorp, covers what he ca lls New York's "sixth born," the waters in an d aro und the port. In add iti on

to his blog, he and producer Gary Kane made the documentary, Graves of Arthur Kill, an official selection of the 20 14 Art of Brooklyn Film Festival. T his 32-minute documentary was filmed in and near the Rossville yard in Staten Island, an "accidental maritime museum," where the remains of mgboats, ferries, and other vessels rust in peace. Inthe do cumentary, historians, artists, and othe rs id entify particular vessels and react to the allure of the ship graveyard. It includes smnning footage from 2011, as well as photos and video clips from much earli er. (The trailer can be viewed at www.3fishproductions. com; the DVD is avail able at www.cre In March, atespace.co m/354793.) South Street Seaport Museum (SSSM) in New York City and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) announced they have been awarded $4.8 million in federal funds for the renovation of SSSM's Water Street properties as an education and community space. T he proposed all ocation is made possible by a grant from LMDC, which is funded through Co mmuni ty Development Block Grants from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. These funds

are being obtai ned through a $5 0 million legal settl eme nt reached with Lend Lease Construction LMB Inc. (fo rmerly Bovis Lend Lease LMB Inc.). LMDC formed a working group of state and city officials that condu cted extensive reviews of the proposals , including site visits an d interviews, and oversaw a public in formation sessio n, during which dozens of co mmunity m embers presented and discussed various proposals. Notable recent ach ievements at SSSM include revitalized education programming (with tripled attend ance over last yea r), increased membership and public programs (more than doubled ), installation of new exhibits, and the reactivatio n of the 1893 schooner Lettie G. Howard as a sailin g school vessel. The museum is nearing completion of a $ 13 million resto ration of the 1885 ship Wavertree, which will remrn to the museum's pi ers thi s sum mer. In the meantime, plans are underway to transport the museum's 4-masted barq ue Peking to Germany, wh ere she was originally built. There, the ship will be resto red and become the centerpi ece of a new port museum in H amburg . (12 Fulton St., New York, NY; www.so u th streetseaportmuseum. o rg) .t t .t

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CONFERENCES AND SYMPOSIUMS

•Women at Sea Symposium, 1 July at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea, Wales. (Program and information at www. womenatsea.wordpress.com) •Canadian Nautical Research Society Annual Conference, 18-20 August in New Westminster, British Columbia. Conference theme is "Where Rivers Meet Oceans." (www.cnrs-scrn.org) •National Marine Art Conference, American Society of Marine Artists, 8-11 September in Williamsburg, VA. (See notice in "Marine Art News" on page 46 of this issue. www.americansocieryof marineartists.com) •North Carolina Maritime History Council Conference, 4-5 November in New Bern, NC. Call-for-Papers deadline is 15 September. (For details, contact Brian Edwards, program chai r, at bedwards@ albemarle.edu) •Society for Historical Archaeology, 4-8 January 2017 in Fort Worth, TX. Call-forPapers deadline is 30 June. Conf. theme is "Advancing Frontiers: Where the Next 50 Years of SHA Begins." (www.sha.org) •American Historical Association,13lst Annual Meeting 4-8 January 2017 in Denver, CO. Conference theme is "Hisrorical Scale: Linking Levels of Experience." (www.hisrorians.org) •PCNACA National Conference 12-15 Ap ril 2017 in San Diego. (Popular C ulture Association/American Culture Association) "Sea Literature, History, & Culture" is one of the subj ect areas presented. Callfor-Papers deadline is 1 October. (www. pcaaca. o rg/ national-conference) EXHIBITS

•36 Hours: Jutland 1916, The Battle that Won the ~r, recently opened at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in the UK. Exhibition is a collaboration between the NMRN and the Imperial War Museum. (www.nm rn. org.uk) •23rd Annual Maritime Art Exhibit, 9 July-24 September at the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay, OR. Featured artist is William A. Selden; jurors are Don Demers, Debra Huse, and Jeffrey Hull. (235 Anderson Avenue, Coos Bay, OR; Ph. 541 267-3901; www.coosart.org)

•The 2016 American Society of Marine Artists North Juried Art Show, through 24 July, and 150 Years of Marine Art, through 30 November at the M innesota MarineArtMuseuminWinona. (MMAM: 800 Riverview Dr., Winona, MN; www. mmam.org. ASMA: www.americansoci eryofmarineartists.com)

•Voyaging in the

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new exhibit at Mystic Seaport. (75 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic, CT; Ph. 860 572533 1; www.mysticseaporr.org)

•Mapping Ahab's "Storied ~ves "Whaling and the Geography of MobyDick, at the New Bedford Whaling M useum, (18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740; Ph . 508 997-0046; WWW. whalingm useum .o rg)

•How to Abandon Ship: The Sinking of the SS Robin Moor, 1941, through 30 March 2017 at the American Merchant Marine Museum in King's Point, NY. (US Merchant Marine Academy, 300 Steamboat Road, Kings Point, NY; www.usm ma.edu/museum)

•Ship Models: The Evolution ofShip Design, ongoing at the Hart Naurical Gallery at the MIT Museum. (55 Massachusetts Ave. Bldg. 5, Cambridge, MA; 617 2535942; www.web.mir. edu/museum) FESTIVALS, EVENTS, LECTURES, ETC.

•Sea Music Festival, 9-12 June at Mystic Seapo rt Museum. (75 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic, CT; Ph. 860 572-5331; www.mysticseaport.org) •29th Annual Antique & Classic Boat Festival, 17-19 June at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in Sr. M ichaels, MD. (For more information, call 410 745-29 16; www.cbmm.org) •25th Annual WoodenBoat Show, 24-26 June at Mystic Seaport. (www. thewoodenboatshow.com; 75 G reenmanville Ave., Mystic, CT; Ph. 860 572-5331; www.mysticseaport.org) •Tall Ships Challenge-Great Lakes 2016: Toronto, Ontario, 1-3 July (www.rowa terfrontfesr.com); Fairport Harbor, OH, 8-10 July (www.talls hi osfa irportharbor.com) ; Bay City, MI, 15- 17 July (www.tallshipceleb rat ion.com); Chicago, IL , 27-31 July (www.navypier.com/ Green Bay, tall-ships-chicago-2016; WI , 5-7 August, (www.tallshipgreen

bay.com); Duluth, MN, 18-21 August (www.tallshipsduluth.com); Erie, PA, 8-11 September (www.tallshipserie.org); Brockville, Ontario, 17-18 September (www.tallshipsbrockvi lle.com). (Al l information is ava ilable on rhe Tall Ships America website: www.sailtraining.org) •Windjammer Days Festival, 26 June-2 July in Boothbay Harbor, ME. (www.wind jammerdays.o rg) •40th Annual Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival, 2-4 July ar the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle. (10 10 Valley Street, Seattle, WA; www.cwb.org) •Thunder Bay Maritime Festival, 4 July at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center in Alpena, M I. (5 00 W Fletcher Street, Alpena, MI; Ph. 989 356-8805 ; www.thunderbay.noaa.gov) •Maine Windjammer Great Schooner Race, 7-8 July. Race day is 8 July; the race course goes from Islesboro to Rockland, ME. (www.greatschoonerrace.com) •Newport Regatta, 8- 10 July off Fort Adams State Park in Newport, RI . (www. sailnewport.org) •Tacoma Maritime Fest, 16- 17 July at the Foss Waterway Seaport in Tacoma, WA. (705 Dock Sr., Tacoma, WA; www. tacomamaritimefest.org) •Lake Champlain Maritime Festival, 28-31 July in Burlington, VT. (www.lcmfestival.com) •52nd Annual Antique Boat Show, 5-7 August at the Antique Boat Museum. (750 Mary Sr., C layton, NY; Ph. 315 686-4104; www.abm.org) •Festival of the Sea, 20 August at the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco. (www. maritime.org/events) •34th Annual Antique & Classic Boat Festival 20-21 August at Brewer Hawthorne Cove Marina in Salem, MA. (10 Wh ite Street, Salem, MA; www.boatfesti val.org) •Greenport Maritime Festival, 23-25 September, in Greenport, Long Island, NY. (www.eastendmaritimefestival.org) •Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, 24-25 September, in Portsmouth, NH. (www. newenglandfolknetwork.org/ pmff) •Santa Barbara Harbor & Seafood Festival, 15 October at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (113 Harbor Way, Santa Barbara, CA; www.sbmm.org)


MARITIME HISTORY ON THE INTERNET

by Peter McCracken

Tracking Your Ancient Mariners enealogy is big business these days, and While FindMyPast is making inroads in genealogy databases can be great tools for the US market, it is a British company at heart, maritime history research, too. Ancestry and has mostly British reso urces in its data(www.ancestry.com) is a large company that bases. It offers records fo r over a million British indexes and digitizes data for genealogists. merchant seamen from between the two World FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org) is the Wa rs, in addition to numerous immigration public-facing genealogy side of the Church of records. Jesus C hrist of Latter-day Saints, which invests In the United States, we leave most of this enormous amounts of time and money in their to private enterprise (a nd the Mormons), but own work in genealogy, to the benefit of all. in other countries the government underwrites FindMyPast (www.findmypast.com) and much of this work. The result is that much of MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com) round their data is freely accessible to all. In Austraout the largest genealogy companies; together lia, for instance, the state and federa l governthey provide a lot of great resources for fo lks ments have digitized and transcribed many who want to learn more about their ances- passenger lists. The State Records Authority tors-including those who went to sea. of New South Wales hos ts a site that displays If you'd like to find information about many thousands of passenger lists for arrival ancestors who emigrated to America by sea, into Australia, at www.mariners.records.nsw. these databases are often the best places to look. gov.au. Note that many of these governmentAncestry offers individual subscriptions, but created lists are also available in the big genealmost public libraries also offer access to their ogy databases. In add ition, all of the genealpatrons. (You'll need to use this database inside ogy companies offer resources focusing on a library; Ancestry does not allow public library countries around the world, and som e offer patrons to access the database from their homes sites that are especially focuse d on services for because it would cut into their profitable indi- residents of individual countries, such as www. vidual subscription busi ness.) Ancest ry offers ancestry.se for content related to Swedish gemillions of indexed names in passenger lists nealogy (and also presented in Swedish). from ships arriving from across the Atlantic, Some unique maritime resources that may going back as far as 1820, when the US Gov- not be foun d in the big genealogy databases ernment first required ships to track arriving include the National Maritime Digital Lipassengers. Crew lists are available for several brary (www.nmdl.org), which has crew lists areas, and Ancestry has digitized many Sea- from San Francisco, wh aling voyages out of man's Protection Certificate applications. New Bedford, and crew lists from Fall River, Throughout the nineteenth century, many MA. Mystic Seaport offers crew lists from people traveled back and forth across the ocean, New London, CT, and Salem, MA, at www. coming to America to work for a period of time, library.mysticseaport.org/initiative/Crlnthen returning home to Europe to be with their dex.cfm. The Maritime History Archive, at families. It is not unusual to find that an indi- Memorial University in Newfoundland, has vidual, or even complete fam ilies, traveled back digitized and indexed several hund red crew and forth across the ocean multiple times before lists for Newfo undland and Labrador, available finally settling down in the United States. at www.mun.ca/mha/nlcrews/nlcrews.php. FamilySearch provides a similar set of If yo u'll be headed out to visit your local content, but offers nearly all of that information library to access Ancestry or other online dafor free. W hile you' ll almost always have more tabases, also consider stopping at a nearby Famsuccess searching for information about a per- ily History Center, which is essentially a local son than about a specific sh ip, yo u can find branch of the Family History Library in Salt some information by ship in several collections. Lake C ity. (They can be located via www. Passenger lists are more easily found by search- familysearch.org/locations/.) These facilities ing for an individual, but one can search by offer access to a range of databases that can be ship name. A ll sorts of information can be useful in researching ancestors, whether they found in these databases; for example, Fa mi- were sailors or not. lySea rch has di gitized and indexed rosters of Suggestions for other sites worth mentionUS soldiers and sailors from the Revolutionary ing are welcome at peter@shipindex.org. See War. If you know an ancestor was a sailor in www.shipindex.org for a free compilation of the war, you may be able to find other informa- over 150,000 sh ip names from indexes to doztion about that person through these sources. ens of books and journals . .t

G

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SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016


Reviews A Sailor's Story by Sam Glanzman (Dover Pub!., Mineola, NY, 2015, 163pp, graphic novel, ISBN 978-0-486-79812-7; $19.95hc) Should a comic book be reviewed in Sea History? Probably not under ordinary circumstances, but Sam Glanzman's graphic telling of his World War II experience (1943-1945) serving in the fireroom of USS Stevens (DD 479) is so well done and compelling, that it is most worthy of attention in serious nautical journals.

The detail in Glanzman's frames are eye-catching and impressive. Only experienced destroyer-men and students of naval architecture will be able. to judge the authenticity of renditions of ships, but this former Marine was surprised and impressed to see recognizable sketches of a BAR in the hands of Marines making a beach landing and fighting ashore. Other Marines are shown armed with Ml Garand riBes and Ml carbines. Wonderful detail. A Sailor's Story comprises several parts. The first book relates Glanzman's personal experience, from his departure from home, through his US Navy career, and back home again. Book II is a little less organized. Ir is a rendition of the action of the Stevens, reinforced with detailed drawings and explanations of various parts of a World War II destroyer. The writing and story line are superior in Book I, bur the artwork is splendid throughout the volume. Following Book II is a series of twenty tributes to Glanzman and his work-some short, more long, and a few illustrated. SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016

"Even Dead Birds Have Wings" comes next, a story of the Battle of Midway illustrated in pen and ink. Finally, a number of WWII-era photographs of Glanzman, followed by an afterward, bring the chic graphic novel to a close. A reading of A Sailor's Story is a fun way of reviewing destroyer action in World War II and primes the reader for a similar volume setting out the history of USS Stevens set to debut in June of 2016. DR. DAVID 0. WHITTEN Auburn, Alabama

tonic, sinking the 1,250-ton warship in minutes. The bold attack turned our to be a suicide mission-Hunley and its eightman crew were lost. Confederate Saboteurs: Building the Hunley and Other Secret Weapons of the Civil War tells the story of the men who designed and built the submarine, as well as Boating mines that menaced Union vessels. Author Mark K. Ragan, who was project historian during Hunley's excavation and recovery in the 1990s, has produced the definitive history of some of the Confederacy's most advanced weapons, not to mention some of its most secret. Most records of the South's clandestine operations and sabotage missions were destroyed as the war ended, forcing Ragan to reconstruct the exploits of the Confederacy's underwater warriors from scattered news clippings, surviving reports, and other sources, including Harriet Middleton's newly discovered letters. A core group of steam engineers, machinists and tradesmen based in Port Lavaca, Texas-midway between Galveston and Corpus Christi-graduated from

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building a nti-ship mines to creating a manned underwater vessel to deliver explosives to a target. It became known as the Singer Secret Service Corps after its leader, Edgar Collins Singer, a nephew of the well-known sewing machine m a nufacturer. The gro up's mines sa nk or d a maged dozens of Union ships, including some formidable ironclads, but it was Hunley that truly pu shed the technological envelope. Powered by a hand-cranked propeller, it could tow a mine or use a bow-mo unted pole to embed one into the side of a wooden ship. It was also a death trap. More than a dozen crewmen, including its namesake Captain Horace Hunley, died when it twice sa nk during training runs. "Tis more dangerous to those who use it than to e n emy," observed one Rebel general. And while its one-off sinking of a warship sent shockwaves through the Union navy, the war ended before Southern ya rds co uld complete more prototypes (Ragan's research sugges ts several were in production). Confederate Saboteurs is meticulously documented and features thirty-six pages of photographs and other il lustration s. And it's likely the las t word on the birth of subma rine warfare. DEAN ]OB B

Halifax, Nova Scotia

A History of the World in Sixteen Shipwrecks by Stewart Gordon (For e E dge; University Press ofNew England, Lebanon, N H , 2015, 225pp, notes, index, ISBN 9781-61168-540-4; $29.95 hc) It is a testament to the ubiquity of seafa ring and nautical endeavors in human history that Stewart Gordon can, starting nearly 6000 BCE, take the reader on a journey all the way into the present day using maritime ac tivity as the common thread. Combined the sixteen vignettes p rovide a thoughtful synthesis of archaeological, historical, economic, cultural, and geographical information into a narrative both captivating and fund a me ntally critical for understanding our human pas t, a reminder that water co nn ects-not dividescivilizations. Though the tide m ay indicate a particularisti c review of individual a rchaeological sites, Gordon instead uses these

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 20 16


sh ipwrecks as a starting point fo r a much broader review of historical eras. The watercraft them selves represent perhap s the most technologically developed appa ra tus of any culture th ro ughout, and thus special attention is paid to releva nt aspects of their design and constructi on. In the oldest examples, emphasis is placed upon parallel emergence of similar design aspects a mong geographically isolated g roups. Likewise, there is an implicit analogy between the intricacy of a vessel and the attending com plexity of its derivat ive culture. In all cases, G ordon effectively d emonstrates the cultural processes driving the development and proliferation of w a tercraft: economics, politics, wa rfare, explo ratio n, a nd co nques t. 1he story begin s in ancient Egypt w ith rhe unearthing of the Du funa dugo ut by archaeologists in 1994. H ere, this small vessel was one of the first fo rms of watercraft fo r indi genous cultures worldwide, achieving exceptio nal importance linkin g regional centers of Egy p tian power via the Nile River. Next is the K hufu ba rge, also from a ncient Egypt, a la rger sewn boat th at filled the ever-growing economic a nd military demands of the later dynasties . The next two sites-the Uluburun shi pw reck of the coas t of Turkey and Sutton Hoo burial ship in England-exhibited increasingly developed ship d es igns a nd the ascension of maritime culture from fun ctional necess ity inro a n integ ra ted

SEA HISTORY 155 , SUMM ER 201 6

agency w ith less tangible, spiritu al as pects. These vessels are contextuali zed among burgeoning Inda-European cultures as evidenced in their associated artifacts and geographical distribution of similar archaeologica l sires . Next, the reader is transported to Asia and the Middle East via the Intan shipwreck off Indonesia, M aimonides wreck (presumed, but not located) off India, and the remains of Kublai Khan's fleet sent to invade Japan in 1281 CE. As tim e p rogresses, addition al dara sources inform a much more thorough and complete presentation of pas t empires . The Bremen C og, for exa mple, typified the workhorse merchant vessels of the H anseatic League, while galleon Los Tres Reyes demon strated the state-organized military and merca ntile alli ance between Spain and Portu gal. HMS Victory (circa 1744, not Admiral Nelso n's flags hip of T rafalgar fa me) m arked the emergence of the traditional wooden sa iling "ship" that proliferated until suppla nted by metal hulls and steam propulsion . All along, Barba ry war galleys plundered the lucrative trade routes of European em pi res vying for power between the new and old worlds. C ontinued wes twa rd ex pansion of Euro -American culture into the North American continent was m a rked by th e river steamboat Lucy Walker (1844). Speed under sail and competition for global economic m a rke ts reach ed near-perfection with swifr clipper ships, as demonstrated by Flying Cloud. This era abruptly came to a close under vas tly larger, more reliable, and more adva nced steel-hulled stea mers. The crossroads between global comm erce and global conflict occurred in 1915 when a German U- boat torpedoed C unard-liner Lusitania. "ll1e final two shipw reck sites-Exxon Valdez (1989) a nd the cruise ship Costa Concordia (201 2)-a re likely within the living memory of most readers. By the end of rhe twentieth cemury, a unified, global m aritime world was cemem ed in international treaties and regulations where immense distances are bridged seamlessly and seemingly in sta ntly. G ordon's work is a n impressive synthesis of multidisciplin a ry in fo rmation. It is a stimulatin g read for those interested in m aritime hi story and world cultures, and an excellent course of study for students of

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Reading Global Reach is like watching an admired, long-running television series. The dramatic con flicts (in this case, questions surrounding US maritime policy) are contentious and longstanding. Thar's why Global Reach's circuitous road to resolution is dramatic, insightful and, given of the subject's density, a surprisin gly good read. An invariable underl ying question resonates throughout: what government policy is most likely to ensure the economic viabi lity of American maritime industry, thereby en abling it to prov ide v iral auxiliary/sealift capability to a resourceresrrained Navy? Ar its core, the book tackles many pivo tal policy questions such as whether Uncle Sam should own a nd operate a reserve fleet, and if foreign vessels should

the same. Though too short to be an exhaustive study of any of its subjects-a task which would require dozens of volumesit is nevertheless a very useful distillation of several critical elements: cultural process driving maritime activity, the evolution of vessel design, and the inherently hum an quality of stepping off rerra firma and striving for that which is beyond the horizon. ] OHN BRIGHT

Alpena, Michigan

Global Reach-Revolutionizing the Use of Commercial Vessels and lntermodal Systems for Military Sealift, 1990-2012 by A. J H erberger, Kenneth C. Gaulden and Rolf Marshall (Nava l Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 2015, 530pp, illus, index, appen, ISBN 978- 1-61 25 1-847-3; $47.95hc)

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be enlisted. Global Reach's authors set the stage for analyzing contemporary events by dedicating about 20% of the manuscript to insightful historical background. More specifically, the authors largely and shrewdly focus on the post-1990 era, subsequent to Operation Desert Storm. They do so for two reasons. First, this is a period about which they are experts and during which new demands and related capabilities/technologies were introduced. For example, principal author Vice Admiral A. J. H erberger, USN (Ret.), played vital roles in drafting and implementing many of the policies discussed when serving as first deputy commander of the US Transportation Command and subsequently maritime administrator. Seco nd , the book correctly, though discreetly, acknowledges and occasionally rakes issue with conclusions reached in The Abandoned

Ocean: A History of US Maritime Policy (2000), rhe seminal treatise by Andrew Gibson and Arthur Donovan. Gibson, like Herberger, served as m aritime adminisrraror; Donovan is a professor emeritus at the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, Herberger's alma mater. In addition to its thoughtful analysis, Globail Reach's 78-page appendix, charts, data, iglossary and well-chosen photographs make: it a compelling read for m aritime policy wonks. I RA BRESKIN

G reat Neck, New York 62

SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016


The US Navy: A Concise History by Craig L. Symonds (Oxford Universicy Press, New York, 2015, 136pp, references, index, biblio, ISBN 978-0-19-939494 -4 ; $18.95hc) Professor of history emeritus of the U nited States Naval Academy C raig L. Symonds, author of The Battle ofMidway, The Civil War at Sea, and Neptune: The Allied Invasion of Europ e and the D-Day Landings, among others, was a perfect choice to write this abbreviated history of the United Scates Navy. Symonds, well versed in the h istory of the U S Navy, mas terfully reduced it to the key points without losing any thing essential. Beginning with George Washington's attempts to extend the impact of his Continental Army to the all-important waterways that aided and sometimes stymied his military efforts (1775 -1783), Symonds add resses the various rurning points that m ade the US Navy what is today. Along the way, he sets out the creation of the N avy in the age of sail, the technological changes from sail to steam, wood to iron and steel, and paddle wheels to propellers. H e does not neglect the politics that drove and sometimes nearly sank the Navy. Perhaps the most exciting chapters relate the rise to world prominence of the U S wa r fleet, those dealing with World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. Nothing of importance is omitted: the Korean wa r, the Lebanon crisis, the C uban missile crisis, the Vietnam war, and M iddle East confrontations are set out with an economy of words that does not neglect the significance of the events. And the technological ch anges have never ceased: battle ships gave way to aircrafr carriers and submarines, missiles replaced huge guns, and nuclear power took over from oil. Clearly the Concise H istory is essential reading for anyone with n o knowledge of how and why the US fleet cam e to replace the Royal Navy to rule the seas. It is also worth reading fo r anyone w ith a deeper knowled ge and underst a nd in g of the grow th and development of the U S Navy, because it allows the reader to pull together the essentials of his or her knowledge of a strategic American institutio n. The book is good reading and is recommended. D R. D AVID 0 . W HITTEN Auburn, Alabama SEA HISTORY 155, SUMMER 2016

IN HOSTILE WATERS a novel by William H . White award-winning author of The 1812 Trilogy. Join Lt. William Henry Allen on his quest to cake the war to British home waters, where he and the crew of USS Argus will wreak havoc on the British merchant fl eet before coming head-to-head with the Royal Navy brig sent to hum them down.

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A Timeless Adventure Awaits You Aboard QUEEN MARY 2 Eastbound & Westbou nd 7 and 8-Day TransAtla ntic Crossings From July 2016 to May 2017

Caribbean from New York R/T November 26, 2016

(12 days)

fares from

$999* $1 ,599*

ALTO UR pauline.power@altour.com

Call 212-897-5145 to plan your adventure today. *Fares are per person, based on double occupancy, voyage only, subject to availability, capacity controlled. Call the above agency for more details. Government fees and taxes are additional. Air add-on s are avai lable. See applicable Cunard brochure for terms, conditions, and definitions that apply to all reservations. Other restrictions may apply. ©2011 Cunard. Ships registry : Bermuda.


Ships of Glass, Inc. Glass Replicas Featuring Curved Glass Sails We specialize in making replicas of vessels. We welcome custom orders.

"Yes, I can make a replica of your boat." -Don Hardy

Brooklyn McAllister

Barque Kaiulani

Custom pendants and earrings

USCG Barque Eagle

Brig Niagara lamp finial

Ships of Glass, Inc. ava1·1 a b\e·· custom Al so obiles, coasters, jewelry, m d\ebo\ders, · ts ' can tnve d more. nigbtligbts an

Don & Kathy Hardy 6702 Rosemary Dr. Tampa, FL 33625 Ph. 813 918-1566 813 732-6917 dhardy@shipsofglassinc.com

Please check out our of vessels on catalog ourweb Site· . WWW.sh" . ipsofglassinc . .com.

"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


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