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SEA HISTORY
No. 158
SPRING 201 7
CONTENTS 9 National Maritime Awards Dinner, and the 2017 NMHS Annual Meeting We hope you will join us for two exciting events: April's annual National Maritime Awards Dinner in the nation's capital and our Annual Meeting in May, in historic Charleston, SC.
13 Restored! America's Maritime Heritage Grant Program, by Timothy ]. Runyan With the passage of the National D efense Authorization Act last December, full funding for the Maritime H eritage Grants program has been restored, after a seven-year battle. Dr. Tim Runyan, chair ofthe National Maritime Alliance, explains the process and who supported it. 14
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Storis's Legacy: How a Decommissioned Ship Inspired a Movement, by K. Denise Rucker Krepp The fa te of the historic Coast Guard Cutter Sroris, scrapped overseas despite a bid from a museum group to offer her a new home, serves as a cautionary tale for us and for our fellow advocates to ensure thatfuture vessels are again recycled responsibly in the US, with the p roceeds funding vital maritime heritage programs.
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Confederate Submarine H L. Hunley: First in History to Sink an Enemy Ship in Wartime, by Mark K. Ragan Designing and fabricating an underwater vessel for naval warfa re in the mid 19'h century p resented a host of challenges, and Lives were Lost in its development. The historic Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley, the result ofthis remarkable p roject Led by three men ofvision, was recovered in 2000, a technological marvel ofits time.
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22 The America's Cup: Personalities, Passion, and Privilege, by Russ Kramer Reaching back to 1851, the history ofthis most famous ofsailing regattas is replete with Largerthan-Life personalities, big money, andfantastic yachts. Artist Russ Kramer recreates the scenes and faces ofthis history in this exciting curated collection. 28 Tidal Wave: The Greatest Ship Launch in History, by Donald G. Shomerre Tucked in a bay offthe Potomac River is a ship graveyard Like no other. More than halfofthe 2 00 ships abandoned there were products of the great shipbuilding effort of World War I Today, the site has been nominated as a National Marine Sanctuary. Don Shomette brings the story ofthe mad-paced Launch schedule in 1918 that created a "tidal wave ofships."
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34 Coastal Defenses- Strategies and Innovation in Peace and War, by Dr. Louis A. Norton Coastal towns, cities, and countries have used a variety of means to protect themselves from hostile forces on the water, from utilizing a site's natural physical geography to inventing clever-and deadly-fortifications and weaponry. D r. Louis Norton traces some of the more successful and innovative ofthese defenses. Cover: Onboard Puritan, 1885, by Russ Kramer, oi l on canvas, 30" x 40" (See pages 22-25)
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D_E_P_~ __T_M_E_N_T_S________________,.! ~~1'!ft::::.:
_________________ 4 DECK LOG 5 LETTERS 8 NMHS: A CAUSE IN MOTION
26 MARINE ART N EWS 38 SEA HrsTORY FOR Kms
42 SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT
49 50 51 56
& MUSEUM NEWS CALENDAR MARITIME HISTORY ON THE INTERNET REVIEWS PATRONS
Sea History and the National Maritime Historical Society Sea History e-mail: seahisrory@gmai l. com; NMHS e-mail: nmhs@seahisrory.org; Web sire: www.seahisrory.o rg. Ph: 914 737-7878; 800 22 1-NMHS MEMBERSHIP is invired. Afrerguard $ 10,000; Benefacror $5,000; Plankowner $2,500; Sponsor $ 1,000; Donor $500; Parron $250; Friend $ 100; Conrriburor $75; Family $5 0; Regular $35.
All members ourside th e USA please add $ 10 for posrage. Sea History is senr ro all members. Individual copies cosr $4.95.
34 SEA HISTORY (issn 01 46-93 12) is published quarrerly by rhe Na rional Maririme Hisrorical Sociery, 5 John Walsh Blvd. , POB 68, Peekskill NY 10566 USA. Periodicals posrage paid ar Peekskill NY 10566 and add '! mailing offices. COPYRIG HT Š 201 7 by rhe Narional Mari rime Hisro rical Sociery. Tel: 914 737-7878. POSTMASTER: Send address changes ro Sea History, PO Box 68 , Peekskill NY 10566.
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
DECK LOG Building A Critical Mass for the Maritime Heritage Community The voyaging canoe Hokule'a carries a stone from Hawaii onboard as she travels across rhe world's oceans. Ir is a Polynesian custom to carry a rock from rhe home island ro guide voyagers on rheir return. Launched in 1975 on Oahu, rhe sailing canoe has rraveled around rhe world to preserve rhe culrure and pracrice of tradirional ocean voyaging and navigation. After a long ocean passage, Hokule'a and her crew will rerurn to Hawaii when their mission has been completed. The story of this rradition came to us via Galgan, a very dear friend to NMHS Ignatius Hokule'a and a devoted maritime enthusiast, who heard this story when he went to see her off as she set our across the Pacific, bound for the East Coasr of the United States. lg kept us up-to-date on the maritime herirage activities going on in his part of the world; he reported on the sometimesdaily changing siruation of the Honolulu-based square rigger Falls ofClyde, and on tall ships rhat were visiting Hawaii. He also much enjoyed engaging in discussions on celestial navigation . lg became a member ofNMHS when he lived in New York and was a regular attendee ar our local seminars. After he retired to Hawaii, he kept up his enthusiasm for the Society, spoiling us over the years with regular care packages of Hawaiian cookies, candies, and coffee. Our staff called him the "Best Friend ofNMHS." We were shocked and saddened to hear that he had died suddenly in November of a heart attack, and we were even more surprised and honored when we learned just last month that he left the Society a large bequest, one thar can significantly help us to strengthen our ability to preserve and promote a better understanding and appreciation of our maririme heritage. There are rhousands of organizarions in the United Srares, and even more abroad, whose missions focus on some aspect of preserving our maritime heritage. When individual groups work togerher on achieving mutual goals, our successes mulriply and we expand our impacr. With rhis in mind, ----.---.----.1- -"'...-------,,..---, the National Maritime Historical Society has been working to collaborare wirh other maririme herirage groups. We welcomed the American Society of Marine Artists to our membership this fall, and wirh rhis issue we also welcome rhe members ofTall Ships America (see pages 8-9). Execurive Director Bert Rogers talked abour rhe shared benefirs of joining forces: "Tall Ships America is excited by our new collaboration with NMHS . In many ways, rhis simply formalizes and celebrates whar has been a long and productive tradition of mu- lg Galgan at "Bring a Veteran to School" day at tual support and shared values. By St. Joseph 's Elementary School in Hilo, Hawaii. working more closely together and leveraging our great respective strengths, we can expand our reach and relevance to deliver a unifi ed message to the American public about rhe vital importance of our seafaring heritage." As we reach our to the many maririme organizations and individuals working in the field to build a critical mass for rhe maririme herirage community, we reach out to you, our members, for strength, support, and inspirarion to carry on wirh our mission. Fair Winds lg, and rhank yo u. -Burchenal Green, President 4
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLISHER'S C IRCLE: Peter Aron, G uy E. C. Maitland, Ronald L. Oswald OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Chairman, Ronald L. Oswald; Vice Chairman, Richardo R. Lopes; President, Burchenal Green; Vice Presidents, Deirdre O'Regan, Wendy Paggiotta, Nancy Schnaars; Treasurer, Howard Slotnick; Secretary, Jean Wort; Trustees: Charles B. Anderson; Walter R. Brown; William S. Dudley; David S. Fowler; William Jackson Green; Karen H elmerso n; Richard M. Larrabee; G uy E. C. Maitland; Capt. Brian McAllister; CAPT Sally Chin McElwreath, USN (Rec.); Michael W Morrow; Richard Patrick O'Leary; Erik K. O lstein; ADM Robert J. Papp Jr., USCG (Rec.); Timothy ]. Runyan; Richard Scarano; Philip ]. Shapiro; Capt. Cesare Sorio; William H. White; Chairmen Emeriti: Walter R. Brown, Alan G. Choate, Guy E. C. Maitland, Howard Slotnick FOUNDER: Karl Kortum (1917-1996) PRESIDENT (1927-2016)
EMERITUS:
Peter
Stanford
OVERSEERS: Chairman, RADM David C. Brown, USMS (Ret. ); RADM Joseph F. Callo, USN (Rec.); George W Carmany III; James J. Coleman Jr. ; Clive Cussler; Richard du Moulin; Alan D. Hutchiso n; Jakob lsbrandtsen; Gary Jobson; Sir Robin Knox-Johnston; John Lehman; Capt. James J. McNamara; H. C. Bowen Smith; John Srobarr; Philip]. Webster; Roberta Weisbrod NMHS ADVISORS: Chairman, Melbourne Smith; George Bass, Oswald Brett, Francis Duffy, John Ewald, Timothy Foote, Steven A. H yman , J. Russell Jinishian, Gunnar Lundeberg, Conrad Milster, William G . Muller, Stuart Parnes, Nancy Hughes Richardson, Bert Rogers, Joyce Huber
SEA HISTORY EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Chairman, Timothy Runyan; Norman Brouwer, Robert Browning, William Dudley, Daniel Finamore, Kevin Foster, John Jense n, Joseph Meany, Lisa Norling, Carla Rahn Phillips, Walter Rybka, Quentin Snediker, William H. Whi te NMHS STAFF: Executive Director, Burchenal Green; Membership Director, Nancy Schnaars; Marketing Director, Steve Lovass-Nagy; Comptroller, Anjoeline Osuyah; Staff Writer, Shelley Reid; Director ofDevelopment, Jessica Macfarlane; Director ofPublic Relations, Lisa Fine; Membership Coordinator, Irene Eisenfeld; NMHS Seminar Series Coordinator, Barbara !tty
SEA HISTORY: Editor, Deirdre O'Regan; Advertising, Wendy Paggiotta Sea History is printed by The Lane Press, So uth Burlingron, Vermont, USA.
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
LETTERS Inland Waters Maritime History I was pleased to see the emphasis on inland rivers in the winter issue of Sea History. I invite you to explore the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock, which is the only place in the United States that visitors can experience the Boating bookends of World War II : USS Hoga fought the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, and USS Razorback was present at the surrender of Tokyo Bay. The museum has a large collection of artifacts from the battleships and nuclear-guided missiles cruiser named Arkansas, as well as the Arkansas River navigation system . JOH N P. GILL Little Rock, Arkansas
From the AIMM Director, Greg Zonner: The Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum is located on the Arkansas River in Nort h Little Rock, Arkansas. We are the only maritime museum in the continental United States to have two vessels that represent bookends to WWII-USS Hoga and USS Razorback. The tugboat USS Hoga (YT146) is best known for her actions during
We Welcome Your Letters! Please send correspondence to: seahistory@gmail.com or Editor, Sea History, 7 Timberknoll Rd. , Pocasset, MA 02559
USS Hoga pushing the sinking USS Nevada to safety at Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. 1994. USS Hoga was acquired from the US Navy in 2004 a nd arrived at the museum in 2015. USS Razorback is a Balao-class submarine that was present in Tokyo Bay for the Japanese surrender in September 1945. The Razorback m ade five war patrols in World War II and continued to serve during the Cold War until 1970, when she was
sold to Turkey. She served in the Turkish Navy until 2002, when it was acquired by our museum in 2004. USS Hoga is a National Historic Landmark and USS Razorback is on the National Register of Historic Places with National Significance. In addition to USS Hoga and USS Razorback, our museum displays historic artifacts from two other US Navy vessels: USS Arkansas (BB-33) and USS Arkansas (CGN-4 1). We also h ave a spectacular diorama of Pearl Harbor as it looked on the morning of 7 December 1941. The history of work and life on the Arkansas River is a large part of what the museum interprets as well, using artifacts and records from the Arkansas River Historical Society Collection that document the history of the Arkansas River and the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. In addition to the traditional museum visit and guided tours , we host overnight stays, school field trips, and special events. (120 Riverfront Park Drive, North Little Rock, AR 72114; Ph. 501 371-8320; www.aimmuseum.org)
USS Razorback A Modern-Day Viking Captain I much enjoyed the article on the D raken Harald Harfagre, but I would like to note the correct spelling of the ship's captain. He is Bjorn Ahlander (not Ahland, as was printed in the article). I sailed with them into Chicago last summer, rowing the last
USS Hoga
Join Us for a Voyage into History the attack on Pearl H arbor. Getting underway within 10 minutes after the first Japanese bombs fell, she went to work rescuing sailors in the water, fighting fires, and pulling ships out of harm's way. Hoga pulled the repair ship USS Vestal away from USS Arizona's burning hull, and assisted the damaged minesweeper USS Oglala and the battleship USS Nevada. She fought fires on the Nevada as well as the battleships USS Maryland, USS Tennessee, and USS Arizona. In all, Hoga spent 72 continuous hours fighting fires. Hoga is most recognized for pushing the sinking USS Nevada to safety and preventing her from blocking the narrow channel. The Hoga went on to serve in the United States Navy until 1948, then in the Oakland fire department until SEA HISTORY 158, SPRJNG 2017
Our seafaring heritage comes alive in the pages of Sea History, from the ancient mariners of Greece to Portuguese navigators opening up the ocean world to the heroic efforts of sailors in modern-day conflicts. Each issue brings new insights and discoveries. If you love the sea, rivers, lakes, and
bays-if you appreciate the legacy of those who sail in deep water and their workaday craft, then you belong with us.
Join Today! Mail in the form below, phone 1 800 221-NMHS (6647), or visit us at: www.seahistory.org (e-mail: nmhs@seahistory.org)
Yes, I wane to join the Society and receive Sea History quarterly. My contribution is enclosed. ($ 17.50 is for Sea History; any amount above that is tax deductible.) Sign me up as: 0 $35 Regular Member 0 $50 Fam ily Member 0 $100 Friend 0 $250 Parron 0 $500 Donor Mr./ Ms.
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----------------------~ZIP ______ Return to: National Maritime Historical Society, PO Box 68, Peekskill, NY l 0566
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Dan Denov was one of the lucky ones who got to sail- and row- the Draken Harald Harfagre last summer. He sent us this photo of the forwa rd lookout on watch, while the Viking ship was en route to Chicago from South Haven, Michigan . mile at the request of the local organizers of the Tall Ships Challenge festival there. The whole trip was an amazing experience. DAN DE N OV
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The Viking ship Draken Harald Harf agre is wintering over at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut (www.mysticsea port.org) . In the spring (date TBD), her Norwegian crew will return to the US to re-rig their ship and sail along the Eastern Seaboard . Details on the ship's schedule will be posted online at www.drakenexpe ditionamerica.com as they become available. Captain Bjorn Ahlander
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NMHS: A CAUSE IN MOTION Tall Ships America and NMHS Join Forces With this issue of Sea History, we are honored to welcome the members of Tall Ships America to membership in the National Maritime Historical Society. As we work to preserve and promote our maritime heritage, we recognize that our fleet of tall ships is a national treasure to be celebrated and supported. These ships capture the imagination and, as such, serve as remarkably successful ambassadors. In a hands-on way, they teach us our history and traditions, and preserve our skills in an industry long thought obsolete. Because tall ships still sail today, this generation and the next can learn the skills of building and repairing, provisioning, rigging, navigating, and sailing in both fierce storms and calm seas- skills we need to keep alive. Their crews and trainees learn self-reliance and teamwork, patience and fortitude. Visitors to these ships in port get to climb aboard and immerse themselves in the story of the ship: what she did, where she went, what life was like aboard in the past, and what it is like for those sailing them today. The members ofTall Ships America- captains, crewmembers, shipbuilders, architects, board members, and those supporting the operations fro m ashore-now join the members of the National Maritime Historical Society in discovering the larger picture of our maritime heritage, in honoring the unique histories of those who went before, and in supporting the heritage community of today. Our interests are mutual. In fact, this year's Tall Ships America annual conference theme was "The Way of a Ship: Linking our History-Heritage and Future." How appropriate that we should join forces. Working together, we can strengthen the maritime heritage community and the goals of both organizations. In this new partnersh ip, we are pleased to announce that NMHS members will now become members of Tall Ship America, with all the privileges and benefits of that organization. Benefits of dual membership include newsletters, notifications, membership cards, discounts to Tall Ships America events, and other miscellaneous benefits of membership. We invite you to join us this spring and summer at the Tall Ships Challenge-Atlantic Coast 2017 two ports of call, in Charleston and Boston. In addition, your membership in Tall Ships America gives you a special $10 rate on the purchase of their incomparable reference book, Sail Tall Ships! (price includes shipping and h andling charges, and represents a 50% discount off the retail price). Captai n Bert Rogers, Executive Director of Tall Ships America, expressed his enthusiasm about our partnership: "Tall Ships America is excited by our new collaboration with the National Maritime Historical Society. In many ways, this only formalizes and celebrates what has been a long and productive tradition of mutual support and shared values. However, by working more closely together and leveraging our great respective strengths, we can expand our reach and relevance to deliver a unified message to the American public 1he Tall Ships Challenge series rotates between coasts in about the vital importance of our national maritime heritage. This heritage the US and Canada each year, giving everyone a chance is heroically sustained in the vessels, artifacts, and exhibits of America's fine to participate- no matter where they live. Young people maritime museums, many of which are Tall Ships America institutional get the opportunity to go to sea and work a traditionally members. It is also sustained with rigged sailing vessel while they race from port to port. When great vitality aboa rd our member the ships are in port, all are welcome aboard to tour the ships and programs, as they take vessels and participate in shoreside educational activities. people to sea to experience firsth and the seafaring arts, skills, and traditions that made America a great maritime nation, while instilling respect and love of our oceans. Sail training in tall ships brings maritime heritage alive, giving the next generation an unforgettable experience and an abiding personal stake in our ongoing maritime story." This year's Tall Sh ips Ch allenge is produced in concert with Sail Training International and the Rendezvous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta, all celebrating the 150th an niversary of the Canadian Confederation. Starting in Europe, a great fleet of tall ships will race across ~ the Atlantic to Bermuda, and on to Boston. Meanwhile, vessels fro m "this side of the pond" ~ > ~ will assemble for Tall Ships Charleston (18- 21 May), and then race to Bermuda. The ~ 0 combined fleet will race from Bermuda to Boston to attend Sail Boston 2017 (17-22 June). u ~¡ With 50 magnificent vessels participating, Sail Boston will be the largest tall ship event in ..1. ~ that historic port since 20 00 . The fleet will then sail on to vario us ports in Canada, with a culminating event in Quebec City (18-23 July). Tall ships buffs, maritime heritage enthusiasts, and prospective seafaring adventurers can find more information about the events or how to sail aboard at www.tallshipsamerica.org. -Burchenal Green, President, NMHS
AMERICA
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SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
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Tall Ships America Annual Conference, Boston, 8-10 February 2017
Tall Ships America concluded its annual conference in February in Boston with an impressive reunion of schooner Ha rvey Gamage alumni and veteran sailors, who had gathered to honor Capta in Eben Whitcomb, recipient of rhe 2017 Tall Ships America Lifetime Achievement Award. Those involved in sail training and rhe operations of traditionally rigged Schooner sailing vessels have long known of-and a great many have worked aboard-Captain WhirHarvey Gamage' comb 's schooner H arvey Gamage. In addition to reaching the skills of how to sai l, maintain, and provision the ship, the experience of sailing aboard the Gamage has instilled multiple generations with a sense of history and respect for seagoi ng culture. These are important aspects of the missions ofborh Tall Ships America and of the National Maritime Historical Society; Tall Ships America members keep rhe traditions and lessons of seafaring alive through their sail training and outreach programs, and N MHS keeps rhe stories of our seafaring past alive in the pages of Sea H istory and through its yea r-round programming and advocacy in the field of maritime heritage. Participating in rhe Tall Ships America annual conference renewed old friendships and made new connections. The 2017 conference theme, "The Way of a Ship: Linking Schooner Harvey Gamage alumni and crew with our History, H eritage and Future," brought in ship captains, administrators, Cat>tain Eben Whitcomb (center). · · o f to d ay 's h 1.stonc · sa1·1·mg fl eer, me · 1u d.mg representanves · ' an d preserva nomsrs from the barques Elissa, Star ofIndia, and USCGC Eagle; rhe frigate USS Constitution; rhe full-rigged ship Wavertree; rhe schooners Adventure and Ernestina-Morrissey; and others. The Tall Ships America conference serves many in the field, including workshops in professional development for ship educators, administrators, and operators, while furthering the cause of maintaining and promoting the field of historic ship preservation and maritime heritage. We welcome this opportunity to work with them more closely. -Deirdre O'Regan, Editor, Sea History; C hief Mare, H arvey Gamage, 1994-95
THE NATIONAL MARITIME AWARDS DINNER 4 APRIL 2017 • WASHINGTON, DC
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We invite you to join us for the National Maritime Awards Dinner, hosted by the National Maritime •· ·· Hi>co<;CTJ Sociccy ;n "'°';a<;on w;,h <he N.val H;"o,;CTI Found.<;on (NHF), on Tue.day, Ap,;l 4 th, and held this year at rhe historic Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. Leaders from across rhe country representing rhe maritime heritage community, the US Navy, the US Coast G uard, yachtsmen, philanthropists, environmentalists, marine artists, government officials, and rhe maritime industry will join us in celebrating the contributions of three highly valued members of rhe maritime commun ity. Philip J. Webster, founding dinner chairman and NMHS Overseer, is pleased to announce this year's National Maritime Awards Dinner chairs: Dr. Timothy J. Runyan, maritime historian, NMHS trustee and Sea History Editorial Advisory Board chair, and chair of the National Maritime Alliance; and CAPT James Noone, USNR (Ret.) , managing director of Mercury Public Relations and a director of the Naval Historical Foundation. Our mas ter of ceremonies will be America's ''Ambassador of Sailing," television commentator, author, past president of US Sailing and vice president of the International Sailing Federation, Gary Jobson. The US Coast Guard Academy Cadet Singers, under the direction of Dr. Robert Newton, will be performing. A highlight of rhe presentation will be videos of rhe honorees, produced by award-winning producer/director Richardo Lopes ofXXL Media. We gratefu lly acknowledge the National Maritime Awards Dinner Fleer Sponsor, Dr. ]. Phillip London, CAPT USN (Rer.), & CACI International, Inc.; and Individual Underwriter, H oward Slotnick.
Philip A. Seligmann and Conservation International Philip A. Seligmann is chair and co-founder, along with his former Yale classmate Spencer Beebe, of Conservation International (CI). Founded in 1987, CI works with governments, businesses, and communities to create solutions that benefit both the natural environment and human populations. The organization is a leader in the development of marine protected areas: internationally recognized areas of ocean or of
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 201 7
Peter Seligmann
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land-and-ocean spaces where human activities, such as tourism, development, and fishing, are managed to ensure sustainability. CI also pioneered in rhe "Seascape Approach," managing larger, multi-use marine areas in a way rhar best serves both ecological concerns and the human community. In 2012, CI created the Ocean Health Index, a framework for assessing ocean health, both globally and regionally, to provide derailed information for informed decision and policy making. The Ocean Health Index evaluates the state of the benefits a healthy ocean can provide-such as biodiversity, coastal protection, food production, coastal livelihoods and economies, and tourism-to give up-to-dare data to policy makers and communities NMHS will present its Distinguished Service Award to Conservation International and Peter Seligmann on the occasion of Cl's 30th anniversary, for their tremendous impact on the health of the world 's oceans and shorelines. Their conservation efforts protect our maritime heritage on a global scale. The award will be presented by three-rime Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist and writer, Thomas Friedman.
Thomas L. Friedman
National Geographic Society Founded 1888 as "a society for the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge," the National Geographic Society fosters exploration of our world, a tradition which began with an expedition to map Alaska's Mount St. Elias region that discovered Mount Logan, Canada's highest peak. In 2008 the Pristine Seas Program was founded in partnership with Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Enric Sala to "identify, survey, protect, and restore the last truly wild places in the ocean." The program initiates expeditions to explore and study our oceans and create marine reserves. Pristine Seas has helped set aside 2.2 million square kilometers of protected ocean. The most familiar face of the organization, of course, is National Geographic magazine, known throughout the world for its stunning photojournalism, bringing far-off places and cultures into our homes. Today, National Geographic is published in forty local-language editions, reaching a readership of 6.8 million . The NMHS Distinguished Service Award will be given to the National Geographic Society for its extraordinary achievements in chronicling mankind 's relationship with the water and educating tens of millions of readers and viewers about our global maritime heritage. Gary E. Knell, president and CEO of the National Geographic Society, will accept the award, which will be presented by internationally-recognized underwater explorer Dr. Robert Ballard, discoverer of the wreck of the Titanic and founder of the Ocean Exploration Trust.
Dr. J. Phillip London, CAPT USN (Ret.) The NHF Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Dr. J. Phillip London, executive chairman and former CEO of CACI International for over 22 years until his retirement in 2007. Under Dr. London's leadership, CACI has become a trendsetter in offering IT solutions and consulting services across markers throughout North America and Western Europe. Dr. London served 12 years as an officer during the Cold War, as a naval aviator and carrier pilot from 1959 to 1971, and in the US Naval Reserve until 1983. He has made extensive contributions to naval heritage projects and has served on many boards, including the Naval Historical Foundation, the United States Naval Institute and the Navy Memorial Foundation. The Naval Historical Foundation will present its Distinguished Service Award to Dr. London for his naval service and lifetime support and strong advocacy of our naval heritage. The NHF Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Dr. London by Admi ral William]. Fallon, USN (Rer.), chairman of the NHF.
D r. ]. Phillip London, CAPT USN (Ret.)
Admiral William]. Fallon, USN (Ret.}
National Maritime Awards Dinner Auction
Mayflower Hotel
The National Maritime Awards Dinner will feature a dynamic auction with superb and unique items, including: a trip for two to the Galapagos with National Geographic Expeditions, a 2-nighr stay at the Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa in Orlando, ship models, antique maps, author-autographed books, a personal directorguided tour of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, and more. You don't need to be present to bid ; bidding information is posted on our website, or call us for instructions.
We have reserved a block of rooms at the Mayflower Hotel, at 1127 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC. Standard guest rooms for single or double occupancy are $379 per night, plus applicable taxes. The room block is set aside until 17 March, or until all the rooms have been reserved. Reservations can be made by calling 877 212-5752 or online at https://aws/passkey. com/e/16393708. Please identify yourself as part of the National Maritime Historical Society.
To learn more about these exemplary award recipients, the dinner, the auction, how you can support the event, or to get tickets to attend, please visit our website at www.seahistory.org, call 914 737-7878, ext. 0, or email us at nmhs@seahistory.org.
10
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
Take advantage ofthis once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own an original oil painting by renowned marine artist john Stobart
Aucoot Cove: The View to Converse Point by John Stobart Framed 28 Yz" long x 21 W' high Image 19 Yi'' long x 12" high John Srobart's oil paintings are featured in prestigious museums, galleries, and collections all over the world. He has donated this exquisite painting to the National Maritime Historical Society in memory of his dear friend, colleague, and shipmate, Peter Stanford (1927-2016), long-time president of the Society and editor of Sea History. Now this magnificent original painting can be yours for $70,000.
To order, call 1-800-221-NMHS (6647), ext. 0., or e-mail merchandise@seahistory.org. NYS residents add applicable sales tax.
NMHS 2017 Annual Meeting * 15-17 May, Charleston, South Carolina
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Maritime historians, professors, underwater archaeologists, authors, caprains and crew, students and maritime enthusiasts from all over America will converge on Charleston, South Carolina, in mid-May, and it is with ~0 great pleasure that we invite you to join the gathering in this port city, which boasts such a rich maritime heritage. We will hold the 2017 NMHS Annual Meeting with the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) and the Society for the History of Navy Medicine for three days of presentations, panels, and scholarly papers, plus tours and receptions. The conference will be hosted by the College of Charleston, downtown and within easy walking distance to Marion Square and other historic sites.
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On Monday, 15 May, we'll gather for an evening reception off campus at Tommy Condon's; Tuesday, enjoy an afternoon harbor cruise to see Fort Sumter and then join the fun in a "dine-around," an opportunity to better get to know other conference attendees in smaller groups at local restaurants. On Wednesday, we'll take a private tour of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley (see pages 16-21 of this issue for more on the history of the Hunley), and conclude the three-day event
Charleston, South Carolina
with an evening banquet.
Fort Sumter
The conference will explore a wide range of maritime connections and cultural landscapes-and an interweaving of both-to examine the meaning and processes of our maritime heritage. Included in, but not limited to, this line-up are examinations into the history of cultural connections by sea, fisheries , archaeology, empire, the military, the Law of the Sea and ocean management, naval medicine, indigenous peoples, environmental issues, and public history. Presentation tides and speakers will be posted on our website (www.seahistory.org) as they become available.
You can register for the full three days, or by the day. Full conference registration, including all sessions, breaks, awards banquet, and field trips, is $245 for registrations made by 31 March, after that date it will increase by $20 for a total of $265. Single-day registration is $125 for Monday or Tuesday, and $145 for Wednesday. Blocks of rooms have been reserved at two hotels: the Francis Marion Hotel at 387 King Street (www.francismarioncharleston.com) and the Days Inn Charleston Historic District at 155 Meeting Street (www.daysinn.reservationcounter.com). Reservations for each must be made by 31 March; make sure you mention you are with NASOH to take advantage of the discount. Details on rates and how to make your reservations are on our website.
Tall Ships Charleston,
Tall Ship Challenge- Atlantic Coast 2017, 19-21 May
On Friday, we jump from the scholarly world of maritime history to the grand vista of tall ships that will have just arrived for the 2017 Tall Ships Challenge events. Bring your deck shoes, as we' ll have an opportunity to tour many a beautiful tall ship from around the world . From Charleston, the Beet will race to Bermuda, where they will join the Rendezvous 2017 transAtlantic regatta Beet and sa il in company to Boston, and then on to Q uebec.
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Schooner Spirit of South Carolina (right) will host visiting ships to her homeport for the Tall Ships Challenge events. 12
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
Restored! America's Maritime Heritage Grant Program by Timothy J. Runyan, Chair, National Maritime Alliance; Trustee, National Maritime Historical Society
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uncling for the maritime heritage community's only source of federal support has been restored. Language to amend the National Maritime Heritage Act was included in the National D efense Authorization Act of2017 (N DAA, or the defense bill) that was favorably voted on by the US House of Representatives (375 to 34) on 2 December. The Senate followed with a favorable vote (92-7), and the president signed the bill into law on 23 December 2016. With the passage of the $619 million NDAA, rhe maritime heritage grant program is restored. Funding for the program had been diverted by an amendment to the National Maritime Heritage Act in 2010, initiated by the US Maritime Administration (MARAD). Advocacy by the maritime heritage community and the support of members of Congress resulted in that agency's commitment of $7 million to the grant program over the past few years. The new legislation mandates char 18.75% of all ship scrapping proceeds will be committed to the maritime heritage grant program (our goal was 25%, so we have some more wo rk to do, keeping in mind that the M aritime Administration can request 6.25% of these funds for its own maritime heritage needs). Of the remainder, 50% of the scrappi ng profits remain with rhe Maritime Administration, and 25% are directed to the US M erchant Marine Academy at Kings Point and the six state maritime academies. The funds for the grant program are to be transferred to the D epartment of the Interior, where the National Park Service (N PS) will continue to administer the competitive gram program . The Park Service can claim up to 15% of the transferred funds (i.e. of the $7 million transferred for the recent gram cycles, $1 million was claimed by the NPS , leaving only $6 million for grams). This is a large amount, and should be reexamined. Additional amendments to the 20 17 defense bill require greater transparency in the Maritime Administration's ship scrapp ing operations, including timely reporting on when funds become available, and the use of funds for the preservation and presentation to the public of the Maritime Administration's maritime heritage property. These changes are all beneficial to the gram program. The maritime heritage community was supported in this effort by members of Congress from both parties. We were assisted by many members in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Special thanks is due to Representatives: J. Randy USS Yorktown in South Carolina won a 2014 Forbes (assisted by staff member Eric Ma ritime H eritage Grant to implement state-of Lindsey), Garret Graves (assisted by Ian the-art technology and interactive educational Bennin), Donald No rcross (ass isted by features aboard the 1943 carrier to p rovide insight Morgan Jones), John Brady, Duncan into the shipboard life ofthe engineering crew and Hunter, John Garamendi, Walter Jones, the technical functions ofthe engine machinery. M ac Th orn b erry, G ene G reen, F re d Upton, Joe Courtney, Adam Smith, Charles Boustany, Filemon Vela, David Rouzer, and Don Young; and Senators John Thune and Deb Fischer (assisted by Patrick Fuchs and Bobby Fraser), Bill Cassidy (assisted by Blake Schindler), Roger W icker (assisted by Jane Sarnecky), Bill Nelson, Cory Booker, D avid Viner, Jack Reed, John McCain, Thom Tillis, and Tim Kaine. For more derails, please refer to: Sea History 155 (Summer 2016), Two locks ofthe "Flight ofFive" on the Erie pp. 24-25; and Sea History 157 (Wimer 2016-17), pp. 26-27. Canal at Lockport, New York, were restored Other dedicated and helpful staff members deserve our recognition. I am thankful with funds ftom the 2015 grant cycle. for their support and advice. They recognized the benefits of funding maritime heritage education and preservation projects. Among them : Polly Parks is a great reso urce and a good fri end of the maritime heritage community, as is Denise Krepp with EMR USA, a global leader in metal recycling. Speaking at the 9'h Maritime Heritage Conference held in Baltimore in 2010, Congressional staff member Jeremy Weirich (now serving as a clerk, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and Related Agencies of the US Senate Committee on Appropriations) called on the maritime heritage community to organize and ac t. We did, bur our work is nor finished . The law is amended-a significant achievement, bur we must keep vigilant on the process of scrapping and funding, as there are always changes that come up, sometimes subtle changes, that can impact the dollars generated for gram funds through the National Maritime Heritage Act. The current program that has produced $6 million in grant funding will end when the next round of awa rds is announced in a few months. Our lang uage amending the National Maritime H eritage Act wi ll trigger the transfer of additional funds from the Maritime Administration to the National Park Service to continue the program. Metal recycling can be a volatile business . Let's work to insure this non-appropriated resource continues to generate money for all its beneficiaries: the recycling industry, the Maritime Administration, the maritime academies, and the maritime heritage grant program. For now, a little celebration is in order!
The maritime heritage community in the United States consists ofmore than 1, 000 maritime heritage non-profit organizations, spread across 40 states and territories. This includes about 600 maritime museums, 13 0 historic naval ships, 150 tall ships for sail training and youth p rograms, 150 historic lighthouses, and numerous other organizations. The grants fund maritime heritage education andpreservation p rojects and awards must be matched with an equal amount by the award recipient in cash or in-kind. Previous grant recipients and projects are listed on the National Park Service website at www.nps.gov/maritimelgrantslintro.htm. ,,!.
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
13
Storis's Legacy:
by K. Denise Rucker Krepp
How a Decommissioned Ship Inspired a Movement How and where we scrap our outdated ships has consequences, especially when a given vessel has a long and rich history. While the effort to preserve USCG Cutter Storis as a museum ship failed, her story became a rallying point for advocates pressing for legislation to restore the Maritime Heritage Grant program, which is funded by federal ship recycling profits. The legislation became law, and included lang uage to assure that the sad tale of the Storis will not be repeated . The article is written with a personal touch by Denise Krepp, who served as an officer in the US Coast Guard and was Chief Counsel of the Maritime Administration. -Timothy]. Runyan
T
his is the story of the retired US Coast Guard C utter Storis, whose untimely demise in 2013 triggered seismic changes in government-owned ship recycling laws. No longer will US government ships be scrapped overseas. Instead, they will be recycled within the United States, and further change is on the horizon for American commercial ships as well. The 230-foot cutter's launch was celebrated with great fanfare. Her sponsor, Mrs. Mildred Schmidtman, whacked a giant bottle on Storis's bow and people cheered. They clapped for the Toledo Shipbuilding Company, located in the great state of Ohio, which had once again built a quality American ship, and they clapped as loudly for the ship's crew. It was 1942 and World War II was well underway. German U-boats were torpedoing military and commercial vessels; those in auendance of Storis's launch understood that the new ship was desperately needed to escort convoys in the Northern Atlantic and protect vital Allied interests in Green land. USCGC Storis served with distinction during World War II, but she is best known for a treacherous journey she took in the fall of 1957. That year, she became the first
USCG Cutter Storis (WMEC-38) heads out into open water as it departs Kodiak, Alaska, for the last time, after she was decommissioned in 2007, after more than 64 years ofservice.
US ship to successfully transit the Northwest Passage. This is the same arduous ro ute that was in the news this summer when Crystal Serenity became the first cruise ship to sail in the Storis's wake, now that the passage is more consistentlyand predictably-clear of ice in the summer months.
USCGC Storis in the Northwest Passage, 12 September 1957.
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For sixty-fo ur years, Storis served in Alaskan waters. Her crews rescued mariners in peril, made sure that foreig n fishermen stayed out of US waters, and provided support to remote villages. By the 2000s, however, the aging sh ip, nicknamed the "Queen of the Fleet," needed to retire. On 8 February 2007, hundreds of friends gathered in Kodiak to bid her farewell. They regaled each other with stories about the 250 lives and twenty-five vessels saved by the Storis crew. They recalled h ow Storis assisted more than 100,000 people in remote areas. And then her friends went home and the Coast Guard sent Storis to join the mothball fleet at Suisan Bay in Cali fornia . Most people thought she was going to stay in Northern California, but a group of Storis veterans and supporters were determined to bring her to Juneau, Alaska, and turn her into a museum. Jim Loback, a Storis veteran wh o served during the Northwest Passage mission, led these efforts. He was assisted by Jon Ottman, a maritime historian who successfully
SEA HISTORY 15 8, SPRING 2017
nominated Storis for listing as a nationally significa nt resource on th e National Register of Historic Places. They petitioned Congress and the Coast G uard to transfer ownership of the vessel to their organization so that they could preserve the ship and the memory of its specific role in our national story, while educating children about maritime history in general. Every story must h ave an antagonist, and in this one it is the General Services Administration (GSA), the federal agency tasked with the disposal offederal property that h as become obsolete or surplus. GSA officials, awa re that the Storis ve terans had organized to turn the ship into a museum, decided to auction off the ship in July 201 3. The winning bid? $70,000. Despite the fact that it came in below the reserve price, officials at the GSA accepted the bid, knowing that the new owner had plans to immediately to scrap her in Mexico. The museum gro up was never given the option to purchase the ship at that modest price. The GSA's action triggered a tsunami of outrage. Maritime heritage organizations and American ship recyclers started asking questions. While the Storis veterans were infuriated by their callous treatment, domestic ship recyclers were put off that they were denied the opportunity as well (federal law requires all government ships to be recycled within rhe United States) . In addition to their support of the effort to turn the ship into a museum, the maritime heritage co mmunity also lost o ut on potential funds that should have gone to a vital grants program . A portion of the pro ceed s from the sale of MARADadministered ships funds the National Park Service Maritime Heritage Grant program, while GSA proceeds go to the General Treasury. Sto ris ve terans , m aritime heritage organizations, and American ship recyclers vowed to hold the GSA accountable for its actions, so they turned to Congress for help. There they found individual lawmakers who would back their cause. Rep. John Garamendi (CA) included language in the US Coast Guard Authorization Act of2015 requiring the General Accountability Office to conduct an audit of the obsolete ship sale proceeds dedicated to the maritime heritage grant program . Rep . C h arles Boustany Jr. (LA) and Rep. Filamon Vela SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 20 17
Jr. (TX) sent a letter to the US D epartment of Tra n sportation Inspecto r General requesting that he investigate why the Storis had been disposed of by the GSA instead of MARAD. Rep. Garret G raves (LA), Senator Bill Cassidy (LA), and Senator David Viner (LA) introduced the Ships to Be Recycled in the States Act, or STORIS Act, in the summer of2015. But that's not all. Rep. Donald Norcross (NJ) worked with Rep. Randy Forbes (VA) and Rep. Duncan Hunter (CA) to include lan g u age in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year 2017, requiring MARAD to create a list of all government vessels that will be declared obsolete in the next five years. On the Sen ate side, Senator R oger Wicker (MS), with the support of Sen ator D eb Fischer (NE) and Senator Cory Booker (NJ), included similar lan guage in the Maritime Administration A uthorization and Enhancement Act for 20 17. Last but not least, Senator Bill Nelson (FL), with the support of Senator John Thune (SD), Senator John McCain (AZ), and Senator Jack Reed (RI) , included ship- recycli n g reform language in the Senate-passed 2017 NDAA. House of R epresentatives and Senate staffers spent the summer of 201 6 negotiating language that was included in the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law by President Obama in December 2016. I realize that introducing so many characters mid-way through a story can be confusing, but I did so fo r a reaso n. Each member of Congress listed above provided vital assistance in ch an ging the law. Similarly, every Storis ve teran, maritime heritage organization, and ship recycler who wrote a letter or called these members of Congress made a difference. The next target for change is the US commercial fleet, including ships in the MARAD Maritime Securi ty Program . MSP ships are privately owned US-flagged vessels deemed "militarily useful." MSP participating shipowners receive on average more than $3 million per ship per year from the US gove rnment. MSP ships are currently dismantled in Asia in substandard and unsafe conditions th at irreparably da mage rhe ocean and surrounding environment, and injure and even kill workers. In addition to the environmental
hazards they are exposed to, Bangladeshi workers h ave died after fa lling, being crushed by steel plates, and hit by a cylinder blast. US ship recyclers will be asking Congress to require that MSP sh ips be taken apart in the United States, where we can be ass ured that the work will be done in an appropriate, safe, and envi ronmentally sound manner. It is the position of A m erican ship recyclers that if a vessel receives a subsidy from the US government, then that ship must be then recycled in the United States. Additionally, US comm ercial ships employed by the D epartment of Defense are also being dismantled in Asian facilities. These ships include MV Capt. Steven L. Bennett, a container ship named after an Air Force pilot who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Vietnam War. The Air Force held a naming ceremony for the ship in 1997 and members of the Bennett family attended . The ship served the needs of the US Ai r Force as a Logistics Prepositioning Ship for fo urteen years, includin g work suppl yi n g peacekeeping missions and in various theaters of war. In 2016, the ship was taken to India for demolition, and, sadly, the Capt. Steven L. Bennett isn't the only vessel named after a Medal of Honor recipient to meet this fare. Storis's legacy is one of teamwork and change. Rallying under her n ame, Storis veterans, the maritime heritage community, and US ship recyclers successfully worked together to lobby Congress. They showed how progress can be made even in the most difficult of political environments. Like Storis, these advocates viewed every obstacle as one to overcome and conquer. As a bit player in this story, I want to say thank yo u to Tim Runyan, chair of the National M aritime Alliance and trustee of the National Maritime Historical Society, for hi s outstanding lead ership and dedication to the m aritime heritage organizations under his guidance. I'd also like to say thank yo u to Jon Ottman. Without his perseverance and doggedness, no one wo uld have known about USCGC Storis. Together they changed the law and together they showed how the story of a single ship ca n inspire thousands. ,!, - K Denise Rucker Krepp, Government Relations Counsel, EMR USA 15
Confederate Submarine
H. L. Hunley
First in History to Sink an Enemy Ship in Wartime by Mark K. Raga n
Submarine Torpedo Boat H. L. Hunley, D ecember 6, 1863. Painting by Conrad Wise Chapman (1842-1910). f you knew anything abour rhe Confederate submarine H. L. H unleyprior to its discovery by adve nture novelist C live C ussler's National U nd erwa ter a nd M a rin e Age n cy (NUMA) in 1995-chances are yo u had been informed that rhe vessel was little more than a crude monstrosity, fabri cated from a discarded steam boiler by desperate rebels in rhe closing months of the C ivil W ar. As has been proven from the vessel's intac t recovery, nothing could be furt her from the truth. In fac t rhi s first submari ne to sink an enemy ship in wa rtime was rhe third such vessel fa bricated in just two yea rs by a gro up of dedicated southern engineers . M embers of the Singer Secret Service C orps-one of the names rhe organization rhat fabricated rhe H unley went by-rook advantage of newly acquired knowledge, gained through trial and error with rhe first prototypes, and incorporated ir into design and bui lding of rhe H unley. The group's first vessel, christened rhe Pioneer, was fa bricated in New Orleans in 1861 -62 by steam gauge manufac turers James McCli m ock and his partner Baxter Warson. During rhe early days of rhe venture, they were joined by wea lthy anorney and fellow New Orlea ns nati ve H orace H un ley. From a postwar letter wrinen by
16
James McClintock comes rhe fo llowing: "In rhe years 1861 , '62, and '63, I, in connection with others, was engaged in inve ming and constructing a submarine boar or boar for running under rhe water ar any required depth fro m rhe sur face. Ar New Orleans in 1862 we built rhe fi rst boar, she was made of iron 114 inch thick. The boar was of a cigar shape 30 feet long and 4 feet in diameter." With her on ly offensive weap-
on described simply as a "magazine of powder," rhe three invemors applied fo r, and were granted, a len er of marque (privateer's commission) from rhe Confederate governmem on 31 March 1862. U nfo rtu nately, linle is know n rega rdin g rhe resting of the Pioneer, other th an rhe fac t rhar rhe three partners are reported to have "made several descems ... and succeeded in destroying a small schooner and several rafts."
The Confederate privateer submarine Pioneer, as drawn by fleet engineer William Shock. The scuttled vessel was discovered soon after the collapse ofNew Orleans and was dragged ashore by Union sailors.
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In mid-April 1862 Ad miral Farragut's federal fleet stea med up th e Mississippi River past rwo Co nfederate strongholds, and after several days of heated negoriarions with city officials, New Orleans surrendered on 29 April. With rhe Confederate army in retreat, rhe subma rine partners McC lintock, Hunley, and Warson hastily scurried their invention in rhe New Basin Canal and fl ed to Mobile, Alabama, to continue their experiments. With a privateering commission from rhe Confederate government in hand, rhe trio approached rhe military authorities of Mobile and was immediately granted faci l iries ar the Park and Lyon Machine Shop on Water Street. Among the many soldiers placed on detached duty ar Park and Lyo n was Lieutenant William Alexander, a young English mechanical engineer. With the arrival of Watson, Hunley, a nd McC lintock, A lexander's superiors ordered him and his men to give their full at tention to rhe unique project. From a letter written in September of 1863, we know that Horace Hunley financed rhe submarine's construction from his personal acco unts. As ev idenced in the following p assages from McClintock's postwar letter, it wou ld appear rhar rhe group may have been attempting to fabricate a vessel far too technologically adva nced for the rimes. "We built a second boar at Mobi le ... she was made 36 feet long, three feet wide and four feet high. Twelve feet of each end was built tapering or molded, to make her easy to pass through rhe water." McClintock rhen went on to write the following incredible passage: "There was much rime and money lost in efforts to build an electro-magnetic engine for propelling the boar." M cClintock went on to stare that rhe electric motor designed and fabricated for propelling rheir second submarine "was unable to get sufficient power to be useful. " Unfortunately, McClinrock remain ed si lent as to how rhe group rested rhe electric motor, and it must therefore remain a mys tery as to how close the partners actually came to producing rhe world's first electrically powered submarine. With rhe failure of the vessel's electric motor, rhe undaunted inventors turned to a more practical mea ns of propulsion-a small custom-built steam engine. This also SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
New O rleans Masons Ho race L. Hunley (above) andJames McClintock (below) joined the Singer Secret Service Corps in late March, 1863. They were accomplished submariners who had built and tested two experimental submarines p rior to joining the group.
proved to be a fa ilure. With the removal of rhe failed steam engine, the partners relucranrly resorted to installing a propeller shaft designed to be turned by fou r men. By mid-January of 1863, the American Diver (as a C onfederate deserter referred to her in his testimon y) was ready for sea trials in Mobile Bay. All we really know about the final fate of rhe American Diver comes from a postwar news article written by Lieutenant William Alexander, the engineering officer
assisting McClinrock, Hunley, and Warson in Mobi le: "Ir [the submarine] was towed offForr Morgan, inrended to man ir there and arrack rhe blockading fl eer outside, but rhe weather was rough, and with a heavy sea rhe boar became unmanageable and finally sank, bur no lives were lost." Fortunately for the disappoinred, outof-work submarine designers, a small gro up of underwater explosives engineers was just rhen setting up shop in Mobile. H eaded by Texan Edgar Singer, these new arri vals and staff were manufacturing wh at wo uld become the most successful underwater mine developed during rhe C ivil War. From conremporary documenrs, it is known that the three invenrors were soon approached by the recenrly arrived Texans and offered membership in Singer's unique torpedo organization, which would beco me known as Singer's Secret Service Corps. While Mobile Bay was being surveyed and torpedo materials gathered, the three displaced Louisiana inve ntors discussed their pas t submarine operations with their new Texan colleagues in an effort to gain support for fabrica tion of yet a third vessel. With rhe Singer organization's primary foc us on the manufacture and deploymenr of underwater weaponry, it's easy to see why the group enrhusiasrically backed the proposed venture. With fundin g in place, construction on the daring project began immediately at the Park & Lyo n machine shop. From rhe postwar article written by Wi lliam Alexander, we get an inva luabl e firsthand description of this innovative diving machine soon to be christened the H. L. H unley, named after Hunley, in recognition of his financial support and advocacy in making the proj ect happen. We decided to build another boar, and for this purpose took a cylinder boiler, w hich we had on hand, 48 inches in diameter and twenryfive feet lon g. We cut rhis boiler in two, longitudin ally, and inserted two 12-inch boiler iron strips in her sides; lengthened her by one tapering co urse fore and aft, to which were attached bow and stern castings, mak ing the boat about 30 feet long, 4 feet wide and 5 feet 17
deep. A longitudinal strip 12 inches wide was riveted the full length on top. Ar each end a bulkhead was riveted across to form water-ballast tanks, they were used in raising and sinking the boat .. .In operation, one half of the crew had to pass through the fore hatch; the other through the after hatchway. The propeller revolved in a wrought iron ring or band, to guard against a line being thrown in to foul it. Ir was sometime during the construction of this third subm arine that Lieutenant George Dixon, a pre-war steam engineer and officer in the 21st Alabama (William Alexander's regiment), entered the story of the Hunley. Although practically nothing is known of Dixon's early life, an interesting article concerning a lucky gold piece h e carried appeared in the 15 November 1904 edition of rhe Mobile Daily Herald. According to the article, Dixon's sweetheart had given him a twenty-dollar gold piece prior to his leaving for the war. At the battle of Sh iloh, rhe gold piece deflected a bullet rhar would have shattered his leg. When the wreck of the Hunley was being excavated in 2000, the dented gold coin was discovered on Dixon's body with the engraving "Shiloh April 6'\ 1862. My Life Preserver." By mid-Ju ly 1863, the Hunley was completed and transferred to rhe Mobile River for trials. On the morning of 31 July, an
old worm-eaten barge was towed to the middle of the river and anchored in front of numerous military officers, who had assembled to witness the destructive capabilities of the Singer gro up's new diving machine. By a stroke of fantastic luck, several eyewitness accounts that discuss this first demonstration have come to light in recent years. Confederate General James Slaughter wrote after the war: "In company with Admiral Buchanan and many officers of the CS Navy and Army, I witnessed her [the Hunley's] operations in the river and harbor of Mobile. I saw her pass under a large raft of lumber rowing a torpedo behind her which destroyed the raft. She appeared three or four hundred yards beyond the rafr and so far as I could judge she behaved as well under water as above ir." With the vessel's destructive capabilities obvious to all, mili tary commanders in Mobile agreed that the Hunley shou ld be put into service as quickly as possible. Due to Mobile Bay's relatively shallow water and strong harbor defenses, it was decided rhar Charleston should be the Hunley's future base of operations. Within hours after Singer's group had proven the military worth of the submarine boar, General John Slaughter offered the vessel to Charleston's commanding officer, Brigadier General P. G. T . Beauregard, and within days the vessel was on its way to South Carolina aboard a railroad flatcar.
On the morning of 12 August 1863, rhe soot-covered locomotive that had hauled the small submarine and her crew from A labama, slowly steamed into the busy Charleston railroad station. W ith the submarine now in the city, Genera l Beauregard ordered the army's engineering department to unload the vessel and transfer it to a mooring in the harbor without delay. Although information is sketchy, it would appear that by mid-August the Hunley was venturing past Fort Sumter in nightly excursions against the blockading fleer anchored outside the harbor. Towing an explos ive ch arge at the end of a long line trailing behind them, the newly arrived crew attempted several nocturna l sorties bur, as we read in rhe fo llowing dispatches, these were apparently not enough to impress Gen eral C lingman, co mmander of Sullivan's Island. "The torpedo boar started at sunset but returned as they stare because of an accident, Whitney says that though McClintock is timid, ye t it sh all go tonight unless the weather is bad." These nocturnal attempts by the Hunley crew were apparently regar<le<l as ineffective by General Clingman, for several hours later he sent yet another unflattering message concerning the crew's conduct. "The torpedo boar h as not gone our, I do nor think it will render any service under its present management." With the sending of this last communication, the fate of the crew was sealed; for within twenty-four
0 These diagrams of the Hunley were drawn by former Confederate naval officer Charles Hasker during the summer of 1897 Although inaccurate on some details, these diagrams are the only known 19th-century depictions ofthe submarine to show the topside viewports.
18
SEA HISTORY 15 8, SPRING 20 17
hours, the Hunley was seized by the C harleston military and turned over to the Confederate navy. With the Hunley seized, and then in the possession of the Confederate military, a call for n aval volunteers to man the contraption was sent throughout the C harleston Squadro n. Within hours after the request for volunteers went out, Lt. John Payne stepped forward to request command of the novel invention. One of his crew, Lt. Charles H asker, later wrote about his experiences with the Hunley. I was anxio us to see how the boat worked and volunteered as one of the crew. We were lying as tern of the steam er Etowah, near Fort Johnson, In Ch arleston Harbor. Lieutenant Payne, who had charge got fow led [sic] in the manhole by the hawser and in trying to clear himself got his foot on the lever, which controlled the fins ...The boat made a dive while the m anholes were open and filled rapidly. Payne go t out of the forward hole and two others out of the aft hole. Six of us went down with the boat. ..The manhole plate came down on my back. .. Held in this manner I was carried to the bottom ... Five men were drow ned on this occasion. I was the only m an that went to the bottom with the 'Fish Boat' and came up to tell the tale. With no other viable offensive weapon at his command , General Beauregard decided to salvage the submarine, ro und up another volunteer crew, and put the Hunley back into service. The recovery of the forty-foot submarine was assigned to civilian divers Angus Smith and David Broadfoot. The two Scottish immigrants were successfu l in their efforts, for on the fourteenth of September the following dispatch was sent to General Beauregard: "General, I have the honor to inform yo u that the torpedo submarine boat was brought up to the city this afternoon and is in the vicinity of the RR wharf." At about the same time that the late crewmembers of the Hunley were bei ng removed from their iron coffin , H orace SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
f!l(,,Aurol OF"
~ !Hlb.\lfa!L!E ~r@oo lHl~ i& Š!Fl AND
V l rnIN)I''.Mf
\
~ 6UO
MILES
Hun ley was requesting command of his namesake vessel from General Beaurega rd. "If you will place the boat in my hands I will furnish a crew who are well acquainted with its management and make the attempt to destroy a vessel of the enemy as ea rly as prac ticable." The reques t was granted. Unfortunately, Horace Hunley apparently h ad little exp erience piloting the vessel, for within days after raking command of the submarine, it once again sank from operator error, killing all aboardincluding Hun ley himsel f. C harleston divers Smith and Broadfoot were again summoned to raise the vessel and a week later it was once again floati ng alongside the city docks. After learning of the second fatal sinking, Lieutenants George Dixon and W illiam Alexander-the two engineers then assigned to the Park and Lyon machine shop-were dispatched from Mobile to cake charge of the vessel in C h arlesron,
make necessa ry repairs, and return it to service. William Alexander later wrote: "We soon had the boat refitted and in good shape ....The torpedo was a copper cylinder holding a charge of ninety pounds of explosive, with percussion and primer mechanism , set off by triggers .. .In experiments made with some old flat boats in smooth water, this plan operated successfully, but in a seaway the torpedo was continually coming too near our craft." For these reasons the torpedo configuration was changed to one attached to a spar assembly. From William Alexander's descriptions, we are informed that the Hunley was relocated to Breach Inlet, at the northern tip of Sulli va n's Island. Our daily routine, whenever possible, was about as follows: Leave Mount Pleasant about lPM , walk seven miles to Battery Marshall on the beach, take the boat out and
19
practice the crew for two hours in the Back Bay... The plan was to take the bearings of the ships as they took position for the night, steer fo r one of them , keeping about six feet under water, coming occasionally to the surface for air and observation, and when nearing the vessel, come to the surface for fin al observation before striking her, which was to be done under the counter, if possible. It was winter, therefore necessary that we go out with the ebb and come in with the flood tide, a fa ir wind and a d ark moon .. .. On several occasions we came to the surface for air, opened the cover and heard the m en in the Federal picket boats talking and singing. During this time we went out on an average of four nights a week ... We continued to go out as often as the weather p ermitted, hoping against hope, each time taking greater risks of getting back .... On February 5, 1864, I received orders to report at Mobile. This was a terrible blow, both to Dixon and myself after we h ad gone through so much together. .. I left Charleston that night and reached Mobile in due course. Within days after Alexander left fo r far-off Alabama, a new federal sloop-of-war was seen dropping h er evening anchor just over three miles from the mouth of Breach Inlet. With orders to run down or destroy any blockade runner that attempted to pass, the steam sloop-of-war Ho usatonic rocked at anchor within sight of Breach Inlet. With a menacing new sloop-of-war anchored so close, it would appear that Dixon changed his tac tics in favor of a bold new plan of attack. Since the vessel could be approached within a couple of hours after nightfall, it was decided that the H unley crew wo uld attack the sloop on the first calm evening, and, once clear, signal Battery Marshall fo r a fire to be lit at the mo uth of Breach Inlet. Dixon would then steer fo r the light before the expected steam-powered federal picket boats could converge on the area. On the evening of 17 February 1864, Dixon, with sign al la ntern in h and,
20
The 1,240-ton sloop of war Housatonic was the first warship in history sunk by an enemy submarine. This act would not be rep eated until Wo rld War I, more than 5 0 years later. squeezed thro ugh the fo rward hatch of the Hunley for the highly anticipated attack. As the dark cold interior became illuminated from a candle Dixon had lit, seven crewm en took turn s climbing dow n thro ugh the narrow hatches and took their places beside the crankshaft. The events that took place aboard Dixon's submarine after it left Breach Inlet will unfortunately never be known; however, a good description of what happened once the submarine had reached her victim can be ascertained from tes timony gathered at the court of inquiry held nine d ays later. From that document come the following testimonials: I took the deck at 8PM on the night of February 17th . About 8:45PM I saw something on the water, which at fi rs t looked to me like a porpoise, comi ng to the surface to blow ... It was about 75 to 100 yards from us on our starboard beam .. . Looking again within an instant I saw it was coming towards the ship very fas t. I gave orders to beat to quarters slip the chain and back the engine, the orders being executed immed iately. -Acting M aster J K Crosby W hile terrified union sailors leaned over the H ousatonic's rail firing rifles and pistols at the strange-looking contraption, Executive Officer Higginson rushed on deck from his cabin. I went on deck immediately, fo und the Officer of the D eck on the
bridge, and asked him the cause of the alarm; he pointed about the starboard beam on the water and said 'there it is.' I then saw something resembling a plank moving towards the ship at a rate of 3 or 4 knots; it came close along side, a little fo rward of the mizzen mast on th e starboard sid e. Ir then stopped, and appeared to move off slowly. I then went down from the bridge and took the rifle from the lookout on the horse block on the starboard quar ter, and fi red it at this object. . .I heard the explosion, accompanied by a sound of rushing water and crashing timbers and metal...The ship was sinking so rapidly, it seemed impossible to get the launch es cleared away, so I drove the men up the rigging to save themselves. After I got into the rigging, I saw two of the boats h ad been cleared away, and were picking up men who were overboard. As soon as I saw all were picked up, I sent one of the boats to the Canandaigua for assistance. -Executive Officer F J Higginson From tes timony given by numerous survivo rs (just fi ve U nion sailors were killed in the attack), it would seem that the H unley was quite close to the Ho usatonic when the torpedo exploded . Seaman Robert Fl emming was on e of those w ho scrambled to safety up Housatonic's rigging. H e later testified that, "When the
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 201 7
Canandaigua go r as rern and was lyin g arhwa n , of rhe H ousatonic, abour fo ur ship lengrhs off, while I was in rhe fo re rigging, I saw a blue li ghr on rhe warer jusr ahead of the Canandaigua, and on rhe srarboard quarrer of rhe H ousatonic." From a documem filed jusr 48 hours afrer rhe arrack, ir appears rhar Flemming may have seen rhe fa im beam from Dixon's signal lighr; rhe commander of Barrery M arshall, Lr. Colonel D antzler, srared in his official repon of rhe incident rh ar rhe agreed signal from rhe H unley was "observed and answered." Wherher or nor Flemming acrually saw Dixon's signal lighr will perhaps never be known, for afrer successfully sinking rhe Housatonic, Lieurenam George Dixon, his submarine, and her emire crew disappeared wirhour a rrace, umil rhe spring of 1995 when members of Clive C ussler's N UM A dive ream uncovered rhe hull, some 300 yards beyond rhe wreck sire of rhe Housatonic. The intacr vessel wirh all aboard was raised in 2000 and is now being conserved and is on display ar rhe W arren Lasch Conservarion Cem er in N orrh C harlesron, Sourh Carolina. j:,
H . L. Hunley undergoing conservation at the Wt'zrren Lasch Conservation Lab in North Charleston, South Carolina. Mark K Ragan was the H unley Project his- the historical narrative for the TNT 1999 torian during the excavation and raising of movie ofthe same title. Mr. Ragan is also the the submarine, who also worked as a recovery owner ofChesapeake Submarine Service, Inc., diver on the night shift. The movie rights to the only company in North America to offer his first book, The Hunley, were purchased mini-sub piloting classes in a K-350, a twoby Turner Network Television and used as person dry submarine.
Get a RARE signed and numbered limited edition print by renowned artist Carl G. Evers ... and help support the work ofthe Society
Battle of the Monitor by Carl G. Evers (1907-2000) Sheet Size 29" x 21 1/.i'' â&#x20AC;˘ $200 + $30 s/h, USA only Arrist's Proof, Signed & Numbered, Limired Edirion Primsâ&#x20AC;˘ ONLY 7 remaining our of24
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21
TheAMERIC~S
CUP:
by Russ Kramer
Personalities, Passion, and Privilege
T
his summer in the warm, turquoise waters off Bermuda, m en and women of mettle and means will once again challenge each other for the oldest trophy in sports-yachting's most famous regatta, the America's Cup. Today's races, matching hyper-fast, carbon-fiber hydrofoils funded by billionaires and sprawling corporate syndicates, and crewed by people in space suits, bear little resemblance to those once fought by mustachioed gents in yachting caps and wooden schooners when the race was established in 1851. What remains constant, however, is the sense of national pride, individual passion, devotion to the cause and sailing skill necessary to claim ownership of the Cup. Here, through his meticulously researched recreations on canvas, marine artist Russ Kramer introduces us to several of the individuals who defended the America's C up for over a century.
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1851
America Salutes The Queen 30" x 40" oil on canvas
America, "the low black schooner," was commissioned by New York
Yacht Club Commodore John Cox Stevens to sail across the Atlantic, challenge common conventions of British superiority in naval engineering and seamanship, and win a few quid from the noble British yachties in the process. Helmed by Dick Brown, New York Harbor's most skillful pilot schooner captain, she was called "a hawk among the sparrows" upon her arrival-and the sparrows avoided racing her at all costs until the national press embarrassed them into it. On 22 August, against the best of the English fleet, and in front of thousands of spectators, she won a 50-mile race around the Isle of Wight. Her prize was an elaborate silver cup that would forever after bear her name. In this painting, America ghosts across the finish line with the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert coming alongside. In a gesture of sportsmanship, Stevens, shown at center, has doffed his cap and ordered the crew to dip the ship's colors as a salute to the queen. SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
1885 Onboard Puritan, 1885 30" x 40" oil on canvas Captain Aubrey Crocker helms Puritan in the decisive second race against challenger Genesta in the defense of the America's Cup, 16 September 1885. Also shown on board is General Charles Paine (in straw hat), chief strategist of the New York Yacht C lub 's syndicate. The general, great-grandson of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, made a fortune in railroads before joining the Union army and leading brigades in the Civil War. Puritan was designed by Edward Burgess and built in Boston, the first of three Paine-led Boston boats to defend. A radical design, she nonetheless would prove to be the fastest American yacht ever built.
The Foul 27" x 40" oil on canvas
Valkyrie III bears down on Defender at rhe start of the second race of the infamous America's Cup of 1895, her boom swinging over the heads of Captain Hank Haff, designer Nat Herreshoff and syndicate head C. Oliver Iselin. In a moment, the boom will snag Defender's topmast shroud, setting off a storm of controversy. Iselin is hollering "We will hold our course!" to Valkyrie's owner Lord Dunraven as the two vessels get dangerously close to making contact. The race committee of the New York Yacht C lub, after hearing the protest and reviewing the evidence, would award the race to Defender. Iselin, a good sport, offered to rerun the race, but Dunraven, who was not so much, declined. Later he would refuse even to race again; he accused the Americans of cheating, and was unceremoniously booted out of the New York Yacht C lub.
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
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1899
19 03
A Thrash to Windward 29" x 44" oil on linen
Captain C harlie Barr helms Columbia during the stormy th ird- and decisive-Am erica's C up race against Shamrock, 20 October 1899. On board is designer Nat H erreshoff (far left), syndicate head C. Olive r Iselin (in yachting wear), and his wife, H ope, the first A merican woman to sail on a C up defender. M rs. Iselin was not about to stay home on this day; a forceful personality w ith great mea ns of her own a nd a n avid sportswoman, she served as the official photographer of the campaign , just as portable cam eras were becoming all the rage. She is shown with her Ko dak No. 2 Bullet; her wo nderful photo albums capturing the action onboard Colum bia, which inspired this painting, are preserved in the archives of the Mys tic Seaport Museum. By 1901 , when the Iselins and Columbia defended again, she invited her two teenage nieces to ride along too.
The Masthead Men 29" x 44" oil on linen
M embers of the crew, high in the rigging of Shamrock III, watch Reliance cross the sta rt of the third race of the America's C up, 1903. The wiry daredevils who climbed to the top of these giant rigs to untangle lines or unfurl topsails-before safety harnesses were even considered-were paid more than their mares on deck. Ir was said of them, "their only obstacle is death ." In thi s painting I wanted to convey the vas t size of Reliance, C aptain Nat H erres hoff's las t and ultim ate C up defender, the larges t single-masted sailing yacht ever built. By cas ting cloud shadows across her sails and pinching her into rhe composition, my intention was to give the viewers, along with the high-wire crew, a birds-eye view of this enormous "temple to the wind."
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SEA HISTORY 158, SPRIN G 2017
1937
A Million Dollar Breeze 44" x 27" oil on canvas
H ere, Mike Va nderbil t helms the great]-boat Ranger at the start of the thi rd race of the America's C up of 1937. Ranger, whose afrerguard included the young duo of Rod and Olin Stephens (shown ro Va nderbilt's lee), was unbearable. Thi s was rhe start of rhe truly big-money era in America's C up racing, and on ly men like Vanderbilt could compete. Widely respected for his skills behind rhe wheel, Vanderbilt was also known as a tac tical geniu s, and effective m anager and motivator of h is crew. E qually popular was his lively and generous wife, Gertrude, show n on the windwa rd ra il, who was on board as official observer throughout their campaigns of 1930, '34 and '37.
1962
Weatherly, 1962 22" x 36" oil on linen
Bus Mosbacher helms Weatherly in a successful defense of rhe America's Cup against the first Australian challenger, Gretel. Mosbacher dominated races as a schoolboy on Long Island Sound, won national college championships for Dartmouth, and rook eight consecutive Long Island Sound rides in the International One D esign class . After a Southern O cean Racing Conference (SORC) championship in 1959, he turned his attention ro rhe America's C up, defending in 1962 and again in '67. W hen as ked rhe most important fac tor in determining a winner among closely marched 12-meters, Mosbac her replied simply, "rhe crew comes first."
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 20 17
Russ Kramer ofMystic, Connecticut, is one of the nation's leading marine artists, specializing in yachting history and commissioned yacht p ortraits. Russ has been the subject of a one-man show at the M useum of Yachting in N ewport, Rhode Island , and has appeared in WoodenBoat, Yachting, and Sail magazines, and will be prominently presented in the forthcoming series Arr and Arti facts of rhe A merica's C up, by Janice Hy land and Alan Granby and sponsored by William Koch. Kramer is a past president of the American Society of Marine Artists and a member of the New York Yacht Club. H is paintings, including these here and those ofmany other America's Cup races, are available as limited-edition prints through his websites www. russkramer. com and www.americascuppaintings.com, or by calling (813) 748-6470.
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Ian H. Marshall (1933-2016) Artist Ian Marshall, long-time member and friend of the National Maritime Historical Society, died suddenly on 2 D ecember 2016. Ian contributed numerous works and articles to Sea History over the years and was always eager and quick to help wheneve r asked for advice on topics in both maritime history and art. We spent time with Ian and his wife, Jean, at the 2016 National Marine Arr Conference this past September in Williamsburg, Virgi nia, where he was a panelist and a contributing artist to the American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA) 17th National Exh ibition. Ian grew up in the Fife County, Scotland, the peninsula on the eas t coast of Scotland, "north of the Firth of Forth, where Edinburgh is located, and south of the Firth of Saint Andrews Bay, where the Tay River Bows into the North Sea." After World War II, with conditions in the UK very trying, the Marshall family moved to Cape Town, South Africa, where Ian's uncle had set up an architectural practice. Ian completed his high school education there and attended the University of Cape Town, where, under the "must-choose" English system of higher education, he decided to pursue architecture. The program called for five yea rs of study and two yea rs of supervised work in the profession. It was in satisfying the latter requirement that Ian first went to Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, to work for a year. With a history of well-received showings in London galleries, combined with his British roots, artistic talent, and his fascination for the sea, it is not surprising that he became a member of the Royal Society of Marine artists early on. W hen he arrived in the
United States to drop anchor, he set about looking for its American counterpart. He fou nd ASMA and soon became a member and Fellow. In time he wo uld lead the organization as its president. Ian was both an accomplished artist and architect, and a respected historian, leaving his mark across the globe, not on ly with his paintings, but with his many books and lectures. His works hang in the permanent collections of the US Naval Academy M useum at Annapolis; the Royal Naval Jean and Ian Marshall M useum at Portsmouth; the Scottish United Services Museum at Edinburgh Castle; the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath; Lloyds of London; Foynes Flying Boat Museum in County Limerick, Ireland; Botswana National Museum; and the Royal Netherlands Navy M useum at Den Helder. His work is represented by the J. Russell Jinishian Gallery, and his wo rk has been shown reg ularly at the Royal Society of Marine Artists in London and at the International Marine Arr Exhibition at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. We will miss his friendship and his talents. Fair Winds, Ian.
Renowned Marine Artist
Call to Artists: 24th Annual Maritime Art Exhibition at the Coos Art Museum, co-sponsored by ASMA. The exhibition opens on 8 July and runs through 23 September 2017. The annual exhibition is the oldest continuous maritime ar t competition on the West Coast. Deadline for submissions is 29 April. (Prospectus and more information online at www.coosart.org)
DAVEN ANDERSON
You can read more about Ian Marshall and view some ofhis works online at the]. Russell ]inishian Gallery website at wwwjrusselljin ishiangallery.com or at the Maritime Art Gallery at Mystic Seaport at www.mysticseaport.org.
Behind the Canvas: Folk Artist Elizabeth Mumford: 11 March
EX HIBI T I ONS
2016 I Rosemary Berke! and Harry L. Crisp II Museum ......................... ....... ..... . 2017 I St. Louis Mercantile Library Channel Islands Maritime Museum 2018 I Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science Erie Maritime Museum 2019 I Kenosha Museum of Art Dates to be announced: visit www.davenanderson.com
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CRED I TS &
ACCO L ADES
Managing Director, American Society of Marine Artists US Coast Guard Artist Cover/article- Winter '16 issue of SEA HISTORY CATALOG / CONTAC T
DavenAAnderson @gmail.com Studio : 314.241.2339 www. d ave nan d er son. com
COMMISSIONS WELCOMED
at the Maritime Art Gallery at Mystic Seaport. Ms. Mumford will give a lecture and slide show on how she uses old photos, fami ly documents, and memoirs to recreate a time and place. Her painting (right) was featured on the cover of Sea History 149, Winter 2014-15. (www. mys ticseaport.org)
2017 National Marine Art Conference: The American Society of Marine Artists will host its 2nd national conference, 19-22 October, in Mystic, Connecticut. The conference will include presentations, panels, plein air pai nt-outs, networking opportunities with today's top artists, and more. Details on how to register and make hotel reservations will be posted on the ASMA website as they become available. (www.americansocietyofmarine artistscom)
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
Tidal Wave: The Greatest Ship Launch in History by D onald G. Shomerre or a mid-summer night, the evenin g of Wednesday, 3 July 1918 , was chilly along the waterfront of S up e rior, W isconsin. Normally the town would have been asleep by midnight, bur this evening was different, as it was soon to be all across the United States. Ar the yard of the Superior Ship Building Co., all was abusd e as legions of shipya rd workers scurried about prepa ring for one of the most momentous events in shipbuilding history. At precisely 12:01AM on the Fourth ofJuly, it all bega n as a great steel prop-driven cargo ship, of 3,400 d eadweighr tons, slipped down the ways with grace as those about her watched and cheered. Built as Hull No. 537 and christened Lake Aurice, the new pride of Wisconsin was the first off the ways in what was to become the greatest single day's ship launchings ever recorded.
empires, a conflict called, prior to 1939, "The War to End All Wars." The horrific co nflict, which would claim more than 37 million military casualties, and millions more civ ilian lives, also saw enormous innova ti ve technologies appli ed to wa rfare-on the land, beneath the seas, and in the air. One of the most frightening initiatives employed was that of the modern submari ne, which was brought to deadly
SS .....f,ake Aurice
THE SHIPS
Over the next twenty-four hours, on the G reat Lakes alone, no fewer than fifteen ships would be launched in eleven cities bordering their shores. Indeed, by midnight 4 July, no fewer than ninety-four steel and wooden merchant ships wo uld slide down the ways of American shipyards, as would six new US Navy destroyers-all built under the direction of a newly minted US Shipping Board for wartime service in the United Srares Merchant Marine. All across the America, from Puget Sound, Sa n Francisco Bay, Los Angeles, the Columbia River, the G ulf of Mexico, the Delawa re, Chesapeake Bay, New York Bay and all the coasts of New England, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, the D etroit River and Lake Erie, the shores would be laved by the backwas h of the great ships of the Liberty fleer rushing into their proper element. To understa nd what set this now allbur-forgorren great event in motion, it is first necessary to go back to August 1914, when the world was set ablaze in a clash of
28
ARE COMING
UNITED STATES SHIPPING BOARD
EMERGE NCY FLEET CORPORATION
perfection by the Imperial German Navy. America's march toward engagement with the allies of the Triple-Entente in the war again st th e Central Powers- Imperial Germany, the Austro-H ungarian a nd Ottoman empires-need nor be relived here. Yer, it is important to review the impact of German submarine wa rfare as it pertains to A merica's overnight ascension to the role of greatest shipbuilding nation in history, symbolized by the events of 4 July 1918. In the first three months of 1917, just before President Wilson's national call to arms, more than 1,68 5,000 deadweigh t tons of merchant shipping-over 200 ships per month-had been destroyed by Germany's campaign of unrestricted subm ari ne warfare. By the end of April 1917, the rare of!oss to German submarines had exceeded more than 100 ships a week, and barely 20,000,000 tons of shipping rem ained for all of the allied nat ions combined. To place this in prop er perspective, we have to go back only two years earlier to 1915 when the m erchant tonnage for the entire wo rld was reported at 49,262,000 tons. Of this tonnage, 43.5 percent was British, 12 percent American, Thousands ofpropaganda posters were commissioned by the US government during WW7 to sell the war to the American public.
LAUNCHING ANOTHER VICTORY SHIP po. U NITED
STATES
SHIPPING
BOARD
~ EMERGEN C Y
F L
ET C ORPOR AT I ON
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 201 7
10 percenr German, and 5 percenr French. At the outset of the war, US shipyards launched only 200,762 tons, almost entirely for foreign owners, while the United Kingdom, an island nation dependent upon the sea to maintain its worldwide empire, was sending off 1,683,535 gross tons. Now the Allies stood to lose the war through sheer att rition of its merchanr shipping at sea. With growing concern over America's possible entry into the war, Wilson's secretary of the treasury, William McAdoo, independently conceived of a shipping corporation that the federal government would own. In 1916 the Shipping Bill was passed by Congress, creating the United States Shipping Board (USSB), charged with the promotion and regulation of American water transport, and even the commandeering of private lines in the public interest or for national defense. In 1917 Germany's campaign of unrestricted subma rine warfare, which was now threatening mass starvation in England and France, as well as entirely hamstringing the Allied war effort itself, sparked a review of the Shipping Board 's function. When Wilson asked the British government what America's most significant and immediate contribution to the war might be, Prime Minister David Lloyd George responded: "The road ro victory, the guarantee of victory, the absolute assurance of victory, has to be fo und in the word 'ships,' and in a second word, 'ships,' and a third word, 'ships."' America was, unfortunately, as is often the case, entirely unprepared for immediate engagement in every arena. The US Army deployed from March 1916 to April 1917 against Pancho Villa in Mexico, numbering just 15,000 men, and the National Guard comprised 156,000 part-timers, spread all across the nation, bur primarily in the west. There were only 285,000 Springfield rifles, 400 light field guns, and 150 heavy field guns in all of rhe national arsenals combined. In the Ai r Service section of the Signal Corps, there were only sixty-five officers and 1,000 men, only thirty-five of whom could fly. Of the fifty-five planes, fifty-one were obsolete. The US Navy was in better shape, but st i II considerably behind the Allied and Central powers, and
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
unprepared to meet the submarine offensive. The logistical, organizational, and industrial demands to field a major army of millions overseas was, of course, enormous. Even more daunting was the challenge of simply how to get chem there and keep them-and rhe Allies-fed and supplied . As General John ]. "Black Jack" Pershing so clearly pointed out: "To maintain an army of 1,000,000 men with supplies, including munitions (guns, ammunition, and aviation), would call for the daily delivery in France of at least 25,000 tons of freight and continuous berthing for 20 to 25 vessels ... Many new berths had to be built. ..and we expected to expand our force to 2,000,000 men." From a largely rural national population of just 92,000,000 Americans, rhe demands to field an army, and the means to get chem to rhe front and keep them, as well as our allies, fed and provisioned, would be challenging to say the least. San Francisco attorney and Democratic Party leader William Denman had been selected by the president to head the USSB. Within hours of the declaration of war against Germany, Denman announced a goal of producing no fewer rhan 1,000 wooden steamships-all supposedly built cheaply and easily-in eighteen months to meet the crisis head on. Acting under provisions of the 1916 Shipping Act, the USSB formed a stock corporation, the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC), with $50 million in capital (wh ich quickly grew to $3 billion). The planned fleet was heralded as "Pershing's Bridge to France."
There were incredible organizational problems from the start, nor the least of which was bureaucratic in-fighting between Shipping Board Chairman Denman and General George Goethals, the famed builder of the Panama Canal and now general manager of the EFC, charged with the actual construction program, over whether to build wooden or steel ships. After months of delay caused by the Denman-Goethals clash, both men were replaced. Edward N. Hurley, a Chicago insurance man, became head of rhe USSB, and Admiral Washington Lee Capps, chief constructor for the Navy Department, was named general manager of the EFC. Though fraught with myriad organizational and logistical obstacles, the program finally pressed forward. Innovations in methodology, training, and standardization became the order of the day. The industrial concepts a nd innovations pioneered by Ford, Firestone, Ed ison, and ochers were hastily adopted and perfected, despite difficulties with the emerging national labor movement. From a labor force of fewer than 50,000 men engaged in any shipbuilding or related industries nationwide, rhe war emergency now required no fewer than half a million men who had to be trained in the art of ship construct ion, fabrication, and replication, nor to mention another halfmillion men in building and operating the lumber and steel mills, machine shops, and ocher industries in order to provide rhe shipyards with the materials for construction. New rail lines had to be built 29
to provide access to remote mines and fores ts fro m wh ich the iron and wood was to be secured . Recru itment programs, training faci lities, and whole new communities and transportation systems had to be erected across the nation to just get things moving. But first they would have to build countless new shipyard s fro m scratch and ma ny hundred s of shipways, a nd d es ig n a standa rdized cookie-cutter fo rmat fo r both wood and steel ships to bring production time down fro m a yea r per ship to less than a few months. D espite recurrent German sabotage at a number of sites, the program was soon underway, albeit nor as fast as hoped for. W hen Admi ral C apps was fo rced to retire owing to ill health, he was replaced by industrial organizational genius C harles Schwab, president and CEO of the giant Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Schwab was a "D ollar-a-Year Man," whose role h as largely been fo rgotten in American maritime and social history, but in 1918 he changed the wo rld. W hen America went to wa r, more than eighty percent of mariners serving on the few merchant ships flying the American flag did not speak English. Problems were legion. By the time Schwab assumed the leadership of rhe EFC, the turnover rate among the new sh ipya rds' wo rkforce was staggeri ngly high. Many of the newer shipyards were has tily assembled just days before laying the keel fo r their first ship. O thers, such as the Jahncke Corp oration ya rd, erected in a re m o te, m osqu ito-ridden bayo u n ea r Madiso nville, Louisiana, we re all but inaccessi ble except by foo t or an im al carriage. Roads and rail systems had to be constructed to reach them. Enti re tow ns (a m o n g t h e firs t w h olly pl a nn ed communities in twentieth-century U ni ted States) h ad to be designed , replete with schools, sh opping facilit ies, churches, recreation centers, transportation systems, and so for th to house new workers being recruited across the nation. Incentive awa rds and mo tivation al program s, including competitive sports between shipya rds on a regional and national basis, we re designed to keep workers happy and productive. It was, in effect, one of the first great social engineering experiments ever undertaken in A merica n history on a national scale. All to build ships, ships, and more ships. 30
Are You Workin~ with Schwab?
Charle., M. St hwab n'"
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] want everyone in the yards to understand that when we s.uLcced in buildin~ these ships. the credit will belong to the men who actually bui It them .., ~ant all the men in the shipyards to feel that t!Jey are working w1l/1 me.
nor for me.
O n 1 December 1917, the first wooden bo t tom in the program, th e 4, 000 deadweight-ton North Bend, was launched at the Kruse and Banks yard at Seattle, Washington. A few months later, h aving survived a sabotage attempt, the 3,500-ton steamer Coyote was launched at the Passaic River shipyard of the Foundation Company on 18 M arch 1918, the first USS B wooden vessel launched on the Atlantic coast. Soon, both steel and wooden ships were being launched from all of America's coasts. D espite problems and political charges of inefficiency, poor design, m echanical diffic ulties and cost, ships began to slide down the ways at an ever-accelerating pace. In the meantime, owing to limited tonnage capacity and shortages of coal in European ports, which caused interm in able waits before return voyages could be undertaken, a decision was made to employ the smaller wooden vessels on coastal, South American, and H awaiian Island com merce, to free larger steel ships for transport to the war zone. Soon ship fa brication in the U nited States, both wood and steel, despite the difficulties, was reaching a monumental stage. By Indep end en ce D ay 19 18, production was approaching that of the U nited K ingdom, hitherto the greates t shipbuilders in history. W ith the war expected to continue into 1920, production goals had accelerated fa r beyond rhar which had been hoped for fifteen months earlier. N ow, rhe total wartime program had been expanded, calling for 1,856 ships, with a combined dead -weight tonn age of
13,000,0 00, to be built. Another $5 billion wo uld be needed. Already 300,000 men were at work in sh ipyards, and 25 0,000 in allied industries and more were in training. W ith an improved convoy system now in place, A m erica h ad been able ro send 1,019, 115 soldiers across the seas in 4 00 transports w irhour loss of a single ship. Soon another 1,5 00,000 men would follow. Under Hurley and Schwab 's leadership, the progra m h ad grown by the day. D uring rhe fi rs t six months of 1918, rhe tonnage produced by and fo r U ncle Sam totaled 1,333,297. Before the United Stares entered the wa r, a full year's rime was spent in building a vessel of 6,000 tons, ye t the steel-hulled Tuckahoe, of 5,500 dead weight tons, was completed in thirty-seven d ays. On rhe Pacific Coast, the builders were averaging 100 days to a ship, on the G reat Lakes 124 d ays, and on the Atlantic C oas t 209 days . Records would continue to be broken until O ctober when the steamship Aberdeen was launched into the Pacific in just seventeen days. The June output had been 280,400 tons, a new record for the United States . N ow, for the Fourth of July, it was se t to launch a tonnage total of 466,386 tons in a single day. It was to be a festive day in the shipya rds across America. At the Sun Shipbuilding Company ya rd at C hester, Pennsylvan ia, beginn ing at 9AM, before the first launch, athletic events wo uld begin among workers and fa milies, including the foot races for yo ung and old, shot-put, boxing and
SS Aberdeen â&#x20AC;˘'
wrestling. Inter-department relays and rugof-war contests-riveters vs . boilermakers, steel handlers vs. caul kers- and a baseball game between the team s of the Sun Ship yard and C hester Sh ip ya rd were planned. Ar almost every sh ipyard across the nation, similar celebratory events were held, along w ith p at riotic sp eech es by company presidents , officials of the Shipping Board, local policicians, and other notables. There
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 201 7
,,
was food, music, and picnics for all. Philadelphia was the nerve center of the nation's wartime way of celebrating its birth. As each ship, freighter, transport or destroyer splashed its way into the water, a miniature vessel sped over a glistening wire extended from the tower of City Hall to a window in the new United Gas Improvement Company Building, each one cheered by the crowds of thousands of celebrants below. By midnight, when it was all over, more ships had been christened and launched in a single day than in the twelve months before the war, greater in tonnage than in any two average years prior to 1915 in the United States. The single day's output more than offset the entire shipping loss of the United States through German submarines and, as one newspapers stated, "ripped the teeth from the Kaiser's policy of sea frightfulness." The ships put into the water represented almost half as much as Great Britain had built in a whole year. And while the merchant ships-colliers, refrigerators, tankers, cargo carriers-were tumbling into the water, six destroyers were launched from four yards on the Atlantic and Pacific. It was indeed an American triumph like no other, the launch of the "tidal wave" that moved the nation from a status of third-world isolationist to one of international maritime leadership. Congratulations flowed in from the allied leaders of the world, a nd from General Pershing himself.
SS Benzonia resting on SS Caribou's stern.
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Only four months later, and well before anticipated, the war was over; many of the Emergency Fleet vessels were already obsolete. Most, nevertheless, were soon engaged in coastal and Sourh American trade and operations to Northern European ports, as well as on the "Pineapple Express" runs between Pacific Coast states and Hawaii. Some, such as the steamer Alanthus, earned substantial fame having conducted the first rescue of a sunken submarine crew in history, afrer the tragic sinking of the S-5 off Cape Henlopen, Delaware. Others, such as Kickapoo, were engaged in relief efforts to places like the Black Sea, where war still raged between Bolsheviks and White Russians. As for the wooden steamers, however, their lives would be short. There we re now few overseas markets to keep the ships working. The western world, with the exception of America, was bankrupt. Russia was in the throes of civil war, and the Far East was in turmoil. It was determined that the wooden fleet would have to be disposed of as quickly as possible, and most were simply sold off for scrap. Some 236 wooden and compos ite steamers were purchased by the Western Marine and Salvage Company in 1922 for just $75 0,000 and moved to the Potomac River for reduction. All had already been written off by the same men w ho had authorized them, the US Con gress, as America's greatest white elephant. Today, the remains of an even 100 of those same wooden steamers, including
Aerial view ofMallows Bay. SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
31
PA
VIRGINIA
Alanthus, Kickapoo, Aberdeen and North Bend, lie in and near a tiny, remote alcove of the Potomac River called Mallows Bay, thirty miles below Washington, D C, in C harles County, Maryland, where they have res ted, abandoned and forgotten, for nearly a century. Sprouting trees from their hulls, serving as rookeries for birds, nurseries for myriad animals of every stripe, and spaw ning gro unds for fi sh, the ships in Mallows Bay have transformed into a veritable paradise of life sprung from the detritus of war. On 15 September 2014, the Mallows Bay "Ghost Fleet," as it is called, and a number of eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury vessel sites lying about them, was pl aced on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the 14-square mile Mallows Bay-Widewater Historic and Archaeological District. Little more than a yea r later, on 5 October 2015, President Barrack Obama announced the nomination of that sa me area as eligible for designation as A merica's fifteenth National Marine Sanctuary, the first in more than two decades, and the only one of its kind in th e W es tern H emisphere.
32
Proposed site for the Mallows Bay-Potomac River National Marine Sanctuary. Many of the ships therein were born on the Fourth of July, 1918, in the "tidal wave" that changed the world. j:,
D onald Grady Shomette is a historian, marine archaeologist, and author ofseventeen books. His most recent naval history book is
Privateers of the Revolution: War on the New Jersey Coast, 1775-1783 (Schiffer Publishing, 2 016-see book review on pages 51-52). He is a p rincipal participant in the Mallows Bay-Potomac R iver National M arine Sanctuary initiative. (http:!! sanctuaries. noaa.gov/mallows-bayl)
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
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SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
33
Coastal DefensesSTRATEGIES AND INNOVATION IN PEACE AND WAR by Dr. Louis Arthur Norton
T
hroughout human history, people have selected sites for settlement near bodies of water, which provided them with a source of food and served as avenues for transportation and commerce. Whether along the coast or up rivers and bays, all had an overriding problem-security. Thieves, hostile neighbors, pirates, and ultimately hostile nations could raid these communities under cover of fog, storms, or darkness before an adequate defense could be mustered. In colonial North America, the early settlers built their homes away from the waterfront, where they had access to fresh water and where the natural geography offered a buffer from would-be raiders. Jamestown, Virginia, was situated well up the James River. The first settlements in Massachusetts, such as Gloucester, Salem, and Marblehead, were located more than am ile inland from the harbors where they made their livelihoods. Invaders might disrupt the settlers' boats, shacks, and fish stages, but their homes would have a buffer of land, the paths rigged with small bells on trip lines or bottles on strings to alert homeowners of unexpected visitors. The first stationary defenses were wooden, stone, or earthen forts strategically placed to protect harbors such as the Battery at the tip of Manhattan, Castle Island 's Fort Independence in Bosron Harbor, Fort McHenry off Baltimore, and Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island at the entrance to Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. Passive measures were set up in rivers or at shallow landing places that could impede invasion. The simplest were felled trees that could be positioned to form snags on river bottoms. These navigation hazards would prove a nuisance for many who plied rivers. Mark Twain commented about them during his piloting days on the Mississippi: "Snag-boats go patrolling up and down, in these matter-of-fact days, pulling the river's teeth; they have rooted out all the old clusters which made many localities so formidable; and they allow no new ones to collect. .. [with] the banishment of snags .. . and a chart and compass to fight the fog with, piloting, at a good stage of water, is now nearly as safe and simple as driving stage, and is hardly more than three times as romantic ... [but] the snags [could be] thicker than bristles on a hog's back." 1
Fort Independence on Castle Island guards Boston Harbor
1
Mark Twain , Lift on the M ississippi (Boston , MA: James Osgood and Co, 1883).
34
How do you defend (or attack) a 3,500-mile coastline? In the Civil Wtir, General Winfield Scott drew up a plan to cripple the Confederacy by blockading the eastern seaboard and the Gulf Coast. Nicknamed "Scott's Anaconda Plan, " it was not official!J accepted, but influenced Union strategy nonetheless. In other examples, boulders could be rolled over bluffs or down embankments into shallows, where currents could deposit silt or sand around them, creating artificial shoals and barriers to impede unsuspecting marauders. Volatile materials were sometimes stored at narrows, where they could be readily set afloat on rafts and ignited to provide either a wall of fire or a smoke screen. These later evolved into more sophisticated fireships used with terrifying effect in naval battles for centuries. As waterfront communities grew into port towns and cities, residents-and later local governments-would place channel markers or beacons in their waterways as guides to aid mariners navigating in harbors, up rivers, and close to shore. As much as these could be useful to help mariners, deliberate repositioning in the waterway could also be used to endanger unsuspecting intruders by pointing them towards unsafe waters. Beacons that guided enemy vessels to shoals and hazardous waters were a regular tactic used in the American Revolutionary War. Purposefully scuttling vessels near a harbor's channel was another tactic to impede a deep-draft ship's ability to attack a population center. The most famous employment of this strategy was the sinking of the "Great Stone Fleet" near the entrance to Charleston's harbor during the Civil War. The Union navy was struggling to shut down water access to Charleston because of the complex web of navigable channels connecting its harbor to the sea. Between December 1861 and January 1862, the navy purchased some thirty ships, mostly aging whalers, from New England shipowners, sailed them southwards loaded with stone, and scuttled them onto the sandy bottom of Charleston Harbor and its approaches. They hoped that sinking the "stone fleet" throughout these waterways would block ships from transiting in and out of the harbor, thus halting the importation of
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRJNG 2017
Sinking the "Stone Fleet" in the approaches to Charleston.
Confederate military supplies and the export of Southern cotton-the economic lifeblood of the Confederacy. The effort was largely ineffective. In time, the tides and strong currents pushed the wrecks aside, allowing safe passage past them. The sinking of the stone fleet did more to hasten the end of the New England whaling industry than it did to harm the South. A community accessible by a river or narrow channel could be defended by the simple yet menacing chevaux de frise, originally used on land as a defense against cavalry charges, but later adapted for maritime defense. Chevaux de frise are long stout timber poles driven into riverbed cribs, sharpened to a point, and usually covered with sheet metal or iron barrels protecting the spikes. They were set at an angle to ram and possibly impale the hulls of invading ships, a stealthy and effective technology when placed a few feet below the water's surface. Another riverine defense was the placement of sturdy chains, nets, and cables strung across a narrow part of a watercourse, anchored to the riverbanks. The most famous in American history were the chains that traversed a bend of the Hudson River to protect the fortifications at West Point during the Revolutionary War, consisting of approximately eight hundred forged links, each two feet long and weighing roughly a hundred pounds. Called "General Washington's Watch Chain" by Revolutionary War soldiers stationed at the fort, this obstruction blocked the strategic waterway for the remainder of the war. Chains and boom installations were placed upriver at both New York's Fort Montgomery and the fort at Pollepel Island. A gigantic chain connected Fort Lee to Fort Washington, more than 2,400 feet across, in upper Manhattan. ~J' ·
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A series ofchains and booms were strung across the Hudson River to protect West Point during the American Revolution.
Section ofan 18th-century map ofthe 1777 Philadelphia campaign, showing the location of chevaux de frise in the Delaware River.
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
There were a variety of underwater weapons called "torpedoes" used extensively during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but those used in coastal defense were typically floating kegs cast adrift downstream (and uncontrollable once let go), moored to
35
the borrom in strategic locations, or strung across naviga ble cha nnels. Nor ro be confused w ith the self-propelled rorpedo known in modern wa rfare, which was invented after the Civil War, these weapons were used to strike a ship at its waterline and sink, or at leas t incapacitate, it. These were used in the 1778 "Barde of the Kegs," when a British fleer attacked Philadelphia, bur not before having to pass through a mine field of drifting kegs loaded with gunpowder and ar med with a contact fuse or cap in the Delaware River. These were similar to rhe mines famously avoided by Admiral David "Damn the rorpedoes" Farragut and his fleer as they mounted their attack in the Barde of Mobile Bay in August of 1864. Over time, the wooden kegs became waterlogged , rendering the gunpowder harmless. All of these scenarios required a torpedo ro run into a ship or a ship to run into a rorpedo ro set them off. Confederate Navy Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, fa mous for his work overseeing the National Observarory for the US Navy before the war, invented a way to wire these rorpedoes On 4 August 1863, a torpedo exploded under the bow ofthe Union so they could be couched off remotely from shore, and either gunboat Commodore Barney in the James River. Witnesses reported damage the ship or at least intimidate a capta in creeping his way that the steamer was lifted ten feet in the air, hurling thirty men in through treacherous waters. Ir was Maury's floating mine field in the crew overboard. Sketch by F C. H Bonwill, 1863. the James River that successfu lly protected Richmond, Virgi ni a, from a riverine invasion in 1862. a-half-ton obstacle could be floated on a raft, dropped overboard As ambitious amphibious landings became more of a threat and submerged in the shallows off a beach. A smaller alternate in the twentieth century, other variations on underwater obstruc- va riation was the "hedgehog," three steel beams welded or bolted tions we re developed. In 1939 and early 1940, the Cointet-element together to form a six-pointed cross. The Germans, in the defense or Belgian Gate, attrib uted to the French army colonel, Leon- of the Normandy beachhead, ex tensively used these underwater Edmond de Cointet de Fillain, was introduced as an anti-rank obstacles. Innovative state-of-the-art mines have become the defensive land defense. Ir was in essence a heavy steel fence welded ro steel beams that formed a sled that could be entrenched into the mud weapon of choice in the twentieth century. The US Navy refers or sa nd. Roughly ten feet wide by seven feet high, this two-and- to zones in the water column as "deep water" (deeper than 300 In probably the only poem concerning a defensive underwater obstruction, H erman Melville wrote "The Stone Fleer" in 1861: I have a feeling for those old ships, Each worn and ancient one, With great bluff bows and broad in the beam: Ay, it was unkindly done. But so they serve the ObsoleteEven so, Stone Fleer!
Four were erst patrician keels (Names attest what families be) , The Kensington, and Richmond too, Leonidas and Lee: But now they have their seat With the Old Stone Fleer.
You'll say I'm doting; do bur think I scudded round rhe Horn in oneThe Tenedos, a glorious Good old craft as ever runSunk (how all unmeer!) With the Old Stone Fleer.
To scuttle them-a pirate deedSack them, and dismast; They sunk so slow, they died so hard, But gurgling dropped at last. Their ghosts in gales repeat Woes us. Stone Fleet!
An India ship of fame was she, Spices and shawls and fans she bore; A whaler when her wrinkles cameTurned off! till, spent and poor, Her bones were sold (escheat)! Ah! Stone Fleer.
And all for naught. The waters passC urrents will h ave their way; Nature is nobody's ally; 'tis well ; The harbor is bettered-will stay. A fa ilure, and complete, Was yo ur Old Stone Fleer.
- H erma n Melvi ll e, "The Sro ne Fleer, An O ld Sai lor's Lamenr," in Battle-Pieces and Aspects ofthe War, (New York: Harper & Brorhers) 1866.
36
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRlNG 2017
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The keg torpedo was a wooden beer keg packed with gunpowder. It was modified by adding conical shapes to each end and fitted with contact points or a fuse around the barrel 's middle. These could be anchored to the bottom or cast adrift downstream. When a vessel touched any of the contact points, the p ressure triggered a chemical primer to detonate the torpedo. feet), "shallow water" (40- 300 feet), "very shallow water" (10-40 fee t), and "surf zone." Mines are classified based on their position within these zo nes: bottom dwelling, moored buoyant mines, and free-floating drifting mines. Bottom dwelling mines lie o n the seabed and can be a challenge to locate, because sediment laye rs accumulate over them over time. Moored buoyant mines can be sub-classified into moored mines that explode on contac t with floating objects (ideally a vessel 's hull) and moored mines that explode when t hey have detected a ship's pressure wave. Moo red mines have an anchor and a tether that suspends them in the water, and these tethers are adjustable to allow moored mines to be deployed in varying depths. Drifting mines flo at freely on the surface and often develop natural sea grow th camouflage on their casing, m aking them difficult to identify, particularly in choppy waters or when the visibility is poor. There are th ree basic meth ods of mine actuation: contact, influence, a nd remote-ac tua tion . The m ost common and relatively inexpen sive are contac t mines that are either moored or set ad rift. They are detonated by contact with either chemical "horns" or galvanic a ntennas pro trudin g from them when they hi t the hull of a ship or some solid o bj ect. U nli ke contact mines, influence m ines are ac tuated when the weapon detects a predetermined specific "influence para meter" generated by a passing vessel. The influence ac tu ating options can incl ude aco ustic, m agnetic press ure, rem ote-co ntrol, seismic, underwate r electric potential, o r combinations of any of these. Activation of a chemical "horn" by an array of perturbatio ns of multi-influence sensors m ake it much m ore difficult for counter-
SEA HISTORY 15 8, SPRlNG 201 7
m easures to be effectively employed aga inst these m ines. It is interesting to note that rem ote-actuated m ines are sort of waterborne improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that a thi rd party could detonate at will. Finally, even natural phenomena could provide a reasonable defense. Cora l reefs, changing tides, and tidal surges have all been used to adva ntage fo r defense, while h indering those adva ncing. For example, the 1943 A merican invasion of the Japanese-held Pacific atoll Tarawa (now kn own as Kiribati) during Wo rld W ar II almost ended in di sas ter from a miscalculation of the tidal range and the protection of the island by a n extensive coral reef. While the Japanese had spent a yea r building up fortifications on the isla nd, it was a neap tide and its offshore reef that gave them their bes t chance to re pel the Am erican invading fo rces. The reef around Tarawa atoll restricts access to the beach to shallow-drafr vessels. The A m erican military disrega rded the tides in their planning, ass uming that a high tide wo uld be enough to allow their fo ur-foot draft landing craft to pass safely over the reef. The invasion took place during an apogean neap tide, the sm allest range of the tide between high and low water, however, and m any of the landing craft ra n aground on the reef well offshore, h ampering the assault for several critical hours and making the Americans vulnerable to shore-based fire. H aving learned their lesson, theAllied Forces planning the invasion at N ormandy six months later took adva ntage of the seasonal highest tides on that pa rt of the French coast to float over fo rmidable underwater obstacles.
A Royal Navy obstacle clearance unit blowing up German beach obstacles at La Riviere, No rmandy, 9 June 1944. Some ofthe invasion ships can be seen on the horizon. In summary, ship-based raiders could be repulsed or at least compromised by a vas t va riety of mea ns. 1 h ese measures ra nged from the very primitive to extremely sophisticated. O ver the course of ti me, technologic improvements led to m ore effecti ve defenses against sea-borne invasion in waterfro nt comm u nities. .1
Dr. Louis Arthur N orton is a maritime historian and frequent contributor to Sea Hisrory. H e is the author of Joshua Ba rney: H ero of the Revolution a nd 1812 (2000) and Captains Co ntentio us: The D ysfun ction al Sons of the Brine (2 009). H e is a professor emeritus of the University of Connecticut H ealth Center in Farmington.
37
Animals in Sea History
his collage of illustrations ppeared on 8June1878 in a London newspaper called The Graphic. The story does not have a happy ending, but it is worth considering because it teaches us about a specific kind of whale, about marine mammal biology in general, and about how the way we think of these animals has changed over the last 140 years. In 1877, the Royal Aquarium at Westminster, England, agreed to buy a nine-foot female beluga whale that had been captured in Labrador, Canada, where they were hunted commercially at the time. Beluga whales, found in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters, were then more commonly known as "white whales" or "white porpoises" because of their brilliant white skin and medium-sized bodies. Perhaps the artist here thought she was a young beluga, which can range from light grey to nearly black. After her capture, the whale was sent on a sailing ship to Montreal, transported by train to New York, and then placed on a steamship across the Atlantic in a wooden box on a bed of seaweed. During the passage she was doused regularly with seawater. Scientists knew
11
SEA HISTORY J 58, WINTER 20 17
by Richard King then that marine mammals, which breathe ai r, can survive for quite a long time out of the water, as long as their skin is kept moist. The men believed that if they transported the whale in a tank she would have been injured sloshing around on a ship. Meanwhile, the staff at the aquarium in England built a custom-made iron pool for her and filled it with fresh water. After the whale arrived, they transferred her to the pool and fed her live eels. Having survived her long journey, first overland to New ]3JF.L1'1:A or"l'J.HTIB >\'lJ]Al,]<;. York and then by ship across the ÂŁ,.,,._,,.,.,.,,.,.,,,.......,,,..,,.,,, Atlantic Ocean, the beluga only Whaling captain William Scoresby Jr. brought back valuable scientific observations lived for four days at the aquarof the flora and fauna of the Arctic. He published this drawing of the beluga whale in ium. Perhaps she died from his 1820 book, An Account of the Arctic Regions . stress or exhaustion . Maybe her internal organs and muscles were damaged, since whales are not built to withstand the pressure of their heavy bodies on a flat surface for a long time. It is unlikely that the beluga died from being placed in fresh water, because belugas often make their way up rivers, far from the sea and salt water, and do just fine. The aquarium staff that examined the animal after it died, including a naturalist named Henry Lee, found pneumonia in her lungs, likely from the trip across the Atlantic. The men in charge of her care did not understand at the time that whales have difficulty managing their own body heat when out of water. With her thick layer of blubber, the beluga might have actually been too hot. Today, when whales are transported, ice bags are placed on the animal s' flukes, and they are kept in water during travel. In telling the story of this whale, Henry Lee wrote about belugas, which were the first whales that aquariums regularly displayed in the United States and in Great Britain, even before they displayed dolphins. Lee wrote: "The blowing of the Beluga is said to be not unmusical at sea. When it takes place under water it often makes a peculiar sound, which might be mistaken for the whistling of a bird; hence one of the names given to it by sailors-the 'sea cana ry."' First observed by the Inuit of the Arctic, and then later by European explorers, whalers, and fi shermen, beluga whales do have some of the most varied vocalizations of any marine mammals. From their blowholes, they make a range of sounds that include moos, whistles, tweets, and a wet brambling sound that is an awful
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
19
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lot like a flatulent toot. With echolocation through their oil-filled melons, belugas send out an even greater variety of clicks, squeaks, and rattles, some of which are too high-pitched for humans to hear. Lee and his fellow scientists wondered about the intelligence of these white whales when they discovered that a beluga's brain is larger than a human's. Modern aquariums in the US and Britain no longer collect marine mammals unless the individual would otherwise die at sea because of poor health . Debates around the ethics of keeping beluga whales in aquariums remain in the 21st century. Even as exhibit tanks are now far larger and health ier than they used to be, and the quality of care has vastly increased, no aquarium can mimic the belugas' life in the wild. Whales living in aquariums provided then, as they do now, learning opportunities for people who might help wild populations. Henry Lee wrote of the beluga's death in 1878: "The public, too, were deprived of a great sight, from an educational point of view. Thousand s of persons who had opportunities of seeing the porpoises in the Brighton Aquarium learned then for the first time to appreciate the fact that the cetacean are not fishes ." Today, scientists still study beluga whales in aquariums. They continue to learn about the behavioral meanings behind their vocalizations and have been developing techniques to study how belugas in the wild are responding to global warming. As mo re and more Arctic ice melts each year, beluga whales are an indicator species of how animals will respond to climate change-a canary in the coal mine. In the next issue, a crying mermaid? For more "Animals in Sea History" go to www.seahistory.org or educators. mysticseaport.org.
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40
This beluga whale is popular with visitors of the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut.
whales that is filled with lipids and waxy material and thought to be used in communication and echolocation. SEA H ISTORY 158, WINTER2017
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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Oracle Team USA's catamaran racing yacht, AC72, winner of the 34'h America's Cup, h as arrived at its new home at the Marin ers' Museum in Newp ort News, VA. In September 201 3, O racle Team USA was on the verge of being defeated by Emirates Team N ew Zea land and losing the America's Cup. Behind 8 to 1, Oracle staged one of the greatest com ebacks in sports history (Superbowl LI notwithstanding) winning eight consecutive races to ultim ately win the C up 9-8. This radically designed boat ac tually "Bew" above the water on curved dagger boards and achieved speeds approach ing 50 mph. The catamaran will not only be the largest boat in the museum's collection, at 72 fee t long and 4 6 feet wide, but it will also be the most technologically advanced . Oracle Racing, Inc., donated the boat to the museum, which will incorporate it right away as the centerpiece of its upcoming exhibition, Speed and Innovation: H ow Technology W'ins the America's Cup, op ening on 27 M ay. Oracle Team USA has competed in seven Anne T. Converse Ph ot ography
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Wood; Wina ana Water A STORY OF THE OPERA HousE Cur RAcE OF NANTUCKET
Photographs by Anne T. Converse Text by Carolyn M. Ford Live vicariously through the pictures and tales of classic wooden yacht owners who lovingly restore and race these gems of the sea. "An outstanding presentation deserves ongoing recommendation for both art and nautical collections. " 10"x 12 " Hardbound book; 132 pages, 85 full page color photographs; Price $45.00
For more information contact: Anne T. Converse Phone: 508-728-6210 anne@annetconverse .com www.annetconverse.com
42
design ed to better interpret a sailor's life at war and at sea. The M arine Museum has been rena med the M aritime Museum has refocu sed its m ission as a historical and nautical museum representing the span of sea histo ry, including the fam ous Fall River L ine and RMS Titanic. It houses more than 150 scale models, 30,000 photographs, videos, uniforms and other artifacts. O ver the p as t yea r, the M ari ti me M useum has improved lighting, established a Kids' Cove learning area and new retail
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America's C up competitions, winning the 33rd A merica's C up in 2010 and the 34th America's C up in 201 3. The team is poised to defend the C up in Bermuda in June. Sa ilors have been racing to win the A merica's C up since 1851. They are chasing the history and fa me that comes with winning the Cup. Powered only by wind and human strength, America's Cup yachts have always been on the lead ing edge of technology, sparing no expense along the way. AC72 cost in excess of $10 mill ion to build. The Mariners' M useum and Park is an educational, non-profit institution accredited by the America n Alliance of Museums and preserves and interprets maritime h istory th rough an international collection of ship models, fig ureheads, paintings, and other mari time arti fac ts. The museum is home to the USS Monitor Center and boasts the largest maritime library in the Wes tern hemisphere. (100 M useum D rive, Newport News, VA; Ph. 757 596-2222; www. marinersmuseum.org) ... The Battleship Cove Naval Heritage Museum, home of t h e b attleship USS Massachusetts, ann ounced in early February t h at it will merge with the nearby Marine M useum at Fall River, to form a unified waterfront campus. The Manton Family Foundation has provided a $1 million grant for the Fall River, Massachusetts, museum unifica tion project, intended to appeal to a national audience. In the works are fo ur new to urs, exh ibits, innovative programming, interactive components, and an updated campus
Battleship Cove, Fall River, MA store, and updated the building's fayade. Both m use ums can be visited for one admission price, and membersh ip will also cover both museums. (5 Water St., Fall River, M A; Ph. 508 678-1100; www.battlesh ip cove.org) ... The Noble Maritime C ollection has just released a new book, Perspective: Robbins Reef th e fi rst b ook ever writt en about t h e Robbins Reef Lighthou se in Upp er New York Bay.
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 201 7
The book is not only a catalog of the museum's current exhibition, Robbins Reef Lighthouse: A Home in the Harbor, it also contains a history of the lighthouse and features the story of Kate Walker, who kept the light from 1886 until 1919. The lighthouse stands on a rocky reef located off Staten Island 's North Shore. On the book cover is a detail of The Barbican ofthe Kill van Kull, oil on panel by Pamela Talese, one of several contemporary artists who was invited by the museum to depict the lighthouse. In the exhibition at the museum, Talese's painting is joined by works by Kathy Fieramosca, Denise Mumm, Robert Padovano, Len Tantillo, Dan Thompson, and Sarah Yuster, and drawings by William Behnken, Elle Finn, John Stobart, Brian DeForest, Michael Falco, and Michael McWeeney. The deed to Robbins Reef Lighthouse was granted to the museum in 2011 by the General Services Administration (GSA). The restoration of the lighthouse is an ongoing program of the Noble Maritime Collection. The book is available through the museum's website. (1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY; www.noblemaritime.org) ... The schooner Mary E, b elieved to b e the oldest Bath-built wood en vessel still afloat and the oldest fishing schooner b uilt in the state of Maine still sailing, is moving to its permanent new home at the Maine Maritime M useu m . Built in Bath in 1906 by shipbuilder Thomas E. Hagan (in a Houghton shipyard where Bath Iron Works
is today), and restored in that city in 1965 by William R . Donnell II, Mary E is a two-masted wooden schooner with a sparred length of73 feet. The vessel will be delivered to the museum in spring of2017, and the restoration work started by her current owner, Matt Culen of Pelham, New York, will be completed on the museum's campus, giving the public the opportunity
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRfNG 2017
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to witness historic shipbuilding techniques the park, such as ranger-led hikes, sa iling fi rst h and . Following completion of the or kayaki ng rrips. W hen the time at th e work, Mary E will be docked at the mu- SFMNH P h as been concluded in ea rl y seum and will be open to museum guests. A ugust, rhe i ntern will attend the all-exThe schooner will be resto red to a seawor- pense paid Leadership & Careers Workshop thy condition so she ca n travel to events up in Washington, D C, in August. (All detail s and down the coast, serving as an ambas- about the internship, qualifications, and sador of the museum and representin g the how to apply are online at www.serve.gyheritage ofBath, Ma ine, the "City of Ships." fo undation.org/african-america n-ma ri ti meIn other news from the museum, long- h is to ry- resea rch-in tern -s um m er-2 0 17. time senior curator Nathan Lipfert is SFM N HP, 499 Jefferson Street, San Franretiring in April; his successor is Anne cisco, CA; ww w.nps.gov) The Witty, who worked at the museum from Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanc2000 to 2003 as curator of collections. tuary 2017 Marine Art Contest is acceptSince 2004, Witty has served as assistam ing submissions through 28 April 2017. curator of the Peary-MacMillan M useum Open to K- 12 students, thi s yea r's theme at nearby Bowdoin College. She has prior is "Ma rine Biodiversity at Stellwagen Bank experience at Mystic Seaport, the Colum- National Ma rine Sanctuary." W inning bia River Maritime M useum, and the W in- entries will be fea wred on SBNMS website terthur M useum, and has held consulting and in outreach. (www.stellwage n.noaa. positions, fello wships, and internsh ips at gov) ... Young artists (ages 16-23) can museums across the US and Euro pe. Fair also submit works to the Youth Marine Winds in retirement to N ath an Lipfert. Artist Search competition, organized by (MMM, 243 Washington Street, Bath, the American Society of Marine Artists. M E; Ph. 207 443 -1 316; www.mainemari- D eadline for submission is 15 June. D etails timemuseum.org) ... A $4.75 million are posted online at w ww.am ericansoci fundraising campaign is underway in etyofmarineartists.com.) ... The Schooner Jackson County, Mississippi, to build a Ernestina-Morrissey Association, Inc. maritime museum in the annex of the (SEMA) recently announced the receipt old Pascagoula High School. Planners of a $375,000 one-to-one challenge grant hope to start construction of the Missis- from the Manton Foundation. The fundsippi M aritime M useum by the end of the ing will support the fi nal stage of the th reeyear, with the fund ra ising campaign con- yea r, $6.3 million-dollar res toration of the tinuing on for the next fi ve years. The future 1894 schoon er Ernestina-Mo rrissey. The museum will interpret the rich shipbuild- Ernestina-M orrissey is a N ational Historic ing heritage of the region, exploring com- Landmark Vessel and the Official Vessel of mercial fisheries and shipping and Mississippi 's long history building ships fo r the US Navy. (MMM, POB 243, 611 Dupont Ave., Pascago ula, MS; ms mmuseum@ gmail.com; www. msmaritimemuseum.org) ... Applications are being accepted for the African American Maritime History Research summer internship at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park The intern would work to compile a body of resea rch and to develop a preliminary interpretive progra m, which would be further developed by rangers and used by outreach staff. The intern would also act as a park and museum ambassador to sev- lhe schooner E rnes tina-Morrissey is uneral yo uth gro ups. The intern wo uld be dergoing a fu ll restoration at Boothbay working in the SFMN HP library with Harbor Shipyard in Maine. 7his view is several opporrun ities to participate in edu- looking forward from the transom. lhe aft cational and recreational programs through "deck beams" are just temporary bracing. SEA HISTORY 15 8, SPRING 201 7
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She was launched in Essex, Massachusetts, as the Effie. M. Morrissey to operate as a Grand Banks dory fishing schooner. She subsequently made twenty voyages as an Arctic explorat ion vessel under the legendary Captain Bob Bartlett. The schooner was later purchased by Captain Henrique Mendes, who changed her name to Ernestina and used her as a rransAtlantic and inter island Cape Verde packer. She was
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reb uilt and gifted back to the United States and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by rhe Republic of Cape Verde in 1976 as a living symbol of the connections between the two countries. H er restoration was completed in the US, headed up by Captain Daniel D. Moreland. In the 198 0s and early 1990s, Ernestina was sailed regularly our of New Bedford as an ambassador for the Commonwealth, a sail training vessel and sea-based classroom before becoming a static exhibit along the New Bedford waterfro nt, once her physical conditio n kept her from putting to sea with students. Upon completion of the most recent renovation, currently underway in Boothbay Harbor, Ma ine, the hull will meet Coast Guard standards for an Ocean License, a requirement which will allow the vessel to be added to the Beer at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, along the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal. Anyone interested in helping SEMA meet the march should contact Mary Anne McQuillan at maryanne@ernestina.org or visit www.ernesrina.org. ... In 2020 , Plymouth University, along with autonomous marine vessel company MSubs and award-winning yacht design firm Shuttleworth Design, will mark the 400rh anniversary of the hisroric Mayflower voyages with a historic voyage of a different SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 20 17
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ki nd: an autonomous transArlantic crossing. The group is designing and building the 32.5-meter long Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS), fueled by renewable energy sources: solar and fuel cells, and traditional sail-power. The vessel will be outfitted with a variety of drones to carry out experiments while underway. The project, part of Plymouth University's "Shape the Future" fund raising campaign, has a projected cost of £ 12 million. Initial fu nding has come from the university, MSubs,
and the ProMare Foundation. The Mayflower Autonomous Ship won't look much like her namesake; the composite carbonfiber hull will have a trimaran design. The overall hull configuration was designed to reduce windage, while also keeping the solar array sufficiently high above the waterline to reduce the effects of wave impact. Without the need for accommodations, the mai n hull will be kept low to the water, wi th the wings and deck separated and raised above on struts. This will allow waves
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CLASSIFIED ADS CALL FOR PAPERS- SHIPW RECK SYMPOSIU M- The Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, NY, is issuing a "Call for Papers" fo r its Saturday, 20 May 2017, "Shipwrecked Symposium". Papers, panels, and demonstrations should address the Hudson Ri ver's unique submerged maritime history in New York State. Possible topics: laws, diving demonstrations, archaeological studies, threats to submerged resources, traveling exhibits. Abstracts and author's one-page CV/ resume due 3 March 2017: conference@ hrmm.org. www. hrmm .org. SHIP MODEL BROKER: I will help you BUY, SELL, REPAIR, APPRAISE or C OMMISSION a model ship or boat. www.FiddlersGreenModelShips.com . Custom Ship Models, Half Hulls. Free Catalog. Spencer, Box 1034, Q uakertown, PA 1895 1.
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SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 201 7
to break through the vessel and will significantly reduce motion induced by wave impact. The two-masted w indsurfer-style sail rig will enable a top speed of around 15 knots. The rig can operate effi ciently with both sails set or just one. Each sail is controlled by a single sheet, and the sails are stowed in a boom-mounted cradle when not in use. (M ayflower Autonomous Ship Ltd. , 4 2 Sisna Park Road, Estover, Plymouth, PL6 7FH , UK; www. mayBowerautoship.com) ... Five German shipyards are competing for the multi-million-dollar contract for the repair and reconstruction of the 377-foot barque Peking, including a bid by Blohm + Voss, her original builder. The 1911 steel-hulled square rigger is being transferred from her long-time home at South Street Seaport M useum in Manhatten to the new Stift ung H amburg Maritim in Germany. The H amburg organization, with help from the German government, will oversee a full restoration of the ship, which was built in that city in 1911 as one of the famo us Flying-P liners. TI1e ship was towed from her berth at South Street las t fall and is n ow at Cad-
Peking at a Staten Island shipyard with her yards on deck, awaiting final p reparations far transport to Germany.
Peking leaving South Street under tow in September 2 01 6. dell Dry Dock and Repair in Staten Island, preparing for her upcoming transAtlantic voyage back to Germany aboard a dock ship from the Bremen shipping company Combilifr, with an anticipated arrival in Germany by the end ofJune. The restoration work will include a large-scale renovation of the outer plating, reconstruction of
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the rigging, and restoration of the interior. (www. stiftung-hamburg-maritim.de; www. southstreetseaportmuseum.org) ... In November, a team of divers set out to take video footage of a half dozen historic World War II shipwrecks off the coast of Indonesia, only to discover that the ships had been plundered by salvors. Several of the shipwreck sites had been damaged and were missing significant sections, while the wreck of an American submarine is gone entirely. The shipwrecks include three Dutch and two British war-
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Thi s magnificent 236-page vividly illustrated journal is an account of Martin's life aboard the whaleship Lucy Ann. Wi dely regarded as the best of its genre, Martin 's masterpi ece has now been publi shed in its entirety for the first time by the New Bedfo rd Whaling Museum. Online: store.whalingmuseum .org I Phone: 508-997-0046 x127 Email: NBWMStore@whalingmuseum .org In Person: Whaling Museum's White Whale gift store
18 Johnny Cake Hill , New Bedford, MA 02740 whal ingmuseum.org
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ships sunk by Japanese forces after rhe Barde of rhe Java Sea in February 1942 , and rhe American submarine, which sank in rhe Java Sea a monrh larer after being hir in an arrack on Japanese desrroyers. According ro invesrigarors, rhe Durch ships were mosdy inracr when rhey were discovered by amareur divers in 2002. Two of rhe Durch warships, HNLMS De Ruyter and HNLMS Java, and rhe American submarine USS Perch (SS-176) have complerely vanished from rhe seafl.oor, wirh on ly a large pir in rhe seabed left ro mark rhe sire;
HMNLS De Ruyter
.....
a large secrion ofHNLMS Kortenaer is also missing. The dive ream senr ro shoor video was funded by rhe Karel Doorman Fund, in prepararion for rhe 75rh anniversary of rhe Barde of rhe Java Sea nexr year. Ac-
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cording ro rhe survey ream, rwo British warship wreck sires in rhe area-HMS Exeter and HMS Encounter-have been heavi ly damaged, presumably for scrap meral salvage . The case has now been turned over ro rhe Durch defense minisrry, which is in charge of prorecring rhe narion's naval wrecks. Under inrernarional agreemenrs, naval vessels remain rhe properry of rheir respecrive governments after rhey sink. Disturbing, !oaring, or salvaging rhese wrecks, which are often grave sires, is illegal. According ro maririme archaeologisr Innes McCarrney, a research fellow ar Bournemourh U niversiry in rhe UK, many wartime shipwrecks are being salvaged for scrap meral in the Asia and Paciflc regions due ro a "perfect srorm" of high meral prices and a lack oflaw enforcemenr. In Ocrober 2015 , the US Navy reporred rhar rhe wreck of USS Houston, which sank in February 1942 in rhe Sunda Strait with around 650 sailors and marines onboard, had also suffered from an "unaurhorized disrurbance of rhe grave site." ... The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum (LPBMM) in Madisonville, Louisiana, has set up a GoFundMe site to raise funds to restore the 1837 Tchefuncte River Lighthouse, near New Orleans. The lighrhouse's srabiliry is rhrearened by erosion from wave acrion and tidal surge evenrs. During Hurricane Isaac, more rhan 8 feer of warer
Tchefuncte River Lighthouse
surged inro rhe lighrhouse. Once repairs are completed, rhe museum will conducr boar rours ro rhe lighrhouse from irs dock, locared rwo miles up rhe river. LPBMM is rhe cusrodian for rhe lighrhouse and rhe lighrkeeper's corrage, under a managemenr agreemenr wirh rhe rown of Madisonville. The engineeri ng design can be viewed online ar www.lpbmm.org. Donarions can be made ar W\ww.gofundme.com/rcefuncreriver-lighth10use. (LPBMM , 133 Mabel Drive, Madlisonville, LA) j:,
SEA fHISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
Exhibits
of the Great Lakes in Toledo, OH. (1701
•Minnesota Illustrated: The Prints of Front Street, Toledo, OH; Ph. 419 214Adam Turman, now through 2 April at 5000; www.inlandseas.org) the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in •Through These Gates: Maine Shipyard Winona, MN. Also at MMAM , Conflu- Photography 1858-2016, now through ence: Geography, History, and Culture 24 September at the Maine Maritime Muat the Intersection ofthe Mississippi and seum in Bath. (43 Washington Street, Bath, the Minnesota Rivers, Photographs by Maine 04530; Ph. 207 443- 1316; www. Luke Erickson, now through 16 April. mainemari timem use um .o rg) (800 Riverview Drive, Winona, MN, Ph. 507 474-6626; www.mmam.org) •17th National Exhibition, American Society of Marine Artists, now through 2 April at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, in St. Michaels, MD, and also at the Academy Art Museum in Easton, MD. The exhibition will later travel to Georgia and can be viewed at the Quinlan Visual Arts Center in Gainesville, GA, between 13 April and 3 June. (ASMA, americansocietyofmarineartists.com. CBMM, 213 N. Talbot Street, St. Michaels, MD; www.cbmm.org. AAM, 106 South Street, Easton, MD; www.academy artmuseum.org. QVAC, 514 Green Street, N.E. , Gainesville, GA; www.quinla nartscenter.org)
•America and the Sea: Modern Marine Masters Exhibition & Sale, 29 April-18 June at Mystic Seaport. Also, Sea-Change, now on exhibit at the museum's newly opened Thompson Gallery. (47 Greenmanville Avenue, Mys tic, CT; Ph. 860 572-5388; www.mysticseaport.org)
•Charles Movalli: Cape Ann & Beyond, 4 March-21 May at the Cape Ann Museum in MA. (27 Pleasant St., Gloucester, MA; Ph. 978 283-0455; www.capeann museum .org)
•Power, Performance and Speed in 20th Century Yacht Design: Celebrating C. Raymond Hunt and W Starling Burgess, through May at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. (18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740; Ph. 508 9970046; www.whalingmuseum.org)
•The Original Gus Wagner: The Maritime Roots of Modern Tattoo, now through 4 June at South Street Seaport Museum in New York City. (12 Fulton Street, New York; www.southstreetsea portmuseum .org)
•Ballast Technology: Saving Ships, Lives, and the Environment, now through August at the National Museum
Festivals, Events, Lectures, Etc. •Ghost Ships Festival 2017, 10- 11 March in Milwaukee, WI. (www.ghostships.org ) •Sailors' Series 2017, at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. "Once around the North Atlantic" by Victor Pinheiro on 23 March; "The Great American Loop" by Sham and Josh Hunt on 6 April. (18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA; Ph. 508 997-0046; www.whalingmuseum.org) •29th America's Schooner Cup, 1 April in San Diego Bay. Hosted by Silver Gate Yacht Club, all race all proceeds go to the Navy/Marine Corps Relief Society-a non-profit whose mission is ro help Navy and Marine families. Spectators can watch the start and finish off Shelter Island. Better yet, join the action by racing aboard one of the three vessels entered by the Maritime Museum of San Diego (two schooners and one galleon). As of press time, tickets were still available. (1492 N . Harbor Dr., San Diego, CA; Ph. 619 2349153; www.sdmaritime.org) •"Canoe Song: A French Explorer's Journal," a lecture by Brian "Fox" Ellis, 5 April at the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, OH. (1701 Front St., Toledo, OH; Ph. 419 214-5000; www.inlandseas. org) •Civil War Lecture: Conserving Civil War Shipwrecks, by Elsa Sangouard, Senior Conservator, USS Monitor Project, 8 April at the Mariners' Museum . (100 Museum Dr. , Newport News, VA; Ph. 757 596-2222; www.marinersmuseum.org) •Sebastian Junger: Presentation and Book Signing, 13 April at the Chappaqua Library in Chappaqua, NY. Junger is the author of The Perfect Storm, which was made into a blockbuster Hollywood movie in 2000. In his newest book, Tribe, Junger studies war veterans from an anthropological perspective. (Event is free and open to the public, 195 South Greeley
Ave., Chappaqua, NY; Ph. 914 238-4779; www.chappaqualibrary.org) •Annapolis Spring Sailboat Show, 2830 April, City Dock, Annapolis, MD. (www.annapolisboatshows.com) •43rd Annual Wooden Boat Show, 6 May at the North Carolina Maritime Museum and waterfront, Beaufort, NC. (www.beaufortwoodenboatshow.com) •24th Annual Cape Cod Maritime Days, month-long maritime-themed events in May across all of Cape Cod. (www.cape codchamber.org/capecodmaritimedays) Conferences and Symposiums •Canadian Nautical Research Society Annual Conference, 10-12 August in Halifax, NS . Conference theme is "Canada and Canadians in the Great War at Sea, 1914-19." Inquiries regarding proposals should be sent to Dr. Richard Gimblerr, 33 Greenaway Circle, Port Hope, ON, LlA OB9, Canada; email: richard.gimblett@ forces.gc.ca or richard.gimblerr@rogers. com. (www.cnrs-scrn.org) •PCA/ACANational Conference 12-15 April in San Diego. (Popular Culture Association/American C ulture Association) "Sea Literature, History, & Culture" wi ll be one of the subject areas presented. (www. pcaaca.org/national-conference) •Tall Ships Challenge Series, 19-21 May in Charleston, SC; 17-22 June in Boston, MA. The series is organized by Tall Ships America in Newport, RI. See pages 8-9, and page 45 for more information. (www. sailtraining.org) •2017 National Council on Public History Annual Meeting, 19-22 April in Indianapolis, IN. (www. ncph .org) •Council of American Maritime Museums Annual Conference, 19-21 April, hosted by the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. (www.council ofamericanmaritimemuseums.org) •National Maritime Historical Society (NMHS) and the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) Joint Conference, 15 - 17 May in Charleston, SC. (See page 12 for details . www.seahis tory.org; www.nasoh.org) •2017 McMullen Naval History Symposium, 14-15 September at the US Naval Academy. (www.usna.edu/ History/Sym posium/)
by Peter McCracken
MARITIME HISTORY ON THE INTERNET
Using Google Books, HathiTrust, and other Online Book Sites oogle's goal to digitize the world 's libraries is one of its typical of their 53,000 titles are out of copyright. HathiTrust (https:// "shoot-for-the-moon" projects, which seem nearly impossible www.hathitrust.org) is a very large compiler of digital titles from until they turn out to be well on their way to reaching the many sources, including Google Books, the Internet Archive, goal. Its impact is already immeasurable, and will continue to and Microsoft. HathiTrust has a number of particularly valuable grow. Nevertheless, the project is not without its challenges, and features: you can choose to either search the full text of the books there is much one should know about the process and alternatives. available, or search the catalog that describes the books. If you Begun in secret in 2002 and launched publically in 2004, the want to look for a broad topic, like "Australian schooners," you concept was something that Google's cofounders always planned might try searching the catalog to locate books on the subj ect. to pursue. The project had both altruistic and commercial aims: If you want to look something more specific, then searching the it has always had a goal of making out-of-prim resources available full text for, say, "Wollongong schooners" might be better. You to anyone, but also has involved direct work with publishers to can use AND and OR terms when searching, and * as a wildcard earn revenue when making publishers' content findable, if not ac- (a search for "sail*" will return "sail," "sails," "sailors," "sailing," cessible. The addition oflibrary partners has greatly expanded the etc.), but there are few other advanced search functions. Most number ofout-of-copyright or out-of-prim books (and magazines!) importantly, if you can log in to HathiTrust as a member of a partner institution, you can then download PDFs of most titles, findable in Google Books. Results from Google Books will appear in a standard Google or create collections of specific books, across which you can then search, and you can separate them out by clicking on "Books," search within that collection. In fact, HathiTrust is often a better option than Google Books. between the search box and the results. (Sometimes, "Books" appears on the dropdown "More" menu.) You can also start yo ur Google makes blanket decisions about book access, while HathiTrust has a collection oflibrarian volunteers search at https://books.google.com to working to investigate and determine copyright limit the initial search to books. There 495 whenever possible. For example, Google Books are two types of results: snippet view and ----,_ will only show snippets of Naval Documents full view. In the latter case, yo u can see -------·-·--133 ............... 12 ..... . . .... 130, !<Iii, 146 Related to the Quasi-War, a multi-volume set the full page of the book in question, --·--·- ••.••• IOI 100, 107, 111 , 112, 118, 121 ·······-------so of primary documents published by the US with yo ur search results highlighted 183, 3f9............... 332, 333, 336-.a37, 3IO, Government in the 1930s. Google does not on the page. The entire book may be --------------- 134,313 ---------------- 116,117 recognize that since the set was published by visible, or a few pages here and there -·············-··-·9S ······ · ·····------- -87 ------------------89 the US Government, it is thus not protected will be missing. This is for copyright -- ------ ------------322 1~------------------209 --- -- ---------------399 by copyright. It just sees a date later than 1922, reasons, not because Google skipped -------------------378 ·------------------ 136, 322 ----- - --------------322 and assumes it's in copyright. HathiTrust, on -- -- ------- ----- -----:,,'{Jg some pages. In snippet view, Google ,.. __ ____ __________________ 437 ----------------------3'22 other hand, will allow yo u to view the the has scanned the entire book but can - --- ----· · ········- --31 1,373 '- ---- · - -······ ··· ······· SD -----------------------448 tide, and if you're at one of the more than only show small portions of the text 11~ 64 rel. ••••• • ••••• • • ••• • ••• •••• 322 t. followfld ______ ____ _______ Iii 100 partner libraries, you can download every because copyright owners have required -------------i4f 200~2of 26a. :z11 -------------------------- ass (In this case, you can also download volume. that they not share the complete text, --------------------· ·····240 --- - -------- --------------- · 3S8 '"····· · ······· ······....... 388 these tides from the nascent American Naval or even large portions of it. -~~B.19;~;.-_::::::::::::::.~67, i~ Records Society, at http://www.ibiblio.org/ Google Books is not without prob1'11, Muter...................... 388 --------------- ---------------388 .vmond--- -·-···············--·· 388 lems. The OCR (Optical Character anrs/quasi.html.) .. m. U.S. S. lllhiiifm /Ind PruUPI ___ •....•.... 136, 322 ~---- - ---------- --------------4.24 Sometimes, there's nothing like having a Recognition) text conversion has been ·-- --- ---------------- - - ---- - ----456 ........ ___________ Loti1i•---------____________________ --- ---- --·---- 410 383 abip prim copy of a tide. Used booksellers, such as problematic, at times. Try searching - - --------- ----------------------3g1 397 ABE Books (https://www.abebooks.com), for "modem" in 19'h-century tides, "' "" 262 256 are often your best bet. Amazon.com is a for instance-these will nearly always 181 "' frustrating option, because most options come be a poorly interpreted version of the 322 "' -- -- -------------31}2 ------------136,3'22 from vendors who will simply pass on the order word "modern." In addition, the meta-------------- v , 199 -- ------------386 ------------256 to a prim-on-demand publisher, who will print data-the information describing each a copy of the Google Books version, errors and tide-is sometimes incorrect, making all. When looking at purchasing options on it hard to find some items, particularly volumes in a series, like the Navy Records Society volumes. Google used-book websites, be careful what you select. Some sellers will uses high-volume, large-scale workflows, and correcting errors include images of the actual copy you're buying, so you'll know it's here and there is generally not worth their time. Occasionally, original, but if the listed publisher is a university or a library, that's the scans will show pages in the process of being turned, like this metadara taken straight from Google, and you'll almost certainly receive a prim-on-demand copy of the Google scan. example I found last year. Suggestions for other sites worth mentioning are welcome at Other digitization projects certainly exist. Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) was started in 1971 (really!); text peter@shipindex.org. See www.shipindex.org for a free compilawas manually keyed in until 1989, when scanners began being tion of over 150,000 ship names from indexes to dozens of books used. Each tide is available in multiple formats, and nearly all and journals. J,
G
.. ------- -----------------
50
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 20 17
Reviews Strategy and the Sea: Essays in Honour ofJohn B. Hattendorf, edited by N. A. M. Rodger, J. Ross Dancy, Benjamin Darnell, and Evan Wilson (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK, 2016, 303pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 978-178327-098-9; $120hc) This celebrated volume is a festschrift, a collection of academic essays contributed by a number of people to honor an eminent scholar. In this instance, Oxford University's All Souls College organized a conference in 2014 to mark the retirement of internationally acclaimed naval historian Dr. John B. Hattendorf, who until recently held the Admiral Ernest J. King Chair ofNaval Strategy at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. John Hattendorf, one of the most prolific and profound of contemporary American naval historians, has written or edited more than forty books and hundreds of articles, essays, and book reviews on naval history and strategy during a career spanning more than fifty years. His forte is a historical approach to complex strategic issues involving the roles of navies in the modern era. Ir is fitting that the eighteen scholars participating in this festschrift are well-established in the field of naval history. They have drawn on their own studies to present topics from British, Danish, Durch, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Swedish, and United States naval history that complement Hattendorf's outstanding contributions to the history of maritime and naval strategy. These essays delve into a broad spectrum of factors that can enable or frustrate a government's ability to carry out its naval strategy. These include geography, access to natural resources; financial policy; recruitment, training, and management of officers and enlisted personnel; logistical support; interservice rivalries; polirical influence; offensive/defensive operational strategies; and the quality of decisionmaking at the highest level. In his introduction, N. A. M. Rodger remarks that, in essence, strategists contemplating the use of sea power must think about naval and military operations in advance and define naval goals in order to achieve an understanding not only of how naval action can form the foundation for a successful cam-
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
paign, but also an understanding of their navy's capabilities. Readers who can obtain this rare-and expensive-volume will have the opportunity to appreciate the work of scholars Carla Rahn Philips, Olivier Chaline, Jaap R. Bruijn, Roger Knight, Paul Kennedy, Werner Rahn, Andrew Lambert, James Goldrick, and Geoffrey Till, to name only a few of the fine historians who contributed to this well-deserved academic homage to John Hattendorf. WILLIAM S. DUDLEY, PttD Easton, Maryland
Privateers ofthe Revolution: War on the New Jersey Coast, 1775-1783 by Donald Grady Shomette (Schiffer Publ., Atglen, PA, 2016, 447pp, illus, maps, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 978-0-7643-5033-7; $34.99hc) Don Shomerre has written the consummate reference on American privateersboth Patriot and Loyalist-who sailed the waters between Boston and the Virginia Capes during the American War for Independence. This tome is much more than just a reference book, it is the story of the players in the struggle for independence whose major participants were the men and the ships of the private armed fleer. The waters between New York Harbor and Cape Henlopen in Delaware saw the lion's share of the action, and the ports along the New Jersey coast-now summer vacation destinations-were hotbeds of the insurrection, busy with prizes being unloaded and their goods sold. In the interest of full disclosure, this reviewer has lived on and sailed in the very waters covered in the book for many years, and I found the descriptions of the inlets from the rime (most of which no longer exist), the harbors, and coas tal towns riveting. There is incredible detail offered-in some cases it's actually overwhelming-but the level of research and the completeness with which Mr. Shomerte tells his story is stunning. And it only took him forty years! Tracking down commissions, both Continental and State, numbering over 1,700 from the mid-Atlantic and another 1,000 from New England, must have been daunting; the privateers sailing under letters of marque were not only manned and sailed by the Patriots. Indeed, the British offered
commissions to Loyalists to attack coastal towns and enemy privateers, recapture prizes, burn warehouses at the homeports of many of the privateers, and lay waste to the villages. Shomette derails the conflicts between individual colonies and the Continental government over who should issue commissions and who would be compensating the crews and in what magnitude. Correspondence, newspaper articles, and private memos are reproduced in the book and add to the depth of the reader's experience. Some of the stories of individual cruises were fascinating, reading more like a really good yarn than a reference. The volume also covers the political scene and relevant shoreside activities, including the infamous hanging of colonial officer and hero (at least in New Jersey) Joshua Huddy in retaliation for the shooting of Loyalist Phillip White (yes, a direct antecedent of this reviewer!) in 1782. Shomette also dwells on the prison ship jersey anchored off Brooklyn, in which were held hundreds of captured privateer crews in disgracefully awful conditions; indeed,
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scores died daily from malnutrition, exposure, and mistreatment. The bodies were buried ashore on the sire of what was to become the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where they later became a problem for the Navy. The only criticism I can offer is the need for a strong editor; there were any number of typos and word errors, which an editor should have caught. Some repetition (which is probably inevitable) might also have been eliminated. Thar said, these distractions were minimal. As a reference, this volume belongs on the shelf of any Revolutionary War buff, resident of the Jersey Shore, or anyone with an interest in early American history. WILLIAM H. WHITE Rumson, New Jersey
British Proclamation of 1763, is nor unusual. M acleod rakes the origins of the proclamation back to the British invasion ofNew France, and especially to the battle for Quebec on rhe Plains of Abraham. The title of Macleod 's volume notwithstanding, the bulk of this work deals with the British invasion and rhe French response. Only in the final pages does the author bring together the battle and the consequences. Thar is nor a criticism, simply an observation. For readers of Sea History, the analysis of the role of waterways and naval operations in the Bartle of the Plains of Abraham will be particularly engaging. Control of the waterways was crucial to the invasion forces and the defenders of New France. The French were dependent on supplies Northern Armageddon: The Battle ofthe from France for survival, and the British Plains ofAbraham and the Making of strove to prevent rhe arrival of those provitheAmericanRevolution by D. Peter Mac- sions and munitions that allowed the leod (Knopf, New York, 2015 , 402pp, French to resist invasion. The fight for supmaps, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 978- plies was as demanding for the French as 0-307-26989-8; $35hc). was the armed battle for their holdings in If ever a book title set our the contents the new world. On the night of the British oF the volum e, D . Peter Macleod 's North- amphibious attack on Quebec, supplies to ern Armageddon: The Battle ofthe Plains of the French played a significant role. Because Abraham and the Making of the A merican French defenders had been alerted to the Revolution is that book. Macleod presents arrival of a convoy of small vessels loaded the fight for what is now Canada as the with provisions for Quebec, they allowed turning point in the history of the British British invaders to pass, thinking them colonies in America. The argument that friendly forces . The convoy had been the American Revolution began not in scrubbed, bur this message never made it 1775-76, bur eight years earlier with the through.
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Moreover, the Royal Navy played a strategic role in the invasion and its success. Royal Navy vessels delivered the troops that fought and won on the Plains and the provisions and munitions they needed to fight. From the water, firepower from the fleet reinforced the invasion. Macleod describes the invasion and battle for New France in the first person, as he presents the personal evaluations of the conflict from the writings of men and women on both sides. The on-hand descriptions may be the major attraction of the work. The writing is good and the firstperson additions are worked in beautifully to produce a volume that reads like a novel. The reader cannot help but be impressed with the destruction and suffering inflicted on both sides by the Seven Years War. In the final chapters, Macleod presents and defends his thesis that the reduction of French power in North America set the stage for rhe original British colonies to break away from British authority. Northern Armageddon is recommended to readers with an interest in the American Revolution, the fall of New France, naval warfare, amphibious invasion, and history in general. The book is well written and a pleasure to read. DAVID 0. WHITTEN, PHD Auburn, Alabama
Naval Documents ofthe American Revolution, Volume 12, edited by Michael J. Crawford, et. al (Naval History and Heritage Command and Government Printing Office, Washington, DC , 2013, 995pp, illus, maps and charts, biblio, appen, index, ISBN 978-0-945274-72-8; $90hc) With a foreword by President Barack Obama, the twelfth volume in the Naval History and Heritage Command 's Naval Documents ofthe American Revolution series tells the story of the Revolutionary War on seas, lakes , sounds, and bays during the period April to June 1778. In rhe tradition of rhe preceding volumes-the first of which was published in 1964-rhis immense work includes selectively edited maritime documents, including correspondence, ship logs, muster rolls, orders, reports, and newspaper accounts, that enable a comprehensive understanding of the war at sea in the spring of 1778.
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
l .'i 11
Editors Michael J. Crawford, Dennis M. Conrad, E. Gordon Bowen-Hassell, and Mark I. Hayes organized this wide array of texts chronologically by American and European theaters. They transcribed and incorporated important French, Italian, and Spanish documents with English translations. Volume 12 presents the essential primary sources during a crucial twomonth period in the young republic's naval history. After military defeats at Trenton and Princeron, the British consolidated their strength in the mid-Atlantic region, sailed into the Chesapeake, won the Battle ofBrandywine, and occupied Philadelphia, while the Continental Navy and privateers threatened British shipping. Later in 1777, the American victory at Saratoga set the scene for major changes on both sides. In this volume, we have the continuing maritime struggle of the United States against the Royal Navy. With a show of adroit diplomacy, American commissioners in Paris had, by the time period covered in this volume, managed to persuade France to join the war as an ally. Ships carrying the Treaty of Alliance and Treaty of Amity and Commerce arrived in the United States for ratification in early April, 1778. In response, the British Crown ordered its troops to evacuate Philadelphia and to clear the Delaware River of rebel ships, forts , and obstructions. Other notable events documented in this volume are: the sailing of the French fleet from Toulon for the United States, HM frigate Emerald's capture of the CN frigate Virginia (James Nicholson), the Georgia State navy's capture of HM sloop Hinchinbrook and the sloop Rebecca, the Continental Marine Committee's authorization for the completion of the frigate Alliance, capture of the CN frigate Alfred (Elisha Hinman) by HM frigate Arianne and HM sloop Ceres, Capt. Abraham Whipple's escape to sea in the frigate Providence, CN Ranger's (John Paul Jones) capture of HM sloop D rake in the Irish Sea, and CN Cutter Revenge's (Gustavus Conyngham) capture of British merchant ships in the Bay of Biscay. The appendices include replication of the muster book of the CN frigate Raleigh, a log of the Rhode Island privateer ship Marlborough, a lengthy excerpt from the log of the CN sloop of war Ranger, a nd Admiral Lord Howe's list of"Vessels seized SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
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GALVESTON\ TI IE Ti IF T\1.1. Si Ill'
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by Kurt D. Voss All proceeds from this pictorial history benefit the ELISSA preservation fond.
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www.tsm-elissa.org or destroyed by His Majesty's Ships on Chesapeake Bay or parts of the American Coast Southward. " As in previous editions, the editing of this volume is superb in its skillful transcriptions, annotations, and retention of original language. The complex 130-page index is a work of art. The NDAR series continues to be the bedrock foundation for capturing the essence of the Revolutionary War at sea. WILLIAM
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Easton, Maryland
The Mathews Men: Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-Boats by Wi lliam Geroux (Viking, New York, 2016 , 370pp, notes, biblio, illus, index, ISBN 9780-525-42815-2 ; $28.95hc) Winston Churchill referred ro rhe Bartle of the Atlantic as "The only thing rhar ever really frightened [him] during the war." For six yea rs, from the sinking of SS Athenia on 3 September 1939 to the loss of SS Black Point on 5 May 1945, civilian merchantmen faced off against Nazi Uboats, and in the United Stares no community better represented this struggle than that of rural M athews County, Virginia. The US merchant marine faced its greatest
struggle during the Second World War, yet this was not the first time its men sailed into danger. From the inception of the United States, the merchant marine was on the front line, from the cargo ships and mariners that formed the first naval squadron in 1775, to attacks by French and British ships during the Napoleonic wars, to facing pirates along the shores of No rth Africa and the Caribbean, to the initial rest against German U-boats in the First World War, American merchant ships and the crews who manned th em faced danger throughout their history. In The Mathews Men, author William Geroux, a reporter and an employee of one of the largest shipping lines in the world, provides an account of what it was like for the mariners who faced off against Nazi submarines for four years. The title of the book is a bit misleading, because while the seven Hodge brothers-Raymond, Dewey, Willie, Coleman, Leslie, Spencer, and D avid-a re the intended focus of the story, in truth, this is a story that also takes place ashore and involves the entire Mathews County community and many other families. Such places as Gwynn's Island, Gales Neck, and rhe C hesapeake Bay are as important to the story as are the Atlantic, the 53
Caribbean, and the Murmansk Run . It is paign in terms of tonnage and U-boats also a story about those left behind-wives, sunk. I strongly recommend this book, as children, and parents. One of the most it exemplifies the dangers that the merchant remarkable characters in the story is the marine faced right off the US coast in the matriarch of the Hodge family, Henrierta, early days of the wa r and its overall contriwho has to maintain the family farm and butions to eventual Allied success. keep the clan together as the brothers face SALVATORE R. MERCOGLIANO, PttD hardship and death on the high seas. Buies C reek, North Carolina Geroux is able to captivate the reader from the outset with the death of the one Order and Disorder in the British Navy, of the brothers. One of the worst fears of 1793-1815: Control, Resistance, Flogthose who sent their loved ones to sea in ging, and Hanging by Thomas Malcomson the merchant marine was the not knowing, (Boydell Press, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK, in particular, if their ships went missing or 2016, 303pp, maps, appen, biblio, notes, overdue. In the case of Dewey Hodge, his index, ISB N 978-1-78327-119-1; $120hc) wife, Edna, and their four children did not Order and D isorder in the British Navy know his fate, or at least that of his ship, is a studious examination of the application SS Onondaga, until American officials in of British naval leadership "by the book." Cuba sent word that Dewey's ring, along The time period examined in this work with some human remains, had been found includes various theaters of operation durin the belly of a shark caught off Cuba. The ing both war and peace. The thrust of the fare of Captain Hodge and Onondaga sets book is best summarized by a quote by in motion a story that spans the globe and historian Michel Foucault, which Malcomrocks back and forth from the storm-tossed son included in the final pages of the book: waves of the ocean to the quiet town of "Where there is power, there is resistance.. . Mathews, and exposes what it was like for where there is resistance, there is punishthe merchant mariners and their families ment." And as Hillel the Elder concluded, during the Second World War by showcas- "the rest is commentary." ing this small community. Malcomson organizes his analysis and While many books have been wrirten presentation of the subject into three parts: about the Bartle of the Atlantic and some "Authority's Tools for Creating Order," firsthand accounts of merchant ships have "Creating Disorder," and "The Responses recently come to light, Geroux details the to Disorder." Within each are chapters that issues that the civilian members of the mer- deal with a wide range of corresponding chant marine faced on a regular basis. He themes. The creation of order included audigs deep into the material to provide an thority, which emanated from a king's comextremely detailed narrative. Using official mission, the naval law, social hierarchical records, along with first- and second-hand organization, and a patronage system unaccounts from the participants and their derstood by all. Orderliness was enforced descendants to capture the action, fear, and by punishment, such as reprimand, demofrustration felt during wartime. It is hard tion, the lash, confinement in irons, and not to come away from The Mathews Men capital punishment. All of these penalties with a sense of awe in how these men con- are covered in derail as they pertain to the tinually faced danger and how this com- application ofleadership during this period munity rallied to support the cause. Yet, of British naval history. these ve teran mariners were not considered Disorderly conduct could include: cowmilitary veterans, and their plight is equal- ardice, disobeying orders, striking an ofly interesting as they sought medical care ficer, theft, drunkenness, and desertion. for injuries sustained during their service, The causes and remedies for each of these and for post-traumatic stress disorder after infractions often challenged the execution near-death encounters with U- boats. of leadership under trying circumstances. The Mathews Men is a great primer for Each is illustrated by historical references those interested in the role of the merchant and examples that demonstrate how some mariner during WWII, while also filling of the problems were either resolved or led in the gaps in many scholarly acco unts of to disaster. Control, however, was not just the U-boat war that only examine the cam- a top-down affair, but also a complex reci54
procity between officers and their crews. Of necessity, officers occasionally allowed indulgences to seamen and marines, but these served as a secondary source of power by rewarding people for their compliance. In that spirit, order came from many levels within the Royal Navy's hierarchy. Disorder could be found at each level of authority and throughout the fleet. All levels of the commissioned chain of command could opt to use the lash or the naval courts to impose their authority on their subordinates, bur the mariners and marines behaved as they saw fit-or dared- and not according to any rules. Thus, leadership in the British fleet depended on a careful negotiation between the superiors and the underlings. Order and Disorder in the British Navy, 1793-1815 is an erudite study of naval leadership during the latter days of the world 's most powerful and sophisticated sailing navy. A vast array of data is presented, along with many naval historians' interpretations of the causes, affects and consequences of shipboard order- and disorder. The work's 1,052 footnotes and an emphasis on statistical data are indications of the author's extensive research in producing this publication. Although the book is expensive, the scholarship contained therein makes it a worthy addition to any naval historian's library. DR.
Lours ARTHUR NORTO N
West Simsbury, Connecticut
The Tide: The Science and Stories Behind the Greatest Force on Earth by Hugh Aldersey-Williams (W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2016, 368pp, illus, gloss, biblio, index, ISB N 978-0-393-24163-1; $27.95hc) The Tide broadens one's scholarly horizon in many unexpected ways. This reviewer, born and raised alongside the ocean, often thought about the sometimes-substantial vicissitudes of tidal effects. After reading Aldersey-Williams's wonderfully wide-sweeping work, one is not likely to look at the flood , ebb, neap, and spring tides in the same way again. The author explores the science as it relates to the great tidal forces, their relationship to coastal and planetary geography, basic and sophistica ted physics and their association with our history and literature. The author explores the legends of
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
Homer, Julius Caesar, King Canute, A lex- sipated and landmasses rise in a rebound. ander the Great, Eratosthenes, and the And this is just a hint of the complexity of works of Aristotle, Galileo, Thomas Aqui- the charting of tides and their relationship nas, Newton, Laplace, Kepler, Kelvin, Dick- to weather patterns. en s, and Darwin, to n ame some of the The ranges of the tide are the applicabetter-known figures in science, literature tion of the inverse-square law of physics, and history. Many of the stories are famil- that is, the attractive force is multiplied iar, but placing them in the context of in- four-fo ld when two bodies are half as far ves tigating how tides work adds a fresh apart (or inversely proportional to the cube dimension to these historic figures. of the distance between these bodies). The Author Ronald Blythe described tide tidal change repeats in a predictable way as "the sea on a cosmic leash," but, non- because of the interplay between the angles, metaphorically, tides are the motion of distances, and positions of the earth relative water controlled by the forces of gravity. to the sun and moon. The sun's influence Massive activities in the atmosphere above is about h alf that of the moon's. and below the earth's surface become comBore tides occur during new and full plicating factors in the dynamic movement moons, when the earth, moon, and sun are of this fluid . The highest are called "bore" in alignment and when they are as close to or "king tides" and can be spectacular in each other as possible; the moon is at pervario us parts of the world. Undersea cur- igee (the point nearest to earth in its orbit) rents produce internal tides that, in turn, and the earth at perihelion (the point nearprovide horizontal courses and vertical vec- est the sun in its planetary orbit). Second, tors exchanging heat from ocean depths the three bodies must be aligned and in with the atmosphere above. Some of this this position during a new moon. swap may be affected by ant hropogen ic The earth 's largest tides are at Minas sources, perhaps causing or accelerating Bay in Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy, reachclimate change. As glaciers melt and sea ing 50 feet, yet there are other locations on levels rise, the weight of glacial ice is dis- earth almost devoid of tidal action. These
SEA HISTORY 158, SPRING 2017
places are known as amphidromic points. The author quotes a portion of a chorus from Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes that may be the best metaphor that captures the book's spirit: With ceaseless motion comes and goes the tide, Flowing, it fills the channel vast and wide; lhen back to the sea, with strong majestic sweep It rolls, in ebb yet terrible and deep.
A ldersey-Willi ams's book does h ave minor shortcomings. The author refers to many obscure geographical locations-having a good atlas h andy (or Google Earth) is advisable. Also, it is surprising that he did not mention the pororoca, a sto ried bore-tide that periodically arises at the mouth of the Amazon River. Its riverine surge-wave travels many miles upstream and is powerful enough to support surfers. Still, lhe Tide is a rare book successfully combining sometimes-disparate intellectual disciplines into a rewarding and pleasu rable read. I highly recommend this occasionally ch allenging but quite enjoyable work to a broad range of readers. DR. Louis ARTHUR NORTON West Simsbury, Connecticut
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