Sea History 176 - Autumn 2021

No. 176

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

AUTUMN 2021

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No. 176

SEA HISTORY

AUTUMN 2021

CONTENTS

10 NMHS 2021 Annual Awards Dinner After a year’s hiatus, NMHS will return to the New York Yacht Club to honor and celebrate four outstanding individuals of the maritime community and recognize their noteworthy contributions to preserving our maritime heritage.

20 The British Customs Service in Colonial America by Thomas M. Truxes Established by Parliament in 1275, the British customs service was a key component of Britain’s governance of the North American colonies. Professor Thomas Truxes follows the service’s history and its relationship with British subjects across the Atlantic.

charleston museum

14 “A Better Commander Cannot Be Had…” The Untold Story of Joannes Wyllie, Scottish Captain of the Blockade Runner Ad-Vance by John F. Messner Recent research into Glasgow’s role in the American Civil War has expanded our knowledge about Capt. Joannes Wyllie and his remarkable career running the Union blockade.

14

28 The Sinking of USS Hartford by Todd Jones Admiral Farragut’s flagship and the hero of the Civil War, USS Hartford was much sought after as a museum ship. Controversy, funding issues, and the detrimental effects of time would do to this neglected wooden ship what guns, torpedoes, and an ironclad ram could not.

royal museums greenwich

24 Steamboat Rivalry on the Columbia River: Captain Ernest Spencer vs. The Dalles, Portland and Astoria Navigation Company by Mychal Ostler In the early years of the 20th century, waterways were the most reliable and affordable means of transporting passengers and goods in the American Northwest. Competition for this lucrative market could get fierce.

20

24

metropolitan museum of art

38 A Wild Note of Longing: Albert Pinkham Ryder Comes Home to New Bedford

by Amanda McMullen The New Bedford Whaling Museum mounts A Wild Note of Longing, an exhibition of major works by New Bedford native and painter, Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847–1917), who achieved status among artists during his lifetime and remains a source of inspiration for painters today.

courtesy mychal ostler

34 Packet Ship Patrick Henry: Emigrants’ Passage and New Beginnings

by Michael Carolan Michael Carolan traces the career of the vessel that carried his ancestors to America to flee Ireland’s Great Famine and explores the heyday of the packet ship in the Age of Sail. It is a personal story that relates the shared experience of hundreds of thousands of Irish immigrants who arrived on America’s shores in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Cover: “Capture of New Orleans by Union Flag Officer David G. Farragut, 24 April 1862”

by Julian Oliver Davidson (1853–94), oil on canvas. (Library of Congress)

DEPARTMENTS 4 Deck Log 5 Letters 8 NMHS: A Cause in Motion 40 Marine Art News

42 Sea History for Kids 46 Ship Notes, Seaport & Museum News 57 Reviews 64 Patrons

Sea History and the National Maritime Historical Society Sea History e-mail: seahistory@gmail.com; NMHS e-mail: nmhs@seahistory.org; Website: www.seahistory.org. Ph: 914 737-7878; 800 221-NMHS MEMBERSHIP is invited. Afterguard $10,000; Benefactor $5,000; Plankowner $2,500; Sponsor $1,000; Donor $500; Patron $250; Friend $100; Regular $45. All members outside the USA please add $20 for postage. Sea History is sent to all members. Individual copies cost $4.95.

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SEA HISTORY (issn 0146-9312) is published quarterly by the National Maritime Historical Society, 1000 North Division St., #4, Peek­skill NY 10566 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Peeks­kill NY 10566 and add’l mailing offices.

COPYRIGHT © 2021 by the National Maritime Historical Society. Tel: 914 737-7878.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sea History, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Deck Log

A River Runs Through It: History, Ships, and Philadelphia

courtesy burchenal green

photo by robb jones

W. C. Fields had it all wrong. Two weeks would not be enough time to visit Philadelphia, and a long weekend certainly wasn’t. After a year and a half of virtual events and global presentations, NMHS members and staff ventured out to finally gather in person. Our host was the Independence Seaport Museum, whose leadership has championed the cruiser Olympia and its important restoration. We had a grand gathering of about 100 members; along with visits to Independence Seaport Museum and the Museum of the American Revolution, we chartered a ferry to take us across the river to the Battleship New Jersey.

Over the weekend, we spread out to discover Philadelphia. It is a walking city, replete with historic markers everywhere, parks, and statues of historic figures, both real and make-believe. I have never had a more scrumptious butterscotch pudding than at the Oyster House, or better fish and chips outside of Great Britain than at En route to the Battleship New Jersey The Plough and The Stars (both historic restaurants). NMHS Secretary Jean Wort and Chairman Ronald Oswald were heartened by their visit to Independence Hall, where both the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution were debated and adopted.

Trustee Tim Runyan and his wife, Laurie, visited the Barnes Foundation Museum and raved about the Impressionist collection, then visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see its renowned American collection and, of course, to take a jog up its iconic steps made famous in the “Rocky” movies.

Standing on the dock beside the historic barquentine Gazela Primeiro, it was fun to observe Capt. Jeffrey McAllister and his wife Stacia watch a McAllister tug pass by doing its work in the river.

We chose Philadelphia for our 58th Annual Meeting because it is both rich in maritime history and, of course, the history of our nation’s foundNMHS staff (l-r) Wendy Paggiotta, ing. It was here that naval architect and shipbuilder Heather Purvis, and Andrea Ryan Joshua Humphreys built USS United States (1797), explore USS Olympia. the first of the six frigates authorized by the Continental Congress in the Naval Act of 1794. In 1800 the federal government purchased his Philadelphia shipyard and the surrounding property to become our nation’s first naval shipyard—the one that would produce USS Pennsylvania, USS North Carolina, USS Mississippi, USS Princeton, and later the Battleship New Jersey, the most decorated battleship in American history. Philadelphia’s connection with so many important ships in American history is front and center in the museums and along the waterfront, and today many historic ships call Philadelphia home: Gazela Primeiro, the 1902 tug Jupiter, USS Olympia, the 1944 Balao-class submarine Becuna, and the famous ocean liner, SS United States, the Blue Riband record holder. The Museum of the American Revolution is right at home here, leading us on an exploration of our country’s beginnings. This city is where the Liberty Bell still inspires us, and these landmarks speak to us today of those tumultuous times.

With so much to learn and explore, time and again our members said the best part, the very best part, was the opportunity to finally be together in person again, to see each other, chat over a meal while admiring views of the Delaware, and enjoy the sort of conversations we had always taken for granted. The individuals and organizations that joined us are doing so much to advance the preservation of our heritage, and we look forward to meeting again next year to celebrate the maritime history of another part of the country. With the future of the pandemic uncertain, so much is unknown about what we can expect, but what we do know is that when we are able to gather again, there is much we can discover and accomplish together. —Burchenal Green, NMHS President 4

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLISHER’S CIRCLE: Peter Aron, Guy E. C. Maitland, Ronald L. Oswald OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Chairman, Ronald L. Oswald; Vice Chairman, Richardo R. Lopes; President, Burchenal Green; Vice Presidents: Jessica MacFarlane, Deirdre O’Regan, Wendy Paggiotta, Nancy Schnaars; Treasurer, William H. White; Secretary, Jean Wort; Trustees: Charles B. Anderson; Walter R. Brown; CAPT Patrick Burns, USN (Ret.); Christopher J. Culver; William S. Dudley; David Fowler; William J. Green; Karen Helmerson; K. Denise Rucker Krepp; Guy E. C. Maitland; Capt. Jeffrey McAllister; CAPT Sally Chin McElwreath, USN (Ret.); Salvatore Mercogliano; Michael Morrow; CAPT James A. Noone, USN (Ret.); Richard Patrick O’Leary; ADM Robert J. Papp Jr., USCG (Ret.); Timothy J. Runyan; Richard Scarano; Philip J. Shapiro; Capt. Cesare Sorio; Chairmen Emeriti: Walter R. Brown, Alan G. Choate, Guy E. C. Maitland, Howard Slotnick (1930–2020) FOUNDER: Karl Kortum (1917–1996) PRESIDENT EMERITUS: Peter Stanford (1927–2016) OVERSEERS: Chairman, RADM David C. Brown, USMS (Ret.); RADM Joseph F. Callo, USN (Ret.); George W. Carmany III; Richard du Moulin; Alan D. Hutchison; Gary Jobson; Sir Robin Knox-Johnston; John Lehman; Capt. Brian McAllister; Capt.

James J. McNamara; H. C. Bowen Smith; John Stobart; Philip J. Webster; Roberta Weisbrod NMHS ADVISORS: Francis Duffy, John Ewald, Timothy Foote, Steven A. Hyman, J. Russell Jinishian, Gunnar Lundeberg, Conrad Milster, William G. Muller, Nancy H. Richardson SEA HISTORY EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Chairman, Timothy Runyan; Norman Brouwer, Robert Browning, William Dudley, Lisa Egeli, Daniel Finamore, Kevin Foster, Cathy Green, John Jensen, Frederick Leiner, Joseph Meany, Salvatore Mercogliano, Carla Rahn Phillips, Walter Rybka, Quentin Snediker, William H. White NMHS STAFF: Executive Director, Burchenal Green; Director of Development, Jessica MacFarlane; Accounting/Membership Associate, Andrea Ryan; Senior Staff Writer, Shelley Reid; Executive Assistant, Heather Purvis; Membership Coordinator, Nancy Schnaars SEA HISTORY: Editor, Deirdre E. O’Regan; Advertising Director, Wendy Paggiotta Sea History is printed by The Lane Press, South Burlington, Vermont, USA.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

U-853 and a Recovered Binnacle Jessica Rozek’s discussion of U-853 in the recent issue of Sea History (“U-853—The Last U-Boat Sunk in American Waters”) caught my eye for the mention of the U-boat’s sinking of USS Eagle 56 off Kennebunkport, Maine. In 1972, I visited Monhegan Island with my now late husband, Charles Dana Gibson. Dana became fascinated with the museum’s then centerpiece, a compass/binnacle that had been snagged by a dragger in waters south of Monhegan. Soon after our visit, Dana spoke with the dragger’s skipper, Captain Norman Brackett, who stated that in 1968 or 1969 he had snagged the binnacle along Loran Line 2792 in 90 fathoms of water.

Brackett remembered that the binnacle was attached to a rather large section of gray wooden decking overlaid with canvas.

Dana theorized that the binnacle, which was not numbered but which was manufactured in Scotland, could have come from the Canadian merchant ship SS Cornwallis, the victim of U-1230. Only hours before making that kill, U-1230 had penetrated Blue Hill Bay, where it discharged espionage agents. They were captured that night after they had been landed on the beach by rubber boat.

In 2002, Paul Lawton from Massachusetts, who had become interested in the source of the binnacle, was referred to Dana

by Tralice Bracy of the Monhegan Museum. Mr. Lawton was exceptionally well informed as to the loss of the Eagle 56.

According to Mr. Lawton, NOAA was planning an expedition to look for the USS Eagle 56 during the summer of 2002.

Dana subsequently wrote Ms. Bracy: “As I have told you, only two ships which would have had such a binnacle located on their flying bridge were lost to enemy action in close proximity to the Maine coast during the 1940s. They were: SS Cornwallis and USS Eagle (PE 56). Eagle 56 was lost in 1945 off Kennebunkport. Other large ships were lost by foundering during the 1940s off Maine; however, in such foundering cases the decking under the binnacle probably would not have torn loose. Of course, we have no positive assurance that Captain Brackett’s net did not dislodge a section of flying bridge decking with attached binnacle from an integral unchart-

ed wreck; however, that seems unlikely as there are usually other parts of a ship at a higher level than a flying bridge, e.g., steel masts.

Another possibility is that the ship from which it [the binnacle] came was lost at a considerable distance to the east of the Gulf of Maine, the decking with its attached binnacle having drifted west under the influence of the Labrador Current before sinking to the bottom, where Captain Brackett snagged it.”

By 2002 Dana and I were busy with other pursuits, so we never followed up as to whether NOAA and Mr. Lawton were successful in locating USS Eagle 56. With the knowledge passed to Mr. Lawton that the binnacle could have come from the Canadian SS Cornwallis, did NOAA expand its search pattern to look for that U-boat victim as well? Perhaps Ms. Rozek could shed some light and help at last in the search for the source of the Monhegan Museum’s artifact.

Elizabeth “Kay” Gibson Hutchinson Island, Florida From Jessica Rozek: Up until fairly recently, Eagle PE 56 was considered a loss due to a boiler explosion. In 2001 the Navy officially changed the record and acknowledged that it was, in fact, sunk by U-853.

Around that time, Paul Lawton located and talked to the remaining survivors of

us navy photo

Letters

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USS Eagle 2, identical to Eagle 56 the sinking, along with adult children of men who had died in the Eagle. In July 2019, a team of divers confirmed the location of Eagle 56, five miles off Cape Elizabeth. A Smithsonian Channel documentary, “Hunt for Eagle 56,” premiered in autumn 2019 about their expeditions to the wreck site. There’s also a memorial plaque now at Fort Williams Park in Portland (it was supposed to be dedicated in spring 2020, but had to be delayed because of the pandemic).

SS Cornwallis sank in 1944 from a U-boat attack under similar circumstances; just six of her 48 crewmembers were rescued (only five survived). Unlike Eagle 56, the circumstances of the Cornwallis sinking appear to have never been covered up. My best guess for this, even though it was entirely US Naval ships that searched for U-1230, is that it was probably “good press,” as it were, against the Germans—as

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SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 5

in “look at these terrible people sinking merchant ships from our Allied forces!” sort of propaganda. As such, the location of the Cornwallis was never in doubt.

Looking at LORAN-C charts, line 1-2792 runs pretty far south of Monhegan Island, which is as Ms. Gibson noted, but because of how the coast of Maine falls further and further westward (from Monhegan Island) as you head towards Massachusetts, it is also considerably distant from Portland and Cape Elizabeth.

If the binnacle Ms. Gibson mentioned had to be from either the Cornwallis or Eagle 56, it was far more likely the latter, given that the current in that area sweeps along the coast and out to sea. Additionally, the attack on Eagle 56 and/or its sinking blew open her bow and stern, which would have potentially exposed the binnacle to the ocean current.

incorporated into that department.

Incidentally, Commander Burkhart and I were shipmates aboard the USCGC Casco (WAVP-370) during the early 1960s and served as deck watch officers.

Joseph Ponti Andover, Massachusetts

Coast Guard Timeline I read with interest CDR Carl Burkhart’s letter in the summer 2021 issue of Sea His(508) 693-5871 2.25x4.5_HNSA_FleetCOL#1085.pdf 6/5/12 10:47:40 AMthe timeline of the developtory [regarding ment of the United States Coast Guard] WWW.JPUWOODCARVER.COM ★ ★ and would like to offer a more comprehensive picture of the establishment and makeTHE HISTORIC NAVAL up of today’s US Coast Guard. On 9 August SHIPS ASSOCIATION 1789, Congress authorized the creation of the US Lighthouse Service. The following year, on 4 August 1790, the US Revenue Cutter Marine Service was established.

The needs of the growing nation were met again 58 years later by Congress when the US Lifesaving Service was established on 14 April 1848, and the US Steamboat Inspection Service was instituted on 25 February 1871. During the Wilson administration the Revenue Cutter Service and the Lifesaving Service were merged into a new service called the US Coast Guard by an act of Congress on 28 January 1915. A Sit in the wardroom of a mighty battleship, touch a powerful torpedo on a further consolidation occurred on 1 July submarine, or walk the deck of an aircraft 1939, when the US Lighthouse Service was carrier and stand where naval aviators merged into the Coast Guard. And finally, have flown off into history. It’s all waiting on 28 February 1942, in a war-time effifor you when you visit one of ciency move, the Bureau of Marine Inspecthe 175 ships of the Historic Naval Ships tion (formerly known as the US Steamboat Association fleet.

Inspection Service) was incorporated into For information on all the US Coast Guard that we know today. our ships and museums, Following 9/11, the Department of Homesee the HNSA website or land Security was established on 25 Februwww.HNSA.org visit us on Facebook. ary 2003 and the US Coast Guard was

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Saint Paul and General Average Many thanks to Michael Rauworth for his excellent and very informative piece on the convoluted subject of General Average (“After the Disaster is Over—MV Ever Given and Law of General Average,” Sea History 175). I thought it worth mentioning that twenty years before the voyage from Carthage to Rome he so vividly describes, another voyage took place as was recounted in the Bible, Acts 27, “Paul in the Storm.”

After passing Crete, the ship was struck by a storm, a Levanter, which lasted for weeks.

19 And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship.

And weeks later...

38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, and cast out the wheat into the sea.

But sadly...

41 And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmovable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.

There were several deliberate GA acts, and as the York Antwerp Rules provide: There is a General Average act when, and only when, any extraordinary sacrifice or expenditure is intentionally and reasonably made or incurred for the common safety for the purpose of preserving from peril the property involved in a common maritime adventure. But, in this example, the ship was wrecked and all value in the adventure was lost. So, no apportionment—no GA. All aboard the stricken ship made it safely to shore, and Paul, eventually, made it to Rome.

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NMHS:

A CAUSE IN MOTION Maritime Heritage Flourishes in Philadelphia—NMHS 2021 Annual Meeting The Annual Meeting provides an opportunity to learn about our maritime heritage in different parts of the country, to meet our members, and to converse with those who are working in local maritime organizations. The meetings increase our knowledge and broaden our impact. Philadelphia provided an inspiring place to do so last month. Among the highlights of our meeting were intriguing behind-the-scenes tours of the historic Battleship New Jersey and the iconic ships Olympia and Gazela Primeiro, as well as Independence Seaport Museum and the Museum of the American Revolution.

courtesy deirdre o’regan

courtesy deirdre o’regan

(left) Trustees, members, and staff touring the Battleship New Jersey gather on the starboard side flag bridge at the ship’s 0-3 level. (right) The 2021 NMHS Annual Meeting took place at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia, home to a number of historic ships.

photo by robb jones

We were pleased to welcome aboard our new trustees, CAPT Patrick C. Burns, USN (Ret.); Dr. Salvatore R. Mercogliano; and Michael M. Morrow; along with Captain Jeffrey McAllister, who had been elected last year. We were elated by the trustee’s positive reports about the status of the Society and inspired by informative presentations

by Philadelphia’s maritime heritage leaders.

photo by robb jones

(above) Dr. William Dudley (at right), our trustee liaison to Sea History, presented the Rodney N. Houghton Award for the Best Feature Article in Sea History. The 2020 winner is Kathleen Broome Williams for her article on Grace Hopper: “Amazing Grace Hopper: The Woman Who Brought the Navy Into the Digital Age.” NMHS trustee Denise Krepp accepted on her behalf. The winner for this past year is Skip Finley, for his article, “John Mashow (1805–1893): From Slavery to Master Shipbuilder and Designer,” and it was accepted for him by trustee Captain Jeffrey McAllister. Congratulations to both winners and our thanks for your contributions to Sea History. (left) Gunnery Officer fires a gun again after 57 years. William J. Green fires a 5-inch/38-caliber gun from the deck of the Battleship New Jersey.

8

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

courtesy tyler putnam

Ryan Szimanski, Director of Cultural and Educational Affairs for Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial, demonstrated that his knowledge of the nation’s most decorated and largest battleship is extensive and his delivery captivating. USS New Jersey (BB-62) earned distinction in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and conflicts in the Middle East. With an overall length of 887 feet, 7 inches, and a maximum waterline beam of 108 feet, 2 inches, she was able to fit through the Panama Canal locks with barely a foot to spare on either side. The New Jersey is considered a technological, scientific, engineering, and military marvel from the time of her launch through evolutions across decades of service. As a memorial and museum, the ship and her dedicated staff educate the public about the role of the United States Navy on the world stage. Ryan has been named the new executive director of the Historic Naval Ships Association, which he will take on while retaining his position with the New Jersey.

Tyler Putman, Gallery Interpretation Manager of the Museum of the American Revolution, described the importance of the collection’s original objects displayed with their stories. With exhibits such as rare American flags, the letters of Betsy Ross, and Washington’s tent, the museum brings to life the trials of Washington’s army and the lives and sacrifices of those who lived during the Revolution and continue to inspire our nation today.

Joining us from California, Marifrances Trivelli, Council of American Maritime Museums president and Los Angeles Maritime Museum executive director (right), Amy Lent, new co-chair of the National Maritime Awards Dinner in Washington, and Sea History editor Deirdre O’Regan (left) enjoy a moment of levity aboard the 1904 fourmasted barque Moshulu, the ship made famous in Eric Newby’s The Last Grain Race.

courtesy john brady courtesy patrick flynn

Patrick Flynn, Superintendent of Ships & Drydocking Manager of the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild reported on the 1901 barquentine Gazela Primeiro. Having fished the Grand Banks for seventy years under the Portuguese flag, in 1971 Gazela arrived in Philadelphia, where she has become the official Tall Ship of Philadelphia. The wooden sailing ship retains much of her original fabric, but the ship, which Alan Villiers called the “ideal sail-training vessel,” is in need of major work. The ship is berthed right at Penn’s Landing, where the Guild engages the public in the city’s working waterfront and actively trains young craftsmen and women. Of the skills training program they instituted last year, Flynn told us that they “use the ship to teach practical job skills and set young people on a career path.”

courtesy ryan szimanski

Susan Gibbs, president of the SS United States Conservancy, met with us to talk about the remarkable ocean liner berthed just down the waterfront from where we were standing. Gibbs’s grandfather, the ship’s designer William Francis Gibbs, was a Philadelphian, and his magnum opus returned to his home town 25 years ago. The United States was the pinnacle of ocean transportation in her day, beating all transAtlantic passenger liner speed records—even on her maiden voyage, running at two-thirds power. Today, she is fighting against time, and the Conservancy is dedicated to saving this important American treasure.

courtesy deirdre o’regan

courtesy susan gibbs

John Brady, president emeritus of the Independence Seaport Museum, gave an impassioned presentation on why we need to save the 1892 protected cruiser USS Olympia, the ship that brought the Unknown Soldier back from WWI, and arguably the ship that persuaded the world to recognize the United States as a world power, following her role in the Battle of Manila Bay. An engineering marvel of her day, Olympia still has so much to teach us, not the least of which is the price we have paid—and continue to pay—to uphold our democracy.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 9

National Maritime Historical Society 2021 Annual Awards Dinner

photo by allison lucas

28 October • New York Yacht Club • New York City

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The NMHS Annual Awards Dinner takes place in the fabulous Model Room at the New York Yacht Club.

inner chairman George W. Carmany III and NMHS chairman Ronald L. Oswald invite you to the National Maritime Historical Society’s 2021 Annual Awards Dinner on 28 October at the New York Yacht Club. After our absence in 2020, the year the world retreated due to COVID-19, we are incredibly pleased to once again gather in the New York Yacht Club’s magnificent Model Room to celebrate four prominent individuals and their contributions to the maritime community. We hope you will join us at this year’s gala—an event that brings together so many who love and serve the sea—as we recognize the outstanding contributions of David K. Elwell Jr., Steven Kalil, CAPT Sally Chin McElwreath, USN (Ret.), and RADM Joseph F. Callo, USN (Ret.).

The 2021 NMHS Honorees David K. Elwell Jr. “Sailing provided experiences I never would have dreamed of…”

courtesy dan nerney, nyyc

David K. Elwell Jr. will receive the NMHS Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his remarkable contributions to yachting and his significant role in the development of the sport of sailing. An America’s Cup winner, a director with Youth Sailing Foundation of Indian River County of Vero Beach, Florida, and a staunch supporter of the National Sailing Hall of Fame’s new Sailing Museum opening next year in Newport, Rhode Island, Elwell has also served with distinction as Commodore of the New York Yacht Club, leading initiatives that expanded the club’s role as an international center of yacht racing, and as past Commodore of American Yacht Club in Rye, New York.

Growing up in the Finger Lakes of New York, Elwell was on the water at an early age, crewing Lightnings for his father. Later, the family moved to Westchester and he joined the Huguenot Yacht Club and sailed Long Island Sound, where his love of sailing blossomed. At age 17 he decided he wanted to become involved in ocean racing. He wrote letters to the owners of the 10

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

courtesy dan nerney, nyyc

The crew of Intrepid (David Elwell 2nd from left) celebrating victory at the 1967 America’s Cup in Newport, Rhode Island.

Elwell is a director with Youth Sailing Foundation of Indian River County, which offers free sailing instruction to kids of all backgrounds, engaging them in a safe, fun, and social activity, while challenging them to be responsible, confident, and independent. A leader of the National Sailing Hall of Fame, Elwell has also helped spearhead the effort to relocate the Sailing Hall of Fame to the Armory building in Newport. In the spring of 2022, it will open the Sailing Museum, which will include state-of-the-art exhibits to highlight the stories and accomplishments of those who have shaped the sport—from designers and builders to coaches and mentors, artists, historians, Olympians, sailmakers, and explorers.

The Society salutes David Elwell for his tireless work promoting sailing, his visionary approach to encourage younger generations to embrace the sport, and his outreach with yacht clubs to provide access and training to diverse members of the community.

David Elwell, then Commodore of the New York Yacht Club, presents an award to CJ Leighton at the 2010 NYYC Annual Awards.

Steven Kalil “I first walked into the shipyard, and I see all the big ships out of the water with all the big equipment and I loved it. I love my job.”

Steven Kalil, President of Caddell Dry Dock & Repair Co., will be recognized with the NMHS Distinguished Service Award for his expertise, commitment, and vision that have helped steer Caddell Dry Dock to great success and made it indispensable to the larger shipping community. Since 1975, when he first joined the company as a young carpenter’s assistant, to becoming president of the shipyard in 1989, he has gained the admiration and appreciation of the community he serves so well.

Kalil’s early years were spent between Staten Island and Santa Barbara, California, where his parents had an avocado ranch. His then-girlfriend, now wife, told him about a job opportunity at Caddell Dry Dock. Taking the job, he stayed back East, going to college at night to study mechanical engineering. Eventually CEO John B. Caddell brought Kalil into the offices, stating, “I need young people,” and Kalil became an assistant to Caddell Vice President Ralph Merrill. In 1989 at a Boothbay Harbor christening party for a new yacht, John Caddell announced the retirement of Ralph Merrill and that Kalil was being appointed president. Unaware of the forthcoming announcement, Kalil shared, “Not vice president, but president. I had no idea. It was a shock!”

Under Kalil’s leadership, Caddell Dry Dock & Repair Co. has continued the maritime tradition of an exceptional shipyard business that began in 1903 and thrives to this day.

Its maintenance projects include service to the Staten Island Ferry fleet, tugs, tankers,

courtesy steven kalil

courtesy dan nerney, nyyc

1966 transAtlantic racers and ended up in a boat owned by Huey Long in the Bermuda TransAtlantic Race, which gave him the big-boat experience to try out for the America’s Cup. In 1967 Bus Mosbacher asked Elwell to sail in Intrepid as crew. He went on to serve as a member of Valiant’s crew in 1970.

Elwell’s early sailing experiences shaped his views on the sport, and he has been an ardent supporter of initiatives to attract area youth and disadvantaged members of the community to experience the joys and challenges of sailing. He has emphasized collaboration with non-profit organizations like Sail Newport, New England’s largest public sailing center, which offers affordable access to sailing and promotes diversity and inclusion within the sport. Elwell states, “It is one way to give back to the sport of sailing, and also a way to give back to the community.”

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courtesy steven kalil

lighters, and barges from all the major maritime transport companies of the East Coast. As a full-service shipyard with its own machine shops, pipe shops, and all the trades necessary to repair vessels, Caddell has operated under the same family for three generations, constructing and servicing thousands of vessels, and repairing or restoring historical vessels including the US Coast Guard barque Eagle, Gazela Primeiro of Philadelphia, “HMS” Rose, the replica of Henry Hudson’s Half Moon, and the historic windjammers Wavertree and Peking, to name a few.

“When somebody throws a Wavertree or an old wooden tugboat at [us], I get more involved, because it’s interesting. It’s a challenge to find talent to work on old craft; we bring people from all over to do the work. On the Wavertree, I met a whole new group of people from the West Coast who knew how to do rigging. I love this job. I have been here 46 years. I enjoy it.

It’s a good reason to get up every morning.”

Steve Kalil out in the yard at Caddell Dry Dock & Repair Co. Kalil has served as board chair of the Noble Maritime Collection and as past president of the Maritime Association of the Port of NY/NJ. He has delivered extraordinary service to the maritime heritage community and the larger shipping industry, impressively managing the oldest, largest, and one of the most technologically advanced shipyards in the New York Metropolitan Area.

CAPT Sally Chin McElwreath, USN (Ret.) and RADM Joseph Callo, USN (Ret.) “What NMHS is doing is keeping history alive.”

CAPT Sally Chin McElwreath, USN (Ret.), formerly a corporate executive, served in the Navy Reserve for 27 years, and more recently, was director of the USS New York (LPD-21) Commissioning Committee. She has been a communications strategist, specializing in crisis, strategic, and marketing communications in the oil, airline, publishing, and energy industries. She retired as a senior vice president for Aquila Energy, a Fortune 100 company.

In addition to her service as a long-time trustee of the National Maritime Historical Society, today CAPT McElwreath serves on the boards of the US Naval Service Personnel Supplemental Educational Assistance Fund, and is a founding member, along with her husband, RADM Callo, of the American Friends of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, whose goal is to enhance the special relationship between the US and UK and their navies. She is on the Advisory Committee of the New York Council of the Navy League and is a co-founder of the US Naval Personnel Educational Assistance Program, which, during the COVID-19 pandemic, provided laptop computers to children of USS New York crew members who had to attend school remotely.

courtesy allison lucas

courtesy capt sally chin mcelwreath, usn (ret.)

CAPT Sally Chin McElwreath, USN (Ret.) and RADM Joseph Callo, USN (Ret.) will be the first couple to receive the NMHS David A. O’Neil Sheet Anchor Award. They are extraordinary ambassadors for the Society, extending its outreach globally. Their support has been invaluable, inviting NMHS to represent the United States, along with the American Friends of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, at events in Portsmouth, England. There, the Society was introduced to Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne, whom NMHS subsequently honored with the Distinguished Service Award in 2015. Additionally, they have engaged the Society’s support with Pickle Night dinners, which honor Lord Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar, and arranged for Society representation at countless maritime events, including Navy League Dinners and Fleet Week receptions.

CAPT Sally Chin McElwreath as a young naval officer.

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CAPT McElwreath’s love of the sea and its history evolved through her work with the Navy, which began when she was offered a direct commission in the Naval Reserve as a lieutenant (junior grade) with a public affairs designation, and her marriage to a man with a great interest in all things maritime. She and RADM Callo are enthusiastic supporters of the Society and share a passion in promoting our common maritime heritage. As CAPT McElwreath has emphasized, “All history is maritime history, and yet the emphasis on teaching history in today’s education system is dwindling—robbing the next generation of the precious commodity of hindsight. What NMHS is doing is keeping history alive.”

courtesy radm joseph callo, usn (ret.)

RADM Joseph Callo, USN (Ret.), a 35-year veteran, is an awardwinning author and screenwriter on maritime and naval matters and naval heroes. His books about prominent naval leaders include Nelson in the Caribbean: The Hero Emerges, 1784–1787; Nelson Speaks: Admiral Lord Nelson in His Own Words; Legacy of Leadership—Lessons from Admiral Lord Nelson; and John Paul Jones: America’s First Sea Warrior, which focuses on America’s first and best-known naval hero.

Before writing full-time, RADM Callo was a senior executive with major advertising agencies and a producer for NBC-TV and PBS. He has taught communication arts at St. John’s University in New York. In addition, he has written for a variety of magazines and newspapers and is a frequent public speaker on radio and television.

His numerous awards include the George Foster Peabody Broadcasting Award, a Telly Award, and the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for RADM Callo at the helm, sailing in the British Virgin Islands.

Naval Literature.

Born in New York City, RADM Callo first learned to sail at age 13 and is an experienced and skilled sailor. Upon graduating from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1952, he was commissioned from the Yale University Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps and served two years of sea duty with the US Navy’s Atlantic Amphibious Forces, where he was qualified as a surface warfare officer. Upon returning to civilian life, he commanded three reserve public affairs units and performed reserve duty with a variety of US Navy commands, including the pre-commissioning detail of USS Saratoga.

In addition to serving as the US Navy’s first Director of the Navy Reserve Public Affairs Program, RADM Callo is a member of the Society for Nautical Research, the Naval Club (London, England), Yale Club of New York, and is the founding president of the Greater New York Chapter of the Surface Navy Association. He serves as an overseer for the National Maritime Historical Society.

CAPT McElwreath and RADM Callo have been invaluable to the National Maritime Historical Society, furthering its outreach and importance in myriad ways. Each of them has made a significant contribution to maritime history and heritage, and together they have long been a formidable force in the maritime heritage community.

You are invited to join us for the 2021 NMHS Annual Awards Dinner on Thursday, 28 October 2021.

New York Yacht Club, 37 W 44th Street, New York City Reception begins at 6:00 pm, with Dinner at 7:00 pm Black Tie Optional • Military: Dinner Dress Blue For more information about the dinner, auction or sponsorship, and to buy tickets, Please visit our website at www.SeaHistory.org/AAD2021/ or contact Wendy Paggiotta, NMHS Vice President: vicepresident@seahistory.org • 914-737-7878, ext. 557 A. G. A. Correa & Son has generously donated a beautiful hand-woven 7-inch sterling silver 4-strand Turk’s Head bracelet valued at $1,950 for our raffle at the Awards Dinner. You need not be present to win. Raffle tickets are $20 each, 3 for $50, 8 for $100, 22 for $250, or 50 for $500. Call 914 737-7878 before October 18th to order ticket(s).

Beginning September 13th, government mandates that New York City restaurants will require proof of at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

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“A Better Commander Cannot Be Had…”

The Untold Story of Joannes Wyllie, Scottish Captain of the Blockade Runner Ad-Vance

by John F. Messner

He is a young man, and promises to become highly useful… We believe he is yet destined to fill some office of no mean rank.

T

© csg cic glasgow museums collection

he most important officer of the famous Civil War blockade runner AdVance wasn’t a Confederate—he wasn’t even an American. Until recently, the history of the Scottish captain was relegated to the footnotes of the history of the steamer, but new research has now revealed that Joannes Wyllie was a constant force on the vessel’s operations and success from the day it left Scotland and in fact was more important to its success than the two other commanders to have manned its helm and to whom most of the Ad-Vance’s exploits are credited, Thomas Morrow Crossan and John Julius Guthrie.

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—from a review of Joannes Wyllie when he was a schoolteacher before he went to sea.

Born in 1828 in the Scottish Borders, the son of a gardener, Wyllie did not seem destined to become a sea captain, much less one who would serve at the helm of a sidewheel steamer racing towards the mouth of the Cape Fear River while evading the guns of Union navy warships. He showed academic promise as a young man and was awarded a place at the University of St Andrews. Several years of study led him to take up the post of teacher at a local school near his home in Fife. Though a career as a shaper of minds seemed suitable to the young man, an act of “blackguardism” had him declared dead in the local

newspaper. The exact details of this act and the events that led up to it are a mystery, but soon afterwards Wyllie traded the schoolhouse for the deck of a barque setting sail from Glasgow, bound for Bombay.

He started as a true hawsepiper, signing on as an apprentice aboard the Hope.

Over the next ten years, Wyllie served aboard barques, clippers, and steamers while visiting ports across the globe. Adventures almost too far-fetched to believe were had, including surviving a poisoning, a shark attack, sinkings, and the threat of starvation when his ship was disabled by a storm and left adrift in the mid-Atlantic.

All the while he worked his way up the ranks and ultimately earned his master’s certificate in 1862. He took command of the screw steamer Bonita, then being made ready for a voyage to Nassau.

The Bonita was an ocean-going merchant steamer that had recently returned to Liverpool from a run through the blockade outside Charleston, South Carolina.

The Civil War was raging, and supplies for the rebel states needed to be brought through the naval blockade of Southern ports that had been ordered by President Lincoln. Thousands of British sailors and officers joined the crews of blockade runners, the finest of which were the sidewheel paddle steamers built in Glasgow and Liverpool. A successful run into Wilmington, North Carolina, or Charleston, South Carolina, could be extremely lucrative to all members of the crew. Like many others, Wyllie saw an opportunity to make a quick fortune.

Wyllie steered Bonita to Nassau in the Bahamas with the intention to run the blockade, but by the time of his arrival in the autumn of 1862 the steamer was feared too slow to evade the waiting warships at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Wyllie was forced to return to Liverpool without the big payday, but a chance encounter on The only known photograph of Joannes Wyllie, taken in 1862.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

museums’ department collections at historic charleston foundation, sc

The Bonita, shown here under its previous name, Economist, during its single successful run into Charleston, South Carolina, in the spring of 1862. (below) “She is an extremely fine specimen of the perfection to which naval architecture is now brought.” A description of the Lord Clyde from the time of her launch in 1862. Painting by famed Scottish maritime artist William Clark.

charleston museum, object from the southern maritime collection, state of sc

this return voyage led to his future role in the Ad-Vance, which would become one of the most successful runners of the war.

Zebulon Vance, the recently elected governor of North Carolina, had ordered agents to be sent to England to procure supplies for his state and a steamer in which to carry them. Thomas Morrow Crossan, an experienced naval officer, was charged with finding a suitable ship; John White was a businessman, carrying cotton bonds to be used to purchase the cargo and steamer. The two made their way to Nassau, where they booked passage in the Bonita to Liverpool. It was during the transAtlantic voyage that Captain Wyllie’s involvement with the Ad-Vance began. How exactly he was selected as the commanding officer for the Confederate steamer has been lost to time, but providence might have played a part. For John White himself was Scottish, born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, very near Wyllie’s family home. One can only imagine the men’s discussions as the Bonita made its way back to the docks on the river

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hathitrust digital library, p.d.

Mersey. What can definitively be stated is that, after its arrival, White and Crossan went to work on their tasks for North Carolina and Wyllie found himself at the helm of the Lord Clyde, the steamer purchased by White for the mission.

Lord Clyde had been recently launched

by Caird and Company of Greenock, originally intended for the Dublin–Glasgow route. Like many such vessels working the rivers Clyde and Mersey, it was eyed by Confederate officials and privateers alike as an ideal blockade runner. Its machinery was of the latest design and, thanks to its feathered paddles and a sleek hull, the steamer could reach eighteen knots in open water. This was considerably faster than almost anything the US Navy might be able to throw at it. Her large holds could carry ample supplies of both cargo and coal, while extra bales of cotton could be stacked and lashed on deck for the return runs out of the South. On 21 May 1863, Wyllie took the steamer from Glasgow and headed for Nassau, beginning his fifteen-month association with the vessel. Soon afterwards, the ship was renamed Ad-Vance, and it would go on to make more than a dozen successful runs through the blockade of Wilmington.

With Wyllie recorded in the ship’s papers as Ad-Vance’s captain on this first voyage, the new owners might have some cover if the vessel were caught and searched

by Union warships during the long sprint across the Atlantic. Not long after this passage, Crossan is listed as “in command,” 16

but Wyllie had experience that neither Crossan nor the ship’s later captain, Guthrie, could offer. The Scotsman had served in some of the most modern steamers to come out of the Liverpool and Glasgow yards, and his knowledge of the latest boiler, engine, and paddle technology would have been invaluable to the Confederate officers, who were more accustomed to larger naval ships.

Wyllie was officially granted full command of the steamer on 29 February 1864.

After guiding the steamer to Liverpool in May 1864 for badly needed repairs, he was presented with a gold chronometer with an etching of the vessel on the cover, which had been commissioned for him by the grateful owners. Joseph Flanner, agent for the State of North Carolina in England at the time, wrote to Governor Vance on the occasion of Wyllie assuming command, commenting that “Captain Wyllie has done well for the ship and a better commander cannot be had for her.” But Wyllie’s luck did not hold; he was at the helm when the Ad-Vance was captured by USS Santiago de Cuba on the night of September 10 as it left the Cape Fear River bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia. Prior to his capture, Wyllie made fifteen trips through the blockade, which ranks him as one of the most successful captains of the war.

Wyllie’s personality can be teased out by studying the personal diaries, records, and recollections of his fellow crew and passengers who witnessed his seamanship and command style in action. Maybe the

courtesy north carolina museum of history

“The War in America: View of Nassau, in the British West Indies, the Depot for the Blockade-Running Trade,” printed in the Illustrated London News, 16 April 1864. The Bahamas and Bermuda saw tremendous activity as the launching points for runs through the Union blockade to southern ports. The faster blockade runners could reach Charleston or Wilmington in two or three days from either island.

Until recently, Thomas Morrow Crossan was credited as captain of the Lord Clyde when it left Glasgow. best description comes from the Reverend Moses Hoge, a passenger on the October 1863 run into Wilmington. He gave an evocative description of the man: “Captain Wyllie is a warm-hearted Scotchman ... big, burly and red-faced, full of enthusiasm, full of poetry.”

There are several published accounts of Wyllie’s runs through the blockade; the most graphic accounts were described by the captain himself and appeared in a women’s magazine published in Dundee, Scotland. In addition to useful household tips, jam recipes, and romantic serialized fiction, the magazine also contained biographies of many Victorian worthies.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

© csg cic glasgow museums collection

The only known war-time photograph of the Confederate blockade runner Ad-Vance, taken in Nassau in 1863. Wyllie may be one of those seen atop the paddle box. She is flying the Confederate First National flag aft. Note her feathering paddlewheel.

Wyllie recounted many of his stories to his friend, author Peter Anton, whose article appeared in the summer of 1889. The suspense in the telling of his first run through the blockade is a yarn well spun: When the night came on they had got into a fairly good position. Every aperture through which a ray of light could penetrate was carefully screened. Every man took his station, and every heartbeat high with hope, excitement, and expectation. The captain and pilot were on the bridge, with the men at the wheel standing quite near. All the firemen in the stock-hole. All the sailors were standing round the bulwarks scanning every point, and the look-out men were on the paddle boxes, one on each. Anxiously they looked for what they did not want to see. From one of the paddle boxes came the distinct whisper, “A steamer three points on the starboard bow.” “How standing?” “Northward.” “All right, Starboard a little, and steady, steady.” The danger passes. They creep slowly on. Another whisper from the paddle box. “A vessel right

ahead, sir.” “Stop her” is the word to the engineers; “and stand ready for a run.” The pilot hints she keeps a careless look out. Says one of the paddle box men, scarcely above his breath, “she is moving Southward.”

“East ahead,” is the captain’s order.

A few minutes of almost intolerable suspense and the outer cordon is safely passed. Slowly they glide along till they come within the range of the second line. “Two vessels on the port side,” from the husky voice of a seaman in the bow.

“Another, a quarter of a point further to port.” “Another, right ahead and heading down on us.” A whew and a hiss from a lively rocket. “We are seen. Full speed ahead.”

After his exploits with the Ad-Vance, Wyllie went on to attempt one more run through the blockade, this time at the helm of the Deer. The newly built runner had come over from Liverpool just as the war was ending. Wyllie took command and set sail for Charleston, but luck failed him again; the steel-hulled steamer ran aground and was captured by USS Catskill on the very night that the city fell to Union forces. He was then taken to Boston as witness

for the Prize Court and expected to face imprisonment. Unable to stomach the idea of being locked inside a cell, Wyllie executed an elaborate escape. He fled from federal officials disguised as a “hard shell Quaker,” made his way to New York, and subsequently stowed away aboard a steamer bound for Glasgow.

When the war was over and thus, too, his employment as a blockade runner, Wyllie took up the tenancy of a farm that had been worked by his father for the past twenty years. If he had gained riches during his time aboard the Ad-Vance, they were not exhibited during his life as a farmer.

He owned no other properties and seemed settled into a life of tilling the land. Over the years he gave numerous lectures about his exciting life at sea and his time as a blockade runner, attracting large crowds whose ticket fees were then always turned over to a local charity or good cause. That is, until his last major lecture in November of 1901. In front of his largest ever audience, he recounted his adventures once more and was granted the proceeds from the night.

If fortune had found him in the 1860s, it had certainly left him by his later years.

Joannes Wyllie died in April 1902. He left no fortune in his will and his farm was soon let to another tenant. He is buried in

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© csg cic glasgow museums collection

Joannes Wyllie once owned this oil painting of the Ad-Vance, by Samuel Walters.

After her capture by USS Santiago de Cuba, the Ad-Vance was taken into service in the US Navy, first as USS Advance, and in June 1865 renamed USS Frolic. In this photograph she is in the foreground, in Naples, Italy, circa 1865-1869.

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John F. Messner is a curator of transport and technology at the Riverside Museum in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2015 he co-curated an exhibition about Glasgow’s role in the American Civil War, which led to his research on the life of Joannes Wyllie. Originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, Messner is a graduate of Butler University in Indianapolis and received his Master’s degree in Museum Studies from Leicester University, England. He has worked in Great Britain for the past

twenty years and lives with his family in Ayrshire. His first book, A Scottish Blockade Runner in the American Civil War— Joannes Wyllie of the Steamer Ad-Vance, charts the career of the Scot from his first apprenticeship until his last command; it also offers the most comprehensive history of that steamer ever published. (Whittles Publishing, in association with Glasgow Museums, 2021, isbn 978-184995-482-2. Available at www. nbnbooks.com and Amazon.com.)

us navy photo, naval history and heritage command

the family plot in Kirkcaldy with no acknowledgement of his maritime career.

Though he had wowed crowds for years with his tales of adventure and running the blockade, it appears his fame soon faded.

Wyllie’s life and his impact on the success of the Ad-Vance were rediscovered as I was conducting research for an exhibition we were creating on Glasgow’s role in the American Civil War that opened in 2015 at the Riverside Museum in Glasgow.

At the heart of the display was an oil painting of the steamer by noted maritime artist Samuel Walters. The painting had been owned by Wyllie himself and was donated to the museum in 1917 by his nephew.

When the exhibition was being planned, we knew almost nothing of the man, what he had done before or after the war, or whether he was even Scottish. A search through archives in Scotland and the United States has revealed a fuller picture of his life, from the early days as a teacher, his quite amazing adventures at sea before the war, and his pivotal role in the success of the Ad-Vance.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

NMHS Legacy Society If you believe we can learn from the past...Create a legacy to shape the future.

Since our founding in 1963, the National Maritime Historical Society has striven to tell the stories, great and small, that make up the wondrous panorama of our maritime history. Over the last six decades, hundreds of thousands of readers have discovered in the pages of Sea History magazine a treasure-trove of stories that captivate, inspire and enlighten us all about the vital role of the sea— and those who have sailed upon it.

The lessons that our seafaring heritage can teach—courage, ingenuity, self-reliance, and resourcefulness—are timeless. It is more important than ever to bring these lessons to young people—tomorrow’s maritime leaders and informed citizens of the republic.

Now you can create a legacy for the next generation to ensure this important part of history is not lost. We know that maritime history is world history, yet the emphasis on teaching history in today’s education system is dwindling— depriving our youth of the precious commodity of hindsight.

Help NMHS keep history alive!

Making a legacy gift to the Society is a deeply personal and effective way to support our lifelong work, and has a transformative impact on our ability to promote maritime heritage and inspire future generations.

A gift in your will or living trust is one of the most effective ways to provide for the Society’s future, and allows you to retain your assets during your lifetime. Alternatively, naming the National Maritime Historical Society on a portion of a retirement or life insurance policy is a simple way to provide for NMHS’s future without writing or re-writing your will or living trust. We are happy to assist as you consider a planned gift to NMHS. Please visit us at www.seahistory.org/plannedgiving, email plannedgiving@seahistory.org, or call us (914) 737-7878 Ext. 0 for more information.

Have you already made a legacy gift?

We hope you will notify us when you have included us in your future planning so that we may thank you and welcome you as a new member of our NMHS Legacy Society.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 19

B

The British Customs Service in Colonial America

y the eve of the War of Independence, customs houses and customs house officers were the most visible manifestation of British authority in colonial America. Having been established by Parliament in 1275 during the reign of King Edward I, the English customs service had a long history by the start of England’s colonization of North America. Local tariffs on imports and exports had an even longer history, but Edward’s “great and ancient custom”—a tax on exported wool, sheepskins, and leather—was national in scope and managed by Crown officials.1 With varying degrees of success, the king’s customs expanded over the following two centuries to encompass alien duties, “tonnage and poundage” fees, and a host of short-lived impositions. The growth of trade in the sixteenth century under the Tudors was accompanied by improvements in administrative efficiency. In the 1560s, for example, Queen Elizabeth introduced port books, the first registers of ships and cargoes, and a book of instructions establishing uniform practices. There were periods when the customs duties were farmed out, wholly or in part (that is, transferred by the Crown to individuals who paid fees for the privilege of collecting the money).

by Thomas M. Truxes

Contracting out continued intermittently until 1671, when King Charles II created the Board of Customs Commissioners as an agency subordinate to the Treasury.2 By the middle of the eighteenth century, the customs service had grown into a huge operation whose Byzantine regulations governed over 2,000 dutiable goods.

Broad supervision of this sprawling institution—with thousands of employees and many customs districts on both sides of the Atlantic—was the responsibility of the Commissioners of the Customs, headquartered in the London Custom House.

Before 1707 Scotland had its own customs board, as it was considered a foreign country in its commercial interactions with England. A distinct Scottish customs board continued after the Acts of Union (1706 and 1707) but was abolished in 1723 following strident complaints by English merchants that anomalies in the law encouraged smuggling and unfairly advantaged Scotland.3 Ireland was a special case.

Though it shared a monarch with England and was constrained by complex constitutional ties to Great Britain, the Kingdom of Ireland was, in fact, a separate country.

As such, it had its own customs service and its own enforcement apparatus—though

carefully synchronized to conform to practices across the Irish Sea. The customs establishment in America, on the other hand, operated under the supervision of the London Commissioners. It was not until 1767 that Great Britain established the American Board of Customs Commissioners to oversee the customs service in British North America.4 Much has been written about inefficiency and venality in the British customs service, particularly as it related to colonial trade. The marvel is—given the herculean task before it—how well it functioned. The showpiece of the customs establishment was the London Custom House. There have been several iterations of the London Custom House since the reign of Queen Elizabeth.5 “The stateliness of the building,” Defoe wrote in 1724, “showed the greatness of the business that is transacted there: the Long Room is like an Exchange every morning, and the crowd of people who appear there, and the business they do, is not to be explained by words, nothing of that kind in Europe is like it.”6 A huge volume of trade passed through the labyrinth of the customs service—in London, the English outports, and ports in Scotland, Ireland, and British America.

Custom House, London. Colorized drawing from Several Prospects of the Most Noted Buildings in and about the City of London.

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SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

norman b. leventhal map center, boston public library

On entering a harbor, the captain of a trading ship reported to the collector, the ranking customs official in the port. The captain then turned over his ship’s cockets—a certificate given to merchants warranting that goods have been duly entered through customs and all duties paid. Meanwhile, a “tide-waiter” came aboard the ship, and no part of the cargo could be landed until he had made a list of the cargo and searched for contraband. The cargo was then landed under supervision of a “landwaiter,” who checked the goods as they came from the ship, after which a weigher and gauger examined dutiable items for customs assessments. When illegal goods were found, they were seized and stored for closer inspection or further action. If information obtained by the collector, tidewaiter, and land-waiter was in conformity, a customs fee was assessed, and the goods could be claimed when the duties were paid or satisfactory arrangements had been made for payment. The process of entering a cargo was more-or-less reversed when a vessel was cleared for departure.7 The customs service was the chief mechanism for enforcing the Acts of Trade and Navigation in North America and the West Indies. At first, enforcement had been the responsibility of colonial governors, but local control bred connivance and uneven application of the law. In October 1671, Charles II appointed the first royal customs officer in the colonies—Dudley Digges, a native of Virginia—and two years later Parliament approved extension of the customs service to English America.8 These measures were intended to check the continuing Dutch presence in colonial trade— particularly in the Chesapeake. But persistent disregard of the law “by the artifice and cunning of ill-disposed persons” led to passage in 1696 of the “Act for Preventing Frauds, and Regulating Abuses in the Plantation Trade,” the last of the Acts of Trade and Navigation.9 By authorizing general search warrants—known as writs of assistance—and allowing forcible entry where there was suspicion of concealment of contraband, the Act of 1696 put colonial customs officers on the same footing as their English counterparts.

Customs officials in British North America confronted a long coastline in-

Thi engraved print by Paul Revere depicts British soldiers landing in Boston Harbor in 1768 after the American colonists rioted in protest of the Townshend Acts. A cartouche in the lower right corner shows a Native American, a symbol of colonial America, with his foot on the neck of a British soldier. dented by coves, rivers, creeks, and inlets— ideal for the running of contraband and undermining the authority of the customs service. Coastlines in the British Caribbean were not so daunting. There, the challenge lay in the proximity of foreign ports, eager to exchange their sugar and molasses for fish, flour, lumber, and the miscellaneous produce of North America. To confront these threats, in the second decade of the eighteenth century the American customs was split into three departments, each responsible to the Commissioners of the Customs in London. On the North American mainland, the northern department included customs districts extending from Newfoundland to New Jersey; the southern department took in those from Pennsylvania to the Carolinas, with the addition of Bermuda and the Bahamas; the third department encompassed the islands of the British West Indies.10 Even so, the reluctance of the Treasury to increase the number of customs officials and the unwillingness of the Admiralty to furnish a sufficient number of vessels to interdict offenders in American waters increased the likelihood of successful avoidance of customs regulations by determined smugglers.11 By the middle decades of the eighteenth century, it was evident that only a small fraction of anticipated customs revenue was

actually being collected. Nothing of consequence was done until Parliament’s passage of the Customs Enforcement Act of 1763, legislation that deputized officers of the Royal Navy as customs agents. Although this reform achieved moderate success, it transformed naval officers from the protectors of colonial trade to its nemesis.

A year later, the customs establishment in America was again reorganized, this time into five departments, three on the mainland and two in the islands. Then in 1767— in an effort at ongoing reform—an American Board of Customs Commissioners, headquartered in Boston and responsible directly to the Treasury, was given jurisdiction over the entire North American continent (along with Bermuda and the Bahamas), with Jamaica and the other West Indian islands remaining under the control of the London Customs Board.12 Reform brought positive change. That is, if positive change is understood as an increase in customs receipts. But it also contributed to rising discontent in British America that fueled the coming of the American Revolution.

Measuring the effectiveness of the customs service in British America is not so easy. Strict observance of the complex customs code was almost impossible, and few men in the service were fully conversant

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 21

Notes

virginia department of historic resources

with the intricate and sometimes contradictory requirements of the Acts of Trade and Navigation.13 Much has been made of smuggling, evasion, and bribery—and rightly so. Such abuses, however, did not pertain to all aspects of colonial commerce.

Violations were most flagrant in New England and the Middle colonies, places where trade was built on complex multilateral shipping patterns. “When I went to examine the customs houses, I found nothing but confusion and roguery,” wrote a customs inspector on his visit to Connecticut in 1707.14 No doubt he did! Violations were also rampant in the plantation colonies of the Upper and Lower South and the West Indies, but most of the produce of those regions was destined for ports in Great Britain, where the enforcement regime was far more efficient—and unforgiving—than that in British America.15 Even so, strong evidence suggests that most merchants and mariners played by the rules—at least, most of the time.16 In spite of the persistence of schemes to subvert the law, the half-century before the American Revolution saw a growing acceptance of the Acts of Navigation and—like them or not—the requirements of the customs service. On both sides of the Atlantic, the wealthiest and best connected merchants saw trade regulation as the protective armor of privilege. But such thinking had its limits. Monday’s “fair trader” might still be Tuesday’s smuggler. There was in this Janus-

The Custom House in Yorktown was constructed around 1721 by Richard Ambler, who came to Virginia from England in 1716. Ambler used the house in his duties as customs collector. faced business culture a willingness to cooperate with the customs service (when it served one’s interest), as well as readiness to act without an over-scrupulous reading of commercial statutes (when it served one’s interest).17 In other words, business as usual.

Thomas M. Truxes is a Clinical Professor of Irish Studies and History at New York University. He specializes in early-modern Irish

N. S. B. Gras, “The Origin of the National Customs-Revenue of England,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 27:1 (November 1912), 107–49; N. S. B. Gras, The Early English Customs System: A Documentary Study of the Institutional and Economic History of the Customs from the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, MA: 1918), 93–94.

2 Elizabeth Evelynola Hoon, The Organization of the English Customs System, 1696–1786 (Newton Abbot, Devon, 1968), 6–7.

3 Jacob M. Price, “Glasgow, the Tobacco Trade, and the Scottish Customs, 1707–1730: Some Commercial, Administrative and Political Implications of the Union,” Scottish Historical Review, 63:175 (April 1984), 1–36.

4 Joseph R. Frese, “Some Observations on the American Board of Customs Commissioners,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, 81 (1969), 3.

5 John Entick, A New and Accurate History and Survey of London, Westminster, Southwark, and Places Adjacent, 4 vols. (London, 1766), 4:325.

6 Daniel Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, edited

by Pat Rogers (London, 1971), 306, 312.

7 Alfred S. Martin, “The King’s Customs: Philadelphia, 1763–1774,” William and Mary Quarterly, 5:2 (April 1948), 202.

8 Thomas C. Barrow, Trade and Empire: The British Customs Service in Colonial America, 1660–1775 (Cambridge, MA, 1967), 12–15.

1

22

history and the history of the Atlantic World prior to 1800, especially the role played by overseas trading enterprises linking Ireland to the larger Atlantic economy and society.

He is the author of Irish American Trade, 1660–1783 and Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York. His latest effort, The Overseas Trade of British America: A Narrative History (Yale University Press, isbn 978-0-30015-988-2), is due for release on 30 November 2021.

7 & 8 William III, c. 22 Barrow, Trade and Empire, 72.

11 Charles M. Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History, 4 vols.

(New Haven, 1964), 4:178.

12 Dora Mae Clark, The Rise of the British Treasury: Colonial Administration in the Eighteenth Century (Newton Abbot, Devon, 1960), 17; Barrow, Trade and Empire, 72–73, 186–87, 221.

13 Alfred S. Martin, “The King’s Customs: Philadelphia, 1763–1774,” WMQ, 5:2 (April 1948), 203.

14 Frank Wesley Pitman, The Development of the British West Indies, 1700–1763 (New Haven, 1917), 194.

15 Pringle to Erving, October 16, 1739, Walter B. Edgar, ed., The Letterbook of Robert Pringle [1737–1745], 2 vols. (Columbia, SC, 1972), 1:142–43).

16 T. H. Breen, “An Empire of Goods: The Anglicization of Colonial America, 1690-1776,” Journal of British Studies, 25:4 (October 1986), 490; John J. McCusker and Russell R. Menard, The Economy of British America, 1607–1789 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1985), 48–50.

17 Thomas M. Truxes, The Overseas Trade of British America: A Narrative History (New Haven, 2021), 122–23.

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SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

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SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 23

Steamboat Rivalry on the Columbia River:

Captain Ernest Spencer vs. The Dalles, Portland and Astoria Navigation Company

D

espite the Pacific Northwest’s irreversible transition to the railroad network so vital to the area today, steam navigation on inland waters held strong into the first decade of the 20th century. On the Columbia River, the nimble and durable sternwheeler was a commercial favorite: low rates, accessibility and often superior reliability minimized risk both for shippers and travelers, especially when floods and snowstorms rendered railroad tracks inoperable.

Still, steamboat owners were under pressure and had to constantly compete for revenue, not just with new railroad companies, but also, and much more intensely, with each other. Rate-cutting, racing, aggressive advertising, and even the use of force were common strategies operators employed to win an advantage over other lines. Possibly the last of these rivalries to play out on the Columbia was the between local transportation conglomerate, The Dalles, Portland and Astoria Navigation Company (DPAN), and Captain Ernest Spencer, a veteran steamboat captain with a 45-year career. From 1901 to 1911, these two owners mobilized employees, journalists, and local communities to win customers and disrupt each other in ways that would never be seen again due to a significant decrease in steam navigation and the passing of new antitrust legislation.

Colum

bia R

iver

detroit publishing co. collection, library of congress

by Mychal Ostler

Steamboat below the Cascades of the Columbia River, 1901. The Cascade Locks and Canal were completed by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1896 to enable steamboats to bypass the rapids and access the lower parts of the river to The Dalles.

In the late 1890s, DPAN enjoyed a monopoly over all river traffic between Portland and The Dalles, Oregon. The absence of an alternative steamboat service on this hundred-mile reach of the Columbia River frustrated patrons, whose complaints about DPAN’s exorbitant freight charges and unreliable schedules made their way into local newspapers.

WASHINGTON

Colum

Portland

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Ca sc ad e

Lo ck s

Pacific Ocean

Astoria

Lyle

bia Riv er

The Dalles

OREGON

Given the frustration, Captain Spencer detected a business opportunity. In 1901, he refitted his towboat, the Charles R. Spencer, with an extended cabin and began shipping freight and passengers between Portland and The Dalles. Immediately, the Spencer won the affections of small riverside communities. She was praised for her reliability, comfort, and faithful service The 1,243-mile Columbia River is the 4th largest river in the United States (by volume).

Navigable for hundreds of miles inland from the sea, it has been used as a transportation route since ancient times. When steamboat travel arrived on the river in the 19th century, it was used to connect communities and allowed further development of cities and towns along its banks. Infrastructure projects along the river, including locks, canals, dams, and dredging, have made it navigable to ship traffic far beyond the shallows and rapids that restricted travel for the better part of the 19th century and before. Today, oceangoing commercial ships can navigate as far as Portland, Oregon, and smaller vessels and barges can make it as far as Lewiston, Idaho, via its largest tributary, the Snake River.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

The sternwheeler Bailey Gatzert pictured on a postcard dated 1910. The steamboat was built in Ballard, Washington, and launched in 1890. Her machinery was manufactured in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was carried to the West Coast by train. (below) The Charles R. Spencer and the Bailey Gatzert in the Cascade Locks, c. 1906.

library of congress

to numerous waypoints that DPAN’s sternwheelers routinely passed by.

DPAN management was attuned to the glowing reviews of its new competitor, as well as their company’s recently decreased revenue. It acted quickly and with aggressive measures to restore dominance in the Portland-The Dalles market. First, DPAN changed the schedules of its most popular sternwheelers, the Dalles City and Bailey Gatzert, to match the itinerary of the Charles. R. Spencer. Later, DPAN attempted to block the Spencer from landing at certain docks by threatening Captain Spencer with legal action and constructing a barbed-wire fence around the wharf in Lyle, Washington.

Early one morning after a layover, the Dalles City snuck out of the harbor an hour before her scheduled departure time. Landing at Bingen, Washington, far ahead of the other steamers, the Dalles City crew approached consigners of a cattle shipment waiting to be loaded onto the Spencer. After the crew convinced the reluctant shippers that the transfer of their freight had already been authorized by Captain Spencer, the Dalles City loaded the cattle and made off downstream.

Word of DPAN’s attempts to sabotage the Spencer spread quickly along the river.

Journalists supporting the Spencer published expressions of outrage in local newspapers, admonishing DPAN management, calling for a wholesale boycott of its services and casting Captain Spencer as a hero.

The press fueled a bitter rivalry, publishing facts, rumors, and daily developments of what escalated into a rate war between the two steamboat operators. DPAN was the first to issue price cuts, announcing new rates at ports of call and in the streets of The Dalles, where its representatives hung posters and handed out fliers. Captain Spencer responded by offering even deeper discounts, and the two companies took turns undercutting each other. As rates shrank, river traffic grew. Soon, railroads running through the Columbia Gorge found themselves losing business, and hotels at The Dalles were crammed to capacity each night. Eventually, demand proved too much for the Spencer, and her captain was forced to turn away customers. His only relief came when he called off the war and raised prices.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 25

Passengers socialize and take in the view on the hurricane deck as the Charles R. Spencer stands by below the lower gates at Cascade Locks. Light clothing and opened cabin windows suggest a warm day on the river.

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Mychal Ostler is a lifelong Pacific Northwest maritime history enthusiast. Raised on the shores of the Columbia River and having worked several seasons as an engineer aboard the sternwheeler Columbia Gorge, Ostler is intimately familiar with paddle steamer operations and lower Columbia River navigation. Mr. Ostler can be reached at mychal. ostler@gmail.com.

author’s collection

us army corps of engineers, courtesy bonneville power administration

The Bailey Gatzert (at left) and the Charles R. Spencer steering for the Cascade Locks.

Nevertheless, even after the rate inThough steamboat captains often igcreases, demand for the steamboats re- nored the new speed limit, it provided othmained high. The opening of new resorts ers a means to redress grievances about and the Lewis and Clark Exposition boost- what some considered reckless behavior. ed tourism along the Columbia River and Captain Spencer was summoned to testify generated a steady stream of customers. in court several times for investigations The competitive landscape encouraged about the Spencer, such as when her powermore challenges and exhibitions between ful wake allegedly snapped the moorings steamboat operators. Impromptu steamboat of a large log raft and sent it adrift. races between the Spencer, Dalles City, and By 1911 Ernest Spencer was growing Bailey Gatzert became routine during the increasingly fatigued with the demands of summer months to the delight of passen- managing his business, piloting his sterngers, shoreside spectators, and newspaper editors, who sent their reporters on cruises to bring back photographs and actionpacked narratives for publication.

Not everyone was impressed with the sport of steamboat racing. Collisions were not uncommon and disaster only narrowly averted. The public admonished captains for putting their equipment and patrons at risk. Complaints were made by those working and living along the Willamette River about the dangerous wakes generated from the giant stern paddlewheels as they churned past crowded waterfronts.

By 1907, the federal government became involved and issued a speed limit of eight miles per hour between Ross and Swan Islands.

wheeler, and fighting legal battles. He sold the Spencer to a local lumber company, which ran her as a towboat and for occasional passenger excursions. In 1914, she was sold again and sent to San Francisco for use in the Sacramento River; she later sank and broke apart in San Pablo Bay. Soon after the loss of the Spencer, the DPAN steamboats were also sold to new owners, who continued running the Dalles City and Bailey Gatzert during the summer tourist season. Neither tourism nor the freight markets were ever the same, however, as the completion of a second railroad and the first automobile highway through the Columbia Gorge significantly reduced river traffic. By 1922, what remained of the DPAN fleet had either been destroyed or sold and only the occasional steamboat was seen paddling between Portland and The Dalles.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

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SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 27

hat guns, torpedoes, an ironclad ram, and the open ocean could not achieve, a lack of funding and resolve—not to mention the devastating effects of time on an unmaintained wooden ship—sealed the fate of one of our nation’s most illustrious ships. USS Hartford was integral in helping win the Civil War and won the heart and soul of the nation. The 1858 sloop-of-war should have—and easily could have—become a museum ship so that her role in American history would not be forgotten. In the early twentieth century, many states were proposing such plans. From Alabama to Massachusetts, from Louisiana to Connecticut, from presidents to governors, it seemed like everybody wanted the Hartford.

Instead of extending her life as a museum flagship, Hartford ended in the mud. How did such a mighty ship meet such an inglorious, unnecessary end?

Thousands of people gathered to watch as the 220-foot sloop-of-war first entered the waters at the Boston Naval Shipyard.

For her launch, she had two bottles broken across her stem—one containing water

by Todd Jones

library of congress, photo by k. loeffler, 1909

W

The Sinking of USS Hartford

Sloop of War USS Hartford, 1909 from the Connecticut River for her nameIn 1864 Hartford led a massive naval sake and a second with seawater for her fleet into Mobile Bay, where the Navy was destiny. Powered by both sail and steam, determined to capture the Alabama port. at the time of her launch USS Hartford was Farragut, positioned aloft in Hartford’s rig, one of the Navy’s most advanced ships. had been warned that the Confederates During the Civil War, Admiral David Far- had littered the harbor with mines (then ragut chose her as his flagship, making her called torpedoes). Unfazed, the admiral the first American warship to fly an admi- allegedly shouted, “Damn the torpedoes— ral’s flag. In 1862 she sped past rebel forts Full speed ahead!” And with that, USS and helped take New Orleans. A year later Hartford entered the realm of legend. she helped capture Vicksburg.

Glory did not come easy. Below deck, a

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from a sketch by henry a. ogden, c. 1917, library of congress

william h. topley collection, naval history and heritage command, us navy

USS Hartford in the floating dry dock at Mare Island Navy Yard, California, c. 1885.

Such was the pride felt across the nation of Admiral Farragut’s victory in the Battle of Mobile Bay that his image and famous quote were used in World War I recruiting posters, medallions, and collectable cards.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

Confederate shell grievously wounded landsman John H. Lawson and killed or wounded five men around him. Undeterred, Lawson kept at his post throughout the battle, ignoring calls that he seek immediate medical attention. As one of the US Navy’s 17,000 African American sailors, the war between the states was intensely personal to him, and his bravery that day earned him the Medal of Honor.

After the war’s conclusion, Hartford enjoyed a period as one of the nation’s most celebrated ships. As iron replaced wood in

library of congress

national museum of american history, kenneth e. behring center

John H. Lawson (1837–1919)

Battle of Mobile Bay by Louis Prang shipbuilding, however, she faced obsolescence as a commissioned warship. Hartford was used for squadron and training duties until 1916, when she was tied up to the dock for the next ten years in Charleston, South Carolina, to serve both as a receiving ship for newly recruited sailors and as office space for the Navy. On 6 April 1917, when the United States declared war on Germany, Charlestonians Belle V. Dunn and

Helen O’Shaughnessy boarded the Hartford to enlist in the Navy as Yeoman (F)s, a new classification created to allow women to serve performing clerical tasks. They were the first women to enlist and serve aboard a non-combat US Navy ship. A year later, a skinny twenty-three-year-old Navy artist named Norman Rockwell made his studio aboard the Hartford, from where he drew cartoons for Charleston’s navy magazine.

national archives and records administration

USS Hartford, Sail & Spar Plan, 1858, held in the Department of the Navy–Bureau of Construction and Repair.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 29

(left) Looking aft from USS Hartford’s foremast, c. 1894–1905. (below) Union sailors at the helm aboard USS Hartford, probably in New Orleans or Baton Rouge, Louisiana. c. 1862.

liljenquist family collection of civil war photographs, library of congress

library of congress, detroit publishing co.

In 1926 the Navy decommissioned the nearly seventy-year-old sloop of war. For ten years she sat in Charleston, waiting.

Finally, in 1936, a grateful Congress recognized her and other retired famous naval vessels. With the enthusiastic backing of President Franklin Roosevelt, a lover of all things nautical, Congress voted to restore Hartford and move her to Washington, DC, where she would serve as a memorial museum alongside four other historic ships: Constitution, Constellation, Olympia, and America. Other places had expressed interest in Hartford, including Hartford, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; and Hastingson-Hudson, New York. She was popular.

In 1939 Farragut’s old flagship was towed

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SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

us navy photo, nhhc

Recommissioning ceremony aboard USS Hartford at Mare Island Shipyard, California, on 2 October 1899. The Hartford was laid up at the shipyard between 1890 and 1899, during which time her hull was being repaired and her bottom planking replaced. After her recommissioning, she was sent back to the Atlantic to be used as a training ship for midshipmen. up the Potomac and arrived in Washington.

Roosevelt closely involved himself with planning the museum, even throughout World War II. When he died in 1945, the museum plan for the ship died with him.

Hartford was in limbo. Ten years earlier, multiple cities had vied to get her, but

by October 1945 when the Navy towed her to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia, no one stepped forward. Navy leadership hoped somebody would adopt the ship and turn her into a museum. It seemed likely at first. In 1947, the Salem Maritime National Historic Site sent representatives to inspect the ship in hopes of making her a museum in Massachusetts. Then the idea fizzled away.

The Navy brass was getting frustrated. Viewed as a fire hazard, Hartford took up valuable shipyard space while serving no practical purpose. Navy personnel removed her rigging and installed a system of pumps that went off eight times daily to evacuate bilge water. With no active maintenance being done, the ninety-yearold ship was starting to rot. Desperate, in 1948 the Navy offered Hartford to the city of Hartford in an “as is,” “where is” condition, with “no Navy funds…expended.”

The Connecticut city could not afford to take on the project and turned down the offer. In 1951, the Hartford Courant lamented that “[n]o one seems to want the Hartford.”

More than two thousand miles away, the people of Mobile expressed interest in acquiring the ship. Local groups thought she would make a great museum. In 1954, Congress passed a law giving Mobile exclusive rights to Hartford, with the stipulation that the city had to move her within a year. The same law forbade an impatient Navy from scrapping the long-decommissioned ship. Backlash in Mobile came from the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), who were horrified at having the Yankee flagship permanently moored in Mobile harbor. “They’re not bringing that awful ship back to Mobile,” declared a 100-year-old woman, who claimed to have witnessed the 1864 battle. Making a

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 31

us navy photo, nhhc

situation more difficult was that the Navy had reasonable concerns that the rotting ship might not even survive the transit down the coast and around Florida to Mobile. Hartford’s pumps were more active than ever. Officials investigated using a floating drydock to get her to the Gulf Coast. That meant more money, and, with the UDC lobbying against the project, Mobile was having trouble raising funds.

Meanwhile, the residents of Connecticut reconsidered. Early in 1954, letters in local newspapers voiced support for bringing Hartford “to a suitable resting place in Connecticut waters.” The governor told Connecticut’s Congressional delegation that “every effort should be made to have her brought to” Connecticut, rather than Alabama. He was specifically looking at Mystic Seaport Museum. The museum (above) USS Hartford at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Virginia, after World War II, deteriorating at the dock. USS Midway (CVB41) is to the right in the background.

us navy photo, nhhc

leadership considered it an honor to host Hartford but lacked the millions of dollars needed to get her there. The state was not offering any financial help. Logistics were complicated by the fact that the ship was too big to navigate the Mystic River. The governor suggested a floating drydock like the Navy wanted for Mobile, but again offered no funding. Everyone involved seemed to expect someone else to foot the bill. By June 1954, the governor concluded “that there seems to be no present likelihood that the ship can be berthed in Connecticut.”

Back in Mobile, the city missed its deadline. New Orleans made a last-minute push to get the ship, even going so far as to raise some funds and pick out possible sites to berth the ship as a museum attraction. Doubting anyone would save the Hartford, in early 1956 the Navy once again

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During USS Hartford’s long life, she was associated with many historic events and noteworthy people amongst her ship’s company. Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN, served in her on his second class cruise while a midshipman at the US Naval Academy, 1903. His signature can be seen at the bottom of this photo.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

us navy photo, nhhc

courtesy of the author

After the Hartford sank at the dock in 1956, numerous pieces of the ship and her equipment were salvaged and sent to historic sites, museums, and places of honor around the country.

The ship’s bell is displayed in Hartford, Connecticut. Her three anchors are on display in Connecticut and, seen below, at Fort Gaines, Dauphin Island, Alabama.

Mobile Bay, yielded to time, rot, and marine worms. And all the Navy’s pumps couldn’t save her.” The paper concluded “the probable cause of death” to “deterioration…so great that the water got ahead of the pumps.” Until that day, USS Hartford was the US Navy’s last Civil War combat vessel still afloat.

Hartford lives on today only through the various remnants that were saved and scattered across the nation she fought so hard to save. Her wheel and fife rail are in

bbadgett via wikipedia commons cc by sa 3.0

asked Congress for permission to scrap the ship. By then Hartford was on life support.

The series of pumps and hoses now ran 24 hours a day to keep the water out of her leaky, rotted hull. She had not been drydocked in nearly twenty years. Personnel checked on her every two hours. Mast-less, paint-less, gun-less—she was a barely discernible shell of a once-mighty warship.

At 12:30 AM on 20 November 1956, one of the Navy’s night patrols noticed something wrong with Hartford. One of her pump hoses had ruptured and she was taking on water fast. Base firefighters rushed over to her berth to fix the hose, but the rate of water coming in did not lessen.

They added two more pumps…not enough.

Three more pumps…not enough. She started to list. At 4:32 AM water started gushing through portholes and openings on the gun deck where John Lawson had earned his Medal of Honor. The men aboard leapt off. Hartford was sinking.

Where Confederate torpedoes and war failed, time and decay succeeded. USS Hartford slipped beneath the surface in thirty feet of water and settled in the mud of the Virginia riverbed.

“I am writing to advise you of the sinking of the USS Hartford,” wrote Rear Admiral A. G. Mumma on 20 November to Representative Carl Vinson, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. He added, “salvage does not appear practicable.” The Hartford Courant wrote her obituary the same day: “The USS Hartford, pride of the Yankee fleet, died of old age in this Rebel port today…Her stout timbers, that stood under a pounding from the guns of the Confederate Ironclad Tennessee at

Washington, DC. A rowboat is in Georgia.

Some of her guns stand in Connecticut, New York, Michigan, and California. One of her hatch covers is now a table at the US Naval Academy in Maryland. Her anchors are in Connecticut and Alabama. The city of Hartford has her bell. With pieces spread across the nation, Hartford’s memory belongs to everyone. If only the ship itself still did as well.

Todd Jones, whose fascination with the sea began after childhood visits to Mystic Seaport Museum, is a historic preservationist in Washington, DC.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 33

Packet Ship Patrick Henry Emigrants’ Passage and New Beginnings

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!

bourgeault-horan antiquarians, via invaluable.com, p.d.

After a month at sea, Michael turned three years old as he and his family—his parents and three sisters—sailed passed Nantucket, bound for New York. Three days later, on the sunny afternoon of 27 July 1847, they arrived at Pier 20 on the East River in lower Manhattan. His infant sister survived the crossing but would not live much past her first birthday. Michael would marry, father a son and five daughters, and shoe horses in Philadelphia into the early twentieth century.

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by Michael Carolan

Michael Carolan (1844–1906), the author’s great-great-grandfather, emigrated with his family to the United States from Ireland in 1847 aboard the Patrick Henry.

THE SHIP The 159-foot Patrick Henry was launched in 1839 from the New York shipbuilding firm Brown & Bell, partners who would build one of the first true clippers five years later. She was built for service as a packet.

Predecessors to the twentieth-century ocean liner, packet ships initially carried mail between England and Europe; the scope of their activity broadened to carrying

ny morning herald

cargo and passengers, and their routes were eventually expanded across the Atlantic to the United States. As the information superhighway of the era, the early packet runs gave the American colonies the name of their first successful daily newspaper, the Pennsylvania Packet.

author’s collection

M

y great-great-grandfather was two years old the year he came to America, and consequently particularly vulnerable to the epidemics that spread in cargo holds of ships like the Patrick Henry, the threemasted full-rigged ship in which he sailed 175 years ago. The other refugees on his Atlantic crossing hoped for better times, to be sure, full of more promise than the lives they left behind in Ireland that summer, in the year remembered as Black ’47.

Disease, starvation, and England’s disastrous response to the crisis would send a million people to their deaths and two million more on odysseys of immigration, such as the one my family began on the ship Patrick Henry.

Advertisement in the New York Morning Herald for the newly built Patrick Henry, 6 November 1839.

The Patrick Henry was seven years old when she carried my ancestors to the United States. Designed at the height of the packet industry, the ship became known for her fast passages across the Atlantic and consistent sailing schedule. Named for the American politician, orator, and Founding Father, the ship had room for forty firstclass passengers and “one thousand tons of merchandise,” and featured “the full-length figure of the Virginian for her figurehead.”

Said to cost $90,000 (more than $2.5 million today), she was purchased by Grinnell, Minturn & Co., one of nineteenth-century America’s largest shipping empires, which later acquired the famous extreme clipper Flying Cloud, arguably the greatest (and fastest) clipper ship ever built. The Patrick Henry was “built of the very best materials, including live oak, African oak, elm, &c.,” according to a lengthy review published in a Liverpool newspaper in November 1839. “[With] a handsome figurehead and decorated stern, [she] looks fine The American Packet Ship Patrick Henry Off the Cliffs of Dover by Philip John Ouless (1817–1885), oil on canvas, 26 3/4 x 37 1/2 inches. In 1858, late in the clipper’s career, Ouless, a celebrated marine artist from Jersey, made preliminary sketches of the Patrick Henry under sail and completed the painting the following year.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

library of congress

“Emigants Leaving Queenstown for New York” In the five years following the 1845 potato blight, more than a million people in Ireland perished, and another half million emigrated to America. In 1847, the year the Carolans boarded the Patrick Henry for New York, some 85,000 people left Ireland by ship. This image was printed in the 26 September 1874 issue of Harper’s Weekly. “of money, spirits, tea, coffee, and sugar,” broke into lockers and went unpunished, then prowled “about the ship to find some simple females who will hearken to them.”

That passenger’s experience was not an exception to life aboard such vessels during the surge in immigration trade.

In arguably the worst year of an Gorta Mór, the Great Hunger, the Patrick Henry transported two loads of relief supplies from American charitable societies. From citizens

library of congress

and warlike in the water.” The helmsman “is completely sheltered from the weather, and has, at the same time, a sufficient view of the sails and the effect of the rudder on the movements of the ship. Two neat staircases, one on each side, lead to the grand cabin or saloon.” The reviewer catalogued the saloon, or shared common space into which first-class rooms opened, as “richly gilded” and “beautifully empaneled in the finest choice wood of ‘every clime’” and wrote about the “satin wood” and “oval Venetian blind,” of “convex pilasters—fourteen on each side—of rosewood thrown out on a broad convex ground or back-work of zebra-wood,” and how there were “inlays of ebony” and “dark veined marble.”

Her primary commander was Captain Joseph Clement Delano (1796–1886) of New Bedford, Massachusetts, a member of a family known for its many mariners, merchants, whalers, and shipbuilders. Captain Delano was first cousin to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s maternal grandfather, Warren Delano Jr., the merchant who made a fortune smuggling opium into China.

Like most packet ship captains, Captain Delano was regarded as a member of the aristocracy of the seas—hosting, on his voyages, the likes of John James Audubon and Mormon leader Brigham Young. One of the ship’s more notable crewmembers was Peter Ogden. He travelled frequently with Captain Delano as the ship’s steward, taking care of passengers travelling firstclass. A British-born black man, Ogden established the first black Odd Fellows in New York in 1843, beginning what would become the largest national black fraternal organization in America.

Captain Joseph Delano’s younger brother, John, served as the ship’s first mate, and then commanded the ship on a transAtlantic crossing in 1846. Overcrowded with 383 emigrants aboard, one passenger wrote of the voyage, “Of all the ships I have ever seen, this beat them all for disorder.

There was neither rule, order, nor any kind of cleanliness observed.” The writer suggested government inspectors shirked their duty because of “patronage” in the “chain of the aristocracy.” Two passengers died underway, including a five-year-old, reportedly due to the crew’s neglect. According to the account, the crew robbed passengers

of Brooklyn, Albany, and Rochester, New York; Burlington, Vermont; and the states of New Jersey and Ohio; goods collected and sent included clothing, Indian corn, cornmeal, rye, wheat, peas, beans, flour, meal, barley, buckwheat, bread, and pork— what today would be worth more than $150,000. That was also the year when Captain Delano was consulted by the merchant captain Robert Bennett Forbes, who was about to embark on a humanitarian voyage to carry food to Ireland aboard the US Navy’s sloop-of-war USS Jamestown. “[Delano] said that on the last days of March we would sail on the very worst day of the year for England,” Forbes wrote. “If we got to Cork in thirty days, we ought to be well satisfied.” The voyage took just sixteen days. This was the same year that the Patrick Henry arrived in New York on 27 July 1847, with my young great-greatgrandfather Michael (1844–1906), his father Thomas (1806–1870), mother Elizabeth Smith (1826–1875), and sisters Lizzie (1834–), Catherine (1842–1908) and Portrait of Capt. Joseph Clement Delano (1796–1886) of New Bedford, Massachusetts, master of the Grinnell, Minturn & Co. packet ship Patrick Henry.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 35

USS Jamestown under sail, c.1890. In the spring of 1847, as the Carolan family was preparing to leave their ancestral homeland for the United States, USS Jamestown was arriving in Ireland on a humanitarian mission commanded by merchant sea captain Robert B. Forbes. With donations organized by the New England Relief Committee, the ship carried desperately needed food and supplies to alleviate the suffering of those devastated by the potato blight.

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Robert Bowne Minturn of Grinnell & Minturn, owners of the Patrick Henry and later the extreme clipper Flying Cloud.

As an example, in late January 1840, the Patrick Henry arrived ahead of schedule and beat the competition to deliver the news from the continent for eager American readers. The Morning Herald (New York), on the front page of its February 1st edition, reported: “The foreign news given today is highly important. Yesterday afternoon, about half past three, we received it at this

office being a full hour before any of the Wall Street papers had theirs—and by five o’clock we issued an Extra, to gratify the immense crowd that surrounded our office.

One of our clippers left town at 10 o’clock, and boarded the Patrick Henry outside the bar at about one o’clock.” The news was advertised in large type as “Ten Days Later From England—Highly Important” and included articles about war preparations by Russia, Queen Victoria’s marriage that month, and a speech by France’s King Louis-Philippe.

The speedy dissemination of information made capital move faster, directly affecting world trade. In 1840, the Patrick Henry was among twenty sailing packet ships on the New York-Liverpool run. Sailing ship packet captains began taking more risks as steamships were coming into service and were becoming more competitive. Even as packets’ size grew markedly in the 1850s, their service speed did not, and they lost “their hold on the first-class business— mail, fine freight and cabin passengers” because punctuality was no longer something they could claim against their competition.

THE MAKING OF A NATION According to Basil Lubbock in his 1925 book, The Western Ocean Packets, by their “sheer virility and heroic energy, superb

naval history and heritage command, us navy

COMMERCE AND JOURNALISM Receiving information as quickly as possible—about trade, markets, or business partnerships, or political, government or military news—was of urgent importance to nineteenth-century commerce. Businesses made special arrangements to beat their competitors. Sailing vessels, especially ships involved in the packet trade, emerged as the primary means of transporting information of the era, and, as such, contributed significantly to development to the field of journalism as well.

archive.org, p.d.

Anne (1846–). The family had left its ancestral home about three miles southwest of Kells, County Meath, near Light Town, where the population in adjacent Drumbaragh plummeted 67 percent after the Great Hunger.

The following spring, the Patrick Henry’s owner, Robert Bowne Minturn, took his family and servants aboard to embark on a grand tour of Europe and was later publicly shamed by a fellow shipping magnate: “Our friends, Grinnell, Minturn are heartbroken about famine,” A. A. Low wrote. “They have a house dinner to celebrate the fortune it is bringing them, and dine on terrapin, salmon, peas, asparagus, strawberries—all out of season, of course— then Mr. Grinnell gives the famine fund $360, which he had lost on a bet with [the founder of rival firm].” Minturn was reported to be worth today’s equivalent of $2.31 billion.

All told, across two decades, the Patrick Henry transported more than 12,489 passengers, making at least sixty (documented) round trip crossings. One of the most profitable ships of its firm, in addition to passengers, she carried everything from specie to business mail to merchandise and newspapers.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

The greatest days of the New York ships followed quickly upon the closing of the second war with England.

Its shrewd, farsighted Quaker element saw the possibilities of packet service to Europe. Sailing on advertised dates, the ships grew in tonnage from year to year and made their owners rich. The usual method of division in New York was by partial ownership. An agent owned an eighth, a builder, in order to ensure his getting the repair work, which amounted to about five hundred dollars a round trip, owned another eighth. The captain might own an equal share and perhaps a sixteenth each was held by the block maker and the sailmaker. The rest of course was vested in the owner.

The times required brave sailing. Sails were set at the piers. Crowds stood by and cheered the departures. The whole city became interested. Ships were even sailed right up to their berths and the seaman had every opportunity to satisfy his pride and exhibit his skill. The local delight in packet performance was well founded, for the whole country displayed interest…The Patrick Henry of one thousand tons was also a remarkably fine sailor, a favorite packet, and one that made more money... Shipping was coming into its own in the new days of peace and New York was booming.

Despite the regularity with which packets sailed back and forth across the Atlantic, the passages were not without risk. On an 1854 transAtlantic, the Patrick Henry was hove to, riding out a gale, when she was A View of South Street, New York City, c. 1827 by William James Bennett

“struck by a sea which carried away the bowsprit and the knight heads and all the rigging attached.” Seaman Matthew Barnabb was swept off the ship. A few hours later, Louis Barroch was clearing away the wrecked bowsprit when he fell overboard and drowned. A third crewmember fell from the foreyard and was injured severely. “It was blowing a gale at the time,” reported her captain, John Hurlbut, who brought her to port after a forty-day passage. “And impossible to save them.” On another crossing that year, eleven passengers died at sea.

The Patrick Henry was “sold British” in 1864 due to the Civil War—about the same time when Michael Carolan, then age 23, married Ireland native Annie Lawrence.

The following year, the ship was re-rigged as a transport for lumber between England and Canada—similar to the final career of the Flying Cloud. The Patrick Henry was twelve years older than the Flying Cloud and outlived her by a decade.

On 12 September 1882, the Patrick Henry was approaching the harbor off the Lancashire coast of England and ran aground and “broke her back.” A few months later, in winter 1883, she was lying in port at Liverpool where, forty-four years earlier, in 1839, at Waterloo Dock, she had begun transporting thousands of people to New York. She was for sale.

By that time Michael and Annie Carolan had moved into a row house in Phila-

delphia, across from a new farrier shop Michael established. The couple had lost six children—four died in the year 1881 alone. In total, Annie would give birth to seventeen children. Only six would survive into adulthood—one of whom was my great grandfather.

There were no buyers for the old Patrick Henry. Her last owner was a timber merchant-shipowner named James Edwin Pim—son of a noted family of Dublin Quakers who, through the Society of Friends, saved thousands by establishing the first soup kitchens during the Great Hunger. It was James’s cousin, Jonathan Pim, who three decades before had corresponded with the New York committee concerning the shipments of food and clothing aboard none other than the Patrick Henry. The ship had come full circle. The Patrick Henry was scrapped in 1884.

Michael Carolan was born in Kansas City, Missouri. His father taught him to sail on Lake Perry, near Lawrence, Kansas, in 1980.

He is a Professor of Practice in the English Department at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. You can read more about the author at www.michaelcharlescarolan. com. Professor Carolan is also the author of the entry on the Patrick Henry on Wikipedia. com. In March of 2020, he visited his ancestral home in County Meath. You can read about that experience at https://patch.com/ pennsylvania/philadelphia/erins-exiles.

metropolitan museum of art

strength of brain and muscle… [the] gallant, hard-sailed packets with their ‘tween decks crowded with emigrants … [became] one of the most, if not the most, important factor in this world’s development along the lines of steady progress, whether moral or physical.” He summarizes the heyday of the packet ship with specific mention of the Patrick Henry:

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 37

A Wild Note of Longing

Albert Pinkham Ryder Comes Home to New Bedford

smithsonian american art museum, gift of john gellatly, 1929.6.95

The New Bedford Whaling Museum has brought together major masterworks spanning the career of Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847–1917) in the landmark exhibition A Wild Note of Longing: Albert Pinkham Ryder and a Century of American Art. This is the first exhibition of Ryder’s work since Elizabeth Broun’s 1990 retrospective at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. A native of New Bedford, Massachusetts, Ryder achieved legendary status with the art world during his lifetime and his work continues to influence contemporary American artists. The exhibition opened in June and runs through 31 October 2021.

Born in 1847, Albert Pinkham Ryder no doubt drew inspiration from his hometown roots, with a deep connection to the sea and natural environment. Over many years, Ryder has been called poetic, spiritual, mysterious, and reclusive. Of all the descriptions, the one we don’t hear often is that he was the “Son of the City of New Bedford,” a place made prosperous by the economics of the whaling industry and once known as “the city that lit the world.”

One of the most intriguing things about Ryder is his authenticity, a key factor contributing to the cult status he achieved during his lifetime. While we can find numerous connections with his peers, probable inspiration from the sites of his youth and travels, and some influence by those who preceded him and contemporaries, Ryder was nonetheless a prophetic visionary, seeing and representing the world in a way that diverged from everyone else. “To suggest that Ryder may well be the most influential American artist in America may still seem a rash statement, but it’s not a new idea,” writes exhibition cocurator William C. Agee. Most famously, of course, Jackson Pollock proclaimed in 1944 that “the only American master who interests me is Ryder.” But since then, there are many who might well say the same thing. Today, Ryder’s presence is alive and thriving in the Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1905 art world, as much now as it was then.

A Wild Note of Longing features Ryder’s most iconic paintings, including exceptional examples from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Phillips Collection, the Wadsworth Athenaeum, the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, the Toledo Museum of Art, and private collections. In addition to Ryder’s works, the exhibition features paintings by well-known modernists such as Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Jackson Pollock, and Wolf Kahn, who were inspired

by Ryder’s experimental approach and abandonment of tradition.

Just as A Wild Note of Longing celebrates his influence on well-known modernists, it also reveals Ryder’s continuing influence on present-day artists. Painters Bill Jensen, Pousette-Dart (both Nathaniel and Richard), Robert Rauschenberg, Albert York, Lois Dodd, Jill Moser, Peter Shear, Katherine Bradford, Alan Praziak, Farrell Brickhouse, Sue Miller, Emily Auchincloss, and many more acknowledge Ryder as a key inspiration or mentor in spirit even now, a century after his death. Commentary from these artists is included in the exhibition and accompanying catalogue, testifying to Ryder’s continued currency as a force in the American art world.

The 250-page illustrated exhibition catalogue is the first book on Ryder in three decades and is supported by a grant awarded by Furthermore, a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund. This longoverdue new look at the life and work of beloved

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photo by alice boughton, archives of american art, smithsonian institution

by Amanda McMullen

Flying Dutchman, completed by 1887, oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

smithsonian american art museum, gift of john gellatly, 1929.6.98

Jonah, ca. 1885–95, oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard.

courtesy new bedford whaling museum

painter Albert Pinkham Ryder explores the powerful and enduring directions he forged for generations of American artists. The catalog is published by Rizzoli and distributed by Random House. Each of the exhibition organizers has contributed an essay to the catalog.

Christina Connett Brophy, PhD, formerly the Douglas and Cynthia Crocker Endowed Chair for the Chief Curator at the Whaling Museum, curated A Wild Note of Longing, with support from Elizabeth Broun,

smithsonian american art museum, gift of alastair b. martin, 2005.14

A Wild Note of Longing is currently on exhibit in the Wattles Family Gallery of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

PhD, Director Emerita of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and William C. Agee, the Evelyn Kranes Kossak Professor Emeritus of Art History at Hunter College. Brophy is now the Senior Director of Museum Galleries and Senior Vice President of Curatorial Affairs at Mystic Seaport.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum ignites learning through explorations of art, history, science, and culture rooted in the stories of people, the region, and an international seaport. The cornerstone of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, the museum is located at 18 Johnny Cake Hill in the heart of the city’s historic downtown. For more information visit www. whalingmuseum.org. Amanda McMullen is the president and CEO of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

The Lovers’ Boat, ca. 1881, oil on wood.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 39

Marine Art News American Society of Marine Artists Retreat and 18th National Exhibition Minnesota Marine Art Museum • 23–26 September 2021

No. 158

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

courtesy mmam

ASMA is hosting a special artist’s retreat in Winona, Minnesota, with some very impressive educational programming planned for the event at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum (MMAM).

The museum is currently hosting the ASMA 18th National Exhibition, which is on display through 3 October 2021. The exhibition includes more than 100 works of art from today’s top marine artists, including painting, sculpture, and scrimshaw. ASMA’s programming will be open to members of the museum and the public on Friday and Saturday, September 24th and 25th. It is a wonderful opportunity to not only see great contemporary art, but also to be able to meet the artists in person.

Situated on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum is an inspiring and compelling experience for visitors of all ages and abilities, showcasing great art inspired by water.

The museum is home to some of the most unique and significant marine artworks in the Midwest. From Monet and Picasso to Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851), there is something for everyone in this diamond in the bluffs.

ASMA Fellow Russ Kramer will do a presentation on Friday afternoon about developing interesting compositions from scratch, to easy no-risk experimentation and refinement through the painting process by using Photoshop. Kramer is a frequent contributor to Sea History and NMHS members will recognize his work from the cover of Sea History 158 (Summer 2017).

ASMA Signature members Holly Bird, Anne Hill, and Donna Nyzio will each give short demonstrations on special techniques for various mediums. Saturday’s programming will start with Signature member Michelle Jung doing a live oil painting demonstration. ASMA President and Signature member Nicolas Fox and Fellow Len Tantillo will demonstrate how using computer programs can help an artist; Tantillo will present: “Hidden Ingredients: Cooking up a Better Picture,” discussing what makes a painting successful. Nick Fox will lead a narrated tour of the 18th National Exhibition.

Len Tantillo uses three-dimensional graphics softAll ASMA programs at MMAM are open to visitors with paid admission or ware as part of his process of creating a new paintfree to MMAM members. Seating is limited. More information about the mu- ing. The computer program allows him to rotate seum and this unique opportunity can be found at www.mmam.org. To learn and zoom in on sections of the boat or structure, more about the retreat and how to register in advance for additional activities, providing him with views from multiple angles. please visit ASMA’s website at: www.americansocietyofmarineartists.com or con- This example was used in preparation for his tact Kim Shaklee at kim@kimshaklee.com. (MMAM, 800 Riverview Dr, Wino- painting, Fulton’s Steamboat at Clermont, 1807 na MN; www.mmam.org) (oil on canvas, 17 x 24 inches).

SPRING 2017

$4.95

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

courtesy austin dwyer

Marc Castelli’s marine art exhibition, Querencia, will open on 29 October at the Massoni Art Gallery as part of Sultana Education Foundation’s Downrigging Weekend Festival. Castelli is the master of capturing the work of the Chesapeake Bay watermen, workboats, and log canoes in scenes both from history and today. The artist will give a talk at the gallery on Saturday morning, 30 October, at 10:00 am. The exhibition runs through 28 November 2021. (Massoni Art, 203 High Street, Chestertown, MD; Ph. 410 778-7330; www.massoniart.com. Visit www.downrigging.org for more about the festival.)

Artist Austin Dwyer’s oil painting, Opus 4, Symphony of Rust, has won Best in Show at the 27th Maritime Art Exhibit at the Coos Art Museum in Oregon.

Other top awards went to William A. Seldon, winner of the Director’s Choice Award for Charleston Marine (oil), and to Dutch Mostert, who won the Port of Coos Bay Award for Coos Bay Quintet (oil). The annual exhibition is a juried show of maritime-themed art co-sponsored by the American Society of Marine Artists.

The exhibition closes on 25 September. You can view all the entries and award winners in this year’s exhibition on the museum’s website at www.coosart.org/ maritime-2021/. (CAM, 235 Anderson, Coos Bay, OR; Ph. 541 267-3901) Opus 4, Symphony of Rust by Austin Dwyer 40 SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

courtesy massoni art

courtesy len tantillo

The America’s Cup Mallows Bay Ghost Fleet Confederate Sub H. L. Hunley

1st International Online Marine Art Exhibition

The American Society of

MARINE ARTISTS is proud to present the 1st International Online Marine Art Exhibition, featuring the world's most celebrated marine artists

• American Society of Marine Artists • Royal Society of Marine Artists • Peintres Officiels de la Marine • Australian Society of Marine Artists • Canadian Society of Marine Artists

InternationalMarineArt.com SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 41 Painting: Catboats on the Brewster Flats, William P. Duffy, F/ASMA

SEA HISTORY for kids Maritime Careers Tugboat Captain Daniel Zorovich

photos courtesy of mcallister towing and capt. daniel zorovich

G

rowing up, Daniel Zorovich was a big fan of the TV show Modern Marvels on the History Channel. “I used to watch this show religiously, as it usually covered topics that I found interesting—such as technology, cars, and aviation. I remember one of the episodes that covered machines built for heavy lifting: machines like bulldozers, massive cranes, locomotives, and what turned out to be my favorite— tugboats. I thought it was fascinating how a relatively small boat could be powerful enough to move massive ships. The show featured a tugboat captain sitting at the controls, helping maneuver a huge ship into the dock, and I just thought that was the coolest job in the world.”

When he was starting his senior year in high school, Daniel decided to pursue this job as a career. While there are numerous paths one can take to become a professional mariner—tugboat operations, “If you like your job, you’ll never work a day in your life!” shipping out on oceangoing vessels, piloting ships coming in and out of port, to name a few examples—Daniel learned that the most efficient path was to go to a maritime college. He was so sure that this was what he wanted to do for a career that he only applied to one school—the State University of New York Maritime College in the Bronx. SUNY Maritime offers several degree programs, including both a 4-year traditional undergraduate degree program and a two-year associate degree program in Maritime Technology/Small Vessel Operations. He took classes in nautical science and had several internships aboard tugboats to get hands-on training and learn the industry. “This experience was invaluable, as I was working on the job side by side with professional mariners. It gave me a taste of what my career would be like, and I couldn’t get enough. Not only did I enjoy the work, but the people as well. Everyone was so helpful and willing to teach me things.” Daniel graduated and left SUNY Maritime with both an associate degree and a 1600-ton mate’s license (issued by the US Coast Guard).

Daniel’s first job after college was as a deckhand on a tugboat.

“Deckhands are responsible for all the work done outside the boat, such as putting up the ropes we use to attach the tug to the ship we’re assisting, as well lots of grunt work such as painting and cleaning. It’s the Capt. Daniel’s “office,” the tractor tug Ava M. McAllister bottom step of the ladder, but even the captain was once a deckhand.” Daniel found that the more experienced crew—fellow deckhands to mates and the captain—were very patient and taught him about every aspect of the job. He also discovered how boat crews that work a lot of long hours together and in all kinds of conditions can become like family.

“I was a deckhand for about a year when I started my training as a mate on a tractor tug. A tractor tug is a highly maneuverable tug designed specifically for ship docking. I have now been steering tractor tugs and conventional tugs for almost nine years and it never gets old.” Daniel is now the captain of a tugboat in New York Harbor and helps bring big ships in and out of the port and on and off the dock. “Most commercial ships today are too big and clumsy to navigate the tight and twisty channels of the harbor, so tugboats assist the vessels in getting to and from the dock safely.”

The tugboat crew works two weeks on, and two weeks off each month. “New York Harbor is far too busy for us to go home in between ship jobs, so the entire crew lives on the boat for our two-week shift.” They stand watch six hours on, and six off. “One of my favorite things about my job is that every day is different.

(The food served on tugs is pretty good, too!) It is amazing to see just how much commerce comes through New York Harbor, and I’m proud to do my part in that chain.”

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Yikes! That’s not a view that most boaters want to see that close up. Daniel maneuvers his tug into position under the bow of this huge ship.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

We

Tugboats!

Why do we L O V E tugboats? Let’s see…

They are small.

They are awesomely powerful.

They are helpful.

They do things that big ships just can’t do.

logos (l- r) c/o cbc television, gp putnam ’s sons, and little golden books / random house

At 882 feet, the ocean liner RMS Olympic needed tugs to assist as it entered New York Harbor in June 1911.

Tugboats are proof that you don’t have to be big to be good at something. While the packaging might be small compared to the ships they assist, their strength is impressive. How strong are they? Some tugs have engines that are the equivalent of 27,000 horses—that’s almost 40 times the power of a NASCAR race car. They are powerful enough to push or pull a huge cargo ship around— and they are small enough that you can maneuver them in tight spaces and, if necessary, get five or six of them pushing and pulling those big ships at the same time.

photo by george shultz, c/o state library of victoria

library of congress

Some of our favorite books and TV shows from childhood are about tugboats brought to life as animated characters, but in real life, tugboats serve as invaluable players in the world’s shipping industry. Big oceangoing ships might shuttle with ease from one continent to another, but they’re too awkward to control in a narrow river or tight harbor.

But it’s not just power that makes those little tugs so useful. The first tugboats were built in the early 1800s, when steam engines were invented and when the big ships that went across oceans were sailing vessels. Harnessing the wind is a great way to get across an ocean, but once a sailing ship reached its destination, it might have to wait a long time to enter a harbor or river if the wind was not blowing in the right direction. The introduction of tugboats to the equation saved days or even weeks of waiting by getting the ship those last few miles to the dock—no matter which way the wind was blowing or the current was flowing. Today, with 80% of the world’s trade being carried on more than 90,000 commercial ships across the world’s oceans, it’s not an exaggeration to say that, without tugboats, the business of moving the things we need around the globe would grind almost to a stop.

The popular stories we tell about tugboats are usually about a little vessel that comes to understand that it is just as important—and sometimes even more capable—as those big lumbering ships that often seem so intimidating. Those monsters can be helpless when they need to move around in small places. That’s when a strong pip-squeak with smarts and self-confidence can save the day. The next time you are near a harbor, river, or canal and you see a little boat doing a big job, know that it is way more powerful than it looks... just like some people you know. Or maybe just like you.

Artists like tugboats as much as children’s book authors do. This image of the tugboat Shelley Foss was painted by marine artist Austin Dwyer.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

courtesy austin dwyer

As you can imagine, having something small, strong, and capable in a harbor got people thinking about what else they could do. Nowadays, some tugboats fight fires. Others push or pull barges filled with cargo up and down rivers and along canals. In colder regions, tugboats are fitted out as icebreakers to clear a path for ships coming and going in waterways that have frozen over. Some big oceangoing tugs go out to rescue ships that have run into trouble on the high seas.

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Animals in Sea History

by Philippa Sandall

1803 was a momentous year for Matthew

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us navy photo, nhhc

d

lo n

g

climb. Flinders tells us that what most attracted Trim’s attention were “the replacFlinders and his cat, Trim. In June they coming a top-mast carried away, or taking pleted the circumnavigation of Australia a reef in the sails....As soon as the ofaboard HMS Investigator. In August, sailficer had issued the word ‘Away up ing back to England on board HMS Poraloft!’ Up he jumped along with the poise, they were shipwrecked on a seamen, and so active and zealous coral bank in the Great Barrier Reef. was he, that none could reach the top Rescued two months later, they booked before, or so soon as he did.” passage home aboard another ship, but Going aloft on when they put into Port Louis, Mauritius, four legs is a breeze; in December for vital repairs, they were a coming down is not. taken prisoner. Mauritius was under y es rt u o It’s the claws that are c French control during this period, and the problem. Highly England had just declared war against Matthew Flinders and Trim useful to shimmy up France earlier that year.

When Trim went missing a few months later, Flinders trees, trellises, and trouser legs, cats’ claws was devastated. As a midshipman, he had picked this tux- curve towards the back rather like built-in edo kitten out of a litter born on board HMS Reliance and crampons. Coming down, it’s hard to get sailed with him ever since. In his Biographical Tribute to the a grip, as claws point the wrong way. But, Memory of Trim (1809), he describes Trim as a favorite among if the cat falls, there’s a good chance it will all the crew, who took endless pleasure whirling a musket land on its feet.

Eons of evolutionary history have enball slung with a piece of twine round upon the deck for him abled cats to turn right side up mid-air and to chase, and teaching him to leap over hands.

While not a renowned water lover, the domestic cat stick a four-paw landing. This is because (Felis catus) took to life on the ocean waves thanks to a their vestibular system in the inner ear is natural agility and balance and having plenty of things to like having a built-in gyroscope. It tells a cat which way is up, no matter what position it was in when it started falling. A cat can fully turn over in its own standing height within a quarter to half a second, says Dr. Donald McDonald, who photographed falling cats with a high-speed camera at 1,500 frames per second.

Cats have been welcome aboard ships for hundreds of years, as they proved to be indispensable pest controllers, protecting provisions and cargo from rats, those omnivorous eating machines that will devour everything from food rations to nonfood necessities, such as ropes, sails, and even the calloused skin on the soles of sleeping sailors’ feet.

“Ten Old Salts” and their feline shipmate onboard USS Hartford*—1876. (*Read more about this famous US Navy ship on pages 28–33.)

courtesy ad long

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

USS Solace, Tom Whiskers.

Whether for furry companionship or to control pests, cats continue to serve as beloved crew members. Do you know a cat who lives on a boat? We’d love to hear about it! Send us a photo of the seafaring cat, and we might print it in the Letters section of the next issue of Sea History.

Philippa Sandall is the author of Seafurrers, The Ships’ Cats Who Lapped and Mapped the World (The Experiment Publishing), and, with Dr. Gillian Dooley and Matthew Flinders, RN, Trim, The Cartographer’s Cat (Bloomsbury Publishing).

courtesy pdsa

HMS Amethyst crew with Simon

Ships’ cats weren’t just pest controllers, they were beloved pets. The cat Nansen was “the only speck of sentimental life within reach,” said Dr. Frederick Cook, describing the long, dark months on board RV Belgica, which was trapped in the ice when the 1897–99 Belgian Antarctic Expedition was forced to spend the winter in the Antarctic.

“If Maizie hadn’t been with us, we might have gone nuts,” said Eugene Clancy of his crew’s feline companion, who was rescued with five other crew members after fifty-six hours in a life raft in 1943 during the Battle of the Atlantic.

Sailors were often so attached to their cats that they would stop their ship in the open ocean and rescue them if they fell overboard—not an easy thing to do for a sailing ship.

When the Joseph Conrad’s ginger tomcat, Joseph, fell in the water from the mizzen channels, Alan Villiers sent two men to the rescue in a rowboat. “Joseph was a good cat; we could not leave him to drown,” he said. “The boys hauled him aboard and hurried back to the ship, taking off their jerseys in the cold to wrap round the cat … He soon recovered from his cold immersion and within two days was happily playing in the rigging again, though he kept World War I veteran, mascot of away from the channels.”

courtesy brian buckburry

There were a large number of rats on board that began to breed rapidly in the damaged portions of the ship. They represented a real menace to the health of the ship’s company. Simon nobly rose to the occasion and after two months the rats were much diminished. Throughout the Incident Simon’s behaviour was of the highest order. One would not have expected him to have survived a shell making a hole over a foot in diameter in a steel plate, yet after a few days Simon was as friendly as ever. His presence on the ship, together with Peggy the dog,

was a decided factor in maintaining the high level of morale of the ship’s company. They gave the ship an air of domesticity and normality in a situation which in other aspects was very trying.

courtesy richard sandall

At one time, simply having a cat on board provided the master with insurance. The shipping rules (II Consolato del Mare) published in Barcelona in 1494 state: “If goods laden on board of a ship are devoured by rats, and the owners consequently suffer considerable damage, the master must repair the injury sustained by the owners, for he is considered in fault.

But if the master kept cats on board, he is excused Possibly the first image we have of a from that liability.”

Some 500 years later, ship’s cat is this watchful feline, ridding a ship of its rat stretched out on a square knot carved on the column of the 16th-century population even led to a Jerónimos Monastery in Portugal. bravery award for one cat.

Simon, of the British warship HMS Amethyst, won the PDSA (People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals) Dicken Medal for his courage during the Yangtse Incident, when the ship was held hostage for ten weeks in 1949 during the civil war between the Chinese Communist People’s Liberation Army and Nationalist Kuomintang forces. Nominating Simon, Amethyst’s Lieutenant Commander John Kerans wrote:

“Sea History for Kids” is sponsored by the Henry L. & Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation

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to which the management company fulfilled its obligations to maintain the ship.

A limited marine survey in 2017 had recommended between $235 million and $285 million in structural work to the vessel to address known conditions; a brief visual inspection conducted as part of the bankruptcy proceedings identified another $23 million in additional repairs. Long Beach purchased the liner in 1967 for $3.7 million, moving her to Pier H and converting her for hotel use in 1971. In 1980 the first contract was signed awarding oversight of the Queen Mary and surrounding property to a private entity; there have been seven total over the intervening 40 years. Under the contract, the leaseholder can generate revenue on the ship and property (hotel, cultural tourism, special events, entertainment, food and beverage sales), but is obligated to fund all necessary repairs and maintenance. As a first step in determining how to proceed, the city engaged the firm of Moffat and Nichol to present its options.

The report laid out what boils down to three options: make immediate repairs to the ship, make ongoing repairs and preserve her for at least 25 years (price tag: $150 million–$175 million over 25 years); overhaul the ship completely and make regular repairs to preserve her for 100 years or more (price tag: $1 billion over 100 years); or recycle the ship (price tag: upwards of $200 million). Cost of the scenarios for preserving the ship would of course be offset somewhat by revenue from the hotel, events, and 46

industry. When the 1312-foot container ship MV Ever Given lodged itself in the Suez Canal and caused immediate and major disruptions in global shipping last March, oceanic trade was suddenly thrust into the world’s news. Mercogliano, a history professor at Campbell University and a former merchant mariner, was sought out by news outlets such as BBC, CNN, NBC, Fox, the Washington Post, and the New York Times to provide expert commentary on the situation. From that experience, he realized that there was a demand for more information on that and many other stories impacting maritime commerce. What’s Going on With Shipping? focuses on explaining current events in ocean trade. Through his YouTube channel, Mercogliano has followed the saga of Ever Given from her salvage to her arrest by the Egyptian government, to her off-load of cargo in the ports of Rotterdam and Felixstowe in August 2021. He also looks at the crisis caused by COVID-19 across the maritime spectrum, issues of maritime disasters, such as the fire and sinking of MV Pearl Express off Sri Lanka, the grounding of MV Golden Ray

off Georgia, and the massive delays in offloading containers in Los Angeles and Long Beach. Producing between 2–5 videos a week, the channel has more than 8,000 subscribers. The videos range from 10–30 minutes and are linked to news sources and resources to facilitate further research on a given topic. The goal of the channel is to increase people’s knowledge about shipping, its history, and its impact on everyone. (www.youtube.com, then search for “Sal Mercogliano”) … Cutty Sark has a new, reimagined figurehead—“Nannie.” The ship’s name and figurehead were inspired by the Robert Burns poem “Tam O’Shanter” about a farmer bearing that name and his encounter with a lovely witch named Nannie, spied dancing with other witches, wearing a scanty nightgown—a “cutty sark.”

In the poem, Nannie and her cohort discover Tam and they pursue him to the edge of the River Doon, where he barely escapes with his life. The ship’s original figurehead, inspired by the lovely witch, was carved by the legendary craftsman Frederick Hellyer, but was damaged in a storm in the late 1800s. The figurehead that was installed in the 1954–57 overhaul had been conserved somewhat, but thanks to rot and water damage it was deemed prudent to plan a replacement. The new Nannie, based

courtesy royal museums greenwich

photo by david jones, cc by 2.0

Queen Mary

film licenses. The board made it clear that this review was just the first step in determining the fate of the Queen Mary; a more in-depth study is in the works. The keel of this Cunard liner was laid in 1930, but the Depression halted any progress until 1934.

She was launched in September of that year in Clydebank, Scotland, in the yard of Messrs. John Brown & Co., Ltd. Her maiden voyage took place in May 1936; she served as a passenger liner until 1939, when she was used as a troop ship, finally returning to passenger service in 1947, sailing 20 years until her retirement in Long Beach. (www.queenmary.com). … What’s Going On With Shipping? is a new YouTube channel hosted by NMHS trustee Sal Mercogliano, who hosts videos covering current events in the maritime

youtube.com

The city of Long Beach, California, is weighing its options regarding the historic liner Queen Mary. Eagle Hospitality Trust, the company that held the contract to operate the ship, filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year, and in July control of the ship and surrounding land reverted to Long Beach. One of the issues the city is investigating is the extent

The Cutty Sark’s figurehead from the 1950s (at left), next to the new Nannie. (continued on page 48) SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

OFF TO FIDDLER’S GREEN John William Warner (1927–2021) dod photo by mass comm. specialist 1st class chad mcneeley

In 2010, US Senator John W. Warner was awarded with the NMHS Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his illustrious career as sailor, marine, Chair of the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, Under-Secretary and Secretary of the Navy, United States Senator, and Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. In his long and remarkable career, Senator Warner also served as a sailor in World War II and a marine in the Korean War. Senator Warner served five terms in the US Senate (1979–2008), was well-respected on both sides of the aisle, and rose to be Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

While serving as Under-Secretary of the Navy (1969–1972), and Secretary of the Navy (1972– 1974), he represented the Department of Defense in the Law of the Sea conventions in Geneva during 1971–1973, and negotiated the Incidents at Sea Executive Agreement with the Soviet Union between 1970–1972.

During his last year in the Senate, he was a part of the “Team of Senators” who wrote the new expanded G I Bill.

In 2010 at our awards dinner, former Secretary of the Navy NMHS Overseer John Lehman presented our award Senate Armed Services Committee to Senator Warner, to enormous acclaim. So, in 2015, when ranking member John Warner listens Senator Barbara Mikulski could not attend to accept her intently during a hearing at the Hart award, we were thrilled when Senator Warner came in her Senate Office Building in 2007. stead. His friendly ribbing of his colleague was perhaps the funniest of the remarks from that Washington stage—and that is a high bar to meet. Senator Warner joined us for many of our awards galas and was always a delightful and welcome guest. In the entrance to NMHS headquarters is a print John Warner signed and gave to us—a constant reminder of a good friend to maritime interests.

I am including remarks from John Lehman and the Naval Secretary of the Navy John Warner in 1972 on the flight deck of the Historical Foundation’s staff historian Dr. David Winkler, both men who knew Senator Warner well. carrier USS John F. Kennedy.

photo by capt patrick burns, usn (ret.)

us navy photo, naval history and heritage command

The Honorable John F. Lehman: “When I was a young horse-holder for Henry Kissinger, one of my assignments was to monitor the bold initiative by the young Secretary of the Navy John Warner to negotiate a formal treaty with the Soviet Union on avoiding dangerous confrontations between our navies. This, of course, was the height of the Cold War. Warner deftly succeeded in forging the Incidents at Sea Treaty, which ended dangerous encounters at sea and is in force to this day. I learned a great deal from watching his dual diplomacy.

Later, in the Carter years, I had the privilege of helping the new Senator Warner as he forged Senator Warner with NMHS a brilliant set of legislative initiatives to raise pay and improve quality of life for military service President Burchenal Green at the families. I watched him work across the aisle to get bi-partisan support for this legislative success.

2015 Washington awards gala.

I watched as he crafted a successful effort to get a new nuclear carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt, authorized and appropriated. When I was later nominated by President Reagan to be Secretary of the Navy, I had the privilege to serve the Navy in partnership with John and his comrades to build the 600-ship Navy and to support the sailors and marines who were the secret weapon of Cold War victory. His personal counsel during those years was invaluable to me. The Nation owes a great debt to John Warner for his service, example, and leadership.”

Dr. David Winkler: “I first met the senator for a riveting discussion on his first trip to Moscow in April 1971, a reciprocal Soviet Navy visit to the United States, and the final trip to Moscow in May 1972 to sign the Incidents at Sea Agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. My research became Incidents at Sea, published by the Naval Institute and identifying thenSecretary of the Navy Warner as a key figure in an effort to mitigate interactions between opposing navies that could escalate into an unforeseen conflict. Senator Warner was instrumental in the creation of the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, and the Cold War Gallery of the National Museum of the US Navy.

Others will eulogize John Warner as the type of consensus-building get-things-done politician that Washington sorely lacks, while some will note his legacy as Liz Taylor’s seventh husband. I will always remember him as a patriot, a champion of the sea services, a believer in the importance of heritage, and a friend.”

Thank you, Senator Warner, for your long-lasting contributions to our nation and our maritime heritage.

Fair Winds—Burchenal Green, NMHS President

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 47

(continued from page 46) on a drawing by Cutty Sark designer Hercules Linton and carved by Andy Peters, is intended to better reflect the elegance of the ship’s original design. It was installed on 11 June of this year. The 1957 figurehead, carved by Arthur Levison, has been placed in the permanent collection of the Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre.

Built in Dumbarton in 1869, Cutty Sark served in the tea trade until 1877, when the construction of the Suez Canal edged sailing ships out of the business. After some time transporting various cargoes around the world, she settled into the wool trade between Australia and England, earning a reputation as the fastest ship on that run.

In 1895 she was sold to a Portuguese firm and changed hands another time before her sale in 1922 to Briton Wilfred Dowman. She served as a training vessel, then was saved from scrapping by the Cutty Sark Society, formed by Frank Carr, director of the National Maritime Museum, and patronized by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh.

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After a three-year restoration, the ship was placed in a dry-dock display in Greenwich in 1957. A fire in 2007 damaged three of the ship’s decks, but these sections were repaired and the museum ship reopened in 2012. She has welcomed over 15 million visitors since her opening day in 1957. (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, www.rmg.co.uk) … A trove of the Los Angeles Maritime Museum’s photo collections is now available online as high resolution digital images.

Through a generous donation from David Weinstein, the research library was able to purchase a flatbed scanner and begin making the majority of its photo collections accessible to all for use in exhibits, publications, and social media. An added benefit is that the use of high resolution digital surrogates ensures perpetual access to the images, as the original prints and negatives inevitably deteriorate over time. LAMM has more than 6,200 records online hosted

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Photo from the Terence M. Lee / CalShip Collection showing a crowd inspecting the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine at the California Shipbuilding Corporation, Terminal Island, 1942. The submarine was captured at Pearl Harbor.

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SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

Tender Man Re-Visits Lilac

uscg photo

lilac preservation project

by alex roux for lilac preservation project

On 2 August 2021, the Lilac Preservation Project welcomed E. Frank “Willy” Williams back on board his old ship to celebrate his 90th birthday and honor his service to the 1933 lighthouse tender in which he served from 1971–72. At the time Willy served aboard Lilac, the vessel was the oldest ship in the Coast Guard fleet and still running on her reciprocating steam engines. At the same time, he also served as Group Engineer for Lilac Base Gloucester in Gloucester City, NJ, overseeing maintenance of the 40-foot Coast Guard vessels and taking responsibility for systems in the base buildings. He was present for Lilac’s decommissioning there in 1972. Having been through the decommissioning of her sister ship Violet ten years before, he was certain the ship would be swarmed with scavengers, so he removed and saved Lilac’s builder’s plate, hoping it might be returned one day if the ship were preserved. Some years ago, he learned of the work our organization is doing to restore the Chief E. Frank “Willy” Williams takes a seat on Lilac’s bridge during his visit. ship and returned the plate to us. As his 90th birthday was approaching, he shared with his family that seeing Lilac again was on his bucket list, so his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson took him on a road trip to fulfill this wish. He got to see the builder’s plate back on the bulkhead, where it belongs. We hope for his 100th birthday, he will get to see Lilac steaming again. Willy’s visit was documented on video and will be added to the oral histories and video interviews we continue to collect and make available online. Visit us online at www.lilacpreservationproject.org, and click on “Learn” and then “Tender Men’s Tales” USCG Cutter Lilac decommis- to watch some of the interviews we have been collecting. (LPP, 56 Daniel Low Terrace, Staten sioning ceremony with “Willy” Island, NY 10301; the Lilac’s home berth is at Hudson River Parks Pier 25 in New York City.)

—Mary Hasbritt, Museum Director and President, Lilac Preservation Project Williams in foreground.

Giclée print by visual historian Karen Rinaldo Depicts Sea Witch under full sail, driven by the trade winds.

Ship’s history is included.

Limited Edition - Numbered and Signed - 24” x 18” Print Ready for aming

•

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SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 49

A Common Bedsheet in Navy’s Collection Tells a Story of Hope

us navy photo, nhhc

by Jeffrey Bowdoin, Naval History and Heritage Command

In August of 2020, the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) was offered a rather unique and spectacular artifact—a bedsheet. On September 11, 2001, while the world watched the attacks in New York and the Pentagon and the loss of Flight 93 in horror, the crew of USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) was underway off the coast of Plymouth, England, conducting Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST) with RFA Brambleleaf (A81). When Churchill was notified of the attacks, FOST was cancelled and the ship was placed at THREATCON DELTA, meaning that a terrorist attack had occurred or intelligence suggested one would occur imminently. Thousands of miles away from home, the American crew were unable to assist in any response efforts closer to home.

Three days later, while Churchill was still on patrol off the English coast, the German destroyer Lutjens signaled she wished to come alongside the US Navy destroyer. Churchill’s crew watched as the Lutjens crew rendered honors to their American counterparts by manning the rails and hoisting the American flag slightly higher than their own. The Lutjens crew was holding up a white bedsheet; on it was written “We Stand By You”—a powerful expression of unity in a time of crisis and tremendous loss.

Later, then-Congressman from Minnesota Gil Gutknecht recounted this story on the floor of the House of Representatives. Having watched the speech on C-Span, the German ambassador to the United States arranged for a meeting between Gutknecht and the Lutjens commanding officer, where the bedsheet was gifted to the congressman. In 2020, Gutknecht contacted the NHHC Curator Branch to offer this historic artifact to the US Navy collection.

Of all the September 11th artifacts in the NHHC collection, this bedsheet is uniquely Navy. It serves as a reminder of a shared human connection, of friends and allies standing together in the darkest moments, and that even an everyday bedsheet can project a powerful, emotional message of hope and solidarity.

Jeffrey Bowdoin serves as Curator Branch Head, Naval History and Heritage Command.

To learn more about the history of the US Navy, please visit the Naval History and Heritage Command website: history.navy.mil/usnhistory.

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photo and object collections. LAMM collections cover the entire history of the Port of Los Angeles. Subject areas include the fishing and canning industry, commercial diving, US Navy, shipbuilding, yachting, passenger ships, cargo shipping, and local communities. Highlights include the Terence M. Lee / CalShip Collection and Torrance R. Parker Collection. Terence Lee was an aide to CalShip’s president (and future CIA director) John A. McCone. The California Shipbuilding Corporation built Liberty and Victory ships (and their variants) on Terminal Island, San Pedro, during World War II. Lee donated thousands of publicity photos that had been taken at the shipyard. Launchings, yard shows, propaganda posters, construction, and outfitting are all represented, and it is here that people will find the museum’s largest cache of Hollywood celebrity photos. The likes of Walt Disney, Shirley Temple, and Bette Davis were on hand for ship christenings and war bond drives. Torrance Parker was a commercial diver and diving instructor based in San Pedro. He salvaged shipwrecks, performed underwater construction, and authored numerous books. His collection features images of operations from the Port of Los Angeles to as far away as the Orinoco River in Venezuela. And perhaps unsurprisingly, the collection also showcases representations of deep-sea diving in Hollywood productions. The museum has been closed to the public for renovations since before the COVID-19 shutdown began, and the digital material from these collections has helped LAMM stay engaged with visitors virtually. With construction winding down, the museum hopes to reopen later this year. Meanwhile, digitization continues behind the scenes and new content is continuously uploaded to LAMM’s online platform, shedding light on fascinating collections that have long laid dormant. The collection may be viewed at https://lamaritimemuseum.pastperfectonline.com/ and inquiries can be directed to Derek Spinei at spinei@lamaritimemuseum.org. (www.lamaritimemuseum.org) … The American maritime heritage community has welcomed a new museum into its ranks. The Currituck Maritime Museum on North Carolina’s Outer Banks opened to the public on 16 July.

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

Currituck Maritime Museum currituck maritime museum

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The museum is located in Historic Corolla Park, joining the park’s Currituck Beach Lighthouse, the Outer Banks center for Wildlife Education, and the historic estate museum Whalehead. The 10,000-square-foot museum features historic boats, artifacts, and exhibits to tell the story of fishing, lifesaving stations, lighthouses, the boatbuilding industry, decoy carving, and local weather history— the region’s many-faceted relationship with the water. (1140 Village Lane, Corolla, NC; Ph. (252 435-2947; www.visitcurrituck. com/places/currituck-maritime-museum/) … The North Carolina Maritime Museum (NCMM) has been awarded a $99,209 Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The matching grant was one of 126 MFA awards announced by IMLS for 2021; the program’s

A New England Tradition For 60 Years

NCMM conservator Michelle Crepeau works in the museum’s conservation lab on an artifact recovered from a German U-boat. mission is to help museums to serve as community anchors and essential partners in addressing community needs, and to preserve and provide access to their collections. NCMM, which is currently adding an archaeological extension to its conservation lab at its Beaufort site, intends to use the funds towards the purchase of new equipment to help treat larger and more complex archeological artifacts in-house.

That equipment includes a micro-air SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 51

greater variety of conservation practices to the public, creating new opportunities for educational programming and public engagement.” The NCMM system comprises the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras, the North Carolina Maritime Museum at Beaufort, and the North Carolina Maritime Museum at Southport. (IMLS: 955 L’Enfant Plaza North, SW, Suite 4000, Washington, DC

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NCMM-B: 315 Front Street, Beaufort, NC; https://ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com) … The Australian National Maritime Museum has added another game to its online Game Centre, a suite of adventures focused on some of the maritime subjects interpreted by the museum.

Joining “Cook’s Voyages” and “The Voyage,” Wreck Seeker asks players to take on the role of maritime archaeologists, starting with a few snippets of information and researching a shipwreck, consulting experts and documentary sources, locating the wreck and diving on the site, and then creating an exhibition interpreting the wreck. In addition to learning about maritime history, students learn about the research process. (2 Murray Street, Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia; www.sea. museum) … The city of Amsterdam is developing the world’s first fleet of autonomous floating vessels. The research project making this happen is Roboat, a collaboration between the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prototype vessels were tested in May; the team envisions a fleet of autonomous platforms that will be able to

courtesy mit and ams institute

abrasive blasting unit and a combined workstation and dust collector, a portable downdraft workbench and a high-grade air compressor for the operation of pneumatic tools. Museum conservator Michelle Crepeau said that the lab enhancements will help expand treatment, outreach, and educational capabilities as a whole. “The expanded lab will be fully visible to the public,” Crepeau said. “This will bring a

“combine together to form floating bridges and stages, collect waste, deliver goods, and transport people, all while collecting data about the city.” Amsterdam’s 60 miles of waterways make it an ideal setting for the initiative. The boats—about 13 feet long with a speed of about 4 mph and a battery range of 12–24 hours, depending on the type of vessel and task, won’t be plying the city’s canals any time soon; it will still be 2 to 4 years before the selfsteering technology will be ready to deploy.

There will also be regulatory and privacy concerns to address: for example, onboard SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

cameras and scanners will have to be operational such that the identity of individuals walking alongside the waterway won’t be recorded or tracked. (https://roboat.org/#roboat) … … In July Mystic Seaport Museum (MSM) welcomed Chris Sanders as the new director of the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard.

Sanders has served as the shipyard’s lead shipwright for the past two years and is succeeding longtime director Quentin Snediker, who will continue to serve as Mystic’s Clark Senior Curator for Watercraft. Under Snediker’s leadership, the shipyard completed major large-scale restorations on the museum’s flagship—the 1841 whaler Charles W. Morgan, the Mayflower II, the fishing vessel Roann, and the steamboat Sabino, and built the schooner Amistad (launched in 2000). Sanders is a graduate of the apprentice program at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum as well as the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, Rhode Island; he ran his own boat restoration shop in San Diego before deciding to return to New England. In other news from the shipyard, the Charles W. Morgan, America’s oldest commercial ship still afloat, was hauled out on 19 July for routine maintenance. The hull was Charles W. Morgan

Save the Date!

New York City Pickle Night, Virtual Event Friday, 5 November 2021 Join the American Friends of the National Museum of the Royal Navy in commemorating the historic voyage in 1805 of HM Schooner Pickle, which brought the news from Trafalgar to London of Nelson’s death and the victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.

This year marks the 216th anniversary of the history-making battle and the 16th New York City Pickle Night event. This year we will commemorate these significant events in a special online gathering. This virtual trip will take us to Portsmouth, England, and will be filled with surprises.

“I Have Urgent Dispatches” Registration and details can be found online

by Gordon Frickers at www.AFNMRN.org. Advance registration is required. For inquiries, please email info@afnmrn.org or call our New York headquarters at 212 840-1166. The American Friends of the National Museum of the Royal Navy is a registered US tax exempt organization.

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BOMBSHELL: THE CURIOUS WAR OF A UNION ARMY GUNBOAT by Thomas F. McGraw. This is the unlikely true story of the Oscar F. Burns, a humble 1861 New York canal boat, renamed by the Union Army as Bombshell for its role with four similar vessels in the 1861-62 Burnside expedition to the Carolinas. Bombshell was eventual lengthened and armed at New Bern, NC, to become a full-fledged steam-powered fighting ship.

Gunboat Bombshell supported Army raids with artillery support and with delivery of troops against Confederate targets along the North Carolina rivers and finished her career in pitched river battles among much larger ships. Reviewed positively in Power Ships and Civil War Navy magazines. Order direct from the author, via US Postal Service, at Indian Creek, PO Box 14663, New Bern, NC 28561. $20.00 check to “Indian Creek” includes postage and any applicable taxes.

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THE LOST HERO OF CAPE COD by Vincent Miles. The story of an elite mariner, Captain Asa Eldridge, and the 19th-century battle for commercial supremacy on the Atlantic. Reviews, availability at www.lostherocapedcod.com and Amazon.com.

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SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

us navy photo

USS Orleck

medal for his role in the rescue of 20 people from the grounded SS Lancaster at Casablanca in 1942 and posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism in action as commanding officer of USS Nauset, when his ship was struck by aerial bombs during the amphibious invasion of Italy on 9 September 1943. USS Orleck earned four battle stars during the Korean conflict and fourteen battle stars in the Vietnam War, and she participated in the retrieval of the Gemini IV space capsule. After her decommissioning in 1982, Orleck was transferred to the Turkish government and renamed TCG Yucetepe; in 1999 Turkey donated her to the Southeast Texas War memorial and Heritage Foundation to become a museum ship.

After Hurricane Rita, however, Orleck had to find a new home and was eventually accepted by Lake Charles, LA. Plans for a permanent berth in that location fell through, leaving the destroyer once again looking for a new home. The Jacksonville Historic Naval Ship Association (JHNSA), which had unsuccessfully pursued the acquisition of the destroyer USS Charles F. Adams, is now hopeful that the Orleck will find a permanent home in their city. As of press time, the Orleck was being prepared

Bernida

museum marked the yacht’s centenary with Bernida’s Birthday Bash with all the trimmings of a 1920s garden party. (MMM, 260 Dyckman Avenue, South Haven, MI; Ph. 269 637-8078; www.michiganmaritimemuseum.org) … It turns out there is more than one way to skin a cat—or strip paint off a hull. The Scottish Maritime Museum employed the services of Eco Dry Ice to clean off the hull of MV Kyles with a technique called cryogenic blasting. Using dry ice pellets is nonabrasive and leaves no residue, characteristics that make the process both gentler on the surface being treated and easier on the environment. The museum was able to take this step, along with further restoration, thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign conducted last year, “Keep the Kyles Afloat!” that raised about £40,000 (about $50,000) in a single month. While she is hauled out, the next step involves

MV Kyles scottish maritime museum

for towing to port Arthur, TX, where she will be inspected in dry dock to determine her overall condition before any further plans are finalized. (www.orleck.org) …

The Michigan Maritime Museum is celebrating the 100th birthday of its Universal R Class Sloop Bernida. Designed

by George Owen and built by George Lawley & Sons, Bernida started out sailing out of the Corinthian Yacht Club of Marblehead, Massachusetts. By 1925, however, she was competing in the Great Lakes, winning the Bayview-Port Huron Mackinac Race and winning it again just two years later. She then disappeared from the racing circuit, only to be discovered years later in a barn near Frankfort, MI. She was restored in 2010 and competed in—and won—the 2012 Bayview-Port Huron Mackinac Race. She was subsequently donated to the Michigan Maritime Museum, where she serves as an ambassador of the “golden years of American yachting.” The

michigan maritime museum

major restoration from 2008 to 2013, and the following year embarked on her 38th ocean voyage, touring the seaports of New England. (MSM, 75 Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic, CT; Ph. 860 572-0711; www. mysticseaport.org) … The city council of Jacksonville, FL, voted unanimously to approve a development agreement that could lead to the installation of the retired vessel USS Orleck (DD-886) as a naval history museum on the town’s riverfront. The Gearing-class destroyer was launched 12 May 1945 in Orange, TX, and entered service that September. She was named for Lt. Joseph Orleck, USN, who was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps

conducting a thorough inspection and then, if no additional repairs are called for, repainting. Further work will depend on funding; the museum hopes to repair the Kyles’s engine, restore the ship’s cabins, and have the vessel shipshape for the ship’s 150th anniversary next year. The Kyles was built

by John Fullerton & Co. in Paisley in 1872; the museum believes she is the oldest floating Clyde-built vessel in the UK. Ownership of the ship has changed hands 24 times; she has served as a cargo coaster, a fishing tender, a sand dredger, and a tanker. She was acquired by the museum in 1984. (SMM, 6 Gottries Road, North Ayrshire, www.scottishmaritimemuseum.org) … The Naval War College Foundation plans to award one grant of up to $4,000, or two grants of up to $2,000 each, to the researcher(s) with the greatest need who can make optimum use of the naval history research materials located in the NWC’s Naval Historical Collection, Naval War College Museum, and Henry E. Eccles Library. The Naval War College’s John B. Hattendorf Center for Maritime Historical Research will provide administrative support during the research visit.

The library’s collection can be found at www.usnwc.edu/Learning-commons. Information on the manuscript and archival collections and finding aids from the Naval Historical Collection are available on request by email at nhc@usnwc.edu or via the Naval Historical Collection website at https://usnwcarchives.org. Candidates should submit a CV and a cover letter that details their financial need and describes the research plan for optimal use of NWC materials. (Applications are due by 1 October 2021 and should consist of a pdf emailed to millerfellowship@usnwc.edu.

Employees of the Naval War College or any agency of the US Dept. of Defense are not eligible for consideration.)

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 55

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TO ORDER, CALL 1-800-221-NMHS (6647), ext. 0, or online at www.seahistory.org/store/. Order now for October delivery.

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SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

Reviews

Shipwrecked: Coastal Disasters and the Making of the American Beach by Jamin Wells (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2020, 264pp, illus, maps, notes, biblio, index, isbn 978-1-46966090-5; $29.95pb) For too long shipwrecks have been the subject of limited interpretation, due in part to the very success of their exciting individual narratives. Stories of nautical mayhem have indeed served their purpose of sharing oceanic history, though some continue to search for midrange connections to larger historical trends. Facts and wrecks are not enough…why else are shipwrecks significant? Historical and archaeological values, yes…but is there meaning beyond the individual site? Jamin Wells attempts to answer this question by employing the cultural landscape approach and recognizing the cognitive role of shipwrecks in the environment, the American shore and beach. The phenomenon of shipwrecking (vessels being lost) and ship “wrecking” (vessels being salvaged) reaches far beyond any single incident. Wells’s book aims at the full implications of shipwrecks in the broadest social sense, focusing on the Northeast in the 19th century, a period of intense maritime activity that came with a staggering number of coastal losses. His hypothesis, that shipwrecks shaped American social, political, economic and cultural institutions, is a logical extension of Westerdahl’s original maritime cultural landscape thesis. This is timely. We are in a race to better value our marine ecosystem, including heritage and cultural services, in order to improve ocean stewardship before it’s simply too late. Examination of our perceptions of the coast is warranted. Like so much else, our assessment of the modern beach is not the result of any simple process, but of complex interactions from surprising quarters.

Wells begins by portraying the earlycentury beach as a remote frontier in the vein of Frederick Jackson Turner, one economically critical to a young nation. As commerce brought America the bulk of its revenue, customs enforcement, and lighthouses, “aggressive federal interventions,” were logical and necessary initiatives for the wild shoreline. Coastal salvage at this time was informal and conducted ad hoc

coastal resort owners themselves. The development of the beach cash economy further advanced with rail and steam landings and roads. This transformation continued with the technological capacity to not just salvage larger wrecks, but to clear the beach itself. Captain T. A. Scott, a quintessential professional engineer/wrecker of the industrial age, serves well as the case-study lynchpin. Like the earlier stories of plunder, myths persisted about Scott’s larger-than-life hero/engineer/salvager persona, while the reality of large faceless marine engineering corporations moved forward. Wells’s approach is broader here, positioning shipwreck salvage within the age of marine engineering that transformed The Glencannon Pressharbors and beaches alike, including dredging, pilings, harbor construction, bulk4 col. inches (2.25 x 4.5 inches) heads, and ultimately bridges and dams.

Prefer right hand page,This bottom right. is the new context of the shipwrecking by the few beach locals. In addition, the industry, part of the literal reshaping of the line between ad hoc salvage and outright coastline. piracy was sometimes thin indeed. While Once the beach was tamed and transit can be argued that the spread of ship- formed, the wild coasts were safe for amusewreck stories “reinforced the notion of ments, and the book’s final chapter turns American exceptionalism,” there was, to the shipwreck as spectacle, placed among typically, only one direction for this government intervention to go…upwards. The THE GLENCANNON frontier beach began to be tamed, as states’ PRESS shipwreck laws began to be systematically applied through hired commissioners. StoMaritime Books ries of plunder continued, due in part to America’s obsession with piracy and sensationalism, but the reality on the shore NEW! began to differ. Wells continues to use specific case studies (John Minturn wreck, Black Knight village of Squan, Commissioner John ForThe Life and Times of man, etc.) to excellent effect, navigating Capt. Hugh Mulzac seamlessly between the conceptual landscape and historical events. Place-based The complete life story of jurisdiction takes firmer hold of the distant shore. the first black man to have By the mid-century the shore began and sail on an American to be transformed. The US Life Saving master’s license and the first Service (USLSS) brought more formal to command a Liberty Ship structure to the coast, as well as destinations throughout World War II. (the stations themselves) for adventuresome wanderers, an initiating element of coastal More than 300 pages, 14 in tourism. Though steam connections and full color. roads were still rare to non-existent, this was one of the few ways entrepreneurs FREE Catalog began to create a footprint, promoting the Tel. 1-510-455-9027 health advantages of sea bathing and nature. Occasionally USLSS staff became

G P

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 57

the age of increasing public amusements, world fairs, and expositions. This helps explain the subsequent maritime craze in art and literature. Shipwrecks embodied the tension between modernization and real-life dangers, a sublime struggle between technology and nature. And the “camera fiends” and “disaster tourists,” followed by more vendors and entrepreneurs, could now access the beach and see doomed vessels for themselves. Wells summarizes the late nineteenth-century American beach as ringed in a dense web of institutions that guide navigation, identify vessels, report disasters, and rescue life and property.

Shipwrecked provides a service to the field of heritage preservation, demonstrating that cultural landscape analysis of the coast does indeed reveal deeper levels of significance and social connections to history formerly beyond the reach of the singular wreck tale, and it does so in ways particular to the American beach. Shipwrecks played a broad role in driving specific changes that shaped our behavior and conception of the shore. Joining the cognitive landscape with the historical narrative from a wreck-laden American century is no small effort, yet Wells does so with an accurate brevity and deft hand.

Hans K. Van Tilburg, PhD Honolulu, Hawaii

Inside the US Navy of 1812–1815 by William S. Dudley (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2021, 348pp, maps, illus, notes, index, isbn 978-1-42144051-4; $54.95hc)

Naval historian William S. Dudley has focused his career on the early history of the American Navy. His latest book, Inside the US Navy of 1812–1815, is the product of ten years of effort, resulting in an essential volume. Dudley writes that “the purpose of this study is to demonstrate the importance of logistics for the US Navy in the War of 1812,” logistics being “all the elements of naval warfare except the fight-

Lighthouses of the georgia Coast by

William Rawlings

Georgia’s barrier islands are today the site of five existing lighthouses—Tybee, Cockspur, Sapelo, St. Simons, and Little Cumberland— each with its own unique style, history, and role in events over the past decades and centuries. Richly illustrated, this book also explores the basics of lighthouse design and construction; the role, lore, and legacy of lighthouse keepers; the significance of lighthouses as strategic structures during the turbulent days of the Civil War; and more.

www.mupress.org 58

ing….” This approach treats combat as the end point of a logistical process involving everything from the acquisition of construction materials to the provision of competent leadership. The design has produced voluminous useful detail and analysis of that process for the specialist, while delivering a comprehensive and engaging work for the lay reader.

One of the many pleasures of the book is the author’s relationship with the men who lived two centuries ago. In his hands, they seem human and immediate. He is rarely judgmental, often offering a range of possible reasons behind decisions gone wrong. This is a volume centered in substantial part on bureaucracy, money, and materiel, but it is populated with compelling characters and inspiring heroes. This American story is a rich one, and the writing absolutely engaging throughout.

The United States declared war on Britain on 18 June 1812, and just two months later USS Constitution defeated the British frigate Guerriere in a one-on-one fight off Nova Scotia. In October, USS United States defeated and sank the new British frigate Macedonian, and in early December the Constitution defeated the British frigate Java, again in single combat.

Finally, the British Admiralty instructed its frigate captains to avoid fighting an American peer without support.

American naval strategy at the beginning of the nineteenth century called for a force able to defend the nation against an aggressor twice as large. With prospective enemies France and Great Britain having been engaged in an all-consuming struggle since 1793, the US Navy, led by its heavily built and gunned frigates, looked capable of that task. The powerful American frigates overmatched the smaller British cousins and were faster and more maneuverable than any ship of the line. Nevertheless, with the abdication of Napoleon and his banishment to Elba in April 1814, Britain was able to bring overwhelming naval power to bear against the US Navy and the nation’s privateers, effectively blockading the entire Atlantic coastline.

On a strategic level, the British Army’s burning of Washington and its campaign along the Chesapeake seemed to lack a focused objective—more a slap in the face SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

of an impudent former colony than a refighting of the Revolution. There was no attempt, certainly, to pull the US back into the British family. The campaigns on the Great Lakes and Gulf of Mexico, however, posed significant threats to the United States that was to become.

At the end of the Revolutionary War, Britain formally ceded sovereignty to the United States over an area soon to be known as the Northwest Territory, now comprising the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and a portion of Minnesota. Despite the agreement, Britain maintained troops and agents in the region in support of its lucrative trade in furs. As part of its efforts there, it actively promoted and supported Native American tribes struggling to keep land-hungry Americans out of the region. General Anthony Wayne’s victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers secured US sovereignty in the territory, but had the war ended with Britain in substantial control of the area, there is a possibility that the Treaty of Paris lines of demarcation might have been renegotiated to comport with that new political reality.

In a vast area with very few miles of road, control of the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, and their river systems was crucial. The logistical challenges of fighting a naval war in a land-bound arena were extraordinary. Ships needed to be built in shipyards that didn’t exist yet. Lumber and spars had to be timbered and shaped. Sails, rope, metal fixtures, naval guns, instruments, crewmen needed to be identified, acquired, and shipped to the edge of nowhere. And when that all came together, there were battles to be fought with limited communications to senior headquarters, largely by men younger and less experienced than their blue-water counterparts.

The strategic risk to American interests to US control of the Louisiana Purchase was even clearer. The small United States naval station at New Orleans was the only significant outpost in the 870,000-squaremile expanse. Dudley notes that a British seizure of New Orleans would have allowed them to halt trade on the Mississippi, causing devastating financial damage to both private and public American interests at a time when the government’s purse was

already sorely pressed. Andrew Jackson’s reflections on the stakes for the Battle of New Orleans seem not at all alarmist.

If General Pakenham and his 10,000 matchless veterans could have annihilated my little army, he would have captured New Orleans and sentried all the contiguous territory, though technically the war was over. Great Britain would have immediately abrogated the Treaty of Ghent and would have ignored Jefferson’s transaction with Napoleon.

Dr. Dudley has provided us not just a history of brave men fighting to avoid disaster, but a story of challenge, opportunity, change and growth. During the

presidency of Thomas Jefferson (1801– 1809), the navy’s shipbuilding program was terminated and the construction of a fleet of 100 small gunboats began. This decision reflected Jefferson’s belief that diplomacy was more effective than a large military establishment in defending national interests, as well as his desire to reduce the size of the federal government. The gunboat experiment ended during the Madison administration, but an important opportunity had been lost. As the United States began its war with the world-girding fleet that had defeated the French and Spanish fleets, the country’s navy comprised seven frigates, four schooners, four ketches, and 170 gunboats.

At the war’s end, many Americans believed the US Navy had won its fight against Great Britain. Memories of naval

Over 120,000 Vessels Online @ internationalmaritimelibrary.org This list is mostly compiled from the “List of Merchant Vessels of the United States” and several other annuals, including foreign ones. Other sources have also been used to expand the information included. This list not only includes American vessels, but also foreign ones, whether commercial, yachts, warships, sail, power, unrigged and some not documented. Frequently updated.

More databases to be added soon INSIDE THE US NAVY OF 1812–1815 WILLIAM S. DUDLEY What did it take—logistically and operationally —for the small and underfunded US Navy to face the battle-hardened Royal Navy in the War of 1812?

Available wherever books are sold Also by WILLIAM S. DUDLEY Maritime Maryland: A History

press.jhu.edu

SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 59

glory and the decisive defeat of British arms at New Orleans generated enthusiasm for an enlarged and modernized fleet. In 1816, Congress authorized the building of nine 74-gun ships of the line, twelve new heavy frigates, and three steam frigates.

Even more important than building authorization were the institutional reforms that grew out of the Navy’s 1812–15 experience. Civilian control of the navy was established as a first principle. A system to select, develop, and promote naval leaders was formalized. Financial accountability

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was dramatically improved. The Board of Navy Commissioners and the system of naval bureaus were established. In that dangerous time, the navy of John Paul Jones began to grow into the navy that fought at Midway.

Laurence Kerr Bainbridge Island, Washington How the Old World Ended: The AngloDutch American Revolution, 1500–1800

by Jonathan Scott (Yale University Press, New Haven, 2019, 392pp, maps, notes, bibliography, and index, isbn 978-0-30024359-8; $35) Jonathan Scott’s How the Old World Ended is an impressive display of brilliant observations that transcend and overwhelm its overall message. Reading it is like watching a major fireworks display or listening to a stirring symphony. It is awe-inspiring, so much so that—once over—little remains but a recollection of something to be savored, put away in one’s memory for future reference. His writing can be pedantic; his thesis breathtaking.

The Industrial Revolution, usually considered to have started in Great Britain around 1760, will attract scholarly attention so long as humanity remains capable of research and publication. Most researchers seek to determine why it happened. For Max Weber (The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 1905), it was religion, the acceptance of Protestantism’s freedoms of action. For Douglas C. North and Robert Thomas in The Rise of the Western World (1973), the establishment and maintenance of property rights made the Industrial Revolution possible. Rondo Cameron, A Concise Economic History of the World from Paleolithic Times to the Present (1989), argues that it was not a revolution but rather a progression. Scott’s focus is to examine how the Industrial Revolution changed the world: “to understand something like the Industrial Revolution, which changed everything, we need to examine every aspect of the life of the societies it changed.”

The Industrial Revolution, of course, did change everything, and How the Old World Ended is Scott’s solid case for that conclusion, a succinct history “of three new states…the United Provinces of the Netherlands (1579), the United Kingdom of

Great Britain (1707), and the United States of America (1783).” While fighting to free themselves from Spanish rule, the Dutch introduced innovations in statecraft, watercraft, finance, agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing that put them at the forefront of European development and prosperity. The Dutch advances flowed to the British Isles (some by force of arms), where they prospered and thrust the British ahead of their continental mentors. The DutchBritish advances were carried to the New World, where a market for European products fueled the pre-conditions for an industrial revolution.

Scott makes his case through a detailed outline of the history of his geographic base across 300 years. The text can be difficult to follow in spots where the author weaves the writing of contemporaries into his own narrative so seamlessly that it is not easy for the reader to know whose voice is narrating.

Notwithstanding, the book is a valuable review of a distinctive period of world history, when events in the Dutch-BritishAmerican archipelago set the course for the modern world. How the Old World Ended will be of interest to those seeking a review of the history they already know and those wanting a crash course in European-American history from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries.

David O. Whitten, PhD Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina Ireland, Literature, and the Coast: Seatangled by Nicholas Allen (Oxford University Press, New York, 2020, 320pp, isbn 978-0-19885-787-7; $90hc) Predictions of sea level rise warn us of worldwide and, for some, catastrophic changes to the familiar coastlines drawn on maps and globes. Crossing the frontiers of coastlines, shores, and intruding far up rivers, the oceans, or as some name it, the world-ocean, is increasing almost daily its influence on terrestrial human activity. The border between land and sea turns out to be far more porous than our ancestors’ cartography might have imagined. Nowhere is the immediacy—and the porosity— of the land-sea divide more apparent than for those living on an island. Nicholas Allen’s new study explores the history of modern Irish literary entanglements with the sea SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

that extend much farther than many readers may have guessed.

Seatangled begins with “The Maritime Yeats,” and its chapters treat canonical figures such as James Joyce, Erskine Childers, Seamus Heaney, and John Banville, as well as lesser-known writers like Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and Hugo Hamilton. Allen’s scope is broad, encompassing oceans, rivers, and bays as well as concepts of liquidity and fluidity and their representation in literature and art: “the idea of water” as well as “weather and climate.” The dozen

chapters in Seatangled operate independently, a bit like articles in an academic journal. Together, however, they build a strong case for Allen’s aquatic re-examination of Irish literature. In it, he finds “serial examples of the sea as a medium for invasion and exchange back to earliest times, and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the symbolism of water rose in the cultural register as new trends of global migration applied themselves to the island’s population.” This allows Allen to read Yeats’s early novel John Sherman, the rather conventional story of a young man who leaves his home in the west of Ireland for a job in a shipping agency in London, as well as James Joyce’s Dubliners, in which Allen sees the stories as “a series of difficult moments in which the global and the local interact, [operating] as an inventory of the forms these interactions take, from the offer of a glass of sherry to the transformation of water into snow.” Although fascinat-

ing, the level of theoretical abstraction necessary to develop the argument may present difficulties to readers unfamiliar with the academic discourse to which this book contributes.

Far from a brisk summer read, this is a penetrating collection of provocative readings of literary and visual texts supported by a tremendous amount of critical and contextual research. With copious footnotes ranging from reference citations to miniessays filling nearly half of some pages, Allen’s volume is a valuable resource for

scholars and serious students of modern literature, Irish cultural studies, environmental and oceanic studies, or “blue” humanities. Allen is bang up-to-date with these recent academic trends, but wears his engagement with them lightly and his book is well-grounded in traditional, theoretically informed literary scholarship. Oxford University Press has given him a handsome book design with stunning dust-cover art

by Donald Teskey and a generous number of black and white images illustrating the scrapbooks of Jack Yeats and two etchings

Books from the coast of Maine that celebrate the sea.

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SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 61

of Norman Ackroyd previously published in the journal Archipelago. Allen ends by describing his book as “a complement to the study of Irish writing and art in their coastal and archipelagic contexts,” but this crucial volume will energize and long sustain these and much wider conversations about humanity, culture, and our relationship to the nature and environment of the terraqueous globe.

Colin Dewey, PhD Oakland, California Valcour: The 1776 Campaign that Saved the Cause of Liberty by Jack Kelly (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2021, 285pp, maps, illus, notes, biblio, index, isbn 9781-250-24711-7; $38.50hc) The 1759 Battle of Quebec put all of Canada under British control, and when the colonists to the south declared independence a decade and a half later, their leaders reasoned that their northern neighbors would be eager to join them in revolt.

But the attempt to “free” Canada did not turn out well for the revolutionaries. The rout of colonial arms and the resultant

by Kurt D. Voss All proceeds from this pictorial history benefit the ELISSA preservation fund.

Published by Arcadia Publishing and Galveston Historical Foundation $21.99. 128 pages, 200 photographs Autographed copies available at (409) 763-1877, or online at:

w w w. t s m - e l i s s a . o r g 62

disorderly retreat set the stage for the Battle of Valcour and introduced to history the American general from this conflict remembered by history second only to George Washington—Benedict Arnold. His later treason notwithstanding, in the years before he turned his coat, Arnold was an American hero. What he did to save the foundering cause in 1776 is the subject of Jack Kelly’s latest book, Valcour: The 1776 Campaign that Saved the Cause of Liberty.

Kelly’s book reads more like a novel than a historical exegesis. He begins with an unsettling description of the condition of American survivors of the fighting, the harrowing retreat, and the pox. Historians concentrate on battles, but disease is often more destructive than artillery, bombs, and bullets. Kelly’s description of the suffering associated with smallpox leaves nothing to the imagination. Moreover, the human suffering created organizational confusion.

Reorganizing a defeated army is a herculean challenge under the best circumstances, and rebuilding a defeated army infested with a highly contagious and deadly disease is all but impossible. Notwithstanding, that was the challenge facing revolutionary leaders during the few months between the defeat and retreat and the Battle of Valcour.

The Battle of Valcour is a tale of defeat for the American cause. British General Guy Carleton destroyed the American lake fleet, took hundreds of prisoners, killed scores and drove the Americans south to Fort Ticonderoga, all at small cost to his army and navy. Bottled up in a decaying fortification with exhausted, dispirited, and diseased men and little in the way of military stores, the Americans were ripe for annihilation at his hands. But considering the condition of the American forces after the defeat in Canada and the chaotic retreat south, Carleton’s victory was in many ways more a victory for the American cause—and that is the crux of Valcour.

Credit for turning almost-certain defeat into a loss that saved the cause goes largely to Benedict Arnold. Kelly makes a case for Arnold the hero. He does not magnify the general’s contributions, but rather weaves them in with the accomplishments and failings of the other officers responsible for turning severe tragedy into mere misfortune. Arnold is presented warts and all.

Valcour will not reduce the smut on Arnold’s image, but it may illuminate his positive contribution in the war for independence. Valcour is well written and a delight to read. It will be of interest to general readers as well as those devoted to war histories and biography.

David O. Whitten, PhD Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina New York’s War of 1812: Politics, Society, and Combat by Richard V. Barbuto (University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2021, 285pp, illus, maps, notes, biblio, index, isbn 978-08061-6833-3, $39.95hc) The thesis of Richard V. Barbuto’s latest book, New York’s War of 1812: Politics, Society, and Combat, is that the War of 1812 was New York’s war. Barbuto, a former career army officer and emeritus professor of history at the US Army Command & General Staff College, maintains that much of the fighting took place on or near New York’s borders and that the war affected New Yorkers’ lives and fortunes more than anywhere else.There were four military aspects to New York’s war. First, US pre-war strategy envisioned an advance from the northern part of the state into Canada to seize Montreal, and perhaps Quebec. Gaining control of the two cities would serve as a bargaining chip in prospective peace negotiations with Britain to negotiate an end to the Royal Navy’s impressment of American seamen and Indian tribes’ attacks on land-hungry American settlers, which the United States thought Britain abetted. Although the 1812 invasion petered out pitifully (and the subsequent 1813 invasion was a debacle), northern New York saw intermittent battles and raids. Second, New York had an additional battlefront: the Niagara frontier in the western part of the state saw some of the war’s most bitter fighting. Third, both sides raced to build warships on Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Champlain, recognizing the strategic importance of maritime supremacy on the inland lakes.

Finally, the defense of Manhattan, then the largest city and port in the United States, required troops and fortifications against an expected seaborne British invasion, as there was in 1776.

Into the breach stepped New York Governor Daniel Tompkins, who, accordSEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021

ing to Barbuto, should be added to the pantheon of American heroes of the War of 1812. A Jeffersonian Republican elected governor in 1807, Tompkins smelled war far off and tried to prepare his state for the coming conflict. He ordered rifles from Eli Whitney, established forward arsenals, and appointed politically reliable individuals as militia officers. During the war, he was tireless as an organizer. As commander-inchief of the state militia, he addressed British threats on different fronts. At the same time, Tompkins adroitly handled the oftenobstructionist Federalist party in his state, persuaded the New York State legislature to loan funds to the insolvent federal government, and dealt with incompetency in Washington, DC. In 1814, Madison appointed Tompkins—a civilian—to command all the military forces in the district that encompassed New York.

New York’s War of 1812 covers all aspects of the war clearly and succinctly.

Barbuto provides a concise introduction to the state’s politics and people, its militia

system, and the causes of the war. He indicts the federal government as “unprepared to wage war with major shortcomings in manpower, money, warships, weaponry, skilled leadership, training, equipment, and transportation.” Barbuto proceeds chronologically, jumping from one front to another, covering everything from troop movements to officer selection to fortifying the maritime approaches to Manhattan, but the flow of the narrative is sure, and certain themes emerge.

An underlying theme throughout the book regards the militia. Sometimes the militia mustered in numbers, but sometimes militiamen stayed home. With the individual soldier viewing his mission as protecting hearth and home, most refused to cross into Canada. The militia was poorly led, poorly equipped, and poorly trained; Barbuto notes archly they were “generally incapable of maneuver on the battlefield.”

Although Barbuto sums up the militia’s performance as “mixed,” after repeated military defeats, diseases ravaging the

ranks, and often non-existent pay, it is remarkable the militia mustered at all upon Tompkins’s repeated calls.

Barbuto provides crisp descriptions of battles, not overlooking the experience of the common militiaman or soldier. He ultimately depreciates the role played by privateers at sea, although he tells a few stories of New York’s privateers. He concludes that America’s 1814 victories on land at Plattsburgh, New York, and on Lake Champlain, proved to Britain (and the Duke of Wellington) that a serious invasion of the United States was out of the question, leading to peace talks that resulted in a treaty preserving New York’s northern boundary and restoring the overall status quo ante bellum.

Insightful, deeply researched and well written, New York’s War of 1812 demonstrates the centrality of the state to the war.

Richard Barbuto has produced a first-rate history.

Frederick C. Leiner Baltimore, Maryland

2022 Wall Calendar—Classic Sail Classic Sail features sailing craft ranging from traditional working boats and cruising sailing vessels to America’s Cup contenders of the past. Photographer Kathy Mansfield, whose work is found in Classic Boat, WoodenBoat, and Water Craft, brings together classic sailing vessels in this very enjoyable pan-Atlantic collection.

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SEA HISTORY 176, AUTUMN 2021 63

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Rosende Sherwood A. Schartner Conrad Scheffer Larry C. Schramm Howard Schutter CDR John E. Scott, USN (Ret.) Robert W. Scott Dr. James Seay Dean Douglas H. Sharp Bill Skarich Richard Snowdon David T. Spell Jr. Lada Simek Chuck Steele David Stulb Marty Sutter Swimmer Family Trust Craig Swirbliss RADM Cindy Thebaud, USN (Ret.) Craig Thompson Christopher N. Thorpe Charles Tobin Capt. John Torjusen Russell R. Tripp Robert J. Tyd Sandra Ulbrich Capt. Harold Vanderploeg Robert Vincent Capt. Sam Volpentest Dana Wagner RADM Edward K. Walker Jr., USN (Ret.) Terry Walton Lee P. Washburn Gerald Weinstein Jeremy Weirich Roberta E. Weisbrod, PhD William U. Westerfield Blunt White George C. White Nathaniel S. Wilson William L. Womack 64 SEA HISTORY 175, SUMMER 2021 In Memory of Woodson K. Woods CAPT Channing M. Zucker, USN (Ret.)

Join in the Action!

Sit Down With a Book by William H. White and Find Yourself On Deck in the Age of Sail!

Taste the salt spray and feel the boom of the cannon in your bones! Award-winning author William H. White’s books provide a thrilling way to experience maritime and naval history. Written with a depth of research, White presents a spectacular cast of characters engaged in action and intrigue, portrayed in an accurate depiction of the conditions as they existed during the era. Seamlessly weaving fictitious characters into a historical narrative, White creates a fun and exciting way to learn a bit of American history. Through the National Maritime Historical Society’s online Ship’s Store, all of his books* are available for $14.95 (paperback) each, while a portion of the proceeds supports NMHS. The 1812 Trilogy—

A Press of Canvas, A Fine Tops’l Breeze, and The Evening Gun Discover William H. White’s historically accurate, colorful, and carefully crafted tales from the Age of Sail—told from an American perspective with a grand view from the early days of our country.

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William H. White is a historian specializing in the maritime heritage and American involvement in the Age of Sail. A life-long sailor and a US Navy officer in the 1960s, he was actively involved in naval operations in Vietnam. His love of the Age of Sail and all things maritime is reflected in his carefully crafted maritime tales.

In addition to serving as a Life Trustee of the USS Constitution Museum in Boston, White is a long-time trustee and officer of the National Maritime Historical Society and is heavily involved in its operations. Early in 2012 he was elected to the board of trustees of Operation Sail, Inc. (now defunct). He is former trustee of the LYNX Educational Foundation and served on the board of Tall Ships America for several years.

While officially retired from penning full-length books, White continues to write the occasional magazine article and post a (more or less) weekly blog, Maritime Maunder, on a variety of historical and contemporary subjects of interest to the maritime world. Maritime Maunder began life 6 1/2 years ago and today enjoys a readership of over 121,000 readers, worldwide. In addition to his fictional works, William White is a frequent contributor and advisor to Sea History. Visit his website at www.seafiction.net to learn more about the author.

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

*Individual titles available in hardcover for $39.95 • Please add $7.00 s/h (within the USA) — discounted shipping for bundled orders. • NYS residents add 8% sales tax.