Marlinspike #12

Fall 2016

Number 12

OLIVER HAZARD PERRY: At Last Rebuilding ERNESTINA DRAKEN’s Pilotage Snafu MATTHEW TURNER Hits the Home Stretch

$6.95 — about the cost of a Rum Punch

Keeping our maritime heritage alive—one story at a time ...

When you join the National Maritime Historical Society you take an active role in preserving our maritime heritage while enjoying the lore of the sea in Sea History magazine.

Sea History explores exciting Age of Sail stories, the plight of historic ships, opportunities to preview maritime art and exhibits, up-to-date book reviews and so much more.

Call today to receive your discounted $19.95 membership (mention code MS2016) and discover how Sea History brings our maritime heritage to life!

www.seahistory.org (800) 221-NMHS (6647) ext. 0

BURNHAM BOATBUILDING

P. O. Box 541 / Essex MA 01929 978.290.7168 * haburnham@gmail.com Indigenous, traditional vessels designed and built to pay for themselves.

Our customers are our best sales team: schooner.org in business since 1997 schoonerfame.com in business since 2003 schoonerardelle.com in business since 2011

MICHAEL RUTSTEIN

Gone Fishing Up to this point we’ve stuck with a September-December-March-June schedule, but that’s about to change.

We’re going to bring out the December issue a bit on the early side (late November), and put out the March issue a little on the late side (early April), for the one reason I am sure you can all understand: We are going sailing.

The kids are gone to college, and so the tireless proofreader and I are heading down to the Eastern Caribbean to do some cruising. At this point the plan is to shop Martinique and St. Lucia for a fiberglass production boat and cruise four months each year until the kids come home to roost — or until we get tired of it, which is hard to imagine.

I’ll do my best to keep up with our correspondence and with our busy facebook page from the Windward Islands, but please be patient this winter.

THREE YEARS! This issue marks three full years of publication. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished, at a time when many print publications are struggling. But our continued survival is only made possible by you, our subscribers; our advertisers; and by the writers and photographers who contribute to this publication for the joy of it. That is to say, none of us get paid. Marlinspike is truly a labor of love for all involved.

We’d love to see more people get involved. So if you’ve got a story to tell — or a marlinspike, tattoo, beach, bar, or boat drink to share — don’t be a stranger!

MARLINSPIKE MAGAZINE FALL 2016 • NUMBER 12 Michael Rutstein, Editor & Publisher Cover Photo: Onne van der Wal Marlinspike is published quarterly for $25

by Pennant Publications, Inc., 98 Washington Square #1 Salem, MA 01970 Postmaster: Send address changes to: Marlinspike 98 Washington Square #1, Salem, MA 01970 Copyright 2016 by Pennant Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

Phone (978) 729-7600 E-Mail Marlinspike1812@gmail.com

Fair Winds,

Michael Rutstein, Publisher

4 ❂ Oliver Hazard Perry: At Last A chat with Captain David Dawes of the OHP

10 ❂ Draken & Pilotage This summer’s pilotage controversy, explained

12 ❂ ERNESTINA is rebuilt (again) Up in Boothbay Harbor, a storied schooner is re-shaped

20 ❂ TURNER Hits the Home Stretch

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

28 30 33 34 44 45 47

❂ ❂ ❂ ❂ ❂ ❂ ❂

Boatyards Calendar Sailing Opportunities Boats, Bars & Beaches Job Listings Name That Boat Crane Stookey

Brigantine aims to be a tall ship with a low impact MarlinspikeMagazine.com

3

OH

JAN FOREST

HP: At Last OLIVER HAZARD PERRY finally got underway this summer, conducting sold-out coastwise cruises for teens and showing the flag up and down the New England coast.

Here’s our chat with her captain, David Dawes.

Marlinspike: You’re not from around here. How did you find yourself as the captain of this square-rigged ship, the Oliver Hazard Perry?

David Dawes: I arrived in Newport around 21 years ago after sailing across the Atlantic on a 100’ yacht, buying a motorcycle in Florida, and riding it up the coast. I went over the Newport Bridge and was wowed by Narragansett Bay, started a family there and I’ve been there now for 21 years.

MS: When did you start sailing?

DD: Honestly? When I was three. My father built a 9’ dinghy and my youngest baby photos show me in bib overalls with a dustpan and brush, helping him clean the boat. It was small but very safe. He showed me 1) sailing is a discipline and a science, and 2) sailing is a way to start a journey and to travel.

In terms of science, I dinghy-raced a lot, and ocean-raced a lot, when I was young, doing the Sydney-Hobart, that kind of thing. And in terms of travel, sailing eventually took me to Europe and to America.

MS: Where was that?

DD: In Brisbane, Australia. We did things that were far too optimistic for such a small dinghy, but it was safe, it did have a lot of flotation, and we could row it, it was unsinkable.

So we were pretty adventurous.

And it opened my eyes. I had the equivalent of a AAA road map that I used for my chart, drawing the buoys in, and a pair of opera glasses for binoculars, and it was just the start of a lifestyle.

MS: How did you transition from racing to sail training?

DD: Oh, that took a long time, and there were many things in between. There was a stint on large yachts, a stint on American-flagged container ships. I qualified as a second mate, unlimited tonnage. I never sailed on a ship that was newer than 1975! [Laughs] They were all steam ships. I never sailed on a diesel ship, but I did multiple trans-Atlantics and trips to Puerto Rico and that sort of thing as second mate.

I enjoyed that, but the ships were lonely because the people are just truck driving. The passion is gone from that. After 9/11 I went back to schooners and tall ships, and that got me on the Denis Sullivan and the schooner America.

David Dawes

As the captain on yachts, I had always liked having crew that I could mentor, and tall ships and sail training gave me a crew that I could mentor and kids that we could have aboard and mentor even more.

MS: How did you end up on the radar of the OHPRI folks?

M. RUTSTEIN

Out on the bowsprit

DD: I was in Newport. There’s never more than six degrees of separation from anybody, and in the maritime industry it’s more like three degrees! The last few years I’ve been doing relief work, taking large yachts across the Atlantic, and [OHPRI Executive Director] Jess [Wurzbacher] called me one day and said they were just completing the build and certification of the ship and they had a vacancy.

They’d asked a crew agent they had used, they’d asked a management company that was advising them on various things, and they’d asked a board member who owned a shipyard, and my name came up with all three people.

So Jess took my resume home and showed it to her husband, because I had the Denis Sullivan on my CV. She said, “Do you remember this guy, David Dawes?”

I had a nickname, which was Chipper, and Dan says, “Let me have a look at that.” And he looks at it and he goes, “That’s not David Dawes, that’s Chipper the Skipper!”

That’s how the association was made. Three people had put me forward, and now she had a personal reference from her husband.

At the time, I was three days away from leaving to cross the Atlantic for the 30th time or something. I was in Salem, Massachusetts at a Burger King eating a fish sandwich — feeding it to a foster rescue dog, actually — and I was sitting there with a check in my pocket, about to buy a 30’ cruising boat. And the phone rang and it was Jess.

So I had to call the guy I was buying the boat from and explain: my life just changed, I can’t buy your boat, and two hours later I was back in Newport, talking to Jess about how I knew her husband.

MS: You were aware of the Oliver Hazard Perry project?

DD: I was, and I always wanted to get involved, maybe at the mate level, help out as a relief captain, that sort of thing.

MS: Because most people assumed Richard Bailey would continue to be the captain.

JESS WURZBACHER

6

DD: Yes, and I knew Richard from before this project, from maybe ten years ago, and we’d stayed in touch. I told him that if he ever needed someone with a very large ticket for this kind of thing, I’d love to help out.

So I met a couple of the board members, talked to them, went and saw the ship up in Portsmouth [Rhode Island] and then I took off on this 30-day transatlantic voyage and I MarlinspikeMagazine.com

told Jess I’d let her know. Then I called her two days into that voyage and said, yes, absolutely.

I hadn’t wanted to make a snap decision until I knew more about it, but the thing that decided it for me was that the people on the board were absolutely passionate and committed about pushing this over the hill despite all the hiccups that had come before. I thought, with that kind of resolve, it won’t fail. I’ll get the support that I need.

The questions I had were, was it going to be well-enough funded?

Because if it wasn’t, it was going to fail. Was there resolve amongst the board? There was. And does it have heat? Because you can’t keep a crew if the ship’s not comfortable to live in.

I took the Denis Sullivan through the Saint Lawrence Seaway years ago in about her third year, and there was ice on the shore, and it was freezing! I said to myself, I’m never going to do a tall ship that doesn’t have heat in it.

JESS WURZBACHER

The PERRY has many modern features, but remains a place for teaching traditional skills

MS: Brian Holmen, my shipmate on Eagle, just took me all through the ship, and she’s very comfortable. She puts Eagle to shame.

DD: And this is with only one air conditioner going at the moment, in a black hull! And in the winter, the heat is toasty warm. Those things let people rest properly and do the job they need to do.

So it only took me two days to decide I wanted to come aboard, and then the rest of that journey took forever, because I was itching to get back to Newport and sink my teeth into it!

Jess was sending me work lists and that sort of thing, and while I was away I started going through it all in my head. And then I came back and had a week of discovery — finding papers, learning my way around, understanding why things had been done the way they had been.

Not that this is a criticism, but it’s a not-for-profit build, and the thing that went through my mind was: nothing is free. You either pay for it at the beginning, or you pay for it later. And unfortunately that’s what the organization had run into a lot. It’s like building a house and relying on your friends to help build it and give you free stuff. Eventually you have to push it over the hill. I know that’s the third time I’ve used that analogy, but I think it’s especially apt for this project.

MS: This is a big boat, and it took a lot of pushing to get it over the hill.

DD: It did. And it’s just about there. I came in, I don’t mean to brag in any way, but I clearly saw that the way to make it succeed was just to get kids in bunks. That in itself would generate its own buzz, and we would be away. So the push was on to get the limited, coastal COI that we’re on now, and get going, just start operating.

We’ve just finished a very successful 11-day trip. We dropped 22 kids off yesterday morning, we didn’t lose any of them, they all survived, we survived! It was just a big ol’ sea trial. Nothing bad happened. We learned about the anchors, we learned about head winds, we learned so much about operating the ship, and now it’s rolling. The work lists are developing, and it’s good.

MS: Was there anything that surprised you?

DD: I’m surprised how well we can sail the ship. We grab every opportunity we can to sail the ship. For example, one day we woke up in Salem Sound, we had a land breeze in the morning, and this was day five of an 11-day trip. The kids had only been on for five days. And we raised anchor, set the spanker and backed the topsail, spun the ship around, started throwing sail up, and we had full sail up in 40 minutes, which I thought was remarkable! Remarkable, for a bunch of kids who five days earlier hadn’t known one line from another.

And then we did a few tacks in front of Gloucester Harbor, we tacked and tacked until we saw the sea breeze get deep enough into the harbor, we ran into the harbor doing about four knots, dropped the anchor on short stay,

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

7

just enough to pull the bow up, and doused the sails.

It was about four hours under sail, five days into the trip, and we’re already demonstrating to the kids the teamwork and organization that’s required to get a square-rigged ship to work.

MS: Do you think these types of trips will end up being the bread and butter for this organization?

DD: I’d call it bread and butter, although I’m sure she’ll do a lot more offshore legs. At the moment that suits us, because we got certified so late in the summer, we don’t have enough ABs or licensed mates to go offshore, so for now we’re restricted to 12-hour days.

At the moment we don’t have a load line, and we’ve got one condition to meet on our exposed waters, unlimited stability, which we hope to achieve in the fall, so we’re restricted to 20 miles from a safe haven.

So for the time being, we’re restricted to 12-hour days, and our focus is on getting our sleep at night and just each day, sailing the boat! Every day we’re doing something, and I think the kids are learning more than if we were doing a seven-day leg to Nova Scotia or wherever.

MS: Because they’ve got to set and strike and anchor and start from scratch every day.

DD: Exactly. Ocean passages, if you pick your weather correctly, you change two sails a day! And just keep the watches going. I think for that age group, the 13- to 17year-olds, they like to swim every day, and see historic places. And in terms of showing the flag for OHPRI, it’s been fantastic. The press has been wonderful. It’s like people are just waving us on, they’re so happy to see the ship up and running.

MS: Being at events like this [in Portmouth NH]…

DD: Yes! Gloucester was terrific, too. I’m not on Instagram, but Jess is, and she said, “Have you seen how many people randomly take photos of the ship and tag them and post them?” Beautiful pictures, sunsets, the ship tacking…

So it’s been a great big sea trial. It’s been wonderful.

We’re picking up 28 kids on Sunday and we leave 10:00 Monday morning with the pilot, and we’ve got six days to get back to Newport. We’ve got a whole lot of day sails with plank owners, hundreds of people who made contributions.

Getting ready for the COI, we found we could day-sail the ship! We just figure out what’s going to happen: we take the land breeze out and the sea breeze back in. Getting ready for the COI, we were going out every day and setting close to full sail, and realizing that she’s quite handy.

MS: Is that a transition for you? I mean, this is not the Denis Sullivan, she’s not a schooner, you don’t have quite as 8

much flexibility in terms of where you can go.

DD: Well, with these trips north and south between Newport and [Portsmouth], we’re very much bound by the direction of the coast and the wind direction. We set sails every day, although some days it was tight reaching with triangular sails. Some days we just had to get somewhere, there were some 30-40 mile legs we had to do. Other times… we picked kids up in Boston, we went out to Provincetown, that was a motorsail out to there. The next day we set full sail for 20 miles down to the Cape Cod Canal, and we saw whales, it was a pretty wonderful day.

MS: It’s nice not to have a fixed itinerary.

DD: Exactly. Some days we only have to move the boat two hours, but we can take six hours to get there.

MS: Has the Coast Guard modified or restricted your rig at all?

DD: No. We’ve got some checking already from the Douglas fir spars, that were made in Washington, and we’ve already replaced two of them. We’ve got a replacement program to replace them with laminated spars. We’ve used a company called Baltic Boatworks in Bristol [RI]. Jens there has been a student at IYRS, and his work is amazing!

He blew the Coast Guard away with his eight-sided, birds-eye tapered yards with the inside also done in tapered sections as well. There’s no filler, it’s solid wood. And it’s really just a piece of magic! The Coast Guard had never seen anything like it.

MS: What kind of wood is he using?

DD: Absolutely clear Douglas fir in 40-foot lengths.

And the work was amazing.

We had very bad check in one of the t‘gallant masts and some cracks in the heels of the masts, and we had to get that repaired. The Coast Guard was a bit concerned about that, so this summer, since we’re working so close inshore, and to simplify things, I left the royals in our container at the Hinckley yard.

I knew we had more than enough string to play with, and I wanted to give the Coast Guard some comfort level with what we were doing.

MS: How do you repair a mast that has crack at the heel? Do you band it? What makes the Coast Guard happy in that situation?

DD: We cut a section out and glued timber in. If it was a laminated spar they’d probably be happy with that, but because it was grown, you can only get so deep with your saw, and they weren’t as happy. So we’ll review that at the end of the season and see how those repairs are doing. It’s

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

probably going to be a case of replacing both topmasts and about to be cracked because the ship is doing what it says bring the royals back out again. on the label.

But at that 11th hour, as we were getting the COI and the Coast Guard wanted to let us operate, my deal was: MS: I can’t imagine you’re going to have much trouble ‘Look, no royals, any sail that goes to the t’gallant masts, I’ll attracting crew once people see the accommodations. leave it home.’ The outer jib, the royals, I said, we’ll leave them at home. We’ll do 12-hour days, I won’t fly squares at DD: In the advertisements, we put pictures of the bunks, night time, and I wrote a letter to the Coast Guard saying the galley, and the crew mess! But crewing is the elusive these are our operating parameters, because we just needed one. To be underway more than 12 hours, we need six ABs, to get going; we needed to see what we’ve got. one AB for each mast and then a second one because The Coast Guard never they’re square rigged. We just professed to be experts in depleted any source we OHP’s summer programs this. Their attitude is, they could. I ended up using were sold out require us give them comfort graduating third mates from that we’re taking the right the maritime academies, course of action with rig surbecause when you come out veys, spar replacement, and with a third mate unlimited maintenance. That we run a tonnage, you’ve got an AB solid program, that we know ticket on there as well. what we’re doing. We just And we’ve got two now, have the go the extra yard to they’re great, the second give them comfort. mate is William Link from SUNY Maritime, he’s doing MS: Your work list a remarkable job. sounds like it will extend out Having Captain Mark months and even years from Crutcher here as the mate now. Do you see yourself on has been amazing, I couldn’t the ship for the next several have operated without him, years? because he brings strong square-rig experience, and DD: I hope so. As a also he’s the other grown-up large-vessel captain and a on the ship! If something yacht captain working out of goes wrong, I don’t want to Newport, it’s really nice to be standing in front of the have a Rhode Island-based Coast Guard as the only operation. grown-up on the quarterAlso, I prefer answering deck! And he helps shoulder to a board than an owner, that responsibility, which is JESS WURZBACHER and I have to give this board enormous. a huge amount of credit. When I came in … probably because of what had gone on before, with so many different MS: Where was Mark’s square-rig experience from? people involved … Jess has done a wonderful job of keeping me insulated and letting me get on with my job. The level DD: He’s relieved on the Rose, Gazela, he built the of oversight they’ve imposed on me has been remarkably Denis Sullivan — she has a triangular raffee — and he was small, and we all remained friends at the end of the COI on the square-topsail schooner Californian. He’s been process. It’s only been four months, but it’s been a very long, remarkably good at that, and Mark will probably eventually emotional period getting the ship ready to sail. I credit the be a relief captain on this ship for me, he brings enormous board and Bart Dunbar so much for just letting me get on depth. with what I needed to do.

Mark and I both have a commercial background as well.

The board put me in, they saw that micro-management Mine has been in container ships and ferries, his has been before was probably one reason why the ship was in the sittugboats up and down the coast, and when you put that uation she was in, and they left me alone to get on with it. I together, our minds meet at the same place, when it comes do expect more oversight from them in the future, but to safety and operations, because we’re both commercial they’ve been incredible. My Executive Director, Jess, has guys. We know the issues with liability and all that fun stuff been amazing. that gets into the mix. b Crewing remains the elusive thing. I think that nut’s MarlinspikeMagazine.com

9

Draken & Pilotage A cautionary tale for foreign-flagged tall ships on the Great Lakes

After an epic crossing of the North Atlantic this spring, the Viking longship Draken Harald Harfagre ran into difficulties on the Great Lakes due to a misinterpretation of the pilotage requirements. Confronted with a large and apparently unexpected bill, the Draken team resorted to fund-raising via social media before cutting her summer tour short.

Marlinspike asked Bert Rogers, Executive Director of Tall Ships America, to cut through the acrimony and explain the situation. * * * First off, let me say the Draken is an incredible ship and the people who sail her are outstanding mariners and intrepid adventurers. I am deeply impressed by their project, and if I were still an active seaman, I would do everything in my power to get on board that vessel!

That said, they were advised by Tall Ships America and by the Coast Guard many times over many months — before they even left Norway — that the US pilotage laws would require them to carry a pilot throughout the Great Lakes. They acknowledged that at the time, they’ve acknowledged it since.

Nonetheless, after our conference in Quebec in January, they had some meetings with the Canadian pilotage authorities, and obtained a determination that because the Draken was less than 35 meters, she would be exempt from mandatory pilotage in most Canadian waters. Unfortunately, the Draken people seemed to have interpreted that as an exemp10

tion from pilotage across the board for the whole Great Lakes system. They placed all their eggs into that basket, only to arrive and find out that what we had been telling them was true: they were subject to pilotage, it’s very expensive, and they had not provided for that in their business plan. So they launched a social media campaign to try and raise the money to pay for those costs.

This had percolated up and had been identified as a problem even before they arrived in Toronto, and we were prepared to discuss it with them. When they arrived, we said we’d do what we could to defray their costs, but the legal situation was not going to change. We did in fact launch a behind-the-scenes fundraising campaign, relying on a number of funding sources, most especially the ports who would be the primary beneficiaries. We got commitments from most of the ports, and we also made a commitment of our own to show good faith.

The hope was that we could raise enough money to take the edge off the cost of pilotage, so that Draken could carry on and make the entire circuit of the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE series. As a result, she was able to sustain her tour as far as Green Bay. At that point they made a calculation on the costs and benefits of traveling all the way across Lake Superior to Duluth, and decided it wasn’t worth it. They cancelled Duluth, but did everything else they had planned to do.

It seemed to us that their real focus was on the ship and

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

the sailing, and that the administrative aspect of the voyage planning was not quite as well developed as the operational side. This happens sometimes in the tall ship business, for obvious reasons. In the end, they believed that they had a pass from the Canadian authorities, and that was going to cover them throughout the Great Lakes.

We remain truly glad that Draken was part of the TSC series; everyone was extremely impressed by the vessel and the skill and courage of the mariners who sailed her here. That’s what Tall Ships America is all about. We regret the pilotage situation. We did our best to find solutions, and we’re happy she was able to carry on as long as she was. She made it from Toronto through all the subsequent ports all the way to Green Bay, and only missed out on Duluth, so it was a relatively successful outcome from that point of view.

It was unfortunate that in their social media campaign they appeared to be blaming the pilots and the Coast Guard, because frankly neither of those organizations deserved that blame. The pilots are doing their job.

The rates are set by Congress. They are not allowed, by law, to reduce those rates, and the Coast Guard is just following the rules. We’ve been working with the Coast Guard and the Great Lakes pilots for many years now, and it’s pretty clear that there’s not going to be any change to the pilotage laws unless someday this issue is taken up by Congress.

Incidentally, this is the only place in the US where pilotage is federally controlled. Everywhere else, it is managed by the states. The Great Lakes Pilotage Act of 1960 is very explicit, and unless Congress sees fit to change it, it’s the law of the land. We’ve been advising the port organizers and foreign-flag ships for years that they need to build this expense into their business models, because it’s there, and there’s no administrative discretion to waive it on the part of the Coast Guard.

Whether the Coast Guard might consider any changes in the system (without compromising safety and security, of course) is moot, because legally they can’t make that happen — any changes to the law must come from Congress. b Draken Harald Harfagre and her crew are currently visiting the Hudson River Maritime Museum, en route to New York City. In October they will arrive at Mystic Seaport, where the vessel will welcome visitors over the winter before resuming her travels in the spring of 2017.

VISITING SHIP SOUGHT MAYFLOWER II will be away from Plymouth for an extended period starting in December, as restoration work continues at Mystic Seaport.

Plimoth Plantation is seeking one vessel or a variety of visiting ships to serve as a stand-in for some or all of the time that MAYFLOWER II is away, from April through November 2017.

MAYFLOWER II typically attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each season.

Suggestions are welcome and can be addressed to: Whit Perry Director of Maritime Preservation and Operations, wperry@plimoth.org

MAINE WINDJAMMER CRUISES TRADITIONAL SAILING ADVENTURES SINCE 1936 NATIONAL LANDMARK SCHOONERS SIX CRUISE OPTIONS WEEKLY CAMDEN, MAINE

800 736 7981

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

MaineWindjammerCruises.com

11

In Boothbay, Ernestina-Morrissey is rebuilt once more

By David Hirzel The Gloucester schooner launched in 1884 as Effie M. Morrissey has had one of the longer and more colorful histories of any wooden ship afloat. Built for the Grand Banks cod fishing trade, she’s had four careers already, and will continue her life as an ocean educator once the Boothbay Harbor Shipyard is finished putting her to rights for another century of dynamic and useful life.

She’s had major work done to her hull before. The most substantial work was done under the ownership of the Mendes family of the Cape Verde Islands where, as Ernestina, she served as a local and transatlantic cargo trading and passenger ship. A five-year rebuild at the Mindelo shipyard there got her afloat again in 1982, when she sailed across the Atlantic to be repatriated to the U.S. in Massachusetts under the care of the Schooner Ernestina Commission.

Back in her home waters and Coast Guard certified for passengers under her old flag, she served as a sail training vessel until a run-in with 1991’s Hurricane Grace. An extensive haul-out in Fairhaven got her back to work for another decade, when the failure of two keel bolts opened up her garboard seams and nearly sank her. That one was a relatively easy fix, but diminishing funding sources meant deferred maintenance and the eventual loss of her small passenger and sailing school vessel certification.

The Schooner Ernestina Commission was revived, and with the help of a NPS grant, she underwent further major reconstruction of her foredeck and topsides at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard in 2008. Even with this ongoing upkeep, a more complete overhaul was necessary before she could return to active duty.

The shipyard has contracted with East Coast shipwright Dave Short to manage the work. A walk out onto the platform alongside the old hull is a step back in time, to another era not quite gone, where massive balks of oak are being shaped and bolted into new frames, matching (for the most part) the lines of

the old girl.

I stopped there in July to take a closer look, and learn what I could from the shipwrights at work. Eric Graves, president of Boothbay Harbor Shipyard, took me along the portside midships. At that stage of the work, the bow section, about half the ship, had yet to be dismantled. A few access holes had been cut through the 3” oak planking. The deck above is relatively new, and will be kept. Moving aft, there was about a 20’ section where there are no frames at all, and then came the stern frames, all of them new. The whole ship had already been tied together with a new keel, lead ballast and all.

David Hirzel: We’re looking at the hull of the Ernestina in two sections, such as she is right now. It’s the same hull, but there are going to be significant differences, I take it?

Eric Graves: The bow that we [at BBH Shipyard] redid, the foredeck, and above the waterline six years ago was all new, and that’s in pretty nice shape, so we wanted to blend it into a new stern. The stern was just about falling off the ship. We took a 3-D laser image of the hull as she existed when she arrived, and I combined that drawing with a 1930s version of the lines drawing, to help redevelop the lines to complete the stern and make it right.

The laser scan gave us the true hull form forward, and we had to eliminate the stern from that laser scan because it was just so out of whack, and then that’s where the lines drawings from the ‘30s came into play. So, we did a fullsize lines drawing, lofting, and developed the patterns for the stern, so we could combine the bow to a new stern.

DH: So as we’re looking at the vessel, standing right here [at the missing midships section], everything in the stern section is brand new?

EG: Yes, that’s correct. We supported the hull, put a new keel under the hull, new stem, new ballast keel as well, and that continues from the stem all the way to the stern.

Everything in the stern is all new timber, framing. The gray [in the keel] is the lead. Those four sections, that’s about 60,000 pounds.

DH: Is any of the keel original?

EG: Yes. These are double sawn frames, staggered joints, you have another piece that laps, and those are all bolted together, so it’s a pretty solid structure. And then on top of this you’ll have a keelson, which is going to be maybe 20” tall, and that’ll have the really big bolts going down through everything, into that lead ballast.

Here Eric introduces me to Dave Short, who is the master shipwright supervising the work. We are looking into the square hole cut through the planking of the port bow.

EG: No, that’s a new wood keel as well. The old keel was cut free. You can see up forward there’s a new forefoot in place as well. We cribbed up and supported the hull off her keel blocks, then we removed the keel.

The lead is all through-bolted through the keelson structure and the floor structure.

There’ll be an oak shoe.

David Hirzel: Does anything here date to 1894? Any substantial parts, or has she simply been pieced together over time into all new?

Dave Short: I’d say that less than a handful of pieces are here from 1894.

DH: She was afloat when she came in? Was she seriously hogged?

DH: [Looking into a square hole cut into the port bow].

Are any of these original frames?

DS: These types of vessels don’t hog a lot. A few inches at the keel, more so on deck.

EG: No, these ERNESTINA-MORRISSEY’s forward section, have all probably which was rebuilt at Boothbay in 2008 been repaired, mostly. It’s a 100-year old vessel, so she’s had a lot of work done to her over the years. Some of these are sistered on, in DH: I was under the impression that this is a hazard to pieces. In a similar way it would be done. These aren’t big wooden vessels, that they would just develop these serious grown frames, which I can show you some that we’ve done hogs. aft, that really strengthen the connections. This work was done maybe 20 years ago, when they had to drop the keel DS: It is a natural hazard. You’ve got two contradictory away and replace these floors. A lot of that planking was forces, you’ve got buoyancy pushing up and you’ve got gravireplaced as well. ty pushing down. Those parts of the ship that aren’t supported by buoyancy are bringing usually the ends down.

DH: Do you have a history of the various repairs, dates and places and so on, that have happened?

DH: But this one, she was fairly straight?

EG: I don’t know if we have it documented here. In the ‘80s it was the stern, and a lot of the boat was rebuilt in Cape Verde, as the Ernestina.

DH: The connection of this original frame to that new keel is through this vertical bolt right here, and that bolt is what holds this together?

DS: Well, the keel was fairly straight. Reasonably straight. But this type of vessel, it won’t show up in the keel so much, because it does not have real flat bilges. It has fairly strong deadrise. But you can have sagging of the ends, regardless. At the keel, it wasn’t dramatic. All the planking is white oak.

DH: Is everything new going to be white oak planking,

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

13

on the stern section? Where do you get that? Are trees grown and preserved for that purpose the way they used to be?

DH: These bolts here, the bolting from the Cape Verde rebuild, these are probably hot-dipped galvanized?

DS: Yes.

DS: That’s a good question. The oak planking that we have for this was grown for shipbuilding, and dedicated for shipbuilding in Denmark, for the Danish Navy.

DH: Is the bolting and the work that you’re doing in the new part, is that also hot-dipped galvanized?

DH: What would be the maturity of the trees when you cut them?

DS: No, we’re using bronze.

You can look in right here, and see that some of this stuff has the red lead primer on it. And some of it doesn’t, so that identifies another generation of work. The planking is fastened with a combination of trunnels and nails. Typically a pair of nails at a crossing, and a pair of trunnels. Sometimes fewer nails, and more trunnels.

DS: I think these were 180 years.

DH: Grown for the purpose, so they can be kept trimmed and straight for the purpose?

DS: The way that they tell it, they planted these trees up to 200 years ago, densely planted, vigorously thinned. They started out with 15,000 trees in twoacre plots, and then at maturity they only had 30 to 50 in those two-acre plots.

DH: When she leaves here, she’s going to be spic and span all the way through, you’ll pull the hardware, sandblast it…

DS: It’ll be cleaned up and re-galvanized, possibly redipped if it’s called for.

DH: That’s generations of forest management, to get that to happen. Is that an ongoing process?

DH: Is this intended as a museum-quality rebuild where everything has to be as it was, or more, “We just want to get it to work.”

DS: I have the sense now that they’re — I’m trying to find a nice way to say it — they’re DS: Well, it’s obviously a just using up the resource. comprehensive rebuild. It’s very There’s no longer much market thorough. We are replicating for it. Thirty-eight-foot-long, the form, but there’s been some relatively clear, and we just don’t design changes, reflecting more need it any more. We’ve got durable construction. But it’ll Stern frames (top); the gap between live oak from Georgia, we’ve got be going back to work, it’ll be the bow and stern sections (bottom) Douglas fir coming from an operating vessel, certified by Vancouver Island, British Columbia, a lot of white oak from the Coast Guard. this country as well.

Yeah, the foredeck and the topsides were rebuilt here DH: Is there going to be sail training? about eight years ago, I think. I wasn’t here for that.

DS: We hope that the Massachusetts Maritime DH: [Looking at the forward frames] Is everything Academy will be using the vessel when she’s rebuilt. But oak? that relationship hasn’t been cemented yet. This is an effort by the Massachusetts Department of Recreation and DS: No. We don’t know what most of this stuff is.

Conservation, some public and some private funding.

Much of what you’re looking at here was used in the Cape Verde rebuild. Mostly African hardwood.

DH: I’ve heard two things about caulking seams, and I’m just curious what your take is. One is, you prime the 14

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

wood edges, seal the wood edges before you caulk, or you don’t.

DS: Well, I’m a caulker, so I will tell you that you may or may not prime the seams. I like to prime the seams, but it’s not always convenient to prime the seams as you’re laying up planking. We use cotton, and with heavy planks like this we follow up with oakum. Then we horse it in tight, and we lay some more oakum in there if we need, then we pay the seams with putty. Not anything synthetic. You can use Portland cement, you can use any linseed based putty. Or tar. Tar with Portland cement is a West Coast thing, I think. My caulker buddies tell me that.

DH: Everything forward of right here [standing at the cut line at the frame ending the forward section, at the beginning of the missing section] has been surveyed, and is pretty good, or repairable.

feet, at the extreme end.

DH: Will the new framing and construction be better able to resist that, with the forethought that you’re putting into it now?

DS: We hope so. But, again, these are irresistible forces, and it’s wood. It’s a bundle of sticks wrapped around another bundle of sticks.

DH: So from here on aft, everything we’re looking at now is brand new. We’ve got some trunnels going here, and some phosphor bronze bolts going here. Are the new frames Danish?

DS: No. It’s white oak. We use a variety of sawmills to get that.

DH: Is this resin, this sealer between the frame sisters, and spilling over the face of the frame?

DS: Yeah. When DS: No, that’s linI re-lofted the vessel, seed and pine tar. Just we made patterns for a sealer, to seal it up so all the framing ahead dripping water won’t of this point. Now get in. And it slows Part of the new keel, which includes 60,000 pounds that we’re in there down the drying. of external lead ballast doing the demolition, we need to get the DH: How long old framing out. But in this case we’ll only get up to about ago were these [frame pieces] cut? the waterline.

DS: The stock was cut a year or so ago, and it was DH: And so you’re working your way forward from molded and sawn here in the last couple, three months. here. Are you using computers a lot, and lasers and things like that?

DH: Original engine, new engine?

DS: We did have as-found lines developed by digital scan when she was hauled. We used that to redesign the hull, that and an older set of lines.

DS: We hope a new engine. Her first engine was just an auxiliary. She was built without power.

DH: Do you know how old these masts are?

DH: I think I heard you say, you’re sort of correcting things as you go, so the exact finish lines of these frames as they come together might be somewhat corrected as to buoyancy. Did I understand that correctly?

DS: Earlier, we talked about the hog and the sagging.

Most of that shows up in the counter stern, because there’s the most amount of structure that’s not supported by water, so that tends to settle down over time. When the sheer of the vessel flattens out, that’s what’s happening. The ends come down. So I boosted the sheer back up, maybe two

DS: That’s the last rig. One’s pretty recent. No, they’re not very old.

DH: The masts and the booms are what came up here with the schooner. Are you going to put them in before you put her in the water, or after?

DS: That’s not part of this contract, so I can’t rightly say. It’s pretty common to launch a vessel with the propeller shaft and the props in, and the rest of the stuff that you can

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

15

do in the water, you do after the launch. Release the railway sooner, rather than later. We’re just into the second year.

DH: Did the masts have any rake to them when you pulled them?

DS: A little bit. I hope they get new sails. She’s been out of service for some time.

DH: Everything gets to flex a little bit, it’s not like one rigid thing. Will this vessel be here in another year, or will she out by then?

DS: In my mind, we’re launching in the spring of ’18.

We may go beyond that.

DH: Anything else you want to tell me?

DH: What’s the wood in these stern frames?

DS: This is the live oak here, it’s got a much more tenacious grain than the white oak, meaning it’s more, really curly. We’re using it in the turn of the bilge, you can see how it’s all wavy. These trunnels are black locust, fairly rot resistant, fairly dense hardwood. Around here, we call the black locust “American teak.” All the framing was cut here.

In the floor of the vessel, where the frames cross the keel, we’re using live oak crooks that actually make the turn across the top of the keel. They’re whatever we can get out of the log, so here’s one that starts here and goes all the way up there. Then the next piece is a shorter one.

Here’s another sort of irregular-shaped one there. It’s got no grain at all that it’s going to want to split from. You can see the true heart’s in it, so you can see that it just grew that way.

DH: Somebody has to select this stuff. Somebody has to go out into the woods and say, “We want that, for that reason.” Do you guys do that?

DS: One of the changes we’ve made is we’ve molded these timbers slightly heavier, in the floor and in the bottom, with more depth to them than the original. That’ll contribute to the rigidity, but it’s still going to have this problem. The counter’s just going to want to drop, and there’s no good way to counteract that, to not have that happen, because there’s nothing to anchor it to.

Initially she’ll be very stiff. But as things get older, fasteners get older, materials start to break down.

DH: These frames [looking into the as-yet-unrestored part of the forward section] are from, not necessarily her original construction, but from some part of her life. And all this wood going forward, you don’t necessarily know what it is.

DS: We can tell when it was employed, so we can tell it was mostly African wood that was used during the Cape Verde rebuild.

DH: Is this stuff more or less salvageable?

DS: No, we’re using a guy named Steve Croft down in Georgia. Eric should give you his contact information.

He’s quite a character. He just sawed all the wood for the San Salvador that was built out there in San Diego, the live oak that they used out there. I think they started with laminated stock, that started to fail on them. So they hustled up some live oak timber.

DS: We expect to reframe everything up to the turn of the bilge. You know, there is good timber in here, some of this stuff is only five or six years old, eight or nine years old.

But at this point we’ve remolded some of the framing, and it’s just not going to work.

DH: I’d love to have a look at your lofting floor.

DH: These are going to through-bolt all the way through to the keel?

DS: Only after we’ve installed the keelson.

DH: So that’s going to be built up even more solid, that’s going to take the downward tension from the top down.

DS: It’s a fully longitudinal stack of five 4x12s in Danish oak, and then bolted through with inch and a quarter.

DH: When you put them in, you’re not going to laminate them to each other.

DS: I don’t have the lofting floor, but I can show you the patterns and where it all happens. The lofting floor [that is, the painted plywood sheets on which the lofting was done, which have since been pulled up, so that the floor of the warehouse could be put to other use] had to come apart. We needed the floor, but we do have the panels.

[There is a stack of white painted plywood panels at the side of what had been the lofting floor.]

This is some planking over here. These thicker pieces are framing. This is domestic white oak here. Danish oak planking over there. Well, I have five-inch garboard planks, four-inch broad planks, three-inch the rest of the way.

DH: Where’s the rest of it?

DS: We’re going to seal them up before we lay them in, and then that’s going to be it.

16

DS: I have four containers worth of planking stock over

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

in our yard. There’s planking stock, decking stock, like this, long and wide, pretty good stock. When I came in we filled the lofting floor over here, 64’ by 20’. Lofted it all at half scale, just to compress the molds. Then develop the body plan, every frame out full size, to make patterns for all the framing. The backbone was lofted full size, so we could get all those timbers that you saw out there, the stern post, the rudder post, dead wood. We have these panels with the lofting marks on them, lofting that we still consult occasionally.

The body plan — each frame was lofted as a section of the hull.

DH: You just screw these the marked plywood panels back down again, and use them to find whatever frame you’re on.

this ship saw [a very large band saw], which obviously has a tremendous amount of capacity, can saw the big stuff. The other thing that you can do, that makes it a ships band saw, is [climbing up onto the platform and turning the bevel wheel that changes the angle of the saw machinery in relation to the stationary platform], while we’re sawing we can change the bevel. The beveler stands up here, and I’ve marked the bevel in degrees on the stock. As it’s coming through he’ll roll the bevel corresponding to the marks. It’s a gradually changing bevel. He’s able to see what’s happening, see where we are on the stock, and keep the bevel in pace with the sawing. We get the contour of the outside, we’re sawing the shape and the contour at once. The ship saw is indispensable.

DS: We DH: When have the patterns you’re doing this, [thin plywood you get the stock The marriage of old and new sections. The bow owes more panels cut to the up to the table to the 2008 rebuild and the work done in the Cape Verdes correct curve for up here with the than to the 1884 Essex shipwrights. each frame] that forklift and have we’ve taken off it all aimed out this floor, with the tapers and bevels recorded [that is, where you want it to go, how many guys are pushing and marked in the specific places along the curves of the plypulling? wood panels], where I can mold the stock and then we saw it on our ship saw. We have a pattern for every frame. Of DS: Three, four guys including the beveler. course we only have to have one side of the whole frame.

These are frame patterns that have been built over here, DH: So, just like any bandsaw, it’s a hand thing. and then frame patterns that we have yet to work with.

Each one has a crossover at the keel. So we can mold our DS: Yep. floor out of live oak.

The bevel, the change in shape from one frame to the DH: How long have you been doing this, that you’ve next is indicated on there. I’ll trace these onto stock, trans- achieved this level of competency in something so unique? fer the information. If there’s any shape in the tree, we’ll try to use that, to match the patterns to. Here’s a frame DS: Since the late seventies, since I was a kid. Thirtythat’s molded out here. This whole pile of oak is one six years. I’ve been in this shipyard a number of times over frame. Frame #40. the last sixteen years.

Here’s our live oak stock outside. [Goes to the really DH: What’s the total number of frames? big pile near the trailer] Enormous stock, crazy crooks and branches and curves. This turned into a whole separate DS: There’s 48 frames in the boat. We’re probably Continued on page 46 addressing 40 of them. Those pieces are then sawed on MarlinspikeMagazine.com

17

A FRIENDSHIP

out of

WATER

Salem’s tall ship is getting an extended haulout in Gloucester

The Friendship of Salem is a replica of a 1797 East Indiaman, built in 1998 by Scarano Boat Building as a cold-molded vessel. She is operated by the National Park Service at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. Jeremy Bumagin serves as the ship’s captain.

Marlinspike: Friendship is currently downrigged and hauled out at the Marine Railways in Gloucester. Tell us about the downrigging process.

Capt. Jeremy Bumagin: The lower masts, head rig, and some of the upper spars hadn’t been out for routine maintenance in 10-plus years, and the mizzen and many of the individual spars had never been off for routine maintenance.

We went through the process where, four or five years in advance, we requested funding for the project, and we received that funding for the last fiscal year to remove all spars, recondition them, do whatever preventative maintenance and repair work was necessary, and put everything back in.

MS: You need outside help to get the rig out, correct?

JB: Until five or seven years ago we sent many of our spars up and down traditionally. We are able to do this without help from a crane.

We do need a crane to get out the lower masts, the bowsprit, and the jibboom; we can’t take those out on our 18

own. We looked at our current staffing levels and various safety-related considerations, and we decided it was best to do most of the downrigging with a hired crane. It took us eight partial crane days to downrig, and it will probably be more like ten partial days with the crane for uprigging.

MS: What did you find when you took the rig apart?

JB: The condition of the rig was generally what was expected. It was definitely in need of a really intensive round of preventative maintenance: scraping paint, filling checks, rebedding components… we didn’t find any large surprises.

We did find that this round of maintenance was definitely needed and probably a third of the rigging components — the working tops, the trestletrees, the crosstrees, the mast caps — were in need of some rotten wood replacement, and a few of them were in need of full rebuilds.

Much of the work was done by John Newman and the excellent team of volunteers during their regular work sessions on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and by John Miles and Justin Ingersoll, who were brought on as temporary employ-

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

ees to assist in the rigging-related carpentry work.

During a substantial foremast repair back in 2005, some of our components were re-engineered because they weren’t holding up well. The shear loads coming into the bolts holding the trestletrees to the masts were too great for those fasteners, going through the soft fir, and were causing the holes to elongate, so we added timber rings to spread those loads. Now we’re getting a chance to apply those same improvements to the mainmast.

MS: When were these components originally constructed, and what materials were used?

JB: Most of the components of the present rig were built between 1998 and 2001; they are original components of the ship. The masts themselves are made of pressure-treated douglas fir, which has held up remarkably well. The other components were laminated, not pressure treated, douglas fir.

running gear. The shafts and props have been pulled, mostly because of age — there were no significant problems. We’re checking for straightness, trueness, pitch, balance, corrosion, we’re going over the bearings, the transmission, and the engines — that’s a large component of this haulout, and it was time to do it.

We’ve always found it necessary, during each haulout, to do some repairs on the fiberglass bottom of the boat. There are areas where we see small cracks or delamination. We remove the bad fiberglass, dry out the area, and re-lay new fiberglass in those small sections.

Another item in this contract was more extensive painting below the waterline, because we’re changing the paint type. The original paint is no longer available. We had been Continued on page 42

MS: Did completely downrigging the ship make it easier for you to haul out?

JB: In this case the real difference was in where we hauled out. Gloucester Marine Railways has not been an option in the past because they were concerned about the height of the rig, and the head-rig length was going to be an issue as well. Having the rig out of the vessel made them an option for hauling out Friendship.

The timing has worked out well, as planned. We were due to take the rig apart anyway, and one of the important items on our work list was addressing some hull deterioration at the base of the foremast, which we suspected we could only do with the boat out of the water and probably with the foremast unstepped. So while these are different projects on paper, with different funding sources, the scheduling of this project has dovetailed well.

Protecting Mariners Since 1866 Shenandoah and Alabama The Black Dog Tall Ships Co PHOTOGRAPH ©ALISON SHAW

MS: Tell me about the haulout that is going on right now.

JB: It’s been a five years since our last haulout, so the work list is longer than in previous haulouts, which were spaced a little more closely together.

One of the highlights is our first round of major maintenance on the

Chris Richmond | crichmond@allenif.com ENDORSED BY

AllenIF.com | (800) 439-4311 An employee-owned company with offices in Camden, Rockland, Belfast and Southwest Harbor, Maine

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

19

Continued from page 19

Friendship’s foremast is removed by crane

recoating, but on this haulout we’re doing larger amount of prep and a full application of a new paint product.

MS: So, what’s going on beneath the foremast?

JB: During a hull survey in 2011, performed by Paul Haley of G. W. Full and Associates, we identified an area of deterioration at the base of the foremast. That was when we added this repair to our work list for the next yard period, to address that deterioration. It was difficult to know how extensive the deterioration was, with the boat in the water, and we didn’t want to begin removals while the boat was in the water, for obvious reasons.

There are deteriorated portions of the hull planking and framing below and around the foremast step. We’ve found and will be replacing deteriorated wood in the keelson, the lower couple of feet on three starboard-side frames, and approximately 100 square feet of the hull planking on the starboard side. We didn’t know the extent of the damage until we actually began cutting into the side of the boat and removing the pieces around the affected area.

Nearly all of the wooden structures that we found damage in are covered, mostly by large metal floor plates that bind these components together, spreading the compression load of the foremast into the frames. They also support lead ballast blocks that had to be removed for this project, and they add rigidity and connection to share loads between the frames, floor timbers, mast step, and ballast.

Those plates, which are labor-intensive and impractical to remove with the vessel in the water, made it all but impossible to assess the true extent of the damage.

out of the water and we had access to it.

The affected area is a very small portion of the ship’s structure, but because it’s below the waterline and at the base of a mast, it needs to be fully repaired.

MS: Who is doing the work?

MS: Was the damage worse than expected?

JB: It’s a larger project than we anticipated, but not shocking. We were following our own best judgment and the best suggestions of our surveyor in knowing we couldn’t truly understand the extent of the issue until the boat was

JB: The work is being done under contact between the National Park Service and Boothbay Harbor Shipyard, so the work is being done primarily by a team of BBHSY employees, led by Eric Graves. There are two employees who have been full-time on the project since it began in early July. They get intermittent but regular help from the staff at the Railways. Boothbay Harbor uses the railway, and the Railway staff works on the boat as subcontractors.

MS: How long do you expect the work to continue?

Minor repairs beneath the waterline are standard for Friendship’s haulouts 20

JB: That’s hard to say at this point. Originally we were expecting Friendship back in Salem in late September or early October, but we know now that the work will go on longer than that. Exactly how long is impossible to say until the contracts for the additional work are complete.

We are hopeful that at the latest, she’s back in Salem before the weather is good enough to uprig in early spring. That’s something we normally start doing

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

A view of the bow

in late March. If she’s not back by then, it’s going to impact that schedule.

MS: And that impacts the entire city, because Friendship, no pun intended, is the flagship of Salem’s waterfront.

JB: There’s no optimum time to send Friendship away.

Salem’s down time is the winter, but that’s also the most difficult time to do the work, and as a result, it’s not when you

A view of the stern

get your best work. We had initially hoped that this haulout would begin in the early spring, but there were delays in the contracting process that set us back a bit.

The reality is no matter when this happens, it’s going to impact visitation in Salem, and that is important to the Park Service and to the tourism business of Salem. But she needs to go away every few years to keep her shipshape.

MS: You’ve got to set the entire rig back up; how long will that take?

F. H. EBINGER CO. LEATHER FOR TRADITIONAL MARINE APPLICATIONS (978) 356-7300 FREDEBINGER3@GMAIL.COM MarlinspikeMagazine.com

JB: It’s a big project, obviously, but between our staff and our excellent cadre of volunteers, I am sure we will manage. Our goal is to have the lower masts, head rig, topmasts and lower and topsail yards restepped by the late fall of 2017. The top-hamper will most likely be sent up early in 2018.

I know that the people of Salem and the local businesses are all looking forward to welcoming Friendship back to the waterfront, where she plays such a large role.

Given our resources, we are moving as fast as we can. b

21

Sorry!

We were not able to re-create PDFs for these pages.

Q? Marlinspike1812@gmail.com

Sorry!

We were not able to re-create PDFs for these pages.

Q? Marlinspike1812@gmail.com

San Salvador entered present-day San Diego Bay in 1542, marking the first European contact with the territory of what would become the West Coast of the United States, and with the Native Americans there. The addition of San Salvador to its fleet is a signal achievement for the Maritime Museum of San Diego, but even more so for California and the nation, as San Salvador will help us to enrich our understanding of the nature of this region during the Age of Exploration, and will stand as a symbol of the genesis of the West Coast region — much as Mayflower II, in Massachusetts, serves as a vivid symbol of origins and history on the East Coast.

PHOTO JERRY SOTO

ALL ROADS LEAD TO Next summer, the European and American Tall Ship fleets will converge on Boston for the biggest gathering of traditional sail in years In 2017, Tall Ships America will collaborate with Sail Training International’s Rendez-vous 2017 Tall Ships® Regatta-Quebec, Canada to bring an international fleet of tall ships to Boston. The Rendez-vous 2017 Tall Ships® Regatta – Quebec, Canada will mark the 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation and will bring ships from around the world to the only U.S. stop of the regatta, Boston Massachusetts, on June 17-22.

Sail Boston® 2017 will host over 40 tall ships within the historic harbor, making this the largest tall ship event in since the millennium celebration in 2000. Crews will have an opportunity to explore the maritime history of one of the oldest and most important ports in the United States.

“The international fleet of tall ships is racing to Boston,

in the spirit of goodwill and friendly competition that characterizes all TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® races and events. These great ships and their crews proudly represent their nations’ rich maritime and cultural traditions, which they are eager to share with the visiting public. We welcome them to our shores, and look forward to the world-class events and hospitality of Sail Boston® 2017,” said Bert Rogers, Executive Director of Tall Ships America.

Tall Ships America is planning port events along the Atlantic Coast as part of their TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® Atlantic Coast 2017 series. Planned stops include the charming Southern cities of Charleston, South Carolina, 11-15 May, and Savannah, Georgia, 18-22 May (dates to be confirmed). Both of these cities have hosted the tall ships

SAGRES and MIRCEA dockside in Boston in 2009

26

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

O BOSTON

EUROPA off Boston, 2009

fleet in the past and have always been a popular host ports for visiting vessels.

From Savannah, the ships will join the trans-Atlantic fleet in Bermuda for the race to Sail Boston® 2017, and then on to ports in the Gulf of St. Lawrence before arriving for the culminating event in Quebec City in July. From Quebec City, the fleet will sail to Halifax, for the start of the return race to Europe in early September.

STI estimates that up to 40 European vessels will be crossing the North Atlantic next summer, and that around 3,000 trainees will take part. For info on crew/trainee opportunities, please visit www.sailonboard.com. b Tall Ships America is the hub for tall ships activity, information, and expertise in North America. As a national membership organization, Tall Ships America supports the people, ships and programs of sail training and tall ships through professional development grants, sail training scholarships, conferences, education, publications, regulatory and licensing information, public events and advocacy.

The band of DEWARUCI entertains festival-goers on the streets of Savannah

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

27

SPIKE AFRICA This last spring saw the completion of a major sevenyear restoration of the schooner Spike Africa. In 2015-16 she received port side purpleheart frames, old growth fir planks, bulwarks and a new foremast and rig.

Shipwrights Al Meyer, Jake Jacobson and Dave Hartford did the work along with the able assistance of Captain Kenny Bateman and Mate Chris Barcus.

Spike Africa is currently having a very successful charter season in Friday Harbor, WA and looking forward to getting offshore this fall.

The schooner is accepting crew applications for next season. Apply to: Gary Gero 685 Spring St. #122 Friday Harbor, WA 98250 H The replacement of the Star of India’s weather decks is now about 68% complete and the project is expected to be completed by February 2017. The starboard cap/pin rail material has been laminated and is awaiting the completion of the deck, starboard side, to fit and install.

The project incorporates a composite deck with two layers of plywood, epoxy, and fiberglass underneath a surface layer of fir planking of traditional width and butt spacing.

28

The bottom side of the lower layer of plywood is routed to simulate the underside of planking, so that there is little visual difference between the new deck and a traditional planked deck.

This system was chosen to protect the internal iron work of the ship from the ingress of rainwater and thus far, it is reported to be watertight. While this is not a traditional deck, it does protect the original, irreplaceable 1863 ironwork far better than the traditional deck was able to do.

The long running restoration of the fore rig, including rebuilding for the fore topmast and service of all the standing rigging is also making progress in parallel. The fore topmast was sent up two weeks ago. The San Diego Maritime Museum is still planning to sail the fleet, including Star of India, in November 2017.

H San Salvador was awarded her Certificate of Inspection by the Coast Guard in July. SDMM Executive Director Dr. Ray Ashley reports: “We subsequently did several days of training and filming for the new National Park Service Cabrillo National Monument orientation film In Search of Cabrillo. “ Just last week we completed four days of training with Captain Eric Speth of Jamestown Settlement, in which

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

PINTAIL

defend the ship with an array of 16th century weaponry, and of course, make claim to every bit of land they lay eyes on.”

H Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Boatyard Program Manager Jenn Kuhn reports participants in the boatshop’s Apprentice for a Day program placed the final plank — otherwise known as the “whiskey plank” — on the 25’ draketail Pintail in August.

This was a milestone for the group, leaving much fairing to occur prior to flipping her over to adjust the sheer, build decks, a small open cuddy cabin, install the engine bed logs, fuel tanks, exhaust, and so forth, prior to her launching in late October.

Pintail is available for purchase, with proceeds supporting the education, restoration, and exhibition programs of the non-profit museum. With an asking price of $32,000, CBMM is including the hull, a 14-hp Yanmar diesel, traditional push pull steering, wet exhaust, and an open cuddy cabin. To learn more about purchasing Pintail, contact Jenn Kuhn at 410-745-4980 or jkuhn@cbmm.org.

See more photos of the project at bit.ly/CBMMPintail.

H As reported previously, Mayflower II is undergoing an extensive restoration with an eye toward sailing actively in 2020, the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival in Massachusetts Bay. However, Mayflower is going to be away from Plymouth Harbor for an extended period starting this fall, as the boatwrights at Mystic Seaport fabricate a structure to support the ship and preserve its shape so under-the-waterline planks, frames, inner keelson and bilge stringers can be replaced.

Plimoth Plantation is actively seeking a vessel to serve as a stand-in for some or all of the time that Mayflower is away, and particularly for the summer seasons of 2017 and 2018. If you have any ideas, you’re encouraged to e-mail Whit Perry at wperry@plimoth.org. b Got an update for Boatyards? E-mail us!

about 50 of our staff and volunteer crew were able to sail over the course of the four days. The opportunity to sail with Captain Speth proved tremendously helpful in fine tuning the rig and working up procedures.

“I’m pleased to report that the ship handles remarkably well under sail, has made every tack but one in about 40 attempts (on one occasion successfully tacking in one knot of wind), is astonishingly fast in the light winds which have characterized operations thus far, and with more fine-tuning to go is already laying within six points of the wind close hauled.

“On September 10th San Salvador will depart for her first Northern Voyage to Oxnard (hosted by Channel Island Maritime Museum), Monterey (hosted by Monterey State Historic Park) and then Morro Bay (hosted by Central Coast Maritime Museum) where she will be on exhibit in each of those locations.

“San Salvador will then sail south for three legs of four days each with passengers on board: Morro Bay to Oxnard (October 10-14), Circumnavigation of Catalina and Santa Barbara Islands (October 17-21), Circumnavigation of Catalina and sail to San Diego (October 23-26).

“Guest crew will be able to stand watches, help maneuver the ship under sail, MAYFLOWER practice 16th century navigation, learn to

II

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

29

To be included in future editions of our calendar, e-mail your event information to marlinspike1812@gmail.com.

WEST & SOUTH Los Angeles Maritime Museum, Los Angeles, CA (310) 548-7618 * LAMaritimeMuseum.org The Museum is located on the Main Channel of Los Angeles Harbor. Visitors have a front-row opportunity to see the massive container ships in action and learn about international trade, ship terminology, sailor’s art, and the history of the working people who built Los Angeles harbor into the nation’s busiest container port.

Maritime Museum of San Diego, San Diego, CA (619) 234-9153 * SDMaritime.org Cabrillo’s San Salvador: The Pacific Heritage Tour will offer different planned events and immersive exhibits at the following venues: Sept. 3-5 : Maritime Museum of San Diego Sept. 15-18: Oxnard, Channel Islands Maritime Museum Sept. 23 -25: Monterey, Monterey State Historic Park Sept. 30October 9: Morro Bay, Central Coastal Maritime Museum Association Texas Seaport Museum/ELISSA, Galveston, TX (409) 763-1877 * TSM-Elissa.org Nov. 11: Main Sail Movie Night. Ron Howard’s “In the Heart of the Sea” movie will be projected on one of the ship’s sails on the pier at Texas Seaport Museum, Pier 22 and Harborside.

Admission is free with RSVP at www.galvestonhistory.org. The movie will begin at 6 pm and the public is encouraged to bring their own chairs and blankets. Beer, refreshments and food will be available for purchase dockside.

Inland Seas Education Assoc., Suttons Bay, MI (231) 271-3077 * Schoolship.org Chuck Dickerson leads two ten-week pram building classes, one starting in February and one in October. Students, in groups of five, work alongside adult volunteers to build an Opti pram.

Upon completion of the course, students receive a scholarship to learn to sail the pram with Traverse Area Community Sailing.

Both sessions are free, but space is limited and registration is required.

Erie Maritime Museum, Erie, PA (814) 452-2744 * FlagshipNiagara.org Niagara offers educational sailing experiences to school groups, encouraging students to explore Erie’s maritime heritage and understand the science of sailing. Maximum capacity on-board: 60 day sail students, including teachers/ chaperones. For more information contact Outreach & Education at 814.452.2744 ext. 225 or outreach@flagshipniagara.org.

Michigan Maritime Museum, South Haven, MI (269) 637-8078 * MichiganMaritimeMuseum.org Friends Good Will is available for Educational Sails, Passenger Sails, Dockside boardings, Charters, Weddings, and Conferences.

Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Manitowoc, WI (866) 724-2356 * WisconsinMaritime.org View a shipwreck diorama featuring the Edmund Fitzgerald as she looks lying deep in the waters of Lake Superior.

EAST COAST

GREAT LAKES Bayfront Maritime Center, Erie PA (814) 456-4077 * BayfrontCenter.org The Center is designing and building a representation of Erie’s historic Schooner Porcupine. Porcupine’s mission will be sailing as the Schoolship for Presque Isle Bay, a hands-on sailing STEM classroom and historic regional attraction, interpreting her important part in the War of 1812, sailing for the US Coastal Survey Office, being a United States Revenue Cutter, and carrying cargo as the merchant schooner Caroline until 1873.

BaySail – Appledore Tall Ships, Bay City, MI (989) 895-5193 * BaySailBayCity.org BaySail is a private non-profit dedicated to promoting environmental stewardship of the Saginaw Bay and the Great Lakes through engaging shipboard experiences aboard our two 30

schooners, the Appledore IV and Appledore V. Our programs include science education for K-12 school groups, overnight voyaging for youth and adults, public sails, charters, group tours, and port visits.

Annapolis Maritime Museum, Annapolis, MD (410) 295-0104 * AMaritime.org Sept. 17. The Museum is hosting the 12th Annual Boatyard Beach Bash. With Coral Reefers, Jim Mayer, Peter Mayer, Brendan Mayer and Doyle Grisham, as well as world-class musicians John Frinzi, Scott Kirby, Aaron Scherz, and James White, set to perform on a waterfront stage!

Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, MD (410) 745-2916 * CBMM.org Rising Tide After-School Program teaches students basic boatbuilding skills in a welcoming, relaxed environment. Students will apply the principles they learn in math and science while using hand and power woodworking tools. When the weather allows, students will gain experience boat handling, navigation,

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

and other skills while paddling, rowing, sailing, power-boating, and fishing on the Miles River.

Council of American Maritime Museums Councilofamericanmaritimemuseums.org The 2017 conferencee will be held in San Francisco, hosted by the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and San Francisco Maritime National Park Association. A call for proposals will be issued in October 2016.

Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA (978) 283-0455 * CapeAnnMuseum.org Discover Fitz Henry Lane Online, an interactive resource that includes a catalog of Lane’s paintings, drawings and lithographs; an extensive database of historical information, images and materials related to the subjects within Lane’s pictures; new scholarly essays; and a bibliography and archive of publications.

Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, Hatteras, NC (252) 986-2995 * NCMaritimeMuseums.com Exhibits tell stories of major wrecks including that of the USS Monitor, Titanic, U-85, USS Huron, and Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge.

Herreshoff Marine Museum, Bristol, RI (401) 253-5000 * Herreshoff.org Besides the yachts and models, the Museum has catalogued and displayed hundreds of artifacts and memorabilia significant to the Herreshoff legacy.

Historic Ships in Baltimore, Baltimore, MD (410) 539-1797 * HistoricShips.org Historic Ships in Baltimore provides “hands-on encounters with history.” Tours and activities, live cannon firings, educational programs and more!

Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia, PA (215) 413-8630 * PhillySeaport.org Patriots & Pirates. Discover Philadelphia’s connection to the founding of the U.S. Navy. This new, permanent exhibition features curated objects never, or rarely, seen by the public — highlighting the little-told story of America’s conflict with pirates.

Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Vergennes, VT (802) 475-2022 * LCMM.org The LCMM fleet consists of two full-sized replica vessels that visitors may board — the canal schooner Lois McClure and the 1776 gunboat Philadelphia — several restored boats for viewing, and numerous small craft, some on display, and some actively used in our rowing programs.

Long Island Maritime Museum, West Sayville, NY (631) HISTORY * LIMaritime.org Combine dining and sailing with a cruise on board the 1888 oyster sloop Priscilla.

(978) 834-0050 * LowellsBoatShop.com Lowell’s Boat Shop is seeking high school students for the 20162017 apprentice program. Apprentices will learn the art of traditional wooden boat building under the guidance of boatbuilders Jeff Lane and Graham McKay. Apprentices will rebuild a 16’ Amesbury Skiff and build a new 15’ Banks Dory.

Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, ME (207) 443-1316 * MaineMaritimeMuseum.org The Bath Iron Works Story Trolley Tour is running through October 28. The tour begins with an exclusive exhibit highlighting key elements of BIW’s history followed by an introductory video that documents the process of constructing the most advanced ships in the world. Then board the trolley for a rolling tour through Bath where guides will detail the history of the yard, interpret the views, and highlight key elements of the shipyard. Seating is limited, reservations highly recommended.

The Mariners’ Museum and Park, Newport News, VA (757) 596-2222 * MarinersMuseum.org October 1, 1:00-3:00 pm. Polynesian Voyagers Expert Panel Discussion. Panel will discuss how the earth is changing; the ways indigenous cultures, including those of Polynesia and Virginia, have related to their environment; and how we can work together to build a better future. This is a ticketed event.

Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT (860) 572-0711 * MysticSeaport.org September 24. The opening celebration for the Thompson Exhibition Building will be at 9 am. There will be a brief ceremony on the Cambridge Plaza in front of the entrance, after which the building will be open for members and visitors to explore all day.

New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, MA (508) 997-0046 * WhalingMuseum.org Casa dos Botes Discovery Center honors the legacy and heritage of the Portuguese Community. The Discovery Center is located on the same site where members of New Bedford’s Azorean community first began constructing whaleboats in the city in 1997.

Peabody-Essex Museum, Salem, MA (978) 542-1609 * PEM.org Through November 6. American Impressionist: Childe Hassam and the Isles of Shoals. The exhibition features more than 40 oil paintings and watercolors dating from the late 1880s to 1912.

USS Constitution Museum, Charlestown, MA (617) 426-1812 * USSConstitutionMuseum.org Forest to Frigate: This hands-on, minds-on exhibit allows visitors to explore President George Washington’s decision to create a navy to protect our growing American merchant fleet. A complement to USS Constitution’s current restoration in dry dock, the exhibit follows the story from the forest in which “Old Ironsides’” timbers grew to her launch as a fully formed frigate. ❂ Got an event? E-mail marlinspike1812@gmail.com.

Lowell’s Boat Shop, Amesbury, MA MarlinspikeMagazine.com

31

SUBSCRIBE to MARLINSPIKE Sign up today for the quarterly magazine devoted to traditional sailing vessels, sailors, and programs!

Single issues $6.95 * Annual subscription $25 Two-year subscription $40 — save $10!

Subscribe via PayPal to Marlinspike1812@gmail.com via credit card by calling (978) 729-7600 or mail your check to:

Marlinspike 98 Washington Square #1 / Salem, MA 01970 Visit us on the web at

MarlinspikeMagazine.com and be sure to check out our active facebook page!

A select list of sailing programs, summer camps, and passage opportunities open to the public.

Maine Windjammer Association, Midcoast Maine (800) 807-WIND * SailMaineCoast.com Nine traditional sailing vessels offering windjammer cruises on the Maine coast from mid-May through early October.

WEST COAST Grays Harbor Historic Seaport, Aberdeen, WA (800) 200-5239 * HistoricalSeaport.org Two Weeks Before the Mast programs on Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain.

Los Angeles Maritime Institute, Los Angeles, CA (310) 883-6055 * LAMITopSail.org Sail-training for school and youth groups.

Maine Windjammer Cruises, Midcoast Maine (207) 236-2938 * MaineWindjammerCruises.com Three traditional sailing vessels offering windjammer cruises on the Maine coast from mid-May through late September.

Oliver Hazard Perry, Newport, RI (401) 841-0080 * OHPRI.org Week-long summer teen camps; educational programming for students of all ages; sail-training cruises for adults and families.

Schooner Adventuress, Port Townsend, WA (360) 379-0438 * SoundExp.com Overnight programs for teens, adults, seniors, and families.

Schooner Zodiac, Bellingham, WA (206) 719-7622 * SchoonerZodiac.com Windjammer cruises in the San Juan Islands, April-October.

Schooners North, Friday Harbor, WA (360) 378-2224 * SanJuanSailCharter.com Cruises from the San Juans to Alaska on the schooner Spike Africa.

GREAT LAKES Appledore Tall Ships, Bay City, MI (989) 895-5193 * BaySailBayCity.org Day-sails, charters, educational programs, and overnight sail-training opportunities.

Brigantine St. Lawrence II, Kingston, ON (613) 544-5175 * Brigantine.ca Sail-training programs on the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario.

Traverse Tall Ship Co., Traverse Bay, MI (231) 941-2000 * TallShipSailing.com Education, day-sails, charters, and multi-day windjammer cruises.

US Brig Niagara, Erie, PA (814) 452-2744 ext. 214 * FlagshipNiagara.org Summer 2016 Voyage Programs, for High School students, College Students, and Individual Trainees.

EAST COAST Barque Picton Castle, Lunenburg, NS (902) 634-9984 * Picton-Castle.com Spending the first half of 2017 cruising the Caribbean. No sailing experience required, just a strong back and willing heart.

Liberty Fleet of Tall Ships, Boston, MA (617) 742-0333 * LibertyFleet.com Windjammer-style Caribbean cruises; day sails from Boston in summer.

Schooner A. J. Meerwald, Bivalve, NJ (856) 785-2060 * BayShoreCenter.org Day and overnight Maritime Camp programs for children 13-17.

Schooner Alliance, Yorktown, VA (757) 639-1233 * SailYorktown.com Public sails and private charters in Yorktown during the summer; Windjammer-style Caribbean cruises during winter months.

Schooner Ardelle, Gloucester, MA (978) 281-0470 * SchoonerArdelle.com Public sails, private charters, and educational programs in conjunction with the Maritime Heritage Center.

Schooner Fame, Salem, MA (978) 729-7600 * SchoonerFame.com Public sails, private charters, and educational programs. Week-long Schooner Day Camp sessions for ages 8-14.

Schooner Mystic Whaler, Mystic, CT (800) 697-8420 * MysticWhalerCruises.com Single-day education programs for youth, overnight cruises for adults.

Schooner Pride of Baltimore II, Baltimore, MD (410) 539-1151 * Pride2.org Heading home from the Great Lakes. Port visits, charters, day sails, youth programs, private events and overnight guest crew experiences.

World Ocean School, Boston, MA (340) 626-7877 * WorldOceanSchool.org Education programs on board the schooner Roseway.

Schooner Sultana, Chesterton, MD (410) 778-5954 * SultanaProjects.org Weeklong “Chesapeake Adventures” programs for ages 11-14.

SEA Semester, Woods Hole, MA (508) 540-3954* Sea.edu Accredited semester-at-sea programs for college students.

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

33

❂ PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II spread her wings again this summer, visiting 16 ports by Labor Day

PHOTO JOHN HERD

34

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

❂

September marks a sea change for the New York City waterfront and the South Street Seaport Museum. Shortly after Labor Day, the 1911 barque Peking left Pier 16 for Caddell Drydock, where she’ll spend the winter in preparation for a spring transfer to Germany in a dockship.

Saved from the scrap heap by the Museum 40 years ago, Peking is headed for a new home at the Stiftung Hamburg Maritim, the maritime museum of Hamburg, which plans to spend some 30 million euro on her restoration.

Later in the month, the 1885 ship Wavertree will return to the Street of Ships after an unprecedented 15-month, $13 million, Cityfunded, DDC-managed restoration.

“No part of the ship is untouched,” wrote Executive Director Jonathan Boulware recently. “From the keel to the mainmast truck, from stem to stern, Wavertree is in better condition than she has been in since she was sailing in the early 1900s.

“The project ensures her future for decades to come. New York has become a leader in ship preservation. No municipality has undertaken a project like this one in our lifetimes, perhaps ever.

“Just as Peking is the right ship for Hamburg, Wavertree is the right ship for New York and for the Seaport Museum. She’s the very type of ship that built our city. The story of the port of New York is replete with ships like Wavertree: humble, unassuming ships that for a century plied the world’s oceans driving the trade, immigration, and cultural exchange that made New York the first modern world city.”

Boulware stated flatly that the Museum had long been hamstrung by the upkeep of the two ships.

“The maintenance of a 3,200-ton ship is a massive undertaking for a non-profit museum. Two is impossible. Evidence to support this lies in a simple fact: no other maritime museum in the world has two huge sailing ships... we have been “over-shipped” and under-resourced for decades.”

Boulware suggested that the recent changes will help the Museum to eventually reopen its landside galleries and education spaces.

Much work remains to be done, he said, “but the tide has turned, and the wind is in our favor.” ★ After undergoing the most massive and costly restoration in her history, the sloop Clearwater is sailing the Hudson River again. For nearly eight months the ship rested on the deck of a barge at the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, NY, while her entire midships section was rebuilt below the waterline. Clearwater was relaunched on June 16. It was an occasion to celebrate all of that hard work, but there was still much more to be done.

Clearwater’s 500-gallon fuel tank had to be carefully lowered into the main hold and re-installed, as did her two 100-gallon fresh-water tanks. The living quarters needed to be reassembled — not just some of the sole boards, bunks, and cabinetry, but the entire galley. The heads had to be reinstalled. All of the sloop’s plumbing had to be reassembled. The deck generator which runs the emergency pump also had to be remounted. Clearwater’s massive centerboard had to be re-shipped, and, of course, the sloop had to be rigged for sailing.

Thanks to the hard-working crew, dedicated volunteers and the skilled shipwrights at the Riverport Wooden Boat School, Clearwater’s first sail was July 12, from Yonkers Pier, with a group of children from a nearby day camp.

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

35

CLEARWATER

Fortunately, Clearwater was back on the Hudson in time for its popular summer Youth Empowerment Programs, “Young Women at the Helm” and “Young Men at the Helm.” Youth are recruited from high schools and community service organizations in low-income, urban areas throughout the Hudson Valley to participate in these three-day, intensive on-board sailing and camping adventures.

Clearwater’s sailing season will wind down in early November. Then the sloop will return to Kingston for what should be a more routine winter. The organization is still working to pay off the cost of last winter’s restoration and has two major fundraising events planned for this fall.

For more information about the sloop restoration and Clearwater sails and other events, visit www.clearwater.org ★ As of Labor Day, Pride of Baltimore II had visited 16 ports this summer, sailed close to 5,500 nautical miles, and welcomed nearly 50,000 visitors across her deck.

She also, as is her wont, cleaned up on the Tall Ships Challenge racing circuit. She won the Lake Ontario, Lake Huron and Lake Superior legs, finished second in the Lake Michigan race to When and If, and third in the Lake Erie race behind Niagara and Denis Sullivan.

There are informative and entertaining log entries relating to the Great Lakes races at pride2.org. ★ With the development of the steam engine and then the combustion engine, sail-powered cargo transport gradually withered away. Thanks to motorized cargo ships, we are now able to get our products delivered faster and more reliably, and thanks to refrigeration, we can even buy fresh produce

This is the Callwood Distillery’s tasting room off Cane Garden Bay on Tortola. Unfortunately, this is about all you get to see of the distillation process, which is a shame, because the rum is interesting. A dozen years ago they had a spiced rum which I remember as very good, but I was unable to find it on a later trip.

At any rate, great rum is being produced all over the Caribbean, and small- and medium-sized operations represent your best chance to see how the rum is really made. Take the Bacardi factory tour in San Juan, if you must, but don’t miss the Cruzan Distillery on St. Croix, or anywhere else that local rum is being produced. At the smaller distilleries you can often negotiate a great deal if you are buying several bottles. — MR 36

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

grown on other continents! Currently 90,000 motorized vessels transport the bulk of the world’s goods, but through their emissions, they also help induce climate change.

Many people are concerned about climate change; only a few have actually taken action. Ariel Shultz, for instance, decided not to fix the engine on her and her partner’s 28’ Cape Dory and instead use a 16’ sculling oar to navigate in low winds. Their startup is called SailingDog, and they are delivering Fair Trade coffee beans carbon-free to a coffee shop in Everett, WA. It’s a tiny initiative, but Shultz is adamant about expanding the business.

In Greece, former oil industry supply analyst Jan Lundberg is the driving force behind sailtransportnetwork.org and sailmed.org. The latter is trying to shine a spotlight on the pollution created by the motorized maritime industry. Sailtransportnetwork.org aims to increase awareness of the potential of sail cargo.

In addition, Lundberg is involved in a local project, the building of a classic Greek 13-meter sakoleva or cargo smack.

The plan is to set up cargo routes between islands.

Fairtransport, based in The Netherlands, reports that their Atlantic Ocean crossing vessel, Tres Hombres will be visiting the US for the first time next year, docking in Charleston, SC. Nordlys, which sails European waters, will enter the Mediterranean for the first time, and their third vessel, Avontuur, is on its way to Australia to sail Asian routes.

A new clipper, the Stad Rotterdam, a sister ship of the Stad Amsterdam, is planned for the coming years. This will be a classical ship built with modern materials, said Arjen van der Veen from his office in The Netherlands.

Fairtransport has been operating in the black since 2014.

They import chocolate and rum and sell it under their own brand name. Another source of income is taking on wine as ballast.

“Funny thing,” says van der Veen, with a strong Frisian accent. “We load the wine in France at approximately 12 degrees Celsius. During our trip to the “Carib” the temperature gradually rises to 32 degrees. And on our way back, the same happens in reverse. Through this process, the wine matures much faster and increases in quality (and price) significantly.”

Closer to home, Sailcargo.org is planning to build a 45meter wooden sailing cargo vessel in Costa Rica. The design of Ceiba was executed by Pepijn van Schaik of Manta Marine Design. The first trees have been cut for the construction of this classic three-master. We’ll keep you posted.

— Gerald van Wilgen ★ From September 19-December 19 in Lunenburg, Capt.

Dan Moreland will host Picton Castle’s sixth Bosun School.

This session will have an emphasis on sending running yards and topmasts up and down safely without cranes and rigging, as well as the many other necessary skills required of a professional mariner.

“We will also be pushing small boat handling in our wide range of small craft. It is essential for the qualified

I stole this recipe from The Ministry of Rum (ministryofrum.com). It very nearly has too many ingredients to be considered a true boat drink — simplicity is key.

But since all six ingredients are easily found, at least in the Caribbean, I’m letting it slide. Make this in a pitcher or a bowl with the “three parts” of rum being a full 750 ml bottle. We Yankees are used to rum distilled from molasses, but try this recipe with a local cane-juice rum and plenty of ice! — MR

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

Trinidad Rum Punch One part Simple Syrup Two Parts Fresh Lime Juice Three Parts Rum Pinch of nutmeg Two dashes Bitters Grenadine for color

37

mariner to be as competent as possible in small boats.

“At the end of the session there will be an opportunity to sail the ship down to Bermuda, giving our graduates an opportunity to increase their sea time and practice some of the skills picked up during Bosun School.

“We have a modest scholarship fund to help and we will also help place our grads into vessels.” ★ Inland Seas has a new 65’ schooner!

“Utopia was built in 1946 by Peterson Builders of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. She has a steel bottom with wood topsides and has a storied sailing history including a trip around the world in 1956.

“Utopia was donated to ISEA as a gift by the Peterson family because they appreciate our work with youth and the Great Lakes. The Petersons also provided a modest cash gift to assist with the operation and maintenance of Utopia for the next couple of years. She will be delivered to ISEA this fall and will be docked at Discovery Pier in Traverse City.

“I know many of you may be wondering how this fits with our intentions of purchasing the Manitou. I would like to assure everyone that Utopia is not intended to replace the Manitou. In fact, our planned use for the Utopia does not include Schoolship programming. You will surely hear a great deal more about our uses for Utopia over the next couple of years.” ★ Colonial Navy, Inc., which has been talking for some time about building a fleet of up to ten cold-molded historic replicas, has changed course, deciding instead to buy and repair the sloop Providence.

Providence was blown off her jackstands during the winter of 2014-15, suffering considerable damage to her hull and rig, and has been for sale ever since.

Colonial Navy founder John F. Millar was the leading light behind the construction of ‘HMS’ Rose and Providence some 40 years ago. While Rose (now ‘HMS’ Surprise) was built of wood, Providence was constructed of fiberglass at a

for Schooner MYSTIC Three-masted schooner, built 2007, steel hull by Freeport Shipbuilding. Staterooms for 34 guests. Lying Jacksonville, FL. Asking $2.99 million.

VICTORY CHIMES

Schooner ARABELLA Three-masted staysail schooner, built in 1983, aluminum hull. COI for 149 day sails, 40 overnight. Asking $2,900,000.

Schooner HALIE & MATTHEW Bald-headed schooner, built in 2006, fiberglass hull.

Located Eastport, ME. COI for 100 on deck, 50 overnight. Asking $1,400,000.

Schooner VICTORY CHIMES Three-masted schooner in the Maine Windjammer trade.

1900, oak on oak. Located Camden, ME. COI for 50.

Asking $925,000.

Schooner HERITAGE Two-masted schooner in the Maine Windjammer trade.

1983, oak on oak. Located Rockland, ME. COI for 30 overnight. Asking $995,000.

Schooner AMERICAN EAGLE Bald-headed schooner in the Maine Windjammer trade.

1930, oak on oak. Located Rockland, ME. COI for 56 daysails, 28 overnight. SOLAS and PSSC. Asking $750,000.

38

Schooner ISAAC F. EVANS Two-masted schooner in the Maine Windjammer trade.

1886. National Historic Landmark. Oak on oak. Current COI with next inspection due 2018 (frames and fastenings). 22 overnight with 4 crew, 39 day sail. $325,000.

Sloop PROVIDENCE Replica of Revolutionary War sloop. 1976, fiberglass.

Located RI. 59 GRT. COI for 40 daysails. Asking $295,000.

Schooner JEANIE B. Gaff schooner, steel. COI 25 daysails, 15 overnight.

Located NC. Asking $275,000.

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

At the southern end of Elbow Cay in the Abacos there are a series of absolutely stunning beaches with sugar-fine sand and gin-clear water — and starfish. The beaches on the eastern, ocean side of the island have the same fine white sand, but can be rough.

We chartered a catamaran out of Marsh Harbor and had a fine time, but it blew like the stink the entire week (this was in March) and the passes were, well, impassable.

We had to stick to the protected waters of the Sea of Abaco, which wasn’t terribly limiting.

We visited Treasure Cay, saw some turtles and joined in a giant sunset bonfire, spent a night at Man O’ War Cay and combed through collections of conch shells for sale, and climbed to the top of the iconic Hope Town lighthouse. We also ran aground briefly, because the cat didn’t fall off quite as fast as I thought it would.

Interesting craft, those catamarans. But a good call for the shallow waters of the Abacos. — MR Post a photo of your favorite beach to our facebook page, or e-mail us at marlinspike1812@gmail.com

cost of $1.6 million for the 1976 bicentennial.

“So far, some money has been coming in, but nowhere near enough, so that’s where we stand,” said Millar at the beginning of September. “I wish I had better news to report.” ★ The Massachusetts Cultural Council has announced a $10,000 grant to Essex shipwright Harold Burnham for the purpose of training his son, Alden, in the art of wooden boatbuilding.

The Burnhams have been building boats in Essex since the 1630s. Harold Burnham has built the Coast Guard-certified schooners Thomas E. Lannon, Fame and Ardelle as well as the Lewis H. Story, a replica of a mid-1700s Chebacco boat for the Essex Shipbuilding Museum, and the schooner yacht Isabella.

“As an 11th-generation shipbuilder in an era where there is little market for new wooden ships, Harold has been able to carve out a career building, restoring, and operating traditional wooden vessels,” reads the Council’s press release.

His son, Alden, has participated in the family business over the past few years sailing the schooner Ardelle and is uniquely positioned to carry on the wooden boatbuilding tradition.

“During their apprenticeship, father and son will work to restore a 23-foot lobster smack, the first boat Alden's grandfather built. The process will involve replacing half of

the vessel’s keel and centerline structure, sistering all of her timbers, re-planking her hull, replacing her deck and cabin, installing an engine and systems, building new spars and rigging, and making sails for the vessel.

“The wooden shipbuilding tradition is in good hands in Massachusetts and this apprenticeship will help keep it in the Burnham family for another generation.” ★ In an effort to synch up with the 2017 America’s Cup finals in Bermuda, the 21st Marion-Bermuda Race has moved its start to June 9, 2017. This should enable all participants to arrive in Bermuda prior to the start of the finals on June 17.

Forty-one years ago, W. David Kingery was interested in doing a single-handed race from England to Newport. To qualify for the race, David chose to do a single-handed voyage to Bermuda, and was struck with the concept of organizing a race to Bermuda for cruising yachts and family sailors.

The first race in 1977 saw 104 starters cross the line.

Over the 40 years since then, the race has evolved into a true offshore challenge for cruising yachts, amateur, family and youth sailors. Special prizes abound to emphasize celestial navigation, short-handed sailing, family crews and regional competition. b Do you have a newsworthy item for Boats, Bars & Beaches?

Contact us at Marlinspike1812@gmail.com. .

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

39

of the

Blacksmith, re-enactor, and sailor Med Chandler eventually returned to his native White Mountains of New Hampshire Marlinspike: You’re a New Hampshire guy?

MC: She was in St. Pete at the time. I did two legs, December to May or June, that was the Gulf and the East Med Chandler: Yes, I grew up here.

Coast. We did a yard in Lunenburg, and then back down to Long Island and I got off. They did the Great Lakes — the MS: How did you end up at Fort Number Four?

Tall Ships were on the Great Lakes that summer — and I met up with them again KYLE SPARKS MC: I grew up in in the fall and helped Charlestown and I started them recruit to get from volunteering there in sevChicago back down to enth and eighth grade Florida. We went down through a school program, the Erie barge canal, so and I never really left. we downrigged everything and they needed a full MS: When did you crew, so that’s why I came become interested in traback on. That was a ditional sailing vessels? shorter stint, from October to January.

MC: I got into After that I went French and Indian War back to New Hampshire re-enacting, and I was for a while, got back into doing native interpretablacksmithing, worked on Med Chandler hammers away tion. A friend of mine my uncle’s dairy farm, in his New Hampshire forge who was involved with worked at the fort, and the sloop Providence and continued with reenacting their naval unit was trying to get me to come on as a native the sailing — we did Lake Champlain and Fort privateer persona, and that was the beginning of the conTiconderoga and those things. versation.

My brother and I ended up building a sailing dory for MS: How did you end up working at Boothbay our unit, and that was the initial sailing bug. After high Harbor? school I took off, a friend and I were traveling around, and that’s when I signed on the Bounty.

MC: My girlfriend — now wife — and I were traveling around and met up with the Bounty just as kind of a MS: Where was she then? stopover, they were in St. Pete again, and we visited them for a week or so and helped out on some projects. The 40

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

Boothbay Harbor guys were down looking at the boat and talking about work, and I struck up a conversation with Dave Stimson about the yard. They were talking about the Discovery project, the boat for the Jamestown Settlement, and they were wondering where they were going to get the ironwork for that. They wanted to set up an iron shop at the yard, and that’s what brought me to Boothbay Harbor.

MS: What does the name mean, “Ship’s Coy”?

MC: It’s an old-fashioned abbreviation for “Ship’s Company” It always strikes up a conversation. That, and my name. Med. It was my great-grandfather’s name. It’s not short for anything. They liked Ned, which was popular at the time, but they wanted to be a little different, so they went with Med.

MS: What exactly were you doing there?

MS: How do you like running your own forge?

MC: I was doing some of MC: I love the scope of the hardware for the Discovery, work I’ve been doing, and I which was all traditionallylove being able to walk outside forged 17th-century ironwork, and be at work. But like any and then also some bronze business, when you do it yourBending a staysail on the BOUNTY hardware for more modern self, it’s a lot more work than boats we were building or you anticipate. The forge work working on. is the easiest part, for sure. It’s all the rest of it, the business I was also enrolled — the shipyard and the State of end of things, that is hard. But it’s good.

Maine were trying to start up a shipbuilding apprentice program, and they enrolled me in that, so I spent a year MS: Are you working by yourself? Do you have doing a bit of everything in the yard, from ironwork to apprentices? woodwork.

The work at Boothbay was a lot of fun, but I wasn’t MC: I’ve had some people over the years come in, not doing as much ironwork as I had hoped, so when the position at Ball & Ball opened up, looking for a blacksmith, that seemed like a good fit, doing colonial reproduction work. It was time to move on.

MS: So you worked in Pennsylvania and Virginia making reproduction hardware, mostly for historic buildings?

Authentic Tarred Hemp Marline

MC: The range of work they were doing was amazing, from small local homes to presidential homes like Monticello. Hardware, lighting — it was pretty incredible the projects that I got to be involved in there.

MS: What made you decide to leave that?

MC: We were there for three years, my girlfriend and I. We were going to get married, she had finished up school and was applying for teaching jobs, and we wanted to get back to New Hampshire, Maine, that area. We liked Pennsylvania because of the energy and life that was there, but it was sometimes a little too much energy and life, you know?

So we put some feelers out and she ended up landing a job in the White Mountains, which is what brought us up here. I was looking to open up my own shop, and I figured I could do that anywhere.

American Rope & Tar

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

8115 River Front Ln. Fair Oaks, CA 95628 877 965 1800

www.tarsmell.com 41

really full apprentices, but some of them have taken on that role. I’ve had high school kids come in for projects, where they need to do an internship.

It’s tough to find the right person, someone who’s willing to submit to the long-term learning, without getting instant gratification. It’s like playing an instrument: it takes 10,000 hours to get good at anything, but people don’t always see that when it applies to crafts like being a blacksmith. They think it’s fairly crude. So it can be hard to find the right person.

MS: What are you working on these days?

MC: The tools — caulking irons, chisels, slicks, traditional tools — that work is going all over the country, mostly finding me by word of mouth, or online. That’s great, and the customers are mostly builders, guys who use the tools. I really enjoy that work. I like to think of the guys ripping open the boxes and putting the tool right to work, using it right away.

And then the housework is a little more local. I do custom design work for some of the homes here in the mountains. There are a lot of second homes or wealthier homes in need of antique detail work.

I still do some restoration hardware, and that tends to be more mailed-away work, for homes or projects on Long Island. I’ve gotten in with a few contractors down there, and that seems to be enough to keep the projects going back and forth.

KYLE SPARKS

Ship’s Coy produces custom caulking irons and reefing tools...

MS: So you’re in there hammering away, all day, every day?

MC: Pretty much, yeah.

MS: I find that many people who are involved in traditional crafts often struggle to market their businesses effectively. What do you do to market yourself?

MC: It’s really interesting. One of the hardest things about what I do, marketing-wise, is making people know what I do. They get that I’m a blacksmith, and they think swords, horseshoes. But they’re not used to that service existing. Even builders, they don’t know that I can make a slick or an axe or what not. I don’t have an answer.

I do a lot of demonstrations. I do a lot of back and forth with builders. I’ve done The WoodenBoat Show for five years now, and that’s done really well, just having that presence there. The ad in Marlinspike has done well.

Word of mouth is by far the biggest. I’ve been getting calls from really bizarre places and it’s never what you think it’s going to be. “I was talking to this guy who used your stuff…” Word of mouth is where it’s at.

42

...as well as slicks, adzes, and other hand tools MS: I notice you’re teaching some classes, too.

MC: Yeah. I’ve worked with a few masters, but I’m mostly self taught. Teaching is one of the ways I’ve found that I learn a lot. Teaching a beginner class, having to repeat myself all week long, I get done and I’m like, “Oh, that’s how I do, it!” or “That’s why I do it that way!”

I teach a few smaller weekend-type classes out of my shop, through a local studio school. And I also teach at the New England School of Metalwork in Auburn, Maine. b Got a suggestion for Tools of the Trade? E-mail us!

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

detailed job descriptions and how to apply: www.soundexp.org

CAPTAIN CAPTAIN Liberty Clipper & Liberty Star Our winter program is enjoying weeklong sailing adventures in the Bahamas & Virgin Islands. The position is seasonal through June but could become permanent for right candidate. Captains must be able to demonstrate leadership & excellent sailing skills and have experience running the deck & managing crew. USCG 100-ton near coastal masters w/ sail endorsement required as well as specific experience in leadership positions in Tall Ships. You must be passionate about working with the public and have strong customer service skills.

Cover letter and resume: jobs@libertyfleet.com

MATE / BOSUN / ENGINEER

DECKHANDS, COOKS, ASST COOKS Schooner MARY DAY Entry-level positions and career-building opportunities are available for deckhands, mates, cooks and assistant cooks. If you love working with the public, are a team player, are looking for adventure and are not afraid of hard work then this just might be your ticket into the world of tall ships.

These are seasonal, live-aboard positions. All employees working in safety sensitive positions are required to pass a pre-employment drug screening and will be enrolled in a random testing program for the season. First aid and CPR certifications are required for some positions.

Contact: Capt. Barry King, schooner@schoonermaryday.com

GENERAL

CHIEF MATE Schooner MARY DAY Our Maine windjammer is a pure sailing vessel with no inboard engine to fall back on in a pinch. Sailing in tight quarters requires keen skills and attention to detail. Seasonal, live-aboard position. All employees working in safety sensitive positions are required to pass a pre-employment drug screening and will be enrolled in a random testing program. First aid and CPR certifications are required for some positions.

Contact: Capt. Barry King, schooner@schoonermaryday.com MATE Sound Experience is seeking applications for a licensed 100-ton First Mate for the 2017 sailing seasons. Season 1: (March- July 4). Season 2: (July 6 – Oct.). This is a paid seasonal position. As First Mate, fulfill all duties of running the ship’s deck in addition to working as part of the leadership team to facilitate day and overnight youth and adult programs. Actively lead and participate in all aspects of shipboard life and program. Interact positively with youth and adults. Crew must be at least 18 and submit to background check. Visit our website for detailed job description & how to apply: www.soundexp.org SECOND MATE / EDUCATOR Sound Experience is seeking applications for a licensed 100-ton Second Mate/Educator for both 2017 sailing seasons (see above). This is a paid seasonal position. As Educator, facilitate and present day and overnight youth and adult programs. As Second Mate, fulfill all duties of running the ship’s deck in absence of the First Mate. Actively participate in all aspects of shipboard life and program. Interact positively with youth and adults. Crew must be at least 18 and submit to background check. Visit our website for detailed job description & how to apply: www.soundexp.org BOSUN Ship Wavertree South Street Seaport Museum seeks a qualified Boatswain for the recentlyrestored 1885 three-masted full-rigger Wavertree. Wavertree has recently completed a massive stem-to-stern restoration. In the coming years, the ship will be further activated as education platform, visitor destination, and event venue. A limited sailing program is intended to get the ship off the pier within 2-3 years for sailing in New York Harbor.

To apply: e-mail resume, cover letter, and salary requirements to: waterfront_careers@seany.org with ‘Boatswain’ in subject line.

DECKHAND / EDUCATOR EDUCATOR / DECKHAND Sound Experience is seeking applications for Educator/Deckhand positions on the schooner Adventuress for the 2017 sailing seasons. Season 1: (March- July 4). Season 2: (July 6 –Oct.). There are both paid and unpaid seasonal internship positions available. Facilitate day & overnight youth & adult programs. Actively participate in all aspects of shipboard life. Crew must be at least 18 & submit to background check. Visit our website for

WINTER CREW SSV Oliver Hazard Perry - Chief mate (500T USCG with aux sail) - Third Mate (500T USCG with aux sail) - Bosun (AB) - Engineer (3rd Assistant Engineer) - Assistant Engineer (can be unlicensed but must be highly experienced) - At least 4 licensed deck crew (AB) - Cook - Medical Officer (EMT & wilderness training) - Curriculum coordinator (experience with sailing curriculum development and teaching teenagers) Positions run from on or before Dec 1, 2016 - April 28, 2017. We do not have any unlicensed deckhand positions open, however we will take 10 volunteers with us for the transit south (two weeks in early January). If you don't have a license, and are looking for some seatime and a foot in the door, send a resume and cover letter to explain your interest. http://www.ohpri.org/employment WINTER CREW Sloop Clearwater November, 2016 to March, 2017 Under the direction of the maintenance coordinator, the winter crew will participate in a variety of maintenance tasks needed to keep a historic wooden vessel sailing. Such tasks may include: sanding, painting, varnishing, cleaning, organizing, moving wood, shoveling snow, breaking ice, and various small carpentry projects. The winter crew should be ready to work long hours outside in the cold. Living space at a crew apartment and a limited food budget are included. There is no cook hired for the winter, so the maintenance coordinator and crew decide together whether to have shared or individual meals with the allotted funds.

Applicants should send their resume with a cover letter specifying which positions they are interested in to: capt@clearwater.org.

SPRING SAILING CREW Sloop Clearwater Clearwater is currently accepting applications for all deck positions (1st Mate, 2nd Mate, Cook, Engineer, Bosun, Deckhand, and Educator/Deckhands) for the spring 2017 season (April-June). You will be delivering Clearwater’s education program to 4th-12th graders as well as occasional programs for adults. Applicants should have strong communication skills, an active interest in education and an ability to work/live in a close knit community. Crew members work a 5-day-on, 2-day-off schedule.

All crew are required to pass a pre-employment drug test and background check. Compensation includes room and board.

Job descriptions at: http://www.clearwater.org/the-sloop/crew/.

Applicants should send their resume with a cover letter specifying which positions they are interested in to capt@clearwater.org. ❂ Got a job opportunity you’d like us to include in our next issue?

E-mail us at marlinspike1812@gmail.com

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

43

Sorry!

We were not able to re-create PDFs for these pages.

Q? Marlinspike1812@gmail.com

A popular feature on the Marlinspike facebook page is NAME THAT BOAT, where readers are asked to identify tall ships and sailtraining vessels of the past & present. How many of these vessels can you name?

C

6/6 — Admiral of the Ocean Sea 5/6 — Commodore 4/6 — Captain 3/6 — First Mate 2/6 — Seaman, Able 1/6 — Seaman, Ordinary 0/6 — Swabbie

D

ANSWERS: A) Adventuress, B) Californian, C) A.J. Meerwald, D) Gazela, E) Lettie G. Howard, F) Brilliant

A

E B

F

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

45

ERNESTINA-MORRISSEY Continued from page 17 operation out here, because the live oak is not real friendly to the band saw. The lignin in the grain loads up the bandsaw blade, so that it effectively has no set. Clogs the teeth so it can’t move through the stock.

One of our shipwrights came up with this rig [the paired curved fiberglass battens screwed at intervals through beveled shims onto the stock]. He’s using a conventional chainsaw mill, that normally runs on a 2x6 to rip out boards. What he’s done, he’s using these fiberglass battens and these spacer sticks (shims), and by using a variety of sticks with a different amount of taper on them — bevel, so they taper from one side to the other — four degrees, five degrees and so on, he’s able to duplicate what we do with the ships saw, with a chainsaw.

The device that you would clamp on the side of a chainsaw, to ride on the 2x6, rides on this. This track is guiding it, and it’s also changing the bevel as it goes. Here’s a piece of live oak that’s been milled out with a chainsaw. It’s a pretty clean cut, it can be planed, dressed up a little bit with a planer.

DH: Pretty inventive. But I imagine if you’ve spent your life working in a place like this, you get used to problem solving.

DS: You get creative, yes. It’s always about problem solving.

Just handling this stuff, in the shed all we have to pick up anything is a gin-pole that we’ve built. The gin-pole capacity and where we put it kind of drives the work. In our case we’ve got the boom on it high enough so that it clears the deck. It has about a one-ton capacity. It does what we need it to do. It kind of drives the order of things in the shed.

This is my business here, North Atlantic Shipbuilding and Repair, all in this truck. I’m basically contracted to run this reconstruction.

DH: What a life!

DS: It’s been a great life. Who knew, thirty-some years ago?

We’re doing something that nobody else is doing, and we get paid for it.

DH: You get to spend your days here, and then after a couple of years go by, and there’s your hull.

DS: You have to be patient. There’s no instant gratification here. I warn young guys coming up about that. This is a process, you have to see every step through, to get where you’re going.

David Hirzel has been a volunteer at San Francisco Maritime NHP, starting in 1997 as a member of the Balclutha topsail demo crew, and since 2005 as director of the Living History program. He is author of several books and articles on Arctic and Antarctic polar exploration history, most recently Rough Weather All Day: The Cruise of the U. S. S. Rodgers in Search of the Jeannette. He is grateful to Boothbay Harbor Shipyard for this opportunity to look inside the work going on with the Ernestina-Morrissey.

46

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

CRANE STOOKEY

A Different Light Captain John Beebe-Center taught me how to work.

John was captain of the schooner Harvey Gamage when I sailed aboard her as Chief Mate. It was my first job on a sailing ship, and I had a lot to learn, especially about work.

The Harvey Gamage, a gaff-rigged schooner out of Boston, was known in those days as the “Heavy Damage.”

She was old and tired, and lots of things kept breaking.

Captain John wanted any ship under his command to look sharp, so the crew and I often worked into the evening, hanging over the side painting, chipping at rust on the deck fittings, coating the masts with linseed oil and tar. It was exhausting, tedious work, and I balked at the endlessness of it. I felt it wasn’t really our problem. The ship’s office should be paying to have the ship hauled out for a proper work period in a commercial shipyard, not leaving it to us underpaid and overworked crew.

Captain John thought I was a spoiled slacker. His view was that if the crew didn’t take care of the ship, the ship couldn’t take care of the crew, and in a storm that could be trouble. He was right. And my attitude was setting a bad example for the crew, which made him pretty angry.

Captain John rode me pretty hard much of the time, often reprimanding me for my work habits. He constantly tried to push me beyond what I thought were proper limits. We chafed against each other in a downward spiral of recrimination and resistance.

Then one evening at anchor, the electric generator that lived in a box on deck stopped running. Captain John didn’t know much about engines, but he tried to fix it. I had the night off, and was getting ready to go ashore, where several of my shipmates had already gone. John had

the generator taken apart on deck and as I passed he asked me to hold a flashlight for him for a moment. I grudgingly did, and asked if he knew how to repair engines. He said no, but he might figure it out, and if it ran we’d save a lot of time and money getting it fixed. If it didn’t run, all he’d lose was an evening.

I couldn’t believe it. Why would anyone waste their time like this? We should just get it fixed in the morning by a mechanic. It wasn’t our problem; the ship’s office should give us better gear.

As I held the flashlight I watched him work. He was covered with grease, a couple of knuckles were bleeding, the daylight was nearly gone, and he’d been crouched on his knees for an hour already. But he seemed content. He was gentler and more relaxed than I’d seen him before. Something about his doggedness, his private determination to do his best even if he failed, was suddenly compelling to me, and I saw him in a different light: not the unreasonable taskmaster, but the committed captain taking his responsibility seriously. I kept holding the flashlight.

We didn’t talk. I knew nothing about mechanics and had no suggestions to make. He urged me several times to go ashore for my night off, but I stayed. It was a clear, quiet night, with a warm breeze and the sound of water lapping on the hull as John worked. Eventually he had the generator reassembled, and it wouldn’t run.

He said, “Well, it was worth a try,” and went to bed. I went to bed too, and my view of work had changed. ❂ Excerpted from Crane’s book, Keep Your People in the Boat — Workforce Engagement Lessons from the Sea.

MarlinspikeMagazine.com

47

H NOW HIRING H Everything you love about Tall Ships, but none of the things you don’t!

130’ rig to climb and seven miles of rope to haul at the start of the day, but hot showers and climate-controlled spacious accommodations at the end of your watch.

Be a part of history!

Join the first operational crew of SSV Oliver Hazard Perry, the first full-rigged ocean-going ship to be built in the United States in over 100 years.

For more information see our website: http://www.ohpri.org/employment Apply by e-mailing cover letter and resume to jess@ohpri.org

PHOTO:?ONNE?VAN?DER?WAAL