I SAW THREE SHIPS
Operation Sail 1976 On July Fourth tall ships from seafaring nations around the world will gather in New York Harbor. Over two hundred sailing vessels will join in the parade of Sail from the Verraizano Narrows Bridge up the Harbor and the Hudson River to the George Washington Bridge. The parade of sail will be the largest assemblage of sail training ships ever seen in this hemisphere. Operation Sail 1976 is a most fitting tribute to our 200-year-old maritime heritage. A major international cultural exchange program, it stimulates appreciation and understanding of the vital role of the Merchant Marine in uniting men and nations. In commemoration of this historic event, Operation Sail is making available a series of fourteen proof-finish medals depicting the host ship, the U.S. Coast Guard bark Eagle, plus thirteen other sail training ships representing all parts of the world coming to salute our maritime history: Libertad of Argentina, Bluenose of Canada, Gloria of Colombia, Esmeralda of Chile, Danmark from Denmark, Gorch Fock of West Germany, E¢ndracht of Holland, Amerigo Vespucci from Italy, Nippon Maru of Japan, Christian Radich of Norway, Dar Pvmorza of Poland, Sagres of Portugal, and Juan Sebastian de Elcano from Spain. The medal honoring the American bark Eagle is two inches in diameter and weighs two troy ounces. Each of the other thirteen medals is one and five-eighths inches in diameter and weighs one troy ounce. Each medal is 925I1000 fine. A limited edition of 1000 complete sets of fourteen medals is being offered at $336 and will be delivered in a nautical presentation case. The individual Eagle medal is $37 delivered in a nautical canvas-covered jeweler's case, the other medals are $23. There is an additional charge of $6.50 for the full fourteen-medal set, $3 for smaller numbers. Mail orders for medals should be addressed to: OP SAU.. Medals P.O. Box 1976 1470 N.E. 129th St. North Miami, Fla. 33161
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West there is a growing hunger among today's youth for such satisfactions. Sebbe A ls reveals a magnificent economic means of providing demanding, esteem-bearing experience in any small town or city, in any nation. In Operation Sail we shall witness vast, bold examples of the use of human and natural energy, and of some of the most highly evolved forms of rig and sail. But it is highly likely that the surface will be noticed and that the trumpets will sound for nostalgia, for bravery, and for the past. The Sebbe Als speaks for the quality of youth and the future. A gradual renaissance of craftsmanship and skills on a small scale is taking place. The Sebbe Als is testimony to how a group have built their own square rigger, sailed her to Norway and have now come to New York. Here they offer illustration of how groups all over the world can revive skills, have pride in their own achievements and hope in those who see and know of this vessel's history. The construction of the Sebbe A ls took three years-they began with white oak logs 50 feet in length and 5 feet in¡ diameter, splitting these with ash wedges, hewing planks of them with the adz, and "hanging" them accurately and evenly. They cut and sewed their own sails. They carved their "deadeyes," special wooden devices for tightening the rigging. They drank beer, laughed, cried, cut themselves and went on, and on to completion. Primarily, in entering the Danish Viking ship Sebbe A ls in Operation Sail, a matter that Pete Seeger, Peter Stanford and I have been concerned in, with others, we wish to enable the many, unable to participate actively in New York, to recognize that vast sums and big vessels are not requisite to either qualitative or demanding experience which yields the sort of pride, judgment and exhileration which stems from square-rigged sail training. I have spent some little time with Carl Otto Larsen and the present crew of the Sebbe Als within the past seven months and come away deeply inspired. My search into this project in Denmark came in great measure from my sorrow at seeing that the thrust of inflation and related economic stress today denies the hard, qualifying exeperiences which sail training and apprenticing have for generations afforded youth. My own eight months on a 1,700-ton barque comprised as significant a life
experience as I could wish for, but in this day that vessel is laid up, those continuing do so under staggering costs and the numbers able to participate are small indeed. Hence my interest in the theme of smallness with its consequent ability to afford great experience to many. The Danes in Augustenborg added a dimension rarely seen in today's world of foundation or government support. This is the community-based project which runs essentially upon tenacity and achieves a personal and pride-bearing relationship quite impossible when the State treasury lies behind the opportunity. Beyond these economic considerations lies an even deeper recognition. craftsmanship, swiftly dying out of modern life, affords one of the most satisfying and inspiring of opportunities, not simply for the practitioner but for those many who come in contact with material excellence produced at the hands of the skilled and careful. These timeless needs-for experience, skill and inspiration-have led a growing number to value the difficult route, the community project, the made rather than purchased item and the human energies, care and deliberateness which go into such efforts. Where the Sebbe Als is concerned we have increasing fascination in recognizing that she is a blend of three "thrusts," meticulous scholarship or historical research, applied craftsmanship and yielded adventure. The whole is the result of the will of the participants and the tenacity of their leaders. That is a story timely in our nation and far sweeping in its inplications, perhaps particularly in a Bicentennial year. To recognize it broadly in New York, through Operation Sail, is to act on a most magnificent opportunity. .t