ard in South Street, the only Gloucesterman of older vintage than the Morrissey that we know of. I spent some time aboard her last fall, and a former owner, Paul Dunn, is a great friend and help in our effort with the Essex Shipbuilding Museum. Two small historic vessels that are now avail~ble might be of interest to you. The first is one of the last Grand Banks dories to long-line out of Boston, on the schooner Gertrude Decosta. She has been given to the Essex Shipbuilding Museum, but we have no room for her. We would like to find a place that will take her on Joan, restore her, and keep her out of the weather. Mystic Seaport is taking a look at her, and have first refusal. The second is the Swallow, built in the 1890s as committee boat for the Boston Yacht Club. She is a lovely 65-foot clipper-bow fan tail steamer, and carried auxiliary sail. She had a Diesel put in her and so is missing her boilers and engines. Her owner is restoring a larger steamer and might dispose of the Swallow, which needs work, but still boasts cabin and wheelhouse of raised mahogany paneling! JAMES WITHAM, President Essex Historical Society Essex, Massachusetts Yes, please, Astrid! To the Editor: Norsk Sjofartsmuseum has had the pleasure of studying a number of the Society's journal SEA HISTORY, which we find most interesting and useful for the Museum. We would like to ask if the Society would be interested in an,exchange agreement. Norsk Sjofartsmuseum can offer its yearbook published each year in June. The articles are in Norwegian with summaries in English, and are profusely illustrated. ASTRID JOHNSON Librarian Norsk Sjofartsmuseum Oslo, Norway New Building, Rebuilding and a Loss To the Editor: We went to Gloucester in mid-October for a week. The rebuilding of Howard Blackburn's Great Republic is coming along fine. I am getting a set of deadeyes for her. Joe Garland, in charge of that project, recently bought Howard Blackburn's last boat, the 25foot sloop Cruising Club, which was given to him by members of the Boston
Station of the Club to keep the old man sailing. When Blackburn took delivery of her in the spring of 1929 I helped him rig her, whip rope ends, etc. She was built at Cooney's Wharf, Gloucester. Joe took her on a two weeks' cruise to Maine in September. The new schooner John F. Leavitt must be framed now and plank going on. When I saw her at the end of September, all square frames were raised and centerboard trunk being built, ready for frames abreast of trunk. For the last two or three years a Boston man has been talking about a replica of Gloucester's last salt Banker, Columbia. He's been down to see Dana Story about consulting on the construction. Dana's father Arthur D. built the first Columbia in 1923 and upon the father's death in the 1930s, Dana ran the yard until vessel building ended in Essex. He's also been to see Roy Wallace at Thomaston, Maine, about building the new Columbia. It can't be done at Essex since Essex Creek has not been dredged good in 35 years or so and there is not water enough to get her down it. The biggest the Story yard is building now is about 50 feet. This new schooner will be a project! A man from Philadelphia has been talking with the Bath Marine Museum about a five-year lease on the south ways of the Percy and Small yard, to build a whaler, Kate Cory, and other vessels. This was held up while the Museum tried to complete the rebuilding of the north ways for their own use. They had to change contractors for the piling work. They plan to haul the towboat Seguin and raise the schooner Laura Goulart for hauling before winter closes in. Goulart may have to await spring now, as ice will soon be coming down the river. Another big Gloucester dragger was lost Thursday, the 90 foot Sylvester F. Whalen, built in Thomaston in 1947. She started leaking bad about 16 miles south of Nantucket. Water put her electric plant out so she could not call for help. They headed her in and beached her on our south shore, with 18,000 pounds of fish aboard. The six-man crew was taken off by helicopter. The Coast Guard was called from a house on the shore. It was hoped she could be saved, but we had a fresh southerly Friday afternoon and night, and a heavy northwest gale Saturday. By Saturday morning her wheelhouse and deck were gone and her back broken. CHARLESF. SAYLE, Sr. Nantucket, Massachusetts
The Mighty Moshulu To the Editor: In "Ship Notes" (SH No. 4) you mention the Moshulu, a ship for which I have a major soft spot. About a year ago I had the good fortune to come across her in Philadelphia, unattended and to all appearances abandoned. Not being one to pass up such a golden opportunity I climbed up a line hanging from her starboard scuppers. Along with my brother I spent hours of sheer ecstasy exploring her from stem to stern. She is beautiful and seems (to my inexperienced eye) relatively sound. I have been aboard her twice since then and I am extremely curious as to her future fate. I have heard rumors of her conversion to a restaurant, of purchase by South Street, and a few others. Could you shed some light on the future of this magnificent ship? DA YID J. WOOD Harvey Cedars, New Jersey J. Ferrell Colton singled out the German/our-masted barks Moshulu (1904) and Peking (1911) as twin pinnacles in the development of the ultimate sailing ship. The Peking is on exhibition at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York, and the Moshulu was moved into Penn's Landing in Philadelphia to become a restaurant ship this fall. David Tallichet of Specialty Restaurants held an inaugural dinner aboard her December 1. Previously she had been at South Street, but plans to develop her there fell through, and her place was taken by the Peking. The mighty Moshulu, as she was known in her sailing days, won the last Grain Race in 1939, with a 91-day passage from Port Victoria in Australia to Queenstown, Ireland. Eric Newby's brilliant account of that voyage, The Last Grain Race, is available in paperback (Ballantine Books, New York, $1.25). He ended his book "I never saw her again"-but now he can!-ED. From Moshulu 's Owner To the Editor: We worked hard with some of your members to get the Moshu/u placed in New York. I was disappointed that conditions changed, which necessitated our having to move. But we are very pleased with the ship's new home, and grateful to your member and patron Bronson Binger for his help in recommending our project in Philadelphia. DAVID C. TALLICHET, Jr. President Specialty Restaurants Corporation Long Beach, California 3