LETTERS These people might easily have been lifted by a time machine out of our own past. They surprise us; they are not like our stereotype of primitive people. Through them we are learning something about mankind ... about ourselves and about our society. Clio has endless lessons for us and can help us take our next steps with more wisdom and dignity than we've shown in this century. She can show us cities that worked, while ours are failing; people who had less of everything, but had more joy and stability. She can show us all the splendor and stupidity of humanity. But not if we already know it all. Not if we've got all the answers and keep chanting them in the face of all her evidence to the contrary. NFS
Waiting for Kaiulani To the Editor: I've been aro und for quite a while , waiting for the Kaiulani to be restored. In fact I have Lifetime Free Pass No.455 to board her in Washington , DC . Unfortunatel y ifs not dated , but I've had it for years ... and hope to use it some time! C LAIRE A. RICHARDSON Baltimore , Maryland M e mbe rship Secretary Marie L ore, acknowledging Ms. Richardson 's renewal, had noted '" Your name is a familiar one lo me from my years of volunteering for the NMHS ty ping lette rs, labels, e nvelopes and lately m embership cards." As to Kaiulani , which the National Society was founded to save, her remains are to be moved to San Fran cisco by a firm that towed her often through the Golden Gate. - ED
Who Cares About Cultural Resources on the Ocean Floor? To the Editor: Cultural resources do not seem to rank very high on the conservation agenda, and most people have not even the slightest concept of what is happening o n the sea floor. As an oceanographer and a diver and an amateur a rchae ologist I am well awa re o f the damage that is takin g place in the ocean to our historical past. With Arthur Skodnek and others, I am involved in an archaeologica l di g o n HMS Culloden, a British 74 wrecked o ff Montauk in 1781.
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Although peo ple like myself a re odditi es, there is a whole new breed of pe rso n very familiar with ce rtain a re as o f the seafloor. It is being raped by the treasure hunter and the antique dealer. Pe rhaps it is time more than ever in the past to bring o ut the need for a counter balance, the preservation o f o ur underwate r cultural heritage. Last ni ght two students called to tell me they had discovered an intact ship with brass cannon. The ni ght before an a ntique de aler asked me if I was interested in purchasing some very old doubloons. 1 hope a magazine like yours would rather see these items of our cultural past become a part of our museums and our historical heritage than an item o n a page o f an auctioneer's sale sheets. HENRY W. MOELLER , Ph .D . New Yo rk Ocean Sc ience Laboratory of Affiliated Colleges & Universities, In c . Montauk, New Yo rk We salute your work on the C ulloden and wish help in any way we ca n to save her re mains from the despoilers, willing or unwilling. For further IVOrd on this concern, see Pe ter Throckmorton 's "'Encouraging and Daunting," this issue. -ED.
Of Aymars & South Street To the Editor: B. Aymar & Co. was founded about 18 15, when New York 's population was 20,000. It was nam ed for Be njamin Aymar, by great grandfather. The
company eventually owned seven clipper ships: the Try, B. Aymar, John W. Cater, Orbit, Emily, (named for Emily Aymar), Juniper, and Spirit of the Times. I have a letter from Captain Victor Slocum, the son of Joshua Slocum, written in 1946, which says: "The B. Aymar was built in Searsport, Maine, in 1840 and was later sold to Joshua on the West Coast for the Australia-China trade. My father sold her in Manila (circa 1874) to China parties and soon after she was wrec ked on the south side o f Japan , near Nagasaki." A painting of her was made by a Dutch artist on the reverse side of glass. The legend reads : " B. Aymar, New York , Captain B. Carver, Entering th e Texel (Holland) October 16, 1840." This was her maiden voyage. The gunports on her side were merely painted on, to try to deceive the Chinese pirates who were very active at that time. Captain Joshua's second son (V ictor's brother) was named Benjamin Aymar. He was born on the ship in Sydney, Australia December 21 , 1873. Many years ago I we nt to South Street to see the old ship chandlery. DeGraw & Aymar was still there.
GORDON C. AYMAR South Kent, Connecticut
Mr. Aymar is a noted artist & designer. His rendition of the Dutch portrait of the B. Aymar is shown above. -ED. continued on page 6
SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1977