The First Maritime Preservation Conference Is Held Amid a Festival of Ships in Baltimore, June 24 By Francis James Duffy Vice Chairman, World Ship Society Port of New York Seen over the foredeck of a visiting schooner, the rakish Pride of Baltimore presides over the Inner Harbor. She was launched here earlier this y ear, by the same interests that built the skyscraper behind her.
"We are like frogs around a pond ; we all know one another. " These words of Peter Stanford, current president of the National Maritime Historical Society, summed up our first national ship preservation conference, held in Baltimore on June 24 under the auspices of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States. People came from twenty states, including Hawaii , to join the conference with the common goal of saving significant ships of our American maritime heritage. Some came with the modest goal of saving guide boats used on the northern lake waters of New York State, while others were out to save the battleship New Jersey. They came together, at the call of the National Trust's Maritime Preservation Committee , headed by Waldo C.M. Johnston of Mystic Seaport , as if indeed they had always known each other. Trust president James Biddle noted that his organization, now over 100,000 strong in members, had been traditionally building-oriented. The conference, he added, would surely help to change that! The City of Baltimore was host to the conference , which was scheduled as part of its maritime Heritage Festival. Baltimore was the second city, and one of five East Coast ports, to celebrate the East Coast Harbor Festival, which started in Norfolk , Virginia on June 17. Following Baltimore, it went on to Philadelphia on July 27, helped New Yorkers celebrate July Fourth Weekend, and finished up on July 9 at New London, Connecticut. In no way a repeat of Operation Sail-76, the Festival did include much of the same things: Sail Training Association races, vintage sailing ships, shoreside celebrations 22
and fireworks. The Op Sail fever is still very much with us, judging by the crowds at the different festivals, and the feeling at the conference was distinctly that there never has been a better time to get broad-based support for maritime preservation projects. All who took part in the conference received invitations to visit the sixty ships that had come for the Harbor Festival, led off by the Pride of Baltimore, just returned from her maiden voyage. The U.S . Naval Academy yawls, the 1883 Grand Banks barkentine Gaze/a Primeiro, the brigantine Black Pearl, and a borde of private yachts attended her. Harry Allendorfer, Maritime Preservation Director for the National Trust, organized the conference for the Trust's Maritime Preservation Committee. He ran a tight ship , scheduling some twenty speakers, floor discussion, and honored luncheon guests into the 8:30 AM to 4 PM day. In his opening remarks, he paid tribute to the National Society and others who had pioneered in the work the conference was addressed to.
Ships Great and Small Peter Stanford then led off with a sweeping review of leading case histories in ship preservation, in a talk entitled "How Historic Ships Live. " The local press summed this up well next day by saying the ships live by generating ''living interests"-whether by ,attracting paying passengers , like the paddlewheel steamer Delta Queen on the Mississippi , by enlisting civic interests like the Pride of Baltimore, or generating visitation and membership in the parent organization, like the whaling bark Charles W. Morgan at Mystic Seaport. Maynard Bray, who had been supervisor of the Morgan's recent restoration, (referred to in Stanford's talk as "The Second Coming of the Morgan ') took a close look at what was involved in that effort and the continuing work
on other ships at Mystic. "The work will never be finished, " said Bray, arguing that this fundamental effort to rebuild and maintain ships in their original style kept knowledge and skills alive which were vital to the purposes of the museum. The slides accompanying his talk vividly and memorably illustrated the point! And then Captain Kenneth Reynard of the San Diego Maritime Museum spelled out how "private enterprise does work, " in recounting the years of work that led up to the sailing of the iron bark Star of India, built in 1863, last July Fourth (see SH 5, pages 18-19). This was, again, no " paint brush restoration," and it was costly and time-consuming, but the honesty of the work earned the support it required, without recourse to government aid. The Captain's words carried utter conviction, and his was the best testimony at the conference to the ability of ordinary people to save a ship and make her pay her own way. Bolling Haxall, of the Thousand Island Shipyard Museum, Clayton, N.Y. and Lance Lee, Director of the Apprentice shop at Bath Marine Museum in Maine, explored the joys and learning of small craft preservation. In Clayton the work has brought new attention to the maritime heritage and shipwright skills, in what might be considered au inland community. The Museum 's annual antique boat show tells the story of small craft restoration by the boats that enter it. Lance Lee carried the need for apprentice training in small boat building to the group. Coupled with a program of youth training under the direction of veteran craftsmen, Bath has produced outstanding reproductions of small boats using traditional tools.
Getting It Together Today some 27 maritime museums are joined together under the umbrella of the Council of American Maritime Museums, and their concerns are linked
SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1977