& MUSEUM NEWS (see SH 11, 29) received $15,000, and smaller grants were made to other projects across the country . Among the 19 grants was $10,000 "in escrow" for the Ernestina/Morrisey. Aplications for a second round of grants from the Op Sail fund should be sent by December 31 to Maritime Division, NTHP, 740-748 Jackson Place NW, Washington, DC 20006. The National Society's Falkland Island's Project is mounting a third expedition to the islands for detailed survey of the Vicar of Bray, last surviving ship of the California Gold Rush. Made possible by generous private contribution, this expedition sets sail. in December. Its main object is to develop practical plans for return of the Vicar to San Francisco. Full report of the second expedition, mounted with South Street Seaport Museum and other participating organizations, will be made in SH 13 . A film on the Falklands heritage, "Ghosts of Cape Horn," is also being produced under National Society auspices. Those with a particular interest in these efforts to recover the heritage of historic sailing ships hulked in the Falklands are invited to be in touch. Sea Education Association Director Corwith Cramer, Jr., has outlined the achievements of the Association, sailing the schooner Westward in 1977: "to us in SEA the most important statistics are the 123 students who graduated from Sea Semester in 1977. They came from 64 colleges and universities and represent 25 states and one foreign country. We're particularly pleased that we were able to expand funded scholarship aid to our students from $16,000 to nearly $25,000 in 1977." The report stresses academic excellence as "our most important immediate objective. We established the position of dean to coordinate and strengthen the academic program; we funded a bunk aboard ship for visiting scholars .. .. During 1977 we provided week-long 'Seminars at Sea' for classes from Cornell University and from the Williams College/Mystic Seaport maritime studies program." The success of the program is reflected in the next step proposed in this report: "To meet the growing demand we shall need a larger sea-going campus. We have been unable to find an existing, suitably sized sailing ship. We therefore shall complete preliminary designs for a new one in 1978."
EAST COAST Correction of the New England Schooners List (SH 11, 30). Our list covered the 20 and growing number of windjammer schooners that take passengers for a week or a couple of days' sail. Many readers have pointed out that an historic New England Schooners List would have included many other vessels of note. Sorry for the confusion. To update the NE Windjammer list there is already the addition of Voyager, launched early this summer, to operate out of Mystic and Annapolis on two- and three-day sails. Welcome to the fleet, Voyager! Steamboat Wharf, Mystic, CT 06355. Tel. (203) 572-0077.
SEA HISTORY, FALL 1978
Chantey Festival in Seattle By John Townley X Seamen's Institute
The Wiscasset Schooners in Maine, imperilled by a fire started by 1uly 4th fireworks, may have a new lease on life. The Lu/her Li/tie of 1917 and Hesper of 1918, both built at South Somerset, Maine, have lain as hulks on the foreshore of this small Down East town for nearly half a century and are the last survivors of the big multi-mast Down East schooner. Peter Throckmorton, Falkland Island Project director and curator-at-large for the National Society, is now working with town fathers to stabilize the hulks and open them to public exhibition with a small museum on the heritage they represent. lnq u i ries may be directed Wiscassett Schooners, NMHS, 2 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY 11201. The Piscataqua Gundalow Project of Strawbery Banke (SH 11, 34) has raised $5,000 toward the building of this traditional craft, says Peggy Armitage, Director of Strawbery Banke. This summer saw other activities including City Sunday on August 6, when visitors to Strawbery Banke could see the outline of the Fannie M., the gundalow to be built, laid out. A New Hampshire lumberer, Ed Bartlett, has been looking for pine logs to start construction early in the fall. Ellis Rowe of Wells, Maine will rough out the logs when they arrive. A Speakers Bureau has been formed to promote interest in the gundalows and the project. On November 3, Prof. William A. Baker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and designer of the Mayflower II among other replicas, will speak on gundalows, wherries, sailing barges, and other working craft of the world's estuaries, at 8 PM, Kittery Naval and Historical Museum, in Kittery, Maine. For more information, contributions, or Speakers Bureau: Piscataqua Gundalow Project, PO Box 1303, Portsmouth NH 03801. The Peabody Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, houses a unique service for serious cruising yachtsmen, provided by the Cruising Information Center. Sponsored and run by the Cruising Club of America, the Center in the past two years has gathered information in depth in such areas as weather, winds, customs regulations, port facilities, and "delicate political situations," all over the world. Fees, on an individual contract basis, range from $50 to $150 or more for longer cruises. Most work is done by mail, but the office is open to stop by Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings. Cruising Information Center, Peabody Museum, 161 Essex street, Salem MA 01970. Tel. (617) 745-1876.
The sparkling summer skies of Seattle smiled down on new piece of sea history revival as July turned to August over Puget Sound. I was fortunate enough, along with the rest of the musical X Seamen's Institute, to have been invited to join in a solid week of sea-song along the Seattle waterfront, to welcome ships and sailors of the American Sail Training Association's Tall Ships Pacific. And the company of English singer Lou Killen and the legendary Stan Hugill, the last living true chanteyman and researcher of most of what is known about chanteys today, made the week unforgettable. As a member of a New York chanteying crew, I have tended to view the musical sea tradition as a rather small pond. My trip to Seattle certainly changed my view-and far for the better. Greeting the majestic US Coast Guard's training bark Eagle as she sailed down the sound from Vancouver, accompanied by a fleet of smaller square-riggers, yachts and wooden fishing vessels, was an international host of chantey singers, gathered from across the nation and across the sea to join in the choruses of the songs of a not-so-by-gone age. The following week saw dozens of concerts and workshops with Stan Hugill, Lou Killen, Utah Phillips, the X, and other local and West Coast singers that filled in a kaleidescope of sea music, from soulful forebitters to rousing capstan and halyard chanteys, focussing on the many different aspects of work, history, and sea experience reflected by the songs of the tall ships. After a week spent singing and sailing in the matchless Northwest air and sea, we all came away with a feeling that sea music is a stillgrowing and living tradition-and we and the thousands in our audiences had shared a very special time together. It is a tradition that will continue to grow, as festival organizers David Baumgarten and Clark Bramson plan to repeat the affair next year, this time in coordination with an East Coast chantey festival put together by Bernie Klay of the X Seamen's Institute. Individuals and organizations who would like to join in should write to Sea History-the sooner it gets under way, the better. Watch for an album of this unique festival as well, scheduled for release after Christmas, a chronicle of a true first in living sea history. .t 37