paign. Our idea is to establish her in a permanent basin afloat and to restore her rig and gear as a sealer-a tribute (there is nothing anywhere at all) to an important and totally vanished marine industry of this area. To restore her to the aspect of a sealing schooner is going to be interesting. I have just located one-there may be more-photo of her in operation as a seal-hunter and I have been in touch with a very elderly but still lively newspaperman who was on her in her last years as a sealer. She passed out of the sealing fleet in 1906! Historically, Victoria was the site of the sealing industry in the latter part of the 19th century. We will therefore be seeking some sort of joint association with Victoria to make the restoration of the Thomas F. Bayard not just exclusively Vancouver's but a provincial effort. There ¡is nothing else like the Bayard around. Our history here is pretty short-a bare hundred years-and the lack of interest in holding on to any aspect of it is dismaying. There is a small groundswell of enthusiasm; but it moves so slowly and has to counter such general apathy that by the time an official action or reaction can be obtained, the object of interest will have disappeared, permanently. So we had to-and did-move quickly. We now own the Thomas F. Bayard and need all the help that we can get. LEONARD G. McCANN Curator Vancouver Maritime Museum Kind Hearts, Remember Coronet! To the Editor: I've been gathering information about the schooner Coronet, once of Brooklyn, hoping to publish her complete history. Shouldn't she have been in your 'Schooners Old and New" (SH 1I)? You may be aware of her origin at Poillon's in Brooklyn, 1885, and of her pilot boat design. It's also noteworthy that she has had quite a reputation as a world-wide cruiser and a marvelous boat in heavy weather. No stranger to Cape Horn, she twice sailed around the world and is now probably the oldest registered yacht in the US. She has earned herself a place of honor in yachting history. My approval of NMHS goals, your excellent magazine, and especially the Ship Trust is unbounded. Ever since becoming aware of your activities, I've been asking myself what place vessels like Coronet fill in our marine heritage? She didn't raise money for her owners, SEA HISTORY, FALL 1978
but in my judgment she has made maritime history, and should be saved as the last living representative of the great sailing yachts of the last century. Currently she is berthed in Gloucester. While her former glory is sadly dimmed on deck, below a good portion is still extant. Any readers who know more of her history, especially between 1885 and 1905, are enthusiastically invited to contact me at Box 188, Dublin, NH 03444. I know too little about these years; her story from 1905 , on is much more accessible to me . Carry on your excellent work, and God bless the Ship Trust. TIMOTHY T. MURRAY Dublin, New Hamsphire
"Schooners Old and New" listed boats carrying passengers for hire in New England waters-as we should have made clearer! Coronet, not the oldest yacht in the US (a Lawley yawl of 1880 holds that distinction), is the only big sailing yacht from before the great age of steam, and at 133" overall (123" on the waterline), spreading 8305 square feet of canvas, was for a time the largest sailing yacht in the New York Yacht Club fleet. Her owner Arthur Curtis
James wrote a book on her, Coronet Memories (London, NY & Chicago, F. Tennyson Neely, 1899) and there's a book on her voyage to Japan to photograph the eclipse of August 19, 1896, Corona and Coronet (Boston & NY, Houghton Mifflin, 1898). Her later career as missionary schooner took her to the earth's far corners and she still continues in that service in semi-retirement today. She should be kept in life and her full story told!-JOHN A. FRIEMAN. Keeping Liberties Alive To the Editor: Malcolm Wilson states in his letter on Liberty Ships that the rigidity of her allwelded construction was the cause of the John Corrie's breaking "just aft of #3 hold". He's wrong in both statements. The "hold" being the bottom cargo space in the hull, if she'd broken there, she'd never have made any port, so he must mean abaft #3 hatch, which is on the main deck . While a few did rupture just forward of the house, most of the crack-aparts occured aft of the house, in the area of #4 hatch. The break would run across the deck on one or both sides, (continued on page JO)
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