Sea History 016 - Winter 1979-1980

The Beefeater Hour

The Beefeater"' Hour: It usually comes When the sun retreats to the West And the din goes still, and the wheels start to slow, And the day comes at last to rest. ~

The Beefeater Hour: It's more than a time.

It's an island in the day.

Where you leave the roar of the crowd behind And the clamor all ebbs away. ~

The Beefeater Hour: The world stops here.

For this is the time and the place.

To get off the world and just settle back, Till a smile can reclaim your face.

~ The talk should be whimsy, and banter, and play.

This is no time to be sour.

And Serious Subjects are left behind When you come to the Beefeater Hour. ~

The gin, to be sure, must be Beefeater Gin; The perfectionists make a rul e Of never accepting a lesser gin Than the one that they call The Jewel. ~ Will you have a Martini? Then pour it forth From a pitcher that's lightly glossed By chilling it cold till you hale it out And it blooms with a silver frost.

~ The vermouth (just a touch! ). Then the ice cubes come With the rattle of frozen dice.

And now for the gin! Pour the Beefeater in!

Watch it smoke as it meets the ice! ~

Or what about tonic? To make gin and tonic That nobody can surpass, Begin with the ice cubes smartly stacked Like a Stonehenge cased in glass. ~

Then pour in the Beefeater! Crown Jewel of England!

Gin from the start endowed With clarity! Brilliance! A flawl ess gin!

A masterful gin , and proud . ~

If you linger awhile with this singular gin From the precincts of London Tower Well, nobody said that the Beefeater Hour Has to last only an hour. ÂŽ

BEEFEATER GIN. The Crown Jewel of England.

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No. 16 OFFICIAL

JOURNAL

OF

THE

WORLD

WINTER 1980 SHIP TRUST

CONTENTS 6 LETTERS 9 THE WORLD SHIP TRUST ESTABLISHED, Peter Stanford 11 "GHOSTS OF CAPE HORN" OBSERVED, Walter Cronkite 12 RECONSTRUCTING HMS WARRIOR, Vice-Adm. Sir Patrick Bayly 16 THE BELEM RETURNS TO FRANCE, Erik C. Abranson 19 WAS AN AMERICAN CHINA TRADER WRECKED OFF THE AUSTRALIAN COAST?, Graeme Henderson 21 COMING UP TO SPEED WITH THE MERCHANT MARINE TODAY 21

THE GOAL: RESURGENCE IN THE 1980s, C. Wm. Neuhauser

23

NATIONAL HONOR TARNISHED, Rep. John M. Murphy

24 THE THOMAS W. LAWSON, Simon Watts 28 OLD SALTS DO NOT LOSE THEIR SAVOR, Erik C. Abranson 29 THE JOHN F. LEA VITT, Capt. Francis E. Bowker 33 TRADE WINDS, Michael Gillen 34 SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS 35

DO SOMETHING FOR THE SHIP, Irving Johnson

36

THE ROSE: WILL SHE OR WON'T SHE?

38 BOOKS 45 MARINE ART: ASMA's SECOND ANNUAL EXHIBITION, Peter Sorlien 50

ASMA News, Peter Rogers

SEA HISTORY is the journal of the National Maritime Historical Society, an educational, tax-exempt membership organization devoted to furthering the understanding of our maritime heritage. Copyright © 1980 by the National Maritime Historical Society.

OFFICE: 2 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY 11201.

Telephone: 212-858-1348.

MEMBERSHIP is invited and should be sent to the Brooklyn office: Sponsor, $1,000; Patron, $100; Family, $20; Regular, $15; Student or Retired, $7.50.

CONTRIBUTIONS may be made for any recognized project. Make out checks'' NMHSShip Trust," indicating on the check the project to which you wish support to be directed.

OFFICERS & TRUSTEES are Chairman: Admiral John M. Will, USN (ret.); President: Peter Stanford; Vice Presidents: Karl Kortum, John Thurman; Secretary: Alan G. Choate; Treasurer: F. Briggs Dalzell; Trustees: Frank 0. Braynard , Norman J. Brouwer, Robert Carl, Alan G. Choate, F. Briggs Dalzell, Harold D. Huycke, Barbara Johnson, James F. Kirk, Karl Kortum, Edward J . Pierso n, Kenneth D. Reynard, Walter F. Schlech, Jr., Howard Slotnick,

Peter Stanford, John N. Thurman, Shannon Wall, Barclay H . Warburton III , John M. Will, Charles Wittholz; President Emeritus: Alan D . Hutchinson .

ADVISORS: Chairman: Frank 0. Braynard; Oswald L. Brett, George Campbell, Frank G. G. Carr, Harry Dring, Joseph L. Farr, Timothy G. Foote, Richard Goold-Adams, Robert G. Herbert, Melvin H. Jackson, R. C .

Jefferson, Irving M. Johnson, John Kemble, Clifford Lord, Conrad Milster, John Noble, Capt. David E. Perkins, USCG (ret.), Ralph L. Snow, John Stobart, Albert Swanson, Peter Throckmorton, Alan Villiers, Robert A. Weinstein,Alen York.

SHIP TRUST COMMITTEE: International Chairman, Frank Carr; Chairman, Peter Stanford; George Bass; Karl Kortum; Richard Rath ; Barclay H. Warburton, III; Senior Advisor, Irving M. Johnson .

SEA HISTORY STAFF Editor, Peter Stanford; Managing Editor, Norma Stanford; Associate Editors, Norman J. Brouwer, Francis J. Duffy, Michael Gillen, Ray Heitzmann, Ted Miles, Naomi Person, Albert Swanson; Advertising & Circulation Director, Charles E.A. Muldaur, Accounting, Jo Meisner; Membership, Marie Lore.

Editor's Log In this issue we announce the World Ship Trust, formed at last. This undertaking, mounted by good souls and willing hearts, will not change our world overnight. But our world will be different henceforth: for ourselves we pledge the utmost in service we can render to this cause.

In this issue we also undertake to bring ourselves up to speed with the condition of seafaring today-a promise long deferred which we pledge also to pursue, in the view that history is not an attic for relics of the past, but the sweep of man's experience across generations-including our own.

If we had one message for the Ship Trust as it now begins its voyage into time, it would be one our cover painting, by the late .Anton Otto Fischer, well expresses: "We will not abandon you." We must never forget lost seamen, lost ships, the lost battles on which all later progress rests. A nation, or even a Society, that does so soon loses purpose, and all else besides.

* * * * *

Fischer's painting was one we had long promised ourselves to run. We saw it first in Katrina Fischer's superb biography of her father (available from NMHS for $45). She noted, among many responses to the publication of this work, one from a doctor in Germany who collected ship's portraits. "He had come across my book and immediately made the connection with a little watercolor of the Gwydyr Castle signed 'Otto Fischer' he had acquired three years before from the son of a German sea Captain who died in 1965.

The captain's name was Paul Bergholz -and in my father's book Focs'le Days, 'Bergholz' was the name of 'the other German' who signed on the Gwydyr Castle with him in Hamburg in 1901." The little picture is reproduced at the head of this column, a teenage work Fischer later forgot: the deep blue sea, the white sai ls and bright flags signal the beginning of a long voyage, which in this artist's lifework, proved rewarding to us all. PS

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

LETTERS

A Very Real Replica

I have a stereo slide showing what appears to be a replica of Robert Fulton's Clermont, with the Day Liner Albany in the background. Who built the replica, and what became of it?

JOHN G. SCHUMITSCH USS Constitution Boston, Massachusetts She was built at the Staten Island Shipbuilding Co. for the Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909 in which she took part. Alexander Crosby Brown, in an article in American Neptune (April 1954) notes that she was a very real replica, including a facsimile of the Bolton and Watt English steam engine. Given to the Day Line, she was exhibited at Kingston but gradually went to pieces. In 1936 her engine was given to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. -ED. Look for Water!

As a boy, I walked the abandoned Coney Island Railroad tracks to Sheepshead Bay, to watch the fishing boats come in.

Later I remember wandering the dark docks of Manhattan, daylong, ending up at the ship museum in the Seamen's Church Institute.

I went on to sail in everything in sight, from an Alaskan whaling boat converted into a Yugoslav freighter, to the Queens.

The seamanship of the ancient Chinese interests me, and I am interested that our anthropologists and other collectors of dirty bones, being landlocked souls, see our past history in such a landlocked way. To me, if you want to learn of ancient man, as Leakey said in Africa, you look for water.

ST AN STEINER Sante Fe, New Mexico Mr. Steiner's enthralling article on Chinese navigation in a recent issue of Natural History leads us to hope he will pursue his thought to the reward of us all.-ED. 6

Keeping Off the Shoals

"More than One or Two Square Riggers"

Having lost my first command to the financial shoals, being ashore idle and itching for almost seven months, I've had the good luck to go as First Officer of Matson Navigation Company's SS Hawaiian Citizen. As I set these lines down, we are homebound from Honolulu, expecting to make our landfall on the Columbia River bar in less than twelve hours (see Ship Notes).

I've felt let down to hear of the Society's financial setbacks, and missed last spring's SEA HISTORY, which you had to skip.

I've perked up on seeing the growth of your list of patrons and sponsors. Surely more should come in as sponsors! I'll do my bit.

From the Nit-Picking Department: in SH 14, the Peggy Stewart is described as a brigantine, and so mentioned in the contemporary newspaper account quoted in C.E. Atwater's article on her burning in 1774. But Richard Schech paints her as a brig, most likely a snow, it being the years of the Revolution, and Melbourne Smith's rigged model shows her the same.

Capt. PAUL R. HENRY Portland, Oregon A brigantine was sometines defined as a vessel square rigged on both masts but carrying a big spanker and no main course.

That was the rig adopted in Melbourne Smith's model, from designs by Thomas Gillmer, showing a vessel typical of her time and region, with hull lines somewhat finer than her British contemporaries. Let us apologize here for misspelling Richard Schech as " Schlech" in crediting his fine painting in SH 14. Finally, let us salute Captain Henry for becoming a Sponsor twice over in 1979, sending twice his usual generous contribution to keep our Society -ED. offthefinancialshoals!

We too are more concerned with seamanship than grantsmanship, and regret that no National Trust grant went to the' 'three historic square riggers" mentioned in your Editor's Log, SH 15 . While Young America is a relatively new ship, her sailing "keeps alive an utterly vital experience" for thousands of people.

During July and August last year more than 5,000 people went daysailing in

"Make Way for a Sailor"

Archie Horka hadthe unusual talent, based on his first-hand experience, to "tell it like it was" without some of the romantic embellishments we have become familiar with. I believe his version of sea life is the most interesting of all! Perhaps further efforts could be made to gather his writing -it would make a unique record of American seafaring in his period.

G.B . CHARLES Orleans, Maine The National Society hopes to publish Captain Horka 's journals, and is gathering comment and memories of Archie from letters received in connection with Os Brett's appreciation of his life in SH 15.

-ED.

Young America from Gardner's Basin. In the course of a year thousands more will sail in her for a few hours or a day, and several hundred young people participate in sail training programs of one or two weeks' duration.

When the Tall Ships gather in Boston in a few months, I hope that there will be more than one or two American-flag square riggers there.

PETER VANADIA Executive Director Young America Marine Education Society Atlantic City, New Jersey

To Brighten a Horizon

In 1850 a Baltimore schooner was the first ship we know ofto enter Humboldt Bay. It would be nice to bring the Pride of Baltimore up the coast and have the sails of a Baltimore schooner brighten the horizon, as they did when these vessels moved people and supplies up and down the Pacific Coast.

RAYGLAVICH Eureka, California To this Thomas French Norton, Director of Operation Sail (Baltimore) responds: "The 'Baltimore schooner' that sailed into Humboldt Bay in 1850 was not a Baltimore clipper, although a number of the type did sail to Spanish California in the early 1800s. Indeed, one was commanded by the chap who had been Captain Boyle's first officer in Chasseur, which earned the nickname 'Pride of Baltimore' in the War of 1812. " He adds that he too looks forward to seeing Pride come into Humboldt Bay one day. -ED. SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

The Lake of Geneva Boat I was interested to see Stanley Gerr's letter and photo (SH 14:4) about the Lake of Geneva boat. As far as I know, this type of craft was always referred to simply as a "barque du Leman", that is, a Lake of Geneva boat, Lac Leman being the French name for that lake. Whilst I agree with Mr. Gerr's comments about the hull, I do.not think he's correct regarding the original rig.

I have in my collection a number of old

siderable thanks for his many efforts, but his position in this great endeavor is the result of the far-sighted efforts of John Paul Gaido and his many fine associates in the Galveston Historical Foundation.

GARY ROGER DRUSS President, Galveston Island Hotel-Motel Ass'n Galveston, Texas We agree, and regret any accidental understatement ofMr. Gaido 's role in saving and restoring the Elissa.-ED.

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post-cards dating from the period 1900-1914 which show these craftworking, and at least six of these show ajib rigged in addition to the two Iateen sails.

Comparing the various photos and endeavouring to assess size in relation to the figures seen aboard, it looks as though in general it was the larger craft which carr~ed a jib.

I imagine that the vessel in Mr. Gerr's photo is the Neptune, which is preserved at Geneva as an active museum ship. She was, I believe, built in 1904 and was working under motor until 1968, since when she has been painstakingly restored.

RICKHOGBEN London, England Saving Elissa Today ...

Although the Fall SEA HISTORY was a little late, no periodical was ever more worth waiting for. What a magnificent job you people did on our Elissa! As a plank owner who has bought one of the 300 prime Douglas fir planks for Elissa's new deck, I am keeping in close touch with the progress or restoration through Don Birkholz, rigging gang bosun. I am sure I speak for all of us down here in expressing our warmest thanks.

PHILIP FRANCIS Galveston, Texas Michael Creamer's article on¡ the Elissa understates John Paul Gaido's role in the bark's return to Galveston. Mr. Gaido didn't just talk about the ship, he spent long hours away from his family and his business raising funds for her. He was also the largest private contributor to the fund to tow her across from Greece, and is to date the largest contributor to the vessel's restoration. Mr. Creamer deserves conSEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

. .. and Elvira Many Years Ago My father, William A. Trew, was chief mate of the Elvira, Elissa's near-sister, in the stormy voyage described by A.B. Harper in SH 15. Mr. Harper must be the Alan Harper who was the second mate.

My father thought highly of Mr. Harper and named his first-born child Alan. I recall my father telling me of the passage to Galway during which so many sails were lost that it was necessary to use some triangular sails to replace the square sails.

Mr. Harper left the sea and became a clergyman. He visited my parents some fifty years ago. Both my grandfathers and my father were masters in sail, but I was only a master of steamships.

Capt. S.H. TREW Lakewood, New Jersey

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Every issue of SEA HISTORY takes you on a voyage of discovery in the wide world of our seafari ng heritagea voyage full of challenge and reward.

Sign on today ... and help keep alive the ships, disciplines and arts of our voyaging pastand stay in touch with others who care.

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7

Photo: James Dion

Molding of C harles Cooper stem carving

Americans gave the best they had to sail ships like the Charles Cooper, a hundred years and more ago-ships that brought the new nation its wealth and its people.

In the remote Falkland Islands off Cape Horn, the National Maritime Historical Society is working today with the newly formed World Ship Trust, to recover ships and artifacts from that proud era when men sang at their work and showed the pride they felt in their ships. The replica of the stern carving of the Charles Cooper is part of that effort.

Dow Corning Corporation is proud to have contributed to this restoration by providing the silicone materials to make the molds of this unique decoration.

Dow Corning is also proud to sponsor of the film "Ghosts of Cape Horn," which tells the story of man's endeavor to round the stormy cape at the tip of South America, in the worst corner of the world ocean. The film will be shown later this year on national television. Information and copies of the stern replica or film are available through the National Maritime Historical Society at 2 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY 11201.

DOW CORNING 1+11+J.i¡l!.'i

Young sea dreamers aboard the Vicar of Bray, last surviving ship of the California Gold Rush of 1849, now in the Falkland Islands. Photo: Karl Kortum.

The World Ship Trust Established

By Peter Stanford Many roads join at the crossroads marked by the founding of the World Ship Trust, whose charter was signed by six trustees on December29, 1979. For Frank G.G. Carr, chairman of the World Ship Trust Project Action Group, the road perhaps began in 1949, when he watched the scuttling of HMS Implacable, the last two-deck ship of the line in the world, captured from the French at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. He resolved then to see HMS Warrior saved; a project well begun 30 years later, as reported in the following pages.* Readers of SEA HISTORY will have followed the ecumenical and outreaching style of the ship-saving movement as reported in these pages. For each member the road begins in a different place: but in the idea of service to the ship, and the arts and disciplines man has brought to her service, all roads come together.

Tht leading purpose of the World Ship Trust, as expressed in its charter, centers properly on the ship herself: "To advance the education of the public by the preservation and display ofsuch surviving historic ships and other craft as have either individually or as being representative of a type played a significant part in the history of mankind.... " The charter then outlines a spectrum of activities for the Ship Trust, beginning with the compilation of an international register of historic vessels, and an archive of recovery and restoration methods. Your Society is now completing a compendium of Norman Brouwer's historic ship lists, published piecemeal in SEA HISTORY and widely discussed and annotated over the past decade. We are also completing an initial catalog of ship restoration information sources in the United States, funded in part by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in this country.

These may be a first contribution from the US chapter to the World Ship Trust.

Publication, discussion, educational programs and funding for projects including an emergency fund for immediately imperilled ships, are embraced in the Ship Trust charter, which picks up the program outlined in Frank Carr's "Toward a World Ship Trust,'' published three years ago in SH 7 to launch discussion toward the SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

foundation now achieved .

The founding Trustees of the World Ship Trust are: Erik Abranson, President of Mariners International; Frank Carr, former director of England's National Maritime Museum; Maldwin Drummond, Chairman of the Maritime Trust of Great Britain; James A. Forsythe, President of the Norfolk Wherry Trust: Philip Green of Cornwall; and myself representing the Ship Trust Committee of this Society.

More will be heard on their deliberations at a first meeting, about to be scheduled as we go to press. The style of the undertaking is one of open discourse and the definition of truth offered once by H.G . Wells-that it is a thing best developed not in private conclaves but in what becomes "widely and generally known ."

* * * * * The saving and return to San Francisco of the last surviving ship of the fleet that built the city of San Francisco in the Gold Rush of 1849, the Vicar of Bray, has been proposed by the World Ship Trust Project Action Group as the first priority project for the Trust. Given to our Society in trust for the American people by the Falkland Islands Company, she has been surveyed and found fit to move. She is shown at the head of this report as she lies in the Falklands, with children embarked in her on their own voyage.

Youth and an old ship the world had forgotten may be as good a way as any to introduce the founding of the World Ship Trust. For it is a young and vital idea that we should share in the lives of people before our time, and come to see our lives in a continuing story with theirs. Respect, affection, and a dedication to the developing purposes of man's voyaging through time-purposes expressed in our ships as perhaps in no other handiwork of man-are not excess baggage but needed on the voyage. JJ

*Frank Carr's career embodies much of !he concerns of !he ship saving movement. An apprecialion of it, published on his visil to the US in 1974, "Take Good Care of Her Mister," is available from the Society for $1 .50.

9

A distinguished American views a long-awaited film on the Ship Trust heritage

'GHOSTS OF CAPE HORN' OBSERVED

By Walter Cronkite The Duchess of Albany.found by the "Ghosts of Cape Horn "film crew just north of Slaten Island on !he Argenline mainland, Sep/ember 28, 1979. Nikon pholo by Jesper Sorensen.

We've all watched the films of seafaring in the age of sail which live on in late-night TV screenings. I confess I enjoy them!

Who amongst us will speak against John Huston's magnificient "Moby Dick"?

Who has not prized some of the seafaring scenes of the movie made from James Michener's epic Hawaii? Or has failed to be caught-up in scenes of the white-hulled Kiiulani slipping through the frames of that wretched potboiler, "Souls at Sea"?

There is some good stuff around, stuff worth turning out for, to those who follow the sea and man's great adventure in sailing it.

But put on your body-and-soul lashings and prepare for something different in "Ghosts of Cape Horn."

This is the true wine from man's greatest sea adventure, the endeavor to get round Cape Horn under sail.

You have to look at the face of the sea in a storm, Joseph Conrad told us, to know the age of the earth. That is how the film opens, in a Force 10 gale off the pitch of the Horn. You are confronting, as sailors had to, a primordial force from the world's beginnings. Before the story ends, you'll come to know well the ships and men who made this passage around that brooding headland at the tip of South America, westward into opposing winds and seas, in what Alan Villiers has called "The War with Cape Horn."

The story is carried in footage made on the decks of ships embroiled in the individual battles that made up that war of over 300 years' duration-including priceless film made by Villiers himself in the little full-rigger Joseph Conrad in the 1930s.

That redoubtable seafarer, my friend Captain Irving Johnson, contributed scenes from his famous film made abroad the big German bark Peking, in her Cape Horn trip of 1929, just over half a century ago.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

Much other first-hand testimony is gathered.

You'll see sails blown from their boltropes, seas coursing almost unhindered across the decks of deep-laden ships fighting not just to survive but to make progress-make westing!-in scenes worked up not by movie moguls or media mavens but by the original designer of our planet.

How has Jam es Donaldson, the young producer of this film, handled his mission?

He chose well in his director, Keith Critchlow, and in all who touched this film. They show respect for the lives and deaths of valiant, fallible ships and men committed to battle with the sea. This shows in little things, as well as the ultimate confrontations, in vignettes of a captain spearing fish in easy Trade Wind sailing as his teenaged crew looks on, of sailors picking over rotten potatoes to see which go to fatten the pig (carried in a sty on deck) and which to the lobscouse dinner.

We go to the roots of the story, in scenes of wooden shipbuilding in the snowy Down East winter. Tall pines fall in the forest. Obdurate oak crooks are shaped to natural knees, to take the stress of traveling in earth's harshest interface, between sea and sky. We watch the hands that do this work and see the faces of the men. We see what the ships achieved, in building the city of San Francisco from a sleepy Mexican hamlet to a world seaport and metropolis, almost overnight, during the California Gold Rush.

And "Ghosts of Cape Horn" carries on this same, close-up exploration of real scenes and real crews, to follow the work of people who seek the learning of the great adventure, from archaeologists at work on the hulls of Cape Horn ships in the Falkland Islands (where the bow of the last American clipper ship still confronts

the sea) to young people learning to build to old disciplines in the Apprenticeshop at Bath, Maine-and to people sailing such ships as Unicorn, Gaze/a, and Pride of Baltimore today.

The original concept of this unique film grew, I understand, from the work of Peter Throckmorton, Curator-at-Large of the National Maritime Historical Society, on the Falkland Islands hulls. Like the historic ships movement itself, the film grew from that concern with the relics of our voyaging past, to embrace the whole living heritage left us by sailors before our time. That heritage is a growing one, as new ships like the Pride of Baltimore are launched, as new songs like Gordon Lightfoot's "Ghosts of Cape Horn," written for this film, are sung.

The work is unique, and uniquely rooted in scholarship and the experience of sailormen alive today. Alan Villiers' and Irving Johnson's roles have been mentioned. Frank Carr, savior of England's Cutty Sark and Chairman of the World Ship Trust headquartered in London, Karl Kortum, Chief Curator of the National Maritime Museum at San Francisco, Peter Stanford, President of the National Maritime Historical Society and Chairman of the US Chapter of the World Ship Trust, are among seamen and scholars involved in its making, as well as in bringing about some of the latter-day scenes it records.

For all of us who follow the sea, "Ghosts of Cape Horn" is an open doorway to a vital heritage of man. Cross its threshold, and the world of ships and seafaring will never look the same!

www

Mr. Cronkite, amateur sailor and follower of the sea, is a newscaster for CBS-TV. He is a member of the Maritime Preservation Commi11ee of the National Trust for Hisloric Preservation.

11

The world's greatest warship of her day srirs with life, leaving Milford Haven on a hazy summer day to undergo resroration. Photo, Royal Navy.

Reconstructing HMS Warrior

By Vice-Admiral Sir Patrick Bayly, Director, The Maritime Trust of Great Britain In June Britain's Maritime Trust announced its most ambitious venture yet in the continuing task of preserving historic ships: the reconstruction of HMS Warrior.

The Warrior of 1860, the second ship of the name in the Royal Navy, does not immediately invoke a romantic image in the public mind, as do the Victory or the Cutty ¡Sark. But in one respect at least she is much more important than either. The Victory and Cutty Sark are rightly revered for their romantic stories but in their time there were dozens of ships like them and their construction marked no turning point in history. On the other hand, the coming of the iron Warrior and her sister ship the Black Prince put the Royal Navy and the navies of the world on to a completely new and more formidable plane.

For two centuries there had been no radical departures in the construction of large warships. In 1858 the wooden first rate three deckers still bore a striking resemblance to the Victory of 1758. They were bigger and had elementary steam engines with screw propulsion, but depended mainly on their full set of sails.

The men who had fought at Trafalgar would have been quite at home in the new HMS Victoria.

The wooden fighting ship had reached its limit in size and effectiveness. The 12

heavy batteries of guns and the weight of the steam machinery taxed the timber structure to its uttermost, whilst the vibration of the engine and the propellor shook the fastenings and the rigging and reduced the life of the ship. Also, new explosive shells could play havoc with wooden walls.

The impetus for change came from France where, in 1857, they stopped constructing wooden ships of the line and, in 1859, there appeared a ship, still with a wood hull, but with her guns on one deck and armoured from end to end with 4Yi inches of iron. This was La Gloire and her arrival provoked a ferment of activity. At the time there was a high degree of tension between Great Britain and France, as evidenced to this day by the enormous forts on Portsdown behind Portsmouth and elsewhere. The supremacy of the Royal Navy was being challenged and this was not to be tolerated.

The Iron Navy A year earlier, the Admiralty had given tentative consideration to armoured ships -but on the appearance of La Gloire and her sister ships, the reaction was immediate and spectacular. The Warrior and Black Prince, made of iron throughout, and bigger than any other warship, were an entirely new concept which, at a stroke, consigned to oblivion hundred of years of

wooden warship building.

Big iron merchant ships had been known since the Great Britain was built in 1843; but for warships there was ¡a serious difficulty. Six iron frigates were tested in 1850 and it was found that the best metal was so brittle that a shot broke it into lethal slivers, so that men might just as well have been behind plate glass. However, during the next ten years, improved iron in thicker plates proved capable of stopping shot, as was demonstrated in floating batteries during the Crimean War. To carry extensive armour plate above the waterline posed new questions of strength, stability and buoyancy. These could be achieved in a long, low, iron hull quite different from the three deckers. The experience of the Roy! Dockyards in building ships was minimal and the two monsters were built by contract, the Warrior at Thames Ironworks on Bow Creek and the Black Prince at Napiers on the Clyde.

From the outset, they aroused furious controversy and avid interest, and the Admiralty received quantities of unsolicited advice. Designs were submitted by fourteen shipbuilders but in the end the official design, by the Chief Constructor Isaac Watts, was accepted. The two ships were nearly identical, so a description of the Warrior will suffice for both.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

Warrior Laid down: 25th May, 1859.

Launched 29th December, 1860.

Completed: 24th October, 1861.

Cost ÂŁ 377 ,292.

Dimensions: 380 ft. waterline, 418 ft. overall, 58 V2 ft. beam, 26 ft. draught.

Displacement: 9,2JO tons.

Machinery: Horizontal trunk engine, single expansion (Penn). Nominal HP 1250, 2 cyl., 112 ins. bore, 52 ins. stroke. Boilers, JO rectangular, 20 lb . pressure. Propellor, 2 blade, 23 Yi ft. diameter, hoistable.

Rig: Full-rigged ship.

Armour: 4 Yi ins. iron with 18 ins . teak backing over 208 ft. on each side; with 4 Yi ins. iron bulkheads at ends.

Speed: Under steam on trials, 14.08 knots (54 rpm). Under sail and steam, 16.30 knots.

Guns: 1860 1867 26 68 pdr ML 28 7 in. ML rifled JO I JO pdr BL 4 8 in . ML rifled 4 70 pdr BL 4 20 pdr BL The Warrior and the Black Prince were the marvels of the age and bare statistics can give little impression of what the excitement was all about. At the time, the idea of a ship with her guns and crews behind invulnerable armour, with greater speed than any other warship afloat, and with watertight compartmentation (impossible in wooden ships), sufficient to keep her aloat if the unarmoured ends of her hull were damaged, was a revelation.

She was new and different and totally outclassed La Gloire. In fact, it was said that the Warrior and the Black Prince

could have sunk the whole French Channel fleet.

It was not to be expected that the designer would get everything right first time. The ships were bow-heavy and "snouted up the Atlantic" where later ships sailed over the waves. Their gracefully shaped bows were in the tradition of sailing ships but had no useful function and nor did the big figureheads. In sailing ship tradition, they had seven foot high wood bulwarks of no practical use. Steering from a hand wheel with no power assistance was difficult. Also the massive anchors had to be weighed by hand capstan. The ships were slow to manoeuvre and at close quarters were as much a menace to their consorts as to the enemy.

The ten ton propellor was the largest ever made for a warship. To improve sailing performance it could be hoisted into a trunk above the waterline and we may be sure that this was done frequently, even though it required 600 men to haul on the tackles.

Later in her career, steam steering and a steam capstan were fitted but of course there was no such thing as electric power.

The only lighting in the cavernous interior of the ship was by oil lamps and candles.

Most of the guns were on the broadside, behind the armour belt, looking through gun ports . The crew also lived on this deck in "broadside messes," between the guns.

A scrubbed mess table and benches, a rack for mess utensils, a stowage for kit bags and another for hammocks was home for ten or twelve sailors for up to four years.

The ship's cooks had a coal fired galley range, but the food was prepared by "the

cooks of the mess .'' Two sailors from each mess were detailed off daily to do their best with the rations provided by the supply department. The results must often have been appalling, but the same arrangement for messing (with better ingredients, of course) persisted in the Royal Navy until after the Second World War. The officers lived aft, one deck further down, on the orlop deck, where they had a wardroom and cabins. The Captain, with a day cabin and a sleeping cabin, lived right in the stern of the ship.

The guns, both originally and when rearmed in 1867, were mostly muzzle loaders. Breech loaders were quite rightly distrusted and rifled muzzle loaders firing explosive shells, were much more effective, though with little greater range than the guns of the Victory.

The Channel Squadron

On commissioning at Portsmouth in August 1861, the Warrior joined the Channel Squadron. She and the Black Prince were the two most powerful ships in the world for several years and also the fastest warships. They were firm favourites with the Illustrated London News and with the public on Southsea Common and Plymouth Hoe. The Warrior served in the Channel Squadron until 1864 and then both ships went into refit until 1867. The only potential enemy was France and neither strayed very far from home. The Warrior's proudest moment came when, in 1863, she escorted the Royal Yacht with Princess Alexandra of Denmark on her voyage to England to marry the future King Edward VII. Re-armed, she rejoined the Fleet in 1867

Thenew andformidable Warrior lying at Plymouth before 1864 with the wooden two-decker Im placable. The scuttling of the Implacab le 85 years later in 1949 (SH 7: 17) hardened the resolve of Frank Carr and others to establish the Maritime Trust of Great Britain, achieved in 1969, and the World Ship Trust in 1980. Ph oto, Imperial War Museum.

t

No wonder Napoleon 111 called her "the black snake among the rabbits." Four-and-a-half inch armor, hung on rhe flanks of a traditionally shaped hull make rhe W arri or an incredibly dangerous weapon. She could kill with virrual impuniry and steam through one of rhe wooden fleets of her day leaving kindling in her wake. Her huge engines, driving a 23 !Ii fo ol wheel lo produce 14 !12 knots, are specially designed to hunch down below the waterline immune lo shellfire.

'Courtesy, South Street Seaport Museum.

for a further four years. In 1869 both ships, in tandem, took part in the tow of a big floating dock to Bermuda, the biggest such operation undertaken up to that time.

In 1872, she paid off for a further refit and, in 1875, became the guard ship of the Portland coastal district. In 1881 , she went to the Clyde as RNR drill ship and, in 1884, went into the Fleet Reserve.

The Warrior remained in reserve until 1900 when she was dismantled and moored at Portsmouth as part of the torpedo school, HMS Vernon. Her she stayed until 1928 when she was towed to Pembroke Dock to serve for the next 51 years as a floating pontoon attached to the Llanion oil fuel depot. Her sister ship had already gone to the breakers in 1923.

The Pax Britannica The Warrior's career contained no glorious episodes but she fulfilled her purpose. How real the French threat was which precipitated her building no-one can say, but four French ironclads were built and many more programmed before Britain had a single one. The arrival of the Warrior, vastly superior to her opponents, put the French smartly back in their place.

The Pax Britannica was maintained or, in modern terminology, the deterrent had worked . There was no war so the Warrior was never in action.

The rapid advance of nineteenth cen14

tury technology left the Warrior design behind but she can truthfully claim to be the most important and influential warship built in the nineteenth century. She set utterly new standards in size, strength, speed and gun power, which became the reference point for all future construction.

When she was launched, her designer remarked that her hull would last for a hundred years and so it has: for 120. At Pembroke Dock she was dry-docked every five years or so and her bottom coated with hot bitumen. Her masts, engines, guns and propellor have long gone, and the only equipment now on board is two Bellville boilers probably fitted in 1904. However, the state of her structure has always been the real surprise.

Wrought iron is little affected by sea water, and corrosion over the 120 years of her life has only been slight. Some of the armour plates are as smooth as the day they were put on . The last thicknesstesting of her hull, in 1964, indicated little reduction in the original 1860 scantlings.

New Life For The Old Ship In 1967, Mr. Frank Carr, of Cutty Sark fame, developed a plan to restore the Warrior and berth her at Thamesmead . In the event, the plan was ruled out by expense and other factors. When The Maritime Trust was formed in 1969, the Warrior was again studied, but the newly-formed

Trust had plenty to cut its teeth on without tackling a project of this size and, anyway, the Ministry of Defence still needed her.

In 1977, the Ministry announced that they would release her in 1978, free of charge, to a good home. The Maritime Trust and the London Borough of Newham , which embraces the site of the Bow Creek building yard, made submissions to the Ministry and, after lengthy deliberations, she was awarded to the Trust. On 29 August, she left Milford Haven for the last time in tow of the Alexandra Towing Company's tug Hendon, bound for Hartlepool. The condition of the hull was so good that she obtained a towage certificate without dry docking. However, divers scrubbed off the considerable animal and vegetable growth which had accumulated since her last docking in 1974. She arrived at Hartlepool on 3rd September after an uneventful tow and was placed in a berth specially dredged for her by Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons, in the old coal dock. Here The Maritime Trust intends to reconstruct the Warrior.

Before tackling the reconstruction of a large mid-nineteenth century ship, there are many factors to be considered. Perhaps the most important is finance . It is obvious that The Maritime Trust would not have gone ahead without an assurance of financial backing. This has been proSEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

vided by The Manifold Trust, a major grant-making charitable trust, which has promised to underwrite the full cost of restoration. This is a most extraordinarily generous offer, the like of which has probably never been equalled. But that is not to say that The Manifold Trust intends to pay all the bills. It expects The Maritime Trust to make every effort to raise money and to mobilise help from all quarters . However, it has met all the initial expenses. The total required remains uncertain but is expected to lie between £ 4 million and £ 8 million depending to a great extent on the time/ inflation equation and the method of working.

Hartlepool was chosen for a number of reasons, but first, there still exists in the ship building communities of the northeast, the variety of necessary traditional skills. It is also in a Special Development Area which attracts several forms of Government assistance. However, the determining factor is the presence of the firm Locomotion Enterprises (1975) Limited, based on Springwell, County Durham, which will be known to many readers as the builders of the Locomotion replica, and the more recent Rocket replica for the Science Museum.

Locomotion Enterprises, seeking a way to expand their activities, approached The

Maritime Trust and it was ultimately agreed that both should collaborate in the reconstruction of the Warrior. Various shipyards were looked at for a possible berth but all were ruled out as too large, too obsolete, too remote or too expensive.

It was finally decided, on grounds of economy and of developing public interest, that it would be best to set up a purpose-built facility in Hartlepool. The old coal dock is within five minutes walk of the High Street and is bounded by roads accessible to the public. There is vacant space around and the old Custom House was available for a refit headquarters . A small factory will be set up by Locomotion Enterprises which will carry out much of the fabrication needs. Here the ship will lie for the five years of her reconstruction, before moving to Portsmouth for final fitting out and berthing.

The Maritime Trust's intention is to return the ship as far as possible to her 1860 state, and then to put her on show as a prime example of the Victorian Navy, and of the extraordinary technical strength of the country in the mid-Victorian era. At Portsmouth, a berth is under consideration by The Maritime Trust and the City Council. It also has the support of the Portsmouth Royal Naval Museum who are very interested in the Victorian Navy.

The proposed berth is off The Hard, halfway between the Harbour Station and the Dockyard . In this position, a big fullrigged mid-Victorian ship will be a spectacular sight, in close juxtaposition to the mid-eighteenth century Victory and the mid-twentieth century modern navy.

The details of the final degree of restoration are not yet decided but it will at least include the rigging, the upper deck, the gun deck, with the officers' and crews' quarters and their equipment. A replica of the remarkable engine is also a possibility.

On Warrior's eventual departure from Hartlepool, Locomotion Enterprises plan to take over the facilities created and to develop a major national centre for the reconstuction of steam locomotives and rolling stock. This will ensure that the skills, machinery and employment which have been brought together will have a long term future.

**** *

This is a great project which will require much detailed study and a tremendous amount of organisation. It will also need massive support in both money and materials. Success will depend on the dedicated efforts of many people over a long period.

We are starting out hopefully in the expectation that the results will justify our efforts . .t

Sail on the Schooner

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Built in 1929 Reminder has been ski llfull y converted for hol iday cruising whilst maintaining her traditional ch aracter.

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28Spital Road, Maldon, Essex CM9 6EB United Kingdom

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

New London to Boston via the Cape Cod Canal.

To help celebrate the 350th anniversary of the City of Boston, the M.V. BLOCK ISLAND will sail from New London to Boston on Thursday, May 29, with the return trip on Saturday, May 31. Take advantage of a rare opportunity to travel this section of the New England coast by water.

On Friday, May 30 the BLOCK ISLAND will serve as a spectator boat for the great parade of Tall Ships entering Boston Harbor.

For further information write: The New England Steamship Co. · of Massachusetts, Inc. Dept. H, 51 South St. Berlin, MA 01503

15

The Winds of Change Usher in a Revival of Traditional Sail, as ...

The Belem Returns to France!

By Erik C. Abranson

On September 17, 1979, the barque Belem arrived under tow at Brest, in her home province of Brittany, after a long absence under foreign flags. She is now undergoing a refit estimated at $1,200,000 to make her into a sail training barque for the Ecole Navale (Naval Academy) at Brest. It is hoped that she will be commissioned in June 1980.

The Belem was built in steel at the Dubigeon yard at Nantes (a yard which built many of the French Cape Horn "birds") for the local shipowning company Dennis Crouan Fils & de Lagotellerie. Launched in 1896, she is 155 feet long overall, 26.8 in beam, and 13.9 depth of hold, net register 455 tons. She had pole topgallant masts and she set a course, double topsails, a single topgallant and royal on the fore and main masts .

She entered the South American and West Indian trade, with cargoes ranging from coal and live mules to cocoa beans .

Captain Julien Chauvelon was her master from 1900 until her sale abroad in 1914and he commanded her for 24 voyages. According to Captain Louis Lavroix, France's equivalent of Howard Chapelle or Basil Lubbock, the Belem "was known in her day for her smartness, her first-class maintenance and her beautiful and dainty silhouette." In 1902 she was anchored 16 miles away from St. Pierre of Martinique when that town was obliterated by the explosion of the Mt. Pelee volcano; the ship's deck was covered in ash. Under the Crouan flag the Belem made 20 voyages, and then was sold in 1907 to MM . Demanges Freres, of Nantes, under whose ownership she made three voyages to Cayenne before being sold to MM . Fleuriot Freres, also of Nantes, under whose flag she made nine voyages to the West Indies and French Guyana.

Early in 1914 this trading West Indiaman was bought by the Duke of Westminster who had her converted to a luxury yacht flying the burgee of the Royal Yacht Squadron. The conversion included the fitting of her first auxiliaries, twin 270 hp Bolinders, and of a generator, and the black hull was adorned by a white stripe with painted gunports.

In 1921 the barque was bought by A.E. Guinness, the brewer, who renamed her Fantome II and fitted a turned-stanchion rail around the poop. Upon his death in 1950 the barque was put up for sale and 16

Belem as !he yachl Fantome 11 al Cowes in 1931. Pho!O, Norman Brouwer Collec!ion.

"The tragic losses in recent years of the Champigny and Ville de Mulhouse have been deeply felt in France. " was bought the following year by the Earl of Cini who donated her to the Giorgio Cini Foundation, at Venice, which holds scholarly convocations on man's use of the sea, and also looks after the education of sea orphans. The vessel was renamed Giorgio Cini, converted to a barquentine and used as a sail training ship although the square sails were hardly ever set. A few years ago the Foundation had to give up the ownership of the ship for economic reasons and gave her to the Carabinieri (the Italian police force) who put her at the yard of the Cantieri Navali & Officine Meccaniche di Venezia for a major refit and re-conversion to the barque rig. The Carabinieri were intending to use the barque as a cadet training ship and as a mobile PR and recruitment center; however they were quite unable to foot the yard's bill for the work done and the yard had a writ nailed to her mast. French historical maritime interests were immediately alerted but the asking price of$2 million was beyond French funding possibilities and the actual material value of the

ship. No buyer coming forth, the price was lowered to about $1.2 million and the Association pour la Sauvegarde des Anciens Navires Francais (French Historical Ship Preservation Association) launched in 1978 a campaign for the return of the Belem to France. By June 78 the French Navy had agreed to provide 20 percent of the purchase cost and in July the author helped the French Television (which is State-owned) shoot a public-opinion raising film on the Danish training full-rigger Georg Stage, the Belem still being in drydock at Venice. By the fall of 1978 most of the balance had been pledged by the Caisses d'Epargne, a State-owned savings bank. A sale contract was signed in February 1979 and was confirmed in May after a rather belated and insufficient effort had been made by Venetian shiplovers to retain the ship. This was none too soon, for within a few days of the confirmation of the sale contract the author was approached by a foreign navy for the address of the Venetian yard, with a view to buy the ship.

The Belem will be added to the Ecole Na vale's fleet of sail trainers which already includes the Mutin, a gaff-rigged yawl extunnyman and the sister topsail schooners Belle-Poule and Etoile which are built and rigged along the lines and plans of Breton Icelandic fishery schooners of the 1900s.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

When the Belem eventually reaches retirement age, she will be handed over to the French Maritime Museum for static preservation. She is the only French-built square rigger to remain in France; she was France's Kaiulani, which is why French traditional sail lovers (a tiny minority of citizens compared to Anglo-Saxon and Germanic countries) are "dressing ship."The tragic losses in recent years of the 4-masted nitrate barques Champigny and Andalucia (ex-Ville de Mu/house) have been reported in SEA HISTORY, and have been deeply felt in France. The only surviving French windjammers, apart from the Belem are the 1901 full-rigger Laennec, now preserved as a stationary schoolship at Abo, Finland, under the name of Suomen Joutsen, the 1921 wooden Grand Banks 3-masted schooner Marite which was until very recently in trade (as a motor trawler) in the Farnes and which is rumored to have been acquired by a Hamburg architect for rerigging (any particulars about the present whereabouts of this schooner and her owner would be greatly appreciated), the 1934 Grand Banks steel barquentine CommandantLouis-Richard which is now an Italian Navy training barquentine under the name of Palinuro, and the 1935 3-masted auxiliary schooner Oiseau-des-Iles, which was the last windjammer to be built by the Dubigeon yard (that built the Belem), which was built as an expedition vessel, and is now part of Mike Burke's Windjammer fleet under the name of Flying Cloud, rigged as a 3-masted topsail-staysail schooner.

Another project, in which the author is directly involved, is the commissioning of a large wooden brigantine in France as a

"Only a few months ago France was in the same maritime heritage league as Inner Mongolia, with no square rigger in commission, no ship preserved and no adventure sail-training ship. " civilian "adventure" sail trainer. This project is still only in the early stages of fundraising and the ship will probably be homeported at St. Malo which combines good logistical facilities with an ideal historical background-St. Malo was famous for its corsairs, its East Indiamen and, until WW II, for its Grand Banks schooners and barquentines. The project has been given office space in the towers flanking the main gate of this walled city, just across the quay where the brigantine would tie up during her calls and where another square rigger might eventually be permanently berthed. This is the fullrigger Duchesse Anne ex-Grossherzogin Elisabeth, a former German sail trainer built in 1903, which is actually a rusting hulk at the Lorient dockyard in South Brittany and in the nominal care of the National Maritime Museum. The restoration project is being promoted by citizens' initiative, and a private non-profit trust has been formed for the eventual transfer of ownership for restoration work. Also at St. Malo is the hull of a wooden bisquine (3-masted fishing lugger which is in direct line of descent from the famous chassemarees so popular with corsairs during the Napoleonic wars) which could be restored for exhibition ashore-she's lived out her

life afloat.

It is hoped that these St. Malo projects will form the nucleus of a Seaport Museum (which could integrate the existing Cape Horn Museum and the City Museum), which will be something new in France.

Only a few months ago France was in the same maritime heritage league as Inner Mongolia, with no square rigger in commission, no ship preserved and no adventure sail-training ship. Operation Belem heralds a wind of change and the barometer is climbing up, at long last after the infamous low of the 1920s when hundreds of good windjammers were flung on the scrapheap of History.

Also indicative of this wind of change is a project to build four to six commercial sailing tunnymen for Etel, the last Breton harbour to carry on fishing under sail (the last of the traditional tuna yawls was in fishing until 1960) and now probably the first port to reintroduce sail in the fishery.

Currently each pound of fish landed in France has burnt up a pound of fuel and the new (auxiliary) sailing tunnymen would only use one sixth of the oil used by their now conventional counterpartsand would be just as efficient fishingwise.

Fuel savings would be in the order of $50,000 per ship. These new tunnymen would be 61 ft. fibreglass Bermudian ketches with a 100 hp auxiliary. The project is the fishermen's own idea and is now receiving official help. The old tuna fishermen of Etel are smiling again and so are all those who think that clean wind is Nature's gift not to be thrown away. .J:..

Mr. Abranson is the French trustee of the World Ship Trust and the honorary chairman of Mariners International.

At right, Belem's poop with the outlandish railing added by Guinness, as it appeared in 1978. Courtesy, Norman Brouwer. Below, the Duchesse Anne in her salad days as the Grossherzogin Elisabeth. Now at the Lorient dockyard, it is hoped that this former German sail trainer will find a permanent home at St. Malo. Courtesy, Mariners International.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

17

Why people uy nes.

Today, thousands of people have found that own ing a Brooklyn brownstone provides the st im ulation of city li ving without the congestion. And the sec urity and privacy of neighborhood suburban life wit hout the isolation.

And therein li es a sto ry.

A century ago, Brook lyn, already a bustling sea port, became America's first sub urb. Thou sands of people bought new ly built brownsto nes and made Brooklyn a welcome retreat from the overcrowding and commercialism of Ma nhattan Island.

Today, history is repeating itself.

A new generation of "brownstoners" are buying and restoring Brooklyn brownstones . Preserving historic neighborhoods. Building a new pride . And a new life in Brooklyn.

They're rediscovering the grandeur of Victo ri an-era New York.

Gracious, affordab le homes. Stimulating urban life styles.

They're part of a back-to-th ecity movement which is creating important changes throughout the country. As the movement grows, it's beginning to dawn on many more

people that revita lized cities may ju st be the answer to esca latin g suburban property taxes, weekend parents an d gasoline shortages.

Today, Brooklyn's Cinderel la story continues. In the process, neighborhoods are on th e upswing and new businesses are booming. The future?

Good neighborhoods are growing in Brooklyn.

If you'd like to fin d out more about buying a Brook lyn brownstone , call our Brownstone Information Center ~ a t (212) 643-4293.

'V Brooklyn Union Gas

Was an American China Trader Wrecked off the Australian Coast?

When the Portuguese pioneered the sea route to the East Indies, their vessels crept up the east coast of Africa around the northern perimeter of the Indian Ocean.

But in 1611 the Dutch established a sea route which made use of the favourable winds in the southern Indian Ocean for their crossing between the Cape of Good Hope and the East Indies, resulting in faster voyages and less illness among the crews. It then became inevitable that some vessels would make contact with the West Australian coast because longitude could not be measured accurately on long ocean voyages. After their first accidental landfall in the vicinity of Shark Bay in 1616 the Dutch made charts to protect following vessels from the danger of shipwreck.

Despite their precautions a number of outward bound vessels were lost on the coast during the 17th and 18th centuries, including the Batavia (1629), the Vergu/de Draeck (1656), the Zuytdorp (1712) and the Zeewijk (1727). Other nations soon learnt of the faster routes and the English vessel Tryal was lost off the North West coast in 1622.

After the Revolution the Americans entered the Indies and China trades with enthusiasm. The first formal contact be-

By Graeme Henderson tween American merchants and the Chinese was in 1784 when the ship Empress of China sailed from New York with a cargo of ginseng and sundries and arrived off the Portuguese colony of Macao on 23rd August. Some of the American vessels followed the route of the Dutch, checking their longitude at Amsterdam Island, making the Australian coast around North West Cape, and then continuing north to the Straits. Did one of these outward bound American ships, in ballast with a consignment of Spanish coinage, come to grief near North West Cape during the second decade of the 19th century?

In 1978 a group of divers-Frank and Barry Paxman, Glynn Dromey and Larry Paterson-came across a wreck at Point Cloates while spear-fishing. They found anchors, coins and ceramic shards which they reported to the Australian Government. Under protective legislation the responsibility for the excavation of historic shipwrecks is delegated to the Western Australian Museum, and a team from the Museum's Maritime Archaeology Department carried out a season of excavation in the stern section of the wreck from December 1978 to January 1979. Further work is planned in 1980.

Excavation showed that the vessel had sunk on its port side, which was soon covered with coral debris and is thus preserved on the sea bed. Items raised to date include three cannon, some 19,000 silver coins, Chinese, South Asian and European ceramics, glass beverage bottles, coal, stone ballast, ship's fitti ngs such as fastening bolts, chain plates and blocks, canister shot, chain, the ship's bell, and parts of a large clock.

The location of the wreck, in a sheltered position on the landward side of a fringing offshore reef, indicates that the vessel was not blown ashore by bad weather, but was deliberately navigated inside the reef by its commander. Glob-ules of once molten lead, burnt timbers and charcoal fragments are widely spread over the site, indicating that the vessel was a flaming inferno before sinking.

The first American vessels to tarry in Australian waters were the whalingsealing ships Asia and Alliance, which spent some time at Shark Bay Uust 150 miles south of Point Cloates) in 1792.

The Asia and the Alliance saw no seals in the area, and it is unlikely that the wreck at Point Cloates represents a sealer. Nor does the wreck exhibit any signs (such as try works) of having been a whaler.

Divers airlift sand from the wreck. Charred timbers and melted lead indicate that the vessel burned before sinking. Below, one of eleven US dollars found to date.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

19

Above, a Spanish dollar and a jug stamped 'Boston. 'Photos courtesy the author.

Fortunately, the remains do provide some clues about the identity of the ship even at this early stage. Three anchors have been located on the site. The largest of these is 4.25 meters long and weighs about 24.5cwt. For vessels smaller than a frigate the United States Navy in 1800 used anchors weighing 5 pounds per ton of vessel. Applying this calculation to the anchor as a very rough guide would suggest a vessel approaching 500 tons. The keel appears to be about 100 feet long.

Recovered silver coins give some idea of the date of loss. Some 19,000 Spanish 8 real pieces have been raised. The cleaned coins date from 1766 to 1809, and peak in numbers for the years 1802-04.

Most are of Mexico mint, but others are from Lima, Potosi, Madrid, Santiago, Seville and Guatemala. They were struck during the reigns of Carlos III, Carlos IV and Fernando VII. One of the Spanish coins was counterstamped with the head of the British monarch George 11 l. In 1797, when Britain was short of coinage, the Bank of England had counterstruck large numbers of Spanish Dollars and put them into circulation at 4/9d in value.

There are 11 United States dollars among the cleaned coins.

The date and range of the coins suggests that the ship was wrecked soon after 1809, perhaps between the years 1810 and 1816. The Spanish coins do not indicate a Spanish vessel, because these coins were 20

used by many of the major trading nations in the early 19th century. The appearance of George Ill's effigy on a single coin is not evidence of the vessel being British, and likewise the 11 United States dollars are not in isolation a strong indicator.

The ceramics found on the site give clearer indications of the nationality of the vessel. A salt-glazed stoneware jug shard is stamped 'BOSTON'. It is believed that Jonathon Fenton, a potter active in Boston in the late 1790s, may have made this piece. The site has also yielded a quantity of blue and white Chinese porcelain which might be expected, particularly in the possession of the commander, on a vessel involved in the China trade.

Further clues about the nationality of the vessel were found in the structure of the ship. A number of copper sternpost fittings were stamped with the name 'J. DAVIS.' Was he a copper founder, a ship's chandler, a ship builder or a ship owner? Or could the name be that of the ship itself? The vessel's name was burnt into spars on one shipwreck near Fremantle. However, a ship's chandler is the person who might have seen the most commercial advantage in having his name appear on hull fittings for a merchant vessel.

Inquiries to museums and libraries in the United States (particularly the Bath Marine Museum and the Mariner's Museum at Newport News) have been fruitful. Jonathan Davis and Sons built 22 vessels at Bath in the State of Maine in the years 1785 to 1819. Among these vessels only the ship Kingston, 409 tons, approaches the tonnage expected for the wreck at Point Cloates.

As well as building ships, Jonathan Davis was a merchant and ship's chandler, and he managed a fleet of ships. There is no direct evidence that any of the merchants in the Kennebec region around Bath engaged in the East Indies trade from their home towns, there being no local market for the type of goods imported. However, they had many connections with merchants in Boston and Salem. Jonathan Davis junior lived in Boston where he would have been familiar with the East Indies trade. In 1793 he proposed building a ship of about 500 tons for the East Indies trade, but it is not known whether the vessel was built.

The hull fittings bearing the name 'J. DA VIS' are strong circumstantial evidence that the wreck at Pointe Cloates was American built. The guns on the site are less satisfactory pointers. So far eight have been located, and of these three

have been raised. The largest is a cannon with a length of 153cm and a bore of 8.5cm (a 4pdr.). The crowned monogram 'GR3' of King George III of England ( 1760-1820) is embossed above the trunnions, and the cascabel is marked with the broad arrow denoting British crown property.

The initials IC embossed on the left trunnion probably indicate that the piece was made by Joseph Christopher, a British gunfounder whose family was active 1760-1820. The British origin of this gun does not detract from any argument that the vessel itself is American. Prior to the Revolution the manufacture of cannon had been a British prerogative, and Colonial ironmasters lacked both the techniques and technicians to produce the necessary weapons in any quantity. So American vessels during and for some time after the Revolution relied heavily on guns acquired from the British.

The second gun raised is a carronade of I 13cm length and 1 I .5cm bore (a 12 pdr), and features a narrow incised triangle to the left of the sighting line pointing forward behind the first reinforce. No other markings are visible on this piece. A second carronade raised has not yet been cleaned.

We are still at early days in identifying the wreck. There was no settlement in Western Australia at the commencement of the nineteenth century, and despite the frequent sightings of Point Cloates by outward-bound China trade vessels, a wreck could easily have gone unnoticed.

One reference has been located of a wreck during the appropriate period.

James Horsburgh in his Sailing Directions refers to a Portuguese ship, bound from Lisbon to Macao, and wrecked in the vicinity of Point Cloates in 1816. If Horsburgh's Portuguese ship is indeed the wreck recently located at Point Cloates, she may be an American-built vessel acquired by Portuguese interests.

To date, the evidence points to her being an American-built vessel lost during the second decade of the 19th century.

This would make it the earliest known wreck in Australian waters. Paradoxically the wreck, occurring at a time when shipboard navigation facilities were generally primitive, is just 60 miles south of the present United States Navy's Communications Station at Exmouth. Ji

Mr. Henderson is Curator of Maritime Archaeology at the Western Australian Museum in Fremantle, Australia and is on the editorial board of The Great Circle, Journal of the Australian Association for Maritime History.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

The Goal: Resurgence In the 1980s!

By C. William Neuhauser

The superliner United States. Painting: William G. Muller.

Corning Up to Speed with The Merchant Marine Today The United States is being recommissioned to sail on West Coast-Hawaiian cruises .

Built in 1952 as the world's fastest and safest passenger ship, she had been laid up since 1969. New, economical power systems use both her giant enginerooms, and her new owner, Richard Hadley of Seattle, says: "We'll use soybeans for fuel if we have to, but the SS United States is here to stay."

The liners Independence, Santa Rosa, Monterey and Mariposa, all retired in the 1970s, will also be reactivated, under revised maritime law which makes their sailing economically possible.

Sea-Land, whose innovative service in high-speed SL-7 containerships has changed the patterns of fast freight around the world in our time (see SH 12), is launching this year a whole fleet of intermediate-size diesel ships to carry integrated service to lesser ports with maximum flexibility. Twelve of these highly efficent DZ-9s will be in service before this year ends, under the American flag.

On the Great Lakes, American Steamship completed a second 1,000 foot supercarrier last year, and two more are scheduled for launching by other owners in 1980. In coastal waters, the fishing industry is looking up following belated US adoption of the 200 mile Fishery Conservation Zone; American fishermen are now taking a majority of the harvest, and foreign vessels operating in the zone fell from about 2500 in 1976 to 700 in 1978.

Congressman John M. Murphy (whose efforts on behalf of the merchant marine in foreign trade are reported in a following article) looks to further measures to cultivate underutilized fish breeds, and to reduce the $2 billion in fish products imported annually by this nation-a nation whose initial wealth was generated by colonial fishermen.

These stirring signs of revival take place against this dismal background: over 95 percent of US overseas trade is now carried in ships of other nations. World trade today is controlled by national bargaining, SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

resulting in interlocking carriage agreements in which the US is effectively locked out. New law and revised regulations to enable American flag ships to compete effectively are coming up for action this year; we urge all who understand the importance of seafaring to play some part.

The sea is in our blood, and if it has stirred sluggishly of late in the arteries of public opinion, let it now awake!

Reaching People Americans are stirred by adventure and high endeavor, and in a confusing age, they are intelligently casting back on the trail that brought them here-the true challenge of our seafaring experience, which is more than mere nostalgia. In their millions, they seek out the truth of that experience in historic seaport centers today-centers which offer very new challenge from old roots.

The whole nation was stirred when the tall ships of Operation Sail came to New York in 1976 on the 200th anniversary of a republic born of the sea. Frank 0. Braynard, Advisory Chairman of the National Society, was the originator and impresario of that event. A founder of South Street Seaport Museum, Braynard conducts the annual New York Harbor Festivals each July 4. He is Chairman of Op Ship, Ltd., which offers sea-oriented programming to commercial enterprises across America.

Things that work commercially, reach people and get into our bloodstream. We are unabashedly a nation of work and commerce.

Seamen and scholars carry the story forward in other ways. John Bunker recently wrote the first history of our greatest port, New York, to appear since 1941. This good work (reviewed on page 39) recalls such years as 1943, when the port sent 10,000 ships to sea to relieve the battlefronts of a world at war, so turning the tide of a struggle that began very badly; and it illustrates how pervasively seafaring affects the life of the nation. "The port's heritage,'' he writes, ''is the people and the wealth of the land ."

PS

Executive Secretary, National Maritime Council When the American flag was new on the oceans, President George Washington called for such "encouragement to our own navigation as will render our commerce and agriculture less dependent on foreign bottoms." President Thomas Jefferson, though of quite a different school, told the House of Representatives that as "a branch of industry, our navigation is valuable-but as a resource of defenseessential."

In 1936, when US ships were carrying only some 30 percent of our foreign trade, the Merchant Marine Act was adopted, calling for 50 percent to be carried in US ships . Yet today less than 5 percent of our foreign commerce is carried in US bottoms.

How has this happened?

Other seafaring nations, and those entering this arena such as China and the USSR, provide support to their merchant fleets without parallel in the US. Excess tonnage is subsidized and "dumped" on world trade routes . Increasingly, who carries what is determined by international bargaining, in which the United States cannot participate effectively due to US antitrust laws, and other laws and regulations which apply only to US shippers.

To restore order to this scene, the United Nations is considering a policy under which trading partners would each carry 40 percent of each nation' s total trade, with 20 percent allowed to "cross traders" sailing under third flags. That overall policy is unlikely to get far unless backed by national actions.

Why have we alone, among major seafaring nations, failed to act forcefully to maintain our position? Our policies, more than those of other maritime powers, are set by public opinion. And most Americans simply are not aware of the role merchant ships play in their lives, and their livelihoods. They see trucks, trains and planes every day-but they don't see the ships that carry their products to ports of call throughout the world.

The National Maritime Council is working for adoption of a national maritime policy through development of a fair, competitive international cargo policy, and through even-handed enforcement of US laws that currently apply only to US merchant ships but not to foreign vessels that trade in our ports. We invite public debate and participation.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION : National Maritime Council, 1742 N Street, NW, Washington DC 20036.

21

· Wmlcl Trade I

t t

A Congressional leader reports on the merchant marine today

National Honor Tarnished, National Property Squandered

By Representative John M. Murphy, NY Chairman, House Committee on Merchant Marine & Fisheries

This report is adapted from an address made by Congressman Murphy on receiving the 10th Annual James Monroe A ward, presented to him by the National Maritime Historical Society at the Seamens Church Institute in New York on November 2, 1979.

The James Monroe A ward, named for the first of the fast-sailing, regularly scheduled Black Ball packets that captured the cream of the Nor th A tlan tic carrying trade for the young American Republic and the rising seaport of New York from 1818 onward, is given for President Monroe said in his First Inaugural Address in 1817 : "National honor is national property of the highest value."

Reporting on the state of the merchant marine to the fellowship of the National Maritime Historical Society, which cherishes our seafaring heritage with such extraordinary care, I cannot help but feel a sense of loss, a sense of national honor tarnished, national property sq uandered .

Like the ships lying in the muddy flats which your Society has been so gallantly engaged in salvaging, our merchant marine is in a shallow grave, waiting to be resurrected. The merchant mariners who sailed the perilous waters of the Atlantic in World War II know that such service could be needed again, perhaps sooner than any of us would like to think. The number of qualified hands is dwindling.

And, should they be needed, the ships are not there to be manned. How have we come to this state of affairs?

When World War II came, even though our merchant fleet was in far better repair than it is today, we were unprepared for the demands on our sea transportation capability. Only the fact that we had a sizeable domestic fleet to draw upon initially and the subsequent miraculous production of the Liberty Ship enabled us to resupply the European and Pacific theaters. There are many today who say that the nature of warfare has changed, that the protracted land war is an anachronism, that we shall never again need .t he services of a large US flag fleet.

Dare we believe this? The Russians do not. Between 1965 and the end of 1977 , the Soviet merchant fleet grew from 990 to I, 710 vessels. And by concentrating on SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

distinguished service to maritime history.

With the United States now carrying less than a twentieth of its own seaborne commerce, we asked Congressman Murphy to discuss the principles of the Omnibus Maritime Bill introduced last summer, in terms the lay public could understand. We urge interested citizens to be in touch with Mr. Murphy or the National Maritime Council, at 1742 N Street NW, Washington DC 20036, with their views on the "rebalancing of worldwide maritime capability" which this report proposes.

expensive roll on-roll off ships, the Soviets have gained a military advantage, si nce RO/ ROs are better suited to moving military cargo than are conventional ships .

There are others who argue that the "flag of convenience" ships, US owned but under foreign registry, are really just American ships built cheaper abroad and with lower crew costs. I say that whatever money is saved on these rust buckets, it can never repay the loss of ski lled shipyard workers and the trained hands of citizen crews.

There is no question that we are.in a very difficult situation.

An obvious solution would be to carry out immediately the intent of the 1936 act which provides that at least 50 percent of our foreign trade will be carried on US built and manned ships . The problem with such drastic and unilateral action is that our main competitors in shipbuilding, liner and bulk service are also our closest allies. The Germans, Greeks, South Koreans, English, a nd Japanese all would suffer if we were to take such action. This, however, cannot sway us from what must become a national priority-The rebuilding of our maritime industry. Our allies must realize that the days when the United States could afford to sit back and watch the destruction of our maritime industry are over.

The answer lies in bilateral agreements that would progressively shift the carriage of trade to an equitable split between the United States and its trading partners. The UN CTAD code, the closed conferences in other countries, and the myriad of other ways our competitors are dividing up the trades of the world make it clear that to protect the rights of US carriers, our maritime laws must be changed to make it

possible for US carriers to stay in step with their competitors .

Therefore, in order to reverse the decline of the American merchant marine, to create a legal environment that will induce the runaway flags back to the United States, and to allow our existing tonnage to operate in a manner free from government interference and in keeping with the prevailing laws and practices of the world, I along with my colleagues, Congressman Snyder and McCloskey, introduced the Omnibus Maritime Bill of 1979. This bill calls for a "fair share" of commerce to and from our shores to be carried in US ships-a share defined as not less than 40 percent of the foreign commerce of the United States. The "fair share" principle requires that the regulation of international ocean shipping, the promotional tax, and maritime policy-making functions of the government all strive to reach this 40 percent goal.

The omnibus maritime bill provides for bilateral agreement. Though the President does not agree with this approach, the National Maritime Council and successful US flag operators like Sea-Land have endorsed the concept and I am confident that the Administration will eventually come to see the wisdom of using bilateral agreements to solve the many problems associated with a rebalancing of worldwide maritime capability.

I am also confident that the omnibus maritime bill will provide the new direction needed to see that the United States merchant marine is restored to its former position of preeminence in the world of shipping. While in the midst of this difficult process, it is good to know that the kind of support and interest exemplified by the National Maritime Historical Society exists. w 23

The Lawson in 1902, the year of her launch. Courtesy The Seamen's Bank for Savings.

The Thomas W. Lawson First or last of the great sailing bulk carriers?

By Simon Watts The voyaging effort-the effort that opened the modern world-is born of vision, finance, and available resources. The shift from the system where the ship's rig caught power from the wind to the harnessing of hot gases in power plants inside the ship took a century: from the successful steaming of the North River Steamboat in 1807, to the year 1907 when engine-powered tonnage first exceeded sailing tonnage in the US. Even before she was launched 78 years ago, the seven-masted steel schooner Thomas W. Lawson had her detractors.

Designed to carry 8,000 tons, nearly twice the cargo ever moved under sail, she was referred to as a maritime error of colossal proportions, and as a dramatic and senseless freak built more for size and advertising than for successful trading and ultimate profit. It was also insinuated that she was built largely to gratify the vanity of her chief financial backer-Thomas Lawson.

A successful Boston businessman, Tom Lawson was a well known (some said notorious) stock market operator. He had made his considerable fortune speculating in copper. At the time of the Lawson's building, he was president of the Bay State Gas Company.

The Coastwise Transportation Company, on the other hand, builders of the Lawson, was a little-known company that operated a small fleet of coastal steamers, a schooner and one barge. Its president, 24

Toward the end of this era of transition, Yankee shipbuilders built bigger and bigger ships rigged as multi-mast schooners, designed to move large cargoes with minimum crew costs. Here Mr. Watts, a writer and student of maritime history resident in Putney, Vermont, looks at the short, ill-starred career of the ship that was their greatest venture in this direction-a sailing ship that carried fuel for steam and internal combustion engines.

Captain John F. Crowley, had considered the possibility of building a large sailing bulk carrier for some time before he and Lawson came together to build the supership . The well known naval architect B.B. Crowninshield, whose work had contributed to more seaworthy designs for the Gloucester fishing fleet, was named as designer of the vessel, and a contract was given to the Fore River Ship and Engine Building Company and work began in 1901.

Even before sliding down the ways on July 10, 1902 at Quincy, Massachusetts, the Lawson was well known . A deep, narrow vessel, she carried her great waterline length of 368 feet on only 50 feet of beam.

She had three steel decks throughout her length and six cargo hatches feeding holds 35 feet deep. Fully loaded, she drew 25 Vi feet. Her most dramatic feature, apart from her immense size, was her sevenmasted fore-and-aft rig. The masts, 193 feet tall, were of the height reached in the

California clippers half a century earlier, but seemed dwarfed by the size of the ship.

Each was made up of a steel lower mast surmounted by a 58-foot topmast of Oregon pine. Rigged as a schooner with four jibs and a staysail, the Lawson is supposed to have carried 43,000 square feet of sail-almost an acre. Although old photographs show her with both topsails and topmast staysails, these were in fact seldom set and later on were done away with altogether. The hundreds of iron mast hoops made a distinctive rattling as the ship rolled in a beam sea.

The Lawson was once described by the coxwain of a Cornish lifeboat as being "as long as from here to next week,'' and there is a persistent legend that her masts were named for the days of the week. However the legend is denied in a terse and unequivocal letter written in 1932 by one of her captains, Elmer Crowley. This letter, still in the files of the peabody Museum at Salem, states that the masts were called: SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

Fore, Main, Mizzen, No. 4, No. 5, No. 6 and Spanker.

The Lawson was highly mechanized; she had seven deck engines for handling sails, cargo and for pumping the ship. To provide steam for these engines there were two separate boiler rooms with horizontal stacks. The boilers not only heated the crew's living quarters but also ran a generator for electric light, which at the time was a luxury known only to steamers.

The ship was also equipped with a 60-hp steam steering engine as well as a powerful windlass, also run by steam. Unlike the average sailing vessel whose donkey engine was only for occasional use, the Lawson's steam plant was as essential as a steamer's engine. It was only by means of this auxiliary power that the enormous vessel could be steered and her heavy gear and sails handled.

The company claimed that these contrivances saved them the wages of twenty seamen. The Lawson sailed with a crew of only sixteen, one of whom was a deck engineer. The crew were paid about $35 a month which apparently was not enough to attract and keep experienced sailors.

New hands were carried on nearly every trip, many of whom were not even qualified able seamen.

In spite of the power of her two boilers, the Lawson depended completely on her sails for propulsion. She was difficult to handle under canvas, being sluggish and unwieldy. Her high bow would sometimes catch the wind and prevent her coming about. When this happened she would be forced to wear around or, if there was not sea-room enough, to anchor.

Intended for the coal trade between Virginia and New England ports, it was soon found that the Lawson was too large and awkward for coastal work, her deep draft preventing her from using the smaller harbors. It was also realized too late that her schooner rig with its excessive chafe and liability to jibe made her unsuited for long passages over the world's great trade routes. One wonders, with the wisdom of hindsight, how these obvious facts had escaped her owners as well as her designer, Mr. Crowninshield.

* * **

After a few years as a coal carrier the Lawson was fitted with wooden bulkheads and converted to carry oil in bulk. She made regular runs between the Delaware River and Sabine Pass, Texas, often being towed by the powerful tug Paul Jones. The Lawson carried a huge amount of water ballast in her double bottoms and once turned over when being loaded and was only righted with great difficulty.

Previously she had nearly rolled over at SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

Newport News but was held up by her wire spring lines.

In 1907 the Coastwise Transportation Company, which by then had built another ship, the six-masted William L. Douglas, turned the Lawson over to the Sun Oil Company on a 5-year charter. On November 19 of that year she left Philadelphia for London with a cargo of over two million gallons of engine oil. The captain, George Dow, was from Hancock, Maine and the crew included men from Scandinavia, Russia, Germany, Austria and an Englishman, Edward Rowe, also from Maine, ran the deck machinery.

The ship encountered a gale off Newfoundland, closely followed by another storm worse than the first. Fully loaded the Lawson had been described ''as a half tide rock never clear of the sweeping seas" and before long she had lost both her lifeboats together with her one liferaft. Even under bare poles the ship still made over 12 knots as the wind got behind her huge spars and hull pushing her eastward.

Unable to get a sight, Captain Dow had no clear idea of his position and it was not until the afternoon of December 13, after 25 days at sea, that land was finally sighted. By this time, although the weather moderated, the Lawson was reduced to only six usable sails and could not be maneuvered so as to clear the land. By letting go both anchors and 250 tons of chain the crew managed to stop their ship only half a mile from the outlying reefs of the Scilly Isles, a group of low-lying islands some 40 miles off the coast of Cornwall.

Often shrouded in fog, their position athwart the main shipping lanes had made them a source of anxiety to the masters of passing vessels since Phoenician times.

Even in clear weather strong currents make the approaches dangerous and for centuries the inhabitants have made a precarious living by piloting and smuggling, and plundering the unnumbered wrecks for which a pilot came too late.

When a large American vessel with seven masts was seen anchored in an exposed place off Annet Island, the two local lifeboats were immediately dispatched, although no dfstress signals had been seen.

A lifeboat reached the Lawson about 5 PM, but the coxwain could get no answer so he approached the ship under oars with the intention of persuading the captain to slip his cables and run his ship to a place of safety. Captain Dow, however, secure in the knowledge of his huge anchors, only asked that tugs be summoned from Falmouth 90 miles away, meanwhile accepting the services of Trinity House pilot William Hicks. One lifeboat stood by, but as the weather worsened it could not risk

staying out longer and returned to the harbor promising to keep a good lookout for a signal of distress.

From then on events moved to their inevitable conclusion and even years later the engineer, Rowe, was reluctant to speak about what happened. The gale continued to increase and as the seas began sweeping over the ship the crew climbed into the rigging. The port anchor chain parted about 1: 15 AM and the ship began dragging slowly towards the rocks. After the other chain broke an hour later it was only a matter of minutes before the ship struck the Hellweather's Reef broadside on. She broke in two almost immediately, both halves turning over and sinking. The pilot and officers had lashed themselves to the mizzen rigging and when the masts went over the side Rowe managed to jump clear.

He was immediately swept overboard and found himself in the water holding on to a piece of bulkhead timber, buffeted by the waves and completely covered in heavy oil.

The captain also managed to get clear and both men were eventually flung onto Hellweather's Rock some distance away.

From the shore a watch had been kept all night. When the lights were seen to go out about 3 AM it was at first thought that the ship had slipped her cables and cleared the island, but dawn showed the Lawson on her side, fast being broken up by the huge seas.

The inquest, held three days later at the principal town of St. Mary's, was fully reported by the London Times. Only Edward Rowe was able to testify, the other survivor, Captain Dow, being too badly injured to appear. The Coroner's report concluded, in the stilted language of the courtroom, that everything possibe had been done to save the ship and no blame could be attached to anyone. If it had really been a question of blame those responsible for sending the Lawson off on her final voyage should certainly have been called to testify.

****

The Lawson's deficiencies are so obvious and her ending so dramatic that it is easy to dismiss her as an outlandish freak and forget that in terms of human and mechanical energy she was extraordinarily efficient. To move over 8000 tons of cargo with no mechanical propulsion and only 17 men is still something of a feat. Nor was she a failure financially . She paid dividends of 66 per cent of her cost in her first three years of operation.

Was the Lawson an anachronism-the last gasp of sail-or was she so far ahead of her time that it has taken us nearly 80 years to be again considering wind power to move the world's commerce? .t 25

Carolina and Go Experience the true charm of the historic cities of the Old South on a Carolina and Golden Isles Cruise this Spring.

Spend seven carefree days cruising through the breathtaking scenery of the Intracoastal Waterway, through South Carolina and Georgia's Golden Isles.

The azaleas and magnolias are in full bloom, aflame with the color extravaganza of spring.

The scenery constantly changes as you cruise to Beaufort, Charleston, Hilton Head Island, and St. Simons Island. You can shop, sightsee, or just daydream. There are a host of interesting attractions in the ports; Bay Street in Beaufort, the antebellum

homes of Charleston, Fort Frederica, and much more.

The Independence is America's newest and largest coastal cruise ship. All staterooms are large and outside, with private bath, lower berths, and large, opening picture window. The food is out of this world, the service superb, and the atmosphere informal.

Soak up the sun and enjoy the splendid scenery from two sundecks, or relax in the airconditioned comfort of the glass-enclosed Nantucket Lounge.

Cruises depart from Savannah, Ga. March 8, 15, 22, 29, andApril5, 1980. From$574perperson, double occupancy. For reservations and information, send in the coupon, or call our toll-free number.

lden Isles Cruise American Cruise Lines 1 Marine Park, Haddam, Conn. 06438 Toll free: 800-243-6755 In Conn.: 203-345-8551

Springtime on the Chesapeake Spend seven fascinating days aboard the American Eagle or Independence on a cruise of the Chesapeake Bay. This cruise abounds with beauty and American history. Visit Yorktown (Colonial Williamsburg), Va.; Oxford, Crisfield, St. Michaels and Solomons Island, Md. Enjoy tours through the restored towns, or just relax and enjoy the beauty of the Chesapeake Bay in Springtime.

This area is well known for its superb seafood, and you can be sure there's plenty on the menu.

Both the Independence and American Eagle have only large, outside staterooms with private bath, lower berths, and opening picture window.

Round trip cruises depart from Annapolis, Md. every Sunday from May 11 through July 20, 1980. From $57 4 per person, double occupancy.

,------------------------, 1

I I

American Cruise Lines

1 Marine Park, Haddam, Conn. 06438

] Please send me complete information.

I :

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1

ADDRESS,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

I _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ZIP_ _ _ I I OR CALL TOLL FREE: 800-243-6755 IL ________________________ In Connecticut: 203-345-8551 _ ~

Young salt Abranson mends sail aboard

Marques, a 1915 Spanish trading schooner since rerigged as bark, aboard which Mariners International educates young and old in traditional seafaring.

Old Salts Do Not Lose Their Savor

By Erik C. Abranson, President Mariners International

Our Maridme Heritage We support the Ship Trust of th e National Maritime Historical Society, and we take an active interest in the preservation of historic ships .

Used for training young seamen at our Harry Lundeberg Schoo l, Piney Point, Md., is the 250 foot S.S. Dauntless, wartime fla gship of Fleet Adm iral Ernest J. King and, as such, fla gship of the entire U.S. Navy.

We have a lso preserved two Chesapeake Bay sa iling ship types, the 77-year-old Dorothy Parsons, last of the rakish bugeye freighters, and the 40-year-old Joy Parks, one of the van ishing fleet of ski pjack oyster boats. These vessels are avai lable for public viewing at the schoo l on the first Sunday of eac h month from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Paul Hall, President Frank Drozak, Exec. Vice President-

Seafarers International Union 6 75 Fourth Avenue, Brookl yn, NY 11232

28

The old timers take some beating, if indeed they can be beaten by our comfortbred generation. Last year I helped deliver the topsail schooner Esther Lohse to the German sail training association ClipperDeutsche Jugendwerk zur See. We had on board Captain Peter Lohmeyer, representing the buyers. He had been trained on the full-rigged Grossherzagin Elisabeth (now Duchesse-Anne, seep. 17), and had been round Cape Horn twice in the bark Bremen. He was captain of the German sail trainer Gorch Pock, 1966-69.

We went aloft together to furl Esther Lohse 's square topsail. I had never been in such unsafe rigging. There were no ratlines in the topmast shrouds, so we had to use blocks as foot-and handholds and shin up the bare pole until we reached the yard, which had no jackstay suitable for clipping on and worse, had a footrope so badly placed that one was all the time in :m unstable position. Although used to square rig I was far from happy but refrained from any comments as Captain Lohmeyer, over 70 years of age, was up there with me handling his yardarm without hesitation. As we were climbing down he said: "We cannot leave that as it is, it is totally unsafe for young trainees!"

Captain Godfrey Wicksteed, who was Alan Villier's shipmate in the Be/lands, serves as rigging advisor today aboard Cutty Sark, and at 80 years old still goes out on the royal yard. Since I saw him do it, I have less sympathy for young trainees who get gallied at the futtock shrouds! He is Mariners Jnternational's senior member, and he does us honor.

I regret having been born too late to sail in the real ships, but am thankful to have met and sailed with some of the last real sailors. Let me belay and coil down now. It is four bells in the graveyard watch-and I just don't hav1e Their stamina. ..t SEA HllSTORY, WINTER 1980

THE JOHN F. LEA VITT

By Francis E. Bowker

The sea is an unrelenting adversary. On December 28 it took the new coasting schoonerJohn F. Leavitt. She was abandoned by her crew in what the owner called "unusual sea conditions" encountered on the edge of the Gulf Stream 280 miles southeast of Long Island. The lumber cargo she was carrying to the West Indies shifted, pumps failed, there was trouble with other gear on deck and aloft. "Inexperience did it, " said Captain "Biff" Bowker, master of Mystic Seaport's schooner Brilliant and a veteran of the coasting trade in sail. He agreed we should run this article on the schooner's prospects as he wrote it, before her loss.

"A tradition has been broken, " he added. "We have to start over. It will take years, and maybe some losses."

The staunch schooner loads cargo at Quincy, Massachusells for her ill-fated maiden voyage. Pho!O: Giles Tod.

The schooner John F. Leavitt was launched in Thomaston, Maine on August 8, 1979.

Since the beginning of this project there has been considerable speculation about her future and whether it is possible for an antiquated, engineless schooner to compete in a world that has raced generations ahead of the leisurely day in which sail transportation flourished.

Eighty years ago there was good money made by active schooners and there was no extra money to be garnered by movie contracts or publication of books on how to build and operate a schooner. The captain was often his own agent, had big ears, a small mouth and a nose that could smell a charter either up wind or down wind.

When there was work to be done, no social obligations stood in the way. When the going was tough, the captain was the toughest man aboard, though he might be seventy years of age.

If a small schooner can be sailed by a captain, a man and a boy, as in the past, if cargoes can be loaded and discharged in small ports where the crew can handle cargo over the rail without gangs of union longsboremen to eat up the freight, iflabor Jaws will allow the crew to work whatever hours are necessary to operate a sailing vessel with a small crew at sea, it may be possible for a few such craft to earn their cost. Just as soon as a vessel reaches a size where licensed officers and certified seamen are required, the real trouble will begin.

It is doubtful if there is a man under sixty years of age who has a valid license as Master of Sail, unlimited tonnage. There might be a few for 500 tons, actually gained in auxiliary craft. Mates with sail training would be just as scarce as are able seamen.

There are probably just as many young people as there ever were who profess a desire to venture to sea in conventional SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

sailing ships. When I first started prowling the waterfront in search of a captain who would ship me, the first question was "What vessels have you sailed in?" The second was, "Do you have a strong back and a weak mind?" The first question was important to establish whether I had experience. The second was quite superfluous as the fact that I was coming back for more would provide the answer. Although veterans of dude cruisers and our few training vessels have some experience of sailing vessels and can provide strong backs, it is unfortunate that most of them have strong minds. The majority of these young people gain their experience during college vacations. Few of these would be willing to spend the years at sea necessary to become veteran seamen, for after they have read a few books, pulled a few lines (God forbid that we should call them ropes) they suddenly find that they know all there is to know about the sea and become teachers.

Even in the heyday of the sailing coaster, life was not as leisurely as presently depicted. Many a coaster was launched with sails bent and rigging rove off, and often they were towed directly to a loading wharf or sailed for a loading port within a day. The word "hustler" had a different connotation in marine circles than on city streets. It denoted a captain who kept his vessel moving, his crew busy, plagued shippers and agents, would carry a poor cargo if it would bring him near a port where better freights might prevail. A hustler made money for himself and his owners and would proudly boast that his was the finest craft on the coast.

Much has been written about this new, engineless, sailing vessel that is about to challenge the age of motorization, containerization, automation, unionization and, above all, astronomical fuel costs . If boldness of concept and persistence in ap-

plication has any chance of success, Ned Ackerman may set modern maritime technology, computerization and containerization back a hundred years. The John F. Leavitt, built to higher standards than were ever stipulated in the contract of any former coaster, should live a long life.

Most of the success of this little vessel will depend upon the continued interest and innovative approach of the man responsible for her creation. Is the Leavitt just a new toy that can earn part of her way through such publicity as the movie already recording her story?

There is a vast range between the concept of a dream and the end product of its practical application.

The John F. Leavitt has progressed from concept to birth. It is now time for Ned Ackerman to show that he is a "hustler," that he is the best and is willing to prove it. Several generations have scorned the idea that commerce could be best borne on the wings of the wind. Many of us who served in sail during its demise, before World War ll, look back with rosetinted glasses to the hardships, low pay and slavery of love to ships we were proud to serve and mourned as they passed.

Every person who has experienced the thrill of sailing on a windy day can picture the John F. Leavitt leaping through sunlit sea with a cargo of fish for Haiti or granite blocks for New Haven. Those of us who remember winter gales off Nova Scotia and hurricanes in the West Indies are inclined to see two sides of the matter and wonder if even a shortage of fuel will bring a quick revival of commercial sail. A few trades may be open and it will be great to see schooners again working the seas. Let's hope hands can be found to man such craft and refute John Masefield's requiem, "Earth will not see such ships as these again."

29

SCRIMSHAW - Past and Present An event in the remarkable history of scrimshaw - now, for the first time, authenticated fine reproductions of the most famous of the old - a SUSAN tooth - and the best of the new - a GILKERSON tooth. Made of a non-whale product, polymer ivory, these pieces faithfully recreate the artist's original engraving and the full character of the whale tooth. They are among the finest of art reproductions done by ARTEK, as part of its unusual "Save The Whale® Collection" of scrimshaw.

THE GILKERSON Generally considered to be THE SUSAN On board the the finest scrimshander towhaler Susan, day, William Gilkerson brings in the early to scrimshaw an artistry com19th century, parable to that of the classic seaman Frede rick Myrick masters of engraving. Mr. created a series Gilkerson agreed to let Artek of scrimshaw reproduce one of his best teeth that have recent works. The artist himsince become legendary. The self assisted in the production few remaining process and these replicas today are highhave his entire approval. With ly prized by an ebony-Ii ke spindle stand museums and collectors. The Nantucket Whaling designed by Mr. Gilkerson, Museum authorized ARTEK to reproduce a Susan in its collection, one of the finest done by Myrick. The this tooth is being offered in museum-approved replica with a vitrine is being a strictly limited production offered in a strictly controlled limited edition of of 500 pieces, each docu1,000, each hand-numbered and documented for mented and hand-numbered for $125.00 plus $4.00 $150.00 plus $4.00 shipping and handling charges in shipping and handling charges in the U.S.A. the U.S.A. For a full color brochure of our "Save The Whale® Collection " of scrimshaw, send your name, address and 50¢.

ARTEK, Inc., Elm Ave., Antrim, N. H. 03440

MARINE ANTIQUES & NAUTICAL ITEMS Oil & Electric Lamps • Telegraphs • Binnacles • Brass & Teak Wheels • Ship Clocks • Chronometers • Sextants • Baragraphs • LogMeters • Diver's Helmets • Square & Round Portholes • Fog Horns • Compasses • Ship's Furniture • Brass Gift & Decor Items ... etc.

ART TEMPLE 225 Kearny .Street San Francisco, CA 94108 Tel. (415) 433-0464 IMPORTED DIRECTLY FROM OUR SHIP-BREAKING YARD AND REPRODUCTION PLANT IN TAIWAN! ORIGINALS & REPRODUCTIONS AT THE LOWEST PRICE IN THE U .S. * Retail Buyer: Send 50¢stamps for our 1980 Special Sale Catalogue.

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343 COURT STREET· BROOKLYN, N.Y. 11231

JAMES W. ELWELL & CO., INC. Ship owners and managers Founded in 1821

AMERICA'S OLDEST STEAMSHIP COMPANY We salute the National Maritime Historical Society for their work to invite more Americans to enter into the learning of this nation's proud sea heritage, and particularly for their work to establish a Ship Trust in the United States.

1 World Trade Center New York, New York 10048

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Sail to the islands of Maine on a truly unusual vacation.

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EnJOY a good breeze. an exc1t1ng day sailing . a Quiet harbor. a t1uge del1c1ou s dinner new friends & great memories for an entire week 1 $285 includes everything '2 Free brochures

Cap'n Jim Sharp - Sch. ADVENTURE Cap'n Orvil Young - Sch. ROSEWAY Bx 696 SH Camden . Me . 04843 : Tel. 207-236-4449 Largest Windjamm ers In The Camden Fleet.

NAUTICAL ANTIQUES Octants-T elescopes-Clocks Com passes-Sextants-Etc. Send for free lists

Dunlap Enterprises Inc. 130 Severn Avenue Annapolis, MD 21403

'Drake Versus Ranger' by Wm.Gilkerson Depicts the opening guns of the first evenly matched ship-to-ship engagement of the American Revolution . Capt. Jones can be seen just abaft the Ranger's mizzen shrouds.

A limited edition of 200 collector's prints is offered for sale to benefit the work of the N.M .H.S. These fine reproductions were printed in five inks on 100% linen paper under the supervision of the artist. Each print is numbered, signed and color highlighted by the artist. Image size is 11 " x 17 ", price per copy is $48.

To: National Maritime Historical Society, 2 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY 11201 Please send me prints. My check for$ is enclosed.

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32

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

SHIP MODELS From our own workshop: finest quality wood ship kits- clippers, schooners. frigates . tankers, freighters- 30 in all. Beautiful fittings ; no lead or plastic. Also plans, books, tools. materials, fit· tings and marine prints. At better dealers or send S1 .00 (refundable) for big illustrated catalog .

The Letitia Lykes enters Shanghai on her historic China voyage in the spring of 1979.

Photo: Lykes Bros. Steamship Co.

'!JBf,C!,.f/.-1fl~lP"T

Trade Winds

145·1Water St. So Norwalk . Ct . 06854

By Michael Gillen

It was March 1979. The 14,660-ton US merchant ship Letitia Lykes was on the homeward-bound leg of a two-month voyage to the Far East, a seemingly routine run except for one thing: she would call on Shanghai, China before setting off for home across the Pacific, thus becoming the first American merchant vessel to visit Mainland China in 30 years.

That first voyage of the Letitia Lykes, brought about after the signing of an agreement between the Lykes Bros.

Steamship Co. and the China Ocean Shipping Co., was, in fact, far from routine.

And by the time she had loaded some 4,000 tons of cargo in Shanghai (tea, fans, salted sausage casings, goose feathers, canned jellyfish, nails, rubber boots, textiles, earthenware, furniture, and various other goods), she had opened up a new era in Sino-US relations.

United States Transportation Secretary Brock Adams said: "After 30 years of both hostility and isolation, transportation is being used to bring people together.''

Within weeks of the Letitia Lykes' visit to the People's Republic of China a merchant ship from that country-the Liu Lin Hai-was making another historic voyage, becoming the first Chinese Communist ship to visit a US port (Seattle) in 30 years. Liner service between the two countries is now routine. By the mid-1980s total US-China trade-the vast majority of which will move by ship-is expected to reach the $5 billion mark.

The voyage of the Letitia Lykes to China in 1979 is reminiscent of another voyage made 195 years before. It was in 1784 that the Empress of China sailed out of New York harbor to become the first

Yankee merchant ship to visit the " Middle Kingdom ." She carried some 30 tons of Hudson Valley ginseng root, 2,600 fur pelts, pepper, and woolen garments.

By way of comparison, American ships calling on Chinese ports in recent months have delivered such things as blast hole drills, truck parts, diesel engine parts, mechanical hand tools, as well as large quantities of resin and thousands of bales of cotton. Future shipments will include diesel locomotives, helicopters and offshore drilling rigs and equipment. And, if the world political situation continues on its present precarious course, we might be shipping increasingly large amounts of "strategic" goods to China as well.

Though the voyages of the Letitia Lykes and the Empress of China were separated by many years, they were equally important as first steps in opening trade relations between the US and China. They also show the need for ocean transportation capability. The Chinese have recognized this need and have invested heavily in their own merchant marine; its growth rate now surpasses all others. China presently hauls an amazing 70 percent of her own oceanborne commerce, and this figure shows definite signs of increasing.

Both the US and China will continue to benefit from our newly established trade relations. Our own nation's security and economic interests could benefit even more if we learned from the Chinese (and many others), and invested half as much in our merchant marine as they do in theirs.

CAPTAIN VAN'S SCHOOLS Box 53, Port Arthur, TX 77640 Serving Mariners for Over 50 years.

EXPLORE THE MAINE COAST WEEKLY

SAILING

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WINDJAMMER ''MARY DAY'' For Folder Write :

Capt. H. S. Hawkins Camden, Maine 04843 Tel. 1-207-236-2750

World famous SERGAL and MANTUA kits : large magnificent replicas (up to 51" long) with beautiful walnut planking and components and cast-brass details.

Virtually museum pieces when completed . Large -scale plans, En· glish instructions, all materials in· eluded. Also , hundreds of other superb Italian kits, .·blans and accessories .

.t .t .t Mr. Gillen, assistant editor of the Seafarers International Union Log, is also editor of the National Society's Liberty

Send for 68-page full-color catalog, only SJ, refunded with first order.

Log.

SHIP MODELS Just acquired another substantial collection to add to our present inventory of over 300 ship models. Ranging from 6" cased Admiralities to 8 foot fully rigged clippers. Many of museum quality-obtained from estates and private collections. Write for a free brochure.

LANNAN NAUTIQUES 259 Harvard Street, Wollaston, Mass. 02170 Tel: 617-479-5091 SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

You can be a CG Licensed Officer Mail order Deck and ~ .Engine courses, all · . . grades. Write for brochure.

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23 Just Road , Fairfield , NJ 07006 Please send full-color catalog. $3. check enclosed.

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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS R.H. JOHN CHART AGENCY Salutes the

Galveston Historical Foundation andthe

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OCEAN LINER BOOKS

& MEMORABILIA We are one of the largest and most complete dealers in items relating to ocean liners.

Send $2 for both catalogues.

Hundreds of items in stock.

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A unique experience. $325 weekly, incl udes everything .

For Broc hure Cal l 207-437-2851 (wi nter) 207-763-3 137 (summer)

Schooner TIMBERWIND

Capl Bill Alexander

Box 247 SH. Rockport . Me. 04856

Proudly Serve the people of the working waterfront. " -Phil Rando , Prop.

* Newly Renovated * Harborview Rest.

Fulton St. on East River Brooklyn, N. Y. Tel: 212-624-8820

The 316 ' bark Sea Cloud, built in Kiel in 1931 as an American yacht, will sail this year as a cruise ship from Martinique, following extens ive overhaul and modernization by German owners. Travel Dyna mics, 1290 Ave. of the Americas, New York NY 10019.

The Duchess of Albany, iron ship built in Liverpool in 1884, came to light in filming for "Ghosts of Cape Horn " (see p. 11) . Her wreck lies in Policarpo Cove, on the east coast of Tierra de! Fuego, north of Cape Horn. Her figurehead and some fittings have been sa lvaged and are ex hibit ed in a nearby museum. Her discovery brings the count of commercial square riggers surviving from the age of sail to 62.

The Norwegian sail training ship Sorlandet has been recommiss ioned by the town of Kristiansand , after a five-year layup. The ship, built in 1927, will take part in the Sail Training Assoc iation's Tall Ship Race across the Atlantic, which starts June 4 after Operation Sa il 80 in Boston , which features a parade of sail in Boston harbor May 30.

The new maritime museum in Liverpool (SH 12-36) wi ll open this summer, on the Merseyside South Docks. Initial in stallations include di splays on ship types common in the river, cargo handling, and twelve or more full-size cra ft. Boat repair, sailmaking, coopering and netmaking will be demonstrated, and there will be chantey singi ng in the evenings on the quays.

Merseyside County Museum s, William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 SEN England.

UNITED STATES

exhibit, "Steamship Posters through 80 Years: 1850-1 930," celebrating the Golden Age of a mode of transport iri which getting there was half the fun . Peabody Museum of Salem, East India Square, Salem MA 01970.

The Hawaiian Citizen, last C-3 mercha ntman in America n service, is scheduled to be retired by Matso n N avigatio n Co. this year. Built in 1944 for the US Navy, she went to Matson in 1947, who converted her to the first fully container-

-

ized US ship in 1960. In her first year in Matson service she made a summer passage, San Francisco-Honolulu, a t a n average 17 .46 knots.

Thirty years later, she made a winter HonoluluPortland passage at 17 .57 !

Coasting Schooners

Isaac H. Evans Lewis R. French

Small, Antique and Unusual Boats, a remark-

~ SaUing Vacation

The research barkentine Regina Maris, returning from Alaskan waters where she spent last summer, is pursuing her studies of the whale in the Carib bean this winter and spring. A modest

able news letter for owners or aficionados of such vessels, is seeking donations to provide a fire extinguishing system for the Clayton Ship Yard Museum, which maintains our fin es t collection of old motor yachts . SAUB, 3725 Talbot Street, San Deigo CA 92 106.

$265. weekly Brochures. CAPTA INS LEE & FOSS. Box 4~2 · 1' Rockland. Me. 04841 Tel . 207·594·8007

membership fee helps support her sailing and brings you the on-deck report ing of a sea letter from her captain as she sails. Ocean Research & Education Society, 51 Commercial Wharf 6, Boston MA 02210.

COLOGNE SPRAY

ROYAL TEL. 516-485-6943 PO. Box 263, Uniondale NY 11553, USA

34

The ocean liner heritage is ce lebrated in remarkab le exh ibition at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum at 91st Street and Fift h Avenue in New York, "The Oceanliner: Speed, Style, Symbol," throug h Apri l 6. And the Peabody Museum of Sa lem, Massachusetts has mounted a new

The Antique Boat & Yacht Club founded in 1963, reactivated under Commodore Alen York, a nd will announce a new program to be conducted from the National Society's headquarters in Brooklyn NY, where inquiries may be directed.

Maine Windjammer

:7'

INTERNATIONAL

A seeming revival of ocean liners as cruise ships is underway. While a galaxy of US liners led by SS United States is entering Paci fic trade (seep.

2 1), the elegant France is being recommiss io ned as SS Norway to sai l on seven-day cru ises from Miami to the Virgin Islands and Bahamas. Norwegian Caribbean Lines, I Biscayne Tower, Miami FL 33131.

EAST COAST A model of the St. Mary, Down Easter built at Phippsburgh in 1890 (SH 9, IO, 11), is being sought by the Maine State Museum for their disp lay using part of the ship recovered by the National Society's Falkland Isla nds Project.

They are particularly interested in a fine model exhibited at the Columbia Exposition in Chicago, which won an award in 1893. Al Borgese, Maine State Museum , Station 83, Augusta ME 04333 (207) 289-2301. (cont. p. 37)

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

Exy and Irving Johnson, who sailed their ships around the world. Photo: Jim Dion.

Do Something for the Ship

By Captain Irving Johnson

World-Wide Liner Services

On December 6, Dow Corning of Midland, Michigan, presented a replica of the stern carving of the 1856 packet Charles Cooper to the National Society. The replica was made from a Dow Corning silicone mold, taken off the ship in the Falkland Islands, where the Cooper ended up after her battle with Cape Horn. Captain Johnson, Senior Advisor to the Society 's Ship Trust Committee, was on hand to speak of Cape Horn sailing, and of the care and service men gave such ships.

A Cape Horn sea gives you one hissing warning, and in one split second you're either dead or alive, depending how you jump. There's a railing around the forecastle, the water goes through and the sailors don ' t-at least they're not supposed to. You get kind of beaten up when you hit the railing, but you take your injuries back to the skipper to patch up and carry on. I never saw a sailor who didn't.

They all did. They go into these crazy places and do something for the ship .

The Charles Cooper's stern carving comes from a ship that was sailed like that.

1 want to call attention to the fact that this carving is a work of art. The man who does it is picked by nature: he can do it, I can' t.

And this costs money. Those ships are only out there to make money. If there wasn ' t any money to be made, cargo to be shifted, they would.n't be there. Now this carving is something extra. It didn't have to be done.

But a sailor can admire his ship more if you've got it there. And if he admires her more, he's going to take better care of her.

And he's going to look at that ship as he goes ashore and say: "Oh , brother, she brought us through, look at that stuff on the stern, the carvings and all." This is worth money to the ship owners .

When I built the ketch Yankee I was very short of money, like most fellows who build ships. I put dollars into heavy teak trailboards, trailboards carved because I wanted to be proud of my ship. But what did this do?

It made money. By the thousands people along the shore looked at our ship as we crossed the continent of Europe 28 times from the Mediterranean to the Baltic, and their eyes went to her bows, to those trailboards. That got them interested, and on that interest Yankee sailed . I iust wanted to be proud of my ship. .t SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

The addition of our seventh trade route between U. S. West Coast ports and the Orient and Southeast Asia has increased our fleet to 44 ships, with enormous capacity for all types of cargo and modes, including a total annual fleet capacity of 200,000 plus containers.

Call Lykes for the fast reliable cargo hand li ng service that has become a trade-mark for one of America's largest, best-operated and efficient liner services.

e Ly~~~o!a~~es Lykes Lines offices at: NEW ORLEA NS. HO USTON , GALVES¡ TO N, NEW YORK, SAN FRANC ISCO, Beau mont, C hicago , Dallas, Kansas Ci ty, Lake Charles, Long Beac h, Seattle, Tampa, and Washingto n, D. C .

The 3 Masted Schooner

VICTORY CHIMES Largest Passenger Windjammer Under The U.S. Flag Sails weekly from Rockl and , Maine. Coast Gu ard inspected .

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For FREE color broch ure ca ll 207-596-6060 or write: 1

Capt. Frederick B. Guild Box 388, Rockland, Maine 04841

35

The Rose-Will She Or Won't She? ''A thoroughly electrifying experience,'' is how skipper Richard Bailey describes last summer's outing of the Rose, a replica of the British frigate that harried the coast from the Carolinas to Maine during the American Revolution. Manned by Sea Explorers and officered by a band of sailors who have become dedicated to getting the big ship under sail, she set her big single topsails, picked up her skirts and ran away from the pursuing photographer's tug at over 11 knots, in moderate airs on the hazy afternoon of July 13, 1979.

Confined to shore display and occasional outings in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay, it was the first time she'd been given her head at sea since 1973. She had had a hard time of it since John Millar, architectural historian of Newport, built her in Nova Scotia and sailed her in to bring life to Newport's historic waterfront.

Your reporter saw her coming out of the mists on the afternoon of her electric run, shortening down as she came in to join the National Maritime Heritage Festival sponsored by the American Sail Training Association at Newport.

The flag she flies at the gaff borrows Perry's and Lawrence' s "Don't Give Up the Ship." The enthralled souls on her poop mean every word. Bailey, in the ship seven years, has made three new yards for her (the first on Mystic Seaport' s giant lathe, the second two hewed out by adze as he learned the art), jibboom, new trestle trees and cross trees, bitts, and other items.

Her decks were recaulked by Jay Hazell, master shipwright of the Pride of Baltimore, who has high regard for the Rose and terms her a staunch ship fit for a sail-

Photos: Jane Brawley

ing career. But now she needs major help: her topside planking and upper futtock s must be replaced due to rainwater rot. Her future is uncertain.

Will she sail again? Has such a vessel a future in our waters, or will she be swallowed in the oblivion that now seems to await her, like the mists of that July afternoon? John Millar will tell more of her story in a future issue of SEA HISTORY , in which we look at the role of replicas and how they live or don't. This ship has going for her now only the dedication of those who have sailed her ... and perhaps the admiration and desire of those who have seen her and would not wish to PS let such a vessel slip out ofour ken.

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Seaport Magazine is just one of the benefits of membership in the South Street Seaport Museum ...

Advance not ice of eve nts. free ad miss ion to our h1sto n c s hi ps. and discou nts in the Museum shops. to even ts. a nd to harbo r sai ls are just a few of the othe rs.

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South Street Seaport Museum 203 Front St., New York , NY 10038 D Please send me more information!

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The Vernon Langille, Ta ncook whaler built by the Apprenti ceshop al Ba th, has fini shed her first season of sail training and cargo ca rrying under sail. She acts as rov ing ambassador fo r the Maine Ma ri time Museum, 983 Washington St., Bath ME 04530.

Sc hooner Bo wdoin, wh ich attracted much attentio n in a tour of the Maine Coast last summer, seeks funding to comp lete restoration work and "to cont inue her distin gui shed ca reer as an in strumen t of educat ion in marine sciences, na utical history and training." In ter Island Explorat ion, Camden ME 04843.

A new schooner, Heritage, has been laid down

by Doug Lee. A traditio nal 90' vesse l, she will sail in the Maine cruise trade. Douglas K. Lee, Box 842 , Rockland ME 04841.

A ha lf size waterlin e model of th e G loucester fishing schooner Rose Dorothea co ntinues to take sha pe at the Provincetown Herit age Museum o n Cape Cod, under the hand s of vo lunteers led by master builder Francis Sant os. The origin a l schooner won th e Lipton C up in 1907, Making her the fastest sc hooner of her day.

Museum, Box 552, Provi ncetown MA 02657.

The Kendall Whaling Museum has res umed its publication series with Pamela Miller' s A nd the

Whale is Ours: Creative Writing of American Whalemen. Robert H . Ellis, Jr., has been promot ed to curator, a nd Carol W . W. Tobo lj oined the staff as resea rch assistant. Mu seum , PO Box 297, Sharon MA 02067 .

Mystic Seaport Museum will hold a S m a ll Craft Weekend , March 15- 16, a n opportu nity for behind-the-scenes exp loration of one of the nati o ns's great co llec tions. An international marine art show is scheduled for the Art Ga llery, Apri l 20-Ju ly 27 . Mystic CT 06355.

T he Snu g Harbor C ultural Center, housed in the 26 buildings of Sa ilo r Snug Harbor in Staten Island, is embarking on ambiti ous cultural programs including grade school educat ion in New York ha rbor history. Membersh ip in the organ ization is $ 15. Center, 9 14 Ri chmond Terrace, Staten Island NY 10301.

In Savannah, the Army Corps of E ngineers report recovery o f live shells and other artifacts fr o m th e Confederate ironclad Georgia. The 10-gun, 150 ' ship was built to defend the harbor in 1862. And the Coastal Heritage Society announces a maj or small craft research project,

which wi ll study in detail , for the first time , the working watercraft of the lower Caro lina and Georgia coasts.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

T he Five Fathom Lightship and Museum, home of the Atlantic Ship Historical Society, is now open in Maryla nd 's West Ocean C it y. " Moored amongst trawlers, lobster boats, a nd pleasure yachts, she makes an interesting educat io nal maritime ex hibit ," reports cor responden t Bill Eggert of Baltimore.

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LAKES & RIVERS The fate of the A lvin Clark, discussed in our last issue, remains in the air as the 1840s topsa il sc hooner deteriorates at her berth in Menominee, Michigan. " After ten years of whistling into the wind in o ur a ttempts lo ge nerate governmental int erest in preserving the Alvin Clark, your interes t is heartening," says Frank Hoffman, salvor and keeper of the vessel. There has been co nsidera ble press discussio n in the regio n, wh ich does not appear to have reached th ose charged with th e heritage in Washington DC .

Help and suggestions are we lcomed by this Society and by H offman at PO Box 235, Menominee M l 49858.

The wooden propeller stea mer Indiana, built in 1848 at Vermilion, Ohio, which sank June 1858 on Lake Superior off C risp Point, had her engines retrieved this summer, fo r eventua l exhibition a t th e Smit hsonian Institutio n in Washin gton DC.

WEST COAST T he San Diego Maritime Museum opened the magnificent engine of the ferry Berkeley to the public last summer , a project initiated by fo rm er Fleet Captain Kenn eth D. Reynard. The matched and contrasting woods, sta in ed glass and o th er appurtenances of the public spaces on the big shi p have been restored to their fo rmer opulence, a nd house a broad-ranging collection including 19t h century machinery and tools.

Museum, 1306 North Harbor Drive, San Diego CA 92 101.

SAIL AWAY TO YESTERDAY Sail the Maine Coast. aboard. the historic windjammer schooner Stephen Taber. Weekly cn1ises. $325 includes everything.

For brochure call 207·236-3520 or write.

Schooner Stephen Taber 70 Elm St. Drawer D. Camden, Maine 04843 .

DIRECT FROM THE SHIPBREAKERS A LARGE SELECTION OF SHIPS' LANTERNS, BINNACLES BELLS, PORTHOLES AND MANY UNIQUE PIECES For further information & photos:

IClllil.I

85 Whitfi eld St. Dept. SH

T he National Maritime Museum, Sa n Francisco, is a t work on future plans includ ing the development of Haslett Warehouse a nd ex pansion and rejuvenation of the floating fleet. The Museum Association, led by Thomas B. Crowley of Crow ley Maritime, adv ises a nd helps to fund this work . The two volunteer organizations associated with the Museum , Friends of the A lm a and Friends of the Eppleto n H a ll (see SH 8), have now joined forces in a single organizati on to promote citizen involvement a nd co ntinu e their exemp la ry work in active steam , sail and educat ional progra ms. Friends of A lm a/ Eppleton Hall , 680 Beach Street, Suite 330, San Francisco, CA 94 109.

The China cab in (SH 13:44), from William Webb 's Paci fic Ma il Steam Sh ip Co., sidewhee ler, China, built in 1866 and scrapped in 1886, has been turned over to the Landmark Society in Belvedere-Tiburon, north of San Francisco. Funds are sought for full restoration, and the Society offers a pict ure of th e China o n her last voyage to the O rient for $11.40. Society, PO Box 134, BelvedereTiburon CA 94920.

w

Gui lford, CT 06437

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AS WE SEE IT Great Liners of The Past Are yo u interested in great liners suc h as th e TITANIC, OLYMPIC, BRITANNIC, LUSI TANIA , MAURETANIA, AQUITANIA, QUEEN MARY, and the QUEEN ELIZABETH I? If so, you may be interested in joining the TITANIC HISTORICAL SOC IETY, INC. This society, founded in 1963, covers th ese lin ers plus much more about th e White Star Lin e and Cunard White Star Ltd . stea mship companies and their ships. Publi shes a fine JOURNAL four times a year, profusely illustrated.

For a samp le copy of our jou rnal - se nd $3. 00 by check or mo ney order. Write fo r FREE membership info rm at ion.

TITANIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC. DEPT. M P.O. BOX-53 INDIAN ORCHARD, MASS. 01151 USA

37

BOOKS The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625-1860, by James Lees (Annapolis, Naval Institute Press, 1979, 267 pp., illus., $34.95) .

A master work of the first magnitude!

This book is a weighty volume and between its 10 x 12 inch covers, is stored as complete and detailed a documentation of the titled subject as can be desired. It is truly cyclopedic in coverage.

Neat line-drawing sketches give the reader a clear understanding of the item described in the text, and they are often evolutionary in showing changes that occurred as time and the naval establishment progressed. Besides the text drawings there are 72 photographs of models in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. Some show the full vessel and others are detail views, of which, unfortunately, a few have the referenced area in shadow or so dark as to be almost useless. There are also 21 plates of early seamanship book pages, builders' and riggers' plans, ship profiles and black-and-white prints of famous paintings.

The text is in four parts; Masting, which covers the making and setting of a vessel's spars together with comprehensive detailing of their fittings; Rigging, in which all the shrouds, stays, catharpins, halliards, sheets and other cordage is minutely described; Sailmaking, which defines all the bits and pieces of the various sails and explains how they go together to make up those "clouds of canvas" that billowed over the old "wooden walls", and Seamanship. This last section would be better titled "Marlinespike Seamanship", since it is limited to that part of the seafaring profession. In chronological order, it lists the many changes in the pieces of rigging and methods of their employment. Then without describing their construction, it mentions the numerous knots, hitches, seizings, etc. that are used and has beautifully clear line drawings of all this rope work, of various blocks and many other fittings.

The section closes with deck plans and descriptive texts for belaying the many pieces of running rigging of vessels in different periods. Each of the first three parts is further broken down into sections on individual spars, on pieces of rigging and the different sails. Unfortunately, at least for this retired mariner, quite a few minor annoyances crop up throughout, such as the author calling those sails on the front end "jibsails", an uninformed landsman's term, and dropping an identifying word in the text although it is given in the chapter or section headings. For example, under the title "Main Topmast 38

Staysail", the text refers to the "Main Top Staysail" . And he lists the Mizen Crossjack Yard which is rather redundant since only the lower yard on the mizenmast is the crossjack . There are several other such inconsistencies and some misapplication of names, which is unfortunate because such a work will properly be considered an authoritative reference, and to the uninitiated, its contents will be "gospel" . A few typographic errors can be noted, and I am not referring to the British practice of dropping the "the" so often . In the area of "authoritative references", I note that while the author refers to Falconer and his Marine Dictionary as an authority, in a few cases they differ.

The book has a peculiar format. At least, I have not seen such a make-up before. The text, appendix and index pages are consecutively numbered, but the rear end of each section has several unnumbered pages of photographs. These are not put in as extra inserts, but are part of the total binding, which makes for a bit of confusion. But withal, the volume is well worth having, and as Alan Villiers says in his foreword, " ... a book of this stature has long been wanted in the model maker's and (naval history) student's world."

ROBERT G. HERBERT, JR .

Sea Chanteys and Forecastle Songs at Mystic Seaport, performed and arranged

by Stuart M. Frank, Stuart Gillespie, & Ellen Cohn (New York , Folkways Records, 1978 FfS 37300, $8.95).

Those who have wandered into Mystic Seaport over the past few years have had their ears pleasantly assaulted by this trio.

They are the center of Mystic's daily summer chantey program. All are accomplished musicians on their respective instruments.

The album is divided into two discrete parts-working chanteys and forecastle songs. Most of the working chanteys are fairly standard, but there is a fine sample of a double chantey-a way of working the two watches at differing tasks with a minimum of confusion. If you wish to learn more of it, buy the album. On side two, the mix is between accompanied vocals and straight instrumentals. Here, the song mix is more varied. Several uncommon songs are presented, including "Paddy and the Whale," "The Bold Benjamin," and "The Balena." In all, the album is well worth your purchase.

As usual, Folkways includes a booklet of explanatory notes and lyrics. This one also has a brief annotated bibliography.

ERIC P . RUSSELL

The Fleet Submarine in the U.S. Navy: A Design and Construction History, by John D. Alden, CDR, USN (ret.) (Annapolis MD, Naval Institute Press, 1979, 290 pp., ill.' $28.95).

World War II, as it was fought in the vast Pacific Theater of Operations, was primarily a naval and amphibious war.

All our military services took part but in the final analysis, Japan's military was wiped out, her commercial shipping swept from the seas, her island outposts destroyed and the Empire virtually strangled by the greatest Navy that ever put to sea.

In the forefront of the naval effort to defeat Japan were the fleet submarines that carried the offensive to the enemy in waters impenetrable to other types of ships. These were formidable weapons, equipped to perform a multitude of tasks.

They could take on the most powerful ships afloat with their conventional torpedoes, hit smaller, agile opponents with their homing torpedoes, and finish off lightly armed surface craft with their deck guns. They could dive deep enough and were strong enough to survive desperate hours under attack.

Although much has been written in history and fiction of the exploits of these ships and their men, there have been only a few arid technical references on the development of this superb instrument of war. John Alden has filled this gap with authority and spirit.

The author has written an absorbing and articulate account of the evolution of the submarine. It abounds in very human anecdotes of the personnel involved in this development and their splendid response to the urgent requirements of the operating forces. Virtually every constructor, designer and production manager of the period is singled out for his individual effort. The book itself is dedicated to Rear Admiral Andrew I. McKee, whom most operators consider the greatest of them all-a splendid naval officer in the finest tradition-brilliant, dedicated and human .

This one book will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers: The naval historian can find the supplementary data and descriptions needed to flesh out and give life to his own efforts.

The veteran submariner can find his own well loved ships and the characteristics and history of their construction.

The engineer can find the origin, trials and resolutions of problems which arose.

The ship's constructor can review the difficulties experienced in the various yards-Electric Boat Company in SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

Groton, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire, Cramp Shipbuilding in Philadelphia, Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California-and the solutions developed by each of them.

The submarine buff can broaden his knowledge of submarines and, by learning the details of their various designs and construction, add to his understanding of their operation.

John Alden has produced a superb book, accurate, complete and without bias. Your reviewer served in the R-2, Halibut (Portsmouth built), Dragone!

(Cramp built), and commanded Tilefish (Mare Island built), and Commander Alden's history has brought fresh insight and keen memories to an old sailor.

RADM WALTER F. SCHLECH, JR., USN (ret.)

Harbor & Haven: An Illustrated H istory of the Port of New York, by John G. Bunker (Woodland Hills CA, Windsor Publications, 1979, 302 pp., illus., $25).

From its opening chapter, "A Very Good Land To Fall In With," to its concluding vignette histories of fi rms in business in the port today, this work presents a panorama of change and progress unequalled in our national story: for

Marine Catalogue No. 1 $2.00 Others Will Follow

Old, Rare

and out-of-print Books

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Atlanta, Georgia 30301

CLIPPER CLASSICS Presenting the most authoritative and renowned works on clipper ships ever published.

AMERICAN CLIPPER SHIPS 1833-1858, by Howe & Matthews

The histories of 350 clippers. Two volume boxed set, 780 pages, 113 plates-$40.00 POSTPAID THE LAST OF THE WINDJAMMERS, by Basil Lubbock

The swan-song of the . mightly iron and steel Cape Homers. 1870-1928. Two volumes, 34 foldout plans, 966 pages, 300 illustrations $60.00 POSTPAID -----Lavishly bound, stamped and illustrated IMMEDIATE DELIVERY PROMISED

SEAWAYS BOOKS Box 274, Rte. 94, Salisbury Mills, NY 12577

the business of this great port, New York, has been the business of the nation.

Sponsored by the ever-active Maritime Association of the Port of New York, this is the first history of the port since the WPA Writers' Project volume of 1941.

It is both needed and welcome. Bunker brings penetrating insight to the story, and shows its impact on individual lives.

Abundant illustrations vividly support this close-in approach, and the whole volume is inviting as well as challenging in its message. President of the NY State Maritime Museum Association, distinguished journalist, histo rian and public affairs person for the Seafarers International Union, Bunker offers a great seaport city the most valuable gift in history's keeping, the gift of self-awareness - with verve, candor and an infectious sense of the importance of the story. PS SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

Best Books on Nautical Subjects Excellent selection on history by Chapelle, Lubbock, Underhill and others.

Send for catalog of over 500 titles-history, boatbuilding, design, navigation, cruising, fishing, cooking, etc. $2 refundable with first order.

Books reviewed by SEA HISTORY are available at a 10% discount.

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NAUTICAL BOOKS, FILMS, MODELS, RECORDS ON OCEAN LINERS AND AIRSHIPS: Complete cata log of items : 50¢ in Coin or Stamps. Order from : 7 C'S PRESS, INC. P.O. BOX 57, DEPT. SH RIVERSIDE, CT. 06878 USA

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40

The Whaleboat-A Study of Design, Construction and Use From 1850 to 1970,

by Willits D. Ansel (Mystic CT, Mystic Seaport Inc., 1978, 147 pp., ill., $7.50 paper, $12.50 hardbound).

The name "whaleboat" has been casually applied to a variety of small craft since perhaps colonial times. Currently the US Navy classifies its 26 ft. fiberglass power launch as a "motor whaleboat".

Mr. Ansel's book brings the matter into focus by describing in excellent detail those small boats designed, built and equipped for the hunting and killing of whales, the only type properly deserving of the name. He begins with a brief history of the development of the type from early British and Nordic references in the 15th century and a Basque seal (ca. 1335) to the peak of its refinement in the 1870s.

Succeecling chapters deal with its use, equipment, sailing rigs, builders, construction and related subjects. The text is complemented with a good selection of photographs, sketches, lines plans and reproductions of prints and paintings.

The "1970" in the title refers to the three whaleboats built recently at Mystic's small craft shop. Different sailing rigs and other gear were accurately duplicated and several boat crews, using historic accounts for reference, simulated as accurately as possible all the techniques used to attack and kill a whale. There is no valid reason to hunt whales todaybut there is good reason to keep in life the boats and disciplines of an era when the contest was on more nearly equal terms .

DON MEISNER Talbot-Booth's Merchant Ships, Vol. 2, ed. R. A. Streater & D. G. Greenman (New York, Nichols Pub. Co ., 1978, 207 pp., ill., $25.00) .

This is the second of three volumes being produced by the British Ship Recognition Corps, to provide "a reference for the enthusiast" and "a 'right hand' to the armed forces of the free world in their constant battle in the identification of merchant shipping.'' This volume concentrates on the decreasingly common engines aft/ bridge amidships configuration, and the increasingly common engines aft/ bridge forward configuration. The third volume in this series, due out this year, will feature the engines and bridge aft configuration found in the new supertankers and gas carriers. These are excellent reference books containing hundreds of illustrated identification profiles, plus basic technical data on a significant number of the world' s currently active merchant ships.

MICHAEL GILLEN

Toy Boats 1870-1955: A Pictorial History, by Jacques Milet and Robert Forbes (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1979, 120 pp, illus. b/ w and color, $24.95) .

This photographic collection of antique toy boats shows the changes in toys, from landlubber to aquatic, and the rapid changes in ship types characterizing the past century. How many boys were in-

fluenced by these toys to become riverboat pilots or to go to sea? Most, perhaps, only dreamed over them, and learned from them, as you may enjoy doing in the pages of this fine collection.

MICHAEL A. SERENSEN Mr. Serensen, a model maker himself, is a leading light of the NMHS, Shipcraft Guild, and Nautical Research Guild.

Whitehaven and the Tobacco Trade, by Nancy Eaglesham (Whitehaven Museum, Whitehaven, England, 1979, 12 pp, illu s trated. UK-30p plu s po s tage; US-$1.25 postpaid).

For a brief period in the 18th century Whitehaven was a major port in the export of manufactured goods to the Colonies and the import of tobacco . At the peak of the trade, around 1740, ships made several trips a year to ports such as Fredericksburg or Port Tobacco in search of " strong Virginia" or " light dry Maryland," gradually selling off their English goods to buy the local leaf. John Paul Jones, in fact, began his sea-going career on just such a Whitehaven vessel. The pamphlet details the economics of the trade, with excerpts from cargo manifests, and briefly discusses the type of ship construction necessary for Cumbrian ports which dried out at low tide. With the decline of the tobacco trade, due in part to economics and in part to Colonial dissatisfaction with locally manufactured goods, the local collieries assumed an increasingly important role, and it was a Whitehaven collier, Thompson, that Jones burned during his 1778 raid .

NICHOLAS DEAN M r. Dean ser ves as volunteer in the NMHS Falkland Islands project.

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

Nantucket, the Life of an Island, by Edwin P. Hoyt (Brattleboro, Vt., The Stephen Greene Press, 1978, 209 pp., ill., $11.95).

This new book on a fabled island is pure delight, from its attractive map cover to its extensive bibliography. It brings the number of books in print about Nantucket to 16, up from four only a decade ago. The interest in Nantucket shows no sign of abating. Why? Perhaps because the island's history of eary prosperity and hardship is unusual; perhaps because it failed so completely to replace whaling with any other endeavor after the 1860s, leaving us a time capsule of streets and buildings from that era; perhaps because it is one of the last frontiers of unspoiled vacation land-and perhaps also because Nantucket is an island, self sufficient and removed from the rest of the world. Edwin Hoyt says that everyone discovers Nantucket in his own way. I discovered it with cameras-others have their own approach. The process of discovery is most rewarding, and this book should encourage anyone not familiar with the island to explore further.

Nantucket's history includes a fascinating 200-year span from 1659 to 1859.

Thomas Macy (from whom R. H. Macy descended) moved there from the mainland in order to be free from the harassment by Puritans. He had been fined for giving shelter to some Quakers during a thundershower.

They were forced into whaling because the soil on the island was poor, and by the early 1700s had been overworked. They began by sighting whales from the island, but gradually the farmers went further out to sea and eventually became true sailors in a profitable but arduous business.

Hoyt's book is full of excellent stories.

These include accounts of hardship , especially during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Nantucket depended on trade with England and was in a difficult position in both wars. At times the islanders ran out of firewood and food, but after both periods of decline they came back to a greater level of prosperity than before. They were fiercely independent souls. As Hoyt says, the sea around them was "barrier as well as provider."

The book takes us into the 20th Century, beyond the point where most others leave off. We see the discovery of historical" interest in the island in the 1920s and the tone set by Everett Crosby in the 1940s to prevent the development of a Coney Island atmosphere. Hoyt says, "through vigilance and care ...

Nantucket has remained more unspoiled SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

than virtually any other similar place in America.'' The old was to be preserved, the garish avoided and commercialism disguised. No neon signs for the shopsonly quarterboards.

We are fortunate in the vision of these people and others, like the historian Edouard Stackpole and the enlightened developer Walter Beinecke, which allows us to discover for ourselves the extraordinary beauty and unique history of the island whose story is well told in this welcome book.

ROBERT GAMBEE Mr. Gambee, a New York writer and photographer, is the author of two books on islands, Nantucket Island and Manhattan Seascape.

George Washington's Coast Guard, by Irving H . King (Annapolis, US Naval Institute, 1978, 229 pp ., Illus., $10.95).

No one will be surprised to learn that the US Revenue Cutter Service, predecessor to today's Coast Guard, was authorized the smallest possible vessels which could do the job. Nor will it be a surprise to many, that there was considerable variation in the cutters which were built. The cost overruns during the building of the cutter for Philadelphia begins a familiar refrain, but there is a surprise ending to this: the Collector of Customs, Sharp Delaney, and the citizens of Philadelphia paid the extra costs out of their own pockets!

Other familiar themes in this compact history are the nation's hurried arming in the face of military threat from abroad and the rapid demobilization of the newly created defense forces as soon as the threat is removed. Included too are smugglers who sound very much like those from the Prohibition Era. This fine little book is crammed with information-but it would have made a better big book . Repeatedly I wondered just what happened in some of the events sketched only briefly. What was it like to keep station off the coast in a cutter about the size of a lifeboat on a modern ocean liner? Were there no comical irv;idents which came to light during the research?

And why, oh why, was not Alexander Hamilton's letter to the Collectors of Customs reproduced large enough to be read? Small faults and limitations aside, this is a valuable book for students of seafaring history and the early naval history of the United States.

ROBERT STRICKLAND Mr. Strickland, former director of the Wyoming State Museum, grew up on, and on occasion in the Hudson River, where he built a brigantine from a lifeboat and dories which proved cranky.

THREE FASCINATING ASPECTS OF SEA HISTORY • 19th-Century Reforms • Yachting History • Early U-Boats OUR SEAMEN· AN APPEAL

By Samuel Plimsoll, MP Reproduced from the original edition of 1873.

A reprint of one of the most important maritime books ever published .

Plimsoll's appeal caused a sensation, revealing the scandalo us practices of shipowners and insurance companies, and changed the course of m aritime history. l lOpp., illustrated, large fo rmat , cloth, $16.50

AN INTRODUCTION TO YACHTING

By L. Francis Herreshoff An illustrated history of yachting from 6000 BC to the era of the great steam yachts. Reissue of the 1963 edition.

189pp., illustrated, large format, cloth, $30.00

THREE BEFORE BREAKFAST A true and dramatic account of how a German U-boat sank three British cruisers in one desperate hour.

By Alan Coles A vivid account of one of the first U-boat battles at the beginning of World War I. 192pp., illustrated, cloth, $13.50

-and an American classic SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD

By Captain Joshua Slocum With original illustrations by Thomas Fogarty and George Varian. Introduction by Walter Magnes Teller.

294pp., illustrated, cloth, $8.50

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BOOKS Draggermen, Fishing on the Georges Bank, by George Matteson (New York,

The Exceptional Argonaut sails upstream on the Seine in Normandy.

Built as the world' s largest private yacht, she carries a crew and staff almost as numerous as her passengers. Their unfailingly cheerful service and a warm atmosphere of relaxed informality have endeared her voyages to hundreds who return each year to enjoy a manner of travel which cannot be duplicated.

Argonaut voyages inaugurate the second century of special Raymond & Whitcomb travel.

GRAND EUROPEAN SPRING VOYAGE April 21 to May 18 Follow the Continent's sprightly season of wildflowers from Greece to England, in a sequence of days that promise fresh insights and good times. The three segments may also be reserved individually.

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MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS Athens to Malta, Sicily, Sardinia , Corsica, the Ri viera and Provence. Each is a delightful world unto itse lf, joined in a single journey.

WESTERN PASSAGE Nice, then to Carcassonne in France, Barcelona and Granada in Spain , Tangier in Morocco, the Algarve and Lisbon in Portugal.

GREAT WATERWAYS Cruise to Oporto. Visit Santiago de Compostela. Wend through France on three scenic rivers-the Gironde, Loire and Seine. Call at Brest and St-Malo. Fly home from England.

WATERWAYS OF FRANCE/ISLAND WORLD OF BRITAIN July 1to20 The nature of two nations is experienced in a particularly pleasant way, to be enjoyed in combination or separately.

WATERWAYS OF FRANCE Fly to Paris. Cruise the Seine and Loire and the bays of Brest and Biscay for a singular approach to famed chateaux, vineyards , castles, gardens and lo ve ly small villages .

ISLAND WORLD OF BRITAIN Cruise through outer islands of extraordinary beauty and interest-the Sci Ilies, Hebrides and Orkney-and to Wales, the Highlands and Lowlands of Scotland .

AUGUST IDYLLS July 29 to August 16 Popular weeks of summer holiday gaiety will be enjoyed in a distinctive fashion, in one o~ two segments.

IBERIAN IDYLL Circle the peninsula shared by Portugal and Spain, visiting Lisbon, Cadiz, Seville, Granada and Barcelona for nine specia l days.

MEDITERRANEAN IDYLL Celebrate summer in Monte Carlo, Pisa and Florence, the isle of Elba, round Capri and Amalfi to Salerno for Paestum and Pompeii , call at Taormina on Sicily and at Italy's heel for Lecce and Brindis i, cruise the Adriatic to the walled towns of Dubrovnik, Kotor, and to the Ionian is land of Corfu , a Greek favorite. The ARGONAUT is registered in Greece For reservations and information, call, write or visit

42

RAYMOND & WHITCOMB

Co.

Four Winds Press, 1978, 138 pp., illus., $7.95).

"You got to watch carefully to see exactly what they do,'' the captain of a stern trawler is quoted as saying to the author.

Watch carefully he did, accompanying the fishermen to sea, and the results live for us in this straightforward account. Matteson's descriptions of the fishing, the habits of fish, merchandising the catch and the comversations of the New England fishermen are like hearing someone talk while sitting on a dock. Excellent photographs illumine the text.

For visitors to the fishing ports of the northeast coast this slim volume is a must.

For those who love the sea and are interested in the men who work on it, this book would be a joyful addition to their MICHAEL COHN library.

Mr. Cohn of the Brooklyn's Children's Museum is an anthropologist interested in seamen and fishermen and co-author with Michael Platzer of Black Men of the Sea. California Shipwrecks, Footsteps in the Sea, by Don B. Marshall (Seattle, Superior Publishing Co., 1978, 175 pp., illus., $14.95).

The recorded shipwrecks of California, riverine and inland lake disasters as well as the tragedies of a not-always-sunny coast, are well remembered in this lively volume.

Nearly 100 black-and-white photographs and drawings record the death throes and pitiful remains of a wide variety of vessels great and small. Mr. Marshall's happy faculty of storytelling rewards the reader with engaging, sometimes humorous histories of some of the vessels. One such tale concerns a ferryboat hauled (or towed?) by mule team to the middle of a desert, where she was abandoned-an unusual case of stranding! This book is organized geographically, making chronology of various wrecks difficult to follow, but the work surely deserves a welcome on any shelf of seafaring books.

PAUL LOUIS ROSS

Mr. Ross, farmer skipper of South Street Museum's schooner Pioneer and the yawl Petrel sailing out of New York, is a National Society volunteer, now in the course of moving to the Pacific Northwest.

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A 1·is it to Gage & Tollner is a nos talgic trip ~ " .~. · ')!~'JJ into the past. For we a r e one of t h e last of the ' · · · 0 grea t orig inal Gay 90s eati ng houses. Today, " " C.'y we are a la ndm a rk . Our elegan t dining room still echoes w ith the g a iety of t he "good old clay s." Our menu still draws pat rons from nea r a nd fa 1· to sa vor wha t many call t he best Am er ica n-st,·le cooking in the coun t r y. And t he s er vice con t inues to 1·efl ect the hospi ta li ty of t hat bygone e1·a. A t Gage & T olln e1·, the a r t of m a kin g pat rons hap p,1· ha:; ne1·er been lost. I t's how we ca me to fa me.

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SEA HISTORY, WINTE R 1980

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•Originals •Lithographs •Antiques

•Wood carvings •Scrimshaw •Etching

Originals by: AIKEN LAWRENCE ANDRUS MAYER BARBER MAYS BARKER MILLER BLAIR MOORE CAMPBELL PEACH CARPENTER PEREPELITZA DIXON ROBERTS ENGLISH ROBINSON ENSOR ROGERS FRISINO SKEMP HANDLEN SMITH HANKS STILLE HUDSON STONE IAMS TAYLOR JOYCE TUTWILER KRASYK VICKERY LAMAY VOORHEES WE TWORTH

Annapolis Marine Art Gallery

BATTLE OF THE MONITOR AND MERRIMA CK 29" x 21" 1000 Signed and Numbered $75 Winter 1980 One of the most famous battles of naval history- the Civil War clash between the MONITOR andMERRIMA CK - has been brought to life 117 years after it took place through the skill and talent of marine artist Carl Evers.

LIMITED EDITION PRINTS ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH:

THE GREENWICH WORKSHOP GALLERY 61 Unquowa Rd., Fairfield, CT 255-4613

110 Dock St., Annapolis, MD 21401

SEA HISTORY PRINTS Presents a set of four Hudson Steamboat Prints by the noted marine artist WILLIAM G. MULLER

SEA HISTORY PRINTS

The Syracuse of 1857

Finely printed on canvas-grained paper, these full color prints capture the elegance and romance of a vanished era. Image size 8" x 12" .

Set of four $20 To: National Maritime Historical Society, 2 Fulton St., Brooklyn NY 11201. sets(s) of Please send me four Hudson Steamboat Prints.

My check for$ is enclosed.

NAME - - - - - - - - - - -

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ ZIP _ _ _ __

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A collection of important harbor and river views during the heyday of the merchant sailing ship by the renowned marine artist

JOHN STOBART PITTSBURGH IN 1900 (shown above) • MAIDEN LANE, NEW YORK• WAYNE CITY LANDING• VALLEHO WHARF, SAN FRANC ISCO • START OF THE SANTA FE TRAIL

Published as signed, limited edition collector's prints, prices are $200 signed and $400 remarqued, except for "Start of the Santa Fe Trail" which is $300 signed, $600 remarqued. Other prints are also available. All prices are subject· to change by availability a nd the dictates of the collector 's market.

Through the generosity of the artist, half the cost of each print will go to benefit th e work of the NMHS , and is therefore, tax-deductible. This offer is available to NMHS members only. For more information please contact:

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY 2 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 Tel: 212-858-1348

SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

"The Real Price of Fish" oil 40x52 Peter W. Rogers A small Scots trawler our of Castlebay on the Isle of Barra, Outer Hebrides, would have been indistinguishable from the "sea return," the reflection of the big swells running, on the merchantman's radar. Wh en the sun finally found a thin spot, they were loo close for any action but murmured thanks. Painting the fo g, more than half the canvas, in violet was a risk calculated to disorient and recreate the eerie tension and shock of !he experience.

ASM~s

Second Annual Exhibition

By Peter Sorlien

Any notion that marine art is slightly repetitious nostalgia for square riggers was laid to rest by the Second Annual Exhibition of the American Society of Marine Artists. Seventy-five contemporary works by forty Atlantic, Pacific and Great Lakes artists were assembled at Grand Central Galleries, New York from December 5-21, 1979, and they sang the epic of sailors and ships, ancient and modern, the world over.

Ships in portrait seem larger than life, imperious to the men who serve them. Most marine artists are sailors as well-Navy, Coast Guard, yachtsmen, fishermen, merchantmen, builders and the first tour of the gallery showed a tough admiration for those who endured the hardships and paused for the moments of beauty at sea.

The slack-jawed fear of a whaleboat crew pulling up on a leathery grey hump, so reluctantly that artist Bob Sticker must call "Stand Up, Harpooner", was reinforced by the unfathomable blue water and swirling pure foam. It may not have mattered at the moment, to the oyster fisherman catching his breath in Bill SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

Kavanek's "Coffee Break", but the rich tones of mud, broken shells and scattered lines on deck complemented the tanned skipjack sails silhouetted in pearly mist.

Ironically, even the enchanting grace of marine animals, and the sea itself, seemed inseparble from danger and hardship. The supple curves of a huge hammerhead shark, in a diminutive painting by Fred Freeman, swept a hapless pearl diver into a maelstrom of violence. Steve Capiz sculpted a sinuous trio of bronze sharks, polished to an illusion of water slipping over their abrasive skin, titled "Killers on the Reef." He also cast in bronze the astounding ease with which the bulky humpback whale cavorts underwater, harmless unless hunted.

Traditions endure in marine art, as at sea, and some of the oldest were represented in the contemporary work. "The Engagement of Blanche and Pique" recalled not only the superior sea power which built the British Empire, but also Georgian style, in the luminous yellow-green backdrop and mannered translucent waves painted by James Capua.

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"The Seas of Cape Horn" oil 30x40 James E. Mitchell Jim Mitchell has tackled the most difficult of marine subjects-the raw sea with no distractionswith breathtaking success. This fine composition mounts, wave by massive wave, to the Horn itself, and sweeps beyond the horizon with artless grace. Mitchell's large repertoire of fluent brushwork apparently carried no white, just infinite shades of blues and greens of entrancing subtlety. The irresistible siren is the wanton sea itself.

"Sheeting In" oil approx. 38x48 Charles R. Robinson The steep foredeck of the Falls of Clyde offered precarious footing for sheeting in the outer jib.

Aching shoulders and cold wet bunks were worth it, for the thrill of dipping the rail to a mountainous sea in the Roaring Forties. The drama cast by empty sunlight on the geometry of rigging focuses on the dynamic wedge of straining figures. This boldly cropped composition was sketched on board at the Bishop Museum, Honolulu, one hundred years lo the day after Clyde's commissioning in 1878.

"Convoy of the Cripples" oil 32x43 Raymond Massey October 16, 1944, USS The Sullivans wheels sharply to knock down the Japanese airplane which torpedoed the already crippled Houston, in tow to Pearl Harbor for repairs.

A classic broadside portrait of the British three-master Wavertree, in period style, was included by ASMA's first president Charles Lundgren. A low, distant viewpoint; warm yellow glimmering through cool green, gently curling seas; the corkscrew set of the yards against a fading orange sunset emphasized sober dignity. Grace Harwar, a British three-master portrayed under short sail by Frank Handlen, dived through cold, slate seas, breaking at the near edge of the frame. The elevated view of her port quarter asserts the press of gale force winds, and the raw greys and veil of spray painted over Impressionist color expressed their cutting fury.

Tom Wells specializes in square riggers of the F. Laeisz fleet, for he rounded the Horn on Passat. His portrait of Pamir surging against a windraked sea was brought to life, with films and anecdotes by Captain Irving Johnson at the exhibit opening, and a visit to the living ship Peking at South Street Seaport.

The utter stillness of icebound Hudson's Bay allowed Chris Blossom to portray the intricate rigging and deckhouses of the whaling bark Canton in 1839, through reflectons from each surface. Subtle highlights of brown defined wood at different angles to the sun, for example, and pale blues flickered over the ice floes.

An Impressionistic technique captures the lively chop and lush landscape of the Hudson River for Bill Muller. His anecdotal scene of the Hudson River Day Line paddle wheeler Robert Fulton churning past trap fishermen and little sloops expresses the glorious optimism of the era.

Victor Mays worked with areas of color to portray a Thames sailing barge grounded out at ebb tide, in the familiar comfort of Southwark quay. The spare, flat composition and sweetly harmonious palette became fully atmospheric through Mays' judicious selection of crisp and soft edges. A companion watercolor

"Pamir Below the Ramirez" oil approx. 24x30 Thomas Wells Dull golds glowing through a leaden sky set off Wells' precise rendering of rigging, learned as seaman on the Passat.

"Robert Fulton" oil William G. Muller The Fulton of 1909 was in regular service for the Hudson River Doyline until 1954 and is shown here coming up river, off Croton Point with the Alexander Hamilton in the background.

"The Bubble" casein I 5x27 Fred Freeman "In the lore of every submariner lies the belief. .. (that) bubbles of air remain within . .. a sunken submarine," holding out the incredible hope of escape to an American P. 0. W. Entombed by his own country's subchasers, he has located the hatch crank and furiously waves his oily bubble closer. His bulging muscles and twisted arms scream from superhuman effort, in an unearthly yellow and green light of desperate terror.

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SEA HIISTORY, WINTER 1980

-f

"Courageous vs. Southern Cross" oil 24x36 Mark Greene Courageous led the Australian challenger Southern Cross by a comfortable margin through all four races of the 1974 America's Cup series. Courageous is shown in the third race, well away on the 8 to JO knot breeze, while Southern Cross was jibing to round the marker.

showed a sailing barge, 30 of which have been converted for yachting or education, passing astern of a diesel-powered harbor oiler.

The central tradition of marine art remains representational integrity, investing in each image, not only assiduous research of history, meteorology and sea states, but also a lifetime of boating and observing the water and sky; of reading and scouring shops for old books and dusty magazines; of travel to forgotten piers and remote backwaters; of inquiry, and swapping sea stories and enthusiasm.

Time spent applying paint to canvas is often only a fraction of the time required to understand and recreate the subject.

Many artists work closely with marine museums, from sense of common purpose and to support the preservation of references.

Dan Perepelitza, for example, has restored models at the Peabody Museum in Salem for eight years and consulted their extensive archives on whaling for a charming series of ship portrait etchings. The World War II destroyer The Sullivans, at the center of the graphic action in ''Convoy of the Cripples,'' is berthed at the Buffalo Naval Park near artist Ray Massey's home.

The Welland Canal, used by many early-century bulk carriers, resembles a working museum and is a frequent vacation haunt of Peter Rogers. His painting of the Mar/hill ex-Parker Evans ( 1908) ''Locking Through'' is disconcerting and powerful, cast in glowing blue from mercury vapor yardlights.

English Admiralty records, though difficult to use, were the best reference for Mark Greene's Prince de Neufchate/. An American privateer built by Noah Brown in 1811, theNeufchate/ SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

outsped English frigates and captured more prizes than any ship of her time in one year. Fine modelling of her straining canvas and ingenious, restrained composition of the sky suggest her great speed. By concentrating his interest, Bob Skemp has acquired a thorough knowledge of clippers, yet his "Lookout off the California Coast" balances detail and the experience of fast sailing, with high-key color and sparkling light.

The decline of the US flag in ocean transport prompted IOT Corporation to sponsor the exhibition. JOT believes that marine art could be a beckoning hand to a nation which has turned its back to the oceans, and a vivid reminder of the role of the US merchant marine in building and defending the nation.

The satisfying public response and sales record also promise restoration of the respect monopolized for decades by abstract art. Grand Central Galleries, one of the leading proponents of representational art, has seen its faith in marine art justified, and has begun preparations with ASMA for the Third Annual Exhibition in late November 1980.

Much credit is due Mark Greene, newly-elected president Pete Rogers, the ASMA jury and the other artists who organized the exhibition and who have labored unselfishly to create the Society.

The scope and variety of the work assembled substantiated their vision of creative excitement in interpreting maritime themes . .v Mr. Sorlien was "4 to 8 ordinary" on the Texaco Illinois before earning a degree in art history. He has mounted three exhibitions of marine art as director of a comrnunity art agency in Westfield, NY on Lake Erie, where he runs the gallery "Access to the Arts. "

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ASMA

News

Are you interested in tugs?

Now showing: Paintings by Suzy Aalund, ASMA Watercolors by Willard Bond, ASMA Marine photos by Frank Klay And other marine and New England scenes Out of print books of the sea.

Antique maps & charts.

TRADEWINDS GALLERY 15 W . Main St. (near the bridge)

Mystic, Conn. 06355 Open Tuesday thru Saturday 10 AM to 6 PM or by appointment (203) 536-0119

Now is the time to join the

INTERNATIONAL TUG ENTHUSIASTS SOCIETY Apart from a monthly Dutch version we now publish 6 times a year for the tugenthusiasts abroad a special English issue of our magazine Lekko. Write for a free copy and full details, such as the reduced subscription-rate on our English publication, to: l.T.E.S., c/o Graan voor Visch 19915, 2132 WR Hoofddorp, The Netherlands.

CHESAPEAKE BAY FULL-COLOR LIMITED-EDITION LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTS

"DOWN THE BAY" The Emma Giles in 1930 Signed and Numbered $100. Signed with Remarque $150.

Beautifully reproduced from the original oil painting b y

PAUL McGEHEE

The Second Annual Exhibition of the American Society of Marine Artists, held in New York at Grand Central Art Gallery, December 5-21 (reviewed in the preceding pages) was a tremendous success. Attendance was extraordinarily high throughout the show, and sales exceeded expectations. The gallery, in its first involvment with a young organization, was delighted, and with strengthened advance work expects to come close to selling out on opening night next year. The Board of ASMA share that confidence.

Among the many who worked for this success, the efforts of three people in particular stand out: Mark Greene, who organized the exhibitions and produced announcements and catalogs (3,000 were printed and sold out); Mr. Adrian S. Hooper of the IOT Corporation of Philadelphia, whose sponsorship made all things possible this time around; and Mr. James Cox, Director of Grand Central Art Gallery, whose personal interest and high level of professionalism produced an exhibition worthy of the occasion.

Planning for the Third Annual Exhibition is underway. It will again be held at Grand Central, opening late November or early December. Deadline for submission of all materials for jurying is September 1.

At the Annual Meeting, held December 5 in New York, founding president Charles J . Lundgren became president emeritus, succeeded by Peter W. Rogers who had been secretary. Charles R. Robinson was elected vice president and treasurer, Ann Rogers secretary, and John Stobart vice president emeritus.

Our ties with the National Maritime Historical Society will now be closer than ever. Henceforth, ASMA's address will be: c/ o NMHS, 2 Fulton Street, Brooklyn NY 11201.

PETER W . ROGERS, President

American Society o f Marine Artists Other prints are available. Send for full-color catalog.

Send order to:

Art Recollections, Inc. 704 N. Glebe Rd ., Rm. 212 Arlington, VA 22203 (703) 528-5040

Payable by check, VISA, or Master C harge.

Send for your full-color collector catalog today!

Please include $5.00 for shipping. Va. residents add 4% tax.

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SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980

National Maritime Union of America, AFL-CIO Shannon J Wall, President Thomas Martinez, Secretary-Treasurer

National Headquarters: 346 W. 17th St., New York, N.Y. 10011 Offices in major port cities on all coasts

ROBERT STICKER, Marine Artist Robert Sticker's World War II service as a Navy pilot further fueled his long held fascination with sh ips and the sea, stemming from idyllic boyhood summers spent on Staten Island.

Painting his impressions of the sea had begun, originally as a hobby while he studied account· ing and economics at Brooklyn College and while he worked in the o il industry. However, following Naval wartime duty, he spent five years studying art professionally under Frank).

Reilly at The Art Students League, and the marine artist we respect today began to attract attention. Born in Jersey City in 1922, Sticker is known as a marine artist whose meticulously ac· curate depictions of sailing vessels have at· tracted a fo llowi ng by collectors for whom the challenge , beauty and majesty of the sea are recreated on canvas by Sticker's reflective eye and carefully controlled brushwork. Robert Sticker's marine paintings are in private and car· porate collections across the country, including IBM, Union Carbide and AT&T. "Stand Up Harpooner"

Oil on Board, 28 x 45

Robert Sticker

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