The Charles Cooper Stabilized A South Street Seaport Museum Expedition Saves the Sagging Hull of the Last of the South Street Packets By Norman Brouwer Chief Historian, South Street Seaport Museum
We had known for some time that the ship was in trouble. Her starboard side, pierced for a loading port in her role as warehouse, and chewed away by more than a century's wave action, was crumpling at last and collapsing into the water. She had found safe haven in the Falkland Islands, some 300 miles to leeward of Cape Horn, when she put in there leaking badly in 1866, ten years after her launch from Hall's yard in Black Rock, Connecticut. In 1969 she had been acquired for preservation by South Street Seaport Museum. Now she was in peril again-still hounded by the unrelenting sea. Six thousand miles to the northward, we worried. Our Ship Trust had helped to mount previous expeditions to the ship (see SH 4: 37-41; 5: 38-39; 13: 38-42). The film "Ghosts of Cape Horn "featured this work. But while people applauded the image of the Cooper, no help was forthcomingfor the real thing-the ship herself. We reported our failure, and our concern, to South Street. The Museum's budget was fully committed to other, monumental tasks it had on hand. But one day Vice President Judith Stonehill stopped me in the hallway, a worried but determined expression on her face. In her hands was a report by Museum Historian Norman Brouwer. "/understand the situation with the Charles Cooper," she said. ''We'll just have to find the money to save her. "She did. PS
Geo. Matteson, a poet and tugboat operator in South Street, joined with me to make up a two-man expedition. We arrived in the Falklands by air from Argentina in mid-morning January 10. As usual, soon after arriving we were given the loan of a skiff for as long as we might need it. A boa t is needed to reach the Charles Cooper, which lies gro unded about fifty yards offshore, right off the center of Stanley, the ma in town in the islands where half the population lives. She was formerly joined to the shore by a jetty, since partly dismantled to discourage casual visitors. The steel yards of the four-masted bark Fennia, ex-Champigny, condemned at Stanley in 1927 (see SH 8: iii) , used as horizontal supports for the jetty, are still in position, and have their original bands and jackstays. The main change in the condition of the Cooper since our last visit in 1978 was a serious sagging of the lower deck along much of the starboard side. The side in this area is badly eroded, probably as a result of damage that took place when ships were still mooring alongside. Amidships, under a cargo hatch cut in the ship' s side, which further weakens the structure, it is gone completely, from the lower deck down to below the low tide mark. The loss of support on the sta rboard side left the beams of both decks supported only by the port side a nd by a row of pillars along the centerline. These pillars were badl y eroded , and a few
were missing, in 1978. Apparently all but one gave way during 1979. Since the one pillar that refused to give way was now supporting a large area of both decks, so mething had to give, and both beams directly above, at lower deck and main deck, cracked. Our major objective had to be to stop the descent of the ship's upper starboard side. We had to get so me support under those deck beams. We began by taking soundings outboard of the starboard side. We found a minimum depth of six feet, dropping off rapid ly, with a fairly soft bottom. Building a supporting structure outside the ship seemed imp ractica l on this soft, steep slope. It might have been feasib le with proper eq uipment, but the on ly piledriver in Stan ley was on another jetty-and even if we could have gotten it afloat, putting it back in working condition looked like a major undertaking. The supports would have to go inside the ship . We so unded th e lower hold with long steel rods, through holes bored in the tweendeck (lower deck) planking. This planking, four inches thick, is original, and virtually complete from bow to stern . We found it very sound. Our rod made solid contact with the inside of the ship's bottom in most locations. Where it didn't, it was stopped by large wooden obstructions. Fill in the lower hold consists of mud , clay and mixed debris, mostl y small stones, bottles and other small items, with
The beakhead of the South Street packet Charles Cooper, ca. 1930, since carried away. Photo Courtesy South Street Seaport Museum.