LETTERS The Last Time Your story o n the Wavertree (SH 19) was of much interest to me, as she is a sistership of the Fulwood, my fa th er's ship. Captai n John Floberg left Melbourne in the Fulwood in 1919 bo und for Den ma rk . The ship just di sappeared-no one ever saw o r heard from her again. I remember so well how my mother waited to hear some news but never did . We li ved in Sand efjo rd, Norway, which was Fu/wood's home port. I have sent
sive historical studies of World War II in the Pacific, and in review of next steps proposed in the revitalization of US Naval strategy. - ED. A Fine Day in the Southeast Trades I do miss our mutual friend Captain Archie Horka. I never met him , but at one time we were only a mile or so apart, at sea . I did not know then that we were going to correspond years later. It was o n a Sunday afternoon, a fin e day in th e Southeast Trades. The American schoon er Melrose, deep-loaded and wi th a high deckload of lumber , was mak ing good tracks toward her destination, Suva in the Fiji Islands. A sail came up on th e starboa rd quarter. It gained on us rapidly and a couple of hours later th e American 5-masted barkentine Katherine Mackall was abeam . Although adapted from a steamer hull she was a magnificent sight. There was no doubt as to why it was possible for her to outsail us, since she was sailing light with a tremendous freeboard. Aboard, as it later turn ed out, was Archie Horka, then sailing as AB . l was ma kin g my last trip with lumber as skipper of th e
Melrose.
a lo ng a picture of her leaving Melbourne for the last tim e. R OLF FLOBERG
Brooklyn, NY Bold Men Make History I agree with SEA HISTORY's devotion to truth in history, an d to the preservation of those fas t-disappearing relics with which bold men made history und er most unfavorable circumstances. Being ab le to do so mething about it is a different matter. That is why I am so grateful that there are organizations like yo urs, and people like you, who are devotin g themselves to accurate recording of what did happen and to prese rving the instruments that made those ha ppenings possible.
In later years, I always closed my letters to Horka: "May a ll our days be as happy as that Sunday, when we met at sea in the Southeast Trades." Few of us now survive from that era, but my old ship Falls of Clyde does, in Honolulu . She has had her troubles but she wi ll get over them I am sure. We sho uld organize a Friends of Falls of C lyde to help . I look forward to the day when Falls of Clyde will have all ropes rove off an d sails bent, a real represen tati ve of those argosies of windships th at crowded the wharves of Honolulu in day s long go ne. Never again will she and other tall ships leave th e wha rves of Hono lulu under sail and never again will the harbo r be so beautiful. CAPTA IN FR ED K. K LEB INGAT Coos Bay, Oregon
Captain Klebingat's "Summer-North Atlantic" (SH 6:35-39) and "Christmas in the Fo'c'sle" (SH 15:66-67) recount hard sailing in the bark Anna 76 years ago. His friend the late Captain Horka is remembered in Os Brett's "Make Way for a Sailor" (SH I 5:40-42). Copies may be had from NMHSfor$2.-ED.
ARLEIGH B URKE
Admiral, USN (ret.) Bethesda, Maryla nd
Admiral "J I-knot " Burke, who served an unprecedented three terms as Chief of Naval Operations, 1955-61, has set forth some of his views on our naval heritage in SH 12:16. He iscurrently engaged in exten2
A Sense of Loss . .. and Hope for Solution I went aboard Falls of Clyde while visiting H awaii , a nd would like to add my support that the vessel be an "affiliated area" to the National Pa rk Service. Only upon standing o n the deck of such a windship can one truly co ntemplate th e size an d
com plexity of thi s example of huma n ac hieveme nt from o ur past. There are many more reaso ns I cou ld give, but the greatest wo uld be my sense of loss if she were go ne. HOWARD R OSENFE LD
Co upevi lle, Washingto n With the appro priat io n of$ 100,000 to the Natio na l Park Service to enter into a coo perative agree m e nt w ith the Bi sh o p Museum to prese rve th e Falls of Clyde, it is my hope that we will now be a ble to find a perman ent solut;on to th e problems which have a risen concern ing her future. A lo ha, DA NIEL K. I NOU YE
U.S. Senat o r It Tells Where We're Going . .. But Where Did It Come From? T he origins of the magnetic com pass offer so me intriguing puzzles. Admiral Samuel Eliot Mori so n credits Flavius o f Amalfi wi th inventin g the compass aro und 1290 AD. Orientalists tend to credit the Chinese with an earlier o ne, however. George R. G . Worcester in his Junks and Sampans of the Yangtze, a nd Joseph N eed h a m in Chin ese Science and Technology, Vol. IV, Bk I, both agree that the C hin ese compass is a so uth-see king 24-point compass-each point covering 15 °. What has a lways bothered me is the difference between this a nd our 32-point north-seeking compass with its 11 °15 ' point. Georgius Argicola's De Re Metallica, published in Basel in 1556, describes a 24-point so uth -seek ing co mpass identical to that used by the Chinese. These two identical com passes-o ne used for mining in the Middle Ages and one for navigation for un to ld cent uries-must rep resent a cross-fix of so rts . Whatever medium of communications -comm erce, po litics, ex ploration , etc.brought th e C hinese compass to Europe or vice versa, it would appear likely that a co mm o n denominator exists and that there were not two separate identica l inventions. There must exist so mewhere a body of scho lars who could add to this rather intriguing set of facts. S.A. MITCHELL
Locust Valley, New York Of the Naming of Her Masts There Is No End F.F. Hill wrote on the names given the masts of the 7-masted schooner Thomas W. Lawson in Sea Breezes, November 1938, when the ship was still a living memory, noting: "The Lawson has probably been di scussed more by salt-watermen, and whittlers in th e lee of the wa re-
SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1981