SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS by Naomi Person
INTERNATIONAL Restoration of the hull of the immigrant packet schooner Ernestina ex-Effie M. Morrissey is now being completed, with the installation of a new diesel as a gift of Cummins Engine Co. The vessel has been undergoing a complete rebuilding in Mindelo, Cape Verde (off the West Coast of Africa) since she was dismasted enroute to join Operation Sail-1976 in New York six years ago . The 94 ' clipperbowed schooner was built as a Gloucester fisherman in 1894 and later sailed in Arctic exploration by Captain Bob Bartlett through World War II , after which she went to the Cape Verde packet trade. Some $180,000 has been supplied by the Cape Verde Government, and some $80,000 raised in funds and supplies by the National Society's Friends of Ernestina/ Morrissey to restore the ship since the abortive effort to return her to the US in 1976. Next steps are to rig and sail the vessel home to begin a new career in sail training and other educational programs, operating from a proposed base in New Bedford. Information packet available from : Ernestina/ Morrissey, NMHS, 2 Fulton St., Brooklyn NY 11201, USA; (212) 858-1348 .
ENGLAND The 1929 steam tug St. Denys has been acquired by the Falmouth Maritime Museum and is now open to the public. Built by the yard of W. Beardmore of Coat bridge and.Salmuir, her name changed in 1959 when all the tugs of the Falmouth Towage Co. were called after Cornish saints. The Museum's other exhibits focus on the Post Office sailing packets that used to sail from that port. Museum, Royal Cornwall Polytechnic, Church St., Falmouth. Ocean Dock, Southhampton, will be the temporary home for the former Royal Navy destroyer HMS Cavalier. Her owners, the Cavalier Trust, are raising ÂŁ200,000 so that the 2,350-ton ship may be opened to the public at a permanent berth in the River Trent off Mayflower Park-nearly a decade after the project was publicly launched by Earl Mountbatten. Cavalier, Ocean Dock, Southhampton. The Marine Society celebrated its 225th anniversary last year. Founded at the outbreak of the Seven Years War at the initiative of Jonas Hanway, a London merchant, it worked to encourage volunteers for the Royal Navy and make their lives more bearable by providing sea kits. Today the Society works to support youth programs aboard the old frigate Foudroyant and in various sail training ventures. A remarkable quarterly magazine, The Seafarer, offers current and historic contributions by seamen. Subscription: ÂŁ3/yr., to the Society, 202 Lambeth Rd., London SEl 7 JW. (A free information packet, and MAST offering, available on request.) G.F. 'Paton, Hon. Secretary of the Bristol Shi plover's Society, reports that that esteemed body is celebrating its Golden Jubilee, after 50 years of "doing its bit in preservation." Mr.
SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1982
Paton himself looks back on a seafaring career launched 55 years ago, when "Every coaling anchorage was full of hulks we would give our crown jewels for now ." Bristol Shi plovers' Society, c/ o G.F. Paton, Hon Sec., "Silverlea:' 2 Cambridge Rd., Clevedon, Avon BS21 7HX.
IRELAND The National Maritime Museum of Ireland, in the old Mariner's Church overlooking Dublin Bay in Kingstown, and operated by the Maritime Institute of Ireland was established in 1959. It houses a 38 ' longboat captured from the French fleet that sailed into Bantry Bay in 1796, the collection of Captain Halpin who commanded Brunel's supership Great Eastern which laid the first transatlantic cable from Ireland to Newfoundland), a 9 ' model of this vessel, models of small craft from around the Irish coast, and paintings, photographs, old charts, flags and ship relics. Museum, Haigh Terr., Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.
UNITED STATES Recently formed, the Women's Maritime Association provides a network for women working or interested in working in maritime industry. Dues are $2, Association, 15816 NE 34th, Seattle WA 98156. The 70th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic will be observed by the Oceanic Navigation Research Society, April 10-11, aboard the liner Queen Mary at Long Beach, California: films, Titanic survivor talks, deck sports and fashion shows, capped by a recreation of the first-class dinner served aboard the Titanic on her last night afloat. ORNS, Box 80005, Universal City CA 91608-005; (213) 985-1345.
The Thokpin is a curious little homegrown newsletter put out by Jim Thayer of Thayer & Co., who builds fiberglass Livery Whitehalls and other small pulling boats. His "spur of the moment" publication contains correspondence with his contacts round the country and provides interesting anecdotes related to small craft displays, races and shops. If you drop him a line, he may add you to his mailing list. Thayer & Co., 2106 Atlee Rd., Mechanicsville VA 23111.
EAST COAST Maine Maritime Museum's new Museum Director is John Swain Carter, managing editor of American Neptune and former Maritime Curator of the Peabody Museum in Salem. The Museum's 10th Annual Symposium on American Maritime History, with speakers from around the country and abroad, will be held in Bath, April 30-May 2. For program: Museum, 963 Washington St., Bath ME 04530. A Society honoring the WW II contribution of Maine shipbuilders is looking for a site for museum space in South Portland. They are searching out Liberty Ship artifacts and
welcome leads and suggestions. The Society has a slide presentation, and seeks a volunteer curator. WW II Shipbuilders, PO Box 161-DTS-Portland ME 04112. The Piscataqua Gundalow Captain Edward H. Adams, begun three years ago, is nearing completion: decks laid, masts turned and sails ready to be bent. Cabin construction , caulking, painting and rigging remain to be finished before she is launched this summer to take part in the 250th anniversary celebration of the town of Durham on June 26th. The 40 ' traditional flat-bottomed river craft will sail the Piscataqua, visiting ports and conducting environmental education programs, with her permanent berth at Strawbery Banke. The project is still seeki ng $25 ,000 for completion of work . Project, PO Box 1303, Portsmouth NH 03801 (see SH 20:37-38).
R IV Regina Maris is spending the winter months doing whale research 70 miles south of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) . Their scientific education program supplied much of the work which has led scientists to believe that "the whales have distinct feeding populations" which return each year to the same area. This spring the barkentine will Jiead back north and offer cruises out of Boston in early June, open to the public. ORES, 64 Commercial Wharf, Boston MA 02110. The Hart Nautical Museum, dedicated in 1925 as part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's department of naval architecture and marine engineering is now under the management of the MIT Museum. Collections include all the working drawings of the Herreshoff Yard in Bristol, Rhode Island, the collection of Captain Arthur Clark, who for many years headed the Lloyd's office in Boston, the drawings of naval architect George Owen, and the George Lawley and Paine and Burgess yards. A ship model display is open to the public daily and museum files are open by appointment on Tuesdays and Thursday, 11 AM to 3 PM . Museum, 265 Mass. Ave., Cambridge MA 02137. Friends of Nobska is a nonprofit society whose goal is to return to New England the steamship Nobska, which for three years has been deteriorating in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. The plan is to steam her as an active passenger ship and operational interpreter of steamship history. With a growing membership, the group is also negotiating with the Bridgeport and Port Jefferson Steamboat Co., to acquire Martha's Vineyard, built two years earlier, which served as a model for Nobska. Friends, Box 87, Berlin MA 01503. Orleans Historical Society is saving CG 36500, 36 ' motor lifeboat from the Chatham Coast Station. Her four-man crew rescued all 32 members of the crew of the oil tanker Pendle- . ton which broke up in 60 ' waves over thirty years ago. The 1940s-built boat ended up behind a National Park Building in South Wellfleet, and has now been donated to the
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