LETTERS
EDITOR'S LOG He knew fear, the terror of the wild ocean , and the loneli ness of voyag ing. He knew also the joys, th e fe ll owship, the enduring loya lties bred up in seafaring, and he devoted his li fe to the deep learni ng of ma n's voyaging experi ence unde r sa il. In th is iss ue we pay tri bute- a sa ilo rs' tribute-to A lan Villie rs. Onl y a frac ti on of the words we' ve collected these past two yea rs since his death , from his shi pmates and his peers, are printed here. The main body of the story is ca rri ed in the narrative of his friend the art ist and hi storian Os Brett .
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Villiers made the sketch above of the little full -rigger Joseph Conrad in heavy weather on her fa mous aro und-the-wo rl d voyage und er hi s command in 1934-6- a voyage begun just half a centu ry ago. It is that scene that Os Brett has painted fo r our cover. Captain Go rdo n C hapman of Austra lia , mate of the Conrad at the time, writes w ith pride of the ship's performance and Os's rendition of it: " You will see, Peter, we d idn't dr ive her under nor did she wallow in the troughs. She was kept at it." So also Alan kept at his m ission of coming to know and to depict the sailor's wo rl d. He had to act things out , he had to embrace the world in his sailing , and he offered no easy answers as to what it was about. T hat refu sal to accept easy answers and that will to get out and deal with the real thingthese g ive Alan's work a sinewy toughness ass uring its long life and continued usefuln ess . The other thing his work radiates, and his li fe, is refe rred to, in different ways , by all who knew him . Dav id Proctor, Secretary of England's National Maritime Museum , of which Alan was trustee, calls this qual ity "generos ity of spirit ." That is a sailo rl y quality- perhaps the sailo rl y quality, th e one that is made possible by all the hard disc iplines. One can make a good case I believe that it is the most needed quality in the wo rld today, and perhaps always has been.
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Sail tra ining is another subject Alan was devoted to, a cause that he and Irving and Exy Johnson have led in in the last half century, bringing us much of the rati onale and practical applications that we li ve by today. How good it is to see that cause breaking th rough in our time-see all the good news reported from a growing, acti ve fi eld in " Sail Training," this issue! PS SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1984
" The First. .. I Had Ever Seen" George Crowninshield 's article on Sorlandet (S H30: 13) sti rs memories of a windy cloudless eveni ng in 1933, when I saw her ret urning from her visit to the Chicago Wo rld 's Fair. She was being towed by a tug with a hawser a mile long , or so it seemed . The ship's masts and crossed yards were silho uetted agai nst the brill ian t orange sky, just after sunset. As I watched to my great surprise and pleas ure, one by one the square sails were hauled into place and there stood the first sq uare- ri gged sai ling ship I had ever seen , under full sa il , black aga inst the sky. She began to shorten the d istance between herself and the tug and w ith a strong northwest wind pushing her dow n the lake, she disappeared in the dusk fa r to th e east. What a glo rious sight ! T his took place on Lake Ontari o in late August. The sighting pos ition was a little East of30 Mile Point Lighthouse on the south shore of Lake Ontari o di ago nall y across the lake from Toronto, Canada. As a resu lt of your article I watched fo r signs of her this summer at the same site but d id not see her. But I was mos t pleased to lea rn th at she had surv ived the turbulent yea rs betwee n and had made the same trip aga in. ER NEST 1. BREED Englewood , New Jersey With 1his lovely Lefler M1'. Breed sen! a dona1ion 10 !he Na1ional Socie1y 'sfund lO res/Ore 1he ship Wavertree in Soiah S1ree1; we hope Mr. Breed comes to see her sails sheeted home one day against an evening sky. - ED
the end of the tunnel. (One always has to hope that it is not , in fact , an approaching train!) It was fine to read the tribute to Corwith Cramer, fo und ing pres ident of the Sea Ed ucati on Association. We met when we both sai led in different yachts in the 1949 Fastnet Race, when there we re some 35 entriesun like now when there are over 300. I actuall y sai led as mate in the gaff cutter Theodora which before the wind set a squaresai l, square topsail and studd ingsa il s. I would guess this is the on ly time those sai ls have been set in a modern ocean race! H .F. MORIN SCOTT
Sq uare R igged Services Ltd. Bognor Regis, England Your editor was in Myth of Malham with Corey in that ra ce; we hadjust sailed across the Atlantic together. He was a fine shipmate. - ED
A Seam to Caulk Things have improved for us and I am glad to send along a slight increase in our annual donation. I am sure you can fi nd a seam to cau lk someplace. ALLEN BERRJEN
M ilford Boat Works Mi lford , Connect icut Mr. Berrien doubled his always generous year-end co111ribution to the work of the Natinal Socie1y-and thanks to him and 793 other members who contributed toour year end dri ve, we're lookingfonvard to considerable new achievement in this , our 21st year. - ED
From Old Roots, New Growth
Mel Jackson, Shipmate and Scholar
New growth in sail tra in ing shou ld take place in the United States fo llowing the new laws and reg ul ati ons of th e Coast Guard noted in your last (S H32:52). It seems to me to be highl y app ropriate th at modern sa il tra ining shoul d be reported alo ngside nautical histo ry, fo r part of the benefit of sai l tra ining is derived from res pecting the custo ms, habits and acti vities of vessels of yesteryea r and continuing the best of them. In our tra ining brig Royalist, when we stage a tug-of-wa r between the two watc hes, th is is always known as " hoisting the propeller," and the opportunity is taken to explain to the young crews how this operation was carried out in the sail-and-steam peri od of 1840-90 when th e ord e r was " Dow n funn el, up screw," or the reverse. We are also interested in modern comme rcial sail. At lo ng las t our MICASS (Mini -Container-Auxiliary-Sailing-S hip) design, a 120-footBermudan schooner capable of lifting two contai ne rs, has been recommended by a United Nations department fo r use in Eastern wate rs. It is all ve ry interesting and looks a little like the light at
I offer a few li nes about Dr. Melvin Jackson, fo rme r Curator of Water Transpo rtation at th e Sm ithsonian, who died last October (S H31:53) . My memori es of Mel encompass a fr iends hip of nea rly 20 yea rs, some laughs, some hard wo rk and some adventures , and a collaboration that ranged from the scholarly confi nes of the Smithsonia n Institut ion to the decks of the several ships in which we served together, with Mel on the bridge and me in th e fo'c'sle. He was an old timer who had gotten his mate's license and sailed on it back before the wa r, and he was as fa miliar with the deck gea r of a wo rking fre ighter as he was with he r chart roo m . We once wo rked fo r three hard dirty days in the Washington Navy Yard overhauling th e winches, blocks, booms, hatch boards and tarpaulins of a battered old wartime ya rd cargo vessel that had just come out ofl ay up after23 yea rs. "Now," he said , when we fi nall y had the deck gea r squ ared away, " lets go topside and see if this rust bucket's got a wheelhouse." She did , and fro m it he steered her across the Atlantic. Mel could be stubborn as a mule in de-
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