We Must Draw the Circle Larger by Peter Neill Director of Maritime Preservation National Trust for Historic Preservation
Summer 1934, Kay Egerton sirs wirhfriends in rhe srern of rhe Joseph Conrad (Alan Villiers ar righr). On This voyage she sewed an ensign for rhe ship. Fifty years later, on June 8, 1984, (below) Nancie Villiers presenTs rhar Red Dusrer To Mysric Presidem R. J. Schaefer 111. ~
~ . -.•Lx>...
ffi ~ ~
~ ~
3 u
!31';; :z:
Q.
EDITOR'S LOG The 21st Annual Meeting of the National Society , held at Mystic Seaport Museum on June 8 , had an appropriate feeling of homecom ing. It began with a discussion of new ways of documenting ship restoration in the DuPont Restoration Shipyard , led by Sh ipyard Director Don Robinson. Quitting the cool, dusky space of the Shipyard building , we walked out to join Nancie Villiers and Mystic President R. J. Schaefer III , for a presentation to the ship Joseph Conrad of the first British ensign she ever flew . And at dinner that evening , we saw the late Lambert Knight's film of a Cape Horn passage with Alan Villiers in the Parma. A copy of the film and Knight 's journal , the gift of Frank and Debbie Knight , were presented to Mystic by Tom Ha le on behalf of the National Society . (Excerpt on p. 46 .) Our chairman Briggs Dalzell , and Mystic's chairman Cliff Mallory , who are o ld friends , kept the company memorably entertained with reminiscence and forward thinking- the things a birthday should be about. At the Annual Meeting Peter Neill of the Natio nal Trust deli ve red remarks wh ich appear on this page. We welcome his call fo r greate r cooperation and a wider c ircle of su pport for the heritage. You'll find further report on this in " Ship Notes ," including not ice of the Trust ' s Conference in Baltimore Oct. 24-27 . You' ll also find there some lovely words of Prof. Rossel ini o n historic craft at Cesenatico , Italy , whic h, he notes , "were not cold inanimate means of wo rk , but so mething far more warm, which has left in the hearts of these me n ... a serene, unfading memory ." The professor's thought is at the heart of what we celebrate in seafaring . PS 4
This spring, officials of the National Trust for Historic Preservation met with us to announce that they were undertaking new directions and new cooperative measures in the National Trust's maritime program. Soon after, Peter Neill, director of New Haven's Schooner, Inc. (a marine science education center in New Haven, Conneclieut), was named the Trust's Director of Maritime Preservation. At our invitation Mr. Neill appeared at the Waterfront Center's conference in Alexandria this spring and at our Annual Meeting at Mystic Se aport Museum, June 8, when he delivered the talk reported here in summary form. Writing in National Fisherman , John Gardner described what I believe is the fundamental purpose of maritime preservation: "Our primary and ultimate goal is the pres ervation of a quality and way of life now threatened , of which the ships ... are but corporal remains ." I hope we can agree o n that simple definition . If we can , then what has been the reason for o ur difficult progress over the last decade, the reason for apparent counterproductive rivalries between various organizations, the reason for our apparent inability to reach a wider audience and to create a constituency that will affirm o ur dreams by public acclamation? We appear to have been paralyzed by teapot debates: tall ships vers us small craft, restoration versus replication , artifact preservation versus skills preservation. It has been about as communal as the United Nations, and no more effecti ve. The problem , in my view, is that we have drawn the circle far too small . We have expended our energy arguing amongst ourselves rather than taki ng our argument to the people to whom maritime history and preservation seem alien and useless things, while at the same time crowdi ng the harbors to catch a distant glimpse of the tall shi ps or saving up to buy that Sunfish or outboard to trailer to the shore. Peter Stanford and I shared a presentation panel at a recent conference o n the rev italization of America's waterfronts. I , for one, was infuriated when of the 200 registrants o nl y a handfu l were interested in our sessio ns on maritime inte rpretation . The developers and city planners, the tourism and conference promoters , each and every one was there to learn how better to exploit the " mag ic" of waterfro nts. But each and every one was evidence of the "backdrop sy ndrome," seeing the water, the po rts and harbors, the ships and museums as nothing
more than a backdrop to commercial enterprise. They measured their commitment to maritime preservation in dollars spe nt to buy firehoses to wash down the sidewalks at the Fulton Fish Market so that the tourists wou ld not smell fish. This is no one's fault but our own. For frequently, we own or control the territory. We can influence public policy and political sy mpathies. We ca n leverage our involvement to guara ntee our financial stability and to generate the enormous funds required to restore and maintain the artifacts that drew the interlopers there. But we haven't , and the success Of those investments ca nnot be measured in our terms. We must draw the circle larger. It is certainly not too late to take advantage of this ongoing return to the water. We must be clever, cleverness realized by increased sophisticatio n in the world of politics, real estate and finance, planning and zoning, tax abatement and development incentives, community o rgani zation, administration and management of non-profits, fundraising, and communications. We must extend our commitment to the artifacts and beyond ; we must extend skills ,preservation from quiet boatshops in distan.t Maine to crowded public schools in urban centers; we must extend our understanding of the value of maritime history to values understood and shared by all communities. Work , self-reliance, competence, cooperation , appreciation of beauty and func tion , teaching and learning, respect for nature, these are the elements of maritime tradition that we value, and these are values that are not excl usive ly ours. When we make the public aware of what it is we reall y stand for, then I have no doubt that our more nar'row objectives will find greater sy mpathy and support . The National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Maritime Historical Society have every reason to share this responsibility. I am certain that our cooperation will help preserve maritime artifacts, skills, and values in ways that will be open and meaningful to all aspects of our society -and th at will encourage pursuit of this goal with renewed vigor by us all. w
What happened aboard the Slocum in 1904? THE B URNING OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM by Claude Rust 160-page hardcover book: $11 .00 list plus $1.50 shipping ($2.50 overseas) Slocum Memorial Committee, Dept. SH, 291 Elmont Road , Elmont, L.l., N.Y., 11003-1693.
SEA HISTORY, FALL 1984