Ship Trust Activities Report for 1985 by Eric Berryman, Hon. Secretary, American Ship Trust At its final meeting of the year on December 3, at the Marine Society in London , the World Ship Trust trustees welcomed Sir Rex Hunt, recently retired as Governor of the Falkland Islands , as Vice President. He joins the noted wildlife artist Sir Peter Scott, Admiral of the Fleet Lord Lewin , and Lord Shackleton in that capacity. Discussion at the meeting centered on plans for an international Maritime Heritage Year in 1988 , of which more will be heard in these columns . Report was also heard on the proposed move of the Maritime Trust's Arctic exploration ship Discovery, to Dundee , where she was built in 1901. A very extensive restoration of the ship's massive timber hull and bark rig is being completed. She has been visited by nearly half a million people at her present site in St. Katharine's Dock , London, since she was brought in there in March 1980, following out-of-water work at Sheerness. Norman Brouwer's International Register of Historic Ships has been published in England and the United States by Anthony Nelson , Ltd . World Ship Trust Chairman Frank Carr notes, " With more than 700 ships in 45 countries, more than half of them illustrated , and with full details , almost to Lloyds Register standards , in a bound volume of 368 pages, it has been an immense task ." On April 3, the WST awarded its fourth Maritime Heritage Medal to H. K. H. Prince Henrik of Denmark for his leadership in the restoration and exhibition of the 44-gun frigateJylland (1860) . Her Majesty Queen Margraethe lI graciously undertook to present the medal to her consort at a ceremony held aboard the frigate, at Ebeltoft, Jutland. In New York, Ship Trust Wavertree is now organized as a separate company to restore the 1885 square-rigger Wavertree at South Street Seaport Museum . Under the chairmanship of Jakob Isbrandtsen (who was the Museum 's founding chairman) , the volunteer group has built up noteworthy expertise and experience. It administers what now amounts to a considerable fleet. Besides the 2, 100-ton Wavertree, there are two 26ft Monomoy lifeboats , the sandbagger Shadow, brigantine Black Pearl and harbor lighter Vernie S. Diversity of ownership, in this fashion , avoids burdening the South Street Seaport Museum with liability costs and recreates some of the independent energies that characterized the Street of Ships. Ship 32
Trust Wavertree may become an affiliate of the American Ship Trust. The AST, an activity of the National Maritime Historical Society, is closely associated with the World Ship Trust, as is the Maritime Trust of Great Britain. Formal affiliation does not yet exist in legal language. The Society's president Peter Stanford expects that " The nuts will be drawn down on these bolts in the near future .'' On other fronts the Trust is pleased to report on a Portsmouth , New Hampshire , initiative where an independent New England Ship Trust has been organized to support the acquisition of a 1907 Danish-built freighter , Diana Chris, and her conversion into a sail-training ship. The vessel is to become a barkentine after designs by Captain B. Barner Jesperson , of Copenhagen. The AST variously assists and reports on a wide variety of projects . Captain William P. Frank, Managing Director, Key West Maritime Historical Society conferred with the Trust in the matter of seeking protection for a small unknown Spanish vessel (caravel/bergantina/galizabra) found in Key West harbor. Preliminary plotting has revealed various artifacts: bar shot, a clay olive jar, a blue goblet, dense remnants of barrels of hemp for cannon wadding and caulking, wrought-iron nails , hand-hewn trunnels, planking and frames. The AST and WST have been asked to endorse the project and the National Trust for Historic Preservation has provided a grant for an environmental impact study . Dr. Thomas Giegerich, a long-time member of the Society , contacted the AST for assistance in locating a suitable historic vessel to be located at a 600ft berth on the Cleveland Lakefront. The project is being funded by the local waterfront development (a $50 million project) . No immediate answer to this challenge has been found as yet. The schooner Equator, used by poet and novelist Robert Loui s Stevenson to sail the Pacific , may become the Northwest's newest preservation success. For twentytwo years Everett, Washington , native Dr. Eldon Schalka has lead a crusade to save the ship. Now , under the umbrella of the Equator Foundation , the day may not be far off when his hopes and efforts are rewarded . Dr. Schalka believes that the schooner is a strong link to the early development of Puget Sound and the entire West Coast. It was built by Matthew Turner, an early day boat builder, and
perhaps the most prolific shipwright in that part of the world . The Equator is probably the last of Turner's total of 228 boats . She worked for decades on Puget Sound and in Alaskan waters, before being remade into a tug and ending her working life in the sands of the Snohomish River. Both the World Ship Trust and American Ship Trust have expressed concern about an announced attempt to drill into a tomb near the Cheops pyramid in Egypt. The tomb is believed to contain a sister ship of the first Cheops ship, which has deteriorated far more in the dozen-odd years since it was dug up than in the previous four-and-a-half millenia. Though the latest effort seeks only to sample "4,600 yearold air" in the hermetically sealed tomb, via a special drill which leaves no contamination behind, ship preservationists are rightly concerned that the ship preserved in that ancient atmosphere not be disturbed in any way. Project Liberty Ship continues to make progress . Gibbs Brothers Foundation awarded a grant to assist with the effort to preserve the John W. Brown. James R. Ean (for eight years president of the Intrepid Museum Foundation) is now the Project 's executive director, and sights have been set on placing the ship at Liberty State Park, on the New Jersey side of New York Harbor, in 1986. The Brown and the Liberty ship Huddle lie alongside each other in the James River Reserve Fleet, near Fort Eustis, Virginia. The Brown will be preserved , but the Huddle is to be sunk off the New Jersey coast as a haven for marine life . The Snow Squall Project also continues to grow with two principal targets set for the 1986 expedition to Port Stanley: (I) Conserve and prepare the starboard hull section for transportation to the United States; and, (2) Obtain offset measurements of the bow, midship and aft sections of the hull. Under the leadership of Harvard-based Dr. F. Yalouris , the Snow Squall project moves ever nearer to the day when a complete exhibit of the bow section will open in South Portland, Maine. Historic ship preservationists the world over could rejoice if all such projects moved forward with the same resolution and meticulous scientific care and despite such a paucity of funds . Dr. Yalouris has done brilliant work and has shared his expertise with the WST chairman in the matter of Lady Elizabeth's restoration as a museum ship in the Port Stanley waterfront. .t SEA HISTORY , WINTER 1985-86