LETTERS When Wishes Are Horses This check is in response to Edward Muhlfeld's editorial in the November issue of Yachting . Hope you will get a lot of these. HENRY C. ESTABROOK Clemson, South Carolina We did get a surge of new members and fresh interest in the welfare and programs of the Society from the editorial entitled "Sea History" in Yachting magazine . Off-prints are available . - ED . One Hand for the Ship I just celebrated my eighty-eighth birthday by breaking my arm. I am now onehanded , and have a tremendous respect for anyone who could win the Battle of Trafalgar with one arm and one eye! I hope the Campaign for Sea History is going well, and that it ends with a flourish , guaranteeing a good future for SEA HISTORY. JEAN SCHOEN SMITH Clearwater, Florida Mrs. Smith, a veteran ofsailing in square rig in the Pacific and a tramp steamer on the West Coast of Africa (she ultimately married the steamer's first mate) is also a poet (see SH37) , raconteur par excellence, and mainstay ofthe Society. -ED . No Other River! The lead article in your excellent Autumn 1985 issue of SEA HISTORY reminded me of a trip Mrs . Trollope of England took to the United States over a century-and-ahalf ago . In 1832 she wrote a book entitled Domestic Manners of the Americans, which included the following observation on the Hudson River Valley: ''I had heard so much of the surpassing beauty of the Hudson River, that I expected to be disappointed . But it is not in the power of man to paint with a strength exceeding that of nature . Every mile shows some new and startling effect of the combinations of rocks, trees and water; there is no interval of flat or insipid scenery from the moment you enter upon the river at New York , to that of quitting it at Albany. The Hudson River can be surpassed by none on the outside of Paradise. '' Mrs . Trollope found no other river on this globe to compare with the Hudson . She had not visited Paradise by then , but perhaps now she will agree with those who have explored the region on back roads as well as the river that the Hudson River Valley is indeed a paradise. WALTER AVERILL Poughkeepsie , New York SEA HISTORY , WINTER 1985-86
EDITOR'S LOG Rex Stewart, Distinguished Modelmaker read with interest and some dismay Thomas Maggs's article about the Hudson River steamer models of Rex Stewart. It seemed to dwell more on Mr. Maggs's relationship with the modelmaker Van Loon Ryder than the modelwork of Mr. Stewart. In Rex Stewart we have a remarkable artist and maritime historian in his own right who produces models (and drawings and paintings) with exquisite detail carefully researched from original documents and photographs . We have seen no other models of Hudson Ri ver steamboats which are up to the accuracy and quality of Rex Stewart's work . The Institute owns a model of the Mary Powell by Van Loon Ryder which is a very fine model , but it was Rex Stewart' s research that pointed out a number of inaccuracies in its construction , however well done it was at the time and with the information that Ryder had available to him . The Albany Institute has decided to hold an exhibition of Hudson River steamboat art in September-October 1986. This will feature Mr. Stewart's work in the context of earlier paintings, prints and drawings . Among the models to be exhibited are those of the St. John, Albany, City of Troy, Robert Fulton, Nantucket, and others . This will be preceded by our major exhibition on New York Dutch Art and Culture, 1609-1776, in which a new model of Henry Hudson ' s ship Half Moon will be exhibited , also the work of Rex Stewart. It is important to give appropriate credit for work well done and I am sure that your readers will be glad to know that fine models , paintings and drawings of ships are being produced on the banks of the Hudson River! RODERIC H. BLACKBURN Assistant Director Albany Institute of History & Art Albany , New York Medal of Honor Captain John Kennaday , USN, with whom I have corresponded on occasion (thanks to meeting him through SEA HISTORY magazine) has made an error in guessing that Admiral Dan Gallery, whom he knew , was perhaps the first to go below in the sub U-505. The man who did go below was none other than the Assistant Engineering Officer of the Pillsbury , Lieutenant Albert L. David . For his service in the capture, he was awarded the Navy Cross, later withdrawn in favor of the Medal of Honor.
Coming back in this issue to the ships of San Francisco, we share the feelings of the Indians come down to see Drake's Golden Hind in the Estero in 1579" standing , when they drew near, as men ravished in their minds ." Go among the people who come down to the ships on the waterfront and you will catch that feeling of wonder. And these ships live to vital purpose , giving street-smart kids a feeling for how their city really happened-a story that each generation must learn anew! The ships have directly inspired action , as well . The San Francisco waterfront renaissance took shape and substance because of the ships on the North Beach and the people they drew to the waterfront. The conception of the South Street Seaport Museum in New York , and the origins of the National Society itself may be traced to that visible , stirring presence and to the sea dreamer Karl Kortum, who was principally responsible for bringing in the ships and making them live and express their truths for people. Captain Fred Klebingat expresses this feeling for ships in his account of the handsome schooner Melrose beginning on page 45. For thirty years, ending only with his death last year at age 94, Captain Klebingat talked with Karl Kortum of his vast , hard-won experience at sea. Kortum, a veteran of square rig and big steamers himself, has called him " a remarkable maritime mentor. '' Ed Zelinsky, who began as a paintscraping volunteer aboard the museum ship Balclutha , adds a little more recent history in his account (pages 22-23) of a voyage in one of the steam schooners that replaced vessels like Klebingat's Melrose . Zelinsky has gone on to lead the project to return to San Francisco the Gold Rush ship Vicar of Bray. It may well be asked why, at thi s juncture, with the historic ships in visible disarray and their future in doubt , we support Mr. Zelinsky in his prophetic vision of a city recovering the ark of its founding. That is a good question . Let us just suggest that the dynamics that founded the Museum and assembled the ships thirty-five years ago are accessible to us today . The voyage home of this one ship might save the many by bringing to a focus the feelings that people have for the ships that built their city. PS
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