LETTERS A Major's Contribution The Vicar of Bray article in SEA HISTORY 38 seems to have more column length than usual, which can onJy be a good thing. I was, though, a little miffed that the article ended with a brief resume of the Zelinsky trip to the Falklands in 1985 and mentioned the team that accompanied him: I wonder why I was left out? I may not be an American or hail from San Francisco but you Yanks do not have the monopoly on these projects! One day when we meet I will tell you the difficulties behind the visit which required a great deal of patience in sorting out. MAJ. EWEN SOUTHBY-TAILYOUR Ivybridge , England
Major Southby-Tailyour is a life-long sailor and was Britain's Yachtsman of the Year in 1983. In 1979 while stationed in the Falklands with the Royal Marines, he cruised the islands extensively. His book, Falkland Island Shores (see SH36), was a bible of sorts for the English forces in the Anglo-Argentine conflict. Ed Zelinsky joins us in appreciation ofMajor Southby-Tailyour' s enormous contribution to the visit of Zelinsby team last year. We' re sorry to have overlooked this in our report .-ED. In " Bring Home the Vicar! " Lincoln Paine missed the 1979 survey which I put together-under the Society 's umbrella. This led to the first formal acknowledgement of the project by the National Parks Service and their written acceptance, in principle, of taking the Vicar as an exhibit. I edited and collated the entire written work and made a formal presentation to the GGNRA's leadership in late 1979. ERJC BERRYMAN Hon. Sec' y, American Ship Trust
Save One, Save All! I certainly do not question the good intent of the people behind the effort to move Vicar of Bray from the Falkland Islands to San Francisco , but one must measure the wisdom of this against the fact that many of the wooden vessels already "saved" are rotting where they sit , especially in San Francisco . Vicar of Bray has survived this long primarily because of the climate of the Falklands . It would not take long before the San Francisco climate rotted her until she, like Wapama, would be sitting on a barge, her hull too weak and eaten to keep the ocean out! An unfortunate fact of life is that raising money to maintain historic vessels is more mundane and difficult than raising money to "save" and restore them.
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In the best of all possible worlds there would be money for both . The National Park Service has budgeted less than a million dollars to take care of its entire fleet-a fleet in need of millions of dollars just to stop major deterioration. To drag Vicar of Bray halfway around the world so she can rot as a memorial to San Francisco's municipal ego borders on the immoral. LOUIS F. LINDEN, ESQ. Washington, DC
The point which we hope and believe is strong enough to overcome every objection, is that expressed in the Editor's log of the last issue . "The voyage home of this one ship might save the many by bringing into a focus the feelings that people have for the ships that built their city." Certainly, whether we are right or wrong about the Vicar, a great surge of public interest and concern is needed to reverse the threatened situation of the ships of San Francisco .-ED.
Two Half-Hitches Are Enough! About Gunnar Hexum ' s article in SEA HISTORY 38, " Two Half-Hitches are Enough": I've often wondered why so many seamen seem to think so . I have never trusted them without seizing the end of the rope around which they have been cast. With a loose end , the hitches will either come adrift or slide together to make a not-too-trusty clove hitch . I don ' t blame the " Coastal Protection Association" lads for laying on eight or nine. Yes, I recall those picture postcards, too. During an automobile run up the West Coast in the early 1950s, we had breakfast in a Port Orford shoreside restaurant where I saw some and bought a couple . ROBERT G. HERBERT, II East Northport, New York Two half-hitches are enough in a tempo-
rary emergency, though the hitches will work loose in a tugging, changing situation .-ED.
Tough Years in the Esther Johnson In 1933-34 my father Carl " Swanie" Swanson made a number of trips in the Esther Johnson on the run from San Francisco to Astoria, Oregon and Aberdeen, Washington. He sailed as an able-bodied seaman, which he really was, the finest kind. They were carrying lumber for the construction of the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate bridges. These were tough years, when shoreside jobs were non-existent and berths afloat very scarce . The Esther Johnson job paid about fifty dollars a month, plus board and bed (a fair amount for those times) . When Dad was home between
trips he would excuse his table manners, and they were bad, as having been caused by fighting for his share of the meager rations served up in the galley of the
Esther Johnson . In 1944 I remember seeing the Esther Johnson steaming off Hollandia, New Guinea as we formed in convoy going to the Philippines. I was in the USAT Octorara--on which I was joined a year later by Chief Mate Karl Kortum (Chairman-Emeritus of this Society). CAPT. ALBERT A. SWANSON Boston, Massachusetts
Many of the early South Street Seaport Museum volunteers will remember Swanie and his son from their work aboard the lightvessel Ambrose in 1969.-ED .
Accurate Views I greatly admired the paintings of John Groves in SEA HISTORY 38, they are full of atmosphere . But are they really accurate views of the past? The boat in the " Family of Crabbers " has the stem of a motor boat, but she is supposed to be a pulling boat. The ''Cornish Coast'' is a bit strange. The decked Comish luggers worked out of harbours and they sometimes discharged on a beach , but I don't know of any case of large luggers being hauled up on a beach in the Penzance area . Also these luggers appear to be clinker , while the Westcountry was the stronghold of carve( built craft. When researching Beach Boats ofBritian (Boydell) I looked at a great number of photographs and illustrations of boats working off beaches but I never saw one with a loose-footed gaff main and jib used for fishing. Some of the south and east coast boats used this rig for passenger carrying in the summer. One of these luggers appears to have a beam trawl aboard although in Britain this rig was only used for drift net fishing. ROBERT SIMPER Woodbridge , England Mr . Simper is the editor of the "Sail
Review'' column of the British publication Sea Breezes, and the author of Britain ' s Maritime Heritage.- ED .
Portsmouth Ship Trust We were pleased to see the 1907 Diane Chris listed in Eric Berryman's account of ship trust activities for 1985 (SEA HISTORY 38). I should tell you that she was not built in Denmark but by Scheepsbouwerf' sLands Welvaren in Vlaardingen, Holland and named Handel. She is now owned by the Portsmouth Ship Trust and has been renamed Sagamore . Sagamore has at least two near-sisters SEA HISTORY, SUMMER 1986