Sea History 058 - Summer 1991

No. 58

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SUMMER 1991

THE ART, LITERATURE, ADVENTURE, LORE & LEARNING OF THE SEA

FIRST ENCOUNTERS ON THE HUDSON Bill Muller's Views of Later Hudson Navigation New Life for the Oldest Tug on the Erie

COLUMBUS IN THE ISLANDS Under Indian Eyes

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SEA HISTORY No. 58

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SEA HISTORY is pub lished quarterly by the National Maritime Histo ri ca l Society, 132 Maple Street, Croton-on- Hudson NY I 0520. Second class postage paid at Croton-on-Hudson NY I 0520 and Cincinnati O H 45242 . USPS # 000676. CO PY RIG HT © 199 1 by the Nati o nal Maritime Hi stori cal Society. Te le phone 9 14 27 1-2 177.

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OFFICERS & TRUSTEES : Chairman, Sch uy ler M. Meyer, J r.; Vice Chairmen, A lan G. C hoate, James Ean , Edward G . Ze lin sky; President, Peter Stan ford ; Vice President , Nonn a Stanford; Treasurer, Thom as Goc hberg; Secretary, Richardo Lopes; Trustees, Norbert S. Hill , Jr., Karl Kortum, George Lamb, James P. Marenakos, Nancy Pouch, Ludwi g K. Rubinsky, Edmund S. Rum ow icz, Der Scutt, Frank V. Snyder, Samuel Thompson. Chairman Emeritus, Karl Kortum OVERSEERS: Charl es F. Adam s, Henry H. Anderson, Jr., Town send Hornor, George Lamb, C liffo rd D. Ma ll ory, Sc huyler M. Meyer, Jr., J. Willi am Middendorf, II . Jo hn G. Rogers. John Stobart ADV ISORS: Co-Chairmen , Frank 0 . Braynard, Melbo urne Smith ; D.K. Abbass, Raymond Aker, Robert Amon , George F. Bass, Francis E. Bowker, Oswa ld L. Bre tt , David Brink , Wi lli am M. Doerflinger, John S. Ewald, Joseph L. Farr, Timothy G. Foote, T homas Gi llm er, Richard GooldAclams, Walter J. Hande lman , Robert G. Herbert, Jr., Conrad Mil ster, Edward D. Muhlfeld , William G. Mu ller, David E. Perk in s, Richard Rath , Nancy Hughes Ri chardson, Timoth y J. Runyan, George Sa ll ey, Ra lph L. Snow, Edouard A. Stackpole, John Stobart, Albert Swanson, Shannon J. Wall , Raymond E. Wallace, Robert A. Weinstein , Thomas We ll s, C harles Wi ttho lz

SUMMER 1991

CONTENTS 4

DECK LOG

7

THE TUGBOAT URGER, ANCIENT MARINER OF THE BARGE

9

NMHS MISSION

10 12

TUNS, TONS AND BARRELS OF WINE, Thomas Hale REDISCOVERING COLUMBUS,V: UNDER INDIAN EYES , Peter Stanford

17 19

THE NOBLE HUDSON; INDIAN LIFE ON THE RIVER, Peggy Turco EARLY ENCOUNTERS ON THE HUDSON, Kev in Haydon

24

MAR INE ART; WILLIAM GORDON MULLER, STEAMBOATS, AND THE HUDSON RIVER, Norma Stanford ART NEWS OPERATION SAIL ' 92: THE EXTRAORDINARY EAGLE, Dick Rath THE CITY OF COLUMBUS PLANS FOR THE QUINCENTENARY, Randall Edwards

LETIERS CANAL, Tom Prindle

28 30 34 35

SHIP NOTES , SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS

40

REVIEWS

44

DESSERT: MY FATHER 'S EPIC CAPE HORN VOYAGE, Robert Bahnsen

COVER : The broad waters of the Hudson support a strange apparition wafted in from the sea in the early autumn of 1609. Native Americans, for the most part, welcomed Hendrick Hudson in the Halve Maen, the first European arrival in their rive r, proudl y show ing off their homes, their crops and the small craft in which they li ved much of their lives afloat. Painting by Robert Weir, 1838. Courtesy David and David Gall ery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

WORLD SH[P TRUST: Vice Presidents, Henry H. A nderson , J r. , V isco unt Caldecote , Mald win Drummond , Sir Rex Hunt, Hammond mnes, Rt. Hon. Lord Lewin, Rt. Hon. Lord Shackleton, Peter Stanford, Edward G. Zelinsky; Chairman, J. A. Forsythe; Hon. Treasurer, Michael C. MacSwiney; Hon. Secretary, R. E. Arnold Shrubb; Trustees : Eric J. Berryman, Mensun Bound, Neil Cossons, David Goddard, David MacGregor, Alan McGowan, Anthony Nelson, Mi chael Parker, Arthur Prothero, Miehael Stammers, Jayne Tracey. Membership: £15 payable WST, 2 Greenwich Church St. , London SE I 0 9BC, England.

Reg. Charily No. 27775 1 SEA HI STORY STAFF: Editor, Peter Stan ford; Managing Editor, Norm a Stanfo rd ; Associate Editors, Kev in Haydon, Richard Rath; Production Asst., Josep h S tan ford ; Accounting , Marth a Ros val ly ; Membership Secretary, Patricia Anstett ; Membership Assistant, Grace Zerella ADVERTISrNG: Staff, Michell e Sh uster, Jonath an Gargiu lo; West Coast, Mr. Val Ely, 1638 Placent ia Drive, Costa Mesa CA 92627 , Tel: 7 14 642-5410; Southeast, Mr. Ri chard Dalley , PO Box 418 , 307 South Morri s St., Oxford MD 2 1654, Tel: 301 226-5059

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58

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3

DECK LOG This Sea History comes to you a little late because we were late raising the funds needed to produce it. We have to live with the fact that, at thi s stage of its development, Sea History needs more than operating revenues to stay afloat.The recession contributed to our problems, as did a few key grants not coming through. Added to this were heavy expenses for developing plans and funding for International Maritime Heritage Year 1992.

I don 't imagine you 're interested in excuses, and we're not either. We do have to be aware, however, that we are operating in an environment in which several distinguished magazines in our field have ceased publication. It is a contest to stay afloat. We couldn't do it without the help of you, our members.

Thanks to you, we are not only afloat, but forging ahead!

Earned revenues of Sea Hi story Press (including the Gazette and Museum Guide) rose by 24 percent last year. This year's revenues are gaining on top of those gains. We are closing the gap, bringing nearer the day our publications will be self-sustaining and ultimately revenue producers for the maritime heritage we exist to serve.

Forging Ahead Knowing that we must keep moving forward to survive and to achieve our mission , we are taking our cause to the waterways this summer, through the cruise of the tug Urger reported on pages 7-8. At the same time we are preparing to move into new waterfront headquarters on the Hudson. This move is recognized in a Jetter on this page, and in articles in this issue celebrating the mighty waterway that shaped the history of our comer of the world, before and after the European arrival.

What do the Urger cruise and new headquarters do for us? The Urger carries our flag on the water; we view it as precursor to more extensive waterborne operations in 1992. The new headquarters will give us the capacity to manage the 1992 maritime heritage program we are working on, as outlined on page 9.

These steps are vital to achieving our objectives forthe heritage in 1992. PS

*****

As we go to press, we learn that Frank Carr, founder of the World Ship Trust, died on July 9th at the age of 88. A memoir of his long and distinguished service to the cause of hi storic ships will appear in a future Sea History.

4

LETTERS Welcome to Peekskill We, in the city of Peekskill, are honored that the National Maritime Hi storical Society has chosen to locate its offices, museum and library in the City of Peekskill.

The City's waterfront is truly one of the most beautiful areas on the East Coast and is rich in American hi story.

Henry Hudson anchored in Peekskill Bay while he waited for the tides to carry him north ; the British and Patriots clashed numerou s times, and the Village of Peekskill was twice burned. The waterfront has been utilized for fur trading, shipbui lding, stove and iron works, and exporting produce to New York City.

Recently, our waterfront has made a great transformation into one of the largest recreational parks on the Hudson River. The location of your distinguished Society in the City of Peekskill' s waterfront provides us with another asset we can embrace and be proud of.

JosEPH J. SEYMOUR City Manager City of Peekskill, New York

Maritime Heritage Program for 1992 McAllister Brothers Towing and Transportation Company, Inc . is pleased to endorse the maritime heritage program scheduled to be celebrated in 1992. McAllister Brothers was founded by my great-grandfather, Captain Jam es McA )lister, who started in the lighterage business in New York Harbor in 1864. Today, in addition to our operations along the US East Coast, the company has business as far away as the Middle East and the Indian Ocean. While there have been many changes in the industry over the years, we have, to a great extent, followed the same principles first established by Captain James, giving us today a rich heritage of which we are proud.

McAllister Brothers, therefore, fully supports this worthy endeavor, which focuses on maritime heritage, not only here in the United States but worldwide.

We look forward to working with the National Maritime Hi storical Society towards keeping this heritage alive for future generations.

BRIAN A. McALLISTER President, McAllister Brothers Towing and Transportation

Even Better, It Was the Nina!

It is always a great pleasure when Sea History arrives. I loved the picture of the

MalcolmMilleron the cover of the Spring issue, and I was delighted with the very fine tribute to my late husband , Alan Villiers, in the article by Dick Rath. It was good to have hi s name linked with that of Irving Johnson of happy memory .

Unfortunately, a mistake crept into the article: Alan did not sail a replica of the Santa Maria in 1963. I telephoned Adrian Small to see if he remembered the c ircumstances of this voyage, and hi s recollection was the same as mine-that it was the Nina and not the Santa Maria.

It was entirely a Spanish venture.

NANCIE VILLI ERS Oxford, England

Temples of the Sea It was good to see the gang at the Nation al Maritime Alliance Meeting, June 16- 18, and it was interesti ng to hear their views of what we ought to be doing in the maritime hi story comm unity. Too much of it boiled down to "get more money," but that 's universal these days.

Of course to get more money, or more visitors, or more attention in general , you have to figure out what the public wants, a topic of much discussion at the meeting-speculation ranged from ed ucation to entertainment and a lot in between. But all of it was intellectual and academic.

The feeling of being at one with the rh ythm s of sea and sky is what drives sailors back to the sea and will drive the public back to the museums-if these institutions allow themselves to become land-based temples of the sea like their floating counterparts.

All the sk illful education and artful design will fa il to compel if the in sti tution allows this central principle to elude it. The 18th century sea songster Charles Dibdin may have over-glorified the life of a sailor, but he put hi s finger on what the sea is all about. The conference missed it by a mile.

Oh well , at age forty-five I am already becoming an artifact. ...

JoHN TOWNLEY White Stone, Virginia Mr. Townley, sea musician par excellence, miscasts himself as a mere artifact; he is a national treasure , like one of those Japanese sumo wrestlers.- ED

Is This Maritime History?

As a bibliophile, I usually turn to the " Reviews" section to discover new publications on maritime history . Perusal of the Spring 1991 iss ue raises some quesSEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

tions in my mind as to the significance or relevancy of two of the books reviewed.

The first one, Night and Fog , has a relationship-a tenuous one, but it at least covers a voyage across the Atlantic. However, I am puzzled as to the inclusion of the other, American Indian Holocaust andSurvival. Had it covered, for example, the fishing practices of the early Indians-or perhaps, a survey of their watercraft-I could see the relevancy, but based solely on the review itself, I fa il to see how this book can contribute to the stated aims of the NMHS to "bring to life America ' s seafaring past through research, archaeological expeditions and ship preservation efforts."

With so many outstanding books on maritime subjects being published all over, I really would like to know why this one was included in "Reviews."

K. STANLEY y AMASHITA San Pedro, California At sea, sailors reflect on their lives ashore, sometimes seeking their meanings. In this Night and Fog is distinctly literature of the sea. American Indian Holocau st and Survival gives the most authoritative account available of the ethnological consequences of Columbus's voyages which opened the Americas to European colonization. See the discussion in "Mission" in this issue; we believe maritime history is about the impact of voyaging , as well as the voyages themselves. We feel Dr. Yamashita makes an important point, however; in stretching the reach of our concerns we do not want to vitiate the seafaring story.-ED I have liked Sea History for many years , however, thi s issue has two items to criticize. One, the book review of Thornton's book on the American Indian has no place in a maritime journal.

It is a good book but has no place here.

The other is the exchange between Mr. Corlett and the editor. The editor should have been a bit more circumspect and left off the last sentence of his response.

It is not worthy of the journal or of my high estimation of the editor.

MYRON MOLNAU

Moscow, Indiana The editor will seek to be more moderate in the Juture.-ED

A Stacked Deck I really do have to take issue with the ed itor' s comments on a letter appearing from Alex Hurst on the old four-funnelled SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

American destroyers which were part of the Lend-Lease arrangement entered into with the United Kingdom during the darker days of World War II. The editor says these vessels were not known as "Four Stackers" but as "Four Pipers." Butcertainly in the United Kingdom, and, indeed , from my understanding of the situation in the United States, these vessels were known as " Four Stackers." Until the editor made his comments I had never before heard them referred to as "Four Pipers" on either side of the Atlantic.

It is interesting to note that Don Snowden, who serrved in the US Navy from 1935 to 1953 and who was, and maybe still is, closely associated with the San Diego Maritime Museum, refers to these vessels as "Four Stackers." He says: "There were four of nearly everything-four stacks, four boilers, four guns in the main battery, four sets of torpedoe tubes, four washbasins, four lavatory stools .... " And he refers to USS Buchanan as one of the old "four stack flu sh decked destroyers of World War I vintage."

Since this is criticism of the editor I doubt whether my letter will be publi shed , but I felt I ought to set the record straight, at least from my own understanding of the situation . "Four Pipers" indeed!

D. B. CLEMENT Exton, England Why these ships were commonly called "four pipers" by Americans and "four slackers" by Brits is a mystery, but so in fact they were. Mr. Clement is to be congratulated for coming up with this exception to the rule . -ED

Now Hear This, Arethusas!

A friend has kindly shown me yo ur Summer 1990 Sea History (SH 54). I particularly enjoyed "Life Aboard the Viper," and the photograph taken aboa rd Arethusa, or as she is now known , Peking. Twenty of us old Arethusa boys visited the Peking in New York this Apri I. Mrs Le Mare, who is mentioned in the article, has informed me that the photograph of the children and the guard was taken on June 13 , 1956. I would be grateful if this letter could be published in your magazine in the hope of tracing more Arethusas.

L. D. P OTION Membership Secretary Arethusa Old Boys Association Cornwall, England

ERRATA

Having matured along with sail training in the United States during the last sixteen years, I wanted you to know how sincere! y I appreciated your article in the Spring 1991 issue of Sea History.

But there is an error I wish to correct.

VisionQuest owns and operates the schooners Bill of Rights and New Way. Harvey Gamage is proudly sailed and owned by Dirigo Cruises of Clinton CT. The Harvey Gamage is the sister ship to the Bill of Rights and the two are often mistaken for each other.

CAPT. R OBERT c. GLOVER, III Port Captain, VisionQuest Exton, Pennsylvania The caption under the print "Public Landing, Cincinnati 1875," in the Michael Blaser article, has a glaring error, noting that one of the steamers " burned at a New Orleans levy ." In Louisiana we have a great many levies but they have nothing to do with keeping our rivers and bayous out of our lowlands. For that purpose we have levees. The former helps the politicians stay in office, the latter protects our people.

H ARRY FRIEDM AN

Shreveport, Louisiana QUERIES

Dieter Melchart is looking for information about Gulfport Shipbuilding Co., in Gulfport MS, builders of the schooner Elizabeth Bandi in 1919. Who was the lady whose name was given to the vessel? Presumably a relative of J. A. Bandi , former head of the First National Bank, Gulfport. Dieter Melchart, Schaeferstr.

23, D - 4708 Kamen, Germany.

Jean-M ichel Calvez-Normand reports in that altogether admirable magazine Le Chasse-Maree on uncovering an old Breton cemetery that had been engulfed in sand . One of the hundred-odd gravestones shows a ship. He is interested in other examples of ships shown on old gravestones. Please respond to NMHS, PO 646, Croton NY 10520.

World War II era pictures of Liberty ships are needed by Adam Geibel for a book project. Mr. Geibel would also appreciate any anecdotes, particularly from anyone serving with Lt. Qg) Walter ("Pete") Geibel , Third Engineer (Walker, Taylor, Somme, Honeyhill) . Adam Geibel, 628 Palairet Road, Philadelphia PA 19105. o 5

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THE "URGER" - A familiar N.Y. State tugboat landmark in the Hudson I Eric Canal area was painted by noted maritime artist TONY J. CAPONE. A limited edition full color, signed and numbered prints are available at $100. each.

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SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

TheTugboat Urger Ancient Mariner of the Barge Canal

by Tom Prindle Not long ago, while rummaging through old files in the headquarters of the New York State Barge Canal, I stumbled across a dusty old theme tablet, faintly inscribed: "BOAT REGISTER."Opening the frayed cover I read : " YEAR 1922 REGISTER OF BoATs," written in a flouri shing antique hand. Turning the yellowed pages I read names like: Ellen Bushey, National, Twin Ports, Dixie, Thomas H. , Transco No. 4 , and Helen B. Moran .

These were vessels registered for service on the New York Barge Canal System , which in 1922 was only in its fourth year of operation. * Over a thousand vessels were active on the Barge Canal System that season. *The Barge Canal improvement replaced the aged canals and towpaths of the 19th century with a modern and revolutionary system of inl and water tran sportati on. The Erie, Champlain , Oswego and Cay uga-Seneca canals were reconstructed and largely re-routed, increas ing a single vesse l's carrying capacity to 2,000 tons or nearl y ten times that of the old canal barges. The canal opened over 800 miles of inland navi gati on and maintained New York 's historic passage between the Great Lakes and the sea. Natural rivers , lakes and streams were "canal ized" and connected by 57 huge electrical mechani ca l locks and artificial channe ls often carved from solid rock.

Reading from name to name, I thought of all the boatmen those vessels represented. It is hard to envision from the quiet canal of today, the thriving commercial shipping industry that once existed. Like the mule teams which preceded them across the hills and valleys of New York State, towing cargoes from the tidal waters of the Hudson to Lake Erie and Ontario, so the great fleets of steam and steel have vanished into history. This was more than just a boat register-it was more like a roll call of the dead.

In 1922, the State of New York was assembling a modem maintenance fleet for its brand new Barge Canal System.

Among the vessels acquired that year by the Department of Public Works was a slender yet powerful steam tug named Urger. For sixty-four years the tug Urger served on the Erie Canal. Year after year as the ranks of tugboats dwindled around her, the Urger remained. Time eventually clouded the Urger's history, for she even outlived most of those who knew her true story.

The first time I saw the Urger I was smitten by her graceful lines, her stately

pilothouse and handsome brass wheel.

For years, little was known about the tugboat, other than that she had been around for as long as anyone could remember. Beguiling subtleties about the boat whetted the appetite for more knowledge, Legend had it that the boat hailed out of the west somewhere. Her deck bitts were inscribed: "Johnston Brothers-Ferrysburg, Michigan 1901."

Not long after I contacted the Institute for Great Lakes Research a splendid chap named Jay Martin informed me that our Urger began life as the tug Henry J. Dornbos and was, indeed, constructed in Johnston Brothers Shipyard at Ferrysburg, Ml, near Grand Haven. A clipping from the Detroit Free Press written shortly after she slid down the ways on June 13 , 1901, reported that, "the steel fish tug H. J. Dornbos is the finest boat in the local fishing fleet. " Her namesake, Mr. Hemy J. Dornbos, was in 1901 the largest smoker of whitefish chubs in the United States.

The Dornbos was registered on July 18, 1901 to a family named Verduin, which operated a commercial fishing business in Grand Haven. Three broth-

The tug Urger moves a barge along the Mohawk River in 1922, past a valley farm er working his field with a horse-drawn harrow.

SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 199 1

7

THE URGER ers rotated as captain of the tug. The Verduin family, which still resides in Grand Haven , provided information about the Urger , ex-Dornbos that far exceeded our wildest imaginings.

Mr. Claude Verduin , whose father Caleb often skippered the Dornbos, remembered the vessel well and told me how as a lad he clung to her brass wheel while out in rough seas with his father and his uncles . Sadly, Mr. Verduin passed away last year in his eighty-third year.

Mr. Verduin wrote, "She was an exceptionally well built vessel with considerably more power than was required for a fish tug ... she was an outstanding sea boat and one of the finest all round boats of her size on Lake Michigan."

The Dornbos was so notably seaworthy and powerful that she was often called into action as a rescue vessel of the old Life Saving Service, the forerunner of the US Coast Guard. Historically the Dornbos was one of the earliest Coast Guard vessels on the Great Lakes. A newspaper article entitled "When Seas Are High" relates the hero ic rescue of the giant tug Latham by the tug Dornbos.

The Latham lost her rudder five miles out from Grand Haven in furiou s seas.

She sounded distress calls on her whistle as she was pounded toward shore. The Dornbos set out through waves higher than her pilothouse, and aided by a crew of life savers in an open boat, saved the wallowing Latham. "And so at last," said a newspaper account," ... with great exhibition of skill and courage the life savers carried the Iine from the Dornbos to the Latham."

In 1919 the tug Dornbos was sold by the Verduin Brothers and left Grand Haven and the commercial fishing industry. On August 19, 1920, the tug was renamed Urger. At about the same time the New York State Barge Canal System was completed.

The Urge r entered the state fleet in 1922 and served on the Erie Canal until her retirement in 1986. In those sixtyfo ur years, the vessel evolved from the Dornbos to the Urger we recognize today. In 1937, her wooden deckhousing was removed and replaced with a steel superstructure. Her old Montague Iron Works single-stroke steam engine was replaced in 1948 with a 320 hp Atlas Imperial Diesel acquired from the US Navy. And her pilothouse was moved forward to its present location.

Genteel features of the Urger, like

8

Th e Urger, photographed in 1990 , as she looks today. Photos courtesy the author.

her gleaming brass work, old iron bitts, the brass wheel, engine room be ll and jingles, indicate that she hai ls from another age. The Urger is still a bell boatthe captain must convey hi s orders to the engine room by a series of bell signal s.

The Urger is steered by a system of external cables that run from the pilothouse, down the length of her deck and connect with the rudder quadrant under her fa ntail. After all these years the Urger retains her regal bearing.

*****

This summer, as she enters her nineti eth year, the Urger has embarked on yet another chapter in her long and remarkable history. The New York State All iance for Arts Education and the National Maritime Historical Society are sponsoring Project Urger, a celebration of our inland waterways. The venerable tugboat, on loan from the State of New York, is touring the Erie Canal in July and August. The chairman of NMHS, Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr., Commander USNR, ret., wi ll skipper the Urger to some thirty ports of call between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. The tug will take on a new and appropriate ro le as a teacher relating the history of inl and navigation , from the era of the Native American in canoes to the modern era of tugboats and barges.

The year 200 1 will mark the centennial of the Urger's launching. We hope that by then our ancient mariner of the Barge Canal wi ll be a fam ili ar sight on the waterways of New York State. She has a job of work to do on the canal. Over 600 school ch ildren crossed her decks

one day in the cruise- and plenty more are coming! D

Tom Prindle is the Canal Traffic Agent for the New York State Department of Transportation.

Canal Tour of Tugboat Urger Jul y 3, 4 , 5 Rome Terminal ; fu ll day s July 8, 9 , I0 Waterford, Button Park; full days Jul y 11 Schenectady, Lock 8; noon arriva l July 12, 13 Amsterdam, Guy Park Manor; noon arrival ; fu ll day Jul y 14 Fort Hunter, Lock 12; noon a rrial Ju ly 15 Fonda Terminal; noon a rriv a l J ul y 16 Canajo harie; noon arriva l Jul y 17, 18 Little Falls, Lock 17 ; noo n arriva l; full day s Jul y 19 Ili on; full day Jul y 20 Uti ca, Lock20 Marcy ; noon arriva l Jul y 2 1, 22 Sylvan Beach ; noon a rrival ; fu ll day Jul y 23 Pheonix; noon arriva l July 24-28 Oswego, Harborfest '9 1; noon arrival ; full days Jul y 30 Baldwinsvi ll e, Lock 24; fu ll days Aug ust I Seneca Falls; fu ll day Augu st 3- 10 Liverpoo l, Lake Onondaga August 13, 14 Clyde & Lyons; fu ll days August 15 Newark & Palmyra; fu ll day s August 16 Fairport; noon arriv a l Aug ust 17 Pittsford; fu ll day Augu st 18, 19 Rochester; full days August 20 Spencerport; full day s August 21 Brockport; full day Augu st 23 Medina; fu ll day August 25, 26 Lockport ; fu ll days August 27, 28 The Tonawandas; noon arriva l; fu ll days

SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 199 1

NMHS MISSION:

Where Does Humanity Fit In? Some people sincere in their interest in humanity find it strange to draw on the Native American experience as part of the story of Columbus ' s gallant voyage across the North Atlantic in the Trade Wind belt in 1492. A close and longtime friend of mine commented : " I don't see how the Indians are part of the maritime story. God love them- but where do they fit in?"

Unlike jesting Pilate, my friend waited for an answer. Here it is, as straight as I can get it: Maritime history isn't just about ships and their people; it is about the impact of their sailing upon hi story.

History is the narrative of humanity ' s experience; humanity includes Indians.

History isn ' t boasting about one 's ancestors (a tiresome and self-defeating exercise); it isn't about taking refuge from the realities of the present day or, even worse, tomorrow; it is about mankind venturing, voyaging, hating, loving, fearing, but pushing forward somehow bravely to learn about its world and itself. History loves voyagers, however they fall short of perfection. They are among us to discover and push back the boundaries of the known world . Voyagers bring humanity into contact with its greatest enemy and greatest hope: itself.

They are responsible for the clash of cu ltures, the tumult of conflicting ideas.

The Indians, who rarely call themselves that, but rather Chippewas, Algonquins, Caribs, and so on , were quick to recognize a more advanced technology and social organization. Most had a kind of awe in meeting their brothers in another state. They quickly learned this was not a god Iike state, but they endured the encounter and , like the Celtic bards who lived for centuries in the hills to escape the Germanic domination of the British Isles, they gave imperishable gifts to those who had taken their lands .

It ' s a dusty business at best, beating the rug of history our ancestors wove to thrash out what they did wrong , by our 20th-century lights. Let us be responsible for today . History gives us a second chance at truth . That is all it does. It does not tell us what to do about it.

That is up to us. Like one of the spiders that from time to time drop down from the rooftree of the Just Bare! y Managing Editor's and my room in the house where these lines are written, we spin history continuous! y out of our acts, floating in air, with the sense of our own identity, upon its silken cord.

What we have that the spider doesn ' t SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

is the abi lity to learn from the consequences of our acts. Does some humbleness for the messes we ' ve made inhibit action? Only a weakened spirit could reach such a conclusion. Rather, it should inspire us to be out in the heat and the sun and storm and to be doing, to be learning , to be pushing back those boundaries.

*** * *

This reasoning may not convince doubters of the real value of history. If we entertain you , I am happy- and perhaps some light may be set glinting off these sombre rocks of the human experience.

The Indian story is part of that experience, but I am on ly here to invite you to discover that experience in these pages.

If you find new perspectives or perhaps Rew encouragements to contribute something positive to the experience of mankind, then our purpose is fulfilled.

Annual Meeting, May 18

in 1979. This change ends our representation of WST interests in the United States. We wish the Trust well in its new course and are proud to have been of help in establishing its mission in its first twelve years.

Our own program for 1992 will overlap the World Ship Trust ' s in some areas, notably the historic ship conferences to be held next year in New York and San Francisco; we are to conduct these as an integral part of our own US program , underthe aegis oflnternational Maritime Heritage Year, which is sponsored by the World Ship Trust. So we mean to go on, in cooperative and mutually supportive ways.

The full NMHS program , designed to help the whole heritage nationwide, will be set forth in the Autumn Sea History.

As always, immediate challenges were at hand during the meeting. Bob Rosenbaum spoke of his plans to restore the wooden barkentine Regina Maris , which had coursed the far reaches of the Atlantic and Pacific in the later 1970s and early 1980s under the command of the late George Nichols, after long service as a North Atlantic trader between Denmark and Canada. Several people spoke of sailing in this great old ship, and the Society pledged all help to the effort to restore her. See "Ship Notes," this issue, for an encourag ing report on that.

Our own finances were reviewed in the context of a temporary cash shortage which was delaying the publication of Sea History. Without reserves it was difficult to meet such problems; but as audited records showed, 1989 and 1990 had been gaining years , above all in operating revenues for Sea History and other publications of Sea History Press.

In keeping with the Society ' s determination to build Sea History into a significant national force, not just as a magazine but as a publishing center devoted to the heritage, it was determined at the Annual Meeting to set up Sea History Trust. This entity, proposed by Bill Winterer and seconded by Bruce McCloskey, may one day be the identity by which the Society and its works are most widely known.

This year's meeting saw about 100 people gathered at the Herreshoff Muse um of Yachting in Bristol , Rhode Island. That ' s less than one percent of our newly expanded membership, numbering over 12,000 after last year' s healthy growthwhich, it was good to report, is continuing this year. This is an aware and committed I %, markedly proud of the Society's achievements and eagerto discuss future courses. Vice Admiral Thomas Weschler spoke for us all in saying that the great thing about the meeting was the people. He said he had rarely seen such upwelling of interest from such a variety of sources.

Our plans for 1992-which embrace conferences, a directory of Columbus Quincentenary activities, information centers in New York and San Francisco, a major ed ucational effort in the schools in New York State and elsewhere, and an effort dedicated to some critically important historic ship restorations-were approved unanimously. The appointment of a director for International Maritime Heritage Year (IMHY 92) in the US was announced-but, as it subsequently developed , the World Ship Trust decided to administer this project direct from England, a change in the relationship under which NMHS had administered PETER STANFORD WST affairs in the United States.

President This change in policy closes a chapter Norn: Those wishing full minutes of the that goes back to the 1974 US tour of Annual Meeting of 1991 , with audited Frank Carr under NMHS auspices , dur- financial reports for the previous two ing which a cooperative course was first years, have only to write to us to get laid out. It led eventually to the founding them. And please, if you can, enclose $2 of the World Ship Trust five years later, for postage and handling.

9

Tuns, Tons and Barrels of Wine

by Thomas Hale

The landsman must often think that seamen try to make their "Why I pay tax on whole ship? I no pay tax on deck house or calling sound complex by using archaic and unusual terms, galley. I pay tax on cargo holds on ly!" And thus was born the thu s giving the impression that their profess ion is beyond the distinction between gross tonnage and net tonnage. Most deck comprehension of ordinary mortals .. Certainly, the maritime houses and cabins above the main deck are not even included community has managed to obscure and confuse the simple in gross tonnage. To get the net tonnage, other areas, such as word ton such that even admiralty lawyers have stumbled over engine room, fue l tanks, store rooms, chain lockers and crews' the proper definition or usage of the word . Sorting out the quarters are subtracted from the gross tonnage. meanings and the history of thi s word has been an intriguing Register tonnage is also an important term and is the search. tonnage appearing on the vessel 's register, i.e. the document "A pint 's a pound the world around," or is it? The old saying under which she is registered at her home port and under which may be accurate up to a point, for, indeed, one pint of water she sails. It will be stated as gross tonnage and/or net tonnage weighs about a pound , or 1.04 lbs to be exact. A pint of and refers to the volumetric capacity of the ship in units of 100 bourbon , however, weighs onl y .82 lbs, whereas a pint of cubic feet. Documented yachts or small commerc ial vessels sulfuric ac id weighs almost two (1.89). But have their documented tonnage carved or suppose we are talking about green beans. otherwise permanently affixed to the strucNow we have 16 pints in something called a ture of the boat, reading, for example "Net peck, and who knows what a peck of beans 18." This always refers to the net interior weighs? Similarl y, in a maritime context, the cubage of the craft in tons, not, as is often use of the word ton sometimes refers to w:eight mistakenly ass umed, to her weight in tons. and sometimes refers to volume. Often the The operator of a boatyard marine railway or same word can have totally different meantravel-lift will do well to understand this fact! ings .

When I was a little boy, I well remember Since the beginning, a ton was the index the coal truck backing into our driveway and upon which taxes or other charges were levied the roar as two tons of coal disappeared down on a vessel. Taxes or customs duties on ships the shiny chute into the; cellar coal bin to be and cargoes are among the earliest of the attacked by a burly Irishman with a shovel world 's records, and there are records of taxes who stoked the family furnace. A ton of coal on the import of cedar from Lebanon into weighed 2,000 lbs, a simple enough concept, ancient Egypt and innumerable Greek and and for years I thought it was always so.

Roman records of taxes on amphorae of olive A ton of coal may indeed weigh 2,000 lbs oil or wine, or of hides or wool. It was a tax on ~ to most of us . But when the mariner refers to a cargo of tea that sparked the unpleasantness "' a ton (weight) he is talking about a British between King George III and the Thirteen ~ "long ton" which equals 2,240 lbs or 35 cubic Colonies. Thus, there have long been tax ~ feet of salt water, unless he is a Frenchman, collectors in every port, but how and what to ts who will only speak of "tonnes" (metric tax? How to measure the cargo? ~ tons) which equal 2,204.6 lbs, just to confuse the issue. But for now, let's just accept During the Middle Ages and the earl y ~ Renaissance, the most common cargoes, es- : ; : the long ton as a unit of weight. "But," you pecially in the Mediterranean, where most of ~~---------~ may say, "you just defined tonnage as a unit the seaborne trade was conducted, were casks of volume. Why not leave it there?" Simply of wine commonly called tuns. They were relatively tall and because there are many situations in which it is weight rather narrower than what we think of today as casks or hogsheads, than volume that is important. Obviously a ship might be able but they became quite standardized, so that a tun of wine in to carry I00 tons (volume) of bourbon whiskey, weighing Spain was roughl y the same as a tun of wine in Sicily or Malta about 5 I lbs per cubic foot , but would be able to carry safely or in Tyre or Sidon. So, it was natural for customs men and tax onl y a fraction of this cubage were she transporting lead, coll ectors to base their charges on a ship in terms of the tuns which weighs 750 lbs per cubic foot. In order to define a it carried. Cubic capacity, not weight, was the criterion. vessel's weight or weight-carrying capacity, a wholly differUnfortunately, over the years the spelling became corrupted to ent set of terms emerges- unfortunately still defined in terms ton , leading to the inevitabl e confusion between weight and of tons- long tons this time. volume. At some point the volumetric measure became stanA ship's displacement tonnage is just that, i.e. the weight of dardized at 252 gallons of wine to the ton, but fin ally the water in long tons which the vessel displaces. It is arrived at by accepted volume was defined as 100 cubic feet per ton (tun) calcul ating the volume of water displaced in cubic feet and and vessels were and are still often taxed and described by their dividing by 35 (35 cubic feet of sea water equall ing I long ton). cubic tonnage. Thus, a thousand ton ship would have an Thus, in effect, displacement can be considered a volumetric enclosed capacity of 1,000 times I 00, or l 00,000 cubic fee t. measurement expressed in weight. It took me a long time to So far, except for the confu sion over the two definiti ons of reconcile this concept! There are actually two measurements the same word, the language is not too compl icated. But, now of displacement: first, displacement light, which measures the the bureaucrats and technicians and lawyers enter the picture, ship 's weight minus her food, stores, fuel and cargo; second, and in their efforts to further define the word, they have displacement loaded, which includes all her consumable stores muddied the waters. and cargo.

At one time in the dim distant past, some angry sea lawyer Dead weight tonnage is the difference between displaceshook his fi st under a customs collector's nose and shouted, ment tonnage loaded and displacement tonnage light. It accu-

10

SEA HISTORY 58 , SUMMER 199 1

rately determines the weight-carrying capacity of the vessel in long tons.

Cargo tonnage or ji·eight tonnage is another term for the same thing, but may be either weight (expressed in long tons) or measurement (expressed in units of 40 cubic feet) and will be designated as "W/M" depending on the whim of the ship's operator or agent.

In light of this blizzard of confusing terminology, it is easy to see why a Liberty ship of World War II could be a vessel of 7, 176 gross tons, 4,380 net tons, 3,700 displacement tons light, 14,200 displacement tons loaded , 10,500 deadweight tons or 9,600 cargo capacity tons. It must be equally obvious that in describing a ship's tonnage, there must be agreement as to which type of tonnage is being discussed .

In general , the United States uses deadweight tonnage as a constant for the measurement of merchant ships, the British use gross tonnage, while our navy insi sts on using displacement. When a ship passes through either the Suez or Panama canals, tonnage measurements apply which are unique to these waterways, in effect to increase the tolls.

In light of the above, it is hard to believe that there is any three-letter word in the English language with as many totally different definitions! D

Mr. Hale, a retired shipyard owner, is an Honorary Trustee of NMHS and li ves on Martha 's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

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11

REDISCOVERING COLUMBUS, V:

Under Indian Eyes

by Peter Stanford ground, embracing it with tears of joy fort he immeasu rable At daw n the 1ittl e fl eet headed in fo r the shore. Helms were put up and eager hands grabbed dew-fuiTed halyards to ho ist mercy of hav ing reached it, the Adm iral arose and gave thi s square fo resai ls and then lateen mizzens, which had been island the name San Salvador." stowed whil e the ships kept their offing under close-haul ed A crowd oflndi ans gathered ro und and jo ined in the rejoic ing. mai nsail s after sighting land in the moonlight at 2 AM. Braces They were apparentl y considered by the Europeans to be part were tugged to haul yards aro und for the downwind run six of the ceremon y-the first, perh aps, of many misunderstandm iles to the low, sandy land before them. ings to come, based on the nati ve people's seeming to agree We've lost track of what thi s land was, except that it was an with vigorously asserted E uro pean assumptions. T he absurisland in the outer Bahamas. The lead ing cand idates are dity of words being ex pected to convey understand ings and Watling's Island (Samuel Eli ot Mori son's cho ice, now re- ag reements where there were no wo rds in common persisted named San Salvador on the presumption that it is, in fact, among the new arri vals. Indeed , the idea of Indi ans hav ing Co lumbus's San Salvador) and Samana Cay, just over 60 the ir own picture of things seems to have been a long time m iles to the southeast. While these and other possibilities keep breaki ng through to the European consciousness. For some some very able minds engaged in de bate, it seems enough fo r Europeans, clearl y, the breakth ro ugh never came.

Co lumbus knew better th an thi s. To him the Indi ans were us to know that it was one of the sand y chain spreading south ward fro m off Florida almost to Puerto Rico, like a peopl e, always. Despite hi s crimes again st the Indi ans-and scouting fl eet di sposed to catch intrude rs from overseas before they were recognized as crimes at the time, notably by hi s they hit upon mainl and America or the inner reaches of the admirer and one-time shipmate, Las Casas-he never wavered in be liev ing thatthey had theirow n immortal souls, the ir Caribbean Sea. These particul ar intruders had been wise to stand off during own ways of doing things and the ir own aspirations. the dark hours and then come in by dayli ght. In the ir advenIn these initi al encounters, Columbu s was charmed by the tures among the islands, they were to find that most of the Indi ans' open fri endliness and simple manners. " In order that islands had outl ying reefs of sharp coral, fi t to tear out a ship 's we might w in good fr iendship ," he wrote, " because I knew that bottom if she stumbl ed upon them. T he remarkably cl ear water they were a people who could better be freed and converted to made it poss ible to spot these underwater hazards, but onl y in our holy fa ith by love than by fo rce, I gave to some of them red day li ght-a lesson that was to be brutall y underlined later in caps and to some glass beads, which they hung on their necks, their expl oration of the islands. and many other things of slight value, in which they took much For now, the voyagers sk irted the reefs, which Columbus pleas ure; they remained so much our fr iends it was a mardescribed as surrounding the who le of the island , and ran vel ... " And , they came back and "gave everyth ing they had, aro und to the leeward (downw ind) side, where the sea was with good wi 11." That everything, he noted, was not very much. calm and there was no danger of being set ashore, unless the He noted again and aga in how handsome these peopl e wind changed and began to blow strongly fro m the oppos ite were: "very well made, of ve ry handsome bodies and very direction. Here they bro ught to and anchored off a beach. good faces ... eyes very handsome and not small ... no be ll y, T he smell of land must have been intox icating to these but ve ry well built." He noted the ir color, " not at all bl ack, but sailors, after their long days and anxious ni ghts at sea, the ir the color of the Canary Islanders," which, he sa id , was to be doubts, the ir land sightings along the way that turned out not expected since they were on the same latitude as Ferro in the to be land after all. Co lum bus notes the greenness of things Canaries-which is approx imate ly true. ashore, the "green and grac ious trees, diffe rent fro m ours, He was, from very earl y on, aware of the ir ex istence as a covered by fl owers and fruits of marvell ous fl avo rs, many peopl e in another important dimension: They had a hi story. In types of fow l and small birds that sing with great sweetness." hi s entry fo r th at first day as hore, whi ch may have been wri tten Later generations of intruders cut down the great hard wood a littl e later, he said: fo rests, and intensive sugar cane culti vation impoveri shed the " I saw some who had marks of wo und s on the ir bodies, and so il on these islands; but latter-day archaeology has recovered made signs to them to as k what it was, and they showed me the bones of fo rest birds fro m islands th at today are utterl y how peopl e of other islands which are near came there and denuded and barren. wi shed to capture them, and they defended themselves.

And , of course, the islands had people. The Taino peopl e, And I believed and now believe that people do come here from the mainl and to take them as slaves." a branch of the Arawak fa mily of peoples, inh abited all the islands Co lumbus saw on thi s firs t transatlantic journey.

Co lumbu s pi ctured the mainl and as being China. O n later Ev identl y they began gathering on the shore as Columbus, voyages he was to meet the Caribs in islands furth er south and aboard the high-charged Santa Maria, prepared to go as hore in east, who were systematicall y raiding the Tainos in the epoch the ship 's main boat. F itting together the Las Casas and when he happened on the scene.

Ferdinand Columbu s acco unts (both based on Columbu s's But throughout thi s first voyage, he persisted in his beli ef lost journal), Mori son g ives thi s picture of the Europeans' that China, or perhaps Japan, was just aro und the corner. There he ex pected to find advanced c iv ilizati ons of great wealthlanding and first encounter with the nati ves: "Presentl y they saw naked people, and the Admiral went go ld-roofed houses in Japan, sa id the usuall y re li able Marco ashore in the armed ship 's boat with the royal standard Polo-and ships larger than any buil t in Euro pe at thi s time di spl ayed. So did the captains of the Pinta and Nina, Martin (which was true). As latter-day hi storians laugh themselves Alonso Pinzon and Vicente Yanez, hi s brother, in their sill y over thi s erro r, let us ordinary mortals rememberboats, with the banners of the Expedition , on which were pl ease-that advanced European cartographers, wo rk ing with depicted a green cross with an F [Ferdinand] and a Y the best avail abl e know ledge, continued to show Chin a and [Isabell a] on the other, and over each his or her crown . And , Japan near the islands Co lumbus sailed among for years after all having rendered thanks to Our Lord kneeling on the thi s and other voyages to thi s part of the worl d.

12

SEA HI STO RY 58, SU MM E R 199 1

Even Samuel Eliot Morison (whose superb biography of Columbus will be read long after these words are forgotten) permits himself an unseeml y snicker at Columbus ' s foreshortened picture of the world . I have long been puzzled by this disdain and have come to the conclusion that Morison 's own meticulous mind-set made it difficult for him to imagine the world as other than he knew it in fact to be.

But, let us imagine ourselves sailing among islands where the inhabitants; living very plain and simple lives, sport bits of gold ornament and tell (through sign language) of powerful domineering people li ving not far away. Would we not believe we were in the fabled Indies?

*****

The Taino Indians call ed the island Columbus and his men had hit upon Guanahani , meaning ig uana, a creature now extinct on these islands. The Taino people themselves were thought until recently to be extinct, victim s of the disease, warfare and conquest that fell calamitously upon them in the decades following the European incursion. But, according to a recent account, Taino ceremoni al materi als were transferred to western Cuba during the conquest, and there a few Indian communities have managed to survi ve, keeping their culture in living continuity with its pre-Columbian roots. The culture was also sustained through mixed marriages deliberatel y encouraged by some chiefs , notably Camagueybax in Cuba's Camaguey province. By this means, Spanish husbands got Indian land without fighting for it , and the Indi an mothers knew that their children would not be enslaved or worked to death in the dread Spanish encomiendas-work camps run for the benefit of the Spanish conqui stadores. This also produced children with built-in immunity to the European diseases, which were the worst killers of the Taino, as other Indians. Camagueybax clearly saw survi val for hi s people in these mixed offspring, for whom he is sa id to have coined the Taino word Guajiro , or "one of us."

Other Tainos chose to battle the inv ading Spanish to the death-and sometimes, one feels, beyond. Las Casas records one noble exam pl e of ultimate resistance in hi s account of the execution of Hatuey, who left Hispaniol a, where the Spanish had taken over, to organize resistance w ith the native Ci boneys in Cuba. This native warrior campaign lasted into the 1530s, more than a generation after Columbus ' s first landing in the islands. But, ultimately, Hatuey was captured. As he stood bound to a stake, a Spanish friar offered him bapti sm, which , he said , would cleanse his soul. Hatuey asked time to think about thi s. Then he asked where those thus saved would go after death , which for him was an immin ent question. To heaven , he was told . And where do the Spanish go? Answer: To heaven. T hen I don't want to go there, sa id Hatuey . With that, the torch was put to the brushwood piled aro und his feet.

A present-day student, Jose Barreiro, offers thi s comment: " In the Ta ino culture, the dead are carried by the li ving and ongoing generat ions . They live in a parall el world and must be recognized and fed. A great deal of ceremonial attention is given this fundamental human respon sibility by the Caribbean and Meso-American cultures. No doubt, a traditionalist such as Hatuey carried his own people's medicines and song into hi s final moment." 1 Hi span iola was the center of the Taino cu lture, which spread out from there to Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas, including I Jose Barreiro, "A Note on Tainos: Whither Progress?" Northeast Indian Quarterly (Cornell Uni versity) , Fall 1990, p 75.

SEA HISTORY 58 , SUMMER 1991

OR A WING BY PETER COPELAND

Guanahani. The men were much at home on the broad, often windy salt water highways that linked their islands. Columbus tell s of great dugout canoes fas hioned from the hard wood forests which then cloaked the now denuded islands, canoes capable of carrying forty men.

The Spanish who took an interest in Taino ways noted the absence of quarrelling in the organized Tai no communities. A council of elders governed each vill age, and these old chiefs were noticed to speak with deliberation and ev ident authority.

Villagers worked in gardens, in hunting or seafaring. They maintained fish ponds and irrigation works, played ball games and held dances for social and religious purposes. In these dances, called areitos, ancestors were honored and greeted, and ceremonial thanks rendered to the spirits of cultivated corn and wild food and game who fed the people.

Columbus missed the strong sp iritual content of all thi s, and the religious awe that informed Taino activities. The world around them was the creation of four brother gods (representing the four direction s), who " walked on clouds and blue sky over the spirit world of the Caribbean," in Jose Barreiro's memorable phrase. A very nav igational cosmogeny ! And no wonder, for the Taino had come to the islands by canoe from South America, and the canoe remained the instrument that bound their culture together.

The Taino were part of a widespread and diverse Indian population that had arrived in the Americas in successive waves coming from Asia over the Siberian land bridge that ex isted in the waning mill enia of the Ice Age, beginning perhaps as early as 40,000 BC. Agriculture based on cultivation of com (maize) had been establi shed in Central Mex ico by 11 ,000 Bc ; by 7,000 BC this had diversified into cultivation of beans and squas h as well. In the course of millenia, di verse 13

REDISCOVERING COLUMBUS, V: UNDER INDIAN EYES cultures developed , including of200 separate languages, some as different as Chinese is from German. In Central America, great empires rose and fell prior to the powerful Aztec empire overthrown by Cortes in 1521, or the Inca empire in South America, conquered by Pizarro a decade later. These boasted huge cities and societies bound together by a demanding religious system backed up by strong imperial armies.

The Taino existed outside the imperial orbit, but undoubtedly had contact with it. Their systems of government and social organization seem more uniform throughout their island realm than, for instance, the turbulent and warring tribes of the New England littoral, though the levels of technology were remarkably simi lar despite quite different terrain.

Trading networks were extensive, most undoubtedly carried out by coastal passages or inland lakes and rivers , but almost certainly not by long voyages. Goods were probably exchanged in what I call "concussive" barter between groups along the trade routes.

Hierog lyphic records were kept by the powerful Central American empires and, perhaps, by others, but not by writing as we know it. This placed some limits on conceptual development, though not on the depth, force or beauty of the concepts the Taino developed to explain their world and function in it.

No Indian learned to sail, though cotton cloth had been developed. Indians in Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America seized a missionary ship in the mid-I 800s but were unable to move her. They did not understand sailing. She was also too big to paddle and they did not know how to row , using big sweeps with lots of leverage. The same thing happened in North America on recorded occasions when Indians seized European ships. The natives of Vancouver Island, in the Pacific Northwest, have a magnificent seafaring culture, sti ll flourishing today, based in coastal villages some of which were never conquered by the Europeans or their descendants . Their canoes were driven by paddle, not by sail, and moved on in time directly to the outboard motor. Across the continent in the Caribbean, the Caribs today build canoes and sail them- an innovation they borrowed from the Europeans to cross between their islands on the steady, if boisterous, Trade W inds.

It's commonplace to say that similar sea conditions produce similar craft. But this is an excessively mechanistic view, surely.

Why did the Norsemen who came to North America some 500 years before Columbus, have sails and oars- while the natives, who were strong enough to drive them out, had neither?

The truth would seem to be that such developments are produced by a culture, its values and aspirations, even its way of looking at things. The Ancient Greeks said Theseus taught them how to plow the water-and I think that is true. They became the great sailors of the Ancient world because it was in their story, their idea of their purposes on earth, to do so. So the Greeks had oars and, indeed, sailing ships 3,000 years before Columbus. And out of that Mediterranean culture Columbus sortied to encounter peoples who had no concept of the sailing ship.

Once you have an idea, of course, it is impossible to imagine being without it. Why, look at an autumn leaf being blown across a pond, and you see a sailing ship, progenitorof argosies. The Indian peoples looked and they saw no such thing.

But the things they did see, we are learning to see anew and value anew.

handful oflndians as interpreters for further encounters and to bring them into the mainstream of European civilization at the Spanish court. His journal entry for his first day ashore, as quoted directly by Las Casas, included this note: " I, please Our Lord, will carry off six of them at my departure to Your Highnesses, so that they may learn to speak."

He meant , of course, learning to speak Spanish. And it is true that the Spanish language conveyed concepts unknown in the Arawak tongue of these Tainos, and facilitated operations, from sailing ships at sea to writing directions in books, which were beyond Taino thought or performance.

Just before stating this intention , Columbus wrote: "They ought to be good servants and of good skill, for I see that they repeat very quickly all that is said to them; and I believe that they would easily be made Christians, because it seemed to me that they belonged to no religion."

As we've seen, they did have a religion; Las Casas did not note this, but he chided Columbus for this "good servants" remark , which is repeated in different forms elsewhere in the journals.

He said it opened the door to conquest and enslavement of the Indians, which he, as priest and later bishop, regarded as highly un-Christian acts. With this we may surely agree and salute Las Casas and a handful of others who stood up, defying sword and fire, to protest the subjugation of the Indian people.

The larger issue remains, and it is instructive to see it written into Columbus's account of his first day ashore in what he later was to call this "other world." That issue is, of course, how a culture functioning well in its environment is to deal with a more technologically developed culture.

Mankind' s general progress is toward more advanced technologies and systems of knowledge and belief. Native peoples throughout the Americas and the South Pacific, even when not compelled to, tended to adopt European technology and strove to master thought systems more complex than those they had developed in the course of their own experience.

This process, compelled or voluntary, was often brutally destructive of native values, native persons and families , and native ethos and spirit. A few of Columbus's contemporaries saw this clearly , and a few later explorers, like Captain Cook in the Pacific, came to question the " benefits" of European culture brought to less developed peoples of the globe.

Various Indian cultures survived the terrible scenes of conquest and enslavement that followed upon the European incursion into the Americas, and indeed they may be said to be in renaissance today. This rev ival is based upon what we might call hearthstone values-the things which are transmitted from generation to generation to define a people and give it its sense of identity and worth. Do not the people-especially the young people- of the great cities of the West urgently need these things today?

Don ' t we all need as much of the human diversity we can get-all the hard-won strains which make up the heritage of earth's peoples? With mankind now brought face to face with itself everywhere as result of the voyaging that followed on Columbus's voyage of 500 years ago, we may begin at last to ask such questions, which hung unspoken in the air as Columbus and his men first encountered the American Indians in the islands the Trade Winds had brought them to. D

*****

Drawing by Peter Copeland, .fi'om his Columbus Discovers America (Dover Press, New York , 1986)

From the beginning, Columbus had intended to carry away a 14

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SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

Indian Life on the Hudson River

by Peggy Turco Ever since the last continental glacier receded from North of farmers plowing up stone artifacts in their fields. It is upon America l 0,000 to 12,000 years ago, people have inhabited the the Hudson 's banks and those of its tributaries that palisaded valley. Beginning perhaps 3,000 years ago, the Lenape and fortified villages were built, surrounded by earthworks and/or related Algonquin Indians developed a culture intimately walls of vertically placed logs. We also read in explorers' and intertwined with the area's ecosystems and often centered on colonists' chronicles of many unfortified villages on both the river itself. It was to the river that these people looked for banks of the Hudson. These early reports often comment that much of their food, for transportation and communication. It many of these seemed to be transitory, as the natives did not also played a part in their ceremonial lives. appear to use any one site for very long.

The Lenape, which translates as "The Common People," But what early Europeans witnessed and recorded provides or-as they were named by the English-the Delaware, can be an incomplete and often incorrect picture, and archaeology divided into two linguistic subgroups, the Unami and Munsee. can only deduce from what it excavates. It is to the Lenapt: The Unami had an influence on the New York Harbor area themselves that we must tum to gain a more whole notion of south to today 's states of Delaware and Maryland. Munsee what life on the Hudson was like before Europeans arrived. was spoken on both banks of the lower and mid-Hudson River The Lenape never developed a written language; the rich Valley. The Mahicans, a closely-related Lenape-type people, and formalized oral tradition served as the keeper of the heart lived throughout the lower and middle Hudson Valley north and history of the people. Of course, an oral tradition requires into the Champlain Valley. On both banks of the Hudson from living people to continue the lineage of historic stories intact.

Manhattan upriver to Kingston and beyond , the valley was Unfortunately, the Len ape were among the first native peoples of "Turtle Island" (the Nainhabited by many Lenape peoples, politically autonotive designation for North mous and going under various America) to come into contribal names. tact with Europeans. By the These people called the time Europeans thought to lower Hudson River Shatchronicle the Lenape culture, disease and warfare had retemuc and the mid-Hudson stretch Mahicanituk. We no duced the population from a longer know what Shattemuc conservatively estimated means, but speakers of the lan24,000 people to less than guage translate Mahicanituk 3,000 refugees by 1700. Other as "Tidal River of the Mahican European introductions and practices such as iron tools, People." The glacial gorge of the Hudson riverbed lies betradecloth, forest clearing, low sea level for 152 miles, so and Christianity changed the that the Hudson River is actunative lifestyle forever. ally an estuary where tides are Traditionally, the Lenape felt all the way inland to the Touching Leaves offering tobacco and cedar to purify the ceremonial lived according to the seacity of Troy near Albany, New ground at a traditional name-giving ceremony in New York State . sonal cycles of weather, flora, York State 's capital. Brackish Behind her stands a bark wigwam . and fauna which revolved around a complementary seawater reaches upstream for less than half this length, due to the Hudson's considerable sonal calendar of spiritual and social events. In spring, family freshwater flow. The Hudson River Valley contains three groups traveled inland to their favorite sugarbush for maple distinct ecosystems-salt water, freshwater and forest-which sugaring, laying in the year's supply of sugar with the Maple together provide rich and varied resources for food, shelter, Sugar Thanksgiving. When the shadbush bloomed in the clothing, and tools. sugarbush, it was time to return to the Hudson River to net the The Hudson is incredibly rich in archaeological resources. shad running upriver to spawn. Then on to the family's garden Contractors can rarely break ground upon the Hudson's banks territory, often in villages on the Hudson shore, where Spring at any point without uncovering the artifacts of ancient cul- Football, a game played with an oval deer skin stuffed with tures . Stone hammers, knives, axes, projectile points, scrapers, deer hair, was played between men and women to ensure a gouges, adzes, drills, pendants, game pieces, awls, mullers, bountiful harvest. The women planted many different varietarrow-straighteners, net sinkers, and ceramic vessel and pipe ies of seeds of the Three Sisters--com, beans and squashshards are only a few of the legion remains uncovered. Perhaps along with sunflowers and tobacco.

In summer, the Doll Dance for children's health and the most impressive are the enormous middens or garbage piles of cast-off oyster and clam shells. Throughout the region have Otter Dance were held. In the Strawberry Moon , the family been found villages, forts, rock shelters, cemeteries, mounds , visited its favorite strawberry patch. Throughout the summer, stockades, shell heaps , fishing weirs , and early and late relics the people searched for wild stems, leaves, roots, berries, and nuts . Each week brought a different wild plant into its harvest of stone and bone tools and pottery.

Some of the richest archaeological sites are found at the time. Medicinals were gathered and stored.

August was the Green Com Time when the gardens began mouths of tributaries, such as Croton Point at the mouth of the Croton River. Nearly every tributary mouth, river island, and to be harvested and the Com Mother was celebrated with promontory has revealed extensive artifacts, as has the thankfulness. Perhaps it was the Green Com Dance that Dutch confluence of major inland streams. There were also rock skipper Lieutenant Cowenhoven saw in 1663 on the west bank shelter sites located in the hills further inland, and tales abound of the Hudson just north of Newburgh Bay: Indians dancing by SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

17

INDIAN LIFE ON THE HUDSON RIVER firelight on a flat rock acres wide that jutted out into the river. according to their bignesse." Early Europeans adopted and Duyvel' s Danskammer he named the place or "devil's copied the dugout, with one change. The native dugout had a dancehall." The native people had no concept similar to the blunt bow and stem. The European dugout's bow was carved Christian concept of the devil , let alone devil dances, believing narrow and pointed. Canoes of paper birch (Betula papyrifera) only in Keyshaulamukaung, which translates as " He Who were also made.

Well-established trade routes overland and by water brought Creates All Things With His Thoughts," or more simply, "God, the Creator." For at least a century after the coming of cowrie shells from Florida and rock specimens for tools from Europeans, Lenape Natives were observed hunting and fish- far-away points of Turtle Island. For example, jasper tools ing from Danskammer, or gathered in numbers of500 or more which could only have been made from stone quarried in eastern Pennsylvania have been found throughout the Hudson for pow-wows and ceremonial dances.

Wild nuts and seeds were gathered in the fall. All summer Valley. The unusually large variety of stones used for tools in and fall, great quantities of shellfish were gathered, dried , and the Hudson region indicates extensive trade which sometimes smoked, leaving behind numerous huge shell middens. In can be pinpointed to specific quarries.

Folklore further illustrates how highly the Hudson River October came the all-important Big House Ceremony, the core of the Lenape culture and society. The Lenape are known as figured into Lenape life. Perhaps the most famous legend the Grandfather tribe by all other peoples in North America, about the Mahicanituk is the story of the Wef-tu-na-wes, or partially because of the Big House Ceremony and its highly Mer-man, a monstrous creature half man, half fish who was developed dream vision quest. For two weeks , the visionaries born from the river and lived in it, preying upon children, until sang in the Big House, and all the people prayed for the well- it was slain with the aid of Our Elder Brother the Sun. The scales of this creature were preserved and used by the medicine being of the entire world.

In November came the Deer Hunt in the inland hills, which people to keep track of the ceremonial calendar. One of these laid up deer meat for the winter. As the cold season neared, the medicine bags is now in the possession of the Museum of the people went to their winter villages near the salt water, where American Indian in New York City. shellfish, eels, and fish could be caught all winter long in Long A Lenape visionary once dreamt that something would Island Sound and the lower Hudson , where the water did not come over the ocean and change the Lenape lifestyle forever. freeze so readily. In the middle of the winter they held the mid- By the 1600s, this dream became reality. Schauwannock, the winter, Inter-clan Festival of snowsnake and snowboat games. Lenape named the new white men , "The Salty People," So, we find that this culture, often mistakenly labeled by because they and their deeds were as bitter as ocean salt. The Europeans as either nomadic or settled in permanent forts and Lenape believed the white race sprang from the salty foam left villages, was actually adapted to the cycles of the seasons. The by waves beating on the beaches of Europe, which then floated people moved over their territory according to seasonal re- across the sea.

Misunderstandings between the Lenape and the Europeans source availability , using the same areas again and again year quickly escalated into conflicts and wars. Smallpox, influafter year, but never staying in one spot all year long. enza, and measles decimated While inland trails did exist, during any season the pre- Wampanoag s make a dugout, as part ofPlimoth Plantation' s ongoing the natives so that by 1679 ferred way to travel was by program depicting the traditions of Native Americans as well as not one-eighth of the Lenape dugout canoe on the Hudson. those of early English settlers. Photo courtesy Plimoth Plantation, people survived. A combination of Iroquois and EuroThese boats were built from Plymouth , Massachusetts. pean aggression ensued drivthe tulip-tree (Liriodendron ing all but a handful out of the tulipifera) and white pine Hudson region. Other than a (Pinus strobus), species of scattering of local individutrees with exceptionally long, als who managed to avoid the straight, stout trunks. The choforced exodus and genocide sen tree was first thanked with that followed, the Lenape toan offering of tobacco, then day live on reservations in burned down, divided into Okl ahoma, Wisconsin, and sections by burning, and deOntario, Canada.

D barked. The log was hollowed out by further burning, gouging out the charred wood to Ms. Turco, naturalist, folkform a canoe. William Wood lorist, author, and storyteller, described the dugout in 1634: has been teaching through"These Boats be not above a out the Hudson Valley since foot and a halfe, or two feete 1973 on the ecological culwide, and twenty foote long." ture of the Lenape. Peggy In 1610, Captain John Smith, learned about the Lenape calling them " troughs," wrote people by studying under He that some dugouts were "fortie Who Stands Firm, an adopted or fiftie foot in length, and Lenape, who studied under the some will beare 40 men , but noted medicine woman Touchthe most ordinary are smaller, ing Leaves and other elders. and will beare 10, 20, or 30, 18

SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

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"The Landing of Henry Hudson,"painted by Robert Weir in 1838; shows the Half Moon , the harbinger of a new era , in the Hudson , being greeted by River Indians . New York harbor became a seaport on the strength of the Indian trade that Hudson's voyage opened.

Early Encounters on the Hudson

by Kevin Haydon Entering between two wooded headlands in the autumn of 1609, Henry Hudson arrived at the same spot as Giovanni da Yerrazzano had eighty-five years earlier. Hudson was following the advice of his friend Captain John Smith of the Virginia colony, who promised him "a sea leading into the western ocean, by north of the southern English colony," when he sailed his Dutch charge, the Halve Maen (Half Moon), 140 miles upriver until the water lost its saltiness and the passage narrowed and became shallow.

News of Hudson 's failure to find the Northwest Passage to the lucrative Spice Islands was a cause of chagrin to his sponsors in Amsterdam , the powerful East India Company.

They wondered that he should ever have speculated on such a route, it being against his orders to attempt anything quite as far south. But others in the profit-driven commodities markets of Amsterdam were not so hasty to judge Hudson's misadventure on the Great River, as he had named it. What Hudson had found lay recorded in the surprisingly detailed and accurate journals of Robert Juet, an officer aboard Halve Maen. Juet made many notations about the Hudson River Indians. One of them described them as dressed in "Mantles of feathers, and some in skinnes of diverse sorts of good Furres," and another described their eagerness to trade.

A small group of Amsterdam fur traders found these descriptions tantalizing. A trading ship was despatched for the Great River with high hopes the very next year, 1610. Shut out from the French fur trade in the new colony of Canada, the Dutch hoped to bring home the booty from the back door of the French territories. Another five ships sa iled in 1613.

So began the Dutch fur trade on the Hudson River. Flowing 320 miles from its source in Lake Tear of the Clouds in the rugged Adirondacks into what is in its lower reaches a saltwater fjord , this natural trade artery gave the enterprise a SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

sudden jump-start. It stretched out as a long arm into the heart of beaver country . Just as it had served untold generations of Indian traders beforehand, the Hudson would serve centuries of European merchants, beginning with the fur traders, drawing commodities to markets from its own shores and those of the Mohawk River and Champlain areas, and later from the shores of the Great Lakes and the Western Pennsylvania farmlands .

The first Dutch foothold on American soil was modest. A small fort, called Fort Nassau, a mere fifty-eight feet square and surrounded by a moat, was erected by the trading fleet of 1613, on Castle Island, 160 miles up the Hudson near presentday Albany. Among the men of this fleet was Adriaen Block aboard the Tyjgre (Tiger). It is from Adriaen Block that an interesting addendum comes to us: one of the first recorded examples of shipbuilding in America. While Block was taking on provisions in what is now Dey Street in Lower Manhattan, the Tyjgre caught fire and burned to the waterline. With the aid oflocal Indians, he and his crew built a replacement right there.

The Onrust, meaning "Restless," was a much smaller vessel, only I 6 tons, 42 feet long with an 11-foot beam. In her he explored Long Island Sound, naming an island after himself.

For three years the fur traders traded from tiny Fort Nassau, far upriver, with the surrounding tribes, the Mahicans and Mohawks, before abandoning it. In 1623 the newly formed West India Company re-established the outpost as Fort Orange.

The West India Company plugged into the existing trade pattern. This was the key to their early success. Although each Indian village tried to be self-sufficient, the tribes had always welcomed traders offering flints, dried fish , canoes, tobacco, furs and skins. Unlike their English neighbors, the Dutch had not so much come to make a New World, as to trade with an established one. As they fanned out from their trading centers 19

A culture whose forebears had celebrated the river as their center of existence was being put under unbearable stress.

As one historian put it, the in search of Indian trading lower Ri ver Indians would fi nd partners, the Dutch merchantthemselves " between a rock explorers discovered wamand a hard pl ace" as the sevenpum in common use among teenth century wore on. Their the tribes of the Hudson River. own lands were hunted out. In These small black and white the north the Iroq uois League beads were made from quatribes of the Mohawk and Senhog and other shells, strung eca dominated the struggle fo r on thread and then woven into beaver territory, a pos ition the belts. Wampum was prized Iroquois maintained for well above gold or silver by the over a century after the voyIndi ans, and the Dutch acage of Hudson, and from becepted it as currency within low they feltthe press of Dutch New Am sterd am. It was coloni al ambitions. manufac tured by local tribes, The earliest known view ofNew Amsterdam c. 1626-28,probably In the face of Briti sh domia process that the Dutch evenintended to show the directors of the West India Company the of Atl anti c Ameri ca , nation tually controlled. For many proposed location of the fort (courtesy New Yark Public Library ) however, the Dutch plan to years, a ferry ride across the settle New York as a colony was always a precarious proHudson or East River could be purchased with wampum .

The early relationship that grew between trader and Indian position. When George Nico ll s' squ adron of fo ur British ships was symbiotic. Parties of Indians would arrive regularl y by with 300 soldiers entered New York Harbor on September 1, dugout and birchbark canoe to trade for wampum and Euro- 1664 , and put Dutch intentions to the test, New Netherl and pean goods at Fort Amsterdam and Fort Orange. From Fort was surrendered without bl oodshed. The citizens of New Orange, furs went downriver in small canoes and in larger war Amsterdam were outnumbered by the British and ex hausted canoes transformed into freight carriers, as well as some by a string oflndian wars rooted in the grow ing number of land European style flat-bottomed boats and the Dutch ocean- di sputes. Dutch treachery, in parti cular an ambush of Ri ver Indians sheltering around Fort Amsterdam from a Mahican going vessels.

At the time of encounter, the entire area in and around New attack in 1643, had united lower Ri ver Indi ans against the York City, with its many favorable sites along the waterfro nts, Dutch. Thwarted in the lower Hudso n, the Dutch had tried to was extensively utilized by the natives. The native res idents of ex pand into the Esopu s country on the west bank of the Hudson Manhattan were the Reckgawawanc, and hard by the banks of Ri ver midway between Forts Orange and New Amsterdam, the Hudson clear to Albany lived numerous Algonquin tribes, above the Highlands. Thi s sparked conflicts between the usually in settlements not totalling more than 200 at any one Esopu s, Wappinger and Min isink Ind ians almost until the time. To the east of the Hud son co uld be fo und th e arrival of the British. The West Ind ia Company decision in the Weckquaesgeek around Bronx and Yonkers, Sintsin k in earl y 1630s to vigorously pu rsue the acqui sition of land fo r Ossining, Kitchawank in Cortl and and Nochpeem in Putnam settlement as well as pelts and fu rs fro m the Indians, had in the County. To the west were the Hackensack and Raritan in end been a large part of its undoi ng.

Unravelling much fas ter, however, were the lifeways of the Jersey , Tappan and Haverstraw further north before the Highlands, and Minisink and Esopus above them. On the eastern River Indians. A cul ture whose fore bears had celebrated the side above the Highlands lived the Wappingers, and further ri ver as their center of ex istence was being put under unbearnorth the Mahicans. These tribes were loosely termed the able stress. Ever since the glac iers receded, this stream-turnedriver had been their own. Sizable shell middens mark sites River Indians.

They had traditionally traded amongst themselves , and where earl y Indi an inhabitants took oysters of great size as far archaeological ev idence points to contact with tribes as far north as Croton, up to 8,000 years ago. south as the Chesapeake Bay and as far north as the Maritime A slow di aspora began.

Some Ri ver Indians worked the ir way south toward the Provinces of Canada.

In the end , though, the fur trade undermined and warped the back country of Virgin ia and the Carolinas, while most went economic relations between tribes. In the years between 1624 west beyond the Appalachian Moun tains to the remote Far and 1632 the West India Company in Holland had received Country of the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes. The Westches63,000 skins worth 454 ,000 guilders, a good return indeed. ter Indians to the east of the river had sold most of their But, by this time, the Beaver Wars-a struggle fo r sources of remaining landholdings to the Engli sh by the first decades of supply and control of trade routes-had begun in earnest and the eighteenth century. They would return onl y periodicall y to would gradually involve every Indi an group in eastern North their lands to trade furs trapped in the Far Country , to sel1crafts America. Around Fort Orange the conflict between the door to door, to visit the graves of the ir ancestors, and to die in Mohawks and Mahicans threatened the trade itself. And by the their own homeland . By the mid to late 1700s even this 1630s the lower River Indians were in dire straits. Smallpox , presence was missing.

European shipping now th ronged the ri ver. The sloop malaria, influenza and other diseases were depopulating vil lages . The surv ivors struggled to secure their trade ro utes became the common cargo vessel in a European-dominated against attacks from the competing Mahicans and Mohawks trade. The fertile land of the Hudson Valley was going the way while trying to obtain enough wampum , trap enough beavers, of the axe and plow on the huge estates of the Dutch patroons, and produce enough food to buy Dutch tools, fabrics, and the likes of Van Cortlandt and Van Rensselaer. The river, for always a great highway of commerce, would be the load bearer firearms.

20

SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 199 1

Unlike their English neighbors, the Dutch had not so much come to make a New World, as to trade with an established one.

Well into the mid-nineteenth century boatyards in dozens of towns along the river, including Albany, Coxsackie, Hudson, Poughkeepsie, Rondout, Fishkill and Cornwall, were still building these hardy vessels of white oak and locust.

There was always a ready cargo to be shipped, and travel by sloop was prefered to slow and hazardous overland routes .

Connecticut and Massachusetts residents would take the Dutchess Turnpike to Poughkeepsie for a sloop to New York.

There was flagstone in Catskill, and bricks and cement from Saugerties and Kingston needed for construction in New York City. Lumber could be picked up almost anywhere. Anne Grant, who as a girl lived near Stillwater in the late 1700s, recalled the settlers setting up sawmills on every stream, "for the purpose of turning to account the fine timber which they cleared in great quantities of the new lands. The planks they drew in sledges to the side of the great river." Every township had its regular packet service and sloop captains and their vessels became household names. Allan Keller describes how residents writing a relative might address their packages, "Care of Capt. T. Brett, Sloop Levant with a trunk," or, "To the care of Capt. A. Weeks with a Pot & Basket. " Captains built their reputations on speed, reliability, and keen judgment of the Hudson's often capricious weather and tides .

No captain had more confidence in the Hudson river sloop than Captain Stewart Dean of Albany . In 1786 he piloted his 80-ton square-topsail sloop Experiment to China for the tea trade, arriving just after the departure of Empress ofChina, the first American ship to reach Canton. The voyage nobody would in sure gave the Experiment great notoriety on her return to the New York-Albany passenger service.

The river's importance as a highway was fully appreciated by both the British and American Commanders-in-Chief throughout the eight years of the Revolutionary War. Washington cl aimed "that possession of it is indispensably essential to preserve communication between the ... States; and further, that upon its Security ... depend our Chief Supplies of Flour for the subsistence of (our) Forces." The British commander General Henry Clinton was equally aware of the river's importance as both a conDefying rhe Hudson' s capricious winds and rides, rhe sreamboar gradually replaced the duit to join British forces in Hudson River sloop . Here the America tows an assorted payload of Erie Canal barges south the north with those amassed pasr Storm King Mountain in the Hudson Highlands, bound for New York in the mid-1800s. in New York Harbor and as a barrier to separate the five colonies of New England from the rest of the country.

The presence of 10,000 soldiers and hundreds of ships~ of-war in New York Harbor j underscored British inten~ tions. But British domina~ tion was continually fru s~ trated by Colonial resis~ tance. In 1778 , using sev~ enty sailing vessels and fifty ~ barges, the British moved j on West Point, first seizing ;;; and fortifying the Colonial ~ fort at Stony Point twelve miles below WestPoint. But ~ a surprise attack by a small 5 force overland from West i5: Point recaptured the posiof a new prosperity.

It was in the 1670s that the hard-driving and ambitious Amsterdam native Frederick Philipse began acquiring Indian land north of Manhattan. Eventually he secured a vast tract on the banks of the Pocantico River just north of Tarrytown. The Pocantico supplied power for a mill , the first of its kind , and , buying gra in from his own tenants, he converted it to flour, a commodity in.demand in the colonies and in England. Bolted and bagged, the flour was loaded onto sloops headed for the markets. The return trip would bring household necess ities for sale to the farmers. Thi s traffic began to dominate the Hudson.

Throughout the eighteenth century wheat was the most important export of New York, earning it the title of the "bread colony." A sharp contest developed between upstate millers and New York City over the right to bolt export flour.

It was the settler 's turn to celebrate the bounty of the earth and the boon of the river to transport it.

The first sloop introduced by the Dutch, was styled on the "sloep" used in the canals and rivers of Europe. Allan Keller, whose book Life Along the Hudson gives a lively and colorful account of the times, describes the majority of them as sixtyfive to seventy feet in length, built to carry approximately one hundred tons. Originally they had leeboards, but a centerboard or keel proved more useful on the Hudson. They were broad beamed with their single mast stepped forward , leaving plenty of open deck space for cargo. Carl Carmer described them as built like the Dutchmen 's wives: "well-rounded in the bow and high aft."

An inventory of vessels in New Amsterdam , written shortly after the English takeover, counted "about nine or ten three mast vessels of about eighty or a Hundred tons burthen , two or three ketches and Barks of about forty ton , and about twenty Sloops of about twenty or five and twenty Tun belonging to the government-A ll of which Trade for England , Holland and the West Indies, except five or six sloops that use the river Trade to Albany and that way." As the settlers pushed inward from the shores of the Hudson, that number grew exponentiall y. The narrow reaches of the river were white with sa il.

g

SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

21

Ontheoccasionofthe Erie Canal opening, on Nov. 4, 1825, vessels ofall descriptions crowded New York Harbor for the "Wedding ofthe Waters " celebration . (Erie Canal Opening, J.L. Morton-W. H. Dougal.Museum oftheCityofNew York , Gift of Harry MacNeill Bland)

tion, taking 500 prisoners and demoralizing the British. They were further hampered by the ingenious heavy iron chains the Colonials forged and stretched across the Hudson at strategic points. After years of resourceful resistance, the final victory gave settlers up and down the Hudson impetus to a new era.

On August 17, 1807, a strange craft stalled briefly before a doubtful crowd as it pulled away from an East River pier and proceeded upriver. Robert Fulton's 130-ft steam prototype Clermont, built with the money of Robert Livingston, a large estate holder on the Hudson, made the trip to Albany in record time. Some envious, some plain astonished, sloop captains watched her defy wind and tide. The steamboat era had arrived ; by 1812 there were twelve steamers on the river. The genesis of the steamboat on the Hudson was a subject of immense pride and a world first for a young republic struggling to get out from under the long shadow of the British.

One other event on the Hudson would also serve to lift the growing national awareness. In October 1825 , the Erie Canal was completed. "The Big Ditch," as it was called, linked the Hudson to Lake Erie to bring the riches of the West through New York State instl'!ad of the Canadian St. Lawrence. The feat of building the world' s longest canal further reinforced national pride. New Yorkers went wild.

Canal opening festivities announced by the Buffalo Emporium were described "such as has not occurred since the Declaration of Independence." "Well may New-York rejoice in an achievement that would add glory to the most powerful nation on earth," continued the editorial.

When the flotilla of canal boats and steamboats bearing the casks of Erie water forthe "Wedding of the Waters" celebration in New York City passed the banks of the river, it was alive with wellwishers. Cannon salutes, cheers and small boats greeted them at every turn . In New York harbor, forty -six vessels, including twenty-nine steamboats, all brilliantly decked with flags, bunting and flowers , took part in the ceremonies.

* * * * *

By comparison to her vibrant past, the Hudson today appears a very quiet river. The remains of Adriaen Block's Tyjgre lie in a hall in the Museum of the City of New York, the keel of the river's immortal steamboat the Mary Powell rests in the mud of the Roundout Creek. The soft swish 22

1 '11 111.' ";.. d N

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of dugouts can't be heard although a few replicas of the famous sloops with their immense spread of sail can be seen occasionally. The small boats fishing for shad at night after the manner of the River Indian with a burning pine knot at the end of a pole have disappeared too .

Still , even the commuter's glimpse I get of the river from a crossing span on my way to work, or the view from a bluff in the Highlands as a lonely tug and barge or recreational sloop threads its way along, is a daily inspiration to me-one long felt by those who have lived by it. In fact, the river is experiencing a renewal of sorts. Lead by groups 1ike Clearwater Inc., preservationists are keeping highrises off the banks of the river, leaving it open to the public as it was in the time of the River Indians, wooden boat enthusiasts are building another replica sloop on the river's banks in Montrose, and more and more fishermen are out in the Spring to catch the now bountiful shad and other fish that a cleaner river has spawned. O

MASSACltllSBT1"5

â&#x20AC;˘NEW MI I.FOil,,

To explore the history of the Hudson River further, the following books come recommended : The Hudson Through the Years, by Arthur G. Adams (Lind Publi ca tion s, Westwood NJ, 1983); Life Along the Hudson, by Allan Keller(Sleepy Hollow Restorations, Tarrytown NY , 1976); A Sweet and Alien Land, by Henri and Barbara van der Zee (Viking Press, New York NY, 1978); and Chaining the Hudson, by Linco ln Diamant (Carol Publi shin g Group, New York NY, 1989). For those interested in ex ploring the Hudson by vessel or vehicle, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., in Poughkeepsie, New York , has published a new book with a grant from the Hudson River Foundation . Down by the Riverside directs readers to 34 local parks and riverfront lands along the Hudson.

A map of the Hudson from Donald C. Ringwald' s steamboat history Hudson River Day Line, showing the steamboat stops in large print.

SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

Commemorate Columbus' Courageous Voyage of 1492 1992 marks the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' boldjourney to America.

To commemorate this special time in our history, Abordage, S.A . has been granted an exclusive license to manufacture wood model replicas of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria.

The superbly skilled craftsmen of Abordage use only the finest ofmaterials in the construction of these masterpieces. The decks and hull are planked with well seasoned mahogany. Each is fully rigged with bronze cannons, copperfittings , hand-sewn sails and cast iron anchors. An Abordage model is truly a work of art.

Every Abordage model comes with a Certificate of Authenticity stating the model's number in production limited to 1,992 models of each ship.

Arbordage S.A. is distributed exclusively in the USA by: J.C. Sanford International Inc. 32 Overlook Road, Mountain Lakes, New Jersey 07046.

Tel: (201)263-0070 Fax: (201)263-4063.

MARINE ART:

William Gordon Muller, Steamboats, and the Hudson River

by Norma Stanford Bill Muller's interest in steamboats and the Hudson River began in 1942 when he was a boy of six growing up near the river's shore. In his own words: "A majestic river steamer swept by before my following gaze ... and its captivating grace so enticed me that I've been in artistic pursuit of her species ever since."

(See Sea History 37, p 23.)

Bill went on to work summers aboard the Hudson River Day Line boats from 1954 to 1957. But, the river excursion trade was in decline. (By the late 60s only the Alexander Hamilton would be active on the river.) After two years service in the army, Bill returned to New York in 1960 to attend Pratt Institute and pursue his career in the field of art.

We can be thankful that a small boy's enchantment by a passing steamer has not waned in the intervening years, but grown into a scholarly and caring mastery of the subject.

Bill has become an authority on steamboats and river history. He doesn't just paint the boats he loves, but the era and the ambiance as well. River landmarks, the city skyline, waterfront buildings and ship details are all researched before a painting is begun. When the Seaport Line decided to build and operate two excursion boats out of the South Street Seaport Museum, Bill was chosen to design the exteriors oftheDeWittClinton and the sidewheeler Andrew Fletcher, both jaunty and popular additions to

New York Harbor waterways.

While Bill 's particular passion is the steamboats of the Hudson, he also paints the great ocean liners, sailing ships, sound and coastal steamers of New England, as well as harbor craft and naval vessels.

Bill is also a dedicated worker for river and steamboat causes. He was a moving force in establishing the Hudson River Maritime Center in Rondout, a leader in the failed effort to save the Alexander Hamilton , and is active now in Friends of Nobska, a volunteer group working to restore and save the Martha's Vineyard ferry Nobska in Fall River, Massachusetts. (See Sea History 52, p 39.) He has been a generous supporter of (Please turn to page 26.)

The Day Line steamer Albany of 1880 departs her namesake city at 8 :30 AM on a summer morning in 1900. The steamer will arrive at the Desbrosses Street terminal in New York by 6:00 PM, after making eight landings along the route . The State Capitol building is seen on the hill in the distance, and the night boat Adirondack is at the pier astern of the Albany. Oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches.

24

SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

"These boats are beautiful in themselves, but . .. even more beautiful in their natural setting-the river."

Here, the Robert Fulton is about to make a landing at Poughkeepsie, New York, at 1 :30 PM on a summer afternoon in 1910. The Fulton is the Day Line' s northbound boat for Albany this day. In the distance, the approaching Day Liner Hendrick Hudson is southbound for New York, and will wait in the river until the Fulton has cleared the dock, before making her own landing. Poughkeepsie was the halfway point on the New York/Albany run, and whichever vessel benefittedfrom time and tide would get to land there first. To the right, the smaller night boat Marlborough is loading freight for her evening departure for New York. The Poughkeepsie railroad bridge, completed in 1886 , although no longer in use, still stands today. Oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches.

A Hudson River sloop and a schooner drift north with the tide on a calm evening in 1862 , while the day boat Daniel Drew steams downriver against the looming backdrop of Hook Mountain . Oil on canvas , 20 x 32 inches.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

For the Grand Opening of our new NMHS headquarters on the Hudson, we have arranged a unique exhibition ofBil 1 Muller's magnificent original oil paintings of hi storical river scenes in our gallery from October 12 to mid November. Bill will also be unveiling several limited edition lithographs of famous Hudson River vessels. Proceeds from the sale of these paintings and prints will benefit NMHS .

SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

25

Just upriver from West Point in 1915, the Robert Fulton rounds the bend on the run to New York, as storm clouds gather over the distant hills. The se sudden afternoon thunderstorms are commonplace in the Hudson valley. Oil oncanvas,30x40 inches.

NMHS, and his paintings will be featured in our new headquarters gallery when it opens in October.

Just recently Bill spoke of the natural and often dramatic beauty of the Hudson River and of the purposeful good looks of the river steamers , pointing out that they represented the finest craftsmanship and artistry of their time, from the sweeping lines of the naval architect's design to the highly finished woodwork of ornate stairways and interior trim, to furnishings and fine oil paintings. "These boats are beautiful in themselves," he said, " but they are even more beautiful in their natural setting-the river. " D The Lackawanna Railroadferryboat Binghamton approaches her Hoboken,NewJersey, slip on a moonlit night in the early 1960s. The skyline of lower Manhattan glows across the Hudson, as the great Cunard Liner Queen Mary heads downriver to begin another transatlantic crossing . The Binghamton is now open as a restaurant in Edgewater, New Jersey.featuring seafood and Dixieland jazz. Oil on canvas, 24 x 26 inches.

26

SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

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one of America's leading contemporary marine artists Image size: 17-114 " x 34 ", Edition: 950 (100 remarqued}, Signed & numbered: $200, Remarqued: $750, Framed prints available.

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Alex Hurst, Sea History , 38 Winter 1985/86

Please contact us for more information about the artist and his work.

Pastel

"CONSTITUTION" and " GUERRIERE"

POLAK SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

Signed, 20 IA x 29 inches

21 King Street, St James's, London SWIY 6QY, England, Tel 071-839 287 27

MARINE ART NEWS May 24-December 1, The Whaleman's Art, featuring fine I y crafted examples of 19th century scrimshaw from the collections of H. Richard Dietrich Jr. and the Dietrich American Foundation. Philadelphia Maritime Museum, 321 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia PA 19106; 215 925-5439 May 30-September 1, Mirror of Empire: Dutch Marine Art of the Seventeenth Century. This full-scope exhibit of 140 paintings, drawings , maps and charts (featured in Sea History 56, "Marine Art News") moves from the Toledo Museum of Art to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wiltshire Boulevard, Los Angeles CA 90036.

June 15-0ctober 26, The Scale Ship Model Competition & Exhibition, featuring selected ship models from The Mariners' Museum 's third international competition. Entries for the competition, held by the museum every five years, were received from 24 states and two other countries. The Mariners ' Museum, 100 Museum Drive, Newport News VA 23606-3798; 804 595-0368.

June 16-September 8, Wood, Water and Light: The Classic Wooden Boat Pictures of Benjamin Mendlowitz, an exhibit on loan from the Philadelphia Maritime Museum featuring the well known marine photographer. Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum, Main Street, Cold Spring Harbor NY 11724; 516 367-3418.

June 26-February 16, Hemm ' d Thick with Sailships: 19th-Century Views of New York Harbor, an exhibit of paintings and prints recently acquired by the South Street Seaport Museum. Museum Gallery on Water Street, New York NY 10038; 212 669-9416.

June 21-November 3, Marine Art of the Pacific Northwest, an exhibition of twenty-three paintings by twenty-three members of the Northwest Region ASMA juried by marine artist Thomas Wells, Museum Director Ann Witty and Sally Lawrence, Director of the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. Columbia River Maritime Museum, 1792 Marine Drive, Astoria OR 97103; 503 325-2323 .

July 21-September 5, 16th Northwest Marine Art Exhibition, a major biannual exhibition combining the work of accomplished Northwest marine painters with marine artists from all over the country. The Kirsten Gallery, 5320 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle WA 98105; 206 522-2011.

September 22-November 17, 1991 Mystic International, Mystic Maritime Gallery 's premier annual event, this year juried by yachtsman and writer William F. Buckley, Jr. and Duncan Robinson , Director of the Yale Center for British Art. This year' s event showcases approximately 150 pieces of work by 125 artists. Numerous awards will be offered for outstanding works. Mystic Maritime Gallery , Mystic CT 063550008 ; 203 572-8524.

Twenty-seven watercolors of late l 9thand 20th-century warships by Ian Marshall, well-known British marine painter, will be on display through August at the Navy Museum, Bldg. 76, Washington Navy Yard, Washington DC 20374; 202 433-4882.

PATRICK HASKETT MARINE ARTIST

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Hi storic 1927 Tugboat Sally S running the legendary "Inside Passage" to Alaska. She passes close to shore on a typical summer day under the watchful eyes of a cougar in the woods.

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Is the premiere Sea Artist of our time.

A Stobart Time-Limited* Night Scene is available now!

The Charles W. Morgan at Mystic Seaport ............... Image Size16 1/2x28 ................................ $300 In 1975 Stobart published a similar print South Street by Gaslight priced at $200 at issue.

Today it is hard to find one for $5500. Stobart issued 7 Night Scene prints from 1974 to 1981.

Their cost at issue was $1400 ........ Today they are worth $19300.

In 1990 the 950 Night Scene of New Bedfords were sold out in five weeks.

Limited editions of 950 John Stobart Night Scenes are now issued at $800. *'Orders for the Night Scene Charles W. Morgan will be taken until October 31, 1991.

After that date no more orders will be taken and no additional prints will be made.

Bev Doolittle published 12253 copies of Two Indian Horses at $225 in 1985.

Two Indian Horses now sells for $6500 on the secondary market.

Her 1988 Season of the Eagle sold 36548 copies at $245. Today it is $850.

We have been selling Stobarts for twelve years and researching Time-Limited prints for five years.

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But we are almost certain that the night scene Charles W. Morgan will be a big winner.

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We advise that you buy one Morgan to hang and one to sell later when it rises.

The financial beneficiaries of your purchase will be Mystic Seaport Museum which maintains the Morgan, The Stobart Foundation which encourages painting from nature and Sea Heritage which preserves sea-lore .

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OPERATION SAIL 92:

The Coast Guard's Extraordinary Eagle

by Dick Rath

After World War II, the United States acquired its only square-rigged sail training ship-the Coast Guard bark Eagle, former German Horst Wessel.

Advocates of sail training cheered, but by the 1970s, pragmatic bureaucrats had moved to rid the Coast Guard of this anachronistic (though admittedly picturesque) form of sea experience training. Through the interest of many people, the threatened bark made it through to 1976. In that year, the Eagle was host ship to Operation Sail 1976, the gathering of the world's sail training ships in New York Harbor that became the most important and memorable event ofthe Bicentennial ofAmerican Independence. From that moment on, the Eagle's role was assured. Here, a long-time friend of the Eagle tells how she came to the United States in the first place.

In November 1941 , when the Coast Guard was placed under the Navy for the duration of World War II, the Coast Guard did not have a sail training ship.

By fortuito us circumstance, however, the 700-ton Danish training ship Danmark was in US waters when German

ON OR A BO UT 18 JANUARY 1946 PROCEED

BY AIR TO LONDON ENG LAND AND REPORT TO COMNA VEU FOR FURTHER ASSIGNMENT AS PROSPECTIVE COMMANDING OFFICER OF THE COAST GUARD CUTTER EAGLE NOWTHEGERMAN EX-NAVAL SHIP HORST WESSEL AT THE US NAVAL ADVANCE BASE WESER RIVER BREMERHA VEN GERMANY.

The Eagle under sail.

PHOTO. USCG ACADEMY

Horst Wessel , built in 1936, was one of

troops occupied Denmark. The Coast Guard chartered her fo r training service and she and her Dani sh captain and crew spent the war years cruising in Long Island Sound and Cape Cod coastal waters with cadets from the Coast Guard Academy . On board, as director of the Academy's sailing and seamanship program, was CG Commander Gordon P. McGowan.

Though he had considerable experience in engine-powered vessels, Commander McGowan knew little of squarerigger sailing , but by September 1945 , when Danmark returned to her liberated native land, he had learned a lot, though he had no way of knowing that he ' d soon wish he had learned more. A couple of months later he received these orders:

fiv e sail training ships built for the German Navy in the 1930s by the well known Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg. The others were Gorch Fock, Albert Leo Schlageter, Mircea II, and Herbert Norkus. All were three-masted barks, 295-ft LOA, 39-ft beam, 17-ft draft, and 18 16 tons di splacement, and they were built to the highest standards of design and construction.

After the war, Gorch Fock became the Soviet training ship Tovarishch, Albert Leo Schlageter became the Portugese Sag res II, and Mircea retained her name and purpose under the Romanian flag . Herbert Norkus was built during the war and never rigged . Somewhat to the ir subsequent regret, the British used this still-new hull as a disposal barge and

At left, cadets learn to steer by the wind, keeping a keen eye on the luff of the main royal. Below, cadets steer a compass

30

At left , lines-endless fathoms of lines-are faked out for running. At right, sail is stowed on the main.

Below, Eagle soars across the wind, making eleven knots close-reaching on the starboard tack. At lower right, two cadets take a sight the traditional way, while also keeping an eye on the fishing pole just visible behind the first cadet' s cap. Photos by William E. Burgess, Jr .

I

OPERATION SAIL 92 sank her in the North Sea when she had served that purpose.

The West Germans built a replacement vessel in 1958 to the same design and named her Gorch Fock II. The "five sisters" still meet in occasional races.

After a delay-filled transatlantic flight aboard a war-weary C-54, Commander McGowan reached London, six days out of New York. Weather conditions delayed his flight to Bremen for another week, but he finally made it, aboard an even more battered C-47. Then came his first look at Horst Wessel: "She lay at a bombed-out shipyard amid the ugly skeletons of shattered buildings and mountainous heaps of rubble, her stately masts canted drunkenly to starboard, as she rested on the bottom of a narrow waterway at low tide. Her gray sides were smeared with stains, the paint on her yards and masts blistered and cracked.

Raised metal lettering on each side of the Sunset at sea . Photo by quarterdeck informed the world that this William E. Burgess, Jr. was the Horst Wessel, a ship of the dead Nazi navy ," he later wrote in his superb full of bosun's gear, and, from the facbook The Skipper and the Eagle. tory in Augsburg, a replacement block A German crew was still aboard, and forthe ship's MAN main engine when McGowan's instructions were to use this the old one was found to have a cracked crew and a nearby German shipyard block. Soon the ship was almost ready to force for fitting out. McGowan, two jun- sail, but McGowan lacked the crew to ior line officers, an engineering officer, man her and the Coast Guard could spare and a few petty officers took over the only thirty more men. It took forty men complex task of making the ship ready at the capstan just to weigh anchor. for sea, with the assistance of the GerIn a conversation with one of his new man officers and crew. On the Ameri- friends, a British naval officer who was cans' first day aboard they were wel- in charge of recruitment for a North Sea comed with full military honors, the en- mines weeping program, the problem was tire crew at full attention and the captain resolved: the needed men, including Kaat rigid hand salute. This ceremony was Leut and his crew, were signed on as repeated at the end of the day. McGowan British minesweeping personnel. was embarrassed, at first, by this. He had The ship was commissioned Eagle felt uneasy about approaching his for- on May 15, 1946, and departure was mer enemies, but found that their adher- scheduled for May 30. The final ship's ance to correct military discipline (de- complement included one Danish offispite the fact that the German Navy no cer, the former executive officer of the longer existed) actually helped dispel Danmark. this uneasiness.

From England to Bermuda, Eagle The young German skipper, who held enjoyed some good Trade Wind sailing the rank ofKapitan-Leutnant, was affec- and some calms, but between Bermuda tionately known to his crew as "Herr Ka- and New York she was caught in a hurLeut." He and McGowan soon devel- ricane, for which she had received no oped a firm friendship, which spread to radio warning. She made as much westthe crew, both Germans and Americans. ing as she could to avoid the eye, losing McGowan 's supply officer was a a few sails in the process, then hove to in German-born American who soon 100 knots of wind. Somewhat to the brushed up his natal language. He was surprise of everyone on board, she lived also a skilled scrounger-a great help in through it. refitting a big square-rigger with found ***** materials from a war-ravaged city. He Eagle has now served the Coast Guard in found a warehouse full of sailcloth, an- the role of teacher and the nation as other full of manila rope, still another goodwill- ambassador for 45 years. She 32

had served the German Navy for ten years before that. About ten years ago it was time for a major refitting-indeed, there was some question even about whether she should be kept in commission at all. An official Ship Structure Machinery Evaluation Board was given the job of making the determination.

Her original classification specifications were- to the strict standards of Germanischer Lloyd, so the Coast Guard decided to go back to the source for an updated opinion. The Germans approved the Coast Guard's findings and recommended new stability studies. Her 1936 design criteria were not available, but the 1959 data for her sister ship Gorch Fock II were, and those became the basis for new stability standards. One major change was to make her a full twocompartment ship, which meant replacementor complete restoration of all decks, and installation of nine watertight compartments.

Her auxiliary engine was replaced with a more powerful, new Caterpillar giving her a 12.3-knot capability under power. All support machinery was also replaced. The original teak deck had to be sacrificed to permit replacement of the underlying steel, though the wood was still in relatively good condition.

(She actually sailed her 1981 training season with a new steel main deck sans the teak overlay-and the crew complained that she handled differently!)

Throughout the four years of this massive project she maintained her sixmonth training schedule every year; she spent her off seasons in drydock as the work progressed.

Since she went into service in 1946 as the sail-training vessel of the US Coast Guard Academy, Eagle has also played an important role as goodwill ambassador to the world, visiting the principal maritime cities of both hemispheres. In 1989, she became the first US military ship to visit the Soviet Union in 15 years, with a port call in Leningrad. For the 1992 Quin centennial of Columbus's discovery of America she'll be host ship to the world's sail-training fleet in New York Harbor, for OpSail 92.

How fitting! D Dick Rath.former editor of Boating and editorial director of Yachting, is also a jazz trombonist and founding member of the South Street Seaport Museum , where he organized and directed the Pioneer Marine School in 1970.

SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

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33

The City of Columbus Plans for Quincentenary

by Randall Edwards

Columbus, Ol}io, a growing state capital in the heart of the heartland, is working to create a maritime mood as part of its quincentennial celebration of Christopher Columbus's first transatlantic voyage. Citizens and businesses are contributing millions to fund a series of events and attractions between the Columbus Days of 1991 and 1992. Included are a replica of the Santa Maria and a $93 million international horticultural exhibition.

Residents of America's coastal states often puzzle over these plans. The city of Columbus is, after all, a good day'sdrive from the nearest seacoast and a thousand miles from the northernmost land ever reached in the Columbian voyages . Its only port is Port Columbus, the municipal airport. But, it is also the largest city in the world named for the Italian mariner, and local leaders are not about to let the quincentennial pass them by on its way to Seville, Genoa or even New York.

It 's not clear why Columbus, built at the confluence of the mostly non-navigable Scioto and Olentangy Rivers, was named after the sea-going explorer who

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never set foot on North American soil.

Perhaps the Honorable Joseph Foos, a member of the Ohio General Assembly in 1812, when the state's capital was carved out of the forest admired the Admiral's ingenuity and perseverance.

Or, perhaps, Mr. Foos had the state's maritime hi story in mind when he suggested the city be named Columbus.

Beginning with the launching of the St. Clair in Marietta in 1800, square rigged ship building was a healthy but short-lived industry, with 31 vessels bu ilt at yards along the Ohio River, most of them within a few years of the St. Clair.

John Riley, manager or the Ohio River Museum in Marietta tell s us: "They would send them down the river, and fit them out and step the masts at New Orleans. Then they would load them with cargo and ship them out."

President Jefferson 's Embargo Act of 1807 quickly took the wind out of Ohio ship builders ' sails, but within a decade the Ohio River was busy again, as shipyards turned to building sternand side-wheelers for the river trade.

The confluence of the Olentangy and Scioto rivers , at the heart of Columbus, has its own nautical story. Fur trading American Indians used the two rivers as important supply routes. The French, who were in Ohio by the second quarter of the 17th century, used the north/south river corridors to travel and maintain their contacts with the indigenous populations.

Columbus was also on one of the feeder lines of the Ohio Canal. The canal, though, was never very successful and was soon made obsolete by the railroads.

Still, there was life on Ohio 's interior rivers, as packets and barges were probably seen in Ohio until 1913, when a series of deadly and devastating floods swept the state, putting an end to navigable rivers in Ohio. Dams were built to stem the destructive tendencies of the streams, and water-borne commerce was relegated to the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Now the Scioto and Olentangy are used solely for recreation and water impoundment. But Columbus is proud of its historic connection-however tenuous-to America 's maritime past.

*****

Columbus, which is now the largest central city in Ohio, has spent the last five years planning the 1992 celebration and will have some stiff competition: the 1992 Olympics will be in France in the

winter and Spain in the summer; also in Spain, Seville will host Expo' 92; Madrid has been named the "cultural capital" of the European Community; there will also be celebrations in Italy, the Bahamas, Miami , and New York, as well.

But Columbus believes it can compete in this international arena, and the planned events have already drawn a bouquet of convention business.

According to Marjory M. Pizzuti , executive director of the Christopher Columbus Quincentennial Jubilee Commission, this interest in the city's namesake is by no means a new one. "We've had a 35-year sister city relationship with Genoa," she noted . The Italian seaport donated one of Columbus' three prominently displayed statues of the Admiral.

The two and a half ton bronze sculpture was erected in front of the city hall in 1955 and was recently refurbished . Representations of Columbus' flagship, the Santa Maria , adorn the entrance to city hall and the walls of city council chambers.

"That boat has been part of our history since day one," said Eugene D' Angelo, a local television executive who oversees efforts to float a Santa Maria replica on the Scioto by Columbus Day of this year.

D' Angelo admits he thought the idea a bit far-fetched when it was first proposed, but so far he has raised about $800,000 of private money for the ship, which is under construction at Scarano Boatbuilding Inc. in Albany, New York.

When the ship's hull is complete it will be unbolted into port and starboard halves for trucking to Columbus. If all goes as planned, the pieces of the Santa Maria will be assembled on the banks of the Scioto this summer.

City leaders hope the Santa Maria will lure to the downtown area some of the large number of visitors expected in Columbus next year. Among the city's attractions will be Ameriflora '92 (a major horticultural exhibition), the Men 's Olympic Marathon trials, to select the team for the Summer Games in Barcelona; the U S Amateur Golf Tournament; the visit of two giant pandas on loan from the Chinese government; and, at Ohio State University, a series of seminars and workshops on the opening of the New World. D

Mr. Edwards is a reporter for the daily Columbus Di spatch and takes a lively interest in the Columbus Quincentenary.

SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS The John W. Brown to

Steam Down the Bay The John W. Brown is transfi g ured! After $400,000 of repairs completed in drydock on April 19, the Libe rty ship John W. Brown is onl y a short ste p away from her first trip dow n Chesapeake Bay. Needed next are tank tests , dock tri als and at least one Bay tria l, reports The Ug ly Duckling , Proj ect Libe rty Ship 's news letter. Among the m any tasks accomplished in the 16-day drydock thi s year were install ati on of a new rudder (courtesy of MARAD and the SS Arthur M. Huddell), rewelding of every butt weld below the waterline, and the cutting-out and repl ac ing of one entire pl ate 30-ft long by 6-ft wide. Not surp ris ingly, Project Liberty Ship was awarded a 199 1 Preservation Honor award by Balt imore Heritage, Inc. , recogni zing the vo lunteer efforts of PLS members. Bay tri als are set for mid-A ugust and the firs t sail will be September 2 1 and 22. To be aboard those days contact PLS at PO Box 8, Long Green MD 2 1092.

long, 30-ft beam structure will require 68 years of salvaging.

Northwest Bicentennial Build-up Northwest maritime enthu siasts are displaying a di stinctly " hands-on" approac h to the ir upcoming bicentennial. As a dress rehearsal for the 1992 Wake of the Ex plorers International Maritime Bicentenni al be ing planned thro ughout British Columbi a, Was hington and Oregon , a Spani sh Islands Expedition is being pl anned fo r the summer of 1991 . To commemorate the first charting of British Columbia ' s Gulf Islands by Spanish ex plorers in 179 1, replicas of the orig inal ships' boats under oar and sail will retrace the expl orers' steps. Northwest regional maritime groups have already constructed 20 replicas of the original survey boats of the explorers (and as many voyag ing canoes of the native people) in preparation for the Reenactment and Bicentennial events of 1992.

(Wake of the Explorers, Whaler Bay, Galiano Island BC YON I PO; 604 5392923)

Windjammer Fleet Yard Burns

The Brown aj ier her return.from the shipyard

Found, King Gusta v Vasa's Flagship the Lubeck Swan Swedi sh marine archaeolog ists and navy di vers anno unced in March that they have fo und the Lubeck Swan, o nce fl agship of King G ustav Vasa, wh ich sank in some 45 meters of water off Sweden' s Baltic Coast, reports reader John R. Herbert of Spring Hill FL. The Lubeck Swan was one of about ten merchant ships Gustav Vasa bought from the Han seatic trad ing tow n of Lubeck in abo ut 152 1 and outfitted as warships for the campa ign to free Sweden from Dani sh rule. Research into the fa te of the Lubeck was began by Anders Franzen, the same amateur m arine archaeolog ist who fo und the warship Wasa in the late 1950s. The Lubeck was fou nd lying on her side on a Balti c shelf in Naemdoe Fjord some 50 mil es southeast of Stoc kho lm . It is largely intact except that the stern castl e has broken off and lies nearby . It is esti mated that the 80-ft SEA HI STORY 58, SU MM ER 199 1

On April 12, a late night fire gutted the North End Shipyard in Rockl and ME, the home of part of the Maine windjammer fl eet. The fire completely consumed the boatshop on the first floor, damaging or destroying numerous tools, but left most of the records salvageable, including the reservations fo r the upcoming windjammer season in the second floor office.

Insurance will cover most of the damages, but some of the tools lost are relics of the era of wooden shipbuilding and will be difficult to repl ace. The current North End Shipyard building was built in 19 12 and is the home to fo ur schooners, Heritage, American Eagle, J. & E. Riggin and the Isaac H. Evans. (Schooner Captains, Box 482T , Rockland ME 04841 ; 207 5948007)

" HMS" Rose, Bill of Rights Ship On April 12, " HMS" Rose embarked from Bridgeport CT on a 9-month, 24-c ity tour of the East Coast from Maine to Florida in celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Displayed on board the ship along with other hi storic documents is the Rhode Island copy ofthe Bill ofRights. The 199 1 Bill of Rights Ship has been sponsored in part by the Nynex Corporation , New England Telephone and New York Telephone. The Rose herself is sure to draw herown crowd

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A thousand yea rs o f di scovery has expanded human kn o wl edge o f the planet, but humanity still faces the c halle nge of living in harmony w ith its e nvironment.

This c hall e nge is the in spiration for Vinland Rev is ited , a voyage commemorating Le if Er iksson 's jo urney from Greenl and a tho usand yea rs ago to North A me rica, and the subseque nt No rse settl ements in North America. The Go ks tad re plica Gaia and her c rew of te n set sail fro m No rway in May and w ill make land fa ll in the is lands of Orkney , Shetland and the Farnes , Ice land , Greenland and Newfoundl and , before sailing down the No rth American coast to Washington DC. From Halifax to W as hington the 24-me te r Gaia will be joined by two other Viking ship replicas, the Oseberg and the Saga Siglar. The ex pedition is a jo int venture of the gove rnments of Ice-

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The new Gokstad ship replica Gaia land and No rway and is led by Ragnar Tho rseth , a present-day Viking who has alread y rowed ac ross the North Sea, reached the North Pole and sailed around the world on Saga Siglar. The Gaia will affiv e at Halifax NS , August 28; Boston

MA, Se pte mber 11 ; Newport RI , September 20; New York NY, September 25; and Washington DC, October 9. (World C ity Foundation, 330 E. 43rd Street, New York NY 10017; 2 12 972-9000)

Britis h Underwater Archaeology Legislation The Briti sh unde rwate r prese rv ati o n policy g roup , The Joint Nautica l Arc haeology Po licy Committee, repo rts a mi xed response by the British gove rn ment to its policy document " He ritage at Sea," w hich was launched in May 1989.

The Committee is encouraged by the transfe r of responsibility for unde rwate r s ites fro m the De partment of Transpo rt to the De partme nt of the Environme nt and the ne ws th at grant mo ney may be ava il able to fund education fo r archaeolog ical dive rs. The British government has , however, rejected the recommendati on to c reate a maritime heritage protection agency and the Committee is di sappointed that the re are no immedi ate pl ans to change the Merchant Shipping Act o f of 1894. Unde r the Ac t the finder of a wreck has salvage rights to the entire conten ts of the site. The Committee cla ims thi s outdated leg is lation unde rmines the management of sites under the 1973 Pro tection of Wrecks Ac t, leading to the neglect and di spe rsa l of arti fac ts.

Travelling Ohio Ri ver Exhibit Res idents in the states bo rde ring the Ohi o Ri ve r w ill be treated to a multi faceted ex hibit aboard a ba rge fl oating down the ri ve r thi s summe r. " Always A Ri ver: The Ohi o Rive r and the Ame rican Expe rie nce" was made poss ible through a grant fro m the NEH to the Illino is, Indi ana, Ke ntuc ky, Ohio , Pennsy lvani a and West Virg inia humanities counc il s.

In stalled o n a 152-ft by 34-ft rive r barge, the ex hibit fea tures the hi story, econom y, eco logy, c ul ture, and future of the Ohio Rive r in words, pictures, models, video and mu s ic. The barge will stop in 2 1 communiti es in the s ix states between May 22 a nd Se pte mber 8. The latte r half of the schedul e reads as fo llo ws: Tell City IN , August 8- 10 Owensboro KY , August 11-1 3 Evansv ill e IN, August 15- 18 Henderson KY , August 20-2 1 Mo unt Vernon IN, August 23-24 Golconda IL , August 27-28 Pad ucah KY , Aug ust 30-3 1 Cairo IL, September 2-8 (A lways A Ri ver, 1500 N. Delaware Street, Indianap o li s, IN 46202; 3 17 638- 1500) S EA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 199 1

New Susan Constant Commissioned The Jamestown Settlement fleet has a new flagship . On Apri l 26, at the settlement near Williamsburg VA , the new Susan Constant was comm iss ioned with a sai lor's prayer: "Let your hand be stretched forth to command the w;iters to be quiet, Fill ow· sails with gentle and prosperous winds.

Let not the sun be covered in storms by day, Nor the moon or stars conspire with the darkness by nightto spoil us by shipwreck.

Guide us through that wildemess of waters till we safely arrive on shore."

The Susan Constant, a recreation of the largest of th ree shi ps that brought America ' s first Engli sh colonists to Virgini a in 1607, was built at the settlement and replaces an earlier rep I ica that was retired last year. The ship ' s builder, Allen Rawl, began work in the fa ll of 1989 and completed it on time and within the $2. 1 million budget provided by the Commonwealth of Virginia fo r research, architectural design and construction.

Rawl, revealing his own attac hment and dedication to the project, desc ribed the ships curves as "Rubenesque" and compared the commission ing to marrying off his daughters.

"This ship is here to keep America young," said keynote speaker NMHS President Peter Stanford . The Susan Constant will allow young Americans to "dream great dreams" helping "re-create the fo undation of our civi lization in every generati on. " Although no plans or renderings of the original Constant have

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Yankee Clipper's Wavertree Room The Yankee Clipper, one of South Street Seaport's finest restaurants, recently dedicated an opulently refurbished room to honor the historic Wavertree , a tall ship now berthed just outside the restaurant's multipaned windows. The dedication of the Wavertree Room goes beyond its physical proximity to its namesake, however, for the room actually once served as the office of Baker, Carver & Morrell , general agents who represented the Wavertree in the 1800s. -VIA PORT OF NY-NJ, March 1986

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ever been located, the ship's cargo capac- Candace Clifford and pub! ished by the ity- 120 tons-is documented in a 1606 National Park Service ' s National MariHigh Court Admiralty case, evidence which time Initiative. The volume is a record of has come to light since the first Susan Con- the types and conditions of about three stant recreation was built in the 1950s. hundred large historic vessels in the Un ited States . (National Maritime Initiative, National Park Service (418), PO Box Chari.es W. Morgan Celebrates lSOth 1991 marks the l 50th anniversary of 37127, Washington DC 20023-7 127) Mystic Seaport Museum's flagship S hipwreck Looters Fined Char les W. Morgan, America's sole surviving wooden whaleship. To honor An undercover operat ion by two Nathe Morgan, the Seaport opened a dra- tional Park Service rangers led to fines matic and comprehensive exhibit June of $ 132,000 being levied on seven Los 23, for showing through 1992. " Reflec- Angeles-area scuba divers, reports the tion of America: 150 Years of the Charles March/ Apri l issue of Archaeology magaW. Morgan" exami nes 4 generations of zine. While on a three-day trip organi zed Americans, those who built, worked, by the Californ ia Wreck Divers C lub saved and restored he r, as it traces the and Truth Aq uatic, Inc., the divers revessel's history from working ship to moved hundreds of artifacts from two museum icon. The I 13-ft bark, built in hi storic shipwrecks in the C hanne l Is1841, sailed for more than 80 years- lands National Park and in the C hannel longer than any wha leship on record- Islands National Marine Sanctuary near and was acquired by the Museum in Santa Barbara CA. Of the 20 indi vid ua ls 1941. Augmenting the new exhibit are originally charged in the civ il action, video and audio productions, artifacts, including the owner and captain of the fine art and memorabilia. (MSM, PO charter vessel , 13 settled out of court Box 6000, Mystic CT 06355-0990) while seven con tested the charges. The artifacts were removed from the Winfield Scott, a Gold Rush-era vessel wrecked in New Home for Regina Maris The three-masted barkentine Regina 1853 and listed on the National Register Maris (1908) has ended her unhappy of Historic Places, and the Golden horn, sojourn at Marina Bay, Quincy MA, grounded off Santa Rosa Island in 1892 arrivi ng safely in Greenport, Long Is- and currently nominated for listing in the land NY under tow on June 18. Pur- National Register. c hased for a token $ 1 by designer and veteran boat restorer Bob Rosenbaum BRIEFLY NOTED w ith the proviso that by June I she would The outpouring of public support for the be taken out of her mooring-where she Princess Marguerite has galv ani zed sank and lay four months on the bottom preservationists in the Northwest and in 1988-she wi ll now become part of a has lead to the found ing of the S hipping new educational fo undation . Rosenbaum & Railway Heritage Trust in Victoria plans to teach restoration and other mari- BC. Efforts to bring the 1948 steam time skill s aboard the vessel. Originally turbine coastal liner under the proteca Danish trading schooner, the vessel tive wing of the400-member gro up have, has a storied past. In the 1960s she made however, been hampered by lega l proba voyage around Cape Horn and in 1975 lems. In particu lar, a non-compete agreeserved as the setting for a film about ment between the BC Government and Joseph Conrad. She also led an active life owners Stena Line that would prevent through the 70s and 80s under the com- the trust operat ing her in the region. The mand of George Nichols and the now Trust is sti ll pursuing the Marguerite defunct Ocean Research and Education and isalsoconsideringtheSSSan Mateo, foundation. (Regina Maris Foundation, 41 now surplus at the Northwest Seaport.

Glen Avon Drive, Riverside CT 06878) (S&RHT, 1530 Eastlake Avenue E., Suite 208,SeattleWA98102;206 328-0765) Inventory of Preserved In 1775-76, the seaport of Beverly, MA Historic Vessels Text and pictures, statistics and charts served as the base for George Washingand much of a ll you wanted to know are ton's Revolutionary War fleet that he lped in the 1990 In ventory of Large Pre- drive the British Army and Navy ou t of servedHistoric Vessels, re leased in Apri l. Boston. As part of its plans to es ta bl ish This fine piece of research and produc- an 18th century maritime landmark s ite tion is edited by James P. Delgado and in Beverly, the non-profit Washington's SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 199 1

Naval Base, Inc. intends building a replica of the schooner Hannah, the first armed vessel of the United Colonies of America. The Hannah sailed from Beverly on September 5, 1775 against the sloop-of-war HMS Nautilus. (WNB , PO Box 1775 , Beverly MA 01915) Ted Miles of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park reports that the 1907 ocean- going steam tugboat Hercules was operating on San Francisco Bay on April 23 . Under her own power for the first time in 30 years , the restored tug represents a monumental 13 ,000 hours of volunteer labor. The Maritime Park will also launch the restored 1923 Monterey fishing boat Wetton on July 28. (SanFranciscoMNHP,Fort Mason, Bldg. 20 I, San Francisco CA 94123) Hercules under steam on San Fran cisco Bay

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Historic Derby Wharf in Salem, Massachusetts, may once again have vessels in residence. The Salem Maritime National Historic Park has recently produced a draft site plan which includes four alternatives for development of the nine-acre site. The three 18th century wharves and six historic structures dating from the 17th century currently on the site provide a glimpse into three centuries of Salem ' s history as a major American port, but without any vessels.

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(Salem Maritime NHS , 174 Derby Street, Salem MA 01970; 508 744-4323) Latest word on the sailing ship Carrick,ex-City of' Adelaide, is she has sunk at her new mooring at Princes Dock, Glasgow. The 1864 clipper was purchased in March last year by the Clyde Ship Trust in Glasgow from the RNVR Club (Scotland). The vessel appears to have been in a distressed condition before its difficult passage down the Clyde to the new mooring in August 1990.

SEA HISTORY 58 , SUMMER 1991

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Nautical Quarterly Box549 Essex, CT 06426 (203) 767-9011 40

A Gentlemanly and Honorable Pro- previously unexamined data.

Any review of this book that failed to fession: The Creation of the U.S. Naval Officer Corps, 1794-1815, by Chris- note its portraits, particularly the rarely topher McKee (Naval Institute Press, published miniature profiles of C. B. J. Annapolis MD, I 99 I, 600 pages, illus, Fevret de Saint-Mernin, would be doing an inju stice to the author 's research . index, $29.95hb) w. M. P. D UNNE A Gentlemanly and Honorable ProSea Ed ucation Ass'n, Inc. f ession is a landmark work, not merely Woods Hole, Massachu setts of naval history, but of social history.

Christopher McKee devoted twenty years to his magnum opus, and the result more Predators and Prizes: American Prithan justifies that effort. Over the past vateering and Imperial Warfare, 1739decade, the author's occasional articles 1748, by Carl E. Swanson (University of and symposia papers have given tanta- South Caro lina Press, Co lumbia SC, 1izing hints of the breadth of his work, 1991, 299p , illus , index , $29.95 hb) Predators and Prizes provides a textbut those tidbits fai led to prepare the reader for the comp lex , yet comprehen- book qualitative and quantitative analysis of privateering in Great Britain's sible, end product.

The eight-year reign of Robert Smith North American colonies during the first as Secretary of the Navy-criticized and half of the 18th century . Dr. Swanson's minimalized in its effect by Oscar Paullin theses and conclusions do much to reand undoubtedly overshadowed by the vise many popular mi sconceptions about tribulations of Smith ' s two-year stint as the attractiveness of privateering as an Madison ' s Secretary of State-has been acceptable and reputable profess ion. withdrawn from the closet of disdain , Swanson identifies privateering as a revalued , and given its deserved place as sound proposition in a world guided by a centerpiece of naval soc ial history. the precepts of the political economy of Smith's cultivation and nurturing of the mercantilism. He revises prev ious works boys of the early corps arguably out- that have classed private warships as an weighed the use of them by Com modore inconsequential phase of I 8th-century Preble, for whom they were named. In maritime warfare, and reminds us that combination, Smith and Preble provided the era was one in which even Europe' s us with the heroes of 1812 and laid the largest state navies lacked the capability of ruling the oceans. The author examfoundation of US naval tradition.

McKee sets himself a difficult task in ines the popular appeal of privateering his introduction: re-evaluating the con- measured against the prohibitive cost of temporary classifications of Navy Sec- building and maintaining a navy adretary William Jones, a shrewd man on equate for policing the major trade routes the spot with personal knowledge of of the period: "The state's power was most members of the corps. McKee augmented without draining the national achieves his objective and considerably treasure, and the profit motive played the key role." more.

The book ' s first six chapters are laid In a short review it is impossible to examine all the evidence, analyses, struc- out topically, and the seventh is a sum tural nuances and conclusions necessary mary , " The Impact of Privateering on to construct a major work of social his- Commerce." The author's research and tory. It must suffice to note that McKee ' s analysis are clearl y indicated by both the history of the navy officer corps begins textual material and supporting tables.

The clearly stated difference between with events that predate the corps itself.

His analysis of the various types who privateers and letter of marque vessels became midshipmen begins with home might have better served the reader had influences, proceeds through educational it appeared earlier than it does in the and professional expertise, and ends with book. And in Chapter Three, the author a review of the various origins feedi ng consistently points to sloops, brigs, snows that entry to the corps. He also examines and ships as vessels preferred to schooeach possible route to a lieutenant 's com- ners for privateering, while failing to mission, the true starting point in the note that the schooner rig was a re lative march to the navy ' s highest rank. In newcomer to offshore shipping.

Dr. Swanson has done his homework doing so, the author illuminates that huge and shadowy group, the sailing masters. and she d light upon maritime misconAs a result, historians and biographers ception$ of this era. The prevailing viewwi ll have to rethink theses and consider point ex<tolling the stability of 18th cenSEA !HISTORY 58 , SUMMER 1991

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tury Atlantic commerce is exposed as a myth . Impressment is proven to weaken the merchant fleet. Chance and insecurity, not stability and safety, preva iled on the 18th century seas.

W.M. P.DUNNE Sailing With Pride, photograph s by Greg Pease, with text by Thomas C. Gillmer and Barbara Boss uto (C.A. Baumgartner Publishing, Baltimore MD 1990, unpaginated, 150 color photos, drawings, index, $49.95hb) Hand somely produced, this book documents through Greg Pease's photographs the lives of the replica Baltimore clippers Pride of Baltimore and Pride of Baltimore //- the second built after the first was lost in a squall north of Puerto Ri co in May 1986. The photographs take you to sea, from the famous " race" with the German pilot schooner Wander Bird in San Francisco Bay to the European ports visited by the first Pride on her final cruise. NMHS Advisor Tom Gillmer, designerofboth vessels, writes a fine running commentary, including a history of the type of fast-sailing ship these two fine vessels brought back to life, and sums up the naval architect's concerns and ethos in an instructive and PS moving "Afterword."

Albuquerque, Caesar of the East; Selected Texts by Afonso de Albuquerque and His Son, ed, with a translation , introduction and notes by T. F. Earle and John Villiers (Aris & Phillips, Teddington House, Warminster, Wiltshire BA12 8PQ, UK , 1990, 308p, illus , index, $55 hb or $25 pb , through NMHS) Within a quarter century of Bartolomeu Dias' s bringing a Portuguese ship into the Indi an Ocean in 1487 , and just over ten years after Vasco da Gama went on to reach India in 1498, the Portuguese established complete naval mastery over the well armed and numerous Moslem fl eets that controlled trade in this Iittleknown new ocean. Albuquerque, an aristocratic soldier, became the Portuguese governor in India after his predecessor Almeida had won the climactic naval battle of Diu in I 509. He used hi s naval mastery to consolidate Portuguese power from Africa in the west to Malaya in the east-a sphere of activity extending over about one seventh of the earth 's c ircumference. Thi s huge ex panse was held down by planting Portuguese fortresses at major trading entrepots .

John Villiers gives a clear picture of SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

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REVIEWS thi s stunning development in his illuminating introduction: "Albuquerque did not devise the ' great design' of Portugal's imperial strategy in the Indian Ocean; his achievement lay in having carried it out and having done so with such breathtaking rapidity and daring, in spite of lukewarm and erratic support from the king, opposition and insubordination from his captains, and almost overwhelming difficulties in the field." The text of this book , consisting of side-byside Portuguese and English transcriptions of contemporary reports both by Albuquerque and his son, gives a vivid picture of those difficulties and of the panache and brutality with which Albuquerque again and again led his handful of Portuguese to victory against odds.

Here is a rare and wonderful example of scholarship brought directly to the public-for the work is an outstandingly good read , and the editors help you understand things that might be obscure to everyone except their fellow scholars.

Excellent notes round out the picture of both Asian and European ship types, technology and society in the Indian Ocean of half a millenium ago.

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American Mariner, by Herbert Paul Hahn (American Merchant Marine Museum Foundation, Kings Point NY, 1990, 270p, illus, biblio, index, $26.95) The American Mariner began life as the George Calvert, a perfectly ordinary Liberty ship. The vessel was changed into a training ship three weeks after Pearl Harbor and completed under the name she has today-American Mariner. During her later years Mariner cruised cadet-midshipmen for state maritime academies. She also served as a missile range instrumentation ship measuring highaltitude nuclear tests, and as a target ship, which she is still doing. She has been operated by the Navy , the Army, the Air Force and the Coast Guard, not to mention her original service for the War Shipping Administration.

Fortunately for us, author Hahn brought together a remarkable collection of photos associated with Mariner's many activities, featuring the ship in her guises as training ship, missile tracking vessel and test target. His passion for research can be detected throughout the book, and sometimes the way he dug up facts conveys the feeling of a detective at work. The book contains a personal record of service which will interest many other veterans of the American MerSEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

Folk Songs of the Great Lakes chant Marine.

The book is a real gem and o ne that will help much in rounding out the full story of the American Merchant Marine in World War II and beyond.

FRANK 0. B RA YNARD Mr. Braynard is co-chair of the NMHS Advisory Committee and Curator of the American Merchant Marine Museum at Kings Point, New York.

The Smithsonian Book of North American Indians: Before the Coming of the Europeans, by Philip Kopper and the Editors of Smithsonian Books (Smithsonian Books, Washington DC, 1986, 288p, illus, index, $29.97 hb) After Columbus: The Smithsonian Chronicle of the North American [ndians , by Herman J. Viola (Smithsoni an Books, Washington DC, 1990, 288p, illus, index , $34.95hb) Recog ni z in g th e sig ni ficance to American Indian s of the Columbus Quincentenary next year, the Sm ithsonian has published two large, lavishly produced books on the Native Americans, presenting their history before and after Columbus's voyages . One mu st recognize the timeliness of this effort which, if successfu l, will cap itali ze on a rare moment when the thoughts of all Americans, in some capacity or another, will be with their nation 's heri tage. Undoubtedly the American Indi an ho ld s an important place on next year's stage.

One mu st also, therefore , recognize the formidable and noble task whic h the Smithsonian undertook-that of presenting a full picture of the Native Americans' 12-40 ,000 years of ex istence in the Americas in just two volumes.

Before the Coming of the Europeans is well illustrated with large, beautiful landscape photographs, paintings, and a myriad of artifacts from countless prehi storic civili zation s. The text, however, is disappointing in both content and fonn .

Its breakdown into three sections, "The Peopl e," "Land and Culture," and "The Coming of the Europeans" seems to promi se that some sembl ance of structured thought might emerge from the pages. This proves untrue all too soon, as the first90-page section stumbles through a variety of topics boiling down to some sententious philosophizing and seemingly ra ndo m, ill-developed facts about the methods of modern archaeology.

The second section, the main body of the text, appears to be more sensibly written , with each chapter devoted to a SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

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single prehistoric c ulture area-the arctic, subarctic, northeast, southeast, plain s, far west, north west coast, southwest, and Mexico. These chapters introduce an immense and grow ing body of information on the prehistoric Indians-a subject which spans from 40,000 to 12,000 years (the date of Indian arrival on the contine nt is in continuing debate). As the book jacket argues, this inform ation has, until recentl y, been " relegated to a kind of hi storical limbo," even though there are s ignificant phys ical reminders of an a nc ient presence, like the famo us mo und s of the mid west or the pyramids and buried cities of Mexico . Much valu abl e information is presented in these chapters, often fresh in from the fi eld and st ill e mbroiled in scholarly debate.

Herein Iies the main strength of the tex tthe amount of information, the ability of the author to cite several sources ac ti ve in the field , and the presentation of all si des of archaeolog ical di sputes.

Unfo rtunately thi s is not enough to make the book good reading or effective education fo r the average reader. Poor writing and editing (or lack thereof) are a constanthinderance, leaving the reader bogged down in numerou s haphazardly presented facts .

There is much to be learned from the ancient civilizations and tribes of North Amer ica, many of which evo lv ed , thri ved, and declined o r di sappeared ent ire ly-h undreds of yea rs before Columbu s's first voyage. But Before the Coming of the Europeans fa il s to s park much interest in what it has to say about thi s otherwise fasci nating topic. Such a sorely under-represented subject as thi s demands writing that can in spire , and on thi s count, the Smithsonian has fa llen short of the mark .

After Columbus is a more or less chrono log ical account of the interaction of Indians and E uropeans in North America, foc using on what was to be , and is now, the continental United States.

Like its predecessor, After Columbus is well illustrated, incorporating o ld and new photogra phs, and a splendid coll ection of nati ve and European artwork.

Although it lac ks the tone and approach of a strictly hi storical text, After Colum bus is both informative and entertaining. Most of the book reads Iike a series of well-connected essays that expl ore the more important aspects of thi s peri od in Indi an hi story. It does not te ll us what was going on in every part of the country at every stage in this history , nor SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 199 1

..'

does it tell us the fate of most of the numerous tribes-these are tasks for larger, reference-style works. It does provide excellent analysis of the people, policies and other factors that have shaped the past 500 years of American Indian history.

The author makes excellent use of original sources, having consulted with native tribesmen and and made good use of collections at the Smithsonian. Several short pieces written by living Indians are included. These, in conjunction with the author's storytelling style, create a personal atmosphere amidst issues rife with ideological tension. After Columbus is a great success in that it leaves the reader with a solid, balanced impression of the Native Americans and the 500-year history they share with the postColumbus immigrants.

JosEPH M. STANFORD Fighting Ships of the Revolution on Long Island Sound: 1775-1783, by J. Lawrence Pool (J. L. Pool , 41 Cherry Rd., West Cornwall CT 06796 , 1990, 11 lp, illus , biblio, index , $14, plus $1 shipping) This pleasant little book was inspired by a collection of letters written by a New London woman during the Revolutionary War. Elizabeth (or Betsy or Eliza) writes frequently to her brother-in-law in Trenton to exchange news of her husband 's voyages on local privateers.

Unfortunately, only selected letters are printed, and of those most are heavily abridged. The author explains this as space-saving, but Eliza's feisty pen and the subjects she writes on, such as the British burning of New London and her husband 's capture by the Royal Navy make this over-editing frustrating. Perhaps a second edition will correct thi s.

Eliza's letters , mostly written between 1779 and 1881 , provide a personal glimpse into America's first struggles for power on the high seas. The author sought to expand on these letters and place them in an historical context, resulting in , as he explains in the introduction, " this account of the fighting ships, large and small, on and also beyond Long Island Sound during the Revolu tion, that helped us win that war." Included are lively sketches of unsung heroe s like Capt. Timothy Parker, privateersman, Major Benjamin Tallmadge , cavalry and intelligence officer, and Return Jonathan Meigs, General and whaleboat raider.

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My Father's Epic Cape Horn Voyage

by Robert Bahnsen In 1905 , 17-year-old Detlef Bahnsen was a seaman on the drown . I twisted and tugged ; then I felt the spar settle back German sailing ship Susanna, which was making maritime suddenly along its whole length. A frantic pain burned through history by taking a record 99 days to round Cape Horn. From my legs. The thought flashed through me: now your good late August all through September, October and most of bones are done for forever. Then everything went black."

His shipmates dove into the frigid , surging water to save November, the battle raged in the teeth of ferocious storms young Herman. After a struggle, they pulled him from under accompanied by freezing rain, sleet and snow .

By the time the ship reached Caleta Buena, Chile, after 189 the spar. His account, published in Villiers's War with Cape days at sea with a cargo of Welsh coal, only eight men were fit Horn , continues: "Whether it was worthwhile, no one knew. J to work the ship . The rest of the 23-man crew were disabled by lay in the arms of my companions without a sign of life as they injuries, frostbite, typhus and scurvy . My father was one of carried me to my berth. They told me I sti ll held those kettles!"

Thrown o ut of his bunk later by the ship's violent motion, those taken to hospital with scurvy. But he couldn't have Herman Piening came to, staggered to his feet and rejoined his suffered any lasting ill-effects, because he lived to 98! comrades on deck in the fight to work the ship. * * ** * Another among the ship' s casualties was Smut the cook, Of Danish descent, Detlef Bahnsen was born in the small village of Emmelsbull, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, near who suffered broken ribs and interna l injuries when he was washed about on the deck by a huge wave. And Second Officer the border with Denmark and close to the North Sea. Ships and sa ilors were part of his life almost from infancy, Bansen, who was recuperating from a broken nose, gashed and he ran away to sea at age thirteen. He first saw the Susanna face and concussion, also narrowly escaped drowning when he at Port Talbot near Cardiff, Wales, when he was one month shy was washed from his bunk in the sick bay by water surging of his seventeenth birthday: "She was a beautiful full-rigged back and forth through the ship as she rolled and pl unged.

The pounding caused Susanna's steel hull to spring a leak, ship. She had only been built about twelve years and was as clean as a whistle-three masts, steel hull , teak decks, 265 feet and at one stage there was six feet of water in her hold . So, the long. When she was under full sail she was a magnificent sight. crew had to pump continuously to keep their ship afloat.

At one point, Third Mate Schmutsch wrote in hi s diary: I thought I was made when I signed on her."

The contrast between his childhood and ours could hardl y " Day after day the wind blows from the west with huge snow have been more striking. We, his children, grew up on drought- drifts . Almost all of the crew have their fingers frozen, I also, prone outback Australian wheat farms in the twenties and although not seriously. Susanna often has her whole bow thirties. None of us saw the sea until we were in our teens. His under water. Twice in the night huge waves broke over the ship tales of hi s sailing days were one of our main sources of fore and aft. When the waves subsided, the water did not drain away . That was cause for concern." entertainment.

As the wind in one storm rose to force twelve on the But we often found the stories hard to believe and thought he was spinning a sailor's tall tales. "The waves were enor- Beaufort Scale, Susanna's master, Captain Jurgens , wrote mous," he used to say in his thick Scandinavian accent. "As terse notes in his log: "Lower topsails." Then , one hour later: true as I'm standing here, when the ship lay over in the wind, "Storm sail." For the next watch: " No sail can take it."

Schmutsch wrote: " One scarcely knows how one is supsome of those waves were higher than the tops of her masts.

The winds were so strong, sometimes they blew us backwards posed to set sails, because snow falls continually, waves break for hundreds of miles ." over the deck, and all moving parts are covered with ice, so We young landlubbers took it all with a grain of salt. "How that they don't work anymore." high were her masts?" we would ask.

In another entry , before scurvy broke out, he wrote: "Often " About twice as high as the big pine trees by the dam," he we had so much water in the ship that we had to be careful to would reply . Looking up at the tops of those trees , we won- keep above water. At least we have managed to keep scurvy at bay. But against hurricanes and greybeards there is no known dered how it could possibly be true.

Yet I found it was all in the record-in the captain's log, in herb. All we have is our sailors ' intuition to do the right thing letters the sailors had written home from Caleta Buena, and in at the right time, and a good , well-built, stable ship, well a diary kept by the third mate, H. Schmutsch. When I began ballasted, and a crew that fears neither death nor devil , but researching his story, I found that he hadn 't been exaggerating sings when the weather throws them into such a pred icament. " Nor were their troubles confined to the weather. Captain at all. If anything, the reality was worse!

Jurgens ' s chronometer was faulty , and without radio he could * * ** * Youngest among the crew was 15-year-old Herman Piening, on ly fix his position by taking lunar readings. But lunar who later told Alan Villiers: "One day I had started to take the readings were impossible for many weeks because of continucoffee kettles to the galley, just as the command, ' Weather ous cloud cover. And without fixing his position, he didn ' t main brace! ' rang out. I had just stepped out of the shelter of dare turn north for Chile. our deckhouse when a big sea came over the lee bulwarks.

Food ran short and had to be rationed; and Susanna's water Before I could get hold of the life line, the heaving mass supply was exhausted after 140 days at sea. Her crew survived washed me away with both my kettles. I couldn ' t stand. A by breaking ice off the rigging and melting it. " It tastes violent roll sent me pitching just as the mass of water lifted up brackish, but it fulfills its purpose," Schmutsch commented. one of the heavy spare spars which were lashed by chains along On the same day he wrote: "Seven men lie in the sick bay with the deck. The water flung me across the deck, still clinging to broken or frozen limbs. There are not enough healthy men on these precious kettles , with both legs stuck out in front, and board. Nowhere in this almost Antarctic sky is there a hint of rammed me like a wedge under the spar while it was lifted. improvement in the weather. Heavy seas break over the ship, Then it slipped back a bit, jamming me there. I lay helpless, the worst over the deckhouse. They break open the cabin locked fast with feet of sea above me. I was sure I would skylights. Cabins and bunk rooms are under water. All books 46

SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

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-

i..

As the Susanna ghosts along in very light airs, the foredeck hands wave their caps to a passing ship. The Susanna's ordeal with "Cape Stiff" in 1905 was shared by other sailing ships , notably the full rigger British Isles, whose captain , James P. Barker, had bet he would heat the Susanna around the Horn . He did , hut lost three men doing it.

Several other ships never made it, lost with all hands.

are ruined, my possessions wet through. Seas coming in amidship cut free the lifeboat and washed away the companionway ."

Hermann Piening wrote home to hi s family: "I don ' t know if a hundred days around Cape Hom is a record, but I do not wish to do a second journey Ii ke that." It was a sentiment his crewmates, no doubt, echoed wholeheartedly. But, if they were like our father, I doubt if they would have missed it. It was one of the high points in hi s life, something he could look back on with pride.

By the time we were old enough to hear his stories, he was a struggling Australian wheat farmer, bowed down by debts and drought and back-breaki ng work. Often, when his hands were black with grease, his tired, lined face streaked with dirt, and his sweat-stained flannel shirt and dungaree trousers caked with dust and chaff, he looked anything but an heroic figure to us.

So, when he talked about his time on the Susanna , I am sure he wasn 't just telling us an adventure story. He was also trying to give us a message.

- 11\ \.-~ --

Memories of World War I were still fresh when we were children, and the fathers of most of our school friends had been soldiers. Some had been decorated . To us, they were brave men who had performed valiant deeds in battle. Our father had been rejected for service as medically unfit because of a shipboard injury.

I think that rough, bluff, farmerfatherofours was trying to tell us that he also had done something spec ial-that he had been one of a small band of hardy, resourceful men who, together with a stout ship, had written a page of maritime history. He was saying that, like our war veteran neighbors, there was a time when he, too , had been tried and not found wanting. D Robert Bahnsen lives in Glenalta , South Australia, and has completed a book about his father, Detlef , entitled Tall

Ships and Ten-Horse Teams.

The Susanna' s crew, photographed just before setting sail from Port Talbot near Cardiff, Wales , in June 1905. Detlef Bahnsen , age 16 years, 11 months , stands at far left. The ship's master, Captain Jurgens, is not shown. The youngest hand aboard, 15-year-old Herman Piening came close to drowning in heavy seas that swept the decks in the ship's struggle to round Cape Horn. Piening went on to become a famous master of tall ships in the Cape Horn trade, including the Peki ng , now at South Street Seaport Museum in New York.

SEA HISTORY 58, SUMMER 1991

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