considered a merciful option. Even for those who "chose" it (and many were forced, as well), the future for them and their children was to be "New Christians" or "Marranos" (i.e. pigs), constantly kept separate by their neighbors, objects of suspicion and a special target of the Inquisition. In contrast to the almost constant persecution and discrimination in pre-expulsion France and England, the relatively peaceful life of the Spanish Jews must have made 1492 even more shocking by its abrupt terror. In the aftermath, many died, and those who fled to Portugal faced the same alternatives there a few years later, as the Church forced the king to force Jewish parents to "choose" conversion or another exile, this time without their younger children, who were forcibly taken from them and baptized. All these horrors are dismissed by Professor Phillips, with the calm assumption that forced conversion or exile, being"better" than slaughter, should therefore spread the veil of understanding and absolution over the annihilation of Spanish Jewry. MARTHA KAss M ARKS Associate Professor, Hi story Alabama A & M University
couple of dollars to he lp start this new museum. To play along with the gag, we all forked up, thinking he needed the taxi fare home or something. Luckily we were wrong. You guys did use the dollars to build the museum! I ANKEOWN
New York, New York See note on the museum' s 25th Anniversary, page 34-ED
Seamen are Veterans! I would like at thi s time to congratulate you on your successful efforts to have sea-going merchantmen recognized as veterans of World War II. As an engineering officeron both merchant and Navy ships (Grace Lines 194244, Navy 1945-46) I am, I believe, able to make the judgment without prejudice that recognition was too long delayed for the sea-going merchant marine. Sea History, by its very title, has the duty to " tell it like it was." I believe a periodical such as ours can write history that will provide truth to students a hundred years from now. Reading the letters to the editor casts more light on our past than many so-called scholarly works. J.E. SCHOFIELD Bristol , England
Long Live Indian Canoes! Congratulations on Leslie Lincoln's article on native canoes in SH 61 ! This was a welcome addition to my research on Native American history and , in particular, their use of aquatic craft. We are currently researching the possibilities of creating a community event focussed on canoe races which would highlight the various indigenous tribes in this area. Our intent is not only to raise awareness of the native heritage of our region , but also to bring the community together for a unique cultural ex perience which would benefit the many community agencies we fund. We hope to do this in mid-1993 . I would be interested in hearing from any of your readers who have created or participated in any similar events. LEIGH SMITH
United WayofSantaClaraCounty San Jose, California
How to Build A Museum What with various references to the 25th anniversary of South Street Seaport Museum , I wonder if yo ur president, Peter Stanford, can remember the evening he strode into a party at a mutual friend's and demanded that each of us give him a SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992
ERRATA You are to be congratulated forthe handsome issue (Sea History 61) highlighting the Northwest ' s International Maritime Bicentennial. Over the past two years we have seen many varied and imaginative projects organized by both private and official organizations. Fortunately, for the most part, they have been free from the controversy which is marring so many of the quincentenni al Columbus celebrations. At the ri sk of appearing churlish, may I point out that the chronology on page 14 does not mention the first explorers of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The English fur trader Charles Duncan charted the entrance in 1788. Then, in 1790, two years before Vancouver, the Spanish explorer Manuel Quimper penetrated as far as the San Juan Islands and took formal possession for Spain at Sooke and Ro yal Roads near Victoria on Vancouver Island, and in the State of Washington at Dungeness and Discovery Bay near the entrance to Puget Sound, and at Neah Bay at the entrance to the Strait. FREEMAN M. TOVELL
Victoria, British Columbia
QUERIES
Some time in the last decade, Roman Polanski made a motion picture called "The Pirates." The film was withdrawn days after its release. However, Polanski had specially built for the film a full-sized copy of a Spanish battleship of the early 18th century. To all outward appearances in the film, the ship had a high degree of historical accuracy. Do any readers know what has become of that ship-where she is, what she ' s been doing since making the film? Repl y to John Fitzhugh Millar, 7 lOSouth Henry Street, Williamsburg VA 23185. Tom Graham , Curator of the South African Maritime Museum, is seeking information about the whereabouts of the figurehead of the Law hill, a four-masted bark of2816 tons, Dundee-built in 1889, which was confi scated by the South African government in 1941. Not knowing that Finland had joined forces with Germany after Germany had invaded Ru ss ia, the captain of the Lawhill, Arthur Soderlaund, sailed into the port of East London on the South African coast in 1941 only to have hi s vessel seized as a spoil of war. After sailing under the South African flag, the vessel was eventually sold to Portuguese buyers and taken to Lourenco Marques (Maputo) in Mozambique. There she stayed until 1958 when bought by the Japanese and broken up. At least a year before, her figurehead had been removed. It 's rumored a Norwegian-American captain had bought the fi gurehead just before thi s in 1957. The figurehead is not in Finland or South Africa. Could it have found its way to America? Contact: T. Graham, SA Maritime Museum, PO Box 645, Cape Town 8000, South Africa. The sea voyage by Briti sh merchant explorer Stamford Raffles from India which culminated in the founding of SingaporeonJanuary28, 1819, involved a fleet of eight ships. T . Kannu , Curator of the Maritime Museum , Sentosa, is seeking information on these ships, particularly the merchant ship Indiana, the vessel Raffles arrived on. Kannu has found references to a number of vessels named the Indiana, but is still mi ssing detail s. Readers who have information should write The Curator, Maritime Museum , Sentosa, Port of Singapore Authority , PO Box 300, PSA Building Post Office, Singapore 9111. D
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