Sea History 063 - Autumn 1992

No. 63

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

AUTUMN 1992

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

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SEA HISTORY CONTENTS

SEA HJSTORY is published q uarterly by the Nationa l Maritime Hi storica l Society, Charles Point, PO Box 68, Peekski ll NY 10566. Second c lass postage paid at Peeksk ill NY 10566 and additional mailing offices. COPYRJGHT © 1992 by the National Maritime Hi storica l Society. Tel: 914 737-7878.

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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sea Hi story, Charles Point, PO Box 68 , Peekskill NY 10566.

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DECK LOG

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18 MEMBERSHIP is invited. Plankowner $10,000; Benefactor $5 ,000; Afterguard $2,500; Sponsor $ I ,000; Donor $500; Patron $250; Friend $ I00; Contributor $50; Fam il y $40; Regular $30; Student or Retired $ 15. All members outs ide the USA please add$ I 0 for postage. SEA HISTORY is sent to all members. Individual copies cost $3.75.

OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Acting Chairman , Alan G. Choate; Vice Chairmen , James Ean, Richardo Lopes , Edward G. Zelinsky; President & Secretary, Peter Stanford; Vice President, Norma Stanford; Treasurer, Nancy Pouch; Trustees, Karl Kortum , George Lamb, Brian A. McAllister, Nancy Pouch , Ludwig K. Rubinsky, Marshall Streibert , Sam uel Thompson. Chairman Emeri-

tus, Karl Kortum

AUTUMN 1992

20 24 28 30 34 36

LETIERS MISSION: LAUNCHING THE MARITIME EDUCATION INITIATIVE, PART II , Justine M. Ahlstrom REDISCOVERING COLUMBUS: SAIL ON, COLUMBUS! Peter Stanford RADEAU BELOW: ON THE FLOOR OF LAKE GEORGE SINCE 1758NORTH AMERICA ' S OLDEST INTACT WARSHIP, Russell Bellico THE GUARDIAN OF SAINT GEORGE REEF: AMERICA'S COSTLIEST LIGHTHOUSE, Donald Sutherland MARINE ART: LOOKING AT LIGHTHOUSES, Norma Stanford MARINE ART NEWS SEAPORT EXPERIENCE: "THE ORANGE FEELING"-MARITIME TRAVEL IN THE NETHERLANDS, Kevin Haydon TALL SHIP TALES: THE BOSTON-LIVERPOOL RACE 1992, AST A'S NEWPORT 1992 RALLY, KRUZENSHTERN ' S CAPTAIN REFLECTS SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS : USS CELEBRATES 50TH ANNIVERSARY, MONTEREY'S NEW MUSEUM, THE QUEEN MARY' S FUTURE IN QUESTION

42 REVIEWS

OVERSEERS: Charles F. Adams , Townsend Hornor, George Lamb, Clifford D. Ma ll ory, J. William Middendorf, ll ,John G . Rogers, John Stobart ADVISORS: Co-Chairmen, Frank 0. Braynard, Melbourne Smith; D.K. Abbass, Raymond Aker, George F. Bass, Francis E. Bowker, Oswald L. Brett, David Brink, William M . Doerflinger, John S. Ewald, Joseph L. Farr, T imothy G. Foote, Thomas Gillmer, Richard Goold-Adams, Walter J. Handelman, Steven A. Hyman, Conrad Mil ster, Edward D. Muhlfeld, William G . Muller, David E. Perkins, Richard Rath , Nancy Hughes Richardson, T imothy J. Runyan , George Salley, Ralph L. Snow, Edouard A. Stackpo le, John Stobart, A lbe rt Swanson, Shannon J. Wall , Raymond E. Wallace, Robert A. Weinstein, Thomas Well s, Charles Wittholz AMERICAN SHIP TRUST: Chairman, Karl Kortum; F. Bri ggs Dalzell , William G. Muller, Richard Rath , Melbourne Smith, Peter Stanfo rd , Edward G. Zelinsky SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor, Peter Stanford ; Managing Editor, Norma Stanford; Associate Editor, Kevin Haydon ; Curator/Assistant Editor, Justine Ah lstrom ; Accounting, Joseph Cacciola; Membership Secretary, Patricia Anstett; Membership Assistants, Bridget Hunt , Grace Zerell a; Assistant to the President, Thomasina Ross ADVERTI SING: Telephone 9 14 737-7878.

COVER: In Mr. Ryan 's haunting image of the Cape Elizabeth li ghthou se, one can feel the salty mist gathering toward night and imagine the relief the mariner feels seeing its confident beams cut through the dusk. This is one of a series of di stingui shed lighthouse paintings reviewed on pages 24-26.

Join the National Maritime Historical Society today ... and help save America's seafaring heritage for tomorrow.

We bring to life America 's seafaring which works to save ships of historic past through research, archaeologi- . i m portance. Membership in the Socal ex peditions and ship preserciety is only $30 a year. As a memvation efforts. We work with ber of NMHS , yo u' ll receive Sea museums, historians and sail History four times a year, as well training groups on these efforts as other reports and notices of and report on these activities in annual and other meetings. our quarterly journal Sea History.

Wearealso theAmericanShipTrust, Come aboard with us today!

To: National Maritime Historical Society, PO Box 68, Peekskill, NY 10566 Yes, I want to he lp. I understand that my contribution goes to help the work of the Society and that I'll be kept informed by receiving SEA lllSTORY quarterly. Please enroll me as:

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DECK LOG

LETTERS

Lighthouses fit so naturally into the coastal scene that some of us only began thinking about them when they became outmoded in the age of radar and loran and the Coast Guard started closing them down . One by one, as the lights went out, citizens formed organizations to save them.

A distinguished journal, The Keeper' s Log,* records the efforts of these dedicated people and explores the lore of the lighthouse keepers' lives. One thing that impresses the neophyte like myself is the extraordinary variety of the lighthouse experience. To serve their purposes, some lighthouses are built like silos on placid hillside farms. Others stand like fortress towers on rocks assaulted by the sea. In this issue we look at the difficulties of building and serving one such light, the West Coast's St. George Reef Light.

And in the Marine Art section, some first-class artists give us their vision of the lighthouse phenomenon, in pictures that make it memorably clear that there is more to lighthouses than bricks and mortar. One comes to see a lighthouse as a statement of order and rationality in the chaos of a stormy night at sea. Lighthouses bring the stars we sail by right down into the tumult of our business in sometimes angry waters. They help us win through with their serene certitude of what they are and what they 're there for.

Lighting the Streets In this issue also we report further on the Maritime Education Initiative, our effort to bring light and confidence and the serenity that comes from real achievement to the streets and school hallways of our troubled cities today.

And dedicated teachers are successfully searching out new ways to achieve these things , as you'll read in our report.

They use the challenge and, yes, the wonder of seafaring to break into young people ' s minds and open them to the most important voyage a person can make-the voyage to find oneself in the world and in the stream of history.

For the human species does not make its way well through life by hunching in its shell like a turtle. It wins through by venturing bravely, by growing in wisdom , by widening its experience of the world and its fellow human beings and other creatures. The harbor artist John Noble said once, " At sea the wonders of the deep come up to look at you." You have to be out there to meet them. PS

Maritime Education Initiative I read your article on the Maritime Education Initiative with great interest. I like very much Walter Cronkite ' s emphasis on the need for instilling discipline in young people today. The examples you cite of creative teachers inspiring their students renews one ' s hope that the morass that passes for much of modem education can sometimes be surmounted.

Are there any examples of teachers in this area, perhaps working with the Mariners' Museum, doing this kind of thing? I'll look forward to your second article on this encouraging project.

* To subscribe send $25 to The Keeper's Log, US Lighthouse Society,244 KearnySt., San Francisco CA 94108.

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DR. J. DOUGLAS SMITH

Director, Educational Administration and Visitor Services Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Williamsburg, Virginia

not know or understand the past, and are unaware or uncertain of the global relationships around them, it is difficult for them to comprehend, analyze and appreciate how events will affect their lives.

MURRAY L. CARROLL Anacortes, Washington Maritime exploration and discovery has fascinated me since childhood. Seeing the MGM reproduction of the Bounty in San Pedro Harbor when I was 13 in high school took on a much greater reality when I learned that the infamous William Bligh was the navigator and cartographer for most of the voyages of discovery for Captain Cook. We have too little "sea history" in the schools of our major port cities.

JOHN BADGLEY

San Rafael, California I would firstly like to thank you for the great day I had while on board the John F. Kennedy viewing OpSail '92. The viewing was perfect and a sight well worth remembering.

Secondly, I would like to commend you for your efforts in starting a Maritime Education Initiative. I thought you might be interested to know that the Propeller Club conducts a somewhat similar program through its Adopt-AShip program. The Adopt-A-Ship program currently operates in some 230 elementary school classrooms throughout the country and permits direct interface between captains and crews of US flag vessels, and elementary school classes. The program has been a spectacular success and currently has a long waiting list of classroom groups eager to participate.

KENNETH A. WHEELER National President, The Propeller Club of the United States As a former university teacher of international relations and diplomatic history , I can testify to the validity of Walter Cronkite's article (SH 61), and to the need for improved history instruction in our schools. Unfortunately, geography is in much the same state. Students not only can 'ttell you what century the Civil War was fought in, but they cannot tell you where, and if you show them a map to assist them, they cannot read it. Somewhere in the broad spectrum of "social sciences," as currently taught in most primary and secondary schools, the fundamentals of both history and geography have been lost. When students do

Thank you for the complimentary copy of Sea History. It was an unexpected bonus to my membership in the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I am very interested in your Maritime Education Initiative. This fall I will be doing my student teaching in Bellingham, Washington. I will be teaching history and social studies on the high school level. Your issue on the Pacific Northwest will be of great use to me in my work this next year. Please send me the Maritime Initiative Packet. Thank you.

BARBARA MARTIN-CAYA

Bellingham, Washington Keep On With the Regina I wholeheartedly disagree with Captain Doug Nemeth's assessment of the barkentine Regina Maris given in his letter to Sea History in the Summer issue.

I sailed with the captain in 1985 aboard the schooner Mistress out of Camden, Maine, and again in 1987 on the Rachael and Ebenezer out of Greenport, Long Island. He is one of the finest windjammer skippers on the East Coast, but I can't accept his recommendation to scuttle the Regina Maris. As a member ofNMHS, I support the Lettie G. Howard and Ernestina, as well as the Regina Maris, and I'm retired on a fixed income!

Captain Nemeth sailed with the vessel in 1983 and she leaked-so isn't that what restoration is all about?

DONALD SUTHERLAND

Astoria, New York Using Sail in a Steam Navy I note that in the review of Armored SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

..

Ships: The Ships, Their Settings and the Ascendancy That They Sustained for 80 Years (SH 57) you seem to consider that HMS Warrior "only" needed her sails for "sufficient cruising range with her early, inefficient engines." The captains of the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (ex-USS Merrimack) would have probably have committed murder for a power plant of anywhere near her standard (she did 14.3 kn on one full load trial).

As your Civil War showed, close blockade was still practical in the 1860s, and it proved vital at both strategic and operational levels (to use modem terminology), just as it had in the Napoleonic Wars. This meant that range and endurance were critical, as vessels could be expected to remain on station for weeks at a time, and would need to conserve coal for any tactical action, which would obviously be conducted under power.

Not until the USN developed underway replenishment for the Pacific war (the RN being very backward in this respect), was a steam fleet able to recover the endurance enjoyed by the sailing navies.

Furthermore, the post-1945 revolution in naval technology (computers, SATCOMS, data links, missiles, electronic warfare, etc.) has made 1990s sailors more sensitive towards our Victorian ancestors and their problems in coping with the introduction of steam, shell, and armour, etc. They may not have been supermen, but their memoirs and diaries show that many of them were very sharp indeed. The biggest problem was, in many cases, not the conservative dinosaur, but the instant expert. The loss of HMS Captain (6 Sept. 1870), with some 500 men, should have been the ultimate monument to the dangers of amateur meddling by politicians and press, however, TV has given such pundits an even larger, and more credulous, audience.

FRANK SCOTI, LT. CDR. (RN)

Bognor Regis, Sussex, England

Mickey Mouse watch. However, using the generally accepted definition, this thing is not a chronometer.

JAMES P. CONNOR J.P. Connor and Company Marine Chronometers Devon, Pennsylvania

We hope our members understand that the Franklin Mint replicas of navigational instruments are intended for display, not for functional use. We'll spell this out better in thefuture.-ED.

When is a Brig Hermaphrodite?

This seems the perfect opportunity to get a question answered that I have wondered about for a long time. What is the difference between an hermaphrodite brig and a brigantine? In your Sea History 62, in the article "Op Sail '92 by way of Cape Hom," S¢renla.rsen is described as the former and Eye of the Wind as the latter. There's a picture of both of them on page 20. I would have called Eye of the Wind a brig. Can you enlighten me as to the fine points of these distinctions?

C. A. PHILLIPPE VON HEMERT Friendship, Maine

We'll try: A brigantine has a fore-andaft mainsail and does not carry a square main at all, but does have squares on both masts. An hermaphrodite brig is square-rigged on the foremast andforeand-aft on the main. In casual usage, the word brigantine has come to mean squares on theforemast,fore-and-aft on the main, and vessels square-rigged on both masts are called brigs, regardless.

Purists say a brig must be completely square-rigged on both masts to be a brig--unless she's a snow, which is completely square-rigged on both masts but also carries a fore-and-aft main (bigger than the usual spanker) on a separate pole mast stepped immediately abaft the mainmast.-ED.

Watch that Clock!

QUERIES

One of my good customers found a brochure from the Franklin Mint in his mail, along with a letter from you extolling the virtues of the "precision crafted chronometer" being offered to members of NMHS. He was offended and sent the whole batch of papers down to me with the comment: "How can they get off calling this thing a chronometer?"

From an etymological standpoint, I guess you could do so, since it does measure time, but then again, so does a

Marine artist Perry Stirling and I are collaborating on a book about the exploits of tugboats during the Second World War. The book is intended to be a collection of short stories depicting particular events (rescue, salvage, battle, towing assignment, etc.). I would be grateful if any readers can assist. What is needed are the facts about a particular event or situation: name of boat; people involved; dates; places; etc. Also, any photos of vessels, people, or a particular

SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

place or event would be very helpful.

Please write William Henry at 100 E. Union Avenue, Passaic NJ 07055.

The Navy Museum is seeking a photograph of the USS Carnation. The ship was a screw tug built in 1863 as the Ajax.

The Navy purchased the ship, and it was commissioned 20 October 1863 under the new name of Carnation. Contact Edward M. Furgol, Curator, Naval Historical Center, Washington Navy Yard, Washington DC 20374-0571.

NMHS member Clifford Mancey is seeking information on the Garthpool, the last of the square riggers to carry the Red Ensign, wrecked in November 1929 on the Cape Verde Islands. Mr. Mancey's father-in-law was a member of the crew and he would appreciate hearing from anybody who served on the Garthpool.

Write to him at 14 Warren Lane, Friston, East Sussex BN200EL, England.

ERRATA NMHS member William Mullins brings to our attention an error in "Convoy Catastrophe" (SH62). The caption on page 15 referred to the S/S Pan Kraft as a tanker. The vessel was actually a freighter.

Geoffrey W. Fielding ofBaltimore points out that the Lusitania was torpedoed in May 1915, not in 1917 as stated in the review of The U-boat Wars in SH62.

Ray W. de Yarmin of Port Orchard, Washington (and others) point out that the man behind the pseudonym Alec Hudson was Jasper Holmes, not Jasper Ward as we had it. The University of Hawaii's Holmes Hall is named in his honor. He also wrote Undersea Victory, on submarine combat during WWII, and Double-Edge Secrets, depicting naval intelligence operations in the Pacific in WWII. • IJGHTHOUSES of AMERICA Full Color Note Cards &, Framed Lights Plus Htstorlcal Info on each Ugh tho use

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SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

NMHS MISSION:

Launching the Maritime Education Initiative, Part II

by Justine Ahlstrom This past summer, pursuing the goals of by the Rev. James R. Whittemore, the Maritime Education Initiative, the Former Director, Seamen's Church National Maritime Historical Society Institute of New York and New Jersey joined New York State's Imagination Celebration, the Kennedy Center's stateFather Whittemore gave the invocation wide arts-in-education program, to sponat the launching of the Maritime Edu- sor "Scholarships at Sea." This gave cation Initiative at the Yankee Clipper three students and their teachers a unique in South Street Seaport, New York, on opportunity to go to sea aboard the square Maritime Day, 22May1992. His words riggers "HMS" Rose and USCG Eagle.

Dr. Kathy Abbass, NMHS's volunwere felt by those present to encompass the whole spirit and purpose of the teer Curator-at-Large, worked with Dr. Initiative. By his kind permission they Stephen Partisano, then Director of New York 's Imagination Celebration, to arare reproduced here as he gave them. range for two students, Nicole Scott of Eternal God, Creator of the sea and Pro- Spring Valley and Jonathan Pappas of tector of those who sail upon it, we North Massapequa, and two teachers, remember today the generations of those Leonard London and Arlene Rhodes, to whose strength, courage and wisdom join Captain David Wood and Maritime made our city a great port and our nation Education Initiative Chairman Walter a great nation. We give You thanks for Cronkite aboard the Eagle for her pasthe curiosity which has always led people sage from New York to Boston, July 7to leave the familiar surroundings of 11 . The participants kept logs of their their youth for parts unknown , and we maritime ex perience, returning home thank You for the testimony they have with vivid memories of their voyaging left behind in story arid song, in artifact which they are sharing with classmates, and legend. Bind us to those brave spirits students, friends and colleagues. of ages past, that they may instruct and During her passage on the Eagle, guide us in the adventurous journeys we Arlene Rhodes found that the experience must make in our own age. May we grow enabled the young people to "test themin understanding and respect for them selves in a safe and healthy environment. and their descendants of all nations, that These are the kinds of experiences that thi s ever-smaller world may become a build confidence in young people. They world of peace and justice for all people. learn a lot about life and themselves."

Bless this Society and its Mari time EduShe added, "I am a teacher. When cation Initiative, bless us and all who travel young people work hard and are successon landor seaorair, and us to the purposes ful in reaching their goals, I am thrilled." for which you have called us. Amen .

For Leonard London the voyage was Rev. Whittemore retired from service "a reinforcement of my faith in young effective 1 October. He remains a mem- people. (I wish the media would focus ber ofthe Maritime Education Initiative, more on this kind of youngster.)" And he in which his role has been to lift our eyes concluded: "I want to bring what I'm to wider horizons, and encourage us to learnin g and experiencing into my get deeper into the work at hand. school. " Nicole Scott (now a high school senior) wrote: "Yo u could sense the camaraderie between the cadets as they hoi sted the sails to catch the wind. I would love to spend my summer on the Eagle. Everyone has a job to do, and they know where to be every minute. Although I may not be the biggest defender of complete order, the sense of responsibility would be fulfilling. " Jonathan Pappas (now also a senior) remembered the majesty of the sea at night, when "you could see shooting stars all over the sky." Pappas's homeRev. James Whittemore stands before a portrait town newspaper, The Massapequa ObofRev.ArchibaldMansfield,anearlierdirector server, reported that "the trip ended as of the Seamen's Church Institute who led the the Eagle led the entire Operation Sail fight to break the ring ofcrimps who preyed on up the Charles River into Boston. Pappas seamen in the early years of this century.

"Bind Us to Those Brave Spirits"

8

did not expect the welcome that was waiting for them when they arrived.

'There were thousands of people on each side of the Charles River,' he said. 'Boston was tall ship crazy. People were cheering and cannons were being shot off."'

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1 Nicole Scott and Jonathan Pappas , at top, go aloft aboard the Eagle.

Hunting Whales-in East Harlem Paul Pennoyer reports another kind of venture in an inner-city school. When he joined the staff of New York City's East Harlem Maritime School to teach marine biology, he discovered it was maritime in name only. Pennoyer had served as mate aboard the barkentine Regina Maris in her deepwater voyages studying the ways of whales under the late Dr. George Nichols. With this experience, he turned the situation at EHMS around, gradually building maritime subjects back into the curriculum.

He began after-school programs at the SUNY Maritime College at Fort Schuyler with the support of President Admiral Floyd H. Miller. Two years later, Pennoyer was able to intensify the program with classroom instruction and hands-on experience one day each week aboard the Empire State at Fort Schuyler.

When the Board of Education could not fund this program, the teacher founded the non-profit Project Sail, Inc. , to raise funds . Currently, the students take courses in navigation , water safety, marlinspike seamanship and boat-building, and learn to row using 27-foot monomoy lifeboats in the East River.

On the water, math, science and navigation become real; they are necessary to survival. On the water, team work, discipline, leadership skills and self-esSEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

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Sail Martha's Vineyard!

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Connecticut teachers learn to tie knots at Mystic's "Voyages In Learning."

teem are also, suddenly, necessary to survival. "While we do not expect most of our students to choose a sailor' s life," says Pennoyer, "we do feel that young people who discover their worth in that challenging environment will carry a confidence and an open mind toward learning through their lives."

Perhaps Arlene Rhodes spoke for Pennoyer and other teachers when she asked: "What else can we do to foster an awareness and an appreciation of the sea and the history of man's travels on it?"

Voyages in Learning Surely it would be good, as a first step, if we could develop more teachers like Paul Pennoyer. Jan Larson, Supervisor of School Programs at Mystic Seaport Museum, has created a fun , intensive, resource-rich program to do just that, introducing teachers to the depth and possibilities of maritime history and forging links between schools and museums.

She launched "Voyages In Learning" with thi s premise: "You can give a person a fish and feed him for a day or you can teach a person to fi sh and feed him for a lifetime."

Her goals are "first, to demonstrate the significance of America 's relation to the sea and the richness of our maritime heritage, second, to enable teachers to use mu seums and museum teaching methods with confidence and enthusiasm and, finally, to build partnerships between classroom teachers and museum educators.

"All of these goals are intertwined," Larson points out, "and have something built into them that looks to the future. " There is a balancing act between what teachers and museum educators expect out of the experiences: "While staff may want to instill skills and awareness and content, teachers need fi sh and they need it for Monday , thank you very much."

Larson 's answer to this challenge? "The real secret, the real goal, is to teach that teacher to love fi sh."

"Voyages In Leaming" is certainly the place to learn to love fish. After five SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

days of discovery at Mystic Seaport, teachers of fourth through twelfth graders return home armed with the tools they need to create lesson plans designed for their own students.

The experience begins over a weekend in October when 20 to 25 teachers gather in Mystic to meet the staff and initiate the partnership of museum and classroom educators. They spend Saturday morning participating in hands-on tours and programs in exhibits throughout the village. The afternoon is devoted to lectures on history, literature and art, and, often, a venture into singing sea chanties. On Sunday, the museum charters a schooner and the whole group goes to sea.

This crash course in the whole experience of sailing is followed-up by additional visits in November and January when the teachers return to get involved in the nitty-gritty of interpreting material culture.

Once the teachers have this under their belts, Larson gives them an assignment-to return in February with lesson plans and a bibliography created out of their brief immersion in maritime history . The teachers share their ideas, critique each other's presentations and discuss student responses. They are also encouraged to return and use the resources of the museum and the library.

Jan Larson reports: 'T m trying really hard to teach them how to fi sh, but at the same time, any kind of material that the museum has already developed-audio programs, videos-I always wantto give them everything I can of that." To this end, she wants to edit and publish the best of the lesson plans.

She gives this advice to anyone designing such a program: "Build in a follow-up, don ' t make it a one-night stand, keep going back- and bring in the kids!"

To be continued

As summer ended, a remarkable committee devoted to bringing a vital island heritage to life went out for a sail with Captain Robert Douglas in his great topsail schooner Shenandoah to discuss the first year of Sail Martha 's Vineyard.

Nancy Hoffman conceived this effort while running theNathan Mayhew Seminars on Martha's Vineyard, the island that breasts the open Atlantic south of Cape Cod. As she ex plains it, she began to focus on curricula to meet the needs of the island community, and this led to an effort to develop the maritime traditions of the island, including those of the Portuguese who came to man the fishing fleet and of the Wampanoag Indians who had been there since time out of mind.

So, in this past summer of the tall s hip s in American waters, Nancy Hoffman went to work with Joe Hall , manager of the Black Dog Tavern , to round up a committee that would bring great ships to the island in a re-enactment of the great days of sail when whaling ships from the far comers of the world , coasting schooners and fishing smacks filled Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds with tall masts and broad canvas. NMHS stalwart Ralph Packer went to work to link up with the ships. He was joined by Bob Douglas of Shenandoah, NMHS Hon. Trustee Tom Hale and other Vineyard sailing people. Maritime Initiative Chairman Walter Cronkite became Honorary Chairman of the effort.

As a result, the barkentine Gazela of Philadelphia, formerly of the Portuguese Grand Banks fishing fleet, came to the Vineyard. So did Denmark 's lovely full rigger Danmark, the US Coast Guard's bark Eagle, and the frigate replica "HMS" Rose, among others. All four of the island 's harbors were kept busy with small craft ferry ing people ashore, and a grand cookout was held on the beach at Menemsha Bight. This was good for the ships-several of which plan to come by again next yearand for the islanders whose horizons were broadened by the ships and their people.

The whole heritage of the island, and its whole resource in people, was part of these observances, along with the summer people and yachtsmen who visit the Vineyard. Plans are now taking shape for classroom and outdoor programs next year, continuing this year's good beginning.

We will report further in these pages. PS

*****

Let us hear from you, your thoughts and experiences. We' re going to publish reader comments. Send $20 to receive the Maritime Education Packet.

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11

REDISCOVERING COLUMBUS, PART VIII:

Sail On, Colu01bus!

by Peter "Lift up your hearts!" wrote the intellectual man-about-town Peter Martyr, relaying news of Columbus's voyage to his fellow humanists in Italy in the spring of 1493. "Oh happy deed," he ran on, "that under the patronage of my King and Queen the disclosure has begun of what was hidden from the first creation of the world!" The ecstatic tone of this communication from a sophisticated frequenter of the royal court of Ferdinand and Isabella reflects the general reaction of the educated community of the day . Some hailed it as the greatest event since the birth of Christ.

And there was no question about it: the triumph of opening what Columbus later called "another world" on the far side of the Ocean Sea was indeed his; just as the ridicule and obloquy he had encountered almost everywhere during the preceding years had also been his .

The support of the Catholic Sovereigns (as Ferdinand and Isabella were universally called) was forthcoming speedily and in abundance for Columbus's second voyage. With a fleet of 17 ships and perhaps 1300 men, he_set sail from Cadiz on September 25, 1493,just over six months after his return from the first voyage he had set out on the year before, with some 90 men in 3 ships. This was the high point of his sea career, leading a great fleet in the gallant Nina, the caravel that had brought him safely home after his flagship Santa Maria was wrecked in the Caribbean_ His essential mi ssion had been accomplished in that transatlantic voyage of 1492, however. He was to make three more voyages, opening to European ken the whole chain of islands that fence in the Caribbean, and considerable stretches of the coasts of Central and South America. But he could not control the proud hidalgos he took with him , and he was to end up shut out of the "Enterprise of the Indies," which he had launched with such dedicated effort.

The objectives of the second voyage, 1493-4, were: first, to convert the natives to Christianity; second, to establish a going-concern colony in Hispaniola, where he had left a fort built with the Santa Maria's timbers and manned by so me 90 men . And, finally, he was to explore Cuba, which in the confused geography of the day was thought possibly to be the Golden Chersonese, or Malaya, beyond which lay India. European ships, it must be remembered , had not yet sailed those waters; Vasco da Gama was to arrive on the western coast of India only five years later, in 1498 , coming from Portugal by sailing around the southern tip of Africa.

Within these guidelines Columbus was free to shape his own itinerary, and he decided to make land at a point further south and east than Hispaniola, where the Indians had told him there were further islands. He made his landfall on Dominica, then followed the island chain north and west, meeting some resistance from the war-like Caribs as he went. When he reached Hispaniola he found the fort he had built in ruins. The seemingly biddable natives had turned on the Spanish and killed every one. From his old friend the chieftain Guacanagarf and others, he learned that the Spanish had gone wild, roaming the island and raping and looting where they went. The tough cacique in the central highlands wiped out the intruders and then descended on the coastal fort and killed everyone there.

Columbus accepted the truth of the Indian account and forbade any reprisals, though there were those in the fleet who called for Indian blood. He went on to found a new trading post and colony back to the eastward on the north coast of Hispaniola, 12

Stanford naming the new city Isabela after the queen .

Isabela was laid out as a classic Spanish city with central plaza, church and governor's palace, but it was poorly sited and without benefit of the scouting and development of relations with the Indians that had been expected from the original fortress settlement. Nothing seemed to go right. Some gold and native plants were sent back-with 26 Indian slaves, the beginning of a sorry traffic that usually ended tragically for the Indians involved. The Queen was to protest the slave traffic, but it continued. Slaves were the one valuable commodity, besides the trickle of gold, that the Spanish could get out of the islands in the early years. Ultimately, the encomienda system grew up, under which Spanish lordlings took possession not only ofland, but also of the people living on it, a harsh version of the medieval system oflandholding in Europe, under which lords of the manors held land and those who worked the land were bound to the lord 's service, although they were not actually owned by the lord.

The hidalgos who came to the islands were accustomed to rule from the saddle, and they were a pretty rough lot. They scorned Columbus's attempts to govern them; despite his titles of Viceroy and Admiral of the Ocean Sea, he was just a seaman in their eyes, and Genoese at that. Bishop Las Casas, who admired Columbus but was highly critical of his dealings with the native peoples, later observed that the Archangel Gabriel would have had his hands full trying to govern these early settlers of Hispaniola.

The third part of Columbus's charge, to explore further, was the one he felt most at home with, and he pushed on up the south coast of Cuba in the Nina with two smaller consorts, undoubtedly glad to be rid of the big fleet, which returned to Spain, and of the quarrelsome hidalgos left to work things out at Isabela. Finding a warm reception for the "men from the sky" in Cuba, but none of the gold he had to find to justify the voyage, he stood off for Jamaica-but there was no gold there, and there was some sharp fighting with the natives, as there had been earlier in the Lesser Antilles to the eastward. The flotilla returned to Cuba, working its way to a point just short of the western end of the island. Columbus had thoughts of pushing on, into what he believed was the Gulf of Siam (remembering undoubtedly that that is how Marco Polo returned from China), so intending to complete his voyage by sailing around the world.

The men would have none of this, so, after securing a deposition signed by all hands that Cuba was part of a continent and no island (a fiction no one seemed to have believed), Columbus beat his weary way back to Isabela and set about subduing Hispaniola, while simultaneously fending off threats of revolt by the unruly colonists. It was a sad situationterrrible for the Indians, whose numbers were dwindling fast due to European diseases and their overlords' oppression, and not good for the Spanish either. As Columbus 's fellow countryman Michael Cuneo, who was with him on this voyage, put it, no one sowed grain unless forced to, because "no one wants to live in these countries."

By March 1496, after two years and four months in the islands, Columbus realized he'd better get back to Spain, where returning colonists were making trouble for him, and he set sail in the Nina, with a single consort. This time he did not follow the proven homeward route north about, but sailed to Guadeloupe down the island chain, and departed from there.

He battled headwinds as he shaped his course to the northeast, SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

Columbus was no bumbling fool . ... Take a look at his voyaging. He was a visionary, but also one of the great navigators of all time and a seaman of remarkable resolve and skills. finally picking up the westerlies when he reached the Azores, to arrive in Cadiz in June after a two-month passage.

Another World The second voyage was distinctly not a success: China had not been found, and the Spanish colony on Hispaniola had not produced much gold or anything else but discord and misery.

Nonetheless, Columbus was able to talk the Catholic Sovereigns into a third voyage and set sail for Hispaniola in January 1498. Samuel Eliot Morison feels that the court was stimulated to tum Columbus loose again because of the outfitting of Vasco da Gama's voyage in Portugal, and Cabot's in England.

Disappointing as the Americas had proved, it behooved Spain to secure her foothold and explore further for more rewarding lands. Accordingly, Columbus shaped his course well to the south, and encountered what he recognized to be a new continent, another world ("otro mondo") behind the island of Trinidad. This made him rejoice. He prophetically foretold that the wealth of the new land would make Spain the leading power of Europe.

But, on this voyage we begin to see Columbus's grip on reality slipping; he has visions and believes the land he has come upon borders not on China but on Paradise. And from this voyage he returned in chains. He had gathered family and friends around him, people he could trust like his boyhood chum Cuneo, and his two brothers Bartholemew and Diegobut he could not govern Hispaniola effectively, and a new governor, Francisco de Bobadilla, was sent out with full authority to clean up the mess. The three Columbus brothers were arrested and sent home under guard. Columbus refused to take off his fetters until they were removed by the sovereigns under whose authority they had been put on him. He was received at court and consoled, but while the sovereigns let him retain his titles of Viceroy and Admiral, he was never trusted with governing authority again.

But, they did authorize him to go on a fourth voyage. In this voyage, which lasted 1502-4, Columbus explored much of the coast of Central America, and Indians ' tales of a great sea across the hills to the westward confirmed him in his belief that he was on the Malay Peninsula, with the Gulf of Siam and India on the other side. Weather conditions were atrocious, there was much exhausting work driving the ships to windward through rain and storm, and finally the ships themselves began to fail, their planking eaten through by the shipworm which flourishes in these tropical seas.

Finally, Columbus beached his two surviving ships on the north coast of Jamaica, unable to go further. There he stayed for one terrible year, mastering difficulties with the Indians and mutinies among the men (led by the hidalgos who were sailing with him) before at last the Spanish authorities in Hispaniola sent a ship for him and he came home again to Spain, broken in health but defiant in spirit. His protectress Queen Isabella died three weeks after his return; the King, understandably in view of the administrative record, wanted nothing more to do with him. His income from the new lands was paid to him, making him a wealthy man (though not on the scale he felt he was entitled to); his two sons occupied favored positions at court-but all this was not enough. He died on 20 May 1506 in the inland town of Valladolid, with his family by him, resigned, perhaps, but not content. His death passed unnoticed. The world, including the New World he had discovered, had new concerns and had virtually forgotten him in the thirteen years since his return in triumph from his fust, epochal voyage.

SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

It was not clear to anyone just what lands Columbus and those who sailed in his wake had come upon. Peter Martyr, while admiring Columbus's feat, did not share his belief that the islands he had sailed through were in the China Seas. He believed the world to be much larger than Columbus thought and, of course, he was right. But other seasoned geographers and navigators shared Col um bus's view, and for years to come maps were published showing the developing coastlines of the Americas as joining up with the Asian landmass on whose fringes Columbus believed he had been sailing. Vicente Yafiez Pinzon and Amerigo Vespucci-for whom the Americas were named-sailed their important follow-up voyages in that belief.

Whatever the shape of the lands on the far side of the Ocean Sea, the Spanish moved swiftly to have their claim to them confirmed, on the same exclusive basis that the Portuguese had successfully claimed their discoveries south along the coast of Africa. Within weeks of Columbus's return, on May 3, 1493, Pope Alexander VI (who owed his office to Ferdinand and Isabella) had issued a papal bull dividing the world along a line drawn one hundred leagues (a little over 300 miles) west of the Azores. Lands discovered to the east of this line were to go to Portugal, lands to the west to Spain. A year later, in June 1494, the arrangement was confirmed in the Treaty of Tordesillas.

By then, the Portuguese had succeeded in pushing the line to 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands-which was to give them the right to Brazil.

These arrangements seem astounding to modem eyes: How could the world beyond the seas be divided between two nations sending forth ships from the Iberian Peninsula? But in the medieval scheme of things, with kings holding the only legitimate authority from God, through the hands of the Pope, it all made sense. And when in the next hundred years other maritime nations burst on this divinely ordained scenenotably the heretic English and Dutch-the reaction of the Spanish and Portuguese was one of genuine outrage.

Columbus and His World We 've seen enough of Columbus by now to get a pretty clear picture of the man in action, in his world, in his time. It is clear that the discourse of this 500th anniversary year of Columbus's great voyage has done much to obscure the realities of the man and the world he lived in, though some important new perspectives have been opened up. Let's clear the decks of ideologically oriented or merely noisy "protests" that do little to bring us closer to the person or his times. In brief, then: • Columbus was no bumbling fool, as has been claimed. Take a look at his voyaging. He was a visionary, but also one of the great navigators of all time and a seaman of remarkable resolve and skills.

• His world picture wasn't insane as has been represented. It was the picture people had of the world in his time, as shown by maps published in centers of learning. If he was crazy, then so was Toscanelli and other leading lights of the Italian Renaissance.

• He did not introduce war and slavery to the Americas. The gentle Taino he first encountered were systematically killed and enslaved by Caribs whom they feared far more than they feared the Spanish.

• The Spanish incursion was no "conquest of paradise."

Native peoples generally rushed forward to greet the Europeans and speedily adopted everything they could of their ways, tools and weapons.

13

â&#x20AC;˘ There was no intentional extermination of the native peoples, no genocide. The tragic decline of native peoples' population and culture resulting from the European encounter was due primarily to diseases the Europeans unwittingly carried with them, and secondarily to problems inherent in the encounter between people of widely disparate cultures, including the brutal abuse of power by the dominant intruders. â&#x20AC;˘ The Europeans brought with them brutality and butchery, but this was not new on the American scene. The Aztec empire crashed at the first onset of Spanish conquistadors partly because of the Spanish military capabilities, but in much larger degree because of the internal tensions of an empire held together by force-including the widespread use of torture and ritualized human sacrifice.

We simply have to face such basic facts, and learn to see both Indians and Europeans in the context of their times, if we are to arrive at any fair picture of the encounter, or learn anything of real value from it.

The Indian World The movement to recover and learn from native peoples' ways of life is important, indeed vital, if our species is to benefit from the full richness of its heritage as it seeks to shape its future. But we need to keep seeking the historical realities and truths of the situation. Marching around shouting slogans and obscenities and throwing rocks at each other-things which have actually happened in our centers oflearning in connection with the Columbus Quincentenary-seem more likely to produce retrograde movement than to contribute to the progress of mankind.

The great question is surely: What have we all learned together in the past five hundred years of life together in the Americas? The problems do not all come from the side of the protesters.

Pause a moment, and sit with me in the country home of an educated man. He speaks with hi s accustomed conviction: "The Indians have nothing to do with the Columbus story. You know that as well as I do. But I understand you've got to put them in, for political reasons. No, don ' t argue with me! I know you've got to do it. It's politics. Pure politics." Politics?

Perhaps, but not, perhaps, the kind meant by my interlocutor.

The politics involved here are not those of our petty squabbles, but of humankind's relation to the truths of its existence.

You can't pretend to know Columbus's story without knowing the Genoese story, which gives you the very earth his vision and his foibles sprang from, and the Spanish story, dominated in this time by conquistadors who leapt off their horses and onto sea chariots to seek new lands to conquer, once they had freed Spain from Moorish rule in the "Reconquista"; you can't know it fully without the story of the Arawak and Carib peoples whose world, blasted to smithereens by the European incursion, we are only coming to know today.

The very use of the term "discover" to describe what Columbus accomplished has been objected to on the grounds that the native peoples of the Americas didn't need to be "discovered" by Columbus or anyone else. They knew where they were already, the argument runs. There is justice in this and a point that needs to be made in establishing the humanity of the American Indians and the validity of their outlook on the world.

In what are perhaps the most important senses , the native peoples did indeed know where they were. They knew where they were in their familial communities. They knew where they were in relation to the earth and seas that sustained them , taking from their island soil and the surrounding waters just 14

what they needed. They avoided the highly questionable European assumption that these elements can be "owned" in a sense of possession that permits (and even encourages) pollution and absolute despoliation. Some European thinkers of the time observed and admired this non-proprietary attitude toward the integument of the planet we live on. We can view it with renewed respect today.

The native peoples knew also where they were in relation to the clouds, the great, billowy Trade Wind clouds that sail by across the skies above their islands- these they knew as the homes of the gods who governed the weather and the fortunes of humankind on its voyage through time.

This sense of place and purpose defined the Taino's lives, and such things about a people must be unconditionally respected.

But in a geographical sense, the native peoples Columbus encountered did not know where they were. They did not know what lay beyond the seas that lapped their shores. And in all the richness and variety of their different culturesAmerican Indians spoke many more different languages than Europeans-they did not know the full extent of the Americas their separate nations occupied, or how they came to the Americas thousands of years before the Europeans. These things had to await a more fully developed picture of the world and human history. And that picture has taken shape as a result of the Western European impulse to voyage and to learn- the impulse that launched Columbus on his voyages.

Toleration Is Not Enough Join me in another exchange, this time with a very great American historian, William H. McNeill. The whole human experience is his domain, from the beginnings of human consciousness and social organization to the present day , and on into coming centuries. Some people feel he is the greatest plower and explicator of these broad fields since Arnold Toynbee. But his philosophic framework seems better suited than Toynbee 's to accommodate such vital concepts as free will-a difficult concept to deal with under any conditions, and most difficult on a world scale, where individuality and individual initiative (which we know, or should know by now , to be vital to all historical process) is difficult to define or even perceive. McNeill's vision encompasses this- he makes you feel, for example, the wonder of the caveman 's world as perceived through his art, scratched onto a rock wall.

McNeill had come to deliver a talk on the effect of Columbus's voyage at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. His talk had been excellent. His early studies had been in epidemiology-the study of epidemic diseases and their role in human affairs. He was able to describe with authority the terrible and concussive effect of the diseases the Europeans spread among the Indians.

Both Europeans and native peoples believed at this time (and continued to believe for the next several hundred years) that diseases were literally acts of a god or of gods who inflicted them on people as punishment for their sins, or simply to enforce an unknowable divine purpose. Although Christ had never said anything quite like this , Christians believed it.

And, from their perspective, Indians believed it, too. This compounded the shock to native cultures, already reeling from the devaluation of a hard-won physical prowess, since a European with gun could ki II the most heroic and skilled spearthrower. Not only their heroes , but their gods were dying, and with them the purposes and meanings of their lives.

SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

Columbus's report to his sovereigns in 1493 was illustrated by this woodcut. The names he gave the islands are correct, but the castles are sheer fantasy-lhe first example of Europe's continuing attempt to imprint its images on the Americas.

McNeill recited these dire effects of the encounter with feeling. "But," he said, "if we are to ask the question, was the Columbus voyage a good thing for mankind, we really have to answer yes, it was. The encounter was going to come, anyway.

Do we really think it should never have happened, that native peoples should, or even could, be shut away from all contact with the rest of humanity?"

And there is a contradiction, he suggested, in reading books and taking medicines and traveling about in automobiles, if we believe that the culture that led to the development of these things should never have been allowed in the Americas.

Mankind has progressed, he concluded, and the encounter of the European and native peoples in the Americas was a step forward in human progress.

I rose to ask if that were really a satisfactory summary.

Wasn't it too remote from the event? Surely what happened to the people in the process was important-surely we had something to learn from that experience?

McNeill pondered the question . He began musing about it aloud. Of course the native peoples' experience mattered, and the rest of humanity had things to learn from their cultures and from our experience living together in the Americas for the past half millennium. Indeed, he said, straightening up at the podium, he felt that the most important thing we had to learn going into the 21st century was toleration, toleration of diversity of values, beliefs and ways of doing things-diversity among the peoples of the world.

I still felt something was missing. Recklessly, I stood up again and said: "Not toleration, Professor-not toleration, but celebration."

McNeill smiled. "All right, celebration," he said. "I agree, we're going to have to recognize positive value in our differences-to celebrate them. Toleration isn ' t enough."

That finally seemed the most important thing to be learned.

Sail on, Columbus!

What of Columbus and his mission? Now that we 've sailed with him, I think we can agree that he was not what one would ordinarily call a wicked person. He was not a hater of people of other races, or a deliberate despoiler of land and peoples. In extending Spanish conquest into the Americas, he believed that he was extending civilization and Christianity. He felt he was saving native peoples from darkness, while using the conquered land for the advancement of Spain and the glory of God. We may deplore all this, but in doing so, we had better recognize that we in our time are not doing very well with the problems of people of advanced or more developed cultures coming into contact with those of less developed cultures.

Throughout the world, and, indeed, in American cities today, we see the problems of the encounter between peoples of different cultures, or at different levels of education, opportunities and development-and they remain unresolved.

Let's get off our high horses, we conquistadors of a later age, and come to look at Columbus as a human being, on a level ground with ourselves. What do we find? A difficult person , surely-the record is strewn with broken friendships. A vainglorious person, much attached to wealth and rank, fiercely defensive of what he felt to be his rights. And willful, too, a fact that led him into opportunistic dealings to get his way. But, withal, a person of principle. A person of courage and persistence in adversity. A person of steadfast beliefs and boyish enthusiasms, including quick sympathies for people of quite different background, like his great friend the chief Guacanagari SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

in Hispaniola, whose company he clearly prized and whom he trusted like a brother.

Once he wrote that his critics should have stood on the decks he stood on; and it is true, I believe, that you have to give sea room to a person who dares and does things in the world.

He was no bystander nor idle hanger-on . His name lives, good or bad, as a man of action, a doer of deeds .

As his son Ferdinand remarked, he fulfilled the spacious prophecy of the Roman philosopher Seneca: "An age will come after many years when the Ocean will loose the chains of things and a huge land lie revealed; when Ti phys will disclose new worlds and Thule no more be the ultimate."

It was no small thing when mankind finally "loosed the chain of things" and broke out into the ocean world. Columbus 's voyage of 1492 did that, more surely and completely than any voyage in the story of humankind.

But set aside the glory of the achievement, and listen to these quiet words Columbus wrote about himself: "From a very small age, I went sailing upon the sea, which very occupation inclines all who follow it to wish to learn the secrets of the world."

In God 's wide creation, there are few higher purposes than this, surely-to discover the unknown, to push outward the boundaries of mankind 's understanding of its world.

Sail on, Columbus! Your heritage is important to mankind in its continuing voyage. â&#x20AC;˘

The next issue of Sea History will evaluate the literature ofthe Columbus Quincentenary, and will include opinions pro and con on the views expressed in this narrative and other recent writings on Columbus.

15

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YANKEE ACCENT® John Stobart is the foremost marine artist of our time, a marine historian adding significant new insights, and a successful entrepreneur marketing his own work with great skill and care.

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NEW STOBART BOOK - a marine art gallery; a concise survey and important new perspective on American maritime history; a lively and intimate autobiography from boyhood days to the present. More than 70 color plates of maj or paintings with extensive commentary, plus numerous halftones and drawings. Oversized 12 x 15 1h inch format, 237 pages. $95 plus $10 delivery (Massachusetts residents please add $4.75 tax).

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SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

Acclaimed as the finest family boat and the best all-around sailboat of her size ever developed, generations of sa ilors have acquired their skill and love for sailing at her helm. The best loved of all of NGH's designs, as many as 250 of the approximately 440 wood 121/i footers built between 1914 an d 1948 are still actively sa iled .

The painting catches Captain Nat in a moment of relaxation, totally in control yet totally at ease in his element . Sailing ROBIN from his family home nestled along th e Bristol village shoreline past the stern of his magnifice nt Cup Defender RESOLUTE, the crew is seen in unconscious salute in th eir attention.

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Commissioned to commemorate the 75th anniversary of th e Herreshoff 12 '12 Foot Class, this beautiful painting is as mu ch an affectionate portrait of the ultimate master of yacht design and construction .

The 21 x 26 inch image area of the premier edition is exact to the original painting. Š copyright 1990 Yankee Accent, Inc.

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ON THE FLOOR OF IAKE GEORGE SINCE 1758

Radeau Below NORTH AMERICA'S OLDEST INTACT WARSHIP

By Russell Bellico In June 1990, a group of underwater explorers began their third year of surveying the bottom of Lake George, New York. The nine-man volunteer research group, members of the "Lake George Bateaux and Radeau Research Team," were seeking colonial era shipwrecks.

On June 26, the second day of operations, the expedition vessel's side-scan sonar began to show the outline of a curiously-shaped vessel. Three divers descended into the darkness toward the wreck, expecting, in all probability, to find a nineteenth-century barge of little historical significance. Reaching the lake bottom, they were astonished to find instead a strange wooden vessel of eighteenth-century vintage, with gunports and smaller openings for numerous sweeps. They could instantly identify it as a radeau.

Although the flat-bottomed radeau meant "raft" in French, the vessel was a combination floating fort and battleship.

Radeaux were used extensively during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution , although during the latter war, the vessel had a more conventional appearance. One of the first sets of instructions for a radeau-type vessel on Lake George was forwarded in August 1755 by John Dies, a New York City ship chandler, to General William Johnson, in command of the provincial army marching toward Lake George. Dies recommended a flat-bottomed vessel with sides "high enough for a Breast work to cover the Men with portholes cut ...

Mount some of your Field Pieces, Man ' d with 40 or 50 men."

One of the first radeaux to exhibit the unique seven-sided configuration and upper bulwarks was constructed by New England provincial troops in 1758 at Lake George under the supervision of Captain Thomas Ord, a British artillery officer. Colonel Henry Champion with the Connecticut troops drew a sketch of a large radeau in his journal on October 7 with the explanation: "it is 51 feet in length, about 16 or 18 wide, straight flat bottom, flaring waist about 5 feet high , then turns with an elbow ... The name of this creature is Tail and End, or Land 18

Tortoise." Similarly, Dr. Caleb Rea, a regimental surgeon from Massachusetts, drew a configuration in his journal of the radeau that he described as "very odd, being seven squared sided." Other provincials called the strange-looking vessel the "ark" or "Ord 's Ark." The upper bulwark, which angled over the crew, not only protected them from musket fire but was designed to inhibit boarding by enemy troops.

Since Fort William Henry at the southern end of Lake George had been burned by the French the previous year, the radeau and other vessels were purpose) y sunk on October 22 by the provincial troops for safekeeping over the winter. At the beginning of the 1759 military campaign at Lake George, under General Jeffrey Amherst, a sloop, a row galley and other vessels were raised by the troops, but the radeau Land Tortoise was never located. The large, flat-bottomed radeau had been sunk afterdark during the previous fall and had come to rest on the lake floor, three times deeper than intended.

Without the retrieval of the Land Tortoise, Major Thomas Ord in l 759 supervised the construction of a second large radeau. The eight-gun Invincible, similar in construction to the Land Tortoise, led a column of supply rafts, bateaux and row galleys during the army's movement north on the lake in July 1759 to capture Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga). Following the capture of the French fort, Amherst embarked on a major shipbuilding operation at Lake Champlain. Among the vessels built were two small radeaux at Ticonderoga and a larger one at Crown Point. The latter vessel was the two-masted, 84-foot Ligonier, built under the supervision of Major Ord. Armed with six 24-pound cannon, the Ligonier with General Amherst aboard led a renewed expedi-

tion northward on Lake Champlain in October 1759. Hampered by bad weather, the fleet returned eleven days later to Crown Point. This radeau was used extensively during the attack on a French fort at Isle-aux-Noix in August 1760 when the "Ligoneir redows & prows [row galleys] kept a fire on the enemys fort & vessels, to favor our landing," according to Captain Samuel Jenks of Massachusetts.

The design of the French and Indian War radeaux appears to be unique to that period. Later radeaux, such as the 91-foot Thunderer built by the British in 1776 for service on Lake Champlain, did not display the seven-sided configuration with overhanging bulwarks. The angularity of the French and Indian War radeaux apparently ended with the war only to be independently revived in a modified form a century later with Civil War ironclads. â&#x20AC;˘

"A North View of Crown Point," rendered by Captain Thomas Davies of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, shows a radeau of the type employed by British and provincial forces on the New York lakes. The vessel shown is the Ligonier, built on Lake Champlain in 1759 under the supervision of Major Thomas Ord, who had also overseen construction of the Land Tortoise the previous autumn.

Russell Bellico is a Professor of Economic History at Westfield State College in Massachusetts and the author of a new book on the maritime history ofthe New York lakes entitled Sails and Steam in the Mountains. For more information contact BateauxBelow, Inc. , PO Box 2134, Wilton NY 12866.

SEA HISTORY 63 , AUTUMN 1992

Research Continues ...

l

From top to bottom these underwater pictures of the Land Tortoise show the bow section and mooring ring, an open gunport on the starboard side and the interior of the port side with sweep holes visible. (Photographs by Russell Bellico)

SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

The radeau archaeological research team has been active for two years, collecting construction data on the oldest intact warship ever found in North America. This volunteer team has determined that the radeau 's rigging is absent, but that there is at least one mast step, 26 sweep holes for rowing, seven cannon ports and a vessel length of 52 feet with an 18-foot beam. These details confirm that the Lake George radeau is probably the lost Land Tortoise. Because the unfinished vessel was sunk on purpose, there is no expectation to find loose artifacts at the site.

The Land Tortoise sits more than 100 feet below Lake George, slightly down by the bow and with about a 15° port list. She is partially filled with rock ballast, which has shifted to cover a major portion of the port side hulJ and the sole. She is caulked and her bottom is covered with a pitchlike substance. The interior of the vessel is filled with silt so fine that the slightest movement of the water stirs up cloudy billows and quickly closes visibility to zero; this means that diver activities must be carefully organized.

Despite lack of funding and technical difficulties associated with the radeau ' s site, the team has taken basic vessel measurements and has begun collecting detailed construction information. These measurements show that the Land Tortoise ' s timbers and planks are massive, the parts are all there and they fit together in a traditional manner. Although she is built like many other vessels of her period, the quality of the workmanship is sometimes casual. This may be a function of the urgent need to produce vessels quickly in the fall of 1758 and also an indication that the shipwright directed her design using non-boatbuilding carpenters in construction. This fits with what we know of the personnel involved in the 1758-59 campaign.

What is not apparent in earlier published materials on radeaux, and what has been suggested by our 1990-91 work, is that the vessel would have been used as a stable platform for the cannon to protect the shore or lake front. She was rowed or sailed only as necessary to move her and her armaments from one site to another. The Land Tortoise was designed more for use as a floating battery than a proper warship.

During the summer of 1992, while the archaeological team completes its study of the radeau ' s construction, consultants will study the options for the radeau' s future under the auspices of a National Trust for Historic Preservation grant. Their results will be presented in a public forum in the fall so that the citizens of New York State can make informed decisions about the radeau 's future. Meanwhile, our greatest concern is that other divers, either intentionally or by accident, will visit the site and damage this irreplaceable cultural resource.

-Kathy Abbass, PhD, Curator-at-Large , NMHS , Senior Archaeologist, Radeau Project 19

A gray tower rearing from the ocean is visible on a clear day from Point St. George, just north of Crescent City, Califomia. Completed in 1892, the tower is St. George Reef Lighthouse, America's costliest-because it was the most difficult to bui ld. When a storm sweeps in from the Pacific, the lighthouse disappears into the rain and mist. The six miles of ocean covering St. George Reef that separates the lighthouse from the shore becomes a maelstrom of surf, foam and spray.

No lighthouse guarded the reef during a summer storm in 1865 as the steamer Brother Jonathan, its paddle wheels flailing, crept past. Though the captain had protested about overloading, the owners threatened to fire him if he did not sail from San Francisco for the Columbia River. Shortly after passing St. George Reef, heavy seas and gale winds forced Brother Jonathan to a standstill. The skipper, an experienced seaman, reversed the course of the steamer and headed for shelter at Crescent City.

Brother Jonathan never made it. An outlying rock of St. George Reef impaled the steamer. Less than an hour later, Brother Jonathan slid off the rock and plunged to the bottom. On board were 165 men, women and children. One lifeboat managed to fight clear of the wreck. On 20

by Donald Rutherford board were the only survivors-five women, three children , ten sailors and the third mate. For days afterward, volunteers from Crescent City searched the beaches for bodies. It was the worst maritime disaster on the Pacific coast.

The Brother Jonathon wreck underscored the need for a lighthouse to mark St. George Reef. President Andrew Johnson designated Northwest Seal Rock, about one and a half miles west of the main body of the reef, for that purpose.

Following the Civil War, Congress had little appetite for sinking money into the sea. Not until 1882, some seventeen years after Brother Jonathan sank, did the lawmakers loosen the purse strings. They appropriated only $50,000, scarcely a down payment on a lighthouse that would cost fifteen times that much.

The Lighthouse Service chose A. Ballantyne to build the new lighthouse on Northwest Seal Rock. He had built Tillamook Rock Lighthouse in Oregon, one of the more difficult feats of lighthouse construction up to that time.

On an April morning in 1883, Ballantyne arrived at Northwest Seal Rock aboard the salvage steamer Whitelaw. The steamer towed the schoo-

ner La Ninfa , which would serve as a barracks and store ship. The seasick workers aboard the two ships included quarrymen, masons and a blacksmith.

Tools, supplies and explosives needed for the first season ' s work crammed the holds of the two vessels.

The Whitelaw' s crew tried to set four moorings to anchor the schooner near the rock, but they found the water deeper than reported. The mooring chains weren't long enough for the extra depth and the spar buoys couldn't support the weight of additional chain. Setting one mooring, to which he secured the schooner, Ballantyne steamed off to Humboldt Bay for more chain and bigger buoys. A storm came up, and when he got back to the scene two weeks later, schooner and mooring were gone. Getting a report that the schooner had been sighted off Cape Mendocino, he took off after her, brought her back and set to work mooring her securely near the rock.

To transfer men and equipment between La Ninfa and the rock, he had an aerial tramway erected between the two.

A "cage," a four-foot-diameter iron ring with planks fastened to it, hung from a block riding on a traveler cable.

Ballantyne had surveyed Northwest Seal Rock during the previous summer.

SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

... a calm sea could change quickly .... While the men worked, Ballantyne kept one eye on the sea.At his warning cry, the thirty or so workers secured their tools and headed/or the cage.

While there, he learned that a calm sea could change quickly into swells that broke over the rock. While the men worked, Ballantyne kept one eye on the sea. At his warning cry, the thirty or so workers secured their tools and headed for the cage. When five or six men were aboard , Ballantyne release the cage and it slid rapidly down the traveler to the schooner. There, a donkey engine attached to an endless cable hauled the cage up to the rock for another load. It took less than twenty minutes to evacuate everyone from the rock.

The men prepared the foundation for the pier of the lighthouse by hand. To drill holes in the rock for explosive charges, one man held a stationary drill while his partner struck it repeatedly with a sledgehammer. A quarryman then loaded the holes with explosives. When Ballantyne shouted "fire in the hole," the men scurried into any available niche in the rock. Even so, shards of rock showered them. The schooner fared even worse. Her bulwarks and decks bore many scars and, on one occasion, a large rock flattened a deck house.

By the time the last charge was fired, the rock had a flat top and a series of ledges, giving it the appearance of an Aztec pyramid. The ledges would provide a footing for the massive stones for the pier.

Towards the end of September, autumn storms forced an end to work for 1883. According to the final report on the project that Ballantyne wrote in 1892, waves from one storm repositioned blasted rocks, some weighing more than a ton, that had been dumped over the side. He wrote that they were "swept like chips along the whole length [of the rock] and over again on the east side."

He also reported that waves washed two men off the rock, but they were rescued.

That fall, Ballantyne discovered a deposit of granite suitable for the pier and tower at Mad River, a few miles north of Humboldt Bay. During the winter, stone blocks weighing two tons or more were quarried, roughly shaped and shipped by rail to Humboldt Bay. In a 120-foot-long shed, stone cutters fini shed the blocks, guided by full-scale metal templates. They cut a mortise into one end of each block and a tenon into the other. Each block had to fit a precise location in the lighthouse pier, so the men checked every one.

When assembled at the lighthouse site, each block would be locked by the SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

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An aerial tramway provided transportation between the schooner La Ninfa moored nearby and the work site, as crews worked to build the pier f or the St. George Reef Light.

mortise and the tenon to its neighbors on derrick against storms. Then they erected either side. Dowels- lengths of bronze a temporary platform over the foundarod 2 1/2 inches in diameter set into tion. On the platform, Ballantyne laid out drilled holes-would secure it to the a 76- by 94-foot oval for the pier and used block above and to the rock or block the templates to mark the outline of each below. The dowel s and interlocking stone in the first course. The outlines fit blocks would enable the lighthouse to the oval to a tee. The quarrying and shapwithstand the severest storm . ing of stone continued until money ran out In May of 1884, Ballantyne again char- in October 1885. tered Whitelaw and sailed for Northwest No money was appropriated in 1886.

Seal Rock to prepare for the season 's Ballantyne must have been discouraged. work. Aboard were the four large moor- In his final report, he wrote, "In four years only one working seaings for securing the barracks ship and a son of about one hundred working large boom derrick. When erected on the rock, the derrick would transfer stone days [was] utilized advantageously blocks from ship to shore and then set on the rock . . . work could not be carried on ... at a less expenditure them in place. The mast for the derrick than $15 ,000 per month, or say measured fifty feet and the boom ninety. $75,000 for the season."

Each was made from a single piece of timber Work resumed in 1887 with an approand measured twenty inches on a side.

Exceptionally calm weather prevailed priation of $120,000. Ballantyne soon and, by July, the workers had set the discovered that inactivity had resulted in moorings and erected the derrick. It was all in vain. Dra wing showing steps cut into the rock to receive the Congress, still in a niggard Iy large stones f or the pier of St. George Reef Light. mood , appropriated only $30 ,000, instead of the $150,000 requested. Bitterly di sappointed , Ballantyne and the District Engineer suspended work on the rock for that year. The money was used to quarry and shape stone for the pier.

In 1885, Congress appropriated only $40,000, once again not enough to proceed with work at the lighthouse 0 fsite. That June, Ballantyne "' chartered a steamer. He and ~~---~ -H;p."-..'-' his men lifted three of the four moorings set the previous year and secured the

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21

report: "I found she was not properly rigged for handling the heavy stone and at once put our riggers aboard and had her suitably rigged for service."

After a couple of trips, Ballantyne reported to the lighthouse engineer that Alliance "was unfit to carry out her contract, as she had neither the power nor carrying capacity to complete the work during the season available." As a result, he chartered the Santa Maria, and both steamers delivered stone to ~ :i: the lighthouse site.

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St. George Reef Light shortly before construction was completed in A succession 1891. The building under the structure at the left provided living of summer gales quarters for the workers. slowed the work considerable damage to shore facilities. and made the daily transfer of men exAt the Mad River quarry, mud slides treme! y hazardous. In June, storm waves triggered by winter rains blocked the tore a 3 'h-ton stone from its mortar base railroad tracks and buried the quarried and carried it to a higher level in the stone. Fifteen hundred tons of roughly foundation. Fall storms ended the buildshaped stones had slid downhill and lay ing season on October3. By then, the men buried in mud. Teredos-marine worms had laid nine courses of stone, raising the with a voracious appetite for woodpier to a height of 22 feet. had damaged the pilings of the Humboldt Congress appropriated $150,000 in Bay pier, causing it to collapse.

1888 and $200,000 the following year.

Early in May, Ballantyne arrived at By the end of these two building seaNorthwest Seal Rock aboard the steamer sons, the pier had risen to its final height Santa Maria to find more damage. Storm of70 feet. In addition, the men had built waves had cracked the 20-inch-square the inside walls for the engine and store mast for the derrick, even though stored rooms and roofed them over. They also 40 feet above sea level. After mooring completed a water tank, filled the rest of the schooner Sparrow for use as a bar- the pier with reinforced concrete, and racks, Ballantyne' s men repaired the der- paved the top with large stone slabs.

Regarding the summer of 1889, rick mast with iron bands. Then they erected the large derrick and four smaller Ballantyne wrote in his final report: "The weather this year was more seones, and installed a lifting engine. Next, vere than in 1888, but rather an imthey built a temporary wharf for landing provementover 1887. The men's quarthe stone blocks for the pier. Living ters ... were smashed in during a gale quarters for the workmen were built unabout 2 o'clock one morning in May. der the wharf.

No one was injured, but some of the Bids had gone out for a vessel to carry men were washed out of their bunks." stones to the lighthouse site. Ballantyne had to charter the small steamer Alliance, Preparation of stones for the tower conbecause the bid was $10,000 less than tinued at Humboldt Bay during the winthe bid for Santa Maria. The Alliance ter and spring. By July 1, 1890, all were arrived at the rock early in June with complete. The money, however, had run the first load of stones for the pier. But, out, so the blocks sat at Humboldt Bay. as Ballantyne later complained in his Congress didn ' t get around to appropri22

ating $81,000 until September 30. It was too little and too late to allow any more work that year.

On April 21, 1891, the steam schoonerSunol arrived at Northwest Seal Rock with fifty workers on board. New moorings had to be set, the living quarters repaired and the large derrick erected.

The masons set the first stone for the 68foot rectangular tower on May 13 and the last one thirteen weeks later. The only death during construction of the light occurred during this period. "On June 15," wrote Ballantyne in his final report, "one of the riggers, while letting go a tag line of the big derrick boom, was carried over the pier and killed." Over the years that followed, the keepers paid a much higher toll.

By the end of October, the boilers and machinery for two steam fog whistles were in place and the last coat of paint applied. St. George Reef Lighthouse was almost complete. Heavy seas prevented Ballantyne and his men from boarding a steamer. Not until November 8 did it sail for San Francisco. Three men remained on the lighthouse as keepers. Two of them, head keeper John Olsen and assistant keeper John Lind, had helped build the lighthouse.

The most essential part of the lighthouse, however, was missing. Not until July 1892 did a magnificent first-order Fresnel lens arrive in San Francisco for shipment to the lighthouse site. Over seven-and-a-half-feet tall and six feet in diameter, the lens contained more than 1,000 hand-cut prisms and bullseyes.

The lens had twelve sides, each with a bullseye lens.

St. George Reef Lighthouse was a major feat of lighthouse construction.

With the light shining 141 feet above the water, it was the tallest lighthouse on the Pacific coast of North America. The pier contained 1,339 dressed stones. None weighed less than two tons; some weighed as much as six tons. Over 14,000 tons of stone went into the pier and tower. The lighthouse had taken longer to build-nine years-and cost more$715,633. 78 according to Ballantynethan any other in the United States.

Assignment to St. George ReefLighthouse was no sinecure. Because of conditions there, the legendary George R. Putnam, Commissioner of Lighthouses at the time, approved the assignment of five keepers. No other US lighthouse, except Tillamook Rock, warranted that large a staff. Neither were approved as SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

Keepers feared storms above all, and with good reason. One wave smashed the thick windows in the lantern, more than twelve stories above the ocean. family stations, so the keepers' families had to live on shore. From 1891 to 1930, eighty keepers served on St. George Reef.

Thirty-seven resigned and twenty-six asked for transfers.

One District Inspector wrote of St. George Reef Light: "It tries and proves men. Show me the man who has put in the required time of service there, and I'll show you aman . .. and a lighthouse keeper, too!"

He may well have had John Olsen, the first head keeper, in mind. For twentytwo years, Olsen ran the station, taking whatever wind and wave brought him.

That included spending seventeen hours in an eighteen foot open sailboat on a trip that should have lasted two hours. One of Olsen 's assistants probably qualified, too. When, in 1903, the engine in the launch quit, hedrifted for fifty-six hours.

John Olsen was not the only keeper that St. George Reefchallenged. In 1893, William Ericcson set out for Crescent City in the station sailboat. Neither Ericcson nor the boat were ever seen again. Eight years later, Gottfried Olden broke a leg when a wave struck the station boat as the boom lifted it from the water. In 1902, Julius Charter became ill and died later in Crescent City. The following year, Charles Steiner was taken ashore after becoming seriously ill.

Keepers feared storms above all, and with good reason. One wave smashed the thick windows in the lantern, more than twelve stories above the ocean.

George Roux, the third head keeper, spent two decades on the rock. During that time, he endured some of the worst weather ever recorded at the lighthouse.

On one occasion, huge waves, breaking over the reef, marooned Roux and his assistant keepers for sixty days. Supplies ran short and the possibility of starvation loomed. The usually harmonious keepers seldom spoke to one another. Even asking for salt at mealtime could trigger a rage.

In 1951, George Permenter, the officer-in-charge of the light, swung the derrick boom out over the water. The station boat with five Coast Guardsmen aboard hung from the boom. Two were keepers going on leave and two were electrician's mates, who had visited the light to make repairs. The fifth man would bring the boat back. Carefully gauging the waves, Permenter lowered the boat between two of them-a routine launching. Then, as he watched the crew unhook the bridle, a freak , rogue swell SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

capsized the boat. Five men began fighthope it will soon be over." ing for their lives in the churning water. It was! Coast Guardsmen would never Despite heroic efforts, which earned spend another winter on St. George Reef Permenter the Silver Lifesaving Medal, Light. That April, a tug towed a large three Coast Guardsmen died that day. It navigational buoy (LNB) to St. George was the worst lighthouse accident in Reef and moored it a mile west of the California history. light. The Coast Guard had developed The Coast Guard searched for safer LNBs to replace lightships. Fully autoways to service the lighthouse. St. George mated and with backup systems, a LNB ReefLight was too important to abandon was a floating lighthouse. To verify reliand automation was still in its infancy. able operation of the LNB, the keepers High winds and the lack oflanding space monitored the light, fog signal and radio beacon for several weeks. made helicopter landings impossible.

Then, on May 13, the Cape Carter Following that black day in 1951, a Coast Guard cutter Moments after this picture ofthe station boat being lowered into the stood by whenever surf was taken at St. George Reef Light in 1958, a fitting securing men transferred the bridle to the boat snapped. The four Coast Guardsmen aboard from the light. The were dumped into the sea, but the presence of USCG cutter Ewing policy paid off. assured their quick recovery.

Seven years later a fitting securing the bridle to the station boat broke, spilling four men into the ocean. The crew of the cutter Ewing reacted quickly and plucked the men from the water.

In 1960, the assignment of a 94foo t cutter, the Cape Carter, to CrescentCitymade transfers even safer.

The cutter would ease in under the end of the boom.

As a swell lifted the Cape Carter, one or two men climbed into a Billy Pugh net hanging from the end of the boom. As the cutter fell away with the swell, she backed away and thederrick whisked the men up. The Billy Pugh net was a made a final personnel transfer at the simple platform surrounded by a net. lighthouse. Chief Sebastian lowered the Those who used it seldom forgot the colors. Then he used the derrick to transfer two keepers to the deck of the cutter. After exciting ride.

In February 1975, Chief James securing the derrick and chaining the I ightSebastian, the officer-in-charge, wrote house door, Sebastian and Petty Officer in the station log book: Louis Salter clambered into a rubber boat "This winter has been a long and lonely and motored out to the Cape Carter. That one. The weatherdoesn ' talwaysco- night, for the first time in 83 years, the operate when it comes time to change guardian of St. George Reef was dark. â&#x20AC;˘ crews and go home to families. We have spent extra weeks on St. George Donald R utheiford is the author ofa numdue to high winds and rough seas. We ber of books and articles on lighthouses.

J

23

MARINE ART:

Looking at

by Norma Stanford

A familiar sight to sailors on eastern Long Island Sound is the lighthouse at Race Rock, offthe west end ofFishers Island, NY. Fierce tidal currents and a large rock formation just three feet below the surface at low tide made the Race one ofthe most dangerous passages on the East Coast. "Race Rock Light," by Patricia Kelbaugh, watercolor, 20" x 15"

What is it about lighthouses that attracts us so? They dominate the landscape, overwhelming the natural beauty of their surroundings. They are big, simple, utilitarian structures, usually stark wh ite, but occasionally garish ly striped in red and white spirals or crude black and white bands.

If they weren't lighthouses, we might find them ugly.

Perhaps it's the associations: summer afternoons on the beach, a landfall after a difficult passage, stories of brave keepers who saved ships and Ii ves. Sad! y, the keepers are gone now , replaced by automation. The lights still beam out their welcome signals and the fog horns boom , but there is no one to return a wave as you sail past, as the young Coast Guardsmen used to do, pausing, perhaps, in a game of touch footba ll , to admire a passing schooner; there are no lines of wash flapping in the breeze. Always lonely, the li ghthouse has become an even lonelier place.

But, still, we love them. We hike up to them, we photograph them, we try to capture them in ink and paint. And, in the best of circumstances, we protect them from vandalism and demolition through commun ity efforts and the work of the lighthouse preservation groups across the country.

The paintings on these pages portray lighthouses in a variety of moods, from cheerful to somber. And in some of them, the sea is not even visible. But, like Edward Hopper's memorable "The Lighthouse at Two Lights," one doesn ' t need to see the water to feel its presence in the paintings. It is there in the cast of the sunlight, or in the mist; in the bending grass and the clouds. One can hear it, smell it and fee l its salt breeze even in its visual absence. â&#x20AC;˘

This is the sunny day at the shore that we dream about in mid-January.

But Ms. Mayer's title reminds us that the sea is awesomely beautiful in al/seasons. "BrantPoint Light in October," by Jessie Hull Mayer, watercolor, 11 " x 14"

24

SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

Lighthouses If this structure looks familiar, it is the same lighthouse from the same angle as Edward Hopper's "The lighthouse at Two lights." But the composition and the mood are utterly different .

In Hopper's work the light tower and buildings are caught in the strong warm light ofa summer evening, their white swfaces glowing with an almost yellow light. The foreground appears knee-deep in swaying grasses and shrubs. One feels that it would have been a fine day to be under sail, with a mild sea and a strong steady breeze. Here is the lighthouse at work, with a heavy, chill, evening mist swirling about the shore. The foreground is gray and barren, making the lamplight from the keeper's house all the more inviting. The structure is the Cape Elizabeth lighthouse located just south of Portland, Maine, nicknamed "Twin Lights" or "Two lights" because there was another lighthouse not far from this one. The artist, Bill Ryan, is a graduate of Pratt Institute, has worked as an automobile designer and has traveled and painted in Europe and Africa.

His work is admired for his draftsmanship and strong composition. "Cape Elizabeth Light," by William E. Ryan, ASMA, watercolor .

.·•

•

Jim Harrington's inspiration comesfrom time spent in Nova Scotia and Nantucket , and his scenes portray turn-of-thecentury whalers , fishermen and shoreside scenes. His work has the light and joyful touch of the Impressionists.

"NovaScotiaLighthouse ," by James R. Harrington, ASMA, oil on canvas, 18" x 24"

I'

The paintings on these pages are reproduced through the courtesy ofthe Mystic Maritime Gallery, Mystic Seaport Museum , Mystic, Connecticut.

SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

25

The Sankaty Head Lighthouse is one of three on the island of Nantucket and is captured here by Jessie Hull Mayer on a bright cloudless day. Ms. Mayer grew up on the Connecticut shore, started sailing her own boat at age sixteen, and has been sailing ever since. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Art, and has shown her works in national exhibitions. "Sankaty Light," watercolor, JO" x 14"

This tower was built in 1860 to mark Minot's Ledge near Cohasset , Massachusetts. Its distinctive fl.ash sequence of 1-4-3 took on a special meaning to moonstruck couples, and and it became known as the "I love you" light, contrasting with the sense of isolation and danger captured by Mr. Ryan in this portrait of a wave-swept tower rising straight out of the sea. "Minot's Ledge Light," by William E. â&#x20AC;˘ Ryan, ASMA, watercolor.

26

SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

THE

MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

MYSTIC SEAPORT'S SCHOONER BRILLIANT

proudly announces the first in a series of limitededition reprints from its collections Two Historic Paintings by

ANTONIO N.G. JACOBSEN

BY WORLD RENOWNED MARINE ARTIST

...

JOHNMECRAY

"S.S. PORTLAND" (1891)

Buy this print celebrating the 60th anniversary of Mystic Seaport's classic schooner BRILLIANT and visit America's oldest maritime museum free!

• Historic limited edition lithograph available by order only through November 30, 1992.

• Each lithograph personally approved, hand signed and numbered by the artist.

• Image size 17"x33 ". Printed on museum quality paper to the highest industry standards.

• $200 per copy. Order now and receive a free family pass to Mystic Seaport Museum (a $29 value).

• Each lithograph comes with a certificate of authenticity and a special Brilliant video containing rare yachting footage from the archives of Mystic Seaport Museum.

• Delivery by Christmas. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back.

The perfect holiday gift for every sailor and art collector on your list!

Order now and receive a FREE video Visit the Museum Store to see this and other maritime prints, paintings, ship models, nautical books and other yachtsmen's gifts.

Open 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., 7 days a week.

Mystic Seaport Museum Stores Dept. SH, 39 Greenmanville Ave. Mystic, CT 06355-6001

TO ORDER CALL NOW 1-800-662-6323 • 7 DA YS/24 HOURS Please send me _ BRILLIANT lithographs @ $200 each $ _ __ Name CTtax6% $ _ __ Address RI tax 7% $ _ __ City State Shipping $ 10.00 Zip Phone TOTAL $ _ __ [l Check or money order D MC lJ VISA n AMEX Acc. # Signature _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

"S.S. STATE OF MAINE" (1892) lhese high-quality reproductions ptinted on acid-free paper are each limited to 1000 separately hand-numbered copies. Approximate image size is 13" x 24". Available framed or unframed.

PRICES Unframed: $85 each $150 set of two (Includes shipping)

Framed: $185 each $350 set o f two (s hipping $10 pe r print) To reserve your copies of these magnificent prints, comple te th e o rd e r form and mail with your payme nt, or call 207-774-1822.

(Visa and MasterCard accepted o n phone o rde rs)

ORDER TODAY.'

To:

S.S. PORTLAND (specify qu antity) framed unframed S.S. STATE

OF MAINE (quantity) framed __ unframed

Total price (see above) 6% Sales Tax (Me. residents) Shipping (framed only) Total

$_ _ $_ _

$_ _ $_ _

(Please allow 4 weeks for delivery.)

NAME._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ ADDRESS._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ TEL: (

SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

Maine Historical Society 485 Congress Street Po11land, Maine 04101

)._ _ _ _ _ _ __

27

MARINE ART NEWS The Coast Guard on Canvas ... a colorful portrayal

Guard's role when he stated: "From its beginnings the Guard has had to prevail against long odds and succeed on a high level of competition from man and nature." The records certainly verify that.

On almost any day the Guard, patrolling the longest coastline in the world, including Alaska, the East, West, Gulf and Great Lakes coasts, plus Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, saves over a dozen lives, tackles two dozen hazardous spills, and seizes about a ton and a half of illicit drugs.

Many of these activities are for the first time being depicted by very capable

The Coast Guard, the "fifth" service, has been carrying out a colorful operation in an effort to make you more familiar with its work. It' s called, in the acronymic fashion of government programs, COGAP -Coast Guard Art Program. Since 1981, established volunteer artists have donated their time, talent and art for an impressive annual exhibition each May. After this initial event, selected pieces are sent on exhibition tours to museums and institutions throughout the nation.

A key objective is to provide an authoritative, memorable account of the Coast Guard at work, and to portray its skills, services and accomplishments. This illuminating and attractive concept remindsourcitizensoftheCoast Guard 's role and helps them understand how often it has guided, aided and come to the rescue of both merchant seamen and pleasure boaters who sail upon its waters. COGAP can help all of us , the uninitiated, the blase, and "Their Trick at the Wheel," oill8"x 24 " by RobertC.Semler even the enthusiast to become of Pitman, New Jersey, shows cadets aboard USCGC Eagle a bit wiser about this unique undergoing an exhilarating phase of their training afloat. seagoing armed service.

This is not the first time the Coast and dedicated marine artists through Guard has used art as a medium, but COGAP. Currently, there are approxiCOGAP is the first organized program mately I 00 artists active in the program, since World War II. During the war and there are 16 traveling COGAP exyears many artists put to sea to record a different, broader sphere of Coast Guard activity: coastal defense, mine .. counter-measures , ocean "' ..

--:!:1 convoy escort, anti-subma-I'_ ...-;...,...I . .

T 0' ~rine warfare, and operation of transports, tugs , landing craft and amphibious craft in both the Pacific and Atlantic theaters. Among these wartime efforts is a dramatic series of oils by Anton Otto Fischer at sea aboard the Watercolor of an oil spill cleanup by W. A. Jones.

USCG cutter Campbell on Atlantic convoy escort duty. The Fischer hibits. They are well worth making an series, currently on exhibit at Treasure effort to see.

Island Museum on Treasure Island in San Three exhibits are on display at the Francisco, is one of 17 World War II-era Treasure Island Museum through August Coast Guard art exhibits shown periodi- 1993; they are the entire COGAP 1991 cally throughout the country. collection (45 pieces) and the WWII colFormer Superintendent of the Coast lections of Anton Otto Fischer (8 pieces) Guard Academy, Rear Admiral Richard and Norman Thomas (15 pieces).

Cuerone summed up well the Coast For more information on COGAP or

~ .\

28

its future exhibition schedules write to: Comrnandant(G-CP-3)USCG,2100Second St. SW, Washington DC 20593 DENIS C. BEAUMONT

* * * * *

Legendary yacht designer L. Francis Herreshoff once said of his penchant for collecting works of art that "the satisfaction of acquiring them one by one is an almost continuous joy." Gallery owner Bryan Oliphant feels he gained his own sense of that unique satisfaction by bringing together the 23 paintings offered in Oliphant & Company's latest catalog.

The offering includes 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century marine paintings from artists that include Robert Salmon, Thomas and James E. Buttersworth, Charles Robert Patterson and Edmund D. Lewandowski. For a catalog send $10 to Oliphant & Company, 790 Madison Avenue, New York NY 10021.

Following up on the success of the twenty-eight-year-old Western Art Show and Sale, the Alamo Kiwanis Club will sponsor its first Military and Historical Art Show and Sale, May 13-23, 1993, in San Antonio, Texas. Undertheheadingof "historical art" the Club is extending an invitation to marine artists. For information contact the Art Acquisition Committee, 8700 Crownhill Blvd., #201 , San Antonio TX 78209.

Exhibitions • Through January 3, 1993, The Maritime Art of A. De Clerck, an exhibit of the late 19th-century Belgian pierhead painter. Maine Maritime Museum , 243 Washington Street, Bath ME 04530.

•November 5-April 15, 1993, William Partridge Burpee: American Marine Impressionist. Peabody Museum of Salem, East India Square, Salem MA 01970.

• November 14-December 31, Four Modern Marine Masters, a collection of 60 new pieces from artists Frits Goosen, Jim Griffiths, Robert Sticker and ship modeler Rob Napier. Mystic Maritime Gallery, Mystic CT 06355.

• November 21-January 17, 1993, The Great Age of Sail: Treasures from the National Maritime Museum comprising some eighty paintings, including works

by Canaletto, Turner, William Van de Velde, Cleveley and Brooking. Asampling is reproduced in color and discussed in Sea History 60, available for $4 from NMHS. Chrysler Museum, Norfolk VA; February 28-June 2, 1993, Peabody Museum, Salem MA SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

OLD GEORGETOWN BY MOONLIGHT

d~ 1886' {!!Jan()/J<(l/ffta

o/tlw f%u-F,u at ~iuA-'?t<Yn, q).4'., .fluuow'f! §~eto.un~ °l.tJWue--J0W;f Cl/lu:lJclw-<MU?/P; ~'ff -(ff:,a/

THE DEFINITIVE VIEW OF THE FAMOUS EAST COAST PORT

BY AMERICAN MASTER HISTORICAL ARTIST

*

•

PAUL McGEHEE

*

Georgetown, one of the most beautiful and interesting areas in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., was also one of the original ports of our United States, going back to colonial days. In the early years, it was a major tobacco port, but it was the coal trade that attracted the big three- and four-masted coastal schooners in the twilight days of the age of sail, a century ago. Overlooking the old Aqueduct Bridge, close to the location of the present-day Key Bridge, is Georgetown University (originally Georgetown College), the oldest Catholic college in the country ... the stone towers of Healy Hall, completed in 1879, are a prominent feature of the Georgetown skyline to this day.

Francis Scott Key, who wrote what would become our National Anthem, had his residence between Bridge Street (now M Street) and the C&O Canal.. .his house is visible in this striking moonlit 1886 waterfront panorama. "Old Georgetown By Moonlight" accurately captures a bygone era ... the busy wharves along Water Street, the canal barges that would bring the coal from West Virginia, the waterfront mills and warehouses, and graceful sailing vessels; now but a memory. This scene is a unique look through a window to the past. .. an important moment in our history, our heritage, preserved for future generations.

"Old Georgetown By Moonlight" is a beautiful limited-edition print from the original oil painting by Paul McGehee. Issued in a strictly limited-edition of 1,700 signed and numbered copies, with 300 signed, numbered and remarqued copies (carrying an exquisite original McGehee pencil drawing in the lower border, individually drawn by hand on your print). Image size 20"x32". The investment potential of the McGehee prints is well-known. A previous print, "Old Georgetown On The Potomac," released in 1986, sold out quickly, and was selling in 1991 for $2,000 ... that is, when one could be found from a collector willing to part with it.

"OLD GEORGETOWN BY MOONLIGHT" is available now for $200 signed and numbered, or for $800 with artisfs remarque. Please include $7 shipping. Virginia residents add 4.5% tax. Check, VISA, MasterCard, and C.O.D. welcome. All prices subject to availability, and are subject to change without notice. © 1991 by Paul McGehee.

The original oil of "Old Georgetown By Moonlighf' is available for $45,000 (framed 30"x48" image size).

A beautiful COLOR CATALOG of over 50 McGehee prints is currently available for $5, or free with purchase.

AVAILABLE IN ARLINGTON ATPAUL McGEHEE GALLERY, AND AT OTHER MAJOR GALLERIES NATIONWIDE. ART RECOLLECTIONS, 704 N. GLEBE RD. #212, ARLINGTON, VA 22203. Tel: (703) 528-5040

THE SEAPORT EXPERIENCE:

''The Orange Feeling''

meters, and too narrow for a fishing vessel, this heavily built vessel has a curved bow with a bowsprit and a straight stern inclined at less than 45 degrees. At this point, only eight days into the excation, it will be some months before the seabed of the Zuider Zee. Right here we ceiling timbers will be removed and its are about three meters below sea level." hull timbers further identify it, but perHenk ' s words immediately conjure haps it will provide more clues as to the the image of a brave boy with his finger existence of the mysterious hulc.

The Ship Archaeology Museum itself, in the dike. But as Henk would explain, protecting this country's lowlands is a with its display of preserved complete serious business for the Dutch. The wrecks and wreck remains, provides lifeDutch first started building dikes around size insight into life at sea many centuries 800 AD to control the flooding Zuider ago, whether it be on fishing vessels in the Zee, a shallow inland sea that covered Zuider Zee or cargo ships trading between the central portion of the Netherlands. Hanseatic ports. Visitors can touch the Then, in 1932, the need for land led to the vessels, even walk inside them, and damming of the Zuider Zee and the turn- through display windows examine the ing of its sea water into the sweet water boots, bottles, coinage and clothes of sailof the IJsselmeer. Since that time, a total ors and travelers, all recovered from the of three reclaimed land masses called former floor of the Zuider Zee. Next year "polders" have been drained to create the museum will begin excavation of a land for settlement and agriculture. "We recently discovered merchantman wreck Dutch have a popular saying," says Henk, and link up in a joint interpretive effort "lk worstel en com boven," in English, with Flevoland's most celebrated maritime "I struggle and rise above the water." attraction, the Batavia, a 17th-century Rising also above the water as the polders Dutch East lndiaman reconstruction bewere drained, however, was something ing built a short distance away in Lei ystad.

The Batavia reconstruction has genunexpected: shipwrecks, victims of the once unpredictable, storm-tossed tidal erated tremendous enthusiasm since its waters of the Zuider Zee. keel laying in October 1985. It exists as At my next stop, the Ship Archaeol- a symbol of the adventurous early days ogy Museum in Ketelhaven , museum of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), director Jaap Morel stood in a nearby with a story that carries something of the field four meters below sea level in a intrigue that has surrounded the Bounty steady drizzle, mud up to his ankles on mutiny. The initial catalyst for the project the edge of an excavation. He is pointing was the discovery ofa wreck off the west out to our group the special features of a coast of Australia in the early 1960s. The wreck lying in a pit in front of us, one of wreck was identified as the Batavia, a 350 recorded wrecks in Flevoland. They heav iIy armed, three-masted merchantman date from 1200 to 1900 and are the which, on her maiden voyage to the Dutch special domain of the museum, which East Indies, steered off course and ran has investigated 250 of them and pre- onto a reef in 1629. Her wrecking was the served a small number for display and prelude to a gruesome episode of mutiny research. "This is a 20-meter-long late and murder that only one half of her crew medieval freighter, dated about 1500- of 316 men, women and children sur1550, recently unearthed by a farmer's vived. (The written account, entitled The plough," says Morel. It rests barely two Unlucky Voyage, was a bestseller in the feet from the surface, its dark timbers I 7th-century Dutch-speaking world).

Three and a half centuries later, her well preserved. Morre! is excited about this one. He suspects that this wreck massive, heavy timbers tower again over might be a transitional vessel between the a busy shipyard, the realization of a cog and the hulc, a large cargo vessel dream for traditional Dutch boatbuilder whose existence has mystified ship Willem Vos. Armed with solid research archaeologists. Pictorial evidence suggests and riding the wave of public interest in the hulc succeeded the cog and is an the vessel since the wreck's discovery, important link in the evolution of vessel Vos convinced the council ofLelystad to structure from shell-built open boats to donate I and for the reconstruction project pre-framed hulls of great carrying capac- on the shore of the IJ sselmeer. Vos' s aim ity-but a hulc has never been unearthed. was to not only build a replica and excite Longer than the average cog by 3 or 4 interest in the Netherlands maritime past,

Maritime travel in the Netherlands

By Kevin Haydon From the air, the land gives up certain secrets. Its peculiar geographical features become obvious, giving clues to the activities and attitudes of its inhabitants. Flying into Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport to attend a maritime press tour, I was struck by my first sight of the Netherlands. Below me a green sea circled the western provinces and canals streaked across the pale early spring landscape in a lattice ofintersecting lines of blue. Even a native New Zealand islander like myself was fascinated: What a lot of water. The Dutch business traveler beside me agrees: "Yes, the water, the sea, is not something we can afford to not think about in the Netherlands."

The Netherlands is a pocket-sized country with a prodigious maritime heritage. The Port of Rotterdam, the world's largest, has been Europe 's main port since the mid- l 800s. A tugboat ride from Rotterdam ' s Prins Hendrick Maritime Museum on the frrst afternoon of my tour revealed only a fraction of Rotterdam's labyrinth docks and cargo terminals. An exhilarating sight, uncommon to most modern containerized ports, was the volume of small freighters moving briskly about the business of transshipping inland the coal, grain and other freight off-loaded along the corridor of the River Maas. Sixty miles to the north lies the even older Port of Amsterdam.

The city's picturesque canals, still lined with traditional vessels, hint at Amsterdam's illustrious maritime past, but for the full witness a visit to the Sheepsvart Museum , occupying the former Admiralty armory and docks, is the right thing to do.

But these old cities and their splendid maritime museums and collections are not my main destination . Instead, I'm bound for the new province ofFlevoland.

Speeding by car northeast of Amsterdam I entered Holland's flattest lands. To my left lay the brand new city of Almere Stad and to my right the quilt of brightcolored bulb fields . The architecture looked so modern, the roads so clean and wide, and the agriculture so well organized. "Well, after all , everything is new here," says my driver and guide, Henk Kuiper, of Flevoland's tourism office.

"Fifty years ago all this land was the 30

SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

The heavy timbers ofthe 16th-century Dutch East lndiaman replica

Batavia rise over a busy shipyard on the shore of the /Jsselmeer.

:)

An early 16th-century wreck under excavation in Flevoland.

â&#x20AC;˘

but to also revive shipbuilding skills in an environment that would provide job training for youth. By all accounts he has succeeded. From a very modest and uncertain beginning, the Batavia project has grown to attract 250,000 visitors per year, has a membership of 40,000, 150 volunteer docents who staff the adjoining museum, and has graduated l 00 of its 170 job placement trainees to date.

To wander in Batavia's dark lower decks is to be overwhelmed by wood: the smell of it and the mass of it (all 80,000 cubic feet). Each of the heavy protruding knees was personally selected

by Willem from grown timbers in Denmark. The bowsprit alone consumed 177 cubic feet of Danish larch and weighs 4.3 tons. My guide taps on the inner hull lining and beams: "It is twenty inches thick here!" The project has also kindled Vos's hoped-for revival of shipbuilding arts. An on-site ropemaking shed produces all the rope needed, and shipcarvers have produced 200-300 Renaissanceperiod carvings and statues for the vessel.

What happens when the Batavia is completed in two years? "We build another vessel," says Batavia staffer Optie Beu rs. "What is happening here has tapped into Dutch national pride, what we call 'the orange feeling' (a reference to SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

William of Orange). We will continue that." The next project proposed is a replica of the Zeven Provincien, the ship of the Netherlands' 17th-century naval hero Admiral Michie) de Ruyter.

Under sail on the IJsselmeer on my third day, out of Lelystad and bound for the former island ofUrk, this Dutch feeling for the traditional took on a delightfully practical expression. There is barely a motor launch or speedboat in sight.

Sailboats of all sizes surround us, a great many of them gaff-rigged vessels-from small leisure craft to large charter vessels.

Conversions from freighters to charter vesselshavekeptmanyofthesebeautiful, blunt-ended, leeboard vessels afloat.

Approaching Urk by sea, the centuries-old, steepled fishing village still appears separate from the now joining northern po Ider. Modem fishing vessels hem the harbor but ashore the narrow cobble streets lined with small brick fishermen's cottages retain an old-world charm. The kitchens of seafood restaurants scent the air with a salt and freshwater catch of sole, plaice, cod, haddock and other varieties. One of these buildings houses the Fishing Museum, where the mayor of Urk regaled us and treated our group to Urker fare: a toast of port and whole pickled herring.

For a thousand years the people ofU rk have fished, and this small museum gem records the transition in Urk's fishing techniques and vessels over the centuriesfrom single-masted "schokkers" to "botters" to modern steel cutters. It also recounts the dramatic Urker struggle to preserve lifeways threatened when the Zuider Zee became a Jake. Defying the odds, the resourceful U rkers went on to build one of the largest North Sea fishing fleets and make their town home to the second largest fish auction in Western Europe.

Passage to Urk can be made from ports all over the IJ sselmeer. Kampen is a good starting point. This medieval town on the IJssel river was once the most important Hansa trading port, at a time when Amsterdam was a mere fishing village.

Kampen has beautifully preserved its old merchant town character in both form and use. Storekeepers often occupy the same buildings as their predecessors of 500 years past. The town's riverfront is active today as the host to over 30 traditionalstyle charter vessels and residents here plan to soon build a Dutch cog replica to celebrate their Hanseatic history.

The maritime finds ofFievoland are a small part of what can be discovered throughout the Netherlands. My trip was a short one, but enough to give a sense of how Dutch communities strive to allow the past to exist alongside a modem, purposeful present. It was good to feel the Dutch love for their country and history. Like the Urk fishermen who forged from their past a new future, the Dutch don ' t leave their roots behind. â&#x20AC;˘ Travel arranged courtesy of the Harrier Foundationand KIM-Roya/Dutch Airlines.

31

Maritime Museums ...

John A. Noble

A comprehensive guidebook and a great gift!

Art Auction

Sea History's Guide to American and Canadian Maritime Museums

Saturday,Nov.21,1992

Our maritime world is bustling with activity and ripe for exploration-and there are hundreds of organizations out there preserv ing our heritage. This book introduces you to them all!

At Christ Church Parish Hall 76 Franklin Avenue Staten Island ..NY

• Organized for quick reference • Travel-sized • 133 pages, 350 museums • Covers all exhibits, vessels, activities. • Index 1

•111 r..~.ll,..

11 -="111111•- listings, 97 photos

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Call or order from: NMHS PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566 •Tel: 9 14-737-7878

TWO MODERN SEA CLASSICS ~-11111

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Statcmc nl fi led 10- 1-92 requ ired by the Act of Aug. 12, 1970, Sec. 3685. Til le 39, US Code: Sea History is published quarterl y a t 5 John Walsh Blvd., Peekskil l NY I0566; mini mum subscription price is $ 15. Publisher and editor is Peter Stanford ; managing editor is Nonna Stanford; owner is National Mari time Hi s1orical Socie ty. a non-pro fi t corporation; all are located at 5 John Wal sh Blvd., Peekskill NY 10566. During the 12 months preceding October 1992 the average number of: A) copies prin ted each issue was 5 1,000; B) pa id circul ati on was I} so ld thro ugh dea lers, carriers and counter sales 4 19; 2) mai l subscri pti o ns I 0 ,739; C) total paid circulation was I0,986; D} free distributi on, samples, complimentary copies were 38,320; E) total dis1ribu1ion was 49,475; F) copies not distribut ed were I) office use 1,525; 2) return from ne ws age nts O; G} total=5 I ,000. 111cactual numbers forthesinglc issue preceding October I 992 are: A) tolal num ber printed 52,000; B} paid ci rculati on was I) sales through dealers, carriers and counter sales4 14; 2} ma il subscriptions I0,344; C}total paid c irc ul ati on I 0,758; 0 } free distribution, samples, complimentary copi es were 39,762: E} total distribut ion was 50,520; F) copies not distributed were I} offi ce use 1,480; 2) return from news agents O; G) tota l=52.000; I cert ify that the above statements arc correct and comp lele. (s igned) Norma Stanford , VP, Nati onal M ariti me Hi stori cal Society.

-----------------------

D An Island to Oneself

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D Rhyming in the Rigging (cloth)

Address --------------D Rhyming in the Rigging (paper) City/St ate/Zip_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ MCNisa#_ _ __ _ _ __ Check enclosed:$_ _ _ __ Add $3.00 shipping - CT residents add 6% sales tax

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32

PEABODY & ESSEX MUSEUM

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For information, call 508-745-1876

SEA HISTORY 63 , AUTUMN 1992

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Tall Ship Tales ''What a Real Cape Horner Can Do" The Boston-Liverpool Race 1992 Yes, it was a race, not a homeward passage. Ask anyone who was there once it started to blow, particularly those who had the privilege of sailing in the veteran Russ ian 4-masted bark Kruzenshtern when the old lady lifted up her skirts and showed those fore-&-aft children just what a real Cape Homer can do--well in excess of 18 knots in her case, and none of that surfing nonsense. Her best day's run is still subject to verification, but would have given the best of the clippers a good run for their money, and that despite the drag of twin propellers!

This was the final stage in a fourmonth extravaganza that had started in mid-April with a feeder race to Cadiz, from either Genoa (in my case), or from Lisbon. Thence, the united fleet raced over the Passat (Trade Wind) route to San Juan, Puerto Rico, via a stop-over in either Las Palmas, or Santa Cruz de la Tenerife. I had started as mate in the German bark Alexander Von Humboldt.

However, in San Juan an unexpected crisis created an urgent need for a new Chief Officer for the new Polish Brig FryderykChopin.Alexgenerously spared me to help them out. Designed by Zygmunt Choren, brand new, and the biggest brig in the world, she was a real racehorse with 12,700 square feet of sail on 182 feet of sparred length, and skysails on both masts.

After a great visit to San Juan, we sailed to Boston in easy stages, via Bermuda (pleasant), New York (not good) and Boston (excellent). Incidentally, the highlight of our New York visit was a welcoming ten-minute diatribe on what would happen to us if any of our crew set foot on land before the US immigration arrived-they took five hours to tum up!

In New York, only the Girl Scouts of the United States seem to have made a real effort. I hear New York lost money. By contrast, Boston certainly coined money, but none of us objected, because they gave everyone such a good welcome, and provided excellent support.

ThefleetfortheBoston-Liverpoolrace was smaller than for the trip over, but it was quite a respectable size, with 12 square riggers in Class A. The big ships started on 16 July at 4PM, in a flat calm.

In FryderykChopin wehad32 brandnew civilian trainees (12 girls and 20 boys-two as young as 15) and three 34

new watch leaders join just two days before the start, allowing only a few hours practice at sea to build on the two days "dry" training alongside. Depressing light airs, damp and fog, persisted for many days, and we had to beat to windward with a blocking high in the North Atlantic and icebergs too far south this year to permit a prudent track around the top. Undoubtedly, the Russian full-rigged ship Mir and the Swedish Navy schooner Falken made the best tactical judgments at this early critical stage, and they got away from the rest of the fleet.

There were temporary breaks in the

ger Club's inscribed butcher's cleaver, for having to make the most meals at sea during the race (they tookover25 days!) .

-FRANK SCOTT

Hawser-tossing and Harbor Crowds ASTA's Newport 1992 Rally

At the 4PM watch change on the Gazela, the Boston skyline can be seen receding off the starboard stern quarter. Off the port stern quarter the distant, white iceberg-shapes of tall ships outline the Grand Regatta fleet starting their race leg to Liverpool at this moment. There is little wind and the big square riggers are yet to set all sail. One mile and a half off our port beam is the USCG bark Eagle.

When the international Grand Regatta fleet headed out into the North Atlantic on July 16, the momentum of many weeks of sailing and port visitation carried the sail training barkentine Gaze la on to rendezvous with her American counterparts-and a few adventurous foreign ships-at Newport, Rhode Island. For the public the attraction was Tall Ships Newport '92; for the vessels and crews it was the American Sail Training Association's fifth Safety-at-Sea The Fryderyk Chopin sailingfromNew York. Rally. For the next few days, against the weather, which had us charging around backdrop of Newport's crowded peak with hope in our hearts, and regular season and a constant harbor-circling unpleasant squalls that caused us to take parade of spectator boats, captains would in sail in a hurry. It was some 15 days delicately balance the need to keep their before we picked a steady strong quar- vessels open to the public (at Pier 9, 5000 tering wind, with a succession of lows . people per day visited the Gaze/a) with rolling past, allowing the miles to click the desire to provide crew for ASTA's off nicely-274.8nm on our best day. Rally events elsewhere.

We finished at 5 past midnight, August Somehow, they pulled off the jumbo6, just as the weather pattern went light juggling act. While an appreciative public stamped the decks of tall ships, availagain , frustrating those behind us.

Mir took 17 days and 4.5 hours to able crew members matched their skills become the first Class A to cross the 1ine.

This completed the double for her, as she Dockside at Newport, Gaz.ela crew meet to plan had been first over in the west-bound a day of public tours and ASTA tournament. series, and this time she only had five yachts ahead of her boat-for-boat, despite the early conditions favoring them so much. On handicap it was a square rigger walkover, with the hard-charging Kruzenshtern first overall; Sedov, another Russian 4-masted bark, second; Mir third, Tovarischfourth, andFryderyk Chopin fifth. Falken, at sixth, was the z highest placed fore-&-after. ~ Captain Genady Kolomen sky of :f Kruzenshtern thus won the Vicki Scott ~ Memorial Captain's prize for the winner ~ ¡ of Class A, and, by contrast, the cook of the yacht Ohiyesa won the Square Rig- at:

g

SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

in hawser-tossing, bucket-brigade races, lifeboat races, knot-tying and a variety of other competitions. For their part, Newport-based AST A poured on real home-port hospitality concluding with an awards ceremony and party under a big top at Newport's Fort Adams Park.

"This has been a great success," declared an elated and relieved Nick Horvath, AST A program coordinator, "a real fulfillment of ASTA's goal of excellence in sail training." AST A has recently held a series of rallies and conferences to assist member groups in areas such as sail training program development, legislative efforts, fundraising and insurance arrangements.

At Newport, taking advantage of the tall ship turnout for the big events in New York and Boston, AST A brought together its biggest fleet ever, ranging from its largest member vessel Eagle on down to the small brigantine Black Pearl, AST A's founding vessel. Included were the brig Niagara, out of Lake Erie for the first time, "HMS" Rose, Providence, Pride ofBaltimore, New Way, Harvey Gamage, Spirit of Massachussetts, Lady Maryland and Quinnipiack. Adding some international competition to the event were the fourmasted Chilean barkentine Esmeralda (with a formidable cadet complement of 200), the Australian brigantine Young Endeavour and the new Canadian sail training barkentine Concordia.

Which vessel had the best crew members? Well, the awards appeared to go around quite evenly, but the most enthusiastic crew members, judged by the loudest cheers at the prize-giving, were Becky Sugden, 16, and Kara Thompson, 17, both from Maine and among the allgi rl high school cadet crew of the Harvey Gamage. For them, Newport was the icing on the cake after four weeks of what Kara dubbed with teenage relish "the experience of a lifetime."

-KEVIN HAYDON

•

"Friends in America:" A Beginning for Perestroika Kruzenshtern's Captain Reflects In 1974, NMHS Advisors Howard Slotnick and Frank 0. Braynard sailed aboard the Kruzenshtern as part of a worldwide effort to entice tall ships to New York forOpSail '76. It was a different time in the history of the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. Until the two-man envoy and the crew could break through and unite on SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

the ground of their mutual seafaring experience, Howard recalls feeling the coldwar tension that had characterized relations between the superpowers for many decades. It was at this time that Howard met Captain Genady Kolomensky, then serving as second mate on the Kruzenshtern and now captain of the Russian bark. Their continuing friendship would in its own way mirror the human forces at work over the last two decades to overcome the threatening confrontation of opposing governments.

AtOpSail 1992inNewYork,inJuly,the most recent episode of this story was played out against the background of a vastly changed world order.

When Slotnick went to meet the Grand Regatta fleet in San Juan, he had a question for his old friend: "How come Kruzenshtern is here? We heard you were not coming." Kolomensky replied that he had to come. He remembered OpSail 1976: "In 1976 we didn't know

Earlier this year, when Kolomensky found out about the Grand Regatta, he called his superiors. They told him he could come, but they had no money to pay for the voyage. With very little money aboard to pay for food (apart from the ruined ruble), the cadets and crew made a bold decision. They would forego their wages if the money they had was needed to buy provisions; they would rather go to the United States than be paid. "Somehow," said Kolomensky, "we will find friends in America." On a wing and a prayer, the Kruzenshtern joined the fleet in the Canaries and set out for America.

In San Juan, Howard Slotnick made a determination to help, but had to reassure Kolomensky, "this is not out of charity, this is out of friendship." He called his friend, New York attorney and philanthropist Norman Liss. Liss swung into action, contacting everyone he knew who could help. Kolomensky gave Slotnick a list of 54 items and, by the time he got back to New York, people were calling saying things like: "I'll take items 1-15 ," recalls Slotnick.

When the vessel arrived, New York's Zaro's Bakery delivered flour and butter, and bread and rolls each morning. The HuntsPointMarketAssociationandmany others also followed through. Every item on the list, beginning with five tons of potatoes and ending with 500lb ofchicken, ~ was provided by a willing New York. "By ~ the end of her visit we had 20 tons of food," says Slotnick, "more than the ·· Kruzenshtern could hold. So we provided ~ for four ships. On the morning of deparo. ture, cadets formed four lines along the The Kruzenshtern entering Boston harbor.

Brooklyn docks to take supplies to the what to expect. You don't realize that we Kruzenshtern and the other ex-Soviet ships had always been taught that America Mir, Sedov, and Tovarisch." was the enemy. When we came, we were This episode might have had its poitreated so well we realized that Ameri- gnant end in New York, but when Slotnick cans were not our enemy. We left with was asked to tell this story on Channel 5 in the feeling that America was a good Boston, during the city's tall ship parade, place and not like what we had heard." it started again. At 7 AM the next morning, To understand the effect of this, says the show's producer called to ask Howard Slotnick, you have to understand that what to do with the incoming truckloads these cadets are the cream of the crop, of donations. "Then," recalls Slotnick, carefully selected for training at sea. "Reebok, a Sail Boston sponsor, came Over the years, Kolomensky kept in touch down and took each Kruzenshtern cadet with the cadets, many of whom are now to their factory and outfitted them from high-ranking naval officers and head to toe. It was overwhelming." At the goverment officials. "They have never ship's farewell, Captain Kolomensky told forgotten what they saw and how well him, "Now I'm going home in a ship that's they were treated," says Kolomensky. like a restaurant."

Of the many tall ship tales that sailors He sees his ship as one of the forerunners of "perestroika" creating a ripple effect will take home this year, the story of the for the forces of change-"That is the Kruzenshtern may, once again, travel the farthest.

-KEVIN HA YOON reason why I had to come this time."

g

35

SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Tall Ships to Race Again, Soon When will tall ships again rally in American waters? Sooner than you think, if plans being made for an all-American tall ship 's race in 1994 are carried through. America's Sail, based in Long Island, New York, has invited all nine western hemisphere nations with sailtraining ships to participate in an inaugural race starting in Norfolk, Virginia at the Harborfest, June 3, 1994, and finishing off Montauk Point in Long Island.

The event will conclude with a parade of sail to New London, Connecticut on June 11. Originally called the Four Sisters Project (see Sea History 54, page 13), it was established to bring together the four sister ships built in Spain for Latin American countries: Gloria, operated by the Colombian Navy; Guayas, the Ecuadorian Navy; Simon Bolivar, the Venezuelan Navy; andCuauhtemoc, the Mexican Navy. The expanded program would includeCanada's Bluenose ll,Argentina's Libertad, Chile's Esmeralda, Uruguay's Capitan Miranda, and, of course, the USCGCEagle. The gathering is the brain-

child ofOpSail founder Frank 0. Braynard, who serves as Honorary Chairman for America's Sail. (America's Sail, PO Box 462, Oyster Bay NY 11771)

Sea Lion Fights for Life Some residents of Lake Chautauqua, New York, call it the "chainsaw massacre." They are upset about the damage inflicted on the replica 16th-century Sea Lion during her passage from the lake where she was built and sailed to Buffalo, New York, a move they strongly oppose and are asking the court to reverse. To transport the vessel overland, sections of the stem- and forecastles had to be sawn through and removed. Considerable damage to other parts of the ship also occurred during shipping.

Earlier this year the Chautauqua Lake Historic Vessels, Inc. (CLHV) sold the vessel for $1 to the newly formed Buffalo Maritime Society (BMS). The decision enraged former crew members and original builder Ernie Cowan who claim to have made earlier offers for the vessel which were not accepted. They have

organized a group called the New Sea Lion Crew to ask the court to return the vessel on the grounds that the CLHV charter did not permit disposal of the vessel to the Buffalo group. In July, pending a final decision, the court requested that the Buffalo group provide necessary bonds and insurance to secure the vessel and asked Ernie Cowan to make a report on her current condition.

(Contact Jack Dean, 8 Pratt A venue, Chautauqua NY 14722) Maritime Archaeology Archaeologists working at Abydos, in southern Eygpt, have discovered twelve ships dating to the third millennium BC. The September issue of Archaeology magazine reports each vessel to be encased in mud-bricks that follow the contours of the wooden hulls . These "boat graves" measure between 78 and 95 feet long and their location suggests an association between the burial of ships and the death of a pharaoh. Next year a team of archaeologists and conservators will excavate two of the 12

USS Celebrates SOth Anniversary

by Talmage E. Simpkins, President, United Seamen's Service

In 1942 , in the depths of World War II, President Roosevelt saluted the United Seamen's Service as "an instrument through which we may discharge a small part of our debt to merchant seamen."

After 50 years , USS flourishes today as a federally chartered nonprofit international welfare organization for seamen, with hotels and recreation and service facilities in major ports around the world.

H ere , USS president Talmage E. Simpkins comments on the USS mission of service to seafarers.

The genesis of the USS was the United States' involvement in World War II. There were USOs and the so-called Military Services Clubs, but nothing for the seafarers who were not welcome at these USOs or military clubs. It was necessary, therefore, to provide a facility to accommodate the seamen who carried the troops and the war materials to the various ports in the war zone.

Unfortunately, not many Department of Defense people thought about the welfare of the seamen. Fortunate! y, however, there were some who did. One, of particular significance, was President Roosevelt who was in the forefront of the effort by the maritime unions and 36

management to establish the USS. The war has long gone, as have the difficult conditions it brought to the seamen who sailed the ships . The all-out war conditions of World War II did not exist in the Korean and Vietnamese conflicts.

They did, however, create additional hardships for merchant seamen and the USS, once again, set up operations to help alleviate these hardships. While wartime conditions of that magnitude no longer exist, the " normal" hazards of "going to sea"-the isolation, the loneliness, the fatigue, the boredom and the shoreside parasites-still exist.

There is a tremendous difference in A seafarer's welcome in San]uan in the 1940s. traveling to a foreign country as a tourist majority of seamen on the ships of the with a pocket full of money and a tour world. These are seamen from other guide as compared to going ashore as a countries whose governments are unseafarer---0n a break from work-where able to provide for their welfare abroad. you can get into trouble by just stopping It is a reflection of compassion and the brotherhood of the sea that our merchant to look at the surroundings.

USS is a network, a vital link for mariners were in the forefront in urging seafarers and loved ones back home. USS to open its doors to all seamen of the USS is a " home-away-from-home" for world. This, we have done.

US merchant mariners , personnel of the US Armed Forces, and for seafarers of These remarks are abstracted from a fuller report in USS Reports, Anniverall nation s.

Although USS was established to look sary Issue 1992 , available free from after Americans at sea, there is another USS , l WorldTradeCenter#2161,New group of seafarers who constitute the York NY 10048.

SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

•MAINE

A Light Shines from Monterey's New Museum Down on Monterey's historic waterfront an old light shines in a new building.

Monterey has a new maritime museum. It is the new home for the Allen Knight maritime collection, which in 1972 formed the basis of the Monterey's Allen Knight Maritime Museum. Since that time, however, the museum's collection has quadrupled. The cooperation of the City of Monterey, who donated the land, and a large private sponsor allowed the museum to expand and accommodate its collection in a new 18,000-square-foot space called the Stanton Center, to open on October 31.

The pride of the collection, the Fresnel first order Jens from Point Sur Lighthouse, will shine from atop the new building. The 4,000-pound lens, containing 1,000 prisms, will be lit round the clock and rotate on its original turning mechanism. Other permanent exhibits will record Monterey 's history from the Ohlone people 's encounter with the conquistadores to the years of sardine fishing by Sicilians in the '30s and '40s that coined for Monterey the title of "Sardine Capital of the World." (MMM, 5 Custom House Plaza, Monterey CA 93940) Volunteers painstakingly clean the Fresnel lens. vessels. The excavation is co-sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University.

A Federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, has overuled a 1990 district court ruling allowing the salvors of the steamship Central America to keep all the treasure found aboard, an estimated $1 billion dollars on today 's market. According to the New York Times, the appeals court ruled 2-1 that several insurance companies deserve part of the gold treasure aboard the Gold Rush-era vessel which sank in a hurricane 160 miles off Charleston, South Carolina, on September 12, 1857.

Half of the insurance companies that paid the claim on the Central America are sti ll in business. The treasure-hunting group Columbus-America is operating a deep-water remote-controlled device at 8,000 feet to remove the gold.

The company will appeal the decision.

Museum News The continuing restoration of the world's largest co ll ection of historic ships moved another step forward with the recent engagement of the naval architectural company, British Maritime Technology, by San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. The team of architects serving at San Francisco combine a range of experience that includes restoration work on the USS Constitution, the USS ConstellaSEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

tion, the USCGC Eagle , the Cutty Sark and other historic vessels.

The company's first assignment will be to perform electrical system analysis and prepare plans for the restoration of the hull of the 1890 ferry Eureka to be undertaken late this year. The National Park Service has restored the steam tug Hercules and the scow schooner Alma without outside technical assistance, said Park Superintendent William G. Thomas, but he adds: "Now that we are moving to the more complex projects, we feel we need the best technical assistance available."

(SFMNHP, Bldg. E, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco CA 94123) Other news from San Francisco is the end of a seventeen-year pursuit by the Associates of the National Maritime Museum Library. In July, the organization signed a contract for the famous whaling library of Barbara Johnson. The entire collection of 15,000 items includes manuscripts , scrimshaw, paintings, gear and tools, and is more complete than the holdings of the Library of Congress.

(ANMML, Bldg. E, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco CA 94123) Under the auspices of the City of Paducah, a group of organizations and individuals in this Ohio River hub are actively pursuing the development of an Inland Waterways Maritime Museum.

The museum has engaged the museum design firm ofE. Verner Johnson & Associates to do preliminary development work.

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A decision by The Walt Di sney Co. to cease management of the RMS Queen Mary has left her owners, the City of Long Beach and the Port of Long Beach wrestling with questions surrounding the future of the famous 1,020-ft ocean liner. At the end of September, claiming substantial losses, Disney terminated its four-year lease of the vessel, which it has operated as a hotel and tourist attraction in Long Beach harbor, California. Built in 1936, PHOTO: uEEN MARY ARCH1vEs the liner's thirty-year history included a memorable spell as a troopship during World War II, when, as the fastest ship afloat she safelyeludedNazi U-boats to transport approximately 800,000 Allied troops to and from battle lines.

Some months ago, city and port officials called for proposals .

Michael Naab, Maritime Director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation reports that of the 18 received, 13 called for her scrapping or departure from Long Beach. Of the three viable schemes selected, one calls for her sale to Hong Kong The Queen Mary ; the "Gray Ghost" of World War 11 for use as a waterfront attraction in Kowloon. Beneficial features of this offer, says Naab, are the sale price, $20 million, and the estimated $20 to $47 million worth of promised refit work to be carried out in the Port of Long Beach. The Long Beach Port Commission has yet to give final consideration to a separate port development plan that would bring the Queen Mary from the outer side of Long Beach Island to the inner side, thereby increasing the ship 's accessibility. Because of the estimated $27 million in deferred maintenance needed by the vessel , observers hope fora quick solution.

KH Getting Around the Ships On September 25, "Old Ironsides," the Navy frigate Constitution, was carefully maneuvered onto keel blocks placed in the John Quincy Adams drydock next to the USS Constitution Museum , where she will rest for the next 13 months. One goal of the drydocking, which will prepare the famous frigate for her bicentennial commemoration in 1997, is to decrease Constitution 's "hog"-the inevitable sagging of the bow and stem of a ship over time. Repairs will include replacing several wooden beams and knees on the gun deck, 30% of the copper hull sheathing, all of the rigging, and the lower and middle sections of all three masts. A refurbished rudder will also be installed. (USS Constitution Museum, PO Box 1812, Boston MA 021 29) Another great vessel of a much later vintage recently completed a period of drydocking at the SouthWest Marine Shipyard on Terminal Island, California. The WWII Lane Victory spent a few weeks in May in drydock while sandblasting, painting, shaft, rudder and propeller work was carried out. The effort will have been to specially good purpose if a recent proposal to sail the

Lane and the two other restored US merchant vessels, the Liberty ships

John W. Brown and]eremiah 0' Brien, to Normandy in 1994 becomes a reality.

(US Merchant Marine Veterans WWII, PO Box 629, San Pedro CA 90733) San Francisco had hoped to host the Columbus ship replicas Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria as the centerpiece of the city's Columbus Day celebrations, October 10-12. But local and national organizers of the quincentenary celebration were unable to raise the $800,000 needed to tow the vessels through the Panama Canal. An estimated 800,000 people boarded the replicas during their extensive tour of the GulfCoastand East Coast this past year. Spokesperson David Knowland reports that the Spain '92 Foundation is starting the process of selecting a site out of the 14 US cities that have offered to take the vessels permanently. Until that time, the replicas will be moored at the Intrepid Museum in New York, where they remain open daily to the public and school groups.

Some feverish activity on the waterfront in Alexandria, Virginia, thi s past summer has led to a turnaround for the three-masted 125-ft schooner AlexSEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

andria (ex-Lind¢), a one-time Baltic

trader owned by the Alexandria Seaport Foundation. The vessel was listed for sale at the beginning of the year, but Captain Pete Hall, formerly of the Gaze la in Philadelphia, led volunteers in carrying out necessary hull and rigging work, and new sponsors are being sought. The accomplished repairs allowed volunteer crew to sail the 1928 vessel throughout the month of October. (ASF, 1000 South Lee Street, Alexandria VA 22314) Briefly Noted The Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey(SCI) has appointed a new director. The Rev. Peter Larom, of White Plains, New York succeeded the Rev. James R. Whittemore on October I. SCI board chairman Alfred Lee Loomis described Rev. Whittemore's 15-yeartenure as setting the Institute "on a significant path of growth, positioning SCI as a respected international resource on issues related to the dignity, well-being arid professional enhancement of seafarers. " (SCI,241 WaterSt.,NewYorkNY10038) The Council on American Maritime M useums (CAMM) and the North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) plan a joint conference at the Bermuda Maritime Museum, March 17-20, 1993. The theme of the conference is "Museums, Maritime History, and Underwater Archaeology." For information contact Dr. William Still, Program in Maritime History and Underwater Research, East Carolina University, Greenville NC 27858-4353.

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INVENI PORT AM R OBERT GASTON HERBERT II

(1906-1992) Bob Herbert, Advisor to the Society, died in Northport, New York, on February 7, 1992. The watchword of his life might have been the sailor's saying: "Do it right the first time, and then you've got something." He grew up in Sea Cliff, New York, and graduated from the New York State Nautical School in 1924.

There he sailed under the redoubtable Captain Felix Riesenberg aboard the Newport. Like Riesenberg, with whom he kept up in later life, Bob had a broad range of friends, from litterateurs to sailormen. He pursued the same devotion to good work in writing that he did in his career at sea as watch officer. He liked to send people notes on the stationery of the Bull Line and others he'd

SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

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Early Saturday evening an embarrassed naval officer handed the besieged General Vandegrift a message from Vice Adm. Richard L. Ghormley, informing him that because his ships were needed elsewhere, the Navy "can no longer support the Marines on Guadalcanal."

On the ridge an hour later, enemy flares burst overhead. Moving by their illumination, massive waves ofJapanese with fixed bayonets swarmed up the slopes.

All that night and the following night you could hear the coughing of the Raider's mortars, the long staccato bursts of the machine-gunners firing belt after belt, and their screams of pain as they replaced hot warped barrels with their bare hands. The Japanese were screaming too, and the Marine sergeants were shouting, "Ahoy Raiders! Raiders! Rally to me!" It was extremely close but at daybreak, Monday, the Marines were still holding the ridge's last knoll , and the Japanese were full in retreat.

President Roosevelt now saw that the 'Canal was shaping up into one of those decisive battles, like Waterloo and Gettysburg, in which both sides had resolved upon a showdown and prestige transcended strategic position. He directed his staff officers to "make sure that every possible weapon gets into that area to hold Guadalcanal."

Army troop divisions were on their way . Adm. William Halsey took over the fleet. Altogether, 34 naval battles were fought around the island, with 65 major warships sunk, roughly half Japanese and half ours. Sealark Channel, between the 'Canal and Tulagi, was rechristened lronbottom Sound.

The Japanese, having Jost 25,000 killed, left as they had come, by night. By then the world knew that General Vandegrift's troops had won a pivotal battle.

But to me that struggle was more than a strategic victory. It was , and is, eloquent testimony to the fortitude of man. Men generally do what is expected of them; usually that is very little. On the 'Canal they were asked to do the impossible, and the shining response of those Marines on the line is historic. I shall never forget them; nor should you.

WILLIAM MANCHESTER

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sailed with-all now vanished. We prized take on cleaning out an old fish stall to these, although (or maybe because?) they become the museum's first headquarusuallypointedoutsomeerrorwe'dmade. ters . He went on to set up a Girl Scouts An expert draftsman and modelmaker, unit, taking the gang to sea in my schooner Athena, whose antique he worked for Gibbs and gaff rig and GloucesterCox during World War II, and, later, for the man's hull he appreciated-he had been to Marine Model Co. Afsea in a fishing schooter his "retirement" at age 70, he worked as a ner as a teenager. His volunteer at the South ~ sailing primer for the "' StreetSeaportMuseum 3 Scouts is a classic, and should be publishedand the Maritime In- ~ we hope to do that. He is dustry Museum in the tJ survived by his son PeMaritime College at ~ ter 0. Herbert of Falls Fort Schuyler (formerly the New York ~:i:: Church, Virginia, State Nautical School). 0.. Robert Herbert aboard the Liberty and daughter Susan The model gallery was ship John W. Brown on January Samantha Brown of Seattle, as well as a named after him on his 25 , two weeks before his death.

80th birthday. grandson, two grandI first met Bob in South Street, where daughters and a great-granddaughter.

PETER STANFORD he showed up with his wife Karen to SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

THE S E

1rAJLJL tales made

History Bligh A True Account of Mutiny Aboard His Majesty's Ship Bounty Sam McKinney Paper $12.95 0-87742-355-5 Hard $22.95 0-87742-981-2 "The mutiny has always been an engrossing story, whether told as fact or fiction, and McKinney's retelling with historical accuracy is no less fascinating."

-Library Journal

Charting the Sea of Darkness The Four Voyages of Henry Hudson Donald S. Johnson Hard $22.95 0-87742-321-0 Using Hudson's original logs and the log of his mate Robert Juet, Johnson rebuilds the man and his times for us, bringing new insight to an explorer whose influence on history is far out of proportion to his recorded place in it.

Magellan Timothy Joyner Hard $24.95 0-87742-236-X "Joyner deserves kudos not only for producing this splendid biography, but also for crafting a narrative in which comparisons with past epics are unavoidable ... exhaustively researched, beautifully written, and utterly enjoyable to read ... "

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The Log of Christopher Columbus Robert Fuson Paper $14.92 0-87742-316-4 Hard $34.95 0-87742-951-0

".. .It is wonderful to read what Columbus noticed, puzzled over and named of his strange New World .. .Adventure, intrigue, hope, discovery, uncertainty and plenty of argument lie in this book ... history as it was written, mostly on the spot, fascinating and accessible to almost any good reader."

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Published by International Marine/McGraw-Hi ll , Inc. B lue Ridge Summit, PA 17294-0850 SHA

REVIEWS sailed for the London-based Muscovy Company and attempted the polar and northeast passages. He was blocked both times by the ice between Greenland and Nov a Zembla, bu the succeeded in reaching 80°23' north latitude, closer to the Pole than any mariner would get in a century.

The famous third voyage, begun as another try at the northeast passage for the Dutch, ended in Hudson 's navigation up-river, from New York Bay to the site of present-day Albany. The possible reasons why Hudson changed his course and headed westward for America on this attempt have been thoroughly discussed by historians. It is surprising to read in Johnson's preface that he uncovered some of this information only after he published an article on Hudson's four voyages which, expanded, became the present book.

Mate Robert Juet's log of the third voyage suggests a mutiny aboard the HalfMoonthatHudsonprobablyquelled through compromise, in order to pursue his real obsession: the discovery of the Northwest Passage so persuasively indicated by the explorations of Frobisher, Davis and Hudson 's friend, Captain John

Charting the Sea of Darkness: The Four Voyages of Henry Hudson, by Donald S. Johnson (International Marine{f AB Books/McGraw-Hill, Blue Ridge Summit PA, 1992, 256 pp, illus; $22.95hb) In 1607, the year of Henry Hudson's first voyage, the Spanish and Portuguese were aggressively harassing foreign sea traffic on the established southern routes to the markets of Asia. France, England and the emergent Netherlands were forced to find a new and, if possible, a quicker route to the Far East. There were three theoretical alternatives, all in the northern latitudes: a voyage across the North Pole; a northeast route along the Arctic coast of Siberia; and the fabled Northwest Passage through the upper half of the Americas.

In this new book on Hudson, Donald Johnson impressively presents the background, the log, and an interpretation of each of Hudson 's daring explorations of these possible new routes. In doing so, Johnson provides the first full-length study of Hudson in over 60 years and helps considerably to restore the English navigator's faded reputation.

On voyages one and two, Hudson

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Smith. Smith claimed that an opening in America, west to the Pacific, lay only a short distance north of the English colony ofJamestown; it seems likely that Hudson had secreted aboard the Half Moon Smith's new chart of that part of the Atlantic coast. Though he failed to reach China, Hudson discovered on this trip an irresistible access for European ships through the Appalachian barrier to the rich interior of North America.

Hudson's career ended with his murder. Led by his treacherous mate, Robert Juet, the crew on his fourth voyage cast Hudson and seven others on the ice in James Bay and sailed for home. Mr. Johnson fully presents and interprets the account, including the court proceedings against the mutineers, who were never convicted.

A great strength of Charting the Sea of Darkness is its clear and organized exposition and expansion of the material so fogged over in Llewelyn Powys's Henry Hudson (1928), until now the standard treatment of Hudson's achievement. Mr. Johnson ' s sections on ancient and contemporary cosmography and their relation to Hudson ' s own thinking are excellent. The crisp portions he devotes to figues like Plancius, Barents, Hondits, Weymouth and Gosnold, to name afew, are relevant and instructive.

The shps' logs, via Purchas, are incorporate( unabridged, and usefully rendered ilto modem English. Some may wish to skim the more routine entries.

Mr. Johnson writes for the enthusiastic lay reader, but he pursues the mechanics of navigation in ways that will satisfy the seasoned sailor. This book is a valuable resource to Hudson scholars and to students of sea history in general.

Coastal Maine: A Maritime History,

by Roger F. Duncan (W.W. Norton & Co., New York NY, 1982, 544pp, illus; $29.95hb) Roger Duncan has spent over fifty years sailing New England waters and doing his shoreside research for six editions of A Cruising Guide to the New England Coast. Now, from his study overlooking Maine's Linekin Bay, Duncan turned his attention to maritime Maine from the first European contact to the uncertain future faced by Maine 's boatbuilders and fishermen. Coastal Maine is an ably-skippered cruise SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

REVIEWS through 500 years of often turbulent historical waters. Profusely illustrated, and with informative bibliographic essays and explanations of terms rather than the usual footnotes, the book is aimed at the intelligent and inquiring lay person rather than the scholar.

Coastal Maine is a welcome supplement to, but not a complete replacement for, William H. Rowe's 1948 Maritime History of Maine, a classic which has been recently reissued in paperback.

Duncan repeatedly cites Rowe as one of his useful sources, but the books differ markedly in emphasis. For example, Duncan devotes less than half the space that Rowe does to a discussion ofMainebui ltclippers, but explores the greatearly20th century coal and lumber schooners in far greater depth . Duncan has assembled a fascinating and extensive array of information on the early exploration of the coast, written very much from a fellow-sailor's point of view, and discusses the boatbuilding and fishing industries in some detail. In these three important areas, Duncan's work is a vast improvement over Rowe's narrower point of view.

In his foreword, Duncan, over-modestly, I think , claims that he is "not a professional historian and not expecting to discover much new truth." He is not, he says, much of a rummager in archives. He leaves to others the deciphering of "logbooks and customhouse records." If he has not unearthed some previously unknown bit of writing, he has brought to the interpretation of published material considerable experience and wit.

Duncan is at his best when he interprets history from his own considerable experience or, in more modem times, listens to the voices of still-living participants in the Maine coast's evolving saga. In short, where Duncan can empathize, he is an incredibly effective writer, more so than in the passages in which he writes from a sense of historical duty.

Overall , Coastal Maine is a magnificent book, a good, long rewarding read.

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Trouble on Board : The Plight of I nternational Seafarers, by Paul K. Chapman (ILR Press, Ithaca NY, 1992, 176pp, notes , bib, index; $32.00hb, $14.95pb) Those of us who sail, or used to sail, on sh ips run by responsible owners will

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find this book difficult to believe. Yet century seafarers left legitimate ships the plight of international seafarers is for pirate ships to protest their treatment very real and is indirectly affecting ev- by bad owners and captains. The pirate ships were organized on egalitarian prinerybody at sea.

After the war, the established tradi- ciples and demonstrated some of the tional maritime nations ran ships where social justice that had been denied them the crews were treated in a decent man- on lawful ships.

Somehow I don ' t think this is the ner. That is largely still the case on the ships of these nations. But there are answer in the late 20th century.

MICHAEL MOORE many owners, mostly operating under flags of convenience, who have little or Adapted from the Summer 1992 issue of no regard for their crews and look upon The Seafarer, the magazine of the Marine Society, Lambeth Road, London UK. a ship in economic terms only.

Although we might not have experienced them, most of us have heard about The Magnificent Mitsc h e r , by these horror ships and the conditions on Theodore Taylor (Naval Institute Press, them. Here, Paul Chapman, founder and Annapolis MD, 1st ed. 1954, reissued former director of the Center for Seafar- 1991, 364pp, illus, bib, index; $26.95hb) As a whole, the US admirals who ers' Rights, a division of the Seamen's Church Institute in New York, spells fought the 1941-45 naval war in the them out in a story which will shock and Pacific were a rather taciturn lot. But none was more reticent than Admiral astonish seafarers.

There have always been some Asian Marc A. Mitscher, commander of Task seafarers but now the world ' s seafarers Force 58 and the premier carrier leader are predominantly Asian. Some of the of World War II. Even to his closest larger ships they sail in are deliberately subordinates the diminutive, wizened multi-national, making it less likely that pioneer naval aviator was often an crews will be able to organize a protest. enigma. A man of few words with an Unions are discouraged and in some almost psychic styleofleadership, "Pete" cases effectively banned.

Mitscher let his deeds do his talking.

Earning his wings in 1916, he parThis is not just vague talk and rumor.

Paul Chapman presents a vast number of ticipated in most of the key developcases. Some of the worst occur on cruise ments in naval aviation, including the ships where the contrast between the 1919 NC flight across the Atlantic, and conditions enjoyed by the passengers the evolving role of aircraft carriers. In and endured by the crew are most marked. 1942 he commanded the carrier Hornet There are no contracts, food and accom- (CV-8) for the Doolittle raid against modation are disgraceful, corruption is Japan and in the Battle of Midway. widespread, bribery is an accepted way From early 1944 the fast carriers of the US oflife and the wages are incredibly low, Pacific Fleet matured under Mitscher's not just by our standards but by any tutelage into perhaps the single most efstandards. Anybody who complains, fective weapon of the war. causes any sort of trouble or joins a First published in 1954 and long out union will never again work at sea. of print, Theodore Taylor's classic biThe author says that "the threat of ography has been reissued by the Naval being abruptly terminated hangs over the Institute Press with a new introduction heads of seafarers like storm clouds." by Jeffrey G. Barlow. Before his unThere are no methods of appeal against timely death in 1947, Mitscher burned bad reports, so many seafarers suffer in his personal papers, so Taylor had to rely on a relatively narrow selection of silence.

Paul Chapman proposes seven re- the available official documents and, forms to change matters, including more important, recollections by unions, permanent contracts, two on/ Mitscher' s nearest associates. The retwo off, regulated overtime, worker par- sult is a warm , anecdotal, personal porticipation in decisions and an end to trait which helps immensely in taking "phantom owners." He admits that "his- the measure of this unique man. Undertory shows that those in positions of standably, the biography lacks the inpower do not yield their power volun- terpretation which would follow from a tarily," so changes can only be brought comwrehensive analysis of the events. about by seafarers themselves. Change That remains for future historians to in the foreseeable future seems unlikely . accomplish.

He suggests that in the early 18thJOHN B. LUNDSTROM SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

Disaster in the Pacific: New Light on the Battle of Savo Island, by Denis and Peggy Warner, with Sadao Seno (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 1992, 299pp, illus, index; $26.95hb) On August9, 1942, a Japanese cruiser force surprised and sank four Allied heavy cruisers at practically no cost to themselves. This badly shook up a US Navy that needed shaking up to bring its figh ting abi lity up to the level of the highly trained, dedicated Japanese forces.

Fortunately for the Allies the Japanese did not follow up on this tactical success by destroying the Allied troop transports that were the object of the raid. The new information developed by the authors, together with their balanced evaluation of the personal and technical factors involved, make this the definitive acPS count of a much-debated battle.

Vancouver's Voyage: Cha rting the Northwest Coast, 1791-1795, by Robin Fisher (Douglas and Mcintyre, Vancouver(foronto and University of Washington Press, Seattle WA, 1992, 131 pp, charts, illus, bib, index;$35 .OOhb) As the last temperate coast in the world to be explored by Europeans, the Pacific Northwest of America became, for a few years at the end of the 18th century, the theater for a clash of their competing imperial and commercial interests. The Spanish arrest of English trading vessels at Nootka in 1789 led British Prime Minister William Pitt to threaten Spain with a war that she was unprepared to sustain. In the resulting Nootka Convention, Spain agreed to compensate Britain for the vessel seizure and to recognize English rights to navigate, trade and settle on the coast.

Details of the territorial settlement at Nootka, however, remained to be worked out and, with the question of the Northwest Passage still unresolved to the satisfaction of influential "cabinet navigators," it was decided to send a naval expedition to reinforce British interests and to undertake a thorough charting of the coast from California to Alaska.

This enterprise , commanded by George Vancouver, is the subject of a well-written and extensively-illustrated new book by Robin Fisher, Professor of History at Simon Fraser University.

After overviewing the geography of the coast, the background of Britain 's clash with Spain, Vancouver's career and the preparations for the voyage, Fisher detai Is the progress of the expediSEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

The Abraham Lincoln of the Sea: The Life of Andrew Furuseth, by Arnold Berwick It is assumed that slaver y in the United States ended with the E mancipation Proclamation, but American seamen were held in bondage for another 52 year s.

This is the story of a Norwegian sailor who devoted his life to securing freedom and justice for seamen.

"Andrew Furuseth was famo us for nearly half a century, but has pretty much faded from memory. However ... a good writer got caught up in his unique story and has put it between the covers of this book. It is a grand San Francisco waterfront tale and ... an anchor to windward against old Andrew slipping back into obscurity."

- Karl Kortum, Curator and Founder San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park An Odin Press Book.

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REVIEWS tion-the charting of Puget Sound and circumnavigation of Vancouver Island in 1792, the laborious mapping of the numerous bays, inlets and islands of the central coast the following year and a final working down from Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound to Port Conclusion in 1794. In the end, over I 0,000 miles of coastline were charted in the greatest detail-most of it from small boats that left the ships for weeks on end.

The particular delight of this book is that almost every page includes at least one illustration-a drawing by one of the talented midshipmen who served as Vancouver's artist, an engraved chart from the 1798 Atlas or one of photographer Gary Fiegehen 's stunning photographs of the coast especially commissioned for this book. The photographs are linked into the text through quotations from Vancouver's journal.

Another strength of the book is that the native peoples are woven into the story throughout. Fisher is at pains to point out that the Indians had inhabited the region for ten thousand years and had long ago established a highly organized, culturally and technologically sophisticated society. He provides a sensitive analysis of their fleeting contact with Vancouver and his men.

Fisher and his photographer have provided a clear, concise and fast-paced narrative, a real feel for the nature of the coast and a sense of Vancouver's amazing achievement; for the more serious student this is an ideal appetizer for Kaye Lamb's masterful study of the voyage and the edition of the journal published by the Hakluyt Society in 1984.

ROBIN INGLIS

Mr. Inglis is Director of the North Vancouver Muse um and Archives and the editor of a series of essays, Spain and the North Pacific Coast, published this year by the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

A Ship to Remember: The Maine and the Spanish-American War, by Michael Blow (William Morrow & Co., 1992, 496pp, maps, photos, bib, index; $27 .50hb) With the centennial of the SpanishAmerican War approaching, general histories and specialized studies of the war will appear with increasing frequency.

Michael Blow has weighed in with this fine history of the USS Maine and the Spanish-American War. Blow weaves two stories into a general narrative of the war. First he describes the deployment and destruction of the secSEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

ond-class battleship Maine in Havana Harboron February 15, 1898, using excellent technical detail and a profusion of firsthand accounts to set the background for the rush to war. Then he goes into a narrative description of both naval and military campaigns with fascinating vignettes of the many characters involved.

The question that has intrigued historians is, of course, what actually caused the destruction of one of America's newest battleships on that Tuesday evening in 1898. Reviewing the numerous theories expounded through the years, Blow comes to the conclusion that the mystery of the Maine "will forever remain unsolved."

HAROLD N. BOYER, Director Marple Public Library Broomall, Pennsylvania The Yankee Whaler, by Clifford W. Ashley (Dover Publications, Mineola NY, first published 1926, 1991 repr., 156pp, illus; $10.95pb) Clifford Ashley, an artist of the school of Howard Pyle, went to sea in the whaleship Sunbeam out of New Bedford in 1904, to record a vanishing way of life. In his introduction to Ashley's book, Robert Cushman Murphy, who had also gone a-whaling for the same purpose (and wrote his own book about it) says: "He describes as no other author has done the multifarious duties of the cooper, the whalecraftsman, the rigger, the subtleties of boat gear and of storage, the homely whims and prejudices of the most conservative and most practical of men." Besides his own voyage, Ashley records the ways of whales and fishermen as he sought them out in old records and shorefront conversations-all enriched by black and white reproductions of Ashley's marvellously evocative paintings of whaleships at sea or laid up PS in the old port of New Bedford.

built the Golden Hind, with valuable detail on Drake's life afloat and ashore; however, the book falls short of catching the depths of Drake's purposes, and the magic touch he brought to almost everything he undertook. For that, go back to Corbett.

Columbus , by Fe lipe FernandezArmesto (Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York, 1991, 218pp, illus, notes, index; $22.95hb, $1 1.95pb). A splendidly balanced, brief, colorful and scholarly biography, a very good read, worthy of a fuller review, which it will get in these pages in our next issue.

A Square Rig Handbook : Operations, Safety, Training, Equipment, by Frank Scott, et al (Nautical Institute, 202 Lambeth Road, London SEl 7LQ, UK, 1991, 120pp, illus; ÂŁ30). From a checklist for abandoning ship to a list of German and Norwegian sailing terms, this useful compendium is founded on the author 's experience at sea under square rig since age 14. Very clear exposition, abundant diagrams and illustrations.

Sir Francis Drake, by John Sugden (HenryHolt&Co.,NewYorkNY, 1992, 353pp, illus, bib, index; $29.95hb). Excellent scholarship including recent discoveries like the fact that Drake himself SEA HISTORY 63, AUTUMN 1992

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Full color, limited edition prints from Bev's original detailed pen & ink with watercolor wash paintings Color Brochure Available with business size S.A.S.E.

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TANGO Around The Horn The World War II Voyage of America's Last Large Sailing Sh ip Chronjcied by the men who sailed her; Au thor: Lawrence Barber 255 pages; 35 original photographs ISBN: 1-880827-01-8 $13.95 + $3 P&H; Mail check to: Oregon Maritime Center & Museum 113 S.W. Front Ave. Portland, OR 97204 503-224-7724

The Ancient Mariners: Seafarer s a nd Sea Fighters of the Mediter ra nean in A,ncient Times, by Lionel Casson (Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, orig. ed. 1959, 2nd ed. 1992, illus, 244pp, notes , index; $39.50 h b, $12.95pb). Enlarged and updated to reflect archaeological discoveries, this is an authoritative and gloriously colorful introduction to ancient Mediterranean seafaring. â&#x20AC;˘

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WRECKERS' MUSEUM Oldest House in South Florida tells of Key West wrecking history.

322 Du;al St. Key West FL 33040

New and Notable Magellan, by Tim Joiner (International Marine, Camden ME, 1992, 365pp, illus, appen, notes, bib, index; $24.95). A full account of the life of the exceptionally able but grim and difficult man who changed our world by leading the first voyage to circumnavigate it.

U.S. Lighthouses

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Americas Cup Classic Gear!

Coffee mugs, patches, pins and programs with insignia of America's Cup '92 still available in very limited supply. These are the Official America's Cup Souvenirs, approved by America's Cup Organizing Committee, San Diego. Once sold, they will never be made again. Contact: Kathy Sadler, Museum Store San Diego Maritime Museum 1306 N. Harbor Drive San Diego, CA 92101.

Or call 619-234-9153.

TROUBLE ON BOARD The Plight of International Seafarers Paul K. Chapman "Marvelously readable, graphic, well-organized and very informative." -Harvey Cox "One hundred and fifty years after Two Years Before the Mast, Paul Chapman has written a sequel, a similarly violent story of seafarers virtually without rights."-William Sloan Coffin, Jr. Paperback $14.95, Cloth $32.00 ILR Press, Cornell University Ithaca NY 14853-3901 607/255-2264

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