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