MARINE plex iglass container was built to hold the trunk in a protective capsule of sea water. In the fa ll of 1990, the trunk was retrieved and taken to the campus of Ohi o State University in Columbus. There, under the guidance of professors from the the Department of Tex tiles and Clothing, including a speciali st in archaeological tex tiles, it was opened and its contents systematicall y examined and prepared fo r furth er study. The opening of the trunk brought with it many strong emotions. After studying the Central America fo r so many years, the team knew the people on board like old friends. Looking at thi s unopened trunk, they were nervous and exc ited. It had belonged to someone on the Central America-but who? About some of the passe ngers and crew, such as Addie and An sel Easton , and Bill y and Virgini a Birch, a great deal of info rmati on was avail able. About many others, such as men like D. Fisher and J. Irving, nothing was known but their names. To ease a tense moment the team joked with each other, " If there are minstrel programs or bird seed in it, we ' ll know it belonged to the Birches. Or maybe it belonged to the Eastons or Judge Monson." There was reall y little hope of determining the orig inal owners at all. Could di aries , letters, photographs, and the like survive fo r 133 years in a trunk one and a half miles deep in the ocean? No one knew. As each item was delicately removed from the trunk it was pl aced in a water bath and unrolled fo r pre liminary investigation. Nex t, the items we re li fted from the bath , smoothed out on a fiberglass screen, and pl aced on a rac k in a freezer. It soon became apparent that thi s trunk belonged to a well -to-do married couple. Inside we re a man's shirts and a woman ' s petticoats, men 's socks and women' s stockings, ni ghtshirts and ni ghtgowns, and long johns and bl oomers. The team became even more excited. All the women on the Central America were saved, and at least a littl e something was known about most of these women and their husbands. Thi s meant that whoever the trunk had belonged to , they were probabl y not strangers to the researchers. Item after item came out of the trunk , but nothing indicating to whom they once be longed. There were items like due ling pi stols, jewelry, and even a readable issue of the New York News. Then a small obl ong bundl e of materi al was 30
pl aced in the bath and unroll ed. It proved to be an embroidered dress shirt, very well made and handsome. Near the wai st there was an inscription of some kind. We looked closer; the writing was legible. It was a name: "A. Ives Easton. " Pandemonium broke out. The trunk had belonged to Ansel and Addie Easton , two people very well known to Columbus-America researchers, and very much admired. No one had seen these clothes since 1857, and the last people to see them had been An se l and Addi e , when the trunk was pac ke d . Team me mbe rs couldn ' t help thinking how peculiar it was that they were among the few people in the world to remember the Eastonstwo people not related to the group at all , but who through this shipwreck exploration, they had come to know more intimately than theirown great-grandparents. The researchers couldn ' t he lp wondering what Addi e wo uld say if she knew that 133 yea rs later a group of scienti sts and hi stori ans was examining her dress ing gown s and petti coats with such av id attenti on. Kn owing Addie as they thought they did, they didn ' t think she ' d mind . She seems to have been so curious and ac ti ve, so wa rm and humorous, and so lack ing in pretension, that she wo uld probabl y find the whole idea fasc inating and amusin g. Most of us hope to be remembered in some way after our deaths. The Central America had largely been forgotten. Now it will be remembered. The people who died, as well as those who survived, will be remembered too. Adventurers, risktakers, ex plorers of a new world , they were people who had dared life and limb to travel to the golden land of oppo1tunity--Califo mi a. They would probably be intrigued and delighted to learn that a new generation of explorers has located the final resting place of the SS Central America. •
Charles E. Herdend01fis prof essor emeritus of limnology and oceanography at Ohio State University. Dr. Herdend01f serves as science and education coordinatorfo r the SS Central America Proj ect. Judy Conrad is a historian with ColumbusAmerica Discovny Group . She is editor of the book Story of an American Tragedy: Survivors' Accounts of the Sinking of the Steamship Central America. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of staff and directors of the Colum bus-America Discovery Group, especially Robert D. Evans.
From Antwerp to Maine, the Pierhead Art of De Clerck In August 1899, the painter Aristidius De Clerck died in Antwerp of pulmonary tuberculos is. His passing excited no great notice, fo r in art circles he was a nobody and always had been. It is doubtful , a hundred years later, that he will yet make an impress ion on the world of art, for De Clerck was a Belgian pierhead artist who wo rked the docks of Li verpoo l and Antwerp striking bargains with visiting captains and crew for a quick study of their vessel- for a cheap price. Virtuall y every major nineteenth-century seaport in Europe or North America boasted a few pierhead painters who lived and died in simil arobscurity. So why the recent exhibition of De Clerck paintings at the Maine Maritime Museum? Well , first of all , a number of hi s hundred s (perhaps thousands) of paintings feat ured Maine vessels, but more to the po int, as maritime writer and hi stori an Dr. Kenneth Martin points out in hi s li ve ly 17-pageex hibit catalog"The Maritime Fol k Art of A. De Clerck," thi s is a genre in whi ch slight dev iations from the norm can be con sidered major ex pressions of a ship portraiti st 's individuality . The late arti st and hi stori an Roger Finch described De Clerck 's wo rk as among " the few pierhead paintings about which there can be no question of attribution." De Clerck, in fact, enjoyed a large and loyal cli entele of wo rking mariners. The Scandinav ians, who espec iall y liked hi s work , knew him as " the Rembrandt of Antwe rp. " It is Martin 's assess ment that "The more ex peri ence he gained, the more he simplified hi s style," and "the more he simplified hi s style, the more favo r he found with the nautical community." De Clerck 's work in effect transcends mere documentati on of vessels to become folk ait. It is thi s quality that serves as a focus fo r this interesting exhibit ex tended through April 18 and recentl y enlarged with the addition of several newly- located De Clerck paintings . The De Clerck show is just one of a growing number of marine art ex hibits at the Maine Maritime Museum . For 1993, museum curator Robert Webb is putting together "Patterson in Maine," a retrospecti ve of the work of Charles Robert Patterson (1878- 1958) concentrating on his connections with the state of Maine. Webb has for some months been searching out Pa tte rson paintings which have as their subje ct the waters of New England SEA HISTORY 64, WINTER 1992-93