Sea History 065 - Spring 1993

No. 65

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SPRING 1993

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

STEAM AND SPEED, p ART II: How Steam Power Changed the Ocean World Memories of the Liner Era THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC New York: Sally Port to Victory

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TWO SPECTACULAR NEW LIMITED EDITION PRINTS by marine artist William G. Muller "View from South Street, New York in 1892" In this moonlit view, we look over the East River and Brooklyn Bridge from South Street at Fulton Ferry, as the full-rigged ship Largo Law sets sail with the tide on a September night in 1892.

In a limited edition of 950 signed and numbered prints at$175. 00 Image size: 20 1/z "x 29 1/4'' Sheet size: 27" x 35 1/4" Printed on 120 lb. acid-free stock.

"New York Harbor during the height of the great steamship era, 1935" The legendary liner Normandie steams out of port, past the Manhattan skyline and Statue of Liberty, as the venerable liner Aquitania arrives from Europe amid the bustling harbor traffic on a late afternoon in September, 1935.

In a very limited edition of just 450 signed and numbered prints at $150. 00 Image size: 18 1/s" x 28" Sheet size: 23 3/4" x 33" on 100 lb. acid-free stock.

Available through:

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY 5 John Walsh Blvd., PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566-0068 For credit card orders phone 914-737-7878 Artist's proofs and remarqued prints also available. Please inquire.

Please add $12.50 for shipping & handling. New York State residents add your local sales tax.

ISSN 0146-9312

No. 65

SEA HISTORY

SEA HISTORY is publi shed quarterly by the National Maritime Historica l Society, Charles Point , PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566_ Second class postage paid at Peekski 11 NY I0566 and additional mailing offices. COPYRIGHT © 1993 by the Nat ional Maritime Hi stori cal Society. Tel : 914 737-7878.

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

CONTENTS 4 6 8 11

MEMBERSHIP is invited. Plan kowner $ 10,000; Benefactor $5,000; Afterguard $2,500; Sponsor $1,000; Donor $500; Patron $250; Friend $I 00; Contributor $50; Fami ly $40; Regul ar $30; Student or Retired $ I 5. All members outside the USA please add$ I0 for postage. SEA HISTORY is sent to all members. Indi vidual copies cost $3_75 .

OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Chairman , Alan G. Choate; \lice Chairmen, James Ean, Ri chardo Lopes, Edward G. Ze linsky; President & Secretary, Peter Stanford; Vice President, Nomrn Stanford; Treasurer, ancy Pouch; Trustees, George Lamb, Bri an A. McAllister, James J. Moore, Ludwig K. Rubinsky, Mai-shall Streibert, Samuel Thompson, Dav id B. Vietor; Chairman Emeritus, Karl Kortum OVERSEERS: Charles F. Adams , Townsend Hornor, George Lamb, John Lehman , Clifford D. Mallory , J. Wi ll iam Middendorf, fl , Graham H. Phi ll ips, John Stobart, William G. Winterer ADVISORS : Co-Chairmen, Frank 0. Braynard, Melbourne Smi th ; D .K. Abbass, Raymond Aker, George F. Bass, Francis E. Bowker, Oswald L. Brett, Dav id Brink, William M. Doerfl inger, John S. Ewald , Joseph L. Farr, Timothy G. Foote, Thomas Gillmer, Richard Goo ld-Adams, Wa lter J. Handelman, Charles E. Herdendorf, Steven A. Hyman, Conrad Milster, Edward D. Muhlfeld , William G. Muller, David E. Perkins, Richard Rath , Nancy Hughes Richardson, Timothy J. Runyan, George Salley, Ralph L. Snow, Edouard A. Stackpole, John Stobart, Albert Swanson, Shannon J. Wall , Raymond E. Wallace, Robert A. Weinstein , Thomas Wells, Charles Wittholz AMERICA SHIP TRUST: lntemationa/Chairman, Karl Kortum ; Chairman , Peter Stanford; F. Briggs Dal ze ll , William G. Muller, Ri chard Rath , Melbourne Smith, Peter Stanford, Edward G. Zelinsky SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor, Peter Stanford; Executive Editor, Norma Stanford; Managing Editor, Kevin Haydon; Curator/Assistant Editor, Justine Ah lstrom ; Accounting, Joseph Cacc iola; Membership Secretary, Patricia Anstett ; Membership Assistants, Bridget Hunt , Er ika Kurtenbach, Grace Zere ll a.

ADVERTISING: Telephone 9 14-737-7878.

SPRING 1993

12

DECKLOG LETTERS MEI PROFILE: LIVING HISTORY ABOARD THE C. A. THAYER , Nancy Martling OPINION: US FLAG SHIPPING; A MATTER OF NATIONAL SURVIVAL-AND MORE, Lester Rosenblatt THE BA TILE OF THE ATLANTIC, Peter Stanford NEW YORK: SALLY PORT TO VICTORY, Joseph F. Meany , Jr.

18 REMEMBERING THE LOSS OF THE DORCHESTER , Vernon Pi zer 20 MEMORIES OF THE LINER ERA: TRANSATLANTIC CROSSINGS IN THE 20s AND 30s, Ralph Freeman 24 MARINE ART: THE LIVES OF LINERS 29 MARINE ART NEWS 30 STEAM & SPEED, PART II: HOW STEAM POWER CHANGED THE OCEAN WORLD , Peter Stanford 36 SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS : BA TILE OF THE ATLANTIC REMEMBERED, PHILADELPHIA MARITIME MUSEUM MOVES , OPSAIL LOOKS AHEAD, NORMANDY '94 41 REVIEWS 47 DESSERT: THE RETURN OF HM COAST GUARD CUTTER VIGILANT, David Hewer COVER: "Shanghai River," by Kenneth Shoesmith, oi l on canvas, 36" by 55".

Dominating her exotic surroundings in Shanghai, the Blue Funnel Line steamer Ixion "literall y bursts upon the senses with the power of a visual explosion." The lxion is one of eight steam-powered ocean liners featured in "The Lives of Liners," in the "Marine Art" section of this issue. (Courtesy of Ulster Museum , Belfast)

Our seafaring heritage comes alive in Sea History From the ancient mariners of --..

Greece and Rome to the real 1\ story of the Co lumbus voyages to the heroic efforts of seamen in World War II, Sea History brings thi s exciting and challenging aspect of our hi story ___ to life. Stay in touch with what is being learned in thi s field as each issue brings new insights and new

discoveries, from archival research to underwater archaeo logy. We are also the American Ship Trust, which works to save ships of hi storic importance. As a member, you' ll receive Sea History four times a year, as - welI as other reports and notices of ann ual and other meetings.

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 HISTORY quarterly. Please enroll me as :

D $30 Regular D $40 Family D $50 Contributor D $100 Friend D $500 Donor D $1000 Sponsor D $250 Patron

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DECK LOG "Listen to me, 0 coastlands," said the prophet Isaiah when he wanted his message to travel far beyond his native Israel, "pay attention, you peoples from far away!" He turned to the seacoast because that's where the ships werethe ships that connected up distant lands and could carry a message to remote populations.

Cargoes and people came to move more and more cheaply and easily around our water-girt world in the 2,500 years after Isaiah called on the coastlands to get his message out beyond Israel. Then, little more than 150 years ago, the advent of the steamship on the world's oceans began an enormous acceleration of this process, accomplishing much greater movement of trade and peoples than in the previous millennia.

We looked at the beginnings of this transformation of the world in Sea History 64, and we look at its culmination in this issue, in our series "Steam and Speed."

Along with people and cargoes moved ideas and even purposes-invisible but infinitely valuable, history-changing exports. Like Isaiah's message of so long ago, which has transcended not only space but time, these exported influences have gone on working among mankind until much of the world today, including even the great Russian superpower, practice liberal, parliamentary government under constitutions that guarantee individual rights, in a total reordering of the world of two hundred years ago.

That democratic community, united by oceans and its prevailing English language, was challenged twice in this century by European military assault. In both the resulting World Wars, German armies triumphed in the opening battles, only to be borne down ultimately by the combined weight of the democracies, plus, in World War II, a totalitarian Russia sustained by the weapons and supplies of the oceanic community.

New York was the principal sally port for the American part of this effort, which had a determining impact on the outcome of the war. In this issue, we look at New York as a wartime seaport, and begin our story of the Battle of the Atlantic, the vital struggle to keep the sea-lanes to England and Russia open in the face of the German effort to cut those vital arteries on which the whole Allied war effort depended.

PETER STANFORD

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LETTERS Recollections of the Central America I am personally interested in the saga of the Central America as told in Sea History 64. My great-grandfather was one of those rescued from the stormy sea by the Norwegian bark Ellen, when the Central America sank. He was nine years old at the time, and I heard the story many times when I was a child.

It is pleasing to know that the young people of the salvage crew are as interested in the historical and scientific aspects of the discovery as in the gold.

JANE RENARD

Edmonds, Washington

Stoking the Rice's Boilers I received a complimentary copy of Sea History as a result of the association of your organization and the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York. Having served in both the maritime industry and the US Navy following my graduation from the academy, I found the articles in your publication both informative and interesting.

The article "Steam and Speed, Part I" brought back memories of working on the Emory Rice, formerly the old Nantucket. My class brought the ship down from Boston to Kings Point in 1942. The main plant was a coal-fired horizontal steam reciprocating engine and the boilers were hand fired. I learned how to stoke boilers as well as strike down the coal from the bunkers (ugh!) in the many hours we stood watch in the fire rooms.

I heartily endorse your efforts on behalf of the maritime industry. I have enclosed my membership dues to join the Society.

JEROME L. WOHLSTEIN Bainbridge, New York The Emory Rice engine, which steamed on coal shoveled by Dr. Wohlstein half a century ago, was saved at Karl Kortum' s initiative, stored in San Francisco , and subsequently returned to Kings Point, where it is now on exhibition as a working display from the age of steam.-ED. A Wooden Frigate in WWII I note with interest that the Battle of the Atlantic will be featured in the Spring issue of Sea History, as I had first-hand experience as a reserve ensign on Admiral King's staff aboard the heavy cruiser Augusta from April to Decemberof 1941.

Most people find it hard to believe that afterthe war started I had a year of sea duty aboard the US Frigate Constellation.

The Admiral had to spend more and

more time in Washington DC and realized that the Augie could not be wasted moored in Newport, so he transferred his staff to the Constellation. Although the scuttlebutt was that he put his flag there, instead of on much more suitable space on the beach, in order to draw sea duty pay, I always felt the Admiral was drawn back to the ship because he was assigned to her in June of 1901 for his first duty after leaving Annapolis.

In January of 1942, King was relieved by Admiral Ingersoll who continued to run the Atlantic Fleet from the old frigate. Ingersoll did not have the military bearing most admirals sought to convey, but he was a brilliant tactician and, while moored in Newport, he lusted for real sea duty when his ships were fighting the Battle of the Atlantic.

In February of 1943, I was transferred to Admiral Hustvedt's staff aboard the new battleship Iowa . After lengthy trials and training we went back to the yard in great secrecy. We later fo und out this was to install a bathtub in the admiral 's cabin for President Roosevelt, who was sneaked aboard for transportation to the Mediterranean with Admiral King, General Marshall and General Arnold for conferences at Cairo and Teheran with Churchill, Stalin and Chiang Kai-Shek.

These were lengthy meetings and we were afraid the war in the Pacific would be over before the mighty Iowa got into it.

I wish you fair weather and following seas.

JOHN R. NORRIS Pinehurst, North Carolina

Sailing on the Edge Thanks for your most attractive brochures about the Society's cruise program. There is an ancient Hindu thought from the Rig Veda that nothing is comprehensible except by virtue of its edges.

Perhaps this is why some sailors journey so far from the crowded centers of commerce and society to seek the furthest boundaries of life-both psychological and geographic. Perhaps, as Rockwell Kent, Desmond Holdredge, and other Northern voyagers found, it is easier to comprehend the world, and ourselves, from the perspective of more remote borders of experience.

In recent years, I have sailed the remote shores of Newfoundland, with its abandoned outports and scenes of terrible loneliness and isolation. I find the people and their plight to be a compelling story. As we approach the 500th SEA HISTORY 65 , SPRING 1993

SUPER DETAILED SHIP MODELS UNBELIEVABLY DETAILED METAL WATERLINE MODELS FROM EUROPE. anniversary of Cabot's voyages, NMHS might consider a study voyage to the "edges" of Atlantic Canada.

RENNY STACKPOLE, Director Penobscot Marine Museum

the rest of the book is more accurate.

MICHAEL COHN New York, New York The book has this right.-Eo.

In "Shipnotes," page 36ofSea Hist01y63, Correcting a Rescue I always look forward to some fine reading and viewing when Sea History arrives. Page 22, Winter 1992-93 shows David Blanchett's "Rescue from the Thistlemore" on Peaked Hill Bar. I recognized the scene right away, for my father had a photo of the rescue hanging in our front hall. I believe the correct date for the grounding was 1922, and not 1892. Father was working for the T . A. Scott Co. at the time and his diary entry for February 8, 1922, reads: "Guardsman proceeded to Peaked Hill Bar with Str. Addie to assist Br. SIS Thistlemore ashore on the beach inside bar."

Also, in the photo the Lyle gun is aimed for the deck area where the ones to be rescued could retrieve the line, not ahead of the bow as in the painting.

Perhaps the artist sacrificed a good aim in favor of the vanishing point.

ELIZABETH BEATTIE Belfast, Maine William P. Quinn of Orleans, Mass., also wrote to correct the date to 1922, pointing out that in 1892 Captain Gracie and his crew would have belonged to the US Life Saving Service, as the Coast Guard was not organized until 1915.-ED.

A Sea Gift for the Young Living only one block from our beautiful Pacific, I would like to send a subscription for our new Carlsbad High School Library. I am certain that many of the students will find valuable information and much joy in the issues.

KAY CHRISTIANSEN Carlsbad, California It is a goal of NMHS' s Maritime Education Initiative to make our maritime heritage more accessible to schools. Thanks to Ms. Christiansen and others, over 250 gift memberships have been given so far this year.-Eo. ERRATA

Regarding Dr. Dunne 's review of Mutiny, I don ' t know who made the mistake, but Lord Howe (Black Dick) is a different man from John Jervis, Earl St. Vincent. Lord Howe was well beloved by the fleet 's enlisted men for hi s humane viewpoint while John Jervis was known as a strict disciplinarian. Hope SEA HISTORY 65 , SPRING 1993

we referred to Sir Walter Raleigh's failed settlement at Roanoke , Virginiawhereas, of course, it was at Roanoke Island, in Croatan Sound, some 250 miles away in North Carolina. Warren Moorman of Salem, Virginia, in pointing this out, adds that Captain Christopher Newport's relief voyage was to Jamestown in 1608, with follow-up voyages in 1610 and 1611 , in appreciation of which the colonists named today 's city of Newport News, at the mouth of the James Ri ver, after him.

In "Steam and Speed, Part I," our author said the big ships of the final epoch of deepwater sail " made it a rule to stay 300 miles offshore" to avoid being caught on a lee shore. Andrew J. Nesdall ofWaban, Massachusetts, acknowledging the desirability of a good offing- particularly from such dangerous comers as Cape Hom-doubts there was such a 300mile rule. Wecan 'tfind 300milesspelled out anywhere but offer this from Irving Johnson 's Peking Battles Cape Horn: "The next day we got within one hundred and twenty-five miles of Spain, and the captain thought this was too close. So we turned and headed back toward England to get more sea-room."

Also in " Steam and Speed," our author committed the solecism of referring to the "Pacific & Oriental Steam Navigation Company." Albert Charles Rees of Lafayette, Louisiana, points out: "The famous steamship company with service between England and the Iberian Peninsula and thence to the Near East was and still is the ' Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company."'

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PRESIDENT & CmEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER THE MARINERS MUSEUM The Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia, offers its over 100,000 annual visitors and international collecti on of maritime items including ship models, figureheads, paintings and decorative arts, scrimshaw and antique boats. There are interpretive ex hibits, fiber-optic maps and computeri zed educati onal programs. The library includes 70,000 volumes, 350,000 historic photographs and more than one million archival items. The Journal is published quarterly.

The President is the chief executi ve officer of the museum, responsible to the board for all aspects of the institutions operations. This includes the development, preservati on and interpretation of the collections, research, conservation and development of the park and lake, and stewardship of the financial resources. The president also is responsible for external outreach including public relations, educational programming and membership. Finally, but most important, the president acts as the spokesperson for the museum locally, nationall y and internationally. The successfu l candidate should have a national reputation in either museum administration or maritime affairs, with a preference toward museum administration. He/ she now may be an associate director of a large museum or the director of a smaller museum , or the president of an academic or other not-for-profit institution. While maritime experi ence is not a pre-requisite, a passion for the subject matter of the museum is essential.

Responses should be sent to:

Malcolm MacKay, Managing Director Russell Reynolds Associates, Inc. 200 Park A venue New York, New York 10166 The Museum is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer.

5

MARITIME EDUCATION INITIATIVE PROFILE:

"The Age of Sail" An innovative living history program aboard the C. A. Thayer in San Francisco

by Nancy Martling "Mr. Meader, I told you to bring me an sign aboard our 19-hour Age of Sail proexperienced crew. This is not an experi- gram "for a time not exceeding 12 calenenced crew. They look like a bunch of dar months" and travel back to the year landlubbers, Mr. Meader, landlubbers! 1906. San Francisco lies before us in Do you expect me to sail my vessel with ruins, devastated by a great earthquake this rabble? You stand to forfeit two and fire. Our vessel , the C. A. Thayer, has months' pay, Mr. Meader, if you have fulfilled her temporary role as a floating not brought thi s mob up to snuff by hospital and now sets about to carry out sundown," bellows Captain Quinn. A her normal role: that of a lumber schooner. wave of panic, shock and excitement The Captain's problem is that his original engulfs the crew of fourth-grade stu- crew, with the exception of the First Mate, dents as they begin their 19-hour voyage Second Mate, and Doctor (the cook) have aboard the historic tall ship C. A. Thayer. jumped ship. The students sign aboard as Maritime Programs, a division of a replacement crew and begin tasks deOrange County Marine Institute which operates through the San Francisco Mari"Elementary and middle school time National Historical Park, is dedistudents sign aboard ... and cated to offering quality educational protravel back to the year 1906." grams for schools and organizations in Northern California. Our goal is to provide-through an experience that mir- signed to prove to the Captain that they are rors the life of a 1906 sailor-thought- a worthy crew. All students, male and feful , compelling, and accurate maritime male, are called "lads"-the traditional education programs for the greater San term for foredeck hands-and we deFrancisco Bay Area community. mand a lot from them. "Never is never an While participating in our programs, option" we tell them . students learn to follow orders and perEach crew has certain tasks they need form various tasks used by sailors in to complete to the Captain 's sati sfac1906, applying the method of learning tion . The rigger crew moves cargo weighfrom their mistakes. The subject matter-the ship--is motivating, and the rewards-intellectually and tangiblygive the students an exciting goal. We want children to see themselves as part of history , not as observers. We want them to see history as a live, continuing, thriving entity.

Programs move from a classroom setting to an overnight visit on a tall ship and culminate with a sail on an actual brigantine in San Francisco Bay, show- z ing the children that learning is not Jim- ~ ited to reading a textbook in a classroom j and that learning is fun . We want them to ~ make the connections that will spark !!! their imaginations. The skill s we help 8 < them learn are not exclusive to the C. A. :E Thayer or maritime industry; they are ~ skills that can be applied to everyday iE · · w h h h f Lads aboard the C. A. Thayer in San situations. e start t em on t e pat Francisco learn to use a Bosun' s chair. joining together separate skills to complete new tasks, whether it be the team- ing over 100 lbs. by means of a block and work and communication needed to or- tackle. They also teach every lad , as well ganize a slide show and presentation on as the teacher, how to safely usea Bosun 's their voyage at a Parent' s Night, to build chair. The boat crew teaches every lad a 20-ft replica of the C. A. Thayer for how to row a 26-ft longboat, often against display at their City Hall, or to use me- 3 to 4 knot currents. The galley crew chanical advantage to win a game of tug cooks all meals on a wood-burning stove o'war against adu lts. and raises the staysail at sailing time.

Elementary and middle school students The bosun and deckhand crews keep bell

°

6

time, throw heaving lines, set hawsers, and use capstans. They also teach everyone how to handle hawsers when sailing time approaches.

The tasks are always possible, but always a challenge. We have designed them to require a minimum of 3 to 4 lads working together. When a crew with one leader begins to work as a cohesive unit, we combine it with another crew, forcing two units with two leaders to act as one. This combining continues until the entire group is working together.

Everyone-lads, parents and teachers-has something to learn from our programs. The lads, 9 to 12 years old, gain confidence and self-esteem through the successful completion of increasingly difficult tasks .

Parents admit that they often do not give their ch ildren enough room to make mistakes or enough credit for being able to work through problems. As parents, they are used to stepping in at the first sign of frustration. We give them a glimpse of how capable their children are at problem solving when guided, not led , through the possibilities. More than a few parents have thanked us for letting them see a side of their child that they can respect and admire, a side that does not often show itself at home.

A fifth-grade lad discovered this process and recorded it in the night watch logbook: "This is pretty cool. At first I was nervous that I would not be able to carry out my tasks correctly and immediate! y. I have no more fear because I have learned that I really do have what it takes to be a mate. My crew is doing an excellent job of obeying all of my commands."

Teachers get the opportunity to see a new approach to education. By using peer teaching, or cooperative learning, and object-oriented learning, the lads are more motivated and develop a stronger sense ofresponsibility. The teacher becomes a guide in discovery instead of a lecturer.

Teachers who have participated year after year request programs in the early part of their school year because they want their students to experience the bonding of the class and the self-confidence that our program provides. ,!,

For more information contact: Dan Stetson , Director of Maritime Affairs, Maritime Programs, 2905 Hyde Street, San Francisco CA 94109-1225, Tel: 415 292-6664.

SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

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7

OPINION:

US FLAG SHIPPING:

A Matter of National Survival-and More

Remarks by Lester Rosenblatt at the SUNY Maritime College, November 14, 1992 First, let me dispel a few myths. One is that one is speaking to a "friendly choir" when one speaks to the "marine industry. " Actually, one is addressing a fractionated group, each segment pulling in its own direction .

Another myth is free trade in the industry. In reality it is largely a question of marginally less managed trade versus marginally more managed trade .

Parenthetically, let me state that we should, as a nation , maneuver within these parameters to create, without the "subsidies" of yore, the regulatory/legal/ economic conditions that will make it possible for US shipbui lding and shipping to exist-and even be profitable! It can be done. Shipbuilding is a field where some retaliation by us against protectionism by other countries is called for in the national interest.

I've recently heard in Washington another myth to the effect that the US is

We can control most of the world's sea lanes, but when we really need to use them, we probably won't be able to .... faced with no credible international threat in the next decade. In 1933 , Adolf Hitler came to power in an impoverished Germany. The rest is history. Only six years later, he started a world war that killed thirty to forty million, or more, and did change the face of the world foreverand it could have been far, far worse.

Mankind is a murderous species and anyone who does not recognize that there are a dozen or more really hot flash points in this world, now, isn't looking.

The last myth I ' d like to look at is the assumption in much of our sea lift planning that we will be able to ship cargos over the ocean without attrition. You simply must embrace a strong belief in the tooth fairy to go along with this! And please don ' t ask me to rely on all future conflicts being brief. Was that the case with World War II? Korea? Vietnam?

No more myths. Facts: We won World War lI and much of the credit must go to our merchant shipyards. From 1939 through 1945, six years, this nation built over 5,000 ocean-going merchant ships.

Now, this vast nation is building just one.

Look at our nation's contradictory ocean policy. On the one hand, we have 8

what is probably the world 's most powerful navy; on the other, we have a very small merchant marine and nearly zero merchant shipbuilding.

We can control most of the world 's sea lanes, but when we really need to use them, we probably won't be able to, for lack of ships and shipbuilding.

After World War II we had by far the world' s largest merchant marine. In fact we were left with an overabundance of ships. For almost fifty years, we have not built any real series of merchant sh ips. One possible exception, "theMariners"thirty-five sh ips-and they Liberty ships on the production line during WWII. were built almost forty years ago. Building one car at a time, one can't tread this path. Otherwise, we probably compete with General Motors or Honda. won't see the survival of this essential Can we al low ourselves to become ingredient of the national economy and the victims of extortion? Can we permit defense. It is a matter of national surour trade (and we are by far the world's vival-and more. The re-creation of the largest trading nation) to be held hos- maritime prowess of the United States tage? If we have no shipbuilding yards will certainly improve our balance of and a merchant marine of insignificant payments and provide employment for a size, we will surely, one day , be "held large number of persons of all ski ll levup," and have to pay exorbitant freight els, and thus be of economic good to the rates--or worse-to buy the carriage of nation. .t our cargos from and to our shores.

The US shipping and sh ipbuilding An alumnus of the State University of industries are necessary to the economic New York Maritime College, at Fort well being of our nation and to its very Schuyler, Lester Rosenblatt is head of survival. I pray our new administration the prominent naval architecture firm will have the good sense and guts to M. Rosenblatt & Son.

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The Battle of the Atlantic How It Was Nearly Lost and Ultimately Won at Frightful Cost "The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril," said Winston Churchill, wartime leader of Great Britain. He was not an easy person to frighten. As newly elected Prime Minister he confronted a victorious Germany which had conquered and overrun Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium, and knocked France out of the war. England then stood alone against Germany and Italy, which had joined Germany to share the spoils.

The British saved their army from the French beaches at Dunkirk in May 1940, and in the ensuing months won the Battle of Britain, rebuffing the German Luftwaffe ' s attempt to control the skies over England, a necessary prelude to invasion. Without that air cover, no invading army could get across the English Channel in the face of Britain's Royal Navy.

So Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of England , was called off in the fall of 1940, and the German planners turned their attention to the invasion of Russia the following spring.

As it became clear that there would be no immediate invasion of England by Germany, the combatants turned their attention to the broad waters of the North Atlantic, across which England was supplied with grain for its people and oil for its ships and aircraft. Here, in World War I, a quarter century earlier, the Germans had

by Peter Stanford very nearly succeeded in sinking enough ships to starve the British Isles, and as 1940 faded into 1941 , the attacks of German submarines against the English Atlantic convoys intensified. America's sudden entry into the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941 dramatically changed the war's balance.

As Churchill, who almost alone among the leaders on the European side of the Atlantic understood the full potential of America 's warmaking ability, remarked, he never doubted from that moment the

"The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril."

-Winston Churchill victory of Allied arms.

But through a stunning lack of preparedness, a lack rooted in complete failure to coordinate military policy with America 's aggressively pro-British foreign policy, the opening months of 1942 brought the most disastrous shipping losses of the entire war. With almost complete impunity, a relatively small fleet of U-boats, no more than a dozen at any time, ranged the US East Coast sinking ships at more than twice the rate the shipyards could build new ones. Already stretched thin in the Atlantic war and in

its efforts to reinforce Russia in its deathstruggle with the invading German army, Britain furnished escort vessels it could ill spare to help bolster US defenses against the German onslaught by sea.

But Admiral King , the American Chief of Naval Operations, did not even institute convoys until almost half a year had passed. Then , spurred by President Roosevelt 's personal intervention, and by Anglo-American conferences in which the true magnitude of the disaster taking shape in the battle against the Uboat in the Atlantic became all too clear, the US put its full weight into the battle.

After frightful losses which delayed Allied victory, the Battle of the Atlantic was won. The turning point came in May 1943, a year and a half after American entry into the war.

After another year had passed, on 6 June 1944, British, Americans, Canadians and others from overseas, invaded France in their turn. This brought the war to an end just short of a year later. Everything, at each step along this difficult path to victory , depended on the ships crossing the Atlantic and delivering their cargoes. In future issues of Sea History we shall follow that effort, without which World War II would have been lost with utter certainty, and with disastrous consequences for humankind. J:,

Behind the fast new destroyer Eugene A. Greene, Liberty ships ride at anchor waiting to load cargo in New York to sustain Allied soldiers fig hting to roll back German conquests in Africa, Europe and Russia. Th e low-slung, high speed warrior is needed f or the most important ballle of World War //. The Libertys with their civilian crews will suffer higher casualties than the Navy in this battle-hut they are undoubtedly happy to see this classy Navy support with them as they fa ce the dangerous reaches of the North Atlantic.

New York Sally Port to Victory

USS Radford (DD-446) departs New Yark on August 5, 1942, bound seaward at the height of the Battle of the Atlantic. The city she leaves behind her is humming with the greatest maritime effort ever put f orth by a US seaport.

by Joseph F. Meany, Jr. In September 1939, when Germany intional resources; and the special cultural atvaded Poland and England declared war on tributes of the New York metropolis itself.

First was the remarkable geographic situation of New York the aggressor, America stood by, concerned but little affected.

Americans were aroused first by the commercial aspects of the harbor. As Life magazine told its readers in November 1944, war-the surge in British orders for war materiel. In New York "With its seven bays, four river mouths, four estuaries, it is by far harbor, groups of gray British merchant ships commissioned the world 's best and biggest natural harbor and most of the to carry those goods to an embattled Britain stood out oddly at world's major ports could easily be tucked into it." their Upper Bay anchorage. Glimpsed by passing ferry passenFrom the north, the Hudson River linked the harbor with the gers, they received little more than cursory note . This was not continental interior, channeling the produce and products of America's war. the upper mid-west to New York via the Great Lakes and the All that changed after December 7, 1941, when the Japanese New York State Barge Canal. To the east, Long Island Sound attack on Pearl Harbor plunged America into the war. By January provided an avenue from the harbor to coastal New England 1942, the frequent sight of burning freighters on the night and the Atlantic beyond. skyline-torpedoed by U-boats just miles off the Eastern seaBy 1942, the Army Corps of Engineers delineated six board-quickly brought home the reality of war to horrified hundred individual ship anchorages able to accommodate coastal residents. Many of the stricken vessels had just left ocean-going vessels awaiting berthing or already loaded and New York. awaiting convoy assignment and sortie. On the peak day in A new sense of mission seized the nation-a mood keenly felt 1943, there were a total of 543 merchant vessels at anchor in in New York City. The most cosmopolitan of American cities, New York harbor, a figure very close to maximum capacity.

Sorties could be conducted southward through the Narrows New York now found that the ocean that linked it to Europe had become a battleground. As veteran merchant ship captain Paul and Lower Bay, out the main ship channel between Rockaway McHenry Washburn reflected in John McFee 's recent book Point and Sandy Hook, past Ambrose Light and into the Atlantic; Looking For a Ship, "In New York, the front was at the sea buoy." or eastward via the East River, Hell Gate and Long Island Sound.

Throughout the war, entrance and egress were monitored by The port was destined to become the sally port of a tremendous, all-consuming effort to hit back. No metropolitan area in the US Harbor Entrance Control Posts located at Fort Wadsworth on the Staten Island shore of the Narrows, and Fort Schuyler on the would be transformed as New York City was.

The preeminence of the Port of New York in the US effort Bronx shore of Long Island Sound. Advance posts were estabthroughout the Second World War stemmed from a combina- li shed at Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook, Fort Tilden on Rockaway tion of factors-geography; economic, industrial, and educa- Point, and at Fort H. G. Wright on Fisher's Island, New York, 12

SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

During World War II the Port of New York saw 21,459 convoy ship clearances in a total of 1,462 convoy departures. cated the problem and it is remarkable that no casualties were opposite New London, Connecticut, in Long Island Sound.

Harbor entrance control presented a complex problem. The caused by this type of "friend! y fire. " The Upper Bay was also protected by an anti-submarine net primary requirement was an immediate, accurate identification of all in-bound vessels. This determination had to be made and anti-motor torpedo boat boom across the Narrows. Paswell to seaward of the Ambrose Channel. It was critical that no sage through the net and boom was afforded by a 900-foot gate hostile vessel be allowed to enter the main ship channel, which and a 600-foot emergency gate on the Brooklyn shore. Strong at the outer harbor entrance was only 2,000 feet wide and 40 currents of four knots or more swept through the Narrows feet in depth. Sea mines or block ships sunk in this restricted making passage of the net and boom a hazardous undertaking area could result in the closure of the Port of New York for in the best of circumstances, complicated by the constant months, an event of potentially disastrous consequences. congestion of ship traffic through this natural bottleneck.

In the event, the Port of New York was closed for only one Despite the critical nature of the ID requirement, at the end of the war, the Navy estimated that the system was effective only twenty-four period, 13-14 November 1942, after the discovery of sea mines in the vicinity of the main ship channel some two 60 to 70 percent of the time.

In addition to the complex geography of the harbor, the sheer miles southeast of Ambrose Light Ship. Of the ten mines laid by volume of traffic strained the system. During World War II the U-608 on the night of 11November1942, five were swept and Port of New York saw 21,459 convoy ship clearances in a total detonated between 13 and 21November1942. It was only with of 1,462 convoy departures. By the end of 1942, the Harbor the end of the war in Europe and the capture of the records of UEntrance Control Posts [HECPs] were expected to monitor over boat Command that it was discovered that a total of ten mines 900 merchant ship arrivals per month, not including naval were laid. A search for the five remaining mines was made in vessels, and an approximately equal number of clearances. May 1945 without results.

It was critical to ensure a smooth and uninterrupted traffic These averages rose to 1, 100 per month in 1943, and would peak at 1,200 per month in early 1944. The first six months of 1944 flow at the entrance to the Ambrose Channel. Ships could not saw 7,121 arrivals and 7,238 clearances. During the build-up to be allowed to congregate outside the harbor entrance where D-day, convoys totaling as many as 110 vessels departing in a they would be easy prey for U-boats. In order to speed up the actual boarding and examination of vessels, this responsibility single 24-hour period were not uncommon.

Retired seaman Jack Quimby, as a boy of 13 living on the was given to the Coast Guard Pilot Command-pilots would West Side at 157th Street and 11th Avenue, remembers the be boarding vessels in any case in order to guide them into port. sudden overnight disappearances of vessels anchored north of The task fell to the 123 professional pilots licensed by New 72nd Street in the Hudson. "Sometimes," he recalls, "as many York and New Jersey to guide ships into and out of the Port of as "75 ships-tankers, Libertys, Victorys-tied 3 abreast and New York. They were organized into powerful guilds that dated back to the age of sail; leaving a channel for tugthe New York and New Jerboats" would ride at ansey Sandy Hook Pilots Aschor up the Hudson waitsociations and the Hell Gate ing to sail.

Pilots Association.

Anny 6" coastal batThe U-boat offensive on teries in Forts Hancock and the East Coast placed conTilden were responsible siderable stress on the civilfordefenseoftheAmbrose ian system of state and federChannel, secondary coastal ally licensed pilots. As a rechannels and approaches.

NEW JERSEY z suit, theSecretaryoftheNavy The primary alert battery o-'fordered the Coast Guard to at Fort Hancock remained ~ assume military control on 24-hour alert through~ over pilotage. On 15 Deout the war and was, in ~ cember 1942, thefirstmemtheory, prepared to fire in ~ bers of the New York and 15 seconds upon suspi~ New Jersey Pilots Associacious vessels or those vio~ tions were commissioned lating entrance procedures. ~ as temporary officers in the Fishing vessels, patrol It Coast Guard Reserve. Pilot craft, and coastwise traf~ vessels and their crews were fic complicated problems al0: likewise enrolled. of identification and con;'i Munitions convoys were trol. "Bring-to" shots ~ often routed through the across the bows of uni~ more protected waters of the dentified vessels, fired at 6 East River, Hell Gate and ranges of 2,000-7 ,000 j Long Island Sound, guided yards, were often tricky ATLANTIC OCEAN when there might be 50 or by the twenty-three mem~ bers of the Hell Gate Pilots more vessels in the vicinNEW JERSEY ~ Association based on City ity of the ship in question. g; Island in the Bronx. The Conditions of reduced visibility further compli- ' - - - - - - - - - - - --=--":....1..- - - - - - - - - - - - ' 8 Coast Guard reserved high

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SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

13

The Port of New York boasted a developed shoreline of651 miles .... (It) included some 1,800 docks, piers, and wharves of every conceivable size, condition, and state of repair. ... praise for this tiny band: ... the tremendous volume of waterborne traffic . .. was to tax their abilities to the utmost. Tugs and tows going upriver could not follow the rule of keeping to the right,for their tows would have ended up in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Instead, a short distance before reaching Corlears Hook, they started pulling for the Manhattan shore, and on reaching the Hook , headed for the Brooklyn shore to even off. Aside from narrow, confined channels and treacherous currents and mid-stream rocky areas, there were 22 changes of course in the 16-mile run.

Between 1 January 1942 and 31 May 1945, the Hell Gate pilots took 14,539 vessels through these waters without loss of a single ship .... A large number of vessels carried sufficient ammunition to . . . destroy [a large portion of] the metropolis and millions of people.

On their busiest day of the war, the Hell Gate pilots guided fifty-eight ships out into Long Island Sound.

Maritime management of the port was vested in the office of the Port Director, New York [PDNY] , a naval function subordinate to the Third Naval District. Broadly interpreted, PDNY 's mission "was to be the link between the Navy and other governmental and private shipping interests and was to effect the coordination of harbor activities and overseas and coastal shipping which would be necessary in time of war." The office would experience explosive growth after it became operational on 15 October 1939.

On that day, Captain Frederick G. Reinicke, USN (Ret) reported for duty to the Commandant of the Third Naval District as Port Director. He established himself in a one room office at the Third Naval District Headquarters with a staff of one officer assistant and a secretary. On 8 May 1945, the day on which hostilities with Germany ceased, four floors of the Whitehall Building at 17 Battery Place were occupied by approximately 1,200 Naval personnel who were actively engaged in managing the world's biggest marine traffic job.

Ships entering the harbor, once through the submarine net and MTB boom , found themselves in the busiest harbor in the world. At the peak of wartime effort, the Port of New York accommodated a daily average of over four hundred ships and averaged a ship clearance every fifteen minutes.

The second factor contributing to the preeminence of the Port of New York was the economically developed condition of the port itself. Eleven ports in one, really, the Port of New York boasted a developed shoreline of 651 miles comprising the waterfronts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, the Bronx, and Queens as well as the New Jersey shore from Perth Amboy to Elizabeth, Bayonne, Newark, Jersey City, and Hoboken.

The Port of New York included some 1,800 docks, piers, and wharves of every conceivable size, condition, and state of repair, 750 of which were classified as "active" and 200 of which were able to berth 425 ocean-going vessels simultaneously. These docks and piers gave access to 1, 100 warehouses containing some 41 million square feet of enclosed storage space.

In addition, the Port of New York had 39 active shipyards, not including the huge New York Naval Shipyard located on the Brooklyn shore of the East River. These facilities included 9 big-ship repair yards, 36 large dry docks, 25 small shipyards, 33 locomotive and gantry cranes of 50-ton lift capacity or greater, 5 floating derricks and more than 100 tractor cranes.

Some 575 tugboats worked the port.

14

In early March 1943, the view through the windows of the Port Director's offices at the Battery offered a typical wartime image of the great anchorage of New York's Upper Bay and up the Hudson River. Well over 100 merchant ships could be seen.

Fully loaded and low in the water, they would all swing first one way and then another as the tides turned. They were waiting to be formed into convoys SC.122 and HX.229 and commence their hazardous passage across the Atlantic. As was often the case, there were so many ships in the harbor that there were a number of collisions. From the book Convoy, Martin Middlebrook 's classic study of the fate of these two convoys, comes this description of some of the difficulties at anchorage, in the words of Captain W. Luckey on the MY Luculus: One evening the San Veronico was being anchored ahead of us when she dragged and struck my ship which in turn caused us to drag into mid-stream. Fortunately, a tug was passing at the time with a pilot and we were able to obtain his services before any further damage could be done . We then moved and anchored further up river just below the George Washington Bridge. Whilst at anchor we encountered more ice on the ebb tide and at times it was impossible to get ashore on the launch.

Another evening my third officer informed me that the Greek cargo vessel who was anchored ahead of us was dragging her anchor. We tried every way possible to attract her attention but without success and we were struck on the port bow. The cargo vessel dragged the length of our ship before she was clear. During this time we had our engines going to keep the weight off our anchor chain otherwise we would have dragged downstream also . I shall never know how the anchor chains were never fouled .

Between Pearl Harbor and VJ Day, more than three million troops and their equipment and over 63 million tons of additional supplies were shipped overseas through the New York Port of Embarkation.

First established in 1917, the Army's New York Port of Embarkation constituted the primary military command in the Port of New York. In actuality a "massive network of rail lines , highways, waterways, piers, and storage houses," between 1941 and 1945 it would grow from a single installation, Brooklyn Army Terminal, to a total of ten port terminals scattered through Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island and New Jersey, and would employ over 55,000 men and women.

The NYPE included: • Brooklyn Army Terminal, the largest warehouse in the world, with more than 3,800,000 square feet of storage space and room to unload 450 railroad freight cars • Port Johnston Terminal , Bayonne, New Jersey, the principal shipment point for combat vehicles • Claremont Terminal, Caven Point, Jersey City, New Jersey, the principal terminal for explosives and ammunition bound for the warfronts of Europe and the Mediterranean •Howland Hook Terminal, Port Ivory, located on the Arthur Kill, on the back side of Staten Island, the principal storage area and shipment point for petroleum, oil, and lubricants arriving from the refineries of Bayonne and Elizabeth, New Jersey • North River Terminal, the principal troop embarkation terminal of the NYPE. Consisting of seven covered piers on the Hudson River, part of the famous, pre-war "ocean liner row," the terminal permitted troops to arrive by ferry if necessary, and to load directly onto troopships. It was from here that the fast liners, the Cunarders Queen Elizabeth, Queen SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

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New York, March 7, 1940. This classic and extremely rare photograph (photography in the Port being forbidden during WWII) captures the three largest liners in the world side by side. Th ey are (left to right): the Normandie at Pier 88, north side; the Queen Mary at Pier 90, south side and the Queen Elizabeth arriving at the north side of Pier 90 at the end of her secret maiden voyage. The Associated Press described the Queen Elizabeth's crossing as a "dramatic six-day zigzag," and added that the three ships will remain in New York for the duration of the war." Behind the Normandie, in gray camouflage paint, is Cunard's new Mauretania, built in 1939. She was already in heavy war use, as the two Queens would shortly be, despite the AP prediction.

Mary, Aquitania and Mauritania , the French Lines' Ile de France, and the Holland-America Lines ' Nieuw Amsterdam departed in strictest secrecy on their lonely crossings of the Atlantic. They did not sail in convoy, but relied on their high speed to evade U-boat attack. â&#x20AC;˘ Army Postal Terminal, Manhattan, handled as many as nine million letters and packages a day at the height of the war, a total of 3, 171 ,922,000 pieces of first-class mail during the "duration."

Troops bound for overseas were funneled into the port from the NYPE's three major staging areas: Camp Kilmer, near New Brunswick, New Jersey, Camp Shanks, near Orangeburg, New York, and Fort Hamilton on the Brooklyn shore of the Narrows.

The NYPE prided itself on its ability to respond rapidly to crises although that very speed sometimes caused disaster. In July 1942, the US was asked to make good British armor and munitions lost when Tobruk fell to Rommell 's Afrika Korps, leaving the retreating British with only 70operational tanks. A convoy [AS.4] of six fast freighters were loaded at the NYPE with 400 new Sherman tanks, tank destroyers, and ammunition totalling 37,824 tons and sailed secretly for Egypt via the South Atlantic and the Cape of Good Hope. Due to an emergency order that stressed the need for speed, tanks and other materiel were loaded directly as they arrived at the NYPE. For this reason, engines not yet installed in the tanks were all loaded aboard one vessel, the new freighter SS Fairport.

South of Bermuda, on 17 July 1942, the Fairport was torpedoed and sunk by U-161 with the loss of all the tank engines as well as fifty-two tanks, eighteen self-propelled guns, and other materiel. Within 48 hours a duplicate cargo was located, shipped to Brooklyn and loaded aboard the SS Seatrain Texas, Kenneth G. Towne, Master. The cargo included "even more ammunition than in the original cargo," boasted the Brooklyn Eagle in 1945.

In the early morning hours of 29 July 1942 Seatrain Texas cleared Pier No. 1, Brooklyn Army Terminal, and sailed unescorted into the Atlantic relying solely on her speed-16 1/2 knots-and secrecy to escape the U-boats. The end of this story is well known. Thirty-five days out from New York, on 2 SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

September 1942, she arrived at Suez and turned her cargo over to the British-just thirty-six hours before the Battle ofEl Alamein.

Following the disastrous loss of 400 Sherman tank engines aboard the SS Fairport, the NYPE never again neglected the principles of "spread-loading," that is, loading only limited amounts of critical materiel in any particular vessel to avoid total loss in the event of a sinking.

More than 31 ,000 combat troops were embarked at New York for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa in 1942. Prior to D-day, in June 1944, 53 ships were loaded atthe NYPE for the invasion of Europe. During the first four months of 1945, 172 troop and cargo ships loaded 413 ,944 soldiers and their equipment for the final campaign in Europe.

Meanwhile, with American troops in the thick oftheBattleofthe Bulge, casualties were moving in the opposite direction. In the first three months of 1945, 48,561 wounded men were returned to the United States through the New York Port of Embarkation.

If the New York Port of Embarkation was the Army 's largest port facility, the Naval Shipyard, New York, universally called the Brooklyn Navy Yard, was the Navy 's premier port facility. Established in 1801 , the Navy Yard comprised, at its greatest extent, some 290 acres along the Brooklyn shore of the East River around Wallabout Bay. The Brooklyn Navy Yard boasted seven dry docks, two building ways, and 300 buildings, including some of the largest industrial structures in New York City, all connected to the water's edge by thirty miles of standard and narrow gauge railroad track. It was already the most congested shipyard in the world and the war brought even greater expansion, including two 1,200-foot concrete graving docks able to handle 60,000-ton ships. Berthing facilities for three more capital ships were added.

Other wharves were enlarged and waterside facilities, including a giant hammerhead crane with a 350-ton lift for the placement of battleship turrets, were constructed. A new foundry replaced an earlier one and a giant warehouse, similar in scale to that of the Brooklyn Army Terminal, was constructed. New machine shops, cranes, barracks and power plants were packed into the yard.

Following the fall of France and the inauguration of the 15

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The Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1944, showing: the USS Oriskany under construction; the battleship USS Arkansas, the oldest US battleship of WWII, built 1911; the brand-new battleship USS Missouriji:tting out; a group of seven destroyer escorts; two Fletcher and one Benson class destroyers; and, on the new fitting out pier, the USS Bennington (CV-20).

"two-ocean" naval construction program in 1940, hiring at the Navy Yard accelerated, significantly ameliorating the effects of the Great Depression in Brooklyn. Over 32,000 applications were received by the end of May 1940 and hiring was proceeding at a rate of over 60 men a day. In September 1942 the Brooklyn Navy Yard began employing women as riveters , welders, shipfitters and machinists. At the peak of its activity, near! y 7 5 ,000 men and women were employed at the Brook! yn Navy Yard, up from 9,000 in September 1939, making it the largest industrial plant in New York State.

During World War II, the Brooklyn Navy Yard built 18 warships for the US Navy including 3 battleships, 5 aircraft carriers, 2 cruisers, and 8 LSTs. In addition, the Navy Yard performed alterations and repairs on countless other vessels, including such famous fighting ships as the battleship USS South Dakota and the aircraft carrier USS Franklin.

Even before American entry into the war, the Brooklyn Navy Yard was ordered to repair battle-damaged Allied vessels. These included the British battleship HMS Malaya , and cruisers Ajax (damaged by the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee off the River Plate, December 1939), Glasgow, Penelope and Phoebe , and the Free French battleship Richelieu and cruiser Gloire.

During the height of the Battle of the Atlantic, in February, March and April 1943, as many as 67 ships might be simultaneously under repair. The yard repaired or modified 345 ships in 1942; 869 ships in 1943; 1,539 ships in 1944. In addition, in 1944, the Brooklyn Navy Yard performed routine "voyage repairs" on 6 cruisers, 262 destroyers and 825 destroyer escorts, as well as 103 auxiliary ships, 3 patrol craft, 10 LSTs, 8 allied vessels and 150 yard craft.

The yard was also involved in the conversion or alteration of 11,138 transport and patrol vessels and was responsible for the 16

pre-fabricated assembly of 3,581 landing craft. This staggering amount of work was accomplished in a day-and-night, sevendays-a-week wartime production schedule that rose from 2,479,830 man (and woman) hours in 1942 to 6,591,203 hours in 1944. Even higher demands were met in the frrsthalfof 1945.

If New York wasn't quite a twenty-four hour town before the war, it became one during the war years. Shipbuilding operations and war materiel loading at the docks were being carried out round the clock. The city was alive day and night with the constant to-and-fro of workers. In addition, there was a great influx of sailors and seamen on shore leave and other servicemen out for a good time in the city. Residents recall the sight of uniformed men on sidewalks everywhere. The world 's most popular liberty port, wartime New York was well geared to look after its servicemen visitors.

The merchant sailors interviewed by Middlebrook remembered the USO, the Eagle Wing Theatre and the famous Stage Door Canteen, which was the great meeting place off Broadway for seamen. In all of these there were lists of cinemas, theater shows , sports events and other activites. The visitor had only to ask and free tickets were available at once. Many New York families invited them to their homes. Close to Times Square was the British Merchant Navy Officer Club and there was a Dutch Club at the Aston Hotel, a Norwegian Seamen's Mission and a British Apprentices' Club in a suite at the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street.

On occasion, when vessels had prolonged stays in port, the crew would resort to enterprise themselves. One of the ships ready to convoy in March of 1943 was the Glen Line's Glenapp, loaded with cocoa, palm oil and copper from Lagos. She had been routed across the Southern Atlantic to join the American convoy system. Their stay delayed for two months because of engine repairs, the Glenapp men had plenty of opportunity to SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

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The city was alive day and night with the constant to-and-fro of workers. In addition, there was a great influx of sailors and seamen ... out for a good time in the city. sample New York life. Two Catholic priests said Mass daily and soon attracted a regular congregation that included divers working on the burnt-out Normandie on a nearby pier. Two RAF pilots, who were passengers, had disappeared to take jobs driving explosives from a factory in upstate New York to the docks and were believed to have "earned a fortune." A number of the crew worked part-time jobs ashore, dishwashing at 50 cents an hour or snow clearing for 60 cents.

For most who could get ashore in New York it was a good time remembered for the city's hospitality, but there were some unpleasantries recorded. Third Officer R. McRae on SS Coracero recalled: Five years before, New York was a city of hard times and depression. As a boy in 1936137 one could step on shore with one dollar, see a movie-cum-variety show and for supper have a hamburger and egg, sunny side up,followed by apple pie with ice cream and coffee, and return on board with change from your dollar. That afternoon in 1943 New York was all prosperity and go. I took a cab from Battery Park to 42nd Street and bang went $1.40. New York was having a good war.

John McCabe, a sailor on the USS Bainbridge, recalls a dispute over a fare between a sailor and a cabbie that boiled over just outside the Brooklyn Navy Yard gates on Sands Street. It took only a moment's provocation before a huge crowd of sailors surrounded the taxi, began rocking it, and eventually rolled it over. The gang then proceeded to roll the battered vehicle along the street.

The West Side launch operators who ran craft out to pick up crew and haul laundry and watch changes were also benefiting from the war. Jack Quimby remembers "the old river pirate" Capt. Lynch working from 155th Street and Gordie Smith from 200th Street, and vividly recalls the bitter lament of a merchant sailor charged $5 by a launch operator to come ashore for a church service on Christmas Eve. New York was indeed having a good war, but so was much of America.

During the final two years of the war the average citizen was able to save a quarter of his income.

Also adding to the great numbers of enlisted personnel posted in and around the Port of New York were those enrolled at New York' s dramatically expanded maritime training facilities.

Maritime education, training, and welfare were major activities in the wartime Port of New York and represent the third factor contributing to the port's preeminence. Some institutions that existed before the war experienced exponential growth. In addition, new institutions and facilities were created out of whole cloth in order to meet wartime exigencies. Three programs produced licensed officers for the American merchant service.

Deck and engineering officers for the vastly expanded merchant marine were graduated from the New York State Maritime College at Fort Schuy ler in the Bronx, founded in 1874. During the war, the college was able to train in its twoyear program as many as 2,000 naval reserve officer candidates and 500 merchant marine cadets at one time.

Across from the state college, over on Long Island 's North Shore, the United States Merchant Marine Academy was founded by the US Maritime Commission in 1943. It was created to meet an anticipated wartime demand for licensed merchant marine officers beyond the capacity of the five state maritime academies (New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Pennyslvania and California) to fulfill. It occupied the former Walter Chrysler estate at Kings Point.

SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

Perhaps the most ambitious enterprise in maritime education was the Maritime Commission Training Station at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, intended to fill the urgent need for merchant seamen to crew the new Liberty and Victory ships. Between December 1942andAugust 1945, the facility graduated 115,000 trained volunteer merchant seamen, including some 10,000 sixteen-year-olds accepted with their parents ' consent. More than half of the entire personnel of the American merchant service were Sheepshead Bay graduates.

The expanded wartime Coast Guard filled its ranks through the Manhattan Beach Coast Guard Training Station, Brooklyn, after 1 February 1942, the largest Coast Guard Station in the country.

Among the Coast Guard's first missions was to organize mounted and foot patrols covering the length of the nation 's coastlines. This coast watch was in place in time to detect the four German saboteurs who landed at Amagansett, Long Island , from the U-202 on the night of 13 June 1942. Startled by a lone beach patroller as they attempted to bury explosives in the sand, the would-be saboteurs tried to bribe the Coast Guardsman into not talking. The American wisely played the game but only for as long as it took to get back to his base and make a report to his superiors.

The decision to assign sailors to man guns and communications equipment aboard merchant ships led to the creation of the US Naval Armed Guard. Three training facilities were established nationwide. The largest was located in New York at the huge Naval Militia Armory at the foot of 52nd Street in Brooklyn. As the Brooklyn Naval Armed Guard Center, it "served as a pool to supply navy gunners and communications men for convoys leaving Atlantic ports," say Navy records. The center provided "gunnery training and taught ... how to abandon ship, the two essentials in the lore of the merchant gunner."

In addition to its educational and training institutions, the Port of New York was also home to Seamen 's Church Institute. SCI rendered yeoman service in ministering to the needs of seamen between their voyages on the dangerous ocean at the city's doostep. Their large, capacious and magnificently decorated building at the foot of South Street, affectionately known as the "Doghouse," did a land office business housing and assisting seamen.

Other agencies with an interest in seamen 's welfare flourished in New York. These included various church-affiliated and temperance organizations, financial institutions like the Seamen's Bank for Savings, social and ethnic organizations like the Hunan Society for Chinese Seamen, and a kaleidoscope of labor organizations ranging from pink to scarlet on the ideological spectrum.

The period 1941-1945 , was a period of apogee for the Port of New York. There was a phenomenal amount of human activity within its close dockland quarters, proof of what can be achieved when there is an intensity of purpose. New York had been, since the nineteenth century, a "world city." This appellation was never more appropriate for the city than during the Second World War when the streets of New York were crowded with Allied seamen. But they were only a part of an influx of exiled Poles and other survivors of the catastrophe that had overtaken Europe. A catastrophe that New York contributed more than any other US city to reverse.

1.

Joseph Meany, Senior Historian at the New York State Museum in Albany, has a longstanding interest in things maritime.

17

Remembering the Loss of the Dorchester The Story of Four Navy Chaplains Who Left a Legacy of Faith and Courage

by Vernon Pizer It happened February 3, 1943. The SS

Dorchester, crowded to capacity, was pushing its way steadily on a northeasterly heading in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as part of Convoy SG.19, carrying troops and support forces to Narsarssuack, 'Greenland. These were dangerous waters in which German Uboats constantly prowled for targets among the Allied ships plying the vital sea lanes. It was several hours since the long northern night had closed in around the Dorchester and, except for the crew on duty, almost all of the 904 US soldiers, merchant mariners and civilians aboard the transport were bunked down in their compartments.

Suddenly, the early morning quiet was shattered by an explosion and the transport simultaneously jerked and shuddered convulsively as a German torpedo, fired by U-223, found its target, slamming through the ship's starboard side and detonating deep amidships. At once the icy sea began cascading in through the gaping wound in the hull.

The vessel lost headway and quickly began to list and to settle lower in the water. The damage control reports telephoned to the bridge could hardly have been more dire: the Dorchester was sinking. All power was lost before a radio distress signal could be sent and there was no steam to sound the ship's whistle. Fearing further U-boat attacks , Dorchester's captain, Hans Danielson, did not dare fire star shell s to illuminate the area. With no alternative course of action open to him , the captain issued orders to abandon ship.

Pandemonium rushed through the stricken vessel. Mingled cries of pain and fear pierced the air. Scores had been killed in the detonation and scores more had been injured. The survivors, the injured and the unscathed alike, were stunned by the suddenness of the attack.

Those with life jackets wriggled into them; those without searched frantically for them. Soldiers, many of them bleeding and maimed, jammed the canting companionways straining to make their way through the throng, the debris and 18

the sloshing water. Some men , obviously in a state of shock, stood transfixed and others wandered about uncertainly.

Amid the chaos and confusion stood four pillars of strength: Army chaplains George L. Fox, Methodist; Alexander D. Goode, Jewish; John P. Washington, Roman Catholic; and Clark V. Poling,

Reformed. Fanning out among the soldiers, the chaplains sought to calm the panic-stricken , to guide the disoriented toward the topside deck, to help the dazed to find and don life jackets, and to direct the milling, frightened men toward whatever lifeboats the crew succeeded in lowering from the badly list-

ing vessel. Moving swiftly and purposefully among the soldiers, the four chaplains were rallying points forthe stunned, the bewildered, the frightened. When no more life jackets could be found, each of the four chaplains unhesitatingly removed his own and strapped it around a soldier who had none.

The lifeboats , so loaded that they rode dangerously low in the swirling water, pulled away from the Dorchester.

The transport did not suffer a lingering death; in all, her travail lasted less than one hour. The last sight the men in the

lifeboats had before the North Atlantic consumed the transport was the four gallant chaplains standing together on the canting deck, clasping each other's hands and each praying in his own fashion.

Due to the enforced silence aboard the Dorchester, the escort vessels, Coast Guard cutters Tampa, Escanaba and Comanche, werenotaware that the Dorchester was sinking until they spotted the red flashlights pinned to lifejackets bobbing on the surface. Escanaba and Comanche stayed near the site through the night, searching for and picking up survivors, while Tampa escorted the remaining two convoy freighters to Greenland.

Of the 904 men aboard the Dorchester on that last, tragic voyage, 672 lost their lives. The four chaplains received the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.

* * * * *

The voyage that ended in the icy waters off Greenland had begun on January 22, 1943 , when the US Army Transport Dorchester left Staten Island's Pier 11.

On the same day, fifty years later, over 250 people gathered at the same spot to remember those lost and to pay tribute to the example of the four chaplains. Naval Station New York hosted the ceremony joined by ~ Navy, Army, Merchant Marine ~ and Coast Guard personnel.

Speakers at the event included two survivors of the sinking. A marker will be erected at the site of the departure.

Such memorial gatherings are supported by the Chapel of the Four Chaplains, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The courage of the four chaplains was the driving force behind the establishment of the Chapel of the Four Chaplains, initiated by Chaplain Daniel A. Poling, father of Chaplain Clark V. Poling. The chapel continues in its mission to foster interfaith and inter-racial !, harmony.

This article has been excerpted from Vernon Pizer' s "Four Brave Men," reprinted by permission, The American Legion Magazine, copyright 1989.

SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

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MEMORIES OF THE LINER

ERA

Transatlantic Crossings in the 20s and 30s

by Ralph Freeman With a British father and an American mother, resulting in my dual Anglo-American ci ti zenship, I spent my yo uth living in both countries. There was no regular transoceanic air service, but as our family was in the import-export mercantile business, there were frequent transatlantic cross ings on some of the now-fabled liners of the era.

My first voyage, atage two, was in 1921 when we sailed on the White Star Liner Olympic. Surely there is no real memory of the trip, yet I seem to recall waving to the flyin g fish and seagulls! Olympic had been built as the tandem running mate of her sister Titanic which she predated by one year. After the tragic sinking of Titanic in April 1912, the White Star Line tried to conceal the relationship, and Olympic continued her venerable career for the next 24 years.

Some ships stand out from the many on which we sai led: Aquitania, Cunard Line's proud beauty with perhaps the most aristocratic lines of any of the four-funnel vessels; Mauretania, the most famous liner of the period as holder of the "Blue Riband of the Atlantic" designating her as "The World 's Fastest Liner"; Ile de France , the very ep itome of "Roaring Twenties" chic; Champlain and Lafayette, French Line nearsisters with striking Art Deco interiors, each with one huge lop-sided avant-garde funnel; and Normandie , considered by many to be the most beautiful liner ever built, the "Ship Supreme" until her untimely burning at her Hudson River pier in February 1942, while being converted to a troop-ship.

A memorable voyage was on White Star's Celtic in February 1928. My parents had decided to pull up stakes; we closed our Manhattan apartment and moved to England permanently.

It was Leap Year and on February 29th, an announcement was made: "All gentlemen are requested to be invited by a lady for dinner this evening." This was my first social foray, at age nine, being invited by Pamela, the Cadbury Chocolate heiress, to sit at a table with her parents. There being few other child ren on board, I had been spending time with Pamela throughout

Frank 0 . Braynard

the trip. The Leap Year Dinner must have been on the last night, because I remember us sitting on deck in the frigid weather, looking at the Welsh coast as we rounded the Island of Anglesey and headed toward the Liverpool estuary up the River Mersey.

Arriving at Gladstone Docks, Liverpool, my parents and I were met by my uncle in his green Daimler car, and I still remember the shock of seeing tow-headed children wandering barefoot on the cobblestone streets of Dockland in the bitter cold.

Some of the "better-off' urchins wore wooden clogs on their feet.

I received my share of stares, too, for I was wearing knickerbockers, or plus-fours, as the British called the trousers then in fashion; they were odd contraptions with fabric ending just below the knee and pushed into long woolen stockings. This was the England of the Dole, as the ten shillings a week largess distributed to the unemployed was called. Jobs were scarce and people were glad to work for one pound per week, that 's $5.00 at the then-current exchange rate. Celtic was by no means a luxury liner, but she was supremely comfortable with the adroit serv ice the British stewards and stewardesses provided with such ease. Thus, the contrast of seei ng these "slummies," as they were rather cruelly referred to, was riveting.

Liverpool was a great port, home to Cunard, White Star, Blue Funne l, Clan and many other lines. Dominating Pier Head on the River Mersey, then as now, were the Liver Building (pronounced "lie-ver" and named after the mythic li ver bird), the Cunard Building and the Dock Board Building.

The port was busy with the arrivals and departures of White Star's Doric, Laurentic, Baltic, and Cedric (Celiic's sister ship), the Cunarders Samaria , Franconia, Ascenia and many more. Canadian Pacific had a flouri shing trade to Halifax and Montreal with their popular Duchess class ships such as Duchess of Richmond and their bigger Empress class , which included their flag ship Empress of Britain, later sunk by the Nazis off the coast of Ireland in 1940. Royal Mail Line had a big trade in leather, meat and coffee between Liverpool and Buenos Aires, "BA" as it was called locally, with two charming ships Reina Del Pacifico and Asturias, favorites of the Liverpudlian businessmen who made th e long voyage to South America. The glorious spectac le of these

A 1933 view of New York's Chelsea Docks shows (from left to right): the California of the Panama Pa cific Line; a small American Merchant Line passenger-cargo ship.just barely visible as herfunnel gives offthick black smoke; thefourjunnel Olympic of the White Star Line; the Rex ofthe Italian Line-at the time the latest speed champion of the Atlantic, holder of the coveted Blue Riband; two small American Pioneerfreighters; the French linerChamplain, an exceptionally modern liner that was a prelude to the giant Normandie of 1935; and.finally, the two Cunarders, Scythia and Franconia.

SEA HISTORY 65 , SPRING 1993

ships could be seen from the now to honor the host country. demolished Liverpool Overhead Liners in those days used the senRailway. My greatest excitement sible appellation A, B, C, D, etc. to during the year we lived in describedecklocation,ratherthan the Liverpool was frequent Sunday exglitzy ambiguous terminology used cursions with my father on the 13on someofthenewerships today. The mile waterfront railway, passing Kennedy suite was on A Deck and we had a commodious outside cabin one great ocean liner after another.

Across the Mersey from a few rooms away. I was proud that Liverpool, in Birkenhead, Cheshire, for the first time I had a cabin of my was the famous CammellLaird Shipown, a small inside room right oppoyard, and I was thrilled when my site my parents' cabin. John Kennedy was about two years older than I and father arranged for me to be invited there for the launch on July 28, hisyoungerbrotherRobertwasabout 1938, of the second Mauretania by two years younger. They beat me at Lady Bates, wife of Sir Percy Bates, deck tennis, but I beat them in pingCunard 's chairman. In my mind's AROUND TRIP pong. However, their sister Kathleen, "' 13AA who later became the Marchioness of eye I can still see the unfinished ship sliding down the ways, and I still " ""TOBEST~" Hartington (and was killed in a tragic SEE THE have the invitation in its original FINEST DOCKS accident), beat us all at shuffleboard! embossed envelope. '":~~ ~~Lo In 1938, there was an opulentcrossIn 1930, my American grandfaOCE1.:~NLTNERS ing in First Class on the Queen Mary ther lay dying in New York. We I" vwith my parents. In May 1939, I had moved from the Liverpool flat ~.'.: .. ~ .2' sailedontheMarytovisitmy Amerito a rather grand house, Walford .~.,~-!! " ....~~.~" can relatives for the summer. In conLodge in Altrincham, Cheshire. A feature of the Liverpool waleifront in the 20s and trast to the previous year, my father The choice was between taking 30s, the Liverpool Overhead Railway. Courtesy handed me 20 pounds (about $100) Cunard's Carmarnia from Merseyside Maritime Museum. andsentmeThirdClass,presumably Liverpool to New York-Altrincham was 30 miles away--or to toughen up a growing boy. It was four to a room with no making the 250-mile trek to Southampton to catch the faster private bath or facilities, but a wonderful trip full of fun, and Majestic. We opted for Carmarnia; she was already 26 years far less stuffy than First Class, ideal for a 19-year-old sailing old, and, with her twin sister Caronia, one of the pre-World alone. Just as the I 928 crossing on Celtic had augured a new War I "Pretty Sisters." There were all sorts of delays, and after life for me, growing up in Britain during the so-called formaa lumbering 11-day voyage with stops in Cobh (Ireland), St. tive adolescent years (including four years at a private school, John's (Newfoundland) and Boston, we arrived in Manhattan the kind the British called public school), this 1939 Queen on the day of my grandfather's funeral. Of all the ships, Mary voyage ended that chapter of my life. The visit to New Carmarnia had the most creaks and groans. The sounds York "for the summer" was sharply changed when Britain seemed to emanate from the Madagascar mahogany panelling, declared war against Germany in September 1939. It was not and the dark corridors had a "spooky" look to an impression- until 1944 that I visited Britain again, this time as a member of able youngster. It was on that voyage, at age 12, I decided to the Staff Combat Intelligence Group of the US Army Air explore the entire vessel on my own.

Corps (as the US Air Force was then called) based at RAF I walked to the bow past the "CREW ONLY" signs. The Command Headquarters, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. seas were rough. Suddenly I was doused by a boarding wave Mid-Atlantic on that trip, in the spring of 1939, we were andfoundmyselfalmostwashedoverboard.Astalwartbo'sun speeding full-tilt towards New York when, in the opposite rescued me and I was roundly castigated by the First Mate and direction, came the mighty North German Lloyd liner Bremen . my parents, of course, and told I could have been drowned.

The ships came close, their vast wakes a sight to behold!

In 1933, 1935, and 1936 we crossed on Manhattan and Although passengers on both liners crowded the decks, no one Washington which were US Lines' premierships priortoAmerica waved. Even then , only months before the official outbreak of and the fantastic United States. Bright and airy in tone, with war, no signals were exchanged, no greetings, no blowing of breezy American service, these were popular sister ships. The ships' whistles-a precursor of the dark times ahead.

With declaration of war by Britain in September 1939, British Britannic and Georgie were in competition with the American entries, about the same size and marketed for a Americans were urged to travel only on neutral ships, as the generally more sedate clientele who preferred a smaller vessel. Germans had just sunk the British liner Athenia with appalling These two Britishers were considered quite daring externally loss of civilian life. Thus in late September my mother was to with very low squat funnels . They were proudly advertised as take a "Special War Evacuation" trip on Manhattan which was MV ("Motor Vessels") instead of the usual SS ("Steamship") or especially diverted by President Roosevelt for people stranded RMS ("Royal Mail Ship"); theyweretwoofthefirst liners to use in Europe. My mother boarded at Plymouth and Manhattan diesel propulsion rather than steam. On Britannic in 1937 I stopped at Bordeaux to pick up a large contingent of people played deck tenni s and quoits with some of the Kennedy trying to get out of Europe. There were large American flags children, when their father, Joseph P. Kennedy , was Am bas- painted on the sides of the liner, and at night the two funnels sador to the Court of St. James. The newspapers made were floodlit showing the red, white and blue US Lines colors, mention that the Ambassador was traveling on a British ship as the United States was still officially neutral. Aboard were 11

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SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

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21

music conductor Arturo Toscanini, the newspaper magnate Lord Beaverbrook, cosmetics queen Helena Rubinstein , and others of that ilk. The ship was so crowded that the indoor swimming pool was emptied, but none of the passengers seemed to mind sleeping on cots in the empty pool, corridors and other spaces.

My father arranged to fly from Manchester to Lisbon to catch the Italian liner Rex on its regular Genoa-N aples-VillefrancheLisbon-New York run. As he boarded, Italy declared war against the Allies, and as a Liners of the 20s and 30s were fam ous for their fabulous interiors. Resisting the modern British subject he had to disembark. Finally, influences of Art Deco , Italy's Cosulich Line built a first-class ballroom with a period he was able to take one of the last of the Pan decor aboard the Yulcania, built 1927.

American flying boats, known as the Flying Clippers, for the long multi-fuel-stop flight to New York from thatched-roof cottages, tall oaks and elms, and sheep peaceLisbon. fully grazing, a field of wild daffodils and blue bonnets. Yet, In the 20s and 30s, on the last day of a voyage, most liners in the near distance something appeared as a mirage, the gave passengers postcards with photos of the ship on one side superstructure and funnel of a freighter seemingly gliding and an "Abstract of Log" on the other. Fortunately I saved across the bucolic landscape! We would drive to the banks of some of them and had them mounted on my living room wall. the Manchester Canal, wave and watch as a freighter slid by The oldest is from Olympic in 1921 ; I was a ship-enthusiast with such exotic words as "Vanessa, Philadelphia" or "Abdul, even at age two!

Dar Es Salaam" emblazoned on the stem . The Manchester Favorite ship, favorite crossing? It is a hard question to Ship Canal is virtually unheard of in this country except in answer, dependent not only on the ship, but one's mood and maritime circles; yet it was as miraculous in its way as the more other subjective factors. One favorite was surely Exochordia. famous Suez and Panama Canals.

American Export Lines had a fleet of freighters; they also had Young people today are barely aware of the vast rivalry four cargo liners known as the "Four Aces"-Exochordia, between the nations, vying to have the best, fastest, most Exeter, Excalibur and Exambion were the names of the quar- luxurious ships afloat. Called " Ships of State" by some, they tet. About 9,000 tons, they made the Mediterranean run from were moving works of art, proudly displaying the best techniEast Coast ports mostly on schedule and to specific ports as cal and artistic achievements of their own countries. Each liner opposed to the changeable schedules and routes of most had its own mystique, its own personality, going beyond mere freighters, whose sailings depended on cargo requirements. In material display. Some like Ile de France and the first 1935 we drove from our house in Altrincham, Cheshire, the Mauretania were wildly popular whilst others, equally grand, 250 miles to Newhaven, Sussex, one of the cross-English never achieved such affection and recognition. Two more Channel ports, and watched with trepidation as our Armstrong- examples are Queen Mary which was always more popular Siddeley car was gingerly lifted by cranes onto the ferry. The than its near-sister Queen Elizabeth. It is these differences that same procedure occurred as we debarked in Dieppe. The drive gave the great liners their soul and their allure.

Today, the only regularly scheduled transatlantic liner is the whole length of France was glorious, Paris, Auxerre, Lyon, Avignon, Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. Members of my Queen Elizabeth 2 which plows the Atlantic lanes throughout family had been on Exochordia's Mediterranean cruise to the year, interspersed with crui ses. Polish Lines Stefan Batory Italy, Palestine (as Israel was known in those days), Egypt and (a sound, unfussy, one-class vessel I crossed on in 1955 , then Greece and were en route back to the States. My American known as Holland America Lines' Maasdam) was the only grandmother left Exochordia at Marseille and joined my other ship to carry on the regular transatlantic trade until parents for the drive back to England, whilst I took her cabin recently , when the ship was sold for scrap--once again, jet on board ship. Our route took us to Algerciras (Spain), Malaga planes had won out.

(Spain), Casablanca (Morocco) and San Miguel (Azores) to It is shocking that QE2 , the last vestige of the great British New York. What a delightful little ship! Only about 100 passen- merchant marine, was recently re-engined and refitted in the gers and the cabins so arranged in a sort of semi-circle that three Lloydwerft Shipyard in Bremen, West Germany, instead of or four of them shared a veranda open to the sea, with tables for the logical place, the John Brown Shipyard, Greenock, Scotsnacks and deck chairs for sunning. An intriguing arrangement land where she was built! the likes of which I have not seen elsewhere. Twenty years later Cruise ships? There are more of them each year. Many with in 1955, I took American Export's large Independence from their high, top-heavy superstructures and outlandish funnel Naples to Marseille, and almost the identical route back to New configurations look like moving wedding cakes. Others, more York as we had made on Exochordia in 1935. subdued, try to carry on with some of the manner of the old No story of living in the North of England during the period days. None will ever match the transatlantic crossings of the 1928-1939 could be complete without mentioning the Manches- fabled liners of the 1920s and 1930s. ..t ter Ship Canal. Liverpool and Manchester are both in Lancashire and the lovely rural county of Cheshire juts into it. Sometimes Ralph Freeman, who now lives in New York, also contributed driving near our house in Altrincham, we would gaze upon a the article "The Manchester Ship Canal," published in Sea scene that could have been painted by Constable: rose-covered History 57, Spring 1991.

22

SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

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by Phil Gidley Limited edition of 600 lithographs, 14 x 31" will be raffled off among the first 92 print image size, on Mohawk 120 lb. Bristol, neutral buyers. $120 + $5 shipping. Remarques are pH. Proceeds benefitting NMHS. $50 additional; specify USCGC Eagle, Statue of The original 22 x 48" painting, valued at $9,000, Liberty, or Pride of Baltimore II. Available through:

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566-0068 Credit card orders may be phoned in to 914-737-7878

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She was a good example of the many liners which linked Great Britain months later, after she had made another return voyage to Australia with her colonies and, appropriately, her presence dominates this via Suez, that the Orontcs would find herself once again wending her evocative dockland London scene by Charles Dixon. At the turn of the way through the familiar clutter of sailing barges, tugs, rowing boats century London was the largest and liveliest seaport in the world. The and square riggers on this storied waterway.

MARINE ART

The Lives of Liners "Malwa at Krondstadt, 1911 ,'' by William Wyllie, oil on canvas, 66" by 36" . Like the image of the Orontes above, this painting of the Malwa captures the color and character of the age in which these purposeful ships served. The 10,000-ton Malwa, like the Orontes, was built f or

the Australian mail service. Here she is shown at Krondstadt on a pleasure cruise, when the world was at peace and the sailors of the Tsar and other visitors in small craft could board her as she lay at anchor amongst the Russian fleet.

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Without a doubt, the most glamorous and celebrated liner route was the passage across the Atlantic. These two paintings ofCunarders Aquitania and Mauretania by Bill Muller attest to the great size yet smooth and graceful lines common to the Atlantic liner. The Mauretania is shown here in the Hudson River with tugboats keeping pace as they "' prepare to ease her into her pier. The ~ Mauretania, built 1906, and her twin sister 5 Lusitania were true monarchs of the ocean.

Each ofthe 32 ,000-ton vessels had quadruple- ~ screw turbine engines that produced a ~ staggering 68,000 horsepower. Both won the u. celebrated Blue Riband as the fastest liner in 0>the world, eachfrom the other, but Mauretania had the edge and retained the record for over ::0 0 20 years. u In 1910 Cunard declared their need for a "Aquitania," by William Muller, oil on canvas, 24" by 38". third "fast ship" for the increasingly competitive North Atlantic trade. The "Mauretaniaarriving inNew York early morning 1912," by WilliamMuller,oiloncanvas,26" by40".

Aquitania was built half again the size of her sisters but not with the same extremely powerful machinery. The Blue Riband would be left for the Mauretania. In this exultanl scene she is pictured backing out ofCunard's Pier 54 at night, ablaze with lights, fully living up to her nickname the "Ship Beautiful." Night sailings were popular in the twenties . With immigration laws limiting the flow of people from Europe and Prohibition in effect, ocean liners were employed increasingly for pleasure travel.

Thirsty Americans crowded European ships for a few days of alcoholic heaven, and night sailings presented excellent opportunitesfor "bon voyage" parties.

The Aquitania sailed for over 30 years, her yacht-like elegance and spectacular interiors an imposing constant amid changing liner fashions.

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On the transatlantic route there was great rivalry . As the largest man-made structures, liners were more than just a mode of transport. They represented modernity and progress and were, therefore , the pride of nations. In 1929, on her maiden voyage, the Bremen swept the Blue Riband from the Mauretania. It was then taken from her by her sister ship Europa on her maiden voyage 9 months later. These grand 51 ,000-ton vessels, were in design and engineering a great national achievement and made Germany preeminent on the Atlantic. In appearance they bore the marks of the prevalent Art Deco style, the same style in which Hans Bohrdt painted the Bremen in this painting, dated 1929. By reducing the size of the tugs and enlarging the size of the superstructure, Bohrdt has created a strong image which, though not entirely accurate, conveys the power of the ship's design. The Bremen arrived empty from New York at the outbreak of war but was burnt-out at her pier in Bremerhaven in 1941. The Europa was taken by the French as a war prize.

Recommended reading: Liners in Art, by Kenneth Yard (Kingfisher Publications, Southampton UK, 1990)

SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

"Bremen," by Hans Bohrdt, oil on canvas, 40" by 50".

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Dominating her exotic surroundings in Shanghai, the Blue Funnel Line steamer Ix ion "literally bursts upon the senses with the power of a visual explosion," as the liner historian Kenneth Vard observes of this portrait by Kenneth Shoesmith. "The heat can be felt, the sounds heard and the odours smelled and we expect to be jostled in the crush of activity." Vard points out that this cargo vessel of 1912 was probably carrying some 600 steerage passengers in primitive conditions.

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8 "Shanghai River," by Kenneth Shoesmith, oil on canvas, 36" by 55".

"Amra," by Norman Wilkinson , oil on can vas, 60" by 36".

Passage on cargo ships , Vard tells us, actually could be an experience of "quiet glamour filled with interest"-very likely the experience of passengers aboard the Amraonhermaiden voyage inl938 , shown at left in a painting by Norman Wilkinson.

Wilkinson has portrayed her exaggerated in size, basking in shimmering tropical heat in the I rawaddy River on an approach to the docks at Rangoon. Owned by the British India Steam Navigation Company, one of the biggest steamship companies in the world at the time, she was designed for the Calcutta to Rangoon service but was almost z immediately requisitioned for wartime 0 service as a hospital ship. She lived out the ยง rest ofher life without incident until soldfor :l scrap in 1965.

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"Jervis Bay," by Montague Dawson, oil on canvas, 77" by 41".

The armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay steams to meet her fate with battle flags flying in this brilliantly expressive wartime painting by Montague Dawson. Built as a 14 ,000-ton passenger liner in 1923, she was converted to a merchant cruiser in World War fl . In that role, itfell to her to defend aNorthAtlantic convoy, when the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer appeared on the horizon on the evening of 5 November 1940 . Ordering the convoy to scatter, Captain E. S. Fogarty Fegen laid a smokescreen to shield thefleeing ships, and then steamed straight for the formidable Scheer. The Jervis Bay was destroyed in half an hour by the German's heavy guns, but thanks to her action all but 6 of the 37-ship convoy escaped.

AMERICA~AR.J..J'IME PAINTINGS OF

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ROBERT P.

YANKEE ACCENTÂŽ 20th Anniversary Salute Throughout 1993 Yankee Accent will provide your choice of John Stobart's most recent artbook, or his original The Rediscovery of

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FREE with purchase of any current or rare, full-color limited edition print If you purchase either superb book for yourself or as a gift, Yankee Accent will include a certficate crediting the full purchase price toward any current or rare, full-color limited edition print which you choose during 1993.

Yankee Accent has been a John Stobart print gallery since 1974 - among his first ten American dealers.

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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 major paintings with extensive commentary, plus numerous halftones and drawings. Oversized 12 x 15 112 inch format, 237 pages. $95 plus $10 delivery (Massachusetts residents please add $4.75 tax).

Your personal check, Visa or MasterCard welcome.

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Sailing Ships of the World

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Ocean Liners

by Philip Fricker. .... $60.00hb A new large-format book containing over 150 classic photographs, some dating back to 1888, including many which have never been published before. Studies of all the best-known ocean liners are fealured, including the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, QE2, Normandie and France.

Many are of historic interest, notably the lastphotographofTitaniccaughtbyBeken in Cowes Roads on her maiden voyage.

From sepia photographs of the 1880s to color images of the latest cruise liners, this volume presents a fascinating and nostalgic record of a bygone era.

13 x 10, color, 320pp

A superb new book which brings alive over 100 of the finest sailing ship photographs ever taken by the three generations of the Beken family, a high proportion of which have never been published before.

This volume gathers sailing ship pictures from Hawaii, the USA, Germany, Russia, the Caribbean, Britian and the Mediterranean and covers vessels from cadet training ships to large luxury charter yachts, from the world's largest-the Russian Sedov-to perhaps the smallest-the brigantine yacht Black Pearl. Specifications of all the ships are included. This book is both a unique record and tribute to the grace and beauty of the sailing ships of the world.

1O 1/ 2 x 12 1/2, color, 208pp

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MARINE ART NEWS Exhibitions • February 28-June 2, The Great Age of Sail: Treasures from the National Maritime Museum comprising some eighty paintings, including works by Canaletto, Turner, William Yan de Yelde, Cleveley and Brooking. Peabody & Essex Museum , East India Square, Salem MA 01970 •April 24-May 23, Steichen and his Men, the US Navy at sea and in the air during World War II in 60 photographs

by Edward Steichen and assoc iates.

Parkersburg Art Center, Parkersburg WV; June l 2-August29, Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta GA. •April 30-September 19, Patterson in Maine, featuring oils and sketches of Maine and Maine-built ships by renowned sailor-painter Charles Robert Patterson (1878-1958). Maine Maritime Museum , 243 Washington Street, Bath ME04530.

•April 22-September 15, Development of the Passenger Liner at its Peak: 1893-1916, a series of large, color side elevations of 12 passenger liners by steamship artist and hi storian Peter Sparre. Ellis Island, New York.

•April 25-September 20, Modern Marine Masters: new paintings, drawings, sculpture, scrimshaw and models by over 50 premier national and international marine artists. Mystic Maritime Gallery , Mystic CT 06355.

•May 15-June 30, ASMA Exhibit '93, featuring work by ASMA Northeast Region artists on the theme of "US-tlag Merchant Marine Shipping Past and Present. " American Merchant Marine Museum, US Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point NY 11024.

•June-September 15, William Partridge Burpee: American Marine Impressionist. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, Clinton NY13323.

At bottom, three of Peter Sparre ' s side advance in design and machinery. Th e elevations ofI 2 great ocean liners, on exhibit Titani c is recognized as the largest and at Ellis Island through September. These most beautiful in her time. An interesting large portraits , up to 4 feet wide and all contrast ca n be drawn betw een the drawn to scale, offer a unique opportunity Mauretania andtheTitanic. While only32,000 to compare these spectacular vessels one to tons , the Mauretani a had engines generating another and illustrate a steady change in 68,000hp, compared to 46,000hp available style and growth in size. Sparre' s series to the 46,000-ton Titanic. With her top speed begins with what he describes as the world' s of 26-27 knots, the Mauretania was the first true ocean liner, the Cunard Line's Atlantic speed champion for over 20 years.

Campania, built 1893. The Mauretania he The exhibit also includes original liner deck salutes as the single most extraordinary plans and photographs.

Campania, I 893; 620 feet.

Mauretania, 1907; 790feet.

Titanic, 1912; 882 f eet. ~-------------------------

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29

Steam and Speed, Part II How the Thump and Hiss of Steam Power Changed the Ocean World Forever, with Utterly Unexpected Consequences in Our Time

by Peter Stanford NOTE: This two-part article is adapted from an article first published by the Society ofNaval Architects & Marine Engineers What was the nature of the sturdy British native godowns in Borneo, and Ameri- Peasley who graduated from sailing schoosteamships that butted their straight stems can floating grain elevators in Erie Ba- ner to steam schooner and ultimately to into the world's ocean swells, replacing sin, New York. British ships took her deep-sea freighter in the era of World War the sailing ship in the principal trades? coal abroad to power industry in far I. These works develop the ethos of steam Rudyard Kipling has given us a marvel- countries; they brought back grain to navigation and give us some picture of a ous picture of the working of the men feed the explosively growing population way oflife already vanished from among and machinery that moved these ships , of Europe. The dense clustered cities of us, when firing up an engine meant more in his lively story "The Ship that Found the English Midlands, French industrial than pressing a button.

Herself." This tale of 1895 begins in northeast, and German Ruhr Valley deWe learn much of the world of the workmanlike fashion: pended on the large-scale importation of deep-sea British freighter from Sir Walter "It was her first voyage, and though grain. This was a trade in which the Runciman 's Before the Mast-and Afshe was butacargo-steameroftwelve sailing ship managed uniquely to eke out ter. Runciman sailed as a boy in collier hundred tons, she was the very best of a living side-by-side with the steamship, brigs in the North Sea. He worked his her kind, the outcome of forty years due to the powerful wind systems of the way up to command and finally to own of experiments and improvements in Southern Ocean, and latterly due to the steamers. Hi s autobiography reminds us framework and machinery; and her low capital value in the ships and the that the steaming of these ships was not designers and owner thought as much availability of very cheap manpower dur- all beer and skittles, even as they took of her as though she had been the ing the world wide depression of the 1930s. over and ministered to a vast, univerLucania."

Sail had harnessed the open engine of sally enriching growth in world trade.

And of course, her role in history, while the world's wind systems to develop the At the height of this era of change, he perhaps less glamorous, was at least as beginnings of world trade, but it was the tells the story of four steamers that put to important as that of the Lucania, or any thumping, hissing power of contained sea, all sailing from the Tyne in Decemother of the floating hotels that crossed steam that really delivered the goods. ber 1878, toward Genoa. He notes: the Atlantic in ever-faster service.

"We had decent weather along the The industrial world ran on steam; the For if world trade began with scarce commercial world came of age on its coast down Channel to about a huntin forthe limited manufacture of bronze, power to move big cargoes fast and dred miles west of Ushant, but then and with amber from the Baltic for Black economically; and the cultural world of ran into a terrific storm. I ran side by Sea princesses, and Arabian gums for mankind was changed forever in less s ide with the Joseph Ferens for Christian incense, and spices from the than a hundred years by these facts. twenty-four hours, and on the night Far East for the tables of North Country The culture of seafaring, of course, that awful hurricane began we lost earls, and silk for their countesses, this was also changed-so radically that sight of her." slowly expanding network of traffic be- many sailormen accepted career limits Runciman never again saw the Joseph gan to change the world, as the trade took or simply quit the sea rather than make Ferens or the other two ships-nor did up the more everyday commodities of the change. anyone else. He kept his own ship, life. The British freighter was the preA New Breed of Seaman Coanwood of Newcastle, plugging into eminent vehicle of this change.

Kipling was the bard of the new seafar- it as tremendous seas boarded her and Steam power tremendously acceler- ing culture, as the poet Masefield was of swept away her charthouse, compasses, ated the trafficking of cargoes and the the passing age of sail. Others came onto boats and half the bridge. Sailor-fashion, dispersal of peoples around the world. Not the scene to sing the songs of the new he noted: "One thing after another seemed incidentally, it carried the English lan- age, notable Guy Gilpatrick in his stories to show that she was tired of existence." guage and systems oflaw and governance of the Scots engineer Colin Glen cannon Hatch tarpaulins came adrift, the iron around the world as well. The fact that of the SS Inchcliffe Castle who gave us bulwarks were flattened-and worst of English is the chosen national language of a grand picture of the humor, simple all, the fires in the lee boilers went out, as free India, half a world away and with beliefs and hard-learned skills of the an increasing volume of water found its many times the population of the damp people who manned the ships. Norman way below to swash about the stokehold. and distant British Isles, is a product of Reilly Raine did the same for the coastal "I was urged by my men time after time this diffusion of ideas and values-as is tugboat people, including one woman, to run her before the gale," he says. This the reverse flow evident in the novels ofE. the immortal Tugboat Annie Brennan, was an ultimate measure in sailing ships.

M. Forster, a spreading interest in Bud- whose battles with rival tugboatman Runciman correctly perceived that if he dhism, and even the prevalence of Indian Horatio Bullwinkle are accepted by the did this, the deep-laden vessel would be restaurants in England today. maritime community of Puget Sound as pooped, the weight of water would knock England was the leading builder, by a the myths of their race, true to life with a down the funnel and flood the stokehold, country mile, of steam cargo and passen- truth that transcends the mere spinning and he wisely refused. They went through ger ships; the Red Duster flew over her of yams. And there 's Peter B. Kyne on "sle1epless days and nights of ... incesworkaday freighters lying off Russian the era of Cappy Ricks in San Francisco, sant exertion," Runciman notes, for about palaces in St. Petersburg or the Crimea, and his eventual son-in-law Matthew B. seventy hours, living through scenes he

30

SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

'The steaming of these ships was not all beer and skittles . could not recall with out a sh udder, near! y fifty years later in the 1920s.

The mark of a good sailorman is to keep his head, keep fighting back and trying things no matter what is happening in a world gone crazy. As the gale died down, Runciman briefly tried putting the ship before the wind. He and the men were soon convinced that she would not last long this way, with the seas sweeping over her. He had been right to keep her plugging into it despite the scarifying damage done by facing up to the brunt of the onslaught.

This pragmatically verified fact received melancholy confirmation as the other three ships failed to report in. Attending the Board of Trade inquiry on the loss ofthelosephFere ns, Runciman saw one of her lifebuoys in the owners '

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office. "It had been picked up some months after on the north-west coast of Ireland, which bore out the impression I had formed that she had been run before the south-east hurricane and foundered."

The sea is still the sea, and whether under sail or steam, people will find their best qualities and all their abilities called upon to traverse it.

When I sold my schooner Athena, being too engaged in museum work to keep up with the just demands of an aging wooden ship, we took the money and made a trip to Italy aboard the liner Michelangelo as a consolation prize. I remember sitting in the Lido bar, fifty feet or so above the raging sea. The last time I had crossed the Atlantic, under sail, we'd had such weather and when on deck we stayed there only because we were lashed to a solid object. When you went below , into a dank, dark cabin, you had to time it so half the ocean didn ' t swirl after you down the briefly opened hatchway. The great liner Michelangelo flew overthe roiled, wind-scarred water with ease, balancing on her stabilizers so that my Beefeater martini sat hardly ruffled on the table. Butthat sea down there is real, and always will be.

The road onwards led from the compound engine of Runciman 's gallant steamer to the triple-expansion engine-which took steam of higher pressure through three steps instead of two-and to the successful introduction after decades of experiment of the water-tube boiler ("they took the water, and put it where the fire ought to be," said the die-hards, in much the same way that people earlier in the 19th century had resisted the idea of building ships of iron because "Anyone knows iron don ' t float"). These improvements seem to flow in an inevitable procession as we near the outbreak of World War I and the end of The compound engine, like that of the City of Savannah shown here, doubled the efficiency of the simple steam engine the relatively peaceful age by using the steam twice, and thereby changed the shape and of the Pax Britannica, in which the steamship grew nature of world commerce. Courtesy, Conrad Milster.

SEA HISTORY 65 , SPRING 1993

"

up to master the ocean trade routes. The turbine, successfully introduced as the century ended, was picked up by warships and by high-speed Atlantic liners like the short-Ii ved Lusitania or the longlived Mauritania. In the postwar world, this delicate but reliable and efficient mode of propulsion was to become virtually universal, although for the World War II Liberty ship we reverted back to triple expansion which demanded less sophisticated plants.

Steam Transforms the Navies The machine age finally overtook the world' s navies. During the 1830s and '40s, admirals cried out for steamers to tow their big high-sided sailing ships in narrow waters and in light airs. In the 1850s they began adapting their existing battleships to carry the huge steam engines they needed to wallow along at 7 knots or so. Then, provoked by the American Merrimac, the British started building a new kind of big fast steam frigate carrying a relatively small number of shell-firing guns. Floating batteries armored with iron plate were brought into use in the Crimean War in the mid1850s, and before the decade was out the French built a new wooden battleship encased in iron armor, named with appropriate fervor La Gloire. But the limited French industrial base left her a halfstep into the world of steam and iron.

In 1860 the British, aroused at last by French naval ambitions, took the full step with the launch of the big, long, low-slung armored frigate Warrior. This 9,210-ton beauty, nearly three times the size of a classic wooden ship-of-the-line like HMS Victory, carried 4 1/2 inch armor-virtually invulnerable to the ordnance of the day-and her giant 1,250 NlliP engines drove her ahead at 14 1/2 knots, faster than any warship of her day. She could hunt down and kill anything afloat. With good reason Napoleon III called her "the black snake among the rabbits" and wisely backed out of the naval race.

Soon after this, the American Monitor introduced the revolving gun turret in her famous action with the Confederate ironclad Virginia in 1862. The Virginia was a conversion from the heavily engined, big US frigate Merrima c. The Monitor was not truly a sea-going warship, as borne out by her loss under tow off Cape Hatteras before she had completed a year of service. But the turret was adapted to bigger all-around ships.

The desire to keep weight low and to present a small target led to the develop31

ment of some unhealthy ship types in the was to mandate studies for the "all big latter half of the century, leading to the gun ship"-the ship that soon took the loss of the Royal Navy's Captain in water as HMS Dreadnought and gave 1870 with her designer, Cowper Coles, her name to an era. She was nearly as big aboard-a loss due to lack of reserve a breakthrough as the Warrior had been, buoyancy to enable the vessel to stand half a century earlier. Her main armaup to her canvas in a gale. ment was concentrated in just ten 12Let us skip a little ahead here to round inch guns, the biggest avai lable, mounted out this overview of what the Industrial in five revolving turrets. Stoutly armored, Revolution eventually meant to the she could steam at 21 knots continuously navies of the world. As the 1900s opened, with her turbine engines. These engines the Royal Navy had become a huge, proved not only lighter and more fueldispersed, slack-muscled establishment. efficient, but more reliable than the recipWith remarkable success, it had kept the rocating machinery which was increaspeace and secured the freedom of trade ingly prone to breakdown at the everand intercourse by sea-things that were increasing speeds demanded in naval warassured, as was said at the time, wher- fare, following the defeat of the Russian ever there was water enough to float a mastadons by speedier Japanese ships at British 74. (The 74 was a two-decked, 74- Tsushima in 1905. gun battleship, the ubiquitous gun carrier The turbine engine, installe9 as a radiof the sailing navy, and mainstay of the cal departure in steam power aboard the battle line that decided sea combat.)

Dreadnought, had been introduced to But now Britain faced a vigorous, the world in the Turbinia at Queen fully industrialized rival in Germany, Victoria's Diamond Jubilee naval rewhose fleet had begun growing by leaps view in 1897 , where she skeetered and bounds under the Kaiser's quest for through the fleet at 34.5 knots-faster "a place in the sun." Britain was steering than anything afloat. This leap forward into the era of political instability that in marine propulsion climaxed a whole soon was to produce World War I. And series of technical advances in the later the Navy was no longer the Navy of St. 19th century.

Vincent and Nelson. Its fleets were outHigher and higher boiler pressures moded and scattered, its officer corps a nd superheated steam developed riddled with snobbism, and its squadron horsepowers that drove warships at higher commanders more concerned with clean and higher speeds, while more efficient paintwork than gunnery-practice am- machinery occupied less and less of the munition was sometimes thrown over- ship's hull. The main trouble with the board, rather than fired off, because firing battle cruiser Hood, laid down in the meant repainting blistered gun barrels. closing years of World War I, was that In 1904, John Arbuthnot "Jackie" her machinery, built to drive her at 31 Fisher, the Peck 's Bad Boy of the Royal knots, took up so much space that her Navy who shook that venerable institu- immense hull couldn 't be adequately tion to its foundations, became its pro- armored. Twenty years later, by confessional head as First Sea Lord (a title trast, the American fast battleships of the he reinstated, the Victorians having Iowa class were able to charge around changed it to the moreeuphuistic latinate with greatly superior firepower (a main "naval lord.") One of his earliest acts battery of nine 16-inch 50-caliber guns 32

as against the Hood's eight 15-inch 42caliber) and very strong armor protection, at a speed that was actually two knots higher-in a hull of approximately the same size! Here was an outstanding example of cumulative changes of degree producing something like an actual change of kind. A World War I battle cruiser literally could not live in the same water with a fast battleship of World War II; witness the demise of HMS Hood under the guns of the German fast battleship Bismarck in 1941.

But the ultimate capital ship of World War II was, of course, the aircraft carrier. The aircraft she carried could strike with devastating power at a range of 300 miles, so that the major fleet encounters in the Pacific were settled before the battleships could bring their guns to bear.

So, the Iowas never got to use their powerful main batteries against the giant Yamatos, armed with 18-inch guns, both of which were sunk by US naval aircraft before the battleships could meet.

In the Atlantic war, there were no fleet encounters. The Germans could not hope to win mastery of the surface; they brought the Allies perilously close to defeat by waging submarine war directly against the troop- and cargo-carrying steamships, on which the whole Allied war effort depended. Britain's battle fleet, mostly made up of old, slow battleships, was adequate to guard against the heavy ships the Germans now and then sent out as commerce raiders.

But even here, aircraft played a vital role in overcoming the submarine menace from 1943 onward. And it was an antiquated Swordfish biplane from the carrier Ark Royal that tripped up the mighty Bismarck with a ttorpedo that destroyed her steering gear, so that the slow British battleships could catch up and pound the mighty German into a flaming wreck.

SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

Shown at left is one of three compound-engine steamers of 1865-the Agamemnon, Ajax and Achilles-- which brought steam to dominance on the long-haul trades. These three traded to China for the Ocean Steamship Company. They still carried a full sailing rig in case of breakdown .

Triumph and Supercession The internal combustion engine delivered high power in a relatively lightweight package. As early as 1826 the inventor Samuel Morey of Vermont took out a patent for an engine that ran on an explosive mixture of air and fuel, in this case turpentine. He had built a steamboat before 1800 and then developed his engine, which applied fuel directly to the pistons, in order to circumvent the monopoly Fulton and Livingston sought to enforce on steamboats. It took until the early 1900s before automobiles using this kind of engine began to appear significantly in the streets. Then motors appeared in yachts and fishing craft and were adapted to drive submarines by powering dynamos that charged big banks of storage batteries so the boats could run on electric motors underwater. And with the compact, efficient internal combustion engine, powered flight at last became feasible, leading to the development of the dive bombers and torpedo planes that became the most powerful instruments of sea control in World War II. After the flames of worldwide conflict were finally stamped out in 1945, the steamship went on to reach the height of her development-much as the sailing ship reached her height in the clippers of the 1840s and 50s, as steamships were beginning to take over the seas.

Cunard 's first liner, the 1,150-tonBri-

tannia of 1840, ran on steam at 5 pounds of pressure per square inch. Most of the power came from the creation pf a nearvacuum by condensing the steam, so that the atmosphere added its 15 PSI with virtually no resistance. These early engines were essentially atmospheric engines. But the real gains in power and efficiency came from ever-increasing positive steam pressure.

In 1856, the Adriatic, largest of the wooden American Collins liners, achieved 15 knots with a boiler pressure of 20 PSI. In the 1860s pressures soared to ~O and 60 PSI, making the compound engi11e, which used the steam twice, a practicaj proposition. By the 1880s, triple expansiqn engines were using pressures of 125 and l 50 PSI. In the new century, the steam turbine capitalized on high pressure ste;un to deliver higher power through a rotating shaft set with numerous vanes that q mght the steam rushing through a tunnel at hurricane velocities. This demanded strong materials and very precise maohiningbut granted these, the delicate-seeming turbine proved more reliable than the piston-driven engine and took ~p far less weight and space. Replacement of coal by fuel oil further increased efficiency and virtually eliminated the stokehold crew.

The steam turbine reached its peak of development in two distinctively American ships, the liner United State~ of 1952, and Sea-Land Company 's SL-7 class

containership, introduced in the next decade. The United States could steam at 38 knots or more, faster than the fastest displacement warships, and regularly ran 3 1/2-day service across the North Atlantic. The SL-7s, huge graceful 42,700-ton vessels, maintained 33-knot average cross ings of both the Atlantic and Pacific-faster than the top speed of any liner except the United States.

The Queen Elizabeth 2, universally known as the QE2, last of the great Cunard liners, adopted a radical approach to the challenge of diesel power. Twenty years after entering service in 1969 with a highpressure, high-temperature steam turbine plant, she was re-engined with nine powerful diesels, generating electricity to drive two massive electric motors. These drive the ship at her accustomed speed of 28.5 knots, but at 370 tons of fuel per day as against the 550 she used as a steamer and, equally important, with a drastic reduction in the engineroom crew.

But the replacement of steam propulsion by the diesel engine occurred in a world that had already been changed forever by the advent of the steamer and the impact of her navigation of the sea lanes of the world. The essential change, indeed, had been wrought by the British steamer, tramping along at perhaps 7 knots. On a good day, a sailing ship might overtake her, working on the pressure differentials of the world's wind

The huge engine room of a P & 0 liner of the 1890s is filled with a tangle of moving machinery that must be constantly tended by a swarm of oilers, wipers and others, seen here in the background, who crawl over and through the engine' s giant moving parts by ladders and catwalks. The engineer is standing by the lever that will throw these masses of metal into reverse , slowing the big steamer to a stop after traversing thousands of miles of ocean .

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A vision of steam and speed as a transcendent development in the world, a reordering of history. systems. But the steamer, generating her own pressure differentials, in effect carried her own wind with her, and so plodded her way to victory, changing our world as she did so.

What Have We Saved from the Steam Era? "No phase of the world 's history of commerce has been so wonderful as the transition of the ocean-carrying trade from sail to steam." That's what Walter Runciman said of the transition, and he lived through the heart of it as actor, not a mere spectator. Much as he loved the sailing ships he'd been in-and he remembered them with respect and affection till the end of his days-he was among the first shipowners to take down yards and sails and shorten the masts of the steamers he took over.

Ernest Fayle, in his general history of world shipping, concluded fifty years ago: We may or may not like all the f eatures of the complicated industrial civilization which is fast transforming the whole world into one economic unit. One thing is certain: for good or evil it is the child of the steamship .

So what have we saved of this heritage, in concrete terms? Very little. I have walked a wooden boardwalk across the deck beams of the empty iron shell of the steamship Hipparchus , a 1,840-ton steamer of 1867. She was, as Norman Brouwer points out in the standard reference work in the field, the International Register of Historic Ships, one of the first steam vessels to enter the China tea trade after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. She and her kind drove out the fine-lined British tea clippers which had kept sail competitive in this trade. A survivorofthatlong-haulpremi umcargo ocean trade is preserved today alongside the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, a suburb of London. She is the glorious sailing clipper Cutty Sark, actually built in 1869. No early steamer from that trade is preserved. The Hipparchus survives by accident as part of a breakwater in the Straits of Magellan town of Punta Arenas. Nearby in the Straits is the beached and broken hulk of the steamer Amadeo of 1884, a small vessel intended for inter-island trading in that stormy quarter of the world. Both these, of course, were British built and had compound engines.

These are the only two known survivors of the 19th-century steamer that conquered the oceans for steam. Oh, 34

there are tugboats saved by local communities, and lake steamers of considerable antiquity in the Swiss lakes and Swedish archipelagos. And there is a splendid coasting steamer of 1890, named the Robin, preserved by the Maritime Trust in Great Britain. A tripleexpansion vessel of 1890, this 366-ton vessel gives an idea in petto of the ship in which Runciman experienced that gale of 1878, trading to the Mediterranean.

But beyond that, there's nothing, except for river and sound and harbor vessels that have little relation to the breed of vessel that won the ocean trades.

There is the triple-expansion powered Liberty ship Jeremiah O' Brien in San Francisco, the John W. Brown in Baltimore--deliberate throwbacks designed to exploit readily available technology and get more tonnage afloat to tum the tide of war in the global conflict of the 1940s.

Of actual warships, there is a more extensive collection, telling a much fuller story. There is, first and foremost, that "black snake among the rabbits," as Napoleon III called her, the Warrior of 1860. She has been restored in faithful and living detail (complete with memoirs and mementos saved through families of men that sailed in her), and will eventually be part of the three epochs in the development of the battleship on exhibition at Portsmouth in England.

The others are the Mary Rose of 1511 , which may fairly be termed the first battleship (armed primarily with shipkilling guns), and HMS Victory of 1765, the first-rate ship-of-the-line aboard which Nelson led the English to victory over the Franco-Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805-a battle that effectively ended Napoleon ' s plans to invade the British Isles, and led him to turn east in a disastrous attack on Russia.

Aside from mixed types, like the steam frigate Jylland of 1860 in Denmark, or the Royal Navy steam sloop Gannet of 1878 at Portsmouth, a number of important steam warships survive from the era between the end of the American Civil War in 1865 and the outbreak of World War I in Europe in 1914. Surprisingly, a couple of turret ships, next-step adaptations of the Monitor idea, survive in the Pacific World: the seagoing monitor Huascar, built in England for Peru in 1865 and captured by Chile in 1879, now a museum ship in Chile, and the coast defense monitorCerberusof 1868, which survives as a breakwater for a yacht club

in Melbourne, Australia-her stout muzzle-loading gun barrels still crouched like waiting lions in their armored turret.

And there is the protected cruiser Olympia of 1892, a survivorofthe Spanish-American War, in which she actually served as Admiral George Dewey's flagship at the Battle of Manila Bay. Berthed now at Penn 's Landing, Philadelphia, as a museum ship, she radiates the feeling of her confidently assertive era, and marks a clean break with the look of the sailing frigates that had done cruiser duty up until just before her time.

(Even the marvelously advanced Warrior bore a full sailing rig.)

And in St. Petersburg the cruiser Aurora, built in a local yard in 1900, survives as one of the ships that played a role in the Communist Revolution of 1917-which is why she is now preserved as a museum. A little bigger than Olympia, she has triple-expansion engines of less horsepower than Olympia's and with light armament. Lacking the Olympia 's heavy turrets fore and aft, she presents a far less formidable appearance. (The four battleships of the Marat class, a dozen years later, more than made up for this with the first triple turrets, whose 12-inch guns helped stop the German s outside Leningrad in 1941-but they were not preserved.)

The Mikasa , Togo 's flagship at the Battle ofTsushima in 1905, in which the European squadrons of the Imperial Russian Navy were destroyed, having been sent round to overcome the Japanese fleet after it had destroyed the Russian Far Eastern fleet, has been preserved. Built in England in 1900, she too, bristling with guns of various sizes, has the curiously medieval look of these first full-fledged products of the machine age at sea.

A forceful confidence is expressed in the craggy, formidable shape of the US battleship Texas , now preserved outside Houston. Launched in 1912, she carries ten giant 14-inch guns and was at the time of her launch the most powerful ship in the world. She is appropriately powered with two 4-cylinder triple expansion engines. The turbines fitted to her immediate predecessors in the Arkansas class were not up to snuff, so the Navy, properly conservative, reverted to the heavier, cruder engine for this class.

She is a durable ship, and her usefulness extended into World War II, where her giant shells knocked out German fortifications from miles away, and the few shells she received in return bounced off SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

her tough hide. Ernest Hemingway, watching her blaze away, found her "a strange and unbelievable monster." But, as he said, he was glad she was our monster.

It has become fashionable to decry the role of the dreadnoughts, and actually they saw little action in two wars.

But their existence held the gates of freedom open, in both World Wars, until the New World could step forward to the liberation of the Old. What Did It All Add Up To? Well, what were the consequences of the breakout of the steamship into the ocean world? Some aspects we can measure, such as the enormous expansion of world trade that occurred from 1840 onward. It is currently argued in academic circles how much the improvement of navigation contributed to this, and how much it was going to happen anyway. I come down on the side of those who feel the arrival of the steamship was the prime moving force. The ease with which you can move people and goods long distances unleashes profoundly creative forces in human history . You simply don't know what you 're going to end up transporting until you pick up boxes and bales and start moving them about faster and more economically than ever before.

The convenience of the river roadway, it's agreed, had much to do with the establishment of the Mesopotamian and Nilotic cities where the history of civilization began about 5,000 years ago. The development of the ocean roadway by the steamship-where does that lead?

In the longer perspectives of history, you don't really know what you are carrying in your steamer even when you've got it under hatches. It's not just kerosene for India you're carrying-it's light to illuminate a million dark homes .

It's educated citizens, eventually, as people learn to read in their lighted homes after the workday is over.

And all that voyaging by rusting, thumping anonymous steamers with saltcaked stacks absolutely changed the course of history in one critically important way: it developed the oceanic community and enabled that community to smash the two great militarist attacks on human freedom mounted in this century. Without the community of concerns, interests and relationships formed across oceans by steamships, strategists tell us that there is no way either World War I or World War II could have been won. I submit that that same community-changing, evolving, quarreling on occasion but always in touchSEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

A triple expansion engine of 1898, which capitalizes on steam delivered at 165 PSI. This ultimate in high-pressure piston engines, rugged and efficient for its day, was revived for the Liberty ships of World War 11. Courtesy, Conrad Milster.

that community's being there, and being concerned, and being in touch, has everything to do with World War III not happening (as yet) in this troubled century.

The steamer made it possible to muster the latent power of that community.

More than that: the very existence of that world, its democratic forms of government, its instinct to defend liberty, and its power to do so through the industrial capability of its people and their highly educated willingness and ability to develop the overnight armies that turned the tide of battle-these things all depended on the thump of piston steam engines, beating their way across oceans, from Australia, from India, from the Americas, on a scale and with regularity simply not attainable by the sailing ship that first opened up the ocean world.

Out of this grand, extensive trafficking, in ships of increasing size, cargoes of increasing weight (nowadays, in the ore trades we are beginning to move whole mountains) , the end product of all this raising of steam, swinging of cargo booms and churning of waters is clearly an intangible-a transmission of human purpose and of abilities to carry it out.

So, the artist Joseph Mallord William Turner, who died in 1851, when the accomplishments of the Cunard and Collins liners were still being eclipsed in the public mind by the sailing of the American clipper ships-cranky old J. M. W. Turner may have been right in his

vision of steam and speed as a transcendent development in the world, a reordering of history. !, Steam On! Two classic works on the impact of the steamship on world trade and national development are Adam Kirkaldy 's British Shipping (1919) , and C. Ernest Fayle's Short History of the World's Shipping Industry (1933), both now out of print. Ronald Hope 's New History of British Shipping (1991), an authoritative overview from prehistoric times on through the merchant adventurers and the palmy days of empire, to today 's decline, is available from NMHS for $75.

Frank 0. Braynard's S.S. Savannah; the Elegant Steam Ship (1963, recently reprinted by Dover Press) gives a lively picture of the development of coastal and deepwater steamers in the early 1800s; his Lives of the Liners and other works fill out the later story.

Andrew Lambert' sBattleships in Transition; I 815-1860providesaclose-in look at the early steam navy, and his Warrior, the World's First Ironclad tells the story of that "black snake among the rabbits" and her impact on the naval scene.

Denis Griffiths ' s recent Power of the Great Liners reviews the whole development of steam power from the fust transatlantic liners 150 years ago to the QE2's recent conversion to diesel power, in language the layman can readily follow.

35

SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Philadelphia Maritime Museum to Move to Water' s Edge Penn's Landing, a wate1front promenade on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, will become the new home of the Philadelphia Maritime Museum . A move to the waterfront from its home in a renovated bank building in the heart of Olde City has been widely advocated for many years. The museum will occupy the building now known as the Port of Hi story Museum. Improvements to the site will begin in 1994. The first construction phase is expected to take 12- 18 months and cost between $6.5 and $ 12 million.

The Maritime Museum has raised nearly $4 million for the project. (PMM, 321 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia PA 19106) Museum of Yachting to Sell J-boat Shamrock V The Museum of Yachting 's recent decision to sell the J-boat Shamrock V has

chusetts-most to serve in the fisheries.

Now, with the purchase of the property with $600,000 in funds appropriated by Congress and the help of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Trust for Public Land, in Boston, the shop will enter its third century of operation. Lowell's Boat Shop Trust plans to set up an educational program, an on-site museum and a boat shop self-sustained through the building and sale of a limited number of boats. (Trust for Public Land, 67 Batterymarch , Boston MA 02110) OpSail Looks Ahead Operation Sail has over the last thirty years brought tall ships to New York for parades of sail, first in 1964, then again in 1976, 1986 and 1992. In each instance, the volunteer organization came together after a period of dormancy to undertake the mammoth task. OpSail is planning a more on-going presence for the future. New activities include establishing the OpSail Tall Ships Information Bureau in Greenwich , Connecticut, coordinating cultural exchanges among cadets, conducting seminars, and assisting youth education and scholarship programs. An annual Cadet of the Year

Scholarship Award begins in January 1994 with two scholarships awarded to an American and a foreign cadet or crewmember. (Operation Sail, Inc., 2 Greenwich Plaza, Suite 100, Greenwich CT 06830; 203 629-4600) Odyssey: Seattle's New Maritime Museum You may ask: another maritime museum in Seattle-why? But the new Odyssey Contemporary Maritime Museum, planned for the Seattle waterfront, will be different. First, the new facility is on the waterfront and not on Lake Union, the location of the Northwest Seaport, Center for Wooden Boats and Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society. It also bills itself as having a "contemporary outlook" different from maritime museums involved in vessel preservation and heritage activities. Rather than examine the past, Odyssey visitors will explore the maritime world of the present and look to the future of Seattle and the US in a global network of maritime trading nations. An opening is planned for 1995. (OCMM, 318 First Avenue South, Suite 305, Seattle WA 981042546)

Battle of the Atlantic Remembered 1930 America's Cup contender Shamrock V.

raised considerable discussion. The decision coincides with the museum's acquisition of property on Thames Pier on the Newport waterfront, where it plans to build a new facility. Themuseum'spresent site across the harbor at Fort Adams has been deemed too inaccessible. At question is whether the museum is selling the yacht to raise money for the new building, or to dispose of an artifact that is no longer appropriate to the museum's mission. The towering 120-ft America' s Cup challenger from the 1930s, is one of only three remaining J-class boats and the first of an evolving class, which was eventually displaced by the 12-meter in 1958. The vessel was donated to the museum several years ago by the Lipton Tea company. (Museum of Yachting, PO Box 129, Newport RI 02840) The Yard that Launched 100,000 Craft Established in 1793 and known as the birthplace of the dory, more than 100,000 wooden small craft have been built at Lowell's Boatshop in Amesbury, Massa36

In the last week of May 1944, Hitler's U-boats began to withdraw from the North Atlantic where they had been harrassing allied convoys since the beginning of the war. On both sides of the Atlantic, 50th anniversary commemorations marking this turning point of the Battle of the Atlantic will be held.

In the UK, festivities begin with a Royal Navy Fleet review at Moelfe off Anglesey.

Review vessels will then join foreign and Commonwealth vessels from sixteen nations and sail to anchorages in the Mersey.

Events at Merseyside will continue through June 1 and include a Royal opening of new facilities at Mersey*1. side Maritime Museum, a Liverpool city parade and The Intrepid Museum in New York will host Battle of the flypast, and a conference Atlantic commemorations. co-sponsored by the Royal Navy and the Society for Nautical Research.

At the same time in New York harbor, the Intrepid Museum will hold commemorative events in conjunction with the US Navy and Coast Guard. The activities begin with a parade of ships into the harbor on May 26. The Navy and Coast Guard will send 10-12 vessels, and naval vessels from England, France, Poland, Russia, Canada and Norway have been invited. Events include a mayoral welcome and opening of the Intrepid Museum 's new Battle of the Atlantic exhibit. Ships will be docked beside the Intrepid and at the Staten Island port and will be open to the public. For details contact the museum at 212 245-0072.

SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

Where the Tall Ships Will Be in '93 The Great Lakes is the destination for at least two of America's sail training fleet this summer. Rose, the replica 1757 British frigate, and the replica topsail schooner Pride of Baltimore II will both make passages via Halifax, Toronto and Montreal for Great Lakes ports-ofcall. Both vessels will be in Erie, Pennsylvania for that city ' s 4th of July celebrations. The 1883 barkentine Gazela of Philadelphia, while not venturing as far as the Great Lakes, has a busy schedule of port visitation along the New England coast as far as Halifax this summer. Also traveling the East Coast as far as Boston this summer is the three-masted topsail schooner Alexandria (ex-Swedish cargo vessel Lindo) operated by the Alexandria Seaport in Alexandria, Virginia. The voyage signals her return to the ranks of active sail training vessels after a period of uncertainty. For schedules of visits write NMHS for a copy of the April issue of Sea History Gazette.

Underwater News The March/April issue of Archaeology magazine reports a slew of recent archaeological discoveries of ancient vessels. In eastern Paris at Berey, eleven dugouts dating to the Neolithic period (4300-3700BC) have been unearthed.

Two of the dugouts are intact, the rest are in fragments . Conservation work is being carried out in Grenoble. In the Bohai Sea off Liaoning Province in northeast China, scientists from the Museum of Chinese History in Beijing have found the remains of a 740-year-old ship lying under 24 feet of sand. Aboard were hundreds of intact household pottery items dating to the Yuan Dynasty. Archaeology also reports the discovery of "one of the world's oldest sea-going vessels," a Bronze Age boat dating to about 1400BC beneath Dover, in southern England. Found at the bottom of a 15-foot-square shaft dug for a construction project, one half of the vessel has been excavated for restoration while the other half will remain buried.

Ironbottom Sound, so named as the graveyard for warships sunk during the Battle of Guadalcanal, received visitors determined to probe its depths on the 50th anniversary of the battle last year. Chuck Haberlain, Head of the Photographic Section of the Naval Historical Center, assisted Robert and Barbara Ballard and a National Geographic Society team conducting research for film SEA HISTORY 65 , SPRING 1993

and book projects to be released in mid1993. Nine US Navy ships, one Australian ship and three Japanese ships were located. (NHC, Building 57, Washington Navy Yard, WashingtonDC20374-0571)

at $18.5 million. (MSM, PO Box 6000, Mystic CT 06355)

Central America Update A recent US Supreme Court decision not to hear an appeal over ownership of the wreck of the steamship Central America, is likely to have broad implications for maritime archaeological efforts. A federal appeals court in Richmond last year overturned a district court decision and gave insurance companies part title to salvage from the 1857 wreck. Bullion and other artifacts had been recovered from the wreck by Columbus-America, Inc. of Columbus, Ohio. If the federal appeals court ruling stands, experts fear that the decision will leave open to claim from insurers artifacts excavated by treasure-hunters and university or museum archaeological expeditions alike. A fuller report will appear in the Summer issue of Sea History.

Getting to the Beaches: Normandy '94 On January 5, Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley, R-MD, introduced a bill to help fund the proposed voyage of World War II Liberty ships Jeremiah O' Brien and John W. Brown and the Victory ship Lane to 50th anniversary commemorations of the Normandy invasion in 1994. HR 88 will make vessels in the National Defense Reserve Fleet available for scrapping-the proceeds from which will benefit the ships. In the case of the O'Brien, she will be returning to beaches she visited on D-day. Marci Hooper, of the National Liberty Ship Memorial in San Francisco, describes the funds as necessary for ship repairs on the O'Brien and urges supporters to write their congressional representatives in support of this effort. The voyage will be the most significant US civilian commemoration of the historic landing which began the liberation of Europe.

Mystic Seaport Expands Mystic Seaport Museum is embarking on a major expansion, and like a number of new waterfront developments, a major component of that expansion is a marine education and research center.

The museum recently received a $1 million federal grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for a new facility on the museum's 17-acre site. The center will be housed in a 150,000-square-foot former velvet mill. Plans include new exhibit space for the museum's 450-boat small craft collection, climate controlled storage space, public auditoriums and meeting rooms, as well as the new marine research facilities and laboratories. The total cost for the expansion is estimated

Getting Around the Ships The 51-ft brigantine Black Pearl has left her home at Pier 15 at South Street Seaport for a new assignment with The Aquaculture Foundation in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The Black Pearl is the vessel Barclay Warburton used to establish the American Sail Training Association in the early 70s. Over the last ten years she has been operated by the New York Ship Trust in conjunction with its restoration of the South Street Seaport Museum ship Waverlree. Black Pearl will be based at Captain's Cove and docked near the tall ship Rose. She will be used for training cruises that teach marine skills, boat maintenance, engine repair and leadership.

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SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS well, Portland-based Lightship Nantucket, Inc. sold Lightship #112 Nantucket on December 22 to the Intrepid Museum in New York City. Lightship #112 is the oldest survivor of the Nantucket Shoals lightship station, and the successorto the lightship that was rarrimed and sunk by the liner Olympic in 1934 with the loss of seven crew.

On March 24, the South Street Seaport Museum 's fully-restored 1893 Gloucester fishing schooner Lettie G. Howard had her new 75-foot masts stepped. The date marked the 1OOth anniversary of the original launching of the Lettie in Essex, Massachusetts. The Lettie will be ready to sail again in June 1993 and her restoration wil 1 be showcased at the Seaport's Fourth Annual New York Wooden Boat Show on June 19 and 20.

As part of a plan to establish a Maritime Heritage Center on the Clyde, the Clyde Maritime Trust has purchased the 1896 bark Glenlee (ex-ls/amount).

Plans are being made to bring the Clydebuilt, three-masted steel bark home to Glasgow in May or June, from her layup berth on the Guadalquivir River in Seville. The vessel last served as the Spanish Navy sail training ship Galatea.

She was laid up in 1969.

The ocean liner United States has encountered some difficulties since her arrival in Istanbul for refitting last July (see SH 64, p. 34). During a November storm, the anchor line parted and the 53,000-ton vessel drifted ashore, but was pulled off at high tide. Then, Turkish labor unions forbade members to work on the vessel due to asbestos contamination. A combined British/Dutch firm with asbestos experience has, however, been con-

tracted to do the work. In all other respects, the refit continues. Two large cruise line operators have apparently joined the current owners in an agreement to operate

. .

The United States grounded near Istanbul. the UnitedStatesforthe next 20 years and she is expected in drydock by April to begin a $160 million refit.

The Historic Naval Ships Association of North America reports these items in its newsletter Anchor Watch: the Destroyer Escort Sailors Association hopes to have the ex-USS Slater, DE-766, brought from Greece in early 1993, for temporary berthing at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in South Carolina; the United States Shipbuilding Museum in Quincy, Massachusetts is expected to get the cruiser USS Salem in the near future; and the National Maritime Museum Association in San Francisco reports the USS Pampanito was scheduled for its regular 5-yearly drydock in January. (Anchor Watch, 4640 Hoylake Drive, 6101 Welshire Place, Upper Marlboro MD 20772) There are signs of life aboard the bark Moshulu . Four years after sustaining fire damage amidships while being operated as a restaurant at Philadelphia's Penn 's

The Steam Launch Dolly, 142 Years Old Thirty years ago, on September 29, 1962, a mystery steamboat from the middle of the 19th century was finally raised, following months of preparation, from the lakebed of Ullswater in Cumbria, England. The vessel turned out to be the steam launch Dolly, built in l850 and The restored Dolly steaming on Lake Windermere. sunk in 40 feet of water in early 1895 after sustaining damage during a particularly severe winter. Returned to steam in 1965 with her original engine and boiler, the41-footDolly has pride of place at Windermere Steamboat Museum and is recognized as being the oldest working mechanically powered boat in the world. (The Windermere Steamboat Museum , Rayrigg Road, Windermere LA23 IBN UK) SJEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

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Landing, efforts are being made to give the ship renewed life. NMHS member Hajo Knuttel, who was instrumental in the recent save of the barkentineReg ina Maris, has been retained by owner Specialty Restaurants to begin maintenance and pursue options on a new home for the vessel. She is currently berthed in Camden NJ. Rick Hogben, writing in Ships Monthly reports a new three-masted schooner, to be named Peace, under construction in Poland for Germany. Further additions to the world ' s tall ship fleet can be expected this year if plans to build one or two brigantines in German yards go ahead.

They will be similar in type to the German Greif (ex-Wilhelm Pieck).

Word comes from Australia that the newly completed replica of James Cook's vessel Endeavour will be undergoing sea trials on the West Coast of Australia in April.

Columbus Ships: Where to from Here?

The year of Columbus ' s commemoration and its great cloud of controversy passed, the three Spanish-built Columbus replicas rested the winter quietly at dock at the Intrepid Museum in New York City. What of their future? The Spanish government recently announced Corpus Christi , Texas, as the permanent home for the vessels. Corpus Christi was selected from among 14 US ports that made made offers for the caravels after their extensive 1992 tour.

And what of the Santa Maria replica built in Albany, New York by Scarano Boatbuilding and shipped in two parts to Columbus, Ohio, last year? Installed in a basin adjoining the Scioto River, the replica has been a huge success as an exhibit: 300,000 people vi sited the vessel in 1992. An educational program for schools is being established aboard the tethered vessel. (CSM, 50 West Gay Street, B-100, Columbus OH 43215) Washington Report At the November meeting of the Council of American Maritime Museums in New York, Michael Naab, National Trust for Historic Preservation Maritime Director, reported on 1993 Congressional appropriations for maritime projects: • The Army Corps of Engineers will spend $1 million to dredge a new berth for the brig Niagara in Erie PA. The corps is also required to absorb some $230,000 in administrative costs associated with moving the endangered SouthSEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

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SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS east Lighthouse on Block Island RI. • The Salem Maritime National Historic Site in Massachusetts wi ll receive $1, 175,000forplanning and reconstruction of historic wharves and $440,000 to develop plans for a reconstruction of a 19th-century China trade vessel.

•The National Park Service will contribute $1 .5 million to the expansion of the USS Constitution Museum.

•Mentioned earlier in "Shipnotes" are the $1 million appropriation for Mystic Seaport and $600,000 for the preservation of Lowell's Boat Shop.

Calendar • May 26-June 1, Fleet Week 1993, a series of events hosted by the Intrepid Museum and including a parade of US and international Navy and Coast Guard vessels, ship visitations and a "Battle of the Atlantic" commemoration service.

(IM, W. 46th St & 12th Ave, New York NY 10036;212 245-0072) •June 12, "Cruise into History" on the historic Liberty ship SS John W. Brown from Norfolk VA. (Project Liberty Ship, PO Box 25846, Highlandtown Station, Baltimore MD 21224-084q).

•August 7, Re-enactment of the Simcoe Landing at Toronto, a "Toronto 200" event at Harborfront commemorating the founding of the Town of York at Toronto in 1793 and featuring the brig Niagara. (Toronto Historical Board, Marine Museum, Exhibition Place, Toronto, Ontario M6K 3C3) •August 21-22, International Steamboat Muster, Pawtucket RI. Includes a parade of steam vessels, a steam history exhibit and steamboat film festival.

(Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, PO Box 7663, Cumberland RI 02864; 401 334-7773)

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Jim was raised on Manhasset, Long Island, and graduated from the US Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point in

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His passion lead him first to co-found NMHS and travel to Manila to work on the restoration of the Kaiulani, a threemasted bark built for the Hawaiian sugar trade. Unfortunately, shortage of funds forced the abandonment of this project.

Kleinschmidt went back to sea for a period until his professional skills were needed to restore another vessel significant to Hawaii, the four-masted Falls of Clyde. The Bernice P. Bishop Museum, then owners of the Clyde, brought Jim and his fam ily to Hawaii. Under his ex pert guidance, with his vigi lant eye for historical accuracy and quality work, Jim transformed theClydefrom a ragged, dismasted hulk to a ship reminiscent of her former glory. He would goon to help found the Hawaii Maritime Center, where he continued to devote time to the Clyde.

Jim returned to the maritime industry in Hawaii, most recently serving as a harbor pilot for the deep water ports of the Hawaiian Islands. He is survived by his wife Norma, children David and Carole, brother Louis, two grandsons and two grandaughters .

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SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

REVIEWS The Line of Battle; The Sailing Warship, 1650-1840, ed ited by Robe rt Gardiner (Conway Maritime Press Ltd, London UK, 1992, 208 pp, illus, biblio, gloss, index; ÂŁ28 hb) The First Frigates; Nine-pounder and Twelve-pounder Frigates, 1748-1815,

by Robert Gardiner (Conway Maritime Press Ltd. , London UK, 1992, 127 pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, avail. Phoenix Publications, Cedarburg WI; $43.95 hb ) The Line of Battle: The Sailing Warship, 1650- 1840 com es as Robe rt Gardiner's editori al swan song at the Conway Maritime Press of Greenwich, London, England. As editori al director, Gardiner was in strumental in leading Conway into the arena of speciali zing in ships' histories. Among hi s credits a re the founding of the journal Warship, as we ll as the publisher's highl y successfu l "A natomy of a Ship" series. He also had considerable influence on Conway's new twelve-vo lume epcyclopedia of ships' histories (The Line of Battle is the second volume produced under that regis).

The ambiti ous pl ann ing for this comprehensive work includes the publicatio n of fo ur volumes per year through 1994.

This new book, edited by Gardiner with the able assistance of Brian Lavery, traces the development of the British sailing warship during the period 1650-1840.

Despite its title, which suggests ships of the line, The Line of Battle addresses a ll types down to and including supporting craft. It covers all aspects of the sai ling warship from design and construction through rigging, fitting, guns, decoration, seamanship and naval tactics.

For the American naval historian there are some problems with the tex t. Sir Robert Seppings, arguably the most innovati ve of the Admiralty Surveyors, is cred ited with the invention of di agona l bracing, "first tried on the 74-gun Tremendous in 1810, it was used on a few more ships before the end of the wars with France in 1815." The introduction of the type of di ago nal bracing Seppings employed first appeared in the 17971800 United States Navy frigates de sig ned by Joshua Humphrey s. T he American naval architect supported this diagonal bracing with a system of di agonal riders extending from the keelson to the underside of the orlop deck. Seppings picked up this system and ran with it, in battleships which did away with conventi onal framing , replacing the frames with heavy di agonals.

For a century and a half, the weakest SEA HISTORY 65 , SPRING 1993

partofa sailing warship was its flat stern.

Seppings in troduced the structurall y stronger rounded stern into line of battle ships with HMS Asia of 1824, although he experimented with frigates and sloops before then. American naval constructor William Doughty fo llowed Seppings 's lead in hi s " River C lass" fri gates of the early 1820s. Doughty introduced the next advance in warship naval architecture in 1823, when he completed the drafts for an elliptical stern : " I herewith send to the Office of the Commissioners of the Navy, a plan of the Ell iptic stern for the Frigate bui lding in New York [Savannah] ."

Documentation fo r thi s ex ists in the correspondence between Doughty and the Board of Navy Commissioners.

Thi s bit of Anglo-American carping aside, The Line ofBattle largely ac hieves its encyclopedic objective, and wi ll become a val uable reference source for all those who maintain an interest in the days of "wooden walls."

Gardiner puts down hi s editor's red pen to become the author of The First Frigates: Nine-pounder and Twelvepounder Frigates, 1748-1815 , hi s first book. Ably demonstrating hi s know ledge of " the eyes of the fl eet," he guides the reader from the evolution of the frigate silhouette in the mid-18th century to the ultimate stage of development for the 9-pounder and 12-pounder versions in 18 15.

It comes as no surpri se, in light of Gardiner's editorial background, that the ill ustration s and tab les far outweigh the prose content of The First Frigates.

Thi s, of co urse, is the strength of the book. All of the appropriate plans from the Admira lty Draught Collection of the Nationa l Maritime M useum have been reproduced, as well as photographic ill ustrations from that institution 's vast ship model collection, many of which have not been on public di splay for decades.

The author errs by assuming too much knowledge on the part of his readers, which may li mit the audience for this beautifu lly prod uced volume. For examp le, there is no defi nition of a frigate to be fo und , a rather curio us oversight.

Gardiner, nevertheless, has provided an inv aluable working too l for the naval hi storian, ship modeler and mari ti me antiquarian .

W . M. P. DUNNE, PH .D. Long Island University Southampton, New York

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Sea of Glory; A Naval History of the American Revolution, by Nathan Miller (Naval Institute Press, rev . ed. 1992, 558pp, illus, appen, biblio, index; $34.95hb) Focusing on "the ordinary seamen of the Great Age of Sail" Miller has surveyed the naval side of the American War of Independence. He demonstrates how the Continental Navy played a crucial and multifaceted role in winning thi s contest against the supreme naval power of the 18th century.

Sources available for this history are problematical in that there are none in some areas while others are of a partisan nature as would be expected in a struggle that pitted fellow countrymen against each other. Miller has utilized official records, reports, logbooks, letters, journals and secondary sources in the telling of this fascinating story. His bibliography lists the important secondary literature in thi s field.

Miller's use of a broad narrative approach to the Revolution maintains continuity throughout the book. Yet the most interesting aspect is the excellent technical detail interspersed throughout the narrative. His descriptions of life aboard an 18th-century warship, the procedure for firing the guns, and fascinating per-

sonal vignettes about various naval officers are examples of this detail.

While readers may debate Miller's conclusions or desire a different emphasis in hi s treatment, Sea of Glory is an important account of the naval operations of the American Revolution and is highly recommended for both scholars and those interested in naval history.

HAROLD N. BOYER Marple Public Library Broomall, Pennsylvania Furness Withy, 1891-1991, by David Burrell (World Ship Society, Langrigg, Cumnock, Ayrshire UK, 1992, 230pp, illus, appen, index; ÂŁ32hb, ppd) Amongst museum curators in Britain, there is a perception (not without justification) that commerce here is very bad at celebrating and preserving its own heritage. This is not quite fair to the shipping industry which over the years has produced many "Official Histories."

In recent years, the enthusiasm of the World Ship Society has maintained this trend working in collaboration with shipowners. A fruit of this enlightened partnership is now to hand in the superlative production of Furness Withy's centenary history, written by David Burrell, a

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SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

professional shipping historian formerly employed at Lloyds of London. The result is a worthy blend of vessel records, business history, and anecdote.

Furness Withy 's origin s lay in Hartlepool, a busy northeast England port where several generations later HMS Warrior was to be restored, the commerce having drifted away. From an early date there were strong transatlantic connections. Christopher Furness had started trading with Boston, Massachusetts, in 1878. In 1892, the infant company jointly founded the Chesapeake and Ohio Steamship Co. with the American railroad of that name.

It went on to buy up a whole series of shipping lines, establishing strong links with both North and South America. With the advent of World War II the company was in the frontline. Forty-two ships were lost, including the immortal Jervis Bay. The post-1960s were difficult years.

Lord Beeching, who will always be associated in Britain with the axing of much of our railway network, was in all likelihood correct when he jibbed of Furness Withy in 1972 that it was "a loose collection of warringtribes."Hespokeas the company's then-chairman . Rationalization was painful and, in 1980, far eastern dominance arrived in the shape of the C Y Tung group. Another sale in 1990 brought a much smaller but still profitable group back into European ownership under the Oetker Group of Hamburg.

It is a very considerable undertaking to weld together such a complex narrative in a highly readable form. David Burrell has risen to the challenge and been assisted by many worthy informants.

ROBERT N. FORSYTHE Northumberland, England

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Building the Kaiser's Navy; The Imperial Naval Office and German Industry in the von Tirpitz Era, 18901919, by Gary E. Weir (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 1992, 289pp, illus, biblio, index; $36.95hb) This study follows in fascinating detail the buildup of the German Navy from a standing start in the 1890s, to world-class status in the years preceding World War I -a conflict at least partly precipitated by German navalism.

Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz forged for Kaiser Wilhelm II the naval sword that the Kaiser rattled so ominously before the war, using remarkable political skills and a keen understanding of the fastdeveloping technologies of steel, steam and explosives. Navalism, of course, proved a disastrous policy for Germany , but one pursued with tenacity and technical brilliance, as this percipient account of the Tirpitz navy shows. PS Samuel Eliot Morison's Historical World; In Quest of a New Parkman,

by Gregory M. Pfitzer (Northeastern University Press, Boston MA, 1991 , 367pp, illus , notes , biblio, index; $32.50hb) Samuel Eliot Morison 's legacy to the history profession, and to maritime historians particularly, is an enthralling collection of books, essays and reviews aimed to reach both scholars and a larger popular audience. Mr. Pfitzer 's book is a biography of Morison 's intellectual development, told with feeling that Morison

would surely have appreciated, but primarily concerned with the evolution of historical thinking during Morison 's long life and his utterly individual, sometimes combative contribution to contemporary historiography.

JA Titanic In a New Light, by Joseph Macinnes (Thomasson-Grant, Charlottesville VA, 1992,96pp,illus;$29.95hb, $l6.95pb) This slender 96-page volume depicts the Titanic wreck in brilliant detail , as photographed by two Russian mini-subs in a recent international filming effort. Photographs of the ship on the builder's ways and at sea are shown large along with giant machinery and elegant interior spaces, in very fine reproduction, and much attention is paid to the diving operation. The vivid account of a survivor, Eva Hart, whose father stayed behind when Eva and her mother boarded a lifeboat, provides a poignant reminder of the human dimension of the disaster that cost 1500 lives , Eva's father 's among them.

PS Titanic; An Illustrated History, text

by Don Lynch, paintings by Ken Marschall, intro by Robert D. Ballard (Hyperion/Madison Press, New York NY , l 992, 227pp, illus, large format, index; $60hb) Robert D. Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic wreck, notes that as he got into her story, "soon this grand old lady of the deep had me completely in her spell." This sumptuous volume, superbly illustrated by Ken Marschall's paintings, supplemented by an extensive gallery of photographs, recreates that spell, taking you from the dinner party at which the great liner was conceived, through her construction (a tremendous industrial undertaking in itself), to her brief maiden voyage, which came to a heart-stopping end in collision with an iceberg in April 1912. One comes to see how the great ship was a legend in her own time, before her sinking made her immortal.

PS The Grace Ships, 1869-1969; An Illustrated History of the W.R. Grace & Co. Shipping Companies, by William Kooiman (Komar Publishing, PO Box 725, Point Reyes Station CA, 1991, 334pp, illus, biblio, index; $32.95hb) For an even century, Grace-owned vessels plied the ocean routes uniting the America5-from Yankee down easters in the 1l870s to passenger liners and freighters in the 1960s. In 1969 W. R. Grace & Co. sold its shipping interests to SEA HISTORY 65 , SPRING 1993

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I

Prudential Lines, completing its transformation to an international chemical company. In this book William Kooiman, a former Grace Line purser, takes a close look at the company built by an enterprising Irish immigrant to Peru, William Russell Grace. Working his way up in a Callao shipchandlery supplying the guano ships off Peru's Chincha Islands, Grace eventually formed his own company with his brothers. He then expanded his offices to New York and London and established a shipping line that would dominate America's commerce with the nations of the West Coast of South America.

Kooiman offers a full account of the operations and the ships of Grace Lines including the period 1915-25 when Grace was owner of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. The 187 photographs and 35 maps and illustrations included in this well researched volume make it a real value to shipbuffs and historians. KH Tales of the Sea; An Illustrated Collection of Adventure Stories, introduction by Frank V. Snyder, preface by Peter Neill (South Street Seaport Museum/Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., New York NY, 1992, 144pp, illus; $24.95) Beautifully produced, this collection of some two dozen brief tales and poem s, ranging from Columbus to Heyerdahl , is richly illustrated in color from the collection of the South Street PS Seaport Museum.

US Steamships; A Picture Postcard History, by Frank 0. Braynard (Almar Press, 4105 Marietta Drive, Vestal NY 13850, 1991, 140pp, 220 illus, index, biblio; $14.95 plus $2.75 s&h)Thepopularity of US steamships and postcard collecting have provided NMHS Advisory Chairman Frank Braynard the opportunity to create a book of lasting historical, artistic, and practical value. The postcards show photographs, artist's conceptions, and in some cases, reproductions of paintings of vessels. They provide a chronological history of steamships augmented by individual ship histories loaded with interesting facts and details. Reference information pertinent to postcard collecting is included.

KH Chronicles of the Hudson, by Roland Van Zandt (Black Dome Pres s, Hensonville NY , 1972, reprinted 1992, 384pp, illus, maps, notes, index; available from NMHS; $24.95 plus $2.00 s&h) The twentieth-anniversary edition of the SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

"Martha"

Hooper Island Draketail

Size 161/4"

Launch

Museum quality • Full-sized working drawings • $99.95 For information on other Museum products, call or write:

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~ Don't Go Sailing Alone!

Take

"TARRY BREEKS" With You! SEA SHANTY CASSETTES "Tarry Breeks-Sea Shanties" $9.95 "Those Are The Breeks" $11.95

SPECIAL - BOTH - $20.00 Mail Check or Money Order to: "Tarry Breeks", P. 0. Box 2660, San Pedro, CA 90731, or, call to order by phone (310) 514-8978

ARRANGEMENTS INC.

Class A, scratch built model, built in Russia, of the famous heavy cruiser "Aurora." Many other models available: send $2.00 for inventory list.

P.O. BOX 126, MT. KISCO, N.Y. 10549, 914-238-1300

~"BIT.'t>vn.. Chart weight and position markers Marine-life art for your nav station or _desk Designed, cast, and finished in the U. S. A. Solid, red bronze; 3-3/4 inches long Nonslip bottom 10-oz Pro-Pelican, $16.50; 12-oz Doi-finder, $18.50

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45

REVIEWS fine frcs• Food nrcc Meats a Day Seven Days a Weck On 1bc Htr~r in Vineyard Hivca ~..,,_,,..,.,,.;~

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AMAZING INVENTORY!!!

Captain's Clock of solid oak, cherry and mahogany. 3-year guar. on quartz movement. $45, ship'g incl. Also : Oldfashioned handmade dolls. Photos on request. Keeler & Olson Clocks 125 Hill St., PO Box 6, Whitinsville MA 01588 Tel: 508-234-5081

MARINE OIL PAINTINGS OF HISTORICAL SHIPS

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Visit our 5000 square foot Gallery in an historic brick warehouse crammed with over 250 fantastic ship models of all sizes, periods, types, etc.. .All at downto-earth wholesale prices .

Please send $10 for our video catalog

Lannan Ship Model Gallery 58 Thayer Street, Boston, MA 02118 617•451•2650

SEND FOR FREE BROCHURE ROBERT W. YOUNG 411 ELLIOTT ST BEVERLY, MA 01915 TEL 508-922-7 469

critically acclaimed Chronicles of the Hudson provides readers a second opportunity to enjoy 300 years ofauthentic tales of travel on the Hudson River. The book begins with excerpts from the journal of Robert Juet, navigator aboard Henry Hudson 's Half Moon , and continues with the stories of 22 diverse people, from diplomats and travelers to sailors, soldiers and immigrants. From its Adirondack headwaters to New York harbor, the Hudson's geography and history are animated by this carefully produced and thoroughly readable anthology.

KH The Naval War of 1812; A Documentary History, Volume II, edited by William S. Dudley (Naval Historical Center, Washington DC, 1992, 779pp, illus, biblio, index; $43) The volume covers the year 1813, and includes engagements such as Hornet-Peacock and ChesapeakeShannon, the cruises of Essex and President, and fleet actions on Lakes Ontario and Erie. It is a collection of American , British and Canadian accounts, official documents and private papers relating to the second year of the war.

Video FOR SALE Finely detailed Merchant & Military Sailing Vessels. Hand crafted to order. We will send Price quote and color photo upon receipt of ship name and scale wanted. Many popular ships built ahead from 27" to 56". For list of ships in stock send $1.00 to: BRUCE HALLETT P.O. Box 173 Howland ME 04448

PARTICIPATION SAILING ADVENTURES ona WORKING SCHOONER

Live the tradition.

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1911

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46

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Guardians of the Night (VHS, Janson Associates , Inc. , Harrington Park NJ, 1992, 52 min, color. Available through Lighthouse Digest, South Portland ME, $24.95 plus $3.50 s&h) Thi s elegant and fascinating video explores the history of European and North American lighthouses ranging from the first light at Pharos to the Statue of Liberty. Dramatic images, historic and modem, and the words of past and present keepers describe and preserve a way of life rapidly vanishing in the face of advancing technology, a testament to the awesome beauty and isolation of these monuments to man 's relationship with the sea. JA SS John W. Brown-The Rebirth of a Liberty Ship (VHS, Carl Kriegeskotte, Box 692, Mt. Kisco NY, 1992, 30 min, color; $39.95) In August 1991 , the SS John W. Brown, one of the two remaining WWII Liberty ships, went out on her fust cruise under her own power in nearly 46 years. The vessel was tended by a devoted crew of volunteers who had restored and continue to work on the 50-year-old ship.

Fine shots of the ship, her interior and engine at work are combined with interviews with former Liberty ship crew memJA bers and today' s volunteers.

SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

DESSERT:

The Return of HM Coast Guard Cutter Vigilant Sea History recently received a letter from David Hewer, a Senior Investigation Officer in HM Customs and Excise who remembers fondly his early service as Radio Officer of Her Majesty ' s Revenue Cutter Vigilant. The Vigilant of his acquaintance was launched in 1969, the tenth in a line of HM Customs Cutters to bear the name . It was with some amazement and a great deal of ex citement that he found the seventh Vigilant, the last HM Revenue Cutter to carry sail and the sole surviving vessel from the 1911 Spithead Review, living out the remainder of her long life as a houseboat in Shoreham , on England's south coast.

My wife and I discovered Vigilant on a weekend trip to Brighton in December 1988. Having received the usual invitation to attend an annual Reserve Forces Mess Dinner we got down to Brighton on a very wet and windy Saturday morning. We obviously could not go for our customary pleasant stroll so decided to go for a drive instead. A recent letter from a Brighton real estate agent had led us to believe that the 1902 Vigilant' s h u11 still existed in the Port of Shoreham as part of what they called "a houseboat" and a quick phone call to the elderly owner, Mrs. Nancy Kelly, elicited an invitation to tea. Protestations of "on ly wanting to know where the vessel was" were met by Nancy with a stonewall refusal to take no for an answer, so to tea we went, expecting to see "the hou seboat." You can imagine our amazement when Vigilant turned out to look very much as she does in Graham Smith's excellent book Kings' Cutters and not, as we had imagined, just a hull with a house built on top.

A guided tour from Nancy , which included the two Commissioner' s Cabins and a plate glass door engraved with King ' s Crown and Portcullis convinced me that the vessel was so amazingly intact that something ought to be done to preserve her, although I did not know at that stage that she was indeed the last Revenue Cutter to carry sail, or the sole survivor from the 1911 Spithead Review.

A.Jl-k-~-~

SAIL THE MAINE COAST

The Classic Windjammer V acarion

SCHOONER MARY DAY Good F=~~fa~~~ Wild Islands , Snug Harbors Seals , Eagles, Whales, Puffins Capt. Sieve & Chris Cobb Box 79BA, Camden , ME 04843 800-992-221 8 . (20 7) 236-27.50

SEA HISTORY 65, SPRING 1993

I am afraid that I rather spoilt the rest of my wife 's weekend, and certainly the dinner that evening, because I kept on about the vessel and the need to do something about preserving her.

The rest would take too long to relate, but suffice it to say that with the help of Wing Cdr. Kenneth Lucas, then Director of the Maritime Trust, and latterly one of our own Trustees, we managed to set up the Vigilant Trust and set about raising funds to purchase and restore Vigilant.

There have been many alarms and excursions along the way. We ' re still not out of the wood yet, but we did manage to purchase Vigilant on the 14th of April , 1992.

Since last summer, volunteers have

been chipping away at her hull and we hope to have her ready to dry-dock in Shoreham by April 1993. .t Mr. Hewer notes that f ollowing American independence, HM Customs and Excise handed over a number ofR evenue Cutters to the newly formed US Customs Service.

One of those cutters was called Vigilant, and to this day the US Coast Guard maintains a cutter of the same name. Ultimately, the Vigilant Trust wants to make Vigilant a symbol of international cooperation. Readers interested in becoming a "Friend" ofthe Vigilant(ata cost of ÂŁ12 a year) may contact David Hewer, The Vigilant Trust, Custom House, Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EE, UK.

AL right, HM Coast Guard Cutt er Vigilant is an im-

pressive sight at Newcast/eon-Tyne in 1904 . Sh e is pictured again below in l 992, remarkably well-preserved at Lady Bee Marina in Shoreham, where she became a houseboat 30 years ago.

Vigilant retains her original la yo ut and much of her Edwardian decor, datingfrom the period 1902 to 1920 when she was based at Gravesend and responsible f or control and clearance of vessels boundfor the Port ofLondon.

l ;;;iiE""~,._-.-...:.

SCRIMSHAW Museum-quality engravings on fossil ivories by nationally recognized scrimshander

Robert Weiss 914-337-4426

LIGHTHOUSE SCULPTURE Highly detai led replicas, accurately scaled at I :48 scale. Operating lamp. Signed & no. ltd. edition.

Now releasing Port Sani lac, Lake Huron, I 7' $350 Large SASE for more information.

the LIGHTHOUSE WORKS 6036 Fallen Leaf Lane, Toledo, OH 436 15

47

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