SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Thayer Among 11 Most Endangered The C. A. Thayer, the 19th -century lumber trade schooner docked in San Fran cisco, has been named to the 1993 li st of " Ameri ca 's 11 Most Endange red Hi storic Pl aces" by the Nati ona l Tru st fo r Hi storic Preservati on. The li stin g recogni zes both the nationa l signifi cance and the deteriorating cond iti on of the 1895 I 56-ft wooden vessel, des igned to tra nsportthe West Coast's redwood and Do ug las fir. It is the first time that a ship has been li sted. The onl y other maritime item li sted so far is the B lock Is land SE Li ght, li sted two yea rs ago. The Thayer, part of the vesse l col lection at San Fra nc isco Maritime National Hi stori c Park , hosts 10,000 schoo l chil dren annuall y fo r a hands-on ed ucatio n ex peri ence (see Sea History 65). But the mass ive timbers of the three-masted vessel are bad ly rotted , and the in teg rity of her hull is threatened by shi pworms. (NTHP, 1785 Massac hu setts Ave., NW , Was hington DC 20036) Round the World in 80 Days In a curi ous case o f li fe soone r o r later refl ectin g art, Bruno Pey ron and hi s crew aboard the multihull Commodo re Explorer (ex-J et SerFices) ro unded the world in 79 days and 6 hours to better the fi cti onal mark set by Jul es Ve rne's hero Phil eas Fogg in Verne's 1873 cl ass ic Round th e World in 80 Days . T he othe r contenders had dro pped out of the race before Peyron crossed the fi ni sh line o n 20 April. Peter Bl ake and Robin Kn oxJohn ston dro pped out a fter ro undin g Cape Horn when the ir Enza New Zea land hit a submerged object and O li v ier de Kersauson retired when the starboard outri gger on Chara / ex pl oded. Getting A round the S hips From Scotland comes news of the successful return to G lasgow on 9 June of the three-masted bark Glenlee. T he 245-ft C lenlee, which served as the S pani sh Navy 's sail training vessel Galatea fo r 30 yea rs, was built in Gl asgow in 1896. Her long-term restoration is a project of the C lyde Maritime Trust (CMT, 25 I Paisley Road, G lasgow, GS SRA, Scotl and) The beautiful schooner Ernestina is getting a $ 150,000 overhaul at Kell y's Shipyard in Fair Haven, Massac husetts. Thi s recent in vestment by her owners, the Commonwea lth of Massac husetts, ends a one-year peri od of uncertainty fo r the vessel. Project consultant Greg Swansey re ports a new organi zati on is being put SEA HISTORY 66 , S UMMER 1993
toge ther to ope rate the vesse l with an eye to re-establi shing sa il training and yo uth -at-ri sk programs a board th e 1894 Fredoni a-style fo rmer Grand Banks fi shing sc hoone r. Th at other graceful G loucesterman , the 100-year-old schooner Lettie G. Howard, fresh from her stem-to-stern restorati on at South Street Seapo11 Museum in New York C ity, was on hand for accolades at the 1993 WoodenBoat Show, 2527 June, at Newport, Rhode Island. The three-masted r e plica Bounty sa iled into Battl es hip Cove at Fa ll River, Massac husetts, in ea rl y June to beg in her new life as a to uri st attrac ti on and sail trainer. The Bounty re plica, one of three sa ilin g today, was used in the 1962 MGM mov ie" Mutinyo n the Bounty. " It was donated to the Fall Ri ve r Chamber of Commerce by med ia mag nate Ted T urner. (FR CC, PO Box 187 1, Fa ll Ri ver M A 02722) The US Navy has recomm ended against the transferof the aircraft carrier Coral Sea to the Pue110 Rico Educational and Sc ientifi c Fo undati on fo r use as a floatin g mu se um in Fajardo, Pue rto Ri co . C itin g time constra ints and the re la ti ve ly poor mate ri a l condi ti on of the Co ral Sea, th e Navy has in stead s uggested the gro up wo rk to obtain anoth er carri er, the Midway . As part of the build-up to Eurosail '93 in Antwerp, 14- 17 August, the Belgian barkentine Mercator has been dra wn out of her 30-year retirement as a museum ship in Ostend to attend what will be Europe's bi ggest maritime festi val this yea r. According to Ri ck Hogben, writing in Ships Monthly, the fo rmer Be lgian national sail training vesse l de parted Ostend on 28 June and after stopovers will arrive in Antwerp on 28 Jul y. Meanwhile, a new non-profit company has been fa nned to The Jo ' c' s/e-head capstan of" the bark Moshulu clanks around again as restoration work begins. T his 'forgotte n masterpiece,¡¡ as Ha10 Knuttel (in white hat), under whose direction the work goes forwa rd , ca lls her. had been laid up in Camden, New Jersey. This spring, he r owners. Specialty Restaurants. decided to recomm ission her as a restaurant ship and youth training ce nte r . at th e urging of N MH S. Her s to ry .i s carried in Sea Hi story 60. 6 1. 62.
promote the idea of a new Be lgian sail training ship. The company wo uld li ke to use the name Mercator II for the new vessel, whi ch is envisaged as a four-masted barkentine in the same style as the new crui se ships Star Clipper and Star Flyer. The American Sa il Tra ining Assoc iati on has released its long-awa ited 1993
Directory of Sail Training Ships and Programs, an update o f the ir immense ly useful 1990 editi on. T he comprehensive, inform ation-pac ked d irec tory is the onl y full guide to the g lori o us vari ety of Ameri ca n ships and sa il tra inin g ex peri ences. Ava il abl e fro m ASTA , PO Box 1459, Newpo rt RI 02840 for $5 plu s $2 shpg. Discovery of WWII German Submarine off Cape Cod Questioned The recent, broadl y-publicized discovery of a U-boat wreck off Cape Cod has been meet with skepticism by WWII historians. On 5 June, commercial di ver Edward Michaud ofFramingham , Massachusetts, claimed he fo und U- 1226 in 41 fee t of water four miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Michaud, who says he has been searching fo r the U- boat for three years, believes U- 1226 was on an intelligence mission when sunk on 28 October 1944 by planes despatched by the Coast Guard. Experts familiar with the movements of U- boats during WWII have expressed doubts about the report. To date, Michaud has not provided any photos or material evidence to support his claim. C hina Voyage Will Test Early Trans-Pa cific Voyaging Account Mari time adve nture r and writer Tim Severin and a crew of 5 men, will depart Hong Kong in Jul y on a 60-ft bamboo raft to test theories of earl y trans- Pacific voyag ing. Severin 's ex pediti on is a re-
PHOT O: HAJO KNUTTE L
25