NMHSNEWS Membership up 25%Goal to Go! Membership on 29 April, the first anniversary of our Sea History membership campaign, stood at 13,495, a gain of 2,718, or 25%, over 1994, closing in on the first stage goal of 15,000. A massive volunteer effort sparked this drive, augmented by block enrollment of the graduating classes at the five state maritime academies (California, Great Lakes, New York, Maine, Massachusetts), the US Merchant Marine Academy, the Coast Guard Academy and Webb Institute of Naval Architecture. In addition, the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Foundation sponsors NMHS memberships for the college students in the Sea Education Association's Sea Semester in the schooners Westward and Corwith Cramer.
American Merchant Marine Museum And, in a most welcome development, the active members of the American Merchant Marine Museum at Kings Point, New York, have been enrolled as associate members. In his letter announcing this to Museum members, Curator Frank 0. Braynard called Sea History "Certainly the finest maritime history magazine published! " Special reports on merchant marine history and current affairs will appear in each iss ue of Sea History in the future-a development that confirms our Society's long-standing interest in the continuities of history, and in the future of the US merchant marine. Welcome aboard, American Merchant Marine Museum members!
Scheuing at Kings Point NMHS trustee Richard W. Scheuing presided over a luncheon at the US Merchant Marine Academy on National Maritime Day weekend on 20 May, at which the graduating class was presented with memberships in the Society. RADM Thomas T. Matteson thanked Mr. Scheuing for these memberships, given by Dick in honor of hi s friend Captain Frank T. Hayden. Capt. Hayden served under Mr. Scheuing aboard the Liberty ship William N. Pendleton at Utah Beach on DDay in 1944. Capt. Hayden was then a Kings Point Midshipman , and as the years passed Mr. Scheuing did not forget this young man' s stalwart bearing, readiness to learn and effective execution of orders in a life-and-death situation.
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"The usual suspects" gather aboard the Liberty ship Jeremiah 0 'Brien as Admiral Tom Patterson receives the World Ship Trust and American Ship Trust awards for saving the ship and taking her on her historic voyage to Normandy on the 50th anniversary ofD-Day last year. Seated from left to right , are Richard Brannon, Mrs. Anne Patterson , Admiral Patterson , Awards Luncheon Chairman Fred Hawkins , NMHS President Peter Stanford, NMHS Trustee Jeanmarie Mah er (with NMHS Trustee Scheu.ing directly behind her) , and standing, Commander James Benson and NMHS Vice Chairman Edward G. Zelinsky. Mr . Zelinsky , who presented the World Ship Trust Award to Admiral Patterson, was himself presented with the NMHS Distinguished Service Award for his leading role in maritime scholarship and support of the work of NMHS and the World Ship Trust. D-Day veteran Dick Scheuing at the Cronkite Award presentation.
Peking Battles Cape Horn Again-in New Edition of Johnson Classic The Peking Battles Cape Horn, Irving Johnson 's account of a Cape Horn passage in the German bark Peking in 192930, is going back into print, augmented with a new preface by Electa (Exy) Johnson , Irving's wife and partner in his later round-the-world voyages in two Yankees . The new edition carries an account of Johnson 's life, as well as the now famous "Afterword" in which Captain Johnson reflected on the lessons of hi s seafaring in the "great big wagon," as he called the four-masted Peking, and hi s appreciation of the strong seamanly qualities of Captain Jurs. With production costs covered by the NMHS Plankowners ' Club, the book is expected to make a profit, which will go into a special Irving and Exy Johnson fund , to help more young people get to sea in sail. Plankowners, NMHS supporters who donate $2500 or more per year, sponsor special projects that would not otherwise be feasible for NMHS to undertake.
Cronkite Award Goes to Pilgrim School Program The first presentation of NMHS Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Maritime Education was presented on 23 April to the Pilgrim School Program of the Orange County Marine Institute at Dana Point, California. Trustees Richard W. Scheuing and Ray Wallace were on hand with NMHS President Peter Stanford to present the award to Dr. Stanley L. Cummings, Executive Director of the Institute. The Pilgrim program was described by Daniel T. Stetson, Director of Maritime Affairs, in Sea History 72. SEA HISTORY 74, SUMMER 1995