NMHS Sails with SCOW-to Knoxville! " Knoxville? ft can 't be! He must have said Nashvi lle," I said to Justine, who had taken a message from NMHS Overseer Schuyler Meyer, calling in on the State Counci I on Waterways voyage from New York through rivers and canals to the heartland of Tennessee. There he was to pick up students for a return voyage through American and Canadian waterways to our headquarters in Peekskill , where we will welcome the argonauts of SCOW in a celebration of our interstate waterways heritage on 19 August. Thi s epic journey began inNew York, proceeding up the Hudson and Mohawk rivers , waterways used by American Indians in their extensive trading networks for thousands of years before the first European arrived on the scene 400odd years ago. Just over 170 years ago, this highway from the ocean was lengthened by the Erie Canal, when Governor Clinton brought Lake Erie water to dump into New York harbor in 1825. The SCOW crew had planned to push down the Ohio from Pittsburgh to Cairo, then turn north on the Mississippi and then off on the Missouri to reach Sioux City, Iowa. Raging floodwaters running faster than the top speed of the expedition 's boat, the Dr. R obt. Semo , blocked this course, and so the argonauts turned south on the mi ghty Tennessee River, stopping not at Nashville as we had supposed, but press ing right on, through stretches of Miss iss ippi and Alabama, to hook up to Knoxvi lle in the hills of Appalachia. In all, it had been a 2,000-mile journey, 500 on New York State waterways , then (after a 300-mile portage) 900 miles on the Ohio, and 600 on the Tennessee. The return journey will take them north again and through the St. Lawrence to Montreal before returning to Peekski ll with young students in crew. The purpose of the voyage is to open people 's eyes to the shining asset we have in the nation ' s waterways, and to open the recreational and educational opportunity they offer to more Americans-a goal deeply shared by NMHS and SCOW. We are proud that our burgee flew on the jackstaff of the Dr. R obt. throughout the journey. PS The voyage covered 2000 miles of waterways, reaching Knoxville in late May. The return passage , with students aboard, will reach up north to the Great Lakes returning by the St. Lawrence, Richelieu and Hu dson ri vers to Peekskill, New York .
SEA HISTORY 74, SUMMER 1995
Early in the journey, the NMHS flag flutters at the bow on a chilly, leafless day as the Dr. Robt. Semo approaches Lockport on the Erie Canal, 29 April 1995 . The Dr. Robt. catches the last bit of evening light on a dreamlike avenue of southern waters.
The skipper, Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr., and shipmate Carl Briseno.
Route of the Dr. Robt.: Ponage: • • • • • • •