LETTERS
DECK LOG The famous clipper Young America sailing so bravely across our cover was launched in 1853, when the republic she was named for was indeed young. Independence from Great Britain had been won just seventy years earlier. But a distinctive American style was evident in our architecture, our ways of talking and writing, and in the ships we builtand how we sailed them. It is an amazing fact that at the height of the clipper era in 1851 , just two years earlier, the American merchant marine moved more of the world's cargo than the British merchant fleet, which served the largest empire in history. Innovative excellence in ship design and the driving determination of Yankee shipmasters and merchants enabled the young, still underdeveloped nation to pull off this feat, to the vast benefit of the American economy. Fortunes made in shipping went to build the American industrial base which changed not just American but world history in the next hundred years. Today ourtrillion-dollarforeign trade is carried in foreign ships almost exclusively. The reasons for this flight from the flag are set forth by Dave O'Neil in the report on page 6, the first of four articles in which we'll be looking at the state of the merchant marine in the light of history. The American people are unaware both of the special role of the merchant marine in building America and of its recent exile from the oceans. We conceive it to be part of our educational mission to get the story before more people to encourage informed judgment on the future of the American flag at sea. We are seeking ways to extend this effort beyond these pages, and we welcome your comment.
In History's Cause If the cause of history is a continuing one, so alas is its abuse. The opening letters in the adjoining column reflect on the extremely anti-historical perspective taken by the Smithsonian Institution in its "Enola Gay" exhibit, which used skewed statistics and statements directly contrary to fact in questioning the American decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan in 1945. Of course it' s important to question any decision of this gravity, but the distortions which characterized the Smithsonian exhibit were a disservice to history 's cause and to people seeking to understand the national experience. PETER STANFORD
2
Doctoring We Can Do Without I read with great pleasure the Autumn issue of Sea History, particularly the editorial regarding the historical doctoring of the past. I, along with many others, have been horrified at the liberties taken with historical events; it would seem that the voice of the participants has become increasingly weak as time wears on, and I shudder to think what the modem "historians" will concoct when the last survivor of a well documented event finally dies. Another editorial on this subject suggested that when that day comes, some of the more liberal-minded historians might have the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor recorded as the unprovoked attack by US forces on a friendly flight of foreign airmen flying a mercy mission! WM. H. WHITE Rumson, New Jersey
tug El Toro of the Southern Pacific Company. The tug was used in New York from 1924 until 1941, then sold to the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad for use in the lower Chesapeake Bay. Renamed W.J. Harahan, she remained in use until retired in 1962. In 1971, as part of an unsuccessful effort to preserve the tug, the engine was removed and donated to the museum. It was restored by volunteers and placed in our Steamboat Building which opened in 1992. The museum would be interested in knowing if your readers are aware of any other Sullivan engines. Also, we would like to locate a photograph of the tug while she still bore the name El Toro. NORMAN H. PLUMMER Chairman, Curatorial Committee Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum St. Michaels, Maryland
"Wider View" Needs Wider Audience
No Steam to Spare
Your column, "The Wider View," in Sea History 75 so clearly and completely explains the situation at the end of World War II and today's thinking about that time, that it is a shame it isn't read by a wider audience. Sea History is certainly the forum for such retrospectives, but this column needs to enter the mainstream of current popular thought. I recall reading in Adm . O'Kane ' s Clear the Bridge his discouragement on seeing firsthand, as a POW in Japan in the spring of 1945, the strength of that country and his belief that " ... Japan could only be defeated by invasion." In Jerome Forrest's article in Naval History magazine (August 1995), another firsthand observer details the strengths and intent of the Japanese to continue the war, even after the A-bombs!
enjoyed Philip Teuscher's article, "Tidewater Tugboating," in Sea History 76. Those of us working on the Banner boats longed to be fortunate enough to get a job on the elite Red Star, Moran or Turecamo boats. I was engineer on the tugboats Maple Leaf of Conners Marine, Seaboard of Tracy Coal Co. , and the McAllister Brothers of McAllister Towing. The most famous of these Banner boats were owned by a Mr. Roe, and were all steam with the steam exhaust blowing outside by the top of the stack. We said the puffing of the exhaust steam was saying "coal and water, coal and water." My uncle, known in that period as Wild Bill Leander, was a captain on one of Roe's boats. He told me he never blew the whistle because they couldn't spare the steam.
EMMETT ANGELL
WALTER LEANDER
Califon, New Jersey
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
In Search of a Sullivan
Liverpool Artist in Scottish Waters
Your recent issue contained several excellent articles on tugboats. "Tidewater Tugboating" briefly mentioned engines "built by Sullivan on East 8th Street," Manhattan, used in Red Star tugs. The reference to "Sullivan" must be to John W. Sullivan & Company of 827 East 9th Street. Your readers might be interested to know that the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels; Maryland, displays a working model of a Sullivan engine, possibly the only one still extant. It was built in 1924 for the
Your story on the Liverpool ship artists in the Autumn 1995 issue was very interesting and informative, especially the comments on showing three views of the same ship. Yesterday, after checking out Vermeer at the National Gallery in Washington, DC, I wandered into a gift shop and saw an inexpensive print of a ship maneuvering off Greenock. I checked it and, sure enough, there were the three views. After I got home I looked at the print more carefully, especially the treatSEA HISTORY 77, SPRING 1996