DECK LOG When I last saw Karl Kortum, in his home in San Francisco on 21 August, he had just awakened from a dream. "Not a nightmare, I hope?" I said. No, it was a very good dream, he told me, in which he was working with the late Scott Newhall (who loved to get his hands on a welding torch) to outfit a small, old-fashioned paddlewheel tug for sea. The tug, of course, was the Eppleton Hall, which he and Scott steamed from England to San Francisco in 1969-70 in one of the epic sea ventures of our time. Karl was ready for the longer voyage he knew lay ahead, and three weeks later, on 12 September, he slipped his cable and took his final departure. He left us with a lazarette full of memories and with the mission of sav ing the historic ships that people of vision-Mystic's Carl Cutler, New York's Jakob Isbrandtsen, and San Francisco's own Karl Kortum-brought to safe harbor for us. The immediate challenge he leaves us is to save the Wapama, whose story is told by Karl him selfon pages 14-15 of this issue. Karl said our NMHS testimony at hearings on Park Service plans to scrap the old steam schooner, held earlier on the day I saw him , had been "a breakthrough ," based on phone cal Is he 'd already received . I hope so. But if so, it 's up to all of us to make it real. To move ahead with the surge of public feeling about these ships, a Save Our Wapama Committee has been formed under the chairmanship of Admiral Tom Patterson, who saved the Liberty ship Jeremiah O'Brien and steamed her to Normandy for the D-Day observances in 1994, and Ed Zelinsky, vice president of the World Ship Trust and vice chairman ofNMHS. Please join them in speaking up for the Wapama today.
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In our line of work we don't go in for finger-pointing, or for exc uses e ither. Such tactics don 't work at sea. What we do in our business in great waters is seek out examples of the good, dedicated performance that leads to success. You may imagine my pleasure at sailing on the Star of India in San Diego to celebrate the wonderful work done with that ship, which literally glows with good shipkeeping (see pages 16-17). And it is good to report that another NMHS Committee, the Catawissa Committee, has got their 1897 tug on the National Register and is making progress to bring her into safe harbor in New York City. -PETER STANFORD
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LETTERS $100,000 Challenge to Rob Quartel The Summer l996Sea Historypresented an article by Rob Quartel written for your "American Flag at Sea" series, as was my piece in the issue before. But instead of a further perspective on our maritime industry and foreign competition, it was an all-out attack on our domestic fleet. The "shippers' group" he represents is deceptively named The Jones Act Reform Coalition, but it is, in reality, a bona fide Washington lobbyi st group that works diligently against our domestic fleet. Most "shippers" are middlemen motivated to drive down transportation rates. These folks, although necessary , add little of real value to our system-they neither produce nor transport a product. They profit from brokering freight contracts and they have no regard for such concerns as the survival of the US flag fleet, retention of American jobs, or logi stical support for the US military in time of war. Because most Sea History readers are not familiar with the details of shipping, they may have missed the many distortions and deceptions Mr. Quartel employed in his article. I will give one g laring example. Mr. Quartel correctly differentiates between a total " billet cost" per year versus a mariner's " personal gross salary." Having used billet cost information as bait, the switch occurs with the statement: "A merchant marine captain, in fact [emphasis added], could earn as much as $380,000 in benefits and salary for six month 's work." I challenge that gross misrepresentation by issuing this promi se: I will pay Rob Quartel $1,000 for each valid W-2 form he can produce for over half the amount he claims for current shipmastering salaries. The period of shipmastering earnings can be for one full year. (He forgot to mention that six months ' work includes all holiday s, weekends and long , tiring days necess itated by th e nature of today 's quick-turnaround ship operations.) If his statement is anywhere near the truth , one would think he can find at least 100 such W-2s, and that puts me on the hook for $ 100,000. DAVID A. O 'NEIL Essex, Connecticut
Merchant Ships in the War Zone I write to object to the article by Rob Quartel in Sea History 78. Mr. Quartel is a Johnny One Note. He knows, for example, that his statement that only one Jones Act vessel made it to the Gulf war zone is misleading, because merchant ships generally went to Saudi Arabia to unload , not to the war zone. Notwithstanding all of the qualifications about these being the author's views, I believe that it is not wise to allow an issue as important as this to stand alone with the promise of presenting other sides later-particularly in a quarterly journal. It might have been more productive to have presented both sides in one issue so that a reader could have made conclusions at once. JOHN W. CARNES New Orleans, Louisiana Sold Down the River I am presently employed as Second Mate aboard one of the highest paid containerships in the Jones Act Trade. I average about $200 per day . If this seems excessive, consider this: I work a regu lar 40hour week, plus an average of 30 hours overtime weekly. This works out to $20 per hour for navigator and senior watch officer of a 700-foot ship and cargo worth in excess of $50 million. I am lucky indeed in today 's US flag fleet to get in a m.inimum pension year, and I extend my family's earnings with Port Relief Officers work, while haunting the hiring halls of the MM&P, hoping to beat out similarly hard-pressed fe llow officers for a single 4-month job. I started out as a commercial fisherman in my teens , enlisted in the US Navy, then joined the SIU as an Able Seaman, working my way up until I had an Unlimited Master's License. Now I and thousands like me find ourselves in increasin gly difficult circumstances, despite having answered the call in bombladen freighters pulled from layup for the Persian Gulf Sealift. And, by the way, Mr. Quartel , if "on ly one" such US ship made it to the Gu lf War, what in hell were all those big, gray things floating off the sandy shores of Saudi Arabia? We did not make such an effort to be sold down the river by the likes of Mr. Quartel. CAPT. BERTCL JAMES HANEY , USMM New Port Richey , Florida Challenge to American Sail As of one month before the Cutty Sark SEA HISTORY 79, AUTUMN 1996