KARL KORTUM
(1917-1996): A Garland of Remembrance
Karl Kortum, dean of the historic ships movement, was raised on a farm in Petaluma, California. The Kortums were a proudly independent family of predominently German stock, who had been wine growers until the era of Prohibition. As a youth Karl formed a Sea Scout group with his chum Harry Dring. Their great dream was to go to sea in one of the square-rigged deepwatermen laid up in Bay waters. In 1944 the romantic dream came true when Captain Hjalmar Wigsten signed on Karl and Harry as hands to sail the Maine-built bark Kaiulani to South Africa with a cargo oflumber. They heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while off Cape Horn. Sailing on from Durban to Sydney, Australia, the "old barky," as they called her, was hulked for use as a US Army barge. Karl helped organize the "small ships" fleet that supplied Allied forces in New Guinea, then went to sea himself as mate of the transport Octorara. After his return to the US after the war, he founded the San Francisco Maritime Museum in 1951, with the help of his great friend the late Scott Newhall and the young newspaper reporter Dave Nelson. It soon became one of the greatest historic ship centers in the world, on a par with Mystic Seaport. Karl went on to found NMHS in 1963 and helped found the South Street Seaport Museum in New York in 1967. His wife Jean worked at Karl's side during these adventures and pursued a distinguished civic career in her own right, serving as chairman of the San Francisco Landmarks Commission. She survives Karl, who died on 12 September. Their daughters Jeanie Stermer and Sarah Kortum, both published authors, live in the Bay area, as does their son John, who at age 11 sailed with his father and Scott Newhall in the voyage of the tug EppletonHall from England to San Francisco, and is now a leader in the Save the Wapama Committee, formed in August with Karl's encouragement. Karl's demanding but generous spirit informs the memories of his friends, who here provide a wreath of tributes to launch on the tides of time. PS Karl Kortum: Friend and Mentor Karl Kortum was a man of many talents and incredibly broad something of substance for those ofus who sailed in his wake. intellectual curiosity. He was a writer with a gift that makes I grew up inspired by Conrad and Melville, but it was written words come alive on the page, a photographer with an Kortum who enabled me to sail as Chief Mate in Elissa and incomparable sense of aesthetics, a museum and exhibit Second Mate in Star of India in this last quarter of the 20th designer without peer, a man so filled with the poetry of life century. And it is Kortum whose work will allow my young that he was able to appreciate its every nuance. He was a son Dylan to see the majesty of 19th-century sailing vessels fearless warrior who plunged into battle, perhaps a little too and to experience that majesty first hand, should he so choose. Karl's battles with the bureaucracy are gleefully, in defense of his vision; but, ~--------PH_o_T_o_:H_A_RR_Y_ o_R_rN_G, most important, he was my mentor and my legendary, but he was hard on those of us friend. The people at this gathering speak who were closest to him as well. He knew well to how many lives Karl's life touched. our capabilities and our limitations and in I was fortunate enough to have shared his never-ending search for excellence he often showed no quarter. Karl and I fought some 20 years of Karl's passion for maritime preservation and, I would hope, to - and argued with the bureaucrats alongside one another-and we fought and argued have acquired some of his sense of vision as well. He truly was a visionary, but he with each other as well. We understood was also much more-Karl was a man of that the language of museums and the arts planned, strong-willed accomplishment. is criticism. We knew that we must evaluateandre-evaluateeverythingthatwedidin We need only look around us today to see some of how Karl changed the world: the order to build a museum or a ship into a "temple of excellence" and a "celebration museum building; Ghirardelli Square; Victorian Park; Hyde Street Pier; and one of seamanship" to use the words Karl used of the world's great collections of historic for these high goals. ships. And farther afield, the same could I would be remiss, and Karl would be said for the Strand in Galveston, Texas, never forgive me, if I didn't take this home port to Elissa; the Rocks in Sydney, opportunity to enjoin all of you to actively carry on the work of preserving these ships. Those Australia, home port to the fames Craig; South Street Seaport Museum in New York, home of the Wavertree and Peking; legendary battles with the bureaucracy are not ended, only the and on and on, all the fruit of Karl's declared policy of opening salvos. Today, the ships in San Francisco are stand"sprinkling maritime museums around the globe." ing into danger. Without structural changes in their oversight It was these ships and that man that focused my unfocused and the installation of competent management they will be life, who gave me purpose and a direction for all of my lost one by one. Your letters, phone calls, and your personal eclectic skills. One of Karl's immense talents was to nurture involvement with our elected representatives and the apthe strengths of those of us who worked for him and to make pointed officials of the National Park Service are vital to the our many weaknesses insignificant. survival of Karl ' s dream. Through his efforts to save her, I was fortunate to be able Kortum' s work is not done, he has simply turned over the to re-rig the sweet little bark Elissa up from a hulk. She was helm in this long voyage he launched us on. In my last perhaps Karl's favorite of all the museum ships and her conversation with Karl he reminded me that it is up to us to carry on. STEVE HYMAN, Master Rigger restoration became the most memorable accomplishment of my career. Karl's leadership and shared vision provided San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
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SEA HISTORY 80, WINTER 1996-97