SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS The Constitution to Sail in 1997 After 116 years of being a celebrated sai ling ship in lore only, plans are afoot to take USS Constitution out under sail on 21 July 1997 to celebrate her bicentennial year. On that day, Commander Michael Beck, the frigate' s commanding officer, hopes to take her out for more than just her customary tug-assisted "turnaround." Her recent three-year refit straightened and strengthened her hull, and, if wind and weather go in her favor, she will be able to sail unaided in Boston Harbor. (US Navy , Charlestown Navy Yard , Boston MA 02129; 617 242-5670) The USS Constitution Museum has already made ready for the Constitution' s bicentennial return to sail with the opening of its new wing, which also celebrates the museum 's 20th anniversary. Several exhibits, new and old, recreate the 200year history of "Old Ironsides." A colorful new floor mat picks out the progress of Constitution's famous ocean duel with Guerriere and the museum's huge 1960s-vin- The USS Constitution Museum's newest exhibit, '" Old Ironsides' in War & Peace;" celebrates USS Cons ti tu ti on ' s tage rigger's model of Con- 200th birthday in 1997. Photo by Janet Stearns stitution has been cleaned and had its rigging and sails tuned. Also new are a wind tunnel to demonstrate how wind works on a small model square rigger, and displays of photographs and plans documenting Constitution' s recent overhaul. (USSCM, PO Box 1812, Boston MA -KEVIN HAYDON 02129; 617 426-1812) Full information on these news items appears in Sea History Gazette, November/December 1996. We'llsendyou this issue free if you subscribe to the Gazette for one year (6 issues at $18.75-<ldd$10forforeignshipping).
GETTING AROUND THE SHIPS: The historic three-masted schooner Alexandria of 1929, owned until recently by the Alexandria Seaport Foundation in Virginia, was lost off Cape Hatteras NC in December when her new owner took the dangerously unsound vessel to sea. Lucki Iy, all seven crew were rescued by the US Coast Guard. A complete account of this tragedy can be found in Sea History Gazette, January/February 1997 . .. . The Alexandria
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American Academy oflndllstry has been offered use of two slips in Chicago for museum ships and displays by the Illinois International Port District, where the organization might bring the threatened light carrier USS Cabot and/or the heavy cruiser USS Des Moines. (AAI, PO Box 293, Chicago Ridge IL 60415; 708 425-8443 , FAX 312 9282841) ... . International Park officials at Toledo OH plan to bring the steamer Ste. Claire, one of two extant excursion boats to have carried people from Detroit to Canada's Bob-Lo Island amusement park , to Toledo where it was launched in 1910, reports Inland Seas. The City of Detroit and private donors have plans to restore the second Bob-Lo boat, SS Columbia of 1902, to its original condition at a cost of $2-3 million . . . .The Sydney Maritime Museum ' s three-masted bark James Craig has been granted $A 1.5 million by the New South Wales Government as part of a plan to restore her to sailing condition . (SMM, PO Box 140, Pyrmont 2009, New South Wales , Australia) .. . . The UK's replica of Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hinde has ended her sailing career and
has a permanent berth at St. Mary and Overy Dock,just above London Bridge. ... The Sudanese gunboatMelik, a relic of the battle of Omdurman in 1898, is still lying in Khartoum, reports the World Ship Trust. Repairs and restoration to the ship are estimated at ÂŁ1 million and a society has been formed to save her. (Anthony Harvey , Melik Society, London: 171 928-8100) .... The Soviet missile corvette Hiddensee, previously reported as going to the Chicago-based USN Preservation Association, slipped into her new berth at Battleship Cove, Fall River MA on 25 October, where she joins the WWII battleship Massachusetts, submarine Lionfish, PT-boats 617 and 796, and the Joseph P. Kennedy,Jr. (USS MMC, Inc., Battleship Cove, Fall RiverMA02721; 1-800-533-3194) . ... Another decommissioned Soviet vessel, the Foxtrot-class submarine Scorpion, is part of the fleet at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, Australia. (ANMM, GPO 5131, Sydney 2001, NSW, Australia).
MUSEUM NEWS: The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem MA announced that architect Moshe Safdie will design the facilities for the museum's $75 million expansion and development program which will double the gallery space to more than 105,000 square feet, provide a coherent museum campus, enhance one of New England's leading research libraries, add collections storage and provide a new Museum Office Center. (PEM, East India Square, Salem MA 01970; 508 745-1876) . . .. The Collingwood Museum in Ontario was a sponsor of the 90-minute instructional video "Endurable!," documenting the design, construction and launch of a 1994 replica of an historic , locally-built, 19thcentury Watts skiff, used oh Georgian Bay and the inland waterways of eastern North America. The video is available for C$26 from the museum at PO Box 556, Colli ngwood ON L9Y 4B2, Canada; 705 445-4811, FAX: 705 445-9004 .... Calvert Marine Museum, home of the restored Drum Point Lighthouse, is taking an interest in two other southern Maryland lighthouses-the 1828 Cove PointLight(which the Coast Guard plans to vacate) and the broken-down shell of the 100-year-old Cedar Point Lighthouse (parts of which the museum hopes to incorporate into new construction at the museum). (CMM, PO Box 97, Solomons MD20688;410326-2042) .... TheBoard SEA HISTORY 80, WINTER 1996-97
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