Sea History 081 - Spring 1997

No. 81

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SPRING/SUMMER 1997

THE ART, LITERATURE, ADVENTURE, LORE & LEARNING OF THE SEA

ANNOUNCJNG OPSAIL

2000!

USS Constitution Is 200 Years Young The Cape Hom Road, Part XI

John Stobart

U.S.S. CONSTITUTION c.1825 Print edition size: 950 16 x 24 inches

Townhouse 23 , Union Wharf Boston , MA 02109 800•989•3513 Plea se call for the name of a galler y in your area.

ISSN 0146-9312

No. 81

SEA HISTORY

SPRING/SUMMER 1997

SEA HISTORY is published quarterly by the National Mari time Historical Society, 5 John Walsh Boulevard, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY I 0566. Second class postage paid at Peekskill NY I 0566 and additional mailing offices. COPYRIGHT© 1997 by the National Maritime Historical Society. Tel : 914 737-7878. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sea History, 5 John Wal sh Boulevard, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.

MEMBERSHIP is invited. Afterguard $ 10,000; Benefactor $5,000; Plankowner $2,500; Sponsor $1,000; Donor $500; Patron $250; Friend $ 100; Contributor $75; Family $50; Regular $35. All members outside the USA please add $10 for postage. SEA HISTORY is sent to all members.

Iridividual copies cost $3. 7 5.

CONTENTS 2 DECK LOG & LETTERS 4 NMHS NEWS 7 THE AMERICAN FLAG AT SEA: Economics Alone Is Not the Answer

by David A . O' Neil 10 South Street Receives a Schooner, 30 Years Ago

by Peter Stanford 12 THE CAPE HORN ROAD, XI: In the Wake of the Golden Hind

by Peter Stanford - - - - - - - - OPERATION SAIL 20()()T• - - - - - - - 16 Operation Sail 2000 Announcement

by Charles Robertson 19 Beyond the Spectacle

by Kevin Haydon ---------------~

OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Chairman , Alan G. Choate; Vice Chairmen , Richardo Lopes , Edward G. Zelinsky; President, Peter Stanford; Vi ce President, Norma Stanford; Treasurer , Bradford Smith; Secretary, Donald Derr; Trustees, Walter R. Brown, W. Grove Conrad, Fred C. Hawkin s, Jakob Isbrandtsen, Clay Maitland, Karen E. Markoe, Warren Marr, ll , Brian A. McA llister, James J. Moore, David A. O'Neil, RADM Thomas J. Patterson, Nancy Pouch, Craig A. C. Reynolds, Charles A. Robertson, Howard Slotnick, Marshall Streibert, Loui s A. Trapp, Jr., David B. Vietor, Harry E. Vinall , IIJ , Jean Wort FOUNDER: Karl Kortum ( 191 7- 1996) OVERSEERS : Chairman , Town send Hornor; Charles F. Adams, RADM David C. Brown, Walter Cronkite, John Lehman, Schuyler M. Meyer, Jr., J. William Middendorf, II , Graham H. Phillips, John Stobart, William G. Winterer ADVISORS : Co-Chairmen, Frank 0 . Braynard, Me lbourne Smith; D.K. Abbass, Raymond Aker, George F. Bass, Francis E. Bowker, Oswald L. Brett, Norman J. Brouwer, RADM Joseph F. Callo, William M. Doerflinger, Francis J. Duffy, John Ewald , Joseph L. Farr, Timothy G. Foote, William Gilkerson, Thomas Gillmer, W alter J. Hand e lman, Charles E. Herdendorf, Steven A. Hyman, Hajo Knuttel , Gunnar Lundeberg, Conrad Milster, William G. Muller, David E. Perkin s, Nancy Hughes Richardson, Timothy J. Runyan, Ralph L. Snow, Shannon J. Wall , Thomas Well s AMERICAN SHIP TRUST: Chairman , Peter Stanford; Trustees, F. Briggs Dalzell , William G. Muller, Melbourne Smith, Edward G. Zelinsky SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor, Peter Stanford; Executive Editor, Norma Stanford; Managing Editor, Justine Ahlstrom ; Contributing Editor, Kevin Haydon ; Accounting, Joseph Cacciola; Membership Development & Public Affairs, Burchenal Green; Membership Secretary, Marian York; Membership Assistants, Patricia Laverde, Erika Kurtenbach; Advertising Assistant, Carmen McCallum; Secretary to the President, Karen Ritell ADVERTISING: Telephone 800 22 1-NMHS

24 Swift of Ipswich

by Thad Koza 27 MARINE ART: The Symbolic Significance of Shipcarving

by Tony Lewis 30 MARINE ART NEWS 32 MUSEUM OF THE ISSUE: A Maritime Center for the Hawaiian Islands 34 SHIP OF THE ISSUE: At Home in Hawaii: Falls of Clyde

by MacKinnon Simpson 37 The Second Captain: Silas Talbot of USS Constitution

by Louis A. Norton 40 USS Constitution Reborn

by Patrick Otton 42 TRAFFIQUES & DISCOVERIES 44 SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS 48 R EVIEWS 53 DESSERT: Cruise of the Conrad

by Alan Villiers 56 PATRONS COVER: The frigate Rose leaps and plunges into the Atlantic swell off France last summer. She' ll be a leading participant in OpSail 2000, which is featured in this issue (pp. 16-21 ). Photo: Philip Plisson

Join Us for a Voyage into History Our seafaring heritage comes alive in the pages of Sea History, from the ancient mariners of Greece, and Portuguese navigators opening up the ocean world , to the heroic efforts of seamen in World War II. Each issue brings new insights and new discoveries .

If you love the sea and the legacy of those who sail in deep waters, if you love the rivers, lakes and bays and their workaday craft, then you belong with us. Stay in touchjoin us today! Mail in the form below or phone

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NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

DECK LOG

LETTERS

July 4th broke calm and misty in New York harbor, but toward noon a light southerly breeze struck in. As the new wind flickered across the pewtery harbor waters, it lifted and filled the sail s of a huge fleet of square-rigged sai ling ships. I borrowed a pair of binoculars from the TV crew assembled on the rooftop from which we were covering the Tall Ships Parade of 1986, with eyes particularly for the Elissa, a handsome bark of 1877.

We had been involved in the effort to save Elissa from a scrapyard in Greece for the past twenty years. Now she was here, thanks to the Galveston (Texas) Hi storical Foundation, with the other ships, to salute the lOOth birthday of the Statue of Liberty. When she had last come to New York, in 1882, the Statue of Liberty wasn't yet open! Properly, New York, a city built from the sea, should have been saluting the Elissa.

She had a vital role in our past, and through her educational mission , a still more vital role in our future.

Trying to explain thi s story to the TV show 's newscasters was like trying to beat upwind against a racing head current-they were full of oohs and ahs about the colorful spectacle and didn 't really want to know to what purpose the ships sailed.

In this issue of Sea History we're launching a campaign to set that situation right, to give more people a chance to know what lies beyond the spectacle of the world 's sail training ships which will gather in US ports in the year 2000 to salute the new millennium in a nation born of the sea.

That is what our work is aboutpeople, ships and the sea-which in the thousand years now drawing to a close brought all the peoples and nations of the world together.

The tall ships sail today, doing what might well be called the most important work in the world: helping young people of different nations to come together in a challenging experience which enables them to grasp the principles and the hard disciplines that built our modem world , and to appreciate, rather than suspect or fear, the different cultures of mankind that came together in the last thousand years of the oceanic experience.

The real story of OpSail is challenging and endlessly fascinating, and that is the story we begin in this issue of Sea History.

Wapama Campaign Our story on the Pacific steam schooner Wapama of 1915 and the NMHS campaign to save her stirred up good memories for readers. Good news about a unique partnership in the campaign to save the Wapama can be found in "NMHS News," page 4.

I read with interest about your efforts to save the Wapama, the last remaining Pacific steam schooner. I have been an active Chief Engineer for 53 years, and I can still smell the wet steam and the oil being swabbed on the piston rods and hear the groan of a steam feed pump. I am behind your efforts.

ARTHUR H. SULZER Springfield, Pennsylvania

PETER STANFORD

2

Back in the '50s and '60s I remember seeing what may have been the last active steam schooner, the small Viosca , in La Paz, Baja California Sur. I believe she sailed between there and Ensenada and I photographed her unloading cases of Fanta. A brass plate in the wheelhouse mentioned that she had been built in Oakland in the '20s or '30s. I wish I had taken passage aboard her and am curious about her ultimate fate.

TOM MAHNKEN

Del Mar, California

Merchant Mariner Responds In Sea History 79 you published an informative article by Capt. Warren Leback ("Are American Merchant Mariners Overpaid?") comparing wages paid to each of the crew members of different services. As a seaman, black gang, from the World War II era and after, I found it interesting, particularly in the facts that he failed to report.

I am sure that his comparison of wages is accurate. What he has done is infer that the crew sizes, and therefore the costs, are comparable by failing to compare the actual manning scales.

The military services have usually staffed their ships with a far larger crew than any merchant marine shipping company could afford to match. For example, while serving as an Engineer aboard the SS Fort Mercer, a T-2 tanker built in Sun Shipyard, we tied up across a pier from, and visited, a US Navy oiler that had been built at about the same timein the same shipyard, but had slightly less cargo capacity than ours. While we had a crew of 43 men, we found the crew of the Navy ship exceeded 200 men.

With all those people on board they had

to sacrifice cargo capacity to provide for living and storage space.

We found the engine room to be particularly clean and well painted. We were impressed by the neatly made pans under valves and fittings catching drips from leaky packings, etc., to prevent them from soi ling the floor plates or equipment below them. Merchant marine practice did not permit drip pans.

We had to keep everything tight and shipshape at all times because we simply did not have enough people to make all those accessories. Besides, we had to be aware of the efficient operation of the plant; every leak was dollars going out with no return . Every engineer was aware that if hi s shift did not deliver above average performance, he would soon be looking for another berth.

With only three men per watch to operate the ship at sea, we didn ' t have the luxury oftime to paint and polish. As part of keeping the plant operating smooth ly and efficiently we did manage, however, to keep things neat and adequately painted and polished since this was our home for so much of the year.

The Navy oiler, on the other hand, had more men assigned to each engine room watch than we had in our entire department. The deck crew was comparably overstaffed. Even given the fact that they still carried guns and gunners, something that we no longer carried, our wartime gun crews only accounted for about 15-25 additional people on board.

JOSEPH CHOMSKY

East Meadow, New York

Fore to Pusher and Back A reader identified only as FOTOROSE sent the following e-mail on the naming of the masts on the seven-masted schooner Thomas W. Lawson in response to an item in "Traffiques," SH79: To add to a good discussion: Seventy years ago an old captain who was teaching me to splice wire rope taught me the masts were fore, main, mizzen, jigger, spanker, driver, pusher. Unfortunately, he is not here to confirm this, but shortly I'll join him and I promise that I'll ask.

Ernestina Brings Back Memories Here 's a tidbit for Lt. Col. Gross who wrote in "Letters," SeaHistory79 , about his WWII memories of the Ernestina (ex-Effie Morrissey). Mention of Capt.

Bob Bartlett and the Morrissey took me to some of my childhood reading in the

SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

1930s, particularly two books by David Binney Putnam, then in his teens, who sailed northern waters with Bartlett and then wrote David Goes to Greenland and David Goes to Baffin Land. They were accounts of summer cruisesworking vacations, I think, where he was attached to an anthropological study group.

RALPH WHITAKER Oceanside, California

Pacific Sailers I was pleased to read "Under Sail in the Northwest" by Capt. Larson in Sea History 79. In addition to the sail training vessels mentioned in the article, I would like to offer two more.

The schooner Zodiac was designed

by William Hand, Jr. and built in 1924 by the Hodgson Brothers in East Boothbay, Maine, for the Johnson & Johnson family. She raced early in her career for the New York Yacht Club and was entered in the Trans-Atlantic Race from New York to Spain in 1928. In 1931, the Zodiac was put up for auction and was purchased by the California Bar Pilots Association. She was renamed the California and was used as a bar pilot schooner until 1972 when she was retired and then purchased by the Vessel Zodiac Corporation. After thousands of hours of dedicated volunteer labor, she was restored, and in 1984, on her 60th birthday, Zodiac was given back her maiden name. She was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Now in the final stages of a 20-year restoration project, she has passed the US Coast Guard inspection requirements for passenger vessels and has been certified for five years. She is actively engaged in sail training, education and chartering. I believe she is the largest working schooner on the West Coast at 127' on deck, 160' over all , 26' beam, 16 ' draft, 147 tons. She is gaff rigged with over 7,500 square feet of sail; the mainsail alone is 4,500 square feet.

Also sailing in the San Juan Islands is the schooner Martha, a smaller ship but just as noble. She was designed by B. B. Crowninshield and built in 1907 by the W. F. Stone Boat Yard in San Francisco.

She celebrates her 90th birthday in 1997.

Originally built for J. R. Hanify, Commodore of the San Francisco Yacht Club, she was once owned by James Cagney.

She still has the reputation of being one of the fastest schooners on the West Coast. She also is engaged in sail train-

ing, education and chartering.

It's not often that I find an article addressing our hands-on, living maritime heritage. Many of the world ' s remaining sailing vessels depend upon an aware and impassioned public to survive. Being able to provide real life sail training experience is paramount for support of the maritime community.

As an additional note, we will hold a schooner race from Bellingham, Washington , to Victoria, British Columbia, over the weekend of 23 August 1997.

That is one week before the 20th Classic Boat Show in Yictoria. We hope the race will become an annual event along with the Classic Boat Show.

CAPT. ROBERT E. D'ARCY Redondo, Washington

Remembering Harry Allendorfer I recall, as though it were yesterday, meeting Harry Allendorfer for the first time in Decatur House, in 1978, at0700.

The coffee pot was out. I had been trying for some years to get SS Jeremiah O'Brien out of the National Defense Reserve Fleet in Suisun Bay, California.

As she would soon be the last Liberty , I felt strongly an obligation not to let her go to the scrapper's torch.

I had heard of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and called. I spoke with Harry, who had just reported aboard.

Being two sailors from the battle of the North Atlantic we hit it off just fine. The conversation went something like this: "Captain Allendorfer, I'm Tom Patterson. I have a Liberty ship that I want to save and get steaming as a memorial."

Harry: "You have a Liberty? Everybody is calling us to ask what we are doing to save a Liberty ship."

Thus started a friendship and partnership that saved SS Jeremiah 0 ' Brien's life. It all turned out much better than either Harry or I could have hoped for.

Harry was our pilot, steering us through the rocks and shoals of fund raising. He introduced us to distinguished people in the ship preservation business. Harry came out to the ship and became a friend of the volunteers and sailed in the ship on our cruises. He was one of us.

I remember our last conversation before we departed for Normandy in April 1994. Looking back over the sixteen years of effort to put this ship back to sea after a 34-year layup with a volunteer organization, we both knew it was well worth the effort, that we had a sound ship and a good crew that re-

SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

fleeted pride in our country and her sea services.

We couldn't have done it without this great commander who had been in harm's way himself, protected Liberty ships in war. and finally helped save this one for the nation 's maritime heritage. It was a great privilege and honor to have known and worked with Harry. As he looks down from the celestial bar and sees a lone Liberty ship plodding along, it will be SS Jeremiah 0 ' Brien with her crew always grateful for what he did for us.

RADM THOMAS J. PATTERSON, USMS (RET) San Rafael, California QUERIES

Matti Pietikainen of Helsinki is writing the history of Finn lines Ltd. She wants to find the names of the women who sponsored each of the ships. The first reader to send her the correct answers will receive a copy of the book when it is completed. She is particularly interested in the following North Americanbuilt ships: SS Hamina (ex-H. A . Scandrett) , built as the Laker North Star by Great Lakes Engineering Works , St. Clair MI, launched 2 October 1909, for Mutual Transit Co. , Buffalo NY; SS Pankakoski (ex-W. W. Atterbury) , built as the Laker Conemaugh by Detroit Shipbuilding Co. , Wyandotte MI, launched 24 June 1909, for Erie and Western Transportation Co., Philadelphia PA; SS Eero built as the War Racoon by British American Shipbuilding Co., Welland ON, launched October 1919, for The Shipping Controller, London; and SS Kalle, built as the Cowboy by Great Lakes Engineering Works, Ashtabula OH, launched 30 December 1918, for US Shipping Board. Send information to her at Uurtajantie 16, FIN-00430 Helsinki, Finland.

ERRATA In Sea History 80, in our memoir of Karl Kortum (p. 14), the typographical gremlins scored a big one, transmogrifying the date of Kaiulani's departure on her last voyage to 1944. Kaiulani actually sailed from Gray's Harbor, Washington , on 25 September 1941, with the 24year-old Kortum in crew.

J,

3

NMHSNEWS Unique Partnership Saves Wapama and Points to Future Collaborations The National Park Service at the San Francisco Maritime cisco," said Peter Stanford, president of NMHS. National Historical Park has granted a stay-of-execution to Edward G. Zelinsky, vice chairman of NMHS and vice the Wapama of 1915, the last wooden steam schooner. They president of the World Ship Trust, states: "Not only do we are replacing the cover over the vessel, which had been have strong support here in California with our elected offiseriously damaged and was letting in rot-producing rain cials, we have the support of HRH Prince Philip, the World water, and cleaning up damaging deposits of bird droppings. Ship Trust, and a growing international coalition."

TheseeffortsareproceedingunderapartnershipwithNMHS 's Locally, the committee has already involved the aid of Save the Wapama Committee led by RADM Thomas J. laborandculturalorganizations.RADMPatterson, who saved PattersonandEdwardG.Zelinsky.Theagreementwas reached the Liberty ship SS Jeremiah O'Brien, reports: "We are atameetingoftheMaritimePark'sAdvisoryCommissionon building a team to save this ship--a team comprised of 12 February. While the Park management, labor, the private Service maintains the vessel, Save the Wapama Committee co-chairmen Edward G. Zelinsky , at sector and government. This is the committee will begin the left, and RADM Thomas J. Patterson at the Wapama in Sausalito , similar to the organization we built for SS Jeremiah O ' Brien, restoration process with plans California , last October. being developed by Tri-Coastal which has been successful for Marine.

20 years."

"This unprecedented agreeThe Save the WapamaComment opens the door to a new mittee has filed papers to ineraof cooperation under which corporate in California as the citizen commitment, profesnonprofit Pacific Steam Schoosional skills and private phi Iner Foundation, Inc. For more anthropic support can be information, contact Save the Wapama Committee, PO Box brought to bear in growing measure on the problems of the 1043, Tiburon CA 94920; 415 endangered ships of San Fran435-0413, FAX: 415 435-6514.

Academy Presentations on Two Coasts Another year has gone by, and NMHS trustees and supporters have returned to the nation 's maritime academies to present gift memberships in NMHS to graduating classes. In February, the 169 first classmen at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, were enrolled through gifts from Trustee Howard Slotnick and Sponsor Roy Holly.

Members of the Charles Point Council (the local Peekskill NY group) attended a ceremony at the State University of New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler in April to present memberships , funded by Brian McAllister and members of the Charles Point Council, to the 149 first class cadets.

The Sir Francis Round Table, NMHS's San Francisco council, made a gala day of their presentation to the 89 California Maritime Academy seniors. This gift was funded

by Trustee Fred C. Hawkins. CDR Jim Benson, a founder of the Round Table, reports that a company of thirty-two cruised to the Academy aboard the USS Potomac.

Both the Sir Francis Round Table and the Charles Point Council are building endowment funds to make gift memberships available each year to graduates of the California and New York academies.

Presentation of memberships at the US Coast Guard Academy.

From lefi,front row: Class President Gabriel Solomon and Class Vice President Bobbie Hart , Howard Slotnick and Roy Holly; back row: Lt. Jay Vann, RADM Paul Versaw , superintendent of the Academy, Peter Stanford, president of NMHS, and Capt. Bruce Stubbs, commandant of cadets.

Presentation at the California Maritime Academy. Below, from left: Jerry A . Aspland, president of CMA, Corps Commander Dylan Simon, RADM Thomas J . Patterson, Corps Executive Officer Nate Payette , and Capt. Fred C. Hawkins. The group cruised to the CMA aboard the former Presidential yacht USS Potomac (right).

Presentation of memberships at SUNY Maritime College. From left: NMHS Trust ee James J. Moore , 2nd Battalion Executive Officer Matthew Harigel, Norm Carathanasis, NMHS Trustee Brian McAllister, 1st Battalion Commander Andrew Campen , Ron Oswald and RADM David Brown, president of the Maritime College.

(Photo: James Tan)

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THE AMERICAN FLAG AT SEA

Economics Alone Is Not the Answer

by David A. O'Neil In previous articles we defined maritime decline, discussed some related ramifications and highlighted reasons for this national dilemma. Hope was raised that the military might reconsider commercial sealift options that could save billions. The Defense Department budget crunch, however, makes redirecting sealift funding unlikely. Another author protested existing law that mandates US flag ships for domestic services. he so-called "Jones Act" vessels in our domestic service enjoy protection from foreign flag ships, not through subsidizing with tax dollars, but by cabotage law. Cabotage is a centuries-old international practice. Similar protection is provided for domestic trucking lines, railways and airlines serving routes within our borders. The primary difference is that while foreign-builtequipmentcan be used in the land and air routes, it is not permitted by our maritime cabotage

T

raws.

The main reason for this domestic-build requirement is our need to retain a shipbuilding capability. As a result of the cold war, shipbuilding programs were almost exclusively military (97% ). Today, however, few warships are being built, causing major readjustments and downsizing which has decimated shipyards and reduced the number of workers employed in the industry. Rebuilding our aging domestic commercial fleet might have filled this void. Uncertainty caused by lobbying against our cabotage laws affects new investment in domestic replacements and, in fact, only four large, ocean-going vessels have been built for domestic service in the last ten years.

Those who wish to eliminate the US flag requirement are driven primarily by a desire to broker the lowest priced shipping serv ices. Opening the doors to foreign carriers between US ports wou ld result in a 30 percent savings in shipping rates which is, sad to say, more than enough incentive to create disproportionate mischief.

Looking at the bigger picture, however, the cost to ship goods by water is but a fraction of the retail price of most products (usuall y 0.5 % to 3% ). Ironically, what the brokers ' lobby is effectively striving for is permission for for-

eign interests to operate domestically seamen also receive wages comparable without paying corporate or employee to American, and they, too, are becomincome, social security, state and local ing "dinosaurs," as citizens from the taxes. Furthermore, they would hope to Philippines, Bosnia, China, etc., emerge avoid complying with US labor laws as today's "most competitive" sailors. (like minimum wage standards, in par- The ships they sail fly whatever flag is ticular) or meeting OSHA and myriad the cheapest and most convenient for rules and regulations that apply to the their owners. For the most part, this is safe operation of US built, crewed and relatively acceptable in countries where owned vessels. This is just about the global or national security interests are most creative foreign flag operating sub- subordinate to commercial interests. sidy one could dare to imagine!

But should this equation have broad Recent letters and articles in Sea His- _application to the USA? America buys tory addressed allegations that US mari- more goods and commodities from the ners are overpaid. Several knowledge- rest of the world than any other nation able sources, however, showed that while simultaneously serving as the American mariners are paid at levels world's policeman. In addition, we are commensurate with others in similar also the strongest proponents for human positions (i.e., the military, airlines and rights and profess strong interest in engovernment). Of course, American sail- vironmental protection. The burdens of world leadership clearly impose domestic responsibilities interreA superpower without a lated with international marine viable merchant fleet is transportation. Even Adam Smith, the penultimate "free trader," conhardly capable of projecting curred when he made this single the power required to prevent many exception to his laissez faire eco"police actions," let alone carry nomic treatise, as applied to Great Britain's maritime interests in the them out when required.

1700s. However, while seemingly bound by his principles, this exors are not paid below US minimum ception is ignored on Wall Street where wage, as are most seamen from the third simplistic echoes by theoretical acadeworld . And our well paid "free traders" micians and myopic economists are remain vociferous about paying anyone heard-"price is the only thing." To else wages and benefits above this low apply this approach to ¡ issues of high world standard. national importance, I submit, is a faulty product of mandarin mind set and insuA Responsibility to Maintain For two centuries this nation strove for a lar hypocrisy. standard ofliving that fulfills the AmeriWhenever there is a suggestion to can dream. Many Americans are not "protect" our maritime interests, cries go only proud of this achievement, but be- up against such Neanderthal thinking. lieve business and political leaders have The arguments against even limited proa responsibility to help maintain it. tectionism emanate from strange bedSurely, every job in the USA could be fellows-particularly government emwillingly performed by someone from ployees and the wealthy. No one is more overseas at a fraction of US wages. protected! Once, prevai I ing philosophies Whether a US Senator, admiral, stock- put the good of the country before the broker, machinist, hamburger flipper or modus operandi of the internationally marine engineer, virtually everyone oriented investment community. Americould be replaced if the only criterion cans don 't want to protect "buggy whip" became acceptance of the lowest wage. industries. They don ' t aspire to featherAmerican mariners engaged in for- bedding or inefficiency, and they know eign commerce continue to be an inte- value must be added in the workplace. gral part of our American successes. And, as buyers , they understand fully Having always worked in the global that the best priced value will prevail economy, they have been the deliverers whetherornotit'smade in the USA. The of foreign aid and war materiel. Norwe- average American does not need an gian, Japanese and German merchant economist to teach him these things.

SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

7

Unfo rtunately, it will be a long time (if ever) before we aga in manufacture signifi cant quantiti es of machine tool s or television sets in the USA. However, industries that are most critical to our econom y, nati onal defense, environment and international presence in today 's very competitive and still dangerous wo rld require more than an economi st's limited consideration. Because we are,

Surely, every job in the USA could be willingly performed by someone from overseas at a fraction of US wages. de facto , the free world 's protector, it follows that we must project power and operate at a level of read iness that befits this role. The US stee l industry is one example of a critical industry we cannot afford to lose. Whether competitive in the global economy or not, maintaining a minimal level of domesti c steel production is absolutely essential. Similarly, the US maritime industry must not be allowed to atroph y further. A superpower witho ut a viable merchant fleet is hardl y capable of projecting the power required to prevent many " police action s," let alone carry them out when required. This includes the ships, the mariners who sail them and the shipyards and workers who build and maintain them , along with the related industri al infrastructure.

Ensuring our ability to carry 10 percent of our foreign trade in US fl ag ships is prudent. This is sufficient to sustain our fo re ign commerce requirements , wh ile simultaneously providing a " Persian Gulflevel " of readi 1y avai!able emergency sea lift capability. Ten percent is not a lot considering thi s level was over 40 percent in the fifties.

The US Navy League has published its position on and ratio nale for preserving the US maritime industry in a letter to the Pres ident. Beca use it clearly articulates the need for nati onal awareness regard ing the value of a strong US flag merchant fleet, it is included here in its entirety. !,

A trustee of NMHS, Mr.O 'Neil is president of Seaworthy Systems, In c., the Society of Nava l Architects and Marine Engineers, and th e American Merchant Marine Museum.

8

Enclosure to a letter sent to President Clinton from the National President of the Navy League of the United States March 23, 1995 The maritime policy of thi s nati on, as contained in the 1936 Merchant Ma~ine Act, states: " ft is necessary for the national defense and development of tts fore ign and domest ic commerce that the United States shall have a merchant marine (a) sufficient to carry its domestic water-borne commerce and a substantial portion of the water-borne export and import foreign commerce ... ¡ (b) capable of serving as a naval and military auxiliary in time o( war or nattonal emergency, (c) owned and operated under the United States flag by c1t1zens of the United States . .. (d) composed of the best-equipped, safest and most suitable types of vessels, constructed in the United Stares and manne? with a trained and efficient citizen personnel, and (e) supplemented by ejj1c1ent fac1 la1 es for shipbuilding and ship repair."

Economic security. A nation must be ab le to carry a significant portion of its international imports and exports. It is on ly through participation in the wo rld shipping industry that a nation can contro l tariff rates . Absent the influence of its own flag fleet, a nation or gro up of nations could , for ex.ample, lower mbound rates for cargo while raising outbo und rates or else declme altogether to carry cargo-essential to either our econom ic or national sec uri ty needs.

National security. This nation has a forward defense strategy which means that we must be able to move our combat fo rces, along with their combat support equipment and sustaining supplies, across the oceans.of.the wo rld . The capability to do this is called strateg ic mobility and it requires airlift, sea l1ft and mtermoda l equipment and ex perti se to deploy military forces when requ ired. The reduced size of our military forces, especially overseas, has increased our depende.nce on strategic mobility. The sealift portion of strategic mobility has been earn ed out by the US-fl ag merchant marine since the Revolutionary War: US-flag com mercial shipping mu st remain an essenti al e lement of strategic plannmg. T~tal reliance on fo reign-flag sh ipping involves unacceptabl e n sk and the exclusive use of government-owned shipping is not affordable.

Environmental security. To control the environmental ri sks of ship operatirn1s wi thin its conti guous waters , a nation must be a partic ipant in the multipl e international organi zati ons that set world stand ards for the safe constructi on and operati on of merchant sh ipping. Possession of env iro nmental ly sound , US-b uilt ships , safely crewed by trained personne l is our best insurance.

Maritime industrial base. T he dee! ine of the US-flag merchant marine over the past three decades has decimated US shi pbuil ding, its secondary a.nd terti~ry marine suppliers and the industrial and seafarer manpower base. Manti me skil Is are di sappearing. Skill s learned aboard ship are the skill s that contribute to the successfu l operation of seaports, shipyards, shi p operating compani es and the country's distributi ve trades by providing a base of howl edgeable pers?nnel.

The strides that have been made in the last forty years 111111termodal sh1pp111g all ori ginated in thi s country. Containerships and conta iner yards, doubl e stack trains, container handling eq uipment and computerized cargo m.anage ment systems all orig inated in the US. The American shipyards that. build the best naval ships in the world evo lved from merchant ship const ru c t10~1 yards. O ur merchant marine academ ies, seafarer trade schoo ls, naval arc hitectura l and marine eng ineeri ng schools produce personnel trained accord in g to federal standards who possess both the commercia l and tec hni ca l sk ill s essen ti al to the maintenance of an effective maritime industrial base.

Maintaining a viable US-flag merchant marine and its supporting in(i¡asrructure is essential to th e econom ic, national and environmental secun ty of this nation.

SEA HISTORY 8 1, SPR ING/SUMMER l 997

"The fruit of a truly prodigious amount of research carried out by a blue-water sailor turned historian, Black Jacks deals with an important but largely neglected strand in the cable of American history."

- Patri( O'Brian

"Licensed master mariner Bolster writes a descriptively rich, engaging narrative of African American seafarers from the 1740s to the 1860s. He recou,nts how tens of thousands

W. Jeffrey Bolster .. This excellent study is highly recomm ended."

BLACK JACKS

-Library journal

"Bolster deserves our thanks for recovering an exciting , essential chapter in African-American history. " - Charles Johnson, author of Middle Passage "Many black sailors were sophisticated linguists, entrepreneurs in port, ready raconteurs; and Bolster draws from a range of literate, often lyrical voices in this little-known labor force ... [A] well-researched book"

- Publishers Weekly

W. Jeffrey Bolster is Hortense Cavis Shepherd Assistant Professor of History at the University of New

... .. ... ... .. ..... .... ......................... . . .

-

Hampshire. A licensed master

African American Seamen

ship as a professional seaman .

•

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mariner, he spent ten years aboard

in the Age of S11il 37 halftones, 3 maps, 3 tables $27.00 cloth

Also of interest:

PORTRAIT OF A PORT Boston, 1852 -1 914 W. H . BUNTING, Compiler and Annotator Belknap Press • 229 halftones $19.95 paper

Th e Athena is warped into her berth at Pier /6for the opening day "Sail In." Aboard theschooner ji¡om the stern are Commissioner Halberg, Peter Stanford at the helm , Jam es Kirk (behind Peter lifting the stern line) , Kari Kortum (just visible beyond the main gaff), Gertrude Brell,David Johnston, Anita, an unide111ified guest, Jean Kortum, Tom Stanford, rwo unidentified guests beyond the fore gaff, Archie Horka, Os Brei/, and, in the bow, Bob Ferraro and Norma Stanford.

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PHOTO BY DICK RATH

South Street Receives a e were a strange crew, sailing in an old schooner toward a place where a vessel with a fitted topmast hadn't been seen in half a century. Our destination was Pier 16 , East River, nex t to the Fulton Fish Market on South Street, where draggers still came in . With Norma and me aboard the 43-foot schooner Athena (launched in 1925 from Soule's yard in South Freeport, Maine) were Herb Halberg, Commissioner of Marine & Aviation, who was wi II ing to gamble that our trip would not lead nowhere, and hi s fiancee Anita, who was taking a gamble on Herb. Keeping an eye on things aloft was the formidable Karl Kortum of the San Francisco Maritime Mu seum , who had been bucking us up with elegantl y written , inc isive letters telling us just whatto do next in ou r project, and hi s wife, the dedicated urbanol ogist and expressway killer Jean Kortum , and Karl 's friend s Captain Arc hie Horka, who had run away to sea from South Street in the bark Callao forty-odd years before, and the marine artist Os Brett and his lively wife Gertrude, who liked to do most of Os 's talking for him, whi le he smiled the slow , shy smile he' d learned Down Under. In Sydney, Australia, where Os had grown up , he had met Alan Villiers in hi s world voyage in the Joseph Conrad. That, and other things , brought him to the seaport city of New York after hard service in the merchant marine in World War II.

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Oh , and there was my son Tom , who at age eight had become a great schooner aficionado and a good hand, and had sai led with us the previ ous summer to meet Ed Stackpole, the former curator of Mystic Seaport, and Charlie Say le, who 'd sailed with Zeb Tilton in the schooner Alice S. Wentworth and who came out to visit with us aboard Athena when we made a side trip to Nantucket on our way back from hunting down a dragger converted from a schooner, the lovely Lady ofGood Voyage, in G loucester. And there was Bob Ferraro, in quest of further adventures after Peace Corps serv ice in Central America, and a few others .

It was a rawis h Monday , 22 May 1967 , and I remember things fe lt a little awkward aboard the schooner as she began to lean over sailing downriver close-hauled against the southeast breeze, with thi s mi xed crowd aboard all dressed in city clothes. But her steady ways and easy motion in the roiled East Ri ver water soon made us all feel more at home, and with her divided rig with its multiplicity of lines to haul in or pay out, we made easy work of it. The sail ended all too soon as we got the canvas off her, everyo ne hauling or slack ing on different lines, and nosed into Fulton slip to put our docking lines ashore. We are caught in the moment in the photo above.

We stragg led ashore a bit self-consciously to join a grand reception opening our new office at Fulton Street, where SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

PHOTO BY DICK RATH

"All maritime museums start out the same, it seems. ... I have photographs of my wife Jean busy with the paint brush amongst our volunteers. I recall Norma Stan/ord busy with the brush at South Street Seaport in 1967."

-Karl Kortum

Above left: The previous weekend, Peter Stanford far right) and Kent Barwick settle the final details fo.r the opening exhibit, while Nonna Stanford casts the deciding vote and two unidentified volunteers work on.

Above right: Karl Kortum and Peter Stan ford announce plans for the museum to well-wishers and members of the press.

At right: Karl Kortum (left), Archie Horka and Os Brett aboard Athena in the lower East River, with the schooner's memorable stainless steel "Charlie Noble" in the foreground.

PHOTO BY GERTRUDE BRETT

Schooner, 30 Years Ago Barbara Johnson regaled us with a sp lendid feast of cold lobster served with puffing address by her manservant (no other word will do) Kurt Masson. The reception was to welcome the Municipal Art Society, which had done much to support our fantastic project of opening a maritime museum in the district we were by now calling South Street Seaport. The volunteers setting up for the reception, included Dick Rath and Terry Walton of Boating magazine. Bob Walton, Terry 's husband, had seen to the legal incorporation of our outfit as South Street Seaport Museum two months before the opening.

The exhibit volunteers were led by the unflappable Kent Barwick, later to become a memorably innovative president of the MAS. At the time, a NY State Parks official sent down to our grubby neighborhood to spy out who was running this ramshackle outfit, and to what ends, described Kent simply as "an adverti sing crony" of mine. And this was not entirely untrue-Kent worked as a copywriter at the agency Dorothy Parker said sounded like a suitcase fa lling downstairs , BBD & 0 , and I had sometime before quit Compton Advertising to open up the museum in a fish stall , on the strength of the 1,000 members who had joined us from all over the city and beyond , led by our garbageman Joe Cantalupo (people who tried to butter up Joe by calling him a waste removal professional generally got one of Joe's sour looks), supplemented by a SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

$2,000 grant from the J. M. Kaplan Fund and $5 ,000 from Jakob Isbrandtsen who also agreed to become the museum 's chairman.

Later that year, in October, we got a forest of masts in South Street for the first Schooner Race for the Mayor's Cup. The vessels filled New York Harbor with gaff topsails and fisherman staysail s and gave us courage to face the coming winter.

Before the year ended we had also published a book of photographs, courtesy Ted Stan ley of Bowne & Co., stationers and printers in New York since 1775. The book, South Street in the Afternoon of Sail, was hurried into print so that if our venture collapsed, it would leave at least something behind to inspire the next attempt.

On the way home that first ni ght, Karl Kortum said to me: "That 's a fine schooner, Peter. But you ' re not going to be able to keep her and do the museum. " I had a chilling premonition that he was right, but what the hell , I was young (it seems now) and I shrugged this off.

We had to give up Athena a few years later, short of time and money to keep her going, but not before the museum had acquired two great schooners, the Lettie G. Howard, a Gloucesterrnan of 1893 , and the Pioneer of 1885. Both these vessels sail actively out of South Street Seaport Muse um today , making the place a true home for schooners, as we had PS dreamed.

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THE CAPE HORN ROAD, PART XI:

In the Wake of the Golden Hind

by Peter Stanford

T

he chill y, nearly empty bus was hit and staggered by the And, of course, for the new-minted Sir Francis, who sharp gusts of a rising gale as it worked its way over the became a leading figure at Elizabeth's court. He was a popular crests of the rolling hill s of Devon. We were following hero, hailed by crowds in the city streets for hi s "famous the narrow lanes of the country north of Plymouth, bound for voyage," and he was a hero to Elizabeth, who prized the sea Buckland Abbey, which became the country seat of the new- dogs who alone, she knew, could keep at bay the Spanish made knight Sir Francis Drake some 415 years ago. I was on arrnies that dominated Europe. Drake offended some of the a journey to see if I might get closer to the remarkable man nobles who thronged Elizabeth 's court with his bluff country who had set by the ears, in his own phrase, three mighty manner, and matters were not helped by his boastful railings princes ... and had set in motion a mighty change in the course against the King of Spain-which the King's ambassador, of history.

Mendoza faithfully reported. On one occasion in 1582 the Earl The "mighty princes" were the·kings of Spain and Portugal of Sussex, who had been hearing Drake hold forth at a party, and Drake 's own sponsor, Queen Elizabeth of England. For- suggested that it wasn ' t much of a feat to capture the virtually tunately, Elizabeth stood by-the doughty West Countryman unanned treasure ship Drake had taken off the coast of she had chosen over hi gher-ranking captains to lead what Mexico. Drake responded to this by saying he was ready to instantly became known as the •., make war on the King of Spain "famous voyage"-the voyage himse lf. Another noble earl that took Drake and his men interposed cuttingly to point out that Philip, who had taken around the world in 1577-1580. . c This was the voyage in which over Portugal in 1580, was now the stocky seaman, son of a as powerful as all the heads of sheep-shearer-turned-preacher, state of Europe put together. had severely shaken Spain's But Drake was not fooling. As oceanic empire in the Amerihi s biographer John Sugden points out, he meant every cas, and Portugal's as well. In word. Not just courtiers, but the the course of doing so, sailing farther south than any ship had wide world was to learn this. ever been , he had discovered Drake took a seat in ParliaCape Horn , after battling the ment and busied himself in affairs of state. But he returned to horrendous storrns for which ~ Plymouth to make his base in that lonely corner was to be- ~ come notorious. He lost one of : hi s own county, buying the eshi s three-ship squadron , the tate and manor house ofBucklittle Marigold, first ship in the ~ land Abbey in a river valley in long roll of tall ships lost off ~ the country north of Plymouth.

Cape Horn. Another, the Eliza- ~ Now J was going there to beth, turned tail and scurried ~ get an idea of how he lived in home to England, her Captain a his chosen retreat. A full gale Winter believing Drake had ~ was blowing, sending sheets of been lost. This notion was soon ~ rain across the path as I deset right as news of Drake 's~ barked from the bus , and I depredations on the Pacific ~ missed the way to the main :!·7:,J!~·:,;:-:·.'t.J·".:.f.;;;·:~~·t+~·;,P;·t;.:~ ',7;.J:]:::· '"' entrance of the Abbey. I was coast of Spain's American ter- ~ ,..~ ' "t"'""' . fi~ f"F13J, . .".c"' 1~1.k. - · •r..n ''':Jtr ritories reached England. ~ ! ... ... ~,,,.- ~,. ,~p,.,,,,,µ ']),,.~ - ..,,, glad to find a side door that swung open when I turned the Elizabeth not only stood by ~ her protege, she decided, very Drake age 43 surrounded by symbols of iron handle. Indoors, ~he quideliberately, to honor him in a h. "F ' V' ,, d h. k . h h d etude of the place was 1mpreszs amous oyage an is mg t oo . s1ve. . Th e how 1mgga . v1·s·bl 1 e w ay. She ordere d h.1m 1eou ts1'd e to bring hi s sea-worn ship, the Golden Hind, around from her was reduced to a soughing murmur like the sound of distant home port of Plymouth to Deptford, a little way up the River breakers behind those thick stone walls , laid down the better Thames from her palace at Greenwich and just below London, part of a thousand years earlier as a Benedictine monastery.

Walking through the lofty stone chambers, which had been capital city of the kingdom.

There, on the decks of the ship drawn up in a shallow creek, fitted out by Drake's predecessor in the building, Sir Richard on 4 April 1581 , the Queen knighted Drake--or more pre- Grenville, I came on the room where the flags flown aboard cisely, handed a sword to the French ambassador, M. de the Golden Hind at Drake 's knighting were hung. And there Marchaumont, and bade him perfonn the act, thus embroiling was Drake 's drum, or anyway a drum of the Elizabethan era, France, England's traditional enemy, in England ' s defiance of said to be the drum that accompanied him around the world.

Spain, the first European super power to emerge si nce the This drum had given rise to the legend that, if struck in collapse of the Roman Empire a thousand years before. England 's hour of need, it would summon Drake to her side Considerable things were at stake in this act, for Elizabeth and again. Sir Henry Newbolt's lines, written a hundred years ago, for hi story . gave wings to the legend:

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SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

Queen Elizabeth was rowed upstream from this palace at Greenwich to knight Drake aboard the Golden Hind.

On the hill where a watchtower stood, the Old Royal Observatory stands today, marking 0 °Longitude. Local time at the observatory is today the standard time for navigators all over the world.

GREENWICH PALACE FROM T HE NORT H. BY ANTHONY VAN DEN WYNGAERDE, FROM GREENWICH AND Bl.ACKHEATH PAST BY FELI X BA RK ER (LONDON : HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS LTD., 1993)

Take my drum to England, hang et by the shore, Strike et when your powder's running low; If the Dons sight Devon,/' ll quit the port o' Heaven , An' drum them up the Channel as we drummed them long ago.

Beyond these artifacts, fascinating in themselves but looking a bit "on display" (which, of course, they were), the way down the echoing hallways of this massive stone edifice led to an oak-paneled room of modest proportions , with an oaken table standing foursquare on its stout Tudor legs near the middle of the room. Narrow windows looked out on the autumnal river valley and the range of hills beyond, looming like an ocean swell against the storm-wracked sky. In this quiet room, sheltered by thick walls, one could well imagine Drake sitting down with his co-conspirators, his Hawkins cousins, his brother Thomas and nephew John, to plot new ventures.

In this plain but carefully finished room, whose chaste paneling survives from the days when those meetings were held in this pastoral setting remote from the hurly-burly of the capital of the realm in London, these provincial countrymen plotted to overthrow Spain ' s drive for world domination .

They were, in fact, the chief hope of the scrawny English nation, whose whole government revenues in any year amounted to less than the value brought to Spain ' s Treasury by just one of the great ships bringing home tribute from the Indies or the Americas to support Philip's unbeaten armies.

An Oceanic Worldwide Empire In 1580, the year of Drake ' s return to England, Spain literally bestrode the world, from the Americas where she had established cities, cathedrals, shipyards and the new printing presses that were weaving the first crude model of today's electronic internet, to the Philippines beyond the formidable far reaches of the Pacific-across which she ran a regularly scheduled annual packet service. Added to this were the incredibly rich Portuguese settlements now stretching from the Spice Islands to Malaysia, India, the Persian Gulf and West Africa. From the Indies vessels came around the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa-which Portugal's great navigator Dias had rounded just under JOO years before-and so to the Gold Coast(today's Ghana) and then home by way of the offshore "Guinea tack" to the Azores (Portuguese then , as now) and downhill in westerlies and coastal northerlies to Iberia, home base of the two monarchies. Iberia, liberated from the 800-year Moorish occupation 88 years earlier, now served as the launching pad for the world 's first oceanic worldwide empire.

SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

The Iberians, led by the innovative Portuguese, had mobilized the growing capabilities of Renaissance Europe to achieve this feat. Seamen like Columbus, bankers from the Italian city states, Islamic mathematicians, and ship developments ranging from the all-important magnetic compass to the lateen rig, as well as Italian and German artillerymen, and even the English knights-errant of the Crusades from 1200 onward, had each played their parts in forging this formidable, world-girdling sea power, audaciously led by Portuguese and Spanish who had mastered everything, or almost everything, they ' d been taught by all comers to this crossroads of the oceanic world, and by their own tough experience reconquering their land from the hitherto invincible armies of Islam.

If there were any doubt as to how well the Spanish, the dominant partners in the newly united Spanish and Portuguese empires, had learned their lessons, surely it was decisively put away by the overwhelming victory of a Spanish-led fleet against the Islamic Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

It is all too easy to read into past events meanings which only became real in light of later developments. But Elizabeth knew very well what was at stake in contest with Spain. First was the survival of England as part of the Protestant Reformation, the great branch of the Christian church that split away from the Roman Catholic Pope. To help keep the cause of Protestantism alive on the Continent in Europe, she sent soldiers and money to sustain the Dutch rebels in the Netherlands , whom Philip of Spain was determined to crush. To undermine England's position, Philip sent soldiers and supplies to support native rebellion against England's rule in Ireland, and engaged in plots to assassinate Elizabeth. Determined to rule in a united England, Elizabeth pursued a basically Protestant policy which did not involve hounding her Roman Catholic subjects, unless they entered into active conspiracy against the state. By force of circumstance, if nothing else, something approaching religious freedom-a very crude model of the freedom we take for granted todayprevailed in England.

Elizabeth preferred compromise to conflict, and it seems possible that she saw that the road to salvation for humanity did not lie in rigid ideological prescription, whether Roman or Protestant. We know that her protege Drake felt this way, for in religious discussion with one of his seamen he said that the man's parents, as Roman Catholics, would be saved, but that he urged his own Protestant Christianity as the way to go.

13

In a time when people were burnt alive for dissident beliefs, this was a remarkable statement.

The other great point with Elizabeth was her extraordinary and very clear vision of freedom of the seas. William Camden, her chronicler, citing Elizabeth's arguments with the Spanish ambassador over Drake's voyage, has her maintaining "that the use of the Sea as of the Ayre is common to all, and that publique necessitie permits not it shoud be possessed."

It is against this background that Elizabeth sequestered the treasure Drake had brought home, having allowed him enough to set himself up as a leading gentleman of the realm, and to pay his crew generously. And she did something more, to make her message clear to Philip and all comers, and perhaps particularly to Englishmen. As Camden reports it: Her Majesty commanded likewise, that for a perpetual/ memory to have so happily circuited round about the whole Earth, his Ship should be drawne from the water, and put aside neere Deptford upon Thames, where to this houre the body thereof is seene ; and after the Queenes f easting therein, shee consecrated it with great ceremonie, pompe, and magnificence , eternally to be remembred ....

The Queen 's extraordinary act in saving the Golden Hind was no mere sentimental gesture from this determined woman .

Widely noted at the time, it suggested that while the ship would never sail earth's seas again, she would make another kind of voyage, a voyage through time, embodying an English purpose "eternally to be remembred. "

Singeing the King of Spain's Beard Drake, hailed by crowds in the streets of London as well as hi s native Plymouth, and with free access to the powers that be, was not one to rest on his laurels. He soon began planning another voyage, to follow up on the alliance he ' d made with the Sultan ofTemate in the Spice Islands. This scheme was set aside only when the Queen's counselors felt it more important to mount an expedition to bar Philip of Spain from taking over the Azores, that critical mid-Atlantic island group lying across the route home both from the Americas and the East Indies , as he had taken over mainland Portugal. That effort fell through after Drake had gathered a fleet to achieve it, and the project of the long-range voyage to the Indies was resumed. Drake did not sail in this expedition, which went forward under Edward Fenton in 1582, only to collapse miserably against awakened Portuguese and Spanish res istance, with Fenton returning to England after a rebuff in Brazil and John Drake, Francis's young cousin, falling captive to the Spanish when hi s ship was wrecked in the River Plate on the way to the Strait of Magellan.

Philip, meantime, marched on from victory to victory, securing the Azores through the brilliant action of hi s admiral Santa Cruz, and progressively subduing the Dutch revolt in the Netherlands. In 1584, the Dutch leader William of Orange was assassinated. France, a traditional enemy of Spain with whom Elizabeth had sought to ally herself, was tom by religious di ssension sliding into civil war. The great seaport city of Antwerp was on the verge of falling to Spanish troops.

Elizabeth took decisive action. She sent an army to the Netherlands to support the embattled Dutch , and loosed Drake with authority to descend on the Spanish coast and free English ships seized by Spain, and then go on to the Spanish Caribbean to raid the cities where the wealth of the Americas was gathered for shipment home . Re-provisioning his ships at Spanish expense in Vigo, where he learned the impounded English ships had been released, Drake swept on with his fleet 14

to sack Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola, Cartagena on the South American mainland and St. Augustine in Florida, pausing on his way home to evacuate the first English Virginia colonists, who had given up this early attempt at English settlement in North America. The raid damaged Spain through loss of ships and treasure, but the worst damage was to Spanish prestige, shattering the aura of invincibility which had helped their soldiers carry all before them .

More was to come. In the following year, 1587, Drake got permission to attack the Spanish fleet that was now assembling for the invasion of England. He raided Cadiz, destroying 39 vessels including great warships ill-prepared to be attacked in their fortified harbor, and then sailed back to occupy Cape St. Vincent at the southwest comer of Portugal, where he set up an effective blockade interrupting all coastal traffic . Before returning, he made a side trip to snap up the Portuguese Indies carrack San Felipe, a prize that paid for the whole venture with money left over to strengthen Elizabeth's navy.

Drake cheerfully wrote of this remarkable preemptive strike as "singeing the King of Spain ' s beard." But he was impressed by the "great forces" Philip was gathering. "Prepare in England strongly," he wrote, "and most by sea. Stop him now , and stop him ever!"

On 29 July 1588, after false alarms, the Spanish Armada appeared in the English Channel, some 130 ships under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia who had been pressed into service following the death earlier in the year of the great commander Santa Cruz. Lord Howard of Effingham, with Drake as his vice admiral, used standoff tactics to avoid boarding by the Spanish ships crammed with soldiers, and chased the great fleet up the Channel, pounding them with superior gunnery. In theend they mauled the Armada so badly that it was obliged to give up the attempt. With storms battering the damaged ships on the homeward passage, the Armada lost roughly half its ships. Drake distinguished himself by capturing the damaged Nuestra Senora del Rosario, a powerful ship that surrendered without a fight when the captain learned that it was Drake he was up against. It was no disgrace to surrender to the greatest sea warrior of the age. The Rosario turned out to be another treasure bonanza; again most useful to Elizabeth's straitened treasury. Drake went on to mount the fireship attack which disrupted the Spanish fleet, leading to the decisive gun battle at Gravelines on 8 August, which convinced the Spanish to give up the attempt against England and make their way home as best they could.

Drake 's career thereafter was undistinguished. He led an ill-conceived and weakly executed attack on the Spanish coast the year after the Armada, following which Elizabeth did not trust him to lead another expedition until 1595-96, when he set out for another great West Indies raid which was bungled by divided counsels and greatly increased Spanish defenses.

Drake died of fever during this effort and was buried at sea off Porto Belo, on the Caribbean coast of today's Panama.

His discovery of Cape Hom, and the "large and free scope" of the sea to the southward, was not published in hi s lifetime, since the fact that there was an open-water passage into the Pacific was a closely held state secret. The war with Spain was not resolved until 1604, when Philip and Elizabeth had both passed from the scene. The uneasy peace that followed looked more like a peace of exhaustion than any resolution of the conflicting aims of the two states.

But the results were in fact decisive. Spain never again SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

In 1602, six years after Drake's death, his ship the Golden Hind appeared in a Dutch map of the Thames below London. Headed outward, as though awaiting a signal to put out on the watery avenue that led to sea, she was more than the "curiosity" the Spanish ambassador called her. To the mariners setting forth from London, she was a challenge to venture greatly.

#Vett troc,,. -~~~ 'r S:Catah'ns ~--

IN T HIS "CHART OF LOWER T HAMES" BY BENJA MJ N WRJG HT. NORTH JS DOWN AND THE SEA IS TO TH E LEFf. (NATIONA L M ARITIME MUSEUM . LONDON)

threatened world domination, and England, having asserted an actual doctrine of freedom of the seas, went on to lead in developing the sea traffics that opened the worldwide human intercourse of today , for good or ill. " A Beginning ... " Drake ' s famou s pre-Armada raid of the spring of 1587, which delayed the Armada attack by a year, led to some serious reflections on his part. He expressed these in a letter to Walsingham, written on 24 May, off Cadiz: There must be a beginning of any good matter, but the continuing to the end, until it be thoroughly finished, yields the true glory . .. God make us all thankful again and again, that we have, although it be little , made a beginning on the coast of Spain .

These words lived on in the English memory. In World War II, once again up against an overwhelmingly powerful enemy, the English adopted Drake 's words in a prayer that stiffened the resolve of a peaceful people to pursue the life-and-death battle with Nazi Germany to the end.

If we look for the basic reasons England prevailed in the pivotal struggle with Spain at the dawn of the modem age, we will find them practically all embodied in the deeds and words of Francis Drake. Remember him at Port San Julian , when he spoke of setting three mighty princes by their ears? In that same speech he called on the gentleman to haul and draw with the mariner, and the mariner with the gentleman. "I would know him that would refuse to set his hand to a rope," he said.

And lo, in the Armada campaign, we find Lord Harry Seymour of the Rainbow apologizing that his report was not written in his own hand-because he had hurt his hand "with hauling on a rope." This point perhaps needs emphasis. No captain in the Spanish fleet would have dreamt of handling a rope-nor, more to the point, would have admitted it ifhe had .

Behind Drake 's yeoman attitude to work was a deeper idea, perhaps best expressed in the same talk at San Julian, where he pointed out that, beset with difficulties , " we are not to make small reckoning of a man ."

And this Drake never did. He attached enormous value to the li ves of individual people. This was shown by his actions again and again. At the isle of Mocha, off Chile, after native Americans had ambushed a watering party, killing several SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

men and inflicting a painful face wound on Drake, the people of the Golden Hindurged him to fire on the Indians , who were roasting their victims over a fire on the beach. Drake forbade opening fire, saying the Indians have been ill-treated by white men and think we are Spanish. In the Ladrones in the far Pacific, when natives swarmed aboard to steal the ship's gear, Magellan had fired his guns to kill a few of the crowd. Drake fired his guns over their heads, just to "affright" them.

Among Drake's faults were a quick temper, impatient ways, and failure to consult adequately with his fellow commanders-a fault visible in the Santo Domingo raid that probably also underlay the failure of his two large-scale postArmada campaigns. He loved to talk with his men and with the blacks ashore on the Spanish Main who had revolted from their overlords. It was always the people in the front line he wanted to be with, and he led them to astounding deeds .

Drake, a yeoman, was seized of the hard-won liberties secured by English history. This showed in his mastery of the English language, that marvelous polyglot instrument that holds at any moment such memories and promi se in it.

Tyndale had, in troubled times in 1526, translated the Bible into English to put people in direct touch with their God. He did so in such earthy phrases as: "Am I my brother's keeper?" or "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Shakespeare, whose plays were being performed in Southwark (the borough shown in our map above, on the south side of the Thames), came to Greenwich to perform before the Queen in 1594. Ben Jonson, Marlowe, Spenser, John Donne, were all taking the language to new heights in a literary flowering unmatched since the Greeks of Pericles ' time, 2000 years earlier.

Elizabethan London gave us in Westminster (shown on our map) the mother of parliaments and, in the roistering, burgeoning life of the River Thames (where Drake had come of age), a freshening message which Drake blazoned against the = -

!~~e~g~~ our dawning mod- :-~~;?=--, ~-:;. ~~~__:.;.=::_~~_::---~ 15

Operation One Hundred Fourth Co119ress

of tlie United States of America AT THE SECOND SESS ION

Begun and held at the City of Washin gton on Wednesday, the third day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-six

Joint Resofu.tion To commend Operation Sa il for its adva nce ment of brotherhood among nation s, its continuing commemoration of the history of the United States, and its nurturing of young cadets through training in seamanship.

Whereas Operation Sail is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to building good will among nations and encouraging international camaraderie; Whereas Operation Sail has represented and promoted the United States of America in the international tall ship community since 1964, organizing and participating in numerous tall ship events across the United States and around the world ; Whereas Operation Sail has worked in partne rship with e very American President s ince President John F. Kenned y; Whereas Operation Sail has establi shed a great tradition of celebrating major events and milestones in United States hi story with a gatherin g of the world 's tall ships, and will continue thi s great tradition with a gathering of ships in New York Harbor, called OpSail 2000, to celebrate the 224th birthday of the United States of America and to welcome the new millennium ; Whereas President Clinton has endorsed OpSail 2000, as Presidents Kenned y, Carter, Reagan, and Bush have endorsed Operation Sail in previous endeavors; Whereas OpSail 2000 promi ses to be the largest gathering in hi story of tall ships and other majestic vessels like those that have sa il ed the ocean for centuries; Whereas in conjunction with OpSail 2000 , the United States Navy will conduct an International Naval Revie w; and Whereas the International Naval Review will include a naval aircraft carrier as a symbol of the international good will of the United States of America: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representati ves of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That(! ) Operation Sail is commended for its advancement of brotherhood among nations, its continuing commemoration of the hi story of the United States , and its nurturing of young cadets throug h training in seaman ship; (2) all Americans and citi zens of nations around the world are encouraged to join in the celebration of the 224th birthday of the United States of America and the international camaraderie that Operation Sail and the International Naval Rev iew will foste r; and (3) Operatio n Sail is encouraged to continue into the next millennium to re present and promote the United States of America in the internati onal ta ll ship community, and to continue orga ni zin g and pa rtic ipatin g in ta ll ship events across the United States and aro und the wo rld.

;Z/wL

Speaker of the Horise of Rc.preserzlatiuesr.Âľ.~-.....

APPROVED OC T - 9 1996.

1 'iee

Pl@ikttofi!w~

President o(the Scnate P"-f> ~/(,A._.

Sail 2000TM s we are a natio n fo unded from the sea, the US cele bra ti on of the new millennium will center on Opera ti o n S a il 200 0 ... Op Sa il was fo unded through the vision of Pres ident John F. Kennedy in 196 1. S ince then, fo ur OpS ail Parades of Sai I have brought tens of million s of spectators to ew York Harbor and the other US OpSail ports, and have focused the attenti on o f the wo rld on mankind 's maritime heri tage and the vital role of sa il training today.

To cele brate the year 2000, Operation Sail has been charged with an expanded mi ss io n by Con g ress and Pres ide nt Clinton. As noted on the fac ing page, Joint Resolution SJ64, unanimously approved by the Senate and the House of Representati ves, resolves that Operati on Above, the US Coast Guard Sail "continue into the next millennium bark Eagle will serve as the to represent and promote the United States fla gship of Operation Sail of America in the internati onal tall ship as well as the f lagship of l.----"'.~;--;;;;-¡ community, and to continue organi zing th e US fo r OpSail 2000. and partic ipating in tall ship events across (Photo: US Coast Guard the United States and around the wo rld ."

Academy) Aboard the Eagle in 1992 , OpSail trustee To fulfil thi s mi ss ion, OpSail pl ans Wa lter Cronkite joined two sailing events in six East Coast ports students who sailed in the followin g a tran sAtlanti c voyage from US f lagship as win ners of a Agadir, M orocco , to San Juan , Puerto New York State!NMHSRico, where the international fl eet will sponsored essay contest. be welcomed by the US Coast Gu ard bark Eagle, fl ags hip of OpSail and the US. In San Juan, ships from Europe , South Ame rica, North Ameri ca and the Pac ific will gather in May fo r the opening festi vities of OpSa il 2000 and Pue rto Rico Regatta 2000. from the shore. Preside nt C l in ton and fo re ign di gnitari es will OpSail events will take place in the fo llow ing Offic ial Ports, pres ide over an Internati onal Nava l Rev iew from a US Navy aircraft carrier. plus one more, ye t to be announced : Leadin g up to 2000 the re wiII be a va ri ety of events and projects in Was hingto n DC and the Offi c ial Ports. In Febru Apri l 26-30 Agadir, Morocco ary 1998 a Ta ll Ships Sympos ium will bring together d ip loM ay 25-29 San Juan, Puerto Rico June 7- 10 mats, government offic ia ls, and ship capta ins and o perato rs Mi ami , Fl orida in Was hington DC to address OpSa il pl ans including ma ri June 16-20 Norfo lk, Virgini a time law , safety, the e nviro nme nt and educati onal program s.

June 23-27 Baltimore, Mary land Ope rati on Sail 2000 is es tabli shing a wide va riety of Phil ade lphi a, Penn sy lvani a June 23-27 partnerships in pre para ti on fo r the ce le bra ti on. The White Jul y 3-9 New York , Ne w York House, the Coas t Guard and the Navy are wo rking close ly On Jul y 4th , fo r the nati o n 's Inde pendence Day ce le bra tio ns, with OpSa il , and the Nati ona l Maritime Hi stori cal Soc iety is the US Coast G uard bark Eagle will sa il th ro ugh New York producing an educati onal joint venture chaired by Wa lte r Harbor leading a fl eet ex pected to inc lude 300 tall ships with C ron kite, who is Honora ry Chairman of Operati o n Sa il as over 6,000 yo ung men and wome n in crew. Milli o ns of well as an O verseer of NMH S. We will kee p yo u upd ated on people will watch from mo re th an 30 ,000 spectato r boats and OpSa il 2000 plans th ro ugh the pages of Sea History.

A

C HAR LES A. ROBERTSON, Chairm an Operati on Sa il

Contact Operation Sa il at 1333 New Hampshire Avenue,NW ,Suite 700, Washington DC 20036 ; 202 862 -2484 ; www.opsail.org.

SEA HISTORY 8 1, SPRI NG/S UMMER 1997

17

~pSail2000.

THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON

February 12, 1997

Mr. Charles A. Robertson Chairman Operation Sail, Inc. Suite 100 2 Greenwich Plaza Greenwich, Connecticut 06830 Dear Charles: I am delighted that Operation Sail will once again help America celebrate an extraordinary moment in our national life.

On July 4, 2000, as we mark the 224th birthday of the United States of America and celebrate the new millennium, the Grand OpSail Parade of Tall Ships and International Naval Review in New York Harbor will be a fitting culmination of this historic occasion.

I am grateful that you and your colleagues at Operation Sail have agreed to undertake this enormous task.

The notable success of past OpSail events -- such as America's Bicentennial observance in 1976, the 1986 salute to the Statue of Liberty on the occasion of its lO Oth birthday, and the 1992 quincentenary commemoration of Columbus' arrival in the New World -- convinces me that OpSail 2000 will be a glorious and memorable celebration.

Please extend my personal invitation to the captains and operators of these great sailing vessels to participate in the gathering of the tall ships in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the visitation to U.S. East Coast ports, and the grand finale event i n New York Harbor. The American people will offer a warm welcome, and you can be confident that Operation Sail has the full support of the White House in this fitting tribute to our national birthday and the new millennium.

Sincerely ,

Beyond tlie SP----~~

by Kevin Haydon t was the kind of Fourth of July weather every American plans forbright and sunn y, wi th near-cloudless sk ies, and hot (perhaps a little hotter than most wished for). New York Harbor, however, wasn't yo ur average Independence Day scene. The day was Jul y 4, 1986. The Statue of Liberty was having her birthday . bas h-and all of America was invited. Millions had turned out with binoculars in hand to watch an awe-inspiring sight-a majestic fleet of sailing ships that would g lide upriver from the Verrazano Bridge to the George Washington Bridge. On shore, from office windows and congested boardwalks, and from a flotilla of small boats afloat, they were drawn to the spectacle.

In the midst of this mayhem , elevated above the c ircling melee of pleasure boats, Peter Stanford, pres ident of the National Maritime Historical Soc iety , stood baking in the sun on a high rooftop on Governor' s Island, across from Lady Liberty. As he recounts in "Deck Log" (p.

2), he was dumbfounded by the cosmetic questions raised by success ive anchor people. They spoke as if the tall ships were purely for show, not recognizing

I

the purpose to wh ich the ships sai led. He found it difficult to get the message across that these were work ing ships.

Stanford left that disjointed scene wondering why more people did not understand the wo rk of the tall ships. He asked himself: "What is more important than helping young people discover what

" ... the principal qualifications for positions of responsibility in all walks of life are much the same . ... In the main it is character and common sense that count." they can achieve, and where better to do that than in the tough, worki ng environment of a sailing ship at sea and in the company of others from many different nations?"

"Character and Common Sense" Go ing to sea has long been a foc us fo r wanderlust. In the year 2000 , an estimated I 0,000 yo ung men and women will follow this profound instinct. They wi ll do it in vessels delivering a cargo of adventure and learning rather than the old cargoes of grain and fertilizer. In that respect, the new days of sail are different from the " last days of sail. " But there is one important constant - the po we rful draw of sea adventure for hi gh-spirited youth.

Inspiration and guidance on how

to sai l the sea roads of our water-girdled planet come from some legendary seafarers through the generations. Captain James Cook, in hi s Pac ific voyages of the late 1700s, is seen as the founder of sail training. Himself a Yorkshire farm laborer ' s son who fl ed an apprenticeship to a grocer and haberdas her to get to sea, Cook took a li vely interest in bringing adventurous cadets on hi s challenging voyages of hi gh purpose. He was widely recogni zed in hi s own time for his work with these yo ung sail ors.

In this century, Alan Villiers took students aboard the Joseph Conrad (see "Dessert," pp. 53-55) in the mid- '30s, as he said, " in defense of my poor ideals."

Villiers began hi s seagoing career in an interisland trader between New Zealand and Australia, then sa iled on British ships in the earl y l 920s.

Villiers's American contemporary, Irving Johnson , the author of The Peking Bau/es Cape Horn, was another pioneerofthe modem sail training tradi tion. From the 1930s through the '50s , Johnson took yo ung Americans on world sailing adventures aboard hi s schooner, and later brigantine, both named Yankee.

Villiers and Johnson had served in the best school afloat: the great fourmasted grain-race barks. Toiling alongside the boy crews of cadets, mainly of Finnish, German and Swedish background , ages fifteen to twenty (and at twenty some could already be able seamen with several Cape Hom voyages behind them) , both were deep ly impressed by the strength of character that sai ling in a tall ship could instill.

Villiers wrote in Cruise ofthe Conrad of an in stance when he changed course to meet a wind shift: "But we were scarce ly round before the wind , with one mighty , terrifying blast, came with he ll force out of the northeast again , solid and dreadful. Flat aback! It was a ll hands then, with a vengeance. I did not

A young sailor takes the wheel in heavy weather aboard the Joseph Conrad. From Stonnalong: The Story of a Boy's Voyage Around the World, by Alan Villiers (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons , 1937).

SEA HISTORY 8 1, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

19

Furling the royals aboard the Peking. PholO: Ir ving Johnson

Watching a young seaman get flipped off the yard, grab a footrope, haul himself back on the yard and continue stowing sail with a sidelong look and a grin taught Johnson "to lean forward into life."

see how the ri gging could stand it. " Fore and main topgallants were tom to ribbons in an instant. Other sa il s were taken in and yards squared at a furiou s pace. After what seemed like an eternity , recalls Villiers, the uncertain and shivering ship finally came around and ran off before the wind.

When Villiers went below to reassure the boys, he found "one of the boys had hurt hi s arm. I fixed him afterwards in the ' tweendecks, when the ship was safe , and looked around at the merry boys chaffing one another and laughing , fresh down from the yards, and little Stormalong in hi s hammock asleep again already."

Villiers 's abiding faith in the value of sea training is ex pressed in thi s passage from Falmouth for Orders: "After all, the principal qualification s for pos itions of responsibility in all walks of life are much the same. One may call for the exercise of a slightly different talent from the other, but in the main it is character and common sense th at count.

There is no sounder ground for the cultivation of both than the sailing ship . On the sailor' s long voyages character will out; there is no hiding it. I think , just the fact that one cannot sail long voyages with men , all cooped up in the one littl e world, without getting to understand pretty thoroughly their characters, and to understand anybody' s character much is to reali ze that it isn ' t so different from your own , and it certainly isn ' t any worse."

Irving Johnson , too, recounted a special kind oflearninggained aloft. Watching a yo ung seaman get flipped off the yard, grab a footrope , haul himself back on the yard and continue stowing sail with a side long look and a grin taught Johnson " to lean forward into life."

A Message for a New Millennium The voyages of the great age of sail , carryin g nearly every cargo and culture around the world, broke down barriers, opened up markets and introduced new ideas. Once these ships and voyagers had di scovered new lands and peoples, it was too late to put it all back in the box.

The encounters were often violent and Today, students of all ages learn the ropes aboard sail training vessels around the world. On e such vessel is the Harv ey Gamage (pho tos leji and opposite page , ho/lom) , which sails yea r round on sea education voyages from New England to the Caribbean . Programs include Ocean Classroom , a semester-at-sea fo r high school students , and Seafaring Camp, a summ erprogramforyounger teens.

(Schoone r Harvey Gamage Foundation, 1-800-724-7245)

20

SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

Coast Guard cadets furl sails aboard the USCG bark Eagle. (Photo: US Coasr Guard Academy)

c ruel, but in the midst of upheava l learning too k place.

It isn ' t a stretc h to say that the men who sailed these ships also played an illuminating rol e in pushing bac k barri ers and broadenin g human hori zons.

From before the voyages of Columbus, sa ilo rs have been known as a brothe rhood of the sea. In the Mediterranea n, sa ilors of many natio ns voyaged together.

They spo ke the ir own ling ua fra nca, a mi xture ofltali an, Fre nc h, Spa ni sh, Arabic, Greek and Turki sh. In late r centu ri es, thi s was a lso true aboard the bi g grain ships. Villie rs no ted of the Parma in 1932: "The ship is triling ual. Nearl y eve ryone seem s to speak Swedi sh, Ge rman and En g li sh- not pe rfec tl y of course, but quite sufficie ntly to mi x together and carry on shipboard converse."

As we face the ne w mill ennium , the seas that brought mankind togethe r in the last tho usand years may be the means fo r us to find a commo n sense of hum anity. The c halle nge w ill not be met by us simpl y speaking o ne anothe r's language, but in the same way that sa iling ships brought us all in touch , from Crete to the Caribbean to the Pacific, they have extraordinary potential to bring us togethe r in understanding and in coope rati on, wo rking for common goal s.

From Swan Song to Siren Call Among the tall ships sailing upri ver that day in 1986 was a newcomer: the histo ric bark Elissa, Scotti sh-built in 1877. The re was great significance to he r presence.

A deteri orated hulk headed fo rthe scrapya rd in Pi raeus, Greece, she was purc hased by maritime arc haeologist Pe te r Throckmorton and became a foca l point of the NMHS ship-saving effort led by the late Karl Kortum. After a tric ky Atl anti c tow, she was lovingl y and la bo ri o us ly restored in Galveston , Texas. Whe n she took her place in OpSail '86, she, pe rhaps more than most, was testimo ny to a growing rev ival of the sa il tra ining tradi tion-one of the outcomes that prev io us OpSail s had helped to foste r.

OpS ail 1964 had been la unc hed by Pres ident Ke nnedy afte r a meeting w ith Fra nk Braynard and Emil M os bac her in 196 1. Twelve major ta!I ships a nd I I small er o nes from 13 countries pa rtic ipated. It was supposed to be the las t gathering of the elephants-a roma ntic, nostalgic last look at a d ying spec ies, the large sa iling vessel.

But in the wake of th at first OpSail , the idea of sail training too k ho ld a nd e ncouraged a re vival of the sailing ship

as a means of c haracter build ing. T hi s new ethos led Pe te r Stanfo rd and Opsa il fo unde r Frank Bray nard to dete rmine it had to be do ne aga in fo r the bi cente nni a l in 1976.

Few reali zed how signi fica nt OpSa il '76 wo ul d be. Until the Jast weeks befo re the Fourth, Pres iden t Ford did not in tend to be in New York for the event. But wo rd came that m illio ns of peopl e were mak ing plans to atte nd and OpSa il ' 76 we nt on to become the premi e r e ve nt of the nati on ' s 200th anni ve rsary.

The swan song of the sa iling ships became a siren ca ll . Publi c in te res t has soared s ince that time and sa il tra ining s hips and programs for a ll ages have multipli e d. W e ' ve h ad Opsa il '76, '86, and ' 92 and now we ready o urse lves fo r OpSa il 2000 w ith an ex panded program of inte rnation al races and m ultiple port visits.

What Better Symbol ?

The turn o f a century is a time to look fo r sig ns and symbols, a nd to make fresh commitme nts and new resoluti o ns as indi vidua ls and natio ns. What better way to celebrate the future th an by brin g ing together I 0,000 of the wo rl d 's yo uth on mo re than 300 vessels hai ling fro m all corne rs of the g lo be to sail in inte rnati ona l waters. I cannot thin k of a no the r

SEA HISTORY 8 1, SPRING/SU MM ER 1997

eve nt tha t co uld ca pture ma nkind ' s imag inatio n as thi s o ne w ill . Of the many inte rnatio nal gatherings, none represents mo re comple te ly the best wishes and hi ghest hopes of humanity. T hi s hi sto ri c gathering of ta ll shi ps and the ir c rews is a potent and poeti c meta ph or fo r mankind meeting and coming to te rm s with itse lfo n thi s small blue glo be hun g in the .t heavens.

Kevin Haydon is contributing editor /o r Sea Hi sto ry maga:ine.

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The Los Angeles Maritime Institute has been named the 1997 recipient of the NM HS/Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Maritime Education for their work with students aboard Swift of Ipswich.

T

he Swifi of Ipswich , with Captain James Gladson at the helm, is home to an innovative and inspired sail training program which engages "youth at risk" students from the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Patterned after a privateer and blockade runner of the Revolutionary War period, Swifi of Ipswich is a topsail schooner homeported in San Pedro, California, and administered by the Los Angeles Maritime Institute, an educational branch of the Los Angeles Maritime Museum.

The vessel was built in Ipswich , Massachusetts, by William Robinson in 1938. Robinson created a yard in Ipswich to build ocean-going vessels, and his first production was the topsail schooner Swift. In building the new vessel Mr. Robinson followed the recommendations of noted naval historian and archivist Howard I. Chapelle, modifying the rig and lines from historic drawings of the American brig Swift of 1778. The smaller and simpler Swift became the topsail schooner Swift of Ipswich and was painted in his distinctive hue, called "Robinson Red." The Swift had been under construe24

tion for more than a year in the Ipswich yard when she was completed in 1938.

Her hull was built by the same Essex County shipwrights who were responsible for many of the great Gloucester fishing schooners working the North Atlantic waters early in this century.

The original Swift had been a fast sailing vessel , and her modification , the Swiftoflpswich, fulfilled that same function . Though the topsail schooner rig is simpler than the original ' s brig rig , the vessel still presents a grand profile of masts, lines and sail. She can be worked to windward with a fore staysail , foresail, and main sail all reefed. And her long foreyard allows a generous spread of squaresails sailing off the wind.

On deck, Swift of Ipswich has deep bulwarks. There is a high break from the main deck to the quarterdeck on which there are skylight windows illuminating the great cabin below. Her wheel is at the break of the quarterdeck, with a binnacle to enclose the steering compass.

On the starboard side, the quarterdeck is extended to create a hood which affords headroom for the stairway to the stateroom below. Stored on deck are two rowing dories. Her East Coast origins are honored in the seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony fastened to her stern.

After some initial adjustments in weight and balance, the vessel sailed the East Coast before being purchased by the Cagney brothers, W iII iam and Jam es,

of California. After having starred in several films, she was ignominiously unrigged by new owners and moved to an inland lagoon where she was displayed for two years as the "last privateer." In 1963 , she was returned to open water as a charter boat in California.

Today she serves as a character-building , sail training vessel for youth at risk.

With her labor-intensive sailing and her closed environment she becomes a laboratory for learning initiative, teamwork, self-knowledge and discipline.

On the day I sailed in October of last year, she hosted twenty-five sixth and seventh graders from the Gompers Middle School in South Central LA. These students were participating in a semester-long, one-day-a-week program which would prepare them for a fiveday learning voyage to the Catalina island Preserve this spring. In addition to the experienced crew of the Swift, the students were accompanied by two of their teachers, Carie Jackson, who teaches science, and Robert Morrman , who teaches math.

Orienting themselves to the new shipboard environment, the students learn the basic principles of sailing, the requirements of the lines and sail setting, ascending the ratlines , the teamwork needed to sail the vessel and the basic social skills of interacting with each other to achieve mutual goals.

The number one rule on the Swift is to

SEA HISTORY 81 , SPRING/SUMMER 1997

Opposite: The Swift of Ipsw ich sails in calm waters off Los Angeles. Students . teachers and crew haul on lines (ahmâ&#x20AC;˘e) and swing out one of Swift' s rowing dories. All photos by the author.

treat everyo ne as yo ur best fri e nd , even if yo u must fake it. There is no room for petty rivalries, nor trash talking, nor making dares, nor judging one another. On board the Swift of Ipswich everyone works together, on lines, at lunch, in song.

The Topsai I Youth Program e ngages students from se lected schoo ls in a daysa iling program which prepares them for a spring cruise and , it is hoped, adult life. The program focuses on se lf-image and se lf-confidence. By providing an atmosphe re of pos itive ex pe rie nce and feedback, along with a c urric ulum of marine and natural scie nces, the program hopes to ignite interest and the pursuit of goa ls in the students' li ves. So farthe results ha ve been e ncourag ing, as

the stude nts susta in the ir inte rest and e ne rgy in more advanced programs offered by the Swift of Ipswich and the Los Ange les Maritime Institute.

The success of the Topsail Program and the sustained interest in tall ships and sail tra ining have led to an ambitious program for the Los Angeles Maritime Institute. Plans have been made to build twin brigantines by plank-onfram e construction o n th e mu se um gro unds and to engage the comm unity in their construction. Drawing on the experience and requireme nts of the Topsail Program and on ships whic h have been built in the past, the two bri gantines will be based on a 1930s drawing by ship

designer He nry Gruber. Laying out of the lines and keel sho uld begin in 1997 at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum. 1, For fi 1rther informalion. contact the Los Anf? eles Maritime Institute. Berth 84 , Foot of 6th Street, San Pedro CA 9073 1; 3 / 0 833-6055. FAX: 3 10 832-6537.

Marin e photographer Thad Ko:a is a fr equent contributor to Sea Hi sto ry. He is also author q{Ta ll Ships- An Inte rnational G uide , rel'iewed 011 page 48.

THE TWIN BRIGANTINE PROJECT The Los Ange les Maritime Institute wi 11 beg in the constructi on of two 90' bri gantines in late 1997. The vesse ls will be US Coast Guard inspected and certi fied for ocean and coastal sailing. They will be purpose des igned and built to be state-of-the-art yo uth sa il-training vessels wi th labora tory , library a nd meeting areas .

The des ign is based o n one developed in the 1930s

by Henry GruberofMcGargle, Gruber, Burgess and Do naldson. The client for whom it was developed proposed to ca ll he r Albatross; however, before construction was sta rted, WWII began and the project was put aside, never to be resumed .

The vessels will be built at the Los Ange les Maritime SEA HISTORY 81 , SPRING/SUMMER 1997

Mu se um in San Pedro, Ca liforni a. The ship yard will be set up as a li v ing hi story ex hibit of the museum and visito rs w ill be we lcome. Professional, paid shipw ri ghts w ill work wi th tra ined vo lunteers o n the project.

The positive response to the ln stitute's TOPSAIL Youth Program aboard the Swift of Ipswich demonstrates not only the need fo r effecti ve inte rve nti on programs for at-risk yo uth , but a lso th e uni versa l appeal of c lassic sai ling ships.

The funding for thi s project (estimated at $2.5 milli o n) w ill come from foundation grants, corporate sponsorship and pri vate do nation s.

CAPT. JI M GLADSON

Los Angeles Maritime In stitute 25

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Tlie SyrnboCic Sl;9nificance of Shipcarvi"9

by Tony Lewis, PhD

hile the earliest indications of ship decoration appear in Egyptian wall paintings from 5,000 years ago, the go lden age of maritime carving was the 1600s through the 1800s. During thi s period , as warships became larger and more standard ized, shipcarving also attained greater significance. It was an era that fancied ornamentation in clothing, architecture and the decorative arts, and shipcarvers were soon producing elaborate works on a vast array of subjects for the navies of Europe.

Nationalistic themes were among the most popular subjects. A key factor in the development of shipcarv ing was the desire of seventeenth-century rulers to reinforce their power through national istic symbol s and emblems. Fueled by Baroque impulses, shipcarvers of the 1600s began to embellish virtually every avai lable surface, sometimes with an almost freakish inten si ty .

Prolonged wars and economic downturns eventually conspired against the shipcarver's art. During the 1700s, European governments, most notably the British Admiralty, began to limit the amount of money spent on a vessel's decoration. By the end of the century , shipcarving was generally restri cted to figureheads. Billetheads with a scro ll design were sometimes substituted to cut costs even further. Nevertheless, shipowners continued to recognize the importance of representations of military leaders, rulers and nationali stic symbols, which not only reinforced a sa ilor's sense of pride, but also underscored the seaman 's role as a representative of his nation . Moreover, the stamp of monarchy offered a reassuring sense of stability and continuity during notoriously perilous open-water navi gation.

Royal Patronage By the 1650s, carved ornamentation was an integral part of the constructfon of naval vessels. Many, if not most, shipcarvers were recruited from the ranks of shipwrights-men who had shown particu lar skill or interest in decorati ve carving. Although they generally regarded themse lves as craftsmen rather than art-

W

ists, these shipcarvers were well-versed in the artistic conventions of the day. As suggested by pay rosters and , toward the end of the 1700s, city directories, hundreds of men were practicing shipcarving in European ports.

Charles II , king of England following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, took a particularl y active interest in the construction and decoration of his vessels. Whether in battle or on diplomatic mi ss ions, embe llished warships were tangible projections of the king's power. The symbol s favored by Charles

II and other monarchs included heraldic figures-lion s, griffins, and other animals invested with martial significance.

Charles II hired artists to document the ships of hi s navy as well as their victories. He invited the father and son team of Willem Van de Velde the Elder and the Younger to emigrate to Eng land.

Each was g iven the handsome sum of ÂŁ100 per year to paint and draw the ships of his fl eet and the battles in which they fought. Like other rulers, Charles II also commissioned depictions of foreign warships, probabl y to document the

Below, "A Dutch Second Rate of 1670" engraved by Charles Tompkins (1750-1810) after a drawing by Willem van de Ve/de the Younger(l633-1707). At bollom, "Hull of Montagu " pencil drawing by Willem van de Ve/de the Younger. Collection of The Mariners' Museum .

SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SUM MER 1997

27

"Eagle with Rope in Beak," late nineteenth centwy stern ornament from unidentified vessel.

Collection of The Mariners' Museum.

strength of his enem ies.

Willem the Younger's pencil drawing Hull of the Montagu (ca. 1660) is a telling example of shipcarving. It may be compared with an engraving by Charles Tompkins after another of Yan de Yelde 's designs, in this case an illustration of a Dutch second-rate warship dating from 1670. Both show the prevailingmotifs, including allegorical symbols, heraldic emblems and floral des igns. In each case the lion, an enduring symbol of monarchical power, plays a central role. The Yan de Yeldes' drawings and paintings are among the best ev idence of shipcarvi ng from the 1600s Englishfigureheadfrom HMS Edinburgh. ca.

1811. Collection of The Marin ers ' Museum.

28

and 1700s. Most extant figureheads and other nautical carvings date from the last century. A notable exception is Vasa, an ornately decorated Swedish warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628. It was raised in 1961 and conserved over a 25-year period. Vasa carried a figurehead of a lion .

British Admiralty Restrictions By the early 1700s, the cost of shipcarving could exceed thirty percent of the cost of a naval vessel. European admiralties began curtai ling the amo unt and complexity of carving. In England,James II stipulated the first restrictions in 1686, though they were largely ignored. A few years later, the maximum amount allotted to sh ip decoration was £500; by 1703, the British Admiralty limited carving to "only a lion and trail board for the head ." An attempt to ban shipcarv ing altogether in 1796 met with res istance.

Thus, the 74-gun third- rate warship HMS Duke of Edinburgh, built in 1811, carried a large figurehead representing William Frederick, who had a few years before succeeded his fat her as Duke of Edinburgh. At this time, the Admiralty allowed but £21 for a third-rate vessel.

HMS Formidable had as a figurehead the Roman god Mars. It also cost £2 1, about .03 percent of the total construction cost (£64,342). Although the amount spent on the figureheads of these nineteenth-century military vessels was minuscule, their continued use demonstrates the Admiralty's recognition that figures with national and martial associations promoted harm011y, pride arid a sense of purpose among the men who served aboard. For example, when part of the figurehead aboard Brunswick was shot away during an engagement with Vengeur during the battle of the Glori-

ous First of June in 1794, the ship 's carpenter nailed one of Captain Harvey 's hats onto it to conceal the damage.

Developments in the United States Following the European tradition , early US wa rsh ips were fitted with fi g ureheads representing hi storical and mythological figures , political leaders or animals. USS Constitution's first figurehead, carved by Samuel Skillin, represented He rcules. Its second figurehead, a depiction of President Andrew Jackson, was also typical-though, at the time, English figurehead of Mars from HMS Formidable, ca . 1822-25.

Collection of Th e Mariners ' Mus eum.

SEA HISTORY 8 1, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

â&#x20AC;˘ Americanfigurehead ofCommodore Charles Morris,from the whaling bark Commodore Morris, ca . 1841. Collection of The Mariners' Mus eum.

The Mariners ' Museum exhibit "Th e Art oftheShip carver" will be on view through 13July1997.

â&#x20AC;˘

controversial.By mid-century, however, military vessels were generally fitted with billetheads ratherthan figureheads.

Representational carvings persisted longer in the merchant fleet, where animal s, celebrities, wives , classical gods and goddesses and military leaders remained popular subjects.

Commodore Charles Morris was among the most frequently depicted naval officers. As Executive Officer to Captain Isaac Hull on USS Constitution, he distinguished himself during the capture of the British frigate Guerriere.

During hi s long naval career, Morris helped transform the service from a poorly funded militia to a powerful fleet with international influence. The figurehead of Commodore Morris shown he re has an add itional national sign ificance

Above right, the elaborate ornamentation on the stern of the Vasa employs many of the standard symbols of her era, plus a few unique to the ship. The height of the aftercastle was 65 feet. There are double galleries including two large window openings. Between these windows is the device of two cherubs holding a sheaf of grain-the symbol of the name of the ship. Above this the national coar of arms is supported by two crowned lions. Note also the carved lions on the inner swface of the gunports, the 29 military figures, J3 musicians, six femal e figures, three mermaids and three mermen. Drawing by Gunnar Olofsson. Courtesy the Maritime Museum and the Warship Vasa.

tied to the US economy. Morris was particularly admired by whalemen, because he settled a dispute involving the use of scrap wood from building contracts in the building of whaling ships.

Commodore Morris, the vessel for which the figurehead was made , was a whaleship operating out of New Bedford between 1841 and 1900.

By the early 1800s, a well-establi shed constellation of symbols and emblem s were associated with the new nation. Many of these, such as the Phrygian cap and feminine figure of Liberty , derived from ancient Greek and Roman sources. American artists employed these symbols as part of the vision of the developing nation. Perhaps no other symbol was quite so ubiquitous as the eagle. Adopted as the national

SEA HISTORY 81 , SPRING/SUMMER 1997

bird during the War for Independence, the American eagle quickly began appearing in many contexts. "Eagle with Rope in Beak" is a typical stern eagle from an unidentified vessel. Low-relief carvings such as this graced the hulls of both sailing vessels and, later, steamboats.

The leaders of European and American governments, whether monarchical or democratic, recognized the political , ideological and cu ltural value of maritime carvings. For the sailors serving aboard and those others who saw the vesse l, shipcarving established a ship's individuality, as well as reinforcing its ,!, national identity.

Dr. Lewis is curator at The Mariners'

Museum in Newport News , Virginia.

29

MARINE ART NEWS National ASMA Exhibition

Inquiries

In 1979, a small gro up of arti sts gathered to fo rm the Ameri can Soc iety o f Marine Artists, a non-profit orga ni zati on whose objec t is to recogni ze and promote marine art and maritime hi story and to encourage cooperation among arti sts, hi stori ans, marine enthu sias ts and oth ers engaged in activiti es re latin g to marine art and maritime hi story.

Offering the opportun ity fo r all interested parti es , arti sts and non-artists alike, to come together in the ir love o f the sea and its environs , the Society has grown from that small conclave of found ing artists to over 600 ac ti ve members.

ASMA coordinates nationa l ex hibi tion s every two to three yea rs in the top maritime and art museum s in the coun try and Reg ional Exhibi ti ons disp laying the fin est in marine art. Our Re-

T he Kendall Whaling Museum is lookin g for paintings by or in fo rmati on about marine arti st Edwa rd Norton ( 184319 16) for a proposed ex hibit of hi s work. ( Dr. Stuart Fra nk, Director, KWM , PO Box 297 , Sharon MA 02067 ; 6 17 7845642)

g ional shows all ow members across the country to ex hibit on a much more freque nt bas is and let the loca l flavor of the area to be emphas ized. Our National Ex hibiti ons are he ld every two to three yea rs in the top maritime and art mu seums in the country.

The 11th Nationa l Exh ibiti on of the American Soc iety of Marine A rti sts will open at the Frye A rt Muse um , Seattle, Washington, on 8 Jul y 1997 and trave l to the C ummer Muse um of Arts & Gardens in Jacksonvill e, Florida, for a ovember 1997 opening . Varied in interpre tati o n, techni que and the me, the ex hibiti on re fl ects a res pect of maritime art traditi on and engages the viewer in ocean voyages, inland excursions, maritime ind ustry, and the grande ur of the sea. The painti ngs speak in a va ri ety of ways , engag ing the parti c ipati on of the viewer. With Abstract art "An1icipa1ion·· hy Robert C. Semler (o il 0 11 canms. 14·· x 24 "') and Rea li sm side-by-side, depic1s 1he SS Uni ted States being guided under 1he Wall Whi1111a11 they will rivet yo ur attenBridge. Philadephia PA on 15 Aug11s11996 by M ora11111gs . led hy 1he Patri cia Moran. Standing by are 1he 1ug Evening Tide and Philadephia ti on, ho ld yo ur interest and draw yo u into the wo rld Fire Boal Delaware. created by the arti st. The re lations hip of the arti st and the sea is destined to endure as it has from the beg inning. ew eyes will view the sea, app ly paint to canvas and capture its eterna l bea uty and myste ry in ever new ways.

R OBERT C. SEMLER Pres ident American Society of Marine Arti sts ASMA, 1461 Cathy's Lane, North Wales PA 19454;215 283-0888

"Inner Ha rbor"' by Leonard Mi:erek, walercolor, 19"x 12"

New Exhibits • J 3 February-September, Living Traditions of Sail: The Artwork of Scott Kenned y and Bob Grieser 's Waterfront: A Photo Essay (S an Diego Maritime Museum , 1306 N. Harbor Dri ve, San Di ego CA 92 10 I ; 619 234-9 15 3) • from 2 1 February, Prize Goods: Maritime Art and Artifacts Captured for the Collection (Peabody Essex Museum , East India Sq uare, Salem MA 019703783; 508 745- 1876) • 28 March-30June, Maritime Masters: Drawings of Ships and the Sea, 16001800 ( ethe rl ands Maritime Museum , Kattenburgerpl e in I , I 018 KK , Amsterdam , The Netherlands; 20 52-32-222, FAX: 20-52 32 2 13) • IO April -29 June, Sun Ships: Photographs by Barry Winiker (The Marine rs' Mu seum , 100 Mu seum Drive, Newport News VA 23606-3759; 757 596-2222) • 9 May-28 September, Wood, Water and Light: The Classic Wooden Boat Photographs ofBenjamin Mendlowitz (Chesapea ke Bay Maritime Mu seum , PO Box 636, Mill Street, St. Mi chaels MD 2 1663; 410 745-29 16) • 30 May-28 September, The Bard Brothers: Painting America Under Steam and Sail (National Mu se um of Ameri can Art, Sm ith oni an In stitution , Washington DC 20560; 202 357-2504) • 29 June-3 September, Kirsten Gallery 's 19th Northwest Marine Art Exhibition (Kirsten Gallery, 5320 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle WA 98105; 206 522-2011) • 4 Jul y- 14 September 1997, 11th National Exhibition of the American Society of Marine Artists (Frye Mu seum of Art, 704 Terry A ve nue, PO Box 3005, Seattle WA 98 114)

Cast care to the winds! Sail with us to Bermuda on the QE2!

Places are still available for the NMHS Labor Day cruise, August 30 to September 4, at a price that can't be beaten! Join Peter and Norma Stanford and over 120 of your fellow NMHS members and staff for a vacation to remember. Call Pauline Power at 800-786-4164 for full details.

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31

A Maritime Center for the Hawaiian Islands

by MacKinnon Simpson

I

t is hard to comprehend, in this age floors from the State as a test of their come the Hawai' i Maritime Center. Their of jetliners, satellites and fax ma- museum idea, but the wheezy 1926 el- goal was a lofty one: to build a world chines, but the Hawaiian Islands are evator (Hono lulu ' s first) and the mini- class fac i Ii ty on Pier 7 . the most geographicall y remote Iand- mal sq uare foo tage on each tiny floor Holmes and Lyman assembled a presform on earth-farther from any conti- soon precluded the idea . Undaunted , tig iou s board of trustees and set out to nental mass than even lonel y Pitcairn or they went up to the top floor Observa- accomplish the impossible. Within three frigid Antarctica. This very remoteness tion Deck to check out the harbor for years, the parking lot had been bullhas played a major role in Hawaii ' s other possibilities. dozed to be re placed by a pri ze-w inning anth ropo log ical, social, economic and, Tugboats, container ships, fishin g new buildin g des igned by local architect of course, maritime history. trawlers , Coast Guard cutters, pineapple Pip White. It is not a typical museum These islands which came from the barges, pilot boats-Honolulu's busy building. An enormous arched window sea have also been shaped by the sea. harbor was in full sw ing. That direction frames Aloha Tower, drenching the inThe volcanic peaks thru sting through was out, so they sauntered over to the terior with natural Hawaii an sunlight, the ocean surface intercept fast-traveling Diamond Head deck, where they no- making the museum airy and open and currents and create some of the roughest ticed Pi er 7, next to the Tower, origi- very Hawaii an, although we must be waters in the world that are constantl y nally the International Steamship Pier. cautious about what we ex hibit in the nav igated . These wate rs originally The building had long since been razed, sunlit areas because of the dam ag ing shaped the Hawaiian outri gger canoe- and the pier itself macadamed over for a effects of ultraviol et rays.

Called the Kalakaua Boathouse, the a rugged heavier-duty version of the parking lot. Where others saw rows of spi ndl y lagoo n canoes of the South Pa- cars , the two envi sioned a new building, building is named after Hawaii ' s last cific-w ide ly considered to be the king, who worked hard to restore the native cu lture overwhelmed fin est ro ugh- water craft in the world. These seas have also shaped by traders, whalers and mi ss ionthe superb maritime sk ill s of Isaries. King Kalakaua brought landers, past and present, beginback man y traditions and focused ning with the earli est Polynesians. attention on the Hawaiians' strong The concept for the Ha wai' i link to the ocean. Like Hawaii Maritime Center was born in 1976, itse lf, the Center is multicultural , fa r out at sea aboard Hokule 'a , a reflecting both our rich maritime performance-accurate Polynesian hi story and the Islands' long herivoyagi ng canoe built to test theotage of ethnic diversity. ries of intentional settlement and When we moved into the finto recreate the naviga ti onal sk ill s ished building in April 1988, we of the ancient Polynesians. The had just seven months before our canoe was caught in the doldrums scheduled opening on Kin g on her way to Tahiti and , while Kalakaua 's birthday , 16Novemsome crew members strummed ber-so we had to plan , design, ukul eles and sang, two members build and fini sh the ex hibits in of the crew-hi stori an/waterman what were perhaps the seven Tommy Holmes and harbo r pilot longest month s of our lives.

The idea for the Hawai 'i Maritime Center was conceived Captain Dave Lyman-talked ahoard H okule'a, a replica of a douhle-hulled Polynesian We had severa l things in mind about the desperate need for a mari- voyaging canoe. She first sailed to Tahiti and hack in 1976, as we entered the des ign phase. time museum back home in the using Wayfindin g navigational techniques. Hokule'a has in- Because the wo rd "mu seum " ofIslands. It was not just idle conver- spired a resurgence of traditional voyaging ; seven large ten conjures up adjectives like sation, for when they returned to ocean-going canoes ply the Pacific and more are under dusty , dark and boring in far too construction.

Honolulu, they set up a nonprofit many people's minds, we deorganization called the Aloha Tower designed spec ificall y as a maritime mu- cided early on that "center" was a better Maritime Center. seum. Now all they needed was money! choice, hence Hawai ' i Maritime Center.

Built in 1926 , the ten-story A loha By this time, the tall ship Falls of We also realized that peopl e wanted to Tower had been designed as a we lcom- Clyde had fallen on hard times (see p. be entertained while they were be ing ing beacon for the burgeoning to uri st 34). Built in 1878 in Port Glasgow , ed ucated . From our standpoint, too, we industry. For its first 30 years , the struc- Scotland, she had tramped the world for wanted visitors to take home an underture was just that, as passenger liners more than 80 years before be ing brought standing of Hawaii 's rich ocean hi story . docked there and disgorged their human to Hawaii in 1963 and res tored. In Reali zing both that we did not have a cargo into a sea of streamers and flower November 1982, she was almost lost in world-class collection of artifacts, and le is on Boat Days. By 1976 , however, HuITi cane lwa, and rust, te1mites, dry that many visitors seemed to want a the tower was an anac hroni sm- touri st rot and a shortage of funds had al I taken different ex perience, we came up with a arrivals and departures had long since their toll. Reali zing that the Fa lls was " story line-based" approach, so that each shifted to Hono lulu International A ir- not enough of an attraction to be se lf- ex hibit tells a complete story, with the port, and the landmark tower jutted up supporting, the Friends of the Falls of arti facts and images in a supporting role from a pier crowded with empty ware- C lyde and the fledgling Aloha Tower rather th ian a starring one. The response houses. Holmes and Lyman secu red two Maritime Center merged in 1984 to be- has beem excel lent.

32

SEA HISTORY' 8 1, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

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Many of the di spl ays are hands-on ex periences and others use inte rac ti ve compute rs to illustrate the sto ry. Severa l yea rs ago we installed an a udi o-tape tour. Because most peop le sto p the tape to read at least some copy and w atc h the videos, the ave rage to ur is o ve r two ho urs. As an uninte nded conseque nce, it reduces the no ise level to alm ost zero.

Ex hibi ts cover the gamut of Hawaii ' s unique ocean hi story, beg inning w ith one of the g reatest nautica l ac hieveme nts of mankind- the settle me nt o f the Pol ynes ian Tri ang le by voyag ing canoes long before most c ultures eve r sa il ed out of sig ht of land . Hawaii was the last great di scove ry by Polynesians from the Marquesas, who sa il ed across two tho usand mil es of ope n ocean us ing no instruments -their Wayfindin g navi gatio nal techniques relied sole ly on observati on of starpaths and swell patte rns.

Afte r the Polynes ians a rri ved, they establi shed a resource-s ha rin g system ca lled ahupua ' a, a seri es of pi e-shaped wedges of land ran g ing from the mo untain to ps do wn to the sea and providing different resources at eac h le ve l- from fores t hi ghl and s to fi shing g rounds. To maintain sustainabl e resources, the early Hawaii ans also enforced ve ry stri ct seasons fo r fi shing offshore. It was a mari time soc iety, and the Cente r features it all , fro m voyaging and settle me nt to fi shing canoes and ahupua'a. One of the most popul ar ex hibits in ¡ ¡ ~ i s area is surfing, a traditional sport tha t has become synonymous with the Is lands.

Capta in James Cook has a lways been la uded as the "di scove re r" of these Islands, tho ug h the Polynesians found and settled them more th an a mille nnium ea rlie r (and , among W este rn seame n, he was almost certa inl y preceded by Spanish treas ure hunte rs). Cook , however, was o n a voyage no t of coloni zati o n but of di scovery, and the ex te ns ive d rawings and journ al observatio ns of Hawa iian soc ie ty at the mome nt of contac t g ive us a cl ear window to the pas t. U nlike the sec retive Spani ard s, official acco unts of Cook ' s landfall s we re publi shed and tri ggered a trade in sea otte r pe lts between the American Northwest and the s il k/tea/porcelain me rchants o f C hina.

T he new ly mapped islands of Hawa ii became a prov isioning stop fo r the traders, and once the fragrant ili ' a hi (sanda lwood) was di scovered he re, a new com me rce e rupted qui ckly. Within a decade o r so, the Islands we nt fro m be ing mere prov is io ners of food stuffs, fres h wa te r

Th e Hawai 'i Maritime Center (a bove), with th e Fa ll s of Clyde al the right , overlooks Honolulu's busy harbor . At right, whale vertebrae and ribs ji-ame visit ors looking towards Aloha Towe r.

and cre w, to provide rs of a va luable commodity in the China T rade. The mountain s were soon de nuded of sandalwood bo und fo r Macao, as traders barte red everything from frippe ry to weapo ns with the chiefs.

That trade was re pl aced in the 1820s by the arriv al of the Pac ifi c whaling fl eet, mostl y o ut of New Eng land . They appeared tw ice a yea r- in the spring before heading north to hunt spe rm whales in the ,, Sea of Japan (and late r the bo w head ~ in the Arctic) and aga in in the fa ll before heading south forth e w inter to c rui se the Equator. For almost half a century, until the early 1870s, whalin g fue led the Islands' economy . By the time it, too, evaporated- whe n o il was di scove red in Pe nnsy lvani a-Hawaii 's eco nomy was rescued aga in , thi s time by sugar, whi ch had to be shipped by sea to US refin e ri es and marke ts.

By the 1920s, a new industry began- touri sm . Hawa ii 's largest cargo carrie r, M atson Nav igati on Lines , built passe nger line rs and construc ted the Ro yal Hawa ii an Hote l on the beach at W a ikiki , starting a boom that continues still , though ocean tra nsportation has g ive n way to airpl anes. The Hawai ' i Maritime Cente r te ll s these stories and more-tattoo ing, fl ying boats, comme rcial fi shing, unde rsea cabl es, yac htingin 26,000 squ are fee t of ex hibits.

The Cente r was des ig ned for the people of the Island s, but, of course, we mu st attrac t vi sito rs as we ll . The to uri sm bus iness is a diffe rent (and diffi c ult) a nimal, and we c urre ntl y have over thirty promo ti o ns in effect. The Cente r al so

SEA HISTORY 8 1, SPRING/SU MM ER 1997

leases space to a restaurant on the harbo rfro nt. Under the g uidance of Executi ve Directo r RAD M Willi am Kozlovsky, USCG (Re t), the Center uses every o pportunity fo r addi tio nal revenues, from membe rships and grants, to facility re ntals a nd co-marke ting a rran geme nts.

Three years after we o pened, the wareho uses o n the nex t pier we re demo li shed and a Festi va l Ma rke tplace with mo re than a hund red shi ps and res ta urants was built aro un d Alo ha Tower. Whil e we antic ipated an increase in attendance, the o ppos ite occurred , and we ' re working to reve rse thi s tre nd.

Recently, the Hawa i' i Maritime Cente r became part of the Berni ce P. Bi shop Mu seum , a ce ntury-ol d fac ility w ith the wo rl d's largest co llecti o ns of Hawa ii an and Pac ific arti facts , as well as majo r natu ra l sc ie nce co ll ecti o ns. Thi s is o ur State museum, and the relationship works we ll fo r both in stituti o ns. Togethe r they offer a ri ch ex pe ri e nce fo r visitors. 1,

For more informa tion, contact Hawai'i Ma ritime Center, Pier 7, Honolulu Harbor, Honol11l11HI 968 13; 808 523 -615 J. 33

At Home in Hawaii: Falls of Clyde

by MacKinnon Simpson

t is December 12th in the year 1878 at the Russell & Company shipyard in Port Glasgow, Scotland, on the banks of the River Clyde. Work stops for a time as a graceful , just-fini shed four-masted square rigger slips down greased planks into the river. Preci sely a century before, on 12 December 1778, Captain Cook 's two expeditionary ships were slowl y cruising the coastline of Hawaii , as Cook carefully, laboriously charted the Islands of "Owhyhee" for posterity.

None of that, of course, was on the minds of the grimy Scottish shipwrights in Port Glasgow as they watched their new wrought-iron creation splash into the Bonnie C lyde. Yet the new ship would eventually become as integral a part of Hawaiian maritime hi story as Captain Cook himself.

The Falls of Clyde she was chri stened , after a waterfall of the river on whose banks she took shape. She was the first of nine ships-bi g, rangy sa il-

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ing ships flying more than an acre of canvas-intended for the international trade, an industry then dominated by canny Glasgow shipowners. She sai led for Wright, Breakenridge & Co. and was known among sailors as a fast, easyhandling ship. At a time when smoky , coal-burn ing steamers were inexorably taking over the world 's shipping routes, the Falls ofClydecrisscrossed the oceans between the world's trading centersRangoon , Capetown, Hamburg, Shanghai , Melbourne , Liverpoo l, Buenos Aires , New York, Bombay-carrying whatever cargo she cou ld rustle up, including lumber, whiskey, cotton, explosives, jute, cement and wheat.

She was called a " tramp ," with all the vagabond imp I ications of that word . Bob Krauss, a longtime Honolulu Advertiser columni st and one of a small band credited with sav ing the Falls in 1963 , describes her as "a waterfront woman known in the toughest seaports in the world. She is on intimate terms with

Th e dusty plain that was Honolulu two centuries ago has given way to a (most ly) high-rise metropolis with mountains barely visible in the background. Th e two-story Maritime Center is at right next to the Falls (which has since been reversed at her moorings). Pho10: HMC

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fights, drunkenness, cockroaches, hurricanes , prostitutes. All her life she has consorted with rude sailors and stevedores , and has been married to no less than seventeen sea captains. Many men have fa ll en in love with her and many still do. " In the two decades after her launching in 1878, the Falls made seventy voyages under the British flag .

Her second career began right around her twentieth birthday when she was sold to one Arthur M. Brown of Honolulu for $25,000-not a bad return for a ship which originall y cost her owners $18,606. The deal was a bit convo luted , as Brown was acting as an agent for Captain William Matson in order to secure Hawaiian registry for the Falls.

Some six month s prior, President McKinley had signed the order annexing the Isl ands, so Hawaiian registry was a backdoor to American registry. Shearrived at Honolulu on 20 January 1899 flying the Hawaiian flag .

Honolulu Harbor- and the c ity created nearby- was the economic center of the Islands , a lmost from its discovery by a British sea captain aro und 1793. It was the on ly accessible natural harbor, created when the sw ift, fresh waters of Nu ' uanu Stream poured into the ocean and prevented coral from growing. Un 1ike Hawaiian canoes , which could be easily dragged up on a beach , Western ships needed a sheltered anchorage with deep water. The early Hawaiians used the area for fish ing and little else. They much preferred Waikiki , with its rich food suppl y and wide beaches to launch the ir canoes. But the Westerners needed a harbor and as the trading sh ips visited more often , the rude huts of a small village sprang up nearby. That village became a town , with ship chandleries and saloons to serve the ships and their occupants and a huge coral fort to impri son th e rowdier ones. The town evolved into a city , all based on the nearby harbor. It was into this harbor that the Falls of Clyde sailed, the newest (and largest) member of the sugar fleet.

Captain Matson intended to employ her in the Hawaii sugar trade , specifical Iy servicing the plantations of the Big Island, bringing needed goods and machinery from the West Coast to Hilo, and returning with burlap sacks full of raw sugar om its way to the California refin eri es ancd then to the markets of the US. Whil e tthe British had sai led her

SEA HISTORY 8 1, : SPRING/SUMMER 1997

Falls of C lyde is "a waterfront

woman known in the toughest seaports in the world. She is on intimate terms with fights, drunkenness, cockroaches, hurricanes, prostitutes.

All her life she has consorted with rude sailors and stevedores, and has been married to no less than seventeen sea captains. Many men have fallen in love with her and many still do."

The Falls of Clyde, under the British flag , painted in 1896 by Lai Fong. Photo: HMC

capacity of 7 56,000 ga ll ons of o il.

Heavy-duty pumps and a second steam boil er to operate them were insta lled.

She was " sold" to the Assoc iated O il Company, in which Captain Matson had a large interest, and sail ed betwee n Gav iota and Honolulu Harbor, where she di scharged oil into tank s at Oahu R ailway & Land Company 's Pier 16.

Molasses was often loaded aboard fo r the run back Lu Californi a. She contin ued to carry.a few passe ngers, as well as small amounts of cargo ' tweendecks .

By 1920, her 42nd yea r, she was an anachroni sm and , seemingly, not long fo r the world. She was sold and made two chartertrips carrying o il fro m Texas to Denmark, one voyage to Buenos Aires and another to Panama.

TheFallsofClyde sailed to San Pedro, Californi a, where all her ri gg in g, save fo r her lower masts , was re moved. She was towed to Ketchi kan, Alas ka, where she served as a fl oating fu el de pot fo r the offshore fi shing fl eet. B y 1958 , her 80th year, she was no longer needed and again faced an uncertain fu ture.

A pri vate ow ner pu rchased her and towed her to Seattle intent upon turning her into a museum ship, not an inex pensive or easy tas k. For the nex t fi ve yea rs, she was offered to c ity after city- Seattle, San Pedro, Long Beach, Phil ade lphia and Hono lulu- and all were un successful in buying the vesse l as a mu seum . As a bankruptcy court pre pared to se ll her to a Length : 266 ' on deck; Canad ian logg ing company to 304 ' to end of bowsprit and jibboom be s un k as a breakwate r at B readth : 40 ' Vancouver, a few local c iti zens De pth of ho ld: 23 .5 '; draft now about 16' took action. The mornin g paper Net Tonnage: I 740; Gross Tonnage: 1807 led a campaign to " Save the Largest yard is 80 ' long and weighs 5 tons Falls of Clyde," and the people

with a crew of about 25, Matson rea li zed he could pull the ya rds and square sa il s dow n off the jigger (fo urth) mast and replace them with a fo re-and-aft sail , thereby reducing the number of saiIors he needed. Once he effected thi s cha nge, the Falls usuall y sailed with abo ut 12 crew , an enormous saving in operating costs, even in those days of paltry sa laries . A bout $ 15 ,000 was spent to modi fy her, add a dec khouse and chartho use, and rearrange the afte r-quarter fo r passengers. From 1899 to 1907, the Fa lls made over 60 voyages between these ports. Sai ling time averaged 17 days .

Never one to mi ss an economi c opportun ity, Captain Matson realized that Hawaii ' s coal-fired sugar mill s wo uld operate much more efficientl y on o il. He invested in a hundred-mil e pipeline from Califo rni a ' s inl and oil fie lds to the port of Gav iota, near Santa Barbara, and he converted severa l of hi s ships to sailpowered o il tankers.

A maritime rarity when she was buil t, the Fa lls of Clyde became even m o re a rarity in 1907 when she was conve rted to a sailing o il tanker to beg in her thi rd career. Her sturdy wro ught-i ron hull was almost 3/4-inches thick, fastened together with thousands of hand-hammered 7/sinch ri ve ts. Her insides were gutted and te n large tanks were constructed along both sides and the bottom , giving her a

SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SU MMER 1997

of Hawaii responded by raising over $35 ,000 - most of it quite literall y nicke ls and dimes and do ll ar bill s- in the weeks before she was to be sunk. The o ld hul k was saved !

A Navy tug towed the dismasted, dil ap idated Falls fro m Seattl e on her fin al Pac ifi c crossing, home to Honolulu . In time she wo uld be restored , using the combined skill s of shi pwrights, ri ggers, iro n wo rkers, welders and , always , volunteers. A g iftof fournew iro n mas ts affi ved from Scotl and , built at the same shipyard , by the grandsons and great-gra ndsons of the men who built the ship ori ginall y. Yards and ri gging were fas hi oned locall y, and she was chipped and painted and varn ished . S he has been undergo ing restorati on- about three milli on do ll ars worth so far- fo r the pas t 34 years.

It's been wo rth every penny, for the Fa lls is one of the most important muse um ships in the wo rld : She was des ignated a Nati onal Hi stori c Landmark and is the las t remaining fo ur-masted, full ri gged ship left afl oat, as well as the onl y sail -powered o il ta nker- and the onl y member of Captain Matson ' s ori g inal fl eet. And now she serves as the.fl agship of the Hawai' i Maritime Center. T he shouts of the mates and men aloft have given way to theshouts of Hawaii schoolchildren, learn ing about the Falls and the ir islands' hi story.

Ri sing and fa lling slow ly at her mooring, her anchor and mooring 1ines stretc hing taut and then slackening, the o ld ship rides well in the water__:as she has for l 16 yea rs. .t

MacKinnon Simpson is maritime historian at the Hawa i 'i Maritime Center.

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The Second Captain: Silas Talbot of USS Constitution

by Louis Arthur Norton s the nation celebrates the two hundredth anniversary of the frigate USS Constitution's 1797 launching, the multifaceted but largely forgotten career of its second captain brings a human dimension to the history of those who served in this noble vessel.

Silas Talbot began his military career during the American Revolution as an officer in the Continental Army; he then became one of the first captains of the United States Navy. His exploits and changing fortunes throughout the War of Independence, the birth of our political system and the genesis of the US Navy represent an exciting adventure in our national history.

Born in 1751 inDighton,BristolCounty , in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Silas was the ninth of fourteen children.

Hi s parents, who had few worldly goods , taught their children self-reliance and independence. Orphaned at the age of twelve when his father died of smallpox , Talbot became a cabin boy on a merchant craft that traded between New England and the southern colonies.

Young Silas taught himself to read and acquired the skills of a stone mason as well as a mariner. His 1772 marriage to Anna Richmond, the daughter of a prominent Providence, Rhode Island, merchant, gave him his first taste of wealth and an entrance into Providence society .

Hi s reputation as a bo ld and clever businessman in mercantile speculations was well earned. Once he intercepted a vessel in Narragansett Bay loaded with southern lumber and bought the cargo from the captain at sea before the ship made landfall. With his knowledge of local demand for lumber, he turned this cargo into a large profit. In spite of his personal and financial success under British rule, he joined the Rhode Island militia in anticipation of the revolution and was commissioned as captain in recognition of his social position.

Talbot's first assignment was to help Washington's troops in the siege of Boston. General Washington, however, knew of his maritime and logi stical talents and reassigned him to move two hundred volunteers from the port of New London to Providence, reorganize them and sail them to fortification s at Brook-

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lyn Heights and Paulus Hook, New York.

A formidable British fleet, carrying the army of General Howe, arrived off Staten Island in June 1776 and proceeded to sweep American forces out of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.

In an attempt to break the British lines, at about two-o ' clock on a cool September morning Captain Talbot took a fireship-a turpentine-smeared vessel filled with combustibles and black powder-from Fort Washington , fifteen miles up the Hudson on Manhattan Island, and slowly drifted downriver with the tide. He steered directly for the 64gun Asia to grapple her. Asia fired on the floating incendiary at close range and ignited it. Captain Talbot lingered on the flaming deck to make certain that the fireship would cripple Asia. The last to

escape, he suffered burns from head to foot and was temporarily blinded. His men found shelter for him on the New Jersey shore. By chance, General Knox and hi s competent surgeon, Dr. Eustis , found him and arranged for treatment and safe evacuation to Hackensack.

Asia was damaged but not lost in this encounter. The British, however, noted their vu lnerability to fireships and moved the fleet to a more defensible point below the city. Talbot, cited by Congress for thi s "spirited attempt" and given a vote of thanks for hi s marine action, was promoted to the rank of major in the Continental Army .

Upon hi s recovery , he rejoined his brigade and , in October of 1777, the Rhode Islanders were sent to reinforce Fort Mifflin, at Mud Island in the Dela-

Portrait of Cap1 . Talbot in his Re volu tionary War uniform and Society of the Cincinnati medal, painted by Ralph Earle (in private collection, courtesy USS Constitution Mu seum)

SEA HISTORY 81 , SPRING/SUMMER 1997

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ware River. The fort was overrun when the British floated an armed transport close to the island and fired directl y into the fort. In the fight, Talbot suffered a musket wound to his hip and a shattered wrist. General Washington personally received and commended him for hi s bravery , granting him leave to Providence to recover from his wounds.

Hi s return home did not place him far from action. The British held Aquidneck Island , giving them control of Narragansett Bay and its major towns, Provi dence and Newport. When France agreed to help the Americans , Comte d 'Estaing brought a fl eet into Narragansett Bay in late July 1778. General John Sullivan, American commander of the Rhode Island forces , planned a coordinated attack on Newport with the French. He asked Talbot to assemble 86 fl at-bottomed boats on the eastern shore, which was done under the cover of marsh weeds and darkness. Each was loaded with up to I 00 men under orders to cross onto the island and regroup for battle. After ferrying the troops, Major Talbot was assigned to a light infantry corps.

When a British fleet appeared in the bay, the French stopped landing troops and set out to engage them. A fierce summer storm interrupted the battle, scattered both fl eets and left the Americans without ground support. When the British reassembled , Sullivan was outgunned and outnumbered, hi s plan doomed. On 29 August 1778 , Talbot was ordered to help cover the tactical withdrawal of the American forces. Once again, Talbot was cited by Congress for his speedy provi sion of troop transport, hi s clever actions as part of the light corps , and the safe and orderly retreat from the island.

Britain 's most effective defense at Narragansett Bay was the stout galley Pigotat the mouth of the Sakonnet River.

She was armed with 12 eight-pounders and a crew of forty-five and g irded with heavy anti-boarding nets making her a floating battery. Talbot was called upon to break this blockade. The merchant sloop Hawk was refitted for battle , armed with two three-pounders and manned with a boarding party of 60 men. Using the darkness of ni ght and maneuvering with the outgoing tide, the major planned to ram Pigat with a kedge anchor tied to the end of the j ibboom. When the Hawk encountered the Pigat, the kedge anchor tore a wide hole through the formidable netting. The raiding party successfully 38

breached the nets without a cannon being fired on either side, capturing the vessel and crew without loss oflife. This quasi-naval engagement brought Talbot another letter of commendation from Congress and a promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel. It also brou ght him some notoriety from the enemy. In an official Admiralty report of the incident, Si las Tai bot was described as " one of the greatest arch-rebels in nature ."

His next army assignment, beg inning 14April 1779, wascommandofthe sloop Argo, which launched hi s remarkable career as a privateer. Under hi s aggressive seamanship, Argo took many pri zes . Records from the Talbot pape rs show that he applied for the cannon bounty for the capture of seven ships during the summer of 1779.

On 17 September 1779 the Continental Congress designated Silas Talbot as captain in the Continental Navy . Hi s pay as a lieutenant colonel ceased and he was to be assigned to a man-of- war.

Unfortunately, the government did not have a naval vessel available for him to command. Ultimately , he was g iven command of the private ship General Washington to continue as a privateer.

He captured one prrze with thi s new vessel and a second which was later recaptured by the British. His luck turned when , in October of 1780, he found himself in the midst of a fleet of British men-of-war. The General Washington ran before a gale but was captured by HMS Culloden.

After a brief confinement on the in famous prison hulk Jersey in New York, he was transported to England and incarcerated at Plymouth's Mill Prison for several months. He eventually won hi s release in a prisoner exchange arranged through John Jay and Benjamin Franklin.

He made passage to France in November of 1781 where he boarded a Nantucket bri g under the command of a Captain Folger, to return home. Fifteen days out the ship was captured by the British priv ateer Jupiter and Talbot was transferred to a ship bound for ew York City , still under Crown control.

Making hi s way out of the city, Talbot reached Providence where he found that Anna had died the previous year. He remained unmarried until 1786, when he wed Rebecca Morri s.

The last years of the Revolution found him at odds over pay and allowance with the Secretary of War and Congress. Although a naval captain , he did not re-

ceive captain's pay because he did not have command of a naval ship. He was officially li sted as a privateer commander, but without a ship . In this capacity he was required to provide hi s own crew and and pay them and himself through bounties from captured vessels.

On 22 October 1782, Congress authori zed an adjustment and settlement so that he received back pay at hi s old army rank of lieutenant colonel.

During the nex t decade as a c ivilian he ventured into commerce, shipping, and land ownership and development in Kentuck y. Talbot returned east to settle in New York where George Metcalf, husband of hi s illeg itim ate daughter, persuaded him to run for office. Hi s opponent was prominent businessman William Cooper, father of author James Fenimore Cooper. In a rauco us and hi ghly parti san race, he won e lection to the New York Assembly ( 1792-1793) and then a term in the House of Representatives ( 1793- 1795). According to Metcalf's account of the e lection , there was " liberal use of spiritou s liquors and other refreshments and free transportation" to help assure the outcome.

On 5 June 1794 Congressman Ta lbot was named third on the li st of six ship captains forthe new US Navy, formed to protect US merchantmen from the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean . There were bitter di sputes regarding the ranking of the six captains-Captain Joshua Barney res igned in protest when Talbot was ranked higher than him on the li st.

Talbot was to be given command of the frigate President, and he resigned hi s seat in Congress to oversee her construction. However, with the signing of the Treaty of Algiers in 1796, work on the ship was suspended and he was again deactivated without pay.

Soon after, Talbot was asked to intervene for President Washington as an agent for American sailors impressed by the Royal Navy in the West Indies. He spent two years strugg ling with civil and naval authorities in the islands before being recalled in 1798.

With the beginning of the undeclared war with France, Secretary of the Navy Stoddert needed all available officers.

Talbot was offered the frigate Constitution, replacing Captain Samuel Nicholson to become her second captain. However, before Talbot would accept that comnnand, he threatened to resign hi s comrmission if he did not receive the rankimg he deserved among the other

SEA HISTOIRY 8 1, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

Wa tercolor and gouache pain ting of USS Constitu tion, c. 1803, by Michele Felice ¡Corne (US Navy/ USS Constitution Museum)

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captains. In the face of this threat, and with the intervention of Preside nt John Adams, Stoddert acquiesced and Ta ibot took Constitution to sea.

The 48-year-old Talbot, described by a seniormarineas "a man grown gray in the service, who bears the scars he received in defense of hi s country," assumed command of the nearI y two-yearold ship at Boston . He supervised he r caul king, refi tting and minor repai rs and , on 4 Jul y 1799, sailed her into Boston harbor and ordered the firing of a 16-gun salute, one fo r each state in the unio n, in honorof the nation ' s birthday . Constitution now fi res a 2 1-gun salute during her customary 4th of Jul y turnaro und , continuing the tradition begun by Talbot.

The new captain 's first assignme nt was to take Constitution on a South Am erican cruise along the Antilles to Fre nch Guiana. On 15 October he was statio ned off Santo Domingo to patrol and oversee American commerce in the West Indies fro m Cayenne to Guadeloupe. At Cap Frarn;:ois he became commodore, the seni or captain of the squadron and pro udl y fl ew hi s commodore pennant fro m the mainmast of the now-fl ags hip Constitution.

The West Indies consul , Ed ward Stevens, reported that resuppl ying a war shi p in port caused political unrest ashore.

Therefore, Talbot decided to attempt a transfer of supplies under sail at sea between two pitching and yaw ing vessels of diffe rent size and di spl aceme nt.

This fea t was successfull y accompli shed between Constitution and the storeship Elizabeth- the first use of a naval tacti c now ro utine ly done between more m anne rl y internally powered vesse ls. Because of thi s, Talbot was abl e to keep hi s frigate at sea for 347 days of hi s 366 d ays in command .

Navy Secretary Stoddert issued the fo llow ing orders: " It is impossible to fo resee from thi s country at what particul ar spots our vessels can be e mployed with most advantage fo r the protection of o ur commerce. You mu st consider yourself at full liberty at a ll ti mes to follow your own judgeme nt in empl oy ing the vessels under yo ur command fo r the defence of our trade and the capture of enemy vessels, not onl y in the ne ighborhood of Towssants ports but ro und the whole Island and the o ther Islands in the vicinity of St. Domingo ."

T hus, Talbot had generous latitude in the scope of hi s patrol and the shi ps he mi g ht e ngage . Ta lbo t occas io na ll y

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stretched thi s scope to di spl ay America's naval skill and power. Hi s earl y experi ence as a privateer enabled him now to capture a sizable number of pri zes at sea in a short time, incl ud ing the ship Amelia, schooner Swift, and , with hi s schoonerrigged tender Amphitheatre, the schooner Esther, brig Nymph and sloop Sa lly.

The most daring ex plo it of Constitution under Talbot 's command was the taking of the Sandwich, which sailed as a pri vateer under a French letter-ofmarque. Fast, able and armed with fo ur six-pounders and two nine-pounders, she lay at anchor in the harbor of the neutral Spani sh colony of Porto Plata. Talbot ordered Lieutenant Isaac Hull (later captain of Constitution) to pl ace a detachment of 90 sail ors and mari nes on the new ly captured sloop Sa lly, which had left port onl y days before and was expected to return. The Americans thought that her capture had not been reported.

The lieutenant sailed her into the harbor with a small crew on deck, came alongside the Sandwich, boarded and took her without the loss of a man. A band of marines waded as hore, breached the wa ll s of the fo rt, spiked its cannon and detained its commanding officer.

Thi s naval maneuver was, unfo rtunately, illegal. It occurred in a neutral port against a shi p of a nation with whom we had not offic iall y declared war. The orde rs to Captain Ta lbot may have j ustified the action in hi s mind, but the Sandwich had to be returned. The Sec retary of the Navy neverthe less praised Talbot for hi s meritorious service in " protecting ... our commerce .. . and in causing the American character to be respected."

SEA HISTORY 8 1, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

In March 180 I , a treaty with France was signed. The navy suffe red another cutback, forc ing the decommi ss ioning and two-year retirement of Constitution at the Bosto n Navy Yard . Captai n Talbot resigned fro m the navy over a fi nal seniori ty di spute.

Having lost his second wife, Rebecca, in 1803, in l 808 Talbot entered into a third , th is time contenti ous, marri age with Eli za Pintard. Electing to leave the sea behind, he traveled back to Kentucky and other western points to engage in entrepreneurial ventu res. Ul timately he settled down in New York City and died there at the age of 62. He rests in the graveyard at T rinity Church at the head of Wall Street. Altho ugh Silas Talbot largely disappeared from the pages of American hi story, among the fo unders of the United States Navy and patriots of the Revolutionary War, hi s record is one of the most heroic and colorful. He was a man of valor, cunning ambition, ingenuity and patrioti sm, balanced with recurrent hubri s. He represents the fi nest example of the hybrid "soldier-sail or" fro m our earl y hi story !, as a nati on.

Louis Arthur Norton, a native of Gloucester, Massachusetts , is a professor at the University of Connecticut Health Center at Farmington, Connecticut. He is the author of many publications in the maritime fi eld.

For a complete biography, see Silas Talbot: Captain of Old Ironsides, by William M. Fowler.Ir. (Mystic Seaport Mu seum, Inc., Mystic CT, 1995 , 23 lpp , illus, index , ISBN 0-9133 72 -73-0 ; $29 .95hc) 39

USS Constitution Reborn

by Patrick Otton n September 1995, USS Constitu- 3. Standard midship knees : On the Bosto n modeled the fi ve hi stori ca l struction return e d to th e wa te rs of lower deck, twe lve compos ite knees on tural components using a I : 16 scale Boston Harbor after three yea rs and each side carry the weight of the over- mode l. A I 0 percent increase in hull one day in drydock for repairs and resto- head cannon on the gun deck do wn to sti ffness was shown. The Detac hment ration to ready her for her bicentenni al the lower deck and onto the diagonal prove d the effecti ve ness of the design celebration thi s year. Because major riders beneath. The new knees take the and e xte nded the drydock re pair to in structural members were rein stated in pl ace of what was ori ginall y a pair of clude th e restorati on o f those fi ve comthe hull , this is the most signifi cant struc- grown hang in g and s tand ard knees . pone nts.

These knees are 13 inches thick, the The drydock re pair consisted of both tural restoration in the ship 's hi story.

Hi story can attest th at Constitution is body reaching the gun deck c lamp, the reha bi I itati on (the repair of deteriorated a successful design. Joshua Humphreys; arm 6 feet long and bo lted with eight structure) and restoration (reinstating the components of her ori ginal config udesigner of the US Navy's first six fri g- bolts 11/4 inch diameter. ates, had two criteria to sati sfy: to out- 4. Additional Stanchions: T wo add i- ration ). Restoring the structural compogun the next rate ship, and to out-sail tional ro ws of stanchi ons on the lower nents during the 1992 drydock was a j us ti fi ed ex penditure ofl abor and adversaries. The solution required m ateri als. But due to the limited a truly new design .

This will be the first time since 1881 avail Humphreys understood the obability ofnatural timber, glue that Constitution will travel under lamination was used to provide vious conflict between the fin e enof the wood specifi ed by try and run required for sailing her own sail ... topsails, jibs and much Humphreys. qualities and the weight of a heavy armament. Combining the we ight spanker ... in a salute to the nation.

In 1797, while observing the launch of USS United States, of heavy guns and the buoyancy curve of a fast sailing hull res ults in a deck work in co njun cti on with th e Joshua Humphreys wrote to the Secreforce that distorts the hull resultin g in midship standard knees to support the tary o f W arthat " ... without straining o r hogg ing-the bending along the length cannon overhead. Made of turned white hogging more than one and a quarter of the keel which causes the bow and oak and copi ed from the centerline stan- inch, as yo u will see by the encl osed stern to droop and the midbod y to ri se. chions, they are fitted under each over- certifi cate, to my great and unspeakable The Humphreys Solution head gun deck beam beneath the thick sati sfaction . T he fiimn ess of the ship is Humphreys needed to stiffen the hull to strake above and stand on the lower deck a convinc ing proof to me of the utility of prevent hogging, and he used fiv e com - thick strake. the diagonal riders in long ships."* The ponents to achieve thi s. The modern 5. Diagonal riders: ¡The di ago nal riders same may be said for Constitution torestoration has replaced Humphreys' s are the unify ing members jo ining the day . When undocked in September 1995 , ori ginal grown knees and timbers with hull sections together and greatl y sti ff- the hog was meas ured to be less than two laminated white oak. While in repa ir, ening the hull to res ist hogg ing. A total inches. The effecti veness of the strucmany other items were restored to orig i- oftwelve diagonals of white oak 12 x 24 tu ra l components is again shown with nal spec ification s. The fiv e components inches and appro ximately 34 fee t long, "convinc ing proof " and " unspeaka bl e noted here were not part of the ship 's six per side, three sweeping fo rwa rd , sati sfacti on." structure when drydocked in 1992.

Joshua Humphreys is owed credit fo r three sweeping aft. They are through1. Thick strakes: On the g un deck and bolted through the hull every two fee t the innovati ve des ign that led to the lower deck, four pairs oflaminated white with 11/s inch copper bo lts, ongo ing 200-year story of thi s great ship. In turn , US S Constitution has beoak deck planking, thicker by 2 inches Second-guessing the Designer than the decking , 5 1/2 inches thi ck and O ve r the past 200 yea rs, as Constitu- come a symbo l of American determinanot less than 10 inches wide, bolted and tion' s fun ction changed fro m fi ghting ti on and innovati on. jogg led into each other and over and into wa rship to training vesse l to receiving USS Constitution, symbo li c fl ags hip the beams and ledges by two inches. ship to dockside ex hibi t, so did the shi p 's of the US Navy , is now being readied to sai l in ce le bra ti on of her bi centenni al on The thick strakes run fore and aft along- config urati on. The five structural comside the hatches, and midway between ponents were ex pensive in materials, 2 1July 1997. Thi s will be the first time the hatches and the waterways, port and techniques and la bo r, so as earl y as 1820 since 188 1 th at Constitution will trave l tarboard . These thick deck strakes add the di agonal riders were not renewed in under her ow n. sail , crui sing in Massalong itudinal strength to the hull.

Constitution' s repairs, and the other com- chu setts Bay under topsa il s, jibs and 2. Standard knees: At the bow and ponents were al so eventuall y e limin ated. spanke r- her battle confi gurati on- in a stern on the lower deck , long laminate Over the years, Constitution began to salute to the nation . white oak knees are fitted at the end of show her age. By 1992 the ship had each pair of thick strakes. These knees deve loped over 13 inches o f hog. Many unite the thick strakes to the hull. The suggesti ons were proposed for support- Mr. O tt on is the Technical Writerfor the knees are joggled over two deck beams ing the hull : air bags, steel g irders, and Nava l /-I istorical Center Detachment and bolted to the bow and stern with 1 /s space fra mes. None of these were hi s- Boston . /-le keeps the historic record f or in ch bolts. Two addition a l sta ndard tori ca ll y acc urate and none we re con- the ship and does the historical research needed f or the ongoing work. knees, one reaching from the bow to the gruent with the fab ric of the ship. foremast, the other from the tran som to In 1993 , recogni zing th at Humphreys the mi zzen mas t, a lso strengthen the hull had a lready provided the answers, the * J. Hum phreys¡ Letter Book. 1797-1 800. p. 26. dated at the ends.

Nava l Hi stori ca l Center Detac hment May I I, 1797. Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

I

1

40

SEA HI STORY 8 1, SPRING/SUMM E R 1997

The inboard profile above shows the restoration plan ofthe diagonal riders. At right, the restored diagonals in the hold, starboard side looking aft. US Navy photo.

"The firmness of the ship is a convincing proof to me of the utility of the diagonal riders in long ships."

-Joshua Humphreys, 1797

These thick strokes in the decking of both the gun deck and berth deck are joggled into each other, as well as the beams below, to lock adjacent deck strakes together, providing the longitudinal strength of a wider plank. Note the shape of the st rake at left waiting to be installed. US Navy photo.

Combination standing and hanging knees are made possible by modern glues. These laminated shapes will not shrink or distort over time as the original grown knees often did. US Navy photo.

SEA HISTORY 81 , SPRING/SUMMER 1997

41

_;: _--:;. ¡;--~-:-

/~~~

raffiques & Discoveries In which we share the joys of learning new things a.bout the sea and seafaring, in the spirit of Richard Hakluyt's Principall Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, first published in 1589.

Robotuna: MIT Catches Up With Matthew Baker Engineers at MIT' s department of ocean engineerin g have been workin g on a remote contro ll ed autonomous underwa ter vehi cle (AUV ) that w ill be able to undertake long-term undersea ex ploration mi ss ions. Conventional propell er-dri ven roboti c submarines can stay underwateronl y for short amounts of time, limiting their usefuln ess.

In their search for a more efficient propul sion sys tem, the engineers turned to nature's fas t and bea utiful bluefin tuna and have been stud y ing and replica ting fish propul sion in the hope that it w ill prove less energy consuming than screw propul sion.

The res ult is a unit that looks like a bluefin (they made a casting of a real fi sh fo r the shape) and sw ims eeril y li ke the real thing.

Thi s reminds us of similar work done by M atthew B aker ( 1530-1613), a ship des igner who shared the belief that nature had something to offer to those who would travel by sea.

Matthew Baker illustra ted his theory of ship desig n (below), using a cod's head and a mackerel's tail to shape the hull. i11 Fragments of A ncient English Shipwrightry (ca. 1586).

Fo t1r ht1 ndred yea rs later, M IT' s tuna-shaped AUV takes to the wa ter (bo110111 photo: Donna Coiâ&#x20AC;˘eney!MIT).

42

- .l

A. J. Fuller

" About Ship! " " With li ve li er weather of the Southern latitudes we were often exercised in tackin g and w earin g ship .... The Fu ller .. . required the smartest kind of work in handling. '" Hands about ship! ' meant al l hand s, and the cook at the fo re sheet, a time honored station fill ed by the Celesti al with all the importance in the world. It was all the work that Chow ever did on deck and the hea theni sh glee with which he would ' let go' at the proper time, added a certain zes t to our movements, parti cul arl y as we al ways hoped to have a sea come over and douse him, which o ften happened . " At the order, ' Ready ! Ready!' the gear of the main and cro 'jik was thrown down from the pin s, clear fo r runnin g. T he command ' Ease down th e helm !' and the order 'S panker boom amid-ships! ' would qui ckl y fo ll ow, the vessel runnin g rapidl y into the eye of the wind w ith everything shakin g, and then flat aback. '" Ri se tacks and sheets! ' and the hands at the clew garn ets wo uld sway up on the co urses . lifting them clear of the bul wark s. Then all hands wo uld jump li ke monkeys to the main and cro 'jik braces, at the order, ' W eather main, lee cro'j ik braces!' the second mate, and Chips, standing by to cas t off on the other sides . B y then, the w ind be ing a point on the weather bow, would come the hearty warnin g, ' Haul taut ! ' and' ow, boys, mainsail haul !' and the after yard s, aback, w ith the w ind on their weather leeches, would spin about, the gear running throu gh the bl ocks like snakes afire, and the men on deck paw ing it in at the pins with feve ri sh haste, belay ing as the yard s slammed back aga in st the lee sw ifters on the other tack. " . . . A s soon as the w ind was on the bow , all hand s woul d spring to the lee fo re braces. ' Haul taut- let go and haul" thundered the order from aft. Chow woul d let out a w il d ye ll as he unhitched the fo re sheet, and around would go the head yard s. Then w ith jib sheets shifted over, and the spanker eased off, as the tacks were board ed, and the sheets hauled aft, we wo uld pause to get our breath amid the tangle of gearon deck. " From Felix Riesenberg's Under Sail : A Boy 's Voyage A round Cape Horn (New York , 1937),pages 90-92.

SEA HISTORY 8 1, SPRING/SU MM ER 1997

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* * * NEW from the *** SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION The MARITIME ADMINISTRATION COLLECTION of SHIP PLANS, 1939-1970 Listing of 55 sets of design drawings of Liberty and Victory Ships, SS United States, etc., with ordering instructions. Send US $10 check payable to SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION to: Ship Plans, NMAH· 5010/MRC 628, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 USA SEA HISTORY 81 , SPRING/SUMMER 1997

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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Historic Lightship Finds New Home On February 9th at 0230, the mooring lines securing the hi storic Nantucket li ghts hi p LV-11 2 to the Intrepid Sea A ir Space Museum in New York C ity were cast off and the ship got underway fo r her new home in Bridgeport, Con necti cut.

Launched in 1936, she was des igned to repl ace LV- 11 7, whi ch had been rammed and sunk by the RMS Olympic, sister ship of the Titanic , in 1934. The Nantucket Shoals light station was the most exposed in the worl d, mark ing the treacherous shoals at the convergence of the major transatlantic shipp ing lanes; thus, L V- 1 12 was designed to be the largest and strongest American lightship ever built. She served from 193 6 to 1975 , surviving two hurricanes and armed duty during WWII .

The 11 2 has since been owned by a number of nonprofit organizations, remaining unaltered and, through the dedi cati on of volunteers, full y operational.

The ship has had a home at the Intrepid Museum since 1993. This pas t fa ll , however, the museum elected to find her a new home. The search led to Captain 's Cove in Bridgeport where a coaliti on of the " HMS " Rose Foundation and the Friends of Nantucket Lightship 11 2 will maintain the National Landm ark vessel with oversight by the Nati onal Li ghtship Trust. The ship is open fo r public visitati on and will eventuall y undertake a program of port call s.

She now faces two bi g hurdl es. Bl ack Rock Harbor is she ltered from the winds and seas of Long Island Sound, but the Nantucket sits on the muddy bottom at low tide. Dredging will fi x the problem if the permits and fi nancing can be worked LV 112 arrives at her new berth. out. Another big expense will be her fi veyear inspection and maintenance haul-out. These are expensive propos iti ons but will help guarantee the Nantucket's future as a full y operational ship representing our maritime heritage at its best. For information about L V- 1 12, contact Captain 's Cove, One Bostwick Ave., Bridgeport CT 06605; 203 335- l 433.

- JERRY ROBERTS

Full information on these and other news items appears in Sea History Gazette,January!FebruaryandMarch/ April 1997. We'll send you copies of these issues free if you subscribe to the Gazette for one year (6 issues at $18.75-add $10 for foreign postage).

GETTING AROUND THE SHIPS: T he 1854 sloop-of-war Constellation went into the Fort McHenry drydock in Ba ltimore on 17 November to begin a two-and-ahalf-year restorati on developed by TriCoas tal Marine. Executive Director Lou Linden reports the Foundation has raised $5.2 million of the necessary $9 million .

(USS Constellation, Pier 1, 301 E. Pratt St., Baltimore MD 2 1202-3 134) .. . USS Cobia has returned from a drydocking that involved remov ing fluid from ballast tanks and bringing the vessel closer to her WWII appearance with a new paint scheme, superstructure repairs and the removal of numbers from the con44

ning tower. (Wisconsin Maritime M useum , 15 Maritime Dri ve, Manitowoc WI 54220; 4 14 684-02 18) . . . T he Steamer Columbia Foundation ' s application fo r an !STEA grant to help return the Columbia of 1902 to steaming condition was turned down by the Michigan Department of Transportation on the grounds that the vessel is not a transportation reso urce. (SCF, PO Box 43232, Detro it MI 48243; 313 33 1-9920) ...

On 19 Jul y 1997, the cl ass ic cru ise boat Spirit of '98 will arri ve in Seattle to recreate the 1897 arrival of the steamer Portland. T he ton of go ld she carried from the Klond ike unleashed the rush north by tens of thousands of fo rtune seekers. The nex t day, a small fl otilla of boats will sai l from Seattle to Skagway, recreating the original Klondike trip up the Inside Passage. T heArthur Foss, the onl y survivor from the voyage, will be among the boats. (C lass ic Passages North west, PO Box 2 184, Friday Har-

bor W A 98250) .. . The 40-year-o ld coal-fired steam propul sion system of the Lake Michigan carferry Badgerincl udi ng two fo ur-cy linder Sk inner Steepl e compound unafl ow eng ines and fo ur Fos te r-Wheeler Type D marine boilers-has been des ignated a Mechani cal Engineering Landmark by the Ameri can Society of Mechanical Engineers ....

The British Nati onal Hi storic Ships Committee has recommended the creation of a database of hi stori c vesse ls ex tant in the UK, an e va lu ati on system for assessing their sig nifi cance as a guide for policy make rs, and a mode l bu siness pl an for hi stori c ship projects. The National Register of Historic Ships will include all vessels over 40 feet and 40 tons built in Britain before 1945 that still li e in UK waters. More th an 900 have already been identified. (Michae l Barrett, Press Office, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich , LondonS E I0 9NF, UK; 18 1 3 126745, FAX: 18 1 3 12-652 1)

MUSE MNEWS: The proposed St. Lawrence Seaway Nautical Museum has received a$495 ,000 grant from the State of New Yo rk to create a mu seum in the fo rmer New York Central Railroad Termin al in Ogdensburg, New York .... A cornerstone-l ay 111g ceremon y for the Door County Maritime Museum 's new 20,000-square-foot fac ility in Sturgeon Bay WI was held on 26 October. Museum offici als continue to rai se fund s fo r the $2.8 million project. (DCMM , 8820 Cana Is land Road , Bailey's Harbor WI 54202; 414 839-201 3) . .. The Lake Erie Island Historical Society broke ground on a new facility in September which will provide office space and four times the di splay space of the ir old location at the former Put-in-Bay Bottling Works. (LEIHS , PO Box 25, Put-in-B ay OH 43456-0025; 41 9 2852804) ... The Columbia River Maritime Museum received an NEH humani ties self- study grant of $ 16,700 to look at future ex hibits and programs.

(CRMM, 1792 Marine Dri ve, Astori a OR 97 103; 503 325-2323)

UNDERWATER NEWS: The first ex pediti on to map a shipwreck in the Arcti c took Vancouver Maritime Museum Executi ve Di rector Jam es Delgado to the wreck ofRoald Amundsen ' s Arctic exploration vessel Maud. Built in Norway in 19 17, she w as seized by creditors in Sea ttl e and became the Arcti c supply ship Baym a ud in J926. Frozen in at

SEA HISTOR Y 8 1, SPRI NG/SU MM ER 1997

Cambridge Bay, she served as a stores and radio ship before sinking in 1930.

The exped ition confirmed that elements of her form were cop ied by arch itect Torn Hallidie when he designed the schooner St. Roch, now atthe Vancouver Maritime Museum. (VMM, 1905 Ogden Ave. , Vancouver BC V6J I A3 , Canada; 604 257-8300) . .. The wreck of a Cromwellian warship off the Isle of Mull is thought to be the 200-ton warship Swan which sank in 1653 during an attack on Duart Castle on Mull. .. . A new underwater shipwreck preser ve called ErieQuest in western Lake Erie, focusing on shipwrecks in the Pelee Passage, is a joint project of the Windsor Chapter of Save Ontario Shipwrecks, the Town of Leamington and the Ontario Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Research . An inventory of27 l shipping inc idents from 1830- 1995 has been published. (John Karry, 33 Melbourne Street, Kingsv ill e ON N9Y I Y4, Canada; 5 19 733-2469) MARITIME EDUCATIO ':The Crystal Spray is schedu led to leave from Massachusetts in Apri l to recreate Joshua Slocum ' s solo ci rcumnav igation, after repair work led to the rmstponernent of the expected October 1996 departure. Founder David Dunn and his co ll eagues wi ll provide long-di stance learning opportuniti es for schoo ls via the internet and video links while underway. (Voyage of the Spray, Inc. , 160 Derby Street, Salem MA 01970; 508 744-4345 ; http://www.sa.ua.edu/sa/ ccet/spray/spray.htm) . . . Mystic Seaport Museum's Munson Institute offers two classes on maritime hi story from 30 June through 7 August-" America Goes to Sea" and "The Maritime Way of Life. " (M unson Institute, PO Box 6000, Mystic CT 06355-0990; 860 572-5359, FAX : 860 572-5329)

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SAIL TRAINING: The Tall Sh ips Fo undation is sponsoring an American crew for the C utty Sark Tall Ships' Races this summer to sai l aboard the Dutch brigantine Swan in the first leg of the race starting on 15 Jul y from Aberdeen, Scotland, and ending in Trond he im , Norway. To apply, indi viduals 2 1 years or older can send a short letter on "w hy they think they can cut it on the crew," with a recent photo, to TSF, PO Box 11023 1, Stamford CT 0691 I by 30 May 1997 . .. . At its Annual Conference in December, the American Sail Training Association announced plans for Regional Co unc il s to improve comm uSEA HISTORY 8 1, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS nications and networking among AST A members. (ASTA, 47 Bowen's Wharf, PO Box 1459, Newport RI 02840; 401 846-1775; FAX: 401 849-5400)

GRANTS &AWARDS: The Associates of the National Maritime Museum Library at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park have announced a $1 ,000 award for the Karl Kortum Endowment for Maritime History to encourage maritime historical research and documentation in honor of the late Karl Kortum, founder of the San Francisco Maritime Museum and NMHS . It will recognize the best research in selected fields of maritime history relating to the oral history collection at the Library.

The deadline for submissions is 1 September 1997.(DavidHull,Library,SFMNHP,BuildingE,FortMason,SanFranciscoCA 94123) .. . Information about applying for the National Maritime Heritage Grants Program , to be funded by the sale or scrapping of vessels from the National Defense Reserve Fleet, can be found on the website of the National Maritime Initiative of the National Park Service at http://www.cr.nps. gov /history/maritime/.. .. The Waterfront Center presented its International Waterfront Development Awards to the Spokane River Centennial Trail and a project in the town of Bergen, Norway, that incorporates new construction with medieval wharf buildings. (TWC, 1622 Wi sconsin Avenue , NW , Washington DC 20007) ... The first allocation of Massachusetts ' $2 million lighthouse grants program will move Cape Cod ' s oldest beacon, the Highland (or Cape Cod) Light in North Truro, to safety. (Lighthouse Preservation Society, 4 Middle Street, Newburyport MA 01950; 1 800 727-2326)

BRIEF NOTES: WWII operational records of the US Navy have been accessioned by the National Archives and Records Administration and are available for research through the Archives II Textual Reference Branch. (NARA, Washington DC 20408; 202501-5400) ... Memories, photographs and stories about vessels built by W. Watts & Sons in Collingwood, Ontario ( 1850s through WWII) are being sought by Tracy March (705 445-4811, 519 599-3819 orcm-chin@georgian.net) and Peter Watts (905 723-1703).

PEOPLE: Alan Frazer has retired as senior curatorofThe Mariners' Museum. (TMM, 100 Museum Drive, Newport News VA 46

AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE MUSEUM NEWS The American Merchant Marine Museum in Kings Point NY exhibited "Black Mariners: A Look at African-American Seafarers Since Colonial Times" in February and March, to recognize the contributions African-Americans have made to America's maritime heritage.

The exhibit began with an examination of the role of African-Americans in the whaling industry. Harsh working conditions and long voyages made whaling unpopular among most seafarers. For this reason it offered employment to the poorest members of society. African-Americans found in whaling not only work, but also a degree of respect.

As that industry declined in the late 1800s, black seamen worked on fishing craft, riverboats and small coastal cargo ships. However, on deep-sea merchantmen, there were few jobs for blacks other than in the steward's department.

Capt. Hugh Mulzac was born in the British West Indies and sailed on British vessels during World War I, earning a master's license. He became an American citizen in 1918, but when he tried to work on US-flag vessels, he found that the only employment was as a shipboard cook. He spent the next 20 years in the steward ' s department.

World War II created an urgent need for merchant seafarers, providing Mulzac and other African-American sailors with new opportunities.

Mulzac became the first African-American to command a major US merchant vessels when he was given the Liberty ship Booker T. Washington.

Captain Hugh L. Mulzac Today, many African-Americans sail aboard US merchant ships as seamen and officers and serve America's maritime industry ashore. The exhibit was well received and visitors expressed a new appreciation for the rich chronicle of African-Americans at sea.

-MARTIN P. SKROCKI AMMM , US Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point NY 11024; 516 773-5515.

23606; 757 596-2222) ... Christine Randall has been named head curator of the Door County Maritime Museum .

(DCMM, PO Box 246, Sturgeon Bay WI 54235; 414 743-5958) ... The United Seamen 's Service presented the Admiral of the Ocean Sea Awards (AOTOS) to Vice Admiral AlbertJ. Herberger, administrator of the Maritime Administration (MarAd), and C. Bradley Mulholland, president and CEO of Matson Navigation Company, Inc. (USS, One World Trade Center, Suite216l , NewYorkNY10048 ; 212 775-1262) ... Robert A. Guthans, presidentofMidstream Fuel Service, Inc., Petroleum Products, Co. and Tenn-Tom Towing Co., received the National Rivers Hall of Fame Achievement Award in October. (NRHF, PO Box 266, Dubuque IA 52004-0266; 319 583-124 l) INVENI PORTAM Harry C. Allendorfer, Jr. Captain Harry Allendorfer ( 1919-1997), former maritime preservation director for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, died on 15 February. Graduating from the US Naval Academy in 1941, he went to sea immediately in convoy escort duty on the vital North Atlantic run. He

went on to serve in the Korea and Vietnam conflicts before retiring in 1972. In 1977 he joined the National Trust to administer their newly formed maritime division.

Admiral Thomas Patterson, who led the long campaign to save the Liberty ship Jeremiah O' Brien, and subsequently steam her to Europe for the D-Day observances in 1994, says in a letter printed in this issue of Sea History: "We couldn't have done it without this great commander who had been in harm 's way himself." PS Joseph P. DeMuccio Joe DeMuccio (1945-1997) , a retired New York detective who founded the Tugboat Enthusiasts Society, died suddenly in January. A graduate of the New York Institute of Technology , he served in the US Navy and Coast Guard. Although he never worked aboard tugs himself, his love for the vessels and his dedication to the industry Jed him to create TES, which now has 1,000 members and publishes the quarterly journal Tug Bitts. Joe is survived by his wife Lorraine and five children, Suzanne, Donna, Michael , Denise and Annali sa.

Lorraiine wil l continue Joe ' s work with the Ttugboat Enthusiasts Society . .t

SEA HISTOffi.Y 81 , SPRING/SUMMER 1997

CALENDAR Festivals, Events, Lectures, Etc. • 3 1 May, Ship Model Extravaganza (In dependence Seaport Museum , 2 1 I South Columbus Bou levard , Philade lphi a PA 19 106-3 199; 2 15 -925-5439) • 8 June, Kids ' Maritime Festival (Lake Champ lai n Mar itime Museum , RR #3 , Box 4092, Vergennes VT0549 l; 802475-2022) • 20-22 Jun e, Scrim shaw Coll ectors' Weekend (Kendall Whaling Museum , 27 Everett Street, PO Box 297, Sharon MA 02067; 6 17 784-5642) • July,S ummerYouthSea Ca mp (Wooden Boat Fo und ation, 380 Jefferson Street, Port Townsend WA 98368; 360 385-3628) • 4-6 Jul y , 21st Annual Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival (The Ce nter for Wooden Boats, I0 10 Val ley Street, Seattle WA 98109; 206 382-2628) • 5-6 Jul y, Lake Champlain Small Boat Show (Lake Champ lain Maritime Museum, see address above) • 12- 13 Jul y, 15th Annua l Boston An tique & Classic Boat Festiva l (BACBF, 16 Preston Road, Somervi lle MA 02143; 6 17 666-8530) • 13-15 June, 10th Annual Antique & Classic Boat Festival (Chesa pea ke Bay Maritime Muse um, PO Box 636, M ill St. , St. Michaels MD 2 1663; 410 745-29 16) • 20 Jul y, Sea C hantey Festival (San Di ego Maritim e Museum , 1306 N. Harbor Dr. , San Diego CA 92 10 I; 6 19 234-9 153) • 26-27 Jul y, S mall C raft Regatta (San Francisco Maritim e Nati onal Hi storical Park , PO Box 4703 10, San Francisco CA 94 147; 4 15 929-0202) • 29-3 1Augus t, 20th Annual C lassic Boat Festival (Victoria Rea l Estate Boa rd, 3035 Nanaimo Street, Victoria BC V8T 4W2 ; 250 385-7766, FAX: 250 385-8773) • 5-7 September, 21st Ann ua l Wooden Boat Festival (Wooden Boat Foundation, see address above) • 11 - 14 September, Newport International Boat Show (New port Exhibiti on Group, PO Box 698, 366 Thames Stree, Newport RI 02840; 40 I 848-70 I 0, FAX: 401 847-0560) • 13- 14 September, Festival of the Sea 1997 (San Francisco Maritim e Nationa l Hi storical Park , see add ress above) • 13 September, Traditional Boat Festival (Chesapeake Bay Maritime Mu seum , see address above)

Conferences • I l- 16 June, Cabot and His World Symposium (The John Cabot 500th Anniversruy Corporation, PO Box 1997, St. John ' s Newfo undl and A IC 5R4; 709 579-1997; Dr. Jam es K. Hiller, Dept. of Hi story, Memorial Uni ve rs it y of Newfoundl and , St. John 's, Newfo undland A IC 5S7 ; 709 7378435, FAX : 709 737-2 164) • 14- 17 August, Society of the History of Discoveries Annual Meeting in St. John 's, Newfo undl and (SHD, Secretary, 6300 Waterway Drive, Falls Ch urch VA 22044)

• 2- 14 September, " Summit of the Sea,'' (Dave Finn , John Cabot 500th Anniversary Corporati on, PO Box 1997, Crosbie Bldg. , I Crosbie Place, St. John ' s NF A IC 5R4; 709 579-1997 ; FAX: 709 579-2067) • 3-5September, 1997 International Congress of Maritime Museums Conference (Western Australi an Maritime Muse um , C liff Street, Fremantle, Western Austra lia 6 160, Austra lia; 09 43 1-8456) • 7-9 September, "G lobal Markets: The Internationalization of the Sea Transport Industries since 1850,'' International Maritime Economic History Association, Piraeus, Greece(Dr. David J. Starkey, Dept. of Hi story, Un iv. of Hull , Hull HU 6 7RX , UK 1482-465624; FAX: 1482-466 126) • 24-27 September 1997 ,Sth Internationa l Symposium on Boat and S hip Archaeo logy , (Dr. Jerzy Litwin , Secretariat IS BSA 8, Ce ntralne Mu zeum Morski e, ul. Szeroka 67/68 , 80-835 Gdansk, Poland ; FAX: (4858) 3 1-8 4-53) • 2-4 October, Ann ual Meeting of the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History at the Marine Museum of the Upper Great Lakes in Toronto (AGLMH , PO Box 7365 , Bowling G reen OH 43402) • 9- 1 I October, History and Historical Archaeology of the Gu lf Coast (Danie l E. Mille r, Dept. of History, Uni versity of West Florida , Pensaco la FL 32512 ; 904 4742067 , FAX: 904 857-60 15) • 24-28 November, 4th Symposium of lberoamerican Nava l and Maritime History , Span ish Navy Institute of Nava l Hi sto ry (Jose Cervera Pery, Secretar io Coo rdinador, IV Simposiode Hi stori a Maritima y Nava l lberoameri ca na, Ju an de Mena I, 2807 1 Madrid , Spain ; FAX : 37 95 250, ema il : thal assa@amauta.rcp.net.pe)

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Exhibitions • 18 March- 17 August, "Henry Dreyfuss Directing Design" (Cooper-Hew itt Nati onal Des ign Museum , 2 East 9 1st Stree, New York NY I 01 28-0669; 212 860-6894) • 24 March-2 1 Septembe r, Cook a nd the Endeavour (Na ti onal Maritime Museum , Greenwi ch, London SEIO 9NF UK; 18 1858 4422) • 3 Ap ril -28 December, Wrecks & Rescues: The History of the US Life Saving Service (Independ ence Seaport Museum , 2 1 I South Columbus Boulevard, Phil ade lphia PA 19 106-3 199; 2 15 925 -5439) • from 18 Apri l, T. R.'s Navy, The Foundations of the Modern US Fleet, 1883-1913 (Naval War Coll ege Muse um , Coasters Harbor Island, Newport RI ; 40 I 84 1-4052) • 18 April-Novembe r, ew Bedford: From Whaling Port to Whaling National Park (New Bedford Whalin g Muse um , 18 Johnny Cake Hill , New Bedford MA 027406398; 508 997-0046) • from 20 June, The Weapons of War (The Mariners ' Museum , 100 Museum Drive, Newport News VA 23606-3759; 757 596-2222)

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Maritime History, Volume 2: The Eighteenth Century and The Classic AgeofSail , edited by John B. Hattendorf (Kre iger Publi shing Company , Mal aba r FL, 1997, 304pp, illus, index , ISBN 089464-944-2; $26.50pb) This fin e volume records the work resulting from the Summer Institute in Early Modern Maritime Hi story at the John Carter Brown Library in 1993. It matches the hi gh level of hi storiography establi shed by the preceding volume in the series , Th e Age of Discovery ( 1996).

In thi s in stallment the authors ex plore four topics: the Second Age of Di scovery in the Pacifi c; the Science and Practice of Navi gation ; the Strugg le for Empire and the Maritime Legacy of Empire.

The first papers take up the remarkabl y slow exp loitation of new discoveries once Spain reached South America and went out into the Pac ific. For example, there were few voyages aro und Cape Horn until George Anson ' s frightful expedition in the earl y 1740s. In the late 18th century , the standard for wo rld voyaging was set in the Pacific by Captain James Cook.

Exce llent material on the naval ex peri ence is contrihuted hy British scholars . A. M. Rodger and R. J. B. Kni ght.

The period under di scuss ion ends with the Napoleonic Wars and Great Britain ' s establishment of undi sputed and indisputable mastery of the seas. With 50 percent of the world ' s warships under the ir command, they established freedom of the seas wherever the water was deep enough to float a British 74. This Pax Britannica played a vita l ro le in opening our ocean world .

PETER STA FORD

Tall Ships-An International Guide,

by Thad Ko za (Tide-Mark Press, East Hartford CT, I 76pp , illus. g loss, biblio, index, ISBN 1-55949-313-5 ; $39.95hc) This lush, pictorial volume is full of pulse-quickening sa iling ship images, featuring the most prominent sail training vesse ls pl y in g the seas today. As testimony to the ardor of the author ' s pursuit, a ll but four of the 170 im ages in the book are hi s own. A peripatetic ship chroni cler who haunts the sea festivals and shipya rds of orth America ' s coastline, Koza is a frequent participant in the annual C utty Sark Tall Ships ' Races in Europe and other international events.

In variabl y he comes away with excepti onal sea- leve l images.

For each of the 150 ships covered ,

Ko za has included a brief hi story that often observes a salient detail or hi ghli ghts an interesting event. Each has a co lor portrait and some have a second inset picture of a compelling ship feature, such as the triple ship 's wheel of Portuga l' s Sag res II , the weathered bell on Chil e 's Esmeralda, or the golden haired fema le fi gurehead gracing the bow of Denmark 's Kaskelot.

Readers are not left to contemplate the beauty of the ships in iso lation .

Pamela Wuerth , executi ve director of the American Sail T ra ining Association, writes persuasively in her foreword abo ut the modern-day role and attraction of sa il training. Koza then provides details on the types of tall ships sai ling today , the ir owners and operators , who sa il s aboa rd them, and occasions when they can be seen together, rac ing or rallying.

When perusing guides of thi s sort, there will always be questions abo ut the se lection of vessels. It is imposs ibl e to inc lude every ship with a sail training program and the occasional mi ssing comrade does not detrac t from the va lue of the vo lume. Tall Ships is a vi sual treat and its concise text and essays offer in sight into the unique and important place these beautifully-crafted ex pressions of human industry and endeavor occupy in the maritime world.

K EV IN H A YOON

The Golden Rock: An Episode of the American War of Independence , by Ronald Hurst ( ava l In stitute Press, Annapolis MD , 1996, 280pp, illu s, index , ISBN 1-55750-338-9; $29.95hc) A small Caribbean island- the pri zed Go lden Rock of St. Eustatiu s -i the foca l po int of thi s extraordinari ly well written and well researched volume. The Dutch entrepot was the richest trading center of the Caribbean . When , on 16 November 1776, the commande r of the port 's battery acknowledged the arriva l of a ship with an unknown flag-the American standard- St. Eustatius became the first foreign territory to officiall y recogni ze the new nati on. The c iti zens of the island conducted a flourishing business sell ing munition s and other badl y needed supplies to the re bels.

At war with their co lonies across the Atlantic and the two major Continental powers at home (France and Spain), the British government declared war again st the Dutch in 1780, in part to stop thi s flow of war supplies to their rebelliou s co lonies. The tran sA tlantic confli ct had

SEA HISTORY 81 , SPRING/SUMMER 1997

already made a war zo ne of the Eastern Caribbean. St. Eustatius had no t bee n unaffec ted, and when , o n 3 February 178 l , the British fl eet came to stop its commerce with the co lo ni es, the is land surrende red w ith on ly token res is ta nce.

The be hav ior of the two Briti s h commande rs, Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney and Major-General Sir John Vaughan , was atrocio us, and muc h condemned at the time. One hundred fifty merchantme n in the harbor were sei zed and shops and store houses we re taken over by the mi litary- no stone was left unturned in the seiz ure of money and goods from companies and individuals.

Residents were thrown out of their homes without reso urces and treated bruta ll y; me rchants a nd others we re deported.

Rodney m ade it clear that hi s inte nti ons were to " bring the Nest of Vi ll a in s to cond ig n Punishm e nt : they deserv e scourging and they sha ll be scourged."

Hurst de lves into th e hi sto ry of Rodney and Va ughn to see just what led them to these brutaliti es, and in doing so sheds a fasc inating li ght on hum a n greed in a troubl ed era.

PS

small e r yet mo re powe rful and e lectronicengine contro ls are becoming common. In the whee lhouse, new e lectronic dev ices fo r nav igati o n and communi cati ons sprout all over.

ButOPA 90 , the Oil Po llu tion Ac t of 1990, and its re percuss ions now dri ve the o rth American tug boat scene. It requires, amo ng other things , that tugs be ab le to contro l o r stop errant tanke rs under stri1igen t wea th e r co ndit io ns.

Many believed that ex isting tugscouldn ' t sati sfy these requirements, and so tug operators, unable to prove othe rwise, re luctantl y ordered new tugs equipped with exoti c and ex pens ive new drives.

Crews loved the new boats. They were fun to drive and they could do things no " normal " tug could do (like move s ideways). Suddenly, it became the no rm to have one-if yo u didn ' t have time to build , charter o ne. The tug- bu il d in g frenzy was o n, and it stil l is.

Gaston writes clean prose, fi ll ed w ith facts, and the book 's 100 photos, man y in co lor, and diagrams sho w the wide range of tugboat types aro und the wo rld and ho w they wo rk.

HUGH W A RE

Tugs Today: Modern Vessels and Towing Techniques, by M. J. Gaston (Patrick Stephens Limited , Somerset, England , 1996, 200pp , illus, index , ISB N 1-85260-52 1-9; $29 .95hc) A va i!abl e from Motorbooks Inte rnational, PO Box I , Osceo la WI 54020; 1-800-826-6600 A surpri sing numbe r of landlubbe rs are intri g ued by tugboats, as are most of us who venture on the seas, work near them , or s impl y love salt water. Tugs are toug h, jaunty, honest and powerful. But what is the tugboat wo rld all about?

T he a uthor offe rs us good answers in thi s, hi s second survey of the tugboat world. T he first, publi shed o nl y fiv e years ago , is now obsolete beca use towing industry technol ogy is c hang ing fast.

Change used to come s low ly in the tugboat world--coa l and steam e ng ines re luctantly gave way to fuel oi l and diese ls, mani la ropes we re re placed by sy ntheti c lines, murmurs into a radio eliminated whi stl e sig nals and sw ings by the di spatche r's office fo r orders.

Changes happen faste r now. Sy nthe ti c lines are being replaced by newer synthe tics, some te n times as strong as steel , pound for pound. Today 's dock ing lines are surpri singly s li m; c rews on some freig hte rs wo nde r why the " messenger" line they just pulled up from a tug is not fo ll owed by a bu lky hawse r. Eng in es are

Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts Night Boat on the Potomac: A History of the Norfolk and Washington Steamboat Compan y , by Harry Jones and Timothy Jones (The Steamship Hi storica l Society of America, Inc. , Provide nce RI , 1996, I 17pp, il lus, appe n, index , ISBN 0-91 3423-08-4; $38 hc) Much of the exci te ment and romance of my grow ing up years was deri ved from trips aboard the large white steamers of the Norfolk a nd Washington Steamboat Company. But even though I knew the steamboats intimate ly from the fre ight deck to the pilot ho use-the minusc ule stateroom s w ith the arom a of Ivo ry soap, the c hambe r pots unde r the lower be rth , the e legant furni shing in the sa loons a nd din in g hall s, the de lic iou s foo d and the friend liness of the captain and c rew- I had little or no know ledge abo ut the hi story of these magnifice nt boats.

No t so for the late Harry Jones, who spe nt a li fet ime amass ing the materi al for thi s book . With hi s g randson Timoth y, he presents a re marka bl e a nd com pre he nsive hi story of the steamboat era alo ng the Potom ac, beg inning with the Washington, the first steamboat to operate on the ,..ive r. Built in ew York in 18 13 by Charles Brownne, who had also bui lt Clermont, the steamer Washington

SEA HISTORY 8 1, SPR ING /SU MMER 1997

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REVIEWS was the first commerc ially successful steamboat and her construction was supervi sed by Robert Fulton him self. The chronicle continues through the steamer era to the demi se of one of the most popular of the Potomac steamboats when the District of Columbia burned and sank in Baltimore's Curtis Bay in 197 1.

Between the Washington and the District of Columbia, Jones covers the Potomac River predecessors of the Norfolk and W as hington Steamboat Company, that compan y's founding in 1890, and th.e years of service its vessels gave through the mid-20th century. No boat, collision, fire or storm is left untold in this fascinating account of the night boats that plied the Potomac River for 168 years. The story is enhanced by nearl y 100 excel lent photographs of the vessels in their heyday and their demi se.

Those who remember those days and others not fortunate enough to have sailed aboard the o ld steamers have a great experience in store forthem. Harry Jones, hi s grandson Timothy and the editors have accomplished a noteworth y feat.

The book is a we ll written , striking hi s. tory of a bygone day . It is definite ly for those who love maritime hi story.

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Royal Oak , Maryland War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II, by Nathan Miller (Oxford Uni versity Press, New York NY and Oxford UK, 1996, 592pp, illus, appen, notes, biblio , index, ISBN 0-19-511038-2; $ 17.95pb) Thi s excellent naval hi story of WWII proves that it hasn ' t all been said . Mill er shows in dramatic and convinc ing detail how utterly de pendent the Allies were on the passage of armies, muniti ons and food across the sea to support the battles against Axis powers from Europe to Africa to China. And he does thi s with a remarkable ability to recapture the terrible realities of the contest at sea.

I do disagree with the author ' s belief that the basic problem leading to the devastating shipping losses in the Atlantic in the first six month s of the war was a shortage of escorts. The fact is that the US Navy, with an eye on the Japanese fleet, refu sed to recogni ze the all-important Atlantic suppl y line. First-class destroye rs sw ung at anchor in the Chesapeake guarding the Atlantic fl eet, and older destroyers , quite adequate for convoy escort, were taken out of service in these critical month s for conve rsion to 50

fast transports for future use in the Pacific . In spite of the navy's declared lack o f escorts, Admiral King suddenl y made vessels available in June 1942, before any newl y ordered ships were completed.

Aside from thi s arguable flaw , the book is remarkably ali ve and brings out in dramati c re li ef the problems that confronted commande rs at sea on both sides in this conflict to dominate the world ' s oceans. And Mi I!er i11 ustrates these problems with vivid on-deck reporting, drawing on the ex periences of the men who were there.

PS Liverpool Buttons & Homeward Bound Stitches: Portrait of a Master Mariner,

by Ottmar Friz (Cypress House, Fort Bragg CA, 1993 , 297 pp, illus, appen, ISBN 1-879384-22- 1; $ 19 .95hc) Thi s lovely little book travels the world wi th Capt. Ottmar " Harry" Fri z.

From a start in German Cape Homers and Pacific lumber schooners, to coastal steamers and passenger liners, tankers, and the Army Transport Service in WWII , it is a fasc inating and fast-moving tale of challenges met- a life in the battle and the breeze. Friz is one of the seamen w ho made a deep impress ion on NMHS Founder Karl Kortum (w ho wrote the Foreword) and whose story made up a v ital part of Kortum 's understanding of the men and trades he mePS moriali zed in hi s life's wo rk.

Pirates: Terror on the High Seas from the Caribbean to the South China Sea, edited by Dav id Cordingly (Turner Publi shing, Inc., Atlanta GA, 1996, 256pp, illus, biblio, g loss, notes , index, ISBN 1-57036-285-8; $29.95 hc) Festooned with i11 ustrations, drawings, maps, cartoons, and photographs, this elegantly produced volume delineates the hi story of piracy from Phoenic ianRoman times to present-day dangers in the Indonesian archipe lago. Defined by Admiralty Law as those "who rob and plunder on the sea," pirates had as many variants as ships had ri gs-bri gands, corsairs, buccaneers, rogues , and shepirates. Most shared an attitude of be ing defiant, anti-authoritarian , cy nica l, vic ious, violent, and have he ld a strange romantic fasc ination over the decades.

The lure of treasure attracted such people to the fringes of commercia l sealanes. Whether it was to prey on the Spanish convoys carrying ew World silver and go ld or the cargoes of spices and jewels from the Near East, or con-

tainers of ill egal drugs in the Caribbean or China Seas, these bands of outl aws we re unifo rm in their code of vio lence and camaraderi e . From 15th-century "snaphance pi stols" to the Kalas hnikovs and AK-47s of the 20th century, these outl aws carry state-of-the-art weaponry and the most modern adaptati ons of traditi onal seacraft to enforce their calling.

For thi s volume, David Cord ing ly, the organi zer of a spectacu larly popular exh ibition on piracy atthe ational Maritime Museum in E ng land, assembl ed a panel of speciali sts and hi storians. Ten essays provide an overv iew and detailed d iscussions of the range and quotidian life of the pirate. Th is vo lume portrays Francis L'Olonnois , Henry Morgan , Edwa rd Teach aka Blackbeard, and A nn Bonny in word and illu stration, for better or worse, in triumph and disgrace.

THAD KOZA

Wickford , Rhode Island Wolf: U-Boat Commanders in World War II, by Jordan Vause (Nava l Institute Press, A nnapoli s MD , 1997, 272pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISB N 1-55750874-7; $28.95 hc) Wolfpack: U-Boats at War, 19391945, by Philip Kaplan and Jack Currie ( ava l In stitute Press , Annapoli s MD, 1997, 240pp , illus , gloss, biblio, index , ISBN 1-55750-855-0; $34.95hc) Th is double offering provides readers with new views of these most fea red weapons of WWII. The first draws upon documentary ev idence and persona l interviews and correspondence to examine the lives of the men who commanded U-boats. We re they wo lves or " knights of the deep"? The search through hitherto unexam ined sources offers fres h perspectives on the answer.

Wo/fiJack serves primarily as a visua l record of the men and submarines that devastated the oceans during WWII , and were devastated in their turn (27,49 1 of the 39,000 c rew and 754 of the 863 Uboats that went out on missions we re lost). The writing is somewhat loose and journali stic in style, but the photographs , pai ntings and other graphics are dramati c, emotional, highly detailed and always fascinating.

JA

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SEA HISTORY' 8 1, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS raphy, a Renaissance American testifies as to the tumultuous events of his working life, from the Battle ofBritain through the Kennedy assassination, Cold War tensions , the Reagan years, down to the present, when he finds America and the cause of freedom ill-served by a public press increasingly fixated on a lowestcommon-denominator approach to news reporting. It is a mark of Cronkite's extraordinary range of interests that he says little of the maritime world in which he has been both a yachtsman and a leader in historic preservation and education. His dedication to high journalistic standards shines through every page of this frank account of contact with presidents and doughboys, Londoners dodging German bombs. and media executives sometimes upholding the traditions of the free press- and sometimes not. He is rigorous in the standards he applies.

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SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

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51

ENLIST

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DESSERT:

The Cruise of the Conrad: The Road Home b y Alan Villiers In I 934, after fifteen years in square rig, the A ustralian seaman Alan Villiers bought the Little full-rigged ship Joseph Conrad, ex-Georg Stage, and sailed her from England round the world and back with thirty "schoolboys, sailors and Landsmen" in crew. Here, near the end of the voyage, the ship and crew battle Cape Hom in The Cruise of the Conrad, a classic of sea narratives. (Punctuation is the author's.)

W

e were two weeks o ut before the first sto nn bl ew day li g ht nex t mo ming, just before nine, a brief lull tempted me and the n it was a mild o ne -hard fro m the nor'ard to g ive he r the reefed fo res ' I, fo r thi s was fin e fa ir wind and in first with rain a nd the g lass fa lling (abo ut twelve the g reat sea he r speed had dro pped a little. But the lull was ho urs of thi s), and the n with a sli g ht li f t of the g lass, the jump illusory, and I could no t keep the new sa il set ha lf a n ho ur; it to south -southwest. One has to wa tc h these jumps c lose ly so came in aga in w itho ut damage . A ll hand s had lo ng g rown that they do not catc h the ship by the lee; but in the So uth expert at the handling of reca lc itra nt square sail even unde r the Pac ific it is usua ll y poss ibl e to see w he n they are coming, if mos t dangero us conditi o ns. Noo n of that day-the third day o nl y w ith a fe w minutes' warnin g. T hi s is e no ug h. The re is a of the bl ow-broug ht freque nt v io le nt snow squa ll s blow ing hes ita nt lull , o r a heav ie r ra in , o r a n in stant 's cl earin g o f the fi e rce ly fro m the W SW , and the sea was now dangero usly so uthe rn sky: the n stand from unde r! With a g ust of v iol e nce hi g h. I took in the cl ose-reefed ma in to ps ' I and goose-w inged 2 th at shakes the ship and scares at o nce a ll the tumult from the the fo re, continuing to run unde r thi s minimum of canvas, with no rth w ind 's sea, the so uth ga le com es ! One becomes used to the fo re to pmas t staysa il to he lp the steerin g . But by six be ll s them after a while. After the wind has j um ped to the south , it in the afte rn oon the ga le was suc h that I began to think us ua ll y bl ows the s ky se ri o usly of the vulne rclear, and settles into a ab ility o f the decks, the comfo rtable steady ga le sky lig hts, w ith o pe n shi p from somewhere abo ut the be low ; th e weak, bi g so uth wes t-fa ir w in d, doo rs. If a sky li ght were a nd most he lpful to the stove in , it would be bad. vesse l 's p rog ress. But We had don e what we w ith o ur first ga le we had could to protec t the m, a hi gh breakin g sea and but they we re still wea kv io le nt squ a ll s of ha il , nesses; a nd the c ha rtand the parral 1 of the ma in house doors fitted i11 . The to ps' ! ya rd carri ed away . steel cha rth o use, a we lded j ob from Ipsw ic h, had T hi s the carpe nte r and hi s ga ng re pa ired eas il y; but not been very well made she was a n o ld ship , I a nd the doors could not knew, a nd she had been be stre ngthe ned. I had the boys to thin k of; I sa iling ha rd . I hope d that nothing e lse wo uld carry had to ge t ro un d th e Ho rn . I coul d ta ke no away; I had done the best undue c hances. I coul d I could ....

Alan Vi l!iers's sketch of the Josep h Conrad. ahout which he wrote: not stand havin g to take It was nearin g the e nd "The sweetness of her underwa /er hody was counting now , of Jul y whe n we had the a badl y damaged ship in and she still avoided the weigh! of the seas wi1h a grea/ cunning anyw he re, fo r re pa irs. g reat sto rm . It began to " in whose contrivance it seemed that man had no pa rt .

T hat wo uld be the e nd of pipe up fro m the SSW o n the Saturday , w he n we had been at sea twe nty-three days, and the voyage . I wished , o n the othe r hand , to make a ll the the g lass fe ll fo r three days. From noon Saturday to noon progress I coul d w hil e the wind was fa ir, because of the Sunday we ran 208 miles in a hi g h sea, w hic h was fa irly good probability of eas te rlies afte rwa rds, and because I wa nted, going fo r so sm a ll a vessel. T hro ug ho ut Sunday she ran o n nat ura ll y e no ug h, to be go ne fro m th ose cold latitudes as we ll in a hig h break ing sea with fre que nt lo ng, hard squa ll s q uick ly as poss ibl e.

But the re came a time whe n it was dangero us to run on. T he inc reas ing, w ith the earl y coming of the co ld ni ght, to a strong ga le before w hi ch we still ran unde r the cl ose-reefed fo re a nd g lass still dro pped . It became o bvio us th at, bad as it was, the ga le itse lf had not yet beg un , tho ugh the wind screamed in the ma in to ps' ls and the sto nn fo re to pmas t stays' !.

Thi s day we sailed ove r the pl ace whe re R ona ld W a lke r, ri gg ing. T he fi erce rolling had ca used the compass to sw ing aged twe nty-one, had been buri ed fro m the poo p of the ship v io le ntl y, and steerin g was di ffic ul t even by day. The fee ling Gr ace H anvar in 1929, afte r be in g kill ed at hi s work in the of the wind o n the ir faces was the he lm sme n's best g ui de; but ri gg ing . I fl e w the A ustrali a n e ns ig n at ha lf- mast in h is by ni g ht thi s is poor substitute fo r a compass. T ho ugh she still memory. T hi s day too we saw a strange and beautiful w hite ra n we ll in the great seas, she was c learin g the ir ever-ri s ing bird which was not an a lbatross; we had no ne of us seen a sea c rests w ith less and less marg in . Sea afte r sea thundered at he r, broke in a wild e rupti o n of spray and sp ume and m urderous bi rd o f thi s kind before, and did no t kn ow w hat it was.

T he ni ght brought sleet and snow a nd g reate r w ind . Abo ut no ise, and thunde red by : she was foa m-covered to the trucks.

T he wet dome of the sky sat heavy o n the mast-heads, never 1 More often parre/; the ro pe, chain or, in thi s case, iron col lar which keeps liftin g to g ive any li ght beyond a gray, wintry g loom : now a yard or gaff again st the mast but allows it to be hoisted and lowered. ni g ht was coming dow n.

2 When the clew of a squaresa il is haul ed up and lashed to the ya rd.

SEA HISTORY 8 1, SPRING /SU MM ER 1997

53

This photo. sent to us years ago hy Alan Villi ers. is inscribed 011 the hack : ;<My ship Joseph Conrad as I had her when sailing round the world . 1934-35-36."

I put out oil 3 , and ran on: but thi s was dangerous . I thought again of the vulnerability of the decks, of all the li ves entru sted to my care: should I still run ? But if l hove-to, l should drift in the valley of the sea on my way. The headlong ru sh wou ld cease; no more would the brave ship run down a degree of long itude every four-hour watc h, but I should still drift quietly on, a nd I could li e the re in safety, putting out o il. . . . ow the hail squall s close in , and ni ght is coming down . ... I have taken in the clew of the fore tops ' I and she runs on under the stays' I alone, a rag of wind-stiffened sea-soaked canvas bellied at the bow. The boiling of the foam flyin g by reeks of murder. .. .

The mizze n stays' ! is set, a small sail of stout canvas , to keep her head up when she comes to ; I take the wheel , and wait for what smooth , what c hance may come. It is the very last of the day li g ht. The ya rds whic h have been squared are braced full-and-by ;4 the re is no w no sa il o n the m. Off the deck! Off the dec k, now! The sa ilors crowd in unde r the foes'! head, the only she lte red place. l wa it: even w ith only these two rags of stays' Is on her she runs e ig ht knots. l f she comes up to the sea at that speed and runs into a wall of breakin g wate r, God he lp us all. The oil bags are out- have been out a long time: they help, but nothing can stop a rea l breaking Cape Horn sea if a ship swings into it with speed. The safety of lying-to li es in the fact that the ship the n yields; she g ives; she does not fi ght for headway. She li es in the troug h of the sea with her shoulder to the breaking water, like a n albatross asleep with its head beneath its wing , drifting and yie lding . .. . A viciou s ha il squall had just passed ; the re came a smooth in the wake of a g iant sea tha t, pass ing unde r us, had flun g us hig h and ro lled the ship as if it had bee n shaking a sw imming dog. Thi s was 3 Oil lea ked from a canvas bag to make an oil slick on the water: used to di scourage break in g seas.

4 With th e ya rds braced round as if close haul ed.

54

the cha nce I awaited . Down he lm! I forced the wheel down and she came; the wake subsided and the foam was not now streaking past. A t the same mome nt, whi le we still had way, I saw the g reat sea ri se to wind 'ard- the g reat sea, the murdering one: a greater sea tha n any which had roared by that day. I had not been able to see it before; it had swept down savage ly out of the murk a nd the chaos. I cou ld not see far.

Nothing now , but to fi g ht it o ut. Break, the n, yo u bastard sea!

See if yo u can smash us! It seemed to me at the whee l th at I co uld feel the ship stiffen for the meeting, summon up all the reserves of he r great hull 's strength to take this shuddering bl ow. It wo uld be bad ; I knew. She knew ....

The sea came, flin gi ng the o il bags contemptuo usly back inboard before it, snarling and roarin g, hi gh above the weathe r rail. An instant it hung there, a nd I co uld see the g lint of ev il in the foam-streaked gree n water. The n it broke o n board. It might very we ll have been the end of us. But the littl e ship omehow avoided the worst of its force. We had take n on ly a g la nc ing blow. It filled the deck s, and stormed aft; it swept over me at the wheel; it drove over the sa loon sky li ght, over everything. Would she lift aga in ? Would ano ther come, whil e the weig ht of the first still he ld he r down ? She began ve ry slowl y to lift, to free herse lf thro ug h the was h ports of the sea ' s dangero us load. Her way was gone now. She shed the water, in a lo ng, long time-or so it seemed- and afterwards no mo re came. The sky li g hts had he ld . There was no water down be low. We were in the troug h now , and so lay in safety th at long, wild ni g ht.

In the morning we saw that the starboard boat was badly stove in where the sea had lifted it on the chocks, as if the stout ma nil a las hings had been cotton, and had cast it aside. Both li g ht brackets were gone; a door of the fo r'ard house (fortu nate ly one of slig ht impo rta n ce, which gave e ntrance to the SEA HISTORY 8 1, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

The sea came,flinging the oil bags contemptuously back inboard before it, snarling and roaring, high above the weather rail. lamp-trimmer's small room) was smashed to splinters, and the sea ran in and out among the lamps; and-worst of all-the fore topmast head was badly sprung from inherent weakness which the storm had brought out. The mast was so badly sprung that the topgallant yard and mast had to come down .

I lay hove-to for twenty hours. It was the worst weather of the whole voyage. It was noon the next day-the Tuesdaybefore I dared put up the helm, though the wind all this time had been fair. The conditions had eased a little then, and I ran on under the close-reefed main tops ' land fore topmast stays 'l, and still put out oil. In this wild weather the fore topgallant mast was taken down, and preventer stays of iron wire were spliced and set up to the topmast head underneath the place where it was sprung; a new fore topmast stay had also to be set up, of iron wire, double. This was a difficult rigging job to do in those conditions, but all hands worked through until it was done. By that time the weather had moderated considerably, and I was able to set good running sail. The loss of the fore topgallant mast and the weakening of the headstays was a serious blow, upsetting as it did the sailing balance of the ship (particularly for windward working). I had to be more careful now than ever, but we sailed from the scene of the accidentsome 2000 miles westward of Cape Hom-to the end of the voyage without that mast. ...

We made good progress. There was not again occasion to consider heaving to. In one week we ran 1,348 miles-from Wednesday, July 29 to Tuesday, August 4. This was an average speed of eight knots for the seven days-not bad for a ship only 100 feet on the waterline, partially dismasted , pretty old, and long in tropic waters with her iron hull gathering the long grass ....

We saw nothing of Cape Hom. The day was gloomy and all overcast, with strong wind, and I had no observations. I had meant, if I could, to have a look at Diego Ramirez, 5 to check the rating of the chronometer; but I could not risk it. We saw nothing but one piece of kelp, a large piece drifting by, and the obvious ground swell of graying soundings by the Ramirez bank-a swell that stayed all day and was then gone as suddenly as it came, with both its coming and its going as noticeable as name boards on a street. We must have passed pretty close to get on the bank; we ran too fast to take soundings, and I would not stop. We were probably within five miles of Diego Ramirez; we could only see one mile, most of the day.

So we came round, and the next day being clear, saw Staten Island and all the wild snow-covered hills of Tierra del Fuego, and the tide-swept bi:eak of the Straits of le Maire. The boys were splendid. True, they had heard so much of Cape Horn 's bitterness that, now we were round, they were almost disappointed. What, only one hurricane? Only one lost mast, one stove boat? ... They were good boys. What had I as a crew?

A small group of grain ship sailors, aged from nineteen to twenty-one, "veterans" of perhaps two previous Cape Horn roundings: and a handful of British schoolboys from England and the Dominions .... And I thought, as I looked round me at the youthful crew, that there are guts and red blood still in youth, sti ll in England.

I looked back now at Staten Island , with the Horn behind, and I hoped to God I should come that way no more in sail. I had hoped that before, perhaps even more fervently on at least

two occasions: yet here 1 was again. And 1 made no promises and took no oaths, for I knew well that my life, such as it is , is too bound up in these ships for me to make forecasts. If the ships bring me here again I suppose I shall come. But I hope not.

Postcript The eve!JtS ofthis chapter took place in late July 1936, three months before the voyage ended in New York on 16 October.

A month later the vessel was sold to Huntington Hartford.

Jn his Epilogue Alan Villiers writes: "1 remember her now as she lay there ... and there was such grace and steadfastness and loyalty about that old hull and those tapering spars and all the beauty and sea-kindliness of her as may never be built into a sailing-ship again. The day ofall such ships is ended-all such ships and all such crews. It is unlikely that a crew such as I had will ever again be assembled to circumnavigate a square-rigged ship under the British flag."

How happy Alan was to be wrong on this matter! He lived to visit his "brave little ship" safely berthed at the Mystic Seaport Museum, to see the resurgence of sail training in his lifetime, and to witness and assist several maritime endeavors, including the South Street Seaport Museum in New York. NS The Joseph Conrad at Mystic Seaport Mus eum , still trains youth in the disciplines o.f teamwork and is a living reminder of all the brave men and boys who went to sea in the age of sail. Photo by Claire L. White, Mystic Seaport

5 A small barren island about 70 miles southwest of Cape Horn.

SEA HISTORY 81, SPRING/SUMMER 1997

55

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D AV ID B. VI ETOR

F.

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FR AN KO. B RAYNARD

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CH ARLES A. R OBERTSON

M RS. ARTHUR J . S ANTRY,

H OWARD SLOTNICK

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B AILEY SMITH

D ANIEL K. THORNE FOUNDATION , INC.

H ENRY PE N W ENGER

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W ESTCHESTER R ESCO

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M R. & MR S. ELLI CE M c D ONALD,

H UGH M. PI ERCE

MELBOURNE SMITH

SHANNON W ALL

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D R & MRS. D AVID H AYES

SCHUY LER M. M EYER,

S ALISBURY

R OBER T A. SJ NCERB EAUX

B RIAN D . W AKE

JEFFER SON

R ICHARDO R. L OPES

W ILLIAM A. PALM

NORMA & PETER STANFORD EDMUND A. STANLEY, JR. STATE COUNCIL ON W ATERWAYS JOHN STOB ART STOLT-NIELSEN, S.A. T EXACO I NC. LO UIS A. TR APP, JR.

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M AR INE SOCIETY OF NEW Y ORK

WI LLIAM R ICH. Ill

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MICH AEL D. SH EA

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H ON. JAMES J.Moo RE M ORMAC M AR INE TR ANSPO RT, I NC.

W ALTER H . PAGE

CRAIG A.

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LCDR R OBERT IR VING USN ( R ET.)

JAMES P. M ARENA KOS

D OUGLAS M USTER

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M URFEY, J R.

A LLEN G. B ERRIEN

TH E GR ACE F OUNDATION

CHARLES HINTZ

G ER HARD E. K URZ

R ALPH M. & D OROTHY PACKER, JR.

J . ARON CH AR ITABLE FouNDATION

JOHN

J AM ES E AN

LTCOL W ALTER E. JORGENSEN

M ATCH F ILM I NC.

MR. & M RS. ALBERT P RATT

L AUR 1I NCE S. R OCKEFELLER

R ALPH P. H ILL

PETER M AN IGAULT

MILFORD B OAT W ORKS

M R. & MR S. SPENCER

NORTON LI LLY I NTERNATIONAL

M ELVIN A. C ONANT

I NTERNATIONAL L ONGSHOREMEN'S A SSOCIATION

STEPHEN JOHNSON

C LAY M AITLAND

H OPE P. ANNAN

WIL LIAM S. B ARRAC K , J R.

PETER J . G OU LANDRIS

D R. CH ARLES E. H ERDENDORF

CHRI STOS N. K RITIKOS

M R. & MR S. J. WI LLIAM M IDDENDORF,

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M ARC S. COHN

TH OMAS G OCHBERG

MR. & MR S. A. D . H ULINGS

J AMES A. M ACDONALD F OUNDATION

RI CHARD

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MR S. IRVING M . JOHNSON

K EY B AN K OF N EW Y OR K

CoMMO. HENRY H. A NDER SON, JR.

ELEANOR B ALCH

H ENRY L. & GR ACE D OHERTY CH ARITABLE FOUN DATION

R OBERT E. G AMBEE

ELI ZABETH S. H OOPER FOUNDATION

W ARR EN M ARR ,

CH ARLES F. ADAMS

LEONARD J . B ALABAN

M EARL CoRPORATJO,

S AILORS' UNION OF THE PACIFIC

B ENGT STROMQU IST

D ,w1D A. O '

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A. H ERBERT S ANDWEN

D ANIEL R. S UKI S

D AV IS T AYLOR

D ONALD R. Y EARWOOD

PATRONS

JAMES D. AB ELES

C APT . J. H OLLIS B OWEH.

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W ILLIAM K. A BELES

R ICHARD H. B RANNON

NORM AN C ARATHANAS IS GEOR GE W . CARMA NY, Ill K AREN CRA NSTON

S EAN H. C UMM INGS

BERNARD D ONNELLY MICH AEL K . EMERY J. E. F RICKER,

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C DR. L ELAN D F. ESTES PATR ICK H . F ULMER

C APT. WI LLIAM H. H AM ILTON JOHN B. HIGHTOWER CAPT. PAUL J . JARVIS

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M AR INE SOCIETY OF B OSTON

H ARRY W. M ARSHALL

RADM THOMAS J. PA"ITERSON R AY R EMI CK

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T OP SHELF GR APHI CS THOM AS H. W YSMU LLER

PETER K NIFFIN

JOJ-JN M ECRAY

C APT . CLAUDE D . PH ILLIPS

PETER B JERRE POU LSE

CDR V 1CTOR B. STEVEN . JR.

R AYNER WEIR

TR ANSMAR B ROKERAGE, I NC.

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C APT. PETER L AHTI

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PI ER RE M ANIGAU LT

ELI ZA BETH M EYER

D AV ID A. O ESTREICH E RNESTA G. PROCOPE

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CLI FFOR D B. O ' H ARA M ARCOS JOHN PSA RR OS

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CH ARLIE J. V ADALA

T ED WI LLIAMS

D R. MICHAEL WI LSON

A LFRED T YLER,

C APT. RI CHARD G. WI LEY

R OBERT S. Y OUNG

Concordia Yawls for Charter Concordia 39 & 41 •Hood ' Tor' 36 Beautifully Restored Yachts For Bareboat Charter • Cape Cod & The Islands

NAVAL ARCHITECTS & MARINE ENGINEERS ~hip

ELI OT S. K NOWLES

B RUCE S wED JEN

GIBBS & COX rr-.:c famous

R OBERT J . H EWITT

C OL. G EORGE M. J AMES (RET)

JOSEPH & JEAN SAWTELLE

R OBERT G. STONE, JR.

C DR. E. A NDREWS W JLDE. JR.

R OBERT S. H AGGE , JR.

CLIFFORD D. M ALLORY

J ACQUES M EGROZ

SANZONE DI STR IBUTORS, I NC.

CH ARLES FR EEMAN, E so.

H. D ALE H EMMER DI NGER

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M ALCO LM DI CK

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B RUCE G ODLEY

G EORGE M. ! VEY .

R OBERT B. O ' BRI EN,

WILLI AM R . T OWER, II

A. D . W ARD

BR AD G LAZER

M.D.M AC PJJ ERSON !SH

JoH ' M. B UTLER

C OO K C APT . WI LLIAM B. COR NELL

M R. & M RS. W. W. FRAZIER, IV

JR.

S ANDY H OOK PILOTS. NY &NJ

FR ED N. SoRTWELL

R AYMOND E. W AL LACE

D R. W ALTER K LEINDIENST

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D OMIN IC A. D EL AURENTIS, MD

C APT. F RANK T. H AYDEN

L EO A. L OUBERE

STEPHAN IE B EG LEY

CRAIG B URT, JR.

MR. & MRS. STUART faJRENREICH

J AKOB I SBR ANDTSEN

JOYCE & H AR RY NELSON,

JORGEN PETERSEN

P. S. D EB EAU MONT

C APT . A. FoREL

H UDSON V ALLEY B ANK

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CA PT. J. S. B URROWS

LC DR B. A. GI LMORE, USN (RET)

NEILE. JONES

CAPT. G. M. M USICK

STAN D ASHEW

RI CHARD H. H AW KI NS

D AVID J . M c BRIDE

R OGER A. R UBIEN

K IMBALL S MITH

CARL W . TI MPSON . JR.

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B ENJAM IN D. B AXTER

COLTON & COMPANY C APT. J AMES

NEIL A. E HRENREICH

JOHN FI R> STAHL

GILLMER

C ALEB LORING. J R.

C APT . D. E. P ERK INS

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M RS. B ERNICE

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A NGUS

THOMAS

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RICHARD & PH YLLIS L AWYER R OBERT E . M ORR IS, J R.

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L UCY & F RANK D ARDEN

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M R. & MRS. CH ARLES HI LL

MICHAEL E. B AILEY

THE BR ESSLER FoUNDATION

L EVIN H . CAMPBELL G EORGE F. CLEME TS, JR.

ALI CE D ADOU RI AN

R EYNOLDS D u PONT, J R.

R ICHARD ANGLE

STEPHEN J. B RECKLEY

"Cutaways"

SO West 23rd St.• New York NY 10010

(212) 366-3900

3 Dimensional - Made of Wood

KINGMAN YACHT CHARTERS Ltd. ~= Cataumet MA • (800)

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send $2.00 for brochure , credit with first order

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248 - 7949

3549 Mauricia Ave. Santa Oara, Ca. 9505l

SUPER DETAILED SHIP MODELS

Needed: Video camera to record seminars an d other events. Ideally , a Sony VXlOOO or TR101 or similar with manual override, shotgu n microphone and Bogen fluid head tripod. Help us document history. If you can help, call Bure.hie Green at 1-800-221-NMHS.

UNBELIEVABLY DETAILED METAL WATERLINE MODELS FROM EUROPE.

The Guild's acclaimed quarterly NAUTICAL

SCALE - 1 :1250 (1"-104.2') FULLY ASSEMBLED AND PAINTED

Egregious Steamboat Journal

WW II warships and great ocean liners in stock .

We purchase or consign collections.

Send $4 for catalogue , Visa & Mastercard accepted.

1996 Steamboat Calendar

Bi-monthly magazine featuring photo essay, history, technical articles & current events.

US $20, Canada $24 , Foreign $40 Si ngle Issue $5.00 13 Steamboat Photos $9.00

Vintage Limited USA

Steamboat Store Catalogue

29761 Weatherwood Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

Books, Vidoos, Mod el Plans, & Gift. Items $4.00 (free with subscription)

Phone (714) 249-8687 FAX (714) 249-3662 E-mail: vi n tag e I t d@ a o I . co m Check out our Web site for Inventory & to contact us for special orders! http: // w w w . coast - on . com I v i nt age I t d

NAUTICAL RESEARCH Gu IL D

J

=1Steamboat Masters

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P. 0 . Box 3046-SH Louisville, KY 40201 FAX (502) 776-9006 VISA-MasterCard

Conference -June 20-23, 1996

R ESEARCH

f OURNAL

covers the technical history of ships and boats, their uses, and the li ves they touch. Its forum links builders of th e highest qualit y ship models, marine artists, writers, and nautical collectors. The international Guild supports annual Conferences and provides special servi ces for members including ship model analysis and model building assistance by expe rts. US$30.00.

NRJ-D, 19

PL EASANT STREET EVERETT, MA 02 149

www.naut-res-guild.org

Come Sail With Us!

The only Class A size sailing vessel under the US flag upon which the public may embark-all who sail aboard her participate to the best of their ability. Come alone or with family or friends- sign on for a few days or a few weeks. No prior experience is necessary, nor is extraordinary fitness required. Reasonable rates.

To receive a schedule, rates and additional information , write or call:

"HMS" ROSE Foundation, 1 Bostwick Ave., Bridgeport CT 06605 'fr (203) 335-1433

'fr (203) 335-0932

Fax: (203) 335-6793

ROSE is a US documented vessel, inspected and certified by the US Coast Guard. Safety standards for Sailing School Vessels differ from those of passenger vessels on a comparable route, because persons aboard training ships are not passengers but participants who share in the ship 's operation. ROSE meets or exceeds all safety requirements for a vessel of her size and class .

Pacific Tall Ships, a unique maritime gallery, is now offering hand-crafted wood sailing ship models. Our goal is to produce the finest limited ship model editions at a very reasonable price to ensure our customers a lifetime of enjoyment. The models are handmade exclusively for Pacific Tall Ships by highly skilled craftsmen. Our craftsmen work with remarkable precision to create detailed replicas of the famous tall ships. Our models have brass and metal fittings and are completed with intricate rigging. Each hull is double planked with rare select woods.

Prices range from $650.00 to $13,000.00.

For more information or to receive our free catalog call us at 1(800) 690-6601.

106 Stephen St. Suite 100, Lemont, IL 60439-4242 Email: pts@ix.netcom.com, or browse our web page: http://www.pacific-tall-ships.com.

Kits not available.

Other ships available but not shown: American Privateer, Astrolabe, Bejamin Latham, Chinese Pirate Junk, Flying Cloud, Flying Fish, Friesland, HMS Bounty, La Couronne, New bed ford Whaler, Pride Of Baltimorell, Rattlesnake, Roter Lowe, Royal Caroline, USS Constellation, USS Enterprise, Wappen Von Hamburg.

Literally hundreds of man-hours go into each individual model, ensuring scale and historical accuracy. We also have a variety of custom built display cases to accent the decor of any home or office. Our ships and cases are covered by a 30-day money back guarantee.

San Felipe

Flying Fish

Sovereign Of The Seas

Wasa