Guantanamo run . We were in the first group of five SCs sent to the South Pacific on Christmas Eve 1942 and eventuall y wo und up in the Solomons earl y in February 1943. We were based in Tu lagi and saw a fair amount of a ircraft action. HENRY STRA USS Darien, Connecticut I' ve just read "KNM Hitra: The ' Shetlands Bus,"' by Theodore Treadwell. I was assigned to SC-1354 in August 1943 at the bui lder's yard in Milford , De lawa re, as 3rd officer and became executive offi cer in Febru ary 1945. She was a control vessel at Omaha Beach , Dog Red section, on 6 June 1944. We have a crew reunion every two yea rs. THOMAS M ACELWEE Colorado Springs, Colorado A Member Gets In volved wa nt to write thi s letter before the March wi nds compl etely blow away my "Caribbean high! " My wife and I wish to thank yo u and your staff fo r a most deli ghtful and interesting crui se on the Norway . The weather was ideal, the scenery beau tiful , but the nicest part was meeting the NMHS and John A. Noble Co llection groups. We plan to join one of your future trips and hopefully renew some acq uaintances with fo lks we met during the crui se. During March I have pl anned to be a vo lunteer wo rker on board the John W. Brown at Baltimore for 2-3 days. Then , on 3 May , I wi ll go aboard to watch the sa ilboats in the Whitbread Round the World Race as they depart for France. I also intend to get to A lbany, New York, this spring to participate in the restoration work on the WWII destroyer escort USS Slater (DE-766). DO C. NORRIS Hol 1idaysburg, Pennsy lva ni a It is great to find out what maritime matters keep our members busy in their spare time. NMHS is currently planning our next cruise aboard the Veendamfor a JO-day fa ll fo liage voyage from New York City along the New England coast and south to Bermuda in October. We will be joined by a host of members from organ izations such as the John A. Nob le Collection, the Steamsh ip Hi storical Society of America, the Ocean Liner Museum , the Maritime Indu stry Museum , the World Sh ip Society, and the American Merchant Marine Museum (seepage 35 ). And next March you can join NMHS SEA HISTORY 85 , SUMMER 1998
To MEMBERS & SUPPORTERS OF NMHS The National Maritime Hi storical Society is to be sa luted for putting young people into the sa il training programs carri ed out aboard the fl eet of traditional sa iling ships, led by the US Coast Guard Barque Eagle, coming to New York on National Maritime Day on 22 May. The ships, invited by the Society to honor the bicentenary of ew York 's Rockland County, make up one of the largest sailing fl eets to come up the Hudson in this century. The splendid gesture of including yo ung New Yorkers from our schools in this important sailing exercise brings great cred it to the Society and its hardworking members and dedicated supporters. "Taking the Young Idea to Sea," as Society President Peter Stanford has ca lled thi s effort , is important for the future as well as for the heritage of American seafaring. What can be more important than g iving our children the challenge of voyaging in a tall ship driven by the wind in her sails, and driven , too, by the hearts, minds and willing hands of the ship 's young crew? Agai n, I sa lute the members of the National Maritime Hi storical Society for getting into thi s good work in thi s who lehearted way . May it be forever rewarding to you, as it is to the yo ung peopl e who wi ll reap the rewards of the co1madeship, hard wo rk and achievement of thi s nob le ex peri ence, which will open new horizons of opportunities for them and fo r the future of America. WALTER CRO KITE, C hairman MHS Maritime Ed ucation Initiative and Mystic Seaport members aboard the four-masted bark Sea Cloud in the Caribbean (see page 48).
Polish Model Maker Joins NM HS I fo und a copy of Sea History aboard my ship and I dec ided to become a member of yo ur crew . I am a Poli sh seafarer-a boatswain aboard the Norwegian se ismi c survey vessel M/Y Polar Princess, and we operate on the Gu lf of Mexico. Since 1981 I have been a modeler of ships in bottles. My ships are acc urate models and include anchors, wi ndl asses, davits, life boats, steering wheels and ri gging. I have 87 ships in my private collection and I have had a coup le of exhibitions in Po land , Germany and Sweden. Each ship takes about 50-60 hours, so I can do 4-5 ships each month. ZB IG !EW KAZNOWS KI Houston , Texas Philadelphia 's Ships Hav ing recently been in Phil adelphia, I fo und your article, " Philadelphia, City of Pioneering Ships and People" (SH84), both fascinating and enlightening. In Philadelphia, I particularl y noted two things. The first was the MoshuJu looking quite magnificent, almost as though fresh from the builder 's yard and awai ting a cargo. Her gingerbread at the bow was newly gilded. With her topsides glistening in a fresh coat of black paint, she didn ' t have her painted ports as she had when newly built on the Clyde. In sad contrast to the Moshulu was
the bedraggled spectacle of the SS Un ited States tied up on the rain-swept shore of the Delawa re, her boats gone and her faded paint work in a sorry state. The las t time I saw "T he Big U," she he ld the Bl ue Ribbon of the Atl antic and no other passenger ship, or perhaps any ship afl oat, could touch her when it came to speed. While I'd seen pictures of her in Phi ladelphia, these did not prepare me for the shock of seeing her neglected state. A footnote to yo ur article is the Philadelphia bri g Philadelphia, whi ch took the first cargo from the US to Australia in 1792. During the American B icentennial , the Bank of New South Wales, Austra li a, he ld an ex hibit of my hi storical maritime paintings of US and Australi an subj ects. The Bank thought that a painting was needed that spec ifically tied the who le thing together, and that was how I came to paint the Philadelphia departing from Sydney Heads. I doubted that there wo uld be an ything extant that wou ld give any detail s abo ut the brig, but the National Archi ves came up with the " Proof of Ownership of an American built Ship." I learned that she had a quarter badge, ratherthan a quarter gallery, "a Man head" and was "a square sterned vesse l," built in Philade lphia in 1787. Otherw ise I relied on a contemporary painting of an American brig by Anto ine Roux, Sr. , of Marseille. The detail s of the voyage were set forth in David Collin 's " Account" publi shed in 1798-Co ll ins being in Sydney at the time of the Philadelphia 's arri val and no
3