Sea History 089 - Summer 1999

No. 89

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SUMMER 1999

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

James Gordon Bennett and the Sport of Yachting A Desert Village Preserves its Seafaring Past The Ships of Operation Sail 2000: Kruzenshtern

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SEA HISTORY

No. 89

SUMMER 1999

CONTENTS EDWARD PRADOS

FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE 8 THECAPEHORN ROAD, XIX. Steamships Take Over the North Atlantic, Driving the Sailing Ship into Increasingly Remote Trades, by Peter Stanford

America did not "turn its back on the sea" in the years after the Civil War as international competition fueled the development ofsteam 14 Al-Hami: A Desert Village Preserves its Seafaring Past, by Edward Prados and

14

David Warburton Along the Yemeni coast, the last generation of men who engaged in deepwater trades under sail in the Indian Ocean share their history and skills with their community

DANIEL FOSTER

18 MUSEUMOF THE ISSUE: A Look at the HerreshoffMarine Museum, by Shelley Reid

The prolific career of Captain Nathanael Herreshojfand the legacy ofthe Herreshojf Manufacturing Company is interpreted at the historic yacht and boat building company's original site in Bristol, Rhode Island 19 The Schooner Yacht Coronet, by John Summers

The famed yacht Coronet, once a champion of the America's Cup race and a veteran of missionary work, is being reborn at the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, Rhode Island

19 COURTESY SAN FRANC ISCO /',,.\A RIT IM E NHP

23 James Gordon Bennett Leads Yachting onto the TransAtlantic Scene,

by Queene Hooper Foster Newspaper magnate, sports promoter and yachtsman extraordinaire, James Gordon Bennett made headlines as well as composed them 30 THETALL SHIPS OF OPERATION SAIL 2000: The Sail Training Ship Kruzenshtern and the Legacy of the Laeisz Line, by Justine Ahlstrom

The Laeisz Line ofGermany built poweiful sailing cargo ships long after their rivals had turned to steam; the proof of their trust in windships sails today as the Kruzenshtern 34 TRAFFIQUES & DISCOVERIES: Schooners, by Peter Stanford

30

Schooners are the order of the day in a series ofvignettes about these memorable craft

SEA CLOUD, INC.

36 Last of the Hussars , by Justine Ahlstrom

In a modern Caribbean port, two yachts designed and built for E. F. Hutton before WWII dock side by side in their newest incarnations as cruise ships 38 MARITIME TRAVELER: The Laeisz Line's Preussen Inspires a New Five-Masted Square Rigger: The Royal Clipper, by Justine Ah lstrom Star Clippers, Inc. builds a new passenger ship, in the spirit of the Flying "P" Line COVER: In the 1860sfew yachtsmen were interested in driving their vessels across the mighty Atlantic. The first Great Ocean Race of1866 was ahead ofits time by a couple ofdecades (see pages 23-27). Painting by j ohn E. C. Peterson (Courtesy New York Yacht Club)

DEPARTMENTS 2 6 28 39

DECK LOG & LETTERS NMHS NEWS MARINE ART NEWS SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS

40 AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE MUSEUM NEWS 44 REvIEws 48 PATRONS

36 SEA HISTORY (iss n 01 46-93 12) is pub lished qu arterly by rhe Narion al Maririme Hisrori cal Sociery, 5 John Walsh Blvd., PO Box 68, Pee kski ll NY 10566. Periodicals posrage pa id ar Peekskill NY 10566 and add '! mai lin g offices.

COPYRIGHT © 1999 by rhe Narional Ma ri rime H isrorical Sociery. Tel: 9 14-737-7878.

POSTMASTER: Send add ress changes ro Sea History, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

LETTERS

DECK LOG We're taking our Society to sea these days. We've always said Sea History is the journal of a cause in motion-and how better to get our cause into motion than with young people scrambling up the rigging of a tall ship?

This summer inner-city Boston youngsters will sail from New York to Boston for an intensive week's training aboard the tall ship "HMS" Rose.

And young New Yorkers will sail from Boston to New York. We'll also be bringing students from Philadelphia to New York aboard the historic barkentine Gazela ofPhiladelphia. And we'll be filling the Hudson River that runs outside our headquarters with sail again, to get a crowd of New Yorkers, young and old, afloat for a day's vigorous drill, and to open the ships to the people of the river towns-each ship with her story to tell.

All this is prologue to what we are working to achieve in next year's Operation Sail 2000, involving eight US cities, from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Portland, Maine. We aspire also next year to open a youth adventure center in New York to focus on these activities, and to provide continuing support to the young people involved. And after New York, San Francisco and we hope, other cities.

This whole effort depends, as does everything we do, on you as member of NMHS. Members provide the funds needed for this work.

The Yachting Heritage This Sea History is devoted to the lively heritage of American yachting.

Pleasure boating is how most Americans experience seafaring, with its splendors, its frustrations and endless challenge and beauty. We appeal to all who go out on the waters, particularly, to support our seafaring ventures.

For they know better than anyone how much oflasting value can be gained by sailing to the wind's song on open water.

We also salute existing operations like Sail Martha's Vineyard, which gets young citizens of a sea-girt isle out on the seas around them. That venture was launched aboard Bob Douglas's famous schooner Shenandoah.

Shenandoah is shown at work below-a scene of pure, disciplined joy!

- PETER STANFORD

President

The Picton Castle Reports In Here's news from the other Cape and notes from you r prod igal Hon orary Trustee ....

We' re 30,000 mi les aro und the world in our bark Picton Castle now, and I could not be more pleased with her. My message is twofold. I wa nt to let yo u know I'm out here, but not forgetting you and yo ur ongoing efforts.

We have a pretty popul ar web site (www. picron-cas rle. co m), crea ted and managed by Angelo Cerchione-check it out so metim e! After all, more people have walked on the moon in the last 50 years than have sai led a cargo-carrying bark arou nd the world.

The trip started out with a rough-andtumb le winter in the North Atlantic with about a week of cold westerly gales . Then we sail ed into the tropics and amazing passages, coral reef passes inro ato lls, islands, great tradewinds, violent squalls, long interludes ashore, 35 days across the Indian Ocean, Zanzibar with its sailing dhows, and cyclon e seaso n along East Africa, fo llowed by a fin e five-day rounding of the Cape of Good Hope- 1,000 miles from Durban to Cape Town with southerly gales off the Cape with blas ts to hurricane force under lower tops' ls. And now we're in Cape Town.

As I write we' re about to have a gathering of old salts aboard the Picton Castle.

T here is a goodl y contingent of Cape Homers here. Capt. Phil Nankin, formerly Chief Mate of the Lawhill, is here with a lot of Lawhill hands, as are Cape Homers from the Passat, Pamir, Grossherzogin Elisabeth, Greif, Padua and Parma.

This parry was an idea starred in the Romance under Capt. Kimberly, who was an OS in th e four-masted Swedish bark Abraham Rydberg for about a year.

We're homeward bound now, only 7,000 mi les to go in fair South Atlantic trades to Sr. Helena and Barbados, a couple of other isles of the bles t, Bermuda and Lunenburg followed by some small trips celebrating 2000 before we're outward bound around the world again.

CAPT. D ANIELS. MORELAND

Bark Picton Castle, March 1999 Cape Town, South Africa

The topsail schooner Shenandoah hits her

stride in Vineyard Sound.

2

Griffiths's Genius All the wonderful things about American clipper ships in Sea History 88 's in stall-

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

menr of"The Cape Horn Road" give great pleasure. But no good deed ever goes unpunished, and so I must ad d this: Sea Witch was w recked o n Puma de!

Mirador on the north coast of C uba, abo ut 15 miles west of H ava na. She did not catch fire at the time, but was burned a year or two late r by vandals. The story of her burning at sea was artistic li ce nse in the novel Sea Witch by Alexander Laing.

Your premise (p. 11 ) that the foremast of Sea Witch was set "markedly further aft" because of a lesso n learned from rhe Rainbow is not co nvi ncing. John W. Griffiths advocated one-fifth of the waterline length as a suitab le distance for placing foremasts.

Rainbow's foremast was close to 2 1 percent aft compared to 21.5 percent for Sea Witch.

Certai nly an in crease, but it must be considered that the wa terline entrance was a full 3 1 degrees each side of the centerline on Rainbow whil e Sea Witch's waterline was hollow starting at 2 1 degrees and increased to o nly 23 degrees at most. So technically, you are co rrect inasm uch as the foremast was moved a little aft in Sea Witch, but this was counterbalanced by significant sharpening of the waterline entrance.

T he ge nius was in his desire for swifter and smoother forward morion to gain dynamic stability as demonstrated by bicycles and canoes as opposed to th e old static stabili ty theory necessary in buoys and bathtubs .

CAPT. MELBOURNE SMITH Annapolis, Maryland Sea W itch s long bow overhang helped resist

burying when running hard. This put her mast 28 percent ofher length on deck abaft the stem, versus 22 percent for Rainbow-a real gain. But the fineness ofthe Witch s bow was a realfactor too, as Captain Smith shows.

And who can quarrel with his vividportrayal of the genius ofGri/Jithss design theory?-ED. Eagle Repeats History As a former captain of Eagle, I received a copy of Sea History Press' s reprint of The Skipper and the Eagle, by Capt. Gordon McGowan, who refined and sailed Eagle to the US in 1946. It recalled a moment that happened years ago. In 1972, Eagle made her first visit back to Germany since the 1946 departure, for the 1972 Olympic games. When the festivities in Kiel we re over, we had to send the cadets back "airmail" so as not to interfere any more with SEA HISTORY 89 , SUMMER 1999

the academic calendar.

The Coast Guard recruited a gro up of 75 enlisted volunteers from units in the service to sail Eagle home. We had the gro up on board for o ne week in Kiel before we sailed. I think two of the officers had sailed on Eagle as cadets, but that was the limit of the experience factor.

We sailed down the North Sea and called at Lisbon. Capt. McGowan, th en retired, joined us there. We called at F unchal, Madeira, and then took off for the general area of Bermuda. We ran into th e fringe of a hurrica ne in roughly the same area he did in 1946. We managed to survive, and th e new sai lo rs performed very well. When I sa id goodbye to Go rdon in New London, he looked at m e with a grin and remarked: "Sailing a square-rigged sailing vessel across the ocean with a novice crew is so mething yo u should do once in a lifetime, bur nor twice. " EDWARD D. CASSIDY Captain , USCG (Ret. ) Napl es, Florida The War Effort in Norway I know well the historyofrheHitra(S H84); I helped restore the "Shetlands Bus" in Norway. The worst part of the Shetlands saga was the first few years after the German occupation of Norway when the men used small fishing boars to smuggle people and inform ation out of No1way and supplies, equipment and spies in . T hey suffered considerab le losses due to harsh weather and fierce enemy action. T he Hitra and other

subchasers from America were like a piece of heaven compared to the small, noisy and slow one-cylinder motorboats.

Most of the radio operators in occupied No rway were yo ung boys trained in Sweden, operating and reportin g on enemy movements. No single group suffered higher losses. It was strictl y forb idden to have a radio or listen to broadcasts from London. One in every two o perato rs was killed. This service, howeve r, was crucial as a supplement to aerial photos taken from British planes in determining bombing sites, sabotage actions, aird rop locations or safe landing places for the Shetlands Bus. Indeed, it was a war where most of the people ofNorway parti cipated , even I, a 6year-old boy, was trained runnin g coded messages to the next farm to report when "rhe green" were com ing fora house search.

OLAF T. ENGVIG Burbank, California

Is the Pilgrim Really A Replica?

Could yo u consider a more judicious use of rhe term " repli ca"? The defi nitio n of the wo rd is fairly precise. Might vessels like rh e Pilgrim of D ana Po im, California, and others be more accurately described as " representative of rhe type" or " reconstructions of the appeara nce of'? If no one knows precisely what the original looked like, how co uld one hope to produce a replica?

This term is misused by model builders, museum s and other publi cations. Maybe NM HS can rake th e lead in correct usage.

Some of our predecessors, such as Wi l-

Join Us for a Voyage into History Our seafaring heritage comes alive in the pages of Sea History, from the ancient mariners of Greece to Portuguese navi gators opening up the ocean world to the heroic efforts of seamen in this century' s conflicts. Each issue brings new insights and

new di scoveries. If you love the sea, the rivers, lakes and bays-if you love the legacy of those who sail in deep water and their workaday craft, then you belong with us.

Join today! Mail in the form below or phone

1-800-221-NMHS (6647)

Yes, I want to join the Society and receive Sea History quarterl y. My contribution is enclosed. ($ 17.50 is for Sea History; any amount above that is tax deductible.) Sign me on as: $35 Regular Member $50 Family Member ~ $100 Friend :=::: $250 Patron $500 Donor 89

Mr./Ms. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ----------------------~¡Z IP_ _ _ _ _ __

Return to National Maritime Historical Society, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566

3

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY O FFI CE RS & T RUST EES : Chairman, C raig A. C. Rey nold s; Vice Chairmen, Ri chard o Lopes, G uy E. C. Maitl and, Edward G. Zelinsky; President, Peter Stanford ; Vice President, No rm a Sta nford; Treasurer, William H. White; Secretr11y, Ma rshall Srreibert ; Trustees, Wa lte r R. Brow n, W. G rove Co nrad, Fred C. Hawki ns, Jakob lsbrand tsen, Steven W . Jones, Kare n E. Ma rkoe, Wa rren Ma rr, II , H arry Marshall , Brian A. McA llister, David A. O 'Ne il , Ogden Reid , Charl es A. Robenso n, Howard Slotni ck, Bradford Smi th, John Talbot, Louis A. T rapp, Jr., David B. Vieto r, Har ry E. Vi nall , Ill , Jean Wort, Alexa nder Zago reos; Chairman Emeritw, Alan G. C hoa te FOUN DER: Ka rl Kortum (19 17-1996)

liam Baker (des igner of Mayflower If) we re real sri ckl ers on rhis poinr. In rh e inreres r o f berrer scho larship and more accurate preserva ti o n of rhe historical reco rd fo r future ge nerati ons, perhaps an editori al guideline on rhis topic is in order.

RA ND LE M. B IDD LE Valencia, Cali fo rni a M r. Biddle raises an interesting point. We invite our readers to weigh in on this subject of app rop riate designations for the ships inspired by vessels ftom our past.-ED.

Catch of the Day: A Piece of History O ne of our fishin g trawlers retri eved the sreeringwheel and mechanism of rh e schooner Rouse Simmons while dragg ing fo r smelr

Captain Dean's Service to His Country

O VERSEERS: RADM David C. Brow n, Wa lter C ronki te, John Leh ma n, J. W illi am M iddendo rf, fl, John Stobart, Wil li am G. Winterer

I enj oyed rhe great arricle and painrin gs o n rh esloop Experiment by Len Tantillo in rh e W inrer issue of Sea H istory. I found Caprai n Srewarr D ean's name in rhe Natio nal Archi ves on a list of appli ca n rs deni ed a pension afrer rhe war. A r rh e srart o f rh ewar we had no navy. Our young government enli sred rhe aid of a number o f pr iva tely owned m erchant vessels, w hi ch we re rh en armed and sent ro sea und er th e comm and of experienced sea caprain s. F ro m 1776 unril 1782 w hen he was wo unded and caprured aboard rh e Nimrod, D ean was a priva reer prorecrin g our merchanr f1 eer at sea. Evidenrl y, pnva ree rs never arrained mili rary srarus.

AD VISORS: Co-Chairmen, Frank 0 . Bray nard , Melbourn e Smith; D. K. Abbass, Ray mond Aker, Geo rge F. Bass, Francis E. Bowke r, Oswald L. Brett, No rmanJ. Bro uwer, RADM Josep h F. Ca llo, Will iam M . Doerflinger, Fran cis J. Duffy, John Ewa ld , Joseph L. Farr, T imo thy G. Foo te, William G il ke rson, T ho mas Gi llm er, Wa lter J. Handelman, C harles E. Herdendo rf, Steven A. H yman , Hajo Knuttel,. G unna r Lund ebe rg, Co nrad Milster, Willi am G. Mul ler, David E. Perkin s, Nan cy Hughes Richardso n, T imothy J. Runya n, Ralph L. Snow, Sha nn on J. Wall , T homas Wel ls SEAHJSTORY &N MHSSTAF F: Editor, Ju stin e Ah lstrom; Executive Editor, No rm a Stan fo rd ; Contributing Eaitor, Kevin Haydon; Editor-at-Large, Peter Stanford; Editorial Assistant, Shel ley Reid ; Director of Education, Dav id B. Al len; Director of Marketing and Membership DetJelopment, Blaire Bel liveau ; ChiefofStaff, Burchenal Green; Mem bershipSecretary!Merchandising, Erika Kurtenbach; Membership Assistant, Irene Eisenfeld; Advertising Secretary, Ca rmen McCa llum ;Accounting, Joseph Cacciola; Secretary to the !'resident, Ka ren Ri tell T O GET IN TOUCH WITH US :

Address:

5 John Wa lsh Blvd., PO Box 68 Pee kskil l NY I 0566 Phon e: 9 14 737-7878 Fax: 9 14 737-78 16 Web site: www.sea hi sto ry.o rg E-mail: nm hs@sea hi story.o rg

MEMBERSH IP is in vited. Afte rguard $ 10 ,000; Benefa ctor $5, 000; Pl ankow ner $2,5 00; Spon sor $ 1,000; Do nor $500; Patron $25 0; Fri end $ I 00; Co ntr ibu to r $75; Famil y $50; Regul ar $35 . All members outside the USA please add $ 10 fo r pos tage. SEA HI STO RY is sent to all members. fn d ividu al cop ies cost $3.75.

Adverti sing: 1-8 00-22 1-NM HS (6647)

4

ery res pect ro rhe Liberri es and Vicrori es in rh eir conrriburion to rh e wa r effo rt.

Yo u have made a srarr: rhe ship pi ctured o n page 34 of Sea H istory 88 is no r rhe Red Oak Victory, bur an LST, probably o f pos rWW1I vinrage.

EDW. K . NEUBAUER Milwa uki e, O rego n There are red fa ces here in the editorial offices. We did indeed place the wrongpicture in the article on the Red Oak Vicrory. We apologize to author Joseph Rychetnick and the Richmond M useum of History for our error. The flood ofcorrections ft om our eagleeyed readers let us know that y ou are paying close attention.-ED.

near rhe remains of rh e fa mous C hrisrm as Tree ship , which sank o n irs fin al run of rhe year, deliverin g C hristm as trees harves ted in Michigan to sell in C hi cago. M an y objecrs have bee n caught in our ners over rhe years from rhe Rouse Simmons and rh e many orher w recks rhar lie in the Rawley Poinr area of Lake M ichi ga n, bur while looking ar rhis arri fac r, yo u realize rhar rhis is rhe ve ry w heel aga insr w hich Capt.

Schuenem ann was fi ghring befo re he losr the Rouse Simmons to a wild storm 23 N ove mber 19 12!

R OBERT R ULEAU III Capt. , F/V Robert Louis M enomin ee, Michigan

LST Recognition, After All? I agree with H arold L. Sagendorph ("Lerrers," SH 88) rhar ir wo uld be worrhwhile to include arricles o n rh e amphibious vessels of World W ar II. T hese were unusually wo rrh y and successful vessels, equal in ev-

] AC K D EAN

Farr Lauderdale, Flo rida

Calling All Retired Merchant Mariners!

The editorial sraff of The Hawsepipe, newslerrer of rhe M arin e Workers' Hi srori cal Association, has alerted us to a shorrage of marerial ro prinr in rh eir journal of !are.

W e hear from N MHS m embers regularl y who are retired marin e wo rkers, and we kn ow yo u have sto ri es to share.

The Hawsepipe (" Rernemberi ng the pas t; In volved in rh e presen t; C oncerned with the furure") is dedi cated to providing a forum for marine wo rkers pas r and presenr to share rh eir hi sro ry. A rricl es regularly fearure reco ll ecti o ns o f life ar sea, labor conditio ns and rh e development of unions.

MWHA membership is nor required to submir arricles; however, for rhose who are interes ted , members hip is $ 15 . Contact Ms. Es ther Palazzi, 10 Mirchell Place # 3B, NewYo rk NY 1001 7. 1-

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

300 Years of Service "Your staunch pilot boats are always ready in storm and fog, and it takes skill, courage and long years of experience to carry on this important and hazardous work so necessary to our commerce.

I congratulate you on your remarkable record... "

Franklin D. Roosevelt

201 EDGEWATER ST. , STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. 10305 • 718-448-3900

NMHSNEWS NMHS Launches "Beyond the Spectacle," Teachers' Institutes

T

he National Maritime Historical Society will officially launch "Beyo nd the Spectacle"-our education program developed in partnership with Operation Sail 2000-wirh a flotilla of sailing ships and small boars in New York H arbor on Wednesday, 4 August 1999.

The ships will gatheroffLower Manhattan's Battery, salute historic Pier A (built in 1886 as headquarters for the Department of Docks and the Harbor Police) and debark schoolchildren carrying the flags of the eight OpSail ports.

Al l eyes wi ll be captivated by the sight of these ships sailKalmar Nyckel ing together in New York Harbor on the 4th and up the Hudson Rive r to hisro ric port rowns on the 5th. It will give New Yorkers and visitors a taste of the spectacle to come on 4 July 2000 and will introduce them

IT'S ABOUT TIME

An important riverfront beaco n, the clock in the clock tower at the outshore end of Pier A, is being resto red and wi ll be inaugurated during the festivities on 4 August. Ir was donated in 1919 by Daniel Reid, chairman of US Steel, as a memorial to the veterans ofWorld War I, and is one of on ly two public clocks on th e East Coast that ring ship 's time (eight bells at 4:00, 8:00 and 12: 00).

6

to the educational programs that will bring lessons of the sea, teamwork, courage, caenduring significance to OpSail 2000, maraderie and di scipl ine. At least 150 local which will bring an unprecedented num- studenrs will have a uniqu e opportunity to ber of tall ships to North sail these great ships, America ' s East Coas t HMS Bounty lear ning navigation, ....-------,--------, next year. climbing the rigging and Among the vessels arexploring the underwariving on 4 August will terenvironmenr, feeling be the fri gate Rose, a repfirst-hand how the Hudson River connected us lica of a British sixth-rate to the world. The Honwarship that was deeply involved in America's orable George E. Pataki, Revolutionary era . She Governor of the State of will arrive in New York New York, is Honorary Chairman of the event.

City on 1 August having Members and friends of spent the week befo re with a sail training crew NMHS are invited to of students from th e join th e parade of sail up the Hudson River in Midwest and New York who will have learned the their own boats and to attend the gala reception ski ll s, discipline and teamwork required to at Pier A on 4 August, when amid the great fanrun a square ngger.

The three-masted barkentine Gazela of fare of tall ships saluting New York, bands Philadelphia will sail into the harbor with playing, and fireboats sending great sprays the Rose. This historic 178-foot vessel, the of water inro the bay, "Beyond the Specoldest wooden square rigger still in opera- tacle" wi ll be launched.

The "Beyond the Spectacle" educational tion, was built in 1883 as the Gazela Primeiro, a Portuguese Grand Banks fish- program will include two fu ll -color stuing vessel. dent editions of Sea History magazine relatThe year-old replica of the Kalmar Nyckel ing the tall ships to history, with an eighrfrom Wilmington, Delaware, will make page teachers' guide for use in schools: her first voyage to New York as pan of this background for journalists on Operation fleet. The original three-masted ship, built Sail and the role of the tall ships in the past in the Netherlands in the 1620s, came to millennium; interactive CD-ROMs that the New World in 1638 bringing the first let students "walk through" historic ships, permanent European settlers to the Dela- guide a rail ship into port, and learn about ware Valley. the ships of OpSail 2000; and teach ers ' The popular Bounty, built by MGM institutes in the OpSail ports.

Studios in 1960 for the movie "Mutiny on -BURCH ENAL GREEN the Bounty," will join the Class A square riggers, as will several smaller vessels, including the 80-foot schooner Adirondack, Gazela of Philadelphia built on the Hudso n in the Scarano Boat Building Yard in Albany. We also expect to welcome the new 65-foot brig Pride of MANY, a replica of a Spanish galleon that is named after the Mid-Atlantic Network of Youth and Fami ly Services and owned

by Youth Services of Bucks County, Inc., which sails it with the mission of demonstrating adventure-chall enge therapy.

On Thursday, 5 August 1999, the tall ships will parade from New York H arbor up the river with area students who wi ll be given a day's sail training experience in the SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

NMHS Teacher Training Institutes T he N MHS Edu cari o n D eparrmem has inaugurared a seri es of reacher rraining insrirures rhis spring. T he series, supporred by a grant from rhe D avid M . M il ro n Chari rable T rusr, foc uses o n rhe development of New Yo rk C iry from irs infancy as a riny po rr rown ro rhe fin ancial capiral ir is roday, largely due ro maririme rrade and rhe goods, capiral, and hum an resources conveyed rhro ugh New Yo rk H arbor. These Sarurday sess io ns are held in hisroric locarions rh ro ug ho ur rh e Adirondack lowe r M anh arran fin ancial disrricr includ ing rhe Sea men's C hurch In srirure, rhe Frau nces T avern M useum, and rhe M useum ofAmeri can Financial H isro ry.

T he insrirures have bee n we ll a rr e nd ed ; reachers ea rn in g co nrinuin g educari o n credir rh ro ugh rhe New Yo rk C iry Board ofEducario n we re joined by N MHS

mem bers and ochers. T he educarion deparrmenr bro ughr in no red speakers from rhe area, includin g Richard Buel, aurhor of In Irons: The Royal Navy and Port Towns during the Revolution; Ke nnerh Myers, of rhe New Jersey Hisrorical Sociery; and No rman]. Bro uwe r, hisrorian and aurhor of The International Register of Historic Ships. T he parricipams were parricularly emhusias ric abo ur rhe opporruni ry ro meer aurhors, professors and o rher hisro rians acri ve in resea rching rhe mari rime hisrory of New Yo r k. On e reacher commem ed : "I rhoughr I hared eco nomic hi srory, bur yo u fo lks have m ade i r com e alive."

T he insrirures will resum e Ill rhe aurumn .

N MHS plans ro iniriare insrirures in rhe porr cities of OpSail 2000, focusing on the role of the seafaring h eri rage and m annme comm erce in rhe pon s' developmenr.

- S H ELLEY RErn

•• •

N ATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY's

Annual Awards Dinner Wednesday, 3 November 1999

••• •• ••

Celebrating the Danmark-rhe D anish sail rraining ship rhar helped rrain Am erican sailors in Wo rld War II at the

New Yo rk Yachr C lub 37 Wes r 44 rh Srreer New Yo rk, New York Receprion ar 5:3 0 foll owed by dinner ar 7:00 $25 0 per person

•• •• •

Fo r rese rva rio ns and information • co ntact: NMHS PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566 914 7 37 -7878 (P laces are limi red . Pl ease reserve ea rly.)

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WORLD MARINE MILLENNIAL CONFERENCE 29 March-1 April 2000 in Salem, Massachusetts Co-sponsored by the National Maritime Historical Society and the Peabody Essex Museum r

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Please note date change!

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The committee in vites abstracts for indi vidual papers (15-30 minutes in length) and session proposals (three to four papers in 11/2 hours) on subjects related to all aspects of salt and fre sh water maritime hi story. Abstracts and proposals may address particular aspects of broader themes of the conference or a specific subj ect of interest to the committee :

China Trade, 1799-1999 The Seagoing Experience The Slave Trade Fishing & Whaling Laws of the Sea

The Shore Establishments Ship Models and Modeling Piracy and Priva teering Underwater Archaeology Women at Sea

Pax Britannica Navigation Navies & Warfare Historic Interpretation Adventure and Recreation

Restorations and Replicas Marine Art & Artifacts Ma n & the Environment The American Flag at Sea T he Sea in Literature

Abstracts of indi vidual papers should be typed on no more than one page, accompanied by a Curri c ulum Vitae. Session proposals should provide a brief summ ary of each pape r and include a CV for each of three or four presenters. A bstracts and proposals are due by Jul y 1, 1999, addressed to: Publi sher, The American Neptune, Peabod y E ssex Museum , East Indi a Square, Sale m M A 01 970.

Individual and exte rna l gro up initiati ves are welcome. Thi s is a prime oppo rtunity to propose creati ve approaches to the stud y of maritime hi sto ry.

Questions may be addressed to Do n Marshall or Jack Bishop at 978-745 -95 00, x 3172; fax at 978 -744-6776.

Or you may e-m ail NMHS at co nfe re nce@seahi s tor y.o rg SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

7

THE CAPE HORN ROAD, PART XIX

Steamships Take Over the North Atlantic, Driving the Sailing Ship into Increasingly Remote Trades

by Peter Stanford e do not know how the late Archie Horka got to South Street from Brooklyn on the day he decided to ship out 111 October in the year 1919. He might have hopped aboard a trolley cross in g the Brooklyn Bridge, or one of the elevated railroad trains that thundered over the glittering autumnal river that ran fa r below the tracks . Or he could have caught another of Brooklyn's now-vanished trolleys down the hill from Brooklyn Heights to the ferry terminal, then crossed on the ferry to the Manhattan terminal, where the ferry nosed into her slip next to the nodding masts of the fishing schooners that still clustered in the Fu lton Marker, their sea-worn hulls rubbing against each other in the oily, coal-grimed East River.

Having known Archie in later years, I believe he would have taken the ferry route. And he would have paused, surely, to admire those lithe and able schooner hulls, their sea-cleaving bows fairing into boldly rounded flanks, finished offwith strong, shapely sterns.

T he classic G loucestermen of the traditional sai ling fleet still prevailed in the fleer in Fulton Marker, though some m asts had been shortened and ri gging cur back in the wake of the introduction of gasoline engin es over the past dozen years. The sq uaresterned motorboat hull took over in the 1920s, and was the predominant form by the 1930s. A few old schooner hulls persisted on past World War II, however, even into the 1960s when No rma and I began to hunt down such surviving schooner hulls. T he boars

W

Fishing schooners nesting at New York's Fulton Market in the early 1900s carry topsails secured aloft, which add a knot or two in the race home for market. (South Street Seaport Museum)

8

we found were rough and splintery, hard-used, with no future worth inves ting in. But when Archie first went to sea the schooners glowed with sm art green topsides, black bulwarks, white railcaps and cabin trunks, often with gold leaf picking out the scrollwork aro und their hawsepipes forward, and always the vessel's name proclai med in classic Roman capitals across the stern .

Archie was drawn to the East River, a river which had led generations of New Yorkers to sea. And by any means available, to sea was where Archie was headed. H e was fed up with life at home do minated by an overbearing father who had no co ncept of what was in Archie's head or heart. And remembering the oaken, obdurate spirit of the 60-year-oldArchie, I wo uld not for anything have stood in young Archie's path that gold en Saturday afre rnoon early in this century, when, with the week's wo rk over and donefor Archie was never one to leave any job, however disagreeable, half-done-the rough, stocky teenager struck out on his own path, the path that led out to sea.

The chariot of his choice was the handsom e small bark Callao .

Archie was always one to go for some indwelling sp irit he seemed to see in ships, and I remember h is using the unexplained word "lovely" in describing this one. I imagine Archie was respectful but observant of derails in stepping aboard- that was his way when he stepped aboard No rma's and my schooner Athena 48 yea rs later.

H e must have made a good impression on the mare who was readying th e ship for sea, for a few days later, when the Callao hauled in her lines and rook a tow from a puffing steam tug to head to sea, yo ung Archie was aboard. One can only imagine how he felt.

But som e things we know. T here was no electric light aboard, no radio, no refrigerator, no heat or hot water, no running water at all. Ordinary workingman's families ashore had all these things in 1919 in America, and a neighborhood movie palace down the street to boot, where one could see amazing though silent films. The seaman go ing to sea in sail on the Cape Horn road had none of these. Even setting out from the richest and most co nfident and forward- looking city on earth, he had kerosene lights where light was needed, signal flags to hail a ship up to a mile or two distant, and dried peas, salt beef, and hardtack (a kind of cast-iron imperishable bread) to eat. He had story-telling, som e wild, haunting music he made for himself, and his own dreams and musings to color the hard realities of life at sea under sail.

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

The sailing ship lives in a different world-a world where the very winds that drive her can confound and overwhelm her. H ere the bark Peking ships a wind-driven sea on the Cape Horn run in 1929. (Photo: I rving M. Joh nson)

A Yen for High Canvas O n th e long stretch southward towa rd Cape Horn off rhe coast of So uth America, the Callao was hit by a pampero. For some reason, no one on deck saw it coming-an advancing field of cotton under sudden dark clouds thar ran toward th e ship with stunning speed .

These we re no co rron puffs, rhe old hands knew, but adva ncing walls ofbreaki ng wate r, whipped to frenzy by furious hot wind off the Argentine prairies. At the mate's barked order men das hed to cast off topsail , topgallant an d royal halya rds to bring rhe yards down so these upper sails wo uld co ll apse before rhewind hit them.

Bu r the wind was upon them , and stiffening the canvas in irs bolrropes, it jammed the yards in place. With amazing ease in the in ferno of screeching wind and cras hing seas, the Callao simply began to roll over. Her starboard fl ank rose from the sea. Swirl in g water cascaded in over the bulwa rks. No one could hear anythin g in the riot of wind and crashing sea-bur there weren 't any orders to give to change the situation, anyway. T he horror of a ship in her death throes seized Archi e and , o ne may imagine, every soul aboard- the ship's death in thi s maelstrom would be their individual deaths too. T hat was a certainty. The sheers of rhe co ursesthe lowest sails on each mas t- had been cast off successfully, and they spill ed som e of their wind until, as the ship leaned over, the sea pressed their belli es upwa rd , making them wind-pockets again even as they rolled and thundered, shaking the whole ship as a terrier shakes a rat. The upper sails we re rigid, pressing the masts down toward the sea. T he ya rds, loosed of their halyards, wo uld not co me down because the w ind held them where they were.

Before the ship lay down flat in the sea and expired, the men, sliding and scrambling abo ut the can ting decks, one by one cut the sheers that held the sails, using th e knives every seaman carried for just such emergencies . T hen, as the stout little ship began to right herself, water streaming down her decks, the wind suddenl y SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

evapo rated. The men 's ears were still rin gin g from the impact of th e pampero when rhey were assa ulted by a cacophony of echoing crashes. T hese were the yards which, with their halyards loose, fin ally cam e crashing down into th eir lowered position, a terrifyin g end-of-the-world so und until one realized what it was.

Afrer that, Archie used to say, Cape Horn held no terrors.

Life under sail abounded in threatening situations. The winds th at drove the ship could destroy her with ultimate violence, in situations where only the qui ck, skilled, fearless action of th e ship's people co uld save her. Archie learned this nor in a book or at the mo vies, but in repeated three-dim ensional experiences, the total immersion baptism that everyone who signed on aboard one of th e dwindling numberof tall-masted ships in South Street had to learn .

Later in his sailing career, Archie and a friend he'd m ade in his ocean wanderings spent an idyllic time in an Australian coastal trading ketch, a handso me vessel they spent their rime cleaning and painting to the skipper's delight. Then one day they decid ed to go home to the US. Surveying the shipping in Sydney H arbor, they looked for a square ri gger ca rrying a skysai l, th at lofti est squaresail. This was the sail, it may be remembered from earl ier in our yarn, that the poet and Cape Horn sailorman John Masefield once said lifts the sailor's eyes and stirs his heart-even though it meant more work, just another ya rd and more ca nvas up th ere to be handled . Few ships carried skysai ls in the 1920s, bur the lads found one in the America n four-masted barkentine Forest Dream, a big wooden ship in the lumber trade to Australia from the US No rthwest. Only the foremast in this vessel was square-riggedbur that mast boas ted a skysail. And so they signed on to come home in the skysai l-yarder. Soo n after, Archie had to abandon sailing ships and go into steam ships to get on with his career. H e became a widely respected captain, but as he said, th e li fe was not the same- not the sam e thing at al l as going to sea under sail.

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their C unard rivals.

British Steamers Outpace American Sail As briefly noted in out las t, tragedy then struck one of the four American deepwatermen continued to offer good food and hard work in the fin al decades of the American merchant marine under steamers. In September 1854 th e Arctic was lost in a co llision with sail. And to a surprising extent the ships continued to be built of the French steamer Vesta off Newfo undland . Ir was a lamentable wood, though England and the European nations had turned to scene where the crew rook to the boars pell-mell as the vessel was iron and th en steel construction for their big sailing ships. Of some sinking, leaving many passe ngers behind, including women and 3,000 square riggers built in America, only 13 were built of iron children. Collins's wife and two of their four children were among or steel, among them th e bark Kaiulani, built in Bath, Maine, in those who died .

1899- rhe ship the National Maritime Historical Society was And then, in January 1856, the famous Pacific set out from founded to save, but did not succeed in saving.

Liverpool and simply va nished. No trace of her was found .

Collins's biographer, Dr. Edward M. Sloan, succinctly deThese ships, mostly wooden, and built mostly in M aine, were scribed the impact of the loss of the Pacific, the famed Down Easters that closed out the co ming on top of the A rctic disaster: American experience in deepwater sail. They Now, the further loss of the Pacific was too wrote their own unique chapter in the seafarEdward Knight Collins much for the Collins firm to handle; within ing story of mankind- a chapter we'll take decided to take on the two years it lost the subsidy, ceased operations, up furth er on in this tale.

British on their own declared bankruptcy, sold off the remaining The rising tide of steam navigation took ground, resolving to vessels at auction, and went out of business. over the worldwide systems of trade, that make the shift from sail to The mystery of the disappearance of the had been built up by sailing ships. By the Pacific excited speculation, with the mari1850s-the glory days of the long- haul Calisteam on the rich tim e community finall y settling on the "most fornia clippers, the fastest sailing ships ever North Atlantic run. likely" hypothes is that she had struck one of built- British steamers we re pulling away from Yankee packets the prime traffic in the numerous icebergs reported by other transAtlantic trade, a relatively short-haul route, but one noto ri- vessels cross in g th e North Atlantic that January, and had vanished in th e vas t tomb of th e North Atlantic. But, as Professor Sloan will ous for rough weather.

An innovative American packer owner, Edward Kni ght Co llins, report in a forthcom ing iss ue of Sea H istory, some six years ago a decided to take on the British on their own gro und, resolving to wreck was discovered close off the coast of Wales, which subsemake the shift from sail to steam on the ri ch No rth Atlantic run . quent in ves ti gation has clearly shown to be th e remains of the Starting out with sailing packets in the co tton trade from So uthern lo ng-so ught Pacific. So we may ye t learn how the great wooden ports to New York, Collins had entered one of these fast packets ship we nt down , taking the lives of all of her 186 passengers and in the hotly competitive New York-to-Liverpool run . T hat ship , crew and endin g the brilliant but tragically flawed American entry the Shakespeare, did so well that he built three more like her, in the Atlantic steam liner sweepstakes.

Of co urse we cannot know how th e Collins Line might have named for English actors and playwrights. T he new "Dramatic Line" ships soon began rakin g business from eve n the fast big ships fa red had it not been for these devastating losses. We do know, however, that the new C unard liner Persia, a big iron steam er of America's famous Black Ball Line.

But C ollins, res tless, always looking for new opportunities, saw whi ch made her m aiden voyage in the very month in which the that the future lay with the rapidly- improvin g steamships th at Pacific made her las t voyage, dodged the numerous flo es that were were regularly cross ing the Atlantic as the 1850s opened-espe- prevalent in the North Atlantic that January (the floes that were cially the steamships of Samuel C unard's lin e, whi ch had a lo ng presumed to have sunk the Pacific), and later went on to beat decade's wo rth of operations under its belt by then and was the reco rds set by the hitherto unchallenged Collins Line. Backed steadily gaining ground. by the enormous resources and advanced technology of the Cunard had emigrated from Canada to Britain for access to flouri shing British economy, C unard took over leadership in the British capital and cutting-edge British techn ology, the forces that No rth Atlantic run. The Cunard Line went on to establish a made Britain the leading industrial and co mm ercial natio n of the dominance that survived challenges from German, French and world. The determin ed Canadian soo n found th e backing he other European interests, lasting on through the 1900s un ti!, in needed, includin g a handso me subsidy from the British govern- the 1960s, the ocean liner faded into history, leaving cruise ships ment, which also inves ted in steamers running to Spain , the to wander the ocean wo rld , seeking out island beaches and historic Mediterranean , and ultimately the Far Eas t in the same period . ports, while jet aircraft rook over the movement of passengers and Against this formidable co mpetition, Collins typ ically set fast freight across the Atlantic. H ere, of course, the new superabout his task with ships des igned to be simply the bigges t and the power of the wo rld, the United States, took over with a roar, and best-elega nt, even luxurious and above all, fas t. Larger than even the passage that had at first taken three months to make, which the the California clippers, th ese were fine-lin ed wooden vessels with sailing packers of the Black Ball Lin e cut down to four weeks and thumping great single-cylinder engines capabl e of driving them the Collins Line steam ers to ten days, becam e a matter of hours. across the sto rm y ocean in record tim es . And in 1851 hi s 2,845But the cities on each side of the ocean had grown up on the ton wooden stea mer Pacific set a lo ng-so ught record, crossing the slow, inelu ctable progress of the sailing ships, as had the essential Atlantic in und erten days. By the end ofl 851 fournearly identical exchanges of goods and people and ideas which nourished trade Collins ships we re m aking this run, co nsistentl y o utperforming between the distant shores.

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SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

A Cape H orn Down Easter boasting a main skysail picks up a tug in New York's East River in 1879, while a coasting schooner slips out onto this broad highway to the sea. The burgeoning wealth of Wall Street and a thousand rising businesses in America's leading city depend on these seaborne traffics in this era ofgrowth and development. (Painting by Carl G. Evers)

More basic facrors were involved in rhis srory, ir seems clear, rhan rhe sinking of the rwo Collins liners, sharrering as rhose losses were. A severe economic recession hi r the US in the later 185 0s, discouraging new capital invesrmenr. And the superior performance of C unard's new liner Persia showed rhe industrial prowess and rechnological progress of rhe Brirish, which the yo ung American rep ublic-srill a predominandy agrarian narion- was nor able ro march fo r rhe immediare furure. In any case, rhe ourbreak of rhe American Civil War in early 186 1 made moor any efforr ro compere wirh British liners while rhe all-consuming struggle for rhe survival of rhe Unired Srates as a continental power raged on.

America Grows by Sea, But Not in American Ships With rhe coming of peace in rhe spring of 1865, hisrorians have been accusromed ro remark, "America rurned its back on the sea."

A bener way to pur rhis may be to nore thar rhe power of rhe revived narional economy, backed by an industrial base builr up by war, wenr into building a nerwork of railroads across America, accom panied by an ever-in creas ing sreamboat traffic on rh e lakes and rivers rhar opened rhe co ntinental Un ited Scares ro serdement, farming and, ulrimarely, manufac ruring.

All rhis had an enormous effecr on rhe develo pment of rhe narional economy and sociery, nourishing rhe growrh of such inland ciries as C hicago, Pirrsburgh, Sr. Louis and Memphis.

T hese rail cen re rs were ried by efficient inland lake and ri ver rraffics ro rhe flouri shing coasral and oceanic commerce rhar conrinued to

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

bring America irs new peoples-reaching over a million a year in rhe l 890s-and giving our farms and factories access ro European and, indeed , wo rldwide markets on a growing scale.

No, Ame ri ca had nor rurned irs back on rhe sea! The processes described above depended in vital ways on the sea, as shown in the specracular growrh of New York ro become one of rhe grearesr seaporrs of rhe Adantic wo rld, and San Francisco ro become surely rhe grearesr seaporr in rhe Pacifi c wo rld.

And in rhese processes America, almosr wirhour knowing ir, became the leading industrial power of rhe world. Aro und 1900, Brirain's steel producrion was surpassed first by American and then by German steel production , with the US maintaining a growi ng lead . These developmenrs, hardly noticed in the halcyon final decades of rhe Pax Brirannica, we re to have wo rld-changin g consequences in rhe decades immediately ahead.

High wages paid in the abundant American economy changed American sociery, effecrively carrying forward rhe yeoman revolurion which had starred Britain on the road to oceanic supremacy beginning a lirde over 300 years earlier, in rhe time of Francis Drake. This development is often called the bourgeois revolurion by historians who wo rship ar rhe idolarrous alrar of "Economic Man. " But rhis ideological straw man has no place in rhe srorywe are fo llowing here. Ideologues who worship ar irs shrine, from Marx ro Lenin to John Reed to Jean-Paul Sarrre, have proved srunningly incapable of recognizing, much less anticiparing, rhe wo rld-changing effecr of rhe idea of common righrs assured by an

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evolving common law, or of common interests pursued by compromise and by what we in our language uniquely call common sense-a kind of folk wisdom , if yo u will , widely shared amon g peop le.

These shapin g developments, in Britain and America particularl y, stood the Western democracies in good stead in the extraordinary challenges they faced as the violent opening decades of the 1900s broke upon them in World Wars I and II , and in the stark threat of the Cold War in the second half of the century. It is interesting, and perhaps no accident, that the ocean-going steamship was developed out of the same system of ideas and practices that gave the West its societies based on freedom, for it was the steamship that welded what we began to call the Free World together in its struggle for survival in this century.

In the tremendous shift that occurred as the 1900s opened, with America achieving unprecedented industrial might while breaking new ground in education, social freedoms and econo mic opportunity, there was still not much call for American shipping in the sea lanes that now began to embrace the wo rld so effectively.

Partly this was due to technological backwa rdness and und erin ves tment in the field. W here Britain 's steam tonnage exceeded its still very large tonnage in sailing ships in 1885, in America this shift did nor rake place until 1905-this in a wo rld that by 1905 included electriclighr, subway trains, automobiles, and the W right brothers' first fluttery airplane.

A further barrier existed, ironically in the ve ry success of the American economy. High Ameri can wages had trapped American -flag shipping in competition with the shipping of other nations, including rhe British. Ameri ca had fa r outpaced Britain in opening opportunity to working-class people. T he British class system , once the wo rld's most open and just, had worked so well so long that it failed to adap t to change and simply became oss ified, despite the growth of the labor movement and other ameliorating developments. British seamen earned far less than

their American counterparts, and their effic ient coal-burning steel freighters carried ca rgo at costs far under what Am eri ca n ships and seamen could live on.

Valiant efforts we re made, however. In the coastal trades, and in the Cape Horn trade between East and West Coasts by way of Cape Horn, America continued to build and sail big wooden sailing ships. As all nati ons did with their trade, Americans in sisted that trade between Ame rican ports be carried in Am erican ships.

In additi on to this, a beginning was made in building competitive steel steam ers in the internati onal trade.

This effort centered around Philadelphia, on the banks of the Delaware River, which became known as "the American C lyde."

T he growing volume of steel ships built here was fin anced chiefly by the railroads which co nn ected the grea t city to the interior. T he railroads had the capital to build mul tiple ships, and they saw a market fo r a shipping line that would bring in immigrants from Belgium (not well served by British lines) and move them on inl and by rail, in a perhaps un conscious variation on Brunel's building iron ships to extend th e G rea t W estern Railway service across England, on ac ross the ocean to America. Other ships sailed from US ports to So uth American markets. But these were slim pi ckin gs co mpared with th e mass ive sea traffi c betwee n Liverpool and New York, or such wo rldwide routes as the India and C hina trades . C uriously enough, in a wo rld girdled by steam power, sailin g ships kept a place in the Californ ia-to-England grain trade, later succeeded by Australia-to-England trade-in which, as we'll see in our next, powerful steel sailing vessels competed until the mid-1900s.

W hen those real giants of American business, the New York magnates W.R. G race and J.P. Morgan, separately decided to get into oceanic steam transport in the late 1800s and early 1900s, G race did this by building his ships for the Sou th American run in Britain. Later, when ] . P. Morgan decided to build up a nearmonopoly in No rth Atlantic shipping, he simply bought up British shipping lines lock, stock and barrel-a radical move financed by the immense The Collins liner Baltic, built in 1850 in New Yo rk, plows through wealth he had generated by building and mountainous seas in a North Atlantic gale, proving the steamship buying up the railroads that now tied American take it-and cut the sailing packet's time in half or better. (New can citi es toge ther, and by the banking York City Partnership and Chamber of Commerce, I nc.) operations that financed the growth ofrhose cities-cities which were to change the destin y of America and the wo rld. * * * * * T he U nited States, born of the sea, grew great by sea in this period a hundred-odd years ago, though Britain, the country we'd broken away from anothe r hundred years earlier, carried most of our trade, and most of the rest of the wo rld's trade, as well. Bur still, well into this century now ending, yo ung Archie Horka, from Brooklyn, New York, found his way to sea in sail. And so did others, as we'll see in our next chapter, in what now seems to be a second coming of the sailing ship , born of a new respect for the hard-won lessons of the Cape Horn road.

1,

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SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

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A dugout fishing vessel known as a huri rests on the shore, with al-Hami as its backdrop.

by Edward Prados and David Warburton The authors visited the village ofal-Hami, a coastal town in Yemen, to learn about the remarkable way its citizens are working to preserve their traditional maritime culture. In the company of Yemeni archaeologist and historian Dr. Ahmad Bataya, they met with the men leading alHami's historic preservation efforts.

-Hami ('The Hor") in the Yemeni rovince of Hadhramaut ("The resence of D eath ") represents a wealth of South Arabian maritime knowledge and experience. Long before the coas tal road to al-Hami was built, long before aircraft whined overhead, and long before steamer funnels appeared in the offshore haze, camel caravans and graceful sailing dhows had charted the SouthArabian coas t.

While camels will always be associated with Arabia, the region 's maritime history is less well known. But the sea has played a pivotal role in Arabian and Yemeni life and was central to the life of every inhabitant in alH ami; even the lives tock of the region were-and still are- fed with dried sardines . One only need open the Qur'an to find passages emphasizing the sea's impor-

14

ranee to Arabs: "It is H e who has subj ected to you the ocean, so that you may eat of its fresh fish and bring up from its depths ornaments [pearls) with whi ch to adorn your persons . Behold the ships ploughing their course through its waters." (Al-Nahl, 16:1 3-14)

A Window into al-Hami's Past W e met in the home of Awadh Mafud Aman, an aging sailor. As we enj oyed the fresh sea breeze, H adhrami men filtered into the room: sailors, captains, pilots and merchants. The talk focused on trade and long-distance voyages, and the sailors told us of their routes, cargoes and vessels, and of their home, al-H ami. As the talk progressed, Awadh M afud reached into a drawe r and produced a collection of navigational instruments from the las t century, including compass, sextant, chronometer, and Admiralty charts .

Al-Hami 's ori gins remain uncertain.

The village probably developed as a small fishing community or way-station, gradually attaining some stature as an abode for active and retired mariners. M any of these seamen sailed out of neighboring al-Shihr,

the region 's emporium and major port for the W adi H adh ramaut.

T he merchants and sailors of the towns of the H adhramaut region played a vital role not only in Indian O cean trade, but also in spreading the message of Islam.

H adhrami sayyids, or descendants of th e Prophet Muhammad, fo llowing in his commercial and religious footsteps, filled their hearts with belief and their ships' holds with goods. Throughout the Indian O cean littoral, great H adhrami famili es maintain ed a vas t network of co ntacts, interactin g with th e local cultures, yet always maintaining their distinct identity. For hundreds of years, as the sons of th ese great families trave rsed the length and breadth of the Indian O cean basin, they brought Arab culture and Islam with them , and returned to Arabia's W adi Hadhramaut lad en with Indian, African and Indonesian influences.

It was also along the So uth Arabian coas t that the fam ed Arabian navigators learned, practiced and taught their trade.

The greatest ofrhesewas Ahmad Ibn Majid, originally from Sur, Oman. H e wro te over 40 works dealing with the science and applica tion of naviga tion; his greates t

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

Dhows no longer pass through al-Hami, but in the harbor ofAden Ma 'alla traditional vessels are sometimes seen, such as the magnificent Kuwaiti bum pictured here.

achievement was th e Kitab al-Fawa 'id (AD 1490). H ere, orga nized into twelvefa'idas or sections, is the accumulated knowledge of 4, 000 years of Arab seafaring, revealing the advanced astrono mical knowledge of Arab mariners, celestial navigation techniques, monsoonal sailing theo ry and co mpass points. The stark South Arabian coast was Ibn M ajid's backyard, and he charred in his mind every cape, every cove and every village.

Ano ther naviga tor, Sulaym an al-Mahri, wrote on the science of navigation, of which fi ve treatises survive. His m ost fa mous wo rk PH OTOG RA PH S AN D MAP BY TH E AUTHORS is the Fundamentals for the Mastering ofMaThe map shows rine Science (known as the Umda, AD 15 11 ). the coast of SAUDI ARABIA Acco rding to the O ttoman Admiral Sidi Yemen and the <:;:elebi , who himself wro te a treatise o n seaport towns navigatio n (ca. AD 155 0), al-Mah ri was that once sent from al-Shihr, less than twe nty miles wes t ships to I ndia ofal-H ami . Al-Mahri clarified and systemand Africa. ized Ibn M ajid's co ntributi ons to navigation; and, altho ugh almost fo rgotten in the YEMEN M iddle East, his works represented the Arabian zenith of Arabian navigatio nal theory.

Sea Even after the openin g of direct EuroÂŽ Ad en pean commerce in the Indian O cean, Arab ~ N comm erce-and al-H ami 's ro le in the Gulf of Aden ~ __,.,/ trade-continued busily. Although Po rtugal tried to subdu e the So uth Arabian coas t, SOMALIA including Aden and al-Shihr, "old" al0 150 ~ H ami was out of the range of Portugal's guns and influence. Even today, the town's te rm" dhow" is a general, Wes tern wo rd fo r referred to the first summ er sailing season traditio nal wedding dance recalls the town's the wooden sailing vessels of the Indian as the kaws m onsoo n; the secon d, as th e repulsio n of a Portuguese attack almost Ocean. Local sailors, however, know these damani m o nsoo n. T he dam ani season be500 years ago. Sa id Salem Bataya, an ances- vessels by their parti cular nam es, such as gan in m id-August-when the rains abated tor of our guide, Dr. Bataya, was th e great- sanbuq, baggala and ganja.) H adhrami m er- but the winds blew steadily-and was a est captain in the histo ry of al-H ami and chants ve ntured thousands of miles in their favorabl e rime for eastward sailing. During the coast. Bo rn in 1766, Bataya composed latee n-rigged craft. T hey trusted their lives the middle of the summ er (mid-M ay to his first pilot (sea guide) in 1802, describ- and livelih oods to the ships' h ull s, which mi d-August), the porrs oflndi a were closed ing the route from Saihut to Z injibar (bo th shipwrigh ts labo riously sewed toge ther, to shipp ing due to the swell generated by along the So uth Arabian coast). In 1805, plank by plank, with co ir thread m an ufac- the monsoon winds. Accordin g to Ibn he wro te a second pilo t tracing the ro ute tu red from the husks of coco nu ts.

Majid: "For these ninety days the sea is In th e era of sail , the mo nsoo n winds closed and he who wo uld cross rhem defrom Muscat, Om an, to Mocha, Yem en.

Ano ther fam ous 18th-century captain fro m were th e li fe blood of porrs such as al-Shih r serves to be unhappy. Fro m rhe ago ny of al-H am i,AwadhAhm ad bin Arwa, pil oted and al-H am i. Ibn Majid'swork reveals th at lonelin ess and remo rse, so much anxiety ships from memory even aft er he became Arab mariners had develo ped monsoonal and suffer ing." blind . Legend has it that he m aintained his sailing in to a refined science. Fun damental Dhows in Ind ia, the Bay of Bengal, and bearings because he co uld recog nize the to the practice of this science was the con- Straits of Malacca returned to th eir ho me odor of the so il from every part of th e So uth cep t of sa il ing departure win dows, or po rts in Arabia during the long, north east mawsim, which were shaped by the mon- (azyab) monsoo n (October-Apri l). T hose Arabian coast. soon winds of the Indian Ocean. D uring who had sailed to Afri ca often spent the the sum mer months, a stro ng, so uthwest winter trading along the coast, returning to The Dhow Trade T hroughout al-Hami 's histo ry-until the wind prevailed; however, voyaging by sail Arabia o nly with the first breezes of the lat ter half of the l 900s-local dhows sailed was only practicable d uring certain seg- so uthwest monsoon .

Ibn Majid wrote that a captain seathe trade routes of the Indian O cean . (The m ents of this m onsoo n. Arab mariners

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SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

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The land-bound mariners ofal-Hami are salvaging the vessels, instruments, skills, arts and history ofa seafaring heritage that is disappearing in the face ofpolitical and economic change, new sources ofoverland transportation and technological and structural changes in seaborne commerce. Above, a saiyya rests on the sand near al-Hami, a stage for local sailors to demonstrate their skills.

tioned at al-Shihr and bound for G ujarat, India, should leave al-Shihr aro und the seventh of April. He wo uld arrive off India ap proxim ately three weeks late r, ahead of the peak of the southwest monsoon and the closure of that region's ports. T he captain wo uld sell his cargo and buy return commodities as he waited out the monsoon .

Alternatively, the cap tain co uld sail aro und the third of September, hoping to beat the onset of the unfavora ble winds of the northeast monsoon . He co uld return as early as th e eighteenth of October, or as late as the eleventh of April , hoping to enco unter a few stray northeast breezes at the end of the northeast monsoo n. Ibn Majid cautioned, however, that "this date cannot be used at all except with difficulty."

Hadhrami m erchants took part in both local peninsular and deep-sea trade between ports in Arabia, Africa, India and Indonesia. In the coastal trade, they carried gyps um, textiles, honey, Basri dates, fish oil, dried fish and shark, salt and passengers. Vessels bound for India and Africa could carry any of these, as well as Arabian chests and Persian carpets. Favored African imports were foodstuffs, ambergris, tortoise shell, ivory, elephants, mangrove poles for building construction , and slaves . From Indi a, m erchants brought back pepper, rice, limes, dugo ut canoes and shipbuilding materials such as teak and coir.

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Old instruments, carefully preserved and proudly displayed (top right) and a shipboard bread oven are symbols ofthe life the local men once led.

The Dhow and Its People Despite its unruly appearance, dhow trading was organized and profitable. Rich merchants commissioned local shipwrights to build their ships and some merchants owned more than 30 vessels. In the town 's m ari time heyday, al-Hami'sshipsvaried in size and required anywhere from eight to thirty sailo rs. Aboard a typical large vessel, the supreme co mm ander was the captain, or nakhoda. The captain generally had one lieutenant, and beneath the lieutenant we re four helmsmen, the ship's carpenter, a rigger, the bookkeeper, the cook and two bread m akers. Seamen followed next, their number varying acco rding to the size of the ship. One o r two cabin boys were at the bottom of the maritime pecking order.

According to local mariner Ahmad Awadh Shandur, sailors such as himself often spent ten months a year at sea.

Sailing cargo vessels are now almost extinct, as diesel-powered inboards are fitted in all large, co ntemporary dhows. One may yet see rigging; however, seam en regard it as purely auxiliary. Dhows continue to call at the ports of South Arabia in everdecreasing numb ers; we saw a few at Mukalla (the second largest port in the south), and one moored off Saihut, in Yemen's easternmost province, al-Mahra.

The greatest number of dhows congregate at the harbor of Ma' all a, Aden, hundreds of

kilometers east of al-H ami . H ere, on a typical day, there is a small fleet ofYemen i sanbuqs, Indian and Pakistani kotias, Arabian G ulf jalbuts and, perhaps, a magnificent Kuwaiti bum.* Dhows no longer call at al-Hami and the Arabian Sea's pounding surf is slowly destroying the remains of the village's harbor walls. Conversations with Ahmad Awadh and his fe llow seafarers suggested that political changes undermined the traditions of this area and the livelihood of thousands who reli ed o n employment provided by these vessels. The advent ofMa rxism in so uth Yemen in the late 1960s, coupled with a strong trend towards modernization, changed the face ofSo uth Arabia and its villages.

Many sailors emigrated to other parts of Arabia to conti nue their employment in the dho w trade . A large number of H adhramis have since returned, but there are few prospects for work in the traditional trades . Goods continue to be transported up and down the South Arab ian *AUTHOR'S NOTE: Th is was the si tuation in 1994. During my most recent visit to Aden in 1999, however, there were no dhows to be found at the harbor. Th e reaso n fo r their absence may lie in the ongo ing reconstruction ofAden's longneglecred harbor and the relocation or elimination of dhow-based shipping there.

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

coast, but trucks and a coastal highway have rep laced the South Arabian coastwise trade. Steel freighters now dominate the ocean trade. Ahmad Awadh is currently a construction worker.

Desp ite such broad, systemic changes, al-Hami 's citizens vividly remember th e past and their village's role in it. To preserve their unique history, both for their own future generations and for those in the outside world, al-Hami boasts a small muni cipal museum, where traditional artifacts from the town's past are di splayed.

That is just the beginning, however, for the citizens of this forward- looking vi llage.

Several sons of al-Hami are preserving their maritime past in writing. Al-Shaykh Badr Ahmad al-Kassadi, deeply versed in trade, maritime folklore, and the sea man 's existence, dedicated his life to the sea in a special way. Imprisoned in the 1970s, he co mposed a dictionary of Arab seafaring (Al-Qamus al-Bahri), identifying all the terms connected with nautical activities and the parts of boats. Kassadi died before the manuscript could be readied for publication, and his work was entrusted to Muhammad Abdul-Qadir Bamatraf, who likewise passed away before he could complete the task. While the manuscript still awaits publication, Ahmad Muhammad Baabad, th e so n of a sea captain, has starred to pm together a small archive of materials, including documents, route descriptions, poetry, and working rules for boats and ports.

The sa ilors of al-Hami also preserve their nautical lore in song and dance. According to Toufic Kerbage, in The Rhythms ofPearl Diver Music in Qatar, th ere are two main forms of music found throughout Arabia: maritime and bedouin. The former is far more co mplicated and intricate and , ultimately, less adaptable to modern Arabia.

Chameys are inextricably linked to their milieu. Today, maritime music is all but extinct. Al-Ham i's sai lors have moumed an effort to preserve that aspect of Arabia's culture as well. In cooperation with Yemeni cultural authorities, they have staged their "Sea Dance," a mixmreof traditional dance, music and lore, to packed venues in Yemen, even in the coumry's landlocked, mountainous ca pi ta! , Sana' a. Their culture is thus witnessed by those who might never experience it, and their performances are recorded for posterity.

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

A Gift for the Future The magnificent ce merpi ece of al-Ham i's nautical preservation efforts is an incip ient maritime museum at the eastern edge of town. AJ-Hami 's sailors took us to th is site as the sun began to dip toward the horizon.

There, gleaming in the burnished rays of the setting sun, was a splendidly refitted saiyya-a transo m-sterned, doub le-masted sailing vessel. The sh ip stood alone, rigging at the ready, blocks o iled and rudder

ho ist the ya rd and turn the vessel, sa ns sails.

Arab laree ners rarely tack; they "wear," or mm almost 360 degrees with their stern to the wind. T he simulated wea rin g maneuverwas a lo ud and laborio us process. Sho uting, unhooking sh ro uds, and runnin g hither and thither, the sailors at fi rst ap peared disorgan ized, but soo n settl ed in to th e proper rhyth m. As the blocks' sheaves squealed in pro test, the sailo rs sang chanteys, the words of which have pro bably no t been hea rd at sea fo r a gen eratio n. W hen rhe commotion had died down , the yard was on the other side of the raked mas t, the shrouds had been shi fre d to the opposing side, and the mari ners smiled co ntentedly.

A Last Glance

As the last rays of sun sparkled over the bow,

Sailors simulate a wearing maneuver for the authors, shifting the lateen-rigged sail to port. mounted, resting in two co ncrete cradles, bow pointed toward the becko ning waters of the Arabian Sea. The sailors proudly produced a ladder, and we climbed aboard the fifteen-meter vessel. They again began to describe their great routes of sail: from Hadhramam to Basra to Calicut to Mombasa. Sailors slept on and amidst the cargo; the only clear space was the poop deck (in the stern quarter) where the captain maintained his spo t along with the small sea chests each sai lor possessed. The sa ilors showed us the hearth, identical to those found in any Bedouin encampment, with a teapot set amongst twigs placed on sand and encircled with stones.

We pressed the sai lors to show us how to

we clambered down and remrned toAwadh Mafud's ho use. T he group related how, fo llowing their return from the Persian G ulf, they had o rga ni zed and fo rm ed the Yemen Society for the Maritime, Popular, and Tech nical Ans. It was they who, with their meager salaries and large families, had purchased this 25-year-old vessel, bro ught it by sea to al- H ami, repaired it, and fi ned the rigging and masts. T hey hope in the near future to erect a permanent m useum bui ldi ng to house their nautical arti facts and to display educati onal exhibits.

Unfort un ately their preservationist zeal is not shared. As with all developing nations, history rakes a d istant back seat to infrastructural and eco no mi c development, and today, o ne mag nificent saiyya persists, barding the sea ring heat and ti re less sun in this remote South Arabian village.

From the dista nce, th is village ofl 2,000 inhabitants appears as yet another poo r Arabian Sea fish ing comm un ity. But as we left and it sli pped out of sight, we knew that it was a village with a place in A rab histo ry and a sense of that hi story. In al-H ami people sti ll enjoy memo ries oflives as sail ors, memories they hope to p reserve befo re they are forever lost, as the wo rld rushes head long into the thi rd m illennium . .t Edward Prados conducted research in Yemen ftom 1993 to 1994 under the auspices of a Fulbright Grant. He has recently returned to Yemen where he resides and works as a consultant. David Warburton served as Resident D irectorofthe American Institutefor Yemeni Studiesftom 1991to1994 .

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MUSEUM OF THE ISSUE

A Look at the Herreshoff Marine Museum

by Shelley Reid

The NMHS Annual Meeting was held this year at the Herreshojf Marine Museum in Bristol, Rhode Island. NMHS was right at home here, as the Herreshojf Manufacturing Company represents a long and significant chapter in our boating heritage. Leading player in the history of the company was Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, universally known as Captain Nat. The "Wizard of Bristol" left a legacy of eight defenders of the America 's Cup, as well as naval vessels, daysailers, and power cruisers. o rn in 1848 to a fam il y ofyachr enthusias rs and innovators (eld esr bro rher James was an inve ntor who develo ped bakin g powder and a rhread tensio ner for sewing m achines) Nathanael G reene H erreshoff developed the skills earl y in life that would make him a legendary des igner and boatbuilder. Nat's o lder brother John Brown H erreshoff, or]. B., we nt blind at rhe age of fifteen, and yo ung Nat assisted his brother in the pursuits that J . B. had developed before he los t his sight; Na t guided his brother's hands in ]. B.'s machin e shop, and at th e render age of rwe lve he was steering ] . B. 's boat in races .

After hi s graduarion from MIT and a stint as a des igner for rhe Co rliss Steam E ngine Co mpany, Na t jo in ed J . B.'s boarbuilding busin ess in Bristo l, Rhode Island , as full partner in 1878. ]. B. kept the boo ks, and Na t oversaw design and constructio n, which at the time consisted primarily of steam yachrs and engines. Nar's expert des igns and craftsmanship andJ . B.'s careful bookkeeping m ade for a successful combination , and the company did not wa nt for o rders, even in the earl y years. T hey manufactured steam engines, vessels for mili tary use, including the spar torpedo boat for the US Navy, and steam yachts.

Nat was always des igning, and always lookin g fo r ways to improve on des igns; he is credited with the first use of crosscu r sa ils and other innovarions. H e was a prolific boat designer; the wall s of his mod el roo m are covered with more than 500 half models of his des ign . His achievem ents, and the presti ge of des igning eight America's C up defenders, gave the company a lo ng, sue-

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cessful histo ry. T he H erreshoff Manufacturing Co mpany stayed in fa mily hands until 1924, and co ntinued under the ownership of the H affe nfeffe r fa mily wirh the same skilled staff until 194 5.

A Museum Takes Root In 1971 Captain Nat's oldest son,A. Sidney D eWolfHerreshoff, and hi s wife, Rebecca C hase H erreshoff, we re faced with an opportuni ry clo thed in a dilemma. Dan Newhall, owner of the H erreshoff-built Thania, a 60-foot power cruiser, had bequeathed the boat to the H erreshoffMaririme M useum . Bur there was no H erreshoff museum to receive the bequest. Inspired by the gift , the fa mil y fo unded the H erres hoff Mari ne Museum to showcase the Thania and the fa mily's vast collectio n of When he was eighteen, young Nathanael H erreshojfsailed the artifacts of the histo ry and Violet, built after one ofhis own models, in a trial run and Lost achievements of the leg- the race. Nat promptly took up an ax and destroyed Violet s endary H erreshoff Man u- model, so that no other boats would be built after that design. fact uring Company. For The yachts that had been built using that model, however, were six yea rs Thania served as a successful and quite satisfactory to their owners. H erreshojfin flo ating museum , visiting Later years explained that this incident taught him the virtue of ports and welco ming vis i- patience. That model is the only one absent from the Model tors aboard to see H erres- Room. Top : photo of Nathanael Herreshojf in 1920, by hoff craftsmanship fi rst- Bachrach. (Courtesy H erreshojfMarine Museum) hand. In 1977 the co llecrion was displayed in its first indoor mu- modeling and metalwo rkin g too ls. T he seum , and in 1985 the Herreshoff Marine H erreshoffs designed from half-models, M useum acquired rh e site and bui ld ings of using a machin e that Captain Nat develthe for mer manufacturing company, where oped to read offsets directly from a model the growing co llectio n co uld be displayed to make fu ll -scale boars. The collection in the wo rkshop setting so crucial to the boas ts 535 of these half- models. In 1992 H erreshoff tradition . the.America's C up H all ofFame was added A main building, constructed on the site to ho nor th e people and vessels of the of the H erreshoff Manufacturing Com- spo rting wo rld's o ldes t troph y. Today the pany, houses the Hall of Boats , Rebecca H all of Fame has 35 members and its C hase H erreshoffLibrary, the Board Room , impressive coll ectio n includes the 1992 th e Model Room, and the Aria Gallery. Internatio nal C up-class yacht Defiantalon g T he fa mily ho mes tead, seve n former com - with numerous important artifac ts such as pany buildings, and the company water- wheels from I ntrepid and Columbia an d a front complete the museum comp lex. Visi- full model of America. .t to rs get a feel for the working environment in a recreation of Natha nael H erreshoffs The H erreshojfMarine Museum, 7 Burnside model room and wo rkshop, housing his Street, Bristol RI 02809; 401 253-5000

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

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Coronet is racing at her peak in "Reaching OffSoundings: The Schooner Yacht Coronet," by artist john Mecray, a founder ofthe I nternational Yacht Restoration School.

A

ugust 17, 1885 was a launching day at the shipya rd of C. and R. Poillon in Brooklyn, New York.

On the ways was a black-hulled schooner, newly- built for New York industrialist Rufus T. Bush. H e had consulted with a number of designers to create his new yacht, soliciting proposals in the form of half models whi ch he then co nsidered at leisure in his New Yo rk townhouse. The design he favored had then been further evolved by experienced seamen and shipbuilders such as Captain C hristopher Crosby, who wo uld sail her for Bush and a successio n of owners, and William Townsend, Superintendent of the Poillon yard .

Bush made a w ise choice in having her built at Poillon 's, for th ey had an excellent reputation for yachts and working vessels.

Bush th en selected a name for his new schooner yacht, alth ough, according to the New York H erald, he found it difficult "to select a name having euphony, strength and proper significance that has not already been taken. " For a time thinking of cal lin g her Ocean Queen, he settled after some deliberation o n the name she wo uld bear throughout her long life: Coronet.

T he schooner was built for offshore

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

cru1s1ng, and her model was that of th e seaworthy pilot schooners which kept station in all weather off many ports in the latter half of the l 800s. lt was a good model for a crui sin g yacht, though som e in the sporting press, eager for evidence of advancement in the em erging science ofyacht design, complained that she was simply a workboat with a fancy interior and was somewhat old-fashioned.

Her laun ching day found her dressed in fl ags, and a journalist from the H erald proclaimed that the new schoo ner yacht looked fir "enough for a bride of the old gray sea."

Gracie Beard, identified on ly as "a yo ung maiden," did the business with the champagne, and the schooner slid down the ways laden with "th e elite of Brooklyn. " Her construction had been the subj ect of som e interest, for she was a substantial yacht, m easuring 133 feet overall, and her reported cost of $70,000 was a cons iderable sum in the late 1880s. At a time when yachting affairs occupied a much more promin ent place in daily journalism than they do today, the Herald and The New York Times had fea rnred regular progress reports on her co nstruction and coverage of her laun ching. After firrin g-o ur and tri-

als, she wo uld go on to make several cruises, flying both her owner's private signal and rhe burgee of the New York Yacht C lub, of whi ch Bush was a member. Two years later she wo uld come to the attention of rhe press again as the victo r over Caldwell C olt's renowned schooner Dauntless in a stormy transAdantic race in March of 1887.

No one who was presenr at her launch or who sailed aboard her during those early years could possibly have imagined, however, wha t Coronet's most lasting claim to fame would be.

That is, simply, that sh e has endured and is sti ll with us today. O ve r the last 11 4 years, Coronet has voyaged through well over 200,000 miles of open ocean , weathered counrless storms, fought her way aro und Cape Horn , made headlines, faded back into obscurity and felt the tread of countless crew and passengers upon her spacious decks. She has ably carried o ut all the duties that were asked of her, whether the pursuit of pleasure and relief from the pressures of business, a scienrific expedition to view an eclipse of the sun or a glo begirdling mission of prayer and eva ngelism.

She has outl as ted all of the yachts she ever sailed with or against, beco ming by her

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The real thing: the Co ronet crew works with the mainsail during the stormy 1887 transAtlantic race against Caldwell Colt's D auntless (formerly owned by James Gordon Bennett, see p ages 23-27). (Photo: Royal Yacht Squadron)

survival fa r mo re significant than she ever co uld have beco me by winnin g races in her own time. Coronet is important because she still is.

114 Years Afloat And what is she? She is a marvelously well preserved example of a late-19 th-ce ntury ge ntl eman's yacht. She co mes from an important peri od in yachting history, when des igners and builders we re beginning to marry the analytical power of scientifi c calcul atio n and design theory to what lo ng experi ence had taught th em. She was solidly built in a wooden shipbuilding tradition extending back hundreds of yea rs.

Coronet has served all her owners well.

She was the pride and joy of seven yachtsmen: Rufus T. Bush (188 5-89); Art hur E. Bateman (1890-9 1); John D . W ing (189 193); Arthur C urtis James (1893- 98); Fred S. Pearson (1898-99); John I. Waterbu ry (1899- 1901 ); and Louis Bossert (190 105) . In 1905 she was purchased by Th e Kingdom, a nondeno min ati o nal Bib lestudy group founded by Frank W . Sandford.

H eadquartered at Shiloh, near Durham, M aine, the gro up owned a success io n of vessels, bur it was Coronet that served them

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longest. She performed fa ithfully for them for an extraordinary 90 yea rs, makin g rwo trips to the Holy Land, a circumn avigation and a voyage to northern waters, as well as many shorter trips in her later years. In a reco rd un precede med in th e annals of yacht ing, she has been continuously afloat and in service for the 11 4 yea rs since she was launched.

H er adve ntures wo uld fill a book and, indeed, they already have. H er owners and passe ngers co mributed their stories of life on board to Coronet Memories, which was published in 1899 . O ne yea r earlier Mabel Loomis Todd, the wife ofas tronomer D avid P. Todd, published Corona and Coronet, an acco unt of the Am herst Eclipse expedition which traveled aboard Coronet to Japan to observe the total ecl ipse of the sun in 1896, when she was owned by James. In 1998 Timothy F. Murray, himself captain of Coronet for T he Kingdom and son of a Coronet captain , pub lished a history of th e ship which rakes her from her launching umil the dare o n whi ch , one hundred years later, sh e was donated to the International Yacht Res toration Schoo l (IYRS), a nonprofit gro up in New port, Rhode Island , where smdem s learn the skills, history and

related sciences involved in the restoratio n and maimenance of classic yachts.

Artists have depicted her, too , from M arshall Johnson and Antonio Jaco bsen in the 19th ce ntury, to John Mecray, who has co mpleted three wo rks sin ce 1980 and in 1983 established the first fund to preserve th e yacht. She was also captured in her prime by such well -known photographers as Nathaniel Stebbins, Beken of Cowes and Mo rris Rosenfeld .

T he ship is now docked at IYRS, where imensive preparations are und e1way for her resto ratio n. Ar the end of 1998, she was hauled from the wa ter at American Shipya rds in Newport. C lose in spection revealed her origin al ye ll ow pin e bottom planking, which dates from her co nstruction in 1885, to be in good shape, so me of the pl anks measuring 15" wide and nearly 45 ' long. Seam s were re-caulked, throughhulls plugged and a layer of rubber roo fin g membrane was added below the waterline as a short-term precautionary measure.

Staff from Mystic Seaport Museum, using their electroni c di stance measuring system , took a set of hull lines to document her as- found conditi o n. Th ese wi ll be co mplemem ed by inboard drawings show-

SEA HISTORY 89, SU MMER 1999

Rich appointments that remain include this folding washbasin (top) and berth in the owners stateroom. (Photos: Onne van der Wal)

Histo ric photographs, such as this one ofCoroner s main saloon during the 1890s, are valuable tools far the team restoring the yacht to the appearance ofher glory days. (Photo: Mabel Loomis Todd, Corona and Coroner)

ing bulk.heads, joinery and rhe configurarion of va rious spaces. So much of Coronet's historic inrerior survives rhar she is reall y rwo resto rarion proj ecrs: rhe specificall y maririme as pecrs of her hull , deck and ri g-no small proj ecr in and of rh emselves-a nd rh en everyrhin g below decks .

T hese spaces, wirh rh eir raised-panel mahogany joinery, carvi n gs, mirrors and sra ined glass, presenr a challenge li ke rhar of an historic house resrorarion. To resro re rhese areas, sa mples of painr and woodwork will be microscopically exam ined ro dererm ine rh eir hi sroric finish es and colors. Accounrs wrirren by owners and passe nge rs will be srndied for clues as ro her o ri gin al furnishin gs and arra nge m enrs and for derai ls of miss ing irem s, such as rh e hearing stove from rhe main saloon. D ecorar ive p ieces, such as rhe srained glass win dows from rhe doo rs inro rhe m ain saloo n, will be restored by experr crafts m en. Sri ll orher componenrs, including her grand mahoga ny and marble compan ionway sraircase and disrincrive skylighrs, w ill have ro be reco nsr ru cred from phorographs.

W h en she is ful ly resro red , Coronet w ill o nce aga in sa il, rakin g all who boa rd her for a memorabl e voyage from rh e early yea rs of rhe nexr mi lle nnium inro rhe larre r years of rhe 1800s. T har momenr is srill several yea rs, rhousands of hours of wo rk, and a grear deal of money away.

In rhe mean rime, visirors can board rhe

vessel during summer monrhs and warc h as sraff and volunreers make ca refu l prepararion s for rhe resrorarion . T hey can srand on her d ecks and imagin e w here sh e has been an d wh ar her passengers and crew h ave seen. T hey can also walk inro Resrorar ion H all ar rh elnrernarional Yacht Resro rar ion School and see rhe nex r ge nerar io n ofski lled crafrsmen lea rn their trade as th ey resrore orher classic yachrs.

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john Summers is Project Curator far the International Yacht Restoration Schools restoration o/Coro ner.

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CORONET INFORMATION Launched: A ugust 17 th, 1885 Rig: Schoo ner Purpose : Yachr D es igners: Smirh & Terry; W illiam Townsend; C hrisro pher Crosby Bui lder: C. & R. Po illo n, New York LOA: 133' LWL: 128' Sparred Lengrh: 189' Beam: 27' Drafr: 12' Sa il Area: 8,305 squ. feer Fram es: Sawn W hire Oak Topsides Plankin g: White Oak Botro m Pl ankin g: Yellow Pin e Ceiling: Yell ow Pine D ecks: Whire Pine Fasrenings: Treenai ls

The Coroner on her way to the International Yacht Restoration School in 1995. (Photo: Daniel Foster)

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

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Jatnes Gordon Bennett Leads Yachting onto the TransAtlantic Scene

by Queene Hooper Foster (

Newspaper tycoon James Gordon Bennett was ofthe flamboyantly wealthy class that figu,red so prominently in setting the pace for society in the last century. Bennett, an avid and skilled yachtsman, used his bully pulpit, the New York Herald, to promote yachting andyacht racing in thepublic rye. The author

led an evening recounting Bennett's life story (excerpted here) at the N ew York Yacht Club on 17 September 1998. The event was held, appropriately, in the Yacht Club's Model Room, which boasts many examples ofthe boats with which Bennett set and defended racing reco rds.

ames Gordon Bennett, Jr., so n of th e fo under and p ublisher of th e New York H erald, was groo med to be a publisher.

T h ro ughout h is lo ng life he bus ied himself in fi nding ways to spend th e la rgest ass ured inco m e in Ameri ca (with the possible exception ofWilliam B. Astor's and Commodore Vand erbilt's fo rtun es) fo r the benefi t of the paper and himself, perhaps no t in thatord er. Considered a dandy, a ryrant, and the first exa mple of the horrors of the Gilded Age, he was also a devo ted newspaperman, whose evety fo ible and deed of bravado were designed to make, if not headlines, at least goo d co py for hi s n ews pape r.

Bennett was also a consummate amateur sportsman in th e old sense of the word, a lover of the gam e. H e was a great yachtsm an and a pro minent member and Commodore of the New Yo rk Yacht C lub .

Portrait off ames Gordon Bennett painted in 19 04 by Father and so n took pains to Julian Story (Courtesy of the New York Yacht Club) associate the paper and its opinions with their own nam es . Both men thrived ceived a 77-to n centerboard sloop named on controversy and o n personal anecdo te, Rebecca. He raced that year, 1857, in the favorab le or not, and we re not tro ubled by Annual C ruise of the N ew Yo rk Yacht reve rsals of opinion o r inconsistencies, large C lub, and must have handl ed him self and or small. As Bennett, Sr. replied when his crew of22 well, because he was elected accused offlip-fl opping in his edi to rials, "I to m embershi p when the captains met o n pri nt my paper every day. " board the fl agship on the event's Lay Day Bennett, Jr. was bo rn with a silver spoon in New Bedford, Massachusetts. H e remai ns and lived to turn it in to a golden spoon. H e the yo ungest member ever admi tted, at age was se nt to France at an earl y age with his 16 years and 3 m onths. Rebecca is recorded m other and sister Jeanette to be educated at or near the top of the racing res ul ts o n by tuto rs because New Yo rk treated Ben- m any occasions up until 186 1, tho ugh not nett, Sr. ro ughly. Even with Mrs. Bennett witho ut controversy and p ro tests. alo ng, there wo uld be jeers o n the streets of At a priva te dinn er at th e fa mil y manlower Manhattan when the family went sio n in Was hington H eights in Ap ril 1861, out. Bennett, Sr. ke pt a large arsenal of Benne tt, Sr. ass ured H enry Villard that the weapons hidden behind the panels of his Herald wo uld henceforth stand solidly beoffice on Ann Street and Broadway and was hind Abraham Lincoln and the No rth in often besieged there by cro wds o utside. th e co ming fu ry. T his was a reve rsal of For his sixteenth birthday, Jam es re- recent editorials, but it would hold through-

J

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

" out th e C ivil War; the paper va ulted to the top of its gam e in its war coverage. During that dinner the fa ther also offered his so n's new 225-ton schooner Henrietta to the Revenue C utter Service, and Pres ident Lincoln m ade Bennett, Jr. a thi rd lieutenant.

Bennett we nt to sea almost imm ediately and roa med the coast in his country's se rvice fo r a year. During this year at sea in Henrietta, Bennett becam e quite a good sailor and am ateur naviga to r, skills which he was to exercise fo r the rest of his â&#x20AC;˘ life. He developed a great respect for th e p ro fessional sailo r and a deep commitment to a life at sea, though not the li fe of an ordinary sailor. H e was back in New York for the summ er social season in 1962 and joined the N ew York Yacht C lub Annual C ruise in August, whi ch co nfined itself to the waters of New Yo rk H arbor and the So und.

After this wartime service, he returned to his hi gh sociery circles and lunch at D elmoni co' s, spending evenings at the Union Club. O nce, while at D elmonico's , he and his fri end heard a fire alarm ; Benn ett das hed outside in his evening clothes, where he began to direct the firefighting operatio ns. H e made such a nuisance of himself that one fire company turned the firehose o n him , and sent him sprawling.

The next day h e called his drinking companio n in to hi s office and asked him, "What did I do las t nigh t?"

"M ade a foo l of yo urself," was the frank reply. "You interfered with the firemen by trying to tell them how to do their work, abo ut which they know a good deal more than yo u do."

"Order a rubber overcoat for every m an in the department" said Bennett. "Send me the bill. I was never so wet in my life."

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The H erald exhorted "our smooth water gentry" to "trip anchors and start out on a cruise on blue water. ... Get offyour soundings, trust your sea legs for a while, reciprocate the visits of your English cousins, visit your own coast, go to South America, try Europe, call on the Sultan; or ifyou have got the pluck, circumnavigate the world, then come home and write a book. It will perpetuate y our memory, reflect luster on your deeds, and redound to the honor ofyour country. "fa mes, f r. led the way and was the only owner to sail with his yacht to England in the first Great Ocean Race in December 1866 The start of that race is depicted here in a painting by john E. C. Peterson. (Collection ofthe New York Yacht Club)

The First TransAtlantic Race During a late evening at the Union C lu b in 1866, Bennett fell to boasting with his fri ends about the relati ve merits of their new yachts. Pierre Lori ll ard had a new centerboard schoon er, Vesta, Franklin Osgood had his deep and narrow Fleetwing, and Bennett was eager to pit hi s skills in H enrietta against the others.

Large stakes were menti oned: $3 0,000 to enter the race, much more than the cost of the yachts, w inn er rake all ; the stakes rose to $60 ,000. These were the largest stakes in any sporting evem even well into the next cenwry, and they we re shockin g.

As John Rousmaniere wro te in The Golden Pastime (New York, 1986), the first impu lse ofYachr C lub Commodore William H . M cVickar was to " refuse to have the name of the New York Yacht C lub sullied with what promised to be a casteless co mbination of overheated stakes and big commerce." He was eve ntuall y persuaded to reverse his decision and agreed to be the official judge.

Thus, the first Great Ocean Race we nt forward. Rousmani ere writes: Bennett indelibly made his yachting reputation after the war ended, when he was the only owner to sail in one ofthe strangest and most tragic events in the history ofyachting, the race in December of 1 866 from New York to the Isle of Wight, England, for stakes of$60, 000.

To command their vessels, the owners hired the best captains they could find. D ick Brown, Americas skipper when she won the Hu ndred Guinea Cup, signed aboard Fl eetwing but proudly quit three days before the start because, for some reason, he was listed below Albert Thomas, the navigator, on the vessels clearance papers; Thomas took over the command in fact as well as name. On Vesta, there was George Dayton, an experienced, cautious square-rigger captain and father of seventeen; and there was twentyyear-old George Lorillard, sent along by his brother to keep an eye on Dayton. The real coup was Bennetts. For a fee of $7,500 he brought on the great Samuel Samuels, holder ofthe transAtlantic record under sail in the clipper Dreadnought. D apper and calm on first acquaintance, Samuels had in thirty

24

years at sea honestly earned the nickname "Bully, " and was guaranteed to drive his men, his yacht, and himself to their limits.

Each skipper signed up a crew of twentytwo-no easy recruiting task because of the combination of December and competition, either one of which alone might have been tolerable to a professional seaman but both of which together made even strong men think of a warm fire and afamily Christmas. Samuels, in fact, may have lived up to his nickname too soon, for H enrietta s crew walked offthe job a few days before the start of the race and, according to one newspaper, "their places had to be supplied by a lot oflandlubbers, few of whom could climb a mast. " The threeyachts slipped their tows, set sail, andfinally started to a hail ofcannon fire and cheers at }PM, December 11, 1866, rapidly broad-reaching away on the strong westerly that would hold for almost the entire race.

The breeze gradually built to a grim, cold, snowy gale. . . . After a week of hard but controlled two-hundred-plus-mile-days, the yachts were out of sight of each other but running bow to bow when the southwest gale boiled over on December 18. Wave after wave swept H enrietta, running at nine knots under forestaysail and double-reefedforesail.

She took so much water below through her deadlights that Samuels had the ships carpenter drill holes in the cabin sole to drain the wash into the bilge. Early that night, a huge breaker dropped on her, stove in a boat, and squeezed so much ocean through her deck seams and ports that the already nervous carpenter went berserk and began babbling that theyachtwas breaking up. The icily calm Bennett and Samuels keptpanicfrom spreading among their inexperienced crew . ...

The brunt ofthe storm was borne, tragically, by Fleetwing. At about nine on the night ofthe eighteenth, just after the change of watch, a wave knocked her over until her upper shrouds lay in the sea and water covered her main companionway. The two helmsmen and six men huddling in the exposed cockpit were knocked overboard so violently that the helmsmen s tight grips took some wheel spokes with them. Two men saved themselves by grabbing some rigging, but the other six were Lost for good. Down below, the sailing master

â&#x20AC;˘

and mate crawled along the side of the knocked-down hull, forward to and up through a small companionway. They made their way aft, where they were greeted by the grim sightofthe empty cockpit and the mangled steering wheel. The survivors hove-to for five hours and searched fruitlessly for their Lost shipmates. Finally giving up, they set as much sail as the dying storm would allow them to carry and gloomily resumed racing on a track to the south of their competitors. Not until 1377, one hundred and eleven years Later, when a French sloop with seven men aboard would disappear off Marseilles, would so many sailors be lost in a yacht race.

Vesta endured the gale by scudding northeast before it, possibly because Captain Dayton felt that the centerboarder lacked sufficient stability to heave-to safely. During the night she unknowingly crossed H enrietta s

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

wake and soon passed her-a success that, had it been known, might have eased tensions in Vestas afterguard. ... At soon be.fore dawn Christmas morning, after almostfourteen days and three thousand miles ofsailing, the three boats were separated by less than seven hours.

None of this was known to the comp etitors, who had not seen each other since soon after the start. Only when a pilot scrambled aboard H enrietta, gawking at the cloud of sail she was carrying despite the small gale, did Bennett and Samuels learn that they were first. At three forty-five on Christmas afternoon she swept by the Needles, having covered three thousand one hundred six miles (only forty miles more than the great circle distance, so good was Samuels' navigation) in a very good thirteen days, twenty-one hours, fiftyfive minutes. H er best days run was a whopping two hundred eighty miles, and her aver-

SEA HI STO RY 89, SUMMER 1999

age days run of two hundred twenty-three m iles gave her a mean speed ofnine and three tenths knots.

W hen Benn err return ed from this adventure, he seemed ready ro ass um e rhe rei ns of power. H e had had a royal audi ence with Queen V icto ria, did much ro repair the strained relatio ns with E ngland after rhe C ivil Wa r, hi s repo rters had employed the new u ansArlantic cable ro transmit instant race results back ho me, and he returned as so mething of an Ameri can hero.

T he elder Benn err moved imo rhe backgro und . Father and so n li ved rogerh er o n lower Fifth Aven ue and at their estate at 18 l st Srreet, while the paper earn ed a new fort une fo r rhem every yea r. W hen Bennett Sr. died in 1872, his fe llow jo urnalists gave him rhe highest poss ibl e prai se in rhe o ther New Yo rk papers.

Bennett Jr. at the Reins Benn err's inco me of roughly a million do llars a yea r was co nsidered robe "an inexhaustible suppl y of m oney." Once in hi s Paris aparrmenr he was so annoyed by a large ro ll ofbill s rhar interfered wirh rhe use of hi s pocket rh ar, in a fir, he tossed rh e bundle into rhe fireplace. O ccasion all y he moved through res rauram s pulling off th e tablecloths on bo th sides of the aisle and crunching rhe crockery under his foot. The next day a handso me bill wo uld appear at his offi ce, ro be pro mptly paid. H e laid a check fo r $ 100,000 at the fo ot of his nephew's cradl e. H e made donatio ns of $ 100,000 fre quently ro charities of all so rrs-ro Irish fa min e relief o r ro a "Free Ice Fund " fo r th e tenements in Lower Ma nhattan fo r hot wea ther relief.

So fa r as Bennett could make it, the New

25

Bennett promoted many gentlemanly sports. He threw his support behind not only schooner racing, but steam yacht racing, ballooning, pugi1ism, and auto racing.

York H erald was a one-man shop. In the misuse of a nautical term in any article Paris office, this was especial ly the case. "I could get the author into deep trouble. want yo u fellows to remember," he once Bennett beli eved in the sporrs pages and said to his executive staff, "that I am the promoted many gentlemanly sports. He only reader of this paper. I am the only one threw his support behind not only schooto be pleased. If I want it to be turned ner racing, but steam yacht racin g, balupside down, it must be turned upside looning, pugilism , and auto racing. Each down. I want one feature article a day. Ifl of these sports had a Bennett C up , some of say the feature is to be black beetles, black them still in co mpetition. H e practiced the beetles it's going to be." now-lost sport of coaching and wo uld asHe was a holy terror to his staff, and ton ish his neighbors by riding through their fortunes rose and fell according to his their gardens with a coach and four, at whim. Once while steaming through Nice midnight, naked. On ce he drove under a on Namouna (called "Pneumonia" by his low stone arch in Paris and knocked himeditors) Bennett persisted in a course to self out, remaining in the hospital for sevram a US man-of-war, which was in the eral weeks. wrong place in his view. When his able Another sport Bennett introduced into secretary oflong standing tried to dissuade the US was polo. In 1878 he brought over Bennett, he was demoted and had to rake a the entire British polo team to demonstrate job with H earst. the sport. At one point he encouraged, by He once summo ned a reporter to Paris, means of a wager, a young English team bur the editor-in-charge demurred, cabling member, one Co lonel Candy, to rake his that the man was "indispensable. " Bennett pony up the stairs in the famous Reading sent for a list of men who were presumed to Room in Newport. For this Candy was be in this class. A dozen names were for- denied membership in th e Reading Room warded. He discharged them all. and, in a huff, Bennett built the Casino on N aturally his staff had studied his hab- Bellevue Avenue, the first sports complex. its, and it was observed that he sometimes Apparently the turn of a horse's hoof can judged men in his office by how his favorite still be seen at the top of the stairs.

As a publish er, Bennett had a good dogs reacted to them . One Irish reporter was summoned to London in disfavor, bur sense, well ahead of his time, of news as before he entered Bennett's offices he entertainment. There are two famo us expinned a slice of raw liver to the inside of amples of expeditions sent out by the Herhis topper and held the hat firml y against ald, in search of adventure, to be reported his chest. His boss received him coldly, but as front page scoo ps by H erald reporters. the pups swarmed around him , and the Ace reporter H en ry Morron Stanley, born interview proceeded with every evidence of John Rowlands and raised in an orphanage warm esteem and cordialiry. in London, was sent on a Bennett lark to Bennett's thinly veiled contempt for most find the great hum anist Dr. Livingstone, everybody did not extend to his mechanical who was considered lost in unexplored departments, however; the foreman of his central Africa. Stanley mounted a huge composing room and the press bosses were expedition to find him , with an unlimited well-paid and treated as persons of distinc- expense account from Bennett. tion. T hey were given the best tools availThe tragic J eanette expedition to exable and had great power over the editors. plore the Arctic was funded completely by In all other newspaper offices, going to Bennett, but run by the US Navy. Named press was a scramble; in the H erald's it was for his sister J eanerte, later Mrs. Isaac Bell, governed with military precision, under Jr. , the steam bark de parred London for the Bering Sea in 1878. She was crushed in the carefully drawn and printed schedu les.

With its publisher's interest in mari- ice, and her people perished in the Arctic time affairs, the Herald always carried a winter of 1881 , except for those few who derailed shipping news section and an ex- were fed by the Inuits. Several Siberian tensive weather report, well before there islands bear the name of Bennett. was a weather service. Ir also carried full yacht race coverage, America's C up coverCommodore Bennett at the Helm age and even New York Yacht C lub Board In 1868 Bennett, aged 27, suddenl y beM eeting minutes on rhe front page. A came Vice-Commodore of the New York

26

Yacht Club when all the flag officers had resigned; in 187 1 he became Commodore and his large schooner, Dauntless, flags hip.

Bennett sailed h er across the ocean to escort James Ash bury in Cambria back to the US in a transAtlantic match race in preparation fo r th e America's C up race in 187 1.

Dauntless also parti cipated in that dismal America's C up race as part of th e fl eer that mer Cambria on the race course. In a rematc h the next yea r, George Schuler, the surviving member of the America's syndicate, convinced the Commodore to defend with one boat at a tim e. Dauntless was to defend but was damaged in the row out to the start, so Columbia defended rh e C up against Livonia, but not very well.

The C lub acquired new quarters on Madiso n and 27th Street in 1872, upstairs from the American Jockey C lub . Bennett hired for the C lub the H erald's editor of the Ship News, Niels Olsen, who remained C lub Steward o r Superintendent un ti l 1904, and wh o personally kept all racing reco rds of the C lub during that rime, in a clear longhand. Flying starts, insread of the traditional start from anchor, became the norm, and racing proceeded at an unprecedented rare-sometimes several 40-hour races in a week. In 1872 two important trophies were put up by the Commodore, rhe Cape May C hallenge C up and the Brenton Reef C hallenge C up, both of which inspired intense racing for decades. In a move that would have seemed uncharacteri stic earli er in his life, he limited gambling to $5 on any game at the C lub .

During the l 872Annual C ruise, Dauntless had a co llision with th e Sow and Pigs lightship and suffered severe damage, as did the lightship. Thar was about the end of Bennett's personal racing career. In subsequ ent motions of Dauntless in the press, she was owned by others, notably Caldwell Colt, so n of Samuel.

Bennett in Exile In 1877 on New Year's Day, Bennett performed his most famous misdeed. At an open h ouse at the home of his former fiancee, Miss Caroline May, already wellserved with punch from other open houses, he insulted his host by urinating in to the fireplace. Tfne n ext day, Miss May's brother stepped up co Bennett's ca rriage whe re the two men gra ppled in the snow and called for a duel, though dueling was already an

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

A model ofBennett's Lysistrata, made in 1901 by Paxton & Company in London, has a place ofhonor in the New York Yacht Club's New Yo rk City headquarters. (Courtesy New Yo rk Yacht Club) anachronism. A formal duel at twelve paces, with a retinue of surgeo ns atte nding, took place across the Delaware-Maryland stare line; bo th men fired wildly and decla red themselves satisfi ed. Bennett, however, was embarrassed and removed himself from New Yo rk society, raking up residence in Europe and o n his yachts, only returnin g brieAy to New York and Newport. H e did nor marry until four years before his death in 191 8.

In 1883 Bennett had built the most m agnifi cent stea m yacht of its day, the beautiful Namouna. Ar 616 rans and 226 feet she was far larger th an the next largest, the first Corsair at 185 feet. H e was elected Co mmodore again in 1884 (perhaps on the strength of the Namouna) and relocated the clubhouse once more, to 67 Madison Avenue, although he ca rried out C lub business from overseas. W hen , in 1885, Capt. and Mrs. H enn challenged for the America's C up in Genesta, the Co mmodore built a 94-foot cast-iron centerboard sloop named Priscilla (des igned by A. Cary Sm ith) to defend. She co mpeted in all the trial races but was beaten by Puritan. At the end of his second term , Bennett accep ted ano ther America's C up challenge, aga in from Wi lliam H enn, in Galatea.

In Namouna Bennett traveled up the Ni le, ro India and Ceylo n, and across th e Atlantic regularl y, navigating himself. He SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

was always in touch w ith the H erald by telegraph and dispatches, and he entertain ed a regular stream of famous gues ts.

Always interested in the lates t technology, and kept informed by his reporters, in 1899 he heard about an ex perim enter named Marconi, and he sent $5, 000 to him if he wo uld come to Ameri ca and report on the America's C up, rransm itting th e news directl y to th e H erald by w ireless.

In 1907 stock quotes were transmitted to a vessel by wireless co urtesy of the H erald, to be hoisted in signal Aags for the benefit of members durin g the NYYCAnnual C ruise.

In 1900, Bennett li ved o n Louis XIV's es tate in Versai lles and built his yachting masterpi ece, rhe 301-foot Lysistrata. She had a crew of 100, all clean shaven in the manner of the British Navy. Ar any moment the crew had to be ready to res pond to the Commodore's whim; it mi ght be dinner aboard for 70 guests or immediate departure for the Mediterranean. Once a troupe of perfo rmers we re invited aboard for an evening and we re so popul ar with the guests that Bennett sa il ed off with them for a week's rim e, caus ing their manage r to ca ncel all shows as hore. This was, of co urse, turned into excellent publicity when they returned.

Lysistrata had, among other accommodations, a padded stall for a milk cow, with electric fan, to provide fresh cream to the

table. Sh e had three "owner's su ites" on separate decks (in addition to guest quarters) to acco mmodate the fancy of her owner, and she carried a French automobile, a D e Dion Bouton. Mark Twain , a regular contributor to the H erald since 1868, was apoplectic when Bennett arrived in Bermuda in 1906 with the first car ever seen there and lowered it from th e deck of Lysistrata. Bennett toured the island at a noisy 15 miles an hour with a crowd of schoolboys runnin g behind him. Twain , with the help of his fri end Woodrow Wilso n, then pres ident of Princeto n, drafted an edict for a "motorless Eden " and had cars banned from Bermuda until 1910 .

Lysistrata was sold to Russ ia in 1914 where she served as a fi sheri es protection vessel, appearing in Jane's as late as 1966.

After Bennett's death in France in 191 8 at the age of78, the H erald was so ld for $4 million and appeared for the last time from its own presses in 1920. Ir was merged w ith the Sun, then with the Tribune, and is still printed as the I nternational H erald Tribune. Fo r the most part, however, the paper died with its owner. ,t Queene Hooper Foster managed the bookstore at South Street Seaport Museum for many years and is former chairman ofthe New York Yacht Club Library Committee, which is how she got interested in this sort ofthing.

27

MARINE ART NEWS Marine Art and Artifacts in Kalamazoo

NEW EXHIBITS

"Fro m Ship to Shore: M arine Painrings from rhe Burl er Institute of Am eri ca n Arr" has just opened at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and will run through 3 July. T he B u tl e r In s t it u te was fou nd ed eigh ry yea rs ago in Youngstown, Ohio, by ind ustrialist Joseph G .

Burl er, Jr. , an avid collector of American marine arr . His heirs conrin ued th e trad ition , res ulting in an impressive coll ection represenr"Cliff Scene, Grand M anan, 1865, "oil on canvas, ing rwo ce ntu ries of

by Robert Swain Gifford (1840-1905) American marine paintings. T homas Birch, Jam es E. Burrersworrh and Dun can Mcfarlane are among the artists in rhis exhi bition who created so me of th e fin est known examples of ship portraiture.

Ro u nd ing our rh e exhibit are Great Lakes shipp ing artifacts from So uth H ave n's M ich igan M aritim e Museum, includin g a 27-foor Mackinaw sailboat.

Related KIA events include a Fami ly Night, themed "Anchors Aweigh, " on 17 June, and the mo vie classics "The Sea H awk," 10 Jun e, "Treasure Island," 17 June, and "Captain Blood," 24 June. .t Kalamazoo Institute ofArts, 314 South Park St., Kalamazoo MI 49007-5102; 616349-7775

Coronet:: An Air of Greatness T he historic schoo ner yach t Coronet (featured on pages 19-2 1) will be the focus of an exhibi t ru n ni ng from 26 June to 12 September at the Newpo rt Arr Museum in Newpo rt, Rhode Island. T he exhibit, entitled "An Air of Greatness: The Schooner Yacht Coronet," will presenr a co mprehensive picture of thi s histo ri c vessel in painrings and photographs, des ign elem ents from the vessel, artifacts, and unique co nremporary wo rks of arr drawn from a va ri ety of museum and priva te collections.

Some of rh e works of arr fea tured include: a late- 19th-century oil painting by Marshall J ohnson of the vessel at sea; a modern painting by Scott Kennedy d epicting a speculati ve match between Coronet and the cutter yacht Bloodhound; photo collages by Newport artist Sandy Nesbitt; three painrings by yachting artist John Mecray (one of which is shown on page 19); a Fitz Hugh Lane work of an early New York Yacht Club schooner race; and a com posire work of a pai nred Co ronet w ith shaped silk sails from rhe 1800s.

Visitors will be ab le to "see" th e vessel from a number of unique perspectives and will come to understand her significance in "Coronet and Bloodhound," by Scott Kennedy American arr and culture. .t International Yacht Restoration School, 449 Thames Street, Newport RI 02840; 41 0 848-5777; Newport Art Museum, 76 Bellevue Avenue, Newport RI 02840;

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28

•Kalamazo o Insti tu te of Arts: 15 May-4 July 1999, "From Ship to Shore" (3 14 South Park Srree[, Kalamazoo Ml 49007-5 102; 616 349-7775) • M ichigan M aritime M useum : I August 1998- 1Ocro ber1 999, "McCrimmonView: The Maritime Photography of Roy S. McCrimmon , 1900-1950" (260 Dyckm an Avenue, PO Box 534, Sourh Have n MT 49090; 1 800 747-38 10) • Naval U ndersea M useum: Seprem berNovember 1999, "The Navy ArrofThomas Harr Benro n " (PO Box 408, 60 1 Dowell Srreer, Keyport WA 98345; 360 396-4 148) • New Bedford Whal ing Museum: 24 Jun e - 17 September 1999, "Ma ririm e Prints fro m H erma n Melv ill e's Co ll ection of Art" (18 Johnny Cake H ill, ew Bedford MA027406398; 508 997-0046) • Newpo rt Art Museum: "An AirofG rea tness: the Scho oner Yacht Coronet" (NAM, 76 Bellevue Avenue, Newport RI 02840; 40 1 848-8200 ; Jnrern ation al Yacht Restoration Schoo l; 401 848-5 777) • Penobscot M arine M useum: 29 May17 October 1999, "Model Shipwrights: Mar in e Model Makers in Ma ine"; "T he Sai lors' Arr of Scrim shaw: Selections fro m rh e Perma nenr Co llection of Penobscot Ma rin e M use um " (5 Church Sr. , PO Box 498, Searspo rt ME 04974-0498; 207 5482529; e- mail: PMMuseum@acad ia. net) • South Street Seaport Museum: from l March 1999, "While the C ity Sleeps: An Artist Paints th e Fulron Fis h Ma rker" (SSSM, Port Life Gallery, 209 Water Srree t, ew York Y 10038; 212 748-8600)

~7tTORY GAZETTE A Bi-monthly Digest of Maritime Heritage News

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THE TALL SHIPS OF OPERATION SAIL 2000

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~;c-~~:;~kF Next summer,. the greatest fleet of big square riggers ever seen in this century will visit the US East Coast, working northwardfrom San Juan PR, to Miami FL, Norfolk VA, Baltimore M D, Philadelphia PA, New York NY, New L ondon CT and Portland ME. One of the most important is Russia's four-masted bark Kruzen sh tern-as her history makes clear!

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en the Cape Horner Padua ame down the ways at th e T ecklenborg ya rd in W esermi.inde, Germany, in 1926, any o ne of the observe rs would likely have taken th e bet, had ir been suggested , rhar she wo uld be rhe las t of her kind. In design, in speed, in strength and in size, sh e was at rhe pinnacle of what man co uld do und er sail, bur there we re really only two trades left her-hauling nitrates from the west coas t of So uth America and carrying grai n from Australia-and these trades were under pressure from steam navigation, a facr nearly uni ve rsal ly accepted .

Would any of the men who designed her, built her, and manned her have suspected rhar, 73 years later, Padua wou ld still be crossing oceans under sail? Today she is doing j usr rhar as the Russ ian sail trainer Kruzenshtern, a ship millions of Americans will once again have th e opportu nity to see next summ er, when she a rrives as part of rhe international fl eer celebrating the new millennium in No rth Am eri ca n seaporrs with Operation Sa il 2000 .

The F. Laeisz Line, for which rh e Padua was built, had a well-deserved reputation for building superior square riggers, manning rhem w ith unmatchab le captains, officers and crews, and sending rhem ou r ro challenge th e oceans in hi ghly regulated , fin ancially successful trades when most of their co mpetitors had turned ro steam.

Reliabiliry was their watchword, and rh ey were known round rhe world for rheir fleer -called rhe Flyin g "P" Lin e as rhe names of all th eir ships bega n with rhe letter "P. " The Laeiszes encouraged their captains to seek o ur ga les. T he ships were built ro

30

Th e sreel-hul led , fo ur-masted ba rk rake rhe hammer bl ows of hi gh seas and exploit rhe power of a hard wind . T hey also P adua was typical of Laeisz's later ships. ordered their captains never ro rum north Sh e measured 342' in length on deck, 46' after roundin g Cape Horn until rhey were in beam and 3545 gross tons. H er upper 200 miles clea r of rhe dangerous headland; deck followed rhe "three-island" parrern in ships were caught and wrecked on the w hich raised decks-poop, Live rpool house C hilean coast by turning north roo early. a nd fore-created two small well decks, T his mix of boldness and cauti o n made which co uld more eas il y handle a nd disth eir ships the ultimate sea chariots for gorge rh e seas rhar inevitably was hed over what Cape Horn er and author Alan Villiers rhe side in the wate rs off Cape H o rn rhan called rhe War with Cape Horn . o ne large, undivided well deck. Catwalks Before the First World War, Laeisz had ran between rhe raised poop , Liverpool a half doze n steel-hulled Cape Homers on house and raised fo redeck all owing sailors a regular run ro South America in rhe quick access along rhe upper deck above nitrate trade, an industry rhe company rhe often water-fi lled wel ls.

The interior of rhe Liverpool h ouse largely crea ted and developed through rhe end of rhe 1800s and on into rhis century. co ntained rhe sailors' quarters, the gall ey, Ar rhe end of the wa r, rhese ships were sent and work areas for carpenter and sail maker. as prizes ro rhe victors, and th e company Aware rhar the arenas for tra ining new had to rebuild irs reso urces in wa r-devas- ge nerations of sail o rs for sailing ships were tated Europe, purchas ing back som e losr di minis hi ng, Laeisz also provid ed space for ships and buying or building new ones- up to forry train ees o n board, and from rhe including rhe barks Priwall, completed in first voyage fill ed rhose spots wirh young men . The Vi lli ers quotatio n above regard19 19, and Padua of 1926. ] . C. Tecklenborg had built Laeisz's first ing rhe prol iferation of power co ntinues : two fo ur-m asted steel barks, Pisagua and In this there was one other factor, too, of Placilla. Their success in rhe nitrate rrade incalculable importance-indeed it was the enco uraged Laeisz ro center the fl eer aro und very keystone of the whole structure of shiprhe powerful barks, and orhers we re ac- ping everywhere. That was the men. Power quired, usually from Tecklenborg or rhe spoiled good men just as it spoiled the ships H am burg firm of Blohm and Voss. Unlike which tried to use it. Power spoiled masters, other compan ies rhar maintained a sailing and it spoiled crews. Once bigger engines tradition , Laeisz never made rhe "fatal er- became the cry, and sailing qualities and ro r" of suppl ementing the power of rhe abilities went on the discard, it was fatally wind with auxiliary steam engines. The easy to start up the internal combustion enCape Horn sa ilor Alan Villiers, in The Way gine. Once started, there was no end to it. ofa Ship (New York, 1953), wrote: Thus, with rhe co mpany'sco mmirment Indeed no auxiliary square-rigged ships ro sailing ships, rh eir domination of rhe did much good in the deepwater trades. The remaining trades open ro square ri ggers, advantages which the auxiliary was thought and their own nursery for seam en more to possess were largely imaginary on long rhan capab le of traveling rhe Cape Horn deeps ea voyages, and the engines wasted space road, Laeisz succeeded between rhe wars and added to both capital and running costs. where similar operatio ns rorrered ro a close . .. The H ouse ofLaeisz, unlike the French after WWI , leaving windships to rot in H ouse of Bordes and the Vinnens and harbors. T he Padua made her m ark on her Rickmers- the lastgreat German sailing ship maiden voyage in the C hilean nitrate trade, lines-was never deluded by the auxiliary runnin g from H amburg to Quiriquina, motor fallacy. The way to develop better C hile, in 87 days and returned ro Delfzijl from Taira! in 94 days-rimes rhar wo uld sailing-ships was by doing just that-by developing pure sailing ships. nor suffer by comparison with th e clipper

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

The Padua at l quique, Chile, in 1929, in the nitrate trade fo r which she was built. (Photo: San Francisco M aritime National Historical Park) The line drawing o/Kruzenshtern op posite is .from Frank 0. Braynard's Search for the Tall Ships: A Sketchbook of the Ships that Came to Operation Sail 1976 . .. and H ow They W ere Found (New York, 1977).

KRUZENSHTERN INFORMATION Launched : 24 June 1926 Rig: 4- masted bark, steel Pu rpose: Cargo/ sail rrainin g Builder: John C. Tecklenborg, Wese rmiinde, Germany LOA: 375'6" LBP: 3 19'6" Beam: 46' De pth mould ed: 27' IO" D epth in hold: 25'7" Sail Area: 36,597 squ. feet Ri g: 34 sa ils, 4 headsa ils, doubl e topsa ils, do ubl e to pga!lants, royals; jigger mast: doubl e spanker, gaff to psail

runs of decades earli er.

Bu t it was not all clear sailing, even fo r the Flying "P" Line, and the Padua never made a clear profit in the nitrate trade. In October 1933, after being laid up in 1932 and relaunched with assistan ce from th e German government, she made her fi rst run to Australia fo r grain , racing her fellow "P"-Liner Priwall. T he ship remained in that trade fo r two yea rs befo re returnin g to her old hau nts on the wes t coast of So u th Ameri ca. T he Padua' s last deep-sea voyage as a Germ an cargo-carryingschoolship too k her in 1938-3 9 from Germany to C hil e, on to Australia with nitrates, and back to Scotland's G lasgow with grain . She arrived there on 8 July 1939, only two months befo re England and France declared wa r on Germany, on 3 Sep tember 1939, and the yo ung men of the sailing crews of mixed nationali ty fo und themselves shoo ting at each other in a conflict that was to las t mo re than five years.

T he Padua, las t of the wo rld's Cap e H om ers, spent the war in Flensburg and reemerged in a wo rld that seem ed to have no tim e and no p lace fo r the windships.

Padua to Kruzenshtern Awa rded to Russia in 1946, she was turned over to her new owners in Swinemunde in January 1946, renamed in ho nor of Russian circumnavigator Adam Johan n vo n K ruse nstern and co nfin ed to h arb o r

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

thro ugh the 1940s and ' 50s. A refit from 1959 to 196 1 and a posting to the Soviet Navy's H ydrographic D epartment returned h er to her proper element and she once again traversed the globe, now as a survey ship and schoolship. During the refit sh e had her first engin es installed .

A 1965 move to the M inistry of Fisheries, training fis heries officers out of Riga, was followed by ano ther refit in 1968-72.

D urin g this refit th e aft well deck was converted to living quarters so the vessel co uld accommodate 200 cadets under sail.

Kruzenshtern has remained in the Ministry of Fisheries thro ugh political vicissitudes, beco ming one of the first Soviet ships to participate in the C utty Sark Tall Ships Race in 1974 and appearing at the OpSail fes ti vities in New York in 1976, although she did not dock and the cadets could not disembark. A decade registered in Talinn, Esto nia, ended in 1991 before Estonia broke away fro m the US SR, and today she is part of the Russian Committee of Fisheries, based in Kaliningrad, Russia, and run by the Baltic State Academy of Fisheries Fleet. H er mos t recent refit was in 1995.

T oday she carries up to 2 10 cadets, 1823 years old, fro m the Baltic State Academy and fro m the M urmansk State Academy of Fisheries Fl eet. In addition to her cadets, she has recently begun acce pting some paying passengers. Captain O leg Sedov, formerly first mate of the Kruzenshtern and

captain since 199 5, will bring the great ship and its cadets to the US next summer.

Kruzenshtern and Perestroika T he famed ship's appearan ce in American waters has been more than a political statement. T wo stories from O pSail 1992 (Sea History 63, Autumn 1992) highlight the emotional ties that cut through political boundaries and change lives.

In 197 4, NMHS Advisors H oward Slotnick and Frank 0. Braynard sailed aboard the Kruzenshtern as part of a wo rldwide effo rt to entice tall ships to New Yo rk fo r OpSail '76 . H oward met Cap tain Genady Kolomensky, then serving as second mate on the Kruzenshtern. Nearly 20 years later, when Slotnick went to meet the G rand Regatta fleet in San] uan in 1992, he asked his old friend, then captain of the Kruzenshtern: "How come Kruzenshtern is here? We heard you were not coming."

Kolomensky replied that he had to come.

H e remembered OpSail 1976.

"In 1976 we didn 't know what to expect. Yo u don't realize that we had always been taught that America was the enemy.

W e left with the feeling that America was a good place and not like wh at we had heard. " M any of the cadets ofl9 76 became high -ranking naval offi cers and government offi cials.

"They have never fo rgotten what they saw and how well they we re treated ," said

31

The Soviet crew ofthe Kruzenshtern mans the yards, a dramatic sp ectacle as the ship made its fi rst visit to N ew Yo rk H arbor in Operation Sail 197 6 (Photo: Norma Stanfo rd) Ko lo mensky. H e saw his shi p as o ne of the fo rerunn ers ofperestroika, creatin g a ripple effect fo r the forces of change.

Ko lomensky's superi o rs to ld hi m he co ul d go to N ew Yo rk in '92 , bu t they had no mo ney to pay fo r th e voyage. T he cadets and crew d ecided they wo uld forego their wages if the m oney was needed to buy provisions; they wo uld rather go to rhe

U ni ted Stares than be pa id .

In rh e US , another angle of the intern ational relations hi p fo rged sin ce 197 6 came into play. When rh e captain called his frie nd, N ew Yo rk attorney and phil anthropi st Norman Liss, Liss swung into action, contacting everyone he kn ew who could help . In San J uan, Slomi ck was give n a list of 54 items needed on board , and by rhe

rime he go r to ew Yo rk, peo ple we re callin g saying rhin gs li ke: ''I' ll rake items 1 thro ugh 15."

When the vessel arri ved , New York's Z aro 's Bakery del ivered fl our and butter, b read and ro lls each morning. T he Hunts Po in t M arket Association and many o rh ers also fo llowed through. Every irem o n rh e list, beginning with fi ve tons of potaroes and ending with 500lb o f chicken, was provided by a willing ew Yo rk, eno ugh to supp ly all fo ur Russ ian ships. T he scene was repeated in Boston , as the story of th e sa ilors' plight rraveled north .

L ikeKruzenshtern, the ships of the interna t ion al fl eet co ming ro the U S in 2000 are much more than engaging symbo ls o f a wo rld long gone. Their voyages today o n the wo rld's oceans co nnect our disparate cultures, as did their predecesso rs, and the lesso ns of teamwo rk, res ponsibili ry, cooperati o n and history they teach go beyond the yo un g peo ple who sail them- they to uch everyo ne in this world shaped by th e wo rk of sa iling ships and their people. .t J ustine Ahlstrom is editor o/Sea H istory.

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raffiques & Discoveries in which we share odd facts about the sea a!ld seafaring, in the spirit of Richard Hakluyt's Principall Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, first published in 1589.

Schooners T

he schoon er, says Joseph Co nrad so mewhere, under sail o r at anchor, is rhe mosr beautiful of rigs.

And who wo uldn 't agree, looking at rhe lithe form of rhe schooner- yachr Americashe who gave her name to whar o ne unsuccessful bur beloved co mpetito r, Sir Thomas Lipton (rhe Scorsman of rea-bag fame), call ed rhe "auld mug," rhat is, rheAmeri ca' s C up. She beat a fleet of 15 English yachts in 1851 ro win rhar C up, proving rhat good looks can go with high performance.

Th e rig has been used in a remarkable varie ry of vessels, fro m the hardy little outporters of San Francisco, who wo rked rhe dog-hole lumber po rts of rhe rough Northern Californ ia coasr, always ready ro weigh anchor and bear rheir way off a rocky shore in case of an on-shore gale, to rhe huge mulri-mas red vessels of the northern New England coal trade. T he mosr famous (o r infamous) of rhese m ulri-masred schooners is surely the giant seven-masted Thomas W Lawson-so big she was barely manageable.

She ended up wrecked in rhe Scilly Isles in 1907 when her m aster refused to rake a tow from an exposed position in a rising gale.

But for m ost Americans, at leasr, rhe archerype of rhe schoo ner is th e fas r and ab le G loucesterman , a fis herman 's hull of comparatively recent origin.

H ere, rhen, are some of the varieties of rhe schoo ner experience, as o ne person has encountered it. We hope thar rhi s may stir up suitable (or unsuirable!) ques rions, reburrals and more stories of rhis perennially alluring rig.

Lady of Good Voyage We spa rred rhis stalwart crafr o n a snowy January afternoon in 1965, noticing rhat her m as ts raked heavily aft amid the thicketed masrs of rhe fishing fleet in New York's Fulton Market. Going over to have a look, m y w ife No rm a and I we re thunderstruck to see she srill carried topmast hoops on her foremast! Topsails, a light weather sail , had vanished from rhe

34

The clipper yacht Ame rica in a print by Currier & Ives (above). Under a press ofcanvas on a breezy day in the 1920s, the Wesrward amazingly works out to windward ofthe King's yacht Britannia in the English Channel in this painting by David Brackman (below).

fleer almost half a centu ry earlier, when rhe internal combustion engine began to drive rhe schooner hulls, wirh sail relegared to an auxiliary. Later we pursued the Lady to her home in G lo ucester in our own schooner Athena. H ere we traced her original waterline, marked by a graved line inrerrupred where a fresh plank had been pur in here and rhere, and figured rhe lengrh of rhe bowsprit she once carried by rhe angle of rhe curwarer iron for rhe bobstay, still in place, low on the stem .

Bui lr in 1942 on a G loucester pier, fully rigged to save fuel in wa rtime, rhe Lady (nam ed for a Portuguese church in Glouces ter) fished for years as a dragger ofren seen in Fulton Market. In rhe lare 1970s she went sourh to rhe Gulf of Mexico, where we larer heard she was losr ar sea.

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

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Schooners Race in New York A crowd of schooner yachts began to frequent New York waters annuall y, begin ning in 1967. It had been the rul e for yea rs rhat sailing vessels mighr carry sail in New York H arbor only if rhey had rheir engines running as well. The vagaries of rhe w ind seemed to rhe authorities to carry too great a risk of collision to be permitted.

But we in rhe struggling crew ar the justfounded South Street Seaport Museum felt we had to make some notable m ark in city wa ters to make the titans of Wall Street aware of the fled gling museum o n their doorstep. Accordingly we schedul ed the first Schooner Race for the Mayor's C up , easily securing the sponso rship of Mayor Lindsay, a considerable sailo r himself. Getting the US Coas t Guard to bend the rules was anoth er matter. Fortunately, F. Briggs D alzell , Fleet Cap tain of the New York Yacht C lub , stepped forward wirh his customary aplomb and qui etly arra nged rhi ngs w irh rh e Captain of rh e Porr. "Yo u ca n sa il! " we were cold.

And so, o n Saturday mornin g, 21 Ocrober, rhe quier harbor was alive wirh c reaking gaffs and cheerin g crews as sail again took over rh e harb o r for a day. Ir was slow go in g ar firsr, bur rhe breeze picked up for a spectacul ar fini sh , wirh rhe famo us sraysa il schoo ner Nina carrying all befo re her w irh spinnaker and go lliwobb ler fl yin g. We aboard Athena fini shed fifth , well beh ind Bill Werrenbaker's slippery Tyehee, wh ich wo n rhe traditional class.

We gave a prize to rhe cook aboard rh e lasr boar to finish ar a rolli cking dinner as ho re (arrire: bl ack rie and sneakers). The prize? A borde ofBeefearer gin and a box of com fl akes-the legendary breakfast of Co mm odo re D eCo ursey Fales, the great sailo r who had raught Nina her w innin g ways, w here o rh ers befo re him had fa iled.

And yes, rh e race did pur So urh Sn eer o n rhe map, as nothin g else had. A few yea rs lare r rhe museum acq uired irs own schoo ners, rhe woode n G lo ucesrerm an Lettie G. Howard of 1893 and rhe iron cargo schooner Pioneer of 1885, which course rhe warers of New Yo rk harbor an d neighborin g sounds, rivers and seas today, while rhe Mayor's Cup Raceconrinueswirh vessels of differenr rigs-sr ill including schooners.

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

Wi lli am H. Albury sailing out of Miami (left) and Spirit of M assachuserrs sailing

into New York in Operation Sail (above) "Luffez pour Madame!"

T he 1890s and ea rl y 1900s we re rhe heyday of rhe great racing schoo ners. T he 135foor sreel schoo ner Westward, launched in 19 10 in Bristol, Rhode Island , earned a name as "H erreshoffs fl ye r," rhe fas test of rhe fasr. She soo n crossed rhe ocean to E ngland fo r the fas hi onable round-rhemarks racing off Cowes, o ne of her principal ri vals being rhe King's currer Britannia.

In the 1930s, rhe owner's daughter, a wizard helmsm an, li ked to rake parries across rhe C hannel to Dinard fo r a lirrle wind, sunshin e and moul es marinieres. In 1950 I m er a man who remembered rhis nobl e vessel. H e had served as maintopman aboard rhe grear bird, a job he enjoyed , up wirh rhe seagulls away from rhe fas hionable charter on deck. He was mysrified to no rice char on the return trip to Cowes the vessel would srrai ghren up wirh shaking sails, rhen bear way, and rh en afte r a few minutes, co me to again before res uming her course. On deck o ne day he learned the secret of this ritual when he heard rhe o rder: "Luffez pour M adame!"

U nder her eno rmous press of canvas the schooner's aged strucrure gave a lirrl e, jamming th e door to the head (WC). When Westward was luffed M adame could open th e door, go in , and th en rap on the door so th e schooner would be luffed again, and she could rhen slip out to rejoin her guests.

I have no idea of rhe truth of rhis yarn.

A Good Home for Schooners In 1978, NM H S was hosr to rhe wooden rhree-masrer Berta of Ibiza, a sco ur oaken

The Stan.fords' Arhena in the Mayor's Cup Race in New York Harbor, 1967, by Yachting cartoonist Paul Loring, who sailed aboard.

cargo schooner built in Spain in 1945. This wasar rheFulton Ferry Landing Pier NMHS rhen occupied. Berta sailed with a miscellaneo us cargo fo r rhe Wesr Indies, the first cargo schoo ner to sail from New York since rhe four-masted Constellation sailed for Sourh Africa in July 1943 in rhe depths of Wo rld War II. The great schoonerman Francis "Bi ff" Bowker questioned whether cargo ca rrying wo uld wo rk for rhe Berta in a sa ilo rly report in Sea History 13 (pl 3) . Ir rurned our ir didn ' t, so she rurned to passenger carrying in rhe Pacific.

Another visiting schooner ar our Brooklyn pier was rhe Bahamas-builr schooner William H Albury, which today does exemplary sails from Miami in training trips for city kids (see SH 85, ppl6-18). We hugely enjoyed her yo ung crew led by Caprai n Joe Maggio, and after he ser sail southward , he wrote us saying rhar our pier was "a good ho me for schooners." We' re no longer ar rhar pier, bur I hope NMHS will always be rhar-"a good home for schooners."

-

PETER STANFORD

Schooner races this season are listed on page 39.

Sea Cloud (left) and Mandalay (both ex-Hussar) at their dock in Antigua, March 1999. (Photo: Rudolph Deetjen)

Last of the Hussars

0

n a magnificent March day in the Caribbean, the Sea Cloud arri ved in Antigua, carryin g a gro up of NM H S and Mys tic Seaport m embers. The passe ngers aboard this ve nerable and elegant ship fo und themselves docked aft of another ve nerable vessel, the S/V Mandalay.

These two ships, well past their go lden anniversa ries, have a great deal in co mmon. Both we re yachts, des igned by C ox and Stevens, built for E. F. Hutton , and nam ed H ussar. Both have had dramatic careers that spann ed the globe in peace and wa r, and today both are still sailing, now as cruise ships.

Hussar IV S/V M andalay was the fourth Hussar built for E. F. Hutton. In 1923 the three- mas ted schooner was launched from the Burmeister W ain Shipya rd in Copenhage n sporting lavish furnishings, including go ld faucets, a grand piano, and m arble- rrimmed fireplaces (with hollow steel masts for chimneys). She was sold to Am erican shipping magnate Geo rge Unger Verlesen in the 1930s and renamed Verna, and in 1934 she establi shed an unofficial reco rd of 10 days, l 0 hours for crossing rhe Atlantic under

36

sail from Montauk Point, New York, to Bishop's Rock, Ireland. When World War II began, Verna was donated for war service, stripped and turned over to the Coast Guard for coastal patrol. Later she was a flo ating dormito ry for the US M erchant Marine Academy, then abandoned on the mud flats of Staten Island, New York.

Captain Kennedy, a ship mas ter from Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, rescued rhe 30year-old yacht and refined her as a charter vessel. Columbi a U niversi ry' s new oceanogra phic insrirure, the Lamont Geological Observatory, became Kennedy's fi rst customer for a research cruise in 1952. The Universiry then purchased rhe schooner, whi ch beca me th e most producti ve scientific ship of her rime.

NMHS member Robert Gerard writes: "I sailed aboard Verna on many cruises between 1954 and the 1970s, first as a member of rhe scientific parry and later as chief scientist. My first cruise in the swnmer of 1953 lefr from Piermont on the Hudson for Bermuda, the Azores, Casablanca and Lisbon.

"Motoring southeastward in a beam sea, Verna was rolling 3 5 degrees as mal de mer spread among the new members of rhe scientific parry. I recal l asking the bosun if

this was normal behavio r for the ship. '"Sure is,' he said. 'She rolls like a ripe waterm elon. Yo u'll see, when the wi nd picks up she' ll heel right over and stay there.'

"On e night as I was settling into my upper bunk, rhe vessel did indeed heel to leeward and senle there. However, I awo ke with the ship ro llin g and lurching violently and a stead y drip of salt wa ter falling on my bunk from the seams of the teakwood deck overh ead . I go t up and made my way to rhe gall ey where dishes were fl ying off th e shel ves. Bur a sou nd more terri fy ing than breaking china could be heard co ming from the main deck above. O ve r the din of howling wind was a sharp , crackling so und li ke rhe rapid fi re of a hundred rifles . Making my way to the chart room through knee-deep water on the main deck, I was astonished to see rhe source of this awesom e clamo r. Al l three sails, fore, m ain and mizzen , were torn into horizonta l strea mers, sti ll a ttached at the luff, which cracked li ke bullwhips as rhey snapped fro m side to side in rh e gale."

Gera rd and his colleagues learn ed from that srorm rhar they were aboard an able ship th at cou ld survive rhe hurricane-fo rce winds they had enco untered .

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

Barely a decade old, in drydock in Kiel in the 1930s, Verna displays her traditional gaffrig, with topsails bundled in the tops. Below, torn sails crack in the hurricane-force winds encountered in 1954. (Photo: Robert Gerard)

In 1981, her shapely hull is still evident, despite being stripped of its lofty rig, as the vessel completes her final voyage for LamontDoherty.

"Among my shipmates on that early cruise," Gerard recalls, "many went on to become lead ing scientists, while Vema herself we nt on to capture many laurels. W hen the ship made her last voyage in 198 1 after 28 years of service, she had sailed more than one-and-a-quarter- million miles for science, returning to the Observatory after wo rldcircling voyages with discoveries that radically changed our knowledge of the earth ."

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

Sea C loud plies the seas today as an elegant cruise ship. Although she is fitted with modern navigational and mechanical equipment, her crew must still go aloft to set andfurl the square sails. (Photo: Sea Cloud, Inc.)

Hussar V T he career of the fi ft h Hussar fo llowed an equally circui to us route to her cruising career. T he four- mas ted bark was built at Fried , Krupp, Germaniawe rfr in Kiel, Germany, and was launched in 193 1 for presentation to Hutton's wife, Marjorie Merriweather Post. Appo inted with gilded taps in marble bathrooms, gold plating in cabins, on the hull and on the eagle figurehead, a marble fl oo r and fireplaces and furnished with Mrs. Post's antique furni ture, the new Hussar outshone her smaller predecessor.

T he Hutto ns rook a wo rld voyage in the blac k-hulled yacht, bur in 1935 th e couple divo rced and Mrs. Hutton received the Hussar as part of the settlement. The ship was renamed Sea Cloud, her hull was repainted white, and Marjorie soon honeymooned aboa rd with her third husband , lawye r and ambassador Joseph E. Davies.

Co mmissioned into the Coast Guard during WWII , Sea Cloud served in the North Atlantic as a weather station. She was then turned over to the Navy in 1943, but was still manned by the Coast G uard.

As part of the USCG's first "integration experiment," her crew of200 included 130 black Coast G uardsmen and the USCG's first two black officers.

W hen peace returned, the Sea Cloud was refitted as a yacht, but was sold to the Dominican Republic in 1955, where die-

tator Rafael L. T rujillo Molina named her

Angelita. After Trujillo's death in 1%1 her name was again changed- to Patria-and she lay at anchor in the Rio O zama until she was bought by American C li ff Barber in 1963 and renamedAntarna. Mr. Barber spent over $2 million to return her to sailing condition, but the ship was caught in tax conflicts and eventually became a training ship for the "Oceanic School" befo re ending up in Colon, unused for eight yea rs.

She finally came to the attentio n of a conglomerate of German business men . An $ 11 -million resto ration prepared her for her current career as a Caribbean and Mediterranean cruise ship-a luxurious re minder of the lives led by th e wealthiest of Americans between the wars.

Today, Sea Cloud's officers are highly trained and work with the most modern equipment. But the yo ung intern ational crew who sail the bark wo rk the same rig th at rook great cargo ships aro und Cape Horn , and they do so with an energy and style that give one hope for the future.

- JUSTINE AHLSTROM

NMHS regularly sponsors cruises aboard the Sea C loud in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. For information, call us at 1-800-221NMHS (6647).

37

MARITIME TRAVELER

The Laeisz Line's Preussen Inspires a New Five-Masted Square Rigger: The Royal Clipper n 19 10, the only fi ve- masted ship to be square rigged on all its m as ts, the powerful Preussen, was ram med by a steamer in the English C hannel. Whi le under tow to safe harbor, a heavy gale forced her escorts to drop their lines and she drifted ashore-the ship a total loss, although her cargo was taken off. Alan Villiers, champion of th e las t days of sail , mourned her passing and regretted the loss of the Cape Homers to an indusu y that did not follow up on advances in sailin g ship design.

"Square-rig development," he wrote in Give MeaShiptoSail(NewYork, 1959), "had stopped with th e fi ve-m asted full-rigged ship Preussen, just when it was really getting somewhere. " The great windship was builr in 1902 for rhe Lae isz Line of Ge rmany by John C. Tecklenborgof Wesermi.inde. She was steel hull ed, 407.8 feerlong, 53.6 feet broad and 27. 1 feet deep wit h a tonnage of 508 1.

Despite her carrying capacity of nearly 8000 tons of ca rgo, an average speed of six knots-whi ch could reach 13 knots in a good breeze-a nd a reputation for making reli able round uips between Germany a nd C hile in the nitrate trade, she was not in high demand. An unstoppable interest in steam coup led wirh the escalating cost of building new sailing ships contributed to thecartyingtrade's failure to fo llow through with innovative sailing ship des igns, despite their ab ili ty to compete w ith , and even beat, steam ers in som e trades. But in her own rime, Preussen was recognized as a parago n and her legacy was passed o n to generations who would never sa il in the Cape Homers.

I

Sto ries of the Preussen fueled the imaginatio n of Mikael Krafft, whose childhood in Stockholm included sailing hi s own vessel to th e Aland Islands and time spent with the seamen resto rin g the Pommern as a museum ship. These experiences fired his desire to see such ships sailing once again and to preserve the ski lls and traditio ns he learned from Cape Horn sailors . As a result, Star Clippers, Inc., based in Coral Gab les, Florida, and its parent co rpo ra tion in Monaco , White Star C lippers, fo unded

by Krafft, built two passe nger ships, Star Clipper and Star Flyer, whi ch sail in the Mediterranean, Caribbean and rhe Far East.

Today, a third ship is being builr-a five-masted full rigger, the first to be seen o n the wo rld's oceans since the Preussen.

T he hull has been sitting on rhe ways for nearl y a decade, one of several sail training vessels commissioned by rhe USSR from naval architect Zygmunt C ho ren. The dissolution of the Soviet Union left the hull abandon ed in Gdansk, Poland. Krafft and his team decided that the unfinished hull co uld , wi th some enl arge ment, serve as the starting point for the new Royal Clipper, based on the lines of the Preussen, but des igned w ith the comfo rt and quali ty of a mega-yacht. C horen, whose ships include Dar Mlodziezy, Mir and Fryderyk Chopin , stayed with his ship to oversee the revisions to rhe hull and wi ll rejoin the ship to supervise rigging and stability control.

Last month the hull was towed through the Kiel Canal from G dansk to Rotterdam, where the Merwede Shipya rd will build rhe Royal Clipper. In add itio n to C horen, rhe team assembled to complete the luxurious

passe nger ship has in cluded naval architect Robert Mcfarlane, who des igned Star C lippers' firs t two sailing ships, and Donald Starkey, w ho specializes in des ign work o n power m ega-yachts. W hen compl eted, the Royal ClipperwiII have yacht-like berths for 228 passe ngers in addition to loun ges, a restaurant, bars, swimming pools, shops, a fimess area, an underwater viewing area, and other public spaces on five decks.

Above decks, the 42 sails on five masts, nearl y 56,000 sq uare feet of dacron , attest to her purpose as a sailing ship . The company is d termin ed to sail her as frequ entl y as poss ibl e and to introduce their passe ngers to the skills as well as the attractio ns of sailin g at 13 knots, and perhaps as fast as 20 knots. Their program includes sail training classes a nd provides intrepid passengers with the oppo rtuni ty to go aloft to the two lower sails on the foremast to furl sail. T he orher square sa ils are hydraulically roller-furl ed, and rhe crew handles those sails, braces th e ya rds a nd furls staysails using hand and powe r w in ches witho ut the aid of co mputers. And alth ough they will have state-ofthe-art navigation systems, the officers also keep the ship on course using traditio nal sextants to take sun and star sights.

T he Royal Clipper is schedu led to co mplete sea trials in March of2000 and begin her regul ar schedule of su mm ers in the Mediterranea n and winters in the rel iable winds of the lower Caribbean . For information o n the vessel itself and its ameni ti es, co ntact Sta r C lippers, Inc., 410 1 Salzedo Street, Coral Gables FL 33 146; l 800 442-0 55 1; e-m ail: stclippr@aol. co m; web site: http ://star-clippers.com. - JA

On its tow through the Kiel Canal, masts, complete with spreaders, can be seen on the deck ofthe ship '.r hull, which measures 439 'in Length and 54' in beam. An artists rendition ofthe Royal C lipper shows the company'.r Star Flye r as well. (Photos: Star Clippers, Inc.)

38

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS WHERE TO RACE YOUR SCHOONER To our knowledge, the first schooner race to be held after the great Fishermen's Schoo ner Races in the early years of this centu ry was So uth Street Seaport M useum 's Mayor's C up Race in 1967 (see pages 34-5) when m ore than a dozen schoo ners raced in New Yo rk H arbor. T his was fo llowed the next year at Mystic, Connecticut, with 2 1 parti cipants.

T he Mystic race was run annually until 1994. Now, schoo ner races are held on Eas t and West Coasts. T he fo llowing races will occur this seaso n: • 2 1 August: 4 th annual Califo rnian Schooner's C up Race in Long Beach, Cal ifo rn ia, organized by the Nautical H eritage Society, expects to have 11 - 16 schoo ners in the event (NHS, 1064 Cal le Negocio, U ni t B, San Clemente CA 92673; 800 432-2201 , 949 369-6773; http ://californ ian.org, e- mai l: nhs@califo rn ian.org) • 3-6 September: 15th G loucester (MA) Schooner Festi val, tradi tional small craft race on Saturday, 4 September; schoo ner race of approx im ately 25 vessels to be run on Sunday, 5 September (Cape Ann C hamber of Comm erce, 33 Co mmercial Stree t, G loucester MA 01 93 0; 978 283- 1601 ; fax: 978 283-4740; e-mail: cacc@shore. net; web site: //www.cape-ann .co m/cacc) • 6- 10 September: 3rd A nnual Cap tain Rayna ud Internatio nal Schoo ner Race, Victo ria BC to Port Townsend WA; 3 or 4 days of racing will take vessels from Victo ria to Port Townsend WA with overni ghts in the San Juan Islands, ending at Po rt Townsend for the Wooden Boat Festival. T he race honors Cape Horn sailor and sh ip surveyor Captain Adrian Rayna ud, who d ied in 1997 at age 102. T he organ izers do not charge the schooners fees to race and welcom e classic non-schoo ners as cruising com pan ions.

QoAnn O'Connor, PMB 3 17, l l 7East LouisaStreet,Seatde WA98 102; 206 3 10-8573) • 18 September: M ayo r's C up Race incl udes a va riety of vessels, but they expect about eight to parti cipate in the schoo ner class (David Valentin , Race O rganizer, So uth Street Seaport Museum, 207 Fro nt Street, New York NY 10038; 2 12 748-8738) • 13-18 October: 10th G rear C hesapeake Bay Schoo ner Race with a field of approximately 30 vessels. T he miss ion of the G reat C hesapeake Bay Schoo ner Race, Inc., is to promote public awa reness of the Bay's maritime heri tage and to encourage the preservation and imp rovement of its natu ral resources. Proceeds fro m the race go to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation fo r conservation.

(Kathy Hill, T he G reat Start of the Great Chesapeake Bay C hesapeake Bay Schoo ner Race, Schooner Race, 1995 (Photo: Ralph Phinney) PO Box 8 155, No rfolk VA 235 03; 757 48 0-RACE; www .So uthern Branch .com /Schoo ner Race) Sch oo ner owners or fa ns can join rheAm eri can Schooner Association.

Membersh ip is $ 15 and yo u can co ntact the Association at PO Box 484, Myst ic CT 0 6355; www .novagate.com / ~sch oo n erm an/asa/ asa. htm . ,!,

London's National Maritime Museum Expands its Facilities and Broadens its Message T he Na tional Maritime Museum in G reenwich, London, is taking a vibrant new ap proach to the island nation's ma ri time histo ry in its new galleries, exhibits and programs. Backed by £11.8 million of Lottery H eritage funding, the redevelopmem incl udes 16 new galleries celebrating the pas t, present and fut ure of Bri tain's relationship with the sea. T he new design has completely enclosed the courtya rd berween rwo preexisting wings un der a glass roof.

The exh ibits encompass new perspectives on myriad topics, including trade and em pire, passenger travel and emigratio n, maritime London, exploration, archaeo logy and natura l histo ry, cargoes, navigation, historic and co memporary marine art, and the future of man's interaction with the seas. (National Maritime M useum , G reenwich, London SE lO 9NF, England ; www. nmm.ac. uk) ,!,

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

T he Yisolette Loupe is a uniq ue combin ation of condenser and 2. 7X m agnifier. Its ability to bundle ambi ent light m akes the reading within the glass easier. T his 65mm (2.5") di am eter lens is precision ground and polished , m ounted in a solid brass rin g with anti-slip bottom and enclosed in a soli d walnut case. It 111akes a

stun nin g addition to any chart tabl e or desk and a bea utiful and usefu l gift for any Oat piece collector.

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Located at historic "R ussia Wharf' on Boston 's waterfront. Thi s 6000 squ are foo t gall ery is fi lled with over 300 spectacular shi p mode ls of all sizes, peri ods, types, etc., all at dow n-to-earth wholesale prices.

Please send $ 15 for our video catalog.

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39

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On Monday, 7 June 1999, rhe ribbon was cur on rh e Museum 's new Sperry Navigatio n W ing. This long-awa ited exhibition area houses on e of rh e fi nes t nautical instrument collections in rhe co untry. Instruments in the museum's coll ection date fr om th e mid1600s to the present. T h rough the generosity of Geo rge Sawye r, General Partn er at John F. Lehman & Co. , a trip to the Sperry N avigation W ing will give visitors th e opportun ity to travel through over 400 yea rs of navigational hi sto ry.

Two galleries in the wing will display historical ins truments from the Abeles, Bj orn so n and Kleiman Coll ections. Also fea tured in this area wi ll be an ongoing fi lm on ea rl y navigation which was prod uced by rhe Ponce DeLeo n Inlet Lighthouse.

The third gall ery wi ll be devo ted to the inn ovati ons and co ntributions of Elme r Sperry, one of Am eri ca's fo remost inventors and entrepreneurs. T hanks to the inn ovations of Elmer Speny and the many inve ntors who fo llowed in his path , 20th -ce ntury navigation has made tremendous strides .

In h is lifetim e, Elmer Ambrose Sperry found ed eight compan ies and earned more rhan 360 patents. In 1908, his mos t notable patent was iss ued fo r th e first ball istic gyroco mpass. Once a mere curios ity, gyroscopes were li ttle m o re than a child's toy when Sperry started experi menting in 1900. It was Elmer Sperry w ho, along with German in ve nto r Dr. H . Anschutz, applied rhe 19th-century inve n tions of C. A. Bohn enberger, L. Foucault and G. M. Hopki ns to usefu l technologies for the 20th centu ry. Sperry met the technological challenges that arose when rhe increasi ng use of steel in shi p building brought about a need to overcome the unreliabi lity of rhe magnetic co mpass within a steel ship . Sperry's ingenui ty all owed him to see the gyro's potential as bo rh a co mpass and as a stabilizer on the steel-hulled ships. T hanks to rhis noted engineer and inve n to r from C orrland, New York, today, the gyroscope is the bas ic element in navigati on, av iati on, missiles, satelli tes and spacecraft.

Forrhe lay perso n, navigation is a mys tery. To rhe seaso ned m;i rin er, ir is both a science and an art. T hro ugh a series of changing exh ibi ts in the new Sperry Navigation W ing the American Merchant Marine M useum will unravel the mystery fo r the nov ice and introd uce th e seaso ned mariner to dynamic, emerging technologies th at affec t our rap idly -LI DA FAS BACH, Executive Directo r changing society.

(AMMM, US Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point NY 11 024; 516 773 -5515)

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40

SPUN YARN In January Mystic Seaport received 13 Iroko (African teak) logs harvested in Sierra Leone, Africa, home of the Africans involved in the Amistad incident in 1837. T he wood will be used to plank the schooner Amistad, currently un de r co nstruction at Mystic.

(M SM, 75 Greenmanville Avenue, PO Box 6000, M ys ric CT 06355-099 0; 86 0 572-53 17; WWW. mysricseaport. org) ... The C hristeen O yster Sloop Preservation C or po ration must fi nish restoration wo rk on rhe 38-foo t oyster sloo p of 1883 in Long Island NY by September 1999 as New York State plans to tear down the Jakobson Shipyard and th e bui lding rhar no w houses rhe sloop. (COSPC,

West E nd Ave nue, PO Box 146, Oys ter Bay N Y 11 77 1; 51 6 922- 1098) . . . T he Netherl ands continu es to bui ld h igh -quality replicas using tradi tional methods while trai ningyo ung people in shipbui ldin g skills.

T he cur re nt project is a 163-foo t replica of the Zeven Provincien of 1664-5 , in the same yard in Le iys tad whe re th e D utch Easr Indiaman re plica Batavia was built. (Batavia-ya rd, Postbus 11 9, NL 8200AC Lelys tad , T he N etherlands; 31 320 26 1 4 09 ; fax : 3 1 320 26 1 360; e- mail: info @bataviawe rf. nl; we b site: www. b a t a v i awe r f. n I I zeprov.h tm) . .. A replica

Iroko wood arrives at Mystic for the schooner Arnistad. (Courtesy Mystic Seaport, Inc.)

SE A HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

of the Duyjken, the first Europea n ship know n to have reached Australi a, was launch ed in Freman tle, Australia, in January 1999 . In 1606 the o riginal Duyjken charred 300krn of the Australian coast.

(Duyfken 1606 Repl ica Foundation, 47 C liff Street, Frernan tle, Weste rn Australia 6 160,Australia; 61(8)93361606; fax: 61 (8) 9336 4688; e-mail: duyfken@vainet.net.au; web site: www.duyfken.o rg.a u) ... J acques Cousteau 's Calypso has arri ved in La Rochell e, France, whe re it will be the ce nterpiece of a new orga ni za tio n to be formed by the U ni vers ity of La Rochelle, the National Center fo r M arine M ammal Research , the Aquarium and the Maritim e Muse um.

(Co usteau Society, 870 G reenbrier C ircle, Ste. 402, C hesapeake VA 23320; 800 44 14395; e- mail: co usteau@infi .net; www .cousreau.org) . .. Altho ugh funding shortfa lls forced the State of C alifornia to cancel the Go ld Rush Race reported in Sea History 88, the people and the ships are working together to go forward with ship visitations in San Francisco, Long Beach and Los Angeles . (Nautical Heritage Society, 1064 Call e Negocio Unit B, San C lem ente C A 92673; 949 369-6773; fax: 949 3696892; web site: www.californi an .org) ...

USS Missouri re-entered public life in H o nolulu on 29 January as the n ewest member of Battleship Row, where it was dedi ca ted as a memorial to the end of WWII. (USS Mi sso uri M emorial Associati o n, Inc., PO Box 6339, Honolu lu HI 968 18; 808 423-2263; fax: 808 423-0700; emai l: bb630l @msn.com; web site: www .ussm issouri .co m) .. . The New York State D epartm e nt of Parks and Recrea tion awa rded USS Slater (DE-766), currently docked in Albany NY, a $9 0,000 grant to paint the ship 's hull above the wa te rline.

(USS Slater D E-766 Destroyer Escort Histo rical Foundation, 3 City Square-11 Pruyn St., Albany NY 12207; 5 18 43 1-1943) ...

T he resto red WWII submarine USS Pampanito reopened at San Francisco's Pi er 45 o n 1 February after extensive drydock work at Alameda's Bay Ship & Yacht Co., where the sub's underwater hu ll was inspected, cleaned and painted and all 38 zin cs ("sacrificial" nodes to protect aga inst electrolysis) were replaced. At a cos t of $25 0,000, this drydockingis the sub 's most extensive overall refurbishment sin ce its original restoration. (NMMA, PO Box 4703 10, Sa n Francisco CA 94 147-03 10; SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

4 15 561-NMMA (6662); e-mail: sfnmma @aol.com) ... The 55-year-old wooden tug Cap tain Conner has bee n purchased by the Portland, Oregon- based no n-profit Headwaters to Ocean (H 20). T he organization has leased the 65-foot boat for rwo years raking schoolchildren and ad ults on river-conservation-awa reness excursions.

(H 20, PO Box 745, Portland OR 97207; 503 228-9600; e- mail : h2ocean@teleport .com) ... T he San Diego Maritime Museum received $25 0,000 from the Cal ifornia Arts Council with the passage of the 1999 Cali fornia State budget-the largest single grant in the museum 's 50-year history and one of the largest museum grants statewide. (SDMM, 1306 N. H arbor Drive, San Diego CA 92 101 ; 6 19 234-9 15 3; fax: 619 234-8345; www.sdm aritime.com) ...

D enied once, supporters of th e campaign to des ignate the Land Tortoise in Lake George NY a National Historic Landmark launched a seco nd, successful attempt to h ave the flat-botto med gunboat listed. As the o nl y in tact example of a French and Indi an War-era gunboat, Land Tortoise is now one of o nly six shi pwrecks in the country th at are National Historic Landmarks. (BBI , PO Box 2 143, W ilton NY 12831; 518 587-7638) . . . Marine archaeologist and N MHS advisor Dr. Kathy Abbass has uncovered clues that suggest a wreck at the bottom ofN ewport Harbor, Rhode Island, is that of Capt. Jam es Cook's HMS Endeavour. According to Australian resea rchers, after returning to England in 177 1, Endeavou r was sold in 177 5 and renamed Lord Sandwich. Ab bass knew that a mi li tary transport named Lord Sandwich was in Newport during the American Revo luti on and co uld have been one of several transports scurried to block the F rench fleet in 1778 . She also discovered that Endeavour and Lord Sandwich we re both three-masted barks with the same carrying capacity and heights between decks. An archaeological expedition this summer will help determine if the wreck is indeed Cook's Endeavour. (RIMAP, PO Box 1492, Newport RI 02840) ... T he 1999 National Lighthouse Conference wi ll take place in Key W est, Florida, hosted by the Key West Art & Historical Society, 12- 15 October. 0oe Pais, Key West Ligh thouse, 938 W hitehead at T ruman, Key West FL 33040; 305 296-39 13; e-mail: Maine l 898@aol. co m) ,!,

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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS

CLASSIFIED ADS 10 books, new: mixed tides, paper/hard cover, tax, shipping $15 ($ 100 +value) prepay visa, maste rca rd, check: LRA In c. 474 Dun derberg Rd ., Mo nroe, NY 1095 0, 9 14-783- 11 44.

Ship Paintings Restored. Museum qua lity resto rat ion of old paintings . D amaged old ship painti ngs purchased . Perer Williams, 30 Ipswich St. , Boston MA 02 215. By appointment: 61 7-536-4 092 Marinas/Boatyards on Chesa pea ke Bay, buy or sell. Call Wi lford Land Compa ny, PO Box 953, Easton, MD 21601. Tel: 4 10-822-4586, Fax: 4 10-226-5205.bwil ford @crosslink.net Chart your course through ew England's maritime heritage. Send for yo ur free copy.

Cubberl ey & Shaw Maritime Museum News, Box 607 M, Groto n MA 01 450-0607 Custom Ship Models. All rypes. Co ntact S.J. White, 132 Stonegate, Quakertown, PA 1895 1 Brass portholes, helm , Robinso n telegrap h, liferin gs, lobster rraps & buoys, large anchors, runnin g lights. Ancho rs Away, 440-774-6700 Historic model kits-CG Boats/S hi ps, Liberty & Victory Ships, tugboats & lightvessel ca talog $2. 00. Plus histori cal book "Ships of the U.S. Merchant Fleer 1939-1968 " wi th photos of all types of ships when the American Merchant Marine was ar its peak fo r $20.00 (includ es s&h). Check or money order to J.A. C ul ver, 94 Marshview Circle, Seabrook, H 03874 16 inch brass bridge telegraph $75 0. Tel: 704 537- 1443 Art prints-NYC Fireboars- 16 x 20", $18 ea. Also

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CALENDAR Festivals, Events, Lectures, E tc.

• Nautical Research Guild: 26 October, • Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival: 8-10 Annual Co nference ar che San Diego M ari October 1999, in Alpena MI (70447 Fisher cime Muse um (l 9 Pleasa nt Srreer, Eve rerr MA 02 149; e- mail: genenrg @Naur-ResRoad, RomeoMI 48065; 1 800 4-ALPENA) • International Sail T rainingAssociation: G uild. o rg; www.Naur-Res-Gui ld. org) • Society of Naval Architects and Marine 20 July-2 1 Augusr 1999, C urry Sark Tall Ships Race in Sr. Malo, France; G reenock, Engineers : 9- 14 November 1999,Annual Scodand ; Lerwick, Shetland ; Aalborg, D en- Co nference in San Diego CA (Barbara mark (5 Mumby Rd., Gosport, H an rs PO 12 T renrh a m , SNAME, 60 1 Pavo ni a Ave nue, l AA; 01 705 586367, fax : 01 705 58466 1) Jersey C icy NJ 073 06; 201 798-48 00; fax: •Mystic Seaport Museum: 4 Jul y 1999, 20 1 798-4975; e- mail: brrenrh am @s name .org; www.s name.o rg) 19rh-Cen ru ry Independence Day; 24-25 July 1999, 24rhAnnual Anriqueand C lass ic • Tall Stacks '99: 13- 17 October 1999 Boar Rendezvo us (7 5 Greenmanville Ave., (G reacer C incinn ari Ta ll Sracks Co mmisPO Box 6000, Mys ric CT 06355-0990; sio n, Inc., 617 Vine Streer, Suire 1220, 860 672-071 1;www. mysricseaporr. org) C incin nari OH 45202; 5 1372 1-0104; fax: • Newport Exhibition Group : 16-1 9 Sep- 5 13 639-2362; e-mail: kar_ ts@one. nec; web rember 1999, ewporr lnrernarional Boar sire: www.rallsracks.com) • T h alassa: lberoamericanAssociation of Show (PO Box 698, 366 Thames Srreer, ewporr RI 02840; 40 l 846- 111 5; fax : Naval and Maritime History: CALL FOR 401 847-0560; e-ma il : klirrl e@ newporr PAPERS : 22-23Seprem ber199 9, in Washhar bo r. com; web sire: www.n ew porc ington DC (Ca rl os Lopez, Menlo Coll ege, Arheno n CA 94027, or Jorge Orriz, Ave. exhibition. co m) • New York State Canal Corporation: 6- Aviaci6 n 224, Lima, Peru) 19 July 1999 , Canal C ruise and Trail Trek • US Naval Academy: 23-25 September on rhe Erie Ca nal (Cy nrhia M . Munk, 1999, 14 rh Nava l Hi story Sympos ium Director of Communicari ons, 200 Sourh - (Crai g L. Symonds, D ept. of History, Annapolis MD 2 1402-5 044; 410 293-6264; ern Blvd ., PO Box 189, Albany NY 12201fax: 4 10 293-2256; e- mail: nav hscsy@nadn 0189; 518 436-2983; fax : 5 18 426-3995) •San Diego Maritime Museum : 18 Jul y .navy.m il) 1999 , Sea Cha nrey Fesrival (1306 N . H arExhibits bor Drive, San Diego CA 92 101 ) • American Museum of Natural History: • San Francisco Maritime National His10 Apr il- 1 l O ctober 1999, "The Endurtorical Park: 4 Jul y, Warerfro nr Fesrival; ance: Shackleto n's Legendary Anrarcric Ex24-26 Seprember 1999 , "Fesrival of che pedirion " (Ce nrral Park W es r ar 79 rh Sr., Sea Celebrates rh e Gold Rush" (B uilding ewYo rk Y 10024; 2 12 769-5000; www 35, Forr Maso n, PO Box 4703 10, Sa n .amnh.org) Francisco CA 94147-03 1O;4 15 556-3002; •Hudson River Maritime Museum: from e-mail: sfnmma@aol. co m) 24 April 1999, "Hudso n Ri ve r Cargoes and •Wooden Boat Foundation: 5 Jul y-27 Carri ers" (O ne Roundour Landin g, Kin gAugusr 1999, co mmuni ty sa iling co urses ston NY 12401 ; 9 14 338-007 1) for ages 7 and over (38 0 Jefferso n Srreer, • The Kendall Whaling Museum : from C up o la H ouse- P o inr Hud so n , Pon May 1999, "Whaling in rhe Sou th Seas," a Townsend WA 98368; 360 385-3628; fax: new perm anenr ex hibir; from June 1999, 360 385-4742; e-mail: wbf@olympus.n er) " 100 Yea rs, 100 C uriosici es: Cenrennial Conferences Exhib ici o n" (27 Eve ren Screec, PO Box • Council of American Maritime Muse- 297, Sha ro n MA 02067; 78 1 784-5 642; ums: 12-17 Seprember 1999,Annual Meer- www.kwm. org) ing ar Ind ependence Seaporr Museum •Lake C hamplain Maritime Museum : 3 (CAMM, C hesa peake Bay Maricime Mu- May- 17 O ctob er 1999, "Key ro Liberry: seum , Mill Srreer, PO Box 636, Sr. Michaels The Revo luti onary War in the C hamp lain MD 2 1663-0636; 4 10 745-2916 ; fax: 4 10 Va ll ey" (4472 Bas in Harbor Road , 745-6088; e-mail: jvallianr@cbmm.org) Vergennes VT 05491 ; 802 47 5-2022; • International Congress of Maritime www.lc mm. org) Museums: 12- 17 Sepre mber 1999, ar rhe • Naval UnderseaMuseum: M ay-SeptemIndependence Seaporr Museum (l 900 Arch ber 1999, "Gyroscopes: A Spin on T echSrreer, Philadelphia PA 19 103; fax: 215 nology" (PO Box 408, 601 Dowell Srreer, 564-2 175) Keyporr WA 98345; 360 396-4 148) • The Kendall Whaling Museum: 16- 17 •Texas Maritime Museum: l M arch-3 1 Ocrober 1999, 24rh Whaling History Sym- Augusr 1999, "The US Navy and M ine posium (27 Evererr Srreer, PO Box 297, Warfare Operation s along rh e T exas Gulf Sharo n MA 02067; 78 1 784-5642; web Coasr" (1202 Nav igacion Circle, Rockporr sire: www.kwm. org) TX 78382; 5 12 729- 1271)

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

INVENI PORTAM ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET LORD LEWIN

1920-1999

>-

~ j N 0

9 :;;: ~

Firsr immersed in bar rle as a midshipman aboard rhe banleship Valiant in rhe Medirerranean , Terence Lewin's service in rhe Royal Navy in WWII earned him a Disringuished Service Cross and promorion ro rhe rank of lieurenanr. His posrwar service broughr him admiral's rank and

Lord Lewin at a recent meet- "' rh e rop posirion in rhe Royal ing ofthe Wo rld Ship Trust Navy, as Firsr Sea Lord and Ch ief of Naval Sraff in 1977 and, larer, C hief of D efence Sraff in rh e Falklands conA icr. Lewin was res pecred for his intellect, judgm e m and courtesy rowards all.

Reriremenr from rhe Royal Navy broughr rhe end of one disringu ished career, bur rhe beginning of anorher, wh en Lewin , a naval hisro ry enrhus iasr, rook on res ponsibiliries in several hisrorical organizarions, mosr norably as a rrusree, and rhen chairman, of rhe Narional Maririme Museum in Greenwich umil 1995, where h e was revered by rhe staff. Lewin lobbied rirelessly for the museum , leading a successful bid for Herirage Lottery funding.

H e also served as vice presidem of rhe World Ship Trusr. His fellow WST vice presidenr Perer Sranford remembers rwo oursranding qualiries of his service: "First, he was concerned wirh rh e whole seafaring herirage of m a nkind , while raking parricular pride in rhe Brirish herirage ro which he added some m emorabl e pages. Seco nd, he was devo red ro ge rring res ulrs, rarher rhan expl anarions for fai lure. H e was a perso n of deep caring and uner determinarion, serring us all an example which will live on."

Lord Lewin is survived by his wife Jan e Branch-Evans, rheir rwo so ns and a daughrer.

RAYMONDE. WALLACE

1917-1999 As a marine artist and hisrorian, naval architecr and prominent yachtsman, Honorary Trustee an d Parron of NMHS and board member of rhe Los Angeles Maririme Museum, Ray Wallace's profess ional and personal comm irm em ro seafaring was renown ed.

Ar rhe age of fi.freen Ray jo in ed rhe Stranger expedirion for 3 yea rs as a Sea Scour explorin gAlas ka, Cemral and South America and the Sourh Pacific. H e becam e navigaror, quarrermasrer and ca rrograph er on rhar voyage, fi. nish ing high school on his rerurn.

Afte r several years as a news paper staff ar tist, he entered rhe US Coast G uard in WWII. H e rhen opened Raymond E. W allace Special Producrions, an ad verrising and design firm. His des ign of rh e sa iling ship Columbia ar Disneyland began a career of in vo lve menr in rhe rhem e park business.

T h ro ughour his life Ray conrribured his rime and ralem ro rrainin g and supporring yo un gs rers in rhe arr of seafa rin g. H e provided unique opporrun iri es in sa iling and in rhe arr profesSEA H!STORY 89 , SUMMER 1999

sion , inspiring and encouragin g his proreges. His contriburions ro rhe maririme herirage include recrearion of rh e brig Pilgrim, work on rhe sreel bark Moshulu and orher proj ecrs recorded in rhese pages.

The Wallace fam ily enjoyed a li fe rime of sailing, including rransPacific races, rransAdantic voyages and co untless cross ings ro rhe C hannel Islands, parricularly ro his beloved Howland 's Cove ar Caralina.

Ray leaves his wife and sailing com panion Barbara, brorher Bill Sreel, sisrer Marilynn Marisevich, so ns James and Roberr, who are co nrinuin g rheir farh er's design work, <laugher Mari and grandsons C hrisropher an d Evan. Mem o rials may be senr ro rh e Brig Pilgrim Sail Training Fund, 24200 D ana Poim Harbor Dri ve, D ana Point CA 92629 .

-CAPT. F RED HAWK! S CAPTAIN CARL

G.

BOWMAN

1908-1999 Caprain Carl Gilberr Bowman, a leader in rhe developmem of rhe San Diego Maritim e Museum , was one of rhe las r grear deepwarer sailing ship captai ns and was revered on San Diego's warerfront as masrer of rh ewindjammer Star of India, wh ich he skippered for rhe firsr nine of her 12 modern voyages (1 976-96). Caprain Bowm an died on 8 April of complicarions from pneuCapt. Bowman aboard moni a, ar age 90, wirh his the Star oflndia wife Lydia and granddaughrers ar his side.

Bowma n's long career in rhe Coasr G uard included dury as caprain of rhe USCG bark Eagle (1950-54). The lare Alan Vi lliers once described Bowm an aboard rhe Eagle as "a so lid, pariem figure, whose feer were as firml y pl am ed on rhe deck as if he had grown rhere and belonged as surely as rhe masrs rhemselves."

In reriremenr he served as commanding offi cer of rhe Californi a tra ining ship Golden Bear and depury superintendenr of rhe Cali forn ia Maririme Academy. Because of his U nlimired License and no-nonsense repu rarion , Bowman was ofren in vired ro ass isr orher rradirional ship o rgani za rions in sailing rheir ships, incluing rhe bark Elissa and brig Niagara. In memory of Cap ra in Carl Bowman, rhe San Diego Maritime Museum scandalized rhe ya rds (the traditional salute of angling the ya rds o n a squareri gged ship) o n rhe Star ofIndia- in tribute ro a great man and his ship .

- J OSEPH DITL ER

Sa n Di ego Maritime Museum

43

IEWS An Encyclopedia of Naval History, by Anrhony Bruce and William Cogar (Facrs on File, New York NY, 1998, 384pp, ill us, index, ISBN 0-8 160-697- 1; $5 0hc; ISBN 08160-4068-0; $24.95 pb) Covering rhe period 1500 to rh e present, rhis fin e work gives an accurate accounting of matters as parricular as rh e sinking of rhe armored cru iser Blucher ar rhe Bar ri e of Dogger Bank in 1915 and as ge neral as rhe evolution and life-s pan of rhe car rack as a sh ip rype-a rype incorrec tl y d efin ed in too many historical works, bur well handled here.

In cisive biographies of naval leaders, go ing down ro rh e level of Royal Navy Treasurer Rob err Mansell , who flour ished in early Sruarr rimes, or Roberr Coo ntz (US C h ief of Naval Operations, 1919-21 ) provide a val uable reso urce.

Ir's worrh rhe price of admission jusr to be able to hunr down lirrle-known peo ple whose names pop up in naval narratives.

And here yo u'll read jusr why Cowper Coles's radi cal barrleship Captain sank in a gale, raki ng her designer wirh her. You' ll also find norable appreciations of such giants as Drake, Jo hn Paul Jones, and Scheer.

In an y work so comprehensive, error is bou nd to creep in, b ur rhis reviewer found only a few debatable points, such as citing a 100-to n size for Drake's Golden Hind. We know rhar rh is is an undersrarem enr of rh e Hind's acrual tonnage, a reductio n granted by rh e Crown as an allowance to reduce po rr duri es for rhis usefu l trader/wa rship.

T he naval campaigns are searchingly analyzed , wirh chrono logical rabies and criti cal co mmentary, and abundanr illusrrar ions fles h our rhe narrar ive. Valuab le bibliogra phical cirarions po int rhe way to furrh er research . In all, rhis wi ll be a wellrhumbed addirion to the library of anyo ne pursuin g naval studies, and a useful reference wo rk for general readers whose reading rakes rhem seaward from rime to rime.

PETER STA FORD

Th e Nelson Almanac: A Book of D ays Recording Nelson's Life and the Events that Shaped His Era, edited by D av id

44

H arri s (Naval Insrirute Press, Annapolis MD, 1998, 193 pp, illus, biblio, index, ISB l-55 75 0-47-7;$38.95 hc) Few men in histo ry march rh e complexiry of rhis m an w ho redes igned Brirish naval tacrics and practices-and sidetracked Napoleon 's pl ans for wo rld dominarion , thus changing the course of wes tern civilization . The book pain rs in brilliant colors Nelson's abiliry to act incisively, decisively and courageously in rhe heat of barrle. Ir gives us a porrrait of a remarkably perceptive and intelli ge nt leader motivated by d evotion to dury and co untry, characterized by loyalty to his o ffi cers and his men, who also combin ed weakness wirh un bounded energy and derermination .

More than rhis, the book chronicles in detail four barrl es in whi ch Nelso n neurralized four enemy fleers , spells our rhe historical circumstances in whi ch rh ese barrles were foughr, and makes clear how they sapped Napoleo n's capacity to hold alli es and ach ieve military success. They are: Cape St. Vincent, 1897;Aboukir Bay, 1798; Copen hagen, 1801; and Trafalga r, 1805.

These events and orhers are narrated in 12 well-researched chap ters wrirren by respected experts. T hey are fl eshed our by nearly 60 vignerres and an almanac covering contem porary events and suppl ying firsr-hand informarion and insights into Nelson'scharacrerand beliefs. Readin g the vignerres is a treas ure hunt.

This telling of rh e sto ry of Nelso n and h is era, from before his entry inro rhe navy ar age 13 to rhe afterm ath of his dearh ar 47, can be d escribed in one wo rd: com prehensive. The book's pages are liberally, ye t nearly, spattered wirh beaurifu l ill usrrations fairhful to rh e times and brought to rhis reviewer's mind rh e old saw, "A rhing of beaury is a joy forever. " WILFREDGAG ON

Sebring, Florida

They Couldn't Have Won the War without Us!, edited by Pete Peterso n (Lead Mine Press, 809 Spring Street, Galena IL 61036, 227pp, !SB 1-889 103- 0 3 -9 ; $ l 4.95 pb) Merchant seamen manned the vast fl eet of sh ips that carried alm osr all the supplies delivered to the far-flung wa r fronts . Ar first th ey sa iled un arm ed and unescorred and rh us suffered heavy losses. They Couldn't Have Won the War without Us!co ntains the

sto ries of nin ereen merchant marine vererans and o ne Navy Armed G uard gunn er from the C hicago area. They rel! of how rh ey lea rn ed abour th e merchanr se rvi ce and cam e to join ir, rheir rraining and their expe ri ences borh at sea and in loading and discharging ports .

T hese rwe n ry mariners sailed in a roral of 154 differe nr ships. Among rhem, rhey served in a lm osr all rhe jobs aboard ship.

They served in all rhearers, includin g th e dreaded Murmansk run . Seven suffered rhrough rhe sriflin g hear of rhe Persian G ulf. Three of rh e men wenr rhrough rhe agon ies of being torpedoed, wirh rwo ships losr and one limping back 50 miles to G ibralrar wirh large ho les in rhe hu ll. Many of rhem ex peri enced bombings by enemy aircraft w hi le d ischarging in war zo ne ports.

T his book shou ld interest all readers, relling Americans abour th e merchanr marine and how rhe men who did rhe work delivered rh e war materials to rh e Allied fighring fo rces. Merchanr marine ve rerans should be pleased tha r rheir story is being to ld by those who did the job.

EUGENE H ARROWER

Portland, Oregon

Merchan t Marine D ays, My Life in World War II, by David Lamonr Lee (Na rw ha l Press, In c., Charleston SC, 177pp , illus, appen, nores, bibli o, ISBN 1886391-20-3; $29.95 hc; ISBN 1-88639 12 1-1 ; $ 19.95 pb) This is a ve ry perso nal account of the aurhor's life during World War II ar sea.

Sworn into the Unired Srares Maririme Service in 1942, he was sent to boor camp in Po rr Hueneme in Californi a, and rhen proceed ed to sea on coastal and offshore rankers a nd then on the inevirable Li berry ships, dry cargo and ranker. As hore for officer rraining in 1944 and 1945, he was 3 rd mare aboard a Liberty w hen he was discharged in 1946.

Hi s book gives a very good acco unr of life aboard ship , rhe pleasures and frusrrarions du r in g World War II in rhe merchanr navy. Ir a lso di scusses rhe Armed G uard , anorher o rgan izarion nor well covered in srandard histories. There are excell enr photographs of each ofhis ships as well as many orher vie,ws oflife afloar and as ho re. To see how rh e auth o r's experience firs into rhe scope of rrh e WWII merchant m arine, go to Heroes im Dungarees by J oh n Bunker (NaSEA H ISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

THE GLENCANNON PRESS MARITIME BOOKS val Institute Press, 1995), who g ives the broader sto ry of the Am eri ca n m erchant marine in Wo rld War II. TOWNSEND H O RN OR Osrervill e, Massachuserrs US Battleship Operations in World War

I, by Jerry W. Jones ( aval Institute Press , Ann apolis MD, 1998, 170 pp , illus, notes, biblio , ind ex, ISBN 1-55750-4 11 -3; $32. 95hc) This is a we ll -docu mented a nd wellw rirren book co ncernin g a ge nerally overlooked peri od ofUS naval operat io n s. Aside from rhe indecisive Barde of Jutland, rhe barrle fl ee rs in World War I saw relatively li ttle action co mpared to rhe submarin es and esco rt vessels. T he United S ta res entered rh e war rath er !are in rh e action and almost totall y unprepared in terms of manpower.

We had sixteen dreadnought and six pre-dreadn o ught barrles hips in co mmission at rh e rime, all bur fo ur of w hich operated in rh e wa r zo ne. Mann ed in large part by green recruits and inex perien ced reserve office rs, trained parti cularl y in gunnery by peacetim e standards rh ar emph asized ship-to-s hip co mpetiti o n rather rh an reali stic wartim e co nditions ofbad weather and confusion, rhese ships and m en learned th eir lesso ns rhe hard way in rh e No rth Arlanric and th e North Sea. T he Briti sh , ve ry glad to have them jo in the Grand Fleer, were also very qui ck to poinr our th eir d efi ciencies, which by th e end of rh e war we re largel y remedied .

T he barrl e fl eer presence in British waters was rh e backup force that allowed co nvoys to operate with light esco rts, rh e mining of th e No rth Sea to co m ain German subm arin es to be successfu l, a nd th e co nstant des troyer sweeps that were so characte ri sti c of that war. H ow these operat io ns succeed ed and how US and British sa il o rs cam e together to achi eve jo int successes is an engrossing sto ry.

T h e A m e ri ca n s' fir st obs t acle was Mah an , who h ad preach ed that th e fl eet should never be divided for any reaso n .

T he seco nd was rhe real iza tion th at th e majority of ships were obsolete, and had bee n wh en th ey were builr. Teddy Ro osevelt's Great White Fleer of 19 07-09 came after rhe laun ching of HMS Dreadnought in 1906, th e first all-big-gun ship that, by elimin ating interm ediate cali ber g uns, h ad SEA HISTORY 89 , SUMMER 1999

more rhan twi ce rh e fire power of any other battleship . Th e ove rco ming of these difficu lties is an absorbin g story, opening a window on events that lefr our battleship navy in a signifi ca ntly better co ndition and w irh a much more reali stic view of wartime operanons.

TOWNSE D H ORNOR Hand-Me-Down Ships, by Ken Reed (Available from rh e author, The Bungalow, Th e Laurels, Fleer H arga re, Spalding, Lin coln shire, E ngland PE12 6LH, 18lpp, illus, appen, index, ISBN 0-9522387-0-5 ; $22 hc) E very stud ent of Wo rld W ar II naval history knows of th e Lend-Lease Act and rh e 50 flu sh-deck destroye rs exchanged with Britain in return for bas in g rights in Newfo undland , Bermuda and the Baham as. But less we ll known are the ten Lakeclass US Coast G uard currers turned over to rh e Royal Navy in M arch 194 1. Ken Reed, a former crew member of HMS Totland (ex-USCGC Cayuga) tells this fascinating sto ry in Hand-Me-Down Ships. By painstakin g resea rch co upled w irh perso na l reminiscences he rakes rhe reader from rh e ships' hando ve r at th e Brooklyn Navy Yard and co mmiss ion in g into the British Navy rh rough rhe many adventures that fo ll owed.

T he ships mad e countless co nvoy esco rts from Britain to G ibraltar, F reetown, Durban and Co lombo. At war's end , two ships had bee n lost in combat, two were scrapp ed and six we re return ed to US Coast G uard se rvice. The derails are all rh ere. In his las t chapter, Reed tells how, in 1987, survivin g crewm embers mu ste red once aga in afte r so m any years and form ed rh e Royal Navy C urrers Associat ion , an active ve terans gro up formally recognized by both th e RN and th e USCG. The author has don e us all a valuable service by documenting th e story of rhese ren brave li ttle ships and the ir li fe under two fl ags.

CAPT. W INSTON G. C HURCHILL Ormond Beach, Florida The Voyage of the E ndeavour, Captain Cook and the D iscovery of the Pacific,

by AJa n Frost (Paul & Co., 1998 , l 40p p, illus, index, biblio , ISBN 1-86448- 188-9 ; $ 19.95 pb) Avail able from PCS Dara Process ing, Inc., 360 W. 3 l sr Street, N ew Yo rk NY 10001 ; 212 564-3730 .

Alan Frost has produced much more

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than a biography of Captain James Cook and a chronology of hi s three Pacifi c exploratory voyages. H e o pens with a com prehensive review of th e co mpetition among European nations eager for expansion and Britain's emergence fro m the Seven Years' W ar (175 6-63) as the clea rl y do mi nant naval power. H e describes events that led to Bri tish plans fo r a voyage to Tahiti to observe the transit of the planer Ve nus ac ross the sun o n 3 June 1769. Secret pl ans were also made to search fo r the mys terious southern co ntinent. T he co mm ander, and one of th e as tron omers, of this voyage was Lieutenant James Cook, and his vessel was a 368-ron bark, a broad-beam ed, shall ow draft, 106-foo t form er collier, newly named Endeavour.

Frost captures the geographical derails of the 35- month voyage of Endeavour and how Cook ran wes t to the eas t coast of New H olland (Ausrralia) to fo llow it no rth before turning wes t in to the Indi an Ocean and then ho me to England . T his choice of a return ro ute m oved Cook, in th e estimatio n of Frost, "from competence to grea tness, fo r this ro ure wo uld ral<e him where no ne had been befo re." Just as impo rtant, and cerrain ly mo re insighrful of the nature of Coo k, is Fros t's introspective descriptio n of the maturatio n of Cook's hum ani ty and understanding as he deal t with first th e nati ves of T ahiti , then the Maori of New Zealand and , fin ally, th e Abo rigines of Australi a. Frost infers that this growth in imagination and his abili ty to let go of in grained European mores led him to in quire abo ut peoples' lives in th ese different societi es fro m more th an just a purely practi cal or scientific perspecti ve .

ROBERT W. KESTELOOT

Resro n, V irgin ia A Sailor of King George: The Journals of Captain Frederick Hoffman, RN, 17931814, edi ted by A. Beckford Bevan and H .

B. Wolryche-Whirmore (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD , 1998, 275 pp, illus, a pp e n , gloss, !SB 1- 5 575 0 -39 1-5; $34.95 hc) If o ne we re seekin g undramati zed, derailed in fo rm ation on life in rh e Royal Navy during the late 1700s and earl y 1800s, Captain H offm an 's journal, wrirren in 1838, burn o r published until 1901 , wo uld be a fin e starting point. T here is lirrl e embellishment and virtually no drama;

46

however, there is a wealth of derail dealing with life in both ships-of-the-line and sm aller vessels. One can eas ily imagine the drama and fea r, as well as th e dreary routine aboard , by readin g between th e lines .

Lr. Hoffm an bega n a life of servi ce as a boy, entering the Navy with lirrl e patronage as a midshipm an. His narrati ve points up derails abo ut li fe at sea fo r a yo un gs ter, and the autho r's keen eye and mem ory put us wirh him in rhe bowels of a sailing ship at sea as well as o n her decks. H e does nor dwell on flogging, mutin y o r o th er tempting tales of rhe Navy, but ra ther points our quire succin ctl y th at whil e mo re than half of the sailors manning England's ships were pressed, most became useful , skilled p rofessio nals, loyal to the Crown and to their ships. Hi s ca reer spann ed 2 1 yea rs, and Hoffman saw ac ti o n on nearly 20 occasions, incl udin g rhe Barrie ofT rafalgar where he was Se nio r Li eutenant on the lower deck of HMS Tonnan t.

He was also present wh en the H ermione was brought in by HMS Surprise, and writes kn owledgea bly abo ut the mutiny, apparentl y from in rerviewing eyewitnesses.

T wice captu red, o nce by the Spanish and o nce by th e French, Captain H offman seems to write quire unemotionally, alth ough wirh so me sa rcas m, abo ut his experiences in capti vity. H is straightforwa rd repo rting of losses to yell ow feve r, of officers and m en ali ke, as well as his own bout with the ofren-faral disease, is taken up as just another pro bl em to be dealt with .

Hi s matter-of-fact, alm os t laconic descriptions of life-shattering events intensify their impact; one can only imagine the horror of bein g the recipi ent of hours of broadsides fro m three ships simultaneously at T rafalgar. Ye r H offm an shares with us rh e derails in a straightfo rward unembellished rhetoric. H is d roll humo r and often bi rin g co mm ents abo ut his peers and superio rs provide real ism and a wealth of derail abo ut th e pe ri od . Fa ns of Fred eri ck M arrya r's series (now in re-iss ue) of the era will undoubtedl y enjoy Captain Hoffman's rale, and maritim e history enthusias ts will wa nt this o ne in their collectio n.

W I LLIAM H. W H ITE Rumson, New Jersey World War II Adventures of Canada's Bluenose, by Andrew Higgins and Jesse Spaldin g III (W est Indies T radin g Co .,

PO Box 3353, Newport Beach CA 926598353, 194 pp. , illus, ISBN 0-9663 073-0-J ; $25 pb + $5 s/h) T wo A m ericans, Andrew Hi ggins's fath er, T homas, and Jesse Spaldin g III , formed a C aribbean trading co mpany in 1942 . T he withdrawal of most of th e trad ing vessels in World War II to suppo rt war o perati o ns left a great need for shippin g of anyrype ro supply th e W esdndi es. Hi ggins and Spalding provided this with a form er Coast G u ard cutter and the fo rm er Canadian fis hin g schooner Bluenose.

Higgins and Spalding recount th e tri als and tribulations of dealing w ith US and foreign government agencies, and the creation of a second co rpo ration to handl e affairs in H avana. Problems of ca rgo acqui siti on , po rrside facilities and manning are discussed in derail. Cargo included foo dstuffs, mi lita ry supplies and, at tim es, petroleum products and expl os ives .

T he project cam e to an end with th e end ofWorld W ar II, releasing man y surplusbu t more suitabl e-vessels to resume the prewar trad e.

D AV IDE. PERKI NS

Sebring, Flo rida The Ferry Building: Witness to a Century of Change, 1898-1998, by N ancy Olmsted (H eyday Boo ks, Berkeley CA, 1998, 240pp, illus, appen, notes, !SB 189077 1- 12-0; $3 0pb) Surm o unted by a strikingly handsome clock rowe r, whose steel frame survi ved rh e earthquake of 1906, San Francisco's Ferry Building has been called "A famous city's most fa m o us landm ark" by H erb C aen .

Appropri atel y, the wa terfront street th at runs befo re the building, generally called the Emb arcadero, has been renamed for H erb Caen , San Francisco's best-loved column isr. A nd app ro priately again, th e inimi table, w itty and scholarl y Bay historian Na ncy Olm sted has put toge ther an enthralling photographi c and textual record of this sig nature building of rhe city by the Bay with valu able contributions by the San Francisco Chronicle's distinguished reporter Carl Nolte a nd others, reaching back to the la te Cap tain Fred Kl ebingar, whose deeds a nd word s we re reco rded by N MH S fo under Karl Ko rtum .

Photographs reco rd the life of the changin g ciry ove r th e pas t century as seen from the ferry buildin g's commanding position

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

at the foot of Market Street. The city's powe r of survival is evoked in a dram atic photograph of the eight-year-o ld rower standin g triumphant ove r fallen build ings, amid black clouds of smoke, dur ing th e terrib le earthquake of 1906. Karl Kortum 's photos of the "Freeway to Nowhe re" that cut across th e Ferry Building's face dramatically show another threat, met by Mrs. Olmsted and others who rallied under Jean Kortum 's leadership to tear down this cityblighting structure and rejo in Sa n Fra ncisco to the wa terfront that gave it birth . PS

the meeting of that ship and HMS Java off the coast ofBrazi l in 181 2, then back ro the Mediterranean.

W hil e not written for a scholarly audience, this effort is a worthy addition to any m aritime hi srorian 's library as it does deliver the sro ry of Essex and, throu gh that, th e srory of her more fa mo us captains. As for the "birth of th e America n Navy, " there are o ther more signifi cant so urces which do a more credibl e jo b of detailing the ea rly days of American fi ghtin g sai l.

WI LLIAM H. WHlTE

T h e U SS Essex and the Bir th of the American N avy, by Frances Diane Ro botti and James V iscovi (Adams M edi a Co rp ., Ho lbrook, Massachusetts, 1999, 304pp , illus, glossary, biblio, !SB 1-58062-1 120; $22 .95 hc) The story of the Sal em friga te USS Essex, bui lt 200 years ago in Salem , M assachusetts, as the first frigate of the Ameri can Navy in its infancy, is an exciting o ne; som e of th e most famous names in the an nals of th e US Navy cut their teeth on her quarterdeck and brought the sh ip and th e Navy both fame and, in so me cases, fortun e. Such men as Bainbridge, P reble, Barron and Porter, the fa th ers of the service, we re her first captains, and yo un g D av id Farragut served aboard as a midshipman. From her building by subscription to her ignominious end as a British prison hu lk, the ship created a lege nd for herself and her crews , and M s. Rob o tti and Mr. Viscovi have cold the tale reaso nably well in this volume.

U nfortunately, in trying also ro tell the tale of the ea rl y days of the American Navy, they have undertaken a task well beyo nd the capacity of a o ne-volume effo rt, and ge nerally beyo nd their own capacity to provide a meanin gful narrative of this rich and va ried hisrory. Bein g by their own admi ss ion "landlubbers," th ey di strac t themselves and their readers by sropp ing to exp lain a host of nautical terms, cusro ms and phrases whi ch are often cove red by their glossary and which , for the most part, are well undersrood by their intended audience. And so me of th eir ex planations are simplifi ed ro the point ofbeing misleadin g.

Additi o nall y, their digressio ns detract from th e chron o logy of their history; fo r exam pl e, whil e telli ng the story of USS Constitution in Tripoli in 1805 , th ey jump to

T itanic Voices: M emo ries from the Fateful Voyage, edited by Dona ld H yslop, Alastair Fo rsyth and Sheila Jemim a (S t.

Martin's Press, New York, 1999, 296pp, illus, biblio, ISB 03 12 174284; $29.95 hc; ISB 0-312-2 1792-7; $ 16.95pb) Of the many titles inspired by the success ofThat Movi e, this book is truly a class act. Original ly published in 1994 by the Southampron C ity Council , Titanic Voices covers the sto ry in detail from beginning to end: the Wh ite Star Line and its showp iece, the Titanic; life aboard ship for passe nge rs and crew; testimony, letters and contemporaty news reports of rhe event; and rhe aftermath and tri al. Equally impressive is the collection of ph orographs, drawings and docum ents rhar fi ll nearl y every page.

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

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T h e P ersisten ce of Sail in the Age of Steam: U nderwater Eviden ce fro m the Dry T ortugas, by Donna J . Souza (Plenum Press, New York, 1998, 189 pp, ill us , ap pen, glossary, ind ex, ISBN 0-306-458438; $4 2.50hc) Several sites in rhe Dry Torrugas document a rime of transition in the maritime industry in the late 1800s and ea rly 1900s as owners and crews of sailing vessels competed with steamers by adapting technological advances to their needs and by engaging in high-ri sk behaviors that could put crews, ships and cargoes in jeopardy.

D etailed examinations ofseveral abandoned and wrecked ships and enough charts to satisfy a diehard scientist co mb ine with a firm grasp of social and technological hisrory ro make this book a useful and lucid examination of a microcosm of maritime history.

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M ELB OURNE SMITH

WI LLI AM R ICH. Ill T HE R um R . H o YT-

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L EONARD J . B ALABAN

Available for renta l , \. Millennial week.

Apply to Dave Paling Flat 2A The Cloisters Broadwater N orthing Sussex 0171-363-1183

SEA HISTORY 89, SUMMER 1999

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The licensed civilian men and women of the U.S. merchant marine-skilled, reliable, driven by history and tradition, ready to serve in routine trade in peacetime and in defense sealift in wartime. No one does it better.

American Mari time Officers

2 West Dixie Highway Dania, Florida 33004 (305) 921-2221

Michael R. McKay

Jerome E. Joseph

President

Executive Vice President

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Come Sail With Us

The on ly 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 "B' (203) 335-1433

"B' (203) 335-0932

Fax: (203) 335-6793

website: www .tallshiprose.org

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 rowe, 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.