ing to W as hington soon to do the adva nce work fo r President M acapagal's visit. A few weeks later I had a call fro m Commander M elchor. H e was in Was hington and wanted to see me. M elchor was a few years older than I, a completely Americanized Filipino and a great believer in the Kaiulani proj ect. But he was a little taken aback with our modest committee. So mehow he thought we were something like the National Geographic Society. I told him not to wo rry, we would soon beco me the National Maritime H istorical Society, a title I thought wo rthy of our proj ect. Alex thought it was a capital id ea, and I quickly incorporated th e Nati onal Maritime Historical Society as a D istrict of Columbia non-profit organizatio n with an IRS tax-exempt ruling. W ithin a month I received a telex from Alex. Ir is a message I will never forget, even though it was over 35 years ago. It said, simply: "Kaiulani all systems go. Alex." I called Ko rtum with the good news who, so mehow, while very pleased, did nor seem too surprised . I invited him to join us at th e White H o use wh en P res ident M acapagal presented the Kaiulani as a gift from the people of the Philippines to th e
Presidents Macapagal andJohnson, standing in front ofthe Kaiulani s wheel (now at NMHS headquarters), admire a model of the Kaiulani and Oswald Bretts painting ofthe bark. people of the United States of America. Pres ident Lyndon Johnson accepted the gift, then turned to Karl Kortum, Jim Sharp, and myself and charged the Natio nal Maririme Historical Society to rake possession of the Kaiulani as trustee for the American people, to restore the vessel to her fo rmer glory as a square rigger and berth her on the Maine Avenue waterfront as a las ting monument to the eternal frie nd-
ship between the people of rhe United States and the people of the Republ ic of the Philippines. The National Maritime Historical Society, first incorporated in 1963, really rook wings on that day in 1964! .t Mr. Hutchison was founding president of NMHS and now serves the Society as Overseer. Part 2 ofhis story will be taken up in Sea History 95 (Winter 2000-2001).
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SEA HISTORY 94, AUTUMN 2000
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