LETTERS NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY OFFICERS &TRUSTEES: Chairman, Howard Slotnick; Vice Chairmen, Richardo R. Lopes, Edward G. Zelinsky; President, PatrickJ. Garvey; Vice Presidents, Burchenal Green, Nor ma Sranford; Treasurer, David B. Vietor; Secretary, Marshall Screiberr; Trustees, Donald M. Birney; Walre r R. Brown , Sabato Carucci, Richard T. du Moulin, David S. Fowler, Jack Gaffney, Fred C. Hawkins, Rodney N. Houghton, Steven W. Jones, Richard M. Larrabee, Warren G. Leback, Guy E. C. Mairland, Karen E. Markoe, Michael R. McKay, James J. McNamara, Cecil J. North Jr. , David A. O'Nei l, Ronald L. Oswald, David Plattner, Craig A. C. Reynolds, Bradford D. Smith , Ha rry E. Vinall , ll l , William H. White, Jean Worr, Alexander E. Zagoreos; Chairmen Emeriti, Alan G. Choate, Guy E. C. Mairland , Craig A. C. Reynolds President Emeritus: Peter Stanford FOUNDER: Karl Kortum (1917-1996) OVERSEERS: Chairman, RADM David C. Brown; Walter Cronki te, Alan D. Hutchison, Jakob lsbrandtsen, John Lehman, Warren Marr, II, Brian A. McAll ister, John Stobarc, William G. Winterer AOV1SORS: Co-Chairmen, Frank 0. Braynard, Melbourne Smith; D. K.Abbass, Raymond Aker, George F. Bass, Francis E. Bowker, Oswald L. Brett, Norman]. Brouwer, RADMJoseph F. Callo, William M. Doerflinger, Francis J. Duffy, John W. Ewald, Joseph L. Farr, Ti mothy G. Foote, William Gilkerson, Thomas C. Gillmer, Walter J. Handelman, Cha rl es E. Herdendorf, Steven A. Hyman, Hajo Knuttel , Gunn ar Lundeberg, Conrad Milster, William G. Muller, David E. Perkins, Nancy Hughes Richardson, Timothy J. Runyan, Shan non J. Wall, Thomas Wells NM HS STAFF: President, Patrick J. Garvey; ChiefofStaff, Burche nal Gree n; Director ofEducation, David B. Allen; Membership Coordinator, Nancy Schnaars; Membership Secretary, Irene Eisenfeld; Membership Assistant, An n Makelainen; Advertising Secretary, Carmen McCallum ; Accounting, Jill Romeo; Secretary to the President, Karen Ritell; SEA HISTO RY STA FF: Editor, Justine Ahlstrom; Executive Editor, No rma Stanfo rd; Editor at Laige, Peter Stanford T O GET IN TOUCH WITH US:
Address: 5 Joh n Walsh Boulevard PO Box 68 Peekskill NY I0566 Phone: 914 737-7878, xO Fax: 914 737-78 16 Web site: www.seah istory.o rg E- mail: nmhs@seahistory.org MEMBERS HIP is in vited. Afterguard $10,000; Benefactor $5,000; Plankowner $2,500; Sponsor $1,000; Donor $500; Patron $250; Friend $100; Conctibu to r $75; Fam ily $50; Regu lar $35 . AJ I members outside the USA please add $10 for postage. SEA HI STORY is sent to all members. Individual copies cost $3.75. Advertising:
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ered myself to be a pretry fair sailor. Qualification should be a breeze, I thought, until my rwelve-year-old "qualifier," who was to test my abiliti es to handle dinghies, yelled, "Sir down , stupid! You neve r stand up when the boat is underway." He was unimpressed with my uniform and lieutenant's stripes, and sure let m e know that he was also a sailor. I guess salt water ran in his vei ns, too. CDR. WILLIAM M. GOODE, USN (Ret.) C irrus H eights, California
Catwalk Takeoff from USS Cabot N ews of the scrapping of the light aircraft carrier USS Cabot in Brownsville, Texas, brought to mind one of my experiences while aboard her. On Easter Sunday, 1 April 1945, during the invasion of Okinawa, my battle station was in the ball turret, sitting o n top of a TBM-3 G rumman Avenger to rpedo bo mber, where I sat facing aft. Howard Skidmore, pilot, Danny McCarthy, radioman, and I had begun flying to geth er as a crew in February 1944 and had accrued 120 carrier landings, 96 catapult shots and 27 deck lau nches. W hen I felt the plane turn to port during this 28th deck launch, I assumed Mr. Skidmore was maneuvering for a better rake-off position. Bur I felt the plane drop off to port, followed by a series of bumps and scraping sensations. We were gliding along and slightly above the carwalk that provided a safe walkway to the anti-aircraft guns whil e fli ght operations were underway, about four feet below the level of the flight deck. Now our plane was hitting these obstacles, and our starboard wing was scraping along the edge of the flight deck. I looked down the port side of the carrier and saw nothing bur water. Co nvinced that we were about to make a water landing, I grab bed the emergency-hatch release lever so I could open it quickly; I wanted to be ready to get o ut on the port wing, where I could get at the rubber life raft. Bur we were still flying! As I looked back, I saw a wake being churned up along the surface of the ocean by our prop-wash. W irhour a doubt, Mr. Skidmore had retracted the landing gear in the nick of rime. We made an emergency landing on USS Essex, as Cabot had aircraft spotted aft the flight deck. Danny and I checked to make sure that Mr. Skidmore hadn' t been
injured; we marveled at his prowess in the air. The plane was repaired and, after a pleasant visit aboard the large carrier, we returned to Cabot on 3 Apri l and continued our invas ion co mbat missions. D ONALD T. H AMBIDGE Danbury, Connecticut
An Issue Written for Me Many thanks for sending the extra co py of Sea History 96 with my review of Capt. Boudreau' s The Man Who Loved Schooners. I believe this who le issue was written for m e. From the time I was ten years of age I have been in love with sailing ships. I sailed in them, and I have traveled wherever I co uld to see them and to talk to m en who also sailed them . Now I am living o ut my life at what used to be known as The Sailors' Snug Harbor (now Snug Harbor) . Once located in Staten Island, New York, it is now in North Carolina. Times have changed from the days when Sailors' Snug Harbor was filled with destitute old seam en. We take bo th men and women into our home, and they no longer need to have had sea experience. CAPT. FRANCIS "BIFF" BOWKER Sea Level, North Carolina ERRATUM & ADDENDUM I read with great interest the rwo-part early historyofNMHS and the Kaiulani Project featured in Sea History 94 and 95. One derail, however, jumped out at me. Kaiulani was indeed launched in Bath , M aine, bur not at Bath Iron Works. The bark was built by Arthur Sewall and Company, about a mile upstream rhe Kennebec River from BIW. After building wooden vessels since the 1820s, the Sewalls converted to steel production in 1893. The first product of th e shipya rd was the bark Dirigo, laun ched o n 10 February 1894. Nine mo re vessels fo ll owed her off the ways. Arthur Sewall and Company was signifi cant as the o nl y shipbuilder in Maine, if not the US, to convert directl y from wooden to steel production and build a fl eet of steel square ri gge rs for US service. BIW did bui ld square- rigged vessels, bur o nly for sail training or as steam-auxiliary yachts, rather than commercial use. THADDEUS LYFORD Education Coo rdinator Maine Mari tim e M useum Bath, Maine
SEA HISTORY 97, SUMMER 2001