Sea History 098 - Autumn 2001

No. 98

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

AUTUMN2001

SEA HISTORY.:

75

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

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: DEFENDING THE HUDSON

The Contest for the America's Cup Last Daughter of Davis Ridge The Marine Art of David Bareford

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No. 98

SEA HISTORY

AUTUMN 2001

CONTENTS FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE 7 DEFENDING THE HUDSON RlvER, 1776-77: Defending the Lower Hudson in 1776, by William P. Deary, PhD Two hundred twenty-five years ago, control of the Hudson River was the key to the success or failure ofB ritain s effort to quell rebellion in North America.

11 DEFENDING THE HUDSON RlvER, 1776-77: A Warm Reception in the Hudson Highlands, October 1777, by James M. Johnson, PhD I n 1776, the British had taken the lower Hudson River; could the Americans hold them offin the H udson Highlands and prevent Sir Henry Clinton from relieving j ohn Burgoynes trapped army in N ew Yorks north country?

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14 The Waterman' s Song: The Last Daughter of Davis Ridge,

by D avid Cecelski, PhD From T he Waterman's Song, an exploration ofthe lives ofthe African Americans who dominated maritime trades in North Carolinas Tidewater in the 1800s, comes this recollection ofa community of black fishermen after the Civil War.

NEW YORK YACH T CLUB

21 How the America's Cup Became the World's Most Famous Trophy,

by Peter Stan fo rd A fussy British monarch, a wealthy tea merchant, an industrialist who helped win the battle ofBritain, the cool heir ofa ferryboat fortune and others carried the 100 Guinea Cup into history as the Americas Cup. 26 MARINE ART: David Bareford, by Ann Bilby Artist David Bareford captures natural beauty in the most mundane and sublime of maritime subjects, attributing his success to "long hours, a lot of second tries, and an unwavering commitment to excellence. "

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32 Dazzle and Drab: Ocean Liners at War, by J ohn Maxtone-Graham An exhibit sponsored by the Ocean Liner Museum and the Seamen s Church Institute features the role ofocean liners in the world wars, when the ships, the epitome ofluxury for the wealthy and hope for immigrants, were conscripted into military service and dramatically altered for dangerous voyages in hostile waters.

DAVID BAREFORD

34 Remembering a Far-Traveled Four Piper, by Capt. Alexander Monroe The author follows the career ofone American destroyer, USS Fairfax, after she was turned over to the British in the controversial 194 0 destroyers-for-bases deal

COVER: American forces on the heights overlooking the Hudson River fire to no avail on a flotilla ofthree frigates, a schooner and two tenders running the defenses at New Jersey's Fort Lee (at left) and Fort Washington on Manhattan. Heightening the dramatic effect, the river is shown as perhaps 3 00 feet across. ft is actually more than 3,000 feet across at this point.

(Dominic Serres, "Forcing the Hudson River Passage, Oct. 9, 1776"; courtesy, US Naval Academy Museum) (See pages 7-13)

DEPARTMENTS 2 DECK LOG & LETTERS 5 NMHS: A CAUSE IN MOTION 30 MARINE ART NEWS & CALENDAR 36 SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS

39 AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE MUSEUM NEWS 41 CALENDAR 42 REVIEWS 48 PATRONS

26 SEA HISTORY (iss n 0 146-93 12) is pub lished quarte rly by the National Maritime Histo rical Society, 5 Joh n Walsh Blvd. , PO Box 68, Peekski ll NY 10566. Periodi cals postage paid at Peekski ll NY 10566 and add'I mailing offices.

CO PYRIGHT © 200 1 by the National Ma ritime H isrorical Society. Tel: 9 14-737-7878.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes ro Sea H istory, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

DECK LOG This column went to the printer on 10 September, reflecting on the view of the sundappled Hudson from our office windows.

I wrote that it was hard to believe that hostile forces co min g up our river had once threatened to destroy our American nation .

How this thrust was blunted, whil e Am eri can forces stumbled through defeat and retreat, enduring until they turned the tide of war, is vividly set out by William Deary and Co l. Jim Johnson in this issue.

I urge all hands to read these moving acco unts and NMHS Presiden t Pat Ga rvey's report on page 5 of how we' re working to make this story live for Americans today. * * * * * Now the unspeakably ruthl ess attacks o n th e World Trade Center at the mouth of o ur Hudso n Rive r, and on the Pentagon in Washington, bring home the importance of lea rning from our own American experience. We now confront over 5,000 individual wo rlds destroyed, with the unique memories, hopes and aspirations of th e peopl e whose lives were snuffed o ut, each sharing in the American dream. What do we most need to honor these lives?

"Courage," suggests New York's Mayor G iuliani. He quotes England's wa rtime leader Winston C hurchill, that this is "the quality which guarantees all the others."

H e went on to cite the US Navy's response to Pearl H arbor, rising from the ashes to win the greatest oceanic war in history.

Let's have th e courage to stand by our history, and the wisdom to learn from it.

We have apologized too much for ills not of o ur makin g, and have failed to ho nor such achievements as the ending of slavery, discussed in a learned letter o n this page.

T he West, led by the E nglish-speaki ng peo ples, has led the whole wo rld in the quest for freedom , which we continue to pursue today. We need urge ntly to tell that story in an education system that today leaves yo ung people o nly half-aware (at best) of the adva nce and defense of freedom , in which America now plays the leading role. While that story continues, tyranny everywhere is threatened. T hat, in bri ef, is why we are under attack today.

In my watch as president we never achieved the resources to tell that story from the rooftops as it sho uld be told. I ask all m embers to consider what they can do to help us tell that sto ry now.

PETER STANFORD, Editor at Large

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LETTERS COMMENTARY ON OCEANIC MISSION II The Loose Brick that Doomed Slavery

One loose brick led to the collapse of the wall that sustained slavery, which had been the established practice for virtually all societies throughout the whole history of mankind. That brick was loosened in 1772 in Britain, then the most powerfol country in the world, through Lord Mansfield's decision freeing the Virginian slave James Somerset, as discussed in "Oceanic Mission II" (Sea History 97). NMHS member Philip Kaplan, a traveler aboard our Sea C loud cruise in the Aegean this summer, and a distinguished retired lawyer, offered this fascinating exegesis of the epochal decision: H aving read the "Ocean ic Mission II : How Initi atives Bred Up in the Ocean World Led to the End of Slave ry," I read the decision in the case of So merset v Stewart, and related documents. The purpose was to see whether I agree wirh yo ur statement rhat Lord Mansfield freed Jam es So merset-a US slave brought to England-on the grounds th at slavery is so odious that the laws of England could nor suppo rt it. I do agree, but there is a short way to make such a sraremenr, rhat which yo u employed, and a long way, the lawyer's way.

Lord Mansfield declared Jam es Somerset to have become a free man when he set foot in England. In so doing, he knowingly, bur reluctantly, declared some 14, 000- 15,000 o rher persons present in England to be free. His wo rds make clear rhar, as a man, he co nsidered slave ry odi o us and therefore was happy that rhese persons no longer we re considered to be slaves. However, as a judge his job was to decide the case befo re him and not to reform English society by m aking rules of general application.

By his own statement, Lord Mansfi eld would have preferred that M essrs. Somerset and Stewan settle their case without requiring that th e court issue a decision : In five or six cases of this nature, I have known it to be acco mmodated by agreement between the parries: on its first coming befo re me, I stro ngly recommended it here.

H ad the parties done so, the case wo uld have had no effect on the other persons treated as slaves in England.

To the extent that he co uld, Lord Mansfield kept his decision narrow. The lawye rs for Mr. Stewart (the slave owner) referred to the acts of Parliament favo ring the slave trade in English bottoms as showing a legislative accepta nce of slavery. In his first statem ent o n rhe case, Lord M ansfield took care to note: Contract for sale of a slave is good here; the sale is a matter to which the law properly and readily attaches, and will maintain rhe price acco rding to the agreement.

Nothing in his fo1al decision contradicted this statement, so rhar even after the decision English courts could enforce contracts for the purchase and sale of slaves, so lo ng as the slaves we re not in England.

The problem that could not be gotten aro und was the fact that this was nor a claim under a con rract. Rather it was a human being, physically present in England, aski ng only that he be accorded the basic rights acco rded to orher humans: Bur here the perso n of the slave himself is imm ediately the obj ect of enquiry; which makes a very material difference.

Lord Mansfield bit the bullet and did his duty as a judge, reinforcin g his reputation as one of the great lawyers in Anglo-American history.

PHILIP

T.

KAPLAN

T heoule-S ur-Mer, France

The carefully hedged and limited nature ofthe decision, which Philip brings out, meant that it stood up, and endured. The loose brick would not be mortared back in place, and within the next hundred years all slaves in the English-speaking world were freed.

Why did this decision that spelled the beginning ofthe endfor slavery start in the particular era it did, and why in England? We'll explore those interesting questions in our next. PS SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 200 I

The Morgan Forever!

I wanted to thank yo u fo r ano ther great publi ca tion (Sea H istory 96). R o be rt Foulke's "Odysseus's Oar" was well w ritten and most appreciated . Believe m e, I once kn ew those feelings well.

I also enjoyed reading M r. Leavitt's piece on the Charles W Morgan. T he rwo paragraphs about her mo tio n picture career filmin g " Miss Petti coats" wirh Alice Brady made me wonder: was n' t she also used in rh e m aking of the silent movie "Down to the Sea in Ships" with C lara Bow, "rhe 'Ir' G irl "? Some interestin gscenes were rhe crew harpoonin g porpo ise from rhe chains wirh th e subtitle "F resh meat for rh e boys" and a good shot o f the loo kout in rh e crow's nest with the Diamo nd "M " house flag of the M allory Line flying just overh ead .

W ILLlAM H. MACFADEN Leadville, Colo rado

The C harles W . Morgan was, indeed, the ship used in Down to the Sea in Ships, filmed in the early 1920s after the ship 's whaling career had come to an end. -ED. I thoroughly enjoyed the articles in Sea H istory 96 (S pring 2001) on the excellent wo rk being do ne by M ys ti c Seaport, especially rhe in fo rmation on the Charles W Morgan. M y fa ther, Captain C laude S. T ucker Sr., was hired by the Frank C. Taylor M arine C onstruction Company in 194 1 to consult, advise and he! p remove the Mo rgan from her berth in Dartmouth, M assachusetts. M y dad had been o n sailing ships fo r most of his career and ran his own coasting schoo ner, the rwo-masted Coral, fo r 23 yea rs.

T he Morgan was moved to Fairhave n and made ready for the row to M ys tic. O n 5 N ovember 194 1, she was rowed o ut of Fairhave n by the US C oast Guard C utter General Greene. Dignitaries were listed as captain , mares, boat steerers, etc., but the only professional mariner aboard was Caprai n T ucker; dock builders from Taylo r Constru ction were aboard as crew. D ad was left to be the caretaker of the Morgan that winter. My brother wo uld dri ve my m o ther, b ro ther, sister and m e down to see him abo ut once a month . Taylor's ga ng and m y fa ther put in a new deck in the spring, and they finally cam e hom e aro und M ay o r June 194 2.

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

I have pho tos of the Morgan dating back to 1914. Some show her in d eplorable condition afte r th e 1938 hurricane and all I can say is: Thank yo u, M ystic Seapo rt, yo u have don e a wo nderful job not only in preserving th e Morgan , b ut preserving our m aritime heritage.

DONALD F. TUCK.ER Fairhaven, Massachusetts

Satisfying and Interesting Your Summer iss ue (S H 97), particularly "Winning the Ameri ca's C up in 1851 ," is the most superb co ntributi o n to jo urnalism that I can recall, and I look forward to wh at follows in "To be co ntinued .... "The illustrations are splendid, bringing the histo1y of this class ic event into fo cus.

COL.JOHN andJOYCEWILLlAMS Essex J unctio n, Ve rmo nt W hen rhe m ost satisfying and interesting British m aritime publi catio n Seascape ceased , they fo rwa rd ed th e rem ainder of m y subscription to th e Nati o nal M aritime Hisrorical Society.

This was my intro ductio n to another satisfyin g and in terestin g publication-Sea H istory. As a retired m erchan t m ariner, with Sea H istory I continue sailing our oceans and kee p up with what is happening in our wo nderful sea wo rld-where there is a real brotherhood of the sea among men who sail ships that is unmatched on land.

A LFRED J . CUNNINGHAM C iudad C olon, C osta Rica

Solid, Tangible Links In res ponse to Peter Stanford's inquiry about public interes t in naval craft, let m e report an encouraging phenomeno n we have encountered at the Vancouver M ari time M useum. While we do no t have a naval ship, we do preserve and display the Royal Canadian Mo unted Police schoo ner St. Roch, the second ship ever to nav igate the fa bled No rthwes t Passage-w hile o n a secret Wo rld War II missio n! We find interest is growing, particularly in the wa rtime history. I can only amibure this to a shift in the audi ence-while we tho ught that rhe passing of rhe older veterans wo uld signal a diminishing interes t, we' re findin g that that genera tion has passed on the excitement and rhe sense of achievem ent and sacrifice that the war years witnessed to their children and grandchildren .

My guess is that the war years and the sto ries are almost legendary to th e yo un ge r ge neratio ns, and the ships are so lid, tangible links to th at pas t that th ey can relate to. Fo r those of us w ho thought th at interest in W o rld Wa r II wo uld wane, I can o nly say we sho uld have watched what's happened w ith the C ivil Wa r- lo ng after the las t ve teran has gone, and their child re n, too, rhe interes t in that confli ct li ves o n in books, fi lms, reenactments, museums, and in rhe recent initiatives to raise and display USS Monitor and CSS H unley. ]AMES D ELGADO, Executive Director Va ncouve r M aritime Museum Vancouve r, Briti sh C olumbi a

Join Us for a Voyage into History Our seafaring heritage comes alive in the pages of Sea Histo ry, from the ancient mariners of Greece to Portuguese navigators opening up the ocean world to the heroi c efforts of seamen in this century's conflicts. Each issue brings new insights and new discoveries . If you love the sea, rivers, lakes,

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NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY OFF ICE RS & TRUSTEES : Chairman, Howa rd Slo rn ick; Vice Chairmen, Ri chardo R. Lopes, Edwa rd G. Zelin sky; President, Patrick J . Garvey; Vice Presidents, Burchenal Gree n, Norma Sta nford ; Treasurer, David B. Viernr; Secretary, Marshall Srre iberr; Trustees, Dona ld M. Birney, Walter R. Brown, Sa barn Ca rn cci, Ri chard T. du Mou li n, Dav id S. Fow le r, Ja ck Gaffney, Fred C. Ha wkin s, Rodney N. Houghton , Steven W. Jo nes, Richard M . Larrabee, Warren G . Leback, G uy E. C. Mai tl and , Ka ren E. Ma rkoe, Mi chael R. McKay, James J. McNamara, Cecil J. No rrh , Jr. , D av id A. O 'Neil , Ronald L. O swa ld , D av id Pl acm er, Bradford D. Smith , H arry E. Vina ll , lll , Wi ll iam H. W hite, Jea n Worr, Alexa nder E. Zago reos; Chairmen Emeriti, Ala n G. C hoate, G uy E. C. Maitland , Cra ig A. C. Reynolds; President Emeritus, Peter Stanford FOUNDER: Karl Kortum (191 7- 1996)

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SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 2001

NMHS : A CAUSE IN MOTION

'

America Rediscovers its Revolution in the Year of the Turtle As this issue of Sea H istory goes to press, New York and America have been gri evously wounded by an attack by imern ational terrorists on the Wo rld T rade Center and the Pemagon. Five days earli er, less than a half mile from "ground zero " in New York C ity, your Society commemorated the 225th anniversary of th e 6 September 1776 attack on the British fl eet by th e American Turtle, the firs t submarine used in warfa re, designed by Yale graduate David Bushnell. At this evem , NMH S announced our intention to build a wo rking model of this vessel as the fi rst of our initiatives connected with the 225th an niversary of the American Revolution.

Both of these evems occurring 225 years apart are landmark strategic evem s in the life of this nation. T he attack on the Wo rld Trade Center and the Pem ago n has launched what President Bush has referred to as "the first war of the 2 1st centu1y. " Responding to the crisis presents an extrao rdinary challenge to the current generation of Americans. The immense British fleet that arrived in New Yo rk H arbor in 1776 was the landmark maritime and strategic event

of the American Revolution. Dr. James] ohnson, the M ilitary Histo rian of the H udson Ri ve r Valley and the fo rmer chief of the M ilitary Histo ry Division at the US M ilitary Academy at Wes t Point, has noted that with the arrival of this fleet in New Yo rk, the strategic "seat of war" shifted to New York and remained there until the British fl eet left at the end of the war in 1783. The war wo uld be wo n or lost in the land and sea engagements for control of New Yo rk and the Hudson River, culminating in the decisive Battle of Saratoga in 1777.

T he magnitude of the British Admiralty's effort is reflected in the fac t that the fleet's 3 70 transports and 73 warships were nearl y 45 percent of all the ships and men on acti ve service in the world's most powerful navy. For General George Washington it could appropriately be characterized as his wo rst nightmare. For G reat Britain, it was a H erculean effort and the largest expeditionary fo rce it had deployed in the New Wo rld up to that time, and its size wo uld not be equaled anywhere fo r many wars to come. New York harbor would never see its like again.

As summer draws to a close .

• •

. .. we thought we'd share these images from the N MH S ]uly Sea Cloud cruise to Istanbul, the T urkish coast and the G reek Islands. As on e of our members wro te: "Ir was the vacation of a lifetime-thank you, thank yo u! " Our N MHS group (top left) gathers to enter Istanbul's "Blue Mosque." Peter Stanford (above) explores the amphitheater in Ephes us with and Dr. Faith H entschel (at right), who p rovided in-depth background on the architectural heritage of the sites, bringing them vividly to life.

At left, Sea Cloud is seen from her lau nch.

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

For the rest of this yea r and fo r most of 2002, the Society's Maritime Education Initiative will seek to recapture th at history with the Turtle project and tall ship and maritime activities. NMH S is developing a maritime education component in support of an extensive program of reenactmen ts, encampments and educational p rograms being organized along th e Hudso n in co njunction with the 22 5th anni versary. Adding to the activities is the celebra tion of the 200th anniversary of W est Point.

T he buildin g of the Turtle replica will be part of a three-year maritime-hisrorybased program for high school students being developed by N MHS's Education Director D avid Allen. T his will incorporate the prac tical problems of math and science involved in the design and construction of this visionary watercraft. T he vessel's construction will be broadcast live via web-cam and offered to teachers nationwide as part of the nati onal celebration of th e 225 th anniversary. W e also hope to embark students from England, France and America aboard historic ship replicas to participate in reenacting skirmishes and battles berween the Royal Navy and the Ameri can fo rces in the Hudson Valley.

We are especially grateful for the sponsorship and support of the Histo ry C hannel, the New Yo rk State Bridge Authori ty and the Connecticut River Museum for the Turtle project and the 225 th anniversary program . W e also look forwa rd to collaborating with the Naval Undersea W arfa re Center in the construction and operati on of the Turtle.

We believe that this incredible array of events connected with this most extraordinary of revolutions that rook place in our backya rds will serve to remind all Americans that the challenge created by the horrifi c events of 11 Sep tember 200 1 are not unique in our h isto ry. No one in the last quarter of the 18th century would have bet a farthing on the prospect of the upstart Am ericans overcoming th e power of the British Empire as reflected in that fleet in New Yo rk H arbor. Some people may question our ability to deal with the worldwide terro rist threat today. O n 6 September 1776, what odds wo uld yo u have given on George W ashingto n succeeding?

- PATRI CK] . GARVEY, President

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Geoff Hunt Captures the Ships of the American Revolution.

General Washington realized the importance of striking at British ships, and the first war vessels to serve the United States were commissioned by him.

From a collection of small and unsuitable vessels, under diverse commands and flying different flags, a Continental Navy was eventually created.

The paintings are reproduced on acidfree paper with colorfast inks. Each is signed and numbered and 75 ofeach limited edition of 700 are also remarqued and available for an additional $225.

"The Bonhomme Richard, John Paul Jones's famous flagship" Image: 21x13 3/4 inches Trim size: 25 1/4 x 19 inches Two of the most famous names in American naval history are John Paul Jones and Bonhomme Richard, yet the ship was a French-built merchantman and never crossed the Atlantic under Jones's command. $125.

"General Washington's Wolfpack; Continental Army schooners raiding British supply ships, 1776" Image: 19 3/ 4 x 13 1/4 inches Trim size: 24 x 18 1/2 inches Encamped outside Boston, Washington's forces outnumbered the British within the city, but the British commanded the sea. Washington wanted to intercept their supply ships and, if possible, capture munitions, which his army desperately needed. He leased eight small schooners and manned them with soldiers from sea-minded units, such as the 21st Massachusetts from Marblehead. These little vessels played havoc with British shipping and eventually captured the longed-for powder ship. $125.

"H.M.S. Augusta: Philadelphia, 1777. British 64-gun ship under fire from Fort Mifflin and Pennsylvania State Navy gunboats" Image: 19 3/ 4 x 14 1/ 2 inches Trim size: 24 x 19 3/4 inches The Royal Navy tried to force its way up the Delaware River to make contact with British troops in Philadelphia. On 23 October the Augusta ran aground off Fort Mifflin, then caught fire. Under heavy attack from shore batteries, galleys and guardboats, the Augusta had to be abandoned and her magazine later exploded, destroying the largest British warship lost in action in the course of the war. $125.

1-800-221-NMHS (6647) or send $125 + $10 s/h to: NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566

To order your print call

NY residents add applicable sales tax. For foreign shipping inquire at 914-737-7878, ext. 0, or via e-mail at nmhs@seahistory.org

A British flotilla presses upriver past American batteries at Fort Lee (left) and Fort Washington in Manhattan in this lively rendering by the French-born sailor-artist Dominic Serres. Captured at sea in a previous war by the British, he elected to settle in England and became a leading marine artist, commissioned by British naval leaders to paint their ships and actions. Perhaps for dramatic effect, the river is drastically narrowed here, but the ships reflect a seamanly grasp ofwhat was going on. ("Forcing the Hudson River Passage, Oct. 9, 1776, "by Dominic Serres; Courtesy, US Naval Academy Museum)

Defending the Lower Hudson River in 1776

by William P. Deary, PhD

O

n 16 November 1776, an overwhelming force of British and Hessian troops decisively defeated 3,000 Americans who had been ordered to hold the high ground on northern Manhattan Island "as long as possible. " Known as the battle of Fort Washington, this unequal contest takes its name from the fiveacre earthwork pentagon atop Mount Washington's southern approaches. The engagement marked the end of a determined American effort to keep control over the lower Hudson River during the Revolutionary War. As Britain and her American colonies moved ever closer to war in early 1775, New York's acting Royal Governor, Cadwallader Colden, counseled the British North American commanders- General Thomas Gage and Admiral Samuel Graves -about the Hudson's strategic importance.

"For upwards of one hundred miles" above New York City, he wrote, "there is not less SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 200 I

than 24 feet of water in the channel of that river." In the age of sail, 24 feet could accommodate nearly every class of British warship, from lightly armed cutters and sloops up to 74-gun ships of the line.

Governor Colden was convinced that a modest but timely investment of ships and troops would assure British control of the Hudson as far as Albany; as a result all inland communication between rebellious New England and the other colonies would be cutoff and the incipient rebellion snuffed out. Colden was also convinced that New York would remain loyal to the Crown-a fatal political misjudgment. In the wake of Lexington in April 1775 , the rebels took over most of New York State.

Although the Americans fully appreciated the Hudson's strategic importance, they did not at first believe that a successful river defense could be mounted anywhere south of the Hudson Highlands, 50 miles north ofNew York City. For nearly a year,

they concentrated on constructing two fortifications. The first was Fort Constitution on the east bank opposite West Point near the northern end of the Highlands; the second was Fort Montgomery, on the west bank, nearly opposite Peekskill, at the southern entrance to the Highlands.

The possibility of interdicting the Hudson River in the latitude of Manhattan was not seriously considered until]une 1776, a few weeks before the advance guard of the British invasion force arrived in New York.

On 3 June, New York's Provincial Congress gave its tentative blessing to a proposal to sink obstructions across the harbor between Bedloe's Island (Liberty Island today) and Red Hook on the Brooklyn shore.

This, however, was subject to the approval of General George Washington, who had his own ideas on the subject. Washington favored the high ground on northern Manhattan Island and on the Jersey Palisades.

Heavy cannon at each location could com-

7

DEFENDING THE HUDSON RIVER, 1776-1777

mand broad stretches of river norrh and so uth, the best ground for rhar purpose south of the Hi ghlands.

Was hington 's offshore defe nses in cluded armed row galleys, fireships, and physical obstructions in rhe river to impede the passage of ships. Wind and ride limited the acti vi ties of ships des igned for operations in the open ocean or in offshore waters. To move against ride or wind in a river, such ships had to be rowed by longboats or warped on a kedge anchor atrached by cable ro a capsran. Armed row galleys, however, could maneuver even in the poorly charred North American rivers.

Shallow-draft row galleys, with 24- or 32pounder guns in the prow, co uld navigate the riverine envi ronment, and, with two rowers per oar and a lateen sail to catch a fo ll owing wind, rheywere far less inhibited by ride and wind than their larger prey.

When ci rcumstances required a ri verbound warsh ip to fight ship-on-ship or, worse still, to engage rather than run through fir e from ashore, the ship usually had to stop dead in rhewarer and ride upon its anchor cables to transfo rm itself into a stable firing platform and bring its guns to bear in broadside. By alternately raking up and paying o ur slack on two cabl es attached to a single anchor bur to separate capstans, it was possible to hold a ship steady against moderate winds and rides.

T he underwater obstructions, or chevaux de frise, which Washington hoped would halt enemy ships, were woode n timbers tipped with iron points, submerged in a frame filled with ballast, and intended to breach ships' hulls badly eno ugh to insure des truction by surrounding batteries. Al-

though warships alone were usually no m arch for shore-based fortifications in a stand-up cannon duel, under full sail they could run through heavy fire. Successful use ofobstrucrions required precise knowledge of the river's depth. Early experience in obstructing the D elawa re Ri ver showed rhar 46 feet-about 7 'h fa tho ms-was the maximum feasible depth to breach hulls at high or low water while insuring rhar the obstructions lay below the river's surface.

The First Foray into the Hudson The British fleet, having left Boston in rebel hands in M arch, began arriving in New York in late June. In early July the army occupied Staten Island and, by midSeptember, the British had raken all of Long Island, New York C ity, and most of the rest of Manhattan. For a short rime in mid-October, between four and five hundred British ships, which had provided protection, transport, and supply for 32,000 British and H essian troops, lay at anchor in New York H arbor.

American measures to interdict the lower Hudson at Mount Washington had barely begun when the Royal Navy carried out its first penetration of the Hudson on 12 July 1776 . Under the overall command of Captain H yde Parker, Jr. in the 44-gun frigate Phoenix, a five-ship flotilla-o n a strong tide and followin g wind-ran pas t the incomplete Am erican batteries at Fort Washington and Fort Lee on the Jersey Palisades, with no significant damage or cas ualties.

Parker was accompanied by C aptain James Wallace in rhe 20-gun frigate Rose, the armed schooner Tryal, and two renders, Shuldham and Charlotta.

On the day of Phoenix sfirst foray up the Hudson, accompanied by Rose, Admiral Howe arrived in New York aboard the flagship Eagle (ship under sail at right center), joining the fleet that had begun to gather at the end ofJune. ("View ofthe Narrows between Long Island & Staten Island, & our Fleet at Anchor & Lord Howe coming in taken from the Height at the Water Place Staten island 12th July 1776, "Archibald Robertson [wash drawing}, 1776 (Spencer Collection, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation))

8

T his first fo ray into the lower Hudso n was undertake n at the insistence of Ge neral William H owe over the objections of Rear Admiral Molyneux Shuldham. Shuldham believed that the risk to his ships would be too great unless they were accompanied by a body of troo ps. General Howe disco unted the risk, insisting that an upriver naval force was needed to cur off downri ver supply to Washington 's army building up rapidly at New York. As things turned out, however, Parker had no opportunity to prevent riverborne supply during hi s 37day deployment, because Washington had laid in a 90-day supply for the American army at New York and Albany.

D ay-to-day movement of Parker's squadron was strongly dictated by wind and ride, compounded by the impossibility of navigating safely at night. Both banks of the river we re controlled by hastily assembled New York militia, who preve nted Parker's crews from coming ashore and subj ected them to harassing musket fire whenever they came within range. Where he could do it safely, Parker em ployed his crews in sounding the poorly charred Hudson, which was aqua incognita to the Royal Navy. Al rho ugh Parker briefly considered attacking Peekskill, observatio n of Fort Montgomery's heavy cannon was enough to deter the attacks in rhe absence of supporting troops. On 25 July, Parker turned back downriver from upper H averstraw Bay, at the entrance to the Highlands, to the Tappan Zee, which lies six miles north of Manhattan.

0 n 2 August, Phoenix went aground on the Tarrytown shoals at 2PM. After a strenuous eight hours, which required him to reposition his ship's guns and wait upon rhe next favorab le ride, Parker warped off the shoals. The next day, rhe British were attacked by six American row galleys commanded by Lr. Colonel Benj amin T upper.

Favored by a moderating tide and light wind, Parker and Wallace engaged the galleys whil e riding on anchor cables. Phoenix, howeve r, had to fire between Rose's m as ts in order to bring their combined cannon power to bear on Tupper's adroi tly maneuvered gal leys. D espite their co urage and skill, the galleymen with their six cannon could not overcome Phoenix and Rose, and they sustained heavy damage and cas ualties.

Under cover of darkness on 16 August, the Americans sent two fire ships laden with combustible materials against Parker's

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

squadron ancho red in the lee of the Palisades, about four miles north of Manhattan. One fireship grappled to Phoenix just as her captain , Jo hn Fosdick, lit off her powder train. For a harrowing twenty minutes Parker's men fought to disengage Phoenix from the fireship. T he courage of the crew and a providential wind saved Phoenix fro m certain disaster. T he tender Charlotta, mistaken for Rose, was destroyed.

Thirty-seven days afte r he had entered the lowe r Hudso n, Parker was again obliged to run the American batteries at New York.

H e found a co mpleted fort ato p Mount Washington and also noted that the ri ve r abreast of the fort looked to be "quite blocked up. " But from the sm all boat activity close to the Manhattan shore, Parker co ncluded co rrecrl y that a passage there could be fo rced . O n 18 August he led his squadron through the suspect gap and rejoined the main British fleet off Staten Island. Because the British ships passed within a few hundred yards of the Manhattan sho re, the American gunners at Fo rt W as hingto n co uld not aim their heavy ca nnon low eno ugh to hit them at that short ra nge.

T he American failure to trap the British ships no rth of the forts was not due to lack of effort. Troo ps of the 3rd and 5th Pennsylva nia battalions worked them selves to exhaus tion completing Fort Washington and sinkin g the chevaux, along with con fisca ted hulks, to block up the river. The site chosen fo r obstruction lay between Burdet's Ferry below Fort Lee and the tip of a small peninsu la, Jeffrey's Hook, on the New York side just so uth of Fort Washingtona dista nce of more than 3,000 feet, today spanned by the Geo rge Washington Bridge.

T he first obstructions we re sunk o n 5 August 1776, and the project co ntinued through ea rl y October. It proved to be a decided ly nontrivial task. To hurry the process alo ng, the America ns determin ed to sink two hulks at a time by joining th em at the sterns with heavy logs. Other logs we re embedded in the ballast at a ngles of abo ut 45 degrees, positioned about 20 feet apart. T hese projecting logs were topped off wit h heavy cast iron sp ikes o r plowshares ("frisework").

When the hulks were finally configured for sinking, C hristopher Prince, who superintend ed the operation, wrote that "[s] uch a sight was never seen in Am erica as

SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 200 I

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NEW JERSEY 1. Fort Washington 2. Fort Lee 3. Fort Clinton 4. Fort Montgomery 5. Fort Independence 6 Fort Constitution was seen in them ships." One British observer, who viewed them through a telescope, found that "all the industry of malevo lence" had been used in their "peculiar co nstruction ." Insurin g that two ships of unequal tonnage yo ked at their sterns would sink at the same rate on a relatively even kee l was far from easy. In the words of one responsibleAmerican officer, it posed nothing less than an "abstruse problem of hydraulics ." From early August until the project was abandoned in October, the Hudson tides propell ed a number of hulks downriver, prompting Major General William Heath to ask " how th e rapidity of the current should be just now discovered. " The ultimate fa ilure of the plan to obstruct the river arose from an underestimation of the depth of the river in the immedi ate vicinity of]effrey's Hook, where the

LONG ISLAND

depth in creased precipitously to 72 feet (12 fathoms) from the 42 feet (7 fatho ms) o n whi ch the Americans had relied. It was not until 17 September that the o ri gin al soundin g data we re called into official question. Instead of abandoning the project, New Yo rk authori ti es proposed acq uiring six additional hulks for sinkin g "to the no rthward " of the obstructions on which such a prodigious labor had been expended .

This fin al effort was apparenrly underway by 6 October 1776 . Ifso, it had no effect o n the Royal Navy's second penetration of the Hudson on 9 October.

Afte r mid-September, when the British drove the Ame ri cans out ofNew York C ity and lower Manhattan Island, Was hington ordered a force of 8,000 troops to defend the northern third of the island. His purpose was still to keep the Royal Navy from

9

DEFENDING THE HUDSON RIVER, 1776-1777

penetrating and, in addition, to main rain a channel of communication above Forts Washington and Lee.

Forcing the Hudson River Passage By early October, General Howe was again convinced that Washington wo uld require downriver supply for his army. To prevent this, the General and his brother, Admiral Richard Lord Howe, ordered Captain Parker to undertake a second penetration. They issued the order only after an informant offered to pilot the ships through the unfilled gap in the line of obstructions. After waiting six days for a favorable wind and tide, Parker, in Phoenix, made for the barrier at the head of a squadron which included another 44-gun frigate, Roebuck (Captain Andrew Snape Hamond), and the 14-gun Tartar, as well as the schooner T ryal and the tenders Howe and Pembroke.

As Parker's squadron approached Fort Washington on 9 October, the informant beside him on the quarterdeck failed to identify the deep channel markers. Taking fire from both forts, Parker had two choices: he could turn his squadron about against contrary wind and tide and make way as best he could until out of cannon range, or he could make straight for the waters close

by Fort Washington where he had brought his squadron through safely on 18 August.

Parker opted for the latter. His squadron experienced greater damage this time around and indeed some casualties, but none serious enough to keep him from his mission. If the Americans had been relying on downriver supply, he might have succeeded, but the main body of the American army withdrew from northern Manhattan on 17 October, leaving behind a small but well-stocked garrison to hold Fort Washington "as long as possible. " On 27 October, Admiral Howe ordered two 32-gun frigates, Pearl and Repulse, to provide fire support for a British army attack on Fort Washington. This was the first time British wars hips were called upon to drop their anchors and ride upon their cables within range of the American batteries on both shores. The frigates got the worst of this exchange. The American gunners soon threw enough shots into both ships to compel them to withdraw down river. Repulse, which had moved up closer than Pearl to the chevaux de frise, was forced to cut her anchor cables and rely on

lO

her own and Pearl's boats to row her out of harm's way against a ride that was still running on weakening flood. General Nathanael Greene, the American commander, was certain the gunners would have sunk Repulse "had the tide run at flood one half hour longer. " T he frigates contributed nothing to the attack, which was eventually called off for reasons unrelated to naval support.

The Final Defense of Fort Washington On 6 November 1776, Captain Thomas W ilkinson in Pearl achieved the third and las t naval penetration of the lower Hudson before the British army seized the high gro und at Fort Washington. His mission was to accompany two supply ships,joseph and British Queen, to Dobbs Ferry, where the main body of the Bri rish army was then encamped. In passing the American batteries, Pearl sustained extensive but not crippling damage, with one man killed and several wounded. Since Wilkinson's mission was time driven, he could not wait upon an optimal conjunctio n of wind and tide. With three hours of flood remaining he started his upriver run at 3PM. He had only just gotten out of range when contrary tides brought him to a halt. Ir took Wilkinson about 29 hours, two changes of tide, and heavy use of the ships' boats to cover the ten miles to Dobbs Ferry.

At the battle of Fort Washington on 16 November, Pearl came downriver to provide fire support for the army, which attacked the Americans in overwhelming numbers from the north, south and east.

Captain Benjamin Caldwell in Emerald, 28 guns, came upriver under orders to cut off any Americans attempting to retreat across the river. From 7 to 10:30AM, Pearl, riding on her cables, "raked the woods" on Mount Washington 's north face, but soon, "much damaged" in her hull and rigging, she weighed anchor and returned upriver.

Caldwell came abreast of Fort Washington's lower defensive lin es at 9AM. As soon as he observed the Americans wheeling cannon into position to engage him at sea level, he immediately warped back down river. Both Pearl and Emerald left the scene before the ground attack began in earnest.

Four days after taking Fort Washington, General Howe ordered his second in command, General Charles Cornwallis, to cross the Hudson with 5,000 men and

attack Washington's army in New Jersey.

After landing at C loster dock, a few miles north of Fort Lee, the British slogged up a steep narrow path to the crest of the Palisades. W ithin hours, Cornwallis had driven the Americans from Fort Lee. Dismayed by the apparent ease with which British warshi ps had defied their riverine defenses, Generals Washington and Greene reluctantly conceded that the British effectively controlled the lower Hudson, or could easily do so. Historians have generally agreed and, for that reason, have strongly criticized both men for their fa ilure to evacuate Fort Washington before disaster struck on 16 November. But the question of who controlled the lower Hudson in 1776 is a matter of perceptionborh then and now.

The British perceptions of their riverine operations in 1776, long neglected, are well worth considering. Admiral Shuldham was unrepentant in his judgment of Parker's initial upriver foray as a "fruitless expedition." Captain Snape Hamond, who participated in the second penetration, took much the same view of what he characterized as a tedious upriver "confinement" with little to do except play cards and drink toasts to the King. Admiral Howe assigned no particular significance to riverine operation except to commend Parker and Wallace for their initiative and courage in getting up and back without major misadventure.

In his official report to London, General Howe unequivocally attri buted his all-out assault on Fort Washington to "the importance of this post which, with Fort Lee on the opposite shore of Jersey, kept the enemy in command of the navigation of the North River. " For the British, it seems, there could be no real control of the lower Hudson unless and until the Americans and their batteries were run off Mount Washington and the Palisades. By their stubborn five-month defense of the lower river, the Americans insured that this did not occur until the British campaign at New York was in its final phase. By that time, the season for campaigning was nearly over and the British were abo ut to lose their best chance to wi n the war militarily.

J,

Dr. Deary is retiredfrom the US Department of State and earned a post-retirement Doctorate from George Washington University in 1996.

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 200 1

A Warm Reception in the Hudson Highlands

by Dr. James M. Johnson

A

merican forces in New York essentially won the war against Britain by preventing British forces in New York C ity and Canada from meeting in rhe Hudson Vall ey and thereby cutting off communications, supply and military movement berween New England and the rest of the rebelling colonies.

MoscAmerican schoolchi ldren learn chat the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777, in which John Burgoyne surrendered his army-one quarter of the British troops in North America-to Horatio Gates, was the turning point in the American Revolution.

Few lmow, however, that American warships on the Hudson River contributed to Gaces's victory in the north country ofNew York. T he rwo key ships in the small flotilla chat opposed the British in October 1777 were the American frigates Congress and Montgomery, built at the Continental Shipyard in Poughkeepsie, New York. T heir quest for glory wo uld be brief, ending when their crews scuttled chem to keep chem out of the enemy's hands.

On 13December 1775, Co ngress passed a reso lu cion authori zing rhe construction ofa fleerof thirteen frigates co challenge rhe Royal Navy, to be built at a cost of $66,666.67 each. New York would build and ourfi r rwo of rhe thirteen, Congress and Montgomery. T he 682-con Congress was rared at 28 guns and had a deck length of 126 feet and a beam of34 feet; rhe 563-con Montgomery was rared ar 24 guns wi th a deck length of 119 feet and a beam of 32

search of rhe warships. When rhey were finally launched, the rwo new frigates spent the winter on Rondou r Creek near Kingston.

The Defense of the Highlands

A Continental friga te guards the entrance to the Hudson Highlands north of the chain below Fort Montgomery. (From a diorama at the Trailside Museum, Bear Mountain NY)

feet. Superintendents Jacobus Van Zandt, Augustus Lawrence, and Samuel Tudor would oversee rhe work in Poughkeepsie, on rhe eastern sho re of the Hudson, north of the City of New York.

Despite Congress's deadline of March 1776 for the ships to put co sea, the superintendents did nor launch Montgomery and Congress until November of that year. Delayed by work stoppages, material shortages, and the diversion of naval scores co Brigadier General Benedict Arno ld 's fleet on Lake Champlain, the shipyard worked to complete and ourfir rhe fri gates even as the British landed at Staten Island and HMS Phoenix and HMS Rose ranged north as far as Peekskill Bay in July, ostensibly in

Awaiting the British at the entrance to the Hudson Highlands were Forts Montgomery (below, at right), on the north side ofPopolopen Creek, and Clinton (below, at left), the chain (bottom, center) that

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 200 I

On paper, General Israel Putnam, rhecommander of the Hudson Highlands, had eno ugh forces co give British co mm ander Sir Henry C lin ton a fight and well-placed fortifications substantial enough co make anyexpedirion against chem difficult should C linton venture north from New York C ity. Fort Montgomery on the west side of rhe Hudson, j use north of Popolopen C reek, had been established in 1776. The heart of its defenses against an attack from rhe river was the 100-fooc-long Grand Battery with walls eighteen feet chick. According co First Lieutenant William A. Patterso n of the 15th Regim ent, the battery, with its six 32pounders, "Rakes the River Pretty Well For Three Miles." The landward ramparts were "comparatively open with the works poorly situated and incomplete."

On high er gro und co protect Fore Montgomery's south ern approach, and connected co ir by a bridge across Popolopen Creek, was Fore C linton . Whil e rhe rear of the fort faci ng its sister was incomplete, chis circular work was anchored by rwo star-redoubts, one of four points or bastions and rhe ocher of eight. Fifteen cannon , manned by 40 artillerymen, protected the fort itself, including the eight-pointed redoubt; rhe four-pointed redoubt co rhe southwest had three 6-pounders fired by

was intended to bar a British fleetfrom the upper Hudson, and a small flotilla. (Painting by Jack Mead; all images courtesy New York State Office ofParks, Recreation and Historic Preservation)

11

DEFENDING THE HUDSON RIVER, 1776-1777

nine men. Co lonel Lewis Dubois estimated that a garriso n of2,000 men was needed to defend both forts properly; unfortunately, on the day the British attacked fewer than 700 were present.

A chain, designed to stop or to dam age an y English wars hips that attemp ted to barrel through it, had been put in place across the Hudson River at this poim in March 1777. Stretching 1,700 feet from a cove just north of Popolopen Creek to the base of a rocky promontory called Anthony's Nose o n the eastern shore of the Hudson, it was guarded by the sprawlin g Fort Momgomery.

As early as 12 May 1777, Washington had personal ly taken steps to in crease the odds against the British when he sent M ajor General Natha nael Greene to the Highlands to inspect the defenses and correct an y errors he might find. H e charged Greene with insuring that the defenses were ready to defeat an attack from either land or water and to guard against a "coup de main" from the wes t.

Greene and his committee-Brigadier Generals Alexander McDougall , H enry Knox, Geo rge Climon , a nd An thony Wayne-reported that additional water obs tacles were all that was needed to complete rh e defenses. In their collective judgment, the addition of a boo m and cables to bolster the chai n and the presence of two armed galleys and rhe two New York frigates wo uld combine with the batteries of the forts to " render it impossible for the Sh ippin g ro operate there." If rhe rive r remained blocked and if " rhe Passes into the Highlands be properl y guarded , which can be don e with about four o r five thousa nd troops, the rest of th e Army will be at liberry to operate elsewhere."

The Co ntinental Marine Committee acted alm ost imm ediately on G reene's recommendations by ordering Montgomery and Congress so uthward from Poughkeepsie in Jun e. And, in July, absem a boom to protect the chain , General (and New York Gove rnor) Geo rge Clinton , in co mm and of th e fort, pl aced a large cabl e south of the chain sp li ced from three small er cables from the frigate Mon tgomery in July. By the end of July, the frigates, the New York sloo p Camden, and the Co ntinental row gall eys Shark and Lady Washington were anchored near Po polo pen Creek. By scouring the regio n for ar mament, each of the ships had acquired so me ca nn o n: Mont12

gomery, with a crew of 36, had eight 12po unders; Congress had at least nine 9pounders from Fort Co nstituti o n, fa rther no rth across from West Poim; Camden, with a crew of 18, had six 6-pounders, four 4- pound ers, and twelve swivel guns; Shark, with a crew of 18, had four 9- pounders; and Lady Washington, with a crew of 20, had one 32- pound er and eight 3-pounders. Captain John Hodge of Montgomery and Cap tain Thomas G renn ell of Congress had scraped together crews from experienced sail o rs, so ldi ers, and even "Deserters, Boys, &ca."

Put to the Test Undermanned a nd und ergunn ed, the Hudson 's navy suffered from its organization and the mission that sen ior leaders had ass igned it. T he Co minenral Marine Co mmittee had established a worka ble co mmand re lati o nship that linked its ships with the gro und force: Grennell and H odge were "to fo llow and obey such o rders as they may receive from General Wash ington or the Commanding officer who may direct th e o peratio ns in that quarter. " Because the mission of the ships was to protect rhe chain , they had "become a part of the wo rk itself. " T hi s meant that Geo rge C linton , rather than Israel Putn am, exercised authority over the ships. One other twist complicated the issue: Congress had been ordered by C lin to n to sa il no rth on 5 October to Fort Co nstitutio n "lest she sho uld meet with a Disaster. " Although H odge rated th e gall eys "manned and in a proper state o f defence" and his own ship "in great forwardness, " he wo uld find th at his inflexible miss ion and the acrual state of his small force limited the contribution he wo uld be able to make to the outcom e of the upco min g battl e.

No netheless he predi cted that "we shall be able to give rhe enemy (when they approach) a warm reception. " Sir Henry Clinton set rhe Hudso n River Campaign of 1777 in morion on 2 October when he and Commodo re Wi lli am Horham transported 3,000 men aboard some 56 warships, transports, and fl atboats, landing first at Tarrytown on 4 October, at Verp lanck' s Point rhe next day, and fin all y at Stony Point o n th e 6th.

So me 70 0 Co n t in enta l infantrymen, artillerymen and militi amen o pposed the two-pronged arrack from the south and west. By nightfall , however, fo llowin g vio-

lent assa ults on Forts Montgo mery and C lin to n afrer a twelve-hour march overland , Sir H enry occupied borh fortificatio ns. The march through the moumainous terrain had preve nted the use of artillery, so rhis Briti sh arrack was mad e by the infantry and what cannon foe Captain Sir Jam es Wallace (formerly of HMS Rose) co uld bring to bea r from his row galleys. In the face of a fi erce cannonade from the American row galleys, frigates, and sloop no rth of the chain , HMS Dependence fired ninety-five 24-pound shorand six 4-pounders agai nst the vessels and the forts. D es pite in adequate crews and too few guns, Montgomery and her co nso rts made a gallant if futi le fi ght of it.

By 8PM H en ry C linton knew that he owned the two forts. Ar the cost of som e 70 killed , 40 wo unded , and 240 taken priso ner, the Americans had exacted a substantial pri ce, killing 40 and wounding 150 of rhe attacke rs. Whi le British forces won the battle, these fortifications and th eir ships disrupted C lin ton 's timetabl e, co mpli cating any attempts to relieve Burgoyne's trapped army. At lOPM , C linton and H orham non etheless had the pl eas ure of observing rhe blazing Montgomery.

Geo rge C lin ton reported to Geo rge Washington on 9 October that: by so me Fatali ty the two Continental Frigates we re lost. ... be in g badly mann ed th ey co uld nor be got off in T ime, thou gh I o rdered the Ship Congress to proceed to Fort Co nstitution the D ay before the Attack, lest she should meetwith a Disas ter; and the Sh ip Montgomery, wh ich lay near rh e C hain , having neither A nchors no r Cable to secure her, it bein g the Tide of ebb, and the Wind fai ling, she fell down so near the C hain , that Caprn Hodge was constrain ed to set her o n Fire to prevent her fa lling into the H ands of the E nemy, and rhe Congress unforrunarely getting agro und o n a Flat near Fort Co nstitutio n shared the same Fare.

Congress's ac ting co mmander, First Lieurenam Daniel Shaw, with the ass istance of so me sixtee n artillerymen from Fort Co nsrirurion , burned her o n 7 October. Camden ran agro und and became a British prize.

The American crews set fire to Shark and Lady Washington as well. (Lady Washington later sailed up to Kingston, where she helped in rhe defense of the city but was scurri ed durin g the attack.) With the forrs reduced, SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 200 I

The ftigate Montgomery was burned by her own crew the night of 6 October. Uack Mead) the ships dispe rsed, and Putnam's forces withdrawing northward to protect the pass to Fishkill, Henry Clinton comp leted his control of the Highlands.

With the river clear of enemy ships and the shores barren of organized troops, by 8 October Clinton had taken Fort Independence on Peekskill Bay, broken the chain across the river, occupied Fort Constitution to the north, and passed the chevaux de ftise anchored on Pollepel's Island. H orham's advance squadron , under Wall ace, ranged rh e river unimpeded as far north as Poughkeepsie. From 16-26 O ctober Major General Jo hn Vaughan and Wallace sailed even farther to the north in a vain attempt to link up with Burgoyne's ill -fared arm y.

The highlight of this expedition was a naval landing at Rondour C reek that culminated in Vaughan's burningofKingsto n, the capital of New York.

George Clinton's forces resisted this attack to no avail. Putnam , however, finally massed enough forces on the west bank of the Hudson to give Vaughan pause.

This fact plus the knowledge that Burgoyne had surrendered and orders from Sir H enry made up Vaughan's mind , and he and his

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force slipped back down the river on 26 October. With no navy left, American forces could on ly harass the departin g flotilla with cannon fire and musketry from the sh ore as it withdrew.

Despite their successful arrack on American forces in the Highlands, C linton's halfhearted efforts to save Burgoyne's army had been in vain. The sacrifice ofAmerican sailors and soldiers at Popolopen C reek had helped to turn the war around. The British would now have to confront French armies and navies in a world war that they ultimately could not win. .t

D r. James M. Johnson, COL, USA (Ret)formerly in charge of the military history division in the Department of History of the United States Military Academy-is the Executive Director ofthe Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College and the Military Historian of the Hudson River Valley working on the American Revolutionary interpretation for the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area. (For information on the events commemorating the 225th anniversary of the American Revolution contact HRVI at 845 575-3052 or go to www. nps.govlrevwar)

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SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 200 I

13

The Waterman's SOJ19

by David Cecelski, PhD

T

he Waterman's Song explores African American maririme life in North Carolina over rhe course of a lirtle less rhan a century, spanning rhe years from rhe consolidarion of American slavery around 1800 to rhe lasr days of Reconsrrucrion . This was rhe heyday of black maririme acriviry along rhe Atlantic seacoast and on rhe srare's inland warers.

My research looks mainly roward the shoreline, ar slaves and free blacks who labored as boatmen, pilors, ferrymen, fishermen, sailors, and nautical artisans in ports and on rhe sounds, rivers, and creeks wirhin maririme North Carolina. Those maritime occupations, not deepwater sailing, were the mainstay of coastal life in North Carolina and, with the exception of a handful of seaports, all of the American South.

In October 1830 Moses Ashley Curtis arrived at rhe mourh of the Cape Fear River aboard a schooner from Boston. The schooner's master raised a signal flag and beckoned toward the village of Smithville for a pilot to guide him into the river.

Curtis soon spied a pilot boat under sail, breaking through the waves toward him.

Approaching the schooner, the fast, elegant craft turned into the wind and drifted alongside the larger vessel. "They boarded us," Curtis wrote in his diary that day, "And what saw I? Slaves!-the first I ever saw."

When I began this study, I was no less surprised than Curtis ar the degree to which slave watermen marked maririme life in North Carolina. His words-"And what saw I? Slaves!'-co uld have been my own.

Until recently, few historians have recognized rhe prevalence of generarions ofAfrican American maririme laborers along the Atlantic coastline. Scholars have tended to view the black South mainly in rerms of agricultural slave labor, but in recenr years a new generation of scholars has begun to explore (from different angles, in a variety of locarions, and in a number of eras) rhe complex and important roles played by black warermen and sailors in rhe Atlantic maririme world.

Nowhere was rhe magnirude of African American influence on maririme life greater than along the perilous seacoast and vast estuaries that stretch a hundred miles from the Outer Banks into the interior of North Carolina. Slave and free black boatmen were ubiquitous on rhose broad waters, dominaring most maririme rrades and play-

14

ing a major role in all of them . Along the Albemarle Sound, prodigious gangs ofblack fishermen wielded mile-and-a-half-long seines in what was the largest herring fishety in NorthAmerica. Nearby, on the Roanoke River, slave bateauxmen dared harrowing rapids and racing currents to transport tobacco from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains all the way to seaports. Far to the east, at Portsmouth Island (one of the Outer Banks), slave crews piloted vessels through Ocracoke Inlet, lightered their cargo, then guided them to distam seaports on the other side of Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds. Their slave neighbors at Shell Castle Island, a shoal at Ocracoke Inlet, ranged up and down the Outer Banks with their nets in pursuit of jumping mullet and botdenosed dolphins. In every port, slave stevedores trundled cargo on and off vessels, while shipyard workers in bondage built some of the sweetest sailing cedar and white oak boats afloat, as well as caulked and rebuilt them to stave off rhe steady rot that plagued wooden vessels. Still other slave watermen hawked firewood to steamers anchored in the Cape Fear at night; rafted lumber down the Lower Neuse River; guided duck hunting parties along the freshwater marshes of Currituck Sound; tonged for oysrers on frigid winter days; poled shingle flats out of the Great Dismal Swamp; shoveled coal in the sweltering firerooms of steamboars; and manned the sloops and schooners that traded both within and beyond North Carolina.

As I waded through the archival records, I was first struck merely by the sheer magnitude ofAfrican American involvemem in maritime sociery. I soon realized, however, how remarkably varied maririme life was wirhin North Carolina waters. A bustling seaport like Wilmington, a quiet river town like Camden, a remore piloting village like Portsmouth, a mullet fishing camp at Core Banks, and a canal-digging outposr in the Great Dismal Swamp represemed virtually different maritime worlds.

Yer I also gradually recognized common patterns in African American maritime life. No pattern emerged more forcefully than that ofblack warermen serving as key agents of antislavery thought and militant resistance to slavery. The nature of their labors frequently meant that they could not be supervised closely, if at all, for days or even weeks. For all their grueling

toil and severe hardships, many maritime black laborers traveled widely, grew acquaimed wirh slaves and free blacks over a wide rerritory, and dealt with seamen who connected rhem to rhe revolutionary politics that coursed the black Atlantic. Almost invariably, black watermen appeared ar the core of abolitionist acriviry, slave insurrecrions and other antislavery activism in North Carolina.

When I first began the research for this book, I had difficulry reconciling the enslaved status ofAfrican American watermen with what I knew of maritime labor in my childhood. I grew up among seafaring and fishing people in a quiet tidewater community in North Carolina. A waterman's life was our greatest symbol of freedom and independence. As a child I warched my elders cling tenaciously to their boats and their poverry rarher than forsake rheir liberry for factory or farming jobs. I do nor mean to draw a rigorous parallel between maritime life in rhe South in my day and before rhe Civil War, but this at least seemed clear to me from the outset: a waterman's life could exist only in a dynamic tension with a system of human bondage, ar least in the tidal creeks, estuaries, and salt marshes within rhe Ourer Banks and our other barrier islands. Above all, every waterman thar I have ever known has a part of himself that is restless on land and belongs to the sea. If all rhis was no less true in an earlier era, then what, I wondered, did it mean for coastal slaves and their masrers, for tidewater plamation sociery, and for the black struggle for freedom?

And no matter how much maritime life has changed from the slavery era to today, I will always suspect that African Americans, slave and free, found their hopes uplifted and their lives unbounded merely by the nearness of the sea, by working on the water, and by the vast horizon over Pamlico Sound and the Atlantic. I have never known a soul who did not. .t Excerpted with the permission of the publisher from the Preface to The Waterman's Song: Slavery and Freedom in Maritime North Carolina, by David C. Cecelski (Greenville NC: University of North Carolina Press), appearing in October 2001. This and other titles by David Cecelski are available by calling 1 800 858-6224, or by visiting www. uncpress. unc. edu.

SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 2001

Tfie Last Daugliter of Davis Ridge

by David Cecelski, PhD The Waterman's Song looks most closely at the slave boatmen who plied southern waters before the Civil War, but also includes this evocation ofa black maritime community in the first years offreedom.

W

henever I pass the old clam house between Smyrna and Williston, I glance east across Jarrett Bay to Davis Ridge. You will go that way if yo u drive Highway 70 across the broad salt marshes of Carteret County to catch the Cedar Island ferry to the Outer Banks ....

Few coastal visitors know that the secluded hammock of Davis Ridge was once home to an extraordinary fishing community founded by liberated slaves. Nobody has lived at "the Ridge" since 1933, yet the legend of those African American fishermen, whalers, and boatbuilders still echoes among the elderly people in the maritime communities between North River and Cedar Island that locals call "Downeast."

I had heard of Davis Ridge when I was growing up 25 miles to the west. When I became a historian, I searched for the history of those black Downeasterners with much ardor and little success. For a long time, I assumed all record of them had been lost. I found no trace of D avis Ridge in history books. Exploring the Ridge by boat and on foot, I uncovered only an old cemetery in a live oak grove surrounded by salt marsh and, only a few yards away, Core Sound and Jarrett Bay. All the documents that I examined in research libraries, archives, and museums yielded only tantalizing clues to the communi ty's past. T he best sources I could find were a few mostly secondhand recollections from elderly people who had grown up in fishing villages nor far from Davis Ridge. At last, after I had given up, I stumbled upon a rape-recorded interview with Nannie Davis Ward in a storage pantry at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort. Most success in historical research comes from persistence and hard work; finding Ward's interview was an undeserved act of grace.

Folklorists Michael and Debbie Luster had interviewed Ward in 1988 only a few years before her death. At that time, Ward was apparently the last living soul to have grown up at Davis Ridge. A retired seamstress and cook, she was born at the Ridge in 1911. Ward was blind by the rime the Lusters interviewed her, bur she had a strong

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

This engraving ofa mulleting gang at Shackleford Banks demonstrates the.fraternity ofblack and whitefishermen on the islands around Davis Ridge. (From George Brown Goode, ed., The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United Stares. Washington DC: Commission ofFish and Fisheries, 1884-1887, sec. 5, vol. 2)

memory and a firm voice. Listening to her eloquent words, I found a vivid portrait of her childhood home raking shape in my mind. Her story fills in an important part of the history of the African American maritime people who inhabited the coastal villages and fishing camps of North Carolina before the Civil War. It is the story of only one community, Davis Ridge, bur it speaks to the broader experience of the black watermen and -women who came out of slavery and continued to work on the water.

W hen Nan nie Davis Ward was a child, Davis Ridge was an all-black community on a wooded knoll, or small island, on the eastern shore of Jarrett Bay, nor far from Core Sound and Cape Lookout. A great salt marsh separated the Ridge from the mainland to the north, which was known as Davis Shore. Davis Island was just to the so uth. A hurricane cut a channel between Davis Ridge and Davis Island in 1899, bur in her grandparents' day it had been possible to walk from one to the other.

The founders of Davis Ridge had been amo ng many slave watermen at Core Sound before the Civil War. Ward's family was in many ways typical of the African American families along the Lower Banks. They were skilled maritime laborers with a seafaring heritage. They had eighteenth-century family roots in the West Indies and had black,

white, and Native American ancestry. They moved seasonally from fishery to fis hery, working on inshore waters, rarely the open sea. They also had a history of slave resistance. Nannie Davis Ward's mother, who identified herself as Native American, had grown up on Bogue Banks, a 26-mile-long barrier island west of Beaufort, and her mother's grandfather had evidently been a slave aboard a French sailing vessel. According to Ward, that great-grandfather had escaped from his French master while in port at New Bern and had been raised free in the family ofa white waterman at Harkers Island, ten miles west of Davis Ridge.

It was Sutton Davis, Ward's paternal grandfather, who first settled Davis Ridge.

As a slave, he had belonged to a smal l planter and shipbuilder named Nathan Davis at Davis Island. Sutton had been a master boatbuilder and carpenter. According to his granddaughter, he had learned the trade at a Wilmington shipyard owned by a member of the white Davis family and then moved back to Davis Island. Family lore on one side of the white Davis fami ly holds that Nathan was Sutton's father.

Nannie Ward did nor address rhar question in her interview, except to note that Sutton and his children were very light skinned.

When U nion troops captured Beaufort and New Bern in 1862, Sutton Davis led 15

THE WATERMAN'S SONG

rhe Davis Island slaves ra freedom. They rowed a small boar across J arrerr Bay ra rh e fi shing vi llage of Smyrna, from where rhey fl ed ra Un ion-occupied rerrirary o n rh e ourskirts ofNew Bern. Afrer rhe war, so me of rhose form er slaves founded rh e North River co mmuniry, a few miles ours ide of Beauforr, bur Surron Davis boughr fo ur acres ar Davis Rid ge in 1865. Narhan Davis sold him rhe property for rhe sort of low price usually rese rved for fami ly. Surran and his children evenrually acquired 220 more acres ar D av is Ridge.

T he number of black Downeas tern ers declined sharpl y after the C ivil War, but D avis Ridge remained a stron gho ld of the African American maritim e culture that had thri ved along Co re Sound. Nea rl y all of Nann ie D avis Ward's relatives worked o n rhewarer. H ergrandfarher Surran, ofcourse, was a fisherman and boarbuild er. Her mother's farher, a free black named Sa muel Windsor, becam e a legendary fi sherman and whaler at Shackleford Banks, the ninemile-long barrier island just eas t of Beaufo rt. (Sam Windsor's Lump is srill marked o n nauti cal charrs of Shackleford.) H er father, Elijah , owned a fish house. H er grear-uncle Palmer was a seafarer and sharpie captain. H er great-uncle Adrian was captain of rhe fishing boar Belford. Another great-uncle, Procrar, was a wa term an who lived at Qu inine Point, rhe no rthwes t corner of Davis Ridge. Many orher kinsmen became stalwarts in rhe Beaufort menhaden fleet, which rose in the late 1800s and earl y 1900s ra become rhesrare's mosr importanr salrwarer fis hery. During its heyday, black warermen dominated rhe menhaden fishery, which had black leadership earlier rhan any orher local indusrry. Our of Nannie Ward Davis's fami ly came rhe menhaden industry's firsr African American cap rains.

Surron D avis and his rhirreen children o perared o ne of rhe firsr successful menhaden facra ries in North Carolina, long before rhe indusrry' s boom in Beauforr. Surran builr rwo fis hing schooners, the Mary E. Reeves and rhe Shamrock. His sons worked rhe boa rs while his daughrers dried and pressed rhe menhaden-known locally as "shad" or "pogie"-ra sell as ferri lizer and oil. "Me n should have been doing it," W ard explained, "but he didn ' t have them there, so the girls had ra fi ll in for them ." In fact, she pointed out, "the girls did a lot of farm working, facrary work rao. "

16

T he black fam ilies ar Davis Ridge we re what local hisrarian No rman G illikin in Smyrna calls "saltwarer fa rmers": th e oldrime Downeastern ers who lived by borh fishing and farm ing. They hawked oys rers across Jarrerr Bay and raised hogs, sheep, and cattl e. T hey grew co rn for the animals and sweet "roasting ears" for themselves .

Ar night they spun hom egrown cotran inra clorh. T heir gardens were full of collard greens and, as Ward recalled vividly, "sweet potaraes as big as yo ur head ." T hey wo rked hard and prospered ... .

Self reliant, in peonage to no one, the African Americans at Davis Ridge joined their white neighbors as rough equals in a common struggle to make a living from the sea.

Davis Ridge was a proud, independent community. When Nannie Ward was growing up there in th e 191 Os and 1920s, seven fam ilies-all kin raSurranDavis-srilllived at rhe Ridge. They sailed across Jarrett Bay ra a Smyrna gristmill ra grind their corn and ra a Willisran grocery ra barter fish for coffee and suga r, bur mainly they relied on rheir own land and labor. They conducted business wirh rheir white neighbors ar Davis Shore or across Jarrerr Bay by barter and by trading chores. "You didn' t know whar ir was ra pay bills," Ward reminisced.

While the men worked away at Core Banks mullet camps or chased menhaden in ra Virginia warers, rhe island women cared for farms and homes. They gathered wi ld herbs for medicines and seaso ning.

T hey collected yaupon leaves in February, chopped rhem inra small pieces, and dried them ra make tea. In M ay, they sheared the sh eep. Nannie Ward's grandmother spun and wove the wool. T hey produced, Ward explained, "everything they used. " Davis Rid ge was a remore hammock, bur Ward could not remember a day of loneliness or boredom. She rald how rwo Beaufort menhadenmen, William H en ry Fulcher and John H enry, used ra visit and play music o n her from porch. "W e enjoyed ourselves on the island," Ward said . ''There was n' t a who le lot of things ra do, bur we enjoyed peo ple. W e visired each other. "

T he camaraderie of bl ack and whire neighbo rs aro und Davis Ridge was still striking ra Nan ni e Ward half a century larer. For m osr blacks in coas ral North Carolin a, rhe 19 10s and 1920s were yea rs of hardship and fear. Whire citizens enforced racial segregarion argunpoint. Blacks who rri ed ra climb above "rheir place" invited hars h repri sals. T he Ku Klux Kl an marched by the hundreds in coastal communities as nearby as Morehead C ity, and word we nt o ur in several fishing communiri es that a bl ack man mi ght nor live long if he linge red afrer dark.

D av is Ridge was som ehow different.

Black and white fam ilies often worked, socialized, and worshiped ragerher. "The people from W illi sra n wo uld come over ra our island ," Ward said of school recirals and pl ays, "a nd we'd go over ra rh eir place."

Surron Davis's home, in particular, was a popul ar meerin g place. H ymn singe rs of borh races visited his home ar D avis Ridge ra enjoy good co mpan y and the fin est pipe organ around Jarrerr Bay. Ward even recalled a whire midwife stay ing wirh bl ack famili es at Davi s Rid ge when a child was about ra be born , a simple acr of kindness and du ty rhar turned racial co nve nri ons of rhe day upside down . This may seem a trivial thing, bur ir was quire rhe opposire. A coas tal midwife had ra move inra an ex pectant mother's hom e well befo re her due dare or risk nor being in arrendance at rhe birth because of rhe rime required ra rravel ra and from rhe islands.

Th e midwife srayed for rhe child's birrh and rhen rended ra moth er and child-and so merimes the cooking and housewo rkuntil rhe morher was recovered full y. Taking care of rhose duries, a midwife could easi ly spend rwo orrh ree weeks living in rhe morher' s household. In rheAmerican Sourh durin g rhe era of Jim Crow, it was nor unusual ar all for a black midwife ra serve a white fami ly in that capacity; the arra ngem ent was entirely consistent with a tradi tional role of black women servi ng as maids and nannies in whire hom es . Bur ra reverse rh earrangement was unheard of. The white So urh simply did not allow one ofirs own ra serve a black wo man. Even more fundamental ra the complex racial landscape of th e day, a white wo man co uld never stay rhe nighr under a black man 's roof, that being a breech of the sexual code th at was at rhe heart of Jim C row. The dail y co nSEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 200 1

Ward's family p urse seined fo r menhaden in boats similar to these, ca. 1880- 19 00. (North Carolina Maritime Museum, Beaufo rt) duct of blacks and whites at Davis Ridge would have caused riots, lynching, or banishment in mos t southern places, including coas tal towns 20 miles away ... .

The work culture of mullet fishing on the barrier islands near D avis Ridge both reflected and reinforced this blurring of conventional racial lines . Every autumn all or most of the Davis Ridge men joined interracial mulleting gangs of four to 30 men tending seines, gill nets, and dragnets along the beaches between O cracoke Island and Bogue Banks. During the 1870s and 1880s, that stretch of coastline had supported the largest muller fishery in the U nited States . M ore than 30 vessels carried the salted fish out ofBeaufort and Morehead C ity, and the Atlantic and N orth Carolina Railroad transported such large quantities that for generations local people referred to it as the "Old Muller Road."

Out on those remote islands, black and white mullet fishermen lived, dined, and wo rked together all autumn , temporarily sharing a life beyond the pale of the stricter racial barriers ashore. They worked side by side, handling sails and hauling nets, and every man 's gain depended on his crew's collective sailing and fishing skills. For most, a lot was riding on the muller season. Local fish ermen were a hand-to-mouth lot, and mulleting was on e of the few fisheries that promised barter for the flour, cornmeal, and other staples necessary to fill a winter pantry, to say nothing of putting aside a little for Christmas or for a bolt of calico that might save their wives a fo rtnight of late-night weaving. Every fisherman hoped for the strongest crew possible, and nobody worked the mullet nets or knew how to SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 2001

survive the vicious storms on the barrier islands better than the men from D avis Ridge. On those secluded islands, away from the prying eyes of the magistrates of Jim C row, a man 's race might start to seem a little less important. Wo rk customs reflected this camaraderie and interdependen ce . Mull et fi shermen tradi ri onally worked on a "share sys tem," granting equal parts of their carch's pro fits to every hand, no matter his race. (Owners of boats and nets earned extra shares .) Often they also vo ted by shares to settle wo rk-related decisions. These we re the so rt of working conditi ons that mi ght attract even the independent-minded so uls of D avis Ridge to work alongside their white co unterparts.

This frare rni ry of black and whi te fishermen on the islands off D avis Ridge comes across clearl y in a stunning engraving of a mulleting gang at Shacklefo rd Banks (page 15). T he original photograph on which the engraving was based was taken in about 1880 by R. Edward Earll , a fishety biologist who visited the local mullering beaches as part of the US Fish Commission's monumental survey of all of the nation 's fisheries .

Look cl osely at the engraving and what stands out im mediately are the equal numbers of black and white fishermen, their intermingled pose, their close quarters, their obvious fa miliari ry-one might even say chummin ess-and the unclear lines of authority. All were entirely foreign to the standard racial attitudes of the American So uth in that day. I find it one of the most extrao rdinary images ever made of life in the Jim Crow era. One never sees anything close to that imimacy and equali ry in the portraits of black and whi te wo rkers in

cotton mills, lumber camps, coal min es, or agricultural fields, much less in the trades or professions. The notion ofblacks and whites sharing a fish camp whose design was inspired by a West African architectural tradition stretches the im agination even farther.

A m uller fis herman from D avis Ridge may, in fact, have built the camp in this engraving. Sallie Salter, a white wo man who lived near the Ridge from 1805 to 1903, recalled for her grandso n th at Proctor D avis "lived in a rush camp" at D avis Ridge and later moved closer to her fa mily at Sal ter Creek "and built anoth er rush camp, and lived in it fo r a long time. " One must be careful nor to exaggerate the racial harm ony aro und D avis Ridge.

No t a cross roads in th e American South escaped the reality of racial oppression.

Cerrainly D avis Ridge did not. Afrer the statewid e white supremacy campaigns of 1898 and 1900 , local whites fo stered an atmosphere of racial in timidation that increas ingly dro ve Afri ca n Americans our of other parts ofD owneas t, as well as discouraged any new black settlement in the fishing villages easrofN orth Rive r. ... Seen in this light, Davis Ridge was an island in more than one sense; as the rest ofDowneast grew whiter and whiter afte r the C ivil W ar, this remote knoll was increasingly seen as a las t redoubt of African Ameri can independence and self-suffic iency. White fishermen co uld look ac ross Jarrett Bay and refer to the Mary E. Reeves or the Shamrock as "the nigger boats, " as I have heard Down east old-timers call them , but Sutton Davis's clan still had two of the only m enhaden boats Downeasr and rhe skills to make good money with them .

17

THE WATERMAN'S SONG

This menhaden scrap and oil factory in the Beaufort area likely resembled the one run by Ward's ancestors. (North Carolina Maritime Museum, Beaufort)

That was the heart of the matter. Sutton Davis and his descendants co uld not remove themselves from the white supremacy pervasive in the American South, but they had at least two advantages that most black southerners could only dream of: land and a fair chance to make a living. And, unlike the rest of the Jim Crow South, the waters of Core Sound could not so easily be segregated into separate and unequal sections.

Self-reliant, in peonage to no one, the African Americans at Davis Ridge joined their white neighbors as rough equal s in a common struggle to make a livin g from the sea.

Ward left Davis Ridge in 1925. She first went to Beaufort to attend high school;

then she moved to South Carolina and New York. While she was gone, the great 1933 hurricane laid waste to the island's homes and fields. T he Ridge was deserted when she returned in 1951. No African Americans resided anywhere Downeast by that time.

"I still loved the island," Ward told the Lusters only a few years befo re she died in Beaufort. "When yo u grow up there from a child, you learn all the things in the island, you learn how to survive. You learn everything. " I heard a low, wistful sigh and a deep yearning in her vo ice. "We were surrounded by so many good things that I don 't get

anymore, that I never did get again." I knew that she was not speaking merely of roasted mullet and fresh figs .

She was silent a moment. Then, with a laugh, she exclaimed, 'T d like to be there right now." J, H istorian David Cecelski is a visiting professor at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies.

Used with the permission of the publisher of The W aterman's Song: Slavery and Freedom in Maritime North Carolina, by David C. Cecelski (Greenville NC: University ofNorth Carolina Press, 2001).

When it comes to maritime history, we helped write the book.

CR~_!~EY and ~!,~ Crowley

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SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

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Ameri ca standing to windward. It's her kind of weather, and she cuts to windward with single reefs in her working canvas. In a hard beat like this she beat Titania which finished nearly an hour behind her, close reefed and staggering. From a painting by Tim Thompso n.

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he'd done it. On Friday, 22 August 1851, the "strong seago ing vessel" co mmissioned by Commodore John C. Stevens's New Yo rk Yacht C lu b syndicate had wo n th e Royal Yacht Squadron's Hundred G uinea C up . She'd done it in a walk. Built to the plans of the yo ung des igner George Steers, th e schooner yac ht America had more than lived up to expectatio ns, her long stride, strong haunches and flat-cut American canvas carrying her to windward of h er heavily canvassed English rivals.

While they struggled to battle the tidal chop of the English C hannel, she simply cut through it, standing upright under her ve ry moderate rig and maki ng no fu ss abo ut it.

As The Times ofLondon correspo ndent put it at the time, "with all sails set as flat as a drumhead, and without any careening or staggering, she 'walked along' past schooner and cutter."

Commodore Stevens, a bold and imaginative person who did not like to lose and loved a sporting bet, also had, like any good gambler, a cool and cautious side. Becoming concerned at the towering rigs of the English yachts and the acres of billowin g canvas they set, he worried that the America, with her snug rig of flat-cut American canvas, wo uld not do well against them in light airs. So over the obj ections of the yacht's sailin g master Dick Brown, he ordered a new jibboom, extending beyond the bowsprit to carry a baggy English jib offlax. W hen this lash-up to set more sail carried away on the windward leg of the race aro und the Isle of Wight, Brown was heard to say he was "damned glad it was go ne." U ndoubtedly she went to windward better witho ut it,

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

and that sail was never set again during America's English sojourn.

A possible protest was brought up by one disgruntled competitor based on the unquestionab le fact that America had cut inside a mark on the co urse, the Nab lightship at the east end of the island. This was because she had not received the full race instructions, and her English pilot saved a little ground to windward by sailing inside the light rather than outside aro und it. But others in the fleet of fifteen starters had also cut this mark, and in the cause of good fellowship which characterized this first international race (made international by the America's parti cipationshe having sailed across 3,200 miles of ocean to take part as the only foreign entry) the one grumpy protest was dropped. Two other matters in the America's challenge which might have disqualified her had already been waived to allow her to compete: first, Royal Yacht Squadron races we re open only to individual owners, but America was allowed to compete though owned by a syndicate; second, she was allowed to boom out her sails running before the wind, which was against Squadron rules-everyone recognized that America's loose-footed foresail had to be boomed out to enable her to run wi ng-and-wing, due to th e extreme rake of her masts, which prevented the sail winging out against gravity.

These ac ts of co urtesy, which also made good sporting sense, were typical of the Earl of Wilton, Commodore of the Squadron, who had encouraged the America's English foray by every means at his command. In th is he was surely encouraged by Q ueen Victoria and her consort Prince Albert, who had welcomed the 21

SA.ND

HE.A. 0

e.

A merica's visit to mark Prince Albert's G reat International Exposition at the C rys tal Palace in London's H yde Park, which might be described as the first world's fair. T he couple had observed the race from the royal yacht Victoria and Albert, and on the next day they cam e aboard the America to inspect the vessel at anchor off C owes. Eviden tl y all parties enjoyed the visit, the Americans being particularl y struck by Victoria's cheerful informality and her interest in arrangements below decks. T his extended even to the stowage of ballas t, which presumably called for C ommodore Stevens to have carpets rolled back and cabin floorboards hauled up fo r H er Majesry's inspection of the bilges. The visiting pair, arguably the mos t powerful couple in the world, and notoriously fast idious, were impressed by the cleanliness and good order of things aboard the fas t-traveling schooner.

When a few days later the America los t part of the shoe of her keel through grounding off Spithead, she was hauled at the naval dockya rd in Portsmouth, where the damaged timber was repaired free of charge-with rather labored Victorian courtesy, as recounted by Stevens: 'The admiral, in expressing the pleasure it gave him to do us a service, endeavored to prevail upon us to believe th e obligation to be altogether on his side." The repair was accomplished in one afternoo n, during which crowds viewed the schoon er's fin e bow, flowing sheer and powerful quarters our of water, enabling some among them to satisfy themselves th at she did not have an underwater propeller to speed her along in light airs. T his myth had become current along the waterfront, particularly perhaps among the less educated, but it is also said that the noble M arquis of Anglesey, 83-year-old veteran of the Battle of W aterloo which had ended Napoleon's career, had to be saved from falling overboard through leaning out too far over the A merica's transom , trying to see the mythical propeller.

The dockyard repairs had to be swiftly accomplished, fo r the next day, T hursday, 28 August, the America at las t had the individual match race John Stevens had looked forward to. The railroad magnate Robert Stephenson, Member of Parliament, who h ad sold the Stevens brothers the famous locomotive john Bull, and who had visited the family in their mansion in Hoboken, New Jersey, during his travels on railroad business in America, offered to pit his new schooner Titania against the America, wagering fl 00 on the outcome. T he brand-new Titania was about America's size, just four feet shorter and markedly more slender, following the narrow-gutted English fashion . She was designed in accordance with John Scott Russell's "wave line" theory, which was widely credited with producing speedy hulls.

His theory did indeed have some ideas in common with the des ign theories of]ohn Griffiths, who played a leading role in the design of the American clipper ships th at we re in this very yea r 185 1 breaking records in all the world's oceans. And , remarkably, 22

Titania was built of ironprobably th e first sizable yacht so constructed in an era when the vas t majori ry of ships and boats, includin g mos t of th e steamers that were beginning to drive sa iling ships from th e Atlanti c run , were of traditional wooden co nstruction .

T he day of the match race arrived, blowing fresh from the NNW , more than meetN A. B ro\.J E:.R ing Stevens's requirement for (1<1 20 ) a "six- kn ot breeze" to hold a race. A stea mer preceded the rwo schooners on a southeas terly course for 20 miles fro m the Nab to mark the turni ng point in the 40-mile course. T he two schoo ners came tearing after her on the dow nwind run, America rounding the mark in just ove r two h ours, ahead of her ri val by 4 minutes and 12 seconds, despite having carried away the jaws of the main gaff.

Skipper Brown and his crew ev identl y managed to remedy the damage without lowering sail, no mean fea t in a big schooner runnin g hard. O ne pictures a qui ck ro pe fr apping with th e main gaff stabbing wildly against the rolling, leaping mas t. Whatever was done, it held fo r the balance of the race, when the two schooners beat to windward, back to ward the Nab lightship at the east end of the Isle of Wight, again st risin g wind and sea. Once again America showed her walkaway qualities. As the wind rose, blowing hard against the ebb tide that had begun to set in to produce the short C hann el chop, America stood up to her full working ri g, "slipping gracefully" th ro ugh the vicious green seas, as th e reporter saw it, whil e Titania "dipped her nose into it," with both topmas ts struck, sailing under her lowers, and toward theend apparently with close- reefed mainsail (" half mainsail down"). The America finished 52 minu tes ahead over this 2 1-mile course. Of th at massive lead (there's no other word fo r it), four minutes had been accumulated on the downwind run , when America had trouble with her main gaff jaws, but over three quarters of an hour had been gained on the slogging windwa rd beat. Bell 's Life co ncluded that even skep tics now admitted "the America's superiori ry over anything in these waters."

John Sco tt Russell, originato r of the "wave theory" of design, who happened also to be H on. Secretary of the Great International Exhibition, generously wro te that "America reaped a crop of glory; England reaped a crop of wisdom"-of such value was the lesson the America taught. T he Bell 's Life reporter added that if English hull design were improved, something would still h ave to be done about the baggy English sails. Some have recently suggested that the whole margin of America's superioriry was in her sails. But no one who watched her win her races suggested that, and the reporters' acco unts of both the famous light-air race for the Hundred G uinea C up and the blowy contest with Titania specifically comment on A merica's superb behavior in the water, especially working to windward in a chop .

T he design of that sweet-lined, powerful hull was the work of the yo ung builder George Steers, who had sailed across with th e SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 2001

A t left, an 1851 chart redrawn by Sir Peter J ohnston, shows just how much America benefitted.from cutting inside the Nab-much less than hitherto believed, because ofthe changed position ofthe light. Courtesy Sir Peter Johnston and the New York Yacht Club.

A merica but departed for home on a steamer before either of the rwo races were run . Commodore Stevens had invited Steers to join the schoo ner fo r the passage across the Atlantic, when it became apparent that Stevens and other syndicate members could not make the transAdantic trip . Steers made the passage accompani ed by his older bro ther James and] a mes' s so ns George (age 17) and H enry (age 15). When the Stevens parry joined the boat, they treated the Steers family as hired help. T his rankled with James, who made acid remarks in his journal about Commodore Stevens, whom he called "a damned old hog, bristles and all ." T his resentment may be laid to the normal rubs of people living together in a boat over a period of time, especially when the owner's parry is very wealth y and not reluctant to let that fact be known, and the guest designer and his family are workingmen much closer to the paid captain and crew of the vessel than to John and Edwin Stevens, their friend Colonel H amilton, and oth er distinguished guests th ey from time to time invited aboard.

Befo re critics sniff too much over this whiff of class warfare, it should be noted tl1at when the Steers brothers quit me schooner and went back to New York, 15-year-old H enry Steers, at his own request, remained behind. H e sailed in the races and wro te about America's triumphs in later years. T he broth ers never wo uld have let the boy stay on unless th ey knew H enry was in good hands and wo uld be treated well, which is evidently just what happened .

T he Steers brothers returned to New Yo rk in triumph. George left Brown's East Fourth Street ya rd in Lower M anhattan and set up shop with James in their own ya rd across the river in Broo klyn, where they were flooded with wo rk due to the America's success.

The ya rd soon acquired a M anhattan branch. In addi tion to yachts and the famous China di pp er Sunny South, the brothers built rwo of the great wooden C ollins liners which were competing successfully with the British C unard Line, and they built the big steam fri gate USS Niagara, launched early in 1856. Later that year, on 25 September 1856, George was killed when his horse panicked and he was thrown from his carri age. H e had been driving to G reat Neck on Long Island, to close his summer home there and bring his wife back to theciry. W itl1 onlya limited education, he had packed marvelous achievements in to his 36 yea rs on earth . The New York Times saluted him in words that recognized the true wo rth of the man behind the achievements: "H e was a man of rare gen ius, of the noblest instincts and of incorruptible integri ty of character. " Commodore John Cox Stevens had come home with the Hundred G uinea C up in September 185 1. On 20 October he was saluted with a resplendent feas t at the As tor H ouse, a hotel across from C ity H all Park-sa id to be the only hos telry in the city capable of mounting a dinner of this ten-course magnificence, including 56 dish es . Among the "ornamental co nfections" was a spun sugar representation of the America beating the Titania-a wonderful race against a wo rthy adversary. The dinner wo und up with the unveiling of the America's C up, which thereafter was produced on festive occasio ns in John Stevens's life. H e retained possession of it as the senior member of th e America's syndicate.

A few yea rs later John's high-spirited enjoyment of life was shattered by the long illness of his wife Maria Livingston Stevens.

Stevens withdrew from acti ve affa irs, and when Maria died in February 1855 , he sold his mansion in Was hingto n Square to retire to a farm in South Am boy, New Jersey. It is said that the C up was nearly disposed of in the move, saved only by an alert butler

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUM N 2001

who realized that the orn ate ewer meant something important in the life of Commodore Stevens. No t knowing just what to do with this piece ofVi ctori ana, which didn't even hold wa ter (it has no bottom), syndicate members considered melting it down to make medallions fo r each of th em. Bur wiser heads prevailed, and Stevens joined the others in co nveying the C up to the New Yo rk Yacht C lub before he died in June 1857.

In the New York Tribune, Stevens' s friend H orace G reeley paid this tribute to Stevens: "Statesmen and soldiers often save a country, while such men as John Cox Stevens make a co untry."

And it's true that Stevens's wealth, inves tment savvy and managerial abilities helped build the towering wealth ofN ew Yo rk, which made it a radically different city from the modes t town he had grown up in. The immigrants wh o poured thro ugh the port, broadening the city's population base and accelerating the nation 's development, came because of the opportunities they fo und in the ciry, from digging the Erie Canal to building the immense railway nerwork which wo uld soo n span the continent. T he America and her victory against all comers were products of Stevens's soaring imagination , remarkable abilities and driving determination to win, multiplied and given wings by the genius of Geo rge Steers and the sure touch of the New York pilot skipper Dick Brown.

Regardless of past differences, Stevens always gave credit to Steers for building the boat that wo n the C up, and to Brown and his crew for sailing her the way they did.

T he America's C up's deed of gift to the New York Yacht Club was framed in a generous, forwa rd-looking spirit. T he C up was to be open to challengers fro m all nations, never the property of an individual, but always of a club, and that club must continue to hold the C up "open to be sailed for by Yacht C lubs of all fo reign nations ... thus making it perpetually a C hallenge C up for fri endly co mpetition berween foreign co untries."

The America's Cup Races: A Continuing Saga There was li ttle interes t in taking up th e challenge of the America's C up, and the C ivil War soon blotted out five years along with many American Jives. US-British relations were acrimonious, for with a few honorable exceptions, Bri tish co mmercial interests supported the Southern cause.New Yo rkers showed generosity of spirit in sending a relief ship with fo od and clothing fo r British mill hands thrown out of work due to the shortage of Southern cotton imposed by the No rthern blockade. But finally, fo ur years after the war's end, came a challenge. As John Rousmaniere points out in his marvelous America's Cup Book, 1851- 1983, the challenge came not from th e English aristocracy en rolled in the Royal Yacht Squadron , but fro m an ambitious entrepreneur out to make a name for himself, the industrial magnate James Ashbury.

On his way to the match in 1870, As hbu ry's deep-draft schooner Cambria defeated New Yo rk Yacht C lub Vice C ommodore James Go rdo n Bennett's famous Dauntless, in a close race across the Atlantic. In N ew York it developed she would h ave to race against a fleet of seventeen schooners- as A merica had h ad to race a fleet of fou rteen to win her cup . The long-legged Cam bria didn 't come close, finishing tenth behind the nimble centerboard schooner Magic, which was h elped out by some ro ugh tacti cs at close quarters by other competi tors determined to see an Am erican victory in this firs t challenge for the Am erica's C up .

America was in this race, fi nishin g fo urth, 14 minutes ahead of 23

Cambria. She was now a venerable 19, and a ladyw irh a shady pasr.

Having had a success io n ofBrirish owners, she was sold ro run rh e Northern blockade ofCharlesro n, rhen scu rried up a river ro avoid caprure, recovered , and pur ro work for rhe U nion navy as an armed schoo ner hunting blockade runners. Rebuilr as a privare yachr afrer rh e war, she was rerigged wirh uprighr masrs, added ropmasr and jibboom and a wa rdrobe of mainsail, foresail, sraysa il , jib, jib ropsail, fo re and main ropsails and fisherman sraysaila far cry indeed from rh e main , fore, jib and single small ro psail wirh which she'd won rhe C up, afre r discarding her English flying jib. She m ay have sailed fas rer under rhis rowering rig, which cerrainly called fo r much added weighr in ballasr, bur o ne co uld wish she had sailed in her original simple, shorr pilor schooner garb.

Orher challenges followed, from rwo crude Canadian boars sailed by rheir builder Caprain C urhbert, ro rhe lavishly o urfitted plank-on-edge cutter Galatea sailed by rerired Royal Navy Lieurenanr William H enn, among o rh er challengers. Meanwhile rhe New York Yachr C lub liberal ized irs procedures ro have boar-forboar races wirh no subsrirurions ro suir different wind co ndirions, and srarred ro run a series of races rarher rhan sraking rhe ourcome on a single race.

Lord Dunraven's challenges of 1893 and 1895 in rwo propherically named Valkyries fin ally came near lifring rhe C up in huge exrrem e sloops from rhe board of a des igner who knew his business, Scorland's famed G. L. Warson. Narhanael H erreshoff, rhe Wizard of Brisro l, Rhode Island, had begun his unparalleled career of building Cup defenders wirh Vigilant, one of a new breed of big sloop which soon began pushing rhe envelope wirh gigantic rigs and heavy keels, which rhe Brirish learned ro march. Herreshoff des igned rhe new Universal Rule ro exclude rhese exrrem e boars.

The Yacht Club adopred the rule for all rheir races except the C up races-rhe America's C up races should be an extreme contesr.

Dunraven's challenges turned out robe a death ride worthy of the valkyries, goddesses who chose who was ro die in batde. H e won one race by a narrow margin, but the result was thrown out on protest on the grounds thar he had fouled and damaged the rig of rhe American Defender. Phorographs proved Valkyrie was in rhe wrong. The American manager, Oliver Iselin, offered ro re-sail rhe race, but Dunraven insisted that Defender be disqualified. Dunraven rhen accused the Americans of chearing by secrerly re-ballasring rheir boar, a serious enough matter ro call for a selecr panel which found rhe charge baseless. Mounting a publiciry barrage of complaints, 24

Dunraven then wirhdrew from rhe series. Things looked bad for the friend ly ri valry rh ar the C up races were supposed ro promore.

In 1899, however, a remarkable British grocer, Thomas Li pron, challenged in rhe firsr of a series of five boats named Shamrock, culminaring in rhe glorious Shamrock V which srill sails roday.

Li pron, born roan Irish family in Sco rland, grew up in poverry and emigrared in his teens ro rhe US, where he worked in a New York grocery sro re. Rerurning ro Sco rland ar age 19, he opened a grocery of his own which soon became a chain of srores. He capitalized on rhis ro invesr in exrensive adve rrising, and expanded his operarions ro operaring rea plantarions in Ceylon, rhe origins ofLipron 's rea, which adverrising made famous. Herreshoff' s grear sloop Columbia won in bo rh lighr airs and srrong, bur Shamrock, from rhe Scottish W illiam Fife's board, by no means disgraced herself in hard-fo ughr racing, and rhe series was reckoned a glorious success-nor leasr by Lipron, who became rhe roasr of rhe rown.

Columbia defended again in 1901 , againsr Shamrock II, designed by rhe Scottish Warson, which losr in rhree very close races, rhe last by jusr 41 seconds. In 1903 Fife's Shamrock III was beaten by H erreshoff's magnificent Reliance, which sailed under a cloud of canvas, larger rhan any contestant for the America's Cup before or since, sustained by a 20-foot-deep lead mine of a keel.

Shamrock IV, a radical design by rhe English Charles N icholson, sailed over ro race in 191 4, and losr in five successive races held in 1920. World War I had cost the West much of its optimism and millions of yo ung lives in the intervening years. But Li pron would nor give up his quesr, and in 1930 N icholson produced for him rhe handsome Shamrock V, firsr ofa new generarion ofbigJ-class boats builr to rules mandaring a more moderare, seaworrhy vessel than rhe exrreme sloops. This final Shamrock was fasr, bur losr four srraighr races ro Enterprise, designed by W. Srarling Burgess, whose farher Edward had designed fasr Cup defenders of the 1880s. Enterprise did no t win by superior design-she was perhaps a bir slower rhan Shamrock V She won because her owner and skipper was Harold Vanderbilr. Vanderbilr, heir ro a fortune founded by a New Yo rk harbor ferryboar owner a hundred years before his time, rook comperi rion very seriously. H e was a winning ocean racer and champion bridge player who invented roday's conrract bridge gam e. Bridge is a ream game, and Vanderbilt was a team player. H e had rhar rare combinarion of crearive imaginarion and rivering attention ro detail which, with srrong, sensiti ve leadership, builds winning team s. H e loved ro win, bur his vicrory

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

Columbia leads Shamrock as Lipton s challenge brings the Americas Cup contest back to life in 1899-with JP. Morgans black-hulled Corsair bringing leading New Yorkers to see the show, while lesser mortals crowd the decks ofa fine excursion steamer and the US Navy, fresh from the victories ofthe Spanish-American War, stands by to keep order. Painting by Eduardo de Martino; courtesy, New York Yacht Club. over the 80-year-old Tommy Lip to n in what obviously would be his last challenge to lift rhe "Auld Mug" was "tempered with sadness," as th e hard-driving American co nfessed in his memoirs.

Ano ther remarkable Bri to n came into rhe game to mount rhe last two challenges sailed in the great 120-foo r ]-class boars. Sir T homas Sopwith, born into a well-to-do country fami ly, had made a large fort une as an aircraft manufact urer- his Sopwith Cam el was known as the best figh ter plane of W orld War I. H e was a flyer and designer, with that intangible of leadership which makes wi nning teams. And fo r him Charles Nicholso n produced rhe first Endeavour, which the dinghy sailor Uffa Fox noted would "stand our as rhe sweetest vessel of all rime built to the ']' class rule"-a judgment few wo uld quarrel with, watching her under sail today. Distinctly fas ter than Burgess's Rainbow, even with Vanderbilt at the helm, Endeavour won the first two races, albeit by narrow margins. No thing like this had hap pened in Cup history. H ow Vanderbilt drove his slower boar to sweep the next fo ur races, all by narrow margins, is an epic story li kely to be remembered as long as boats race for rhe America's C up . O n the las t race, Endeavour was clearly in th e lead in light air nearing the finish. Bur Vanderbilt had put the wily Sherman H oyt at the helm of Rainbow, and hopi ng that Sopwith, a crack dinghy sailor, wo uld cover him come what m ay, he led the big ] -boat into an extra tack that slowed her down enough to cost her the racesaving the America's Cup by a m argin of just 55 seconds. W ithout that rack to cover the opposition, the race wo uld have been Endeavour's. Subsequently it is said that Vanderbilt and Sopwith had a march race in dinghies, wh ich Sopwith wo n. Sopwith generously gave the American team copi es of Endeavour's lines, and tank tests showed her to be markedly faste r than Rainbow.

Rainbow could sail in the same wa ter as Endeavour only in going to windward, the races had shown, par tly due to superior American technology in sails and rigging, and partly due to the superb level of teamwo rk aboard th e A merican boat.

N icholson provided another fas t ] -boat for the next challenge, in 1937. Named Endeavour II, she apparently had an edge over Endeavour, though it must be said that not she nor any other ] boat qui te matched Endeavour's classic good looks. But no edge was goi ng to stop Ranger, the A m erican boat designed by Starling Burgess with the assistance of yo ung O lin Stephens, who had designed winning ocean racers and match -racing boats of smaller size. Vanderbilt trained her crew as though life depended on it, and he was sailing what turned o ut to be an unbeatable boat. In her one yea r ofl ife on this planet, the snub-nosed Ranger wo n 32 races out of 34 starts, and by big margins averaging out to over a mile.

Two years after this race, England declared war on Nazi Germany over their invasion of Poland. T hings went very badly this time, and by the summer of 1940 an under-armed England stood alone against German -d ominated Euro pe. By a narrow margin , the Royal Air Force beat back the Luftwaffe air attack in the Battle ofBritain and England stayed in the war, with American support, un til the Anglo-Am erican invasion of Europe in 1944 liberated Western Euro pe, and with Russian fo rces rolling in from the east, conquered German y to end the Nazi regime.

Many American yach tsmen , includ ing my father, played a vital role in the invasion of Euro p e which doomed Nazi Germany.

Sopwi th's contriburion to victo ry was unique: H e built 100 SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 200 1

Hurricane fighter planes on his own acco unt just before war broke out, providing a cadre fo r the force that won the Battle of Britain a year later. T he America, hauled out in An napolis fo r rebuilding, could not be rebuilt under wartime co nditi ons, and was des troyed when her shed collapsed on top of her weary hull in 1942.

H er heritage in the America's C up was safe by this time. After the war the contest was resumed in 12-mete r boats and other classes racing in the wo rld's oldes t co ntinuous sporting series. In 1983 th e Cup was wo n by Australia, ending th e US run of victory that had lasted an incredible 132 years. But this was what John C. Stevens and the fo unders had planned for- in friendly competition fo r what had become history's most fa mous sporting trophy. ,t

The America's Cup Hall of Fame

by H alsey C. H erreshoff T he H erreshoff Marine Museum on Na rragansett Bay, Rhode Island, celebrates the acco mplishments of the H erresho ff family and the rel ated drama of the America's C up races.

O n the M useum site from 1863 to 1945, the H erreshoff Manufac turing Company p roduced the wo rld's fi nes t yachts th ro ugh the genius of naval archi tect Captain Nathanael G ree ne H erreshoff and the business acumen of his blind older bro ther, John Brown H erreshoff.

T he America's C up Hall of Fame was created in 1992 and is located in the M useum , housed on the site where yachts we re constructed fo r eight co nsecutive successful America's C up defe nses between 1893 and 1934.

T he collection includes th e steering wheels of I ntrepid and Columbia, half models of all defenders th ro ugh the 12-meter era, half models of all challengers and defe nders th ro ugh the ]-boats, tank test models, Am erica's C up arti fac ts, and photos.

W inches, sail blocks, helms of America's C up defenders, arti fac ts from C up parti cipants and full models of America's C up defenders and challengers are also on exhibit.

U pon ente ring the H all of Fame, visito rs are greeted by plaques describing the acco m plishments of each inductee.

T he accompanying exh ibits trace the history of the C up races, starting with the first dramatic race around the Isle of Wight in 185 1. T he winner of that competition, the yacht America, is highlighted. T he American defenders and English challengers of the late 19th century are explored, starting with Magic vs. Cambria in 1870.

Museum activiti es include educational programs for adults and yo uth , a boat resto ration program , research and scholarship, regattas, outreach programs and community events. The H erresh off Marine Museum is proud to preserve the historical trust of Am erica's yachting heritage by displaying and perpetuating the H erreshoff legacy for our future generations.

We are thankful to our members and fri ends for their constant support of the H errshoff M arine Museum. ,t The H erreshojfMarine M useum, 1 Burnside Street, PO Box 450, Bristol RI 02809 â&#x20AC;˘ Tel: 4 01 253-5 000 â&#x20AC;˘ www. herreshoff.org Open 1 May-3 1 October, seven days a week, 10AM-5PM.

25

MARINE ART

"The Tug Hudson," oil on canvas, 40 x 50 inches

DAVID BAREFORD

by Ann Bilby avid Barefo rd summ ed up his thoughts on painting in a 1972 interview: "I paint paintings, not pictures. T he primary concern of a picture is representation-to show just what something looked like. But the primary concern of a painting is expression-to show the action and vitality that are presenr in the atmosphere of the place. Even tho ugh the painting may not look exactly like the scene itself, it may better convey what it was really like. And I wanr my paintings to be interesting whether they are viewed near or at a distance."

David Bareford's interest in art began in high school in Warren, New Jersey, where he studied under Lawrence Von Seidel. By the time of his graduation, David had wo n rwo awards in a local art show. H e conrinued his education for rwo years at Wheaton College in Illinois, where he studied metal sculpture with guest instructor Donald Seiden of the Chicago Art Institute.

In 1970 Bareford graduated with a BA in Fine Art from the U niversiry of Montana in Missoula, Montana.

After college D avid returned to New England and began his career as a watercolorist. He concenrrated on painting outside,

D

26

studying the movement oflight and its ever-changing effects on a subject. His work was soon included in the American Watercolor Sociery's Traveling Exhibition, where he quickly gained national recognition. Bareford received numero us awards for his watercolor paintings as he continued to exhibit his work in such acclaimed juried shows as the American Watercolo r Society and the National Academy of Design Ann ual Exhibi tion held in New York Ciry.

After several years of successful study in the medium of watercolors, David Bareford turned his attention exclusively to oil painting. Bareford embraces the principles oflmpressionism, but he remains most interested in the paint surface: the paint itself. H e continues to work outside regularly, studying and painting light and life. H e recenrly commented about plein-air painting, " ... for it is righ t in front of your subject that yo u see, without consciously thinking about it, ligh t."

It is this gifted abili ry to transfer beaury and light onto canvas that we celebrate in David Bareford's paintings. He sees that which is beautiful and responds to this beaury totally. He is SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

~.

"Downwind Duel," oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches

''I paint paintings, not pictures. The primary concern ofa picture is representation . ...

But the primary concern ofa painting is expression . ... Even though the painting may not look exactly like the scene itself, it may better convey what it was really like. " "North by Northeast," oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches

spiritual ly, and hence artistically, moved by his subjects. "I am res ponding to what I am seeing. I get in to uch w ith the real co ntrasts in nature and wh at is goin g o n o utside. Wh en yo u paint o utside, yo ur eyes are much mo re sensitive than a camera. I might feel so me lavender ove r there, so I put it in . I try to capture the quali ty of my subj ect as I saw it, and what it was that appealed to me. IfI can only capture what I am seeing, it will be beautiful. " About his work David comments, "The term 'inspiration' is overworked and doesn't apply to what I tty to accomplish. I work at painting; I don't wait for inspiration." His answer fo r his success: "long ho urs, a lo t of seco nd cries, and an unwavering commitment to excellence, meeting my own criteria."

It is Bareford ' s ability to capture natural

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

27

MARINE ART

"Summer Surf" oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches

"I paint things that I feel are beautiful. ... I'll watch the fishing boats coming in for the day in the afternoon sun. The sun will be gleaming on those old boats, making the greens and reds and oranges of their hulls vibrant-simply beautiful in the light.

At that moment those workboats are beautiful. "

''.A Good Breeze at Brant Point, Nantucket," oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches

28

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

"Tugs in New York H arbor," oil on canvas, 30 x 46 inches

beauty in a work of art that has gained him overwhelming success as an artist and painter. T he essence of his creative spirit remains in his thirst for the splendors of h armony in both form and color.

H e likes to paint from life around him.

H e cam e to the East Coas t b ecause he loves New England and its ri ch subj ect matter. "I paint thin gs I feel are beautiful. Sometim es I'll wa tch th e fi shin g boats coming in for the day in the afternoon sun. The sun will b e gleamin g on those old boats, makin g th e greens and red s and oranges of their hulls vibrant-

simply beautiful in the light. At that moment those workboats are beautiful. " h is his ab ili ty to convey that beauty to us on canvas that captivates and enriches his broad audience. .t

Ann Bilby manages the Quester Gallery in Stonington, Connecticut, where David Bareford is exclusively represented. A full-color brochure ofthe artist's work is available upon request ftom Quester Gallery at 860 535-3860 or ftom: injo@questergallery.com.

D avid Bareford (Photo by the author)

1,

EXHIBITIONS AND A WARDS (partial): National Academy of D es ign: Watercolor '75 , oil '82. American Waterco lor Society Trave lin g Exh ibition. Alli ed Artists of America: Barbara Vassi li eff Award; C harl es Romans Award; Inveresk Award. National Arts C lub. Quester Ga llery, Annual On eMan Exh ibitions beginning 1989. Mystic International, Mys ti c Seapo rt Museum, '86, '89 , '90, '91.

COLLEC TIONS: D av id Barefo rd 's paintings can be found in fin e pri vate and co rpo rate collections throu ghout the United States, Canada and abroad. A parti al li st includ es: Sears Co ll ectio n, IL; Fleet Bank, Bosto n, MA and Hartford , CT ; World Trade Co rporation , DC; Otis Elevato r Company, CT; First Nationa l Bank of Central Jersey, NJ; I. B. Meyer Pl as ti c, NJ; American T elephone & Teleg raph , NY; New Jersey Bell , NJ.

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 200 I

29

MARINE ART NEWS Masterpieces in Miniature

The Mystic International

The San Diego Maritime Museum is continuing a series of stellar exhibits with a unique collection of ship models, historic and contemporary. More than a dozen North American modelers are featured, including Donald McN arry and Lloyd McCaffrey, both masters of their craft who have written extensively on the subject. However, other, older artifacts are also on display, including prisoner-of-war models Model ofthe Royal Caroline by graphic and ships in bottles.

T he asto nishing detail achieved by the artists designer Gus Agustin, who is pictured below with afleet ofhis miniature mod- is evident in each one of these models, built to a els. (All photos courtesy Bob Crawford, scale of 1I16" = l ' or smaller-so tiny that even Cu rator of Models, San Diego Mari- a human hair is too thick to serve as rigging. The time Museum) examples on display in this first US exhibit showcasing miniature ship models run from the 1300s through the present and range in size from three inch es to three feet. The exhibit runs from June through 14 D ecember aboard another unique artifact, the museum's ferryboat Berkeley of 1898. (SDMM, 1306 North Harbor Drive, San Diego CA 92101; 619 2349153; web site: www.sdmaritime.com) 1.

Every year we look forward to the Annual Mystic International for examples of the best in maritime art from around the world.

Judging by the catalogue, we should be amply rewarded for the year's wait. The exhibit opens 22 September and runs through 4 November. Perennial favorites share wall space with newly discovered

Dr. j ack Goldstein has been ship modelingfor This astonishingly detailed model by Agustin 50 years, but began building miniatures with the birth ofhis first granddaughter. depicts the royal yacht HMYKitchen.

'Falls of Clyde Off the Dagger Rammereez" Robert Carter, oil, 22 x 32 inches artists, showcasin g splendid work from Great Britain, Eastern and Western Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Asia, Australia and New Zea land, Canada, Mexico, and South America as well as the United States.

For a taste of what yo u can see at the gall ery, yo u can order a catalogue that includes abo ut one-third of the paintings in the show, or check out the web site at http: //sto re. mys ticseaport.org. (The Maritime Gall ery at Mystic, 47 Greenmanville Avenue, PO Box 6000, Mystic CT 063550990 ; 860 572-5388) 1.

EXHIBITS & EVENTS •Denver Art Museum: 18 Nove mber-6 Janu ary 2002, "S unken Treas ures: Ming Dynasty Cera mi cs fro m a C hin ese Shipwreck" (13th Avenue & Acoma, D e nver CO; 72 0 865-5 000 ; web sire: www. denve rarrmuseum .o rg) • First USA Riverfront Arts Center: 27 Seprember-25 N ovember 2001 , 12th Na tion al Ex hibi tion of the Am eri ca n Society of Marine Arrisrs in W ilmingto n DE (800 Sou th Madison Street, Wilmington DE 19801 ; ASMA, PO Box 369, Ambl er PA 1900 2; 215 283-0888; web sire: www.marinea rrisrs.org; e- mail : as ma@icdc.co m) •Freer Gallery of Art: l July 2001 -3 1 March 2002, "Whistler in Venice" (Sm ithso nian Institution, Jefferson Drive at 12th Street, SW, Washington D C 20560; 202 357-4880; web sire: www.asia.si.edu) • Lyman Allyn Museum: 30 November 2001- April 2002, The Mo ntesi Ship Coll ection: Ship Models by Folk Art ist Pasq uale Montesi (Co nnecti cut Co llege, 625 Williams Street, New London CT 06320; 860 443-2545; web sire: lymanallyn.conn coll.ed u/ge neral.hrml) • The Maritime Gallery at Mystic: 22 Seprember-4 November 2001 , 22nd Annual Mystic Intern atio nal Exhibi tio n; 11 November-3 1 D ece mber 2001 , Four Featured Artists: H ans Blank, Marc Castelli , Ron Druerr, Andy Thomas (47 G ree nm anvilleAve nue, PO Box 6000, M ys ti c CT 06355; 203 572-5388; web sire: sto re. mysricseaport.org)

30

•New Bedford Whaling Museum: from Jun e 2001, "Portraits of a Port: New Bedford Nav igates the Wo rld "; from 7 Jul y 2001 , "The Co mi c Book Arr of Moby-Dick" (18 Johnn y Cake Hill, New Bedford MA 02740-6398; 508 997-0046; web sire: www.whalingmuse um.org) •The Noble Maritime Collection: 17 Nove mber 2001, N oble Arr Auction (1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island NY 1030 l ; 7 18 4476490; web sire: www. nobl emaririrn e.o rg) •San Diego Maritime Museum: 15 Jun e- 14December2001, "Masterp ieces in Miniature" (1 306 No rth Harbor Drive, San Diego CA 9210 l ; 619 234-9 153; web sire: www.sdmaritime.com) •Seamen's Church Institute: 11Nove mber 2001-18 January 2002, "Dazzle & Drab: Ocean Liners at War, " an ex hibi t sponsored by The Ocean Liner Museum (24 1 Water Stree t, New York NY 10038-20 16; 2 12 349-9090; web sire: www.seamenschurch. org) • South Street Seaport Museum: from 11 January 2001, "Hudson River Journ ey"; 20 October-31 December 2001 , "Seventeenth Ce ntury Durch Masters and thei r Legacy" (207 Fro nt Street, N ew York NY 10038; 212 748-8600; web sire: www.so urh srseaporr.org) •Vallejo Gallery: from 18 Seprernber- 15 November 2001 , "Spirit of the Sea": Maritime Arr & Arti facts (1610 West Coast High way, Newport Beach CA 92663; 949 642-7945)

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 200 I

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This wintry scene by William G . Muller shows the night boat Massachusetts passing New York's Pier A on a December morning. Cards are 5 x 7, greeting: "With every good wish for the Holidays and for the coming year. " Box of ten: $13.95 or $12.55 for NMHS members. All orders add $3 s/h.

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A View from the Battery, 1829

by Thos. Thomson, American (1775-1852) This limited edition print, produced by the Acorn Foundation , is a faithful reproduction of the original lithograph , which offers extraordinary detail and accuracy . The threemasted packet on the left is the Black Ball ship Manchester, which sai led between New York and Liverpool, England.

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by John Maxtone-Graham

T

o counter today's brush-fire wars, fleets of capacio us H ercules transports loft fi ghting men to distant trouble spots around the globe. But for yesterday's conflag rati o ns, troo ps were dispatched overseas aboard ocean liners coopted for the d uration. A hard-and-fast proviso di ctated the relationship ofBritain' s Admiralty and Britain 's m erchant fleet: In the event of war, peacetime tonnage wo uld be dragooned on the instant, tran sformed into armed m erchant cruisers (an abys mal mistake) , troop transpo rts or hospital ships.

Throughout both world wars, ocean liners might be encountered almost anywhere, steaming in solitary urgency or m assed in protective convoy-elusive, blacked-out and cloaked in secrecy.

Symptomatic of the way war affected ocean liners in the summer of 19 14, when war fin ally cam e to Europe after the century of the Pax Britannica, was the immediacy w ith which hostilities disrupted both their dispatch and passage. Out on the Atlantic, even before hostilities had been fo rmally declared, liners in sudden jeopardy scuttled hurriedly fo r either fri endly or neutral ports.

Peacetime passengers were und erstandably distressed that transAtlantic voyaging was no mo re. T he ocean liners' bright superstru ctures, gaily-painted funnels, gleam ing black hulls and lavish interiors no longer graced M anhattan's piers. They were gone, conscripted fo r gove rnment service, shipboard's myriad delights obliterated for the duration by wartime motley.

Altho ugh Lusitania's sinking has often been credited with drawing America into the war, the U nited States did not enter hostilities fo r nearly two more years. In fact, the torpedoing of Laconia on 25 February 19 17, with a further loss of American lives, had a somehow more compelling effect on American popular opinion. Congress declared war o n 6 April 191 7. One of the government's first wartime acts was to se ize the half mi llion tons of intern ed Ge rm an shipping languishing at East Coast p iers.

W ar in the Atlantic had reached a criti cal juncture. The growth and effi ciency of U- boats and the torpedoes that were their wea pons of choice dominared the head-

32

lines. There were, it finally transpired, only two defenses against U-boats, the first cosmetic, the second strategic; the first regarded as more or less ineffectual, the second a remarkable achievement that reduced ship losses dras tically.

Lieutenant No rman W ilkinson, RNVR, a distinguished m aritime artist, is popularly credited with devising dazzle painting ¡ for m erchant ships. O ther artists and academics h ad earli er approached Their Lordship s w ith ca m o ufl age sch em es; but Wilkinson seem ed to have carried the day, form ally submitting his pro posal to the Admi ralty in April 19 17. T he alacri ty with which his proposal was accepted betrays the ominous increase in U-boat kills that year, dating fro m the February announcem ent by Germ any pledging unrestricted submarine warfare against all vessels.

Wilkinson was pro mo ted to Lieutenant C omman der and put in charge of a team of fifteen British artists, conve ned in a Burlington H ouse offi ce, to study dazzle painting. Once perfected, individual artists were posted to va rio us po rts around the U nited Artist Donald Stoltenberg interprets the dramatic colors ofdazzle paint, on M auretania and other ocean liners, which were intended to confuse the U-boats hunting them. (Cof!ection ofthe artist)

Kingdom and, later, to America to implement the d esigns to full scale o n merch ant vessels. A m easure of W ilkinson 's success was the speed with which o ther Allied navies adopted dazzle painting as well.

The point was less to conceal than mislead. Accustomed as we are to black and white pho tographs, it com es as so mething of a surprise to appreciate what vivid polychromy dazzle painting employed . Mauretania sported black and white harlequins, accentuated with brigh t reds, blues and greens. T he bizarre design covered the C unarder' s hull and superstructure, including life boats, b ridge and funn els.

Painter Eric Longo has suggested that blues, yellows and reds might well, fro m a distance, have been optically blended into a dark green , ocean color.

Wilkinson m andated several ground rules for d azzle painting. T hough horizo ntal or verti cal lines should be eschewed , disruptive arrangem ents of whorls, slas hes, swoops and arcs were encou raged, extending from boo t-topping to funnel rims. It was rem arkable how funn els painted in a lighter sh ade than their darker neighbors seemingly vanished . Moreover, the scale of pattern must suit the acreage of the vessel's flank. And fin ally, to fo restall Ge rman commanders from becoming too familiar with certain dazzle schem es, port and starboard sides were som etimes painted differently; occasionally the entire canvas, so to speak, was co mpl etely redesigned.

In sum, dazzle painting was a visual deception des igned specifically to confuse and mislead submarine commanders. Their periscope vantage point, just above the ocean 's surface, m eant that assessing an Alli ed vessel's p rofile-often a target of h asty oppo rtunity-was of prime importance. Breaking it up, changing the silhouette, distorting the apparent course, size and, indeed, the very nat ure of the vessel, supposedly wo rked to the merchant captain' s-and his involuntary passengers'advantage. Perhaps the most ingenious painted ship device, wo rth more than any number .of fa nciful curlicues, was the sil ho uette â&#x20AC;˘Of a mythic acco mpanying destroyer p<ainted along the side of the American troow er Antigone.

SEA. HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

Were U-boar com manders acrually confused? T he fare of one ship suggesrs rhey were nor. Statendam had been assigned to rrooping duries wirh Whire Srar and renamed justicia. She was dazzle painted in black, blue and lighr graywirh a prominent U-shaped swoop along the hull benearh funnels one and rwo. But in the last summer of the war, she fell victim to several Uboats. On 17 Jul y 1918, bound in convoy for New York,]usticia was struck by several rorpedoes. Still afloar, she was taken in row, but the following day, she was attacked by another U-boat and sent ro the bottom.

Patenrly, her dazzle painting had not confused three separate enemy commanders.

Admittedly, one caprain was othe1w ise con fuse d: Following three-sracker j usticia' s demise, exhilarated German naval authorities crowed that they had sunk Vaterland, the ship rhen sailing as Leviathan.

T he second and ultimarely mosr efficacious remedy against U-boats was the establishment of rransArlantic convoys. The firsr sailed from H am pron Roads in May 19 17, a month after America had declared war.

Regardless of the difficulties, sratistics were enco uraging: Of205 vessels in 12 convoys, all but rwo arrived safel y in England.

World War II Drab Wo rld War II starred wirh a bang: rhe ab rupt, cataclysmic explosion of a torpedo fired by U-Boar 30 under the command of Fritz Lemp west of the Hebrides. His target was Donaldson Line's 13,000-ronAthenia.

The date is significant: Sunday, 3 September 1939, the day war was declared. One hundred and rwelve lives were losr. Exactly as had occurred rhat summer of 1914, No rth Atlantic liners scuttled for cover or remained in port.

Increasing technological sophistication obviated the need for Wo rld War I's dazzle paint. T he scheme was adjudged time-consuming and expensive; moreover, no one was convinced it worked. It was cheaper and fas rer ro paint vessels gray instead . In fact, liners at war had been rendered increasingly vulnerable ro enemy perception in a new dimension. The employment of long-ra nge aircraft and blimps nullified the advantages of a sysrem devised ro confuse SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 2001

The Cunard Line 's M auretania brought troops home in 1918 still wearing her wartime "checkerboard" dazzle paint scheme. To insure that such ocean liners were not recognized by German submarine crews, the dazzle paint was changed several times. (Collection ofjohn Maxtone-Graham) (Headline art designed by Wayne Mazzotta, Guest Curator ofthe exhibit) masters peering through periscopes at sea level. And finally, the invention of radar meant that a ship's electronic profile might be equally damaging. Twenty years on, from one world war ro another, defensive paint jobs had changed from dazzle to drab.

T he practice of mobilizing ocean liners as raiders or merchant cruisers was curtailed although P & 0 armed a dozen of her fleer with ludicrously outdated 6-inch weapons from the 1800s. In addition, antiaircraft batteries were installed on liners' decks. Queen Elizabeth 2, for example, was armed with a rocket gun (it lofted a tangle of wires towards enemy propellers), one 6inch gun , six 4.7" anti-aircraft guns, ten Vickers machine guns, eight Oerlikens, four Bofors and an arsenal of depth charges.

A defensive necessity adorned ocean liners' fl anks, a British invention ro co unteract Germany's magnetic mine, which rested on the sea borrom, ro be deron ated by the field force of a large hull pass ing above ir.

British scientists countered the threat by encircling ships' hulls wirh broad, copper degaussing cables . Below-deck generators kept a constant current flowin g within rhem, effectively neutralizing the vessels' magnetic presence. Added to every British port's shore establishment were degaussing officers, their mission to ensure that incoming m erchantmen 's generators and cables were in sound wo rking order.

The Colors of Peace Nieuw Amsterdam, her funnels repainted in Holland-Am erica's green-white-green but with hull still grimy gray, steamed into Rotterdam, a tonic harbinger of peace for the war-ravaged port. Ile de France we nt back to Sr-Nazaire; she wo uld re-enter French Line service with two rather than

three funnels. Gray West Point return ed to Newport News, Virginia, to re-emerge in red-white-and-blue livery as America. Both Queens were relinquished by the Minisrry of War Transport for restoration to rhe two-ship service for which they had been conceived in 1929. Each vessel had steamed half a million wartime miles. T he "Lizzie, " having co mpleted her last trooping voyage at Halifax, sailed into Southampton for the first tim e on 20 Augusr 1945, just after VJDay. Her war service ended officially in February 1946. She immediarely underwentadramaticconversion in borh Glasgow and Southampton. T hen, resplendent in peacerime livery for the firsr rime, she sailed on her proper maiden voyage to New York in October 1946. -i Renowned ocean liner historian Jo hn Maxtone-Graham is president of The Ocean Liner Museum. This article is taken from the catalogue for the exhibit "Dazzle and Drab: Ocean Liners at War, " which can be purchased from The Ocean Liner Museum, PO Box 1479, New York NY 1002 1; 212 7176251 .

"D azzle & Drab: Ocean Liners ar W ar" is on exhibit at rhe Seamen's Church Insritute in New York C ity, fearuring ship models, paintings, photographs, posters, videos and artifacts that illustrate rhe dramaric and indispensable role passenger liners played in warrime in rhe 20th century. A joint presentarion of SCI and The Ocean Liner Museum, iris open 11 November 2001-18 Janua1y 2002, Monday -F riday, 8:30am-4:30pm. Call rhe museum office ar 2 12 7 17-625 1 for special Saturdayviewings. (SCI, 24 1 Water Streer, New York NY 10038; 2 12 349-9090)

33

Remembering a Far-Traveled Four Piper

by Captain Alexander Monroe

A

frerrhefall ofFrance, in Jun e 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill predicted that very soon the whole might and fury ofNazi Germany would be turned again st the United Kingdom for "Hitler [knew] that he must break us in this island or lose the war." The critical factor in British survi val was keeping sea lanes open, and to do that the Royal Navy so rely needed destroyers.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt recognized Britain's desperate need and, in response to Churchill's second plea in July 1940, he arranged to exchange fifry overage destroyers for the right to build naval and air bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda and the West Indies. The destroyers-forbases deal was signed on 2 Sep tember and an nou nced on 4 September 1940.

In Richmond, Virginia, an artifact of those dark times has recently emerged from a library stack in the Richmond Public Library. It is the bridge badge, known in the US Navy as a ship's plaque, of HMS Richmond (G-88), formerly USS Fairfax (DD-93), a "fo ur-piper" destroyer turned over to Britain in 1940.

T he destroyers-for-bases deal was complex and extraordinarily controversial, particularly since 1940 was a presidential election year. Attorney General Robert Jackson, later to become a Supreme Court Justice and the United States's prosecutor at the Nuremburg War Crimes trials, had in June 1940 opined that building PT boats and turning them over to the English would

be a clear violation of the Neutrality Act. However, he held that the destroyers (which had an estimated useful life of sixteen years) were obsolescent, had not been built for delivery to a belligerent power, and could therefo re be transferred to the Royal Navy.

In response to the Attorney General's opinion, Admiral H arold R. Stark, USN, C hief of Naval Operations, immediately certified that the ships being exchanged were obsolete, all having been built before 1922, and that the opportunity to establish naval and air bases strengthened national defense.

The chosen vessels sailed from Norfolk and other east coast ports to Boston, where they were placed in full operational condition . The Richmond Times-Dispatch of 6 September 1940 reported that their guns were "uncovered," and depth charges "ready in stern racks" as they lefr port, "apparently en route to an unnamed Canadian port."

The pace of transfer was rapid. British crews were soon worki ng with their American counterparts to learn how their new ships operated. By 7 September 1940, 28 of the 50 destroyers had reached Halifax, Nova Scotia. As soon as Royal Navy crews reported, the ships sailed for the United Kingdom for refit and installation of standard Royal Navy amenities.

Initially, it was intended that the ships should retain their American names out of courtesy to the US. Instead they became known as Town-class des troyers and were rechristened with names of towns common to Britain and the US . A star on the

destroyers' bridge badges se t th em apart and indicated their American origin.

Fairfax reached Ha1i fax on 26 Nove mber 1940 . The Wickes-class destroyer had been launched from the Mare Island Navy Yard and commissioned on 6 April 1918. She was decommissio ned in 1922, then recommissioned in May 1930 for training duty, until her transfer to Britain. On 5 December 1940 the destroyer was turned over to her Royal Navy crew and recommissioned as G-88, HMS Richmond.

T he four piper could claim an earlier British co nnection. She was named for the Virginia-born Rear Admiral Donald McNei l Fairfax, USN . During the C ivil War, while executive officer of USS San Jacinto, Fairfax led the boarding parry that removed two Confederate officials, James Mason and John Slidell, from the British RMS Trent and took them to Boston for temporary incarceration at Fort Warren; this action nearly ruptured diplomatic relations between England and the US .

U nder her new flag, HMS Richmond had a somewhat checkered wartime career.

Under the command of Lieutenant Commander Alfred Francis Llewellyn Evans, RN, she sailed for Northern Ireland on 19 D ecember 1940, but returned to Newfoundland on Christmas Eve because of "piping obstruction." Ultimately, the tiny ship reached England by 1 February 194 1.

She finished workups by 16 March, but unhappily grounded offHolyhead, leading to a yard period at Liverpool. She finally joined the 17th Escort Gro up, NewfoundThe four-piper Fairfax (left) was in New York Harbor for the World's Fair in 1939.

(US Naval Institute) A decade Later, she was steaming as Zhivuchi (below), with Soviet officers (bottom Left) and crew. (Courtesy Central Naval Museum, St. Petersburg)

34

~SEA

HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 200 1

The bridge badge (at left) from HMS Richmond was given to the Ci-ty of Richmond, Virginia. (Photo: Richmond Times-Dispatch)

land, carrying out unspectacular, yet demanding duty, escorting convoys from Canada to mid-ocean rendezvous points off Iceland, before being assigned to the 2 lst Escort Group in Scotland's Clyde estuary.

While escorting Russian convoy PQ-14 in 1942, Richmond was severely damaged in a collision with the Liberty ship SS Francis Scott Key. A gash in the port midships exposed her fireroom to the sea, necessitating drydocking. Later, on escort duty out of Halifax, she was involved in a collision with SS Reinholt, requiring further repair.

From May to December 1943, she performed her convoy duties admirably without incident. Among other activities, Richmond participated in a fruitless search for a missing Swordfish aircraft on 10 July 1943 while escorting convoy XB-76. For her British/Canadian service she earned Atlantic (1939-45) and Arctic (1941-45) Battle Ho nours. In time, newer ships were coming on-line, and she was laid up in Britain from January to July 1944.

Transferred to the Soviet U nion on 16 July 1944, she sailed under the name Zhivuchi ("Lively"). In Russian service, operating from the Northern Fleet bases at Polyarni and near Murmansk, she performed her most spectacular combat action-Zhivuchi depth-charged and deliberately rammed the submarine U-387 on 18 December 1944, sinking her. Fortunately, Zhivuchi was in better condition than another four piper, USS Borie (DD215), which had successfully rammed U405 in November 1943; her seams were opened to the sea, and she had to be sunk.

In July 1949 Zhivuchi was returned to Britain and finally broken up.

The ship's bridge badge, recently discovered in Richmond, came to the city in 1950. I tis a talisman of gratitude for American intercession in a difficult time. An identical badge is mounted on the presentday HMS Richmond (F-239), a Type 23 frigate built in 1993 at the Swan Hunter Shipyard. The history of Fairfax! Richmond provides a glimpse of the devotion of the men who sailed in her under three flags. ,!, Captain Monroe, an NROTC graduate of the University a/Virginia, served as gunnery officer in USS Aucilla (.A.0-56) and in the Amphibious Force. In the Naval Reserve, he served in the Arabian Gulf, in USS Constitution and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS SPUN YARN The Duchesse Anne (ex-Grossherzogin Elisabeth), berthed in Dunkirk, France, celebrated her centennial thi s summer. T he ship, launched fro m the ] . C. Tecklenborg yard in Germany in 1901 , was the first to be built specifically as a sail training vessel.

Duchesse Anne in Dunkirk

For Dunkirk, the city that rescued her from scrappin g in 198 1, she represents the nitrate ships based there aro und the turn of th e last century. After 20 years of restoration wo rk, she is expected to open soo n to the public. (Association des Amis de la Duchesse An ne, BP 42 1 l F-59378 Dunkerq ue cedex, F ranee; 011 (33) 3 28 66 01 45; e- mail : jea n-louis. molle@wanadoo.fr; we b sites: pe rso.wa nad oo. fr /vo ili erduchesse-a nne and www.ville-dunkerque .fr /duchessea n.htm) .. . T he Star of In-

dia , the 1863 bark at the San Diego Maritime M useum, has been listed in the G uinness Book of Reco rds as the oldest seago ing square-r igged sa ilin g vessel.

(S D M M , 1306 No rth H arbor Drive, San Di ego CA 92 101 ; 6 19 234-9 153; web site: www.sdmaritime.com; G uinness Records web site: www.guinnessworldrecords.com) ... T he Fort Butler Foundation in D onaldso nville, Lo uisiana, has acquired the 10-year-old replica of th e French warship Le Pelican. She will be displayed in a graving dock as part of a wa terfront renova ti on proj ect th at will incl ude an early 20th-centu ry M ississippi Ri ve r ferry, an outdoor arena, and restaurants and shops in additi on to th e U nion fort . The original Pelican, under the command of Pierre Le M ayne, Sieur d'Iberville, in the Battle of Hudson Bay in 1697, dispatched two British ships and chased off a thi rd befo re bein g destroyed in a storm. (Andrew Capone, Fo rt Butler Foundation, PO Box 32, D onaldsonville LA 70346; 225 473-8 180; web site: www.fortbutler.org) ... T he project to restore the steam ship Yavari on Lake T iticaca in Peru and Bolivia has included the rebuilding of the 19 14 Swedish Bo linder four-cylinder engine, the repair of the 19th-century boiler, steam winch

The Yavari in the slipway for cleaning and painting in December 2000. and cradle, and the sand blasting, inspectio n and repa imin g of the hull and propeller. T he Yavari and the Yapura we re buil t in England in 1862, disassembled into 2, 766 pi eces, and take n to Peru by boat and the to wn of Tacna by train before being can ed by pack mule to Lake T iticaca in a journey that too k six years. (The Yavari Project, 6 1 Mexfiel d Road, London SW l 5 2RG, E ngland; tel/ fax : 011 (44) 208 874 0583; e- mail : in fo@yava ri .o rg; web site: www.yavari.org) . .. T he on -again, offagain plans for USS Iowa have taken her fro m Rhode Island to Suisun Bay, Californi a, as part of the naval reserve fleet. The H isto ri c Ships Memorial at Pacific Square (Continued on page 38)

LAUNCHINGS T he 97-foot schooner Sultana was commiss ioned 4 Jul y in C hestertown, Maryland. T he original Sultana was built in Boston in 1767, but was so ld ro th e Royal Navy to patrol the Atlantic as a dispatch boat and revenue cruiser. A wea l th of extant do cum ents make her a perfect tool for teaching about life Sultana (SSP) at sea in the era of the Am erican Revolution . (Schooner Sulta na Project, C RC&A, In c., PO Box 524, C hestertow n M D 2 1620; 4 10 77 8-59 54; e- mail: admin @schoonersultana.com ; web site: www.schoonersultana.com) The square topsail sch ooner Lynx was launched from Rockport Marine in M aine on 28 July, a continent away from her new homeporr. She is headed for Newport Beach, Cali fo rni a, to interpret the business

36

of pri vateering in the War of 18 12. D esigned by Melbourn e Smith , the Lynx is a representation of a Baltim ore clipper buil t at Fells Point, Maryland , in 18 12. (W oods M aritime, 509 29 th Street, Newport Beach CA 92 66 3; 949 723-78 14; we b site: www.privateerlynx.o rg) Lynx (Woods Maritime)

The replica of the three-masted bark D unbrody, an Irish immigrant ship buil t in Q uebec in 1845, was launched in New Ross, Co unty Wexfo rd, Ireland, in February. T he 176' wooden vessel is a shoreside exhibit devoted to interpreting the emigrant experience fo r visitors. (The ] FK

Ce ntre, No rth Q uay, New Ross, C o.

Wexfo rd, Ireland ; 0 11 (353) 5 1 425239; fax: 011 (353) 5 1 42 5240; e-mail: jfktrust @iol.ie; web site: www. dunbrody.com) SSV Robert C. Seamans, the Sea Education Association 's new research vessel, was com missioned at] . M . Marti nae Shipbui lding in Tacoma, W ashington, on 23 June. T he 11 9 - Robert C. Seamans (SEA) foo t steel brigantine, designed by Laurent Giles in England, is the first research vessel of her kind to be built in the US. She will begin her mission in Pacificwa ters, teaching methods of oceani c research, mari time studies and sailing. (SEA, PO Box 6, Wood s Hole MA 02543; 508 540-3954; web site: www.sea.edu) 1,

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS renowned for her WWII service as USS Zuni and her participation in rescues during 199 1 's "perfect storm. " Maritime Iowa on her way to Suisun Bay in California (Kevin Denton) Equipment & Sales has want to es tablish her on th e Sa n Francisco had the Tamaroa rowed to a Baltimore yard waterfront with shoreside exhibits and tours and intends ro refurbish the historic vessel of the weather deck. (HSMPS, PO Box and sell her as a rug or research or salvage 191242, San Francisco CA 94 110- 1242; vessel. (Serge Obolensky, 816 Golden Ar4 15 905-5700; e-mail: info@ battleshipiowa row Street, Grear Falls VA22066; web sire: .org; web site: www.battleshipiowa.org) ... www.ram aroa.o rg) ... W ith Korean and The California Coastal Commission ap- Japanese sail training associati ons, the proved a plan to berth the aircraft carrier American Sail Training Association has USS Midway (CV-41) along San Diego's announced the longest tall ship race ever North Embarcadero. The planners still held in the Pacific, ro rake place in 2002 . need ro satisfy the US Navy that the mu- The races will begin in Oki nawa, Japan, in seum would be fin ancially viable and the May, stop in Inchon, Korea, and then ship appropriately displayed in San Diego. continue ro Yokohama, where the 4,200(San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum, 1355 mile rransPacific race ro Puget So und will N. Harbor Drive, San Diego CA 92101; begin. In Seattle, race participants will join 619 702-7700; e-mai l: sdacm@aol.com; web other ships for Tall Ships C hallenge 2002, site: www.midway.org) ... D espite the ef- from early August to mid-September, which forts of a non-profit group ro purchase the will include races ro Sa n Francisco and Los US Coast Guard Cutter Tamaroa , the Angel es and a cruise-in-company to San vessel was so ld ro Maritime Equipment & Diego. (Steve Baker, Race Coo rdinator, Sales, Inc. ofAdger, Alabam a. The vessel is ASTA, PO Box 1459, 559 T hames Street,

INVENI PORTAM Andrew E. Gibson, US maritime administrator under President Nixon, died on 8 July at the age of79. A graduate of the Massachusetts Mari time Academy, in his wideranging maritime career he served as a deck officer and ship's master in WWII, vice pres ident of Grace Lines, president of Maher Terminals, president of Delta Line, and chairman of American Auromar Inc. He also earn ed a PhD and taught at the Naval W ar Co ll ege. His PhD thesis became The Abandoned Ocean-A History of US M aritime Policy (South Carolina Press, 1999) , a study of what went wrong with US m erchant shipping.

Malcom McLean (191 4-2001) , who invented containerization, changed the face of ocean rransporrarion, making it cost effective and efficient and laying the foundation for a seamless system ofintermodalism using ships, trucks and rails. In the co urse of his career he founded Sea Land Service, purchased U nited States line and founded Trailer Bridge. NMHS trustee and former maritime administrator Warren Leback writes rhar Malcom was a "gentle, kind, personable man who conti nued until his death to provide ideas, visions and ways ro improve our world. He will be missed."

Joe Gribbins, director of publicatio ns at Mystic Seaport, Inc., passed away this spring. His work with publisher Donald McGraw,] r. , art director B. Marrin Pedersen and m anaging editor Michael Levitt to develop the unique Nautical Quarterly in the 1970s and '80s resulted in 50 stellar volumes that featured spectacu lar photographs and engaging articles on yachts, yachtsmen and yachting history. As director of publications at Mystic for the past nine years, Gri bbins shepherded 22 books through th e editorial process and wrote three of his own on historic boats.

Captain Ottmar H. Friz, who learned his trade on ships that rounded Cape Horn under sail, d ied on 23 April at the age of 105. He lefr school in Germany in 1911 ro sail before the mast in a German sailing ship and sailed on three other large commercial sailing vessels. In all , he served o n 34 deep-sea ships and served in the US maritime service in three wars.

38

Newport RI 02840; 40 1 846- 1775; e-mail: raccord@sailtraining.org; website: www .sail training.org) ... "New Trade Winds," a collaboration among the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem , Massachusetts, th e Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, Alas ka, and the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii , explores co nnections between New England seafarers and Pacific culcures and the impact of the exchange of goods and ideas o n the disparate cultures through culcural exchanges, exhibits and publicatio ns. (ANHS, 8800 Heritage Cen ter Drive, Anchorage AK 995 06; 907 33 0-8 000 ; web sire: www.alaska narive.net; PEM, One East India Square, Salem MA 01970; 800 7454054; web sire: www.pem.org; BPBM, 1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu HI 968172704; 808 847-35 11 ; web sire: www.bis hop museum.org) ... Last year retired shipbuilder Jam es Manzolillo starred the Houston Maritime Museum with his own collection of maritim e artifacts, including model ships, h istorical artifacts, maps and prints, and a model ship studio. (HMM, 2204 Dorringron Street, Housron TX 77037; 7 13 666- 19 10) ... T he Cold War Museum, fo unded in 1996, has been invi ted ro become an affiliate museum of the Sm ithsoni an Institution, which will allow the museum to exhibit artifac ts from the Smithsonian's collection. (CWM, PO Box 178, Fairfax VA 22030; 703 273-2381; web sire: www.coldwar.org) ... To increase its coverage of World War II in the Pacific, the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, will open a new exh ibit, "The D-Day Invasions in the Pacific." (NDDM, 945 Magazine Street, New Orleans LA 70 130; 504 527-601 2; web site: www.ddaymuseum.org) ... American Rivers h as launched the traveling exhibit "D iscoveri ng the Rivers of Lewis and C lark, " which rakes visitors along the Lewis and Clark Trail from St. Louis ro the Pacific Ocean, in traducing the natural history of the inland wate1ways, developments that changed the riverine environment, and th e efforts of communities to rebuild their riverfronrs. (AR, 1025 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 720, Washington DC 20005; 202 347-7550; web site: www .americanrivers.org) ... T he Maritime Committee of rhe Maryland Historical Society announ ces the establishment of an (Continued on page 41)

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE MUSEUM NEWS Planning is underway for the American Merchant Marine Museum's latest permanent exhibit. Tentatively entitled "A Story Worth Telling, " this exhibit will chronicle the rich history of the US Merchant Marine Academy, tracing its development from its wartime roots to its place as the world's premier maritime academy.

Founded during the dark days of WWII, the Academy trained officers for America's merchant fleet. Cadet-midshipmen, training as deck and engineering officers, served in the merchant fleet prior to graduation, becoming the only federal academy students to take an active part in prosecuting the war; 142 lost their lives. Upon graduation, alumni were assigned to the farthest reaches of the globe, although the majoriry joined the North Atlantic convoys.

With the cessation of hostilities, the Academy began its transformation from a wartime school to a full-fledge maritime universiry. The postwar years brought a rounding out of the curriculum, accompanied by the desire to ensure that American merchant mariners remained the best-educated sailors in the world. To this end, cadet-midshipmen trained on the latest technology. It was this proficiency at technical education, in part, that led to Kings Point being selected as the officer-training sire for America's only nuclear-powered merchant ship, the NS Savannah. Alumni and midshipmen have continued to answer the call to war as well, participating in every major conflict since 1945. Through rhe many changes that have taken place over the last six decades, such as being the first federal academy to admit women, Kings Point has maintained a tradition of producing highly trained mariners for America's merchant marine.

"A Sto1y Worth Telling," designed by Gallery Association ofN ew York, will relate the history of the Academy through narrative panels chronicling each decade ofKings Point's existence. In rime, an alumni database will allow visitors to trace and locate Academy graduates. Gro ups and individuals who would like to contribute material, including meaningful stories and memories, are encouraged to contact the Museum.

-KENNEDY R. HIC KMAN (AMMM, USMMA, King; Point NY 11024;

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39

Two Prints by Williatn G. Muller Capture the Spirit of New York Harbor In a limited edition of 1,500 prints

signed and numbered by the artist.

A CERTIFICATE OF A UTHE TICITY

accompanies each print.

$140 p er print ($126 sp ecial for NMHS members) + $10 s&h For remarqued prints add an addi tional $150 Image size: 28" wide by 15 1/4'' Sheet size: 33" x 21 1/s" Printed on Phoenix Imperial-d ull 110 lb. cover, usin g lightfast inks

"New York Harbor salutes America's celebrated Tall Ship Eagle" -The US Coast G uard Acad emy's beautiful and historic square-rigged barqu e Eagle carries our nation's proud tradition of deep-sea sail into the 21st century.

In a limited edi tion of 450 prin ts signed and numbered by the artist.

A CERTTFTCA TE OF AUTHENTICITY

accompanies each print.

$150 p er print ($135 sp ecial for NMHS members) + $10 s&h For remarqu ed prints add an add itional $150 Image size: 28" wide by 18 1/2" Sheet size: 33" x 23 3/4" Printed on 100 lb. acid-free stock.

"New York Harbor during the height of the great steamship era, 1935" -The legendary liner Nonnandie steams out of port as the ven erable liner Aquitania arrives from Europe amid the bus tling h arb or traffic on a la te afternoon in September 1935.

Order your prints from:

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566 Or phone in your credit card order to 1 800 221-NMHS (6647) (NYS residents add applicable sales tax; for foreign shipping contact us at 914 737-7878, xO or via e- mail at nmhs@seahistory.org)

SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS annual Marion Brewington Essay Prize of $ 1,000 fo r the best manuscript on th e histo ry of seafaring, fisheries, commerce, warfa re, or recreation on Chesapeake Bay or its tributari es. Manuscripts of no more th an 30 double-spaced rypewrinen pages (two hard copies and a flopp y disk) should be submitted by 3 1 D ecember to : Maritime C urato r, Maryland Historical Society, 201 Wesr Mo nument Street, Baltimore MD 21201. . . . T he Natio nal Park Service web sire (www.cr.nps.gov/ nr/rwhp) provides materials fo r teachers fo r the following N ari onal Register ofHisto ric Pl aces maritime sites: T he Chesapeake & Ohi o Canal; Fo rts of Old San] uan; Early Settlers off the Rock-Bound Coast of M aine; Commodore Stephen Decatur's Home in W as hingto n D C; T he Battle of M obile Bay in 1864; T he USS Arizona Mem o rial; and Little Kinnakeer Lifesaving Station . . ..

During this summer's expedirio n to the remains of USS Monitor off the coast of No rth Carolina, the ream raised Monitor's engine, now at The Mariners' Museum for conservati on. The Monitor 2001 Expeditions are part of an ongoing project led by T he Mariners' Museum, the US N avy and rhe National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Monitor s engine is raisedfrom the deep (US Navy photo) Administration to protect and preserve the iro nclad. They expect to recover the turret next year. (TMM, 100 Museum Drive, Newport N ews VA 23606-3759; 757 5962222; web sire: www.mariner.org) ... Two of Wisconsin's historic shipwrecks in Lake Michigan have been declared eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The 95-foor luxury yacht Rosinco

s

The remains o/Fleerwing hull

ofl91 6, whi ch sank in 1928, incorporated "several miles ton es in ship construction , including ea rl y di esel technology and the use of steel as a primary building material for yachts, " said Jeff G ray, state underwater archaeologist at the Wisconsin Histori cal Society. T he l 32-fo or, three-mas ted schooner Fleetwing was a working cargo schooner of 1867 that struck a rocky beach in rhe fall of 1888 . (WHS, 8 16 State Street, Madison WI 53706; 608 264-6400; web sire: www.seagrant. wisc. edu/ shipwrecks) . .. Govern or Angus King of Maine has signed legislation making the third week in June Lighthouse Week in Maine .. .. St. Clements Hundred, dedi cated to rhe preservation of th e island where rhe firsr Maryland colonists landed in 1634, intends to rebuild the Blackistone Island Lighthouse of1851 , which burned in 1956. (SCH , PO Box 53, Bushwood MD 20618) ,t

Full information on these and other stories are in the bimonthly Sea History Gazette, March!April-Mayl]une 2001.

To subscribe for one year, send $18.75 (+$1 Ofer.foreignpostage) to NMHS, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566. For credit card orders, call800221-NMHS (6647), xO.

CALENDAR Festivals, Events, Lectures, Etc.

Exhibits

• Lake Superior Marine Museum Association: 10 November 2001 , Gales of Nove mber ... 14 th Annual Shipwreck and Diving Program in Duluth M N (Box 177, Duluth M N 55801 ; 2 18 727-2497; e-mail: ln fo @LSMMA .co m: web sire: www.LSMMA. co m) • Patrick O'Brian Seminar: 3 Nove mber 2001 (Redwood Library andArhenaeum, 50 Bellevue Avenue, Newport RI 02840; 401 847-8206; web sire: www. redwoodlibrary.org/ obrian.hrm) • San Francisco Maritime Park: 2-3 November 200 I, T he Moby Dick Festival; I D ecember 200 1, Christmas at Sea; 8 D ecember 2001 , A Day in rhe Life: 1901 : "O ld-Time Ma ri time Christmas" (PO Box 4703 10, San Francisco CA 94 147-0 3 10; 4 15 56 1-6662; e- ma il : in fo@maririme.org; web sire: www.maririme.o rg) •Texas Maritime Museum: 10- 11 Nove mber 2001 , M usic of rhe Sea Fes ti val (1202 Nav iga ti on C ircle, Rockport TX 78382; 36 1 729- 127 1; e-ma il: rmm @2fo rds. net; web sire: www.rexasmaririm emuseum .org)

•Australian National Maritime Museum: 12 April 2001 -2 1 April 2002, "Go ld Rush - The Australian Experi ence" (G PO 513 1, Sydney NSA, Australi a 1042; (2) 9298 3644; fax: (2) 9298 3660; web site: www.anmm.gov.au) • Calvert Marine Museum: J anuary-December 2001 , "Outboard Mo rorin g in America: The First 50 Yea rs" (PO Box 97, Solomons MD 20688; 4 10 326-2042; web sire: www .calvenmarinemuse um .co m) • DenverArtMuseum: 18November- 6January 2002, "Sunken T reas ures: Min g Dynas ty Ceramics from a C hin ese Shipwreck" (1 3rh Avenue & Aco ma, D enve r CO ; 720 8655000; web site: www. denve rarrmuse umorg) • Independence Seaport Museum: from 19 O crober 2001 , "Olympia," a new perm anent exhibit (2 11 South Columbus Blvd. & Walnut Stree t, Philadelphi a PA 19 106-3 199; 2 15 925-5439; we b sire: sea porr. philly.co m) • Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University: 11 September 2001- May 2002, 'Tempest Tossed, the Life of Sterlin g Hayden: Author, Adventurer, Acro r" (77 1 Commonwealrh Ave., Bosron MA 022 15; 6 17 353-3696; e-mail: speccol@bu.edu; web site: www.bu.edu/speccol) •Naval Undersea Museum : fro m 22 Janu ary 2001 , "U nd erwa ter Range Technology, " a

Conferences • Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology, 9-12Janu ary2002, in MobileAL (Socieryfor HisroricalArchaeology, POB 30446, T ucso n AZ 8575 1; web sire: www.sha.org)

SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 200 I

new perm anent ex hibit (610 Dowell Stree t, PO Box 408, Key port WA 98345; 360 3964 148; web sire: num.kpr.nuwc.n avy. mil) •Naval War College Museum: 7 Jun e-Fall 2001 , ''To rpedo Ran ge" Island: An Exhibit of Go uld Island , Na rraganserr Bay, th e Navy's Principal To rpedo Test-Firin g Site in Wo rld Wa r II (686 C ushing Road, Newport RI 02841- 1207; 401 84 1- 13 17; web sire: www .visimewporr. co m/buspages/ navy) • San Diego Maritime Museum: from 4 Nove mber 2001 , "Treas ures of th e Manil a Gall eons" (1492 No rth H arbor Dri ve, Sa n Diego CA 92 101 ; 6 19 234-91 53; web site: www.sdm ar irim e.co m) • South Street Seaport Museum : from late Jul y2 001 , "The G rear Liners" (207 Fro nt Sr., New Yo rk NY 10038; 2 12 748-8600; web sire: www.so urhsrsea porr.org) •The Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum : th ro ugh December 2001 , "Admiral Fa rragut" (734 Marin Stree t, Va llejo CA 94590; 707 643-0077; e- mail: valmuse@pac bell.net; web sire: www.vallejomuse um .org) •Ventura County Maritime Museum : 1 Ocro ber-3 1 D ece mber 2001 , "Hisro ry of Spanish Ca lifornia, 1542-1848 " (273 J S. Vicro ri a Ave nue, O xnard CA 93055 ; 805 984-6260; e- mail: vcmm@aol.co m)

41

IEWS The Last of the Cape Homers: Firsthand Accounts from the Final Days of the Commercial Tall Ships, edited by Spencer Apollonio (Brasseys, Washington DC, 2000, 326pp, illus, appen, gloss, biblio, index, JSBN 1-57488-283-X; $26.95hc) This collection of some 30 published narratives of voyages in commercial sail (most in the first half of the 1900s) includes some authors who are well known to readers of this genre-Sir James Bisset, Alex Hurst, Elis Karlsson, Basil Lubbock, Eric Newby, Felix Riesenberg and Alan Villiers-but many ~Lastoftbe will not be fami liar.

Ca Apollonio ha s assembled extracts from this body of nautical literature into a voyage narrative that is hard to put down. All of the extracts are written in the first person, by authors who were there, and it covers every aspect of life in a large wind ship in the final days of commercial sa il.

These are stories that could not be written today: the period ended when thePamir sank in an Atlantic hurricane in 1957. The tall-ship experiences of today in no way replicate those aboard the Cape Homers, with their frugally maintained, tired hulls and rigs, and scanty, underfed crews.

The book opens with Lubbock's description of sailing from San Francisco for Europe in the Ross-Shire in 1899 and continues with considerable detail oflife in the forecastle, on deck and aloft. Fatali ties, fires, being becalmed, dangerous seas, shifting cargoes, rescues, and a host of other dramatic experiences are all here.

The book has 22 pages of photographs, technical derails of the ships the authors sailed in, a good glossary, and an excellent bibliography. There are new details here for almost every reader. It's a book I wouldn't want to lend and not get back!

TOWNSEND HORNOR Ostervi lle, Massachusetts Nelson Speaks: Admiral Lord Nelson in His Own Words, by Joseph F. Callo (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 2001, 254pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 155 75 0-199-8; $29.95 hc) Recognizing that the true heart of Horatio Nelson is found in the Admiral's 42

private words and correspondence, retired Na val Reserve Rear Admiral Joseph F. Callo (who is also an advisor to NMHS) has collected the most telling quotes on various subjects from Nelson's voluminous writings. Nelson Speaks is not biography, but rather character study, organized by subject, not chronology. In Nelson's own words we read his opinions of duty, combat, politics, armies, foreigners and more. It is a unique approach that works well , with Callo providing context and insight into the significance of each quotation.

In the foreword, Michael Nash writes that the book will "whet the appetite and leave the reader craving more." Indeed, the bits of Nelson's writing are so compelling that we wish they were longer. However, Callo did not set out to reproduce Nelson's correspondence, but rather to explore his character through writings that yield insight into the man. And this he achieves admirably. This volume is a unique and welcome addition to the on-going study of the great man, a study that takes its words right from the Admiral's mouth. ]AMES L. NELSON Harpswell, Maine

The Speedwell Voyage: A Tale of Piracy and Mutiny in the Eighteenth Century,

by Kenneth Poolman (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 1999, 190pp, illus, notes, gloss, biblio, index, ISBN 1-55750-693-0; $27.95hc) George Shelvocke, commander of the 22-gun privateer Speedwell, was a sailor's sailor; the trials he endured while sailing essentially around the globe in 1719- 21 while harassing Spanish shipping wo uld have killed most men-and, in fact, did kill many of his crew. They endured ferocious weather under Cape Horn, starvation off the South American coast, mutiny, shipwreck, and other tribulations which are enumerated in this tale. And therein lies the difficulty.

Poolman, a seasoned writer of World War II stories, is not well versed in the world of square rig and his narrative is more a bare-bones listi ng of events and disasters than a well-constructed story of derring-do , conspiracy, and treachery.

While the autho r used Shelvocke's own acco unt of the voyage as well as that of one of his officers as his primary sources, there is little flesh on the bones. The characters

are, for the most part, two dimensional and, with the exception ofShelvocke, seem indistinguishable one from another.

However, even without the "rounding" available to the writer of fiction, I would not dismiss this tale out of hand; indeed, to the lover of sea stories it provides an interesting read. The adventures are hair-raising and speak eloquently to the hardship and privation these men took on-willingly, at first, then because there was little alternative. Whether or not one casts Captain Shelvocke in the role of brilliant seaman and leader, the facts of his epic voyage of plunder make interesting, though so mewhat repetitive reading.

W!LLJAM H . WHJTE

Rumson, New Jersey

Splinter Fleet: The Wooden Subchasers of World War II, by Theodore R. Treadwell (Naval Institute Press, 2000, 284pp, illus, appen, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 155750-817-8; $34.95hc) Black Company: The Story of Subchaser 1264, by Eric Purdon (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 2000, orig 1972, 255pp, illus, appen, ISBN 1-55750-658-2; $16.95pb) Although designated subchasers, the Splinter Fleet of 400-plus wooden-hulled, 110-foot vessels spent as much of their time in harbor patrol, mail delivery and other utilitarian missions as they did in the convoy escort and antisubmarine operations for which they were built. With a crew of three officers and about 24 enlisted men, few of whom had significant pre-war Navy experience, these rough-riding but durable ships were the workhorses of the "Donald Duck" (i.e., non-regulation) Navy. Like many of the operations in which they were engaged, the ships were small , hastily conceived, and unpop ular except among those who sailed them. This history of the class recounts numerous fascinating anecdotes reflecting their uncommon accomplishments, which seldom got much respect or recognition either during the war or after it.

Covering activities in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters , the author focuses long overdue attention on the valuable services performed by unglamorous little ships. They escorted heavily laden merchant ships on coastal and oceanic passages, served as control vessels for wave after wave of landing craft in amphibious

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 200 1

IN THE HEART OF THE SEA The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex Nathaniel Philbrick "A book that gets in your bones...Philbrick has created an eerie thriller from a centuries old tale .... Scrupulously researched and eloquently written ... .It would have earned Melville's admiration."-The New York Times Book Review. "Spellbinding."-Time.

Winner of the National Book Award.

Penguin

320 pp.

0-14-100182-8

$14.00

THE LOSS OF THE SHIP ESSEX, SUNK BY AWHALE First-Person Accounts Thomas Nickerson, Owen Chase, and Others Edited by Thomas Philbrick. Introduction by Nathaniel Philbrick. Combines the newly discovered account of the wreck of the Essex by its fifteen-year-old cabin boy Nickerson with the long-definitive account by its first mate Chase. Also includes more than a dozen other contemporary accounts from articles and newspapers.

Penguin Classic

256 pp.

0-14-043796-7 $12.95

THE PRIZE OF ALL THE OCEANS

THE BOUNTY MUTINY

ORDEAL BY SEA

William Bligh and Edward Christian

The Tragedy of the U.S.S. Indianapolis Thomas Helm

Edited with an Introduction by R.D. Madison. For the first time in one volume-all the relevant texts and documents related to a drama that has fascinated generations. Here is the full tex1 of Bligh's Narrative of the Mutiny, the minutes of the court proceedings gathered by Edward Christian in an effort to clear his brother's name, and the highly polemic correspondence between Bligh and Christian-all amplified by Robert Madison's illuminating Introduction and rich selection of subsequent Bounty narratives.

Penguin Classic

224 pp.

0-14-043916-1 $13.00

"Without question, At War At Sea is the most riveting history of Sea Power in the Twentieth Century yet written ... This engaging study is destined to become a naval history classic. When it comes to understanding modern armadas and fighting sailors, Spector is in a league of his own."-Douglas Brinkley.

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''A quite remarkably eru dite and deeply informed book!'-Patrick O'Brian. The power of the sea and man's fragility as he confronts it are terrifyingly portrayed in this rousing, historic round-the-world treasure hunt.

New Introduction by Tim Fulford. Based on the author's own experiences, this is the tale of a young man who finds his destiny at sea during the Napoleanic Wars. "Frederick Marryat's greatness is undeniable."-Joseph Conrad.

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Lawful Looting on the High Seas in the Days of Fighting Sail Donald A. Petrie

Sailors and Naval Warfare in the Twentieth Century Ronald H. Spector

Commodore Anson's Daring Voyage and Triumphant Capture of the Spanish Treasure Galleon Glyn Williams

288 pp.

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July 30, 1945: The heavy cruiser lJ.S.S. Indianapolis was sunk by a torpedo. 1,196 men went into the water. When rescue arrived five days later, only 317 remained.

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"This is an ex1raordinary book. All the romance and adventure from the age of piracy and privateers told from a hitherto unexplored perspective-that of the law of the time so constructed and interpreted that it fostered and protected what otherwise would have been an era of lawlessness at sea."-Walter Cronkite.

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REVIEWS assa ults, fought off aircraft attacks, and one actually got credit for sinking a submarine.

PC 1264, the subj ect of Black Company, was classified as a "sub chase r, " bur it was nor one of the Splinter Fleer vessels. Ir was a 173-foor steel-hulled patrol craft. Built on New York C ity's Harlem River, USS PC 1264 was the platform for one of the Navy's first projects on its long an d at rimes hesitant effort ro end more than 50 years of racial segregation.Fram its commissio ning in April 1944, its crew was co mposed of black sailors, ro whom all gen eral service ratings h ad finally been opened in June 1942. Initially, eight white p etty officers we re assigned ro provide lead ership, bur th ey were transferred as soon as their black counterparts acquired the requisite experien ce and confiden ce. In the wardroom, all rhe officers were white until May 1945, when a black officer, E nsign (later Vice Admiral) Samuel Gravely, joined th e ship .

While the wardroom was thus integrated, the enlisted crew rem ai ned segregated , with white sailors ineligible ro serve on board.

Originally published in 1972, when the Navy was undergo ing an o th er period of intense interracial strife compounded by the Vietnamese entanglement, the book portrays in telling derail rhe challenges faced nearly 30 years earlier by the ship and h er crew. Operational demands were usually far less difficult rhan the social barriers and intellectual misconceptions w ith w hich the crew had to deal. The author was the ship's commanding officer from th e precommissioning stage until a few months before she was decommissioned in February 1946. H e portrays w ith clarity, humor and sen sitivity the superb job by all hands in facing, overcom ing o r evading racial barriers as well as their ski ll in operating a naval vessel in a wa rtime environment.

CAPT. HAROLD SUTPHEN Ki lmarno ck, Virginia Ship of Miracles: 14,0 0 0 L ives and O ne Miraculous Voyage, by Bi ll Gilbert (Triumph Books, C hi cago IL, 2000 , 2 05pp, illus, biblio , ind ex, ISBN 1-57243-366-3; $22 .9 5hc) There are several asto nishing as pects ro this story about the crew of SS Meredith Victory, a US merchant ship taken into military service in 1950 durin g the Korean War. T h e first is rh ar rhe crew saved- in one incredibl e voyage-14,00 0 Korean

refugees fleeing Chin ese and Nort h Korean troops. T he second is rhar the story h as nor previously been ra id in a book.

What h appe ned berween Hungnam and Koje-Do is ill um inated with news rep orts, photographs a nd first-hand acco unts. The ship's captai n, Leonard LaRue, described the journey's beginning in Hungnam Harbor at Ch ristmast ime 1950: "Korean refugees thronged the docks. With them was everything they co uld wheel, carry, or drag.

Beside them , like frightened chicks, were their children." Ship ofMiracles goes on ro describ e an inspiring story that ended on 26 December 1950 at Koje-Do, afte r reco rd ed histo ry's largest sea rescue. Miraculo usly, all of the people from that mass of stri cken hum anity survived-plus five babies born during rhe transit!

This is the sto ry of rhe provocative co ntrasts berween war's h orrors and the astonishing acts of humani ty they precipitate. Ir's abo ut co urageo usly doin g th e ri ght thing wh en lives depend on yo ur action.

RADMJOSEPH CALLO, USNR (RET) Kansas C ity, Missouri A Fine Tops'l Breeze, by William H. Whi re (Ti ller Publishing, Sr. Michaels MD , 2001 , 288pp, illus, ISB 1-888671-40-8; 14.95pb) A Fine Tops '! Breeze is a rwo-for-one deal. T his red-blooded sea adve nture, by a trustee of the National Maritime Historical Society, delivers a salty yarn plus some history abou r a yo ung Am erica seeki ng a meas ure of m aritime maturity after its Revolutionary War infa n cy. T h e setting is the War of 18 12 as the US begins to rake a few firm steps towards its far distant global preeminence. T h e central character, in a bit of a rwis r fo r the genre, is a member of the lower deck, and his ship, th e General Washington, is a privateer.

Th is is the second volume in rhe aurhor's War of 18 12 trilogy. The first, A Press of Canvas, ap peared in 2000 and the third, The Evening Gun, is due this fall. And altho ugh the book's perspective is un equi vocall y Am erican , it doesn ' t hesitate to illuminate som e of the shortcomings of the US Navy of the rime. For example, the British capture ofUSS Chesapeake in singleship co mbat-an h isro ricallyaccurare event - reveals a serious lapse of judgm ent o n rhe part of Chesapeake's captain, J am es Lawrence, rhe officer who verbalized the US Navy's "Do n ' r Give Up rhe Ship" barrl ecry.

SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 200 I

For those who enjoy a rollicki ng sea adventure, A Fine Tops'!Breezedeli vers o ne ro th e very end , when the tale w inds up with an audacio us American naval stroke.

RADM JOSEPH F. CALLO, USNR (Ret) Coast Guard in Action in Vietnam: Stories of Those Who Served, by CW04 Paul C. Scotti, USCG (Ret) (H ell gate Press, Central Point OR, 2000, 236pp, illus, appen , notes, biblio, index, ISBN 1-55 57 1528- 1; $ 17.95 pb) Durin g th e Vietnam con flict, the US Coast G uard was called on tO perform many of its peacetime duties in the Far Eas tern wa r zo ne. There were, howeve r, significant differences: patrolling the coast for arms and troop smugglers instead of drug and liquo r smugglers; fl yin g aircraft over enemy terrirory ro rescue downed aviarors instead of distressed fishermen ; ass istin g warships, supply ships and aircraft in navigation in unfami liar waters, rather tha n providin g and maintaining aids to navigation at home.

T he book covers each of the traditional Coast G uard missions carried o ut in unfamiliar and dangero us wate rs, hi ghli gh ting the particul ar actions carried o ur by the few thousand men deployed in Southeast Asia.

It covers the service's deployment to Vietnam, its performance in-cou ntry, and the eve ntual training of Vietnamese to perfo rm th e duties and operate the ha rdware involved. Thi rry-three Coast Guard C utters were fin ally turned over to the V ietnamese Navy to be operated by US Coast G uard- trained Vietnamese crews in the co ntinuation of the wa r effort.

T he au th o r writes a detailed and accurate acco unt of a story not told before. His firsthand knowledge, havin g se rved with the Coas t G uard in Vietn am , has m ade this an especially valuable and interesting account not prev iously written in this detail.

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SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 200 1

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tale is preceded by acco unts of two previous rescue missions, one of which ended in the tragic loss of the Coast Guard rescue helicopter and all crew aboard.

The main story, the rescue of the crew of the F/V La Conte, sunk on a January night on the Fairweather Ground, is reconstructed from interviews with the survivors and their rescuers, and has more than its share of heroism , danger and nature at its worst.

The text could have used more careful editing and certainly wo uld have benefitted from more charts and a few photos to help the reader envisage the scenes described.

It is a page-turner that leaves the reader with deep admiration for the dedication and raw courage of the Coast Guard search and rescue crews.

NORMA STANFORD

Honor Among Thieves: Captain Kidd, Henry Every, and the Pirate Democracy in the Indian Ocean, by Jan Rogozinski (Stackpo le Books , Mechanicsburg PA, 2000, 298pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0-8117-1529-9; $24.95hc) Rogozinski presents a well-written, easyto-read and, most important, historically accurate acco unt of piracy during th e 1600s.

Honor Among Thieves provides a histo ry of the pirate island of Sr. Mary's, its social structure, the economic exchanges that took place, and acco unts of the voyages of many well known pirates.

Sr. Ma1y's Island off the eastern shore of Madagascar had become not only a waypoint for pirates plying their trade in the East Indies, bur also the home to many pirates re ti ring from their trade. Rogozinski describes the government of the island as democratic-the pirate founders of the island called it "the DemocracyofLibertalia."

T h ro ugh his investigation of primary source documents, Rogozinski has disproved fanciful tales, presented the facts, and set the record straight on the history of piracy in the East Indies.

M IC HAEL L. O VERFIELD East Carolina U ni versity Greenville, Norrh Carolina Sailing Ships: Designs and Re-creations of Great Sailing Ships-from Ancient Greece to the Present Day, by Colin Mudie (Adlard Coles Nautical, London GB, 2000, 170pp, illus, gloss, index, ISBN 0-7136-5324-8; $49hc) Available from

SEA HISTORY 98, AUTUMN 2001

C lassic Motor Books, 1 800 826-6600, web sire: www.mo rorbooks. com.

Co lin M udi e surveys sailing developmems from ancient times through rh e present, focusing his study on many of the ships he des igned, ranging from sail trainers such as England's Lord Nelson and India's Ta rangini to historic recreations such as Cabot's Matthew and the Irish emigrant ship Dunbrody.

TELEVISION

Warship, a fo ur-hour series by PBS to air 7 and 14 November 2001 at 9 PM (check you r local listings) T his se ri es, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Fo undation , is in four segments: "Sea Power," "Big Guns," "Submarines" and "Ai rcrafrCarriers." Each is handsomely produced and all offer amazing footage.

The focus is on technology, a subj ect char is too ofren dry and dull to th e layma n.

But this series presents the breakthrough thinkers and inventors as interesting individuals and leads us through their aspirations and struggles, thus making their work and the su bj ect of this series more alive and engag111g.

Most of the commentators are good, and so me excellent, notably Andrew Lambert, the British naval historian who gives precise, authoritative judgements on both Brirish and American naval achi evements.

There are annoying errors, such as a short clip of a 1900s sreel square- rigged merchant ship that appears in rhe midst of the discussion of Robert Fulton's return to th e U nited States in 1806. And the leading advantage of the Dreadnought, the first allbig-gun battleship, is blurred, whi le the reaso n for which she was built-the ability to hir hard ar long range- is mentioned on ly peripherally. And there are others.

This kind of error is too common with docum entaries-in this case, no doubt, the res ult oflast minute film editing, which the advisors would certainly have co rrected , had they been given th e opportunity.

T his series is packed with grear visu al material and rechnical informarion. Most viewers will find a lot to learn from it. NS NEW&NOTED

Aak to Zumbra: A Dictionary of the World's Watercraft (The Mariners' MuseUJn, Newport News VA, 2000 , 686pp, illus, ISBN 0-917376-46-3; $49.95hc)

SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 2001

History of Stevens Institute of Technology: A Record of Broad-Based Curricula and Technogenesis, by Geoffrey W. Clark Qensen/Daniels, Jersey C ity NJ , 2000, 525pp, illus, biblio, index, ISBN 1-89303224-8; 21.95pb) Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War, by David D etzer (Harcourt, Inc., New York NY, 2001 , 367pp , nores, biblio , index, ISBN 015- 100641-5 ; $27hc) Ships and Seamanship: The Maritime Prints ofJ. J. Baugean, by John Harland (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 2000, 208pp, illus, biblio, ISBN 1-5575 0985-9; $65hc) The Allied Convoy System, 1939-1945: Its Organization, Defence and Operation, by Arnold Hague (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD , 2000, 208pp, illus , appen, index of ship losses, ISBN 1-5575 0019-3; $34.95hc) Historic Naval Ships: A Guide to More than 130 Classic Warships on Public Display (Historic Naval Ships Association in cooperation with C hall enge Publications, Inc. , Canoga Park CA, 2001, 96pp, illus; $ 1 lpb (includes s/h)) Available from James W. Cheevers, c/o US Naval Academy Museum,Annapolis MD 21402-5034.

Coastal and River Trade in Pre-Industrial England: Bristol and its Region, 1680-1730, by D avid P. Hussey (Regatta Press, Ithaca NY, 2000, 296pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 0 -967482 6-4-X; $6 1.95hc) Hospital Ships of World War II: An Illustrated Reference to 39 United States Military Vessels, by Emory A. Massman (McFarland & Company, Inc. , Jefferson NC and London GB, 1999, 499pp, illus, biblio, index, ISBN 0-7864-0556-2; $75 hc) Picture History of American Passenger Ships, William H. Miller, Jr. (Dover Publications, Inc., 2001 , l 18pp, illus, biblio, index, ISBN 0-486-40967-8; $ l 4.95pb) Pieter van denBroecke'sJournalofVoyages to Cape Verde, Guinea and Angola, 1605-1612, Series Ill, Vol. 5, edited by J. D. Lafleur (The Hakluyr Society, London GB, 2000, 139pp, illus, biblio, indices, ISBN 0-904 180-68-9; ÂŁ45hc) Civil War Navies, 1855-1883, by Paul H. Silverstone (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 2001 , 234pp, illus, appen, biblio , index, ISBN 1-55 75 0-894-1; $49.95h c)

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O ' C oN OR & H EWITT FouNDATION

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RICHARD G. WILEY

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MRS. JAMES SYKES T HEODORE VI NCENT

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WI LLIAMS

ROBERTS. Y OUNG

SHIP MODEL KITS Finest Ship Model Kits, domestic & imported

ACROSS THE POND P.O. Box 153 SH, Marbl ehead, MA 01945, Toll Free: 1-800-469-3957 or E-mail us at: acrossthepond@medi a one. net Visit us at : www.acrossthepond .net or send $3 .00 for our web catolo !

MARTIFACTS, INC. MA RJ NE COLLECTIBLES from scrapped ships and SS. UN ITED STATES. Lamps, blocks, linen, etc.

Send $ 1 for brochure: Box 350190 Jacksonville FL 32235-0190 Phone/Fax : (904) 645-0150 www. ma rtifacts.com

Our Advertisers are our Standing Rigging Tell them you saw their ad in Sea History!

SEA HISTORY 98 , AUTUMN 2001

American Cruise Lines provides a unique style of cruising offering

NEW ENGLAND

6, 7 & 14 night itineraries through the smooth, inland waterways of the Eastern United States. Historic and culturally enriching ports

MAINE HUDSON RIVER VALLEY

of call are visited each day, docking in the heart of each coastal town. Speaking on board, local historians and naturalists provide passengers with more intricate details of each port of call.

FLORIDA CAROLINAS

Aboard the new, 31-stateroom American

Eagle deluxe accommodations, personalized service and fine dining

CHESAPEAKE BAY

provide an intimate , yet casual atmosphere, conducive for camaraderie.

For reservations or a FREE, color brochure

Call

800-814-6880

One Marine Park, Haddam, CT 06438

NMHS Cruise Program for 2002!

Choose your itinerary and time of year-or join us for both cruises! You'll sail with fellow members from around the country and enjoy maritime history seminars, while making new friends and seeing new places.

24May to 2 June 2002 9 days.

NMHSfares* from $1548 inside; from $1932 outside.

Holland America's Rotterdam from New York to Montreal ...

Holl a nd America Line's flagship Rotterdam will carry you from New York City to Montreal in nine days.

Along the way yo ur fl oating resort will visit the more conventio nal resorts of Newport and Bar Harbor.

And the n it's on to Halifax, wi th its Titanic co nnection , Sydney and the incredibl e Cabot Trail , and C harlottetown , home to Anne of Green Gabl es. Befo re arriving in Montreal, ~~~~!18~~ e nj oy a day in Quebec with its Old C ity crow ned by the magical C ha- '"-----~-~=------.--~--­ teau Frontenac. One day at sea and The Frontenac in old world Quebec. one day crui sing the Saguenay ro und o ut the itinerary. Rotterdam wi ll be your splendid home throughout. An uncommonl y high sta ndard in accommodation, a grand twolevel dining room, a n alte rnative restaurant, spa and show room all combine to putfi vestar crui sing with Holl a nd A me ri ca "Oceans Apart" in New E ngland and Canada.

19 to 25 Sept.

2002, 6 days.

NMHSfares* from $949 inside from $1405 outside (details at right)

Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2, New York to New York calling at Bermuda and Newport ...

Cruise aboard Queen Elizabeth 2, the most recognized ship in the world today, fo r six deli g htful days. Enjoy a n overni ght stay in blissful Bermuda and a ful I day to sampl e the varied attraction s of Newport, Rhode Island. The ambiance of QE2 is a perfect background to Bermuda's British accent and the lav ish life style exe mplifi ed in Newport. Two full days of , - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - . crui s ing will all ow a mpl e opportunity to e njoy all that QE2 has to offer. Afloat a nd ashore this is a cruise of superlatives. The ship and the ports simply could n't be better.

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NMHS fares start from: $949 inside/Mauretania $1405 outside/Mauretan ia $1747 outs ide/Caronia $3 172 outside/Gri lls

* All fares are per person, two persons pe r room. Port charges, fees and taxes are additional. Si ngle room rates are available on request.

For full information call Denise

Bonnici at

PISA BROTHERS CRUISE SERVICE 45 Rockefeller Plaza, New York NY 10111 212-265-8420 • 1-800-SAY-PISA • Fax: 212-265-8753 E-mail: denise@pisabrothers.com