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
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