Sea History 099 - Winter 2001-2002

No. 99

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

WINTER 2001-02

SEA HISTOR~

75

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

"PULL-TOGETHER": THE QUEENSTOWN NAVAL COMMAND

Herman Melville's Seafaring Days A Concours d'Elegance of Canoes William Falconer: Marine Lexicographer

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ROBERT W. McKAY Secretary-Treasurer

JEROME E. JOSEPH Executive Vice President

OF GROWTH, STABILITY AND EXCELLENCE

SEA HISTORY

No. 99

WINTER 2001 - 02

CONTENTS FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE

BERKSHIRE ATH ENAEUM

7 "Pull-Together": The Queenstown Naval Command ofWorld War I,

by W illiam Langen berg The leadership oftwo extraordinary men, one B ritish, the other American, created a unique naval force to meet the German U-boat threat.

12 O CEANIC MISSION III: Heralds of the Morning: The World Trade Center Towers Stood for Dreams We Should Pursue, by Peter Stanford Our own experience showed what the Twin Towers meant to the maritime community, New York, and the nation ... and to the US role in the ocean world.

15 Melville's Seafaring Days, by Jack Putnam What better way to commemorate the sesquicentennial ofthe publication of Moby-Dick than with a look at H erman Melville's experiences at sea in three trades: the merchant marine, the whaling industry and the US Navy?

18 A Unique Concours d'Elegance: The Adney Collection of Native American Canoe Models, by Lyles Forbes and Jeanne Willoz-Egnor Edwin Tappan Adney traveled North America at the turn of the last century, collecting a treasure trove of knowledge from the last canoe builders; he preserved that knowledge through the building ofcanoe models.

15

THE MARINERS' MUSEUM

23 MARINE ART: "As In a Mirror ... " , by Paul Garnett Artist Paul Garnett, a native New Englander, uprooted his family to work on HMS Bounty when she was in Florida; he takes his inspiration for his marine art from that experience and from his beliefthat the mission ofan artist is to give pleasure to the viewer.

28 "Treasures of the Manila Galleons" at the San Diego Maritime Museum,

by Mark Allen The desire for luxury goods from China among Europe's wealthiest classes drove the captains and crews ofthe Manila galleons across the dangerous Pacific; some ofthose that did not make it have offered up to archaeologists their treasures, many of which are now on display in San D iego.

PAUL GARNEIT

30 William Falconer: From Survivor to Marine Lexicographer,

by David P.H. Watson A Scottish sailor defines the nautical and marine world ofhis age and creates a work ofliterary and schol.arly distinction: An Universal Dictionary of the Marine CO VER: Fishermen cheer as theAmerican Eighth D estroyer D ivision steams into Queenstown on 4 May 131 7, joining the Allies in fighting the German U-boat threat. (Bernard R. Gribble, "Return ofthe Mayflower':· courtesy, US Naval Academy Museum) (See pages 7-10)

DEPARTMENTS 2 DECK LOG & LETTERS

5 26 34

NMHS:

A CAUSE IN MOTION

MARINE ART NEWS & CALENDAR SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS/CALENDAR

38

NEW: CROSSWORD PUZZLE

40

AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE

MUSEUM NEWS 42 REVIEWS 48 PATRONS

25 SEA HISTORY (issn O146-93 12) is published quarrerly by th e National Maritim e Histo rical Society, 5 John Walsh Blvd. , PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566. Periodi cals postage paid at Peekskill NY 10566 an d add'l mailin g offices.

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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sea History, PO Box 68, Peeks kill NY 10566.

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

DECK LOG

LETTERS

"Brian Young, a longtime NMHS member, " reports Education Director David Allen, "walked into the NMHS office in Peekskill in the late fall of 1998." He had something to report. His son, 29-year-old Kevin, an electrician for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Engineers, New York Local #3, had come across a rusty 11-foot anchor of antique design while working in the basement of World Trade Center 2.

It took a moment for the importance of this news to sink in. People accuse me of having my mind on other subjects. They are right; my mind is often absent in far seas, with grey canvas stretched taut in a vessel beating into a windy grey dawn, or perhaps catching, better than could be caught on any easel, the colors of a Trade Winds sunset. I have never got over the long, long thoughts of yo uth , and at this point in my life I have no intention of giving them up.

Dave then reminded me of the provenience of the anchor. In 1968 Kent Barwick, now president of the Municipal Art Society, Ralph Solecki, now at Texas A&M, and I had been involved in a great effort to recover the remains of the Dutch ship Tijger while the foundations of the World Trade Center were being dug. Harry Druding, chief engineer of the massive dig, was strong on marine archaeology and helped us quite a bit with his collection of old maps of Manhattan Island, as well as his considerable knowledge of the Tijger story. But in the end all we had recovered of importance was this huge anchor. And we each somehow drifted away from it (we can't say it drifted away from us- it takes a gang of men to lift it), thinking, I guess, that someone would look after it.

With the belated rediscovery of this anchor I woke up to its importance. It is testimony from New York's earliest history as a world seaport. Manhattan had of course been a coastal seaport in Indian trades for many centuries before the 1600s, when the anchor was left here. But-here was a vital piece of working gear from the earliest days of New York's connection with the rest of the world!

I note this story to give a little credit where credit is due for the rediscovery and preservation of this anchor, which was here for hundreds of years before the terrorist attack of September felled the World Trade Center towers. Now, thanks to a few devoted members of our Society, the anchor has survived that vile assault.

This is the story behind the story of our relationship with the World Trade Center towers, which you'll find set forth on pages 12-13.

Havengore: Carrying a Message of Courage I was cheered by your robust response to the atrocity of 11 September in Sea H istory 98 (Aummn 2001). And I was delighted that you quoted Sir Winston C hurchill in support of your plea that the young should be in structed in the Engli sh-speaking world's long quest for freedom and resistance to tyranny.

No one embodied those ideals more co urageously than Churchill. And, as a former Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, England, where his papers are housed , I am glad to say that the work of teaching w hat he stood for is to go on in a way that will be of particular interest to your readers.

After Churchill's funeral in 1965, his body was taken down the Thames, en route to its fin al resting place at Bladon, in a barge called H avengore. It was a brief but profoundly moving voyage, not least because the dockers (longshoremen), in an entirely spontaneous gesture, bowed their huge cranes on th e riverside as Havengore sailed past.

The Mission Continues New York's mission and America's continues despite the September attack. And so, more than ever, our Society's mission continues. It is good to know how deeply shared this is among members and friends of our Society. In a letter on this page the message of Havengore, Winston Churchill's funeral barge, chimes in with our work across oceans and national boundaries. We expect to revisit this project, under the rubric that Churchill's long, intensely useful life is over-but the mission continues!

We are charged with helping Americans develop an understanding of our own history through the experience of seafaring-which also transcends national boundaries and shows America at full stretch, Sketch by Peter Wren, drawn on the c 11 f ru o mistakes and g1orious, 1iberating envelope in which he sent his ad for achievements. Our members make this this issue of Sea History. /J .~ ~ work possible, and challenge us to do "r 1 ~ more. If I had one wish in this com!Ji~ ~ ~ ing Holiday season, it would be to b see more members like yourself, ~.,,......._,.,,.,. reader, enrolled in NMHS. PETER STANFORD, Editor at Large

Havengore, as restored

'fj,

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Thanks to those who have established the Havengore Trust, the vessel, long in a sad state of disrepair, has been res tored to its former glory. Plans are now being finalized to turn her into a flo atingmini -university. Equipped with facsim ile docum ents from the archives and other educational materi al, H avengore will em bark on a new journey. She wi ll sail round Britain, inviting aboard those studying modern history at a variety of institutions, and attend important anniversary events. To promote cultural exchange, she will also ve nrure abroad and, having an oceangoing capacity, she may well visit th e United States.

H er mission is to instruct smdents in Churchill's values and ach ievements in the context of the modern age and in a way that is especially memorable and appropriate.

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001- 02

If anything is calculated to remind us of the need to resist terror and stand up for liberty, it is this imaginative H avengore enterprise.

PI ERS B RENDON

Cambridge, England

stand to be corrected, but I believe by 1899, the Corsair was the property of the US Navy. Having been sold to the Navy by Morgan and renamed USS Gloucester in 1898, she fought in the Spanish-American War at the Barde of Santiago in Cuba and later in Puerto Rico. I don't claim to be an expert on the subject, however I am a lifelong resident of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and have a portrait of Gloucester hanging in m y livi ng room. I und erstand Gloucester remained with the Navy until 1919, before being sold into the merchant service. She was eventually lost in a hurricane off Pensacola, Florida.

Ezra Lee Remembered Just within the past few days I caught up with the Autumn 2001 issue of Sea H istory and learned for the first time ofNMHS's intention to build a working model of the Revolutionary War-era submarine Turtle.

This is of particular interest to me as I am descended from the Turtle's captain R OBERT MUSG RAVE and crew, Sgt. Ezra Lee. In fact, I own two Gloucester, Massachusetts portraits of him, one a miniature as an old man, the other a nearly full-size portrait of I t turns out that]. P. Morgan owned a succeshim as a younger man.

Most of my information about Ezra's sion offour Corsai rs. The yacht in the de voyage in the Turtle, built by David Martino painting was the third. Mr. Musgrave Bushnell, is in a book entitled The Story of is correct that the second Corsair, built in the Submarine by Farnham Bishop, pub- 1891, was sold to the US Navy and served as lished in 1916. I was also told by my late the gunboat USS Gloucester. -ED. father that on Ezra's return from his venShip of Miracles Recognized ture against the British fl eet in New York Harbor, George Washington promoted I served as the staff officer aboard the SS him from a sergeant in the Co nn ecticut Meredith Victory during the Korean War Infantry to a captain of the Continemal and read with great interest RADMJoseph Line. As a result, he became a member of Calla's review of Ship ofMiracles (SH98 , the Society of the C incinnati when it was p44) . As General Alexander M. H aig wrote in the foreword, "this book did not deserve formed at the end of hosti liti es. to be written-it needed to be written."

W. BEAUMONT WHITNEY III General Haig was on the beach in Hungnam Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the time of our humanitarian rescue of the 14,000 refugees during the Chosin A Yacht in the Spanish-American War In Peter Stanford's article on the America's C up Race in th e Autumn issue of Sea H istory (S H98 , p24), th e caption for Eduardo de Martino's paintin g of th e Our seafaring heritage comes alive in America's C up Raceof l899 refers to "J.P . the pages of Sea History, from the Morgan's black- hulled Corsair." Maybe I ancient mariners of Greece to Portuguese navigators opening up the ocean world to the heroic efforts USS Gloucester, Summer 1898. (US Naval of seamen in this century's conHistorical Center) flicts. Each issue brings new insights and new discoveries. If you love the sea, rivers, lakes,

Reservoir Campaign . It should also be noted that the ship, officers and crew were decorated with the Korean Presidential Unit C itation and the Gallant Ship Unit Citation, the only ship to be so decorated, for "th e greatest rescue operation by a single ship in the histo ry of mankind. " ]. ROBERT L UNNEY

White Plains, N ew York Another Far-Traveling Raft I noted with interest Eugene B. Canfield's letter in Sea H istory 97 (Summer 2001, p3) on the Ericsson raft that came ashore in Bermuda in 1868 . Such rafts were attached to the bows of monitors and were intended to clear obstructions. The one raft that was successfully transported to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1863 was used in battle but was so unmanageable that the captain of the monitor had it cut loose. That one end ed up on Morris Island in Charleston Bay. Not many people are aware of it, but a third raft traveled farther than Bermuda.

Ir ended up on Mustang Island near Corpus Christi , Texas. Not only is this an amazing journey, but the raft is on th e beach upside down!

In 1985 , I was part of a group of professional and avocational archaeologists who examined the remains of the raft. The remains are in three large sections; other individual timbers are in the dunes. Most of the raft consisted of three layers of 14inch timbers. Along the center of the raft were two additional layers that must have

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SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

3

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY OFF ICERS &TRUSTEES: Chainnan, Howard Slomick; Vice Chainnen, Richardo R. Lopes, Edward G . Zel insky; President, Pacrick J. Garvey; Vice Presidents, Burchenal G reen, No rma Stanfo rd ; Treasurer, D avid B. Vietor; Secretary, Marshall Srreiberr; Trustees, Donal d M. Bi rn ey, Walrer R. Brown, Sabato Carucci, Richard T. d u Moulin , David Fowler, Jack Gaffney, F red C. Hawki ns, Rodn ey N . H o ughto n, Sreve n W. Jones, Richard M . Larrabee II, Warren G .

Leback, G uy E. C. Maitl and, Karen E. Markoe, M ichael R. McKay, James J. McNamara, Cecil J . Norrh, Jr. , D avid A. O 'Neil , Ro nald L. Oswa ld, David Planner, Cra igA. C. Reynolds, Bradford D . Sm irh, H arry E. Vin all , Ill, W ill ia m H . W hi re, Jea n Worr, Alexa nder E. Zago reos; Chairmen Emeriti, Alan G. C hoate, G uy E. C. Maitland, Craig A. C. Rey nolds; President Emeritus, Peter Stanfo rd FOUNDER: Karl Korrum (1917-1996) OVERSEERS: Chairman, RADM David C. Brow n; Walter C ronki te, Alan D. H utchiso n, Jakob Isbrandrse n, Jo hn Le hm an, War ren Ma rr, II , Brian A. McAl lister, John Stobarr, Wi lli am G . Winterer ADVISORS: Co-Chainnen, Fra nk 0. Braynard , Melbourne Smith; D.K. Abbass, RaymondJ\kcr, Geo rge F. Bass, Francis E. Bowker, Oswald L. Brerr, No rman J . Brouwer, RADM Joseph F. Callo, Francis J. Duffy, Jo hn W. Ewald, Joseph L. Farr, T imothy Foore, W illiam G ilkerson, T homas C. G illm er, Walter J. H and el man, C harles E . H erdendo rf, Steven A. H yman, Haj o Knurrel, G unn ar Lundeberg, Conrad M il ster, Wi ll iam G. M ull er, David E. Perkins, Nancy Hu ghes Richardso n, T im othy J. Runya n, Shanno n J. Wall , T homas Well s NMH S STAFF: President, Patrick J. Garvey; ChiefofStaff, Burchenal G reen; Director ofEducation, D avid B. Al len; Membership Coordinator, Nancy Schnaars; Membership Secretary, Irene Eisenfeld; Membership Assistant, An n Makelainen; Advertising, Marin Engler; Accounting, Jill Ro meo; Secretary to the President, Karen Ri rell; SEA H ISTO RY STAFF : Editor, Ju st ine AJ1lsrrom ; Executive Editor, Norm a Stanfo rd; Editor at Large, Perer Sranford TO GET IN TOUC H WlTH US:

Address:

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acted as a sort of keel to make the raft track better in a straight line.

Several timbers we re bolted toge ther to form 14" by 5'2" units. These uni ts most likely ran the length of the raft; each unit was bo lted to the ones above and below. In the center secti on where there were five layers of timber, bolts were spaced less than nin e inches apart. T hey were so densely spaced in the center that I believe bolts we re driven in each new layer of timber that was installed. T his was a structure meant to take a lot of punishment.

Of interest is that Acting Volunteer Lt. E. H . Faucon, who transported the rafts from New York to Port Royal, South Carolina, was the same Capt. Faucon who commanded the brig Pilgrim when Richard H enry D ana was a sailor aboard gathering material for Two Years Before the Mast.

TOM 0ERTLING Galveston, Texas

Lady Elizabeth's Future When we sent the above information along to Mr. Canfield, he responded to thank us and to report on one lovely lady.from the Falklands.

In recent visits to the Falkland Islands, I have seen few marvelo us old vessels in better shape than the Lady Elizabeth, a bark of 1208 to ns, built in Sunderland, England, in 1879. Her lower masts still stand.

T he islanders have done all they can to preserve her, and she has become an icon of Stanley Harbor, jealously guarded. However, the population of Stanley is only 1,700 and of the entire island gro up, 2,5 00 .

Lady Elizabeth in her sailing days and in the Falklands, 1988 (Publicity Plus; Donald.Frost)

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Thus, their reso urces are exceedingly limited, and the Lady remains grounded at the end of the harbor. Additionally, many land mines remain , left by the Argentinians in 1982, and much land is marked unsafe. So their firs t priority is not ship resto ration.

Al though I've not been aboard for a close inspection, discuss ions at the museum tend to support that she is in very good shape.

Also, so me of the enormous cruise vessels having 1,000 passengers or more now visit, so it seems the Lady co uld beco me a to urist attraction . She appears to be in better shape than some vessels which have abso rbed mi ll io ns, and some attention may be well deserved and mos t appreciated.

EUGENE B. CANFIELD Jamestown, New Yo rk

Good Words for the Gazette I am sure you get lots of favora ble comments regarding Sea History bu t this is a short note to co mpliment yo u on the mos t rece nt Sea History Gazette. It was th e fin es t I can remember. The amount of in fo rm ation was well presented in just a handful of pages ra ngin g fro m announ cements to all so rts of quality news in the maritime field.

T he Gazette alone is beco min g reason enough to join NMH S. DAVID A. O'NEIL, NMH S T rustee Essex, Connecticut ERRATA & ADDENDA

T he company that built the tug Luna was listed in Sea History 96 (p34) as M . M. David. T he Solomons, Maryland, company is actually M. M. Davis.

In the review of USS New Ironsides in the Civil War (Sea History 97, pp44-5) the reviewer quotes the Preface of the book, which says the armored fri gate was "America's first seagoing ironclad and the only seago ing iro nclad to see combat in the Ame rican C ivil W ar." However, while New Ironsides was launched on 10 May 1862, the ironclad screw steamer Galena, built by Maxson, Fish & Co., Mystic, Connecticut, was launched on 14 February 1862.

Galena came under Co nfederate fire from Fort Darling on the James River in Virginia on 15 May 1862. Her armor plating proved to be inadequate and was later removed.

R rCHARD

H. DUMAS

Eas t Haven, C onnecticut SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001 - 02

NMHS: A CAUSE I N MOTI ON

NMHS Honors Amistad, Clive Cussler The NMHS Annual Awa rds Dinner on 19 October 2001 was rhe pinnacle of rhe year, as we welcomed the leaders of Amisrad America and Clive C ussler, world-renowned aurhor and a locator of histo ric ships. The Karl Korrum American Ship TrusrAward was presenred to rhe Freedom Schoo ner Amistad fo r irs missio n to educare Americans about rhe history of rhe Amistad and its role in the firsr civil rights case in America-the trial of rhe Africa ns who rebelled against rhose raking them in to slavery in 1839. Keynote speaker Clive C ussler was recognized wirh rhe NMH S Distinguished Service Award for his on-going work to research and find the remains of many of rhe world's most famous histo ri c ships, particularly for rhe successful search for CSS Hunley, which resulted in the raising and preservation of the wreck of rhe Co nfederare submarine, rhe first submarine to sink an enemy ship.

Nearly 200 people gathered ar the New York Yacht C lub in New York C iry ro pay tribute to these importanr fi gures in the maritime herirage world today. They enjoyed the US Coast G uard Academy Singers under the directio n of Dr. Robert Newton and the many co nve rsations that take place when maritime-minded folk get togerher.

- JA

NMHS Overseer Warren Marr II (Left), who initiated the movement to build the Amistad, NMHS trustee Wiffiam H White, author Clive Cuss/er, Capt. greets Quentin Snediker, Wiffiam Pinkney and Executive D irector Christopher Cloud who oversaw the building ofAmistad America, Dinner Chairman Guy E. C. Maitland, ofthe schooner at NMHS president Patrick j. Garvey, NMHS chairman Mystic Seaport.

Howard Slotnick and NMHS vice chairman Rick Lopes.

Capt. Pinkney and Chris Cloud accept the Karl Kortum American Ship Trust Award.

Capt. Pinkney, Bill White and Clive Cussler Trustee Rich du Moulin holds a winning raffle ticket. NMH S members andfriends enjoy the cocktail reception in the Yacht Clubs Grill Room. (ALL photos by JeffAm ram)

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

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President's Message On 30 November, your Socierycelebrated the 10th anniversary of the relocation of our national headquarters to Peekskill, New York. In the co nrexr of 11 September and the on-going celebration of rhe 225th anniversa ry of the American Revolution , we could not be in a better place to remind Ameri ca ns of the relevance of the lessons of 1776-7. Peekskill, in common with New York C iry and Philadelphia, C harlesro n and San Francisco and innumerable orher ciri es large and small on our coasrs and warerways, was esrabl ished as a maritime port. Collectively, they made us rhe greares r maririme narion in th e histo ry of the world, but that was not ar all evidenr at rhis poinr 225 years ago.

From July unril November 1776, General George Washingron's army carri ed on a perilous campaign in New York against the mighries t foreign fleer and arm y ever assembled in Norrh America.

Afrer the fall of Fort Washington on M anhattan on 15 November, the Revolurion was ar irs nadir and Washington, in rhe words of rhe visiting Dr. Benjamin Rush, "appeared much depressed ."

On23December, Rushmetwith Washington for an hour and "observed him ro play wirh his pen and ink upon several pieces of paper. One of them by accidenr fell upon the floor near my feet. I was struck wirh rhe inscriprion on it. Ir was 'Victory or D earh. "' On Christmas night, Washington would cross the Delaware, narrowly escape dearh in close combar, and gain a decisive victory over the Hessians ar Trenron ar a cosr of only rwo wounded Americans. The counrersign of his troops rhat night was "Victo1y or Dearh. " To remind our currenr generation of America's leaders of rhe courageous and indefarigable leadership of our firsr commander in chief in rhe rime of greatest peri l to our fledgling narion, it was my honor on behalf of the Sociery to presenr to New York Governor George Pataki 's represenrative a replica of Washington 's personal headquarrers flag, a living symbol of rhe spirit of George Washington .

We are confident it will serve to inspire all who come ro learn of its unique and special connecrion to rhe one "Indi spensab le American, " George Washington.

PATRI CK ]. GARVEY, President

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SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

Fishermen cheer as the American Eighth D estroyer D ivision steams into Queenstown on 4 May 19 17. ("The Return ofthe Mayflower, "by Bernard F. Gribble. Courtesy the US Naval Academy Museum)

''Pull-Together'' The Queenstown

Naval Command of World War I

by William H. Langenberg

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001 - 02

W

hen W o rld W ar I began in E urope in 19 14, rhe U n ired Scares was resolved ro m ainrain neurraliry in rhe conflicr. During his 1916 reelecrion campaign, Presidenr W oodrow Wilson successfu lly ran on rhe sloga n "He kepr us our of rhe war. " Bur rwo evenrs in early 19 17 com bined ro compel rh e academic and ideali sric W ilson ro change his posirio n. Firsr was rhe "Zimmerman relegram ," in which rh e Ge rman gove rnmenr proposed an allian ce wirh M exico whereby, if America wenr ro war againsr Ge rmany and we re defea red, Mexico wo uld rega in sovereign ry ove r Texas, Arizo na, and New M exico. Publicari o n in rhe US press on 1 M arch 191 7 of rhis inrercepred offer caused o urrage amo ng Americans and rerminario n of diplom ari c relarions wirh Ge rman y.

T he seco nd evenr was Germany's resumprion of unresrricred submarin e warfa re, allowing Ge rman U- boars ro rorpedo and sink wirhour wa rning merchanr shipping in rhose inrern ari o nal wa rers rhar Ge rm any had decla red belligerem zo nes .

In resuming rh is pracri ce, previo usly haired in 19 16 because of inrernarional obj ec-

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rions, Germany knowingly riskedAmerica's entry into th e war as an ally of the Entente Powers, Britain and France. The revived submarine campaign, to be conducted aro und the sea approaches to the British Isles, co mmenced on 1 February 191 7.

The previously restrained Wilson was quick to res pond. On 26 February he ordered all American merchant ships bound for the war zone to be armed. Two weeks later, after German subs sank three American merchant ships, Wi lso n decided the sinkings could nor be ignored and rhar further dip lomatic protests would be futile.

Co nsequently, he addressed a special session of Congress on 2 April and asked the legislators to "accept the status of a belligerent which has been thrust upon us." On 6 April 191 7, Congress declared war on Germany by an overwhelming majority.

America's entry into the war had been foreseen by the US Navy. In order to establish close communications with the British Admiralty, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels had sent Rear Admiral William S. Sims, USN, the president of the Naval War College, to London on the SS New York on 31 March. Dressed in civilian clothes and accompanied by only one aide, Sims arrived in London on 9 April, just three days after America had entered the war. He was a judicious selection for the task. Born in Canada, Sims kn ew British First Sea Lord Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, RN, from prewar assignments, when Sims had served as naval arrache in both Sr. Petersburg and Paris. Sims was also known as a comparative Anglophile in an American navy dominated by senior officers still envious of its larger and more experienced former enemy, the Royal Navy.

Jellicoe's forthright report to Sims on the status of the war was eye-opening.

Since the advent of unrestricted submarine warfare on 1 February, Jelli coe revealed that almost a million tons of British shipping had been sunk, a figure that could approach two million tons by the end of April. Unless rhe losses were reduced promprly, Britain could be starved into submission by November. Jellicoe assured Sims that rhe Royal Navy had attempted several defensive measures, such as blockade of U-boar ports, attacks on German submarine bases, mining, patrolling sea lanes, and evasive routing of merchant ships, without much success. The Admi-

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Vice Admiral William S. Sims, USN-a hard-charging Leader who understood the need for cooperation (Elsilrac Enterprises) ralty and merchant ship captains had long opposed convoys as a solution to rhe problem, bur Sims urged they be tried . Later in April, largely at Sims's suggestion, Jellicoe organized trial co nvoys in cross-channel shipments to France and in sea trade to Norway. In both cases, British shipping losses were greatly reduced.

Meanwhile, Sims lost no rime in conveying his findings to Washington. In a 14 April telegram to the Navy Departmen r, he urged that rhe maximum possible number of US destroyers be sent to aid England as soo n as possible. Secretary Daniels now appointed Sims Commander, United Stares Naval Forces Operating in European Waters with the rank of Vice Admiral. In this capacity, Sims forcefully reiterated his request for destroyers, plus small antisubmarine vessels, repair ships, and staff for a naval base. The sire for the base was to be Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, where the Royal Navy had already established antisubmarine port facilities under the command of a crusty old bachelor, Vice Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, RN. Bayly was a respected seagoing ve teran known as the "fath er of destroyer tactics" who had been kept on active duty beyond retirement age for the duration of the war. Shortly after the request by Sims to have American

des troyers sent to Queenstown, Bayly was promoted to full admiral and made Co mmander in C hief, Western Approaches.

His sphere of responsibility extended from the Sound of Mull to Ushant, covering all the western approaches oflreland, the Iri sh Sea, Sr. George's C hannel, Bristol C hannel and rhe entrance to rhe English C hannel.

Back in the US, Secretary Daniels moved promptly on Sims's request for destroye rs.

H e ordered Commander Joseph K. Tauss ig, USN, Commander of the Eighth Destroyer Division, to prepare his six ships for "special service. " Taussig' s flagship , USS Wadsworth (DD-60), led his division out of Bosto n harbor on 24 April charged to "assist naval operations of Entente Powers in every way possible." After a sto rmy Atlantic crossing, they arrived to a warm reception in Queenstown on 4 May. Ordered to report to Admiral Bayly upon his arrival, CDR Tauss ig was immediarely asked when he would be ready for sea.

In a response now part of US Navy lore, Taussig responded: "We are ready now, sir, that is as soon as we finish refueling." That co nfident assertion instantly endeared Taussig to old salt Bayly, who thereafter referred to the American destroyer commanding officers as "my boys," and set the tone for the "Pull-Together" Queenstown Co mmand.

Four days later, Taussig's ships, now refueled , repaired, and fitted with two British stern depth charge racks each, sortied on their first patrol. They were the first of a large number of US Navy vessels to operate out of Queenstown. Between May 1917 and the Armistice more than 90 US ships were placed under the command of Admiral Bayly. These included two destroye r renders and 47 destroyers at Queenstown , plus 30 small submarin e chasers and three rugs stationed at other British naval bases as needed.

These naval asse ts were employed by Admiral Bayly in convoy escort, antisubmarine patrols, survivor rescue operations, and diverse other activities. Unlike the US Army forces sent to Europe under General John J. Pershing, who insisted his soldiers be kept as integral units under American commanders, US Navy ships based at Queenstown were unmistakably under the tactical command of a Royal Navy ad miral.

Fortunately for all co ncerned, the leadership of Admirals Bayly and Sims overcame

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

any serious inter-navy jealousies and rivalries rhat might othe1w ise have surfaced .

One o ther US naval officer played a m ajo r role in this seamless integration. H e was Captain]. R. P. Pringle, USN, co mmanding officer of the destroyer tender D ixie, then later of Melville. Upon his arrival, he became the Senior O ffi cer Present at Queenstown and represented V ice Admiral Sims, who was now headquartered at London. An experienced sail or who had commanded the des troyer Perkins, Pringle later commanded D estroyer Flo tilla T wo of the Atlantic Fleet as additi onal duty while skip per of Dixie. Admiral Bayly quickly became a fri end and admirer of Pringle, as evidenced by this statement fro m Bayly's memoirs: I resolved that when the US destroyers arrived that I wo uld deal with them di rectly as rega rds their orders and duties, but I wo uld in no way interfere with their internal discipline . .. . Consequently, Captain Poinsett Pringle, the senior US naval officer, took care of all disciplinary matters. I m ade him my US Chief of Staff, and as such entered him in the Navy List- the first time a foreign naval offi cer has appeared on the Navy List of an Admiral's staff.

As impressive as the Queenstown Command was as a paragon of cooperation berween rwo previously competitive navies, its effectiveness o n winning the war was even more co nvincing. Jellicoe's warning to Sims in early April 19 17 abo ut England's merchant shippi ng losses proved accurate, as over 860,000 to ns were sunk at sea that mo nth . But that proved to be the acme of U- boat successes. Due to the availabiliry of an increasing number of American destroyers for antisubmarine patrols, and the widespread use and effi cacy of convoys, British shipping losses steadily declined, dipping to just above 300 ,000 tons in November 19 17. Concurrently, U-boat losses increased, with 43 German submari nes sun k before the end of the year. Most important, the ratio of merchant ship sinkings against U -boat kills dram atically dro pped fro m 167 in April to only 16 in January 1918.

T his convincing success against un restricted submarine warfare by the com bined efforrs of the US and Royal Navies helped turn the tide of war just when Britain 's future seemed most bleak, but th e

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001 -02

Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, RN-an old sea dog who knew his business (Lafayette, Ltd.) progress cam e at a price for th e US Navy.

On 15 October 19 17, USS Cassin (DD43) was torpedoed in broad daylight but som ehow stru ggled back to port with m ost of her stern blown away. O nly five days later, the American dest royer Chaunceywas cut in rwo by th e British steam er Rose duringa convoy operation west ofG ibraltar.

And on 6 D ecember, USS Jacob Jones (DD6 1) was torpedoed and sunk while returning to Q ueenstown as a convoy escort.

The Queenstown Legacy T his cooperative effort and the mu rual support fos tered by Admiral Bayly were saluted

by VADM Sims in his posrwar book, The Victory at Sea. Referring to the interactions am ong Bayly and American naval officers, Sims reported: "Relations berween the yo ung Americans and the experienced Admiral became so close thattheywould so metimes go to him with their personal troubles; he no t only became their commander, but their co nfidan t and adviso r. " For his part, when ordered by the Admi ralry to take his fi rst leave of the war in Summer 1917, Bayly refused to do so unless V ice Admiral Sims could ass ume command at Queenstown , an honor that Sims graciously accepted . In addition, the relatively small size of Queenstown, coupled with its lack of recreational facilities, m ade Bayly's quarters the center of social acti vities fo r the American naval officers . As Sims explained, "Admiralry H ouse was always open to o ur officers who spent m any

a night around the Admiral's fire. T hey were constantly entertained at lunch and dinner, and they were expected to drop in fo r tea when they were in port." Bayly's niece, M iss Violet Voysey, served as the gracio us hostess at Admiral's H o use, and she too becam e a favorite am ong the American visitors.

T he close working relationship berween British and US for ces headquartered at Queenstown from 191 7- 19 was one of the m ost inspiring examples of effecti ve com bined naval operations during WWI. Like the early volunteers to beco me American pilots in WWI, many yo ung destroyer offi cers based at Queenstown cam e direct from Ivy League unive rsities. As Assistant Secreta1y of the Navy Franklin D . Roosevelt wrote in his foreword to Admiral Bayly's m emoirs: "They cam e to m e in the Navy Department and pleaded, almost w ith tears in their eyes, for assignment to new destroyers that we re to go into commission for du ry under th e Q ueenstown Com m and." T he lure for these yo ung offi cers was the opportuni ry to do something meaningful in the war under an admiral, albeit British , who had achieved renown fo r h is understanding leadership.

Shortly after the arrival of US destroye rs and their acco mpanying tenders at Queenstown, Admiral Bayly had a sign m oun ted on the facing bulkhead of the starboard quarterdeck aboard the destroye r tender M elville. It was aptly m ade from the signal board of a German submarine. Mounted on it in big brass letters was the motto "Pull-Together. " These rwo simple wo rds summarized the spirit the admiral instilled into the personnel of the rwo navies under his co mmand and served as the fram ework of understanding and recognition of a task to be acco mplished in a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect. T he term later became th e tide of Admiral Bayly's m emoirs and the spark resulting in the form atio n of the Q ueenstown Association, a cogent example of the bond formed berween officers of the US and Royal Navies.

The Q ueenstown Association was organized in 1919 by Lieutenant Junius S. Mo rgan , Jr. , wh o had served aboard the destroyer O'Brien at Q ueenstown. Its goal was to co ntinue the spirit of cooperation am ong the officers of the Queenstown fo rces. T he first dinner meeting of the Association was held 3 January 1920 at the

9

"They came to me in the Navy Department and pleaded, almost with tears in their eyes, for assignment to new destroyers that were to go into commission for duty under the Queenstown Command. " -Franklin D. Roosevelt Queenstown harbor in 1917, a vital base for the antisubmarine war (Imperial War Museum (neg Q14901B)) Ritz Carlton ho tel in Philadelphia, attended by 93 perso ns. At this dinner, Admirals Bayly and Sims were elected honorary pres idenrs, Captai n Pringle, presidenr, andLie urenanr Morgan, secretary/ treasurer. Admiral Bayly' s niece, Violet Voysey, was elected an honorary member.

In 1921, both Admirals Sims and Bayly arrended rhe meeting, rhe larrer now retired and making an around-the-world cruise with his niece. The Association presenred Bayly wirh a large silver bowl, engraved in pan as fo llows: From rhe Queenstown Association composed of officers of rhe U ni ted Stares Navy, who served under his co mmand during rhe Wo rld War, to Adm iral Sir Lewis Bayly, RN, an Honorary Presidenr of rhe Association, and a Master of his Profession.

In rhe same year, rhe British branch of rhe Q ueenstown Associatio n was formed in London and a dinner held ar rhe C riterion Resrauranr in honor of Ad miral Sims.

British officers who served in Queenstown between May 191 7 and November 1918 were made eli gibl e for membership . About rhis rime, rhe American branch of rhe Association established rhe Bayly Fund to allow Sir Lewis to purchase as uirable house for himself and his niece. The fund grew to nearly $ 15 ,000 and enabled Admiral Bayly to acq uire a home called Fawns in South Devon, England.

T he Queenstown Association conrinued to meet regularly, and when rhe US fl eer visited New York in 1934, rhe Association held a real re union. Admiral Bayly and Miss Voysey arrived on board rhe Aquitania on 18 May. T heir welcome included a vis it with Adm iral Sims, lunch with President Franklin D . Roosevelt (with whom Bayly had becom e acquai nted while Roosevelt served as Assistanr Secretary of th e Navy during the war), and the opportunity to review the fl eet with the Presidenr aboard USS Indianapolis. Bayly also presenred a memorial plaque at the US Naval

The destroyer tender USS Melvi ll e (AD-2) provided maintenance support to the US destroyers. Here she is moored in Queenstown harbor in 1917 with her brood. (The Mariners ' Museum)

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Academy in honor of the late Admiral Pringle, of whom he said: I have spenr my whole life at sea, and I have bee n thrown in conract with all so rts and co nditions of men all over the world, and I have lost one of the greatest friends I ever had, and the United Stares a most valuable servant.

Upon his return to England, Admiral Bayly prepared a trip report for rhe King and Admiralry, ftrringlyentirled "Pull-Together. " Admiral Sims died in 1936, and Admiral Bayly in 1938, bur the Queenstown Association continued to be active, raising funds to support M iss Voysey unril her death in 1943. Her uncle had bequeathed her the Bayly Bowl upon his death, and she in rum gave ir to rhe US Naval Academy, wirh rhe inscripti on: In giving it inro the care of rhe Naval Academy ir is hoped rhar ir wi ll serve as an insp iration to all presenr and future M idshipmen of rhe Pull-Together Spirit wh ich existed ar Q ueenstown between rhe Royal Navy and rhe United Stares Navy when they se rved together for rhe Common Cause.

T he Queenstown Association co nrinued as a viable organization even after rhe deaths ofAdmirals Bayly and Sims and was not disband ed until 1961. For more than 40 years it had served as a living symbol of the indomitable "Pull-Together" spirit that gu id ed co mbin ed naval operations at Q ueenstown during World War I between the US and Royal Navies. .t

Mr. Langenberg, RADM (Ret), USNR, has been published by the US Naval Institute Proceedings, Naval War College Review, Naval Histo ry and other periodicals. His article on the battle between the German Stier and the Liberty ship Stephen H opki ns appeared in Sea History 91.

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SEA HISTO RY 99, WINTER 200 1- 02

THE OCEANIC MISSION III

HERALDS OF THE MORNING

T

hey were ambitious towers-as ambitious as the American dream.

T heir message will carry while the language is spoken , or as long as New York will last among the world 's great cities. Fo r make no mistake, they carried a distinct m essage-a m essage that has evolved, endured , and traveled around the wo rld. Ir is a m essage ofNew York C ity's involvement with the world through seaborne trade.

People differ about that message, as they differ abo ut American involvement with the world. And they take different views of the economy and society we have built at home through foreign tradeand immigration. But whatever view one has of the outcomes-and most peopl e take a positive view, despite the dissent that always exists and always must, if we are to keep our freedom s-it was our seaborne activities that brought the city its wealth and its peop le, and with these the diversity, creative energy and freedoms for which New York is famous around the wo rld. Since scrambling ashore on the far side of a stormy ocean, we have been dependent on those viral links with the outer world, and it is approp riate that the tall towers of the World Trade Center stood as monuments to those connections, monuments visible from many miles away by land, sea and air.

Our Society's links with th e rwin towers seem to express som e of what they stood for in N ew York, and will no w stand for while memory lasts. I have called them "Heralds of the Morning" - borrowing the name of a famous clipper ship that sailed from New York-because that is how I saw them each morning when our Society was headquartered at Fulton Ferry Landing, on the Brooklyn shore of the East River. Our gang was then wo rking on the South Street Sea po rt Muse um ship Wavertree, just across the river, while at the sa me time we strained to bring th e bark Elissa in from G reece and the Ernestina back from the far- distant Cape Verdes, among o ther projects. People thought we we re crazy, and some did not hesitate to say so publicly.

But the towers sho ne like trumpets so unding the call to us in o ur business in

12

by Peter Stanford great wate rs. And it helped to know that th e wo rldwide trade of the city was centered there. We also had a special link w ith the rowers, dating back to when the massive foundations we re being dug in 1967.

Som e of us were then busy founding South Street Seaport Museum at the other end of Fulton Street. As chance wo uld have it, part of the forefoot of a Dutch trading vessel, probably the ill-fa ted Tijger, burnt in Manhattan in 16 13, had been recovered just outside the foundation wall when the tunnel for the Seventh Avenue subway was

1978, to visits by high school students I h ad the pleasure of leading when we launched our NMHS Maritime Education Initiative in 1992, and a reception we held las t year to honor Walter Cronkite for his leadership of the MEI. And, for a few years we had NMHS offi ces at One World Trade Center, from which o ur chairman Jim McAl lister kept in close touch with the affairs of the port he served so well.

W hen the towers fell, the m aritime community turned o ut in force to cope with the horror as best it could. At a recent m eeting of the Ship Lore & Model Club, founded in 1928, which included in its membership such marine stalwarts as the Cape Horn sai lorman Alan Villiers, Captain Bob Bartlett of the Effie M. Morrissey (later Ernestina), and the marine artist Gordon Grant, the h arbo r p eople of today gath ered to record the waterborne com munity's response to the catastrophe.

Norman Brouwer, ship historian of South Street Seaport Museum (and autho r of the World Ship Ttust's International Register of Historic Ships) reported on the situatio n of a whole section of the city in fli ght, with people stumbling across wreckage and human remains in a choking black fog that turned a bright autumn morning into a Stygian nightmare. Boats gath ered in the nearby Hudso n River to pick up desperate people, in an operatio n No rman compared to "a small Dunkirk," harking back Morning in Brooklyn, 1980s. Photo: f oe Deutsch to the evacuation of the British.Army from France in the face of the Nazi dug in 1916. Hoping to recover the rest of onslaught in 1940. Some of the evacuees the bottom timbers of the vessel, which were marked with blood, not their own but had burnt to the water's edge, we worked from the falling bodies of people jumping to w ith the Port Authori ty to scan the earth as escape the searing fire in rhe rowers. Dr. Al it was removed for the Trade Center foun- DeMayo, president of the club, who turned dations. We never found the balance of the out to deal with the injured, was appalled to Tijger remains, but with the help of Ken t find that there was only a trickle of wounded Barwick, later director of the Municipal people; the attack by its nature didn't proArt Society, we did recover a magnificent duce cuts and broken bones, but lost lives. eleven-foot anchor of the approximate pePerhaps the leading vessel in the rescue riod, which the workmen saved for us and operatio n was a seven ty-year-old museum which is in the NMH S collection today. ship , the doughry fireboat John j. H arvey, And of co urse we had more wo rkaday whose vo lunteer skipper Huntley Gill connections, ranging from an exhibi tion brought her south from her berth at the we arranged in the World T rade Center for Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, first to the American Society of Marine Artists in pick up people, and then to put the H arvry's

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

The World Trade Center Towers Stood for Dreams We Should Pursue powerful pumps into action to provide Hudso n River water for the firefighters ashore. Chief Engineer Tim Ivory reported a nightmare of confusion with mismatched connections and improvised solutions. The old ship was soon christened "the battleship" by the lesser craft who clustered around her, and as such she stayed in continuous action from Tuesday through Friday, her engines refreshed with fuel oil pumped into her bunkers by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Harvey, along with other vessels, also served as a place of refuge and refreshment for exhausted firefighters, police, and other workers on the site. And "the site" was what the workers called it, eschewing the medi a's dramatic "ground zero." There was drama and to spare in the actual situation, and one sought relief from it as one co uld. T he venerable Seamen's Church Institute, down Fulton Street from the Trade Center, performed miracles of service in feeding workers on the site and providing needed respire. A yo ung couple of our acquaintance were among the volunteers who turned our to help rhe strungout SCI workers led by the Rev. Canon Peter Larom. They ended up with the unusual assignment of carrying water for the dogs rhar were used to sniff out human scents among the wreckage.

Something important needs to be said for rhe people of New York. There was concern that they would come to gawk at the terrible spectacle of destruction. Bur people came as on a pilgrimage, speaking in hushed tones and standing silent with rears on their faces-that is how my wife Norma and I saw them when we joined them to visit the sire a few weeks later. It was good to stand with these people-yo ung and old, of every race and economic backgro und-and to exchange expressions of sorrow with them, all of us total stran gers bur drawn together in grief. Ir did not sofren the harsh image of the shards of the destroyed buildings looming through rhe smoky air, bur ir gave a sense of continuity and rh e reassurance of our humani ty to a horrific picture now etched forever in our m emories.

The City as the Teach er of Man "The city is the reacher of man," said Aristotle, writing of the Greek cities of two thousand-odd years ago which stand in the early morning of Western civilization-

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

and which still stand tall, though in ruins, in the minds and spirits of people around the world. New York has inherited some of that mission; witness the replicas of the Statue of Liberty which Chinese students carried in their demonstrations some years ago at Peking's Tienanmen Square.

Teaching is surely an important function of New York City. Ir has been New

g.. Jlg~fiin:et sJi I

The fireboat John J. H arvey York's mission to graduate the new people constantly arriving here into full citizenship and full participation in the American democracy and the life of the American Republic. T his function has grown more important, not less, as our economy and society have grown increasingly complex.

But today many New Yorkers have no workable understanding of what people do inside the rowers of the city. The smooth steel and glass walls give no hint of what is being produced within, unlike the countinghouses of only 150 years ago, with barrels, bales and boxes coming in from the ships at the end of the street, and srreercorner shipping negotiations broken up by the need to make way for a fresh cargo arriving. T he work of the port, honest labor under the open sky, was visible to all and reasonably accessible.

More than classroom learning is needed to get the fundamentals of modern commerce across to eager yo ung minds, and it was very much with this in mind that the South Street Seaport Museum was founded a generation ago, at the far end of Fulton Street from the World Trade Center. The founding chairman Jakob Isbrandtsen is famous for having said, in conversation with a group of cadets aboard the rail ship Libertad on her first visit to the new museum: "What we are doing here is nor just going back to the past; we are getting back to fundamentals. " N orhing is more needed in the city, or in America, today.

Young people of al l backgrounds respond eagerly to the story of the voyagers that built our city and nation. Even such an untrained, inexperienced person as myself found that out, leading high school students from the Bronx through the waterways, piers and even the office buildings of

the working port, whose traffics connect us to the rest of the world. And in South Street Seaport I remember kids arguing out for themselves how the gear aboard the 1893 fishing schooner Lettie G. Howard was worked-a self-taught lesson reinforced by handling the gear themselves.

And the yo ung have no monopoly on their need of learning and this positive thirst for exploring the experience of our storied city through rime. In my work for our National Maritime Historical Society I constantly find old dogs like myself on this kind of quest and responsive to its call.

This kind of experience, which fosters both initiative and cooperation, also encourages people to think and behave as individuals, which is to say as citizens, rather than members of some special group in our society. The !are Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, warned against the trend of our times which encourages people " to think of themselves not as individuals but primarily in terms of the membership in groups."

Learning from rhe experience of our city, rather than from tendentious ideology, encourages people to think independently, standing on their own feet, as members of the broader human race.

Thinking of the city as the teacher of man, then, surely what we build as the new Trade Center should link strongly and specifically with port history through the South Street Seaport Museum and its active programs. And active educational programs should be conducted con ti nuously in the Center itself. We of the National Maritime Historical Society stand ready to commit ourselves to that steady effort for the long-haul future of New York.

And we look forward to installing in such a learning center the Dutch anchor of the 1600s which was dug up in the foundations of the World Trade Center. Thar anchor, now in our keeping, would stand as a symbol of hope and as a sure, strong tie to the bedrock experience of New York as a city of people able to conceive great voyages, and to make them.

The anchor found during the excavation far the foundation of the World Trade Center.

New from Sea History Prints ... a superb new limited edition Giclee art print by

WILLIAM G. MULLER

Crnising up t!ie, J{udson on t!ie, steamer Afaiy Powe[{ in 1890 The view north up the Hudson River toward the Catskills is seen from the upper deck of the steamboat Mary Powell as she heads home to Rondout, New York, on a summer evening in 1890. Approaching on the left is the freight schooner Lizzie A. Tolles with a cargo of brick on deck. She, in turn, is passing the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse, which was built in 1871 and still stands today. Coming downriver in the farther distance is the steamboat M. Martin of the Newburgh-Albany line. In years past, the traveling public delighted in the re-

nowned Hudson River steamer trip. Swift and majestic sidewheel steamboats, like the famo us Mary Powell (1861-1918), graced the river and provided commodious breeze-swep t decks from which passengers could view the beautiful and ever-beckoning H u dson River vis tas.

Image size: 16.5 x 30 inches Sheet: 21 x 34 inch es Printed on th e highest quality 125 lb. , 100% cotton rag, acid-free paper using archival inks. A Certificate of Au thenticity accompanies each print

A limited edition of 200 prints: 190 signed and numbered Giclee prints at $260.00, plus 10 Artist's Proofs, signed and numbered at $300. 00. (Add $15 s/h.)

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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 orders outside the US, please call for shipping charges.)

Mdviffe's Seafarin.9 D~s in Recognition ofthe 150thAnniversary ofthe Publication ofMoby-Dick

by Jack Putnam

I

have no[ go[ a man in [he ship [ha[ I traders who visi[ed his fa[ her, mercham- finding a whaling berth in rhe more remote ca n call a good boa[ S[ee[e[ nei[he[ importer Allan Melvill, aggravated, by their ports of Sag H arbor or Cold Spring Harhave I had [his voyage .... " So wro[e very presence, Herman's self-professed "i[ch bor, Long Island, and in rhe early summer Caprnin John B. Coleman of [he Nan- for things remote." of 1839 he signed aboard rhe small packet m cke[ whaler Charles and Henry less [han a Afrer his father's fa ilure in business and St. Lawrence bound for Liverpool. As a week afrer discharging H erman Melville in subsequem death, Herman, jus[ into his green hand rypical of [he thousands that Lahaina in [he Sandwich Islands on 2 May teens, had to drop o ut of school and take a fl ed to sea when hard rimes struck ashore, 1843. Sin ce Melville later claimed to have job to help sustain the family household. Melville had to work hard and learn fast to been a boat-S[eerer or harpooneer during He did manage, under the earnest supervi- minimize the abuse rhat awaited those his whaling days, and since he had clearly sion of his older brother Ga nsevoo rt, to unable to hand , reef, and steer. He appears no[ served in [ha[ capaciry in his firs[ rwo cobb le together enough of an edu cation to to have successfully weath ered rhis rire of whal ers, o ne must infer that he was one of become a one-room-schoolmaster, al- passage in rhe mo nth it took rheSt. Lawrence [hose feckless boa[ S[eerers of [he Charles to cross rheA tlami c, and he made good and Henry, or that his adventures in the use of the subsequent five weeks to learn whaling trade had become the sm ff of the streets and docks of Liverpoo l and legend in his own lifetime. Whatever to observe rhe life of the hordes of the case, the story illustrates the diffiemigram s from Irela nd and rhe Engli sh cul ry of pinning down the de[ails of a Mi dl ands who thronged rhe porr seeking passage to America. His return voyseafarin g life a century and a half afrer the facL age, on whi ch rh e St. Lawrence cram med That H erman was a seafarer in his hundr ed s of e mi g ra nt s in to h er yo uth and ea rl y manhood there is no rweendecks, took nea rly seven weeks, doubL Born in New York in 1819, and H erman, now a seasoned foremast Melville lived precisely in the period hand, paid off on 1 October 1839. when [he U ni[ed Sta[es was rising to H e remrned to teaching in Greenpreeminence o n the seas, and his acti ve bush, across the river from Albany, bur mari[ime career covered every m ajor in spring 1840 decided to head west to seek his fortune in Illinois, where his aspect of American seafaring: the meruncle T ho mas had settled in Galena, on chant service, [he whale fishery, and the Uni[ed Sta[es Navy. His experiences rhe banks of the Mississippi. With a and mo[i vations were [hose of [he quimfri end , he traveled by steamer and canal essential yo ung seagoing American, an boat to Buffalo, and again by steamer to amalgam of romance, ambition, curiosTo ledo and finally to Chicago. Disiry, and [he need to make a living. couraged in his hope to start a new life Growing up in a major port, and sur- An 1847 portrait of Herman Melville by Albany in Illinois he once agai n ser our, by rounded by maritime friends and fam - artist Asa Twitchell (Berkshire Athenaeum, steamer, down rhe river to Cairo, and il y members, i[ was na[ural for [his Pittsfield, Massachusetts) from thence, probably, back up rhe dreamer to mrn to [he sea for solace, Ohio, and then overland to New York. insp iratio n, and a livelihood. Even in child- tho ugh his spel lin g remained erratic and T hese rwo momhs, mainly spent on rhe hood , he traveled bywa[er to Bosto n and to his penmanship often indecipherable for inland waterways of the great Midwest, Albany o n fami ly visits. His uncle, Cap rain the res [ of his life. He read vo raciously, gave him yet another perspective on life John D'Wolf, who had [raveled across Si- however, and the breadth and variety of his afloat, o ne which informed his story-withinberia wi[h Baron von Landsdorff, spun reading continue to asto ni sh scholars. Bu[ a-story, "T he Town-Ho's Story," in Mobyrnles of icebergs, polar bears, and hi gh the itch to "sail forbidden seas and land on Dick, as well as his late r novel The Confiadvemures in high latitudes to [he yo ung barbarous coasts" continued to torment dence-Man. T he late summer and fall of boy; la[er, his cousin Leonard Gansevoo rt him, and as the fami ly's fin ancial situation 1840 passed in unsuccessful job search, went a-whaling, and cousins Thomas Wil- worsened, H erman determined to seek his and finally, in December, Herman determined to head back to sea, this time aboard son Melvill* and G uerr Gansevoort served fortune at sea. in [he Navy. T he sea caprni ns and fore ign Although he seriously considered a whal- a whaler bound fo r th e Pacific.

Al though there is no record of his delibing voyage, finding a merchantman ready Herman decided to sign aboard erations, to sai l from New York's East River seemed * Herman 's morher adopred rhe "e" on the end a sure thing compared to rhe uncerrainry of rhe new whalerAcushnetar Fairhaven, across of Me lville after her husband 's dearh.

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

15

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The whalemen shipp ing paper for the January 1841 sailing of the "Ship A cushnet Valentine Pease master, now boundfrom the Po rt ofNew Bedford & Fairhaven to the Pacific Ocean or any other Bays or Oceans or Sounds the master may want. " The crew list includes H erman Melville, enrolled on 25 D ecember 1840 as a green hand at a 1/J 15th share of the voyage.

(Courtesy New Bedford Whaling M useum)

the river from N ew Bedford, at the 175th lay, or share of the profits of the voyage. H e was listed as a "green hand" despite his earlier merchant voyage, inasmuch as the whaling trade was a specialized branch of seafaring requiring its own rites of passage.

A cushnet sailed on 3 January 184 1 with 25 souls aboard, Caprain Valentine Pease in command. The voyage began auspiciously, and Melville apparently adapted quickly to his new duties . H e also heard great yarns in the fo 'c'sle, amo ng th em the story of th e sinking of the Nantucket whaleship Essex by an enraged bull sperm whale. In a gam with another Nantucket vessel, H erman mer a young whaler whose father, O wen Chase, had been mare of the Essex and who had written a narra tive of the disaster.

Melville borrowed a copy of the book from

16

yo ung Chase and later noted that it had had "a surprising effect" on him.

After a year and a half, much of it spent in a musty fo 'c'sle with twenty other yo ung men, Melville, apparently inspired by understandable needs for fresh fruit, female companionship, and room to wander, literally went over the hill: he and a shipm ate climbed into the mountains of N ukahiva and watched A cushnet sail over th e horizon. Descending into the valley of the Taipis-a tribe rumored to be cannibalsH erman, his leg swollen by an apparent venomous bite, found himselfin the care of natives whose motives were not entirely clear. His shipmate, T oby G reene, we nt off to find help, but did nor return . T he outcome for H erman, however, was anticlimactic: he simply made his way to the

beach and signed aboard another whaler, the hapless Australian Lucy Ann, plagued by an ill captain, a drunken m ate, and unrest among the crew. After several weeks of confused bi ckering among all the parties, during which Lucy A nn sailed to Tahiti , Melville was packed off to the "Calabooza Beretanee"-the British p risonrhere to spend several more relaxed weeks before drifting away from rhe info rmal securi ty of the Papeete jail to the island of Eimeo- now M oorea-where he worked briefly on a potato farm before signing aboard th e Charles and H enry, possibly as a boar-steerer as he later claimed .

By now H erman had amassed a co nsiderable store of material fo r his own fo 'c'sle yarns: service in two previous wh alers, a month among th e cannibals ofNukahiva, captivity of sorts in T ahiti , but, probably most important to his prurient shipmates, numerous opportunities to observe-and perhaps participate in- the uninhibited sexual life of the inland tribes of the Taipi valley. It is interesting to speculate on how he might have polished his narrative skills in using this material, walking a fine line between tantalization and specificity.

In any case, he actually paid off from the Charles and H enry, having signed on for only that leg of the voyage, going ashore in Lahaina in the Sandwich Islands (now H awaii), then a major whaling port. The few English-language newspapers available in M aui we re abuzz with news of the mutiny and subsequent co urt-martial and executions aboard the US brig Somers, aboard which H erman's cousin G uerr Gansevoort was serving as an offi cer. Eager ro learn more, Melville sailed fr om M aui to Honolulu, where he had to lie low for a few days in early June, wh en C aptain Pease in Acushnet passed through en route to rhe Japan G rounds, having the week before, in Lahaina, reported Melville's desertion in N ukahiva months before.

H erm an sustained himself briefly in H onolulu by setting pins in a bowling alley befo re signing an indenture as a clerk and acco untant in a newly opened dry goods store. During his months in H awaii , he had a chance to observe at close range what he regarded as rhe exploitation of the natives by the many Westerners-most notably the missionaries-who flo cked to the islands during the early 1800s. His observations reinforced his long-held conviction that the universe was anything but fair

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001- 02

and evenh anded in th e trea tment of its inhabi tants. W h atever his feeli ngs-of which ho mesickn ess may have been a major compon ent-Melville broke his indenture and once again we m to sea, this time enlisting in the Navy.

T h e fri gate United States, flying th e pennant of Commodore T hom as ap Cates by Jones, arrived in H onolulu in early A ugust 1843, bearin g both news and distinct reminders of ho me. W hen she sailed on 20 August sh e carri ed the fo rmer m erch ant sailor and wh alem an o n rhe las r leg o f his epic voyage. T h eir first d estinati o n, rh e M arquesas, gave Melville the chance to furth er p o lish hi s sro ry- relling skills: rhe som etime deserter and beach comber, with his recent sojourn among rhe Taipis still fres h in his m ind, wo uld have been a prime source of in relligen ce o n whar yo un g sailors might expect fro m th e nymphs of paradise.

H e h ad learned earlier in life, li ving in rhe sh adow of his brillian t and articulate brother Gansevoorr, to bide his rim e and speak up o nly when rhe stage was clearly his, and when his audience was primed to listen.

This ab iliryto mel r in to rhe background, to beco me parr of the scen ery, h ad served him we ll in hi s ea rlier travels, and it was

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pro bably his salva tion in the navy. A survival insrincr to ld him rhar d isappearin g in to rhe woodwork was no r o nly rhe best way to avo id attention and its attenda nt risks-such as flogging, th e p ros pect o f which terrifie d h im - bu r also to observe the minuriae of daily ro u tine th ar co nstitute th e spirit and substance of naval life.

Like th e narrato r of hi s fifth book, White j acket: Life in a Man of War, H erman walked a tightrope berween m eetin g the dem ands of du ry and shu n nin g atte ntio n in th e interest of self-p reserva ti o n.

U nlike h is narrato r, Melville p ro bably was no r a m ember of th e el ire of the m ai n ro p, but, at least at rhe o utset of his cruise, of the afterguard- rh e mass o f common sailors who h andled th e lower sails from deck level. H e clea rl y aspi red to the mainrop, h owever, and m ay have been inv ited there in hi s ho u rs off wa tch, w here h e cultivated rhe acquaiman ce of rhe captain of rhe m aintop, John C h ase, rh e quintessential hero ic sail o r, who ap peared later as J ack C hase, capta in of rh e main to p in White j acket. From this perch , and from his oth er un obtrusive viewpo in ts, Melvill e ga rnered a broad and detailed perspective on the life of an enlisted m an in rh e navy of his time.

It was, for th e sake of thi s unique acco um of enli sted life , a happy accident that he served before rhe m as t and n o r as a midshipman or junior offi cer like hi s more privileged co usins.

His cruise rook him back to th e M arq uesas and th ence to th e coas t o f Peru , wh ere United States linge red for many m o nths before makin g her way back to Boston via Cape Horn and Rio de Janeiro .

His seafarings behind him for a time, he embarked o n his new ca reer as travel w riter, mining the rich lod e h e h ad exposed during his n early four years afl oat. H e traveled by sea later in life-to E urope several rimes, and to San Francisco in th e clipper M eteor, commanded by his youn ges t brother , T om- bur always as a p asse nge r. And as h e noted of p assengers in "Loomings," the first chapter of Moby-Dick, h e go t " . . . seasick .. . and did not enjoy [himself] much , as a gen eral thin g." But the world can be grateful indeed rh at h e did sail for a li ving, and for his uniqu e written legacy of the great days of Am eri can seafarin g. 1.

Mr. Putnam is a museum educator at the South Street Seaport Museum, New Yo rk, New York.

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A Unique

M Concours d'Elegance of Canoes

by Lyles Forbes and Jeanne Willoz-Egnor

Ojibway canoe, Lake Nipigon region, MP 123, 42'h" Like other models in the collection, this canoe has a number ofaccessories that confirm Adney observed a specific canoe. H e notes on the bottom that this was from a "1 6 ft canoe Ojibway fitted for sportsman. 1895. "In addition to conserving the canoe, stabilization was carried out on both paddles and the wool flannel sail. Ojibwa were a large nation that lived in the Great Lakes region, particularly around Lake Superior. The most common trait oftheir canoes is the full and round end profile, from which they became known as "long nose" canoes.

POBf CONSERVAT/Otl

MP 123

18

odern-day gear-heads come togeth er to share their obsession in a gathering of rare and exotic automobiles-a Concours d'Elegance. T his kind of event is usually held in glamoro us locales with rhe affluem in attendance.

Imagine, however, attending a similar affair where the obj ects offered for display are nor classic or racing moto rcars, but bark canoes. In attendance would be Ojibwa, Koorenay, Beo rhuk, Malecire, Algonquin, Montagnais, and C ree nations and fur traders, offering their distinctive ca noes for each other's inspectio n and appreciatio n.

T he affair wo uld not be held at Pebble Beach , Monaco or Goodwood, bur mo re likely along the Saguenay River in Quebec, Vancouver, northern Ma ine or along the Fraser Rive r.

Although one might imagine such an event unlikely, it is indeed possible at T he Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia, home to one of rhe fin es t coll ections of bark canoe models in th e world. The collection comprises o ne hundred rwentyone amazingly precise one-fifth scale models-the work of Edwin Tappan Adney, a journalist and aspiram ethn ographer in the 1900s. T he models, together with Adney' s extensive research, docum ent the design and constructio n of rhe ca noe as it existed in many no w-va nished North Ame ri can cultures.

Throughout Ca nada and the northern United Stares rhe use of rhe canoe had a significam impac t o n the economic, cultural and social developmem of native peoples. For hundreds of years it served as the only means of transportation and communication betwee n cultures living along rivers and lakes in the interior regions of the North American cominen t. Few types of vessels have been as well adapted to both fun ction and natural environmem as the bark canoe. T heir design is lightweight but hard-wea ring, maneuverable, and easy to portage. T he m aterials used in rhe craft we re readily ava ilable and easily malleable.

The canoe is arguably the most signifi.cam small craft in the histo ry of the U nited Stares and Canada.

Edwin Tap pan Adney (1868-1950) becam e fascinated with No rth American In dian culture while vacationing in New Brunswick, Canada, in the 1880s. Later,

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001- 02

Five Fathom Hudson s Bay Company fur-trade canoe, MP 120, 73 112 " Although the Hudson s Bay Company canoes were constructed at individual trading posts where material and builders were found, most ofthe canoes had very similar lines. Despite the small variations in style and shape, they generally had narrow bottoms, flaring topsides and sharp ends. The form was determined by the canoes use-whether it was to be a heavily laden trade canoe or a swifter, lighter traveling canoe-and the conditions ofthe local waterways. The largest size was a standard 5 112-fathom bottom length, used on the Montreal-Great Lakes route. Four- or 4 112fathom canoes were used on the long run into the northwest and smaller 3- or 3 112-fathom canoes were popular in the northern, difficult to navigate posts.

The decorations were generally "in the style ofthe post" and thus varied greatly .from region to region. The circular patterns were credited to French origins. Much ofAdneys information came .from L. A. Christopherson, who had worked for the Hudson s Bay Company .from 1874 to 1919 and supervised the building of canoes, which were usually built by Indians on site.

Adney used 10 pieces of birch bark to fashion the hull and ends ofthis HBC fur-trade canoe. Like the full-sized canoes, as bark

dries it becomes brittle and is susceptible to cracking and loss. CCI conservators painstakingly removed several accretions and realigned several ribs that had come loose. Most ofthe conservation efferts with this canoe were to the metal tins contained in the wicker basket. I n most instances there was considerable paint flaking and loss that needed stabilization and consolidation. Other smaller lead "coins" were soaked in a solution of5% sodium hydroxide and warmed to remove active corrosion.

Hudson's Bay Company canvas canoe, MP 127, 73 1/s" This large canoe, and its contents ofpaddles, cargo bundles, poles on which cargo would have rested in the bottom ofthe vessel, and a sail, required a substantial amount ofconservation.

The ribs and interior sheathing were badly stained.from mouse urine. Conservators applied tissue to the interior using water to ensure contact, then placed damp paper poultice, Arbocel (BC 200 grade cellulose fiber), over the tissue. Within several hours the stain migrated into the poultice. Several specialized bleaches were also tested, but the stains partially remain. The urine also impacted a number of cloth bundles, representing HBC trade goods, stored in the canoe. A number oftreatments were tested, but had very little effect on the stains to the cloth until they tested a new technique of washing-fteezing-fteeze-drying items containing water-soluble dyes.

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 200 1-02

19

Upper Yukon Man 's H unting Canoe, MP 63, 37 5ls" I n the N orthwest Territories, B ritish Columbia, Alaska and Washington State Indians built bark canoes that had some superficial resemblance to Eskimo kayaks. They were flat-bottomed, !owsided and narrow and usually were partly decked.

The material and structure ofthis canoe were in good condition, needing only a small amount of repair using Japanese paper, and a fight surface cleaning. A few ofthe ribs were loose, and were gently moved bacl? into place and secured. The Yukon native was cleaned using a jeweler's vacuum. The figure's hair contained a fayer ofgrime that was carefully removed with a damp cotton swab. Both ofthe figure 's hands were cleaned ofadhesive that had been used to secure the paddle.

Athapascan birch bark canoe, Fraser River region, MP 49, 51 112" This form of undecked kayak-canoe ofAthapascan construction survives only as an old mode! in the Peabody Museum. ft was long extinct before Adney began studying canoe types, and no description ofthe full-sized canoe survives.

Edwin Tappan Adney built this mode! in February 1927 using a single piece of bark for the huff. Conservators at the Canadian Conservation I nstitute (CCI) cleaned the exterior and interior of the mode! and evaluated the possibility of realigning several of the ribs. Due to the fragility ofthe root material used to bind the thwarts, they opted to !eave the ribs as they were and reinforce the bindings with thin Japanese paper strips.

Ma!ecite Moose Hide canoe, M P 140, 32" Chapelle refers to the skin canoes as temporary or emergency vessels, built by North American I ndians only when they did not have time or materials available for a bark or dugout canoe. These vessels were different from the skin boats used by Eskimos; the Eskimos would first create a framework which could stand on its own and was then covered with skins sewn to fit. Indian skin canoes, however, required the covering to hold the framework together. A gunwale frame and thwarts were made from small saplings; skins were softened, sewn together and put over the frame to stiffen in place. Once the skins were trimmed and sewn in place the canoe was sheathed inside with small poles.

One of the few animal skin canoes in this collection, its deer skin was in remarkably good condition, needing only a thorough dry surface cleaning. Adney included with the mode! bundled bark. Conservators radiographed one of the bundles to see if the contents could be determined, and a!! they were able to discover was that it appeared to be filled with fabric. The material that binds the bundled bark was repaired using dyed Japanese paper and a 5 % solution of wheat starch.

20

he apprenriced to a nari ve Malecire canoe builder, and, by 1889, he had co nsrrucred his fos r full -s ized bark canoe. Afrerward, Ad ney traveled widely, researching documenrary so urces and con ducting oral interviews with canoe builders. H e eve n interviewed some of the last canoe builders fo r the Hudson's Bay Com pany. D uring his travels he kep t exhaustive no tes documenring the canoe design and cons truction techniques of the many cul tures he enco untered and added fu rther substance to his body of work with his study of linguistics.

Using h is amassed research and earlier canoe-buildi ng experience Adn ey buil t accurate scale models of the full-s ized canoes he enco un tered duri ng his journeys. To co mplement the models, he intend ed to produce a manuscript compiling his extensive research; unfo rtunately, he died before it could be acco m plished . Following h is death, Howard I. Chapelle, curatorof transportation at the Smi thsonian Institu tion , undertook the task of producing Adney's publication. T he res ul ting wo rk, Bark Canoes and Skin Boats ofNorth America, is still in prinr and stands as one of the most referenced books on the subj ect. T he Mariners' M useum acquired Adney's model collection in the 1940s and several years later add ed a large collection of his wo rking papers. Other segments of his archival collections are at the Peabody Essex M useum , Dartmo uth College, and the U niversity of

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001 - 02

Kootenay sturgeon-nose canoe, MP 125, 43 1/4'' One ofthe most visually unique bark canoes is certainly the Kootenay "sturgeon nose, "used in British Columbia and Washington State by the Kootenay and Salish tribes. One theory on the shape ofthese canoes states that the available bark was not very manageable, and required a straight joint at bow and stern. The hogging seen in the model was also typical in the fol/sized version. In T he Bark Canoes and Ski n Boars ofNorrh America, Howard I Chapelle wrote: "These canoes paddled well in strong winds and in smooth water, and worked quietly in the marshes where they were much used. Canvas canoes ofthe same model replaced the bark canoes, indicating that it was suitable for its locality and use. " The hull ofthe model is a single piece ofspruce bark lasted with cane and root material.

This is an example of a canoe Adney measured from the Victoria Museum in Ottawa.

Conservators stabilized several areas including reinserting a rib back into position and retightening lashings around one ofthe stem pieces.

New Brunswick.

Adney himself always ill(ended char his work would be used for educarional purposes and developed a collecrion of models depicring a broad range of cultural sryles creared co a uniform scale. While rhe collecrion illusrrares canoe consrrucrion rechniques for more rhan rhirry differell( cultures and spans a geographic range from Alaska co Newfoundland and New England, rhe canoes' mericulous uniformity of scale allows researchers co make rhreedimensional visual compariso ns berwee n culwres and rheir version of rhe canoe.

Adney also included examples of canoes adapred by Europeans in rhe fur rrade, as well as chose of rhe Japan ese Ainu people and rhe Siberians, providing funher compari so n char in mosr circumsrances would have bee n highly unlikely.

A collecrion such as chis is in effecmal, however, unless iris available for research and public display. Wirh chis in mind, rhe museum soughr and rece ived an Insriwre for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grail( co have rhe models co nserved. Following a survey of rhe emire collecrion, ir was derermined char rhirry-four of rhe models required specialized rrearmell( while rhe remainder needed only minor cleaning, repair and srabilizarion . In Ocroberof2000, chose models needing ex rensive rrearmem were sell( co rhe Canadian Conservarion Insrirure (CCI) in Ouawa while museum

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 200 1- 02

sraff in Newporr News began rrearmell( of research in a repon char accompanied rhe rhe remaining models under rhe guidance rransfer of his models co The Mariners' of conservaror Jan er Mason of CCI. Museum and asserred char rhey were of In addirion co rhe conservarion rrear- "[h] isrorically and erhnologically paramell(, each model was rhoroughly docu- moum imponall( [sic] by reason of rhe mell(ed and phorographed and rhen housed place of rhe Indian in American lirerarure, in specially designed boxes in an environ- hisrory, and marerial culrure; and rhe mell(ally coll(rolled srorage faciliry. In or- European's adoprion and adaprarion of der co complere rhe preservarion of rhe cenain rypes [of canoes]." Alrhough few emire coll ecrion, rhe museum's research could have been more passionare and delibrary is currendy seeking a grail( from rhe vored co a chosen field of smdy, Adney Narional Endowmell( for rhe Humaniries clearly undersrared his own case. aimed ar conserving Adney's papers.

Edwin Tappan Adney gave voice co a The prorecrion and conservarion of ch is world rapidly facing exrincrion. Canoes marerial ensures rharAdney's body of work were his objecr, bur rhey were nor his end. will cominue co exisr. Ir is only rhe begin- They fascinared rhe anise and rhe engineer ning, however, of a massive efforr co ensure in him because rhey spoke of rhe perfecr char his educarional objecrives are mer. marriage of nature, form and function. In The museum hopes co accompli sh chi s goal his scale models , and rhroughour his parhrough a series of permanell( and rravel- pers, he creared a memorial co rhe pasr wirh ing exhibirions. The mosr ambirious effon rhe hope of seeding a future char would be co dare envisions a major porrion of rhe less mechanized and more deeply immersed collecrion housed in rhe museum's fonh- in and reflecrive of rh e narure of Nonh co ming Imernarional Small Crafr Cemer. America, like rhe narive Canadian and Visirors co rhe Ce mer will be able co expe- American Indian culwres he srudied in rience over 130 full-sized boars from aro und obsessive derail. 1, rhe world, as well as chis model collecrion, in a climare- and humidiry-comrolled study Lyles Forbes is Curator of Small Craft and srorage environmenr. Informarion wi ll be J eanne Willoz-Egnor is the head ofcollections available in a variery of formars for those management at The Mariners' Museum. eirher wishing co build a full-sized bark canoe, or simply have a ben er unders tand- The Mariners'Museum, 100 Museum Drive, ing of chose who fashioned chem.

Newport News VA 23606; 757 596-2222; Adney described rhe signifi cance of hi s web site: www.mariner.org.

21

LEN TANTILLO

THE CONSTITUTION AND THE GUERRIERE Color prints (3 0 " X 23 ") of the second o f fo ur pa intin gs

by Mi che l Feli ce Corn e of this battle in the Wa r of 18 12 are now available for purc hase at a cost of $95

Nantucket Farewell The Wh aleship " Essex " Roundin g Great Point , Nantucket Beauti ful ly reproduced full color signed & numbered print avai lable

For additional information vi sit our website at www. lftanti I lo .co m or write for free brochure L.F. Tantillo , Fin e Art 243 Iri sh Hill Road, Nassa u, NY 12 123 Te lephone: 5 18-766-4542

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THE NEW HAVEN COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY l 14 Whitney Ave nue, New Haven, CT 06510 , 203 -562-4183 For info rm ati o n, co ntact James W. Campbe ll , Lib rari an Ch ec ks, Mas terCard o r Vi sa may be used for paym ent

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MARINE ART

As In a Mirror.

â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘

by Paul Garnett

Above, "Shakedown Cruise: USS frigate Constitution !eaves Boston Harbor by Castle Islands, July 1798 " This painting, a commission, shows the venerable frigate as few have seen her portrayed-newly built as she was originally designed by naval architect Joshua Humphreys. Note the wide ochre gunstrip and the !ongjibboom with double spritsail yards. The painting is based on the mode! by Donald McNarry in the collection ofthe Nava! Institute, Annapolis, Maryland. 24 x 36 inches, oil on canvas.

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

0

ften, as I paint or pursue my work as an artist in other ways, I reflect on som e words from the opening scene of John Huston's 1956 film of Moby Dick, wherein Richard Basehart, paraphrasing Melvi lle, refl ects on: "The sea, where each man, as in a mirror, finds himself . .. ."

I was born in the Boston area and spent most of my free time on weekends aro und the water and at events tied to it. A favorite site was th e fri gate Constitution, where I quickly go t to know each crew member as they were rotated in duties aboard the venerable warship. And I can' t rem ember a time in my life when I did no t draw.

Then, in 1962, som ething happened that would later change my life. A new Ho llywood production of th e cl assic Mutiny on the Bounty was being made, and MGM had film ed the srory with a new replica of th e Bounty, the first sh ip to be built from the keel up for a motion picture.

Sixteen years late r I learned th at the beau-

tiful ship was still afl oat and m oored in Sr. Petersburg, Florida. MGM had made her an exhibit, and so it was that I mo ved with my wife Barbara and our two children to work for seven yea rs as a shipwri ght on the vessel.

I don 't think I've ever worked on one of my marine paintin gs without drawing in som e small way upon m y unforgettable experiences aboard the Bounty. It is o ne thing to set foot on the deck of a sailing ship at her moo rin g, and quite another to take her out to stretch her sea legs. And there was no part of her that we did not work on or renew. Even so, she gave us back much more than we gave her. The so und of wind in the sails and riggin g and the rush of water as she shouldered through the swells are things I will never forget.

In 1997 Barbara and I moved back ro Boston and it was then that I made co ntact with the renowned m arine arti st John Stobart. John was one of the most fortu-

23

'Bluenose offPeggy's Cove, NS" This view from one ofthe most beautifitl and wild places on Nova Scotia's east coast captivated me as my wife and I visited with good friends for the gathering oftall ships in Halifax, where we also attended the reunion of old Boun ry crew.

Oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inches.

"One City" cover art for the CD ofthe same title produced to benefit victims ofthe World Trade Center disaster. I was asked to do this cover art with the challenge ofshowing New York and Boston as sister cities connected by the events of September 11. All the musicians are from Afassachusetts, and all proceeds, including the auctioning of the painting, will benefit the September 11 fimd. We decided to show Manhattan, with the Twin Towers, connected by a violin "bridge" to the city ofBoston. The Statue ofLiberty represents ourfreedoms, and USS Consri rnrion stands for our strength as a nation. As this painting is a gift from the people of Boston, I was honored to be asked to create it. Oil on canvas, 22 x 36". The "One City" CD can be purchased at www.bacbeat.org or by phoning 617-450-9583.

"Sail Boston: July 2000 - A View from Union Wharf" This painting is one I loved working on, as it is a view that I witnessed from the third floor ofjohn Stobart's townhouse. Without the usual generosity and kindness ofjohn and his aide Sandra Heaphy, this painting never would have seen the light of day. Although all ofthe ships in the painting did indeed parade into the harbor, they did not sail in the order shown. I wanted to show ships from four time periods to give a sense ofthe variety of craft that enlivened our harbor on that glorious day. Oil on canvas, 24 x 40 inches.

24

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 200 l-02

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"Days End: Whalers in New Bedford, 1853" The ships dry their sails after an afternoon rain and workers finish up the Last of the days work, as the sun sets over the town. The dock in the foreground is now the site ofthe Coast Guard base. Oil on canvas.

nare associarions of my life. He showed me possibiliries I had nor even hoped for, and his generosiry and friendship have helped me grow as an artist.

All my paimings are do ne on canvas rhar I srrerch and prepare myself and all are in oi l. In recem years my work has been seen in rhe A&E relevision program Sea Tales and has been published rwice by rhe Tall Ship Bounry Foundarion to help mainrain rhe ship. My work has also been seen in Nautical World magazi ne and is on rhe covers ofWilliam H. Whire's novels on rh e War of 1812.

One significant thing that I have learned is that an artist must get out and paint from nature. This forces rhe artist to make decisions quickly, since the light and shadow are constantly moving; it is a discipline that can never be learn ed in a studio setting.

Orher artis ts will be amazed, as I was, at the improvemem it will make in large studio commissions on which so much rime and effort is spent.

Alrhough I do a large number of period works, I equally enj oy reco rding what is h appening in our own rime. I also look fo rward to rraveling to various new sites aro und New England, and on every rrip I meet someone who opens new doors and fresh possibiliries.

I would like to co nclud e wirh rhis rhough t for the reader, whether yo u are an artisr or jusr an admirer. Art has very lirde wo rth beyond the pleas ure it gives others.

I beli eve ir is the artisr's job to leave rhe world a berrer place because of the work rhe artisr has created. What has meam most to me over rhe years is rhe pleasure and interesr others have found in my paimings.

T har is why I paint-and why ir is impossible for me nor to paint. 1-

"Solitary Sentinel" was commissioned by BiLL Coffette, a former crewman ofthe Poffock Lightship. The painting shows the Lightship at station off Chatham, Massachusetts, in a fog and roffing seas.

Oil on canvas.

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 200 1-02

25

MARINE ART NEWS

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The American Neptune Enjoy the leading scholarly journal of maritime history and arts in the US. The American Nep tune, a quarterly publication of the Peabody Essex Museum, is a great read for collectors, model makers, and all who love ships and the sea.

We offer Sea History readers an opportunity to subscribe to The American Neptune for $33, a $6 savings over our regular subscription rate ($36 for non-US residents. Institutions : call for rates) . To start your subscription, send a check or money order to:

The American Neptune Peabody Essex Museum East India Square Salem, MA 01970 (508) 745-1876 You may charge your subscription by fax at (508) 744-6776, or e-mail dori_phillips@ pem .org. We accept VISA, MasterCard and American Express.

Visit our website at www.pem.org/neptune

26

60th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor Commemorated at The Navy Museum T he Navy Museum 's new exh ibi tion , "Visions of Infamy: Pearl H arbor Remembered," opened on 7 D ecember 2001 , the 60rh annive rsary of the Japanese arrack on Pearl H arbor. The exhibit, whi ch wi ll run through 12 May, is open to the public, bur due to securi ty restrictions, yo u must call ahead to make an appointment to see ir, between 9AM and 4PM, Monday through Friday.

The exhibit features paintings by arrisr To m Freeman, who has used ph otographs and firsthand accounts to create a series that rakes viewers from the Japanese navy preparing to leave for H awaii through the aftermath and the arrival of USS Enterprise the evening of the 7th.

Other paintings show people carrying on with their daily lives rhar Sunday morning. More rhan 2000 peo pl e, prim arily US Navy personnel, lost their lives char day. Freeman's authenticity and exacting derail have won him acclaim, and his paintings hang in the White House and various Co ngressional offices. (The Navy Museum, Washington Navy Yard, 805 Kidder Breese Street, SE, Washington D C 20374-5060; 202 433-6897; web sire: www.history. navy. mil) J,

ASMA Catalog Available If you did nor get to the American Society of Marine Arrisrs' 12th National Exhibition, you ca n still enjoy the best the exhibit had to offer, albeit on a much smaller scale. T he 82-page co lor catalog, Contemporary American Marine Art, is available fo r $ 19 .95pb plus $3 .95 s&h. The images of paintings and sculptures are accompanied by comments by th e artists about th eir individual work. (ASMA 12th National Catalog, PO Box 369, Ambl er PA 19002; web sire: www. marinearrisrs.org) J,

Exhibits • Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum: 16 September 2001 -2 Sep tember 2002, "Mari rim e Miniatures: Sailing in a Borde" (PO Box 25, M ain Street, Cold Spring H arbor NY 11 724; 631367-3418) •Freer Gallery of Art: 1 July 200 1-31 March 2002, "Whi stl er in Ven ice" (S mithsonian Institution, Jefferson Dr. ar 12th Sr., SW, Washington DC 20560; 202 357-4880; web sire: www.asia.si.edu) •Lyman Allyn Museum: 30 November 200 I-April 2002, The Montesi Ship Collection: Ship Models by Folk Arrisr Pasquale Montesi (Co nnecticut College,

625 W illiams Sr., New London CT 06320; 860 443-2545; we b si re: lymanallyn .co nn coll. edu/general.hrml) •The Navy Museum: from 7 December 2001, "Visions ofl nfamy: Pearl H arbor Remembered" (Washingto n Navy Yard, 805 Kidder Breese Street, SE, Washington D C 2037 4-5060; 202 433-689 7; web sire: www. history.navy.mil) •San Diego Maritime Museum: 4 November 2001 - January 2003, "Treasures of the Man ila Galleons" (1492 N. Harbor Dr. ,, San Diego CA 9210 1; 619 2349153; wveb sire: www.sdmaririm e.o rg) SEA fHISTORY 99, WINTER 2001 - 02

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Printed in fad e res istant inks on heavy acid-free paper, these incred ibl y detailed and now hi ghly poignant lithographs come with certificates of authentic it y. Price unframed $ 150 plus $5 s/h.

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'Treasures of tfie Afanifa qa!feons at the San Diego Maritime Museum

by Mark Allen "The W reck of the San Agustin, "by Gordon M iller

F

rom now through January 2003, the Star of India houses a new exhibit entitled ''Treasures of the Manila G alleons, " which spills over two decks of the historic 1863 bark. The lone Spanish galleons which hauled precious cargoes on a grueling round rrip between Ma nila and Acapulco are little known, but their voyages forged th e international trade network we now call th e Pacific Rim . For 25 0 years, they carried silver fr om Mexico and Peru to fuel China's eco nomy, and return ed to M exico bearing spices, silks, and porcelains destined for the Americas and Europe. Ever since, goods and services from one side of the Pacific have been tailored to the demands of markets on the other side.

The recent discovery by amateur explorers of a 425-year-old shipwreck on the shores of Baja California was the catalyst for the exhibit. T he cargo of Ming porcelains from this vessel, the earliest Manila

ship yet fo und, is still being unearthed by joint M exican and Ameri can archaeological expeditions sponso red in part by the San Diego Maritime M useum. For the firs t time Americans can glimpse these treasures, as well as an extensive collection of oth er porcelains, siIver, ship models, weapons, historical documents, and more arrifac ts of this in credible luxury trade.

W hat an Italian traveler called "the tedious and dreadful voyage to the port of Acapulco" fro m Manila was history's most grueling commercial open-ocean voyage, often taking seven mo n ths. ("As for me, " recalled the same 17th-century rraveler, "not even the hope of getting rich would make me take that voyage again, which is enough to destroy a man, making him unfit fo r anything as long as he lives. ") It was a gamble that was played with men's lives, for a success ful trip could make one's fo rtune, bur a failure could leave o ne ship-

wrecked to starve on a Baja Californi a beach. T he debilitating curse of scurvy, too, hovered over every ship.

T he exhibit's most innovative fea ture is perhaps a wall-sized "boa rd game" in which a roll of the dice may deposit a visitor's galleon o nto a reef or into battle with a wai ti ng English warship-as in 1743, when Com modo re George Anso n's HMS Centurion captured the galleon Covadonga and her 256 chests of silve r co ins. Every incident a game player encounters befell the crew of an ac tual galleon.

In keeping with its multinational subject, the exhibit's text is in English and Spanish, and "Treasures" fea mres many other hands-on co mponents to fire the imaginations of children and other visitors who don 't go through life with their hands in their pockets.

Plans are in the wo rks to prepare a travel ing version of the exhibit to reach

A 16-Joot map of the routes from Manila to Acapulco is a board game that takes players through all the hazards ofa transPacific passage. (Photos: John Wright)

28

SEA HI~STORY 99, WINTER 200 1- 02

•·•·•·• CENTIMETRE

visitors to other museums-all of whom have been affected by the Pacific Rim econom y that ties North America's West Coast to As ia, but few of whom know the exciting story of the original commercial link across the Pacific. 1.

The author is curator ofspecial exhibits at the San Diego Maritime Museum, and editor of the quarterly Mains'! H aul: A Journal of Pacifi c Maritime History. He co-curated the exhibit with Edward Von der Porten, an expert on the galleons' porcelain cargoes and a principalfigure in the ongoing archaeological project.

Extraordinary examples ofporcelains ftom China have been discovered in the wrecks ofthe Manila galleons, including the calligraphy bowl (above, left) and pieces of plates (below) decorated with the image ofa gentleman purse amid beaded pendants with Buddhist symbols. But the star is the monkey bowl (above)-a leaping monluy distracts the gods while his partner climbs the tree to steal the peach of immortality. (Photos courtesy Edward Von der Porten)

s

San Diego M aritime Museum: 4 November 2001-january 2003, "Treasures ofthe Manila Galleons" (1492 North Harbor D rive, San Diego CA 92101; 619 234-9153; web site: www.sdmaritime. org)

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Ship models, porcelains, silver, weapons, historical documents, and other artifacts of this incredible trade, many of which have been excavated ftom archaeological sites, bring to Life the connections between peoples ofthe Pacific Rim and Europe. (Photos.john Wright)

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SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 200 l- 02

29

William Falconer From Survivor to Marine Lexicographer

by David P.H. Watson

T

he year was 1760, and Grear Britain and France, each aided by a few European allies, were at it again in the fourth yea r of what was later called the Seven Years' War. Land warfare occurred halfway round the globe, from North America where British regulars and Co lonial troops (commanded by Col. George Washington) kept the Ohio Valley from French incursion, to India where the British ended France's attempt to add that country to her list of colonies .

All these land operations had been made possible by the cons tant efforts of the Royal Navy, then at peak strength, to keep the sea lanes open for the transport of British troops and supp lies and to guard against French attempts to invade Grear Britain while also maintaining a blockade of the French seaports. To these ends, Royal Navy squadrons were constan tly patrolling the approaches to the European continent ranging from Holland to Portugal.

In the first days of February 1760, Admiral Edward Boscawen, aboard his flagship HMS Roya/William in company with six other ships of the line, was on blockade duty near the western approaches to the English Channel. One of the six ships was HMS Ramillies, which had just joined Boscawen's squadron after a complete refit. Ramillies, originally named Katherine

and later Royal Katherine, had been built at the Woolwich Dockyard in 1664 as a second-rate ship, a classification that designated her firepower, which at the rime of her building was 82 cannon. Rebuilt and enlarged in 1702 and again in 1749, her original tonnage was increased by some 65 percent to help carry her 90 cannon of increased weight and firepower.

When she sailed with Boscawen, her lower deck battery would have comprised 32 pounders, those on her middle deck 18 pounders, and those on the upper deck 12 pounders. To man these guns thirteen men were needed for each of the 32 pounders, nine for the 18 pounders, and seven for the 12 pounders. The smaller 6 pounders on the top decks required five men for each gun, and 120 men were appointed to small arms fire. Ir is no wo nder that Ramillies needed a crew of 726 when she was on a wartime foot ing. What is more remarkable is that these 726 men lived, fought, ate, and slept in a ship with an on-deck length of only 161 feet. The ship's complement also included the officers: Captain Wi ttewronge Taylor, six lieutenants, four master's mates, four surgeon 's mares, and 24 midshipmen.

In the last half of the 1700s the British navy's urgent need was not for more ships but rather for more men. In the absence of modern-day draft boards, rhe so lution lay

A plate from Falconer's Un iversal Di ctionary of the Marine, 1769 (Courtesy the author)

30

in press gangs, whose members sco ured the streets and waterfronts of coastal towns to kidnap men, experienced or not, for se rvice afloat. A particularly hard case was reported in 1758 in the sinking of the merchant vessel Sarah in a storm at the entrance of Plymo uth H arbor. The ship had go ne down in a few minutes and "the crew had just time to save th emselves, but were imm ediately pressed for His Maj esty's Service by the mas ter of Duke, a vigilant officer, who does all in his power to ass ist rhe inhabitants of this place."

The Shipwreck On 11 February, Admiral Boscawe n's squadron encountered stro ng southwesterly gales of such force that the ships could hard ly carry any sail. By 14 February they we re scattered far and wide over the open seas, each one trying to survive. Ramillies was leaking severely and was forced to heave-to while being dri ven toward the so uth coast of England. One can imagine the strain imposed upon the ship's timbers (most still in place afte r 96 years) by the heavy seas and the topside weight. Two anchors were put out, and through the darkn ess, heavy rain, and spume it was seen that the ship was no more than 100 ya rds from the shore. A few hours later the anchor cables parred under the heavy strain , and Ramillieswas driven stern first onto the rocky shore where huge seas broke over her decks before crashing against the rocks which formed the point of land called Bo lt H ead. Those men still below decks must have been drowned where they were; nearl y all of those on deck at the time of the gro unding were washed off in to the sea and then das hed against the shore. Of the total crew of726 only 26 men survi ved, most of whom had managed to jump from the ship 's stern to the rocks and then clamber clear of the raging surf sweeping men from the rocks. None of the commiss ion ed officers survived with the exception of rwo midshipmen, one of whom was W illiam Falconer, who had served in that post for three years.

The yo ung Falconer, son of a barber frmm Edinburgh, had apprenti ced aboard a me rchant ship befo re joining the Royal SJEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

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The trembling hull confefs'd th' enormous ftroke; The cralhing boats th' impetuous prdTure broke : Companion m , binn acle', in floating wreck, With compaffes and glaffes ftrew'd the deck; The mizen rendin g, from the bolt-rope' flew, T orn from the earin g to the flutt'rin g cl ue :.

The fides convul five ihook on groaning beams', And yawning wide, expand the pitchy ' fea ms.

They found the well ' and, terrible to hear I Along the line four wetted feet appear : At either pump they heave the clafiiing brake ', And, turn by turn, th' ungrateful office take ; They both in clofe rotation fiill attend, And help incetfant, nervous Seamen lend ;

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Navy as servant to a purser. After being so A page from Falconer's poem The Shipwreck, dramatically separated from his ship and published in 1762. returning to the merchant navy, Falconer took up the pen and wrote The Shipwreck.

A Poem I n Three Cantos. By a Sailor. He dedicated it to Edward, the Duke of York, Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron, thereby earning himself a patron. His desire to convey the progress ofa ship at sea to a landbound audience must have driven him to m The companion is a fquare wooden porcht cretled over the hatchway, that goea. frustration, for he begins The Shipwreck clown to the cabbin or apartment of the chief office rs.

• The binnacle is a box which (lands before the hel m on deck, having three divifions, with the following "Advertisement": the middle one for a lamp or candle, and the other two for the compaJfes which Jire& The Author of this Poem thinks it necthe Ship's courfe and the watch-glalfes. essary to acquaint the Public, that it was • The bolt-rope furrounds or gins all fails, their edges being fewed to it: in fquare fails not his first Intention to swell the Work it is difiinguiflied by three names, viz. head-rope or upper part ; leeches or fides; and foot .ropes or bottoms. with so many Notes; to avoid which he P Beams are !hong pieces of timber flretching acrofs the Ship, to keep the fides at· proposed to refer his Readers to any of their proper diflance, and (upport the d~cks . the modern Dictionaries, which he • Becaufe the feams or junllio ns of the planks are fill ed w jth pit ch, to prevent the might find most proper for explaining water from penetrating the deck or fides. r The pump~wel! is an apartment in the Ship's hold that contains the main--malt and the sea-phrases, occasionally mentioned pumps, and is planked round, to keep the cargo clear of the pum ps : jr is fou nded by in the Poem; but upon strict Examinaletting a mtafured iron rod and I.inc down the pump, by which, they know. whether the tion, finding most of them deficient in leaks increafe or diminilh, the technical Terms exp ressed there, he • The brake is the pump· ha ndle, which is occafiooally fixed and taken oft'. could not reco mmend them , withour forfeiting his claim to the Capacity assumed in the Title Page, of which he is much more tenacious than of his Character as a Poet.

In addition to a detailed sheet of "An use the term, for the scope of the book is my love of ships and the sea, gave me a fine Elevation of a Merchant-Ship with all her encyclopedic in its treatment of matters leather-bound copy of Falconer's D ictioMasts, Yards, Sails & Rigging" and a map naval and nautical, and it is universally nary, one of the 1769 originals; the inside of the islands of Greece through which his accepted as the standard for understanding of the front cover carried a lone Ex Libris fictional ship sails, showing wind direction life and work in the sailing navy in his era. bearing the name Frederick J. 0. Montagu and the course of the ship, many pages are The preparation of this monumental and a family coat of arms. I would like to substantially taken up with footnotes that work had bee n far from a secret, for the believe that my copy is the very same secdescribe the des ign and work of a ship. opening pages list the names of more than ond book subscribed to by Lieut. Montagu Following the 1762 publication of this 200 advance subscribers, a practice not which was then passed on by him to a slender volume, he diligently pursued the uncommon for books of that era. These member of his fami ly. so urce of his frustration-the lack of a subscribers included royalty, dukes and How does one go about describing such dictionary that cogently and accurately de- earls, naval and governmenr leaders, mer- a book, containing as it does thousands of scribed the life he knew as a sailor. Through chant trading companies and lay persons . marine terms, some in a few words, others York's patronage, he served in the Royal The list is headed by two sons of King in verirable trea tises covering several pages?

Navy as a midshipman on Sir Edward George III, Their Royal Highnesses the Perhaps it would be best to start with a few Hawke'sRoyal George and then as purser of Dukes of G loucester and Cumberland. statistics. The volume measures 9" by 11 " the frigate Glory. When Glory was laid up at The naval persons included the Right Hon. and contains roughly 500 pages (they are C hath am, Falco ner, by now married, Sir Edward H awke, KB, First Lord of the not numbered) . The final 100 pages or so moved into the captain's cabin with his Admiralty. In his preface, Falconer ac- are given over to a French-to-English dicnew wife and spent his time writing, re- knowledged the support and encourage- tionary of marine and naval words and turning to sea in 1767. ment of Admiral Hawke, who believed phrases, nearly al l limited to a single line. In The culmination of Falconer's efforts chat the book would be of extensive value all there are about four thousand of these came in 1769 with the publication ofa large to "a country whose principal sources of word translations designed to assist in workvolume entidedA n Universal Dictionary of strength are derived from the superioriry of ing with pilots or other persons in marine the Marine dedicated to The Right Honor- her marine." occupations. The book also contains a dozen able the Lords Commissioner for executing Another name caught my attention, etched fold-out plates illustrating some of the office of Lord High Admiral of Great that of Lieut. Thomas Montagu, who sub- the major subjects Falconer wrote about.

Britain. Let it be said at th e outset chat che scribed to not one, bur two copies of the The larges t of these measure 15" by 19" wo rd " dictionary" is a misnomer as we now book. Many years ago, my sister, knowing when fully unfolded.

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

31

Early in the work Falconer gives us thirteen pages on the subj ect of"Architecture, or the science of ship-building," and these writings are fully supported throughour the book by many fin ely etched plates showing plans of entire men of war and details of their fotings.

Falconer must have developed a special interest in naval gunn ery durin g his years as a midshipman, for rhere are eleven pages in his Dictionary on the subj ect of ship's cannon, going into great detail , supported by tables and charts, in describing all aspects of the science of cannon fire. These comments are later supplemented by six more pages o n "Range"-rhe distance chat a cannonball wo uld be proj ected by the explosion of the gunpowder. Here again, Falconer supplied his readers with elaborate tables showing the extent to which a variation of as little as a few ounces in the amount of gunpo wder wo uld affect the range of the shot. In order to round out his writings o n naval gunfire, Falconer added several pages abo ut seaborne mortars designed to lob large bombs or shells filled with gunpowder onto sho re fortifications and gun emplacements. As a long-ago gunnery officer in a US Navy destroyer during World War II, I found these subj ects especially fascinating.

In the midst of all this erudition Falconer still found time for a moment of bi rin g humor. Look up the word "Retreat" in his Dictionary and you will find : The order or disposition in which a fleet of French men of war decline engagement or fl y from a pursuing enem y.

As though this were nor enough, Falconer added a footnote to the entry (one of the ve ry few in the entire book) as he twisted the blade of the knife: The reader, who wishes to be expert in this manre uvre, will find it copiously

A selection ofship rigs published in Falconer's Dictionary in 1769. described by several ingenio us French writers, particularly L'Hote, Saverien, Morogues, Bourde, and Ozane; who have been given accurate instructions, deduced from experience, for pmting it in practice when occasion requires. As ir is not properly a term of the British marine, a more circumstantial acco unt of it might be co nsidered foreign to our plan. It has been observed in another part of rhis work char rhe French have generally exhibi red greater proofs of taste and judgment in rhe sculpture with whi ch their ships are decorated , than rhe English; the same candour and impartiali ty obliges us to confess their superior dexterity in this movement.

As a for mer midshipman, Falco ner devoted three pages-the same space h e gave to rhe role of an admiral-to the qualifications and duties of midshipmen and described the post as the station in which a young volunteer is trained in the several exercises, necessary to attain sufficient knowledge of the machinery, discipline, movements, and military operations of a ship , to qualify him as a sea-officer.

T hen, after listing myriad qualifications necessary for a successful career ar sea, Falconer asked to be forgiven fo r indulging in "moral reflections" in his otherwise fac-

rual and scientific book and closed with the following advice to midshipmen: U nless th e midshipman has an unconquerable aversio n to the acq uisiti o n of those qualifications, which are so essential to his improvement, he will very rarely want opportunities of making a prggress therein. Every step he ad vances in rhose meritorious employments, will facilitate h is accession to the nexr in order. If the dunces, who are his officers or mess-mares, are rattling rhe dice, roari ng bad verses, hissing on rhe flu re, or scraping discord from the fiddle, his attention to more noble studies will sweeten the hours of relaxation. He sho uld recollect that no example from foo ls ough t to influence his conduct, or seduce him from char laudable ambition whi ch his honour and advantage are equally concerned to pursue.

Even if we were to do no more than thumb cas ually through chis extraordinary Dictionary, it wo uld be enough to convince us that Falconer must have taken the high road during his years as a midshipman by followi ng his own good advice.

Within a few monrhs of the publi cation of the Dictionary, Falconer wenr to sea aboard Aurora. That ship was lost in D ecember of 1769 on a passage to India, and Falconer, who had beaten the odds nine years earl ier, this time went down with his ship . ,!,

Mr. Wiatson is a retired maritime trial lawThe 9-pounder upperdeck gun is armed for firing; the 18-pounder gundeck gun is secured yer. Hin article on his model ofa Scottish zulu was puLblished in Sea History 95. for sea. From Falconer's Dictionary.

SEA !HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001 - 02

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.

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"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 1h 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 2 lst Massachusetts from Marblehead. These little vessels played havoc with British shipping and eventually captured the longed-for powder ship. $125.

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SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Maritime Community Responds to the Attack on New York As events unfolded in lower M anhattan on 11 September, members of the maritime commun ity and their vessels in and around the harbor stepped up to provide viral services to the paralyzed borough. Even before the full consequences of the airpl ane attack on the World Trade Center rowers became evident, ship operators converged on the Battery to see what could be done. What co uld be done was the evacuation of hund reds of thousands of offi ce workers and New York residents and visitors, followed by four days of delivering necessary drinking wa ter, food, equipment, clothes, fuel and other supplies and rescue workers to the site. T he terrorist attack forced New Yo rkers to recognize just how isolated an island can be without a fleet of vessels and places for chem to dock.

Several organizations have published their members' sto ries; we particularly reco mmend the Professional M ariner's coverage in the D ecember/January 200 2 issue and the stories in the November 2001 iss ue of Foghorn, the publication of the Passe nger Vessel Ass o c ia tion. (PM: phon e : 20 7 77 2-2 4 66 ; we b sit e : www.profess ionalmariner. com ; PVA: phone: 206 284-8285 ; we b site: www. passe nger vessel. com) The following info rmation is glea ned from their articles.

T hroughout the first day, ferries, tourist and dinner vessels, rugs, dive boars, C oas t G uard cutters, NYC harbor patrol craft, M erchant M arine Academy training vessels, private boats, and everything else that could float headed ro lower M anhattan and we nt inro the swirling bank of smoke and dust ro reach docks and the seawall. Repo rrs indicate that until the first rowe r imploded , evacuati on was fa irly organized, bur panic ensued when the

Fireboat John]. Harvey in Action We wo uld be remiss if we did not mention that some of those heroes were working from hisro ric ships. Among the vessels responding ro the emergency were the fireboat j ohn J H arvey and the Herreshoff yacht Ventura of 192 1. T he crew of the 70year-old fireboat j ohn J H arvey has received much-deserved acclaim for their

building coll apsed and people began jumping off the seawall to reach safety. Boats of all descriptions rook people to Broo klyn, Staten Island, New Jersey and northern Manhattan . New Yo rk Waterways ferries had 23 boats avail able and estimates chat they evacuated about 160,000 people. The C oas t G uard requested the assistance of Sandy Hook Pilots, who brought their 182-foo r pilot boat New York to serve as the On -Scene Commanders' platfo rm thro ugh the evacuation. In som e areas, the visibility was so bad that operators had to navigate by radar and radio to make it safel y to and fro m the island. Other boats tied up to awai t the expected wo unded who never materialized.

Even as people were being evacuated, ship crews heard about the need fo r drinking water, fuel , wo rk boors and heavy equipmenc. T hey pu t our the wo rd wh en they arrived in New Jersey and supplies appeared mys teriously, along with assembly lines of hundreds of people to load boxes and bordes on rhe boats maki ng an ocher trip across the water. Vessel traffic was so fast and furio us on D ay 3 that the Maritime Comm and Center started using hand and flag signals to direct traffic. These efforts to bring virally needed supplies and rescue workers to the scene continued unabated until Friday, D ay 4, when federal authorities and the military took over most services . Bur fo r those fo ur days, the ships and ship owners and crews of N ew Yo rk H arbo r perfo rmed heroically and wo rked together to provide the leadership and the means of solving problems and alleviating conditions in th e midst of chaos. W orkers in the industry are trained to expeq and handle emergencies our of reach of assistance. T hat training stood them and the city in good stead thro ughout the week. ,!,

evacuees, the boat was put in ro service supplying rh e firefighters with water, under her old designatio n of M arine 2. She and two large New Yo rk C ity fireboats spent nearly a week o n the scene. Puron rhe National Register of Hisroric Places las t year, the fireboat received a special National Preservation H onor Award on 18 O crober, fo r her role during the disaster and its aftermath. Qohn]. Harvey Ltd., 100 West 72 nd Street, #6-G, N ew York NY 10023; web site: www. fireboat.org)

South Street Seaport Museum to Record Maritime Community's Response to 11 September The fire boat John J. H arvey

acti vities throughout the week. When the re tired tug was put on the block in 1999 a gro up of supporters outbid the scrappers and resrored h er. A skeleron crew made its way to the fireboat on the morning of th e 11th. Returning to the southern tip of M anhattan after making a run with 150

34

So uth Street Seaport Museum, still awaiting fu ll resro rarion of phones and computer services, is reco rding the participation of the maritime community by conducting oral interviews with ship operarors and crews, volunteers, city officials, and evacuees. An archive of the interviews will be available for researchers in decades to co me and will form the basis for an exhib it

at the museum , funded by a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment fo r the Humanities. (South Street Seaport M useum, 207 Fro nt Street, New Yo rk NY 10038; 2 12 748-8600; web site: www .so u thsrsea po rt.o rg)

SPUN YARN After nine months on hi atus since being purchased for use in a movie based on Patri ck O' Brian 's Aubrey/M aturin series, "HMS" Rose has been moved from her dock in Newport ro the Ameri can Shipyard, where preliminary wo rk is being done.

Word is the movie will be based on the tenth book in the series, The Far Side ofthe World. ("H MS " Rose Newsletter web site: http://www.tallship rose.o rg) . .. T he 1898 steam ferry Berkeley, at th e San Diego Mariti me M useum, has received a matching Save America's Treasures award of $200, 000 from the National Park Service, whi ch will be used to resrore the vessel's rusting a nd thinning hull. (1492 No rth H arbo r Drive, San Diego CA 92 101 ; 6 19 (Continued on page 36)

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 200 1- 02

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These handsome paintings by Willi am G. Muller are beautifully reproduced on notecards pri nted by NMHS. Cards measure 6 1/4 x 4 112 inches. Box of ten with white envelopes: $13.95 (or $ 12.55 for NMHS me mbers). All orders add $3.50 s&h. (NYS residents add app li cable sales tax .) Each box contains one type of card; yo u may request an assortment.

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International Register of Historic Ships

by Norman J. Brouwer The third edition of the World Ship Trust's authoritative Register, published with Sea History Press, is the most comprehensive listing of surviving historic ships ever published, featuring nearly 2,000 hi storic ships from over 50 countries. The Register delivers the full story, providing updates on restoration projects, remains of historic ships preserved in museums, and co ntact information for all the vessels.

Price: $50 for the hardcover edition; $30 softcover, plus $5 each shipping and handlin g in the USA. ($ 10 Fo re ign shipping, surface mail) Price for members oftheNatio na l Mari ti me Hi storical Society (10% member's di scount): $45hc; $27sc + $5 s/h.

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SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

35

SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS 234-9 153; web site: www.sdmaritime.org) ... A fleet of 208 racing yachts co nverged on the Isle of Wight in England for the America's Cup Jubilee celebrating the l 50th a nni ve rsa ry of the inau gur al America's C up Race. Among the vessels,

Vintage yachts crossing (Photo: Jo n Nash!

Louis Vuitton Media Center) which included an impressive roster of previous America's C up co ntenders and winners, were the venerable J-class yachts Endeavour, Shamrock V and Velsheda. For complete information on attendees and race results, check out the web site ar www.americascupjubilee.com . ... The East lndiaman Friendship became the official flagship of Essex Coun ty, Massach usetts, at a commissioning ceremony on 14 July, rhe highlight of three days of maritime festivities. T he fo llowing month, however, rhe mainmas t was split by lighming and will have ro be replaced before sails can be bent on next spring .... Plimoth Plantation is making a new vessel the old-fashioned way. U nder the direction of shipwright Peter Arenstam, and using l 7thcentury tools like rhe broad axe and adze, artisans are building a shallop co mmissioned by the Pilgrim John Howland Society. (PP, PO Box 1620, Plymouth MA 02362; 508 746- 1622, web sire: www . plimorh.org; PJHS ,Jabez H owland House, 33 Sandwich Ave, Plymouth MA 02360 ; 508 746-9590) . .. The World Ship Trust has recognized rhe fo llowing vessels wirh Maritime Heritage Awards : the Liberty sh ips j ohn W Brown and Jeremiah O'Brien, the H anse Cog, rhe Cap San Diego and HMS Trincomalee. (WST, 202 Lambeth Road, London SE l 7JW, UK; (20) 7385 4267; e-mail: ws r@callneruk. com; web sire: www.worldshiprrusr.org) ... In October, rhe New Bedford Whaling Museum accepted the gift of the Kendall Whaling Museum collection, an action which brings rogerher rwo complementary museum col( Continued on page 39)

36

The 6th Maritime Heritage Conference The 6th Mari rime H eritage Conference, held 25-28 October 2001 in Wilmington, North Carolina, hosted by the Bartleship North Carolina, amacred more than 300 parricipanrs from across the country, as well as a few from abroad. Organizers, sponsors and hosts came from a wide range of fields and included rhe National Park Service, the Historic Naval Ships Association, the American Lighthouse Coordi nating Committee, theAmerican Sail T raining Association, the Council of American Mari rime Museums, the National Maritime Alliance, rhe National Maritime Historical Society, and many others. The enthusiasm of the speakers and attendees and the quali ty of the presentations was a resrament ro the vitality, breadth, and growth of the maritime heritage field.

Each of the three plenary sessions provided valuable info rmation as well as topics of interest ro everyone working in maritime history today. T he session on the work being done to recover, preserve and analyze the remains of the Confederate submarine Hunley shows us what can be done when a variety of organizations with different missions come together to develop and fund a project that has captured public interest. Peter Stanford, president emeritus of NMHS, gave us an overview of the history of maritime preservation in this country, and Tim Runyan, directo r of the National Maritime Alliance, outlined rhe steps that have been raken to secure a source of funding for the National Maritime Heritage Act of 1994.

T he rest of the weekend was packed with presentations by leaders in myriad areas of maritime preservation and research, ranging from local North Carolina history, including the excavation of the ship that might be Blackbeard's Queen Anne'.r Revenge, to the highly technical sessions typical of the Ship Preservation Conference, incorporated into this event. Lighthouse sessions abo unded, as did presentations on specific ship saves, educational and outreach programs, and museum management and development.

In addition to the simple sharingofknowledge across the field, we hope that some more general discoveries were made during this excellent conference. First, that there are underlying maritime themes unique to America's past and present that fo rm the basis for all our individual projects and local histories, tharwemust understand and promo re to our audiences. Second, that we must work together to build constituencies for the maritime heritage. T hird, as has been shown in such recent successful projects as the excavations of H unley and Monitor, working across disciplines with government, corporate and grassroots organizations can work wo nders.

Speakers are submitting their presentations and illusrrarions to be put on a web site that will be accessible ar www.barcleshipnc .com/6 rhmaritime. We will ler yo u know when this link comes online. Plans are currently underway for rhe 7th Maritime H eritage Conference, in 2003, and we will keep yo u informed as decisions are made. - JA

Shooting Torpedoes at the 6th Maritime Heritage Conference At the 6th Maritime Heritage Conference, I attended a wide variety of sess ions on topics thar I wo uld have expected ro have covered ar such an event, bur rhe lasr session of the event was unique-"Automating Fire Control and Navigation Aboard USS Pampanito."

As a one-time submariner, I rhoughr I'd give rhis presentation a rry. Terry Lindall, a volunteer, and Richard Pekelny of rhe San Francisco National Maritime Park have resto red to working order the Torpedo Dara Computer (TDC) and gyrocompass of rhe sub marine Pampanito (SS 383). T he TDC is an analog computer th at calculated the gyro angle fo r a straight running World War II torpedo so rhar it would hir rhe rarger. Ir rook more rhan three years to resto re the TDC, equivalent to working fu ll time for about rwo months. To complete their wo rk rhey had to find technicians and engineers who plied rheir trade fifty or more years ago, technical manuals rhe Navy no longer kept, and companies rhar fulfilled governm ent co ntracts in WWII. T he Torpedo Dara Computer is now operating ar wartime specifications and rhe gyrocompass is providing usable output for navigation. All rhis work was put inro perspective when in thei r summary Terry and Richard pointed out that, just as Karl Kortlilm's wo rk saved marlinspike seamanship for future generations, at Pampanito they have documented what needed to be done for the TDC and gyro ro preserve the skills of rhe WWII era fo r the future.

I learned many lessons at this conference. Perhaps t!he m ost important was that maritime history comes in many dimensions. -BRADFORD D. SMITH, NMHS Trustee

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

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We thought we'd experiment with a new department. We would love to get feedback ftom you on this idea. (,4nswers on page 40)

ACROSS The objective of the monkeys on the Ming porcelain bowl 6 The captain of thi s whaling ship had no good boat steerer in the Pacific in 1843.

10 Porcelain s from this dynasty are on display in San Diego 11 Des ignation for a 3 1foot canoe 16 A fantastica l bridge linking two porr cities in a Garnett painting 18 Melville claims to have held this position during his whaling days 20 C urrent name of the port used as an antisub warfare base in WWI. 23 C alled "the father of destroyer tactics" 25 In 1743, this English commodore captured a Spanish galleon loaded with more than 256 chests of silver 28 H erman Melville's brilliant and articulate older brorher 3 1 In 191 7, rhe German government secrerly proposed rh is wirh Mexico 32 Hudson 's Bay Company vessels were used in rhis industry 35 An Dictionary ofthe Marine 36 A center of world trade in rhe 19rh as well as rhe 20rh centuries 38 Lighter and narrower rhan a trading canoe 39 Mari rime arrifacr discovered in rhe excavations fo r the World Trade Center 40 Midshipman Falconer's ship mer 1rs fate here 4 1 T he firsr chapter of Moby-Dick 42 Name used fo r the Span ish galleons that broughr luxury goods from C hina

DOWN 2 Aboriginal American warercrafr 3 Falconer's poem in rhree cantos

38

4 Germany resumed rhis kind of submarine warfare on 1 February 1917.

5 ANovaScoriasireina Garnettpainring 7 Howard C happelle claimed rhese Koorenay canoes "paddle well in rhe wind."

8 Midshipman Falconer's doo med warship in 1760 9 Melville's novel abour life ar sea aboard a US Navy ship in rhe 1840s 12 Aristo tle wrore rhat "The city is rhe reacher of 13 Massachuserrs whaling port from which Melville sai led in 184 1 14 Commander of rhe fleet in which Falconer sailed in 1760 15 Irish porr rhar became th e center of antisubm arine operations in WWI. 17 H e docum ented rhe design of abo riginal American warercrafr 19 Constitution cruise in Garnerr painting

21 Melvi lle moved to rhis prairie srare to seek his fortune 22 Author of rhe Dictionary ofthe Marine, who went down with Aurora 24 Nova Scoria racing schooner in painting by Garnett 26 Treasure ship raken by HMS Centurion 27 A commemorative si lver container presented to the British admiral in charge of rhe "Pull-Togerher" naval command 29 Mexican destination of the Spanish treasure galleons 30 Galleon _ _ _ scoured rhe Pacific in search of the laden treasure ships 31 Melvi lle's first whal ing ship 33 T he Zimmerman _ _ _ helped precipitate US entry in to WWI 34 Cellulose fibers used in rhe restoration of models at T he Mariners' M useum 37 Peninsula w h ere a treas ure rrove from a losr Spanish galleon was found

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 200 1-02

lections. W hil e th e Kendall W haling M useum, formerly located in Sharo n, Massachuestts, is closing its facilities, its mission and name live on in the new Ke ndall Institute, th e library, academic studies and publications division of the merged museum .

(1 8 Johnny Cake Hill , New Bed fo rd MA 02740-6398; 50 8 997-0046; we b site: whalingmuseum.org) ... England's National Maritime Museum h as bee n awarded ÂŁ1 .64 million in Natio n al Lottery funds to create a new internet-based learning resource based on its collections.

U nder the bann er "Port C ities," the museum will coordinate the production of a range of new, linked web sites by a consortium of maritime organizatio ns and archives in Southampto n, Bristol, Hartlepool, Liverpool, Portsmo uth and Lo ndon . T he project will make the m useums' vas t collecti ons access ible fo r viewingo nline. (G reenwich, Lond on SE lO 9NF, UK; web site: www. nmm .ac. uk) . .. Archaeologis ts resumed excavating the remains of the Confederate submarine Hunley in October after a summer break and expect to remove the rest of the arti facts fro m the bulkheads and from beneath the crew's ben ch . An X-

ray of Lt. Geo rge Dixon's clothin g shows what may be a metal clasp, perhaps part of a log or journal. (Friends of the Hunley, 255 King Street, Charleston SC 29401 ; 843 722-2333; e- mail : foth @hunley.o rg; web site: www.hunley.org) . .. A ship fr om the early 1500s, found near th e tow n of Po rtobelo , Panama, may be La Vizcaina, a ship in Columbus's fleet during his las t voyage to the New World.

INVENI PORTAM LudwigK. Rubinsky (1920- 200l)joined the U S Coast Guard as apprentice seaman in 1940 and retired 25 years later as lieutenant commander. H e then fo unded a marine electronics firm , Electronautical Equipmem . Joining N MHS with his great friend Schuyler M . M eyer, Jr. , then ch airman of the Society, Lud became a trustee and later honorary trustee. H e was a grand story-teller and valued counselor. Besides his wife Jean, he is survived by his daughters Jane and M elissa Rubinsky.

Michael Katzev (1939-2001 ), the archaeologist who led the team that located and recovered the 2,300-year-old Kyrenia ship, died in September. After preserving the origi-

nal vessel, at the time the best preserved ship of that period, he directed the reconstruction of the ship, Kyrenia 11, fo r the G reek government, fo llowing traditional shipbuilding methods as closely as possible.

Philip Chadwick Foster Smith ( 19402001 ) was a leading fo rce in maritime histo ry in this co untry. H e served as curato r of maritime history at the Peabody (now Peabody Essex) M useum, managing edi to r of The American Neptune, maritime curator at the museum of the Boston Society, curato r and historian at the Philadelphi a M aritime (now Independence Seapo rt) Museum, and was a founding member of the No rth American Society of O ceanic History. H e retired to Maine, where he joi ned an ac tive community of maritime historians, m useum directors and curato rs, and seamen. "Ch ad," recalls his friend C harles Burden, "was a natural fo r th e gro up and meetings at his house or co ttage we re the most elegantly provisioned ." H e was "an erstwhile humorist and publisher who produced a few fine ribtickling booklets under his Renfrew Press private brand" in addition to more than a 1, dozen scholarly books.

The Art of the Sea Calendar for 2002 T he Visolette Lo upe is a unique combin ation of condenser and 2. 7X m agnifier. Its ability to bundl e am bi ent light m akes the reading within the glass easier. T hi s 65mm (2.5") djam eter lens is precision ground and polished , mounted in a solid brass rin g wi th anti-slip bottom and enclosed in a solid walnut case. It m akes a stunning additio n to any chart table or desk and a bea utiful an d useful gift for any fl at piece collector.

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SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001 - 02

Conte mporary arti sts brin g our maritime heritage to glorious life in images of hi stori c vessels ran ging from full-ri gged ships and gaff-rigged fi shing schooners, to America's Cup yachts, grand ocean liners, and working tugs. Royalties from sa les of this calendar benefit the National Maritime Hi storical Society.

Wall hanging, full color calendar, 11" x 14" is $11.95 ($ 10.75 fo r NMHS members) + $3 .50 s/h (NYS residents add applicable sales tax). Send check or money order to:

NMHS, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566

Or to order by credit card , phone: 1

800 221-NMHS (6647) 39

SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS "I WAS THERE"

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AMERICAN MERCHANT MARINE MUSEUM N EWS L IBERTY SHIP ARRlVES AT KINGS POINT: T he Am erican M erchant Marine Museum is pleased ro anno unce that the 17' m odel of the Liberty ship SS Zebulon Pike is now berthed in "O " D eck in Delano H all . T he model com es to Kings Po int as a gift of its builder, the la te Wally Leiper, KP '42, with the assistan ce of Museum Board member Neil E. Jon es .

Liberty sh ips served as Am erica's respo nse to the eno rmous losses suffe red by Allied shipping durin g the first rwo yea rs of Wo rld War II. Although Franklin Roosevelt referred to them as "dreadful looking objects," they played a critical ro le in winning the war. Emerging fro m shipyards on both coasts, Libertys ushered in revolutionary tech n iques in shipbuilding, including prefabri cation and welding; they averaged 10,000 tons with a top speed ofaround 11 kno ts.

Originally esti m ated to take 110 days to build, shipyards soon d ropped the average to under 40 days; in late 1942, a Liberty ship was built in less than 5 days. By the end of the war, shi pya rds had co nstructed 2,75 1 Liber ty ships, makin g it one of the largest classes of m erchant vessels.

T hey served in all theaters of WWII, but are best remembered for their du ty in the North Atlantic convoys where their crews braved U- boat- in fes ted wa ters, bitrer cold and violent wea ther to transport sup plies to Alli ed rroo ps.

The m odel of the no ted SS Z ebulon Pike occup ies a place of hon or. Buil t enirely by hand, the model is rhe lasting legacy of Kings Point alum nus and merchant marine veteran W ally Leiper. In craftin g the ship , Leiper rook special no tice of minute details and even m ade several model sailors, who m an vario us pan s of the vessel.

T he model, which until recen tly had been used by the American M erchant M arine Ve terans fo r public events, has been featured in several television stories in the greater Denver area. T his new acquisition- a rem inder of th e perseverance and heroism ofAmerican merchant m arinersis well worch a visit to D elano Hall.

-KENNEDY R. HICKMAN with L! NOJA fASBAC H , Executive D irector AMMM, USMMA, Kings Point NY 11024; 5 16 113-55 15; e- m ail: ammmuseum @aol.com

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

CALENDAR Festivals, Events, Lectures •Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, 19-24 April 2001; ph/fax: 286 460- 1799; email: classic@candw.ag; web si te: www .antiguaclass ics.com Conferences •Council on America's Military Past: 10-14 July 2002 , 36th Annual Mili tary History Conference in San Juan PR (CAMP '02, PO Box 11 51, Fort Myer VA 222 11 ; 703 912-6124; e-mail: camphartl @ao l. com) • International Congress of Maritime Museums: 8-13 September 2002, 11 th T ri ennial Congress in Grado, Italy, and Portoro se, Slove nia (Peter Ce rce, Pomorski Muzej "Sergej Masera" (Mari time Museum), PO Box 103-DI-6330 Piran, Slovenia; e-mail: peter.cerce@ pommuz-pi.si) • International Economic History Congress: 22- 26 July 2002, 13th Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina (U niversidad de San Andres, Vito Dumas 284, (1644) Victoria, Buenos Aires, Argentina; fax: (54 11 ) 4725-701 0; e-mail: ehconba@ udesa.edu.ar; web sire: www.eh .net/ XIII Congress/) • "Nathaniel Bowditch: The Art and Science of Navigation, 1802-2002": 8-10 November 2002, CAIL FOR PAPERS on the state of the maritime sciences and commerce ofBowdirch'sage as well as the legacy of his contributions; proposals of not more than 250 words and a one-page c.v. must be received by 31 March 2002 (Send to D r.

Dane Morrision, Chair, Department of History, Salem State College, 352 Lafayette Street, Salem MA01970; 978 542-7 134; email: dane.morrison@salemstate.edu; web site: www.nathanielbowdirch.org) •Royal Military College of Canada War Studies Programme: 7-8 March 2002, 2nd Symposium: "Intelligence, CounterTerrorism, and Special Operations" (Prof.

B. J. C. McKercher, War Studies Programme, Royal Military College ofCanada, PO Box 17000 Sm Forces, Kingston O N, K7K 7B4, Canada; fax: 613 536-4801 ) Exhibits •Australian National Maritime Museum: 12 Ap ril 200 1- 21 Ap ril 2002, "Gold Rush-The Australian Experience" (GPO 513 1, Sydney NSA, A usrraSEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001- 02

lia 1042; (2) 9298 3644; fax: (2) 9298 3660; web sire: www.anmm .gov.au) •Boston University, Mugar Memorial Library: 11 September 2001 - May 2002, "Tempest Tossed: the Life of Sterling Hayden, Author, Adventurer, Acto r" (77 1 Commonwealth Avenue, Bosto n MA 02215; 617 353-3696; e- mail: speccol@ bu.edu; web site: www.bu.edu/speccol) •USS Hornet Museum: fro m October 200 1, "Boomerangs and Roostertails": Cold War Anti-S ubmarine Warfare in the Pacific (Pier 3 Alameda Point, PO Box 460, Alameda CA 94501 ; 510 5218448; e-mail : info@uss-hornet.org; web site: www. uss-hornet.org) • Independence Seaport Museum: from 19 October 2001 , "Olympia: Launching the American Centuty," a new permanent exhibit (Penn's Landing at 211 South Columbus Blvd. & Walnut Sr., Philadelphia PA 19106-3199; 215 925-5439; fax: 215 925-67 13; web site: seaporr.philly.com) • The Mariners' Museum: 2 December 2000- 14 April 2002, "Legend H as It," artifacts with unusual stories beh ind their origins, acquisition or exhibition (100 Museum Drive, Newport News VA 23606-3759; 757 596-2222; web site: www.mariner.org) • Maritime Museum of the Atlantic: from Autumn 2001 , "Shipwreck Treasures ofNova Scotia"; through early 2002, "Theodore Tugboat and The Big Harbour," models and sets used in the television series (1675 Lower Water Street, Halifax NS , B3J 1S3, Canada; web site: museum.gov. ns.ca/mma/) •National Museum of Science and Technology (Canada): 21June2000-21 October 2002, "Canoes: The Shape of Success" (1867 Sr. Laurent Boulevard, PO Box 9724, Station T , Ottawa ON, K l G 5A3, Canada; 613 991-2044; web site: www.science-rech.nmsrc.ca) •The Navy Museum: from 7 December 2001, "Visions oflnfamy: Pearl H arbor Remembered" (Washington Navy Yard, 805 Kidder Breese Street, SE, Washington DC 20374-5060; 202 433-6897; web sire: www.history.navy.mi l) •San Diego Maritime Museum: 4 November 2001 - Jan uary 2003, "T reasures of the Manila Galleons" (1492 N. Harbor Dr., San Diego CA 92101; 619 2349 153; web site: www.sdmari time.org)

CLEARANCE SALE

ANYBOOK$10 NMHS is clearing our shelvesGREA T BOOK BARGAINS A Seafaring Legacy: The Photographs, Diaries, Letters a nd Memorabilia of a Maine Sea Captain a nd His Wife, 1859-1908, by Julianna FreeHand. New York, 198 1. 2 1Opp. Hardcover. (orig. $ 18.50) A treasure trove of documents and photographs from Sumner and Alice Drinkwater through voyages and li fe at home in Maine.

1:1

Tall ShipsofNewburY(>Ort: The Montana, The Whittier , The Nearchus , by .

Geo rge W. Goodwin , edited -by Freda Morrill Abra ms.

Ohio, 1989. 63p p. Paperback. (orig . $ 14.95) A mate 's vivid accoun t of life aboard three postCivil War ships in the East Indi es and Cape Horn trade.

The Medley of Mast and Sa il : A Camera Record , Volume 2.

Bri ghton, 198 l. 493pp. Hardcover. (o ri g. $25) 525 photograph s of many of the world ' s va ni shed sailin g craft, great and sma ll , within commentary by ship masters and other ex perts.

Shipwrecks and Archaeology: The Unha r vested Sea, by Peter Throckmorton. London, J970. 278pp. Hardcover. (ori g. $ 19.80) A pioneer in the fi eld of marine archaeology describes some of the excavations he carried out and the hi storical riches to be fo und in shipwrecks. ~~~.~

Manhattan Seascape: Waterside - - Views Around New York , by Robert Gambee. New York , 1975. 256pp.

Hardcover. (orig. $ 15 ) A photo- - - grap hi c ex ploration in black and white of ew York 's waterfront in the early 1970s, with text in prose and poetry.

Ships and Memories, by Bi II Adam s.

Bri ghton , 1975 . 449pp. Hardcover. (ori g . $28.50) Th e sto ry of the author's years in the four-masted bark Silberhorn as told in hi s book Ships and Women , with memories and refl ections from hi s Letters and photographs and drawings.

NY State residents ad d appli cable sales tax . Add $5 s&h (fo r more th an one book, ca ll fo r shipping costs). To order, send a check with list of boo ks to

NMHS PO Box 68 Peekskill NY 10566 For credit card ord ers call

1 800 221-NMHS (6647) 41

IEWS The Waterman's Song: Slavery and Free- the antislave ry movement, as it had been dom in Maritime North Carolina, by since shortly before the American RevoluDavid S. Cecelski (University of North ti on, when in 1772 all slaves in Britain and Ca rolina Press, C hapel Hill NC, 2001 , Canada were freed .

288 pp, illus, notes , ISBN 0-8078-2643-X; The sto ry of how free black seamen $39.95 hc; ISBN 0-8078-4972-3; $ l 7.95 pb) built an oceani c network of information T his lively, deeply researched accouJl( and support fo r slaves seeking freedom is traces tl1ree centuries of black watermen 's too little known, but it co nstitutes the experi ence on che North Carolina coas t. invisible movement that made freedom The story ranges from the desulrimately an irresiscible force.

W e need a wider oceanic perperate labor of enslaved African Am ericans digging the Dismal spective to appreciate chis epSwamp Canal, which conneC[ed ochal development, which led the fl ourishing cities of the to the outlawing of slave ry for the first time in hiscory.

C hesapeake with the scruggli ng Cecelski's account, however, settlements of the reef-strewn Carolina coas t, to the freer and does provide a clearly docuSl.AVERJ AND ~EEDOM iN more open society of black pimented picrnre of the freedom lo[S and boatmen who moved MARjTiME NOJUH ~OliNA movement in No rth Carolina, goods and people along the wawith its ago nies and setbacks as DAViD S.CECE~ki terways in an Q[herwise praC[iwell as its moments of joy and cally trackless land, and the fis hing com- achievement. And tracin g ch e sto ry down muni6es in which skills, ini6a6ve and hard to the present day with its memories of past wo rk paid off for slaves working side by battles and coJl(inuing efforts to achieve side with whites. In sirnations where one full rights for African Americans, he finds person 's life often depended upon close solace and hope in the very narnre of life cooperation with a person of different race, along che waterways which he has known a kind of rough-and-rnmble equ ality since childhood. "I will always suspect, " he emerged. Co nsiderable numbers of blacks says, "that Afri can Am ericans, slave and were able to buy m eir freedom in chis more free, found cheir hopes uplifted and their open economy-and because of friends lives unbounded merely by che nearness of and fa mily they often stayed within the the sea .. .. I have never known a soul who system, working side by side with their did nor. " enslaved companions. But as the author PETER STAN FORD points om, "a waterman 's life could exist Editor at Large o nl y in a dynamic tension wich a syscem of human bondage."

The Chinese Steam Navy, 1862-1945, by Cecelski shows a sure and sensiri ve to uch Richard N.]. Wright (N aval Inscirnte Press, in depiccing the experience of life within Annapolis MD, 2000, 208pp, illus, noces, me backwa ter communities, which included index, ISB 1-861 7-6 144-9; $48.95hc) "Indian refugees from che Tuscaro ra W ar, This valuable resource covers a period the mixed-race children of Indian women when C hina creaced a navy offoreign-builr and English traders, runaway slaves, and a sceamships comprising, in the auchor's smattering of castaways and deserters who words, "a surprising range of innovative clung cenaciously to their new liberty." craft, which co uld truly be said to be at the D espice the remote loneliness of the cutting edge of the technology of the Victoinland sounds, which one can feel sailing rian era. " D espite a confusing sequence of these waters today, the ideas and actual political events, the disintegration of cenpros pects of freedom filtered in from the tralized auchori ry, a discrepan cy between wider Atlantic world . Free blacks had be- technology and training, and interruptions co me a significant presence in that ocean in fundin g, there was a continuous thread wo rld by th e mid- l 700s. Cecelski traces of enterprise and ingenui ty in naval policy, how the message of freedom came th ro ugh reflected in a succession of technically addesp ite all efforts to stop ic, and how indi - vanced and interesting wa rships. vidual black leaders followed the call to sea.

Perhaps the most telling part of the H e stops short of recognizing London as book is its demonstration of th e depenth e center of information and support for dence of a navy on economi c and political

f

42

stabili ty. Long-term commitment to funding must be follo wed by support of a broad industrial base, fo r ports, dockya rds, and sources o f supply for fuel and munitions.

Equally, th ere is need for continui ty, to allow fo r recruitmeJl( and education of officers and men, fo r training, and to ensure institutional control of the whole. T he C hinese N avy enj oyed only intermittent support from government over this peri od.

Conditions in the C hina of the late 1800s are symbolized by the decorati ve M arble Boat at the Summer Palace at Peking, built by the Dowager Empress to celebrace her birthday and constructed with money diverted from the Sea D efense Fund.

The result of mis state of affairs is vividly illustrated in the Battle of Yalu in 1894.

C hina's two German-builr battleships we re the strongest vessels present, they withstood en emy gun fire impressively, and infliC[ed serious damage on the Japanese; the Japanese only narrowly prevailed . Bm a proj ectile that made a direct hit on a Japanese cruiser fired from a 10.4-inch gun on the Chinese battleship Ping Yuen was found to co ntain not high explosive, but cement.

T he book describes in detail the genesis of che des ign, construction, and careers of all the ships in che C hin ese navy. T hey include iron Rendel gunboats built by the British firm ofArmstrong, inexpensive shallow-draft vessels mounting monstrous guns.

T hese we re followed by G erman-bui It steel battleships, which were equal to the bes t in Europe in 1882 and far superior to anything possessed by th e Royal N avy on the China Sta tion, or by any other navy in the Far East. Fo reign-builr ships were joined by small er, more co nve ntional vessels built in China's own naval dockyards.

After the Sino-Japanese W ar of 189495 when Japan decimated the Chinese fl eet, the C hin ese were back in the market for ships, acquiring the latest protected cruisers from Armstrong togeth er with li ght cruisers from Germany, as well as a flotill a of high-speed German torpedo boat descroyers suffi cientl y advanced to attract special attention from W escern navies.

From 1937Chinawassubjected tocreeping aggression in an undeclared war with Japan. T h e process co ntinued into the Second Wo rld W ar, and the C hinese navy was th e first to experience the crippling effect of modem ae rial warfare on ships operatin g in rivers and constri cted coas tal wa ters.

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001- 02

Come Sail With Us on SEA CLOUD from Venice to Athens with visits to Opatia, Korcula, Dubrovnik, Corfu and Kithera. \

At left, the beautiful Sea Cloud under sail. Above, the carved mahogany dining rooms where we will enjoy excellent meals and impeccable service.

JoinNMHS members and staff from 30 August to 10 September 2002!

With Peter Stanford as guide on this voyage into history, we'll visit storied seaports of the Venetian world.

Friday , 30 Aug ust: Depart the US for Venice.

Saturday, 3 1 Aug: Arrive Venice, transfer to the hotels Danieli a nd Europa Regin a. Welcome dinner at the D ani e li 's rooftop restaurant with its g rand view.

Sunday, I Sept: Morning walking tour of Piazza and Basilica San Marco and the Palazzo Duca le. Afternoon boat ride to Murano, Burano and finally Torcell o, where we will visit the 1,000-year-o ld cathedral and then the restored l 7thcentury Laconda Cipriani villa for dinner in e legant surroundings.

Monday, 2 Sept: Morning free for shopping or touring . 3:00pm tran sfer to

Sea Cloud.

Tuesday, 3 Sept: Morning arriva l in Opatia and excursion to Lipica , nea r the Ita lian border. We will visit the 400-yearo ld home of the famous Li pica , o r

Lippizzaner, horses with a guided tour of the stud farm and stables and a performance by the horses. After a local lunch , we will visit the famo us Postojna Caves, consistin g of 20 kilometers of of chambers and hall s.

Wednesday, 4 Sept: Enj oy a day at sea.

Thursday, 5 Sept: Morning arrival at the island of Corcula, the ancient walled capital of Croatia and one of the bestpreserved medieval towns of the Adriatic. We will visit the birthplace of M arco Polo and the 700-year-old St. Peter's Church, while enjoying the architecture of Greeks, Rom ans, Illyrians, French, Britons, Croatians and Venetians.

Friday, 6 September: Morning sa il to Dubrovnik (a nc ient Rag usa), the walled port c ity ri ch in culture and hi story and o n the UNESCO World Heritage li st.

Saturday, 7 Sept: Morning sail to the lovely Greek island of Corfu (a ncient Corcyra) , where we will visit the elegant

building of Expl anadeto, the Old Fort and the Church of St. George by horse-drawn carri ages, fo llowed by a scenic bu s tour of the island.

Sunday , 8 Sept: Full day at sea.

Monday, 9 Sept: Morning arrival at Kith era. The island is the legendary birthplace of Aphrodite, and its capita l is a mode l of Venetian architecture dominated by a Veneti an castle of 1503.

Tuesday , 10 Sept: Arrival in Piraeus, hi stori c seaport of Athens , and transfer to a irport. (Ask about our Athens extension!)

For Info rmati on and Reservations:

ANNEMARIE VICTORY ORGANIZATION, INC. 136 East 64th St. , New York, NY 1002 l

Tel: 212-486-0353 Fax: 212-751-3149

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Al l the books are beautifully produced, and all are auth o ritati ve. The Chinese Steam Navy handso m ely meets expectations. lA MARSHALL Southwes t H arbor, Maine

AN IRREGULAR SORT OF LIFE

by C. Dana Densmore (Revie1ved in 2001 Winter issue of Sea Hi story)

309pp.

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An Irregular Sort of Life, by C. Da na Densmore (C. D ana D ensmore, Wes t Falmouth MA, 2000 , 309pp , illus, ISBN 09645207-1-0; $23pb incl . shipping) Available fro m rh e author at PO Box 116, W es t Falmo uth MA 02574.

D ana Densmore, who in 1995 wrote and published A -Boat, an annotated and illustrated jo urnal of six cruises on the Woods H ole Oceanographic Institution's o riginal ketch Atlantis, has done it again .

This volume covers 50 years of wo rki ng on the wo rld's ocea ns in yachts, wo rkboats, fis hing boars and ocean ographi c vessels. It detailsaseriesof cruises from 1957to 1985 aboard Crawfo rd, Atlantis II, Calypso, Planet, Chain, and j ean Charcot, among others, ending up on Delaware. D ensmore, bo rn in 1920, is an intellectual sort of guy and one of the las t of rhe breed known locally as lee-rail wa ter ca tchers, a term relati ng directly back to the lee rail of the old Atfantis, when water samples were take n by less sophisticated means rhan today.

Before spending the war running a bulldozer in a C B battalion on Iwo Jima and other isles, h e started seago ing on a W orld War I co nverted subchaser towing targets for the Army Coast D efense forces in New York H arbo r. After rhe war and a stint at harpooning sword fis h, he went to work fo r WHO!, cali bra ting thermometers and handling water samplers and related gear over the side and becoming a scientific watch stander. H e sailed on various WHOI ships as well as on Cousteau's Calypso and other fo reign vessels, where the food was sometimes very good and the wine mess better than at home.

His perso nal journals, fleshed out to make a very readable narrative, are on the one hand replete with references to fam ous oceanograph ers and other lesser known shipmates w·hose nicknames at times confuse the story. Bur read a li rde less intensively, th ey g ive a marvelous and unique feel for what ir was like to be out therewith some of the idiosyncratic and wonderfully

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001 - 02

wacky people char made up rheship's co mpany and rhe scientific parry. D ensm o re has a deft couch and uses elegant turns of phrase in his vivid descriptions of people we'll never meet and places we' ll never go .

A n I rregular Sort of Life is a small gem worth raking rhe trouble to obtain.

T OWNSEND H ORNO R O srerville, M assachusetts

The Slave Ship Fredensborg, by Leif Svalesen, translated by Pat Shaw and Selena W insnes (Indiana U niversity Press, Bloomington IN, 2000 , 244pp, illus, sources, ISBN 0-25 3-33777- 1; $45 hc) T he D anish slave ship Fredensborg wo rked the triangular trade fro m Copenhagen to Africa's G old Coas t and the D anish W es t Indies. A fourth leg was the link ro India established after 161 6 with the creSchooner Passage: Sailing Ships and the ation of the D anish East Indi a Co mpany.

Lake Michigan Frontier, by T heodore J. Textiles and cowrie shells came to CopenKaramanski (Wayne Scare University Press, hage n from India and we re used as curDetroit MI, in association with T he C hi - rency in the G old Coast to buy slaves, who cago M ari rime Society, 2001 , 272 pp, illus, we re transported to sugar plancations on index, ISBN 0-8 143-2911-X; $34.95h c) rh e Danish islands of Sr. T homas, Sr. John The schooners char sailed rhe G rear Lakes and Sr. C roix. T hese islands became rhe for most of the 1800s proved surprisingly US Virgin Islands after their purchase in res ili ent against competition from steam 19 17 . Slaves worked on plantati ons whose power. Karamanski explores rhe survival o f raw brown suga r was carried ro Copenthese vessels in the midst of the 19th-cen- hagen where icwas refin ed in rowhite sugar, tury history of rhe Lake Michigan fronti er. whi ch was traded by D anish merchants for His most interesting points deal with eco- great sums of money. nomic and political matters such as the T he triangul ar trade wo rked well fo r the captains who made fortunes transporting merchants. Between 1670 and 1807 about timber and agricultural produces, che col- 3,000 voyages we re made between the W est laboration of politicians and merchants ro Indies and D enmark in about 260 ships develop Lake Michigan pores, and the ef- th at held passes to sa il the triangular route. fect of rhe Erie Canal on the growth of D anish-Norwegian ships ca rri ed nearly schooner trade and transportation .

85, 000 African slaves across rhe Atlantic.

T he author builds th e story of these A nother 15 ,000 we re sold on the Gold ships from in fo rmation painstaki ngly as- Coast. The traffi c in slaves was abolished in sembled from newspapers of th at era. In 1803, alth ough slavery concinued in rhe the first three chapters-"The Evolu tion D anish West Indies until 1848. of rhe Lake Michigan Sch oo ner," "Th e The Fredensborg sailed rhe tri angular M aritim e Fronti er," and "Before the M as t ro ute in 1767-68, a journey las ting well and the Helm" -Karamanski skillfully ex- over a year. T he ship was en ro ute ro Coploits the growingliceratureon sailing ships penhage n when she struck rocks and sank on the G reat Lakes and abundant local along che southern N orwegian coast. Bur histories . In Chapter 4 , "Schooner C iry," death was stalking the ship earlier. Eleven about a quarter of the author's references percent of the 26 5 slaves aboard perished are ro contemporary newspapers, provid- on rhe three-month crossing from che G old ing a fascinating look in to 19th-century Coast ro the W est Indies. M ortaliryof crew C hicago growing into Sandburg's big- members was even higher at 38 percent. shouldered city. The fin al chapter d eals T he Fredensborgwas di scovered by local with shipwrecks and the sea lore of Lake dive rs in 197 4 who wisely in fo rmed offiMichigan . cials and the sraff of the N orwegian MariScholars will be fascin ated by som e of time Museum in O slo; laws are in place to the interesting political and economic ques- protect shipwrecks in No rwegian waters. tions touched upon , bur disappointed with T he most impress ive arti fac ts removed ini the lack of depth in th e discussion of these tially were elephant tusks. Dive r and auissues. Enthusiasts of the lore of sailing thor Leif Svalesen, who was later awarded ships in the G rear Lakes will get more than half of rhe rusks as a rewa rd, used docutheir money's wo rth. ments ac the D anish National Archives ro ANTH ONY J. PAPALAS w rite che histo ri cal part of the book. A Ease Carolina U ni versity seco nd part foc uses on the obj ects recovG reenville, N orth Carolina ered from rhewreck sice, an examination of

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001 - 02

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OWNER'S STATEMENT Sraremem fil ed I 0/0 I /0 l requ ired by the Act of Aug. 12, 1970, Sec. 3685, T ide 39, US Code: Sen History is published quarterly ar 5 John Walsh Blvd., Peekski ll NY I 0566; minimum subscrip rion prjce is $ 17.50. Publisher and ediror-in-chief is Parrick j . Ga rvey: edicor is Juscine Ahlscrom; owner is Na riona l M ari rime Histori cal Sociery, a no n-profi t

corpo ra rion; all are locared ar 5 John Walsh Blvd., Peekskill NY I0566. Duri ng rhe 12 momhs preceding October 200 I rh e average number of (A) co pies primed each issue was

25,295; (B) paid and/o r requesred circularion was: ( I) ourside-coun ry mai l subscriptio ns I 1,866; (2) in-co un ry subscriptio ns O; (3) sales ch rough dea lers, ca rri ers, co umer

sales, orher non- USPS paid distriburion 85 1; (4) orher classes mailed rhrough USPS 64 0; (C) rora l paid and/o r requesred circularion was 13,357; (D) free distribution by mai l, samples, complimentary and orher I 0,949; (E) free d ist ributio n outside the mai ls 97; (F) rota! free d istrib utio n

was 11 ,046; (G) rora l distribution 24,4 03; (H) copies nor disrribu red 892; (I) rora l [of 15G and HJ 25,295; U) [)erce nrage paid a nd /or reques red circu lat ion 55% . The acrua l nu mbers for rhe single iss ue preceding O ctober 200 I

are: (A) ro ra l number printed was 25,000; (B) paid and/o r req uested circulatio n was ( I) ourside-co unry ma il subscrip-

tions 11,455; (2) in-counry subscriprions O; (3) sales rhro ugh dealers, ca rri ers, counter sales, other no n- USPS

paid disrriburion 466; (4) orher classes mailed rh rough USPS 630; (C) roral paid and /or requesred circulation was 12,55 1; (D) free distribution by mail, samples, complimenrary and other 11,545; (E) free d istribution ourside the mails O; (F) rora l free d isrriburion was 11 ,545; (G) ro ral disrriburion 24,096; (H) copies not distribu ted 904; (I) roral [of 15G and HJ 25,000; U) Percentage paid and/or requested circu lation 52%. I ce rri fy thar the above srarcmenrs are co rrect and complete. (s igned) Parrick J. G arvey, Presidcnr, Nati o nal M aririm e Histo rical Sociery.

46

Sr. Croix, and the autho r's jo urney to the Gold Coast in 1995 .

Svalesen 's pilgrimage to the contemporary Gold Coast resulted in shock and reflection, and a reconsideration of rhe rol e of the Danes in the slave trade and the part played by th e Fredensborg. T he impressive walls of Fort Christiansborg, Fort Elmina or Cape Coast Castle where slaves we re held for embarkation to the Caribbean and elsewhere stand as monum ents to the slave expenence.

Public outreach is a key elem ent in the archaeology of the Fredensborg. Products include two books, a book for children , a monument commemoratin g th e ship unveiled by representati ves of G hana, and a traveling exhibit o rganized by the N o1wegian M aritime Museum with exhibits in Sr. Croix and G hana. The discovery of the Fredensborg put D enm ark and N orway o n the Slave Ro ute Proj ect of U N ESCO . U nderwater archaeology provided the m eans to illuminate a fo rgo tten chapter in the history of the transArl antic slave trade.

TI MOT H Y

J. R UNYAN

East Carolina U ni versity G reenvill e, No rth Carolina The Price of Disobedience: The Battle of the River Plate Reconsidered, by Eric ]. Grove (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis MD, 2000, 189 pp, illus, notes, index, !SB 1-5 5750-429-6; $32.95 hc) In this new assessm ent of the almost forgotten Barrie of the Ri ve r Plate, fou ght in D ecember 1939 between the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee and the British heavy cruiser Exeter with the rwo light cruisers Aj ax and Achilles, the autho r foc uses o n the specifi c o rders given to the German captain , H ans Wilhelm Langsdorff-"Co mbat action, even agai nst inferior forces [is] not an aim in itsel f and is therefore not ro be soughr"-and his decision ro disregard th em.

GrafSpee, designed as a co mmerce raider that could outrun any ship that could outgun her and o urgun any speedi er ship, had sail ed out undetected in ro the Atlantic fro m Kiel ten days before th e war started in September 1939 . Langsdorff' s missio n was to attack m erchant shipping, and in the next few m onths she m anaged to find and sink nine lightly arm ed o r unarmed British merchant ships, fortunatel y without loss of li fe, in the South Atlantic and Indian

O ceans. Pi ckin gs we re slim, however, and Langsdorff moved to So uth America, to th e Rive r Plate area, where ships laden with meat and grain would provide rich cargoes.

W a tching and waiting th ere was th e commander of rhe SourhAn1erican Srario n of rhe South Atlantic Division of rh e Royal Navy , Co mm o d o re H e nr y " Bo bb y" H arwood. Appointed in 193 6, he had char m ed his way up and down rhe east coast of South An1erica, making fri ends wherever he we nt.

Aware of Graf Spee's trail of sinkings, Harwood surmised th at Langsdorff would head for the richer h unring grounds th at he patro ll ed. And he would be there ro meet rhe German ship . Sure enough, by daw n's earl y light on 13 D ecember, the two enemies spotted each orher and in less than 90 minutes all fo ur ships were badly battered, so bad ly that the wounded Langsdorffbroke off th e actio n and headed for Montevideo, a neutral po rt where he hoped to make his ship seawo rth y. T he Exeter, too, was not fir to fi ght and was sent back to base in th e Falkland Islands. M eanwhile the two light cruisers patro ll ed the estuary to keep th e battleship bottled up .

Fo r th e next few days H a1wood's prewar schmoozing paid off. N othing seem ed to go rh e way rhe Ge rmans had hoped .

Whil e repairs were being made, British fo rces were gathering and U ruguayan autho rities fo rced the o nly partially repaired GrafSpee to leave the port. As a result, late on 17 D ecember, sh e pull ed our in to th e Montevideo channel, lighters rook off th e crew, and the crew blew the ship up . She serried into the silt where she remained two years later when I was there.

T he crew was taken to Buenos Aires and interned. After they had been settled in , Langsdorff sho t himself: he paid rhe price of disobedience with his life. M any of the Bri rish merchant crews who had been held cap rive on the Graf Spee felt Langsdorff to be a decent and hono rable man and attended his fun eral.

T he autho r uses Langsdorff s journals as well as other primary documents to assess his actions and his decision to co mmit suicide in rhe face of the consequences of his decisio n. H e also provides a close examina tion of the actions of German and Britis h n avies in the early days of the wa r.

G EOFFREYF I ELD I G

Towson , Maryland

SEA HJSTORY 99, WINTER 200 1- 02

Women at Sea: Travel Writing and the Margins ofCaribbean Discourse, by Lizabeth Paravisini-Geberr and Ivette RomeroCesareo (Palgrave, New York NY, 2001, 309pp, index, ISBN 0-312-2 1996-2; $55) We generally learn of exploration and travel from a man's point of view, so I was intrigued by the idea of reading a selection of pieces written by or about women and their travels and experiences in the Caribbean. This book, however, comprises interpretive essays abo ut the avai lable literature of women in the Caribbean, with original excerpts sporadically included, contributed by authors from a variety of interesting backgrounds. While some of the critiques do center aro und the experiences of women in a maritime environment, they primarily exam ine the expression of margin alized women in the region-pirates, slaves, prophetesses and madwomen-through the means of travel writing and travelogues.

ALENA DERBY East Carolina U niversity Greenville, North Carolin a Ahab's Wife; Or, The Star-Gazer, by Sena Jeter Naslund (William Morrow & Co., New York NY, 1999, 688pp, ISBN 0-68817187-7; $28hc;ISBN 0-688 1-7785-9; $15pb) This remarkable book is a fictional sequel ro Moby-Dick that Melville wo uld be proud of-fiction well laced with history and the whaling ethos of Nantucket befo re the Civil War. T he author has done a great deal of research on all aspects of whaling and the Nantucket of the era, and speaks co mfortably and authoritatively about her subj ects, albeit with a few errors in maritime terminology.

"Ahab was neither my first husband or the last" the book begins, going on to develop as the fi ctional autobiography of a yo ung girl named U na, born in Kentucky, who moves to live with a lighthouse family in New England and falls under the spell of the sea at age 14. T he love of the seacoast is soon eclipsed by her infa tuation with two yo ung men. She follows them as they step out on a whaler bound for the Pacific. She learns the lingo, learns to climb a mast in heavy weather, and soon has the sharpest eyes of any lookout on the ship. Near Tahiti the ship is stove by a whale and, following the story of the Essex, she, the captain, his son, and the two yo ung men are set adrift in SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001-02

a whaleboat while the rest of the crew in the other boats disappear. Soon they are separated and after a horrible boat journey they are rescued, more dead than alive, by another whaler.

Bur the book is more than an imaginative, fictional account of privation and the whole bloody awfulness of a whaling operation , for it is a beautifully told tale of human character under stress. Much of the story is carried in the narrator's letters and letters of her family and friends to her whi ch are fascinating and moving. While there is plenty of excitement, sadn ess, fear, self-inquiry, and happiness, th e book holds one's interest from page to page because of the beauty of the author's creativity. I could not put it down, and was moved as no other book has moved me for many years.

THOMAS HALE Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts NEW&NOTED USS Constitution's Finest Fight, 1815: TheJournalofActingChaplainAssheton Humphreys, US Navy, edited by Tyrone G. Martin (The Nautical &Aviation Publishing Co mpany ofAmerica, Mount Pleasant SC, 2000, 109pp, illus, appen, index, [SBN 1-877853-60-7; $22.95 hc) Pearl Harbor Betrayed: The True Story of a Man and a Nation under Attack, by Michael Gann on (Henry H olt and Co mpany, New York NY, 2001 , 339pp , illus, notes, index, ISBN 0-8050-6698-5; $27.5 0hc)

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MRS . JACOB C. R ARDI N

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MRS. D AVID H AYES

R OBERT PAULUS

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ELLEN NEWBERRY

M Rs . R1c HARD STROTHER

R ALPH N. THOM PSON

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H ON. D ONA LD R . Q UARTEL, JR. C LI FFORD A RT SMITH

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M RS. T. E . L EONARD C APT . W ARREN G. L EBACK

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WILLI AM A. PALM

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H OWARD H. EDDY C APT. JOfiN H . EGINTON JOHN W . ELDER M R & M RS. R OBERT S. ERSKI E, JR. J ULES COMPERTZ F LEDER·

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A. H ERBERT S ANDWE

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EDWARD A . D ELMAN

M RS . I RV ING M. JOHNSON

KATHLEEN K ROM

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c. R OBERT ALLEN, III

C HARLES L . CLEMENTS, JR.

ALICE D ADOUR IAN

MCA A SSOCIATES, I NC. D AV ID J. M c B RIDE

T HE B RESSLER FOUNDATION PETER J.P. B RICKFIELD

SEAN H . C UMMINGS M ORGAN D ALY M R.

H MS R OSE FOUNDATION

B AS IL F . H ARR ISON M EMOR IAL F UN D

T HA L L E I NDUSTR I ES

PETER B ARTOK

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JOHN M . GOODWIN M EMORIAL

M. RHODES BLI SH, JR. M EMORIAL F UND JOHN

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PETER J. E'INNERTY

MARI E SOCIETY OF THE CITY OF N EW Y ORK

C APT. JAMES C. COOK

R OBERTS. H AGGE,

PHIL P ERSINGER

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ALEXANDER ZAGOREOS

l NTERNATIONAL L ONGSHOREMEN ' S A SSOCIAT ION JAKOB ISBR ANDTSEN

O ' CONNOR & H EWITT FOUNDATION

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C HRISTO S N. K RI TIKO S

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W ILLI AM H . W HITE

JAMES H . B ROUSSARD

ALAN D. H UTCHISO,

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PAUL F . B ALS ER

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D AV ID S. FOWLER

D AV ID M . M ILTON TR UST NEwYORK STATE

CITY OF P EEKSKJLL

JAMES A. M ACDONALD FouNDATION

D ONA LD C. M c G RAW F OUNDATION

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OPERATION S AIL, [, C.

ELIHU R OSE FOUNDATION, [ NC.

MRS. D . L. F LEISCHMANN

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C HARLE S P AYMEN T

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EDWARD G. ZELI NSKY

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JEAN K . ECKERT

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C APT. F RED C. H AW KINS ELIZA BETH S . H OOPER FOUNDATION

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06033

169 A l bert Ave ., E d gewood , RI 0 29 0 5-38 1 I Tel : 800-4 14-7906VISNM C web s ite: www.o u l d co l o n yanisa n s.co m

Stilll Available It Didn't Hajppen On My Watch Spa n s forty yea r s •of U. S. Lin es hi st ory fro m WWfl t o b a nknuptcy. Hard cove r, 360pp, ph o t os. $23 .95 imc l. s/h. N J res ide nts ad d $ 1.44 t ax. For s i g m e d co p y: G eor ge E. Mu r ph y , 40 8 M artin Pl ac(e, New Mil fo r d J 07646 Tel : 20 1 -836-8~9 0 8 , F ax: 20 1-836-4 194

SEA HISTORY 99, WINTER 2001 - 02

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

I congratulate you on your remarkable record..."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

201 EDGEWATER ST., STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. 10305 â&#x20AC;˘ 718-448-3900

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.

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

24Mayto 2 June 2002 9 days.

New Lower Fares!

NMHSfares* from $1064 inside; from $1307 outside.

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

Along the way your floating resort wi ll visit the more conventional resorts of Newport and Bar H arbor.

And then it' s on to H alifax, with its Titanic connection, Sydney and the incredible Cabot Trail, and Charlottetown, home to An ne of Green Gables. Before arriving in Montreal, ~~~§!I~~~ enjoy a day in Quebec with its Old City crowned by the magical Chateau Frontenac. One day at sea and The Frontenac 111 old world Quebec. o ne day cruising the Saguenay round out the itinerary. Rotterdam will be your splendid ho me throughout. An uncommonly hi gh stand ard in accommodation, a grand twolevel dining room, an alternative restaurant, spa and show room all combine to putfivestar crui sing with Holland America "Oceans Apart" in New England and Canada.

L _ __ _ __ __

19 to 25 Sept.

2002, 6 days.

New Lower Fares!

NMHSfares* from $850 inside from $1387 outside (details at right)

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

Cruise aboard Queen Elizabeth 2, the mos t recognized ship in the world today , for six delig htful days. Enjoy an overnight stay in blissful Bermuda and a full day to sample the vari ed attractions of Newport, Rhode Island . The ambiance of QE2 is a perfect background to Bermuda's British accent and the lav ish life style exemplifi ed in Newport. Two full days of ~------------------~ crui sing will allow ample opportunity to enjoy all that QE2 has to offer. Afloat and ashore thi s is a crui se of superlatives. The ship and the ports simpl y couldn ' t be better. ~

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MHS fares start from: $850 inside/Mauretan ia $ 1387 outside/Mauretani a $1564 outside/Caronia $2293 outside/Grills

* All fares are per person, two persons per room. Port charges , fees and taxes are add itional. Single room rates are availab le on req uest.

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