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
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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