We asked for comment on the proposition that we should stop debasing history by demanding that it be "relevant" to our lives and, instead, begin to find out how we can relate our lives to the challenge of history. Five sailors respond here. Two have slipped their earthly cables: Stanley Gerr, who sailed in the fullrigged ship Tusitala, and Karl Kortum of the bark Kaiulani. We are delighted at the idea of our cultural inheritance in language as a f unctional item of our voyaging in time, and at Pete Seeger's defiance of doomsayers, on behalf of the forecastle gang. Reader, we hope you share our delight. -ED.
IN CLIO'S CAUSE
Geo rge Stree t at Hunter, Sydn ey, Australia, in the 1880s. A photograph given to Karl Kortum by th e ma rine artist Oswald L. Brett in March 1973.
Pete Seeger, Bill Buckley and Others Respond Needed for the Voyage Your co ncern about the dec line in the study of hi story des pite its imme nse im portance provokes in me th e fo ll owing thought: The whole intell ectu a l e nterpri se of man is, I believe, to corre late the two clearl y recog ni zable aspects of reality: structure and functi o n. He ' s constantl y addressed to this task in all areas of hi s ex perience and of hi s inte rventi o n in the world- the phys ical uni verse, the socia l scheme of things, etc. In so fa r as soc iety is concerned , onl y the pas t has structure (the future is unbo rn and the present too fleeting), so th at we must study hi story if we are to rea li ze how soc iety function s (has functioned) in terms of its structure, and how the structure is and becomes e ver more entwined with functi on: history must provide the key. The evolution of the language of co mmand at sea, a thing much in m y mind , is an ex ample of thi s. This hi ghl y structured spec ia l language, cast from the crucible of experie nce, becomes an essential part of the functi onal equipme nt of th e ship. It is as vita l to her sailing as bl ock and tackl e, yards and sail. Without it the machine of the ship cannot fun cti on, not
Clio, Greek goddess of histo ry, is one of the nine Muses who preside over man 's arts. Th e f irst museum, Plato's Academy, source of a disco urse not ended in our time, was dedica ted as a temple to the Mu ses. SEA HISTORY 100, SPRING 2002
with the efficiency req uired to make the voyage. STANL EY GERR
East Haddam, Connecticut
Out of a Common Past ... a Future for Man I don ' t know for sure who Cli o was, but I know that the ingeni ous men and wo men, the daring and hardwo rkin g peop le who during the last ten thousand years developed the art and craft of sailin g, deserve to be reme mbered . They li ve on in us, of course, but we' ll do a better j ob of steering for the future if we know better from where we came. The hi story of boats and ships shows that good ideas have co me fro m every corner of the world . It's well know n that the invention of the compass came to E urope fro m Chin a. Less well known is the fac t that the idea fo r retractable keelsdaggerboards and later centerboards, also came from the Ori ent. The idea of tacking against the wind came to Europe from North Afri ca. In the 15th century Italian sailors with their squaresailed ships were amazed to see Arab ships literall y sailing rings around them with their tri ang ular lateen rigs . T he first Ita lian admi ral who tri ed such tri ang ular sail s was threatened with excommunication if he used them. "Only someone in league with the devil could sail against the wind." Obviously somewhere along the line the admiral must have persuaded the authorities that the tri angular sail was just a
good idea that ought to be swiped . Our nauti cal lang uage holds bits and pi eces from every continent. Catamaran from Malaya; starboard from the Viking' s steerboard where the steering oar was he ld . And in tool s, ropes and materials we draw upon dozens of ancient cultures, perhaps hundreds of cultures . Now so me say that technology, having made it easier and easier for fewer and fewe r people to do more and more damage, has doomed the human race to an earl y death . They may be right, but they may not be . Old-time sailors know that so me mi ghty heavy jobs could be done if enou gh people hauled in rhythm upon a rope . And we know that the strongest ropes are only made up of tin y fibers whi ch are onl y strong because they are in c lose contact with each other. M ay our four billi on human s get in ever closer contact w ith each other, knowing our common pas t. Then we, and history, will have a future. PETE SEEGER
Beacon, New York
At the Bottom of a Downswing, Hope from Man's Organic Inheritance Os Brett's photograph , with its goodlooking omnibuses , comes to us from better times. Everything went slower; there was, consequ e ntly , more interacti on between human be ings. There was a warming feeling for the beasts that labored along with man. The buildings were still in re lation ship to the creatures that
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