9smP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS SPUN YARN
O cean C lassroom Foundarion purchased SSV Westward rhis sum mer fro m the Sea Education Association. Westward joins OCF's other two vessels, schooners Harvey Gamage and the Spirit ofMassachusetts, carrying srudents in their sea education programs . T he 125-fr steel-hulled schooner was builr in Germ any by Abe ki ng and Rasmussen in 196 1 as a private yacht. Westwardbecame SEA' s first vessel in 1972 and has acquired a distinguished place in the hisrory of Ame ri can sa il train ing, having ca rried more rhan 3,400 students over 500,000 miles. Her fi rst voyage under the Ocean C lassroom flag recently departed inSeptember with 2 1 high school students. (O CF, PO Box 446, Co rn wall N Y 125 18; 800-724-SAIL(7245); e-mail: mail@ocean class room.org; web sire: www.oceanclassroom.o rg) .. . T his summer the World War II amphibious vessel LST 325 made a memorial voyage up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers from its home port of M obile, Alabam a, ro Evansville, India na, where many LSTs were built. T he shi p caught the world's attention rwo-a nd-ahalf years ago when a veteran crew sailed her 6,5 00 miles fro m Crete to Alabama. (LST Memori al, 9 1 H ard woo d La ne,
LST 325 on the New Orleans waterfront. C hi ckasaw, A L 366 11 ; 25 1-452-3255; www. lstmemorial. org) . . . The Mariners' Museum's impress ive collection of small craft opened in the International Small Craft Center in May. More than 75 boars represent rwo centu ries of small crafrfrom birchbark and d ugo ut canoes, sampans, and kayaks, ro Chris-Craft an d racing shells. (TMM, 100 Museum D rive, Newport News VA23606; 757 596-2222; web sire: www. mariner.org) . .. T he Texas Seaport Museum, which operates the
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barque Elissa, is acquiring the wooden shrimp boat Santa Maria of 1937. O nly fo ur boa ts of th is vintage su rv ive in Galves ron. H er owner fo r the past 50 years, Joe Grillo , has always co mbined the shrimping industry with preservation and documentatio n of th e trade; now he has parred with the Santa Maria knowing that she will be used as an educational vehicle in her home waters. (TWM, Pier 2 1 - No . 8, Galves ron TX 7755 0; 409 763- 1877; web sire: www. tsm-elissa.org) ... After rwelve years of planning and construction, the new fi ve-acre cam pus of the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium opened in June. As the lead project of D ubuque's $ 188- million riverfront redevelopment effort, the museum highlights the river's cultural and natural hisrory. T he m useum and aquarium and its National Rivers Hall of Fame have been accepted into rhe Smi thso ni an Institu tion Affil iations Program . (NMRMA, 350 East 3rd Srreet, Port of Dubuque, Dubuque IA 52 001 ; 8 00 226-3369; we b sit e: www. riverm useum.com) ... T he Ocean Liner M useum has rransferred its collection-hund reds ofi rems ranging fro m ship models ro ocean liner memorabilia-ro the Sourh SrreetSeaportMuseum in New York. (SSSM, 207 Front Street, New Yo rk NY 100 38; 2 12 748 - 8 600 ; we b sire: www.so u thstseaport. org) ... T he US Navy has made the pasr 80 years of irs All Hands magazine available online. Every issue prinred since Augusr 1922 is now available. (www. news .navy. mil) ... The Library of Congress has completed the $ 10-m ill io n purchase of the only known copy of rhe 1507 world map by Marrin Waldseemi.iller. Long thought lost, it was rediscovered ar Waldburg-Wolfegg Casde in somhern Germany in 1901. T he map will be previewed in the exhibition Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis and Clark and the Revealing ofAmerica, which opened in July 2003. T his map was rhe first to incorporate Amerigo Ves pucci's determination rhat rhe land across the Atlantic was a separare conti nent, and used the name "America" to identi fy that continent. O ne rhousand copies were repo rtedly printed and sold, bm no other copy is known ro have survived . . . T he remains of a w reck believed to be the Russian barkentine Kadi'ak has been located in Mo nk's Lagoo n near Spruce Island, off Kodiak Island, Alaska.
The 500-ro n vessel was bound for San Francisco wirh a cargo of ice and lumber fo r a new ice house in March 1860 when it struck a reef. ... Building began on rhe new schoo ner Virginia, a recrea tion of a rwo-mas red 122-foor-long pilo r boar of 191 7, wirh rhe arrival of 42 rons of lead ballas t. The Virgi.nia is expected to be launched in 2004 and commissioned in Richmo nd, although her homeport will be N orfo lk. phoro by Gail Fisher. (Schooner Virginia Shipyard, 184 ParkAvenue, N orfolk VA 23 510; 757-622-5 925; web sire: www.schoo nervirginia.org) ... Schooner Fame, a recreation of a W ar of 18 12 privateer from Salem , wenr d own rhe ways in June. Built ar rhe Essex Shipbuilding M useum by H arold Burnham, Fame joined the fleet of schooners competing in the Gloucester Schooner Race over Labor D ay weekend. (Pennant Enterprises, Inc., 54 Martin Street, Essex MA 01929; 978 729-7600; web site: www.Sc hoonerFame.com ... On 14 November, 20'h Century Fox will release
Master and Commander: The Far Side ofthe World. Inspired by Patrick O 'Brian' s popular Aubrey-Maturin series, the screenplay srems from the 10th book of th e 20 novel series . Russell Crowe plays Captain Jack Aubrey in his hunt for the French fri gate Acheron around C ape Horn ro the Pacific. D evoted O 'Bri an fa ns may take issue with departures from the book, as screenwriters Peter W eir and John C ollee used considerable poetic license in their adaptation. Others may appreciate their efforrs ro portray the spirit of rhe book se ri es . The screenplay, for example, borrows characters and in cidents fr o m other O 'Brian novels. The ability of H o ll yw ood p ro du cers to recreate the hisrorical derail for which O 'Brian was so famous remains ro be
SEA HISTORY 105, AUTUMN 2003