LETTERS
DECK LOG NMHS 41" Annual Meeting nnapolis embodies so much of America's maritime heritage that it was a fitting location for our 4 lst annual meeting. Our host, the US Naval Academy Museum, exhibits models, paintings, documents, and artifacts that relate the histo ry and traditions of the Navy. Associate Director/Senior Curator Jim Cheevers hosted the event and provided an excellent tour of the museum's impressive collection. Pete Lesher, Curator of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Buck Buchanan, Chairman of the Annapolis Maritime Museum, and Drew McMullen of Sultana Projects, Inc. gave presentations on aspects of Chesapeake maritime history and ongoing educational and preservation projects. Dr. David Alan Rosenberg, Director of Task Force History for the Vice Chief of Naval Operations & Chair of the Secretary of the Navy's Advisory Subcommittee on Naval History, gave a riveting discourse on the state of naval record keeping and the critical need for the US Navy to make compiling and recording its history-as it happens-a priority. The Annual Meeting marked a change in NMHS leadership. Walter Brown was elected chairman and Ronald Oswald treasurer. Howard Slotnick was enthusiastically elected Chairman Emeritus, and William H. White will be awarded the NMHS Founder's Sheet Anchor Award at the Annual Awards Dinner for his dedicated work as treasurer during these difficult years. Vice C hairman Lopes said of Howard Slotnick, when he presented him his Chairman Emeritus Weems & Plath clock, "It is rare when individuals have the opportunity, or more appropriate, seize the opportunity of being a catalyst of a concept, that turns into a reality, and then moves on to change the face of maritime awareness and history throughout the world. It is rare to find a leader, manager, prodder, curmudgeon and steward with patience, determination, and conviction rolled into one. In 2001, when NMHS was running for the shoals, he stepped in, lashed himself to the wheel and averted disaster. His tireless efforts, along with your support and that of fellow trustees, willed NMHS to survive and prosper."
A
Invitations to NMHS Receptions
K
eeping in mind that our first name is National, and that the Society is our membership, we are hosting three receptions this fall that offer an opportunity members, staff, and trustees to meet in settings that allow you delve a little more into our rich maritime history. Please join us !!!!
•20 September: Santa Barbara Maritime Museum
5:30 PM-7:30 PM
Share wine and hors d'oeuvres while we view the exhibits and hear about the shipwrecks in the Santa Barbara Channel •24 September: Maritime Museum of San Diego aboard "HMS" Surprise Meet international maritime scholars during the conference on "Spain's Legacy in the Paci.fie during the Age ofSail. " Cash bar. •28 October: 7th Maritime Heritage Conference, Norfolk, VA 6 PM-7:30 PM 1he leadership and members ofover a dozen maritime heritage organizations will gather together. Come meet them. Location to be announced. Cash bar.
Phone 800-22 1-6647 ext 0 for more information or to make a reservation. BuRCHENAL GREEN
Executive Vice President
2
SS Portland, Related Histories I enjoyed the articles on the Portland disaster and the excellent illustrations. My doctoral dissertation (University of Maine, 197 1) was on the steamship lines to the Canadian Maritime Provinces. The International Steamship Company, which served Boston, Portland, and Saint John, N ew Brunswick, was the creation and subsidiary of the Portland Steam Packet Company from its creation in 1860 until both were absorbed into the Eastern Steamship Company in 1901. Eastern Stean1ship replaced wooden side-wheelers on its outside routes with steel-hulled, propeller-driven liners Calvin Austin, Governor Dingley, and Governor Cobb. The Fall River Line, with its protected route on Long Island Sound, continued to build side-wheelers, but the Portland Storm proved they were unsafe in open sea. I believe that storm also took Pentagoet, a Boston-Bangor boat. ARTHUR L. JOH NSON SUNY Potsdam The Spring/Summer issue (107) contained much of interest to me, a native of Portland, Maine, and a resident of Namucket. The connections among the three richly illustrated articles-"Forbidden ro Sail," "Lost and Found," and "The Straits ofFlorida" -are a delight. The impact of the sinking of SS Portland on that city's African American community is mentioned briefly. Half of the Portland's crew was black, and "the loss of these breadwinners dealt a devastating financial and emotional blow ro their families." As awful as financial and emotional consequences are, there was more. The social and cultural consequences of the loss of so m any African American breadwinners are still felt today. So many who drowned were prominent members of Portland's Abyssinian Church that the congregation was devastated. The Abyssinian C hurch soon closed its doors, its remaining members merging with the church now known as Greene Memorial. The maritime trades were a principal employer of African American men prior to the Civil War and after. Portland's threestory Abyssi nian Church, built in 1828, is probably me nation's third oldest building built by free African Americans for their own use. Located on a rise overlooking the
SEA HISTORY 108, AUTUMN 2004