Historic
Ships
on a Lee Shore
"Historic Ships on a Lee Shore" has been making Sea History readers aware of specific historic ships in need of attention, funding, a new home, etc. for a year. NMHS President Emeritus Peter Stanford explains WHY we should save historic ships through the ongoing story of one ship saved. Following his essay, this issue's "Historic Ship on a Lee Shore" is the Steam Tug Baltimore, which is in dire need of a new berth and new owner-and soon.
Why Save Historic Ships? by Peter Stanfo rd hi ps attract peo ple because they have the most p rofou nd message-o ne of of a city street. Seeking co unsel on this a story to tell , sto ries of voyaging human interchange and discovery, which to pic, I asked the fu turist Buckminster th ro ugh shifting seas and changing tran sform ed our wo rld. By great good Fuller, invenror of the geodesic dom e, to ti mes. When a sh ip comes to us, shaped fo rtune, it fell to us to bring the class ic extrap olate on what he found in the square by the purposes of another age and half- full -rigger Wavertree to the South Street riggers he'd known o n the South Street wa terfro nt of his youth . forgo tten ways of do in g "The powerfu l designing of things, she offers us an these ships," he replied , "so un-selfco nscious grip on obviously able to cope with reality befo re o ur time. It is in a ship's power to evoke the great seas and storms and hurri canes, also inspired purposes mean ings and the spirits of h umans to beyond our own experience, think in more econom ically, expanding our perspectives. poetically noble ways, which This can help us shape the brought them closer to course of our own voyage the great designer of them through time, and perhaps all." O ne need not be of a to care and dare to do things religio us bent to catch the fo r the future, which has its sacred fire in that! own reality. People respond in difI had been up to the Metropolitan M useum of ferent ways to old sh ips. Art where the m useum Fo r my wife No rma and directo r, Tom H oving, m e, th ey we re at the heart Wave rtree Leans forward into her work off Cape H orn. regaled m e w ith the story of a story that got us to qui t H ere, her first career wiff be cut short by dismasting amid screaming of his bringing in a 35-ton our jobs and get to wo rk winds and boarding seas in 19 10. Painting by Oswald Brett. sto ne artifact (a tribal statue) saving the tal l winds hips we saw vanishing over time's horizo n. In this Seapo rt Museum in New Yo rk C ity, a ship to New York from South Ame rica. To that pursuit we encountered the lively diversity embodying centuri es of learnin g in her I respo nded : "Well , we recently brought in of th e seafaring experience. We steered a lines and rig. We soo n discovered that her a 2000- ton arti fact from South America." "Yo u what!" he exclaimed, nostri ls paddlewheel tug in San Francisco Bay and presence on the wate rfro nt did matter to steam ed in the two surviving American people and, in some cases, changed their flaring. I the n added : "She's a fascinating iron Liberty shi ps-we witnessed their triple- lives. That hum an respo nse m ost ass ured ly expansion engines visibly do in g the work provides the most compelling answe r structure named Wavertree. We brought th at today is out of sight in inte rnal to th e ques tion of why we save historic her into New York Harbor under row." "Oh ," he said, clearly relieved. "A ship. co mbustion engines, work that demands ships. co nstant human interve nti on to keep Wavertree's dockside missio n is a stern I thought yo u said an artifact." things going. We learned from the broad- test, for it confro nts us with the naked The Ship as Artifact beam ed sloops that sail behind the skerries shi p and her sto ry, rather than offering of the C hilean coast and wa tched them experience at sea. N onetheless, a ship When I told the acclaimed Titanic historian haul out lo ng sweeps to row ho me when m oo red to a city street can best reach the Walter Lord this story, he explained: the day's breeze d ied . We we re awes truck casual visito r. If we're interested in getting "Of course a ship is an artifact. She is in by the shapely, richly-decorated rowing our seafaring heritage into the mainstream fac t the q uintessential artifact, the product launches of Amalfi, whose citizens have a of American life, we'd do well nurture that of man's handiwo rk, which has always called fo nh the best that was in him and lively sense of the seafarin g heritage which casual pub lic encounter. built their cities. Other ro les for histo ri c ships can be in his c ulture. Every pi ece of a traditio nal Each ship declares so methin g of deeply inspi ring, and as vari ed as the ship, every curve of her plating, is part of man's relationship to the sea, but, for history of seafaring, but we were foc used an in tegral whole, where o ne strake relates us, the deepwater sai ling shi p carries o n people discovering the sh ip at the end to the n ext, and to all the rest of the ship.
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SEA HISTORY 11 0, SPRING 2005