c1v1c leaders to seafarers, along with an army of vol unteers-came together to achieve a great dream. At their lead, a true revival of the heritage of seafaring grew up in South Street Seaport. Ir was getting caugh t up with the eup ho ria of this mission that set the fo undation for my own future, to record for posterity the wharfs ide scene, wh ich had largely escaped the interest of artists of the day. I still reckon that painting of ~vertree is one of my best, and it is good to know that p rints made from the painting d id som ething to bring the grand old ship back to New Yo rk, 75 years after she had sailed fo r distant waters. ,!, (right) The Ship Tusitala Tus irala's Lengthening wake stretched across wide oceans from her launch in 1882 tiff her last voyage to New York in 1932. Here she is driving atJuLL stretch, under the command ofthe redoubtable Captain James Barker, in the sugar trade from New York to H awaii. Going at over 10 knots on a day like this, when they overtook a tramp steamer doing her routine 7 knots, all hands would be treated to p lum duff-a sweet gooey concoction held in high esteem by hard-worked sailors. An iron ship of 1778 tons, Tusirala was built in Scotland in 1882 as the Inveruglas, later renamed the Sierra Leone, and still later, under Norwegian ownership, as the Sophie. By 1920 she was laid up, with her old captain as shipkeeper. In 1923 Captain Felix Riesenberg visited her, spending the night aboard when a squall made his return to the anchorage by boat unreasonable. Upon awakening next day, he knew this well-kept ship was the one he and his friend the columnist Christopher Morley must save for their "Three Hours for Lunch Club. " With plans to make exotic voyages to the South Seas, they renamed her Tusirala, or "teller oftales" (Robert Louis Stevenson's native name in Samoa where he spent his last days). The club's plans did not pan out, but James Farrell of US Steel bought the ship to run her in the Hawaiian sugar trade. For eight glorious years she sailed as the last square rigger in trade under the US flag, with Farrell quietly meeting her deficits until 1932. After a prolonged layup, the US Coast Guard took her over in World ~r II as a training ship in Florida. Finally, with the war over, her long, useful life ended when she was towed to the scrap yard.
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