.SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Ocean Classroom Foundation (OCF), which owns and operates the schooners
Harvey Gamage, Spirit ofMassachusetts, and Westward, is looking for a collegelevel partner to continue running its successful SEAmester program. SEAmester was created in the 1970s by Southampton College in New York and ran continuously, with long waiting lists, until the college closed its doors in 2005. The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth rook over the program temporarily, but they have recently announced that the spring 2008 semester would be their last. A partner institution will need to take on the responsibility for running the program: curriculum design (former SEAmesrer curricula are available), staffi ng, and signing up students. OCF, whose schooners have hosted the program since 1986, will provide the ship (s), crew, seamanship curriculum, and itinerary. The model is a trusted and tried one and, over the years, has reaped excellent feedback from all concerned, particularly students. It has traditionally operated on a 9-week model, with both Eastern seaboard and Caribbean components. The itinerary is set, the teaching notes are already printed, the ships are ready-this is a turnkey program for the right institution. (For more information, contact: Jeffrey Parsons, Executive Director, O CF, e-mail: jparsons@oceanclassroom.org; Phone: 207 633-2750 ; www.oceanclassroom.org) ... National Landmark for Sale: One Dollar! The Nantucket lightship LV-112was a Boating lighthouse, built in 1936 to mark the outer fringes of the infamous Nantucket
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shoals. Over 100 miles from the mainland, a crew of 22 men kept its guiding light shining. Transatlantic vessels homed in on the lightship's powerful radio beacon, deafening fog horn, and brilliant light as they approached the eastern seaboard from Europe. The sh ip was retired from duty in 1975 and has passed through the hands of several notfor-profit organizations. After safely guiding tens of thousand of ships and literally millions of people to safety, this 150-foot-long National Landmark is in dire straights and needs a safe haven of its own this time. With its present owners unable to guarantee a secure future, the National Lighthouse Museum is seeking a qualified not-for-profit organization able to take the vessel and give it a safe home and some needed maintenance. The terms are simple enough: it would be transferred for $ 1, along with the obligation to maintain the ship as a national landmark, offer some form of public access, not alter it, and never sell it for more than a doll ar. This covenant has kept the ship from being sold into private hands and turned into a nightclub or sold for scrap. (Interested parties should e-mail Jerry Roberts at jroberts@ctriverm useum.org) . . . Check out the Maritime Heritage Network's web site at www.maritimeheritage.net for information and useful links on Pacific Northwest maritime history and heritage. In particular, their music page posts about a hundred musicians and their maritime music, including audio files to sample before yo u buy. ... Another online posting worth visiting is Ben Ford's commentary, "What is the difference between archaeologists and treasure hunters?" posted on the Museum of Underwater Archaeology web site: www.uri.edu/mua/. Scroll down to "Project Journals" and click on "Lake O ntario Cultural Landscape." ... JELD-WEN, a windows and doors company, is conducting an online contest where the public can vote to select which lighthouse out of 12 finalists will be the lucky winner of new windows and doors from JELD-WEN. Anyone can cast a ballot by visiting www. jeld-wen.com/lighrhouse through 7 September. The contest allows one vote per e-mail address. The 12 finalists are: Baltimore H arbor Lighthouse, MD; Bodie Island Light Station, NC; Cedar Island Lighthouse, NY; Grand Traverse Lighthouse, MI; Grays
Harbor Light Station, WA; New Canal Lighthouse, LA; New Dungeness Light Station, WA; Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, ME; Plum Island Station , WI; Point Arena Lighthouse, CA; Rose Island Lighthouse, RI; and Toledo H arbor Lighthouse, O H. Last year, JELD-WEN bestowed new windows and doors upon the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay
1homas Point Shoal Lighthouse
and the Wind Point Lighthouse near Racine, WI. Ir's a great opportunity for the winning lighthouses. (www.jeld-wen.com/ lighthouse/) . . . The Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland, Maine, recently completed a major expansion of its exhibit space and its artifact collection. The American Lighthouse Foundation, now also located in Rockland, has joined with the museum as a strategic parmer to further their joint mission of lighthouse education
and the preservation of lighthouses and lighthouse history. The museum's name is more a reflection of its locatio n in Maine, rather than the scope of its exhibits, which cover all facets of lighthouse lighting and fog signal technology, history, and the human dimension of the keepers and th eir families that staffed the lights until the 1990s. The museum includes the largest (continued on page 46) SEA HISTORY 124, AUTUMN 2008