LETTERS Revisiting My Old Ships in the Pages of Sea History I was surprised to see the names of two ships that I am personally acquainted with in the summer issue of Sea History (123). When I first went to sea in 1957, I sailed out of Miami on rhe 97-foor gaff schooner, the Caribee. The skipper gave me a length of canvas, from which I sewed a sea bag. By the rime I joined the Falls of Clyde, my wandering days had fairly ended, and rhar sea bag became an artifact in the ship 's foc 's' le. I worked on the Falls of Clyde for over seven years, from the time that she was towed to Honolulu in the 1960s. I restored rhe mai n salon and the galley and worked in the rigging gang with Jack Dickerhoff, the cantankero us German master rigger. Ar one time, as I was turning in a splice, he walked aro und the vise, scrutinized my work and commented, "Hunh! Lepson, yo u do good work, and damn little of it." H e knew, and used, m any such curring remarks, bur they were always used in a ligh t vein. To see this great icon of H awaiianas well as American- history come to such an ignoble end pains me deeply. I had my hand on just about every piece of rigging and spar on the ship . Parr of my soul is in her, and that part will die with her. This could h ave been prevemed. W hile I was on the ship, she generated suffi cient income from admiss io ns to maintain her, bur instead of using the funds for maintenance, most were shunted to the museum's coffers. Alas, poor Falls of Clyde, I knew her well . Aloha. As explained on page 32 of rhar same issue, Tusitala (Samoan, m eaning "relier of tales") was o nce owned by rhe United States Steel Corporation's president, Jam es A. Farrell. I worked for James A. Farrell Jr. on his yacht, the yawl Impala, sailing our of the Norwalk Yacht Club, Connecticut. His brother, John Farrell, owned the motor sailer Tusitala III. James loved sailing, and we raced every weekend on Long Island Sound. He was allergic to the sun, bur he never missed an opportuniry to go sailing. Every inch of him wo uld be covered by white coveralls. H e wore gloves on his hands, a hat with a flap protected his neck and zinc oxide covered his face . He whooped with glee as the lee rail was buried. Tusitala II was, I believe, a J boat, owned by SEA HISTORY 125, WINTER 2 008-09
Tusitala by john Stobart his father. He loved to tell the tale of when the old m an was at the helm and gybed, resulting in the after deck being cleared off of the sky light, binnacle, and wheel housing. The captain , li vid with rage, told him, "You are a dumb s.o.b., SIR!" Jam es was a happy m an.
completed building a beautiful wooden 38foor sloop nam ed Pandora in his pattern shop in Worces ter. She turned o ur to be a very fast and able cruising boar. My father decided he needed some good crew, as we were doing more racing, once we discovered how well she sailed. Through some mutual friends, my fa ther contacted Arthur. Thus, by chance, my father introduced Captain Kimberly to salt-water sailing at an early age of 17 or 18. After only a few races off of M arblehead and a few cruises to Maine, he quickly came to the concl usion that Kimberly was a "natural sailor," bo rn to be at sea in most any manner that he wished . My son sailed with the Kimberlys from Cape Town, South Africa, to rh e Caribbean
Pandora
I N DRE K LEPSON
Lo uisburg, North Carolina
The Sea Cap tain's First Time at Sea Having been a faithful reader of Sea History for quite some time, I have noticed some references from rime to rime abo ut Captain Arthur Kimberly and his travels on the briga ntines Yankee and Romance. I first recall meeting Arthur way back in the 1939- 1940 time frame. He was sailing in Town Class sloops on Webster Lake near his birthplace in Worcester, M assachusetts. In 1938, my father, S. Ralph Cross, had just
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