Perilous Waters for Histori•: Ships by Kevin Foster
Amidst the Shoals: Historic Ships in Hard Times Multiple problems plague historic ships in these difficult financial times. Less public and foundation funding has resulted in ships that have passed the preservation point of no return. Yet, there are programs and individuals who are helping to stave off many of the problems that threaten historic vessels, and they are making a difference. Some of the help is in the form of good management, and some is due to historic preservation laws, policies, and technical and financial assistance. The recent Ninth Maritime Heritage Conference in Baltimore provided information about the best and worst news that the field has to offer. Here are a few of both. Financial Difficulties Ships have expensive recurring maintenance needs. Deferred maintenance only makes the costs climb even faster if repairs and periodic care are not happening on a regular schedule. Under austere budget constraints, publicly owned ships must compete against other high-priority projects, including infrastructure maintenance, education, and other press ing needs of the nation. A particular challenge in securing public funding is the frequent requirement by government to find areas to cut to make up for spending on new projects and programs. "Zero-sum" funding provides challenges to both governments and non-profit organizations, and funding agencies require creative, persuasive arguments to be co nvinced. The process also usually involves pitting non-profits against one another. With zero-s um fundin g practices, the costs of competition itself may use up most of the gain from public fundin g. Nevertheless, it is not only public funding sources that are reducing their financial assistance and grants. Fundraising campaigns of all sorts are yielding disappointing results. Multiple approaches that once were staples of fundraising cannot be counted on. This m ay be a temporary condition connected to the current financial crisis and may pass as the economy improves, but creativity will be needed for the foreseeable future. A few grant-giving foundations are expanding their funding in areas of interest to their principals; it behooves the traditional ship-owning and -operating community to find out what those interests are and work towards fulfilling them. Visitation is another problem affecting funding for museum ships. For many years until recently, visitation had been sinking, likely because of competition with television and other home entertainment. Lately, numbers of visitors have been slowly climbing back to earlier, higher levels but are still not what they once were. Revenue from 20
Falls of Clyde, 2008
admission fees, even in good tim es, cannot totally fund the needs of historic ships.
Ships in Extremis Many historic ships go through a succession of owners before they reach their end. They may then wind up with an owner who does not have the experience, will, o r capacity to raise the needed funds to maintain the ship, despite the best of intentions. A museum or other non-profit organization may raise awareness of a ship's plight by advertising offers to turn the ship over to any responsible parry who will accept ownership, and, in the interim, it may not use funds for the ship even when they are available. Recent examples of ships transferred or being given to new owners include the four-masted barque Falls of Clyde, previously owned by the largest museum in Hawaii. She was gutted and dismasted for sinking before a las t-minute effort by an enthusiastic bur inexperienced local preservation group took overownership of the vessel. Help has arrived from knowledgeable volunteers, but funding is in short supply and the ship is still in a grave situation.
Another large and well-known museum, the Independence Seaport Museum (ISM) in Philadelphia, recently advertised to give the cruiser Olympia, of SpanishAmerican War fame, to any takers. They have not found another institution to take her, including the US Navy, and have made plans to remove her superstructure and sink her as a reef off New Jersey. The Navy took back responsibility of the vessel once before and did find a new caretaker but has declined to repeat its actions to save the ship again. The recent Maritime Heritage Conference in Baltimore devoted an entire session to the plight of Olympia, at which a relatively new non-profit organization, the Friends of the Cruiser O lympia, was introduced and has expressed an interest in having the ISM transfer the ship to its care. This gro up appears to present by far the best chance for the historic cruiser's survival, but it faces a requiremem from the Navy that it must have raised $2.5 million before the ship can be transferred. Other ship preservation organizations take on projects with huge capital requirem ents: one aircraft carrier required more SEA HISTORY 133 WINTER 2010-11