.SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS The USCG Barque Eagle will celebrate her 75th birthday this summer by paying a visit to the Blohm and Voss Shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, the shipyard that built the ship in 1936. On 7 M ay, Eagle w ill sa il from her ho meport in New Lond o n, Co nnecticut, a nd se t a course across the No rth Ad a ntic for the first leg of her summer cadet trainin g prog ram . Under the comma nd of Capta in Eric Jo nes, Eagle will cross the A d a ntic a nd ma ke la nd fa ll at Wa terford , Irela nd (27-3 0 May), befo re heading to Ge rma ny. The ship w ill visit Lo nd o n, E ngla nd , and Reykj av ik, Iceland, before heading back across the Ad antic. Th ey' ll ma ke a po rt stop at H ali fax, Nova Scoti a, a nd then sa il fo r Boston, a rriving o n 22 July. Other US po rt sto ps in cl ud e New Bedfo rd, MA, a nd New Yo rk. The three-m as ted ba rque Eagle is the o nly active squa re-rigger 111
US government service. USCG Academy cadets a re guid ed th ro ug h a rigorous curriculum des igned to develop skills in naviga tion, dam age control, wa tchstanding, engineerin g, and deck seamanship by a crew of six offi cers a nd 49 enli sted perso nnel. (Yo u ca n fo llow Eagle's voyage online by checkin g th e Academy's website for upd ates at www.uscga.edu.) ...
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NMHS Overseer and president of US Sailing Gary Jobson was recently awarded the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics Charles M. Leighton Award for Outstanding Service for 2010. 1his awa rd is presented to the individual who has m ade a significant difference in the lives of the m embers of the US Ol ympic a nd Para lympic Sailing Progra m. "No o ne does mo re to bring the stories of our athl etes out to the sailing publi c tha n Ga ry Jobson," said pas t US Sa iling executive director Charlie Leighton , for whom the award is named. " [O]ver the past yea r while giving 118 presentation s a round the country, he's always kept o ur athletes on the tip of hi s tongue." USSTAG is m a naged by the U nited States Sa iling Association, the nati o nal governin g body fo r the spo rt of sa ilin g a nd sa ilboat racing. The to p-ran ked
"Mystery Whaler" Shipwreck Identified The "Mys tery Whaler" di scove red in August 2008 at French Fri gate Shoals in the Pacific by a team of NOAA arch aeologists has been iden tifi ed as the Nantucket whaler Two Brothers, whi ch wrecked on the reef at thi s remote atoll in 1823 (covered in Sea H istory 125, Winter 200 8-09). The Two Brothers was on e of three whaling ships known to h ave wrecked in the area in the 19th century. Dr. Kelly G leason , the m aritime archaeologist for the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monum ent (PMNM) in H awaii , announced o n 11 February that phys ical evidence (arti fac ts) and scholarly research co nducted over th e las t three fi eld seaso ns has ruled o ut the likelihood of this site being the o ther rwo, which m et their end more th an three decades later. This particular whaler is no teworthy, in part, because of its at tachment to the fa mous whales hip Essex saga, reintroduced to American audiences by aurhor Nathani el Philbrick in his 2001 New York Times best-seller, In the H eart of the Sea. Wh en Captain G eorge Pollard Jr. return ed to Nantucket after hi s ordeal in Essex, he head ed back o ut to the Pacifi c as master of ano ther Nantu cket whaling ship, the Two Brothers. In an unbelievable case of bad luck, Pollard would lose his seco nd whaler in just over rwo yea rs when, on the night of 11 February 1823, th e Two Brothers struck a reef off French Frigate Shoals, now parr of the PMNM , and had to be aba nd o ned . H e and his crew we re lucky D r. Kelly Gleason and one offour nearly intact to be rescued rhe next m o rning by ano ther Nantucket whaling ship th at ¡ g b y. trypots Located at the Two Brothers wreck site. was pass 111 This ra re archaeological find is th e first discovery of a shipwrecked whaler from Nantucket. O nly a single American whaling vessel from th e Age of Sail has survived ; it is the N ational Histori c Landmark Charles W Morgan at M ys tic Seaport Museum in Co nn ecti cut (see arricle on pp. 16- 19) . The 2008 NOAA maritim e heritage team was led by Dr. Gleaso n to search for and document shipwreck sites at various locations within the PMN M . The Two Brothers was discovered in the las t days of the expeditio n w hen th e team discovered a large 19 th-century-period anchor on the seaflo or, tucked in the shallows of the reef. They went on to loca te three trypo ts, ano ther large ancho r, pieces of riggin g, hawsepipes, bri cks, etc. Subsequent expeditions in 2009 and 2010 resu lted in the discovery of m o re arti fac ts, incl uding blubber hooks, harpoo n tips, whaling lances, cas t-iron cooking pots, and cerami cs a nd glass. First-hand acco unts fro m Two Brothers crewmembers, including a description and approximate location of where the ship grounded, matches th e locati o n of this archaeo logical site. "Ve ry linle of the physical legacy of N antucket whaleships remains, so the exciting pros pects of marine archaeology are seemingly just beginning to open new windows into the whalin g pas t," sa id Nantucket Histo ri cal Association chief curato r, Ben Simon . PM N M was designated as th e first mi xed (natural and cultural) UNESCO World Heritage Site in the U nited States in Jul y 2010. (www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/ mari tim e/rwobroth ersmedi a.hrml) 40
SE A HISTORY 134, SPRING 2011