rest of the war. Eventually she ended up as a coal barge in Manila. N ea rl y twenty yea rs la ter, in 1963, Washington lawyer Alan Hutchiso n's law firm was involved in planning th e future of the M aine Avenue waterfront in the nation's capital. Inspired by the ship Ba fclutha-a former Star Fleet sister of the Kaiu fani, under the name Star of A laska-on a visit to San Francisco, Mr. Hutchison felt that a sailing ship should be an integral part of renewing the Was hington waterfront and immediately contacted Karl Kortum. Mr. Kortum recomm ended the Kaiu fa ni, the las tAmerican -built square- rigged merchant ship, as a fitting ambassador of the Age of Sail for the capital. Mr. Hutchison heartily agreed, and when he returned to Washington, the C ommittee for the Preservation of the Kaiulani was born, with Hutchison's law firm as its headquarters. An article in the Washington Post's Sunday supplement, Poto mac, featuring the plan to bring the Kaiufani back to the United States bro ught in an overwhelming number of calls and letters from people interested in the proj ect. The committee learned that the M adrigal Shipping Company of Manila was the current owner of the log barge Kaiufani and entered into negotiations to acquire the vessel. To strengthen the committee's position, it incorporated and adopted the nam e N ational M aritime Historical Soci ety; Alan Hutchiso n was its president. The negotiations were successful; when Philippine President Diosdado M acapagal visited President Lyndon Johnson at the White House in October of 1964, he presented President Johnson with the ownership of the Kaiufani. President Johnson, in turn, charged the N ational Maritime Historical Society to take possession of the ship, restore her, and berth her on the Washington waterfront as a symbol of the fri endship between the people of the Uni ted States and the people of the Republic of the Philippines. The first order ofbusiness before NMHS was to hire a proj ect m anager to evaluate Kaiu fani's con di ti on and to oversee the repair work. At Karl Kortum's recommendation, Jim Kleinschmidt, then director of maintenance at Mys tic Seaport, was selected. Kleinschmidt traveled to M anila to carry out a survey of the hull, and his repo rt back was n't optimistic: (top Left) Mug-up in the foc's'Le, 1942-Karf Kortum sits at the center, while shipmate Harry D ring pours a weff-earned cup of coffee. (bottom Left) Up and stow.
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SEA HISTORY 142, SPRING 201 3