Sea History 144 - Autumn 2013

I

I

I I I'' I /

,

I I

~rl

. . . . . . . . . 111111 • • • • • •. , • •' ' ' ' - -///II

11 1111 ' ' ' ' • • 11 1111 ' ' \ \ ' • •

A Timeless Adventure Awaits You Aboard QUEEN MARY 2® Eastbound and Westbound 7-Day TransAtlanticCrossings

From

OCTOBER

2013 to

MAY

2014

Christmas/New Year from New York R/T

December 22, 2013 ( 12 days)

fares from

$999* $2,374*

ALTO UR pauline.power@altour.com

Call 212-897-5145 to plan your adventure today.

'Fares are per person, based on double occupancy, voyage only, subject to availability, capacity controlled. Call the above agency for more details. Government fees and taxes are additional. Air add·ons are available. See applicable Cunard brochure for terms, conditions, and definitions that apply to all reservations. Other restrictions may apply. ©2011 Cunard. Ships registry: Bermuda.

* J.P. URANKER WOODCARVER * rm.rn." .·..

OF .'. '."'"' .....

11:\'.\'.DC:\H\Tll

*

\,.\\/E FR.E £0t> I{ 0\£,

E.\(iLL~

Commemorating

Ct>~. :lll~· ~,~-S

LLC

.._

(508) 693-5871

* WWW.JPUWOODCARVER.COM

Celebrating EACH AND

P~~~

~-----------------••J;'.olil CH~EAN I~INEll llOW

UNIQUE

w:D'E'ta ORDER

Have a Nautical Keepsake?

Showcase as a focal part of a Custom made l st Class LAMP (table or ftoor)

CALL 440•715•3104 Ema il: lampsbycharlie@gmail.com LAMPS by Charlie LLC • 5222 RICHMOND AO. BEDFORD HTS., OH ddl64

II I I

I

The Great Ocean Liners Ocean Liner Memorabilia - Posters We Buy & Appraise Maritime Collections Committed to the Preservation of Our Maritime History

Ian Robertson www.oceanllnerrow.com 917-416-7653 - PO Box 20586, New York, NV 10025

CLASSIC HARBOR LINE Manhattan Newport

Key West

sail-nyc.com

sail-newport.com

sail-keywest.com

212-627-1825 Historic, antique U.S. , · Coast Survey maps ~ from the 1800s ~· Original lithographs, most American seaports and shores.

Repri n ts , too. Unique framed ,

great gifts. Catalog, $ 1. 00.

Specify area.

8954 Richmond VA 23225 . 804/261-6089

CHARTIFACTS . DSH , BOX

Come Sail with us!

Model Ships by Ray Guinta P.0. Box 74 L eonia, NJ 07605

201-461-5729

www.modelshipsbyrayguinta.com e-mail: raymondguinta@aol.com Exp erienced ship model maker, wh o h as been commissionti"d By the ational Maritime Historieal Society and the USS Intrepid Museum in New York City.

*

Scarano Boat Building Designing and Building Tradition Since 1976.

Albany, NY - www.scaranoboat.com - 518-463-3401

MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM

Congratulations to National Maritime Historical Society recipient oj our 2013 Mariners Award In recognition of 50 years educating and enlightening Americans about our maritime heritage.

l;t l&C -4~-~k~y~ ~-u

243 Washington Street· Bath, Maine · 207-443-1316 • www.MaineMaritimeMuseum.org

Snug Harbor on Nelson Bay is a coastal North Carolina retirement community and rehabilitation resort offering five levels of care: •Residential (Housing with Services) •Assisted Living •Medical Assisted Living

•Skilled N ursing C are •N o Buy-In Plan

Affordable Luxury When You're Anchored in Boston The antiquity and charm of the original Mariners House has been updated to include all the modern amenities, featuring completely renovated private rooms, private baths, elegant common rooms and all the in-room necessities of modern life.

Starting at

~65

per night incl udi ng breakfast.

Lunch and dinner also offered dai ly

(Not included.)

Guests must be active seafarers with proof of service.

165 Years of Hospitality and Guidance to Professional Mariners 11 North Square, Boston, MA 0 21 13 Voice (617) 227-3979 Fax (617) 227-4005 inn@marinershouse.org www.marinershouse.org To Make a Reservation, call I ·877-SEA-9494

National Historic Landmark HNational Memorial to Coast Guardsmen who lost their lives during WWII through Vietnam.

• Awarded two Naval Presidential Unit Citations for her service during Vietnam.

• Credited with sinking Li-Boat 626 during convoy duty in the North Atlantic.

Don't miss the opportunity to tour this ship. learn about its remarkable history. the recently completely underwater re-fit and the current work being done restoring her topside.

USCGC INGHAM is located in Key West on the Truman Waterfront.

•Memory C are

You Can Visit ...You can Help

•Short-Term Respite C are/ R eh ab Therapy

The foundation seeks donations to continue restoration of this important vessel. Please send your tax-deductible contributions to:

USCGC INGHAM Memorial Museum U'i:itch the video at www.SnugHarborOnNelsonBay.com

P. 0. Box 186. Key West. Florida 33041 •Phone: (305)-218-6600 www.uscgcingham.org

~

I

z

f

~

(],_

No. 144

SEA HISTORY

AUTUMN 201 3

CONTENTS 12 Historic Ships on a Lee Shore-Update on USS Olympia, by Burchenal Green 14 Battle of Lake Erie, 10 September 2013, by Captain Walter Rybka With the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie coming up in September, the US Brig

Niagara's captain, Walter Rybka, examines the battle as it played out and the controversy surrounding the failure of Niagara's first captain, Jesse Elliott, to engage and support his superior, Oliver Hazard Perry, in the fight that won control ofthe Great Lakes for the Americans.

20 Peter Rindlisbacher, Sailor and Master of Marine Art, Takes on the Battle of Lake Erie,

by Donald E. Graves, illustrations by Peter Rindlisbacher 24 "For the Gallant Men of the Merchant Marine," Wartime Training at the Seamen's Church lnstitute's Merchant Marine School, by Johnathan Thayer The Seamen's Church Institute in New York has a long history ofsupporting merchant mariners, but when the US entered World War I in 1917 and World War II 24 years later, it stepped up and created the Navigation and Marine Engineering School to train men for the merchant service in wartime.

28 Sea History in a Brooklyn Cemetery, by John Rousmaniere A look at the tenants ofa Brooklyn cemetery reveals a wide range of maritime activity in New York Harbor and beyond, and the fate ofthe mariners whose end came in port.

34 An Upstart Maritime Museum is Thriving in Camden, New Jersey, by Michae.l H. Lang In one ofthe most crime-ridden cities in the country, a dedicated mariner led a grassroots movement to establish a maritime museum to ensure that the city's strong maritime roots are remembered and celebrated and, by doing so, to bring positive experiences to a new generation.

38 "She Floats!" The Launch of the Charles W. Morgan, 21July2013, by Deirdre O'Regan The 4 1/2-year restoration ofthe Charles W Morgan's hull is complete, and the 172-year-old whaling ship was relaunched in a spectacular event at Mystic Seaport in July. NMHS was there to witness the historic event.

46 The National Maritime Historical Society Annual Awards Dinner, 2013, by Shelley Reid This year's awardees are America's Cup technical director Stan Honey; Rear Admiral Sandra L. Stosz, USGC; Cunard Cruise Line; and NMHS Vice Chairman Richardo R. Lopes. Read about their achievements and about how you can join them at this annual gala event this fall.

Cover: The Lawrence Takes Fire, by Peter Rindlisbacher, oil on canvas, 24" x 36" See pages 14-19 for the story on the Battle ofLake Erie by Captain Walter Rybka and pages 20-22 for artist Peter Rindlisbacher's interpretation of the events as they unfolded.

DEPARTMENTS 4 DECK LOG 5 LETTERS 8 NMHS: A CAUSE IN MOTION 42 SEA HISTORY FOR Krns 50 MARITIME HISTORY ON THE INTERNET

51 SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT MUSEUM NEWS 57 CALENDAR 59 REVIEWS 64 PATRONS

&

Sea History and the National Maritime Historical Society Sea History e-mail: editorial@seahistory.org; NMHS e- mail: nmhs@seahistory.org; Web site: www.seahisrory.org. Ph: 914 737-7878; 800 221-NMHS MEMBERSHIP is invited. Afrerguard $ 10,000; Benefactor $5,000; Plankowner $2,500; Sponsor $ 1,000; D onor $500; Parron $250; Friend $1 00; Co nrribu tor $75; Family $50; Regular $35.

All members outside th e USA please add $10 for postage. Sea History is sent to all members.

Individual copies cost $3.75.

SEA HISTORY (issn 01 46-93 12) is published quarrerly by rh e National Maritime Historical Society, 5 John Walsh Blvd., POB 68, Peekskill NY 10566. Peri od icals postage paid at Peekskill NY 10566 and add 'l mailing offices.

COPYRIGHT Š 20 13 by the Na ti onal Maritime Historical Society. Tel: 9 14 737-7878.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sea History, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

DECK LOG Supporting Scholarship We all appreciate the lure of the lore-a good sto ry. I love the story of Major General Sir Edward Pakenham, brother-in-law of Admiral Wellington, who was put in charge of British forces in the Americas in 1814. His horse was shot from under him during the Battle of New Orleans; he was wounded and died and sent home in a barrel of rum . The story goes that one of his relatives exclaimed that at least he returned in better spirits than when he left.

Ir's a great tale, but there's a difference between popular history and scholarly research. Because so much depends on history, we n eed genuine scholarship- the questioning, analysis, research, and good writing-that gives us an accurate view of our past. Parr of what yo u support as a m ember of NMHS is the sponsorship of educational conferences and projects. Not only do you support them, but yo u can participate in them. We use the pages of Sea H istory and our website www. seahistory.org to let you know abo ut them in advance and share with you what was covered when they are concluded.

From Enemies to Allies: International Conference on the War of 1812 and its Aftermath This pas t June, Maryland's Star Spangled 200 program hos ted an international conference of 200 scholars at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis to better understand the significance of the War of 1812 and the lessons it can teach us.

Conference participants go t to hear presentations by top 1812 scholars from Canada, Great Britain, and the United States, including Andrew Lam bert, Donald G raves, Don Hickey, William Dudley, James Bradford, and Michael Crawford, on topics such as privateering, slavery, Native Americans , military strategy, American generals, ethics, diplomacy, and impress ment.

Highlights of the conference included a welcome from Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, a tour of the special exhibit The Naval Wtzr of 18 12 with William Koch, who lent his collection for the exhibit, a tour of the always impress ive US Naval Academy Museum with senior curator James C heevers, and a day's outing with Fort McHenry park ranger Vince Vaise. He escorted us to the sites of the 181 4 battle that inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star Spangled Banner and to the home of Mary Pickersgill , who sewed the massive 15-star, 15-srri pe flag that flew over the fort. Star Spangled 200 is a spectacular commemoration of Maryland's bicentennial and a model for other states to follow as they explore their own histories. The commemorations will conclude with the Star Fort McHenry Park Ranger Vince Vaise Spangled Spectacular on 6-16 September 2014 describes the British attack on the fort. in Baltimore to celebrate the 200 'h anniversary of the attack on Fort McHenry and the writing of what would becom e rhe national anthem on 14 September. Updates on this and other events commemorating the bicentennial of the War of 1812 can be found online on our website or at www.starspangled200 .org.

1O'h Maritime Heritage Conference O ver 500 historians and scholars are expected to gather in Norfolk, Virginia, on 17-2 1 September 201 4 to exchange information , inspire new directions, and build opportunities for cooperative proj ects. Visit our website to keep informed: www.seahistory.org. -Burchenal Green, President 4

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBUSHER'S C IRCLE: Peter Aron, G uy E. C. Maidand, Ron ald L. Oswald OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Chaim1an, Ron ald L. Oswald; Vice Chairman, Ri chardo R. Lopes; President, Burchenal Green; Vice Presidents, Deirdre O'Regan, Wendy Paggiotta, Nan cy Schnaars; Treasurer, H oward Slotnick; Secretary, Jea n Wort; Trustees: C harl es B. Anderson; Walter R. Brown; RADM Joseph F. Callo, USNR (Rer. ); Thomas Daly; W illi am S. Dudl ey; David S. Fowler; W illiam Jackson Green; Karen Helmerso n; Robert Kamm; Richard M. Larrabee; G uy E. C. Maidand; Capt. Brian McAllister; CAPT Sally C hin McElwrea th , USNR (Ret.); James J. McNamara; Michael W. Morrow; Richard Patrick O 'Leary; Timothy J. Runyan; Richard Scara no; Philip J. Shapiro; Bradford D. Smirh; Cesare Sorio; Phi lip J. Webster; Daniel W. Whal en; Trustee Elect: Roberta Weisbrod; Chairmen Emeriti: Walter R. Brown, Alan G. Choate, Guy E. C. Maitland, Howard Slotnick; President Emeritus, Peter Stanford FOUNDER: Karl Kortum (1917- 1996) OVERSEERS: Chairman, RADM David C. Brown, USMS (Rer.); C live Cussler; Richard du Moul in; Alan D. Hutchiso n; Jakob lsbrandtsen; Gary Jobso n; Sir Robin Knox-Johnsro n; John Lehman; H. C. Bowen Smith; John Stobart; W illiam H. W hi te; W il liam W in terer NM H S ADVISORS: Chairman, M elbourne Smith ; D. K. Abbass, George Bass, Oswald Brett, Francis ]. Duffy, John Ewald, Timorhy Foote, W ill iam G ilkerso n, Steve n A. H yman, J. Russell Jin ishian, Gunnar Lund eberg, Co nrad M ilster, W illi am G. Muller, Stuart Parnes, Lori Dillard Rech, Nancy Hughes Richardso n, Bert Rogers, Joyce Huber Sm ith SEA HISTORY EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD : Chairman, Timothy ]. Runyan; No rman J. Brouwer, Robert Browning, W illi am S. Dud ley, Daniel Finamore, Kevin Foster, John Odin Jensen, Joseph F. Meany, Lisa No rling, Ca rl a Ral111 Phi ll ips, Walter Rybka, Q uentin Snediker, W illiam H. W hi te NMH S STAF F: Executive Director, Burchenal Gree n; Membership Director, Na ncy Sch naars; Marketing Director, Steve Lovass-Nagy; Accounting, Peter Yozzo; Volunteer Coordinator, Jane Maurice; Executive Administrative Assistant, Kell ey H oward; Development Associate, Susan C hitwood SEA HISTORY: Editor, D eirdre O'Regan; Advertising, We ndy Paggiotra; Copy Editor, Shell ey Reid; Editor-at-Large, Peter Stanford Sea History is printed by The Lane Press, So uth Burlingwn , Vermont.

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

LETTERS Maine Maritime Museum HonorsNMHS Every year Maine Maritime Museum bestows a "Mariner of the Year" honor on an individual, gro up of people or organization for extraordinary contributions to Maine's maritime heritage. Past honorees have included historians, amhors, yacht designers, educators and boat builders, all with a national (or international) presence.

On behalf of the board of directors, I am honored to present the 20 13 Mariner of the Year to the National Maritime Historical Society. Previous honorees have been based in Maine, but NMHS has a strong connection with Maine since Kaiulani was a Bath-built ship from a famous Maine shipyard, whose vas t records Maine Maritime Museum preserves. All our previous honorees similarly had a national presence and NMHS has a reach that is national and beyond.

NMHS was founded with a focused mission of preserving a Bath-built sh ip and has evolved over fifty years to becom e a nationally significant organization promoting maritime history and preservation on a broad scale. This mirrors in some ways Maine Maritime M useum's own path as an organiza tion that was foun ded to publish and preserve local history and has, over fifty years, grown into a museum of na tional significance. We honor your work and are proud of our similarities and connections.

Maine Maritime Museum is located o n a beautiful twenty-acre riverfront campus that preserves America's last intact historic shipya rd, where the great wooden schooners were built. Indoors, enjoy our air-conditioned galleries with permanent and changing exhibits. Outdoors, tour the historic shipyard buildings, learn abo ut lobstering, enjoy lunch under the m onumental sculpture of the schooner W)'oming (the largest wooden sa iling vessel ever built in North America), tour the Victorianera Donnell House, and play on a pirate ship-all in front of the backdrop of the towering cranes of Bath Iron Works where the ground-breaking Z um walt-class destroyers are under construction. We invite your members to visi r. Co ngratulations.

AMY LENT, Executive Director, Maine Maritime Museum Bath, Maine

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 20 13

We Welcome Your Letters! Please send correspo ndence to: editorial@seahistory.org or by USPS to : Editor, Sea History, 7 Timberknoll Road, Pocasset, MA 02559 Memories of Governors Island still maintained at that time, which we I'm writing to thank NMHS for the won- visited periodical ly to supply diesel fuel derful program associated with the Soci- and water. These included Ambrose Tower ety's 50th anniversary an nual meeting. It (later rep laced by an unmanned tower and was evident that extensive efforts went then by buoys after it was rammed on two into the tours, which encompassed many occasions) , West Bank Light to the west of locations in the New York City area. As we Ambrose C hannel, and Execution Rocks walked the gro unds of Govern ors Island, I Light in wes tern Long Island So und. It mentioned to Burchie that I had served for gave us great ship-handling experience to almost four years as a Coast Guard officer approach these lights closely enough to an there in the early 1970s, and she asked me chor and send hoses across the water.

For my last two years, I was transto send in some of my memories of that time. ferred to the Aids-to-Navigation section of I reported to the USCGC Firebush, the Third District office, where I was the an ocean-going buoy tender built in 1943, Projects and Plan ning Officer. The office as the Operations Officer and Navigator in the winter of 1971, when New York H arbor was fi lled with ice nearly from sho re to shore. Having just come from Officer Candidate School in Virginia, I was unprepared for the long, cold days and nights required on the bridge, as the ship replaced buoys dragged off-station and broke ice for traffic in the harbor and up the Hudson River as far north as Albany. I think it was a month be- USCGC Firebush at Lima pier, Governors Island. fore I managed ro leave the ship during business ho urs so I could buy som e muchneeded lo ng underwear.

The ship was responsible for mainraining buoys and lighthouses from Cape May, New Jersey, to Watch Hill, Rhode Island . Several manned lightho uses were

was housed on the second floor of a building in the historic area that had been a barn for polo ponies back when senior US Army officers played polo on the grounds in front of the training center in Building 400. I traveled throughout the distri ct, often with a civil engineer, to investigate changes and

Join Us for a Voyage into History Our seafa ring heritage comes alive in the pages of Sea Histo1J1, from the ancient marin ers of Greece to Portuguese navigators opening up the ocean world to the heroic efforts of sa ilors in modern-day conflicts. Each issue brings new insights and discoveries. 1f you love the sea, rivers, lakes, and

bays-if you appreciate the legacy of those who sail in deep water and their wo rkaday craft, then you belong with us.

Join Today!

Mail in the form below, phone 1 800 221-NMHS (6647), or visit us at: www.seahistory.org (e-mail: nmhs@seahistory.org)

Yes, I want co join che Society and receive Sea History quarcerl y. My conrribution is enclosed . ($ 17.50 is For Sea History; any amo unt above that is tax dedu ctibl e.) Sign me up as: 0 $35 Regular Member 0 $50 Family Member 0 $ 100 Fri end 0 $2 50 Pacron 0 $500 Do nor

144

Mr./Ms. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - - - - - -

-----------------------~Z IP _ _____ Return co: National Maritime Hiscorical Sociery, PO Box 68, Peekskill , NY I 0566

5

plans for modernization as electronic systems were developed that wo uld permit better auromarion and monitoring of aids.

I also spent several very chi lly weeks in a wetsuit in a small boat placing markers for a pile driver in the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway after a stormy fall season.

Living on Governors Island provided access to all the advantages of life in New York City at minimal expense. My wife and I-newlyweds at the time-lived in Building 315 at the base of Yankee Dock, where the NY Waterways Ferry dropped us off during our recent visit with NMHS. We soon learned exactly how long it rook to walk to the ferry landing during the 1973 oil embargo, when our car would sit in front of our quarters for weeks. Unsold tickets to Broadway shows were donated to the USO in those days, and we saw many of the hits, including the original production of "Pippin" with Ben Vereen-four times(!), I think. I rook evening courses at Hunter College and sang both in the New York Choral Society (concerts at Avery Fisher Hall) and in the cho ir at Trinity Church on Broadway, a short walk from the ferry.

Even forty years later, we srill love to visit New York and manage to find our way around with little difficulty. Thanks again for the chance to revisit familiar and not-so-familiar places in New York.

DAVID PERCIVAL

Mysric, Connecticut J. P. URANKER WOODCARVER

*

AUTHENTIC MARITIME

*SEA CHESTS* HANDCARVED

*

DOVETAILED

1-508-693-5871 1393 County Road, Martha's Vineyard, MA 02557

WWW.JPUWOODCARVER.COM Tired of nautical reproductions?

Martifacts has only authentic marine collectibles rescued from scrapped ships: navigation lamps, sextants, clocks, bells, barometers, charts, flags , binnacles, telegraphs, portholes, U.S . Navy dinnerware and flatware, and more. Current brochure - $1.00

MARTIFACTS, INC. P.O. BOX 350190 JACKSONVILLE, FL 32235-0190 PHONE/FAX: (904) 645-0150 www.martifacts.com e-mail: martifacts@aol.com

6

Around the

Cabin Lamp

South Street's Future Is Upon Us Having given due notice, on 5 August the Museum of the City of New York did not renew its contract to run South Street Seaport Museum-a move made necessary by the insuperable problems raised by superstorm Sandy's rampage through the Lower Manhattan waterfront last fall, which led to closing down its principal building, Schermerhorn Row. Thanks to the Herculean efforts of waterfront director Jonathan Boulware, supported by the volunteer crew of Save Our Seaport, the ships of South Street Seaport Museum survived Sandy's onslaught unharmed. The flooding ashore, however, caused such extensive damage to museum buildings that City Museum trustees felt they could not responsibly take on costs of more than $20 million to replace the ruined mechanical systems of the Seaport's Schermerhorn Row. Captain Boulware, now installed as interim president by a Seaport Museum board of three City officials, wrote museum members: "we are open and operating."

Indeed, the refurbished 188 5 coasting schooner Pioneer is now once again sailing out of South Street and the fishing schooner Lettie G. Howard is due back this fall, following shipyard repairs of damage from lack of maintenance. And the museum's great 1885 square rigger Wavertree has been funded by the City's Cultural Affairs Department for a Stage III restoration, while Commissioner Kate Levin seeks a new cultural partner for the museum as a whole.

Two years ago we ran a report in Sea History, ''A New Morning in South Street," about how former employees and volunteers at the Seaport Museum had formed Save Our Seaport, a new outfit created to revive the museum, which had been closed in 2011 for lack of public interest and support. Save Our Seaport embarked on a simple quest: "To save South Street's working waterfront, beginning with the schooners Pioneer and Lettie G. Howard, from there continuing inland to restore interest and life to the rest of the museum."

I signed up for this, moved by the idea of the Seaport Museum being revived from the sea: that was how it had been founded forty-odd years earlier-we'd come ashore from two schooners loaned for the occasion! And more to the point, in a museum that too often seemed to have lost the bearings of its primary purpose of delivering a message of American seafaring, it established that our ships were there not just to look pretty, imposing as their presence was, bur ro do a job of work-keeping alive our heritage in seafaring for the people of New York. A letter on this vital subject from Dr. Raymond Ashley, chair of the American Ship Trust Committee of the National Maritime Historical Society, appeared in the same issue as our "New Morning" report and makes strong reading today. He's director of the Maritime Museum of San Diego, which operates three square riggers today and is building a fourth to meet the demand for the experience of sailing such ships.

In departing, the Museum of the City of New York gave us a priceless victory in what is now shaping up as the battle for South Street; they refused an offer from an encroaching developer to meet half the museum's operating expenses for the next ten years if the museum would turn over to them its three flourishing shops: Bowne Printers and Bowne Stationers (representing centuries-old businesses in the Seaport district) and master carver Sal Polisi's woodworking shop, the Maritime Crafts Center. These Water Street shops face out on the modern city in their Georgian brick buildings, fulfilling the dream of a Seaport telling the deeply purposive story of a city born of the sea.

More on this later, if our readers will have it; in the meantime do write me your thoughts on the thoughts offered here. They will be read and may, indeed, be acted on.

-Peter Stanford, NMHS President Emeritus

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

On the Trail of

~ Columbia & Snake Rivers Cruise Explorers Lewis & Clark followed an epic course along the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

Discover these iconic rivers for yourself aboard the elegant paddlewheeler Queen of the West. From the high desert canyons of the interior to the dense mountain forests of

the Pacific Coast, the dynamic landscape is filled with history and natural beauty. This fabulous 8-day cruise features the finest cuisine, regional entertainment, and exciting land excursions. Call today for information about this incredible experience.

Spokane

•

NMHS: A CAUSE IN MOTION Celebrating NMHS's 50 Years with the Historic Maritime Community in New York City

0

ur spectacular 50'h A nniversary annual mee ting in New York C ity in M ay introduced to som e-a nd reacquainted others with- rhe m aritime heritage community ac tive today along the waterfront, circumscribing the city fro m the Hudson River, wrapping around the Battery, and up the East River out to Brooklyn a nd Long Island Sound. Even if you were not able to join us in person for the event, you might be interes ted to learn what we learned a nd see pho tos of what we saw; yo u might even be inspired to plan a visit to N ew York yo urself and use our experience as a guide-one that takes you to the docks and piers along the busy wa terfront in between the greenways and nonmaritime developed areas . Our meeting gave NMHS members,

trustees, and staff a good hard look at the N ew York others might not even know exists, but the part ofNew York that built the city itself, which in turn bui It the state and the nation . As NMHS trustee Captain Jim M cNamara put it: "the heritage of the C ity of N ew York is its harbor." Our meeting took us to the great city's waterfront- its ships, its museums, and the people that preserve its rich ma ritime heritage. A nd, when we arrived, we were gree ted by the leaders and doers of this thrivin g maritime community and brought up to speed o n the heri tage each ship and ve nue represents a nd where rhey are today in their preservatio n and outreach effo rts. There is much to celebra te; but plenty of struggles and hard work lie ahead. Ours was not a feel-good tour that glanced over the realities of m aritime preservation in New Yo rk and beyond. O ur goal was to hea r and learn first-hand abo ut how things rea lly are and to make plans on what can be done.

W e had a delightful visit to Krevey's Pier 66 fo r lunch and toured the 193 1 fireboat john ] Harvey and the Frying Pan li ghtship. At Pier 25, we emba rked on tours of rhe lighthou se re nder Lilac and lightship Nantucket, then traveled by boat to view the ba rge Lehigh Valley No. 79 a nd pay a visit to the historic oil ra nker Mary A. Whalen. South Street Seapo rt M useum's waterfront director, Jonathan Boulwa re, (who was recentl y named interim

8

president), led our exploration of the lightship A mbrose and the m assive four-m as ted ba rque Peking, made fa mous in Irving Johnson's film Around Cape H orn.

O ur business m eetin g was held in the historic India H ouse at H anover Square. O ur presenters shared the stories of the Port of New York's rich history and brought us up to date on the current status of m aritime preservation in the city, es pecially with res pect to their experiences during and after Hurricane Sandy. We also learned more of our own history as a Society, with reports on how fa r N MHS has co me in the last fifty years and where we are headed . Our president em eritus, Peter Sta nford, introduced his and his wife N orma's upcoming book, A Dream of Tall Ships, which tell s the story of m aritime New York and the founding of South Srreer Seaport Museum; our good fri end Dr. Joseph M eany, New York Srare historian emeritus, regaled us wirh some of the stories he's heard a nd lea rned over his ca reer about maritime N ew York during WWII; and fin ally, our vice chairman, Rick Lopes, reminded us that New York still supports-and is supported by-a n active maritime community, in his documentary on US A irways Flight 1549, which crash-landed in the Hudson River in 2009 and whose crew and passengers were rescued by New York 's ferryb oat caprains and crew with no loss of life.

M aritime N ew York is best seen by boar, and we were fortun ate that our fri end Arthur Imperatore Sr. arra nged for us to travel on a New York Waterways Ferry from one wa terfro nt site to a nother over the course of three days; we are grateful to Captain John Doswell

(top left, l-r) NMH S Chairman Ron Oswald, Chairman Emeritus Howard Slotnick, and President Burchenal Green greet members at the Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum; (middle) 1931 Fireboat John J . H arvey; (above) Kenny McCoy, ofthe lighthouse tender Li lac, explains to the group the ships steam engine and engineering systems.

SEA HI STORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

and Captain Alan Warren for handling alI the logistics. We hiked Governor's Island to see the old Coast Guard base and the Harbor School, a public charter high school on the island, in a relentless downpour. Despite the weather, our indomitable guide, Carter Craft, was so interesting that most of our hearty group foreswore the bus and hiked along in the rain so as to not miss out on his commentary. We were a wet and bedraggled group when we arrived at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Museum, where director Daniella Romano enthusiastically led the group on a tour of this gem of a museum.

'

focus on science and math in our quest to improve job skills for today's yo uth. While the latter is necessary, it shou ld not be done at the expense of a proper education in history.

NMHS New York Harbor Historic Ship Steward Award of Excellence

The founding mission of the Society was to promote the preservation of historic ships. At our final dinner with the gro up, we recognized eight individuals whose work in historic ship preservation has saved and made accessible many ships and boats in New York Harbor, many the NMHS 50'h Anniversary Award last of their kind. Maintaining a presence of The NMHS 50'h Anniversary Award historic ships in this significant port is critical was presented to Norma Stanford, to promoting awareness of New York 's rich whose talents and commitment kept maritime heritage and helps keep the harbor the Society moving forward over accessible to its citizenry, which was a goal of many yea rs, through both choppy our late overseer Walter Cronkite. seas and ca lms . Overseer Jakob Many of the ships the awardees steward are listed on the New York State and the Isbrandtsen, a giant to both the Society and South Street Seaport, Federal Register of Historic Places. NMHS made the presentation. Norma spoke chairman Ronald L. Oswald presented awards passionately abo ut the importance of to: John Doswell, president, Working Harbor paying it forward and stressed how Committee, and trustee of the fireboat john standards in education in history ]. Harvey; David Sharps, president of The must not be swept to the sidelines as NMHS Chairman Ron Oswald congratulates Waterfront M u se um ; Carolina Sa lguero, school curricula are being revised to Norma Stanford on her award. fo under and director, PortSide New York;

2014 Calendar

Ca lendar is wa ll hangi ng, full co lor 11 " x 14". Gift #011 $ 14.95 or $ 13.46 for NMHS members. Add $5.50 s/h w ithin the US.

NEW! The Down to the Sea 2014 Calendar features the paintings of maritime artist Don Demers. Demers has been inspired since boyhood by the deep Atlantic waters that sweep the coast of Maine. His experience of sailing aboard traditional ships brings an authenticity to his marine paintings. In Down to the Sea, when Demers paints historic vessels riding a swell or wafting through a coastal inlet, yo u can always

Orders shipped after IO Dec. 20 13 can be priority shipped at $7.95. sense the wind, feel the sea and smell the Please ca ll for sh ipping charges for multiple or international orders. salt air of the waterways.

To order, call 1-800-221-NMHS (6647), ext. 0, or visit our website at www.seahistory.org.

NY State residents add applicable sales tax.

SEA HISTO RY 144, AUTUMN 20 13

9

Pamela Hepburn, director/founder, Tug Pegasus Preservation Project; Angela Krevey, owner and president, historic lightship Frying Pan; Huntley Gill, director, fireboat John ] Harvey; Mary Habstritt, director and president, Lilac Preservation Project; and Gerald Weinstein, founder, Lilac Preservation Project.

Rodney N. Houghton Award for the Best Feature Article in Sea History The Rodney N. HoughronAward for the best feature article in Sea History was presented by trustee and award chairman Bradford Smith ro Dr. J. Phi ll ip London for "Before 'Old Ironsides'-the Origins of USS Constitution and H er First Captain, Samuel Nicholson," featured in Sea H istory 142, Spring 2013.

In the course of the weekend we had the privilege ro take advantage of many of the city's maritime offerings, and we learned of many more ro visit on future trips . Based on our wonderful experience, we can recommend several rours and destinations. On your next visit ro New York, start off with a rour by water with Hidden Harbor Tours (www.workingharbor. com) or on a New York Waterway ferryboat (www.nywaterway. com). You might want ro go sailing from Chelsea Piers on the fast schooners America 2. 0 or Adirondack, or aboard the classic moror yacht Manhattan (www.sail-nyc.com). Or head down ro South Street and sail with the 1885 schooner Pioneer.

New York is famous for its museums of all kinds, and its maritime museums are a great way ro learn about the variety of ways New Yorkers have used the sea and rivers that surround it for transportation and commerce, warfare, travel, government,

and the arts. Check out the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum at Pier 86 (www.intrepidmuseum.org) and South Street Seaport Museum (www.southstreetseaportmuseum.org), downtown on the East River and within walking distance of the Cusrom House (now the National Museum of the American Ind ian, www.nmai.si.edu/visit/newyork), the Museum of American Finance (www.moaf.org), and Federal Hall (www.nps.gov. feha). Head over ro the Bronx, to the Maritime Industry Museum at SUNY Maritime College at Fort Schuyler (www. maritimeindustrymuseum.org), or ro Brooklyn ro see the Brooklyn Navy Yard Museum Building 92 (www.bldg92.org).

From Manhattan, yo u ca n also take the Staten Island Ferry to visit the Noble Maritime Collection at the Snug Harbor Cu ltural Center (www.noblemaritime.org)-the trip there by ferry becomes a part of the experience.

- Burchenal Green, President W here to find information for y our visit to the historic ships in New York Harbor Fireboat john J Harvey, www.fireboat.org; Leh igh Valley Railroad Barge No. 79, www.waterfrontmuseum.org; Tanker Mary A. Whalen , w ww.portsidenewyork.org; Lighthouse tender Lilac, www.lilacpreservationproject.org; Tug Pegasus, www.tugpegasus.org; Lightsh ip Nantucket, w ww.nantucketlightship.com; Lightsh ip Frying Pan, www.fryingpan.com.

Celebrate our maritime heritage this holiday season with NMHS greeting cards Geoff Hunt is known ro millions of readers across the world as the artist responsible for the covers of Patrick O 'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels. He is widely acknowledged ro be one of the leading marine artists of his generation.

Greeting reads "Wishing yo u fair winds for the holidays and calm seas for the New Year."

Set of 10: $ 14.95 or $ 13.46 for NMHS members.

Add $4.50 s/h for one set or $6.5 0 s/h for two ro five sets. Please indicate your choice of holiday or blank cards.

Gifts CDl-"Shipbuilding along the Kennebec River, Maine; the Hen ry B. Hyde alongside" by Geoff Hunt. Oil on canvas, 24 " x 36".

Please call for shipping charges for more than 5 sets or international orders. Visit our website www. seahisrory.org-for other selections choose "Srore," then "Gifts."

To order, call 1-800-221-NMHS (6647), ext. 0, or visit our web site at www.seahistory.org.

Order now for October delivery.

10

SEAHISTORY 144,AUTUMN 2013

NMHS Ship's Store

Prices in clud e em broid ery with o ur NMHS logo featu rin g our fl ags h ip Kaiulani, in fi ve colors.

Weems & Plath Porthole Desk Clock Gift # 106- $97.99 + $15 s/h. This

Men's Long Sleeve Button-Down Shirt Gear #020- S-XL$42 + $7.95 s/h, XXLadd $4.00, XXXL add $8.00. NMHS embroidered wash-and-wear button-down shirt. Wrinkle resistant, box back pleat, patch pocket, button-down collar. Butter, Crimson, Bark, Black, Burgundy, Navy, Clover Green, Coffee Bean, Dark Green, Eggplant, Steel Gray, Ultra Marine Blue, White.

nautical desk clock looks great from all angles. The Porthole Desk Clock is set in solid American hardwood with a mahogany finish and a scratch-resistant sole. The brass finish of the quatiz clock is ultra hard and will never tarnish .

Dimensions: Dep: I 112" x Wid: 2 3/4" x Ht: 6 112"; Dial: 2 112".

17" Model of Shamrock V Gift #048-$89.00 + $13 .00 s/h. The Shamrock V was the last entry by Sir Thomas Lipton to challenge for the America's Cup. Model is hand-made with plank-on-bulkhead construction.

Comes with easy assembly instructions and wooden stand to display it on. Model Size: 17" L x 23" H x 3.5" W.

Your choice Weems & Plath Brass Clock Chart Weight Gift #107 or Chart Weight Magnifier Gift #108-$61.99 + $13 s/h

.~

uu.vn.1

# l\

The brass Clock Chart Weight is a quartz clock set in a forged brass ring. It is brushed and lacquered so it will nottamish or show Gear #010-S-XL $25 + $7.95 s/h, XXL fingerprints. The bottom of the weight is add $4.00, XXXL add $8.00. NMHS felt lined. The chart weight comes in a embroidered sweatshirt. Unisex. 50% black velvet lined gift box suitable for cotton, 50% polyester. Low-pill, high- presentation purposes. 3" Diameter. stitch-density fleece. Ash, Black, Deep Forest, Deep Red, Lt. Blue, Navy, Pale Pink, White.

Hanes 50/50 Fleece Crew

The Chart Magnifier is the perfect aid in reading small print on charts, maps, and documents of any kind. The Brass Magnifier Chart Weight is a forged brass ring which encloses a 5x magnifying lens.

The brass is brushed and lacquered so that it will nottamish or show fingerprints. The bottom of the weight is felt lined. It comes gift-boxed suitable for presentation. 3" Diameter.

To order, call 1-800-221-NMHS (6647), ext. 0, or visit our website at www.seahistory.org. Allow 2 to 3 weeks for delivery. Shipping within USA only.

Satisfaction guaranteed!

HISTORIC SHIPS ON A LEE SHORE

T

he stams of the historic warship USS Olympia has been of great concern to the members of the National M aritime Historical Society. In 20 10, the Independence Seaport Museum (ISM) in Philadelphia anno unced they could no longer maintain the ship ; without extensive repairs and maintenance that the muse um could not afford, Olympia was in real danger of sinking at the dock. Faced with the alternatives of selling Olympia for scrap or having her hauled out to sea and scuttled to make an artificial reef, ISM was in a difficult situatio n and hosted a summit to involve concerned members of the m aritime heritage community from around the co untry. At that time, six organizations expressed interes t in taking responsibility for the vessel and applied to have it transferred to them through a process that was developed jointly by the museum, the US Navy, and the Pennsylvania H isto rical and Museum C ommissio n, each of which have a legal interest in the ship.

An informal task force, composed of member o rganizations of the National M aritime Alliance, has been monitoring the transfer application process and providing advice and suppo rt to potential stewards. The group, chaired by retired Rear Admiral Edward S. "Skip" M cGinley, a former navy shipyard manager, has evaluated repair options, explo red legislative options to reallocate funds, and has promoted outreach and ship adoption initiatives.

Writing fo r the Naval Instimte Proceedings in February 201 3 in the article "Bring Historic Ships Back Into the Fleet" National Histo rical Fo undation (NHF) program director Dr. D avid Winkler noted that Olympia "cam e into service at the time of the creation of the Navy's chief petty officer community" and argued that itwould make sense "to focus the chief petty officer indoctrination process with its currently unfocused fundraising activities to preserve this historic ship, and then use her as a heritagetraining platfo rm for a select group of C PO candidates."

As a N aval Historical Foundation historian, Winkler notes that organization's long-standing efforts to preserve the ship, observing that in Philadelphia on 3 M ay 193 1, N H F president Rear Admiral William Rodgers stood on the deck of

12

USS Olympia in Philadelphia

. /}

....

~-

"

...

1 ~

.. _

-...-.. ~.

II

Olympia in front of thirty veterans of the Battle of M anila Bay and 10,000 onlookers to promise, "Everything possible will be done to preserve Olympia as a historic shrine." O ver eight decades later, Winkler is cautiously optimistic that Rodgers's vision will continue o n. "The two transfer application candidates seem to have viable plans regarding her long-term berthing and preservation. But the reason I temper my optimism is I wo rry that fo lks will ass ume someone is takin g care of the problem, and they need not reach in to their wallets. We need to remind fo lks that while the transfer process is ongoing, Olympia is actively deteriorating and needs fundin g for her fi rs t d ry docking in nearly seven decades." To facilitate the collection of critical funds, the Natio nal Trust for Historic Preservation has established a donation portal on its website: preservation nation.org/olym p ia. About $500,000 in donations in the last few years has enabled the Philadelphia museum to carry out immediate repairs and stabilization work. These do nati ons fund securing the ship in the short term, but w ill not be enough in the long term witho ut m ajor fundin g.

There are two rem aining applicants left vying to take possession of OlympiaThe Mare Island Historic Park Foundation (MIHPF) in Cali fo rnia and the South Carolina O lympia Commi ttee (SCOC).

..

-¡

...

-:+

Both are working to demonstrate th at they have the funds, expertise, and location to care fo r Olympia so that the ship is not put in another dire situation down the road.

Estimates have put the total price tagat close to $ 10 million . The SCO C p lans to display the ship out of the water on a flo ating dry dock/exhibit platform berthed in the town of Port Royal, So uth Carolina, a site of great signifi cance in the Spanish American war in which the ship so famously fo ugh t.

Similarly, the MIHPF hopes to display the ship in a historic granite dry dock at the fo rmer M are Island N aval Shipyard (MI NS), 2,5 00 miles away in the San Francisco Bay area. MINS is significant to Olympia's history, as it serviced every ship in the battle fleet led by U SS Olympia in 1898. The two applicants have anno unced a strategic alliance.

The alliance works towards the m utual goal of ensuring Olympia's survival, regardless of which party eventually gets to locate her in its facility. Both entities remain committed to their individual efforts to acquire the ship and display it at their respective sites; however, each also believes that the best way to save the ship for future generations is to haul her out of the water at a new site, where she will not be subject to ongoing corrosion from seawater an d at a location m ore likely to generate suffi cient operating revenues to address the ship's long-term maintenance. Both the MIHPF

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

Update on USS Olympia and the SCOC are committed to working cooperatively through the remainder of the transfer process; both have agreed to support whi chever gro up is selected as the recipient of th e ship.

USS Olympia is the oldest survi ving steel-hull ed wars hip in the world. Wh en war broke out with Spain in 1898, she and the ships she led were all that stood between our West Coast and a powerful Spanish Pacific Beet. Olympia became famous worldwide when, in the course of a single morning in 1898, the American Beet she led engaged and destroyed the Spanish Beet at Manila Bay. From Olympia's bridge on the first of May 1898, during the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines, Commodore George Dewey uttered the famo us command: "You may fire when ready, Gridley." The Battle of Manila Bay would prove to be one of the most decisive naval battles in histo ry and resulted in the end of more than three centuries of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines; the United States was emerging as a world power. Dewey and the Olympia became instant national heroes.

BREWER BANNER DESIGNS

by Burchenal Green, NMHS President

The year before the warship was decommissioned, Olympia carried home from France the body of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. From rhe rime of her decommissioning in 1922 until she was scheduled to be scrapped in the 1950s, Olympia was largely forgotten.

When wo rd got our that the cruiser was scheduled to be broken up, the residents of Philadelphia ral lied to save her.

Kenneth Zadwick, president of the MIHPF, explained, 'We are excited to form this strategic alliance with the SCOC. We, like the SCOC, offer the fac ilities, the marker, and relevant historical context to display this National Historic Landmark safely our-of-water. Our alliance is predicated on the overriding need for gro ups such as ours to work cooperatively to ensure this great historical artifact is preserved for future generations. " Pere Richards, presiden r of the SCOC, concurred and added, ''All of America has a stake in saving USS Olympia. She is the only major link remaining to the Spanish American War, which played a cri tical role in our nation's history. Our

goal is to mobilize support nationally an d to save the ship without any cost to rhe taxpayer."

We ask yo u to support the work being done to save USS Olympia by th e Mare Island Historic Park Foundation (MIHPF), the South Carolina Olympia Committee (SCOC), Indep en d ence Seaport Museum, the Naval Historical Fo undation, and the task force of the National Maritime Alliance. Dr. Winkler reminds us to reach into our wailers. And, as you do that, get out yo ur pen and write yo ur senator and member of Congress to remind them of how vital it is to save this national icon before it is too late. ~

You can Learn more about SCOC and MIHPF ventures at http://www.scolympia. orgl for the SCOC and at http:!! www. mareisLandmuseum. orglabout!shipsl uss-olympia/ or http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=AD2sAZ4nQr! for the M IHPF The MIHPF and the SCOC are nonprofit public benefit corporations within the meaning of Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

CRUISE ABO RD THE WWII LIBERTY SHIP HN W. BROWN

STARS & STRIPES PENNANTS - Historical design exquisitely hand crafted in the most durable fabrics. 3', 4', 6', B' and 12' sizes in stock. Other sizes & designs by custom order.

CUSTOM DESIGN & FABRICATION IS OUR SPECIALTY! Also in stock: ALL SIZES - U.S., state, foreign, historical, military, marine & decorative flags, banners, pennants & accessories.

77 Forest St., New Bedford, MA 02740 508 996-6006

www.brewerbanner.com

TAKE A SIX HOUR "Voyage into Histdry" featuring music of the 40's and period entertainment. Watch an exciting air show with flybys of wartime aircratt (weath er permitting). Enjoy a continental breakfast and a lunch buffet. Tour museum spaces, crew quarters, bridge and much more.

View th e magnificent 140-ton triple-expansion steam engine as it powers the ship through the water.

'Tk ~e-1"v-o1't-- ()I tkÂŤ1lit

Oatr

!({}(,(/

OUR 2013 6-HOUR DAY CRUISES

e()f&,et

4 tk e()ffe-/"S' ()I/!(' e!"at(I""" 11.s' I ~t Mtli e{}l(telft/f(e-lft.

from Baltimore, Maryland September 7 and October 5 Cost for each guest - $140. Inquire about Group Discounts.

Restrictions & penalties apply to cancellations.

11

www.latentheat.net SEA HISTORY 144,AUTUMN 2013

The ticket order form is available on our web site, liberty-ship.com.

Mail ticket orders to P.O. Box 25846, Highlandtown Station, Baltimore, MD 21224-0546.

Phone Orders: (410) 558-0164 •Fax Orders (410) 558-1737

www.liberty-ship.com We accept VISA, MasterCard and Discover. Cruise profits maintain this Liberty Ship Memorial. A portion of your payment may be tax deductible. O fficers and c rew licensed and documented by the U.S. Coast Guard.

13

5attle of Lake Erie)

10 September 1813

by Captain Walter Rybka

As part of our ongoing series of articles expanding on the War of 1812, we present an excerpt from Captain Walter Rybka's new book, The Lake Erie Campaign of1813: I Shall Fight Them This Day. This passage examines the Battle of Lake Erie, with particular focus on the controversial actions of Master Commandant Jesse Elliott, second-incommand to Oliver Hazard Perry. Captain Rybka, the long-time senior captain of the US Brig Niagara, which still sails out of Erie, Pennsylvania, introduces the excerpt and afterwards offers some context and analysis of the events that played out.

5

y the end of a particularly hot summer in 1813, the War LAK Pl ~URON Burtlnglon of 1812 had been going on for fifteen months-and (Hamilton) going badly for the Americans. Far from being "a mere Moravlanlown Ft.Erle matter of m arching," the conquest of Canada had turned Buffal Long Point into a debacle of cascading failures. Both sides underestimated by orders of magnitude the difficulties of moving armies across Detroit ,joV-'°. a wilderness, a situation that favored the defenders. Also, the US ~mherstburg Presque Isle (Erle) hadn't reckoned on the depth and effectiveness of the resis tance AKE ERi of the Native Americans, who ultimately allied with the British. : Pittsburgh : 120mlles It was this hostile native presence, more than any other factor, ~ Cleveland that led to the decision not to attempt to retake Detroit until the Sandusky US Navy gained naval superiority on Lake Erie.

MA PS FO R THJ S ARTICLE COURTESY WALT ER RY BKA Erie resident Daniel Dobbins, a merchant-shipmaster, had their meeting, Chauncey sent Master Comm andant Oliver H azbeen present at the bloodless surrender of Fort Mackinac in July ard Perry to Erie to establish a naval station and fit out the ships of 1812, and again a month later at the fall of Detroit. By Septembeing built there.

Letters between Perry and his superior reveal ber he had journeyed to Washington to give President Madison C hau ncey's initial hopes to defeat the British squadron on Lake and his cabinet the first eyewitness briefin g of the extent of the Ontario in early 1813, and then come to Lake Erie to take comdisaster taki ng place in the Northwest. Having been appointed mand of the squadron.

Perry most likely wo uld be given command sa iling master in the US Navy, Dobbins returned to Erie and of one of the vessels. began organizing an effort to build gunboats there for service on As it turned out, Chauncey had his hands full on Lake OnLake Erie. tariostrategically the more important area of operations. WhoThe commander of US naval forces in the Great Lakes, Captain ever controlled Lake Ontario wo uld be able to shut off supplies Isaac Chauncey, had established a base at Sackets Harbor, New from reaching the enemy along the shores of Lake Erie. Thus, York, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, and in January of 1813 the principle effort on both sides foc used on getting control of he visited Dobbins in Erie. Chauncey recognized the merit of Lake Ontario.

Sizable ships in large numbers were built on both building there, but also saw that a much larger level of effort was going to be needed . H e contracted Noa h Brown, a well-known lakes, creating an insatiable demand for manning. Ch auncey shipbuilder from New York City, to travel to Erie w ith a crew of was slow to send men to Lake Erie, generating an increasingly shipwrights and take charge of building a squadron . Soo n afte r acerbic correspondence between himself and Perry. While never fully manned to naval establishment standards, Perry eventually HM Sloop-of mzr Sir Isaac Brock, on the stocks at York (Toronto) had enough men to sail from Erie, seeking battle with the British in the spring of 1813. Shipbuilding in the wilderness presented a squadron. multitude of Logistical difficulties, for both sides.

The British had the advantage of having several armed vessels already in service on Lake Erie from prewar days, yet being on the end of a longer supply line soon told. Perry had to struggle wit h a difficult situation, but overall was much better off than his opponent, Commander Robert Heriot Barclay. Once Perry h ad his squadron out on the lake in August, Barclay retreated to his base at Amherstburg on the Detroit River to do what he could to hurry the completion of his largest vessel. By allowi ng a more powerful squadron to get between himselfand his source ofsupplies to the east, Barclay condemned not only his men but the army, civilians, and Indian allies to increasing privation. As soon as the new ship, HMS D etroit, was ready to sail, Barclay felt compelled to seek action. The Detroit headed out of Amherstburg with borrowed sails, a mismatched battery of guns taken from the fort, and crews of mostly soldiers and landsmen with a thin leavening

14

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

of Royal Navy professionals. Further, Barclay and his men had already been on half rations for a week. On the American side, Perry's squadron had been wracked by fever and dysentery, with nearly a third of the men on the sick list at any given time. The tenth of September 181 3 can be called "the day the hungry cam e out to fight the sick ."

Although Perry had the stronger squad ronnine vessels to their six-and outgunned the British in broadside weight by three to two, the weather initially favored the British .

Having sailed on the ninth and been underway overnight in hopes of catching the Americans at anchor at Put-in-Bay at first light, Ba rclay was frustrated by light airs that kept him ten miles sho rt of his des tination at daw n, but at least able to hold his course and the weather gauge.

Perry had to beat directly to w indward to clear the anchorage, and, after nearly four hours of short tacking and still not clear, Barclay's Robert Heriot Barclay squad ro n was getting da ngero usly close. Just as Perry was accepting that he needed to fo rm a line somehow on the lee gauge the wind went flat, and m om ents later filled in again from the southeast, suddenly turning the tables-

at 10:30AM . Barclay hove-to in a line to the wes t, m oving away from the A merican squad ron at about a knot. With just enough breeze to m ake between two and three knots, Perry's rate of closing was not much m ore than a walking pace. In the hour and a quarter that it took the A merican brigs to get into ra nge, the sm all gunboats could no t keep up and lagged ever further behind. By 11:45, the US line was abeam the D etroit and the fi rst shots were fired . D etroit h ad long guns and drew first blood, while Perry's great weight was in short-range carronades.

The heaviest long guns were in the gunboats, still out of range astern.

Oliver Hazard Perry At such a slow rate of convergence, Perry would be taking fire he wo uld not be able to answer for a long time, clearly a n unacceptable situation. The prudent choice would have been to haul to windward and open the range beyond the British long guns, perhaps tacking back to offer tow lines to the lagging gunboats and try again later in the day when his force was concentrated .

Instead, Perry chose an extreme level of risk; he ordered a column right, turning downwind to run bows-on at the enemy, exposing h is sh ips to raking fire until reaching close range.

Excerpt from The Lake Erie Campaign of 1813: I Shall Fight Them This Day by Walter Rybka

Close Action At Yz pas t Mer'n w ithin musket sho t of the Enemy's new ship D etroit. At this time they opened a most destructive fi re on the Lawrence-from their whole squadron. Continu' d to near them as fast as possible.

-Sailing M as ter William Taylor, USN As Perry ordered the Lawrence through raking fire into the m idst of the British fleet, he expected the rest of his squadron to fo llow him in . The Ariel and Scorpion kept station toward the head of the British line, and the slower Caledonia endeavored to close as well. The Niagara, however, did no t. At the moment the helm was put up on the Lawrence-and held steady on the Niagara-a bitter and never-resolved controversy began between Perry and Jesse Elliott, who was in command of the brig Niagara.

At the heart of the dispute is whether Elliott's failure to closely follow Perry was the result of a deliberate and implicitly cowardly decision or because of the vaga ry of the wind that left h im unable to follow.

The Niagara did not m ake sail with the Lawrence and accompany her down into close action as ordered, but continued her long shot with two bow guns .... The Caledonia astern followed the Lawrence into close action agains t her

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

antagonist the H unter. But the Niagara, which when the battle began was w ithin hail of the Lawrence, did not follow her down towa rd the enemy's line, so as to encounter her antagonist the Queen Charlotte. -Usher Parsons, Ship's Surgeon Aboard the Lawrence, Parsons cared fo r all of the wounded of both squ adrons after the battle and, thus, probably conversed with more of the participants than any o ther individual. While his sen se of overall events may h ave been complete, he was not actually an eyewitness to the battle after the shooting started.

His station was down below in the wa rdroom (officer's dining room), wh ich on sm all warships customarily became the surgeon's operating room during battle.

The wo unded began to com e dow n before the Lawrence opened her battery. . .it seemed as though heaven and earth were at loggerheads. For more than two long hours, little could be heard but the deafening thunders of our own broadsides, the crash of balls dashing thro ugh our timbers, and the shrieks of the wo unded . These were brought down faster than I could attend to them , fa rther than to stay the bleeding, or support the sh attered limbs with splints, and pass them forward upon the berth deck.

-Usher Parsons

15

The waterlines of the Lawrence and Niagara would have been About a quarter past the A merican Commodore .. . came to close action wit h the Detroit, the other Brig of the Enemy at about knee level for men standing in the ward room, or anywhere else on the berth deck. Si nce the sides of the ship could be apparently destined to en gage the Queen Charlotte . .. kept so fa r to Wi ndwa rd as to render the Queen Charlo tte's 24 readily pierced by solid shot, those below deck were still exposed pr Carronades useless. - Robert Barclay, in to lethal fire. During the battle, no fewer than five balls crashed through the small wa rdroom surgery, in two cases dismembering a report to C D R James Yeo and putting an end to the agony of wounded men that Parsons Barclay's state ment is clear. The Niagara remained out of was operating on . A consequence of the ships having been built to shoal draft requirements was that the handling room of the carronade range. He also mentions the fire of the gunboats as tern, powder m agazine could not be go tten below the waterline. Powder as well as fro m the Caledonia. The A merican gunboats lagging barrels could be low enough in the bilge to avoid a hit, but the behind had only one gun each, but these were 32-pounder lon g gunner and his assistants stood exposed while ladling charges guns, the most powerfu l in service at the time. They were at the into flannel bags . These bags were passed to the powder mon keys outside limit of t heir range but may have scored an occasional through a slit in a we t blanket hung as a spark screen . W hile they hit. Sm all gunboats were usually ineffective as warships. They were at this work, a British ball shattered the lamp-room 0700 est. range 12 miles lantern and window through ~ ~ii),. .... (\/. w hi c h th e m agaz in e was ~:,,~ illuminated. As rem embered W. Rybka estimate of most +~

by Taylor in a letter, the candle likely track, averaging accounts fell out of the lantern and, still .;!;. 1530 lit, plunged towards an open powder cask. A quick catch in 1500 the open palm of a gunner put the candle out and saved the ' West 1kt. ship from oblivion. N o m atter '\ 1.5 miles Sister the level of courage, skill, and determination put forth, 1200 survival in such situations can 1145 be very much pure chance.

One measure of the ferocity of the battle is a complaint voiced by the wounded : "blood was dripping upon us through the pla nk seam s of the gun d eck a b ove ." O n e o f th e wounded towa rds the end of the battle was Purser Samuel Hambleton. A large splinter torn fro m one of the spars pierced were not very seaworthy and, due to their limited size, it wo uld his shoulder from above, and he was many months recovering. take very little wave action to make t hem w ildly inaccurate gun H e later recorded in his di ary, platforms. The near-calm co nditions of that day were one of the rare instances under which their fire could be effective when they The Caledonia, Lieut. Turner, was close as tern of us - the fin ally crawled into range.

Ariel, Lt. Packet, & Scorpion, Sailing Master C hamplin were on our larboard bow - and these 4 vessels sustained the fi re The Queen Charlotte m ade sail & closed up w ith the D etroit, of the enemy almost exclusively fo r more tha n two hours in shortly after the action commenced , a nd directed h er fire at which time we had 22 men killed and sixty one wounded. The the Lawrence. The Niagara still continued to rem a in a lon g ship was a complete w reck the rigging cut to pieces - mas ts way as tern and firin g at long sho t. and spars wounded & almost every gun on the starboard -18 18 affidavit by Sailing Mas ter Stephen C h amplin, side di smounted or in some way disabled .... The Niagara, Commanding O ffi cer of Scorpion. all this time, was a long way astern of the Caledonia & the G unboats Somers, Trippe, Tigress & Porcupine considerable There is no q uestion that Elliott lagged behind during the distance in line, as tern of her. It is th e general opin ion of height of the battle. Elliott could be said to have been continuously the officers that, durin g the time I spoke of, we d id not engaged, as long as his 12 pounders were in ra nge, but closely receive the least support from them . - Purser H ambleton engaged wou ld h ave required closing to within car ronade ra nge.

W hy Ell iott stood off for so long has been in di spute ever since The British view of this period of the action agrees. that day. H is obvious defense was lack of w in d . In sul t ry a nd light

{)

16

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 201 3

air conditions, there are often "holes" in the wind, patches of dead calm in between areas oflight breeze. The persistence of this calm spot affecting only the Niagara is less credible. The 260-ton Queen Charlotte was downwind of Niagara and had enough wind to pass the Hunter and closely support the D etroit. The slow-sailing Caledonia, just ahead of Niagara, was able to close, although her commander, Lt. Daniel Turner, wisely kept just out of range of British carronades but well w ithin range of his own guns, which were a pair of twenty-four-pounder long guns.

If the Niagara's pair of rwelve-pounder long guns were used throughout the action, then her distance from the British line could not have been much more than a mile. Getting within carronade range meant closing to just under half a mile. Reaching effective range meant closing another quarter mile. To cover three quarters of a mile in less than rwo hours does not require much speed. In the light air at the beginning of the battle, the Lawrence covered the same distance in half an hour. Elliott's defenders have also made much of his being constrained, in the absence of furth er signals from Perry, by the order to maintain his station in line and was thus held back by the slow sailing Caledonia. Perry's order was in three parts: engage your designated adversary, stay close to the Lawrence, stay in line. When circumstances render it impossible to do all three, clinging to the least important, to the excl usion of the other rwo, is hard to justify. The argument that even if Elliott misj udged his priorities, it was up to Perry to command him to do otherwise via signaling is logical but naive given the practical difficulty of communicating by flag in such light air that flags hung limp and smoke from the guns hung in dense clouds.

Between 12:30 and 2:30pm, the static relative positions of the ships indicate the breeze died to a flat calm. This can be inferred from Perry's statement that the Lawrence was "becoming unmanagea ble" and yet m aintained a static position relative to the British ships. It would seem that having missed the chance earlier, Elliott was now stuck in position, unable to close regardless of what sails were set. This defense ignores the option of using the sweeps. Even if the wind had gone flat calm, Elliott should have had recourse to the sweeps. The Niagara had been built with sweep ports, as was revealed from the wreck that was raised in 1913.

The previous March , Dobbins had paid for receiving delivery of sixty sweeps, twenty to twenty-five feet long; eighteen sweeps would have been a full inventory. The present-day Niagara has been maneuvered at over two knots by sweeps . Even at a mere one knot, Elliott could have closed the range in a half to three quarters of an hour. Ir cannot be proved with certainty char Niagara had her sweeps onboard , bur the ship being built to have them and Dobbins raking delivery of an adequate number to outfit rhe vessels is strong circumstantial evidence char Elliott had it within his power to close the range, even in a flat calm.

Elliott had been under fire before and had acquitted himself well, so it is too simplistic to w rite him off as a coward. Nor is there any evidence to indicate traitorous intent. Instead, the evidence points to an insubordinate officer who deemed he knew better than his commander. Elliott, encouraged by Purser Humphrey Magrath, judged char Perry was making a catastrophic error and perhaps decided nor to fall into the same trap. Yer, however risky and ill-considered Perry's decision to close, the wi nd did hold, just long enough for rhe Lawrence to get into close range. If Elliott had

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

followed Perry as ordered, rhe fire superiority of the Americans would have been decisive at the outset and the battle would have been over in half the time, with far fewer casualties. Everyone who was there knew it, including Elliott. Ever since, his defenders have either been drawn from among uncomfortable subordinates, dependent upon Elliott's recommendation for promotion, or from those familiar with his good qualities bur who had nor witnessed the battle and the terrible punishment taken by the Lawrence and those on board her .

As senior captain aboard the Niagara (top photo) in the 2 1st century, Captain Rybka has used the ship's sweeps to get the brig underway to test whether or not it was feasible for Jesse Elliott to have used them in the Battle ofLake Erie.

17

LITTLE BELT (Sloop) (Schooner) GEN. HUNTER' ' , (Brig) '

I

~ SCORPION '

'

/

/ /

(Schooner)

I

I

I

I

''

'

1

LADY PREVOST (Schooner)

\,,~ :.:;,

TRIPP~

"f-

(Sloop)

\,',,JI; NIAGARA (Brig)

CALEDONIA (Brig)

NOTTO SCALE

Ar Y2 pas t 1 pm so entirely disabled that we could work the Brig no longer called the M en from the Tops & Marines to m an the guns - at this time our braces - bowlines - sheets & just almost every strand of rigging cut off- M as ts & spars cut through in various places - At 2 pm most of the gun ~ dismounted breechings gun carriages knocked to pieces called the few sur viving m en from the first division to m an the guns aft.

- Sailing M aster Taylor The fact that the masts rem ained standing with serious damage and all the supporting rigging severed is further evidence the wind had died altogether. Also, if the Lawrence was so badly shot up aloft, the reason she stayed in continuous close action with the D etroit and Queen Charlotte was that none of these vessels could move under sail at this time.

There is a truly am azing story of courage and unit cohesion here, perhaps equaled but never surpassed in the annals of the US Navy. An understanding of this heart-pounding drama is, ironically, enhanced by some dry statistics. There is a remarkable consistency in the casualty figures of all the naval engagements of the W ar of 1812. The ratio of killed to wounded averaged about one to four. 1he combined total cas ualties were between twelve percent and fifteen percent for the victor, and around thirty percent on board the vanquished. Sinking of ships and attendant loss of m os t of the crew to drowning was a rare occurrence. Solid shot striking water either skipped high or lost velocity and plunged .

'

PORCUPINE ' SOMERS (Schooner)

(Schooner)

TIGRESS (Schoone r)

~

LAWRENCE (Brig)

Hits at the waterline resulri ng in flooding were rare. The object in battle was to capture the enemy vessel, which might h ave valuable cargo on board or could be repaired for use by the victor. The surest m eans of accom plishing capture was closing range and firing into the opposing crew. The race was to be first to kill and maim enough of them to d iscourage the rest into surrender. When the " butcher's bill," in the idiom of the day, got to the point where one out of three men were bleeding and the ability to return fire was rapid ly d iminishing as fewer were able to work the guns, the situation became hopeless. A demoralized crew would cry for "quarter" and the surviving officers, generally recognizing the futilit y of raking furth er casualties, wo uld haul down their flag.

Something very different ro ok place on board the Lawrence.

By 2:30PM there were twenty- two dead and sixty-one wounded from a complement of 103 "effectives," or a staggering eighty percent. Actually, a port ion of those on the sick list roused themselves to fight, so the number of men engaged was a little h igher and the percentage of loss slightly lower, bur the results were catas tro phic by any m easure. Yet this crew did not break.

Clearly, Perry displayed a m ost charismatic and determined leadership to ins pire this level of courage from his m en. They fo ught until their ship was helpless and still did not give up. Ir wo uld seem that Perry was facing certain defeat. His ship could no longer m aneuver o r fight and had suffered horrific casualties, but at this seemingly impossible m inute the wind once again came to his rescue.

(End ofexcerpt)

18

SEA HISTORY 144,AUTUMN 2013

Perry's courage was rewarded by phenom enal luck. A few m inutes m ore and he would have been force d to surrender, or see the las t of his m en slaughtered to no purpose on a defenseless w reck. As it was, the wind fi lled in again fro m the southeast.

With most of its dam age aloft, the Lawrence d ropped back in relative terms as the action m oved to the wes t. To windward, the Niagara was fin ally close enough to fire broadsides a nd sail along the British line. Perry did not know Elliott's intentions -but he had been less than helpful so fa r. Taking fo ur men to row a cutter across to the Niagara, Perry was met by Ellio tt at the rail. We have no agreement on what was said, but Elliott departed in the cutter to rally the gunboats, a superfluo us errand since the wind had carried them into ra nge by now. Perry ordered another downwind turn, bows-on to the enemy, but this time he was sailing a fresh ship agains t heavily damaged ones.

Just before the Niagara reached the British line, the British flags hip HMS D etroit, attempting to turn to avoid being raked, was ru n into by the out-of-control Queen Charlotte. Before they could unta ngle them selves, Niagara was upon them, firing raking broadsides of double-shotted guns at half-pistol shot into the D etroit and Queen Charlotte to starboard and the Lady P revost to port. Niagara ro unded up to leeward and delivered another broadside, wh ile the gunboats closed from windward, fin ally close enough to land grapeshot. The British situation becam e hopeless in an instant, and soon a white cloth waved on a pike.

W ith in m inutes, the firin g died out up and down the line as the rem aining British vessels struck their colors. All anchored and began the daunting task of clearin g away the shat tered rem ains of men, spars, and guns. In the sudden ea r-ringing stillness, punctuated by the sound of more than a 100 wo unded-without anesthetics-Perry scribbled a hasty note to General H arrison:

"We have m et the enemy and they are ours, two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop, yo urs with great respect and esteem.

0. H. Perry" Few battle repo rts have ever been m ore succinct or memorable.

Lake Erie was the fi rst US victory in a fleet action, however sm all and primitive the sh ips. It was the first really good news in a long time, and Perry becam e an instant h ero. The victory on Lake Erie was not the turning point of the wa r; both sides wo uld continue to fi ght to murual exhaustion, which took a nother year and a quarter to achieve. But Lake Erie compelled the British to abandon D etroit and Amherstburg, which w renched the Indians away from their alliance with the British . The true significance of the Bard e ofLake Erie is that it enabled the United States to rega in the territory bungled away at the beginning of the war.

In the fall of 1814, when the negotiators m et in Ghent, Belgium, agreeing on the pre-war status quo was m ade easier by the fact that, except for two American fo rts held by the British, the ground occupied by each side was the sam e as at the start. If the Battle of Lake Erie h ad not been fou ght-or been an Am erican lossthere is a very good chance the C anadian bo rder wo uld run along the Ohio-Indiana-Michigan line. .i A native ofBrooklyn, Walter Rybka 's maritime interests were seeded in childhood by frequent visits to the harbor, and his love of history was nurtured by family trips to museums, nationalparks, and historic sites. His career has been divided between historic ship preservation and experiential programs sailing historic vessels. In command of the reconstructed US Brig N iaga ra since 1991, Capt. Rybka resides in Erie, PA. H e has a USCG license as master, auxiliary sail, 1,600 tons, oceans. H e is also the director ofthe Erie Maritime Museum, and is a board member ofthe Council of American Maritime Museums.

Ships of Glass, Inc. Glass Replicas Featuring Curved Glass Sail~ We specialize in making replicas of vessels.

We welcome custom order s.

Ships of Glass, Inc. Brookly n McAllister

Don & Kathy Hardy 670 2 Rosemary Dr. Tampa, FL 33625 Ph. 81 3 918-1566 813 732 -691 7 dhardy@shipsofglassin c.com

Please check out our catalog of vessels on our website: www.shipsofglassinc.com.

"Yes, I can make a replica ofyour boat." - Don Hardy Barque Kaiulani

USCG Ba rque Eagle

"My office is fi ll ed with glo rious maritim e memorabi lia, and the first item people comment on is the ca ptiva ting Ships of Glass repli ca of the w ha leship Charles W. Morgan on my desk. Don Hardy is an extraord inari ly talented arti st, and hi s glass models are classy representati ons of our most beloved ships." -Burchenal Green, NMHS President

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

19

Peter Rindlisbacher, Sailor and Master of

by Donald E. Graves eter Rindlisbacher, whose paintings depicting the hard-fought 1813 Barde of Lake Erie, shown here, grew up around boars and water. A native of Tecumseh, Ontario, a scenic little town on the shore of Lake Sr. C lair across from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, he owned his first boat, a seven-foot pram, at the age of nine and later worked as a sailing instructor in the junior division of the local yacht club. Rindlisbacher's interest in sailing thus dares from an early age, bur his interest in marine art came later when he was getting his undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, far from any large body of water. Ir was then that he began painting sailing ships as a hobby and a method of relaxation. This pastime very quickly developed into something much larger and, by the time he was completing his doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Q ueen's University in Kingston-chosen because Kingston is a sailing center-his art was competing with his studies as a vocation. After considerable thought, Rindlisbacher decided to try and make a living as an artist.

It was a calculated gamble, bur it has paid off. In the last three decades, Rindlisbacher has established himself as one of North America's finest marine painters. Besides private commissions, he has completed paintings for the US Navy, the Coast Guard, the National Prelude to Battle, oil on canvas, 24" x 36" Park Service, the National Historic 0930: Perry tacks his squadron to windward out ofPut-in-Bay in the frustrating morning zephyrs.

Sites Service of Parks Canada, the New York State Department of Education, the Canadian War Museum, the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes, and the Michigan Maritime Museum, as well as many other institutions and organizations. His art graces the jackets of no fewer than thirty books (including five written by this author) and many magazine covers. His primary interest is in sa iling warships, particularly those of the War of 1812, and he has completed nearly 150 subjects from that conAicr. Bur Peter has also painted commercial vessels, pleasure craft, and modern warships.

One of his current commissions is HMS Hood, the finelined but doomed British battle cruiser sunk in 1941.

Rindlisbacher approaches his work on a number of levels. Beyond his artistic talent, which is immediately apparent and makes him a fitting member of both the American and Canadian Societies of Marine Artists, he possesses other attributes that contribute to the accuracy of his works.

General Hunter in Battle 1215: The early minutes of the battle just as the ships were beginning to find their range and sustain casualties. oil on canvas, 24" x 36"

20

SEA HISTORY 144,AUTUMN 2013

Marine Art, Takes on the Battle of Lake Erie His ex tensive academic backg round has trained him to be a serious researcher. H e is at home in libraries and archives a nd has, ove r the years, acquired a personal study collection of nearly a thousa nd volumes of nautical hi story. Rindlisbacher also goes to extreme lengths to ensure historical accuracy in his work and has been kn own to abandon a nearly completed painting when new research revealed a minor error.

W ork ing on a painting of the ad va nce guard of Wolfe's army descending the St. Law rence in sm all boats during the night of 12 September 1759 to la nd above Quebec, he established the precise amount a nd angle of illumination by moonlight within a three-hour frame at the correct latitude and longitude on the exact date. O ver the past two decades, he has been repeatedl y as ked to paint di ~ The Lawrence Takes Fire, oil on canvas, 24" x 3 6 fe rent scenes from the battle of La ke Erie, 13 15 : The Lawrence receives heavy concentrated British fire as she attemp ts to close the distance and va riations in the paint schemes of the ships in these paintings reflect new research, including a rare watercolor left by a participant. As part of his preparation, he often constructs small models of his subjects, photographing them in va rious positions, and then he uses this pictorial documentation for his preliminary sketches .

Perry Breaks the Line, oil on canvas, 24" x 36" 1450: Perry's master stroke, as he "crosses the T " and steers his new flagship Niagara across the bows of his two largest adversaries.

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

21

Rindlisbacher enjoys a mutually beneficial relati onship with a number of prominent historians, who prov ide him w ith historical details and in for mation which he uses to produce paintings that grace their publications. Perh aps his strongest asset, however, is his lifelong love of boats and boating, for he is a m arine a rtist who knows well the ways of w ind, wave and water.

Rindlisbac her applies that knowledge in a unique context because, for m ore than two decades, he has been an enthusias tic historical reenacto r. H e owns a twenty-seven-foo t replica Royal N avy longboat and has participated in reenac tments portrayin g moments in No rth Am erican ma rine history from the Seven Years W a r to the Wa r of 1812 throughout the Great Lakes a nd in A tlantic coastal wa ters. H e was on the board of a group that wa nted to reconstruct HMS D etroit, the British fl agship at the Battle of Lake Erie. U nfortunately, lack of fundin g doom ed the proj ect a nd the steel hull procured for the vessel was, iro nica lly, purchased to becom e the hull of the sa ilin g school vessel Oliver H azard Perry, currently being built in Rhode Island.

Peter Rindlisbacher never lets reenac tin g interfere with the real wo rld; he once returned home to proudly info rm his fa mily th at he had just been promo ted comm ander in his reenactment unit, only to be told by his Am erican wife, Ellen: "grea t, now C omma nder go and ta ke out the ga rbage."

In 201 2, the Rindli sbacher family moved from their resto red late nineteenth-century farmho use on the shores of Lake Erie to a hom e near Houston when his wife accepted a job in Texas. H appily, their new home is on a sm all lake, where the a rtist keeps up his sailing in a sm all din ghy. Better still, Texas A & M U niversity, with its extensive library of m aritime publications, is only an hour's drive away. With the assista nce of that institution, Rindlisbacher has just completed a commission for the State of O klahoma, depicting a

(above) Closing Moments, 1500: The fina l act of the battle, as the N iaga ra p ounds the enemy while hove to under their lee. The British surrender shortly after. Oil on canvas, 3 0 " x 40 " (below) Farewell to the Fallen, 19 00: Sunset following the battle, as the survivors bury their dead at sea, and p ut emergency repairs to the damaged rigging. Oil on canvas, 3 0 " x 48"

fa mous steamboat that sank in the Red River in 1837. Although far from the locales featured in m any of his paintings, Peter Rindlisbacher continues to produce high-quality n autical art and will do so fo r the fo reseeable future. ;t

Be sure to look for the artist's new book, War of 181 2: The Marine Art of Peter Rindlisbach er (ISBN 978-1-55082-3646), available directly from Quarry H eritage Books; Ph. 613-548-8429 or online at Amazon. com.

Return of the Victors 0900: On the morning after the battle, victors and vanquished return to Put-In-Bay Harbor, fifteen ships in all. Oil on canvas, 3 0 "x48" 22

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

JOIN TODAY!

By JOININt; THE NAVAL HrrroRICAL FovNOATION, yov BECOME A ITAKEHOLOER OF OVR NAVY'S fXCITINI'.; HIITORY ANO INSPIRINI'.; HERITAl'.;E.

BESIDES SECOM INI'.; A PART OF THE NATIONS PREMIER NAVAL HERITAl'.;E ORl'.;ANl<':.ATION, MEMBERS RECEIVE OISCOVNT5 ON PHOTOt;RAPHlc/ART RESEARCH ANO REPRODVCTION SERVI CH, CRVISE SOOK COPIES AND OTHER SERVICES!

FoR MORE INFORMATION CALL

1-202-678 -4333 OR VISIT

WWW.NAVYHISTORY.OR~

1396

DAHLc;REN

AvE. SE WASHIN<:;ToN

NAVV'YARD. DC

SEA HISTORY 144. AUTUMN 2013

20374-5055

23

"For the Gallant Men of the Merchant Marine" Wartime Training at the Seamen's Church lnstitute's Merchant Marine School

by Johnathan Thayer

"No man knows what the brooding future may bring, but this we do know; that such humane services as we can render, we shall do so, willingly, for the gallant men ofthe merchant marine. " - The Seamen's Church Institute, 1he Lookout, O ctober 1939 he Seamen's Church Institute of New York and New Jersey (SCI) Center for Maritime Education traces its origins to 1899, when US Navy Commander W. H. Reeder wrote to the chairman of SCI's Committee on Navigation, J. Augustus Johnson, to request 100 pounds of hemp rope, twenty-five pounds of hambroline, stopping blocks, and grummets to equip the institute with materials required to train aspiring seamen in the Port of New York. By 1916, after a brief partnership with the New York Nautical College and the YMCA, SCI officially established the Navigation and Marine Engineering

T

School, with Captain Robert Huntington serving as the school's head.

At first, SCI's Navigation and Marine Engineering School primarily concentrated on preparing young men for enlistment in the US Navy, bur when the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the school shifted its focus to producing qualified men to enter the merchant maritime fleet: "SEAMEN WANTED as Officers for the New Merchant Marine," read one advertisement distributed throughout Lower Manhattan that promised an accelerated route to the quarterdeck; another read, "Now is the Chance to

Better Your Condition and Help Your Country at the Same Time." The school had trained close to 2,000 men by the end of the war, inspiring SCI board member and then assistant secretary of the navy Franklin D. Roosevelt to write a candid letter in April 1918 to SCI director Rev. Archibald R . Mansfield, thanking SCI for "raking into the Navigation and Marine Engineering Schools, 'without money and without price,' the junior officers attached to the mine sweepers." Roosevelt continued: "It might interest you to know that the Navy Department appreciates the fact that, in doing what you have done, you have filled a need, which has caused us no little concern .. .. May I ask you to say to Captain Huntington that we feel under deep obligation to you all?"

After the war ended, US shipping fell into a prolonged slump precipitated by the marker crash of 1929 and the ensuing years of the Great Depression. As tensions and conflict escalated in Europe and Asia throughout the 1930s, the US government took severe measures in an attempt to stay neutral. The Neutrality Acts placed strict regulations on US shipping, which were intensified in 1939 when Roosevelt banned American ships

When the Seamen's Church Institute outgrew its floating chapel (a church built on a ferryboat hull) in New York Harbor, it raised fonds and built a hotel-like building at 25 South Street to offer a safe place far seamen to stay in port. 1he headquarters was more than a hotel far seafarers, it was a full-service center where mariners could come to relax, get a meal, find entertainment, and conduct personal business. Inside was a post office where mariners could receive mail that would be waiting far them when they arrived in port; it also had a bank, a gymnasium, and, of course, a chapel. Later, it housed a training center far mariners-the subject ofthis article.

24

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

''YOU 811 I' BACK 10

SIGN UP TO·DAY'

U.S.M aritime Servi~e

Jlf is/fr n/ go.r Hfllf'i'lf £:S:£111p 11

~

u. s. MERCHAN!;,

321 CHESTNUT ST•• PHll.ADH.PH'A.PA.

0

, '

MAN THE VICTO

outright from entering wa r zones . Seamen fo und themselves "on the beach " in large numbers, especially in N ew York C ity.

James Dickinson, an unemployed seaman who gave up on a career at sea to look fo r work in the steel industry, summed up the majority opinion along the waterfront in the winter of 1939: "There's no such thing as neutrality. It's all phony. We're fo r one side or another. W hat we wa nt is to sell stuff." 1 The years of economic depression in the shi pping industry hit SCI's Navigation and Marine Engineering School hard.

W ith job pros pects in decline, enrollment numbers fell precipitously, prompting

Rev. Mansfield, now SCI superintendent, to recommend closing the school in the 193 0.2 Nevertheless, the school rode out the storm and survived the 1930s to be reenergized by the onset of World War II. W ith the US declaration of wa r, one day after the Japanese arrack on Pearl H arbor on 7 D ecember 1941, the US merchant marine was again in high demand. SCI prepared for war by planning expansions to its Merchant Marine School (renamed in 1940) and encouraging sea men and staff to donate blood to the Red Cross to aid the U nited Stares N avy. Veteran seaman Samuel Kendrick described his decision to donate: "I figure it is better

to give my blood here than spill it on the deck in fist fi ghrs." 3 W ith the massive buildup of the US maritime Beer fo llowing Pea rl H arbor ca me an increased d em and for welltrained and qualified mariners who could operate the steady strea m of ships bein g launched fro m US shipya rds at a rare of a vessel per day. Among other World Wa r II training stations, SCI's M erchant M arine School provided the training necessary for thousands of young men to enter the merchant marine, navy, coast guard, and even the army and air fo rce. Wartime expansion of rhe school culminated in construction of the spectacular rooftop "Flyin g Bridge" and a 74 -foor replica pilothouse, built to the dimensions of the recently launched SS America, 212 feet above sea level on the roof of SCI's headquarters at 25 South Stree t in Lower Manhatta n.

Marketed as the "highest navigation bridge in the world," the Flying Brid ge attracted students fro m all over the cou nrry.

M any seamen who had abandoned the profession or let their licenses expire during the lean yea rs of the 193 0s returned to SCI to rake refresher courses and renew their certifications. The Merchant Mari ne School also welcomed men seeking the

In addition to ecumenical services, SCI provided training to mariners through their Navigation and Marine Engineering School at 25 South Street in lower Manhattan.

SEA HI STORY 144, AUTUMN 201 3

25

In addition to being a training station itself, 25 South Street was designated by th e federal government as the official receiving station for the first American m aritime pool ever created. U S Coas t G uardsm en and merchant seamen who finished their trai ning were given dormitory roo ms at the fac ility and instructed to wait for ship assignments. M eanwhile, SC I staff ad m inistered inoculations to seamen as they departed on voyages to fa r-flung parts of the wo rld. The auditorium at the school was converted into a gymnasium for daily calisthenics and muster drills.

Thro ughout the war, survivors from ror pedoed m erch a nt vessels arrived at SCI's doors seeking shelter and a place to recover from their experiences at sea. Often arriving at the institute with the shirts on their backs still da mp from their time in li fe boats, the rorpedoed crews served as a stark reminder to the seam en in training at the school of the very real and present danger of going to sea during wartime.

Even before the US entered the wa r, SCI was welcoming survivors from Allied vessels to 25 South Street. O n 8 September 1939, a German submarine torpedoed the Bri tish fre ighter Wink feigh, scattering the crew, including several yo ung m essboys,

The "Flying Bridge" on the roof ofthe SCI headquarters at 25 South Street. training necessary to enter the US N avy or US Coast G uard Reserve as commissioned offi cers. Even aspiring pilots came to SCI's Flying Bridge to take courses in aero nautical navigation for entry into the US A rmy Air Force.

For as piring merch ant mariners, SCI's M erchant M arine School offered courses for original and raise-of-grade certifi catio ns in the deck and engine departments, and licenses fo r third mate th ro ugh master.

Endorsem ents for unlicensed seam en we re available fo r lifeboatm en, able sea men, electricians, oilmen, firem en, watertenders, and pumpmen. Course listings included paid seam anship; celestial, aero nautical, and advanced navigation; pilotage; marine engineering; and a yachtsmen's course fo r ama te ur m ariners. In ro ta!, mo re than 180,000 p eople at tended lectures , a nd 11 ,527 navigators and mariners enro lled in courses at SCI's M erchant Marine School before the end of the wa r. 4

26

SEA HISTORY 144, AUT UMN 2013

into the Atlantic in lifeboats before they were rescued by the H olland-America liner Statendam . The Statendam tra nsported the surviving crewm embers to New York C ity, where they were taken immediately to South Street. The survivors, som e of whom "still wo re the dun garees, swearers, or old jackers they had on when the submarine captain ordered them to the life boats," we re each given a new set of clo thes a nd a hot m eal. By June 1942, SCI had housed the crews of fifty-six torpedoed A llied vessels. 5 In addition to caring for survivors of torpedoed vessels, SCI outfitted some of the larger room s as "homes" for foreign seamen who had been left exiled from their countries due to the wa r. The H ome for Ne therl a nd Seam en o pened on 15 November 1940 with "a bit of old H olland atmosphere ...tra nsplanted from the country of windmills a nd t ulips to a large room on the third fl oor of the Institute."6 The British Mercha nt Navy C lub opened on 26 M arch 1941, with Lord H alifax h imself in at tenda nce to offi cially dedicate rhe room . Th e Home for Belgia n Sea men opened three wee ks later on 15 April. These "club room s" provided A llied seam en who we re either in between voyages or exiled from their Nazi-occupied counuies with a home-away-from-home during the wa r and beca me sires of celebration and somber refl ection with the unconditional surrender of the Nazis on 8 May 1945: V-E D ay was o bse rve d qui e tl y a nd reverently at 25 South Street.

Merch a nt seam en fro m H oll and and D enmark had been close to the radios in their C lub Rooms since t he first news was flash ed of the liberation of their countries from the Nazi yoke. Usually stolid, phlegm atic faces expressed jubilation and rearsrained eyes bespoke their emotion o n reali zing that the last obstacles were clea red and all could see rhei r fam iIies and homela nds again.

-The Lookout, June 1945.

By the end of the war, approxim ately 9,3 00 mari ners had died as a res ult of their service at sea, ano ther 11 ,000 had been wo unded, and 663 were taken prisoner. 7 W h en the Japanese fin ally surrendered , the seamen and staff at SCI congregated SEA HISTORY 144, AU TU MN 201 3

fa re of our troo ps all over the world.

They must be supplied where they are until they ca n be brought hom e.

Troops must be rotated . O ccupational forces must be sustained, the wo unded and ill cared for. W orld shipping must go on into the peace.

-The Lookout, O ctober 1945

on top of the Flying Bridge to rake in the sights of a ciry in celebrati on: From rhe hostess in the clubroom comes this interesting re port of New York harbor after the news came th ro ugh that Japan wo uld surrender.

A dance was scheduled fo r eight o'clock, but ma ny of the seamen a nd hostesses a rri ved ea rly to listen to the radio. "When the big news broke," she w rote, "The In stitute's engineering instructor, C hief Ru ssell, invi ted us all to go up on the Flying Bridge of the Mercha nt Ma rine School.

W hat a sight! Ir was still daylight, and we co uld see planes circling over the Statue of Liberty. As the light darkened , we saw rocker flares shooting up in the sky, and pennants, and flares fl ying fro m all the ships in the South Street piers, just 14 stories beneath us. W histles fro m ha rbor rugs and fro m freigh ters and tankers were deafening. The din was terrific, but th rilling."

-The Lookout, October 1945 Th e wo rk of the merchant m arine was far fro m over, however. The war-torn nations of Europe and Asia were in immediate need o f v ira l ca rgo to rebuild their shattered infras tructure. As Vice Admiral Emory S. Land, head of the Wa r Shipping Administration, declared: For our a rmed forces the fighting is over, but the Mercha nt M arine still faces a m igh ty task. U pon the men who sail our ships depends the wel-

The Merchant Marine School continued operation high atop the roof of 25 South Street until the building was dem olished in 1967. SCI then moved its headquarters to a skyscraper on the rip of the Battery at 15 State Street, where the M ercha nt M arine School continued on as the Fra nklin D. Roosevelt Institute fo r M aritime and Ge neral Studies, named after SCI's long time b oa rd memb e r a nd ti reless ch ampion of the merchant m arine. Today, SCI continues its long history of training m a riners fo r wo rk o n both blue and brow n waters, using state-of-the-a rt computer simulation technology to train mo re tha n 1,500 deep-sea a nd intracoas ral m ariners each yea r at its centers in H o uston, Texas, and Paduca h, Ke ntucky. .1.

Johnathan Thayer is the Archivist for the Seamen's Church Institute and a PhD student in history at the CUNY Graduate Center. A digital exhibit corresponding to this paper is available at archives.qc.cuny. edulsci/exhibits. The Seamen's Church Institute "promotes the safety, dignity and imp roved working environment fo r the men and women serving in N orth American and international maritime workplaces."

Founded in 1834, the Institute is a voluntary, ecumenical agency affiliated with the Episcopal Church. For more information about SCI, visit their website at www. seamenschurch. org.

NOTES 1

The journal o/Commerce, 26 Dec. 1939.

"Ma ritim e Educatio n: WWI to Simulato r Tra inin g," h rrp://sea menschurch .o rg/arr icle/ ma riri me-ed ucario n-ww i-simulato r-rrai n ing.

3 The Lookout, Ja nu ary 1942 .

4 SCI A rchi ves, Se ries: Ma riti me Edu ca tio n.

5 Rousmaniere, Lea h Robinson. (1995).Anchored 2

Within the Vail: A Pictorial History ofthe Seamen's Church Institute.

6 The Lookout, Jan ua ry 194 1.

7 www.usm m.org, "US Merchant M a rine in Wo rl d War II."

27

Sea History in a Brooklyn Cemetery

by John Ro usm aniere o u never kno w wh ere yo u might com e across an artifac t of m aritime history. Ir might be a photo of a fi shing schooner on eBay, an online blog by some navyve terans, or a few words by Joseph Conrad that make you think about sailing in a new way. Or you might be raking a stroll in an inland Brooklyn cemetery when you come upon a m arble monument displaying an anchor, a ship's hull, and the words "For Sailors of all Nations."

This was one of many sea faring connections I discovered while writing the history of the Evergreens Cem etery, in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, N ew York. Founded in 1849 on the rolling hills of Long Island 's terminal moraine, this 225-acre nonsectarian cemetery (not to be confused with G reen-Wood Cemetery) is the fin al resting place of some 525,000 men and wom en , a large number of whom were mariners. This is not all that surprising; ma ny Norwegian and Swedish seamen settled in Brooklyn and worked on the piers, and the borough was home to o ne of the country's largest navy ya rds. Yet what was star tling was the va riety of the maritime co nnections within its gro unds. Besides emphasizing America's dependence on the sea and immigra nt seamen, this landlocked cem etery offers evidence that the brutality of seafaring has, at times, been softened by benevolent institutio ns.

No visitor will mistake the Evergreens for a quaint sailors' burying gro und. It is too close to M anhattan's skyline fo r th at.

Yet there is m ore than a touch of New England in its ru ral landscape (laid out by the originator of that style, A ndrew Jackson D owning) a nd the sweeping views ofNew Yo rk Bay and the coas tal Atl a ntic Ocea n that inspired an early visito r to rem ark, "No more fittin g spot could have been selected for the las t resting place of the men 'who go dow n to the sea in ships."' 1 1 h e remains of nea rly 2,000 sailors lie in a slope near the entra nce in a section called the Seamen's G rounds, near its acco mpanying marble m onument. Th is section a nd its monument were created in the 185 0s by the Sea men's Cemetery Association of the Port of New York. Its mission was to provide seamen who died in New York aboard ships or ashore with the courtesy of a proper grave 28

The "Vista of Beauty" at Evergreens Cemetery-the Seamen's Monument on Beacon H ill with its view over Brooklyn to the A tlantic and New York Harbor, 1867. and burial. The association's board included leading New York merchants and sea captains: Elisha E. M organ, head of the Red Ball Line; Pelatiah Perit and William H . M acy, presidents of the Seamen's Bank for Savin gs (which encouraged thrift among seamen); Walter Restored Jones, who installed the Long Island shore's first life-saving equipment; and C harles H. Marshall, of the Black Ball Li ne.

H aving started out on the decks of coasters and tra nsAtlantic packe ts (Marshall crossed the Atlantic under sail 94 times), these m ercha nt princes knew all too well the profo und insecurity of the average seaman, both at sea and on shore. "Life in the forecas tle was bleak: damp and unheated , without amenities or rights," writes the historian of the Seamen's C hurch Institute, a New York sailors' aid society fo unded in 1843. 2 In port, life co uld be as hazardous as on the we t deck of a ship at sea. A fter twenty years in ships, Joseph C onrad compared the fellowship of life at sea with the chaos of sailors' existence in port, where seamen "appeared to be creatu res of another kind- lost, alone, fo rgetful, and doomed .. . like reckless and joyous castaways, li ke m ad castaways making merry in the storm a nd upo n an insecure ledge of a treacherous rock."3 "Los t" is the governing wo rd. "Seamen are fo rever getting lost," wrote a reporter who knew them well. "Not los t in the intricate streets

of a foreign city, but lost from their fa milies somewhere out in the wide world." 4 Discharged from their ships and far from home and fam ily, the impoverished, mostly illiterate wa ndering tribe of seam en crowded New Yo rk. In 1850, some 44,000 sailors of m any nationalities in 3, 163 ships came ashore at New York and Brooklyn , whose wharves handled half the country's imports and a third of its exports.5 The streets and ba rs of South Street and other corners of "Sa ilortown" were a Babel. The th ree largest gro ups of sailors in New York came from Ameri ca, the British Commo nwealth, a nd , a close third , Sca ndinavia.

There were ma ny Germans, Itali ans, C hinese, and others, too. W hatever h is origin, every sea man was targeted to be robbed by la ndlords, bartenders, and crimps who kidnapped sa ilors and handed them over to outbo und ships.

W ith little or no legal protection, the sailors fo und mostly spiritual guidance in the seamen's chapels and bethels, where bibles and hymnals were dis tributed by the thousands.6 N ot all were converted .

"What the devil are they going to do with us?" as ked one sailor. "Make us all saints a nd deacons?" 7 A seaman's needs on shore were more ma terial: clea n clothing, an inexpensive bed free of bedbugs, a place to socialize away from the lure of demon rum, and, ultimately, a burial spot shou ld he die in

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 201 3

port. Death was the great fear, in part for obvious personal reasons but also because of the devastation that a fatal accident wrought to the fellowship of a crew. "Then, too, at sea-to use a homely but expressive phrase-you miss a man so much,'' Richard Henry Dana, Jr., wrote in Two Years before the Mast. "You miss his form, and the sound of his voice, for habit had made

revolting to the feelings." The knowledge of the seeming inevitability of this end so terrified the sailors "that they often [gave] utterance to their feelings on this subject in most impressive language." 10 Two cemeteries bid to host the site of the Seamen's Grounds. The founders selected the Evergreens because of its broad view of the water, and the federal government,

the undertaker, give him money enough to pay for opening a grave, and he attends to the rest of the business without another word. The next day the poor sailor is at rest in the prettiest part of one of the lovel iest cemeteries on Long Island." 12 More than 1,500 sai lors were interred in the Seamen's Grounds by 1900, when use slowly declined to approximately twenty-five burials a

Seamen's Monument today. them almost necessary to yo u, and each of your senses feels the loss." On shore, there might be a ritual farewell, yet Dana-and all sailors-were well aware that a proper funeral and decent burial were subject to the whims of the mate. 8 W hen a typical sa ilor died in New York, whether in a charity hospital or in a bar brawl, the corpse was likely to be carted off to a callous burial in a forlorn potter's field. The fear of such a lonely, desolate end was widespread and intense. The Brooklyn poet Walt Whitman (who buried hi s parents at the Evergreens Cemetery) wrote in the preface to the first (1855) edition of his epic poem Leaves ofGrass that a person requ ires three things to be independent: a roof over his head, clothing on his back, and, finally, "a little sum laid aside for burial-money." 9 Aware that seamen on shore were unlikely to have a little sum set aside for anything except the next beer, the founders of the Sailors' Cemetery Association petitioned the government for funds to create a new type of cemetery. Sailors have "heretofore been buried in potter's field, of the City ofN ew York, with paupers and criminals, and in such a manner as is SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 20 13

which had been covering the burial costs of foreign sailors, acquired the land for $5 ,000. "Jack is now to be buried at least like a gentleman," declared the Brooklyn

Eagle. 11 To honor and publicize the Seamen's Grounds, on a south-facing promontory called Howard Hill, the founders constructed a large marble monument topped by a forty-foot marble shaft balancing a globe. Carved on its base were images of a sh ip and anchor, both common symbols of hope, as well as the names of the founders and the mission statement, "For Sailors of All Nations," which promised that the Seamen's Grounds were open without discrimination to any seaman in need.

To further emphasize this policy, around the periphery of the Seamen's Grounds the Cemetery Association laid our and marked with large stones a total of eighteen burial lots for maritime nations and regions around the world, including Asia and Africa.

A system developed around the Evergreens plot. "When a seagoing man dies at my house leaving no money,'' the owner of a boarding house said, "I go to

year. The 1918 Hu epidemic and the Great Depression took larger tolls, as did World War II. Today, there is a burial only every three or four years.

The Seamen's Monument was used as a beacon by navigators approaching or leaving New York Bay and by fishermen who took bearings on it to locate their favorite fishing gro unds. Howard Hill came to be called Beacon Hill. 13 A century after the monument was built, the view was obstructed by towering apartment bui ldings and an elevated train station, the marble shaft was getting soft and fragile , and the Evergreens hoped to place graves on Beacon Hill. In 1957 the monument was removed and the base was moved down the hill into the Seamen's Gro unds, where it stands today, requiring some attention by preservationists as it nears its 150'h year.

Bill Anthony The graves in the main part of the Seamen's Grounds are unmarked, but other sailors' graves on Terrace Hill, overlooking the monument, do have headstones . Scotsman Joseph Miller was a greaser and fireman in the engine room of the motor tanker 29

British Merit when it was attacked by a submarine on her maiden voyage in a convoy from Britain to America in July 1942.

The ship's a nti-torpedo net stopped one torpedo, but the second hit the ship just behind the net. Miller was the sole fata lity in the crew of fifty-four. 14 Johan Larsen is identified on his headstone as a skibsforer (navigator) from Norge; he drowned in New York Harbor after fa lling from a launch .

Ou Loo was a Chinese stoker aboard the British-flagged SS Diomed late in 1918, when she was one of the last ships in World War I sunk by a German submarine. 15 Several Chinese-American associations have had large sections at the Evergreens since the 1880s with the understanding that the bones of the deceased would be

sent back to China. This ritual continued until a ship carrying zinc boxes of Chinese bones was torpedoed in the Pacific during World War II. Shipment of remains to China resumed in the 1990s. 16 The largest headstone on Terrace Hill is for one of the best-known (b ut in the end one of the most uagic) figures of the SpanishAmerican War. On board the battleship Maine after she blew up o n the night of 15 February 1898 in Havana Harbor, Marine Corps private William Anthony presented himself to Captain Charles D. Sigsbee and announced (so it was said), "Sir, I have the honor to report that the ship has been blown up and is sinking." The Maine went down with 266 enli sted men and officers dead or missing.

Headstones for (below) USS Maine survivor Bill Anthony (died 1899); and (right) the Chinese stoker from SS Diomed, Ou Loo (died 1918).

30

With the sinking of the Maine, war feveroverwhelmedAmerica.As the nation's hero of the moment, Bill Antho ny was preyed upon by public relations operatives who shaped his words and cast him in a musical spectacular titled The Red, White, and Blue. His career as a celeb rity was as short-lived as the war. Without work and stuck in a disastrous marriage, he committed suicide in 1899.17 Tammany Hall and a Philadelphia newspaper competed for the right to pay for his grave (the politicians won), and Anthony was interred at the Evergreens with a handsome headstone that quoted his famous announcement under a broken branch, symbolizin g an innocent life cut short.

Innocent Bill Anthony certainly was.

Captain Sigsbee later said that the famous words that were reported were puffery: "We bumped into each other in the dark, and ifhe had saluted and spoken with that formality, he would have been thinking of himself or of making an effect, and not his duty." Sigsbee went on, "What he really said and did is better without any of the additions which came later." 18 The US Navy has since honored Bill Anthony with two destroyers called USS Anthony (DD-172 and DD-515).

Some smaller sections at the Evergreens are set aside for groups of mariners, for example, employees of Cunard and the French Line, and US and other navy personnel. Like all parts of the Evergreens, these lots are notably international. A small lot of eight graves of US Navy sailors and

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

Commonwealth Graves

employees in the Nazareth section includes an ensign in the Ecuadorian navy and a German-born US Navy transport specialist. In the Ocean View section, which presents a vista of the entrance to New York Harbor, ten granite head stones stand in a cluster, their fouled-anchor inscriptions indicating that these are seamen's graves. These and seven other similar headstones mark graves of British Commonwealth naval personnel from

various nations who died in World Wars I and II. These graves are supervised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, a British government agency that looks after graves in 23,000 cemeteries around the world. Of the 489 US cemeteries with Commonwealth War Graves Commission lots, only seven have more of these graves than the Evergreens. 19 Every two yea rs, these graves are visited and, if necessary, repaired by a CWG official.

Captain Woolsey N ew York's sailing nobility, the Sandy Hook Pilots, are represented at the Evergreens.

1h eirs is an old and risky profession; since 1694, pilots have gone out in all weathers to board incoming ships to guide them through the tricky shoals into New York Harbor. Seventy-eight pilot boats were lost in the 19th century alone. 20 1 he pilots dressed and comported themselves with dignity. "Plug hats and frock coats constituted the aufaitapparel for the Sandy Hook pilot," wrote one of their historians, who explained, "Those were the good old days when a man divided his calling between sentiment and strict commercialism and the combination made for good fellowship, respect, and pride of occupation." 2 1 When James]. Wilkie, one of the two pilots buried at the Evergreens, arrived in Ireland after makinga winter transAdantic passage in the pi lot boat Romer (reportedly in search of an escaped convict), he was ordered by a local official to take in the US ensign. Reports of Wilkie's stubborn and successful resistance made him a hero back home. 22 The other pilot at the Evergreens, Charles H. Woolsey, created an extraordinary tomb for himself and his family. The monument is dominated by a statue of Woolsey at a ship's wheel, dressed fashionably (down to a large pinkie ring). Near the wheel is a full-rigged sailing profile of a pilot boat that is a sister of the yacht America. Captain Woolsey's monument was cast in zinc (sometimes called white bronze) by the Monumental Bronze Company, of Bridgeport, Con necticut. His image is so realistic that visitors can't seem to keep their hands off it and "no trespassing" signs have been posted. Today, toy boats and Mason jars full of sand and sea water are sometimes found at the captain's feet. 23 The Age of Steam Commercial steam touched every corner of America, even cemeteries. Andrew Jackson Downing, the cemetery's landscape designer, was killed when a Hudson River steamer blew up in 1852. Haifa century later, the cemetery interred fifty-eight unidentified people who died in the notorious East River fire in the ferryboat Slocum, which killed more rhan 1,000 men, women, and children in 1904.

(Left) Navy Row with a Chinese Lot behind.

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

31

William H. G uild had been makin g and servicing steam pumps for ships at the Brooklyn Navy Ya rd for many yea rs when he had a family tomb installed that could not be more different from Capta in Woolsey's-a round, iron , navy-gray container that may well be a large steam boiler, with a n image of King Neptune h igh up at the crown of the lid .

The Evergreens Cemetery was in large part financed by the proceeds of steam navigation . Its majority owner for m a ny yea rs, William R. Grace, was born in Irela nd an d as a boy emi grated wit h his father to Peru, where they provided services for ships in the nitrate trade. After moving to New York in the 1860s, the junior Grace founded the G race Line that ran to South America.

In 1880, he a nd his wife saved ma ny lives when the boiler on the fast commuter stea mer Seawanhaka exploded . H e was twice elected mayo r of New York.

One of the more spectacular monuments within Evergreens is the tomb of Captain Charles H Woolsey, a Sandy Hook pilot (died 1884). The monument was cast in zinc and is highly detailed; (far right) Captain Wools-eys pinky ring, and (immediate right) a schooner-rigged pilot boat-a sister-ship of the yacht America.

32

Another cemetery investor with nautical interests was an associate of Grace's, Charles R. Flint. When the govern ment of Peru went to war with Chile and Bolivia over mineral fields in 1879, Flint and Grace contracted to send American-built torpedo boats south to the Peruvian navy.

Flint discovered that the best of these sm all warships were the fast, quiet, arrow-thin fifty-footers built by the brothers John B. and Nathanael Greene Herreshoff in their shipya rd in Bristol, Rhode Island. Flint acquired one of the Herreshoff gunboats

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 20 13

packets up and down the East Coast. H e was a m ember of the radical Sons of Liberty, and duri ng the Revolution Berrien inspected ships fo r co ntra band and prepared fortifications on the Hudson Ri ve r near W est Point. W hen the Ma nhatta n churchyard in which he was buried was sold for a real estate development, his remains were moved to the Evergreens, where he now lies under an immense sandstone tablet on which h is ma ny virt ues are laid out, ending with lines that any one of us wo uld like to h ave on our tombstone:

Friendship may weep, H umanity may sigh, But Berrien triumphs in the Fields on High.

,!,

and sent it to South A merica to fight in the naval confli ct called "the Warofthe Pacific."

Flint became a yachtsm an, joined th e New York Yacht C lub, and backed a Herresh offdesigned racing yacht that contended for the America's C up in 1895. 24

Captain Berrien The oldest seamen's grave at the Evergreens we will save for last. The cem etery's mos t senior resident, he was a colo nial ship captain and revolutionary named John Berrien. In the 1760s and 70s, he ran sm all

john Rousmaniere has written widely about sailing, maritime history, and N ew York history. H is books include After the Storm, Fas tnet, Force 10, The A nnapolis Book of Seam anship, The New York Yach t C lub: A History, and the histo ry of the cemetery that is the subject ofthis article, G reen Oasis in Brooklyn: The Evergreens Cemetery, 1849- 200 8 (Kittery, ME: Smith/Kerr Seapoint Books, 2 009). H e wrote cemetery and maritime history entries in The Encyclopedia of New York C ity (2nd edition, 2010) and entries in The Oxford Encyclopedia of M a ritime History. A graduate of Columbia University, he resides on Morningside H eights, M anhattan.

1 "W hen Jack Ta r Di es in Po rt," New Yo rk Tim es, 28 May 1893.

2 Lea h Robin son Rousman iere, A nchored within the Vail: A Pictorial History of the Seamen's Chu rch Institute (New York: Sea men's C hurch l nsrirure, 1995), 14. The aurho r is rhi s w riter's wife.

3Jose p h Co n rad , The Nigger of the Narcissus (1 898), chapter 5.

4 Rousman iere, Anchored within the Vail, 53.

5Roberr G . A lbion, The Rise of New Yo rk Port (New York: Scri b ner's, 1939), 398 .

6 David H. Sra m, "The Lord 's Libra rian s: The American Sea men's Friend s Society a nd rhe ir Loa n Libraries, 1837-1967," Coriolis, vol. 3 n o. 1 (2 012), 45-59.

7 Ro usma n iere, A nchored within the Vail, 12 .

8 Richa rd Hen ry Da na, Jr., Two Years before the M ast (1 840), chapters 6 and 16.

9 Wa lr W hi tm an, Leaves of Grass (1855), P reface .

10 Sa iIors Ce metery Associat ion , To the Ho norable Senate and Ho use of Representatives of the United States, May 1852 . Eve rgreens Cemetery Archives,

Sea men's G rounds Collection.

11 "C emerery fo r Seamen," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jul. 25, 1857.

12 "W hy H e Should nor be Buried in Poner's Field ," The Evening Telegram, May 9, 1883.

13 "Fishing on C holera Ba nks," Harper's Weekly, N ov. I , 1884.

14 "Ships Hi r by E-Boars," ht tp://uboar.n et/allies/ mercha n rs/ 1963. h rm I. 15 "Submarine Offered D ocror to V ict im," New Yo rk Times, Aug. 25, 191 8. "US N aval Sh ips H istory," hnp://www. historycentral.com /Navy. ' 6 N a nerre N apoleo n Pu rn e ll , " Or ien ta l a nd Polynesia n C emetery T rad irio ns," Ethnicity and the A merican Cemetery, ed. Ri chard E. Meye r (Bowling G reen: Bowling G reen Sta re U n iversiry, 1993), 193-221. Bruce Edwa rd H all, "Chin atown," A merican H eritage, A pr. 1999.

17 "Sigsbee's Mar ine is D ead," New York Times, O cr. 25 , 1899.

18 "To Bu ry Wi lli am Ant hony," New York Times, November27, 1899. N avy H istorica l Center. Imp: //

www. hi sto ry. navy. mi l/photos/pers-us/ uspers-a/wa nth ny. h tm. "W hat Bill Anthony Sa id," N ew York Times, Feb. 3, 1901 .

19Commonwealth Wa r G raves Commi ssion, hnp:// www. cwgc. org/fi nd-a-cemerery.aspx.

2 °Charles Edwa rd Russell, From Sandy Hook to 62° (New York: Ce ntu ry, 1929), 385- 90.

21 Edwa rd L A llen, ed., Pilot Lorefrom Sail to Steam (New York: Sandy Hoo k Pilots Benevolent Associarion , 1922), 17.

22 "D ea rh of a Sandy Hook Pilor," N ew Yo rk Times, Feb. 3, 1878.

23 R ichard F. Welch , "The Fu nerary Monuments, Memoria ls, and G ravesto nes of rhe Evergreens Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York," Dec. 13, 200 6.

Evergreens Cemetery Archi ves. "No rrespassing," "Ar rhe Evergreens," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, D ec.

23, 1894.

24 Lawrence A. C layron, Grace: W R. Grace & Co., The Formative Years, 1850- 1930 (O n awa , II. : Jameso n, 1985), 124- 6. C harles R. Flint, M emories ofan Active Life (New York: Putn am , 1923), 340.

Guild Tomb; (inset) detail ofKing Neptune sculpture on the crown of the lid.

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

33

An Upstart Maritime Museum is Launched in Camden, New Jersey

by Michael H. Lang

T

his is a story of the recent development of a new maritime museum in a gritty riverfront neighborhood in South Camden, New Jersey. It is a story with colorful oldschool, working-class, dockland characters out of a film noir script written by Damon Runyon. Its cast includes a charismatic Irish priest with a gentle brogue, a gruff old port director, and energetic community activists, and the plot has these disparate folks coming together to transform an abandoned historic church into a museum, while having to contend with occasional gunfire, police sirens, panhandlers, trolling prostitutes, and ever-present drug dealing.

W hile it takes place in a neighborhood most people try to avoid, it is a story that has the briny smell of the Delaware riverfront and the sea beyond.

Beginnings This story begins in the offices of Joseph Balzano, the tough long-time CEO of the South Jersey Port Corporation, located on the Delaware River on the site of the former New York Shipbui lding Company in Camden, New Jersey. In 2003,Joe Balzano organized a meeting of local community residents to save the historic Church of Our Saviour, located in the Waterfront South section of the city. Joe suggested they save it by creating a maritime museum in the

church to honor the central role that the port and the shipyards played in Camden's h istory. Joe's office was filled with enough maritime memorabilia to fill a museum, so it seemed an appropriate place for this new beginning.

One Man's Dream Joe Balzano was born near the Camden waterfront, which in his youth was defined by its railyards, warehouses, manufacturing plants, and ferry terminals. Despite Camden's deterioration, the city and its port found a passionate booster in Joe, and he was determined not to give up on it. He was a short man with a stevedore's roughhewn charisma and throaty growl and was a force to be reckoned with in Camden and in the state capital in Trenton. He had already proved instrumental in Camden's victory in the long battle between Bayonne and Camden over which city would berth America's most decorated battleship, USS New jersey, as a museum ship.

Joe was emblematic of the old Port of Camden, where family ties were paramount and where those at the top had worked their way up from the bottom. Joe worked his way up from go-fer to fork lift operator and became proficient on all the other machinery used in a breakbulk-type port. He rose through the ranks to become the CEO of South Jersey Port Corporation, a position

he held for over two decades. Under Joe's leadership, the port expanded dramatically, earning him an international reputation as one of the best port operators in the world.

In recent years, the decision to maintain a port in Camden became a controversial issue. Centrally located on Camden's waterfront, the port was seen by some powerful local leaders as a deterrent to the unfolding gentrification of the waterfront adjacent to the port with its concert center, minorleague ballpark, marina, aq uarium, and upscale housing. Joe fought passionately to keep the port and its blue-collar jobs in Camden. His work did not go unnoticed, and, after his death in October 2011 , the port was renamed in his honor.

Camden? Naturally...

From the its initial launch out of Joe's Camden office, the city's new maritime museum continues to grow and develop near the banks of the Delaware River. Opponents voiced their opinion that an old industrial city like Camden is a terrible place for a new museum-it is not exactly a tourist hot spot. In fact, Camden is one of America's most depressed cities, a hotbed of drug-related gang wars, poor schools, and intergenerational poverty that repeatedly is cited as both the poorest and the most dangerous city in the country. And yet, the Camden Shipyard and Maritime Museum is finishing its seventh year of operations, providing inner-city children with a safe place to learn to swim, study marine ecology, and build canoes, kayaks, and sailboats-all while learning about the rich history of their city's maritime past.

Like Philadelphia across the river, Camden was once a thriving industrial powerhouse. In the early twentieth century, it emerged as a major railroad and shipbuilding town, which was also home to many other industries that took advantage of its transportation links to Philadelphia and points north, south, and west. Camden grew quickly in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, and reached a population ofl24,000 by the 1950s. Major corporations grew up alo ng the waterfront; Joe Ballzano (center) pulled in the community to ge?t the museum underway, initiall,y out ofhis c:rowded office in the Port of Camden.

34

SE,A HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

among the largest were: Campbell 's Soup Com pany, che Victor Talking Machin e Compa ny (later RCA Victor) , Esterbrook Pen Compa ny, and]. B. Van Seiver Furniture Company. Perhaps the most important was the New York Shipbuilding Corporation , which employed 38,000 people at its peak during World War ll, making it the largest producer of ships in the wo rld at the time. Camden was deemed important enough fo r President Franklin D . Roosevelt to bring hi s motorcade down Broadway when he ca mpaigned for re-election in 1940.

Maritime Camden Camden was home to a host of fa mous shipyards and shipbuilders, such as John H. Dialogue (1862- 1913). Dialogue's rep utation was such that he received the contract for the first major restoration ofUSS Constitution at his Camden shipyard in 1876. The John H. Dialogue & Son ya rd built many types of ships, including railroad ca r Aoats and ferry boats, but he is best remembered for his stout, cast-iron-hulled tugboats-a surv ivin g example is the 151-foot Hercules berthed at the Sa n Fra ncisco Maritime National Historic Park. Dialogue's shipyard, however, was hardly the on ly such operation in che South Jersey port; equally famous wa s the Mathis Shipbu ildin g Company (1877-1961). T he cou ntr y's elite came to the Mathis shipyard to commission large luxury yachts designed and built by John T rumpy during the early and mid-twentieth century; among them is the presidential yacht USS Sequoia.

The New York Shipbuilding Corporation was by far the largest and most productive of these yards and h ad a long and storied run {1899-1967), building a wide variety of ships, from colliers and barges to passenger liners and an array of navy ships, including carriers. Some 500 US Navy ships were built at the shipyard, comprising more than twenty percent of the fleet at one time.

Some of America's most famous ships slid down the Camden yard's ways: the carriers USS Saratoga (1925) and USS Kitty Hawk (1960), atom ic submarines such as USS Pollack (1962), the atomic merch ant ship NS Savannah (1959), the luxury passenger liners SS Washington (1930) and SS Manhattan (1931) for the United States Lines, as wel l as the huge, multi-decked excursion ships SEA HISTORY 144,AUTUMN 20 13

New York Shipbuilding Corporation was noted for its giant covered ways.

SS Robert Fulton (1909) and SS Washington Irving (1913), built for the Hudson River Day Line. With federal government support, the shipya rd expanded dramatically during World War I with the addition of massive covered shipways and a 200-ton h ammerhead crane, making it the largest self-contained shi pyard in the world. On 15 May 1918, the ya rd 's achievement of launching the 331-foot collier SS Tuckahoe after 27 days, from layin g the keel and completi ng her in just ten more days, established a new wo rld 's reco rd for the fastest-built seagoing vessel at the time.

Shipbuilder Unions Start in Camden Shipbuilding, then and today, is hard, dangerous work, and given the size of the New York Shipbuildin g Corporation's Camden operations, it is not surprising that labor history was made here in 1933 wi th the establishment of America's first shipbuilders' union enco mp assi ng all maritime trades-the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America. Wage disputes and the ques t for union recognition led to strikes at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation in 1933 and 1934 which convulsed the city and required che intervention of President Roosevelt. At its peak, chis union had more than a quarcer of a million members and comprised the largest division of the Congress oflndustrial Organizations (CIO).

Housing the Shipbuilders Camden's vibrant maritime economy led to many interesting associated developments.

Notable among these was the development during World War I of a large residentia l neighborhood for che shipya rd workers and their fami lies called Yorkship Vi llage, where all the streets were named after ships.

Th is beautiful village, designed in a colonial style and surrounded by a green belt of parkland, included a wide range of amenities. It featured clu stered housing, curving streets, sidewalks, and pedestrian pathways- the desig n elements of an English garden city. World War II saw the development of two smaller communities for yard workers, the mutual housing villages of Audubon Park and Bellmawr Park, located just outside of Camden. Yorkship Villagerenamed Fairview in 1922-is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Waterfront South Neighborhood The Camden Shipyard and Maritime Museum is located in the gritty Waterfront South neighborhood in the South Camden Historic District. It is a working-class area with maritime roots , where two-story wood-and-brick row houses are intermixed wi th commercial strips of small stores, movie theaters, firehouses, and churches along Broadway, the city's central artery.

But it is heavy industry that sets the current scene, with the huge warehouses and the 35

sheds of the for mer shipyard dominati ng the skyline, as well as scrap metal operations and other industrial plants. Many of these old wa rehouses are still in use as pa rt of the South Jersey Port Corporation's sizable shipping operations, as well as a variety of private maritime shipping and manu fac turing operations-no tably, the Joseph Oat Corporation, (originally Joseph O at and Sons), the oldes t continuo usly operating industrial fa brication business in the United States . Founded in 1788, today it m akes the huge, precision metal contai ners used to store was te from nuclear power plants. Other large waterfro nt wa rehouses belong to a large lico rice pla nt, owned by M acAndrews & Forbes H olding, Inc., also among the oldest industries on the Delaware River. The huge Bulson Street railyard sees little use today; trains still rumble through the neighborhood through out the day and night, adding to the noise of the traffic on Ro ute I-676, a m ajor northsouth elevated highway that cuts through the city. It is not everyone's cup of tea, to be sure, but the neighborhood 's bluecolla r residents have a feisty spirit t hat has seen them through some ve ry tough times.

What m any see as an insurmountable amount of negative land uses and pollution, the community has used as leverage to ga rner resources to re-plan, clean up, and improve their neighborhood .

The re-planning of Wa terfront South was inspired by a close fri end of Joe Balzano's, activist Irish pries t Mon signor Michael Doyle, and the H eart of Camden, a neighborhood development organization led by Helene Pierson, a dynamic young community o rganizer. Recent years have seen this gro up renovate scores of abandoned homes and public buildings in the neighborhood, such as the gym, a former fir ehouse, and a community theater. One of M onsignor Doyle's goals was to reconnect Camden citizen s to the Delaware River, a connection that was los t to residents when heavy industry and the port claimed all the available waterfro nt property. D oyle spearheaded the successful development of a sm all fi shing pier, which today hosts the museum's annual Youth Fishing D erby that attracts some fifty city yo ung people to the D elaware R iver to learn how to fis h-for m ost, the fi rst time in their lives.

36

Museum Buildings that Evoke the Spirit of the River and Sea Built in 1883, the C hu rch of Our Saviour was a true ma ritime chu rch w ith beautiful stained-glass windows that honor local ship capta ins and others in the m aritime trades. It consists of a main church, chapel, parish house, and recto ry, a nd has a lovely, open bell tower with a large bell donated

by Jo hn Di alog ue. This small, gothicstyle church was constructed with ballas t

Corps and VISTA Volunteers. Together, they g uided the museum to its current independent, non-profit status .

Matthew Henson, Maritime Hero Explorer Many churches alon g the East Coast were built from ballast stones, but we lea rned that some of Ou r Savio ur's stonework was built with stones bro ught back from Greenland by the world-fam o us Arctic explorers

Joe Balzano (with walker) directs placement ofdock bollards at museum aided by M onsignor Doyle (2nd.from right) and H elene Pierson (far right) at the Church of Our Saviour.

stones brought to Camden's wha rfs from aro und the wo rld in the holds of sailing ships, prompting the Episcopal Bishop presiding at its dedication to say that it could be considered a C atholic church, since the stones came from so m any countries from a round the world.

But the church 's buildings had been woefully neglected fo r years as the congregation declined and coffers went bare. By the 1990s, deferred maintenance resulted in leaking roofs and dangerous obsolescence. A disrepu table crowd too k note and started using the chu rch yard as a dumping gro und. C lea rly, the nascent museum had its work cut out for it. Led by Mo nsignor Doyle and Joe Balzano, the call went out for volunteers, who soon set ro work raising funds to restore the buildings. Many of these volunteers were parishioners fro m Monsigno r Doyle's Sacred H eart Church, as well as local residents aided by Ameri-

Robert Peary and Matthew H enson o n one of their scienti fic expeditions seeking the North Pole in 1892. The Peary-H enson team is credited with fin ally discovering the Pole in 1909. These intrepid explorers lived locally to Camden and organized their m any trips fro m the ports of Philadelphia and Camden.

The story of th ese expedi tions is both rich and controversial, with a cast of famous explorers that include Peary's wife, Josephine, and Peary's rival, Frederick C ook, as well as D onald B. M acMillan and Robert Bartlett, captain of SS Roosevelt, which took Peary and his crew on the fi nal 1909 voyage to rhe Pole. H enson's role was critical to thesucce:ss of Peary's exped itions, but hi s name wais n ot celebrated until decades later becarnse of his race. While Captain Bartlett amd Peary enj oyed being fered across the c::ountry and across the world and embarkted o n lucrative speaking

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 201 3

tours, rheir African-American co-expedirioner, Manhew Henson, was largely ignored upon rhei r return .

Imrigued by stories of rhe sea told to him by an old seaman called Baltimore Jack, a young, orphaned Manhew H enson ran away to rhe Pon of Baltimore w here a ship captain named Childs, master of rhe mercham ship Katie Hines, took him under his wing and provided him wirh a basic education as well as practical seam anship skills. In 1887, afrer Captai n C hilds had died, Henson mer Lieutenant Peary, and afrer traveling wirh Peary on an expedition to Central America, rhey began their many an emprs to reach rhe No rth Pole together.

Many sciemisrs and orher explorers were involved in rhese trips, bur only Henson was asked to join Peary on all his trips.

Peary found him indispensable and, on more rhan one occasion, nored rhar he could nor have succeeded wirhour him.

H enson was particularly kind to rhe local Inuit and worked hard to learn their language, as well as rheir Arctic survival skills, such as h andling sled dogs and all manner of hunting skills. Ir was Henson who was credited wi rh saving rhe ream from srarvarion on several occasions. His is also a story of racial prejudice, encountered and overcome, rhar resonates to rhis day. Marrhew Henson's legacy is a powerful story to take to Camden's yo urh and beyond, and rhe city's connection wirh him gives them a direct means to do so.

Blessed wirh rhis kind of inspiration, rhe museum has anracred an outpouring

Urban BoatWork crew at work in the Museum of artistic talent. A larger-than-life statue of Manhew Henson and his Inuit dog, King, designed by rhe renow ned sculptor John Giannoni, was erected in from of rhe museum in 2009, celebrating rhe cemennial of rhe discovery of rhe North Pole.

To complement rhe piece, music producer Dick Wolf composed a complete music cycle commemorating Henson's exploits, which is regularly performed ar rhe museum by local school children. As news of rhe museum's ries to H enson's Arctic adventures spread, rhe museum was approached by members of rhe Inuit Dog Sled Association. Soon, a program was developed thar recruited local school children to build exact replicas of rhe A rctic freight sleds used by the Peary and Henson ream to reach rhe Pole. To dare, rwo large wooden sleds have been built by kids and entered in regional dogsled events, receiving significant local media anention.

Boatbuilding, a Priority

Statue ofMatthew Henson by sculptor john Giannotti in front ofthe museum.

SEA HISTORY J44,AUTUMN2013

Early on in rhe development of rhe new maritime museum, a key parmership was esrablished wirh Urba n Trekkers, a schoolbased program rhar rakes midd le and high school studems on outdoor activities, such as hiking the Appalachian Trail or taking canoe trips in Maine. Trekker director Jim Cummings saw boarbuilding with innerciry kids as an important tool rhat had both a spiritual and practical component.

By bringing boarbuilding back to Camden, rhe kids growi ng up in rhe shadows of the once-great shipyards were reconnected wirh the river and the city's imponam

heritage in shipbuilding. Soon, rowboats, canoes, and sailboats were being built in rhe museum's old parish house by Camd en's yo urh, guided by church-based volunteers; each spring Monsignor Doyle conducts a "blessing of rhe fleer" ceremony to christen and launch rhe resulting warercrafr from a busy winter ofboatbuilding.

The imense hubbub that Urban BoatWorks brings to the museum has driven away mosr of the undesirable folks who used to loiter by the museum. Withour a doubt, rhe neighborhood has a long way to go, but as a result of the museum and orher positive public-oriented local activities, real improvement can be seen already.

Recent developments at the museum include rhe return of many of the an ifacrs from New York Shipbuilding, initially given to the Independence Seapon Museum across the river in Philadelphia by Joe Balzano. The birth of the Camden Shipya rd and Maritime Museum h as added to the cultural landscape of Camden C iry and rhe surrounding region.

Despite rhe myriad problems associated wirh developing a new museum, rhe future looks quire brighr. !.

Michael Lang is Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University-Camden, and Founding Director, Camden Shipyard & Maritime Museum.

He dedicates this article to Joseph A . Balzano, CEO, South Jersey Port Corporation (1933-2011). He would like to gratefully acknowledge the assistance provided by Paul Schopp in the preparation of this article.

37

''She Floats!''

The Launch of the Charles W. Morgan

21 July2013

by D eirdre O 'Regan

0

n rhe exacr dare rhat th e whaling ship Charles W Morgan was launched fro m a New Bedford, Massachusetrs, shipyard 172 years ago, the same vessel, albeit in as good shape-in fac r berter-rhan she was on rhar day, was gently lowered into rhe Mysric River on 21 July after m ore than fo ur years on the hard.

When the Morgan was launched in 184 1, she was just one of hundreds of her kind then in service, as New Bedford and nearby Nan tucket were rhen ar the height of their reign as whaling capitals of the world.

So much of our heri tage com es from this era and fro m rhis industry-som e call it a fi shery-that we don't even realize it.

O n rhe day of rhe launch , Mystic Seaport sraff and supporters were o ut in force.

1h e event fell on a Sunday in the middle of rhe summer hear wave we used to know as July. Storm clouds rolled in during the m orning ho urs, eirher rhrearening to !er loose and break rhe srifling h ear, if ir cam e early in rhe day, or to douse rhe crowds who had com e to wirness and parricipare in rhis historic event if ir came in rhe afrernoon. 1 h e skies rhrearened bur no rhing wo uld come of it. As the sun rose high in rhe sky, rhere wasn'r a parking space to be had ar any of the !ors or srreets o utside rhe museum, nor rhe secondary lots rhey ran shuttle buses to and from, nor rhe ones

beyond that. No marte r, once yo u m ade ir on to rhe museum gro unds, the m ood was fes tive ... and relaxed.

I ran into Dana Hewson abo ut a half h our before the progran1 was scheduled to srarr, which would conclude with rhe Morgan's launch. Dana is Mystic Seaport's C lark Senio r C urato r for Warercrafr and Vice President for Watercraft Preservarion and Program, which in translation means he has everyd1ing to do wirh rhe physical restorario n of rhe ship. He and the museum's shipyard di rector Q uentin Snediker have overseen the projecr fro m rhe beginning and together bore the bulk of the responsibility of rhe work conducred . (We

were honored to award Dana and Q uenti n with the NMHS D istinguished Service Award in 2010 for rheir leadership on rhe Morgan res torati o n project. ) I was surprised to see him milling about, chatting with guests who we re arriving. He couldn'r have been m o re relaxed and composed.

The sam e goes fo r rhe many, many others who wo rk at the Seaport. They had invired rhe wo rld, rhe wo rld showed up, and everyrhing was riding on the success of the launch . If th ey were anxious, then they hid it well.

Mind yo u, the Morgan was cradled in a specially built shiplift at the m useum's H enry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard.

The Morgan shull a year ago.

38

SEA HilSTORY 144, AUTUMN 201 3

The lift was designed to gently-and slowly-lower the historic ship back into the water. Shy of the hull Aooding uncontrollably or heeling over and capsizing at the dock, the launch itself promised to be rather unspectacular.

These days, those who h ave an interest in historic ship preservation have a lot of concerns and anxieties abo ut the ships we so often report are "on a lee sho re." The Morgan, thanks to Mystic's herculean efforts, both in the task of documenting and restoring the 172-year-old ship itself, but in the major fundraising efforts undertaken by its staff, administrators, trustees, and m embers, is not one of those ships. The M organ was hauled out of the water in the fall of 2008 , just as the national economy was first plunging into a recession from which we are only slowly recovering. Millions of dollars had to be raised just to get the project off the gro und (or out of the water, I should say) . N o t lo ng after the res toration wo rk began, M ys tic Seaport had a major ch ange in command in its front office; Steve White cam e o n board as president in 2009 . U nderstanding that the museum had expert sh ipwrigh ts and staff carrying out the physical work on the M organ, he m ade sure the shipyard staff were suppo rted while setting out to draft a sound plan fo r the proj ect and the

ship's future. He met and worked with his board of trustees, and together th ey cam e up with a bold revision of the plan . N ot only would they restore the M organ's hull so she would be able to continue her role as a dockside exhibit at the museum, but they would go beyond m ere stabilization .

Mo rgan would be restored to a fully seaworthy condition , which would include restoration of her rig and sails. And once the project was complete-the hull sound, the rig tuned, and new sails (nineteen of them) built and bent on- there would be only on e thing left to do ... go sailing.

The launch event included, as one would expect, a number of speeches by leaders at the museum, politicians from the local area and from Washington (the Mo rgan is a national icon) , and an eloquent keynote address by documentarian Ric Burns. The events unfolded before a large crowd, both present at the museum and across the world through a live video stream over the internet. The spectators included a wide range of people, including, of course, the generous sponsors, m aritime historians, authors and teachers, tall ship sailors, boatbuilders and sailmakers, plus kids, parents, grandparents and a host of others. Even a celebrity or two could be spied in the crowd, including actor Michael Douglas and bestselling

autho r Nathaniel Philbrick. Ric Burns stated in his address that the event was "the first to tally good thing [he'd] been to in ten years." W hether or not I would say the sam e thing, I concur that it was a fantas tic day, one filled with extraordinary good will, good cheer, good company, and a good reason to look forward to what is possible.

Actor Michael Douglas was on hand to watch the historic event.

Mystic Seaport's staff and supporters had to have gone home that night feeling proud and hopeful. M any elsewhere in the museum have made sacrifices with respect to their own projects to allow the museum's focus to be honed in on the Morgan .

The launching was a day fo r them to feel like it was all worth it.

We've covered the M organ's great story in recent issues of Sea H istory (see our last issue, # 143, on the restoration, and #1 34 for an article on the vessel's history), so I won't go into her history here-and you can learn all about it on the Mystic Seaport website (www.mys ticseaporr. org).

The Morgan was rechristened by Sarah Bullard, the great-great-great granddaughter of Charles Waln Mo rgan, after whom the ship was named. The bottle Bullard broke across the bow was filled with waters from the oceans over which the vessel sailed during her 80-year whaling career. Samples were gatheredfrom the N orth and South Atlantic, the Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Water from the Acushnet River in New Bedford and the Mystic River were added to represent her original p ort and current homeport.

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 201 3

39

,'

i

,,

..

Spectators came by land and by sea. On the Mystic River, it was paddling room only.

Instead, I'll share a few thoughts from some of the speakers, who spoke so well about all aspects of the Morgan's history as both a whaling ship and as a museum ship and why we should care. The speakers all brought important points to bear, including the fact that the Morgan's history is as a whaling ship, and while we rightfully celebrate her role, nor just in maritime history bur in our nation's history, we also acknowledge her role in the clash berween natural history and human history. In his remarks, Connecticut stare senator Andrew Maynard explained how, growing up in Connecticut, rhe "Charles W Morgan was our rime machine, where our imaginations had us sailing around the Horn, the spray in o ur faces, and the sea and wi nd raking us to distant places just over rhe horizon." Our whaling heritage has much to celebrate, from the international crews who lived and worked side-by-side, to the wealth it brought to the region, which helped finance the growth of cities and transportation nerworks, to the rich cultural heritage attached to this lifestyle and industry. Bur whaling was also a destructive fishery, one that decimated the world's whale populations-for some species, nearly to the point of extinction.

One of rhe speakers, US Senator Richard Blumenthal, addressed this topic and, in

doing so, pointed our that we have a newer thriving business attached to whaleswhale watching-and rhar it is no small industry on borh the east and west coasts of rhe United Stares. With rhe return of rhe Morgan to sea, we will, in a way, come full circle as a civilization with how we think abo ut these magnificent animals.

In addition LO returning to New Bedford for a visit to her original home port, the Morgan will be sailed to Srellwagen Bank in Cape Cod Bay, where whales gather by the hundreds in the summer months to feed. There, the whaling ship and crew will pay homage to the whales rhar were

the reason for the Morgan's creation in the first place. Sen. Blumenthal also announced the recent passage of a US Senate Resolution (S. Res. 183) commemorating the Morgan's launch and bestowing upon her rhe ride ''Ambassador to the Whales."

Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy was on hand as well to share the news that the State of Conn ecticut has committed to making a $500,000 contribution to the Morgan's restoration.

The Morgan today is open to visitors at Mystic Seaport, while her crew works on rerigging m asts and spars and finishes the interior work on the hull. Sailmaker Nathaniel S. Wilson (winner of rhe NMHS Distinguished Service Award in 2010) is making all nineteen sails for the Morgan, plus smal ler sails for her whaleboats. There is still much to be done. There are great opportunities to get involved and participate in one of the maritime heritage community's most important success stories.

To Mystic Seaport's staff, volunteers, members, supporters, administration, and trustees: Bravo Zulu-well done. And, thanks for a great day. .t You can watch a video of the launch and read the text .from Ric Burns's speech online at museum's website: www.mysticseaport.org; 75 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic, CT 06355.

Mystic Seaport's shipyard manager, Quentin Snediker (left), and president, Steve White (center), joyfully pose for a photo with NMHS Chairman Ron Oswald once the Morgan was afloat.

40

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 20 13

SHIP INDEX

.ORG

Artist William Bradford's prelude to a changing Arctic landscape

Shop the NMHS Ship's Store for books, art prints, & nautical gifts _ www.seahistory.org

ij

Custom Forged Iron New & Restoration Shipsmithing Caulking Irons, Whalecraft, ~ Nautical Hardware www.MichaelSaari.com .. .

860-928-0257

THE EXPERIENCE OF NO EXPERIENC

MYST IC

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

41

WI

en NASA's Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, its five shuttles had taken a total of 355 people into space, orbited the earth 21,152 times, and traveled 542,398,878 miles over a 30-year period. Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour-these names are familiar to historians of an earlier Age of Exploration, back when people were first venturing across the world's oceans in search of new trade routes, unclaimed lands, and scientific knowledge.

The first Endeavour was HMS Endeavour, the 106-foot ship sailed

by James Cook on his first voyage of discovery around the world, from 1768 to 1771. Challenger was named for another research vessel; HMS Challenger sailed from England in 1872 on what would become the first true worldwide oceanographic research cruise. Her crew sailed almost 70,000 miles and discovered thousands of new species of marine life and analyzed thousands of samples of seawater and sediment from the seafloor. Columbia was an American square-rigged ship that sailed from Boston in 1787 on a fur-trading expedition to the Pacific Northwest. The 83-foot vessel sailed up the Columbia River in what is now Washington State and eventually continued sailing around the world, making it the first American ship to do so. The third shuttle added to the fleet was named Discovery, which was actually the fifth exploring ship to use the name. The first sailed around the world as part of Captain James Cook's third voyage, during which he and his crew "discovered" the Hawaiian Islands and other islands in the South Pacific. Henry Hudson sailed

in a vessel named Discovery as well when he sailed to the Arctic in his search for the Northwest Passage in 1610-11. Two other British ships named Discovery later sailed on sci-

entific expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic. Atlantis was named for a 20th-century sailing vessel: a ketch that served as the primary research vessel for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHO!) in Massachusetts from 1931 to 1966. The original Atlantis sailed on more than 299 research voyages and traveled 700,000 miles carrying out research cruises studying ocean science.

While these sailing ships and space ships and the paths they followed couldn't be more different, their missions were quite similar.

Whether by sea centuries ago or in space in recent history, hundreds of people voycaged to distant and unknown pla1ces seeking knowledge and informffition, and had incredible adventures ;along the way. ..t SEA HIST<ORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

Animals in Sea History

n the spring of 1912, a wealthy man from Cleveland, Ohio, traveled to south Florida to named Samoa, run by Captain Charles Thompson and his go fishing. He chartered a sloop chief mate, Bob Denny. The three men sailed south from Miami to the Florida Keys, searching for tarpon.

Eventually they anchored in the lee of Knight's Key, and in the morning they spotted the largest fish they had ever seen. The locals said it had been swimming around the area for a few days-but no one knew exactly what it was.

Captain Thompson assumed it was a shark. He vowed to catch it. They took two small boats, rowed directly over the massive, spotted fish, and plunged a harpoon into its back. As the morning wore on, they speared the animal several more times, shot it in the back about 50 times, and lashed it all around with rope. Though the fish did not thrash or fight or even seem in horrible pain, it took the three men with the help of several others about eight hours to get it onto the beach. When it finally died on the sand, they measured it at 38 feet-about the length of your average school bus. The fish was 18 feet around its middle.

The Miami Metropolis and other newspapers quickly spread the story, but still no one could identify exactly this gigantic creature. The marine biologists at the Dry Tortugas, at the southern edge of the Keys, thought that it might be a huge killer whale, but they were only working off the reports.

With much difficulty, which included the help of a steam tug, Captain Thompson and several other men lashed the fish to the Samoa's hull and sailed it back to Miami. There, they floated their catch onto a marine railway, but the weight of the fish broke the rails. It likely weighed over thirteen tons-also roughly the weight of your average school bus.

While Thompson hired a man to help him skin the animal and have a taxidermist preserve it under a purpose-built shed, biologists were able to identify it definitively as a shark because of its skin texture, the fins, and the distinctive gill slits. More specifically, this was a whale shark, which is not only the largest of the sharks and the largest fish in the sea, it's the largest vertebrate on Earth that isn't a mammal.

Captain Thompson's catch resulted in one of the first official North American accounts of this animal. The whale shark had only been scientifically described in modern records fewer than ninety years earlier, by a medical doctor in South Africa. Despite a few highly publicized encounters written by William Beebe and Thor Heyeirdahl in the 1930s and 4~0s, biologists knew very Hittle about this fish im the wild until the 1990~s.

SEA HISTORW 144, AUTUMN 2013

. I

Whale sharks are solitary, deep-s ea creatures that live in tropical waters in all oceans, but they occasionally swim to more temperate waters. The whale shark has tiny, nearly harmless teeth. Using filters within its gills, it balloons open its mouth to gulp and sieve out tons of plankton, such as floating microscopic algae, tiny shrimps, copepods, and juvenile fish and their eggs. Among the 450 or so species of sharks, just three of them are filter feeders like the whale shark.

These include the basking shark, which grows almost as large.

Captain Thompson's specimen was not the largest whale shark on record. Biologists have described whale sharks more than

diving more than a mile beneath the surface and individuals living to b e ~ some 70 years old.

Back in 1912, after Thompson and the taxidermist finished preparing the whale shark in Miami, the captain took his specimen on the road.

He exhibited his prize catch on a rail cart all over the country-from Florida to New Jersey to Chicago.

4/

Captain Thompson's Whale Shark Road Show Then, even as the specimen was deteriorating and beginning to smell, Thompson put the whale shark on a boat to exhibit along rivers. The boat and the whale shark were lostto a fire in 1922.

In the next issue: the animal for which Russian mariners sailed all the way to California. For past 'Animals in Sea History" go to www.seahistory.org. J,

f\IG\.\t..'( MIG~A\t>\?-'(; \fJ P.\'-f"\ -' WM ~â&#x201A;Ź12--A-TE V'PffEl'-S \N P,\;\.. 0(,ÂŤY\~S;

f'Of\/\...A.\i, t>t--\ 1'\1\)1,...f'l't\2-A\;LE,. 11

<>E.<iJES 5EAWA\E:g, ovT Gil-LS \o r\08' ON fl-/\N\<-TON

The National Maritime Historical Society Salutes Leaders in Maritime Heritage at the 2013 Gala Annual Awards Dinner, 23 October 2013 Each fall, the National Maritime Historical Society gathers in the Model Room of the historic New York Yacht Club to honor service and contributions in the many fields that promote our maritime heritage: Coast Guard and naval history, marine archaeology and ship preservation, sail training, maritime museums and marine art, and so much more. Through these gala events, not only do we have the opportunity to spotlight the important work that is being done, but we inspire others to get more involved and make a difference. This year, the NMHS Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Stan Honey, Director of Technology, America's Cup Event Authority; Cunard Cruise Line; and Rear Admiral Sandra L. Stosz, superintendent of the US Coast Guard Academy. The NMHS David A. O'Neil Sheet Anchor Award will be presented to NMHS Vice ChairfI1an Richardo Lopes. Award winning yachtsman Richard T. du Moulin will be Master of Ceremonies. The USCG Academy Cadet Chorale, directed by Dr. Robert Newton, will provide the evening's entertainment. Dinner chair Karen Helmerson encourages your attendance and support.

The NMHS Annual Awards Dinner is held in the fall each year in the fabulous Model Room ofthe New York Yacht Club in New York City.

Rear Admiral Sandra L. Stosz Rear Admiral Sandra L. Srnsz is rhe 40'h superintendent of rhe US Coasr Guard Academy in New London, Connecricur, a posirion she has held since 3 June 2011. Prior rn char pose, she was rhe Direcrnr of Reserve and Leadership ar Coasr Guard Headquarters in Washingrnn, DC, where she was responsible for developing policies rn recruir, rrain and sup pore approximarely 8, 100 Coasc G uard reserviscs. Rear Admiral Srnsz is being recognized noc only for che discinccion of being che firsc woman rn lead an American milicary service academy, buc also for her role in craining che nexc generacion for maricime service, underlining NMHS supporc of che sea services academies, and educacing our yo uch abouc maricime careers.

A graduace of che class of 1982 of che US Coast Guard Academy with a BS degree in government, Rear Admiral Srnsz earned an MBA from Northwestern University's J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management in 1994 and a Master of National Security Scrategy from the National War College in 2004.

A surface operacions officer with twelve years at sea, including che command of two currers, she participaced in drug and alien migranc interdiccion, fisheries enforcement, search and rescue, polar and domescic icebreaking, and ports and wacerways security. Her personal awards include chree Legion of Meric medals, four Merirnrious Service medals, two Coasc Guard Commendacion medals, and two Coast Guard Achievement medals.

Rear Admiral Sandra Stosz works with 2nd Class Cadet Timothy Keffer aboard the Academy's training ship, the barque Eagle, in July 2012.

46

SEA HISTORY 144,AUTUMN 2013

Stan Honey Football fans will know Stan Honey for his invention of the technology that superimposes a yellow first-down line on the field seen via football game telecasts, giving viewers an instant grasp of their team's progress-or lack thereof This visualization of the lines of skirmish was introduced in 1998 on ESPN. Honey left his company, Sportvision, in 2004 to pursue professional sailing full-time. He is now the director of technology for America's Cup. Honey is recognized as one of the most successful professional navigators in the field; he received the US Sailing Yachtsman of the Year award in 2010.

Honey brough t his technological expertise together with his love of sailing to make sail racing similarly accessible to television viewers at h ome. The system he has developed can track racing vessels to within two centimeters and superimposes graphic elements on the race helicopter footage to make it easier to recognize and interpret the relative positions of the competitors. The America's Cup organizers will be using Mr. Honey's technology in order to widen the audience for the competition , making the action easier for newcomers to the sport to follow along and understand. It is for this significant contribution to the sport of yachting, developing and implementing a means to open up the sport to a wider audience and maki ng it more accessible, that Mr. Honey will be recognized with the NMHS Distinguished Service Award.

Stan Honey's Liveline technology will make television coverage ofthe America's Cup race easier to follow, particularly for newcomers to the sport, by identifying the competitors and their speeds and other race information, such as race course boundaries.

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

47

Cunard Cruise Line In a firsr for rhe Sociery, a Disringuished Service Award will be presenred ro a company, Cunard Cruise Line, borh for Cunard's srarus as rhe world's oldesr rransArlanric ocean-liner service and for irs crucial role in rhe hisrory of ocean rransporrarion in peace and war. Founded in 1840 when Samuel Cunard was firsr awarded a conrracr ro carry mail berween Liverpool and Halifax, Bosron, and Quebec, rhe Brirish and Norrh American Royal Mail Sream Packer Company began wirh a fleer of four sreamships: Britannia, Acadia, Caledonia and Columbia. Britannia ser our from Liverpool on rhe inaugural voyage on 4 July 1840 and arrived in Bosron fourreen days and eighr hours larer. Wirhin a year, Cunard's sreamships were providing weekly sreamship service across rhe Arlanric, and rhe shorr durarion of rhe journey and reliable rravel schedule appealed ro rhe rraveling public. In 1854 fourreen Cunard ships were requisirioned for service in rhe Crimean War, a conrriburion rhar included rransporring rhe horses rhar charged wirh rhe Lighr Brigade. This example of warrime service was ro be repeared in World Wars I and II, rransporring men, food, and munirions, serving as hospiral ships, and serving in orher capaciries in rhe war efforr.

Cunard's Lusitania in New York, ca. 1907.

Many of hisrory's mosr famous liners have been Cunard ships: Carpathia, which raced ro rescue survivors of rhe Titanic; Mauretania, which held rhe Blue Riband for rransArlanric crossings for rwenry-rwo years; and rhe Carmania, which took the first German casualty of war in 191 4. The ocean lin ers Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth reigned over the golden years of transAdanric service in the rwenrierh centur y, and when rhe pair were retired in the 1960s, Cunard launched

Queen Mary 2 passing under the Golden Gate Bridge in 2007. In July, the QM2 celebrated its 200th transAtlantic crossing.

Queen Elizabeth 2, which sai led for more than forty years. In 1988 , Cunard was purchased by Carnival Corporation, and shortly thereafter announced the construction of a new rransArlanric liner, the Queen Mary 2. Completed in 2004, rhe QM2 is rhe largest liner ever built. Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth were subsequently added ro the fleet, carrying the Cunard tradition of steaming acroยงs the Atlantic in style inro the presenr cenrury. It is for this unsurpassed hisrory of tran sA~tlanric and warrime service that NMHS will be honoring Cunard.

Stanley Birge, Cunard's Vice President, North America, will aaccept the award on behalfof Cunard.

48

SEA H-IISTORY 144, AUTUMN 20 13

Richardo R. Lopes Rick Lo pes learned abo ut N MHS back in 1982 when his uncle, who was ve ry active in the repatriatio n and resto ratio n of th e 1894 schoo ner Ernestina (ex-Effie M. Morrissey), introduced him to "the legendary and enigm atic" Peter and Norma Stanford. As Mr. Lopes puts it: "the inexorable pull of the sea must have been too stro ng, berween my fa ther's m erchant marine career and Peter-either recruiting o r shanghaiing me-to becom e an NMH S board m ember in 1984." M r. Lo pes was d rawn immediately into NMH S activiti es; by the winter of 1984 he h ad already written an article appearing in Sea H istory, and he has held the posts of membership committee chairman , secretary, and treas urer, and he has served as vice chairman since 1992, while fos tering educati o nal proj ects such as the Sea History fo r Kids feature in Sea H istory m agazine. For his active and enthusiastic support ofNMHS, we are recognizing Rick Lo pes with the N MHS D avid A. O'Neil Sheet Anchor Award fo r service to the Soci ety.

A graduate of the University of Massachusetts with an MA in educational administration from Boston State College, Rick Lopes has worn many hats: teacher, juvenile court counselor, and educational community advisor. H e has

been an executive producer with the Lopes Picture C ompany, wo rking with his brother, director Rob Lopes, and he is now executive producer/director w ith XXL M edia. Rick has filmed more than 2, 000 commercials, internet content pieces, and educational and corporate pro mo tional films and has won numerous industry awards. In addition, Rick has co-produced and di rected fo rty episodes of Great D ecisions, a PBS fore ign- policy series, wi th the Foreign Policy Associatio n. Currently in post-prod uctio n is a feature-length documentary film , coproduced with NMH S, Flight 1549-Miracfes on the H udson. j:, -Sheffey Reid

You are cordially invited to the 50th Anniversary Gala NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S ANNUAL AWARDS DINNER

Wednesday, 23 October 2013 at the New York Yacht Club in New York City This affair is traditionally sold out and seating is Limited, so early responses are recommended. Reservations are $400 per perso n; $7 ,000 sponso rs a table for ten, plus a feature ad page in the dinner journ al. Black tie optional.

Call 9 14 737-7878, ext. 0 , or email nmhs@seahistory.org to make your reservation or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Be sure to visit us online at www.seahistory.org fo r m ore info rmation.

N A'lrIONAL MARIT IME HISTORI CAL SOCIETY, PO

SEA HISTORY 144,AUlfUMN 20 13

Box 68,

P EEKSKILL, N Y

10566 49

MARITIME HISTORY ON THE INTERNET

by

Peter

McCracken

Feedly.com: A Replacement for Google Reader, and a Tool for Curated Content ver the years, Google has introduced many new products and services to rhe public. When some didn't work or didn't gain broad acceptance, or cost too much to maintain, Google shut them down. Google Reader is one example, though it still had many, many fans when it was discontinued on the l " of July. The functionality that Google Reader provided is still quite valuable; mitigates the need for any individual to regularly go from blog to blog, or website to website, checking for changes or updates .

Luckily, m any replacement options exist, and they're very much worth pursuing. Why wo uld yo u want to use a news aggregator like Reader, or its replacement? The simplest reason is because it creates a completely customized, unique col lection of news, data, and updates that reflects yo ur personal interests from aro und the web, with very little effort. So if yo u find a blog of interest to yo u and you want to be notified when content is added to it, an aggregator will do that for you. Many people use the aggregator as their homepage, so when they open their web browser in the morning, they see a customized page of news and information that's directly relevant to them.

Several products have made dramatic changes in an effort to absorb Google Reader's now-Readerless users. The underlying systems are basically the same: you create an acco unt, identify rhe biogs, RSS feeds, and other news sources that yo u want to fol low, and then view the end result. When a new blog post or RSS feed is made available, it (or a link to it) appears on yo ur customized results page.

Feedly (http://feedly.com) leads the post-Google Reader pack. Others are our there as well, bur in the interest of space, I'll provide an overview of how to get the most from Feedly. You do

0

need to have a Google account to use Feedly, and yo u log in to Feedly using yo ur Google acco unt information. Initially, Feedly was basically a layer on top of Google Reader, making Reader prettier and more effective. In any case, Feedly still relies on the Google acco unt information for account setup.

After logging in at feedly.com, click on "add content," and you can add rhe URL of a blog you want to follow or type in some terms you' d like to search for. W hen yo u do the latter, yo u' ll see a range of results that yo u might select to add to yo ur Feedly page. C lick on the plus sign to rhe right of any source, and its conrentwil! be added to your page. You can tag feeds to keep them organized, if you want. In addition to web pages, you can add news search results, too.

D o a search on Google News (http://news. google.com; also, see Sea History 132 for more on using Google News for maritime history) for the terms yo u'd like to use, then find the RSS link at the bottom left of the page. Right-dick it, paste that URL into Feedly, and new search results for that term will app ear on yo ur Feed ly page.

You can customize how the page appears, and make many orher changes as well. Feedly offers web browser extensions, too, which have tools that make it very easy to add a web page's feed to your Feedly profile. Mobile apps give you access to your Feed ly content from anywhere, and there are extensive socialsharing tools built into the service. With just a bit of setup, Feedly can deliver rhe day's news, selected just for yo u, right to your computer.

Suggestions for other sites worth mentioning are welcome at peter@shipindex.org. See http://shipindex.org for a free compilation of over 140,000 ship names from indexes to dozens of books and journals. ,t

Beaufort Naval Armorers

_.. oOU·IH1\)'

~

' ' 111lf NE

EAS·\· \1'

@

50

CANNONS

Yacht Sails Rigging BUILDERS OF HIGH-Q ALITYHAND-FINISHED SAJLS Full-service sa il a nd rigging loft

Finely Crafted Marine Grade Working !Replicas

P.O. Box 71, Lincoln St., East Boothbay, Maine 04544 (207) 633-5071

Morehead City, NC UJSA 252-726-5470

www.bircherinc.com SEAHISTCORY 144,AUTUMN20 13

.SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS CSS Neuse has a new home! After nearly 150 years since she was built on the banks of the Ne use River in North Carolina, last year CSS Neuse completed her final voyage-by land. The Neuse, one of 22 ironclad steamers built by the Confederate States Navy in the Civil War, served briefly before being scuttled as Union forces were advancing on Kinsron, NC, in March of 1865. She sank in the river,

On Labor Day, the US Brig Niagara will participate in a reenactment of the Battle of Lake Erie to interpret the maneuvers of the vessels but on a condensed scale and timeline for the benefit of the spectator Aeet. The brig will then sail to her homeport in Erie, PA, and lead the arriving parade of sail for Tall Ships Erie.

Niagara will depart Erie after the event and head for Put-In-Bay, Ohio, arriving on the morning of 10 September, the 200th anniversary of the battle. At noon, the ship will heave to for a wreath-laying ceremony and a gun salute. After the Niagara returns to Erie on the 12th, she will day-sail for the rest of the month before

US Brig Niagara

CSS Neuse arriving at its new home in Kinston, NC-by truck.

where she remained until the centennial of the Civil War was approaching and interest in raising the hull gained momentum. By then, her machinery and the majority of the armament and many artifacts h ad long been salvaged or looted, but a good portion of the hull survived, as did thousands of artifacts within the hull. In 1963 the remains were raised and placed in a shed at Governor Caswell Memorial Park in Kinston. There, visitors and researchers could see the vessel's remains, but a significant problem persisted. While the Neuse were sheltered under a roof, it was still exposed to humidity and weather. Hurricanes Fran and Floyd hit the region hard in the 1990s, flooding the site wh ere the Neuse was cradled under the shed. The Neuse needed a more suitable faci li ty if it was going to survive.

Finally, the gu nboat was moved in June 2012 to a new facility on Queen Street in Kinston, and this summer it opened to the public for behind-the-scenes tours while the interpretive center and exhibits are still being completed. The center plans to be fully open to the public in mid-2014. The CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center, within the Division of State Historic Sites, is part of the NC Department of Cultural Resources. (www.nchistoricsites.org/ neuse/)

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN2013

Princess, and the 56 1-foo t ship doubled as both a regular cruise ship and a Hollywood set during those years . MS Pacific has not been feeling the love in recent years, and in August undertook its final voyage to a ship-breaking yard in Turkey.

She was sold to the Izmir Ship Recycling Co. for $3.3 million and will be broken up for scrap ... . On 26 July, USS Constitution got its 73rd captain: CDR Sean Kearns, originally of Hampden, Maine.

"I stand relieved," said Commander Matthew J. Bonner, and with that, his rwo years as captain of the 215-year-old warship was over. Bonner commanded "Old Ironsides" through a busy sch edule surro unding the commemoratio ns of the bicentennial of the War of 1812; he also led his crew as they got the ship sailing unassisted, albeit briefly, for only the second time in 131 years this summer. In a formal Change-of-Command ceremony that took place on a rainy morning at the Charlestown Navy Yard, CDR Matthew Bonner bid adie u to his ship and crew and supporters, stating that his rwo-year command was the "greatest job [he's] ever

downrigging for the winter season. (Flagship Niagara League & Erie Maritime Museum, 150 East Front Street, Erie, PA 16507; Ph. 814 452-2744; www.flagshipniagara.org) ... The Love Boat (a.k.a. MS Paci.fie) is being scrapped.

The cruise ship-and an industry-was made famo us by the popular 1970s television sh ow, The Love Boat. The series ran berween 1977 and 1986 and starred Gavin Macleod as its captain, plus a host of regular and guest celebrities on every show. Her stage name was the Pacific

51

Full Speed Ahead! The SS Columbia Project pays tribute to founder Richard Anderson and makes plans for restoration and transport.

W

hen Richard Anderson first laid eyes on SS Columbia, he found her co ndi tio n wanting. Launched in 1902, the Columbia ran fo r ninety years as a passenger steamer, but in the years since she was retired in 199 1 she endured significant damage and disrepair. H er hull deteriorated and her mechanical systems are o ut of date; her o riginal deco r- boasring mahogany panelin g, gilded moldings, a grand sraircase, and even an open-air ballroom- is unresro red, and

"To envisio n the Colum bia fully resto red and plying the beauti ful waters of the Hudson River is a d ream we can all ado pt," rem arked Mr. Ellio tt. "H e has left it to us w carry o n his dream."

This dream is exactly wh at the SS Columbia Project hopes will be a reality as they move fo rwa rd w ith executing p lans fo r her reswratio n and transpo rt. The lo ng-term goal is that an operatio nal SS Columbia w ill serve to restore a historic water transpo rtatio n system berween the Hudson Valley and New Yo rk

(left) SS Columbia laid up in Detroit; (right) as celebrated on postcards and other promotional materials from her heyday.

C ity. Passengers aboard the Columbia will be her safety sys tems are inadequate for presencouraged to explore the area-visiting the ent-day operations. The ship lives in rem any historic sites, museums, galleries, gartirement now on the outskirts of D etroit, dens, and scenic attractio ns that exist in loand, tho ugh she is beloved by many, her cal communities, and of course, dining and fare was for a long rime uncertain . That is, unti l her story reached Richard, who desho pping. O nboard activi ties will include a firsthand look at how the m assive a ntiq ue cided to undertake a noble and challengsteam engi ne is o perated, guided to urs of ing quest: to salvage and restore her and the vessel, lectures, and cultural programs put her back into service. His vision began for children. w take shape as h e m obilized fri ends and To m ake this happen, the SS Co lumencouraged proponents-bo th in D etroit bia Project h as developed a rwo-ph ase opand N ew York. H e applied for (and reRichard Anderson (1962- 2 013) erational stra tegy: Phase I is res torati o n and ceived) grants, assembled a board, set up a sys tem for donations and found ed the SS Columbia Project Phase II is operation on rhe Hudson Ri ver. U nder the guidance (SSCP), rhe non-profit o rganizatio n that has acquired the ship of experts in ship repair and historic ship preservatio n, Phase and has taken on its revitalization . But earlier this year, the ve ry I will be set up to allow visitors to view the wo rk of rhe restoteam that had com e to share Richard's dream was charged with ration itself. Phase II encom passes the ship's operation in the a so rrowfu l and unexpected task: anno uncing his death to sup- Hudson Valley and New Yo rk H arbo r. "I thin k many of us lo ng fo r an oppo rtunity to be part o f som ething bigger than we are," po rters of the proj ect after he passed in January of this year.

"Richard was brave in undertakin g the SSCP and brave in said Mr. Osbo rn. "We wa n t to be enco uraged to rake risks, to the way he faced his illness," said Bob Ell iott, acting co-chair- reach fo r high goals, to make a difference and have an impact. man of rhe SS C P "The project lives o n today out of loyal ty and Richard inspired those sparks in us-fanned the fl am es of our ad m iration fo r Richard Anderson." Fred O sbo rn III, who sirs own deep-down desires-and his spi rit leads us o nward, 'o ne alongside Mr. Elliott as co-chairman , echoed these sentiments. step at a time,' to see that magnificent vessel bustling up the "Richard had a way of making one think creatively; he m anaged migh ty Hudson River." to kindle o ur enthusias m and dampen any of o ur skepticism Help support the SS Columbia Project! V isit our website about rhe project. 'One step ar a tim e,' he wo uld say, and we all ar www.sscolumbia.org to do nate o nline. Contributio ns are wo uld listen." also gratefully accep ted in pers;on or by mail at our offices: SS In a m em o rial service held fo r Richard o n 29 June at his Columbia Project, 232 East l l 1rh Street, New Yo rk, NY 10003. house overlooking rhe Hudson Ri ve r, fri ends spoke about real- For mo re info rmatio n, inq uiriess can be made to boa rd m embers: izing h is vision, saying rhar they could imagine the Columbia Bob Elliott, Fred O sbo rn III, }roa n D avidso n and Ke nt Barwick; steaming past, ringing her bell every tim e she passed his h o use. or to Laura Bintzer, SSCP admiinist rato r.

-Laura Bintzer

52

SEA 1HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 201 3

(continued from page 51) had in the Navy." The ceremony was presided over by Vice Admiral Richard W. Hunt, Director, Navy Staff, who presented Bonner wi th the Meritorious Service Medal for his exemplary performance as commander during an important time in the sh ip's modern history. Commander Bonner is already back at work for the navy in the 21st century; he is now with the Joint Staff at the Pentagon . Comm ander Kearns, or "73," as he is now called, will lead the Constitution and her

Beating tile Storm

MAINE COAST ART PRINTS fine color prints of watercolors by Consuelo Eames H anks

www.mainecoastartprints.com

(l-r) 73, CDR Sean Kearns, and his predecessor, 72, CDR Matt Bonner.

NINA HELLMAN

crew for two years. While the busy schedule surrounding the War of 1812 bicentennial is tapering off, Kearns h as plenty on his hands as he starts to m ake preparations for the historic frigate's next drydock period, scheduled for 2015. USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned ship in the United States Navy. The ship is open to the public for free g uided tours by active-duty Navy sailors. (The ship's offices are located at Bldg. 5, C harlestown N avy Yard, C harlestown, MA 02 129; www.history.navy.mil/ussconstitution/) . . . MIT offers certification in Pirate Training. We go back and forth over how we feel abou t pop culture's take on piracy (think Jack Sparrow and "Talk Like a Pirate Day" on September 19th every year); does acceptance of Disney-style "Pirates of the Caribbean" help or h amper the maritime communi ty? Maritime museums, for the most part, have em braced m aking pirate culture fun , for nothing else than the fact that it draws people to their facilities . But does the caricature of cartoonish pirates detract from o ur taking modern-day piracy serio usly? There are good arguments that go bo th ways on this one, but in the meantime, students who at tend the prestigious

(508) 228-4677 nina@ninahellmananciques.co m

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

c:Jlt[arine cA'ntiques - cA'mericana

Serving Collectors & Museums Since 1971

H.Lee White Martne Museum And M:u iiime Center

Oswego, oldest U.S. freshwater port Open Mon - Sun 1-5 pm July & Aug 10-5 pm

Nantucket, Massachusetts

www.n inahellmanant iqu es.com

Offering an extensive selection of documented, one-of-a-kind ship models by internationally acclaimed marine model artists.

West 1st Street Pier, Oswego, NY hleewhitemarinemuseum.com 315-342-0480

AMERICAN MARINE MODEL GALLERY 20 Pleasant Street, P.O. Box 6102 Gloucester, MA 01 930

978-281 -1166 wa ll @s hipmod e l.com

CUSTOM MODELS (YACHT & HISTORIC) APPRAISALS RESTO RATIONS DISPLAY UNITS Ill us. cata log $10. ($15. ove rseas) or free broc hure

53

CLASSIFIED ADS SHIP MODEL BROKER: I will help you BUY, SELL, REPAIR, APPRAISE or COMMISSION a model ship or boat. www.FiddlersGreenModelShips.com.

Pensacola, Florida's 1st Place, is a top retirement area. Beautiful beaches, NO SNOW, mild winters, & NO State income or investment tax! Great health care and military friendly. Contact me @ 850982-1907; www.pensacolahomesales.net.

Elegant Ship Models. Individually handcrafted custom scale model boats, starting at $3,000. Jean Preckel. www.preckelboats.co, 304-432-7202

FREE YOUR BEWVED IN PARADISE Ash scattering at sea memorial in Hawaii. www.ashesatseaoahu.com; 808 235-2284.

FREIGHTERCRUISES.COM . Mail ships, containerships, trampers ... Find the ship and voyage that's perfect for you.

Ph. 1-800-99-Maris.

Thousands of century-old ship postcards, ephemera- in San Francisco, CA; Ph. 4 15 586-9386; kprag@planeteria.net.

Custom Ship Models, Half Hulls. Free Catalog. Spencer, Box 1034, Quakertown, PA 18951.

BOOKS KEEPING THE TRADITION ALIVE by Capt. Ray Williamson. The remarkable story of Maine Windjammer Cruises,â&#x201E;˘ founder of the windjammer industry. 172 page, 11 x 14 hardcover book with over 100 full-page images from the days of cargo to the present. Price-$48 Call 800-736-7981; Email sail@mainewindjarnmer cruises.com.

THE AUTHORITY TO SAIL by Commodore Robert Stanley Bares. The fully illustrated authoritative history of United States Merchant Marine licenses and documents issued since 1852. Coffee-table size, 12"x 14." Order direct: The Parcel Centre 860 7392492; www.theauthoritytosail.com.

A CARELESS WORD-A NEEDLESS SINKING by Capt. Arthur R. Moore. Documented acco unt of catastrophic losses suffered by American Merchant Marine and Armed Guard during WWII. 720 pp, lists crew members and ships, profusely illustrated. Eighth printing sponsored by American Merchant Marine Veterans. E-mail: ge murphy@verizon.net.

NEXT VOYAGE WILL BE DIFFERENT by Capt. Thomas E. Henry. Accounts from my 37 years at sea. Available through Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

Also CRACKING HITLER'S ATLANTIC WALL. Call (772) 287-5603 EST or Arcome@aol. com for signed copies.

IT DIDN'T HAPPEN ON MYWATCH and SCUTTLEBUTT by George E. Murphy.

Memoirs of forry-three years with United States Lines aboard cargo and passenger ships.

Anecdotes of captains, chief engineers, crew members and the company office. Visit us on our website: www.gemurphy.com; e-mail: gemurphy@verizon.net.

OUR FLAG WAS STILL THERE: THE SEA HISTORY PRESS GUIDE TO THE WAR OF 1812-ITS HISTORY AND COMMEMORATIONS by NMHS Overseer William H. White is on sale at the NMHS Ship's Store. For this and other classic and new maritime tides, visit www.seahistory.org.

Advertise in Sea History! â&#x20AC;˘Call 914 737-7878, ext. 235, or e-mail: advertising@seahisrory.org.

54

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have been secretly getting certification in Pirate Training for physical education credit. Students who complete physical education classes in sailing (small boats on the Charles River) , archery, fencing, and the fundamentals of pistol shooting can qualify for an official certificate as an MIT Pirate. Classes take place at 0800, so pirates-in-training who splice too much of the main brace the night before might not get through the program. Students must take an oath in the physical education office when they get their certificates. Elements of the oath include promises to "run from any fight [they] can't win, [and] to win any fight [yo u] cannot run from," according to certified MIT pirate Stephanie Holden.

Holden adds, yo u must also be willing to "sing yo-ho-ho at the top of [your] lungs ."

(MIT P. E. Program Administrator, Meredith Volker, 120 Vassar Street Cambridge, MA 02139; email mitpe@mit. edu; www. mirpe.com) . .. The Barque Picton Castle, currently underway in the South Pacific, recently came to the rescue of a 42-foot sailing yacht, which had issued a distress call in the early hours of30 July. Sailing under the command of Capt. Michael Moreland, Picton Castle was en route berween Manihiki and Aitutaki when the call for assistance went out to all vessels within a 300-nautical-mile radius. At 180 nautical miles away, the three-mas ted sail training ship was determined to be the closest vessel outside of a few fi shing boats, and the only ship that could offer the yacht's crew an alternative to aba ndoning their craft.

It took them 29 hours to reach the yacht's position. The ship sent over its chief mate and chief engineer to assess the situation.

Chief mate Paul Bracken replaced a parted section of the shrouds, while engineer Alex Marts made repairs to the raw water pump and installed an electric auxiliary bilge pump. With these repairs, no towing was required and the yacht was able to carry on with their planned passage.

This summer, the Picton Castle spent ten weeks providling much-needed shipping assistance in the heart of Polynesia. The ship and her ccrew sailed from Rarotonga, the largest atnd most accessible of the Cooks Islandls, to the nation's ten other inhabited islarnds. During this time they

SEA HISlfORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

10th Maritime Heritage Conference Save the Date! The 1Och Maritime Heritage Conference is scheduled for 17-21 September 20 14 in Norfolk, VA. Nauticus, the science and technology center and home to the Battleship Wisconsin and the Hampton Roads N aval Museum, is the principal host; sessions will be held in the Norfolk Waterside Marriott.

Naval Historical Foun~ clarion program direc, tor Dr. David Winkler will serve as program chairman-a call for papers announcement will go out in the coming months.

The Maritime Heritage Conference is hosted by multiple organizations and institutions associated ~ with maritime heritage and covers a wide range of topics. Museums, universities, government agencies, an d non-profit historical and heritage societies large and small send their leaders and staff to share with-and learn from-one another. Networking opportunities abound. The last time the conference was held in Norfolk, more than 500 people attended.

Sessions will cover the following: international trade, oceanic immigrations, maritime law, shipbuilding, small craft preservation, lighthouses and lifesaving stations, whaling, underwater archaeology, historic ships, sailors' lives at sea and ashore, African-American maritime history, maritime museums and organizations, seaports, naval history, literature, native maritime cultures, m arine art and sea music, education, sail training and tall ships, and other topics related to global maritime heritage.

The conference theme, keynote speakers, and other derails will be forthcoming.

Please save the date and keep yo ur eye out for ways yo u can participate. Check the NMHS website at www.seahistory.org for details as they emerge in the coming months . .1

Historical reproductions inspired by the Age of Sail , exploration , science , and cartography www.carterstore .com Carter Creations AM/Authentic Models Authorized Dealer E-mail: cc@carterstore.com Phone/Fax: 714-826-9696

Yearly NAUTICAL RESEARCH GUILD An association of model builders and researchers Membership $38.00 USA

who love all things nautical, and who are dedicated to: Advancing Ship Modeling Through Research

Membe rship includes rhe quarterly Na utical Research Journal with articles by kn owledgeable writers fea m ring ship model build ing and research of all periods, merchanr, naval and maritime history.

Other member benefits include a Technical Assistance netwo rk, a Lending Library, an Annual Confere nce, Symposiums and an extensive list of Reso urces and Links.

1-585-968-8111 • www.theNRG.org MAINE WINDJAMMER CRUISES

SOUTHPORT SILVER Handcrafted Silver and Copper Jewelry

SINCE 1936

EXPERIENCE HJSTORY ABOARD OUR NATIONAL LANDMARK SCHOONERS WWW .MAINEWINDJAMMERCRUISES .COM CRUISES O FFERED MAY - O CTOBER

3, 4 , 5, 6 DAY & WEEKENDS

$475 -$845 AIL INU.US IVE

1-800-736-7981

[r:;I

ACCEN T S LI G HTH O USES Remembedng Nocth

[ ]

Am e rican and Ir ish

· ~

Lighthouses through

• ·,.,,:_

the fin e art of coun ted cross-stitch and h; sto d cal •·esea,.ch .

Southport Island, Maine www.southportsiIver.com southportsi lver@gma i I.com

207.217.7743 SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

KEEPING THE TRADITION ALIVE!

[lL] ~ ..,...

"';:!;:.. .

~.

11--

'1t'

"'ft.-•

~

fi. Y:::-

«

t

'S

""'l'trt

PO Box 97 Dunbar, NE 68346 Free calalog: 40 2-209-2 334 http: / / www.acccntslights.com

55

(continued from page 54)

Save the Date!

NEW YORK CITY PICKLE NIGHT DINNER Friday, 8 November 2013, at the New York Yacht Club This year marks the 208th Anniversary of the Bartle of Trafalgar, and the 10th New York City Pickle Night Dinner will mark this history-changing event on 8 November 2013. Those who appreciate the historical significance of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson and the lore associated with his life are invited to attend this special event. The event is named for HMS Pickle, which participated in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and subsequen tly brought the news home to Great Britain of Nelson's victory and death in the battle. This event has been a perennial success, with guests from the United States, Canada, England, France, and Switzerland.

This year's honorary chairman is The Honorable Danny Lopez, British Consul General-New York Major General Buster Howes OBE, British Defence Attache in the United States and former Commandant General Royal Marines is the principal speaker. Major General Howes was commissioned into the Royal Marines in 1982, served as a troop commander of 42 Commando, and after training as a Mountain Leader, joined 45 Commando. He served in the Gulf War while seconded to the US Marine Corps. He was named Commanding Officer of 42 Commando during the Iraq War in 2003, C hief Joint Coordination and Effects in Headquarters in Afghanistan in 2007 and Director of Naval Staff later that year. He became Commander of 3 Commando Brigade in April 2008 and Head of Overseas Operations in the Ministry of Defence in 2009.

The initial speaker will be George Daughan, award-winning military history author.

Daughan spent three years in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War, was an instructor at rhe Air Force Academy and director of the Major General Buster Howes OBE master's program in international affairs there. He has taught at the University of Co lorado, the University of New Hampshire, Wesleyan University, and Connecticut College. Daughan holds a PhD in American History and Government from Harvard Univers ity. His latest book is 1812-lhe Navy's War. Space is limited. To reserve a place, please contact Sally McElwrearh Callo at SallyMC79@verizon.net or by calling 212 972-8667 . T ickers are $275 per person.

Dress is black tie or military equivalent.

The American Friends of the National Museum of the Royal Navy, the event sponsor, is recognized as a tax-exempt organization. The Nelson Society, The 1805 C lub, and the National Maritime Historical Society also support this event.

56

carried both cargo and passengers, in cluding five pregnant women who sai led with them from Pukapuka to the closest hospital-in Rarotonga. After departing from Rarotonga in mid-August, the ship is planning stops at the Kingdom of Tonga and Norfolk Island, and then on to the International Fleet Review in Sydney, Australia. The Tall Ship Festival in Sydney will be followed by a tall ship race from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand; Auckland's Tall Ship Festival; a visit to Waipu, NZ, and Picton, NZ; to be followed by six more months of visiting more islands in the South Pacific, including Pitcairn, Samoa, Fiji and more. (Picton Castle, POB 1076, 174 Bluenose Drive, Lunenburg, N.S., Canada BOJ 2CO. www.picton-castle.com) ... The Penobscot Marine Museum was recently awarded grants from the Cascade Foundation and the Maine Community Foundation to assist in efforts to digitize its collection of more than 140,000 historic photographs and record oral histories with the aid of new technology. It has taken a dozen volun-

teers six years to put 60,000 of these images on the museum's webs ite. With professional-grade cameras, scanners, digital voice recorders, and other equipment, staff and volunteers will be able to accomp lish their work more efficien tly.

PMM's photography collection is used online by historians, writers, ed ucators, students, genealogists and the public.

This equipment helps th e museum to ensure that important historical and cultural information is not lost, and that as much of its collectio ns as possible can be shared with the 1online community. (The museum's photo!graphy database can be viewed online at www.PenobscorMarineMuseum.org. P!v1M, 5 Church Sr., Searsport, ME 04974; Ph. 207 548-2529) j,

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 20 13

FESTIVALS, EvENTS, LECTURES, ETC. •Wolfeboro Vintage Race Boat Regatta, 13-14 September at the Wolfeboro Town Docks in NH. (www. nhbm .org) •Seaport Day 2013, 28 September at Waterfront Park, O ld Town Alexandria, VA. Event organized by the Alexandria Seaport Foundation. (www.alexand riaseaport.org) •"George Washington's Secret Navy: How the American Revolution Went to Sea," lecture by James Nelso n, 2 1 September at the Hendrick Hudson Free Library.

(185 Kings Ferry Road, Montrose, NY 10548; www.seahistory.org) •2013 Nantucket Maritime Festival, 21 September at C hildren's Beach and Brant Point. (For general questions, email sstillings@eganmaritime.org; www. nantucket maritimefestival.org) •Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival, 28-29 September in Po nsmo uth, NH. (www. newenglandfolknerwork.org/pmff/) •Old City Seaport Festival, 11-13 October at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia. (Penn's Landing, Philadelphia, PA; Ph. 215 413-8655; www. philly seaport. org/ seaportfestival) •18th Annual Boast the Coast Maritime Festival, 5 October at 1812 Park and the City Dock in Lewes, DE. (Visit the Lewes Chamber of Commerce website for more information at www. leweschamber.com.)

•The Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race, 14-20 October from Baltimore, MD , to Ponsmouth, VA. Proceeds go to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. (www. schoonerrace.org) •Chicago Maritime Festival, 22 February 201 4 at the C hicago History Museum. (www. chi ca go maritimefestival.o rg) EXHIBITS •34th Annual International Marine Art Exhibition and Sale at 15 September-31 December at the Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport. (Maritime Gallery em ail: gallery@mys ticseaport.org. MSM, 75 Greenmanville Ave., Mystic, CT 06355; Ph. 860 572-5388 www.mysticseaport.org) •That Flaunting Rag! Maine's Maritime 'War Against the Confederacy, through 1 December 2013 at the Mai ne Maritime Museum. (243 Washington Street, Bath ME 04530; www.mainemariti memuse um.org)

SEA HJSTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

•Risky Business: Rum Running on Cape Cod through 15 December at the Cape Cod Maritime Museum . (135 South St. Hyannis, MA 02601; Ph. 508 775- 1723; www. ca p eco dm a ri timem use um. org) •Tahoe Escape: Surviving the Great Depression, at The Tahoe Maritime M useum. (5205 West Lake Blvd. , Homewood, CA; www.tahoemaritimemuseum.org) •Push and Pull: Life on Chesapeake Tugboats, through 20 14; also Navigating Freedom: The 'War of 1812 on the Chesapeake at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. (213 N. Talbot St., St. Michaels, MD 21663 ; www.cbmm.org) •Conserve, Preserve, & Observe: The Legacy of LaBelle through 13 October at the Texas Maritime M useum. (1202 Navigation C ircle, Rockport, TX 78382; www. texasmaritimemuseum.org) •20th Annual Maritime Art Exhibit, through 5 October at the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay, OR. (235 Anderson Ave., Coos Bay, OR 97420; Ph. 54 1 2673901 ; www.coosart.org) •Sacred 'Waters: Photography by john Stanmeyer, through 27 October at the Minnesota Marine Art M useum. (800 Riverview Drive, Wi nona, MN 55987; Ph. 507 474-6626; www.minnesotamari neart.org) •Following the Panther: Arctic Photographs ofRena Bass Forman. (18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740; Ph. 508 997-0046; www.whalingm useum.org) •Tides of Freedom: African Presence on the Delaware River, now through 2015. at the Independance Seaport Museum.

(2 11 South Columbus Blvd. & Waln ut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106; Ph . 2 15 4 13-8655; www.phillyseaport.org) CONFERENCES AND SYMPOSIUMS •2nd Annual Northeast and Atlantic Canada Environmental Forum, 28 September. A one-day academic wo rkshop at the Un iv. of Maine. (www.naceh f.o rg) •47th Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology, 7-12 January, Society fo r Historical Archaeology, in Quebec City, Canada. (www.sha2014.com) •2013 McMullen Naval History Symposium, 19-20 September at the US Naval Academy, Annapo lis, MD . (www. usna. edu /History/Symposium)

•Big Stuff Conference 2013 , triennial international meeting focused on conserving our large technology heritage, 25-27 Septe mber 20 13 in Ottawa, Canada. (www. science tech. technomuses.ca/ english/w hat so n/big_smff_conference.cfm) •SNAME Annual Meeting & Expo, 6-8 November at the H yatt Regency Bellevue in Washington State. SNAME is the Society of Naval Architects & Engineers. (www.s name.org/20 l 3AnnualMeeting/ Home/) •2014 Oxford Naval History Conference: "Strategy and the Sea," An International Conference in Honour of Professor John B. Hattendorf, 10-12 April 2014 at All Souls Co llege, Oxford University, UK. (www.oxfordnavalconference.co. uk/) •"Ligaments: Everyday Connections of Colonial Economies," the thirteenth annual conference of the Program in Early American Economy and Society will be held 24-25 October at the Library Co mpany of Philadelphia. (1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107; Ph. 2 15 546-3 18 1; www.librarycompany.o rg/econ omics/2013Conference/) •Ulster-American Heritage Symposium 2014, in rwo parts. Part I: 18-2 1 June at Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT; Part II: 25-28 June in Athens, GA. Call for Papers deadline for Part I on the theme, "Hunger, Poverty and M igration: A Transatlanti c Perspective" is 4 October. Call for Papers deadline for Part II on the theme, "Contacts, Contests, and Contributions: Ulster-Americans in War and Society" is 2 December. (Details are online at www. q u b. ac. uk/ cms/XXU lsterAm er ica nHer itageSym posium2014. pdf) •"The Health and Welfare of Seafarers: Past, Present and Prospects," 30 January-I February 2014 at the Maritime Histo rical Studies Centre, at the University of Hull, UK. (www2. hull.ac. uk/fass/ mari timehistory.aspx) •The Teaching with Small Boats Alliance 2013 Conference, 15- 18 October at Mystic Seaport. In add ition to the conference presentations, there will be opportun ities for sleeping aboa rd the historic ship Joseph Conrad. (For details, see www. mys ticseaport.org/rwsba; questions should be emailed to rwsba.info@gmail. com.)

57

Great Reads from Sea History Press ...

A Dream of Tall Ships il'd.-\or

A Dream of Tall Ships

lVEWJ

How New Yorkers came together to save the city's sailing-ship waterfront

by Peter and Norma Stanford with an ln-troduction by John Stobart, RA This lively account of a great urban adventure begins in the 1960s with two New Yorkers committed to creating a maritime museum in Manhattan's old sailing ship waterfront-the South Street Seaport Museum. Entranced by the old brick buildings of the Fulton Fish Market neighborhood and aware of the rush of new officebuilding construction in Lower Manhattan, they moved to save the old buildings as an historic district, and breathe new life into New York's old Street of Ships.

The idea of recreating the old sailing-ship waterfront inspired young and old, rich and poor, Wall Streeters and blue-collar workers, seamen, firemen, policemen and teachers to work together to found a museum showcasing the streets and ships that built the port, which built the city, which built the nation.

Hardcover, 576 pages, 24 pages of photos and illustrations • $25.00 + $6.95 s/h in US; call for international rates

Our Flag was Still 1here: 1he Sea History Press Guide to the war of1812-Its History and Bicentennial Commemorations

The Skipper & the Eagle

by Captain Gordon McGowan, USCG (Ret.} with an Introduction by Admiral Robert]. Papp, Jr., Commandant, US Coast Guard

Maritime historian and award-winning author William H. White guides readers through the highlights of both the land campaigns and the sea battles of 1812 and answers the questions: "What really happened?" and "Why does it matter?" Our Flag Was Still There also serves as a useful guidebook to the bicentennial celebrations across the country, continuing through 2015.

In the year 1946, amid the post-war confusion, Commander Gordon McGowan, US Coast Guard, found himself the master of a three-masted barque, a battered prize of war. With her carryover crew of German seamen and neophyte Coast Guard personnel, he transformed her into a wellfound Coast Guard training ship able to make a transAdantic voyage under sail.

Softcover, illustrated• $15.00 + $4.00 s/h in US; call for international rates

Hardcover, 255 pages, 36 illustrations • $20.00 + $4.00 s/h in US; call for international rates

To order, visit the NMHS Ship's Store at www.seahistory.org, or calll 914 737-7878, ext. 0.

Reviews The Mortal Sea: Fishing the Atlantic in the Age of Sail by W. Jeffrey Bolsrer (Belknap Press of rhe H arvard U niversiry Press, 201 2, 416pp, illus, maps, nores, gloss, appen, biblio, index, I SBN 978- 0-67404765-5; $29.95hc) 1he Mortal Sea is a rale of rhe American and European fi shing indusrry, from rhe srruggles of fishing under sail ro irs mo ro rized rwe nrierh cenru ry. While foc used on rhe hi srory of m an's relarionship wirh rhe sea, Bolsrer employs an exrraordinarily fluid w riring sryle, besr conveyed rhro ugh som e lirerary fillers, like here in irs opening page: "On clear, dry days in rhe age of sail, wirh fish coming over rhe rail, ... [a n ea rby coasr] could ch arm rhe m os r hard ened fi sherma n.

G reen-capped islands and barren dark rocks, each girt ro und by waterline srripes of living white barnacles and fringes wirh mustard-hued bladder wrack, protruding from waters teeming with life. . . . Vast armies of porpoises, the horsemen of the sea, arced across rhe surface like cavalry rolling across a plain. A nd every cod yanked unceremoniously from rhe hook had, as fisherman said, a coin in its mouth .. . . [but] the stunning productivity of rhat ecosysrem came with a price."

The world 's popularion hundreds of yea rs ago was much smaller than roday's, and the rechnology avail able ro h arves t rhe oceans was relatively primitive. After Europeans overfished the waters around their coas ts, the discovery of North America and its uncapped fishing grounds abundant w ith marine life provided sustenance fro m the sea. Unfortunarely, due to economic greed and hubris, coupled with ingenuity replacing rradirion, m an aga in overharvesred this fragile n atural resource. "Fishermen knew that hooks of a certain size, baited in a certain way and set at a certain depth, were likely ro attracr a certain kind of fi sh ." With regards ro fis hing itself, they held that "nature existed separately fr om human s, ... [and] rhe immortal sea would buffer itself somehow from hum an-induced catas trophe." Man ass umed that his desire for seafood and h is rrawls, long-lines, and gill nets co uld nor affect rhe limitless abundance of the sea. But done repeatedly over time, these ac rivities did exactly that. They dras tiSEA HISTORY 144, AUTU MN 2013

cally depleted fi sh srocks: cod, menhaden, mackerel, halibut, herring, lobsrer, and srriped bass all suffered, and some, like Atlantic sturgeon and salmon, di sappea red alrogether.

Bolster documents the hisrory of a series of fish shortages over time that largely paralleled adva nces in fi shing rechnology and optimized rhe carch of a dwindling number of desirable deep-sea and littoral species . This caused clashes

460pp, illus, maps, no res, biblio, index, ISBN 978-0-9864-628 1-0; $55pb) The destrucrion of rhe C onfederare ironclad Arkansas in Augusr 1862 began a twenty-four-month period in which several imporrant naval and amphibious operations occurred in the spider-web-like series of swamps and rivers north of the C onfederate stronghold ofVicksburg, Mississippi . With rhe loss of rhe Arkansas, the Yazoo River and the co nnecting triburaries and rivers became a focal point for both the Union and C onfederate leaders. Myron]. Smith, library director and professor at Tusculum C ollege, expl ains how the Union sought to use these approaches ro capture Vicksburg and the Confederares' exrraordinary efforrs ro srop rhem.

THE GLENCANNON PRESS berween coastal village fi sherman, who depended upon fish fo r rheir meager living and large commercial fisheries, academic ichthyologists, government scientists, and politicians. The author concluded, "The living sea was inextricably entwined with the decisions and fa re of the people who dared to do business in its great waters ."

In this rhoughr-provoking and riveting work, Bolsrer presents a scholarly historical perspective of man's disrurbance of the aquatic biological equilibrium, his management of natural resources from the oceans, and what their decline porrends for the future of the earth, its climate, and irs inhabitants.

L OUIS A RTHU R NORTON

West Simsbury, C onnecticut

The Fight for the Yazoo, August 1862july 1864: Swamps, Forts, and Fleets on Vicksburg's Northern Flank by Myron

NEW! The S.S. United States and the Blue Riband.

Historian Lawrence M. Driscoll brings to life this epic adventure of the fastest superliner to ever sail the North Atlantic.

Hardcover, 8Y2xll, 256 pp.

169 photos. $35 + $5 S&H. THE LAST GREAT RAcE;

FREE CATALOG 1-800-711-8985 Online catalog at

www.glencannon.com

]. Smith, Jr. (McFarland & Company, 2012,

59

I \1.\1

"I

A

I'

lll ,. ,. I ( d

GALVE~Tl!N \ TI IE ELISSA Ti IF T \ LI S1 Ill ' (11 Ti \.'\:-;

by Kurt D. Voss All proceeds from this pictorial history benefit the ELISSA preservation fimd

Published by Arcadia Publishing and Galveston Historical Foundation. $21.99, 128 pages, 200 photographs Autographed copies available at (409) 763- 1877, or online at: www.tsm-elissa.org

MARITIME

BOOKS 1806 Laurel Crest Madison, Wisconsin 53705-1065 (608) 238-SAIL FAX (608) 238-7249 Email: tuttlemaritime@charter.net http://tuttlemaritime.com

Books about the Sea, Ship & Sailor Catalogue Upon Request 60

Geography was a major influence in all these campaigns. Natural ba rriers created by swamps, shallow water, and bluffs allowed the Confederates to prepare defenses to equalize their lack of naval and army resources. The Union warships that operated in these waters were a piebald force , mainly of converted m erchant vessels, including tinclads and ironclads designed to operate in the shallow waters of the Western Theatre.

In December 1862, Union forces approached Vicksburg from the northeast, while the supporting Union warsh ips encountered obstructions and torpedoes.

The tinclads, sent a head to clear the rivers, however, were too lightly armored to take the van. When two torpedoes sank the ironclad Cairo, it changed the nature of the Union's approach. William T. Sherman landed his forces north of the city but was thwarted by Confederate defenses at the battle of C hickasaw Bayou and had to retreat because of logistical concerns.

During the Yazoo Pass expedition General Ulysses S. Grant led a nother flanking movement. Formidable defenses and difficult terrain led to another Confederate victory. The Confederates fel led trees to block the Union advance, allowin g them time to construct Fort Pemberton nea r the confluence of the Ta ll a hatchie a nd Yalobu sha rivers near Greenwood, Mississippi. The Union forces were unable to effectively attack the fort and the expedition turned back in ea rly April.

Weeks earlier, Admiral David Dixon Porter had sta rted toward Steele's Bayo u, just about seven miles north ofVicksburg, wit h plans to outflank Fort Pemberton by landing troops between Vicksburg and Yazoo C ity. Union warships traversed about 100 miles of twisting narrow rivers, only to be stopped by Confederates who felled trees to block both the advance and retreat of the Union naval force. Porter extracted his sh ips with the help of Sherman's troops. Afrer the surrender ofVicksburg in July 1863, the narrative continues with the minor operations in the area until the summer of 1864.

The author m ade extensive use of pri mary and secondary sources, a nd one would be hard pressed to find a source not cited.

W ith many useful photos, illustrations,

and maps, Smith h as provided an essential volume on Western Theatre brown water naval warfare. This book will ap peal to CiviI War scholars and buffs and naval history enthusiasts, all who will find themselves reassessing their knowledge about this region during the C ivil War. ROB ERT BROWNING

Dumfries, Virginia

Mystery Islands: Discovering the Ancient Pacific by Tom Koppel (University of the South Pacific Press, Suva, Fiji, 2012 , 360pp, illus, biblio, index, ISBN 978-98201-01888-2; $29.95 pb)

Tom Koppel has produced a work of ex traordin ary sy nthesis, reviewing current evidence of human migration across almost half the planet in an accessible and enjoyable narrative. It is, as he claim s, a truly grand epic and one he delights in telling. He draws from archaeology and cultural a nd physical a nthropology, from ling uistics and a host of related disciplines, but this is not a schola rly reference filled with footnotes and e ndless detail. Koppel has a PhD in political science, but he sp ent a good part of his career as a journalist, a nd these skills serve him well in this investigation. While eliciting the salient information from major contributors familiar to academics in the field, he weaves observations from his own extensive travels into the tale, bring-

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

in g theory to life. He is h iking the beaches a nd at the helm of various craft, as much as he is drawin g from the a rchives. The result is a large range of contemporary schola rl y materi a l ca refully disti ll ed a nd rendered eas ily understandable a nd, in fac t, ve ry enjoyable to the average reade r or yo un g student with any sense of curiosity about the ancient Pacific.

Anthropologists know that the Lapita model of migration, named for the type of pottery that traces early coloni zation in western Polynesia, is not complete in every detail, but Koppel is con scientious in pointing out grey a reas and alternative viewpoints.

The ap parent long pause as voyaging ceases in Fiji-Tonga-Samoa, only to sprin g back to life and quick ly push out to the fa r corners of rem ote Polynesia, remains controversial, bur researchers are continuin g to discover new in formatio n, and so the inrerpretatio n of Pacific settlement is sti ll changing.

More impo rtant than knowing exactly when Pacific voyagers arrived, though, is answering how they settled remote locarions. H ere the author succeeds in presenring the main elements of the "trans ported landscape," the rats and pigs and portable flo ra and fa un a, as well as the human skills necessary for transformin g low atolls and high islands inro habitable destinations, a nd he does so in an organized and concise fas hion. Ser d ement in volves large-scale reshaping, and Koppel d oes us a great service by allow ing no a rtificia l pretense of humans livi ng peacefully alongside edible and slow-runni ng species, o r within rosecolored pristine wilderness. W hen have we ever done rhat? We shap e, a nd a re in turn shaped by, the land and sea .

W hy voyagers initially set off over the horizo n to unknown destinations has always been a difficult question to answer. Koppel gives a number of alternative explanations including po pulation press ure, famine, and climatic change, but in the end we are all left standing in wonder that such distant and dangerous voyages were undertaken in the first place. And hazards were many. The colonizing efforts that fa iled, as portrayed by atolls and islands that were abando ned prior to weste rn discovery, demonstrate this. These are the so-called "Mystery Islands," only a sm all portion actually, of this slightl y m is-tided wo rk.

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 2013

The CIA's Greatest Covert Operation Inside the Daring Mission to Recover a Nuclear-Armed Soviet Sub Davi d H. Sharp "An inside account by a participating CIA engineer, who describes in great detail the marvels that were the ship's recovery systems. The operation-one of the most ambitious intelligence projects ever attempted- is covered end to end in ex traordinary detail. "-Sea.power Magaz ine "An outstanding book , providing hitherto unavailable information on what has sometimes been described as 'the greatest ocean-engi neering feat of the twentieth centmy "'- Proceedings, U.S. Naval Academy "A terrific story that reads like a Tom Clancy novel. ... Colorful , powerful, and riveting. "-Mitchell B. Lerner, author of The Pueblo Incident: A Spy Ship and the Failure of American Fo reign Policy

0

344 pages, 59 photographs, Paper $24.95

University Press of Kansas Phone 785-864-4155 ¡ Fax 785-864-4586 - www. kansaspress.ku. edu

just Released!

GUN BAY An Edward Ballancyne Novel

William H. White

A new book by W illiam H . W hite, award-winnin g author of The 1812 Trilogy and Our Flag %s Still There.

G un Bay tells the story, in the voice of Lieutenant Edward Ballantyne, of his arrival in Port Royal, Jam aica, having sailed from E ngland following the court martial of the Bounty mutineers. Hurricanes and difficult shipmates, duels and civilian shipmasters make life interesting. We learn how a for merly French fri gate became HMS Convert, and fo llow Lt. Ballantyne as he works th ro ugh the trials and tribulations of manning the ship and life in Po rt Royal. Then sail with him in Convert and the convoy to its disastrous ending on the reef at G rand Caym an ..

Available in paperback and through Kind le, Gun Bay can be purchased through the author's website at www.seafiction.net, through Amazon.com, and paperback books can , of course, be purchased through the NMHS Ship's Store at www.seahistory.org or by call ing 1-800221-NMHS, ext. 0.

61

t~cfiumbia Trading Co. Nautical Books and Artifacts

Free Mail Order Book Catalog On-line Shopping Cape Cod Store Open Year 'Round We buy Maritime and Naval Book Collections

1022 Main St. (Route 6A) West Barnstable, MA 02668 508-362-1500 â&#x20AC;˘ Fax: 508-362-1550 info@columbiatrading.com

www.columbiatrading.com Respectful full-body burial at sea and scattering of cremated remains Golden Gate Burial Services www.ggbs.us

1-866-877-3551

THE FLEET IS IN. Sit in the wardroom of a mighty battleship, touch a powerful torpedo on a submarine, or walk the deck of an aircraft carrier and stand where naval aviators have flown off into history. It's all waiting for you when you visit one of ~Milli~ the 175 ships of the Historic Naval Ships ~~~~j~ Association fleet.

For infannation on all our ships and museums, see the HNSA website or visit us on Facebook.

62

Koppel departs briefly from ancient migrarion to offer an analysis of modern impacrs in rhe Pacific. There is no quesrion rharwesrern "discovery" has been exrremely raxingon rhese remore islands; however, this is a complex and sensitive subject, wo rthy of more careful and in-depth treatment than time allows in this book, and the fatalism implied by the aurhor's example of total culrural assimilation m ay nor be fully justified-even in Waikiki with irs neutered palm trees a nd its sunblockscented waves. In a broad sense, the effects of globalism further underscore the necessity of u ndersta nding the initial migration and early settlement. The author's skill in understanding, organizing, a nd presenting the synthesis of the Pacific migration data, drawn chiefly from a nthropology a nd archaeology, is commendable; he has produced a wo rk borh info rmarive and enjoyable.

H ANS K. VAN TILBURG, PHD Honolulu, H awaii

Maritime Governance & Policy-Making

by Michael Roe (Spri nger, London, U K, 201 3, 442 pp, index, ISBN 978-1-44714 152-5; $2 17hc) Today's supra na tio na l shippin g industry skirts rigorous regulation and oversight by exploiting competing regulato ry regimes' inabiliry to coordinate rulemak ing efforts or undertake unilateral enforcement. M oreover, sometimes those rules have too m any loopholes-so claims Michael Roe in his thoughtful (and pricey!) new book.

A professor of m aritime logisrics and policy at rhe Plymo urh Unive rsity Business School in England, the author constructs his rhesis by citing governa nce fa ilures

by European Union member nations, explaining: "The current governance framework, despire good intentions, produces policies that a re common ly inadequate, often inappropriate, frequently ineffective, a nd widely abused." Roe pa instakingly references and puts into academic contexr much of the research on this arcane, but important, subject during what he calls the Post M odernist, post World Wa r II period.

Ideally, he should have spent more time offerin g solutions to the pro blem that he artfully outlines.

For example, Roe stares rhat rhe rules

rhar France and Spain implem ented more rhan a decade ago to srem ocean pollution only served to creare n ew opportun ities fo r abuse by carriers. That's because those rules weren't coordinared with subsequent ones drafred by regional and international bodies. What results from rhe inability or reluctance of nations w embrace joint sovereignty, at rhe expen se of national interest, is a regulatory vacuum that ship operators often exploit to cur costs and maximize profit. Moreover, ship owners use arbitrage (threats to register vessels in a jurisdiction with weaker rules and the resultant loss of significant taxes, fees and the embarrassing prospect of a natio n's flag no longer gracing merchant vessels) to discourage adminisrra tions from acting aggressively.

Roe outlines the issues clea rly and notes the rational, ye t shrewd, industry reaction to them . Respo nse to the author's call fo r reform, including d rafti ng of globally harmonized rules, is eagerly awaited but nor expected .

IRA BRESKIN Grear Neck, N ew York

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World by Matthew Goodman (Ballantine Books, New York, 201 3, 45lpp, notes , biblio, index, ISBN 978- 0-34552726-4; $28hc) Ma tthew G oo dman 's lares r book shines a light on the circum fe rential journeys of Nellie Bly and Eliza beth Bisland, yo ung female reporters wo rking fo r N ew York newspapers in 1889. Bly conceived the plan, betting sh e could outrace Ju les Ve rne's Phileas Fogg of Around the World in Eighty Days; Bisla nd was rushed to her offi ce the moment Bly departed and was told by her publisher to pack her bags a nd journey around the world fo r rwo and a half months. Bly went east, steaming out of N ew York, while Bisland embarked westward by train fo r San Fra ncisco.

Both women spent most of their time o n rhe wo rld's oceans, traveling aboard rhe grand steamships of the age. Bly departed for London on tlhe Hamburg-American Line's Augusta Victtoria; from the wes t coast, Bisland rook the White Star Line's Oceanic from San Frarncisco across the Pacific.

W hen they eventrnally passed each other, it was on opposimg routes somewhere on S E AHISTOR~Y

144,AUTUMN 2013

New&Noted the South China Sea. Goodman's tale speaks of the shipboard. conditions of the day and, perhaps more interestingly, of the people aboard those vessels. The world at that time belonged to the British; as such, the decks and dining rooms were crowded with

them. Both women reacted to them diffe rently, and their respective encounters shaped the rest of their lives . Bly learned to detest the British so heartily that she fled to Austria during World War I to aid that country's natives who became war casualties as a res ult of Britain's military offensives .

The steamers, and in some instances the wo rld's trains, defined the race. Bly dealt with seasickness on the Augusta Victoria and an unexpected early morni ng dousing after she left a porthole open during the night while on the Peninsular and O riental's Victoria on the Mediterranean . The Norddeutscher Lloyd Line's Prussian broke a screw entering H ong Ko ng harbor, delaying Bisland's journey to Genoa. And so it went, culminating in Bisland's nightmarish, storm- tossed transAdantic crossing on the Cunard Line's Bothnia.

The dueling journalists captured the world in 1889, both by the hearrstrings and in a snapshot of ;ime. Maritime history lovers will revel ii th e glimpse of the age on some of the vorld 's most storied vessels.

J o H N GALLUZZO

Weymouth , Massachusetts

SEA HISTORY 144, AUTUMN 201 3

21" Century Mahan: Sound Military Conclusions for the Modern Era, edited

by Benjamin F. Armstro ng (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, M D, 201 3, 192pp, notes, ISBN 978-1-61 25 1-243-3; $2 1.95 pb)

Man-of War Life by Charles Nordhoff, edited by Vincent Mclnerney (Seaforth Publishing, Seafarers' Voices Series, Barnsley, UK, 201 3, 195pp, notes, ISBN 978- 184832- 164-9; $27 .95 hc)

The Conquest ofthe Ocean: An Illustrated History of Seafaring by Brian Lavery (DK Publishing, NY, 201 3, 400pp, illus, gloss, biblio , index, ISBN 978-1 -4654084 1-9; $30hc)

Final Voyage: The World's Worst Maritime Disasters by Jonathan Eyers (Roman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Lanham, MD , 201 3, 190pp, notes, index, ISBN 9781-4422-2167-3; $ 19.95 pb)

The Shining Sea: David Porter and the Epic Voyage ofthe USS Essex during the War of1812 by George C. Daughan (Basic Books, New York, 201 3, 336pp, illus, ISBN 978-0-465-01 962-5; $28 .99hc)

The Sinking of the Laconia and the UBoat War: Disaster in the Mid-Atlantic

by James P. Duffy (University of Nebras ka Press, Lincoln , 201 3, 152pp, illus, biblio, index, ISBN 978-0-8032-4540-2; $18.95pb)

The Marine Chronometer: Its History & Development by Rupert T. Gould (Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge, UK, 201 3, 287pp, illus, notes, index, appen, ISBN 978-1-851 49-365-4; $ 125hc)

The Captain from Connecticut: The Life and Naval Times ofIsaac Hull by Linda M . Maloney (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, M D , 201 3, 549pp, illus, maps, index, ISBN 978- 1-59114-54 1-7; $34.95pb)

Hunting the Essex: A journal ofthe Voyage of HMS Phoebe, 1813-1814 by Midshipman Allen Gardiner, edi ted by John S. Rieske (Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley, UK, 201 3, 152pp, illus, biblio, notes, ISBN 978-1-84832-174-8; $25.69hc)

Hold Fast: Tom Crean by David Hirzel (Terra Nova Press, Pacifica, CA, 201 3, 301pp, notes, biblo, ISBN 978- 1-48253079-7; $ 18.50pb)

A Short Bright Flash: Augustin Fresnel and the Birth of the Modern Lighthouse

by Theresa Levitt (W. W Norton & Company, NY, 201 3, 281 pp, illus, maps, notes, index, ISBN 978-0-393-06879-5; $25.95 hc) Shores ofKnowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination by Joyce Appleby (WW Norton & Company, New Yo rk, 201 3, 288 pp, notes, index, ISBN 978-0-393-2395 1-5; $25 .95hc) Innocent on the Bounty: The Court-Martial and Pardon of Midshipman Peter Heywood, in Letters by Peter H eywood and Nessy Heywood, edited by Donald A. Maxton and Rolf Du Rietz (McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 20 13, 240pp, illus, notes, index, ISBN 978-0-7864-7266-6; $45 pb) Rolling Home by William Morris Barnes, edited by Vincent Mclnerney (Seaforth Publishing, Seafarers' Voices Series, Barnsley, UK, 201 3, 195pp, notes, ISBN 978-184832-1 65-6; $20.40hc)

Resurrection: Salvaging the Battle Fleet at Pearl Harbor by Daniel Madsen (Naval Insti tute Press, Annapolis, MD, 20 13, 24 1pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 978- 1-59114-540-0; $69.97hc) In Antarctica: An Amundsen Pilgrimage

by Jay Ruzesky (Nightwood Editions, Gibsons, BC, Canada, 201 3, 240pp, illus, ISBN 978-0-8897 1-282-9; $24.95 pb) William B. Cushing in the Far East: A Civil War Naval Hero Abroad, 18651869 by Julian McQuinston (McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC, 2013, 222pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 9780-7864-7055-6; $35pb) Fishing the Coast: A Life on the Water by Do n Pepper (H arbour Publishing, Madeira Park, BC, 20 13, 240pp, illus, index, ISBN 978-0-5501 7-597-4; $20.40pb) Passage to the World: the Emigrant Experience 1807-1940 by Kevin Brown (Seaforth Pub!. , Barnsley, UK, 201 3, 243pp, illus, notes, ISBN 978- 1-84832-136-6; $37hc) 63

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY AFTERG UARD

AMERI CA

EDWA RD A. D ELMAN

H E RY

L.

G UY E. C. MAITLA D

CRU ISE LI NES

BENEFACTORS

PLANKOWNERS

CAC I , I NC.

c.

E H . JOLLEY Fou DATIO , I

JEA

SKULD

RONAL D L . OSWALD

WILLI AM H. WH ITE COAST G UA RD Fou DAT ION

ALICE D ADOU RIAN

M CCA RTER & ENG LI SH, LLC

M ORAN TOWI NG CORPORATION

SMOLIN, L UPIN & CO . P. A.

NORMA & P ETER STA NFORD

w. G A RSCHAGEN

D. H ARRY

ROBERT F. K AMM

ORTH AMERICA INC.

WILLI AM J. GREE

TH E R UTH R . H OYT/

GI GER M ARTUS

MSC CRU ISES USA

CAPT. SEAN KENNEDY

I N MEMORY OF SHEILA SLOT ICK

STAR CLI PP ER C RUISES

CAROL VI NA LL

W ORT

SPONSORS

MR. A. A CEBEDO

ASSOC IATIO

CA DD ELL DRY DOCK & REPA IR CO ., INC. JAMES J. COLEMAN M. HI GHT

D AVID ALA

H OFFE BERG

H ON . JOH

0 CEA WORKS I TERNATIONAL

B RADFORD D . & STEPHA NIE S llTH PAUL

CITI ZENS B AN K

G EO RGE SCHLUDERBERG

&

MRS. JAMES M . CLARK

B RUCE K. FARR OBE FR EDER ICKS. FORD

CA PT. H OWARD R. HI LL, JR.

C. L AUR IAT

PHILIP G. L EB OUTILLIER

R OBERT

C. FOR EY

W.

H.F. L ENFEST

HO . S. JAY PL AGER

MR. & MRS. H . C. B OWEN SM ITH

ROBERT F. BOYD

JAMES H . BRANDI

MR. & MRS. N ICHOLAS CARLOZZ I

JAMES CARTER Ill

C HARLES R. B EAUDROT, JR .

MR. C. W . CRAYCROFT CLIFTO

ROYAL H OLLY

WALTER C. MEI BA UM Ill

DR . JOSEPH F. M EANY

0 CEA EERI G [ TERNATIONAL, I C.

MR. & MRS. WILLIAM SWEA RI NG IN

D OUGLAS CAMPBE LL

JOHN C. COUCH

M RS . D. L. FLEISC HMA

MARYLA D LI E H A DLI 'G Co.

M CELWREATH , USNR ( R ET.)

ORTH EAST SHIP R EPAIR

CAPT. JOHN D OSWEL L

THE EDGA RD & GERA LDINE FEDER Fou DATION, INC.

GEORGE T. H ATHAWAY CYR US

V. CAL LAN

L AMONT- D Ol·IERTY EARTH OBSERVATORY

M A RI ESOCIETY OF T HE CITY OF NEW Y OR K

C. & C. H AM ILTON SLOAN FOVNDATIO

JOHN D. B ARNARD

CHAR LES

D, INC.

H A RR IS CLA RK

HOWA RD E. & V IRGINIA

TH E B ETTY SUE &ART PEABO DY FUND

AN

STONEHOUSE I C.

ROBERT M. B A LY

JAMES 0. B URRI

MR.

w. ELDER

CAPT.SALLY CHI

NEW YORK YACHT CLUB

PHILIP E. STOLP

F. B ALSER

RI CHA RD M. BRESSLER

B ENJAM IN KATZENSTEIN

W ENDY PAYNE & N ICK STRA GE ROLEX

I N M EMORY OF INEZ GRE EN

THE M AC PH ERSON F

D. M CBRIDE

D AN IEL & COLETTE B ENNETT

C HESA PEAKE B AY MAR IT IME M USEU M

B URCHENA L GREEN

LIB ERTY MARITIM E CORPORATIO

WILLI AM G. M ULLER

CHARLES RASKOB R OB! SON

DONORS

R EYNOLDS DUPONT, JR.

D AVID J. & CAROL)

ROBERT E . M ORR IS, JR.

PATR ICIA A. JEAN B ARILE

THE I TERLAKE STEAMSHIP COMPANY

L EHMAN

AN E PETERS M A RV!

OF MARYLAND PI LOTS

RADM JOSEPH F. CA LLO, USNR (R ET.)

L AMO T CO PELAND, JR.

H . KIRKE L ATH ROP

JOH

R ICHA RDO R. L OPES

W OODSON K. WOODS

DR . WILLI AM S. & D ONNA D UDLEY JAKOB ISBRAt DTSE

WH A LEN

JAMES CAMERON

J.M. K APLAN FUND

WILLIAM G . WI TERER

DR . TI MOTHY J. R U YA

W.

SCA RA 0 B OAT B UILD ING, INC .

SANDY H OOK PILOTS

CA RNIVAL CORPORATION

L OCK HEE D MARTI N

R. K. M EL LON FO UN DATION

D A IEL

B A K OF AMERI CA

D AVI DS. FOWL ER

PHILIP & I RMY WEBSTER

RALPH M. PACKER

CAPT. CESARE SOR IO

AMERICAN B UREA U OF SHIPP rNG

EW YORK WATERWAYS

A

H OWARD SLOTN ICK

RlCHARD T. DU M OULIN

TD BA K, N. A.

BoucHARD TRANSPORTATION COM PA Y

M CAL LI STER TOWI NG & TRA SPORTAT ION COM PANY, I NC .

ESTATE OF W ALTER J. PETTIT, SR.

THOMAS F. D ALY

J. ARO• CHAR ITABLE Fou DATION

& GRACE D OHERTY C HAR ITABLE FOUNDATION ARTHUR M. K IMBERLY TR UST

S. G USTA FSON

PETER L IND

ORMAN L ISS

I

DAV ID T. FITZGERALD

R OBERTS. H AGGE. JR .

ANDREW M ACAOIDH JERGENS

NATIONAL CARGO B UREA U, I c .

D RAPER L ABORATORY

ROBERT F ISHER

BR IAN H ANSON

RI CHARD JULIAN

M EMORY OF H ARRY

W.

JAMES P. L ATH AM

AND MARY M. MARSHALL

EW Y ORK Co TA INER T ERM INA L

PH ILIP B. PERSINGER

& MRS. WILLI AM P. RI CE D AVlD & SUSAN ROCKEFELLER CAPT. JOHN w. Roos ALFRED TYLER II Rl CHARD J. SCHOE LA K MR. & MRS. JOHN R . SHERWOOD Ill GEROULD R . STANGE DA IEL R. SUKIS D ANIEL R YAN PI ETER EE ' KEMA VA I DU K GILB ERT VERNEY Fo u DATION GERALD W EI STE! & MARY H A BSTRITT WILLIAM B. WI ER IN M EMORY OF WILLI AM R . PETERS

ATH A IEL PHI LBRICK

PATRONS

T OM BALLEW

JOH JAME

CARTERS. B ACON

B RA ITMAYER

W.

PATR ICK BROGAN

C HEEVERS

JAMES J. FOLEY, JR.

(RET.)

ROBERT FRA NZBLAU H . GRA NT, JR.

DR . D AV ID H AYES

FURNEY H EMINGWAY

M ARY B URR ICHTER & BOB K!ERLI N

L.

L A GILL

CAPT.

IG ATIUS J. GALGAN

MARC GRI SHAM

RAY GUI NTA

FREDA H ERMA

PALM BEACH MARITIME M USEUM

MORGA N D ALY

PAUL JAY LEWIS

MR.

(R ET.)

C APT .

STEVE

DR . JACO B D EEGAN

M. D AVENPO RT

R ICHA RD EL LI SON

CA RL & EVELYN EKLOF

M ARY L EE GIBLON-SHEAHA

& MRS. ROGER H ARTGE\/

A. H YMA N

N ICHOLAS H ATZOGLU

THE K ELTON Fou DATION

M CKI E

ERIC A. O ESTERLE

MR.

JAMES L . K ERR

R ICHA RD

& MRS. ALFRED L. L OOM IS A D TH E LOOMIS Fou DATIO

& MRS. FR EDE RICK O SBORN Ill

D ANIEL J. SE TILLES

WI LLI AM R. T OWER, JR. ROB ERTA E. W EISB ROD, PHD

64

EDMUND SOMMER

MR. & MRS. A ND REW A. RADEL

PAUL T REGURTHA

H ERBERT STOCKH AM

ROB ERT J. T YO

ROB ERT L . W ELDON, JR.

G EORGE

RICHA RDT. O 'S HEA

MRS. M ARY D EMERE RAAE

RALPH N. TH OM PSON

T ERR Y W A LTON

C. WHITE

GENIE W ILLI AMS

K URTZ

CA PT. R. G. M OORE, USCG (RET.) JOHN SCA LI A

ROB ERTS. REGAN

W ILLIAM E. R ICHA RDSON REED ROBERTSON WILLI AM C . R UPERT GEORG E F. RUSSE LL, JR. H ENDRIK RYSDORP H ERBERT C. SCHNE IDER R OBE RT H OWA RD P. SEARS

W.

GARY 0 . M AEHL

CD R RO ALDA. M CKI NNEY, U SN (RET.)

IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM E. MITCHELL

ADM ROBERT J. PAPP, JR. , USCG

ARTHUR A . B IRNEY H ENRY T. CHANDLER

MR. & MRS . C HESTER W. K!TCHI NGS, JR.

MR. & MR S. ALA

C HARLES H . M ILLER

JOA

CAPT. D WIGHT GERTZ

CHARLES H AMR ICK

D A ' !EL P. KIRBY

A NNE E. B EAUMONT M ICHAEL CENTANN I

RICHA RD D UMAS

L AUREL E. H EYMAN

CHARLES H . KI NG, MD

CAPT. G. M. M US ICK Il l , US

LAUREANO CARUS

PETER B. G ERQUEST

H AROLD G. M CA VE IA

& MRS. JAMES M C AMARA

THOMA S A M ORA

CHARLES D. CLARK

MR. & MRS. T. E. L EO ARD

C HARLES & SHERRY MA NN I G

CA PT. D ONA LD B ATES, USNR

DI B ER M ARITIME ASSOCIATES LLC

MR. & MRS. EDW I

JOH

PETER B ARTOK

RADM D AVID C . BROWN, USMS (RET.)

R USSE LL P. C HUBB

ADM B R CE D EM ARS, US

MR.

CHARLES TOB IN

DR. & MRS. JOHN DI X W AYMA

W.

SCOTT

D AVI D T OMAS I TH OMAS W AYNE

D AV ID W INKL ER

SEA HISTORY 144 , AUTUMN 20 13

Discover what's NEW in 2014 <$> NEW Tru e A ll-Inc lusive ri ve r c ru is in g in Euro p e w here eve rythin g is includ ed, fro m host ed sho re excursio ns, t o p re paid g ratuiti es, all m ea ls w ith unlimited b everag es o nboa rd, and mu c h m o re

<$> NEW Super Ship, S.S. Ca th erine, sa iling th e Rh o ne and Sa6ne in Burgund y & Prove nce

<$> NEW d estin ati o n-Bo rd ea ux- and t wo new France itinera ri es : Bo rdea ux, Vi neya rds & Chat ea ux and A Portrait o f Majes t ic France

<$> NEW China itin erary : Treas ures of China & t he Ya ng t ze

On a Uniworld c ruise, guests can simply relax and unwind as their authentic bo utique river cruise ship ca rr ies them to stunning castles, ancient te m ples, and charming vi llages. Pe rfec t ly plan ned itineraries guarantee an amazi ng journey that is entirely hassle -free, as well as unforgettably luxu rious. Sig nature lectures , performa nces, and exclusive excursions imm erse t ravelers in the history an d culture of each stop in their itinerary.

Discovering the treasures of Eu rope, Russia, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia has never b een mo re convenient- or more sty li sh - than with Uniworld.

ALTO UR

BOUTIQUE RIVER CRUISE COLLECTI ON"

To plan your adventure today, contact Pauline or Nancy at 212-897-5000 or email Cruise.NYC@ALTOUR.com.

Pay in full at tim e o f boo kin g t o SAVE up t o $2,000 per couple o n 2014 Un iwo rld Bo utiqu e Ri ve r Crui ses.' Offer expires Oct ober 31, 201 3.

'Savings listed in US dollars. Actual Pay-in-Full Savings vary by program and category, and may be less. Pay-in-full Savings are notcombinable with Early Booking Savingsor any other promotional offers, and reQuirefull payment attime of booking. Subject toavailability. Capacitycontrolled. Other restrictions 9':11 ... may apply. Uniworld reserves the right to withdraw or change the offers at any lime. For complete details, general information, and terms and conditions applicable to all Uniworldtrips, please contact Altour. CST #2075415-20 llJI W