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
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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
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