Please explain what are the two large poles, or spars, port and starboard on the bow of the brig Lawrence, as noted on the Peter Rindlisbaher painting on the cover of Sea History (144) Autumn 2013. ROBERT MACINDOE
Trappe, Maryland
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From Sea History: Of course! Below are the labels of the wooden poles you asked about. The go-to book for diagrams and explanations of how ships were designed, built, rigged, and handled is John Harland's Seamanship in the Age of Sail: An Account of the Shiphandling of the Sailing Man-ofwar, 1600-1860, Based on Contemporary Sources, published by the Naval Institute Press in 1984. It is still available in nautical bookstores and, of course, online. By this generation of square riggers, the square sail that hung beneath the bowsprit, called either the spritsail or the water sail, had been phased out, but the spar still had an important function, acting as a spreader for the guys that led out to the jibboom and flying jibboom.
to my ship as a "pirate ship" and suggest we "play" pirate, I remind them that pirates still exist and that they are still very bad people. I suggest that playing pirate is not much different than playing Nazi! Though the P. E. courses required for the M . l. T pirate certificate are good ones, perhaps the certificate could be changed to "Pirate Hunter." As the master of a sailing vessel modeled after vessels of the late 18th century, I am proficient in all of the M.l.T required "pirate" skills, which any officer of that era would be. ]oHN C. STONE
Master, S V Cutty Sark
USCG Ingham Regarding the article in the summer 2013 of Sea History about the USCG Ingham, there is an erroneous statement that might lead one to believe that the Coast Guard cutters were the only US vessels capable
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Certified Pirate (Hunter) Regarding the note in the last issue about the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's physical education classes in "Pirate Training," (Sea History 144, pp. 53-54), as a sailing ship captain and president of an educational non-profit who uses a classic sailing ship as a vehicle to teach maritime history, science, and math to middle school students, I am concerned that an institution like M. l. T. would make light of pirates. When my student sailors refer
of escort duty in the North Atlantic. "Until the United States entered the war, the Battle of the Atlantic was fought by the Royal Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy, and a few Polish, Norwegian, and FreeFrench escorts." This statement is not entirely true. With the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the "Neutrality Patrol," where US warships would assist in escorting convoys to and from the Iceland area. On 10 April 1941 , USS Niblack (DD
SEA HISTORY 145, WINTER2013- 14