US flag, through the expedient of being flagged in Hawaii immediately before the US coup to overthrow the monarchy and annex the islands, which as American possessions then entitled the ships to become US-flagged, even though they were foreign-built. Of these, Star of India is the oldest, with the highest retention of original fabric, and still sails, albeit only one or two day sails per year.
SS United States At a Glance: 1950 TransAtlantic Steam Ocean Liner. The last and fastest of the great rransAtlantic liners, United States was designed by Charles Frances Gibbs and built by Gibbs & Cox, Newport News, Virginia, in 1950, and is the epitome of steamship design. Keeping her four SS United States
screws driving her consistently at speeds over 30 knots took four boiler rooms, four steam-turbine engine rooms, and 24 watch-standing engineering officers, supervising an engine-room gang of hundreds more. The United States is now a gutted shell, but what a magnificent shell! I have no comment on the practicalities of preservation for this ship at this time, having stated at the outset that this list is based on historic significance only.
Tugboats: Coastwise and Harbor The ubiquitous workhorses of the waterways, tugboat design evolved distinctively in the US. Within the genus there are three distinct branches; coastwise, harbors, a nd rivers. Our best examples are the 1907 H ercules (in San Francisco) and the 1906 Baltimore (in Baltimore). Inland Waterways To round out the national story we must not forget that interior waterways have always been an even larger part of our carrying trade by tonnage than has 30
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Hercules
Great Lakes Ore Carrier The Great Lakes are the inland seas of the North American continent, and evolved a distinctive vessel type to suit the local requirements. Four of these bulk carriers have been preserved to date, built between 1912 and 1938. Valley Camp is the oldest retaining her original machinery. There is little to choose between the career significance of the Col. James M. Schoonmaker, the Valley Camp, the William A. Irvin, or the William G. Mather. The Schoonmaker was an advanced ship for her day in terms of technological details.
William G. Mather been the saltwater merchant marine. The vessels below are chosen as representatives of types that were once ubiquitous and now vanished:
Eureka At a Glance: 1890 Steam Side-wheel Ferry. The significance of this vessel lies not in its individually prosaic career, but in what the ship represents in the national story. As a timber-rich nation, America pushed the development of large wooden hulls long after Europeans were building in steel. Eureka is perhaps the largest flo ating wooden structure on the planet, and one of the largest ever built. Between roughly 1820 and 1920 the steam sidewheeler with walking beam engine was as common a sight on rivers and harbors as the schooners were along the coasts. Mississippi-Ohio River Sternwheeler Steam navigation on American rivers was a m ajor factor in opening up the interior of the continent to development in the nineteenth century. A distinctly American type evolved to meet this need, some example of which should be preserved. Candidates might be the Belle of Louisville, or Becky Thatcher, or W P. Snyder.
I m ay have failed in my attempt to limit the list to ten ships, let alone to make selections among types, but did keep to around two dozen. In the big picture, it is pointless and arbitrary to argue over whether a vessel should be number 4 or number 5, etc. Likewise, within types selected there may be very little reason to select one vessel over another. Worthiness of preservation and likelihood of long-term success also depend upon many other factors: location, constituency, and viability of the custodial institution. The most important thing to remember is that if one were to attempt to write a definitive US maritime history, all of these vessels would have a place in it. The list is limited to large vessels, which apart from U-505 are all outdoors and afloat. Worthy of mention are two smaller craft preserved indoors; the Haida canoe as the epitome of Native American watercraft design, and the 1776 gunboat Philadelphia, sunk at the battle of Valcour Island and now preserved in the Smithsonian. In general, small crafr are underrated in our history. While the most important political/military events generally happen on the large vessels, throughout history most human experience on the water has taken place in boats of under fifty feet-but I digress.
SEA HISTORY 148,AUTUMN 2014