generations. The broken tile floor was replaced with varnished wooden flooring; built-in bookshelves occupied most of the walls, with the remaining wall spaces covered in real burlap, which added a suitable tarry scent to the atmosphere; and two brass lamps hung from the stamped tin ceiling, now painted a cool sky blue. The sales area was confined to a modest wood counter supporting a gleaming antique brass cash register. This left room for two red leather banker's chairs for customers, so they could comfortably leaf through a book. This found great favor in Alan's eyes, and he told our little group crowded in the store: "This may even wake up the burghers of Wall Street as to what happened out there on the ocean to make them all rich. A neighborhood without a bookshop is like a man without memory." No one gainsaid him on this. After the reception Alan, Norma and I walked down to the ship and went aboa rd in the gathering autumnal dusk. We walked the barren decks where men had hauled away at the maze of rigging that drives a square-rigged ship, often, as we knew from Spiers's acco unt, singi ng the
A Dream of
Tall Ships '
chanteys "H aul Away Joe" and "Paddy Doyle" while at work, and "Storm along," "Rolling Home" and other sea songs when they gathered on the jo 'c'slehead in flying fish weather, running down the Trades. We walked by the after cabins to the main saloon, where Spiers tells us the skipper's uncle had done a tipsy sword dance to entertain visiting officers from the neighboring ships anchored in the dismal nitrate port of South Street Seaport Museum executive director Tocopilla in 1907. Then we Jo nathan Boulware aloft in Wavertree' s rig. went up the curved stairway leading to the quarterdeck overhead. On "It is harder to save these ships," he said, the quarterdeck, Alan went aft to the wheel "than it was to drive them round Cape and, standing by it, gazed forward toward Horn." ~ the ship's rising bow and beyond that to the towering city, with lights staring back A Dream of Tall Ships: How New Yorkers at us from its glassy walls. How different Came Together to Save the City's Sailing-Ship this scene was from the cresting seas she'd Wa terfront by Peter and Norma Stanford faced off the Horn, I thought to myself- is available through the NMHS Ship's Store at www.seahistory.org. For more on Wabut a challenging one in its own way. Alan must have had something of the vertree and South Street Seaport Museum, same picture in his mind. visit www.southsrreetseaportmuseum.org.
A Dream of Tall Ships How New Yorkers came together to save the city's sailing-ship waterfront
by Peter and Norma Stanford with an Introduction
by John Stobart, RA This lively account of a great urban adventure begins in the 1960s with two New Yorkers who were committed to creating a maritime museum in Manhattan's old sailing ship waterfront-the South Street Seaport Museum. 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 ships that built the port, which built the city, which built the nation. Hardcover, 596 pages, 20 pages of photos and illustrations $34.95 NOW $25.00 + $6.95 s/h in US; call for international rates
To order, visit the NMHS Ship's Store at www.seahistory.org, or call 914 737-7878, ext. 0. SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015
31