Sea History 153 - Winter 2015-2016

NMHS Ship's Store 2016 Tall Ships Calendar There are few things on the high seas more dramatic than the great clouds of sail raised by traditional full-rigged ships . This edition of Tall Ships features vessels from ports around the world. Calendar is wall hanging, full color 11" x 22" open. $14.95 or $13.46 for NMHS members. Add $5.50 s/h.

ArtStone®Coasters Featuring NMHS's flagship the Kaiulani. Set of 4 absorbent coasters. 4" x 4" with cork backing. Choose your design A or B. $15.00 + $6.95 s/h.

ArtStone®Trivet Featuring NMHS's flagship the Kaiulani. 7" x 7", with cork backing. Weight: 15 oz. Choose your design A or B. $10.00 + $6.95 s/h.

0

®

Weems & Plath Nautical Tambour Clock The Nautical Tambour Clock is a beautiful addition to any desk. This handsome clock will always look like new because the brilliant finish will never tarnish or discolor. The wood base that houses the quartz clock is made of North American hard wood with a high gloss finish. The brass feet give it a final touch of elegance and the sole of the base is scuff resistant.

Quartz clock movement. ''AA" battery and instructions. Limited lifetime warranty. Size: Dep: 3", Wid 8", Ht: 5", Dial 2 Yz''. Weight: 1 lb 8 oz. $135.99 Sale $112.00 + $22.00 s/h.

Weems & Plath Porthole Weather Center The Porthole Weather Center is a great gift for anyone who likes to keep an eye on the weather. This three instrument porthole weather station includes a quartz clock, barometer and comfortmeter (thermometer/ hygrometer) set in solid hard wood with mahogany finish that can be wall mounted or stand free on a desk or shelf The highly polished brass finished instruments will never tarnish or discolor. Engraveable brass plate included. Mounting hardware included. "N" battery included. Lifetime warranty. Size: Dep: 2 Yz'', Wid: 14 14'', Ht: 6", Dial: 2 V2" . Weight: 2 lbs 14 oz. $221.99 Sale $182.00 + $22.00 s/h.

- - =---·----·-

•• ••

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!

The historic cities of the Southeast United States are linked by a network of rivers and bays known as the Intracoastal Waterway. Experience Southern charm at its finest on an 8-day cruise to the iconic cities of Charleston, Savannah, and Jekyll Island. You will receive the finest of everything aboard your 100-guest small ship

\ti ATLANTIC OCEAN

GEORGIA

as we explore the beauty and diverse wildlife of the magnificent Old South.

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

We welcome custom orders.

"Yes, I can make a replica of your boat." -Don Hardy

Barque Kaiulani

Brooklyn McAllister

Custom pendants and earrings

Brig Niagara lamp finial

USCG Barque Eagle

Ships of Glass, Inc. ·1 ble· custom Also avat a · sters mobiles, coa ' dleholders, jewelry, trivets, can d more. nightlights an

Don & Kathy Hardy 6702 Rosemary Dr. Tampa, FL 33625 Ph. 813 918-1566 813 732-6917 dhardy@shipsofglassinc.com

Please check outou of vessels on r catalog ourweb .

WWW.shi site: psofglassinc

.com.

"My office is filled with glorious maritime memorabilia, and the first item people comment on is the captivating Ships of Glass replica of the Barque Kaiulani on my desk. Don Hardy is an extraordinarily talented artist, and his glass models are classy representations of our most beloved ships."

-Burchenal Green, NMHS President

SEA HISTORY

No. 153

W INTER 2015- 16

CONTENTS 10 National History Day-Prizes in Maritime History Meet the winners of this year's NMHS maritime history competition, part of the National History Day program. More than half a million middle and high school students take part in the NHD research-project competition.

12 A New Look at the "Longitude Problem," by Daniel McFadden The exhibition Ships, Clocks, and Stars: The Quest for Longitude, produced by the National Maritime Museum in London, takes into consideration the many angles and players who were working on solving the great challenge of their time. For a limited time, the exhibition is on display at Mystic Seaport, offering the chance to see Harrison's famous sea clocks up close.

16 Maritime Archaeology in the 21st Century, by James P. Delgado Advances in technology, awareness, and education, and a shift in how both academia and the diving community view shipwrecks, have driven the field of maritime archaeology into a new era. f ames D elgado, director ofNOAA's Maritime H eritage Program, traces the evolution ofthe field from its beginnings to how maritime archaeology is practiced today.

24 Sailors in Distress: The Origins of the First Federal Healthcare Legislation,

by Harold D. Langley One of the first orders of business for the First Federal Congress when it met in 1789 was to address who would pay for the care ofstranded American seamen in foreign ports and sick and disabled seamen who arrived in American ports with no one to take them in.

32 Cutterman Hugh George Campbell: Master and Commander of Super-Cutter Eagle and Forgotten Hero of the Quasi War, by W illiam H. Thiesen Hugh Campbell served his country in four naval wars as a patriot, cutterman, combat captain, and senior naval officer. In a two-year campaign in the West Indies during the Quasi ~r; Campbell and his crew captured twenty-two privateers, prize ships, and enemy merchantmen, while destroying a number ofothers. All this was achieved without losing a single member ofhis crew.

38 Trade vs. Diplomacy: The Problem of the Free Port Marstrand During the American Revolution, by Rikard Drakenlordh During the ~rfor Independence, American shipowners sought to establish trading partners around the world, both for economic interests and to supply the fighting forces at home with much-needed supplies. Great Britain tried to quash this attempt. Caught in the middle were neutral nations trying to establish free ports.

Cover: Eagle and Constitution on Convoy Duty, April 1799, digital painting by Peter Rindlisbacher. (See article on pages 32-36)

DEPARTMENTS 4 D ECK LOG 5 LETTERS 8 NMHS: A CAUSE IN MOTION 42 MARINE ART NEWS 44 SEA HISTORY FOR Krns

48 57 58 59 64

SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & M USEUM NEWS CALENDAR MARITIME HISTORY ON THE INTERNET REVIEWS PATRO NS

Sea History and the National Maritime Historical Society Sea History e-mail: editorial@seahistory. org; NMHS e-mail: nmhs@seahisrory.org; Web site: www.seahisrory.org. Ph: 914 737-7878; 800 221-NMHS MEMBERSHIP is invired. Afterguard $10,000; Benefactor $5,000; Plankowner $2,5 00; Sponsor $ 1,000; Donor $500; Patron $250; Friend $100; Contributor $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 $4.95.

SEA HISTORY (issn 01 46-9312) is published quarterly by the National Maririme Historical Society, 5 John Walsh Blvd., POB 68, Peekskill NY 10566 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Peekskill NY 10566 and add'l mailing offices.

COPYRIGHTŠ 2015 by the National Mari time Historical Society. Tel: 914 737-7878.

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

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

DECK LOG Preserving our Heritage-Global Lessons This summer I traveled to Scandinavia fo r the first time and was enthralled by the Viking ships, m aritime museum s, and pervasive seafaring culture. I was most impressed

by Sweden 's Vasa Museum in Stockholm. The preserva tion of the 226 -foo t, 64-gun warship of King G ustavus II Aldophus, which sank in the h arbor on her m aiden voyage in 1628 and was salvaged three centuries later, was awesome-in the true sense of the wo rd. The ship-as-artifact is enough to qualify the museum as firs t-rate, but the museum goes far beyond that. Vasa's story com es alive th ro ugh exhibits of art treasures, recas ted sculptures and ornam ents, human fo rms reconstructed from the skelerons fo und within the shipwreck, and ongo ing resea rch on conservation methods. Their interpretative displays m ake it one of the best museums I have ever seen . I was honored to sp end a little t im e w ith Fred H ocker, research director at the Swedish National M aritime M useums, and we discussed his upcoming presentation at the International C ongress of Maritime M useums in H ong Kong this fa ll.

I asked D r. H ocker to sh are his thoughts here. We might not all run a museum, bur we ca n be be tter armed to articulate why we need to sup port funding for them .

In Dr. Fred H ocker's words: "In many museums, research is something that curators or volunteers do in their spare time and as the pressure of providing adeq ua te care of collections with ever-shrink ing budgets allows . This does a disservice to our collections and to our staff. Ac ti ve research program s, integrated into the no rmal activities of a wide range of museum staff, provide a number of benefits to m aritime museums: •They showcase the museum as a living institution, ac tively creating new knowledge, not simply preserving objects and old knowledge.

•They promote development, encouraging the museum to look at collection s in new ways and to reach new audiences .

•They inform the collection and preservation process, allowing museums to set acquisitions policies that are relevant and far-sighted .

•They engage th e public, creating awareness of the m useum, its collections, and its programming.

•They inspire the museum staff, giving them a chance to h arness their interests and energy to the development of competence and knowledge.

•They attract the attention of potential sponsors who m ay not normally be part of the museum wo rld.

At the Vasa Museum, we have seen how beneficial th is approach is over the last twelve years. Most recently, we completed a major project of replicating and tes t-firing one of the ship's 24 -pounder can nons. This proj ect attrac ted m ore media attention than all of Sweden's orher museums combined, it brought us into contact with sponsors who had not previously shown an interest in our activities, and it engaged the entire museum staff. In the firing trials, we set aside an entire day to teach our guides and museum teachers how to shoot a cannon, so that they could rake that personal experience back to the public. Ir raised our profile as a 'knowledge insti tution,' more than just a display case for the nation's treasures ."

As we articu late improvem ents in preservation globally, we will all benefit.

e

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

PUB LISHER'S C IRCLE: Peter Aron, G uy E. C. Maitland , Ronald L. Oswald OFFICERS & TRUSTEES : Chairman, Ronald L. Oswald; Vice Chairman, Richardo R. Lopes; President, Burchenal Green; Vice Presidents, Deirdre O' Regan, Wendy Paggiotta, Nancy Schnaars; Treasurer, Howard Slotnick; Secretary, Jean Wort; Trustees: Charles B. Anderso n; Walter R. Brown; W illi am S. Dudley; David S. Fowler; W illiam Jackson Green; Karen Helmerson; Roberc Kam m; Richard M. Larrabee; Guy E. C. Mai tland; Capt.

Brian McAllister; CAPT Sally Chin McElwreath, USN (Ret.); Capt. James J. McNamara; M ichael W Morrow; Richard Patrick O 'Leary; ADM Robert J. Papp Jr., USCG (Ret.); T imothy ].

Runyan; Richard Scarano; Phi li p J. Shapiro; Capt.

Cesare Sorio; Roberta Weisbrod; Trustees-Elect: H on. James ]. Co leman J r., CBE; Eri k K. O lstein Chairmen Emeriti: Walter R. Brown, Alan G. Choate, Guy E. C. Maitland, Howard Slotn ick; President Emeritus, Peter Stanford FOUN D ER: Karl Ko rtum (1917-1996) OVERSEERS: Chairman, RADM David C. Brown, USMS (Ret.); RADM Joseph F. Callo, USN (Ret.); Clive Cussler; Richard du Mo uli n; Alan D. Hu tchison; Jako b lsbra ndtsen; Gary Jobso n; Sir Robin Knox-Johnsron; John Lehman; H. C. Bowen Smith; John Srobart; Philip J. Webster; W illiam H . White; W ill iam W imerer NMH S ADVISORS: Chairman, Melbourne Smith; George Bass, Oswald Brett, Francis D uffy, John Ewald, T imothy Foote, W ill iam G ilkerson, Steven A. Hyman, J. Russell Ji nishian, G unnar Lundeberg, Com ad Milster, W illi am G. Mull er, Stuart Parnes, Lori D illard Rech, Na ncy Hughes Richardso n, Bert Rogers, Joyce Huber

SEA HISTORY EDITOR IA L ADVISO RY BOARD : Chairman, Timothy Runyan; No rman Brouwer, Robert Browni ng, Wi lliam Dudley, D aniel Finamore, Kevin Foster, John Jensen, Joseph Mea ny, Lisa No rlin g, Carla Rah n Phillips, Walter Rybka, Quenri n Snedi ker, W illiam H .

White NMH S STAFF: Executive Director, Burchenal Green; Membership Director, Nancy Schnaars; Business Manager, Anjoeline Osuyah; Marketing Director, Steve Lovass-Nagy; Staff Writer, Shelley Reid; Membership Cooidinator, Irene Eisenfeld

SEA HISTORY: Editor, Deird re O ' Regan; Advertising, We ndy Paggiotta; Editor-at-Large, Peter Stanfo rd Sea History is pri med by The Lane Press, South Burlingron, Vermom, USA.

- Burchenal Green, NMHS President 4

SEA HISTORY 152, AUTUMN 2015

We Welcome Your Letters! Please send correspondence to :

LETTERS

seahistory@gmail.com or Editor, Sea History, 7 Timberknoll Rd., Pocasset, MA 02559

Ships' Muskets In response to James Hudkins's letter in the las t issue looking for more information on ships' muskets . Muskets first appeared at sea in the sixteenth century, beca me quite common in the seventeenth, and had a more or less "standardized " length (shorter than army models) early in the eighteenth . The shorter length-gen erally under four feet-made them easier to maneuver, load, and fire in the confined spaces of a ship. Further, their fittings were of brass to reduce the rust problem. These muskets normally were stowed in padlocked racks, either in the armory space or in the vicinity of the living area of the embarked Marine Guard.

Beginning shortly before the War of 1812, US wa rships also ca rried an allowance of rifled muskets-a dozen or so-specifically for the use of M arine snipers in the fighting tops. In USS Constitution's experience using them, this resulted in Captain James Dacres of HMS Guerriere being wounded and in Captain H enry Lambert of HMS Java being mortally wo unded. Royal Navy units were not similarly equipped, and som e British critics cited their use by us as another example of Yankee cheat ing.

Recommended reading: Boarders Away IL Firearms of the Age of Fighting Sail, by William Gilkerson (Andrew Mowbray, Inc., Lincoln, RI, 1993, ISB N 978-0-91721856-9).

TYRONE G. M ARTIN Tryon, North Carolina

Can You ID This Vessel?

I am looking for help in identifying avessel in this photo. It is from a book called An East Coast Port: Halifax at War, 19391945 by Graham Merson (McGraw-Hill Rye rson, 1981 , ISB N 978-0-07548-418-9), which is abo ut the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, during World War II. As an exCoast Guardsman (USCGC Spencer), I was puzzled by this vessel, which has close lines to a couple of period Coast Guard cutters, such as the 327-foot Secretary-class cutters, and 311-foot Navy seaplane tenders, but in each example some glaring discrepancies are present. I rea lize that a North Atlantic port like H alifax wo uld offer safe harbor to all Alli ed vessels-American, British ,

SEA HISTORY I 53 , WINTER 2015- 16

Halifax, Nova Scotia, in World Wtzr II. Do you recognize this vessel?

Canadian, and French vessels and can't find a match. Please give it a whirl, and let me know what you think.

DAVE READ

Whiting, New Jersey

(Left) The 327-foot USCGC Campbell (WPG-32) was a Treasury-class Coast Guard cutter. These were also known as the "Secretary-class, "as they were named far farmer secretaries ofthe Treasury Department.

Canadia n and others-which makes this one particularly puzzling. I've compared it to British sloops, a nd all America n,

Separate Spheres? At Sea-Not So Much The cover of the recent issue of WoodenBoat (WB, September/October 2015 , Nu mber 246) features a fam ily who just spent ten years sailing around the world in their 34foot wooden sailing cutter. This couple (Bruce H alabisky and Tiffany Loney) had two kids along the way, and, aside from the obv ious division of labor when it comes to carrying and birthing children, it is clear from their story that husband

Join Us for a Voyage into History Our seafaring heritage comes alive in the pages of Sea History, from the ancient mari ners of Greece to Portuguese navigators opening up the ocean world to the heroic efforts of sailors in modern-day conflicts. Each issue brings new insights and discoveries. If yo u love the sea, rivers, lakes, and

bays- if yo u appreciate the legacy of those who sail in deep water and their workaday craft, then yo u belon g with us.

Join Today!

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

Yes, l want to join the Sociery and receive Sea History quarterly. My contribution is enclosed. ($ 17.50 is fo r Sea History; any amount above that is tax deductible.) Sign me up as: 0 $3 5 Regular Member 0 $50 Family Member 0 $ 100 Friend 0 $250 Parron 0 $500 Donor M r./Ms.

_ _ _ _ _ __ _ __ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ __ Return to:

153

ZIP_ _ __ _ _

arional Maritime Historical Sociery, PO Box 68, Peekski ll , NY 10566

5

MAINE WINDJAMMER CRUISES KEEPING THE TRADITION ALIVE! SINCE 1936

EXPERIENCE HISTORY ABOARD OUR NATIO NAL LANDMARK SCHOONERS WWW .MAJNEWINDJ AMMERCRUISES.COM CRUISES OFFERED MAY - O CTOBER

3, 4, 5, 6 DAY & WEEKENDS

$475 -$845

""-"""""" 1-800-736-7981

*

J. P. URANKER WOODCARVER

*

a nd wife were intercha n geable wh en it came to operati ng and m aintaining their boat. That Irving and Exy Johnson had more old-fashioned roles should not detract fro m Exy's extraordinary place in the history of cruising a nd sa il tra ining. This was a woma n who was no t to be left behind tending home and hearth once they h ad children . Of course, she was no t the fi rs t to do this, as there are lots of examples of sea cap tains bringing th eir fam ilies on board their sh ips for deep-sea voyages, but Exy's role as a ship's m anager of sorts extended well beyo nd most seago ing w ives' experience. Next time yo u see a tall ship come into port, check out the crew and you will probably find that the ratio of men to wo m en on board is ro ugh ly equal. Exy Johnson had somethi ng to do with that.

Li nda Watts Newbury, Massachusetts

AUTH ENTIC MARITIME

*SEA CHESTS* H ANDCARVED

*

DOVETAILED

1-508-693-58 71 1393 County Road, Martha's Vineyard, MA 02557

WWW.JPUWOODCARVER.COM

Model Ships by Ray Guinta P.O.Box 74 Leonia, NJ 07605 201-461-5729

www.modelsh ip sbyrayguinta.com e-mail: raymondguinta@aol.com Experienced shiP, model maker, who has been commissioned by;th ational Maritime H isto_rical Society and d ie USS Intrepid M useum in New York City.

PAUL ROLLINS Over 35 years of ex perience desig ning, new construction & classic restoration.

Vessels ranging from small craft to 100 tons.

2 Scotland Bridge Road • York, Maine 03909 Phone: 207-351-7609

www.PaulRollinsBoatBuilder.com prollinsboatshop@gmail.com

6

From the Editor: Ms. Watts is indeed correct when she says that wives and children were not unheard of aboard ship in the Age of Sail. W hile husba nds and wives attempted to maintain traditional roles aboard their seagoing homes, there are several stories of wives, often more educated than most of the crew, becoming skillful navigators and shiphandlers. No story is m ore dramatic than that of Mary Ann Patten, who fi rst went to sea in 1854 at the age of eighteen with her husband, Joshu a Patten, captain of the clipper ship Neptune's Car o ut of Bosron. During the long passages at sea (the Pattens took the ship from Boston to

Mary Ann Patten in 1857 San Francisco via Cape Horn, to Calcutta, London, and back to New York), Captain Patten taught his bride navigation, m eteorology, and other aspects of runnin g a ship.

It was a good thing, too, because on the Pattens' second voyage to San Francisco in 1856, Joshua Patten becam e incapaci tated fro m illness before the ship reached Cape H orn . The fi rst mate was in irons, having been accused earl ier in the voyage of sabotaging the ship's chance at a quick passage.

W ith the cap tain delirious from fever, the fi rst m ate unfit to take command, and a second m ate who apparently did not kn ow how to n avigate, a pregna nt Mary A nn stepped up and brought the ship safely in to San Francisco, making the passage in 136 days. Along the way, she nursed her husband in his sickbed and quashed a muti ny attempt by the fi rst m ate.

Correction: In the last iss ue (Sea H istory 152, page 5), we printed a let ter by Dr. Harold D. Langley with a n incorrect city and state. D r. Langley has not moved- he res ides in A rlin gton , Virg inia. Be sure to read Dr. Langley's article in this issue on pages 24-31.

OWNER'S STATEMENT: State ment fil ed 9/24/15 required by che Ace of Aug. 12, 1970, Sec. 3685, Tide 39, US Code: Sea Hi sto ry is publ ished quarterly at 5 John Wal sh Bl vd. , Peekskill N Y 10566; min imum subscription price is $ 17.5 0. Publisher and editor- in-ch ief: None; Editor is Deirdre E. O ' Regan ; owner is National Maritime Hi stor ica l Society, a non -profit co rporation ; all are located at 5 Joh n Wa lsh Blvd. , Peekskill NY 10566. D uring the 12 months precedi ng O ctober 2015 rhe average nu mber of (A) co pies printed each issue was 25,006; (B) paid and/or requ es ted circulation was: (1) o utside cou nty ma il subscription s 6,940; (2) in-co unty subscription s O; (3) sa les through dealers, ca rr iers , co unter sa les, ocher non-US PS paid distribut ion 3,569; (4) ocher cl asses mailed through USPS 512; (C) coca ! paid and /o r reques ted circul ation was 11,021 ; (D) free distribution by mail, sa mples, complimenta ry and ocher 11,827; (E) free distribution outside che ma ils 681 ; (F) coca! free distributio n was 12 ,5 08 ; (G) total discribucion 23,504; (H ) copies not distributed 1,5 02; (!) cora l [of 15G and HJ 25,006 ; (]) Perce ntage paid and /o r requ ested circulatio n 46 .8% . The actua l numbers for the sin gle issue preced ing O ctober 2015 are: (A) coca! number pr inted 25,3 0 1; (B) paid and/or req uested circu lat ion was: (I ) outside-co unty mail subscription s 6,8 10; (2) in-county subscript ions O; (3) sa les th rough dea lers, ca rriers, coun ter sa les, ocher non-USPS paid discribucion 6,170; (4) ocher classes mailed th rough US PS 468; (C) coca! paid and /or requested circu lation was 13,448; (D) free di stribution by mai l, sa mp les, compl imentary and ocher 10,154; (E) free distribution outside the mails 25 0; (F) coca! free distributio n was 10,404; (G) cora l distribut ion 23,852; (H ) copi es not d istributed 1,449; (!)co ca! [of J5G and H J 25,30 1; (J) Percentage paid and/or requested circul atio n 56.3% . I certify chat the above statements are co rrect and co mplete. (s igned) Burchenal G reen, Executive D irecco r, Nationa l Mar itime H isto ri ca l Society.

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 201 5- 16

Explore the Culture of

Holguin Parque Nacional ""=""""__,_,---/ Alejandro de Humboldt

Journey to Cuba in 2016 with Pearl Seas Cruises on an 11-day immersive people to people experience focused on the rich history, heritage, and contemporary life of the Cuban people. The brand new 210-passenger luxury Pearl Mist allows access to more of Cuba's ports and regions, while providing a relaxed means to interact with Cubans and explore the rich fabric of Cuban culture. These cultural voyages are subject to final approval by the U.S. and Cuban governments.

Pearl

Seas

CruisesÂŽ

Call for a free brochure

1-888-61 0-6941 www.pearlseascruises.com

NMHS: A CAUSE IN MOTION Honoring Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal

T

wo hundred chirty-nine years after America declared independence from Greac Brirain, we now enjoy a long-sranding friendship and respecc with our former mother country. Boch our countries sh are a common maritime and naval heritage-sometimes as adversaries, bur more ofren as allies-a nd we are proud to acknowledge rhe lessons we have learned fro m one of England 's mosc admired and respected wo men. H er Royal Highness Princess Anne sets an example of leadership in preservin g our maritime heritage, and specifically in historic ship preservation. We hope-by making her role in this capacity ben er known on this side of the A tlantic- that our leaders in government and in rhe private sector will step up and emulate her example.

W hile the need to preserve our iconic historic ships is critical, finding national support fo r this effort in the U nited States can be disappointing and frustrating. H er Royal Highness Princess Anne nor only brings an ention to rhe National M useum of the Royal Navy, of which she serves as Parron, bur to H MS Unicorn and other historic ships important to Britain's heritage.

Dinner chairman G eorge W . Carmany III, along with the commodore of rhe New York Yacht C lub, A. Rives Pons, and master of ceremonies Richard T. du Moulin, were delighted to welcome H er Royal H ighness to the N ew York Yacht C lub as rhe 2015 National M aritime Historical Society Distinguished Service Award recipient. In presenting the award to her, NMH S overseer G ary Jobson, vice president of the International Sailing Federation, extolled her incredible knowledge of sailing. She is well known in the yachting community for her seamanship and her dedication to engagin g young Dinner chairman George W Carmany III and Judy people in the sport of saili ng and racing. In her remarks, H er Royal Highness Carmany are presented to Her Royal Highness. stared how wonderful it was to come to rhe New York Yacht Club as an award winner of the Society. H aving looked at the li st of previous awardees, she said she was humbled to be included in their company, as some of the names are people she has long known about, having grow n up in a fa mily and coum ry chac deeply respects the sea and seafaring and its histo ry. Some of her earliest memories go back to rimes spent on board the royal yach c H MY Britannia.

She reminded our gues ts rhar we share a fa m as ric maritime history, and rhar it is an incredibly viral part of our social history. She calls it, "history with a future," because rhe field of maritim e heritage and preservation are so relevant today. W ith regard to how we use rhe sea fo r com me rce, transportation, and recreation, she said it is important that we educate people to go to sea the right way-promoting safety for those w ho venture seawards and also supporting ocea n conserva tion efforts. She praised N MHS fo r our educational initiatives, which give youn g people opportunities to explore all aspects of maritime activity, both pas t and present. She underlined the value of boating programs rh at reach the public and yo ung people basic safety ski lls and respect for rhe wa ter, and also help them develop an appreciation for the maritime wo rld. A hands-o n experience at sea for a young person is often life changing, she noced .

In her remarks on maritime preservation efforts in Grear Britain, she said thac "it is of utmos t importance" to help yo unger generations understand the significance of cheir seafaring traditions and the role maritime history has played in their nacional story.

As N MHS preside m , I was personally deli ghted to hear Princess A nne scace char NMHS serves as an importanc reference point for other groups who preserve maritime heritage. Gro ups wo rking towards this goal need to join together to save the ships criti cally important to history. She referred to HMS NMHS overseer Gary Jobson presents the NMHS Victory as one example close to her hea rt. "When you walk across Victory's Distinguished Service Award to 7he Princess Royal. decks," she explained, "the ship evokes and produces such an atmosphere rhar you can im agine the sa ilors have just gone and will soon return to her decks."

Our newes t N MHS trustee, Admiral Robert J. Papp Jr., USCG (Rer.), 24'h Commandant of the Coas t Guard and now special representative to the Arctic, presented the David A. O 'Neil Sheer A nchor Awa rd to NMHS C hairman Ronald L. Oswald. H e first

8

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015-16

'

regaled us with a story in honor of our British guests: On the Fourth of]u ly, 1996, as captain of the US Coast Guard barque Eagle, he sai led up the Thames River to London with a crew of cadets. As they were preparing to depart, they took onboard a distinguished guest who wanted to observe the cadets in training for a week-Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail non-stop around the world, solo. What a treat that was, and since it was July 4th, the Coast Guard crew and cadets were celebrating the 220'h anniversary of our independence. As Captain Papp looked across at the Tower of London, which went back at least 800 years, he mentioned to Sir Robin that he felt somewhat inadequate in the face of800 years of history, when our country was so young. To which he replied, "I don't know, 220 years is nothing to snipe at." Now, the Admira l added, these 239 yea rs are a continuation of the British influence, particularly naval and maritime tradition s, to which we are indebted to England and her countrymen.

In directing his remarks to our second awardee of the evening, Admiral Papp recognized how Ron Oswald h as worked tirelessly outside the lifelines to steer a straight course for NMHS, while keeping a steady ¡eye towards the future. He commended him for spea rheading the Society's involvement with National History Day, a program that involves more than 600,000 students nationwide and spreads the message to a new generation to continue studying and preserving maritime history. In his acceptance, Ron Oswald remembered that his involvement with the Society began when he read his first issue of Sea History.

We were honored to welcome Admiral of the Fleer the Lord M ichael Boyce, Baron Boyce KG GCB OBE DL to our dinner. Admiral Boyce held the office of First Admired Robert ]. Papp J r., USCG (Ret.) presents the David A. O'Neil Sea Lord of the Admiralty from 1998 to 2001, after which Sheet Anchor Award to NMH S chairman Ronald L. Oswald (at Left). he was C hief of the Defense Staff from 2001 to 2003.

He is president of the Royal Navy Submarine Muse um and chair of HMS Victory Preservation Company. In welcoming him, dinner chairman George Carmany, given both the venue of the evening's event and the presence of so many dedicated sailors, recalled a memorable occasion: in the spring of 1997, Lord Boyce entertained the captains of the just-completed TransAdantic Yacht Raceof which he was one-at a gracious luncheon in the great cabin of HMS Victory. In the course of conversation amongst the keen group of yachtsmen, it emerged that in his yo unger days the Admiral had raced "on the wire" aboard the Flying Dutchman of the indomitable Rodney Pattison , who later went on to win two Olympic gold medals. Lord Boyce, it turned out, had once sailed at a higher level of competition than most all of his guests, who, "warmly appreciated the extent to which they were in the company of a true kindred spirit." Mr. Carmany introduced him as a naval officer, peer of rhe realm, and racing sa ilor.

Lord Boyce described HMS Victory as a ship that we have a moral obligation to preserve for future generations. HMS Victory is a commissioned ship, the First Sealord 's flagship with a Royal Navy crew. She is famous because she served as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of T rafalga r 210 yea rs ago, that saw rhe defeat of the combined French and Spanish fleet in an overwhelming victory and triggered the start of British dominance of the seas for a hundred yea rs. This marked free and safe passage of trade, which allowed the country to prosper and grow. Victory is a tangible icon of immense historical importance. The current preservatio n project will rake twelve yea rs at a cost of $54 million, and represents a task that they will succeed at, and relish doing.

The guests at the dinner, and each speaker at the podium, remarked on the wonderful voices of the US Coast Guard Cadet Academy Chorale, directed by Dr. Robert Newton.

These talented yo ung people do their generation proud, and provided a heartwa rming close to a fa bulous evening.

Admiral of the Fleet the Lord Michael Boyce receives a Ship of -BurchenaL Green, NMHS President Glass replica ofHMS Victory from George W Carmany Ill SEA HISTORY 153 , WINTER 2015-16

9

NHD

National History Day Prizes in

NA T I ONA L HISTORY DAY

N

ational History Day (NHD) is a highly regarded yearlong educational program for middle and high school students that involves them in a competition to prepare a history project on a designated theme. Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers nationwide, participate in NHD contests, starting at the regional level with opportunities to advance to the state and national competitions. Students select historical topics related to the theme and conduct primary and seco ndary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews, and historic sites. After analyzing and interpreting their so urces and drawing conclusions about their topics' Matthew Blount, a student at Saint Peters Catholic School in Greenville, significance in hisrory, students present their original work North Carolina, proudly displays his awards for his maritime-themed NHD in papers, websites, exhibits, performances and documenta- entry, an exhibit titled, "Theodore Roosevelt: Leadership and Legacy Related ries-either individually or in groups. to the Panama Canal. "Matthew is cheered on by his teacher, Joe Hughes.

To encourage students to learn about maritime history, the National Maritime Historical Society offers special prizes for maritime-related projects in several National History Day state contests. In 2015, NMHS participated in thirteen state contests, which are listed below, and awarded prizes to twenty-three students . The 2015 contest theme was "Leadership and Legacy in History," and students tackled topics ranging from naval heroes to civil engineering innovators, from Antarctic explorers to naval architects. We at the National Maritime Historical Society would like to extend our congratulations to this year's winners and a shout-out to all the hard-working teachers, coordinators, and judges who make the events such memorable and rewarding experiences.

Prizes are awarded in both senior and junior categories for high school and middle school students. Award winners in each category get a one-year membership in the National Maritime Historical Society (that includes Sea History magazine), a certificate of achievement, plus recognition in Sea History and on the NMHS website. The mentoring teacher also receives a one-year membership in NMHS and recognition in Sea H istory. In addition, first place prize winners receive a $ 150 scholarship.

The 2016 National History Day theme is "Exploration, Encounter, & Exchange in History." Now is the time to get started! The National History Day competition finals will be held on 12- 16 June 2016 at the University of Maryland, but the preparation starts now. Regional competitions are held between March and May, depending on the state. The coordinators for each state are listed on the NHD website at www.nhd.org, which is also the best place to find resources for students and teachers, from how to pick a topic, to how to conduct research, and much more. Projects can take the form of traditional papers/presentations, exhibits, documentaries, performances, or a website developed on the selected topic.

Students: ask your history or social studies teachers if they will help yo u. Some students choose to go it alone, and others work on a project in groups. It's all up to you. And don't forget, if yo u choose a maritimerelated topic, you'll automatically be considered for the National Maritime Historical Society's special prize at the state competitions in Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Washington.

Historians and educators-if yo u would like to learn about how yo u can get involved (volunteer as a judge, for example), please contact NMHS at 1-800-221-NMHS (6647), or via email at nmhs@seahistory.org. ~

g fl Q

~ ~

~

Mead Krowka as Ernest Shackleton during his award-winning performance at the North Carolina National H istory Day competition.

~ ~

0

u

10

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER2015- 16

Maritime History sponsored by the National Maritime Historical Society Congratulations to the 2015 National History Day Maritime History Prize Winners Connecticut

Maine

(North Carolina continued)

Senior 1st Place-Website: "The Amistad Revolt."

Student: Josephine Bensa; C lassical Magnet School, Hanford Teacher: Jeffrey Huberman

junior 1st Place-Exhibit: "Grace Hopper" Students: Hannah Kaczynski and Alanna Myshrall; Bruce M. W hittier Middle School, Poland Teacher: Mary Ellen Johnson

Senior 2nd Place- Perfo rmance: "By Endurance We Conquer: The Leadership and Legacy of Sir Ernest Shackleton" St udent: Mead Krowka; Immaculate Catholic School HHS, H endersonville Teacher: Yvo nne Krowka

junior 1st Place-Exhibit: ''Amistad Incident & Trials" Students: Lindsey McDonald, Sommer Miller, Paige Moffat; Memorial Middle School, Middlebury Teacher: Sharon Wlodarczyk

junior 2nd Place-Exhibit: "Leadership and Legacy Behind the G uns: Rosie the Riveters on the American Homefront" Student: Ashton Maze; Greely Middle School, C umberland Teacher: Kathi Kea rney

Delaware

New Jersey

junior 1st Place-Exhibit: "The Boston Tea Parry" Students: Tyree Artis and Daniel Fogbawah; Talley Middle School, W ilmington Teacher: Howard Bechler

junior 1st Place-Documentary: "Prince Henry The Navigator" Student: Rishab Bhatt; Grover Middle School, Wesr Windsor Teacher: D ebra Cohen

Georgia

junior 1st Place-Ex hibit: "John Paul Jones" Students: John Collins and Tucker Simpson; Lawrence M iddle School, Lawrence Townsh ip Teacher: Priscilla Taylor

Senior 1st Place-Performance: "Leadership and Legacy of a Civil War Submarine: The H. L. Hunley" Student: Anthony Dukes; Dukes Home School, Doraville Teacher: Alice Dukes

junior 1st Place-Exhibit: "Henry VIII: A Legacy Blighted " Student: Aylan Meyers; Swain County M iddle School, Bryson City Teachers: A mber G illi am and Kim berly Jamison junior 2nd Place-Exhibit: "Theodore Roosevelt: Leadership and Legacy Related to the Panama Canal " Student: Matthew Blount; Saint Peters Catholic School, G reenville Teacher: Joe Hughes

Rhode Island Senior 1st Place- Paper: "Nath anael G .

Herreshoff: Leader, Naval Architect" Student: Mackenzie Fraser; Pilgrim High School, Warwick Teacher: Alison C urry Wallace

New York Massachusetts Senior 1st Place-Exhibit: "Save the Fort!

Edwa rd Rowe Snow's C rusade to Preserve a New England C ivil War Landmark " Students: Patrick O'Brien and Brendan O 'Brien; O'Brien Home School, Ware Teacher: Katie O 'Brien junior 1st Place-Exhibit: "Fearless Father O 'Callahan: Leadership and Legacy Aboard USS Franklin" Student: Stephen O'Brien; O 'Brien Home School, Ware Teacher: Katie O'Brien

Senior 1st Place-Paper: "King Ferdinand and Queen Isabell a: The Golden Age of Spain" Student: Edward Trosset; Cooperstown Junior/Senior High School, Cooperstown Teacher: Michelle Hitchcock

Senior 1st Place-Exhibit: "What The Ice Gets The Ice Keeps-Ernest Shackleton" Students: Zoey Andrade and Elizabeth Morris; St. Mary Academy Bay View, Riverside Teacher: Michelle-Anne Vasconcellos

junior 1st Place-Website: "Panama Canal: Leadership and Legacy" Student: Benjamin McHugh; Granville Central School, Granville Teachers: Mark Vanderzyden, Ann O 'Brien, and Mara McCarthy

junior 2nd Place-Exhibit: "Marj ory Stoneman Douglas: Leader of the Everglades Conservation Effort" Students: Freya Badger and Meagan Heatherton; Sa int Margaret School, East Providence Teacher: Laura Doliber

North Carolina junior 2nd Place-Website: "Ferdinand Magellan: Resilient Leader with a M isunderstood Legacy" Students: Matt Anderson, Kalman Baker, and Casey Wood; Norton Middle School Teacher: Jack H owley

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER2015- 16

Senior 1st Place-Documentary: "Midget" St udents: Spencer Freeman, Tyler Phinizy, and Jordan Spargur; South Central H igh School, Winterville Teacher: Jennifer Brya n

Washington Senior 1st Place-Website: "George W. Goethals and the Panama Canal" Student: Andrew Cooper; Liberty High School, Issaquah/Renton Teacher: JoA nn Olsson 11

A New Look at the "Longitude Problem"

by Daniel McFadden

To commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Longitude Act of 1714, the National Maritime Museum in London produced a new exhibition to showcase the spectacular artifacts in their collection, namely clockmaker John Harrison's winning seagoing clocks and other navigational instruments of the era, but also to examine the story more fully and in context. While Harrison has been cast as the hero of the story, the "Longitude Problem," as it was called, was not solved by the clockmaker alone. The exhibition, Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Questfor Longitude, provides a new perspective on this famous tale. While Harrison's sea-watch was vital to finally solving the problem oflongitude, his story is set against a backdrop of almost unprecedented collaboration and investment. Famous names such as Galileo, Isaac Newton, James Cook, and William Bligh all feature in this fascinating and complex history. Crucially, it was Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne's observations and work on the first Nautical Almanac at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich that demonstrated the complementary nature of astronomical and timekeeper methods. Combined, the two methods led to the successful resolution of a centuries-old conundrum and, in the process, changed our understanding of the world. Ships, Clocks & Stars is now on display for a limited time in the United States at Mystic Seaport, which is hosting the exhibition until 28 March 2016. n October 1707, Admiral Sir C loudesley Shovel! was leading his Beet of twenty-one Royal Navy ships home to England after their participation in th e Barri e of Toulo n . They had been sailing through a couple of days of rough weather and were relying on dead reckoning to navigate their way north and then east into the English C hannel from the Atlantic.

With no warning, the lead ship crashed into the rocks off the Isles of Sci lly, and befo re the ships astern could airer course away from the imminent danger ahead, four more ships piled onto the rocks, one right after another. Within hours, four of the five went to the bottom, killing nearly 2,000 men, including Shovell, the Beet commander.

Ir was determined that a compounded error in rhe ships' navigation caused the disaster. The Beer's navigators thought they were m any miles away from their true location and were thus oblivious to the threat in their path that would claim so many lives.

While this was no r the Royal Navy's first m ajor disaster due to navigational errornor would it be the last-it was emblematic of the growing need to find reliable m ethods of determining a ship's position at sea.

Seafarers have always needed to know where they are, and for most this means using latitude and longitude to plot a position on a chart. Admiral Shovell and his Beet commanders were skilled navigators with the tools available to them, and, at that time, calculating latitude at sea was a rather straightforward task. Their problem was in measuring longitude to give them a fix

I

12

on the chart, and it proved a challenge that would take several centuries and a collective national and international effort to solve.

By the early eighteenth century, as exploration , trade, and the need for naval securi ty expanded across the globe, reliable navigation becam e a national priority for maritime countries. Safety was paramount, bur reducing the risk in the investment in overseas trade and the support of distant colonies and reaping the rewards such commercial activity generated was a growing interest. This was big business for Spain and Portugal, followed by the Netherlands, France, and England.

In response to Spanish and Dutch incentives offered to anyone who could solve the "longitude problem," as it was known to the British , Parliament passed the Longitude Act of 17 14, which offered a prize of ÂŁ20,000 to anyone who could provide a m ethod that could be "Tried and found Practicable and Useful at Sea." Much like the X-Prize of today, the intention and result was to motivate a variety of parties to pursue a solution. And it worked.

Much of the longitude story is well-told

by Dava Sobel in her 1995 bestselling book Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem ofH is Time. Sobel focused on clockmaker John Harrison, whose technical mastery of clock and watch construction enabled him to build a timekeeper that could maintain accuracy over the course of a sea voyage to provide a reliable estimate of longitude.

Harrison was indeed a remarkable-and patient-genius who played a significant

role in the story, bur he is just one of many who collaborated to reach the goal.

"I think one of the main things we wanted to get across is an apparently simple point: Thar the most complex problems often take a lot of time and effort to untangle; they're not solved in a single moment of inspiration," said Richard Dunn, senior curator for the history of science at the National Maritime Museum. Dunn and his colleague Rebekah Higgitt curated the exhibit. Dunn points out that by 1714 people were well aware of the problem and had been trying to solve it for generations. Over the course of the eighteenth century, a number of individuals-John Harrison, Tobias Mayer, and others-came up with ways of addressing parts of the problem using a combination of timepieces and astronomy, bur it rook rime and significant government and commercial support for longitudefinding to become a routine part of navigation. "We also wanted to get across the point that there was not a single winner in this story," he adds. "Safe navigation at sea was so important that having more than one way of doing it was seen as a good thing."

It's Not Just About Clocks By 17 14, five methods had emerged as possible solutions for solving the longitude problem. One was to chart variations in the Earth's m agnetic field; another involved firin g signal rockets from a series of moored ships into the air at set times. The remaining three were based on calculating the time difference between two locations-one's estimated position at sea and a known

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

reference point elsewhere on the Earth's surface. Sir Isaac Newton, at the time the president of the Royal Society and therefore a key advisor to the government, summed up the last three methods and their challenges in a written statement: One is by a Watch to keep Time exactly. But, by reason of the motion of a ship, the variation of heat & cold, & the difference of gravity in different Latitudes, such a watch hath not yet been made.

Another is by the Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites. But by the reason of the length of Telescopes requisite to observe them & the motion of a ship at sea, those Ecl ipses cannot yet be there observed.

A third is by the place of the Moon.

But h er Theory is not yet exact enough for this purpose. It is exact enough to determine her Longitude within two or three degrees, but not within a degree [as required by the Longitude Act].

dulum clock in the 1650s by the Dutch astronomer and mathematician Christiaan Huygens greatly improved the accuracy of mechanical timekeepers, but the vagaries of the environment at sea, namely motion of the ship and fluctuations in temperature, were more than they could manage.

Beginning in 1726, a carpenter and clockmaker from the north of England, John Harrison, began to tackle the problem.

H e had just completed a longcase (floorstanding) clock that was able to keep time to within one second per month, a huge jump forward in accuracy. Interested in the rewards being offered by the Longitude Act, and with the encouragement of London's leading clockmaker, George Graham, and the Commissioners of Longitude who ad-

ministered the Act, Harrison wo uld build five clocks over more than three decades in pursuit of the solutions. Harrison had two important innovations: the temperaturecompensated pendulum and the low-friction "grasshopper" escapement. Both inventions wo uld be carried over into his "seaclocks."

H arrison developed his first marine timekeeper, H 1, which was completed in 1735. The cabinet-sized clock impressed those who saw it, and it performed well in

john Harrison's original sea clock, HJ, is on exhibit at the Time and Longitude gallery at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. (below) Detail from the works of a replica of H 1. Note the use of wood for the gears.

Harrison used wood (oak and lignum vitae) almost exclusively in his early timekeepers.

Galileo Galilei proposed early in the seventeenth century that Jupiter's moons could be used to determine longitude, as their motion could be predicted with relative ease. Its satellites could be used as a "celestial clock." This became a major tool for terrestrial mapping by the end of the century, but unfortunately the tools for effectively observing such small objects from the moving deck of a ship were still undeveloped in Newton's day.

Similarly, keeping time by observing and recording the motion of the Moon had promise, but the Moon's movement was discovered to be very complex, and extensive observation of its position in relation to the stars was needed to be able to model its trajectory. The Royal Observatory at Greenwich was built beginning in 1675 to help with this work. Led by an Astronomer Royal, at first John Flamsteed, its charter authorized it to carry out observations to "find the so-m uch desired Longitude of Places."

The problem with the mechanical timekeeper, the "Watch" as Newton called it, was that the clocks of the period were not accurate enough over long periods of time.

The development of the first practical pen-

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER2015- 16

13

a shore sea rrial. Ir was followed by H 2 and H 3. H 2 was completed in 1739, bur had a fa tal design Raw and was never rested. Construction of H 3 began in 1740 and continued for nineteen years. Ir had two major innovations: the bi-metallic strip to compensate fo r ch anges in temperature, and caged roller bearings to reduce friction. Both are still widely used today.

One of the most significant moments in H arrison's story was his switch from large clocks ro sm aller wa tch es . By the early 175 0s, H arrison was explorin g ways of improving watches, which were not as accurate as pendulum clocks. H e thought they had promise, as the smaller size could mitigate some of the probl ems of pendulums. H arrison began work on a watch, H 4, in 1755 and completed it in 1759 . Ir is considered his masterpiece and the wo rld's first effective marine timekeeper.

H 4 was significant fo r several reaso ns.

Ir built upon rhe innovations ofirs predecesso rs, while at rhe same rime it was designed with radi cal differences. The key, as H arrison fi gured our, was a stable, high-frequency, high-energy balance (the oscillating wheel that measures rime) . H e developed a balance rhar was larger, heavier, and fas ter,

The three working replicas of John Harrison's timekeepers are highlights of the exhibition. and it moved further to-and-fro than contemporary watches . This difference helped reduce the effect of a ship's morion at sea.

H arrison prese nted H 4 to the commissioners at a meeting on 18 July 1760. The fo llowing year it was ready fo r a sea rrial to Jamaica, as was required by the Longitude Act's provisions. Although H 4 seemed to have performed exceptionally well, H arrison and rhe commissioners disagreed over the results and a seco nd sea trial was ordered.

While H arrison wo rked away at his mechanical clocks, wo rk on the "celesrialclock" methods continued in parallel. In 173 1, John H adley, vice pres ident of the Royal Society, presented his ideas for a new

navigational instrument. The Hadley reflecting quadrant- later called the octan t, the forerunner of the modern sextant-enabled sailors to more accurately measure the angles of the sun, moo n, and stars relative to the earth . Building on the work of others, in the early 17 50s German as tronomer Tobias M ayer devised a set of astronomical tables that co uld be used for finding longitude at sea using rh e lunar-distance method.

Everything cam e to a h ead in 1763 when the C ommissioners, now known as the Board of Longitude, organized trials of three methods fo r findin g longitude. There was a lot riding on the outcome, prize money to the rune of a king's ransom, nor to mention the prestige that would go along w ith having been declared the winner.

Mayer's as tronomical tables, H arrison's H 4, and a "marine chair" invented by Christopher Irwin for the observation of Jupiter's moons were all put to the rest on a rransArlanric passage to Barbados. Only Harrison's H 4 and M ayer's lunar rabies proved successful, and in 1765 a new Longitude Act recognized their work and rewarded them , along with Leonhard Euler, who also worked on longitude-finding using the Moon .

Making It Work Discovering a reliable method to accurately determine longitude at sea was only the first part of the story. For mariners to benefit from the effort, the solution had to be able to be reproduced on a wide scale. The tools had to be affordable, their use easily mastered by mariners, and the supporting materials-astronomical rabies and insrrucrions-had to be accurate, complete, and available.

H 4: The original case ofjohn Harrison's final sea clock, considered his masterpiece.

14

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

,cJvfayer &,(ynar 1Jistances T.o:!'ln9i~~tofuldlonq111.Jewng

~w«sanctmtlllcd:i11'1stlU!'llM1for

~ltltit!.~n:lstarsfrom1ship, M:!ul:Mtlwtacotatrl)'.ctflfdedtheMocl'I'!

.....

nm1..ttl'ltldt)'fu.Pres0!mdth!Royll Scoly.CWM1:!dhisdo.isb1new~

l!~••dtle'~l.lslnglhe ~ qu.ian"b;e!'uAedt!ieoctant~meo

td:l mliell'(lffi((WatfobsKvationsbothfcli

-...""""""'""""""Al~ Wflll! ln,flAmero,Thr>'M <mfrey

dM!oprd ~ ~ ~ fa whKhhtsooght 11"'«dlmmlfleCcmmissilr.MrJlongirude.

(left) One of the earliest sextants ever made was produced c. 1758 by john Bird, a nautical instrument maker in London. (righ t) Captain James Cook's voyages ofexploration were also used to test new methods ofdetermining longitude.

All four of Harriso n's timekeepers were handed over to the Admiralty. He then spent six days disassembling H 4 and explaining its mechanism to six experts. One of them, watchmaker Larcum Kendall, was commissioned to build a copy. The board also published a description and drawings that influenced the designs of other watchmakers, some of whom used his ideas to create simpler, easier-to-manufacture marine timekeepers.

The continued development of accurate and regularly updated astronomical tables was overseen by Nevil Maskelyne at the Royal Observatory, where he lived and worked for forty-six years as fifth Astronom er Royal from 1765. The results were published as the Nautical A lmanac in 1767 and the Tables Requisite to be used with the Astronomical and Nautical Almanac.

Putting the new technology into practice naturally cam e down to the m ariners, who were the ultimate end-users. Captain James Cook was one of the early leaders to test the methods by incorporating them as part of his ship's standard operating procedures . In his first voyage of exploration in 1768-7 1, his crew successfully rested the lunar-distance method with the use of sex-

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

rants and the Nautical Almanac. On his second (1 772-75) and third (1776-80) voyages, he brought along Larcum Kendall's copy of H 4, known as Kl. Ir proved successful, and he referred to it as his "trusty friend " and "never-failing guide." Cook not only proved the methods were sound, he added another critical element by showing how the new tools and techniques of determining an accurate geographical position were important in the process of surveying and chart-making on his voyages.

Advances in production techniques from the late 1700s made the manufacture of navigational instruments and timekeepers faster, cheaper, and the end-products increasingly accurate. By the early nineteenth century, a standardized marine timekeeper-the chronometer-was widely available to mariners, along with sextants and nautical almanacs. As tronomical and timekeeper methods were used together to find longitude, and wo uld eventually became part of a m ariner's daily routine.

Ships, Clocks, & Stars makes the argum ent that the longitude story has a lo t to teach modern society about technology and innovation. The events of the eighteenth century showed how a problem could be

solved with long-term investment and the cooperation of government and private business. Incentives alone were not enough to spur innovation, as several countries had offered rewards before the British. The difference was the environment that encouraged the develo pment of the tools and techniques and was able to transfer it to practical use.

"This is true of all scientific progressrhere's a lot of work to be done from realizing that something is possible to making it happen in practice," said Dunn. "Ir's a messier acco unt of how things progress, but is an interesting lesson as we think about tackling some of the major problems facing the world today-in particular, problems we believe science can help us tackle." ,!, Ship's Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longirude will be on display in the R.]. Schaefer BuiUing at Mystic Seaport through 28 March 2016; the exhibition will then travel to the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.

Daniel McFadden is the Director of Communications at Mystic Seaport. (Mystic Seaport, 75 Greenmanville Ave. , Mystic, CT; www.mysticseaport.org)

15

Maritime Archaeology in the 21st Century

by James P. Delgado he art and science of archaeology is now more than a cemury old, and the prac tice ofir underwater and in the maritime world spans about half that rime, or some fifty-five years. While antiquarian interest in maritime finds dares to the nineteenth century, with discoveries of buried ships-either in land-filled harbors, or the fa mous disi nrermem of the Go ks rad and Oseberg ship burials in what is now Norwaywhar lay under the seas awaited a new century. The 1900 discovery and recovery of a trove of ancient bronze statues from a first century BC wreck off the G reek Aegean island of Antikyrhera sparked interest in undersea exploration . The invention of SCUBA, along with a growth in the number of divers in the 1950s and 1960s, led to the birth of archaeology practiced under water as well as underwater archaeology. The first scientific excavation of a shipw reck in its entirety from the seabed rook place in 1960 when George F. Bass and Peter Throckmorton, working with Honor Frost, Frederic Dumas, C laude Duthuit and others raised the scattered remains of a Bronze Age wreck dating to around 1200 BC from the waters of Turkey's Cape Gelidonya.

In 1960, George Bass-often referred to as the Father of Underwater Archaeology-and his colleague Peter Throckmorton led a team in a fu ll archaeological excavation of a Bronze Age shipwreck off Cape Gelidonya in Titrkey. (above) Bass and Throckmorton examine bronze ingots raised from the Gelidonya wreck site.

In the decades that followed in the twentieth century, a virtual explosion of technology, interes t, and opportunity-as well as controversy and conflict-brought shipwrecks and maritime archaeology increasingly into focus for both the archaeological profession and the public. The initial result was a spate of discoveri es, some of famous ships, while others ultimately proved to be insignificant in terms of name recognition or historical fame; however, these wrecks yielded forgotten or lost information about ship forms , construction, or aspects of trade and life at sea.

The big-name discoveries and recoveries included the Swedish wa rship Vasa, a 1628 loss in Stockholm harbor that, when raised intact, became an iconic poster child for the new discipline and yielded a trove of artifacts that documented not only the vessel, but also life (and lives lost) during its brief career. Viking ships excavated from a shallow grave at Roskilde, near Copenh agen, greatly expanded knowled ge of various types of these craft, hitherto limited to the Royal Dragon ships like Goksrad or

16

Vasa broke the surface for the first time in 333 years when it was raised intact from the seabed in Stockholm Harbor in 1961.

SEAHISTORY 153, WINTER2015- I6

The Vtisa Museum's diorama depicts the recovery ofthe ship. The process took more than two years and included digging tunnels underneath the wreck in the seabed through which to run the slings.

Oseberg. The famous Civil War ironclad USS Monitor, discovered in what were then deep waters of more than 200 feet in 1972, captured national attention and sparked the creation of America's National Marine Sanctuary system . The 1985 discovery of Titanic captured global headlines and demonstrated the possibility that anything-any ship-could be found with enough money and time, even at great depth .

(above) The image of Titanic's bow caught the world's attention when it was discovered on the seafloor in 15)85. (below) Robert Ballard and a NOAA scientist monitor ROV dives to Titanic from the control room aboard the NOAA oceanographic research ship Ronald H . Brown in 2004.

z

0

~

3 ~ z ~

g

1 0

z

(left) The revolving gun turret from the ironclad ship USS Monitor is lifted from the ocean flour and placed onto the derrick barge in August 2002. The shipwreck site was designated as the country's first National Marine Sanctuary in 1375.

SEA HISTORY 153 , WINTER 2015- 16

I 17

But as much as big-name shipwrecks were making the news, there was more to the rapidly developing field than discovery and recovery of ships. The first sea change was resolving the initial ideological struggle with mainstream, land-bound archaeologists over the issue of whether "real" archaeology could be accomplished in a submerged environment. The issue was resolved by the 1970s, thanks to years of exceptional projects done to exacting standards, including the work of George Bass and his students and colleagues with the then newly-founded Institute of Nautical Archaeology, as well as work done by other pioneers such as Ole CrumlinPedersen in Denmark, Graham Henderson in Australia, Robert Grenier in Canada, Pilar Luna Erreguerefta in Mexico, and Colin Martin in Scotland, to name a few.

There was also the development of a theory of maritime archaeology, strongly brought into focus by the late Keith Muckelroy of the United Kingdom. Muckelroy advanced a detailed outline and arguments for the study of maritime culture, not just shipwrecks, but also how ships and their wrecks functioned as part of maritime economic, industrial and social systems, and how archaeological science could work to obtain maximum results from what pioneering shipwreck expert]. Richard Steffy keenly observed were at times "minimal remains." Another key development was the increased focus on the study of shipwrecks and other maritime archaeological sites through the lens of anthropology, the mother science of archaeology, with a ground-breaking (or perhaps more apropos, a sea-shaking) publication, Shipwreck Anthropology, edited by J. Richard Gould from papers presented at a session chaired by the School of American Research and organized by Gould and the National Park Service's Daniel Lenihan and Larry Murphy.

As the discipline evolved from wreck hunting and -raising to research-focused, question-answering science, a strong tradition of salvage and treasure hunting posed a powerful counter-current, especially in the public mind. It was (and remains) as strong a conflict as one finds with any ideological difference, with the treasure hunters and salvagers arguing for free enterprise with no regulation-some motivated by love of history and adventure, others by potential profit. The arguments that raged in court, in the halls of government, and in the press dominated the (battle) field well through the twentieth century and persist in the twenty-first. What has changed has been increased government oversight, either regulatory or through the courts, in some cases for science or public benefit, more often in asserting the rights of owners-of lost vessels, or cargoes (including treasure)-as well as protecting wrecks seen as government military property, or as war graves.

As part of that process, governments took an interest and developed not only regulations and laws (like the US Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987), but also programs to find, survey, and assess the significance of wrecks and sites. In some cases, these government programs managed the recovery; in other cases, they worked with salvagers and treasure hunters. In other areas, wrecks were seen as key elements of underwater portions of the national or state park systems, as well as wrecks in the National Marine Sanctuary System, which grew from a single site, USS Monitor, in 1975, to what is today a national system of fourteen sites en18

compassing thousands of square miles and more than a thousand shipwrecks. In the twenty-first century, in the United States, there are now state underwater archaeological programs that incorporate research, diving, and resource management in Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Texas. At the federal level, underwater archaeology is a component of the programs of the National Park Service, NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, the US Navy, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Internationally, a number of countries have programs, either governmental, non-governmental, or managed under academic auspices. Among these are Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Russia, Poland, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and India.

While governmental programs grew, so too did citizen involvement, especially in avocational organizations in a variety of countries, where non-archaeologists with a wide range of skills in underwater photography, mapping, and underwater work, as well as backgrounds in history, conservation, and advanced and technical diving represented a profound and important constituency.

Long before "citizen science" became a buzzword, these groups and people were making a difference, often in areas where no government program existed, in the discovery, documentation and preservation of shipwrecks. One major force in this movement was and is the UK's Nautical ArchaeolGgy Society (NAS), with certification courses for active volunteers. Their work has had positive global implications.

The last decades have seen a variety of projects accomplished by a solid core of citizen scientists who bring not only sensitivity and a new understanding of archaeological technique, but also their own life and professional skills. In the US and Canada, groups like the Maritime Archaeology and History Society (MAHS), the National Association ofBlack Scuba Divers (NABS), Diving with a Purpose (DWP), the Lighthouse Archaeological

MAHS volunteers document the mast step from an early-twentiethcentury iron shipwreck in the Florida Keys.

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

Maritime Program (LAMP), the Underwater Arch aeological Society of British Columbia (UASBC), and Save Ontario Shipwrecks (SOS) are just a few. W hether part of a gro up, or wo rking as individual volunteers with state and federal stewards, the avocational arch aeologists are a powerful aspect of maritime and underwater archaeology in the twenty-first century.

There are also a wide range of university, college, and vocational training programs worldwide. From the earliest programs, such as George Bass's Nautical Archaeology Prog ram at Texas A&M U niversity and the Program in Maritime History and U nderwater Studies established by W illiam N. Still and Gordon P. Wans at East Carolina University (now known as the Program in Maritime Studies), there are now, according to UNESCO, seventy nautical and maritime archaeology programs wo rldwide.

More than a thousand students have graduated wi th advanced degrees. While not all graduates are employed in the field, a number are working for governments, universities, museums, and cultural resources management (CRM) firms in the private sector.

As of2013, East Carolina's program was ranked number one for producing the largest number of professional maritime archaeologists in the United States.

The growth of the field over the past few decades has outpaced the number of trained archaeologists and archaeological divers, programs, and organizations. The field has matured, following trends in historical and prehistoric archaeology to examine larger issues in society and human behavior, and integrating with the rest of the archaeological wo rld. Integrating has meant moving past seeking to find and study famous ships or the oldest and lesser known ship types to studying maritime culture, especially looking at how humans have interacted with the sea (and lakes and rivers). Major developments that began in the 1980s included expanding maritime archaeology, as Muckelroy had suggested, to other maritime sites including ships abandoned ashore in "boneyards," lighthouses, shipyards, wharves and docks, industrial sites, and maritime communities.

In the 1990s, Christer Westerdahl of Norway adva nced a theory of "maritime cultural landscapes," the idea that humans h ad responded to the marine environment in a variety of ways.

This included building ships or shoreside infrastructure, as wel l as mapping and naming landmarks ashore and on the water, conveying concepts of water and shores as sacred places and as bou ndaries between the living and the dead, and viewing living creatures as part of culture and the sacred world. Indigenous cultures have different views than industrialized societies about the nature of whales, sh arks, and other creatures. Westerdahl's theory, now widely adopted and practiced , truly reflects the use of archaeology as well as anthropology, history, and sociology to examine the basic questions of humanity and the sea-how we respond to it, and increasingly, how we shape and alter it from landfi ll, seawalls, coastal communities and marine traffic to seabed trawling, depletion of marine stocks, dredging, pollution, and the impacts of ocean acidification and global warming.

The other great "sea change" has been the opportunity to go deeper. Advances in technical diving pushed the practical limits of scuba diving from the shallows to depths approaching 200 feet in rhe 1970s and 80s and then beyond. The evolution of diving

SEAHISTORY 153, WINTER2015- l6

Graduate students from East Carolina University get valuable training in the field working on shipwreck and maritime archaeological sites around the world, in aLL types of underwater environments and conditions. These students are getting ready to dive on a freshwater wreck site within the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Lake Huron in summer 2013.

systems from air to mixed gases and finally closed-circuit "rebreathers" now means technically trained divers (and archaeologists) can and do work in waters hundreds of feet deep. The ability of submersibles and other equipment to search and take humans to the depths beyond scuba diving capacity has existed for decades, over which time the use of this technology has increased exponentially. The reasons for this have been better, more sophisticated systems for search ing and documenting deep sea wrecks and other sires with high-resolution sonars (including three-dimensional mapping sonar), satellite-assisted navigation in the age of GPS, and sophisticated robotic systems represented by remotely operated veh icles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) .

There has also been a drop in the cost of such systems, much like the cost of computers and mobile phones h as decreased as more users and systems come online, and rhe technology becomes more "off the shelf" than "one-off." AUVs are one such case.

Formerly multi-million dollar government-funded defense and security systems, they have entered the broader oceanographic (and archaeological) world. An AUV works without a tether and can cover large areas of the seabed, at depths up to more than three miles, mapping and documenting. ROVs connected to a surface ship by a fiber optic cable can do detailed survey and archaeological recovery at depths where no human could go

19

N OAA tech diver investigates the deep-water ship wreck Norrhwestern in the Thunder Bay National M arine Sanctuary in July 2015.

unless encased in a submersible. In 2010, high-resolution sonar and detailed visual m apping by ROVs by Woods H ole Oceanographic Institution's Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory, N OAA's M aritime H eritage Progra m, and the National Park Service's Submerged Resources Center, with 100 percent fundin g provided by news media and RMS T itanic, Inc., completed the fi rst detailed mapping of the entire Titanic wreck site.

Since then, the technology has advanced to where wrecks at any depth can be mapped with accuracy, with each find pinpointed.

Thanks to continual documentation with sonar and high-definition imagery, a virtual record of an excavation can be saved, not a frame at a time, but as it happens, second by second.

A major breakthrough of recent yea rs has been the use of ROVs, satellites, and the internet to take maritime archaeological discoveries, documentation, and excavation to the public. W hile documentaries have offered an "over-the-shoulder-view" since the days of Jacques Cousteau, the ability to not only broadcast fieldwork, but to involve the public became possible within the las t decade. The platfo rm for this type of outreach has been the telepresence model initially advocated and practiced by Robert Ballard, and now actively used not only by Ballard, but by NOAA's Office of O cean Exploration and Research . The NOAA research ship Okeanos Explorer and Ballard's R /V Nautilus's ROVs ro utinely conduct deep ocean research and link back to scientists ashore via satellite feeds and Internet 2 connections. In this way, a large and diverse group can augment a mission with full access and the ability to actively participate in a mission that is working 20

with ROVs on deep sea volcanoes, thermal vents, coral reefs, or other natu ral phenomena.

In 201 2, Okeanos Explorer, working with a team from the Bureau of Ocean Energy M anagement (BOEM), the Bureau of Science and Environmental Enfo rcement (BSEE), and N OAA's O ffice of National M arine Sanctuaries, examined a series of so nar targe ts deep in the G ulf of M exico. The las t of the targets, dived at 10:00PM ET, was quickly seen to be the ghostly copper-clad remains of a sailing vessel some two hundred years old, full of

During the 2 013 mission to an early nineteenth-century wreck in the GulfofM exico, archaeologists conducted the first live, interactive excavation ofa shipwreck, reaching a global audience of 1.1 million.

SEA HISTORY 15 3, WINTER 2015- 16

well-preserved artifacts including cannon , muskets, ceramic plates, bottles, a compass, octant, and telescopes. As wo rd spread via satellite phone calls and ema ils, soon dozens of archaeologists, historians, and ocean scientists joined and helped direct the ROY as it maneuvered and docum ented the w reck.

That project led to a privately-funded mission with the same partners, now joined

by Ballard's Ocean Exploration Trust, three universities, the Texas Historical Commission, the Maryland Historical Trust, and others for the first internet-broadcast, detailed study of a deep-sea shipwreck that included excavation and the careful recovery of sixty-three artifacts thought to be diagnostic in hopes of learning m ore. The archaeologists interacted w ith more than a hundred colleagues around the world and a global audience of 1.1 million who watched, asked question s, discussed the wo rk and finds with the team on board Nautilus, and then went on to discover two adj acent shipwrecks. That all h appened live-i n rea l time-and without interruption, save the occasional technical glitch from wo rking 24 hours aro und the clock, 150 miles our to sea, in 4,300 feet of water.

Thar project may well be a model for future work. Transparent, better than reality television (at least to som e) and dedicated to sha ring not o nly the thri ll of discovery, but also the how, where, and why of serious scientific archaeology on the high seas, the G ulf project is all about bringing the public along into the final frontier as front-seat participants.

The front iers of maritime archaeology in the second decade of the twenty-firsr

(top right) lhe ROV H ercules hovers over the stern of Titanic on the 2004 mission to the wreck. Improvements in ROV technology and mapping systems have revolutionized our understanding ofTitanic and other deep-water sites. (middle right) Deep sea archaeology now works at depths once thought impractical if not impossible. Here, a robotic vehicle examines an early 19th-century wreck nearly a mile deep in the Gulf ofMexico. (bottom right) lhe Klondike Gold Rush shipwreck A. ] . Goddard (1901) in Lake Laberge in the Yukon, one ofthe first shipwrecks mapped with three-dimensional sonar.

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER2015- 16

21

Mapping wrecks is now done with high-resolution sonar at any depth. Here, as part of an ongoing survey of wrecks from the World W0r II Battle ofthe Atlantic by NOAAs Office ofNational Marine Sanctuaries and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the German submarine U-352 is mapped and compared with historic p lans.

century are boundless. Technology enables work to take place in the deepest depths, and to an exacting standard. As well, the "frontier" has proven not only to be deep waters, but under parking lots and buildings. A number of ancient and historic waterfronts and harbors now lie beneath land fi ll. The largest number of substantially well-preserved wooden shipwrecks has been found , sealed in mud, in cities like London, Pisa, Stockholm, Marseille, New York, and San Francisco. The discovery of the ship beneath the World Trade Center site in New York is a recent example.

Another example is the several years of excavation in Istanbul for the new railway station at Yenikapi. More than thirty well-preserved wrecks dating from 700 AD to 1200 AD emerged from the mud along with harbor walls, with spilled ancient cargoes and amphorae still sealed inside the holds of some ships.

But the greatest frontier remains the limits of our imagination and the realization that resting beneath the waters of this planet is the greatest museum of human history. Below the surface is the story of how we used the oceans, lakes, and rivers as more than sources of food, but as highways to cross to colonize, to wage wars, to trade, and to expand the boundaries of our knowledge. It is the story of how a changing planet and rising seas drowned the

world of the last great ice age, immersing ancient settlements and the bones of our ancestors along the coastlines of the world . Our knowledge of the world of 20,000 to 10,000 years ago can be greatly enhanced by a push to conduct prehistoric archaeology on the continental shelf. More than half of Europe as it was then is now underwater, and the shallow seas off the Americas, like those of Europe and Asia, have yielded not only mammoth bones, but stone tools lefr by ancient hunters alongside now drowned campfires.

The next decades will make the tasks easier and yield greater results. When archaeology commenced underwater, archaeologists despaired of finding out much from the contents of amphorae and other clay jars, save sludge and olive pits. We now have the ability to extract DNA, even from seemingly empty jars from the bottom of the sea. That science has opened up new evidence of ancient trade in wine and grains, olives and fish from the Bronze Age through the Renaissance, and joins other tantalizing clues about the creation of "global" trade long before the Industrial Age. That means we can extract DNA from mud-sealed ancient sites and from ice age burials beneath the sea when we find them.

We have the tools, and we have the means to make exploration and science relevant and exciting by bringing the public along.

We also can be patient and wait not just for funding and support, but for new advances. Very few shipwrecks are filled with riches , despite the popular view that all that lies below is a pathway to fame and fort une. The real treasure is knowledge, and the realization that this remains a frontier full of wonder, excitement and the potential to truly discover. The oceans cover 73 percent of the globe, and yet we've only explored 5 percent of their depths. When we quest into those depths, we wi ll learn more about deep"sea geology, oceanography and biology. We will solve mysteries, rewrite the history books, and add to our understanding not only of our ancestors, but also be reminded of how important the sea and the waters of this planet have and continue to be at the heart of our survival. ,!,

Shipwrecks have been found in a wide variety of environments, requiring an extraordinary amount of versatility on the part ofarchaeologists in their methodology. (above) In 2010, construction crews at the World Trade Center site in New York discovered the remains ofa Revolutionary W0r-era ship in the middle ofdowntown Manhattan.

Dr. James P. Delgado is the Director of Maritime Heritage in NOAA '.r Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. As a nautical archaeologist, he has led or participated in more than a hundred shipwreck projects for the last four decades. He is the author of more than thirty books, most ofthem on maritime subjects.

22

SEAHISTORY 15 3, WINTER2015- 16

AnneT. Converse Ph otography

Sunday, May 22 * Norfolk, VA Saturday, October 1 * Baltimore, MD

Z016 CRUISES * * ,..

A;a~•

'°

*

T••' •h• Sh;p "°m 9,;dg• Eog;oe Room Luo<h Worl;m• A""'k & Botti• 1woo<h" P"miUiogl

* Live Music & Entertainrnent of the '40s

~Ai

Neith ' 1 996, Cover phot

A

.

vvoocf, Wind"

STORY OF

ograph

and" Water

THE OPERA H R.AcE OF N ousE CuP

Photographs b ANTUCKET T yAnneT C ext by Carolyn M . onverse

Live vica . · Ford and tal:~ously through th . owners w h wood e pictures th o ovmgly restor en yacht ese gems of th e and race "A e sea n outstandin · ongoing recommendation g presentation for deserves nautical coll . both art and ectwns "

or cl~ssic

Lost day to order tickets is 1A days before the cruise. Conditions and penalties

apply to cancellations.

io"x12" H

·

85 full page color ardbound phot book ; i32 pages, For more informati ographs; Price $45.00 Phon o_n contact: Anne T anne@e. 508-728-62 10 . Converse an netconverse .com www.annet converse .com

Chesap B&B ea k eBay Charters

Departs from B altimore 2,3 4 or 5 d aboard th~ sch ooner ay cruises Su

~

~er Wind

l-~£e~

~jUM'(}} 'iii111~ ~~ Build your o . . ,.

Sail to a ne wn Itinerary' Sleep in a new w port each d.; ____ . y, •B&B each night.

Ame· ncanSailin

215-900-~~;:rs.com

SEA HISTORY 153 , WINTER 2015- 16

23

Sailors in Distress: 1be Origins of the First Federal Healthcare Legislation

by H arold D . Langley

T

hose with an interes t in naval and ma ritime history h ave long been aware of the fact that in the early yea rs of the nation, American merch ant ships we re routinely seized and their crews were held for ransom by the autho rities of the Barbary states of No rth A fri ca .

Initially som e were ra nsomed by individuals or by the US government, bu t later the U nited States waged war against the Barbary states and ended the practice.

Sim ila rly, during the wa rs between G reat Britain and Napoleonic France, British wa rships engaged in the prac ti ce of stopping Am erican merchant ships on the high seas and searching them fo r Britishborn subj ects. If any were found, the men were seized a nd impressed into service fo r the Roya l Navy. In the p rocess, so me American-born sailors were taken by mista ke, as well as fo rmer British subj ects who were naturali zed A merican citizens. Such mistakes led to diplom atic efforts to free the men wrongfully taken . This took a great deal of time a nd was not always successful.

Impressment was one of the stated causes for the War of 1812 .

Less well kn own a re the pro blems associated with t he seizure of American merchant ships by the British and the French, t he confisca tion of cargoes, the sale of the ships, and depositing the crews in a fore ign port with no one to take care of their needs.

This problem cam e to the attention of American diplomats during the Revolutionary W ar.

In Pa ri s, Benj amin Franklin and John Adams met with John Baptist Pecquet, a French consular age nt who was based in Lisbon, Portugal. From him they learned of the British practice of taking crews fro m seized A merican m erchant ships and putting them ashore in Lisbon , a port a nd capital of a neutral n ation . At the time, France was a n ally of the United States, and Pecquet accepted the responsibility of carin g fo r the distressed Am erican sailors who landed in his port. A t the conclusio n of the wa r, Pecquet came to Paris seeking compensation fo r h is expenses . Franklin and Adams gave him ten guineas, but, along with John Jay, joined with Frank lin and Adam s in sending a letter to the Continental Congress recommending that Pecquet be paid 150 guineas o r 4, 000 !ires- the

24

"So desperate did this impressment scourge become that an American could not with safety enter the marine service of his country unless he was able to prove at any moment that he was a citizen of the United States." - John Robert Irelan 1 equivalent of more tha n $ 15,000 in the US today. W ith that sum, a letter should be sent to Pecquet expressing the gratitude of the Congress for his services. This was done.

Pecquet also hoped that he or his son would be appointed as the US agent at Lisbon, but Franklin and his colleagues explained to him that Congress wo uld have to m ake that decision. In the end, there was no place for Pecquet or his son in the pos twar commercial arrangements.

U nder the government of the A rticles of Confederation, in M ay 1784 US diplom atic representatives in Europe were instructed to nego tiate treaties of amity a nd commerce w ith a number of countries . Ar that time there were treaties w ith France (1778), the Ne therlands (1782), and Sweden (1 783). Congress wanted to establi sh a system that would govern trade with all nations. In pursuit of this objecti ve, model treaties that provided for the pro tection of American prope rty and citizens in fo reign lands were negotiated with Prussia (1785) and Mo rocco (1787).

The intercession of Spain m ade it possible fo r the US to reach an ag reement with the sultan of Morocco. Under the terms of the m odel treaty, in the event of a wa r between the two nations, cap tives wo uld not be enslaved but treated as prisoners of wa r.

The treaty also included an a rra ngement whereby, in cases of disputes between US citizens residing in Morocco, the American consul wo uld decide between them, and, if necessa ry, the federal government wo uld enfo rce the decision of the con sul.

Efforts by A merica n diplomats to negotiate model treaties w ith other Barba ry States and efforts in Turkey, Austri a, and

D enmark all fa iled because of the inability of the US government, under the Articles of Confederation, to en fo rce its treaties in all thirteen states. The need fo r a st ronger central government led to the Consti t utional Convention and to a new fo rm of government under th e U nited States Consti tutio n in 1787.

Members of the fi rst Con gress under the Co nstitution m et in New York C ity beginning on 4 M arch 1789, but busi ness in the H ouse of Representatives could not begin until a quo rum was reached on 6 Ap ril. Vice President John Adams assumed his duties as chair of the Senate on 21 April.

In the Ho use, fifty-five of the seventy-four m en selected by the state legislatures were in attendance by the end of June. At the start of deliberations, mos t of the work was associated with a dozen delegates, and some of them seem to have had an understanding and app reciation of the viral role that m aritime commerce would play in fundin g the new government. A m on g the pro blem s discussed was the need to put in place rules fo r the establishment of custom s districts fo r the collection of duties on imported goods, as well as reg ulations governing ships, shipowners, and sailors.

O ne of the new co ngressm en w ith a particular interest in the health of sailors was W illiam Lo ugh ton Smith of Sout h Carolin a. He was bo rn in C harleston in 1758, the son of a local planter who owned an estate o utside of the city. His fa ther 1 John Robe re Irelan, History ofthelife, administration and times ofJames Madison, Fourth President of the United States: Struggle for Constitutional Government and second War with England (Ch icago: Fa irba n ks & Pa lm er, 1886) 278 .

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

"The Sailor's Return, Or British Valor Rewarded, " etching by S. B. after Edward Young, 1783. exported to G rear Britain m a ny of rhe things he grew. Smith Sr. also sent his son to a preparatory school in England during 1770- 1774. After rhar, the son studied law for a year at rhe Middle Temple in London, followed by four years of rhe advanced study of law in Geneva, Switzerla nd. Thus, he spent most of rhe years of rhe Am erican Revolution abroad . The death of his fa ther led to his return home, where he inherited money and property. Admitted to rhe South C arolina bar in 1784, Smith began his law practice in Charleston . Thar same year, he became a member of the Privy Council and of rhe South C arolina House of Representatives, where he served a fo ur-yea r term .

During rhar rime he also served a year as warden of Charleston . M eanwhile, he also kept abreast of rhe agricultural production on his estate and its shipment.

His fa ther's and his own business m ay have m ade him aware rhar sailors from the visiting ships rhar were loading and unloading cargo sometimes arrived in port ill, or becam e sick while they were there. This resulted in costs to rhe city, especially when the seamen were left in port as their ships sailed away. Early attempts to deal w ith rhis pro blem led to rhe beginnings of a hospital for seamen in a fo rt at Point Com-

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

fo rt, n ear No rfo lk, Virginia, in 1708.

Later, Virginia began rhe construction of a m arine hospital in 1788- 89. No rth Carolina established a hospital fund for m ariners in 1789. Ir wo uld seem rhar Smith and his consti tuency were awa re of these things, as well as at least some of rhe British naval precedents. What were these precedents?

After years of contracting our the care of sick sailors to private citizens and businesses, rhe Royal Navy recognized rhe need fo r a hospital , especially in wartime. In 1694 during the reign ofWilliam and M ary, King William III issued a charter, which was rhe founding document fo r rhe Royal

H ospira! ar G reenw ich . The king and rhe archbishop of Canterbury donated money to help fund rhe hospital; Sir C hri stopher W ren, rhe architect, submitted a design fo r the hospital free of cha rge. An appeal to the public for fin ancial support resulted in a slow resp on se . Therefore, Pa rliam ent passed a law in 1696 authorizing the deduction of a sixpence a month fro m the pay of registered seam en in rhe navy as a contribution to rhe hospital and as a type of health insurance for their own needs. Bur it was no r until 1704 rhar rhe first surgeon, m at ron, and nurses were employed. Under an act of Parliam ent passed in 1710, m erchant seamen who were disabled in raking or defending a ship were eligible to receive m edical care at rhe hospital. By this time, G reenw ich h ad become a place w h ere sai lo r p ension ers sp ent their d eclining yea rs. British subjects sailing from ports in the A m erica n colonies were also obliged to pay rhe tax that suppo rted G reenwich , starring in 1729.

The need fo r a hospital for active-duty m en was now widely recognized in the navy. In 1745 a large new hospital, named H aslar, was built outside of G osport in H ampshire. A lrhough nor completed until 1761 , some ofirs wards were in use in 1754.

Construction of a second naval hospital at Stonehouse-near Plymouth-was starred in 1758 and a part of it was opened for patients beginning in 1760.

Just h ow much of this ac tivity was known to influential people in rhe Am erican colonies is nor known, bur certainly anyone connected with maritime commerce probably was aware of the tax rhar began in 1729. Of course, those involved in illegal

Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich, Engraving by T Higham, after G. Moore, 1883

25

trade wi th French and Spanish colonies in the W es t Indies or w ith the respec tive mo ther countries did not pay this tax.

None of these taxes or government support benefitted the colonists in North A m erican ports, where sick and injured seamen from visiting ships were put as hore.

The burden of their care fell upo n the local communities, who, in turn, sought to pass those costs on to the m as ters of the ships involved or the government of the colony.

William Loughton Smith 's knowledge and broad experience m ade him an attractive candidate to represent South Carolina in the First Federal C ongress, and he won the election fo r the position late in 1788.

William Loughton Smith (1758-1812). One of Smith's first efforts in Congress was to advocate that the federal government establish hospitals to care for sick and disabled seamen.

H e took his seat on 13 April 1789. Three m onths later, Sm ith urged that a committee be appointed to prepare a bill fo r the establishment of hospitals for sick and disabled seam en a nd for the regulation of harbors. The H ouse agreed, and a committee was fo rmed consisting of Smith, George C lymer of Pennsylva nia, and D aniel Carro ll of Maryland. On 27 A ug ust 1789, Smi th presented the bill, which said that hospitals should be established in seapo rt towns as the president directed . They wo uld be m aintained thro ugh a deduction from the wages of sailors, which the captains of visiting ships would pay to customs officers

26

when the vessel fi rst entered an A merican port. Smith 's bill was read twice a nd referred ro the Committee of the W hole H ouse. It was to be considered in September, but was later referred to the next session of C ongress. There the bill died.

The surviving documentation does not indicate the reasons fo r the delay in add ressing the issue. Some of th is may have been related to Smith 's personality and his values. John Rutledge Jr. of South Ca rolina resented his colleague's enthusiasm for British interes ts; others we re apparently put off by his views that legislators should do their duty by working for the common good and fo r the unity of society-a nd to disdain popularity. Smith lived and wo rked by these standards, but some of his contemporaries thought he was priggish . His biographer, George C. Rogers Jr., described him in his 1962 book as a "Federalist's Federalist." Both Geo rge Washington and Alexander H amilton held favora ble views of Smith.

While Congress did not adopt Sm ith's bill regarding hospiLals, it did adva nce the effort to improve the lives and working conditions of sailors on 20 July 179 0 when it passed an act for the regulation of those employed in the merchant service. It was an attempt to put some limits and obligatio ns on sailo rs, captains, and own ers.

Among other thi ngs, it required ships of fift y rons o r m ore ro carry minimum am o unts of water, recently salted m eat, bread, and a medical chest. If m embers of Congress had a ny doubts about the ability of captains to use the contents of the medical chest effectively, they were not recorded . The legislato rs ass umed that it was sufficient to m ake su re that a ship of any size and with more than a h and ful of sailors ought to h ave some m eans of dealing with simple medical problem s.

In commercial circles, there was an awareness of the need for t he new federal government to appoint consul s in certain fo reign pons . These we re the officials who handled the paperwork associated with the p urch ase of goods fo r shi pm ent ro the U nited States in A merican ships. Consuls had the most contact with ship captains and sa ilors away from hom e. In response to this need and in anticipation of the action by C ongress, in 179 0 President Wash-

ingron appointed twelve consuls and five vice co nsuls at va rio us p orts aro und the world. The individuals named to these positions were Americans who were or pl anned to be engaged in trade at the various ports.

In locations where no Americans were available, fo reigners were appointed to represent the interests of the United States. Consuls were not paid a salary. Their remuneration cam e fro m fees that they collected fo r their services. The appointment of these consuls met the immediate needs of those involved in fo reign commerce until Congress could fo rm a perm a nent consular establishment.

W hile the Constitution prov ided fo r the appointment of consuls, there was no law or regulation that defined the system or t hei r powers and duties. In the absence of such legislation, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson issued a circula r on 26 August 1790 setting fo rth their duties . These included the requirement that a report be sent to the State D epartment every six months listing the US vessels that h ad entered or cleared a particular port, as well as commercial informatio n and news of any n1ilitary preparations. In the event that a wa r was immi nent, it was the duty of consuls to wa rn American merchants and vessels in their a rea . Consuls were given the autho rity to appoint consula r age nts to sm aller ports w ithin their jurisdiction . This increased the info rmation to which they had access. As fo r sailors, Jefferson's instructions required th at their number be included along with the nam es of m as ters of every American ship that to uched at a particul ar port. W ithi n a few momhs, Jefferson learned that these regulations were insufficient to address all the needs of consuls at va rious ports.

Consul Joshua Johnson in London reported in the fa ll of 1791 that A m erican sailors who were disch arged from British warships could not get employm ent and were not able to feed or house themselves .

Ma ny Am erican captains dem anded three to six guineas and the cost of the man's foo d in advance before letting one of these stranded Am ericans join their crews. In addition to these fees, the men were also expected to wo rk fo r the ship during the voyage hom e.

Bri tish ships bound fo r the United States wo uld no t rake A m erican sailors as crew because it was assumed the men wo uld leave

SEAHISTORY 153 , WINTER 2015- 16

the ship when it reached the United States.

Cons ul Johnson tried to support these men w ith his own fin ancial resources, but he hoped that Secretary Jefferson wo uld present these fac ts to Congress and that he would be reimbursed for his relief expenditures. As Johnson and Jefferson found out, it took the Congress some rime to consider the problem in a systematic m anner.

Congress passed the first law governing the duties and powers of consuls on 14 April 1792. In cases of shipwreck, sickness, or captivity affec ting m ariners employed in ships belonging to citizens of the United States, it was the duty of consuls and vice consuls to prevent the men from suffering in foreign ports. They were to provide for them in the most reasonable fashion at the expense of the United Stares government, subj ect to the instructions of the secretary of state and not exceeding a per diem allowance of twelve cents per day. In addition, vessels owned by US citizens that were destined for an American port were obligated to carry home stranded m ariners and seamen free of charge if a consul or vice consul requested them to do so. A quota of two sailors or mariners for every 100 tons burden of a ship was established by law. Men being returned were required to work in the ship if they were able to do so. A ny master or captain who refused rhe order or request of the consul or vice consul to transport the designated mariners was to be fined $30 for each man refused.

The 1792 law also stated that when a ship or vessel belonging to citizens of the United States was sold in a foreign port or place, and unless the crew were bound by contract or consent to be discharged there, the master must furnish them with sufficient means for them to return home. The amount necessary for the trip was to be ascertained by the consul or vice consul of the United States who had jurisdiction over the port or place. If the master refused to do so, the consul or vice consul could have him arrested and the ship and goods seized until he complied. Experience showed that the lat ter provision was not enforceable.

Meanwhile, rhe Boston Marine Society, a long-established organization of sh ipmasters, determined that hospitals for sailors were needed in New England and elsewhere and that such institutions should be the

SEA HISTORY 153 , WINTER 2015- 16

responsibility of the federal government. A petition was drawn up and sent to Congress in 1791 with supporting letters. Members of the Society proposed that three marine hospitals be established, one for the northeastern, another for the mid-Atlantic, and a third for the southern states. When their petition reached the House of Representatives, that body already had a bill pending from the previo us session, therefore the petition was tabled. On 7 February 1792, it was referred to Secretary of the Treasury Alexander H a milton, who was to examine it a nd give his opinion at the next session of C ongress .

Before H amilton could reply, the subject came up in a new context when rhe Virginia legislature offered to sell to the federal government the marine hospital it h ad established near Norfolk. This proposal was also forwarded to Hamilton for comment. With both these proposals in hand, H amilton replied that the establishment of one or more marine hospitals in the United Stares was desirable for several reasons. First, "the interests of humanity are concerned in it, from its tendency to protect from want and misery, a very useful, and for the most part, a very needy class of the community." Second, by affo rding protection and relief, it wo uld attract seam en to the country, and, as a result, navigation and trade would be improved. Ten cents a month could be collected from the wages of seamen to create a fund suggested by the petition from rhe marine society. "The benefit of the fund ought to extend not only to the disabled and decrepit seamen, bur also to the widows and children of those who may be ki lled or drowned, in the course of thei r service as seamen." Hamilton also had recommendations in regard to directors who would serve without compensation for this charitable purpose.

The society's petition suggested rhe establishment of three hospitals, bur for a considerable time, one would probably do.

More hospitals wo uld mean more expen se, bur the additional ones wo uld have some adva ntages in terms of local fee lings and considerations. In rhe end, H am ilton left to Congress the decision on whether the offer from Virginia should be accep ted .

Congress postponed its decision.

Deliberations became more compli-

cared when France declared war on Great Britain early in 1793 . This news did not reach the federal government under President George Washington in New York until 3 April. After con ferring with his advisors, Was hington issued a proclamation of ne utrality on 22 April. The French governm ent regarded this action as a repudiation of the Franco-American alliance of 1778 and subsequently ordered the seizure of neutral vessels carrying provisions to enemy ports. The British government followed suit by issuing orders for the seizure of neutral vessels carrying provisions to France.

On 7 March 1794, Fulwar Skipwith , the US consul at Martinique, a French colony in rhe West Indies, informed Secretary of State Edmund Randolph that approximately 220 American ships h ad been seized and taken into various British ports in the Caribbean, and that, thus fa r, 150 had been condemned. Their crews were subsequently turned loose with no means of support. Many gathered on the Durch island of Sr. Eustarius seeking a passage to the United States. While they waited, Skipwirh supplied them with bread, beef, water, and housing. Skipwirh explai ned that he took these actions because if the men were not cared for, they might be forced to enter into the service of ano ther nation. Washington forwarded this information to Congress, along with a request that the consul be recompensed for his outlays . Congress did as the president recommended, and later that year Skipwith received $995 for his expenses.

Secretary Randolph also wrote to Washington about the amount of "mercantile capital" that might be lost as the result of the large number of American sailors "who are now wandering on foreign shores, anxious, bur unable to return home. They would undoubtedly be swallowed up in the service of another nation that may be hostile to [the United States]."

Congress responded to these new threats to American commerce by imposing duties on various items imported from France and Great Britain. Ir also placed a thirty-day embargo on ships in US ports that were bound fo r fo reign ports. The ships could sai l if they gave a bond to the collector of custom s based on doubling the value of the ship and its cargo. The president was 27

authorized to grant clearances for any ship heading beyond the tip of Africa.

W hile th ese proposals and requests were being considered in Congress, Supreme C ourt Justice John Jay successfully negotiated a treaty with Great Britain that addressed , in part, shipping and trade. The Treaty of Amity Commerce and Navigation, between His Britannic Majesty; and the U nited States of America-also referred to as Jay's Treaty-was signed on 19 November 1794 and sent to the Senate for ratification. While it resolved some problems left over from the conclusion of the American Revolution and granted limited access to trade with India, it said nothing about neutral rights or impressment. Trade with the British West Indies was placed under enough restrictions that the Senate rejected that article. When news of the contents of the treaty reached the American public, it provoked outrage and opposition by much of the press. Nevertheless, the Senate ultimately ratified the treaty by a two-thirds m ajority on 22 June 1795. Disagreements over the terms of the treaty contributed to an anti-administration stance and the emergence of an organized political opposition.

Historians have generally agreed that, despite its shortcomings, the treaty was the best that could be expected given the position of the United States at that time. The French regarded the Jay Treaty as a further repudiation of the Franco-American treaty of 1778 that aggravated existing tensions between the two nations.

In February 1796, the House appointed a committee to inquire and report on legislation for the relief of American seamen impressed into the service of a foreign power. Assigned to this committee was Edward Livingston of New York, who took his seat in the House on 4 March 1795 for the first session of the fourth Congress, and who soon became an important new figure in the struggles for justice for the American sailor. A lso on the committee were Benjamin Bourne of Rhode Island, John Swanwich of Pennsylvania, Samuel Smith of Maryland, and William L. Smith of South Carolina. William Smith, the congressional pioneer in the cause of healrhcare for sailors, was back in the fight for a short period.

Livingston drafted a report, which was discussed and incorporated into a bill that was

28

Edward Livingston (1764-183 6) represented New York in Congress from 1795 to 1800.

H e would later serve the nation as President Jackson's secretary ofstate. passed by the House. The Senate amended the bill, and the House accepted the changes. The m easure was signed imo law on 28 May. It provided for the appointment of two agents, one of whom wo uld reside in Great Britain and the other in the West Indies, whose duties involved investigating the situation of any American citize n who was impressed or detained by a foreign power. Every legal means was to be used to free a citizen so detained. Other provisions required the collectors of customs to grant certificates of citizenship to any sailor who produced proof of the same. In cases of impressment, the master of the ship from which the sailor was removed was to report the incident to the consul or the diplomatic minister at the first opportunity.

President Washington sent Congress his last report on the state of the nation on 7 December 1796. In it he noted that it was too soon to fully ascertain the effect of the recently passed legislation for the protection and relief of American seamen, but he had reason to believe that it would be beneficial. He cited som e progress in freeing sailor prisoners elsewhere. H e added that, "To secure res pect to a neutral fl ag requires a naval force, organized and ready to vindicate it from assault and aggression."

Later in his report he shared recently re-

ceived correspondence on commerce: "Our trade has suffered and is suffering extensive injuries in the West Indies, from the cruisers and agents of the French republic."

On 20 December, the House appointed a committee to inquire into the effectiveness of the laws for the protection of American seamen and to offer any necessary amendments. Congressman Livingston was again appointed to head the committee. To prepare for the task, he reques ted and received information from Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, which he presented to his colleagues on 18 February 1797. His report provided statistics on the number of men impressed and also included information on the effectiveness of the earlier legislation requiring the masters of American ships to bring home without charge at least two sailors fo und in any po rt for every 100 tons of his vessel. In practice, masters would take them only if they needed more crew to man the ship. If they were fully manned, masters ty pically contrived to evade the law. According to the attorney general, there was no effective way to prosecute them. In the m any foreign ports where there was no American consul in residence, sailors in distress h ad no one to turn to for help.

Instead , Pickering suggested that a tax on every vessel or on every seam an would provide an adequate fund to send home those stranded in foreign ports.

On the m atter of consuls caring for sick seamen in foreign ports, an allowance of twelve cents a day was deemed inadequate. In E urope, that sum would buy only one meal a day. The existing law required cons uls to support seamen at their own expense, including the cost of physicians and nurses, and there was no provision for burying the dead.

Pickering also sent information on the lack of respect by the British for the certificates carried by American seamen to protect them from impressment. In the past, British officers had respected Americans' documentation of citizenship, but later they claimed that British citizens had either been given these certificates or h ad procured them surreptitiously. Pickering acknowled ged that it was "highly probable" that there were some abuses, but he understood that sometimes, for example, seamen lost their documents and consuls had to issue

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

replace ments. H e recommended that rules be enac ted to preve nt the loss of faith in rhe validity of the consular seal on a document. The House proceeded to improve the law with regard to impressm ent. The bill passed in the House bur died in rhe Senate.

In February 1797, a H ouse committee reported that a number of seam en, both nati ve and foreign born, were a rriving in US pores and becoming a burden on public hospitals. To aid rhe situation, rhe com mittee recommended increasing tonnage duties on vessels enterin g A merica n ports, and sugges ted rhar a monthly sum be deducted from the wages of all seamen sailing from US ports to fund the tempo rary relief of sick and disabled seamen and fo r fo unding hospitals for their care.

Such was the state of things when John Adams became president on 4 March 1797.

The fo llowing November he sent a message to Congress rhar set forth his views on the impo rta nce of commerce to rhe nation . In summary: "Commerce has made rhis country what it is, and it cannot be destroyed or neglected without involving rhe People in poverty and distress." H e recommended a reexamination of the legislation in regard to distressed seamen .

O nce again a committee was appointed to inquire into rhe operation oflegislarion fo r the relief and protection of Am erican seamen. Six days later the committee's c ha irma n, George D ent o f Maryland, submitted several resolutions ai m ed at implementing some of Secretary Pickerin g's suggestions. One of these di rec ted the secretary of stare to present an abstract of the returns from port collectors a nd repo rts of the agents of the law. A lso, instead of paying an allowance to consuls a nd vice consuls, a provision should be made allowing a sum of so many cents a day ro each man to d efray the cost of tra nspo rting sick m ariners ro the United Srares .

Apparently, leadership of the H ouse was dissatisfied with the recommendatio ns made by D em 's committee. A nother possibility allows rhar the committee's views were similar to those of Livingston, and it wo uld be more efficient to have all matters relating to sailors under one comm ittee.

W hatever rhe situation was, rhe responsibil iries prev iously given ro D em 's committee were tra nsferred to Livingston's.

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

gions would provide for sick seamen. H e added rhar much reliance had been placed on the example of England, bur the establishments there were for Royal Navy seamen, and those in rhar navy contributed to their current expense. The two cases were very different a nd he hoped rhar the proposed bill wo uld nor pass.

Thom as Pinckney of South Carolin a presented a different view. He said that Sewell was mistaken in his belief rhar the people of M assachusetts would face double taxation. If the current bill was passed, he argued, the burden imposed on the srare would be removed . Sewell was also mistaken about the erection of large hospital structures. These were a secondary obj ective-relief from distress was the prima ry goal. A fter rhar was attended to and there President john Adams (1735-1826) signed was a surplus of funds , it would be applied into law the Act for the Relief of Sick and to suitable buildings as hospitals. Since rhe Disabled Seamen in 1798. eastern stares furn ished at least three-fifth s W hen rhe H ouse rook up the discus- of the country's seamen, Pinckney thought sion again in February 1798, Livi ngston's rhar they should be interested in providing committee was ordered to prepare two bills. support for them. Ir was his hope rh ar rhe One would be devoted to new legislation bill would pass. on the relief of sick and disabled seam en Congressman Livingston, rhe commitoverseas, and a second one on hospitals in tee chair who drafted rhe pending bill, then the Uni ted Stares. A lexander H amilton's rook to the floo r to defend ir. H e said that report on m arine hospita ls and related pa- objections to the bill were based on rwo pers was referred to Livingston's committee. points: The first was its inequality in regard On Livingston's m orion, the H o use dis- to different pa res of the Union. Th ar point cussed rhe establishment of a marine hos- had been answered despite the "pertinacious pital and the bes t method fo r securing the opposition" of the representative from Massupport from sa ilors fo r it. Fortunately, a sachusetts. The president had the power ro summary of rhar debate was preserved and appropriate money for the tempora ry relief ir allows us to get some in sight into rhe of seam en. Massachusetts and any other minds of a few members of the House who stare wo uld be reimbursed for money spent had to vote on the m easure. fo r this purpose. Provisions we re already Representative Samuel Sewell of M as- in place for the care of sick seam en in sachusetts sa id that in h is stare there were Philadelphia, New York, and C harles ton. already provisions in place to care fo r sick In the course of a year, N ew York generand disabled perso ns -including seam en, ally rook on the responsibility ro care for therefore the pro posed law amounted to about 300 sick seamen . Livings ton sa id double taxa tion . H e do ubted the propriety rh ar it was his belief rhar rhe people of of taxing seamen fo r what should be con- Massachusetts would not object ro paying sidered as public ch arity. A sm all part of twenty cents a month for "so va luable an the community wo uld be taxed for hospi- object" as a sailor. H e is "a proper o bject tal benefits that wo uld probably n ot be for the care of rhe G overnment." The presavailable for fi fty yea rs. Ir wo uld rake rhar ident wo uld apply the money raised to care lon g ro accumulate funds for "splendid fo r sick sa ilors. If any surplus rem ained it buildings" robe buil t. The only reason fo r wo uld be expended "in a fru gal way" rh ar the bill was to provide for New England was conducive "to rhe happiness and comseamen who became sick in rhe Sourh . Ir fo rt of this class of m en, and to the honor was his hope that the people in those re- of the nation ."

29

Sewell rook che floor again to answer passing che pending bill, permanent relief Livings ton. H e said chat on che matter of wo uld be afforded them in cases of sickness, double raxation, M assachusetts seamen disability, or old age. would still have to pay town taxes as well A nocher M assachusen s representacive, as the proposed federal tax for their health . Joseph B. Varnum, chen rook che floor. H e As for his lack of benevolence toward sailors, said char he did noc know if the federal he claimed thac he had a greacer respecc for government h ad the power to enacc the chem chan Livi ngston, but it was his belief proposed legislacion, as che business conthac sailors could rake care of chemselves. cerned the legislamres of the individual The proposed bill aimed to erecc hospirals, states. If the U n ited Scates thought thac which would supporc American seamen as sailors, as a class of men, were more imporwell as chose from foreign countries . Amer- tant than any other, then ''che people ac ican sailors were being asked to support a large" should be called upon to suppo rt public ch aricy from which few would ben- chem in distress. If hospitals were to be efit. It would be different if m oney were used for chis purpose, then "the public needed only fo r current expenses. oughc to supporc chem, and noc che sailors As fo r che remarks by Congressman themselves." One of his colleagues used che Pinckney, Sewell said char if N ew England cerm federalism. Ifhe meanr che federalism sailors did not wa nt the proposed rax, why char supported the Constitution, he did should chey be fo rced to pay it? Sewell be- not see how char could be reconciled with lieved char N ew E ngland sailors wo uld the clause in the C onstitucion rhac said prefer to ra ke cheir chances on healthcare "that no capitation, or other direct tax, shall abroad rather than be taxed fo r fo reigners. be laid, unless in proportion to che census In addition, chis tax-he claimed-would or enumeration directed to be taken." He drive sailors from the country. With regard did not think that the proposed tax was to federalism, he favo red every measure char consistent with federal principles . The sa ilwo uld establish harmony between the dif- ors of his state would be called upon to ferent pans of the country, bur it did nor support an establishment in w hich they include "raxing a single order of men on had little interest. this account."

Pennsylva nia's Al bert Gall atin next The discussion of the pending bill and joined che debate. H e said chat che pending ics impac t was next addressed by Represen- bill ass umed thac seamen were noc able to racive Samuel Smich of M a ryland. H e provide for themselves, which he did noc stated that no sailor would obj ecc to paying believe to be the case. H e could not consent che proposed rax for healchcare, buc he be- to building hospitals for sailors. It would lieved char chis rax would evenmally be paid be better for them if they were dispersed by the merch ant or che landlord since chey chroughout the count ry. Providing a fund generally goc che surplus of the sailor's for the relief of sailors should be considered money. a tax on labor. Some sailors would pay this, Next to speak was Virginia's Jos iah but mosc of the burden wo uld fall on merParker, who criticized Sewell for noc con- ch ants and the communicy. If che Eastern sidering all seamen of che United Scares as states, which provided two- thirds of the sranding on the same ground. The proposed n ation's mariners, were against the probill did not provide support for foreigners, posed tax, their wishes should be consultbuc for che relief of American citizens. When ed. Without knowing the wishes of Philache country was chreacened with wa r, whac delphians -his co nstituem s-h e felt he encouragement was chere for men to enter was unable to make an info rmed vo te and into serv ice in vessels if there was no "asy- requesced more rime to obtain info rmation lum" fo r them when they were sick and on the topic. H e moved chat the voce on wounded ? The British sailor could look to che bill be poscponed for two days so char G reenwich H ospira! when his working life he and his colleagues could make some was over. Perhaps in some measure that is inquiries on the subject. why they were so valiant in battle. He hoped Livings ron h ad no obj ection to che th at A merican sailors "would noc be left to poscponement. H e ass umed chat the situthe doubcful benevolence of foreigners." By ation in Philadelphia was about che same

30

as that in New Yo rk, and that the result of G allatin's inquiries wo uld be favorable to the pending bill. The H ouse then agreed to delay consideration of the bill.

On 12 April, the H ouse resumed deliberations on the pending bill fo r the relief of sick and disabled seamen. D espite considerable opposicion from che representatives from Massachusects- Sewall, H arrison G ray Oris, and John Reed- the bill passed wich fi ft y-nine voces .

The measure was then referred to the Senate, where it was read for the first time rhac same day. le was referred to a committee consisting of Benjamin Goodhue of M assac husetts, John Langdon of New H ampshire, and J aco b Reed of South Carolina. Subsequently, Langdon rook a leave of absence from che Senate and was replaced on the committee by Samuel Livermore of New H ampshire.

The bill was taken up again on 14 July and passed, wich amendments. President Adams, who earlier in his career had been a member of the Boston M arine Society, signed the measure into law the next day.

U nder the terms of this law, the master or owner of every ship or vessel of the U niced States, upon arriving from a fo reign port, had to give to the collector of customs a report on the number of sailors employed in che ship since ics lase entry. H e was to pay che collector cwenty cents a month fo r each sailor, which was deducted from the m an's pay. Similar arrangements applied to those engaged in the US coastal trade.

The funds wo uld provide temporary relief to sick and disabled seamen in hospitals or other proper institutions in American ports.

W hen sufficient funds had been collecced , the pres ident was authori zed to acquire existing buildings to be made into hospitals or to have hospitals built for sick and disabled sailors. So it was that during the administration of President John Adams, the United States C ongress passed the firsc compulsory healthcare legislation. All sailors who were involved in che operacion of an A merican ship engaged in m aritime commerce were obliged to conuibute a fi xed amount fro m their monthly pay to a fund fo r their own healthcare. Because the law covered all sailors who were members of a ship's company, it also included any foreigners in che crew.

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- l6

Meanwhi le, Livingston presented rhe second of his commirree's bills relaring to rhe healrh of sailors. The House and Senare approved rhe measure, and ir became law on 18 April 1798. This appropriared up to $30,000 and aurhorized American consuls to use ir to supporr rhe claims of American cirizens in foreign tribunals for caprured property or for rhe relief of sick and desrirure sailors beyond rhe amount already allorred for rhar purpose.

By rhese measures, rhe Congress mandared rhar sailors contribure money to a fund for rhe expenses associared wirh any sickness while rhey were in rhe Unired Stares, and the government paid through its consuls for medical care for its sick sailors abroad. In March 1799, the first three sections of rhe law of 1796 for the relief and prorecrion of American sailors were revived and continued for another yea r. An amendment to rhe new law required the secretary of state to provide early in each session of Congress an abstract of all returns sent to him by rhe collectors of customs at different ports and communications from agents in foreign countries .

,.

The law's provisions later were extended to navy sailors, and, in September 1799, rhe secretary of the navy was authorized to deduct rwenty cents per month from the pay of every officer, sailor, a nd marine and to pay the sums collecred to rhe secrerary of rhe treasury.

The passage of rhe mandatory federal healthcare legislation rook place at a time when many of those who drafred the US Constitution were still alive. Summaries of rhe debares in Congress on rhe measures indicare rhar only one member of Congress raised the issue of the constirutionality of rhe pending measure and his a rgument seems to have had little or no impact. Judging by the results, no one questioned rhe aurhoriry of the president or the Congress or the American consuls to provide for sick sailors in foreign ports. From this it was not too grear a leap to argue that the government should provide for them at home as well. Sailors were an important part of waterborne commerce, and rhat activity was vital to rhe economic healrh and furure of rhe narion.

Previous reports on the origins of fed-

EXRERIENCH, REA路t 路HH/SlORK路"路" ;:~.

era! healthcare tended to see the issue in terms of rhe domesric aspecrs and did not consider rhe role of American consuls in rhe care and feeding and housing of sailors borh before and afrer rhe mandarory assessments on sailors for rhe cosr of rheir care. Recounting rhe fu ll hisrory of rhe implementarion of rhese laws requires anorher srudy. j:,

Harold D . Langley is the Emeritas Curator ofNaval History at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum ofAmerican History and a former professor and adjunct p rofessor at the Catholic University ofAmerica in Washington, D C. H e is the author of A History of Medicine in rhe Early US Navy, p ublished in 1995. In 2014, along with three other historians, he received the Naval Historical Foundation's Dudley W Knox Naval H istory Lifetime Achievement Award. D r. Langley's University ofPennsylvania doctoral dissertation, Social Reform in rhe US Navy, 1796-1862, published by the University ofILLinois Press in 1967, was reprinted in paperback in March 2015 by the Naval Institute Press.

Affordable Luxury When You're Anchored in Boston The anti qu ity and charm of t he origin al Mariners House has been updated to includ e all the mo dern amenit ies, featuring co mpl ete ly re novated private roo ms, private baths, elegant commo n rooms and all the in-roo m necess ities of mod ern life.

Starting at

~65

per night

including 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 2113 Voice (617) 227-3979 Fax (617) 227-4005 inn@marinershouse.org www.marinershouse.org To Make a Reservation, call 1-877-SEA-9494

SEAHISTORY 153 , WINTER2015- 16

31

Cutterman Hugh George Campbell: Master and Commander of Super-Cutter Eagle and Forgotten Hero of the Quasi War

by William H . Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian, Uni red Srares Coas r G uard n rhe !are 1790s, rhe U n ired Srares and Revolurionary France began fighring an undeclared naval war know n as rhe " Qu as i W a r," sremming from di sagreemenrs over rrearies and American neurraliry regarding rhe conflicr berween France and G rear Brirain . Wirh only a sm all naval force available ar rhe rime, federal aurho riries called on rhe US Revenue C urrer Service to prorecr American m erch antmen and d efend againsr French privaree rs. The narion's firsr revenue cuners we re small lighrly armed vessels rhar cruised for only days ar a rime our of rheir homeporrs along rhe Easr Coasr. The service quickly builr a class of small wa rships, or "super-currers," rh ar marched or exceeded rhe speed and armamenr of rhe enemy's priva reers.

This new class of cuners included rhe Eagle, Pickering, and Scammel, which all parricipared in combar operarions durin g rhe Quasi W ar. Pickering was one of rhe srandours of rhis class, capruring nearly rwenty prizes and privareers, including l 'Egypte Conquise, a privareer rhar carried almosr double Pickering's weapons and crew, and surrendered only afrer a brural nine-hour barde. Sailing under M as rer Hugh George Campbell, Eagle commanded rhe bes r warrime record of captures for any Unired Srares vessel.

I

Hugh Campbell was born in Sourh Ca rolina in 1760. T he son of Irish immigranrs, he was a sober and indusrrious yourh who turned to seafaring ar an early age. In 1775, he rhrew in his lor wirh rhe parriors and volunteered to serve on board rhe schooner Defence, rhe firsr warship commissioned by Sourh Carolina in rhe W ar of Independence. Afrer rhe war, he made Charleston his home and spenr much of his n aval career based our of Sourh Carolina and neighboring Georgia. H e was a member of Sr. Paul's Episcopal C hurch in C harleston, and, as he grew wealrhier ove r time he acquired slaves , as was common among rhe properried of Sourh Carolina ar rhat rime.

C ampbell did nor indulge in autobiography, so lirde is known of him in the years followin g rhe A m erican Revolurion. He did work, however, as a merchant m ariner, gaining a great dea l of seafaring experience in rhe 178 0s. H e also became a friend of mercha nt caprain W illiam Jones, a man of Campbell 's age who made Charleston a base for his shipping business . A narive of Philadelphia, Jones later becam e a US represenrarive fro m Pennsylvania and rhen secrerary of rhe navy, and likely had some influence on Campbell 's career.

A modern p rofile view of the cutter Eagle, based on data from historical records and documents.

US. Revenue: Cuner

EAGLE 1799 -1801

.- -.=..

USCG CO LLECTION

32

Hugh Ca mpb ell never m a rried , devoring his life to the sea and rhe men who served wi rh him. In 1791 , he compered for command of rhe revenue cuner under consuucrion fo r rhe C harles ton srarion, named South Carolina, which was one of rhe firsr vessels builr fo r rhe US Revenue C urrer Service. Bur P residenr George W ashington passed Campbell over for Revolurionary War hero Robert Cochran . lnsread , Campbell received a m ate's commission and served under Cochran for rhe nex r six yea rs. Firsr M ate Hugh Campbell was am ong rhe first officers commissioned into rhe Revenue C uner Service.

Few reco rds exisr abour rhe South Carolina's ope rari ons in the 17 90 s.

Weighing in ar a diminurive rhirry-eighr tons and lighdy armed , rhe currer likely held lirde sway in rhe port of C harleston.

Local merchants and citizens turned a blind eye as French priva reersmen armed and ourfined rheir ships in port and broughr in Brirish pri zes fo r adjudication in local cour rs . During these yea rs, Campbell conrinued ro serve on board rhe cuner, where he suffe red a serious leg wound. The cause of his injury is unknown, bur ir became increasingly debiliraring over rhe course of his life and likely contribured to his dearh in 1820.

By lare 1797, rhe southeas tern coast had become a hunting ground for French privareers preying on Brirish merchantmen.

On Tuesday, 10 October, an event occurred rhar promp red changes in C harleston and a new direcrion for Campbell 's career.

D am aged by a srorm , rhe Brirish merchanrm an Aracabessa limped inside rhe Charleston Bar fo r shelrer. A nearby French privareer soon eyed rhe crippled ship.

N orified of A racabessa's perilous situarion, rhe South Carolina ser sail for rhe Charleston Bar, bur arrived too !are to save the ship.

The Frenchmen had boarded rhe vessel, captured rhe crew, loored rhe merchantman and ser her on fire.

This incident enraged Brirish offici als and demonsrrared rhe weakness of maritime law enforcement in Sourhern warers. Ir also highlighred the need ro replace South

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

Carolina with a cutter able to match the firepower of the privateers sailing in and out of C harleston h arbor. In June 1798, the Service decommissioned and sold off the old South Carolina. With a n ew cutter under construction, the Revenue C utter Service chartered the privately owned ship Unanimity, armed her with fourteen guns and placed her under Cochran's command.

Within months, the more formidable South Carolina II took up station at C harleston under the command of a new master.

Elderly and out of favor with federa l officials, Cochran was let go by the service the same time it decommissioned the interim cutter Unanimity.

With Cochran's depart ure, Campbell was promoted. In July 1798, the Service m ade him a revenue cutter master and assigned him to one of the new supercutters . These new cutters incorporated Baltimore clipper-style hulls and exp ensive copper sheathing to keep their wooden planks free from shipworms and marine growth. Two sharply raked mas ts supported a fore-and-aft rig alow and square topsails aloft. Mariners of rhe day referred to these vessels as brigs. Their lofty spread of canvas and hydrodynamic hulls gave these cutters the speed necessary to overtake rhe swiftest privateers.

In August 1798, Campbell arrived in Philadelphia to rake possession of rhe recently launched super-curter Eagle for rhe Service and get her ready for sea and combat. The 187-ton vessel measured fift yeighr feet on rhe keel, with a twenty-foot beam and nine-foot hold. Eagle carried fo urteen 6-pound carriage guns on h er main deck. Ar about six feet in length and weighing roughly 700 pounds apiece, these 6-pounders required a high degree of skill, training, and physical strength to m ai ntain and operate. The cutter was likely pierced with extra gun ports for handling anchor lines and ranging cannon forward through the bow.

Problems h ad em erge d b efo re Campbell arrived in Philadelphia, adding weeks to Eagle's departure. A yellow fever epidemic had struck rhe ciry, and regulations forbidding en listment of black seam en delayed recruiting. Under orders from Navy Secretary Benj amin Stodden, Campbell did his bes t to "Enlist none but healthy

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 20 15- 16

Cutter Eagle in pursuit ofthe French p rivateer Le Bon Pierre in the West Indies, off Guadeloupe. Campbell and his crew successfully captured the French vessel, adding it to their growing tally of vessel seiz ures- and prize money for Eagle's captain and crew. white men, and give preference to Natives if they are to be had ." Compared to rhe old South Carolina's crew of ten men, Eagle required a complement of no fewer than seventy men to sail her, man her guns, board enemy ships and supply prize crews for captured vessels. The cutter's manning requirements included rhe m as ter, mares (first, second, and third) , boatswain, carpenter, gunner, able seamen, ordinary seamen, cook, steward, boys, and a contingent of fourteen marines.

Shortages of war material and provi sions further del aye d Eagle's deployment. Before sailing for the theater of operations, Eagle needed to load four months' worth of provision s and two months' supply of water. Philadelphia's naval suppliers were tasked with providing military stores, such as powder, Bines, cutlasses, pistols, blunderbusses and gun carriages. Eagle required forty ca n non ball s per 6-pound gun-a total of 560 cannon sh ot-that required additional time to acquire. Nevertheless, by !are November, Campbell was fully provisioned and ready to sail in harm's way with likely rhe swiftest vessel in the American fl eer.

Eagle's d eployment cam e none too soon as rumors spread rhar French privateers were cruising in Southern waters, causing concern among American merchants and shippers. Campbell received orders to patrol off the South Carolina and Georgia coasts, so he weighed anchor and set a course down

rhe Delaware River on his first war patrol since rhe American Revolution .

Campbell's mission showed rhe US flag along rhe coast and proved a success in the eyes of nervous merchants, bur Eagle encountered no enemy cruisers during her deployment. In January 1799, Campbell received new orders to rendezvous with rhe American naval squadron based at Prince Rupert's Bay, Dominica. Master Campbell set sai l for rhe Caribbean, initiating his two-year depredation of enemy shipping and privateers.

Before fa lling in with rhe American squadron, on 2 March, Eagle re-took rhe captured American sloop Lark from a French prize crew. As was rhe custom at rhe rime, revenue cutters and navy ships received prize money for capturing enemy vessels, or a smaller amount of salvage money for recapturing prize vessels. Lark proved rhe first of many re-taken vessels to line rhe pockets of Campbell and his men with salvage money. A lso during rh ar month, Congress enacted legislation that brought rhe Revenue C utter Service under rhe control of rhe US Navy in rime of war.

After this legislation became law, revenue cutters would serve as part of rhe navy during armed conflicts, as wo uld modern Coast G uard cutters centuries later.

In March 1799, Campbell reported for dury to squadron commander John Barry, captain of rhe 44-gun frigate USS United States. Eagle fell in with rhe rest of

33

the squadron, including h er sister ship

Nancy, homeward bound from a one-year

Pickering, en route to Prince Rupert's Bay,

voyage to the South Pacific. O utnumbered and outgunned, Reliance fled, leading the Richmond on a fourteen-hour chase, with the privateer escaping under cover of d arkness. Meanwhile, Eagle recaptured both Mehitable and Nancy, taking prisoner their French prize crews. Nancy alone carried tons of spermaceri oil valued at $50,000, a large fort une at that rime.

May 1799 proved lucrative for Campbell, including the final days of the

received a US Navy commission as "Master and Commandant," and on 2 August the located south of French Guadeloupe. By Treas ury Department transferred official this rime, the waters of the Caribbean had control of the cutter and her crew to the US become a lawless place, cruising gro unds Navy. of privateers and their prey. Within weeks In ea rly August, Campbell received of the rendezvous, Campbell had run as hore orders to sail south from Norfolk and rejoin a Fren ch priva teer at Barbud a a nd the American squadron. By early September, recaptured another prize ship ..

Eagle had re turned to Sc. Kitts and set sail At the time of Eagle's entry into the with the 20-gun sh ip USS D elaware, war, enemy priva teers operated out of capturing the French merchant sloop French Ca ribbean possess ions, such as Reynold, laden with sugar and molasses. On G uadeloupe and St. Martin. On Friday, 5 19 September, Eagle encountered a French April, Eagle gave chase to the G uadeloupeprivateer towing the American brig North based privateer Le Bon Pierre, pierced for Carolina. Eagle drove off the privatee r and ten guns but mounting only four, with retook the brig. On 2 October in company fifty-five men in her crew. The sloop fled with Commodore Tingey's 24-gun sloop and jettisoned two guns overboard to speed USS Ganges, Eagle captured the French h er escape, but Eagle overhauled the merchant schooner Esperance, carrying sugar privateer after a five-hour chase; the French and coffee. crew offered no resistance. Campbell placed Two days after capturing Esperance, a prize mas ter and crew on board the while an chored at Sc. Bartholom ew's, privateer to sail her to Sava nn ah for Campbell became party to one of the mos t adjudication. The Revenue C utter Service notorious mutinies of the day. Two weeks purchased the sloop for $2, 000 and into a voyage to Sc. Thomas, three seamen converted her into the cutter Bee to serve rook control of the schooner Eliza, of the Savannah station.

Philadelphia. The mutineers murdered the In mid-April, Eagle joined USS m ate, a sea man, and the superca rgo; Constitution (a warship Campbell wo uld however, they failed to kill the captain, who Revenue Cutter Service Eagle, one day command) to escort thirty-three kept rhe ship's only firearms locked in his

by Keith Colby British and American merchantmen out of cabin. Arm ed with his pistols, the captain the Caribbean. During convoy operations, m onth . On Wednesd ay, 29 May, Eagle managed to entrap the three men below it was Eagle's duty to fend off privateers and p artnered wi th th e 2 0 -gun ship USS decks, re- rake the ship and sa il sin glecruisers attempting to "cut out" merchant Baltimore to capture the privateer schooner handed for thirteen days before encountering vessels from the convoy. Eagle encountered Syren of four guns and thirty-six men. Later the Eagle. Campbell assisted the merchant at least one unidentified sail during the chat day, Eagle and the fri gate United States captain and put the three mutineers in irons. mission, but no merchant men we re lose. recaptu red the American sloop Hudson. H e later transferred the men to USS Ganges At the end of Ap ril, Eagle patrolled with T h ese captures add ed to Camp bell 's bound north for Philadelphia. Upon the revenue cutter Virginia and the 18-gun brig reputation as a combat commander and his wa rship's ar rival, local authorities tried and USS Richmond. Together they captured the net worth, increasing the riches he wo uld convicted the men of murder and piracy, French schooner Louis before returning to amass over the course of the war. and h an ged them on Wind Mill Island Prince Rupert's Bay. Spring 1799 had been a most successful across the Delawa re River from the city.

Ea rly in May, Eagle arrived at the season for Campbell, but summer brought Over the next six months, Campbell squadron's new base at Basseterre, Sc. Kitts, new missions. On 13 June Eagle a nd enjoyed a string of captures and recaptures the isla nd imm ediately north of Richmond served as escorts fo r a convoy on the high seas. On 5 December, Eagle G uadeloupe. From there, she re-joined USS sa iling from St. Kitts n orth toward retook th e brig George, and on 2 January Richmond and patrolled windward of Bermuda, wi th the two wa rships peeling she recaptured the brig Polly. On the 10'", Barbuda and Antigua. On the 15'h, the two off fo r Norfolk, Virginia. By July, Eagle was Eagle, together with the 28-gun fri gate USS brigs enco untered the French privateer laid up in Norfolk, undergoing repairs and Adams, captured the French priva teer Reliance, of fo urteen guns and seventy-five awa1 tln g replacement personnel. Fougueuse, of rwo guns and fifty men, and men, in consort with two prize ships. These Meanwhile, Sc. Kitts-based commodore recaptured the A merican prize ship Aphia.

American prize ships we re the brig Thomas T ingey se nt Navy Secretary Three week s later, Eagle captured the Mehitable, which had been sailing home to Benjamin Stodden dispatches begging for French schooner Benevolence, and a month Newburyport , Massachusetts, from the return of his top combat commanders, after that she recaptured the American Suriname; and the New Bedford whaler including Campbell. On 27 July Campbell schooner '.Th ree Friends. In April and May, 34

SEAHISTORY 153, WINTER2015- 16

A substantial number o/Eagle's prize vessels were actually the re-captures ofpreviously seized American ships, which had been taken as prizes by the French. In this painting, Eagle is depicted firing on the French privateer Reliance, from which Campbell and his crew regained control ofthe American ships Nancy, a New Bedford whaler, and Mehitable, homeward bound to New England from Suriname.

she seized a French privateer and recaptured two A m erican vessels-a sloop and a schooner.

Campbell 's combat record res ted on hi s so und lead ers hip , the prop er maintenance of his sh ip, and care of his crew. But combat also required so und judgement. Campbell had to rake risks and know when to press an attack and when not to. In early February 1800, he spotted two strange vessels, pursued them , a nd discovered the ships were French privateers with a fighting strength twice his own. H e outsailed the privateers, but not without suffering numerous hits from their guns.

In June, Eagle encountered an enemy privateer in company with three prize ships off Sr. Barthelemy (a.k.a. Sr. Barths).

Campbell attacked, but Eagle's sails and rigging were badly damaged before the privateer fled. Meanwhile, the three prize ships ran ashore, robbing Campbell of their salvage value.

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

Eagle had the good fortune to capture two French ships in June 1800, and to take a third in August. These vessels would be the last captures of Campbell 's two-year camp aign in the Caribb ean. D espite spending consid erable time escort ing convoys and refitting at home, Ca mpbell 's Eagle captured, or assisted in the capture, of twenty-two privateers, prize ships, and enemy merchantmen, and destroyed several more enemy ships run ashore.

Campbel l not only h ad command presence and seafaring ability, he had a lot of luck. By September 1800, Eagle was in rough shape with half her copper sheath ing gone and much of her hull planking infested with shipworms. Campbell received orders to escort a convoy north, together with the 26 -gun sloop USS Maryland, and then sa il home for a refit. While Eagle rode at anchor at St. Thomas, waiting for her convoy's fifty merchantmen to asse mble, a maj or hurricane swirled farther to the north,

forc ing other A merican warships to a fight for their survival. Top-heavy with thick m asts and spa rs and dozens of large cannon s, the frigate USS I nsurgent was likely the storm's first victim. She va nished from the sea's surface with her entire crew of 340 officers and men. The next victim was Eagle's sister ship Pickering, which had recently triumphed over the powerful privateer l'Egypte Conquise. But the victor was va nquished as the heroic cutter lost her battle with Mother Nature in the same storm. The next day, all that rem ained of Pickeringwas an overturned hull. Another of Eagle's sister ships, Scammel, survived the storm only by dumping her guns and excess gear. W hat the enemy had failed to do against the American squ adron in months of naval warfare, a violent storm executed in just hours. After the hurricane passed, Ca mpbell and his crew raised anchor and sailed north with the convoy, not knowing that their course took them

35

over rhe watery graves of 400 recendy lose on courts of inquiry for noted officers citizens. The Navy kept him on active duty Richard Morris and William Bainbridge. the rest of his life, and he served his last souls from the American squadron .

After Campbell complered chis final H e also sat on the court martial of Captain tour as commandant of the Navy's escort mission, he set a course for the James Barron for his 1807 peacetime Charleston Sration, later known as the Delaware Bay. On Sunday, 28 Seprember surrender of frigate USS Chesapeake to the Charleston Navy Yard. At the end of his 1800, Eagle dropped anchor at Newcasde, Royal Navy frigate HMS Leopard. life, Campbell held the title of commodore D elaware, and Campbell's command of Campbell was success ful both in the and was ranked among senior Navy rhe cutrer came to an end. With Ca mpbell 's Navy and in private life. He served captains Alexa nder Murray, John Rodgers wartime record of captures, commodores throughout the War of 1812 and the Navy Sr., James Barron, and William Bainbridge.

In the summer of 1820, Campbell left Thomas Tingey and Thomas Truxton saw retained him in the postwar peace. During the cutterman as their most aggressive his career, he accrued a great deal of wealth Charleston for the healing waters of combat commander. Our of the hundreds and property, including his savings, home, Virginia Springs to convalesce and seek of casualties suffered by rhe American slaves, land in Washington, DC, and 200 relief from a long-term "affiiction." Not squadron's warships, Campbell 's Eagle shares of stock in the Bank of the United mentioned specifically by the press, this reported not one case of illness, di sease, States. He bought an elegant house on ailment was likely the leg injury he sustained injury, drowning, combat wounds or men Charleston's King Street, near the Battery, while serving as first mate on board cutter killed in action. This record attests not only where he entertained fri ends and leading South Carolina. By late October, he decided to Campbell 's good fortune, bur also his to settle his affairs in Washington , DC, care and oversight of ship and crew. On 16 and set off on an overland journey from October 1800, Campbell received a the Virginia mountains. On 11 November, promotion to full captain in the US Navy, just after arriving in Washington, he passed at the same time as naval hero William away. Two days later, friends and colleagues laid him to rest with full mi litary honors Bainbridge. A few weeks later, he received command of the 28-gun frigate USS at the Congressional Cemetery, located northeast of the Washington Navy Yard.

General Greene and retained that command He was sixty years of age. until the spring of 1801.

While Campbell remained on active Hugh George Campbell's career had duty after the war, his noble cutter did not. spanned the American Revolution to well after the War of 1812, a critical time in the After re-fitting in Philadelphia, Eagle served one more tour in the Caribbean, but, with new narion's history and its growrh as a the conflict nearing an end, the brig saw nascem sea power. During his career, little action. When the war ended, the navy Campbell had served his country in four naval wars as a patriot, cutterman, combat sca led back its fleet to its larger warships in the interests of economy. Eagle sailed for captain, and senior naval officer. Despite Baltimore to be decommissioned; on his distinguished career, Campbell did W ednesday, 17 June 1801, the US Navy not indulge in self-aggrandizementsold her for the sum of $10,585. Five more no portrait or painting immortalizes him like many naval figures of his day. Today, cutters named "Eagle" would serve in the Revenue Cutter Service and modern Coast his grave marker srands as the only Guard, including today's sa il training ship, testament to his naval exploits and service the barque Eagle, "America's Tall Ship." to country. J, Hugh Campbell went on to greater William H. Thiesen, PhD, is the Atlantic glory in the US Navy. He commanded the Area H istorian for the US Coast Guard. H e frigate USS Constellation during the is the author of Indu strializing American Barbary Wars, served as captain of USS Constitution, and later became commodore Sh ipbuilding: The Transformation of Ship of the Navy's Mediterranean Squadron.

Design and Construction, 1820- 1920 (2006) and is a regular contributor to Sea Junior officers nicknamed him "Old Cork" due to his Irish h erirage. Campbell History. Dr. Thiesen would like to thank m entored rising n aval leaders, such as Matthew B renkle, Christopher McKee, and Robert Browning for their research advice Oliver H aza rd Perry a nd Ca mpbell 's nephew, George Campbell Read, who also and historical insights For more informawould command USS Constitution and Campbell 's Jaded headstone at the Congres- tion on USCG history, visit www. us cg. mill became a US Navy flag officer. Seen by the sional Cemetery, near the Washington Navy his1tory or contact: H istorian's Office, Coast establishment as one of the finest senior Yard, is the only memorial to his heroic exploits GutardAtlantic Area, 431 Crawford Street, officers in the Navy, Hugh Campbell served and service to his country.

Porrtsmouth, VA 23704.

36

SffiA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

Beaufort Naval Armorers

TRADITIONAL WOODEN S HIP'S WHEELS

Handmade in the U.S.A. by Third Generation Master Craftsman Bob Fuller.

CANNONS

Shi plights

Finely Crafted Marine Grade Working Replicas

Morehead City, NC USA 252 -726-5470

Residential & Commercial Lighting

www.bircherinc.com

Home,..., Boat,..., Dock

Get a FREE Co

SouTH SHORE B oATWORKS H ALIFAX,

MA • 781-248-6446

www.sou thsh oreb oatworks.com

0£.. ·.

IbwerShips PowerShips m agazine, the ultimate source for stories about ma ritime sh ip s and

68 Front St Marblehead, MA 781. 631. 386-1 - shipliKhts. com

their history, is published A quarterly by SSHSA, celebrating our 80th year.

• 88 pages • Full color 11

fl

Use Code SH2 l 5 for Free Shippmg

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 the 175 ships of the Historic Naval Ships Association fleet.

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

SEA HISTORY 153 , WINTER 2015- 16

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

W/.

AM ERICAN MARIN E MOOEL GALLERY 20 Pl easa nt Street, P.O. Box 6102 Gl oucester, MA 01 930

1. ...lllllllliii&iiillwt

978-281-1166 w all @s hipmod el. com

www.shipmodel.com

artists.

CUSTOM MODELS (YACHT & HISTORIC) APPRAISALS RESTORATIONS DISPLAY UNITS

37

<Trude l95. <oip&mruy: <Tile cproRJ&m ~ tiie CfYeÂŁ cpe9rt ~ <Dwifte tiie~ <Rev~

by Rikard Drakenlordh n 1777, rhe Brirish ambassador ro Sweden, John Lewis Doerfeld, and consul Thomas Erskine accused Swedish digniraries of nor only being fully aware of whar rhey deemed rhe illegal rrade wirh American ships in a major Swedish porr, bur also supporring ir. In orher circumsrances, rhe Royal Navy would have been sent ro pur an end ro rhe rrade, bur, ar rhe rime, Grear Brirain was preoccupied wirh rhe war across rhe Arlantic and did nor make ir a prioriry, despire rhe objecrions of rheir ambassador. As rhe American Revolurion was srill gaining momentum, Swedish officials gambled wirh rheir relarively

good relarions wirh Brirain by nor forcefully preventing American ships from rrading in Swedish porrs.

The Brirish considered rhe rrade illegal, based on a century-old rreary signed berween Grear Brirain and Sweden. The Brirish-Swedish Friendship and Trade Treary, signed ar Whirehall in 1661, was designed ro regulare, among orher rhings, neurral shipping and conrraband irems such as gunpowder, muskers and firearms during wartime. Of nore is Article 13 in rhe rreary, which srares rhar ships, vessels, goods, or merchandise raken ar sea or elsewhere by "his enemies or rebels, ro be carried into his ports or dominions," were forbidden. 1 Sweden's King Gustav III This arricle would provide rhe main argument for Doerfeld and Erskine when arguing rhar Sweden was nor abiding by rhe rules agreed upon wirh Brirain.

On 15 Augusr 1775, rhe porr of rhe island of Marsrrand (locared abour rhirry kilomerers northwesr of Gorhenburg) acquired srarus as a free port, or porto franco, by decree by rhe Swedish king, Gusrav III. 2 All foreign and domesric goods, carried by eirher foreign or Swedish ships, could be imporred, srored, consumed or exported wirhour discriminarion. To furrher srimulare rhe Swedish economy, foreign cirizens were permirred ro serrle in Marsrrand and become cirizens if rhey boughr or builr real esrare for rhe sum of 1,000 Swedish rixdollars.3 Even if Marstrand gained independence as a free port, it is important ro undersrand rhat it would still be considered a Swedish city and under the jurisdiction of Swedish laws. 4 Marstrand, on the southwestern coast of Sweden, was declared a free port in 1775

by Sweden's King Gustav III (1746--1792).

This made the island an autonomous territory, yet still under Swedish rule. Soon Marstrand developed into an active center of commerce, and its status attracted cargo ships from Western Europe and, during the American Revolutionary Wtir, from the newly declared United States.

38

SEA HISTORY 153 , WINTER2015- 16

The anticipated boost for the Swedish national economy failed, but Marstrand as a free port flourished. During the first year, the city doubled its income seven times, resulting in a growing population-many of a suspect nature. At the same time, fraud and smuggling escalated, leading to a widespread fear of competition from the leading merchants in Gothenburg. 5 If smuggling had been conducted on a small scale, Swedish authorities, merchants, and foreign diplomats might have turned a blind eye to the ongoing business.

However, since full war had broken out in the North American colonies the previous spring, British government officials were keeping a close eye on what was going on at M arstrand. Rumors were circulating that American privateers were trading there, but these rumors were officially denied by the Swedish king. 6 By autumn of 1776, it was no longer possible for the Swedes to deny they were trading with the Americans, especially after British consul Thomas Erskine, while on a visit to Marstrand, personally witnessed the American brigantine Gelychelig arriving in port carrying gunpowder and firelocks bought in Liibeck, Germany.7 Immediately after discovering the American ship, Erskine wrote to the acting British ambassador in Stockholm, J. L. Doerfeld, explaining the situation. Doerfeld had a meeting with Swedish chancellery president Ulrik Scheffer and asked him to stop the American ship from buying more cargo because it was an enemy ship and its cargo would ultimately be used against British citizens. The ambassador pointed out that trading with an American rebel vessel was a breach against the BritishSwedish Friendship and Trade Treaty of 1661. Scheffer told Doerfeld that h e could do nothing before consulting the minister of finance, Johan Liljencrantz, to determine if it was poss ible to stop a foreign ship without violating the free-port privileges. 8 Three days later, Doerfeld had heard nothing in the matter from Scheffer, and when he requested a new meeting he was told that Scheffer had taken leave for Christmas and left the capital. Instead Doerfeld went to meet with Liljencrantz, who gave him a letter from Scheffer explaining that King Gustav III was most displeased

SEAHISTORY 153, WINTER2015- 16

Swedish Chancellery President, Ulrik Scheffer

Ambassador Gustav Adam von Nolcken

Swedish Minister ofFinance, Johan Liljencrantz

with what was going on at Marstrand and that orders had been sent to the governor of Gothenburg, Count Durietz, ordering him to prevent the American vessel from leaving port with the munitions. 9 Shortly afterwards, Scheffer instructed the Swedish ambassador in London, Gustav Adam von Nokken, to inform British foreign minister, Lord Suffolk, that all Swedish pons had been forbidden to trade in contraband items with the Americans .10 When h earing Nokken explaining the Swedish policy towards the rebels, Suffolk expressed his satisfaction over the fact that American ships would no longer be able to provide the rebel forces with munitions by trading in Swedish ports, and consequently he found this diplomatic errand closed.11 Meantime, while Scheffer's orders were on their way to Gothenburg, the American brigantine suddenly slipped out of Marstrand harbor on 4 January 1777 without clearing customs. According to a letter sent

by Erskine to Suffolk on 8 January, the commandant and mayor at Marstrand had allowed the American ship's captain to receive letters from Stockholm. Shortly thereafter, the mayor advised the captain to set sail as soon as possible and leave Marstrand.12 The following summer, on 31 Jul y 1777, the American brigantine Molly, sailing under a British Bag, arrived at Marstrand. She carried no arms and had a cargo consisting of rice and pipe staves brought from the Bahamas, which the ship's master, Captain Woodhouse, intended to barter for iron, steel, and cloth. As the ship rounded up and dropped anchor, she was identified as a rebel ship by one of Erskine's agents. The consul immediately wrote Doerfeld and Suffolk to inform them of what was taking place. 13 In Stockholm, Doerfeld went to see Scheffer, but as he had taken his leave for the country, Doerfeld had to present the case for Senator Fakkenberg, who promised to lay the matter before the king. On 11 August, Doerfeld met with Fakkenberg again, asking him what resolution had been decided. The senator told him that he still waited for the orders to be dispatched from the king to Gothenburg, but he was certain that the king would never permit his subjects to provide the Americans with any

39

kind of arms, ammunition, and other forms of war materiel. Nevertheless, as a free port, Marstrand was required to permit entrance to all trading vessels.

Doerfeld did not believe a word of it, which becomes clear when reading the coded letter he attached to his official letter for Suffolk of 12 August. H e wrote that the Swedish government was involved either in a project to gain advantages from the present circumstances, meaning the North American rebellion, or they were afraid to rake too severe acrions against rhe rebels, which could lead to their own trading vessels being vulnerable to attack by Americans on the high seas. According to Doerfeld, he had received this information from a "confidential person," 14 probably with ties within the Swedish government.

In Gothenburg, Erskine secured proof that the brigantine Molly was indeed an American ship. Promising the ship's crew money, he succeeded in convincing a substantial number of them to rake their leave, forcing Captain Woodhouse to delay his departure until he could recruit new crew members . Additionally, Erskine learned from the sailors that the Molly was in fact the Sea Nymph of Bristol, which recently had been taken as a prize in Bermudan waters by the American navy captain, John Paul Jones. Because the ship was British property seized by rebel forces , the Swedes-according to Erskine-directly

violated Article 13 in the Friendship and Trade Treary. 15 However, in a dispatch sent to Doerfeld on 2 September, Suffolk wrote that the British government was actually not overly concerned by the fact that a rebel ship was trading at Marstrand, as long as the Swedish king prevented them from purchasing arms and ammunirion.16 The impression that the British did not find the presence of an American rebel ship at Marstrand embarrassing is furt her strengthened by the fact that Suffolk, when meeting with Swedish ambassador von Nokken, said that the Swedish actions taken regarding the Molly had nor been met with any suspicions within the English Courr. 17 Meanwhile, Erskine had received informat ion from his agent at Marsrrand that Captain Woodhouse had been made a Swedish citizen by the magistrates ofMarsrrand. According to Erskine, this action was taken to make the vessel a Swedish ship, and thereby delaying the investigation of the Molly's origins. 18 When Doerfeld raised the matter with Senator Falckenberg in Stockholm, Doerfeld told Falckenberg that providing the American captain with Swed ish citizenship and transferring his ship to Swedish registry-thus a neutral vessel-would only encourage other rebels to make their way to Marstrand to do the same . The consequence from this could , according to Doerfeld, result in Swedish

flagged-vessels becoming exposed to disagreeable "accidents" when encountering British men-of-war on the open seas. 19 By mentioning the Royal Navy in this way, Doerfeld clearly intended it as a threat to stop the Swedes from trading wi th American ships in Marstrand.

In Marstrand, the American ship was about ready to sai l, according to Erskine.

In a dispatch written on 1 November, he in formed Lord Suffolk that sixty casks of gunpowder had been exported from Gothenburg to Marstrand without the proper licenses. Erskine at once went to see the governor to request that he stop the shipment from being loaded aboard ship. Governor Durietz answered that he would absolutely do so, but it appears that no such orders ever left the governor's office. 20 On 23 November, Erskine's agent in Marstrand reported th at 200 casks of gunpowder were loaded on a Swedish sloop, and it was believed that the Swedish vessel was supposed to accompany the Molly, now re-named as the Syrene and flying Swedish colors, to sea. Erskine anticipated that the gunpowder would be transferred to the American vessel at sea or in a Norwegian port. 2 1 On 9 December the Molly and the Swedish sloop weighed anchor and departed Marstrand. The last time the Molly is mentioned in the records is in mid January 1778. In a short letter to Suffolk, Erskine wrote that he had received information that the ship had entered the port of Arendal in Norway, where the gunpowder from the Swedish sloop was indeed transferred to the Molly. 22 When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, and especially after the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, new trading opportunities opened up for Swedish commercial interests, making early diplomatic relations with North American agents very important. Swedish minister of finance Joha n Liljencrantz hoped to encourage the Americans to enter the Baltic trade via Sweden, and he was eager to sign a trade treaty with the United States as soon as possible after the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783.23 This interest lhe British had reason to suspect that the brigantine Molly (ex-Sea Nymph) and other in signing a treaty with the Americans can American ships arriving at Marstrand were engaged in the transport of war materiel. In the explain why orders sent from Stockholm spring of 1776, the American brig Nancy, above, sailed to the Danish West Indies where it to Gothenburg and Marsrrand to stop American ships from loading contraband loaded a cargo ofgunpowder, arms, and other supplies for the American revolutionaries.

40

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

articles were deliberately delayed, and thus rendered moot. It also shows chat ambassador Doerfeld was right in his ass umption that the Swedish government was trying to take advantage of the war between Britain and its North American colonists, and that they ac tually did not take any actions against rebel ships in Swedish pores. It is clear that Liljencrantz knew full well abo ut the trade but chose to look the ocher way in order to gain trading rights with the Americans should they win the war, and thereby strengthen the Swedish economy. lvfarstrand was well situated along the sea route to the Baltic from the North Sea to receive Diplomatic relations between Britain foreign ships transiting the area. Gustav !II was assassinated in 1792, and in 1794 the charand Sweden, strangely enough, did not sufter was withdrawn. Today, the port is a popular tourist destination. fer from these incidents. The Royal Navy did not once try to intercept American ves- edly violated Art icle 13 in the Friendship the result was that Suffolk found that the sels off the Swedish coast, which might and Trade Treaty of 1661, Lord Suffolk did Swedish ac tions taken regarding the Molly seem strange since Doerfeld actually threat- not at any time express any concern over h ad not been met with any suspicions ened that this wo uld be the case. The nor- Sweden's trade with the rebels, as he felt within the English Court. 26 In the end, the mally very aggressive Royal Navy seemed confident that the Swedish king was doing good diplomatic relations between Great surprisingly passive in Swedish waters, but everythi ng in his power to prevent such a Britain and Sweden were likely preserved we must remember chat, in Europe, the trade. Of course, the war in the colonies more because of Lord Suffolk's pre-occuthreat from France was growing, and, in and its consequences took most of his time, pation with more urgent political matters, Nort h America, the need to get their men- and he probably h ad no time to look into such as the Revolutionary War in the of-war across the A tlantic was escalati ng. che matter further. Both Doerfeld and Er- American colonies and keeping up good For example, in March 1776, a majority of skine penned very informative and detailed relations with the French, than because of the members of the British parliament ex- dispatches to Suffolk, but his replies back the illegal sale of 200 casks of gunpowder horted the ministry to beware of France w chem were scarce and irregular. Suffolk's to the Americans. .!. and not to strip the British Isles of their interview with the Swedish ambassador in naval defenses. 24 Sweden was also an ally London, G ustav Adam von Nokken, in Rikard Drakenlordh, from the city Norrkopof France, which meant that if British men- December 1776 regarding the Gelychelig, ing in Sweden, has served as an officer in the of-war attacked a legally flagged Swedish left him feeling chat the Swedish govern- Swedish A rmy. He holds a master's degree in ship, France might be provoked into taking ment and its king were genuine in their history from the University ofLinkoping. Mr. open action. France had been building up expressed intentions of forbidding trade Drakenlordh currently teaches high school its fleet since ea rly 1776, thus risking war with the Americans. 25 The same thing oc- and is working towards his PhD in history with the French by sendin g the Royal Navy curred when the Molly arrived at Mar- at Bath Spa University, UK His special into intercept a few barrels of gunpowder did strand. During the five months the ship terests within the field of history are eighnot seem like a good option at the time of was in port, Suffolk had on ly one conversa- teenth-century diplomacy and maritime the events. Even though Sweden repeat- tion with von Nokken on the subject, and history.

NOT ES 1 Lew is H ensl er (ed.), A Complete Collection of Treaties and Con ventions, and Reciprocal Regulations at P resent Subsisting Between Great Britain and Foreign Powers (Lo ndon, 1827), p. 33 2.

2 Eski l O lan , M arstrands historia (Goreborg, 1917), p. 29.

3 Ake W. Essen , Johan Liljencrantz som handelspolitiker: Studier i Sveriges yttre handelspolitik (Lund , 1928), p. 260 f. ' Ol an, p. 35. ' Ol an, p. 39 f.

6 Carol Lo ui se Roslund M e rc ur io, PhD d iss . The Problem of Neutral Rights in Swedish Relations with Great Britain, 1775to 1780 (Sy racuse U niv., 1972), p. 55.

7 PRO, SP95/1 26 , Erskine ro Lo rd Suffolk, 30 Nove mber 1776.

8 PRO, SP95/ 126, Doerfeld ro Wil lia m Ed en, 24 D ecember 1776 .

9 PRO, SP95/ 126, Doerfeld ro W illiam Eden, 27 D ecember 1776 .

10 RA, Di plo mari ca Angli ca, vol. 428 , Scheffer ro N olcken, 3 January, 1777.

11 PRO, SP95/ 127, Suffo lk ro Doerfeld , 2 1J anua ry 1777.

12 PRO, SP9 5/ 127, Erskine ro Suffolk, 8 January 1777.

13 PRO, SP9 5/ 127, Erskine ro Suffolk, 2 Au gusr 1777.

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

14

PRO, SP95/ 127, Doerfeld ro Suffo lk, Aposri ll e, 12 Augusr 1777.

PRO, SP95/127, Ersk ine to Suffo lk, 9 Augusr 1777, American Archives (AA), h np: III i ncol n. Ii b. n i u .ed u /cgi-b i n /am arch /gerdoc. pl ?/var/ Ii b/ phi lologi c/d a rabases/a march/.22556, 06/0112014.

16 PRO, SP95/ 127, Suffo lk ro Doerfeld , 2 Seprember 1777.

17 RA , Diplomatica A nglica, vol. 385, von N olcken ro Scheffer, 12 Sepr. 1777.

18 PRO, SP95/ 127, Erskin e ro Su ffo lk, 27 eprember 1777.

19 PRO, SP95/1 27, Doerfeld ro Ed en, 14 O crober 1777.

20 PRO, SP9 5/127, Erskine ro Suffo lk, 1 N ove mber1 777.

21 PRO, SP9 5/127, Erskine to Suffolk, 26 Nove mber 1777.

22 PRO, SP95/ 128, 14 Januari 1777.

23 Leos Mtiller, Conmls, Corsairs, and Commerce. The Swedish Conmlar Service and Long-distance Shipping, 1720- 1816 (Uppsa la, 2004), p. 181.

24 Piers Macksey, The Warfo r A merica, 1775-1783 (Un iversiry of N ebraska Press , 19 93), p. 104.

25 PRO, SP95/127, Suffo lk to Doerfeld , 2 1Jan ua ry1777 26 RA, DiplomaticaAnglica, vol. 3 85 , von Nokken ro Scheffer, 12 Sepr. 1777.

15

41

Maritte Art News Coos Art Museut1t's 22ttd Attttual Maritit1te Art Exhibit 2015 Award Witttters The annual event at Coos Art Museum is a juried exhibit of maritime-themed works from artists aro und the country. This year, Frank Gaffney of Mountlake Terrace, Washingron, served as the Best of Show juror and featured artist. This year's award winners are: Best of Show: Harold W. John son-Down to the Sea in Ships, oil Port of Coos Bay Award: Line T utwiler-Harbor Calm, oil Director's Choice: Austin Dwyer-A Coffin for Ishmael, oil Entry of Merit: Richard Boyer-Building Sandcastles, oil Entry of Merit & People's Choice Award: Don McMichael-A Gathering Place, oil Entry of Merit: Mitch Rolicheck-Fish #3, Bronze I Wood Entry of Merit: Richard Shaffett-Days End, Acrylic The annual exhibition begin s in July and runs through September. C heck next spring to see the specific dates for the 23rd exhibition. (Coos Art Museum, 235 Anderson Ave, Coos Bay, OR; Ph. 541 267-3901; www.coosart.org)

Down to the Seas in Ships, oil 57" x 45"

by Harold Joh nson ofSeaTac, Washington

At11erican Society of Marine Artists-New President American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA) Fellow Russ Kramer has stepped down from the organization's presidency after five years. During his tenure, ASMA mounted two national exhibitions: one in which more than 120 works of paintings and sculpture traveled to eight museums (201 1-2 013); and the current online exhibition (www.asma16thnational.org). In addition, ASMA modernized its membership management and accounting systems, redesigned its website, mounted regional and themed exhibitions, and produced the documentary Naval War of 1812 and its companion fu ll-color history and art book, available on their website and through Amazon.com . Society Fellow and

sculptor Kim Shaklee, of Brighton, Colorado, will be the new president of ASMA. ASMA's 17th National Exhibition will travel to six venues in 2016-2017. Ir will open at the Muscarelle Museum at the College ofWilliam and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, in September 2016. ASMA members will offer approximately 500 works to the Fellows Jury, which in April will pick roughly 120 pieces for the show. Other museums scheduled to host the show are the Quinlan Visual Arts Center in Gainesville, Georgia; the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona; and Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut. (www.americansocietyofmarineartists .com)

Mystic Seaport's 36th Annual International Marine Art Exhibition

D angerous Waters,gouache, 20" x 19" by Jim Griffiths

Another prestigious annual juried exhibition is going on right now at Mystic Seaport, and yo u can catch it through the end of 2015. The exhibition features the works of more than 100 marine arti sts from around the wo rld whose art documents man's relationship to the sea. Prizes are awarded to the best works in nine categories, plus additional ''Awards of Excellence."

Among this yea r's winners are Jim Griffiths for his painting, Dangerous Waters, which received the Thomas Wells Award; and J onathan McPh illips for View through the Boatworks, which won the Museum Purchase Award.

The Rudolph J. Schaefer III Emerging Artist Award went to Laura Cooper.

Visit the gallery online to see the full list of thi s year's prize winners and images of their awa rd-winning works. (Mystic Seaport, 47 Greenmanville Avenue, Mystic, CT; Ph. 860 572-5388; www. mys ticseaport.org)

Call for Photos! Ihe Mississippi River Photo Shoot-Out is a juried photography exhibition organized by the Corps of Engineer's National Great Rivers Museum and the Jaco by Arts Center in Alton, Illinois. The exhibition will be displayed at three venues in Alton between 29 April and 19 June 2016. The organizers seek to bring together a collection of outstanding contemporary photographs interpreting, documenting, and celebrating life along the Mississippi. This exh ibition is open to all photographers-amateur and professional- 18 years or older. Photographs must have been taken January 2014 or later. Deadline for submissions is 17 February 2016; selections will be made by 10 March. A jury of photography professionals will review and select works for the show; St. Louis artist-photographer Garry McMichael will curate the exhibition. Questions can be directed to Mr. McMichael by e-mail at garry@ imaginagrapher.com. (Details on how to submit entries are online at www.mississippiriverphotoshootout.com.)

42

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER2015- 16

Brighten up those long winter days with a vision of things to come-and support NMHS at the same time

Summer Cruise by Don Demers Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Lithograph of 500.

Remarques Available.

Image Size: 14" x 23.5" Price: $95 plus $20 s/h or $250 Remarqued plus $20 s/h

To order call l-800-221-NMHS (6647), ext. 0. e-mail nmhs@seahistory.org, or visit our website at www.seahistory.org.

NYS residents add applicable sales tax.

I

I

SEA HISTORY for kids

Ship's Boys ... and 9irfs!

The Age of Sail was said to be the domain of "wooden ships and iron men."

This may be true, but sailing ships also had "boys" on their official crew lists.

Truth be told, some ships also carried women, and some of the people who signed on as "ship's boys" were actually girls. But what were these kids doing on board sailing ships?

Today, you have to be 14 years old before you can get a job in most states in the US, but in the Age of Sail both merchant ships and navy vessels signed on boys as young as seven years old as regular members of the crew. Positions open to kids were usually that of cabin boy (also called ship's boy), midshipman, and powder monkey. Ship's boys and powder monkeys usually came from poor

Dorothea Gould (left) spent her childhood sailing aboard her family's 3-masted schooner (above) during World War I. Her father was the captain and her mother served as the ship's cook, while Dorothea was the "cabin boy." Her duties included taking care of the ship's logbook, memorizing which signal flags would be set to convey different messages, setting the flags coming in and out of port, hauling food stores out of the ship's lazarette, and steering the ship. In addition, she was required to learn the names and placement of every piece of rigging and every sail.

fa mi lies, or were runaways or orphans. Getting a position on board a ship at least meant they had a place to sleep and meals to eat, plus opportunities to travel the world and perhaps rise in the ranks and captain their own ships someday. ยง Midshipmen were navy officers-in-training and received instruction "8z in navigation and seamanship, plus other classes that would prepare them 1; ~ for a career as an officer. To become a midshipman, you needed a refer~ o .__....-'-'--~~~~----"'--'-~..._~.........,,'--""""" ral from either someone of rank in the navy or from someone with conPowder monkey aboard USS New Hampshire, 1864. nections in society.

Cabin boys helped the cook in the galley and carried meals to the seamen in the mess deck (where the crew ate their meals) and to the officers in their quarters aft. On big ships, they carried messages back and forth between officers and the rest of the crew, who occupied different parts of the ship. When needed, ship's boys would go aloft to stow sails with the crew, and when the weather was good, they stood a watch at the helm and learned how to steer the ship. Whi le a ship's boy was usually a teenager, the term "boy" was actually a job title; a grown man or a woman sometimes signed onboard as a ship's boy.

Powder monkeys were usually the younger boys, chosen in part because they were short and could fit in the cramped spaces of a sailing warship. Their job was to carry gunpowder from where it was stored in the lower section of a ship to the gun crews manning the cannons on the upper decks. It was very dangerous job.

Today, kids can still go sailing aboard rail ships, bur they go as students on sail training ships. For a listing of ships that offer programs for teenage-adventurers, check out the website for Tall Ships America at www.sailtraining.org.

A_ A_

TT

Powder monkey carrying gunpowder to the gun crew.

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

Everyday Speech from Sailors of Yesterday Did you know that September 19th is Talk Like a Pirate Day! No, it isn't an official holiday and you won't get the day off from school, but you might hear people having a good time saying things like "Shiver Me Timbers" or "Arrrrgh" a lot.

Seafarers from the Age of Sail used a lot of colorful t'gallant language, and much of it evolved from mispronunciation or, more like it, lazy pronunciation of what were once regular terms and expressions. A true sailor would never say he or she was going to set the mainsail when it was easier to say mains'/. It gets worse when they used longer words that they butchered down to a few grunts and syllables.

The square sail above a topsail was a topgallant sail, but the sailor would call it a t'gallant, and some shortened it further to gans'I. The square-sail extensions are studding sails, but why go to all that trouble when stuns'/ will do.

We have lots of words and expressions we use in everyday speech that you might not realize come from nautical origins. They might be easier to pronounce and not so much fun to use on Talk Like a Pirate Day, but you might be surprised at some.

Let's look at a few examples: When your mom yells "Pipe Down!" she's trying to get you to be quiet. On navy ships, the bosun's pipe, which was actually a type of whistle, was used to broadcast commands across the noisy ship.

Each command had a distinctive set of notes. The command given at the end of the day was to pipe down, which Bosun with meant it was quiet time aboard ship. Sailors would somehis pipe in times say it to each other when they wanted someone to hand. stop making noise.

Gangway! is what someone yells when they want people to get out of the way. On board ships, the gangway was the narrow passageway that led from the quarterdeck to the foc's'le or from the dock across to the deck. Old salts know not to hang out in the gangway because they would be blocking someone else's ability to pass by... unless, of course, you are an admiral. Admirals can do whatever they want because they are the big boss of the ship.

When you change your plans and decide to do something differently than you were before, you might say you are Changing Tacks. The word "tack" has several meanings aboard a sailing ship, but in this case it refers to the direction the ship is heading. A sailing vessel is either on a port tack or a starboard tack, and the action of changing from one to the other, and thus the vessel's heading, is called tacking.

Animals in Sea History

by Richard King

S Hi ~ · ·

~-

.

- - - ~· -- .. -~-=-=-==--::--:-=~--==-=--=- ~--=---= -

t one point in Herman Melville's novel Moby-Oick, Ishmael spins a yarn about a mutiny aboard a ship that is sinking. The men fight each other while they desperately work the pumps to keep afloat. "They supposed a sword-fish had stabbed her."

A swordfish sinking a ship?

If you thought that was one of Ishmael's jokes, it wasn't a joke for Herman Melville. Swordfish poking holes in ship hulls had been on the author's mind two years earlier in 1849 when he published another novel called Mardi. In this story, Melville devotes an entire chapter to extolling the valor and skill of this "true warrior"

~~---

fish in the Indian Ocean. Melville writes: "He takes umbrage at the cut of some ship's keel crossing his road ; and straightway runs a tilt at it; with one mad [lunge] thrusting his Andrea Ferrara [a famous Scottish broad sword] clean through and through; not seldom breaking it short off at the haft, like a bravo leaving his poignard in the vitals of his foe."

Melville goes on to tell the true story of the English ship Foxhound, which returned to London in 1836 with a swordfish bill lodged in its hull .

The hunk of wood was removed and preserved with the fish's sword stuck in it. Melville also spins a tale of a swordfish that stabbed the whaler

Rousseau in the South Pacific, forcing the ship to make an unscheduled run to Tahiti before she sank to "have her wound dressed by a ship-surgeon with tar and oakum."

Foxhound crewman Frederick Bennett described how a swordfish's bill pierced his ship 's hull-even through its protective copper sheathing-and broke off, much like what happens to a bee 's stinger. The swordfish bill remained lodged in the ship's planks, from the South Seas all the way home to England . Bennett's narrative was published in 1840.

Regarding Melville's story about the Rousseau, historians have found no record of its sinking by swordfish in the logbook of the Rousseau. Melville made this part up.

~...

46

(above) An illustration in ;· ~, · ~ The Penny Magazine, 1835, " of a billfish 's rostrum piercing the inner and outer timbers of ship's hull, a hunk of which is still held by the British Museum (This might've been the one Melville wrote about.). Up until the 1940s researchers thought it was stabbed by a swordfish, but recent analysis of the piece of wood shows it was a marlin. Note the copper sheathing at the far right!

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

swoi.~fJSH (')(1\'Y\IP..5 Gl-1'\l\VS )

LP--RG.£ t:Y'E fil~

t>t:"<::-p St!>. \1\£\0N >£-,OOO' DO\NN

Do\2.Sf\-\.- f\~\ Cl'<N~O\ Fo1-D Do\NN, VN\..-\f:E: IHl\T of TVt--IA. a~, MAl'UN

might also be that they are slashing through the schools of fish that often congregate under a slow .!3"'--:\<t:sc~1--.1T \A\L- moving hull in the open ocean . But 1s 01<1\f'tR FoR that doesn't seem to explain the in, S'J'l\MM\NG SfE:E:C> d · teraction with Alvin or several other submersibles. Even in the prophetic science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, published two decades after Mardi, Jules Verne had his Captain Arronax report swordfish stabbing at his 6 ~~~~~~~~i submarine~glass.Perhapsindeed ~~-c"'_N~G-~_a~~->~'•-~_0_0~~-a_s~_~_N_o~1~-~~ · L-~-~-&~-'-~~_M_vc_H~L_A_~_ there might be some sort of Before the regular production of Earlier naturalists thought that swordaggressive or defense response to steel hulls in the early 1900s, several fish stabbed their prey, which are large manmade hulls, mistaking them mariners reported swordfish "attacks" mostly smaller fish. But this doesn't for sharks or killer whales? Author on their boats and ships-going back make much sense: how would they Richard Ellis records that Alvin pilots to the Greeks and Romans-although get the meat off the tip? Swordfish wonder if it is the light from the subit's possible sailors confused the also have relatively small mouths and mersible, a reflection of the fish in swordfish with marlin or sailfish, which no teeth. From the deck of his ship the acrylic portholes, or even a subhave bills that are more narrow and back in 1840, Frederick Bennett mersible's similarity to a deep-sea cylindrical but have similar behaviors observed that swordfish tended to squid . and appearance. Dorymen out fishing on the North Atlantic also reported swordfish stabbing through their boats with their bills, sometimes in seeming retaliation for being hooked.

More recently, swordfish have even entangled themselves with steel hulls and manmade underwater structures. In 1967 off Savannah, Georgia, the pilots of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's submersible Alvin, at some 2,000 feet below the surface, reported that an eight-foot swordfish stabbed at their little submarine and got itself stuck. Technicians got a rope around the tail when the ship surfaced, but the sword broke off. (And for a riveting video of a swordfish stuck in a deep-sea drilling Alvin back at the surface with a swordfish stuck in its side. platform, go to YouTube and search for "Swordfish Stuck in Oil Rig.") slash back and forth through a school Herman Melville would surely be So-are these swordfish actually of smaller fish. Modern underwater pleased with our current uncertainty, trying to sink ships? Mariners and bi- footage confirms that swordfish kill even if we know of no actual sinkings ologists have never had a good un- their prey with the sharp edges of by swordfish spikes. Maybe that 's why derstanding of how swordfish actu- their bill, cutting fish into smaller the author turned to a white whale ally use their bills, which can grow up pieces that they can then can gulp instead. In the next issue: the forgotten art of swordfish painting? to a third of their total length. Perhaps whole .

For past "Animals in Seo History" they use their gigantic rostrums to A reasonable explanation as to defend themselves against sharks. why they might stab the hull of a boat go to www.seahistory.org.

f

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

#

41

.SHIP NOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Historic England, a government heritage organization, is investigating what it believes to be the ship Holigost (or Holy Ghost), part of Henry V's fleet, in the River Hamble in Hampshire. The site lies near the wreck of the Grace Dieu , Henry's flagship, which was identified in the 1930s in a "medieval breakers' yard." Historian Ian Friel discovered the remains while reexamining aerial photographs of the site in researching his latest book, Hen ry Navy: The Sea-Road to Agincourt and Conquest 1413-1422. Holigostwas the flagship of the Duke of Bedford at the battle of Harfleur in 1416, and also took part in the fighting off the Chef de Caux in 1417. The ship was rebuilt in 1415 from the hull of a captured Spanish vessel, Santa Clara. It was one of four famous vessels known as the "great ships," the biggest built in medieval England and reported to be the most heavily gun-armed of Henry V 's fleet. Holigostalso

Vs

Amphorae from one ofthe newly discovered ship wreck sites along the Fourni archipelago.

of local sponge divers, fishermen, and free divers. Together, the team found shipwrecks dating from the Archaic Period (700-480 BC) though the Late Medieval Period (16th century). There were several wrecks dating to the Classical (480-323 BC) and Hellenistic (323-31 BC) periods, but over half of the wrecks date to the Late Roman Period (circa 300-600 AD). Fourni is a collection of thirteen islands between the eastern Aegean islands of Samas and Icaria. The group of small islands never hosted large cities, instead its importance comes from its critical role as an anchorage and navigational point in the eastern Aegean. Fourni lies along a major east-west Mediterranean shipping route, as well as the primary north-south route that connected the Aegean to the Levant. The items identified from the ships' cargoes indicate Depiction of a carrack, carrying john of long-distance trade between the Black Sea, Gaunt to Lisbon, gives researchers an idea of Aegean Sea, Cyprus, the Levant, and Egypt what the Holigost might have looked like. in all these periods. Archaeologists mapped h as the distinction of being the first re- each shipwreck using photogrammerry to corded instance of a ship undergoing un- create 3D site plans. The team excavated derwater repairs by a diver. (www.histori- representative artifacts from each wreck cengland.org.uk) ... The first-ever survey site to analyze further; plans are in place of the Fourni archipelago in late October to continue surveying the site next year. To yielded twenty-two shipwreck sites, add- date, only 5 percent of the Fourni coast has ing to the total number of discovered been surveyed. The project was directed by ancient shipwrecks in Greece by a full George Koutsouflakis (EUA), Jeffrey Roy12 percent. The project, a joint effort of al (RPMNF), and Peter Campbell (RPMthe Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiq- NF/University of Southampton) and was uities (EUA) and RPM Nautical Founda- funded by the Honor Frost Foundation. tion (RPMNF), worked with the assistance (EUA: 59 D. Areopagitou & Erehthiou 48

Str., 117 42 Athens; email: eena@culture. gr; RPMNF: www.rpmnautical.org; Honor Frost Foundation: www.honorfrostfoundation.org) . . . The Bayfrom Maritime Center of Erie, Pennsylvania, recently launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the construction of a wooden deck on their replica of the gunboat schooner Porcupine. The team is modifying a donated forty-foot unfinished fiberglass hull to resemble the original Porcupine, the

Schooner Porcupine depicted above; her modern reincarnation in progress, below.

SEAHISTORY 153, WINTER2015- 16

longes t-lasting vessel from the Battle of Lake Erie in the War of 1812, as she looked when she carried a 32-pounder long gun.

From the deck up, Po rcupine will look and sail just like her namesake did from 181 3 to 1873. When completed, Porcupine will operate as a school ship, with education programming focusing on math and engineering. As of press time, the Kickstarter campaign had reached its $5,000 target, and was working towards a "stretch goal" of$10,000 in pledges, wh ich wo uld enable them to complete the ship's bowsprit as well as the deck. (BMC, 40 Holland Street, Erie, PA 16507; Ph. 814 456-4 077; www. bayfromcemer.org) .. . The National Register of H istoric Places has recognized the steam screw ferry Milwaukee for both its role as a pion eer in th e Great Lakes railcar ferry system and for b ein g an example of the d esign and operat ion of a steam screw vessel. Launched in 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio, as the Manistique Marquette Northern I and renamed in 1908, Milwaukee sank in a storm on 22 October 1929, with no survivors. The wreck, located three miles east of Fox Point, Wisconsin, was discovered in 1972 by fishermen, whose nets snagged on the remains.

Ocean Liner

SOUTHPORT SILVER

Row

--~~

THE GREAT O CEAN LINERS OF THE 20rn CENrURY IN NEW YORK HARBOR • We Appraise, Purchase & Sell

Handcrafted Silver and Copper Jewelry

Ocean Liner Memorabilia

Ian Robertson • 9 17•416·7653 P.O. BOX 20586, NEW YORK, NY 100 2 5

www.oceanlinerrow.com Historic, antique U.S. Coast Survey maps from the 1800s Original lithographs, mo st American seapo rts and shores.

Reprints, too. Unique framed , great gifts. Cata log, $ 1.00.

Specify area.

Southport Island, Maine www.southportsiIver.com southportsilver@gmail.com 207.217.7743

See Wooden Ship Models Being Built & Restored

\1, " l ..

Ship Models & Nautical Gifts & Prints nina(,!•ninahcll1nanant1ques.co111

Ptd~

Serving Collectors & Museums Since 1971

3% Center Street

Newburyport, MA 01950 (978) 462-7012 Nantucke t, i\1assachusetts

Manistique Marquette Northern I (later renamed SS Milwaukee) Today the site is the second most popular dive site in Wisconsin. (More information on the ship can be found on line: National Register of Historic Places, www. nps.gov/ nr; Bowling Green State University Great Lakes Online Index, www.great!akes.bgs u. edu) ... Florida's J acksonville Maritime Heritage Center closed its doors for the last time on 17 October. The 28-year-old museum occupied a 4,5 00-squ a re-foot space on the gro und Boor of the Jacksonville Landing building. The Jacksonville Maritime Museum Society cited poor attendance and a lack of funds in explaining the closure. The society is making arrangements SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER

2015~16

www.pielcraftsmen.com

www.ninahel lrnanantiques.com

Established:

1949

THE NAUTICAL RESEARCH GUILD " ADVA N CIN G SH IP MOD ELIN G T H RO U G H RESEAR CH " Annual membership includes our world-renowned quarterly magazine, Nautica l Research Journal, which features photographs and articles on ship model building, naval archi tecture, merchant and naval ship const ruction, maritime trade, nautical and maritime history, nautical archaeology and maritime art.

Other benefits include discounts on annual conferences, ship modeling semina rs, NRG products and juried model competitions w hich are offered exclusively to Guild members. We hope you will consider joining our ongoing celebration of model ships and maritime history.

f

YEARLY ME MBERSH IP $48.00 USA $60.00 Foreign

For more information contact us at www.thenrg.org

49

Save the Date!

National Maritime Awards Dinner 21 April 2016 â&#x20AC;˘ Washington, DC

D

inner co-chairmen Dr. Timothy Runyan and CAPT Jim Noone, USNR (Rec.), are pleased to invite you to the National Maritime Awards Dinner, to be held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on 1hursday, 21 April 2016. NMHS will be hosting this event together with the Naval Historical Foundation. Gary Jobson , world-class sailor, television commentator, author, past president of US Sailing and vice pres ident of the International Sailing Federation, will be Master of Ceremonies.

NMHS will present its Distinguished Service Award to Steve Phillips, owner of Phillips Seafood, a Chesapeake Bay business icon, restaurant operator/seafood producer, and sustainable world fishing industry advocate. Mr. Phillips, an ardent conservationist and a world leader in seafood sustainability, has created and enforced international sustainability measures that protect and preserve both the environment and the continuation of the oyster industry.

An NMHS Distinguished Service Award will be Steve Phillips presented to Charles A. Robertson, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of American Cruise Lines, Chesapeake Shipbuilding Corporation, and CEO of Pearl Seas C ruises. ACL is the leading small cruise line in the United States (river boats, paddlewheelers), operating seven ships for cruising along the Eastern Seaboard, Western Seaboard, and America's rivers. The line has a strong focus on history-oriented cruises such as its Lewis and C lark Voyage on the Snake and Columbia Rivers.

The Naval Historical Foundation Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Andrew Taylor, executive chairman of Enterprise HoldCharles A. Robertson ings, Inc. His long-standing commitment to the US Navy and its heritage has been amply demonstrated through his support of USS Enterprise (CVN-65); his participation in events honoring USS Enterprise (CV-6) and her World War II veterans; and his support for the programs at the National Naval Aviation Museum, the US Naval Institute, and the Naval Historical Andrew Taylor Foundation.

To learn more about these extraordinary individuals or for more information about the event, please visit our website at www.seahistory.org, call 914 737-7878, ext.

0, or email us at nmhs@seahistory.org.

We have reserved a block of rooms at the J. W. Marriott Washington, DC, 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (next to the National Press Club). Standard guest rooms for single or double occupancy are $319 per night, plus applicable taxes. The room block is set aside until 23 March 2016, or until all the rooms have been reserved.

Reservations can be made by calling 202 393-3900. Please identify yourself as part of the National Maritime Historical Society.

to donate exhibit materials to neighboring museums and historical organizations; the remainder will be sold. (Information on the disposition of its collections can be found on the "news" section of their website at www.jacksonvillemaritimeheriragecenter.org.) . . . In October, the 1895 lumber schooner C.A. Thayerwas towed to the Bay Ship & Yacht Co. in Alameda, California, for the penultimate step in what will have been a 13-year, $14-plus million restoration project by the National Park Service. Three 120-foot masts will be stepped in shipyard; rigging will be installed next spring. Sails will be made to her original configuration; a sailmaker has nor been named yet. C. A. 1hayer carried lumber down the West Coast from the Northwest to California until 1912, then carried on intermittently as a fishing schooner until retiring in 1950 as the last sailing commercial schooner on the West Coas t.

C.A. Thayer

Once the mas ts, rigging, and sails are in place, rhe historic schooner would be "sail ready," bur plans for operation under sail have nor been announced. Ar the moment, the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park runs educational programs aboard the 1886 Balclutha, including the popular Ranger Aloft Program, and daysails aboard the 1892 scow schooner Alma. (www. nps.gov/safr/index.hrm) ... Mystic Seaport invites applications for the annual competition for the Paul Cuffe Memorial Fellowship. The fellowships are offered to encourage research that considers the participation of Native and African Americans in the maritime ac tivities of New England, primarily its southeastern shores. Fellowships support research and writing, a portion of which should norm ally be carried out in the Mystic area.

The fellowships of up to $2,400 are made (con tinued on page 52)

50

SEAHISTORY 153, WINTER2015-16

O FF TO F IDDLE RS' GR EEN

Thomas F. Daly (1937-2015) A National Maritime Historical Society trustee since 2003 , Thomas F. D aly of Rum son, New Jersey, was first introduced to the Society by his law firm partner and friend, the late Rodney Houghton, himself an N MHS trustee. Tom died on 8 September and is survived by his wife Nancy, their four ch ildren and ten grandchi ldren .

Tom D aly served on the NMH S executive committee a nd on the o rgan izing committees for both the New Yo rk and Washington annual awa rds dinners, helping to m ake these key events successful for N MHS and unique experiences fo r attendees . In th e words of fe llow NMH S trustee D ave Fowler, Tom was "a guy who did not seek or care abo ut being ' in the spotlight,' but instead believed in the concept of a 'floodlight,"' an d sh a rin g t h e c redit for accomplishments. H is ca lm demea nor a nd his thoughtfu l approach ro problem solvi n g were impressive characteristics that served him and the Societ y well. H e helped his fe llow board members sort out tho rny issues by applying those traits to the problem-solving process. H e helped to develop a nd lead the audit committee process at NMHS and has contributed significant time a nd con ference room space to the Society. As a new trustee, Tom arranged fo r a memorable NMHS trustee tour of New York harbor on the Sandy H ook pilo ts' cutter New York, and in 2007 he was our featured speaker at an N MHS C harles Point Council seminar, sharing his extensive knowledge about the histo ry of piloting. We honored him w ith the David O 'Neil Sheet A ncho r Awa rd in 201 2 in recognition of his yea rs of service and the m a ny ways he had contributed to the Society's wo rk.

Tom D aly graduated fro m Lafaye tte College in Easton, Pennsylvania, with a degree in economics.

H e served in the US A rmy, a nd we nt on to work fo r the Intergovernmental Committee fo r European Migration while stationed in M adrid. H e earned a law degree from Georgetown U niversity and joined the law firm ofM cCarter & E n glish , LLC, retiri ng in 2009, but continued to serve as O f Counsel. A graduate of the Adva nced Ship H andling program (l-r) Dave Fowler, Burchenal Green, at the M assachusetts Maritime Academy, Tom held and Tom Daly at the 2012 NMHS a m erch a nt m a rine m as te r 's license wi th a n Annual Awards Dinner. unlimited radar observer endo rsement. A m ember of the New Jersey Ma ritime and D ockin g Pilots Commission since 199 1, he was involved in inves tigating and reviewing m aritime incidents a nd served as the organization's president. He was a trustee of the Sandy H ook Foundation, and taught m aritime law at Rutgers U niversity Law. Tom lectured extensively on aviation , m aritime law, a nd trial procedures . H e was a m ember and fo rmer Governor of the Seabright Beach Club. Tom was also a member of the Rumson First A id Squad and a m ember of its Board of T rustees.

My fo ndes t m emories of him, though, are when he was at the wheel of a boat. O f his li felong interest in boating, Tom D aly said : "Ir seems I had salt water coursing through my veins since early childhood ; I learned to swim at three, and to row at fi ve. I got my first sailboat at age eight and m y fi rs t power boat at ten- a 14-foot Rat-bottom boat with an Elgin engine. My fi rst voyage in this boat was between Sea Bright, New Jersey, and the Statue of Liberty."

We at the National M aritime Hi storical Society mourn his passing and are gratefu l fo r his yea rs of service and good humor. Fair W inds, T om.-Burchenal Green, p resident SEA HISTORY 153, WINTE R 201 5- 16

Nautical Scribe Books ~ MARITIME BOOKS & ART 132 Church Street, Belfast, Maine 207-218-1006 nauticalscribebooks@gmail.com www.nauticalscrib ebooks.com

11 DAILY STORIES ON FACEBOOK

BREWER BANNER(/)#~

*

77 Forest Street New Bedford, MA 02740 508 996-6006 www.brewerbanner.com info@brewerbanner.com

CUSTOM WORK is our SPECIALTY We are also THE SOURCE for all sizes: U.S. flags, Yacht Ensigns, Courtesy flags , Code flags , Jacks, Pennants, Battle flags ... you name it!

STARS & STRIPES PENNANTS - in stock hand crafted from t he most durable fabrics

Tired of nautical reproductions?

Martifacts has only authenti c mari ne collectibles rescued fro m scrapped ships: navigation lamps, sex tants, cl ocks, bell s, barometers, charts, fl ags, binnacles, telegraphs, portho les, U.S. Navy dinnerware and fl atware, and more. Cun¡ent brochw¡e - $ 1.00

MARTIFACTS, INC. P.O. BOX 3501 90 JACKSONVILLE, FL 32235-01 90 PHONE/FAX: (904) 645-0150 www.martifacts.com e-mail: martifacts@aol.com

OSWEGO - "oldest U.S . freshwater port" Open Mon - Sun 1-5 pm July & Aug 10-5 pm West 1st Street Pier, Oswego, NY www.hlwmm .org

315-342-0480

51

(continued from page 50) possible through the generosity of a local private foundation. Cuffe fellows are requested to write a report on their research within one year of receiving the award .

Since 1989, the Museum's Paul C uffe fellowship has provided funds to 35 researchers from universities, colleges, and museums. The research collection of the G . W . Blunt White Library has nearly one million documents pertaining to maritime history. These include 1,300 ships' logs and journals, ledgers, diaries, and documents from the w haling, fishing, and shipping industries. Nearby research faci lities at Yale Un iversity, Brown U niversity, New Bedford Whaling M useum and other institutions are available to C uffe fellows. (Details on how to apply are online at w.mysticseaport. org/ lea rn /college-gradu ate/paul-cu ffememorial-fellowship.) . . . GulfQuest : the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico opened on 26 September, on a stretch of public waterfront on the Mobile River in Alabama. As the newest neighbor to Lhe

GulJQuest's Take the Helm Theater Arth ur R. Outlaw Mo bile Convention Center, Cooper Riverside Park, and the A l a b ama Cruise Term in a l, the 90,000-square foot museum overcame sign ificant delays stemming from a construction contract dispute and a mold issue, now both resolved. The $62 million museum welcomed more th an 6,000 visitors in its first month . GulfQuest h as an emph asis on interactive exhibits, like "Take the Helm Theater," a simulator identical to those used to train professional boat pilots, which enables visitors to try their hand at navigating vessels aro und the Port of Mobile, Mobile Bay, and the Tombigbee River. Other

The new quarterly magazine devoted to traditional sailing vessels, sailors, and sail training!

One year $25

* Two years $40

Call (978) 561-3020 or send your check I money order to: MARLINSPIKE

73 Middleton Road Boxford, MA 01921 Visit MarlinspikeMagazine.com and check out our facebook page!

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@ca rterstore .com Phone/Fax: 714-826-9696 Mention Sea History Magazine for an extra 10% discount

52

exhibits offer the chance to explore the mechanics of wind power, take sights using a sextant, and learn about the inner workings of a steam engi ne; there are over 90 exhibits in all. (155 S. Water St. , Mobile, AL 36602; Ph: 25 1 436-8901; www.gulf quest.org) .. . This fall, the Maritime Museum of San Diego received a donation of $500,000 from the Hervey Family Fund at the San Diego Foundation, earmarked to contribute towards the financing and ongoing fundraising for San Salvador, the replica of the Spanish galleon that Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed into present-day San Diego Bay in September 1542. San Salvador was launched in Ju ly after a several-month delay adjusting the logistics of getting her

San Salvador, in San Diego, California into the water once it was discovered she was significantly heavier than first calculated. The ship will be operated as a Boating classroom, sailing along the coast of Californ ia. The San Salvador was built in nearby Spanish Landing Park in full view of the public and by volunteers under the supervision of professional shipbuilders .

Since its launch, the ship has been moved and can be viewed at the dock at the Maritime Museum of San Diego, along with the museum's extensive Beet of historic and replica ships representing many eras of Cali fornia's maritime history. (MMSD, 1492 North Harbor Drive, San Diego, CA 92101; Ph. 619 234-9153; www.sdmaritime. org) . . . The 1936 ocean liner Queen Mary has served as a film set for many memorable films and TV series in the past, including Aviator (2004), Pirates of the Caribbean (2003), The Natural (1984), and Poseidon Adventure (1972), just to name a few, but in January, crews will be aboard filming a movie about the famous ocean liner, now serving in retirement from sea as a hotel in Long SEA HISTORY 153 , WINTER 2015- 16

Beach, California. The Ubiquiry Srudios movie Vessels will be "a rhriller rhar focuses on rhe hisrory and hauntings of rhe Queen Mary." The film crew will be working ar nighr, and will nor disrupr rhe daily ac riviries aboard ship. The ship was builr ar rhe John Brown & Company Shipyard on rhe River Clyde in Scodand and was launched in 1934, rhe firsr ship owned and operared by rhe newly merged Whire Srar Photomosaic of the J866Walrer B. Allen. lhe schooner lies in 165 feet of water in Lake Michigan and is in an extraordinary state ofpreservation, including both masts still standing and reaching to within 90 feet ofthe lake's surface. lhe site is one of39 known shipwrecks within the proposed area nominated to become a National M arine Sanctuary.

comains a collecrion of thirry-nine known shipwrecks, fifreen of which are lisred on rhe Narional Register of Hisroric Places.

The public is invired ro submir commems

The second sire is in Wisconsin: a n 875-square mile area of Lake Michigan, wirh warers exrending from Pon Washingron ro Two Rivers. The nominared area

Line and C unard Line. In Augusr 1936, rhe Queen Mary won rhe covered Blue Riband from her rival Normandie during an Adantic crossing where she averaged 30 .14 knors wesrbound and 30.63 knors easrbound. (1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach, CA 90802; www.queenmary.com) . . . On 5 October, President Barack Obama announced two new marine areas that are candidates to become national marine sanctuaries, the first sites

,ruAN1E1. s. w11 si ~'' ~"~ ,,.~ . , I~ S1\ll"'l\ 11\l(J:Il --- oO\' l-IBr\}' EAS'\ \,_, ' , Jt,.ll NE w

Tell them you saw their ad in

Sea History!

@

Yach t Sails Rigging BUILDERS O F HIGH-QUALITY HAND-FI TSHED SAILS Full-service sail and rigging loft P.O. Box 71, Lincoln St., East Boothbay, Maine 04544 (207) 633-5071

WILLIA MS

~

THE EXPERIENCE OF NO EXPERIENC

MYS TI C

Mallows Bay Ghost Fleet Ship, Benzonia

to be nominated since 2000. The first proposed area is Mallows Bay-Poromac River, in Maryland: a 14-square mile area of rhe ridal Poromac River, adjacenr to C harles County. Nearly 200 vessels spanning from rhe Revolurionary War rhrough rhe presem are found in rhe area, including rhe remains of rhe largesr "Ghosr Fleer" of World War I, wooden sreamships builr for rhe US Emergency Fleer rhar are lisred on rhe Narional Regisrer of Hisroric Places.

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

53

CLASSIFIED ADS Pensacola is called by many the BEST part of Florida! Pensacola is Florida and the USA's 1st Place, settled in 1559 and today is a top retirement area, especially for former military. Beautiful beaches, Golf, NO SNOW (hardly ever) , mild winters, & NO State income or investment tax! Great H ealth care, History, Arts & Culture and very military friendly. Lots of outdoor stuff to do too! See us at www. pensacolahomesales.net or contact me @ Ph. 850 982-1907.

Custom Ship Models, Half Hulls. Free Catalog. Spencer, Box 1034, Quakertown, PA 1895 1.

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

PRESIDENTS PLAYING CARDS. All 44 US presidents are represented on these playing cards with interesting fac ts and quotes . www.presidentsplayingcards.com.

until 15 January 2016 through the Federal eRulemaking Portal, www.regulations.gov (docket number fo r Mallows Bay is NOAAN O S-2015-0111 and docket number for W isconsin is N OAA-N O S-2015-011 2) .

Following this comment period, NOAA will develop a draft environmental impact statement, draft m anagement plan, and potential regulations for each site, which will then be avail able for public review.

After reviewing those comments, N OAA will then make a final decision on the proposed action. (NOAA Office of National M arine Sanctuaries, 1305 East Wes t Highway, N /NM S, 11th Floor, Silver Spring, MD 20910; www. sancm aries. noaa.gov) ... The National Museum of the Great Lakes announced in October that the wreck of the steamer Bay State was discovered in approximately 350 feet of water in Lake Ontario by explorers Jim Kennard and Roger Pawlowski this past summer, using side scan sonar. Bay State was one of the early steamships on the G reat Lakes to use a propeller rather than a paddlewheel, and is the oldest propeller-driven steamship fo und to date in Lake Ontario.

BOOKS OUT-OF-PRINT NAUTICAL BOOKS AND BOAT MAGAZINES. Thousands of rides. Online Catalog. Sea Fever Books, email: info@seafeverbooks.com and website: www.seafeverbooks .com 877-7 92-3040 (EST ).

THE AUTHORITY TO SAIL by Commodore Roberr 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 Cent re, Ph. 860 739-2492; www. theauthoritytosail.com.

Sonar image ofthe steamship Bay State on the bottom of Lake Ontario.

KEEPING THE TRADITION ALIVE by Capt. Ray Williamson. The remarkable story of Maine W indjammer Cruises,â&#x201E;˘ fo under of the windjam mer 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@ mainewindjammercruises.com.

Advertise in Sea History!

Call 914 737-7878, ext. 235, or

e-mail: advertising@seahistory.org.

54

Image ofBay State's sister ship Yo ung America, 1852.

She was built in 1852 in Buffalo, New York,

by Bidwell and Banta, at 137 feet long with a beam of 26 feet. She sank in a gale on 4 N ovember 1862 , en ro ute from Oswego, New York, to Cleveland, Ohio. (1701 From St. , Toledo, OH 43605; Ph: 419 214-5 000; www.inlandseas.org/museum) . . . Don't miss the 11 December release of In the Heart of the Sea, the movie adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick's best-selling book of the same title. The movie is directed by Ron H oward and stars C hris H emsworth as O wen C hase, Brendan Gleeson as old Thom as Nickerson, plus Benjamin Walker, Cillian Murphy, Tom Holland, and Ben Whish aw. ... The USflagged cargo ship El Faro, which sank with all hands during Hurricane Joaquin in October, has been located by the US Navy in 15,000 feet of water, approximately 40 miles northeast of Crooked Island in the Bahamas. The 790-foor El Faro was built in 1975 and was updated in 2006. It operated as a combination ROROLOLO (roll on/roll off - lift on/lift off) cargo ship owned by TOTE M aritime. Ir departed Jacksonville, Florida, on 30 September fo r Puerto Rico with a crew of 33-28 Americans and 5 Poles. On 1 O ctober, the US Coast G uard received notification that the ship had lost propulsion and was raking on water. The Coast G uard started search operations using helicopter reconnaissance and the deployment of two cutters. They were subsequently assisted by the US N avy and three tugboats from C rowley M ariti me, based our of Jacksonville. The search teams located one body in a survival suit, which was not recovered while they ac tively searched for survivors.

Debris included other unopened survival suits, a deflated life raft, a life ring, and a heavily damaged and unoccupied lifeboat.

Among the crew were two graduates from Massachusetts M aritime Academy and four alumni fro m M aine Maritime Academy; the captain was Michael Davidson, also of M aine. The ship was located and identified by the crew ofUSNS Apache using a towed pinger locator, side-scan sonar, and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). Ir was reported to be upright on the seafloor and in one piece but without the navigation bridge. The search for the bridge data recorder was still underway at press time. An

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

El Faro

TOTE Maritime has set up a website at www.elfaroincident.com, which is updated as the search and investigation continues.

The website includes information on the crew and a link to the Seamen's Church Institute, which has set up a fund to support the families and loved ones of the crew.

You can contribute online to the fund through the website. (The National Transportation Safety Board web page on the EL Faro incident is at www.ntsb.gov/inves tigations/Pages/2015 _ elfaro _j ax. aspx.)

investigation is being conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). RIP EL Faro crew, and our thoughts are with their families, loved ones, and shipmates.

El Faro Crew Louis Marko Champa, 51 Roosevelt Lazarra Clark, 38 Sylvester C. Crawford Jr., 40 Capt. Michael C. Davidson, 53 Brookie Larry Davis, 63 Keith William Griffin, 33 Frank]. Hamm, 49 Joe Edward Hargrove, 65 Carey J. Hatch, 49 Michael Lee Holland, 25 Jack Edward Jackson, 60 Jackie Robert Jones Jr., 38 Lonnie S. Jordan, 35 Piotr Marek Krause, 27 Mitchell T. Kuflik, 26 Roan Lightfoot, 54 Jeffrey Mathias, 42 Dylan 0. Meklin, 23 Marcin Nita, 34 Jan Podg6rski, 43 James Phillip Porter, 40 Richard Joseph Pusatere, 34 Theodore Earl Quammie, 66 Danielle Laura Randolph, 34 Jeremie Harold Riehm, 46 Lashawn Lamonte Rivera, 32 Howard John Schoenly, 52 Steven Wink Shultz, 54 German Arturo Solar-Cortes, 51 Anthony Shawn Thomas, 47 Andrzej Roman Truszkowski, 52 Mariette Wright, 51 Rafa! Andrzej Zdobych, 42 SEAHISTORY 153, WINTER2015- 16

Lannan Ship Model Gallery Established 1967 is also

Boston Harbor Auctions organizing memorable and successful maritime auctions Whether you wish to add to your collection or have us market your collection

*WELCOME ABOARD!* Join our mailing list today Join our email list today Call Larry Lannan with your wants or offerings

99 High St., Boston, MA 02110 6174512650 info@lannangallery.com lannangallery.com

55

The historic 17 97 frigate USS Constitution is now the only ship in the US Navy to have sunk an enemy ship in action.

The only other ship to sh are that title in

recent yea rs, the 30-year-old USS Simpson, which was decommissioned on 30 September. "Old Ironsides" is currently in dry dock in the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston for a two-year restoration project, estimated to cost between $ 10 and $15 million . USS Simpson was built as an O liver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate at Bath Iron Works in Maine and launched in 1984. She saw 30 yea rs of ac tive duty, with service in the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Adriatic Seas, and the eastern Pacific. In April 1988, USS Simpson fire d missiles

CLASSIC HARBOR LINE Boston, MA www.boston-sailing.com

USS Simpson

and sank an Iranian Navy Vt'.ssel and oil platform. The frigate will enter the State Department's Foreign Military Sales program (FMS). In recent years, other decommissioned US Navy frigates have been sold to Bahrain, Egypt, Poland, Turkey and Pakistan. . .. The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum has launched a five-year plan to renovate and restore its campus along the Miles River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. One of the first structures to get attention is the museum's iconic 1879 screw-pi le lighthouse, which received a coat of ceramic paint designed to last 25 yea rs.

Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

New York, NY www.sail-nyc.com Newport, RI www.sail-newport.com Key West, FL www.sail-keywest.com

Scarano Boat Building Designing & Building Tradition Since 1976 www.scaranoboat.com 518-463-3401 56

It will get a new copper roof next year. The 1889 Edna Lockwood, a bugeye ketch built on Ti lghman Island and the last of her kind, will be getting some much-needed restoration work. The museum is seeking sources for southern yellow pine logs to replace her log bottom (they need 12 logs, 52 fee t long and 3 to 4 feet in diameter, in case you know of any). In addition to these two projects, other museum buildings, historic structures, and its fleet of historic watercraft will be getting attention as well.

The project is expected to cost $10 million, but work has started and is ongoing as funds come in. The St. Michael 's museum celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2015. (213 Norrh Talbot St., St. Michaels, MD 21663; Ph. 410 745 -2916; www.cbmm.org) J,

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 20 15- 16

CONFERENCES AND SYMPOSIUMS

•Society for Historical Archaeology Annual Conference, 6-9 Jan uary in Washington, D C. Confe rence theme is: "A Call to Action: The Past and Futu re of H istorical Archaeology." (www.sha.org) •American Historical Association Annual Meeting, 7-10 January in A tlanta, GA. Conference theme is: "Global Migrations: Empires, Nations, and Neighbors." (www. historians. org/ annual-meeting) •The Quebec International Sail Training and Tall Ships Conference 2016, 28-3 0 January in Q uebec C ity. O rganized by Tall Ships America. (22 1 3rd Sr. , Bldg. 2, Ste. 101 , Newport, RI; Ph. 401 846-1 775; www.sailtraining.org) •26th Symposium on Maritime Archaeology and History of Hawai' i and the Pacific, 13-15 February in H onolulu.

Call for Papers deadline is 15 January. O rganized by the Maritime Archaeology and History of the Hawaiian Islands Foundation. (MAHHI, PO B 8807, H onolulu, HI; email finney@mahhi. org fo r details; www.mahhi .org) •Council of American Maritime Museums Annual Meeting, 25-27 April, hosted by the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation in Wilmington, DE. Call fo r Session proposals deadline is 15 January. (www.council ofamericanmaritimemuseums.o rg; www. kalmarnyckel. org) •National Council on Public History and Society for History in the Federal Government Joint Meeting, 16-19 March in Baltimore, MD . (www. ncph.org) •Joint North American Society for Oceanic History (NASO H), North Atlantic Fisheries History Association (NAFHA), Society for the History of Naval Medicine (S H NM) Conference 2016, Portland, ME, 11- 16 May. Co nfe rence theme is: "Periculum maris spes lucri superat: Fisheries, Trade, Defense and the North Atlantic World." Call fo r Papers deadline is 1 February. (For more information regarding proposals, email NASOH program chair Vic Mastone at victor. mastone@srate.ma.us, www.nasoh.org; NAFHA, www.hull. ac.uk/nafh a, contact is Ingo Heidbrink at iheidbri@odu. edu; SH NM, www.historyofnavymedicine.org, contact is Ann ette Finley-Croswhite at acroswhi@odu. edu)

Greenmanville Ave., Mystic, CT; Ph. 860 •Divergent Focal Planes on the Channel: 572-533 1; www. mysticseaport. org) From Darkroom to Lightroom, thro ugh •Pearl Harbor Anniversary Parade, 7 3 January at the Santa Barbara Maritime December in Waikiki. (See www.pearl Museum . (11 3 H arbor Way, Santa Bar- harborparade.o rg fo r the parade route and schedule.) bara, CA 93 109; www.sbmm.org) •Liquid Light: Photography Beneath the •Ice Boating on the Inland Seas, a lecture Sea, through 31 January at The Mariners' by Archie Call, 9 December at the NaMuseum. (100 Museum Dr. , Newport tional Museum of the Great Lakes in ToNews, VA; Ph. 757 596-2222; www. mari ledo, OH. (1 701 Front St. , Toledo, OH; www. inlandseas.o rg. Advance reservations nersmuseum.org) •A Broad Reach: 50 Years of Collecting, recommended: RSVP to museumstore@ at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Muse- inlandseas.org or 419 214-5000 ext. 200) um, in commemoration of the museum's •Maritime Performance Series concert 50th anniversary, through February. (21 3 with the folk hand EVA, 18 December N. Talbot Street, St. Michaels, MD ; www. at the Calvert Marine Museum on Solomons Island in MD . (14200 Solomons cbmm.org) •Mapping Ahab's "Storied waves ''....._ Island Road, Solomons, MD; www.cal Whaling and the Geography of Moby- verrmarinemuseum .com) Dick, debuts 8 January at the New Bed- •Tim Flannery & Friends Concert on fo rd Whaling Museum, (1 8 Johnny Cake the Star of India, 19 December at the Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740; Ph. 508 Maritime Museum of San Diego. Advance tickets available; note that this is an event 997-0046; www.whalingmuseum .org) •Highliners: Boats of the Century, at for adults 2 1 years and older. Also at the the Center fo r Wooden Boats in Seattle. museum is the 2015 Parade of Lights, 13 (CWB , 1010 Valley Street, Seattle, WA; and 20 December. (1492 N . Harbor Dr. , Ph. 206 382-2628; www.cwb.org) San Diego, CA; Ph. 619 234-9 153; www.

•Lobstering & the Maine Coast, new in sdmaritime.org) 2015 at the Maine Mari time Museum . •Moby-Dick Marathon, 9-10 January Also at MMM, wavelength: The Story of at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Signals at Sea, through 15 May 201 6. (43 No n-stop reading of Herman Melville's Washington Street, Bath, Maine 04530; masterpiece. Want to be a reader? Email Ph. 207 443- 13 16; www.mainemaritime mdmarathon@whalingmuseum.o rg or call 508 717-6851 to inquire about openings . museum .org) •River Life: Recent Work by David (18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA Eberhardt, 15 January-24 April at the 02740; Ph. 508 997-0046; www.whalingMinnesota Museum of Marine Art. (800 museum.org) Riverview Drive; W inona, MN; Ph. 507 •USS Constellation Returns from Dry 474-6626; www. mmam.org) Dock, 12 March in Baltimore. Th e ship •Coming to America, at the Indepen- will depart the USCG shipyard at Curtis dence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia. Bay at approximately 1OAM, and is expect(2 11 South Columbus Blvd. & Walnut ed to arri ve at Pier 1 between 11 :30AM and Street, Philadelph ia, PA 19106; Ph. 215 l 2:30PM. She will reopen to the public the fo llowing day, Friday, 13 March at lOAM. 413-8655; www.phillyseaporr.o rg) •Across the Top of the World: the Quest (Historic Ships in Bal timore, Pier 1, 301 for the Northwest Passage, th ro ugh May East Pratt Sr. , Baltimore, M D; Ph . 4 10 at the Vancouver Maritime Museum . 539- 1797; www.historicships.org) (1905 O gden Avenue in Vanier Park, •Chicago Maritime Festival, 16 April at Vancouver, BC; Ph. 604 257-83 00; www. the O ld Town School of Polk Music, orgavancouverm ari ti memuseum.com) nized by Common T imes, with the Chicago Maritime Museum, the O ld Town School of Folk M usic, and the C hi cago FESTIVALS, EVENTS, LECTURES, ETC. •Lantern Light Tours at Mystic Seaport, History Museum. (OTSFM , 4544 N Linevenings on 4-5 , 11- 13, and 18-20 De- coln Ave, Chicago, IL; Ph. 773 728-6000; cember. Advance tickers availabl e. (7 5 www.chicagomaritim efestival.org)

MARITIME HISTORY ON THE INTERNET

by Peter McCracken

Tugboating Around the Web t seems that tugboats rarely get respect, even online. The internet has surprisingly little content about tugboats, despite the critical role they play in the modern maritime environment. N evertheless, as with any area of interest, some extended looking can yield a variety of websites worth checking out.

For info rmation about current US -registered rugs, check our www.tugboatin formation.com. Content is organized by tugboat company, bur if yo u click on "Search " you can seek our in fo rmation about each boar in the database. The Tugboat Enthu siasts Society of the Americas, at www.tugboatenthusiastso ciety.org, is compiled by member Carl Wayne. The sire hasn't been updated in a while, but it does have a section covering more than 7,000 historical tugs. The Retired Tugboat Association, at www.retiredtugs.org, is a new gro up that foc uses primarily on retired and semiretired rugs of the Pacific Northwest. Its members organize gatherings and tugboat races there, but it also has members from across the United States. You can check our its small database of historic tugs under the website's "Boar Ros ter" link.

Of course, every modern rug and barge company has a web presence, mainly for providing info rmation and support to clients and to prospective customers, but often these sites will have great im ages of tugs and barges at work in difficult or interesting situations, shot by professional phorographers. Crowley M aritime, for instance, a large marine logistics company fo unded in 1892, has a lot of historical and current info rmation on their website at www.crowley.com, including descriptions of their tugs and technology. McAllister Towing, fo unded in 1864, operates more than 75 rugs up a nd down the US seaboard. M cAllister's photo gallery at www.mcallistertow ing.com highlights their tugs in action.

Private citizens have created lots of rug-related websites as well, where people compile images of rugs and ships they've spotted . One nice example is Tow ingline. com, created by H ans van der Ster, who has years of experience at sea in European tugs. H e is now at work compiling images, stories, Beet lists, and more on his personal site. River Ramblings (www.wvtowboats.com/ramblings/) shares images shot by a rugboar/pushboat operator on American rivers. The number of photos is limited, bur those posted on the website are very nice, and show the boars and barges in operation . The photos showing tugs operating in ice are particularly compelling images.

Pelican Passage (www.pelicanpassage.com), compiled by Par Folan, has uploaded hundreds of images of tugs and towboats from the 2000s, and the "Tugnet" section of the website has the largest collection of tug-related li nks anywhere.

TugandOSV.com (O SV refers to "off-shore vessels"), in addition to having a cleverly designed home page on which a tugboat delivers the ".com", has back issues of its publication, International Tug and OSV, available in full text, along with a collection of books they publish and sell. Lekko International, at www.lekko.org, publishes two magazines about rugs and towing-one in Durch, and one in English .

Only a handful of back issues are ava ilable on line, unfortunately. Towingline. com, mentioned above, has a free annual newsletter focusing on European rug work available thro ugh its website. The folks behind the TugandOSV.com site also sponsor two biennial conferences: Tugnology, and their international ITS Convention, which will rake place in Boston in M ay 2016.

A nother rug-related event is the Tugboat Roundup, a n annual festival and gathering of tugboats in Waterfo rd, NY, "gateway to the Erie Canal System," every September (www.tugboatroundup.com).

Suggestions for other sites worth mentioning are welcome at peter@shipindex. org. See www.shipindex.org for a free compi lation of over 150,000 ship names from indexes to dozens of books a nd journals. ,!,

I

58

SHIP INDEX .ORG

SEAHISTORY 153 , WINTER20 15- 16

Reviews Citizen Sailors: Becoming American in the Age of Revolution by Nathan PerlRosenthal (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2015, 372pp, maps, appen, notes, index, ISBN 978-0-674-28615-3; $29.95 hc) Citizen Sailors is a well-researched and original contribution to Atlantic-America maritime history. Assistant professor of history at the University of Southern California Nathan Perl-Rosenthal displays a solid understanding of Atlantic social, cultural, and legal history in his presentation of an important bur largely overlooked theme in American maritime history.

Perl-Rosenthal focuses on the changing definitions and metrics for determining citizenship for maritime laborers during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. During times of war, a sailor's ability to prove his nationality often meant the difference between freedom and impressment, imprisonment, lashing, or even death. Furthermore, assessment of the nationality of officers, men, and the ships they belonged to could have tremendous financial implications in an era of blockades, privateering, and naval prize money. In the mid-eighteenth century, the Atlantic maritime world relied on "the common sense of nationality" based on the relative homogeneity of labor within the competing maritime empires. The typical crew consisted of a majority of "native son s" whose cultural characteristics and language derived clearly from their place of birth.

Citizenship in this context was "acquired at birth and normally unalterable."

In Citizen Sailors, Professor Perl-Rosenthal argues that the American Revolution and its afrermath began a shift from this common-sense determination to complex modern systems of documenting individual citizenship among maritime laborers.

The commonalities between British and American sailors instituted an ambiguity into "commonsense" determinations of citizenship that became increasingly unacceptable during the Napoleonic E ra and the War of 1812. The author describes a wide range of innovations in identity marking developed by common sailors, maritime bureaucrats and diplomats. Key developments included the US Congress's establishment of the London Agency for the Protec-

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015-16

tion of Seamen in 1796. Under George Lennox, the agency developed a complex system for tracking individual American seaman. Indeed , the agency's largely overlooked records provide the basis of the book's more original and strongest scholarship. In 1803, Congress enacted a law directing the federal government to begin certifying the nationality of American sailors. The customs house, through its "protections," became the certifying and administrative mechanism for issuing and tracking sailor-identity papers. By the early nineteenth century, "identity documents from the federal government, usually certified and handled by federal officials, had become necessary and sufficient proof of American nationality at sea."

In juxtaposing "federal citizenship for seamen" with the more localized terrestrial citizen constructs, the author illustrates from ye t another vantage point the wellestablished ambiguities of race found in the early antebellum maritime wo rld. While it is certainly a scholarly volume, the book is accessible to anyone interested in American maritime history during the Age of Sail. Perhaps a bit too strong on context for the specialist maritime historian, the book's linkage to the larger historical processes and events make it a useful volume for introducing important maritime perspectives to upper-level undergraduate and graduate students .

The volume's weaknesses are irksome, rather than substantive, and reflect the publisher more than the author. Illustrations are perfuncrory and the maps not well presented or effectively integrated . The subtitle, "Becoming American in the Age of Revolution" is misleading. "Documenting American Identity in the Revolutionary A tlantic" might have been more on point.

These minor points aside, this is a valuable and extremely well-researched contribution to the history of United States during early the Revolutionary and Early Republic periods, and a welcome addition ro the ca non of American maritime history.

New York, 2015, 448pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, ISBN 978-0-307-40886-0; $28hc) Go ro any library and yo u will find shelves groaning under the weight of the dozens of tomes published in the last hundred years about the 1915 sinking of the RMS Lusitania by a German U-boat. It has been probed as a cloak-and-dagger mystery: Was it really sent to the bottom by the deto nation of poorly packed munitions secretly shipped by British agents from the then-neutral United States? Was it a set-up?

Did Sea Lord Winston Churchill conspire to throw the most magnificent of his nation's ocean liners and its innocent passengers into the path of mortal danger just ro draw the US into World War I? And why on earth do we need yet another book on the ropic?

The answer is simple. A century on, with the Lusitania long gone from living memory, what happened ro the sh ip is no longer the issue. The issue is why it mattered. Why did the fate of one ship, however glorious, make any difference in the midst of a worldwide conflagration that was slaughtering innocents by the millions?

THE GLENCANNON PRESS

1~..

1

NEW! AMERICA 's

Cup FROM THE

FIFTY- YARD LINE

The impact of the 2013 America's Cup match in San Francisco and on the SS Jeremiah O 'Brien. Hardcover, 6x9, 320 pp. 220+ photos. $29.95 + $5

shipping.

]OH N ODIN J ENSEN

Pensacola, Florida

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson (Crown Publishing, a division of Random House LLC,

FREE

CATALOG

1-800-711-8985

Online catalog at www.glencan non.com 59

New from Unicorn Press

~

MAKING WAVE§

ALEX MARTIN

With n Foreword by HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh

Maine Island MamJe<S and the &g Sleam Yachts

Erik Larson is a magnificent storyteller. He puts rhe story of rhe Lusitania into a political and historical context that makes it clear why what happened to the ship was important-then and now-and why rhe tragic drama of rhar day captured the attention of the wo rld. Larson weaves into his tale the personal histories of the people whose lives were direcrly impacted by rhe event-those who sailed aboard rhe ocean liner, and the German captain who fired rhe torpedo rhar brought her down.

We meet also rhe political and military leaders in Washington, London, and Berlin whose decisions set the stage eleven miles off Ireland 's Old Head of Kinsale for the carnage of7 May 1915.

The death of more than a thousand civilians-including 128 Americans-was a crucial turning point in rhe history of the twentieth century. Although the U nited Stares did nor join rhe armies fighting Germany for nearly two more years, it was the sinking of rhe Lusitania that was seen as the event rhar broke the back of A merican neutrality.

Thanks to La rson's compelling narrative, we have a window that brings that lon g-gone wo rld back to life. Ir deserves to rake a place of honor on rhar groaning library shelf. Or, better ye t, on the bedside table of any reader whose eyes light up at rhe thought of a well-told history.

RICHARD O ' REGAN

Toronto, Ontario

With Sails Whitening Every Sea: Mariners and the Making of an American Maritime Empire by Brian Rouleau (Cor-

L avishl y illustrated, this book looks at the reasons why D eer Isle, Maine, men developed such high reputations as mariners. Furnishing officers and crews for the luxury steam yachts of the rich and powerful financiers and industrialists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. $33.95

Penobscot Books penbaypress. me books@ b .me 207-374-2341 60

nell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 20 14 , notes, illus, maps, index, ISBN 978-0-80145233-8xi+ 268pp, $45hc) In With Sails Whitening Every Sea: Mariners and the Making of an American Maritime Empire, historian and auth or Brian Rouleau adds a compelling twist to rhe narrative of the Early Republic. As rhe newly created United Stares grew and searched the globe for trading parrners, American seafarers-merchant mariners, navy personnel, whalemen, and orherswere often the first citizens of the new nation to encounter foreign peoples. As such, they served as both representatives of American ideals and as correspondents, transmitting to their countrymen back

home their impressions of rhe places they had visited, sires they had seen, and people whom they encountered. Paradoxically, the American mariner-long seen as a marginalized member of society, ill-suited to the nuances of diplomacy and international relations-was ac tually rhe most cosmopolitan of h is rime; exposed to foreign cult ures, h e was more likely than landed Americans to travel to such far-flung places as As ia, the South Pacific, and the Middle Ease. Additionally, Rouleau posits rhar America's imerest in esrablishi ng itself as a global force-cu ltu ral, eco nomi c, moral, military and otherwise-can be traced to these early interactions.

As representatives of ea rly American society, mariners were in an interesting position. Their dalliances with locals left a searing impression in the minds of foreigners as to what constituted "this new man, rhe American." Frequent visits to bars, brothels, and jails left an indelible impression that Americans were licentious and libertine: decadent, dangerous, and drunk.

Economic interactions left an equally strong mark: Americans were seen as shrewd businessmen, hell-bent on competition and profit, with little rega rd for the rights of indigenous persons or the environmen t.

Similarly, reports that A merican m ariners made to loved ones back in the Stares were formative in that they guided notio ns of what one could expect to encounter in foreign lands. Stereotypes oflibidinous South Sea maidens, of gullible indigenous traders, and of eco nomic opportunities seeded an insatiable interest in all things foreign and exotic. In the wake of trade, missionaries and the military followed: one to save natives from themselves, the other to protect the fledgling economic interests that American mariners had created. Thus, it was the mariner who played a role in foreign affairs and diplomatic relations far our of proportion to his class and status, and of lasting importance.

Brian Rouleau's book is an important addition to the growing field of li terature ¡ and scho larship rhar seeks to more completely assess the role of American mariners in the Ea rly Republic. W here these men had previously been regarded as of lirde importance, we are now seeing a more robusr and n uanced role for non-stare actors such as these . American mariners were SEAHIS:TORY 153, WINTER20 15- 16

pivo tal in establishing contact with fore ign peoples, with creating cultural and eco nomic connections with far-flung societies, and with imparting their perspective to landed countrymen back home. As such , they deserve to be recognized as acoly tes of A merica n imperialism , as individuals who laid the groundwork for future actions, and as important contributo rs to crosscultu ral interactions between A merica and "the other." With Sails Whitening Every Sea paints a vivid and accurate portrait of the role that A merican mariners played in the Early Republic, and on a global sca le. It will fi nd a place on many reading lists, and w ill rewa rd both the serious scholar and the casual reader.

T I MOT H Y G. L YNCH Ridgefield, Connecticut

Sea Fever: The True Adventures that Inspired our Greatest Maritime Authors, from Conrad to Masefield, Melville and Hemingway by Sam Jefferson (Adlard Coles, Bloomsbury, London, 2015, 336pp, illus, ISBN 978-1-4729-0-8810 ; $27hc) In his introduction to Sea Fever, Sam Jefferson w rites, "to chart every reference to sea voyages in literature would have made fo r a ve ry lengthy book indeed . But I h ad a di ffe rent idea; I wanted to take the o pposite view and look at how the sea itself had shaped some of our greatest w riters and set them on a course that led to literary success." H e then chronicles eleven celebrated male American and British maritime w riters, starting from the premise that their particular maritime adventures "were the revelations and stories that needed to be told ." Jefferson is up front about the fac t th at Sea Fever is not an exh austive biographical resource, nor does it present new research . Jefferson does nor provide a ny notes or citations, and while he seem s to wo rk to get his stories straight, he does n ot tro uble himself (or the reader) with accountin g fo r each moment of these authors' lives. H e is an entertaining sto ryteller in hi s own right, which directs the book 's scope towa rds a continuation of the tradition of "spinning yarns" that he adm ires in his subj ects. It is as if he as ks the read er, "did yo u know?" at the beginning of each chapter. For example, after an encounter on a rumored opium smuggler, Jack London "joined up with Oakland's desperate band

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

of oyster pirates ... The penalty for getting caught was often a bullet in the back of the head or a lengthy stretch in San Quentin Prison." Jefferson suggests how these incidents shaped each literary career, and, in turn, the evolu tion of British and American sea literature.

Jefferson selects writers whose stories are too incredible to make up, and he lets the authors speak fo r themselves in long passages taken fro m their fiction, letters, journals, or acco unts fro m fa mily and friends. Jefferson makes thought-provoking connections between the writers, pointing

out sh ared cruise tracks, encounters between authors, and literary passages that ech o quotation s in the book. W ere the ch apters ordered chronologically or thematically instead of alphabetically, these pattern s and connections would be more apparent to readers who do not have a ready wo rking knowled ge of each author and their historical and cultural time periods.

For the most part, the chapters are well paced and invigorating, especially his telling of Ernest H emingway's raucous exploits in C uba, fi shing and entertaining on his boat Pilar, which preceded his w riting Old

tn

~

0 0

CD

~

QJ

z

SHIPWRECKED IN PARADISE Cleopatra's Barge in Hawai'i Paul F. Johnston The first oceangoing yacht ever built in America, Cleopatra's Barge endured many incarnation s over her eighty-year life, before becoming the personal yacht of Hawa iian King Kamehameha II (Liholiho). John ston t ell s the story of the ship's life, as well as its di scovery and excavation, including artifacts that represent the on ly known mat erial cu ltu re from the king's reig n.

8Y2xl l . 256 pp. 210 color, 4 b&w photos.

3 maps. 27 line drawings. Bib. Index. $39.95 hardcover

CONFEDERATE SABOTEURS Building the Hunley and Other Secret Weapons of the Civil War Mark K. Ragan Submarine expert and nautical hi storian Ragan presents th e untold story of the Singer Secret Service Corps, which developed and deployed submarines, underwater weaponry, and explosive devices again st the Union.

398 pp. 51 b&w photos. Bib. Index. $35.00 cloth

Af1 I TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY PRESS 800.826.8911 Fax: 888.617.2421

www.tamupress.com 61

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

Publi shed by Arcad ia Pub lishing and Galveston H istorical Foundation $21.99. 128 pages, 200 photographs Autographed copies available at (409) 763-1877, or on li ne at:

www . tsm-elissa . org

-

Shop for Nautical Gifts, Books, Art Prints, and more at the NMHS Ship's Store.

www.seahistory.org

Man and the Sea, a novel "stripped bare of everything but a profound understanding of nature, the sea and the magic of a man's relationship with both and the creatures therein." The chapter on James Fenimore Cooper is less developed than others, especially considering that Jefferson notes that Cooper wrote the first thoroughly maritime novel in 1823. The Herman Melville chapter, surprisingly, falls flat, perhaps because there is so much existing literature on Melville.

A few uneven chapters aside, Jefferson weaves quotations, historical and cultural context, and biographical anecdotes into compelling stories of real lives, and it seems that this is one of the few, if only, maritime biography books of its kind. Jefferson advocates for these authors, explaining, for example: "Some see [Arthur] Ransome's Swallows and Amazons as absurd escapism to a place that never existed; ye t between the two wars, in a country wracked by depression, people needed to dream of a world with the hard edges removed. Perhaps the secret of the enduring success of the books is that we still do." Jefferson conveys his enthusiasm and affection for the works and authors he represents, and in doing so, readers will find a simi lar excitement in the connections and questions they discover along the way.

ELEANORE MACLEAN

Brookline, Massachusetts

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 62

The M obile River by John S. Sledge (University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, 2015, 335pp, photos, notes, biblio, index, ISB N 978-1-61117-485-4; $34.95hc) John Sledge's The Mobile River is a narrative history of the fort y-five-mi le-long river that empties into historic Mobile Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. In this narrative history, readers will encounter no pie diagrams, bar charts, graphs, or tables. If you want to know how much cotton was shipped out of Mobile, Alabama, between 1810 and 1910, you will have to look elsewhere. That is an inherent weakness of the genre. Nevertheless, the strength of narrative history in general, and The Mobile River in particular, is the ease of reading and perhaps the entertainment value. Authors can pick and choose their topics and illuminate them with anecdotes and forgo analysis.

So, The Mobile River is a story of what

transpired on the river over some 400 years, and that includes some of what took place on the banks along the river. Sledge begins with details of the body of water itself and how it related and relates to development on the land. He provides a sketch of life among Native Americans and their adva nced civilization, and the destruction of that culture as a by-product of European invasion. The French, Spanish, and English swept through the river region as they endeavored to transplant their culture to the New World. The res ult of those efforts was the city of Mobile, which receives generous attention.

The arrival of the Americans made Mobile and the Mobile River what it is today, but not without considerable bloodshed.

The United States embraced the river and the city and spent blood and treasure taking it back from the Confederacy, wh ich doggedly fought a battle no one thought it could win. Sledge devotes two chapters to the war and what it meant for the people of the region and their fu ture. Considering the space Sledge devotes to people-especially African Americans and others denied fu ll constitutional rights- it is a surprise that he gives no time to the civil rights movement.

Readers looking for a comfortable introduction to Mobile, Alabama, and the Mobile River uncluttered by statistics and analysis, The Mobile River is your book. It is well written and a pleasure to read.

DAVID 0. WHITTEN Auburn, Alabama

America's U-Boats: Terror Trophies of World War / by C hris D ubbs (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 2014, 224pp, illus, appen, bibliographic essay, ISBN 9780-8032-7166-1; $24.95hc) In 1916, the German subma rine U-53 slipped through a British blockade and crossed the Atlantic to American shores.

Under the command of the personable and English-speaking Captain Paul Konig, U-53 was hailed as a technological marvel, and crowds in Baltimore, Maryland, and later Newport, Rhode Island, pressed to view her. Wonder and admiration turned to fear and outrage when U-53 began attacking allied shipping immediately after departing Newport, however. The next month, U-53 called in New London, Connecticut. On SEA H ISTORY 153, WINTER20 15- 16

rhis visir, rhe reeling American public did nor want a repear of rhe recent incident and rhe U-boar was pressured our of rhe harbor by rhe US Navy. In A mericas U-Boats: Terror Trophies of World War I, Chris Dubbs chronicles rhe changing sentiments of rhe America n public cowards German submarines from the beginning of rhe First World War through the destruction of six U-boars, the "rerror rrophies" in US waters in 192 1.

The United States entered the war in 1917, particularly fearful of Germ an U boats. Wary of mine fields and U-boat attacks, US Navy and merchant vessels traveled in armed convoys. These fea rs were confirmed and began to rransirion to outrage when, in 1918, during a d ay now known as Black Sunday, U-boats sank six American vessels, causing rhe deaths of ar least thirteen passengers. German U-boats were accused of violations of accepted naval wa rfa re rules , including luring ships into ambush with distress signals and artacking hospiral ships. This outrage resonated in New England in particular when, during July of 1918 , onlookers watched from rhe shores of Cape Cod as rhe German U-156 attacked barges and tugboats in Nauset Bay. The vulnerabiliry of ships in

Nauset Bay, which was situated near a Coasr G uard Station, naval base, and naval air starion only served to increase the anxiety about the possibility of shell attacks on coastal cities and communities by German submarines. During the war, the US N avy only managed to d am age two U -boats, before the German fleet was recalled to Kiel in October of 1918. The Germ an submarine fleer surrendered to Allied forces ar H arwich in the U nited Kingdom, and evenrually 176 German submarines arrived in H arwich to be splir up and claimed as prizes by the Allies.

Represented by Caprain Thomas H art, the United States claimed a share of the ex-German submarines in order to use the ships in rhe las t Victory Bond campaign of the war, arrempring to raise funds to pay for wa r cosrs. After extensive repairs, former Germa n UB -88, U-117, U-14 0, U-148, U-97, and U-111 made their way across the Atlantic. D espite capitalizing on the fear of U -boats during the war, these "terror trophies" did not drive a particularly successful Victory Bond campaign. The tours also revealed that the public was losing interes t in submarines and war, both due to other concerns in the aftermath of war

IN HOSTILE WATERS

and the improvement of aerial rechnologies.

And even though H art and others believed submarines wo uld become obsolete and did not emphasize the study of their design, the ex-German ships were meticulously inspected and diagrammed by naval engineers , a nd they influenced subsequent American submarine design.

According to the rerms of rhe Treary of Versailles, sh ips taken as A llied war prizes had to be sunk, wirh all of rheir guns.

The ex-German submarines in rhe possession of rhe U nited Srares were sunk by surface fire from US Navy ships and aerial bombs near rhe final porrs of call rhey made during rhe Victory Bond drives, wirh U-97 in Lake Michigan, rhe UB-88 off rhe coasr of Sa n Diego, and rhe resr of rhe U-boars off rhe Virginia Capes. Only recently have rhe vessels been locared by divers and other interes red groups. D espire these yea rs of neglecr, in Americas U-boats, Dubbs brings arrention to rhe ships by skillfully weavin g rhe history of American attirudes towa rds Germ an U-boars into a srraighrforwa rd yer suspenseful account of America's "terror rrophies."

ALANNA CASEY

Kingston, Rhode Island

JOIN TODAY!

A new novel by William H. White

By JOI NI N4 THE N AVAL HI STORICAL F ovNOATION, yov BECOME A STAKEHOLDER OF OVR N AvY'S f><CI TI N4 HISTORY ANO INSP IRIN4 HER ITAc;E.

award-winning author of The 1812 Trilogy.

Join Lr. W illiam H enry Allen on his quesr ro rake rhe war to Brirish home warers, where he and the crew of USS Argus will wreak havoc on rhe Brirish merchant fleer before coming headto-head wirh rhe Royal Navy brig sent to hunr rhem down.

B ES ID ES BECOM INc; A PART OF THE NAT IO NS PREM IER NAVAL HERITA4E OR4AN IZATION , MEMBERS RECE IVE OISCOVNT5 ON PHOT04RAPH 1c/ART RESEARCH ANO REPROOVCTION SERVI CES, CRVISE BOOK COPIES ANO OTHER SERVICES !

You will be reacquainted wirh Oliver Baldwin ( 'Ihe Greater the Ho nor and In Pursuit of Glory) and Edward Ballanryne (Gun Bay and When Fortune Frowns).

In Hostile Wliters is available in paperback o r on Kindle rhrough Amazon.com. For more on W illiam H. Whire and his books, visir rhe aurhor's websire: www.seafiction.ner.

SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16

F oR MORE INFORMATION CALL

1-2 0 2-678-4333 OR VISIT WWW . NAVYHISTORY . OR~

1396

D AHL~REN AVE.

SE WA!HIN~TON NAVVYARD. DC 20 374-5055

63

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY AFTER GUARD JAMES

J.

J . ARON CHARITABLE F OUNDATION

COLEMAN, J R.

JAMES 0. COLEMAN

ARTH UR M . KIMBERLY TR UST

J.

P ETIIT, SR.

BENEFACTORS VADM

AL

K ONETZNI,

PfIILIP

&

H OWARD SLOTN ICK

JR., USN ( R ET.)

lRM Y W EBSTER

PLANK OWNERS H . F. L E FEST

GINGER M ARTUS

SPONSORS H ARRIS CLARK

B u RCHENAL GREEN

D AV ID T. G UERNSEY,

THE I NTERLA KE STEAMSI·IrP COMPANY NORMAN L ISS

&

E NGLISH, LLC

D AV ID

&

ERIC

&

DONORS

R OLEX

SILAS A NTHONY

M ARTIN J. B OLLINGER

JOHN

&

CAPT. G . M. M USICK

Ill, USN ( R ET.)

MRS. M ARY D EMERE RAAE H OWARD P. SEARS

M R.

MR .

&

GILBERT V ERNEY Fou DATIO

PATRONS

&

JOSEPH R. COELHO

c. H ENRY D EPEW

P ETER B . GERQUEST

RICHARD W. K URTZ

L.

M R.

&

L.

P ALMER, JR .

CAPT. JOHN

SWIMMER F AM ILY TRUST D AVID B. V IETOR

A. E.

&

MR.

M R.

&

D AVID ZEHLER

D R.

&

&

MR.

W.

R OBERTS. REGAN

W.

M ARC GRISHAM

K ERR

JOI-IN T. PIGOTT

D AV ID T OMAS I

&

&

M R.

KOBRAND CORP .

&

III

R OBERT P. B URKE

CA PT . B. CHRISTENSEN

ADM B RUCE D EM A RS, USN (RET.)

R EYNOLDS DUP ONT, JR. BI L L GANTT

RAY Gui TA

CA RL

P ETER C.

R OBERT H A LE

&

P ETER

D ONALD SOULIGNY

CAPT. JOHN T ORJUSEN

M RS . JOHN Di x W AYMAN

EVELYN E KLOF

N ICHOLAS H ATZOGLU

w. KITCHINGS, J R.

G A RY JOBSON

RICHARD

B ABCOCK M AC L EAN

w. K uRTS

GARY 0. M AE HL

CAPT. R . G. M OORE, USCG (RET.)

D AV ID PROHASKA

JOHN C. R ITTER

&

KATHY R . G ENTRY

STEVEN A. H YMAN

CHA RLES H. MILLER

R OBERT K . SALIN

II

BILL WI SSEL

ARTHUR A . BIRNEY

JAMES W . C HEEVERS

8 . P OULSEN

A NNE M on

ALFRED T YLER

WILLI AM B. WI NNER

EEL MRS. H ARRY NELSON CAPT. ERIC N IELSEN P ETER

MARCO SORIO

&

L EE H . S AN DWEN

J ULIE BELT

GENE L OCONTE

w. ELDER

H ON . S . JAY PLAGER

J ERRY M. BR OWN

MRS. C HESTER

&

C HAR LES

RU SSELL R. TRIPP

D AN WH A LEN

JR.

JOHN

C HARLES H AMRICK

L AURIE R OTHENBERG

MRS. MICHAEL C. H OLI FIELD

P ETER L IND

EDMUND SOMMER

DR.

P ETER

JAMES P. DELGADO

WILLI AM £. RICHARDSON

!II

CHARLES T OBIN

MRS. J AMES D . W ATSON

L.

W . FRANK BOHLEN RADM NEVIN CARR

NATHANIEL PH ILBRICK

D AN IEL R. S UKI S

RI CHARD D UMAS

(RET) JAMES A .

ELLEN F LETCHER R USSELL

MRS. JOHN R . SHERWOOD

&

C. H AM ILTON

J. RU SSELL J INISHI AN G A LLERY

B OB K IER LIN

MRS THOMAS FORD,

JR.

Co, I NC.

ELLIOTT GRUBER

W ALTER C. M EIBAUM

W ELDON, J R.

KEVIN M c L AUGHLIN

III, us

P AU L C. P ENNINGTON

c. R UPERT

JA MES

P AUL JAY LEWI S

MRS. ALA ' M CKI E

&

O CEAN

MRS. WI LLI AM S WEA RING IN

JAMES BILLINGSLEY, SR .

CH AR L ES R . B EAUDROT, JR.

CAPT.

F OUNDATION

L EE

&

H ENRY T. C HANDLE R

MR.

&

&

MEMORY OF CAPT. JOHN D OSWELL

WI LLIAM M. R OSEN

MRs . EDWIN H . GRANT,

TH E K ELTO

MR.

MRS. N ICHOLAS CARLOZZI

PHILI P B. PERS INGER

D oROZYNSKI

J AMES J . F OLEY, J R.

&

&

M R. I

DR. JACOB D EEGAN

w.

L ENFEST

PRESTIGE F AM ILY OF DEA LERSHIPS

ANDREW M ACAO IDH J ERGENS

L.

J.

CAROLYN D. M c BRIDE

MRS. J. WILLI AM M IDDENDORF If

A.R . SCHMEIDLER

RADM D Avm C. BROWN, USMS ( R n.)

C APT. JOHN

&

&

W OODSON K. W OODS

M A RY B URR ICHTER

R OBERT M . B ALY

D AVID J.

BROOK

CAPT JAM ES A. NOONE, USNR (RET. )

D AN IEL B ASTA

PH ILIP E . STOLP

RO YAL H OLLY

. J OI-IN L EHMAN

MR.

Ill

J ACQUELINE GRACE

VIR GIN IA M . HIGHT Ho

C LIFTON S . GUSTAFSON

MRs. JOANNE O 'NEIL

L AU REL£. H EYMAN

F.

R

l AN D AN IC

R OBERT

&

D OUG LAS CAMPBELL B EVERLY M. D u Bo sE

FLEISCHMANN

ART P EABODY F UN D

JAMES 0. BURRI

CRISTINA K EP ER

L.

JOHN STOBART

PAUL G A RNETT

JOAN M. D AVENPORT

L ANGILL

DI ANA SZAMBECKJ

D AV ID J. W ADE

WI LLIAM G. W INTERER

L.

WILLIAM

&

STAR C LIPPER CRU ISES

CALLO, USNR (RET.)

M ERCERSBU RG

WILSON COLLEGE

L AUREANO CARUS

P ETER DINKEL

KAPTEYN

R ICHARD B. REES

CAPT. RED SHANNO , USCG ( R ET.)

B EN JAM IN KATZENSTE!N

PETER R . D ENTON

GEORGE SCHLUDERBERG

MARY H ABSTRITT

ELMO Moss CAPT. G . M. M USICK

w. R oos

MARTIN P. SUITER

W ILLIAM J. GREEN

KAMM

A NN P ETERS M A RVIN

TH E B ETTY SUE

GEROULD R. STANGE

&

F.

H OWARD E.

EW YORK YACHT CLUB

w. CRAY CROFT

JAMES 0. BRI SCOE

COL. BRUCE E. P ATTERSON, USA

M RS. A NDREW A. RADEL

REED R OBERTSON

&

D EBORAH A NTOINE

STEVEN H ERTZ

JOHN

f.

H. C . B OWEN S MITH

MRS. D.

C DR R ONALD A. M c KINNEY, USN (RET)

GERALD W EINSTEIN

JOH

R UNYAN

DR . JOSEPH F. MEANY

C HA RLES A. R OBERTSON

ARTHUR GRAHA;vt

JOHN MALONEY

TH OMAS A MORAN VA NCE MORRISON

PETER STANFORD

GENERAL DYNAM ICS

CYRUS C. L AURIAT

CAPT. H OWARD R. HI L L, JR.

D AV ID

MRS. R OBERT FLYNN

H ENRY

EDWARD L ANKFORD

I NTERNATIONA L M ATEX T ANK TERMINALS

&

R OBERT

RA DM J OSEPH

CAPT. D o A LD B ATES, U S

MR. C.

D AV ID SKOLNIK

M ORGAN D A LY

JANE SUNDELOF Jo ES

B ROWN

KI RKE L ATHROP

CARROLL BROOKS

NICHOLAS A . CAMERON

&

J.

M AR IUS H ALVO RSEN

IGNATIUS G A LGAN

SAILING CLUB

STUART AMOS

WI L LI AM

M AINE M A RITIME M USEUM

WI LLIAM

SHANA HAN

CA r T. D w1G HT GERTZ

F URNEY H EM INGWAY CAPT. ERIC JONES

PAUL F. B ALSER

MRS. W ILLI AM P. RICE

MR.

&

NORMA

R OBERT P. FI SHER, JR .

H.

R ( R ET.)

EW YORK CONTAINER TERMINAL

JOHN R . FI SCHER

ORTH A MERICA

SIDNEY STERN M EMORIAL TR UST

RI CHARD J ULIAN

JACK CREIGHTON

c.

W EST f ND IES M ANAGEMENT COMPANY

D m ER M ARITIME A SSOCIATES LLC

M OHAMAD F ARZAN

us

G EORGE T. HATHAWAY

REPAIR Co., l Nc.

I N M EMORY OF BR UCE JOHNSON

I N M EMORY OF TH OMAS F. D A LY

S A ILING EXCURSIONS, l NC.

CA PT. R. A. B owLING, USN ( R n)

C A DDELL D RY D ocK

SONS

WILLI AM G . M ULLER

JOHN C. COUCH

TH OMAS W AYNE

A . A CEBEDO

J ESSE M. B oNTEcou

JR .

JAMES H. B RANDI

MANHATTA

&

&

N IELS W. JOHNSEN

FREDERICK S . F ORD

MRS. JOH

J URISICH LLC

D R. TI MOTHY

A DM ROBERT J. PAPP, J R., USCG (RET.)

CHERYL CLAY

D1 1 M AL LORY

O SWALD

KATHY H A RDY

M ARINE SOCI ETY OF THE CITY OF NEW Y ORK

CARTERS. B Aco •

JAMES P. L ATHAM

L.

&

JAKOB l SBRANDTSEN

RADM D AV ID

STEPH AN IE SM ITH

D R. R EGINALD H. JONES

R ONALD

&

D ON

D. H ARRY W . G ARSCHAGEN

( R ET.)

R OBERTS. H AGGE, J R. JAMES

T ERRY W ALTON

D AV ID B. F ORD

D ONNA D UDLEY

A. G. A. CORREA

D AN IEL R YAN

&

C APT. R OGER P. H ARTGE , USCG (RET) NEIL E. JONES

JR. L.

ELEA ORF. B OOKWALTER

R USSELL P. C HUBB DR. JOI-IN FI NERTY

JR.

F UND , l NC.

B RADFORD D.

TRA NS PORTATI ON COMPANY, ! NC.

D AVID S. F OWLER

SK ULD

G ERA LDINE F EDER F OUNDATION, INC.

KATHY 0 LSTE!N

TE LEPHON ICS, A GRIFFON COMPANY

&

T. MITCHELL, JR., US

R OBERT E. MORRIS,

S USAN R OCKEFELLER

SLOAN FOUNDATION

&

COLEMAN, JOHNSON, ARTIGUES

M ACQUARIE I NFRASTRUCTURE COMPANY

JOLLEY F OUNDATION, I NC.

CAPT. S ALLY CHIN M cELwREATH ,

M ORAN T OWING CORPORATION EXPLORATION TRUST

&

R OBERT

TH E M AC PH ERSO

H.

PATRICIA A. J EAN B ARILE

TH E EDGARD

PLC

CAROL V INALL

L AMMOT COPELAND,

E MR SOUTHERN RECYCLING

M CC ARTER

D R. WI LLIAM S .

RADM JOH

P AUL M. ALDRICH

&

J EAN W ORT

H ARRY VI CKERS T OLL

P ETER CLARK

M CALLI STER T OWING

CAC I INTERNATIONAL

SCARANO BOAT BUILDING, l NC.

TH E R UTH R . H OYT/ ANNE

B ARRIE H OLT TH RAS HER

CARNIVAL CORl'ORATION

H UNTINGTON I NGALLS I NDU STRIE S

R. K. M ELLON FOUNDATION

RI CHARD T. DU M OULIN

L IBERTY M ARITIME CORPORATION

CUNARD L INES

D AVID ALAN H OFFE BERG

HJ

CARMANY

CAPT. CESARE SORJO

NEW YORK W ATERWAY S

WI LLI AM H. WHITE

W.

GEO RGE

G RACE D OHERTY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION

G uv E . C . M A ITLAND

VADM DI RK D EBBINK, USNR (RET.)

M ERCURY P UB LI C AFFA IRS LLC

L. &

NATIONAL M ARINE S ANCTUARY F OUNDATIO

AM ERICAN B UREAU OF SH IPPING

ALI CE D ADOURIAN

H ENRY

RI CHARDO R . L OPES

I N M EMORY OF CAPT. JOSEPH RAM SEY, USMM ESTATE OF W ALTER

TH E A RTINA GROUP

E DWARD A. D ELMAN

R ONALD

B.

P ALM

DR. G. MICHAEL PURDY

RAD M D ONA LD P. R OANE, USN (RET.)

&

BARBARA S ARTORIUS

P ATRICIA STEE LE R OBERT

J.

TYD

R OBERTA E. W EISB ROD, PHD

ROB ERT W. Scon

L EON C . S UNSTEIN, J R.

CA PT . H AROLD V ANDERPLOEG C HA RLES S. WH ITMA N

rrr

• • • •• • • 11111111,, _ • •' ' ' ' - -/ / / I I

_.

11 1111 ' ' ' ' • • 11 1111 ' ' ' ' \ - ·

In all of travel, only one voyage reigns above all The Transaltantic Crossing aboard Queen Mary 2®

Eastbound and Westbound 7- and 8-Day Crossings From MAY to DECEMBER 2016

ALTOUR

fares from

$1,099*

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.

IMPORTANT MARITIME PAINTINGS AND DECORATIVE ARTS Thursday January 28, 1pm New York

PREVIEW January 23-28

INQUIRIES

+ 1 (917) 206 1695 maritime .us@bonhams.com

A DOCKYARD PRESENTATION MODEL OF THE 120-GUN SHIP OF THE LINE H.M.S. TRAFALGAR BRITISH, CIRCA 1841 75-112 x 25-112 x 57 in., cased $70,000 - 100,000 Launched on June 21, 1841 at Woolwich Dockyard , the last of the Caledonia Class. ex -The Forbes Collection

Bon hams : /

NEW YORK

bonhams.com/maritime

./' ©201.!1 Bonhams & Butterfields Auctioneers Corp. All rights reserved.

Pri..Cipal Auctioneer: Patrick Meade. NYC License No. 1183066-DCA

_,,-"

~