No. 168
SEA HISTORY
AUTUMN 2019
CONTENTS
10 NMHS 2019 Annual Awards Dinner NMHS will once again fill the New York Yacht Club with maritime community fellowship this October, as we celebrate four exceptional individuals and their considerable contributions to preserve and promote our maritime heritage.
18 Captains Cooper and Roys: Long Island Whalers Known ’Round the World, by Bill Bleyer In this excerpt from his new book, author Bill Bleyer shares the remarkable stories of two Long Island whalers whose exploits and achievements were legendary in their time, from venturing into forbidden Japanese waters to inventing the rocket harpoon, which indelibly changed the industry.
christopher blossom
14 Revenue Cutter C. W. Lawrence —Taming America’s Maritime Frontier, by William H. Thiesen The Revenue Cutter C. W. Lawrence and her crew were dispatched to the western territories of the United States to enforce the peace in 1848, but by the time they reached the West Coast after rounding Cape Horn and stopping in Hawaii, the California Gold Rush had taken hold, and the maritime frontier had become a wild and, at times, lawless place.
24 “Amazing Grace” Hopper, the Woman Who Brought the Navy into the Digital Age, by Kathleen Broome Williams When Grace Hopper volunteered for the war effort in 1943 as part of the Naval Reserve, she was assigned to work on the Mark I computer. That assignment changed her life and ultimately all of ours. She was a key figure in the development of the first computers and computer programming languages, and in bringing the US Navy into the digital age.
uc, riverside
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34 Art in the Family—Creating a Marine Art Gallery in Newport, by Patrick O’Brien Mourning the loss of his mother and seeking to ease the pain of his grief-stricken father, Andre Arguimbau set out to transform a 250-year-old former ship’s chandlery into a world-class marine art gallery, where his father’s paintings could be on display and artists could exhibit their work and be embraced by a community with a love of fine art, maritime history, sailing, and the sea.
us navy
28 A Matter of Perspective—White Squall vs. the Great Bakery Fire of 1853, by Gary E. Eddey Late in 1853, fire struck a lower Manhattan bakery and caused untold destruction, burning down to the waterline the greatest clipper ship ever built. The residents across the river in Brooklyn, however, remembered the incident from a markedly different perspective.
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museum of fine arts, boston
Cover: Dorade in the 2015 Fastnet Race. Photo by Kurt Arrigo/ROLEX. (See pages 10–11.)
DEPARTMENTS 4 Deck Log 5 Letters 8 NMHS: A Cause in Motion 40 Marine Art News 42 Sea History for Kids
46 Maritime History on the Internet 47 Ship Notes, Seaport & Museum News 57 Calendar 59 Reviews 64 Patrons
Sea History and the National Maritime Historical Society Sea History e-mail: seahistory@gmail.com; NMHS e-mail: nmhs@seahistory.org; Website: www.seahistory.org. Ph: 914 737-7878; 800 221-NMHS MEMBERSHIP is invited. Afterguard $10,000; Benefactor $5,000; Plankowner $2,500; Sponsor $1,000; Donor $500; Patron $250; Friend $100; Regular $35. All members outside the USA please add $20 for postage. Sea History is sent to all members. Individual copies cost $4.95.
28 SEA HISTORY (issn 0146-9312) is published quarterly by the National Maritime Historical Society, 5 John Walsh Blvd., POB 68, Peekskill NY 10566 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Peekskill NY 10566 and add’l mailing offices. COPYRIGHT © 2019 by the National Maritime Historical Society. Tel: 914 737-7878. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sea History, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY