K- Two Strand Turk's-head Ring with sleeve (additional designs available) -------------- $3900. ------------ $5250. • 18" Rope Pendant Chain $1200.
Florida Gulf Coast & Keys Cruise
9-day/8-night exploration
5 ports of call with guided excursion options at each
All onboard meals and our signature evening cocktail hour
Daily enrichment program and nightly entertainment
An unsurpassed level of gracious hospitality provided by our crew
All tips and gratuities
Explore the Sunshine State with American Cruise Lines. From emerald waters to sugary-white beaches, Florida’s Gulf Coast is home to one of the most unique ecosystems in the world. Enjoy a taste of Caribbean culture in the Keys, where Hemingway penned his most famous works. Get close to nature on a guided exploration of Everglades National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Discover the historic waterfront of Punta Gorda, ornamented with beautiful mid-century architecture, all while relaxing on your private balcony aboard the brand-new American Pioneer
Dry Tortugas National Park
RUSS KRAMER
Celebrating Maritime Excellence:
Preserving and Inspiring Our Seafaring
If you’ve been on this voyage as a member of the National Maritime Historical Society, whether for a few nautical miles or many, you know that autumn is more than just the season of harvest and re ection—it’s also a time when the Society celebrates inspiring gures within the maritime community whose e orts over many years have shaped people’s lives, preserved critical parts of our history, and carried on the traditions of our rich seafaring past. Sharing the stories of mariners, shipbuilders, maritime artisans, and the waterfront is the focus of Sea History; recognizing the exceptional individuals who carry that legacy forward is a vital part of the NMHS mission as well.
$e achievements of this year’s Annual Awards recipients are rooted in active, hands-on work aboard ships and boats (be sure to read about our awardees on pages 10–13). Whether on cutting-edge racing boats, traditional wooden schooners, or some of the world’s
With great excitement and deep appreciation...
Legacy
largest and most innovative cargo ships, these leaders are shaping the sailors, captains, and explorers of tomorrow—fueling our maritime industry and our national fabric for years to come.
$eir impact is clear and relevant; it’s not just the stu of adventure stories. It’s about dedicated e orts to teach authentic seamanship, to extend those skills to anyone willing to learn, and to foster rewarding career pathways. Preserving our maritime heritage and identity requires this commitment, especially in a world that’s continuously evolving at a rapid clip.
As we re ect on the end of summer and the coming of fall and winter, we are reminded of the resilience and ingenuity that de ne our maritime legacy—from the Age of Sail and transoceanic exploration to modern, advanced shipping industries. Our history is one of courage and innovation, facing challenges head-on and course correcting when we’ve drifted to leeward. It is
e National Maritime Historical Society (NMHS) thanks all who pulled together to make the 12th Maritime Heritage Conference an unforgettable forum and a celebration of our shared maritime legacy. It has been an honor to collaborate with our co-host sponsor, the Historic Naval Ships Association’s Symposium, and we are incredibly grateful to the passionate sta and volunteers of the Bu alo Naval Park. We also extend our profound thanks to our title sponsor, the Erie Canal Development Corporation, whose support has been instrumental, and to the many maritime organizations and sponsors whose participation and commitment powered this event.
!is is what NMHS can do, because of you, our members! With your continued support, we look forward to many more gatherings, projects, and milestones, to support and strengthen our maritime heritage community.
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Become a Member Today.
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this enduring spirit—shaped by those who brave the sea—that guides us in our ongoing e orts to preserve and promote our maritime heritage.
I also want to express my sincere gratitude to our members, donors, and volunteers. Your unwavering support makes it possible for us to keep this mission alive and press forward to ensure that this legacy continues for generations to come. As we enter the holiday season, I encourage everyone to consider how maritime history continues to in uence our identity and future.
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PETER ARON PUBLISHER’S CIRCLE: Guy E. C. Maitland, Ronald L. Oswald, William H. White
OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Chairman , CAPT James A. Noone, USN (Ret.); Vice Chairman , Richardo R. Lopes; President: Catherine M. Green; Vice Presidents: Deirdre E. O’Regan, Wendy Paggiotta; Secretary, Capt. Je rey McAllister; Trustees: Charles B. Anderson; CAPT Patrick Burns, USN (Ret.); Samuel F. Byers; CAPT Sally McElwreath Callo, USN (Ret.); William S. Dudley; Karen Helmerson; VADM Al Konetzni, USN (Ret.); K. Denise Rucker Krepp; Guy E. C. Maitland; Elizabeth McCarthy; Peter McCracken; Salvatore Mercogliano; Brandon Phillips; Kamau Sadiki; Richard Scarano; David Winkler
CHAIRMEN EMERITI: Walter R. Brown, Alan G. Choate, Guy E. C. Maitland, Ronald L. Oswald; Howard Slotnick (1930–2020)
FOUNDER: Karl Kortum (1917–1996)
PRESIDENTS EMERITI: Burchenal Green, Peter Stanford (1927–2016)
OVERSEERS: Chairman, RADM David C. Brown, USMS (Ret.); RADM Joseph Callo, USN (Ret.); Christopher Culver; Richard du Moulin; David Fowler; Gary Jobson; Sir Robin Knox-Johnston; John Lehman; Capt. James J. McNamara; Philip J. Shapiro; H. C. Bowen Smith; Philip J. Webster; Roberta Weisbrod
NMHS ADVISORS: John Ewald, Nathaniel Howe, Steven Hyman, J. Russell Jinishian, Gunnar Lundeberg, Conrad Milster, William Muller, Nancy Richardson, Jamie White
Together, through continued preservation, education, and storytelling, we honor our maritime past and inspire others to discover the depths of our collective history. $ank you for your steadfast commitment to this vital mission and for being an essential part of our community.
— Cathy Green, President, NMHS
Sea History e-mail: seahistory@gmail.com
NMHS e-mail: nmhs@seahistory.org
Website: www.seahistory.org
Phone: 914 737-7878
Sea History is sent to all members of the National Maritime Historical Society. MEMBERSHIP IS WELCOME: Afterguard $10,000; Benefactor $5,000; Plankowner $2,500; Sponsor $1,000; Donor $500; Patron $250; Friend $100; Regular $45. Members outside the US, please add $20 for postage. Individual copies cost $5.99.
SEA HISTORY EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Norman Brouwer, Robert Browning, William Dudley, Lisa Egeli, Daniel Finamore, Kevin Foster, John O. Jensen, Frederick Leiner, Joseph Meany, Salvatore Mercogliano, Carla Rahn Phillips, Walter Rybka, Quentin Snediker, William H. White
NMHS STAFF: President, Catherine M. Green; Vice President of Operations, Wendy Paggiotta; Senior Sta Writer, Shelley Reid; Business Manager, Andrea Ryan; Manager of Educational Programs, Heather Purvis; Membership Coordinator, Marianne Pagliaro
SEA HISTORY: Editor, Deirdre E. O’Regan; Advertising Director, Wendy Paggiotta
Sea History is printed by $e Lane Press, South Burlington, Vermont, USA.
A Glimpse of Falls of Clyde in Be er Days
I was watching an old TV show, Magnum P. I. (Season 2, Episode 6, originally aired 5 November 1981), when, about 30 minutes into the show, there is a ve-minute scene that was lmed aboard the Falls of Clyde in Honolulu. What a beautiful ship it was at that time compared to the image shown on page 22 of Sea History No. 188 (“ ,e Case for Historic Ships” by Ray Ashley and Timothy J. Runyan).
Ja-.) Yo/n0
Surprise, Arizona
From the Editor: Even as recently as 2008, the Falls of Clyde was rigged with a full complement of masts and yards as seen in this photo (left). Today, she is a shell of her former self and, despite ongoing e orts by various groups and supporters of the ship, it is unlikely we will ever see her restored. e ship was recently removed from the list of National Historic Landmarks after it was determined that the qualities or aspects of the ship’s physical state that had made her eligible for the designation were either gone or degraded past the point of being salvageable.
Memories of NS Savannah
If my memory is correct, it was in the early to mid-1980s when my husband Dana [Gibson] and I were in the Intracoastal Waterway, heading north
from Florida to Maine. We had rounded Charleston’s Battery Point and were following the waterway markers back toward “the ditch” that wandered through the beautiful South Carolina marshlands. O our port bow, gleaming in the bright morning sunshine was what Dana remarked was “the most handsome ship I have ever seen.” It would be years later when we were again in the Intracoastal, but this time going through Norfolk, that we again saw this “most handsome ship” and nally learned her identity.
As I read Erhard Koehler’s article in the summer issue, “Passing the
Torch—NS Savannah —Ready for Her Next Chapter,” the memories of rst seeing this magni cent vessel #ooded back as if it were yesterday.
Ship preservation has always been a di $cult conversation, if for no other reason than the determination of the cost vs. bene t. Rather than see these special and important ships end up like SS United States and other “ship reefs,” is any thought being given to using co erdams that would enable these historic vessels to be permanently encased in concrete and thus slow or actually prevent their inevitable hull decay from the elements?
K ay Gi()on Hutchinson Island, Florida
The John D. McKean Fireboat Preservation Project Predicament ,e retired FDNY Marine Co. 1 reboat John D. McKean patrolled New York City’s waterways for almost six decades before being retired in July 2010. ,e McKean reboat participated in many calls throughout her career, but I will highlight two that stand out among the many hundreds of calls that the reboat crew responded to. ,e rst was the US Airways Flight 1549 “Miracle on the Hudson” water landing in January 2009. ,e second, and by far the most important, was in response to events that took place on September 11th, 2001.
,e Fireboat McKean Preservation Project is a volunteer-based 501(c)3 notfor-pro t organization made up of volunteers who have devoted countless hours restoring the vessel since the organization took ownership of it in 2018. Restoration e orts have now reached the point where a professional shipyard is required to continue the work. ,e problem for our organization, as with most non-pro t organizations and especially those seeking to restore and maintain historic ships, is lack of funding. We thought we were in a good
NS Savannah
place earlier this year when US Senator Chuck Schumer secured a $100,000 matching grant for the project, but federal budget cuts made after the grant had been awarded canceled all previously approved grants, including ours. , is is particularly unfortunate at this moment because the McKean Fireboat organization was recently invited
by the Sail4th 250 committee to participate in the tall ship parade of sail that will take place in New York Harbor on Independence Day 2026. ,e matching grant would have allowed us to make necessary repairs to the vessel and assured that the John D. McKean would be able to make the trip to NYC from her homeport in Stony Point, New
York, for the events celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States. Fortunately, there is a slight glimmer of hope. ,e McKean reboat is still being considered for a $100K grant from the NY State Senate, supported by NYS Senator Pete Harckham. Even if funds are approved in the very near future, we still need to nd a shipyard that performs this type of work and one that has an opening in its schedule. Time is running out for the McKean Fireboat organization to participate in the once-in-a-lifetime Sail4th 250 celebration. In addition to the Fourth of July event, we plan to keep the reboat in NYC into September 2026 so that it can participate in the ceremonies commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11. With the federal budget cuts wreaking havoc in the non–pro t sector, we need individuals and successful corporations to step up and ll in the gaps. A public/private partnership that bene ts all parties involved might be the ideal solution.
Celebrate this Holiday Season with the 2025 NMHS Maritime Greeting Card. Lift
to Clear Water
by Thomas Hoyne (1924–1989)
Greeting reads:
Wishing You Peace & Joy this Holiday Season, with Fair Winds in the New Year!
Set of ten 5” x 7” cards: $14.95 plus s/h. Please indicate your choice of holiday or blank note cards. Call for priority or international shipping charges. NYS residents add sales tax.
To order, call 1-800-221-NMHS (6647), ext. 0, or online at www.seahistory.org/shop. Order now for November delivery.
John D. McKean Fireboat
National Maritime Historical Society
Embark on a Voyage Through History!
28 March – 4 April 2026 • Seattle, Washington
Set sail with NMHS leadership & fellow members on an unforgettable 8-day / 7-night cruise aboard the luxurious American Constitution Round-Trip from Seattle.
Discover & Experience
Join us for an exclusive opportunity to explore the Maritime Washington National Heritage Area. With local and NMHS historians as your guide, your cruise will take you to Puget Sound’s diverse port communities, each with a unique heritage and character.
Breathtaking Natural Beauty Awaits! Experience the convergence of the majestic Cascade and Olympic Mountains towering above the serene waters of Puget Sound. Glide past stunning landscapes dotted by the beautiful San Juan Islands and venture ashore to explore places like the world-renowned Butchart Gardens and the inspiring Olympic National Park. Witness the vibrant wildlife that thrives in this majestic environment!
Reserve Your Cabin Today
To secure your place for this remarkable opportunity, contact American Cruise Lines Group Manager, Izzy Pearson, at izzy.pearson@americancruiselines.com or call 888-458-6027. When making your reservations, please use the code NMHS
A Pre-Cruise Package including an evening at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle, full breakfast on the morning of your cruise, followed by a guided city tour and transportation to the ship, is available at an additional cost.
Support Our Maritime Heritage
With every reservation made using the code NMHS, a portion of the proceeds will benefit the National Maritime Historical Society, helping to preserve our maritime heritage for future generations.
We can’t wait to see you on board for this exceptional exploration of history, culture, and breathtaking landscapes!
It is essential that America’s maritime history, as represented by historic vessels such as the McKean reboat and the other seven surviving historic reboats in the United States—vessels on the National Register—be restored and preserved for future generations. We need to continue lobbying for public funds to be allocated for historic preservation, but in the meantime, we need your help. For more information regarding the John D. McKean and our organization, please visit us online at www. reboatmckean.org.
Da1i2 Ro33o
Painting Oriskany I just received the new Sea History (Summer 2025, #191) and enjoyed the article on SS United States that included mention of USS Oriskany. I painted her when she was on her way to becoming an arti cial reef in Pensacola, Florida. I had a brother-in-law who served on the carrier, so it held special signi cance to my family. You know that any painting that I have on maritime art is yours…always.
A/)4in D 5y.6
Mukilteo, Washington
From the Editor: As all our contributors know, but perhaps our members may not, Sea History’s content is all donated by the authors who write for us. For images, we depend on the use of public domain photographs and illustrations. For copyrighted images, we have been on the receiving end of some very generous artists, photographers, museums, and other repositories. Austin Dwyer, a Signature member of the American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA), has been a regular contributor to Sea History for many years and has never hesitated to allow use of his art for our articles.
In that spirit, he joins many of his fellow artists in ASMA whose art has either been a main feature or served as accompanying illustrations for articles on all kinds of topics in maritime history. I do not have a count for the full run of Sea History covers that have been graced with images provided by ASMA artists, but since I have been editor (this is my 88th issue), we have run 34 front covers by this group alone. I cannot express my gratitude enough to Austin and his colleagues for their ongoing support of what we do at the National Maritime Historical Society and in the pages of Sea History. ank you.
Oriskany, a Farewell by Austin Dwyer
Fireboat McKean Preservation Project
National Maritime Historical Society 2025 Annual Awards Dinner
23 October • New York Yacht Club • New York City
NMHS Annual Awards Dinner celebrates exceptional leaders in the maritime heritage community and broadcasts the significance of our seafaring past to the wider world. This year, we will recognize the shipping company American President Lines, LLC; Leslie Kohler, Sailing Education Association of Sheboygan founder; and Captain Jonathan Bacon “JB” Smith, mariner, mentor, and inspirational educator. Dinner Chair Thomas A. Whidden and NMHS Chair CAPT James A Noone, USN (Ret.) ask for your support. The Annual Awards Dinner is the Society’s largest fundraiser promoting the work of the Society.
The 2025 Awardees
President Lines, LLC
American President Lines, LLC (APL) will receive the 2025 NMHS Distinguished Service Award in recognition of its storied history as a critical component of America’s maritime infrastructure, as well as its enduring role leading the transportation industry through today’s dynamic maritime landscape. In addition to its primary mission to deliver critical cargoes around the world, APL empowers communities, provides training for up-and-coming professional mariners, and delivers disaster relief. !e company, a subsidiary of the CMA CGM Group, a global player in sea, land, and air logistics, has been a trusted partner to the US government for more than 175 years.
“We imagine be er ways to serve a world in motion.”
in uence peaked in the late 1920s; in 1938, the United States government took over its management and transferred its assets to the newly formed American President Lines. APL has long embraced industry and technological advancements and is a leader in intermodal transport. “We are the longest existing US- agship operator, and one of the earliest adopters of containerization. APL was also the rst to have Post-Panamax container vessels, revolutionizing how freight moved around the world,” said Executive Vice President Gregory Doyle. Today, APL is proud to y the American ag on 11 vessels, ranging in capacity from 1,700 to 9,300 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
Originally founded in the late 1800s as the Paci c Mail Steamship Company to carry mail between the East and West Coasts, it was renamed the Dollar Steamship Company, which became known for its regular routes to and from China, the Philippines, and Europe. !e company’s
“! is is an interesting time in our industry,” said Doyle. “It is growing for the rst time in 40 years, and to support this growth, APL is also making a signi cant investment in the support and education of the next generation of seafarers.” APL is working to increase industry awareness:
The
championing job fairs, recruiting, and coordinating with maritime academies and seafarer unions to create career opportunities. APL cultivates talent for the long-term sustainability of the maritime industry by sponsoring scholarships and providing internship opportunities to aspiring maritime professionals to gain real-world experience and insight into the container shipping and supply-chain business.
Responsible environmental management is a cornerstone of APL’s operating plan, with a commitment to reducing its carbon footprint by cutting sulfur emissions. !e group has combined the use of low-sulfur-compliant fuel oil, exhaust gas cleaning systems (“scrubbers”), and LNG-fueled vessels—all part of a concerted e ort to be fuel e cient. Per Doyle, “We are constantly reviewing fuel options… ‘from well to wake.’” A resolute community partner, APL believes in improving lives around the world, participating in outreach e orts, and promoting employee volunteerism through activities such as fundraising programs and humanitarian partnerships. CMA CGM group unites its employees with a shared mission to “imagine better ways to serve a world in motion.”
Leslie Kohler, Founder, Sailing Education Association of Sheboygan
In recognition of her leadership, dedication, and long-term commitment that have e ectively transformed and enriched her lakefront community in Wisconsin, Leslie Kohler will be honored with the 2025 NMHS Distinguished Service Award. Kohler has advanced educational programming and community access to boating and removed barriers to participation for individuals with physical or cognitive challenges. In addition, the Society salutes her for taking a leading role in nominating and supporting the establishment of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast, a NOAA Marine Sanctuary. Leslie Kohler’s love of sailing runs deep. A lifelong sailor, she grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan. At age six, she started sailing with her father—businessman, philanthropist, and ardent sailing supporter Terry Kohler. When she was 12, Terry bought a Lightning racing dingy, and she proceeded to “kick him o of it” the following year. “When I was younger, I raced with him on the weekends, sailing in yacht club races on Agape, the family’s Cal 39, Tartan 44, Holland 40, and Robin Too II (renamed Agape Too II). We sailed the Chicago Mac, the Bayview Mac, and Trans Superior. Later, I was able to race on his Santa Cruise 70.” “My father trained me well,” Kohler says with a smile. “He was certainly an example for me and a reason that I love sailing. And a nut—my father was lots of fun! He always wanted to improve things. So, I got that from him.”
“From the very beginning, I had hoped to make sailing available to a wider range of people.”
In 2012, Kohler, her father, and the Brotz family founded the Sailing Education Association of Sheboygan (SEAS), dedicated to community boating on Lake Michigan. SEAS’s motto, “Boating for Everyone,” is realized through its Adaptive Sailing Program, which assists those with disabilities in growing con dence through empowering experiences on the
water. SEAS has facilitated sailing experiences for individuals with conditions as diverse as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), cerebral palsy, and seizure disorders. A leader in developing technology for blind and visually impaired sailors, SEAS has co-hosted the Blind Match Racing World Sailing Championship and holds Blind Match Racing Clinics around the country.
Kohler was a driving force behind the creation of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast and worked to see it become the 15th National Marine Sanctuary, protecting 36 historic shipwreck sites in Lake Michigan, dating from 1830 to 1930, and representing a cross-section of vessels that drove the transformation of the Great Lakes from a maritime frontier into the nation’s busiest waterway. Twenty-seven of these shipwreck sites are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and research suggests that another 60 are yet to be discovered.
SEAS partners with Science on a River (SOAR), a non-pro t educational center on the Sheboygan River that provides hands-on science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) exhibits and learning experiences that focus on environmental and urban ecology topics. “Multiple groups are working in concert to make this project happen,” said Kohler. “Working in conjunction with SEAS, they will take kids out to do water-quality testing and use an underwater ROV to visit the shipwrecks.”
Kohler is a sixth-generation owner of the Vollrath Company, and is CEO and chair of Windway Capital Corp., the family’s holding company. After Terry Kohler’s death in 2016, Leslie became CEO, and sister Danielle became Vollrath board chair. “We are fortunate in our community because most of the families have been around for generations…We have a bunch of businesses run by multigenerational families, who have a commitment to the community and that makes this a great place to live. It is a value system.”
Captain Jonathan B. Smith
Captain Jonathan Bacon “JB” Smith, veteran bluewater sailing ship master, illustrious teacher of the ways of ships and the sea, and role model to students and professional crewmembers alike, will be presented with the 2025 NMHS Distinguished Service Award. !e Society recognizes Captain Smith for imparting his profound appreciation for maritime history and seafaring traditions during his decades at the helm of educational vessels, where he has inspired—and continues to guide—generations of young mariners.
!ose who sail with Captain Smith bene t from his grasp of history, literature, and geography. He is known for his captivating sea stories and repertoire of poetry, which he readily breaks out when a relevant situation arises. Tacking into Gloucester Harbor past Norman’s Woe, he’s sure to start reciting “ !e Wreck of the Hesperus,” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Poet laureate John Mase eld is a personal favorite, and not just the popular “Sea Fever,” but often lesser-known poems and ballads. Should a couple of crew have a cold and start to complain, they may well hear from across the deck: “ !ere’ll be no weepin’ gells ashore when our ship sails…It’s cruel when a fo’c’s’le gets the fever!” from Mase eld’s “Fever Ship.” Students and professional crew alike leave the ship with verses memorized and have been known to carry on the tradition aboard their next vessel. “Life onboard is not particularly subtle. Layers of what one deals with on land are removed. !ere is just you, your shipmates, the boat and the sea.”
2016 Blind Match Racing Worlds
“Everything is right in your face. There is not a lot of subtly to it. There is always the wind and the wind direction. That is the primary driving force to the whole deal. What is the wind doing? That just runs your whole life if you are in charge of navigating a boat. That’s it—the wind. It’s always present.”
Smith’s love for the sea and for maritime history stems from family roots: “I have my father to blame. I grew up hearing tales of ancestral New Bedford whaling days, ship masters and owners. Apparently I can claim renowned knot master, painter and author Cli ord W. Ashley as a sort of relative (through his wife, a cousin several times removed). In the years I was casting about nding my way, I could do no wrong in my father’s eyes—as long as whatever it was had to do with ships and the sea.”
!e Smith family always had small boats growing up, and when JB went to college in the 1960s, he joined the
sailing team at Eckerd College, sailing the Southern Ocean Racing Circuit (SORC) and the Chicago-Mackinac. After graduation, he joined the Navy as a line o cer in destroyers. In his long career on the water, he has served aboard vessels of all types and sizes: a Spanish squid shing boat, a Swedish cruise ship, and yachts—both power and sail.
Smith’s “starter boat” in the sail training world was the brig Unicorn in the 1970s, then operating as a sail-training vessel in Florida. He would continue to take a lead role in creating and running new sail-training programs as they were developed aboard various traditionally rigged schooners: Spirit of Massachusetts, Harvey Gamage, Bill of Rights, Westward, and more recently with World Ocean School’s Roseway and Denis Sullivan, among others. “I became the rst fulltime captain of Spirit of Massachusetts in 1984 and have been involved with sail training ever since. !e idea of seagoing educational programs is appealing to me as the unique setting enables one to make a positive di erence in lives young and old.” In 2009 the American Sail Training Association (now Tall Ships America) recognized Captain Smith with its Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to those who have dedicated their life to getting people to sea under sail, and who have worked to preserve the traditions and skills of the sea and sailing ships.
Based in Maine, Smith is now involved with Maine’s First Ship, a replica of the 1607 pinnace Virginia, the rst English vessel built in the Americas (and the rst built in the Western Hemisphere to sail east to Europe). In addition to maritime pursuits, he also donates his time and skills to Hog Island Audubon Camp, the Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust, the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and the Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railway of Alna, Maine.
Event Marquee Sponsor Ma Brooks
Commodore Sponsors
American Maritime O icers • North Sails
CAPT James A. Noone, USN (Ret.) & Alice Noone We
McAllister Towing • Caddell Dry Dock and Repair Co., Inc.
Sailing Education Association of Sheboygan — SEAS
Reception Sponsors
American President Lines, LLC
Seafarers International Union of North America
Captain JB Smith at the helm of Spirit of Massachuse s.
Tusitala— The Rediscovery of a Historic Ship
The record of the historic ship preservation movement in the United States is marked by notable successes where historic ships were pulled back from the brink of loss and preserved. ese include some of the most iconic ships now preserved in the nation’s maritime museums: the last whaler, Charles W. Morgan; the wooden-hulled steamer Ticonderoga; “Old Ironsides,” USS Constitution; the iron- and steelhulled sailing ships Star of India, Balclutha , Wavertree, Elissa and Joseph Conrad; the battleship USS Texas; and more than a hundred others of various types, rigs, and ages. I was privileged to lead the rst comprehensive inventory of the large preserved historic vessels of the United States from 1986 to
by James P. Delgado
1991 and the subsequent study of 145 of them for designation as National Historic Landmarks or listing on the National Register of Historic Places. e record of our historic ships and other vessels also includes notable losses, some of which forged the determination to preserve others. ey include Benjamin F. Packard and St. Paul, the last Downeasters, the clipper ship Glory of the Seas, the square riggers Kaiulani and Champigny, the fourmasted schooners Hesper and Luther Little, the cutter Bear, the frigate USS Hartford , the California Gold Rush veteran Vicar of Bray, the battleship Oregon, the carrier USS Enterprise, and many others. In recent years, the maritime preservation movement has lost vessels once saved and subsequently lost
to accident, lack of funding and support, and neglect, including some of the vessels designated as National Historic Landmarks, such as the steam schooner Wapama , the carrier USS Cabot, the reboat Deluge, the showboat Goldenrod, the riverboat President, the submarine USS Clamagore, and the National Register listed Wawona, the schooner Alice S. Wentworth, the dredge Sainte Genevieve, the ferry Kalakala and others. As I write this, the preparations for the scrapping of the now de-listed, former National Historic Landmark Falls of Clyde are underway, and the record-breaking ocean liner SS United States, on the National Register of Historic Places, is being prepped to be sunk as an arti cial reef o the Florida Panhandle.
Tusitala (then sailing under the name Sierra Lucena) in an unidentified port c. 1905.
Falls of Clyde is one of many examples where actions were taken to mitigate the loss of the vessel. In the past, this included saving relics—usually pieces of the scrapped ship, such as the mast from USS Oregon, relics from USS Hartford, the after cabin of Benjamin F. Packard, the triple expansion marine steam engine of Wapama, and many others, some small and in collection storage, others displayed in the open on the grounds of museums and parks.
But what of ships seemingly lost, and then found? Perhaps most famous was the 2022 discovery of the Endurance wreck site, made famous by the Ernest Shackleton saga. Closer to home, the most pertinent example is the cutter Bear, which in 1963 foundered en route to Philadelphia, where she would have served as a museum ship and restaurant. e Bear ’s remains were discovered in 2019 by the US Coast Guard and NOAA’s Maritime Heritage Program. To this group, we can now add the remains of the square-rigger Tusitala, the last full-rigged merchant ship to $y the American $ ag at sea. Saved from probable scrapping in 1923 and from an abortive scrapping in 1938, Tusitala ultimately succumbed to the cutter’s torch in 1948 at Mobile, Alabama. All that physically remained were logbooks, photographs, models, and some small relics—or so it was thought.
Archaeological survey and study of the Mobile River in 2018 and 2019, done as part of a comprehensive project o Twelvemile Island (a survey that yielded the remains of the schooner Clotilda, the last known vessel to arrive in the United States with captives from Africa as part of the transAtlantic slave trade) revealed the substantial remains of Tusitala, partially buried in the mud of the river bottom. As much as twenty percent of the old square rigger’s hull survives. It, along with other wrecks on what is now a National Register of
Components of many historic ships that have been lost or broken up wind up as exhibits at museums or decor on front lawns, restaurants, and all kinds of establishments. Above, one of the once-top-secret propellers from SS United States is the signature piece at the entrance to the Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News, Virginia.
Historic Places-listed ships’ graveyard, has at last been designated “historic,” and is protected under federal and state laws. While it may seem faint comfort, the preservation of the lower hull of Tusitala is a reminder that not all that seems lost is truly gone, and the rediscovery of the cut-down hulk provides an opportunity to remember and celebrate the ship that was. It also allows us to complete an accurate account of the end of Tusitala’s 65-year career.
Laid down as Inveruglas, named for an island on the shore of Loch Lomond, Scotland, Tusitala was built by Robert Steele & Co. at Greenock, for local shipowners J. MacGregor & Sons. It was the last ship built by the company, which went into receivership and was sold after the ship was launched on 20 September 1883. Inveruglas was an iron-hulled ship 260.4 feet in length with a beam of 39 feet and a depth of hold of 23.4 feet. She spread more than 20,000 square feet of sail across three masts.
e ship made but one voyage as Inveruglas and was then sold by J. MacGregor & Sons to the Sierra Shipping Company of merchants and shipowners omsen, Anderson & Co. of Liverpool in 1886. omsen’s $eet all bore a “Sierra” name, starting with their rst ship, Sierra Madrona (1875), and followed by seven more, and then Inveruglas, which they renamed Sierra Lucena. Sierra Lucena would sail with the $eet for two decades. Basil Lubbock, in e Last of the Windjammers, notes that the “Sierras” were in the Rangoon sailing ship trade.
ough they were immortalized by [John] Mase eld for their good looks, it must not be supposed the “Sierras” were all alike. ese eminently pretty white ships, as I have heard them called, though they resembled each other in one great factor, their smart, clean appearance often di ered very
much in design and qualities. ey were always beautifully kept, and a “Sierra” could be picked out of a $eet of ships without di culty owing to her white paint.
In his well-known poem “Ships,” Maseeld eulogized many of Liverpool’s merchant $eet of years past, among them the “white-blocked majestic Sierras” that with others were “the water’s standard bearers.”
Sierra Lucena made regular voyages to Australia for wool, and to Calcutta for jute for omsen, Anderson & Co. Like other large sailing ships of the period, Sierra Lucena operated as a tramp, carrying bulk cargoes from
port to port, often on lengthy voyages across the globe. e pattern of those voyages is revealed in the 14 May 1900 issue of the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, which printed a notice about Sierra Lucena’s crew loading coal for Valparaiso. Six years later, Sierra Lucena was sold in November 1906 to Chr. Neilsen & Co. of Larvik, Norway. Established in 1869, the shipping company also operated in whaling in the Arctic and later in South Atlantic Seas, establishing a station on South Georgia in 1909, then in Australia and New Zealand, and nally on the high seas as pelagic whalers.
e ship was sold in 1916 by Chr. Neilsen & Co. to Wegger & Ohre of Sande&ord, Norway, another whaling
port. Other than another name change, to Sophie, the only other known modi cation to the ship was re-rigging it from a ship to a barque. Roland Barker later noted that the Sophie worked as a tramp during “the lean, waning years for sailing ships.” at work included the Argentine grain trade and regular voyages to Rio Plata (River Plate). A sign of those times came, as Lubbock wrote, when an American tanker, Charles Pratt, ran into the ship “up the River Plate, and she had 20 feet of her bow, including the gurehead, removed. She was, however, re tted with a spike bowsprit in place of the old bowsprit and jib-boom, but without a gurehead.”
In 1923, Sophie was laid up at Norfolk, Virginia. Roland Barker wrote that:
Her star apparently set for all time…[Sophie] would certainly have gone to the shipbreakers had it not been for the romantic notions of a group of authors and editors in New York. ey purchased Sophie for a song, renamed her Tusitala —Samoan for “teller of tales” in honor of Robert Louis Stevenson, and made romantic plans to cruise to the Spanish Main.
e “ ree Hours for Lunch Club,” loosely headquartered in the Greenwich Village bookshop of Frank Shay at 4 Christopher Street and helmed by author Christopher Morley, paid an estimated $10,000 for the ship, according to Walter MacArthur, author of an early biography of the ship in his book e Last Days of Sail on the West Coast. I nd it altogether tting that the author of e Haunted Bookshop, which
Tusitala with a bone in her teeth during a run in the Pacific in 1926.
Prominent author Christopher Morley (center) was a member of numerous literary social circles in New York, including the “Three Hours for Lunch Club,” where he and other writers hatched a plan to purchase the retired Sophie and return her to sea. They renamed the ship Tusitala and restored her, but never put her back into service. In this photo from 1944, Morley engages in conversation with other members of the Baker Street Irregulars, a social club for Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts that emerged from the Three Hours for Lunch Club.
celebrates the wit and wisdom of literature, would have led the charge to buy Sophie. He likely proposed the new name for the ship.
It was Prohibition, and the group met for extended lunches and drinking (as the group’s name implies) in a wide variety of locales, including speakeasies, and included architect and artist Franklin Abbott, poet and columnist William Rose Benét, and ship captain and author David William Bone. Editor and critic Henry Seidel Canby, author and lmmaker Homer Croy, and author Sinclair Lewis were other members.
ey were joined by humorist and critic Lawton Mackall, humorist and playwright Don Marquis, and polar explorer and author Felix Riesenberg. Edmund Moran, writing about the Club, reported:
Acting as agent, Captain Riesenberg purchased the bark and had her towed to New York. At Todd’s shipyard, American hands reconditioned her and her original rig was restored... e full-rigged ship Tusitala was then commissioned. Aft on
the spacious poop deck, her new owners conducted a brief, rededication ceremony. The American $ag then rose to the spanker ga -end. us, the gallant “old timer” began life anew and the Stars and Stripes proudly $oated over the prettiest thing in all New York Harbor. Her topsides sported a coat of gleaming white. Tall, raking masts and wide, spreading yards towering into the skyline, the ancient square-rigger seemed to proclaim that here, sail still survived amid the teeming activity of the New York of the “Golden Twenties.”
MacArthur’s account explained that: “It was planned to make a number of cruises around the coast of New England, alternated by longer trips to the waters of the Spanish Main.” As further assurance of safety to the traveling public, it was proposed that the complement of o cers should consist of master-mariners trained in squarerigged sail. “Her organization and discipline will be that of the famous Black Ball packets in accord with the best traditions of the sea.” Nothing came of these plans. e group instead used it as a $oating clubhouse. Among those hosted by the Club on the ship was author Joseph Conrad, who, on his departure from New York, penned a fond farewell and best wishes:
I would recommend to them to watch the weather, to keep the halliards clear for running, to remember that “any fool can carry on but only the wise man knows how to shorten sail in time” ... and so on, in the manner of ancient mariners all the world over. But the vital truth of sealife is to be found in the ancient saying that it is “the
stout hearts that make the ship safe.” Having been brought up on it, I pass it on to them in all con dence and a ection.
Romantic dreams crashed into the reality that there were bills to be paid, and Tusitala was in trouble. At that stage, James A. Farrell, president of US Steel and owner of the Isthmian Steamship Company, himself the son of a ship’s master, stepped in and purchased the ship to save it from being broken up. Farrell put the ship back to work, transporting cargo via the Panama Canal to Hawai‘i, carrying sugar and nitrate on successive voyages until 1932.
Basil Lubbock, writing his epic treatise on windjammers, noted in his 1927 rst edition that: “She is still sailing the seas, trading mostly in the Paci c, and in February 1925, she made the run from Honolulu to Seattle in 16 days 9 hours. e old ship is now tted with single topgallant sails. (In her original sail plan, the topgallant yards were double). She is commanded by Captain Barker and carries a crew of 22. She is very well kept up, and in her white paint looks as smart as she ever did.” Two years later, Captain MacArthur wrote that, “Only one American sailing ship, the Tusitala, now remains in the trade between Atlantic and Paci c ports of the United States. is vessel trades regularly between New York and Seattle by way of the Panama Canal.” He also noted that Tusitala was “placed in the trade from New York to Rio de Janeiro—outward with coal, homeward with magnesite ore ... Two voyages were made in this trade.” e pattern of voyages—again working as a tramp ship—saw westward passages from New York carrying sulfate of ammonia to Honolulu, sugar on the return, or sailing in ballast to Seattle, loading magnesite and lumber for Baltimore there, and thence heading home. MacArthur wrote of Tusitala
with the love of a seafarer and the pragmatism of a seasoned mariner.
Equipped with wireless apparatus and in every respect kept up to the highest standard, the Tusitala is an object of admiration among seafarers and worthily maintains the best traditions of her class. With a sti breeze and everything drawing, she can still reel o fourteen knots an hour [sic]. Dressed in a coat of pearly white, with green bottom, and with every stitch of canvas set taut, the old ship presents a yacht-like appearance that stirs the emotions of the spectator. It is reasonable to suppose that her owner, himself descended from seafaring folk, nds in these sentimental considerations something in the nature of a set-o to the “expenses of operation.”
e “expenses of operation” and declining opportunities for pro table voyages led Farrell to lay up Tusitala in New York at the foot of 156th Street on the North (Hudson) River. An article by Carlos J. Videla in the Tacoma Daily Ledger that spread nationwide in February 1936 eulogized Tusitala as “the last of the full-rigged ships $ying the American $ag idly rises and falls with the tide at a Hudson River pier in New York City,” and while “for a time it was thought she would carry on the traditions of American sail,” Tusitala “probably is not going to sea again, at least not on a regular voyage. She will probably be scrapped one not very distant day, or will simply decay, as her sister full-rigger, the James Rolph, in a corner of San Francisco Bay. And when these two ships will have completely disintegrated, there will be only memories of the tall American windjammers.”
A new opportunity to save the ship came with the passage of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which replaced the former World War I–era United States Shipping Board and created the United States Maritime Commission. is Depression-era agency and its programs spearheaded a massive program that extended through and beyond World War II to build, equip, and crew a vastly expanded American merchant $eet. As part of that e ort, the Maritime Commission formed the United States Maritime Service in 1938 to train ofcers and crews for the US Merchant Marine.
A December 1937 article in the Los Angeles Times reported that the “loan of the full-rigged ship Paci c Queen, now anchored in San Pedro, as a training vessel for former personnel of the American merchant marine has been o ered to the United States Maritime Commission by her owner, Frank G. Kissinger....to meet the gesture of James A. Farrell...in o ering the commission the use of his full-rigged ship Tusitala as a training ship….Farrell’s o er of the Tusitala has already stirred up a small tempest among American shipmasters over the relative merits of a square-rigger and a modern powerdriven vessel as merchant marine schoolships.” Neither vessel was accepted by the Commission. Kissinger’s Paci c Queen, the ex-Balclutha, would outlast Tusitala after it was acquired by the San Francisco Maritime Museum in 1954 and restored as a museum ship. Tusitala was not as fortunate.
In July 1938, Farrell sold Tusitala to the Marine Liquidating Company of Fall River, Massachusetts, “which is expected to dismantle her towering masts and convert her sturdy old wrought iron hull into a scow,” according to an Associated Press story. While some articles were headlined with the word “scrap,” others noted “Old Clipper ‘Tusitala’ To Be Converted Into
Scow.” A few weeks later, tugs towed Tusitala down the Hudson from the mooring the ship had occupied for ve years.
She was taken to a wharf on the Housatonic River belonging to the General Scrap Iron Company, where large cranes were available to remove her spars, and the ship was opened for public inspection. “Old Salts gathered to greet the old windjammer …[at] what probably will be her last dock,” according to the New London paper e Day ’s column “Salt Water Notes and News” of 20 July 1938.
At this dark moment, a reprieve for the ship came in September, when the Maritime Commission purchased Tusitala from the shipbreakers for $10,000; a newspaper account of the sale noted that “when the depression came, the Tusitala was laid up for good. Farrell nally o ered her to the commission as a training ship, but at the time Congress had not set aside funds for training purposes and Farrell was forced to dispose of the old vessel to the Fall River rm. ey were about to scrap the sailing vessel when the Maritime Commission came through with a purchase o er.”
Tusitala would not be alone, for the Danish-built ship Joseph Conrad, launched in 1882 as Georg Stage at Copenhagen, was also acquired by the Commission. Previously rescued from scrappers by Alan Villiers in 1934, the Conrad had bankrupted him. He sold the ship to supermarket heir Huntington Hartford, who used her as his personal yacht before donating her to the US Coast Guard for use as a sail training platform. Both ships were now intended for the newly established US Maritime Service Training Station at Bayboro Harbor, in St. Petersburg, Florida. e station, when it opened
in November 1939, was an existing Coast Guard Base at Bayboro; it served as the interim site as the buildings and facilities of the new training station were being constructed.
While Conrad sailed to Florida, after being re tted, Tusitala was towed south by the Coast Guard cutter Mohawk. A column by Casey Davison in the Tacoma Times of 20 May 1940 reported that Tusitala, “somewhere on the Atlantic,” was “making an inglorious passage...under tow of a coast guard cutter. She’s supposed to be a training ship, and we maintain that towing her on what appears to be one of her last trips is a panty-waist anti-climax to a creditable career and at cross-purposes
with her assignment. Most recently the Tusitala has been completely overhauled and re-rigged from keel to truck, from dolphin-striker to ta rail. She was remodelled below decks as well; accommodations for 150 apprentice seamen have been installed. Of course, the ship is deserving—she was built in 1883.” Davison added “We can’t think of a single good reason why she shouldn’t be sailed to her destination.”
A week later, the Tampa Bay Times of 28 May 1940 reported that Tusitala had “nosed her way in into Bayboro harbor yesterday….Inasmuch as she will be converted into classrooms, the government deemed an engine unnecessary, maritime o cials said.” Other
Tusitala at the foot of 156th Street in New York City in 1937.
(above) This 1943 postcard of the US Maritime Service Training Station in Florida shows Tusitala with just her lower masts in place. The ship was mostly used as a platform to train cooks and bakers at the dock. (below) The sail training ship Joseph Conrad served at the same training station but regularly put to sea with trainees onboard.
than occasional social column news or mentions in stories on the training center, noteworthy appearances in the press included an October 1944 Tampa Bay Times local news column that noted that during the previous week’s hurricane, “the famed Joseph Conrad rode out the 90-mile winds tied up alongside the much larger Tusitala like a little child huddled against big sister.”
When the new buildings at the Bayboro station were completed and dedicated in mid-July 1941, newspaper accounts reported that Tusitala was serving as the barracks for 150 of 500 of the station’s trainees. One of the older veterans assigned to teach at the training center was Henry Mills, who “when he joined the St. Petersburg Maritime service in 1942...was surprised to nd that the training ship anchored in back of the station was the same ‘Tusitala’ aboard which he had sailed from London to Australia in 1898,” when he ran away from home at age nine and hid on the ship until it was well out to sea, according to an August 1946 interview with him in the Tampa Bay Times. While the Conrad was taking trainees to sea, Tusitala was, starting in December 1942, where cooks and bakers received their training.
My copy of Roland Barker’s memoir of his time aboard the ship as third mate (under his father’s command) notes that Tusitala was owned by a former o cer at the training station. At the back of the book, he made a detailed note in blue ink on 6 September 1961, which o ers a view of the ship and his time at Bayboro; I have followed his spelling and formatting:
When I was assigned to the US Maritime Training Station, St. Petersburgh [sic], Florida in September of 1943, Tusitala was docked there and used as a dormitory for trainees. Because of their great height
which interfered with air planes at the near by coast guard eld, the top masts and top gallant masts had been removed. …
For a while I stood watch as o cer of the day aboard about once every six days aboard her. us for one night a week the old ship and its 100 plus trainees were under my command— a romantic but not very practical situation. I would occasionally go aboard of the Conrad for a knish & co ee.
… When I left St. Pete in April of 1944 to go to Catalina Tusitala was still there. I never heard what happened to her until I read the last paragraph of this book. How sad she was not preserved as was the Joseph Conrad.
Barker’s book ends with the notation that: “Not a vestige of this splendid ship now remains, for she went to the shipbreakers soon after the war ended. I shall never forget her, and I wish there were more of her kind sailing the seven seas.” ere is, however, more to the story.
e two ships remained at St. Petersburg until mid-1946. e Maritime Commission o ered both ships to Mystic Seaport, but the museum could take only one, and the smaller, better-maintained, and fully operable Conrad was the logical choice. e ofcial transfer of Joseph Conrad to Mystic came on 9 June 1947. e museum also preserves some of Tusitala’s legacy in its library and archives, including three logbooks, a track chart, and correspondence. Other papers and images rest in archives and libraries in former ports of call in California, Washington, Hawai‘i and Australia. I own a log from a 1925 Paci c voyage; other collectors own models, paintings, and other small mementoes.
As for Tusitala, she and the Conrad were towed by tugs to a newly established Maritime Commission “mothball” facility near Mobile, Alabama. With the end of the war, the Maritime Commission was faced with a large number of ships that were no longer needed. e Merchant Ship Sales Act of 1946 was one means of disposal; battle-damaged, wartime-repaired ships, and older vessels like the two sailing ships were candidates for sale to scrappers. Others were kept in reserve in the National Defense Reserve Fleet; one of the locations selected for a Reserve Fleet facility was the Mobile River.
e rst vessels to arrive were moored north of the city and its port near Twelvemile Island. An article in the Tampa Bay Times on 30 June 1946 noted that the “ nal resting place” for Tusitala and Joseph Conrad “was reached yesterday,” when they joined the “ghost $eet” in the Mobile River. “ e two vessels were towed up the river to Twelve Mile Island to join numerous other vessels which have been taken out of commission.” e process of sorting the hundreds of ships into those to be retained and those to be scrapped began in earnest in late 1946. In Mobile, a newly formed company, the Pinto Island Metals Company, started work in late November 1946. Among the ships they purchased was Tusitala, for $16,176, but Tusitala remained moored along the riverbank, awaiting the end. e last known contemporary mention of the ship notes that scrapping was completed at one of the docks of Alabama Drydock & Shipbuilding by Pinto Island Metals on 1 April 1948.
Of course, that was not the end of the ship. e scrapping was never fully completed, and the lower hull was towed up the river and scuttled o Twelvemile Island. ere, it still sits in the river channel, shrouded in mud. Our team from SEARCH Inc. found
the hulk to be one of several charted wrecks in the river during a 2018 survey to complete a comprehensive assessment of all wrecks in an e ort to identify the wreck of the schooner Clotilda, as noted at the start of this article. With side-scan sonar, magnetometer, and sub-bottom pro ler, we delineated exposed, partially buried and mud-shrouded shipwrecks in what is now known as the Twelvemile Island Ships Graveyard.
One of those shipwrecks, designated as Target 10, and now as Alabama Archaeological Site 1BA706, is Tusitala. e bow rises six feet out of the mud,
snagged by dead trees, and the hull trends aft nearly 100 feet before disappearing into the muddy bottom; the beam of the hull at that point is 23 feet. is ts within the form and scale of Tusitala’s 261-foot length and 39-foot beam. A three-dimensional scan of the bow, captured in a subsequent survey with a bottom-mounted sector-scanning sonar, imaged 40 feet of the wreck that rose above the mud, revealing the clipper form of a square-rigger’s bow. Having spent enough time over the years with Balclutha and other surviving iron- and steel-hulled square riggers, I recognized what we were seeing.
at nobleness and grandeur, all that beauty Born of a manly life and bitter duty, at splendour of ne bows which yet could stand e shock of rollers never checked by land. at art of masts, sail crowded, t to break, Yet stayed to strength and backstayed into rake, the life demanded by that art, the keen
At the time of the survey, knowing the late 19th and early 20th century history of Mobile as a Gulf port, we did not nd the presence of a metal-hulled sailing ship hull with a sharp clipper bow incongruous. We suspected, after initial research, that it was Tusitala , but cautiously indicated it as a probable identity. e September 2019 inspection of the wreck by archaeologist Alexander DeCaro also documented the marks and cuts along the hull made by acetylene torches, evidence that it had been cut cleanly down to the lower deck level.
Since those dives, additional research has documented that no other metal-hulled sailing vessels are known to have been scrapped, in whole or in part, in Mobile. e use of oxy-acetylene torches dates the scrapping of the hull to the early to mid-20th century, and the only scrappers working in Mobile then were Pinto Island Metals, and their one and only square-rigger hull was Tusitala. Now listed in the National Register of Historic Places with the other wrecks in the Twelvemile Island Ships Graveyard, Tusitala survives as a protected archaeological site. While this is not ideal, as I and others would prefer Tusitala to be a $oat, restored and accessible to visitors, the ship is not completely gone, neither in memory nor as a physical entity. As John Mase eld powerfully expressed in “Ships,” we must treasure all that remains of these vessels:
Eye-puckered, hard-case seamen, silent lean,— ey are grander things than all the art of towns, eir tests are tempests and the sea that drowns, ey are my country’s line, her great art done By strong brains laboring on the thought unwon, ey mark our passage as a race of men, Earth shall not see such ships as these again.
Jim Delgado’s long career in maritime preservation spans more than four decades. While serving as Senior Vice President of SEARCH Inc., he led the archaeological surveys of the Mobile River that located and identified nearly a dozen historic wrecks, among them Tusitala. His most recent book, The Great Museum of the Sea: A Human History of Shipwrecks, draws from that career and from ships like Tusitala, once thought lost, but then found.
Jim Delgado (in the white hat) and Joe Grinnan of SEARCH Inc. document one of the wrecks in the ship’s graveyard on the Mobile River.
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
2026 Wall Calendar
America’s 250th Anniversary Tall Ship Parades of Sail
The National Maritime Historical Society’s 2026 calendar celebrates America’s 250th anniversary by highlighting the spectacular sailing ships that will take part in the Sail250 parade of tall ships next summer. A fleet of tall ships—both American vessels and visiting sail-training ships from around the world— will gather in seaports from New Orleans to Boston for spectacular parades of sail and to o$er tours to the public. Enjoy these stunning images of participating ships and make sure to plan to visit them in summer 2026!
12-month calendar is wall hanging, saddle-stitched, and printed on quality heavyweight paper. 18”H x 12”W (open)
$14, plus $6 s/h (media mail) within the USA. NYS residents add sales tax. Please call for multiple or international shipping charges.
TO ORDER, call 914 737-7878 ext. 0, or online at www.seahistory.org/calendar2026.
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY 2026 Calendar
America’s 250th Anniversary Tall Ship Parades of Sail!
HMS Fantome and the Battle for Control of the American Coast
by William H. White
Shad Bay, Nova Scotia, 24 November 1814: !e English brig HMS Fantome ran hard aground while escorting a convoy from Castine, Maine (then under British occupation), to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her commanding o cer, !omas Sykes, had set a course for Sambro Light and subsequently discovered, at 3 am the next morning, that the pilot had countermanded his order. After the brig struck, Captain Sykes ordered the masts cut down and the boats hoisted over the side to lighten the ship. It proved to be ine ective.
In spite of these e orts, Fantome took on water—rapidly—and could not be saved. As the boats were already
in the water, the crew remained orderly as they abandoned ship and safely reached the shore. In an interesting but unrelated happenstance, two schooners and two other vessels from the same convoy also ran aground on the same night in approximately the same locale. No lives were lost, but they all sank.
As with any event of this nature, a court-martial was convened with the following result: Captain Sykes was reprimanded for failing to order frequent soundings and for relying too much on the pilot; Lieutenant John Fisher, the o cer of the watch, was reminded to be more vigilant and keep his captain informed of the ship’s
Shad Bay, Nova Scotia
situation; the master, Joseph Forster, received a severe reprimand for neglecting to take soundings and for not sharing his reservations regarding the course that had been set; lastly, the pilot, !omas Robinson, was also severely reprimanded for arbitrarily changing course, not informing the captain of the change, and for proceeding without the bene&t of soundings. He forfeited all pay due him.
More than two centuries later, why should we care about HMS Fantome and “who” was she? !e Fantome is one of the British ships that played a role in the War of 1812, for which we have almost her whole history, both as a French privateer and as a Royal Navy
warship, including her captures, actions, and ultimate demise. Further, we know where her wreck is located and what was in her hold at the time she was wrecked. Finally, until recently, she was thought to be carrying plunder from the August 1814 British raid on Washington, DC.
Built in France in 1809 for a private entity, Fantome sailed as a privateer against British interests. She carried a crew of 74 and was armed with 18 heavy carronades, and measured 94 feet length overall, 31 feet on the beam, with a draft of 13 feet. She was reputed to be “handy” and a fast swimmer. During her abbreviated career, she made three captures (possibly even returning her cost to the owners) before being captured by the Royal Navy’s HMS Melampus on 28 May 1810. She was immediately pressed into British naval service.
!e Royal Navy changed her armament to sixteen 32-lb carronades and two 6-lb bow chasers and sent her out to the North Sea Station. !e following November, she was shifted to service o the coast of Portugal, and, in December 1812, she responded to the Royal Navy’s needs o the North American coast, joining the British eet a scant six months after the declaration of war by the United States. February of 1813 found her in mid-Atlantic coastal waters, where she participated in many War of 1812 actions.
Soon after reaching her assigned cruising grounds, Fantome captured and destroyed the American schooners Betsy and General Knox and went on, in April of that year, to join the Chesapeake Squadron, where she participated, along with the British naval schooners Maidstone, Statira, Mohawk, and High yer, in the capture of four armed Letter of Marque schooners— Lynx, Racer, Arab, and Dolphin !ese private vessels were all waiting for the tide to get into the Rappahannock
The replica of the American privateer Lynx was interpreted by the notable marine architect, Melbourne Smith, for the West Coast entrepreneur and sailor, Woodson K. Woods. Launched in Rockport, Maine, in 2001, she sailed as a school ship out of Newport Beach, frequently in company with another Smith design, the topsail schooner Californian, before shi ing to the East Coast. Today, she is homeported in Nantucket, Massachuse s, where she continues her mission as a school ship under the auspices of the Egan Foundation. She winters in Saint Simon’s Island, Georgia. (www.tallshiplynx.org)
River and tie up to the docks there to unload their small but high-value cargoes, just in from Europe. !e British vessels used their ships’ boats to chase the Americans into the river and ultimately board them, after having rowed & fteen miles up the river. After securing their cargoes, the British crews
burned a couple of the American schooners; the others were put into naval service.
Following this successful operation, the squadron was ordered to join up with Admiral George Cockburn and penetrate the rivers that fed into the head of the Bay (just south of the
PHOTO BY GEORGE BEKRIS COURTESY TALL SHIP
present-day Chesapeake & Delaware Canal). Cockburn had under his command 180 seamen, 200 Royal Marines, and a small detachment from the Royal Regiment Artillery (from Bermuda). Learning of stores of military equipage and our at French Town, located on the eastern shore of the Susquehanna River, Cockburn and his men embarked in Fantome and, with Mohawk, Dolphin, Racer, and High yer in company, sailed up the Elk River to the
mouth of the Susquehanna. He dispatched Lieutenant !eophilus Lewis in High yer with 150 Marines and artillerymen to destroy the stores, but they got confused at the entrance to the river and sailed up the Bohemia River on the east side of the Elk, instead of the west side into the Susquehanna.
Once they discovered their mistake, they retraced their route and found the correct river, but the delay caused them to arrive at French Town
well after 8 am, where they discovered, to their surprise, that the Americans had erected a six-gun battery to defend the town. !e battery &red on the British boats but subsequently fell to the superior & repower of the British carronades. Stores and cavalry equipment, along with &ve vessels, were ultimately burned. Farther upriver, they burned a foundry, some machinery, and guns, as well as &ve more vessels before returning to their ships after a 22-hour
foray. !e &ve English schooners had also “bought” cattle near the town of Havre de Grace farther upriver, paying with bills from the British Victualling O ce. ( !ere is no record regarding whether the owners of the cattle were ever able to collect on these bills.)
Fantome participated in a variety of actions in the Chesapeake during the remainder of 1813, including the rescue of several families of African slaves, who had made their escape as part of the Black Refugee migration during 1812–13. !e British ship gave
sanctuary to seven men, who then joined Fantome’ s crew. Two of the men used the vessel as a base from which to return to shore and rescue other slaves, as well as their wives and children.
Fantome was then relieved from duty in the Chesapeake and, once back
Ship’s plans with profile, body plan, and waterlines for Fantome, a French privateer captured by the British in 1810. The lines shown were taken o the vessel prior to being refi ed and put into service as a Royal Naval vessel. The plan is dated 12 June 1811 and signed by Robert John Nelson, Master Shipwright, Deptford Dockyard, 1806–1813.
As an interesting sidebar to this fairly remarkable record of captures and heroics, in January 1814, a lieutenant from Fantome and 210 seamen from two other ships in the squadron, Manly and istle, volunteered to serve on the Great Lakes (where in September of the previous year, Oliver Hazard Perry had crushed a superior British eet at Put-In-Bay). British forces, both military and civilian, had been depleted by multiple American victories on the Lakes. Shipbuilding by both sides continued apace, and both British and American eets routinely engaged in minor skirmishes that necessitated replacements for the frequent casualties and desertions.
in the open Atlantic, set a northeasterly course toward New England and Canada. During her transit to New England, she managed to capture a Spanish brig with a valuable cargo, the American schooner Surveyor, and the American ships Governor Strong, Emily, and Star, all with cargoes intact. Some of their captures had to be shared with one or two other British ships that were in company, based on Royal Navy prize protocol. One of the vessels captured was the 230-ton brig Cida de Leira, J. J. Claudio, master. She had been en route from Lisbon to Boston with a valuable cargo of salt, wine, juniper berries, and 23 Merino sheep. Fantome also recaptured two American (formerly British) cargo vessels in the waters between Maine and Newfoundland.
In October, in company with HMS Epervier, she recaptured the former Nova Scotia privateer Liverpool Packet, which had been sailing as the American privateer Portsmouth Packet, following a chase of thirteen hours. Fantome &nally caught up to the vessel and brought her to heel o Mount Desert
Island, Maine. A schooner of some 55 tons under the command of David Perkins, the Packet was armed with &ve guns and manned by a crew of 45. Escorted to Halifax, she was adjudicated as a “fair prize” and sold back to her original owner, who apparently had now bought his ship twice! He restored her name to the original Liverpool Packet. About a month later, the two British ships captured the 91-ton, fullrigged ship Peggy en route to Boston with a valuable cargo of timber, suitable for shipbuilding, a commodity sorely needed in British Canada and the Great Lakes.
Captain John Lawrence (no relation to the US Captain James Lawrence, who, with his American frigate, Chesapeake, had been captured by the British frigate Shannon the previous June) commanded Fantome during all of these actions and was rewarded for his service with the Order of Companion of the Bath, the fourth-highest order of chivalry in the United Kingdom. It is given to a lieutenant commander, major, or higher for distinction in a combat situation.
Lieutenant Henry Kent (of Fantome) led the men on a march from Halifax to Saint John, New Brunswick, and then by sleigh to Fredericton, some 80 miles distant. From there, they marched along the frozen St. John River, reaching Presque Isle, Maine, after slogging some 82 bitterly cold miles. Switching out their sleighs for toboggans and being out &tted in moccasins and snowshoes, they headed for Quebec, making about & fteen miles per day, & ghting their way through knee-deep snow. When they reached Quebec on 28 February, they found two British ships, the frigate Aeolus and the sloop Indian, frozen into Wolfe’s Cove, and took welcome shelter aboard. Following a short respite, they continued their arduous trek, reaching Kingston, Ontario, in late March, where Lieutenant Kent reported to his new ship, Princess Charlotte, a 42-gun frigate built on Lake Ontario and a survivor of the British defeat at Put-In-Bay.
Meanwhile, the remaining crew aboard Fantome continued to ravage the waters between Maine, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. One of her more lucrative captures was the Spanish brig Danzic, en route from Bath,
On 5 October 1813, the American privateer Portsmouth Packet was captured by the brig HMS Fantome, under the command of Captain John Lawrence.
Maine, to Bermuda with a cargo of lumber, boards, staves, and shingles. Captured on 9 May 1814, she was manned by a prize crew and sent into Saint John for adjudication as a fair prize. It is unclear how she was so adjudicated, considering that she was of neutral Spanish registry and sailing to a British port from British-controlled Maine. !e Royal Navy was desperate for seamen, however, and, while Spain was ostensibly neutral, her cargo and manpower o ered a major incentive for capture. Whether Danzic was added to the roles of the Royal Navy is unclear, nor has it been determined if, and to whom, she might have been sold. But her capture was noted in the London Gazette of 1 October 1814.
It was long presumed that the Fantome was carrying goods removed from the White House, following the attack on Washington, DC, by British marines in August 1814. While many artifacts had indeed been removed from not
only the president’s house but also from the Capitol, Washington Navy Yard, and other buildings within the city, historians have since determined that not only were none in Fantome, but that she had no involvement in the raid on Washington. Fantome was o the coast of New Brunswick, Canada, at the time, wreaking havoc on American ships plying those waters. Instead, she and the ships in her convoy were apparently carrying goods and customs revenue from Castine to Halifax.
During the War of 1812, the brig Fantome took prizes and cargoes worth—in today’s dollars—billions, thus making a signi &cant contribution to the British war e ort. Not a bad record for a 94-foot-long brig with only 16 carronades and a couple of bow chasers.
HMS Fantome’s wreck site o Nova Scotia is a known location and has been the subject of much controversy over the years regarding who can dive on
the site and who has rights to any artifacts that might be recovered. !e long-standing rumor that some of the items stolen from the White House during the British raid on the capital were in the ship’s hold attracted some recent interest until it was made clear that Fantome wasn’t involved in that action. Treasure hunters and other wide-eyed salvors claim that “a billion dollars’ worth of treasure” is still located within the wreck. Based on historical documents, this claim is most likely spurious.
!ere is little doubt that the Americans were pleased that this scourge of their commerce was removed from the board by her sinking, though other British warships and privateers remained to continue the shipping disruption and depredations until peace was restored in the Spring of 1815.
Award-winning author William H. White has been a historian specializing in the maritime heritage and American involvement in the Age of Sail for most of his adult life. A lifelong sailor himself, he has sailed under square rig, giving him a knowledgeable and first-hand insight into the complex workings of the vessels about which he writes. He served six years as an o icer in the United States Navy in the 1960s and was actively involved in naval operations for three years in Vietnam. With nine books, both fiction and non-fiction, to his credit, he still pens a biweekly blog post (“Maritime Maunder”) and the occasional magazine article.
In addition to serving as a Life Trustee of the USS Constitution Museum in Boston, and former trustee of Lynx Educational Foundation, he is recognized as a dedicated former trustee and long-time o icer of the National Maritime Historical Society, deeply involved in its operations.
To mark the site of her demise, a large granite boulder located on the point near where she sank at Prospect, Nova Scotia, is engraved with the words: “HMS Fantome 16 gun brig sank in storm o this shore Nov. 24, 1814.”
Captain Kidd & the Trial of the Century A 325-Year Stain on the British Crown
by Samuel Marquis
Samuel Marquis lays out a defense of his ancestor, the convicted pirate Capt. Kidd. Of course, Kidd is one of the more recognizable names in pirate lore, owing in part to the reports that he le behind buried treasure that has yet to be discovered. Whether or not there is a chest of gold and other loot to be dug up, the case presented here sets out to recover Kidd’s reputation. Was he a notorious freebooter, or a victim of a political hit job?
On ursday morning, 8 May 1701, Captain William Kidd—my ninth-great-grandfather and regarded by many as the most notorious pirate of all time— stepped warily into London’s legendary Old Bailey courthouse, adorned with
august symbols of Admiralty power and famous for its high-pro le criminal trials during the Golden Age of Piracy (1650–1730). Kidd had been arrested in the Puritan stronghold of Boston in July 1699 and languished for two years in solitary con nement— rst, in Stone
Prison, then in a windowless cabin aboard HMS Advice as it crossed the Atlantic, and nally as an inmate in the horri c Newgate Prison in London. Captain Kidd’s opportunity for vindication in what was called the “Trial of the Century” had nally arrived. e wealthy New York sea captain, war hero, and model citizen had become a wanted outlaw due to alleged piratical acts committed during his 1696–1699 privateering expedition to the Indian Ocean to battle the French and hunt down freebooters, as King William III’s lawfully commissioned sea warrior. Kidd put to sea as a respectable privateer, not a roguish pirate, in that his actions at sea were sanctioned by the English government through a letter of marque, a license authorizing him to attack, capture, and plunder enemy ships in wartime. e original idea for Kidd’s illfated Indian Ocean expedition was concocted back in 1695 by New York merchant Robert Livingston. At the time, the Indian Ocean was infested with English and American pirates, who preyed on the shipping of the Great Mughal of India, Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir I. e risky scheme called for Kidd to hunt down pirates in the East Indies, seize their ill-gotten riches, and keep them, not only for himself and his crew, but for the king and a group of high-ranking investors
Captain William Kidd (c. 1645–1701)
in the expedition: Livingston; Richard Coote, a.k.a. Lord Bellomont; and four other well-heeled London nancial backers.
e Mughal’s richly laden ships sailed annually in late summer from Surat, India, to Mocha and Jeddah on the Arabian Peninsula, where the devout travelers rested before continuing on foot to the holy city of Mecca in the most sacred rite of Islam known as the hajj e entourage included royal o cials of Aurangzeb’s court, wealthy merchants transporting cloth and spices to Arabia to trade for co$ee and gold, and humble pilgrims nanced by the charitable emperor. On both the outgoing and return voyages to India, the eet was the richest prize in the East and a magnet for the Red Sea Men sailing primarily out of New York and Newport in the American colonies.
e goal was for Kidd to capture the pirates after they had raided the Great Mughal’s treasure eets and East Indian shipping. His lordly nancial backers for the enterprise were some of the most powerful men in all of England: Lord John Somers, Lord Chancellor and Keeper of the Great Seal; Charles Talbot, the Duke of Shrewsbury, Secretary of State; Admiral Edward Russell, First Lord of the Admiralty and Treasurer of the Royal Navy; and Henry Sidney, the Earl of Romney, Master General of Ordnance. e four wealthy partners were all members of the Whig Junto that ran the English government, and they had been steadfast supporters of William and Mary in their 1688 seizure of the English throne in the Glorious Revolution.
Captain Kidd’s trial at the Old Bailey courthouse was called the “Trial of the Century” for the a ention it received on both sides of the Atlantic. The details of the proceedings were promptly published and devoured by the public.
Initially, Kidd turned down the o$er to command the venture. Given the considerable time and money already invested in the enterprise, the huge stakes, and its highbrow investors, Bellomont threatened to have him arrested and seize his privateering ship Antigua Furthermore, Bellomont was expecting to become governor and promised to
“oppress” Kidd in New York when he took o ce if he didn’t agree to command the voyage. Under pressure, Kidd decided to carry out the di cult mission rather than make enemies of Bellomont and the other powerful noblemen, who o$ered him further assurances “of their support and his impunity from criminal prosecution.”
Kidd was granted two privateering commissions, one to attack the French and the other to capture pirates. A 34gun warship, the Adventure Galley, was built for him in the fall and winter of 1695–1696 by the partners and completed to his speci cations. Kidd raised a crew of 152 seamen hired on a “no purchase, no pay” basis, which meant that they would only receive payment
if they captured prize ships and their cargoes. Any captures were to be carried to Boston and delivered to Bellomont, who would have the vessels and cargoes declared as lawful prizes in court, allowing him to distribute the pro ts to himself, Kidd, the crew, and the Whig lords without the Admiralty skimming its normal share.
To Bellomont, the Duke of Shrewsbury, and the other powerful Whig gentlemen, Kidd’s pirate-hunting expedition was a speculative venture that promised a handsome return on investment. Knowing that the enterprise would not bear the scrutiny of Parliament, they insisted upon being silent partners and their names were kept hush-hush. What would happen to Kidd, if he oundered, was no concern of theirs; all they cared about was that no strings were attached to them.
Kidd’s voyage to India turned out to be an epic disaster. After being at sea more than a year, he still had not taken a single prize, and his crew was becoming increasingly desperate to earn some money. ey wanted to become full- edged pirates and plunder the ships of all nations, but Kidd refused to violate his commissions from the Crown. e Adventure Galley, divided by this time into “pirate” and “nonpirate” factions, simmered with discontent and stood on the cusp of mutiny, which was prohibited under the ship’s articles that had been signed by every seaman at the start of the voyage.
When the Adventure Galley encountered a Dutch trading vessel in October 1697, the crisis came to a head and the crew mutinied. e ringleader was the ship’s chief gunner, William Moore, a former criminal with two
Lord Bellomont, one of Kidd’s original investors in the secret privateering venture, would become the Royal Governor of New York, Massachuse s, and New Hampshire just before Kidd’s arrival back in New York waters.
William Kidd’s impressive home on Pearl Street in New York, where he lived with his wife, Sarah, and their two young daughters prior to his 1696 departure to sail to the Indian Ocean on a privateering voyage.
prison sentences to his name. When Moore and his shipmates demanded that Kidd seize the Dutchman, the captain refused, as England and the Dutch Republic were allies and taking the ship would have violated their lawful privateering commission. He and Moore then got into a heated argument. After having endured months of insubordination by the gunner and others that had intensi ed in the past several weeks, Kidd lost his temper. In a t of rage, he struck Moore a lethal blow to the head with an empty iron-hooped wooden bucket. Moore died the next day, which only added to the discontent aboard the ship.
Weeks later, after Kidd lawfully seized two valuable Moorish (Muslim East Indian) prize ships, the Rouparelle and Quedagh Merchant, which had on them authentic French passports, he was accused of piracy by the English East India Company. Anxious to protect its powerful monopoly in the region, the East India Company accused the king’s privateer of being an “archPyrate.” Kidd had, in fact, been slandered for the past several months by the Royal Navy and the leaders of the East India Company, who regarded him as a poaching “interloper,” despite his Crown commissions. His only crime was that he followed in the wake of recent assaults by the English pirates Henry Every and Robert Culliford and other freebooters. Every and Culliford had taken hauls of more than $100,000,000 in modern-day US dollars from the Great Mughal, and Kidd had the misfortune of arriving in the Indian Ocean shortly after their sprees of plundering, rape, and brutality.
Denied access to ports in India by English o cials, Kidd sailed for St. Mary’s, a small island o$ the northeast coast of Madagascar, known to be a pirate stronghold. ere, he sought to capture pirates and re t for the long voyage back home to New York, where
The Adventure Galley, Capt. Kidd’s ship provided to him by the investors, was a contemporary vessel to this hybrid warship. Both were armed with 34 guns, rigged with square sails, and fi ed with sweeps for maneuvering in light airs.
his wife and daughters were waiting. According to Kidd’s account, more than ninety of his crew mutinied because he refused to go all-in on piracy. ey subsequently stole most of his papers and then sailed o$ with the real pirate Culliford. Following the mutiny, Kidd worked feverishly to pull together a su cient crew to re t his newly captured gunship, the Adventure Prize, and sail her safely to the Caribbean.
Despite the numerous challenges he faced during his perilous voyage, remarkably Captain Kidd made it back to the colonies from Madagascar with around £40,000 ($14,000,000 today) of treasure in his hold and in possession of the French passports that would prove that he had taken the Rouparelle and Quedagh Merchant legally, in accordance with his privateering commission. In the three years since he had departed his home, he and his small
band of loyalists had managed to survive two Royal Navy impressment attempts; raging storms; a tropical disease outbreak; repeated attacks by the East India Company, the Portuguese, and Moors; severe thirst and near-starvation; and a full-scale mutiny. Upon nally reaching Antigua on 2 April 1699, he and his crew received heartbreaking news— ve months before, at the urging of the East India Company, the Crown had declared them pirates and ordered an all-out manhunt to bring them to justice.
From Kidd’s viewpoint, he was largely innocent, having accepted a risky mission that he was reluctant to take on in the rst place, and he decided his best course of action was to try to obtain a pardon from his sponsor, Lord Bellomont, who had by this time taken o ce as the royal governor of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
The Charles Galley Before a Light Breeze by Willem van de Velde, the Younger (1633–1707).
He set a course for Oyster Bay on Long Island, New York, to rendezvous with his lawyer, James Emott, and his wife Sarah and their two young daughters, Elizabeth and little Sarah. After meeting and strategizing with Emott and reuniting with his family, he buried a portion of his legally obtained treasure on Gardiner’s Island in Long Island Sound and distributed other goods to trusted seafaring friends and community leaders. ese precautions were necessary because he did not trust Bellomont, whom he subsequently arranged to meet in Boston.
He was right not to trust the earl, for on 3 July 1699, his noble sponsor treated him with suspicion and several days later had him arrested. Now that he was shunned as a “notorious archPyrate,” Bellomont, Shrewsbury, Somers, and the other backers wanted nothing to do with the man whom, a mere two years earlier, they had promised to vigorously support and whom the King of England himself had referred to as the “trusty and well-beloved Captain Kidd.” Not only had their protégé become an embarrassment, he was also a liability because of what he knew about the silent partners of the venture. ey threw him to the wolves. After six months of incarceration in Boston, Kidd was shipped to England to stand trial.
By the time Captain Kidd stepped into the Old Bailey courtroom to take on the English Empire on 8 May 1701, the Crown had stacked the deck against him. Not only had the English authorities spent the last full year preparing the government’s case against him, they had fastidiously lined up and coached a series of star witnesses, while denying the defendant adequate food, money, and critical documents that could exonerate him.
Meanwhile, Kidd, in the role of the slingshot-wielding David, possessed no legal experience whatsoever except
his brief stint as a New York jury foreman in 1694. He was given just two weeks to prepare his case, and he received, in e$ect, no assistance from his two lawyers, Dr. William Oldys and Mr. Lemmon, whose payment had been withheld by the Crown until the night before the trial so they would have minimal time to work on the case. Once inside the courtroom, Kidd had to represent himself as his own defense advocate throughout the proceedings, because lawyers in that era could only provide counsel on narrow matters of law and not o$er objections or examine witnesses.
Kidd had been locked away in close con nement inside the notorious Newgate Prison for a year and denied access to lawyers and public o cials who might help him defend his case. He was only permitted to write to Admiralty o cials, was not allowed physical exercise, and was refused doctor visits even when he became seriously ill. But the most egregious act against him was the theft, or deliberate misplacement, of the French passports taken from the two prize ships he and his crew had captured in the Indian Ocean, the Rouparelle and Quedagh Merchant. e culprit behind the Crown subterfuge is believed by most historians to have been the English Secretary of State, James Vernon, who was likely acting under direct orders from his superior, the Duke of Shrewsbury, and the Whig Junto. Sent by Lord Bellomont to London in late July 1699 with the rst wave of Kidd-related documents, the critical French passports were delivered to the English authorities on 26 September 1699, publicly read before the House of Commons that December, entered into the Commons Journal, and held in the o ces of and reviewed by Vernon and six other key government o cials. Yet, by the time Captain Kidd’s trial got underway, they had gone missing.
e passports would not be seen again until 1910, when they were found by historian Ralph Paine, tucked away in the records of the British Board of Trade. e French documents were either deliberately withheld from Kidd or somehow misplaced prior to his trial, which, as scholars have noted, proved quite convenient for the English authorities. For more than two centuries, historians were skeptical of the existence of the French passes until Paine unearthed them in London and, in the process, discovered a 210-year-old English conspiracy to seal the fate of my ancestor William Kidd.
At the Old Bailey on 8 and 9 May, the New York privateer and, by then, the biggest celebrity in all of England was tried on one count of premeditated murder for the killing of William Moore and ve counts of piracy. In a mere two days, he served as his own defense lawyer in four separate trials, but the courtroom drama proved to be nothing but a sham proceeding. Kidd was convicted on all counts based on the perjured testimony of two of his mutinous crew members, the ship’s surgeon, Dr. Robert Bradinham, and seaman Joseph Palmer, both of whom had run o$ with pirate Robert Culliford. It was either they or Kidd who would hang.
e two men put forward a false narrative that directly contradicted their depositions given in America shortly after their capture. Absolving themselves and the other mutinous crew members of any culpability, they made Kidd the scapegoat for all the pillaging in the Indian Ocean that had been done by Henry Every, Robert Culliford, and other bona de pirates before the Adventure Galley had even made it to the region in December 1696. e killing of chief gunner William Moore with a wooden bucket in the heat of the moment, they testi ed under oath, was not a spur-of-the-moment blow
The missing French passport from the Quedagh Merchant, which would have exonerated Kidd against the piracy charge, was discovered in 1910 by historian Ralph Paine. The passport was a legal document issued by the French government declaring a ship under the protection of the French Crown.
to quell a mutiny, but an act of coldblooded, premeditated murder.
Working in tandem, the Crownappointed prosecution and judges controlled the jury and rubber-stamped Kidd’s conviction on all charges, despite his and his loyal crew members’ strong arguments in support of acquittal. Unfortunately for the accused, he had become the name and face of global piracy and a political liability, not only to the Whig Junto and the East India Company, but to all of England. It was, therefore, critical that he be tried and executed swiftly to protect the East Indian trade and answer the complaints of the Great Mughal. To ensure that Kidd’s lawyers couldn’t pull a rabbit out of a hat and spare Kidd from the gallows, on 8 May, immediately following his murder trial—when the jury was still deliberating—and just before his rst piracy trial, lawyers Oldys and Lemmon went missing from the courtroom and did not return that day nor the next.
At the time, Dr. Oldys was considered the top pirate lawyer in all of England, who had served as advocate of the Admiralty under King James II in the late 1680s and as the lead counsel in the 1694 trial of eight of the former Catholic king’s privateers. He was not only the most experienced defense lawyer for piracy cases, but the ex-Admiralty advocate was an original thinker and courtroom articulator who possessed the moral courage to put aside his political, religious, and royal motivations in a judicially challenged age and be “above all else…a man of the law.” It was for these reasons that Kidd had selected the defense lawyer in the rst place.
Now on trial, he had no one to help him in the greatest ght of his life and was profoundly dejected. Given that the disappearance of the two lawyers occurred at the precise moment their client needed forceful advocacy to present the missing French passports as evidence, it is likely that the Crown
and Whig Junto, acting in collusion, orchestrated the removal of Oldys and Lemmon from the case to ensure Kidd’s conviction.
After being found guilty on all counts, William Kidd was set to be hanged at Execution Dock in Wapping on 23 May 1701. During the Golden Age of Piracy, large numbers of Londoners ocked to public executions, but the turnout for Kidd was unprecedented due to his notoriety and the frenetic newspaper coverage. Scores of pleasure boats anchored close to the north shore of the ames River next to the gallows to get a good view, and a huge crowd of more than 10,000 souls packed the narrow streets, Wapping Stairs, and the wide foreshore. e wooden sca $old—or “Hanging Tree,” as it was known—was erected on the muddy river bottom below the highwater mark. Presenting a resolute, deant image amidst the backdrop of masted ships, yachts, barges, and periaugers on the river, the New York sea
PRINTED IN THE BOOK OF BURIED TREASURE BY RALPH D. PAINE, 1911
captain made a stirring nal speech rea rming his innocence and pleading for mercy for his family.
When his impassioned oration was nished, the wooden block from under the platform was knocked away, but when he dropped, the rope attached to his neck snapped under his weight and he fell to the ground. To the roar of the bloodthirsty mob of London men, women, and children, the sheri $ and
his deputies roughly grabbed him and picked him up o$ the ground. English tradition had it that when a rope broke at a public execution, it was considered an act of God and the convict was often reprieved.
But as the Kidd case was deeply political and his death had been a diplomatic necessity to appease the Great Mughal and preserve the East Indian trade, the sea captain would not be so
lucky. Once a new ladder was found, the “arch-Pyrate Captain Kidd” was “turned o$ ” on a shorter, shattering fall. He expired just as a blood-red sun set over London Town and the ames River, packed with pleasure boats. “Kidd could not be attacked upon the ground of want of courage,” wrote English barrister and historian Graham Brooks. “He had faced this last terrible ordeal un inchingly. He died game.” e fate of the king’s privateer had been sealed long before he set foot in the courtroom by a corrupt English Crown. It is precisely because Mother England was so heavy-handed in its punishment that there is so much sympathy for Captain Kidd today. e mythologized New York privateer has many supporters in Great Britain and the United States, who continue to actively campaign for him to receive an o cial pardon from the British government for its slanderous accusations and unconscionable crimes against him.
In the end, it is Captain Kidd himself who pleaded his case best at the close of the Trial of the Century on 9 May 1701, when he was condemned to die by hanging. “My Lord, it is a very hard sentence,” declared my ancestor for the history books. “For my part, I am the innocentest person of them all, only I have been sworn against by perjured persons.”
The ninth-great-grandson of Captain William Kidd, Samuel Marquis, M.S., P.G., is a professional hydrogeologist and an award-winning author of 12 nonfiction, historical-fiction, and suspense books, covering primarily the period from colonial America through World War II. This article is based on his latest book, Captain Kidd: A True Story of Treasure and Betrayal (Diversion Books, 2025). For more about the author, visit www.samuelmarquisbooks.com.
A er his execution, Kidd’s body was encased in an iron gibbet cage and strung up at the mouth of the Thames River to serve as a warning to sailors.
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200 Years on the Erie Canal
by Deirdre O’Regan
When it opened in 1825, the Erie Canal was billed as the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” An engineering marvel, the 363-mile manmade waterway stretched from Albany on the Hudson River to Bu alo on the eastern end of Lake Erie, creating a navigable water route from the Atlantic seaboard to the hinterland. It turned New York City into the nation’s largest commercial port, fueled westward expansion, and changed the course of American history. While we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the opening of the canal this year, we acknowledge that its story is more complex, involving the vision, the players, risks (physical, political, and economic), immediate success and eventual decline, and evolution and reinvention over the years since.
At the turn of the 19th century, most of New York State’s population was concentrated along the Hudson River corridor, from New York City north to Albany, while much of the
western part of the state remained sparsely settled. Moving goods between the East Coast and the western frontier was di cult, slow, and expensive, often requiring weeks of overland travel along rugged roads and trails.
e idea of building a canal was rst proposed by a Western New York our merchant named Jesse Hawley, and then debated by Founding Father Gouverneur Morris and others, who served on the rst Canal Commission in 1810, but it was DeWitt Clinton who became the canal’s champion. Clinton was then the mayor of New York City and would be elected the state’s governor by the time the canal was completed. At 363 miles long, the canal would be, by far, the largest public works project ever attempted in the United States and its success was far from guaranteed. Clinton argued that faster and cheaper transportation across the state and the anticipated economic development that would follow, once the port of New York was linked to
Among the challenges facing the engineers tasked with designing the Erie Canal was the 568-foot elevation change between Albany on the Hudson River and the canal’s proposed terminus at Bu ! alo. The detail from this 1832 map of New York State outlines the elevation changes and locations of the original locks along its route.
the Great Lakes, made the project worth attempting. Clinton had his allies, but plenty of critics countered, calling the project “Clinton’s Folly” or “Clinton’s Ditch.”
Construction began in 1817, and it was a massive undertaking. e canal would need to climb 568 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, requiring excavation—mostly by hand— through forests, swamps, and bedrock. ousands of laborers toiled daily over months and years using picks and shovels, wheelbarrows, and horse- and oxdrawn carts. Conditions were tough, with swarming mosquitoes and sweltering heat in the summer, only to be replaced by bitter cold in the winter months. Despite these challenges, the canal was built in sections that were successively opened as they were completed. e full waterway and infrastructure were completed in 1825, with the o cial opening celebrated on 26 October when Governor Clinton ofcially opened the canal in Bu alo,
New York. He then boarded a canal boat and embarked on a 10-day trip down the canal to carry a keg of Lake Erie water to New York City. On 4 November, he performed the “wedding of the waters,” pouring the Lake Erie water into the Atlantic in New York Harbor as a symbolic gesture marking the opening of the canal to waterborne transportation.
e Erie Canal was deemed an instant success. Transporting goods via the water route cost a fraction of what it had before. Freight rates plummeted, and the time it took to travel its length was down to about a week, versus three weeks for the overland journey.
Settlers poured into western New York and beyond, and frontier outposts transformed into thriving towns. Agricultural products, as well as timber and other raw materials, could be transported to markets along the Eastern Seaboard and beyond, while manufactured goods owed westward. New York City exploded as a commercial powerhouse, surpassing Philadelphia and Boston by the 1830s.
As canal tra c boomed, the waterway’s infrastructure soon was deemed
(top right)
Mural of the Marriage of the Waters, 1825, depicting Governor DeWi Clinton aboard the canal boat Seneca Chief pouring water from Lake Erie into New York Harbor as part of the celebration of the opening of the Erie Canal, 4 November 1825. The mural was painted in 1905 by Charles Yardley Turner for the DeWi Clinton High School in Lower Manha an.
(right) DeWitt Clinton (1769–1828) served in the US Senate and as the sixth Governor of New York. He is credited as the driving force behind ge ing the canal built. Portrait by Rembrandt Peale, c. 1823.
Lock 37 at Li le Falls, looking west. The canal had to climb/descend more than 40 feet at Li le Falls, requiring four sets of locks. When the Barge Canal was built (1905–1918), the series of locks was replaced with a single lock (#17).
Horses and mules on the towpath at the Erie Canal locks at Lockport, c. 1890s. Lockport’s Flight of Five Locks raised (or lowered) boats 60 feet over the Niagara Escarpment, conquering one of the toughest obstacles in the design and construction of the Erie Canal. These stone structures were replaced in 1918 by a set of concrete locks, which could accommodate larger vessels. One set of the original flight has been preserved next to the working locks, which are still in service today.
insu cient. In 1836, New York embarked on a project to widen and deepen the original channel, which had measured a modest four feet deep and forty feet in width at the water’s surface, and upgrade the locks to handle larger vessels and two-way tra c. is e ort was completed in September
1862, as the Civil War was raging to the South. In mid-century, canal boats were transporting millions of tons of cargo in both directions each year, while passenger vessels were carrying travelers and settlers to the interior.
Despite its popularity and expansion, the canal soon faced competition
from a growing network of railroads. Trains o ered faster and year-round transportation across the same region. Shipping along the canal remained competitive for low-cost bulk freight, and in the late 19th century, the canal underwent another major expansion to further deepen the channel and build
When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, it was only four feet deep and 40 feet wide in most places, with stone locks limiting the size of vessels to less than 15 x 90 feet. Early on, it became clear that the canal would have to be enlarged to alleviate tra!ic congestion and allow for larger vessels. The first big enlargement project got underway in 1836, ultimately increasing the depth to seven feet and its width to 70 feet. The final major enlargement project aimed to make the waterway more e!icient for motorized vessels that had no use for mule and horse towpaths. The new Erie Barge Canal was completed in 1918. This 1912 map shows the barge canal, as well as existing and abandoned canals across New York State.
new aqueducts and locks. It would not be enough. By the early 20th century, in an attempt to stay viable as a commercial waterway, a decision was made to transform the canal into a modern barge canal that could accommodate powered vessels and larger volumes of freight.
Construction began on what became the New York State Barge Canal in 1903. e new canal system incorporated parts of the old Erie Canal and rerouted other sections to follow natural waterways in the region, such as the Mohawk River and other smaller waterways. Completed in 1918, the Barge Canal system featured concrete locks, motorized gates, and a wider, deeper channel and could accommodate watercraft carrying up to 3,000 tons of cargo. While the Barge Canal helped extend the life of the Erie Canal system,
it could not fully reverse the trend— railroads would remain dominant as carriers of people and cargo.
By the mid-20th century, commercial tra c on the canal had dwindled sharply. e nail in the co n came with the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, e ectively shutting down commercial tra c on the canal.
Once the lifeline of the Empire State and a vital route connecting the American East Coast with the interior states, the Erie Canal fell into disuse and disrepair.
Rather than fade into obscurity, however, the canal system found new life as a place for recreation. In the 1960s, local communities along its route began transforming the old towpaths into trails suitable for walking and cycling. In 1992, the New York State Legislature created the New York State
Canal Recreationway Commission to develop a conceptual framework for transforming the historic canal system into a recreational system, and in 2000, Congress established the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor.
Today, the canal is used primarily for recreational boating and tourism. Many communities along its route have embraced their canal heritage, building museums, hosting festivals, and marking historic sites that celebrate its storied past. e 500-mile heritage corridor has become popular with cyclists, boaters, and tourists in an environment that successfu lly combines heritage tourism and outdoor adventure activities. ough its role has shifted, the Erie Canal endures—not just as an artifact from history, but as a living waterway.
The 568-foot di!erence in elevation between Albany and Bu !alo necessitated the design and building of 83 locks along the length of the Erie Canal when it was first built. When plans were drawn up for the enlarged barge canal, designs included a flight of locks designed to allow boats to travel from the Hudson to the Mohawk River at Waterford. This photo shows Lock 5 of the Waterford Flight under construction, 20 August 1908.
The Erie Canal Today
The Erie Canal today is a popular destination for boaters, cyclists, and pedestrians. (above) Recreational boaters transit Lock 6 in Waterford, New York. (right) Kayakers crowd into a lock during the Paddle the Canals: Erie Canal 200! event in June. (below) The annual Waterford Tugboat Roundup. Bicentennial events continue through 2025 in towns and cities throughout the canal system. (Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, www.eriecanalway.org)
A Maritime History of the United States
–YACHTING & RECREATION–
by Charles Raskob Robinson illustrated by the American Society of Marine Artists
Schooner Oenone — Marblehead, 1890, oil, 24 x 42 inches, by Richard Loud
By the end of the 19th century, a growing number of Americans had the wealth and leisure time to pursue yachting, as depicted in this gathering of luxury private schooners at dusk o! Marblehead, Massachuse s.
People have always been drawn to the water, but the idea of boating purely for pleasure and having it be accessible to everyday Americans is a relatively recent phenomenon. In the early 1800s, inspired by British yachting traditions, wealthy New Yorkers began commissioning sleek sailing vessels designed for speed and aesthetics to build their social prestige. e founding of the New York Yacht Club in 1844 gave structure to the sport of yacht racing, and regattas soon transformed harbors into playing elds, where competition and society mixed in equal measure.
roughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, advances in watercraft design and the development of the marine engine— rst steam, then diesel and gasoline— broadened boating’s appeal beyond the very wealthy. Boatbuilders churned out vessels ranging from sailboats of all sizes to fast runabouts, while the emergence of the marina industry and improvements to waterways opened rivers, lakes, and coastal waters to leisure tra c.
After World War II, innovations in materials and mass production ushered in a new era of recreational boating. Fiberglass hulls, outboard motors, and a ordable trailerable boats put boating within reach of middle-class families, fueling a postwar boom in shing trips, sailing clubs, and water sports.
Today, American boating culture encompasses everything from quiet solo paddling to the high drama of America’s Cup racing. Not everyone’s maritime leisure time is tied to watercraft, as the beach itself is probably the most popular way people experience the water.
In this nal entry in the series by award-winning marine artist, Charles Raskob Robinson, based on his book, e Maritime History of the United States: e Creation and Defense of a Nation (designed by Len. F. Tantillo), we get to experience how Americans seek out the water and boats for solace, excitement, competition, and to commune with nature through the eyes of today’s top marine artists.
A Spanking Breeze on a Starboard Tack, oil, 20 x 40 inches, by David Bareford This dynamic painting says it all about the exhilaration of open-water sailing.
Weatherly, 1962, oil, 22 x 36 inches, by Russ Kramer
Racing sailboats long predated the famous rega a of 1851 in British waters in which the schooner America won and brought home the trophy known therea er as the America’s Cup. The a ention to that event spread worldwide, and the Cup’s possession has been hotly contested ever since. In 1962, the challenge came from an Australian team, but the Americans prevailed in the 12-metre yacht Weatherly, skippered by Emil “Bus” Mosbacher Jr., in frantic action o! Newport, Rhode Island. It wasn’t until 21 years later that the American team lost the Cup for the first time...to the Australians.
Elevation #13, Altitude Series, oil, 24 x 24 inches, by Sarah Hull
People’s activities on, near, and in the water vary widely. Exposure to the sea for most Americans occurs at the beach, an experience broadly and inclusively conveyed in this work by Florida-based artist Sarah Hull.
The thrill of competition comes through in this depiction of small-boat racing. A lifelong sailor and veteran racer, Saltzman paints what she knows. Her bold watercolors have a distinctive style that sets her apart from traditional watercolorists.
Salty Sisters, watercolor, 30 x 30 inches, by Judy Saltzman
Right of Way at High Speed, oil, 21 x 32 inches, by Charles Raskob Robinson
Not just a summertime pursuit! Boating, in this case iceboating, was first started in the Netherlands, where the early boats carried cargo, people, and sheep along the frozen waterways. Iceboating was introduced as a recreational activity in the United States on the Hudson River in the 18th century. As its popularity as a sport grew, “ice yachting” clubs formed, with the first in Poughkeepsie, New York, and iceboating has become an established winter sport in countries in the Northern Hemisphere across the world.
Scituate Harbor at Sunset, oil, 18 x 30 inches, by Sergio Ro!o
The other extreme: Many recreational sailors experience the opposite of the adrenaline-rush from racing, namely, light air and placid waters, which make for a calm and relaxing day on the water.
is article is based on the book, A Maritime History of the United States: e Creation and Defense of a Nation, written by Charles Raskob Robinson and designed by Len F. Tantillo. Robinson is a Fellow and charter member of the American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA), the nation’s oldest and largest not-for-pro t educational organization dedicated to promoting American marine art and history. In 2013, he directed Naval War of 1812 Illustrated, a documentary produced by the Society in conjunction with the US Navy and dozens of museums.
To purchase the book or learn more about ASMA, visit www.americansocietyofmarineartists.com.
The NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
o ers this spectacular signed and numbered, limited-edition print by internationally acclaimed artist William G. Muller.
Mary Powell
Rounding Dunderberg Mountain on Her Morning Run
On a summer morning in 1895, the paddlewheel steamer Mary Powell rounds Dunderberg Mountain at the southern entrance to the Hudson Highlands. Built in 1861 for service as a fast dayboat between Rondout, New York, and New York City, the Mary Powell the “Queen of the Hudson” had a remarkable 57-year career, faithfully transporting passengers on a brisk and precise daily summer schedule.
Signed prints generously donated by the artist from his personal collection to support the National Maritime Historical Society. Sheet size: 31” x 24” • $130 + $30 s/h ( within the USA )
To order: call 1-800-221-NMHS (6647), ext. 0; or visit our Ship’s Store at www.seahistory.org/shop. NYS residents add applicable sales tax.
Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society
by Nathaniel Howe
The Curator’s Corner series in Sea History o ers maritime museums the opportunity to feature historical photos from their collections that, while available to researchers upon request, rarely go on public display. Each issue, we ask a museum curator to pick a particularly interesting, revealing, or representative photo from their archives and tell us about it. In this installment, we are invited into the archives of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society. Enjoy!
The feverish pace of Paci c Northwest maritime activity in the early 20th century must have been bewildering to experience. In this striking photo, the Age of Sail barely manages to clear out ahead of the Automobile Age. It was 1931, and the nal span of US Highway 99’s George Washington Memorial Bridge was about to be assembled, creating a “now-or-never” situation to get the four-masted barque Monongahela out of Seattle’s protected anchorage in Lake Union.
Pick up a magnifying glass and you’ll nd a whole microcosm of Northwest maritime history in this photo. Surrounding Monongahela are yachts and houseboats in the foreground, tugs alongside, and sawmills’ log booms rafted up in the background. e waterway itself is profoundly historic, being part of the Lake Washington Ship Canal and Government Locks, built in 1917 to link the city’s two largest freshwater lakes to Puget Sound and the open Paci c. A century later, these freshwater basins are still home to hundreds of houseboats, numerous shipyards, and much of the Alaska shing eet, including some of the crab boats featured in the TV series Deadliest Catch.
e density and diversity of Northwest maritime activity during the period of rapid transition between 1880 and 1920 is especially remarkable. It’s as if the saga of human seafaring technology was compressed into just a few decades, with native cedar canoes, sailing ships, steamers, and early gas- and diesel boats all plying these waters at the same time. What is more amazing still is that much of this intensive activity fell within the photographic era. It is not uncommon to see dugout canoes, schooners, and steamers in the same image.
is photo was taken by Jones & Warner and subsequently became one of the most iconic images in the Joe Williamson Maritime Photograph Collection at the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society (PSMHS). Williamson was a proli c maritime photographer himself, capturing much of the region’s shipping throughout the middle decades
of the 20th century. In 1980, he donated his entire archive of more than 55,000 images to the PSMHS, and these are now in the process of being digitized and made available online.
Selecting just one historical photograph to share with Sea History readers was challenging, but it is hard to top the dissonant juxtaposition of a square rigger and highway bridge. Equally compelling is the air of de ance in this image, as a proud and trim masterpiece from the Age of Sail exits with dignity and, for all its age and obsolescence, is still taller than the modern contraption driving it out. It also illustrates just how tall the tall ships of that era really were. Climbing that rig to such a dizzying height is not for the faint of heart, I can tell you. Monongahela was nearly identical to my former charge, the 1903 four-master Pommern, one of the surviving Flying P Liners at the Åland Maritime Museum in Finland. Getting all the way up to the t’gallant masts before your paint bucket and brush harden up is a feat.
Monongahela was built in Glasgow by Barclay Curle Shipbuilders in 1892. She originally sailed under the name Balasore and was registered at 298 feet and 2,782 tons. In 1912 she was sold to the German shipping rm Knohr & Burchard and renamed Dalbek, and she served in the grain trade between Europe and the American West Coast. When World War I began, she was in port in Portland, Oregon, and promptly laid up for the duration of the con ict. When the United States entered the war three years later, German vessels in American ports were seized by the US Shipping Board. Dalbek was renamed Red Jacket and would make a single voyage to China and back. She never sailed again. In 1918, she was renamed Monongahela but not returned to seagoing service. After the war, she was sold to a succession of owners, including the Columbia River Packers Association. In 1936 the barque was nally converted into a logging barge and operated in Canada until being wrecked in Hecate Strait in 1943.
“It’s Now or Never”
The Four-masted Barque, Monongahela, Slips Out of Sea le, 1931.
The nearly 300-foot square rigger, among the last commercial ships from the Age of Sail, being maneuvered to pass through the George Washington Memorial Bridge just before assembly of its final span. The tugs assisting are the Washington Tug & Barge Company’s Forest T. Crosby, Wilson, and one smaller tug.
Nathaniel Howe is the Director of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society in Sea le, Washington.
The Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society was formed in 1948 and has been collecting, chronicling, and exhibiting the maritime history of the Pacific Northwest and North Pacific for over 75 years. The Society’s research journal, The Sea Chest, has been published continuously since 1967. PO Box 81142, Sea le, WA 98108 • www.pugetmaritime.org
Avast! Talk Like a Pirate Day! Pirate Lore—Fact
September 19th is “Talk Like a Pirate Day,” when people across the globe start tossing around “Arr!” and “Shiver me timbers!” in their regular conversations. No, it’s not an o!cial holiday in the United States—or anywhere else, for that matter—but what started out as an inside joke between two friends goo ng around one day in 1995, has grown into an international phenomenon. Talk Like a Pirate Day is not about glorifying piracy’s bloody history, but rather about indulging in a little bit of silliness in our otherwise serious world. e real history of piracy is far more complex than pop
& Fiction
John Baur and Mark Summers (a.k.a. Cap’n Slappy and Ol’ Chumbucket) created Talk Like a Pirate Day in 1995 as a fun joke between them. It has since taken o and is celebrated around the world every year on September 19th. They have a website with all kinds of pirate info, some made-up and some factual, at www.talklikeapirate.com.
culture makes it out to be—and certainly not fun. What people think they know about pirates is often misplaced and comes from ctional books and movies. Let’s look at a few of the most enduring pirate myths and see how they hold up against historical reality.
Pirates Talked with the “Arrr, Matey!” Accent e stereotypical pirate accent owes more to actor Robert Newton than to actual history. Newton played Long John Silver in Disney’s 1950 lm Treasure Island, in which he used a thick West Country English accent for his character’s speech and peppered the dialogue with lots of “Arrr!” and “Matey.” Certainly, there were many pirates who came from that part of England, but there were plenty who came from other parts of Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia, who would have spoken in their native languages and in a variety of dialects.
Buried Treasure and X Marks the Spot
In another nod to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, we envision pirates burying treasure and marking “X” on hand-drawn maps. In reality, pirates weren’t
Buried Treasure by Howard Pyle (1853–1911)
known for saving their ill-gotten gains for very long. When given the opportunity (usually by coming into port and going ashore), they tended to spend their money quickly—on food, alcohol, and fun times in town. at’s not to say it didn’t happen. Accused pirate Capt. Kidd testi ed that when he got word that he was about to be arrested, he went ashore on Gardiner’s Island (o Long Island, New York) and buried his treasure there to safeguard his loot from the authorities. If he made a map of its location, it has never been found.
When Capt. Mike Healy of the US Revenue Cu er Service was asked to pose for a photograph in 1895, he made sure to include his pet parrot. At the time this photo was taken, his ship was serving in Alaska, far from the natural tropical habitat of any parrot.
Walking the Plank Pirates typically dealt with enemies or mutineers by killing them outright, throwing them overboard, and sometimes marooning them on deserted islands. Walking the plank as a way to kill someone was more ction than reality, but it sure adds drama to the scene!
Talk Like a Pirate Day isn’t meant to be anything people take seriously, but rather it is an invitation to act silly and ham it up a little. On September 19th, feel free to greet people with an “Ahoy there!” and lean into the fun. While you are yo-ho-ho-ing to your friends, keep in mind that learning what’s fact and what’s ction is a good habit to get into, and that, sometimes, reality can be more fascinating than make-believe.
Pirates Carried Parrots on their Shoulders
“ e parrot trope is almost certainly grounded in reality,” said Colin Woodard, author of e Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought em Down. Sailors—law-abiding mariners and pirates alike—left home for, what could be, years at a time, traveling across the world and visiting foreign lands, where they picked up exotic souvenirs to bring back home—including live animals. Monkeys and tropical birds were some of the more popular animals brought onboard ship, and parrots were particularly good choices because they were easy to feed and take care of, and could be trained.
Walking the Plank, by Howard Pyle
Welcome to the Ocean Classics Top 10 Countdown! We are sharing our top ten favorite stories set at sea or along the coast: books wri en for younger audiences.
Next up in our countdown is #9, A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin. The story is set in a fictional archipelago with a Scandinavian vibe. A young boy loses his mother when he is an infant. The boy is ignored by his father most of the time; the only a!ention he gets is when his father gets angry and beats him.
Sparrowhawk, as he is later nicknamed by his community, grows up wild on the island—until he begins to realize that he has magical powers. When the town is a! acked by marauding Kargs, he manages to cast a spell that creates such dense fog that the locals are able to escape the worst. Soon a erward, a master magician takes the boy under his wing and sends him to a school for aspiring wizards on a distant island.
A er earning the rank of sorcerer, Sparrowhawk is sent to another island where he learns to build wooden boats from a fisherman and sails them using the “world’s winds.” With his magic and spells, he restores old boats and even cra s his own weather. Among other feats, he voyages out alone in a small boat to free the islanders from the threat of a family of dragons.
Sparrowhawk’s extraordinary gi s, however, emerge before he has the wisdom and experience to handle them safely. This gets him into deep trouble, leaving him with scars on his face and relentless terrors. The only way to defeat the shape-shi ing evil is by sailing out to sea and confronting the monster directly: “Haven, harbor, peace, safety, all that was behind…coasting round the shores of Soders, where white snowfields faded up into foggy hills, [Sparrowhawk] took the boat southward again, and now they entered waters where the great traders of the Archipelago never come, the outermost fringes of the Reach.”
A Wizard of Earthsea is the first in a series of six books. If some of these plot lines sound familiar, know this was published in 1968, three decades before Harry Po!er! Ursula K. LeGuin died in the Pacific Northwest at the age of 88 a er an immensely productive and award-winning career writing novels, short stories, poetry, and essays.
Stay tuned for #8 in the next issue. You can view past selections at www.seahistory.org. We’d love to hear about your favorites—email us at seahistorykids@gmail.com. You might be able to sway the judges!
—Richard J. King
PHOTO BY
Ursula K. LeGuin
ANIMALS IN SEA HISTORY by Richard J. King
This is the story of a boy who became the most famous naturalist in the history of Cuba and one of the exceptional and beautiful groups of fish that he studied throughout his life.
When Felipe Poey y Aloy was five years old, he sailed with his family from Cuba, where he was born in 1799, to France. Less than two years a er they arrived, tragedy struck—his father died. His mother had to return to Cuba, and the boy was le behind, sent to live at a boarding school. At this school in France, young Felipe contracted polio, which partially paralyzed the right side of his body for the rest of his life.
When Felipe traveled back to Havana as a young man, he started to study law, in part to please his mother. His heart, however, was devoted to natural history. He loved watching and learning about insects, birds, mammals, mollusks, fossils, and— most of all—fish. Because of his limited mobility, he was unable to do his own field work in the warm waters o Cuba. He relied on others to bring him specimens to study. One source explained that he would go down to the fisherman’s docks early each morning to examine the catch. In addition to taking notes, he would sketch the fish. Since contracting polio, he had taught himself to draw with his le hand and
would o en lay a dead fish directly on the paper to trace it.
In 1826 Poey voyaged back to France to finish his law degree, but even as he was sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, he was thinking more about natural history than he was of the legal system. In the ship’s cargo hold were crates and boxes he had packed for law school, not filled with books and documents but rather specimens of plants, insects, and animals, including a barrel of brandy in which he’d pickled 35 fish from local waters. He also carried 85 drawings of fish he had made during his time in Cuba. While working on ge!ing his law degree in Paris, he assisted the famous naturalist Baron Georges Cuvier on his 22-volume book about all the known fishes of the world.
Once back in Cuba, Poey practiced law for a while before giving it up to commit to the study of nature. For the rest of his life, he corresponded with naturalists across Europe and the
Felipe Poey
United States about what he was studying. He continued to make illustrations of fish and other animal species, and wrote le!ers, studies, and books about biology and geology.
In 1842 he founded the museum of natural history at the University of Havana (now named the Museo de Historia Natural Felipe Poey). A professor of zoology, Poey wrote in Spanish, French, Latin, and English. This was during the exciting and contentious time when Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection was being introduced to the world, a theory that Poey enthusiastically embraced.
One of the most fascinating groups of fish that he described and illustrated was the hamlet fish, a group that would have fascinated Darwin, too. These tiny fish, about the size of the palm of your hand, live primarily among coral reefs. Poey wrote about them in his 1851 book, Memorias Sobre la Historia Natural de la Isla de Cuba, or Memoirs About the Natural History of the Island of Cuba, in which he identified seven new species of hamlet fish.
Today, biologists think there are about eighteen hamlet species. They aren’t entirely certain about that because hamlets can be hard to distinguish one species from another. All hamlet fish live in the Caribbean Sea and the tropical northwestern Atlantic. The various species o en live in similar habitats, and they are all nearly the exact same size with the same oval body, spiky dorsal fin down the length of their back, and sharp li !le teeth.
Although smaller than a postcard, this indigo hamlet in Belize, pictured above le , is a predator around its section of coral reef, preferring to eat damselfish and other tiny fish. In 1851, Poey illustrated two of the hamlets, le , in his book Memorias Sobre de la Isla de Cuba: the indigo above and the golden hamlet below, both of which he was the first to describe for Western scientists.
PHOTO BY JOHN NORTON
The only noticeable di erences between the hamlet species are their pa!erns and colors. Biologists continue to wonder, even with modern DNA techniques, if, for example, the di erence between the golden hamlet and the yellowbelly hamlet is merely a variation. Perhaps it’s a sub-species or a “color morph.” Researchers and divers o en find hamlets with mixed colors and pa!erns that they had not seen before.
During the three decades of writing and publishing five thick books about fish and identifying more than 200 new species, Poey continued to try to di erentiate the various hamlets. He made beautiful illustrations of them, too, even though he probably never personally observed them alive, swimming in their underwater habitat.
One thing Felipe Poey never discovered about hamlet fish was that they are among the few fish species
that act as both female and male—at the same time! Hamlet fish are loners, but when reproducing, they couple-up in the hours before sunset, swimming around each other in a tight tango swirl. As “simultaneous hermaphrodites,” they take turns releasing eggs into the water while the partner fish releases sperm. Sometimes a given
hamlet fish will even fertilize its own eggs. Imagine what Professor Poey would have thought of that!
For previous Animals in Sea History, visit www.seahistory.org or check out the book Ocean Bestiary: Meeting Marine Life from Abalone to Orca to Zooplankton, a revised collection of 19 years of this column!
Nine of the current 18 recognized hamlet species (clockwise from upper le ): bu er hamlet (Hypoplectrus unicolor), yellowtail hamlet (H. chlorurus), Veracruz hamlet (H. castroaguirrei), jarocho hamlet (H. atlahua), indigo hamlet (H. indigo), masked hamlet (H. providencianus), shy hamlet (H. gu avarius), barred hamlet (H. puella), and in the middle, the yellowbelly hamlet (H. aberrans)
For Sale! Schooner Fame and Its Salem-based Sailing Business Goes on the Market
In this issue, we turn the tables on Marlinspike contributor Capt. Michael Rutstein by grilling him about the sale of his own traditional sailing vessel, the schooner Fame, and its associated business running daysails out of Salem, Massachuse s. Fame was launched in 2003 by boatbuilder Harold Burnham in nearby Essex. WoodenBoat described the vessel as “particularly successful and authentic,” while the business has been named “Best of the Best” by TripAdvisor in 2023 and 2024, an award given to the top 1% of tour operators worldwide.
Sea History: You advertised Fame for sale this summer, with what I’m sure were mixed feelings. What prompted this move?
Capt. Mike Rutstein: We’ve had a great run—23 seasons now. Some people expressed surprise, given that the boat’s in great shape, the business is thriving, and our health is good. We just put $70K into repowering and rebuilding the engine room, so Fame is good to go for another 23 years! So why would we sell? While the vessel is good to keep going for a long time, we are not. We have a grandson now on the other coast, and my wife Melissa is ready for the next chapter. We acknowledge that it might take some time to ! nd Fame’ s next owners, so we wanted to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later.
SH: ere are always a few schooners on the market, but they are often boats that haven’t found their niche or have fallen into disrepair. It’s unusual to see a successful forpro!t schooner business hit the market.
MR: ere are more boats out there than there are good locations or savvy operators. A boat that can’t pay its bills is going to end up back on the market at some point. And a boat that has not been successful at making money is likely to have su ered from deferred maintenance. e schooner sailing business is also a very small market, and each boat is a unique asset. We’ve seen cases where some great boats with pro!table businesses ended up sitting on the market for several years because the right person didn’t happen along. ese things take time.
Schooner Fame
SH: Most people’s big purchases are cars and houses, and the market for both is well-established. A daysailing business on a traditionally rigged schooner doesn’t fall under your typical business model. How do you price a sailing company?
MR: e bottom line is: what does the boat earn? What does it cost to run, and, importantly, do you want this lifestyle? We listed the combined boat and business at $650,000. Fame —in Salem—has so much going for it—great story, great location, great track record. A $600,000 o er—up front—would be welcome; that’s 1.5 times revenues and three times pro!ts. If we’re being asked to accept installments, seller !nancing, which is not uncommon in our industry, then we hold out for asking price, most likely. We’ll ! nd out, I guess.
SH: What would you say are the most important elements in running a successful schooner business?
MR: Location is number one. You see itinerant boats trying to push their way into existing markets, and all they do is dilute pro!ts for the boats that are already there. We built Fame speci !cally for Salem, a port that had never had a schooner business, and worked for two decades to build it into a profitable location. Another element is the experience. e trend in tourism today is toward hands-on experiences, where people get to do and experience things outside their everyday lives. It’s not enough just to take people sailing. ey want to get involved in raising the sails, steering the boat, and tying knots— stu like that. We do that well aboard Fame. Engage with your passengers and they come away with a much more meaningful experience!
Storytelling is key when it comes to historic locations like Salem. We
Captain Mike Rutstein
PHOTO
have a compelling story to tell: Salem mariners were forced by necessity into privateering and ended up capturing the ! rst prizes of the War of 1812. It’s a real selling point.
e boat itself is obviously our best asset. A representation of a Chebacco !shing boat from 1810, Fame is unique in the schooner world. She’s attractive and interesting, but also solid, comfortable, and easy to maintain—all thanks to Harold Burnham and his design. Finally, you’ve got to maintain the boat in tip-top condition. We’ve been fortunate to have some handy and talented crew, not to mention our very own boat genie, Bernie Noon. Bernie helped build Fame 23 years ago and he’s still with us, constantly tweaking the rig, lubing the mast hoops, and so on. e boat looks amazing. You don’t have to be a sailor to walk on board and know right away that we really care.
SH: If I’m buying a sailing business, my questions are going to focus on the condition of the vessel and the future prospects of the business.
MR: Exactly. No matter what vessel and business you might be considering, get to know the boat and learn about the location in which it operates (or in which you want to operate). Do your homework. ere were things I didn’t understand about Salem when we made this commitment 23 years ago, and that held us back at ! rst. I didn’t understand the seasonality of it, for example. I thought we’d ! ll the boat starting May 1st each year, which turned out to be overly ambitious, but I also didn’t grasp how worthwhile the autumn months can be, when most other sailing vessels in New England are downrigging or heading south. Sailing businesses, like any business, ebb and $ow with the overall economy.
e important thing is to be in a market that’s moving forward. Salem has enjoyed—and continues to bene !t from—a healthy tourism industry that is still growing. As this issue goes to press, plans are underway to build a new Marriott hotel, and, right around the corner from our dock, a 35-acre parcel is being redeveloped. at’s what you want to see!
SH : So…that’s the plan for Fame What’s next for you?
MR: Hard to say, not knowing. It’s a great life, being a schooner captain. I’ll miss the sailing, the boat, the guests. We’ve got crew who have been with us ten, even twenty years. It’s tough to imagine another career in which I would have met such a wonderful group of people. Building Fame was one of the best decisions of my life.
(www.schoonerfame.com)
MAINE WINDJAMMER CRUISES
Model by Jack Bobbitt
e Orleans Historical Society (OHS) in Massachusetts is launching a campaign to build a permanent home for the historic 36-foot motor lifeboat CG36500 on its campus on Cape Cod. !e boat was made famous by its lead role in the dramatic rescue of 32 seamen from the stern half of the steam tanker SS Pendleton after she broke in two in a ferocious storm in February 1952. The 503-foot-long Pendleton was a T-2 vessel of 10,448 gross tons, built by Kaiser Shipyards in 1944 and owned by National Bulk Carriers, Inc. !e wooden, gasolinepowered rescue boat was built by the Coast Guard at its Curtis Bay, Maryland, yard in 1946 and was stationed in Chatham, Massachusetts, during her 22 years of active service. Decommissioned in 1968, the boat was originally donated to the Cape Cod National Seashore for a display at their
Coast Guard exhibit in Eastham, but a shortage of funds derailed the plan, and the CG36500 was left to deteriorate until the OHS intervened. !e vessel was eventually restored and has been serving as a fully operational oating museum dedicated to the memory of the lifesavers of Cape Cod. Despite
the boat’s restoration success story and the dedication of volunteers who have maintained her for the past 42 years, her stewards at the OHS have determined that it is time to provide the vessel with a home that will protect her from the elements. In the proposed facility, the public can visit her yearround, hear more about the story called “the greatest small boat rescue in Coast Guard history,” and learn about other dramatic rescues by the US Coast Guard and its predecessor organizations, celebrating 400 years of lifesaving traditions on outer Cape Cod. (www.orleanshistoricalsociety.org) … Visitors to the New York State Museum (NYSM) in Albany can view the reconstruction of a Revolutionary War-era gunboat through the end of the year, in an exhibition showcasing what NYS Historian Devin Lander called “history in its rawest, most thrilling form.” Continued Lander: “We’re not just unveiling a ship—we’re resurrecting a lost relic of the American Revolution, right before your eyes.” !e remains of the boat—about 600 pieces of wood with roughly 2,000 artifacts—were recovered in 2010 during an excavation at the site of the World Trade Center. Experts from the NYSM and the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation at Texas A&M University (CMAC) used forensic wood
PHOTO BY ANDY NEWMAN
Lifeboat CG36500
analysis and archival research to identify the vessel as a rare American-built gunboat, probably built around Philadelphia in the 1770s. After the war, the vessel was part of the land # ll that was used to expand New York City, ending up under the World Trade Center (construction for the Twin Towers started in 1966). !e recovered timbers underwent a 14-year preservation process at CMAC before returning to the NYSM, where the public can view the 50-foot-long vessel being reassembled. It will serve as the centerpiece of the museum’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary celebration of the United States in 2026. (New York State Museum Cultural Education Center, 222 Madison Avenue, Albany; www.nysm. nysed.gov) … e Texas Maritime Museum in Rockport has been awarded a $1.8 million grant from the State of Texas to support the museum’s ongoing revitalization efforts after the building was ooded and damaged during Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall in Texas and Louisiana in August 2017 !e grant will fund critical repairs and infrastructure improvements related to the storm, and it will also support the development of new exhibits. !e museum stresses that more funding is
World Trade Center gunboat excavation.
needed, however: “ ! is is a key milestone, but it’s not the # nish line,” said museum executive director Michael Ables “We’re calling on our supporters—individuals, businesses, and community partners—to help us build on this momentum and make the Texas Maritime Museum a true cultural anchor for the Gulf Coast.” (1202 Navigation Circle, Rockport; www.texasmaritimemuseum.org) … e 87year-old reboat Fire Fighter is looking for a new home. Charles Ritchie of the Fireboat Fire Fighter Museum (FFFM), the boat’s custodial organization, released a statement in late July
asking supporters to help spread the word that the boat would be departing Mystic Seaport Museum in May 2026 and that the group is actively seeking a new permanent location. Designed by William Francis Gibbs (designer of SS United States) and built by United Shipyards of Staten Island, Fire Fighter was launched on 26 August 1938. She served until 2010, when she was relieved by Fire Fighter II. During her 72-year career, she responded to such notable incidents as the #re and capsizing of SS Normandie in 1942, the # re aboard the munitions-laden cargo carrier El Estero in 1943, and the 9/11
Texas Maritime Museum in Rockport
Fire Fighter
terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. A National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the boat has been berthed at Mystic since 2021. FFFM is an all-volunteer, non-pro#t organization dedicated to preserving Fire Fighter as a fully operational vessel, memorial, and teaching museum. (www.americas#reboat.org) … Pennsylvania’s brig Niagara is in Bristol Marine’s Sample’s Shipyard in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, for a Commonwealth capital repair and re t project. Critical repairs are being made to ensure Niagara’s continued ability to serve as a training platform for mariners and an experiential learning opportunity for visitors. She made the 2,000-nautical-mile transit from her homeport in Erie, Pennsylvania, to Maine under the command of Erie native Capt. Greg Bailey. !e planned work includes repairing the ship’s stem
assembly; replacing framing, hull planking, waterway timbers, and compromised sections of gun ports, decking and bulwark planking; recaulking the deck; installing new engines, transmissions and generators; and making upgrades to the ship’s electrical system. !e Niagara “is a living symbol of
Explore the decks of the last Destroyer Escort afloat in America.
518-431-1943 ussslater.org
Pennsylvania’s role in American history and a crucial educational asset,” said Andrea Lowery, executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), which owns the ship. “ ! is essential shipyard period re ects PHMC’s investment in her future, ensuring she can continue to inspire future generations and proudly represent the Commonwealth during the America 250 celebrations in 2026, and for many years to come.” Niagara, a historically accurate reconstruction of the ship commanded by Oliver Hazard Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie, is an educational vessel and sailing ambassador for the state of Pennsylvania. (You can follow the ship’s yard period on the o$cial Facebook page “Erie Maritime Museum & US Brig Niagara” or via the Erie Maritime Museum’s website at: www.eriemaritimemuseum. org.) … With a ribbon-cutting ceremony on 12 June, the City of Pascagoula, Mississippi, celebrated a grand reopening of the Round Island Lighthouse Maritime Museum, which they describe as the “World’s Smallest Maritime Museum.” !e 40-foot lighthouse was built in 1859 on Round Island and was still in use until the brick structure was toppled in 1998 by Hurricane Georges. !e remnants of the original were removed
Brig Niagara
and installed at a new site in Pascagoula, at the east end of the Highway 90 bridge over the Pascagoula River. About two-thirds of the lighthouse’s bricks were salvaged to incorporate into its restoration, completed in 2015. !e grand reopening celebrated the e orts of the City of Pascagoula Department of Parks and Recreation in updating the space and adding new exhibits and displays. !e lighthouse is on the National Register of Historic Places. (Lighthouse Park: 815 Cypress Avenue, Pascagoula, MS; www.cityofpascagoula.com) … e National Museum of the Great Lakes held a grand opening of its new wing on 27 June, marking the completion of the museum’s Second Wave expansion project. “Our Second Wave expansion is the culmination of our renewed mission to preserve, share, and celebrate the past, present, and future of Great Lakes stories,” said Executive Director Kate Fineske. !e 5,000-square-foot Larry and Karen Bettcher Wing anchors new additions to existing galleries; the added space will enable the museum
to have dedicated areas for temporary exhibitions, as well as new permanent exhibit spaces and a community education center. Incorporated into the museum is the pilothouse of the Great Lakes steam-powered freighter St. Mary’s Challenger as part of the museum’s new permanent exhibit, Every Boat Tells Our Story. Originally
Great Lakes Freighter St. Mary’s Challenger
launched as the William P. Snyder on 17 February 1906 by the Shenango Furnace Company, the vessel changed names several times over her 100 years of service. !e St. Mary’s Challenger completed her # nal trip as a self-powered steamship in October 2013 and has since been converted into an articulated barge. !e pilothouse arrived
Sail Aboard the Liberty Ship
2025 Cruise Dates: September 13
On a cruise you can tour museum spaces, bridge, crew quarters, & much more. Visit the engine room to view the 140-ton tripleexpansion steam engine as it powers the ship though the water.
Reservations: 410-558-0164, or www.ssjohnwbrown.org
Last day to order tickets is 14 days before the cruise; conditions and penalties apply to cancellations.
Round Island Lighthouse
in Toledo in April 2015 on the foredeck of the Paul R. Tregurtha, destined for the museum once the new exhibit spaces were ready. !e National Museum of the Great Lakes also features the museum ship Col. James M. Schoonmaker and the tug Ohio. Its overseeing organization, the Great Lakes Historical Society, publishes the quarterly journal Inland Seas. (1701 Front St., Toledo, OH; www.nmgl.org) …
e Lake Michigan shipwreck site previously identi ed in the Wisconsin State and National Registers of Historic Places as the Christina Nilsson was con rmed to be the Joseph Cochrane, thanks to scholarship and information that has come to light since the earlier designation in 2003, including an insurance claim form for the loss of the Nilsson, in which the insurance clerk noted a di $erent
Remains of the Schooner Joseph Cochrane
location than that of the previously identi ed site. A nearby shipwreck site is believed to be the actual location of the Christina Nilsson; the announcement was made by the Wisconsin Historical Society in May. !e schooner Joseph Cochrane was launched in 1856 and carried bulk cargo and general merchandise. She sprang a leak and grounded on the east side of Baileys Harbor on a lumber run on 29 October 1870; the ship was abandoned three days later after e orts to save her proved fruitless. In June, the Wisconsin Historical Society also announced the designation of the wreck site of the schooner Margaret Muir, built in 1872 by master builder Hans Scove in Manitowoc, WI, to the National Register. !e bulk-cargo carrier sank in a storm in Lake Michigan near Algoma in 1893; her crew survived the incident. Declared a navigational hazard the following year, the wreck was dynamited to atten it. (Division of Library, Archives and Museum Collections, 816 State Street, Madison, WI; www.wisconsinhistory.org) … In July, the squarerigged replica vessel Friendship of Salem returned to her berth at Derby Wharf after undergoing repairs this past winter at Gloucester Marine Railway in Gloucester, Massachusetts. ! is major repair e ort began in 2022, while the ship was still at her berth at the Salem Maritime National Historical Site (SMNHS), and included replacing the deck and signi #cant
portions of the transom, bulwarks, and associated framing. In November 2024, she was towed to Gloucester for critical structural repairs to the bow. !e ship is currently open to public visitation, and work on the masts and rigging will be carried out as preparations are being made for the upcoming events celebrating the nation’s bicentennial and the quadricentennial of the founding of the town of Salem by European settlers. Friendship is designed to represent an original 1797 Salem-built vessel to honor New England’s in uential role in the development of global and domestic maritime trade and in the economic and political development of the United States. !e original Friendship of Salem was a two-decked, threemasted East Indiaman, built at Stage Point shipyard in Salem by Enos Briggs. Launched in May 1797, the original made fifteen voyages to countries
around the world, including China, Indonesia, India, Venezuela, Spain, and Russia, carrying goods such as pepper, silk, sugar, co ee, ale, sherry, tin, salt, cheese, and candles. !e ship was captured in 1812 and subsequently sold at
Devoted to stories about engine-powered vessels, their crews, and their passengers, and published quarterly by SSHSA for more than 80 years.
• 88 pages • Full color
Email info@sshsa.org or call 1-401-463-3570 and we’ll send you a FREE copy and tell you how to subscribe.
STEAM
auction in London in 1813. !e replica vessel was launched in 1998, built by Scarano Boat Building of Albany, New York. She serves primarily as a dockside vessel. (160 Derby Street, Salem, MA; www.nps.gov/sama) …
Friendship of Salem
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MULTINATIONAL COLLECTION 1030+ SHIPS POSTCARDS. US Lines: SS America & United States; American Export Lines: SS Constitution & Independence; President Lines; Grace Lines; French; Italian; German, etc. Many historical ships: Titanic; Olympic; Cap Arcona (9 di cards), a Nazi German ship converted to prison ship in WWII, sunk by the Brits with 6,000 lost; Andrea Doria (2+ cards); Lusitania (Cunard Lines), torpedoed 1915 (actual photo); Wilhelm Gustlo (steamship named after a Gestapo chief, who was assassinated at time of ship’s naming). Being sold as collection: only $7k (neg.). Ph. 917 287-8339 or email: Chrysedawn@gmail.com.
CALLING ALL DESCENDANTS OF WHALING MASTERS!!
!e Descendants of Whaling Masters are committed to preserving this important legacy so that the fascinating story of whaling will not be lost to future generations. Join us www. whalingmasters.org.
TUGBOATS AND SHIPYARDS: THE RUSSELLS OF NEW YORK HARBOR, 1844–1962, winner of the Steamship Historical Society’s 2020 C. Bradford Mitchell Award. Hilary Russell recounts the full lives and remarkable accomplishments of the three generations of watermen and the often beautiful, sometimes original, evolving forms of the craft that objecti #ed the family’s work. $31—order through AbeBooks, PayPal, or mail a check to: Berkshire Boat Building School, PO Box 578, She$eld, MA 01257.
PIRATE PLAYING CARDS by Signature ASMA Artist, Don Maitz, National Geographic contributor and originator of the Captain Morgan Spiced Rum character. Full-color playing cards have di erent watercolor images on each face. Prints present searover adventurers. Order from: www.paravia.com/DonMaitz.
On 15 July 2025, former crew of the world-voyaging brigantine Romance gathered in New Bedford to meet with documentary lmmaker Matt Zacharias for interviews and a minireunion. Zacharias has been working on a documentary about the ship and her long-time owners, the late Captain Arthur Kimberly and Gloria Kimberly. !e project started several years ago
Romance crew (l–r) Paul Nosworthy, Pat Nelson, Steve Hyman, Phil Lloyd, and Brian Donnelly; videographer Ma Wilken, and (kneeling) filmmaker Ma Zacharias.
FOR SALE—SIX ORIGINAL STATION BILLS FROM SS UNITED STATES, Signed by Captains L. J. Alexanderson & J. Anderson. Station Bills for every department and crewmember: Fire & Emergency Signal Bells, Man overboard, Abandon Ship, etc. Each document framed in red, matted in white with blue trim, protected by museum conservation glass. Framed size 30.5” x 29”. $12,000 for collection. Ph. 917 287-8339 or email chrysedawn@gmail.com.
NATIONAL PARKS PLAYING CARDS Many of America’s National Parks are represented on these cards with interesting facts and images. www.ArcturusLLC.net
83-YEAR-OLD SHIPS’ BAKER SELLS PERSONAL COLLECTION OF 400 SHIP MENUS FROM THE 1900s AND ON: France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Holland, the US, etc. Century of Continental Cuisine & Fine Dining on the High Seas! $6,000 Ph: 917 287-8339 or email chrysedawn@gmail.com.
THE COMPLETE GALLEY GUIDE—NOTES OF A TALL SHIP SEA CHEF Christopher Hunter shares 30 years of experience and perspectives from the galleys in six tall ships. It is a treasure trove of tips, stories, examples, and lessons learned for aspiring or experienced sea cooks and anyone seeking insight into the world of traditional sailing ships. Available on Amazon.
CUSTOM SHIP MODELS, HALF HULLS Free Catalog. Spencer White, 4223 Chestnut Dr., Center Valley, PA 18034.
and was originally being produced for PBS in Detroit before the station folded (Mrs. Kimberly hailed from Detroit). Since then, Zacharias has been working to keep the production going on his own. Romance was built in Denmark but made her Hollywood debut as the ship that carried Julie Andrews and Max von Sydow to Hawaii in the epic MGM movie Hawaii . When MGM was done with the # lm—and thus with the ship, as well—they sold the ship to the Kimberlys, who made her their home and livelihood for the next 23 years. Having been mate and master of the world-voyaging Yankee
with paying trainees for crew, Captain Kimberly carried on that tradition aboard Romance, in which they did two circumnavigations and many years of voyaging. Arthur Kimberly is credited with inspiring, training, and nurturing the next two generations of tall ship mariners, many of whom pursued lifelong maritime careers. “Although I hadn’t seen some of my shipmates in 30 or 40 years, it felt like only weeks had passed. It was such a pleasure to see them and meet others whose names I only knew from legend. We had a great time, imbibed some strong spirits, and swapped a story or two, some
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FINE ART PRINTS OF SEA ROVERS ! BUCCANEERS by award-winning ASMA Signature artist Don Maitz. Visit: www. paravia.com/DonMaitz.
THE AUTHORITY TO SAIL by Commodore Robert Stanley Bates. !e fully illustrated authoritative history of US Merchant Marine licenses and documents issued since 1852. Co ee-table size book, 12” x 14.” Order direct: !e Parcel Centre, Ph. 860 739-2492; www.theauthoritytosail.com.
CIVIL WAR NAVY — The Magazine, the only Civil War magazine dedicated to the naval history of the con ict, published quarterly, 72-page issues. Subscribe at civilwarnavy.com or mail check for $37.95 to CSA Media, 29 Edenham Court, Brunswick, GA 31523. International subscriptions digital only.
CHESAPEAKE BAY ODYSSEY by Captain Michael J. Dodd explores 23 cities and towns. Dodd suggests historical sights to see and describes entrances to ports with tantalizing facts. Who knew there was a German U-boat at the bottom of the Potomac River? Did you know Francis Scott Key wrote the Star-Spangled Banner while he was a temporary captive on a British ship? Available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others.
THE LOST HERO OF CAPE COD by Vincent Miles. !e story of an elite mariner, Captain Asa Eldridge, and the nineteenthcentury battle for commercial supremacy on the Atlantic. Reviews, availability, at www.vjmiles.com/losthero and Amazon. com.
SUICIDE RUN TO ARCHANGEL by Captain Michael J. Dodd. A World War II novel based on the true story of how Deck Cadet Jack Dodd, with no combat experience, is caught up in a shocking new reality, as bullets y, shells crack, and torpedoes streak through the sea as his Liberty Ship is attacked by German U-boats and bombers. Available through Amazon, Hellgate Press, Barnes & Noble, and others.
122 YEARS ON THE OLD BAY LINE by Jack Shaum is the winner of the Maryland Center for History and Culture’s 2023 M. V. Brewington Prize for maritime writing about Chesapeake Bay. It is the history of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company, better known as the Old Bay Line, perhaps the most famous steamboat line on Chesapeake Bay. !e book features many outstanding photographs by noted photojournalist Hans Marx, most of which have not been published before. Softback, 160 pages, $25.99. Available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and others.
PRESIDENTS PLAYING CARDS All 47 US presidents are represented on these playing cards with interesting facts and quotes. www.presidentsplayingcards.com.
LAST VOYAGE OF THE POINT DEFIANCE , a novel Marty Elder. !e story of three young sailors coming of age during the Second World War—sailors who crewed the engine room— crewed the Black Gang—of an ocean-going tug. War changes people for those fortunate enough to survive it. Many who served in the US Merchant Marine during the war did not. Available on Amazon.
Advertise in Sea History! Contact Wendy Paggiotta at advertising@seahistory.org.
PHOTO BY GLORIA
of them allegedly truthful,” said Steve Hymen, a Romance “Marinero” and an NMHS advisor. Romance-related news and information about the documentary are posted on the “Brigantine Romance” Facebook page. … In July, the Battleship Texas Foundation and the Galveston Wharves Board nalized an agreement establishing Pier 15 as the new home of USS Texas (BB-35). !e historic battleship is currently pierside across the channel at the Gulf Copper shipyard, where restoration work continues. !e ship is expected to settle into her new berth sometime next year. In the meantime, the Foundation is working on logistics and plans for the veteran of both world wars to occupy her new space, including the # nal engineering of the mooring system, securing all the necessary permits, dredging the berth at Pier 15, # nalizing the plans for the shoreside facilities, and installing the moorings and other infrastructure. Pier 15 is
Ba leship Texas in Galveston
located between Galveston’s cruise ship terminals and is about a 10-minute walk to the historic Strand District. (One Riverway, Suite 2200 Houston, TX; www.battleshiptexas.org. You can read about the history of the ship and the restoration project in the Spring 2025 issue of Sea History, #190.)
New England’s last surviving one-man wooden dragger, the 1929
Little Lady, has completed her nal voyage as a working shing vessel and will live on as an educational platform for the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust (MVFPT). After owners Denny Jason Jr. and Bruce Gray took her out one last time in May, she was moved to Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway in Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, for
October 2
Launching Liberty: e Epic Race to Build the
November 6
December 4
much-needed repairs. It is anticipated that the restoration will take multiple years; the list of repairs includes new frames, planks, deck, wheelhouse, and rigging, and a rebuild of the motor and hydraulic winch system. !e process will be documented by # lmmaker Ollie Becker of Circuit Arts. !e MVFPT is fundraising to cover the cost of the project, estimating a $1,500,000 price tag for the repair work, plus $500,000 to create an endowment to cover her maintenance going forward. Once restored, Little Lady will be used for educational and cultural community programs under the MVFPT’s stewardship; Capt. Jason also intends to use the boat to harvest seafood for local food insecurity organizations. “By embarking on the journey to restore the Little Lady, we embark on a mission to safeguard not just a vessel, but a piece of living history,” says the MVFPT’s appeal for the vessel. “We call upon the collective support of the community, recognizing that the preservation of our maritime heritage is a responsibility we all share. Together, let us ensure that the Little Lady remains a part of our landscape—a symbol of resilience, tradition, and connection to the sea for generations to come.” (MVFPT, PO Box 96, Menemsha, MA 02552; info@mvfpt.org) ... In August, the towering funnels of the recordbreaking ocean liner SS United States
were removed at a shipyard in Mobile, Alabama. Soaring six stories high, the massive structures will serve as the dramatic centerpiece of the future SS United States Museum. Back in the shipyard, work is ongoing as the ship is being prepared for deployment as the world’s largest arti #cial reef o the coast of Florida’s Destin-Fort Walton Beach. !e SS United States Conservancy, which owned the ship until its sale to Okaloosa County, Florida, last year, has engaged ! inc Design, a museum and exhibit design # rm, to initiate the museum planning and development process. ! inc is internationally recognized for creating powerful, story-driven environments that merge physical artifacts with immersive media and theatrical e ects. Its acclaimed
projects include the National September 11 Memorial Museum; the Empire State Building Observatory; Robert Ballard’s Challenge of the Deep exhibit hall about RMS Titanic exploration; and aquariums in Seattle, Miami, and San Francisco, including the new Ocean Pavilion on Seattle’s waterfront. Gibbs & Cox, the # rm that designed the SS United States and now a subsidiary of Leidos, is lending technical input as well, to bring the ship to life for new generations of visitors. (Further information about the preparations being made for turning SS United States into an arti #cial reef is available at www.myokaloosa.com/SSUSFAQs. For information on the history of the ship and plans for the shoreside museum, visit www.ssusc.org)
(above) The funnel from SS United States being removed from the ship. (below) Concept drawing of the future SS United States Museum.
Fishing dragger Li le Lady
New from Sea History Press!
Sea History Press, a division of the National Maritime Historical Society, is honored to announce its newest release from internationally recognized author and scholar and NMHS overseer Rear Admiral Joseph F. Callo, US Navy (Ret.).
Harbor of the Mind: A Sailor’s Memoir is a self-portrait created in poems, vignettes, and quiet musings. In this remarkable work of poetic memoir, Admiral Callo recalls his voyage through relationships, ports of call, and days adrift. His life has been a journey across many seas and shores, observing the world and the people around him.
Admiral Callo was awarded Naval History magazine’s Author of the Year award, for his frst memoir, The Sea Was Always There (Fireship Press, 2012). His previous books include: John Paul Jones: America’s First Sea Warrior (2006), Nelson in the Caribbean: The Hero Emerges, 1784–1787 (2002), Nelson Speaks: Admiral Lord Nelson in His Own Words (2001), and Who’s Who in Naval History, From 1550 to the Present with Alistair Wilson (2004).
TO ORDER: Harbor of the Mind is $21.95, plus shipping, available through NMHS at www.seahistory.org/shop; by calling 914-737-7878, ext 0; or by scanning the QR code.
Codename NEMO: e Hunt for a Nazi U-Boat and the Elusive Enigma Machine by Charles Lachman (Diversion Books, New York, 2025, 326pp, ISBN 979-8-895-15031-3; $22.50pb)
e World War II Battle of the Atlantic produced countless stories of destruction, death, and survival, but only one of a ship-to-ship battle that led to the rst boarding and capture of an enemy warship by the US Navy since the War of 1812. e man behind the capture, US Navy o cer Daniel V. Gallery, and several others have documented that action. Codename Nemo: e Hunt for a Nazi U-Boat and the Elusive Enigma Machine, by Charles Lachman, is the latest expression of those June 1944 exploits. e tale has been told and retold many times and will likely continue, because it is a compelling story and has a living component: the captured U-boat is on display at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
Gallery’s Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea: e Daring Capture of the U-505 is the authoritative and compelling exposition of that naval adventure, written by the man who engineered the a $air and who understood the risks and the responsibility he would bear should the caper end in disaster. Lachman’s Codename NEMO, published eighty years after the event by an author not yet born at the time of the incident, presents the saga from both sides of the war and o$ers insights into Gallery that are not found in Gallery’s interpretation. Lachman turns a crisp war story into a human-interest chronicle with details of life aboard both the U-505 and USS Guadalcanal (Gallery’s command, an escort carrier). While privation was the order of the day on both vessels, and life aboard the small, mass-produced carrier was certainly uncomfortable, conditions aboard the U-boat were genuinely
miserable. Moreover, Lachman does not neglect the privation and death imposed on those thrown into the ocean by U-505’ s torpedoes.
In Codename NEMO, the players in nautical combat are not statistics but men, human beings with lives be-
fore the war and expectations for those lives after the war, expectations all too often sent to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Lachman constructs his narrative around the key players in the U-boat capture: Gallery and the men who followed his orders to board and secure the enemy vessel, and the German seamen who stood between the Americans and the capture of their boat. Gallery’s participation extended beyond sending others to do the dirty work; he, too, entered the captured U-505, sharing the inherent danger with his crew. Lachman provides sketches of his characters before, during, and years after their adventure.
An author who rewrites an adventure that has been thoroughly depicted must o$er new material presented in a gripping narrative that can both attract a new audience and those who have already read what has been published to date. Charles Lachman has succeeded in doing just that. Operation
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Nemo is indeed recommended to those new to the adventure and those who know it well.
Da&i( O. W)itte,, P )D Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina
Intertidal Shipwrecks: Management of Historic Resources in an Unmanageable Environment edited by Jennifer E. Jones, Calvin H. Mires, and Daniel Zwick (University of Florida Press, Gainesville, 2025, 392pp, ISBN 978-0-81307-932-5; $95hc)
e title of Neil Young’s album, Rust Never Sleeps, is akin to the statement that coastal erosion never stops. Although it may not be stimulating to watch rust propagate, coastal erosion is a much more dynamic process that has signi cant consequences for material culture located in the littoral zone. And coastal erosion is a common, if not unifying, theme in most submissions in the edited volume Intertidal Shipwrecks, which examines management practices of an ever-deteriorating cultural resource. e editors zero in on sixteen contributions to feature the active and sometimes futile e$orts to manage sites in this dynamic zone, making this volume a worthy addition to the growing literature of maritime archaeology management practices. e geographic range of the contributions is global, but not comprehensive. Almost half the submissions come from the United States, the British Isles, Australia, and New Zealand. Germany, Spain, Italy, and Argentine Patagonia round out the rest. ere are no submissions from Africa or Asia. A broad spectrum of issues is covered: some submissions are historiographical, others concentrate on nuts-and-bolts archaeology, while others tackle legalistic and technological themes. With such disparate environments and nations considered, and the states within those nations, there is no singular approach to managing shipwreck
The story of three young sailors coming of age during the Second World War — sailors who crewed the engine room of an ocean-going tug. War changes people for those fortunate enough to survive it. Many who served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during the war did not.
remains on the beach. e patchwork of laws, jurisdictions, and boundaries reveals the unique situation that the sudden exposure of an intertidal wreck can present. National, regional, and local resources—or lack thereof—are presented and discussed. In most cases, there is a lack of dedicated resources for the active management of these ephemeral properties, many of which are exposed after storm events. Instead, citizen scientists, avocational archaeologists, and other interested parties are relied upon to assist in managing and protecting these resources.
e resource that is the focus of this book, mostly wooden shipwrecks, is under constant threat. e threat of sea-level rise—a process that has been going on since the end of the last ice age—appears to be a contributing factor. Tides, currents, and storms are other natural phenomena that appear to be the most immediate threats, but human activity, such as vandalism or looting by curious collectors, is also called out in many chapters. Looting is not usually nefarious in its intent; it is often due to the public’s lack of knowledge of the laws, interest in historical artifacts, or other cultural factors. Managing this resource may be both a literal and gurative ght against the tides.
e average reader interested in maritime history and shipwrecks might not nd reading about the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage particularly enthralling, nor the numerous national and state/regional laws and regulations that are the motivation for much of this work. Orientation of wreck sites and descriptions based on measurements of remaining ceiling, frames, futtocks, keelson, and planking may resonate with a specialist but not gain much traction with a broader audience. Additionally, the book’s illustrations (maps, images, and photographs) are
black-and-white, helpful to illustrate a given topic, but some could be scaled up or use larger text for ease of reading. e audience for this volume is small—professional archaeologists and cultural resource managers—but it also has utility at the university level to expose future archaeologists to the myriad laws, jurisdictions, and complexities they will encounter as cultural resource managers. Intertidal Shipwrecks is an important contribution to the eld of underwater archaeology. ere are many interesting stories regarding ships and their remains within them that might appeal to the casual reader, but, like shipwrecks in the intertidal zone, they will have to be uncovered, or this volume may be as appealing as watching rust.
M i-)ae. C. T/tt.e, P )D Pensacola, Florida
Poseidon’s Progress: e Quest to Improve Life at Sea by Iver P. Cooper (McFarland & Co. Inc., Je$erson, NC; 2024, 257pp, ISBN 978-1-4766-94467; $49.95pb)
is was a di cult book to review, as its intended audience changes from section to section. Deeply researched by a knowledgeable author (a retired patent lawyer), the topics range far and wide and essentially cover the ceaseless quest since the mid-16th century to make life at sea both safer and more pleasant.
In 226 pages (plus 23 pages of references with many irritatingly inserted into the text as though in a research paper), a reader will learn about subjects as diverse as air quality on wooden ships, watchkeeping, ballasting, life buoys, illumination 0ares, health hazards, the evolution of the hammock, water and toilet paper provisioning, food, and res at sea. As Mr. Cooper puts it, “A ship is not just a mode of transport—it is a life support system.” As such, there is much to absorb.
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maritme services.
Chapters are formatted around a central theme, such as “Seeing and Being Seen in the Dark,” followed by sub-themes, such as the development of arti cial light, compass lighting, and the impact of electricity on lighting.
e book focuses on the American and British warship experience, but there are references to Dutch, French, Chinese, and Japanese developments too, as well as improvements in the global merchant marine, where resistance to change often was stronger because of the cost of upgrading systems, gear, and construction components.
Readers’ reaction to this book will depend, most likely, on the extent of their own maritime experience—or lack thereof. e text is certainly chock-full of the unexpected. For example, as recently as 50 years ago, deaths from asphyxia at sea were not uncommon.
e US Coast Guard recorded 32 such deaths in the 1970s—all took place in the unventilated holds of vessels in
waters.
to infest wooden vessels, even while still under construction. According to the US Treasury, in 1910, one such grain-carrying ship yielded 1,700 rats upon inspection after launch. Rats, in fact, merit eleven pages in the book,
“A standout, one-of-a-kind work on the fascinating story of Great Lakes maritime expansion from the very first lake traders to today’s vast diversity of world commerce on the Great Lakes.” Matthew Weisman, member of the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History
Transatlantic Train
The Untold Story of the Boston Merchant Who Launched Donald McKay to Fame
by Vincent J. Miles
Donald McKay
“An impressive feat of historical research that illuminates the life of an unjustly neglected historical fgure.” Kirkus Reviews and more information at vjmiles.com. Available at Amazon.com, etc.
including a particularly vivid illustration of a rat guard in action. No contemporary rat statistics are cited, but it appears that the battle against rats at sea was progressively won in the 20th century.
Science and technological advancements, along with social reformers in many countries working to change the law, have made a huge impact on reducing the hardships and dangers connected with life at sea. But as this book underlines most cogently, a reduction does not mean eradication, and hardships at sea remain considerable and should never be underestimated.
R12i, K ,i3)t London, England
Ready to Dive—Five Decades of Adventure in the Abyss by Curt Newport (Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, Indiana, 2024, 302pp, ISBN 9781-61249-966-6; $29.99hc)
Ready to Dive is both an autobiographical account of Curt Newport’s extraordinary life, and a memoir of his 22-year career that included some of the most memorable deep-ocean searches of our time. Newport pulls no punches when he re0ects on both his personal experience working in the eld of underwater exploration and on the profession itself.
He recalls his unsettled early life and how reading a booklet his father had given him, Underseas Vehicles for Oceanography, red his imagination, stuck with him over the years, and eventually led him to the eld that would become his career. When he entered the commercial diving business in 1974 at the age of 26, he knew little about it, nor could he predict how fortunate he was to enter the eld in that era. It was a time when technology and creativity were advancing rapidly in both manned and unmanned ocean exploration. He was there, early on, learning in the o$ shore oil elds
warm
Another tidbit: Rats used
is the most thorough and complete work covering the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. If you want to know everything about this tragedy, then you need to read this book.”
Toby Marcovich, attorney for the families of Michael Armagost, Ransom Cundy, and Freddie Beecher, crew members lost with the Edmund Fitzgerald
and experimenting with early underwater vehicles and equipment in the North Sea and elsewhere around the world. Many of the conditions under which he worked could only be described as challenging, exhausting, and at times hazardous to one’s health. Many colleagues left the eld in due time as a result.
Newport talks about the steep price he paid to persist so long in his chosen occupation and dispels any sense of glamour about living aboard ships at sea for extended periods. Still, by sticking with it, he went from neophyte to one of the most experienced engineers and underwater searchers of the deep ocean in our time. He was largely selftaught and sought to learn everything he could from those he worked with. What he shares about himself provides insight into how and why he approached his work the way he did.
e most fascinating parts of the book are when the author recounts some of his most notable search and recovery experiences: Air India Flight 182, Challenger Space Shuttle, TWA Flight 800, the Liberty Bell Space Capsule, USS Indianapolis, Air France Flight 447, and others. Fortunately, Newport proved an excellent record keeper, which
later enabled him to recall these expeditions with the most acute detail. Readers will learn rst-hand about the smallest details of launching, recovering, and operating remotely operated vehicles and submersibles, along with the many things that can often go wrong, and how jury-rigged repairs and recalibrating equipment on the spot frequently solve the problem at hand. It is almost a law of nature that nothing ever works smoothly on these expeditions, and experienced hands like Newport too often nd themselves xing things on rolling decks at night and in bad weather. I have had some experience in these matters, although nothing compared to Newport’s, and can attest that his tales ring true. I am not aware of other narratives that reveal so much about how it is on the deck and in the control room, and Curt Newport describes it all from where he sits. It’s worth your time even to just read those stories.
Newport concludes his memoir by re0ecting on why he stayed with it for so many years and o$ers, “because that is where the action was with respect to underwater vehicles.” Having read the book, I suspect the reasons may be more complicated. I imagine that in another era, Curt Newport would have accompanied Magellan or other early explorers into the unknown. Ready to Dive is an excellent read for veterans of deep-ocean exploration, those new to the eld, and anyone interested in adventure on the high seas.
Da,ie. Ba4ta
Silver Spring, Maryland
e Admiral’s Bookshelf by Adm. James G. Stavridis, USN (Ret.) (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 2025, 211pp, ISBN 978-1-68247-254-5, $26.95hc) is is the third, and arguably the best, of the trio of compelling journeys through the favorite books of the companionable James Stavridis. e author
faced a lot of di culty deciding which twenty- ve titles to choose out of so many, but his nal selections are as superb as they are varied, and he gives us brilliant insights into compelling works of literature. is book will appeal to armchair sailors who have a broad knowledge of naval history and strategy. At the same time, it will enchant those seeking advice as to what makes for compelling reading with a didactic purpose.
e admiral’s intended audience is the sea services, but the scope of this book reaches far beyond a tutorial on what military personnel ought to read. In this delightful and, at times, mesmerizing book, readers are introduced to authors and titles from around the world and across centuries, each selection annotated with personal wisdom and guidance from the admiral. Every work he selected has its own meaning to him—and hopefully to others—from situational analysis to decisions made within the moment, drawing the readers into the situation at hand to consider how they might have responded. Stavridis introduces us to works he nds relevant to up-and-coming professional mariners and leaders, but
they are not all maritime or naval themed. Titles range from Ernest Hemingway’s e Old Man and the Sea and John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces to Mario Puzo’s e Godfather and Strunk and White’s e Elements of Style, with each selection representing a theme. Here are three examples: Homer’s e Odyssey is “Be Patient,” Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 is “Know the Borders,” and Toni Morison’s Beloved is “Deal with Loss.”
Stavridis had a pedagogical intent, and in his introductions, synopses, and analyses, he succeeds in capturing the moment, developing the characters, providing insights, and educating his readers—a remarkable achievement.
He has his favorites, of course, and discloses them. Perhaps the most enlightening analysis comes with Barbara Tuchman’s Guns of August, a book praised for its study of detailed war planning by the major powers. “ e
Looking for Vessel Information?
Here is a database containing almost 150,000 vessels, with many fields of information. This list is compiled from numerous annuals, Custom House records, books and newspapers. Contains American and foreign, commercial, pleasure, sail, power, warships, unrigged and undocumented vessels. Constantly updating and adding more information.
internationalmaritimelibrary.org
See also the Shipwreck Index with Chronological listing.
A Story of the Opera House Cup Race of Nantucket
Photographs by Anne T. Converse Text by Carolyn M. Ford
Live vicariously through the pictures and tales of classic wooden yacht owners who lovingly restore and race these gems of the sea.
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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.
impetus of existing plans is always stronger than the impulse to change,” he remarks.
e Admiral’s Bookshelf is a book to keep close to hand, delve into periodically, and come away wiser and seeking to tuck into the admiral’s library. It is a triumph of the human spirit, energetically portrayed by a brilliant mind, leader, and teacher.
Ba556 G1/3) Victoria, British Columbia
e Stowaway in First Class: A True Story of an Unforgettable Quest to Come to America by Anthony DeSantis (Flagship Press, North Andover, MA, 2025, 160pp, 979-8-99151-102-5; $26.50hc)
We have all heard the term stowaway, but perhaps through time, we have lost touch with its impact. When we hear that someone was a stowaway, it is often a precursor to a greater story. But by glossing over the experience of the stowaway, are we leaving out the best part?
For Gaetano “Guy” DeSantis, the protagonist in this fascinating tale, being a stowaway was de nitely not the favorite part of his American journey, but it was an experience he never forgot. His saga resonated with his son so strongly that, when he nally had the time after he retired, he set out to record and share the remarkable account of his father’s emigration, a story he’d heard about his whole life. Guy DeSantis’s journey is a personal story, but one that includes universal themes concerning place, moments in time, hopes, dreams, and heart-wrenching decisions about loved ones left behind.
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Imagine that you’re an Italian laborer in France, separated from home, a place where the future looks as bleak as your present situation, when a stranger approaches and tells you that your cousin in America is calling for you and has arranged your passage to join
Anne T. Converse Photography
Neith, 1996, Cover photograph Wood, Wind and Water
him. e stranger has all the pertinent details—your cousin’s hometown in America, the business he runs, etc. He also has an American passport in his hand for you to use and tells you that the ship to take you there, SS Paris, leaves tonight and you must be on it. Do you go?
Guy DeSantis did and found himself living clandestinely, if comfortably, on the ship for a week before landing in New York. Well-fed and ready to meet his cousin at the end of the gangway, he is suddenly faced with the terrible realization that his cousin has no idea that he is in America. Worse yet, the stowaway is now in the hands of gangsters.
I NTER NAT IONAL JOU R NA L OF NAVA L
HIS TORY
March 2025: Volume 18, Issue 1
CONTENTS
• From the Quarterdeck
ARTICLES
• Howard J. Fuller, ‘The whole history of this ill-fated vessel’— HMS Captain, the American Civil War, and the Mid-Victorian Struggle for Naval Superiority
• Stephen McLaughlin, Navigating Uncharted Waters: The Russian Naval General Staf, 1906–1914
• Anselm J. van der Peet, Punching above its weight: The Royal Netherlands Navy within Allied Command Atlantic 1952 - mid 1970s
BOOK REVIEWS
• Michael Verney. A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic by Chuck Steele
• John Fass Morton. Sea Power and the American Interest: From the Civil War to the Great War by Joseph Moretz
• Nicholas A. Lambert. The Neptune Factor: Alfred Thayer Mahan and the Concept of $ea Power by R. James Orr
• Brian Lavery. Two Navies Divided: The British and United States Navies in the Second World War by Joseph Moretz
• Evan Mawdsley. Supremacy at Sea: Task Force 58 and the Central Pacifc Victory by Corbin Williamson
• Martin Stansfeld. Japanese Carriers and Victory in the Pacifc: The Yamamoto Option by John M. Jennings
For Permanent Sponsorship inquiries contact: IJNH@seahistory.org
e story takes us along Guy’s emotional path, swerving, soaring, and crashing from minute to minute. He experiences confusion, fear, and jubilation, followed by more fear and ultimately hope. It’s a story of triumph after taking a major gamble, bracketed by a tale of romance. We also get a glimpse inside SS Paris and into the dirty underbelly of the practice of illegally transporting immigrants to the United States in the late 1920s. J1), G a../771 Hanover, Massachusetts Visit ijnh.seahistory.org for the latest edition of the International Journal of Naval History, now hosted by the National Maritime Historical Society.
NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The National Maritime Historical Society is grateful to the following individuals and institutions who have so generously supported our work. We are also grateful to our many anonymous donors.
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e National Maritime Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) nonpro t organization founded in 1963 whose mission is to preserve maritime history, promote the maritime heritage community, and invite all to share in the adventures of seafaring.
