Date post: | 09-Mar-2016 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | 1877-iron-barque-elissa |
View: | 223 times |
Download: | 0 times |
ELISSA Log
Texas Seaport Museum / Galveston Historica l Foundation
TSM/GHF
Calendar of Events
September
7: Girl Scout Overnight and
Overnight Training at 5pm
14: Boy Scout Overnight
14: Seamanship Class 5
21: Girl Scout Overnight
27: Girl Scout Overnight
28: Seamanship Class 6
October
4: Girl Scout Overnight
5: Seamanship Class 7
5: Volunteer Appreciation
Party
CALL FOR ARTICLES!
We need you – yes, you! – to
write articles or stories for the
Log! If you have an article or a
story in you that you'd like to
share, please send it our way.
Here are some ideas....
Articles about nautical or
maritime books or events
Articles providing historical
ship-related info that might be of
interest to Log readers
Articles on what it’s like to be
an ELISSA volunteer crew
member – sail training, why
you volunteered, etc.
Reports on events that have
happened around ELISSA....
Please email your ideas to [email protected]
Thanks!
We are still looking for people to sign up to help
prep the ELISSA in the event of a hurricane.
Please contact me with you phone number and
address if you are interested.
Sail training is in full swing and we’re hum-
ming along here at the waterfront. We had an
influx of sail trainees with the addition of the
Aggie students from Tom Oertling’s class this
past Saturday. This brings the roster to 120
people if everyone shows up at the same
time! The A&M class happens here on the Tex-
as Seaport Museum on Fridays from 0900 to
1245. Tom has graciously extended an open
invitation to anyone that wants to audit the
class to come on down and participate.
The deck is almost all laid and soon the ship-
wrights will move into full swing of caulking
and pitching the main deck.
We will also be integrating some A&M mari-
time academy cadets in to our maintenance
schedule. A total of 50 students will be filling
part of their class requirements right here on
the Elissa!
Coming highlights:
Next sail training day is September 14th and
AUGUST 2006
we will be setting and dousing headsails.
This is the first step in the real practical
hands on line handling skills. We will be
handling sails in some form or another
every sail training from this day on. The
following class on the 28th we will be cer-
tifying climbers and getting people into
the rigging. These are important classes
so please make them if you can.
Locker Clean Out:
The date is set. At the days end on the
14th of September please have all of your
items either in your locker or out of the
locker room. We will be removing all the
leftover items that week and cleaning out
the Locker room. The following sail train-
ing day we will have all the items we re-
moved available to review before they
disappear. We will do our best to make
sure no one’s personal gear goes missing
were simply trying to get rid of the items
that have been lingering in there unused
for years. The bright neon green tags are
this year’s sticker. Come and see me if
you need one and haven’t tagged your
locker yet. If you’re out of town and won’t
be back before the date please get in
touch with me to make arrangements.
Bosun’s Corner By Mark Scibinico
Department of Education
PAGE 2 NEWSLETTER TITLE PAGE 2 ELISSA LOG
for two at most (although they are still required to
stay on site all night). And officers receive volun-
teer hours for the whole program. That’s right! You
earn hours by sleeping. That’s almost as awesome
as rust busting in the bilges!
Audio Tour! Starting December 11th, we will have
an audio tour on board the ELISSA. It is written by
yours truly and feature some familiar voices. And,
before you ask, no, you can’t narrate the tour. The
audio company we hired for
the project recording it with
a professional voice actor.
We’re keeping our fingers
crossed for Meryl Streep.
Youth Crew! Starting in
January we will have begin
Youth Crew! That’s like the
ELISSA Seamanship pro-
gram except for itty bittys.
Anyone between the ages of
11-17 is welcome to join. It
will be an abbreviated pro-
gram with 5 or 10 classes led
by me me me.
Docents! We are always looking for volunteer do-
cents. These are volunteers who give groups guided
tours of the ELISSA. Anyone interested in serving
as an ELISSA Ambassador? Again, all hours you
spend as a docent count towards your volunteer
hours.
Math! Let’s face it guys. Math is cool, but math on
board ships is cooler. That’s why I’m building a cur-
riculum for a new educational program that lets
students use ELISSA to experience an environment
ruled by math and physics. Hopefully, we can get
this program rolling in Spring of 2014. Alas, I am
not a professional at math - only a fan. So I’m al-
ways looking for mathematically inclined volun-
teers to check over my work.
The End:
Well, I hope you learned something. I hope you had
fun. I hope you learned that learning can be fun!
Ah, see what I did there?
Hello:
Some of you might have seen me wandering
around the property or making random an-
nouncements about upcoming events. You
might have even read some of my emails. I
thought I’d take a moment to introduce myself
to all of you who have wondered (sometimes out
loud), “Who is she and what does she do here?”
First, a little about me. I am from Whidbey Is-
land, which is off the
coast of Washington
state, and I began my
career in the maritime
industry in 2009 when I
started working on such
historic ships as the LA-
DY WASHINGTON and
HAWAIIAN
CHEIFTAIN. Most re-
cently, I worked as the
Education Director on
board the SULTANA,
which is based on the
Chesapeake Bay. I have
experience developing and presenting educa-
tional programs that focus on maritime history,
marine biology, and traditional seamanship for
both children and adults.
My official title for the Texas Seaport Museum
is Coordinator of Maritime Education and Mu-
seum Programs. Mr. Jamie White hired me to
manage the current educational programs at
the Museum, such as the “It’s a Sailor’s Life!”
overnights, as well as develop new programs to
draw more visitors down to experience the
ELISSA.
That’s me in a nutshell.
What’s New:
Overnights! They are starting up again now
that the weather is cooling down, and—as much
as I love the regular overnight volunteers—we
are always recruiting new faces.
We’ve changed a few the overnight policies. Be-
fore, officers were expected to be up 4 hours
during the night; now, they only have to be up
By Rachael Protas
PAGE 3 NEWSLETTER TITLE PAGE 3 ELISSA LOG
Last week I was at the San Diego Maritime
Museum performing a rig inspection for the
1863 Barque STAR OF INDIA, the HMS SUR-
PRISE, and the topsail schooner CALIFOR-
NIA. These surveys were mandated by the US
Coast Guard. The photo to the left is a me in-
specting the headrig on the STAR and the oth-
er is with Chris Welton, who has sailed with
us in the past as mate.
The regular Director’s Column will return in
next month’s log. Fair winds!
ELISSA Seamanship Training Study Groups!
Katy
The group meets every Thursday at the Shakespeare Pub.
14129 Memorial Drive.
Between Kirkwood and Dairy Ashford
Please have them contact Eric Wagner or Bobbi Sheffield if you are interested in showing up.
Galveston
The Galveston Study Group meets monthly: September 13, October 25, November 22, and December 20. They
meet at Richard and Judy’s house, 2513 Avenue O½, starting at 6:00 p.m. Bring pet ropes, questions, favorite
drink, and money for pizza.
Clearlake
Clear Lake study group will meet Thursdays before sail training starting on the 29th at 6:30. The initial meeting
will be at Greg’s place and may move around in the future. Bring $ for pizza and BYOB.
4519 Kingston Harbor Dr, Taylor Lake Village, 77586. 4521 and 4523 are for sale and can park in the driveway
or along the curbs.
Phone: 713-553-7896
Director’s Column by Jamie White
“Schooners are the dogs of American ships; faithful, serving without
clamour for fame, bearing eagerly the burdens of her masters.”
A Schooner is a ship that is fore and aft rigged. In early days a
Schooner would have a squaresail or two, making it a Topsail
Schooner, but during the time the Schooner was the most numerous
of all sailing vessels in America the standard design was entirely fore
and aft rigged and all the masts were the same height.
Although there were Schooners in America as
early as the Revolutionary War days, her hey-
day came after the Civil War. By then two
masts were the accepted rig, but the trend for
larger cargo holds had begun and would not
end until one had been built with seven masts.
The American Schooner was born out of a
need for speed. Revolutionary era smugglers
needed a fast little boat that could outrun the
large British cruisers and be able to hide out in
the small coves where the smugglers traded in
the West Indies. Such a vessel could be sailed by a few trusted men,
could sail closer to the wind, and had a more shallow draft to avoid
the shoals and mudflats in the out of the way places where they did
their loading and unloading.
During the War of 1812, Schooners designed for Privateering proved
very speedy indeed, the American vessels were no match for British
heavily armed ships and many were sunk. Their ability to survive de-
pended on their sailing skills and the Schooner was ideally adapted
for fleeing.
The fast Clipper ships that were the early Schooners were developed
into cargo Schooners by the 1860’s as lumber and coal suppliers
wanted larger holds. The Schooners of the 1850’s could carry 150
tons but that was not enough. Maine shipbuilders began experiment-
ing with larger hulls to increase the amount of cargo that could be
taken in a single trip. However as the ships were made larger they
developed faults, the worst difficulty was the huge mainsail, it was
too hard to handle with a six man crew if a sudden squall hit, and the
reason the Schooner was loved was the small crews it had, the solu-
tion was to add a third mast. The three masted Schooners could car-
ry more canvas but each sail was smaller and easier to use and up
to 500 tons could be fit into the larger hulls. The three masted
Schooners were especially used for the lumber trade and they had
special ports cut in the bows to load the long lengths of lumber more
easily.
Builders needed lumber for homes, housewives needed cordwood
for cooking, and Victorian houses used a lot of lumber, as ornamen-
tation was the style. Pine, Spruce, and Hemlock from the NE, South-
ern Pine from Georgia, and when the Panama Canal opened Doug-
las Fir and Redwood from Oregon and California was all transported
on Schooners.
Also during the Schooner era coal was the fuel of the nation. Soft
bituminous coal was used to generate
steam in the early engines. Gone were the
days when water generated energy could
supply the power needed to run the mills of
New England. The faster industry spread the
more Schooners were needed to transport
coal. This lead to needing even more ca-
pacity in the hulls and four
masted ships came into
use that could carry 2,500
tons in the 1880’s.
The Donkey Engine was
added to raise gaffs,
weigh anchor, load cargo,
and even heat the ships.
Without the donkey en-
gine it seems unlikely that
a Schooner could be de-
signed with 5 masts, the
sails would have been to
heavy for human muscle alone to raise. The
first five masted Schooner was built in 1888
the ‘Governor Ames’. In the 1890’s the six
masted Schooner ‘George G. Wells’ was
built and could carry 5,000 tons of cargo, but
this stretched the design to its max, more
sheer had to be added and the extra
weight led to ‘hogging’ where the ends
tended to sag. The last great Schooner the
‘Thomas W. Lawson’ was the only seven
masted Schooner ever built.
It’s ironic that the age of coal lengthened
the days of sail as it was cheaper to haul it
with the low costs of the high volume/ low
crew Schooners than to pay for the coal to
operate the steam powered vessels. Unfor-
tunately the unsightly Barge was the ultimate
demise of the sail driven cargo transports.
Schooners: the Dog Days of Commerce by Root Choyce
PAGE 4 ELISSA LOG
PAGE 5 NEWSLETTER TITLE PAGE 5 ELISSA LOG
ELISSA Seamanship Training Photo of the Month
Regular maintenance days on the 1937 Santa Maria, TSM’s historic Galveston shrimp boat, are starting up
again. Come help maintain this extraordinary survivor the first Sunday of the month and the first and third
Monday evening. There are all sorts of projects and routine maintenance to do, and it’s always important to
take the boat out to exercise the engine. Email me ahead of time if you plan to come help so that projects
can be organized.
Santa Maria will be hauled out for routine bottom painting
and maintenance the first week of September . If you can
be crew for the trip from her berth at the Mosquito Fleet to
the boat yard at pier 77, let John know your availabil-
ity. We’ll probably go this Wednesday, Thursday, or Fri-
day. Come help scrape a barnacle or two, replace zincs,
and paint the bottom. We’re also looking for someone who
could pick up the antifouling paint at International Paint
in Deer Park on Tuesday or Wednesday. We’ll be working
on the boat Saturday September 7 as well. Email me if you
can help with any of this and we will plan around that.
Santa Maria! by John Schaumburg
PAGE 6 NEWSLETTER TITLE PAGE 6 ELISSA LOG
PAGE 7 NEWSLETTER TITLE PAGE 7 ELISSA LOG
`Please Support the Texas Seaport Museum!
Your Donations Help Keep ELISSA Alive!
$20,000 will allow us to replace the foredeck
$15,000 provides funds for restoration of the 1877 skylight and companionway
$10,000 pays our insurance bill for one month
$2,500 pays our electricity bill for one month
$1,000 provides funds for our small boat program
$500 will buy 250 feet of 1/2-inch Spunflex line for running rigging
$100 provides funds for 5 good-quality paint brushes
$50 pays for a one-month supply of sandpaper
YES, I WANT TO HELP KEEP ELISSA SAILING!
Enclosed is my check for $____________, payable to Galveston Historical Foundation.
Name: _______________________________________________
Mailing Address: _________________________________________ City, State, Zip: ____________________________
Thank you for your contribution! Please mail to Texas Seaport Museum, Pier 21, No. 8, Galveston, TX 77550.
TSM Staff:
Director:
Assistant Director:
Bosun:
Maritime and Museum Education:
The ELISSA Log is the official newsletter of the Texas Seaport
Museum volunteers. Articles, letters, photos and artwork are
welcomed, appreciated and encouraged. Please mail them to
TSM or email them to [email protected]
All submissions are subject to approval and editing, and all
opinions are those of the author only.
Submission deadline: 23rd of the month.
Editor: Rachael Protas
The name and image of ELISSA are registered trademarks of
Pier 21, Number 8
Galveston, Texas 77550
Phone: (409) 763-1877
Fax: (409) 763-3037
Email:
TEXAS SEAPORT MUSEUM / GALVESTON
HISTORICAL FOUNDATIO N
NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESSES:
We’re on the Web!
www.tsm-elissa.org
www.facebook.com/1877Elissa
twitter.com/TallShipElissa
Jamie White
John Schaumburg
Mark Scibinico
Rachael Protas