the crew journal of the barque james craigdropping out the glass fast and the wind al-ready...

Full amp By 1 October 2011

Full amp By The crew journal of the

barque James Craig

ISSUE 25 OCTOBER 2011


Web site wwwshforgauJCraigJCraightml Compiled amp edited by Peter Davey pedaveygmailcom Contributors various Layout John Cowie Cover photo Phil Gregory The opinions expressed in this journal may not necessar-ily be the viewpoint of the Sydney Maritime Museum the Sydney Heritage Fleet or the crew of the James Craig or its officers

Full amp By The crew journal of the barque

James Craig

CONTENTS TRAINING SHIP CANBERRA JULY 2011 3 SAILMAKER 4 THE PAMIR IN A FORCE 10 HURRICANE 5 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE PAMIR 9 BOOK REVIEW TALL SHIPS DOWN 10 SEIZED BY NEW ZEALAND 11 PAMIR AGAIN FINNISH SHIP 11 HISTORIC LAST SEA BATTLE 11 ELISSAmdashTHE HULL TRUTH 12 SITES FOR SAILING 13 A CHRISTMAS CARD BRINGS A SHIP MODEL TO LIFE 14 ROPE AND RIGGING COURSE 15 LOTS OF KNOTS 16


As those who are bombarded by my emails regularly would know the James Craig Educa-tion Program has had a solid wind in its sails all year One of the more interesting sleepovers we have had this year occurred in July when our ship was visited by Navy Cadets from Train-ing Ship Canberra Being from Canberra and therefore not girt-by-sea this was a group of youthful adventurers who were only too keen to join us on one of our day trips out to sea Their adventure began as so many do with training Coiling of lines belaying to pins han-dling of lines the concept of bracing the yards the very basic bits and pieces of sails and how they are operated - all of these things were the focus of our evening before the day sail It may not sound like much but I can assure you that our decks were covered in lines that had most unfortunately capsized from their pins Luckily TS Canberra knew what they were doing It did-nt take them long to get the James Craig back into ship shape Of course after they went to

bed we seemed to have suffered yet another unfortunate series of capsized coils which came as a shock to a few of our young crew in the morning when they went up on deck Things got a lot more interesting when morn-ing came By the time the group had cleaned up the capsized coils from the night before and swabbed the deck in the most amazingly thorough display of efficiency I have ever seen aboard our vessel the day crew was begin-ning to show up This is where the entire feel of the program changed and became some-thing that no other sleepover has ever truly been before - an adventure And they really did have all the luck of adventurers that day - we had pretty good weather calm seas and as Im sure everyone in the fleet has seen that amazing photograph taken by Whale Watch-ing Sydney of the whale breaching with the James Craig in the background - they got to see whales All of the tasks my team had put them through the night before with line han-

TRAINING SHIP CANBERRA JULY 2011

Photo - Darren Brisbane


dling and coiling (seasoned with the occasional salty tall tale and joke of piratical nature) sud-denly made sense I must say it was absolutely delightful to see the cadets taken under the wing of some of the old hands and shown the ropes so to speak - I have always maintained that if the education aspect of a program like this one is hands on and fun the trainees (or in most cases with sleepovers cubs and scouts) will take away a positive experience which they may not neces-sarily appreciate fully right now but in a few years time they may very well be knocking on our door asking to come and help us crew the ship I can tell you from conversations with the crew of TS Canberra that those cadets had a ball aboard the James Craig and are very keen to come back Who knows - we may even find ourselves in the presence of more cadet groups in the coming months On a final note I just want to say that many of the cadets made comments along the lines of how the weekend had actually turned out to be a lot more interesting and enjoyable than they had originally anticipated - and I think that each and every one of us should be proud that we played a part in inspiring that spirit of adventure and learning in them Lets keep up the good work

Darren Brisbane James Craig Education Coordinator

SAILMAKER Old man Stitch-away old man Sails With his long grey beard helsquos as hard as nails His teeth are yellow and his eyes are grey And he-lsquos seaming and helsquos roping all the live-long day Stitch away stitch away sew them strong For the lofty spars where they belong Rope them tight and seam them true So never a capful of wind blows through A big shiplsquos topsails a big shiplsquos courses Royals and skysails a big shiplsquos wings To race her along through the wild white horses To lift her high where the comber swings Stitch them Sails aye sew them tight For the mad squall blowing in the maniac night Sew them to stand the beat of hail The lash of rain and the hurricanelsquos flail Sew them strong so theylsquoll never rip When welsquore bow to bow with a rival ship Bolt on bolt of canvas high to tower in a pyra-mid to the sky tide Bolt on bolt of canvas wide to cast swift shad-ows on the blue sealsquos Bolt on bolt of canvas white to gleam in the glory of the tropic night And if therelsquos a bit of sail left over Save it Sails for a fellow-rover Old man Sails with his grey head bowed Helsquos sitting and helsquos stitching at a dead manlsquos shroud

from Wind in the Topsailslsquo by Bill Adams publ by George G Harrap amp Co Ltd (1931)

PhotomdashEwa Korczynski



The hurricane which struck the Pamir at 2300hrs on 19 February 1944 homebound on Voyage Five from Frisco was nearly the end of her and the young lightweight crew who enthu-siastically served her This was the same hurricane which played havoc with the American-Japanese invasion fleet and was the vivid background to the notori-ous Capt Quegg in Herman Woulklsquos famous novel ―The Cain Mutiny Five ships were sunk and many damaged as the hurricane rampaged thousands of miles down the central Pacific The Pamir received the tail-end sting south of the Tonga group ―All hands on deck get the rig off her bel-lowed Billy Boy Galloway to Ponti Jones take Rate and Price get the bloody mizzen royal and tlsquogallants in quick On the double ndash go He wasnlsquot very pleased with the situation and from the urgency of his voice someone had stuffed up The Main-topman got a similar or-der and it was also given to Hunt and Munson all part of Billy Boylsquos Port watch ndash and they all scurried off like monkeys up a tree The 8-12 Starboard watch was already up on the fore working like Trojans It had been Port watchlsquos time below and all were annoyed why sails had not come off hours

before Everyone knew of the hurricane re-ports that had been received for the area a few hundred miles to the north The arse was dropping out the glass fast and the wind al-ready muttering uneasily as both watches went about getting sail off her in double-quick time The royals were quickly secured and gave no trouble Shinning down the upper gal-lants (she carried lower and upper tlsquogallants) they waited for the deck wallahs to ease sheets and bunt up With sails cracking and thrashing they got stuck into task with gusto Regardless of the aching arms or busted fin-gers they somehow managed to subdue them It was one helluva fight then it was onto the lower gallant to tackle the next demon bitch The wind was now gale force With the weather side in they wrestled their way along the yard to get the rest of the thrashing sail into gaskets This they managed with great difficulty but they were fast running out of steam Forlsquoard through the driving rain the men on the main could be seen Os and his boys were in a similar predicament The wind was screaming and the sails were flogging beyond control Nothing they could do would hold them After a few mighty cracks sails thrashed themselves into pieces of boltropes and were gone From an ominous half buried moon everything took on a frightening eerie gloom Racing black clouds gathered tremen-dous speed close overhead Across the port quarter a formidable dirty gray-black wall was fast bearing down to pounce and the Pamir was going like a bolting racehorse to dodge it Suddenly it struck with a vengeance a hurri-cane force of enormous ferocity All they could do was to hang on for their lives The half furled tlsquogallant went like a bang from a can-non disappearing clean off the yard as if by magic The masts were shuddering and whip-ping and the yards corkscrewing in their braces Pamir was flattened out The yard the men clung to seemed nearly vertical as they clawed their way back into the mast Far below away right angled to the port her hull staggered in a foaming mass of phospho-rescent white water Fighting for her life she tried desperately to shake off the enormous pressure which burdened her After the first onslaught with the help of more men the wheel was held hard down to star-board so the Pamir came off a bit and picked

The Pamir in a Force 10 Hurricane

Photo mdash SHF Collection


herself up giving Ponti time to lash the two boys and himself between the futtock shrouds and the lower gallant parrel With hands pressed hard against the mast and feet braced they clung to each other and to whatever else they could like limpets Luckily the two gaskets were handy within reach on the jackstay which saved them from certain death Bodies and limbs went into rigor mortis with fear and fa-tigue This was it goners Wind blown thoughts screamed through their heads ndash everything and everyone was in deep trouble Fifty heavy-weight Finns would not have beaten this wind unless the sails had been got in hours before and double lashed Wind rain and spume stung bare skin Clouds ballooned and flimsy tropic shirts and shorts were ripped off their bodies Breathing was even difficult air had to be sucked into the chest The whole ship was be-ing shaken to death without mercy Ears ached and finally went numb All hell had broken loose The three of them prayed to God the mast stayed up and their body lashing held What shook the most the 170-foot mast or three pair of legs it is hard to say At that par-ticular moment there was not a pair of legs in the whole ship that was not shaking for one rea-son or another The sedate orderly world of this sailing ship turned into a nightmare Pamirlsquos immortality and our own was on knife-edge She was sail-ing under All around sails blew out with thun-derous thrashing anger even those furled and lashed up on the yards were ripped off her On deck everything was let fly to ease the over-whelming pressure and save the ship Heavy wire sheets and chains were standing straight out thrashing and sparking with vicious fury A main topmast backstay parted the masts had reached her limit of stress Christ Hang on boys hang on With everything gone the ship eased somewhat from being totally overpow-ered Ponti sensed her coming off the wind a point or two Yes By Jesus she was lifting her self up In the lull looking down to leeward here was someone trying to make his way up the inside of the mizzen shrouds It was obvious if they were ever going to get down it was now or never It would be a close call and a nightmare descent every foot of the way Using sign lan-guage Ponti indicated what he wanted to boys to do Easing himself over and under the cross-trees he used the terrific wind pressure to ad-vantage against the inside of the starboard tlsquogallants shrouds and persuaded the two boy to

follow Inches at a time rung by rung they clawed their way down to the mizzen table On realizing the wind could only flatten them against the rough tarred ropes and graze their skin they found renewed confidence With fear temporarily under control strength re-turned Enabling them to safely make the miz-zen topmast table exhausted The lee starboard main deck was continually under huge smothering seas and at times they buried the hatch across the whole waist sec-tion of the ship It was useless trying to reach the deck on the inside of the rigging So again it was over and under the mast table and fut-tock shrouds where partly sheltered behind the fattest bottom half of the mast they shinned down a maze of tangled ropes and blocks and landed safely inside the amidships fife rail which gave some protection from the worst of the breakers that crashed over the bulwarks on every great lurch This accomplished they helped each other along the weather side dodging from point to point until Pamir had her arse under an enor-mous sea that picked them up holus-bolus and washed them around No4 hatch and past the poop entrance There they were grabbed by Bosonlsquos Mate Urquhart Sail maker Peder-son and the carpenter who hauled them into the shelter of the poop like drowned rats

PhotomdashSHF Collection


Having urged the crew to consider themselves ―on stage while passengers are aboard first mate Russell demonstrates an operatic aria Captain Ken and the chorus line waited for their cue Four or five others were also sheltering including Os and his boys who had survived the same predicament getting down from the main in the god sent lull a short time before Blue Jenkins the AB who attempted the dan-gerous climb up the mizzen shrouds to wave the men down peered anxiously into the com-pass by the aft wheel letting everyone know whether she was holding a course or not Under the poop out of storm was like being heaven but it was still a case of hang on for dear life Pamir seemed to stand on her nose and then with a tremendous lurch the heavy thirty-man life raft was torn off the jibber shrouds and with a God almighty crash landed on the poop above their heads and washed over the side without trace The rafts were built of heavy wooden scantling about 12 ft square and encased with about two dozen 44-gallon empty oil drums for flotation With another lull Third Mate Renner staggered in through the door another exhausted drowned rat wanting the jigger staylsquosle down the last sailing holding ―Itlsquos pushing her arse down and head to wind The old man wants it off he said Out they trooped into the black howling night Renner eased off the halyard himself and the rest took the downhaul But with a crack like a 47 she disintegrated and was gone to join the others ndashsomewhere SE of Rarotonga Most of those aft then worked their way along to the amidships island to take shelter in the lee of the chart house and be handy for orders which had to be yelled into ones ear because of the hurricane The Mate Ace Liewendahl took Os Ponti and a few others down below to the ac-commodation to tighten up the steel storm doors ports and secure anything slopping around in water that was entering by the goose-necks and ventilators when the starboard amid-ships section rail went under water Unbeliev-able With just the dim emergency battery lights on it was a fetid gloom with water seeping every-where The air dank and humid All the star-board lower bunks and gear were soaking wet Everything loose was rolling and sliding around to every lurch After the deafening noise on deck down below was like a wet vibrating tomb Life jackets were brought up to the chart room and then it was out on the deck again with backs against the chart house hanging on to

each other and whatever else they could in the howling bedlam The Master Royale Champion had jammed himself between the weather main back stays and the bulwarks where he hung on stiff and erect his old felt hat jammed over his ears and lashed with a couple of rope yarns His canvas shelter cloth had long since blown away There was nothing else anyone could do ndash it was up to Pamir to fight her way out for all of us This she did with every ounce of her indomita-ble strength At times unbelievably vicious squalls nearly overwhelmed her The Pamir was repeatedly driven under to within feet of the chart room door where most of the crew lay on deck hanging on to lifelines they had managed to rig The starboard foclsquosle head-light was often pressed under casting an un-real spooky green light under the foaming scene forlsquoard Sheets had been let fly to get her up and give her a chance She took the challenge like the fantastic old girl she was and hung in on a knife-edge and refused to be beaten Fighting back magnificently under ragged bare yards she somehow tore her way through the sea Some reckoned she did 17 to 18 knots that night ndash whether she wanted to or not With the best helmsmen on the wheel they skillfully helped the ship pick herself up time and time again Pamir recovered whereas a lesser ship or steamboat probably would have gone under Out of the heavens the elements had de-scended and the wind and rain raged through this maelstrom as if possessed by the berserk sea devil himself The hurricane finally left the scene at dawn as sneakily as it had come leaving the Pamir and her crew exhausted battered and bruised and the dear old girl tattered and torn and her decks a shambles meanwhile the hurricane marauded helter-skelter across the ocean to tear some other poor buggers to pieces As everyone crawled exhausted out from wherever they had found shelter to greet each other and thank God for the greatest dawn of their lives Pamir celebrated by rolling her guts out in a strangely silent tropical calm Only the broken gear banging against mast and yards ringing in her victory dance brought us back with a rush to the magnitude of her experi-ence and survival A head count showed no loss of shipmates Billy Boy soon had the io-dine and band-aids going Redband got the galley stove working for a cupper and the Old man ―spliced the main brace with a large tot


QUOTATION ―Jack had been at sea ever since he was the height of a marlinespike

(Landsman Hay c1805)

of rum ndash which soon took the edge of cuts and bruises In no time it was business as usual for every-one who worked in a state of shock and disbe-lief When the Finnish Chief Mate Liewendahl was asked what he thought about that lot (he had served all his in career in four of Ericksonlsquos windjammers including the famous Mushily) he replied helsquod seen bigger seas but never wind like that All could see what was ahead work work and more work Clean up get her going again shipshape and Kiwi fashion Into it All hands worked their guts out day and night Every spare minute an enlarged team was repairing and sewing new sails led by the old Man and those ―masters of the needle Sailmakers Paul Pederson and Dropper Duns ford By the next day Pamir was on course and under way ndash in three days she was happily bowling along for Wellington and arrived 54 memorable days out from Frisco All hands bar a few went back for the next voyage to Vancouver As Billy Boy Galloway put it to his watch with a grin ―How about doing another trip lads and maybe some day youlsquoll learn to be proper sail-ormenlsquo Hurricane or not Voyage Five was one out of Neptunelsquos box Enough for a lifetime and never

to be forgotten Fourteen able seamen buckos and boys went on to become six ships masters four harbormasters and pilots a ship-ping company executive director and one sal-vage expert On the other side of the coin many members of the Voyage 5 crew went on in life allowing alcohol to badly affect them and their families Sadly some of Pamirlsquos young Vikings died before their late thirties On the question of cadet ships Pamir produced excel-lent seamen just as she was husbands were something else On that note Ponti Jones in retirement rests his case

Davey Jones Source Pamir Association Wellington

Peter Davey (My ex neighbor served on the Pamir in

194445) One of our original Captains Bruce Hitchman of the James Craig served on the Pamir as a



The Pamir was a big handsome four-masted barque built for the German Laeisz ―Flying P-Line by Blohm and Voss Hamburg in 1905 She was purpose designed and built for the Chilean amp Cape Horn nitrate trade Twice rounding Cape Horn on one return voyage is the most demanding seafaring requirement for any shipownerlsquos profit God ever gave wrath to Shipowners have never been known for their generosity or good nature but the Laeisz ―Flying P-Line was better than most Pamir was 2799 gross tons 316 ft in length and a beam of 46 ft She could carry 62000 bags of grain or 4300 tons of guano on a draft of 23 ft 6 inches Her masts towered 170 ft above the deck and her yards carried close for 40000 sq ft of canvas With the right wind and crew she could tramp along at 12 knots comfortably She proved a good sea-boat but under extreme con-ditions could be a bit of a handful In 1931 the Pamir was sold to Erikson the last of the commercial sailing ship operators and with other square-riggers she entered into the Australian grain trade in 1932 She then found work in the seagull (bird shit) trade In 1937 she made her first voyage to Auckland New Zea-land from the Seychelles Islands with 4246

tons After further tramping the world and do-ing another guano voyage to New Plymouth Pamir eventually wandered into Wellington in July 1941 with another 4300 tons of cargo and was snatched as a ―prize of war by New Zealand Government She got off to a good start with Capt Stanch in command using the invaluable experience of the nucleus of Finns from the old crowd Pamir made 10 excellent voyages to Frisco Vancouver Sydney and the United Kingdom under the New Zealand flag In 1949 she was handed back to the Finns Erikssonlsquos had no further use for her but Pamir was eventually saved from the ship breakers In 1951 together with the Passat she was purchased by Heinz Schliewen a shipowner from Lubeck He had sailed on the Pamir in the late 1920s She was converted into a cargo-carrying grain ship with a crew of 86 A diesel engine was installed which Pamir probably thought the equivalent of a ―double bypass and prostrate operation both at the same time They wounded her soul ndash and she never healed On 21 September 1957 in her 52

nd

year Pamir fought her last fight with the cruel sea Caught by Hurricane Carrier with her pants down in a 140-knot wind and 70 ft seas and with her cargo of barley shifting she gave up and was overwhelmed Eighty mainly inex-perienced men and boys lost their lives The Pamir crew of the 1944 Voyage Five from San Francisco knew exactly what it felt like because in similar circumstances but for a lot of luck and seamanship they could have gone too On Voyage One Pamir carried the last com-mercial cargo by square-rigged ship around the Cape Horn Pamirlsquos grave is in the Atlantic Ocean 600 miles SW of the Azores in 500 fathoms of wa-ter God bless Pamirlsquos gallant soul and all who experienced her power and grace Yes even those rubber necks who made judg-ments about those who kept her sailing God bless them too An account of the sinking of the Pamir can be found in the excellent book lsquoTall Ship Downrdquo Our Captain Ken reviewed this book some years ago Recommended reading

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE PAMIR



Daniel S Parrott International Marine McGraw-Hill 2003 Reviewed by Captain Ken Edwards FNI Mas-ter Class 1 (Square-Rigged Sailing ship Certifi-cate of Competency) Captain Parrot dedicates his book ―To those lost at sea keeping the tradition of sail alive It is a remarkably well researched book written by an author who is an experienced Tall Ship mas-ter and profoundly affected by the loss of the five vessels considering three of which went down during his career Indeed he had only recently been paid off the Pride of Baltimore when she foundered returning from a trip to Europe resulting in the death of four of his ship-mates The book is an attempt to find the commonality that exists between these five tragedies ascer-tain what caused them and trace the develop-ments of ground rules by which sailing ships should operate The role of sailing ships has changed since their demise as cargo carriers More commer-cially viable alternatives overtook them except for a brief renaissance during the first world war

when ship tonnage was in short supply It ap-peared to be the end of the era However the era of windjamshymers would continue but at some cost in a greatly transformed manner In 1902 Mansfield published his poem Sea Fever and the term ―tall ships came into com-mon usage It was not apparent at first but a new fleet of sailing vessels was being con-structed ndash ―an old wooden schooner was be-ing restored here a new steel training barque was launched here a historic replica was be-ing constructed somewhere elsehellip However while the ships survived or were replaced Parrot contends that it was the chain of experience that was broken The older gen-eration who understood the techniques were reluctant to get involved with the new roman-tics The art of seamanship was lost This again returns to the central theme of the book ndash a break with tradition There were still many ―Cape Horners alive at the time who had been in sail within the last decade or two who took a very active interest in this particu-lar incident most notably Alan Villiers Parrott does his best to include their assessments although the sources are always much harder to find Parrot describes all five disasters in depth and the book runs some 300 pages with notes Each case has its own peculiarities and there is a wealth of detail enough to satisfy the avid reader with a huge curiosity for maritime inci-dents He incorporates details of weather structural integrity human factors cargo regu-lations experience and risk and most impor-tantly a history of the modifications to each of the vessels He points out that many tragedies occurred during the period when legislation for these vessels and qualifications required were not thought necessary by marine administrators Today we have different expectations and with the proliferation of sailing vessels throughout the world Sail Training International has been formed to consider the safety aspects on an international basis To date there are some 20 countries involved and a seminar was held in Barcelona in 2003 to consider all aspects of safety legislation requirements which were brought to the attention of marine authorities At the present moment within Australia we have different legislation between the States In some States there is no requirement for a sail endorsement of officers manning these vessels However the Federal Governments Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA)

BOOK REVIEW


SEIZED BY NEW ZEALAND Finnish Ship Pamir

WELLINGTON Sunday - The New Zealand Gov-ernment has seized as a prize of war the Finnish barque Pamir The Pamir one of the grain race old timers had completed a smart passage from the Seychelles Islands with a cargo of guano On arrival at Wellington she was placed under military guard and her masterlsquos place was taken by a New Zealander A close watch was kept on Finnish members of the crew most of whom had not been in home waters since the early months of the war A prize writ calls on the owners of the Pamir and the cargo to enter their claims before the Supreme Court within 30 days The Pamir whose master is V Vjorkfelt is owned by Capt Erikson of Marielamn Finland the owner of practically all the big sailers left afloat She is the first big sailing ship which has visited Welling-ton since 1924 LONDON Sunday-Helsinki Radio says that Britain has confiscated six Finnish merchantmen in Brit-ish ports

The Mercury (Hobart Tas) Monday 11 August 1941 page 2

and some States do require a sailing endorse-ment Captain Parrot in his conclusion refers to the Nautical Institute examinations which in some administrations are considered the yardstick for a standard qualification of square rig It is a standard recognised throughout Britain Austra-lia New Zealand and Europe and is the stan-dard applied by the US Coastguard who I un-derstand use a multiple choice exam As master of a restored 3-masted barque James Craig based in Sydney I was part of a team which developed a comprehensive sail training system which incorporated a program of safety management for a commercially oper-ated sea going vessel The training undertaken was to the requirements of local marine author-ity (Waterways New South Wales) in conjunc-tion with persons of square rig experience With over thirty years experience sailing world wide including round Cape Horn under sail I feel that I am in a position to commend both the theme and conclusions which Parrott has reached in this book I would heartily recom-mend it to anyone who has an interest in the safe management of these vessels or enjoys reading about marine disasters

barque Pamir which at the week-end was for-mally handed back to her former owner Gus-tav Erikson of Finland The Finnish representative Captain K C Liewendahl who was second officer when the Pamir first arrived in New Zealand in 1941 said it was expected that contrary to earlier reports the Pamir would return to Finland at an undetermined date The Pamir would go back with her New Zealand crew and as crews were hard to get in Finland it might be possible for the New Zealanders to sail with her for another two years or so

Advocate (Burnie Tas) Monday 15 November 1948 page 14

PAMIR AGAIN FINNISH SHIP WELLINGTON Sun- The light blue of St Georges Cross of Finland again flies over the

HISTORIC LAST SEA BATTLE In the gale-torn Atlantic 10 days ago the lovely windjammer Pamir demasted stripped and listing fought her last battle with the sea With her as she died like a bird with broken wings were many of her crew of 86 men in-cluding cadets of the West German Merchant Navy homeward bound for Hamburg from Buenos Aires And with her too went one of the last links with the historic age of sail which reached way back beyond the Vikings beyond the Phoenicians A New Zealander who once commanded the Pamir always called her A Lady in Crino-lines and she was indeed a thing of beauty to grace the restless ballroom of the sea Although she was born only 52 years ago she was still part of the romantic sea-age of the 19th century the age of barques and brigan-tines before coal and oil began to smudge the oceans She was kin with the age of Conrad and Jack London of the China Clippers heading home through Sunda Strait of names like the Cutty Sark and Thermopylae She was one of those graceful ships waiting among a forest of spars for the annual race from Australia to England with holds full of grain She was of the past as obsolete as Edward-ian cars and crystal radio sets but she and her kind never failed to stir the admiration and imagination of land-lubbers everywhere Now the Pamir has gone and many brave men with her into her own element the sea Farewell fair lady in crinolines

The Australian Womenlsquos Weekly

Wednesday 9th October 1957 page 2


As director of the Texas Seaport Museum and the 1877 barque ELISSA I would like to join with ELISSAlsquos immediate past director Kurt Voss in thanking everyone for their concern about ELISSA Kurt and I would like to give context and clarification to some of the rumors and reports that are floating around about ELISSAlsquos current state and future Until this year ELISSA has conducted day sails annually for the past 29 years ndash quite a remarkable accomplishment for a 133-year-old sailing ship Being ―not seaworthy as recently reported in the press does not mean she is sinking or in a neglected state ndash all it means is that she needs to affect some repairs to areas of her hull plating to which the US Coast Guard has called attention The suspect plating is less than 16 of her entire hull plating She is indeed facing considerable challenges but nothing on the scale of her 1975-1982 restora-tion Once before Galveston Historical Founda-tion brought together the talent and commitment necessary to get her sailing Welsquoll do it again With all the scuttlebutt thatlsquos been flying how-ever we want to provide some clarification The shiplsquos hull was originally built of riveted iron About 25 of the iron was replaced with welded steel in Greece during 1977-78 That

steelmdashwhich was of the highest quality was custom made in Houston Texas by Armco Steel Company to specifications supplied by restoration director Walter Rybka Over the years about another 10 to 15 of the origi-nal iron hull plates have been replaced Most of that replacement was made necessary by a 1984 collision when a floating dry-dock broke its moorings in a storm and drifted down on the ship crumpling the stern Those repairs were made with riveted steel US Coast Guard regulations require that ELISSA be dry-docked twice every five years which has been done religiously since 1981 During every dry-docking the ship is thor-oughly inspected by the Coast Guard as well as the professional staff of Galveston Histori-cal Foundation For the past decade repre-sentatives of the American Bureau of Shipping have also participated in those inspections Isolated corrosion has been found and reme-died from time to time occasionally requiring partial replacement of a few of the hull plates but no widespread problems were ever en-countered In short ELISSAlsquos hull below the waterline has always been thoroughly main-tained When the ship was hauled this past January the first sign of a problem was the disappear-ance of an unprecedented number of the 55 sacrificial zinc anodes scattered across the underwater surface of the hull (these are used to control galvanic and electrolytic corrosion) Although a certain number of anodes are re-placed at every dry-docking their rates of de-terioration were never before a surprise After water-blasting the hull to remove marine growth more problems surfaced -- problems that had never been seen before Inspectors found many small pits (some of which pene-trated entirely through the hull) as well as nu-merous wasted rivets (another first) Upon further investigation by the US Coast Guard GHF staff representatives from the American Bureau of shipping and Kurt Voss (who has seen the ship out of the water at virtually every dry-docking since 1981) all concurred that what they saw was severe electrolytic corro-sion and that it taken place since the last dry-docking in January 2008 After a professional marine electrical contrac-tor verified that the shipboard electrical system was not the source of the problem a few tem-

Elissamdashthe Hull Truth

PhotomdashGalveston Historical Foundation


SITES FOR SAILING Tall ship races wwwsailtraininginternationalorg Pelican pelicanlpbtconnectcom Royalist wwwsquareriggercluborguk Aphrodite wwwsail-aphroditecom Trinovante wwwschoonersailcom Kruzenstern and Sedov wwwtallshipfriendsde Norwegian square riggers wwwradichno Europa wwwclassic-sailingcouk Stavros Niarchos wwwtallshipsorg Pilot cutters wwwtopsail-adventurescouk Thames sailing barges wwwrepertorcom I was sailing in the Pacific on the Alvei for my fourth winter wwwalveicom She is a fraction of the price of the square riggers above and provides far better eye candy I was also sailing on the Royalist out of Fairmouth in September

Peter Davey seaman (sail)

porary repairs were made and the ship returned to her berth in Galveston Because ELISSA is a National Historic Landmark the shiplsquos manage-ment decided that a comprehensive repair plan should be formulated one that would utilize input from the best experts in the field of historic ships who in turn would incorporate methods that meet the highest standards of maritime preservation Financial realities may dictate cer-tain compromises but we plan to do our best to meet those lofty goals and retain as much his-toric fabric as possible while utilizing modern ship repair methods and materials At present this panel of experts is in the proc-ess of developing detailed specifications That is the primary reason why the ship remains tem-porarily ―grounded Rather than use expedient modern repair methods GHFlsquos goal is to retain as much of the original hull as possible and use traditional construction methods on any plates that are too far gone to save That will be a time-consuming and expensive process but the ELISSA deserves nothing less The million dollar question is what caused such severe and unprecedented electrolytic corrosion The damage done definitely was not caused by neglect or poor maintenance (the ELISSA volunteers donate over 30000 hours a year in maintaining ELISSA in sailing trim) and whatever the source it happened since January 2008 Professional experts are pursuing the answers but all signposts point to the destruc-tion caused by Hurricane Ike in September 2008 Live electricity was in the water near the ship for an undetermined length of time (please remember that only essential personnel were allowed on the Island until nearly two weeks after the hurricane struck) At present the shiplsquos shore power system is being scrutinized for any anomalies and bi-weekly electrical potential readings of the hull and water are being per-formed and logged Regardless of what turns out to be the culprit professional marine electri-cians have determined that the problem has been arrested and no further damage is taking place Logically whatever the source the ex-perts agree that the electrolytic corrosion that attacked ELISSAlsquos hull was a direct conse-quence of Hurricane Ike Galveston Historical Foundation has launched a capital campaign to raise the necessary funds to get ELISSA sailing again The Foundation has employed professional fundraisers to work with its staff and volunteers to find the $3 million necessary to make the hull sound For further information please contact Jamie White at jamiewhitegalvestonhistoryorg

If youlsquod like to lend a hand immediately please text ELISSA to 50555 to make a $10 donation through your cell phone Or visit our website and make a donation to Keep ELISSA Sailing campaign at Keep ELISSA Sailing Our goal is to have ELISSA sailing by the fall of 2012 Given what Galveston Historical Foundation has accomplished with this ship in the past you can be confident that this goal will be met James L White Director 1877 Barque ELISSA Texas Seaport Museum wwwtsm-elissaorg Kurt D Voss Immediate past Director 1877 Barque ELISSA Texas Seaport Museum


In 1959 I was interviewed by an old sea captain with a view to commencing an apprenticeship with the well-known firm of Burns Philp amp Co He stood about 5lsquo 6 and to a youth of 17 years seemed incredibly ancient Captain F C Vogelmann had one eye a gammy leg appeared to shake in every bone as the result of falling from aloft in the big steel 3-masted ship ―Mount Stewart when he too had been an apprentice After I was successful at the interview he took my father to his branch office the Hotel Metro-pole to seal my fate and send me on an in-credible 47-year journey at sea Captain Vogelmann was the Marine Superinten-dant and had his office in rooms above Nos 6 and 7 Walsh Bay He told me on enquiring that he had never been shipwrecked but had en-dured a storm in the Downs which blew the roof off Waterloo Station in London Subsequently he and my father became friends and years later this card arrived wishing my family a Merry Christmas which had been written by his wife I feel this card gives some meaning to the beautiful model standing on the floor in our main office and is probably overlooked by many of our many of our members The ―Mount Stewart was one of two sisters which were iden-tical in size and rig Three

masted skysail yard ships of 1903 tons register Built by Barclay Curle amp Co of Whiteinch Scot-land in 1891 to the order of Donaldson Rose amp Co and never changed hands Classed 100A1 at Lloyds for 34 years and engaged mainly in the Australian wool trade Basil Lub-bock states that old Captain Rose told his two boys they could have a ship each and to go and get on in life owning amp managing both the ―Mount Stewart and ―Cromdale respectively They were extremely lofty ships with main masts of 1885 feet

truck to keel and 167 feet truck to deck (about the height of the flag pole standing in the water at Pyrmont Bridge) which is 200 feet The main yard was 89 feet with fidded topmasts All steel masts and spars they were indeed powerful pieces of sailing machinery The ―Mount Stewart was to survive WWI and was finally broken up in 1925 still in her prime no match for the Age of Steam The ―Cromdale was wrecked on the UK coast ten years previously Donaldson Rose amp Co disappeared from the Lloydlsquos Register of Shipowners after the year 1925 Jeremy Roberts

Sources Last of the Windjammers Vol II Basil Lubbock Deepwater Sail Chapter 7 Harold A Underhill

A CHRISTMAS CARD BRINGS A SHIP MODEL TO LIFE

Photo - SHF Collection



Tom Mort and a group of like-minded members of the Sydney Heritage Fleet presented the first Rope and Rigging Course on 28 October 2003 Unfortunately Tom was taken from us in No-vember 2007 Since the 2003 launch the courses have been attended by over 286 members of the public from all walks of life riggers boat builders and members of the Fleet The purpose of the course is to teach rope work skills and to hopefully engender an interest in and love of the art of knotting and work-ing with rope As well as obtaining i n f o r m a -tion on traditional and mod-ern rope w o r k i n g skills The course is of interest to and has so far been attended by such people as

Skippers and crew in racing yachts

Skippers and crew in cruising yachts

People wanting to learn rope work con-tent of pre-sea courses

Members of emergency services who want to enhance their rope skills

Tradesmen farmers etc who use ropes in their daily work

Anyone who has an interest in the age-old skills of working with rope

The courses are practical hands-on and thus restricted to a maximum of 20 per course This maximum enables us to provide individual guid-ance to the participants in what to some can appear to be a complicated pursuit Thanks to the generous support of a team of volunteer instructors we are able to do this Through input by Members and others an In-struction Handbook has been produced and we have also a good collection tools materials etc that have been donated The Rope and Rigging Course has continued to develop over the past 8 years with the introduc-tion of two additional courses Advanced rope work and Decorative rope work

There is scope for future courses in the mari-time trades include Wire work Tool making Leather work and many other potential sub-jects however these are constrained by per-son power and time The inclusion of an ―On-line instruction is be-ing considered We have received generous support from the Australian National Maritime Museum which allows us to use the Peter Doyle Learning Centre to present the courses

To date they have been self-funding with fleet volun-teers pro-viding the instruct ion and with any surplus funds being directed to the Fleetlsquos coffers A l l t he

above is only possible due to the generous support of the Volunteers who provide the in-struction and a willingness to pass on to oth-ers their knowledge and their experience Through the continuing efforts of the team (contributions from members participants and others) the courses have been able to com-municate this knowledge research collate record and apply some of the many skills re-lated to rope work in ships The communica-tion of this knowledge is via the Fleet Rope and Rigging courses and thus contributing to the fulfillment of one part of the Fleetlsquos Mis-sion which is to acquire and maintain the his-toric resources of one sector of our maritime history Any Fleet Member who wishes to be directly involved in the Fleet Project is most welcome to become part of this team

Morrin Grigg

Further Information The Fleet Web Site wwwshforgau contains information on future courses Contact Wharf 7 on (02)9298 3888 or (02)9871 7919

ROPE AND RIGGING COURSE


KNOTMAN NAME YOUR KNOT A nameless knotlsquos a foolish thing - Merely a muddle in a piece of string In Geoffreylsquos Rag it makes me rage To see a squiggle on the page Without a name I care no cuss For your fine Knots Anonymous - - Since any bend thatlsquos worth a try Should have a name like you or I A waste of time a KNOTMANlsquos shame is every knot without a name

BY DESMOND MANDEVILLE

―Reefing a sail or tying a parcel A Reef Knot the role will fulfill But joining two ends one should only use Bends And a Reef Knotlsquos a sure way to kill

contributed by Stuart E Grainger Master Mariner

THE LUM1 HAT WANTINlsquo THE CROONlsquo and other poems

Alsquo the knots olsquo a sailorlsquos craft Weel could he tie in a trice Anlsquo nae thocht ava olsquo a day to daw When the Deil wad hanlsquole his dice Yet I stude yestreen at the back olsquo the kirk In oor am hame port olsquo Leith Anlsquo heard him tie ae knot wilsquo his tongue That he winna wark lowse wilsquo his teeth

(viz Marriage - the knot you tie with your tongue

and cannot work loose with your teeth) by David Rorie MD

pub By The Moray Press (1935) 1lsquolumlsquo = silk

―to working cunning knots and splices dear to the old-time sailorlsquos heart

A GYPSY OF THE HORNlsquo by Rex Clements pub Jona-than Cape (192L1)

KNOT The derived unit of speed is the knot defined as one nautical mile per hour The term log is used to measure the distance a vessel has moved through the water This term can also be used to measure the speed through the water (see chip log) as the speed and distance are directly re-lated The terms knot and log are derived from the practice of using a log tied to a knotted rope as a method of gauging the speed of a ship A log at-tached to a knotted rope was thrown into the wa-ter trailing behind the ship The number of knots that passed off the ship and into the water in a given time would determine the speed in knots The present day measurement of knots and log are determined using a mechanical tow electronic

tow hull-mounted units (which may or may not be retractable) Doppler (either ultrasonic or ra-dar) or GPS[14][15] Speeds measured with a GPS differ from those measured by other means in that they are Speed Over Ground (accounting for the effect of current) while the others are Speed Through the Water which does not account for current

NAUTICAL MILE The nautical mile was historically defined as a minute of arc along a meridian of the Earth (north-south) making a meridian exactly 180times60 = 10800 historical nautical miles[4] It can there-fore be used for approximate measures on a meridian as change of latitude on a nautical chart The originally intended definition of the metre as 10minus7 of a half-meridian arc makes the

mean historical nautical mile exactly (2times107)10800 = 1851851851hellip historical me-tres Based on the current IUGG meridian of 200039314585 (standard) metres the mean historical nautical mile is 1852216 m The historical definition differs from the length-based standard in that a minute of arc and hence a nautical mile is not a constant length at the surface of the Earth but gradually lengthens in the north-south direction with increasing dis-tance from the equator as a corollary of the Earths oblateness hence the need for mean in the last sentence of the previous paragraph This length equals about 1861 metres at the poles and 1843 metres at the Equator[12] Other nations had different definitions of the nau-tical mile This variety in combination with the complexity of angular measure described above along with the intrinsic uncertainty of geodetically derived units mitigated against the extant defini-tions in favor of a simple unit of pure length In-ternational agreement was achieved in 1929 when the International Extraordinary Hydro-graphic Conference held in Monaco adopted a definition of one international nautical mile as being equal to 1852 metres exactly in excellent agreement (for an integer) with both the above-mentioned values of 1851851 historical metres and 1852216 standard metres Use of angle-based length was first suggested by E Gunter (of Gunters chain fame)[13] During the 18th century the relation of a mile of 6000 (geometric) feet or a minute of arc on the earth surface had been advanced as a universal measure for land and sea The metric kilometre was selected to represent a centisimal minute of arc on the same basis with the circle divided into 400 degrees of 100 minutes

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

LOTS OF KNOTS


Web site wwwshforgauJCraigJCraightml Compiled amp edited by Peter Davey pedaveygmailcom Contributors various Layout John Cowie Cover photo Phil Gregory The opinions expressed in this journal may not necessar-ily be the viewpoint of the Sydney Maritime Museum the Sydney Heritage Fleet or the crew of the James Craig or its officers

Full amp By The crew journal of the barque

James Craig

CONTENTS TRAINING SHIP CANBERRA JULY 2011 3 SAILMAKER 4 THE PAMIR IN A FORCE 10 HURRICANE 5 A SHORT HISTORY OF THE PAMIR 9 BOOK REVIEW TALL SHIPS DOWN 10 SEIZED BY NEW ZEALAND 11 PAMIR AGAIN FINNISH SHIP 11 HISTORIC LAST SEA BATTLE 11 ELISSAmdashTHE HULL TRUTH 12 SITES FOR SAILING 13 A CHRISTMAS CARD BRINGS A SHIP MODEL TO LIFE 14 ROPE AND RIGGING COURSE 15 LOTS OF KNOTS 16





































nd







BOOK REVIEW










































Morrin Grigg




















LOTS OF KNOTS





































nd







BOOK REVIEW










































Morrin Grigg




















LOTS OF KNOTS




BOOK REVIEW










































Morrin Grigg




















LOTS OF KNOTS










































Morrin Grigg




















LOTS OF KNOTS


















LOTS OF KNOTS

the crew journal of the barque james craigdropping out the glass fast and the wind al-ready...

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