Friday, September 2, 2011

ELISSA ~ Is it worth it?




Is it worth it?

Last week I was walking down the ramp outside the Texas Seaport Museum and was slowed down by a knot of people chatting and blocking the walkway. In front of them, I saw an older gentleman and his family walking up from the front gate. As I tried to move past them, I overheard a question from the older gentleman as he approached the group of tourists chatting. He asked this group “Is it worth it?” I paused for a moment to try and eavesdrop on the response but could not hear the reply and carried on my way. Throughout the day, I thought about this man’s question, “Is it worth it?“. It might be the most productive time I have spent as Director reflecting on why ELISSA is important to me and “Is it worth it?”

Yes.

Yes, it is worth all the early morning long drives to Galveston, the sweaty and aching muscles, the long and sometimes soul numbing staccato of the vital act of rust busting, the disappointment of cancelled daysails, and all the other large and small difficult trials, tasks and challenges we all perform in our courtship of a queen. For ELISSA is royalty. From her comely and arching cutwater to her supple and flowing lines she evokes the regal grace and beauty of sailing royalty. Was it worth all the toil, dirt, sweat and Ρετσίνα (Retsina) to the original restoration gang in Piraeus? Was it worth the financial gamble of Peter Throckmorton and Karl Kortum securing the funds that first assured her future other than dying in the knackers’ yard? Is it worth our efforts today in the sacrifices we give to ensure there is an ELISSA in our world? Well?

I think we all voice the same answer to this gentleman’s question “Is it worth it?” and should pause to reflect from time to time on such a simple query. ELISSA is a most rare and precious gem with ever accumulating facets to her beauty and brilliance. This Saturday is the orientation and welcoming session for the new 2012 Sail trainees and volunteers – even though we will not be getting hours at orientation unless we are doing maintenance, we all have the wonderful and vital task of welcoming new potential crew members…new facets to add to ELISSA’s sparkle. I hope as many of ELISSA’s crew and volunteers can be at the ship this Saturday, 27 August for this orientation. It is very important for potential new volunteers to experience some of the magic first hand that we have all felt over our voyage with ELISSA.

Speaking of our voyage with ELISSA, I am very hopeful that funding will be secured for a project that has been very dear to my heart – creating an oral history archive of the ELISSA’s crew, volunteers, and admirers throughout the years. Shannon Guillot has requested funding for this digital storytelling project that will collect stories and combine them with other media, photos, drawings, even possibly a chantey or two. Our vision with this project is to have a place where we can reflect on how ELISSA has changed our lives and how we have been an agent in ELISSA’s ongoing voyage. These stories are so essential and necessary to tell ELISSA’s story. Every one of us is a color on ELISSA’s palette and a vibrant and valuable element of the whole picture. This oral history archive could be hosted on GHF/ELISSA’s web site or an outside server. Richard Michael and Eli Kuslansky are working on bringing together ELISSA‘s Stockholm tar stained Diaspora and I think this would be a good step in that direction. Your stories are as much a part of ELISSA’s history as every seagoing gouge and weathered scar in her iron hull plating and original teak deck furniture… what a wonderful lead in to the celebration of the 30th anniversary of her original restoration. Your stories are very important and with the passing of each shipmate, all the more poignant. I am sure that Don Birkholz is regaling the gang at Fiddler’s Green with stories of Greece and a barque named ELISSA.

If you can, please join me in welcoming our potential new crew members into ELISSA’s family this Saturday at 1:30 PM. You can earn hours for doing maintenance and at the same time earn my gratitude by sharing sea stories with the potential new greenhorns.

Full and Bye,

Jamie




ELISSA ~ a French curve in iron and sweat

Shipmates,

Imagine that this is a cool and brisk fall day along the east coast of Scotland on October 27, 1877. We are standing in front of hull number 294 looking up at the graceful Aberdeen bow and filigree of wires that make up this small barque’s head rigging. Just a few weeks before, this slipway was awash in the sounds of the riveter’s hammer and caulker’s mallet; of riggers hailing from aloft and painters applying their craft to this graceful hull. To one side of this scene stands a man…Henry Fowler Watt….. oblivious to the din and fixing in his mind’s eye this hull…his hull, cleaving through the waters of the Atlantic making a fast passage around the Cape and onwards toward the Spice islands and India. He watches as these sorcerers, these magicians under the guise of shipfitters convert flat plates of iron into the pleasing shapes of a graceful hull…a French curve in iron and sweat.

It starts as a small trembler, barely discernable above the din of a working shipyard, but slowly…ever so slowly hull no. 294 begins her long journey to us, her penultimate crew. The penultimate crew - for if we bestow our sweat, love and talents to ELISSA…there will always be a next crew. Excitement and whiskey is in the air as the graceful hull slowly at first but gaining momentum, glides into her element. ELISSA is launched. Today, we can almost recall the spicy scent of freshly cut teak; of the rigger’s ballet of swaying aloft finely fashioned spars and freshly tarred rigging being turned in round beautiful lignum vitae deadeyes. In our mind’s eye and sailor’s soul we can sail back in time to stand alongside Henry Fowler Watt and marvel in reverent appreciation at the birth of this graceful ship, the Aberdeen built barque ELISSA.


We can sit atop a mooring bitt and marvel that this piece of living sculpture from the Victorian age has been passed down through many hands and hearts to us… to look after…to love…to restore again to her seagoing shape and form. The original restoration of ELISSA was a fine beginning, and nurtured the craft and skills the ship needs for her continued well being. Those skills are now entrusted to us to utilize to our fullest extent and to pass along to the next generation of caretakers. We have the duty to add our efforts to this continuum of excellence…ELISSA’s tradition of craftsmanship that began with Henry Fowler Watt’s insistence on having his ship, our ship, built not to the standard Lloyds 100 A1 level of quality but to Lloyds Special survey.

Being built to Lloyd’s Special survey meant ELISSA was crafted to a level of quality above expediency and resulted in ELISSA being built to a level far above the standard 100A1 classification.. We have a wonderful opportunity to add our talents and spirits into the collective crew of the ELISSA. We are joining with that first riveter who drove in the first of many rivets that still hold us all and our ship together.


As we get ready to begin another year’s sail training, let’s remember from time to time that cool October so many years ago… and join in helping to keep alive a ship so dear to us all. I came across an article that is not as sensational as the Chronicle piece from several weeks back – it is a more factual and even telling of the challenges we face and will accomplish with everyone’s help. Historic tall ship Elissa needs help

http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/bay_area/news/article_97f8517b-b51d-50c6-a400-04c06cc84a88.html

Full and bye,
Jamie

ELISSA ~ Why her iron is so important

Shipmates,

I have been asked why is the old iron on ELISSA so important and why don’t we just replace it all so we can get back to sailing? This is a very good question and one that possibly several of you have asked. I believe ELISSA is a noun and a verb and that by sailing she preserves the skills that will allow her to renew herself again and again and by just existing in today’s world provides us all the chance to touch a relic from the Age of Sail. The problem becomes more than a semantic question of when does a historic vessel become a replica? The original fabric contained in each historic plate left on ELISSA is priceless and we should always strive to retain the original iron…”the patina of time”, as Karl Kortum liked to say, within economic and safety constraints. Once any piece of original wrought iron fabric of ELISSA is lost due to lack of attention or maintenance or the sands of time, it cannot be replaced.

Why ELISSA’s iron is important:

Built in Aberdeen, Scotland by Alexander Hall & Company in 1877, ELISSA was built to Lloyd’s 100A1 standards –the highest standard of construction of the finest wrought iron. Wrought iron is a low carbon iron intentionally contaminated with silica during smelting with the resulting glass fibers becoming oriented by rolling/working the hot billet of material. This gives the material its characteristic fibrous texture. When iron weathers, the material takes on the appearance of tree bark. This is caused by the silica slag helping to slow down or stop the corrosion process, resulting in the wonderful texture of a weathered wrought iron.


The hull is riveted of individually formed Lomore wrought iron plates, in-out plated over a transverse iron frame. Wrought iron is a low carbon iron intentionally contaminated with silica during smelting with the resulting glass fibers becoming oriented by rolling/working the hot billet of material. Wrought iron can be thought of as the original fiber glass, but instead of resin and glass it was iron and slag. The inclusions of slag made for a ductile and very corrosion resistant material, far more impervious to the vagaries of the elements than modern steels. Usually if you look at an older steel sailing ship wreck, it is only the iron bits that remain - anchors, stern and rudder posts, stems, etc.


Wrought iron is no longer produced on a commercial scale and is impossible for us to source in replacing the damaged hull plates. Instead, we will be using modern mild steel to replace any bad plates that cannot be repaired or restored using localized repairs, i.e. clad and or plug welding, high strength epoxies, etc.


ELISSA’s original hull plating is priceless and in the eyes of many ship preservationists –the true cross.

…and we are trying our very best to preserve and save as much as is possible and still prudently put to sea. Remember with ever effort you expend in rust busting and other preservation activities you are saving something that is irreplaceable – ELISSA’s original fabric.