Shipmates,

2012 Plankowners’ Party!!! I hope we see as many of ELISSA’s crew in attendance as possible! This year’s event is shaping up to be a very special one, with ELISSA’s approaching dry-docking and hull work along with the long anticipated TSM pier 21 rebuild beginning at last. As we are all aware, Plankowners’ is our big fundraising event of the year and is an important source of revenue for daysails and in supporting the on-going maintenance needs of the ship. 

It is also a time to show off our ship and the fine people ELISSA calls crew. Not only ELISSA will be on show this Saturday evening, but all of us…her crew will be center stage as well. Ed Green mentions in this week’s newsletter that all working crewmembers are expected to be in ELISSA royal blue shirts and khaki long pants – please no shorts. I want to remind everyone that if you are working during Plankowners’ to refrain from the consumption of alcoholic beverages. If you are not on watch or have paid as a guest, please enjoy the fruits of the vine, but if not - then please remember to show the proper decorum and respect by refraining from hoisting a glass while on duty. With the expectation of pleasant weather, we may set a number of sails and it would be good to have some crew alert and sober to hand canvas.

I want to thank all of you for doing a yeoman’s job with this year’s Plankowners’ Party and Auction. It has been a bit of a challenge with the new venue, but I have not heard any complaining and you all have my gratitude. Next year we will have Plankowners’ with a newly fixed up site and a freshly repaired ship, so let’s make the most of this year’s event – it may be the only time we have Plankowners’ with ELISSA alongside Pier 21! Having ELISSA front and center at Pier 21 will make for a very memorable event. I am very excited about auctioning off a piece of ELISSA’s original hull plating with a section of frame attached. We had the hull plate section grit blasted with sugar to reveal all the detail without removing the surface features of the plate. One can read the date 1877 stamped into the frame piece. We are going to have it in the live auction as the last available hull plate – number 318 out of 318 and it is a work of art a true ship fitter’s sculpture.

In past preambles to the newsletter I have often quoted from Joseph Conrad. In the spirit of mixing things up, much like this year’s Plankowners’, I thought I would close with a quote and request

Here is the quote from My Ship O’ Dreams by Robert Rose:

“Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made, for somewhere deep in their oaken hearts the soul of a song is laid.”

…and the request:

for all of you to enjoy our ship and each other with a song in your hearts and a sea story in our souls.

Even a layman can see the fine lines in ELISSA’s hull and they will be on full display along with her crew – a group of incredibly talented people from varied backgrounds all coming together to ensure ELISSA is well loved. What fortunate people we are to have one of the most beautiful things on this planet to play with, a beautiful square-rigger. While I admit there have been some days where I shake my head after a long day of contrary winds, there is NEVER a morning I do not find a smile swayed aloft in my heart every time I see ELISSA glow in the light of a new day’s morning. Like one of the true clipper ships of old, she is a Herald of the Morning. The greatest author and recorder of the Sea, Captain Joseph Conrad, was master of a ship very much like ELISSA, and best summed up his feelings about her and captured our love of ELISSA in a single line:

“It is good to be in a world in which she has her being”

Thank you all for “being” in ELISSA’s world, too, and forgive me for not being able to resist the pull of a fine Conrad quote.

Fair leads,

Jamie

James L. White

Director

Texas Seaport Museum / 1877 Barque ELISSA

Pier 21, Number 8

Galveston, TX 77550

409-763-1877

409-763-3037 FAX

www.tsm-elissa.org

"Of all the living creatures upon land and sea, it is ships alone that cannot be

taken in by barren pretences, that will not put up with bad art from their masters"

(Joseph Conrad ~ Mirror of the Sea).

Dear Shipmates,

Well, it has been a long haul amidst a wake of blisters since sail training began, but we have a vessel and crew we can all take pride in. Thank you all for your hard work and dedication – you all have my respect and admiration. Since we moved ELISSA to Pier 21, I have heard many comments about how beautiful she looks, how she graces Galveston’s waterfront, how much longer she appears than at her other berth, and many other comments. All of the comments have at their center the truth that ELISSA is a work of art in wrought iron and wood. Of all the creations made to move our spirits, fine hulled lofty ships are the noblest creatures poised on that fine line between the divine and human design. We are all helping in creating this continuing work of art…ELISSA.

Ships graceful as ELISSA have lit up and awakened the hearts and spirits of people through the ages. Our souls, our shared spirits and our humanity are buoyed with each pull upon a halyard and every awakening sail spread out upon her spars. It is not just us, a fortunate few, who look upon this beauty. Look into the eyes of visitors ashore along the pier and promenade and see the marvel of our creation, our ELISSA, in their eyes. I very much enjoy speaking to visitors awed by the beauty and spectacle of sail training and the art and grace you all create during each sail training weekend. They often ask me what it is like “up there” or how beautiful ELISSA looks amongst many other questions and comments. Those lucky people watching from ashore are being treated to a performance in which there is poetry in every buntline.

Ships companies are communities isolated from the rest of the world outside the bulwarks and topgallant rails. We have our own language and customs not found ashore. We all find common purpose in working for the ship, our ship, our ELISSA. Our fears and foibles are mixed with our shipmates and alloyed with our combined strengths, passions, and joys to form a metal as noble and stout as any bitt or bollard. With our shipmates at our side, we can reach goals and attain heights we could otherwise never accomplish. Remember your first time aloft, or any other challenge aboard ship, and the reassuring voices of your shipmates. We delight in our successes…and we have had many. Those who struggle together with respect and common vision can accomplish feats seemingly impossible under ordinary conditions. Your shipmates are a source of strength.

We are almost at the end of this year’s sail training and maybe it is time for a reminder from me about your shipmates. I have heard of several occasions where crew was not responsive to the commands and requests of mast captains and foreman. We have a hierarchy aboard for the safe and efficient operation of the ship. It can only work if we all follow requests and orders from your mast captain, work foreman and SOC.

We have our biggest event of the year outside daysails next weekend. It is vital that we all work together and remain conscious of the fact that almost everything will be different due to the relocation of ELISSA to Pier 21. We will have construction of our new berth beginning next Tuesday and I am sure it will be an added aggravation to setting up Plankowners’. I believe we have a wonderful opportunity to have a great event with ELISSA acting as more of a centerpiece. We have hired a professional auctioneer and his company to put on the live auction and assist with check-in and check-out. There will be glitches and problems, but as a crew we can work through them all. Just be patient with each other and our guests and remember that however neatly you may flake out a line for running, all it takes is one roll of the ship to cast a hockle into the works.

Let’s remember that this event and all the things we do are for ELISSA… for our ship.

Joseph Conrad writes in Mirror of the Sea:

“But of the delight of seeing a small craft run bravely amongst the great seas there can be no question to him whose soul does not dwell ashore. Thus I well remember a three days' run got out of a little barque of 400 tons somewhere between the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam and Cape Otway on the Australian coast. It was a hard, long gale, gray clouds and green sea, heavy weather undoubtedly, but still what a sailor would call manageable. Under two lower topsails and a reefed foresail the barque seemed to race with a long, steady sea that did not becalm her in the troughs. The solemn thundering combers caught her up from astern, passed her with a fierce boiling up of foam level with the bulwarks, swept on ahead with a swish and a roar: and the little vessel, dipping her jib-boom into the tumbling froth, would go on running in a smooth, glassy hollow, a deep valley between two ridges of the sea, hiding the horizon ahead and astern. There was such fascination in her pluck, nimbleness, the continual exhibition of unfailing seaworthiness, in the semblance of courage and endurance, that I could not give up the delight of watching her run through the three unforgettable days of that gale which my mate also delighted to extol as ‘a famous shove.’”

I am working on the “draft” ELISSA Hull Preservation Plan that will be the guiding document during the upcoming shipyard. This draft repair proposal will be presented to the Coast Guard for their approval. I am sure elements of it will change. In the words of the famous Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower: “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

Fair leads,

Jamie

James L. White
Director 1877 ELISSA

ELISSA -Replacing the old weather decks

Shipmates,

This summer, ELISSA will begin having her three weather decks renewed in addition to the repair work planned for her hull. In previous newsletters, I have spoken about the hull plate corrosion issue and how we are going to address the need for replacing or repairing up to 56 hull plates. I would like to lay out the proposed plan for renewing all three of ELISSA’s weather decks.

Almost thirty years and hundreds of thousands of pairs of young and old feet have conspired with the hot Texas sun in wearing away and stressing ELISSA’s weather decks to where they are no longer functioning in the way they were designed. The deck not only keeps water out from below decks, but acts as a tensioning element in the overall strength of the hull. The driving of cotton and oakum strands into the seams not only serves to waterproof the planks but acts as a wedge in pushing the planks together and in turn tightening the entire structure.

A deck plank on ELISSA and on many sister ships of her size is typically 5inches wide by three and a half inches thick and averages about 22 feet in length. The seams between the planks are about three eights of an inch wide, and are formed by cutting a bevel onto the outboard edge of each plank for about one third of the planking stock’s thickness. The bevel is cut on only the outboard side of the plank so that the seam is square on one side and beveled on the other. This creates the perfect “inclined” plane to encourage the needed wedging action of driving the threads of cotton and oakum caulking.

A deck is a highly evolved and engineered element of global hull integrity. Next time you are aboard ELISSA, cast a critical eye upon the decks and notice how the planks sweep fore and aft and how they are artfully tapered, masterfully fitted and notched into place at the margin board.

One of the problems with ELISSA’s decks is the caulking bevel has been destroyed over the years by using the wrong tools to drive oakum during the frequent repair attempts over the past years. Special tools were created by shipwrights for this kind of work. There is a special caulking iron for each phase of the caulking operation and a uniquely shaped “caulking’ mallet design. The long cylindrical shape of a caulking mallet is no accident. It focuses the full force of the blow on the head of the caulking iron, and avoids twisting or glancing blows which can easily happen when you use a more conventional mallet with a wider head.


We intend to begin with replacing the fo’c’sle head deck at shipyard this summer. We will have access to cranes to lift off the heavy foredeck gear (anchors, windlass, etc.). Eventually, all the weather deck planking will be replaced. The quarterdeck will be the next weather deck scheduled to be replaced after we return from the 2012 Harvest Moon regatta. The main deck is scheduled to be replaced after our spring daysails of 2013. Our intent is to divide the work into three phases, over the next 16 months or so. Creating two smaller, more manageable jobs before the major effort of replacing the main deck will afforded us the necessary breathing room in the schedule to ensure that we will not have a break in our daysailing schedule.

I have been sourcing supplies for the job and have found several companies that have reclaimed longleaf yellow pine timbers from old warehouses and from sunken logs in rivers. While the decks laid 30 years ago were Douglas fir and old growth quality too - that caliber of timber is very hard to find these days. I have found references to the use of longleaf yellow pine from the southeast used in many of the local fishing craft. In fact in “The American Fishing Schooners” naval architectural historian Howard I. Chapelle, it mentions that the six Crowninshield schooners built in 1902 by Oxner & Story shipbuilders in Essex, Massachusetts, for Gulf Fisheries Company were built of Georgia longleaf yellow pine instead of using the indigenous and very good shipbuilding timbers of the northeast. To have all that lumber sent up to a shipyard in Massachusetts speaks volumes for the suitability of longleaf yellow pine for this climate.

It will be an exciting time aboard ELISSA once we leave for shipyard later this summer - both above and below the waterline. We will have the opportunity to breathe in the fragrant notes of freshly milled longleaf yellow pine or Douglas fir as the timbers are being shaped into new deck planks by skilled shipwrights. We will need to turn to and help wherever we can in the painstaking steps of shaping and fitting the new deck and margin planks into place, caulking the seams with cotton and oakum, then “paying” them with pitch. But, most importantly – we will need to continue to maintain the new decks by good ship husbandry practices. There is nothing as fine as a freshly tarred rig rising above newly oiled decks.

This is an exciting project to be undertaking, and ELISSA certainly deserves it. We look forward to both the structural and aesthetic benefits of this project.

Thank you all for your time and continued dedication!

Fair leads,

Jamie



James L. White
Director

Texas Seaport Museum / 1877 Barque ELISSA
Pier 21, Number 8
Galveston, TX 77550
409-763-1877
409-763-3037 FAX
www.tsm-elissa.org

"Of all the living creatures upon land and sea, it is ships alone that cannot be
taken in by barren pretences, that will not put up with bad art from their masters"
(Joseph Conrad ~ Mirror of the Sea).

ELISSA and her makers

Shipmates,

This afternoon, after working on the logistics of our upcoming transit of ELISSA to Pier 21, I stretched my legs and went into the library for a quiet moment to think and go over our planning. My eyes happened to look at the bookcase and fell upon a book by John Masefield titled Salt Water Poems & Ballad, and wanting to take a little afternoon break, I reached for the volume. I unfurled the book to page 119 and decided to read the poem “THE SHIP AND HER MAKERS”. Even before I began to read, I thought of our ship and her “makers”, both those who first riveted together a strong sea going hull and us… her “re-makers”.

Please indulge me as I include this lovely poem for those of you who have not had the pleasure of reading it.

THE SHIP AND HER MAKERS

~THE ORE~
Before Man’s laboring wisdom gave me birth
I had not even seen the light of day;
Down in the central darkness of the earth,
Crushed by the weight of continents I lay,
Ground by the weight to heat, not knowing then
The air, the light, the noise, the world of men.

~THE TREES~
We grew on mountains where the glaciers cry,
Infinite somber armies of us stood
Below the snow-peaks which defy the sky;
A song like the gods moaning filled our wood;
We knew no men – our life was to stand staunch
Singing our song, against the avalanche.

~THE HEMP AND FLAX~
We were millions of grasses on the hill,
A million herbs which bowed as the wind blew,
Trembling in every fibre, never still;
Out of summer earth sweet life we drew.
Little blue-flowered grasses up the glen,
Glad of the sun, what did we know of men?

~THE WORKERS~
We tore the iron from the mountain’s hold,
Buy blasting fires we smithied it to steel;
Out of the shapeless stone we learned to mould
The sweeping bow, the rectilinear keel;
We hewed the pine to plank, we split the fir,
We pulled the myriad flax to fashion her.

Out of a million lives our knowledge came,
A million subtle craftsmen forged the means;
Steam was our handmaid and our servant flame,
Water our strength, all bowed to our machines.
Out of the rock, the tree, the springing herb
We built this wandering beauty so superb.

~THE SAILORS~
We, who were born on earth and live by air,
Make this thing pass across the fatal floor,
The speechless sea: alone we commune there
Jesting with death, that ever open door.
Sun, moon and stars are signs by which we drive
This wind-blown iron like a thing alive.

~THE SHIP~
I march across the waters like a queen
I whom so many wisdoms helped to make;
Over the uncruddeled billows of seas green
I blanch the bubbled highway of my wake.
By me my wandering tenants clasp the hands,
And know the thoughts of men in other lands.


I included this bit of verse in our weekly newsletter to remind myself that there is magic every time the ELISSA stirs. Whether it is bracing the yards round and working the ship or motoring several hundred yards to a new temporary berth…there is always magic whenever ELISSA stirs. After so many ship movements and leagues underway, I forget that some of you will be experiencing the spell of ELISSA moving for the first time! I remember the first time I felt the deck of a square-rigger shift under foot and the excitement that generated deep within me, almost a sense of exaggerated awareness and heightened sensitivity of the ship. While it does not compare to the first time you hand a topsail under a freshening breeze or catch a turn of a t’gallant sheet while underway…there is magic every time ELISSA stirs and awakens the sailor and lover within each of us.

I know she still stirs all of us who have sallied with her in a seaway and would love to be aboard, even for the briefest of ship movements. We will be needing hands to help ashore with her mooring lines and gangway. I hope as many of you as possible can turn to next Thursday, March 1st.


Your shipmate,

Jamie

.

ELISSA ~ a marque of excellence

Shipmates,

Do we work and sail aboard ELISSA for a journey into the past…or for a journey into our future? As we approach ELISSA’s 2012 rehabilitation later this summer, I think it is an important question to ask. All of the tasks we do aboard ELISSA contribute to her overall well being and proper stewardship. Being one of only a handful of extant sailing ships from the 19th century that still sail, ELISSA is still vibrant and tugging at her mooring lines to once again scud along under full sail and not crumbling away on a rocky promontory or disappearing under the scrapper’s cutting torch as so many of her sisters.

ELISSA’s life has spanned 3 centuries because of your efforts and those of your shipmates that signed on before you. When we are sailing aboard ELISSA, we are touching the past and experiencing some of the thrill of a sailor before the mast during the late 19th century, but ELISSA is constantly sailing into the future. How fortunate we all are to be part of the continuum that began with an iron keel laid in Aberdeen in 1877. ELISSA’s true legacy is us and we honor her with every stroke of a paint brush and handsomely coiled line. It is through our vibrant personal experience with ELISSA that we grow in our appreciation of what she means and represents. What she means to me is a standard and marque of excellence and grace and a place where I grew as a bosun while aboard her in 1988.

Looking ahead, it is much easier to see how ships and experiences like ELISSA can change our world. Each of us walks away after each watch with a piece of ELISSA…she becomes part of us and becomes our legacy as she continues her journey hull down into the future.

Please take a moment to view this color brochure that chronicles ELISSA’s history and current challenges facing her 135 year old iron.



I think it is very well done and tells our story. Guidry News has graciously hosted the brochure on their webpage and is always a good source of information regarding ELISSA. http://www.guidrynews.com/story.aspx?id=1000039912

Fair leads,

Jamie

James L. White
Director

Texas Seaport Museum / 1877 Barque ELISSA
Pier 21, Number 8
Galveston, TX 77550
409-763-1877
409-763-3037 FAX
www.tsm-elissa.org

"Of all the living creatures upon land and sea, it is ships alone that cannot be
taken in by barren pretences, that will not put up with bad art from their masters"
(Joseph Conrad ~ Mirror of the Sea).

A response to ELISSA being included on Fyddeye America’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Ships of 2011

I spent a lot of time yesterday responding to this "endangered" vessel list , instead of doing productive things toward her upcoming rehabilitaion. I know that whoever thought that including ELISSA on such a list would be helpful - it really is not. It is very frustrating to be working with a great group of shipmates toward a defined and reachable goal and then be confronted with headlines and sound bites decrying the “unseaworthiness” of ELISSA’s hull. While ELISSA’s hull has been burdened with repairs to correct unforeseen and unanticipated electrolytic corrosion, she is far from “endangered”. To see ELISSA appear between the two bookends of Wapama and Falls of Clyde is a gross disservice. Those vessels along with a majority of the vessels on the “endangered” list were victims of bureaucratic bungling, lack of adequate planning, lack of knowledge or incompetence among other ills. ELISSA has been well cared for and is iconic in the field of maritime preservation. Inclusion on this list is a big disservice to those who have cared for her over the years.

There are many inaccuracies in the reporting about the corrosion issues with ELISSA. Kurt and I have discussed these at length and I would now like to give rebuttal to the erroneous reporting of the facts:

1.) The corrosion of ELISSA’s hull plates was first discovered by Texas Seaport Museum staff, not the Coast Guard, who immediately recognized that they had a highly unusual circumstance on their hands. They were concerned enough to bring Kurt Voss, past director of ELISSA, to Galveston from Tampa, to verify that the type of corrosion they found was something we had never seen before. We also enlisted the aid of two highly-qualified volunteers from the American Bureau of Shipping, who had been deeply involved in the ship’s 2006 dry-docking.

2.) These discoveries were made last January, during the ship’s twice-every-five-years dry-docking--a schedule that has been adhered to since 1981. At every dry-docking the hull has been gone over very thoroughly and has never shown any indication that would have warned of the extent of electrolytic corrosion discovered at the last dry-docking in January 2011.

3.) The deterioration of the hull plates was the result of electrolytic corrosion, most likely caused by stray currents in the water due to damage to the shore-side electrical service of the museum and adjacent restaurant caused by Hurricane Ike. The damage found was definitely not the usual electrochemical self-corrosion (“rust”), nor was it galvanic corrosion.

4.) I ahve been seeking advice from a panel of ship preservation experts from across the globe about how best to make the necessary repairs, with the aim of preserving as much of the original 1877 iron as possible. Several of the members of this group include Kurt Voss, Walter Rybka, Doug Maclean, and myself – all of us very familiar with ELISSA and her maintenance history

5.) Galveston Historical Foundation has formed a capital campaign to raise the repair costs, led by a group of community leaders, GHF staff, and professional fundraisers. To date, nearly $200,000 has been raised.

6.) Plans to dry-dock ELISSA this summer and have her sailing by the fall are still very much on track.

7.) When Kurt Voss was aboard the ELISSA on December 26, he remarked that “she looked the best I’ve seen her in years. Nearly all the varnish had been recently refinished, paint was fresh above and below decks, running rigging was in great shape, and the entire ship was neat and orderly”. The ship’s volunteer program, long a national standard, has obviously risen to the occasion are taking good care of ELISSA while the funds are raised to get her sailing again.

8.) And finally from the “endangered” vessel article – “U.S. Coast Guard found severe hull deterioration and declared the ship unseaworthy, and thus unable to earn her keep.” I want to state in the strongest terms that at NO time has ELISSA ever carried passengers for hire or relied on her annual sea-trials to earn her keep.

Kurt and I know that these endangered lists can bring much-needed attention to ships that are facing profound challenges. We fear, though, that ELISSA’s inclusion on this latest list may have done a disservice to an organization and a program that are making diligent progress to make repairs caused by a natural disaster, not by neglect.

Keep ELISSA Sailing

ELISSA and the music tree

Shipmates,

Last Monday marked the 134th anniversary of ELISSA’s maiden voyage from Cardiff, Wales to Pernambuco, Brazil. ELISSA’s cargo on her outbound maiden voyage was coal – a ubiquitous cargo that found its way into the holds of many a fine ship. What I find interesting is the cargo she loaded for her return passage to Great Britain several months later. On February 28, 1878 she had a cargo of lumber from Pernambuco bound for Greenock, but not just any lumber – she loaded lumber from Brazil’s music tree, the perambuco, the source of the finest bows for violins, cellos and violas in the world. Most musicians of that time and today eschew any other type of material for their bows in favor of the traditional pernambuco wood bows because of their "feel" on the strings. The pernambuco tree was also renowned for the beautiful rich red dye that was extracted from its limbs and root ball.

Today the pernambuco tree is one of the most endangered trees in the world, almost as rare as ELISSA and her few remaining riveted iron sisters. Most serious musicians and virtuosi insist that no other wood or modern material can come close to the organic and resonating feel of a perambuco bow upon tuned strings. And nothing can be more essential to expressing the true soul of a sailing ship than the interplay of the wind and rigging. I know everyone who has laid aloft on ELISSA while she is under sail can attest to this notion. When you are aloft you can feel the life blood of the ship pulsing through the rigging like arteries carrying the life giving wind to all parts of the vessel. Sometimes one can feel the rigging and spars pumping lightly as if the ship was breathing. Those of us lucky enough to have experienced the very breath of ELISSA high aloft in her rigging or feeling the deck heave in joyful sighs as she scuds to windward know what a rare gem we are all entrusted with protecting. I think that the following words written by Leonardo da Vinci can be true of all of us who have tasted sailing aboard ELISSA:

For once you have tasted flight,
You will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward;
For there you have been,
And there you long to return.

I want to thank everyone who brought a gift last Saturday evening for the “gifts for ELISSA” fun muster. We had a wonderful evening, with good food and bagpipes piping the Sun to sleep, and collected over $3,000.00 toward the ongoing maintenance of ELISSA. Please also know that I am very thankful for the greatest gift of all – your time – as a crew member of ELISSA. Without these gifts of time, of money, of donations in kind we could not experience ELISSA as she longs to be known… as a graceful barque underway.

Happy Holidays to all of you and a warm huzzah from your ship

Fair leads,

Jamie



James L. White
Director

Texas Seaport Museum / 1877 Barque ELISSA
Pier 21, Number 8
Galveston, TX 77550
409-763-1877
409-763-3037 FAX
www.tsm-elissa.org

"Of all the living creatures upon land and sea, it is ships alone that cannot be
taken in by barren pretences, that will not put up with bad art from their masters"
(Joseph Conrad ~ Mirror of the Sea).