A blog dedicated to Early American History Lovers, Civil War Reenactors, Living Historians, and people that love the past. Lots of Historical Recipes and Patterns!
Tall Ships Philadelphia Camden was one of the most anticipated history events of the year. Tall ships would be visiting from all over the world, centering around the visit of L'Hermione, a reproduction of the frigate that Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette, usedto aid the Continentals during the American Revolution. The other big draw was the World's Largest Rubber Ducky, the 11 ton duck hoping to promote wetland protection.
Even before the festival started issues were cropping up. I heard that Colonial Reenactors were wanted for L'Hermione. I considered going but heard reenactors were being turned away at the gates. Then the website stated that all parking for 2 miles surrounding the event was already reserved. We were stuck taking public transit into the city. I would spend most of the day leading tours on Gazela, Philadelphia's tall ship.
The festival was special as we had two ships visit with a lot of history. Barques Eagle (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite ships) and one of her sister ships, Sagres were reunited. The Eagle was built in 1936 as the Horst Wessel in Germany. She was dedicated by Rudolph Hess in the presence of Adolph Hitler as a training ship. She was taken at the end of WWII by the U.S. as part of the reparations. Sagres has a similar history but hit a mine in 1944 and eventually ended up in Brazil but now sails under Portugal's flag. They are both now training ships for their respective navies.
Barque Sagres
Barque Sagres
Barque Sagres
In the middle of the day crazy rainstorm hit but it wasn't the only disappointment that day. The giant rubber duck was torn during the previous sail and the 61 foot duck acquired a 60 foot puncture. Even though crews tried to repair it and inflate it most of the day, the duck still fell flat. You could still see the baby giant duck on Camden's shore but it wasn't anywhere near as big as the giant mother duck.
Above visitors take cover on Gazela during a torrent of rain. A belly of water formed on the tarp every 15 minutes and needed to be emptied before it hit the visitor's head. I ended up getting caught on Sagres during a particularly wet spot later in the day, my clothes soaked through as I tried to protect my camera. The deck of Sagres contains wooden buckets that were used to swab the deck in the 1940s. They are just for show now but were all full of water.
The Eagle
L'Hermione next to Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild's Jupiter
Andy and I only saw L'Hermione for a few minutes as the French were throwing some sort of gala during the downpour. I would have loved to give a more detailed account of the ship as this was the main attraction. I was really disappointed to not get to see her, especially since her crew came to Gazela while we were working. Maybe next time. Our disappointment was assuaged by getting to see the schooner When and If, which was commissioned by General George S. Patton. He planned to sail it with his wife "when the war ended" and "if he survived." All in all we had fun even with the crazy walk in the downpour and experience being soaked for quite a long time on public transportation.
"Men go back to the mountains, as they go back to sailing ships at
sea, because in the mountains and on the sea they must face up."
I hate math. Everyone who knows me knows that I am a firm believer in
the "when you need to know it, you will learn it," math method. I am the
first person to say "I'll never use this," and that has been the case
for most math. I normally kick myself when I need some geometry for
sewing or something but it normally only takes a minute to look up a
formula and figure it out. Not that I hate math itself, I have just never been any good at it. I know that all math is functional but I feel that teachers tend to leave out what we would really ever use certain formulas for. Since I love practical math and this math formula is easy and fun, I thought I share it:
Figuring how close guns are by using the time lapsed between the flash of it and the sound it makes is practically the same as figuring out how close a storm is by counting the seconds between when you see lightning it and when you hear the thunder. I think it is interesting that many movies will have the flash of a cannon and the sound at the same time. If you were any distance away, there would be a discrepancy due to the fact that light travels faster than sound.
To find out how far away a storm is you would sound how many seconds from after you see a lightning flash until you hear the thunder. You take that number and multiply it by 1080ft (How fast sound travels on average, temperature and medium affect how fast sound travels. At sea level, it is 1125ft.) Then divide that by 5,280 (the number of feet in a mile for us who forget,) and you get how many miles away a storm is.
Ex. 10 seconds x 1080 (How many feet sound travels in a second) / 5,280 (Number of feet in a mile) = 2.045 miles
It roughly equates to a mile every 5 seconds. Remember that for next storm!
I came across this article in the New York Times Archive Database. I was originally looking for a recipe for naval hardbread. I was unsuccessful in finding the recipe but I came across a fun little article: I think the subheading says it all "Kitchen Ga-ley Resounded with Death Threat Over
Slice of Pie." The article tells of what was probably a small incident but it is covered it as though it were a romanticized, full fledged Mutiny. The article is charming and picturesque, it gives images of angry sailors storming the deck with belaying pins (those wooden clubs on the inside edge of old ships, used to tie the ropes to,) and sailors chanting the old sea shanty "Leave Her, Johnny," while the captain stands aloft with his pretty daughter. It's so rainy today, grab a cup of hot chocolate and a cozy blanket and read a newspaper clipping, that is probably older than your grandma.
This article was so cute I couldn't help but post on it, and since the article is really hard to read a typed version can be read below:
"WEEVIL IN BUISCUIT
ROUSE SAILOR’S IRE
Fued Rages Between
Fidor, the Cook and Seamen as the Mashona Reaches Port.
POLICE QUELL A
“MUTINY”
Magistrate Told How
Kitchen Ga-ley Resounded with Death Threat Over Slice of Pie.
Four able seamen, Anton Vaneik, Alexander Lemberg, John
Andersen, and John Paulton, were arrested yester-day afternoon on board the
four-masted bark Mashona. Incoming from Buenos Aires.
They were locked up in the Stapleton Police station on warrants sworn out by
Ernest W. Fidor, the cook, who charged that they had threatened him with bodily
harm after the vessel had arrived inside the three-mile limit and was under the
jurisdiction of the United States.
The seamen said they were glad to be brought ashore and in-carcerated, because
they would have a chance to get some food fit to eat, which they had not
experienced for the last seventy-five days, they told the Police Lieutenant.
When the
Mashona arrived in Quar-antine yesterday forenon with 3,4000 tons of linseed
from Buenos Aires and Montevideo, Captain Gunderson told the Health Officer
that four of his crew were mutinous and had given him a great deal of trouble
on the voyage. He wanted a police boat to come and take them off, he said.
After the bark had anchored off Stapleton a police patrol boat went alongside
and two of the Harbor Squad went on board to look the situation over. The
vessel was flying the Uruguay flag and had a Scandinavian crew of twenty men
for-ward nad [sic] a Captain, two mates, car-penter, sail maker, and cook aft.
When the
police officers climbed on deck they found that the Mashona was in a state of
siege, but there was no signs of violence. The Captain and his mates stood on
the poop shouting to the men that they were “a bunch of beachcombers” and other
unkind things, while the crew stood in a group around the capstan on the
foc’sle head growling out the old sailor chant, “It’s Time for Us to Leave
Her.” With the Captain on the poop stood his fair-haired, tall daughter,
Ggatha.
The sailors
told the police that they all had their certificates for ability in their
duties. What they complained of, they said, was bad food. Fidor, the man who
was doing the cooking, they declared, did not know how to cook salt water. The
beans were so mouldy, they added, and the biscuits were so full of weevils, the
seamen said, that they had to be nailed down to prevent them running all over
the deck. Weevil steeplechasing was their only sport the men said. The bark was seventy-five days on the voyage,
and they did not get any meat fit to eat until the vessel was within four days
of Sandy Hook.
Captain
Gunderson said the men had not attempted any violence, but that they had
threatened him at various times, and Earnest Fidor, the cook, who said he
hailed from Milwaukee, declared that one of the able seamen had threat-ened to
slice his liver out if he did not give him a piece of pie. After listening to
both sides the police told Captain Gunderson they could not take any action and
suggested that he should go on shore and search New York
City to find the Consul for Uraguay.
When the
Captain and his daughter had gone ashore, Fidor, the cook, took a boat and
landed at Stapleton, where he went to the police station and asked for a
warrant for four of the crew, who had threatened him. He said that these men
had pretended to be ill a month ago, and when the Captain and his mates went
forward with the carpenter and sailmaker to carry them to the hospital, where
they could give them more attention, the rest of the crew, armed with belaying
pins and sheath knives had showed fight, and forced the captain and his
officers to retreat aft.
Fidor was
taken to Ninth Branch Detective Bureau at St. George’s
Ferry House, after swearing before
Magistrate Hanry at Stapleton that the four seamen had threatened to kill him
after the bark had passed inside Sandy Hook. The
detectives said goodbye to their families and looked well to their revol-vers,
expecting to have to deal with a piratical crew, on board the Mashona, but they
have had no trouble in taking the men ashore.
The cook
said that even when the Captain had three pigs killed on Sunday, the crew had
complained that the porkers were too fat to eat. He told the reporters that he
was the only American on board and that in 1900, for a wager, he had rowed
alone in a lifebzoat [sic] from Galveston to San Juan, Porto Rico, which took
him three months, but he would not allow that to appear in the uapers [papers.]
He disliked publicity, the cook said.
Fidor told
the Magistrate that he would hace Captain Gunderson in court this morning to
appear against the four seamen. The skipper and his daughter were reported to
still be looking for the Consul to Uruguay
when the sun sank below the horizon last night. The men cannot sue the Captain
under Uruguay’s
laws for giving them bad food, as they could if the vessel was sailing under
the American Flag."
