Faulkner wrote, "The past is not dead. It isn't even past." The days of the windjammers seem a long way away. We will never again see ships that sail without engines or electricity, that are wholly out of touch with the world once their t'gallants sank below the horizon and that sail the vast oceans powered only by the wind and the brawn of sailors setting and trimming the sails. Nevertheless, the windjammers are not entirely gone. Close to a dozen of the original ships remain as museum ships around the world and several are still actively sailing. The Padua, one of the last Laeisz Flying P-line ships, is sailing as the Kruzenshtern, a Russian flag school ship, as is the sail training ship Sedov, originally the Magdalene Vinnen II. Add in the dozens of sail training ships of various ages and the few sailing cruise ships and there are still square sails on the vast oceans, despite the exaggerated rumors of their demise.
Beyond the ships themselves, I came across a more personal connection to Captain Barker recently. Once a month, a group of folks from around New York City who love the music of the sea get together to sing sea shanties. The get-together is informal but has the rather grand title of the "William Main Doerflinger Memorial Sea Shanty Session" at the Noble Maritime Museum in Building D at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Staten Island, New York. I attend whenever I can, which recently has been somewhat infrequently.
Snug Harbor was originally a grand and unique retirement home for indigent sailors, called Sailor's Snug Harbor, established through the generosity of Captain Robert Richard Randall, a wealthy ship's captain and merchant, in 1833. From the mid-1800s to the 1960s, old sailors lived in a row of five Greek Revival mansions on the New Brighton waterfront.
Starting in the 1930s, William Doerflinger, an archivist and collector of folk songs, began traveling to Sailor's Snug Harbor to record sea shanties sung by old sailing ship sailors from the very last days of sail. In 1951, Doerflinger published "Shanty Men and Shanty Boys" later republished as "Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman." The volume is considered to be one of the essential collections of work songs of the sea.
For those of us who gather to sing shanties at Snug Harbor, there is a special magic to the setting, because the space where we gather was where Bill Doerflinger set up his tape recorder to record the sea shanties sung by the old sailors.
What does any of this have to do with "Hell Around the Horn?" After the book was largely written, I learned that Bill Doerflinger also recruited retired ships' captains to sing for him at Snug Harbor. One of these retired captains was none other than Captain James Pratt Barker, ex-master of the windjammer British Isles. At Snug Harbor it is easy to imagine Captain Barker singing out in full voice, Rise Me Up from Down Below, or one of the other shanties that he sang for Doerflinger. And now, we latter day shanty singers sing the same old songs in same building where Captain Barker and all the rest sang, recalling their days on the mighty oceans beneath a cloud of canvas.
A Thank You to the Readers
Thank you for reading Hell Around the Horn. I thought that it was a story worth telling, about a time and a remarkable group of people who should not be wholly forgotten. I hope that you found that reading the book was worth your time.
I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on Hell Around the Horn. Whether you loved or hated the book, or fell somewhere in between, your comments and perspectives are valuable and I would love to hear them. Please contact me through my website, rickspilman.com. I will respond to all emails and would love to hear from you.
Feel free to return to the on-line retailer where you bought the book and post a review. It need not be more than a line or two and it will be greatly appreciated.
Also, if you get the chance, please stop by the Old Salt Blog, a virtual port of call for those who love the sea.
Thanks again,
Sail Plan
Glossary
AB – Able seaman, able to hand, reef and steer.
Amidships – the middle section of the ship.
Anchor, catting – to secure the anchor to the cathead, typically for a short or coastal voyage. For longer voyages, the anchor would be hoisted onto the deck and lashed securely.
Apprentice – a young man who signs on for a four year training period, a ship's officer in training.
Armstrong Patent – slang, a ship with few winches or other mechanical labor-saving devices, where the strong arms of the crew were all that raises, lowers and trims the sails.
Articles – short for Articles of Agreement, a contract between the captain of a ship and a crew member regarding stipulations of a voyage, signed prior to and upon termination of a voyage.
Athwartships – perpendicular to the centerline of the ship, across the width of the ship.
Barometer – a device to measure the barometric pressure. A rising barometer suggests good weather whereas a falling barometer indicates increasing storms.
Barque – a sailing ship of three or more masts having the foremasts rigged square and the aftermast rigged fore-and-aft.
Beam – the breadth of a ship.
Before the mast – traditionally sailors lived forward of the main mast while officers berthed aft. Sailing before the mast was sailing as an able or ordinary seaman.
Best bib and tucker – slang, one's best clothes.
Binnacle – a stand or enclosure of wood or nonmagnetic metal for supporting and housing a compass.
Body and soul lashings – lashings of twine around the waist, pant legs and wrists to prevent the wind from blowing open or up a sailor's oilskins.
Bogie stove – also bogy and bogey, a small cabin stove.
Bolt-rope – a line sewn into the edges of a sail.
Bowsprit – a large spar projecting forward from the stem of a ship.
Brace, Braces – on a square-rigged ship, lines used to rotate the yards around the mast, to allow the ship to sail at different angles to the wind.
Brassbounder – a ship's apprentice, from the row or rows of brass buttons on an apprentice's dress jacket.
Bulwark – plating along the sides of a ship above her gunwale that provides some protection to the crew from being washed overboard by boarding seas.
Bunt – the middle part of the sail. When furling the sail, the last task is to "roll the bunt," which is hauling the furled bunt on the top of the yard and tying it with gaskets.