And goodnight

Maritime Compass emerged into a very different blogosphere in 2005.  Today, the blogs listed here under "Related Blogs & Resources" are but a few of the excellent blogs and news sites covering activities in maritime studies, not to mention the increasing presence of maritime museums and libraries at other social media sites every day.  So it's time to put Maritime Compass to sleep.

The posts will remain here, but the blog will go silent.

I hope to see all of you over at Full Fathom Five, exploring the collections of San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park!

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A Gold Rush Journal 'Round the Horn - Two Sketches

(by Palma J. You, Archives Technician)

On March 13th, Mr. Chittenden notes "20 passengers from the ship Tamaroo" along with 18 from "our boat", the Croton, "went up in a schooner boat of about 5 tons belonging to one of the natives" to the town of Saint Catherine.

While the bark Croton was making its way to Saint Catherine, Mr. Chittenden records this sketch:

"...the harbour 12 miles from town called St. Michael. The two ships laying at anchor are the Croton & Tamaroo. The small boats about in the harbor are natives canoeing & going to trade with the ships. The mountains shown are up on the mainland. The island represented in the harbour is one about 6 miles from the entrance… "



The second sketch shows his interest in architecture:



"This represents a view of an old fortification, Aquiduck, & farena mill, attached together with the surrounding scenery situated at San. Michael, upon the mainland oposite the island of St Catherine."

(The first of this series of neat stuff from the journal by Mr. Chittenden was posted on March 7, 2012.)

SF Maritime NHP on Worldcat.org

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WorldCat.org >>

We are delighted to announce that the Park's published holdings (e.g., books, periodicals, etc.) and some records for archival holdings are now appearing on Worldcat.org! New acquisitions are listed on our Worldcat.org profile page, where you can also subscribe to an rss feed of our newly cataloged items.

If you haven't visited Worldcat.org, be sure to check out the advanced features that allow you to create bibliographies and lists, and to tag and share items using multiple services.

Although the newest, Worldcat.org is just one of the many catalogs that contain records for the Park's collections. And as ever, be sure to contact us if you have questions about using any of these catalogs to locate our Park's resources.

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of rss feed & functioning commenting.

Digging for Gold at the Library: Keys the mascot

(Keys the mascot, P79-064a SCR 50)
(by Gina Bardi, Reference Librarian)

Maritime history's cup runneth over with colorful characters, some famous, some infamous, some now long forgotten. One of these forgotten fellows is finally getting his due on San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park's website. He was incredibly smart, quick on his feet and brave. Friends recall his playfulness, as he was always up for fun as long as the work was done. He was loyal, stout of heart and limber. He climbed rigging with the best of them and went into deep dark holds of ships where no one else could fit to retrieve dropped tools. His start in life is a mystery, all that is known is that he was a homeless wanderer, begging in the streets to get by when he met up with a Sergeant Bennett of the Potrero Police, who took home, cleaned him up and set him to work patrolling the Union Iron Works yard. He also most likely, although the incident is lost to history, gave him a bone. Because our hero, dear reader, is a dog. A dog named Keys. A finer mutt was not to be found in any San Francisco Shipyard.

Keys the dog quickly became mascot of Union Iron Works. According to a San Francisco Chronicle article from 1901, "There was not a battleship launched in late years without Keys as a passenger" ("Some Animal Mascots" 30). To which he wore his finest clothes "A high hat and a gaudy blanket tied with ribbons" ("Some Animal Mascots" 30). The photo the library is using depicts Keys at the launching of the Olympia.

In 1895, Keys fell from the rigging of a steamer, injuring himself badly (don't worry, he survived) but the devotion of his fans can be seen in the newspaper account of the accident: "The workmen of Union Iron Works say that Keys shall have the largest funeral that any dog ever had if he dies" ("The Olympia's Mascot" 8) and "Other instances of the remarkable intelligence of the dog are recounted by the workmen who deeply grieve over the accident that has happened to their pet" ("The Olympia's Mascot" 8).

We chose Keys as our mascot not just because of his prior work experience as a mascot or how adorable he is (that helped) but because he seemed to represent a certain intelligence, curiosity and appreciation for fun that we hope comes across in our blog.
Keys was quite the character and there are a few newspaper accounts of his adventures at the shipyard and in the Potrero neighborhood. If you're interested in reading more, and quite frankly I'd be amazed if you weren't (a dog that climbs rigging? Come on!), I've compiled a bibliography for Keys below.

"A Dog That Has a Sense of Humor." San Francisco Call Feb 13 1898: 26. California Digital Newspaper Collection. Web. 8 Mar. 2012.

"The Olympia's Mascot." San Francisco Call Jan 25 1895: 8. California Digital Newspaper Collection. Web. 8 Mar. 2012.

"Some Animal Mascots." San Francisco Chronicle (1869-Current File): 30. ProQuest Historical Newspapers: San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922). Feb 24 1901. Web. 8 Mar. 2012. (Available by subscription; ask your local library about access.)

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of rss feed & functioning commenting.

A Gold Rush Journal 'Round the Horn - More than Latitude and Longitude

(by Palma J. You, Archives Technician)



The H. W. Chittenden sea journal kept on board the Croton, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Museum and Archive Collection (SAFR 14299, HDC 91), gives us a daily perspective from February 16 to July 29, 1849 of life aboard a Gold Rush ship. Mr. Chittenden, an engineer, sailed from New York to San Francisco around Cape Horn. In 19th century language and spelling, his journal is filled with the goings-on and sketches in pencil of sites and landings along the way and other historical information including a provocative remedy for cholera. Sketches and other neat stuff from the journal will be posted over the next several weeks as a series. The first of this series is a remedy for cholera:

Receipt for Cholera
10 grains of camphor
20 do Red Pepper
20 do Of callomel
And rub the Boddy with some stimulating ointment. If this does not opperate, repeat the doce after some suficient time has elapts for its action upon the Bowels.

Here's a nice example of 19th century word usage and spelling. The way the words "Receipt" and "do" are used is intriguing. A little research shows the word "Receipt" could mean "a statement of ingredients and procedure necessary to make a medicinal preparation" - a perfect fit; and "do" is probably the abbreviation of the word "ditto" (OED online). To give "Grains" context, 20 grains make 1 scruple, 480 grains make 1 ounce. In 1888 the United States used the same apothecary scale as used in Great Britain (Clarke). And, "callomel" is listed as a "valuable cathartic given at the beginning of an illness, where it is desired to clean out the bowels completely." (United States Public Health Service). It makes sense this recipe shows up early in the journal.

Etymologies for 19th century usage of the words "Receipt" and "do" can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary. Second edition, 1989; online version December 2011 (subscription required).

Other sources:

Clarke, Frank Wigglesworth. Weights, measures, and money, of all nations. New York: D. Appleton & Co.

Medical Officers of the United States Public Health Service. The Ship's Medicine Chest and first aid at sea. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1929.

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of rss feed & functioning commenting.

Digging for Gold at the Library: Genealogy

(by Gina Bardi, Reference Librarian)

One of the most popular research subjects in the library is genealogy. Almost every day we get asked questions about passenger lists, crew members or what life was like for an immigrant crossing the Pacific. In order to help people with their research, I wrote a guide to genealogy research for our library. I outlined what information we have here and where to find what we don't have (passenger lists being the #1 requested item). If you're interested in finding out if a relative was a famous (or infamous) mariner, check it out.

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of rss feed & functioning commenting.

Lobster a l'United States

The recipe for Lobster à l'United States in The Captain's Table : 18 recipes for famous dishes served aboard the S.S. United States and S.S. America is preceded by a portrait of a happy couple with the following caption:

'Months after a recent trip abroad, we were still savoring the memory of Lobster à l'United States served on board the S.S. United States. On our next crossing, we asked the Maitre d' for the recipe. Here it is--just the way M. de la Motte wrote it out for us.' Colonel and Mrs. Leon Mandel, well-known Chicago financier and woman's world shotgun champion, respectively, have made 20 crossings on United States Lines.

Here is that recipe:

Lobster à l'United States
Crack the claws and cut the tails of two 1-1/2 pound live lobsters into thick slices. Reserve the rest of the lobsters for another use. In a flame-proof casserole sauté 1 carrot, 1 leek, 1 stalk of celery and 2 shallots, all finely chopped in 2 tablespoons clarified butter for 7 to 8 minutes. Stir in the lobster pieces and add grated lemon rind, paprika, cayenne and salt to taste. Cover the casserole and bake the mixture in a very hot oven (450° F) for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the casserole from the oven and put it over high heat to reduce the remaining liquid. Pour 3 tablespoons heated brandy over the lobster and ignite the spirit. When the flames die dust the lobster with 3 tablespoons flour and stir in 1 tablespoon tomato paste. Add 4 cups chicken stock, bring it to a boil, and cook the mixture, covered, over very low heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in 1/2 cup heated heavy cream. Remove the casserole from the heat and sprinkle it with chopped truffles and fines herbes. Stir 1/4 cup sherry and serve the lobster with saffron rissoto (rice) or croutons. Serves 4.

And you can see the March 2, 1954 menu from the S.S. United States when this dish was served, along with kangaroo tail soup, at the New York Public Library's What's on the Menu collection.

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of rss feed & functioning commenting.

Overtaking

Overtaking

Every ship under steam, and indeed, under sail,
Overtaking another is never to fail
To alter her course in order to steer
Quite clear of the other when drawing too near.
Another instructive rhyme from Nautical Nursery Rhymes, by Billy Ringbolt, which resides in the Peterson, Peter H. (Capt.) Papers, (SAFR 18665, HDC 571).

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of rss feed & functioning commenting.

From dandyfunk to cracker jack?

Among the treasures in the Library's Krummes Collection of Steamship Fiction are selected issues of rare pulp magazines such as Adventure, containing maritime stories and poetry. Not all of these stories are fiction; some are memoirs by sailors-turned-authors, and in cataloging them, I'm learning a lot. (Since many of these stories are written by noted authors and never reprinted, we decided to create individual cataloging records for each maritime story, poem, or article, so they would be easier to locate, and so far I've created cataloging records for the issues we hold of Adventure magazine from 1919 through mid-1930.) One such memoir is Norman Springer's "Dandyfunk," which describes fondly the "lost and forgotten art" of how Old Donald made dandyfunk at sea. He is careful to delineate the proper steps in making dandyfunk, and to distinguish it from cracker hash, which anyone could make. The ingredients are listed in great detail:

• hardtack placed in a dandyfunk bag which was laid on the iron anchor stock and beaten with a blub, oaken belaying pin, or heavy sheet pin, and emptied onto a plate
• water, "not too much and not too little" added to the heap of crumbs and carefully stirred
• and other ingredients added, "everything a hungry man could lay hands upon that looked edible."

Although sugar and molasses are mentioned, and he calls it a "candy-sweet, greasy, lead-heavy sailors' delight," Springer doesn't state just what in fact it is--a pudding? A cake? A casserole? A big cookie?

Basil Lubbock in Round the Horn Before the Mast says that dandyfunk is a mixture between a cake and a pudding, and in Warren Harper's article, "Housekeeping on the High Seas" (in the Boston Cooking-School Magazine vol. 8, no. 10, May 1904), we learn on p. 483 that dandyfunk a kind of deep-sea gingerbread. Sounds tasty! But in Saltwater foodways : New Englanders and their food, at sea and ashore, in the nineteenth century, Sandra Oliver introduces her recipe on p. 116-117 by saying, "I don't know why you would want to make this, but here is an adapted recipe in case you do." The ingredients she lists are simply 1 piece of hardtack, 1 tablespoon of shortening, and 2 tablespoons molasses.

This version does not sound as appetizing, and doesn't sound like a "sailors' delight." Clearly, somewhere between "everything a hungry man could lay hands upon that looked edible" and the simplicity of Oliver's recipe is what Springer says "was something to remember and dream over." So how can we capture the taste of a dandyfunk today?

If you contact us, we can get a copy of Oliver's recipe to you as a starting point (as well as a hardtack recipe). Many sailors' snacks took advantage of hardtack and molasses, including midshipman's nuts, which is described in the Encyclopedia of Nautical Knowledge as made of broken up sea-biscuit and raisins, so maybe your dandyfunk would benefit from raisins. How about peanuts? Robert McKenna's Dictionary of Nautical Literacy does not have an entry for dandyfunk, but tells us in the entry for Cracker Jack, "The combination of caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts is believed to have been inspired by a number of sea dishes, including 'crackerjack,' a combination of preserved meat and broken biscuits, and 'dandyfunk,' a mixture of broken biscuits and molasses."

Could a taste of Cracker Jack hint at the dandyfunk of yesteryear? I have to say, I'm not sure. McKenna does not cite any sources for his assertion, and the Oxford English Dictionary says that the term "cracker jack" as a culinary term (definition 2) dates in print to only 1902 when it was mentioned in the Sears catalog. (And the OED does not mention any link between dandyfunk and cracker jack in its entry for dandyfunk.)

What do you think? Have you made dandyfunk? Would you like to? We'd like to hear from you if you do! And if you come across any more information on dandyfunk, please let me know.

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of rss feed & functioning commenting.