Cold Eggs Muscovite

This recipe from The Captain's Table : 18 recipes for famous dishes served aboard the S.S. United States and S.S. America follows the one for Porterhouse Soup, and is introduced with the declaration, "Any egg would be proud and happy to end up looking like this."

Wow!

The recipe:

Slice off both ends of 6 hard-cooked eggs. Around the top, middle, and bottom of each egg wrap 3 anchovy filets, to resemble the hoops of a barrel. Put a small slice of truffle in the middle of each egg, to represent the bung of a barrel. Stand the eggs upright and carefully scoop out the yolks. Fill the centers with caviar, shaping it in a peak at the top of the eggs. Stand each egg in a cooked white artichoke bottom, and arrange the eggs in a circle on a platter. Garnish eggs and center of the platter with finely chopped aspic. Serves 6.

Since I had never heard of Eggs Muscovite, I did a little searching, and found an interesting variant recipe, "Truffled Eggs a la Muscovite," in The Boston Cooking School magazine of culinary science and domestic economics, Volume 15 (1911), in the "Seasonal Recipes" section by Janet M. Hill, p. 329-330:

Have as many rounds of toast, two inches and one-half in diameter, as there are persons to serve. Spread the toast, while hot, with butter. When cold spread with caviare mixed with a few drops of lemon juice. The smallest sized can of caviare and a teaspoonful of lemon juice will be enough for eight rounds. For each service have ready a small, cold, hard-cooked egg, from which the shell has been removed. Cut a slice from the rounding end of each egg, that it may stand level. To three fourths a cup of mayonnaise dressing beat in one-fourth a cup of consomme, in which a scant tablespoonful of gelatine has been softened and dissolved. When added to the dressing the gelatine mixture must be liquid but not hot. Roll the eggs in the mixture to coat completely, then set one on each round; or set the eggs in place and with a silver knife spread the dressing over them; sprinkle with chopped truffles, or garnish with four or more figures cut from slices of truffles, or leave plain. Chill thoroughly before serving as an appetizer at luncheon or dinner. Three fourths a cup of white sauce, made of rich chicken broth (or half cream), may replace the mayonnaise.

This recipe is accompanied by an image:



What to do with the leftover cooked egg yolks? Many cookbooks suggest them crumbled over salads--sounds delicious!

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SF Maritime NHP Library's holiday hours

The Library will have special hours during the holiday season:

• The Library will be closed, Friday, Dec. 23 and Monday, Dec. 26, 2011.
  
• The Library will be available by appointment only 1:00-5:00pm, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 27-29, 2011.
  
• The Library will be closed Friday, Dec. 30, 2011 and Monday, Jan. 2, 2012.
  
• Regular hours will resume on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012
  

Details on our regular hours can be found on our Plan Your Research page, with more information on our policies and procedures in our Collections FAQ.

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Researching America's Cup

In 2012 and 2013, San Francisco will be hosting multiple America's Cup events--want to learn more?

Our reference staff have written a ten page pathfinder (Adobe Acrobat .pdf file, 1.5 Mb) to help you find information on the America's Cup, on the hosting yacht clubs, and on the history of San Francisco Bay racing. Included are links to websites, bibliographic references to publications available in our and other collections, as well as citations to relevant documentary, photographic, and plans collections available in the Park, and even relevant objects held in our Museum Collections. Want to find films? They're listed there, too.

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New in the SF Maritime NHP Library

The library's lists of new accessions for November are here--for more information on any title, contact us or search our catalogs:

• November 1-15, 2011 (.pdf file, 32 Kb)
  
• November 16-31, 2011 (.pdf file, 23 Kb)
  

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Oceans of Information...

Be sure to check out the lead article in the Dec./Jan./Feb. 2011-2012 issue of the Park's Maritime News, "Oceans of Information in the Maritime Library" by Gina Bardi, Reference Librarian.

Illustrated with images from the Park's collections, the article includes catalog search hints and describes the broad range of research assistance available to you.

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Porterhouse Soup

Today we bring you another recipe from The Captain's Table : 18 recipes for famous dishes served aboard the S.S. United States and S.S. America. This is another dish that was served in the dining rooms aboard the S.S. United States, which has been adapted for the home kitchen--it not only gives us a glimpse into what was served underway, but a look at mid-20th century recipes for the home cook. Contemporary recipes are usually presented with ingredients lists followed by the cooking directions, and serve considerably less than twenty!


Porterhouse Soup

Have butcher bone a 3-pound shin of beef and a 3-pound shin of veal and cut the bones into very small pieces. Spread the bones in a roasting pan and sprinkle them with a little beef dripping. Roast the bones in a hot oven (400 degrees F), stirring occasionally, until the bones are golden brown. Put the bones in a large kettle. To the roasting pan add a 3- to 4-pound fowl, cut into serving pieces, 1/2 pound lean ham, cut in 1/2-inch pieces, and the boned veal and beef, cut in 1/2-inch pieces. Roast the meat and fowl in a hot oven (400 degrees F) until it is nicely browned. Add the meat and fowl to the kettle. In the roasting pan saute 1/2 pound mushrooms, chopped, 1/2 cup sliced carrots, 2 onions, 2 stalks of celery, 1 leek, and 1 parsnip, all coarsely chopped, and 2 garlic cloves, crushed, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are well browned and have absorbed the glaze from the pan. Sprinkle the vegetables with 1-1/2 cups flour and stir in 8 quarts chicken, beef, or veal stock. Bring to a boil and pour it over the meat and bones in the kettle. Add 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 2 cloves, 1 bay leaf, and thyme, marjoram, basil, cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, skimming constantly until no scum rises to the surface. Lower the heat, cover the kettle, and simmer the soup for 1-1/2 hours, or until the meat is tender. Strain the soup, measure it, and, for each quart, add 1 glass Madeira or Sherry. Serve the soup hot, garnished with julienne of mushrooms, truffles, quenelles, or small meatballs. Serves 20.

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Two Steamers Crossing

"NOTE--This is the position of greatest danger; there is nothing for it but good lookout, caution and judgment, with prompt action.

If to your starboard RED appears
It is your duty to keep clear;
To act as judgment says is proper;
To Port--or to Starboard--Back--or Stop her!

But when upon your Port is seen
A steamer's Starboard light of GREEN,
There's not so much for you to do,
For GREEN to port keeps clear of you.

All ships must keep a good lookout and steamships must stop and go astern if necessary.

Both in safety and in doubt,
Always keep a good lookout;
In danger, with no room to turn,
Ease her! Stop her! Go astern!"

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.

New in the SF Maritime NHP Library

Here are the Library's lists of new accessions for October; for more information on any title, contact us or search our catalogs:

• Library new accessions, October 1-15, 2011 (.pdf file, 32 Kb)
  
• Library new accessions, October 16-31, 2011 (.pdf file, 23 Kb)
  

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

Stone Boat Yard...

...that's who they were, and that's what we've called them...NOT! (Finding the forgotten partners of the Stone Family boatyards.)

By Sara Diamond, Archivist.

Sometimes a simple fact checking exercise leads to surprising discoveries. That's what happened when I was wrapping up the final details of one of our newer collections, the Jack Ehrhorn collection of Stone Boat Yard naval architectural drawings (HDC1611, SAFR 22826).

I decided to double check the business addresses of the boatyards W. Frank Stone operated in Tiburon from 1893 until 1899, and at Harbor View, in San Francisco, from 1899-1911. Imagine my surprise when I was unable to find a listing for W.F. Stone boatyard in either the San Francisco City Directory or in the Marin County Directory. What I found instead were two previously unacknowledged business partners.

From 1853 until 1975 three generations of the Stone family built some of the most celebrated wooden work, pleasure and racing craft to come from the shores of San Francisco Bay; and until 2004, Stone Boat Yard continued to carry the family name and legacy under new ownership. As the businesses grew and evolved over 141 years, William Isaac Stone, his son W. Frank Stone, and his grandson Lester F. Stone opened and closed boatyards in two San Francisco locations, in Tiburon (Marin), and on both sides of the Oakland-Alameda estuary. In the Historic Documents Department we refer to these boatyards by the shorthand "Stone Boat Yard," and more formally as the W. I. Stone boatyard, the W. F. Stone boatyard, the W. F. Stone & Son boatyard, and finally, as the Stone Boat Yard. These names reflect the history of primary ownership change and were, we assumed, the correct and incorporated business names. Our assumptions were wrong.

I've found a Swann amidst the ducklings of Tiburon. From 1893 to 1899 Frank Stone operated a boatbuilding yard on Beach Street in Tiburon in 1893, in partnership with someone only identified as Swann, and the business was called Stone & Swann. Who was Swann? I don't know! The only information I have comes from a business card which was duplicated on page 62 of James Heig's Pictorial History of Tiburon (San Francisco: 1984). Do you know who Mr. or Ms. Swann was? If so, please leave a comment.

Another heretofore unknown individual person was Edgar N. Van Bergen, Frank Stone's business partner at Harbor View in San Francisco, where they did business as Stone & Van Bergen from 1899 until 1911. After his stint in the shipbuilding business, Edgar Van Bergen became the general manager of a liquor wholesaler on Battery St. in San Francisco. Edgar's path through San Francisco can be followed in the pages of Crocker & Langley's San Francisco City Directories. Do you know anything more about Edgar? If you do, please let us know on the comment page.

I guess the cold fog and sharp wind got on Frank Stone's nerves. In 1912 he moved his home and business to the sunnier side of the bay where he owned and operated a shipyard in partnership with his son, Lester, until his death in 1924. W.F. Stone & Son built wooden boats along the shores of the estuary in Oakland from 1912 to 1941, and in Alameda from 1941 to 1975.

You can find out more about this collection by looking at the finding aid on the Online Archive of California.

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Alaska Packers Association Fleet List

Ted Miles and Ed LeBlanc have compiled a list of the names and rigs of the Alaska Packers Association vessels. Please note that the number of masts are indicated with the abbreviation "m," e.g., "3m" is a 3 masted vessel, and "4m" is a 4 masted vessel. Former names are listed with the prefix "ex-..." and sources for the list are at the end. All the sources are available in the Library, as is information on the vessels--contact us to learn more!

Names and Rigs of Alaska Packers Association Vessels


Star of Alaska (now Balclutha) under sail, undated, J7.90n (SAFR 21374)

Iron and steel sailing vessels:

• Star of Alaska (built 1886, ship 3m), ex-Balclutha (ship 3m)
  
• Star of Bengal (built 1874, ship 3m)
  
• Star of Chile (built 1878, bark 3m), ex-Coalinga (bark 3m), ex-La Escocesa (ship 3m)
  
• Star of England (built 1893, bark 3m), ex-Abby Palmer (bark 3m), ex-Blairmore (ship 3m)
  
• Star of Falkland (built 1892, ship 3m), ex-Arapahoe (ship 3m), ex-Northern Light (ship 3m), ex-Steinbeck (ship 3m), ex-Durbridge (ship 3m)
  
• Star of Finland (built 1899, bark, 3m), ex-Kaiulani (bark 3m)
  
• Star of France (built 1877, ship 3m)
  
• Star of Greenland (built 1892, bark 3m), ex-Hawaiian Isles (bark 4m)
  
• Star of Holland (built 1885, bark 3m), ex-Homeward Bound (bark 3m), ex-Zemandar (ship 3m)
  
• Star of Iceland (built 1896, bark 3m), ex-Willscott (bark 3m)
  
• Star of India (built 1863, bark 3m), ex-Euterpe (ship 3m)
  
• Star of Italy (built 1877, bark 3m, formerly ship 3m)
  
• Star of Lapland (built 1902, bark 4m), ex-Atlas (bark 4m)
  
• Star of Peru (built 1863, bark 3m), ex-Himalaya (bark 3m)
  
• Star of Poland (built 1902, bark 4m), ex-Acme (bark 4m)
  
• Star of Russia (built 1874, ship 3m)
  
• Star of Scotland (built 1887, bark 4m), ex-Kenilworth (bark 4m)
  
• Star of Shetland (built 1899, bark 4m), ex-Edward Sewall (bark 4m)
  
• Star of Zealand (built 1899, bark 4m), ex-Astral (bark 4m)
  

Wooden sailing vessels:

• Bohemia (built 1875, ship 3m)
  
• Centennial (built 1875, barkentine 4m, formerly ship 3m)
  
• Electra (built 1868, bark 3m)
  
• George Schofield (built 1870, ship 3m)
  
• Indiana (built 1876, ship 3m)
  
• James A. Broland (built 1869, bark 3m)
  
• Llewelyn J. Morse (built 1877, ship 3m)
  
• Morem (built 1870, ship 3m)
  
• Metha Nelson (built 1896, schooner 3m)
  
• Nicholas Thayer (built 1868, bark 3m)
  
• Premier (built 1876, schooner 3m)
  
• Prosper (built 1892, schooner 3m)
  
• Servia (built 1883, ship 3m)
  
• Tacoma (built 1881, ship 3m)
  
• Will W. Case (built 1878, bark 3m)
  

Other vessels:

• Alitak (built 1901, motor ship)
  
• Arctic (built 1904, steamship), ex-Newport News (steamship), ex-Oldenwald (steamship), ex-St. Jan (steamship)
  
• Bering (built 1920, steamship), ex-Salatiga (steamship)
  
• Chirikof (built 1908, steamship), ex-Lurline (passenger ship)
  
• Delarof (built 1920, steamship), ex-Mohinkis (steamship)
  
• Etolin (built 1913, steamship), ex-Matsonia (passenger ship)
  
• Kodiak (built 1912, steamship)
  
• Kvichak (built 1900, tugboat)
  
• Salmon King (built 1918, steamship), ex-H.B. Lovejoy (steam schooner)
  

Sources:

• Lyman, John. "The Alaska Packers, San Francisco." Sea Breezes. Dec. 1934 and Jan. 1935. Print.
  
• Huycke, Harold. "The Great Star Fleet." 1960.
  
• Loring, Charles M. 1947. Data & notes on the sailing vessel fleet of the Alaska Packers Association, San Francisco, Calif.
  

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Hot Vichyssoise

The Library has many books concerning food at sea, including some about the elegant dining aboard ocean liners. The Captain's Table : 18 recipes for famous dishes served aboard the S.S. United States and S.S. America contains recipes adapted for the home kitchen so you can enjoy the dishes that were served in the elegant dining rooms at sea, including this one:

Hot Vichyssoise

Mince 2 onions and the white parts of 4 well-washed leeks and combine them in a heavy saucepan with 3 tablespoons butter. Simmer the mixture over low heat for 15 minutes. Add 3 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced, and 2 cups chicken stock. Season with salt and white pepper to taste and simmer the soup over low heat until the potatoes are tender. Add 2 cups hot milk and 4 tablespoons butter. Strain the soup and pour it into a tureen. Add 12 slices of French dinner rolls. Serves 4.

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

New in the SF Maritime NHP Library

Here are the Library's lists of new accessions for the last half of June through the first half of August; for more information on any title, contact us or search our catalogs:

• Library new accessions, August 16-31, 2011 (.pdf file, 31 Kb)
  
• Library new accessions, September 1-15, 2011 (.pdf file, 30 Kb)
  
• Library new accessions, September 16-31, 2011 (.pdf file, 33 Kb)
  

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

Two steamers meeting, and passing

Two Steamers Meeting

When both side lights you see ahead,
Port your helm and show your RED.

Two Steamers Passing

GREEN to GREEN, or RED to RED--
Perfect safety--go ahead.

Another instructive rhyme, addressing vessel sidelights, from Nautical Nursery Rhymes, by Billy Ringbolt, which resides in the "Peterson, Peter H. (Capt.) Papers, (SAFR 18665, HDC 571)."

(Contributor: Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

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Digging for Gold at the Library: Paasch

(by Gina Bardi, Reference Librarian)

The other day an archivist here had a question about a piece of equipment she found in a photograph. She wasn't sure what it was and asked our historian and the Library staff if we could help. Stephen suggested we break out the Paasch. Paasch sounds like an Easter Egg dying kit, but he is in fact the author of Illustrated Marine Encyclopedia. Paasch, or more formally Capt. H. Paasch, Knight of the Order of "Leopold," of the Imperial Order "Francis Joseph," of the Military Order of "Christ," etc., Member of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, Surveyor to Lloyd's Register for Belgium, Author of "From Keel to Truck," etc. (or at least that is how he has listed himself on the title page...I hope his friends just called him Paasch), is probably better known for his multilanguage dictionary, From Keel to Truck. The Illustrated Marine Encyclopedia was published in response to the success of that title as apparently many readers wrote asking him to expand the English definitions. He accommodated and added material related to merchant service in general. The result is a classic of maritime reference.

What makes Illustrated Marine Encyclopedia so interesting to me (besides the fact that the book is dedicated to "His most Gracious Majesty Leopold II King of the Belgians, Duke of Saxony, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Sovereign of the Independent Congo State"--a controversial dedicatee indeed) are the titular illustrations. The drawings are not only beautiful but so exact that they almost appear to be 3-D. They pop from the page and invite you to invest time in exploring the smallest of the details. The explanations of what exactly (and I do mean exactly) you are looking at are on the opposite page. This is the sort of reference book you could curl up with by a fire. I've included some of my favorites below, but come to the library and see for yourself!

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When running free

When Running Free

When off the wind and going free,
Keep clear of ships close-hauled you see,
And running with the wind dead aft,
Give way to every sailing craft.


Another instructive rhyme from Nautical Nursery Rhymes, by Billy Ringbolt, which resides in the "Peterson, Peter H. (Capt.) Papers, (SAFR 18665, HDC 571)."

(Contributor: Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

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Red-lined wrasse

The red-lined wrasse (Crenilabrus pavo Linnaeus), plate 6 from the Library's copy of the beautiful book, Taking one's own ship around the world, a journal descriptive of scenes and incidents, together with observations from the log book, recorded on the voyage around the world, October 25, 1928, to May 16, 1929, of the yacht Ara, commanded by the author, William K. Vanderbilt.

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What d'ya mean by "Crow's nest?"

A sailor get's a bird's-eye view of his environment from a crow's nest. Galleons of the 16th century often had one or more crow's nests situated high on the tallest masts, where a sailor often shared this lofty perch with crows brought aboard in a cage, hence the term, "crow's nest." If the captain wanted to locate land, a crow was released from the perch and the navigator sailed in the direction of the bird's flight as it invariably headed towards land. Modern mates use the term to describe any kind of protected station fitted aloft to accommodate a lookout.



The Park's full hull model artifact, English galleon Golden Hind, catalog number SAFR 22687, has excellent examples of crow's nest perches on the main and foremast. See it for yourself. The Golden Hind is currently on exhibit in the Prismatarium room of the Museum Building.

Citations:

Rogers, John G. Origins of sea terms. Mystic, Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1984.
MacEwen, William A. and A.H. Lewis. Encyclopedia of nautical knowledge. Cambridge, Md.: Cornell Maritime Press, 1953.

--Contributor: Palma J. You, Archives Technician.

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With Wind on Same Sides

Here's another instructive rhyme from Nautical Nursery Rhymes by Billy Ringbolt, which resides in the "Peterson, Peter H. (Capt.) Papers," (SAFR 18665, HDC 571):


"With Wind on Same Sides"

When vessels are sailing with wind the same side,
To continue their course they might foul or collide,
The one that's to windward is the one to keep clear,
From her course give the other no reason to sheer.


(Contributer: Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of rss feeds and commenting.

New in the SF Maritime NHP Library

Here are the Library's lists of new accessions for the last half of June through the first half of August; for more information on any title, contact us or search our catalogs:

• Library New Accessions, June 16-30, 2011
  (.pdf file, 27 Kb)
  
• Library New Accessions, July 1-15, 2011
  (.pdf file, 27 Kb)
  
• Library New Accessions, July 16-31, 2011
  (.pdf file, 16 Kb)
  
• Library New Accessions, Aug. 1-15, 2011
  (.pdf file, 28 Kb)
  

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

Digging for gold at the Library: Cramp's Shipyard

(by Gina Bardi, Reference Librarian)

The other day I was walking through the stacks and I caught a glint of gold. Now, I am neither a bird nor a rat nor a raccoon nor Gollum, but when I see something shiny, I must investigate further.

What caught my eye was a 1920 book entitled Cramp's Shipyard. In the picture below it is difficult to see how nice the cover is. It's more gold than yellow.



"Shiny!"

The book is a brief history of the William Cramp and Sons Ship and Engine Building Company, the I.P. Morris Company, and the Kensington Shipyard Co. Most of the slim volume is photos of their various ships which is nice, but we've seen images like those a million times. The thing that knocked my socks clean off (I'm still looking for them...if you see a pair of rainbow toe socks anywhere, they're mine) are the beautiful photographs of the equipment and machinery. Some of these things don't look like they belong of this temporal world. Rather, they look as if they should be in a Dr. Seuss book or in the movie Metropolis. I submit for your approval:



Where do those tubes go, I wonder? Willy Wonka's Shipbuilding Factory?



Anyone up for a game of pool?





It's reminiscent of Dr. Doolittle's snail, no?



Hooooooonk! It calls to mind an ungainly instrument.



I wish this was my playhouse.

Come by the library anytime to check out Cramp's Shipyard and drool over the wonderous machines.

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Hydraulic Dredging

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five (it lacks an rss feed & commenting):

(by Mariah Robertson, Archivist)
Patent no. 318,859 was designed by Alphonzo B. Bowers and patented in 1885 via the United States Patent Office. Bowers was originally from Maine and moved to the San Francisco area in 1853 and began to design machinery engineered to advance the development of the Bay Area just after the Gold Rush. Nearly 85 years after his passing, the Alphonzo B. Bowers Papers were donated to the Historic Documents Department and have been processed and are open for researcher use.

A very interesting aspect of this collection is it seems to be an accepted fact that Von Schmidt was the inventor of the hydraulic dredge. But according to the court documents contained in the collection, in 1888, Bowers sued Colonel A.W. Von Schmidt for infringement and won. This suit was the basis for many future lawsuits regarding infringement of his patents. Some of the companies sued were Williams & Bixler, the Golden State and Miners' Iron Works, the San Francisco Bridge Company, the Pacific Coast Dredging and Reclamation Company (San Francisco), L.W. Bates of Chicago, and the New York Dredging Company. An 1897 appeal case ruling declared Bowers to be the inventor of the hydraulic system of dredging. He spent the rest of his life in litigation regarding infringement lawsuits in the United States, Cuba, and other countries.

What time is it?

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five (it lacks rss feeds & commenting):

Aboard a ship, time is told by the striking of the ship's bell. Charts at the Antique Horology website, and the Wikipedia article, illustrate how many bells at what time. In the library we have extensive collections of ephemeral items, and this handy chart is part of our file of printed ephemera dealing with bells--it illustrates the system graphically:


What time is it where you are? How many bells?

What d'ya mean by "Donkey's Breakfast?"

A "donkey's breakfast" is "a sailor's nickname for a straw mattress, issued in some forecastles in the early 19th century."

(Source: Rogers, John G. Origins of sea terms.)

And, what's a "forecastle?" "A forward living compartment for the crew."

(Source: Kerchove, Rene de. International maritime dictionary.)

(Contributors: Palma J. You, Archives Technician & Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian)

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

Digging for Gold at the Library: Shipshape

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

(by Gina Bardi, Reference Librarian)

In my last post, we discussed what to pack on an ocean voyage. So now that you are sure to look your best, we’ll move on to what to do when you’re under way (besides standing there looking fabulous).

The book Shipshape or Sea-legs Without Tears by Edmund Vale will be our guide. Written in 1931, Shipshape has excellent advice for the novice traveler. There’s scads of technical information--entire chapters devoted to the Engine Room and the Bridge, for instance. But let’s be honest. What we care about is the nitty-gritty on the social scene. That’s where Shipshape shines. For example, the third most important thing to do as soon as you board (after finding your room and noting the time of breakfast) is to "fix the time of your bath" (177). Would you have had the forethought to do that on your own? No, of course not. The rest of your voyage would be spent sneaking in baths willy-nilly, haphazardly washing yourself in an unscheduled manner. It’s simply not decent.


Caption: Unfixed bath times result in chaos and anarchy.

Shipshape also gives the low down on the officers. "The captain is generally polite but a silent man" and "If you want liveliness, it will be bad luck, should you sit at the doctor’s table and not get it" (178) and "Your modern Steward is human, almost humane" (184).


Caption: This guy would beg to differ with that statement.

But the most intriguing part of Shipshape is the chapter dealing with deck games. In my last post, we discussed what to wear while playing quoits. Now, we finally learn what quoits is. Or at least you would have learned, but I’ve decided to cut the quoits description to focus instead on Bumble Puppy.


Caption: BUMBLE PUPPIES!

The name of the game is actually more thrilling than the game itself, which is basically tetherball on a ship. But if you are on a ship and are anxious to make friends, I recommend suggesting a friendly game of Bumble Puppy. Who could refuse such an offer?


Caption: Play Bumble Puppy with me! (photo credit Nixx Photography)

Ships on the Shore

For those of you reading the blog via your feeds, I wanted to call your attention to an addition to our blog roll, Ships on the Shore, a very interesting blog where Jamin Wells writes about shipwrecks--news, research, and the thoughts of one who studies them.

Thanks to Jamin for alerting me to Ships on the Shore!

Wind on Different Sides

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

Here's another instructive rhyme from Nautical Nursery Rhymes by Billy Ringbolt, which resides in the Park's Peterson, Peter H. (Capt.) Papers (SAFR 18665, HDC 571):

Wind on Different Sides

With wind on starboard you hold right of way,
But with it to port you must not delay
To do what is best in order to steer
Quite clear of the other and not interfere.

New in the SF Maritime NHP Library

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of rss feeds & commenting:

Here are the Library's lists of new accessions for the last half of April and the first half of May; for more information on any title, contact us, or search our catalogs:

• Library New Accessions, May 16-31, 2011 (.pdf file, 32Kb)
  
• Library New Accessions, June 1-15, 2011 (.pdf file, 29 Kb)
  

Hal Roth Papers

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of rss & commenting:

The Hal Roth Papers, 1938-2009 have been cataloged and are now available to researchers. During the work on the collection, Alison Fudge, Archives Technician, wrote:

The Archives recently acquired the collection of Hal Roth, and I am hard at work helping to process the collection so that it will soon be ready to share with researchers. Roth was a noted seaman and author who sailed around the world with his wife, Margaret, aboard their yacht Whisper, and wrote 13 books and numerous articles regarding their journeys.

Roth's travels took him to many faraway locales, including French Polynesia, the Mediterranean, South America, Japan, and around Cape Horn. In 1971, he was awarded the Blue Water Medal from the Cruising Club of America for his circumnavigation of the Pacific Basin.

He was also an accomplished photographer who studied under Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. In addition to an extensive representation of maritime photography, the collection also includes beautiful images of California landscapes and San Francisco's Chinatown.

There are so many treasures waiting to be discovered!

Play cribbage like a sailor

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of rss feed & commenting functions:

If you search our Museum Web Catalog, you'll find several examples of cribbage boards such as the one below. Popular for centuries, today in the U.S. alone it is played by over 10 million people!



Want to learn how to play the way they did in the 19th century? The Cribbage Player's Text-book, Being a New and Complete Treatise on the Game in all its Varieties (1837) is available online for free from the Internet Archive. If you're interested in a contemporary outline of how to play the game, the Wikipedia article is a good place to start; the links at the bottom of the article lead to cribbage associations, forums, and much more. If you're looking for a handy book to refer to while playing, either Scarne's Encyclopedia of Card Games or According to Hoyle : official rules of more than 200 popular games of skill and chance, with expert advice on winning play, will soon have you playing like a sailor.

Citation: "Cribbage." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Library Edition. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2011. Web. 7 Mar. 2011. .

Digging for Gold at the Library: Sea Monsters!

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five:

by Gina Bardi, Reference Librarian)

If you're getting ready to take an ocean voyage, there are some staples you would pack: sunglasses, a set of quoits, a bathing suit with matching cape and most importantly, Monsters of the sea, legendary and authentic:

Because you would hate to be lounging in a deck chair sipping a scorpion and suddenly see a strange shape in the ocean and not be able to identify it as an American Sea Serpent or a Mediterranean one. Think how people would laugh at you! For reference purposes:

No, you must be prepared on your voyage. As the book points out in a beautiful detail on its cover, do you really want to be surprised by an octopus?

I think not. Surprises should involve parties, cakes and jewelry--not knife fighting cephalopods.

If you'd like to see John Gibson's Monsters of the sea, legendary and authentic, stop by the Library. There are sixteen other wonderful illustrations along with all the information you need to astound and amaze your fellow travelers while playing quoits.

Who let the Kraken out?

New in the SF Maritime NHP Library

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of rss feed:

Here are the Library's lists of new accessions for the last half of April and the first half of May; for more information on any title, contact us, or search our catalogs:

• Library New Accessions, Apr. 17-30, 2011
  (.pdf file, 92 Kb)
  
• Library New Accessions, May 1-15, 2011
  (.pdf file, 118 Kb)
  

What d'ya mean?

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five:

What d'ya mean?

...by "Craft?"

"It is a very general word. In the nautical sense, it refers to virtually all ships and boats, large or small.

It comes from the Old English, craeft, which is believed to refer not only to boats and ships but to the skills required to build them."

Source: Rogers, John G. Origins of sea terms. Mystic, Conn. : Mystic Seaport Museum, 1984.

--Contributor: Palma J. You, Archives Technician.

"Viking" across the Atlantic

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five:

The Library recently acquired a lovely little book, "Viking" across the Atlantic : and a short summary of the Norwegian Vikings and Vikingships by Alfred A. Holm (Chicago : John Anderson Pub. Co., 1893), which is also available online. Assistant Curator Ted Miles sends in this report about the replica vessel, "Viking:"

I was recently asked what is the oldest replica in the world? This is not the time to debate the terms. Is it better to call it a replica, a reproduction or whatever? We can do that another day. You might want to read my article on "Historic Reproductions: An Account of Past Efforts," in Sea History #17 for Summer 1980 pages 26-27. The illustrations are from my post card collection. In the same issue is a list of existing vessels on pages 29-31.

But most people use the word replica to talk about long gone historic craft of one sort or another. The World's Fairs of the late 19th century certainly produced a number of them. The Columbian Expostion of 1893 had replicas of the three vessels used by Christopher Columbus voyage of 1492. And just so he did not get all the glory; a group of people in Norway built a replica of the famous Gokstad burial ship which had been excavated in 1880 and sailed it across the Atlantic Ocean and through the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes to Chicago.

Many years ago, I was visiting Lincoln Park in Chicago, Illinois and saw the ship on display. It has been given a shelter to protect it from the harsh winter weather. The other day, I looked it up on the Internet and find that the Friends of the Viking Ship can be found at www.vikingship.us. Now I see that the ship has been moved to Geneva, Illinois and placed under a different shelter. Tours of the display site are available in the summer.

The King Philip

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five:

(by Judy Hitzeman, Museum Curator (Registrar))

The bow of the King Philip at Ocean Beach (Photo copyright Judy Hitzeman, all rights reserved, used with permission)


The three-masted clipper ship King Philip recently reappeared on Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Built in Massachusetts in 1855, King Philip was a Cape Horner, making regular trips between New York and San Francisco. On January 25, 1878, while leaving San Francisco, the tug towing her out to sea had to leave to aid another vessel. The King Philip dropped an anchor, but it did not hold, and she drifted onto the beach. There was no loss of life, but the vessel broke apart.


Stern of the King Philip (Photo copyright Judy Hitzeman, all rights reserved, used with permission)

Charles Hittell captured the scene in a painting done in March of that year. The painting is now in the San Francisco Maritime NHP museum collection, catalog number SAFR 5729. Born in San Francisco in 1861, Hittell was just 17 when he painted the wreck. He went on to study at the San Francisco School of Design, as well as in Munich and Paris where he made the most of his California origins by dressing as a cowboy and affecting the name “Carlos.” Hittell’s California work included seascapes but he was mainly noted for California adobe scenes and western landscapes.

The King Philip wreck site is located at the foot of Noriega Street. It is usually covered in sand but occasionally appears when conditions are right.

Digging for Gold at the Library : Buried Treasure Maps

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five:

by Gina Bardi, Reference Librarian

The other day I was answering a reference question about steamship routes and it gave me a chance to visit one of my favorites sections of a library, the ol’ Gs, better known as "Geography (General). Atlases. Maps." As a Maritime Library, the expectation is that we would be more interested in charts than maps, and while there are some charts that are interesting to look at for reasons other than navigation, nothing beats a map in my book for unintentional art. Today’s library treasure is Derek Hayes’s Historical Atlas of California with Original Maps, published by University of California in 2007.



Look at this beautiful image from a map published by Bosqui Eng. & Print Co., in 1884. The map shows San Francisco in 1847. It’s such an idyllic view of the city- so quiet and unassuming. I’d wager it was a fairly easy map to drawn what with only 5 streets. Oh, to have great great-great grandparents who would have bought up a block or two!

This next map is a broadsheet which has information about going to the gold mines. It was published in 1849 by James Wyld and contains valuable advice such as, if you go the Chagres and Panama route, "Do not touch the oysters, wear flannel next to the skin by day and by night, avoid spirituous liquors and it is needless to say, be off the first opportunity."



They also call the climate of our region "remarkably healthy" which I would agree with on most days.

If you’d like to take a look at this book or any other book in the library, stop on by. I’m always up for a dig!

New in the SF Maritime NHP Library

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of an rss feed:

New in the Library:

The Library's new accessions lists from the latter half of March and the first half of April are now available.

We download these lists from OCLC, whose public interface is known as WorldCat.org. Although we catalog directly on OCLC, we do not have the type of subscription that would allow us to appear as a holding library on WorldCat.org, but you can see our holdings in the NPS Combined Library Catalog. (See our Catalogs & Finding Aids page for catalogs listing other Museum Collections.)

* Library New Accessions, Mar. 16-31, 2011 (.pdf file, 27 Kb)
* Library New Accessions, Apr. 1-16, 2011 (.pdf file, 31 Kb)

What is a fathom?

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five:

According to the library's 1988 edition of The Oxford companion to ships and the sea, a fathom:

...comes from the old English faedm, to embrace, and is a measurement across the outstretched arms of a man, approximately 6 feet in a man of average size; the length of a nautical fathom is therefore 6 feet.

So how far is "full fathom five?" About 30 feet, or a little over 9 meters.

Herman Melville's library

A catalog of Herman Melville's library has been created on LibraryThing. According to the library's profile page, the library "has been graciously catalogued by Merton M. Sealts, Jr. in his work Melville's Reading." The profile describing the library is delightful, with information "supplied by a sub-sub librarian," and Hart Crane's poem, "At Melville's Tomb."

When viewing the library, don't miss the gray text in on one of the top bars that informs you that, "HermanMelville has a suggested style for viewing this library (use it)." When you select the "use it" link, the library display will change to include a "Comments" column, pulling this field from the catalog records, which describes provenance, sources, existence of annotations, etc.

Log chips by John Lyman

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five:

(by Ted Miles, Assistant Curator)

Starting in July 1948 maritime historian John Lyman wrote and edited a mimeographed news letter called Log Chips: A Periodical Publication of Recent Maritime History. Each issue is twelve pages and each volume consisted of 12 issues. There were four volumes and later one of his friends Norman Brouwer edited a series of Log Chips Supplements.

The material covered within these pages is wide ranging and is a wonderful resource for those people who are interested in commercial sail in the Pacific after about 1860. For example there is a List of Launchings in the United Kingdom in most issues. The iron and steel sailing vessels that were built in the UK between about 1838 and 1907 were a major player in moving cargo around the world during this period. These vessels came to be called Cape Horners because so many of their voyages took them around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean.

Another area that Dr. Lyman was very interested in was west coast shipbuilding. In many issues he wrote biographical articles including launching lists on ship builders up and down the coast, for example Matthew Turner, Hans D. Bendixsen, the Hall Brothers and others. The men and the companies who built the East Coast schooners were covered especially in New England. There are lists of schooners from seven masts down to three mast and their histories.

Regular reports in Log Chips covered Recent Bibliography, Sail News and Book Reviews. An especially interesting group of reviews by California State Senator James Mills was a group of classic titles that were not new even 50 years ago and deserved to be better known. This writer has continues to use this approach in Relative Bearings today; the Newsletter of the Friends of the San Francisco Maritime Museum Library.

As mentioned Lyman did a lot of the writing, but other contributors included Commander Alan Villiers, maritime historians Hans Joaquin Gersdorf and Andrew W. Nesdall, Curator Robert G. Burgess of the Mariners Museum and so many others. Charles W. Morgan of Boston wrote letters and later contributed a 12 page index to the publication.

Further needs to be said on the Launching Lists of the United Kingdom. They are laid out geographically around the coasts from Newcastle and Sunderland all the way around to Belfast, Ireland. Changes of name and owners are recorded and in many cases final fates of the vessels. John Lyman took the annual lists back to 1875 and Norman Brouwer took them the rest of the way back to 1838 when the Iron Age was launched. She was the first ocean going iron sailing vessel in the world. I do not know of any other publication where you can get so much sailing ship data in one place.

Sources:
Log Chips.

Kortum, Karl, and Routh, Donald. "John Lyman: the Hub of Our Wheel." Sea History No. 12 (fall 1978) (1978): p. 13-15. Print.

"Potato, potato, potato"

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five:

An illustration of a one cylinder, eight horsepower Hicks engine that is in the Park's artifact collection, circa 1940. SAFR 17336, HDC 1092

Are you renovating a Hicks engine, or making a scale model of one?
Or even if you want to look at the engineering plans, we are an excellent source of accessible information. The Park’s archive collection, HDC 1092 SAFR 17336, includes blueprints, assembly and price lists, a catalog and instruction manual, photographs, and illustrations of parts. Blueprint title blocks indicate the unique engine series number, part name and number, and issue date. Plans for series B, C, D, E, F, W, Sketch, AY, BY, CY, DY, EY, FY, GY, HY, KY and LY model engines, which have one to three cylinders and horsepower ranging from 6 to 45, are included. Bay Specialties Company donated the collection in 1994. We also have a number of catalog records for our collection of Hicks engines and parts, and for related materials in the Library collection.

To read more about the collection, and to learn what a Hicks engine has to do with saying, "Potato, potato, potato," see the new Collection Corner article about the Hicks Marine Engine Archival Collection, and for more details, or to access the collection, call 415-561-7030.

--Contributor: Palma J. You, Archives Technician

Digging for gold at the library: Coast Seaman's Journal

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five:

(by Gina Bardi, Reference Librarian)

Sometimes when you come to the library, you know exactly what material will be the most useful for your research. Other times, the library seems to be laid out before you as a vast and uncharted landscape of great unknowns. Like a prospector, you must dig a little here and there with hopes of striking it rich. In this regular feature we will mine the collection for veins of information and see if we can make our research fortune.

Today we are digging for treasure in the Coast Seaman's Journal, a periodical started in 1875 by the Coast Seamen's Union. Our library has a run from 1875 to 1918 as the Coast Seaman's Journal and then from 1918 to 1929 in its second incarnation as the Seaman's Journal. We also have a few convention issues from the 1930's. I pulled volume 22 which covers September 23rd, 1908 to September 13th, 1909.

What does the Coast Seaman's Journal have to offer? Shall we grab the pick axe of our curiosity and begin to dig?

Someone who was working on maritime labor history would absolutely want to include this publication in their research (and if they didn't know it existed, a helpful reference librarian would point it out). Each issue is devoted to labor causes on both coasts and the Great Lakes. World events are discussed through the lens of labor. This journal provides startling clear insight into the mind of unions during the turbulent early years of their formation. There are also general news sections, sometimes maritime: "Mexico's first attempt to fortify her harbors with modern rifles will be undertaken at Santa Cruz" ("News from Abroad" 12). Sometimes not: "The Grand Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West, a California organization, has decided hereafter that no malt or spirituous liquors shall be used at the entertainments given by the order." ("Home News" 13). The good news is each volume is indexed at its start. The bad, or perhaps more amusing than bad, is the style in which they are indexed, which is by title of article and not by subject. One has to wonder what this refers to:

"Story, Strange, Hinted at"

And I defy you to read the entry:

"Sea-Coffins Doomed"

and not linger for a moment on its promisingly macabre content.

A boon for genealogists would be the "Information Wanted" section of each issue. Here, worried friends, family and lovers leave ads hoping to find what has become of their missing loved ones. A typical one from reads:

"John Widell, who has been on the Pacific Coast and in Alaska for about 18 years, is inquired for by his nephew, Bernt Valdemar Blomquist, Box 65, Seattle Wash. "

Or this heartbreaker with a $50 reward for information:

"Albert Dietrich, bluish eyes and prominent upper teeth, fair complexion, dark blonde hair, 13 years of age, 4 feet 8 inches tall, missing from his home, 1539 9th Avenue, Sunset, San Francisco, since November 27th, 1907, is inquired for by his parents."

Another feature is that of the "Letters List". Family and friends could send letters to sailors at sea care of the union offices and they would be held there until the sailor returned from their voyage. Each week a list of lucky sailors who have letters waiting for them would be printed. There are also regular inclusions of sea shanties, With the Wits (a joke section of dubious nature) and some wonderful advertisements.

I've only scratched the surface, so to speak, of what this journal offers. Please come by and peruse our collection of the Coast Seamen's Journal and see what you can dig up.

Citations:

"Home News." Coast Seamen's Journal 22.33 (1909): 13. Print.

"Index". Coast Seamen's Journal 22 (1909). Print.

"Information Wanted." Coast Seamen's Journal 22.26 (1909): 12. Print.

"News from Abroad." Coast Seamen's Journal 22.24 (1909): 12. Print.

Nautical Nursery Rhymes

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five:

This small treasure resides in the "Peterson, Peter H. (Capt.) Papers," (SAFR 18665, HDC 571) and expresses principles of seamanship in verse, such as:



Meeting on Opposite Tacks
On opposite tacks, when approaching too near,
The ship on the starboard has nothing to fear;
The one on the port tack has either to stay,
Or put up her helm and get out of the way.


For more on Taylor's Nautical School, the issuer of the booklet, see the promotional pamphlet, Taylor's Nautical School, San Francisco, in the Library collection at r V430.A4 T39, and Taylor's modern navigation, also in the Library at VK401.T3 1904.

Contributors: Keri Koehler, Collections Manager; Palma J. You, Archives Technician; Heather Hernandez, Technical Services Librarian.

Ship model conservation course, England

International Academic Projects is pleased to announce a 3 day
course 'Ship Models: Care, Conservation and Display' which will be
held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and the Historic
Dockyard, Chatham, 11-13 October 2011. This is a new addition to the
2011 course calendar of International Academic Projects.

The course, aimed at collections managers, curators and
conservators, will be conducted by the curatorial and conservation
specialists of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and will
cover: the history of the making of ship models; the materials from
which models are made and issues concerning their handling and
movement; display methods; storage and display conditions; making
the materials required for restoration; and the use of plans,
paintings and photographs in the conservation process.

Course details and the proposed timetable are available at

http://www.academicprojects.co.uk/course-details.php?courseID=765

Places are also still available on several other courses offered by
International Academic Projects - including:

Conservation of Glass Objects
(London) 12 - 16 September, 2011

Making Replicas of Museum Objects
(Denmark) 6 - 10 June, 2011

Making Electroform Replicas of Museum Objects
(Denmark) 20 - 24 June, 2011

Digital Photography of Museum Objects
(London) 21 - 22 June, 2011

The Identification of Paper
(London) 4-5 July, 2011

Chemistry for Conservators correspondence course
(September - December 2011)

Please check No comments:

New in the SF Maritime NHP Library

Mirrored from Full Fathom Five, due to its lack of an rss feed:

New in the Library:

The Library's new accessions lists from the later half of February and the first half of March are now available.

We download these lists from OCLC, whose public interface is known as WorldCat.org. Although we catalog directly on OCLC, we do not have the type of subscription that would allow us to appear as a holding library on WorldCat.org, but you can see our holdings in the NPS Combined Library Catalog. (See our Catalogs & Finding Aids page for catalogs listing other Museum Collections.)

* Library New Accessions, Feb. 16-28, 2011 (.pdf file, 19Kb)
* Library New Accessions, Mar. 1-15, 2011 (.pdf file, 14 Kb)

Do you have traveling plans?

Mirrored below is Palma J. You's new post from over at Full Fathom Five, Do you have traveling plans?

We do! Prior to the digital revolution, marine engineering plans often needed to travel between builders, owners, consultants and architects. Document tubes were used to protect plans while in transport. I am currently processing a large (94 linear feet) collection donated by Pillsbury & Martignoni, Naval Architects and Marine Engineers of San Francisco who were in business during the first half of the 20th century. Most of the plans inventoried thus far relate to tugs, towboats, sport fishing boats, freighters, barges and passengers vessels. Very interesting, but I also find the storage tube an interesting pre-plastic artifact.

The two varieties of materials used in construction of traveling tubes for this marine engineering firm are aluminum and fiber board. The plans stored inside are circa 1943-1965. More on the plans stored inside the tubes next time!





--Contributor: Palma J. You, Archives Technician

Full Fathom Five

There's a new blog from the Collections Department at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, Full Fathom Five, where I'm a contributing editor. The software that we use does not yet have an rss feed, so for the time being, I'll be mirroring posts over here. Do please check it out--we'd appreciate your input.

The debut post:

Welcome to Full Fathom Five

When Shakespeare has Ariel sing this song in Act 1, scene ii of The Tempest, he sings of transformation--of the ordinary becoming something beautiful at the end of its life:

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rare and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-Dong.
Hark! now I hear them -- Ding-dong, bell.

Here in the Collections Department at San Francisco Maritime, what we collect, preserve and make available were often ordinary objects at the ends of their useful lives--sometimes, literally, from "full fathom five," in the case of objects retrieved from shipwrecks. Through our care, we give them new life as museum collections, and we help them to emerge into exhibits and into the arena of research, study, and enjoyment.

Join us in our journey, deep in the collections, through the rich and strange.

UK ship models conservation course & conservation assistant position

The latest issue of the Conservation Distlist had news of interest to the maritime conservation community; an interesting course:

International Academic Projects is pleased to announce a 3 day
course 'Ship Models: Care, Conservation and Display' which will be
held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and the Historic
Dockyard, Chatham, 11-13 October 2011. This is a new addition to the
2011 course calendar of International Academic Projects.

The course, aimed at collections managers, curators and
conservators, will be conducted by the curatorial and conservation
specialists of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and will
cover: the history of the making of ship models; the materials from
which models are made and issues concerning their handling and
movement; display methods; storage and display conditions; making
the materials required for restoration; and the use of plans,
paintings and photographs in the conservation process.

Course details and the proposed timetable are available at

http://www.academicprojects.co.uk/course-details.php?courseID=765

Places are also still available on several other courses offered by
International Academic Projects - including:

Conservation of Glass Objects
(London) 12 - 16 September, 2011

Making Replicas of Museum Objects
(Denmark) 6 - 10 June, 2011

Making Electroform Replicas of Museum Objects
(Denmark) 20 - 24 June, 2011

Digital Photography of Museum Objects
(London) 21 - 22 June, 2011

The Identification of Paper
(London) 4-5 July, 2011

Chemistry for Conservators correspondence course
(September - December 2011)

Please check http://www.academicprojects.co.uk for full
information or get in touch by email or telephone if you have any
questions.

Hannah Turk
Administrative Assistant
International Academic Projects
6 Fitzroy Square, London W1T 5HJ
+44 207 380 0800
Fax: +44 207 380 0500

And an interesting position announcement:

Preventive Conservation Assistant
National Maritime Museum
London

UKP18,000 - UKP22,000

With three historic sites housing a range of world-renowned
collections, the National Maritime Museum is a unique and
stimulating environment. With the opening of the brand new Sammy
Ofer Wing this summer, we are looking for an individual to join our
Preventive Conservation team to provide key support in the
preservation and care of our collections across all sites.

Your role will be to carry out cleaning and other housekeeping
duties in addition to assisting in the implementation of the Pest
Management Plan and Environmental Monitoring Strategy. We will also
need you to write method statements and reports, work with team
members on larger projects and suggest improvements to working
practices.

A good understanding of conservation, security and Health and Safety
relating to collections care is essential, along with the ability to
select appropriate cleaning options. A high level of manual
dexterity, experience of working with a range of hand tools and the
ability to work at heights are also important, plus strong
documentation and IT skills. A relevant qualification and experience
within a heritage environment would both be preferred.

For a full job description and details of how to apply, please visit

http://www.nmm.ac.uk/jobs

Closing date: 20 March 2011.

Birthe Christensen
Head of Conservation and Preservation
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
London SE10 9NF
+44 20 8312 6504