From left to right: Ken Read, president of North Sails; Bob Johnstone, award recipient; Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport; Rod Johnstone, award recipient; and Barclay Collins, chairman of the Board of Mystic Seaport.
Mystic Seaport presented its 2016 America and the Sea Award to Bob and Rod Johnstone – J/Boats. Given annually by the Museum, the prestigious award recognizes individuals or organizations whose contribution to the history, arts, business, or sciences of the sea best exemplify the American character.
The Johnstones received the award Saturday, October 22, at a gala dinner held in their honor at Mystic Seaport. The gala was held in the Collins Gallery in the new Thompson Exhibition Building. The America and the Sea Award Gala is the single largest fundraising event for the Museum. Proceeds from the event benefit the mission of the Museum to inspire an enduring connection to America’s maritime heritage.
“Over the past 39 years, the Johnstone family and their company have influenced American yachting and sport of sailing in incomparable ways. They have established a record of accomplishment that few will ever challenge, and they have instilled in countless Americans a passion for enjoying time on the water with family and good friends aboard good boats,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport.
The 2016 gala was co-chaired by J. Barclay Collins, II, Maarten de Jong and Kendra Matthew, Michael and Joanne Masin, and Cayre and Alexis Michas. S. Carter Gowrie is corporate co-chair.
PCs at the 2016 Coronado Sojourn in California. Photo courtesy San Diego Yacht Club History Archives
Mystic Seaport is honoring the Pacific Class owners and the San Diego Yacht Club with the William A. Baker Award. The award is given to promote the awareness and appreciation of fine examples of one-design classes or boats of like kind, and to foster faithful preservation and restoration, and encourage their continued use.
The Pacific Class (PC) owners and the San Diego Yacht Club are being recognized for their effort to preserve and maintain a significant class of American sailing craft.
The PC is the first wooden one design racing sloop designed and built especially for Southern California waters. Designed by George Kettenburg, Jr., in 1929, the 31-foot-long sailboat has survived more than 80 years and is still enjoyed today. While the largest of the fleets is in San Diego, there are smaller groups in Marina del Rey, Los Angeles and Washington State. Of the 84 hull numbers assigned, all but 19 are still sailing. Hull number 8, Wings, believed to be the oldest hull in existence, is now on display at the San Diego Maritime Museum.
Antique and classic boat organizations throughout the country typically present awards for the preservation of wooden boats. As a rule these awards are presented to individual owners or vessels, recognizing some superlative aspect of the work that has been done to keep them up, most-original, or the finest craftsmanship.
The William Avery Baker Award is somewhat unique in that it is customarily presented to a class association or group of owners. The purpose is to recognize the people and communities that do the bold, arduous, and often expensive work of keeping a large group or class of vessels actively sailing.
“It is this authentic notion of active use that is being recognized and commended,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport. “It is one thing to save an old wooden boat from inevitable destruction; it is another thing entirely to save a class of vessels from extinction. It has been our experience that this can only occur when a community of like-minded enthusiasts comes together with a common purpose. Thus, we are proud to honor the Pacific Class owners and the San Diego Yacht Club for their effort to save the PC from the brink of extinction and thus allow future generations to sail and enjoy these fine boats.”
About William A. Baker
A 1934 graduate of MIT with a degree in naval architecture and marine engineering, Baker was active in the American shipbuilding industry through World War II and up to the early 1960s. Best known as the designer of Mayflower II, which was built in England in 1955 for Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts, Baker was one of the most prominent maritime historians and historic replica ship and boat designers of his era.
Mystic Seaport President Steve White addresses the crowd at the opening of the Thompson Exhibition Building September 24, 2016.
Mystic Seaport announced today it has received a $1 million gift from the Thompson Family Foundation to support the Thompson Exhibition Building, the Museum’s first new exhibition building in more than four decades. The Thompson Building opened to visitors on September 24, 2016.
The Thompson Family Foundation’s latest gift caps the $15.3 million required to fund the exhibition building and the McGraw Gallery Quadrangle project. This fundraising effort was scheduled to conclude on December 31.
“We are extremely grateful for the continued generosity and confidence in the future direction of the Museum that the Thompson family has demonstrated with this gift,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport. “Their support has been critical to the genesis and completion of the transformation of the Museum’s grounds and our capability to usher in a ‘New Era for Exhibitions’ at Mystic Seaport.”
The Thompson Building is the cornerstone and final element of the McGraw Gallery Quadrangle, a project which integrated existing buildings and grounds with new construction and unified the buildings of the north end of the Museum by focusing on their common role as formal exhibition galleries.
Wade Thompson was a Mystic Seaport trustee for 27 years who believed passionately in the need for contemporary exhibition space and its importance for the future of the Museum. The Thompson Building houses the Collins Gallery, a 5,000-square-foot hall featuring soaring ceilings and a flexible layout that provides the caliber of conditions required to curate not only exhibits from the Mystic Seaport collections, but also permit the borrowing of outstanding art and artifacts from other museums around the world.
“We are deeply appreciative to all donors who made extraordinary gifts to complete this ambitious project so vital to the Museum’s future sustainability and institutional growth, many of whom were inspired by Wade Thompson and his family’s example of philanthropy,” said Elisabeth Saxe, the Museum’s vice president for Advancement.
The first exhibit to be featured in the Thompson Building will be “Sea-Change,” a dramatic presentation of a range of beautiful and unique objects drawn from the collections of Mystic Seaport. A special grouping of these intriguing artifacts will be on display for the first time, and all will be presented in a new setting which reveals surprising stories of transformation that continue to impact a contemporary audience and its experience with the sea. The exhibit opens on December 10.
Frederick Kubitz’s award winning “Two Barkentines Docked, Port of Boston, 1880.”
The Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport honored 11 artists at the opening of its 37th Annual International Marine Art Exhibition and Sale on Saturday, October 1. The International is a juried show that features the finest examples of contemporary marine art in the United States. This year artists from around the world presented examples of their most recent work. All submissions are a new work that has not been previously exhibited.
“This exhibition and sale continues to delight art lovers and visitors year after year, showcasing the finest art by today’s leading marine artists,” said Monique Foster, director of the Gallery. “We are very pleased to be able to recognize their outstanding work with these awards. ”
Participating artists were honored with four awards of excellence and seven named awards–including the Rudolph J. Schaefer Maritime Heritage Award, which recognizes the work that best documents maritime heritage for future generations. The judges were John Hays, Deputy Chairman, Christie’s Americas; and Todd French, French & Webb, Inc., Co- Founder and President.
All of the award winners and the entire exhibition may be viewed in the Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport through December 31, 2016.
Rudolph J. Schaefer Maritime Heritage Award
Give in memory of Rudolph J. Schaefer’s devotion to preserving maritime history and making it accessible and enjoyable, the judges recognize the artists whose work best documents our maritime heritage, past or present and for generations of the future.
Frederick Kubitz
“Two Barkentines Docked, Port of Boston, 1880”
(See above)
Stobart Foundation Award
This award is given to encourage the importance of painting from life. The judges will recognize the work that attracts their attention most by virtue of its uniqueness of style, quality of light and atmosphere.
Leif Nilsson
“From Hamburg Cove”
Maritime Gallery Yachting Award
This award celebrates the singular pleasures of going to sea. The judges will recognize the work that best captures the beauty and excitement of sailing in all its many forms.
Laura Cooper “Resolute, America’s Cup Defender, 1920″
Marine Environmental Wildlife Award
This award acknowledges the importance of preserving the fragile balance within the world’s ecosystems. The judges will recognize the work that best depicts marine mammals, fish or birds in their native habitat.
Cindy House
“Plovers over the Gulf”
Thomas M. Hoyne III Award
Given in memory of Thomas M. Hoyne III’s dedication and contributions to accurate-historical representation of the great Gloucester fishing schooners and the men who sailed them, the judges recognize the work that best documents an aspect of the marine fisheries industry of today or yesterday.
Paul George
“Back Cove”
The Museum Purchase Award
The Museum Purchase Award is chosen by a committee of the curatorial staff of Mystic Seaport. They will select for purchase one work appropriate to the current needs of its permanent collection, which emphasizes the commercial maritime experience of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Jeffrey Sabol
“Fog on the Banks”
Rudolph J. Schaefer, III Emerging Artist Award
This award is given in memory of Rudie J. Schaefer and his lifelong commitment to recognizing and supporting new maritime artists to the Gallery for their exceptional skill in capturing the endless beauty and heritage of the sea in painting, sculpture, scrimshaw, or ship models.
William Hobbs
“Mid-Morning Break”
Award of Excellence
For outstanding creativity, insight, and integrity in Marine Art.
The CHARLES W. MORGAN hauled in the Shipyard for routine maintenance on September 28, 2016.
The Charles W. Morgan was hauled from the Mystic River in the Museum’s Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard on Wednesday morning at high tide. The ship will be out of the water for approximately one month for routine maintenance. Every effort will be made to keep the vessel open to visitors, but there will be periods when the work will require limiting access.
The Morgan was maneuvered from her berth at Chubb’s Wharf into the Hays and Ros Clark Shiplift. Divers then inspected the meeting of the vessel’s bottom with the haul-out cradles, grounded the vessel on the cradle blocks, set the side support struts and poppets, and then the ship was slowly raised from the water. Once at ground level, she was hauled forward, ashore, over a concrete pad for power washing and cleaning. The pad contains a series of pipes and drains that collect waste water effluent from power washing and allow the Shipyard to dispose of the collected waste by sending it out for proper treatment and processing. This system prevents waste water from flowing back into the Mystic River.
After washing the Morgan will be “sidetracked” to the work station parallel to the hauling tracks, and a gangway will be established allowing visitors to board the ship while she is being worked on.
“Work will be principally routine bottom maintenance. We’ll scrape barnacles and sea grass from the bottom, remove lose paint, check and renew bottom caulking and seam compound as necessary, then give her two good coats of anti-fouling bottom paint before re-launching,” said Quentin Snediker, director of the Shipyard.”
The haul-out process will likely last four weeks. In late October she’ll be re-launched, returned to her berth at Chubb’s Wharf and re-opened to visitors. She’ll be re-rigged in late spring in time for the busy visitor season next summer.
Preparation for hauling began in late August by down rigging the vessel and concluded this past week with the removal 25 tons of ballast and a few remaining elements of rigging and spars. The Shipyard removes her rig to perform maintenance and lower the overall center of gravity for the haul-out. Removing ballast lessens the stress on the hull and helps to establish the desired fore-and-aft trim for landing on the cradles in the Shiplift that support the vessel.
“We have three large vessels in our collection and we haul one each fall for routine maintenance and repair,” said Snediker. “This rotation has worked well for decades in preserving our large historic watercraft.”
This marks the first time Charles W. Morgan will be hauled for maintenance since her launch in July of 2013 at the completion of her six-year restoration followed by her 38th Voyage in 2014. Hauling her routinely for maintenance will preserve the restoration work recently accomplished for at least a generation.
Cutting the ribbon to open the Thompson Exhibition Building Saturday, September 24, 2016. From left: Dan Yaeger, executive director of the New England Museum Association; Chad Floyd, partner, Centerbrook Architects and Planners; Susan Funk, executive vice president and COO, Mystic Seaport; Barclay Collins, board chairman, Mystic Seaport; Steve White, president, Mystic Seaport. Click on the image to start a slide show.
Hundreds of people gathered on the Cambridge Plaza in front of the Thompson Exhibition Building Saturday, September 24, to help celebrate the opening of the newest addition to the Museum. This was the first opportunity for members and the public to view the new structure.
“This stunning building is the manifestation of many years of planning, bold vision, creative programming, and effective fundraising,” said Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport, in his address to the crowd.
The Thompson Building is named for the late Wade Thompson, a Mystic Seaport trustee for 27 years who believed passionately in the need for new, state-of-the-art exhibition space and its importance for the future of the Museum.
“It is clear that this represents a new dimension for the Museum,” said Susan Funk, executive vice president and COO of Mystic Seaport. “Along with the redesigned McGraw Gallery Quadrangle and its prized riverfront location, the Thompson Building creates a unique sense of place while expanding our capacity to to present a compelling array of exhibitions and programs.”
Read the commemorative magazine produced by The Day newspaper of New London.
The building is the cornerstone and final element of the McGraw Quad, which integrates existing buildings and grounds with new construction and unifies the components of the north end of the Museum by focusing on their common role as formal exhibition galleries.
The area in front of the building on Greenmanville Ave. is the new Cambridge Plaza. Designed to be an inviting welcome to both Mystic Seaport and the Mystic area, the plaza is a formal, grassy space that frames the Thompson Building entrance and opens up views to the McGraw Gallery Quadrangle and the Mystic River from the street.
Upon walking up the stairs and passing through the vestibule, one enters the Pilalas Visitor Reception Lobby, a soaring room with a ticketing station, a retail shop, and visitor amenities. Dominating the space on the high wall across from the entrance is a mural commissioned specifically for the room. Titled “Away,” it is a papercut by Washington State artist Nikki McClure. The image was cut from black paper using an X-ACTO knife, then enlarged and fabricated in vinyl to install on wall. “Away” depicts a figure in a boat dragging his or her hand in the water, reflecting the continuing human desire “to touch the water and feel the wake,” in the words of the artist.
Joining “Away” in the lobby is the Museum’s Amphi-Craft, a rather clever Depression-era boat from the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company that was designed to be rowed, sailed, or driven by an outboard motor. It even came with a custom trailer.
Once through the lobby, one can turn left and exit to the McGraw Quad and the Museum grounds or continue straight into the Collins Gallery. This 5,000-square foot exhibit gallery is the largest of the seven at Mystic Seaport. It has ceilings 26 feet high and is supported by a sophisticated HVAC system to maintain the critical environmental standards for artifact display and preservation.
Beyond the Collins Gallery on the west end of the building is the Masin Room, a meeting space that can be reconfigured for conferences or lectures, additional gallery space, or educational programs. The room has a spectacular vista of the Mystic River through a panoramic window on one wall and a remarkable mural enlarged from an 1874 photograph of Greenmanville Ave. opposite.
Outside, the building is surrounded on three sides by an elevated deck that provides views of the river and of the common area at the center of the McGraw Quad. The deck is constructed of Honduran mahogany. In fact, the majority of the building’s construction materials are wood. In addition to the mahogany, the siding is western red cedar and the laminated structural beams are Douglas fir, much like the spars of many ships, the Mueum’s whaleship Charles W. Morgan among them.
“This building is very much like a ship,” says White. “It was important for us to maintain that vernacular connection to watercraft and maritime artifacts. Wood is very important to us here.”
The Thompson Building now functions as a full-time entrance to the museum. The first exhibit to be installed in the Collins Gallery will be SeaChange, a dramatic presentation of a range of compelling and unique objects drawn from the vast collections of the Museum. A handful of these intriguing artifacts will be on display for the first time, and all will be presented in a new setting which reveals surprising stories of transformation that continue to impact a contemporary audience and its experience with the sea. The exhibit opens December 10.
Each year, the Fellows of the G.W. Blunt White Library at Mystic Seaport issue awards to recognize significant achievements in maritime heritage writing.
Privateers of the Americas, by David Head, Ph.D.
The John Gardner Maritime Research Award is presented by the Fellows of the G.W. Blunt White Library for making a significant contribution in the maritime research field. The award is named for the late John Gardner, author, editor, curator, small-boat designer, builder, regular user of the Library and a proponent of maritime research.
The winner for 2016 is: David Head, Ph.D.for his book Privateers of the Americas: Spanish American Privateering from the United States in the Early Republic, University of Georgia Press, Early American Places Series. 2015.
Head teaches in the History Department at the University of Central Florida. He looks at how Spanish American privateering worked and who engaged in it; how the U.S. government responded; how privateers and their supporters evaded or exploited laws and international relations; what motivated men to choose this line of work; and ultimately, what it meant to them to sail for the new republics of Spanish America. His findings broaden our understanding of the experience of being an American in a wider world.
Each year, the Fellows also bestow a prize upon the author of the best article written in CORIOLIS: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Maritime Studies. This $1,000 prize is named in memory of the former Director of the library and head of publications, Gerald E. Morris. The Morris prize this year was given to Maria Vann for her article in the Volume 5, Number 1, 2015 issue entitled “Sirens of the Sea: Female Slave Ship Owners of the Atlantic World, 1650-1870.”
A graduate of the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies, Vann is currently the director of the Marine Museum in Fall River, MA.
Vann notes that throughout the active years of the transatlantic slave trade, some European and American women gained economic and social influence by involvement as participants in the slave trade. They challenge the dominant narrative that the slave trade was practiced exclusively by white men. Her article focuses on female slave traders from Britain and American colonies during the period of 1650-1760, with a concentration on New York, the former Dutch colony that fell under English rule after 1764.
Her research is largely based on review of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, slave ship records, newspapers, journals, court records and diaries. Sources were evaluated with intentional focus on women who were previously overlooked. The existence during the early years of the transatlantic trade challenges common notions about both gender and the slave trade and additionally raises important questions about the role of women slavers in other times and places.
“A fascinating study, this article is a well-deserving winner of the Morris Prize Article Contest,” said Paul O’Pecko,Vice President, Research Collections and Director of the G.W Blunt White Library at Mystic Seaport.
