News From Fort Schuyler

February 11, 2001 - Volume 5, No. 05

COMINGS AND GOINGS - Two major personnel actions involving senior staff were announced by ADM DAVID BROWN during the week. First was the appointment of RICHARD S. SMITH, Class of 1981, to serve as Master of the EMPIRE STATE VI for the 2001 Summer Sea Term. Admiral Brown wrote: "... Rick... the former Chief Mate of EMPIRE STATE VI and Chair of the Marine Transportation Department, is returning to Maritime following three years at sea sailing as Master of ULCC and VLCC tankers for a major shipping company. He will resume teaching duties in the MT Department and also serve as coach of the varsity crew team, a position he had previously filled with distinction, leading the Privateer oarsmen to national championships."

Second was the news that the Commandant of Cadets, CAPT ROBERT WEAVER, Class of 1969, is leaving. According to Admiral Brown "...he has accepted an offer of employment in Washington, DC, beginning April 1. The position is in his former (Coast Guard) professional specialty, with significant responsibilities and excellent promotion potential. While we are disappointed that Bob will be leaving us, this represents a major career opportunity for him and we wish him well." Noting his intention to fill Bob' s position through a national search, Admiral Brown wrote that he "will appoint a search committee in the next two weeks and will name an acting commandant prior to Bob's departure."

UNION MADE - According to MIKE SHOEMAKER, Master of the SEALAND FLORIDA, a Fort Schuyler graduate, "BOB GROH, Class of 1969, has been elected as Vice President of Master Mates and Pilots. He left his position as Master of the SEALAND FLORIDA to take on the job of union official."

NO BATTERIES NEEDED - The Class of 1949 will be holding its 52nd reunion from April 25 - 29 in San Diego, California and "alumni from classes immediately prior to and after the 49ers (particularly 47, 48, 50, and 52) are cordially invited too participate." According to information posted on the Alumni Association webpage, "Activities planned include tours of San Diego Bay, visits to nuclear carriers, golf, a hosted barbeque at the Coronado home of DON and BEA PENNIALL and lots of opportunity to swap sea stories." Contact ED DANGLER edangle1@san.rr.com or check "Class News" at www.fsmaa.org

WORKING VACATION - This information from Betty TISKA, regarding her son CARL TISKA, Class of 1986: "A big affirmative to MIKE BURKE, Class of 1986 --- that WAS Carl that he spotted on the Discovery Channel last September. Carl took a two-week leave from the Navy in 1999 to go with Barry Clifford, who made the only documented discovery of a pirate ship, the Whydah (http://whydah.com), off the coast of Cape Cod in 1982. The name of Carl's marine expedition, filmed by the BBC, is called "The Lost Fleet" and it is the documentary of a search near the island of Las Aves (one-hundred miles off the coast of Venezuela) for a fleet of French warships that had been dispatched in 1678 to capture the Dutch colony at Curacao under the command of the French Vice-Admiral Jean D'Estrees. The ships had been decoyed onto the island's reefs (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/archaeology/marine/fleet.shtml) by a small fleet of three Dutch ships and were destroyed by the coral --- a cool move by the underpowered Dutch. The film of their search will be shown on BBC England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland tomorrow night (February 5, 2001); I don't know when it will be repeated on the Discovery Channel in the US. The Clifford expedition used Admiral D'Estrees' map, which was found to be most accurate, but the team could locate only some of the metal artifacts (cannons, lead shot and anchors) that have survived their underwater resting place of more than three-hundred years."

TALES FROM THE SEVEN SEAS - That is the title of a new, glossy, color brochure which is being distributed by the Maritime Industry Museum at Fort Schuyler. One of the featured photographs is the TSES II model built by BARRY MARSH, Class of 1986. There is also a nice pictures of the recently dedicated Alumni Hall of Honor (the old First Class Lounge) and a great aerial shot of the Fort taken from the Sound.

URBAN LEGEND ? According to an article in volume 26 of Voices: The Journal of the New York Folklore Society (Fall-Winter 2000), there is a maritime connection to the invention of chewing gum - if one stretches the point. "In the 1860's General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was living in exile in Sailors Snug Harbor on Staten Island, New York. Like many Mexicans, the 75-year-old general was fond of chicle. His farm on the Yucatan Peninsula had vast stands of Sapodilla trees, from which the chicle sap oozed when the bark was slashed. General Santa Anna wanted money to raise another army and his scheme was to make rubber bicycle and carriage tires from the chicle." In 1869 General Santa Anna invited NY-based inventor Thomas Adams to meet with him at Snug Harbor. He struck a deal to sell Adams a ton of chicle, which after trial and error, ended up as the first chewing gum, "Black Jack," a brand that is still on the market today.

A Maritime College connection ? The Luce Library contains the archives of the Sailors Snug Harbor (without the chicle.) In addition, a number of our graduates have spent their retirement years at Snug Harbor. Most prominent was FREDERICK S. McMURRAY, Class of 1896. The Superintendent of the New York Nautical School/Training Ship NEWPORT from 1914 - 1917, McMurray's fifty-three years at sea also included service as Master of the Woods Hole oceanographic survey ketch R/V ATLANTIS from 1932 - 1942. In 1954, at the age of 76, he came out of retirement from Sailors Snug Harbor to serve as Extra Master aboard Columbia University's R/V VEMA, assisting noted oceanographer, Maurice "Doc" Ewing (founder of the Lamont Geology Observatory) carry out his famous "core-a-day" quest for sediment samples from beneath the ocean floor.