News From Fort Schuyler

May 5, 2001 - Volume 5, No. 17

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW - Welcomed back as SST 2001 Ship's Librarian is Dr. RALPH J. FOLCARELLI, making his fifth cruise since he first signed aboard the EMPIRE STATE IV in 1972. Dr. Folcarelli brings to the "library on the tanktop" a distinguished career as librarian, author, humorist, professor, and academic administrator (he is the retired Dean of the Palmer School of Library and Information Science at C. W. Post, Long Island University.)The newest thing in the Ship's Library is a DVD player. Included in the DVD or VHS titles selected and purchased by the library in recent weeks were Academy Award winners: "Erin Brockovich", "Gladiator", "Cider House Rules", and "American Beauty".

PHILADELPHIA STORY - You must be from Philadelphia if you know where to find the Rocky statue and how to spell Schuylkill. (You thought Schuyler was bad ?) You don't have to be from Philly to visit the Training Ship EMPIRE STATE VI at its berth on Penn's landing on Friday May 25 from 18:00 to 20:00. All the details are at: http://www.fsmaa.org

The ship will arrive at Penn's Landing around noon on Friday, 25th May. A cocktail party will be held in the evening, but by invitation only due to limited space available. It is suggested that if you have not been sent an invitation in the mail by SUNY Maritime College or by the Chapter, you consider visiting the ship for an "OPEN HOUSE" tour on Saturday or Sunday from 10am until 6pm to see the ship and the cadets. The ship sails on Monday morning, Memorial Day, at approximately 10am for the Canary Islands, Denmark and Scotland.

If you have any question, please call John Reynolds at the Delaware Valley Alumni Chapter, 215-931-4440.

RING FIGURE - Recent items in NFFS about the wording of the alma mater and the punctuation of the ST. MARY'S, reminded traditionalist PETE BACI, Class of 1964, that "...when I was a cadet, the members of my class voted to replace the ST. MARY'S on the side of our class ring with a replica of the N.S. SAVANNAH. Nuclear powered merchant ships were thought to be the coming thing, but as we now know, the SAVANNAH turned out to be a while elephant and its career was relatively short lived. [Visit www.asme.org/history/roster/H087.html ] When I was meeting with the representative from Jostens, the ring manufacturer, I voiced my displeasure about not having the sailing ship on my ring. He said that they could make one for me with the sailing ship and, as far as I know, I am the only member of the Class of 1964 whose rings bears the likeness of the ST. MARY'S. I don't know whether subsequent classes kept the SAVANNAH or went back to the ST. MARY'S, but I am glad that it appears on my ring." [What ship is on those post-1965 class rings ?]

REMEMBERING 15 JUNE 19O4 - The Maritime Industry Museum will join with the NYC Parks Department for a memorial ceremony in Manhattan on Friday, June 15, to honor the victims of the GENERAL SLOCUM. The number of people who died in the fire and stranding of the GENERAL SLOCUM was staggering, even by today's reckoning. More than a thousand people perished as this excursion steamer burned and finally beached on North Brother Island, which is some five miles down the East River from Fort Schuyler. According to the museum press releases: "The disaster was the largest fire fatality in New York City history and the second worst inland waters disaster in the nation's history. The ceremony will be held in Tompkins Square Park, East 9th Street and Avenue B, by the Slocum Memorial Fountain. It was in this lower East Side neighborhood that the dead, mostly women and children, from the SLOCUM lived. Mrs. Adella L. Wotherspoon, 97, one of two living survivors for the GENERAL SLOCUM disaster will place a wreath in front of the fountain." [See www.ezl.com/~fireball/Disaster12.htm ;and www.greatshipwrecks.com/others.html ]

CUMINGS OF THE NEWPORT - In 1928 a graduate of the New York Nautical School, SCHUYLER CUMINGS, Class of 1909, was front page news for his role in the rescue of 125 passengers from the British liner VESTRIS off the Virginia Capes. The contemporary records of this event are contained in Personal Papers of Schuyler F. Cumings which were donated to the archives by his grandson, J.D. Cumings.

The VESTRIS rescue unfolds through a sheaf of original radiograms beginning on 12 November as Cumings brought his vessel toward the distressed VESTRIS: "Have you seen the VESTRIS and do you need our assistance ?" to his first sighting of the VESTRIS on 13 November, followed by communiques describing rescue efforts, desperate messages sent by anxious relatives and friends of VESTRIS passengers seeking news of survivors, and finally ending with queries from new services offering financial remuneration in exchange for first-hand accounts and photos of the rescue. These original radiograms, supplemented by shipboard records, and Cumings' official reports of the rescue and eyewitness accounts, offer a tale as exciting as many novels about the sea. Cumings was decorated by George V of England for his valor.