Saving the Big Ship
11/22/2003
Day Ten: Copying SOS Minutes, Wawona Log
I'm spent most of yesterday afternoon copying more documents in the Northwest Seaport office. I was a bit worried I wouldn't get in, because the office moved and no one had a key, not even the shipwright! But the building superintendent let me in, and also in a storage room with the Wawona archives. Whew! I've been pretty lucky so far getting access to the documents, given the irregular nature of office hours, etc.
I made copies of most of the minutes from the first Save Our Ships meeting in spring, 1963 to the first part of 1966. At that point, the initial enthusiasm for saving the Wawona fizzled, and she entered the mode we see the organization in today. I also found a scrapbook that may have been owned by Janice Krenmeyer, the Seattle Times reporter who wrote one of the original stories that sparked interest in the Wawona. There were several newspaper articles I hadn't seen before, plus some original letters sent to the editor and the reporter.
One of the main goals of yesterday was to read the 1936 log of the Wawona. I found it and made copies of all the pages. It includes Tom Haugen's "decoration," as he put it, of Capt. Foss's grave at Lost Harbor.
I may not be able to work on the ship again until next spring. The Seaport is about to cover her for the winter, and I'm told she'll be tightly covered, enough to make boarding her difficult. I may still try to do so.
I gave Jake, a volunteer, a ride downtown in my car. He is a big fellow with bad teeth and bad ankles, so he tells me. He's on medical disability and can't work, though he says he hopes to get off disability soon. He is apparently a member of an Alaska native tribe, because he said he was expecting a check from his village somewhere near Anchorage. He hangs out at the Seaport and lends a hand once in a while.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
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I made copies of most of the minutes from the first Save Our Ships meeting in spring, 1963 to the first part of 1966. At that point, the initial enthusiasm for saving the Wawona fizzled, and she entered the mode we see the organization in today. I also found a scrapbook that may have been owned by Janice Krenmeyer, the Seattle Times reporter who wrote one of the original stories that sparked interest in the Wawona. There were several newspaper articles I hadn't seen before, plus some original letters sent to the editor and the reporter.
One of the main goals of yesterday was to read the 1936 log of the Wawona. I found it and made copies of all the pages. It includes Tom Haugen's "decoration," as he put it, of Capt. Foss's grave at Lost Harbor.
I may not be able to work on the ship again until next spring. The Seaport is about to cover her for the winter, and I'm told she'll be tightly covered, enough to make boarding her difficult. I may still try to do so.
I gave Jake, a volunteer, a ride downtown in my car. He is a big fellow with bad teeth and bad ankles, so he tells me. He's on medical disability and can't work, though he says he hopes to get off disability soon. He is apparently a member of an Alaska native tribe, because he said he was expecting a check from his village somewhere near Anchorage. He hangs out at the Seaport and lends a hand once in a while.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
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11/15/2003
Day Nine: More Hours Poring Through Documents
I'm in research mode so I spent more time going through old Northwest Seaport documents. Someone has done a very good job of organizing and collating material going back to the very first days of the organization in 1963. Thank you again, whoever you are! I found three interesting and useful pieces. First, I found all the collected newsletters. Their publication has been spotty over the years, but they have copies of the first newsletters, which put a slightly different spin on the first few months of NWS, including the effort to purchase the Wawona.
Second, I found two scrapbooks, apparently made by a local shipyard, that collected a ton of information about sailing vessels on the West Coast. I found an article about the bad storm in the Bering Sea that the Wawona went through in 1947, her last year of commercial operation.
Third, I found a manila folder with tons of newspaper clippings about Save Our Ships, the group that bought the Wawona. The group eventually evolved into Northwest Seaport. These are a great way to confirm what I found in the SOS minutes. And I found a nice little tidbit. Ivar Haglund, one of the founding members of SOS, suggested a race with the C.A. Thayer in 1963. Apparently, this idea was revived in the late 1960s, but it never came off.
I've made dozens more copies, and will be spending time today sorting everything out. And I also got an insight into a possible ending for a chapter on SOS. One of the major problems with Wawona when she was purchased was her masts, which were rotting. Replacing them was a first priority. One could say her masts is what made her a "tall" ship, in the eyes of the public. They are her most distinctive feature. It took almost ten years to actually replace the sticks, which to me is emblematic of the problems at NWS getting the job of restoration/preservation accomplished. The ending of the chapter on the first effort to save Wawona, in other words, is the installation of the new masts in 1973.
Next week, I have to figure out what to do about the 1963-65 board minutes, the critical early days minutes. I'll probably just make copies.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
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Second, I found two scrapbooks, apparently made by a local shipyard, that collected a ton of information about sailing vessels on the West Coast. I found an article about the bad storm in the Bering Sea that the Wawona went through in 1947, her last year of commercial operation.
Third, I found a manila folder with tons of newspaper clippings about Save Our Ships, the group that bought the Wawona. The group eventually evolved into Northwest Seaport. These are a great way to confirm what I found in the SOS minutes. And I found a nice little tidbit. Ivar Haglund, one of the founding members of SOS, suggested a race with the C.A. Thayer in 1963. Apparently, this idea was revived in the late 1960s, but it never came off.
I've made dozens more copies, and will be spending time today sorting everything out. And I also got an insight into a possible ending for a chapter on SOS. One of the major problems with Wawona when she was purchased was her masts, which were rotting. Replacing them was a first priority. One could say her masts is what made her a "tall" ship, in the eyes of the public. They are her most distinctive feature. It took almost ten years to actually replace the sticks, which to me is emblematic of the problems at NWS getting the job of restoration/preservation accomplished. The ending of the chapter on the first effort to save Wawona, in other words, is the installation of the new masts in 1973.
Next week, I have to figure out what to do about the 1963-65 board minutes, the critical early days minutes. I'll probably just make copies.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
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11/08/2003
Day Eight: More Time in the Archives; Wawona's Masts
I spent about two hours in the NWS office on Friday copying archived documents. I did the same thing on Monday, because something told me to do it now. The office might be moving and I'm deathly afraid I won't have access to the documents after the move. Could be simple paranoia. Could be an understanding of how that place works. But no worries for now. I've got photocopies of all the major documents and many minor ones. Some amazing stuff, like the 1935 telegram from Tom Haugen to Robinson Fisheries telling the owner of the Wawona that Capt. Foss had died on board of a stroke.
I've got several hundred pages of documents. I'm putting them into three-ring binders in chronological order, starting from before the ship's construction in 1897. I've divided it into decades. The 930s documents go in the 1930s section, and so on. It's turning into a kind of timeline.
I also spent some time going over the minutes of the first meetings in 1963 and 1964 of Save Our Ships, which later changed its name to Northwest Seaport. One thing about NWS, their records are well-organized, thank God. Going through the minutes, despite their dryness, you can feel the energy that went into the original plan to save Wawona from a bad fate. The group included a city councilman, Wing Luke, and Seattle's main form of comic relief, restauranteur Ivar Haglund. Everyone was focused on saving Wawona. My father reminded me that this was a time right after the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, which had gone very well. The whole city was in high spirits at the time. (One piece of irony: The crew of the Kalakala, the historic ferry just sold to a man in Tumwater, offered to work on the Wawona's restoration). After about 18 months, though, you sense a change in the minutes. The reality of caring and restorating a 65-year-old wooden ship descends on the group, and the group never really gets its act together to acheive its dream. That has carried forward to this day.
I also talked to Dave about the ship's masts. He told me that if there is an earthquake, and the ship begins to roll, the masts are very likely to fall over, because they are not set tightly into their seats. If one falls over, it will likely take down the other two. And these masts are huge and heavy. If they fall on a building or on the floating docks of the Center for Wooden Boats next door, they will destory them. God help the persons nearby. So now we know that the masts are in danger of falling, as is the stern. To some, Wawona is a disaster waiting to happen.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
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I've got several hundred pages of documents. I'm putting them into three-ring binders in chronological order, starting from before the ship's construction in 1897. I've divided it into decades. The 930s documents go in the 1930s section, and so on. It's turning into a kind of timeline.
I also spent some time going over the minutes of the first meetings in 1963 and 1964 of Save Our Ships, which later changed its name to Northwest Seaport. One thing about NWS, their records are well-organized, thank God. Going through the minutes, despite their dryness, you can feel the energy that went into the original plan to save Wawona from a bad fate. The group included a city councilman, Wing Luke, and Seattle's main form of comic relief, restauranteur Ivar Haglund. Everyone was focused on saving Wawona. My father reminded me that this was a time right after the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, which had gone very well. The whole city was in high spirits at the time. (One piece of irony: The crew of the Kalakala, the historic ferry just sold to a man in Tumwater, offered to work on the Wawona's restoration). After about 18 months, though, you sense a change in the minutes. The reality of caring and restorating a 65-year-old wooden ship descends on the group, and the group never really gets its act together to acheive its dream. That has carried forward to this day.
I also talked to Dave about the ship's masts. He told me that if there is an earthquake, and the ship begins to roll, the masts are very likely to fall over, because they are not set tightly into their seats. If one falls over, it will likely take down the other two. And these masts are huge and heavy. If they fall on a building or on the floating docks of the Center for Wooden Boats next door, they will destory them. God help the persons nearby. So now we know that the masts are in danger of falling, as is the stern. To some, Wawona is a disaster waiting to happen.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
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11/01/2003
Day Seven: In the Archives
I'm a day late with my blog entry because I had to run home to my daughters' Halloween party. I spent my weekly fours hours in the Northwest Seaport office going through the Wawona archives. Oh, I'm so happy someone had the foresight and the time to organize all the papers and artifacts from the Wawona. Her whole life is there. I made at least a hundred copies of documents, mostly newspaper articles. I also found some very good descriptions from a member of one of the fishing crews in the 1930s. There is also a good record of one attempt to restore Wawona in the early 1980s.
The Northwest Seaport office is fairly well organized itself. It's on the second floor of the old Naval Reserve Building. Wawona herself is just 20 or 30 feet from the building's southeast corner. The NWS office is full of shelves of books on various sea related subjects. There's an excellent model of Wawona under glass, as well as models of Arthur Foss and Swiftsure. These are professional works of art, in my view. There are also 10 or so filing cabinets of various documents relating to the organization and the ships. There are two desks. The main one is where most of the work is done. It has the computer and the usual accoutrement of office supplies. The other desk is used by Kevin, the project manager for the Arthur Foss grant. He is a controversial figure. A key board member, Pat Hartle, says he is a retired engineer who is "professional and articulate." Others in the organization think the idea of a project manager for the Arthur is wasteful. They already know what needs to be done.
The Wawona documents and artifacts are stored in a closet. They are arranged and cataloged in blue cardboard document boxes on some shelves. All the work is professionally done, although the catalog is missing. There's supposed to be an Access database with all the information. These are the boxes I'm going through. I'm about halfway through the boxes. I scoped them out a few weeks ago.
I didn't go aboard the ship this time. But people have been working on her, at least getting her ready for winter. The fall rains have started, and the rain does the most damage. Yesterday, a spine of wood, some of the i-beam material made of particle board, runs from aft of the main cabin to nearly the stem. A half dozen or so ribs are perpendicular to the spine. Plastic sheeting will go over these ribs. The system is meant to keep the rain off. Once on, the sheeting will remain until May. And as a practical matter, people will be kept off the vessel until then, unless some way can be found to get people in.
Next week, I'll be making more copies.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
Powered by Blogger™ ¶ 8:43 AM 0 comments
The Northwest Seaport office is fairly well organized itself. It's on the second floor of the old Naval Reserve Building. Wawona herself is just 20 or 30 feet from the building's southeast corner. The NWS office is full of shelves of books on various sea related subjects. There's an excellent model of Wawona under glass, as well as models of Arthur Foss and Swiftsure. These are professional works of art, in my view. There are also 10 or so filing cabinets of various documents relating to the organization and the ships. There are two desks. The main one is where most of the work is done. It has the computer and the usual accoutrement of office supplies. The other desk is used by Kevin, the project manager for the Arthur Foss grant. He is a controversial figure. A key board member, Pat Hartle, says he is a retired engineer who is "professional and articulate." Others in the organization think the idea of a project manager for the Arthur is wasteful. They already know what needs to be done.
The Wawona documents and artifacts are stored in a closet. They are arranged and cataloged in blue cardboard document boxes on some shelves. All the work is professionally done, although the catalog is missing. There's supposed to be an Access database with all the information. These are the boxes I'm going through. I'm about halfway through the boxes. I scoped them out a few weeks ago.
I didn't go aboard the ship this time. But people have been working on her, at least getting her ready for winter. The fall rains have started, and the rain does the most damage. Yesterday, a spine of wood, some of the i-beam material made of particle board, runs from aft of the main cabin to nearly the stem. A half dozen or so ribs are perpendicular to the spine. Plastic sheeting will go over these ribs. The system is meant to keep the rain off. Once on, the sheeting will remain until May. And as a practical matter, people will be kept off the vessel until then, unless some way can be found to get people in.
Next week, I'll be making more copies.
Contact the author: Joe Follansbee
Powered by Blogger™ ¶ 8:43 AM 0 comments
